Ain't No Holla Back Boy!

I returned home from my vacation to Notts today, and decided to make the most of my time off work by doing something I don't normally do - play FFXI for a change. Teila and I tried the Charming Trio BCNM again, only to decide that after various tactics, it would be easy to just stop wasting our Beastmen's Seals by asking a third SMN to join us. We could only think of one friend who had Shiva, which was Kellie, and she kindly agreed to help us tomorrow.

After failing miserably at the leeches, we returned to Whitegate for a couple of runs at the Trolls in Assault as Teila only needed two more victories for her Yigit Crackows. It took us forever to get a party, so in the end we gave up and went as a five. Our NIN tank could not stop taking damage. No matter how hard I cured him, he just dropped and dropped. During the first fight, he then DC'd. We waited for him to come back and he did, so we pegged it as fast as we could onwards, but he DC'd twice more within the next couple of minutes.

Eventually he came back for a longer period of time, and I noticed he was still getting pummelled and my MP just wasn't lasting. I decided to pop the question: did he have tools? After a little silence he said that he had "lost his tools whilst DCing". My rear end he did! Just to finish the Assault, I threw him all I had on me (for which I got no thanks) and he soon DC'd for good. We tried valiantly as a four, but lost fighting the second to last Troll.

Funny isn't it? The one time Teila just needed a couple more wins and we lose for the first time. We then changed to SMNs and joined the Linkshell for Promyvion-Holla. I was a little hypocritical as I believe people should be punctual to agreed events, but I took a little longer than usual getting ready as it had been so long since I'd done Prommies properly myself that I'd forgotten my Reraise Hairpin so had to buy a new one along with some meds I had just found out we needed. We met up with Akashea in La Thiene, and went in as a seven, making it nicely to the second floor, where yet again we struggled to find the exit. The thin paths through the Graveyard posed a time-consumer too as we had to keep fighting off the aggro.

On the final floor we got stuck in a thin bottleneck and wiped to a triple aggro from two Weepers and a Seether. I managed to break away from the others and die in a safe area, so I Reraised up, rested to full, then aggroed them all away from the group so they could get up. Lost too much XP on SMN lately! 2k since I last partied with it! We made it to safety and Teila got her final Key Item from the Memory Flux and we entered the Spire of Holla. Inside, we popped Poison Potions, and headed into the fray to fight the Wrecker.

I swear it was a Wind-based NM, as it's eyes were green, but it took a real beating from Teila's and my Shiva. In fact across the whole of the fight, six Diamond Dusts didn't finish it, although I found out afterwards my Shiva had been put to sleep for the first one. We had even used all our Anima on it, and I thought that we were going to wipe again when it had no HP left. Unlike the Mea boss that spammed Carousel, this one chose to spam Shadow Spread, so we were fortunate in that it wasn't a damaging move. Shadow Spread inflicts Curse and Sleep, so as long as we were awake we could keep fighting. Poison Potions began to run out, MP was drained and I didn't think we'd do it, but somehow we all stayed alive. Then Kellie hit Manafont and began nuking the hell out of it. Two Aerogas and it went down! Just Mea left to do now!

Afterwards I swapped to COR and got L28 and a little buffer with Teila.

Oh Mandy!

Third day running and third party on the trot. I had decided to leave my Dynamis Shell (long, personal story), but it was amicable and I got an party invite from the former leader. We were half Japanese, half English and as soon as I joined, the Japanese MNK asked for Corsair's Roll for the XP bonus. I declined because not many people understand that they can get mobs killed quicker with Hunter's Roll and Chaos Roll - they just see XP bonus and their eyes light up. It's minimal. But when I saw how quick we were killing the Mandies, I changed my tune. They were so easy we were chaining them anyway, so I put the Corsair's Roll on with Chaos Roll.

Before long, we took the Chocobo to the edge of the Sea Serpent Grotto and took on Makara with the RDM's other char PLing us. I know, I know, a PL yeah yeah, but these days I don't argue if one turns up. Party invites are (normally) like gold dust.

Who Gives a Toss?!

Had another crap party tonight. I was a replacement to a full party, so when I turned up, they had a Goblin Smithy coming already. We had two NINs, but one was apparently AFK. The other was struggling (with a RDM healer) and died twice during the first fight (he Raised up right before a Bomb Toss). Straight away the MNK leader decided to leave, but replaced himself with a WHM Taru. All was going well, but then I noticed the AFK NIN was still away at the side of the camp. The first NIN asked where he was but he said "I'm sorry, Linkshell chat, very important, sorry." which made me think "hmm" but we carried on. Ten minutes later, he was still leeching, so I asked him to participate, but he gave us the same line. I told him that he shouldn't be chatting to the linkshell whilst in an XP party, or if it was that important, he shouldn't have joined the party. He then quit and we got a BLM to come instead.

