Got Shield? I do.

Dinged 73 in a Caedarva Mire PT last week. There was a RNG there whom I could SC with or who would SC with me. At one point, I did a 982 Dragon Kick which closed a Light SC for an additional 982 damage. I liked seeing those kind of numbers.

I then spent most of the weekend in Kuftal Tunnel, fishing. When Vay was there, we did SC a bit. I'm currently @401/500 points toward unlocking Destroyers.

I spent over 13 hours in Kuftal tunnel, most of it solo, trying to fish up Devil Mantas. I managed to get 6-8 total mantas (I probably only missed 1 or 2 windows all day), and 1 Angel Skin. One of these times, I'd love to come out of there with more than 1 in my possession, but I'm not gonna complain. It sold overnight. We also popped Phantom Worm a number of times and walked out with 2 tathlums. So, all-day fishing turned into almost 400k profit. Not a terrible waste of time.

That puts my Manteel fund @ 3mil. 2/3 of the way there. I think this last million gil will be a bit of a grind. Maybe I can get a couple of KSNMs in there so that it doesn't feel so tedious. I wonder if I'll have any problems actually plunking down the gil for the manteel once I have enough. After all, 4.2mil is pretty close to the 4.5-5mil that is needed for a Roundel Earring. It is also enough for the Aristocrat's Coat that I've been wanting and the Hermes' Sandals. Or, some Blessed +1 gear (if I could ever find it). I guess I could always buy the manteel, and see how I like it (and see if I can activate the latent on my Minstrel's Ring with manteel equipped). If I decide it's not really worth the gil, I can always start working on Periquia assaults for a Yigit Gomlek and eventually recover the cost for the aforementioned stuff. I guess the next time I gear up BRD I'll have to take off my Goliard Saio and see if I still have <75% HP. If not, I'll have some tweaking to do.

Not sure what this week will bring, but I hope for the following: unlocked destroyers, 75MNK, Sha'ir Manteel. Let's see how I do!

Since Vay got the gil that I sent him, he decided it was necessary to buy another Genbu pop. We took Ev up with us for some TH (and 'cause he wanted A.Hands). The fight went fairly smooth, with Ev doing most of the kiting, which allowed Vay and I to rest for MP more often. Finished in about 80 minutes. Drops were W.Feet, Kabuto, and Shield! Vay commented that he's glad it finally dropped since buying popsets was starting to hurt his wallet. I never wanted to 'buy' a shield, anyways. I was looking forward to farming popsets. I guess he has a little less patience than I.

I'm looking forward to trying it out /BLU. If I really like it, I may have to pick up a cheviot cape, too, and try to hoard up on -physical damage. Not counting phalanx or cocoon, I can use Shield, cape, goliard legs, Jelly ring, and an earring from Campaign for a total of ~ -25% physical damage. Add in phalanx's ~15% and a DEF of 600ish after cocoon, and I imagine that I won't even need stoneskin against most mobs!

Vay mentioned that the 2 items that all real RDMs need are the Joyeuse and Genbu's Shield. It turns out that Ev has neither. So, it looks like we may be heading back to SSG for more NM camping in search of a Joyeuse.

Posted Jan 18 2010, 09:12 AM

Is it Bad Luck?

The bad:
Was 6th person to go at ISNM run. Neither RDM nor BRD put up Reraise. Wipe.

Fished up two Angel Skins with Vaynard over the weekend. He was going to synth one into orbs to make an extra 150k. Failed synth and lost one of the skins. Of course he felt very bad and wanted to buy the lost skin from me. Decline as I may, he sent 600k to my DB.

Fishing solo. While reeling in Devil Manta signet wears off (TH kupower). No Signet defense bonus = nearly dead Tru. Managed to finish it with little HP left. No drop.

The meh:
Did 4 more BC60s for Kraken Clubs (two sponsored by Rach). No drop.

The good:
Finished up AU missions on Saturday and got a Balrahn's ring.

Duo'd Genbu a 2nd time w/ Vaynard. No shield, but we did get another A.Hands and also a Kabuto. Took almost 2 hrs. Vaynard thinks he may be able to call in a favor and let me get a shield from someone's sky LS. I don't know any details, though.

Did two more Royale Rambles with LS. I've got enough seals for 6 more runs which turns into ~1.2 million gil.

SC'd with Vay between fishing and Phantom Worm popping and broke latent on trial knucks. Went down into Bostonieux Oubliette. Killed a couple of Fomor NMs otw to the ???. Killed the Bodach NM and learned Asuran Fists.

