Flight of the Lion

Warning: WotG spoilers below!

Click here for part four of the spoof series.
Click here for part six of the spoof series.















Back in Southern San d'Oria [S], the Royal Army musters its might for a showdown with the Shadow Lord, and among other pre-battle preparations, his Majesty's soldiers have decided to intoxicate themselves first. Unfortunately for them, the soldiers encroached on my favorite night club, and I was expecting a private show. Alright, listen up, everyone! The ladies can stay, but any man who cannot best me at a fistfight better --















Woah, these are your troops, Rage? I certainly did not expect to see you here! What do you mean you still do not recognize me? I met you, Portia, and Lilisette in this very tavern just the other day! It seems that Rage still denies ever meeting Lily and me, but speaking of which, has anyone seen Lily?















Nope, not on stage!















Not to my immediate left either.















Why there she is! After a brief conversation, I gleaned that no one in town could recall whom Lily was either and that she lost her dancing job as a result. I am sure this amnesia phenomenon traces back to Lady Lilith somehow.















But do not fret, Lily; I am sure we can jog our friends' memories if we stick around them long enough. Hey Rage, I do not suppose you could use a few mercenaries for tomorrow's battle? We can slice, dice, and even make Meat Mithkabobs!















So after much pleading and a long march, Lily and I found ourselves at an Allied strategy meeting the next day. Unfortunately for me, I barely crawled out of bed in time and subsequently angered Lily when I entered the meeting room half-dressed. Hey Lily, just mesmerize yourself with all the neat contraptions and persons gathered for this upcoming battle.















We have got an extremely detailed, strategic map of Xarcabard [S]!















Full sets of AFv2 armor and their corresponding relic weapons!















Captain "Rage" Bravo as Allied Commander!















And, and! Wait, just what the heck are those? Really, really cheap strategic markers?! Seriously, why could not Rage afford items that personified San d'Oria, Bastok, and Windurst properly, and why are not the Galkas in the vanguard? I suppose I should converse with Lily about our own battle preparations soon.















So after the meeting, I decided to find Lily and apologize for my earlier tardiness with a bouquet of strangely colored flowers. Thankfully, she was cliche enough to instantly forget the incident and divulged how she had just rendezvoused with one of Rage's comrades (in the future) for details on the upcoming battle.















Apparently, Rage and his team were to assassinate the Shadow Lord while his comrades distracted the enemy outside Castle Zvahl [S].















Somehow, a strange incident occurred while Rage's team stormed the stronghold, but nevertheless, Rage struck down the Shadow Lord. Gee, I wonder how Volker and Zeid ended up getting credit.















I sure hope the bad guys are not eavesdropping on our strategy; surely, that would create a fatal flaw!















So the next day, the Allied Forces coerced Lily and me to help dig a secret tunnel into Castle Zvahl Baileys [S]. Unfortunately, we ended up digging the most because there were mostly Tarutaru miners, but as luck would have it...















... these two Tarutarus from Team Bravo feigned sickness just after we finished the tunnel! With no further help available, Rage inducted Lily and me as substitutes, and with a dozen Shadow Lord victories under my belt, I was hoping for my own personal airship this time. Let us get going, Rage!















Like his future counterpart, the Shadow Lord employs only a handful of Demons to defend his keep. They will not last ten seconds against the might of Team Khel -- I mean Bravo!















So after dispatching the guards, Team Bravo (or maybe it was just Lily and me) decided to ransack the fortress like any other would-be swashbucklers. Now let us see what is behind door number one!















Oh noes, purple badass dead ahead! Oh, and Portia. Do I hear wedding bells all of a sudden?















Do you, Sir Douchebag-a-lot, take this naive girl that your friend seduced to be your lawfully wedded wife? And do you, Portia Surname-I-know-not, take this vile swordsman to save your friend's life? If there are no objections, I now pronounce you husband and -- wait, what is that Rage? "Over my dead body!" he says!















Looks like Haudrale and his companions will not let us escape without a fight.















And he just rendered Portia unconscious somehow!















Not you too, Rage! This does not look good; I have forgotten to bring Snippy of all times! Somebody safeguard me from impending DOOM!















Great timing, Noillurie! It appears Rage's sexy nurse heard my plea and simply devastated Haudrale's Demon friends in response!















She even put Haudrale on the run after only clashing blades! Say um, Noillurie, I do not suppose Rage has spare relic weapons lying around? Liabelle deserves a new katana, and I could use a break from funding a relic weapon myself! Well, in any case, let us get the wounded back to safety.