Now the set-up would have been OK, but the RDM seemed to be very slow at curing and the WHM didn't have Barfira (nine levels after they could have obtained it) claiming she was broke, so Bomb Toss murdered us. After the NIN died a billionth time, we gave up and disbanded. I made L27 though, so wasn't too drastic.

Bloody Prommies!

We had agreed to farm inside Promyvion-Mea for the Holla run next week, but I wasn't able to get on until 10pm. I was still a L25 COR from the night before so I came to the Prommy as a COR with my Empress Band active, close to level.

When I turned up, Kellie, Kitty, BBk and Aka had already got many of their Recollections, and we were ploughing though the mobs on the first floor. I soon got my level and we moved to Promyvion-Holla to find the Recollections of Pain. Inside Holla we soon got Pains for people, but an hour went by with no more Pain drops for Kitty and we decided to call it a night. We shouldn't lose Holla next week!

Waiting for Gobbo

I decided to hit Kazham again as a L24 COR to see if I could get a party for once, and was seeking for some time. Eventually I got an invite and the party was already complete. We camped round the first corner in Yuhtunga Jungle, but within a few fights, one member of the group levelled to L28 making a four level gap with me at the bottom.

The leader kept hinting that the L28 should leave, but I always think that's a little rude. It wasn't so bad. I had the Anniversary Ring active and we were able to get a few good chains going. Unfortunately it wasn't to last as every ten minutes or so someone sat down to rest too near to a Goblin and got killed. The worst thing was, our L26 WHM DIDN'T HAVE RAISE! So luckily, someone had another char standing by to Raise us, but then they left, so I had to change to WHM to Raise people when it happened. I thought Raise was THE spell that all new WHMs lusted after! Anyway, I made L25 and got a good buffer before we disbanded.

We Wuz Robbed!

When I got in I went with Teila to The Eldieme Necropolis to get her Tavnazia Bell. I came along as THF and we got our Bell after killing around ten or so, which isn’t bad considering there are only four Dark Stalkers in the circular area where Lich C Magnus pops.

We then took the Bell up to Fei’Yin and decided to see if Teila could solo Aldedour I Tavnazia for her WHM Body. I had done this previously with an alliance of around fifteen people for mine and this had seemed hard but we managed to do it. It took Teila around twenty minutes of kiting and fighting – first with Fenrir using Eclipse Bite, then when MP ran low, she switched to Carby and began simply letting him melee as if he were a Bomb in Ifrit’s Cauldron. There is no way she could have done this without Carbuncle Mitts.

It dropped the Tavnazia Mask dropped and she returned to San d’Oria to claim her Healer’s Briault. She’s already on the verge of L58 as a WHM, and to be honest I don’t know how she levels so fast. I guess with the lack of people now, I guess WHMs are more popular.

At 8:30pm, we met up with Kellie, Kitty, BBK and Gotrunks. With a win tonight, Gotrunks was going to get access to Lufaise Meadows! We entered Promyvion-Mea and began looking around for the first Memory Receptacle with Squidy on map duty this time. On the fourth floor, we made it to the Spire of Mea, but we hadn’t found the Memory Flux for Teila. Kellie, Kitty and Gotrunks zoned to the Spire, whilst BBK, Teila and me ran to find the Memory Flux which was behind some aggro. We made it no probs, but on the way back, I caught a Weeper that turned, but Teila and I set Carby onto it and we zoned safe. No deaths at all, a big difference from Dem.

The boss was the Delver, a NM Craver that looked like a giant daddy-long-legs. BBK and Kitty pulled it over to the right side of the room and Teila pulled out Fenrir to put Accuracy and Evasion down on the Delver. I pulled out Ramuh and melee’d with him, whilst chucking out the odd Cure to assist Gotrunks. At around 70% HP Teila and I used Astral Flow and hit the Delver with two Judgement Bolts. It’s life plummeted, and to counter its new TP, BBK and Kitty used Hysteroanima and Psychoanima to lock it down. This was when things started to go wrong. We had agreed that if it did Carousel, Kitty would use Terroanima to make it run around so that Kitty and BBK could get their shadows up again, but I had totally forgotten that even if it’s running about it can still use TP moves. I have NEVER seen so many spammed TP moves. It did Carousel after Carousel and annihilated us. Teila and I managed to get another Astral Flow off each, and it was on a dash of life. One by one, the party fell to Carousel and eventually it was just Kitty, Teila and me standing. Kitty moved to the back to rest up, and I think at the same time, Kellie Reraised up. She tossed another Terroanima just as Teila used her third Judgement Bolt, but the Delver ran out of range and she lost it. She fell to the Carousel. I sent Ramuh in for my last Judgement Bolt, and watched as… …THE DELVER RESISTED! It’s a sorry day that not only does a monster resist an Astral Flow, but resists an element that it is weak against. Instead of 450 damage, it took 214 damage and was hanging on with an empty HP bar. It was unbelievable, an empty HP bar. One more move! One more move! I Reraised up, but Astral Flow had worn and I had no more Yagudo Drinks to Refresh my MP. Ramuh could not use any more abilities and he returned to the Thunder Protocrystal. The Delver came over to Kitty and me and used its last Carousel.

