BRD 75 and Bonus! Experinece Points

I managed to finally get BRD to 75. Most of the experience came from campaign battles and campaign ops. I did get one PT in the lower bird camp when I was ~73 and they wanted me to sub COR (which I have @ 7) for corsair's roll and the slight XP bonus, which I think was retarded. The PT didn't last too long, but I got a few XP. Another PT I got after I dinged 74 was in the middle camp and it was my first opportunity to pull in a bird meripo. I think we got to chain 50 something before we had to stop because two people had to go to some ls event. The healer in this PT was a RDM/SCH named Tehonn who used sublimation instead of refresh. At the start of the party, he cured me a couple of times even though I would immediately drop back down into yellow HP due to my latent gear swap macros. He was in the process of casting Regen II on me when I told him not to regen me or cure me past 1k hp. So, he didn't cure me for the rest of the night, until I was down to less than 200 hp ><. I left that PT at 20k to 75.

The next night, I thought I'd get that xp very quickly and a bit of a buffer. I ended up taking a PT sync'd to 60 against colibri. Things were going very well until the PLD had to leave suddenly, and the DRG leader d/c'd with me just 8k to 75. It took more than an hour to reassemble the PT, change camps, and then get back to fighting. I still didn't manage to ding, since other ppl had to leave and I was tired of the slow xp and lack of mobs to kill. I ended up leaving that PT after more than 3 hours, gaining only 14k xp.

Before I logged off, I did a couple of campaign battles and managed to finish the last of my level and dinged 75! It was nice to put my goliard gear and W.Turban back on. It also allowed me to fine-tune my latent macros so that I can hit my latent in just 4 macros instead of 7.

When I logged on again, I was just 928 into 75 BRD, so I didn't want to actually use it for anything; not until I got a proper buffer. Shiji asked if I wanted to help him camp Voluptuous Vivian, so I geared up RDM and headed out there. He went THF, Lun went BRD and we actually saw the NM pop after just 35 minutes of camping (give or take, it was after the 4th or 5th PG, I think). Our first attempt didn't go too well. Spider agg and silence/para/etc overwhelmed us pretty quickly. We managed to get up safely. Shiji changed to NIN/DNC and we tried again. This time, we got her down to, like, 1% (no joke) before we wiped. After a bad breath went off (and we had spider agg) I noticed that I had used my last echo drop and we all died. We were able to recover and Lun ran back to town for more meds.

The third time, instead of Lun and I zoning the spider adds, I just kept one slept for the duration of the fight. I think the fight took 20 minutes or so. Shiji managed to get VV to the mouth of the tunnel, leading towards Dragon's Aery so he was safe from most of the agg in her room, we just had a single spider to deal with in the tunnel. Of course we didn't get the drop, but we got cool Vivisector titles!

While Shiji and I were killing PHs, we noticed that the kupowers went away. I happened to be online the following morning ~10hrs later, so I decided to go mog tablet hunting. I went WHM/RNG (for widescan, since the tablets show up on widescan) and just teleported to each of the telepoints to widescan for a tablet. I also climed paradomo Tor to get a miasma filter, in case we ever happen to do another ENM. While I was climbing, I noticed a new coeurl NM that was up (drops the Layqa Seraweels: enfeebling magic +2) so I killed that for no drop. It is a timed pop, 1.5-2 hrs, so I would resume my tablet hunting until the 1.5 hrs were up, then I'd run back and kill the NM again.

When I actually saw that a tablet was discovered, I went on full-tilt tablet hunting and happened to find one in the northern part of Pashow Marshlands (NW of the outpost)! I checked in with the moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens and got a Kupofried's ring and an adaman ingot for my trouble.

That night, I got a meripo invite and we hit the mamool ja in the top floor of the bird camp. We got to chain 30-something before one of the SAMs died and a WAR had to leave. By the time his rep arrived, the lower camp had cleared out so we went down there. I used one charge of my emperor band against the mamool ja. I used 1 charge of the Kupofried's ring before we started on the birds. It was crazy seeing consistent chains for 518 xp! Toward the end of the night, I started getting some severe lag which was causing my casting to get interrupted, so we lost the chain at 120-something. I pulled for a bit longer (into chain 50-something) before I was tired and left the PT. I started the night @928/44,000. When I had finished, I was capped on XP and had also finished off 1 merit, and completed a 2nd. In total, I got just over 60k xp in 2.5 hours or so. CRAZY XP!

I also managed to get the Layqa Seraweels from the NM in Attohwa Chasm for a little boost to my Enfeebling Magic set (I can get 345 skill in max gear).

Since it was a full moon, I talked Vay and Braego into doing Up In Arms, but didn't get a drop. Going RDM, RDM. BLM made this BC super easy. When vay has enough seals, we'll go back and try again. After, Vay and I tried to duo the Puppet In Peril BC for ToAU mission 29. The first 70% of the NMs life goes very smoothly. Once we get it to 30%, however, things tend to fall apart. I think we'll try again once we tweak some macros and both have our 2hrs (I used mine on the last UIA run).

I have done a few ISNMs but haven't gotten a drop. It's funny: I kinda levelled BRD so that I could do ISNMs more often, but each time I've gone, I've been WAR!

I finished up the weekend by heading up to sky to do some FoV and re-cap XP on RDM. I ended up capping XP and finishing off a 3rd merit point. Not sure how I'll spend it just yet.

Mog bonanza starts in two days. I think I'll buy 30 marbles and use the same strategy for picking numbers that I used earlier in the year (which helped me win 1.1mil in drops). If I am able to just break even, I'll be happy.

Posted Dec 22 2009, 12:12 PM

BRD Solo/Duo

I dinged 71 BRD over the weekend. I have only been in 1 real xp PT since I dinged 68, and that got me the 20k I needed to ding 70. The rest of the XP has come from campaign, FoV, or duoing w/ Shiji (which is laid-back and fun, too).

I have been working hard on Campaign to get my medals back. I lost my medal and my highest Wings rank after switching allegiance a couple of months ago. I think I'll focus on maxing my campaign rank and keeping it maxed. Since I started working on it again, I have become a lean, mean, campaign-machine! @70 I get to equip my O.Hat and Joyeuse, which helps my accuracy (not that I really need it). I also tried out /SCH, which is a great campaign subjob. It includes Reraise and a lot of JAs which are very helpful for racking up the XP/AN. If I'm solo in Campaign, I just spam JAs: pianissimo + Ballads, Penury + Cures, Sublimation. I miss having stoneskin, but I love the MP- conservation and recovery that I get from /SCH. When I ding 72, it'll get even better with Aspir and Regen II (although that may not be until 74). Also @ 72, I get to equip my dusk gear, which will finally give me some decent melee hands/feet.

I'd really like to get to 73 (and chocobo mazurka) by the end of this week. When I know I won't have a lot of time to play, I'll just stick w/ Campaign ops and campaign battles. If I know I'll have a good chunk of time to get a PT, I'll try to pre-charge my emperor's band.

I kinda got roped into organizing a Promy-Vahzl run on Saturday night. Mill and Rach both needed it, and Vay, Wack, Braego, and Shiji all volunteered at one point or another to help out, so I figured it would be easy to put a PT together. However, when it came time to actually gather, the only 'helper' who was available was Vay. We ended up starting 1.5 hrs after the gather time. We ended up getting CB to come along as our 6th. The climb went very well, with only 2 or 3 accidental aggs along the way.

We discussed a strategy when we finally got to the spire of Vahzl, and decided to go in and just do a dry-run w/o 2-hrs or animas. When the 2nd NM was killed, things were still going well, so we started using animas and ended up winning on our first try. I finished up all the CS and did all of the leg-work that I needed to do to prepare myself for the fights of 5-3 (Three Paths), which require a 5- or 6- man PT to complete.

Posted Dec 7 2009, 10:53 AM

Getting back into it

I had a couple of chances to do some stuff with friends as BRD. I went out to Miseraux Coast to assist Vay and Shiji with the NM Gration. I ended up dying 5 or so times, resulting in going from a 3.5k buffer into 68 to being 5k TNL. Then, I went out to Beadeaux_S to help Vay in his Solo (now a duo) attempt at Bres. We ended up failing twice, which resulted in 2 more deaths for me. By the time I finished, I was 8K to level 68. But, I had fun doing stuff on BRD.

I really felt weak, though, being at such a low level. For the Bres attempt, I feel like if I were 74 of 75, I could have been less of a liability. My songs grabbed a lot of hate which resulted in me getting hit, which resulted in Vay spending MP on me. I was trying to make things easier for him, but I think I made the fight more difficult. Although, I do believe he is in love with dual Marches, now.

During the attempts, Vay deleveled to 74, so we made our way out to Cape Terrigan to do some FoV. Mobs went down very very quickly. With his Joyeuse off-hand, Justice sword main-hand, his haste gear, the haste spell, and 2x March, he was practically non-stop swinging. It was SUPER fun to duo like that, although I felt like I was leeching. He seemed to really enjoy it, though. So, I think I would be able to convince him to head out there some more to do more FoV in the future.

I have also spent a considerable amount of time doing campaign battles. As a matter of fact, I have gotten the last 30k XP from campaign. Right now, I'm 5k to level 69, which isn't really significant. I'm really hoping to ding 70 with a buffer soon, so I can equip my Joyeuse

I am a little worried about dinging 72, though, because some of the gear that I should probably buy by that point is getting a little expensive. I won't be able to replace gear, either, so it's not like I'll be able to recover some of my gil, either.

Hopefully I can get in on a KS/BS/ENM soon and make a bit of bank to ease the passage through the last few levels.

I'm not sure how often I'll be doing things as BRD, but it will definitely be nice to have when it is finally at 75.

Posted Dec 3 2009, 12:52 PM

RL is getting in the way

The closer we get to the holiday season, the more I expect RL to get in the way of FFXI. Usually, I work weekends on a Christmas tree farm between Thanksgiving and Christmas, driving tractors and lugging trees. This year, Ia and I are also trying to take care of some home improvements, which are eating up my play-time.

Before going out-of-town for an anniversary getaway, I managed to ding 68. I could have gotten close to 69 but I was waiting for Vay to get back to do some BC/KS/missions. Unfortunately, he never showed up, so I ended up just staring at my computer until almost 2AM. I just knew that as soon as I got into a PT, he'd show up and feel like I left him hangin' after making plans to do stuff in-game.

Ia and I went to a local casino for the night. We had a room package deal which was really incredible. We had a blast spending time together, gambling, and enjoying the peace and quiet of NO KIDS. I wish it could have lasted longer...

I'm not sure how much I'll be online this week, since we're trying to get the kitchen done before Thanksgiving and house guests. Maybe I'll be able to hit 70 or 71 in the next week or two.

Posted Nov 16 2009, 05:54 PM

Some missions, some XP

Not a whole lot has happened in-game in the last two weeks. I was hoping to be able to get ~5 levels per week on BRD, but haven't been able to devote any time to levelling yet this week because I've been doing ToAU missions w/ Vay. Currently, I'm ~8k from 66. A good XP PT should get me close to 67; maybe tonight. I might be able to get 1 or 2 more PTs before Saturday, so I might be able to ding 68. I'm really looking forward to hitting 70 so I can equip my Joyeuse and do some campaign battles when I don't have time to PT.

