Coming Full Circle

I'm back and hopefully will be updating on a semi-regular basis. I was gone from FFXI for a while due to a computer meltdown. My processor just decided to stop working. I borrowed a laptop for awhile and got a little playing time, but didn't have photoshop or image capture program loaded on. I finally got myself a new computer so things are back to normal. I'm still the attendance monkey for my Limbus shell. I'm still part of AlwaysFune, but also have joined Imperial.

I'm not sure how many people still read this, but here's hoping for some comments! And I gotta track down Taritai's new journal. So if you read this taritai or anyone who knows where it is, can you drop a line?

Red Mage

When I first started Final Fantasy XI I chose to be a Red Mage. I had been ready the Brady Guide and thought that Red Mage seemed like a good balanced job. I could use both White and Black Magic (I tend to be a magey person) but I could also swing a sword decently. So I grabbed my gear and headed outside of Bastok to wail on things. However, after 7 levels of Red Magery I gave up. For some reason it didn't appeal. So I thought, hrm, maybe I'd like to be a melee. And that THF had Treasure Hunter and the gil multiplier thingie.

That lasted a whole 3 levels.

Then I tried out White Mage and Verrick's Final Fantasy journey began. It took a while slogging through the levels, questing the tele-scrolls, whoring and begging for Erase, eeking through the limit breaks, saving and saving for my blessed and noble's tunic, but I finally hit 75 on WHM. After that I went through BRD, and eventually BLM (after swearing I wasn't going to level BLM, but you know, it's sometimes fun to blow things up). I then started up COR and realized I needed RNG as a sub. So I decided to level RNG up and stopped at 65 (getting some xp on RNG through ENMs) after my static broke when I was on leave from FFXI due to a move. So what does a taru do when he comes back?

He goes back to his roots.

So I picked up my RDM again. I had left it at level 41 right after I received refresh (I had finally leveled it for a soloing sub for BLM). I'm in HI so my playing times are limited/screwed up with the rest of the nation. The famous RDM invite rate seemed to elude me. But I slowly managed through main healing parties and sneaking in with BLMs to duo/trio. Finally on January 28, 2008 I was about 4K from 75. I managed to snag a party on Greater Colibiri and hit 75, capped xp, and managed to get a merit.

Congratulate me. I'm finally a 75 RDM after 2.5 years!



In honor of this momentous occasion I finally made myself a new signature.



Missions

Eckardt and I finally managed to make our way to San d'Oria. After getting some help on the 2-3 dragon and the 5-1/5-2 mission fest we worked our way through the long-neck missions. With gracious help from AlwaysFune members, Bardon, Blaire, Kael, Lavina, and Aznmahavailo we managed to hit Rank 10 in San d'Oria. The Sandy missions were kind of dry and you had to listen to long-winded and haughty elvaans talking.



Exploring a little bit of the past, however, brings you face to face with the Young Griffons. Young Elvaans in the past are cute.



During one of the missions (I can't remember which) there was a ray of light that bathed me. I had to snap a screenshot because I happened to be wearing some of my WHM gear at the time. It just seemed to me the perfect backdrop for a WHM.



I managed to FINALLY do ZM-17 and beat that punk kid to a pulp. Now I have to figure out a way to finagle a Bahamut v.1 so I can do AN and get another earring.

My CoP static broke apart after they beat 8-4. Demesis left for a while. Nojoke joined an HNMLS and basically doesn't come into the social shell anymore whlie loot whoring. So I was talking with Thayos. I did some ENMs with Imperial (the promy ones) and had a blast. They were also going to do ToAU missions and I just happened to be on the mission they were on. So I managed to join up and hopefully will be able to finish up ToAU too! The story is just starting to get interesting and make some sense.



I finally got around to unlocking the WotG jobs. I still haven't unlocked BLU or DRG yet. I have no real urge to play DNC (although it seems like a fun job), but I had been hearing about SCH as a subjob for WHM. After reading about it and seeing how Light Arts can affect casting time, recast time, and MP I felt it was a good sub for WHM. So I've started to level it. It's fun and seems like a good sub for RDM if you don't need the -na spells from /WHM. I managed to slowly get to level 11 with some soloing and some duoing with Arizod on his mule. I want to get Accession and be able to AoE regenII, AoE protect and shell on other parties in the alliance (go go BLM alliance). Maybe SCH will be my next job. Poor COR and RNG. On the back burner yet again.

Returning to the Homeland

Verrick was created on the Garuda Server with his home city in Bastok because I was playing with RL friends from that city. Bastok was a comfortable home for the first few years as I got to know more about Vana'diel. I never felt at home in Windurst whenever I visited. It seemed to so vast and difficult to maneuver through.

All that changed recently. I took the plunge, erased my OP warps, and changed over to my homeland: Windurst! I've become better at navigating through the sprawling city using the warp tarus. And I got the chance to see my nation's unique storyline.

