As far as the social aspect and my current linkshell status, we seem to be making the move from AFKforever to TeamEcho. A lot of old Echo players have came back, and more are on their way I believe. So far Gniksiger, Cryton, Ceridan, Kajii (Deadstar), Maew, Jabsters, and Kiddos are all officially back. Thano is also playing a little more, and Breaze, Sedna, Laphine, and Galattea are playing every so often too. Now we just need Sevaru, Seeko, Tyjex, Lavid Rotaru, (did you quit again?!) and a few other people that randomly disappeared to come back! As much as it's nice to play to with some old friends again, I am done with abyssea, and all the other content that has been released over the 2-3years. When I log on I'd much rather do new events, and not just stay in abyssea forever.
Which brings me to voidwatch! It's probably the only thing they added that I've been interested in. It's kind of a weird system. When they first released it, you could only get 1 voidstone every 20hours (a voidstone is needed to participate in the NM battle), then I guess due to low interest, a week later they made it so you can get a voidstone by trading in 2000CP, IS, or AN, in addition to auto accumulating a stone daily. Most people have billions of CP at this point, so now we have unlimited stones, yay?
I don't like how treasure is handled though. Basically once the mob dies, everyone gets their own personal chest(and every chest has different items in it). The mob itself doesn't drop any items. Unfortunately most of the gear is rare/ex, so gear will be distributed to the wrong people. I hated the weakness system in abyssea (just make the drops 100% and make them hard fights, why do I need to cast useless spells to make them drop stuff?), and they've brought a similar system here, so that's not exactly ideal for me There's also only 18 NMs in total, so there isn't too much content overall.
The NMs are pretty fun, and it's actually somewhat challenging (but still easy of course) to do things outside of abyssea though. Interest in the event has been low though. I don't think the NA population was ever even remotely interested in it. The JPs aren't too much better but there have been a few shouts for it, so between than that and annoying people into doing it with me, I've gotten some NMs down. The next update is said to release Voidwatch 2, so I think it's important to have all these NMs completed before the next update.
So going through the various NMs! Each nation has 4 tiers of NM, you need to clear every NM on each tier to advance. Tier1 has 2 NMs, tier2 has 1 NM, tier3 has 2 NMs, and tier4 has only 1 NM. After each tier you complete, your abyssite will upgrade, allowing you to pop the next tier. Your abyssite never breaks, so essentially you can continuously spawn the highest tier mob over and over. I thought this was a nice change. The first path I completed was the Bastok path.
Sallow Seymour is very similar to Pallid Percy. I don't have any pics of when we won, but these are from when we wiped the first day voidwatch came out (when I was with a bunch of random disorganized people):
It's really not that hard. I'm sure you can trio it easily. Just watch out for mud stream.
The other tier 1 for bastok is extremely easy. It's a weaker version of the Konschtat Highlands peiste boss. Killed it without any problems as THF BRD RDM. Paralyze, slow, and elegy all land so it's a joke to tank.
Tier2 is where things start to get a little tricky.
It's a giant clot. Casts various -ga water and aero spells. Above 50% it will use ga3, and below 50% it will use ga4 and waterja/aeroja. It also gains access to Dissolve below 50% (conal drain damage and hate reset on the target). It will cast addle-ga and silencega throughout the fight too, plus all the usual clot moves: Mucus Spread (AoE slow), Epoxys Spread (AoE bind), and Fluid Spread/Toss.
It was pretty easy in an alliance. I think a solid group of 6 could take it down. It dropped the key item that gives additional temp items when you start the fight.
Moving on tier tier3. The first NM is a tonberry in Passhow. It casts tons of random magic -ja spells, and likes to teleport around doing throat stab.
Also the temp item key item gives some pretty useful items, like a fanatic's drink. I'm not going to even begin to try and explain the weakness system in voidwatch, but the cool thing is every time you hit the white !! weakness, it instantly restores all temp items. Most people will want to hit the white !! four times to guarantee an atmatice/key item drop anyway, so liberal use of the temp items is probably a good idea.
This atma wasn't that great. It was +3DEX +5AGI -10% spell interruption rate.
The other tier3 is Ecccentric Eve's clone. It does all the same moves I believe that Eve has, including obviously Extremely Bad Breath. It can be stunned, and our stunners did get most of them stunned, but a few did get through.
It also does a charm move and turns players into mini EEs(not cute)! It liked to do Bad Breath and Charm back to back, which was rather annoying, since we couldn't sleep the charmed players then because Bad Breath also gives poison. The fight became really messy at the end between the death & charm.
The tier4 and final boss of the bastok path is this cool bird! I decided to try it solo just for fun.
It was surprisingly pretty easy. It doesn't have enhanced movement speed, and it actually is really easy to kite around the rocks by its spawn point. It casts aeroga3, aeroga4, aeroja (this was sometimes instant cast), silencega, slowga, and graviga. It's normal melee attacks can be absorbed by 1-3 shadows, but they can deal upwards of 1000damage if you don't have shadows, so it dangerous.
