6
Jan
Well that was easy…
My buddy Daffelz showed up at 2% (lol) with his lucky TH4:
Record: 1/3. Thanks Daffelz!
I guess that decision is made…
So…
I apologize for disabling comments but I could not keep up with the moderation of them all. Also, I am glad to see this page still being cited for cure cheats and my VV solo. That’s kinda cool I guess. What I am gonna post below is likely going to seem like a rant from someone who is raving mad, but you should try to go into this with an open mind. My main motivation in doing most things in my life has been my career path; Psychology. I’m even in school for my Master’s in Psychology and while my methods might be questionable, they are never unethical. Anyway…
It’s been a cool seven months or so. A few people from Karasu have kept in touch with me and I’ve kept in touch with two or three myself (yea, there’s a difference). I can’t say I’ve ever looked back at my career within FFXI and not broken a smile or some such, but some of the decisions I made while playing were less than stellar. The cut right to it, I knew cheating was wrong and I didn’t care. I had plenty of conversations with people about it and we all knew the possible outcome of being caught. As an aside, it should be noted that I have a very addictive personality; it’s gotten the best of me before. Back on track now–getting caught was something I very much pined for. I knew exactly how people would react about the whole thing, especially toward me. I was the leader of a very successful linkshell and constantly under the watchful eyes of people on the outside. People outside the linkshell hung on my words as much as those within it, perhaps even more so. Fact is, regardless of what people think of me (hate or love), I am who I am. I never tried to deter from anyone’s gameplay in FFXI and I certainly was fair to my members. The problem with trying to play the highest good in the world is you can’t make any mistakes. What better way to go down than be seen as a liar, a cheat, and a manipulator? I had never played those roles before in my entire life and FFXI was just the right forum to give it a try.
But I am not here to apologize for all that or try to convince you that I knew my ban was coming. I just wanted to poke my head around here since I know some people still check here every now and again for whatever reason. I feel no shame nor will I ever for what I “did”. We are all humans and I will not make any bold claims that “hey if you had known about it, you would have done it too”, because that’s so ridiculously over-assuming and that’s just not my style. Those of you who had the misfortune of getting to know me, know how I really am. I am honest, caring, and by some subjective measure, a good person. I also like to deceive people, to test their trust amongst other reasons. I have my ways about me and they are certainly not the most direct ways to get the information I want, but it has never failed me, and my success (take that as you wish) can be attributed to those very ways.
I also think the best way to draw attention to oneself is to be the very way people do not expect you to be. IRL I am nothing like I was in the game. I don’t care about politics, but I understand why it exists and how to manipulate words to get my way. I don’t care about social norms, but I pretend to care every time I go on a job interview. I don’t care about everyday worries because I know they exist and fretting over them doesn’t accomplish jackshit. But all this isn’t to say I wanted attention, but I certainly needed it from my members in order to make the changes that I did within Karasu. I took all the above things into account when I did this and I had a pretty good time doing what I did, even with all the arguments.
On the topic of arguments, it should be noted that less than 10% of the arguments I engaged in on Karasu forums or BG were even genuine. Arguing can be a good way to understand the depth of someone’s passion. It can also be a great tool in dissecting someone’s conscious stream of thoughts. In these arguments, mock or otherwise, I was able to gain a greater understanding of my opposition both inside and outside the linkshell, and even across servers. I was never truly upset with anyone over all the years, even though they may have been led to believe that. Do I owe you an apology? No, most certainly not, and you’re not going to get one. Just laugh it off. It’s not everyday you get had like that.
Concerning public forums and my activity: I like browsing BG, and sometimes KI, every couple of days. I like to keep up on the FFXI news. But don’t go thinking that because someone lurks a forum or two that that’s all they lurk. A lot of people have this misconception about the majority of people who were banned and did not come back. It’s quite narrow-minded. Of course, most people absolutely think this way, and it’s because they’re stupid. There’s no other answer for it other than they think they’re right about everything. The world is a really crazy place, and having really been in it for the better part of four years now, I must say that I am not the same person I was in college. Many would do well to consider the truth behind these words as, in my opinion, they are incredibly universal.
