December Update

Well, a lot has happened since my last post. Of course, the level cap was raised from 85 to 90, so all my jobs are now @ 90 with capped xp.

I don't see it in the last few posts, but I've completed my WHM head +1. I'm not caught up on all spells/songs for 86-90 because I'm waiting for the prices to come down a bit.

After I got my mage jobs to 90, I upgraded my Surya's Staff to +2 (22% cure potency). We've got ASA final fight planned for Sunday which should add another 3 or 5% cure potency to my RDM/BRD/BLM cure macros, not to mention 8% movement speed for all of my mage jobs (which will give me movement speed on all of my 90s).

SE upped the drop rates in dynamis and it really shows. I'm looking forward to doing ice/CoP zones sometime soon to get some more rare pieces of relic.

I finished up CoP missions recently. We were able to low-man the pot fight fairly easily and Promathia went down in a hurry. It is nice to finally have my rajas ring, although I'm not sure that I've got enough room in my macros for it! (I should just be able to full-time it since it is better than my Flame ring and I don't really need to wear the sniper's ring any longer.

I've been working on slowly collecting seals for all of the pieces of empyrean armor that I still need to upgrade. I still have to complete:

WHM:
Body, hands, feet

BLM:
Head, Body, Hands, Legs, Feet

RDM:
Head, Body, Hands, Feet

MNK:
Head, Body, Hands, Feet

WAR:
Head, Body, Hands, Legs, Feet

BRD:
Head, Body, Hands, Feet

I actually have the base feet for WHM, WAR, MNK, and BRD. I've got the resistance credits, dominion notes, cruor required to pick up all of the head, legs, hands, and body pieces, but I'm going to wait until I have all my seals before I buy any of the armor pieces.

Maybe I'll get some of the pieces upgraded between now and the next update.

Posted Dec 17 2010, 06:47 PM

+1

I did manage to finish my Surya's Staff +1 relatively quickly. Ev and CB really came through for me on some of the trials.

Ev (Millennia) came up to Ro'Maeve on BLU to help me with arcana kills during Lightsday. We managed to get all the kills that I needed in a single day.

Later, he helped me get the light-based kills in Jugner S using Carbuncle's Holy Mist. We managed to get ~90 of them done before he logged off. I went to Grauberg to help CB get Fantod from the 'grifs out there, and when he got that, we returned to Jugner to finish my trial. After that, was two trials which involved releasing bottled pixies in the fay spring in grauberg. It turns out that I could solo the Yagudo High Priests (100% droprate on the pixies) in 6-10 minutes, depending on if it spawned EP or DC. Then, it took me another 7 minutes to recall-pashh, and cocobo to the spring. A quick rest for MP and it was a total of ~25 minutes round-trip solo.

Ev came out on RDM and helped me out. We managed to get all 25 pixies done in a total of 4.5 hours. Once that was done, it was the two trials I was dreading the most: elemental kills in light day/weather. Since I would have to have the staff equipped, I wouldn't have the luxury of my HQ staves, and I wasn't 100% confident in my ability to 1-shot an elemental (even if it was a pet) without my staves.

It turns out, I shouldn't have worried. When I got out there, I got into an alliance and managed to kill ~70 per game day. The last two trials involved killing 150, then 175 elementals. Even when it was just me and a RDM we were able to knock out 60 kills in a day, so I managed to get those two trials done in just 5 lightsdays. Now, I've got a shiny new 20% cure potency staff to make my heals even more uber on WHM, and slightly better on BRD/RDM/BLM.

In typical fashion, since I had this new toy to play with, I promptly put it in the mog safe and switched to MNK for some abyssea XP and a shot at some AF feet. I managed to knock out another 10 merits and finish MNK group 1 merits (which I didn't actually do last weekend), but we saw 0 feet armor.

I need to finish BRD group 1 merits, then all my 85s will have group 1 merits done. Then, I'll start working on group 2 and STR/weapon skill merits. I still have a lot of merits to go, so I'll have lots of time in Abyssea and hopefully will generate a bunch of cruor which I can either turn into gil by NPC'ing armor, or save it for some new shiny when the next expansion/version update is announced for December (I hope).

Also, I sold my Sha'ir Manteel this week in anticipation of it's value dropping through the floor when they announce the abyssea body armor. I also sold my hedgehog bomb, since that extra MP isn't really useful to me any longer. Those two sales, coupled with the scrolls that I've been farming and the armor that I've been NPC'ing has my bank up ~4.5mil. I have never had that kind of cash before and I don't really have anything that I plan to spend it on, either. For now, I'll continue to save up and see how big the pocket book can get

Posted Nov 8 2010, 03:21 PM

Razed Ruins

Got into a group doing Ironclad Pulverizer and managed to get a clean kill which resulted in the Atma of the Razed Ruin. Now, I've got 2 very nice atmas for WAR or MNK in abyssea.

I tried it out on MNK, looking for merits. The DEX/crit hits/STR/Atk boost from those two atmas is just incredible for fast-hitting mobs. *I* was the tank as soon as I started hitting the mobs! I managed to get 25 merits and cap WAR XP in the few hours I was in abyssea.

The atmas were great for WAR, too. I was putting out 3k rampages (never tried w/ G.Axe), but I was having a much harder time staying alive on WAR w/o counterstance or even Chakra, so I changed back to MNK after finishing XP/merits.

I used those merits to finish BLM Tier I merits, WAR Tier I merits, and maybe even MNK Tier I merits (I'll have to check). It's funny... I was so excited to get the 10/tic refresh atma and haven't even really used it since I got it! MNK FTW

I went MNK w/ shiji to get the abyssite of celerity from the tonberry mobs in Konschtat. Now, my stones recharge every 16 hours, instead of 20. Soon, I'll go work on Vunkerl fame so that I can quest the other abyssite of celerity, knocking the recharge time down to 12 hrs. After I got that abyssite, I switched to RDM and we went to duo Minax Bugard in Misareaux. The fight took ~25 mins but we got zero drops.

I jumped in with a group farming head seals in Attohwa, and I was one of 2 people lotting WHM. I was @ 4/8 before going in. We ended up exp'ing/farming/popping NMs for 6 hours before I left. I managed to get 10/10 merits before I left. I also won the lots on 4 of the first 5 seals, which allowed me to upgrade to the Orison Cap +1! I haven't had a chance to try this sexy piece out yet, but I can't wait to try

I'm slowly trying to psych myself up to do the quest for MNK/BRD head seals (the chocobo quest in Attohwa). I figure I'll need lots of time/stones stored up, so maybe I should work on getting the other abyssite of celerity first?! I just don't know what to do

I finally started working on my Surya's staff trials today. The +1 version is usable by all of my magey jobs, and has cure potency +20%. I'll have my work cut out to get it done, but it will give me something to do when I don't have the stones for abyssea and when I don't feel like gearing up RDM to farm for scrolls.

Speaking of which, I nabbed Bliz IV and -ga III scrolls in a farming session in Gustav. I was able to solo Taxim (I wasn't sure if I could /THF) and for the most part had no competition for the duration of my session. Mugido managed to ding 64 while we were down there, too!

This week, I might work some more on my staff trials. The first few should be fairly simple. The one that has me worried for now is the one that requires the killing blow to come from a light-element based attack doing 50 or more damage. Definitely going to need help doing that one.

Posted Nov 3 2010, 11:30 AM

No Stones

Well, I've run out of traverser stones. All the time that I've spent farming spicules and doing seal quests has taken its' toll. All that time did result in my finishing MNK and BRD legs, though! Can't wait to try them out. Unfortunately, everything that I've been doing has been on RDM lately...

To allow my stone stock to recharge, I planned on doing other things, especially farming. I spent some time farming Aero IV scrolls in Castle O. Also went to Gustav Tunnel to get some Blizzard IV scrolls with Dragonkiller. We lucked out and got Taxim to pop, netting us both a Blizzaga III scroll, but only 1 bliz IV scroll in the 1.5 hours we were down there.

Saturday morning I jumped on a shout to do the quest for the 2nd lunar abyssite. This allows 2x atma inside abyssea. Also got the Atma of the stout arm, which will be great for WAR or MNK (STR+50, ATK+40, something else).

Since I had access to 2 atma, but only really have one magey atma, I decided to start working on A Shantotto Ascension so that I could get a second refresh minor atma. I'm up to the first real stopping point. Battaru Royale could apparently be duo'd by RDM + BLU. Maybe I'll try that next weekend.

After the girls went to bed, I got in on a shout to fight the NM Durinn. This NM drops the Atma of the Minikin Monstrosity (Refresh Major (10/tic), int superior (+50), enmity down minor) which I never thought I'd get. It was a LS (Werd/Gregalen/et al) that needed some extra bodies. I was a little worried because I was low on stones, but I had 4 on me. When I went in, I only had 30ish minutes left fr

Posted Oct 25 2010, 10:02 AM

Slow Progress

Spent a few hours blowing up Escarp Murex in Misareaux w/ Braego over the weekend. We had it down to a science by the end of the night.

