I was at my friend's house all night so I only logged in around 11pm to check on FrostMoon before bed time. At the moment, all his stats are still poor (well he's only seven days old!), but at least he's healthy. Just like his mom, he likes clear weather and is ill-tempered, "making him ideal for military use". I got my Key Item: Story of a Youthful Chocobo from a cutscene, and he found me a clump of Tokopekko Wildgrass whilst out walking. SilverStar never found me anything whilst walking, but SwiftWind (FrostMoon's Sire) always used to find Teila items. I guess FrostMoon has inherited his father's good eye!
After a spot of muling I logged back in and met up with Teila and Kellie and they took me to Kamp Kweh. I'd never been before, but I can now safely say that I've rediscovered the definition of cuteness. Watching little FrostMoon waddle about amongst PrincessCrimson (Kellie) and SwiftWind (all of Kamp Kweh is cutscenes and menus) was enough to melt even the hairiest man.
Kellie and Teila set their Chocobo (is the plural of Chocobo "Chocobo", or does it have an "s" on the end, I can't remember LOL) to play with mine and both got a boost to their Strength. I wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing seeing as I am hoping to have FrostMoon become an intelligent Chocobo (even though everything is stacked against him) but it helped their Chocobo so I'm happy. When I let FrostMoon play with theirs, all it said both times was "the older Chocobo is treating the younger one like younger sibling" or words to that effect. That only served to bolster my belief that Chocobo don't get any kind of stat increase as chicks, but your actions and food do help determine its status as an adolescent.
As SwiftWind was a male (and not to mention FrostMoon's father) I wasn't able to check mating compatibility with him, but after checking mating compatibility with PrincessCrimson the colour of the offspring was yellow with white tips (usually means another yellow adult) but both Kellie and I agreed that because a chick is "colourless", that may have meant that the compatibility was influenced (or restricted) by this factor. Then Kellie said:
"Ooh Kix, your Chocobo is ill-tempered. That normally means a black Chocobo!"
It's funny she said that because the FFXIclopedia Forum mentions the same thing, but SilverStar was also ill-tempered and remained yellow throughout. Also, black Chocobo are supposed to be Destrier, but unless SE haven't implemented racial appearances yet, SilverStar looked more like a Courser – the "standard" Chocobo.
When I then selected the option "Call your Chocobo", FrostMoon cheeped and the log read:
"It looks like your Chocobo wants to play with you too!"
Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!
A blog of Kixxi the Tarutaru's adventures in Final Fantasy XI
Wednesday 31 January 2007
Tuesday 30 January 2007
What a CoPOut!
Oh man, today was unbelievably stressful. Forget Diabolos! Almost three hours of Assault partying and what did I have to show for it? 100 AP and a pair of Cotton Gloves.
Let me start by saying something didn’t go wrong, everything went wrong!
I formed a five-man party around 7.30pm, and eventually got tank around 8pm.
I headed on over to Dvucca Isle Staging Point (Caedarva Mire) for the Seagull Grounded Assault again, but our DRK and BST couldn't use the Runic Portal. We asked them why, and they both replied with "it says we don’t have the Empire’s Authorisation". We literally spent a whole hour trying to work out what the problem was.
They had completed the requisite Aht Urhgan mission, they had their Imperial Army ID Tag, they had their Periqia Assault Orders (they even proved this by pressing tab and bringing the orders up in Auto-Translate) and they said they had all the Staging Grounds. They tried zoning, logging out, rejecting and reaccepting the mission, and we knew they could use the Runic Portal, as when we all went back to Whitegate, we saw them enter the Runic Portal and go to Caedarva Mire without the Mission Orders.
So, we were stumped. They could use the Runic Portal, they had the Mission Orders – what was wrong? Teila put shouts out in Whitegate, and people responded with "it can only mean one thing: they don't have the Mission Orders" – but they did, they had proved it with Auto-Translate!
There was one thing left: a GM call. I logged a "glitch" with the GMs and 27 calls later (this was around 9pm), GM Buuren appeared and greeted me very politely, saying "I understand that you wish to report an Assault glitch, Kixxi?". At precisely that exact moment, both party members who were "glitching" turned round and said:
"Oh yeah, umm, we don’t have Dvucca Isle Staging Point, LOL"
Could they have timed it any better? The whole time we had seen them go to Caedarva Mire, we had assumed they had gone to Dvucca Isle Staging Point. They had, as it turned out, gone to Azouph Isle Staging Point instead, even though we had said it was Dvucca and asked them many times.
Very embarrassed, and feeling like I must have appeared to the GMs as another whinging player who "couldn't get in" to something, I had to bow and apologise for these people who had dared to use "LOL" at the end of their confession, and we went to reform the party.
By now, our NIN was very impatient (understandably) and insisted we go the moment I got us back to five. I grabbed us a WAR and we headed on over and just as we were about to enter the Assault, the NIN DC'd. Perfectly timed. To my surprise though, he came back! We entered the mission, finally.
Inside, we proceeded as usual, except for some reason I really struggled to keep Excaliace under control. I managed to stop him outside the first Crab room whilst the others took out the Arrapago Crabs. It took forever as a five!
Now at the start of this Assault, there are six rooms, three on each side of the tunnel. Three have Crabs in them, three are empty. Excaliace will run into one in each pair, either the empty room or the full room. Two of the three times, he ran to the empty room, meaning we could bypass two very long fights.
But, no. The NIN pulled every Crab in all three rooms despite us yelling in Caps. That wasted over fifteen minutes of the Assault. Next came the Pugil tunnels, in which they left a Pugil behind, so I couldn't bring Excaliace through. I asked again and again and again for them to come back but they didn’t. After everything that had happened, I was getting mighty frustrated.
Eventually, the Pugil caught wind of Excaliace and he pegged it full tilt back down the tunnels. I chased him, brought him back, and the same thing happened. After using more Caps, they came back and got rid of it. We then proceeded to the Doomed tunnels whereupon we were told we had ten minutes left on the clock.
I kept Excaliace halted whilst they killed all the Debauchers (Doomed) and as soon as the last one was dead, I began bringing him in. Fiddly as it was, I got him to the final corridor with a minute to spare; we were going to make it. With ten seconds on the clock, he stopped, having got too close to one of us. We moved away and the Rune of Release appeared with the Chest, but the split second I touched the Chest it read:
Mission Failed.
It was so close, I actually managed to get the ??? Gloves from the Chest before we were thrown out. I took a second for this to sink in (seriously I ask, how can literally everything possibly go that wrong?), before unnecessarily swearing in the party chat and on the linkshell. It was really wrong of me, but I was so annoyed that I had wasted an entire evening on this game.
But the badness didn’t stop there, no. We tried to reform, but after what seemed like forever getting us back to a five-man party, Teila realised she couldn’t get another Imperial ID Tag, so I had to disband on everyone as we had agreed that Akashea, Teila and me would do this together.
This was just after 10pm and all I had to show for a night's unbelievable cock-ups was 100 AP.
Before I logged, I went to Port Windurst and picked up a brand new Linkshell. Akashea came up with the good idea of creating a separate shell for our CoP members, which, if more than anything, will stop us from overflowing the Linkshell with CoP banter, and prevent me from hogging the /lsmes any further!
I named it CoPOuts - best I could come up with, and it's nice and red.^^
Let me start by saying something didn’t go wrong, everything went wrong!
I formed a five-man party around 7.30pm, and eventually got tank around 8pm.
I headed on over to Dvucca Isle Staging Point (Caedarva Mire) for the Seagull Grounded Assault again, but our DRK and BST couldn't use the Runic Portal. We asked them why, and they both replied with "it says we don’t have the Empire’s Authorisation". We literally spent a whole hour trying to work out what the problem was.
They had completed the requisite Aht Urhgan mission, they had their Imperial Army ID Tag, they had their Periqia Assault Orders (they even proved this by pressing tab and bringing the orders up in Auto-Translate) and they said they had all the Staging Grounds. They tried zoning, logging out, rejecting and reaccepting the mission, and we knew they could use the Runic Portal, as when we all went back to Whitegate, we saw them enter the Runic Portal and go to Caedarva Mire without the Mission Orders.
So, we were stumped. They could use the Runic Portal, they had the Mission Orders – what was wrong? Teila put shouts out in Whitegate, and people responded with "it can only mean one thing: they don't have the Mission Orders" – but they did, they had proved it with Auto-Translate!
There was one thing left: a GM call. I logged a "glitch" with the GMs and 27 calls later (this was around 9pm), GM Buuren appeared and greeted me very politely, saying "I understand that you wish to report an Assault glitch, Kixxi?". At precisely that exact moment, both party members who were "glitching" turned round and said:
"Oh yeah, umm, we don’t have Dvucca Isle Staging Point, LOL"
Could they have timed it any better? The whole time we had seen them go to Caedarva Mire, we had assumed they had gone to Dvucca Isle Staging Point. They had, as it turned out, gone to Azouph Isle Staging Point instead, even though we had said it was Dvucca and asked them many times.
Very embarrassed, and feeling like I must have appeared to the GMs as another whinging player who "couldn't get in" to something, I had to bow and apologise for these people who had dared to use "LOL" at the end of their confession, and we went to reform the party.
By now, our NIN was very impatient (understandably) and insisted we go the moment I got us back to five. I grabbed us a WAR and we headed on over and just as we were about to enter the Assault, the NIN DC'd. Perfectly timed. To my surprise though, he came back! We entered the mission, finally.