Vay and I duo'd Shields of Diplomacy, the khimera-13 fight. We just had to keep the taru NPC alive while she blasted the thing with spells. I've got my CS done and am ready for mission 29: Puppet in Peril. Apparently, this is also duo-able by 2x RDM, so we're gonna try it. Once we get past mission 29, we won't be able to low-man any more of the fights, so we might slow down a bit.

I saw a shout for CoP 5-1 & 5-2 last night, but it was before the girls went to bed, so I couldn't join 'em. They were @ 5/6, too.

Posted Nov 11 2009, 11:18 AM

5/5 AF and the Ability to Wear it (kind of)

I ended up just buying Mage's Ballad II and made short work of picking up the other coffer keys that I needed for AF. With those 'barriers' out of the way, I went back to levelling BRD.

I had a few mediocre parties in the mix (like BSTx4, RDM, BRD in QSC and a taru PLD sync'd to 37 in East Ronfaure {S} who couldn't keep himself alive with the help of two healers) and a great one which resulted in dinging 60 (Oct 30, 2009) and into the final piece of BRD AF. The 'great' PT was DRK, SAM, DRG, WHM (rep'd by SCH later), COR, BRD in Wajoam Woodlands, at I-7. When I started this PT, I was about 1k from 55. When I finished, I had just dinged 60. We often ran out of mobs to kill after all of the birds and bees were dead. I was the sync target, so it was nice to be able to eat my new scrolls when I dinged. It was also nice because it allowed some of my skills to get closer to cap (except for string, which is almost 100 points behind...).

I had planned on lfp after the girls went to bed, but instead found myself in a PUG doing CoP 4-3. There were 11 of us there and more than a few of them seemed like total retards*, especially the BST that was in the PT. The leader wanted me to come BRD (for some strange reason), which was a bad thing because I only had 178 experience points for a buffer. I ended up dying 5 times, so I'm not about 1k from level 60 again. I stuck it out and eventually got the win, so I finished up the CS that I needed and am ready to do 5-2, which is Promy-Vahzl.

I'm glad to finally have that mission done, since it looked like it was going to be difficult to get enough firepower from the LS. Hopefully, I can find enough willing folks in the LS to help with Vahzl, since I trust everyone to know/do their jobs more than I would some schmucks that I meet via /shout.

Hopefully I can get a few more levels on BRD this week (60-65 would be great).

Also, SE just announced that they're going to give an in-game reward to everyone who purchases all 3 mini-expansions. The reward is a cape that can be used every 40 hours and allows you to teleport to the leader of your PT (certain restrictions apply). I think that it is safe to say that I will be buying the last expansion for that reason, not to mention that one of the leg augments that you can get is movement speed +8%, which I will be able to wear for BRD, RDM and WHM (no herald's gaiters or Crimson Legs required!). I still need to finish the missions for the hat. I'm not ashamed to say it: I bought all expansions for the gear. I also bought the security token for the satchel. The augments are very nice and reasonably priced, too.

* For the sake of everyone else, please prepare for missions, quests, group activities, etc before joining a group. There were a few people last night who had not cleared their fomor hate before heading into the Sacrarium. These few people were responsible for more than one wipe, and wasting an hour of everyone else's time. It pisses me off because I take the time to study the missions, know the monsters, read through strats, and generally be prepared before I even begin doing something new for the first time.

Posted Nov 2 2009, 04:24 PM

BRD Update

Dinged BRD 50 on Suinday night, almost 51. I flagged AF quests and set to work on coffers. I'm 2/5 an AF so far, and have spent a few hours in CZB for a coffer for mage's ballad II. I opened 4 coffers, but only got gil and a fluorite. I remember CB went 1/1 on his scroll when I helped him. Why can't I have that luck?

I'll be heading back out there tonight before working out. If I get a key quickly, I'll probably try two coffers. Otherwise, I might just head to the Crawler's Nest or Castle O for coffer keys there.

Posted Oct 28 2009, 05:02 PM

BRD GO!

As it usually happens when I get bored and have lots of gil, I went on a spending spree. I decided to clear up some inventory on my mule by using some of the BRD scrolls that I had. As it turns out, I only had 2 scrolls. So, to clear up those two spots, I purchased a full set of new gear, a bunch of instruments, food, etc and went to work on BRD.

I started out on Saturday (Oct 17, 2009) as BRD 11, doing FoV in Tahrongi Canyon. Fast forward some crappy parties, a lot of solo-FoV, 2 failed invites*, and 2 really great PL'd PTs and I'm now level 40!

My gear is pretty good, I guess. Not that BRDs really nead top-notch gear. I've been buying all of my scrolls, even though 90% of them are quite useless (I'm looking at YOU, Fowl Aubade and Scop's Operetta). I spent a total of 3-4 hours skilling up string skill. I have been syncing in Qufim a lot, which sucks 'cause I love to use ballad.

Now that I've made it into and past the mid-30's, East Ronfaure (S) burns are available. In fact, last night the PT was 4xRNG, COR, BRD along with 2 PLs (tri-boxed by the PT leader), all synced to me at 36. In just a little over an hour, I had gained 4 levels. We capped out at just shy of 25k/hour, with an average somewhere between 19-22k/hour. I didn't have an xp band active at any point during this PT.

When done, I ran around and picked up all of the scrolls for 41-45, and got my BRD AF weapon, the useless Paper Knife.

Now, I'm coming up toward the weekend. I'd really like to get at least 5 levels over the weekend. Ideally, I'll be able to get to level 50 so that I can take a break while I acquire Mage's Ballad II and all of my AF. Also, taking some time to make some money would help a bit, since I had less than 10k when I logged off

Vaynard 'sold' me his Dark Earring for 150k last night. He gave me (at least) 25% off of the AH price. I say at least because they sell so infrequently and the price difference fluctuates between 200 and 300k. I'm not sure when I'll have the gil to pay him back, but I will make it a priority.

*As for the 2 failed party invites; I can't believe this happened to me on 2 separate days. I was out doin' FoV somewhere and I get an invite along the lines of 'Hey, wanna PT? level sync in 'x' zone, we're 5/6.' To which I reply 'yes, please'. Then start running back to the OP, then OP warp to the zone where the PT is gonna camp. I then start skilling up string while waiting for the leader makes his way to the camp/zone/whatever. After the leader finally arrives, I ask for the invite to which they reply: 'sorry, we're full'.

...

W T F? I don't understand how someone can invite one person, then immediately fill that person's spot. Words fail me. All I can say is that my /blist has grown two sizes. I wouldn't have minded if they had at least sent me a tell saying 'oops, sorry, plans changed, we don't need you any more' instead of me wasting my time skilling up when I could be finishing FoV pages or something.

BAH! People suck.[/s]

Posted Oct 23 2009, 01:21 PM

Recap, Last 2 Weeks

Well the last couple of weeks have been rather uneventful. I spent a bunch of time in the Labrynth of Onzozo camping Ose for either myself or Vay. I was logged in, getting the kids ready for bed last weekend, having a /tell-versation with Vay when he killed Ose and got his Assault jerkin! That was at ~7:46 PM. So, I geared up, ran out there, and started killing placeholders at 8:30 or so. I finally went to bed at 12:30AM and hadn't seen Ose. I was the only person camping.

I checked my log when I got up and noticed that someone had killed Ose at ~4:30 AM. I then went into the kitchen to get breakfast for the kids, and when I came back to my PC (maybe 15 minutes later) I saw a duo killing Ose. New ToD: 9:15AM.

I spent the rest of the day killing PH off and on (probably killing all of the Torama in the room twice per hour) for the rest of the day. After putting the kids to bed a night, I focused and actively killed Toramas. Throughout the day, I was the only camper. At ~8:30 PM, Malekith and some lame RDM showed up and started killing everything in the room... slowly. They must have been working off latents or something, because I could kill 2 mobs to every 1 of theirs (roughly). After about an hour, they go AFK.

At ~10:00 PM, I pulled a Torama and agg'd a manticore. I kill the Torama, and start working on the manticore (including DoTs) when I see Ose pop. He was too far away for me to sleep and there was another Torama between him and me, so I couldn't just run over there and sleep the NM and I couldn't sleep the manticore, so I finished it off as quickly as I could. As I'm running for Ose, I pound my Dia macro, but get lag-interrupted. Before I can get the spell off again, it goes purple and Malekith and his lame RDM pull it into the tunnel and kill it.

I as fucki'n pissed. I /shutdown'd right there and haven't been back out there since. I have probably spent 50-60 hours down there, fighting torama or just being AFK trying to get a ToD. In all of that time, I only actually saw the NM one time. This is a retarded waste of time for a piece of gear that I will only use as a weaponskill macro piece on RDM. If it was useful at all for any other job that I can wear it on (i.e. WAR), I might consider camping again. As it is, it is simply a novelty piece and is not worth my time or effort.

That pretty much killed any desire that I had to play FFXI. I've been needing to take a break from the game, so I had only been logging on for events (or to prepare for events, re: climbing Paradomo Tor).

At least the past two weeks of ENM have been mildly rewarding. Last week we got a galaetia and a Forager's Mantle. Split 3-ways got each of us 164k. Last night we got our 3rd cloud evoker and 2x Forager's Mantles. So, that should net each of us ~250k. I'm gettin' real close to having a million gil again

I also did a round of Up In Arms with Braego and Protecus. It went so much faster with RNG WAR RDM than it does with PLD WAR RDM. We were finishing in about 6 minutes, where with PLD, it was taking us 14 mins or more to finish the BC. No club dropped, but I've got enough seals for a couple more runs. Maybe we can do it again a couple of times this weekend.

Posted Oct 9 2009, 11:36 AM

Map and Rutters 1/1

The week has started out good for me. I logged on in the Labrynth of Onzozo and found Vay there killin' PH for Ose uncontested. I teamed up and we got the NM shortly after; no drop. Then, we decided to head back out to Newton Molvapolos to see if we could get a coffer key/coffer and also kill Matman for my Rutter Sabatons.

Vay changed to /THF and we ran to the NPC to gamble our way to Mine Shaft #2716. It cost me 58k total to get my key item, then get warped to the entrance to the mine shaft. We buffed up and went in to find a coffer key. A short while later, we must have linked the entire zone, but eventually were able to get a coffer key and another Sylvan Stone off the same mob. A short trek later and we found the coffer. Now, I have a nice new map of the zone! It is so much less stressful trying to navigate the zone with an in-game map!

We headed to the Matman spawn and cleared the area. We made fairly short work of the NM, who generously dropped my Rutters Yay for 1/1!

Vay needed to go get some studying done, and I needed to go work out, so I ran myself back to the labrynth and went AFK. I came back 2 hours later to find another PT there killin' PH. I buffed up and started killin, as well. Vay came back and joined me a few minutes later. About 20 minutes after he showed up, we got the claim on Ose and took him down. Unfortunately, we didn't get the drop. I'll be heading back out there this afternoon to kill more PH and hopefully take the NM down once or twice more before Nyzul Isle tonight.

