The change is that in campaign, any AoE buff hits everyone in range with tags on.

12 people hit with a Healing Ruby II.  And I was not in a party.

14 people hit with Ecliptic Growl.

The obvious advantage is that the exp a summoner can gain is greatly increased.  All of these count as a buff to a non-party member, which is 10 per buff, max of 300.  Plus, I think it counts as a self buff, which is 20 per buff, cap of 150.  So while avatar damage will never quite reach that of a heavy DD class, especially in a longer fight where MP becomes an issue, there are ways to even it out.

From this Campaign Battle, I got.

This is solo.  Summoner is a great job for solo exp in campaign now.  Sub White Mage, and you can even raise/reraise.

*grins*

-pyra

Witchfire Glen is a really unique place where a handful of VT to 75 Pixies reside.  It is also where you go to reset ‘Pixie Hate’.

If you’ve never been, I suggest going there, especially at night.

The Dancer AF1 quest CS shows the Dancer in Upper Jeuno as a child, with her mother.

She is performing for the Pixies, and learning the “Spirit of the Dance” or some crap like that, I wasn’t really watching.

Then, for some reason, you fight a Hippogryph.

This NM was a complete joke.  My white mage could have soloed it, and hexa strike was just decimating.

Awww, I love happy endings.  FFXI has so very few happy endings.

In the spirit of the dance, here’s a little /dance4 off.

Well, moving along, Campaign has been interesting since the last patch.  The beastmen are more or less destroying the players.  But now, we can whack away on walls for lots of easy exp, so its not a total loss.

And with the new summoner AoE buffs, ohhh the lag I can cause.  Its wonderful.  More on this in an upcoming post.

Complete with the glitch that was just fixed last week.

I’m sure the Fortifications are at 1008/100 strength.  Really, I am.

And finally for campaign, here’s a good pic of Miz (we tend to campaign together a lot).

That’s all for today!

-pyra

What is known:

• It takes a certain number of Experience Points gained to rank up
• It is variable depending on the Medal you currently have
• At lower Medals, it is believed to be about 5,000 experience points
• For me, Golden Star -> Copper Emblem of Service was 9,000 experience points
• At higher ranks, you have the potential to gain more exp in a Campaign Battle
• If you fail to meet the requirements, you will lose your medal withing 30 days

What is unknown:

• What effect, if any, Allied Notes have on your rank up
• If your efforts deteriorate over time (getting 10K exp right before your evaluation vs 3 days before)
• If assisting in a Campaign Ops (when not using your own Ops Credit) helps you in any way
• If experience points earned in Campaing Ops vs Campaign Battles are weighted differently (I believe no)

What is believed:

• It requires more exp to rank up at higher ranks (probably true given what little information is available)
• There is a threshold that starts around 66-75% of the exp required to rank up in which you are given the option to keep your current medal.
• The requirements are somewhat higher when jumping to a new grouping — eg, moving from Ribbon #4 to Star #1, etc

As can be seen, not much is known about the specific math required to achieve the various ranks.

My basis for known #4 – I used two accounts, both hit Golden Star on the same day, and I recorded the amount of exp and AN received from start to promotion.

The first account was promoted at 9600 exp and 8900 Allied Notes. The second was not promoted at 8880 exp and 10,500 Allied Noted, but was promoted at 9040 exp and 11,120 Allied Notes (all numbers rounded since I’m working from memory right now). Based on this information, I believe that the threshold is for Golden Star to Copper Emblem is 9000 exp (possibly 8900), and if there is an Allied Notes requirement, it is either lower than, or the same as the Experience Points requirement. It also appears as though extra Allied Notes will not offset Experience Points shortcomings, meaning you will have to join Campaign Battles if you ever hope to get promoted.

After revisiting my numbers I noticed that my original thought about 9000 exp to rank up may not be correct. It is possible that it is 8900, and since I had 8900 AN and over 9000 exp, I have not disproved it yet. This will require furthur testing at all levels to begin to make a table of what is required to rank up. What I believe is proven is that there is an experience points requirement to get your promotion, and it is NOT only based on Allied Notes, and may not be based on Allied Notes at all.

If there is no Allied Notes requirement, the Notes may be completly useless at this time.

Anyone else have thoughts?

I don’t have all the information, but here is a link that does have it:

http://wiki.bluegartrls.com/Campaign_Point_Calculation

This link should answer all questions about how points are gained in Campaign.

For the basics of a campaign battle, see

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Category:Campaign_Battles

Hope that helps. If there are more links that should be here, please post a comment and I’ll add them.