My heart had never pounded so much. I felt as robbed as I had when I had fought Diabolos. Nothing worse than spending hours trekking through a Prommy, then put up an awesome fight against the boss, to die at the last second. A wipe at 70% would have been OK as it would have shown that we weren’t ready. To wipe on an empty HP bar is like being mugged outside your own front door. We were robbed. You can watch the fight here: Afterwards, Teila and I went with BBK to Davoi to kill Purpleflash Brukdok for his RDM AF weapon. We spent a while wondering how to pop him but then he spawned moments after we’d cleared the area and we killed him with little difficulty. I was so tired that I logged out in Davoi.

Sod's Law

The first thing I had planned today was to find a Coffer in Garlaige Citadel for Teila’s WHM AF Hat, but we forgot about those stupid Banishing Gates in the Citadel which require four people to open. Of course, when we got there the place was dead, but luckily there was a PUP levelling up by the 1st Banishing Gate, and so we were at three straight away. A lone player wandered along shortly after and we were able to get through.



As there are five Coffer points behind the 2nd Banishing Gate, and only two behind the 3rd, we decided to camp in front of the 2nd Banishing Gate, where those annoying Acid Greases sit. Teila had to constantly reapply Sneak and Invisible whilst we waited well over an hour for someone to come along. We even tried to shout for help, but no one came. Eventually Teila said:

“Shall we go and wait at the 3rd Banishing Gate?”

“Nah, let’s stay here. The moment we leave you just know someone will come along.”

Sure enough, within minutes, the door to the 3rd Banishing Gate opened. Sod’s Law.

After an hour and a half, we gave up and returned to Whitegate and I put together a Lebros Trolls fight Assault party. We had a really nice NIN tank called Tigerhawk who was full of /bows and /smiles, and some familiar faces like Dimmauk as a BLU. This time all three Assaults were really easy, as the party functioned splendidly. We completed each one in around twenty minutes, but only got 700AP for completing them, less than the Periqia Assaults we used to do!



Afterwards I swapped to Corsair to try to get some levels quickly using the Anniversary Ring. I sat seeking for an hour in Kazham and then I gave up and went to bed. I could have sworn COR was a popular job but I’ve hardly had any parties with it.

Demolishing Dem

Yesterday Kellie and Kitty had read the forthcoming updates to CoP (making it easier for a fourth time due to the “overwhelming” number of requests from players to SE), and has asked me to go with them through the Prommies before the update. I had agreed, and we managed to recruit BBK as a tank (with Kitty), Teila as a second SMN, and Gotrunks as our WHM.



We made our way through the first floor of Dem with little hassle, fighting the Memory Receptacle for access to the second floor. Unfortunately, Gotrunks got aggro from a Weeper just as we were entering the Stream and died. I thought the Stream would close before he could get in it, but he managed to Reraise and join us to the second floor in time. It was an Omen of things to come.

On the second floor, despite BBK and Squidy on map duty, we couldn’t find a Memory Receptacle to save our lives. When we finally did find one, it was a dud and we had to go search for another one. When we did, Gotrunks got aggro again, but luckily made it through without dying. Kellie took a death though too, but Reraised up before we got in the Stream.



On the third floor, I noobed up and caused a wipe, but it wasn’t entirely my fault! I went to Ninja behind a True Sight mob and it turned at the last minute, so I caught aggro. I tried to run away and die in a safe place, and caught aggro from other Weepers as I did so. The Linkshell, being loyal to the core, chased after me and took them off me as I died so had two IT Weepers on them. They were Light-based so we were unable to Bar ourselves, and as a result, wiped to their AoE. I apologised, but in the end if someone takes aggro on the third or fourth floor of a Prommy it’s best to let them die.



On the fourth floor we soon found the Memory Flux which Teila needed for CoP 8.5 and although I tried to get everyone to line up for a Forum photo, they wouldn’t, so I don’t have a pic of us against the Flux to post here. Anyway, we found the Spire to Dem and stepped inside to prepare for the Boss, the Progenitor.

