No New Shinies ; ;

Sunday was another run at Dynamis - Beaucedine. We teamed up with a low-man group to get the clear for them and ended up taking 48 people into the zone. It was a slaughterfest. We killed the mobs so fast I could barely get two swings in on mobs that weren't NMs, THF, or PLD. We got to the boss in about 45 mins or so. Then things turned ugly.

Our dragon-puller got killed on his kite to the zoneline and our main PLD had never done the boss before, and pulled the boss to the rest of the alliance who were all sneakily waiting nearby. So, the dragons come back and omgwtfPWNd the entire group.

So, we decide to HP, come back and try again (for the record, I just wanted to come back and farm and screw the attampt for the win). Well, we lose almost 1/3 of the group by the time people make it back to the zone and unweaken. We go for two more time extensions and get them before enough people gripe that we should just farm for the rest of the run, instead of the suicide attempt at the win. As it turns out, the farming sucked and we didn't get any drops.

For once, I want to come out of a Beaucedine with a dozen relic like I see some other LS get sometimes. We had DRGx2, COR, BST I think. So, just one more week that the Briault, Tabard, and cuisses escape me...

Oh, and lots of death meant that I came out of dynamis with a 3.5k buffer on WAR. Gots to do something about that!

Yesterday, I flag up and hit the campaign trail to get a bigger buffer for WAR before the next Dynamis. Well, the invite was slow coming, but I eventually got one and headed to Mt. Z for a bit of troll-killing fun! The leader asked me to come /SAM which was much fun! PT was PLD, MNK, WAR, DRK, BRD, RDM. We had some time in Mt. Z waiting for the PT to gather, so by the time I got to camp, i was at 300% TP. Wanting to set the bar high for the PLD, I waited for the first provoke on the first mob before I used berserk/aggressor/warcry/hasso/warrior's charge Steel Cyclone for 1600 dmg. When I told Ia, she said something about me being a meat-head or a melee-tard or something like that. It was pretty awesome

The PT went pretty well. Diamondhide and PLD mobs gave us trouble. I felt that I was the top DD in the PT though and was pleased with my performance. I tended to save my TP to do a darkness SC with the MNK or a distortion SC with the PLD (gogo working off points towards King's Justice!) which would tend to leave me tanking the mob for a few provokes from the PLD (or until the mob was dead, as was often the case). It was nice to see some fully un-resisted SCs and watch the life bar of the mob drop by 30% or more in one chunk (like a 1300 Steel Cyclone which closed a 900 pt Darkness skillchain). I had a lot of fun in that PT, even though we weren't getting insane XP. I managed to get my buffer up above 20k before I left for Nyzul. I'd love to do some more meriting on WAR, get a bit of a bigger buffer, then start working on some more merits.

Nyzul was pretty fun. We did 3x80 hoping for some GD askar. We picked up Alden to replace Redd, and Ia came to rep Yosh. It was nice having Ia along and getting to do something with her in game again. It seems like it's been forever since we've actually done an event outside of besieged.

The first two runs went very smooth, getting to the boss floor with 15 and 12 mins remaining. We had Cerb both times and both times we were able to take him out without too much trouble. We got RNG weapon on the first, Denali and PUP weapon on the 2nd boss kill, which Alden lotted (I'm guessing slig didn't want it).

The 3rd run went pretty well until floor 78 or 79. It was a huge floor; objective: kill leader. The leader was a the frog BLM, and things just seemed to go wrong. Slig and I were the only ones there at first, so we got started on the NM. Ia had to go AFK 'cause the baby was fussing, so she sat at the rune. Eventually the rest of the PT showed up and then things wend downhill. A couple of charms went off, turning CB and slig into little bitch-froggies. They killed Alden, then me. CB uncharmed and was killed by wack (who was just charmed) and slig. Slig uncharmed and was killed by the NM and wack. Then Wack uncharmed, and I thought we might have a chance. But, oh no, SE wouldn't allow that. the NM used Firaga III knocking wack down to less than 200 hp and then KO'd hiim with a couple of melee hits.

It took a little time to recover and get everyone raised. We had only a couple of minutes left, so we decided to try to zerg the NM just to get the clear on the floor and then exit, but we ran out of time. We may have been able to kill the NM if Ia hadn't gone AFK because we could've used her Horde lullaby to sleep the charmed ppl, but I wouldn't say it was a sure win if she had been there. Really, I can't complain since we've had a few weeks of nearly flawless runs. Having one bad run now and then isn't so bad.

I think Ia could see the difference in our performance compared the the first few times we tried Nyzul (when was that, exactly?!). The static that we have works very well together, which is always very nice to see. I hope that we leave a good impression on those who we pick up to fill in when needed. Great job guys!

Posted Dec 24 2008, 11:55 AM

Fail x2

Last night was Dynamis - Bastok with RebornLegacy. I had high hopes for lots of wootz ore, but the main PLD really had his lotbot working for him. The first 3 that dropped he lotted over 900 (one he lost). Twice I had lots over 700, only to see him lot higher. The third one he actually passed, just so that people wouldn't be so upset with hiim, which I was grateful for since it ended up dropping to me. All-in-all I got 12 synth items, so I made roughly 130k from dynamis last night. <3 Dynamis Bastok!

