A Ranka's Legacy

World Wide First x2

2007-09-08T13:50:00.000-05:00

Tired of sitting in Khal with 10 FPS while waiting for the raid content promised to us in game update #3, Pravus Dei decided to go out and mix it up a little bit. Since there are no official raids in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, we decided to create our own. Yup, we raided the High Elven City of Leth Nurae. Our faction is totally fucked, but this kill here made it all worthwhile:

The NPC "Silius", named after the developer of the entire crafting sphere in vanguard, died to Pravus Dei in a world wide first attempt on a typical Tuesday afternoon. Many crafters stopped to watch the show and to our amazement, this NPC actually had a unique script and battle plan. We all had a great time taking this guy down and we thank those who came out to see us in action. Boredom can be a powerful motivator ;)

Even more recently, Pravus Dei became the first guild world wide to complete the construction of the Qalian Guildhall. This is an ENORMOUS team accomplishment, as both the diplomacy and actual construction materials are a ridiculous pain in the ass to acquire. 14,420 granite bricks, several 100 diplomacy information from T1 to T5, and that clusterfuck at the mummy dust just to name a few of the challenging aspects of building one of these bad boys. Needless to say, not many people even have theirs up days after they have gone live. Here is the result of an incredible team effort to get this done (we started about a week and a half before the merge).

It is absolutely massive and can be seen from an incredible distance as you're riding through the Infineum Plateaus. Because we were the first to have completed this project, we figured it would be a good idea to open it up to the community in a sort of "open house" kind of fashion.

The number of people who came out to congratulate us was staggering and all of our members were beaming with pride as adventurers flew in to check out what we had done. I'd like to thank those who came out and wish you all the best of luck in building halls for your guilds as well.

These are just a few shots of the many, many indoor chambers, but if I were to post them all this thread would go on forever.

PD is still recruiting, though we have about a 20% application to membership approval rate at the moment. While it isn't easy to make it into our ranks, it is worth it for the hardcore, dedicated player . www.pdguild.org to apply if you think you've got what it takes.

Finally

2007-08-16T07:18:00.000-05:00

Game update #2 is supposedly going live as I type this. Here's to hoping it goes over well and that Drox gets his updated UI out so the new features aren't all fucked up for those of us who are using custom UIs.

In other news, I've been working on getting my ranger up to par since I've been slacking a bit while toying around with Stubbz (he's 35 atm). I recently completed my swamp shoulders quest for the stage 1 Gorgalok shoulders and am currently trying to harvest another supple hide to upgrade them to Flare Totem. I'm still one of the better equipped Targonor rangers, however I'm far from being where I need to be in the equipment department. That will change soon.

Here's a couple screenshots so this post doesn't become just a wall of text:

This gave me flashbacks to watching Jon Voight get eaten alive in the horribly bad movie "Anaconda".

I also completed the Unicorn quest finally. This was a huge pain in the ass since most of the quests required significant travel time and high kill counts from lower level areas. Not exactly making an argument for the heterosexuality of rangers, but this thing is fast as fuck so whatever :P

"Bond don't fuck around"

This guy made me lol irl. I guess Dante beat his group to a named mob kill and got some mediocre uncommon drop and this joker sent me a tell accusing PD of being KSers/assholes. His approach was hysterical and I was laughing pretty much the entire time I spoke with him. Some level 45ish Monk threatening PD while talking in the 3rd person was just priceless.

I had Dante return the item to him and we apologized despite not being in the wrong. The threats continued but eventually I told him good luck and he said thanks and that was that. Pretty funny situation if you ask me.

Recruitment is also still open for exceptional raid type players. www.pdguild.org for details.

Forget Enlarging Pictures

2007-08-04T20:01:00.000-05:00

Since I'm too computer illiterate to handle it, I won't be bothering to add the hosting and such to enlarge pictures. Viewers will have to deal with smaller pictures. You'll get over it. Here's a few screenshots to help.

Killing Ettercaps for part of the Unicorn Questline. Pretty cool mob shot here.

Another cool looking scene from an island just off the shore of southern Thestra.

Ana casting a healing spell on himself. Once again showcasing some cool graphics and creative animations.