I actually thought this was harder compared to when I went through with my CoP static. We hardly dented it but when Teila and I both used Shiva’s Diamond Dust at the same time it lost a substantial amount of life. Kitty and BBK then used their Anima to lock it down whilst we continued to pummel away. Teila and I used a second Astral flow each and after four Diamond Dusts, the thing was still standing. It began to spawn Offspring and use Sprit Absorption, which was an Endrain effect, so Kitty and BBK used Mighty Strikes to knock it right down. A final Diamond Dust from Teila finished it off. It put up a serious fight this time, but luckily thanks to Gotrunks, no one came near to dying. Kellie also provided artillery support in the form of BLM nukes.



We agreed to do Mea on Thursday so Gotrunks could get Lufaise Meadows and then Holla some other time in the near future.

After the Prommy I received another invite from a Mithra called Drunkenthief. I came to meet her in Jeuno but we only got as far as four members, before she logged out and everyone else disbanded. It’s been a sucky weekend for invites and I’ve now been L53 across three parties now, and that’s with the Anniversary Ring active.

Blind Inviting the Blind

I had just OP Warped to Jugner Forest to go and solo the BCNM Shooting Fish again when I remembered I had forgot to get my Cloudy Orb from Jeuno. I hopped onto FrostMoon and began Chocking it back to Jeuno, when halfway across Batallia Downs I received a a blind invite, but not only that, it was to actually fight with Summons as we had a WHM and a PLD!

I jumped at the chance and made my way to Garlaige Citadel where we were intending to fight. Most of the Party were L50s, and I was L53, so I knew I was gonna be a bit of a killer when it came to XP but I thought that it wouldn’t be too bad with the Anniversary Ring on. I think the leader was a little inexperienced as he wanted to take on the Vault and Over Weapons, incredibly tough mobs in their 60s, but fortunately we also had a RDM for Dispel (Weapons love Protect and Shell). So with a WHM and a RDM in the party, I thought I was in for a fun ride!

How wrong I was.

We camped in the Serket room, near the Donut room and decided to try our luck on a Skeleton mob (Fallen Something) which was in its L60s. It was insane. It keep doing AoE Black Cloud and catching everyone, knocking us right down. When we’d eventually got it to low life it did Blood Saber, taking 150hp back from all of us (that’s 900hp!), and I gave in and Astral Flowed on the first mob. I managed to finish it off, but straight away the PLD DC’d. Whilst we waited, several people went AFK and the PLD didn’t come back.

We waited and waited. It had been one and a half hours since I’d joined by now, and I’d made 300xp. Eventually the DRK decided that he would tank the Bats and Beetles and chain them for low xp. We did and even with the Anniversary Ring we got appalling xp. The PLD then repopped and rejoined us, claiming rain had been the cause of his DC. With a full party again, we moved back to weapons. The DRK had been pulling with Bio and ran to the Weapon tunnel and, knowing they didn’t link, cast Bio on the nearest one. Not realising Weapons aggro to magic, all four or five come running out and annihilate him. He died and the party carried on fighting one of them, but before long, the PLD DC’d a second time, leaving us at four. Then our WHM died, Reraised, and moved aside to rest up. Fighting at three wasn’t gonna happen, so our BLM began casting Escape. Even with calls, it was too late. We Escaped out and left our WHM behind.



Why does this always happen to my parties? The WHM politely left at that point so I agreed to main heal and asked them to look for another DD. After a few more bats and many AFKs, the PLD came back again and we nabbed him up. Then we got a SAM for the sixth and carried on with Beetles. Before long, the DRK had to take another AFK for twenty minutes and the PLD DC’d a third time. Everyone was getting mad and I don’t know how we stayed together with so many AFKs and DCs but we decided to replace the PLD with a NIN and our RDM got us a PL from Bastok. She took around an hour to show up, and the NIN took his/her sweet time too. When the PL showed up, we moved back to Weapons and began getting 300-400xp which was cool, but within three fights, the PL DC’d when I had just used Astral Flow again so I had no MP to heal. We managed to beat it after three Astral Flows, but half the party was dead. I Raised everyone up, and we agreed to disband after acknowledging the party was jinxed and not working at all. I made 4k in as many hours.

The Balance

Last night my friend told me that he had been successful in his interview for a design company and had been given the job, and in return I was informed by Nottingham City Council that I was unsuccessful in my interview. In exchange for Teila's victory against Bahamut, Usagy announced today that following our failure on Sunday against the Snoll he had gone and not only done the Snoll fight, but the Airship fight against Ultima and Omega, the following three NMs and the Tenzen fight for Sea access with his HNM Linkshell.

To be honest I had expected as much. Usagy had received a lot of pressure to get to Sea and I was surprised he hadn't done it with them before. Was I angry? Nah. Was I gutted? Maybe. He said he'd help us with the Snoll, but I've heard that before. People say they will, but their heart isn't in it. I appreciate his help through Chapter Five, but I think I'll look to call a two week break on CoP and then have Teila take over as the sixth member.

