Strategy 005

Sally, calm yo ass down.  Although this post may be intimidating to read due to its traumatic length, I hope that you, the reader, will do your job and—yes—read this post entirely and carefully.  If you play Ballista, I guarantee that it will be worth your time.  If you don’t play Ballista, read it anyway.  For the shits and giggles.  Mostly the shits.

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In the past week, I’ve been busy with mundane routines of the notorious phenomenon commonly known as ‘IRL’, but during my downtime from FFXI, I’ve been brainstorming a few notable thoughts and ideas in regards to—you’ve guessed it—Ballista.  Between the few NA players in my LS, two novel terms have been coined in order to describe and categorize Ballista aptitude more effectively: ‘battle skill’ and ‘technical skill’.

More or less, the term ‘battle skill’ is quite self-explanatory.  Battle skill, as the name implies, refers to the raw finesse of the user to maneuver and persist in combat.  This includes the ability to predict and evade enemy WSs, as well as executing job abilities—especially Third Eye—and WSs with precision.

Technical skill, on the other hand, is a term that was somewhat recently coined in order to better characterize the styles of certain players.  It would be best described as ‘quarrying technique’: when and where to quarry.  Since this ‘quarrying technique’ is definitive and explicit to Ballista, it’s usually overlooked.  When the general public—or anyone for that matter—thinks of ‘PvP’, fighting and killing other players to win is typically the first thought that comes to mind.  However, Ballista differs in that the objective is to score more petras (points) than the opposing team—much like a sport.  Because of this prevailing fact, technical skill should be taken more into consideration.  (As a side note, I believe it should also include the timing of items, such as using incenses—carnal, celestial, and spiritual.)

Aside from battle skill and technical skill, I would like to coin another term that includes communication and cooperativeness—or teamwork (for lack of better words).  This has been discussed several times already, but I don’t quite remember if a term was coined for this skill.  This skill entails notifying teammates of the enemies’ petra counts, the player’s own petra count and TP, calling targets, and executing WSs in unison with teammates to create spike damage or skillchains in order to cause an immediate drop in an enemy’s HP.  Those who have played the highest form of Ballista in Diorama should already have a strong understanding of the importance of spike damage.  To list a few reasons, spike damage (1) evokes panic and alert to both the target and the opposing team as a whole and (2) can prevent the target to escape or recover—either by items, cures, or job ability (Charka?).  A valid name for this skill could perhaps be communication skill, but it sounds too lame for my taste.  Vocal skill maybe?  Eh—no, that reminds me of American Idol.  If anyone has appropriate suggestions, please feel free to voice it, but for now, I’ll refer to this as ‘communication skill’.  (Another side note: communication skills also imply leadership.)

Although it’s less significant, a fourth relevant term would be dedication.  Within the black LS, Irvines and Lily would probably be the best examples of dedicated players.  Dedication includes devoting time and gil to Ballista, such as augmenting and attending Diorama events.  People may think that dedication may not directly affect the overall skill of a player, but it certainly drives one to improve, grow stronger, and even innovate new Ballista ideas.  Moreover, attending matches keeps a player in ‘good shape’.  It’s like hitting the gym to workout.  Sort of.  I don’t know about other people’s cases, but I get sloppy after a week without playing Ballista.  Both my movements and reaction speed become considerably impaired, and I usually end up looking like I’m still cruising in ’04.  In that aspect, I would acknowledge that dedication does indeed affect a Ballista player’s overall skill.

“Aight, V, I’ve been playing Ballista for years and already know this shit inside and out.  Why the hell are you bringing it up now?”

Very good question, my friend.  Overtime, I’ve noticed prominent differences in the play styles between the black LS and us, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has realized this either.  It’s evident that we concentrate our training on battle skill and communication skill.  Almost everything that we’ve discussed in terms of Ballista improvements involved dodging WSs, Third Eye, executing WSs, calling targets, notifying teammates of petra counts or Rook moves, and so forth.  Very little has been directed to technical skill.  In other words, our overall play style is rather raw for the most part.

