BST Slow-lo

Last night started out kind of slow.  When I logged on, I saw that Slayne was online (he's usually at work) and doin' stuff in Abyssea - Altepa.  Turns out he and Skadan were duoing Shaula for DRG/THF body seals. Well, it was really just Slayne doin' the BST solo thing.

I asked if he wanted me to come out on BLM and try to stagger, and if I did, would he be able to keep hate on his pet.  Well, he thought he could keep hate (except for the hate reset move that the NM has), so I headed out there.

I chose to go with Atma of the Apocalypse over Beyond simply because I wasn't worried about doing max damage, just being able be alive long/often enough so that I can get the staggers.

I expected to die a few times, but who really cares about exp anyways?  It is so easy to come by that as long as you're at/near cap, it shouldn't ever be a problem.  What I didn't expect was how long it would take for the mob to be killed.  I think our fastest kill was ~40 minutes.  I tried to nuke when I wasn't weakened, but that only helped to take off 5 or 6 % before I was eating dirt again and waiting for 5 minutes for weakness to wear off.  It took so long it was almost painful :(

Slayne found a duo that was killing Dragua for fangs so we teamed up with them so he could lot the axe if it dropped.  Turns out that they didn't need any of the wieldance coins/cards that the NM dropped, so we stuck around to help stagger/gather pop items.  While I stayed up way too late, I was able to collect 6 coins that I could use to upgrade either the WHM or DNC hands.  The result is my very first piece of empyrean +2 armor!



(Nice piece for Exenterator, Evisceration, and the 100% TP return on Reverse Flourish!)

By the time we were done, Slayne had 15 wieldance cards.  I wish I would have lotted a few of those, too.  While I don't have any jobs leveled that can make use of cards for +2 armor, I already do have the NIN hands +1'd.  It would have been awesome to be able to ding into +2 when I finally decide to level NIN.

Slayne eventually got his axe, and we were also able to get the red stagger for the atma, too (not sure if/when I'll ever use it).

Oh, and btw, Dragua is kind of a pain to get yellow stagger on if you don't have some sort of fast cast.  They wanted me BLM/WHM so that I could stona their WHM if they got hit by Terra Wing.  Dragua casts often, and seems to almost always follow up a spell with a TP move.  Sometimes, the quickened spellcasting from AoA was the only reason I was able to stagger. 

Each time I encounter a new NM, I'm amazed at how easy they really can be to kill.  Maybe I'll make an effort to tackle some of those 'tougher' NMs that have been keeping me from finishing my +1 armors!

Busy weekend

I was useless IRL, but this isn't a blog about that!

I spent the weekend grinding my jobs up to capped xp again, but that's jumping the gun a bit, no?

I started by logging in on Thursday evening (update day +1) and heading out to find some mobs to kill that would drop the item(s) I needed to do the limit break quest.  I pulled out Mugido and went to town on the monkeys in Dangruf Wadi.  I was hoping to get a couple of sparkling stones and the fossilized bone/fang for the old rarab tail item.

At first, I was disappointed with the drop rate.  It took awhile (although there was competition) to get my first sparkling stone to drop, but once it did, they just didn't stop dropping.  I think I was out there for just a hair under 2 hours and ended up with 7 stones and a fossilized bone.  I never managed to get the fang and thus went into the BC without it (nobody in my party had one).

Ended up going as MNK in a group of RDM, BSTx2, MNKx2, SMN.  First attempt was a test run w/o 2hrs to see how things would go.  I think we got the NPC down to ~50% before we wiped.  The other MNK changed to PLD and we tried again.

This time went a bit better.  The PLD was able to keep hate very well and managed to stay alive through the barrage WS that were thrown his way.  When the NPC 2-hr'd, the SMN popped Alexander for perfect defense, and myself and the BSTs also 2hr'd.  When PD wore off, the RDM chainspell stunned, and when that was done, the PLD popped Invincible.  I think the only person to get KOd that time was the RDM, but we were able to clear the BC and raise our level caps!

When that was done, I unlocked the new WS category of merits and then unlocked Exenterator (dagger).

I thought it would be easiest to get an invite on BLM first, so I geared and flagged up.  It didn't take long before I was invited to a Dom Ops party.  After capping xp and merits on BLM, I switched to SCH and did the same.

The next day, I decided to gear up RDM since I figured it would be easier to get an invite on a healing/nuking job.  I did eventually get an invite to fight frigatebirds in Misareaux Coast to build up some azure light for the alliance.  It was my first time trying to build azure on RDM, but I think it went quite well.  My ice/thunder nukes were hitting for ~2k (or ~40% of the mob's HP).  After I capped RDM, I switched to BRD and took a healing/pulling role.