Elsewhere, Doffo reached L75 on his DRG tonight, which was awesome as we're beginning to bolster our ranks of end-gamers. Omnislasher had jumped to a L72 PLD so it would be very cool to have a L75 tank on our Linkshell. But, the balance was restored again by leaving me to seek for five hours with no hope of putting together my own XP party, and it's nights like this one that infuriate me, as it's such a waste of my life. It's not like I don't want to party - I offer myself on a plate - and if I'd had a party every time I'd seeked then I would have several L75 jobs by now.



At 11pm I gave up and went to do Shooting Fish a couple more times with Teila. I got a pretty good haul this time, consisting of a Mannequin Head, Platoon Bow, Platoon Gun and a Thunder Spirit Pact amongst other things so that's around 80k I think. Teila held the record at 4m 7s, and I came out with 4m 8s. The scary thing was, when we went in a second time for Teila, she got 4m 9s.

It was Waterday too, and still a doddle.

I dunno what to do about CoP. I've suggested a two-week break so BBK and I can level but do I want to waste my time seeking as SMN? Was I lucky the other two nights with invites? Or was tonight just unlucky?

Dunno what to do!

Shooting Fish

Before I went over to my friend's house for Wednesday night website designing, I decided to do the L20 BCNM "Shooting Fish" a couple of times with Teila. I'd done this lots of times in the past and failed each time, but Teila had come up with a clever new strategy whereby a L20 SMN can solo it!

In this BCNM you face three NM Pugils. Two are slightly weaker Archer Pugils and the central one is the stronger Sniper Pugil. All three attack by firing balls of water at you which sends you flying back a long way, similar to the Memory Receptacles in the Promyvions. Therefore it's impossible to melee them (well, pretty much anyway).



Teila approached the edge of the arena, summoned Ramuh and popped a Yagudo Drink. Before engaging, she activated Astral Flow, then, without getting aggro, sent Ramuh in to Assault the Sniper Pugil. As soon as Ramuh engaged, she fired off a Judgement Bolt, turned and began running down the hill. After counting to four, she clicked on Retreat. This means the Pugils will shoot at Ramuh, knocking him away from them, allowing Ramuh to float down the hill at a good distance from the Pugils so he doesn't get hit.

Previously, we had been Releasing Ramuh, meaning the hate was on us, but by Retreating, Ramuh still has the hate. As you need twice your level in MP to use Astral Flow, keep running until your MP has reached 40, then turn around, Assault the Sniper Pugil and fire off the second Judgement Bolt. This should kill the two Archer Pugils, and if the Sniper Pugil is still alive, retreat Ramuh again, run back to the top and fire off the final one. It was hideously easy, and because Ramuh is strong to Water, he only gets hit between 1-5 points of damage.



After I'd watched Teila do it, I went in and did it myself, and it was just as easy. The first time we got a Mannequin Head, Something Cesti, Scroll of Blaze Spikes, Mythril Beastcoin, Pugil Scales and 700 Gil, and the second time we got a Scroll of Blaze Spikes, a Yellow Rock, Mythril Beastcoin, Pugil Scales, Shall Shell and 700 Gil. I took the Mannequin Head as they're Rare and Teila already had one.

I'm going to do this regularly now as my Beastmen's Seals have just been building up and this would be an easy way to get rid of them. I know Teila went back in two hours later and got a Thunder Spirit Pact, worth around 60k at the moment. My Mannequin head is worth around 100k I think, but I'm keeping it towards my full Mannequin.

I also need to say a big Congratulations to Teila who joined an Alliance tonight for the CoP "Sequel" mission versus Bahamut in Monarch Linn, "Storms of Fate". She had eighteen people and beat him first time. Her words were "What a fight!". Not many people can lay claim to having beaten Bahamut, especially first time.

Carbuncle, I Choose YOU!

ShadesOfUnicorn were scheduled to attend Dynamis-Windurst today, but when I logged in the message on the Linkshell said, yet again, that we would be doing Dynamis-Jeuno. I took off my Linkpearl and decided that I would not be going for a fourth time in a row to that laggy hellhole, so instead I put my flag up as SMN and, literally, after three seconds I received an invite to a full party, blatantly in need of a healer.

I returned to Jeuno and we set off for Crawlers’ Nest. The party was mostly Japanese but the leader was English (or at least spoke English). We began fighting the Helm Beetles in the lower depths of the Nest but whilst I was summoning Titan, the Samurai had taken hate and was hit by several criticals and a Power Attack. He died before I’d finished summoning and there was nothing I could do. Our NIN tank couldn’t hold hate. I Raised him up and he was understanding, but the BRD disbanded and Warped out without a word. No one questioned it, but I thought that was mighty rude. I’ve known BRDs to leave like that before, as they know they’ll be snatched up by another party straight away.