In the few hours we were killing the mobs, I think we had a total of 6 murex spicules drop. We also picked some up on the AH (they were going for 20k) so had a few opportunities to do the quest.

For me, I got 1xBlue and 2xBRD for 10 spicules. I'll continue to buy them off the AH if they get down to 20k, or stacks for 240k. I'm not looking forward to spending a million gil on these from the AH, but I'm also not looking forward to spending hours upon hours nuking the mobs in abyssea, either.

Maybe I'll get a few more this week/weekend and get a couple more seals.

Posted Oct 11 2010, 12:47 PM

WHM/RDM Legs +1 Mine

All the time that I spent in-game over the past couple of weeks has been spent doing quests for WHM and RDM legs seals. The WHM legs were such a PITA! In total, it took me a little over 20 hours to get 8 WHM seals. I got 19 BST, 12 SAM, and 8 THF seals in that same time. Very frustrating! But I'm glad that quest is done and that I never have to do it again!

When I finished my WHM pants, there were some stacks of galkan sausage on the AH, so I picked 'em all up and spammed the 'Smoke over the coast' quest to get the RDM leg seals. This quest went much better. I probably spent ~4 hours getting the 8 RDM seals (also 8 RNG, 8 DRK, 1 PUP).

I'd say that this weekend was a success in-game! Both of those pieces of gear are great. Now, I need to either spend time levelling MNK to 85, or farming Murex Spicules (for BRD/MNK legs seals), Amoeban Pseudopods (for WHM Head seals), or viscous spittle (for BRD/MNK Feet seals). This weekend is a trip to Braego's place, so maybe we can work on collecting some of this stuff then. If the spicules come down to ~20k ea, I'll just buy a few stacks. I'm not going to pay more than that, though!

Posted Oct 4 2010, 10:27 AM ·

RDM and WAR Done (almost)

Despite not playing on Friday night, I did manage to almost immediately snag an abyssea-Tahrongi PT on Saturday. It was against pachypodiums, and I started in the BLM PT, which meant Refreshga every 2.5 mins. I was also the only healer in the alliance (iirc), but it wasn't too bad. No status removals makes main healing a joke.

Eventually, somebody capped one job, and came back on their RDM, so I hopped into a DD PT. I started doing Stoneskin/phalanx-ga and also enfeebled a bit. This was also really easy work. With Refresh II, atma, and D.Chapeau, I was getting 12mp/tic back. I wouldn't often notice if my refresh dropped... It was crazy fun! I also nuked a bit, when I had nothing better to do. Stone/Water/Aero IV were all hitting very nicely between 750-850 dmg. Very respectable, I'd say! I left that PT after ~6 hours and ended up with RDM going from 1tnl @ 80 to capped @85 w/ almost 4 merits.

Sunday, I put my RDM stuff away and geared up WAR. I was hoping to do bastion to get some resistance credits stored up for all of the armor that I"m going to need to buy (I'll eventually need ~6k credits) and also to do a couple more leg seal quests (0/2 this weekend: SAM and nothing), but the fights just weren't happening, or when they did, they would be over before I could earn any xp. In over 30 mins inside the zone, I managed just 600 xp.

I ended up getting an invite after the kids went to bed and joined the PT as WAR/DNC (they didn't want me to change subs). It was fairly fun and stress-free (yay for not being responsible for anything!) and took me from 80 to 50% into 85. I think I'll stay on WAR for one more xp session so that I can cap my XP and also get some merits before I put it away and work on MNK. In the PT, my G.Axe skill managed to ding 300 so I learned Fell Cleave, which was fun. I also switched to Axe and got that skill almost to 310. I was putting out some pretty nice numbers, if i may say so

I scored a pair of BRD feet, which is awesome. I'll work on getting the seals to upgrade it when I'm done capping jobs. I look forward to some movement+ gear for BRD (in addition to mazurka). It could make additional seal questing just that much easier!

I don't plan on playing during the week again. I'll spend the evenings doing stuff with the family. This Friday is a poker night at my brother's house, and Saturday is a 5K walk that I'm doing w/ my sister-in-law. Since I'm leaving the house early on Saturday (my normal day to get up with the kids), I'll be letting Ia sleep in on Sunday, which means I can't stay up late on Saturday, either. So, I'm not sure how much playtime I'll really get in this week...

Posted Sep 27 2010, 09:58 AM

AFK

I left my laptops at work all week, which means no FFXI for me. I was very frustrated with the quest for seals for WHM legs. I have spent ~8 hours working on this quest and have 3 WHM seals to show for it. Almost all the time I spent actually playing the game last weekend, I was doing that quest and I managed exactly ZERO WHM seals in over 30 runs.

I spent some time killing NMs for seals, too, but only managed a WHM Head and RDM head for my ~5 hours of effort. I did manage to nearly cap XP on WHM, though, which is nice.

I think this weekend I'll focus on getting RDM to 85. I'm really looking forward to learning Addle and Refresh II! Can you say 'hello 12 mp/tic refresh while in Abyssea?!' That's 240 MP/minute, which is insane. I was enjoying the 6 mp/tic that I was getting on WHM.... Double that is going to be incredible! I can't wait

Hopefully, by the end of this weekend, RDM will be capped and I can consider working on MNK or WAR.

Posted Sep 24 2010, 09:58 AM

Late-night WHM 85

I don't usually stay up too late on weeknights, but last night was a bit of an exception.

I logged in after putting the kids to bed and put my flag up on WHM. I was ~1200 into 81 and was hoping to get an OMGWTFUBER aybssea PT for a few hours, maybe ding 82 or 83.

The PT that I got into was the one that Braego just left (I think) and was in the process of rebuilding. I went from 120 mins of visitant status, down to 35ish at one point before things started picking back up.

I never did get to capped xp (instead, getting ~450/kill when I left the alliance), but I did manage to ding 85 and get a hefty buffer (20k to cap). I was in the zone for a total of 5.25 hrs and got ~140k xp in that time.

I still need to pick up Cura II and Boost-MND. I think I'll put it away and work on RDM next (Refresh II dowant). Once RDM gets 85, maybe I'll start working on getting seals for Empyrean Armor (WHM +1 head/legs, BRD +1 Head/Feet at first... BLM +1 Head would be nice.. Not sure about my other jobs).

So: WHM, BLM, BRD @ 85! Just RDM, MNK, and WAR to go!

Posted Sep 16 2010, 04:55 PM

BLM + BRD (re)Done or Abyssea #3

Yesterday was a good day. But first, I want to reflect on the level 80 limit break.

The quest, isn't bad, in the grand scheme of things. You need to have 4 merit points stored, and collect 5 items called Kindred's Crests. Kindred's crests, sharing a place with beastmen seal's and kindred seals, drop off of mobs that are 70+. Anyone levelling 65+ should have ample opportunities to collect these before they hit the cap @ 80 and need to do the quest. However, these didn't exist in the game until the day the quest was introduced, which sets players back... For me, it took ~10 hours to get the 5 crests that I needed. SE could have silently introduced these in a supplemental update prior to the version update so that players could have had a head-start when it came to completing the limit break.

I did manage to do that, though, on Saturday morning. Braego came up to sky to help me w/ my last two crests... Before he logged, I told him that I was going to get an abyssea PT and get BLM to 85 that night. It almost happened.

I got to 84.5-ish before our alliance wiped (MPK'd by a NM). The NM has draw-in,, which it used, before it killed everyone, so we were unable to recover, and just called it. During that PT, I won a Foe Lullaby II scroll, which was nice I was a little disappointed because the alliance leader refused to work on the lights that increases the XP/kill cap. It should be ~600. We capped out @ ~340. If we had worked on that xp cap, I probably would have dinged 85 in that PT. But I went to bed that night so very close... which brings me back to yesterday!

Opening Sunday of the NFL football season. I didn't think Ia would want me watching football on our TV upstairs, so I hit up the man cave (aka Basement). While I was down there, I worked on a massive pile of dirty laundry, put on the game, and put my flag up hoping to get BLM to 85 before the kids' nap time was done.

Well, I managed to get most of the laundry done. I watched the Lions lose due to a controversial new rule regarding receivers (rather, completing the process of the catch). I also got BLM to 85, capped XP, capped merits, dumped merits, changed to BRD 80, and got that to 85 (18k to cap) before I logged off. We entered abyssea at ~3PM and I left @ 2AM. During that time, I was probably AFK for a total of 1 hr, so 10 hours of solid, non-stop, partying. In total, I earned ~445k xp. This was after starting over again from base xp when I came back as BRD. (Previously, when taking BLM from 71-80 + capped merits, I had gained more total XP, but I didn't have to leave the zone to do it) While we were out there, a Ballad III scroll appeared in a gold chest. Instead of adding the scroll to the treasure pool, the temporary chest opener asked me if I needed it. When I said I did, he took it and gave it to me. Nobody in the alliance said anything about it! I was super excited to both have it, and be able to use it before I left the PT. I also managed to snag a Boost-VIT scroll for WHM, which I'll be levelling next. (the reason I levelled BRD after BLM was that in the abyssea PT that took my BLM to 74, I snagged a Lullaby II scroll) I've saved a few hundred thousand gil so far by getting lucky on drops.

