The End

Well, it's been nearly two years of blog-writing, and sadly, I think I'm now writing to myself on here.

Since I left the TheHelpingHand a couple of months back, apart from BBK and Aka, no one has contacted me, which is sad, but to be honest, not unexpected.

Despite helping many, many people out over the years that I've been on THH, and despite trying to lead the shell in Kitty and Kellie's absence to get members their Limit Breaks or Artifact Armour Pieces, or get people through missions, no one has helped me out in return except the usual few loyal people.

Well it's this selfishishness that has forced me to leave Unicorn and today I transferred to my new Server. Fortunately, I have a few close friends coming with me, and we have people waiting at the other end who want to help us out and get involved in doing lots of activities, something this LS has never wanted to do, unless it has benefitted them.

So, a big thanks to all those who have helped me out - it will not be forgotten, but as for the rest, I won't be sorry to leave. Such as shame it's come to this.

Overshadowed

I was off work today so I had a whole day to game. I didn’t have any commitments, so I decided to go and camp Gargantua for the Miraculous Dale quest, and farm more Tundra Tigers whilst waiting on Golem pops.

When I got there, I noticed two players had cleaned the place out of Golems and Tigers, and whilst I’m aware that it’s courtesy to team up with others wanting the NM for the quest, I was there to farm too and I didn’t want to compete with them for Tigers, so I went over to Fei'Yin to farm there.

I'd never, ever farmed in Fei'Yin, so I made a mental list of some of the things I needed or could get. Reraise II, from the Killing/Hellish Weapons, and a Wandering (?) Bulb from the Utukki (for the Opo-Opo Crown). I also looked up some NMs there, noting the four Shadows and Goliath as quite doable, although looking at the Shadows’ pop time of 16-32 hours, and nice items, I never thought I’d get a chance at them.

So first I went downstairs to the Weapons and on my very first one I got the scroll. Although I was really chuffed, I did kinda think, "now what", but I decided to try to pop Goliath. After killing a few Colossi in the little rooms off the western corridor, I gave up and went upstairs where I realised the Shadow NMs were found.

The area was silent – no one was about – and to my shock, there was the rare and much sought-after Eastern Shadow, lurking above the dead body of a Galkan SMN. There was nothing I could do to Raise him, but I did shout for one, then pulled the Eastern Shadow. You can watch the fight here.

I didn’t get the drop but I was amazed I could solo it as I had thought these NMs were supposed to be super-hard but I guess not. I then thought, well, what if no one’s come here for awhile and the others are due to pop? So I carried on, working my way round the four rooms killing the Spectres and sure enough, to my amazement, I popped the Northern Shadow! You can watch the fight here.

This one was much easier. The Eastern Shadow took of my shadows easily (as Ranged Attacks guarantee a shadow loss) but this one did nothing but melee and used the occasional Dimensional Death. Again, I got no drop though.

After a couple of hours I noticed that I had tabbed onto a Strange Apparatus, and after a short while of checking the walls I discovered a trick wall which led me to the machine much like the one in Crawler's Nest. I never knew there was one here before! I took an AFK break there fore dinner and came back to carry on later.

Another couple of hours went by and I was getting tired, but just before I was about to log, WOOT, there was the Southern Shadow! This one opened with a Stonega III and took off almost 500 life, so I began to panic, but I managed to keep the fight under control. You can watch the fight here.

AGAIN – no drop! Man, I didn’t level THF to L75 for nothing, nor get my hands on a Thief's Knife. Still, it’s all about the thrill of the camp, isn't it?

When I was about to log out to watch 30 Days of Night, I tabbed onto none other than Goliath (through the floor as you sometimes do) so I ran down the stairs and back round to the corridor where he lurks and found him in one of the side rooms. He was so big I could only see his lower half on my screen, but if you want to you can watch the fight here.