The other group that was out there included a DRG named Kongal. Apparently, Kongal used to be a slayer, but dropped his pearl when he quit a year ago. He's back, now, however and got another linkpearl from Vay after we claimed and killed Ose. Part of me wonders if he just wants a pearl because we can help him get his Assault Jerkin. Part of me also wonders if he expects to be able to get it before Vaynard or me, since it is obviously a more important piece for a DRG than it is for RDM. I'm not really sure how I feel about this. It's not like Ose's window is very predictable, so getting ToD isn't all too important. But at the same time, Vay and I have been spending a lot of time in the last week trying to get the armor. So, who should get the drop (if it drops)? If Kongal does get it, should we expect him to leave the LS after? I just don't know...

If we could manage to snag an Assault Jerkin and Goliard Pants today, I think it would make this week a good week drop-wise (and I don't think Vay would disagree)! Add an Askar helm on top of that and it could make the week epic!

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Posted Sep 29 2009, 08:56 AM

More CoP

Over the weekend I got a bit more CoP done.

Managed to take down Diabolos after 4 dry runs. It turned out to be quite easy once we got our strategy down (and used 2-hrs).

We attempted to fight Diabolos prime, but never could quite get him down. NOt a big deal, really, since I don't plan on levelling SMN any more. I just wanted the avatar for completeness.

I spent some time getting the Pso'Xja map. It makes it so much easier to navigate through that zone with the map. I hope to be able to get the Riverne maps soon, too. All I've gotta do is scrounge up a few more ppl to help me with the 3 moblin NMs in the 50-cap area.

Headed up to Monarch Linn to do CoP 4-2. We managed to squeak a victory out. It's nice to finally be progressing in CoP. Next big task is the Professor ghost NM in the Sacrarium. I'd like to get a map of that zone ASAP, but I'm not gonna hold my breath. Sacrarium access means that I can work on my swift belt, too. Maybe I can do that some weekend soon.

I managed to get my promotion and earn my Starlight Medal. This allowed me to spend 200k allied notes. I picked up the Cobra Harness for when MNK gets to be 68. I also picked up the Ariesian grip (for hMP), Sturm's Report (for M.Acc), and the belt with Dark Magic skill on it for sleeps/aspir/drains. I had to change my alliegance to Bastok in order to be able to afford all of the stuff that I wanted. Maybe someday I'll work on getting the body pieces from Sandy and Bastok, too, since they're so pretty ^^

Maybe, with a little luck, I'll be past 4-3 by this weekend!

Posted Sep 21 2009, 09:02 AM

Weekend of Joy

Well, it turned out to be a fairly productive weekend. I was planning on getting a lot of playtime in this weekend, since my wife was going to be out of town and Braego was coming up to hang out with me and the kids. I had decided on making this the 'weekend of NMs' since I was hoping to get a chance at my Joyeuse, and Braego was still looking to get his hands on OBow (we had failed at getting the drop the weekend before).

Friday night, I ran down to SSG in the hopes of getting ToD. I spent the next few hours running back and forth between my PC and Braego's trying to get a wireless USB nic working. With each hour, more and more people showed up to Charybdis's room, so I assumed that the window was open. I decided that even if I was solo, that I would try to claim the NM if I could, even though it would kill me. Eventually, Braego fell asleep and I gave up on his PC, so I called Wack out so we could attempt to duo.

I'm not sure how long we were waiting, but the entire time I was a little worried about my lack of a fully-meritted Phalanx II and Bio III. Eventually Vaynard saw that we were going to try for claim, so he started making his way down, since he wanted a Joyeuse, too. Wack got claim when it did eventually pop (just a little before 1am) and we started the slow duo. About 15 minutes in, Vaynard showed up to lend a hand, but ended up d/c'ing ~10 minutes later and never was able to come back. There were quite a few people there waiting for us to wipe. A few who offered to help ("invite me to help kill lol. You're taking too long. Check me I already have Joyeuse!"), sent tells to try to buy the sword or a chance to lot ("200k for chance to freelot sword?", "250k?"), and other less-than-helpful ideas (like the discussion in /say about not helping us if we got an add or a link so that when we wiped someone else could claim). One NIN even tried to MPK us by bringing the other Devil Manta up onto the ramp next to us (between myself and Charybdis/wack) then just standing there, engaged, but turned away from the mob... Eventually he just 2-houred and home pointed... Which simply resulted in his mob de-spawning).

Despite all of this (the lag was TERRIBLE!) we were able to whittle it down and get the kill in just a little over 35 minutes. I was so happy to finally have this sword. The best part was that we had the ToD for the next pop, and it was at a convenient time, too! The next window opened at 9:30 AM, so we agreed to meet down there at 9 to get ready.

The next morning, we had Braego(WHM/SCH), Protecus(PLD/BLU), Phaze(BRD/WHM), Timotheaus(SCH/RDM), and myself(RDM/WHM) down there and ready to fight by 9AM. Window opened at 9:30. By 9:40 we were fighting Charybdis again for claim #2. This time he went down extremely fast. I have to credit Tim for that. I think his helix spells did wonders for our kill speed (which was right around 12 minutes, I think). Protecus got his Joyeuse, and we were making plans to come back just before 6PM when the next window opened.

Between pops 2 and 3, We headed down to Gustav Tunnel for more Wyvernpoacher Drachlox camping. He was actually up and wandering around when we got there! Of course, whenever there is an NM that you want wandering around unclaimed, you start to panic a bit. It was just Braego and myself down there, with Phaze and Protecus otw after going to change jobs. One other person was down there and we didn't want to lose the chance to claim, so I pulled it; it brought 3 of his closest friends, and two of their pets >.> It took a little while to get all of the adds under control, but eventually we were able to and focus on bringing the NM down. No drop put us at 0/5. We were down there for a couple more hours (after Phaze and Protecus went AFK to get some sleep) and get one more claim on the NM (0/6) before we headed back to SSG for another camp.

This time, we had Protecus, Braego, Timotheaus, Veronyca, and myself down there camping, although we weren't sure if Protecus was going to ever wake up from his nap. Eventually Protecus did show up and Tim had a party to attend IRL, so he just went AFK and we were joined by Liqueenas. This Charybdis was shy and waited for 3 hours to show up. Liq got claim w/ provoke and we were able to take the NM down. Joyeuse #3 went to an AFK Timo and the rest of us headed back out to Gustav Tunnel.

Once in the tunnel, Liq changed to THF and Phaze came back down on WHM. I'm not sure how long we were down there, but we started to get desperate! I suggested the nekkid trick to get the NM to spawn. Everyone took off all of their visible gear except for hats and weapons. The next time the place holders spawned, we found oursleves with the NM! We made short work of him (I did the entire fight w/o pants) and were rewarded with an O.Bow for Braego!

Braego and I went back down to Gustav Tunnel, even though the next window opened at 5:30 AM and neither of us were going to be able to make it. This time, the NM popped early in the window. Phaze, protecus, Timotheaus, and Veronyca were out there and managed to outclaim the entire population of Asura (apparently). They made short work of Charybdis and Joyeuse #4 went to Veronyca! Next window opened at 1:30 PM, and I was ready!

This pop was really interesting. Middle of the afternoon, prime play time for EU and NA. We were the only PT down there. The ONLY one. There was a solo NIN and a solo BLM there for ToD. Also Moooodydude was down there being annoying, but ultimately, we had zero competition. Charybdis wasn't shy this time either and popped on the 3rd or 4th set of placeholders. Protecus, Phaze, Braego, Timotheaus, Veronyca and myself brought the NM down very quicly and Joyeuse #5 went to Phaze. The next window opened at 11:30 PM, which is too late for me to be up, unfortunately. Protecus and Vay were planning on going back down there for #6; I hope they got it!

While down there, we killed the DRG Sahagin NM thrice. Once, we even got the polearm for AFK Tim! We also killed the WHM Sahagin NM, but got nada.

The total count of NMs killed over the weekend: 12.

Also, I finished running around, killing NMs, and getting my Pso'xja pass. Now, all I need to do is go through and kill Diabolos to finish CoP 3-5.

It was an incredible weekend in-game!

Posted Sep 14 2009, 11:24 AM

Long time, still no Sea (but I'm workin' on it!)

Got a random /tell from a stranger last night as I was doin' some FoV in sky. The dude said that he found me on FFXIAH.com and noticed that I was on CoP 2-5. He wanted me to join him. Unfortunately, I was just wrapping up (I could hear the kids upstairs; awake from their naps) and we had ENM at night, so I had a very small window. He didn't care. He said we could put a group together now, and take off later in the night. By the time I found out what job they wanted me on (NIN) and I ran out there, it was getting kind of late. I think we got to Riverne A01 at 9:00, and Monarch Linn at 9:30.

We had PLD NIN WAR BLU WHM WHM and about 13 yellow liquids. Plan was for the PLD to kite two of the mammets, with a WHM for support, while the WAR BLU other WHM and I killed the other. We went in for a dry run first which was meh. I felt that the WAR wasn't paying attention and hit the mob a lot during transmogrification. We wiped (which was expected) without even killing one.

We decided to go for it once weakness wore and everything went without a hitch. I think it helped that the mammets only used transmogrification once in the whole fight. We cleared in about 10 minutes. It was surprisingly easy to keep hate with Yonin and cureskins from the WHMs.

I didn't have time to do any of the legwork for chapter 3 yet since I was already late for ENM (thanks for waiting, guys). I did a little bit this morning before work (3-1 and 3-2 are done). I hope to do a bit more this afternoon, maybe kill Overgrown Ivy and try to solo the antlion this afternoon during nap time.

This weekend should be a weekend of NM camping fun! (or frustration) We're gonna camp Charybdis for Wack, Vay, and myself, and between windows, camp the OBow NM for Braego. I hope we can get some good luck with claims and drops!

Oh yeah, and in the last 2.5 months, I've finished my enfeebling magic merits, unlocked Bio/Dia III, made a little bit of gil, spent a LOT of gil, and have generally just taken it easy both in-game and out.

Posted Sep 11 2009, 07:50 AM

Warrior's Charge: DONE!

I finished my Warrior's Charge merits. My WAR merits are really coming along nicely, considering that I haven't done any meriting in a long time. I think I'll finish my Double Attack merits next, then work on knocking off Ber/gressor merits in tandem (I like to keep the recast timers the same).

I have managed to save up a bit of gil. I saw that an Aristocrat's coat finally showed up on the AH, but I'm just a bit shy of being able to afford it. I expect it to go for 2-2.2 mil. I've got a little over 1.9 mil. I just don't know where I can come up with the last little bit of gil. I had thought about putting my noble's tunic up, which would give me 200k, but I didn't want to be without it for Sky (In case it didn't sell) and I didn't want to come up short (in case 2.1 mil wasn't enough).

It's been hard holding onto this gil and not blowing it on novelty stuff like a Fire bomblet, hermes' sandals, Martial Bhuj, etc. I want to have a pimped out WHM so I'm really trying to focus on that first.

