A Fading Shadow

As I had the week off work this week, I had plenty of FFXI time to do stuffs. Chinchii and I decided to press on with CoP and ran up to Pso'Xja to farm coloured chips (Grey, Carmine and Cyan) to get the Pso'Xja Pass for access to The Shrouded Maw. We must have been there for an hour, killing Diremites and Maze Lizards but no drop. We got a bit bored and left, hoping to come back with a THF at some point.

I'd been reading up on the rank 5.1 Lich fight and had noticed that a SAM61 had been able to solo it. With me as a L60 PLD and Chinchii as a L55 SAM I thought we could give it a go whilst in the Beaucedine Glacier. We ran our little legs down to Fei'Yin and made our way to the Qu'Bia Arena (noticing the Shadows had been repositioned to make room for higher level mobs, grr). Inside the Qu'Bia Arena we buffed up, popped food (I ate a Tav Taco and gulped down a Yagudo Drink, Chinchii ate a Meat Mithkabob) and ran in.

There were two Skeleton Sorcerers (one to the left and one to the right), and Archlich Taber'Quoan in the middle. One oppened with a Thundaga, one with a Blizzaga and one with a Sleepga. Fortunately, the Sleepga landed first so the other two woke us up, and hardly dented us. In fact, the fight was a doddle! I opened with Invincible, so Chinchii popped Meikyo Shisui and began obliterating the Archlich. She took hate instantly, which leads me to question Invincible's ability to keep hate, but it was manageable. The only difficult thing about this fight was that as PLD, and therefore getting wailed on by the adds, it was difficult to main heal. Somehow I managed to get the majority of Cures off, and kept us going. Finished the fight on around half life, but it was still relatively easy. Taking buffing and prepping out the equation, we beat it in four minutes, not bad for a L60 and L55!

Knowing we couldn't duo the Shadow Lord and that we couldn't be bothered with CoP at the moment, we decided to unlock Dark Knight. You get given Chaosbringer, a cheapy 3 damage weapon with 666 delay (LOL), and the only two jobs that can use it are WAR and DRK. Naturally this meant using Chaosbringer as my L37 WAR (and Chinchii's L30 WAR) to kill 100 mobs. Neither of us had used a greatsword before, not even me as PLD, so we had to face lots of misses as we began killing in West Ronfaure. It took almost an hour to get 100 kills with Chaosbringer!

After that we headed to Beadeaux (why, I don't know but apparently that's where we had to meet Zeid) and unlocked DRK. We logged there for dinner.

In the evening we met up with Teila and Sirdante to do Chinchii's L55 LB2 and to go kill the Shadow Lord! We met in Xarcabard and funnily enough everyone was ready to go at 7pm on the dot! We ran around Xarcabard and found the three NMs and with two level 99s, killed them pretty quickly. I'm still not sure how a party of L55s could do these considering how hard they hit, but hey, didn't matter.

Then it was straight into Castle Zvahl Baileys where we soon got lost trying to find the correct route past the beastmen and up into Castle Zvahl Keep. It took several Silent Oil / Prism Powder uses to do it, but we made it. The journey through the Keep was much quicker and before long we'd got through the teleporters and out onto the battlements where the Throne Room was. Inside the Shadow Lord rose from his Sarcophagus (what timing), and froze Zeid to the spot, challenging us to a fight.

We buffed up (not that we needed it!) and like the brave PLD I am, charged in and engaged the Shadow Lord. His first phase went down pretty quick, but with Teila on MNK, she had Formless Strikes to get through his physical barrier. After a quick cutscene, the Shadow Lord rose up to full health again, turned a black colour, and stomped over to us to begin using his nasty AoE, which took Chinchii and me down quite a bit, and even knocked Sirdante into yellow health.

But he was no match for us and we brought him down in no time, to watch as he exploded in spectacular fashion as we ran from the Throne Room, having saved Vana'diel from the Shadow Lord's tyranny. Triumphant we returned to Bastok where Chinchii and I ranked up. Straight away I bought the Republic Mantle from the gate guard with the +2 VIT and +2 DEX on it, as I'd had my eye on that for awhile. Granted the Knight's Mantle is now better, but hey it's a cheap and free cape.

After that we changed to DRK and got to L6 in South Gustaberg before logging out for the night. A successful day, yet again!

