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.

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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!