Testing New Screenshot Hosting - Enlarge

2007-08-04T19:46:00.000-05:00

I purchased a Kojani sloop to complete the extremely annoying Unicorn mount quest. The name Validus is after the guild I briefly put together on Thunderaxe before joining PD on Targonor. Here she is docking at Khal under a starry sky.

Enlarge Here

The only pair of Flare Totem Leggings on Targonor at the moment belong to me. Pretty cool graphic on these puppies too. I was also the server first to complete the stage one swamp leggings quest prior to the Flare Totem assembly.

Enlarge Here

I'm Not Livin', I'm Just Killin' Time.

2007-07-30T18:52:00.000-05:00

So we've made it to the end of July without seeing either the promised server merges or highly regarded Update #2. To help counter impending boredom, I've created an alt- a dwarf warrior named Stubbz McGee - along with an alt guild to house him and other PD alts called "Waiting for Content". I've had some fun with some of the players around targonor while playing as Stubbz and he's received some pretty funny comments from people who can appreciate where the name comes from. Here are a few shots of lil Stubbzy in action:This is one of those scenes that really shows off the beauty of Vanguard. In this shot, I think I'm playing on HQ settings, which is still only the second best graphical setting you can play on. Donedor is Zakoriz' gimp monk for those who were wondering.
The Dwarf racial ability turns me into stone, adding a damage rune and negating stun and knockbacks. Even my mount gets in on the action if I'm riding him. Its a glimpse into the life of the rock dude from Fantastic Four I suppose.

I started skinning on Ana in an attempt to pick up a supple hide to complete some more gorg faction armor. Everyone loves a good MMO dragon so enjoy these shots of Ana and Dante hunting in Pankor Zhi.

Another of the Iceborn dragon getting duo'd. Kinda lame how easy this content is for a ranger, but its still pretty cool nonetheless.

Finally, the contested Hegnarian spawn has been monopolized by necro fear. This has become a glaring issue in the game's development serverwide and really reflects upon the fact that the game was rushed to market. Any developer who even touched EQ1 would know how retarded making group/raid content fearable is and it has become obvious these guys were not EQ1 veteran developers. Many players are crying about this new necro "exploit", however, to any veteran player, it is apparent that this weakness is perfectly legal and is simply a flaw in game design. Hopefully it will be addressed in the next update.

I don't usually do this, but I'm going to take the time here to give a little shout out to Dagada of Despair, who valliantly attempted to fear Heg (after our rightful ownership was established) and pull him to the upper tier in order for his guild to reset ownership and steal the kill. Not only is this a ridiculously easy spawn with drops that are far from being worth the reputation hit from such action, but he was unsuccessful in his attempt despite our only healer going LD. I managed to kite Heg and kill him pretty much myself while the rest of our group hung back and waited for our healer to return. Once again Despair shows their true colors and fails at being the "bad boy" guild it seems to want to be. Fucking Amateurs.

The result was a server first drop of Heg's plate BP. Socratic is pimped out and didn't want another bag ornament, so congrats to my ranger on a BP that will surely rot in my bank for years to come.

And devs-- get this shit fixed asap eh?

Diplomacy, Serradon, APW and PD Recruitment

2007-07-19T20:13:00.000-05:00

Diplomacy, believe it or not, is actually pretty fun. Since Socratic started getting serious about it, I figured I'd give it a shot too. Diplomacy is expected to play a role in raiding, so it will help to have a few high level diplomats in guild. I'm currently an Envoy with 143 diplomacy skill and I plan on continuing up to 500 in my spare time. This is just some of the diplo shit that I've collected in my travels. As you can see, bags fill up pretty fast.

Group buffs are always nice. I picked up the group version of our Stalker's grace line in rahz the other night. Can't stress how nice it is to not have to cast that spell individually anymore.

Pegusus' are pretty badass. Hopefully when permanent flying mounts go live, this is an option because I find these to be cooler looking mounts than both the Griffon and the Wyvern variety.
Dante admits having a fetish for "older women". If you took the time to get to know Dante, you probably wouldn't be all that surprised.
This is gold. Socratic finally admits that he is in fact a woman. While many of us may have speculated, none of us had expected to hear it from the man *herself*. Enjoy :D

And that's really all for now. Merges soon. Raid content soonish. We all know the story by now. We do know that raids will be 12 man affairs for the initial APW content, and that Targonor will be joining Florendyl, Flamehammer and Shidreth as the new "Serradon" server.