I'm looking forward to finishing WHM and RDM, then working on WAR and MNK. Hopefully, while levelling the rest of my jobs and meriting, I'll be able to nab a piece of AF3 and even begin to upgrade it (focus on WHM legs first, I think!).

So far: I've had a chance to play around with Break, which isn't a bad spell, if nobody is attacking the mob. It is a nice extra form of Stun. Aspir II has been very nice so far and the recast is such that I can alternate Aspir / II for some good returns. I still want to try /SCH in dynamis next time I go. I think that AoE Aspir could be a great way to recover MP

For BRD, I just LOVE the new JA tenuto. It allows me to put ballads on myself and the mages and then run up to buff the melee w/o losing my songs! Ballad III was everything I expected it to be. Not a game-changer, but definitely a nice-to-have. I haven't tried out the new carols, which have a chance to negate elemental attacks, or scherzo, which does the same for other attacks (apparently). For WHM, I'm looking forward to Boost-MND and the new JA Divine Caress. For RDM, I'm obviously excited for Refresh II (6mp/tic!) and addle. Hopefully, I can have the rest of my jobs to 85 by the end of the month!

Posted Sep 13 2010, 02:28 PM

Update Day!

Today is the day... The day that the level cap goes up to 85! I can't wait to log in after work and start working on the next level-cap quest. I think I'll do BLM first, then BRD > RDM > WHM > WAR > MNK. I can't wait to get some of the new yummies that have been mentioned so far. Of course, if they make some stellar announcements at update time, I may change my mind.

The last 3 dynamis runs have been Beaucedine, Bastok x2. In those last 3 runs, I was able to snag BRD body, and MNK feet, BRD hands, BLM legs (from Bastok). Most of those pieces are just inventory -1, but it is nice to get a decent start on some of that relic for my 3 2nd-generation jobs.

Gotta say that I'm finally getting the hang of things in Dynamis now, as BLM. I felt really good about my performance in last night's run. I didn't screw up any timed nukes. There were a few extra BLMs at last night's run, which really helped speed things along. I don't have the best damage output, but I definitely did a decent job of taking out stones. We were in Bastok for the full length of the run, and saw a TON of relic drops (we got everything that the zone can drop, except for SMN and RDM. The DNC, DRK, and SCH relic went freelot to 37+, DNC and DRK to anyone with the job unlocked.).

Jeuno or Windy is scheduled for Friday, but I know I'll be tempted to skip it in favor of levelling jobs to the new cap.

Here's to hoping that there's lots of good info in today's update announcement!

Oh, I forgot to mention that my gil started eating a hole in my pockets recently. I saw someone shouting that they wanted to sell 130 ABCs for 5k ea. Since I had the gil, I purchased them (for 640k total). I considered selling them in bazaar for 7k ea, to make some additional cash, but I couldn't pass up the chance at getting myself another ABC piece. So, I bought my musical earring!!! BRD is that much closer to being 'complete' now I put the ramining 50-ish ABCs in my bazaar, marked up, and they sold overnight I ended up getting my Musical earring for just 3.4k/ABC, which I think is very good!

Posted Sep 8 2010, 08:13 AM

Time for Work!

Well, I'll be going back to the office tomorrow. I've been away for 3 weeks, while my knee recovers from surgery. It's bittersweet. It will be nice to be back in the office and be more productive, but it's been so nice being at home with the family, too.

In the past few weeks, I managed to finish THF and NIN as subs, and I got SAM up to 45. Still need to do DRK (37) and BLU (42), then I can start working on other situational subs (RNG? Maybe BST or DRG?).

The next update is supposed to happen this week. The level cap will be raised from 80 to 85. There seems to be some nice adjustments/additions in the 80-85 range. BRDs get Ballad III and Lullaby II, and a JA that prevents songs on oneself from being overwritten. RDMs get Refresh II. BLMs get Aspir II and Break. Not much has been announced wrt melee jobs yet, but BST and PUP also got some lovin'.

Not sure which jobs I'll take to cap first... probably BRD or RDM. It depends on how much the new scrolls cost. I've gotta buy 13 scrolls when the update hits, and I know it's gonna cost a ton.

Hopefully, the update doesn't get delayed.

Posted Sep 6 2010, 06:11 PM

BLM... Done?!

Did the Odin Prime fight and got myself a nice new Aesir Ear Pendant. It feels good to finally have 2 nice melee earrings (Brutal and Aesir). I don't feel as gimp now

On a whim, I geared up BLM again, since I capped MNK and BRD. I got a couple of burn PTs in Vunkerl, and managed to slowly climb toward 70.

Theblondwarrior asked if I wanted to join their Abyssea PT as a nuker, even though I was a lower level. It turns out my nuking sucked... I was constantly getting resisted. I felt like a total leech, but I did manage to get 10k into 71.

Over the past weekend, Ia was out of the house visiting her brothers. I had set a goal for myself to get BLM to 75 before the end of the weekend. I managed to snag an abyssea PT one night, but I only had 2 stones. I was really hoping to be able to squeak out 24k xp in that time so that I could ding 72, and be able to do teles/retraces on BLM for some gil (which I was severely lacking). When the alliance finally broke 10 hours later, I had over 480 mins of visitant status remaining. I used ~150 forbidden keys. I went form 10k into 71 to 10k into 75, switched to merits and got 6 merits that I needed to open Burst/Freeze II, switched back to xp and capped xp @80, then got almost 2 more merits. In that 10 hours, I got 525,000 experience/limit points.

For what I've used BLM for, I really like it, although my gear sucks. I'm also behind on scrolls... but I've made some headway thanks to some help farming from CB. I'm going to hit up Castle O for Aero IV next.

We also headed up to Sky to knock out a couple of Byakkos. We took 11 people and managed to kill him twice w/o any problems. No haidate, though

Since he went down so easily, I think we'll be going up again real soon. Just as soon as we can put some more popsets together.

Also tried to do the NM that drops the Bifrost Ring (70 HP -> MP). I managed to get the highest random so we did my pop first. It did not go well. I think we got the NM to ~70% before we wiped. I'm thinking that you need to have a couple of tanks and a lot of AoE healing. A fully meritted WHM (barspells and Shell V), AoE stoneskin or Cureskins, and maybe Fire Carol would be useful, along with a ton of DD. I'd like to try it again with some slayers soon.

Did UIA w/ CB and Vay but didn't get any good drops. Also did ISNM w/ Z, but only 1 ore dropped (and not to a slayer).

IRL, I just had the ACL replaced in my right knee yesterday. I'll be off work for ~2 weeks while it recovers. Ia has been treating me like a freakin' champ. Much <3 <3 <3

Posted Aug 17 2010, 12:40 PM

MNK, BRD Done

I FINALLY got one of those uber Abyssea parties. The day didn't start off that way, though.

I got invited to an existing Abyssea party in Tahrongi canyon on MNK. I was doing campaign and was just ~12k to 77. I took the invite with high hopes. I had 3 stones on me, 120 mins of visitant status, and Joachim still had some stones for me.

That alliance lasted just 30 minutes or so before they broke. Apparently, they had been going for awhile but just lost steam. We had to quit when 1/2 of the alliance was ejected from the zone.

I replenished the visitant status that I had used and filled back up to 3 stones. Shortly after that, I got another invite back to Tahrongi. We were fighting the floating head BLM mobs near Warp 4. These were a breath of fresh air for me, after fighting coeurls. I felt like I was actually able to hit the things and do some decent damage. This alliance started right around 2PM. When I walked away, it was 12:30. I checked at 3AM and they were still going. By my calculation, I got almost 375,000 experience points during that time. It was enough for me to take MNK from 76 to capped xp @ 80 and finish off the last 3 merits to get 10 merit points and 9999/10000 toward merit 11. At that time, I was capped on XP (600/kill) and getting close w/ the cruor, I think (60/kill).

At that point, I left to use my merits and switch to BRD (since I only had ~100 buffer). When I left at the end of the night, BRD was also capped, and I was 10/10 merits and 9999/10000 toward 11. (500 xp/kill ?? cruor/kill) I spent all of those, then killed a lesser colibri, and spent that point, too. Next time I go into Abyssea, I'll be able to cap xp (if I'm on WHM, WAR, or RDM; which are 2k, 1k, 14k to cap respectively) and get 110,000 limit points before having to leave. That should give me a good 3 hours at least.

When I joined that 2nd alliance, I had ~120 minutes of visitant status. When I left 10 hours later, I had ~160 minutes of visitant status remaining. I still have 3 stones on me, and I'm pretty sure Joachim has 5 or 6 more waiting for me!

