Quests: Kiki Gets Her Power Sandals

I decided to spend some time on Friday having Kiki try to find that jar with the power sandals somewhere in Davoi or the Monastic Cavern (there are no maps of locations it can be in on the internet, so it involved just running around until you find it, and hope you live long enough to click on the jar to get the sandals).

For those of you that don't know about the Power Sandals, they're level 18 DEF:3, VIT+3, Fire +7, wearable by all jobs. However, they're rare/ex, so the only way to get them is to find them in the hidden jar. They're actually for a Selbina quest. You're supposed to find them and bring them back to the quest giver in Selbina within a certain amount of time, and he rewards you with gil. So to have the sandals, you actually "fail" this quest.

Since these are the best footwear for PLDs until the Kampfschuhs at level 29, I really wanted to try to find them before then. Kiki and Grym have gone to Davoi several times looking for the jar, but it's too stressful having one person responsible to keep both people invisible and sometimes sneak'd. We did actually see the jar once, but it was up on the platform in the middle of the pond in the first Davoi area - and you have to go through Monastic Caverns to get to that platform.

Now that my RDM is 25 and I can undertake expeditions like this on my own, I headed for Davoi. I started running around Davoi, looking for the jar, keeping myself invisible. Headed into one Monastic Cavern, hit a dead end, went back to Davoi, into another part of Monastic Cavern, back out to another area of Davoi, and suddenly, there it was! There were several high level orcs right around the jar, but they had their backs turned, so I dropped invisible, clicked on the jar, got my power sandals, recast invisible hoping none of the orcs would notice me, and started my long walk back out.

I still find it weird how my heart races when I'm doing something like th
is. I was fully expecting Kiki to get killed trying to do this, but luckily she made it through!

Leveling: DRK in Qufim (21-24)

Levelled Kiki's DRK a bit over the weekend. Went from barely 21 to nearly 24 in three parties. The first started out badly. We had 3 people who were in Qufim for their first time, and a WHM and BLM who'd been around a bit (the BLM was a rank 8 JP player). I think 4 of us died our second fight (we all HP'd so we were back fast) then we ended up having to call for help and had another death. The WHM bailed ("I have a football game" but actually went to San d'Oria to level his BLM), and the BLM disbanded without saying a word. We replaced them, headed to the lake and had a good party. It's nice when a random party works well together, and shows that it's sometimes worth sticking together through a bit of disaster at the start. The "newbies" used food, had decent gear, and skillchained, which was all good to see. :-)

Second party was a bit of a joke, and my husband couldn't believe I didn't just disband and blist the leader. The leader was a hyperactive THF who wanted to get to 25 as fast as possible, regardless of the people she kills along the way. Tanthalus (levelling his WAR20) was in the party as it was forming, and I was heading that way for a party, so he got me in. The THF was running off to the next kill so fast you couldn't tell where she went (we were fighting worms by the lake), and she didn't pay any attention to the mages' mp. One time when the mages were completely drained she attacked another worm. Tanthalus voked it and called for help, which seemed reasonable in the circumstances, but got called retarded for it. Apparently the THF had already activated Perfect Dodge and thought we should let it try to hit her, but I hadn't noticed it myself.  

Tanthalus had to leave, and before the THF could find a new tank, we kept fighting. She thought a Taru DRK/WAR (me) or the DRG/WAR could be tanks, but we told her she was mistaken. We were able to fight effectively bouncing hate back and forth between us, but burned through the mages' MP too fast. At some point the BLM got replaced with a second WHM, and a PLD joined us. During the *middle* of the second fight with us the PLD said "brb eating supper". WTF?!

Then after he got back from eating, he was getting hit (as PLDs do, it's the nature of the job) and refused to provoke the clipper when it went after one of the mages. By the time the DRG and I realized what was happening we both voked but the WHM was dead. And does the leader yell at the PLD? No, she calls the WHM retarded for not healing herself. *sigh* I think they both need to learn that it's more effective to keep the mobs off the mages so they can focus on healing the tank, who should trust the mages to do their jobs. The PLD should also invest in some better gear so he doesn't take so much damage. (And it wasn't a matter of provoke not being ready, after the fight was over he said he would not voke when his health was low - it wasn't even orange yet. I think he needs to rethink his career choice.) It's also really hard to get spells off when a clipper is smacking away at you.

