Unfunny Dead

Vegetative State

After our day of random running about on Saturday, I spent most of yesterday hanging out on the sofa and catching up on movies that I had meant to watch.  It takes an act of congress to get me into a movie theatre…  I have a thing with large crowds and a completely and total lack of enjoyment of them.  So most of the time I prefer to just wait until something is available either through on demand or to the home market in general.  Among the movies I watched was World War Z as hinted at by the tower of zombies image above.  I have to say despite all the negative press about the movie I actually rather enjoyed it.

Sure there were many super sensationalist shots like the ant like zombie tower…  but for the most part it was one of the most intense zombie movies I have seen since 28 days later.  I am a heretic, while I own World War Z the novel… I have not made it terribly far into it.  So I can’t really appreciate just how bad a movie this was (or at least that is what I keep hearing).  What was there was something I enjoyed watching.  Granted I have never been a huge fan of track star / parkour zombies…  but it does generate some intense viewing.  At the end of the day I greatly prefer Walking Dead…  but this was fun as well.

Unfunny Dead

Another film that I had wanted to watch but never got around to… was the 2013 remake of Evil Dead.  A little preface leading into this…  I love the previous Evil Dead movies.  However this is primarily because I love Bruce Campbell as Ash.  He is the perfect blend of smart ass and campy super hero for my personal tastes… and if you have never watched My Name is Bruce… I highly suggest you Netflix that.  I went into this movie knowing that the end result of this reboot would essentially destroy everything I loved about the movie.  Ultimately I was fine with this… I wanted to see what the new version was anyways.  If you have not see the movie, be warned I am going to spoil various things.

I feel like the characters in this movie… could have done with a SINGLE play session of Call of Cthulhu pen and paper.  If you find a book, that is wrapped in barbed wire and left on an altar of sorts…  the last thing you EVER want to do is clip the barbed wire.  If you by some strange compulsion to you decided to clip the barbed wire… and found that the cover was made from what looks to be human flesh… for the love of god do not open it.  If for some strange reason…  you then opened the book and saw all sorts of dire warnings… for the love of fucking god do not read ANYTHING THAT IS SCRATCHED OUT ALOUD.  Essentially after the first ten minute I had already decided that the characters deserved whatever they got.

I feel like Cabin in the Woods was a so much more enjoyable version of this movie.  After the first few minutes I spent most of my time trying to figure out which single person would survive.  Ultimately that was the big surprise that I did not see coming.  The one who survives essentially throws all horror movie cannon to the four winds, which is I guess something.  The trailers billed this as the “most terrifying film you will ever experience”…  to which I assume they just had a ridiculously low bar to measure this against.  It was neither terrifying nor particularly scary other than the fact that it had near silent dialog… and blaringly loud sound effects.  So at the end of the day it might have frightened my ear drums.

Big Horns

The highlight of the day was taking my Warrior in FFXIV to 45 and completing that class quest.  One of the really awesome things is that at level 45 you get a full set of relic gear minus the chest piece.  Within moments your character turns from looking essentially the same as anyone else of your gear type… to looking like all of the character artwork for your job.  For me I get to start inching my way towards looking like the badass on the right.  Another cool feature is that finally I have a helm that you can use the /visor command on.  The above image is with the visor snapped down.

Now begins the slow climb to 50, but at the same time I have a bunch of other classes that I want to level.  I feel like I would probably be better served pushing the Warrior to 50, and then using the xp bonus on all of the other classes I level.  However right now we have a large number of guild members staggered in level.  As they need dungeons I am usually at the vanguard of folks offering to go along with whatever alternate class fits the level range.  Quickly becoming my secondary is the Archer, and I managed to get it to 25 this weekend with numerous dungeon runs.  I think bard will more than likely be the next job I pick up.

Sword and Bored

Additionally I worked on my Gladiator a bit over the weekend.  I managed to push it up to 25 and have it read to tank Toto-rak if anyone needs it.  I really want to be a Paladin eventually, because I would like to have both Warrior and Paladin maxed out so I can choose which tank class best fits the encounters we are facing.  I feel I do a good job at playing the class, and I rarely have the threat problems inherit with the class in general.  The problem is… Gladiator is just not a fun class for me.  Compared to the Marauder it is just a boring class with nothing much interesting going on other than spamming savage blade and occasionally stunning something.  I wish I had leveled it first…  because Marauder would have been a breath of fresh air compared to it.

I really don’t feel much pressure to level a gladiator however, because we have at least two players coming quickly through the ranks that have chosen that as their main focus.  Ultimately if we as a guild encounter things that require the paladin abilities, we will at least have access to them as a class.  I feel like I am probably better spent pushing up my Dragoon to 50 or getting Archer to Bard and running it to 50.  Being able to play a high level dps in additional to a high level tank seems more beneficial.  I still feel like eventually I will level most of the classes, but I feel like I have put a pretty massive dent in them so far.

You can check out my character on the lodestone… but the summary is…

• Warrior – 45
• Dragoon – 32
• Gladiator – 25
• Archer – 25
• Pugilist – 20
• Thaumaturgist – 6

Essentially I am working on pushing up all of the disciple of war classes so that I can turn the lower tiers of gear into materia and clear out some inventory space.  Once I get the archer to 30, I will likely start working on the pugilist to push it up.  I can’t really see playing Pugilist/Monk as a main class, since it is even more positional than the lancer… but it is fun to play around on it.  I have to say though that they are completely screwed when it comes to fates.  They have no viable AOE early on, and no ranged attack to tag mobs with…  so essentially you just have to spam attacks on whatever you can come in contact with.  In the world of Quick Nock, Overpower, and Ice 2… you are just screwed for contribution.

Wrapping Up

Well I need to get downstairs, feed the animals, pack up my laptop and get on the road.  This weekend overall was an extremely relaxing one.  Combining watching movies and working on classes in FFXIV I really enjoyed myself.  The one thing I have enjoyed about FFXIV more than anything at this point is the grouping.  There are several touchstone moments in the game that require a group to get past, and as a result everyone is always ready to do more grouping.  The fact that they scale you automatically, and give you decent experience for your own level is a huge plus.  I hope you all have a great week ahead of you, and that you get accomplished whatever needs to be accomplished.