No more avoiding this

I've got so much content to catch up on now, I thought I'd start working through things systematically, because there's so many things to do now it can be quite daunting.

Today I thought I'd try starting with Voidwatch. I'd given this a go way back when you couldn't summon Trusts to fight with you, but now you can, and I can bring a full partay to join me!

So as PLD (still my only L99 job) I started with Windy, and picked up my Abyssite key item from Windurst Waters. I ensured I had a full compliment of Voidstones and headed out to West Sarurabaruta and went south to the cliff edge overlooking the ocean. I clicked on the Planar Rift and triggered the NM, Virvatuli, a corpselight mob, and engaged him.

This guy was no problem at all, particularly with five Trusts supporting me and we took him down without him doing anything of note. I got a chunk of Iron Ore or something as my reward, nothing special, but hey, I'm just trying to complete content. Next up was Pancimanci in West Sarutabarua (S).

This guy was a huge pink mandy mob, a BLM of sorts, so I thought I'd bring along a few stunner Trusts, like Fablinix and Zeid, but as with Virvatuli, this guy was to easy for an iLvl'd player with five Trusts. Pancimanci also went down very easily, and no special reward, but I had to log there for the evening. Tomorrow I'll try to find time to carry on with Voidwatch and see how long it takes me to get to Provenance Watcher.

What it all amounts to

Yesterday the update introduced the new mount system! This is quite a significant change to FFXI, bringing it in line with most other typical MMOs, which allow the player to summon a mount from a list at the touch of a button. For years FFXI has only allowed mounts through the chocobo rental system, or through the use of the Chocobo Whistle if you've reared a chocobo. Now, you can complete a quest to allow you to summon a mount of choice from your Abilities menu. In short, it's a lot more like FFXIV, for those who've played it.

After you've completed the quest, you can even trade the NPC your old Chocobo Whistle and it'll add your Chocobo to the list of summonable mounts too. I guess this means your Chocobo Whistle is redundant but I haven't thown it away yet... just in case!

First of all I apologise for my screenshots - they're a little stretched. I'm going to need to play around with my screenshot settings to try to fix this.

To start the quest, go to Upper Jeuno where the stables are. Outside in the yard, talk to Mapitoto, a Taru wearing a Chocobo hat. He'll send you out to Batallia Downs to pick up five bowls of Raptor Food around the map (they're marked on your map so you know where they are) within a ten minute time limit. Sounds easy, right?

You've also got a motivation bar (which affects speed) and a pep bar. As you run around the map, your motivation bar drops, making your mount run slower and slower. Once it becomes empty, you dismount, and you get the option to either try again, try again on an easier mode (this has no detrimental affect on your reward) or quit.

What I noticed was that if you run up a hill, you'll see a "!" symbol over your mount's head, which I think means its struggling, and the motivation bar drops quicker, so run round the hills. I also didn't pick this up from the quest (I had to find it on the FFXI forums), but the pep bar is for speed bursts. Once it's 50% or higher, you can /cheer and your motivation bar goes up and your pep bar completely empties. The more pep, the longer the burst of speed. This'll allow you to reach the Raptor Food easily.

Once you click on the Raptor Food (you need to be really close) it'll tell you how many you've got so far in your chat log. After you've got five, you'll need to run your mount to an NPC on the far western side of the map, where you'll have completed the challenge. She'll send you back to Upper Jeuno to complete the quest where you'll get your first mount, the raptor.

It's as fast as a rental chocobo, so purely cosmetic, but it paves the way for interesting and exotic mounts to collect!

Interlude

Yes I still play, and have done, on and off over the last two years since I last updated the blog.

Sadly, however, I've had several major computer crashes over that time too, and the end result is that I've lost a lot of FFXI images which I use as the basis for my reminders about what I've achieved, which means that unless I can find them on one of my backups somewhere, I don't even know if I can retrospectively add blog posts from the last two years.

In that time, Rhapsodies of Vana'diel (RoV) has been the biggest change - it's allowed us to use more Trusts when adventuring, increased things like XP gain, or reduced cooldowns on instances or key items which are required to partake in certain activities. I've progressed to the start of Chapter III of RoV, but I'm still sub-par in terms of gear, merits, job points and gifts, so I've got a long way to go to catch up to allow me to progress to the end of RoV solo. I don't really want to PUG these days, mainly because I don't have time, and I never see any of the old crew on the LS, which is a shame.

When I first started FFXI I was in my mid twenties, living at home with my parents, in a simple job which gave me lots of free time. Now, 11 years later, I'm in my mid thirties, married with a child, living in my own house, in a fantastic but demanding job, so my playing time now is extremely limited. If I get more than half an hour a day it's good!

So blog posts may be less frequent, or, contain less, but I'll keep playing FFXI until the servers go down.

Kixxi the Grouch

I don't think I'd fully understood the magnitude of how long it was going to take to get my full set of Reverence +1 gear, but you know what? I'm not going to complain as it will be such an achievement when I do complete the set. Just the thought of going through three upgrades per piece! Anyway, I had all the pieces to get my Gallant Coronet to a iL119 piece, but needed the 25 Ancient Beastcoins to do it. Off I went to Apollyon.

