Up the Creek Without a Paddleboat

When I got home, quite late, I had a quick go at trying to get the Blackened Siredon item for the Head Wind BCNM against the Mithran Sin Hunters but had no joy. I noticed that the Newtpool route barges were only once per thirty-three minutes, so I logged out to try again another time.

Fluke

I began the afternoon by starting my cutscenes for CoP 5.3 plotting out a route where I had to do the least amount of running around. Fortunately, there weren’t as many as I had thought there would be, and it was actually quite enjoyable just running around the place and watching the cutscenes with no pressure for once. The CoP storyline is kinda making more sense now, and it’s also getting more and more exciting with each chapter. I suppose I’m enjoying it, but it doesn’t beat the ToAU storyline.



After dinner, I decided to use up my last Imperial Army ID Tag and whipped up a party for Seagull Grounded as usual. It was a very successful run (we get better at this each time) and now within one or two more Periqia Assaults, I’ll have the body piece for my WHM.

Meanwhile, on the Linkshell, Hala needed help getting her WHM AF1 Weapon from the Valkurm Dunes, but we were all pre-occupied and weren’t able to assist. Teila and Aka promised to come after the Assault, but Hala found help from elsewhere and got her Blessed Hammer. We’re just all so busy at the moment that it’s hard for us to help out at the moment, but hey, we’re TheHelpingHand, and we try when we can.^^

After the Assault, I tried to form an XP party with Teila for my THF. I had forgotten it was just under L54 and not quite there yet, but it didn’t matter. Our unfriendly RDM DC’d before we had even left Jeuno and so our SAM decided to participate in Besieged instead but he was very polite about it. With no tanks and no healers, yet again we had to disband.

I was on my way to go solo in the Attohwa Chasm with Yawawa when someone on my Friend List, Jackteflon, saw me seeking and sent me an invite. I swear that was the only reason I got the invite, as no one invites THFs and we all know it! Understandably, Teila was pretty pissed, as she had just entered Besieged for a pop at some XP, but I couldn’t miss a chance to level, to try to catch up to the CoP Squad.

After much umming and ahhing, we hit Kuftal Tunnel and began pulling Robber Crabs. We had a RDM and BLU for Dispelling, but it didn’t feel like it. I couldn’t hit for more than around 5 damage, but SATAVB was still respectable in the 400s. I made L54 and got a 3k buffer. I’m out tomorrow night and Thursday night, but as I’ll be getting to Teila’s early on Friday, I’ll probably be able to party at her house. Weekends are when I’ve been able to get a party easiest.



It was late when I logged but before I did, I checked on FrostMoon. Both his Discernment and Receptivity had turned to Average, so I re-Registered him. Unfortunately he had fallen in love so I’ll have to remedy that some other time.

A Private Promotion

I had heard that you could only receive a promotion in Assault for either completing all the Assaults for your rank or by purchasing a 20k item, but without doing either, I received the Promotion – Private First Class quest from Naja Salaheem. She wanted an Imp Wing, but I forgot to get it for her. I guess that you can now also receive a promotion after doing a certain number of Assaults? Who knows, but it’s a good thing as there are some awesome PFC Assaults, including the fight with Lamia No. 13.

We had three successful runs at Periqia, need I say more? A THF called Salcabba had some incredible dice rolls and also found us the amazing Rare/Ex Gloves: Storm Manopolas which has DEF 16, Evasion +6 and Enmity +3 on it. Akashea won the lot, so I hope she starts levelling her NIN!^^

It was quite late when we finished, but Hala needed help fighting her Rank 3 Dragon, so Aka, Jeanius and I agreed. To my horror I then found out it was in Horlais Peak, the furthest of the three BCNM choices away from anywhere. I had to Teleport to Holla, take a Chocobo to San d’Oria, change to PLD, then run through West Ronfaure, Ghelspa Outpost, through the Yughott Grotto, out into Fort Ghelspa, and then back into the Yughott Grotto before reaching the BCNM. It took me forty-five minutes.

It was at this point I noticed Jeanius was still in Port Jeuno so Aka and I asked a couple of times if he was still coming, but no response. Hala wanted to go in with just the three of us, but I wasn’t confident a WHM, BLM and PLD could do it. Eventually, Jeanius came back saying that his kid was upset, which was, well, fair enough, but it was really late and I had wanted to level THF. By the time it took the Airship to arrive, and then for him to get to San d’Oria and run the Marathon to Horlais Peak, it had been two hours since we had all agreed to do this.



We gave the Dragon a beating it wouldn’t forget in a hurry and Hala got her Rank 3. I was so tired at this point, so Akashea D2’d me and I logged out.