Players from the black LS, however, do quite the opposite.  They apply their technical skill to gather high tier items, such as Revitalizers, Giant’s Drinks, and Megalixirs, in order to win the game.  As previously mentioned, the term ‘technical skill’ is still relatively new.  The primary reason for coining this term was to be able to describe the black LS players better.  It is ‘their’ style after all.  Quarrying is usually seen as a method of acquiring petra and not necessarily items, and on top of that, it’s based on luck—or so people think.  It has come to Ballista community’s attention that it’s a technique—a skill.  How is it that they’re able to spam Eagle Eye Shots and Spirit Surges in multiple matches so consistently?  It’s a skill.  Their style of play allows them to win the game much more smoothly than those who have a weaker understanding of quarrying technique.  With an arsenal of powerful items, they’re able to survive longer which implies that they’re less susceptible to losing their TP due to death and have higher probabilities of finishing off their targets, acquiring gatebreach, and scoring.

“Dude, you’re boring the shit out of me.  What’s your point?”

Sally, calm yo ass down.  Looking back at past matches both with and against the black LS players, they show lower battle and communication skills but have technical skills that undoubtedly surpasses ours.  These differences in the variations of Ballista skills between the black LS and us have become gradually apparent.  Despite the significant differences, they tend to win more matches than us due to their ability to access higher tier items.  With that said, I recall a certain series of Diorama matches, where T and Apollon/Mrrng were both playing DRG.  He actually mentioned these games in his previous post.  T was able to Third Eye and evade Apo’s WSs but still lost to his consistent Revitalizer/Spirit Surge spam consecutive times.

I also recall games in which the black LS players failed to quarry higher tier items, and needless to say, it was like a walk in a park.  I remember one match in particular that abides to that claim.  It was a recent 3:3 game in which the jobs were WAR, DRG, and PLD.  The participants were initially Aya (WAR), Saraphy (WAR), T (DRG), Lily (DRG), Mami (PLD), and Yours Truly (PLD).  No offense (even though this is offensive), but we all know that Saraphy blows hard.  Aya raped his WAR every game.  Eventually, he gave up, and Varier (on his Galka—of course) substituted in.  It just so happened that the Herald shuffled the teams to Aya, T, and I vs Varier, Lily, and Mami.  At first, even I was a little worried because Varier’s WAR is quite skilled, as I’ve sparred with him before.  Unfortunately for Varier, Aya showed no mercy and ripped his penis off.  And his balls.  Neither teams were able to quarry game-changing items that match, so it was a raw fight of battle skill.  The final score ended up to be 16 – 3 (our way, of course).  Go team.  And yes, I do realize that Mami is part of our LS, but this example was just to show the differences in expertise.

“tl;dr afk”

Well, if you’ve stayed with me this far, you’re in luck because I’m going to provide brief overview on technical skill and the methodology of quarrying higher tier items.

Here’s an attempt to categorize the Ballista items into tiers.  High tier items would probably include Revitalizer, Giant’s/Wizard’s Drink, Megalixir, Max-Potion, and Hi-Elixir.  Daedalus Wing, Carnal Incense, Pro-Ether, Elixir, Healing/Mana Powder, and Body/Mana Boost would be considered mid tier while everything else is low tier.

The quarrying topic has already been discussed within the JP Ballista community, and certain players—namely Selt and Irvines, as T mentioned—have already cracked the code for quarrying high tier items.  Since this information spread like wildfire across the JP Ballista community, a number of players are close to mastering or have already mastered this technique.  It’s a phenomenon in which they call ‘hyper’.  Here are a few links to Selt’s and Irvines’ blog entries that concern this matter.  Apollon also wrote a blog entry regarding quarrying, but it was difficult to determine what he was saying through a mere online translator.