Inside, we proceeded as usual, except for some reason I really struggled to keep Excaliace under control. I managed to stop him outside the first Crab room whilst the others took out the Arrapago Crabs. It took forever as a five!
Now at the start of this Assault, there are six rooms, three on each side of the tunnel. Three have Crabs in them, three are empty. Excaliace will run into one in each pair, either the empty room or the full room. Two of the three times, he ran to the empty room, meaning we could bypass two very long fights.
But, no. The NIN pulled every Crab in all three rooms despite us yelling in Caps. That wasted over fifteen minutes of the Assault. Next came the Pugil tunnels, in which they left a Pugil behind, so I couldn't bring Excaliace through. I asked again and again and again for them to come back but they didn’t. After everything that had happened, I was getting mighty frustrated.
Eventually, the Pugil caught wind of Excaliace and he pegged it full tilt back down the tunnels. I chased him, brought him back, and the same thing happened. After using more Caps, they came back and got rid of it. We then proceeded to the Doomed tunnels whereupon we were told we had ten minutes left on the clock.
I kept Excaliace halted whilst they killed all the Debauchers (Doomed) and as soon as the last one was dead, I began bringing him in. Fiddly as it was, I got him to the final corridor with a minute to spare; we were going to make it. With ten seconds on the clock, he stopped, having got too close to one of us. We moved away and the Rune of Release appeared with the Chest, but the split second I touched the Chest it read:
Mission Failed.
It was so close, I actually managed to get the ??? Gloves from the Chest before we were thrown out. I took a second for this to sink in (seriously I ask, how can literally everything possibly go that wrong?), before unnecessarily swearing in the party chat and on the linkshell. It was really wrong of me, but I was so annoyed that I had wasted an entire evening on this game.
But the badness didn’t stop there, no. We tried to reform, but after what seemed like forever getting us back to a five-man party, Teila realised she couldn’t get another Imperial ID Tag, so I had to disband on everyone as we had agreed that Akashea, Teila and me would do this together.
This was just after 10pm and all I had to show for a night's unbelievable cock-ups was 100 AP.
Before I logged, I went to Port Windurst and picked up a brand new Linkshell. Akashea came up with the good idea of creating a separate shell for our CoP members, which, if more than anything, will stop us from overflowing the Linkshell with CoP banter, and prevent me from hogging the /lsmes any further!
I named it CoPOuts - best I could come up with, and it's nice and red.^^
Monday 29 January 2007
What Shall We do with the Drunken Corsair?
Akashea, Teila and I did two Assaults on Periqia today, and I think we’ve nailed this. It seems to be very popular, so it took us no time at all to put a party together. We even had a Japanese member, and for the Japanese to carry out missions with the English speaking players is rare!
Both times we escorted Excaliace quite easily to the end of the dungeon, and I had learned to control him so that he didn’t run off every time he saw a monster. I think there were only two slight blips where he ran away when I stepped slightly too far back in the first run, and in the second, a hidden Pugil that the party had missed popped its snout round a corner and every time Excaliace saw it, he panicked and ran for it. Still, both times we got him to the final room with around eight to nine minutes to spare. The first run I won a ??? Box (which was appraised and turned out to be a Set of Cleaning Tools (Furnishing)) and also a High Potion Tank, whereas Akashea won a High Potion +3. On the second run, Akashea won a ??? Sword (which was appraised and turned into a Gust Claymore). Each time we came out with 750 AP so if I try to do around three a day of these, I’ll have my Yigit Gomlek in no time!
After the Assaults, I reverted back to THF and headed over to Windurst to check on FrostMoon. Meanwhile, BBK was preparing to go into the Treasures & Tribulations BCNM in Balga’s Dais:
(Bigboykoala): I’m just about to do the Treasures and Tribulations BCNM! Squidy says I should go for the box on the right, so if it eats me I’m running upstairs to slap him!
(Kixxi): lol, gl dude.
(Bigboykoala): It just one-shotted me. ; ;
(Kixxi): No way? What job were you?
(Bigboykoala): A DRK25, now a DRK24.
So it seems, like that advert, for every bit of good luck, the balance is restored elsewhere.
Both times we escorted Excaliace quite easily to the end of the dungeon, and I had learned to control him so that he didn’t run off every time he saw a monster. I think there were only two slight blips where he ran away when I stepped slightly too far back in the first run, and in the second, a hidden Pugil that the party had missed popped its snout round a corner and every time Excaliace saw it, he panicked and ran for it. Still, both times we got him to the final room with around eight to nine minutes to spare. The first run I won a ??? Box (which was appraised and turned out to be a Set of Cleaning Tools (Furnishing)) and also a High Potion Tank, whereas Akashea won a High Potion +3. On the second run, Akashea won a ??? Sword (which was appraised and turned into a Gust Claymore). Each time we came out with 750 AP so if I try to do around three a day of these, I’ll have my Yigit Gomlek in no time!
After the Assaults, I reverted back to THF and headed over to Windurst to check on FrostMoon. Meanwhile, BBK was preparing to go into the Treasures & Tribulations BCNM in Balga’s Dais:
(Bigboykoala): I’m just about to do the Treasures and Tribulations BCNM! Squidy says I should go for the box on the right, so if it eats me I’m running upstairs to slap him!
(Kixxi): lol, gl dude.
(Bigboykoala): It just one-shotted me. ; ;
(Kixxi): No way? What job were you?
(Bigboykoala): A DRK25, now a DRK24.
So it seems, like that advert, for every bit of good luck, the balance is restored elsewhere.
Sunday 28 January 2007
There's Fomor Fomor than I Thought!
I made it to the CoP Static mission by a couple of minutes only, due to my train home from Nottingham being diverted, which took an extra hour. I was also in a foul mood over some family issues which means I wasn’t concentrating as much as I should have been and messed up the run a little, but everyone was really good about it for which I’m really grateful (not to mention sorry).
There was also a little mix-up in our plans. Although the Promathia Static thread had said we’d be key farming, some of the group wanted to do Keremet tonight. Teila had agreed that she would come if it was purely farming (to which people agreed to her coming) but when we arrived, others wanted to do Keremet first in case we got too much hate from Fomor that we wouldn’t even be able to sneak past them. Teila then explained she had no buffer on her SMN and wanted to get a few kills under her belt before taking on Keremet. The group agreed and we began pulling Fomor. The keys dropped instantly, including a rare/ex Aquarius Subligar (which Omni won) so we headed over to Keremet’s Chapel.
Teila still needed some more xp on her buffer so I went to pull a Fomor’s Wyvern. Unfortunately I misjudged the distance and the Fomor Dragoon came round the corner too, followed by a Fomor Warrior. I asked the group to let me die, but being the loyal heroes the Static were, they tried to save me, and we wiped.
Even though Teila had less xp than she started with, she still agreed to stay, and I knew BBK must be fuming considering the difficulty he had been having getting xp on his BLM. Once we’d recovered from Weakened, I went into the Chapel and straight behind the door was a Teratotaur so straight away I got aggro. This time no one joined in, so only I died, but it still meant waiting for another Weakened.
As soon as I was ready to go a third time, Keremet’s bodyguards respawned so we had to take them down again. Doffo ran round to the other side and soloed the six over there whilst we took out the ones in our corridor. Then we were finally ready.
Keremet was hovering over his altar next to several Teratotaur, but I fortunately managed to pull him back to the party without aggro and this time we were ready. We had agreed a Skillchain but no sooner had Doffo used his Pentathrust Keremet moved so I was unable to SATAVB onto Omni to complete the Skillchain but I got it off eventually. After that, I don’t remember much – it was a very hectic fight (everyone spamming everything) but we managed to win without considerable problem. Akashea lotted on the Sealion Crest Key so next week, all we need to do is get the cutscene from the inner sanctum and then defeat Professor Mariselle. After that, one final cutscene and we’re ready to do Chapter Five!
Following the success in the Sacrarium, BBK Escaped us out to Misereaux Coast and we headed back into Lufaise Meadows killing all the Beastmen we could lay our weapons on. Teila and I had recently been told that resetting Fomor hate could only be done by killing Beastmen in front of Fomor (the Fomor watch over the landscape from various lookout posts), but on Omnislasher’s suggestion, we decided to take everything on regardless of Fomor, and when we returned to Resauchamet in the Tavnazian Safehold, he told us that our hate had been reset.
Makes me wonder how anyone discovered that in the first place. I mean, how did anyone know to kill Beastmen to reset hate? Seriously. Or how did anyone know to trade a Giant Scale to an Unstable Displacement to make it Stable in Cape Riverne? Even the most cryptic of puzzles in this game offer some sort of clue, but not these.
After this, I returned to Windurst with Akashea and went to check on my egg. Finally, it hatched! I now have a male chick called FrostMoon, who has all the traits of his mother, SilverStar. I took him for a walk, and straight away he found a lost chick. I learned from Pulonono that the owner’s name began with a "K", and I knew from before that this was the Taru in the Manustery(?) called Kororo. I got the Key Item: Story of a Diligent Chocobo from it.
It was late at this point, and although I wasn’t in any mood to go to sleep, I logged out and went to bed.