Now that I’ve taken some time to explain myself, while watching Robin Hood: Men in Tights no less, I feel great. Several people have expressed an interest in rejoining up with me on FFXIV, but to be honest, I don’t know what my plans are for the game. I know that I have been distant in responding to all of you and it’s because I don’t want to tell you a lie in the form of a promise I am not certain I can keep right now. I am still torn about playing versus not playing, and if I do play, do I want to join up with an elite group from the start or build my own group from the ground-up. I just don’t know and until I have some time to analyze the way to game plays (upon launch + several weeks thereafter), I won’t have an answer. One thing that won’t change though is that regardless of how I play, I will always try to be the best, and by extension that means I won’t play with noobs.
In case anyone wants to get in touch with me after all this time, my contact information is below. I know I am very secretive about all that as I have private lists and never publicly displayed this stuff until recently, so just e-mail me first if you’d like me to add you.
email: greyenvy@optonline.net
MSN: greyenvy@optonline.net
AIM: greyenvy
See you around all! Toodles~
5
Jan
New pursuits
So I’ve finally started thinking about new goals to set. Unfortunately, other than Burtgang, there really aren’t Paladin things to pursue. I would like to get stuff like Hydra Haubert and such, but it’s not in my immediate future. As far as Paladin goes, I’ve turned my attention toward Homam Corazza since it’s the best Excalibur DDing body piece.
But I’m thinking now about expanding my horizons on the mage side a bit more. My RDM75 has good gear for like 2007, but I’ve cut a lot of corners to save gil for Excalibur and overall, it’s not a job that I really enjoy. I dabbled in tanking with it for a couple of months and it seemed like too much work for the results. I guess that’s what happens though when you take a job like that and try to make it into something it’s not entirely designed for. So what I’ve been thinking about is Scholar. I’ve been following the threads on BG and there is one Scholar in my linkshell that knows what she’s talking about, so it interests me a little. I even leveled it to 16 so far!
This is all in the future though, like three to four months from now. In the meantime I’ve embarked on another side project. It’s nothing too great though–Octave Club. I decided to let SE decide for me which job I should level next; DRK 72 or SCH 75. If the club drops, then I will level DRK next, and if it doesn’t drop in like 10 kills, I may just skip it. Asdrabael went 1/6 on the club and thus far I’m only 0/2 so I’m not freaking out just yet. I would need to secure an Aurum Armet, Wyvern Targe, and Wyvern Earring for DRK, plus level DRG subjob to a respectable level (currently @Lv. 10). Everything else carries over from Paladin. On the SCH side, I would need a crapload of gear. My BLM is 37 too so I’d be learning a whole ‘nother side of the spectrum. I also don’t have elemental merits (currently Enfeebling x8, Enhancing x8), so that might affect my performance in some instances.
So really, in pursuing new things, I can’t decide which path to take so I’m taking the passive approach. In the end I think I want to level both DRK 72 and SCH 75 because it would give me more options in game. My WAR is great for merits and I’ve put a lot of work and time into it (I guess…) but I have no problems dropping it like a bad habit because it’s seriously a boring job. An Octave Club zerg is just so powerful and I want to guanrantee our Dynamis Lord kills in the future by being able to provide a huge amount of damage output too (Hey I’m a Paladin, I feel left outside sometimes!). SCH would be nice for solo’ing and playing that WHM slot I could never fill. I’m just looking to have some fun I guess, but Paladin will always be my first and only true love.
31
Dec
Mythical Disappointment
Maybe I am being a bit harsh on the Burtgang, I dunno. I perceived it as the type of thing I wanted to hit hard right after I finished Excalibur (shooting for early/mid March), but reading some of the stuff pertaining to it was sort of a turn off. In essense though, I am not going to be looking for a damage-dealing sword since I’ll already have the best one available, but it would have been nice. Perhaps I should pursue it either way. The gil isn’t really an issue for me, and it would keep my Paladin complete and at the level where I’d want it to be in situations where I wouldn’t use the Excalibur, like Dynamis, and Dark Ixion/Sarameya perhaps.