MNK is just 4k to 72. Haven't been able (nor really tried) to get a PT since dinging 71. Got a link while doing FoV in Cape Terrigan and had to 2hr. A brown casket popped after I killed the first one. I took the second one down as quickly as I could (I was quite low on HP so used most of my TP for curing). Managed to unlock the casket and grab one of the two (yes, 2!) Sirocco Axes that were inside before it disappeared.

Mog Bonanza drawing is in just 3 days. I will win +30 inventory, which will be truly wonderful.

Posted Jan 12 2010, 11:46 AM

No Drops - MNK OTW

Well I've done a fair number of ISNMs and BCs in the last couple of weeks. For each ISNM, I'm either the last or 2nd to last to go. I still haven't gotten a Khroma ore, despite lots of tries.

Braego and I duo'd UIA while he was up over Christmas. We tweaked our strategy and did very well, despite not getting THE drop. Nice to know that it can be low-manned I bet Vay and I could duo it, as well. When we first went in and tried, we tried to 'play it safe' and sleep the mob often, kite more. The 2nd and 3rd time we tried, we decided to unload all of our MP, sleep it and recover all of our MP, and the blow through our MP again. Using this strategy allowed for much quicker kills. I'm currently @ 56 seals, so just a couple more and I'll be ready to try again!

I did a pick-up Royale Ramble to try for some destroyers and the guaranteed Orichalcum Ingot (~240k). A pair of destroyers dropped on the first run, which went free and I won. No other pair dropped for the rest of the runs. I'm glad that I've got this end-game weapon out of the way. Now, I'll just need to get to 73 so I can start unlocking them. I did manage to ding 71 last night and grab the trial knuckles. I could do 300 solo WS (which would take a long time) or I can go out with Vay, but Vay and I can only make a level 2 SC, which still means we'll have to do 100 of 'em. It's manageable, but not gonna be quick. If protecus comes back, we could make a level 3 and be done in just 60 WS (and probably pwn the NM in short order, afterwards). Maybe this weekend...

Vaynard and I tried to farm a pop for Genbu. We got the ro'maeve water and tried to pop Olla twice, but couldn't manage to take it out. Wiki says it can be duo'd by a RDM and MNK. Maybe we'll try again when I get 75 and a good buffer on MNK.

He didn't want to just leave it at that, so he bought the rest of the triggers that were needed and we headed up to duo Genbu. Occasionally, a nuke would get in for ~400 dmg, but most of them were landing for between 20-50 dmg. It was a relatively easy fight (if a bit long). It took us just a little over 90 minutes. We got A.Hands for Vay's Zenith Mitts. Also got a V.Claw to drop (~150k) which Vay synthed into a Scorpion Harness +1 (600k). He didn't quite break even, but I'd say it was a good investment to pay ~500k for Zenith Mitts. I think he plans to buy another pop in an attempt to get a Genbu's Shield for me, but I'm not sure I'd want to pay 1 mil for it. I would, however, be happy to farm up the triggers.

Tonight is supposed to be a BRCx2 merit PT w/ Vay as healer so he can cap his XP on RDM. Let's see if 1) the other BRD shows up and 2) there's an open camp.

Also ~1/4 to Sha'ir Manteel!

Posted Jan 6 2010, 06:01 PM

BRD 75 and Bonus! Experinece Points

I managed to finally get BRD to 75. Most of the experience came from campaign battles and campaign ops. I did get one PT in the lower bird camp when I was ~73 and they wanted me to sub COR (which I have @ 7) for corsair's roll and the slight XP bonus, which I think was retarded. The PT didn't last too long, but I got a few XP. Another PT I got after I dinged 74 was in the middle camp and it was my first opportunity to pull in a bird meripo. I think we got to chain 50 something before we had to stop because two people had to go to some ls event. The healer in this PT was a RDM/SCH named Tehonn who used sublimation instead of refresh. At the start of the party, he cured me a couple of times even though I would immediately drop back down into yellow HP due to my latent gear swap macros. He was in the process of casting Regen II on me when I told him not to regen me or cure me past 1k hp. So, he didn't cure me for the rest of the night, until I was down to less than 200 hp ><. I left that PT at 20k to 75.

The next night, I thought I'd get that xp very quickly and a bit of a buffer. I ended up taking a PT sync'd to 60 against colibri. Things were going very well until the PLD had to leave suddenly, and the DRG leader d/c'd with me just 8k to 75. It took more than an hour to reassemble the PT, change camps, and then get back to fighting. I still didn't manage to ding, since other ppl had to leave and I was tired of the slow xp and lack of mobs to kill. I ended up leaving that PT after more than 3 hours, gaining only 14k xp.

Before I logged off, I did a couple of campaign battles and managed to finish the last of my level and dinged 75! It was nice to put my goliard gear and W.Turban back on. It also allowed me to fine-tune my latent macros so that I can hit my latent in just 4 macros instead of 7.

