A Bit of a CoP-Out

Although I had told the CoP Squad last week I couldn't make CoP tonight as I was going out for my birthday, due to personal reasons I wasn't able to go ahead with my birthday plans so I posted on the Forum a couple of days ago that I could make tonight. Luckily, and with the help of BBK, I was able to get in touch with everyone and it seemed like we were able to have another bash at the Snoll Tzar.

However, things backfired when Usagy told me he'd just used his 2hr in a fight against Dynamis Lord and it wasn't going to be ready until around ten forty-five so I decided to cancel it and Usagy said he'd let us know in advance if he had anymore Dynamis Lord fights. BBK and Aka both said that Usagy was MNK and not BLM, but I had to let them know that 2hrs weren't job-specific, and apologised to them. Doffo had the bright idea of me changing to COR and using Wild Card to see if I could reset his 2hr, but it was too much of a hassle to get everyone ready and then use it for it not to work (it's random) so we rescheduled for next week. Although I would like to finally finish Chapter Six of CoP, I'm certainly in no rush to blitz it.

Instead I took my COR to the Dunes. Although Teila advised me against it, BBK had been emailing me saying that the Dunes wasn't so bad and that he'd had some good parties there so I thought "what the hell" and gave it a go.

I got an invite straight away and was the first to join (is this an omen of things to be with COR from now on?) and when we were at four, we started taking on Tough mobs, as our BLM tanked them (he did, for real!), frying crabs before they could kill him, whilst a PL spotted him an occasional Cure. Eventually we got six, having a WHM and a WAR to tank.



The party range was L17 to L20 so we decided to take on Pugs (yes we still had the PL), so the WAR agreed to tank and I pulled. I brought back a Pug and got knocked to 17HP before the party told the WAR to 'Voke and he did so reluctantly, before dying in two hits. Baffled as to why this happened, we checked him, and noticed he was still in L1 RSE!

"Why are you still in L1 gear?" Our SMN asked.

"Dunno, it's all I got," he replied.

Now I'd understand if he was a L10 with no sub, but this guy was a Rank 2 WAR18/MNK9, so he'd obviously done a bit of levelling. You think he might have a couple of hundred Gil just to buy some cheap armour. I'm not a you-must-do-this, you-must-do-that kinda person, but to be a WAR and not have any gear but an axe is a bit silly.

Luckily I had some spare gear on me so I loaned it to him and we carried on fighting. He seemed to understand the need to 'Voke (albeit reluctantly), and we plodded along slowly. Almost straight away our WHM left (maybe because of the PL) and then the BLM and SMN hit L20, to be followed by the THF who hit L19. I was left at L17 with the WAR and because a three-level gap in the Dunes makes a difference, I was receiving around 50+ XP for each Pug, and every fight was a struggle. I had to sacrifice Hunter's Roll for Corsair's Roll just to nab me some more XP but as a result I couldn't hit anything. It was a crazy party.



Every time the WAR 'Voked (he was learning), the THF (leader) screamed at him to let the PL take the hate, but my opinion is - if you PL people, they don't learn how to do their job, probably why he didn't know to 'Voke at the start. The party was too sh1te for me to bother arguing. We had around six or seven deaths in an hour, and this was WITH a PL.

Not being elitist, but I don't think I'll be going back for at least another year. At least I managed to solo to L18 afterwards and I'll go to Qufim next time.

High Mamool Reunion

Tonight I did two more of the Mamool Ja Assaults, but it was fun because it was a total reunion of people I've done the Assaults with before. We managed to recruit Flipper, the coolest Japanese Taru THF ever, Derelict again, and a BLU called Kinzie who'd done this with us before. Flipper was really nice, telling me about places I should visit when I go to Japan one day, and I added him to my Friend List! His English is really good!



I then wrote to BBK as I was scheduled to help him defeat an Orc NM in Carpenter's Landing but he had already done it by the time I had completed Assaults.

Gunning for L22

After work I helped Teila get a couple of BLU spells. First of all we had to take on the dreaded Sabotenders for the 1,000 Needles spell, and not only was it hard enough to find the blasted weeds, it was near impossible to get them to do the move. I pulled Yawawa out to help spread the damage over more people, but it wasn't too bad in the end. After an hour and a half, we got the move. Although Teila needed Heat Breath from the Manticores, we were never able to kill the Manticores fast enough after it did the move, so it did another move before death, negating our chance of learning the spell.

We then headed to Garlaige Citadel and went beyond the First Banishing Gate. Behind this gate there are two Fetid Flesh (Doomed family) so we pulled them to the bottom of the stairs to fight them away from the Funnel Bats. Teila learned Stinking Gas after we pulled the second one.



After this, Teila went to Pashow to fight Malboros for Bad Breath, but I changed to Corsair and went to the Tahrongi Canyon to continue levelling. Omnislasher sent me a /tell asking for help with fighting Dark Spark, but I had to refuse as all I seem to do lately is help people, and I need some time to myself to do my own thing. It's no wonder I can't get a second job levelled when I spend so much time running about to help with fights and quests for people on my Friend List. I don't mind, but sometimes you gotta say no and just do your own thing.

