Garuda Defeathered!

NI Pines For More

Like other end game shells, we've been spending most of our time toying around with Garuda since the last patch.  The fight has a number of interesting mechanics which weren't exactly difficult to overcome.  A win's a win, as they say, and after just a few days this fight was chiseled down to a simple manaburn.  We were up to this task and made quicker work of Garuda in light of this new finding.

That isn't to say Yoshi-P was happy about it however, and oh boy did he have quite a bit to say!  Sorry bro, but your battle wasn't as challenging as you made it out to be.   Heck, it didn't even take long for the first group to take her out and that contest was kind of a joke anyway.  In any case, since SE wasn't willing to take the servers down yet again to make the proper adjustments to this battle, it seems everyone is just happily rolling along, throwing Black Mages at this bitch like no man's business.  Vel crafted a neat little picture in homage to this "epic" battle!

See you after the patch Garuda.  We hope you can provide a little more entertainment at that time!

In the meantime, we'll be peppering dungeons into our schedule once again in the following weeks.  Variety is the spice of life, they also say, and we still have quite a bit of Darklight gear to acquire in addition to the 22 or so pieces we've already come across.

Until next time Final Fantasy'ers and alike; stay classy and all that jazz.

Neutral Impact completes Five Chest Speed Runs!

This past week has been our "go for the gold" week.  We set out on Monday to achieve the five chest speed run (SR5C) in Cutter's Cry and on Tuesday we were able to clear it with a few minutes to spare.  This evening we wrapped up Patch 1.21's accomplishments by completing Aurum Vale in the same manner.  You can click each picture for videos!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Pictured left to right: Kahnya Redx, Nakiroth Chanoix, Kittra Thelder, Velera Lunalei, Bracsith Sirrush (rear), Seifer Arumashi, Toc Ammanas, and Ghunter One

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Pictured left to right: Grey Jorildyn, Toc Ammanas, Nakiroth Chanoix, Velera Lunalei, Kahnya Redx, Ghunter One, Kittra Thelder, and Bracsith Sirrush

Congratulations to all those who participated!!!

Now we have many more to look forward to!  As we continue to sharpen our skills and teach all our members how to complete these runs in the most efficient way possible, we see much Darklight gear in our future!  Next week we'll be hopping servers to Gungnir and adding nine new raiders to our roster!  With all the fun coming in the next few days, it's a wonder we can even contain ourselves!  And of course it's worth mentioning that if you'd like to get in on this action, you should apply as soon as possible!

Stay tuned for more great accomplishments from Neutral Impact and all of the guilds here at Impact Gaming Community.

NI clears Cutter's Cry!

Bigger things are on the horizon!  Tonight NI spent its first night in Cutter's Cry and cleared it with a 3-chest run, just 4mins short of a speed run.  We'll be spending the rest of this week refining our strategy until we achieve that 5-chest speed run and then will transition back to Aurum Vale to clean house there too.

Patch 1.21 has brought with it a lot of content, but based on the reports coming in of incredibly low drop rates on Darklight gear, it seems like we could be spamming these instances for a very, very long time.  Well, it's what we wanted (sorta), so we're going to make the best of it.  Tune in next week for more on our accomplishments!

Pictured left to right: Grey Jorildyn, Kahnya Redx, Nakiroth Chanoix, Kittra Thelder, Velera Lunalei, Seifer Arumashi, Ghunter One, and Bracsith Sirrush.

Neutral Impact defeats Miser's Mistress!

Over the weekend NI took its time completing all 7 job quests for the majority of its roster.  We suited up Monday night to finally give the new instances a go and found them to be pretty straightforward.  While the Recruitment team has been bogged down with a new bulletin and processing the applications we've received (over a dozen from various servers), Velera Lunalei (Raid Officer) packed the schedule with Aurum Vale to begin the pursuit of unlocking its secrets.

Last night NI gathered with the purpose of clearing Aurum Vale and was successful within the first hour of running through it!  Of course this is only the beginning as there are still many unknowns in the instance that are yet to be discovered.  Congratulations to the team for NI's first win!  There sure to be many more to come!

Fortunately there is still a lot of work to be done in Aurum Vale!  Next week we will spend our time tackling Cutter's Cry and tinkering with multi-chests conditions therein.  This patch has given us a fair bit to do and we expect to be knee-deep in loot, discovery, and fun for at least the next month!

We're heading to Gungnir!

Many moons ago I had the pleasure of being involved in talks about what server we would land on for beta.  I can recall how psyched we were to roll on Exdeth server.  We had such a presence in the beta, with well over 20 members on often.  The weeks passed and FFXIV launched.  We rolled on Figaro because, like for many others, something about it reminded us of our favorite Final Fantasy experiences.  That was a good day.  A happy day.

As months went by we saw the population dwindle.  Our core members were steadfast however, weathering the storm we all felt would blow over soon.  Is this the game we really want to play for years to come?  I don't think that question really ever entered our minds, although our TS chats seemed to suggest otherwise!  Well, here we are nearing March of 2012 and we are still here.  We plan to stay right here, playing this game, holding it down every night.

This past month has been difficult, what with the delayed patches, people losing interest in current content, and post-holiday business getting back into full swing.  Holding a guild together is never really easy, but this game brings with it quite a few extra challenges that I wish it did not.  In any case, SE had announced their server merge idea, which was quickly shot down and replaced with a more rational one, and we wanted to make sure we considered all the possible options.  We ran polls, had many chats and discussions about it, and it became clear that NI was looking for a change of scenery.  I can't say there's one overarching reason because there really isn't.  I think it's a lot of small things, most of which aren't really important, but enough to encourage us to try a different flavor of ice cream.

Now, I was never really attached to Figaro, or its population, and that's definitely my fault.  I tend to run things very, how do you say, "old fashioned".  That is, I feel a linkshell should have a purpose and always work towards those goals.  To do that requires focus, and I believe my members embrace that idea as many of them do not have social pearls (and the few that do have just one, and it is not often worn), and yet we do not discourage being part of socials.  It's one of those details I look at and feel confident I can say "these guys get it" for whatever reason.  Of course, it all goes a lot deeper than that, but none of that really matters right now.  Our decision is made and we're sticking to it.

As for SE's merger idea, they came up with this handy little quick reference chart:

So we're going to be joining Mysidia and Istory servers on Gungnir.  I am planning to say goodbye to many people I have known on Figaro and also hello to those I will meet in the coming months, years, who-knows.

From the heart, it's really been a blast playing on Figaro.  I've seen a lot of skilled players come and go.  We've seen a lot of grudges held, experienced our bit of drama, and somehow kept our heads above the water.  None of that has ever really mattered because no matter what, we rarely miss a raid night and we have never PUG'd players on those raid nights.  We've also been able to have 8 Neutral Impact members and 2-3 sitting on the bench on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.  Whatever is making that happen I can only be grateful to.

To wrap it up, we'll be putting in our request to leave as soon as possible!  As we leave one server behind and move to the next, we want to wish everyone we've touched in some way good luck in their FFXIV adventures.  Keep on keepin' on you guys, all of you seriously, cuz you're what keeps this game going.   Peace!