The path they took through the zone seemed very strange. We had one complete wipe (I think I got the award for most deaths: 7) and for some reason were unable to get to the next time extension, so we actually timed out without getting the clear... in Bastok... 13 AF drops: DRGx3, DRKx3, BRDx2, DNC, SAM, MNK, RDM, SMN. All 3 DRK, 2 DRG, and one BRD went freelot. The DRG & DRG all the way down to 0-39!

I headed back to Whitegate to put some stuff on the AH and saw a shout for Nyzul Floor 80, Goliard/Askar free, @5/6 wanting RDM. Whenever I see someone shouting that they need a RDM I immediately become suspicious. Well, since dynamis got done so early (relatively speaking) I sent a tell to see how many runs they were gonna do. The reply was just 1 so I decided to join them. The PT was SAM, WAR, DRG, BLU, THF, RDM. I should've insisted that I go WHM for the extra support or at least declined the PT without having a backup healer, but I didn't. (one of these days, I'm going to trust my instinct) As I was gearing up, the PT raised concerns about my MP (I had just changed jobs and was getting gear). The leader asked if I had WAR which I assume meant that someone else in the group had RDM levelled... I should've gone along with it so that I could've come on WAR instead of being the sole support for a floor 80 boss.

Short version: we time out on floor 80 with Cerberus at about 8& (magma hoplon and ululation are just killers, especially for only one support), and the BLU is a douche.

Long version: The BLU was impatient with me from the start. If I'm the only support, I need a LOT of items from the vending box, but this dude was harassing me to hurry. We zone into floor 76 and I start buffing myself while the rest of the PT takes off to kill stuff. The BLU ends up tanking (the WAR's 'voke was broken) for a bit and eventually his shadows go down and he takes a couple of hits. Then he says "are you gonna cure me anytime soon?" and "cure please" and stupid spam like that. I tell him to "shut the F*** up" and go on my merry way trying to manage my MP keeping these guys alive. A number of times during the run, he says similar things, but my reply was always the same ^^

We had 2 floors which really slowed us down: Flayer family (their un-dispellable ice spikes really hurt my MP) and a 'kill all' floor the size of Texas. We zoned up to floor 80 with just under 6 minutes to get the kill. Since we were low on time, the group used their items and just went right in. I ended up tanking for a small while since I had to spam cures on the melees, but nobody seemed to care that their only healer was getting his tail ripped off by a three-headed dragon! I end up getting KO'd, wait for Cerberus to use a TP move, then RR, Chainspell cast RR, use fanatics drink, then spam cures/paralyna as much as I can before Chainspell and the Fanatics drink wear off and I go down for the second time. I again wait for a TP move and see the BLU and SAM go down. I RR and try to keep the other two DD alive (the THF wasn't really doing much) and we end up timing out.

When we landed back in Alzadaal Undersea Ruins, I was tempted to just leave the BLU dead on the floor. I decided to be the bigger man (galka?) however and raised him despite the major a-hole factor that he had going.

Only got one NM on the run which appraised to a pair of khayan. So, Askar still eludes me, but I'll get it someday, if I just keep with it long enough!

I've been camping the AH for a Faerie Hairpin and an Amemet Mantle +1, but there haven't been any on for the past couple of days. If anyone happens to see these items, I'lll pay up to 210k for the hairpin and 150k for the mantle. I'd appreciate your help!

Posted Dec 18 2008, 10:39 AM

Tuesday Night Recap

Looking to finish off my last MP merit, I geared up as WAR and set out seeking. In ~30 minutes, I get an invite from Rellima, the sponsor of the FashionablyLate dynamis LS (I ran with these guys a few times, but got frustrated and left when I discovered that the majority of the group were retards). I recognize 4 others as members of that linkshell too, including Ibanezz.

So, we decide on a camp and head out to the lower bird camp. Before we even begin, Ibanezz /checks me and says "Truece, your gear is super gimp. I've seen 10 year olds gear themselves better..."

At this point, I'm thinking 'fuck you, dude we haven't even started yet' but I just let it slide. I figured I'd let my actions speak louder than his words.

So, we're rolling along, doing pretty well, and have gotten about 5k xp in 15 minutes. I figure that I'm doing well enough because I certainly have the mobs attention enough to constantly have my food stolen and my TP wiped.

Then, my laptop crashes. So, I reboot and log back in, put my flag up, and wait/watch as they kill bird after bird and don't invite me. I get a tell from Rellima who says that Ibanezz is the leader now, and to /tell him for an invite. Then I get a tell from the other BRD in the PT saying that it is bullshit... I asked him what is. He said that Iba repped me in the 5 minutes that I was gone!. I tell him to cancel the rep as I was obviously back, and the dude hadn't even left whitegate. At this point, I think the RDM in the PT disapproved of the whole situation because I see him d/c and then get to joyfully watch as the rest of the PT wipes. They all homepoint and disband. So I only ended up getting about 5k in that party, which is disappointing because we had the lower level to ourselves and the birds were going down fast, but apparently my gear was so gimp and my performance was so terrible that this prick of a player would rather disband than have me in their party. Oh, and to further illustrate the dick-ish-ness of Ibanezz, a few minutes after they home pointed, I see my rep arrive to an empty camp.

