Craftaholic and Zombie Goblins

Crafting

I've managed to snag myself the Alchemy Furniture: Emeralda! So now I'm 92.8 +3 officially. I got Kavita to make me some consoles with 6 lightning energy and 4 storage spaces to activate the mog enhancement: Alchemy Skill. I can change to water energy if I need to for alchemy based water synthed. I'm so estatic. Just 3 more alchemy tools and I'll have everything. Probably doing Iatrochemistry first.



I get nervous when people ask me to synth expensive things. Case in point the Hakutaku Eye clusters. Ever since I crit broke the first one I ever tried I've been shy about it. Two LS members need it synthed so I got them to come on lights day. Luckily I was successful both times. I'm glad they had faith in me.



Dynamis

We did dynamis-jeuno without our illustrious leader Vlacatocc since his computer is busted. So us old foggies joined up to take lead. Not a single DD wanted to call, so I got assigned as a WHM/NIN to do the calling. The BLMs lead and our sole NIN pulled. Our sole PLD voked the statues. We eventually won. But the MegaBoss came with a train of mobs so we wiped after killing the boss. The mobs glitched on the stairs however, so we had a hard time raising. SO we decided to call the GM. This is what I saw next.



Someone managed to call the GM and he came, invisible, and insta-killed all the mobs. I didn't realize what had happened and turned around seeing dead mobs. It was so odd. The weirdest one was the zombie BST NM. He was killed, but kept jumping up and summoning a slime. This slime would disappear in a few secs but it got caught in a sleepga or 2 so we had to nuke it a couple times to kill it.



I ended up with the BRD slippers. No currency, which sucked. I did manage to finally cap my club skills while calling though ^^

Notorious Monster

I met my old nemesis the Dune Widow while trying to get mythril beast coins. I claimed her but didn't get the drop. Later the day I was running through the area again and she popped after I killed a few spiders. This time I got the drop! I promptly put the torque up on the AH for a slightly inflated price of 300K. And it sold. Life was sweet.



Note: Fully updated sidebar now, I think.

Hodgepodge of Updates

Items

The mean old turtle named Genbu finally decided to grace us with a shield. So I have Genbu's shield to solo around with. That's about all that I wanted from sky. I suppose I could tip my hat toward the Zenith gear now, but I'm not really a fan of it. And the day that a BRD manages to swipe the other god gear...heheh.

Dynamis Windurst

What is odd about the dynamis linkshell is the sheer number of WHMs in the shell. Especially in the starting cities. For Dynamis Windurst we fielded at least 11 WHMs. I had been in my WHM gear and raced to Windurst (helped on PM 3-5 the night before). When I saw how many WHMs there were I offered to change to BLM. LS leader had different ideas though. He said any WHM that could come /NIN or /WAR and melee should do so. And so I did. I unfortunately forgot my Suppa in my MH. I bought sole sushi for the first time in my life. And just whacked mobs. I didn't do too badly. Regular hits for about 30-50, crits 80-100. Hexastrikes were about 200-500. We won't talk about my performance on the MegaBoss.

I did manage to have a lot of fun pretending to be a DD. And I also managed to snag a lot of club skill ups. It was more fun than pounding endlessly on crabs. I went from 246 to 255.3 at the end of the day. Just a few more skill ups to cap club. I wonder if I'll get to whack at dynamis mobs again someday.



Maps

Ifrit's Map has been a thorn in my side for a while. I managed to get a lot of other maps but this one would be a pain so I kept putting it off. Boktai managed to get me to Ifrit's, he as SMN and I as BRD. We took about an hour or so to get the key. And the coffer ... was just around the corner from where we were. It was so funny. And I was so happy!



Since I really don't have the urge to level on my RNG I figured I'd start feeding it exp scrolls. So I managed to cajole Lorddocster into helping me get some Giant Scales so I could do the Spice Gals quest (need a Rivenwort in Riverne site B). After getting 4 scales I went and found the Rivenwort.

I was talking about how easy the quest was to Arizod and Guankim and offered to guide them there if they wanted to. So we geared up as a WHM (me), NIN (Arizod), and BLM (Guankim). We decided to try for the Riverne site map as well which requires defeating 3 NM moblins (a BLM, RDM, and WHM). Immediately when you zone into their spawn area they start attacking. Unfortunately Guankim was first in (we wanted him to ES+Sleepga) and he died very fast. In the end we wiped. After raising everyone we were resting for weakness to wear off. Then someone zoned in and spawned the NMs again. Instead of running off to die somewhere safe, they instead run around the small island and end up coming right in front of us. Needless to say we were still weakened and the mobs killed us (go go MPK!).

So we reraised and then took the spatial displacement away. After getting back to full health we were determined to try it one more time. Arizod zoned first and I went right after to keep him alive. Guankim came in after and slept them all. We killed the BLM pretty quickly. We then went after the RDM. That damn thing is so annoying. It took us forever to kill the RDM and the WHM kept waking up and healing the RDM (I did some ES+ sleep and Guankim ended up ES+sleeping again too). After a long protracted battle we managed to beat the RDM and the WHM although it was a very close thing for a while. But we got the Riverne site map!



