Lots of Potential, Little Reward

After having such a successful run with that dynamis shell on Wed night, I was pumped to log in and get some stuff accomplished. I was just 4k from DNC37 so I was going to start with finishing that subjob. Then, I was going to either skill up or campaign/lfp.

When I logged in, however, I noticed that a besieged was about to start. So, I tweaked my plans a bit and did the besieged first. I teamed up with Wack and Necromancerneo to beat up on some Troll Mercenaries. Well, i died a whole bunch, but was alive when it counted and got a few sorely-needed IS (I had used almost all of them on an ISNM run on Tuesday).

After besieged I planned on heading to the past to recharge my emp. band and knock out some campaign ops when I saw a shout for Nyzul HNM80 (Askar/Denali free) and HNM100 (Goliard/Denali free). I couldn't pass up this chance to get sexy Askar body (which I don't think I'll ever get from the static), so I joined them as WAR.

The first run went very smooth. We got really lucky with the floors and ended up on floor 80 with over 15 minutes to spare. Needless to say we won and got Goliard to drop (yay for the dude who wanted it, but boo for me!).

Next is the run to 100. Again, a very smooth run. We find ourselves on 100 with 13 minutes to spare. A full rest and we go to... Unfortunately, the WHM we had was pretty retarded and thought it was more important to nuke with lolBanish II than remove paralyzation from the team. Four of us ended up eating dirt before the boss finally went down. RNG and DRK weapons were the only drops. I had one more tag (the group had talked about going for 2 runs at 100) but everyone decided to just disband.

So that's two more runs towards my next promotion, which leaves me at 19/25. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my promotion to Corporal before Christmas!

So, finally done with that random Nyzul run, I finally manage to get geared up as DNC and head to the past. Who cares that it's almost 11:30 and that I'm 3.5 hours behind schedule, right?

I do a handful of campaign ops for some quick and easy XP. As I'm about to head out to Rolanberry Fields to try my hand at some treasure caskets, I get a tell asking if I want to PT. Bear in mind that I don't have my flag up and after the campaign ops, I'm less than 3k tnl. However, since it is so late, I figure that this is the only chance that i'll have to actually get DNC37 before I go to bed (gogogo planned force-D/C after I ding!). I say yes and head out to East Ronfaure [ S ] to beat up on some colibri. Boy, did I feel like a noob out there. The only other time I remember being in a full PT was one time in the jungles with Ia. My gear hadn't been updated since then and was pretty crappy (beetle armor & earrings, lv 25/20 daggers) and I only had one piece of food on me at the time (a sole sushi which, as luck would have it, was snatched from my in about the first 10 minutes; in my defense, i wasn't planning on getting a PT at all!). I would've gone and done a quick gear update, but the dude was pretty anxious for me to get out there.

So, I had a bit of a hard time getting TP at the start of the fight and we probably synced/unsynced 6 times, which meant I was starting from scratch that many times, which was extremely annoying. Other than that, the flow of xp was good and I managed to not only ding 37, but 38.5 as well. Had it not been almost 2 AM, I probably would've stuck around with the PT until I dinged 40, just for the hell of it! I don't plan on taking DNC any higher (maybe to 40 so I can play with Reverse Flourish a bit) any time soon. It feels good to finally have a fully-levelled /DNC available!

So, there was a lot of potential for a great night, but it turned out pretty mediocre. I don't when I'll ever get any Askar (3rd or 4th in line in the static and it never drops as it is) as SE is conspiring against me. Hell, I'd be happy to just have a chance to lot on the stuff. So long as it shows up in the treasure pool, I'll be a happy camper. The Goliard hat has yet to make an appearance (not that I can really think of a good use for it) but I can at least feel good knowing that when the static gets to 100 and it drops, that it is mine.

Now I just need to get working on my THF sub and maybe try out some more Fields of Valor. I think MNK/DNC (@ 48) would be fun, beating up on skellies in Xarcabard and maybe getting some good loot on top! Plus I've got what appears to be a well-skilled group for dynamis now, so iceland relic is back in the picture. Hopefully soon I'll have some new gear to post about![/s]

Posted Dec 12 2008, 12:53 PM

More Nyzul

I spent some time after the version update screwing around in Xarcabard, hunting for treasure. I got a couple of locked boxes, but was only able to open 2 of them for an Ether +3 and an ash log. So the loot was crappy, but it was very fun to Hexa Strike the crap out of too weak mobs

I happened to be logged on for a majority of the day yesterday(a perk of working from home, also why I don't WFH more often). I have been really intrigued by the treasure caskets. It's like camping a NM and getting the drop, for me!

