WHM Relic 5/5

Beaucedine got jacked on Wed, so we went to Xarc instead. I didn't mind since I would've only been lotting synth in Beaucedine.

We had a fairly good run. Up until the last hour, I actually had gained ~800 xp (via two scrolls). But some missed sleepgas ended up seeing me KO'd 3 times before we were kicked from the zone, so I need to work on my buffer again ; ;

It was a pretty good run drop-wise. IIRC, we had the following drops: DRKx2, SAM, RNG, MNK, BSTx2, WHM, PLD, BLM, SCH. The DRK, SAM, RNG, and SAM were all freelot. I got WHM hands, which completes that set of relic for me (yay!). Now, I don't have to worry about lotting on one piece of relic, while hoping that the RDM hat doesn't drop later in the run.

Nyzul wasn't too bad. LT wanted us to take him up to 100 so he could get his PLD sword and runic key. However, we got screwed on a kill-all floor with some nasty NMs and some flayers. In the end, instead of leaving floor 98 with 3 minutes left, we went up and timed out. The next two runs were climbs from 6, both successful. Which means that next week, we can do climb 16-25 and then do another boss floor for armor. I'd love to do 2 climbs per week. As soon as my disc gets up to 75 or 80, I'll start to seriously work on WS points for WHM, WAR, then RDM (or Mystic Boon, King's Justice, and Death Blossom).

I'll try to log on tonight and make the run up the hill in Attowha Chasm to get the key item for the ENM. Some extra cash would go a long way right about now.

Sunday is another Xarc run, so maybe we'll actually see a RDM hat. In all of my time doing dynamis (almost 2 years now) I've only ever seen one RDM hat drop which I couldn't lot on at the time 'cause WHM was my only 75. Although I think next time we're going to go for DL and the Xarc clear, which means we'll spend less time farming.

Oh, and LOL at people who delevel at events! That is all.

*Edit
So, the ENM wasn't very profitable this week. We got a single item which sells for ~3k. I doubt we'll be splitting that loot...

Earlier, I made it out to Gustav Tunnel with Ald, Wack, and CB. We were camping a gob NM for a crossbow for Ald's RNG. The NM popped about an hour after I got out there, and we killed without any problems, but there was no drop ; ;

I PL'd CB and Wack for a bit out in Xarc while they did some FoV, helped Wack get keys/coffers from the Eldieme Necropolis and CZB, then helped him kill Dark Spark. After the ENM we went out and killed his AF3 NM (I think), then did a run of ODS. Only good drop was a v.claw for Wack, the rest was pretty lol.

So, all-in-all it was a very fun and productive day in-game yesterday.

Posted Feb 19 2009, 10:37 AM

Generous Nyzul

We changed things up a bit for last night's Nyzul run. Instead of running 3x80, we did 80, 40, then 100. We cleared all 3 and got Askar body (to Vay) and legs (to me) for our efforts. Nice to see another body get checked off the list. As far as I know, we still need 2 more, one for Deep and one for me.

Those 3 clears brings me 1/3 of the way toward my next promotion. If I work hard on nyzul, or pick up a new assault clear (or two) I could easily get my next promotion before the end of the month! Sergeant here I come!

Tonight is supposed to be a dreamland dynamis, which I don't have access to, so it turns into a free night for me. I'd like to get a merit PT and get a couple more merits stored up. I was doing some math and found that I need ~160 merits to cap WHM, RDM, and WAR (not counting weapon skill merits). That's a whole lot of meriting... We also might climb the mountain in Attowa Chasm to get a key item for the Sheep In Antlion's Clothing ENM. Vay wants to start doing this weekly, prior to Nyzul Isle to try to make some spare cash.

Posted Feb 11 2009, 12:36 PM

Quick Update

Dynamis - Beaucedine on Sunday gave me WAR legs and the clear, once again for those who needed it. So, WAR becomes my first set of completed Relic armor (not counting accessories since I don't have dreamland access yet). The Dynamis schedule looks like this for the next couple of weeks:

Wed 2/11: Dreamland
Sun 2/15: Xarc
Wed 2/18: Beaucedine
Sun 2/22: Xarc

Looks like I have a free night and a couple more chances at RDM hat coming up soon. It has been fun manaburning zones. On Sunday, we had a large group (2-full alliances) and mobs were dropping super fast. I'm looking forward to doing Xarc a couple more times and getting better at it!