Convinced some people to come kill it. I thought a SMN strategy would work well, and it did. Shiva and Garuda both take very little damage from this NM. Our first win was as RDM SMNx4 WHM. RDM kites it around, while SMNs BP it to death. When avatars die, it will run after the RDM allowing the SMNs time to resummon. WHM is in charge of general cures and status aliments. This setup isn't really that ideal though, since you will need more people to proc weaknesses.
Another thing it does that's unique is one of its TP moves gives you the status effect Muddle. I can't remember which TP move, but I think it was called Typhoon Rage.
I think Muddle is a new status effect; I definitely don't remember seeing it before. It disables you from using items. The TP move gives you encumbrance (naked), silence, amnesia, and muddle, so you can't do anything but stand there defenseless.
I actually think it was easier than the tier3s before it. Certainly not as chaotic.
Sandy path!
This puk was unremarkable. I don't remember having any problems with it.
The other tier1 is just Briareus clone (see a pattern forming here?!).
We did get another key item that grants temp items though!
Tier2 is Voidwatch's Krabkatoa. Standard fight until it reaches 50%, upon which it gains access to venom shower. It likes to spam venom shower and waterja spells. Mega Scissors is hate reset. It has en-paralyze, and it likes to cast enfeebling -ga spells too. Damaging it can be frustrating due to the inability to dispel Scissor Guard or Bubble Curtain.
The first tier3 is a behemoth. It's similar to La Theine's Hadhayosh. Most important thing to watch out for is Accursed Armor, since it gives itself curse spikes. It uses meteor right after thunderbolt, so everyone will get hit by it. Damage isn't too bad with some mdt gear. Our first fight was a disaster because our tanks continued to melee through the curse spikes. Even with a good mdt set, 400HP isn't going to be enough to survive meteor, and since thunderbolt stuns everyone, there's enough time to cursna+ cure6 the tanks back to full.
The next tier3 is a really annoying pixie. I thought this was one of a harder fights.
It will do Spring Breeze > Summer Breeze > Autumn Breeze > Winter Breeze > Cyclonic Turmoil > Norn Arrows, in that order always. It's important to know when to run out of range of Norn Arrows (20').
It likes to cast tons of annoying spells do; all the -ja spells, enfeebles spells, and below 50%, it will cast death.
The atma it drops is pretty cool though. It gives a refresh sphere effect when fully upgraded.
Sandy has the hardest tier4. First time I tried this, we went with some DD tanks, and they were destroyed really fast (they weren't using PDT though). Swapped to PLD tanks from then though, and it became easier. I had to organize some shouts for this clear.
I can't even remember what TP moves it uses, since they're all named so similarly. Most do some pretty impressive damage, but the main one to worry about the is the move that gives weakness, which it gains access to below 50%. It casts fire magic, which should be stunned. We wiped once because following the weakness move, it used firaja, killing our tanks. It builds resist to stun, so using it, so only stunning fire spells would be wise.
A really messy ending, but it died!
Nobody received any noteworthy drops.
I forgot to take pics of Windy's tier 1, but the first one is this corpselight. The only TP move it uses is Corpse Breath, and it casts enfeeble ga spells, as well blizzaga3-4. Slow, Paralyze, and stun all work. Just prevent its spells from going off and it should be a simple win.
The other tier1 is a Chloris clone (hard to see it in the pic!). It casts instant cast -ga3 spells, and enfeebles. Uses all the same moves as Chloris, including Fatal Scream, so holy waters are a must. Dream Flower also does hate reset.
Tier2 is an antilion. It has additional effect : petrify, which is annoying. Below 50% it will start using Quake Blast and Gravitic Horn. It will also use both moves together as a set, and it can spam them. I don't remember the fight being too hard though.
Lacovie makes an entrance for the tier3. Really easy fight. Uses earth magic. Just nuke it down.
Lord Asag is awful. Vampire, uses all fire magic, and below 50%, death. It uses the AoE HP drain move, absorbs players' buffs (and only finale works to dispel those!), and can charm. Took two tries to beat it, the first we timed out, and the second we won with about 3minutes left.
When it charms you, you turn into a cute bat!
Windy's tier 4 is an iron giant. Uses all the iron giant TP moves, casts thunder magic, and -ga enfeebles; so it's just like every other NM! Stun works; slow, elegy, and addle all land as well, but I don't think slow and elegy do much of anything.
The room it pops in is really tight; we had PLDs stand in opposite corners, and mages in another corner. Bounced it between the PLDs, and slowly chipped its HP down using BLMs and SMNs. Similar to the Sandy tier4, it's most dangerous move, Eradicator, also gives weakness.
Someone was fortunate to find a nifty Strendu Ring in their chest.
But of course, one of the few people that couldn't make any use out of it, received it, highlighting the event's main flaw. I'm fully confident that in the June "mini update" they will add the option to add spoils to the treasure pool.
After you complete all 3 bosses, you can get the opening(?) CS to Voidwatch quest line. So far the story doesn't make too much sense, and I'm predicting it will be as interesting as abyssea was (not very).
And this is a real update! I still exist! I'm just as awesome as ever too, just look at all these compliments!
Maybe I'll update again soon!