With knowledge of this new criteria for end game in Vanguard, PD is still recruiting, though on a much more limited basis. Roster openings are outlined by class on our homepage at www.pdguild.org. Get those apps in if you think you can handle the heat. We also have super secret plans in the works that may surprise some people and make a loud splash amongst the Serradon population when merges hit.

Until then, good luck to applicants and looking forward to the competition that awaits us on Serradon.

Ranka out.

My Promotion and What it Means for PD Recruitment

2007-06-26T11:13:00.000-05:00

With server merges and raid content just on the horizon, PD has been working diligently on equipping our members and adding some talent to make our team the best out there. Currently, we are seeking a limited number of hardcore, veteran players preferably with EQ1 raid experience. Recruitment is open to all classes at the moment, however that will change as the merge happens. If you have what it takes to be the best at what you do, fill out an app today or contact a PD officer (Anaeran, Tildin, Lenwen, Socratic, Fehm, Ebumar) in game.

6/24/07 - I was promoted to Officer rank in Pravus Dei. I am the new PD recruitment officer and am currently revamping our entire recruitment process, so as to ensure only the best of the best players make it into our ranks. Yup, its gonna get harder folks. Suck it up and apply anyways, its worth it. I am also working with the other officers on general guild management so as to increase our efficiency.

Note: If you're planning on applying to PD, I accept RL dollars and/or sexual favors as bribes in return for a good word on your app. Attractive women only please.

Here's my Flawless Axe, crafted by one of PD's weaponsmiths, Shadowatcher. I finally got my hands on a striking weapon and degimpified myself a bit.

Exploring the Fungus Dungeon in Rumug Swamp seeking Socratic's leg assembly items. Socratic became the first person worldwide to obtain his heroic swamp legs. That's how PD rolls folks.

This guy was just cool looking. He's always up, but we changed that in a hurry.

Pharoah farming. This guy drops one of the better heroic medium belts in the entire game at the moment. He ended up dropping his rare bow for us instead, which ended up being guildbank fodder. Maybe next time.

Almost There

2007-06-04T15:27:00.000-05:00

PD is getting serious folks. We may not have much content to work with, but we are focussed on making our toons as good as they possibly can be so we are able to dominate once raid content goes live.

Server merges are on the horizon as well so we are gearing up to remain the top dog on Targonor regardless of who comes to play in our pen. Recruitment is closed for most jobs but if you're an exceptional healer or psionicist (or another class who happens to be insanely good at what you do), head on over to the Pravus Dei link listed to the right there and fill out one o' them thar applications. Maybe you'll get in.

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Now to talk about me:

Ranger "circle" kiting techniques allow me to kill 15+ mobs at once within 2 minutes of a pull. Each of these gives about 11,000 exp for some pretty sexy leveling.

The scene after a "circle" kiting pull. Lots of dead mobs. Even more exp for me.

Power suit in Xennumet. /flex

Exping/Exploring in the Xennumet dungeon. Mobs here are giant and line of sight on them is all kinds of fucked up. This needs to be addressed asap, as my dps was nearly halved because half the time I wasn't able to see the mob I was attacking. Get on it devs...

Once again an amazing graphical scene. Keep in mind I don't even play on a top-of-the-line machine. This game has so much potential and once certain issues (such as LoS probs outlined above) this game will really be among the top MMOs out there.

This is a group shot of us killing Optimus Prime's nepphew (not really related). I later soloed this guy (yes 5 dot) without taking a single point of damage. I be a leet ranka.

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Finally, here's a bunch of screenshots of what I've accomplished lately. After finishing up Graystone (which yielded the bow and cloak screenshotted below) I've been spending my time mostly in Tehatami Harbor/Temple exping and working on lucent faction at the same time. I am currently level 48, and I managed to complete my Lucent jewlery set with the help of a few guildies. Thanks to Socratic, Lenwen, Necrom, Mirkheim, Shadowatcher, Plat, and Tsarsha and congrats to all on a Pravus Dei server first kill of Xarmanx the Decimator.