About this time I decided I needed supper. Since we were in hiatus waiting for the leader to get back from feeding her chocobo ?!?!? when the WHM HP'd, I found a replacement for me and ran away. Screaming.

Party after supper was OK, especially when a bored Emith decided to come PL us. Odd set-up with a DRK-wannabe (WAR/BLM with a scythe), a PLD-wannabe (WAR/WHM who didn't voke once), a very good RDM that Emith knows, the WHM from my earlier party that got called "retarded" by the THF, another WAR of some flavor, and my DRK/WAR. The two of us with scythes both got "Shadow of Death" during the party. It's a very nice WS, and best of all, chains with itself for Fragmentation. I think everyone got a level in the party, so that was good (I started out less than 300 to 23 and finished less than 400 to 24). Warp2s from Emith all got us home safely. :)

General: Weekend Accomplishments (Oct 15-17)

Achievements for the past weekend were getting Grym's RNG and Kiki's BLM from 10 to 18, Kiki took the woodworking test for level 10 (did you know the guild sells workbenches for less than 300 gil?) and the culinary test for level 30, we helped an LS member get his Palborough Key for Kazham when he was doing part one of Mission 2-3, and we picked up the tele-crystal for Yhoat (just for fun).

We levelled our RNG and BLM from 10 to 12 mostly on Rock Eaters in the Konstadt Highlands. It's a good combo for fighting worms. Saturday morning we switched to WHM34 (Grym) and WAR35 (Kiki) and walked from Bastok to San d'Oria, where we did some woodcrafting, and Kiki picked up the Teleport-Holla scroll quest, since she hadn't picked it up before.

We decided to head to Windurst so we could try levelling RNG and BLM on the worms in Shakrimi. The airship pass sure makes it easy to run around now. We headed up to the Maze and joined up with a MNK12 from our LS who was tired of not being able to get into parties in the Dunes and was on his way back to Windurst. We fought a couple worms with good success (200 exp per kill is nice), but got a link in the ghoul room off the east tunnel and had more than we could handle even before the ghoul spawned. So Grym and I HP'd to Windurst, while Brokensword had to make his way back from Mhaura. When we got back to the Maze, things were going pretty well, and we made it to 13 before we lost Brokensword again. He gave up at this point and a WAR13 in Bubu sent a tell asking if we had room in our party. He came along with a BLM friend who was around level 50 and PL'ing him, and our EXP came quite nicely. A BST14 (Wotan) also joined us, and we had a nice little party that got us up to 15.

We headed back to Windurst to resupply and take a break for a bit. The two of us figured we'd head to Bastok later to try the worms as a duo in Korroloka, but before we got around to doing that, Wotan sent us a /tell asking if we'd like to join a party in Korroloka, which was even better. We had a nice worm killing set-up: BLM/WHM, RNG/WAR, BLM/RDM, BST/WHM, NIN/WAR, WHM/BLM. The NIN was a bit too high for us, and after a level or two, she left and we replaced her with a PLD. Then our WHM had to go join her static, but we kept going. The PLD decided he didn't like our party the way it was and left, but the 4 of us kept going. Then the other BLM got DC'd, and Wotan had to take a break to eat, but Grym and I kept killing worms were able to get a chain 3 for 260 exp with just the two of us before Edwardisedward and Wotan got back. Grym was shooting the worms, and I was out of worm-spell range and just keeping Grym's health up. She ended up going through 5 or 6 stacks of iron arrows and at least 1 stack of bone for the evening, but we finished up at 18 with a buffer. We didn't buy enough iron arrows for that sort of shooting, but Wotan had over a stack that he gave Grym to use. We also picked up a Power Bow +1 in Bastok before heading into the tunnel for when Grym hit 16. It's a nice bow!

We finished the evening when Grym ran out of arrows, and Wotan hit 19(?) and needed to run off for a BCNM40, but Grym ended up getting killed by a linked worm that rasped her and stonega'd us when we thought we were a safe distance. Quick trip home for her, and Kiki got to use Warp for the first time.

Sunday morning, Magery, our newest LS member, was ready to start Mission 2-3, so we met up with him in Bastok and helped him get his Palborough Key when he was in Palborough to get his Mine Sand for the mission. Locmari (RDM35 at the time) came along with us as well.  