Now, if I had been allowed to leech on BLM as key b!tch, those 375000 xp would have taken me from just into 64 to 13k into 75! I am definitely going to focus on getting BLM closer to 70 so that I can start taking it to Abyssea in the hopes of getting it to 80 and meritted pretty soon.

I can't wait to get another party like that again... At the same time, if my parties turn out to be a bust, I won't mind as much, since I have finally had the chance to experience the sweet xp that can come out of Abyssea.

I spent the last of my gil buying ABCs and finally got my Brutal Earring Thanks to a loan from Zman (which I repaid the next day). I think the next purchase willl be a musical earring, then relaxing. My last ABC purchase will be the Boxer's Mantle. I just need to find a way to be able to afford all of those ABCs!

Posted Aug 3 2010, 04:22 PM

BRD Done, Now for MNK

I managed to ding 80 BRD on the last mob in an abyssea run. I used my scroll, then changed to MNK. I don't have a proper buffer for BRD, but I wanted a break from pulling.

MNK is currently 14k to 77. I have the aurore legs and hands waiting... If I could just get into one of those great abyssea PTs, or at least get in one that lasts longer than 2 hrs. I picked up a few key items, a map, some additional confluxes, and teal body. I used up a bunch of cruor, but I've got 6+stones waiting for me and capped visitant status, so I should have more than enough cruor for anything that I might need in the near future.

Went camping IRL recently, so I've been away from the game for awhile. Maybe I'll get back into it soon...

Posted Jul 28 2010, 05:07 PM

Add: WHM, RDM80... BRD closing fast

I finished WHM to 80 and promptly turned around and finished RDM to 80, too. In the process of doing so, I'm 1 rank away from maxed Medal in Campaign. (wouldn't you know it: no Allied rings since I've had the rank to buy 'em)

BRD is 30k to 80, which shouldn't take too long in a decent merit PT. I just need the motivation to get it done. I haven't felt like pulling for the past few days, so I haven't been getting any PTs (though, not for lack of invites).

I've yet to be involved in one of those uber abyssea PTs. The experiences that I have had have been enjoyable, though. Average right around 15k/hr for 1.5 to 2 hrs. I did pick up all of the new spells that I need except for 3: Protect V, Water IV, and Baramnesra.

I expect Protect V to drop below vendor price (which is 106k). I won't spend 150-200k on a lolRDM nuke scroll (I'll farm it up, instead), and baramnesra should be available for ~20k soon. I don't have any steady income atm, so I'm trying to be conservative with the little bit of gil that I have.

I took advantage of lazy people and sold 8 or so scrolls of Protect V on the AH. I bought them from the vendor @ 106k, and sold them on the AH for 150-180k. In the end, I made ~300k from scrolls.

I think I'll continue working on BRD until I get a decent buffer (at least 20k), then switch to MNK and work on that via campaign/FoV/Abyssea. I'm actually looking forward to doing some Abyssea on MNK. It will be nice to not really have to pay attention like I've had to on WHM/RDM/BRD.

I picked up the 3 pieces of Perle gear that I wanted (hands, legs, and feet). This means no more dusk gear on WAR!!!

I also picked up the Aurore legs for MNK, and the Teal hands for BRD. I'lll pick up Teal legs/body soon, and eventually Aurore hands ('cause MNK doesn't have any haste in the hand slot).

If SE ever makes the sets storable, I'll pick up the rest of each set. Until then, I'll use my cruor to buy maps, and activate confluxes for faster travel inside the zones.

Posted Jul 19 2010, 02:33 PM

Busy busy busy

We did manage to get CB up to sea the next Friday. Tenzen was a fun/quick fight. I guess my opening WS got his attantion as he put me down in short order ~5 seconds into the fight. The rest of the group was able to finish him off, though.

CB and I then did the map mini-quest for him, followed by some BLU spell farming. We were able to get all of the spells that he needed from the Aerns, sharks, goldfish, and squid. I saw him doing 8-2 and 8-3 over the weekend, so we can go in and get the spells that he needs from the euvhi and grah inside of Ru'Hmet.

I didn't do dynamis during the week of the update, but did manage to go the following Tuesday as WAR80/SAM40. It was nice doing some good ol' fashioned fragmentation SCs! I managed to only die once, too. It was a short run, but the BRD feet went freelot and I was lucky enough to win the lot on one. Yay for 1/5 BRD relic ^^ Still for pieces for both BRD and MNK to go!

The last 1.5 weeks have been very busy for me in-game.

Here's the overview:
- June Update on Monday June 22
- Thursday June 25: tore MCL in right knee
- Friday, June 26 - Monday, July 5: working from home/vacation/holiday

Basically, from Friday, June 26 through Monday, July 5, I've been logged in/playing FFXI every chance that I get. This has allowed me to do a couple of notable things:

- WAR to 80 w/ capped xp
- WHM to 79
- 2/3 Perle pieces from Abyssea (so close to the 3rd!)

Getting that last piece of Perle (hands) will be nice because it will allow me to retire dusk hands/feet for good for WAR. Ultimately, I lose out on 1% haste and a few points of attack, but I think that perle hands/legs/feet will be acceptable TP pieces.

After I get perle hands, I'll work on the Aurore stuff for MNK, starting with the legs, then hands, and finally feet. I'm not too interested in the mage armor (Teal Saio set) for WHM, but it may be useful for BRD or RDM (if I can manage to carry more gear for either of those jobs).

I spent a lot of time with the guys in the LS doing stuff late at night, including Abyssea cruor farming/exploration and xp partying (in slow WS fashion). I spent 7 or 8 hours with Zman in the Boyahda tree skilling up/farming. We both walked out of there ~200k richer, which was nice. It also allowed me to cap my club skill on WHM (@77). I did 1 ISNM3k, managed to die (like I always seem to do), and didn't get an ore. As karma would have it, the retarded RDM that spent more time flapping his figurative jaw got an ore >.> This dude was a waste of space. The melee's had to ask for haste, and of the 6 runs that we did, 3 of them involved the death of a melee. I don't know what this dude was doing, but he couldn't have been paying attention to the game.

I took advantage of the new spells by buying from the NPC and selling for a profit on the AH. If/when my last scroll sells, I will have made 350k just for running out to Rabao 5 times. It's nice to not be hovering ~20k gil.

In that time, I also had a birthday party and some holiday festivities, got some yardwork done, and did a bunch of housework.

Back at work, they're remodeling my office, which means that I'm stuck in a visitor's cubicle for the next couple of weeks. I'm seriously considering working from home until my office is done. Maybe in that time I can finish WHM (80 and capped xp), RDM, and BRD before starting on MNK.

Posted Jul 6 2010, 02:06 PM

Update Day +2

Wow... updates 3 days in a row!

Logged in early last night hoping to get some campaign in before dynamis to get a proper WAR buffer. I got through the end of 1 fight (for a whopping 660 XP) before I talked CB into trying to duo the Airship fight (CoP 6-4).

We went RDM/DNC and PLD/BLU. We took the mammets easily, but I didn't take enough time to rebuff before Omega. Buffs dropped, MP and TP ran out, and then Omega started using Pile Pitch (which resets hate and drops your HP to 5%) which we were unprepared for. We died in a bad spot and had to home point.

CB went to get some food while I thought about other strategies. I decided not to do dynamis-Xarcabard. While I want BRD relic from there soooooo bad, I didn't want to delevel. More importantly, I wanted to get CB past 6-4! So, when he got back from eating, we went to work again. We helped Ev fight the 3 detectors in Miseraux Coast and while he ran around getting more cut-scenes, CB and I tried the fight again.

This time, we went PLD/DNC and WAR/DNC. I equipped the little evasion gear that I had and ate a jack-o-lantern. Mammets were easy. We got Omega down to ~5% before we wiped. But this time, we wiped in a safe spot, and were able to recover. We took out Omega and started working on Ultima.

Ultima went pretty well, but eventually we just ran out of support. TP/MP wasn't being recovered fast enough to keep up with the damage that it was doing, once it started getting low on life. We wiped with Ultima at ~30% but didn't have enough time after weakness to make an effort.

By this time, Ev was finishing up his cut-scenes and was ready to help. Shiji came out on SAM to help. We beat the fight in 18 mins (about 5 minutes per phase, with 3 minutes of cut-scene inbetween). I am super pumped that Ev and CB are so close to sea! Just the 3 NMs in Carpenter's Landing, Bibiki Bay, and Miseraux Coast... then Tenzen.

I'm really looking forward to getting them up there

Also got 1.5k XP from beating the airship fight, so I've got a semi-reasonable buffer on WAR now. I can take 2 R1s before a permanent de-level back to 75. This must be remedied!

Tonight is a Dave Matthews Band concert w/ Braego, so I won't be online. Tomorrow is a softball game, so I won't be on. I'm looking forward to logging in on Friday to drop all of my losing marbles, then finish the run to sea!

Posted Jun 23 2010, 09:31 AM

Update Day +1

The servers were down for 5 hours longer than SE originally planned, which meant that I didn't have a whole lot of time to play around with the changes to the game.

