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