I went from L13 to L15 in an hour and a half thanks to two charges of the Empress Band and the Corsair's Roll. When I reached L15, I returned to Whitegate to grab my Bandit's Gun, Ranger Die, Dark Knight Die, two Reflex Rings and some ammunition for my weapon, but I noticed that most of the Bronze Bullets were out of stock, not to mention very expensive and had poor damage. It seems that a Corsair must wait until over a quarter of the way through its career to use normal Bullets, which are cheaper and have high damage. I find this odd for a gun-toting pirate!



Before bed I did one more Assault with Teila, but we only went as four, as our SAM/THF was convinced that he could do tremendous damage if we got a NIN tank. We eventually got a Japanese NIN, but despite asking him many times if he had Blade: Ku for the Light Skillchain, the Japanese NIN remained silent, only speaking to apologise for aggroing two Puks, and causing us to nearly fail the Assault.

We won, just, and I logged off, after practically falling asleep at the PC.

Totally Chic

I spent the evening round my friend's house listening to the new Mayhem and Marduk albums before watching Fucli's "The Beyond", a cross between The Amityville Horror, The Skeleton Key and your typical zombie flick of the seventies. It was pretty good, with some nice effects but the plot was quite weird.

As usual I only had time to feed SilentForest before bedtime. Oh yeah, I had forgotten to mention that she had grown from a chick into a juvenile chocobo with grey feathers. Thing is they're grey/white and as it's been so long since I raised SilverStar I can't remember if that means she'll be a light grey colour or a yellow when she grows up. It doesn't matter, I'll love her all the same!

Megadeath

Tonight was Dynamis-Jeuno with ShadesOfUnicorn, my Dynamis Linkshell, so at 6pm we gathered in Ru'Lude Gardens to prepare. The people were really friendly and it kinda reminded me of a school reunion. Doffo and Aka were also there from TheHelpingHand too but Doffo and Teila weren't in my Alliance.



After ages of sorting groups, we finally entered Dynamis-Jeuno, my first ever Dynamis, filled with very evil looking Goblins. For each Goblin there was a walking Goblin statue called a Goblin Replica. We had two Alliances of 18 people. The BLMs were on the front line and their job was to destroy all the statues whilst the second line (the melee) had to destroy the waves of Goblins that followed. The mages were the third line and healed or buffed the melee.

Within minutes we wiped due to a bad pull and Reraised up to continue. We were inside for a total of four hours but we didn't win as it was chaos and everyone was saying that they'd never had a run like this.



It could have been fun but it wasn't. Imagine Besieged lag, where you can't see what's going on. Now imagine that your screen has locked for three seconds, then jerks, then locks again. Count to three, go on. That's along time for your screen to freeze during a fight. The lag was SO horrid that my party kept wiping before I'd even got an initial Barfira up. Others were also complaining that the lag was bad but this was beyond lag, this was unplayable.

For what I did see, Aka was having fun, but Teila kept dying on the front line, along with Momotaru, who I felt really sorry for. He was like the BBK of the group - I never saw him standing. There were some other nice people too, like Derelict and Liannakanzaki, and there were a few jokes (namely a spontaneous wipe from Leviathan's 2hr except Ailee to be followed by references to Bin Laden). Darkshade got angry at the chaos a few times, and there was some bickering over Danjo's job (SAM/DRG) as apparently it was the reason he died around ten times, but other than that it was cool.



I decided to give it one more chance and agreed to come along next Tuesday. Some Relic armour dropped (Abyss Sollerets, Wyrm Finger Gauntlets and Cleric's Pantaloons), and Aka lotted on the Pantaloons but only got 93. We were also thrown out of Dynamis before everyone had finished passing or lotting.



Afterwards I changed back to Corsair, and headed to Bastok. Outside in South Gustaberg, I hit L13, so at least I ended the night on a good vibe.

Of Corsair I Can!

After much muling and refurbishing of my Mog House, I successfully completed another three runs in Mamool Ja Staging point but I'm STILL only 12k towards my Yigit Gages. Escorting Excaliace in Periqia netted 770 AP a time, and that was slow, but this seems like I'm running in slow mo, and not in the Pamela Anderson sense.



It was after 9pm when I finished Assaults and after a quick shower, changed to Corsair. I went to West Ronfaure to level on anything that crossed my path and I got all nostalgic hearing that Celtic music and the wind rustling through the trees! It was quite relaxing.



With Corsair, it seems you have to roll dice and try to get as near to (or preferably on) eleven as possible with each roll, and the higher you get the better the effect. So with Ninja Roll (Evasion Bonus), you get a higher boost to your Evasion with an XI than you would with a I. Also each Roll has a lucky number and I think Ninja Roll is IV. So if you roll a IV you get an even bigger bonus than you would with an XI. There's also an unlucky number which if you get that you get a worse bonus than a I. Your initial roll can be I to VI, and you get forty-five seconds to Double-Up, which is basically a second roll (or third or fourth etc) which rolls another I to VI, but if you get more than XI, you will Bust, meaning you get a negative penalty to your Ninja Roll. It's quite fun!

