Please Stop Calling Me

The Edge just keeps on calling me but I need less calls and more whistles.

Is that a whistle in your pocket or?..

What a fun week! Oddly enough, I've done far less Patch 3.5 content than I expected to. In fact there is some content that I've not touched at all, like Dun Scaith. Scrub alert! Personally I'm not hurting for gear upgrades but I do want to enjoy the story there. I WILL be hurting for iLevels before too long if I don't hurry up with a ZurvanEX clear and get my last two birds (birbs?). I am already seeing the i260+ farm parties and that's a bit steep for ol' Rubicon here. I can hit i256 on Healer, but my i254 set has less Det and more Crit and is better. With the right piece I could maybe balance it out but I'm not quite there yet. Maybe if I DID do Dun Scaith I'd be in a better place. Hmm...

I'm on fire today!

In my defense I have done quite a bit of 3.5 (no schoolboys yet!) and enjoyed it. Main story was good but expected. If you're a listener of the podcast, you know what I mean, ::cough:: Tupsimati ::cough::. I shed a tear for one character in Warring Triad and raised my eyebrow at the face of another... one that looks like a very young FF1 Warrior of Light. The Hildibrand finale was pretty funny although I'm a much bigger fan of 2.0's or even 1.0's Hildibrand over 3.0's. Let's put him back on a mystery, K? 

Mama do you think I'm smart enough?

If I've done anything else, it was help people run EX primals. I did a fair share of Nidhogg to help Cinna get her whistle... by totem. Yep. She ran 99 times. She's also at 80-ish Sephirot totems but got the bird on run 86 or something. I, on the other hand, ran a handful of Sophia on Saturday night and lo, a whistle fell into my lap. Rolled a 78 to beat a 77. Hell yes.

So I guess until I'm able to rid myself of this Firebird disease or until I smash Zurvan's head in, I'll be answering the next time The Edge calls.

Sitting in the corner,

Pre-Patch Blues

The day-before-patch void. The terrible part is that XIV's patches seem to launch the day after U.S. holidays and since I work in the finance industry, I'm usually off the day the game is patching... while working the actual launch day. What's worse is that usually, for me, working the day after a holiday means I'm beat to hell by the time I come home. Patch 3.5 is going to be a blast but I may not feel the full joy of the new patch until Friday night.

That said, I've had a fun week leading up to today. Although I personally got much done and had some great success, not everyone got to enjoy it. Our FC as a whole has been plagued with computer problems and health issues for nearly two weeks. The gods have been contrary yet we shall prevail. I think Patch 3.5's Cross-Server Party Finder is going to solve a lot of issues with us pugging. We currently don't have a static but we do have a decent pool of players whether they are from the FC or in our Nophica's Bosom linkshell. I'm pretty excited at the thought of finding people across Primal to run content, making catching up even easier and making forming parties a helluva lot more fun.

I am proud of our Alexander 10 Savage clear on Saturday. I'm sad not everyone got in that night but now that I've seen the entire dance I know it can be done again with ease. Hydaelyn was kind enough to bless me with the healer ring and gloves, praise her. So far I've gotten three Creator pieces for heals and a ring for caster. I'm feeling pretty solid with both roles and any gear that comes next will only sharpen my SMN stats, my focus being high Crit and keeping Det and Spell Speed high but equal.

Tricksy Goblin fall down.

Coming off of our victory I spent a good deal of Sunday doing piddly-stuff like redecorating the little house Cinna and I bought in the Mist. The yard is looking great so now we've focused on the interior. Pics coming as soon as I'm happy with it! I also worked on beastmen dailies on PLD, which is now level 57 and has some snazzy green armor. I always forget that Ok' Zundu has level 56 gear and it's not terrible looking.

Fear my battle stance. What's provoke do again?

Boredom started to set in so Cinna and I joined a party finder Nidhogg Extreme in search of the coveted Dark Lanner. I say coveted because purple shit goes hard in Nophica's Bosom. Purple is like our currency. Just like Bart vs the Space Mutants, even aliens crave purple. Plants crave it. 

And I got it.

You are so beautiful. To me.

Three take-aways: 1) it was a good party but it's true that the party leader is the one to die the most, 2) the Dark Lanner whistle does NOT drop (as of 3.45) with only 1 drop in 15 clears, and 3) I'm lucky as hell with the whistle 'cause I rolled a 78 to beat a 77 and with positioning 'cause I stood in some tight geirskoguls and dodged that shit like the matrix. I wish I had pics.

Of course these birdies are probably going to fall like rain as soon as Patch 3.5 hits and my one hour of glory will fade. Such is the way of Final Fantasy XIV. We'll all have Alexander 12 Savage down soon and our collective thumbs up our asses until Stormblood. I kid, I kid. Even though I'm still a scrub, there's a lot of good coming in between Patch 3.5 and 4.0 so perhaps anything is possible.