We carried on for the rest of the party as a five. I soon got L52 and despite having no Refresher, I managed to cycle Earthen Ward and Ecliptic Growl whilst main healing, at no real risk of major downtime, but I could have slapped our trigger-happy BLM, who took most of the hate. We disbanded when I was 1.1k TNL.

During the party, Omnislasher wrote to me:

(Omnislasher): Summoner? Thought you hated that job! >.>
(Kixxi): Nah, just doing it for the CoP Squad. Desperate times call for desperate measures!

I’ve never hated SMN. In fact, until I discovered THF, SMN was my favourite job, but I had to solo it from L30 to L40 due to the lack of invites. It is quite possibly the most powerful job in the game, but takes a while to master and a lifetime of patience. Most of the time you’ll only get invited because there are no WHMs seeking. If a WHM is available, you’re screwed. I was levelling it this time to use in the Snoll. I was burning to use Inferno on him, as I’m sick of seeing his spiky-toothed grin as wipes us all out.

Teila rang me to explain what was happening with Dynamis. Turned out Darkshade was sulking because they couldn’t get in to a Dynamis on Saturday due to the Japanese being in. He’d let Snobe and Bobababa manage the run, so Snobe had chosen Dynamis-Jeuno to get his last piece of Relic and due to the stupid free-lot rules, all the people who knew that no Relic would drop for their job, didn’t want to come. Momotaru was arguing this, but others were saying that he was just causing drama. The arguing escalated and people started saying that they should give up on ShadesOfUnicorn as it was nothing but hassle. In the end they agreed on Dynamis-San d’Oria but I was too busy enjoying myself in a party to want to come. In fact I’d be quite happy to quit.

After my party ended, I headed to Whitegate to participate in a Troll Besieged to see if I could get full XP which would get me another level. I died several times, but managed to live at the end, whilst healing as many people as possible. I received just under 1k XP so Teila took me out into Bhaflau Thickets to solo EP where I got L53! Not bad considering yesterday I was L50!

Main Healing, Yes Please

As I hadn’t done an Assault since I got my Yigit Gages, Teila and I decided upon the L3 Lebros Cavern Assault, “Troll Fugitives”, whereby you had to pursue fifteen (?) wounded Trolls through the cave and kill them all. The great thing about them being wounded was that some had very low HP. We got members quite quickly and ran through the cave killing them ASAP. There was no time to rest (another reason why BLMs don’t work in Assaults) and we only just made it with a minute to go! I received 1,200 AP for winning, so I have 1,300 AP in total for Lebros Cavern!



After another demoralising Snoll fight on Sunday, I then bit the bullet and swapped to SMN to solo Bombs in Ifrit’s Cauldron whilst seeking. I know SMN will do some mean damage to the Snoll Tzar but I’ve made it clear to the CoP Squad that I’m fed up with being the one levelling frantically whilst others just moan about it. On the other hand, I’m fed up with Chapter 5 of CoP (we’ve been on it since January I think, maybe) so I want it done ASAP.

I struggled in Ifrit’s Cauldron. Although I got 400 XP a kill with the Anniversary Ring on, many would not blow up and I got the hate after awhile, and died in two hits. I almost gave up when I got invited to a party in Garlaige Citadel.



We didn’t have a proper tank, so we used our WAR/NIN. We went to Garlaige and dropped into the Serket area and camped there, pulling Chamber Beetles and Funnel Bats. I soon reached L51 and because of the luxury of having a COR, I was never without Refresh. Once I’d hit L51 I was able to equip the Elemental Staves, and when I combined the Light Staff with my Carbuncle Mitts, I was able to keep the radioactive squirrel out for free. The Staves made the Avatars stronger and reduced their perpetuation cost. We disbanded when I was 4k TNL.



I returned to Whitegate to check to see if I could get my next rank-up quest from Naja but still no joy. On the way out I spoke with her assistant and, lo and behold, he gave me the quest! How many Assaults ago could I have got this had I known to speak to him!?

The Fellowship is Breaking

Tonight was Take Three of the Snoll fight. We had agreed for Omni to use Cover the moment Usagy took the hate, and straight after Cover wore to use Invincible. Everything was going well until Usagy started getting pummelled and there was no Cover from Omni. Usagy dropped, then BBK, then me, and so on and so forth. We wiped when the Snoll was at 1% according to Doffo, who was the last standing.

Afterwards morale was at rock bottom and people were fuming. We are all fed up with this chapter and the amount of money we’re spending on this fight. We asked Omni why he didn’t use Cover and he explained that he thought he could keep hate just by using Invincible. I think some people underestimate the power of MNKs. Cover is a critical ability and I never see PLDs use it, except on a couple of occasions when it has been used to great effect.

We disbanded and returned home to try again another day but the morale of the group had never been so low, I really thought people would quit.