When I logged on again, I was just 928 into 75 BRD, so I didn't want to actually use it for anything; not until I got a proper buffer. Shiji asked if I wanted to help him camp Voluptuous Vivian, so I geared up RDM and headed out there. He went THF, Lun went BRD and we actually saw the NM pop after just 35 minutes of camping (give or take, it was after the 4th or 5th PG, I think). Our first attempt didn't go too well. Spider agg and silence/para/etc overwhelmed us pretty quickly. We managed to get up safely. Shiji changed to NIN/DNC and we tried again. This time, we got her down to, like, 1% (no joke) before we wiped. After a bad breath went off (and we had spider agg) I noticed that I had used my last echo drop and we all died. We were able to recover and Lun ran back to town for more meds.

The third time, instead of Lun and I zoning the spider adds, I just kept one slept for the duration of the fight. I think the fight took 20 minutes or so. Shiji managed to get VV to the mouth of the tunnel, leading towards Dragon's Aery so he was safe from most of the agg in her room, we just had a single spider to deal with in the tunnel. Of course we didn't get the drop, but we got cool Vivisector titles!

While Shiji and I were killing PHs, we noticed that the kupowers went away. I happened to be online the following morning ~10hrs later, so I decided to go mog tablet hunting. I went WHM/RNG (for widescan, since the tablets show up on widescan) and just teleported to each of the telepoints to widescan for a tablet. I also climed paradomo Tor to get a miasma filter, in case we ever happen to do another ENM. While I was climbing, I noticed a new coeurl NM that was up (drops the Layqa Seraweels: enfeebling magic +2) so I killed that for no drop. It is a timed pop, 1.5-2 hrs, so I would resume my tablet hunting until the 1.5 hrs were up, then I'd run back and kill the NM again.

When I actually saw that a tablet was discovered, I went on full-tilt tablet hunting and happened to find one in the northern part of Pashow Marshlands (NW of the outpost)! I checked in with the moogle in Ru'Lude Gardens and got a Kupofried's ring and an adaman ingot for my trouble.

That night, I got a meripo invite and we hit the mamool ja in the top floor of the bird camp. We got to chain 30-something before one of the SAMs died and a WAR had to leave. By the time his rep arrived, the lower camp had cleared out so we went down there. I used one charge of my emperor band against the mamool ja. I used 1 charge of the Kupofried's ring before we started on the birds. It was crazy seeing consistent chains for 518 xp! Toward the end of the night, I started getting some severe lag which was causing my casting to get interrupted, so we lost the chain at 120-something. I pulled for a bit longer (into chain 50-something) before I was tired and left the PT. I started the night @928/44,000. When I had finished, I was capped on XP and had also finished off 1 merit, and completed a 2nd. In total, I got just over 60k xp in 2.5 hours or so. CRAZY XP!

I also managed to get the Layqa Seraweels from the NM in Attohwa Chasm for a little boost to my Enfeebling Magic set (I can get 345 skill in max gear).

Since it was a full moon, I talked Vay and Braego into doing Up In Arms, but didn't get a drop. Going RDM, RDM. BLM made this BC super easy. When vay has enough seals, we'll go back and try again. After, Vay and I tried to duo the Puppet In Peril BC for ToAU mission 29. The first 70% of the NMs life goes very smoothly. Once we get it to 30%, however, things tend to fall apart. I think we'll try again once we tweak some macros and both have our 2hrs (I used mine on the last UIA run).

I have done a few ISNMs but haven't gotten a drop. It's funny: I kinda levelled BRD so that I could do ISNMs more often, but each time I've gone, I've been WAR!

I finished up the weekend by heading up to sky to do some FoV and re-cap XP on RDM. I ended up capping XP and finishing off a 3rd merit point. Not sure how I'll spend it just yet.

Mog bonanza starts in two days. I think I'll buy 30 marbles and use the same strategy for picking numbers that I used earlier in the year (which helped me win 1.1mil in drops). If I am able to just break even, I'll be happy.

Posted Dec 22 2009, 12:12 PM

BRD Solo/Duo

I dinged 71 BRD over the weekend. I have only been in 1 real xp PT since I dinged 68, and that got me the 20k I needed to ding 70. The rest of the XP has come from campaign, FoV, or duoing w/ Shiji (which is laid-back and fun, too).

