Productive weekend

I've spent a large chunk of the weekend playing FFXIV and I've raised my physical level from 14 -> 17, but also learnt loads about crafting. I've bought all the gear I need to become ALL of the disciplines and I've tried most of them out now. Thankfully I've also spent some time creating lots of macros so I can now easily swap disciplines with only one button, something that was previously quite a chore. Now I can happily be killing something and then see a mining spot, swap to miner and then swap back to kill more things, swap to do some fishing... I love how versatile it is :) Okay here's the pictures of all the new disciplines of war and magic that I've started on:

Archer (1 -> 4)

Gladiator (1 -> 5)

Lancer (1 -> 6)

Pugilist (1 -> 9)

I don't really like lancer all that much and find it kind of slow to fight (although I might be imaginging that). Likewise though I really like pugilist and that seems really fast to kill things! I can see archer being really expensive as you need a constant supply of ammo (something that ended up getting me killed once when I ran out!), but in that respect it's no different to the ranger in FFXI. Gladiator is okay and feels somewhere in between pugilist and lancer, I haven't really found a favourite job that I like yet though.

Now onto the crafting... I was forced to start doing this because my inventory keeps filling up AND so does my retainers so I had to start crafting to get rid of the things that are taking up space (and level up some disciplines at the same time!). Apparently we'll be allowed to purchase additional retainers (people to hold/sell our stuff) for $1/month, but they haven't released it yet... I wish they would... I'll take 10! :) Although I'll need some new names. My existing retainer I called Charlotte which I thought was quite a nice name, although the problem is each name has to be unique so picking a name for 2nd (and 3rd and 4th...) will be quite tricky!

Alchemist (1 -> 6)

Armorer (1 -> 7)

Culinarian (1 -> 5)

Goldsmith (1 -> 5)

Weaver (1 -> 4)

I even managed to "high quality" something - Hurrah!

Botany - Harvesting (1 -> 7)>

Botany - Logging (1 -> 7 as above)

This guy came to watch me do some mining (8 -> 10)

Cool eh? :) I still need to try being a carpenter, blacksmith and leather worker, but I need more crystal shards/component parts. Talking of crystal shards, it seems a bit disproportionate because I have like 900 earth and fire crystals... but only 30 wind crystals?! Huh? I guess it's relative to the stuff you're killing/harvesting though.

Doubt I'll get to play again for a week or so, but I figure I need to start working on getting myself some new gear the next time I play, the weathered stuff is just getting a bit old now (literally - it's all been repaired twice!)

Thaumaturge

With exception of today I haven't played since my last entry and upon loading the game I was shocked to find many people were already level 40+ - Wow! I'm still getting used to the game and still trying to work out what I actually like doing, but in the meantime I'm just trying everything. Oh and I have some good news, I found a NPC who was able to fix my clothes including my underwear (as mentioned in the last entry!) - Yay!

This is the NPC that fixed my pants! LOL

I did some more levequests, 4 battlefield, 2 fishing and 2 mining and then went and bought some extra "weapons" so I can now become a gladiator, goldsmith, alchemist and thaumaturge and went out to level the thaumaturge. Only minor changes to the other "jobs", but my physical level is now 14, Mining 8, Fishing 6 and Thaumaturge all the way from 1 to 8.

Me as a Thaumaturge, wish the weapon looked better though!

I pretty much found it the same as Conjurer, you have a bunch of offensive spells, a "healing" type spells and you can use the same attack strategy, although I'm guessing at later levels the job differences will start to become apparent. I initially started as Conjurer as I was primarily a White Mage in Final Fantasy XI and Conjurer seemed the closest thing to that, although I'm going to level a bunch of things to see what I like most.

I need new underwear!

I've over played a few hours since my last blog post, but it was enough to raise my physical level to 13, Conjury to 10, Mining to 8 and more exciting I've raised fishing from 1 (what your start on) to level 5 - Yippee!!

Fishing seemed incredibly weird at first as aside from the tons of waiting you have to do (I guess that's realism?) you have to "jig" the line (???) and then try and work out which way the fish is going to reel it in based on the text it gives you. The control system is actually a lot like mining and once I got the hang of what words means what action I should do it wasn't that hard and started catching things pretty much everytime. I've completed two of the levequests for fishing which earned me some extra exp so I'm very happy with that!

It's a nice day for a spot of fishing!

Now onto the title of my entry... underwear. I was minding my own business and then all of a sudden an icon flashed up the top of the screen which after selecting said that some of my gear (clothing/weapons) was "diminished" and as such performing at a reduced rate (or words to that effect). EEK! It would have been nice if it told you WHICH item(s) were at fault, but after some investigating with our friend Google I found out that the icon shows up when an item gets below 50% of life and continues to diminish. After checking all my items... yep... the underwear. Brilliant.

Oh no!

You either have to replace or repair the item. I am curious though, will I eventually end up running around butt naked if I refuse to fix an item? Probably not (I suspect I'll still able to wear the item, it just won't "do" anything), although it's a scary thought! :P

Sadly I don't think I can repair it myself at the moment (I haven't even started weaving) and I can't pay someone to repair it because with underwear you can't take it off... only switch it to another pair of underwear and so far I only have one pair... Yes eugh I know, but let's assume virtual me is very clean okay? :)

I guess I'm going to have to find some new undies... LOL.