Since Day 1 I told everyone who asked my opinion on it and, on paper, it looks like a glorified Hauteclaire with one unique piece of text on it. Is that one line going to provide a significant bonus though? Probably not. Does it matter? No, not really. So I guess what I am torn between is not just owning two swords that are great in the situations that call for them, but also the pursuit of a great quest to obtain 30k Alexandrites, which I think, and this is probably agreed upon among the vast majority of players, an absolutely absurd requirement when compared to all the others. Square Enix was smoking some serious buddah when they devised 50k and were feeling a bit more agreeable when they reduced it to 30k. Still, it can be accomplished as two others have already shown. That still doesn’t make it seem better to me though… lol
So is it really as big a disappointment as people say it is? Well, I still don’t know the answer for sure. The prestige that comes from owning something unique like that gives anyone that warm and fuzzy feeling. I’d do it for me and me only. It would be really cool to be able to drop all my other weapons and honestly, inventory space is more valuable than anything you can possible buy in this game, especially when you’re trying to play jobs at a high level. I could totally drop Hauteclaire and Macuahuitl+1 if I had a Burtgang… is one inventory space worth it…? So many questions, so few answers. Really, I shouldn’t even be thinking about this as I still have Excalibur waiting in the wings. Perhaps when I finish it I will know that sense of accomplishment I felt when I received my Aegis. That feeling was so great and since that day I have tried so hard to recreate it. The only thing that came close was my Defending Ring. In fact that was probably an even greater feeling, but it came and went.
Will nothing ever satisfy me in this game? I hope so, otherwise I might as well just stop playing. All the pointless arguments I’ve had with people on forums to justify some stance have been stupid. I just wanna have fun in this game to be quite honest. Leadership in my linkshell for three years has killed so much of that fun that every now and then, I need to win an item just to keep myself afloat. But the only things that ever made me happy were Aegis and Defending Ring. And a part of me feels that is sad because they’re just personal things really. I feel like what would make me most happy is helping someone else obtain something they perceive as great, and so I am in the process of deciding that instead of getting that Burtgang, maybe I’ll help someone else fund a Relic or Mythic weapon. Perhaps that will fill the void, or maybe that’s not what I need. I have never been so uncertain about anything like this in my entire life.
In the end it’s just a game, and we’re supposed to have fun with it. When you stop having fun, does that mean we turn to something else to fill the gap or change course within the game itself? I guess I’ll just have to do some soul-searching. Getting gear for myself just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
So Snowy Cermet finally (re)dropped in Limbus last Saturday and I was able to upgrade these bad boys:
So like I’m really psyched now that I have the most Enhancing Magic skill I can possible get @251 skill. Now that that project is complete I can work on something else… what exactly, I don’t know.
I still haven’t gotten around to making the trek back to Sea Serpent Grotto after I got outclaimed last time. I am starting to feel like I need to do it before someone else does and makes it not as cool. Really though, I don’t care. If I did, I would be down there every night. I’ve been spending so much time playing Fallout 3 lately between leading Karasu and doing other stuff that I just don’t have the patience to kill placeholder mobs then wait around for Charybdis to spawn admist potential competition. On top of all this, I have 100k worth of meds sitting on a mule just for the initial attempt that I would have to send to my main, which already has massive inventory space issues thanks to Mrs. Montiont, Mr. Lungo-nango, and Chairman Byne. Perhaps if Asdrabael bugs me enough about it, I’ll find the motivation. Until then, I don’t see myself doing it on my own.
Sooner or later I am going to make this big two-part post (at least) about points vs. /point system. For some time now, I have been trying, albeit feebly, to somehow contribute something to the community as a whole. I developed this very useless (in my opinion, of course) system of devising point values for mobs based on a number of factors. BG didn’t take too well to it, but looking back on it, I didn’t elaborate enough on the system. I failed to mention that the system works with a silent bidding system and no minimum bids on any items in the game. Perhaps adding those bits of information would have helped it take off. In any case, I keep telling myself I am going to contact the guys over at bbdkp.com to offer them my services to construct point values for raids to include in a stock DKP package. Maybe someone reading this can tell them for me, because I am kind of shy when it comes to those things.
Tomorrow is Dynamis - Tavnazia (ie. another wasted night of non-sponsorship…). I hate the place and think it’s a waste of time. Of course, I am gonna be bias because I want to finish my Excalibur sometime this year and want to do city runs instead of that craptastic currency zone, but I support the linkshell in whatever it does. I am not gonna be picky. Besides, I have an example to set and people expect me to participate. I don’t mind that part of leadership at all either. I do like doing linkshell events. Just wish I got to use my enhancing magic more often… (it had to be said!)
Hopefully I’ll be more motivated over the weekend.
Toodles~
18
Oct
Bored and waiting…
So we had Dynamis - Windurst last night. It was mostly ok except that people still aren’t doing their job and sleeping enough mobs in Dynamis. I don’t want to slam anyone, that’s just not my style, but when you are a Red Mage or even a Black Mage in Dynamis, you’re expected to help sleep at least one mob on large pulls. Windurst is full of these big pulls and when I have to sleep two mobs and bind one on every pull or four to six, someone just isn’t pulling their weight. It’s multiple people in fact. Blackhatchy got really upset, and rightfully so. I know if I were still Dynamis leader, I’d be telling people to simply drop hourglass and go home if they weren’t doing their job in my sponsored Dynamis.