Adios panther mask.

Wearing 2 of these now.
I'm wearing 2 of these too.
This is the cloak that dropped from the final Graystone battle. I got a Lucent cloak too that will be used as a secondary item for certain situations.

Gloves of Hatred were obtained separately with the help of Dracogirl, Tsarsha and Dante. Clicky effect is a skeleton form that makes me look pretty evil.

All that time in Graystone finally culminated in this- Congrats to Ebumar, Dante, Mediocre and Shadowatcher on our new heroic weapons.

For All of you who seem to be confused...

2007-05-26T02:28:00.000-05:00

I am NOT a banana nor am I related in any way to such things as a fruit. Thanks!

-Ana

Ding 43...

2007-05-25T13:54:00.000-05:00

The ranka owns a house! Yup I bought a plot next to the guild hall (Ebumar's house), Crellin, and Kayleem's houses so we're all in the Falthesi Steppe area. This strategic location is a great point for mobilizing the guild for raids. There be dragons in these parts...My new alt Pscionicist, Kastin Spellz, makes an appearance. The goblin starting scenario is probably the coolest of all the races. You're thrust into the midst of a war between Gulgrethor and Murtok soldiers and some of the first quests require you to navigate a battle field (depicted above) to save some prisoners from the slave ships of the enemy. Pretty effing cool way to start an MMO.Graytone is one of the coolest dungeons to date. Currently, I'm working on this time-consuming questline which ultimately results in a very nice sword reward. This is one of the named in the deeper parts of the dungeon. Lots of Hp, total puss. Ladies and Gentlemen, the coolest aspect of Vanguard:Saga of Heroes. Yup I'm flying. Griffon mounts have been added via temporary 5 minute rentals during a testing phase. This is me flying over Graystone. Pretty cool.
Another shot of me flying.

This is for Rellix. This is part of the Rellix mud wrestling conversation from guildchat.

Notice Fehm is 100% confident she can take you Rell.

Enjoyable Content? Wtf?!

2007-05-19T18:21:00.000-05:00

So during my time off I began pushing hard for adventuring levels. Having hit 38 prior to the vacation starting, I moved from Jathred's Twist over to the Xenn coast area of Dragon's Backbone. I hit 40 doing this series of quests. Here are some action shots from the Mekalia pauldrons questline there:

Just call me the exterminator.These are the mob types of the area. Its pretty cool how they have an aquatic city going on under the waters just off the shoreline. Lots of diving involved in this particular questline. That was annoying but it was nice to see the more creative sides of VG development.

Ebumar and I prepping for the next stage of the Mekalian pauldrons quest. He may have the size advantage but don't be fooled--I can take him.

One of the action scenes in the Mekalian line. These beacons of light, upon activation, can be seen from the distance so everyone knew I was doing this quest. Some of the more involved quests are far more interesting than your typical "grindfest" quest. Props to the devs, this one was pretty cool.

Having completed a long series of quests I finally obtained my heroic Mekalian Researcher's Pauldrons. Special thanks goes out to the lovely Paladin-ess, Kayleem, for helping Ebu and I find the beacons for the final quest deep within the fortresses of the Xenn. This is the scene when I finished. The graphical beauty of this game still amazes me despite some glaring content/gameplay issues that still need to be addressed.

PD is getting a ton of apps lately too, which gives us the chance to handpick us some of the best talent/personalities out there. Apparently people are recognizing that we are the best on Targ and it seems everyone wants to try to break into our ranks while recruitment is still open. Just want to wish all our talented apps the best of luck through the process. Hope to see some of you guys make the cut so you can enjoy raiding content with us whenever SoE gets it into the game.

Ranka Out.

Two Finals to go...

2007-05-14T14:45:00.000-05:00

Two more finals till I am responsibility free for 2 weeks. I've written over 100 pages worth of papers in the last month alone, and I can't even fathom how much work I've done since the start of the semester back in January. I'm looking forward to the break.

I plan to level up to 50 during this time and begin crafting carpentry for PD. Though I'll be taking classes this summer, my scheduling is set up so that I can play effective hours. I'm looking forward to seeing some more content in VG in the months to come. Hopefully SoE/Sigil will give us something challenging this summer to rekindle the interest some people seem to have lost already.

