Conchoculations!

Anuka had been powering through her Anniversary Ring to hit L20 on her MNK! She was now eager to get her Chocobo License, so I ran her over to Jeuno from Windurst.

Running to Jeuno was quite epic to her in itself, and running round Jeuno for the first time was also exciting, especially as they've added so much to it since I first ran there in 2005. I don't think Jeuno's an attractive city at all, but there's a lot to do there.



She got her first ACP cutscene, which made no sense to her, and then arrived in Upper Jeuno where she got the quest, but there was no Gausebit Wildgrass in stock so she had to play the waiting game. It was too late to carry on so we logged out for the night.

Feeling Sheepish

I'd lost track of how many levels Anuka and I made whilst Level Sync'd over the last couple of days, but it was lots. I'd got my DRG into the 20s and her MNK was around L15, so we decided to level in La Theine for some variation.

It seemed slower than Tahrongi, and less XP, but it wasn't difficult, there was no down time and we got a level or so before logging tonight.



When we were ready to finish, we began making our way back towards Ronfaure, but saw this NM Sheep, Slumbering Samwell. It was a mistake to think we could duo it at this level and after I first got hit for 56 damage, I resigned myself to a KO. What made it worse was that whilst Weakened, we got set upon by two Goblins and had to HP. Fortunately we didn't delevel, but it was a sucky end to a night's XPing.

Sub Standard

Now that Anuka had reached L18 on her THF, she'd been levelling MNK, but wanted to get her support job quest done so I offered to take her up to Buburimu Peninsula to get the quest from Mhaura.

I swapped to THF (whoever decided to put Nomad Moogles in Mhaura was a genius!) and we headed out into the field. It was pretty easy, so I offered to also get her a Carbuncle's Ruby from the Poison Leeches down on the beach.



We didn't get one, but we did see Wake Warder Wanda, so decided to fight her for the staff drop. The staff didn't appear, and reminded me why I called my TH, Treasure Flunker!

Anuka completed the quest and was delighted! She went back to town and continued levelling her MNK with her THF sub.

Primeasy

Today Teila FINALLY managed to find all the ingredients for her Enfeebling Kit so having traded it to the Trodden Snow, we decided we'd do all six Primes to get the big 50k reward - possibly the best Gil reward for a mission thus far.



We started with Shiva Prime and spent a minute or two buffing up before testing the water. LOL. We didn't need to even put Protect on; the Avatar went down in a minute or so, and all she did was spam Diamond Dust, but not the wiping kind, the kind that did around 5 damage without Stoneskin!

That was the easy part. The hard part was getting all six done before I had to log out three hours later. And yes, it actually took the full three hours getting to each Avatar, but we did them and claimed our reward!

DRGing Anuka

After England's victory against Slovenia, I had come home pretty drunk from the pub but still with it enough to level my Dragoon with Anuka's Thief in Tahrongi Canyon. My Dragoon was L10, so she Level Sync'd down to me and we got my Dragoon to L12 and her Thief to L18 before we logged.



Couldn't believe how fast it was - we literally raked in the XP, and even chained Tough Akbabas with little difficulty. I'd subbed DNC for Drain Samba so that kept us topped up, whilst we just pummelled on everything. I honestly don't remember being able to duo Toughs when I used to play!

Anyway, with Anuka now at L18, we're ready to go and get her sub job quest from Mhaura tomorrow - she's very excited!^^

Welcome to Abyssea

With the version update finishing around 2am (so I was told), I didn't get a chance to try out the new content, but by the time I logged in (roughly 5pm that day) there were already six L80s on Unicorn, which was just insane. That must be well over 200-300k XP!

I went to Port Jeuno and obtained the cutscenes for Abyssea and after speaking to Joachim, got the Key Item: Traverser Stone. I then Teleported to the Tahrongi Canyon, entered the new Cavernous Maw there (by the entrance to East Sarutabaruta) and entered Abyssea-Tahrongi.



You seem to zone into a "camp" of sorts, full of NPCs. I spoke to a few, who just spoke random things, but one asked me if I wanted to recharge a Martello. Martellos are little towers which offer HP and MP to players but need recharging over time. I agreed and was given a Key Item to do it.

I put on Sneak and Invisible and went to explore. I saw various mobs, but nothing attacked me whilst using Sneak and Invis. Around the area where the Crag of Mea would have been I found an NM Sandworm called Minhocao, and further in I found Tortoise mobs (quite fascinating seeing as I've never seen a Tortoise mob before, not even Genbu!), and a Tortoise NM called Chukwa.



To explore the zone, you need to obtain a status buff, which you must obtain within five minutes of entering Abyssea (or you're chucked out). Trading multiple Traverser Stones (no idea how you get more than one) allows you to extend your time. I was just exploring so I didn't mind wasting time. After I'd filled up a Martello, I Teleported to the Crag of Mea and I received a notification that I lost the empty Key Item, so it seems you'll need to return to the NPC after you've filled up a Martello.