I got full drops from him, including the Slab of Granite, but I don’t think it's worth much. I'm not fussed though, I’m just chuffed I got so many NMs in one afternoon, including 3 that have a 16-32hr spawn time! It would have made my day if I'd got the Retaliators and Vali's Bow though; would have been enough to make me level MNK and RNG!^^

A Pin in the Ass

Next Saturday Teila, BBK and I are moving to Phoenix so in return for me choosing to move us to a busier Teila asked me to help her camp the Valkurm Emperor and Leaping Lizzy before we went.

We started with the Valkurm Emperor and the second I turned up in the Dunes and popped up Widescan, VE was already up so I hit Flee and legged it. Unfortunately, there was already a THF there, daggers drawn so there was nothing I could do. He killed it with ease and I said {Congratulations!} but he didn't respond. I'm guessing he got the drop because he Warped and then was logged out five minutes later.

This meant that whatever the minimum pop time was until next spawn, we had to wait it out, but we decided to kill PHs anyway. BBK, obsessed with camping, came over to help, but being a Saturday (and therefore busier), there were randoms running around making it sometimes hard to determine the PH.

Eventually BBK had to go, but his son, who also plays, took over his character and between us we carried on killing PHs. Precisely 1hr and 10mins later, I saw a shadow appear over my Taru and as I spun the camera round there was VE, hovering above my head.

I got the claim and got the drop, so that makes me 2/2 on VE, not bad considering how low some people say the drop rate is. Teila was so chuffed!

Next we tried Leaping Lizzy and this one was harder. Looking at the Wiki it seemed there were two groups of five Rock Lizards near the top of Widescan (ignoring the couple of Rock Lizards right at the top), and that the PH was the bottom of the first group of five. Problem was, this was South Gustaberg on a Saturday and not only were there plenty of others camping, but there were lots of people levelling too.

Anyway, somehow we managed to get on top of the PH in the top group, but to make sure, we also killed the Lizard in the bottom group too, in case that was also a PH.

An hour or so later, Leaping Lizzy appears on Widescan and off I dash, getting the claim. She dropped in one Acid Bolt, but no drop. This continued for several hours, and I'm positive on one occasion we spawned her from taking out the Lizard in the bottom group too, meaning to me that there are two PHs for LL. After four claims, we got no drop and gave up for the day.

Getting Booted

As I had logged out in South Gustaberg I continued camping LL with Teila for most of the morning and into the early afternoon. We got the claim on every spawn but still no Boots, even with TH1, TH2 and a Thief's Knife. How did I get mine on my first kill last year?

In the early afternoon I gave up and went to continue with the series of Bastok quests which lead to the Adaman Ingot fight. There was a lot of running around to do, such as going to Grauberg and trading Goblin Chocolates, but eventually I was ready to go.

I went AFK in Pashow Marshlands (S) to wait for other LS members to get ready for the fight too. When we went in, we were surrounded by Sapphirine Quadav, and there was nowhere to go, so we had to fight. Pulling one in a group meant pulling all, but like the Yagudo BCNM in Ghoyu's Reverie, they were pretty easy.

What I failed to notice however was that one in each group was actually a Sapphire Quadav (not Sapphirine) which was like the "NM" of the group – more powerful and able to use Benediction. As we only had to defeat seven Quadav, we didn't need to pull these, but I pulled two by mistake!

It was an easy fight, and I logged out in the Marshlands after. You can watch the fight here.

In the evening Teila obtained her Leaping Boots (whilst I was offline), so we're all set for the move to Phoenix now!^^

Waltzing with Worms

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity since I got my last (or actually, first) Dance (Drain Samba), I got my first Curing Waltz, which also meant I hit L15 on DNC. Teila and I were duoing outside Bastok Markets (S) again and were getting braver, heading out almost as far as the tower which overlooks the path down the cliff, where the Lycopodium on drugs sits.

