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?