That Awkward Level

I sat seeking for ages as COR but didn’t get a party. I’m at that level where I’m a little too high for Qufim but a little too low for Yuhtunga Jungle and people probably don’t know what a COR does. I therefore moved to Buburimu Peninsula and continued soloing EPs using the new item called the Anniversary Ring. It gives you double XP for kills and lasts up to 760 minutes, or a 3k bonus whichever is quicker. It only has ten charges, but people believe you can recharge it after a year.



I combined this with the Corsair’s Roll to receive very good XP and I made it to just under L25. I should be good to go to Kazham next time, and then it won’t be long before I can purchase Evoker’s Roll!

3/5 Yigit Pieces Acquired!

I finally managed to acquire the third piece of the Yigit set tonight after my billionth Mamool Ja Assault. It has a fat +5 MND and INT amongst other things so is very useful for me. One problem is, the Blessed/Noble's Gear is specific to WHM, so all the stats benefit me, but the Yigit set is geared to all mages. So whilst I can have a nice Rare/Ex set to wear that has some cool stuff on it, I will be losing out on a lot of WHM-specific stats. Still I only use WHM really for helping people, and I don't intend to Merit it, so I'm not fussed.



I then went to help Shadowsamurai get her first Staging Point, Mamool Ja. It's always the first one I take people to as it's so easy to reach. She delivered her supplies and was then able to complete ToAU Mission 2 and become a Mercenary. I didn't have time to carry on getting the others, as to get all six in one night would take, literally, hours.

Later I came on to duo as COR with Teila's BST again. We killed fast and I hit L23 and got a nice buffer. I think I'll seek at the weekend, but I'm not bothered if I have to duo up to Kazham as things start to pick up a bit at L25 then I believe things get a lot better from L30 onwards. Once I hit L40 I am hoping that the invites will come non-stop as everyone loves a Refresher!

Dynamis-Jeuno Interloper!

Not that you can tell from today's date and title, but tonight was Dynamis-Jeuno for the third time, but there was a slight bit of drama to accompany our victory!

We gathered in Ru'Lude Gardens again at 6pm GMT, but the Linkshell Leader announced that his RL friend and co-runner of the LS had quit the Linkshell, stolen the Linkshell funds and destroyed the points list on the LS Forum. Everyone was mighty pissed and I had never seen Aka mad before, until today. When people began to calm down, Momotaru suggested that we should hear the friend's side of the story, which was a good idea.



Minutes later, the friend ran past us, laughed and ran away, which did nothing to defend his side of things. People started slapping him and asking him why he did it. Whether we believed him or not, he started saying that the leader had the money, not him, and that

The friend was kicked from the Linkshell because he refused to let the leader lot on some Relic Armour when he didn't have the points. The leader, of course, denied this so it turned into a "who do we believe?" incident.

We had three Alliances this time, and we made our way through Dynamis-Jeuno with very few deaths in our Alliance, but there were still heavy casualties in the BLM Alliance. The lag, however, was WORSE than the first run I did, but then again I only remembered to turn down the settings at the last minute.



I DC'd twice during the run, and the last DC was like BBK and the Minotaur. The BLMs aggroed an enormous chain of monsters and ran them around Ru'Lude Gardens, whilst the PLDs 'Voked an enormous Goblin Statue NM called Goblin Golem. We were told that as soon as the Goblin Golem was destroyed to touch the ??? where it died, just like in LB2. Of course, I DC'd at this point and couldn't get back in for ages. When I finally did, I was in a panic that the last four hours were all for naught as I couldn't find the ??? and got quite frustrated in the LS chat. Eventually I found it and got my Key Item, the title "Dynamis-Jeuno Interloper", and Dynamis-Jeuno complete in my quest log.



Regarding the points system for the Relic, our points were reset to 0 and it was free lot on all Relic provided you have that job to L70+ and you could only lot on one piece of Relic per run. Many people were annoyed at this as it meant that people would only turn up if their Relic was available in certain locations. It also wound one person up because someone had just showed up today beat her on a lot so she became very irate in the Linkshell chat. This soon degenerated into sulking and she went AFK for an hour as a result. She was kicked from the Linkshell at the end of the run. Apparently we will still get points, but these will only count once we've finished Dynamis in the cities. A Relic Bow also ended up in my inventory!

So Close!

I began tonight by feeding SilentForest then heading to Buburimu Peninsula with Teila to duo as COR and BST. We raked through the monsters and I hit L22 and almost made L23 in the same sort of speed that I would have partied at. I kept Hunter's Roll and Chaos Roll up at all times, then once our rings wore, changed from Hunter's Roll to Corsair's Roll, as it was evident that we weren't missing Decent Challenges.