Anyhow, I’ll be addressing that in the October Linkshell Update. For those that have no idea what that is, it’s kinda like a Square Enix update, but just for our own linkshell. We update rules by removing loopholes or modifying certain clauses to fit the progression of our linkshell. This month’s update promises to be a really major one, rivaling last month’s. We’ve also got Player Evaluations going in, which I only have bits and pieces drafted up. It’s not intended to be a “De-recruitment” though, but I think that that is how it will be perceived by the large majority of the members. It’s really supposed to focus on helping people improve in the areas they need it now, so that later we are better as a whole.
I am pretty bored atm. Siveth told me that he wanted a Joyeuse and this just so happens to be related to my most recent project/interest–soloing Charybdis. I am gonna give it a shot. I brought two pairs of Ice Trousers down to Sea Serpent Grotto with me as well, just in case I somehow find them useful. I think that I can squeeze some Paralyze effect in there somewhere! Asdrabael encouraged me to give this solo a shot. He wants to fraps it too so I can post it here. Personally I feel very confident about it, but I am unsure what to expect precisely. I am just gonna wing it. Chances are I’ll lose the first time, but next time around, I’ll nail it, just like I did with VV.
Wish me luck! I go into the darkness…
A couple of weeks ago I had toyed with the idea of trying to solo Voluptuous Vivan (VV) on my RDM. I popped her and solo’d down to about 78% before the wheels came off. After trying to figure out what I did wrong, it just came down to the fact that my RDM isn’t geared well enough for solo’ing a mob that cannot be Paralyzed. My MND set is lacking due to not having the desire to pump more money into RDM (and I am sponsoring an Excalibur now so I have to cut corners), and I never really had a strong INT set for casting Blind.
I was disheartened in my gimpness, so I decided to turn to the job I have geared best of all; my Paladin. I went back out to Dragon’s Aery in the middle of the night and actually popped VV again solo. I came somewhat prepared, with the usual meds I carry (Antidotes, Echo Drops) and had a stack of Remedy with me. I decided I’d give it a shot as PLD/RDM. I got her down to 61% in about 7 minutes before I took an invite from some friends on the way up to the spot to watch me and we took it down together. It was a really great learning experience and I knew right off the bat that I was going to need to put more effort into a macro set than just using my campaign one (lul).
So I set out to make the perfect PLD/RDM solo’ing macro set. I had to look up a couple of formulas just to make sure I was doing everything right. I went back out there a couple of days later with some encouragement from Ichthyos and popped it again. This time, I won! I was really happy to say the least, but it quickly died down after I took everything into consideration and realized just how easy to fight really was. In fact, it was a complete joke and hardly worth mentioning, but the preparation for it is key. So for those interested in doing just that, I’m gonna make a little guide for it.
What you need
Medicines: Remedy x12 (at least, more is better though, Antidote x12, Vile Elixir, Vile Elixir +1, Hi-Elixir x5, Icarus Wing (emergency Chivalry)
Food: Tavnazian Tacos (sushi might work well also!), Yagudo Drink x5 ( 10 just to be on the safe side)
Gear-wise: 350dmg redux Stoneskin, a good Phalanx (20+ DR), a good Haste set.
Other: Well-made macros that maximize spells on each cast.
A little know-how goes a long way…
In order to get the most out of any PLD solo, you need to know what you’re up again. VV attacks fast because you’re not going to be able to Slow it, and it’s immune to Paralyze, so Ice Trousers are not going to be an option. You’ve also got to know that VV can steal large portions of your MP, so the meds listed above are meant to counter-act that in every way possible. The numbers above are what I used in my fight, but you may want to bring more as weapon skill usage may vary greatly each time you fight her. If you use windower, plug-ins like Recast are going to be a great asset. VV doesn’t like fire much on account of her being a Plantoid mob. Bad Breath gives several status effects, three of which are Slow (-25%), Paralyze, and Silence. To counter this, you need Remedy.
