A new beginning.

How does a person learn to start all over? I'm not really sure I know the answer... what I do know, is that at times, its unbearable. Sometimes in life, you lose the things that are closest to your heart. Perhaps in the long run its better, but the pain still lingers and knowing how to move on, and start all over is a difficult thing. Seems impossible almost. But then again, maybe thats because the human heart has a hard time letting go...

Anyways, the person who brought me to FFXI and taught me everything I know, has left the game. Because he was the shell holder of TheBrotherhood, we would no longer have anyone to promote future sack holders for the LS... So I went ahead and created a new home.

I spent maybe two days trying to come up with a name, but it was hard to move away from the name that I had known all my FFXI life. TheBrotherhood has had its moments where people have tried very hard to bash the members, more specifically the leaders I guess. But regardless, I will always feel that our LS represented something that wasn't very common to find in the game... a place where good people could come together and help each other enjoy the game. We've always encouraged each other to ask for help, but never to assume that a favor would need to be repaid. Instead, we wanted our members to just help because knowing that you might have made someone else smile and accomplish something they couldn't have done alone, is far more rewarding.

So, after thinking about the kind of members we had... and how many of them had often referred to each other as family, and remembering the times when some members would have your back no matter what... it made me think of my favorite animal, the wolf.

A wolf is a type of animal that lives in packs, and they spend their lifetime with each other. They kind of represent "family" in the animal kingdom, and defend their members against other predators. They're fiercely loyal and protective of their kind, and i've seen these qualities in the members of TheBrotherhood. The members don't hesitate to offer their help to others, and many actually go out of their way to see to it that everyone in the LS is progressing in the game and having fun. We all have our nights where we goof around and joke, and we also have our moments where we confide in each other about things going on in the game, and even in real life. We don't look at each other as "polygonal 3d characters", but rather for the people we know that are behind the screen. We're real people, and we're there for each other.

So taking all that in mind, I called the new LS "SpiritOfTheWolf".

Many of the members are pleased with the name, which i'm really happy about. I was paranoid they might think it sounded lame, but so far I haven't heard anything but positive comments.

And so, now I start the game again alone. Its different, and I guess this is how the rest of the players experience the game. It gets a lot more boring when you're not always with someone to do things with. I can always ask SoTW members to do something with me in game, but its not quite the same... but I guess its just something i'll need to learn to do. Both in game and in real life.

You can never know what to expect, no matter how much you try to plan things out. Life will throw stuff at you, but you gotta hang tough and get through it.

Kinda a corny post this time around, but meh. Hopefully by the next time i'm ready to post i'll have some good updates to make. Been trying to keep myself super busy lately (but i'm definitely not keeping up with the screenshots -_-)

Convenience vs Enjoyment.

Still on my semi-break from the game while Xean is visiting me for the month, but we've managed to login from time to time to participate in some LS events.

Lately i've been able to bring my PLD to a lot of events, which has been really great. I don't get to play the job very much because usually i'm one of the few people in any given event that has a WHM or RDM, and in the end I usually have to bring one of these jobs.

While I definitely do not "enjoy" playing on my WHM, i'm starting to prefer bringing it to endgame activities because i've realized that in comparison to my other jobs (PLD, SAM or WAR) it's relatively cheap. The only expense I really have is Wizard Cookies, and seeing as I can craft those I save a bit of gil. I never bother with MP food unless i'm going to be in a short battle. Speaking of that, I really don't understand why i'm one of the only WHMs in my endgame shells that uses cookies instead of MP+ foods. Whats the point of having a boost in MP if you're only going to have it once? If you're in a long drawn out fight (which is most of the time) you're not going to be able to rest your MP back to full, so its a complete waste to get MP+ food. Instead WHMs should be using cookies so that when they are resting, they're minimizing the time they're healing back the MP so that they can be tossing out more cures. But anyways, getting back on topic...

I'm not sure how to balance things now. Sometimes when I do get the chance to bring any job of mine (which is pretty rare, because i'm one of the few people that come as what is needed rather than what I want.... ) I don't know if I should play a "fun" job (which would be my SAM, PLD or RDM) or play a job that is going to save me gil and make things convenient (being able to teleport and warp is soooo nice). I'm thinking I should play what is more fun, because after all this is a game, and thats the main point of playing it... but there's still a few expensive pieces of gear I have my eyes on, and I sometimes get a bit hesitant to spend gil elsewhere. Meh, I guess it'll all depend on my mood.

So getting to the events part... in Limbus i've managed a few pieces and gotten myself a Warlock's Tabard +1 and a Mynochin Kabuto +1. I have enough coins to upgrade my Warlock's Tights, but I still need the items. And at the moment, our shell is focusing on farming the chips needed to fight Omega and Ultima, so it might be a while before I get lucky with the zones we do.

I just hope that a suggestion I made ends up being approved. Our shell has only allowed recruitment through its associated sky and social shells. If you weren't a member of these two shells, you couldn't be in the Limbus shell. That was a good idea, but unfortunately over time some members have just stopped coming, or being dependable to show for every run. We even had to cancel a run once because we only had 6 people show up.

I really don't understand people that committ to an endgame shell, and then decide to do other things in game when they're suppose to be attending the event. Its one thing to have something in RL and not be able to play, but its another to be logged IN the game and choosing to do something else. Its not hard to understand the simple concept of: People don't show up to event = Less gets accomplished = Progression of shell is halted. How can people expect us to get them Homam/Nashira gear if they're not showing up to the runs to farm the items?