Afterwards it was Assault time, and Teila got her 20k from Mamool Ja Staging Point, plus her Rank Up Quest to Assault L5 (Corporal?), whereas I need just two more Assaults and I will have my Yigit Gages plus my Rank Up to Lance Corporal. We had Karmell, a BLU from my Friend List, as the tank, playing BLU/NIN (BLU are pretty good tanks!), along with a THF and a DRK. They both went really well, but we finished quite late, so I logged out and went to play FFIII on the Nintendo DS.

There's Snoll Way We can do This

I logged in around 8pm for our second attempt at the Snoll Tzar in the hope that we could finally finish off Chapter 5, but it was not to be. Alas, after another long trek up to Bearclaw Pinnacle, we took on the Snoll but wiped at the very last second again. Usagy went MNK instead of BLM this time, and I think it went better. He used Boost, Chi Blast, and Hundred Fists to inflict massive damage hit for hit, whilst BBK used ES Flare. Doffo and I used a Detonation Skillchain (not that it did anything LOL), and even though it wasn't Firesday, we did better than last week - one more spell would have finished it. I wiped whilst midway through using my Salt, and I think we now only need three Salts, maybe two, to finish it.

Decided that I think if Omni didn't use a Salt, and instead used Cover on Usagy or BBK, we might last longer.

A Crabby Place to Fight

I received an invite almost straight away as a Corsair tonight, and went off to another Qufim Party. We were camped at the mouth of the tunnel to Jeuno and although we started off on worms, we ended up with a bored WHM being a PL and moved to Snippers. I soon hit L21 and rubbed my hands with glee at the thought of being able to use normal bullets next level. We fought for ages, until our WHM (in the party) DC'd and so our PUP changed to SMN and came back to PL us. Omni had been begging me for a party, so I got him to replace our WHM, and we moved to the entrance to Lower Delkfutt's Tower.



We pulled Bats mainly, as the other parties were nabbing all the Snippers, and they went down fast for good XP. I had to disband at 11pm to watch a movie with Teila, so I called on another PUP to replace me. I disbanded around 1k TNL.

Worming My Way Through Qufim

I was seeking for ages tonight as Corsair, but eventually I got a party which was made up of both Japanese and English speaking players. We went to the dreaded pond again and roamed around taking on Worms. At L19 I didn't have Healer's Roll for the Mages, so I still had no experience of running back and forth to buff the different members of the party. Instead, I just kept up Hunter's Roll and Chaos Roll for the best Attack and Accuracy we could have. I only Bust once, but hey, it happens! I managed to get L20, but I didn't have the White Mage Die on me, but it didn't matter. Soon after, our tank DC'd and we didn't manage to get a replacement, so I disbanded.

101 Ways to Die

Tonight was my second Dynamis run, which was once again Dynamis-Jeuno. Doffo reminded me to turn all my settings down so that the lag was minimised and for the most part it worked. It was still bad in parts, but nowhere near as jerky as it was last week.



There were less of us this time - although I was in a full alliance, there were very few people in the BLM alliance, meaning they had to work extra hard to make sure that they killed as many statues as possible before the main waves of Goblins reached the second line.



Derelict had quit for personal reasons, but Momotaru was there, generally trying to be cute through lots of emotes. Teila learned that he was from Bangkok but he had very good English.



Doffo was in my party this week, and I also had a Refresher, Lilkittykat, who was very polite, as was my THF, Nyclia. Akashea was in my alliance but in another party, and Teila was BRD in the BLM group.

We failed again. The puller kept pulling bad links and we wiped on numerous occasions and after the tenth death people were getting a bit miffed and started filtering off one by one.



Some Relic Armour dropped, mainly RDM and BRD, but I think there were some Warrior's Mufflers in there too. The Relic Staff dropped and no one lotted on it, so out of two alliances it happened to fall into my inventory. Now I've only got to get BLM or SMN to L75 to use it, and also try to power it up several times over.

I've now built up 6 DP (Dynamis Points) so I can start lotting on my WHM Relic Armour as of next Tuesday, not that I really want it though.



Afterwards I switched to COR, and started seeking in Jeuno. I was seeking for an hour and was about to log when I got a blind invite from a THF. I accepted, and I was the first to join. We soon got to four, and then had the luxury of a PLD tank, but the whole party was immature. They began arguing about having "high level" jobs and who knew best. They promptly got aggroed by a Dancing Weapon in the tunnel to Qufim.

After around an hour of faffing about, and passing leader around, we remained at five and took on a Worm at the pond. We received some nice XP for it, but afterwards our MNK decided to rest by the water and got aggroed by a GBH. He died rapidly and the WHM DC'd. A passing WHM from another party came along and Raised the MNK, but our WHM never came back.

After all that wasted time I quit the party quite fed up. Are all low level players just idiots? Arguing over who has the highest job, passing leader back and forth, shouting in caps, DCing after one fight... grrr.