I have been working hard on Campaign to get my medals back. I lost my medal and my highest Wings rank after switching allegiance a couple of months ago. I think I'll focus on maxing my campaign rank and keeping it maxed. Since I started working on it again, I have become a lean, mean, campaign-machine! @70 I get to equip my O.Hat and Joyeuse, which helps my accuracy (not that I really need it). I also tried out /SCH, which is a great campaign subjob. It includes Reraise and a lot of JAs which are very helpful for racking up the XP/AN. If I'm solo in Campaign, I just spam JAs: pianissimo + Ballads, Penury + Cures, Sublimation. I miss having stoneskin, but I love the MP- conservation and recovery that I get from /SCH. When I ding 72, it'll get even better with Aspir and Regen II (although that may not be until 74). Also @ 72, I get to equip my dusk gear, which will finally give me some decent melee hands/feet.

I'd really like to get to 73 (and chocobo mazurka) by the end of this week. When I know I won't have a lot of time to play, I'll just stick w/ Campaign ops and campaign battles. If I know I'll have a good chunk of time to get a PT, I'll try to pre-charge my emperor's band.

I kinda got roped into organizing a Promy-Vahzl run on Saturday night. Mill and Rach both needed it, and Vay, Wack, Braego, and Shiji all volunteered at one point or another to help out, so I figured it would be easy to put a PT together. However, when it came time to actually gather, the only 'helper' who was available was Vay. We ended up starting 1.5 hrs after the gather time. We ended up getting CB to come along as our 6th. The climb went very well, with only 2 or 3 accidental aggs along the way.

We discussed a strategy when we finally got to the spire of Vahzl, and decided to go in and just do a dry-run w/o 2-hrs or animas. When the 2nd NM was killed, things were still going well, so we started using animas and ended up winning on our first try. I finished up all the CS and did all of the leg-work that I needed to do to prepare myself for the fights of 5-3 (Three Paths), which require a 5- or 6- man PT to complete.

Posted Dec 7 2009, 10:53 AM

Getting back into it

I had a couple of chances to do some stuff with friends as BRD. I went out to Miseraux Coast to assist Vay and Shiji with the NM Gration. I ended up dying 5 or so times, resulting in going from a 3.5k buffer into 68 to being 5k TNL. Then, I went out to Beadeaux_S to help Vay in his Solo (now a duo) attempt at Bres. We ended up failing twice, which resulted in 2 more deaths for me. By the time I finished, I was 8K to level 68. But, I had fun doing stuff on BRD.

I really felt weak, though, being at such a low level. For the Bres attempt, I feel like if I were 74 of 75, I could have been less of a liability. My songs grabbed a lot of hate which resulted in me getting hit, which resulted in Vay spending MP on me. I was trying to make things easier for him, but I think I made the fight more difficult. Although, I do believe he is in love with dual Marches, now.

During the attempts, Vay deleveled to 74, so we made our way out to Cape Terrigan to do some FoV. Mobs went down very very quickly. With his Joyeuse off-hand, Justice sword main-hand, his haste gear, the haste spell, and 2x March, he was practically non-stop swinging. It was SUPER fun to duo like that, although I felt like I was leeching. He seemed to really enjoy it, though. So, I think I would be able to convince him to head out there some more to do more FoV in the future.

I have also spent a considerable amount of time doing campaign battles. As a matter of fact, I have gotten the last 30k XP from campaign. Right now, I'm 5k to level 69, which isn't really significant. I'm really hoping to ding 70 with a buffer soon, so I can equip my Joyeuse

I am a little worried about dinging 72, though, because some of the gear that I should probably buy by that point is getting a little expensive. I won't be able to replace gear, either, so it's not like I'll be able to recover some of my gil, either.

Hopefully I can get in on a KS/BS/ENM soon and make a bit of bank to ease the passage through the last few levels.

I'm not sure how often I'll be doing things as BRD, but it will definitely be nice to have when it is finally at 75.

Posted Dec 3 2009, 12:52 PM

RL is getting in the way

The closer we get to the holiday season, the more I expect RL to get in the way of FFXI. Usually, I work weekends on a Christmas tree farm between Thanksgiving and Christmas, driving tractors and lugging trees. This year, Ia and I are also trying to take care of some home improvements, which are eating up my play-time.

Before going out-of-town for an anniversary getaway, I managed to ding 68. I could have gotten close to 69 but I was waiting for Vay to get back to do some BC/KS/missions. Unfortunately, he never showed up, so I ended up just staring at my computer until almost 2AM. I just knew that as soon as I got into a PT, he'd show up and feel like I left him hangin' after making plans to do stuff in-game.

Ia and I went to a local casino for the night. We had a room package deal which was really incredible. We had a blast spending time together, gambling, and enjoying the peace and quiet of NO KIDS. I wish it could have lasted longer...

I'm not sure how much I'll be online this week, since we're trying to get the kitchen done before Thanksgiving and house guests. Maybe I'll be able to hit 70 or 71 in the next week or two.

Posted Nov 16 2009, 05:54 PM