Glowy Yagrush

The kids had their winter break toward the end of February, so I was without FFXI while we were on vacation.  After we got back, it took a good week to get back into the FFXI groove.  I had been feeling stuck; frustrated that I wasn't making any progress on the projects that I have started (Yagrush, Carnwenhan, Fomalhaut, WHM/BRD JPs...).  But staying away from the game wasn't helping me accomplish those tasks any faster, either.

I eased back in by helping Sligs farm up a few Briareus Helms to go toward the Almace that he's started working on.  I went WAR/NIN to cover red procs for KIs.  I thought I had all of the WSs covered, but it turns out I was ~10 skill shy of being able to use the G. Katana WS.  I picked up a Fazheluo Helm from the AH and had a Moepapa Annulet on a mule for some G. Katana skill, but I was still ~5 skill short of the 175 that I needed for Tachi: Koki.  I could either farm the drop from the Jailer of Justice, or I could head back up to Escha - Ru'Aun and kill the Warder of Justice again (we just killed this guy a bunch of times for Wack's Combatant's Torque and Kakashi's WoC popset).

Wack and I headed to Escha - Ru'Aun  to see if we could get the torque to drop.  Our luck was with us as we got the warder to pop twice in ~45 minutes and got the drop.  So now when I go farm Abyssea NMs on WAR, I'll have the skill that I need for red procs.  The torque from Warder of Justice put me at 4/7 needed for a combatant's torque of my very own, so Wack and I started farming Warder of Faith.  We only saw the NM pop once before we headed out to PL Jar's RUN in Reisenjima.

For the PL session, I would pull a bunch of mobs and Wack would Fell Cleave them.  I went BRD/SCH (for stoneskin, blink, and cures).  I wanted to be able to put stoneskin on Jar since he was only level 7 when we started and he wouldn't be able to survive much in the way of AoE damage.  Unfortunately, I forgot to put up reraise and ended up getting KO'd on one of the first few pulls.  Luckily, Ferrous Coffin will cast Raise, so I was able to get up and continue pulling after a short break.  We found a bit of a groove and were able to get Jar up to 71 before I had to log off.  By the time I see him again, he'll probably be 99!

Wack, Sligs, and I went out to Doh Gates to get some JPs on WAR, BLU, and BRD.  We had a lot of fun wrecking bats.  Over the course of the weekend I got almost 200 JPs on BRD.  I'm about 150 JPs away from that sweet 5% song duration gift (at 1200)!  I should just get in a party and knock it out...

I put Wack, Braego, and my Tyger pops to good use by getting the clears that I needed for my Yagrush trial.  After we did Braego's pop we went into Zhayolm to kill the Chariot boss for my next trial.  It wasn't a particularly quick run, but we got the win.  A couple more quick(er) solo runs after allowed me to complete that trial.  I had the Mulcibar's Scoria and beitetsu ready and am now the proud owner of a fully-upgraded* Yagrush!

*R0 as I doubt I'll work on upgrading this in Dynamis

Now I'm free to focus on Carn/Fomalhaut.  For Fomalhaut, I still need Kirin/WoC clears. I have a WoC pop ready, I should see about selling/trading it to a merc for the clear.  Kirin clears look to be selling for ~5m.  It would be worth it to just be done with the Escha - Ru'Aun NMs.  For Carn, I'm making slow progress on ichor, very slow progress on Alex, and no progress on tokens.  I'm hoping people will be interested in doing some NNI during this month's campaign which should boost my tokens a little.

Speaking of this month's campaign, the login campaign includes Abyssea NM trophies.  I'm going to use all my points to start collecting items for my own Almace.  I should be able to collect 56 items each time these are available with login points.  I need a total of 175 trophies, so after 3 login campaigns I'll be close enough to just farm the last few items that I'll need.  When I get to that point, I'll actually start working on the weapon (camping a bunch of NMs).  I think the abyssea trophies only come up twice per year, so this is a long-term goal. 

Mid-Week Update

Slayne was online last night and wanted to try killing Yilan a few times for an Iris.  He's planning on gearing up his BLU for some sweet, Jaroldo-esque damage output.  At about the same time Kakashisensei asked for help getting the last KI he needed for his WoC pop. How very convenient.

So, we went up to escha sky and started by farming Warder of Justice.  He popped for us in ~15 minutes or so and went down very quickly to us as NIN, SMN, and BRD.  Needing just the KI and not a particular drop was refreshing.

