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