Thursday, November 30, 2006

Dabbling Here and There

Quite a lot has happened in the world of Vana'diel since I last posted. So here is the multiple updates, including pictures!

Black Mage

I actually managed to get my BLM up to 60. Time for full on AF! And most of it was solo. I admit I haven't actively sought out parties now that I can pretty much solo on my own. When you can get Chain #4 for 400-500 exp without an experience ring (even when you gain levels and it drops to 200-300 exp) who needs to bother with parties and the stresses that go along with it. Mind you, I like to MB. I haven't even done a manaburn. I've been duoing a bit with a taru named Vallis which is actually quite fun. And since my RDM is stalled I might end up getting BLM up as my next job (although at a much more leisurely pace). Maybe I'll find a party one day and get to magic burst to my heart's content.



White Mage

Nothing much to report on this homefront. I used to be capped in experience but after some of those runs noted below, I'm 10K to capping. *sigh* now gotta find a party as a WHM. On the other hand, I used to hate Black Halo. I still don't like it much as a WS, but it looks pretty cool. Especially when you spin! Been fooling around with WHM/NIN and I actually do ok. Would help with Ni though. Yes, I need to level frickin' NIN. I hate that job ^^.



I also duo'd my Nanban armor for level 30 NIN with Dukenukem. Know what is hard about tarutarus? When you have grass you can never see yourself. Case in point.



King of Items

What can I say, I managed to get a lot of shiny new items recently. My Optical Hat fight went pretty routine. Only had some suicidal SAM who were doing their best to prove that they could tank and die. My lot on my hat was horrible though as you can see below. But I am now part of the pointy hat brigade!





Another bit of good news. I finally got my Rostrum Pumps. It wasn't the cleanest of fights for me. Lorddocster devised a strategy of the BLMs zoning in and out to reset hate which worked pretty well. Legos died multiple times and so did everyone else when things just didn't go quite as planned. We managed quite a few pumps that day. My fight, however, took over an hour. We had gootten some new help and the other NIN did not realize that Dukenukem was trying to pull the Feeler antlion back tothe main group sothe BLMs could nuke it to death. So he kept voking it off the PLD. This resulted in 5 executioner antlions popping. That was murderous. But with Dwyana (WHM) kiting it a bit, Legos kiting, Anubis kiting, and even I took my turn at claiming and kiting, we reraised, healed, and eventually brought the sucker down. All that for "enhancing fast cast". But hey, I like them ^^



Another note. Lorddocster, Lordesequiel, and I went on a long night of Under Observation. We must have used at least 2 orbs each (I think I did 3). On one of my orbs it dropped Ustusemi:Ni which I was able to sell for 600K. Yay. It got to fund a grandiose chain and an enlightened chain. On one of Lorddocster's orbs it dropped an Ustusemi:NI and ... a Peacock Charm. Then, he decides that his chivalrous chain is better for his RDM/NIN solo ... and he gave me the PCC to use for my COR/RNG/NIN jobs ^^ He made me promies that we will do more runs (since I still have a crapload of seals) and that I give him the next PCC that drops. Definitely will do. So I'm gathering up gear for NIN. I'm using the PCC now during Hexastrike so more hits land and it's become more consistent.

Craftauring

Crafting has caught my fancy again. I got Verrick's Alchemy up to 30 after being stalled on 28 (Cap for Sairui-ran) for ages. Another big achievement, I FINALLY got stupid WW up to 60. I was originally planning on taking WW to 100 when I fist started, some silly dream of making signed staves for myself. I saved up 40Kish of GP items. But I hate WW and their GP items. I was planning on saving for the mitts, but when you need to turn in 100 of an item (and you don't make 33 at a time like cooking) that just sucks. So I'm going to go for ensorcellment so I can make my own warp cudgels and switch over to leatherworking guild. I want to get tanning for Verrick for when I go hide farming. Don't know what skill I'm going to go "all the way" on Verrick yet.