I managed to get to L11 before I logged for the night.

Snoll Holds Barred

This morning there was another Besieged (morning being midday after another lie-in) and it was the Mamool Ja, so I managed to get some more XP with THF. I've got a buffer of around 4k now, which isn't bad considering my last party left me with a buffer of just over 100 XP.

After Besieged, I went with Teila to the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins to do her BLU AF3 fight against a Soulflayer NM. We got horribly lost in the Ruins and ran around trying teleporter after teleporter until we gave up and went to Nashmau before running through Caedarva Mire to try a different entrance; one it seemed we couldn't access via the main bulk of the dungeon.



The room to fight him was empty so Teila popped him and set Fenrir on him as Fenrir seems to be tougher than any PLD at L75. This Soulflayer was rock solid and had very heavy nukes.At one point, when Fenrir died I got the hate and he used a move called "Reprobation" (sp?) which stripped me of every single buff I had including Reraise III. He followed straight away with a Thunder III which reduced me from full to 15 HP, luckily Fenrir was back out and took the hate again allowing me to recover myself. We finished the fight, both drained of MP and Teila got her BLU AF head piece.

I was pretty broke after preparing for tonight's CoP run, so I went off to Pashow Marshlands to farm. After being on the PC for most of the day my eyes were hurting, so I went AFK as I was feeling pretty fidgety. When I came back, I returned to Whitegate and began getting the CoP Squad together for the Snoll Tzar fight.

When we finally set off, it was almost 9pm, but the run accross the Uleguerande Range to the Orc NPC was pretty smooth. We got our Shu-Meyu Salts and ran up to the top of Bearclaw Pinnacle for the fight but BBK and Aka got aggro and died just outside the zone.

After more jokes were made about BBK's ar$e being stuck in the air for most of Chapters One through Five, we made it into the BCNM and took on the Snoll Tzar.



We got him down to practically no life before we wiped, and everyone began the "If I'd done this..." and "If I'd done that..." but I don't see how we could have done better. We really pushed ourselves (and it was Firesday) but I guess we'll beat him with practice.

Run, Ribbit, Run!

I woke up really late today wondering where half the day had gone, and went into an Undead Swarm Besieged. I hate the Undead, especially with their AoEs and the fact they strip you of your gear every five seconds. I managed to survive and grabbed some XP for my THF, seeing as I haven't had any parties since I hit L60.

Afterwards, I Teleported to Dem with Teila to finish off the quest "For the Birds", which involved fighting four NM Quadav in the middle of Beaudeax. They were pretty easy, but we had to fight them twice to complete the quest each, but we were rewarded with Jaguar Mantles (80k) for our efforts.



When we returned from Beaudeax, we used our Olduum Rings and took our Chocobo from the plinth through Wajaom Woodlands to Mamook to do the quest regarding the infamous "Two-Horn", a bane in the Empire's side. I had thought it was an Imp NM but Teila insisted it was a Mamool Ja.

We entered Mamook and started making our way west to the room the NM was believed to be. Around halfway through we encountered the dreaded Poroggos, the little true-sneak frog-men, sitting on the narrow ledges around the pond. Down below sat Sound and Sight-detecting mobs, so we couldn't do it without aggro; the ledges were too narrow.

We pulled a Poroggo and gazed in horror as our nukes hardly dented it. In the end we had to go with the log-out tactic, dashing across Mamook, Sleeping stuff then logging out to remove hate, logging in, getting a bit further then repeating.



Eventually, after around an hour of travelling, we made it to the NM's cave. The spawn-point was a bucket of "Viscous Liquid". Now, normally these Poison you and turn you into a Mamool Ja (via costume), but this one gave us the cutscene and spawned an NM simply entitled "Mamool Ja", which was odd, and it hardly put up a fight at all. I thought something was odd, as this was too easy, but then we noticed that every so often, he would run round the well and regain a tonne of life, so in order to preserve MP, we had to Bind and Gravity him otherwise the fight would have taken all night. Eventually the two of us killed him but I've yet to return to Whitegate to collect my reward.

I logged out afterwards to assist my dad with a bonfire!

Omniaggroer

I got in early from work, but ended up having a row with the folks so I had a bit of a lie down before I logged in. When I did log in, I fed SilentForest then Warped back to Whitegate for three very successful Assaults in Mamool Ja Training Grounds. We had two Japanese members, Alion and Flipper, and Flipper could speak excellent English and was great fun. We also had Derelict from my Friend List, so all in all, Teila and I had a great time. I think I'm now halfway to getting my Yigit Gages.



