How are you doing? 

I am still alive, thank you for asking

Do You still play?

Yes I do, but very rarely…

When can we expect an update on your weblog ?

VERY SOON ! 

Part II of our WotG journey will contain a guided tour through the streets of
Southern San d'Oria (S). It's the only zone of the red city which you can access in the past. 

This is where we start our tour – The Moogle Residence – The furniture inside looks really fancy, but there is not much more added value. In fact, you can't even use your storage from the present. Makes sense though

Now let's continue our walk from outside our Moogle house and try to make our way 
to the center of Southern San d'Oria (S).

The decor seems a little more detailed. Some banners and different NPCs were added.
All SHOPS are closed in the past ! So there is not really much you can do in these streets, but to listen to the fresh Sandy music and complete the two quests that are already implemented.

A nice top view on Southern San d'Oria (S) Plaza

This is where you would normally find the chocobo stables. In the past there are just a few npc soldiers who are staring at some chocobos. You can't rent these chocobos (perhaps in one of the next updates?). 

Center of South San d'oria with a closed gate in the distance which should lead
us to Northern San d'Oria (S), but is currently inaccessible.

The Auction house with a local pig. Of course the auction house isn't working in the past, but here it functions as a place where you can sign up for all sorts of mini-missions, most comparable to the assault missions in ToAU. The NPC at the tree (you can hardly see him) is the person who teleports you to the battlezones where beastmen are attacking the outposts (like Jugner, E-Ronfaure,…) and you're able to team up with the allied forces to hold them off. The fights are a mélange of Garrison and Besieged and will give you a decent chunk of EXP at the end of each battle (excellent to solo or while waiting for LFG). The more you show your face on the battlegrounds, the higher you will climb up in rank and status on the warladder as well.
A higher valued medal means for example more EXP as reward.

But more details on the actual Campaign struggle in a later update… 

Back to our tour, this is the exit to East Ronfaure (S). Certain zones like La Theine and
West Ronfaure just don't seem to exist in the past…
Curious how this will work out in the future

This is how East Ronfaure looks like as soon as you exit Southern San d'Oria (S)

And this is how the exterior of Southern San d'Oria looks like by night.

As I experience it, there is just not much content yet in the new expansion. Besides the addition of Campaign and the brushing up of certain zones in the past, it's obvious that SE still has a lot of work to do contentwise. Then again, the content of FFXI expansions were always far from complete when they got launched. It will take at least a year of SE version updates, before we can truly review what Wings of the Goddess really has to offer. 

Long overdue, but I finally finished Apocalypse Nigh, some people say it's just a quest, but I am pretty sure it's intended as a MISSION. Not only do the cutscenes before and after the fight give closure to the entire Zilart and COP saga, but also do both titles in the Mission Log change to The Last Verse…

Just displaying some pictures without any comments…

Since we're on the subject of spoilers anyway

1. Only your party (no Prische) fight Archduke Kam'Lanaut and his brother Eald'narche.
2. As the Promathia fight, it's a very fun, but easy fight.
3. Did Lion now die for real… or not?
4. After the ending of major story line, you can choose yourself a fancy new jewel.
5. Having both the RDM and BLM job I chose for:

I am sorry that I haven't posted in a while, but lately I am having a real off moment in real life and FFXI isn't really helping me in any way to make me feel any better. /surpise /surprise

On top of that I unwillingly managed to upset someone in game who actually really means a lot to me.

You have undoubtedly heard/had a discussion before in your linkshell or with other BLMs about the fact whether Morrigan's Robe or Genie would be better to nuke with as BLM. The most standard answer that you'll get is that it's situational. You'll use the more stable Genie Weskit when you need lots of elemental skill (f.e. HNM), while you'd want to equip Morrigan's Robe when you're shooting for the 125+ INT set and the elemental skill isn't needed.

Basically you'll trade in 2 M.Att. of the genie for +8 INT on the Morrigan, while you give up the conserve mp on weskit and get refresh in return. People however keep trying to convince me of how SUPERIOR Morrigan's Robe is compared to Genie Weskit on non resistant mobs.

I personally took the test how much difference in damage they both would give on
Mount Zhayolm Ebony Puddings 

**Using the BLM Calculator of AceofSpades with the right INT and MAB correlation formula,
following variables were used**:

• MAB from Traits

• 1.32 (BLM70)

• 0.10 (5 merits)

• 1.250 (Pudding)

• None

• 112 (My INT is 112 with Nuking gear/food)

• 91 (Normal INT of pudding)

• .37 without genie or morrigan (so +7 or +5)
• sorc. ring 10 ugg. pendant 8 novio 7 moldavite 5 zenith hands 5 yigit feet 2

 Data Table

***Calculated Values are unresisted damage without any bonus such as weather and day.

Conclusion:

Perhaps Morrigan's Robe is indeed a great piece of armor for any RDM out there who wants the refresh and doesn't have a Dalmatica or any RDM to prove himself to be a somewhat of a nuker without having to level up BLM.

For BLM however, the 20-25 added damage is not going to do it for me…
Here are my main arguments why I am sticking with my Genie Weskit:

• The three Salvage pieces are really hard to get (especially the macha part). Even if you're Salvaging 3-4 times a week, it can still take months before you gathered together the necessary pieces.
• With the current Khroma Ore prices on Shiva, aMorrigan's Robe is almost three times more expensive than a Genie Weskit.
• I personally

• prefer the more stable +6 elemental skill over the +5 M.acc
• think that the refresh on Morrigan is not much better than the Genie's Conserve MP trait. that one mp tick/second isn't going to rock your boat if you're constantly nuking 200mp+ spells. For resting you'll still be obliged to use Yigit.

Last but definitely not least, I just think Morrigan is plain ugly. I told people before that when nuking in Weskit I really feel like an evil macabre tattooed Black Mage, while the Morrigan's Robe is merely a sweater I would wear at home when I am sitting near the fire place. Nothing BLMish about Morrigan's and we since we all agree on looks > Stats, the extra peanuts damage of Morrigan isn't going to touch that principle one bit