I spent some time in Rolanberry Fields soloing on DNC a bit, trying to get it finished off at 37. I was hoping to be able to do some Fields of Valor, but I couldn't find a zone where I could participate at level 35. I settled on Rolanberry since I still wanted to open treasure caskets and was able to work through an emperor's band charge plus a bit more to get to 36. I think just another hour or two of soloing and I should be able to put DNC away for good.

After I landed back in Whitegate to see what was going on. I had 2 hours or so to kill before Nyzul and I wasn't doing Dynamis-Jeuno again with FearNothing (since there is no reason for me to go to any city zones). I ended up getting in on an ISNM3000 run. I got crap for drops (only 1 ore in our 6 runs). The NIN in the PT got to Jade Seplucher and realized that he forgot his orders. So, instead of letting the BLM D2 him, he runs back ... The RDM leader asked if he would just wait to get his orders after everyone else did their runs, to which he replied: "No, 'cause you guys won't stick around after". Which, of course, is 100% correct.

I got done with the ISNM just before 10, so I was geared up and ready to go on time. Yosh wasn't online again, but everyone else was gathered by 10:20. We picked up Jagged as a 6th and decided to climb 66-70 and then do 2x60 for hand armor.

All 3 runs went very well, despite being a low on support. Even the kill all floors went well. We didn't have any truly annoying objectives (like kill flayers, or kill all with flayers, or anything to do with flayers). We got out of the climb with about 1 minute to spare. The icing on the cake: Floor 70 unlocked Wack's King's Justice and CB's Atonement. Now we can climb my disc (or Redd's), which will be nice since I've got 3 mythic WS to unlock... (Mystic Boon first, King's Justice second, and Death Blossom if/when I feel like it)

Run 2 was a shot at the 60 boss. We made record time and got to floor 60 with something like 12 minutes to spare. The boss went down in short order and dropped one pair of Askar hands, which Wack got.

Run 3 went just about as well and we landed on floor 60 with something like 15 mins left. We got a revitalizer off of a mob, which Jagged took for twice the SAM 2-hr fun on the boss. The boss went down without any big hitches. It did a couple of annoying things, though, including wiping everyone's TP right at the start (goodbye icarus wings and meditate TP) and used physical shield just after Slig, Wack, and Jagged all used their 2-hrs. All we got for the win, however, was another Sturdy Axe (I think we've seen 5 or 6 of these drop).

Appraising items gave us a Viking Shield off of Steelfleece Baldrich, which I happened to have high lot on. We also fought Dune Widow, which I totally called as a leather gorget.

Not a bad night for Nyzul, all-in-all. Two more mythic ws unlocked for the PT, one more piece of armor scratched off the list, and a small money drop for our troubles I'm also at 16/25 assaults toward my promotion to Corporal.

Now, if I could just get in on some pick-up groups and win some Askar pieces...

Posted Dec 10 2008, 04:26 PM

Blah Night

So last night was kind of a bust. I logged on to see which Dynamis FearNothing was going to do. The fellowship calendar showed Sandy, but we had just done Sandy last Tuesday, so I was a bit skeptical. Turns out they were doing Jeuno (AGAIN!!!!). So, I put my WS pearl back on and put my flag up. I get an invite for a PT at MJSP. The setup: WAR WAR WAR SAM BRD WHM. When I get there, I see some of the PT complaining about the worthless NIN they had in the PT, so I'm clearly a rep. No biggie, though, as I just wanted to get 5k limit points so I could finish off MP merit 7. Well, with exp band, I ended up getting almost 8k before I was KO'd and the PT disbanded. I flagged up again and headed back to Whitegate to seek for another PT before Nyzul.

Soon after, Braego asks for help finishing off his last ZM5 fight. This was the fight vs. the pair of Opo-opos in Yhoator Jungle (through Ifrit's Cauldron). We only got magic aggro from the bombs one time as we were running through the cauldron, as we were waiting for a flame spout to go away. During the fight we agg'd another volcanic bomb and it was looking pretty grim. Fortunately, the flame sput went away and we were able to run to the zone without any deaths. The fight itself went pretty smooth. Congrats to Braego for completing ZM5!