As soon as I was able to log in, I ran to Ru'Lude Gardens to do the latest limit break. You've gotta give the Nomad Moogle near Maat 3 merit points and 5 kindered seals. I happened to have plenty of both KS and merits, so it wasn't long before I was running out of Al Zahbi to kill a bird or 5. In the span of ~30 minutes, I was able to ding all my capped jobs to 76 ^^ (FWIW, I was the 24th person on the server to ding 76).

Even just spending 5 minutes on each job made me want to play each of them. I thought I was going to take WHM to 80 first, since it is my favorite job in the game, but now, I just don't know. I should at least get a significant buffer on WAR since I actually use that in an event where I actually lose xp (Dynamis). The problem is that I like to /SAM to dynamis, but SAM is only 37! I'll be gimp! Maybe I'll go /NIN or /DNC just for fun (if they even do a dynamis run tonight). I wouldn't mind if dynamis was cancelled again so that I could put my flag up or work on campaign battles to get a more realistic buffer.

As for levelling jobs to the new cap, I figure it will be fairly easy to get parties on WHM and RDM, since healers are in short supply. Likewise for BRD, since everyone loves a BRD. WAR and MNK are both pretty good jobs in campaign, so I should be able to get xp fairly easily (if not quickly).

I just don't know which I'm most excited for! The WAR updates seem very nice, with some interesting things to try. I'd love to have access to /SCH40 either from WHM or RDM. I'd like to have access to convert on WHM, too. Maybe I'll just focus on WHM until I cap it again... I just don't know!!!

Maybe I'll try listing pros/cons of levelling each new job to 80, in the order in which they ding'd 75...

WHM:
@76: Protect/Shell V
@78: Baramnesra
@80: Cure VI
Accession (/SCH)
Convert (/RDM)
Warp II (/BLM)

RDM:
@76: Teleport-Altep/Yhoat (/WHM)
Protect V
@77: Regen II
@78: Baramnesia
@78: Stona (/WHM)
@80: Cura (/WHM; useless)
Accession (/SCH: AoE EVERYTHING! except for haste)
Warp II (/BLM)

WAR:
@77: Restraint
@80: Sekkanoki (/SAM)
Crit Attack Bonus
Shield Block Bonus

BRD:
@76: Requiem VII
Teleport-Yhoat/Altep (/WHM)
@78: Paeon VI
Stona (/WHM)
@80: Minuet V
Convert (/RDM)
Accession (/SCH)
Crit Defense Bonus

MNK:
@77: Perfect Counter
@77: Guard TP Bonus


Looking at this list, it looks like either RDM or WHM will be the most fun @ 80, with lots of different subjob options to make the jobs flexible and fun. I guess I need to get some gear back from Ia so that I can get to LFP!

Posted Jun 22 2010, 01:20 PM

Update Day is Here!

Today is update day! Features if this update include:

- Level cap raised from 75-80
- Uncapping of CoP Zones
- Uncapping of CoP battles
- Unlocking of Abyssea content
- DNC waltzes work outside of PT
- DNC get dual-wield trait
- Sekkanoki being dropped from level 60 to 40

I'm looking forward to getting 76 on all of my currently capped jobs. I also want to spend a bit of time doing campaign battles this week since Sandy has control of the Throne Room {S}, which means that allied rings are available until Sunday morning. I need to get a promotion before then in order to be eligible for the ring, however. I hope that I can manage to get that promotion... I really want that ring!

Over the weekend, I spent some time in an XP PT as THF. I was able to ding 41 before the PT stopped. It was nice being able to take off 20% of the mob's health and plant that on the PLD. It really allowed the other DDs to go wild. I don't know if I want to keep working on THF until it is capped @49, or just give it up for now and work on it again when the next level cap increase comes around. After all, the only thing that I get from /THF beyond /37 is THII @ 45. I just want to be done with it so that I can sell the gear that I have and make some of that gil back.

I joined CB in the Eldieme Necropolis to help him with his magian PUP claws. He needed to kill skeletons during weather. Eventually Flow joined us to do some WS towards Leaden Salute. I think we were down there for ~3 hours and managed to finish CB's trial and get Flow real close to the WS. It would have been great if we could have completely unlocked it.

After, CB and I went to Grauberg {S} to try to learn the BLU spell Regurgitation from the Pieste. I think we were out there for 45 minutes before he learned the spell. It was a fun night. We were working toward a goal the entire time, which really makes the time/effort feel worthwhile.

Sunday was Father's Day, so I went golfing with my Dad. We did 18 holes and had a pretty good day. My irons were hitting well and my chipping was very good. My driver wasn't really cooperating, though. I still did better than I had expected. After, I went home and packed up the rest of the family and took them to see Grandma and Grandpa. The evening consisted of spending time outside playing in the kiddie pool and on the swing set. A very pleasant day!

Posted Jun 21 2010, 10:33 AM

DNC Done!

SpiritsOfDynamis (I think that's what they're called) did Beaucedine on Tuesday. Everything was freedrop, except for 100 pieces, so I ended up getting 8 ancient currency. I bazaar'd it overnight and made ~150k. The only piece of relic that dropped that I was interested in lotting was BLM, but I refrained since my BLM is still only 64. I only died once (it was a full wipe) and managed to get my buffer back to cap on Friday in a Campaign session with Ev's SMN and Ia on BRD (dynamis was cancelled).

I re-geared DNC and got an invite after a besieged. We sync'd to 40 in the Crawler's Nest fighting beetles. I think the PT was RDM, PLD, RNG, DRK, MNK, DNC. I was a bit worried about the RDM because it was clear they were new to the job (and maybe even the game). I took care of the healing, they just worked on refreshing (after 41) and debuffing. It worked out great!

The following afternoon, during the kid's nap time, I put my flag up again and got another invite to CN. This time we went to the basement sync'd to 45 and fought Rumble Crawlers. The MNK from the night before was in the PT again. This PT went quite well, too. I managed to finish up DNC (49!) before the end of the PT. As much fun as it is, I think I'll just put it away for awhile and work on the rest of my subs. I really enjoy the job in a PT, but the invite rate is kinda slow, and soloing just takes forever.

I picked up some gear and seeked on THF after I was done with DNC. My first invite was a 25 sync in Yuhtunga. The PT was OK, but there was a severe lack of mobs. I think there were 3 other PTs camped outside of Kazham. Eventually, a gob popped and agg'd the AFK MNK, which resulted in one person KO'd and the rest running to the zone. The leader broke the PT after that.

Then, I got the invite I was hoping for: East Ronfaure {S}. I was looking forward to trying out SATA and SATA+VB with some of my new gear. The PT didn't last too long, but I was very pleased with the damage that I was putting out and managed to ding 38 before the PT broke. I think if I can find some extra gil, I'll pick up some more gear and hit even harder. THF, like DNC, is definitely more fun in a PT than it is solo.

Hopefully I'll get something nice in dynamis this week, and maybe get a few more levels of THF before I start working on getting SAM 40+.

Posted Jun 14 2010, 04:10 PM

Dancing Fun

I met up with Protecus on Friday night to hang out. We ended up going to sky to do a quick FoV page before heading out to Hediva isle to kill some imps (lightningsday was coming up!). We ended up getting out there late in the day (about 12:00 game-time) and found that the first camp was taken. We tried to find a different camp but ended up aggroing 3 imps and a flayer, resulting in a wipe. By the time we ran back out there, the other PT appeared to be disbanded, so we camped outside of the tunnel. We managed to kill maybe 7 mobs before the day was over. So, wack is now ~8/200 imp kills that he needs for this trial.

Since I haven't had many friends online lately, I decided to gear up DNC and work on re-finishing that subjob. I didn't have much gear for it, so I did some shopping.

I told myself that I wasn't going to spend too much gil. By the time I was done, however, I had spent over 200k on gear (which is a lot considering how much time I spend soloing). At least if I *did* get a PT invite, I wouldn't be completely embarrassed.

I went from 37.5 to almost 41 solo on FoV in Qufim Island and Yuhtunga Jungle. It wasn't too bad, just a little lonely. I was just killing time, waiting for Braego to get online so that we could work on his Magian trial when I got an invite to a PT at Revelation Rock.

At first, they sync'd to me (40) but we really struggled. After a couple people died, they sync'd to a 41 and things went much better. By the time our sync target dinged 42 (with me dinging 42 shortly after), things really started to pick up.

Once I managed to get TP, I could easily keep the PT healed. It was very fun! Being DNC in a PT is so much more rewarding than doin' it solo.

I put my flag up the following night and managed to get an invite fairly quickly to a MMM PT. This was my first attempt at a MMM PT and it was kind of fun. The xp/kill was fairly lousy, but the reward at the end is very nice (if you complete the objective). I did 3 runs, but we only managed to win 2 of 'em. Still managed to get 2 full levels in only 90 minutes of actual fighting. If I hadn't died on the last run and if my emperor's band effect hadn't been wiped when we entered the maze, I could have ended up with almost 4 levels in those same 90 minutes.

