I'm Just Not Feeling It

Another Saturday, another Limbus. After not even going last week, I could barely muster up the enthusiasm to go to this thing. I'm trying to figure out if it's for purely selfish reasons (I have absolutely no use for Homam anything, or really anything from Appollyn until I get the yarn from Temenos) or just pure boredom. The shell made a good choice in putting me in the leftover party - I had hardly any interest in the normally epic Proto-Omega fight.

Lately it's been feeling like a chore just logging in. Perhaps it's just because I have a lot of personal issues going on, but the excitement I used to get from logging into this thing seems like a distant memory. With XIV on the horizon I can't find the enthusiasm to work toward any meaningful goal in XI recently. Until June, it's all been done before.

The only thing that was remotely interesting in XI lately has been the Wings of the Goddess quests/missions (which was what I was doing when I basically blew off my Limbus group last week.) But I promised to wait for Gaffy for any future fights, and he's never on.

I hope nobody in Blue has been taking my recent strange behaviour personally. It's just... the magic has been lost in this game; at least for me.

Vs. Sarameya? Really?

A full alliance? A tier 3 ZNM? Never thought I'd be doing things like this in FFXI, but here I am. It's been mentioned more than once that these drops can sell in the millions of gil. I'm hoping that it's the fight itself instead of the gil that has brought all these new players out of the woodwork. Itaz seems eager to recruit these people for future endeavours. I guess it'll be good to have a dedicated full alliance for each and every ZNM (From the lowest tier to the highest) but I hope a "Samano" situation doesn't occur from it. If so, I'm out.

My chocobo has aged like a fine wine, and is now as good as I'm going to get it. I thought I could boost its stats by feeding it special carrots, but while this did boost some stats... it also lowered others. I'll keep taking it on long walks in the hopes of finding good items, but I think it'll auto-retire soon.

I could talk about lots of things since I haven't posted in a while, but the sheer volume of stuff is intimidating to tackle all at once. I'll post things piecemeal later on.

Clearing out the Mog House

Yeah, yeah, haven't updated forever. Again, I don't know why anyone would care about what I'm doing in FFXI. Instead I'll use this thing to put my thoughts in text form. Maybe by doing this I'll come up with things I wouldn't have otherwise.

I'm thinking about shelving SAM. I never use it for anything. The only reason I leveled it was to have an excuse to level with Blue members. The SAM gear set does not complement my WHM set at all. I'm running out of space, what with all the WHM gear I've been piling up on lately and the chocobo raising items. I don't have the Mog Satchel so space is even more limited than most other people. For all these reasons I want to hang SAM on the shelf and try focusing on WHM exclusively. I know that by doing this my versatility as an "end game" player becomes even more limited, but me and "end game" have never has the best of relationships anyway. If event X doesn't need me as a WHM, then I'll just pass on the event.

In fact there are many items that I'll never use that are rotting in storage. I'm reluctant to get rid of them because they are rare/ex quest rewards though. They're almost like keepsakes in a way; they remind me of the journey taken to complete the quest.

PUP has hit the wall. Soloing MMM is not an option anymore, thanks to a recent update that let some less-than-friendly mobs into the maze. My last three attempts at soloing MMM have been stonewalled by some huge un-soloable monster on the very first floor. I guess it's back to begging Blue members to join me.

My whole initial interest in PUP stemmed from an interest in the "pet" jobs. However, now that I think about it, the SMN job would mesh better with my WHM gear and merits while still quenching the thirst I have for pet jobs. I may abandon PUP and go for SMN if PUP gets any more frustrating.

Askar ninja lotting! PUP MMM disaster!

Once again, I have fallen behind on what has been going on. Oh well, I'll just talk about stuff that's been happening recently.

Raieth's Nyzul Isle party met again on Wednesday (yesterday as I write this.) I was surprised to see a rotating cast of characters this time. Well, not really. The main goal of reaching floor 100 and getting the Runic Key for the party members has been accomplished so all that is left is farming Askar/Denali/Goliard pieces (as far as I can see.) The one constant remains though - me WHMing it up in a quite stressful situation. These guys are decked out "end-game" melees who tear right into things. This usually leaves them with a rapidly depleting HP bar that has my name on it. Finding a small amount of time to rest MP is scarce. But I got Askar hands for my lolSAM (outlotting Zisen, a dedicated melee from what I can see) only because Raieth forced me to lot. Sorry Zisen!