We found an empty island and popped Yilan a few times.  Kakashi wanted an abjuration so he had a few pops available.  Turns out he's a piece of cake with a light SC and SMN MB.  The fights were over in a matter of seconds.  Kakashi got his abjuration on the first kill, Slayne got his Iris on the 3rd or 4th kill.

Since that went so smoothly, we decided to try our hand at a single Pakacet kill.  Unfortunately, the spikes were too much for us to handle, and we wiped before we could kill him. 

We changed the scenery a bit and knocked out a quick Wing II einherjar then headed back out to kill Hanbi for something that one of them wanted.  Now, Wack and I duo'd Hanbi a number of times a few months ago when I wanted my Akademos's for SCH as WAR + BRD.  We never really had any problems with him.  I would lullaby the adds and WS on them to take them out.  If there were more than 1 up, then Wack would Fell Cleave them.  Knowing this, I figured that we would have no problem as NIN BRD SMN.  A quick SC + MB and he'd be dead.

Unfortunately, the trusts that we had out don't cast silence.  So, Hanbi got a dread spikes off and before I could hit my finale macro, Kakashi and I were both dead. It was great seeing a crit for over 1700 damage!  Not so great seeing the 943 damage that it reflected to me.

So, I switched to RDM to make sure we had a reliable silence, but we didn't need it as Slayne just 2-hr'd and wrecked him.  Both Kakashi and Slayne needed to go AFK for IRL stuff, so we called it a night.

Seems so much different than our last few trips out there hunting NMs or drops.  Warder of Love specifically has been very shy and not at all generous.  It was nice to actually see some of the loot we were after.

Yagrush / Carnwenhan Progress

I didn't play much the past week.  Instead I found myself watching movies and TV shows.  The little break was nice.

I finally logged in and actually played some FFXI over the weekend.  I spent most of my time on Saturday working on Yagrush's Mythic Boon kill trials.  I prepared by making the WHM Oboro weapon and off-handing my Yagrush.  This meant that my WSs actually did some decent damage and I wasn't at risk of missing a WS (which happened a few times when I started the Yagrush trials).  The killspeed wasn't great (averaging ~80/hour), but I had the camps mostly to myself, so it was pretty relaxing.  Next task: kill Tyger (x3)

Not Pictured: Accuracy +50, Attack +30, Double Attack +5%

Saturday night saw some Warder of Love camping for the last torque that Wack needs to synergize his Combatant's Torque.  We were there for ~1.5 hours and only saw 2 pops (back-to-back no less!).  No drop, unfortunately.  We're definitely getting burned out on this NM...

Next we went out to kill Glazemane a few times.  IDK what everyone was after, but we went NIN, BRD, and Sligs came out on DNC.  That fight can go sour pretty quickly... We ended up going 2/4 with nothing but a few fangs, and an x-potion to show for it.

Before calling it a night we went in to do a quick Ambuscade for our weekly seal. Still NIN/BRD/DNC, we called a few healing trusts to see how it would go.  With no way to silence the BLM mob, we needed to kill him and then the trusts couldn't handle the curse/petrify.  So, I switched to RDM so that we'd have the silence handled.  We had Yoran-Oran and Cherukiki for support trusts.  Cherukiki is nice because she uses regens and will debuff the mob.  For casters, she'll even silence them. For this fight, however, the main NM is pretty much invincible unless he's casting a spell.  And Cherukiki kept him silenced.

The fight should have taken a couple of minutes but ended up taking closer to 20.  Lesson learned, I guess.  For the rest of this month, if I'm doing ambsucade I'm going to be on WHM.

It was Superbowl Sunday, so there wasn't much going on in the evening.  During the day, however, Braego and I were busy building Tyger pops.  The biggest bottleneck was getting through Arrapago Reef as we couldn't get a darn Lamian Fang Key to drop for the 2nd set of doors.  Eventually, I just warped and came in from the back (after getting my free key out of the Mire).  He grabbed the Caedarva Mire survival guide right after so it should be very easy to build Tyger pops in the future.  Now, between Braego, Wack, and myself we have the 3 Tyger pops that I need to finish my next Yagrush trial.  I'm hoping to have it 119'd very soon. 

Yagrush trials for the nerds in the audience.

I was only 1 NM away from a Sarameya pop, so I did that real quick, too.  I already had a Tinnin trophy AND a Tinnin pop.  Now I'm all ready to get those T4 ZNM trophies for Carnwenhan when the time comes. 