VG Screenies Thus Far

2007-05-08T18:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a few action shots of the Ranka's adventures in VG so far. Enjoy:

Pantheon of the Ancients with 'Validus', the guild I led briefly on Thunderaxe. This is one of the few interesting encounters in the Pantheon questline.

Another pretty cool encounter in the pantheon. This guy dropped a heroic mask for Dunant's psionicist during the Validus days.

Pravus Dei group wrecking tier 4 arena. Thanks to Kayleem, Dracogirl and Panoramix for some fun times slaughtering mobs for coins in the Seawatch Coast region.

Some phat lewtz PD's been getting from Rahz. Heroics + Legendaries...You know how we do :D

Now We're Talkin'

2007-05-08T11:36:00.001-05:00

So this is my first real post as a Vanguard: Saga of Heroes player. Kind of mixed feelings writing here again.

I want to start off by saying that I will *always* look back fondly on the days I spent with both CK1, and CK2 in our prime when we were the close knit team that dominated content when nobody believed we could. I am proud of what both my FFXI teams have become and where they are headed in Final Fantasy today. Many of the players who were a part of those teams have grown so much both in gaming talent and in character as a result of the time they spent with CK. That's enough to make any leader proud.

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When I first started playing Vanguard, I had only a small handful of FF friends come with me. I had hoped there'd be more interest, however it was clear that people still felt attached to the FF world. After creating the guild Validus on the thunderaxe server, I started to lay the groundwork for the next big raiding guild. As I leveled up with the members we had, it became painfully obvious that Vanguard was an incomplete game. Players were leaving the game left and right as a result of broken/unfinished content and lack of funding to fix the game up. Recruiting for Validus became impossible, and even finding a group at the time was pure luck.

Around the end of March, I was bored one day and began browsing VGPlayers to see if I knew anyone from FF who was playing VG that I wasn't aware of. After finding nobody I recognized from FFXI, I decided to search some of the old EQ guilds I used to know, thinking chances were most of them were playing EQ2 or out in the real world having quit MMO altogether. To my astonishment, I found several guild names that I recognized from Veeshan.

One stood out to me more than the others...

Excited that some people may still play, I visited their website, www.pdguild.org, and was shocked to see so many familiar names still playing MMO in Vanguard. I knew instantly that I wanted to play with these guys. Pravus Dei was a guild on Veeshan server, probably in the top 4 on the server (amongst some seriously elite groups) and had so many quality players I couldn't possibly name them all. That same day I posted a hello, to see if anyone there remembered me. Several players replied and I knew then that I would start my character over from scratch to make this team...

...and so I have. I'm currently level 37. At level 30 I was tagged Pravus Dei, and 5 days later I was promoted from trial to member, and then again to Group Lead, which is a rank below officer. I'm so proud to hold any kind of rank in a guild of this calibur, and have promised to dedicate myself to making this team stronger. Ebumar, an old Everquest friend, recently took over leadership of the VG version of PD since Trias and Rellix no longer play. The guild is hyped for some raid content to be added and I've been doing everything I can (as a lowbie in the guild still) to help the team prepare for the real content to be added. I have no doubts that this team will dominate Vanguard and become one of the top- if not THE top- guild in the game.

I'm finally feeling that excitement for the content that I had been lacking in FFXI for a long time. I'm psyched about where VG is headed and I am looking forward to playing a ranger for Pravus Dei for years to come.

Retired from FFXI

2007-02-09T12:43:00.000-05:00

I have retired from FFXI for a number of reasons, the most prominant being lack of enjoyment of the actual content itself in end game. Several drama issues contributed to my decision to leave FF completely, however I think those involved have pushed their "side" of the story on enough people that I'm already the bad guy no matter what the truth of things are in this situation. I won't get into the details since few people are willing to take my word over Zylia's.

To CK- I loved you guys. You were the only reason I played and I would have given anything to see you all succeed. Many of you don't realize the extent to which I sacrificed irl for this team, and unfortunately that's probably how it will stay. Recent circumstances/people drove me away from the game sooner than I had expected, and unfortunately those involved have changed many opinions of me as a result of how things appeared to those who could not see what was going on behind closed doors. I accept the fact that I failed CK, however, and wish the new team nothing but the best. I know Moriarti and Pauge to be good players with the ability to step up and lead a team as it should be, and hopefully they can guide the new team back to where they were and beyond.