I did the Buffalo event, if only out of spite for missing the summer event due to credit card problems. Pretty simple, just herd the buffalo to the moogle. I got this weird horn furnishing item and a belt that turns me into a chigoe once a day. I know know how I'm arriving at Salvage every Sunday.

Finally, I felt bold and foolish and tried to solo a Moblin Maze Mongers as my level 15 PUP. The first floor was chigoes but I was struggling with the PUP macros and almost died fighting them. Towards the last couple of chigoes I got everything together and started feeling confidant. ...so confidant that I tried to do a second floor. In hindsight I should have thanked my lucky stars that I got squishy chigoes for a first floor mob and should have left when I had the chance. The second floor was slimes and I got destroyed by the first one I fought. Fluid Spread is one deadly move. My Harlequin automaton's magic is severely underleveled - it can only cast Dia at the moment - so I need to raise that up somehow so it can cure me. Regardless, I'm probably going to keep ramming my head against the wall that is MMM - with anyone else that is willing to synch down to my level.

Cernunnos and Kerykeion are words I can't pronounce

Over the weekend I was hearing about other linkshell members are gearing up to finish the last of the WotG missions up to this point. This reminded me how horribly behind I was on the WotG storyline. An off-handed comment turned into a Cernunnos run. I was shocked on how people were willing to drop what they were doing to help a poor lil Taru. Thanks guys!

The fight itself... was a doozy. This tree hits like a ton of bricks and regularly does a move that erases ALL of my beautiful buffs! There were deaths, but luckily the party decided to stick with it. I can't say I'm looking forward to fighting this thing again for other people (and in retrospect, am amazed that people were willing to fight it again for one person) but of course I will do so. It's the WHM code, after all.

Sunday was another empty Salvage run. The system is designed specifically to destroy all hope you might have in actually getting a drop. We couldn't even get a mob that has the items to appear. The fact that the phantom mob that we can't get to appear might not even drop anything does nothing to inspire confidence. How do people complete Salvage items with such horrible drop rates is beyond me. I look at my Marduk Dastanas and for the life of me cannot remember how the hell the 35 gloves dropped.

ZNM did wonders to raise the spirits though. We fought Claret, which from what I remember, wrecked us hardcore last time we tried it. Itazura has an elaborate plan involving timing nukes to make Claret travel back and forth between two parties while gravitied, however there was so much nuking power that we just fried the thing. The ZNM is heavy in the magic damage department which made a slime such as Claret a breeze to fight. It's the magic-resistant enemies in the future I fear. I got a weird club called the Kerykeion of of it. It has an en-drain effect but I haven't tested it out yet to see how much it "procs". It also has a regen effect when at 50% or less hp. That's all fine and good, but I can call up this effect at will with my, err, white magic. I'll play with it in Campaign or something to see how it performs.

I earned my coastal chocograph on Sunday which means I'm done with the prairie/bush areas now. I also did my first dunes Hot & Cold run and was shocked when I got the "you're chocobo is fatigued" message. Apparently this happens when about half of your digs are used up, but I haven't seen the message up until now. You get far less digs in the dunes before you chocobo gives up. I got an armored pisces from my first dunes run... it's some sort of armored fish that I'll probably end up vendoring. Next up is digging in Buburimu Peninsula.

I

Crafting, digging, and R3ing

Tinnin was a bust. What I learned? If it draws in someone it can do a free special move without gaining TP! This was on prominent display when he started using wrecking us one by one. Only in the aftermath of the massacre did I realize that I was the only White Mage in the alliance. Call me biast, but I think for a fight of that magnitude you'd need at least one per party. I really wanted Crazze to get that Tinnin fang too. It seems like it'll be a while before we get to fight a boss from that tier again. *sad face*

As for my other goals... cooking is up to 10 today. I need it at about 17 or so to start making the vegetable paste. I'm hoping to harvest a bunch of fire crystals in the next day or so. When that happens I'll continue to make tortillas like a madman until level 12 or so. After that, I dunno. I have to do some more research.