The WAR in the PT seemed to be very useless. I asked at one point if they were using shadows, because it certainly seemed like they were just taking a beating (and using all of my TP and the SCH's MP very quickly). We had a THF, so the WAR was supposed to voke so that the THF could SATA onto the NIN. But it seemed like everytime the WAR would voke, they would move! It was very frustrating. By the 3rd run, the NIN asked me to be the first voke and things started to move along nicely. I was a little bit worried about not having enough TP to heal with because of having to keep using steps to keep finishing moves. As it turned out, it was actually easier on my TP since I was blinking a ton more attacks than the WAR was. With the one exception of a bad link which resulted in me using my 2hr and spam healing everyone to death, it wasn't too bad of a night.

Posted Jun 8 2010, 09:34 AM

Slightly More Playtime

I've spent a bit more time online in the last couple of weeks than I have for the past few months. I decided to dust off the ol' RDM gear and have been doing things RDM/DNC for gits and shiggles. It isn't a bad combination since it provides acc bonus, erase, and an additional form of HP/MP recovery via sambas.

I went back out with CB and Ev to farm some BLU spells in Beaucedine {S}. It took us about 10 walrus mobs to learn the first spell. Those mobs were fairly difficult to kill. Their AoE attacks are very damaging, and they attack very quickly. Then, we went to the Xarc {S} zone to kill Gargouilles and learn Triumphant Roar, which we got on the first mob! Too bad, 'cause they were much more fun to kill.

After that, Ev logged on to Millennia, and we headed to Arrapago to kill lamia and qutrub to learn Hysteric Barrage, Tail Slap, and spinal Cleave. We did get Tail Slap and Spinal Cleave, but couldn't get Hysteric Barrage before they had to log. They logged on the next day and got it in ~3 mobs or so.

I also helped Protecus farm coffer keys for MNK AF. We went to Garlaige Citadel first, and got that key very quickly. Then a short run to Beadeaux, where we spent almost 2 hours farming keys. There was a coffer near the 4-door room the whole time we were there, so after we got the key, Wack changed jobs, and came back for his AF body. On the way out, we killed Ruby Quadav for his ruby and then called it a night.

I happened to get home in time last night to actually make it to a dynamis run with a linkshell that I've had for awhile. They were doing Qufim, and I was the very last person to enter. I went MNK, but I didn't have time to get all of my gear around, or buy food. As soon as I entered the zone, there was a Cleric's Belt in the loot pool, which I lotted, but I couldn't manage to win the lot. I did manage to nab MNK hands, though while I was there as well as get the clear! The Relic hands can be full-timed for me since they have Attack +16 among other things, which is 1 more attack than the H.Kotes that I've been wearing. They also have VIT on 'em so that I can add them to my Chakra macro. I hope to be online early enough on Friday so that I can run with them again. Maybe they'll do some northlands and I can get some BRD relic, but I wouldn't mind doing another CoP zone so that I can start getting those clears.

I made tentative plans with Protecus to do some organ farming in Sea sometime this weekend. I just hope he gets on at a reasonable time so that I don't have to stay up until 4AM to do it.

Posted Jun 2 2010, 09:35 AM

The LoL is Back!

I was shocked to see CB online over the weekend. His job is over and he has some free time to play while he's looking for another.

We spent some time doing Campaign to get him 75 (which was great). Then, we went to the tree to do some skill chains so that he could unlock the BLU Nyzul WS (Expacion). I think we were there for ~2 hrs before he learned it.

It was a nice time. I'm glad he's back. Now, if only I could find more time to play and hang out with him!

Posted May 25 2010, 01:41 PM

Very Slow Progress

BLM is just 350xp from 64. It is tempting to use my anniversary band on it to really make the xp fly in Vunkerl Inlet. I was kind of hoping to save it for WHM after the June update so I can get it to 80 ASAP (and have access to accession!), but I did use one charge already on BLM. I feel that if I can just get it to 65, then 68, that 75 isn't much farther away. Once I hit ~70, I should be able to go to Mt. Z and duo/trio some decent XP (along with IS).

I duo'd w/ Ia (on SCH) for a couple of hours the other night. We were hoping to get her some Gothic Sabatons and some PLD xp at the same time (she's 47). Well, we did 3 or 4 FoV pages in Behemoth's Dominion, but never got the sabatons. It wasn't the fastest xp, but it was quite fun playing the game with her again. When she finally logged, she was just 1.5k from 48 and I was 3k from 50. I do enjoy SCH. If I can just get to ~55, I could start healing burn PTs in ToAU zones. If I do nothing else, I would at least like to be able to quest the AF (and store it). Someday, I'll make an effort to be able to actually equip it!

Sandy controlled the Throne Room in campaign the past week, but I missed out on my allied ring since I lost my medal rank over the past couple of months. I think I'm going to start working on keeping my campaign rank capped soon. I spend enough time standing around Whitegate, looking at shouts that I want to do, but telling myself that I don't have time or that I shouldn't do 'em because a friend might log on and want to do something fun.

Since the anniversary is taking place, all kupowers are currently active. This would be a great time to go fishing for Devil Mantas, but I haven't been able to make my way down to Kuftal Tunnel yet.

Protecus said that he talked to Vay on the phone recently, who said that we was hoping to log on sometime last week, but I never saw him. I hope things are going well for him.

I went out of town recently for a week-long user conference in Philadelphia. Of course the first night that I get there, Ia calls me to tell me that Ashleigh fell at the playground and broke her arm. >.> Of course something bad happens the one time that I go out-of-town this year!

Posted May 17 2010, 11:03 AM

IRL

[IRL]
Ashleigh has started soccer practice on a co-ed 4-and-under league. This is her first real interaction with other kids (not relatives). As for her soccer skills, she does quite well. When it comes to passing the ball, or having stolen by the other team, she has a lot of room for improvement. Instead of taking it in stride, she just starts crying; sometimes even throwing herself to the ground. She has had 3 practices so far, and her first game is on Saturday. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

I'm playing softball again for the first time in the last 3 years. After practice last week, I felt like I was hit by a truck. I ached everywhere. It wasn't until Sunday that I woke up without any pain. I have practice again tomorrow. I hope that I recover quicker this time. If not, it is going to be a LONG season.

With Ia being pregnant with child #3, we have decided that the time has come to get another vehicle. We've been a one-car family since before Ashleigh was born. That one car is a PT Cruiser, which will not comfortably hold 3 kids in a booster and two baby seats. We test drove some mini-vans last week and will be picking up our new van today! It will be nice to have a reliable vehicle which will hold our whole family and still have cargo room.
[/IRL]

Again, the last couple of weeks have seen me away from the game. The few hours that I did actually play, I managed to finally snag an elemental in CN basement to get the RA/EX item I need to complete my BLM AF quests. I'm thinking of taking BLM to 60 then taking a break from it for awhile. It would be nice to just finish it, but with the little time that I've been spending in-game, I don't know that I'll have the time necessary to devote to the xp grind all the time. If I put BLM away for a little while, I could use that time to work on Mugido and tweak my RDM macros (which I really need to do). Not to mention the fact that I still need to start working on my melee subs, especially DNC.

I think my macros are once again getting in the way of my enjoyment of RDM. For party play, I use 4 macro sets (CTR/ALT 6,7,8, and 9). But, because of lag, I find myself mis-casting often when switching between enfeebling/elemental/sleep sets (8 + 9) and healing/support sets (6 + 7). I don't mind so much if I'm in a duo/trio situation, since I'm quite happy with my solo macro set.

Re-doing macros tends to breathe new life into a job. Maybe it will encourage me to be more willing to gear RDM up more often.

Posted Apr 20 2010, 09:49 AM

AFK

I haven't logged on in almost 2 weeks. It's not that I don't want to, I just haven't had the time.

With the nice weather, I've been doing lots of stuff outside, be it yard work or playtime with the kids. By the time I get the kids in bed, and do a bit of exercising, I don't have enough time to accomplish anything before bed, so I don't even bother logging in. Maybe this weekend I'll be able to get online to do something...

Posted Apr 6 2010, 03:35 PM

BLM is going

As I feared, I decided to keep going with BLM. I'm currently sitting at 56. I have 3/5 of the AF (I can't seem to find any weather while in Crawler's Nest). I've been having fun with it. I knew that I wanted to have a nuking job @ 75, but I figured it would be SCH.

As it turns out, I'm having much more fun with BLM since I'm *only* invited to nuke stuff. The biggest thing that I have to worry about is drawing too much hate too quickly, which isn't usually a problem.

Lots of sync'd parties, but I don't really mind. I'm hoping to get more invites to Vunkerl burns, although they are very boring. I'm not sure if I'll have BLM to 75 before the next version update or not. I really hope so, but I'm not going to try super hard to make it work. I'm more excited to finally learn Retrace. I hope to be able to make some money sending folks to the past. I've been sitting somewhere around 20k for the past couple of weeks and I HATE it!