To non CK people I left without saying goodbye to- I'll miss you all. I had logged in to say goodbye to the team I loved as well as some close personal friends but was chased off the game by another one of Zylia's dramatic tirades and therefore did not get the opportunity to wish some people well. My AIM is Atrott02 for anyone who wants to stay in touch.

For those interested, I am playing Vanguard: Saga of Heroes now. I have started a guild on the Thunderaxe server under the name "Validus". This is a different kind of game, and as such, rules and regulations for this guild are geared towards the "hardcore" kind of players. The atmosphere here eliminates people like Zylia who thrive off the drama they create and thus Vanguard is a more entertaining place to play. In a game like Vanguard, I am able to implement leadership tactics I was unable to use in FFXI due to the content design and lack of "hardcore" dedication as a result of casual gaming. I am excited about the opportunity Vanguard provides for me to once again enjoy MMO gaming at the level I missed playing at with FFXI.

If anyone has any interest in vanguard and in particular Validus guild, visit www.validusguild.info to apply and/or ask any questions you may have. "Soft" players who can't take strict instruction or meet required raid hours need not apply, as outlined in our charter.

Farewell FFXI. This blog (if I continue to use it at all) will be geared towards Vanguard progression from here on out. Sorry things ended on such a sour note and best of luck to everyone I still care about over there in Vana'diel.

- The Ranka, Former Leader of the Greatest Linkshell there ever was

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaack

2006-12-22T13:39:00.001-05:00

The ranka is back in action for another winter break of no-life FFXI. See ya in game folks.

Playtime = X

2006-11-20T13:14:00.000-05:00

Lately, the reality of real life has been kicking in and I have found myself with little to no playtime. Christmas break is about 3 weeks away, but nearly 30 pages of exams and term papers stand between me and a winter's worth of FFXI and money-makin'. Its frustrating not being able to be online all the time like I used to be, but winter will be a different story.

CK had been running apollyon again and downed omega for some decent drops. Congrats to Eulore (Homam pants) and Zylia (Homam booties). No recent claims to talk about on the HNM front (lots of controversy in kings camps lately), but we're still at it and hopefully we get one soon.

Other than that its just our same routine until winter break hits. Our college students are cramming and trying to finish the semester strong, so we should be trying some new exciting stuff once we're all free from RL's grasp for awhile. Ranka out-

Rollin' Right Along

2006-11-14T12:12:00.000-05:00

New Try Outs:
Eiteen
Deathsreturn

Try Outs Passed:
Tomasello
Uliwela

The Action-

Thursday, CK fought kirin melee burn style. This was our second attempt with this strategy and it all came together for us in a big way. Once his minis were down, Kirin himself died in 5 minutes of damage from our melee team. Not too shabby for a group with no Ridill warriors. Drops were shining cloth and ingots, which will be put towards gil split this month.

Our limbus division hit up Omega this week as well and struck gold on drops. Congrats to Moriarti (Homam Body), Daodao (Homam Feet), and Eulore (Homam Feet). One more trip through Apollyon and we're back to Temenos for a rematch with Ultima.

Fafnir had himself quite a week, proving to be a royal pain for several claiming shells, even flailing once before the Element group managed to take him out. Despite his nastiness, CK claimed him once again and managed to bring him down cleanly in ~40 minutes. Someone counted around 14 wings, 3 of which happened in a row at one point, but that didn't stop us. This was claim #3 since CK underwent some serious changes a few months back and we have yet to lose to Fafnir or Nidhogg...knock on wood.

Drops were Aegishhelmetofenmityness (Eulore), Andvaraglovesofgilness (Zylia), E.Hands (Nomar) and a dragon talon for gil split. No CK Ridills yet...

Winter break is just around the corner now too. Once our college crew is home for break, we'll be attempting some bigger, more challenging fights. If you feel like you have what it takes to succeed with an end game group, in an atmosphere unlike any other, apply today @ www.celestialknights.info. Ranka out.

