Gimp/Confused/WTF Player Thread XXI: i have a doctors note

[Gokku]

No, because now it's the same as grinding a fucking magian trial. People bitched before because you had to be "lucky" to get claim. Keeps KS99 alternate in tact and allows you a chance at kings which I've heard is still >90% drop rate. Wasn't hard in 2008. Wasn't hard in 2010, HA HA YOUR FUCKED NOW 2011

edited for accuracy

[aduidarnenye]

"Endgame" is just mostly transparent now is all, so you see these people doing everything. If you could peek inside other people's dynamis/limbus/einherjar etc runs your reactions would be no different at 75.

It is true that people are less angsty as a whole though. Not having to deal with HNM drama/stagnation/etc makes the gaming experience a lot more positive.

I am always picking up shout linkshells on my alt, who is a bard, and do a few events with them from time to time. It never ceases to amaze me how the other half live (or rather die and wipe things like Anshersekh with 10 people). Then out come the brews. And their obsession with paeons and carols for their tanks on every single NM in Abyssea. These people don't research anything and don't understand why they lose all the time. Oh, and the screaming/raging shout linkshell leaders after the third wipe are a hilarity goldmine.

My husband (on MNK) picked up a Turul that someone wiped at 15% and proceeded to kill it, with some temp items and a 100 fists, only to be screamed at that he was a no-good brewing thief.

However, I do think it's a good thing that "end game" is more open nowadays. At least they get a chance now.

[Mojo]

I've been spamming KS99 (even to the point of paying people for their orbs) for the chance of Defending Ring. I'm completely confident in saying that the majority of Black Belt items are now going to come from KS99 and not the H.Q. pops. They are more difficult to obtain than they were before. You either need a lot of Kindred Seals sitting around (maybe 1500 KS will produce one Black Belt) or a lot of money to pay people for orbs (many people are reluctant to do this anyways because they have Defending Ring/Ridill pipe dreams or whatever.) Buying Black Belt items was possible before the patch from both KS99 (rare) and HNM (common), but now the only method to so is KS99. This is much more difficult for the average player because they are now in charge of organizing KS99 fights. You can't just sit around watching some HNM shell fight something and then pay them at the end if they get the drop and you can't camp easy HNM either. The aspects of Early Bird Gets the Wyrm and The Hills are Alive that made those KS99 fights difficult are still there, so defeat is still certainly a possibility. Compound all of this with an influx of like 9000+ new Monks and the result is a much more difficult quest. It's a stupid item to criticize someone for not having.

[Eldelphia]

I've been spamming KS99 (even to the point of paying people for their orbs) for the chance of Defending Ring. I'm completely confident in saying that the majority of Black Belt items are now going to come from KS99 and not the H.Q. pops. They are more difficult to obtain than they were before. You either need a lot of Kindred Seals sitting around (maybe 1500 KS will produce one Black Belt)

Er, in my considerable experience of running KSNM99s you'll get black belt items in far less than 15 runs... Also, eventually people are going to cap out on BB items anyway. All you have to do now is camp the BCs rather than the Kings zones. We never had access to Kings, not wanting to bot and completed 7-8 BBs on KSNM alone. One guy in our group completed his BB in 4 runs... only one of the NMs didn't want to put out.

The fights are cake. Sure there is strategy involved but we learnt from scratch and all the info you need is out there.

Yes, it could be hard to organise a KSNM99 run if you don't have friends and I certainly don't expect every MNK to have a BB but honestly the fights aren't hard. I guess what's hard is not being able to solve the problem with a freaking credit card.

[Flic]

Random luck, did 10 runs, 3 converted to hq, 2 bb items (1 from bcnm, 1 from hq).

[Shirai]

However, I do think it's a good thing that "end game" is more open nowadays. At least they get a chance now.

Yes, with a slight chance of freebees for spectators.

And holy crap at some of the trainwrecks in here, naucious (SP?) is the right word when I look at some of them.

[Kohan]

I've seen plenty of posts regarding how easily Black Belt items can be acquired. Now, let me interject with the challenges faced by an educated yet casual player -- me.

Acquiring the Black Belt items in the past was incredibly frustrating. I joined various HNM Linkshells over the years, only to watch countless NQ spawns go by without a drop, and witness another Linkshell claiming the HQ later on. Occasionally, an outside buyer convinced the leadership to sell to them rather than letting a member lot; needless to say, I left those groups behind, but doing so placed me back at square one. Eventually, I abandoned that approach, and tried to purchase the items by myself; since I was solely responsible for keeping track of TODs, it was exhausting, and to subsequently be outbid by another buyer added insult to injury.

To note, when the Black Belt items became available through KS99s, I was elated. I thought, at long last, I'll be able to have the most coveted item for my job, the one I've been playing devotedly for all this time. Unfortunately, I had spent nearly my entire collection of Kindred Seals on a wild Destroyers chase. Sounds absurd? It was, as an item people so regularly discard refused to drop for my friends and I, first depleting my KS collection, and then putting a significant dent in theirs. No worries, though. I would pay someone to get the items on their run, and/or I would save up my KS and get it that way. While constantly asking Linkshells about the former option, I solo farmed KS in Kuftal Tunnel for ages, killing all too many crabs. When I went along on runs -- if I was the high bidder, that is -- groups completely failed. Once I had enough KS to buy orbs myself, I watched the groups I enlisted fail on their own members' runs, and never used my orbs.