Afterwards I logged out to get on with some RL stuff, but came back in around 10pm to help Omnislasher get his WHM Coffer Key as I had promised on the Forum. It turned out that he already had the Coffer Key and the Healer's Mitts but as I had promised to help him he asked if I could Raise III his party who were lying dead in Beaudeax.

I had just swapped to THF, but I agreed and Teleported (nekkid) to Dem and made my way to Beaudeax with Omni. We ran as quickly as we could towards the underground area where the Coffer mobs were, but Omni got aggro, and even though I tried to help him, having no equipment equals WHM death, and whilst Omni somehow managed to escape, I pulled the plug to lose hate, but came back in dead and without my Reraise III up.

I lay there for awhile feeling a bit p1ssed off and leaving the party wondering how I'd managed to get aggro and die, but I didn't feel like dropping Omni in it, so I kept quiet. Luckily a passing RDM kindly spotted me a Raise I so I thanked him and carried on.

I made it to their camp when they had only minutes to spare before they were forced to HP. Wrexsoul was in the party, and he was nice - I know him from Teila's Friend List. I Raise III'd their BLM, Yuchemey, but straight away they pulled another Quadav and she got caught in an AoE and died again. I Raise III'd her a second time and then the other dead member. They were very grateful, and I was tired so I Warped home and logged out.

Man, the things I get up to on my Friday nights. I'm such a party animal.

Impossible to Gages

When I got back from my trip to Nottingham I logged in and began checking up on SilentForest. She'd come along nicely, hitting Substandard Strength and Endurance by Day 12. Kitty and Kellie were complaining on the Linkshell that they had got some Fishbots booted off the game earlier but they had now come back and were putting the Windurstian Fishing Guild out of business.

"Do a /sea all in West Sarutabaruta and tell me they're not Fishing Bots!" Kitty said angrily.

I would have done but I was in the middle of a cutscene with SilentForest.

"Kix please do us a favour and go to West Saruta and call a GM," Kellie then asked.

I would have loved to have assisted in booting the bots, but I was in a rush to get to Whitegate to meet Teila for Assaults before dinner.

I then quickly Warped back to Whitegate and checked my AP. Despite many runs to the Mamool Ja Training Grounds I had only built up around 6k AP which meant a whopping 14k until I could get the Yigit Gages, a seemingly impossible task. Whilst the Pre-Emptive Strike Assault is fun and diabolically easy, that's reflected in the fact that we're only getting 800 AP a time, which, when compared with the 1,200 AP or so we were getting for the Lamia No 13 Assault, seems bad.

Teila and I shouted for another two Mamool Ja Assaults, but it took forever to get anyone interested, but the moment we were at three, the requests to join flooded in! We did both runs quickly and successfully and I got quite a few skill-ups on Divine, and I've noticed that Banish III is doing some decent damage now - around 350, which isn't bad considering I have next to no Magic Attack Bonus (/SMN sub and not /BLM).

After the Assaults, I logged for dinner, but didn't come back on because I was really tired from the drive back on the motorway.

Totally Shafted

Tonight was CoP night as usual, and we had planned to finish off Louverance's Path by defeating four Moblins and a Bugbear in the Mine Shaft #2716 BCNM, Century of Hardship.

We made our way to Oldton Movalpolos and those of us with Snow Lilies traded them to one Moblin NPC, whilst Usagy went to another NPC to gamble his way to the Mine Shaft. Omnislasher had forgotten his Snow Lily so had to run back to Usagy and gamble too. After we'd either traded or gambled, we were Warped to the Mine Shaft and we went over our tactics.

Everyone agreed with my suggestion of who would be soloing who and how we would do it so we agreed a dry run. Inside, we moved to the edge of the arena and targeted our Moblin. I was on kiting duty - I was supposed to kite the Bugbear around until the end. We all attacked, and unfortunately I went in first, so I became the initial target of all the enemies. I was hit by a Banishga II (which removed all my Shadows) and before I could stop somewhere safe to reapply, BBK's Silence on the BLM apparently didn't stick because I got one-shotted by Quake. The Bugbear then went tromping over to the others. One by one people died.



For the second dry run, we agreed that Omni would go in first, and straight after, BBK would Silence the BLM with an ES Silence. This time it worked, only that the party was generating so much hate, I was unable to keep the Bugbear on my toes with a simple Acid Bolt. The Moblins also called the Bugbear to their aid to, presumably removing hate from me regardless and placing it on another member.

It didn't matter though! Our second dry run turned into a successful run, as I joined in on the THF (which Usagy had practically finished off), and then turned to the RDM (which Omni was fighting), whilst Doffo killed the WHM and went to help BBK fight his BLM Moblin.

We annihilated them, and then all ganged up on the Bugbear. We missed the record by a minute, again most likely due to resting and buffing. Just the Snoll Tzar to go and then we've finished Chapter Five!