Later in the day, I took my WAR to the Highlands to try to level archery and marksmanship a bit on some rock eaters, but 2 stacks of arrows only took me to 20 from 12, and 2 stacks of bolts took me to 22 from 12. I'd like to get marksmanship levelled for my DRK (crossbow+acid bolts = easier to kill mobs), but I think it will be a bit slow. Maybe I need to level my RNG using crossbow only.

Later, Grym and I figured we'd head to Yhoator Jungle to see if we could find the Tele-Crystal there. I'm not sure we'll ever need to use it, but it would be fun to explore a bit (on chocobo) and find it. So I subbed BLM on my WAR35, and since I'm a Taru, I had 103 MP - enough for Warp with 3 to spare. Grym went as a WHM34/BLM17. We didn't really have too much trouble finding the Crystal. There sure aren't many people around in Yhoator except those exp'ing near the Yuhtunga zones. Got to see a few different Tonberries and some scary Goblins (Reapers and others) as well as those cool Coeurls.

Once back in Kazham, we headed to Norg (went as RDM25 for sneak) just to drop off some rusty subligars and do a quick check on mobs in Sea Serpent Grotto to see if they'd be suitable for EXP at level 35 (doesn't seem like it).

General: The Adventures of Tsakiki

Note: I kept my blog as a journal at Allakhazam from October 2004 through July 2005, and I am in the process of moving the entries here to Blogspot.

I've decided to start a blog of sorts for my character Tsakiki (aka Kiki), so here's a bit of background. My husband and I started playing FFXI with the NA PS2 release in March, and we agreed we wanted a Mithra character who would become a THF/NIN. We created Grymalkyn and had a lot of fun playing, but as the weeks went by, I really wanted to get a second copy of the game and create my own character so we could play together. So in late June, Tsakiki was created.

I made her with the intent she would be a PLD, as our LS (ClanTen), originally most of my husband's SOCOM clan, had dwindled over the months, and there was really no tank in the group. We were hoping to have a static party, and a tank is a fairly key component. I selected Tarutaru so the two clan THFs would have an easier time seeing over me for SATA. My husband had Grymalkyn's THF at 33 at the time and commented about Elvaan's being too tall and Galka's tails getting in the way. Plus Taru tanks are so much fun.

Kiki's current job levels are WAR35 / PLD24 / DRK20 / MNK18 / THF15 / RDM25 / BLM18 / DRG4 / WHM1 / RNG1 / BRD1 / BST1 / SMN1. Still need to unlock NIN and SAM, but I'm not in a hurry. I plan to level WAR, PLD and DRK, but only levelled RDM for sneak and invisible, and BLM for warp. Kiki's a Rank 5 Citizen of Windurst. Poor Grymalkyn's THF career was put on hold a bit, and my husband levelled WHM along with my WAR (as well as helping me out a lot in the early levels), so Grymalkyn has a WHM34
while her THF is still 33, waiting for our static to get to that level before switching back. Our static party is now in the 24 range, with a PLD/WAR (Kiki), NIN/WAR (Grymalkyn, will be THF/NIN later), RNG/WAR (Manon, will be THF/RNG later), BLM/WHM (Elboron, will be BRD/WHM later), WHM/BLM (Emith, will leave us later), and SMN/WHM (Locmari, isn't sure if he's going SMN or RDM for the long haul). It's really fun to be able to go to "different" areas for levelling with a static group.

That's a little of Kiki's history and current status. I will grab some things I've written up in the past for our clan's erstwhile forums and add them here, as well as try to keep up with current events.

Missions: Magicite (Windurst 4-3)

Some of you may have noticed that Cialense and Naukhel, then Grymalkyn and Kiki have attained Rank 5. Hurray for the airship pass! Here are my comments on the mission.

Part 1 - lots of running around in Jeuno. I think most of you have done this part.

Part 2 - Magicite from Davoi. Grym and Kiki were in Davoi on Saturday afternoon, looking once again for the randomly-spawning jar which is supposed to contain the rare/ex Power Sandals that Kiki would really like to have for her PLD (best boots available until level 29). Since the Wall of Dark Arts was nearby, and there were several high level people cleaning up the Orcs, we decided to go ahead and run through the Wall of Dark Arts and pick up the magicite. We were able to just run right in, since there were no door guardians. Leaving was a bit more interesting, as the orcs had respawned, but they didn't notice us as we came back out the door and Grym turned us both invisible.