Throw in some Einherjar thoughout as we had time, and that was my weekend in a nutshell. 

More nerdage...

Four Months

Over 4 months.  I've thought about posting updates many times in the past 4 months, but never found the time.  I have been playing.  I have been making progress.

With Wack in Northern Sandy getting our synergy on.

So, what's happened in that time?  Here's the short of it:

- Master SCH
- Started and finished Excalibur (AG)
- Started and finished Gjallarhorn (99)
- Finished Daurdabla (99)
- Finished Yagrush (75)
- Started and finished Mandau (AG)
- Working on Master WHM (~300) and BRD (~750)
- Started Carnwenhan
- Lots of Omen
- Some Dynamis

And here's the long of it:
I like playing SCH.  I had a lot of fun in both the healing and nuking roles in CP PTs.  When coupled with a 2-3x xp/cp campaign it didn't take long to get it mastered.  I have made good use out of it when we need a little extra support to clear content.

Then, Wack finished his Bravura.  He had been working on it for a long time and had finally accumulated the currency to finish.  After that, we focused on trials to get it to 99.  I realized that it was actually quite cheap to buy all of the currency that is needed to finish a relic and the Magian trials weren't too much to handle when done in smaller chunks.  I had been spending most of my time on RDM at that time and had a nice chunk of gil sitting around, so I decided to make Excalibur.

I was able to use the refunded 30 currency to get a start on Gjallarhorn and completed that soon after.  But it is no fun being a 3-song Ghorn bard, so I renewed my efforts to collect the Iron Plates and Colorless Souls (I had already collected all of the Apademak horns through login campaigns).  Shortly after, I had finished Daurdabla!

And the trumpets sound

Braego felt stuck on Spharai, but had already collected 70 of the 100-pieces he needed, so I bought the 10k piece and he gave me the 70 pieces he had + the 30 returned.  I helped him out a little bit, but most of the magian trials he completed on his own.  He's currently collecting plutons to get that sweet AG.

For Yagrush, I figured I'd slowly work on alex as it would take awhile to collect all of the ichor that I needed.  Well, Jar, Wack, Braego, and I had spent a lot of spare time doing the random Einherjar.  Just a run or two here and there.  Jar is working on Tizona, so he didn't mind getting the ichor.  I already had over 140k Nyzul Isle tokens from all of the Nyzul we did in the static years ago.  It turned out that I had all my ichor in relatively short order.  I spent a bit of time in salvage, but bought most of my alex and was able to finish it earlier this month.  I have started doing the Magian trials as I'd like to get it to 119 (if not AG'd), but it isn't a whole lot of fun trying to melee on WHM with a level 75 club.  This is something that I'll set as a very low priority for now.

Lazy WHM: GO!

I finished the trials I needed to get my TP Bonus +1000 gun for COR.  I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but next time that Savage Blade COR is needed, I'll be ready.

I was spending more and more time on BRD and wasn't really pleased with my dagger options.  I still had the 100 currency left over from Braego's Spharai and a bunch of random currency on my mules, so I turned that into a Mandau.  I have to say that doing the Magian trials on BRD was pretty enjoyable.  Being able to round up a bunch of mobs, sleep them, and then pick them off one-by-one made the process a lot less tedious than when I was working on Excalibur and Yagrush trials.

I'm loving the glowy-stabby

I started working on BRD mythic as I want my songs to last from Ni/Tro to Ni/Tro.  I already had some of the ZNM trophies and didn't need to re-do any of the king kills.  I've completed the 50 assaults and turned in my ledgers.  Unfortunately, aside from alex, the roadblocks are back to being Ichor and Nyzul Isle tokens.  When I did Yagrush, I stopped after getting just enough ichor/tokens to complete the quest which means that I'm basically starting from scratch.  I'll have a lot of time to work on those as I slowly collect alex again.

I haven't made much progress on Fomalhaut, unfortunately.  I've got Zi'tah cleared.  All I need to finish Ru'Aun is WoC and Kirin.  I haven't tried very hard to get into shout groups for those clears.  I have a WoC pop ready which I've considered offering in exchange for the clears.  It would be nice to finish it so that I can start working on another (probably Marsyas so I can have Honor March).

Lately though, it has just been nice having people regularly in LS.  Weekends have consistently had 5+ people on, which makes it perfect for getting stuff done.  We've done dynamis farming, a bunch of Omen, quite a few Geas Fete mobs, and a lot of Ambuscade.  Unfortunately, their schedules tend to run quite late, but for weekends, I'll make an effort to stay up late to hang out with them all.