Nothing But an Empty Shell

Today we returned to Promyvion-Vahzl and fortunately we were able to Warp up to the fifth floor as hoped. BBK and Usagy found us a route to the Spire of Vahzl and we crossed into the BCNM.



It went so well I thought we were doing something wrong. Fighting all three bosses was easier than fighting the individual ones separately on the way up! Although Omnislasher was carrying round half a pharmacy with him, I luckily kept out of range from the AoEs so didn’t really see the worst of the fight.

We won, we walked away, we didn’t look back.

The CoP Squad headed straight over to Bastok and we activated the next mission, The Three Paths. There was so much we needed to do, but as we were together we decided to farm a Gold Key from Newton Movopolos. We made it there pretty easily but sadly on our first fight we got a link of three Moblins and wiped. A quick Reraise III later, Akashea and I got the party back on their feet and we moved camp. We only managed around ten fights before people had to go, and no Keys dropped. Still, it’s a little while away until we need them, so it’s not urgent.



Got to get my THF levelled. No pressure.

No Diggity

This morning was mostly spent doing essential stuff like muling and crafting some low level Alchemy things, but afterwards I went into Promyvion-Mea to get my Tactics Pearl before tomorrow's Conquest tally. Having nearly got Yawawa killed twice, I managed to get to the ??? to get her a 640xp bonus and a new Pearl. Recently I'd been ploughing through the Pearl uses soloing with her, so I couldn't afford not to get one. It was close though!



Afterwards I recharged my Chocobo Whistle (for a whopping 25k!) and bought five stacks of Gysahl Greens. Having registered FrostMoon to the Whistle, I set off into East Sarutabaruta and began digging away, hoping the Average mental stats and Treasure-Finder ability would help. Most of the time I found nothing, but I did dig up some Sprigs of Papaka Grass and Herb Seeds. The biggest thing I found was a Lauan Log but I think I will need to put more time into skilling up my Chocobo Digging hidden skill.

Who Wood Have Thought?

It seems miracles do occur! I got to Teila's house earlier than usual so I had some time to play whilst she watched telly. Amazingly, I received a party invite as THF, serving to prove my point that invites come at weekends and late at night only for me, or so it seems.



The party was very friendly, and was one of those /NIN sub parties, where even our healer was casting Utsusemi: Ichi. We went to the Wajaom Woodlands, which was quite tough at L52, and our tank, Detrecaurielle, was getting hit 150-300+ by the Colibri whenever her shadows went down.

Hate went all over the place, as our Healer loved casting Cure IV (the Cure spell with the most hate attached to it) and the RNG kept stealing it with her Job Abilities.

I couldn't SATA as we didn't have a second 'Voker, so I had to make best use as I could of Trick Attack (pretty pointless on its own until L60 when you get the Assassin Job Trait) and careful timing of Sneak Attack to do extra damage.

Things did improve when our BLM left and was replaced by a WAR/NIN (not because I don't like BLMs, but because it allowed me to use SATA and plaster hate on the tank), but at around half midnight, I was getting sleepy and mistook the BLU for the NIN, and SATA'd onto her for over 600 damage, and got her killed. She took it really well, and I couldn't apologise enough, but names aside, they looked almost identical!

Fed Up

I think today was one of those "final straw" days, not just for me but for everyone.

Teila had been seeking for just under six hours in total today, and party leaders had resorted to picking two tanks over her in one party, and a THF with no sub in another.

BBK was fed up with not being able to get a party, and ended up dying several times whilst soloing. As a result, he ended up losing more xp than he gained so Aka and Teila went off to help him.

I too tried again with THF, and even put together a party, but just like the one with Jeanius the other night, I had to disband because we could not, for the life of us, get a healer. Teila asked RDMs, WHMs and even a SMN, and non responded, except the SMN, who said they'd come if we could get a Refresher. The one BRD our level, wouldn't come though. Again we had to disband.

Before I logged I checked all players seeking between L25 and L28. There were two. This sucks.

This game is no longer fun for me, but something I do because I have put too much effort into it. Well done, SE, you have me where you want me. I remember two years ago when I first started playing - there were green flags everywhere. Now, it's just not possible for Europeans to get parties.

At the same time, I watched my American friend gain 13 levels on her DRK overnight, and you know why? Because the game is filled with US and JP.

EU players don't matter to SE - that's why maintenance is always scheduled for our evening time.

Something has to be done; this just isn't right.

Anyway, three successful Assaults tonight though, which means we're around 4k to getting the first piece of Yigit gear. Looking back, it hasn't been too bad really. Just time-consuming.



FrostMoon's Discernment rose to Average though! Decided to ease off on the heavy Care Plans in case his Affection drops too low. He also learned "Treasure Finder" so I am hoping that he can dig me up some nice stuff soon!