OH MY GOD, what happened outside? Can anyone hear me? Are there any survivors out there?! I sure hope this battlefield does not turn into a zombie apocalypse or something.















Over there! It looks like a few stragglers are in deep trouble. Hopefully, we can rescue a few and discover the details behind this massacre.

HQ Crafting

Good morning, readers. I have had neither the time nor mood to play FFXI much lately, so I have opted to focus what little time I have had into finishing some Magian trials and hunting Southern Pearls in tandem.

Although I would like to create a Cursed Hauberk -1 someday, I feel that my current endeavors (along with my results at creating a Haubergeon+1 and Hauberk+1) suggest this might never happen. As such, I will postpone synthesizing Cursed Hauberks for now (although I will still be collecting Southern Pearls), and future attempts at HQing all three items below will be listed in new GUPS posts first and then appended here.

Legend:
Fail -- Failed Synthesis
NQ -- Normal Quality
HQ -- High Quality






Haubergeon +1 (Tier 1)
1) NQ 2) NQ 3) NQ 4) Fail 5) NQ 6) NQ 7) NQ 8) NQ 9) NQ 10) NQ 11) NQ 12) NQ 13) NQ 14) NQ 15) NQ 16) NQ 17) NQ 18) NQ 19) NQ 20) NQ






Hauberk +1 (Tier 1)
1) NQ 2) NQ 3) NQ 4) Fail 5) HQ 6) NQ 7) NQ 8) NQ 9) HQ 10) NQ 11) NQ 12) NQ 13) NQ 14) NQ 15) NQ 16) NQ 17) NQ 18) NQ 19) NQ








Cursed Hauberk -1 (Tier 0)
1) Fail 2) NQ 3) Fail 4) NQ5) NQ 6) NQ 7) Fail 8) NQ 9) NQ 10) NQ
11) NQ 12) NQ 13) NQ 14) NQ 15) Fail 16) NQ 17) NQ 18) NQ 19) NQ 20) NQ 21) NQ 22) Fail 23) NQ 24) Fail 25) NQ 26) Fail 27) NQ 28) NQ 29) NQ 30) NQ 31) NQ 32) NQ 33) NQ 34) NQ 35) NQ 36) Fail 37) NQ 38) NQ 39) Fail 40) HQ 41) Fail 42) NQ 43) NQ 44) Fail 45) NQ 46) NQ 47) Fail 48) Fail 49) NQ 50) NQ 51) NQ 52) NQ 53) Fail 54) NQ 55) NQ 56) NQ 57) HQ 58) NQ 59) NQ 60) NQ 61) NQ 62) NQ 63) HQ 64) Fail 65) Fail 66) NQ 67) NQ 68) NQ 69) NQ 70) NQ 71) NQ 72) NQ 73) NQ 74) Fail 75) Fail 76) NQ 77) NQ 78) NQ 79) NQ







Cursed Mufflers -1 (Tier 1) [New]
1) NQ 2) NQ 3) NQ 4) Fail 5) NQ 6) NQ 7) NQ 8) NQ 9) NQ 10) NQ 11) NQ 12) Fail 13) HQ

Transitions

As announced two posts ago, I have been on a nice break from FFXI after months of intensive gil farming. Or so I would have you believe. To be honest, I spent the remainder of August rushing my jobs to level 80, and now that my winter semester has started, I have been juggling my time between classwork and leveling my jobs to 85. While the task of leveling is, without a doubt, very easy thanks to Abyssea, I just cannot find any time to play as of late. Moreover, I spend 90 percent of my time, on average, on classwork, so my FFXI interests are quickly being pushed to the sidelines -- and perhaps out of my life at this rate.

In addition to a decreased playing time, I have lost almost all interest in completing my relic weapon and Armada Hauberk. I suppose the former is daunting given the expense of the 10,000 piece, but the latter will evade me once again because my Einherjar LS has all but disbanded.

What happens for me next is anyone's guess. Although I plan to stay on FFXI a while longer, the odds of completing my endgame goals remain bleak, and I now have an increasing number of real life burdens to shoulder. As such, if I do not quit FFXI in the near future, I expect to drop out of endgame completely and slowly chip away at my Guttler now and then.

Occasionally Attacks X

The new Magian weapons have jolted the interests of many, and in particular, those of the "Occasionally Attacks X" variety are highly discussed. As such, which Axe above is better for TP gain? Is it the Occasionally Attacks Twice (OAT) or the Occasionally Attacks Thrice (OA3) weapon?