I had rights and the winning lot on a second A.Legs last night at sky. I was all ready to take my ~2mil and buy a pair of cursed slacks -1 for an extra 5 MP on WHM and RDM. As it turns out, two pair of legs dropped, and the other went for reduced points. Since two people lotted, I decided to pass on my pair so that two people would get some new pants. I obviously don't really NEED them, I just want them. I think I did the right thing...

Of course after they dropped, it was announced that the LS was going to stop doing sky soon. >.>

I may have just missed my chance at ever getting Zenith Slacks +1! Also: need to get some Byakko and Kirin pops for my Haidate and W.Legs!

Posted Jun 22 2009, 09:24 AM

The Return of CB

It was a nice surprise to see Celestialbill online on Tuesday. He even joined us for our Nyzul Isle runs, just like back in the day! I hope he can spend more time online in the evenings so that we can do fun stuff together

I had another set of mats for Shiji to try his hand at synthing me a signed Aristocrat's Coat. Unfortunately, he failed the synth and lost the shining cloth. There was one on the AH, so I went and grabbed it for another try. 2nd attempt was NQ. So far, I've spent ~1.2mil trying to have one made for me. I think I'll just save up and buy one now. As nice as it would be to have a shiji-signed coat, I don't want to get too much farther behind (when it comes to spending the gil to make the item). I'm still in the market for a Blessed Briault +1, too, but they're never on the AH. I figure I'll do some more active searching one I actually have the 2mil required for either.

Alden was finally back online. It seemed like it had been a couple of weeks since he joined us for events. I doubt it was really that long, it just seemed that way. I found out that after I left early last week, the group did one more run at floor 80 and managed to snag an Askar body for shiji. 'grats to him. Of course, that meant that he wanted to try it out and ended up coming WAR with us this week. All-in-all, Nyzul went OK. We got started late (go figure) so we only got 2 runs in before I had to log off for some sleep. We did a floor 40 but got nothing, then we did 80 and got a Goliard body for Vaynard's RDM (when it gets to 75). It would've been nice to welcome CB back with an askar body of his own, though.

Tonight is ENM night. Maybe we'll get something worthwhile?

Posted Jun 18 2009, 08:26 AM

Mog Bonanza: Profit

Sky on Sunday was meh. I was last in line for Haidate, but one dropped, which brings me that much closer next time. N.Hands went freelot, but I couldn't manage a real lot. I was the only person who wanted Genbu's shield, which meant that it wasn't going to drop ; ; I don't know if I should even bother spending points on it, or just take a chance at winning it freelot. There are other things that I want from sky which will actually require me to save up some points (like, haidate). It is just going to take forever to be able to accumulate enough points to actually be able to lot.

For Mog Bonanza, I didn't hit the jackpot, but I did win 3x Rank 4 prizes on Ia. I should be able to turn that into 800-900k (of course prices are gonna plummet on most of those materials). I got 4x Rank 5 on Trutaru, which means he'll have all 3 statues in his Mog House. Tru only got a single Rank 5 prize which is going to turn into a Fafnir statue. All-in-all, this year's bonanza was much more profitable than last year's!

Tonight is Nyzul. Hopefully we'll get some armor.

I have only really been logging in for events. I've been trying to get some good exercise daily, which has to be done after the girls go to bed. Since I've been getting up so darn early, I need to get to bed before 10PM, which is really eating into my playtime. On the one hand, I HAVE been able to get some good exercise in the past couple of weeks, which feels great! On the other hand, I miss hanging out in-game and just dinking around. I need to log in and do some campaign soon. I lost my medal because I didn't put enough effort into maintaining it. With the version update next month and the release of the AN body armor, i want to make sure that I've got enough rank and notes to buy one or two.

Posted Jun 16 2009, 07:28 AM

Nyzul: 0 ENM: 0

Nyzul Isle failed to put out the last two weeks.

ENM gave is a galateia, which is better than the rest of the crap that we've gotten in the last 4-5 weeks.

Posted Jun 12 2009, 06:45 AM

Goliard: DONE!

Nyzul Isle last night. We did one floor 80 and 2x floor 100. We got one piece of armor out of the deal, which was the Goliard Chapeau. Once again, it came on a run when we were running out of time. Just after the 10 second warning, Wack went to warp us out, but accidentally took us to the next floor instead. I don't care since I've got the hat that I've been wanting! So, my Goliard set is complete. We've still got a lot of hats to get, though. Also at least one more askar and goliard body, not to mention a couple of extra goliard pieces for Vaynard (I think he wants the legs).

0/1 on a Shiji-signed Aristocrat's coat. As soon as my old Noble's Tunic sells, I'll buy another shining cloth and we'll try again. Part of me wonders if this is a good way to spend my gil, since I don't really have a lot of it, but I really want that white box, so until we've gone 0/7 or break more than 3, I think I'll continue to buy the mats.

The Blessed Briault +1 is gonna be the tricky part, I think.

Sunday was sky. I got up there in time for Suzaku x 2. Wack got a nice synth mat for his pocketbook. We had 2x E.Head which went free both times. I was the only person who commented N.Feet, but they didn't drop either time. Next week is Kirin. I'll be hoping for another pair of W.Legs!

Posted Jun 3 2009, 08:46 AM

Armor, WS, khroma, Oh My!

Let's see what the last couple of weeks have brought:

Askar Korazin
Dark Spirit Pact from an Azure key
Black Halo
CoP 2-3 Done
Evisceration (well, everything but the fight against Baronial Bat)
Khroma Ore

I'll start with the Askar body. Two weeks ago we did 2x80, 1x100 Nyzul runs. We completed all 3. Two things stick out in my memory about those runs. First is that on the 2nd floor 80 run that we did, we were cutting it close. Less than 5 mins when we landed on 80. Defeated the boss with less than 10 seconds and see the Askar drop. I lotted immediately and everyone else passed very quickly and it dropped to me right before we exited with maybe a second left on the clock. My heart was beating like I'd run a mile! I was so pumped

Then, one of our members had to leave early, but we decided to try a floor 100 w/ 5. We ended up clearing with a fair amount of time to spare, but didn't get anything from it. So far, I think we've gotten 1 Denali head and 1 askar. We definitely need more head pieces!

I thought we were done farming floor 80 with my Askar, but it turns out that Yoshiji also wants one. So, we'll be spending more time farming 80 and 100 in the coming weeks. Vaynard is really making progress on his RDM, so we might also be able to snag a Goliard body for him, too. Speaking of Vay's RDM, he wants some other goliard pieces, which means that I might get a shot at some other askar armors when we start farming those floors.

I regularly collect seedspalls from the non-goblin beastmen to get an Azure Key in an attempt for Utsusemi: Ni. Most of the time, I get garbage. Braego was over and I was showing him what he needs to do since he also wants Ni (to use, not sell). I had picked up the Yag and Orc seedspalls, but the Quads were being stingy. So, I had Braego take over for me until he got one to drop, then I directed him to Jeuno to turn in the key. I was surprised to see that my reward was a Dark Spirit Pact! I was going to use it since it is one summon that I don't have, but I decided to check the price on the AH first. I was even more surprised to see that they regularly sell for 180k! Forget SMN, sell that baby! It sold very quickly and now Braego is going to spam Azure Keys every day, too ^^

I tried to solo the pot NM in Ro'Maeve for Black Halo, but got my butt handed to me. So, I got some people together to take it out once and for all. We ended up with a full PT of WAR, THF, RNG, MNK, WHM, RDM. The pot went down very quickly and I received my new (and last) club WS. Immediately after, I set out to skill dagger up to the 230 skill required to unlock Evisceration.

I saw a shout for 2-3 that was at 5 so I joined up. It took everyone a long time to gather, but we eventually made it into the aqueducts. The WHM that we had was a complete moron. As soon as we entered, he said "I've only got 35 minutes, so we have to do this fast!" ... This coming from the guy who arrived to the Tavnazian Safehold 40 minutes after everyone else >.>

The dude who guided us did a fairly good job. We made it to the minotaur without any problems (even got a fomor codex to drop on one of the kills otw out there). There were a couple of problems with ill-preparedness, however. I brought a Reraise Earring, but I was the only one. One person brought holy waters. So, there was a lot of death because of doom. I ended up dying 4 times in that fight because I would get up, nobody would cure me as I reapplied reraise and shadows, then I would get killed by AoE. We went the wrong way once when trying to find the secret room past the library for the last CS, which meant that we also had to farm an extra bronze key. This only took us a little while, however.

Eventually we all made it to the final CS, then we ran out as a group. A bit of running around in the safehold and Miseraux Coast, and now I'm ready for 2-5 (or, mammets)! As soon as I landed in Whitegate, I saw a shout for 2-5, @5/6, needing a healer. I was tempted to join them, but Ia said no ; ;

Around Nyzul, I managed to break the latent on my dagger of trials, so I turned it in and have my map key item. Now all I need to do is make the trip to Gustav Tunnel to kill Baronial Bat and then I get an awesome new WS^^

Finally, I did a last-minute ISNM run last night after I finished dagger weaponskills. I had my doubts about the BLM that we had, but things ended up going pretty smooth. We were 3/6 on khromas, and I was one of the lucky ones who got one I knew the price had gone up a bit since the last one that I sold, but I didn't expect them to be at 450k! Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be doing many ISNMs until I can afford to pick up a Perdu Wand and Perdu Voulge, which will set me back almost 100k IS. I think I'm gonna be meriting in Aht Urghan zones for a long time

I'd like to start making it back to Sky regularly. Apparently Genbu's shield, which would make a nice addition to my RDM solo gear, is going freelot. It is hard to be online at 7:00 when the weather is so nice, though.

Posted May 28 2009, 11:07 AM

Slow Weekend

I didn't spend a whole lot of time in-game this weekend. Instead, I took advantage of the relatively nice weather and spend a lot of time outside. I did get 9 holes of golf in and get a lot of yardwork done. If I did nothing else, I'd call that a successful weekend.

But that wasn't all I did. I also managed to snag a merit PT and work off another charge of my anniversary band, getting my 4th merit point. Unsure what I'm going to spend it on right now. Maybe I'll just save it until I get 10 and then finish off Warrior's Charge.

I also jumped on a shout for ACP 11. I joined as RDM/DRK. We went with PLD, SMN, RNG, RNG, BLU. It took us just under 15 mins to defeat the seed crystal, but it was really very easy. The PLD got initial hate, then just kept running back up the ramp to the PT, while everyone else stayed at the top of the ramp and used ranged attacks to kill the seed crystal. The BLU would take care of clones, then rest in-between. The SMN would run in and BP when his timer was up, and cure the PLD when his timer wasn't. My primary duty was to stun all the -ga III spells, which was really no problem since it didn't try to cast -ga spells too often. With composure-haste, Stun was always ready when I needed it. I picked up my redingote and got ACC/DA augments for WHM melee! Gotta test it out in Cape Terrigan soon!

I also managed to ding MNK52 with Deep and Wack doin' Xarcabard FoV. I really want to try it out in a PT with /WAR to see what kind of damage I can do. I'd love to add some double attacks in there with my kick attacks. Who knows, maybe I'll make an effort to get MNK up to 60 in the near future.