After that I went to the Sacrarium to do the Secrets, Oven Lost quest for another exp scroll. So now my RNG is halfway to 23. *sigh*

Crafting

Right now I've been focusing on Alchemy and letting my other crafts slowly level as I gather some materials. It's been icarus wing after icarus wing from level 87 to cap 93 (hopefully). The unfortunate thing is that each synth requires 6 giant bird feathers and 2 beeswax. For a while icarus wings dropped to 6K and the feathers were 12K a stack which is a loss since you have to figure in the beeswax. I had tried to farm giant bird feathers but at 1-2 an hour I gave up and took a loss. I decided to try harvesting pehedro hive chips (much better return on beeswax).



It worked out fairly well. Then I got an offer from Kattsu to help me farm bees and I ended up with about 5 stacks. For a bit over the weekend wings had jumped up to 15K and feathers were down to 9-10K a stack which was a nice 10K profit. Unfortunately some dork dropped the wings down to 12K and the feathers are now up to 16K a stack. *sigh* I had one very nice crafting run. In 6 synths I got a total of 0.5 skill ups. So now I'm sitting at 92.4 in Alchemy. And no feathers in sight on the AH with wings dropping. Ugh. I'm not looking foward to the next synths. Looks like it's either panacea and platinum nuggets or Papillion with rainbow thread as the ingredient. Then after that...I'm scared. And alchemy is the cheapest craft outside of Cooking. I have the gil to get me there I think, but I hate to use all my gil. Right now Jorn is sitting at 5.1 mil, Brin at 1.1 mil, Whit at 1 mil, Sarn at 1.1 mil, Wist at 490K, Verrick at 640K, Bron at 100K and some other little amounts on other mules.



There isn't much I want from the AH these days. I suppose I could buy stuff to make myself better, but meh. I just farm up the gil for Dynamis and Limbus lately and haven't really focused on making gil. It's funny, if you look Verrick up on FFXIAH.com, most of my sales were yag drinks or crystals. Yes, that's how I make my 100-150K a week. Sad ain't it?

A little bit of frivolity

I just had to sneak this in at the end of my post. We went after Omega again in Limbus and killed him pretty easily. We had to random for coins at the end. As usual I didn't get one (damn my rolling skills). But Gheldhart's roll was even worse than mine. I've never seen this personally so I had to put it in.

Proud Papa!

Chocobo

GhostWhisper has grown up to an adolescent.



Based on the tip colors I think he's going to turn out to be a black chocobo. I've been feeding him a green (he likes the sour ones) and a Z. Carrot to boost his discernment. He managed to learn gallop after 2 story tellings. I have to wait until he's an adult before I can get the canter story and teach it to him. After that he gets to go on a physical diet/exercise regiment of V. Carrots and package delivering. He's doing really well. So far he's only got sick once. Thanks to all the handy advice from Ashke, Eckardt, and Kavita! When GhostWhisper has to be retired, I might like a blue chocobo ... a discerning one.



Limbus

We've fought Proto-Omega a total of 3 times. Ruinous Omen 2 Proto-Omega 1. The first time we went in with about 12 people and disaster. The second time went much smoother and we managed to get Homam parts for Eldercid and Dubajaba. The third time it went really well with only a few deaths. And this is what we saw when we opened the crate.



The melees were panting over Omega's Heart! Loren ended up winning the lot on the body piece. Kenne and Puretaru got the other parts. I think Aznmahavailo and Carolann are up for the next Omega pieces. Gheldhart and I are still waiting to do Ultima for our shot at armor.

Meanwhile we continue to do the regular zones with much better efficiency. Our first Apollyn NW, we skipped mini-Faf and barely managed to kill Kaiser Behemoth. Last night we took on mini-Faf (2nd time doing so). Notice how many mages (on the right foot) and how many melee (on the left foot). We managed to kill him and Kaiser Behemoth with a lot of time to spare. Damn we're getting better. The only zone we sometimes don't win is the Tremenos one with the enhanced mobs. We get screwed if we don't get an early time chest to pop.



I'm enjoying Limbus. It's one of the few times I get to play WHM. In fact, I finally got ShellraV. I managed to coerce Aznmahavailo to come farming in sea with me. Instead of 1-2 organs (or more frequently 0) in 3-4 hours, we got about 11-12 in about 1.5 hours. Damn TH3 seems to work at least for that! I got my dark obi. Now I need to work on organs and tissues for the light obi and the ice obi at least. If I got the BLM AFv2 pants, I might try for the other obis as well.

Notorious Monsters

The Sky LS is going well. I can't make it to most farming sessions, but I can make it to the gods themselves. Our last foray we did Byakko x 2 (only one pants dropped), Suzaku x 2, Seiryu x 1, and Genbu x 1 (damn turtle didn't drop my shield yet). Suzaku tends to give us the most headaches since we don't always have a RDM/DRK for chainspell stun. We end up shadowbinding but sometimes people disengage a little late or stay right next to the god while it's shadowbound and end up dying. Kirin is up for this Saturday. I hope we have enough people so it's not a super long fight again.

I managed to snag a Jelly Ring as well. Lorddocster was soloing with NPC as a NIN and Sewer Syrup popped. I left sky (where I was duoing with Eckardt on Enkidus) and got there fast. We were forbidden to help (Doc was taking on Sewer Syrup and a Mousse) because he wanted to see if he could solo it. And solo it he did, and I got my Jelly ring! Now if the shield drops I can have -15% damage reduction when I solo as WHM.