I then ask Ibanezz what I need to change as far as my gear goes. He says: the NQ amemet mantle has to go and your rings are weird. That's it. I guess 5 ATK and an extra point of STR are indeed grounds for breaking a PT.

What.
A.
Jackass.

I spend the rest of my time before Nyzul doing some campaign battles. (I was able to finish merit 2 in Nyzul, so I just need 30k more limit points and then I'll be done w/ MP merits!)

Due to bad driving conditions/girlfriends the Nyzul static didn't get started on time (surprise face!), so I spent some time shopping at the AH. I decided to spend some of my gil and start buying some of the WHM gear that I've been thinking about for some time now. I picked up a Blue Cape +1, Astral Earring, and Beak necklace +1. Now, if I can just find a Faerie Hairpin, I'll have all of the best +MP gear that you can get from the AH. To complete my max MP set, I'll still need Vivian's Ring, Zenith Slacks, Loquacious Earring, and Zedoma's Earring (Tiny, Redd, Deep wanna do an BC with me?). Once I get these things (if ever) and finish my last MP merit, I should have ~1250 MP in my xp gear, and 1300+ in my Max MP set (with food, of course).

We decide to climb to 75 and then do 2x80 for more body armor. The first run, we finish floor 75 with a couple of minutes to spare when instead of exiting, we advance. I was pissed. What a fucking waste of time. Luckily, we didn't have any issues for the 2nd and 3rd runs and were able to get the clears on both 75 and 80. The 2nd run we were slow on the first floor and I wasn't sure if we'd have enough time to get the win when we found ourselves on a free floor! Free floors are great and all, but I said at the time that free floor = no armor. It turns out I was right. We were able to kill Cerberus with a few minutes to spare and all we got for our efforts was a BLU sword. Our luck on drops seriously sucks!

We appraised and got nothing notable (I was really hoping for a spider torque from Dune Widow, but it turned out to be a beetle gorget). So now, I'm at 21/25 towards my next promotion (which SHOULD have been 22/25) so maybe I can get a pickup group or two before next week and get some extra armor and a win or two so that next week I will be able to get my promotion to Corporal.

I think I'll continue to watch for shouts where askar is freelot and get in on those whenever possible since I think I'm 4th in line for askar behind Wack, CB, and Redd (I don't know if Redd wants askar or denali, but I assume Askar). If I can get my hands on some Askar, maybe I won't get pseudo-kicked from any more parties!

Posted Dec 17 2008, 10:56 AM

Fields of Valor

I had some chances to do some more Fields of Valor over the weekend. Since I had finished /DNC, I thought I'd try my hand at pummeling skeletons in Xarcabard as MNK. So, I gear up, dust off my MNK macros and warp out there.

I decided to /DNC so I could have some healing available for the 4:59 out of every 5:00 that Chakra isn't available. I forgot that sambas don't work on undead, however. I really struggled to take down a single EP ghost on my own. So, I finished my training regimen and then decided to try again another time.

Ia and I teamed up and headed back out to Beaucedine for some FoV goodness. This time, I sync'd to her level and we went to work beating stuff up as PLD + MNK. It was super fun! It was nice to actually put up some decent numbers and our killspeed was much better than it was when I was DNC.

We got through one of the training regimens in good time. I'm looking forward to going out and doing some more of that! Hopefully I'll soon ding MNK50 and start my AF quests, then ding 51 and start doing some mean Kick Attacks!!! I can't wait

Dynamis was cancelled Sunday night because neither of the two LS sponsors could be online. I had considered sponsoring the run myself, but decided not to even offer. I'd rather someone else risk their gil

I headed up to sky with TheSons for a change of pace. I went WHM, which was fun if I had been the only WHM in the PT. For some reason there wasn't a good distribution of jobs in the alliance so it was kind of annoying. It didn't last too long, however, as the other WHM dropped to go with a sub-group to camp a different NM. Once the trigger farming was complete, I went and changed to RDM for a Seiryu fight.

I'm not sure why they wanted me as RDM. I warned Arioch that my RDM gear is lame, but he said to change anyways. I play so little RDM that I always have a hard time getting back into the groove. So, I didn't do a very good job. It didn't really help that the PT was PLD PLD PLD WHM RDM WAR. I totally neglected to give the 2nd and 3rd PLDs Refresh until it was too late and they were starting to go down. Maybe if I do a shitty-enough job, they won't want me to come as RDM any more!

I was the only person wanting A.Legs but I wasn't named as a lotter before the fight (Ari didn't mention lotting privs for A.Legs at all), so I figure that I didn't have enough points to lot and if they had dropped, they'd have been freelot to all. Kote dropped which Protecus and Sstrunks had commented. Wack lots 108... sstrunks lots 49. Yay wack! Then something weird shows up on the screen: "Sstrunks obtains a pair of Seiryu's Kote"

W T F?

