Pandemonium Warden: The Fight, Strategy, and Experience

[rukenshin]

I have a feeling I'm going to hit the LJ limit on post length for this, but there is literally so much to be said and so many details I don't think I can really make it shorter. *OK, I really did run out of space. This will be two updates!

This entire post is going to be about every detail I can come up with in regards to the recent PW attempt by

Comments

[anonymous]

Holy shit. I just read that and the topic on BG, and it's really just insane. That's not something you put in an MMORPG.
Makes me glad that, even though I play a lot of J-RPGs and FFs, I never picked up FF11 and started SWG instead a while ago. (I know that most people never get that far, but I'm the kind of guy who just hates not being able - even though mostly just in theory - to accomplish everything a game has to offer)

My respect to all of your LS to stand up to that as long as you did, even though it's not something you should be put through.

[rukenshin]

Well in defense of FFXI, this one fight of course doesn't represent your entire experience with this game. There are a lot of time sinks, and probably more time sinks than most other games, but IMO the reward system is unparalleled. It takes a lot of work to get really good items, but once you have it you're all set for a long time.

Some people like that system, some people don't. Often a lot of players complain about it as it lacks a progression aspect, and gear is almost never replaced with better gear. But at the end of the day I'd take that system over something more like WoW where all the gear from previous updates is made obsolete with each update, forcing you to work for it all over again.

[anonymous]

I know I cannot judge the game by that and the AV fight. My brother plays FFXI, so I also get some more normal insights into the game. But just the fact that there are a lot of time sinks, more so than the norm for MMORPGs, makes it somewhat unattractive to me. I do have to put a lot of time into my studies, so there's not too much left for games that consume so much time to achieve something

[rukenshin]

SWG? Which game is that?

And yeah FFXI often faces the same problems with balancing and how long it takes for things to be fixed. They've been getting better with it and despite the complaints, I still enjoy the game as a whole (as do many others of course). But we're all always crossing our fingers over hoping they get better with it, even though it's been a good 4-5 years now. D:

[helpmesucks]

i stopped reading bg and all that ffxi type stuff but i was reading both your pw posts pretty intensely. also more props for being able to make playing an mmo for 18 hours straight sound pretty intrepid lol

[rukenshin]

A lot of people can't get past the idea of playing for 18 hours, but it really didn't feel that way for us. And we really felt like we could keep going further and that we were 'almost there.' Glad to see I got that idea across!

[tkeichan]

I wanted to mention that another enfeeble that DID stick was Blind. (totally random information, and might be entirely irrelevant!)

[rukenshin]

Ah, I never tried that actually lol... I was mostly just trying to spam Para/SlowII/Dia on Sumo, Blind is helpful too though.

[bryanpring]

That information would be irrelevant to an Arabian nomad and the same information could be largely conveyed in other languages by use of adjectives.

[bradleyreader]

What if it accomplishes exactly the opposite of what I want, or some random result, and I regret it.

Thanks!

[anonymous]

Well now, Ruke, this is Smiley from Overly Positive (http://overlypositive.com).

Thanks for the exposure! I actually might get double my readership (up to 4 from 2!), and I was more than happy to help you get the attention you deserve for the things you did with this encounter. Don't go crazy goin' nuts over this - it ain't worth the trouble. That's why I wrote what I did.

Now get those guild members well, and don't worry - I'll be sure to link back to you from now on.

Re: Thanks!

[rukenshin]

Ha, it's all mutually beneficial! Glad to help you out lol.

I got a good laugh out of your style of update too, and believe me I'd rather take a few trips to the bar before I even think of doing this again.

[mcclane_]

I just got back to FFXI (again) from a long break (again) but I don't think I'll ever be ready for this fight. I remember an 8h long vrtra fight which seems ages ago and which I thought was the longest fight ever but 18h+?!? daaamn, is it possible to defeat these if you were crazy enough to spend that much time on a fight or is it more like it's the least amount of time you would need but you won't win anyway?

[rukenshin]

It's possible to kill, but it's just it would take amounts of effort that are no where near worth the rewards. I don't think anyone is crazy enough to do it all in one sitting, nor could they physically/mentally hold out that long. But if people did it in shifts or something, or teamed up with another shell, it might just work.

But at most it would be done once just for the sake of having killed it, and I highly doubt it would ever be repeated after that. Maybe like, 1-2 more times to keep both groups involved happy, but it just plain is not worth the rewards.