On a side note I like soloing in Sky on Elementals or Enkidus. I get useful things (crystals, mercury, mythril ore) to sell or use. The exp isn't too bad. And it's not crowded at all!



Signatures

I was asked to make a few more sigs for the LS. I can't come up with a good idea for one of my own. But I think these turned out ok. Not super fancy, but I never claimed to be a graphic artist. I leave that to Jowah ^^

Redemption

Shikigami Weapon

Be careful what you brag about in your LS. A member of the social LS crowed about his brother got the YY robe NM and the drop after the party wiped. Of course he didn't know that some of us were there and loved how his brother just stood there watching us. Generally if someone claims an NM I try to help them out with cures, etc. whether it be the Dune Widow or the NM that drops the O.Kote.

Well we figured that not too many people would be able to figure out the pop time since it took over an hour for the weapon to die so we sadled up again. This time we had 3 tanks, Snakegod, Timuljin, and Poetsave (2 NIN and a PLD). Kniko (SMN), myself (WHM/SMN), and Vallis (BLM/RNG) provided support. Nojoke (THF/RNG) came for WS and TH hopefully. We split up into 3 groups, on on the West, one on the East, and one in the lower middle platform (where he spawned yesterday). There was another group that was waiting, about an hour before we got there. When the NM popped Snakegod claimed it. Everyone else used sneak this time and got there without aggro. One link from the area which was slept by Vallis and the weapon was toast (see how easy it can be). And this dropped:



Kniko was beside himself and stated that he was shaking. It's funny how many SMN devote their lives to this robe...before they hopefully get it.

ToAU

I had hoped to be on top of all the missions for ToAU since most of them are CSs anyways, but my little mini static for the missions missed out last Sunday. So with the update I'm behind one major battle then whatever comes this way. ToAU is definitely not as challenging as CoP, but the storyline is entertaining nonetheless. The Lady Puppeteer seems to be somewhat of an airhead and is she controlling the pupets or they her? Gotta love Shantotto no matter where you see her. And...I want my glory crown back. Naja stole it from me. There are wild speculations as to what the reward will be for completing these missions. I hope it's not a crown, I've had enough of the opo-crown on my head.





Craftaruing

So I've been on a crafting kick lately. I managed to get Adept status through making polyflan. I scrounged together enough materials to make it to 83 (cap). Since my friend Arizod was at level 28 alchemy I suggested he level to 30 on eye drops and then use the polyflan (which NPCs for about 114g a piece) to make polyflan paper (cap 36) and then NPC the results. The paper is used to make a few attachments and COR cards, but the cards use a light crystal (which are admittedly cheaper now) and a cluster of the particular element to make 33 cards (more if you HQ). Easier just to buy from the NPC vendors.

So since my next synth required a ram leather I went on a ram hunting spree.



I also bought Ram skin from the AH for 800-1000 a piece. I managed to get Whit up to 35 even on leathercrafting (which makes it a full 3 times leveling from 0-35 in leathercraft on 3 different characters). I had figured I needed about 3 stacks per synth level so I managed to scrape together 12 stacks of ram leather. The other ingredient was Holy Water so I bought up a ton of light crystals to synth. Now since making the holy water would not give me any skill ups I offered to have Arizod synth them for me. So I pushed him to get to 40 on potions, then to 43 on vitriol. He pushed to 44 on Acid boltheads (he was close enough to cap on Alchemy to get skill ups from breaks, but his smithing was way too low, level 5, to actually synth any boltheads). Then I set him to work making holy water for me (I provided the materials, much like Aznmahavailo did for me). I had synthed up about 5 stacks previously so we were both in the alchemy guild synthing.

Now the conditions last night could not have been better. It was New Moon and Lights/darksday so perfect for both of us (since we were doing light based synths). I managed to craft up to 85 on lightsday then waited for darksday (while buying more materials for Arizod to synth). On Darskday I managed to get to 87 (cap!) with about 3 stacks of ram leather left over. I gave Arizod the extra holy water to synth into holy bolt heads (caps at 53) and gave him some suggestions on the path to 60. I synthed him up a firesword (after he bought the iron sword) for his guild test item and he managed to get to level 51 alchemy. He is a veteran cook so Alchemy to 60 will help him HQ snoll stuff. I couldn't resist a pic of us in our aprons.



Retribution

Prior to this I went to help out on Retribution for Aznmahavailo and Gheldhart. I was somewhat offended by the PLD's remark when we got to Ifrit's Cauldron basically telling me to put RR3 up. I had it up from before we tele'd. As if I don't know my own job. I was a bit short already because I had to wait for Azn and Gheldhart to get ready (and I was itching to do synths to prep for the lightsday I saw coming up). We get to the place but instead of clearing the aggro mobs, Azn pulled the NM. So I notice Gheldhart's life going down and see a bat attacking him. And neither Azn nor the PLD were voking. Talk about not knowing your job (Azn was main tank on the NM, so I can excuse him, the PLD was just whacking thigns). I had to tell the PLD to voke before Gheldhart died. Another bat aggrod and we were all almost out of MP. So I had to benediction to keep us alive. I didn't see the PLD use invincible at all. So I get whacked and they just barely manage to get hate off of me. Eventually we kill all the NM and all the links. They get their annals of truth and I warp out to get ready for my crafting session (see above section).