There was also a little mix-up in our plans. Although the Promathia Static thread had said we’d be key farming, some of the group wanted to do Keremet tonight. Teila had agreed that she would come if it was purely farming (to which people agreed to her coming) but when we arrived, others wanted to do Keremet first in case we got too much hate from Fomor that we wouldn’t even be able to sneak past them. Teila then explained she had no buffer on her SMN and wanted to get a few kills under her belt before taking on Keremet. The group agreed and we began pulling Fomor. The keys dropped instantly, including a rare/ex Aquarius Subligar (which Omni won) so we headed over to Keremet’s Chapel.
Teila still needed some more xp on her buffer so I went to pull a Fomor’s Wyvern. Unfortunately I misjudged the distance and the Fomor Dragoon came round the corner too, followed by a Fomor Warrior. I asked the group to let me die, but being the loyal heroes the Static were, they tried to save me, and we wiped.
Even though Teila had less xp than she started with, she still agreed to stay, and I knew BBK must be fuming considering the difficulty he had been having getting xp on his BLM. Once we’d recovered from Weakened, I went into the Chapel and straight behind the door was a Teratotaur so straight away I got aggro. This time no one joined in, so only I died, but it still meant waiting for another Weakened.
As soon as I was ready to go a third time, Keremet’s bodyguards respawned so we had to take them down again. Doffo ran round to the other side and soloed the six over there whilst we took out the ones in our corridor. Then we were finally ready.
Keremet was hovering over his altar next to several Teratotaur, but I fortunately managed to pull him back to the party without aggro and this time we were ready. We had agreed a Skillchain but no sooner had Doffo used his Pentathrust Keremet moved so I was unable to SATAVB onto Omni to complete the Skillchain but I got it off eventually. After that, I don’t remember much – it was a very hectic fight (everyone spamming everything) but we managed to win without considerable problem. Akashea lotted on the Sealion Crest Key so next week, all we need to do is get the cutscene from the inner sanctum and then defeat Professor Mariselle. After that, one final cutscene and we’re ready to do Chapter Five!
Following the success in the Sacrarium, BBK Escaped us out to Misereaux Coast and we headed back into Lufaise Meadows killing all the Beastmen we could lay our weapons on. Teila and I had recently been told that resetting Fomor hate could only be done by killing Beastmen in front of Fomor (the Fomor watch over the landscape from various lookout posts), but on Omnislasher’s suggestion, we decided to take everything on regardless of Fomor, and when we returned to Resauchamet in the Tavnazian Safehold, he told us that our hate had been reset.
Makes me wonder how anyone discovered that in the first place. I mean, how did anyone know to kill Beastmen to reset hate? Seriously. Or how did anyone know to trade a Giant Scale to an Unstable Displacement to make it Stable in Cape Riverne? Even the most cryptic of puzzles in this game offer some sort of clue, but not these.
After this, I returned to Windurst with Akashea and went to check on my egg. Finally, it hatched! I now have a male chick called FrostMoon, who has all the traits of his mother, SilverStar. I took him for a walk, and straight away he found a lost chick. I learned from Pulonono that the owner’s name began with a "K", and I knew from before that this was the Taru in the Manustery(?) called Kororo. I got the Key Item: Story of a Diligent Chocobo from it.
It was late at this point, and although I wasn’t in any mood to go to sleep, I logged out and went to bed.
Saturday 27 January 2007
Farms for the Poor!
Today was more farming and slowly but surely the Gil is trickling back in. I ran past the Spini pop point again and back into the Horototo Ruins. I don’t know why as it’s not the greatest place to farm, but Goblin Ambushers to tend to drop Animal Glue quite regularly. I think next week I’m going to hit the Maze and do some digging as well.
Friday 26 January 2007
Egged On!
Only logged in for a few minutes today to see if my new chick had hatched but it hadn't. I was told that the new chick was anxious to meet me though!
Thursday 25 January 2007
Assault on the Senses
All said and done, today was pretty successful. I began the afternoon farming as THF in East Sarutabaruta, and thankfully my inventory filled up pretty quickly. I was heading over to the Horototo Ruins near the Spini pop, and lo and behold, there he was, totally unclaimed. I took him on and got the Mist Silk Cape (3/3 with THF now, 0/2 as WHM) and entered the Ruins.
Inside, I made my way through to Beetles’ Burrow and found Maltha, the NM Slime who drops the Rare/Ex RNG Body Armour, Trailers’ Tunica. Although I already had it, it’s still a worthwhile fight as you can also get Slime Oils from her. The Tunica didn’t drop, but a Vial of Slime Oil did.
I then went through the big doors up into the large square room filled with Goblins. I headed through the secret door in the southern wall and got a Horototo Chest Key off the first Goblin. Just as I turned to leave, of all the places, behind me was the Treasure Chest! Inside I got around 900 gil, but I’ve got the Axe worth 30k before a couple of times. Still, I was very happy with the luck I was having!
I logged out for a while, but then logged in at 8pm to do an Assault with the Linkshell. I’d hoped that more would want in, but in the end Akashea, Kellie, Teila and me headed off to Lebros Cavern to try Excavation Duty, supposedly the easiest Assault. We couldn’t do it because the walls took too long to destroy as a four, but we had fun and got a good feel for it.
After the Assault, we noticed that Besieged was at six, so we returned back to Whitegate and entered Besieged. It was the Troll Mercenaries, and because there were so few people in the area (around 270), the lag was minimal and you could see just how many monsters were in the area. I had never felt so scared in Besieged before! You couldn’t move for aggro, and poor Kel and BBK got blown up a few times. A few Generals fell, but they eventually retreated and we got 1,000 xp, except poor BBK who got 500 because he wasn’t quite 60.
After Besieged finally finished, Teila and I arranged an uncapped Periqia Assault, Seagull Grounded, where we had to escort an irritating Elvaan prisoner through the Periqia dungeon whilst killing everything en route. We managed to complete it with no real danger to anyone, but it was a complete pain in the butt trying to escort the prisoner without him trying to make a break for it!
Inside, I made my way through to Beetles’ Burrow and found Maltha, the NM Slime who drops the Rare/Ex RNG Body Armour, Trailers’ Tunica. Although I already had it, it’s still a worthwhile fight as you can also get Slime Oils from her. The Tunica didn’t drop, but a Vial of Slime Oil did.
I then went through the big doors up into the large square room filled with Goblins. I headed through the secret door in the southern wall and got a Horototo Chest Key off the first Goblin. Just as I turned to leave, of all the places, behind me was the Treasure Chest! Inside I got around 900 gil, but I’ve got the Axe worth 30k before a couple of times. Still, I was very happy with the luck I was having!
I logged out for a while, but then logged in at 8pm to do an Assault with the Linkshell. I’d hoped that more would want in, but in the end Akashea, Kellie, Teila and me headed off to Lebros Cavern to try Excavation Duty, supposedly the easiest Assault. We couldn’t do it because the walls took too long to destroy as a four, but we had fun and got a good feel for it.
After the Assault, we noticed that Besieged was at six, so we returned back to Whitegate and entered Besieged. It was the Troll Mercenaries, and because there were so few people in the area (around 270), the lag was minimal and you could see just how many monsters were in the area. I had never felt so scared in Besieged before! You couldn’t move for aggro, and poor Kel and BBK got blown up a few times. A few Generals fell, but they eventually retreated and we got 1,000 xp, except poor BBK who got 500 because he wasn’t quite 60.
After Besieged finally finished, Teila and I arranged an uncapped Periqia Assault, Seagull Grounded, where we had to escort an irritating Elvaan prisoner through the Periqia dungeon whilst killing everything en route. We managed to complete it with no real danger to anyone, but it was a complete pain in the butt trying to escort the prisoner without him trying to make a break for it!
Monday 22 January 2007
Starmite, Starbrite
Teila's NPC was still clinging to L64 and had been saying since before Christmas that she was almost L65, the current NPC level cap. We headed on over to the Toraimarai Canal (via Windurst Walls) and went on up to the Starmite room, found at the very base of the Great Tree, feeding on its roots.
Three or four Coffer Keys dropped but neither of us needed them, which was a shame because whenever you need them, they never drop.
After our NPCs vanished, we headed back to Whitegate and began shouting for Diabolos, but just like yesterday, not a single person was interested in over half an hour.
I then decided to seek with THF, but not a single invite in almost an hour and only four people seeking in my level range, so I gave up for the night.
Three or four Coffer Keys dropped but neither of us needed them, which was a shame because whenever you need them, they never drop.
After our NPCs vanished, we headed back to Whitegate and began shouting for Diabolos, but just like yesterday, not a single person was interested in over half an hour.
I then decided to seek with THF, but not a single invite in almost an hour and only four people seeking in my level range, so I gave up for the night.
Sunday 21 January 2007
Bibiki Baywatch
I had planned today to wrap up lots of quests I’d begun but never finished, like cheapy ones in Bastok (like trading over a Wild Onion or something) but instead ended up going to Purgonorgo Isle via the Manaclipper in Bibiki Bay. I had a Windurst quest active called “One Good Deed” which involved finding a ??? on Purgonorgo Isle. When I touched it, I was told that I had sprung a trap and six NM Mandragora (Peerifools) jumped down off a rock (quite cute really) and started attacking me. I summoned Yawawa and we began mowing them down and afterwards an Orcish Warmachine came along and handed me the deed to the island. What a boring, ordinary world we live in.