I finally capped XP on RDM last week (and again after dynamis). I had never had capped XP before; it's kinda nice

I also spent some time in a meh-merit PT (I was seeking on WAR, got the invite, then asked if I could come RDM since the RDM that they invited didn't have /WHM). It was WARx3, BRD, COR, RDM, which should have been awesome. There were two problems, however: we weren't fighting birds and only 1 WAR had provoke. I think that if there had been more provoking, I wouldn't have been running out of MP so quickly. I think that any other RDM would have had the same problems that I had, since it wasn't a problem of lolGalkaMP, but instead a problem of oh-shit-the-DDs-are-taking-too-much-damage.

I spent a lot of time doing campaign battles, too. I finally finished my devotion merits (yay for 10-minute cooldown). Now, I need to work on max Regen merits (150k limit points), and either cap Cure Cast speed or barspells. To finish group II WHM merits, I need 9 merits to bump Shellra V up to level 3. That would complete my WHM merits!

Of course, I'm not sure if I'll work on those merits next, or work a bit on RDM or WAR merits. My spell acc is pretty decent, but not great for RDM, so I think I should probably merit enfeebling magic a bit, then work on a couple more levels of Wind/Ice accuracy. Once that is done, I can take it easy on RDM (not really any group 2 merits I'm really worried about having) and focus on WAR (max Double Attack and Warrior's Charge, then Bergresser recast).

So, I've got my work cut out for me merit-wise, but it's nothing that I can't do, if I just work at it.

Posted Feb 10 2009, 10:59 AM

Lots o' Loot

The game has been quite generous to me in the past couple of weeks. It started out with a dreamland dynamis that I couldn't attend, so I headed up to sky with TheSons. I had a few points available to me, so I was actually able to lot on some items. I was one of 3 people to comment A.legs and was lucky enough to have the highest lot when the dropped off of Seiryu. Then, we fought Byakko whose axe went freelot, so I came out of that sky run with two items that I really wanted! I'd still like Genbu's shield, but I hear that goes free quite often, so I'm not going to stress about having the points to lot on it (I'm currently at -10 or -13, which will take me forever to work off with how often I can actually attend sky runs).

I wanted to have my Zenith Slacks ASAP, so I tried to focus on making gil. Ia lent me 225k, which put me just under 400k, nowhere near the 550k that they were selling for in a bazzaar (600k on AH).

In the meantime, Nyzul dropped nothing (go figure). Then, I went to dynamis - beaucedine. I commented RDM and WHM and hoped for a WAR (freelot since nobody had it commented) to drop, too. An hour or so into the run the RDM body drops and I win! HOORAY! A little later, a WHM body dropped, but there was one other person there who had it commented, so I didn't get to lot it. WAR legs didn't drop, but I was still pumped to have a cool end-game piece for RDM.

Sunday, the ls tried Dynamis - Xarcabard for the first time. I decided to comment RDM (against 9 others) and WAR (against 1 other) and hope for a WHM (also freelot since nobody had it commented). Maybe 20 minutes in and WAR body dropped. I wasn't sure if I should let it go freelot and risk losing it to anyone who had WAR at 75 but still keep my chance to lot on RDM hat if it dropped, or just lot it and be sure to get the piece since the other person who had it commented chose not to lot. I decided to lot it since Xarc drops are still quite rare, and I really wanted it for looks, if for no other reason. Despite the lolWAR comments in ls chat, I was still pleased that I got it since RDM did NOT drop. Had I let it go free and lost the lot, I would've been disappointed for sure. Now, I wear 4/5 WAR relic as my 'town gear'. I get /checked quite often since WAR relic is hardly ever seen (especially body, since it is pretty useless). I like the looks of it!

My entire family got sick, so I was either too sick to go into work, or needed to stay home so that Ia could get some rest and be able to go to class. It turns out that I didn't go into work at all last week, which meant I was logged in 24/7. This afforded me lots of time to listen to shouts in Whitegate and see all of the events that I couldn't do because I had a sick kid in my lap. But it also gave me a few opportunities as well.

