All things considered...
Spring is nice. I really can't wait for the sakura tree outside our window to bloom. It's soooo pretty.
I think I'm going to take a heavy break from FFXI for a bit. I'll pop in for Dynamis, but other than that, I think I need to distance myself for a little while. I'm feeling distanced from people who I thought were some of my closest friends and I'm bored with the grind right now. FFXI is, right now, either meriting on BLM, mining or Dynamis. Which is fine. But with the candescence gone right now for the third day, well, not great for pudding slaughter. azumauta and I were looking to get into VS and do endgame and relieve the boredom that way, meet some new people, have some good times, but it looks like that's not happening either. It'd be nice if these endgame shells actually told you if you were in or not, but I figure three weeks of silence is enough said. Tell you what though, if I ever ran my own shell (lol), I'd at least have a little more courtesy than to not say anything. How hard is it to have someone who contacts people and says "hey, we've seen your app, we're reviewing it, we'll be in touch" and follows up a week or however long later with a "welcome to the group!" or a "sorry, no dice". It's simple courtesy and really isn't that hard. Could even do it on the site forums where the app is, to avoid the whole check-for-them-in-game part. But that's just me.
So with the grind set for now, at least, as merit/mine/dynamis, I'm just bored. The new content hasn't done anything to pull me in either; it was yet another very underwhelming update. It would have been nice if I could have kept Salvage going, that was fun and something I enjoy doing, but running it is so complicated and involved without an organized shell that it just took too much of my time and energy on Sundays. Some sky would help break the monotony, but one of the so-called friends mentioned above shut me down real fast when I even hinted at gauging any interest in his casualish (I think) Sunday sky group. I could look into Windshire for sky, but we'll see... adding another monotonous activity to the list isn't going to solve anything, which is why a shell like VS was attractive - doing the entire spectrum of endgame sounded varied enough to keep me amused, at least long enough for me to get over my burn out and get myself amused again. I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time other than for Dynamis, but I think for the time being, I'm stepping back.
So in the meantime, I've been playing Morrowind again and loving it. I engineered a character awhile back who had maximum levelling potential - all of her major/minor stats were at 15, the lowest possible. Since you gain levels by raising major/minor skills, the lower they are to start, the higher your potential end level is. I've got my character - Sharn'ava Kirathuna - up to level 24 or 25 now, which makes her pretty solid. She's got a 100 in Spear, my favored weapon in Morrowind. I have a couple Golden Saints in Soul Gems, so I need to get a good Daedric Spear for her that I can enchant with some bitchin' constant effect. Maybe a drain health. Or better yet, Drain Magicka, since her sign is the Atronach (she doesn't recover magicka when she rests, only via her natural 50% spell absorption, which also comes from the sign). I've got her about 80% done with the Mages Guild quests and she's getting to the part of the main quest where everything is about satisfying the Ashlander prophecies. In fact, I just got her cured of Corprus. That's the major point I like to reach in the main quest line, because it means I get those absolutely great heavy armor gauntlets from the plot-related Sixth House dungeon and it means I have the common and blight disease immunities from the Corprus plot segment. Both are very, very useful. The gauntlets I use forever and the immunities just make running around easier - no more worry about contracting some annoying blight disease. She's also gotten her Alchemy up into the 60s now, with all Master equipment, so she's making some ridiculously potent restore fatigue and health potions. Just need to start working on getting more daedric/glass/whatever armor and weapons and start working on setting them up with some great enchantments... might be getting to be time to get Azura's Star, since I should be finding Golden Saints at most Daedric ruins now. Good times.
At any rate, not too much else going on. FFXI was dragging me down, but the decision to step back for awhile is making me feel better. Morrowind is something I'm thoroughly enjoying right now, and who knows, maybe I'll actually get around to writing again. Who knows. My days in Vana'diel might be numbered, my tenure there drawing to an end. With my greatest accomplishment there months from completion, that'd be sad, but who knows. I know I wouldn't leave until I finished the scythe, at the very least, and I doubt that once I get it I would want to. I think I just need a break and, in time, the rest will sort itself out.