Back in Black

As usual I was out tonight so just logged in around 11pm to check on FrostMoon. He had finally grown to an adult and had become a black Chocobo!

Not really sure how I ended up with a Destrier (the San d’Orian military Chocobo) when I’ve gone out of my way to make it a brainy Chocobo! Oh well, probably something to do with my Dating Plan and FrostMoon’s powerful father, SwiftWind.

Nevertheless, I’m curious to see how his stats will turn out. It’s day twenty-nine and both mental stats are on “A Bit Deficient”, which is higher than any of SilverStar’s stats even at retirement!

Rumble in the Jungle

We began Assaults earlier today but had two very successful runs, especially our second, which was a new record, mainly down to the fact that Excaliace missed out all three Crab rooms and then took the shorter route to the south. Who cares? Not I! Having now done this approximately fifteen times, I really don’t mind how we do it, as long as we do!

I also got my first ever Merit, which I plan on putting into STR.

After dinner, I put a party together as WAR, with Jeanius as a SAM, but after I tried and tried, I couldn’t get us a healer. I hated doing it, but for the sake of getting going, I asked every single WHM in our level range to come and join us (politely of course) but each one declined. Finally, I had to disband the party.

I soon got another invite though, but we had two SMNs as well as a WHM (which is odd), and as one of the SMNs was down the first hole to Yhoator Jungle, we all followed and, despite our level range being L24-L26), ended up fighting in the Yhoator Jungle.

Although we got 300xp per kill, each fight took what seemed like hours, and drained all our resources. All mages ended up empty after each fight, and the NIN and I ended up using the best part of a stack of Shihei per fight.



There were quite a few parties in Yhoator Jungle, but I did notice at one point a player I will refer to as 'P1' put out a shout for a Raise a couple of times as two of his party were down. I soon forgot about it as we had to concentrate on the eternal struggle known as the Yhoator Mandragora.

A while later, on the verge of death, I noticed P1 come up to our party in person and say (not quoted), “I think it’s really selfish that you won’t allow your WHM to Raise us.”

Now, as our NIN tank died, and with myself in red life, and our mages with no mp, I thought that was downright rude, especially as we were struggling. I was pissed off so I wrote “WTF, can’t you see we’re fighting?” trying to imply: ‘why would we send out our WHM to Raise you when we need him here?’

Seconds later I died too.

Luckily I had Reraise up, and picked myself up off the Jungle floor and sat down to heal. P1 then made another comment about us being selfish.

(Kixxi): Look, no one is telling our WHM what to do. He can go and Raise you now if he likes. There is no need to call us Selfish.
(P1): You know what?
(Kixxi): Yeah?
(P1): You’re a selfish a$$hole.
(Kixxi): ??
(p1): You’re the only one with the problem here.

What had I said? What had I done? I had tried to be polite and say that there was no need to call us selfish as no one was stopping him Raise him!! I mean, it’s harsh when you need a Raise and people don’t come because they want all the monsters for ourselves, but no one had said anything and we were struggling to get through each fight alive!

That made me so mad. I hate people disliking me, let alone insulting me like that, especially when I had attempted to mollify him by saying ‘look dude chill, he can Raise’, as Folkin had implied we had stopped him. If the WHM had secretly told him in a /tell that we had said no, I wouldn’t have gone up to the party and given them abuse, I would have maybe gone up to them and said, “Excuse me but, your WHM says he can’t come and Raise us. Do you mind sparing him a sec?” I would not speak to anyone like that.

We disbanded at that point, and I logged for bed, having made 1.2k in almost three hours.

Sooty, Sweep & Self-Destruct

I had yet another busy day IRL so didn’t log in until almost 7pm again, at which point I had to head straight back to Whitegate to change for Assaults.

It took forever to get a party going, but once we did, we had two successful runs escorting Excaliace through Periqia. I even won the lot on the second Assault and therefore got the AP bonus at the end. Roughly only 8k to go until I can wear my new Body Armour!



Jeanius was bored, so as Teila didn’t manage to get “Refuelling” the other night (from Bomb Clusters), we asked him to help us. He agreed and brought along a L75 PLD called Kronus and we took the Runic Portal to Mount Zhayolm.

At this point, BBK announced that he was logging and I could tell that by the way he said it it was because he was fed up with seeking, and I didn’t blame him. Something’s really been up lately with parties and being UK, we don’t have the luxury of putting together our own, as the Japanese are asleep and the Americans are at work. We just take what we can get, but there comes a point where someone up there is taking the piss!

Just outside the Staging Point were many Sweeping Clusters, EM Bomb Clusters ready to chomp on any Tarutaru who dared cast in their presence. Now I didn’t know this, but I thought Bomb Clusters operated as individual enemies, but they don’t! Oh no, each Cluster consists of three Bombs, and each one can Self-Destruct! Luckily, our level and Barfira kept us away from any real harm.

