+1

I did manage to finish my Surya's Staff +1 relatively quickly. Ev and CB really came through for me on some of the trials.

Ev (Millennia) came up to Ro'Maeve on BLU to help me with arcana kills during Lightsday. We managed to get all the kills that I needed in a single day.

Later, he helped me get the light-based kills in Jugner S using Carbuncle's Holy Mist. We managed to get ~90 of them done before he logged off. I went to Grauberg to help CB get Fantod from the 'grifs out there, and when he got that, we returned to Jugner to finish my trial. After that, was two trials which involved releasing bottled pixies in the fay spring in grauberg. It turns out that I could solo the Yagudo High Priests (100% droprate on the pixies) in 6-10 minutes, depending on if it spawned EP or DC. Then, it took me another 7 minutes to recall-pashh, and cocobo to the spring. A quick rest for MP and it was a total of ~25 minutes round-trip solo.

Ev came out on RDM and helped me out. We managed to get all 25 pixies done in a total of 4.5 hours. Once that was done, it was the two trials I was dreading the most: elemental kills in light day/weather. Since I would have to have the staff equipped, I wouldn't have the luxury of my HQ staves, and I wasn't 100% confident in my ability to 1-shot an elemental (even if it was a pet) without my staves.

It turns out, I shouldn't have worried. When I got out there, I got into an alliance and managed to kill ~70 per game day. The last two trials involved killing 150, then 175 elementals. Even when it was just me and a RDM we were able to knock out 60 kills in a day, so I managed to get those two trials done in just 5 lightsdays. Now, I've got a shiny new 20% cure potency staff to make my heals even more uber on WHM, and slightly better on BRD/RDM/BLM.

In typical fashion, since I had this new toy to play with, I promptly put it in the mog safe and switched to MNK for some abyssea XP and a shot at some AF feet. I managed to knock out another 10 merits and finish MNK group 1 merits (which I didn't actually do last weekend), but we saw 0 feet armor.

I need to finish BRD group 1 merits, then all my 85s will have group 1 merits done. Then, I'll start working on group 2 and STR/weapon skill merits. I still have a lot of merits to go, so I'll have lots of time in Abyssea and hopefully will generate a bunch of cruor which I can either turn into gil by NPC'ing armor, or save it for some new shiny when the next expansion/version update is announced for December (I hope).

Also, I sold my Sha'ir Manteel this week in anticipation of it's value dropping through the floor when they announce the abyssea body armor. I also sold my hedgehog bomb, since that extra MP isn't really useful to me any longer. Those two sales, coupled with the scrolls that I've been farming and the armor that I've been NPC'ing has my bank up ~4.5mil. I have never had that kind of cash before and I don't really have anything that I plan to spend it on, either. For now, I'll continue to save up and see how big the pocket book can get

Posted Nov 8 2010, 03:21 PM

Razed Ruins

Got into a group doing Ironclad Pulverizer and managed to get a clean kill which resulted in the Atma of the Razed Ruin. Now, I've got 2 very nice atmas for WAR or MNK in abyssea.

I tried it out on MNK, looking for merits. The DEX/crit hits/STR/Atk boost from those two atmas is just incredible for fast-hitting mobs. *I* was the tank as soon as I started hitting the mobs! I managed to get 25 merits and cap WAR XP in the few hours I was in abyssea.

The atmas were great for WAR, too. I was putting out 3k rampages (never tried w/ G.Axe), but I was having a much harder time staying alive on WAR w/o counterstance or even Chakra, so I changed back to MNK after finishing XP/merits.

I used those merits to finish BLM Tier I merits, WAR Tier I merits, and maybe even MNK Tier I merits (I'll have to check). It's funny... I was so excited to get the 10/tic refresh atma and haven't even really used it since I got it! MNK FTW

I went MNK w/ shiji to get the abyssite of celerity from the tonberry mobs in Konschtat. Now, my stones recharge every 16 hours, instead of 20. Soon, I'll go work on Vunkerl fame so that I can quest the other abyssite of celerity, knocking the recharge time down to 12 hrs. After I got that abyssite, I switched to RDM and we went to duo Minax Bugard in Misareaux. The fight took ~25 mins but we got zero drops.

I jumped in with a group farming head seals in Attohwa, and I was one of 2 people lotting WHM. I was @ 4/8 before going in. We ended up exp'ing/farming/popping NMs for 6 hours before I left. I managed to get 10/10 merits before I left. I also won the lots on 4 of the first 5 seals, which allowed me to upgrade to the Orison Cap +1! I haven't had a chance to try this sexy piece out yet, but I can't wait to try

I'm slowly trying to psych myself up to do the quest for MNK/BRD head seals (the chocobo quest in Attohwa). I figure I'll need lots of time/stones stored up, so maybe I should work on getting the other abyssite of celerity first?! I just don't know what to do

I finally started working on my Surya's staff trials today. The +1 version is usable by all of my magey jobs, and has cure potency +20%. I'll have my work cut out to get it done, but it will give me something to do when I don't have the stones for abyssea and when I don't feel like gearing up RDM to farm for scrolls.

Speaking of which, I nabbed Bliz IV and -ga III scrolls in a farming session in Gustav. I was able to solo Taxim (I wasn't sure if I could /THF) and for the most part had no competition for the duration of my session. Mugido managed to ding 64 while we were down there, too!

This week, I might work some more on my staff trials. The first few should be fairly simple. The one that has me worried for now is the one that requires the killing blow to come from a light-element based attack doing 50 or more damage. Definitely going to need help doing that one.

Posted Nov 3 2010, 11:30 AM