The Hiatus Update

I haven't really been gone from FFXI. Just been really busy with real life and not updating the blog as much as I used to. A lot of things have happened in the meantime so here is a chance to recap it. I haven't been as faithful taking pictures so bear with me. Been under pressure from Kaerwyn to update.

ToAU Missions

At the last writing I was on Gessho, proceeding merrily along with the Imperial people. Well, we actually managed to bludgeon our way through the rest of the fights. The BLU mage fight with the gears actually went pretty well. We were a little unprepared the first time we fought and gears came on in a rush and several of us died. I actually went as a RDM. However, we were able to regroup and actually complete it. Then we decided to try our hand at Alexander. That evil BLU hurt us a lot on our run throughs. So we decided to try again the week after.

Kiabrightblade bought some equipment to reduce physical damage. Our static was actually 7 people so we had to stagger a bit. Kia (PLD), Makina (DRG), Zarovich (BST), Kaerwyn (WHM), Thayos (RDM) and myself (BLM) went in first. It took us some strategizing but basically we manaburned the BLUs 1st form. Then TP burned the 2nd form. Then killed as fast as we could on the 3rd form. Most of the Eyes on Mes were stunned and the few that got through, Kia survived with his new Equipment and the healing of Kaerwyn. The interlude was a joke. Alexander was a fun battle. Bright sparkling lights descending on the PLD and him being terrorized. His mega move flattened us, but we recovered and went to do battle. At the last few seconds I managed to beat him down with a blizzard 3 (after manafronting for some AMII). We actually won with 9 seconds left.

It took us a few weeks to do the fight for Zephiris (DRG). This time we won with a minute to spare. We would have been faster, but as luck would have it, when Thayos Chainspelled and I Manafronted, Alexander decided to be immune to magical damage. It was frustrating and comical at the same time.

Dynamis

I've continued on trooping with OceanidsDyna. I managed to snag 2 RDM pieces, but the cleric's briault continues to elude me. *grumble*. Triple *grumble*. We did manage to beat all the dreamworld CoP so now I have access to Tavnazia.



We're going to try and actually kill the DL in the next few weeks. I get to come as BLM then switch to BRD for the final fight. I still want my full WHM set. And after 2 years, I'm still without my briault or mitts. *sad face*

Limbus

I have some sad news regarding Limbus. Limbus is one of my favorite things to do in FFXI. It's short, fun, and some decent gear (although Nashira is lacking compared to Homan). I, however, had to leave my Limbus shell. The leader of the shell constantly aggravated me. He was continually late because he had to cycle through his DB. We left later and later, sometimes waiting over an hour. He would never respond to things in the LS. He would blatantly disregard basic strategy. In addition he caused he aggravation when we were leveling in our static. He left without warning, wouldn't show up, and basically showed disdain. In addition, he lotted on all the AF (yes he has a Maat's Cap) even for jobs he swore he hated thus depriving people of valuable AF material for jobs they used. I basically had to leave to keep my sanity. I miss the rest of the people in the shell and wish them the best.

I was randomly farming things in Zitah when I struck up a conversation with a friend of mine, MadKatter. She found out I was limbus shellless and mentioned to me that she was about to go on a run. She asked them if I could join and viola I have a new limbus shell DeepSea. I actually like it a lot. We leave on time generally. We have been splitting up Apollyon zones so we do bosses faster and get more coins (e.g. 5-9 a run). Proto-Omega and Proto-Ultima went down flawlessly.

Legion



The social shells of SageWanderers and Imperial joined together to form Legion. Basically we're sort of lax popped NM, CoP shell. We got together and farmed pop items for Gration and for the Uggy Pendant. My first time ever fighting for the Uggy Pendant and it was a ton of fun. I actually on the lot on the single pendant we won (we went 1/3 on drops). We had some fun taking pictures.

Ranger



I managed to level up my RNG to about 74 in the PLD, RDM, RNG semi-static before I lost my patience with Aznmahavailo. I actually manged to ding 75 through a series of campaigning and mini LS events. Currently I'm working on capping the XP through Campaign and the Worm Assault to get my Yigit Pants (the last part of the Yigit Set I need). I love playing RNG, but I sometimes wince when I think of the gil I'm spending. I finally get to use my Kirin's Osode for a good purpose.