The only thing that I can think of is that Wack accidentally passed on them when he was passing other loot in the treasure pool. There is really no other explanation. I feel bad that that happened.

It was fun doing some stuff in Sky. I look forward to being able to do more stuff up there, but before that can happen, I need to get a few more pieces of relic from Dynamis, specifically WHM Body, RDM Hat & Body, and WAR Body & Legs. Once I have those things, I'll feel better about dropping one event in favor of the other.

Posted Dec 15 2008, 02:52 PM

Lots of Potential, Little Reward

After having such a successful run with that dynamis shell on Wed night, I was pumped to log in and get some stuff accomplished. I was just 4k from DNC37 so I was going to start with finishing that subjob. Then, I was going to either skill up or campaign/lfp.

When I logged in, however, I noticed that a besieged was about to start. So, I tweaked my plans a bit and did the besieged first. I teamed up with Wack and Necromancerneo to beat up on some Troll Mercenaries. Well, i died a whole bunch, but was alive when it counted and got a few sorely-needed IS (I had used almost all of them on an ISNM run on Tuesday).

After besieged I planned on heading to the past to recharge my emp. band and knock out some campaign ops when I saw a shout for Nyzul HNM80 (Askar/Denali free) and HNM100 (Goliard/Denali free). I couldn't pass up this chance to get sexy Askar body (which I don't think I'll ever get from the static), so I joined them as WAR.

The first run went very smooth. We got really lucky with the floors and ended up on floor 80 with over 15 minutes to spare. Needless to say we won and got Goliard to drop (yay for the dude who wanted it, but boo for me!).

Next is the run to 100. Again, a very smooth run. We find ourselves on 100 with 13 minutes to spare. A full rest and we go to... Unfortunately, the WHM we had was pretty retarded and thought it was more important to nuke with lolBanish II than remove paralyzation from the team. Four of us ended up eating dirt before the boss finally went down. RNG and DRK weapons were the only drops. I had one more tag (the group had talked about going for 2 runs at 100) but everyone decided to just disband.

So that's two more runs towards my next promotion, which leaves me at 19/25. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my promotion to Corporal before Christmas!

So, finally done with that random Nyzul run, I finally manage to get geared up as DNC and head to the past. Who cares that it's almost 11:30 and that I'm 3.5 hours behind schedule, right?

I do a handful of campaign ops for some quick and easy XP. As I'm about to head out to Rolanberry Fields to try my hand at some treasure caskets, I get a tell asking if I want to PT. Bear in mind that I don't have my flag up and after the campaign ops, I'm less than 3k tnl. However, since it is so late, I figure that this is the only chance that i'll have to actually get DNC37 before I go to bed (gogogo planned force-D/C after I ding!). I say yes and head out to East Ronfaure [ S ] to beat up on some colibri. Boy, did I feel like a noob out there. The only other time I remember being in a full PT was one time in the jungles with Ia. My gear hadn't been updated since then and was pretty crappy (beetle armor & earrings, lv 25/20 daggers) and I only had one piece of food on me at the time (a sole sushi which, as luck would have it, was snatched from my in about the first 10 minutes; in my defense, i wasn't planning on getting a PT at all!). I would've gone and done a quick gear update, but the dude was pretty anxious for me to get out there.

So, I had a bit of a hard time getting TP at the start of the fight and we probably synced/unsynced 6 times, which meant I was starting from scratch that many times, which was extremely annoying. Other than that, the flow of xp was good and I managed to not only ding 37, but 38.5 as well. Had it not been almost 2 AM, I probably would've stuck around with the PT until I dinged 40, just for the hell of it! I don't plan on taking DNC any higher (maybe to 40 so I can play with Reverse Flourish a bit) any time soon. It feels good to finally have a fully-levelled /DNC available!

So, there was a lot of potential for a great night, but it turned out pretty mediocre. I don't when I'll ever get any Askar (3rd or 4th in line in the static and it never drops as it is) as SE is conspiring against me. Hell, I'd be happy to just have a chance to lot on the stuff. So long as it shows up in the treasure pool, I'll be a happy camper. The Goliard hat has yet to make an appearance (not that I can really think of a good use for it) but I can at least feel good knowing that when the static gets to 100 and it drops, that it is mine.

Now I just need to get working on my THF sub and maybe try out some more Fields of Valor. I think MNK/DNC (@ 48) would be fun, beating up on skellies in Xarcabard and maybe getting some good loot on top! Plus I've got what appears to be a well-skilled group for dynamis now, so iceland relic is back in the picture. Hopefully soon I'll have some new gear to post about![/s]

Posted Dec 12 2008, 12:53 PM

More Nyzul

I spent some time after the version update screwing around in Xarcabard, hunting for treasure. I got a couple of locked boxes, but was only able to open 2 of them for an Ether +3 and an ash log. So the loot was crappy, but it was very fun to Hexa Strike the crap out of too weak mobs

I happened to be logged on for a majority of the day yesterday(a perk of working from home, also why I don't WFH more often). I have been really intrigued by the treasure caskets. It's like camping a NM and getting the drop, for me!