Uncovering Artifacts

I hadn't been able to sleep well last night, so I was up really early to find Cheekee was also awake and on the LS. I took advantage of this (hehe) and asked if she'd help finish off my PLD Gallant Surcoat quest by killing One-Eyed Gwajboj and Thee-Eyed Prozpuz in Davoi. I met at the outpost in Jugner Forest (where I handed in the Norvallen supplies) and choco'd south to Davoi. Cheekee knew where the Village Well was so we cleared the area and I spawned the mobs. They hit hard, but Cheekee took the hate and we fought them together.

When they were dead, I got the key item but before I could finish off the quest, Cheekee asked if I needed another AF. I told her I needed gloves, head and legs, so she asked me to pick one. I knew one was in Beadeaux so I picked that thinking it was the easiest (others were Garlaige and Eldieme). I was wrong! We couldn't find the Treasure Coffer anywhere and none of the Quadav wanted to part with a Coffer Key.

Eventually, after many silences and curses later, we found the Coffer, but not before we'd been MPK'd in the Qulun Dome by a BST who tried to solo Adamantking, aggroing everything in the room, which turned on us the second they killed him. It took a further thirty minutes to get a Coffer Key to drop, and I got my Gallant legs, but couldn't equip them as they were for L58s and I was a L56.

Chinchii then logged on and the two of us went to Garlaige to level up using the Grounds Tome. It took me just over an hour to get from L56 to L60 and Chinchii L50 to L55! Unreal, but it seems the Grounds Tome XP increases the more you do it, a bit like Abyssea kills.

After that, Chinchii went to Jeuno to pick up her next LB quest from Maat so it was ready and I logged out for a bit. When we came back on, we met up with Sirdante to continue with CoP. We went to San d'Oria to do our cutscenes there, before heading out to Jugner Forest (where I did yet another cutscene for my Gallant Surcoat) and zoning into Carpenter's Landing. There we met Guilloud, who threw Overgrown Ivy at us, but with Sirdante it was easy. Still think we could have duo'd it without her, but I guess we'll never know!

We then finished up our cutscenes in San d'Oria (where I also got my final Gallant Surcoat cutscene and the Surcoat itself!!), went back to Bastok to get some cutscenes and finally to Jeuno to finish up the mission.

Getting Sacked

When I logged on I found that Chinchii had been working hard at her fame and had even completed the first Gobbiebag quest in Jeuno. I'll need to catch her up or I'm going to get left behind!

Determined to get her Magoroku artifact weapon, we took the Outpost Warp to the Elshimo Uplands and mounted up. To my dismay, Bright-Handed Kunberry was up and I really wanted the Resentment Cape, but wasn't at all confident that the two of us could take him, so we left him behind and went to Norg.

She got the quest so we Warped back and took the Outpost Warp to Aragoneu (Chinchii doesn't have the Li'Telor region yet) and Chocobo'd it over to the Sanctuary of Zi'tah to find Goblin Robbers who dropped the Sacks of Fish Bait needed to spawn the quest NM. We decided to camp at the outpost and found loads. The drop rate wasn't bad at all and we got the Sack pretty quickly.

Then we headed over to see if Noble Mold was up (nope!) before clearing the area of Coeurls and Hell Hounds so we could pop Isonade without aggro. Eventually Chinchii popped Isonade and we pulled it back to a nearby tunnel to fight it. With Protect III up, it's first hit did 85 damage! Scary for a L40 quest NM. Nevertheless, it wasn't so bad with the two of us, but I did eat up a lot of MP. Fortunately, it only did one Screwdriver on me which miraculously missed!

After we killed it, we Warped and returned to Norg where Chinchii picked up her Magoroku!

Slippery When Hit

As Chinchii had been L50 for awhile, we thought it was high time she got her artifact weapon, but we didn't have time to play for very long tonight. Bastok owned the Elshimo uplands, so we both picked up the supplies quest and headed off to Qufim Island, our nearest Oupost Warp to Jeuno. There we met Slippery Sucker and decided to attack. Relatively easy, but seemed to have an Enstun effect, so I spent a lot of the fight frozen in place. We managed to kill it and didn't get the drop, a common occurrence for me (remember Treasure Flunker?).

After that we put ourselves on the boat, went AFK for awhile, and came back to find I was able to get the Teleport: Yhoat quest finally! Chinchii still needed some fame, so wasn't quite able to get it yet but it's not like either of us have a WHM who could use it. We picked up the Chocobo and although it took some time to remember my way through the Yhoator Jungle, we did find the outpost and handed in our supplies. We decided to log there for the evening.

Tor Blimey!