I will say that Windurst missions and their stories were more satisfying than Bastok. Bastok was so clinical and technologic. Windurst has the mystery of magic and faith. It just seemed grander and more fitting to a taru. Eckardt and I plowed through from Windurst Rank 1 to Windurst Rank 5 in one night. We managed to snag some help for the 5-1 and 5-2 fights. We managed to pick up Pikko (yay, Alla administrator), Demesis, and Kavita along the way. Once you start doing the missions you really want to know what happens next in the storyline and this took us on long night missions. You can see we got a little loopy sometimes. Here is the first of some Eckardt and Pikko posts I'll have over the next few posts.



You've gotta love the tarus that beseech you for help. This one taru is completely adorable.



We revisited the Full Moon Fountain for some exciting battles and beautiful CS.





The final battle was epic. Kavita was a WHM (a taru seeking to overthrow the Star Sybil and become the Star Vita), Demesis was a WAR, Eckardt came as a RDM, and I was a BLM. We joined the battle against the cardians. Our first attempt did not go well as we did not realize those cardians aggro'd from such a far distance. I was unable to get a sleepga II off. Our second attempt we were much more prepared and took them down without too much trouble. A NPC joined the fight casting AM. Eckardt took the Wyvern while we picked on the manticore the NPC chose. Unfortunately, Demesis voked the manticore away from the NPC, but the NPC decided to teleport straight into the maw of the Wyvern who promptly killed him before Vita could get a bead on his location.

So we tried a third time which went extremely well. Eckardt died while kiting the Wyvern but we were able to triumph! I lost the Rank 10 animation in the Cutscene, but I did manage to get the flag!



Next up (after Eckardt comes back from Vacation/Work) is to infiltrate the long-necks and take down the city from within! *cue evil tarutaru laugh*

I'll post more in the upcoming days/hours. But I'd like to leave you with a quote from Demesis when we got to Sea after beating Tenzen.



A-LA-PEANUT-BUTTER-SANDWICHES! Now who remembers who used to say that?

Hero Among Heroes

GhostWhisper

After 180K worth of Chocolixers, GhostWhisper finally managed to learn Canter. The difficulty with Canter is you can't learn the story until you reach the adult stage. My mistake was doing the choco whistle quest. I think until you find the hankerchief, you only get those CS and don't get the random chance to meet Brutus. I had to learn a different story first on my long walks. Then the game wouldn't let me meet Brutus for a while. I was anxious to learn the canter story because I wanted to shift my chocobo plans to physical attributes, instead of focusing on discernment (wanted high discernment to learn the abilities).



So now GhostWhisper will be delivery packages and getting Vomp Carrots. Hopefully he turns out to be a moderately fast Chocobo. Not sure if I will raise another one. Have quite a bit of ways to go.

Bastok Missions

After waiting for people to catch up on missions, then to see them zoom past me and complete them all without asking me along, I finally started back up on Bastok Missions. Avinateri (PLD/WAR), Forbiddenhate (MNK/NIN), Ashur (RDM/BLM), Akiracobalt (WHM/SMN), Volander (BLM/RDM), and Ashke (WHM/BLM) made up the main crew. Ashur and Ashke had finished the bastok missions and had come along to help. We started from mission 7-2 and had planned on basically getting rank 8 at least.

It was quite an interesting storyline. You got to learn more about the Galka race and their unique rebirthing. Zeid, the DRK, plays a large role in the storyline.



Our 7-2 battle went very smoothly. I guess there is something to say about being level 75. The main thing that held me up was needing to find 6 other Bastokers to do this with, which sometimes proved difficult. Mission 8-1 and 8-2 proceeded very well.

Our main snag was on mission 9-1. I had recruited Dukenukem and Kael to help out (both BLMs) as we had to defeat the miraculous multiplying slimes. Dwyana (WHM) came along as well. I sneak popped it and Ashur slept it and we brought it back to camp. We actually managed to kill the slimes with only one death (poor Kael). On our way to get the ??? to finish the mission Volander managed to lose his sneak in 5 seconds and continued to run into the skeletons. Of course he dies and can't complete the mission. So we rest him to full and send him out to pop the ??? to do it all over again. Wouldn't you know it, his sneak manages to somehow wear again right after he hits the ??? so he proceeds to die, and so does Ashur.

So we tractor them both back from the pool and raise and redo. This time Volander managed to keep his sneak up and pop the slimes. We managed to kill them again and he managed to get to the pool without his sneak wearing. I didn't want to take any chances and I escaped him from the pool while the others escaped from our fighting site.

So we decided to go for Rank 10! Thanks to Akiracobalt who remembered how to get to the Throne Room! We took on Zeid and his shadows. It was actually quite a quick fight. The storyline, however, was very interesting! The end CS was a bit touching as you got to hear the opinions of people about living and being from Bastok.



Quite excited actually. I have my nation flag and about 104K worth of CP to spend. I'll probably get an Aketon for my mule to he can run faster to the alchemy guild. I'm not sure if I want to change nations. I kind of want to see the storylines, but I don't want to lose all my OP warps. It took me forever to get some of them, although I would presume it'd be easier with Windurst or San d'Oria. Bastok is usually last, sometimes second place in conquest. And it took a while before we actually got control of some of the regions. We'll see!