I spent some time in Rolanberry Fields soloing on DNC a bit, trying to get it finished off at 37. I was hoping to be able to do some Fields of Valor, but I couldn't find a zone where I could participate at level 35. I settled on Rolanberry since I still wanted to open treasure caskets and was able to work through an emperor's band charge plus a bit more to get to 36. I think just another hour or two of soloing and I should be able to put DNC away for good.

After I landed back in Whitegate to see what was going on. I had 2 hours or so to kill before Nyzul and I wasn't doing Dynamis-Jeuno again with FearNothing (since there is no reason for me to go to any city zones). I ended up getting in on an ISNM3000 run. I got crap for drops (only 1 ore in our 6 runs). The NIN in the PT got to Jade Seplucher and realized that he forgot his orders. So, instead of letting the BLM D2 him, he runs back ... The RDM leader asked if he would just wait to get his orders after everyone else did their runs, to which he replied: "No, 'cause you guys won't stick around after". Which, of course, is 100% correct.

I got done with the ISNM just before 10, so I was geared up and ready to go on time. Yosh wasn't online again, but everyone else was gathered by 10:20. We picked up Jagged as a 6th and decided to climb 66-70 and then do 2x60 for hand armor.

All 3 runs went very well, despite being a low on support. Even the kill all floors went well. We didn't have any truly annoying objectives (like kill flayers, or kill all with flayers, or anything to do with flayers). We got out of the climb with about 1 minute to spare. The icing on the cake: Floor 70 unlocked Wack's King's Justice and CB's Atonement. Now we can climb my disc (or Redd's), which will be nice since I've got 3 mythic WS to unlock... (Mystic Boon first, King's Justice second, and Death Blossom if/when I feel like it)

Run 2 was a shot at the 60 boss. We made record time and got to floor 60 with something like 12 minutes to spare. The boss went down in short order and dropped one pair of Askar hands, which Wack got.

Run 3 went just about as well and we landed on floor 60 with something like 15 mins left. We got a revitalizer off of a mob, which Jagged took for twice the SAM 2-hr fun on the boss. The boss went down without any big hitches. It did a couple of annoying things, though, including wiping everyone's TP right at the start (goodbye icarus wings and meditate TP) and used physical shield just after Slig, Wack, and Jagged all used their 2-hrs. All we got for the win, however, was another Sturdy Axe (I think we've seen 5 or 6 of these drop).

Appraising items gave us a Viking Shield off of Steelfleece Baldrich, which I happened to have high lot on. We also fought Dune Widow, which I totally called as a leather gorget.

Not a bad night for Nyzul, all-in-all. Two more mythic ws unlocked for the PT, one more piece of armor scratched off the list, and a small money drop for our troubles I'm also at 16/25 assaults toward my promotion to Corporal.

Now, if I could just get in on some pick-up groups and win some Askar pieces...

Posted Dec 10 2008, 04:26 PM

Blah Night

So last night was kind of a bust. I logged on to see which Dynamis FearNothing was going to do. The fellowship calendar showed Sandy, but we had just done Sandy last Tuesday, so I was a bit skeptical. Turns out they were doing Jeuno (AGAIN!!!!). So, I put my WS pearl back on and put my flag up. I get an invite for a PT at MJSP. The setup: WAR WAR WAR SAM BRD WHM. When I get there, I see some of the PT complaining about the worthless NIN they had in the PT, so I'm clearly a rep. No biggie, though, as I just wanted to get 5k limit points so I could finish off MP merit 7. Well, with exp band, I ended up getting almost 8k before I was KO'd and the PT disbanded. I flagged up again and headed back to Whitegate to seek for another PT before Nyzul.

Soon after, Braego asks for help finishing off his last ZM5 fight. This was the fight vs. the pair of Opo-opos in Yhoator Jungle (through Ifrit's Cauldron). We only got magic aggro from the bombs one time as we were running through the cauldron, as we were waiting for a flame spout to go away. During the fight we agg'd another volcanic bomb and it was looking pretty grim. Fortunately, the flame sput went away and we were able to run to the zone without any deaths. The fight itself went pretty smooth. Congrats to Braego for completing ZM5!

Now, he was putting a ZM6 PT together right after, but it was already 10:05, so I figured I had better just get to Whitegate and get geared up for Nyzul. Almost 2 hours later, we finally went into Nyzul Isle ><

Yoshi never showed up and it took us a long time to find a trustworthy replacement. So we picked up Booniex as COR for the first run, then Zman as MNK/DNC for the 2nd and 3rd. The first run we got a few kill all floors which really ate up too much of our time. We ended up timing out on floor 64. The 2nd run went much more smoothly (despite Wack getting killed from a pair of linked flans) and we were able to clear some discs up to 65. When that happened, Slig found that Ascetic's Fury was available to him! 'Grats on the cool weaponskill, Slig! Unfortunately, CB and Pro still hadn't unlocked their weaponskills, so we'll continue climbing next week. The last run we decided to attempt a floor 60 boss for some hands. We kicked some ass on the way up and made it to floor 60 with just over 10 minutes to spare, only to see: White Magic Restriction...