Woodworking is at 12 now, and I think that is as far as I'm going to take it. The recipe for the bug cages suggests level 14 but I think I'll risk it. Being a lumberjack in Jugner forest was fun for a while but I've gotten sick of it - mainly because the Logging points are so largely spaced apart. An observation I've had is that hatchets seem to be much sturdier than pickaxes. I've done a lot of mining and pickaxe breakage is pretty common. However I was able to cut a lot of lumber with just one stack of hatchets (and I still have 5 left.)

I'm all ready to make the bug cages but rattan lumber is a regional item from the Elshimo Uplands which is currently under beastmen control. I might actually use the last of my hatchet to log in the Uplands if only to get rid of the hatchets. Dogwood lumber? I think I'll just bite the bullet and buy them. The price has dropped slightly (but still overpriced in my opinion) and even if I managed to log Mamook to get dogwood, I wouldn't be able to turn them into lumber.

Chocobo digging has gone progressively well even though it's something to pass the time until I can start a new chocobo "for realz". Over the weekend I got a new chocograph that allows me to dig in "the dunes." I haven't dug there yet though as I'm trying to get the chocograph for Buribimu first. Today I dug up a dragon heart of all things. After looking it up at the auction house I find that it sells for 180k gil! Score! I guess that's a pretty rare Chocobo Hot and Cold item otherwise everyone would be digging the hell out of Pashhow Marshlands. Chocobo Hot and Cold has been mainly a small mini-game side activity that me and about 3 others on the server enjoy. The possibility of "phat lewtz" simply makes me more eager to get my daily dose of Hot & Cold.

Skill ups, and Tinnin?!

What's up? I broke the promise of updating every time I played the game again. Big surprise! Anyway, here's what I've been doing with my limited time in FFXI.

In preparation for the new chocobo I'm about to raise (the old one suffered its last days because the credit card cut me off of FFXI) I've been trying to skill up cooking so I can make vegetable paste. This will be the best food for discernment food for a new chick, something I missed last time. While doing this I've been trying to grow various chocobo grasses to deal with any ailments that the new chocobo will get. Last time I bought the grasses from some smart vendor right by the chocobo stables for an inflated price.

Also, my neglected chocobo ended up with first-class discernment along with the abilites Burrow and Treasure Hunter so it's been great for doing the daily Chocobo Hot and Cold game (though its movement speed is HORRID.) The rewards for this game are more obscure chocobo items which, again, will help me with the next chocobo I raise. The other day I got a Celerity Salad from the Hot and Cold game, which to me is a big score. I couldn't find this item anywhere when my previous chocobo was lovesick - this item seems to be the only cure for it.

Also, in WTF news, Blue tackled Tinnin on Sunday! And won twice! My mind is still blown on how we were able to pull that off... but once we got into a rhythm it was almost easy. The thing I don't like about these high-high level fights is the reliance on shadow-images. I'm a big fan of the Paladin tank but there is no way anyone would be able to take the severe beating Tinnin can dish out. It seems kind of broken in my opinion.

The first Tinnin fight was called-for-help at the very last second by Nightelf. I still don't know how you can call for help by accident... Nightelf seemed sincere about it though and stayed for the second fight. Perhaps it is a reflection of my untrusting nature that I kind of freaked out when that happened. I dunno.

On tap this week is getting more Zeni for the next Tinnin, skilling up cooking and woodworking, and Campaign to salvage whatever rank I can get.

Back Again, Again

Once again I took a hiatus from FFXI that was forced upon me, this time by the credit card Gods. They had the card listed to expire one month after it actually did expire. After some fist-shaking at the bank, everything is sorted out now. Fortunately I didn't have to do that new security feature that was introduced in late July.

I don't really know what's going on in-game now. It looks like some long-time friends have left (perhaps indefinatly) for various reasons. I'll still be around to help the Blue members with whatever they need doing, but I can't help feeling that this time is the swan-song for FFXI. For me, I'll be heading to FFXIV when it arrives (on the server where the majority of my Blue-buddies are hanging out.)

This leads me to constantly question any long-term goal I set for myself in FFXI; the reason being I simply won't be around long enough to finish it. That being said, it's important to set goals for when you log in or else you stare at the moogle at the mog house for a rediculous amount of time. So here are my current ones:

My Neglected Chocobo

The forced break was right in the middle of raising my second-generation chocobo. She now hates my guts... but a least she has first-class discernment! The other stats are lacking though. I'll use this chocobo for the Hot and Cold game while preparing to raise a new one. Hopefully I'll be able to go online for the duration of raising the next one. First-class discernment is nice but I'll like it to move at a decent speed as well.