Since both weapons have the same Delay, we need only concern ourselves with the distribution of multi-hit attacks. According to some sources, the OAT weapon has a 40 to 45% "Double Attack" rate while the OA3 has a 30% "Double Attack" rate and a 20% "Triple Attack" rate. Assuming the data above is accurate, we can then calculate the average number of attacks each weapon delivers per round.

Average # of attacks per round = (Frequency of Single Attacks * 1 attack/round) + (Frequency of Double Attacks * 2 attacks/round) + (Frequency of Triple Attacks * 3 attacks/round) + ... + (Frequency of "n" tuple Attacks * "n" attacks/round)

Note that the frequencies above must total to 100% or 1.0. As such, this formula determines the average number of attacks a given weapon delivers per round by enumerating the average number of attacks each n-tuple is expected to contribute.

Richardet's Axe (OAT)
Average # of attacks per round = (Frequency of Single Attacks * 1 attack/round) + (Frequency of Double Attacks * 2 attacks/round)
Average # of attacks per round = (0.60 to 0.55 * 1 attack/round) + (0.40 to 0.45 * 2 attacks/round)
Average # of attacks per round = (0.60 to 0.55 attacks/round) + (0.80 to 0.90 attacks/round)
Average # of attacks per round = 1.4 to 1.45 attacks/round

Richardet's Axe (OA3)
Average # of attacks per round = (Frequency of Single Attacks * 1 attack/round) + (Frequency of Double Attacks * 2 attacks/round) + (Frequency of Triple Attacks * 3 attacks/round)
Average # of attacks per round = (0.5 * 1 attack/round) + (0.3 * 2 attacks/round) + (0.2 * 3 attacks/round)
Average # of attacks per round = (0.5 attacks/round) + (0.6 attacks/round) + (0.6 attacks/round)
Average # of attacks per round = 1.7 attacks/round

Therefore, the OA3 Axe is better for TP gain, but the OAT Axe is often recommended over the OA3 weapon. Why? The reason lies in the amount of damage each Axe contributes over time. For simplicity, we will calculate the Damage per second (DPS) of both Axes without gear. Since the DPS rating represents a single round for a given weapon, we will multiply the DPS by the average # of attacks per round.



















Indeed, the OAT Axe delivers more damage over time (DoT), so therefore, choosing an Axe above is ultimately between WSing more frequently or dealing more DoT. Since most BSTs will likely parse better using the latter, an offhand OAT Axe is a good bet for many; however, the best Axe ultimately depends on your playstyle (and perhaps more mathematics).

Aside: "Double and Triple Attack" gear
One should note that your total "Double or Triple Attack" rate using the weapons above is not found by simply adding your gear and job trait values to the distributions above. From what I am told, it seems that "Double Attack" from gear and/or job traits reduces the number of non-double hits by said value and then adds the reduction(s) to your "Double Attack" rate.

For example, let us say you have 5% "Double Attack" from gear and the OA3 Axe:

• Shift 5% of your single attacks to double attacks. This means you have 2.5% less single attacks and 2.5% more double attacks.
  
• Shift 5% of your triple attacks to double attacks. This means you have 1.0% less triple attacks and 1.0% more double attacks.
  
• Recalculate your new single/double/triple attack rate: 50 - 2.5 / 30 + 3.5 / 20 - 1.0 = 47.5/33.5/19.
  

Pyrrhic Victory

Today marks a glorious day. Thanks to my constant farming these past two months, I now own a Stage 4 Axe. Hurray for a baby Guttler!















Although I only need one more item to finish a Guttler, I expect it will be some time before I can obtain the 10,000 piece. Moreover, I pushed myself hard these past two months, so I am all but burnt out from non-stop farming and Crafting runs. Every day, I was either farming or Crafting for gil, and on average, it took a six to eight hour farming trip coupled with ten to twelve hours of chain synthesis for a new One Hundred Byne Bill. In addition, my next relic stage involves L. Jadeshells, and those are approximately twice as expensive as One Hundred Byne Bills.

As such, I need a break so I can recover from exhaustion, search for a new farming method, and explore the latest version update.















I did not do all the work alone however. I would like to thank Goddessalura for both accompanying me on numerous farming trips and providing me loans whenever I was short on gil. Although I have paid off my loans as of last week, I feel that I owe her something special, and if you are reading this, Alura, you should be receiving that Lu Shang's Fishing Rod you always wanted in the next few days.