Limbus

I can't say enough good things about Limbus. I totally enjoy it. Ruinous Omen is a nice shell. And with members who have done it before it is easy to transition into it. On our last run I managed to snag my 2nd BRD upgrade item. I had planned on trying for a musical earring first (75 Ancient Beastcoins) but once I got my BRD items I could not resist this:



So I borrowed 2 coins from Arizod and bought a manticore leather off the AH. As luck would have it, the run was on a Saturday so I managed to get my Choral Cuffs +1 the next day (after conquest tally). +10 Singing Skill, +7 CHR! Now I want to upgrade the pants for +8 Wind Skill. Unfortunately upgrading your AF to AF+1 uses up the item so I was no longer able to store my BRD AF. So what's a taru to do? He goes requesting it.

After paying 10K to erase my memories, I went to beat up Tros for my AF1 weapon to start it all over again.



Easy, but...I learn something. If I want to replace the item and complete the mission I have to dump my Paper knife. So I trudge to Bastok to throw my Paper Knife away and have to go all the way back to the pond. At least I didn't have to fight him again. Then I start AF2 quest and then open the hands quest. I had forgotten that the stupid thing was in Castle Zhavl Baileys...*sigh*. Aurridaur and Nojoke came with me to try and get a key. Unfortunately we weren't able to and they both had to leave. I decided to stick around a bit and managed to get a key on my third kill after they left. This is so much easier with Ni (I can even take the eyes without too much trouble). Then I went on the coffer hunt (luckily you can open this coffer without being the right job since it is a key item). I found the coffer surrounded by eyes. I waited until they were not facing it and opened the coffer, but forgot that opening the coffer now also cancels sneak. So I died and becuase of some too rapid button pushing I canceled my RR and had to HP. Grrr.

So I girded my loins to take out Dark Spark as WHM/NIN. First time trying it solo and it was a success. So I managed to get my choral cuffs back and stored my BRD AF. If I get the pants I have to go coffer hunting in The Evil Quadav place...*sigh*.



FFXI Update

There are a lot of new things with this update. Ulli is supposed to be a pop NM now. So is the THF's knife. Have to see how this works out.

One thing I am totally disappointed in is the no loss of exp from CoP battlegrounds. Granted they made CoP easier (from what I undestand) when they introduced some items to assist in the battles. But not losing exp? I guess they're trying to entice people to help others out without the threat of losing exp and their precious merits. But come on, that is a little too ridiculous. Where is the challenge anymore?

NM Stupidity

/RANT ON

People are stupid when it comes to NMs. They see the NM and stop thinking. We went after the Shikigami Weapon in Ro'Maeve for Kniko. There was only one other part of 3 as competition, we had 6. When the weapon was up in the East, I started casting magic on the safe stairs. Everyone else ran by and doing stupid thing like linking weapons. Think about it, if you have a full alliance sure you can handle the 5-10 links, but not just 6 people and especially with a party of 3 as competition. So the NIN tank is fighting a cursed puppet, a THF has a weapon, I end up with 2 weapons on me. The SMN and RNG died while running after the invisible weapon. The BLU died shortly after.

We actually get the weapon and do some raising, but didn't think and didn't move the weapon to the safe stairs. Then the NIN tank Dc's. I get the SMN up to help heal but he pulls aggro and dies again. Leaving me with barely any MP and weakened (I died to the 2 weapons). I ask at least 3 times to be healed so I can devotion someone for some MP but no one listens. The BLU is still trying to melee the weapon when he would have been more useful as a back up healer. So of course the BLU dies to AoE. I have the THF PD and try to get some MP back, but things have popped already. I die and the THF dies. The other party of 3 just sat there and watched and took the NM from us as we died. Eventually they killed it. Nice cooperative spirit there eh? The SMN did stay behind and raise me.

I was VERY PISSED at the whole situation. People just become stupid and don't think about things. The weapon is not that hard if you think. But then again, perhaps I expect too much out of people when they reach the 70s. And the dead RNG had the gall to tell me what to do when he stupidly died in the first place. Peope learn to THINK.

/RANT OFF

Mapaholic

A couple of big accomplishments (but I forgot to take screenshots; I was too happy when it happened). My social LS wants to fool around in sky a bit to try and get items from the gods. Now I don't really have a huge urge for god gear, but I'm willing to go with them. Needless to say it's easy to get lost up there. We managed to do our business (more about it later) and I got a Ru'Ann Garden's key out of it. I had a key to the Palace in sky for ages but had never got around to finding it. I went searching for the coffer for the palace, but died when I wasn't paying attention to a nasty detector (I was BRD). Later that day I decided to give it another whirl and went as BLM/WHM. I managed to find the Ru'Ann coffer key fairly quickly which I was happy about. Then I went to look for the coffer for the palace. I figured I might as well look for the ??? for Curtana at the same time. OF course when I decide to do that I find the coffer in the 2nd place guarded by a weapon. So I elemental sleepII the weapon, grab my coffer, and escape out of there. Mission accomplished!

Emboldened by my luck in Sky, I decided to go after the Den of Rancor and the Oldton Movalopalos (sp?) maps since I had their keys rotting in my MH. The Den of Rancor wasn't that much fun. I ran all over that place without finding the coffer. So I had to exit to the jungle (and hopefully it was in the other pop place since I forgot my clubs to fight the Temple Guardian and was lucky that some people wer efighting it already the first time). Went in the other way to the Den of Rancor and behold found it surrounded by Opos. Waited for them to move away and got my map! Oldton was nice since I don't aggro anything there and I found the ma pin the 5th spot I checked. I love having maps!