I was out doin' yardwork all afternoon/evening on Sunday, so I didn't make it up to sky. I hope they had a good run. Maybe next weekend I will make it out on time, but it is hard to say since it is a holiday weekend and we'll have company around the whole time.

Posted May 18 2009, 09:32 AM

PUG != Static

First, ENM was 4-manned last night since Z and Vay couldn't make it and Alden wasn't feeling well. Wack, Deep, and I picked up Evergence (on RDM) to knock it out. It went very smooth and we got a nice piece of Viridian Urushi to show for it >.>

Nyzul was canceled on Tuesday since 1/2 of our static couldn't make it (it's been a bad week for statics). I ended up logging off early and getting some sleep.

I spent some extra time hanging out in Whitegate hoping to jump in on a Nyzul run or two if I could lot some Askar. I ended up doing 3 runs in two different parties.

The first run with the first group was possibly the worst run I've ever been on. I went RDM, but I should've gone WHM because the WHM that we had was awful. There were a couple of issues right off the bat that had me a little worried. One, the frontline was SAM SAM MNK THF, all /NIN, so we didn't have anyone to provoke (which seems kind of important to me). Then, as soon as we land on floor 76, the MNK D/Cs. Long story short, floor 76 is a kill all and the first mob we run into is a dahak. So the WHM doesn't buff us (understantable) but she also doesn't heal ANYONE! I don't even know where she was when we were fighting. We ended up wiping and were starting to recover when the MNK came back. Three more people ended up dying before we were able to kill it (For all you melees out there, in Nyzul isle, please, do not fight mobs with AoE moves around corners or inside of doorways as it forces your mages to get within AoE range and caauses headaches for all) Once the objective was complete, we just exited as we had less than 5 minutes remaining at that time! Twenty-five minutes on one floor is just plain retarded! Funny thing was that the WHM was gonna switch to THF because (s)he couldn't find one, but (s)he didn't want to change from WHM because (s)he "doesn't trust other WHMs". I couldn't believe it after I saw her performance. Based on his/her performance, remind me to never get into a PT with him/her if (s)he's NOT the WHM!

The 2nd party was with some old dynamis LS friends that I've done runs with before. They are spamming floor 80 for Goliard and Denali, so I like to tag along with them as often as I can. They were doing 2 runs and asked me to come WAR. We had BRD and RDM for backline, SAM WAR WAR DRG on the front. I think we exited on floor 78. Our RDM just couldn't keep everyone healed. Maybe the BRD was gimp, too because his lullabies were getting resisted all over the place. One of the floors was a family floor and the target was frogs. With that much AoE, a RDM spamming curaga II just isn't going to last very long before they run out of MP.

The 2nd attempt went a little better, although we had 2 'family' floors with frogs as the target. The RDM and BRD were both weakened as we were trying to kill the last two frogs, and the last one we had to kill before floor 80 dropped a water bomb before he died and KO'd 3 ppl (including the weakened BRD). As we land on floor 80 we get the 5 minute warning. So, clearly we're gonna have to do a weakened zerg on Hydra. For some reason, the RDM decided to raise all of the melee first, instead of the BRD (who could've 1) supplied MP for the RDM and 2) helped raise, cutting our 'recovery' time in half). So, with about 1.5 minutes left, we pop our meds and run in for a futile attempt at a zerg. By the time I engaged the mob, we just had our 1 minute warning. I think we got it down 15% before we timed out.

Maybe our static is better geared. Maybe our static is better merited. For whatever reason, our static seems to just roll through the floors (even on frogs). I have been the only healer in a 5xdd RDM nyzul run before and it is VERY difficult to keep everyone alive and keep MP up without some extremely easy floors. I think that we could've fared much better by letting me come WHM and going with at 3xDD 3xSupport setup. Their kill-speed wasn't the problem, staying alive was. Whatever the case, I think it is extremely rare that Nyzul PuG can match the efficiency of our Static. I hope we never have to cancel another static Nyzul run again!

Posted May 15 2009, 09:58 AM

Frustrating Weekend

This past weekend was a long one for me. It started on Thursday night with our weekly ENM. We got lousy drops again, but had no difficulty doing this fight. The xp reward was enough to ding a merit for me. (Arioch's group got a double hagun drop in their run last week; Congrats to them!)

Afterwards, we did a quick KSNM for some destroyers for Saeble. We did 3 runs and got 2 pair of destroyers. My orb, the only money drop was a Minuet Earring which sells for ~50k. Unfortunately, they're rare and I neglected to put mine in the delivery box. I asked someone to lot on it for me, but everyone zoned which resulted in it dropping to the ground. So, I traded 30 KS for about 10k total in drops. Not a good trade.

I did a floor 80 run with a couple old Dynamis LS friends. I was told to come RDM, then the leader asked how my WAR was. I replied: "Decent AH gear, few merits." I was surprised when he asked me to switch to WAR, but happy to do so.

The PT ended up being WARx3, DRG, WHM, BRD. We made it to the boss floor with plenty of time. The first thing that happened, though, was petrification which hit me and one other WAR and the WHM. When I was un-petrified I popped my meds, used my JAs and laid out some massive rampages. It was very satisfying. We got DNC dagger ; ;

I logged in Friday night hoping to get a couple of merits and build up my dwindling supply of Imperial Standing. Deepfreeze wanted to level his WAR, though, so I joined him and Wack doing some FoV in the desert. I managed to re-ding 50 (I was 65 tnl) and actually hit 51 before Deep had to log. Wack and I joined Sath and friends for a couple of ANNMs, which I really enjoy...

...Except for one person in particular. I don't know what it is, but Voicememo tends to annoy the crap out of me. When I observe his actions and see the things that he says, it just shouts total noob to me. For instance, demanding that a THF opens a treasure box after completion of the fight. TH doesn't effect boxed treasure, which I thought was very common knowledge. And despite the fact that nearly everyone else in the alliance told him so, he still demanded that the THF open the box at the 2nd fight that we did!

We got lousy money drops. The 2nd fight dropped an augmented Errant Body. The augment was pretty crappy (MP+7, Dark Element +3) but it is better than a normal errant body which means it is worth at least 50k. Those who wanted the piece were supposed to /random and highest roll would get the piece. Unfortunately, the highest roll belonged to someone who could not actually equip the piece. Apparently a discussion then took place in /tell which took too long to resolve and the treasure box disappeared, taking the armor with it.

After the ANNMs, I joined Sath's group for some Nyzul Isle action. We did floors 100, 80, and 60. The first two runs went very smooth. We managed the floors well and killed the bosses with lots of time to spare. We got a Denali Bonnet which went to Voicememo. Nothing dropped on 80 which is too bad 'cause I think I'm the only person in that group that needed the Askar. Floor 60 ended up giving us some trouble. We got Cerb down to ~15% before people started dying and our damage output stalled. However, we pushed on and were actually able to kill him with a minute or so to spare. We got some crappy weapon as a reward for a truly epic fight.

One good thing that came from the extra Nyzul runs this week is that if we actually clear 3 runs on Tuesday, I'll be ready for my next promotion (Sergeant Major, I think). Which brings me one step closer to all of the cool perdu weapons that I want (Wand followed by G.Axe).

On Saturday, I was reading some posts on the Dreams in Vana'diel forums about the rewards for this year's Mog Bonanza. One of the prizes is the Moldavite Earring, which I want. People were asking why anyone would take that as a reward when it is so easy to get.

Well, I had gone out one other time to see if I could claim/kill this NM. I went as WAR/DNC but never saw the NM pop.

This time, I decided to go out there and get a ToD and see if I could take it down. I went as WHM for ease-of-travel. I brought Ia along for some extra company. About 15 mintues after I get to the spawn, he pops and I claim/kill. We went down very easily. I was surprised when my 200% Hexa Strike took off ~15% of the NMs life. I ate a Freeze which did ~100 damage. All-in-all, it was a very easy battle. I didn't get the drop, but had the ToD and was ready to claim again in 2 hrs when he was set to spawn again. The second time, he dropped his earring! I finally have this fundamental nuking piece for holy or RDM nukes. I also made ~25k from drops, too.

Sunday night, I did some seedspall gathering for some ACP keys. I got the 3 keys from Jugner/Pashow/Meriphitaud in about 10 minutes, so I decided to make the trek through Fei'Yin as well. I found the 9 seed afterglows very quickly but accidentally accepted the Mark of Seed instead of the Azure Key. I tried going back in to see if I could get a key as well as the Mark, but it wouldn't let me ; ;

Before I logged I hopped in on an ISNM. The people who went were very good players. We averaged about 2 minutes per run. Unfortunately, we went 0/6 on Khroma Ores. It's too bad, I would have liked to get one since they are going for almost 400k currently. I want to finish my gobbie bag upgrades!

I'm hoping that Nyzul puts out this week. It would be nice to see some more headgear and I would LOVE to finish farming 80.

Posted May 11 2009, 03:01 PM

Nyzul Armor Go!

Another Nyzul Isle night has come and gone. We replaced Alden w/ Zman (MNK/DNC) because Z wanted his mythic knuckles. We were going to do 2x80 and 2x100, but Z only had 3 tags. The first two runs went very smooth. Easy floors let us get to floor 80 with more than 10 minutes both times. First floor 80 we got a Denali Jacket for Shiji. Second floor 80 actually gave us Askar, which is very nice. As far as I know, we only need one more body then we will be done farming 80. What are the chances that the next time a piece of body armor drops from 80 it'll be Askar? I'm guessing pretty slim...

We did 100 last and had some floors which slowed us down. We ended up on floor 100 with less than 5 minutes, which turned out to be just enough time to kill Cerb. No armor, but Z finally got his Burning Fists. Now, he'll just have to do ~20,000 weaponskill points to unlock the weaponskill. Or, he could climb to 100 in 5-6 weeks, with a static. I'm not sure which would be faster.

Hopefully we can throw an extra LS run together later on this week for a chance at an Askar body. I would really like to start spamming floor 100 since we still need at least 3 hats.

All-in-all, last night's run was very satisfying.


Sunday was Kirin (my first) which seemed to go very smooth. The mini-gods were killed without much hassle. I was on the list of lotters for W.Legs, which actually dropped. Unfortunately, I had the lowest lot of the 3 eligible. It's too bad, too. The Cursed Cuisses -1 are only 900k, so they are very affordable. Mackaframa, who won the lot, got the NQ right away, which are ~20k.

I ran around and got a couple of ACP keys before Sky and ended up getting a pretty nice Mythril Belt with STR+1, DEX+1, and Acc+1. I think it will be a nice addition to my THF gear and any other melee job below 40 (at which point I'll switch to life/tilt belt, whichever is the level 40 one).

Also attempted ACP final fight with Ari, Vix, Banis, Geetis, and Marader. We went with a more traditional party and tried to take out the seed crystal normally. We got it down to about 60% before we wiped. I don't know what we were missing, maybe raw damage? It wasn't a disappointing loss at all. I had a lot of fun talking about strategies and actually giving this fight a shot. I thought that everyone did what they were supposed to do, so the loss couldn't be pinned on anyone in particular.