I think I'm going to take a heavy break from FFXI for a bit. I'll pop in for Dynamis, but other than that, I think I need to distance myself for a little while. I'm feeling distanced from people who I thought were some of my closest friends and I'm bored with the grind right now. FFXI is, right now, either meriting on BLM, mining or Dynamis. Which is fine. But with the candescence gone right now for the third day, well, not great for pudding slaughter. azumauta and I were looking to get into VS and do endgame and relieve the boredom that way, meet some new people, have some good times, but it looks like that's not happening either. It'd be nice if these endgame shells actually told you if you were in or not, but I figure three weeks of silence is enough said. Tell you what though, if I ever ran my own shell (lol), I'd at least have a little more courtesy than to not say anything. How hard is it to have someone who contacts people and says "hey, we've seen your app, we're reviewing it, we'll be in touch" and follows up a week or however long later with a "welcome to the group!" or a "sorry, no dice". It's simple courtesy and really isn't that hard. Could even do it on the site forums where the app is, to avoid the whole check-for-them-in-game part. But that's just me.
So with the grind set for now, at least, as merit/mine/dynamis, I'm just bored. The new content hasn't done anything to pull me in either; it was yet another very underwhelming update. It would have been nice if I could have kept Salvage going, that was fun and something I enjoy doing, but running it is so complicated and involved without an organized shell that it just took too much of my time and energy on Sundays. Some sky would help break the monotony, but one of the so-called friends mentioned above shut me down real fast when I even hinted at gauging any interest in his casualish (I think) Sunday sky group. I could look into Windshire for sky, but we'll see... adding another monotonous activity to the list isn't going to solve anything, which is why a shell like VS was attractive - doing the entire spectrum of endgame sounded varied enough to keep me amused, at least long enough for me to get over my burn out and get myself amused again. I'm sure I'll pop in from time to time other than for Dynamis, but I think for the time being, I'm stepping back.
So in the meantime, I've been playing Morrowind again and loving it. I engineered a character awhile back who had maximum levelling potential - all of her major/minor stats were at 15, the lowest possible. Since you gain levels by raising major/minor skills, the lower they are to start, the higher your potential end level is. I've got my character - Sharn'ava Kirathuna - up to level 24 or 25 now, which makes her pretty solid. She's got a 100 in Spear, my favored weapon in Morrowind. I have a couple Golden Saints in Soul Gems, so I need to get a good Daedric Spear for her that I can enchant with some bitchin' constant effect. Maybe a drain health. Or better yet, Drain Magicka, since her sign is the Atronach (she doesn't recover magicka when she rests, only via her natural 50% spell absorption, which also comes from the sign). I've got her about 80% done with the Mages Guild quests and she's getting to the part of the main quest where everything is about satisfying the Ashlander prophecies. In fact, I just got her cured of Corprus. That's the major point I like to reach in the main quest line, because it means I get those absolutely great heavy armor gauntlets from the plot-related Sixth House dungeon and it means I have the common and blight disease immunities from the Corprus plot segment. Both are very, very useful. The gauntlets I use forever and the immunities just make running around easier - no more worry about contracting some annoying blight disease. She's also gotten her Alchemy up into the 60s now, with all Master equipment, so she's making some ridiculously potent restore fatigue and health potions. Just need to start working on getting more daedric/glass/whatever armor and weapons and start working on setting them up with some great enchantments... might be getting to be time to get Azura's Star, since I should be finding Golden Saints at most Daedric ruins now. Good times.
At any rate, not too much else going on. FFXI was dragging me down, but the decision to step back for awhile is making me feel better. Morrowind is something I'm thoroughly enjoying right now, and who knows, maybe I'll actually get around to writing again. Who knows. My days in Vana'diel might be numbered, my tenure there drawing to an end. With my greatest accomplishment there months from completion, that'd be sad, but who knows. I know I wouldn't leave until I finished the scythe, at the very least, and I doubt that once I get it I would want to. I think I just need a break and, in time, the rest will sort itself out.