Ballista never dies

In November of last year, I was chatting with some old Japanese ballista crew members on twitter, and someone mentioned getting some games going again (let's be real, it was probably me).  They said Quetz server already had some players there and they were maintaining a small ballista LS.

Fast forward to January, and we're running a huge linkshell that plays hako every day.  Some days, there are too many players.  Ballista never dies.





Some things have changed though.  At some point after I stopped playing, SE decided it would be a good idea to make changes to some weaponskills.  And these aren't some small adjustments.  They're completely game-changing for ballista.

First, the most ridiculous.. hey, do you remember that axe weaponskill "Calamity"?  No, of course you don't.  Because it was terrible, and nobody ever used it.  Well, say hello to the new king of damage.  Yeah, it's better than Sidewinder.  Yeah, it's.. well, it's more consistent than Jinpu, anyway.  A base 100TP Calamity is going to be at minimum 450 damage, up to something like 600.  You saved up 200TP? 800, easy.  300TP? 1000+ damage, not exaggerating.  I have dealt over 1500 personally (<300TP, +MightyStrikes), and I've taken a 2200 Calamity to the face (I have to assume 300TP, +MightyStrikes)!!!  Seriously.  Calamity, guys.

Vorpal Blade, the cool looking Paladin staple, now deals what must be at least double damage compared to before this change.  In our regular hako games, Dark Knights sub ninja, and play the super weenie style of sword/Mercurial Kris.  I've seen ~800 damage from DRKs with this setup (no souleater) and plenty of 650~ damage Vorpals from PLDs.  It's interesting seeing Paladins be a bit of a threat.

Howling Fist does a bit more damage from what I've seen.  Raging Fists, Blade: Jin, Dancing Edge, and Rampage have all benefitted from the update as well.  I think it was a 1-handed weaponskills buff patch, or something along those lines.  The hako staples like Penta Thrust, Guillotine, and Raging Rush have become overshadowed by these other weaponskills.  Penta, of course, stays alive by virtue of Dragoon not having any other choice.  Skewer is still bad.

Elemental weaponskills deal much more damage, but are only truly useful above 200TP, and especially intense at 300TP.  For example, a Raiden Thrust at 300TP deals around 750 damage.  And that passes through physical shields!

And hey, remember the janky Dark Knight build?  With the addition of some lv99 synced equipment, it hits even harder than before.  Leban runs this build while dual wielding swords that have MAB+10 and INT+5, and he drops 350~ tier2 nukes.  It's awesome, and broken, and we try to avoid having him on DRK (mostly because nobody else has that equipment - I'm trying to get it myself).




These things aside, it's still really fun.  The group is very relaxed and doesn't mind me taking over job assignment (well, more like they're all too shy/lazy.. ).  Leban usually runs the show though, and he's very good at it.  When he's not around, it defaults to me.  I haven't been taking records down this time, maybe I'll start doing that soon.

For those from the NA LS around 2010, remember our small hako games where we included some Japanese players? Remember Fuuring?  Well, he's a beast.  Easily one of the best players in the group.  Just like Teska, we saw them at their learning phase and then, oh - shit - beastmode enabled.  I love it.


New videos will be coming soon.




PS; if you image search "ffxi ballista" on google, my face is on like, the 4th row. LOLLLL
Guess I shouldn't have my real pic on my youtube account?  Hahaha