Bug Cages

Val was awesome enough to save some event items for me to make the summerfest cages. Now I just have to gather the rest of the materials to make it. Dogwood seems to be the big barrier here: prices have recently skyrocketed (hmm, I wonder why?) I might go logging for the dogwood, but I'll need a level 30ish or above woodworker the turn the logs into lumber. I'll also need to skill up my own woodworking from 10 to 15 as the synth for the cages has a level 15 woodworking rating. I suppose I could try it at level 10 but losing the bug items would be disasterous.

I have other stuff but I gotta go. I'll post soon, I promise.

My Endgame - Campaign

In the months I've been gone the members of Blue seem to have gotten into a pretty set pattern of what they're doing on any given day in FFXI. I've been able to weasel my way into Salvage and ZNMs on Sundays but I'm still left struggling on figuring out what to do during the rest of the week. I've spent some time trying to figure out what my "endgame" will be. I considered leveling a craft like goldsmithing and fishing. However, fishing has been boooooring in the few times I've tried it. Goldsmithing? I feel a distinct lack of motivation to level a craft with FFXIV looming on the horizon.

So I've dabbled in Campaign. I gotta say, I really enjoy it.

Not so much the "means to an end" aspect where people just milk the system for exp, but the overall war picture; trying to weaken enemy bases, fighting for control of the Bastok areas, etc.

I've decided to do whatever I can to make as many of those region dots blue as possible. I just recently read up on how to recruit "freelance" mercenaries to your city. After that I looked around town and was sad to see that NONE of them were in Bastok. I'll be going out of my way to try to recruit these guys. Unfortunately, I'm only one Taru. Most Bastokans only seem to care about how much exp they can get from Campaign.

I also want to complete all the Campaign Ops at least once. Some of them I'll have to ask for help to do (like Pit Spider). I dunno how many Blue members are allied to Bastok in the past... hopefully at least 2 more?

With the impending arrival of the "Union" system I also hope to max out my Campaign rank before the new content hits.

So that's where you'll see me when nothing else is going on. During the course of it I'll slowly max out my WHM merits too!

I'm Returned-ed!

I'm back! After many months of trying to figure out what's wrong with my PC I came up with nothing, so I picked up the xbox360 version of the game. Thankfully the Blue linkshell welcomed me with open arms.

On my first initial night back we did some Moblin Maze Mongers. Yevna scored a nice sword out of the deal. Personally it was a good chance to remember how to play WHM again. The new job abilites and spells really change the job; I have to learn it all over again. A basic thing I forgot was how to rest MP though. Whoops.

I had fun doing MMM. I'll try to convince peoples to do MMM more often because I enjoy the randomness of it. I got a "Fleetfoot" rune which I want to use to totally overwhelm us in a future run.

Tonight is Salvage. I'm going to try to weasel my way back into it. Although the Salvage gear is not the end-all be-all for WHM I quite enjoy the uniqueness of the event itself.

It's good to be back!

Flawless Assaults, Flawed Moblin Maze Mongers

Mondays and Wednesdays assaults went pretty much perfectly this week. Despite having no real tank for Nyzul Isle we went 3/3 with three Nyzul armor drops! Guest stars Gaffy and Shinku were certainly rewarded for their volunteering - Gaffy got both Askar body and Askar legs for his troubles. I'm sure many people would kill for such a good looting of Nyzul that Gaffy got. Shinku also got the Denali footwear. He wasn't singing the item's praises on chat but I'm sure he's glad to have those boots.

Wednesdays assaults also went just as well, with another 3/3 week. Everyone in the group now has all the assualts complete up to First Lieutenant. We'll be taking a bit of a break from Wednesday assaults for a while in preparation to tackle the dread First Lieutenant boss fights. I hope to join some random assaults in the meantime in order to keep my assault points total up so I can afford Salvage.

Moblin Maze Mongers apparently works now. I can't wait to try it out once I get some free time... Thursday to Sunday for me is most peoples' Monday to Friday in terms of work time.

I was pumped for my first Limbus yesterday, but like everything else in life I waited till the last minute to log in and the update download made me late for the event. Instead of begging for people to wait I decided to try Moblin Maze Mongers instead.