I returned to Windurst to be told that I needed to hand over the deed to a Mithran Tracker in Attohwa Chasm, so instead I teamed up with Kellie to check out Kamp Kweh, but couldn’t get in as I’d retired SilverStar.
After that I headed over to Jeuno to activate my SMN AF Gloves quest, “Borghertz’ Calling Hands” and then went over to the Sea Serpent Grotto to see if I could get a Coffer Key to drop. Unfortunately, Yawawa AoE’d the Sahagin and we both ran out of MP so she died. I needed a new Tactics Pearl at this point so was unable to summon her back out. It took me forever to kill each one after that and for the second time running, no Coffer Key dropped. Teila offered to come help me out but she was stuck in Qufim Island as a BLU with Undead roaming around, so I warped back to Whitegate.
We decided to give Diabolos another go, but after 45m of shouting we didn’t even get one offer, so I guess our reputation has finally scared everyone away for good. Instead we logged out for a while.
At 8.30pm the CoP Squad set out for the Sacrarium to farm the three keys for the mission. I’ve posted the details of the run on page seven of the Chains of Promathia Static thread, but on the whole it was a success, except that we couldn’t quite finish off Keremet for the final key. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, but I also wasn’t expecting it to be that hard either. I felt sorry for Akashea who died around five or six times – partly my fault as I shouldn’t have asked BBK to Raise her mid fight, it’s just that when she was hit with Quake, I assumed it was just a stray shot and I didn’t think we’d run out of resources and die. Technically, we were just testing the water, and it was a good thing as next time we know to come back with meds.
I returned to Windurst to be told that I needed to hand over the deed to a Mithran Tracker in Attohwa Chasm, so instead I teamed up with Kellie to check out Kamp Kweh, but couldn’t get in as I’d retired SilverStar.
After that I headed over to Jeuno to activate my SMN AF Gloves quest, “Borghertz’ Calling Hands” and then went over to the Sea Serpent Grotto to see if I could get a Coffer Key to drop. Unfortunately, Yawawa AoE’d the Sahagin and we both ran out of MP so she died. I needed a new Tactics Pearl at this point so was unable to summon her back out. It took me forever to kill each one after that and for the second time running, no Coffer Key dropped. Teila offered to come help me out but she was stuck in Qufim Island as a BLU with Undead roaming around, so I warped back to Whitegate.
We decided to give Diabolos another go, but after 45m of shouting we didn’t even get one offer, so I guess our reputation has finally scared everyone away for good. Instead we logged out for a while.
At 8.30pm the CoP Squad set out for the Sacrarium to farm the three keys for the mission. I’ve posted the details of the run on page seven of the Chains of Promathia Static thread, but on the whole it was a success, except that we couldn’t quite finish off Keremet for the final key. I wasn’t expecting it to be easy, but I also wasn’t expecting it to be that hard either. I felt sorry for Akashea who died around five or six times – partly my fault as I shouldn’t have asked BBK to Raise her mid fight, it’s just that when she was hit with Quake, I assumed it was just a stray shot and I didn’t think we’d run out of resources and die. Technically, we were just testing the water, and it was a good thing as next time we know to come back with meds.
Saturday 20 January 2007
Losing My Morbols
Having logged out in the Yhoator Jungle last night, I was ready to continue beating up Anemones until my Warm Egg dropped. Last night Akashea and I killed plenty but had no joy. This morning, a Warm Egg dropped after my first kill. Funny isn’t it?
Following that, I ran up past the Outpost and up past Bloodlet Spring to see if Woodland Sage was wandering around (he wasn’t), so I then proceeded to start killing White Lizards in the hope that my Elshimo Marble dropped for the Teleport-Yhoat quest. Half an hour later, Teila sent me a /tell:
“Kixxi, they only drop from Ivory Lizards in Yuhtunga Jungle.”
/slap
So I then went back into Yuhtunga and made my way up to the cliff near Gemini Falls (the north-eastern corner of the map) where there were so many Ivory Lizards I couldn’t kill them fast enough before they began respawning. I somehow managed to go through three uses of the Tactics Pearl before it managed to drop, making this possibly the rarest drop I’ve encountered thus far.
Being on the cliff overlooking Gemini Falls made me think: how the hell do you get down the cliff to the actual falls? There’s no path down, yet there were plenty of monsters down there, and I could make out at least two cave mouths. Perhaps they’re connected to Ifrit’s Cauldron?
I then headed over to Jeuno to trade my Male and Female Chococards to the little chap next to Brutus at the Chocobo Stables in Upper Jeuno, and selected the “Gourmet Plan” so that the chick would be strong and most likely take on the traits of its father, SwiftWind. I was told I’d have to wait until tomorrow to pick up the egg.
Following that, I ran up past the Outpost and up past Bloodlet Spring to see if Woodland Sage was wandering around (he wasn’t), so I then proceeded to start killing White Lizards in the hope that my Elshimo Marble dropped for the Teleport-Yhoat quest. Half an hour later, Teila sent me a /tell:
“Kixxi, they only drop from Ivory Lizards in Yuhtunga Jungle.”
/slap
So I then went back into Yuhtunga and made my way up to the cliff near Gemini Falls (the north-eastern corner of the map) where there were so many Ivory Lizards I couldn’t kill them fast enough before they began respawning. I somehow managed to go through three uses of the Tactics Pearl before it managed to drop, making this possibly the rarest drop I’ve encountered thus far.
Being on the cliff overlooking Gemini Falls made me think: how the hell do you get down the cliff to the actual falls? There’s no path down, yet there were plenty of monsters down there, and I could make out at least two cave mouths. Perhaps they’re connected to Ifrit’s Cauldron?
I then headed over to Jeuno to trade my Male and Female Chococards to the little chap next to Brutus at the Chocobo Stables in Upper Jeuno, and selected the “Gourmet Plan” so that the chick would be strong and most likely take on the traits of its father, SwiftWind. I was told I’d have to wait until tomorrow to pick up the egg.
Playing Things Close to the Chest
For the first time in a while I had some free time tonight, so I decided to get some things done that I had been forgetting about lately.
I headed over to the Crag of Holla and entered the Promyvion to get a new Tactics Pearl for Yawawa, but before long Teila needed some help getting her Treasure Coffer in the Temple of Uggalepih so I teleported over to the Yhoator Jungle and met her inside. We spent some time searching for the Coffer but it wasn't in any of the rooms that were easy to get to, oh no. The Temple Guardian was standing guard to the High Priests' chambers, so Teila warped back to Whitegate and changed to RDM. She OP Warped back and we took on the Guardian. Once we killed it, we slipped inside and lo and behold the Coffer was sitting there. Teila quickly Warped back to Whitegate and changed back to SMN, and luckily the door was still open by the time she got back, so she was able to get her Evoker's Doublet.
Unfortunately, when I was trying to teleport us out, the NM Doll, Maledictor, popped and aggroed my casting. Teila tried to take the hate so I could continue Teleporting, but it killed her in seconds and I ended up Teleporting without her. I had to come back to the Temple and shout for help in the hope that someone could kill the Guardian again. Luckily a NIN was fighting it, so I paid him 10k for his efforts and he cleared the NM out as well. I Raised Teila and we left quickly.
I then finally got round to retiring SilverStar. Watching the cutscene nearly bought a tear to my eye, but I took mine and Teila's Chococards to Jeuno and mated them using the Gourmet Plan. This should mean our chick should be strong and will be more likely to take on SwiftWind's traits as oposed to SilverStar's.
Akashea then offered to help me get my Warm Egg from the Anemones (Malboro Family) in Yhoator Jungle, so I subbed THF and we headed off. I summoned Yawawa and we began mowing them down, but there weren't many around, so it became awkward trying to find them.
Eventually we arrived at the Temple of Uggalepih and saw Bisque-Heeled Sunberry lurking around, so we engaged him (her?) in the hope that Akashea could get her Rancor Handle for the quest "Beastmen Treasure". It dropped but it was quite a long fight. I managed to Steal a lot of Gil from Sunberry, and after we won, we got another load of money too. Yawawa also hit L57!
Unfortunately the Warm Egg didn't drop, but we did discover a mysterious patch of mushrooms near the pond by the Temple, within which sat a Harvesting Point, that disappeared as soon as the rain stopped.
That Jungle and Temple is full of mysteries.
I headed over to the Crag of Holla and entered the Promyvion to get a new Tactics Pearl for Yawawa, but before long Teila needed some help getting her Treasure Coffer in the Temple of Uggalepih so I teleported over to the Yhoator Jungle and met her inside. We spent some time searching for the Coffer but it wasn't in any of the rooms that were easy to get to, oh no. The Temple Guardian was standing guard to the High Priests' chambers, so Teila warped back to Whitegate and changed to RDM. She OP Warped back and we took on the Guardian. Once we killed it, we slipped inside and lo and behold the Coffer was sitting there. Teila quickly Warped back to Whitegate and changed back to SMN, and luckily the door was still open by the time she got back, so she was able to get her Evoker's Doublet.
Unfortunately, when I was trying to teleport us out, the NM Doll, Maledictor, popped and aggroed my casting. Teila tried to take the hate so I could continue Teleporting, but it killed her in seconds and I ended up Teleporting without her. I had to come back to the Temple and shout for help in the hope that someone could kill the Guardian again. Luckily a NIN was fighting it, so I paid him 10k for his efforts and he cleared the NM out as well. I Raised Teila and we left quickly.