Later that evening, Cialense and Naukhel were ready to start on the Mission, as was Manon, so Grym and Kiki came along for the Davoi part. We fought several Orcs, mostly for fun, but when we saw the guardians of the Wall of Dark Arts were checking IT for Cia and Nauk's level 40s, we all got invisible and slipped past them. We did have to wait for the Orcs to turn away from us before activating the door (since you have to drop invisible), but we all made it safely. A quick teleport courtesy Cialense got us safely out of there.

For this part, you must have the ability to be invisible. It's really close to the zone, and easy to get to, but it would also be handy to have someone with warp II, escape, or teleport with you if you don't have warp (or instant warp scrolls, or gate glyphs left over from Summerfest).

Grym and I are willing to tag along on this portion to show the way if needed.

Part 3a - getting the two items from the named Quadavs in Beadeaux. Next we headed to Beadeaux to fight the named Quadavs. This was much tougher, and because we didn't know the way very well and got jumped by an Elder Quadav that gave my WAR35 100 EXP even though we had 2 level 40s in the party, Cia got killed. :( I'm still not sure how we managed to survive that fight. Grym used Benediction near the end of the battle and we somehow got it killed before it killed her.

We had to kill both named Quadavs twice to get enough items for the 5 of us (they have about a 15 minute spawn cycle). The fights were quite tough, but manageable with our party of THF40/NIN20, WHM40/BLM20, THF34/WAR17, WHM34/NIN17, WAR35/MNK17. The second time we had to kill the second quadav, we actually had a 50+ PLD helping us, and that fight was much much shorter. Cia teleported us out, and we broke up for the night.

For this part, if you don't have a 50+ PLD helping you out, you will need to be in a full party, and you must have the ability to Sneak. All mages should have echo drops with them as well, so you can use the Muter and avoid being cursed by the Afflictor. Cia has Cursna, so she didn't get muted, but got cursed and cast Silena on those that needed it. I think echo drops would be better, to avoid being weakened at all. It also helps to have the ability to leave quickly instead of taking the long way back to the exit. Grym and I are willing to go along for this part if needed.

You have to take the two Quadav items back to the Tarutaru in the Tenshodo HQ to get the key items to open the door to the Qulon Dome to get the Beadeaux magicite. Trade him the items one at a time.

Part 3b - back to Beadeaux for the magicite. Kiki spent a couple more evenings in Qufim levelling her RDM, and on Monday hit the magic 25 (now has invisible in addition to sneak). Tuesday night Grym (WHM34) and Kiki (RDM25) headed back to Beadeaux, cast sneak on themselves, and ran right over to the door to get into Qulon Dome. On the way out, they swung past the Afflictor to complete the Curse Paper quest from Bastok Markets (have to be both muted and cursed in Beadeaux, and they'd already done the mute part Saturday). You might want to pick up this quest before doing the Beadeaux part of the mission. Reward is a nice pair of Poison Cesti. This part of the mission was even easier than the Davoi part, but the ability to sneak is essential, at least if your level is 35 or below.

I don't think anyone would need us to tag along for this part.

Part 4 - Castle Oztroja magicite. Grym and Kiki did this last night. This is one of the reasons I levelled RDM to 25, and I am very glad I did. Cia and Nauk finished up this part on Tuesday, so it was really good to get advice from them on it. You have a very long walk past dozens and dozens of Yags and bats. You must have sneak and invisible both active at all times. This is something you must do yourself, unless you have a couple very high level people killing everything in your path. Cia tagged along with us for most of the way last night, but it nearly got her killed when she got aggro'd when she had to re-sneak and re-invis herself. Fortunately, she was able to warp out while fighting her aggressor.

I will not help anyone with this part until I'm level 50. Seriously. There is no way a mage could survive if they're responsible for keeping another person both sneaked and invis'd in addition to themselves. It's hard enough just doing it yourself. There are too many yags and bats, and sneak and invis have a habit of dropping at the most inopportune moments.

The Torch Door provides a very scary moment, as there are two very high level Yags guarding it. Cia and Nauk got smacked around by them when they did this on Tuesday, but Grym and Kiki got very lucky, since the Yags had their backs turned. This was fortunate, since the Torches are really hard to activate. I had to try SEVEN times before it stopped saying I was too far away and let me through. I was right on top of the stupid thing - how could I be too far away?

We used instant warp scrolls to get back to Jeuno and talk to the Archduke and get our airship pass.

If you don't have RDM or WHM levelled to 25, you're going to have to do this with stacks of silent oil and prism powder. Or get very high level help.