Until next time!

The fruits of our (Wack's) labor

O Captain! My Captain!

Captain rank, woo!  More on that in a bit.

At ease, soldier

So now that I've mastered GEO, I figured I would start working on WHM.  You know, get some of the slow job points out of the way.  Then Braego and I got to discussing Vagary clears and how we may be able to clear some zones, but there are mechanics in other zones that we need specific jobs for (like SCH SCs, for instance).  Since SCH only needs 550 JPs to reduce the strategem recasts, I figured I could probably get that done quickly enough to be able to fill that role.  So, I'm now working on SCH.

I spent a lot of time (and gil) getting all of the SCH JSE reforged and upgraded to 119.  I ended up running out of the necessary Rem's Tales that I needed to fully reforge all my gear, so I did a few high-tier mission battlefields to get the ones that I was missing.  Not sure that I'll use all of the pieces, but at least they're all done.  I've been trying to work on my equip sets and macros, but I'm really having a hard time figuring out how to make it all work.  I feel like I should be at a really good starting point, with all of the crossover gear that I have from BLM/RDM/GEO.

Braego wanted an iLVL cure potency staff for WHM, so we went out to kill the UNM Arke in Sauromogue Champaign a few times.  We went COR + MNK and had a pretty good time.  The kills were pretty quick and low-risk.  He was definitely putting out better numbers damage-wise with his new ambuscade gear.  Eventually he got the NQ staff and between the two of us, had enough Arke Wings to upgrade it to +1.  That will definitely help us out as we attempt to tackle higher level content.

Wack and I did a few Omen runs.  I'm trying to collect RDM cards so that I can +3 the body, he was after NIN cards to make his legs +2.  The first run we actually timed out in the first room.  We killed the last mob with seconds to spare but couldn't make it to the next floor in time.  The 2nd run went much better and we had 1 Transcended Pixie left to kill when we ran out of time.  Wack got the cards he needed but discovered he didn't have enough beads (he spent them all on Eschalixir +2's to augment his new +1 Souveran pieces).  So, we killed Met a few times for beads.  We got the beads he needed to upgrade his armor AND got the real drop he was after: Amar Cluster.  I decided to upgrade my RDM gloves to +2 for an extra 2% enhancing magic duration. We also did a few Tenzen runs in an attempt to get a Ginsen for him, but unfortunately, that drop still eludes him.


Braego and I did a few more Ambuscades.  Turns out with his new ambuscade armor that we were able to duo the V2 scorpion NM on Difficult.  Now he's starting to collect +1 Mummu pieces.  I was able to get the last two metals that I needed to upgrade my Jhakri robe to +2.  I think I'll work on the Meghanada Gloves +2 next for the extra WSD.

Random uber skillchain damage

There were 3 Ilrusi Atoll assaults standing between me and Captain rank, so I figured I would make an attempt to get them done.  According to the assault solo guide, these ones are very difficult to do solo (Apkallu Seizure, Lost and Found, Desperately Seeking Cephalopods).  While the were difficult, being on COR really helped me get them done.  Having access to Tactician's and Bolter's rolls meant that I could quickly move around the map and that I had TP to WS whenever I encountered a mob.  I ended up going 1/1 on all 3 and was rewarded with Captain rank!  I can now use the Runic Portal and get into Alzadaal Undersea Ruins for free (no longer need to carry around Imperial Mythril pieces to pay the guards) and get an extra Assault Permit.  I immediately turned my werebuster into Naja Salaheem to officially start my mythic quest.  There is still a long road ahead, but I'm officially on my way!

Still a long ways to go...

I was curious to see what was needed to get to the 3 beast kings and was pretty happy to see that I already had 2 of the 3 keys to get to Gulool Ja Ja.  I headed off to Mamook to get the last key (which I got on the first kill) and try to find the NM.  Unfortunately, it was pretty late and I'm not at all familiar with Mamook, so I wasn't able to actually find him and logged off.

I hope to have some progress to report next time.

Master GEO

After checking the gobbie box on all of my mules (got a ~4m item to sell), I did a quick Yorcia WKR to get the last KI I needed to buy another Animikki Bullet.  I think I'll get a few extra to keep on mules just in case I accidentally shoot it again.