I also need to get caught up with my campaign ranks, since I'm missing out on some nice gear and I lost my most recent medal the last time I had an East Ronfaure ( S ) PT.

The weather is starting to get nicer which means I'll be spending more time outside doing yardwork and playing with the girls. It also means less time playing FFXI. I may only manage to get on during the weekends, now. I'll play it by ear and see how it all works out.

Posted Mar 30 2010, 12:27 PM

Welcome back, Ia!

Ia reactivated her account! I gave her all of my non-RA/EX BRD gear and some of my lower level melee gear for her to use. I also bought 3/4 of her RSE as well. She isn't happy with her gear and doesn't have any money to buy new gear. I told her she is welcome to sell the manteel, which would give her more than enough gil to outfit any of her jobs, but she is reluctant.

With the announcement that the level cap will be raised to 99, I realized that I would have to level subjobs again. Since I plan on capping WHM or RDM first, I decided that it would be necessary to level my mage subs to the new sub-level cap of 49.

I started with SCH and got that to 49 last week. I had a lot of fun using Accession and en-spells. I happened to ding 49 in a sync'd PT in qufim with a PL where I was just there to nuke. As soon as I dinged, I changed to BLM (which was at 40) and continued in the same role. Before I left the dunes, I had BLM at 43. I would have had 44, but for some reason, my internet connection dropped on my laptop and I couldn't log back in (despite having a good internet connection).

I had a few parties since, one kind of fun in East Ronfaure (S), and one not so fun in Garlaige Citadel. I'm just 1.8k from level 49, which means that with a charge from my empress band, I'll be half way to 50. I will probably just take BLM to 50 so I can quest/store my AF and get Freeze to try out some AM. The temptation then, would be to take it to 51 so I can use my elemental staves. Then, to 53 for Firaga III, followed by the burn to 75 in Vunkerl Inlet (S). I'm really low on funds right now, so I'm not sure if I'll continue with BLM or start on my melee subs. I'd really hate to feel gimp when levelling. At least I'll already have my elemental skill capped until BLM 70 (or so) so I won't have to skill up a whole lot.

Speaking of melee subs, I think I'll focus on DNC, then NIN, SAM, THF. Maybe some day I'll finish BLU and DRK. I doubt I'll touch SMN since having /SMN 49 really doesn't give anything more than /SMN 37, with the exception of more MP. Of course not having any gil to level BLM means that I also don't have much gil to buy gear for any of these jobs, either. I'm just a single fight away from the Sleepga II scroll, which sells for 500-600k. BUT since I kind of have the BLM bug, I don't know if it would be wise to sell it. I haven't checked on the price of Retrace, but I'll have to buy that, if I continue to level BLM much farther.[/s]

Posted Mar 16 2010, 10:57 AM

Cap: 99

Over the weekend, SE announced that they'll be raising the level cap across 3 updates, from 75 to 99. They didn't release any other details, so it will be interesting to see how this is implemented.

If nothing else changes, all magic users will want to use /RDM, which would allow haste, refresh, and convert from the subjob. Very exciting! Also:

/BLM: Warp II
/THF: TH2
/DNC: Haste Samba, Violent Flourish, Reverse Flourish
/SCH: Accession
/WHM: All teleports (Hello hax tele-bot: BLM/WHM)
/NIN: Yinnin/Onin
/WAR: Aggressor
/MNK: Counterstance
/BRD: Pianissimo and Minuet III

Managed to finally land in Sea over the weekend. I also finished 8-2 and finished the mini-quest to do the sky warp. It is WONDERFUL!

Now, I just need Vay to get back on so we can duo stuff up there and have some fun!

I used ~3 charges of my signal/tactics pearl w/o Mugido gaining a level. It turns out I forgot to do his 50-cap (I have been waiting to get his 55 cap flagged). I won't let that happen again... He could be 53 or 54 now!

Hopefully, we'll finish up 8-3 this week, and maybe do 8-4 next weekend. Still not sure which ring I'll pick.

Posted Mar 1 2010, 08:50 AM

It's progress

I joined a pug to do DM last week. From the conversation that was going on in the alliance, this was their second attempt at the fight. It wasn't flawless, but we did manage to get the win (I had my doubts when the EV used benediction when we only had 2 mins left). I picked up a nice new Suppanomimi! I haven't really had a chance to play with it yet...

I spent some time in the Den of Rancor trying to get a coffer key for a map. After 3 hours of killing tonberries, I managed to do so. I also spent some time with Finnegan and some other WarriorsOfLeviathan to try to get a prelate key, unlit lantern, and BLM testimony. We were killing tonberries in Yhoator jungle. When I started, Everyone's Grudge would hit me for ~100. Before we finished, it was hitting for closer to 1000. Much to dangerous (as MNK/DNC), so I had to reset my hate. We never did see a BLM testimony drop when we needed one ; ;

I capped XP on MNK and also unlocked Formless Strikes, which ended up coming in handy as I was helping some new friends farm for chips in Pso'Xja. We were looking for chips for the CCB Polymer Pumps that are needed for CoP 6-4. Why, you may ask? Well, because I finished up CoP 5-3 over the weekend! We've scheduled 6-4 for Friday night and everyone in the static has a CCB Polymer Pump now. I hope we get lucky and manage to win our first time...

Vaynard logged back in for a little while on Sunday night. It's the first time he's been online in probably 2 weeks. It was nice to chat with him again!

My osode fund is almost to 1.9mil. I have had 2 people interested in selling for 1.7mil. Unfortunately, I've been AFK when they respond and end up selling to someone else. Maybe by the end of this week, I'll have one! I don't want to spend more than 1.8mil, but I will, if necessary.

SE is doing a special mog bonanza to coincide with Vanafest 2010. Only 1 marble per SE account. Rank 1 prizes are relic/mythic weapons (or shield). Were I to win, would I pick up Yagrush or Gjallerhorn? That's a really tough decision... One that I won't have to make, but fun to think about nonetheless.

I was asked if I needed a sky or dynamis shell last night. They run sky on Tue/Wed @6pm, which is too early for me. They do dynamis on Mon/Thu @ 8pm, which I can manage. I tagged along for Dynamis - Jeuno last night, hoping for some MNK or BRD goodness, but the group did not seem very cohesive. We only did ~1hr before the puller (and sponsor) decided that they were too ill to continue and just called it. COR and DRK were the only relic to drop. They keep points to use for lotting Xarcabard relic, which doesn't bother me one bit (I assume most people will be looking for THF, PLD, RDM, or BLM from Xarc). I don't really care about MNK head, although the BRD legs would be nice to own. I'll stick it out for a couple of weeks and see how things go. I'd really like to get some relic for BRD and MNK...

Posted Feb 16 2010, 10:31 AM

5 x 75

Met up with Finnegan again last night and we teamed up for some more campaign battles. Also ran into Arioch and had a brief /tell conversation kinda catching up. Eventually, he joined up with us for some 3-man campaign action.

It was quite enjoyable. It was great having a tank since without one, I usually end up dieing. It was also nice to be able to use my TP to help keep him alive, since I usually can't help others who are tanking mobs for me.

I dinged 75 at the end of the night, and have just a little over 1k for a buffer. Now, I could continue going out on MNK to get a bigger buffer, or I could switch to a job that is a little more useful (RE: BRD or WHM). I'm not sure what I'll be doing just yet.

I'm pretty sure that I'll be done levelling jobs for a little while though. I want to get caught up on merits and gear, first. Unless, the LS continues to be dead and my freind list continues to be empty, in which case, I may just hop on a lower level job and lfp.

WHM, RDM, WAR, BRD, MNK 75!

Posted Feb 4 2010, 04:56 PM

Almost done

Well, I can cross the manteel off of my list of things to buy. I was really having second thoughts when I was at almost 5mil gil. In the end, I got the manteel for 3.9mil. I spent an extra 100k to get the cursed mitts, and within the course of 30 minutes, got my z.mitts and manteel.

After wearing it, I have two observations:

- The 12% song casting time reduction is awesome. I can't wait to try it out for real...
- It is the ugliest piece of gear that I have ever worn

It doesn't just look bad, it looks BAD. Fortunately, I can still activate the minstrel's ring latent w/o having to rely on the Goliard Saio. Maybe I'll seek on BRD when I finally 75 and a buffer on MNK.

Speaking of MNK, I dinged 74 the other night with my flag up in Cape Terrigan. The last time I was in a PT, I had just dinged 73 and left w/ ~2k buffer. The next 38k experience points came from EP and DC fish in Kuftal Tunnel, with a few thousand from FoV in Cape Terrigan. I don't really mind, since it has helped keep my h2h skill capped, but it would be nice to have just one more PT. I have decided to stay in the past to do campaign battles until I hit 75 (unless I get a PT invite, that is). If I can manage just 10k xp per day, I will be able to hit 75 by the end of the week.

