Trans-mission

I really wanted to progress with the ToAU mission storyline today, as anyone who knows me knows that ToAU has always been my favourite expansion (but then I've never completed most of the mission storylines, so what do I know?).

I went off to Nashmau and headed out into Caedarva Mire to pop Jazaraat, a former Ashu Talif captain bitter about the loss of his fleet. With my Trust Alter-Egos out, I popped him and beat him up to get the Ephramadian Gold Coin key item, which I needed to use as payment to get into the Ashu Talif fight.

With Jazaraat laid to rest, I returned to Whitegate, and then took the Dvucca Isle Staging Point and made my way to the cutter in Arrapago Reef. I then boarded the Ashu Talif and buffed up. I even popped Gessho the Yagudo NPC a Protect IV. The fight went pretty smoothly, with me holding all the aggro and taking little damage. Gessho seemed to jump around the deck, hurling enfeebling magic at the crew rather than meleeing.

After the first wave, the second wave of Fomor crew members appeared, this time with the Ashu Talif Captain, and this is where things went wrong - not because I couldn't handle him, but because my computer lost its bloody internet connection and I was booted out! When I came back I had been killed and had been left lying in an unceremonious heap in Arrapago Reef. Needing another Ephramadian Gold Coin to enter the fight, I left and went to do something else.

I thought I'd give Rise of the Zilart another go, so I headed off to the Quicksand Caves and made my way to the Chamber of Oracles (LOL to the home point just outside). I was nervous about this fight as anything involving multiple mobs that includes a PLD and a BLM is going to cause a problem - if you try to take out the BLM first, you get melee'd by the other two - if you try to take out the PLD first, you spend so long beating it up that the BLM kills you!

This fight was exactly as I feared, and was too much of an MP-sink. I took the PLD first and the BLM indeed nuked me down. After awhile I thought I'd try to kill the BLM first but couldn't Cure fast enough. In the end I warped out.

I then decided to continue with the Bastok Rank missions and my next fight was in the Waughroon Shrine against four Quadav, a WHM, RDM, DRK and WAR. I can't remember the order I took them out in, but this was a very hard yet rewarding fight. I kept up Yagudo Drinks, had a few minor meds from brown treasure caskets and a Tav Taco. I had to use Invincible and Chivalry twice, as this fight took a good portion of the allowed BCNM time. Four mobs means lots of hard-to-time Cures, and I got interrupted on more than one occasion.

Naturally this got easier as I killed them off, but honestly, if it wasn't for Sanguine Blade, my newest weaponskill, I wouldn't have been able to have done this fight. I beat it, but only just!