Notorious Monsters

On our way to skill up/break latent weapons we came accross Aquarius. We had a WAR who was interested in the Franchescia so we went and beat up on it. First time I ever fought it. The only other time I saw it was when I leveled in the Tree with a static and our puller accidentally pulled it instead of a regular crab. Congratulations to Totalkaos on his new weapon.



As I mentioned before my social LS went up to sky. Now most of us are relatively new to sky (I've done a few farming sessions and god battles, but just a few). We made it to the Ulli camp without problems but after 2 or 3 hours of being there and him not popping we decided to try and life our morale with a forced pop. We went to fight Aura Pots to get a Ro'Maeve water. That took us forever. We had some people leave in frustration/boredom/late night. But we finally got the damn water to drop and got our pop item. I can see why people buy pop items especially when some NMs pop every 3-12 hours or so. Sky just isn't worth it, but I suppose if the social LS wants it, I'll go with them. At least I'm learning how to navigate through sky and with my maps it will be eaiser to compare to my printed maps. I did get about 3 stacks of light crystals which is a good thing ^^.

I managed to break my Dagger of Trials doing level 2 skill chains over the course of a few days which was nice. The WSNM fight for Evisceration is pretty easy.

Also helped Blueeyedbeauty get Black Halo (along with Fullen and Dukenukem). That NM fight was just as easy as I remembered.

Dynamis

We decided to try Buburimu again. Our first run we wiped to a dragon and wiped to multiple links. So it wasn't a success. This time we were better prepared. Killed the voidsong dragon without too much difficulty. Killed a few NMs (but wiped on a bad link of 4 statues). We regrouped and killed the NM, but ran out of time to kill a lot of dragons. So we fought the megaboss with him having quite a bit of tricks left (including heavy stomp, manafront, and bodyslam). Needless to say it was bad. But we got him down to 60%. So that was pretty good. Just need to get a feel for the place and how to pull the mobs faster and without links so we can get enough of the bad moves away from the megaboss.



Doing a dry run of Xacabard next.

Craftaruing

Smithing can be expensive. Decided to do a bit of leveling on Verrick. Buying Iron Ores for 600-800g a piece sucks. That's about 2400 to 3200 a synth. I can't sell them back because Iron ingots are used for like the next 10-15 level of synths. I might have to resort to mining to reduce costs. Got Smithing to 17.8 on Verrick before I called it a day on Smithing to get my 9K back on BLM.

Before the update I decided to go farm some sleepshrooms to get Verrick's Alchemy up to 56 and hopefully finish him to 60 on Venom Dust (caps at 61). Killed exorays in CN and got 4 stacks of shrooms. Plunking down about 500g per poison flour and about 132 g per chamomille per synth it came out to about 650 g per synth which isn't bad. What was frustrating was a string of breaks and a string of no skill ups. Managed to synth about 4 stacks of sleeping potions which are going for about 18K on the AH right now. That isn't a bad amount of profit I suppose but nothing staggering. I ended up buying a stack of shrooms for 5K hoping to cap out my alchemy but it didn't happen. So I'm stuck at 55.3 in alchemy. I forgot how horrible the skill ups can be in the 50s.

I don't think I'll be leveling a job much in the forseeable future. Crafting has taken hold again!

Items Galore!

One day Aznmahavalio asked Arizod and myself if we wanted to do a BCNM20 with him using his Pirate chart. So we agreed. I went as SMN, Ari as PLD, and Azn as a SMN. Basically when he pulls up 3 NM, Ari aggros, vokes, and Invincibles. Then Azn and I both Judgement Bolt and dead NMs. When he opened up the chest we found:

This kris is going for about 9 million on Garuda now. Azn was extremely lucky!



Arizod and I did a failed attempt at completing ZM. It was right after I helped a DRK friend of Arizod's and Gheldhart's get through the Tenzen fight. We took Arizod (WAR), myself (BRD), the Arnagamon (DRK), Deathseeker (DRK), Arton (PLD) and Charmedangel (WHM). Now first of all if people don't know where they are going don't run off and pretend that you do. We got lead to Kirin's pop instead. So I manage to find the way to the BCNM area with Charmedangel in tow. I had been told to come as BRD. We decide to do a dry run. I tried to sleep the orbitals but Lullaby wears of fairly quickly. We did manage to get the boy to 4% which was nice, all without major food or 2 HRs. So I ask if someone can help me pull one of the orbitals away from the main boss so I can sleep them but no one helps. So I have to run in and pull them with elegy one at a time and get hit by a lot of AoE. Arizod was unable to target the exoskeletons for the majority of the fight. The WHM is a complete idiot and only cures the PLD. So I'm left in red HP trying to alternate sleeping orbitals and shadows without receiving any support. So I die. And I say thanks for the cures and the WHM condenscendingly says that other people need healing. I'm super pissed right now. I received not a single cure in either battle. Then the DRK says, you died from the orbitals. No crap sherlock, it's a little hard to sleep them when I have less than 100 HP. The WHM wanted to try again and she brilliantly comes up with the idea that she'll cast Dia to pull an orbital. What a complete idiot! I would never party with either that DRK or WHM again.