I then finally got round to retiring SilverStar. Watching the cutscene nearly bought a tear to my eye, but I took mine and Teila's Chococards to Jeuno and mated them using the Gourmet Plan. This should mean our chick should be strong and will be more likely to take on SwiftWind's traits as oposed to SilverStar's.
Akashea then offered to help me get my Warm Egg from the Anemones (Malboro Family) in Yhoator Jungle, so I subbed THF and we headed off. I summoned Yawawa and we began mowing them down, but there weren't many around, so it became awkward trying to find them.
Eventually we arrived at the Temple of Uggalepih and saw Bisque-Heeled Sunberry lurking around, so we engaged him (her?) in the hope that Akashea could get her Rancor Handle for the quest "Beastmen Treasure". It dropped but it was quite a long fight. I managed to Steal a lot of Gil from Sunberry, and after we won, we got another load of money too. Yawawa also hit L57!
Unfortunately the Warm Egg didn't drop, but we did discover a mysterious patch of mushrooms near the pond by the Temple, within which sat a Harvesting Point, that disappeared as soon as the rain stopped.
That Jungle and Temple is full of mysteries.
Thursday 18 January 2007
What a Nightmare!
Diabolos 22, Kixxi 0
Things went a little differently today. It took Teila and me forever to get a party together for Diabolos, but in the end the setup was a good one. It included a SAM and a DRK (can produce one of the most powerful Light Skillchains in the game) – the DRK, Wrexsoul, being a friend of Teila’s who was renown for his ability to never miss a Stun in their old Sky Linkshell. We also had a RDM/DRK, but this time I asked them to hold off until near the end of the fight to avoid resistance being built up early.
Believe it or not, they all remembered Poison Potions and the only problem we had was that Jamin, our Samurai, DC’d several times due to a faulty router, and as a result, got seen standing around by a Snowball (white Bomb) in Pso’Xja. Nevertheless, we entered the first fight ready to rock and somehow the NIN just couldn’t secure hate and I was smacked to an inch of my life within seconds. Soon after, Nightmare came along and the RDM/DRK forgot to Stun (*yawn*). That fight ended in under a minute.
The RDM/DRK had to leave, but his wife took over his character and we agreed to try again once more. We couldn’t believe our luck when it rolled over into Lightsday, so we entered the BCNM and engaged Diabolos. Hardly any Nightmares, but plenty of Sleepga IIs, but the party was prepared with Poison Potions. The Light Skillchain absolutely murdered Diabolos, and his life chunked away. Wrexsoul Stunned the first Nightmare with perfect timing (see, DRKs never miss a Stun!) and a while later, he did his second Nightmare, to which the RDM/NIN Stunned perfectly too. Hearts beating, Teila activated Chainspell and was just using her first nuke when Diabolos readied another nightmare, seconds after he had just done one! Wrexsoul mashed his Stun macro but his timer wasn’t ready and we were hit. At this point, he had around 10% life left.
Ironically, on most days, with my huge Dark Resistance gear, high MND and Barsleepra, I am usually the first to wake from Nightmare, but as Sod’s Law would have it, I sat there asleep with Bio III eating away at me for what seemed like an eternity. I was asleep so long, that we all went from full life right into the orange, and before I could wake up the NIN was dead and Teila’s Chainspell had wore off. When I did wake, I hit Benediction but not before the DRK had followed suit also. I tried to keep the SAM alive but he went down in seconds (Diabolos hits very, very hard (around 250 a pop on me, more with a critical)). The RDM/DRK readied her Chainspell but before she could Stun Diabolos so that Teila could nuke him to death (two more would have been enough), Diabolos cast Sleepga II, and in all the panic we had failed to see our Poison Potions had wore.
At this point, Diabolos picked on me and knocked me right down. Every time I tried to wake the RDMs up I was hit, and then the bugger cast Dispel on me, taking off my Reraise III. At 22hp I somehow managed to get my Reraise III back up and I was killed a millisecond later. Teila got hit by a Camisado for 500 damage and the RDM/DRK, who was still asleep, got finished off.
Everyone cried at how close we were yet again. So, not even with competent stunners, and on Lightsday, could we do this. Had my Nightmare worn off quicker, I could have kept the tank alive, but for some weird reason, I just wouldn’t wake up.
Things went a little differently today. It took Teila and me forever to get a party together for Diabolos, but in the end the setup was a good one. It included a SAM and a DRK (can produce one of the most powerful Light Skillchains in the game) – the DRK, Wrexsoul, being a friend of Teila’s who was renown for his ability to never miss a Stun in their old Sky Linkshell. We also had a RDM/DRK, but this time I asked them to hold off until near the end of the fight to avoid resistance being built up early.
Believe it or not, they all remembered Poison Potions and the only problem we had was that Jamin, our Samurai, DC’d several times due to a faulty router, and as a result, got seen standing around by a Snowball (white Bomb) in Pso’Xja. Nevertheless, we entered the first fight ready to rock and somehow the NIN just couldn’t secure hate and I was smacked to an inch of my life within seconds. Soon after, Nightmare came along and the RDM/DRK forgot to Stun (*yawn*). That fight ended in under a minute.
The RDM/DRK had to leave, but his wife took over his character and we agreed to try again once more. We couldn’t believe our luck when it rolled over into Lightsday, so we entered the BCNM and engaged Diabolos. Hardly any Nightmares, but plenty of Sleepga IIs, but the party was prepared with Poison Potions. The Light Skillchain absolutely murdered Diabolos, and his life chunked away. Wrexsoul Stunned the first Nightmare with perfect timing (see, DRKs never miss a Stun!) and a while later, he did his second Nightmare, to which the RDM/NIN Stunned perfectly too. Hearts beating, Teila activated Chainspell and was just using her first nuke when Diabolos readied another nightmare, seconds after he had just done one! Wrexsoul mashed his Stun macro but his timer wasn’t ready and we were hit. At this point, he had around 10% life left.
Ironically, on most days, with my huge Dark Resistance gear, high MND and Barsleepra, I am usually the first to wake from Nightmare, but as Sod’s Law would have it, I sat there asleep with Bio III eating away at me for what seemed like an eternity. I was asleep so long, that we all went from full life right into the orange, and before I could wake up the NIN was dead and Teila’s Chainspell had wore off. When I did wake, I hit Benediction but not before the DRK had followed suit also. I tried to keep the SAM alive but he went down in seconds (Diabolos hits very, very hard (around 250 a pop on me, more with a critical)). The RDM/DRK readied her Chainspell but before she could Stun Diabolos so that Teila could nuke him to death (two more would have been enough), Diabolos cast Sleepga II, and in all the panic we had failed to see our Poison Potions had wore.
At this point, Diabolos picked on me and knocked me right down. Every time I tried to wake the RDMs up I was hit, and then the bugger cast Dispel on me, taking off my Reraise III. At 22hp I somehow managed to get my Reraise III back up and I was killed a millisecond later. Teila got hit by a Camisado for 500 damage and the RDM/DRK, who was still asleep, got finished off.
Everyone cried at how close we were yet again. So, not even with competent stunners, and on Lightsday, could we do this. Had my Nightmare worn off quicker, I could have kept the tank alive, but for some weird reason, I just wouldn’t wake up.
Wednesday 17 January 2007
Lost Artifacts
I got back from my job interview a little earlier than I had anticipated so I had a bit of time to kill until BBK’s AF Hat run. I went back to Windy and checked up on SilverStar. As usual, she was restless and itching to race against Best, so I arranged a race. She won by quite a big margin, but I don’t think her stats are going to increase anymore. I’m going to mate her with Teila’s Chocobo, SwiftWind, then retire her. Apparently stats increase the further down through the generations.
I summoned Yawawa at the Rendezvous Point, and for the first time ever she was wearing full Trader’s Gear. Unfortunately at the current cap, you can only lock three of the four body choices (Headgear is separate), so I kept her Body, Hands and Legs.
Akashea said that she had finally reached L95 in Cooking, and needed Royal Jelly to advance to 100. I offered to go with her to Crawlers’ Nest until BBK came online and slaughter our way through the Death Jackets at the entrance. I subbed THF, but in the time we had, we only managed to get two servings of Royal Jelly.
When BBK was ready to go get his BLM Hat, we returned to Whitegate and met with Doffo and Jeanius. Jeanius brought his L75 PLD friend Cayolaf with him, and we headed off to the Toraimarai Canal. Inside, we had to find two ???s so that BBK could get some cutscenes prior to the fight. Fortunately, from levelling up Yawawa in the past, I had obtained a Coffer Key and got the map from the Coffer, so when Akashea told us the coordinates for the second cutscene, I thought we needed to go through the second map to get to the point we needed on the first map. Consequently I forgot the mobs on the second map were Easy Prey and aggroed two Impish Bats. BBK tried to help out but got himself killed before I could get the hate back. It took me all my MP to keep myself alive before the rest of the team found me and saved my hide. Sorry BBK!
The fight itself wasn’t hard at all. It was a Magic Sludge, an Elemental of all elements, but for some reason did nothing but cast low enfeebles, Drain and Aspir. I remembered this thing to spam –ga spells; maybe we got lucky. We wiped the floor, walls and ceiling with it to boot.
It was getting late but Doffo wanted to do some key farming in the Sacrarium for CoP, but I was getting tired. Jeanius asked if we could quickly do his AF fight in Yhoator Jungle, and as we had Teleport-Yhoat, I thought why not.