Vay and I spent some time farming in Gustav Tunnel last week. We managed to nab the Ghost NM again, who generously dropped 3xCheviot Cloths. We both nabbed Blizzaga III scrolls, and we also got 3x Phantom Tathlums while hoping for an angel skin. In that one day of farming, we came out with a total of 1.1 mil to split between the two of us.

We also did a Royale Ramble run as a LS. No problems here, aside from gathering the right job combinations. We didn't get started until almost 2 hrs after the gather time, but all-in-all, it was a good set of runs.

My current shopping list consists of Kirin's Osode (2mil) and Hermes' Sandals (1mil). I'm at 1.3mil currently and finding it very hard to resist buying the sandals right away, since I can afford them. I think I will focus on gil-making activities for this weekend and if I have enough for the osode in the end, I'll go with that, otherwise, I'll just pick up a pair of sandals.

Why do I want these items?

Well, for Osode:
- Can be used on BRD, MNK, and WAR
- Good body for MNK
- Useful for max CHR on BRD
- It's purdy

For Sandals:
- 12% movement speed for MNK and WAR!
- 12% movement speed for MNK and WAR!!
and
- 12% movement speed for MNK and WAR!!!

I can always get +8% movement speed augment on the ASA pants, if I ever purchase that expansion. Then, I'll have some form of movement speed available for all of my 75 jobs, which is a luxury.

Now, if only that stuff would sell...

Posted Feb 2 2010, 11:48 AM

Got Shield? I do.

Dinged 73 in a Caedarva Mire PT last week. There was a RNG there whom I could SC with or who would SC with me. At one point, I did a 982 Dragon Kick which closed a Light SC for an additional 982 damage. I liked seeing those kind of numbers.

I then spent most of the weekend in Kuftal Tunnel, fishing. When Vay was there, we did SC a bit. I'm currently @401/500 points toward unlocking Destroyers.

I spent over 13 hours in Kuftal tunnel, most of it solo, trying to fish up Devil Mantas. I managed to get 6-8 total mantas (I probably only missed 1 or 2 windows all day), and 1 Angel Skin. One of these times, I'd love to come out of there with more than 1 in my possession, but I'm not gonna complain. It sold overnight. We also popped Phantom Worm a number of times and walked out with 2 tathlums. So, all-day fishing turned into almost 400k profit. Not a terrible waste of time.

That puts my Manteel fund @ 3mil. 2/3 of the way there. I think this last million gil will be a bit of a grind. Maybe I can get a couple of KSNMs in there so that it doesn't feel so tedious. I wonder if I'll have any problems actually plunking down the gil for the manteel once I have enough. After all, 4.2mil is pretty close to the 4.5-5mil that is needed for a Roundel Earring. It is also enough for the Aristocrat's Coat that I've been wanting and the Hermes' Sandals. Or, some Blessed +1 gear (if I could ever find it). I guess I could always buy the manteel, and see how I like it (and see if I can activate the latent on my Minstrel's Ring with manteel equipped). If I decide it's not really worth the gil, I can always start working on Periquia assaults for a Yigit Gomlek and eventually recover the cost for the aforementioned stuff. I guess the next time I gear up BRD I'll have to take off my Goliard Saio and see if I still have <75% HP. If not, I'll have some tweaking to do.

Not sure what this week will bring, but I hope for the following: unlocked destroyers, 75MNK, Sha'ir Manteel. Let's see how I do!

Since Vay got the gil that I sent him, he decided it was necessary to buy another Genbu pop. We took Ev up with us for some TH (and 'cause he wanted A.Hands). The fight went fairly smooth, with Ev doing most of the kiting, which allowed Vay and I to rest for MP more often. Finished in about 80 minutes. Drops were W.Feet, Kabuto, and Shield! Vay commented that he's glad it finally dropped since buying popsets was starting to hurt his wallet. I never wanted to 'buy' a shield, anyways. I was looking forward to farming popsets. I guess he has a little less patience than I.

I'm looking forward to trying it out /BLU. If I really like it, I may have to pick up a cheviot cape, too, and try to hoard up on -physical damage. Not counting phalanx or cocoon, I can use Shield, cape, goliard legs, Jelly ring, and an earring from Campaign for a total of ~ -25% physical damage. Add in phalanx's ~15% and a DEF of 600ish after cocoon, and I imagine that I won't even need stoneskin against most mobs!

Vay mentioned that the 2 items that all real RDMs need are the Joyeuse and Genbu's Shield. It turns out that Ev has neither. So, it looks like we may be heading back to SSG for more NM camping in search of a Joyeuse.

Posted Jan 18 2010, 09:12 AM

Is it Bad Luck?

The bad:
Was 6th person to go at ISNM run. Neither RDM nor BRD put up Reraise. Wipe.

Fished up two Angel Skins with Vaynard over the weekend. He was going to synth one into orbs to make an extra 150k. Failed synth and lost one of the skins. Of course he felt very bad and wanted to buy the lost skin from me. Decline as I may, he sent 600k to my DB.

Fishing solo. While reeling in Devil Manta signet wears off (TH kupower). No Signet defense bonus = nearly dead Tru. Managed to finish it with little HP left. No drop.

The meh:
Did 4 more BC60s for Kraken Clubs (two sponsored by Rach). No drop.

The good:
Finished up AU missions on Saturday and got a Balrahn's ring.

Duo'd Genbu a 2nd time w/ Vaynard. No shield, but we did get another A.Hands and also a Kabuto. Took almost 2 hrs. Vaynard thinks he may be able to call in a favor and let me get a shield from someone's sky LS. I don't know any details, though.

Did two more Royale Rambles with LS. I've got enough seals for 6 more runs which turns into ~1.2 million gil.

SC'd with Vay between fishing and Phantom Worm popping and broke latent on trial knucks. Went down into Bostonieux Oubliette. Killed a couple of Fomor NMs otw to the ???. Killed the Bodach NM and learned Asuran Fists.

MNK is just 4k to 72. Haven't been able (nor really tried) to get a PT since dinging 71. Got a link while doing FoV in Cape Terrigan and had to 2hr. A brown casket popped after I killed the first one. I took the second one down as quickly as I could (I was quite low on HP so used most of my TP for curing). Managed to unlock the casket and grab one of the two (yes, 2!) Sirocco Axes that were inside before it disappeared.

Mog Bonanza drawing is in just 3 days. I will win +30 inventory, which will be truly wonderful.

Posted Jan 12 2010, 11:46 AM

No Drops - MNK OTW

Well I've done a fair number of ISNMs and BCs in the last couple of weeks. For each ISNM, I'm either the last or 2nd to last to go. I still haven't gotten a Khroma ore, despite lots of tries.

Braego and I duo'd UIA while he was up over Christmas. We tweaked our strategy and did very well, despite not getting THE drop. Nice to know that it can be low-manned I bet Vay and I could duo it, as well. When we first went in and tried, we tried to 'play it safe' and sleep the mob often, kite more. The 2nd and 3rd time we tried, we decided to unload all of our MP, sleep it and recover all of our MP, and the blow through our MP again. Using this strategy allowed for much quicker kills. I'm currently @ 56 seals, so just a couple more and I'll be ready to try again!

I did a pick-up Royale Ramble to try for some destroyers and the guaranteed Orichalcum Ingot (~240k). A pair of destroyers dropped on the first run, which went free and I won. No other pair dropped for the rest of the runs. I'm glad that I've got this end-game weapon out of the way. Now, I'll just need to get to 73 so I can start unlocking them. I did manage to ding 71 last night and grab the trial knuckles. I could do 300 solo WS (which would take a long time) or I can go out with Vay, but Vay and I can only make a level 2 SC, which still means we'll have to do 100 of 'em. It's manageable, but not gonna be quick. If protecus comes back, we could make a level 3 and be done in just 60 WS (and probably pwn the NM in short order, afterwards). Maybe this weekend...

Vaynard and I tried to farm a pop for Genbu. We got the ro'maeve water and tried to pop Olla twice, but couldn't manage to take it out. Wiki says it can be duo'd by a RDM and MNK. Maybe we'll try again when I get 75 and a good buffer on MNK.

He didn't want to just leave it at that, so he bought the rest of the triggers that were needed and we headed up to duo Genbu. Occasionally, a nuke would get in for ~400 dmg, but most of them were landing for between 20-50 dmg. It was a relatively easy fight (if a bit long). It took us just a little over 90 minutes. We got A.Hands for Vay's Zenith Mitts. Also got a V.Claw to drop (~150k) which Vay synthed into a Scorpion Harness +1 (600k). He didn't quite break even, but I'd say it was a good investment to pay ~500k for Zenith Mitts. I think he plans to buy another pop in an attempt to get a Genbu's Shield for me, but I'm not sure I'd want to pay 1 mil for it. I would, however, be happy to farm up the triggers.

Tonight is supposed to be a BRCx2 merit PT w/ Vay as healer so he can cap his XP on RDM. Let's see if 1) the other BRD shows up and 2) there's an open camp.

Also ~1/4 to Sha'ir Manteel!

Posted Jan 6 2010, 06:01 PM