No Problem

Began the day with a spot of farming in the Labyrinth of Onzozo, but when I arrived the zone was empty so I thought I'd try my luck with Mysticmaker Profblix for the Moldovite Earring. He didn't take long to appear.



Unfortunately, he didn't drop the Earring, just a couple of pieces of Goblin Armour and a Scroll of Burst. That's the third time I've fought him, and he's never not dropped it before! Boo!

After that it was straight onto the Mantas to farm their skins, which netted me a tidy sum after I was done.

Teila still hadn't been able to craft her Enfeebling Kit for the Shantotto Ascension missions so instead we opted to go and to A Manifest Problem for Sirdante in Ghoyu's Reverie. This was a tremendously easy fight which we'd done before several years ago.



Teila was NIN, Sirdante DRG and I was WHM (again). In we went, chasing the Yags, and before they knew it we'd wiped them out and were facing Laa Yaku the Austere, who was leading the motley crew underneath the Fort.

Easy as pie.

Lastly, we spent an hour or so Level Synced in Buburimu Peninsula and before I logged out Sirdante reached L50 on her WAR. Congrats!

Boater Late Than Never

Anuka was telling me that she'd been getting a bit bored of Tahrongi and I don't blame her: the vast expanse of rock is akin to the lacklustre of Gustaberg. To give her some variation (and because getting the Telepoint Crystal is always a good thing), I took her on the ship to Selbina.



I had totally forgotten how long that boat ride is! Okay, so it's not quite as bad as waiting for some of the ferries in Carpenter's Landing, or the trip from Aht Urhgan to Nashmau, but in an age of impatience with MMOs, you'd have thought it would have been shortened.

I got Anuka here Holla Crystal and then I dropped her off in Sandy so she could explore. To be honest, I envied her a little. I remember back to the days when I first came accross a new city and how exciting it was! Kinda made me want to start a new character and redo all those old quests!

Downtrodden

I finally managed to get my Enfeebling Kit of Sleep built ingredients today so gingerly I opened up the synth window to create it.

Fortunately I had an Alchemy score of 22 so synthing it was no problem. With the item in hand I headed on over to the Trodden Snow in Qufim Island and traded the Kit over. Pfft, Shantotto only went and decided to tell me to go and stick Key Items all over the Protocrystals!



I asked Teila if she wanted to do it and bring Sirdante with us, as she had never done a Prime fight, but Teila's alchemy score was 0, so we had to postpone until she'd managed to level it up and synth her Kit.

A Bad Seed

Started with a little bit of levelling today. I Level Sync'd down to L10 on my WHM so I could party with Anuka's THF. SMN was okay but I kept needing to rest all the time as Blood Pacts and having an Avatar out seemed to drain MP continuously. WHM was a bit easier, especially as I discovered that you could get things like Refresh and Reraise from the AMAN Manual.

After we'd got to L12 Anuka went to solo, so I carried on with my A Crystalline Prophecy Missions; I went off to Qufim and popped the Seed Mandragoras.



This wasn't what I expected. They came in waves of five, over and over, occasionally doing a nasty move which took off quite a lot of HP. Being a WHM this was easily rectified, but could have been dangerous if they'd all done it simultaneously.

After that I had to go up to Fei'Yin and find some glowing seeds on the floor (I did wonder what those were). I found all of those quite easily (even though I was timed), but for the first time ever I came accross Capricious Cassie in the basement!



I told the LS and BBK said he had seen a RDM soloing it earlier and apparently the RDM had got it down to very low HP before dying. That's pretty impressive!

A Feast for Gnats

Keen to press on with the Wings of the Goddess missions, I decided to enlist the help of Teila and Akashea to do the A Feast for Gnats fight, having heard the Bastok equivalent, Fire in the Hole, was very tough.

As a result I spent ages trying to get the fish for the pre-requisite quest, When One Man is Not Enough. With all the running around Teila and I had to do, it took around two hours, and poor Aka was waiting all this time!



Eventually, we made it to Sauromugue Champaign (S) and after a very long, but cool, CS, we entered the battlefield as WHM, BST and NIN.

This wasn't a good idea! The NPCs inside the battlefield charged off, so we all followed. The NPCs engaged the Quadav, so I found myself spam-curing everyone, both party members and NPCs, and I couldn't keep up. We failed! Reading up, a good strategy is to have the party members run in, zerg the Belfry whilst the WHM just heals Romaa Mihgo topping her up gently until the others can destroy the Belfry which wins the battlefield.

Sugar High

I'd been away in Bulgaria on hols, so first time I'd logged in in a couple of weeks. Still not knowing what to do I asked the LS if anyone needed any help. BBK and Aka were going to camp Sewer Syrup in the Bostanieux Oubliette for Aka's Jelly Ring, so I offered to tag along.

Iliona and Voltor also came along, so we met up in Northern San d'Oria and dropped into the Oubliette. There was some trouble with the trap doors at first, then we found the pop area and spread out, covering every pop point.



Two hours and many Mousses later, there was no sign of Sewer Syrup, so we called it a night. If I remember correctly, Aka had been after that ring before I took my break two years ago!