Weekend of Joy

Well, it turned out to be a fairly productive weekend. I was planning on getting a lot of playtime in this weekend, since my wife was going to be out of town and Braego was coming up to hang out with me and the kids. I had decided on making this the 'weekend of NMs' since I was hoping to get a chance at my Joyeuse, and Braego was still looking to get his hands on OBow (we had failed at getting the drop the weekend before).

Friday night, I ran down to SSG in the hopes of getting ToD. I spent the next few hours running back and forth between my PC and Braego's trying to get a wireless USB nic working. With each hour, more and more people showed up to Charybdis's room, so I assumed that the window was open. I decided that even if I was solo, that I would try to claim the NM if I could, even though it would kill me. Eventually, Braego fell asleep and I gave up on his PC, so I called Wack out so we could attempt to duo.

I'm not sure how long we were waiting, but the entire time I was a little worried about my lack of a fully-meritted Phalanx II and Bio III. Eventually Vaynard saw that we were going to try for claim, so he started making his way down, since he wanted a Joyeuse, too. Wack got claim when it did eventually pop (just a little before 1am) and we started the slow duo. About 15 minutes in, Vaynard showed up to lend a hand, but ended up d/c'ing ~10 minutes later and never was able to come back. There were quite a few people there waiting for us to wipe. A few who offered to help ("invite me to help kill lol. You're taking too long. Check me I already have Joyeuse!"), sent tells to try to buy the sword or a chance to lot ("200k for chance to freelot sword?", "250k?"), and other less-than-helpful ideas (like the discussion in /say about not helping us if we got an add or a link so that when we wiped someone else could claim). One NIN even tried to MPK us by bringing the other Devil Manta up onto the ramp next to us (between myself and Charybdis/wack) then just standing there, engaged, but turned away from the mob... Eventually he just 2-houred and home pointed... Which simply resulted in his mob de-spawning).

Despite all of this (the lag was TERRIBLE!) we were able to whittle it down and get the kill in just a little over 35 minutes. I was so happy to finally have this sword. The best part was that we had the ToD for the next pop, and it was at a convenient time, too! The next window opened at 9:30 AM, so we agreed to meet down there at 9 to get ready.

The next morning, we had Braego(WHM/SCH), Protecus(PLD/BLU), Phaze(BRD/WHM), Timotheaus(SCH/RDM), and myself(RDM/WHM) down there and ready to fight by 9AM. Window opened at 9:30. By 9:40 we were fighting Charybdis again for claim #2. This time he went down extremely fast. I have to credit Tim for that. I think his helix spells did wonders for our kill speed (which was right around 12 minutes, I think). Protecus got his Joyeuse, and we were making plans to come back just before 6PM when the next window opened.

Between pops 2 and 3, We headed down to Gustav Tunnel for more Wyvernpoacher Drachlox camping. He was actually up and wandering around when we got there! Of course, whenever there is an NM that you want wandering around unclaimed, you start to panic a bit. It was just Braego and myself down there, with Phaze and Protecus otw after going to change jobs. One other person was down there and we didn't want to lose the chance to claim, so I pulled it; it brought 3 of his closest friends, and two of their pets >.> It took a little while to get all of the adds under control, but eventually we were able to and focus on bringing the NM down. No drop put us at 0/5. We were down there for a couple more hours (after Phaze and Protecus went AFK to get some sleep) and get one more claim on the NM (0/6) before we headed back to SSG for another camp.

This time, we had Protecus, Braego, Timotheaus, Veronyca, and myself down there camping, although we weren't sure if Protecus was going to ever wake up from his nap. Eventually Protecus did show up and Tim had a party to attend IRL, so he just went AFK and we were joined by Liqueenas. This Charybdis was shy and waited for 3 hours to show up. Liq got claim w/ provoke and we were able to take the NM down. Joyeuse #3 went to an AFK Timo and the rest of us headed back out to Gustav Tunnel.

Once in the tunnel, Liq changed to THF and Phaze came back down on WHM. I'm not sure how long we were down there, but we started to get desperate! I suggested the nekkid trick to get the NM to spawn. Everyone took off all of their visible gear except for hats and weapons. The next time the place holders spawned, we found oursleves with the NM! We made short work of him (I did the entire fight w/o pants) and were rewarded with an O.Bow for Braego!

Braego and I went back down to Gustav Tunnel, even though the next window opened at 5:30 AM and neither of us were going to be able to make it. This time, the NM popped early in the window. Phaze, protecus, Timotheaus, and Veronyca were out there and managed to outclaim the entire population of Asura (apparently). They made short work of Charybdis and Joyeuse #4 went to Veronyca! Next window opened at 1:30 PM, and I was ready!

This pop was really interesting. Middle of the afternoon, prime play time for EU and NA. We were the only PT down there. The ONLY one. There was a solo NIN and a solo BLM there for ToD. Also Moooodydude was down there being annoying, but ultimately, we had zero competition. Charybdis wasn't shy this time either and popped on the 3rd or 4th set of placeholders. Protecus, Phaze, Braego, Timotheaus, Veronyca and myself brought the NM down very quicly and Joyeuse #5 went to Phaze. The next window opened at 11:30 PM, which is too late for me to be up, unfortunately. Protecus and Vay were planning on going back down there for #6; I hope they got it!

While down there, we killed the DRG Sahagin NM thrice. Once, we even got the polearm for AFK Tim! We also killed the WHM Sahagin NM, but got nada.

The total count of NMs killed over the weekend: 12.

Also, I finished running around, killing NMs, and getting my Pso'xja pass. Now, all I need to do is go through and kill Diabolos to finish CoP 3-5.

It was an incredible weekend in-game!

Posted Sep 14 2009, 11:24 AM