Unfortunately it means that I now have to climb the tower again, which is annoying but not impossible. I'll probably 2-box Ia again, just for the extra safety net. Since I'll have Ia logged in, I might also try to get a level or two on THF. See if I can ding into my PCC ^^ Maybe then I'll actually put my PT flag up to show off my l337 gear!

Posted May 6 2009, 11:42 AM

Nyzul Fails

Did 4 boss floors last night (1 with a PuG). Got 4 clears. Got 0 armor.

That shit is frustrating.

Posted Apr 29 2009, 09:03 AM

Long, Pleasant Weekend

I had a long weekend, with Friday off. Also took the kids over to grandma & grandpa's house on Saturday, so Ia and I had the entire day to ourselves. It was amazing to be able to relax and un-stress. We also had some nice weather which let me get outside and assemble a new patio set that I picked up.

I spent a lot of time in-game soloing THF (well, I had some assistance from 2-boxed Ia). Managed to go from 27 to 31. I'm getting closer to crossing this sub off of my to-do list. I figure I'll continue to PL myself to get a couple of levels per session (with FoV, it makes it very easy) until it hits 37, then I'll retire it forever.

We tried to do the final ACP fight. I was asked to come WAR which was a big surprise. I was a bit worried about my damage output since Wack was complaining about his previous failed attempt and the joke WAR that they had in their group. I ended up doing pretty well. I got 3 weaponskills in before I was KO'd. It was nice to see such big numbers (2000, 1.5k, 1.3k). It looked like our RDM was trying to stun from a macro, instead of the menu, which allowed the NM got a lot of tp moves off. I think I'll climb the tower again, and just hop in on a run as RDM/DRK and do it right. I'm tired of the final fight already, and I've only done the climb/fight once! I just want to be done with it.

Sky was very lackluster. I headed up there WHM but was then asked to change to wAR since they were heavy on support. There was a very good turnout, with 25 ppl there at one point. I felt that my damage output was pretty good. Much better than my last trip up there as WAR. There weren't any real good drops, but I did manage to finally get back into positive points for when I actually want to lot on something. I ended up falling asleep after sky after watching shouts in whitegate for a little while. I got a fair amount of sleep and feel refreshed and energized this morning at work, which hasn't happened for a long time.

Posted Apr 27 2009, 09:50 AM

WHM Merits Done!

Doing some extra FoV in sky and some farming for diorite gave me enough merit points to finish WHM Group II merits. I finished Group I a couple of weeks ago which means that my WHM-specific merits are done! (yay) I plan to fully merit Enfeebling magic and dark magic skill, which will help WHM a bit with some last-ditch enfeebles or my semi-potent /SCH aspirs.

I managed to progress up to the ACP final fight. Still waiting on the LS to get a PT together to hammer it out. Tim, Vero, Wack, Slig, and I all need the fight, so that's almost a full PT right there. I think the job selection is OK. Hopefully we can knock out this fight soon.

Nyzul was cancelled this week, but unfortunately it was unexpected. I ended up sitting in the ruins waiting for the rest of the team for more than an hour before it was called off. As I was heading up, I saw a shout for CoP 2-3, which would have been a good way to spend the evening, had I known.

Was able to get THF from 23-27 yesterday. Had an easy time doing FoV in Batallia Downs with Ia as a PL. It was fun for the first 3 hours. Landing 250 dmg SA Fast Blades made me /glee. But, by the end of the night, I just wanted to quit. Maybe I'll look into some gear upgrades before I go out next time. If nothing else, I'll upgrade my sword or move to daggers. I'm pretty confident that I can get to 30 in one more session (w/ empy band) which will make my /THF useful, if not fully-levelled. Also flee is everything I expected it to be ^^

Tonight is ENM followed by either ACP final fight or ANNM ( or both!). Maybe we can snag another hagun. I should at least be able to finish off another merit point.

I've got a 3-day weekend coming up which is always much fun. On Saturday, I'm taking the girls to grandma and grandpa's house. I can't wait to have a 'day off'!

Posted Apr 23 2009, 10:44 AM

ACP Go!

I started working on my Crystalline Prophecy missions last night. I got the first 3 speedsalls very quickly and ran to Qufim to get my cutscene for mission 2.

Now, I need to get the food items to spawn the 3 NMs in Batallia Downs, Rolanberry Fields, and Sauromugue Champaign. I was murdering mobs on WHM for about 30 mins but did not get the 'drop'. Wack asked if I could help some Sons kill Unger for the boomerang, so I headed out on RDM.

Then, Alden's XP pt lost their RDM, so I went out to help and managed to get about 8k xp (managed to finish off a 2nd merit) before the LS begged Alden to help out in Limbus.

Before I went to bed, I saw a shout for Nyzul 100 Askar/Goliard free, so I joined up. We were able to kill the boss, but only Wightslayerx2 dropped. Armor (that I want) continues to elude me.

Posted Apr 16 2009, 11:06 AM

Nyzul Puts Out

Did a rare 4-run Nyzul last night since everyone was online and ready to go an hour earlier than normal (thanks girls, for goin' to bed on-time and right away!)

We did 40, 80, and 2x100. Askar legs went to Vaynard (which is the last piece of armor that he wants from Nyzul). Denali hat dropped on the last run of the night and went to Yoshiji.

It's nice to cross some of this stuff off of the list finally

Posted Apr 15 2009, 04:29 PM

No Joy

I spent the last weekend before the update camping Charybdis for a Joyeuse. I was at the camp for a total of 6 windows. We only managed to claim once ; ;

The one time we did claim, we were 7.5 hours into the window. We got the NM down to 16% before we wiped and lost claim.

Ultimately, we didn't have enough support. Wack, Leg, and Vay were there. Ari showed up on COR and I was 2-boxing Ia. It wasn't pretty. If we had a dedicated healer, or maybe even a dedicated tank, we could've pulled out a win (maybe).

I was pretty pissed when we lost claim and ended up staying away from the game for a day...


Nyzul isle gave me my Goliard legs. I didn't need them and only want them so that I can complete the set. They're a pretty piece, but I don't know how much use I'll get out of them. This means that I'm done with armor from floor 40. Maybe we'll see a body or two soon!
Then, we had a version update.

I was really looking forward to doing some things on WHM after the update and playing with the new JAs and spells. Protecus and I spent some time in sky doing FoV and generally having a blast! I really like the new toys that WHM got. I also got my club skill up to 240, so I can start work on Black Halo and finish up the last of my club WSs.

I haven't really had a chance to try out the enspells, but Composure is great for RDMs. It is wonderful having spells last 3x longer than normal. I don't know if I'd like it very much in a merit PT or dynamis since it tends to throw off my timers (I hate it when haste/refresh drop on PT members), but this will be AWESOME for skilling up and soloing

Also, got A.Head from Byakko the other night (4 pops, only 1 hiadate, which went to Sligs). I sold off some gear which was gathering dust and bought a Cursed Crown -1. So now, I've got a shiny new Zenith Crown +1 which has the same MP as the Faerie Hairpin, but also has useful INT/MND/CHA +4 (maybe I'll macro it in on my Aspirs!).

I spent some time soloing FoV in Cape Terrigan in hopes of getting a Sirrocco Axe. I only had 1 brown box pop, and I didn't get the combination right. I ended up fighting in a bad spot and ended up getting links from a raptor, crab, undead mage, and crab (I was able to kill the mage before the last crab finished me off ; ;). When I landed in Whitegate, I saw a shout for ISNM3k, so I went out on WHM and had a blast. Auspice + cureskin = happy melees On top of that, I got a khroma (we were 4/6 on the run) which means I've got a little bit of gil in the bank, which is always pleasant.

Looking forward to Nyzul Isle. Can't wait to test out these new abilities in all kinds of events.

Posted Apr 13 2009, 04:53 PM

Runic Key

ENM static paid out for the second week in a row. We got a hagun this week, which sold very quickly. 500k to everyone ^^.

In Nyzul Isle, we climbed 90-100 on Tuesday and got everyone in the static a runic key! We were also blessed with the Askar head which went to Deep. We decided to go for some hands and got some askar for Vaynard. We were going to do a run at floor 80 for some more bodies, but ended up going up to sky to kill Ulli for Slig's Byakko pop item.

On Wednesday, I geared up WHM and headed out to the tree to unlock mystic boon. I probably had ~65 points worked off before, so I popped my NPC and went to town. I was /DNC because it is just sexy against crabs. I was getting ~5 ws per mob. About 1.5 hours in and just a little over 70 ws later, I had Mystic Boon! The first time I used it, I got 160MP back from an EP crab. /joy

Next, I changed to WAR to unlock King's Justice. Well, I geared myself up, then walked away from my PC for awhile. While I was away, I remembered that before I got Byakko's axe, I was using my Sturdy Axe in PTs and had done quite a few ws. So, when I returned to my PC, I looked and found that King's Justice was already unlocked! Now, I wonder how long it's been available to me, since I haven't equipped my Sturdy Axe since I got Byakko's?

Next, I geared up RDM (again /DNC) and headed back to the tree to unlock Death Blossom. This one actually took a lot of WS to unlock (243, to be exact). I put on all the haste gear I could find and went to town on those poor crabs. I was attacking so fast that I'm tempted to head back out there and work on skilling up my dagger to learn evisceration ^^ /DNC made it very easy to keep both HP and MP up, but I'm not sure how I'd fare against steelshells.

After I unlocked Death Blossom, I climbed the hill in Attohwa Chasm to get my item for the ENM and then joined Wack for a very long campaign battle in Vunkerl Inlet. There was much death, but in the end, he dinged 65 and I was able to finish off another merit point, so it was worthwhile. I forgot to grab my darksteel maul, so my Mystic Boons were pretty weak, but it was still nice to have that WS since aspir samba can't keep up with my MP consumption. I look forward to doing some more campaign battles on any of my jobs, now!

I'm trying to keep some gil in reserve to pay for new spells and gobbie bag quest items when they come out next week. Hopefully, they're all available from NPCs and not too expensive! My biggest concern is that I don't have room in my WHM macro palette for more spells! I don't know what I'm going to do ; ;

Posted Apr 2 2009, 10:39 AM

The Dorp to End All Dorps

Last night was Dynamis - Xarcabard. I logged on early and geared up to do some campaign, to build up my buffer a bit (I was 8k from capped) but was just too tired so got a little power nap in instead.

I made sure to get out to the trail markings early so that I would be included in attendance. This was the first run that I'd attended since they implemented the new points system. All the 'old-timers' started at last Sunday's Valkurm run with 10 points, and got an additional 4 for the run, bringing their total to 14 points. Since I don't have access to CoP zones, I only had 10 points. I was sure this was going to be bad for me if the RDM hat actually dropped.

Fast forward 30 minutes into dynamis when we're fighting Duke Berith (the RDM demon NM). For the second time since January, he drops his hat. The LS leader calls out those who are eligible to lot and I'm not on the list (of course, I've got 4 less points than everyone else). The high lot was only 702. I was so very tempted to just lot it and see if I could win it. I didn't, and the hat dropped to someone else.

I was kinda disappointed and wondered if I would ever have enough points to lot the hat over anyone who had dreamland access. I sent the leader a tell asking if I could get points for showing up to dreamland zones to act as a glass mule or something (to which he eventually agreed) so that I wouldn't constantly be behind everyone else.