Today was a CoP day for the most part, but in the morning I decided to finish up my COR quest and unlock it. I hopped on the boat from Mhaura and then again from Aht Urhgan Whitegate and some (significant) amount of time later I was in Nashmau again. Getting to Talacca Cove from Nashmau is pretty easy - you just head west, round the corner and run through the cemetary into the cave. There's only one imp, who sits in the middle of the graveyard, so if you just run round it in a circle, you'll be fine. It's a bit harder at night with the undead out, but Sneak can fix that.

I finished up my cutscenes for COR (love it!) and then ran back to Nashmau. Instead of Warping home, I decided that whilst I was here, I'd run to Azouph Isle Staging Point to take the Supplies Key Item so I could finally become a mercenary and be able to Warp to Aht Urhgan whenever I wanted. I changed to DNC sub and headed north out of Nashmau into Caedarva Mire again.

Chigoes seem a lot easier to spot these days, and from memory I remembered there being roughly one on the run from Nashmau to Azouph Isle Staging Point, so when I got near the big lake, I used Spectral Jig to be sure. This got me through the cave and up to the short passage that leads to the place everyone used to camp Heraldic Imps (where the two Jnun ponds are). I waited for an eternity for the Heraldic Imps to turn, then pegged it across with a fresh Spectral Jig, so as not to aggro the Jnuns if I stepped in their ponds.

The first Heraldic Imp must have turned at the last second as he began casting Choke on me. One hit later I had blood aggroed all the Jnuns which finished me off in seconds so I lay dead on the little path right between their ponds. Fortunately I had Reraise up, and remembered that these Jnuns slept during the day, so I waited for them to do so. Even better, a BST came along and started killing all the Heraldic Imps between me and the Staging Point door. So, 15 mins later, I was able to Reraise up and safely return to Aht Urhgan Whitegate to become a mercenary.

Later on, I met with Chinchii and we decided to carry on with CoP. We began chapter three, and started with the cutscenes in Bastok, which led us to following Prishe to Jeuno. When we got to Jeuno, we were wanted for crimes against the city so had to go and turn ourselves in. We ended up having to serve Jeuno by going to investigate Promyvion-Vazhl, but in order to do so were sent to find three members of an old expedition to the Northlands, one in each of the main cities.

We decided on Windy first, so headed there and began the very long chain of cutscenes there, tracking down the member of the expedition whilst the three Tarutaru tried to find their dad. Eventually we were asked to obtain the Mimeo Feathers from Attohwa Chasm and chuckled to myself as I remember climbing up Parradamo Tor last time - Chinchii had no idea what was in store!

It wasn't difficult getting to the Loose Sand where Lioumere pops, as it's pretty much a giant circle, and the Loose Sand is on the far east of the Tor's outskirts. We popped Lioumere with the intention of casting Banish when he ran back. For the most part this worked then once he got to low life, Banish didn't seem to bring him back, so this fight rapidly became frustrating as, although he was quite killable in terms of level, he was totally unkillable as we had no way of preventing him from returning to his spawn point and regaining his HP. We decided to log there and ask for help later.

That evening, Cheekee and Sirdante came on, and quickly agreed to help which was real nice. The came on over and we beat Lioumere in seconds. Cheekee didn't need to do CoP (I should know, Cheekee was Kixxi once!) so returned to Whitegate to do Cheekee things, but remained in the party to give 'moral support'. Sirdante, Chinchii and I remained but struggled to find the ramp up the Tor (how the heck would anyone have known what to do when this first came out). Eventually we found it, and a couple of wrong turns later, we managed to begin our slow and treacherous climb.

Palms were getting sweaty and hands were shaky as we climbed, watching the light from the Mimeo Jewel fading. Unbelievably there were no falls from any of us, but there were a few moments where it was touch and go, when you sort of 'bounce' off the wall from hugging it too hard. We were all dreading the 'glitch' where the movement key gets stuck and your char runs off but it didn't happen and we made it to the top to turn the Mimeo Jewel into three Mimeo Feathers. Sirdante couldn't seem to click on the Cradle of Rebirth and got yet another message about the light being practically all gone but managed to get her feathers in time.

We wanted to go and do the Sandy cutscenes and fight Overgrown Ivy but this had taken much longer than anticipated, and two of us didn't have Warp, so we decided to call it a night. If there's ever a reason you want to distinguish FFXI from any other MMO, climbing Parradamo Tor is it.

