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

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

-Ana

Ding 43...

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?!

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...

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

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'

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

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