Irv: <<link 1>>
Selt: <<link 1>>, <<link 2>>, <<link 3>>
Apo: <<link 1>>

Moreover, Selt uploaded a video of 45 minutes of quarrying to test and provide proof of quarrying being more of a skill rather than a head-on gamble, as shown below.  Of course, I don’t expect anyone to watch more than a minute of it.  Well, actually, even a minute is a bit of a stretch.

So the technique is actually quite simple, but discovering it just took a while—somewhat like the discover of ‘F=ma’.  There are a few prominent factors that increase the odds of a player quarrying high tier items:

(1) The player must accumulate about one to three deaths.
(2) Expended job abilities.  Having job abilities used up, especially 2-hour, significantly increases the chances of quarrying a Revitalizer.  I believe Selt was able to quarry 10 Revitalizers in 9 minutes.
(3) Using a Petra Shovel supposedly helps.
(4) Being on the losing team helps but plays a lesser role compared to (1) and (2).  I suppose it’s comparable to a losing situation in a game of Mario Kart.  When you’re losing—like cruising in 8th place—you have a greater chance of obtaining the thunderbolt that turns everyone into munchkins.  Sweet item.  Sweet game.

Although many trials of testing have been conducted, these are still mere theories, but despite that, by applying these basic steps, a player can head near the Rook and receive consistent quarry results like such:

Players from the black LS have been practicing this strategy since we first met them.  With such consistent results from following the quarrying strategy, is it still a theory?  Is quarrying based on skill or luck?  Easy?  It surely sounds that way, but T makes a valid point from his previous blog entry: “Although this seems very easy, incorporating it into your usual match play is what makes the difference.”

Now that I think about it, I’ve always wondered why Apollo (DRG) asked me (PLD) not to cure him during the initial fight.  He intentionally died.  I suppose it was to return to the battlefield quicker, as he claimed, and acquire one death in order to improve his chances of quarrying high tier items.  However, just the thought of wanting to die in Ballista in such a manner seems counter-intuitive; people are caring much less whether they live or die.  It’s like saying, “If I die, I’ll just come back with a Revitalizer or Megalixir to make up for it.”  Needless to say, I’m not very fond of it.

As previously mentioned, the black LS players have been practicing this strategy for a while now and have made it the ultimate theme for Ballista.  Since this strategy is open to the internet, “newer JP players to the Diorama scene seem to try to focus on the item strategy before even learning the original ways that have been honed for years,” says T.  “It’s a sad devolution of play.”  Despite their lesser battle skill, black LS players have been able to obtain consistent wins with the quarrying technique.  It’s definitely not an overwhelmingly difficult technique to master; battle skill is much harder to improve upon.  If we’re able to tap into ‘hyper’ mode more freely, readily, and naturally, it would be bad news for them.  While fighting near the Rook, take a bow (as Rihanna would say) and give quarrying a shot.  That Revitalizer just might pop.  Then, you’ll be like Chris Brown and destroy worlds.

Anyway, aside from the Fenrir style match between Chris Brown and Rihanna, let’s return to the Lakshmi scene.  Currently, the situation appears to be a high battle, low technical skill group against a low battle, high technical skill group, and the pros and cons of the styles regarding both groups are quite apparent.  In order to be a well-balanced player, all necessary skills need to be polished through practice and finding ways to improve.  There are also other important factors that constitute a skilled player.  One of which would include the versatility to play a variety of jobs [well]—especially being able to switch between front and back line jobs.  However, I’m aiming to describe a skill much rawer—more raw?—than that.  Rawr.  I’m looking to coin a final term that I would like to call ‘sharpness’.  This brings me to a Starcraft documentary by National Geographic that I watched way back in my days of youth.

“Fuck Starcraft.”