More CK Action

2006-10-28T19:53:00.000-05:00

New Try Outs:

Tomasello

Uliwela

New Full CK:
GodofDeath

Truegrave

Mobs Dead to CK since last update:

Fafnir - Ssouljah (E.Hands), Dragon Talon (Gil Split)

Behemoth - Behemoth Hide x2 (Gil Split)

HQ2 Ix'Monk - Aeron (Merciful Cape)

Jailer of Faith - Wyle (Claws)

Jailer of Hope - Nothing><

Jailer of Hope - Naotakun (Staff) Fifth Virtue

Bahamut V.1

Picture of the Jailer of Hope spawn. These were our first two tier 2 jailer spawns and they proved to be far easier than expected.

We also paid a visit to our old buddy Jormungand. She wasn't thrilled to see 31 CK forming up to beat her down. The fight went extremely well, though slow, we managed to take her with relatively few issues for most of the fight. Our tank communication has improved so much as of late and mage work was seamless all the way through. Adds control was probably the best its ever been for us, and all around everyone played a great game. Unfortunately at around the 11% mark, one of our members mistakingly called for help on Jorm. It was a sad way to end the night, but we have no doubts we had the fight won had we been able to continue. We'll be back to make it official in the near future.

Here's a couple shots of the action, enjoy:

That's all for now. Ranka out-

Busy Busy

2006-10-16T12:12:00.000-05:00

Well once again I forgot to update this thing (thanks Jedi for the reminder :P) so here we go-

Recent CK Events:

We've been farming in sea and pushing a few more members through the last few battles for sea access in preparation for tier 2 jailers and beyond. We've got a solid sea team ready and its only a matter of time before we're spawning the next level of monsters there.

Our limbus division stepped into the arena with Ultima for the first time and despite having the wrong job spread (as we found out not long after engaging) we did quite well. Adjustments have been made and next time we will have a better go at this guy.

CK also had a couple of HNM claims this week (Behemoth, LoO). We seem to be getting the hang of competing for claims in rare spawn situations. We're still learning, but as we gain experience, we're improving our ability to win some of these claims.

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Oh and by the way, we don't cheat. We'd appreciate it if those who continue to suggest that we do (only a few bad apples amongst a group we have great respect for) to accept the fact that you don't win every claim. Our guys have worked hard, legitimately, at improving our HNM game and to insist otherwise only reflects poorly upon your own team. A shell that is graceful in defeat is even more honorable in its triumph.

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We attempted our first ever Kirin with melee burn style tactics on Thursday (goal being to hold him with constant dps long enough to burn him out before he can even summon). We did alright but had to revert back to traditional kiting methods when he managed to summon his minis. CK finished him off though and finally got our second ever pair of crimson legs (in who knows how many kills between drops) Congrats to Nogard on his new speedyness.

PinCKs Dynamis has been struggling with attendance, especially in my absense from the dynamis scene as a result of increased workloads irl. The decision has been made to put it on hold until playtimes allow for us to jump back in and run it again. Members will likely disperse to other shells in the meantime, so the future of our dynamis operation is uncertain. It was, however, a great run and I'd like to thank all those who remained loyal to our group and participated in our success over the last 2 years.

We have some big plans for the next two weeks, so expect some major updates in the days to come.

A Tribute to Old Friends

2006-10-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

Well with the deletion of the old CK website and birth of a new one, I figured I'd post the few pics I managed to save from my origional crew in CK1 before we wipe the slate clean for the new generation. Enjoy.

Sosuke playing with monkeys.

Amiboshi's DRG had Twins.

Lagantis' famous Notorious Monster.

Talindra was always one of our more friendly members :P

CK Officers, back in the day.

Some of the first NM hunting ever by NA's on Quetz. Almaut gets his Dainslaff.

Cobi, my best bud on Quetz until he quit and migrated to Fenrir server while I was temporarily out of action.

2006-09-26T09:30:00.000-05:00

Well, as expected, I completely forgot about this thing until now. Time for a brief update-

CK is in the process of recruiting select jobs to round out our roster for the next big content push. We've been fortunate enough to have some quality players apply recently and we'd like thank all those who have put in applications.

