[EMS] 6th Job - The first three waves

6th Job is everything a new Job Advancement should strive to be. Learning from 5th Job's shortcomings, it recaptures the impact that both 3rd and 4th Job had during their heyday. Not only are the new skills splendid, the new mechanics and utilization of the updated game engine advances the game(play) in many ways the Destiny revamp couldn't.

In today's blogpost, we'll discuss the impact that 6th Job has and examine the many new skills we're given. Similar to 5th Job, 6th Job is an ongoing work in progress as new skills and updates are released in batches. Thus, this blogpost can only cover the first three skill waves but I'll continue to write for future updates to 6th Job as I have done with 5th.

As always, I've tried to be as comprehensive as possible. Writing this blogpost took a few months and a bit more effort than I expected. It's obviously not as long as the nightmarish behemoth that was the Destiny blogpost, but it's the long promised sequel to it. But first, as is the tradition: before we dive into the subject, it's time for another history lesson.

[EMS/LEGO] New skills, new parts, Donkey Kong Bananza!

Hi guys! It's time for this month's news roundup.

The first round of Hyper Burning is pretty much done in less than three weeks. Marksman is already Level 253, so two more level ups for it to be ready for Union Champions. The next round of Hyper Burning should be available after that.

The new skills are also out, and they're great. Of course I'll have the 6th Job blogpost out somewhere next month, and for the time being I'm doing the usual dissection before I'll add their chapters to the current draft. Seeing how busy I've been lately, I'm expecting to have it published late August. The sooner the better, as the lineup of the next blogposts are pretty much locked at this point... There's a lot of work to be done, in particular next year's Galidor blogpost.

Speaking of LEGO: new parts have arrived! The majority of which are the new joint pieces I've talked about in the past few months. As I'm trying to get the 6th Job blogpost out as soon as possible, I haven't been able to build a lot with 'm, but they are promising. As always, it'll take a couple of weeks to see if these are of any help for the Ouroboros project.

Last but not least, Donkey Kong Bananza has been out for a week now! It's wonderful. Comparisons with Super Mario Odyssey are inevitable... but gameplay-wise Bananza is an improvement over its predecessor. You might be surprised to hear that I initially was not planning to get it, but the contagious speculation about its story and the fact that I had a good time with Odyssey won me over. Though after reaching the 100% completion rate I feel that Bananza's greatest moments were too sparse and that Odyssey handled a lot of things better. For that reason I'm genuinely curious to see how Bananza will age and what fans of the collect-a-thon genre have to say. If you're planning to own a Switch 2, I'd say you can't go wrong with this one. Despite my nitpicks, it's been fun and worth my time. I certainly have no regrets.

If you don't mind, I'll get back to work. I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS] Level 288!

Ding! Time to catch up. I hit Level 288 at the end of last month and with the abundance of EXP rewards from current events, I'm already past 20%. There's going to be a lot of Advanced EXP Vouchers starting July, which is another big boost. I should also note that I now have four Eternal equips and all the important Pitched Boss accessories. What's left are the more expensive ones like Mitra's Rage and the Limbo/Baldrix Eternal equips for which I'll be saving up for the time being, as these continue to drop in price. I have a bunch of (Additional) Potential to get to Legendary again...

Hyper Burning is going effortless. I should have my Marksman done somewhere in July. There's another burning at the end of this event, so I'll probably use that to get my Bowmaster to Level 260. After that, the only Union Champion left to burn is my Wind Breaker as I haven't quite decided yet who'll be my sixth. I've been leaning towards Paladin, which might not be ideal but it'll do the job. Especially with all the skill and knowledge I have. It certainly is a very safe bet...

I'm not really participating in the Challenge World because our version is quite abysmal. I can't be arsed to grind for weeks as I also don't even have character slots for it. What I am doing however is casually working on a Sia for its Skill Link and on-grid Union effect. It's already Level 210+ without much effort, so for the remainder of the Challenge World event I'll be coasting. Ya know, it would've been nice if we knew in advance whether we'll get the Kaling pass.

But forget about all of that: it's time to talk about the juicy news. The silver lining in not doing well means my insomnia is at an all-time high. With so many restless hours I've been speeding through the 6th Job blogpost as it's nearly done. The only chapters left to write are the new skills that'll arrive next month. Give it the usual 2 weeks of in-game testing and by that time, it's already late July. Until then, I'll be finalizing everything else. The 6th Job blogpost is pretty much locked for an August release. I'll give a better estimate on which week I'm expecting to publish it in the next blogpost.

I was also given the opportunity to own a Switch 2 a month earlier than planned, so I took it. I believe it's the first time I've actually bought a console in its release week. Not gonna lie, from the perspective of someone who's sunk years in MKDS: Mario Kart World is a bit all over the place. It's been a reality check and a reminder why the series is struggling to recover from MK Wii's legacy. Don't get me wrong, on a technical level the game's quite the achievement. Loading times are non-existent, the attention to detail is meticulous. The racing experience's both effortless and comfy. But on the other hand, free roam is quite barren and its façade crumbles after some playtime. The game then also becomes a completionist's nightmare as all of the modern Mario Kart issues accumulates into a frustrating experience trying to tackle its final challenges. It's where the game falls apart as winning races becomes a grind for hours, fishing for that one lucky run. No matter how well prepared and skilled you are, the homestretch will take away your agency. Going from F-Zero (G)X on Master Difficulty to this has certainly been a whiplash. Donkey Kong Bananza on the other hand looks to be in good hands. I'm looking forward to play that one next month, and I'll probably share my thoughts then.

Now, what about my thoughts on Cyber Shadow, as I've now played it? It's great. In fact, I'd like to save the topic for its own blogpost as there's a lot of good stuff to talk about. Kudos to its sole developer; he really understands what made the NES Ninja Gaiden trilogy tick and it's clear to see the inspirations he got from some of the other works he's played.