We made our way up to the Spring near the entrance to the Den of Rancor and Jeanius popped three Sahagin NMs for his fight. No sooner had we begun when a Water Elemental and two Goblins joined in the fight. I switched to the Elemental whilst the others took on the Sahagin and Goblins. I don’t know what happened, but whilst I was casting Protectra and Shellra, everyone’s life was dropping into the yellow and orange. I used Benediction, but before long, Jeanius somehow died from the beating we were receiving. I raised him up, but both Akashea and me ran out of mp. I ran to the Den of Rancor to rest, and the Elemental chased me all the way, but once I’d zoned it it vanished. Luckily the rest of the fight went alright. No more deaths and one by one, the monsters fell, and Jeanius got his item.
Another successful linkshell outing!
I summoned Yawawa at the Rendezvous Point, and for the first time ever she was wearing full Trader’s Gear. Unfortunately at the current cap, you can only lock three of the four body choices (Headgear is separate), so I kept her Body, Hands and Legs.
Akashea said that she had finally reached L95 in Cooking, and needed Royal Jelly to advance to 100. I offered to go with her to Crawlers’ Nest until BBK came online and slaughter our way through the Death Jackets at the entrance. I subbed THF, but in the time we had, we only managed to get two servings of Royal Jelly.
When BBK was ready to go get his BLM Hat, we returned to Whitegate and met with Doffo and Jeanius. Jeanius brought his L75 PLD friend Cayolaf with him, and we headed off to the Toraimarai Canal. Inside, we had to find two ???s so that BBK could get some cutscenes prior to the fight. Fortunately, from levelling up Yawawa in the past, I had obtained a Coffer Key and got the map from the Coffer, so when Akashea told us the coordinates for the second cutscene, I thought we needed to go through the second map to get to the point we needed on the first map. Consequently I forgot the mobs on the second map were Easy Prey and aggroed two Impish Bats. BBK tried to help out but got himself killed before I could get the hate back. It took me all my MP to keep myself alive before the rest of the team found me and saved my hide. Sorry BBK!
The fight itself wasn’t hard at all. It was a Magic Sludge, an Elemental of all elements, but for some reason did nothing but cast low enfeebles, Drain and Aspir. I remembered this thing to spam –ga spells; maybe we got lucky. We wiped the floor, walls and ceiling with it to boot.
It was getting late but Doffo wanted to do some key farming in the Sacrarium for CoP, but I was getting tired. Jeanius asked if we could quickly do his AF fight in Yhoator Jungle, and as we had Teleport-Yhoat, I thought why not.
We made our way up to the Spring near the entrance to the Den of Rancor and Jeanius popped three Sahagin NMs for his fight. No sooner had we begun when a Water Elemental and two Goblins joined in the fight. I switched to the Elemental whilst the others took on the Sahagin and Goblins. I don’t know what happened, but whilst I was casting Protectra and Shellra, everyone’s life was dropping into the yellow and orange. I used Benediction, but before long, Jeanius somehow died from the beating we were receiving. I raised him up, but both Akashea and me ran out of mp. I ran to the Den of Rancor to rest, and the Elemental chased me all the way, but once I’d zoned it it vanished. Luckily the rest of the fight went alright. No more deaths and one by one, the monsters fell, and Jeanius got his item.
Another successful linkshell outing!
Monday 15 January 2007
Meh
Diabolos 20, Kixxi 0.
I'll say very little on the subject except: SOMEONE FIND ME A BLM WHO KNOWS HOW TO STUN!
My /blist is full of jaw-droppingly rude, arrogant Kerrang Kiddies who probably enjoy happy-slapping their own grandparents.
I have never been so angry and frustrated in my life! Why do I keep going back? Why am I a glutton for punishment? Why do I do it?
I'll say very little on the subject except: SOMEONE FIND ME A BLM WHO KNOWS HOW TO STUN!
My /blist is full of jaw-droppingly rude, arrogant Kerrang Kiddies who probably enjoy happy-slapping their own grandparents.
I have never been so angry and frustrated in my life! Why do I keep going back? Why am I a glutton for punishment? Why do I do it?
Sunday 14 January 2007
Beyond Caring
Meh, Diabolos 16, Kixxi 0.
Was kinda strangely calm about it to be honest, probably because it was so expected. But why is there always one jerk in every party?
I asked everyone to arrange a stunning order for Nightmare. First RDM/DRK, second RDM/DRK, then Teila. "ONLY STUN NIGHTMARE" I said, then added "and when it's your turn to Stun, don't do anything else but hover your finger over the macro." Everyone agreed.
We go in and the first RDM opens with a Stun. No need whatsoever. So the second RDM then fires off a Stun. NO NEED! When Nightmare came, Teila fired off her Stun even when it wasn't her turn because the others were screwing around. Unbelievably she got a telling off from one of the RDMs. I spent ages desperately trying to find out why they didn't Stun Nightmare and the second was really apologetic, which was cool, but the first was like "I know what I'm doing, I Stun all the time" yadda yadda and "don't tell me how to do my job" blah blah. She then quit the party.
IF YOU AGREE TO STUNNING NIGHTMARE ONLY, WHY STUN EVERYTHING BUT??
There's nothing wrong with making a mistake. That happens to everyone, but agreeing to something so decisively then completely ruining hard work despite being reminded over and over not to, then having a go at the party and quitting, is the behaviour of a moron.
And don't get me started on Poison Potions. Why, oh WHY do people not bring them when I insist on it like ten times? They then wonder why they get slept and are unable to Stun Nightmare.
Oh and the best one was that stoopid RDM - she insisted on casting Stoneskin on herself each time even though this negates poison potions when slept. "It's OK, she said, I'll cancel Stoneskin if I get slept" Yeah, like how many seconds of your time will that take?
People on this game drive me mad, they really do.
Oh, and for the record, don't bring a RDM/DRK. This may have worked before last Summer's update, but now Diabolos resists Stun after the sixth or seventh Stun. Our friendly RDM reported that eight of his Stuns were resisted in a row. It's best just to take enough stunners to make a decent stunning order - provided they are competent enough to actually Stun Nightmare, not watching the telly whilst playing.
You're probably all bored of me mentioning Nightmare. Well, you'll see for yourself - this move will destroy an organised party in seconds. No one believes how horrid it is until they experience it:
On the plus side, our CoP run went brilliantly. We absolutely annihilated Ouryu the first time round, and unexpectedly quickly. We even broke the record. Just one more Mission of CoP to go before Chapter 5.
Pulonono in Windurst Woods Stables told me that today she had found the owner of the lost baby Chocobo I had found, but nothing else came of it. Maybe I'll find out some more from further cutscenes, but SilverStar was sleeping peacefully when I got there.
Was kinda strangely calm about it to be honest, probably because it was so expected. But why is there always one jerk in every party?
I asked everyone to arrange a stunning order for Nightmare. First RDM/DRK, second RDM/DRK, then Teila. "ONLY STUN NIGHTMARE" I said, then added "and when it's your turn to Stun, don't do anything else but hover your finger over the macro." Everyone agreed.
We go in and the first RDM opens with a Stun. No need whatsoever. So the second RDM then fires off a Stun. NO NEED! When Nightmare came, Teila fired off her Stun even when it wasn't her turn because the others were screwing around. Unbelievably she got a telling off from one of the RDMs. I spent ages desperately trying to find out why they didn't Stun Nightmare and the second was really apologetic, which was cool, but the first was like "I know what I'm doing, I Stun all the time" yadda yadda and "don't tell me how to do my job" blah blah. She then quit the party.
IF YOU AGREE TO STUNNING NIGHTMARE ONLY, WHY STUN EVERYTHING BUT??
There's nothing wrong with making a mistake. That happens to everyone, but agreeing to something so decisively then completely ruining hard work despite being reminded over and over not to, then having a go at the party and quitting, is the behaviour of a moron.
And don't get me started on Poison Potions. Why, oh WHY do people not bring them when I insist on it like ten times? They then wonder why they get slept and are unable to Stun Nightmare.
Oh and the best one was that stoopid RDM - she insisted on casting Stoneskin on herself each time even though this negates poison potions when slept. "It's OK, she said, I'll cancel Stoneskin if I get slept" Yeah, like how many seconds of your time will that take?
People on this game drive me mad, they really do.
Oh, and for the record, don't bring a RDM/DRK. This may have worked before last Summer's update, but now Diabolos resists Stun after the sixth or seventh Stun. Our friendly RDM reported that eight of his Stuns were resisted in a row. It's best just to take enough stunners to make a decent stunning order - provided they are competent enough to actually Stun Nightmare, not watching the telly whilst playing.
You're probably all bored of me mentioning Nightmare. Well, you'll see for yourself - this move will destroy an organised party in seconds. No one believes how horrid it is until they experience it:
On the plus side, our CoP run went brilliantly. We absolutely annihilated Ouryu the first time round, and unexpectedly quickly. We even broke the record. Just one more Mission of CoP to go before Chapter 5.
Pulonono in Windurst Woods Stables told me that today she had found the owner of the lost baby Chocobo I had found, but nothing else came of it. Maybe I'll find out some more from further cutscenes, but SilverStar was sleeping peacefully when I got there.
Saturday 13 January 2007
Stumped
I actually, genuinely, truly, honestly don't know what to say, I am so upset I can't tell you.