The day after I send a tell to Arton to thank him for his kind words. He had told me he wasn't sure why the WHM or the other DRK were getting in with me as he saw that I had kept them off as long as I could. That resulted in him asking me if I could join him in an exp party as a BRD. No pulling and I could sub WHM. Which is nice for me since I have lag in the Thickets for some reason. So I go and we make about chain #10-15 at a nice pace and I had a good time. People left and people replaced and then all of a sudden we had the thickets to ourselves (the other party had left). A WAR changed to RDM and I changed to BRD/NIN and pulled with the RDM helping me to sleep (my lag causes my macros not to fire very well). We managed to do this:


We lost the chain because 5 sea puks popped on us in rapid succession and we got a little sidetracked trying to sleep them all and the melee got confused on which one they were fighting. But Chain #110 was pretty good, and broke my record of #66 in the Mire. I don't think I could ever get #400, my concentration would just slip.

So I decided to go fishing with Arizod yesterday on Valentine's day. We had a couple of pirate pops but no pirate in Vermy in the middle so no NM. So sad. Gheldart joined us a little later about 2 hours before limbus. I finished fishing up 6 stacks of nebs and we were ready to head to Jeuno. But we decided to take one last boat ride to see if the NM would pop. I got so excited when I saw the glitch (that lets you know when pirates would pop) and then the central pirate had a Vermy! So Silverhook popped. This time I had a NIN/WAR and a SMN/WHM to help me out.



and then:





This thing is so much fun!



Right after we went to Limbus. We decided to do Apollyn NW to finish off a chip set. Limbus was super fun again! We managed without any deaths and just one link on the Wyvern Floor. We skipped the boss on the Wyvern Floor, the mini-Fafnir. We defeated the mini-Genbu. The fifth floor was super fun but hard as hell. Kaiser Behemoth managed to sneak up on us and killed the majority of us (except for me and the RDM). We managed to run around and raise people and one of the BLMs kited Kaiser while everyone got unweakened and healed. The RDM and the 2 BLMs (I was one) tossed on as much DoT as we could. Eventually we managed to kill him in an organized fashion and scored 4-5 Ancient beastcoins a piece. That equals to 8/75 for me for my first earring.



Did Dynamis-Bastok earlier in the day. I swear I died tons of times which sucked but we got the win again, even with a messed up mega boss pull that linked an Effigy Shield and about 3 other links along with the Mega Boss. We had 4 BLM AF drop and a THF AF drop. I was 5th on the bid list for the BLM AF...lol. For my deaths and exp loss I got 1 byne bill. *sigh* But still enjoy Dynamis, but I'm going to go as WHM next time...for RR3.

Fun Things to Play With

Weekend was fun in FFXI and got a lot of new and fun things to play with. So of course, here's the recap.

Notorious Monsters

Remember our failed attempt at Shen last week? Well this week we were going to attempt it again. The night before I managed to get enough ingredients for 4 pop items with the gracious help of Eckardt and Dukenukem. Unfortunately I don't know any Goldsmithers. With some begging on my part, Elteriak found me one through his many contacts, Dagna. Unfortunately at the time I only had 3 moblin putties and Dagna was going to bed soon so I whisked over to Bastok while Eckardt and Duke were still farming the worms in the Uleregaurd (sp?) range (I usually tab it in game). No breaks! And I tipped him 100K for such short notice (plus GS is an expensive craft to level). The morning of the Shen fight I managed to find another GS through Kniko. Kwontess synthed the last pop item and asked for a Tele-Vhazl in return (refused my gil tip). I was happy to oblige.

So this time we were 18 strong with several tanks. We worked out 3 seperate Skill Chains to burst Thunder spells with. Our first fight for Kavita went really well and she got her Reverend Mail. On my turn (next) we had 2 WHMs and a BLM go AFK. We wiped. For some reason my fights for items tend to be pretty awful (except for Charby). My R. Pumps run was a nightmare and over 1 hour long for my fight. Now one of the NINs, Grimzilla, suggested poision potions since he read that Shen's poison wouldn't override it. So I trekked over to the AH and bought 3 stacks of poison potions for 17K each and "sold" it in my bazaar for 1 g a piece to all the melee (much faster than trading). Meanwhile, Zaon decides that he doesn't want to die anymore and leaves. This is the same guy that complains that he can never get any help, I wonder why. Luckily Fullen was on the way. My second time around went really well and I got my Reverend Mail. Following me was Kalaria, Kniko, Dragoces, and Dwayna. We attempted to get one for Blueeyedbeauty with my last pop item but I think we missed one of the SCs (e.g. the second SC didn't go off) and Shen retreated into his shell sooner than the other fights. So we have to still get her a mail. But you have 6 pretty happy WHMs now. It's nice because there isn't a lot of endgame gear for WHMs.

Following that exhausting trial we went to do 4 O.Hats for people in the LS (and one associate of the LS). So now Bdawg (associate), Soloiix (dynamis shell), Pluelf (social shell), and Dukenukem (Social, dynamis) have their O.Hats. Notice how many WHMs we had there? The fight was much easier than Shen. The WHMs were bored...lol.