When BRD was done, I geared up DNC and had a BLAST!  While I wasn't too impresed with the damage of the new dagger WS, it sure is pretty!  The birds were no match for my eviscerations or my darkness skillchains.  I had also just picked up an Ocelomeh Headpiece to use on DNC and MNK, so I felt good about that.

When DNC was capped, I switched to WAR in the hopes of getting my GAxe skill high enough to unlock Upheaval.  I think my skill was somewhere in the 330 range, but it needed to be 357.  I was able to cap xp and get my GAxe skill up to 343 (or so) before I was too tired to continue.  Before bed, I unlocked Upheaval and upgraded it to level 2.

I bought all of the shivites and ramuites(sp?) that I needed to upgrade my Ice/Thunder ToM staves.  I also picked up the carbites for the next trial for the Surya's staff.  I started and completed the Ice/Thunder trials.  I also started and turned in the carbites for the cure staff, but I wanted to wait to actually upgrade the staff until I got WHM to 99.

The next morning, I geared up MNK and headed out into Abyssea - Grauberg to do a couple quick dom ops to get to 96 so I could unlock Shijin Spiral.  Feeling good about unlocking this last WS that I wanted, I decided to turn in my Surya's Staff.  About as soon as I did that I realized that my WHM was still only 95. >.>

Still needing to get MNK and WHM up to cap, I decided to gear up WHM as I figured healers would be in short supply.  I got an invite into Lun's xp alliance pretty quickly.  I felt a little gimp without my cure staff, but it only took ~40 minutes to hit level 99, and it was super-nice to be able to ding into the fully-upgraded cure staff.

When XP was capped for WHM, I switched to and capped xp on MNK, then switched back to WAR for more skillups.  I was eventually able to get my skill high enough so that Upheaval was available, so that was nice.  The damage was fairly meh, but I didn't have all the right gear macro'd in for it, either.  I need to get my Osode back from Ia, and get a couple other pieces out of storage (ohai Bibiki Seashell) and then compare different builds of VIT/Double-attack/Attack/etc. I'll report back when I have it @ 5/5, too.

I found some time to help someone in the LS farm up a testimony for their level 70 limit break, which was a nice change of pace.  I also helped some of Lun's friends do their 95 limit break, too. Now that I'm all capped on jobs again, I can start to focus back on other fun stuff, like making money or upgrading relic/empyrean/other armors. I could really use some new daggers for DNC, a new set of knucks for MNK and a new GAxe for WAR. Maybe it's time for Ia and I to get our abyssea-duo on?

Varuna's +3 Done!

I pushed over the weekend and managed to finish the 150 Arcana, 200 lizards, 200 bees, 250 crabs, and 250 wyverns to finish all of the killing trials for my Varuna's staff.  I already had the geodes, so now I'm done with my Varuna's Staff +3! 

While I was killing wyverns, I also did dominion ops and the quest with Cornelia where she asks for a pursuer's wing (Her Father's Legacy) for a chance at the seals that I need to finish my +1 empyrean armor.  I got 1 DNC and 4 MNK body seals throughout the weekend bringing me that much closer to finishing those pieces (7/10 MNK, 3/10 DNC).

Since I was able to finish my RDM feet recently, I only have BLM, MNK, DNC bodies and WHM, SCH feet to finish to have full sets of +1 for all of my jobs.

Version update coming Wednesday!  Should bring the level cap to 99 and all of the new JAs/spells that come along with those extra levels.  Can't wait to get haste from /RDM!

A little action

Kind of making progress.  I got the AH parts of the trials done (55/55 snow geodes).  I also got ~15 arcana kills out of the way before I got bored and did other things. 

I'll finish this staff, eventually!

AFK 1 week and counting

For our anniversary, Ia bought me an acoustic guitar.  I've been spending my evenings trying to learn how to play that instead of logging into FFXI, so I haven't made any more progress on my Varuna's Staff.  With the extra time off of work this week due to Thanksgiving, I expect that I'll log in and get something done, though.  I guess we'll see!

Indra's Staff +3 Done!

I managed to finish killing all the treants that I needed, and collected the 55 geodes that I needed to completely finish my Indra's Staff +3.


(this, but with Magic Damage +6)

I just LOVE the -12% casting time.  Spells cast at ~38% now, which is just insane!

I decided to start on the Ice version (Varuna's Staff).  I managed to get through all of the day/weather trials and now am just on the trials that require the target mobs to die by ice damage.  So, I"ve got ~1050 mobs to kill with ice damage and then 54 snow geodes to collect and then I'll be done.  If I can manage to get those kills by the end of next weekend, I'll be happy!



Yay for having in-game goals!

0/150 Arcana
0/200 Bees
0/200 Crabs
0/200