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