After that we went on a swift belt run. We had to kill a lot of fomors to get hate high enough for the Hume. We were only seven at the time since it was late for everyone else. Kniko (WHM), Vallis (RDM), me (BRD), Lorddocster (WAR), Legos (NIN), Fullen (MNK), and Dukenukem (THF) were there for a couple of hours. Four codexes later (no wipes to the Hume NM) and we were left with 1 swift belt. Congratulations to Legos who amazingly organized the melee for the Shen fight and is one of our main callers in Dynamis (and a nice social LS member). Gotta go back and farm more codexes to try and get belts for everyone else.

The next day was even more fun. To start off we did Dynamis-Beadecine again. No wipes up to the mega boss. Yavie did a wonderful job of Perfect Dodge, flee, and sight aggroing the dragons and eye and Isildor grabbed the eye and let it debuff him until Yavie got the dragons down to the pass zone. We proceeded to beat up on the NM (I always get nervous at fights so I usually forget to get a pic of them). Once we defeated it, the people that needed the win touched the ??? and we dropped our glasses. We had a mule outside with a glass that replicated it and we went in again with 10 min weakness. We proceeded to farm. We tried the formor area with their vanguard eye. They're not too bad (the eyes) but the fomors are killers. We had a lot of deaths there. Our run ended when we got a bad link (2 eyes and all their formors).

Went to exp in sky for a bit with the LS mates. Lorddocster (WAR), Legos (NIN), Fallyn (WAR), Vlacatocc (MNK), Kavita (WHM) and I (BRD) went to exp off decorative weapons in the main camp. I've never pulled in sky (just partied there once on WHM a long time ago) so I didn't know the pulling patterns. I think we have to start in one of the end rooms and work our way to the other end room to get high chains. We managed about a consistent chain #6 to 10 though so was pretty fun. Someone said we were making just about 10K an hour. There was no competition. It was so much more relaxing than the new areas. I won't mind BRDing over there.

I did my first Limbus run with Ruinous Omen right after that. My friends Arizod and Gheldhart start it up after they got sea. Why am I not doing it with LoH? I'd love to, but they are EU based and want to do it on Thursdays which is morning time for me and not very feasible. We managed to scrape together 10 people and went to Apollyn SE. Did very well but wiped once on the skele floor when 3 linked at one time. We managed to reraise and work our way to the 4th floor where we beat the final NM and got the chip. And won! Woohoo! Limbus is faster paced than dynamis and shorter too. The only thing is it costs 50K each run...damn SE. So together with Dynamis and Limbus I'm going to have to make some gil. I hate making gil! We each got 3-4 ancient beastcoins. It'll take me forever to get a musical earring...*sigh*



Right after that I went to a gathering of Divine Might. I had tried this once with Brandondl's shell before it merged with GNA (I was just guesting, helping out a bit). We wiped each time 0/3. Our last try we were so close but got kicked for time. This time my friend Arizod knew of people setting up a run. So we joined them. We had a total of 4 BLMs, 2 RDMs, 1 WHM, and the rest melee (2 NIN and 1 PLD). It was quite comical. I have a feeling that a lot of these melee had wiped numerous times to DM and they were very anxious and serious about it. Our RNG, Zorian kept DCing and I thought several of them were going to have heart attacks. I was laughing my head off and telling Arizod that these guys were crazy. We went in on Iresh's pentasphere. Unfortunately the BLMs didn't time their first nuke of TT well and things went to hell with him teleporting all around. Pets were slept, tanks took the wrong NMs. Chaos ensued. We wiped.

We gathered outside again, went over strategy and made sure EVERYONE knew what they were doing. The RNG dc'd again and couldn't get back in so we got Gheldhart as a SMN. I was leader of the BLMs (just calling out a time nuke for TT) and this time we managed to hit him at once. I ended up dying in the first volley of nukes by the other wandering Ark Angels before they were claimed. But we got TT and MR and the Galka (can't remember his initials) and we all wiped on the stairs (except on set of kiters in the circle). We reraised and Gheldhart did predator claws on HM right before the BLM's nukes hit him. The melee's went in and WS and moved away and we continued to hit HM with spells while EV was kited. He did 2HR but he had only 4% of life so we managed to survive it. Eventually he went down and so to did EV! I got the kill! And the Win. And my Suppa earring for WHM/NIN!





The one sad thing about leveling BLM is that BLM is indeed one of the major players in "endgame". Even in the quasi-endgame things that I do. The last time I was a WHM in Dynamis was over 3 months ago in Sandy. Most of the Hakutaku fights I go as a BRD. Limbus I was wanted as a BLM. And Divine Might I was wanted as a BLM. I kind of miss WHM. About all I do on WHM now is help people out doing coffer keys, eye hunts, testimonies, and learning BLU spells. I want to get better clubs for my WHM, the DS mauls are starting to pale compared to some of the nicer equip I got (yay Reverend Mail). I managed to duo with Lorddocster on Princes for the 6K exp I lost doing all of the above.

Crafting

Now I have this other friend named Aznmahavalio. He's really into making warp cudgels and is trying to corner the market by buying up all the anima synth material that he can. Which means he has stacks to synth up. And since my Alchemy is right in the leveling stage of anima, he lets me skill up on them. I donated about 3.5 stacks of mercury to his effort. So I started out at 67.4 alchemy +1 (alchemy key item) so virtual skill of 68.4. Out of about 6 stacks of synths I managed to get to 70.4! Now Brin is an Artisan in Alchemy. I'm still about 60K short of GP for my apron (I bought a lot of alchemy synth tools as you can see by my craft profile). I can ride anima synths to 75 but I might have to look at another synth since I don't think Azn will have a huge stack any time soon...heheh. Wish me luck!