I was pulling, and fortunately the repop time for the Clusters was very, very quick, so I didn’t have to wait long or go too far. Stoneskin seemed to have a habit of wearing just after I’d made the pull, however, but no real harm was done. Teila learned "Refuelling after around six or seven Clusters. I also ended up being only a few hundred LP away from my first ever Merit!



Afterwards Jeanius asked us when we were doing ZM 4, but due to my hectic schedule in and out of the game at the moment, I was unsure. I said I would happily go along if someone else arranged it and I was free. He then went off to go and do San d’Oria Rank 8.1 with Kronus, but I had to log as I had to do something in real life. I felt bad logging so soon, but I’ve been so busy lately with things to do, so I didn’t have a choice.

Silence of the Lands

I didn’t log in today but I spoke to Teila about the game (as usual)! She had been seeking since 5.30pm and hadn’t had an invite when I came home at 11pm. She went downstairs to play FFXII and, lo and behold, she found a party invite a long way up her screen an hour later. Sod’s Law is not a myth, folks. BBK and Aka both logged at 9.45pm tonight apparently as they couldn’t get parties as NIN and BLM respectively. You know something is wrong when you can’t get a party as a NIN. Teila had done /sea alls at various times of the day and there were like two people online between L45 and L49 or something.

“How many people are online at the moment?” I asked her.

“Around one thousand, eight-hundred,” Teila replied. That’s the usual figure for our playing time; although it seems to be double that during a Japanese evening.

“Now do a ‘sea all’ one to seventy-five,” I asked, “as that will show you everyone who is not anon.”

Turned out about a third of the total number of players online were /anon, most likely a few campers, but mostly mules and RMT no doubt.

“Now do a ‘sea all’ seventy-five,” I asked again. The result was around four-hundred.

Doing the math, that meant there were around two-hundred players online who were not /anon and not L75, which is a miniscule amount of people for a MMORPG. That’s about three Dynamis’ worth of players, and when you look at it like that, that’s nothing. When you consider of those two-hundred people who were actually seeking, it’s very limiting.

So where is everyone? Looking on other forums, it’s also the Americans who are having a problem getting invites too apparently, but us Europeans can’t even put together parties ourselves with such limiting figures.

Is FFXI dying out at last? I doubt it, but is there now too much endgame content that people level one job and then stay at L75 doing nothing else?

Comments on a postcard please!

Hippo-Critical

When I got home at 4pm I logged in and went straight to Kazham. I put my flag up as a L24 WAR/NIN but was surprised when, after half an hour, I had no party invite. Then, when I was about to return to Jeuno, I received and invite for a party at Qufim Island, but I politely declined, as a L24 WAR at 2k TNL wouldn’t do wonders for the xp there. Ten minutes of seeking later, I regretted my decision, thinking that some xp was better than no xp.

In the end, Teila and I decided to team up as WAR and MNK again and we hit Qufim Island with our NPCs and raked through the Ts and VTs to level up faster than almost any party would have! It was a slaughterfest! Once I hit L25, we both headed back to Whitegate so I could cook before preparing to enter Riverne Site #B01.

Akashea, BBK and I had agreed to help Teila get some BLU moves from Cape Riverne, but were reluctant to take on the Bomb Clusters there due to their high level in a capped zone. We did, however, manage to deal with the T and VT Hippogryphs, who, despite many critical hits on Fenrir, were unable to bring him down whilst he enfeebled them all. Teila spammed her moves, Aka kept us alive, and BBK let some mp fly as a BLM. We got some reasonable xp and the move “Jettatura” was learned after four or five Hippogryphs.



Instead of proceeding further to find the Nitro Clusters (to learn “Refuelling”), we headed into the Sacrarium to fight the weaker Stegotaur at the entrance in the hope to learn “Frightful Roar”. These were easier than the Hippogryphs and not once did it inflict Doom on anyone! It was getting late when on the fourth Stegotaur, it did the move and Teila learned it.^^

I logged out at this point, but the others headed back to Whitegate to participate in a L2 Besieged.

No Holds Bard

Again I was busy after work, so I had barely logged in when Teila called me to Whitegate so that we could start the Assaults in Periqia again. I was swamped with /tells the moment I shouted and we had a full party within seconds.



Three Assaults, back to back, three excellent runs, each one with ten minutes still on the clock. We got very lucky with the first one, as Excaliace didn’t run into any of the Crab rooms! That was great because the Arrapago Crabs take so long to kill because of their hard shells, but we've noticed such a big difference since Teila started coming as a BRD. Able to keep Aka Refreshed (great in a timed environment) and adding around 150 to each of the melees' attack, it's much more useful in this Assault than a BLM. Now don't flame me, but this Assault just doesn't have room for much in the way of MP. The Leujaoam Cleansing Assault, on the other hand, is where a BLM shines!

