The Key to Solving the Puzzle

Tonight was a CoP run, the first thing I'd done in ages that wasn't meriting in Campaign. I met up with Sirdante to duo the Sacrarium, but juggling keys was a nightmare.

For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to get a Coral Crest Key each, and then when we made our way to Keremet, I thought I'd take the Sealion Crest Key so I could help out Chinchii later on.

Unfortunately, we both passed on the same Coral Crest Key so I got the first one, meaning we still needed to get another for Sirdante. Getting bored of farming these, I went to find Keremet.

Keremet was rather easy for us, so we got the key and went back out to find Coral Crest Keys. Eventually we got one and went to the doors. We timed it just right, traded our keys, and went inside to get the CS. Now normally I'd say "woot, I have a second Coral Crest Key" but realised Sirdante needed to get another one as I was using the Sealion one!

We went out to farm more keys and pop Old Professor Mariselle. Took ages for a second Coral one to drop but we found Mariselle in the second room we checked.

He was really easy and didn't even do his teleport thing but he did spawn pupils - something I don't remember him doing last time I fought him. We killed him and got the key item, so returned to the last cutscene for the mission. Despite the key faff, this didn't take longer than an hour to do!

Ouryu - Bahamut's Favourite Dragon

Another CoP run tonight - this time the first L50 cap fight - Ouryu.

I'd already farmed up two Mistmelts from faffing about in Riverne for ages, and I'd also managed to get the pop item for Unstable Cluster so Chinchii could get her Soboro Sukehiro, so Sirdante agreed to help us fight the Cluster first.

We made our way to the cave (but Chinchii was getting aggro at her level), and popped him. He didn't self-destruct once, and with a 50% drop rate, we didn't get the drop!

We moved on towards Monarch Linn but accidentally found ourselves caught amongst the L90+ wyverns, where I took aggro, but Sirdante came to my rescue! She needed a few cures but dealt with it easily enough.

Inside Monarch Linn we didn't need to discuss tactics like last time I did this but went in and owned Ouryu. Sirdante popped Hundred Fists and we wondered why he took so long, forgetting he uses Invincible! Needing only to get him down to 30%, the fight was over nice and quick!

Gotta Kill 'Em All

Again, not much playtime today as RL to do, but I went to Riverne Site #A01 and I finally managed to encounter Carmine Dobsonfly! The number of times over the years I've checked this island and no joy, but here, unmolested, all ten(?) of him!

This was a hard fight - with that many mobs hitting me, and casting Aero II, it's very difficult to keep yourself cured. Fortunately my Knightly Earring must have helped with Spell Interruption, but it was still hard.

I had to use Invincible quite early on, but managed to top my health up and kill off a couple (I kept using Circle Blade in this fight). I kept Defender up the whole time, and tried to stagger Sentinel and Rampart but ideally I needed them up permanently!

Later on I had to use the Vile Elixir I happened to have on my person as even with quite a few dead it was hard to cure with them hitting so often. Eventually, with less than half life I managed to finish them off. I checked my inventory and I had gotten all three drops - the Voyager Sallet, the Jaeger Ring and the Dobson Bandanna! Not a bad weekend for drops, methinks!

Two Out of Tres Ain't Bad

I was up early again today (not sleeping too well at the moment), so I went back into the Phomiuna Aqueducts to find Tres. Popped in on Matisha first, and got the Sinister Mask (yay!). I then headed over to where Tres popped and (hopefully thanks to the three Fomor Black Mages I killed last time!) Tres was up!

I knew from fighting this as my THF before that the Duendes Amoroso was a pain - mainly because he just uses -ga II spells which add to nasty moves from Tres, such as Train Fall etc. So this time, I pulled Amoroso first and wiped the floor with him pretty quickly.

I then pulled Tres, and found him to be a little tough guy. Can't believe it's a L30 mob, but then I suppose it was made for alliances. I like how this unique mob changes stances, which lead to different moves, but in the vertical one, Train Fall took over 200 HP off me!

It wasn't until after I'd killed him I realised Signet had worn off!! Anyway, I got two of the three drops - the katana that I can't spell and the Chiroptera Dagger (this is the one I really wanted) for my COR.

Gassan Geyser

Didn't play much today, but I wanted to get some old low-level quests done to get my reputation up. I ran around doing quite a few old Bastok ones, before heading out to the Dangruf Wadi to take the Brass Canteen over to the Drachenfell. When I got there I realised I only had a couple of Prism Powders on me (damn those high level mobs - no one fights them why are they there?) so I decided to pop the Chocoboleech for my Gassan katana.

An easy fight, and luckily right out of the way of the other higher level mobs, but I kept thinking the whole way through that it was only a matter of time until I aggro one of them! I managed to defeat Chocoboleech without incident and got my Gassan!

No NMies

Had the day off work today so as I was up early to feed the dog, I thought I'd stay up and do some gaming. I decided to go over to the Phomiuna Aqueducts and look for Tres Duendes, as I love that NM, and wanted to get the drops again, as I did back in 2010 with my old account. He wasn't up, neither was Eba, but I did find Matisha, the slow-hitting Taurus NM.

Unfortunately I didn't get the drop (Sinister Mask) so I left the Aqueducts to try my luck at the NMs in Riverne Site #A01. No sign of the Hippogryph NM and no sign of the ??? needed for the pop item for the Flytrap NM, so I headed out further to see if Carmine Dobsonfly was there. No joy there either, and same with the Wyvern NM. Not a very productive day for NM hunting.

Before leaving I picked up some Rivernewort for that Sandy quest to get the Miratete's Memoirs key item and headed over to the bell to begin the quest, Confessions of a Bellmaker. This took some time, as I had to go to Sandy and Bastok before coming back here to fight the Phantasm. Interesting quest though. I fought him easily and got my Minstrel's Dagger for the BRD job I'm unlikely to play!

After that Chinchii logged on so we went to the Tahrongi Canyon to level up our DRG and SAM, but didn't play for too long before having to log out to do RL stuffs.