Now, he was putting a ZM6 PT together right after, but it was already 10:05, so I figured I had better just get to Whitegate and get geared up for Nyzul. Almost 2 hours later, we finally went into Nyzul Isle ><

Yoshi never showed up and it took us a long time to find a trustworthy replacement. So we picked up Booniex as COR for the first run, then Zman as MNK/DNC for the 2nd and 3rd. The first run we got a few kill all floors which really ate up too much of our time. We ended up timing out on floor 64. The 2nd run went much more smoothly (despite Wack getting killed from a pair of linked flans) and we were able to clear some discs up to 65. When that happened, Slig found that Ascetic's Fury was available to him! 'Grats on the cool weaponskill, Slig! Unfortunately, CB and Pro still hadn't unlocked their weaponskills, so we'll continue climbing next week. The last run we decided to attempt a floor 60 boss for some hands. We kicked some ass on the way up and made it to floor 60 with just over 10 minutes to spare, only to see: White Magic Restriction...

Now, this isn't the first time we've had a White Magic Restriction on a boss floor, but it still sucks to know that I'm completely worthless for the fight (I had used Benediction on the 2nd run). The only thing I could bring to the table was a single Martyr for ~650 hp. As it turns out, I didn't even have that. Before I tried to use it, I got hit with a few AoEs and then the Archaic Rampart that roams the floor agg'd me and eventually KOd me. We got the win, however (thanks to Z coming /DNC) and guess what we got for a reward... nothing.

All-in-all, it was a rather blah night. Nyzul disappoints (although at least our group is competent enough to climb, unlike the PUGs that I've gotten). Yay for one more MP merit. Just need 47k limit points until I finish those off. Boo for a limit PT that was just mediocre... Maybe I'll have better luck later on this week when I get to log on again.

Posted Dec 3 2008, 02:11 PM

Too Much AFK

Even though it was a long weekend away from work, I didn't get many opportunities to log on. Thanksgiving on Thursday, watching the kids on Friday, and working on the Christmas Tree farm on Saturday and Sunday. Before I knew it, my alarm was going off and I was getting ready for work on Monday!

Braego stayed with Ia and I for the long weekend, which was pleasant. We managed to do a fair bit of Wii Sports and even some Guitar Hero when the baby allowed us to play.

In-game, we knocked out a few of his ZM5 fights (headstone pilgrimage). He's really only 2 big fights away from sky access ^^

I thinking of scratching dynamis from the list of events in which I participate. I don't really like the group that I'm going with and I don't think they'll ever get enough manpower to make it to ice zones (which are the only zones I'm interested in) so I see little reason to keep running with them. It could be nice, having Tuesday evenings before Nyzul open to do whatever (hopefully merit).

Posted Dec 1 2008, 03:19 PM

Epic Night and Loot

Tuesday nights are always busy for me. I get home from work, grab a quick bite, then log in and get ready for Dynamis. Then, I have to hurry to Whitegate for Nyzul Isle assault. The primary reason that I am participating in these two events is for gear. I love to collect the fancy RA/EX stuff (and some of it is even useful!). So, I usually look forward to Tuesday nights and the opportunity for a mini FFXI marathon.

Yesterday, I was pumped all day at work because my dynamis shell was scheduled to do Xarcabard. I've been itching to do a northlands zone since SE increased the drop rate of relic, yet I haven't had many opportunities since the shells that I had been going with are a bunch of retarded n00bs. So, imagine my disappointment when I get home, log in, and find that we're not doing Xarcabard, but Jeuno instead (which we had just done the previous run). Fine, Jeuno gives me the chance to get the last piece of city relic that I need for my 3 75s.

So we enter (20 miins late) and the first piece of armor that drops is WAR! I am the first to lot and I get a good one: 782. I see 2 others lot below me... things are looking good. Then, Dabox lots 800-something. You know Dabox from the ZNM in Mt. Z? Wait a second, he's not even here tonight... His character is being 2-boxed by the LS leader! I was a bit angry. Just a few kills later (literally, like 5 minutes) another pair of WAR hands drop. I lot again, but lot in the mid 100s. Someone else wins. Now, I'm just defeated. I think "looks like I'll have to get them some other Jeuno run." Imagine my surprise when between 30-45 mins later ANOTHER pair drop! I lot (poorly) but win the last pair!



If any more had dropped they would've been freelot, but none did. So, now I've got those nice new gloves to macro in for WS maybe? I figure they might be good for Steel Cyclone, but then I'd be losing the STR from Pallas' bracelets... Gonna have to speak with a veteran WAR for some advice.