We finished up with Aka and me on approximately 9800 AP but Teila, due to winning a couple of Assault bonus Armbands, was on a rounded 10k AP. So in effect, as of tonight, we’re halfway to winning our first Rare/Ex gear. Admittedly, if we could unlock Private First Class and beyond, we’d have so many more options, but we really are restricted in what two WHMs can do, until I get another job post L70.

After the Assaults, I grabbed some dinner and stuck my flag up in Kazham as a WAR. It was my own fault for thinking I could get a party whenever I wanted, as I was seeking for around forty-five minutes to no joy. In fact, another WAR around my level who had been seeking before me, gave up, and headed back to Jeuno. At nearly 11pm I logged to watch X-Files, a little bothered by the fact I couldn’t get a party as a WAR/NIN, something I had believed to be a hit.

Argh, I forgot to feed FrostMoon!!!

Prommies Me We'll Never do This Again!

My family and I went out for lunch in a country restaurant today for my mother’s birthday, so I didn’t get home until almost 3pm. By the time I had done the things I needed to do around the house, the sky was getting dark, but when I logged in, I had barely pulled out my axes to solo when I got a Japanese party invite with my WAR in Qufim. When I arrived there, we only fought for around ten minutes before they disbanded, but straight away I got an invite to a second party. This one was English-speaking and because we were stuck at five for a while, Teila agreed to come along as a MNK to make up the numbers.



I haven’t had a party like this in a long, long time. In less than three hours I managed to make three and a half levels with my WAR, a total of six levels since Friday. I wanted to carry on just to see how far I could get but I had an hour until the CoP Squad was planning on hitting Promyvion-Vahzl, so I had to return to Whitegate to mule.

I swapped to SMN and grabbed my Anima and meds for the CoP static. Once we were ready, we headed into Pso’Xja and popped the NM Golem, Nunyunuwi. The rumours about this thing’s Regen weren’t lies. This baby’s life bar wasn’t just increasing; it was going up in chunks! We took it down with relative ease (most likely due to having a merited BLM in the group), but it began spamming Crystal Weapon at low hp and that hurt a little.

I’ve never noticed just how big Pso’Xja really is, most probably because it’s divided into different towers, but tonight it seemed even bigger. We went down an endless elevator and then into a cutscene-only area which seemed to house a lost civilisation of people. It was here we were drawn into Promyvion-Vahzl.

I still can’t make up my mind if I like Prommies or not. They’re weird, and everywhere you look the place is filled with true-sight aggro. Promyvion-Vahzl wasn’t too hard, but everything took so long to kill. We couldn’t help but get aggro at some points, and on the second floor, there was a “tunnel” so narrow, we had to start pulling the big baddies just to try and make room to move. Heroically, Doffo offered to sacrifice himself for the sake of time and aggroed everything. He died, but we made it to the next Memory Receptacle without a scratch.



The NMs on the next two floors were pretty straightforward – we were prepared and we took them down to rescue Tenzen and Louverance. On the fifth and final floor, however, we were all quite tired and Doffo won the lot on a White Memosphere, an ultra-rare drop from a Craver which is used in obtaining the map. He saw the ??? by a group of Empty, and tried to Ninja by them to get it, but a Seether turned and wiped him out. BBK had followed him, thinking he had seen the Memory Flux (where Ulmia was hidden) and followed suit! Usagy bravely ran in to Tractor the two corpses, but got aggro from a bored Weeper, and he too went down. Luckily we managed to recover and moved onto the final Memory Flux, but poor Doffo didn’t get the map.

We wiped on the final boss, as we tried to save 2hrs for an attempt at the BCNM. I swear, this thing had no hp left at all but we just couldn’t kill it. It was spamming Trinary Absorption and draining hp from Omnislasher. Owing to the fact it was half midnight, we agreed to Raise up and take it on using 2hrs.

We walked all over it, then trod on it again for good measure. Ulmia was pretty pleased to see us, but Prishe was still trapped in the Spire. Usagy was confident that we would be able to Warp straight to the fifth floor next time, so we agreed to call it a night and BBK and Usagy started D2ing us.

After we’d disbanded, I headed over to Windurst Woods and – tadaa – FrostMoon had grown into an adolescent with grey tips on his wings and tailfeathers! I had no idea what colour this bird was on its way to becoming, but it was exciting to see it change colour. I dashed to Kamp Kweh with Teila, received a Strength bonus from playing with SwiftWind, then logged out, tired as hell, but feeling generally satisfied with the day’s events.