I was able to help CB get his Mages Ballad II scroll from CZB. We got the coffer key to drop on the 5th or 6th mob, then found a coffer a few minutes later. The scroll dropped from the first coffer, too! We stayed a bit longer, trying to get another key for CB's BRD AF, but none dropped. On our way out, we killed the Shadow Dragon in Xarc, but Biast didn't pop. It was fun to help CB out (we never do anything together outside of Nyzul) and see what he could do as PUP, too!

Normally, I won't jump on an ISNM shout if there isn't already a BLM and BRD. On Tuesday, before Nyzul, I happened to see a shout @5/6 looking for healing magic, so I joined the group; they requested I come RDM. I hadn't had a chance to really test my new RDM macros so the first run went poorly as I found some typos in some of the macros and it took me just a little while to get adjusted to using multiple macro pallets. I was lucky enough to get a Khroma Ore to drop on my run which meant that I would be able to afford my cursed slacks as soon as it sold on the AH. I was also able to pay Ia's loan back immediately, which made me happy. Nyzul dropped a Goliard body, which Alden won since the only other person who wants one is CB, and his PUP isn't high enough to equip it. It's too bad since I wanted CB to have it, but I suppose it's only fair that it goes to someone who can both use it and wear it. Still no Askar, which we REALLY need (CB, Vay, maybe Deepfreeze, and me).

Wednesday I bought my cursed slacsk from the AH and headed to Sandy to get them uncursed. Hooray for Z.Slacks!!!!! Then, we did another Dynamis - Xarcabard but only saw one drop the entire time, BLM. The run was pretty lousy and I'm pretty sure the sponsors lost a lot of money doing back-to-back Xarcs.

Friday night was a super fun night in-game. I had more fun than I'd had in-game in a long time. First, Saeble sent me a tell asking if I could help with a T1 ZNM CHG. I wandered out there RDM/BLM to help with some nukage. Most of the time, I was playing one-handed, which really made me ineffective, but I was able to help them kill the NM 3 times. Armadillo Cuisses dropped once, which were freelot. Protecus and I both lotted, and while he lotted higher, he passed them to me (I'm guessing because they're pretty much crap most of the time). So now, I'll have ACC and ATK + 15 while under the effects of Amnesia! Thanks wack After that, I caught a besieged. Then, joined a group doing an ODS run. I sent my serket ring to a mule, just in case, which turned out to be a good thing since I did get a serket ring to drop on my run! After that, I hooked up with the ls again to fight T2 ZNM Iriz Ima. Vaynard got a cool greatsword (no oracles dropped, though) and Wack got a trigger for T3 Gotoh Zha the Redolent.

I sold my serket ring via shouts in whitegate and went on another ISNM run, but didn't get anything good on my run, although we did go 2/6 on khroma. After that I joined up with Wack for some more ZNMs. The first was T3 Experimental Lamia in Caedarva Mire, then a little later for 2 Dea pops in Bhaflau Thickets. I lost lots on all freelot items, but had a bit of fun experiencing something new.

Sunday night was supposed to be a deamland dynamis, so I was looking forward to going up to sky to work on some points. Unfortunately, sky was cancelled because of the superbowl. It turns out that dynamis was changed to Jeuno, so I asked Wack to tag along. That, too, ended up being cancelled because of the Superbowl. Before I left for Jeuno, I saw the leaders of FashionablyLate shouting that they were going to manaburn dynamis - beaucedine, so I sent a tell asking if they needed another RDM or WHM. They wanted me to come RDM, so I did.

Now, I left FashionablyLate awhile ago because they were very unorganized and I didn't like their lotting rules (although I can't specifically remember what it was about their rules that I didn't like). Well, they seemed a bit more organized when functioning as a manaburn and I ended up having a bit of fun. This was my first time to dynamis as RDM and I found that my new macro set may not be a good fit for the fast-paced dynamis. I might have to create a new set for RDM dynamis and try again. One of the PLDs from RebornLegacy (the dynamis shell that I've been running with) also showed up. We were going to just farm the run, but ended up going for the win after getting all of the time extensions. On the way to the boss, WHM body dropped off of a NM. I hadn't had a chance to check all of the LS to see who had WHM commented, but I did see at least one other person with it commented. I didn't lot right away and saw this other person lot 87. I waited a few seconds longer then decided to lot.... and got 120 I was sure that this wouldn't be good enough to win, but I didn't have a chance to look through seacoms to see if anyone else had it commented. I kept my eyes on the treasure pool for the next few minutes, however. A little over 4 mins later, I see one of the sponsors lot 846 for the briault, and I was devastated. Then I see in ls chat "omg I can't believe I lotted WHM.... I'm such a noob!" followed shortly by "good thing I passed in time". Soon after that I see the magical message: Truece obtains a Cleric's Briault!!!!!!!