Now, this isn't the first time we've had a White Magic Restriction on a boss floor, but it still sucks to know that I'm completely worthless for the fight (I had used Benediction on the 2nd run). The only thing I could bring to the table was a single Martyr for ~650 hp. As it turns out, I didn't even have that. Before I tried to use it, I got hit with a few AoEs and then the Archaic Rampart that roams the floor agg'd me and eventually KOd me. We got the win, however (thanks to Z coming /DNC) and guess what we got for a reward... nothing.

All-in-all, it was a rather blah night. Nyzul disappoints (although at least our group is competent enough to climb, unlike the PUGs that I've gotten). Yay for one more MP merit. Just need 47k limit points until I finish those off. Boo for a limit PT that was just mediocre... Maybe I'll have better luck later on this week when I get to log on again.

Posted Dec 3 2008, 02:11 PM

Too Much AFK

Even though it was a long weekend away from work, I didn't get many opportunities to log on. Thanksgiving on Thursday, watching the kids on Friday, and working on the Christmas Tree farm on Saturday and Sunday. Before I knew it, my alarm was going off and I was getting ready for work on Monday!

Braego stayed with Ia and I for the long weekend, which was pleasant. We managed to do a fair bit of Wii Sports and even some Guitar Hero when the baby allowed us to play.

In-game, we knocked out a few of his ZM5 fights (headstone pilgrimage). He's really only 2 big fights away from sky access ^^

I thinking of scratching dynamis from the list of events in which I participate. I don't really like the group that I'm going with and I don't think they'll ever get enough manpower to make it to ice zones (which are the only zones I'm interested in) so I see little reason to keep running with them. It could be nice, having Tuesday evenings before Nyzul open to do whatever (hopefully merit).

Posted Dec 1 2008, 03:19 PM

Epic Night and Loot

Tuesday nights are always busy for me. I get home from work, grab a quick bite, then log in and get ready for Dynamis. Then, I have to hurry to Whitegate for Nyzul Isle assault. The primary reason that I am participating in these two events is for gear. I love to collect the fancy RA/EX stuff (and some of it is even useful!). So, I usually look forward to Tuesday nights and the opportunity for a mini FFXI marathon.

Yesterday, I was pumped all day at work because my dynamis shell was scheduled to do Xarcabard. I've been itching to do a northlands zone since SE increased the drop rate of relic, yet I haven't had many opportunities since the shells that I had been going with are a bunch of retarded n00bs. So, imagine my disappointment when I get home, log in, and find that we're not doing Xarcabard, but Jeuno instead (which we had just done the previous run). Fine, Jeuno gives me the chance to get the last piece of city relic that I need for my 3 75s.

So we enter (20 miins late) and the first piece of armor that drops is WAR! I am the first to lot and I get a good one: 782. I see 2 others lot below me... things are looking good. Then, Dabox lots 800-something. You know Dabox from the ZNM in Mt. Z? Wait a second, he's not even here tonight... His character is being 2-boxed by the LS leader! I was a bit angry. Just a few kills later (literally, like 5 minutes) another pair of WAR hands drop. I lot again, but lot in the mid 100s. Someone else wins. Now, I'm just defeated. I think "looks like I'll have to get them some other Jeuno run." Imagine my surprise when between 30-45 mins later ANOTHER pair drop! I lot (poorly) but win the last pair!



If any more had dropped they would've been freelot, but none did. So, now I've got those nice new gloves to macro in for WS maybe? I figure they might be good for Steel Cyclone, but then I'd be losing the STR from Pallas' bracelets... Gonna have to speak with a veteran WAR for some advice.

The rest of the run is pretty lousy. We wipe to an astral flow, we wipe to a bad pull on the mega boss, then our THFs & PLDs can't figure out how to use Perfect Dodge and Invincible to pull the boss back to the camp and we end up timing out without the win. Before I switch pearls, I see that they're scheduleing Jeuno again... for the 3rd straight time...

Let me just say I'm glad I won't be able to make that run!

After, I run to Nyzul Isle. The plan is to climb 16-20 to get my disc up (and get some armor) and then do 31-40 to get CB (lol) and Sligs discs up (and get some armor). The first run goes very smoothly. The group is really starting to click and handle the different floors well. We zone into floor 20 with just under 10 minutes on the timer and see: "White Magic is restricted". W T F The only thing I could do was a single martyr for ~600 hp and Benediction. CB, Slig, Yosh, Wack and I all 2hrd and we were able to win!!!! The cherry on top:



I was the only person who wanted them, so now I've got some new shoes to use for WHM (I can leave my Numerist Pumps in the mog house)! yay

Floor 31-35 went well until we got to the last floor. Less than 10 minutes and we get lamps:order. After running around for a bit we see that there are 4 lamps.
First combination: off off off off
(1-minute warning)
Second combination: off off off off
(30-second warning)
Third combination:
(10-second warning)
Floor 35 Objective Complete! Rune of Transfer Activated.
Exit with just a second to spare

EPIC!