After CoP, Usagy had to log to prepare a University presentation, so the rest of us finished our cutscenes, then headed to La Theine Plateau to help Doffo camp Bloodtear Baldurf. When we arrived at Holla, we decided to pop the Goblin Archaeologist, and just as we got it to the surface, a passing Japanese WHM popped it from under our noses. We all made it clear how rude that was but they couldn't understand and just responded with "?" - like they didn't know! Grr.

Friday 13th Pt. II

Tonight was going to be a relaxing session but I ended up being quite busy again. First of all, I went to Batallia Downs to fight six NM Tigers for Teila's Chocobo quest. They all attacked at the same time, so Teila used Sleepga II so that we could take them on one at a time. We could have beat them without it though, they didn't take long to kill.



Soon after, the leader of our Dynamis Linkshell begged us to come to the Sea Serpent Grotto as Charybdis had popped and was unclaimed. We said we'd help on this occasion (as T and I don't like camping NMs) so we OP Warped to the Yuhtunga Jungle and ran to the Grotto.

We formed an Alliance with other members of the Linkshell who had turned up and one guy let us through the Gold Beastcoin door. We made our way down into the room where he was and they pulled it. It was quite a fun fight, and pretty smooth. HP did drop quite a bit, but we killed it without any real danger, and got 2k gil each, plus the Joyeuse, which the leader (RDM) lotted on. He was very grateful and hope he appreciated our help!



After that, I returned to Whitegate for dinner but found out that Kujo had logged on to ask for help getting his Staging Points. I'd already told him that he couldn't keep coming back to us only when he wanted help, but I gave in and agreed to take him to some Staging Points, as admittedly, I had nothing else to do.

Teila came with us to Mamool Ja Staging Point, as that's the easiest one in my opinion. We made it through without a problem, so I decided to take him to the other easy one, Nyzul Isle. I was pre-occupied with something else and turned up to the NPC in Bhaflau Thickets without my Silver Coin so had to Warp back and pick one up. When we got to Nyzul Isle, Kujo spent ages figuring out why he got no CS from the NPC at the Runic Portal. It took a while, but eventually I figured out he was trying to get CSs for his BLU AF. I explained that Nyzul Isle was a new Staging Point and wasn't anything to do with the AFs.

We returned to Whitegate and I agreed to do one more: Azouph Isle Staging Point in Caedarva Mire. We ran to the docks to get the boat to Nashmau but Kujo went to the wrong docks and I had to wait an eternity for him to get to Nashmau on the next boat.

Once in Nashmau, we left by the North Gate and out into the Mire. It had been ages since I'd done this route (as I've used the Staging Point for as long as I can remember) and I took a right instead of a left at the lake and ended up getting lost down by the entrance to the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins. We got aggroed by an Orderly Imp, and although Easy Prey, I was a WHM and couldn't do anything but run for it. I escaped the Imp and made it to Nashmau.

After I'd recovered, I ran back out to him, but didn't notice the pesky Chigoes in the grass, where upon I got hammered to death by a group of them hitting at the speed of light. I Reraised up and cast Sneak and Invis and began resting. I had no idea Chigoes aggroed through Sneak and Invisible, but somehow I got aggro again, and died like a total noob.

I was pretty mad at this point and I was swearing, so I felt bad for Kujo. It wasn't his fault but to be honest, Staging Points should be soloed or done with groups of people who need them, as to have someone take you to them who hasn't been to them in ages is nothing but a time-consuming risk.

I Reraised up again and somehow made it back to where Kujo was. I dropped him a Raise III and he got up but not before getting aggro from the Chigoes in the grass and dying a second time. I Raised him up again and this time we were safe.

After Weakened had wore, we made a run for it and made it to the tough area where the Merit parties camp near the Jnun pools. Luckily there were so many people there, that we were able to make it to the gate without aggro, or nearly did, as Kujo got aggro from a Heraldic Imp at the last second. He was practically one-shotted, but it despawned after he died, so I Raised him again and we legged it to the gate. He already had Halvung's staging point, so in total he now had four out of six, which wasn't bad. I told him he'd have to shout for the last two in Arrapago Reef as I didn't want to face that place again right now!

I was pretty annoyed that my whole night had got taken up doing that as it is a time-consuming effort getting Staging Points and not the sort of thing you want to repeat, but hey, it's done now.

Dancing (Edge) for Joy!

Tonight was a busy night on the game. I had so much to do that I had even written down a list of things to do!

I logged in at 4pm and tried to get as much of the Easter event done as possible but ended up spending a little too much on Eggs in Bazaars and even had to pay 10k for one letter I couldn't find anywhere else, so i felt ripped off! I should have waited but I wanted to get it out the way.

Straight after that I OP Warped to the Beaucedine Glacier to meet Teila for the Pso'Xja cutscene I still needed for CoP. She offered to show me the way as I couldn't make head nor tail of the map and doors disappear to be replaced by walls as you walk through them from time to time. I had got lost in there several times, but Teila took me round in minutes. It was an easy route, but only because she knew the way.