Crafting



After many many months and years I got Brin's Alchemy to 99. I went on a little crafting spree and managed to make another million or so from Alchemy profits. Since I didn't win in the Mog Bonanza I'll have to be content with that. Thinking of getting into crafting again.

Statistics



Overall

I'm still enjoying myself in FFXI. I'll eventually work on my COR again. Maybe SCH. Maybe even DRG. I'm inspired by the DRGs in my LS, seems like a fun overall job. I have to get my butt going on the WotG missions. Some sad things have been left behind, new friends and opportunities have arisen. FFXI lives on!

Sidewinder: Or How to Die Faster than an Overnuking Taru BLM

Ranger

Up to this point I had been having fun with Ranger. Something about shooting things to death appealed. One thing that was lackluster was the weaponskill. They were not all that impressive. With each increasing static, however, I inched toward that miraculous level 55 RNG where I could learn Sidewinder and Slug Shot.

Last night I finally made it. We decided to head toward the squishy and fast repopping birds in ToAU (yay for piercing damage bonus). Our core static of Badray, Lorddocster, Eckardt and myself were joined by Edmund and Cromax. Now Cromax I knew from our Dynamis days so it was fun. So the party of WHM (Badray), SMN (Lorddocster), Eckardt (NIN), Verrick (RNG), Cromax(RNG), and Edmund (BRD) headed out our merry ways. I couldn't seem to land acid bolts on the pink birds and the holy bolt added effect was quite meh. But we were steam rolling along with poor Eckardt trying to keep hate off the 2 RNGs. It all ended when Cromax and I learned Sidewinder and Slug Shot!



Now what was a little irritating was the birds somehow continually ate my food. So on top of struggling with taru's poor STR stat (I think I was at base 41 and Cromax was base 54) I had to be without food for a bit. That being said Cromax was hitting harder than me most of the night. He parsed about 40% of the damage and I did about 38%. But with minuet on us, plus Fenrir buffs, murdering the birds were totally fun. The most fun I had was Sidewinder, followed by Barrage, then another Sidewinder. Of course that earned me enimity fast and I did die 2x last night. But it was so much fun!

I did bow in deference to Cromax's lovely WS numbers though. Here's my best and here is his (which incidently closed Reverberation SC for 600 extra damage, curse him!).

Crafting

I spent a mini-fortune on Philosopher stones. And managed to craft my way to 98 alchemy. I have platinum nuggets to sell but someone keeps undercutting the prices. Earlier last month it was 28K a stack, now it's being down to 18K a stack which makes this a pretty nasty loss synth instead of a slight profit synth. I'm not too happy about that. SO there went about 800K of my gil.


I HATE undercutters.

Sin Hunting: Or I Never Thought I'd Ever End Up Here

Take a look at the jobs to the left. WHM was my first 75. Then came BRD. Then came BLM. RDM was on par to be my next job to 75. Had even toyed with the idea of COR being my next job. What do all these jobs have in common (well except for BLM)? They are support jobs. Now BLM really isn't a support job, but it is magey. Now what does this have to do with anything? Well. Remember my post about trying to get RNG to level 37 before I would go back to COR (since my RDM is sort of stalled in a very slow moving semi-static)? Well, I managed to get RNG up to 37. And beyond.

It started out kind of haphazardly. Aurridaur was getting together a party in the jungles made up of level 24-26s. I had jokingly told Guankim that if they wanted to wait an hour I could go (since I'd have to mule and buy a lot of things). Apparently Guankim didn't realize it was a joke, and told Aurridaur I was going to go. So I scrambled around looking for gear. Wouldn't you know it, Aurridaur dc'd right as we were about to start. So we went on without him. Got to about level 26 or so. The next night Guankim (BLU), Eckardt (NIN), Nlsmo (THF), and I continued on from the night before. We gathered some more people (including a very odd JPN THF that told Eckardt that he spoke funny) and managed to go on until Guankim fell asleep. I think we hit around 29 or so.