Kill wise its been pretty quiet the last couple weeks. We passed our Kirin week to Rawr due to somehow mixing up our alternating schedule, so we popped a buncha sky minis instead. They yielded some more of that basic sky gear we're using to equip mostly secondary end game jobs at this point.

Dynamis has been steady thanks to Typhus holding down the fort while I'm focussing on my college work.

Rsouljah's limbus group will be spawning Ultima this coming week as well, so that should be fun.

We also tried our hand at Hydra for the first time (Unfortunately I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out how to format my screenies for this yet) and though he spanked us twice, we managed to bring him to 9% and 5% respectively before going down. We'll be back to finish the job soon now that we know how the fight works.

Aeron and Rsouljah [CK Officers] brought CK into Sea Monday night for some Ix Drk + Jailer of Faith action as well. Tier 2 is just around the corner for us now.

Minor news:
CK Website- We're in the process of transferring our website to a new database (I think that's what we're doing anyways) so we may soon have a new URL to our page. I'd like to thank Tsavi (Origionally Oferi) for several years of maintainence on our website, we really appreciate the work she's done for us. /salute

My Purple Chocobo recently mated with Nomar's black chocobo so we're hoping for some special babies. Egg hasn't hatched yet so we're not sure what to expect.

Also dinged PLD to 35, somehow finding time to level it between massive loads of work. Auto refresh is fun.

Other than that, keep those applications incoming as we look to finalize our end game roster for that next content leap.

Ranka out.

Starting one of these blog things...

2006-09-11T08:08:00.000-05:00

So after reading about a few Quetzalcoatlian's (close enough) blog adventures I finally decided to create my own. I'm not 100% sure how this works yet, so this may not even be posted. I'll be playing around with this trying to learn the basics enough to keep people informed about the ranka and his CK crew.

A little about me:

I'm Anaeran, "the Ranka", and Leader of the CelestialKnights end game linkshell. I've been playing FFXI since Novemberish 2003, and have a little over 8 years of MMO leadership experience. I came over to FF with FiresofHeaven guild friends from Everquest 1, and created the shell I've come to love so dearly in CK.

After a year's break between CK1 and CK2 (wasted on a relationship gone sour) I'm back doing my thing, once again trying to bring a new group to the top. It has been a difficult road. Recruiting the right mix of talent, personality and dedication has proven to be much harder the second time around, however I feel as though we now have a team capable of succeeding on the ultimate end game level as we continue to push through new, challenging content here on Quetz.

CK in review this week:

SKY:

Kirin died twice Thursday night. Congrats to Genjuro on his N.Body and gil split on a shining cloth, as well as some other things.

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SEA:

Jailer of Faith proved to be a nasty little critter but CK prevailed once again. Congrats go out to Rigelus on his Faith Claws as well as the entire CK linkshell on our 5th/6 tier 2 spawn set. We'll be setting sights on Hope and company in the next couple weeks. Way to go guys^^

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LAND:

Also, after a few months of drastic changes to improve the quality and competitiveness of CK play, it finally came together for us in a big way when we claimed Nidhogg this week. This was our first ever attempt at either Fafnir or his older HQ Brother and we brought this baddy to his knees^^

Apparently the majority of the server thinks we're botters and/or extremely lucky noobs despite the fact that CK has and always will be a legit, respectable shell- but that didn't stop us from feeling the satisfaction of declaring CK's rise to the real end game scene in a big way.

BIG Congrats to Enz (M.Body) and Naotakun (A.Body) on the first ever Land King abjurations in CK. Rigelus also got his wyrm beard, leaving him 2/3 of the way to his black belt. Behemoth time real soon to finish that up.

We also ran Dynamis -Beaucedine this week with PinCKs to farm and generally work on learning attestation routes. Naotakun, who is currently holding a stage 3, almost 4, relic horn, got this little diddy to help him along:

Props to Typhus (my PinCKs dynamis co-leader and CK officer) on his incredible execution in reaching the trigger as the rest of the team worked on spawning it. We cut it a bit close timewise, but managed to pull the Test mob after salvaging a botched pull prior to moving camps. Awesome job PinCKies.

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That's all for now. I'll try to continue to update this thing as CK continues to improve every day. I'll probably forget though, so try to remind me. Ranka out-