Wist ... Wist. She finally started crafting again. Marron glace was extremely nice to me. Not only could I sell it off for profit (yes, the price dipped down to 2000 per glace and I moved Brin and Whit to Jeuno for more AH slots) but the skill ups were nice. I had received 0.1 skill up 7 times in a row once. Does directional crafting make a difference, I don't know. I do it because I'm superstitious. But ... I got really good skill ups on Firesday using a dark crystal. Maybe the antithesis of Dark isn't Light, rather Fire (it is clockwise to dark which is the way the other elemental strengths rok). I'm getting more convinced of that, so I might try it when I have another dark synth. I did HQ once.



Chains of Promethia

I've been stuck on the Minatour fight for so long after doing the Promies. Well I eventually did 2-3 and thought I'd be stuck at 2-5 forever. It seems that's where people stall a lot as well. However, Guankim's CoP static had an opening and I was allowed to join in as WHM/SMN (Guankim asked if I could go RDM/NIN but I rarely if ever kite stuff and I didn't want to wipe the party). We had a RDM/NIN, THF/NIN, NIN/WAR, RNG/NIN, WHM/SMN, BLM/WHM group to do 2-5. We got to Monarch Linn without a single aggro. Then we decided to fight the Mammets as a dry run without using food and minimal items. This was because 4 of us had never done this before. Our dry run, however, turned out to be our winning run. We won in 19 minutes, but we took it nice and easy. The kiters did a marvelous job and the BLM back up healed to let me get MP back. It was beautiful.





Then four of us went to do 3-1 to 3-3. Those are some long CSs but very intriguing storyline. We fought the sandy leg NM and beat it with ease. I tanked as they wanted to do SATA VB --> gust Slash with MB Aero IV (it was the THF, RDM, me, and the BLM). So I opened with flash and Hexastrike. The mob never looked away ^^. Then we did the windy leg which took a long time as there are many CSs and running back and forth. We went to the NM and tried to pull him away from his spawning point so he wouldn't regen, but without a voke it was hard. He must have regened at least 5 times, but eventually we won. Then came hell. The walk up that mountain is torturous for someone with bad hand-eye coordination. Yes, me. So Guankim and Anubannu got their feathers the first try. I kept falling off at one particular point. Bryer and Anu (bless their souls) stayed with me for multiple tries. Guankim had to go and get ready for an appointment (crazy person was up at 8 AM). Eventually Anu had to sleep. And Bryer insisted we give it one more try. This time instead of hugging the wall (which used to boot me off) I took it slow on the path. And I finally made it. Got the feathers! Life was good. Now I just have to finish the CSs to complete 3-3, then do the 3-4 CSs and I'll be ready for Diablos (have to farm chips I understand). I still can't believe I got through to Chapter 3. It's so exciting. I'll leave you with some pictures from that outing.







6 comments:

Paul Bauman said...

Awesome, Darrett!

Congratulations on the Rostrum Pumps, the Pointy Hat, and the crafting, and the CoP progress!

I got winded just reading your entry, lol.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on all the stuff you got through.

I wish I had that much time, and that much support to advance in the game. Alas, by the time I get on, I'm all by myself and can hardly get a PT together for anything :P And no, I can't get up at 6am just to play the game, sorry. :D [/jealous rant off]

Jowy said...

Full artifact ^_^
It's always a magic moment when you can wear all the pieces :D

I tought you already had sea access, but seems you're still at early stages of cop :O
GOGO COP missions!

Guankim said...

Good job, glad we could fit ya in for the Mammett fun. Diabolos next, thanks for the help farming the stupid chip, I couldn't motivate myself to go do it solo xD

@Eck - Hey, setup those promies, I told ya I'd help, as did Bry and Anu...then when you get where Verr & I are, that's a 3-person job, plus Bry, Anu, Lun, that makes 6! :P

Paul Bauman said...

Where have you gone, Darret?

Paul Bauman said...

Good, I was hoping you were still around!

TBH, if I ever quit FFXI, it will probably be suddenly and without explanation. Just one day... poof, done.

So when people totally vanish for awhile, I kinda start gauging how long I should wait before assuming a ToD.

If they actually post about quitting, on the other hand, I give it a couple of months before the "I'm back" post goes up. XD

*cough* strawb *cough* tuuf *cough* verrick *cough* ahem! Wow, excuse me, quite a cold I have. ^_^;