But wait... it was broken at the time. Disgusted with myself, I did lots of Campaign to relieve my frustration. I got a Copper Emblem of service out of it though. I've been slacking in Campaign and am far from the highest Campaign rank but I have lots of time to catch up. I'm sure that whatever the Wings of the Goddess "end game" content ends up being will require at least the highest rank medal. I'm also thinking that you'll need to complete all the available campaign ops at least once, so I want to get started on that. Currently I need to collect 4 roast mushrooms for an op. Funny stuff. It's an excuse to buy a stack though, hehe.

Nyumomo Doll Blues, Lancaster Highs

Another version update has arrived and with it, the excitement of new quests and missions. I always like to do these right away because you can't "look it up" yet and you get to keep that thrill of discovery (which is what adventuring is all about). Unfortunately I've hit a brick wall in the form of having to get an Ex doll to drop from only 2 mob types in the game. Of course, by the time I got to Batillia Downs the mobs in question (which previous were probably virtually never fought) were being camped all to hell. My FFXI playtime in the forseeable future will involve wondering around Batillia Downs hoping for a rare drop. /sigh

On a brighter note, Blue's salvage efforts have resulted in Lancaster scoring some Marduk pants. Similar to Val's boots, the Marduk Shalwar is the undisputed best pants on the game for Bard. It makes me really happy to see Blue members get things like this; more happy then they probably know. I can't wait to see what this non-descript linkshell is able to accomplish in the future...

Perhaps more than any of us thought possible.

Moon Charioteer and Runic Key

So far it's been a great week in FFXI for me. This past Sunday we finally completed a Salvage area by defeating the Long-Armed Chariot. It was a long and grueling battle that had some iffy moments. The repeated Brainjacks serve to make the fight even longer than it needs to be. I died toward the end by casting Curaga II in a situation where hate was bouncing all over the place. I certainly deserved to die there and everyone else agreed by not saying anything.

Blue got the title of Moon Charioteer and Valenia somehow managed to get all three pieces of that MNK/NIN/PUP whatever footwear. After looking it up, this seems to be the best footwear in the game for MNK. Grats Val, you deserve it for putting all this stuff together.

I'm also so proud of the LS in general for completing one of the toughest events in FFXI. I'm so happy that I can do these events and complete them without selling my soul to an HNMLS. You guys are awesome, I hope you know that.

The next day the Nyzul Isle group skyrocketed from Floor 86 to 100, going 3/3 and defeating a totally overwhelmed Kaihmera to earn a runic disc for the 5 members who've been there from the beginning. We've been hammering away at this assault for a looong time. There have been many disappointments along the way. In the end we finally got there though. Next up is lots of Nyzul hat farming! Congratulations to Terre, Evele, Zaanea and Valenia.

And thanks to them for sticking with it for so long.

Four is Plenty

Apparently people read this, so I'll make an effort to make more of these.

Today was Nocturnal assault Wednesday; Chief Sergeant edition. Tamyaa was a no-show... which kinda sucks because there's going to be some repeat assaults next week just to get Tamyaa through them. Sometimes I feel like I'm dragging this group kicking and screaming through the assault missions. /sigh

First up was Operation: Snake Eyes. We failed horribly at this last week (which I would've blogged the hell out of if I wasn't lazy) and we had even less members this week but somehow we got the job done. The DD's ooh'd and aaaah'd at their damage numbers versus the Qutrub at the beginning. I was too busy to do a /rolls his eyes emote.

The stupid belly-dancing Lamia was finally taken out. I was right about it trying to bring a charmed group to the charmed second general; in a scary moment the Lamia seemed to be bringing us there at Flee speed. Fortunately charm wore off just in time. Terre figured out that you could stun Belly Dance, then get everyone to turn around the potential-Belly Dance TP move the Lamia will use after stun wears. Smart thinking, Terre!

The final Lamia was a BLM. This fact wasn't hammered in until I got Sleepga'd. Shinku did some fancy footwork kiting the charmed general and something about Shadowstitch. It was a close call at the end (as all these types of fights seem to be) but we managed to clear this one with just four people! That, and a first time clear bonus meant a hefty assault point reward for everyone.

Second was Imperial Code. This one was straight-forward; kill the NMs, avoid everything else. Terre learned the hard way that although the Kusa have true-sight aggro, they also have true hearing at small range. He tried to squeeze between 2 of them and they both turned around at once. Funny stuff.