Straight after, I put dinner on to cook and went over to Beaudeax whilst it was in the oven. Teila and I needed Warding Oils for a Jeuno Chocobo quest and these dropped off Emerald Quadav... or in theory they did. We managed one drop in an hour, and we killed tonnes. I was trying out my Dancing Edge Weaponskill, and managed 904 damage with one use of it!^^



After that we entered Besieged and I went as THF to try to get a buffer. We fought the Troll Mercenaries and although I tried to alliance with Akashea and BBK, my invitation was declined as Aka mistook the almighty El Kixo for a random! I made 1070 XP which gave me a nice buffer.

Straight after I swapped to WHM and put together an Assault party for the Mamool Ja Training Grounds. We got to five relatively easily and went and breezed the Assault again. I activated my Empress Band as you can rack up some nice LP or XP in that one. I'm over half way to my fourth Merit now, which is pretty good considering I haven't Merit-partied once, ever, at all, yet!

The tank left after the first Assault (as usual) so we shouted for a further forty-five minutes until eventually our RNG agreed to swap to NIN (even though he didn't have much gear for it) and as soon as I shouted for a DD instead, we got one.

Again, another easy victory, but the AP is so low for this Assault, that it's going to be a slow grind for the Yigit Gages.

The Milestone

When I got home I had to cut the grass, and there's nothing worse than doing that when your hayfever is playing up. I always get hayfever really badly and quite early on, but it had to be done. Anyway, took me awhile before I logged on as I had to let my eyes calm down.

When I did log on, I decided to shout for another Mamool Ja Assault, and we hit five relatively quickly. We breezed the Assault, but it wasn't as smooth as I would have liked it to be. We couldn't find a couple of the Mamool Ja Executioners, but we still finished it way before time was up.

After dinner I put my flag up whilst watching The Ghost Galleon, part three of the Blind Dead series. Utterly poor acting, and some bad special effects, but not without its charm. Eventually, I got an invite, and lo and behold, the party was full! No waiting around, no mess, we were ready to go!

We were camped in Bhaflau Thickets, but when I got there, our WHM quit without warning, and our DRG DC'd. At the same time, another member of the party got aggro from a Fomor Bard, but we killed it relatively easily. I thought the party was doomed, but we got another WHM, a Taru called Rightway (who turned out to be very cool and hardcore, insisting he was happy for me to pull when he had no MP!). Luckily we had a BRD to keep him Refreshed.



We changed camp and took on the Colibri by the entrance to Halvung. With a DRG and me in the party, these things went down like flies but we had so many line-up changes, it took me hours to get the 12k XP I needed to hit L60, but hit L60 I did, and the relief that flooded through me was immense!!! With a bonus to Resist Bind, Resist Gravity and the new Trait Assassin, plus the powerful Weaponskill Dancing Edge, I really felt like a new Taru!

At almost exactly the same time, Teila hit L75 on her fourth job, SMN, so it was a great night for the both of us. SMN is one of those jobs I know so many people would love to have at L75 but without the effort of levelling it; hell, I'm one of them. Getting to L50 was practically as difficult a struggle as it was levelling THF this far.

Anyways, at least I'm all set now up until chapter seven of CoP, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the higher level you are, the more chance you have of being snatched up, even if it's because parties are desperate, as there's less of you, until you get to L75. So many people apparently give up in the fifties as they struggle with getting AF, or they don't like the sudden increase in required XP to level.

Anyway, now I need to look into macroing gear swaps as its getting to that stage where TP isn't going up fast enough and I have no CHA for Dancing Edge, so damage is pretty poor.

urgh, more crap to carry around.

Got the Horn?

I don't know what happened today, but the linkshell reached its busiest peak of all time, with new recruits coming in left, right and centre. Some were of lower level, and others were end-gamers, so it was a nice mix. I didn't have time to be too chatty though, as Teila and I spent the best part of all afternoon doing SMN AF3, "Carbuncle's Debacle" for the L60 Head gear, the Evoker's Horn.

First of all we had to travel through the Boyahda Tree to the Cloister of Storms and inside the Lightning Protocrystal we were set upon by two NM Weapons, Thunder Gremlin and Lightning Gremlin. One was a RDM and the other was a WAR, and the first time we went in we were slaughtered, as the WAR practically two-shotted me.



The second time, Teila decided to keep the WAR Bound, whilst we duo'd the RDM, keeping it Enfeebled. It took awhile, and lots of concentration, but we did it. The WAR was harder to kill, but required less Enfeebling and we beat it after nineteen minutes.

After more cutscenes, we had to go all the way out to the Cloister of Gales, in the lonely back end of beyond, north of Cape Terrigan. Even now I still feel nervous running past those Greater Manticore in that tight little passage at the end. Inside, we had to face a large NM Manticore called Ogmios, who did nothing but spam Silencega and Dispelga.



Hate was easier to control as there was only one of them, but he was a powerful chap, and his Deadly Hold move took Teila down through Stoneskin and Phalanx to half life each time. We beat him after twenty-one minutes and following a cutscene with Koro-Moru, received our Evoker's Horns.

