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