Went to Apollyon SW and into a floor full of Fomor mobs known as Fir Bholgs. No sooner had I begun fighting the first one, pretty much the entire floor came heading my way and I had around ten on me at once, and even at L99, I was dropping into the yellow life, especially with a combination of Aegis Schism and Dancing Chains. I am embarrased to say that I even needed Invincible at one point!

It was Treants next, nice and simple, and then on the next floor Mimics! Noticed that there was a distinct lack of blue Armoury Crates compared to the northern end of Apollyon. Nevertheless, made it up to the Elementals floor and fought as many as I could before time was about to run out, then I checked the final Armoury Crate to get a bunch of Ancient Beastcoins, a White Rivet and a chip maybe. Unfortunately I only ended up with 18 Ancient Beastcoins but one more run should do it.

I then went to burn up some more Kindred Seals, and took another Atrophos Orb to Horlais Peak to fight Evil Oscar. Not sure what happened, but practically the second I hit him he began inhaling, so out of shock I began trying to run away, and as he hadn't done his second move, he began chasing me down the ramp. I then tried to reengage, but as he did his second and third inhalations I was forced to run past him and ended up getting caught in his Extremely Bad Breath and died, very frustrated. Noobed up with a rookie mistake. Was well pissed off.

I later went back, and this time was prepared for him to do it off the bat. He didn't but I think I figured it out. He always does three inhalations before readying Extremely Bad Breath. The first time he uses EBB, his inhalations are quite far apart, so you need to time the running away so that you start moving almost a second after the second inhalation. If he still coninues to follow, stop, let him hit once more, then peg it - as long as you are running away not past, you should be out of range. As the fight continues, he will reduce the time between EBBs and between each inhalation too - which is actually easier because it means as soon as you see the second inhalation, you run away!

I got another Malboro Fiber and a bunch of other things not worth much but useful for a bit of Gil. Also got a Philosopher's Stone, which I think is used in a Wings of the Goddess quest. Satisfied and not feeling annoyed at the waste of 30KS earlier, I went to go and do Horns of War, but didn't have enough seals to convert into KS. I then began converting higher seals (with the exception of the SKSs) but had to stop at 87 KS. Took years to build up all those seals and I've burned em up in a few nights LOL. Oh well, another incentive to level up my SMN!

A Source of Fiber

Was only on briefly tonight but had made up my mind that I want to upgrade my original PLD AF to iL119 Reverence Armour +1. Rem's Tales are 7,500 Sparks from the RoE vendors, and I could only afford five, so, I thought I'd go the long way round and start by upgrading to AF+1 before reforging. I already had the Snowy Cermet and the White Rivet, just not the Ancient Beastcoins, but I can get those no probs. I also began preparing for the jump to Reforged Armour, so picked up a Phoenix Feather and a Gold Sheet, which weren't too pricey.

Some of the other stuff, like Damascene Cloth and Malboro Fiber were much more expensive, but heard that they dropped from KSNM30 Contaminated Colosseum. After a bit of research I found out I'd be facing Evil Oscar, a Morbol mob with Extremely Bad Breath - an instant KO move. He gives three warnings in the chat log then breathes on you. OK, sounded simple enough.

Everything was going fine, I was chunking his HP down when all of a sudden I saw in the chat log that he was inhaling, and then 'bam' he used it and I was KO'd! Where was the second and third warning? Oh wait, I'd missed it, as I hadn't paid as much attention as I thought. Noob.

I was able to Reraise up, so I rested to full and went back in, this time, eyes fixed on the chat log. This time, I saw every warning and on the second inhalation, I ran away and got the message about no targets in range, which was my cue to run back in.

Towards the end of the fight, he began spamming it, so it was often a case of one or two hits and then run, but all in all, easy enough. I beat him and got a ton of treasure, but only the Malboro Fiber from the list I needed. Still, that saved me upwards of 200k.

Bush-Whacker in the Making

Today I continued with my exploration of Ulbukka, picking up Ionis and a coalition assignment to survey the Ceizak Battlegrounds. With that, off I went to scour the zone, but before I went too far, I spoke to the chap by the tent outside Adoulin, and learnt "logging" so I was able to get past the Knotted Roots at Colonisation Rieves. I made my way around the zone with my Expertise Ring active, killing almost anything I came across, getting Merit after Merit - it was great.

I found two Ergon Loci (one from the Geomancer quest?) but quickly got frustrated with them as each time I tried to survey them, I got told that it ended in utter failure, due to time of day and distance. I tried messing around with the range I stood from the Loci, but no joy, and there was no way I was going to hang around to see if an hour or so made the difference, no sir.

I headed south and eventually ended up in the Sih Gates, where nearly everything aggroed. I continued south and came across a rope leading up a ledge, but I wasn't able to use it so presume there's another survival skill (spelunking?). I had to go a longer way round, where I came across another Colonisation Rieve. This one was much harder because the respawn rate of the Chapuli and the Twitherym was so high. I ended up focusing on the Knotted Roots whilst the other things hit on me, using Circle Blade to ensure that I kept the hate. What I love about these Rieves, is that every so often you get a bunch of XP or LP and Bayld without having to do anything to get it - what I mean is, in Campaign, to get your reward, you have to get an assessment every so often, but here you automatically get given it whilst fighting so there's no interruptions!