What to wear, what to wear…
Standing/Idle gear is a very important aspect of tanking, especially in the solo game. What I personally prefer, and I think it the best way to go, is to utilize as much Shield Skill gear as you can get without hurting your damage-over-time (DoT) as much. You will want to account for DoT due simply to the fact that you are a Paladin, and your longevity in a battle such as this will be reliant on your MP. To take as much stress off your MP pool as possible (indirectly, of course), you want to kill it faster and have as much Refresh effect as possible. Also, damage reduction gear, in this case specifically Physical Damage Taken gear, goes a very long way. With these ideas in mind I went with the following set of gear:
top-to-bottom, left-to-right: Hauteclaire, Aegis, Lamia Kaman +1, Koenig Schaller, Parade Gorget, Loquacious Earring, Ethereal Earring, Ares’s Cuirass, Homam Manopolas, Jelly Ring, Defending Ring, Boxer’s Mantle, Velocious Belt, Homam Cosciales, Glt. Leggings +1
This gave me a a good blend of Physical Damage Taken down, Shield Skill, Refresh effect, and Haste for my DoT. The Homam also provides a hearty chunk of MP for outlasting VV with meds, and the Ethereal Earring is going to have a fair kickback on those breath attacks.
Macros
Reprisal…
As every Paladin knows, Reprisal is a great tool when bloodtanking, and you can really get a lot out of it in the longhaul. Since VV is going to inevitably be a lengthy battle, you’re going to want to ensure that this spell’s effect is up as often as possible. To do this, I utilized a set of as much haste as I could get:
Haste+21% in gear, Fast Cast traits, and a small additional amount of Fast Cast.
With this, I was able to push my Reprisal recast down quite a bit. I don’t recall the exact figure, but it was something around 2:08 from 3:00.
Phalanx/Enfire…
Going with my previous statements on DoT, I decided that I want to maximize my Enfire damage as well. I was pulling off 16s without any gear swaps, so I looked up the formula and found out I could bump it to 17! That helps I guess.
Phalanx helps a great deal with blocking for low numbers or taking 0 damage, causing VV to lose-out on gaining TP for a round. Over time, this effect can be significant. I learned in fighting VV the previous time that with my capped Phalanx (22 DR), I was able to block for 1 dmg very consistently, and when I cast Bio (15 MP), the Attack Down -5% was enough to make that damage 0. This is probably luck based on the level she pops at, but it also worked when I solo’d her down for the win. In any case, you wil want to create the best possible Phalanx set to work with. Mine is not quite there yet (missing Glt. Breeches +1), but it’s as good as I can manage now:
Relevant: [Base Skill] 210, [Merits] +16, [Neck] Enhancing Torque +7, [Ear1] Augment. Earring +3, [Back] Merciful Cape +5
This gives me a total of…
…allowing me to get a 22 DR Phalanx. The only piece of gear that would improve this would be the Glt. Breeches +1 as I stated above, which give Enhancing Magic +10, and would bump me up to the next tier. It turns out that because 24x is divisible by 20, it also bumped me up a tier for an additional +1 damage on my enspells.
Stoneskin…
Many people might be thinking that with Stoneskin’s long casting time, there’s no way they’re ever going to recast it during a fight where they’re solo’ing a non-Slow’d mob. Well, it’s possible. With the Aegis, it’s very easy, and Reprisal only makes it easier. With a Koenig Shield, you may have to swap in max Shield Skill gear and go with MND in more places than with my Stoneskin set. Here’s mine:
Relevant: [Neck] Morgana’s Choker +5, [Body] Crimson Scale Mail +10, Devotee’s Mitts +5, Sapphire Rings +8, Vlr. Leggings+1 +3
I’m Elvaan so I have a high base MND of 73. With my Enhancing Magic fully merited, it turned out I only needed +32 MND to max my Stoneskin. Conveniently, I did some calculations, and found out I only need to use five pieces of gear to achieve that, four of which I already have for Cure Cheat or my Red Mage. Now, Morgana’s Choker and the Scale Mail are not easy to come by I realize, so you can tinker with that as you see fit. Chances are you will have to anyway since not everyone is a sexy Elvaan.
If you find that getting Stoneskin up is a real pain, utilize your bashes appropriately. Try to start casting Stoneskin immediately after Sentinel as well, even if to just refresh it’s DR. Another good time to try is just after it attacks and you’ve got Reprisal up–this will improve your chances a great deal.
