WoW and FFXI

[thistlechaser]

I didn't really feel like logging on to WoW last night, but it had been quite a few days since I last had and I had nothing at all I felt like doing on FFXI, so I did. My goal is to hit 50 before I reach the end of my month (12/10), and since I got to 49.5 last night, that'll probably happen. (I even still have a lot of rested XP left, so it should be doable).

I only spent an hour or so XPing though, then I got distracted with fishing (and apparently swimming around the world). I noticed the area I was XPing in had an ocean coast, so I checked it out. Once I saw it had those schools of fish, I was hooked. I spent the next few hours peacefully fishing... around all the aggro.

Okay, apparently I'm really confused about something. The mobs with the gold around their names are the higher level ones with better drops? Whatever they are, they're apparently nothing at all like NMs in FFXI. There I was, peacefully fishing, when a damned (whatever) Strider came walking by. It was the same level as me, but I knew if I didn't kill it it would sneak up on me and kill me while fishing, so I took it on (and won, woo!). Outstanding XP, by the way. Then, before I got back to the water, I saw the Strider coming at me again. WTF? What the hell was the spawn rate of these things? Well, it was good XP, so... I started fighting it and this happened: Okay, really, WTF? I'm fighting one and another shows up as I'm fighting! I ignored that extra one and checked out the rest of that section of the coast -- it was full of them! (And they dropped nothing but a little gil.) So apparently they're not exactly rare. c.c They sure did interrupt my fishing though.

I really have a bad habit in WoW: I keep swimming just to see how far I can get! Last night I swam for 45 minutes before giving up and hearthstoning. This time I did find something interesting though: A totally empty town. o.O A fire was going in it, there was a windmill, but not a single person or NPC. Kind of freaky...

This amused me way, way, way more than it should have:

Sad as a status! Ha ha ha. :D

And lastly, speaking of sad... the rare times I see myself from the front, I never fail to boggle. How-- Why am I playing something so ugly? D: FFXI Thistle isn't beautiful, but at least he looks normal. Man. And surprisingly, my face is actually the least ugly part of me. It's the arms, hands, legs, and feet hooves that really bother me. They're just so... clunky. No detail. The sizes are so wrong (why are my forearms way wider than my whole head?).

In FFXI land, we did another run of ZNMs on Wednesday night. I got my belt, yay!

That'll hold me over until I get my AF2 one.

Dynamis (Sandy) was today, but it was annoying. I wanted BRD and/or BST. Timeline:
BRD dropped. Went to someone else.
BST dropped. Outlotted minutes after I lot (so I had thought it was mine).
BRD dropped. Outlotted. ><
Finally, in the last three minutes, BST dropped again and this time I won them. Got them right before time ended.

COR, especially COR/NIN, has very little power to save people when they're in danger, but I tried when Mert (kiting stones) was near death. I ended up dying before I could do much at all... then we wiped so it was moot anyway.

Really. All in all a frustrating day on-game. Tomorrow should be better.

Comments

[darte.livejournal.com]

Those gold portrait mobs are known as "Elite" mobs. Pretty much they are mobs that are tougher than the usual kind, and they are specifically used in Quests, or inside instance areas. The ones in the field have the same respawn rate as the regular monsters which is why you kept running into him!

On a specific note: There's a quest in the area offered by a goblin (i can't recall who), that gives you some kind of ray gun that lets you zap those giants into miniature versions of them and weakens them a lot (lowers HP, attack down to a regular mob of its level).

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

The mobs in WoW that most closely correspond to FFXI's NMs are the elites with unique names. For instance, http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=2754, Anathemus is a rare-spawn elite giant in Badlands. Gorlash, http://www.wowhead.com/?npc=1492, is another elite giant in Stranglethorn vale. He's not a rare-spawn but rather part of a quest, The Captain's Chest, that you get in Booty Bay from Captain Hecklebury Smotts.

[lokyst.livejournal.com]

Well if you log in today, you'll get a baby bear in the mail!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Huh? That'd be worth logging in for! Special event or something?

Edit: Aww, wow that's cute! :)

[pomr.livejournal.com]

A silver dragon border means that the mob is a Rare spawn and will have better drops than usual. A gold dragon border makes the mob an Elite, a mob that is much tougher than other mobs of the same type and level.

Rare Elites are even tougher and generally have unique names as others have said.

Instances are almost entirely full of elites, that's part of why they require a party unless you're a lot higher level than they are. Lia at 73 could probably solo most 60-something instances.

Even scarier are Heroic Instances -- they start at level 70 and the mobs in there are like elites on steroids wired on PCP. They hit a LOT harder, have more hit points, and often have revised and upgraded abilities.

Finally, you have Raids. The mobs in raids are somewhere between Heroic and Elite, but the bosses are probably what you're used to for HNMs. They require 10, 25, or for some of the Level 60 raids 40 people to tackle and specific tactics.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

STUPID WOW!

...

My Warrior is 57 and my Death Knight is 59 >.>

It's time for windshires yearly romp in the land of WoW. Although the economy has completely gone to shit.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ooookay thanks! I think I understand now. (It's hard not to try to force the WoW peg into the FFXI hole.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay, I think I get it now. I have to try to stop thinking in FFXI terms when playing there!

And heh, that quest sounds amusing!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Woo, thanks for the info! I think I got it now. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're ahead of me! I have only one character, and he just hit 50 today. :)

What server are you guys on? I'm on Feathermoon.

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

We are on an Oceanic server named Thaurissan. It's PvP but since it's Oceanic we are often playing during the slower times so there aren't many people on (since during the day for us is like early morning for them) and it's even a horde dominated server so there aren't many alliance to worry about.

Death Knight is kinda cheating though, cause they start at level 55 :P

[fenrirs-bardlet.livejournal.com]

Also, mobs in WoW with a Silver Dragon around their name are the rare spawm NM-like mobs. They always drop at least 1 Uncommon/Rare item. WoWWiki has a whole write up on the difference between Rare, Elite, and Rare Elite mobs, if you're interested.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Also, mobs in WoW with a Silver Dragon around their name are the rare spawm NM-like mobs. They always drop at least 1 Uncommon/Rare item.

Ah, okay! Thanks. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's smart!