We tried to stick to Worms onry this time, to simply get through them as quickly as possible and it was much quicker than the night before. When I did level up to 15 it was weird as I didn’t know where to stick the macro, and I also kept forgetting to use it because it had been ten levels since my last Dance.

Going to try to take on tough Dhalmels next time.

The Bardha's Tale

Yesterday I went into Limbus for the very first time to see what it was like. I went as a duo with Teila as she'd solo'd it a few times before as BLM, so I thought I'd help out as COR for mage buffs and Light Shot.

We decided on Apollyon NW, which was the ghost one. In keeping with CoP's usual vague-ness, I had to go and get some detergent from Sagheera in Port Jeuno and combine it with a key item Red Key Card (how we know we're supposed to do this, I have no idea, but Teila knew from before), so after I'd shelled out 30k for the detergent (key item: Cosmo Cleanse), we Teleported to Dem, entered the crystal and ran across Al'Taieu until we found the Aw’Euhvi NM, which, conveniently, was located beneath a Yovra.

Using the Sleep-nuke tactic, we killed it with little danger to our health, and both received a key item Red Key Card from it, so headed on over to the Swirling Vortex, and entered Apollyon.

It was silent inside, and like being in a purple Promyvion. There were two portals inside and a Sentinel Column, which can be clicked to see who is inside Limbus (as you cannot enter an area if someone else was in).

Apollyon NW, the area we wanted, was free, so in we went.

Inside, we saw an area which had a "main street" through some Prommy-style ruins, with several ghosts (known as Bardhas), and a giant Doomed (known as Pluto), which walked up and down the main street. I noticed that all the Bardhas and Pluto followed a set left-to-right, or back-and-forth walking pattern, similar to Guivre in QS Caves (only Guivre can change direction).

Amongst the mobs, there were also different coloured chests. Teila explained that some gave 5min time bonuses, and others gave MP and HP for example, so we took note of some of them for reference.

Anyway, after buffing with Wizard's Roll and Evoker's Roll, we began fighting. These mobs were designed for alliances and didn't go down easily but we got through a few in the time limit and got some Ancient Beastcoins, which was good.

Sampling Saplings

Today Teila and I ran over to North Gustaberg (S) for a change of camp. We ran around outside the entrance to Bastok Markets (S) and fought the Tunnel Worms there, which checked as DC to us at L13. For a DNC with Drain Samba and a SCH with Healing Magic they were no problem so we decided to take on the Walking Saplings too.

We were in for a big shock. They crit regularly for 40-50 points of damage and these were DC mobs! It took nearly all Teila's MP to keep me alive (remember, I'm Taru with not much HP)! Worst thing was, despite their difficulty, we still only got around 50 to 60 XP with the Emperor Band on.

Anyway, we tried to leave Saplings alone as much as possible and concentrated on Worms, which were much easier. I could take down half their life with one Combo, which meant that we could rake through them.

When we both hit L14 we stopped and I logged out to have an early night.

A Pinch of Salt

BBK wanted some help with getting through the weighted doors in the Quicksand Caves so that he could get his Ancient Salt, so we headed off to the Desert to meet with him. This was the last item he required for the Opo-Opo Crown, so he was very excited.

Unfortunately, I led them through the wrong door and ended up zoning them into the Chamber of Oracles, so we had to exit and run on foot back round to the correct door. Both Teila and I then nearly DC'd amidst a group of EP Anticans too, but fortunately we regained connection at the last minute and made it to the hieroglyphic tunnel.

From there we dropped to the ZM Pot location and proceeded to clear the room of everything so we could reach all the Sand Diggers without hassle, but even with my THF and Thief's Knife I got nothing in an hour. Teila had to log out for dinner, and I had to log out for an online meeting with Sesh, but BBK was able to continue alone with the two near the zone to the Desert.

Eventually Teila logged back in to help some more and just as they were about to give up (2.5hrs after we'd begun) the Ancient Salt dropped. He was so chuffed and went to pick up his Opo-Opo Crown straight away.