Fast forward 1 hour after we just cleared the Eye Wall. A second RDM hat drops. So, I'm waiting to see who they announce has lotting rights. Of course, they list the same people that they listed for the first hat (which didn't include me). Then, I hear someone pipe up and say that I should be allowed to lot as well since I was in the same point tier as everyone else (Tiers go in increments of 15, so if someone is 15 points lower than someone else, that person cannot lot). The LS leader agreed that since I've never missed a run that I, too, was eligible.

So I look at the other 3 who lotted and my heart just sank. The high lot was 965. Then.... epicness:

I rolled 983.

The guys on vent just exploded! I celebrated my lotting-leetness by dying twice in a row. I didn't even see in the log when it dropped to me, I just saw all of the congratulations. So, I looked back in the log and sure enough:

Truece obtains a Duelist's Chapeau.

So, I put it on, stared at myself for a little while, then announced to the LS that I was done with dynamis and asked for a D2 ^^ Of course I was joking (I'll slowly phase out of dynamis over the next few months, probably).

I need to adjust my macros a bit now since I want to idle in the relic hat and all of my macros leave me idling in artifact hat.

I just can't believe that I finally have this incredible piece.

Then, to top it all off, I see that SE announced the WHM job updates for the April version update. New spells, changes to old spells, and new JAs, too! We even get an AoE Erase I can't wait to check out those changes.

Tonight after ENM, we are either gonna do 2 floor climbs in Nyzul so that we can do 3xboss floors next week, or we'll do my CoP 2-3 fight. Well, since I'm not worried about points for dynamis gear any longer, I think I'd rather do Nyzul Isle. Soon, I'll start working off points for Mystic Boon and King's Justice!!!

It's been a good week ^^

Posted Mar 26 2009, 10:43 AM

+20 Floors

I headed up to sky with TheSons on Sunday since FashionablyLate/Manaburn was doing CoP dynamis. I got approval from Ari early to could come WAR since I wanted to test out my new Juggernaut.

Boy, did I feel useless. I couldn't hit the broad side of a Byakko ; ;

On the plus side, I grabbed a cursed celata which I was able to immediately get uncursed. So now I've got a nice new WS piece for both Axe and GAxe.

After sky, I spent 1.5 hrs running around Veg... Place looking for a coffer, but I couldn't find one before I had to warp because of Detector agg.

Tuesday was Nyzul climb 66-80. We had some trouble on the very first floor with some hidden gears which agg'd to JAs during a fight. The rest of the run went smooth and we managed to get the clear all the way up to 80 (no armor drop). Wack got pretty upset at the lack of focus, but I didn't really get that vibe from the group. The gears agg from a pretty good distance, and people were focused on what they were doing: fighting a mob for the objective. We just didn't have enough sleeps available to get them all before a couple ppl died.

At the end of the night, we decided to do one more climb and got up to 85. This means that next time, we should be able to get runic seals for the rest of the static and at the same time, take a shot at some nyzul hats. It will be nice to be done with climbs forever and only have to worry about doing boss floors.

I also did my Sergeant quest after nyzul. It's nice that I can get my mercenary rank up while doing Nyzul. I feel like I'm killing two birds with one stone.

Posted Mar 25 2009, 02:01 PM

I Gots Me A Dorp!

Dynamis Beaucedine last night. We got crazy drops, something like, 16 pieces of relic (RDMx3, BLMx3, BLUx2, WARx2, SCH, COR, MNK, SAM, BST, WHM). One mob dropped both RDM and BLU bodies. We had 4 pieces of relic in the treasure pool at one time (RDMx2, BLU, BLM). The linkshell leaders did some recruiting and we ended up with 40 people in the zone. I had terrible luck with lots on synth mats, only snagging one XP scroll in the first 90 minutes. Then, we had back-to-back wootz ores drop, for which I lotted 858 and 850. I had high lots on both for a few minutes, until someone else raised up and beat my 850. It was funny because the sponsor commented on how I always had shitty lots on synth mats when I used to run with them before, but whenever wootz dropped, I'd get super lucky (although he exaggerated a bit saying I'd come away with 4 or 5 ores, when I never won more than 2 in a single run). So, I ended coming away from that run with ~180k, which is the only reason I wanted to do beaucedine in the first place. We ended up getting the clear with less than a minute left on the hourglasses.

They have some Tavnazia's scheduled and plan to do dual runs those nights, with the 'left over' ppl doing a city zone. The first city zone is Bastok, which I will definitely be attending, and hoping for more luck with Wootz ores.

They announced that they're going to move toward a point system to reward those reliable folks who can't seem to get lucky with drops. This is nice because it will make it slightly easier for me to get my chapeau, but I can see myself falling behind since I can't do CoP zones.

On Tuesday, before Nyzul, Ald, Wack and I went down to the Den of Rancor to help Leg with one of his ZMs. On the way we killed Carmine-Tailed Tonberry (or something like that) who was nice enough to drop the Asklepios (WHM/BLM/SCH/SMN only club, 30HP->MP, Cure potency +5%) which they let me have. I had forgotten all about that club, but it was one that I wanted a long time ago. It is a nice club to dual-wield with Templar Mace for an extra 15% cure potency.

Nyzul went well, moving our discs from 50-65. If all goes well next week, we'll get to floor 80 and maybe even see some armor drop! We had a couple of NMs killed, including Aquarius, who's ??? axe turned out to be a Franscisca, which nobody wanted/needed. Despite a couple of shouts, nobody in Whitegate wanted it and it ended up getting lost. Floor 60 gave us a DRK scythe. I think this is like the 6th boss in a row that has dropped nothing but a weapon for us. I'd say we're due for some gear! After the climbs, Deep found that Tachi: Rana was unlocked. Hopefully Vay's WS will come next week. Alden and I haven't even begun to unlock our WSs yet (I won't even begin to try until I get a disc up to 95).

Tonight is ENM night and maybe a quick UIA when we're done since I've finally got 60 BS again. It sure would be nice to see some drops to bring us out of this dry-spell.

Posted Mar 19 2009, 10:21 AM

Stingy Nyzul, Dynamis.... SE in-general

The dynamis following my last post actually had 2 chapeau's drop. Unfortunately, I couldn't manage a lot higher than 580, so no super-pimp-hat for me ; ; We've got 3 more Xarc's this month, but they're planning on going for Dynamis Lord every other Xarc, which means that our farming time will be significantly reduced on those runs.

So far, our first ENM was still our most profitable, netting us 19k each for a split. Since then, we haven't gotten more than 3k worth of loot. It'll all be worth it when Hagun drops, though, right?

Nyzul has been stingy. We have tried 2x 100 in the past week, but didn't make it to the top either time. We've had some pretty bad luck with NMs on kill all floors. We did manage to climb Ald, Vay, Deep, and my discs to 50, though, so that's nice ^^ If things go well, it's possible that the entire static can get their discs to 80+ before the end of the month. If we don't get screwed on too many floors, we could even see 90 or 95 ^^

At this point, I'd be happy with successful climbs. I can always join PUGs for armor, or even organize my own runs, if necessary.

I finished off my regen merits last night. I've got 205 merits to go before I'm finished with merits for all jobs. Something tells me it's gonna be awhile before I can stop meriting and start levelling a new job!

Posted Mar 11 2009, 09:47 AM

Still no Shap-O

Why can't I be in a Xarc run like this:

http://vedderffxi.livejournal.com/53419.html

They had 3 Duelist's Chapeau's drop in their last Xarc run. Our last Xarc run, we got something like 13 relic, but I haven't seen a Chapeau since my first trip to Xarc, a long time ago.

We were scheduled for Xarc last night, but due to some shell entering very late (like, 2 hours late) we jumped to the only available zone: Sandy ; ;

It was a pretty meh run. We netted a total of 535 coins (3 x 100s) and a small amount of useless relic (4xBST, 2xBLU, 2xCOR, 2xWAR, 2xRDM, NIN).

I can't wait to get my Chapeau....

Posted Feb 23 2009, 05:49 PM

WHM Relic 5/5

Beaucedine got jacked on Wed, so we went to Xarc instead. I didn't mind since I would've only been lotting synth in Beaucedine.

We had a fairly good run. Up until the last hour, I actually had gained ~800 xp (via two scrolls). But some missed sleepgas ended up seeing me KO'd 3 times before we were kicked from the zone, so I need to work on my buffer again ; ;

It was a pretty good run drop-wise. IIRC, we had the following drops: DRKx2, SAM, RNG, MNK, BSTx2, WHM, PLD, BLM, SCH. The DRK, SAM, RNG, and SAM were all freelot. I got WHM hands, which completes that set of relic for me (yay!). Now, I don't have to worry about lotting on one piece of relic, while hoping that the RDM hat doesn't drop later in the run.

Nyzul wasn't too bad. LT wanted us to take him up to 100 so he could get his PLD sword and runic key. However, we got screwed on a kill-all floor with some nasty NMs and some flayers. In the end, instead of leaving floor 98 with 3 minutes left, we went up and timed out. The next two runs were climbs from 6, both successful. Which means that next week, we can do climb 16-25 and then do another boss floor for armor. I'd love to do 2 climbs per week. As soon as my disc gets up to 75 or 80, I'll start to seriously work on WS points for WHM, WAR, then RDM (or Mystic Boon, King's Justice, and Death Blossom).

I'll try to log on tonight and make the run up the hill in Attowha Chasm to get the key item for the ENM. Some extra cash would go a long way right about now.

Sunday is another Xarc run, so maybe we'll actually see a RDM hat. In all of my time doing dynamis (almost 2 years now) I've only ever seen one RDM hat drop which I couldn't lot on at the time 'cause WHM was my only 75. Although I think next time we're going to go for DL and the Xarc clear, which means we'll spend less time farming.

Oh, and LOL at people who delevel at events! That is all.

*Edit
So, the ENM wasn't very profitable this week. We got a single item which sells for ~3k. I doubt we'll be splitting that loot...

Earlier, I made it out to Gustav Tunnel with Ald, Wack, and CB. We were camping a gob NM for a crossbow for Ald's RNG. The NM popped about an hour after I got out there, and we killed without any problems, but there was no drop ; ;

I PL'd CB and Wack for a bit out in Xarc while they did some FoV, helped Wack get keys/coffers from the Eldieme Necropolis and CZB, then helped him kill Dark Spark. After the ENM we went out and killed his AF3 NM (I think), then did a run of ODS. Only good drop was a v.claw for Wack, the rest was pretty lol.

So, all-in-all it was a very fun and productive day in-game yesterday.

Posted Feb 19 2009, 10:37 AM

Generous Nyzul

We changed things up a bit for last night's Nyzul run. Instead of running 3x80, we did 80, 40, then 100. We cleared all 3 and got Askar body (to Vay) and legs (to me) for our efforts. Nice to see another body get checked off the list. As far as I know, we still need 2 more, one for Deep and one for me.

Those 3 clears brings me 1/3 of the way toward my next promotion. If I work hard on nyzul, or pick up a new assault clear (or two) I could easily get my next promotion before the end of the month! Sergeant here I come!