The climb from 36-40 was pretty uneventful. No scary restrictions and the boss went down smoothly. Nothing dropped, unfortunately. I'd love to see Goliard Trews drop next time (hell, I'd love to see anything drop since it's been awhile since we've seen any Askar, too) so that I can be 4/5 on Goliard. But really, Goliard two weeks in a row?! I'm not gonna complain!

Now I'm at 7/25 towards my next promotion. I need to do a couple of pick-up Nyzul runs if I can to get my disc caught up with CB and Sligs. I also need to do a few campaign battles so that I don't lose my medal (only 2 days left!). Lastly, I need to get some Imperial Standing so that I can buy my sentinel shield. Oh, and I'd like to finish off my next MP merit.

Posted Nov 12 2008, 03:19 PM

Minor Accomplishments over the Weekend

Well, I tried getting into a few extra nyzul runs to get my disc higher. The first group did 3 runs, hoping to go 11-15, then 16-20 x2. We got the clear on 15 with just 1 or 2 seconds to spare (no joke). Then the next two runs we got held up on floor 19 (I was the only healer, although there was a BLU and we had a custard mob on a floor with a White Magic Restriction: meaning I had 1 martyr and 1 benediction available for healing). The only good thing to drop was a pair of Bounding Boots from LL on a 'kill all mobs' floor. I lotted something like 640, which is a nice lot, but lost to 4 of the others in the PT.

Then, I tried to do a run for 20 with Sath and Dev. They needed a DD. Since I have never done Nyzul as a DD, I was very excited to give it a shot. I was in a hurry to change to WAR, and forgot that I had 1) given the last of my silent oils to Protecus the week before and 2) sent my spare ninja tools to my DB to free up some space. What this meant is that I showed up to Nyzul without any form of sneak...

We ended up getting massive flan aggro while fighting the leader NM and wiped. It was fun to go as WAR, but I'm disappointed in myself for not being properly prepared like a noob and disappointed that we didn't get the clear to 20 for my disc.

In other news, I got my DNC to 35 so I finally have access to Drain Samba II and Healing Waltz. I don't think I'll put much effort into taking it to 37 (as much as I hate to have gimped subjobs). Eager to try it out as a sub, I geared up and headed out to the tree to skill up dagger with Ia. (Braego and all of his skilling up put the bug in me...) I got my dagger from 166 to 203 so far and my NPC dinged 38 in the process!

Tonight I've got Dynamis - Xarcabard followed by Nyzul and then Dynamis - Beaucedine on Saturday (which I will be missing). I'd love to get some of my ice relic soon. I figure I'll prioritize my relic lotting like so:

Xarcabard: RDM, WAR, WHM
Beaucedine: WHM, WAR, RDM
Jeuno: WAR

For Xarcabard, the chapeau is just plain sexy, but I wonder if I shouldn't comment WAR first since there will be less competition for the WAR piece than the RDM. Not to mention that I seldom play RDM (although I tell myself I'd be more willing to play it more if I had better gear). The WAR body looks nice and I think it would match my dusk hands and feet . The WHM gloves are inventory -1. I don't see how they would be useful at all, except for maybe to macro in on my enfeebles for Nyzul.

Beaucedine is an easy decision to lot WHM first. The bonus to Regen effect has a major impact on the efficiency of those spells. Fully meritted regen 1/2/3 with briault has a HP:MP ration of 15.714 / 11.515 / 9.655 (with /SCH Light Arts). For reference, Cure V is generally considered the most efficient cure spell, which only has a HP:MP ration of 6.025 (w/ Light Arts). You can clearly see how efficient these spells become with merits and the Cleric's Briault (as long as another person doesn't heal over top of them). I figure I'd lot WAR second since I spend most of my time in-game as WAR and as much as I want the RDM body, I really only want it for the shiny-factor and for soloing.

The WAR hands from Jeuno are the last piece of city relic that I need for my 3 75s. I'd love to get those out of the way soon. One pair dropped at Saturday's run, but I was outlotted by 600pts to the only other person who had them commented. If nothing changes, the next time we do Jeuno, I'll be the only person commenting WAR, I just hope that they actually drop.

The dynamis shell that I've been going with the last few weeks is FearNothing. They're a nice group of people, but they don't have the numbers to really go in and take care of a zone. Since I've been with them, the only zone they've cleared is Bastok (which a BLM could probably solo). They've recently merged with another shell, so that our numbers are slightly better. Now, instead of going into Jeuno with less than a full alliance, we've actually got closer to 30 players. I really don't care much about the wins, I just want to have a shell that can stay in the zone long enough to kill a fair amount of mobs so that we can see some decent drops.

So that's been my in-game life for the past few days. Ia and I had a nice weekend with Braego up. I got some stuff accomplished and I'm looking forward to some new loot from Nyzul and Dynamis this week. Oh, and I got another merit doing some Campaign while trying to keep from losing my medal. I've got 2 days to get enough points to keep my medal.... I don't want to lose my rank before the next version update, when SE is supposed to finish the WotG mission as well as add another level of Campaign medals. Getting closer to my 6th MP merit

See you in-game!