-pyra

Star #3.  I should get Star #4 at the end of this week depending on how much time I have.  Does anyone actually know that that symbol is on these?

While doing campaigns, I ran across some new, and bazaar, names.

I’m not sure what Instant Love is, nor why she was making some inappropriate emotes towards Xenith.  Maybe I just don’t want to know.

Here was something completely unexpected.  I was asked to join an Assault group, and we did one I’ve never done before.

We did worms, and I did a 1K Darkness o.O !

And it was just enough for the promotion.

About time hardly describes it, but I was still happy about this occurrence.

The quest was interesting, you have to run around to 5 lakes around the thickets and woodlands.

And I got this screenshot.  If you know my dislike of elves, it makes sense why I liked it so much .

That’s right you smelly elf, bow down to the cat!

Oh, and also about time.

I got my astral leather for Ata’s SMN Boots +1.  I got the Temenos half forever and a day ago.  I turned them in right after limbo, so they are ready as soon as I need them.  I also finished a Monk set for Pyra, but have not decided which piece to upgrade yet.  I also will need more coins since I’ve been using them as fast as they come in and only have about 5 left.

Finally from me, I took this picture in my last dynamis run and wanted to post it.  Click for a larger version.

-pyra

That’s the 6th rank in Campaign, of a total of 12 currently available.  I’m hoping to have the 10th rank by the expansion next month.

Well, going along with the Monk theme, in an amazingly close Apollyon SW (down to 60 seconds remaining on 2nd floor before we got the time chest), I got final stinged.

However, 879 HP is just over half of my normal geared up hit points.

Speaking of Hit Points, I’ve managed to boost my total HP to over 2000.

I do cheat a little.  I have 30 MP which is converted to HP.  The one earring is a Brutal, the other is an Intruder earring.

Speaking of the intruder earring…

I just got the intruder this week as well (and no, you can’t have ToD).

While waiting for Centurio to pop, I hunted the Dune Widow.  I got a claim, but this is all it dropped for me.

Boooooooooo.  I need teh gilz.

Finally, the most important part of this post.

Please congratulate Mizuhito on getting his Melee Cyclas, and hitting 4/5 on Monk AFv2.

And that is it, the week of the monk.

Hopefully, a couple more Melee Cyclas fall — as we are farming the glacier for the next week — and I can not only beat my 2038 HP, but can also hit 6/6 on Monk AFv2.

-pyra

Another year has passed.  At this time, I would like to reflect on the occurrences of the past 365 Days.

For starters, this has been a good year for Dynamis productivity.  In it, we’ve seen Atalantia reach 4 of 5 on her White Mage AFv2.

At the same time, she has also received some Summoner AFv2, making her 2 of 5.

Her Yinyang was definitely a victory for all of Vana’diel as well.  We all rejoiced in her happiness.

This has also been a good year for Pyra.  She was able to hit 4 of 5 on Thief AFv2.

And her Monk also hit 4 of 5, with the relic accessory, making the Monk 5 of 6 overall.

In addition, Sky was kind in 2007, allowing her to obtain 3 of 5 of the Sky "God Set".

We had significant victories in 2007 and early 2008.  Victories in Limbus came just last week ago with the first piece of AF+1 for Pyra.  Atalantia is still working very hard to get her first piece, with a breakthrough expected anytime now.

This is an important first step, with many more steps to come.  This piece also marked the near completion of Pyra’s Chi Blast set, missing only 1 key item, Kirin’s Osode.  It will come with time, but until then, we need to persevere and strengthen our resolve to work towards our goals.  The Osode is within reach, and I urge everyone to not give up now.

In other news, Dynamis continues the be our main source of Experience Point loss.  Every loss saddens us, but makes us all stronger.

We know that some loss is a necessary sacrifice to ensure the groups grow stronger and closer.  With time, we can minimize this loss, but until then, we will do everything we can to make sure that is it not in vain.

The economy has been a roller coaster ride this past year as well.  The Really Moronic Tribe, a cult originating in the far east, has been nearly eliminated.  However, this extermination effort has not been without its draw backs.  The effort has caused a recession as new industry was built to make up for the loss of productivity.  We will recover.  We will succeed.

The war continues 20 years ago.  It is a hard fight, and the beastmen never run out of reinforcements.  We must fight in the past to ensure a safe today.  A year ago, we thought that we would lose to the beastmen, and many encouraged us to stop fighting, saying that a pitiful amount of Allied Notes was not worth the loss of life on both sides.  Detractors said that the forces of the 4 nations lacked the courage to step up and do what was needed to make their lands safe.