It Finally Happened

You knew this would happen someday.





I finally reached BLM to 75 on 2/3/07. And the vast majority of it was soloing. For a while the social LS was fixated on manaburns since the LS leader was RDM and BLM and wanting to get merits. And I barded for a lot of it. Now the LS is fixated on TP burns which means my BLM was left out in the cold. I'm probably not going to party with my BRD until BLM gets a full compliment of exp to cap. Eckardt and Guankim were there at the momentous moment. Recently been duoing with Eckardt when time permits.

Been doing some KSNM runs when I can find the time to help out the service. It's usually jam packed. *sigh*



Notorious Monsters

Got a tell from Kavita if I would be willing to smack down an NM in Junger forest. So I sadled up my WHM/NIN and went after this huge tree. Turns out it drops the bellicose mantle. But this thing has a very high regen rate and between my spell casting (stoneskin, dia, paralyze, slow) and shadow spamming the darn thing was getting HP back more than I could dish it out it seems. So Kavita got her husband Dukenukem to come as PLD and we took it down. Unfortunately no drop. But fun seeing 3 pint sized tarus going after this huge ass tree.



I was seriously disappointed in people this Saturday. WHM get asked all the time for teleports and raises and we oblige when we can. No tanks showed up at ALL for our shen fight on Saturday. What pissed me off was one PLD, Snakegod, whom basically had us kill Charby for his joytoy did not show up when he said he was going to. Our first try one of the BLMs cast before the SC went off. Shen delayed bringing his filtrates out, but I was the only BLM left standing with no MP at about 8% before he retreated into his shell. Then the filtrates took us out. I should have Manafronted now that I think about it. *sigh* Our second try went even worse as he pulled out the filtrates at the beginning. Got it to 40% before wiped. One BLM was only level 60 so he wasn't doing much damage. If we had a tank that could keep some hate off the BLMs it might work better. Maybe some RDMs as well. Maybe the BLMs could have logged for hate issues and come back it. Hopefully try it again on Saturday.

The Yinyang Robe has been a source of frustration for some people that I know. I posted about Sali finally getting his. I lost track of the ToD and didn't know when to go to Ro'Mauve to help Gheldhart out. I get told it was going to be a 6 AM HST pop time so I manage to wake up at 5:30ish and log in. Didn't have time to change from BLM/RDM to BLM/WHM so I OP'd to the Sanctuary and run. Arizod (who was controlling Gheldhart as well) told me the weapon popped early and he accidentally aggro'd it and wiped to it. When I got there, another LS had the weapon but were faring pretty badly. They had links up the wazoo and were ineffectual at handling them. They wiped and Arizod tried to voke the NM, but it ignored him and cast invisible and went running around. I tried to cast magic, but aggro'd another weapon. Arizod and I took care of it and gheldhart got aggro. Then amazingly the NM aggro'd us (whether magic or link not sure) and we got claim. Now the weapon isn't the easiest thing in the world, especially when your main tank is controling the main healer, so I ended up main healing. Sali managed to work his way back to us with a weapon on his tail (he was tyring to aggro it in another section). We fought off two links and the NM. I got the kill. And the robe dropped. So now I'm 2/2 on the robe when we get the claim. Maybe I'm a lucky charm?



Gil

It's been a long time since I've seen this:

Most of this was the D.Ingot I got at a KSNM run. It was promptly used to buy an Austere Staff. Now I'm 7/8 HQ staves. Not going to get the Water unless I get my SMN up high enough for staff usage. I managed to BCNM Wild Wild Whiskers with my friend Arizod. We duo'd it the first time and I managed to get my Penitent's Rope! Since this has a 600K price tag I was pretty happy I didn't have to buy it. I gave Ari the rest of my loot since he helped me out. We went back yeterday with Arizod (NIN), Eckardt (RDM), and myself (WHM). Definitely made it a lot smoother with Eckardt there to BLM enfeeble, refresh, and help with curing and nuking. Unfortunately Eckardt and I ended up with gleeman's belts. Arizod got the big money drop of the night with a Penitent's Rope. I think this Galka is my new best friend ^^



Dynamis

We managed to beat Dynamis-Beadecine on our 4th try (I was present for only one of those). Smooth run without any wipes to the Mega Boss. Puller sight aggro'd, used perfect dodge and ran the dragons to the beginning of the zone. Meanwhile the PLD voked the Megaboss and let it debuff him while we waited for the dragons to be kited away so they wouldn't aggro and help the megaboss. Tossed the SMN and /SMN pets on it so we could follow as it teleported around. Had a RDM/DRK Chainspell Stun when it used it's chainspell. He was our only casualty as it got off a death/doom spell. And we won. We tried to kill the dragons for fun, and killed one off but could take on the other three. Plans are to have a BLM warp out when the boss is at like 10-15% and run back to the markings. Then everyone drop the glass when they win and hand out new glasses. Come back weakened for 10 minutes then go back to farming. Anything to avoid those dragons. We had tried Buburimu in the past and I'm not looking forward to it in the future.