Recently I began updating the main news page on Ethereal's linkshell website, as the previous poster has greatly reduced his playtime or all but quit playing entirely, I dont know which.  Either way, I've taken over in his place, so if you're interested in finding out what we're up to just run on over to http://www.etherealls.com and see for yourself!

I'll still be updating this journal, for anyone interested, although it may become more rare.

I've poked this thing a hundred times on my way to Bearclaw Pinnacle for the ENM... many times throughout my FFXI career I've tried to get my linkshells to come kill it, and so many people are never up for the challenge.  Until last night.

Jormungand, defeated!



Ethereal decided to go up there on a whim last night and take it down.  We killed it in about an hour and forty minutes, with a solid 18 people.

I won't say it's an easy fight, it's probably one of the most difficult battles in the game.  The wyrm himself isn't as easy as Tiamat or Ouryu and you have to deal with a LOT more adds than you would at either of those battles.  Our strategy for links basically involved us sleeping any adds right near Jorm, and then casting Thundaga III on the wyrm when he began to fly.

I've also heard a lot of people will use an ES Sleep cycle on Jorm, similar to the common strategies for Tiamat and Ouryu.  That's not something we did, and instead just left it awake while on the ground.  I'm not sure if this is the best strategy or not, but it worked out ok for us.

Well, I'm really glad I finally managed to find a group willing to go kill this thing.  It was one of the most exciting battles I've done in a long time, and am glad to have been a part of it.  Hopefully we'll do it a few more times, and coming next:  Vrtra! 

Because early in the morning, I come across stuff like this when of course, no one is online to help me kill it:




I didnt know it was going to be up... had no idea if the window was open.  I just went out to saruta in the morning, figured I'd hang out and scan.  Sure enough it was already up when I zoned in, killing the two people by the Fortification that were I guess waiting for Campaign to begin.  So what did I do?  Of course, I hit it with Shadowbind and ran it all the way to the tower at the far South end of the map.

I did manage to get a couple people out there to help me... enough to keep a decent kiting party anyway.  The problem (sometimes a blessing) is that while kiting, he's really easy to deaggro.  Meaning he'll go unclaimed and stop chasing you after a few seconds if he never gets to swing at you.  This normally isnt an issue unless someone is camping against you (which is almost always the case.  Not today, it seems....)

Either way, about an hour and a half of kiting and it eventually becomes apparant that we will not be able to muster a killing force anytime within the next few hours, so we begin to DoT it down.  It's working, too.  Over the next half hour we brought it down near 50% (the first 10% being done from the cursed effect on a Genie Weskit lol).  Of course, now we have a group of Japanese spectators...

When of course, our kiting tactic sends the worm unclaimed... and the JP group fucking steals claim from us.  You always hear about like Japanese honor and respect... a code of conduct they live thier lives by... Bushido... And then shit like this happens to make you realize they're filled with just as much bullshit as the rest of us.



I guess it doesnt really matter that the japanese group stole claim from us... They actually managed to get a group to kill it, whereas we wouldnt have had the manpower for at least a few hours, and would have just ended up either killing the worm without a Doomvoid, or we'd have been voided and lost the inner BC because we only had like 3 people. 

The part that really gets me, is that I asked for help from no less than FOUR NA-based linkshells.  Two, understandably, did not have very many people online (just like ethereal, and it was a Monday, between 9am est and 11am est that this was going on... not exactly NA prime time).  The other two linkshells... and I kid you not, simply refused to team up with us.

Whether it was because they simply dont like Ethereal, or they were concerned about the drops... I could not say.  If they were overly concerned about drops... that's fucking sad.  Seriously, I just dont get why everyone is so concerned about drops.  I dont need this shit, yet I spent over two hours kiting this thing because I simply enjoy doing this stuff, experiencing the content that SE made available for us to enjoy.  I would be willing to go out and help kill HNMs any time of the day, regardless of what linkpearl the people are holding.

It's funny... many times when I see a JP group claim a HNM... they're almost never wearing the same pearls on every character in the alliance.  They're like a skittle linkshell, 5-6 different colors in the same alliance.  Probably because they just call on all thier friends, regardless of linkshell, to come help them with stuff.  And they seem more than glad to assist, regardless of reward. 

I'll tell you what though... lately I've been hearing the overwhelming majority of NA players complain that this game is dying. 

If the game is dying, it's because of shit like this... where players are too overly concerned with the rewards, and not real interested in simply having a good time.  It's really sad when you want to experience higher end content and no one will do it with you because it's not rewarding to them personally.  Many times I've tried to get groups to go kill Jormungand, Vrtra, Hydra... and can never get anyone to agree to even go out there to try, simply because there is no reward in it for them to put forth the effort required.  I would think major NA endgame linkshells would be all over this content... and would be excited to take ANY opportunity they get to experience this stuff.  Who cares what happens to the drops... in situations like this, it's feasible to freelot them to anyone who shows up to help, giving everyone an equal opportunity at rewards.  Seems to make sense to me... why not to everyone else?

That is what's killing this game... Greed.