Last was Deserter, where you have to break the Lamias' weapons, not kill them. Nobody told Shinku, Krysten and Terre this though. They slaughtered almost every Lamia they encountered. We got a paltry assault point reward for it but Terre got the clear which is what matters.

Next week will be the final three Chief Sergeant assaults that the group needs. Hopefully everyone shows up! *cough* They say that half of everything is showing up but after my experiences with Nocturnal Wednesdays I'd say it's more like 80%.

In the future, I'll blog about Nyzul on Mondays, Nocturnal Assaults on Wednesdays and actual WHM stuff any other day.

...odd... I just got the sensation that a monkey has gotten off my back. hmm

Corporal Assaults, Completed!

Assault Wednesday! woo!

First up was Lebros Supplies. This one is notorious for its difficulty and rightfully so. You basically need 6 party members to complete. Thankfully Reinika offered to help us out (thanks Reini!). Shinku took the task of keeping track of food and fed soldiers (poor guy) and did a hell of a job keeping everything straight. I write stuff up before hand in the hopes of keeping everything straight but I freeze up at the time of the assault. Krysten was kind of... new to the experience and I was worried that some miscommunication between her and the rest of the group would've cost us the run. He figured stuff up soon enough though. We completed it in 21 minutes which is some sort of record. All party members have it done now, so never again! ( no Storm Cape for our group, I guess)

Second was Building Bridges. This was quite similar to Evade and Escape but instead of being horribly raped by a Dahak when you are spotted, you are just sent to the start. This is counterbalanced by having many more Lamia patrolling the hallways. Luckily there are pillars in many of the rooms so that you can avoid being sighted or pull the old end-around when you're being chased. I got caught once but managed to hit the South switch so I feel I pulled my weight in that one.

Lastly was lol-Counting Sheep. I was surprised it made the list but it was incomplete by the most party members, so whatever. The ore-food-gambling system is something that couldn't be explained in LS chat without confusing the hell out of people. So the Corporals in our group went in blind (much like I did a while ago) and stumbled their way through. We managed to get 3 of the 5 sheep which isn't bad considering the amount of new members. I went 0/3 on that stupid gambling game, cause the Qiqirn cheats. I still managed to rescue 1 sheep though.

So yeah, we did quite well this week. I'm glad Reinika joined us; she's a Captain so she's done it all. Next week: Sargeant assaults!

Nyzul Isle; Then and Now

Wow, I haven't updated this forever. Well, from now on I'll make one of these after every endgame session.

In trying to avoid the HNMLS scene like the plague I've managed to find my own personal "endgame". Basically it's the two events I run every week; Nyzul Isle and regular Assaults. I wanna talk about Nyzul Isle.

Nyzul Isle has been going on forever. I'm eternally grateful that Zaanea, Evele, Terre and Valenia have stuck with it for so long. At the beginning there were many failures and disappointments. During that whole time I was dreading any of these members saying "I've had enough of this." I must admit that there were times where we would get kicked out of the zone after a truly desasterous run and I'd be thinking similar things. There's was always that silence right after the event ends that would last way too long. Penny for their thoughts? I'd rather not know...

Yet they stuck with it and know everyone is reaping the benefits. Personally I'm 4/5 on the Goliard set. Some of the pieces are statistically not very good but I find an excuse to wear them whenever possible (mainly because of what they represent). Many other pieces have been gotten by the rest of the group as well.

While the focus recently has been hammering Floors 20, 40, 60 and 80 in the hopes of getting a Nyzul Isle armor, I hope to someday switch the focus to getting the party the runic key item. 3 of our members have reached the Captain rank somehow so with a runic key and a Nyzul Isle weapon they can in theory start the long road to a Mythic weapon. Helping someone on the way to a Mythic weapon would make me smile inside.

Good luck tonight, guys.

Campaign Sunday

Sunday was Campaign Battle day. The current Campaign system is broken in some way, because the beastmen have prett much the whole map in their grasp. I spent the evening trying to get cutscenes from NPCs in Bastok Markets (S) but kept getting interupted by the Quadav actually attacking the city.