But that's it for today as I'll get back to work on that 6th Job blogpost - I'll Sia guys again next post!

[EMS] Hyper Burning #7!

Another Level 260 character done; this be my eighth mule past Level 250. It'll be my second Union Champion, once that's out. Next up is Marksman, and moving forward we should have Hyper Burning Max to make this process easier.

Usually I would maximize the event's duration and reach 260 towards the end, but due to recent circumstances I opted to sacrifice some of the EXP rewards that would've gone on my main. Quite frankly, I haven't been doing well lately as setbacks keep piling up faster than I'm able to manage them. Things continue to get worse, and this leads me to be less harsh on myself by softening the grind. I have to preserve myself for the long and arduous road ahead, y'know.

That said, with all of these Hyper Burnings in the past couple of years, I'm now two burnings away from reaching 9500 Union. Level 288 guaranteed within two weeks; I'm still on schedule for Level 290 this year. I now have time to work on that 6th Job blogpost again, as I've wrapped up the building session for Ouroboros. Conclusion? None worked; going back to the build developed by James Bruton. Unfortunately, translating this into LEGO requires* up to 48 of the new clutch joints, which aren't available from LEGO's store until later this year. I aint paying those current Bricklink prices.

*To give you an idea: I've built several prototype legs this year (without clutch joints) to determine the viability of James Bruton's build in LEGO. Leg frames (without decoration) can easily weigh 1 kg, and they're going to have to carry a tremendous amount of weight. Technic turntables can work, but they necessitate a large amount of connectors and pins, all of which adds weak points to the frame. These become a liability with the speed and weight of the model. The new joints simplifies the build process and requires less parts. In doing so, it provides a much sturdier and compact frame.

Anyway, next month is the Summer update reveal for KMS; I'm looking forward to that. Also, by then I should have my copy of Cyber Shadow so I can finally play that one. It can't be worse than last year's ninja game, right? Right!?

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!

[EMS/LEGO] The busy month of April...

It's been a jam-packed month. Let's unpack what we got.

EMS had its 18th anniversary this month; that also means in September I'll be playing for 18 years daily as well. Of course I haven't forgotten my plans for that blogpost; but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

With the essential weekly bosses now on the menu, I've achieved my short-term goal in preparation for the NEXT update. Upgraded all of the low-hanging fruit, so back to saving up mesos for the remaining Eternal equipment I go. As I've paid off the symbol fees, I'm now done with them until the next one unlocks at Level 290. Combo Instinct's 6th Job enhancement is maxed out, so until the new 6th Job skills arrive I'll be working on enhancing Sword of Burning Soul.

Earlier today I've wrapped up the grind for the Tanjiro class. Do I even want to open the can of worms and start writing about anime and literature on this blog? No, I don't think I will. That said, I've played my cards right so the Level 260 grind was without much effort. Maple has always been about resource management. I've been frugal with my stuff so I had the perfect use for this month's Chains of Resentment. You'd be surprised how many people called me a madman for "wasting" it on Tanjiro. I'll remind you that none of these guys got theirs to Level 260. The event provided more than you need as it was trivial to reach the one-shot ceiling with 1764% bonus EXP - a hard cap of about 68% every hour between 250 and 260. The only thing that would've made it faster was to add Holy Symbol, but I was too lazy to use my Bishop laptop next to me. Anyway, off to become a Paladin you go, and it even managed to recuperate some cost.

The Hyper Burning coupon from the Tanjiro event is currently used on my first Union Champion mule; a Wild Hunter. Just the plain ol' daily quest to Level 260 approach, so I'll get there by the end of next month. I now have the time to resume writing the 6th Job blogpost, which had to give because of this month's busywork. I've reserved 31 chapters (Destiny blogpost-style), and I've just start writing about the first skill in chapter 5. I'll try to get as much work done as possible in the next months, and the current plan does include adding in the upcoming skills once we have them.

But more importantly, at the end of March I was given the opportunity of a lifetime. About ten years ago I've started to write about Mokarr: an unreleased LEGO set that you could consider my white whale. During my hunt, I've become somewhat of a Galidor journalist within the community. I've had plans to write about the other parts that I got my hands on years ago, but I never really found time for that due to the four years lost to the production hell of ill-fated projects. 

The silver lining of having delayed the Galidor blogposts meant that I was able to get far better information during that period, and I stumbled upon a group effort with other LEGO fans as I've helped theqelement website with cataloging Mokarr and other unreleased Galidor sets. One thing led to another, and by coincidence we now have a complete list of all cancelled Galidor sets for the first time in 23 years after its cancellation. To make up for keeping you all waiting, I'm planning to write a proper blogpost going through everything I know and (now) have once I have the time for it.

That said, my blog is always a low priority. I will always give priority to more important matters. Right now, my portfolio for LEGO will always be first as it's my life's work. At the end of last year I've talked about the plans for Ouroboros and I have been looking into ways to get this bipedal robot to walk. Next month I will spend several weeks in research and development to determine how feasible a particular solution is. It might not sound much, but if this works... I might've accidentally solved everything. And by everything I really mean everything... Even the dreadful projects MK. 7 and 11.

So uhm, what are my thoughts about the DEX? What could I possibly add to the conversation that hasn't already been said at length? Perhaps that, whatever was originally planned is thrown out of the window. They reprinted the artbook for the occasion but any of the grand plans it reveals means little now. It feels like they just rushed this port because the Switch 2 was around the corner and they made sure to kill off any prospects for a sequel. And even if there's going to be one - it's going to need to be something truly special to make up for it. Caveat emptor; just stick to the original.

That's it for today - I'll see you guys again next post!