In the end, I played as a 75MNK for about five years before I finally obtained my own Black Belt. I wanted it -- just a small piece of pixels and data -- so terribly that I spent many sleepless nights trying to obtain it. In fact, when I finally did acquire it, it was due to a semi-casual HNMLS I belong to nabbing Aspidochelone while I was out, a friend in the Linkshell contacting me, and me speeding home through the rain to get it. Nerdy? Fuck you. You can't say I didn't try for that shit, despite being casual.

So, what do I think when I see someone wearing a Brown Belt? Considering what I went through, that relies on the rest of their equipment. And that person Leroy posted may not be ideal, but they sure as fuck aren't gimp.

In the age of Abyssea and its average idiot (who would make your usual Campaign drone look divine), they're a fucking Godsend.

[Mojo]

Er, in my considerable experience of running KSNM99s you'll get black belt items in far less than 15 runs... Also, eventually people are going to cap out on BB items anyway. All you have to do now is camp the BCs rather than the Kings zones. We never had access to Kings, not wanting to bot and completed 7-8 BBs on KSNM alone. One guy in our group completed his BB in 4 runs... only one of the NMs didn't want to put out.

The fights are cake. Sure there is strategy involved but we learnt from scratch and all the info you need is out there.

Yes, it could be hard to organise a KSNM99 run if you don't have friends and I certainly don't expect every MNK to have a BB but honestly the fights aren't hard. I guess what's hard is not being able to solve the problem with a freaking credit card.

Um, you're acting like you're the only one who ever did lots of KS99. We've all done them. The drop rate is about 1/5 for Black Belt items, in my experience and mostly everybody else, maybe even lower. I don't know if you've done kings since the patch, but the drop rate on H.Q. items is atrocious. I've been paying people 600K or more for their Themis Orbs for Beastly Shanks to spam this BC as much as possible. I've done enough Horns of War in the past week or so to get 4 Behemoth Tongues. Only one Savory Shank. I'll let you do the math, and you tell me if it's easier to get Black Belt post patch.

Also, good luck camping the BCs. Adamantoise Egg is literally the only reason to even do The Hills are Alive. I don't think you're ever going to find a group of people going who don't need the egg. You can probably get a way with camping the other two, but honestly I think you'll be waiting a lot longer than you ever would have at kings because 90% of the runs are started by people who want Black Belt items in the first place.

[ronin sparthos]

Too little too late SE and no amount of synergy augments is going to have people hammering KS99 at the volume needed for BB items to become common.

I was hoping perhaps they'd bump up the Ks99 BB item rate to compensate for the lack of drops off the poppable NQs but from doing 6 Ks99 turtle and seeing 0 eggs and also 9 ks99 Behes and seeing only 1 tongue this weekend, the chances of getting a BB now is slimmed but the value of a BB has diminished some due to Abyssea anyway.

Anyone saying to camp the Ks99 chambers is insane or uninformed. After the initial rush on "new" content, these places are going back to being barren wastelands when all those kindreds get used up. The rate of getting an HQ king pop seems shit and augmented abjuration gear isn't a greater pull than easily acquired +2 Abyssea gear.

Tortaruga don't drop shit of use, lol Adamantoise and Aspidochelone gear is made to be torn up and thrown into a Synergy furnace.

If you got a BB before, you're in the clear but expect to see alot more Brown Belt Monks cause you can't just throw some bots/gil at that shit anymore.

[Appie]

Nothing new but worth to mention again?

Make at least 9 mules on the account that needs BB (too close to 45 day minimum now?)
Enter Bonanza
Win Rank4 (if lucky 3 times? XD if not, hope for repeat of BB items as rank 4 in next bonanza)
Dbox BB items
BB done.

When I saw the bonanza list I was actually considering doing this for a mule that still needs an egg for his BB.

[Mojo]

Nobody is going to do Adamantoise/Aspi for synergy. It's far more efficient to do sky NMs for that stuff.

[Mojo]

Nothing new but worth to mention again?

Make at least 9 mules on the account that needs BB (too close to 45 day minimum now?)
Enter Bonanza
Win Rank4 (if lucky 3 times? XD if not, hope for repeat of BB items as rank 4 in next bonanza)
Dbox BB items
BB done.

When I saw the bonanza list I was actually considering doing this for a mule that still needs an egg for his BB.

This is actually quite clever. Will probably do on my brother's character.

[Sudox]

This is actually quite clever. Will probably do on my brother's character.

It's a clever idea, but unfortunately all BB items are on the "undeliverable" list.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/7267

[Aureus]

It's a clever idea, but unfortunately all BB items are on the "undeliverable" list.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/7267

But BB itself isn't.

[ryskar]

Stuff.

Pretty much. Just because people aren't raging at brown belt doesn't mean they're "white knighting".

Fucking *chan lingo should stay on the chansphere, BG is polluted enough as is anyway.

[Nattack]

blackbelt has only been unobtainable for like a week, derp.

that being said, I never went for it, and will probably never get it.... but ill add fuel to the problematic brownbelt monks in a few weeks ('-'*)

[Nitrous24]

unobtainable? within 2 days of the update going live (i think 2 days) i got all 3 items via ks99...

[Foxer]

No, because now it's the same as grinding a fucking magian trial. People bitched before because you had to be "lucky" to get claim. Keeps KS99 alternate in tact and allows you a chance at kings which I've heard is still >90% drop rate. Wasn't hard in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 or 2008. Wasn't hard in 2010, won't be hard now.

Fixed and true.

Thumbs up to the nigga getting mad at homos defending Brown Belts in 2011.

[Nattack]

unobtainable? within 2 days of the update going live (i think 2 days) i got all 3 items via ks99...

congratulations

[Draylo]

unobtainable? within 2 days of the update going live (i think 2 days) i got all 3 items via ks99...

What does that have to do with the update? It was always luck based thru KS99.