Today, we see the National Protection Councils, or NPCs, in all 4 nations sending troops to support the war effort.  Eventually, our combined effort will drive the beastmen forces back and we will take the fight to the Shadowlord himself.  We cannot allow his regime to survive.  His days are numbered, and no matter where in the mountains of the Northlands he hides, we will find him.  We will be victorious.  We do this because we have to, for the present, for our children, and for Cid.

This next year will not be easy.  Proto-Omega, Proto-Ultima, Dynamis Lord, and others seem to just reappear every few weeks.  They must be defeated for peace to reign.

We will not be pulling our forces out of any zones where they are still needed.  Al’Taieu still crawls with creatures, some would say monsters, so notorious that they take 18 or more brave fighters to hunt down and capture or kill.  But it is worth the effort, the items we find on them prove infinitely valuable in the continuing battles.  We will undertake missions, as they come up, and finish those missions we are already working on.

Together, we can make Vana’diel a strong nation for all, with a good past, present, and future.

Thank you, and God bless.

-pyra

I did have some fun, and wanted to share some pictures.

In Campaign, I’ve managed to hit the 4th ribbon.  These are starting to take a bit more work to complete than they used to.

At least I was able to get both Pyra’s and Ata’s at the same time.  Keeping them in sync is much easier since they were both 75 when Wings of the Goddess came out.  Unlike Assault, which is just annoying.

I did this 3-man Campaign Ops.  It was actually fun, and the exp reward was decent too.

It is called Brave Dawn I for Windy.  Since anyone can enter, and you get exp even if you are not doing the mission, I went and helped out on Brave Dawn II.

Moving along, it has been too long since I saw this in my chat log.

I only managed to go from 90.0+2 to 90.7+2, but any progress is better than no progress.  100 is still along ways off, but is .7 closer now than it was before.

If only I could find a steady supply of griffon hides.  I estimate I’ll need 120-150 of them to get to 95 leather.

I did, however, manage to get an entire stack of the stuff, which I sold to myself.  Why did I sell it to myself?  Simple, the entire sales history was 1 person to himself for under 100 gil.  I decided I needed to change that.  Yeah, I’m a bit evil.  Enjoy!

In other news

Why does everybody come out of the closet to me?  Its really getting old.

I still love the newbie RMT names.  I think they just stopped trying.

Aagg, and Ggaa.  I guess they are as dumb as they look.

After I saw Mischa’s Post about Az that she posted here, I decided that I needed to make him jealous.

This is Wiki, my mule, receiving last night’s sales.

Then I went and spent about 200K, but managed to sell another 250K.

Und Das ist Alles.

-pyra

This is just one of those pics that had to be posted.  From Apollyon NE, the one boss Cronos, was hiding in a tree.  I liked it, but the picture lost much in the resizing.

Floating chest!  Many people saw this one floating for some reason, so it wasn’t just on my end, this time.

And my aggro-happy friends, as they aggro not 1, but 2 Om’youvras.  Az should take note, this will kill Mischa much better than just one lower-tier UFO will.

Really, was this necessary?  I hit him for 31, then get nailed for 1023.  That doesn’t seem fair for some reason.

-pyra

Opening CS that somewhat mirrors the new player CS for this zone.

For the Federation! War Warlocks off to battle evil Yagudo.

Ugh, I’ve met her daughter, she tortured me in the Thief AF quests and for Yagudo Necklaces for my Ninja spells. I don’t like where this is going….

Ack! The cooking guild burned down. Someone forgot to turn off their oven I bet.

I liked this picture.

New monster : Toad. And yes, they do link.

After joining up with Windy, I tried out my first Campaign battle. The first encounter did not go well, hit for 1100 right off the bat, then killed right after I was raised.

Eventually I was able to just engage the monster and fight a little. It was interesting, and I can see this being fun.

After Campaign, I decided to try to level my now 24 Dark Knight up a level or two.

I saw this, someone bazaaring a Soul Plate for Absolute Virtue. Haha…. yeah I won’t pay 2 mil for that.

While seeking in Qufim, someone asked me where to buy an Empress Band. Really? You don’t have one by level 20.

And finally, proving that all good mithra names end in the letter ‘a’.

Nmira is a Dancer, which is definitly my next job now. I ended this party at about 4:30 am having gone from about 3K to level 25 to 2K to level 29 (or level 24 – 28 if you wish) in a single party. I almost left after I hit 27, but stayed the extra hour and a half for the level and a half. The party leader dinged 30 dancer and a ranger dinged 29 on our last monster. The party had 2 dancers, 1 scholar, 2 rangers, and me as Dark Knight. Also, there was a 75 pink mage and 75 white mage for power leveling.

Until later
-pyra