The Fight
OK, now to put it all together. Since you’ve got your macros all set and ready to go now, all you need is the execution. I assume everyone attempting this know where the safe spot to tank her is. If you don’t, ask around or find a video of a RDM solo’ing it (they’re out there), and it will become very clear. As every fight is going to be different, all I can really offer are some helpful tips and tricks…
- Keep Enfire up as often as possible. This is going to improve your DoT, especially if you went with the sushi food option (not recommended by this poster)
- Cast Reprisal as often as you can! This will be a shitload of your DoT believe it or not, especially because she is attacking so fast! Use recast or menu to keep on top of this timer. When there’s down-time you shoud be casting Blaze Spikes, which do 7-9 damage back, regardless of whether you blocked or not. Remember, you’ve gotta debuff Blaze Spikes manually to cast Reprisal over it, otherwise it will have no effect, and that plain sucks…
- Make sure Phalanx is never down. Taking hits without your DR spell can be your biggest downfall over time. To remedy this, I made a timer macro in my windower that let me know Phalanx was going wear off 10 seconds before it actually did. This gave me plenty of time to recast it.
- Have macros for each medicine. Every time Vivian use Bad Breath, you’ve gotta spam that Remedy macro. Remove poison each time she hits you with Impale (the DoT is HIGH!!!). Use Yagudo Drinks to keep your MP at about half in case you need to Cure IV yourself 2-3 times in succession. Your other medicines should be used wisely, like after Vampiric Lash or big Cure bombing sessions (unlikely) after the 2h.
- Save up your first batch of TP in case you need to pop Chivalry. VV is going to use Meikyo Shisui sometime between 80 and 50%, so you’ve gotta be ready in case she uses Vampiric Lash during her 2h. If Chivalry is down from an earlier issue, start with your smaller meds first (Elixirs, Vile Elixir), before moving onto the heavy stuff.
- Rampart has almost no use in this fight, so don’t use it trying to predict something. Sweet Breath and Bad Breath damage can both be reduced by Rampart’s Magical Shield, but are used almost instantly, giving you no time to hit a macro to fire it off. Don’t worry about the sleep effect. If you have Stoneskin up most of the time (which you should), a Poison Potion won’t help anyway. Take it like a bitch and get hit once, Bash, then recast Stoneskin/Phalanx or whatver is needed at the time.
- Don’t be lazy. VV can catch you off guard with several Double Attack rounds in a row. If you are not prepared, you will die, and no one is going to be there to save you, only steal it. For this reason, keep your HP high as well. I recommended over 1000.
Closing Statement
I hope this has been a helpful guide and a good enough response to the people that PM’d me about it. If there’s anything you feel I need to clarify, drop me a Comment here. I set it up so no one has to register or any of that silly nonsense. Below there are also some references for some of the stuff I alluded to.
Good luck!!!
References
I posted this on BG awhile back before they changed over to the new boards, but it didn’t format properly and was lost. It’s also posted on Karasu forums but only members can see that. I’ve gotten a lot of PMs about it across several boards so I’ve decided that it would be only fitting it was my first post here.
The concept behind the cure cheat (or “cure swap”) is to generate burst of enmity while tanking without losing an enmity. Since Paladin in FFXI is generally lacking in hate tools, being limited to Flash and Cure only create a lot of problems in comparison to RDM or NIN/DRK tanks. I found a way to remedy this by causing a gaping wound in your own HP pool, which then allows for you to cure yourself for the potency of a Cure III or Cure IV without invoking the enmity lost from taking damage to lower your HP the required amount for that cure.
When I first started making cure cheats, my funds were limited, so I went with a simple swap that extended my HP about +180, Cure III’d myself, then reset to the gear I was wearing before. I knew from the start that there were better ways to do this however, having watched WHM and BLM utilize Zenith gear to lower their HP instead of extend it to active Lv. 50 ring latents. As time passed, my wallet got fatter and I was able to evolve my cure cheat into something much better. I must give some credit to Hirameki who was able to pinpoint some of the gear and assist Karasu, and myself, in creating the optimal cure cheats, which utilize the most amount of enmity per cast. In fact, cure cheats are so potent, you will find they actually replace the need to cure yourself with a one-line Cure III or Cure IV macro because they boost your enmity that much higher.
First I’ll present a baseline. Everyone’s “idle” or “standing” gear is going to be different, but that is what you are working with in general. I find this to be my favorite setup, although I have toyed with using a “haste” belt full-time as well (but I did not like it as much). Anyway, here’s my idle gear on PLD:
top-to-bottom, left-to-right: Hauteclaire, Aegis, Lamian Kaman +1, Bahamut’s Mask, Parade Gorget, Hades Earring +1, Ethereal Earring, Ares’s Cuirass, Homam Manopolas, Shadow Ring, Defending Ring, Valor Cape, Trance Belt, Homam Cosciales, Homam Gambieras.
