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