Then Lorddocster stepped into the picture. For those who don't know my LS leader, he is a leveling fanatic when he gets his teeth into it. He, for some reason, wants SMN to 75 (I think it does more consistent, hate-free damage than his BLM). He had been in a SMN static, but they were not moving fast enough for him. So he picked up myself (RNG), Eckardt (NIN), Nlsmo (THF) and we went back to the jungles. He had his brother's character to heal us. We picked up a WHM (I think) and managed to get to about 30ish. Then we continued on till about 32 as a foursome and broke for the night. I had been trying to get Eckardt to borrow NIN equipment and he finally did. Unfortunately Guankim couldn't make our HI times (so his BLU has been left behind ; ;).

Along the way we hit Garlaige Citadel (Muloki joined us as PLD for a bit; Mhisty on SMN for a bit; Gravvick as BLM for a bit) and Gustav Tunnel (again Muloki as PLD for a bit). In Gustav Tunnel we picked up Badray (as NIN) and proceeded merrily to 41 there. Somehow the RNG ends up pulling, not the THF. That makes my pulling experience as a THF, RNG, COR, and BRD, ugh! We manage to go to Western Altepa Desert with Badray changing to WHM. So our static now consists of Verrick (RNG), Eckardt (NIN), Badray (WHM), Lorddocster (SMN), and Nlsmo (THF). We try to pick up a RDM and the ones we have had in Gustav Tunnel and the desert have been exceptional! We've also had some LS members scome in for spells like Fey (RDM) and Choupuchoupu (BLM).



So, now I'm standing on a RNG 41 and realize I have to do AF. Ranger is kind of annoying since you can complete AF1 during the Full Moon. I manage to grab the glittering sand and we proceed to kill in Western Altepa Desert until Full Moon arrives. We take a break and I whisk to Junger Forest to complete the CS (saw Dahoman at the same tree!). On one of my free times I manage to solo all 3 of my coffer keys needed for AF (Garlaige, Monastic Cavern, and Crawler's Nest) the shrotest in 3 fights, the longest in 7 fights. We've managed to hit up to level 46/47 and will be resuming nightly statics for now.



I've been reading up on RNG a lot. I've decided to do mainly xbow for experience unless acid bolts don't stick or holy bolts added effect doesn't proc. I've managed to get a hold of a parser and consistently parse about 90-93% ranged accuracy. Usually doing about 28-35% of the party damage total. Keeping my archery capped though too. And I'm having a BLAST! Also I'm throwing away a lot of gil, but it's still fun. The added effect of Holy bolts really add up and the best part is the added effect doesn't accrue hate! I'm able to SC with the THF and occasionally barrage. It's so nice not having to scramble for a tank (and read up on Eckardt's journal e.g. DJDigital for his take on NIN).

The only other annoying thing about RNG is getting the "top notch" equipment. I've basically not thought about guns yet (thinking if I have to go as RNG to big events but I doubt it since my BRD, WHM, or BLM will probably be wanted). But the top bow consensus (other than relic) is the E.bow or V.bow (the rare/ex version of the E.bow). However, the E.bow is about 2.3 mil on AH. I've yet to try the BCNM60 for it. The Rare/ex version is a Fei-Yin pop from 16-24 hours or so and I'm not crazy enough to do that. So what do do?

Go after the 2nd best bow, the S.bow. Now this mob can only be spawned during Full moon (white Coney) or New Moon (Black Coney). It turns out that New Moon was right when I logged in. So after doing some assaults I head up to Ulereguard Range (Sp?) with Demesis (WAR) in tow and a stack of San d'Orian Carrots. Cerene (RDM), Alinaaset (WHM), Thorhammer (PLD), Kattsu (THF), and Aznmahavailo (NIN, then THF) joined us. We managed to get all the pops in a 3 hour period (and that rabbit footprint moves bloody fast 5-10 secs so need a trade macro) much to the sadness of another group of people camping it. In those 2 hours we had 2 bows drop. One for me and one for Aznmahavailo. Cerene didn't want to stay and try for his bow, but I'm more than willing to help out again.