Bite Me

Much of Saturday was spent doing things out and around the house so I didn’t log in until the evening. I had agreed to help Teila get Mandibular Bite from Antlions so her BLU would be up to date, so we went off to Attohwa Chasm and started pulling the easy Antlions near Parradamo Tor. Mandibular Bite is a fairly common move, so it wasn’t long until it used the move and we finished it off.

Before leaving, I ran through the tunnels to the hard area of the Chasm, past the Tiamat spawn point, and zoned into Boneyard Gully to complete my “One Good Deed” quest for the map of Attohwa Chasm. After that, we left, and I went back to soloing WAR.

Goblin Up the XP!

I managed to obtain L20 as a WAR/NIN today so I was finally able to swap from a single Bone Pick to dual Battleaxes. Yawawa and I were raking through Even Matches and Toughs, annihilating anything that came accross our paths. Turns out WAR/NIN is so badass, not even Yawawa could keep hate from me!^^



Once I'd achieved that, I headed back to check on FrostMoon and now his Receptivity had reached Substandard as well as his Discernment!

Trying Not to Warrior About It

The very first thing I did when I got home was knuckle down and get on with levelling WAR to 20 solo, so as to skill-up my Axe before hitting Qufim at L20 with a NIN sub. I chose THF sub today though, for the increase in Accuracy and Evasion. People say Sole Sushi is a waste at this level, but I noticed a large increase to my stats and I’m sure that must have helped in this time of need.

Anyway, I called on trusty Yawawa to tank for me whilst I beat up the Dhalmels, and DC+ was not a problem for us at all. In fact we had Dhalmel for dinner. Then I remembered I also had to eat in RL, and before I could get a level, I had to log and start cooking up Quorn Chicken El Kixo.



When I logged back in afterwards, I went straight back to Whitegate to do more of the usual Assaults with Akashea and Teila. We had a heavy offensive melee this time, but with a BLU/WAR tank first and for the second run, a NIN/WAR. Instead of coming as a BLM, Teila came as a BRD and boosted everyone’s attack by approximately 150. We beat the Assault both times in just under twenty minutes! The first time we got a Gust Claymore from the appraisal, the second time just a Bone Chip. Just another 12-13k AP until I can obtain the Yigit Body!^^

FrostMoon’s Receptivity hadn’t increased still, but I also received the message that he had become very sensitive, making him good with people. Perhaps this means that I can show him off to the public for extra results! He was also still in high spirits for the third day running! Awesome!

Chocoholic

I logged in just before bed to check on FrostMoon. His Discernment had finally risen to Substandard, which is a real result considering he is physical bird and still only a chick. I’m going to keep him on this diet and plan right the way through to Adolescence, any day now!

Bye Bye Bassmundo

Tonight was rather depressing, to say the least.

First off, one of the Linkshell’s oldest members, Bassmundo, finally quit the game for good, having completed pretty much everything. He logged in to say his goodbyes and then handed over his account to a good mate. He’s helped me a lot since I first started playing, and I’ve never really been able to help him out back, which is a shame.



Round about the same time as Bass was saying goodbye, BBK wrote to me about dying in Bibiki Bay. The poor dude has been trying to claw his way to L60 since about the time the Mongols invades China, but to no joy. Kitty too, has been struggling to get invites ever since he hit the late 40s, because no parties will accept a WAR/MNK at that level despite the fact that WAR/NIN doesn’t really begin to shine until post L50.

I too, had my only real “free” night, last night, and sat in Jeuno seeking for, literally, three hours, whilst I watched several episodes of the X-Files. People often say to me, “start your own parties”, but those people are always lucky NA who have the luxury of more than four players seeking in your level range. I have not been able to start a party in many, many months.

Teila had two parties as BLU yesterday, but both were tankless, and both were disasters. In the latter one, she had two wipes, four deaths an accidental Teleport-Dem, and all this before the party had even pulled a single monster. At the start of the WHM’s fifth death, she left.

So it seems all round, the linkshell had a crappy day. What is the answer to our problems?

Well, level either NIN or WAR, by the sound of things. Let’s all be sell-outs and join the millions of others who are levelling these two jobs as no one else gets invites, oh, except maybe BRD and RDM. Bitter am I? Correct, says me.^^

Lastly, before I logged out, I checked up on FrostMoon. Apparently I had taken such good care of him that he was extra-responsive to anything I gave him. I shoved a few Zegham Carrots in his beak and logged out for the night.

Silly Old Bugard

Today was a busy day! Logged in at 4pm when I got home and headed straight back to Tavnazia with Teila to try to get a BLU spell from Bugards. I kept getting hate, so as they were so weak, the majority of their moves hit me and were resisted. We decided to move on to Gigantobugards, and these hit hard even against me at L75, but the move Teila needed was done more frequently. We were about to quit when finally she learned Awful Eye.