When I was done with that I saw a CP PT shout for a GEO.  It was still pretty early, so I joined.  I figured even if it was a crappy party, I only needed ~65 JPs to get to master.  Since people are allowed to use JPs to upgrade/augment REMA and Dynamis [D] weapons/accessories, we got a REMA Master COR.  Pretty sure we had RUN, COR, SCH, BLM, SMN, GEO.  The BLM actually pulled most of the night, which was pretty nice as I got to sit tight and just let my bubbles do their thing.  The SCH would stun-ga, the BLM would sleepga and breakga, and I would just bind/grav/etc to tag mobs.  I don't know what the SMN was doing because most of the time the mob was dead after the SC. Occassionally the BLM would get a MB in.  In any case, it was very fun and productive.  The PT lasted a little over an hour and I walked out with 185 JPs.  Enough to get master and 110 to spare.  Feels good, man.

After, Braego and I hit up AMAN Trove a few times.  First time, I got opened 5 boxes (a mix of noises and thuds) and then decided I shouldn't press my luck.  I got a couple of +1 alluvion skirmish stone pouches, a couple of sellable drops (Pil's Tuille, Macuil Plating).  He went and had similar luck.  He got 4 or 5 boxes of noises/thuds, then exited.  He got a alluvion skrimish stone +1 pouch, a fern pouch, and the Naga Hakama to use on his MNK.  We tried again, but both ended up getting the mimic.  He was ~5 boxes in before he got the mimic.  I had checked 7 boxes before I got mine.  Maybe I need to change my strategy?  I mean, I'm really only interested in the Omen/Reisenjima drops.  As far as I know, they only come from loud thuds.  My strategy has been to open until I get a loud thud and then exit.  Most of the drops that come from the regular thud or noise tend to be from high-tier battlefields or escha zones.  I've already collected most of the gear from those zones that I'm interested in.  But it is still really hard to walk away from 7+ spoils.  I've got a few more vouchers that I can get on Truece, and still have 2 or 3 orbs that I can use on Trutaru.  Hopefully I won't have to make any decisions about if I should leave or not because I'll actually see a loud thud!

This month, the login campaign has Empy boss drops for 1000 login points.  I should be able to buy the last of the Apedemak Horns that I need for Daurdabla.  I haven't started on the colorless souls/iron plates yet, but that should go pretty quick.  I regret not participating more in last month's VW campaign.  I could really use the heavy metal plates; I'll need 1500 of them and 60 riftcinders to become a 4-song BRD.  I will have a few login points left over, maybe I'll look into collecting items for another empy (Almace or Ukon?).

Until next time!

End of Summer Update

SE introduced A.M.A.N. Trove with the August version update.  Braego and I checked it out and managed to get a few high-tier battlefield drops, a couple Reisenjima pieces, and an Omen body (Udug Jacket).  I think we're both looking forward to doing it again when the Monthly RoE objectives reset.

I picked up the Malformed Gun KI to officially start on Fomalhaut.  I was torn between making Death Penalty or Yagrush as my first mythic.  Since I was already (nearly) capped on beads, I decided to do the Aeonic gun so that I didn't have to worry about upgrading Death Penalty to 119.  I also am almost done collecting Apedemak horns for Daurdabla.  So, I'll work toward a 75 Yagrush, 99 Daurdabla, and a 119 Fomalhaut.

I'm just 3 assaults away from Captain rank.  Looking forward to getting started on Assaults again and the slow collection of titles/kills/Alexandrite that are needed to complete the Yagrush.  I think I have 2 boss kills already, but I've never set foot in Einherjar, so I've got a long road ahead of me there.  I'm above 130k Nyzul Isle tokens, so that part is almost done.  Unfortunately, I've never done zeni NMs and I've only got ~100 of the 30k alex that I need.  I'll focus more on collecting alex once I get to the point where the NPC will hold onto them for me.  

I got in a few nice CP PTs and am currently just 63 JP from master GEO.  Looking forward to finishing that off so that I can start working on WHM. Or BRD.  Part of me doesn't want to do anything on either job until I have the awesome gear, but the other part of me doesn't want to wait, either!  Either piece will make my job so much easier (and desireable by PTs).  I just don't want to have to wait to complete either, as they will both take a very long time.

In other news, Wack is back! I spent some time doing Ambuscade with him and Braego.  It was fun!  Unfortunately, his work schedule doesn't overlap very well with Braego or my schedules.  We should be able to get together at least once/week, during the afternoon on the weekend.  

I'll leave you with my summer lockstyle.  Until next time!