So after that I decided to go after the O.Bow. I was killing Goblins slowly as WHM/NIN. Was there for about 2 hours and no pop. Lorddocster came down to chill with me and we proceeded to kill all the gobs for another 4 hours. We were winding down (him to shower, me to bed) when all of a sudden the darn NM pops. I pulled and kept it busy until Doc came back. Things were going well until an EES killed doc and the NM flattened me. Of course then another NIN and a BRD came strolling up. We managed to reraise (with LordValour's help; doc was dual boxing another WHM). Doc pulled the NM and another gob and then proceeded to suicide with the gob behind a lot of other goblins right when the other NIN was drawing his katanas. That gave us time to regroup and the other NIN and BRD just left. We proceeded to pull him again and this time made short work. And I got my O.bow!



So no more bow hunting forever! Just need to keep gear up to date! I also managed to sign some Hawker Knives for myself (using Brin), no +1 though ; ; I still can't believe how much fun I'm having with RNG.

Experience Points for Ranger

A Busy Sunday

Now i haven't seen Arizod online much, partly due to our busy schedules. But he managed to log on Sunday so we decided to do a couple of quests. For me I hate finding parties at the lower levels. I also have no urge to really level my RNG in a party setting, but I want it leveled to 37 as a sub for COR. So ... I've decided to level it up with EXP scrolls! So this is my typical EXP scroll hunt.

1. Escort Quest: Sandoria
I like this one because it's extremely short. Eldime Necropolis also is a playground for WHMs and hexastrike! (Did this with Bardon, Arizod, and Vlacatocc this past Sunday)

2. Spice Gals
This is a pretty easy quest started in South Sandy. You need to be past Promathia 2-5 mission to attempt this. Basically I like to go to Riverne B since I only need 1 giant scale to get to the point of the ??? for the Rivernewort. Arizod came as NIN and I went as WHM to facilitate obtaining the giant scale. After getting the item it's a pretty easy trek to the ???. Just have to wait until the dragons and bombs aren't looking at the spot.

3. Monarch Linn Patrol
Since we do the Rivernewort and Monarch Linn is essentially right there we decided to try the Patrol. It was a single Mamet-800 against the 2 of us (it adds an extra mamet up to 8 or 9 for a full alliance). It actually was a bit tougher than we thought because we didn't have a macro for the yellow liquid. Arizod tried to use it during the BLM phase, but ended up stalling it on the sword phase. That was bad news. We eventually won. I like doing this one because an exp scroll is quoted to be about 50% of the reward (other 50% an item including mannequin pieces).

Interlude: On our way to the Sacrarium we decided to finish my Knocking on Forbidden Doors quest to pose mannequins. I had earlier went to the Aqueducts to click on the ladder at C-9 for a CS (died once as a taurs turned right as I passed it, grrrr).



4. Secrets of Ovens Lost
This one is started in the Tavnazian Safehold. After that you run through the Sacrarium looking for a particular ??? that can pop in 4 out of the 6 rooms.

So the typical route is:
Go to Sandoria and trigger the Escort quest and the Riverne quest. Go to the Tavnazian safehold and trigger the Secrets of Ovens Lost Quest and Monarch Linn Patrol Quest. Grab a yellow liquid off the AH. Gear up in level 50 gear and bring along level 75 gear for the Patrol. Start off with Riverne B and farm a giant scale. Get the Rivernewort. Then to Monarch Linn to beat the patrol. After that head to the Sacrarium to get the cookbook. Then head back to the safehold and get your xp scroll from Secrets. Talk to Justinius to see what your reward from Patrol is. Head to the Necropolis and complete the escort quest. Then head to Sandy to complete. If Justinius gives you an xp scroll it's possible to get at least 4 a week. These give from 700-1500 exp a piece.

Right now my RNG is sitting at 3K into level 24! Woohoo! Plus it's fun to do the quests with a friend. Don't you think?