It’s a fairly “generic” setup. Just looking at it you can tell why I made the selections I did. It is from this gear that I will begin my swapping. I actually have a Defending Ring in ring2 slot now so I’ll update the picture next chance I get. Anyhow, let’s start with Cure III, then we’ll move on to Cure IV.
Cure III
This one is fairly simple. It will utilize a set of gear that drops my HP down a bit, and another that increases my HP and adds enmity in slots where more HP is not needed to hit the soft-cap of 180 HP for a Cure III. Here’s what the HP reducing set looks like:
changed: Morgana’s Choker (HP-40), Ethereal Earring [removed] (HP-15), Ether Ring (HP-30), Serket Ring (HP-50), Settler’s Cape (HP-30), Astral Rope (HP-15).
Note from here and going forward that all these gear swaps are “internal”, meaning they do not cause you to blink. The total HP I’ve now dropped is exactly 180. Convenient, right? The next step is to swap into the ideal Cure III gear, maximizing enmity and possible moving over the soft-cap to get some extra enmity out of your cure. As such:
changed: Ritter Gorget (HP+25), Hospitaler Earring [expalained below], Hercules’ Ring (Enmity +3), Sattva Ring (HP+30, Enmity+3), Valor Cape (HP+40, Enmity+3), Trance Belt (HP+14, Enmity+4)
This set gives me an additional 109 HP, so adding that to the original gap of 180, my Cure III “can” cure for 289HP, but since that’s not possible, I tossed in the Hospitaler’s Earring for the 5% potency. Some Paladins that like to use Templar Mace full time would probably enjoy this swap a lot since it has enmity in every invisible slot and leaves room for that full cure potency to take effect. The resulting Cure comes out as this for me, a very nice number:
Moving on to Cure IV!
Cure IV
The Cure IV Cheat is a bit less effective. It’s not something you’re going to spam like the one above. Personally I use it when Sentinel is active, or after a Horrid Roar when I need to jack my enmity through the roof somehow. The concept here is the same: HP down, followed by HP up, but this time, that HP up isn’t going to have as much enmity, so we’re going to replace some key slots where we had enmity before with large HP boosts. So this is the same picture as before, but it is the starting point:
And this is followed by the next picture after one second:
changed: Ritter Gorget (HP+25), Ethereal Earring [replaced], Bomb Queen Ring (HP+75), Sattva Ring (HP+30), Valor Cape (HP+40), Trance Belt (HP+14).
OK so we still have that gap is 180 that we reduced with our HP down set, but now we’re using a set that is increasing our HP. The main differences here are the lack of Hercules’ Ring in the ring1 slot and the use of the Bomb Queen Ring. This is an essential swap. Without the Bomb Queen Ring, we had a gap of 289 HP (as stated above), but now we’re adding 75 more HP to that. This is a gap of 364 HP. As we know, Cure IV’s soft-cap is 360 HP, so we’ve achieved our goal here. Here’s my resulting Cure IV, the difference in total is due to Ares’s Cuirass HP+3% that I did not account for in our straight math:
Keep in mind that for some of the pieces of gear, there are alternates. For example, if you don’t have your hands on a Valor Cape, a Cerberus Mantle or Resentment Cape works great in the Cure III swap since you have an overflow of HP+ anyway. For the Cure IV swap, a Gigant Mantle works well in the back slot too. You will lose some enmity using the Gigant Mantle, but you’ll still be able to pull off the Cure IV, which is what’s important after all. There are some other pieces you can use to gap yourself on the downside too, such as a Star Necklace, Astral Earring, and Astral Ring. Find what works best for you, and keep your race in mind as well. A few of those RSE sashes can be a good filler until you work on an ideal Cure cheat, that is, if you’re up for it at all. If you just want something functional, then look no further than then Auction House. You will find there is a decent sampling of “converts X MP to HP” and straight HP-X gear that Paladins can use.
Well, that’s a wrap. I hope this has been helpful to those aspiring Paladins out there! If you have any questions or comments about it, feel free to leave a comment, drop me a PM on Karasu forums, or even BG. I frequent them daily so don’t be shy. Trust me, I like reading.