Tonight is supposed to be a dreamland dynamis, which I don't have access to, so it turns into a free night for me. I'd like to get a merit PT and get a couple more merits stored up. I was doing some math and found that I need ~160 merits to cap WHM, RDM, and WAR (not counting weapon skill merits). That's a whole lot of meriting... We also might climb the mountain in Attowa Chasm to get a key item for the Sheep In Antlion's Clothing ENM. Vay wants to start doing this weekly, prior to Nyzul Isle to try to make some spare cash.

Posted Feb 11 2009, 12:36 PM

Quick Update

Dynamis - Beaucedine on Sunday gave me WAR legs and the clear, once again for those who needed it. So, WAR becomes my first set of completed Relic armor (not counting accessories since I don't have dreamland access yet). The Dynamis schedule looks like this for the next couple of weeks:

Wed 2/11: Dreamland
Sun 2/15: Xarc
Wed 2/18: Beaucedine
Sun 2/22: Xarc

Looks like I have a free night and a couple more chances at RDM hat coming up soon. It has been fun manaburning zones. On Sunday, we had a large group (2-full alliances) and mobs were dropping super fast. I'm looking forward to doing Xarc a couple more times and getting better at it!

I finally capped XP on RDM last week (and again after dynamis). I had never had capped XP before; it's kinda nice

I also spent some time in a meh-merit PT (I was seeking on WAR, got the invite, then asked if I could come RDM since the RDM that they invited didn't have /WHM). It was WARx3, BRD, COR, RDM, which should have been awesome. There were two problems, however: we weren't fighting birds and only 1 WAR had provoke. I think that if there had been more provoking, I wouldn't have been running out of MP so quickly. I think that any other RDM would have had the same problems that I had, since it wasn't a problem of lolGalkaMP, but instead a problem of oh-shit-the-DDs-are-taking-too-much-damage.

I spent a lot of time doing campaign battles, too. I finally finished my devotion merits (yay for 10-minute cooldown). Now, I need to work on max Regen merits (150k limit points), and either cap Cure Cast speed or barspells. To finish group II WHM merits, I need 9 merits to bump Shellra V up to level 3. That would complete my WHM merits!

Of course, I'm not sure if I'll work on those merits next, or work a bit on RDM or WAR merits. My spell acc is pretty decent, but not great for RDM, so I think I should probably merit enfeebling magic a bit, then work on a couple more levels of Wind/Ice accuracy. Once that is done, I can take it easy on RDM (not really any group 2 merits I'm really worried about having) and focus on WAR (max Double Attack and Warrior's Charge, then Bergresser recast).

So, I've got my work cut out for me merit-wise, but it's nothing that I can't do, if I just work at it.

Posted Feb 10 2009, 10:59 AM

Lots o' Loot

The game has been quite generous to me in the past couple of weeks. It started out with a dreamland dynamis that I couldn't attend, so I headed up to sky with TheSons. I had a few points available to me, so I was actually able to lot on some items. I was one of 3 people to comment A.legs and was lucky enough to have the highest lot when the dropped off of Seiryu. Then, we fought Byakko whose axe went freelot, so I came out of that sky run with two items that I really wanted! I'd still like Genbu's shield, but I hear that goes free quite often, so I'm not going to stress about having the points to lot on it (I'm currently at -10 or -13, which will take me forever to work off with how often I can actually attend sky runs).

I wanted to have my Zenith Slacks ASAP, so I tried to focus on making gil. Ia lent me 225k, which put me just under 400k, nowhere near the 550k that they were selling for in a bazzaar (600k on AH).

In the meantime, Nyzul dropped nothing (go figure). Then, I went to dynamis - beaucedine. I commented RDM and WHM and hoped for a WAR (freelot since nobody had it commented) to drop, too. An hour or so into the run the RDM body drops and I win! HOORAY! A little later, a WHM body dropped, but there was one other person there who had it commented, so I didn't get to lot it. WAR legs didn't drop, but I was still pumped to have a cool end-game piece for RDM.

Sunday, the ls tried Dynamis - Xarcabard for the first time. I decided to comment RDM (against 9 others) and WAR (against 1 other) and hope for a WHM (also freelot since nobody had it commented). Maybe 20 minutes in and WAR body dropped. I wasn't sure if I should let it go freelot and risk losing it to anyone who had WAR at 75 but still keep my chance to lot on RDM hat if it dropped, or just lot it and be sure to get the piece since the other person who had it commented chose not to lot. I decided to lot it since Xarc drops are still quite rare, and I really wanted it for looks, if for no other reason. Despite the lolWAR comments in ls chat, I was still pleased that I got it since RDM did NOT drop. Had I let it go free and lost the lot, I would've been disappointed for sure. Now, I wear 4/5 WAR relic as my 'town gear'. I get /checked quite often since WAR relic is hardly ever seen (especially body, since it is pretty useless). I like the looks of it!

My entire family got sick, so I was either too sick to go into work, or needed to stay home so that Ia could get some rest and be able to go to class. It turns out that I didn't go into work at all last week, which meant I was logged in 24/7. This afforded me lots of time to listen to shouts in Whitegate and see all of the events that I couldn't do because I had a sick kid in my lap. But it also gave me a few opportunities as well.

I was able to help CB get his Mages Ballad II scroll from CZB. We got the coffer key to drop on the 5th or 6th mob, then found a coffer a few minutes later. The scroll dropped from the first coffer, too! We stayed a bit longer, trying to get another key for CB's BRD AF, but none dropped. On our way out, we killed the Shadow Dragon in Xarc, but Biast didn't pop. It was fun to help CB out (we never do anything together outside of Nyzul) and see what he could do as PUP, too!

Normally, I won't jump on an ISNM shout if there isn't already a BLM and BRD. On Tuesday, before Nyzul, I happened to see a shout @5/6 looking for healing magic, so I joined the group; they requested I come RDM. I hadn't had a chance to really test my new RDM macros so the first run went poorly as I found some typos in some of the macros and it took me just a little while to get adjusted to using multiple macro pallets. I was lucky enough to get a Khroma Ore to drop on my run which meant that I would be able to afford my cursed slacks as soon as it sold on the AH. I was also able to pay Ia's loan back immediately, which made me happy. Nyzul dropped a Goliard body, which Alden won since the only other person who wants one is CB, and his PUP isn't high enough to equip it. It's too bad since I wanted CB to have it, but I suppose it's only fair that it goes to someone who can both use it and wear it. Still no Askar, which we REALLY need (CB, Vay, maybe Deepfreeze, and me).

Wednesday I bought my cursed slacsk from the AH and headed to Sandy to get them uncursed. Hooray for Z.Slacks!!!!! Then, we did another Dynamis - Xarcabard but only saw one drop the entire time, BLM. The run was pretty lousy and I'm pretty sure the sponsors lost a lot of money doing back-to-back Xarcs.

Friday night was a super fun night in-game. I had more fun than I'd had in-game in a long time. First, Saeble sent me a tell asking if I could help with a T1 ZNM CHG. I wandered out there RDM/BLM to help with some nukage. Most of the time, I was playing one-handed, which really made me ineffective, but I was able to help them kill the NM 3 times. Armadillo Cuisses dropped once, which were freelot. Protecus and I both lotted, and while he lotted higher, he passed them to me (I'm guessing because they're pretty much crap most of the time). So now, I'll have ACC and ATK + 15 while under the effects of Amnesia! Thanks wack After that, I caught a besieged. Then, joined a group doing an ODS run. I sent my serket ring to a mule, just in case, which turned out to be a good thing since I did get a serket ring to drop on my run! After that, I hooked up with the ls again to fight T2 ZNM Iriz Ima. Vaynard got a cool greatsword (no oracles dropped, though) and Wack got a trigger for T3 Gotoh Zha the Redolent.

I sold my serket ring via shouts in whitegate and went on another ISNM run, but didn't get anything good on my run, although we did go 2/6 on khroma. After that I joined up with Wack for some more ZNMs. The first was T3 Experimental Lamia in Caedarva Mire, then a little later for 2 Dea pops in Bhaflau Thickets. I lost lots on all freelot items, but had a bit of fun experiencing something new.

Sunday night was supposed to be a deamland dynamis, so I was looking forward to going up to sky to work on some points. Unfortunately, sky was cancelled because of the superbowl. It turns out that dynamis was changed to Jeuno, so I asked Wack to tag along. That, too, ended up being cancelled because of the Superbowl. Before I left for Jeuno, I saw the leaders of FashionablyLate shouting that they were going to manaburn dynamis - beaucedine, so I sent a tell asking if they needed another RDM or WHM. They wanted me to come RDM, so I did.

Now, I left FashionablyLate awhile ago because they were very unorganized and I didn't like their lotting rules (although I can't specifically remember what it was about their rules that I didn't like). Well, they seemed a bit more organized when functioning as a manaburn and I ended up having a bit of fun. This was my first time to dynamis as RDM and I found that my new macro set may not be a good fit for the fast-paced dynamis. I might have to create a new set for RDM dynamis and try again. One of the PLDs from RebornLegacy (the dynamis shell that I've been running with) also showed up. We were going to just farm the run, but ended up going for the win after getting all of the time extensions. On the way to the boss, WHM body dropped off of a NM. I hadn't had a chance to check all of the LS to see who had WHM commented, but I did see at least one other person with it commented. I didn't lot right away and saw this other person lot 87. I waited a few seconds longer then decided to lot.... and got 120 I was sure that this wouldn't be good enough to win, but I didn't have a chance to look through seacoms to see if anyone else had it commented. I kept my eyes on the treasure pool for the next few minutes, however. A little over 4 mins later, I see one of the sponsors lot 846 for the briault, and I was devastated. Then I see in ls chat "omg I can't believe I lotted WHM.... I'm such a noob!" followed shortly by "good thing I passed in time". Soon after that I see the magical message: Truece obtains a Cleric's Briault!!!!!!!

I am so friggin happy right now! I've had this piece macro'd into my regen macros ever since I started doing dynamis - beaucedine. Now, I just need to start working on my Regen merits for some uber regen power!!!!

The question that I need to answer is do I continue to run with RebornLegacy, or move back to FashionablyLate? I was talking with the PLD from RebornLegacy who is leaning toward moving to FashionablyLate since there will be less competition for PLD gear. I am leaning toward them (at least on Weds) because they get started at a reasonable time (none of this gather-at-11-and-go-in-by-midnight-crap). FashionablyLate is ice/dreamland focused which is good since I don't need any more relic from any cities. This Wed, FL is doing Xarc (maybe) while RL is doing Beaucedine. If FL does indeed get scheduled for Xarc, I think I'll head out with them at 9pm and hope for RDM hat or WHM hands. Otherwise, I'll be doing Beaucedine hoping for WAR legs to drop and complete my first set of Relic!

So, to sum up the last 2 weeks: 3 relics from 3 Dynamises (now 4/5 for RDM, WHM, and WAR), 800k+ from IS/KC-NM drops, A.Legs and axe from sky, and Armadillo Cuisses from ZNMs. What a great couple of weeks for loot!

Posted Feb 2 2009, 01:08 PM