The rest of the run is pretty lousy. We wipe to an astral flow, we wipe to a bad pull on the mega boss, then our THFs & PLDs can't figure out how to use Perfect Dodge and Invincible to pull the boss back to the camp and we end up timing out without the win. Before I switch pearls, I see that they're scheduleing Jeuno again... for the 3rd straight time...

Let me just say I'm glad I won't be able to make that run!

After, I run to Nyzul Isle. The plan is to climb 16-20 to get my disc up (and get some armor) and then do 31-40 to get CB (lol) and Sligs discs up (and get some armor). The first run goes very smoothly. The group is really starting to click and handle the different floors well. We zone into floor 20 with just under 10 minutes on the timer and see: "White Magic is restricted". W T F The only thing I could do was a single martyr for ~600 hp and Benediction. CB, Slig, Yosh, Wack and I all 2hrd and we were able to win!!!! The cherry on top:



I was the only person who wanted them, so now I've got some new shoes to use for WHM (I can leave my Numerist Pumps in the mog house)! yay

Floor 31-35 went well until we got to the last floor. Less than 10 minutes and we get lamps:order. After running around for a bit we see that there are 4 lamps.
First combination: off off off off
(1-minute warning)
Second combination: off off off off
(30-second warning)
Third combination:
(10-second warning)
Floor 35 Objective Complete! Rune of Transfer Activated.
Exit with just a second to spare

EPIC!

The climb from 36-40 was pretty uneventful. No scary restrictions and the boss went down smoothly. Nothing dropped, unfortunately. I'd love to see Goliard Trews drop next time (hell, I'd love to see anything drop since it's been awhile since we've seen any Askar, too) so that I can be 4/5 on Goliard. But really, Goliard two weeks in a row?! I'm not gonna complain!

Now I'm at 7/25 towards my next promotion. I need to do a couple of pick-up Nyzul runs if I can to get my disc caught up with CB and Sligs. I also need to do a few campaign battles so that I don't lose my medal (only 2 days left!). Lastly, I need to get some Imperial Standing so that I can buy my sentinel shield. Oh, and I'd like to finish off my next MP merit.

Posted Nov 12 2008, 03:19 PM

Minor Accomplishments over the Weekend

Well, I tried getting into a few extra nyzul runs to get my disc higher. The first group did 3 runs, hoping to go 11-15, then 16-20 x2. We got the clear on 15 with just 1 or 2 seconds to spare (no joke). Then the next two runs we got held up on floor 19 (I was the only healer, although there was a BLU and we had a custard mob on a floor with a White Magic Restriction: meaning I had 1 martyr and 1 benediction available for healing). The only good thing to drop was a pair of Bounding Boots from LL on a 'kill all mobs' floor. I lotted something like 640, which is a nice lot, but lost to 4 of the others in the PT.

Then, I tried to do a run for 20 with Sath and Dev. They needed a DD. Since I have never done Nyzul as a DD, I was very excited to give it a shot. I was in a hurry to change to WAR, and forgot that I had 1) given the last of my silent oils to Protecus the week before and 2) sent my spare ninja tools to my DB to free up some space. What this meant is that I showed up to Nyzul without any form of sneak...

We ended up getting massive flan aggro while fighting the leader NM and wiped. It was fun to go as WAR, but I'm disappointed in myself for not being properly prepared like a noob and disappointed that we didn't get the clear to 20 for my disc.

In other news, I got my DNC to 35 so I finally have access to Drain Samba II and Healing Waltz. I don't think I'll put much effort into taking it to 37 (as much as I hate to have gimped subjobs). Eager to try it out as a sub, I geared up and headed out to the tree to skill up dagger with Ia. (Braego and all of his skilling up put the bug in me...) I got my dagger from 166 to 203 so far and my NPC dinged 38 in the process!

Tonight I've got Dynamis - Xarcabard followed by Nyzul and then Dynamis - Beaucedine on Saturday (which I will be missing). I'd love to get some of my ice relic soon. I figure I'll prioritize my relic lotting like so:

Xarcabard: RDM, WAR, WHM
Beaucedine: WHM, WAR, RDM
Jeuno: WAR

For Xarcabard, the chapeau is just plain sexy, but I wonder if I shouldn't comment WAR first since there will be less competition for the WAR piece than the RDM. Not to mention that I seldom play RDM (although I tell myself I'd be more willing to play it more if I had better gear). The WAR body looks nice and I think it would match my dusk hands and feet . The WHM gloves are inventory -1. I don't see how they would be useful at all, except for maybe to macro in on my enfeebles for Nyzul.