After that, we entered another Mamool Ja Besieged (I always seem to do Mamool ones) which lasted forever. We lost two Generals, but survived and I received 1,200 LP. I also got some nice skill-ups on Divine too. Not so far from cap now!

After Besieged, Teila and I shouted for Assaults, and it took us almost an hour to get just three people for the Pre-Emptive Strike Assault in the Mamool Ja Training Grounds. Jeanius was our last member but when we got to the Runic Seal in Bhaflau Thickets, he didn't have the Mission activated as he had never done Assaults before. I felt bad, but I had to ask him to disband so that I could replace him. I nipped back to Whitegate and grabbed us a THF. We went in as a five (it's an easy Assault) and even got ourselves a Chain Seven!

The Orcangel Gochakzuk Said Unto Me...

Tonight's CoP run was a Key farming session in Newton Movopalos. Usagy and I came as THFs, and Doffo and Voltor both had THF subs (Voltor kindly came along to help us out). Omni couldn't make it due to University work, but we managed fine without a tank. We all got our Gold Keys which means we're now ready to do the Moblin fight for Louverance's Path.

Usagy disappeared after the key farming and I had planned to seek, but Voltor and Doffo asked if we could get their DRG Testimonies, as Doffo was L69 and Voltor said now was as good a time as any to get his. BBK also wanted a Coffer Key from Davoi and his Moldy Earring again, and as he knew ToD, we hot-footed it over to the Labyrinth of Onzozo to wait the twenty-five minutes until pop.

We spread out over the room but of course it popped in the one section of the room we didn't have covered and the RDM who it appeared in front of, claimed it straight away.

Then we hit Davoi and began farming Testimonies. We killed Orcish Dragoon upon Orcish Dragoon (amongst others) and not a single one dropped, and there was no sign of Coffer Keys either.



After awhile we came across the NM Orcish Warlord in the Monastic Cavern and decided to be brave. We killed it (DRK Testimony), but not before it had killed BBK.

"Hey it's not a CoP night without BBK's ar$e sticking up in the air!" I said.

"Thanks, Kix."

We moved outside to the ruins of the Elvaan Monastery and began taking on more out there. Eventually a DRG Testimony dropped but we must have opened up the floodgates, as more and more then followed including a DRK Testimony, two RNG Testimonies and a WAR Testimony.

After awhile, someone noticed the NM Dirtyhanded Gochakzuk up in the Monastery so I decided to check it out. I crept up to it using Tonko: Ichi, but the second I opened the Monastery Doors, I was hit by a Firaga III for over 1k of damage. Luckily I had RR on and made my way back safely. We decided to leave that NM alone.



Jeanius turned up and decided to help too, and after a few more kills, BBK got his Coffer Key, and went to grab his Wizard's Coat from the Coffer. It was a successful night, but I still need time for L60, not to please the CoP Squad but because it's a big milestone for THF and one I've been after for so desperately long!

Puk Me!

I got to Teila's house early but didn't log on until the evening, where I was snatched up for a party within seconds of having my flag up.

The invite was from Konekochan, a SMN who came as a BLM for several of my Diabolos fights at Christmas and as she soon demonstrated, she had succeeded in obtaining the winged fiend!

Galamantyl was our tank - the Galka who used to be in TheHelpingHand - and he was controlling a L75 WHM Taru called Nevermore who was effectively our PL. We started out in Aydeewa Subterrane but soon moved to the south end of Wajaom Woodlands when we realised the Defoliators were a little too hard for us.



We didn't have a second of downtime (due to the PL I guess) and I hit L59 on THF within an hour or so. The party was so successful that I perhaps could have even stayed until L60 if not for the fact that Teila needed her PC back!

Anyway I learnt a new thing about Puks today. Apparently Distortion Skillchains actually heal Puks back up instead of hurting them!

Admirable Patience

It was Maundy Thursday today, so we were given a half-day at work, so once I got home I used the extra time that I had to really do some good muling (what an exciting life I lead) and really get my gear sorted. I put as many sets as possible into the Storage NPC so that I wouldn't have to keep fetching stuff off mules and just used the mules for odds and sods.

I finished just in time for a Troll Besieged, and went as WHM as I was close to my third Merit. I was happily curing away when the game crashed and I received a Windows error message: "PlayOnline has encounterd an error and needs to close..." and the very second I DC'd Teila rang me to say that they had retreated. I thought, "Typical", but when I logged back in I had got my 1k+ Merit Points after all.

I swapped to THF, but as I was about to Warp to Castle Oztroja Aka said she'd died in the Korroloka Tunnel near the zone without Reraise. I swapped back to WHM and went to Raise her, picking up another Key Item: Tuning Fork of Earth along the way.

Once I got back to Whitegate and swapped to THF again, I couldn't be bothered to go to Castle Oztroja so I thought I'd try my hand at the DC Quadav in Beaudeax with Yawawa. They were pretty easy, but I soon noticed the Mamool Ja were at five. I Warped back, swapped to WHM and joined Teila and Aka for Besieged.