I am so friggin happy right now! I've had this piece macro'd into my regen macros ever since I started doing dynamis - beaucedine. Now, I just need to start working on my Regen merits for some uber regen power!!!!

The question that I need to answer is do I continue to run with RebornLegacy, or move back to FashionablyLate? I was talking with the PLD from RebornLegacy who is leaning toward moving to FashionablyLate since there will be less competition for PLD gear. I am leaning toward them (at least on Weds) because they get started at a reasonable time (none of this gather-at-11-and-go-in-by-midnight-crap). FashionablyLate is ice/dreamland focused which is good since I don't need any more relic from any cities. This Wed, FL is doing Xarc (maybe) while RL is doing Beaucedine. If FL does indeed get scheduled for Xarc, I think I'll head out with them at 9pm and hope for RDM hat or WHM hands. Otherwise, I'll be doing Beaucedine hoping for WAR legs to drop and complete my first set of Relic!

So, to sum up the last 2 weeks: 3 relics from 3 Dynamises (now 4/5 for RDM, WHM, and WAR), 800k+ from IS/KC-NM drops, A.Legs and axe from sky, and Armadillo Cuisses from ZNMs. What a great couple of weeks for loot!

Posted Feb 2 2009, 01:08 PM

3/20 and Counting

Well, we did 2 more floor 80 bosses last night and one 81+ lolFloorClimb.

Both times we got to 80 we found Hydra waiting for us. Hydra who has stumped us 3 times in the previous two weeks. Hydra who, this time, went down fighting, even when we had less than 10 minutes to get the kill.

What did we get for our fantastic efforts? COR gun and DRK scythe. At least Vay finally got his weapon, but it would still be nice to actually see some more armor, since we've got so many people waiting for it. RDM sword also dropped off of an NM on one of the runs, which went to Alden. With two more weapons in the group, we'll have to start climbing again (which will be triply great for me since I've got the WHM, WAR, and RDM weapons already). We'll be starting from 1 when we do decide to start climbing again.

So, now we've killed floor 80 bosses ~20 times and have 3 (or 4) pieces of armor to show for it....

Also did a little bit of campaign battles and got enough merit points to put another upgrade into Devotion last night. I'm at 4/5 which puts the recast at 12.5 minutes. I'm looking forward to getting another 50k limit points and finishing Devotion merits. Once that is done, I think I'll merit a bit more for WAR (Crit+, DA, Warrior's Charge specifically).

Posted Jan 21 2009, 10:27 AM

Lucky Sky!

RebornLegacy was doing another dreamland zone on Sunday night, so I was able to head up to sky with TheSons. I went up there as WAR, and boy, did I embarrass myself! My gear is OK for AH gear, but it really pales in comparison to the other dedicated DDs in the LS who have oodles of RA/EX stuff. I think I may have to head up there as a mage until I get some better RA/EX WAR gear.

We did Genbu, Seiryu, and Byakko x2. It seemed like all of the fights went very well. Of course, I was never in any real danger of dying because I wasn't doing enough damage to even get the mobs attention. I was going to lot Kabuto and shield off of Genbu, if they went free. I was hoping to have enough points to lot A.Legs for my zenith slacks from Seiryu, and then I wanted Byakko's Axe (among other things). The only thing I was really willing to spend any points on, though, was the A.Legs.

I was lucky enough to have enough points to lot for A.Legs. Seiryu happened to drop them, and I lotted 956 (give or take). So now, I'm the rightful owner of the abjuration for Zenith Slacks. All I need is another ~500K to buy the cursed slacks and then I'll be one piece closer to my max MP build for WHM and RDM. I'm pretty pumped! Byakko was also kind enough to drop his axe on the 2nd kill. It went freelot and I was the only person to lot it, so I got that as well. I think it's one of the top 3 axes in the game DPS-wise. Now I won't feel as gimp when I'm using GA in merit PTs and such.