We then headed to Bibiki Bay to fight Efts for Geist Wall, but it was a very infrequent move and we didn't get time to learn it before the Manaclipper for Purgonorgo Isle arrived. Typically though, just before the Manaclipper turned up, an NM called Intulo popped and I couldn't resist but take it on!



We pulled it onto the Manaclipper but it departed before we were able to kill it, sadly. I looked up what it drops, and as well as the Curaga Earring (very useful for PLDs), it drops the Magic Slacks, which, according to the net, are worth around 1mil. Granted it is supposedly a horrific drop rate, but it's Sod's Law that the one time I have the opportunity to pull an NM that drops something like that without competition is the one time I have to get the Manaclipper…

There are few places in FFXI that get me saying "Wow" every time I visit them, but Purgonorgo Isle is one of those few. It's always deserted, which adds to the whole 'mysterious desert island' feel, much like the island from TV's Lost.

Teila needed Venom Shell from Urganites, and Blank Gaze from Opo-Opos, and fortunately the Coralline Urganites spam Venom Shell, so she learnt it after only pulling a couple.

We didn't manage to get Blank Gaze, as we had to return to Whitegate to meet Akashea for Assault, but Teila managed to get one of her final CoP cutscenes from the ??? Warmachine to the south of the island.



Assault began badly. The first time I put the party together, I put us with a DRK and two BLMs (Teila included) and a PLD tank, thinking "oh yeah, BLMs are awesome DD and do lots of damage on Crabs" but Teila insisted that this wasn't going to work, and Akashea didn't sound too sure either. We spent almost twenty minutes on the Crab rooms and ended up failing the mission before we'd even finished killing the Doomed. After that, I split the party to reform.

The second time was much better. We had a NIN tank, a DRK, and a WAR up front, and this went very smoothly, finishing with five minutes left on the clock. I won a Hi-Ether Tank, and the ??? Sword turned out to be a Gust Claymore, but I can't remember who won it.

I then muled and went AFK for an hour, but at 11pm the three of us decided to use up our last Imperial Army ID Tag and went for a third time. Similar results to the second time, but Excaliace was proving an absolute nightmare to control. We finished with around four minutes on the clock and our NIN tank won the ??? Box, which turned out to contain an Igneous Rock.

Before I went to bed I checked on FrostMoon, and any day now he'll grow into an adolescent so I'll have some indication of what colour he might be. As of today there was still no change to his stats, but he’s been permanently at top affection even with minimal watching. I walked him a further three times, and he found me a Goblin Mask! Awesome!

Profess to Nothing

Again my train decided to divert itself and take an extra hour getting home, so I logged in for CoP with a couple of minutes to spare, grabbed my gear and legged it to Tavnazia. Usagy had joined us to finally form the sixth in our CoP Static and so we were all happy and flowing with confidence.

The Sacrarium was pretty smooth, and we made our way to the Reliquarium Gate with little trouble. I traded my Coral Crest Key, and then Akashea traded her Sealion Crest Key, and we had access to the inner sanctum. We received our cutscenes and then headed back out to find the Reliquarium Key. The ??? was in the third Chapel we tried and so Omnislasher popped Old Professor Mariselle and his two Pupils and we began a crazy fight. The Old Professor kept vanishing and reappearing elsewhere so we had to run between the pews dodging Fomor to get back to him. Again poor BBK died as he received hate from the Pupils and try as he might he couldn’t keep himself alive long enough. He went down the second we laid the Old Professor to rest.



We ran to the ?? to pick up our Key Item: Reliquarium Key and BBK tried to Raise up as quickly as possible but he seemed to freeze, almost like DCing but without the actual DCing. Luckily, he could still obtain his Key Item when he was able to move again.

We returned through the Reliquarium Gate to get an interesting cutscene (do I say that a lot?) for CoP but as usual I was too excited to take it in. We got a nice photo though, set in front of a statue of Promathia himself.

We returned to the Tavnazian Safehold so that the others could complete Chapter Four, but I was short on time, so I headed of to Windy to feed FrostMoon. There were no developments though, but he found me another Beastcoin!

New Kids on the Blocklist

During the early afternoon I helped Teila get some moves for her BLU in the Basement of Lower Delkfutt's Tower (accessed via the Cermet Doors on the ground floor using a Delkfutt's Key). It took a while to get the moves we wanted, as someone was running from room to room killing all the Magic Pots he could lay his hands on, but farming Light Elementals for Clusters made it worthwhile.

Afterwards, whilst Akashea went to Besieged, Teila and I went into Batallia Downs and finally got Pinecone Bomb from the Treants, making her practically up to date until the 40s. We quickly Warped back to Whitegate and ran into Besieged, but I had barely cast Protect when it ended, but it was the easiest 24xp I had ever made.