Bare with me; it’s relevant, I promise.  Professional gamers are typically referred to as ‘pro-gamers’.  No surprise.  In the documentary, scientists were startled upon the lightning fast reflexes of professional Starcraft players who have APMs (actions per minute) of 300-400 or above, whereas casual players could barely reach APMs of 100.  Scientists ran an experiment with two people playing Starcraft, a pro-gamer and a casual player—who we’ll call Bob and George respectively for convenience.  Here’s the broadcast word for word, besides the players’ names:

“[Bob's] superhuman abilities have aroused the interest of the medical community.  Doctors are curious to find out if it’s genetics that make a pro-gamer special.  With a casual player [George] as a control subject, they’re about to probe the secrets to [Bob's] brain.  What makes him so extraordinary?  The players are led into a room, where they play Starcraft against each other.  When the game starts to pick up, radioactive glucose is injected into their bloodstream.  The more active parts of their brains get more blood flow and hence more glucose.  Minutes later, the players undergo a brain scan.  The results could explain why some people play for hours everyday but never achieve the same level of skill as pro-gamers.

The results surprise the doctors.  The scan shows that two parts of [Bob's] brain were most active—the frontal lobe (responsible for reasoning and decision making), where huge amounts of stimuli were being processed, and the limbic area (responsible for memory and instinct)—which seems to suggest that his decisions were being made instinctively.  Playing Starcraft to [Bob] feels almost like typing to a secretary—the fingers instinctively finding the keys.  The amateur player [George], on the other hand, was using the part of his brain responsible for vision.  Like everyone else, he was consciously deciding his response to every movement he saw on the screen, but [Bob's] lightning reflexes will probably slow down by the age of 25.”

So we can see that you’re going to blow once you hit 25.  Just kidding.  Moving on.  From the study, the difference between the skill levels of Bob and George were determined by their brain functionality.  Bob’s decisions were primarily processed by his limbic system, whereas George’s were processed by his visual cortex.  Even if George dedicates himself to play day in and day out, he will never be able to reach the same level of skill as Bob due to the different functionality of their brains.

Relating this idea to Ballista, there are some players who seem naturally talented and skilled, whereas others never seem to improve, despite the amount of practice they receive.  Those naturally talented players possess a certain ‘sharpness’ that others lack, and such sharpness allows them to do extremes.  Some examples include (1) predicting enemy maneuvers with precision, (2) being alert of when an enemy is about to score (especially the famous invisible-hide-in-Rook scoring technique), (3) evading WSs one after another, (4) quarrying and using items at the most convenient and perfect times, and (5) being able to score petras with everyone and their mothers on their ass.  Somehow.  Those are only a few examples of the raw attribute that I call sharpness, and there are certainly countless situations where this sharpness can be applied.  Again, it’s a trait that only a few possess and many lack.  I’m not trying to discourage anyone from improving in Ballista, but it’s not certain whether it can be ‘learned’ or ‘acquired’ through mere practice; it almost seems innate.  With that said, this ‘sharpness’ could potentially be the prevailing factor—the gap—that distinguishes between the ‘really good’ and the ‘truly great’.

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So overall, a Ballista player’s aptitude can be broken down into five categories of measurement: battle skill, technical skill, communication skill, dedication, and sharpness.  Without doubt, having exceptional and exceeding proficiency in these categories would make one an extremely talented, ‘truly great’ player.  In terms of the few of us improving as a group, we should direct most attention to technical skill, as we’re too ‘raw’ as a whole.  Communication still can also use a bit of work, too, but that’s an easier skill to improve upon. Other than that, I would say that we’re in good standings regarding overall aptitude.

I don’t really have much else to say here.  Everything that needed to be said has already been said unless I carelessly neglected something.  Some ideas may have been poorly phrased, so if anything is still unclear, let me know.

Well, folks, this blog entry is coming to an end.  Even though this is a traumatically long post, I hope that you took the time to read it because I took the time to write it—durh.  Anyway, thanks for tuning in, and I hope that you gained something from reading this entry.  May the product of mass times acceleration be with you.

“HOLY SHIT TOO LONG DIDNT READ AND WHO THE FUCK IS SALLY”

Reread the very first sentence.