...Than the Demon You Don't

I got quite a lot accomplished today. Spent the morning doing several little things. Firstly I finally got the OP Warp to Zitah and took a slight detour to see if the Noble Mold NM was up as it was raining. No sign, so I headed off to Castle Oztroja to camp Mee Deggi and Quu Domi. The Castle was deserted as usual but it took quite some time to kill each Yag on my own. I remembered I had my Signal Pearl on me so I summoned Yawawa and she got two levels by the time I was done. Popped both NMs, which were no problem to me, except Quu Domi used Mijin Gakure and killed Yawawa! Both dropped the standard items, so still no O Kotes and Kyahan. After that I picked up my Carbuncle's Ruby and took the OP Warp to Xarcabard and finally got snowy weather! Went back to Bastok and then out to La Thiene to unlock SMN!

After that I thought I'd finish off COR and PUP, both of which were halfway through, so I went into Sandy to use the 300g teleport guy (from Lure of the Wildcat) but nothing happened. After a bit of research I found out I needed to be a Mercenary in order to use them so if I needed to go, I had to get the boat from Mhaura. :( So whilst I was in Sandy, I decided to get the rest of my AF body cutscenes, which hinted that I needed to get Mique's Paintbrush from Castle Zvahl Baileys. Thought I'd reserve that for another time though! I then headed off to Mhaura and took the boat to Aht Urghan. Once there, I handed in my Key Item Antique Automaton but needed to come back the next day to complete the quest. Then I took the boat to Nashmau to go and finish of the final part of COR in Talacca Cove but a friend came round so I logged for the day. In the evening, Chinchii needed to do her LB1 so Aka and Kendaron came along to help. We didn't have access to Garlaige in the past so we waited in the modern day entrance whilst Ken and Aka went in the convenient way. Three Bomb things dropped off the very first Explosure! So it was quickly over to Crawler's Nest to find they had moved all the Exorays relatively near to that central room with the lizards where everyone used to camp. We had to kill quite a few until the Mold dropped and then it was off to Eldieme. The Ancient Papyrus dropped off the second Lich and Chinchii was one happy Taru!

After than Chinchii had to log, but Aka and Ken asked if I needed anymore help. I decided to take them up on their offer and continue with my AF quest, so we went out to Castle Zvahl Baileys and began killing demons for the Coffer Key. With Ken as THF, several dropped very quickly (even got a Demon Pen for a quest), but the coffer itself remained elusive. I remember Castle Zvahl always being a pain when it came to the coffer before. Half an hour later, Kendaron found it in the final room and I got Mique's Paintbrush.

I then returned to Sandy to get more cutscenes, only to find that I needed to go to Davoi... think that can wait another day.

Renewed Vows

Really busy IRL today putting up wardrobe doors (fun!) so didn't log in for very long. Managed to log in early morning to do some CoP cutscenes around the Tavnazian Safehold and outside in the Misereaux Coast as BBK and Aka had offered to help Chinchii, Sirdante and me to do CoP 2-5, Ancient Vows (the Mammets). I remember dying quite a few times back in 2006/7 when I last did this! I remember trying to kite as SMN, or solo as THF etc. Think it took four attempts overall, which considering how long it used to take to get up to Monarch Linn, was a long time! At least with the Airship fight there wasn't a long run from the Safehold. So, with three 99s, a 56 and a 50, I wondered if we would get the record for the shortest fight?!

In the evening we logged in for CoP. The run up was easy: before Chinchii and I had even zoned, Aka had farmed up the Giant Scales needed for the Unstable Displacements, meaning all we had to do was run through. Unfortunately BBK wasn't able to make it, but he didn't need the fight (having completed CoP with me on my old account) but was really looking forward to doing something with the LS. There was no aggro from hippogryphs and the Atomic Clusters seemed to have been shunted to one side allowing us clear passage across Riverne.

The fight was embarassingly easy. We didn't get the record as Chinchii, Sirdante and I were watching the cutscenes, but Aka and Sirdante took one each to solo whilst Chinchii and I duo'd another. They killed theirs in seconds, whilst we took quite a bit longer (and they came over to help) but I hardly took any damage - maybe six points a hit, buffed. Almost felt cheated! After the fight we were dropped off at South Gustaberg and we had to log to finish off some DIY.

Clipeus Shield

Logged in this morning to finish off the cutscenes from last night's PLD AF run. Thinking it would take minutes I soon remembered just how long it takes to get round from town to town without those Explorer Moogles as it was off round Sandy, then Selbina, then Sandy again.