So anyways, i'm just hoping that they'll soon allow recruitment through referrals because I have a few LS friends from TBH that i'd like to invite. I know they would be dependable, and thats exactly what our shell needs in order to progress.

And I guess that brings me to Sky. I feel like i'm almost done with this event, though I do enjoy it enough that I can see myself still being apart of my sky shell even after i've earned the last pieces of gear I need (K.Osode, D.Body, W.Legs) but there's a few things that have been frustrating me lately that the idea of quitting altogether, look tempting.

My issues sometimes get addressed by the leaders, but not fully. Our shell has some good members, people that have been around for months even though they no longer require any gear... but, we have a very large amount of members that like with my Limbus shell, can't be depended on to show up. Right now our typical farming days are Wednesdays and Saturdays, and on average we have 6-8 members that show consistently. I haven't been available 100% this month because Xean's been here, but i've tried to login when I can and when I have, i've noticed how low the participation is. Then I usually do a search for members I know, and lo and behold they're out leveling, meriting or doing something else in game.


Again I say, if people do not show up, the shell can't continue to progress. If you're not interested in doing the events and dedicating yourself, then don't sign up. At times I really wish I had enough knowledge and time to organize a shell myself, because I wouldn't allow members to come and go as they please. If you sign up, and you're logged into the game, you're expected to be there. But I guess the leadership of my shell doesn't really want to act on this, maybe because the shell itself isn't entirely serious about its goals. Maybe its just a shell where friends come and do Sky when they want to, and maybe its taking me close to a year to realize this...

I just hope that things become a little more strict, and that either recruitment starts happening again (we haven't had any new members join for a while) or some changes are made so that the people that are showing dedication and a desire to make the shell progress, are able to get ahead. Guess i'll just have to wait and see.

Well moving onto some other good things... me and Xean were able to help 2 of our LS members get their rank 10 for San d'Oria. We helped Sabene and Alianne with the last few missions, which were relatively easy. Sabene brought along 2 friends as well who gave us a hand.


But that wasn't the end of the San d'Oria missions... lol... Idun, a friend from my personal forum had decided to play and needed help with the dragon fight for 2.3. So Xean, Alianne and myself went out to Giddeus to help him kill the dragon. Me and Xean were gearless, but knowing how much of a wuss this fight was it didn't matter. Xean went as MNK and 2hrd the dragon while Alianne and Idun took out the Hecteye. Meanwhile I sat back and tossed some cures and regens. Yay, go go WHM! <_<


And just last night, me and Xean helped out a few LS members get their rank 6. Originally we had planned to get Soulstar and his wife Drimergirl their rank, but found out that another of our LS members was half way through the magicite missions. So I took him to get the last 2 magicites he needed (Castle O. and Beadeaux) and then he was able to flag 5.1 with the rest of the group.

It took a lot longer than we had expected to get him caught up and get everyone to Fei'Yin because Drimergirl didn't have her Vazhl crystal, but everyone was fine with the wait. SE just loves making everything take long, so that we can never complete the game and they can keep making money -_-. TIME SINK!

We wrapped up the missions around 9pm my time, so everyone had to log for the night because they are all on CST or EST.

And while the CoP static i'm helping with hasn't been able to do any runs for the last 2 weeks, we were still able to get up to 5.3 - Three Paths on our last session. We had completed Promyvion Vazhl, and did pretty well.

I'm a little concerned for the fights ahead because the available jobs we have, aren't ideal. I'm pretty much the only healer/refresher/haster available, and while one of the party members can come BLU and help with this, I'd much prefer a heavier DD and have someone else do the support. But melee jobs seem to be the popular thing, and well.. yeah... i'm the only one at the moment that can cover that area. I'm pretty sure if people come prepared we'll do fine, but I tend to always worry about things that require a lot of effort, gil and time and get antsy when I don't think everyone is 100% onboard. CoP is just one of those things in this game that is hard to laugh off if you mess up. I remember for the biggest fight, the airship fight... my static spent more than 12 hrs because we had to try 3 times and use our 2hrs. It was also a bit expensive too using the items and meds required for the fight. But if I remember correctly, SE made the difficulty easier for the fights so maybe we'll get lucky with that. Hopefully we can continue with the missions next Sunday, i'd like to see more people with Sea access and shiny rings!


And I guess the last thing I can mention is that RoR Dynamis is doing great. This month we've been focusing on getting our new members their wins in the cities. Windurst was a pain in the arse with a few wipes, but we did get the win. And after updating our lotting list today, I noticed that we're really progressing in terms of getting people their gear. Our runs tend to have close to 10 drops now (excluding northlands) and a lot of the gear ends up being free lotted. I guess its only a matter of time before we see more members with 5/5. I'm pretty happy with how well our shell is doing, and can't wait for the day we'll be ready to take on Shadow Lord.


A lot of shells have taken him down, and accomplished a lot, but they also run twice a week. Our shell does half the runs of a typical shell, and i'd say in the last 6 months we've really built ourselves a good group of players that know their stuff.

Oops, and one thing I almost forgot... Alianne is now just 2 spells away from completing his BLU spells. We got him another spell from the Wamouras on the weekend. It was kinda interesting with only 4 people, but we survived and I think we went 1/3 too. It was like a mini-merit pt, really slow xp... but as Falk said, it was better xp than he had experienced in a while...


which reminds me, I keep hearing complaints from friends being in pickup parties and I keep hearing how aweful the xp is... how people don't know how to do their duties in party. Makes me wonder if i'm going to try to stick to a LS static for my BLm and Xean's BRD, or do the pickup thing. I'm thinking we might just stick with our LS static when we hit 40, i'm not too eager to chance having bad parties ><