Beaucedine is an easy decision to lot WHM first. The bonus to Regen effect has a major impact on the efficiency of those spells. Fully meritted regen 1/2/3 with briault has a HP:MP ration of 15.714 / 11.515 / 9.655 (with /SCH Light Arts). For reference, Cure V is generally considered the most efficient cure spell, which only has a HP:MP ration of 6.025 (w/ Light Arts). You can clearly see how efficient these spells become with merits and the Cleric's Briault (as long as another person doesn't heal over top of them). I figure I'd lot WAR second since I spend most of my time in-game as WAR and as much as I want the RDM body, I really only want it for the shiny-factor and for soloing.

The WAR hands from Jeuno are the last piece of city relic that I need for my 3 75s. I'd love to get those out of the way soon. One pair dropped at Saturday's run, but I was outlotted by 600pts to the only other person who had them commented. If nothing changes, the next time we do Jeuno, I'll be the only person commenting WAR, I just hope that they actually drop.

The dynamis shell that I've been going with the last few weeks is FearNothing. They're a nice group of people, but they don't have the numbers to really go in and take care of a zone. Since I've been with them, the only zone they've cleared is Bastok (which a BLM could probably solo). They've recently merged with another shell, so that our numbers are slightly better. Now, instead of going into Jeuno with less than a full alliance, we've actually got closer to 30 players. I really don't care much about the wins, I just want to have a shell that can stay in the zone long enough to kill a fair amount of mobs so that we can see some decent drops.

So that's been my in-game life for the past few days. Ia and I had a nice weekend with Braego up. I got some stuff accomplished and I'm looking forward to some new loot from Nyzul and Dynamis this week. Oh, and I got another merit doing some Campaign while trying to keep from losing my medal. I've got 2 days to get enough points to keep my medal.... I don't want to lose my rank before the next version update, when SE is supposed to finish the WotG mission as well as add another level of Campaign medals. Getting closer to my 6th MP merit

See you in-game!

*edit

OOG: I had to take Sidney, my German Shepherd, in to be put to sleep yesterday. I say my dog, but in reality, she belonged to Ia and Braego when they got her as a pup ~13 years ago (I've been taking care of her for the last 5). It was very sad and hard to do which I wasn't really expecting. But, she was very old and was in pain all the time, having major trouble walking, not to mention her extremely poor vision/hearing. I'll post a pic here when I get home. RIP Sid!

Posted Nov 11 2008, 10:11 AM

New Gear!

FearNothing did a bit of recruiting and took ~28 ppl to Dynamis-Bastok last night. The group seemed fairly competent and I was able to go for the first hour without a single death. Then, either the tanks stopped trying to tank, or the WHMs were too busy watching the election results because I was KO'd 7 times in the last couple of hours. We ended up getting the win (Killshot: Tru!) and BST, BLU, SAM, THF relic before I left for Nyzul.

For Nyzul Isle, we decided to climb from 20-30 and then hit floor 80 for some armor. I must apologize for causing a bit of drama before we got started. I wanted to get Redd's disc caught up so that when we were climbing, it would help everyone. Also, my disc is at floor 11 and I can't seem to find any opportunities to join a pick-up group to get my disc advanced. I have the WHM weapon, and am definitely looking forward to unlocking the weaponskill, but I'm not even going to start to work off points until I get my disc higher. It turned out ok since I was more interested in getting some armor, likewise with Redd.

In the end, we successfully climbed from 20-30 and then fought Khiim at floor 80 who generously dropped the Goliard body for me! This is a nice macro piece for Martyr and Devotion (which are getting close to 700HP/350MP respectively) as well as a good boost to my Conserve MP build. I haven't really examined how it will impact RDM other than being a good convert piece. Next time I gear up RDM, I'll take a closer look.

I also got promoted to Lance Corporal last week. I just need to get in on a good besieged so that I can get enough IS to buy a Sentinel Shield for when I skill-up as WAR/DNC. The shield just looks sexy! I'm currently at 3/25 towards my next promotion, which won't take too long at all, if I can just get in on some extra Nyzul runs.

*oh yeah, and I think I'm going to see if I can get into CB's Dynamis LS on Friday nights only. I don't like the whole points-based system for lotting ice relic, but I can deal with it. The time is much more convenient than Saturday @ 6:30 PM (which is right after dinner and interferes with prime family-time).

Posted Nov 5 2008, 10:30 AM