From the corner,

Back in the Game

It's been a good week of Final Fantasy XIV play and I really feel like I'm back in the game. Lately it has been fun FC stuff like Coil catch-ups and primal ponies. I'm really looking to do more bird farming too. It's been nice.

Diadem fishing. Where ya gonna get pterodactyl in 3.5?

I think a new year gives us all a fresh start, even if it's subjective and/or completely made up. If we can trick our minds/make ourselves believe we have a new lease on life then we can "wipe the slate clean" and move forward. Maybe I've bought into of those prosperity-gospel, new-age, Jedi mind-tricks but with Stormblood six months away, Patch 3.5 next week, and us working on Creator Savage... I'm feeling pretty good about Final Fantasy XIV.

A10S is pretty fun.

I think our Savage progress is going well. I fully expect us to hit that "ugh" moment come A11S but until then I'll be happy in the steady growth. Last week we party finder-ed a quick clear and then bashed our head on A10S learning. This week we had more members from our FC (Nophica's Bosom) join, get A9S down, and get caught up to where we got in A10S last week. Clearly the progress is there and that makes me feel good, because I feel like when I get to A11S learning I'll have caught up to the rest of the casual raiding community.

What else... Final Fantasy XV had me all dizzy and puking but I finally clawed my way out of Pitioss Dungeon. Motion sickness, what can I say. In my haste to leave I missed grabbing the Black Hood item. See, I opened every door, killed all the pink heads, and jumped on a statue's tits but never walked along the girder just at the end to where the black hood was. Anyway, I went back and I have it now and it's sweet. Next up is getting hunter rank 6+ and cleaning up Costlemark and Ravatogh.

Touch me with that magic hand, Noctis.

Stay warm friends, it's been cold as ice here. Haurchefant would want you to have a cocoa.

From the corner,

Another Thread of Adventure

Welcome to Rubi's Corner! I wanted a place to consolidate my thoughts, at least my adventures in Eorzea and in other Final Fantasy or Square Enix titles. I also wanted a place to use as spillover for expanded thoughts I have on podcast discussions, like if I need to clarify a point or some news comes out just after we've hit the record button. This is not my first blog, but like many of us I have scattered writings and photos of my life and adventures spread across a multitude of media. This blog gives me a medium to further express myself.

Alexander 9 Savage complete!

Let's start the new year and blog with Final Fantasy XIV. Stormblood is ever closer and I'm excited for more speculation until we get some fuller reveals soon. I still don't know what to think about Spidey but I'm tentatively going with BLU. I like the idea of Red vs Blue, the newest Yoshida prophecy mentions Crimson/Azure, and the Eighteenth Floor event had Red/Blue so... But no matter what, I won't be disappointed because RDM is here to stay. :)

I plan to cover my 2017 resolutions for Rubi (and for the podcast) in Gather Together's first episode of 2017. One resolution I can say is that melee DPS is a must for me going forward if I want to understand the half of RDMs rotation. Honestly, I just want to be more proficient in all my jobs.

Rubi and Cinna's new house in the Mist! Beach party soon?

And although I am again focused into XIV, I cannot forget two other games that took over my life in the past month: Final Fantasy XV and Dragon Quest VII. 

I'm still deep into XV. After completing it I've been doing hunts and looking for more weapons. The car is now Type-F and I'm finding dungeons that make my motion sickness so bad I vomit... but it's OK! I actually REALLY like XV. It reminds me of FFVIII so much but without Squall's attitude problem and Rinoa being a bit too fanciful. The characters are like-able and I can easily make head canon out of the story's fuzzy bits so I'm A-OK. Also, with all the DLC coming, I feel like XV will have a year of life in it before it's starts collecting dust. That's more than I can say for previous numbered Final Fantasy titles, right FFXIII?

Dragon Quest will be a big deal in 2017 (along with Final Fantasy since they are both going into their respective 30th anniversaries) and each new trailer and news article will remind me to play DQ7, the longest title in the series. I'm at Alltrades Abbey and I think I just beat the boss there so now I can unlock jobs. Hooray I'm halfway through the game? Maybe? Ugh. But still, it's grindy fun and it's the only numbered DQ I haven't beaten except for X... which don't get me started I'm still pissed I can't play it in English.

New adventures coming soon!

This will be a year full of games, I honestly believe that. I think 2017 will be a year of growth for Cinna and I. Personally I'm hoping for some job development and movement, same for her, and us living this family life. It feeds into our motivation to do more in-game as well like working on Savage harder and doing for with the FC. It's also doing more for the podcast like giving you guys a way to show your appreciation to us. I'm feeling refreshed and motivated for 2017.

Just around the corner,