I got my third Merit and finally raised my STR by one point. I plan to raise STR to its max and then raise Dagger Skill to max as well. Should be able to rely on meat foods as THF then for super damage.

I then went semi-AFK whilst seeking and finally got a party around eight-thirty PM. We were at five for ages (no surprise) with just no tanks online. We all went over to Nashmau and eventually we got a BLU/WAR to be our tank. At around ten-thirty we started fighting the Marsh Murres in Caedarva Mire which were so easy to kill that I only just had time to SATA once on each one. The BLU/WAR, although happy to tank, kept moving for SATA and DCing regularly too, claiming there was a storm, but as soon as he got his level, he DC'd for good. It was nearly midnight and they hadn't found another tank, so I said I had to go and we disbanded. I made around 6-7k, but still L58.

"I am the Turbanator, Cyberdyne Systems Taru 101"

I was all set to level my SMN tonight but when I changed over I looked at my level and it suddenly hit me: "what the hell am I doing?" It had taken so long for me to get to (nearly) L60 on THF and now I was starting again at L50 with another job, and purely because it might benefit the CoP Static. I must have been crazy to commit to it.

"Hi, have you managed to level your SMN yet?" Usagy asked me in a /tell.

That pushed me over the edge. It wasn't his fault, but it was the final straw for me. Although I politely said I might level it later, I felt so bad. All those days of desperately seeking to level for CoP and getting mad and frustrated at not being able to do so just got to me all in one go and I felt really upset, as the pressure just got to me. I actually felt like I couldn't be bothered with FFXI anymore if all that I logged on for was to level to please other people.

Then I got bitter and angry and thought, "why the hell should I level for other people? This is my d**n static and my subscription and I'll level what the hell I want." And I felt a bit better for thinking that. I locked away my Austere Robe and dusted off my SH and polished my daggers. I will be levlling my THF for my own pleasure and will be using it in all CoP fights from now on, and if anyone doesn't like that then they know what they can do.

BBK and Aka were really good about it, and Teila, fed up with how miserable I've been lately over this game, told me "I want the happy Kix back, not the one who constantly moans about the game".



Rant over; I managed to rank up 20k on AP and got my Yigit Turban but also began doing some Assaults in the Mamool Ja Training Grounds. It was enough to get me my Rank-Up quest for Superior Private, and thanks to Etiene, I found it straight away at J-7 of Azouph Isle in Caedarva Mire. I came back and got my promotion, so it was a pretty successful night!

Cats in the Canyon

I haven't been adding to my blog for some time as I've been so busy in real life and was away for some time too. With the Easter holidays approaching, I'm not going to be adding much for awhile either.

Razel had returned to the game after a two-year break and was back on the linkshell as a L40 DRG. I bet that with all the updates and changes to the game since, he had a lot to catch up on! Still, he was in a party soon enough so it looked like he just jumped straight back into things.

I shelved THF again today, as I had made a promise that no matter what level I got my THF to, that I would get SMN to L60 as of the start of April. I cashed in my claim form with the storage NPC and dusted off my Austere Robe, and headed off to Boneyard Gully to meet with the CoP Squad for a stab at the Mithran Sin Hunter BCNM.

We agreed to try two practice runs just to simply get a feel for their strength and tactics and also because Usagy's 2hr, Manafont, wasn't ready, as he had used it for his Dynamis run. The practice runs went really badly as the Mithra were skillchaining with each other left, right and centre - and these were powerful weapon skills like Evisceration! Omni was practically one-shotted at one point. I knew though that the real run would be different as we'd be able to use 2hrs and the Blackened Muddy Siredons to hamper their TP gain.



Once Usagy's 2hr had returned we went back in and ate Mithra for breakfast. Invincible plus Astral Flow and two BLMs using Ancient Magic meant that these ladies didn't stand a chance. We won the BCNM in just over five minutes, and at least two of those minutes were buffing and resting.

The subsequent cutscenes indicated that we had to travel to the Bearclaw Pinnacle in the centre of the Uleguerande Range, which meant only one thing - the Snoll Tzar was waiting for us. The CoP Squad kindly agreed to wait (again) for me to get more levels (this time with SMN) and spend the Sundays in the meantime farming for the Moblin and Snoll BCNMs.

Seeing how quickly we've been progressing lately has made me want to speed on through CoP, as I'm getting sick and tired of frantically trying to level to keep up - rushing is really spoiling the enjoyment for me! Still, once I get to L60 I can relax until the end of Chapter Six.

The last thing I did before logging for the night was retire FrostMoon. I managed to max out his Discernment before his growth stablised at Day 64, but his Receptivity only made it to Outstanding, but it was close. I plan on continuing to use him to dig with, whilst I went to Jeuno to trade Kellie's PrincessCrimson card with my FrostMoon card and hopefully breed a nice racing Chocobo!