After sky, i stuck around in Al Zhabi for a quick level 8 besieged. I died a few times, but was alive when it counted and got an extra 1450 XP/IS. I'm just over 5k to merit #5 (which will go to Devotion) and finally got back above 10k IS.

Last week I spent some time running around getting coffer keys and starting quests for MNK AF. I was able to get 3 pieces (head, hands, feet) so far. I spent 8+ hours in Beadeaux but have yet to see a single coffer key, which really sucks since I get the MNK body from a Beadeaux coffer, which I really want. I still need to flag the AF legs quest which is a popped NM on the top floor of Castle O. Once I have the rest of the AF, I think I'll actually work on levelling MNK up a few more levels. At this point, I'm not sure if I want to go to 75, or just stop at 60 after I take a screenshot in full AF.

Posted Jan 19 2009, 01:27 PM

Nothing to report, Sir!

Well, I haven't played a whole lot of FFXI Christmas. I've been trying to log on to do my weekly events, but even those have been missing (Nyzul and multiple dynamis runs canceled because of holidays/rl stuff).

On Sunday, I logged in to see what was happening in Dynamis. We were supposed to do Xarc, but the co-sponsor with Xarc access couldn't make it online, so they ended up doing Buburimu instead. Slig sent me a tell asking if I wanted to go do Kirin with them and TheSons which I would've loved to do, but by the time the LS leaders decided on which zone they were going to do, TheSons had already popped Kirin.

Had I known that the Kirin fight would've taken almost an hour, I may have still run out there. As it was, I just decided to log off instead.

Monday, I hopped on in hopes of soloing the MNK AF Feet NMs in Davoi again. I got geared up and saw that Wack was planning on going into the past to do some SNMs. I was going to help out but ended up getting pulled AFK by a crying baby, and I didn't make it back down to my PC before I fell asleep. Too bad, too. I've been wanting to take my revised RDM macros for a spin; get used to them a bit before I have to actually use RDM at an important event.

Tuesday, Ia wasn't feeling well so I didn't get online until it was time for Nyzul. We did 3x80 boss. We got to floor 80 all 3 times without much trouble. Twice we had more than 15 mins. We got Hydra all 3 times and his physical shield and plague were more than we could handle. We did kill him the first time and finally got an Askar body to drop (which went to Wacky). The 2nd time, we got him down to 7% before his physical shield and regen brought him back up above 40% and we timed out (technically, Alden and I used our fireflies after wack, lol, and slig went down... yosh ran away until the time was up). We wanted revenge but were stumped again on the 3rd try.

I think the reason was because we didn't have the extra damage that we needed. Instead of Redd on SAM, we had Yosh on THF. Now, this wouldn't be bad except that I think Yosh's RDM nuking gear is better than Alden's. So we didn't have enough magic damage for when physical shield was up.

I'm not really sure what we can do. I love to have TH on boss floors, but I don't know if we can afford to lose the extra bit of magical damage... Might be something that we need to discuss as a group.

As far as body armor goes, I think we still need 2x Askar (lol and me) and one Goliard (for Alden, as I think Yosh has his already). If lol wants Goliard for PUP, then that would mean 2 Goliard.

Oh, and Dune Widow gave us a Beetle Gorget this time, I think. Stupid spider ><

I had mentioned that I need to kill the 2 NMs in Davoi for MNK AF feet and the entire static seemed willing to help (which I would've done after Nyzul if it weren't so late).

I skipped Dynamis on Wed because I wanted the extra bit of sleep. I think I'm getting sick

Maybe I can grab a person or two and take care of the NMs in Davoi this weekend. I'm pretty sure that I could solo them on RDM, but I'd rather just get it done instead of trying to bind/kite one while I kill the other. I also need coffer keys from Garlaige, Beadeaux, and Crawler's Nest. Maybe I'll hunt those keys first since I haven't been able to spend a whole lot of time in the game lately.

I think that my desire to play the game may be directly proportional to the amount of gil that I have. Generally, when I have a bit of gil available (more than 100k), I'm more excited about logging in to play. However, when my wallet shrinks, I tend to be less excited about logging in.... I wonder if anyone else feels that way?

Oh well, here's to a (hopefully) good weekend!

Posted Jan 9 2009, 04:08 PM