On my way back through West Ronfaure (checking for Jaggedy-Eared Jack of course), I found the Fungus Beetle NM (could have sworn that he used to be called Goliath or something), and hopped off my Chocobo to kill it. Lo and behold I got the Clipeus Shield but I don't know why I bothered as i can only be worn by WAR, DRK and PLD, and both my WAR and PLD are too high to bother. When would a DRK use a shield? Shame I didn't get it before as I remember using this shield all the way up to late 20s on PLD on my old account.

Eh-Up, AF!

Teila and Cheekee very kindly offered to help get a few pieces of PLD AF with me this evening. I had never bothered getting the Honour Sword from Ordelle's Caves, so I had to go and do the fight against Polevik before I could get the proper AF armour quests. I met outside Ordelle's Caves and quickly found the pop location. This is a L42 weapon but Polevik still hit me for over 100 damage as a PLD, so it's no wonder that the Wiki recommends soloing at L65+. But seriously, is that a realistic fight for an AF weapon? Got the kill easily (well, Teila is L99) and headed back to Sandy to collect my Honour Sword from Alibeche.

After the necessary cutscenes for the L52 boots, I met with Cheekee and we headed off to Crawlers' Nest to pop the NM Dreadbug for the Giant Shell Bugs. These can be bought from the AH for 4k a piece but there were none in stock so we had to fight for them. Took ages to find the ??? to pop him (it always seemed to be on the other side of a wall) but eventually we found it and killed the poor critter rather quickly.

Then it was back to Sandy and on to Castle Oztroja to fish up the Odontotyrannus from the Castle's reservoirs. I was nervous as I'd never fished properly before and read about line breaks etc. but it wasn't so bad. Just had to wait for the fish' energy to go down then hit return. So up popped the fish and this thing hit hard too, over 100 a pop, which seemed a bit more realistic than Polevik!

Anyway, got the drop and returned to Sandy, but it was getting late so decided to log there for the night and carry on another time.

Airship Pass!

A long and successful session today. After some more levelling in Eastern Altepa Desert, Chinchii and I decided to change locations and head to Garlaige Citadel. We'd never used a Grounds Tome before but we're now firm advocates of them after getting nearly 1.5k a book from just killing two skellies and four bats. I got to L56 and Chinchii got to L50 in no time whatsoever.

As Chinchii hadn't done her LB1 yet, we decided to continue with our rank 4 mission of obtaining the three magicites that we started last year. First of all we went to Castle Oztroja, and noticing the area was devoid of players, went to check on Mee Deggi the Punisher and Quu Domu the Gallant. After killing one round of the relevant mobs, both NMs popped but we didn't get the O Kotes or Kyahan - would have been scary luck if we'd got them first time.

After that, we made our way up to the Altar Room and got our first Magicite. Finally we headed over to Davoi and Beadeaux to get the last two (much quicker) and returned to Jeuno for our Bastok Rank 5 reward and Airship Pass!

CoP a Load of That!

Started off today with a bit of levelling in Eastern Altepa Desert but soon decided to break up the grind and start Chains of Promathia. We'd already got the initial cutscenes, so just needed to do the Prommies (although I got Dem last year). I went in as PLD and Chinchii as SAM, and although we got to the top of each one without event (and not a single dud teleporter), the Dem boss proved to be a problem as it spammed Trinary Absorption for over 200 damage a pop. I died but Chinchii managed to finish it off. Mea and Holla were easy but between us we did spend a small fortune on meds. Not bad for a duo in their 40s and 50s.

We got a bit cocky after that so decided to go into Phomiuna Aqueducts to defeat the minotaurs with only four Silent Oils between us. The Taurus' aggroed at our level so we had to run behind them or fight our way past, which was fun, but I managed to turn each time they did Mortal Ray. The Minotaur itself was a walkover, but I forgot how far away it aggroes from and it pulled us in before we were prepared.

After that we went back through the tunnels to try to farm a key for the gate to get up to the library where the end of the mission cutscene awaits. It took quite a while to farm it from the Fomor near where Tres Duendes lurks (who was up but we were too low to kill it). From last time I played, I did not remember Fomor being in parties in the same room as Tres Duendes! So I pulled a party and had to run round the tunnels in circles until they gave up, only to end up snagging a Doomed mob as well. Finally we got the key and made our way upstairs, using our last Silent Oils to get past the final Fomor. I remembered the secret switch puzzle (with the corresponding elements) and was pretty impressed with myself for being able to do that in a duo with minimal meds!