Akashea, Teila and I then formed a party for our usual Assault on Periqia. Whilst I was shouting, I got a /tell from Shishio who wrote "I'm down". Me being the Englishman that I am, told him I didn't understand (he was in a party and I thought that maybe he was dead from Besieged or something, hence the "I'm down"), but he meant he was "down" for the Assault – must have been American slang! He remained in a party for a while after (lag?) but eventually I was able to invite him. We also had Koov as our tank – a quiet but good NIN from our Diabolos obsession era. Hydrowizard as a THF made the sixth.

At Dvucca, we rolled for the Assault bonus item and Shishio won it (he won it both times by a few points - jammy!) and proceeded to lead Excaliace as planned. It all went fine until we hit the Pugil tunnels, because I could see from the macros that they had gone straight from fighting Arrapago Crabs to Debauchers. I could see before long that Koov had died as the Pugils aggroed them from behind. I managed to Raise Koov and he carried on Weakened. Poor Akashea kept running out of MP.

We managed to get Excaliace to the final room with less than a minute to spare, so I popped the Chest and zoned us out with the ??? Gloves but no meds. It was appraised to be a pair of Cuffs and nothing else.



The second time in went better but not by much. One member of the party proceeded to start on the Arrapago Crabs in a room that Excaliace totally avoided despite us reminding him to bypass that room. He also ended up going completely randomly down a tunnel away from the party and tried to solo a Pugil (and failed). I had to ask Akashea to hold Excaliace whilst I ran back and Raised him.

The Debauchers took a long time to kill this time, and I had to run in and use Benediction, but we made it to the end with around five minutes to spare. This time we got a ??? Box from the Chest but it turned out to contain nothing more than an Igneous Rock. Oh well, I guess the Storm Manopolas (Rare/Ex Gloves) and Kosetsumonji (Rare/Ex Sword) will have to wait. Apparently, the Cleaning Tool Set (Furnishing) is the best ??? Box item, which Teila now owns.

After Assault, I stuck my flag up with THF and got a party relatively quickly. We were soon at five, with a Japanese RDM and a BRD. We had a NIN tank and a WAR/NIN DD. We were stuck at five for ages…. And then I noticed a BST, a MNK and a BLM seeking.

"Why don't you grab the MNK, I suggested?"

But the MNK was Japanese and wasn't responding (something that bugs me about a lot of Japanese players) but then the conversation turned sour:

(Kixxi) What about the BST or the BLM?
(Player1) BSTs suck in parties and DD > BLM at this level.

I could have sworn BLM was a DD…

(Kixxi) BSTs do not suck in parties, that’s a myth.
(P1) It’s not a myth. I know it’s a fact.

A few seconds of mumbling later…

(P1) I’m going AFK, Joubian you’ve got leader. Get us a 6th.
(Player2) KK.
(P1) And I don’t want any of that DRG, SAM or DRK crap either.

Blood boiling…

(Kixxi) That is stupid.
(P1) What is?
(Kixxi) You have just named three of the best DDs in the game.
(P1) WTF LMAO! Um, no.
(Kixxi) ??
(P1) I'm a 75 DRK, I know they suck at this level.
(Kixxi) Are you a 75 DRK now?
(P2) LMAO ok, ok, look…
(P2) He's got a point, they don’t get good til around L60.
(P1) Yeah I have multiple L75s active.

At this point I was moaning on the Linkshell to Akashea about this moron and we both agreed he was just a bratty kid.

Very tired and resigned…

(Kixxi) /sigh, OK you’re the leader. I just disagree is all.

Later, at our camp (1.5hrs after joining) we’re about to start…

P1 examines you.
(P1) ?? No Harness?
(Kixxi) ?
(Player3) Who?

Silence. I had been hoping that he was going to say "Kixxi doesn't have his SH on" so that not only could I tell him to mind his own equipment, I was also going to remind him that as he had "multiple jobs to L75", he should know a SH is L57. Moron.



The XP wasn't bad at all once we got going. I made them get a DRG who was seeking insisting that DRG would be excellent as piercing weapons do more damage to bats, and the BRD agreed with me, saying she too was getting impatient.

The problem was, P1 insisted on pulling but went AFK after nearly every fight. I know this because he died and took over ten minutes to accept the Raise, despite calls. I got really annoyed…

(Kixxi) About time.

Silence.

(Kixxi) Seriously it's late in the UK.
(P2) He's not from the UK.
(Kixxi) No, I am.
(P3) I'm going to restart.

That was my cue. I told them I was going as this was taking the piss and I left, sending a /tell to the polite Japanese RDM saying why. She was real nice about it.

My /blist increases ever more…