A short trek later and I was in Foret de Hennetiel, a swamp of sorts. I began exploring and came across my first Lair Rieve, which was much harder than the Colonisation Rieves I'd done before. These ones were actually hitting me despite capped Evasion and high Parrying skill. The Craklaws seem to have a move which strips you of Protect and Shell, which was a bit annoying, and as I had Joachim out, not Kupipi, I had to waste MP on reapplying. Eventually I cottoned on that I had to hit the static object (obviously their 'lair') to win the fight, as the mobs kept respawning.

I then discovered a river where I could click on a cast-off point or something, and I was given the option to swim, so I clicked on it and found myself lying on the banks with a message about not being able to swim across. Am guessing I need to get some sort of swimming skill much like the logging skill. This really reminds me of old-school Final Fantasies or Legend of Zeldas where you need to learn a skill or obtain a certain item from a dungeon to get past an obstacle. But soon enough, after doing a Lair Rieve on a palm tree, I ended up chopping it down so it fell across the river and I could run over! How cool!

Somewhere along the way I picked up a yggrete shard, which I learned from the LS I could pop a Faded Craklaw NM with it in an area right near to where I was. I had Fablinix and Zeid out, so swapped Joachim for Kupipi and popped it. The bitch was hard! I could have happily tanked it, but its AoE moves were wiping the floor with my Alter-Egos. Quite a few of its moves were being Stunned by Zeid and Fablinix (love them as a combo!) but after getting it to 92% I had to give up and Warp out as my Alter-Egos couldn't hack it.

Wanting a change of pace, I went to the Cloister of Gales to start the Waking the Beast quest and entered a much-tougher fight against Garuda Prime. It wasn't Windsday, but she had around four Air Elementals with her, all of which were casting tier IV and ga tier III spells. Garuda herself was tougher, and even though they didn't hit hard at all, with all those spells, they did chip away.

Her Aerial Blast did some mean-ass damage, and the second she did it, all her elementals did a ga III spell in sync! I survived but had to use a few Cure IVs to do it! I beat her, nicked her power and then jumped back in for the regular Prime fight to get the Jar of Bubbly Water for the Summoning Ring quest.

Before bed, I finished San d'Oria 6-1 by fighting the Sabotender Enamorado in Western Altepa Desert, whilst going to pick up a Dreamrose by a pond I never even knew was there!

Of Corse I Can

For some reason whilst driving home from work I decided I was going to go and do Tango with a Tracker, a BCNM with Shikaree X and Y in Boneyard Gully, so after I'd got a few unrelated cutscenes in Aht Urhgan, I headed off to Attohwa Chasm and began heading (the long way as I am a noob) to Boneyard Gully. As it was nearing night time, I decided to camp Xolotl to see if I could get the Perseus' Harpe, a dagger I'd always wanted for my THF, back in the day. Like clockwork, Xolotl popped at 20:00 so I Flashed him and began beating him up.

He was super easy, even with his 'pets' and aggro from two cutlass scorpions, but unfortunately only the Zoolater Hat dropped. I then headed over to Boneyard Gully, entered the Tango with a Tracker BCNM and proceeded to defeat the Shikarees with no problem. I then wanted to come back and do the ENM Totentanz (as Wiki entry says it is 'uncapped') for the Blau Dolch but it was L75 (guessing it had not been updated since 2010) so I left. I wasn't able to go and get the Requiem of Sin quest (as I want X's Knife - notice a theme in my wish list here?) as I had to wait for the next conquest tally, so decided to go and get the Rainbow Resonator for the Carbuncle Prime fight.

On my way down to La Theine, I remembered something about the Carbuncle Prime fight (known as Waking the Beast) being in the Full Moon Fountain, and I still don't have access to the Toraimarai Canal, because 1) I can't get through the 'three-mage door' and 2) I can't get through the door in the Eldieme Necropolis on my own to fight Lich C Magnus (which then leads to Toraimarai Turmoil to get in the back way) because it needs two people. I could ask BBK or Aka, but I feel bad troubling them with such a minor thing, especially with all the help they've given me lately.

So instead of that I stopped off at the Cavernous Maw and thought I'd have a play around in Abyssea - La Theine, as this was the first time I'd entered Abyssea since getting L99. Everything was a doddle, so I went around popping a few NMs - Pantagruel, La Thiene Liege, Trudging Thomas, Akash and Lugarhoo.

Trudging Thomas was a bit of a bitch when he started spamming Ram Charge, as he did it back to back and each time it knocked me back preventing me from doing anything. Suddenly noticed my life dropping into yellow so I had to use my temporary Lucid Potions, but other than that it was good. Got a key item from Pantagruel, but other than that, I only got Poise Shoes from Lugarhoo. Still not bad for just 'messing around'.