Diabolos 12, Kixxi 0.
I give up, I really do. I have tried everthing with this, everything. NIN tanks, PLD tanks, normal parties, melee parties, SMN parties, BLM parties, and now tonight, we tried the RDM/DRK for Chainspell: Stun.
Not even that worked.
One RDM/DRM used Chainspell: Stun, whilst another RDM/BLM used Chainspell and nuked away. Teila came as a BLM and used super heavy tier II AM but somehow, somehow, he still got Nightmare off through the Chainspell.
He began knocking off the party one by one but as the mages woke up they continued to nuke away. I woke up but was immediately hit with Nightmare and slept before I could 2hr.
It was Diabolo's 2hr, Ruinous Omen, that woke me up, but the Bio III effect from Nightmare killed me before I could heal everyone.
3hrs of planning and getting the party together and it was over, literally in 40 seconds. I know this because we were killed in seconds after Chainspell wore.
We were robbed. This guy cheats.
Second fight isn't even worth mentioning.
So the next time someone says you need a RDM/DRK, tell em where to stick it.
Diabolos 12, Kixxi 0.
I give up, I really do. I have tried everthing with this, everything. NIN tanks, PLD tanks, normal parties, melee parties, SMN parties, BLM parties, and now tonight, we tried the RDM/DRK for Chainspell: Stun.
Not even that worked.
One RDM/DRM used Chainspell: Stun, whilst another RDM/BLM used Chainspell and nuked away. Teila came as a BLM and used super heavy tier II AM but somehow, somehow, he still got Nightmare off through the Chainspell.
He began knocking off the party one by one but as the mages woke up they continued to nuke away. I woke up but was immediately hit with Nightmare and slept before I could 2hr.
It was Diabolo's 2hr, Ruinous Omen, that woke me up, but the Bio III effect from Nightmare killed me before I could heal everyone.
3hrs of planning and getting the party together and it was over, literally in 40 seconds. I know this because we were killed in seconds after Chainspell wore.
We were robbed. This guy cheats.
Second fight isn't even worth mentioning.
So the next time someone says you need a RDM/DRK, tell em where to stick it.
Friday 12 January 2007
Sapling All Life Has to Offer
I wasn't feeling too well today (I've caught Teila's cold!) so I only logged in to check on SilverStar, but Teila suggested we do our SMN AF2 fight, so I dragged myself through Fei'Yin and down to the Cloister of Frost. I kept my eyes peeled for Capricious Cassie, but no sign.
I traded my Ice Pendulum to the Protocrystal and we stepped inside to face six Dryad NM Saplings, but they were embarrassingly easy considering our level. We just hacked our way through them before winning the BC and returning to Windurst where I received my SMN AF legs! Neat!
I traded my Ice Pendulum to the Protocrystal and we stepped inside to face six Dryad NM Saplings, but they were embarrassingly easy considering our level. We just hacked our way through them before winning the BC and returning to Windurst where I received my SMN AF legs! Neat!
Thursday 11 January 2007
Having a Blast
Teila had been busy the last two nights with her CoP static, and tonight she was preparing to fight Tenzen and get access to Al’Taieu, or Sea as it is more commonly known. I didn’t have much to do tonight, and when I found out that Akashea was doing Zilart 6 it really prompted me that I should do this to understand more of the CoP story. I suggested to BBK and the linkshell to do the Rank 5.1 and 5.2 fights but no one was up for it so I went off to Ifrit’s Cauldron to solo some bombs.
This was my first attempt at doing this alone, but having seen Teila do it, we’d agreed on a strategy. Simply set Ifrit on the bomb and run until Ifrit’s life bar vanishes from the screen. Once this happens, run some more then stop. Once Ifrit dies, summon him again and keep running. He’ll automatically reengage without you having to do anything. If you use Assault or a Blood Pact, this will put hate on you, so don’t do anything but resummon. At some point, you’ll need to turn around and run back down the passage past the bomb. Now you can’t wait for Ifrit to try to get a few hits in, because if you run past the bomb before Ifrit hits (he misses a lot due to the level difference), the bomb will turn on you. And if you wait too long, you won’t have enough distance between you and the bomb to resummon safely. So best thing to do is resummon Ifrit and run past him the moment he meets with the bomb. This seems to stop you getting the hate. Weird I know, but it works. Anyway, with only one death from a lame attempt to summon too close to the bomb, I made over 300xp per kill very quickly. I think I’m going to do this instead of seeking for a while now!
Akashea got Zilart 6 and 7 done with Teila, so congrats, and Teila defeated Tenzen and entered the final chapter of CoP, so that’s nearly the whole game finished for her. I’m all prepared for the CoP run on Sunday night, and I think we should do a dry run first this time.
This was my first attempt at doing this alone, but having seen Teila do it, we’d agreed on a strategy. Simply set Ifrit on the bomb and run until Ifrit’s life bar vanishes from the screen. Once this happens, run some more then stop. Once Ifrit dies, summon him again and keep running. He’ll automatically reengage without you having to do anything. If you use Assault or a Blood Pact, this will put hate on you, so don’t do anything but resummon. At some point, you’ll need to turn around and run back down the passage past the bomb. Now you can’t wait for Ifrit to try to get a few hits in, because if you run past the bomb before Ifrit hits (he misses a lot due to the level difference), the bomb will turn on you. And if you wait too long, you won’t have enough distance between you and the bomb to resummon safely. So best thing to do is resummon Ifrit and run past him the moment he meets with the bomb. This seems to stop you getting the hate. Weird I know, but it works. Anyway, with only one death from a lame attempt to summon too close to the bomb, I made over 300xp per kill very quickly. I think I’m going to do this instead of seeking for a while now!
Akashea got Zilart 6 and 7 done with Teila, so congrats, and Teila defeated Tenzen and entered the final chapter of CoP, so that’s nearly the whole game finished for her. I’m all prepared for the CoP run on Sunday night, and I think we should do a dry run first this time.
Tuesday 9 January 2007
Take it on the Kitchen
Following our success yesterday in Uggalepih, Teila and I returned to the Temple to look for her Coffer. We went in the main entrance and headed back out into the Yhoator Jungle, along the balcony, and into the deeper part of the Temple.
Yet again Teila didn’t have enough Shehei on her to take on Death from Above for her Hornetneedle, so instead we wandered from room to room, hoping to see a Coffer. By chance, I stumbled into a bizarre kitchen with Tonberry chef NPCs. Strange, how in a room filled with sharp cutting instruments, it was the chefs who were friendly. Judging by the way they were talking I think they wanted new knifes and chopping boards. Will have to check that one out.
Silly me got a bit clicky-happy, and double-clicked on a Tonberry Cutter thinking it was an NPC. It was an enemy, and my first click selected him, and the second attacked him. Teila had gone AFK also, so I had to try to solo this little bugger, but his SMN friend, a Tonberry Harrier, decided to join in. Luckily Yawawa was able to come out and she went about tanking them for me, and then Teila came back to laugh at me. I was lucky I hadn’t done it in one of the bigger rooms, or one of the corridors, or I would have had a right party.
Yet again Teila didn’t have enough Shehei on her to take on Death from Above for her Hornetneedle, so instead we wandered from room to room, hoping to see a Coffer. By chance, I stumbled into a bizarre kitchen with Tonberry chef NPCs. Strange, how in a room filled with sharp cutting instruments, it was the chefs who were friendly. Judging by the way they were talking I think they wanted new knifes and chopping boards. Will have to check that one out.
Silly me got a bit clicky-happy, and double-clicked on a Tonberry Cutter thinking it was an NPC. It was an enemy, and my first click selected him, and the second attacked him. Teila had gone AFK also, so I had to try to solo this little bugger, but his SMN friend, a Tonberry Harrier, decided to join in. Luckily Yawawa was able to come out and she went about tanking them for me, and then Teila came back to laugh at me. I was lucky I hadn’t done it in one of the bigger rooms, or one of the corridors, or I would have had a right party.
Monday 8 January 2007
My Body is a Temple
I had the day off work today, so amongst other things outside of the game (shock-horror!), I headed over to the Temple of Uggalepih with Teila to level our NPCs and farm.
On the way there, near the Spring outside the entrance to the Den of Rancor, we encountered an NM I’d never seen before called Woodland Sage. It was a Treant which towards the end of its life, used Benediction to heal itself almost 5000hp. It took ages to kill, but only dropped Rosewood Lumber, not the staff as hoped.
After that, we went to the secret part of the Temple, through the Den of Rancor, to the high level Tonberries. Yawawa was high enough to hit them, although if it wasn’t for the fact that she was a Stalwart Shield (PLD), she would have gone down quite quickly. Teila’s NPC, Beatrice, didn’t quite make L65, but she was close.
As luck would have it, the ??? was in the first room we entered, so whilst Teila pulled the Tonberry Pursuer to the camp on the stairs by the zone (away from the magic-aggro Iron Maidens), I touched it for the Carbuncle Mitts spawn item, the Offering to Uggalepih, woohoo! Shortly after a Coffer Key dropped (Teila and I both needed it for the SMN body AF), so Teila took it, to be followed closely after by a Prelate Key (needed to get into the High-Priests’ area of the Temple (where Crimson-Toothed Pawberry spawns for the Carbuncle Mitts)), and then by another Coffer Key (which I took), and then by an Unlit Lantern, needed to enter the BCNM for Zilart Mission 4. Not bad for a THF sub!