*edit

OOG: I had to take Sidney, my German Shepherd, in to be put to sleep yesterday. I say my dog, but in reality, she belonged to Ia and Braego when they got her as a pup ~13 years ago (I've been taking care of her for the last 5). It was very sad and hard to do which I wasn't really expecting. But, she was very old and was in pain all the time, having major trouble walking, not to mention her extremely poor vision/hearing. I'll post a pic here when I get home. RIP Sid!

Posted Nov 11 2008, 10:11 AM

New Gear!

FearNothing did a bit of recruiting and took ~28 ppl to Dynamis-Bastok last night. The group seemed fairly competent and I was able to go for the first hour without a single death. Then, either the tanks stopped trying to tank, or the WHMs were too busy watching the election results because I was KO'd 7 times in the last couple of hours. We ended up getting the win (Killshot: Tru!) and BST, BLU, SAM, THF relic before I left for Nyzul.

For Nyzul Isle, we decided to climb from 20-30 and then hit floor 80 for some armor. I must apologize for causing a bit of drama before we got started. I wanted to get Redd's disc caught up so that when we were climbing, it would help everyone. Also, my disc is at floor 11 and I can't seem to find any opportunities to join a pick-up group to get my disc advanced. I have the WHM weapon, and am definitely looking forward to unlocking the weaponskill, but I'm not even going to start to work off points until I get my disc higher. It turned out ok since I was more interested in getting some armor, likewise with Redd.

In the end, we successfully climbed from 20-30 and then fought Khiim at floor 80 who generously dropped the Goliard body for me! This is a nice macro piece for Martyr and Devotion (which are getting close to 700HP/350MP respectively) as well as a good boost to my Conserve MP build. I haven't really examined how it will impact RDM other than being a good convert piece. Next time I gear up RDM, I'll take a closer look.

I also got promoted to Lance Corporal last week. I just need to get in on a good besieged so that I can get enough IS to buy a Sentinel Shield for when I skill-up as WAR/DNC. The shield just looks sexy! I'm currently at 3/25 towards my next promotion, which won't take too long at all, if I can just get in on some extra Nyzul runs.

*oh yeah, and I think I'm going to see if I can get into CB's Dynamis LS on Friday nights only. I don't like the whole points-based system for lotting ice relic, but I can deal with it. The time is much more convenient than Saturday @ 6:30 PM (which is right after dinner and interferes with prime family-time).

Posted Nov 5 2008, 10:30 AM

Dynamis - Windurst

Last night was Dynamis - Windurst. The LS leader stated that if you didn't show up then you wouldn't be able to go to the LS's first Beaucedine on Wednesday. Some work responsibilities prevented me from getting online on time. Not wanting to miss my chance at the improved ice droprates and getting WHM and RDM relic, I logged in as soon as I got home and just went to Dynamis as WAR (since that's what I was geared for).

This was my first dynamis as anything but WHM. I have considered going as RDM before, but I figured with my craptastic gear, my sleepgas wouldn't stick and I'd be dead a lot. As WHM I am always very busy. I find that unless we are recovering from a wipe, I am constantly doing something. Casting a spell, using a job ability, sleeping a mob... I'm constantly busy.

Not so much as WAR. It was much more relaxing. Not having much to do except /assist the tank (who was very slow in picking mobs). I would 'voke slept mobs, since we were very low on PLDs. My biggest gripe was that nobody was looking out for me or my PT. It does suck not having any ability to heal myself. We had a RDM in the PT, but he/she was just lousy. Before my 2nd death, I was running around with <300 HP (while she had nearly full HP and MP) and she never tossed a cure at me. After that, I wouldn't take any chances. If I got low on health, I would run back and /heal it up, just to be safe.

It was a very disorganized run and we ended up not getting the win. One of our THFs did a sac pull and made it almost all of the way around the loop. When they finally died, the mobs took the short path (apparently this is what happened) and aggro'd the death house on their way. Seems like a load of crap to me, but I don't really care. I was looking to get out of that zone ASAP.

Since I showed up late, I won't be able to enter Beaucedine on time, which means that RDM and WHM relic will most likely drop a million times before I enter the zone, and never again after.

Just 7 more pieces of relic and I can stop doing dynamis, right?

Posted Oct 6 2008, 02:04 PM

2-Item Wishlist

Slayne suggested the idea of everyone having a wishlist of 2 items that they really want to have. Then, as an event, the LS could go out and help their fellow LS mates acquire these items.

I'm not sure of the restrictions on the types of items allowed, but I have thought of a few items that I would love to have, but cannot get on my own:

Dryad's (or Healing) Staff - preferably Dryad's, since I won't be able to sell it
Hedgehog Bomb (ENM Static, anyone?)
Joyeuse (I'll even get ToD!)

Of course there are a ton of Sea/Sky items that I would love to have, but I don't think the purpose is to require people to attend these events week after week just for one person's item.

I reserve the right to change these items at any time, of course. Maybe some day I'll get grubby galka paws on some (or all) of these things!

Posted Oct 3 2008, 04:56 PM