It didn't matter anyway, because I didn't realize I was heading toward a Burning Circle fight that was pretty much impossible to solo. Val offered to help, as did Yev, but she didn't have the cutscenes to enter the fight. Getting them was difficult as the beastmen were attacking every 5 minutes. In the end it was too late at night to do the fight. Maybe next time.

This Wednesday is the first meeting of the Assault group I've tried to put together. Hopefully it all goes smoothly; I did research on the Assault missions and what not. I need to get in touch with Mateuns though, as I don't know any of his assault info.

Also today I may finally get to shelf Scholar at level 37 and sub it on my White Mage without feeling guilty about it, which is kind of exciting. I was experimenting with /SCH during Sunday's Campaign. I'm still learning the ins and outs of Sublimation. And Celerity is negated if I can't cast the spell fast enough afterword to warrant halving the casting time. It really is a whole new way of playing WHM, and I can see the benefits of the sub already. Once I get used to the new job ablilities I can see myself subbing it full time.

Maxed Merits, Assault forming

Today was quite productive. I decided to merit it up in prepartion for the new version update. There's some WHM upgrades on the way, and I wanted to be as prepared as possible. Well, my limit points are currently maxed out at 10.9999. You can't be more prepared than that.

The Assault group also seems to be coming together. Wednesdays at 10pm EST. I'd like to rush a run in this week, but that might be a little rude.

SCH, SAM, and Assault plans

Leveling SCH to 37 is proving more difficult than I imagined. Again, I could not find a party to level with and had to duo with my NPC again. Fortunately I was expecting this and got a tactics pearl for just such an occasion. However the exp was still horrible. I'm still a level 32 Scholar.

Yesterday was what might have been the last "Cult of Val" perma meeting, and I dinged Samurai to level 75 at long last. Most of the party was on Teamspeak (as well as a few other LS members) and it was quite entertaining to finally talk to these people with voice after all these years. I hope the Teamspeak trend will continue and grow so that I can chat with the whole LS on it. Good times.

I'm still working on getting a regular assault group going because Salvage is fast approaching and I simply do not have the Assault points to participate at the moment. Crazze and Tamyaa have expressed interest, but although they are awesome players, I doubt that every single Assault mission can be trio'd. We may simply have to make due, though. The goal of this group may be to simply get Assault points by spamming Assaults that we have mastered. My hope is that we try to do all the different Assaults, as that's the fastest way to move up the Mercenary ranks.

Huge update

Long time no post! I let this thing rot for a bit, but I received a bit of guilt for not updating, so here goes.

Scholar, scholar, scholar. Apparently it is now THE sub for White Mage, so I've been working really hard toward getting the job to level 37. Currently it is at 32.

I've started to have real trouble finding a party at this point, which is quite discouraging. I resorted to duoing with my NPC in Batillia Downs after searching for a party for a little too long. EXP was horrible of course, but it's better than nothing. I also don't have my NPC in the gearset I'd like her to be in yet, so doing this changed some of her gear.

Nyzul Isle is still going strong. I still can't get over the stingyness of the drops of the HNMs in there, but recently we got Evele some Askar dirs. yay!

With the release of the new relic weapons on the horizon, I'd really like to try to get to floor 100 soon. Unfortunately, that doesn't look like it's going to happen. The Askar body piece is what most of the group is drooling over, and that's floor 80. I'd just like someone to get a Nyzul Isle weapon, it doesn't have to be me. I'd be first in line in helping that person do whatever needs to be done to get the final weapon.

Sunday's perma is... still existing? The group members talk about switching jobs around and whatever which confuses me to no end. All I know is that I'll show up in SAM gear for as long as the perma lasts, and then most likely shelf the job. I'll keep the gear in case the LS needs me as a SAM for things, but I still have much more to do with WHM before I think about improving SAM much.

There's new merit updates arriving with the June update. The merits I've been saving for MND #3 will most likely be spent on two more Shellra V merits, and 2 more Devotion merits. At least these merit decisions are pretty much no-brainers. After that, I still need to make gear improvements to MaxMP, MND, and RestingMP.... and melee/WS. So pretty much everything. I can't wait to finish Scholar so that I can focus on WHM again (and learn what the /SCH fuss is about)

So... that's about it. I'll try to make one of these after each session of play until it becomes habit. I'm usually pretty quiet in-game, so this will also be a good space to just say random stuff that goes through my head but doesn't feel worthy to type in FFXI.