Next, we hot-footed it off to Xarcabard and then into Castle Zvahl-Baileys so that Teila could get her Dark Flame needed to make her AF gloves for SMN. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve fought this guy now, but luckily he didn’t once do his Self-Destruct move.
On the way there, near the Spring outside the entrance to the Den of Rancor, we encountered an NM I’d never seen before called Woodland Sage. It was a Treant which towards the end of its life, used Benediction to heal itself almost 5000hp. It took ages to kill, but only dropped Rosewood Lumber, not the staff as hoped.
After that, we went to the secret part of the Temple, through the Den of Rancor, to the high level Tonberries. Yawawa was high enough to hit them, although if it wasn’t for the fact that she was a Stalwart Shield (PLD), she would have gone down quite quickly. Teila’s NPC, Beatrice, didn’t quite make L65, but she was close.
As luck would have it, the ??? was in the first room we entered, so whilst Teila pulled the Tonberry Pursuer to the camp on the stairs by the zone (away from the magic-aggro Iron Maidens), I touched it for the Carbuncle Mitts spawn item, the Offering to Uggalepih, woohoo! Shortly after a Coffer Key dropped (Teila and I both needed it for the SMN body AF), so Teila took it, to be followed closely after by a Prelate Key (needed to get into the High-Priests’ area of the Temple (where Crimson-Toothed Pawberry spawns for the Carbuncle Mitts)), and then by another Coffer Key (which I took), and then by an Unlit Lantern, needed to enter the BCNM for Zilart Mission 4. Not bad for a THF sub!
Next, we hot-footed it off to Xarcabard and then into Castle Zvahl-Baileys so that Teila could get her Dark Flame needed to make her AF gloves for SMN. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve fought this guy now, but luckily he didn’t once do his Self-Destruct move.
Sunday 7 January 2007
Birds of a Feather
The CoP Squad had kindly and patiently waited for me to get to L50, and today was the day that we were ready to try again at Mission 4.2, but earlier Omnislasher had said that he had exams to revise for, so instead we took to Riverne Site #B01 to farm some more Hippogryph Tailfeathers to turn into Mistmelts. Plenty dropped, but we didn’t get any Hippogryph Feathers, which sell for around 130k. Doffo said this was because we didn’t have a THF, and he was probably right, but without a tank I didn’t think I would be much use as THF. We gave all the Hippogryph Tailfeathers to Doffo as we thought that it was best to let the melee run in to ground Ouryu rather than the mages, and considering the AoE power that Wyrm has, I was quite happy to be sure!
Friday 5 January 2007
An Austere Appearance
This morning I finally hit 50 and SMN as I knew it changed. Having bought the last piece of Austere's Gear, I now felt complete and powerful! My Summoning Skill has rocketed by 10 points, my Perpetuation Cost has dropped by 1 (means Avatars use 1 less mp per tick to remain out) and my Blood Pact Ability Delay has dropped by 7, meaning I can use my Avatar's powers more frequently. Shiva also learned Double Slap, so I'm now able to do 700 damage for 96mp, with no risk of hate to myself. Neat!
SilverStar became very sick this morning and could hardly move. It's probably my fault; perhaps I shouldn't have made her carry so many packages. I fed her two pieces of Tokopekko Wildgrass and some Gysahl Greens to make it taste better, so I hope she gets better soon.
I also discovered a 3rd clue into the owner of the missing baby Chocobo. The first was that the owner's name began with a "G"; the second was that it was a Mithra; the clue today was that she was an asventurer. I'm still non the wiser though, so I'll have to keep looking.
I also delivered supplies to the Elshimo Uplands (Yhoator Jungle) which will help with Teleporting around when not a WHM. Once I had delivered the package I thought I'd see if the ??? for the Uggalepih Offering had spawned (required to spawn Crimson-Toothed Pawberry for the Carbuncle Mitts), so I made my way into the Den of Rancor and up into the secret area of the Temple of Uggalepih, but it wasn't in any of the four rooms it usually spawns in, and I had no intention of attempting to open doors whilst moving past sight aggro Tonberries to get to the other two rooms, so I gave it up for today.
The CoP static is reforming again and we're looking to start doing our Sunday night Missions again. I've already got myself a decent buffer for my SMN, so I'm going to look to try to cap my Summoning Skill before Sunday in the hope that Garuda can inflict some mean damage on Ouryu!
Anyone seen Omnislasher lately?
Tuesday 2 January 2007
Solo, You Can't Hear It
Teila successfully began soloing IT++ Bombs today in Ifrit's Cauldron, summoning Ifrit to melee them until they used Self-Destruct. She received 375xp per kill, which was awesome.
I, on the other hand, was left to solo for less xp in the Western Altepa Desert whilst seeking for a party, but was unable to get one, and yet again there wasn't a sufficient number of people seeking for me to form my own.
Yawawa hit L56 on her last kill, so that was great news; she'd been L55 for several months. Unfortunately, I was unable to hit L50, but I ended up being 1.5k TNL, with 4/5 pieces of the Austere's gear waiting to be equipped!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!!
I, on the other hand, was left to solo for less xp in the Western Altepa Desert whilst seeking for a party, but was unable to get one, and yet again there wasn't a sufficient number of people seeking for me to form my own.
Yawawa hit L56 on her last kill, so that was great news; she'd been L55 for several months. Unfortunately, I was unable to hit L50, but I ended up being 1.5k TNL, with 4/5 pieces of the Austere's gear waiting to be equipped!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!!
Monday 1 January 2007
Are You an Antican or an Antican't?
Being so close to being a L49 SMN, I decided to duo with Yawawa in the Western Altepa Desert, using Fenrir to enfeeble the monsters so that Yawawa and I could easily despatch them quickly. It just seemed that no matter how quickly we ran through the monsters, my 850MP just couldn't go the distance and I seemed to rest more often than fight.
Meanwhile BBK announced that he finally got his Empress Hairpin to drop from the Valkurm Emperor which was excellent as he had been after that for ages. If that wasn't enough for him, he ran straight into the Golden Bat, but unfortunately it didn't drop the Bat Cape, just a Bat Wing. He then went off to find Jaggedy-Eared Jack...
The Quicksand Caves were becoming about as familiar as Caedarva Mire did to my WHM, as I finally received an invite to another party here. The wonderful thing was, not only was I not on main-heal duty, but we had a WHM, a RDM and the melee all had /NIN subs, which meant I could put Earthen Ward on them (so that when Copy Image dropped they didn't take damage) and sit back and DD away. The WHM and RDM hardly had to do anything; it was a really fun party. I finished up being 3K to L50.
Thing is, I think I've now come to realise the strengths and weaknesses of being a SMN. At early levels, we get the tier II BLM spells much quicker than a BLM, allowing us to fulfil the role of magic DD in a party. If our SMN skill is maxed, we can also rival melee DD too. However, in recent levels, I've really started to see why we don't get picked in parties often. The Summoning Skill doesn't seem to keep up with the difficulty curve of the monsters as we go up in levels, meaning our summons hit less than melee DD and we don't get the tier IV spells for some time, meaning we can't replace the BLM slot. Most of the other useful Blood Pacts at this level are buffs, like Earthen Ward (Stoneskinga) and Ecliptic Growl (Raises all stats), meaning SMNs take on a more "Bard-like" role. Once we reach 50, we have the introduction of the Austere gear, which enhances Blood Pact speed and ups the Summoning skill by 10, and then after that, we can begin to equip AF and add the Elemental Staves to our summoning, boosting Avatar effectiveness further.
I guess this explains why it's taken me so long to get to L49.
Meanwhile BBK announced that he finally got his Empress Hairpin to drop from the Valkurm Emperor which was excellent as he had been after that for ages. If that wasn't enough for him, he ran straight into the Golden Bat, but unfortunately it didn't drop the Bat Cape, just a Bat Wing. He then went off to find Jaggedy-Eared Jack...
The Quicksand Caves were becoming about as familiar as Caedarva Mire did to my WHM, as I finally received an invite to another party here. The wonderful thing was, not only was I not on main-heal duty, but we had a WHM, a RDM and the melee all had /NIN subs, which meant I could put Earthen Ward on them (so that when Copy Image dropped they didn't take damage) and sit back and DD away. The WHM and RDM hardly had to do anything; it was a really fun party. I finished up being 3K to L50.
Thing is, I think I've now come to realise the strengths and weaknesses of being a SMN. At early levels, we get the tier II BLM spells much quicker than a BLM, allowing us to fulfil the role of magic DD in a party. If our SMN skill is maxed, we can also rival melee DD too. However, in recent levels, I've really started to see why we don't get picked in parties often. The Summoning Skill doesn't seem to keep up with the difficulty curve of the monsters as we go up in levels, meaning our summons hit less than melee DD and we don't get the tier IV spells for some time, meaning we can't replace the BLM slot. Most of the other useful Blood Pacts at this level are buffs, like Earthen Ward (Stoneskinga) and Ecliptic Growl (Raises all stats), meaning SMNs take on a more "Bard-like" role. Once we reach 50, we have the introduction of the Austere gear, which enhances Blood Pact speed and ups the Summoning skill by 10, and then after that, we can begin to equip AF and add the Elemental Staves to our summoning, boosting Avatar effectiveness further.
I guess this explains why it's taken me so long to get to L49.
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