General: The Week in Review

No big events to post on, but thought I should keep up my habit of posting weekly at least.

The new update last week introduced huge changes to the fishing system. It's really pretty fun now, but certainly not an idle passtime that you can do while watching movies or chatting away with your friends or linkshell. We've found that we catch many more fish. Everyone in Lakshmi decided they wanted to try fishing now, so fishing gear is scarce, and there are a lot of fish up on the AH. Since the amount you get for turning in moat carp is now one-tenth what it had been (10 gil each instead of 100), the price of moat carp has come down. Supply has also jumped. However at the new rates, I don't think I'll buy any fish unless it's 1K a stack or less.

Up to 1526/10000 moat carp now, and have about 8 stacks on hand to turn in later tonight. With the fishing changes, I may have the quest completed well before Christmas.

Elboron and Manon were trying to put together a party for level 34 on Friday night, but they couldn't get a tank. They spent about 2 hours looking for people, then looking for a party. Grym and Kiki have jobs at 36, but we felt that was just too high to work well with them. We suggested getting Elboron's items in Beadeaux for Mission 4-3, and so we did that instead. It was so easy to kill the NM Quadavs now we're level 51!

Kiki was in Windurst Saturday afternoon and saw some shouts for Ecowarrior. She thought that would be a good way to lose some EXP on her Warrior and get a Dragon Chronicle page for her Paladin (to get a safe buffer above 51), so she joined the group. As usual for such things, it took a long time to get the full alliance, and we actually ended up with just 16 people doing it, but the 3 parties were well-balanced, and each had a WHM and a tank. We had two escorts that kept us safe, but we were so disorganized and got split up in the Maze. I was sure we were all going to die. However, things went very smoothly, and we won! With no deaths! So Kiki's warrior is still just 2.4K to 37, but the 843 EXP she got for her Paladin was very nice. As was the 5000 gil.

Did a outpost supply run to Valdeaunia (Xarcarbard) with Grym and Manon. Upper Elshimo (Yhoator) is the only one besides Gustaberg and Ronfaure that I have left that I can actually use (the others are higher level). Made a couple other supply runs and turned in some rusty armor that we fished up as well. I did one of those to Meriphataud Mountains, and spent an hour killing Boggarts and Coeurls to get some Staff skillups. It's probably time to try to organize a Yuhtunga skillup party.

General: Random Musings

Grym and Kiki want to get Grym's MNK and Kiki's THF both to 25, since at 25 MNK has accuracy and hand-to-hand bonuses, and THF25 has flee. Grym hates partying with random people, and it would have been hard to both be in the same party anyway (too few people LFP to put together their own), so they headed to Bubu as a MNK22/WAR11 - THF21/NIN10 duo to fight clippers. It seems so slow, since they have to rest for HP every 3 or 4 crabs, but they got 4.5K exp in something like 3 hours, which is better than some exp parties they've been in, so maybe they can keep it up until they're both 25.

Funniest moment: Kiki's 20 exp away from 22, and she accidently targets a leech instead of the snipper that Grym's targetted. Fortunately they were able to zone to Bibiki Bay safely, with the snipper and at least two leeches running after them.

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A coworker of mine has started playing, so late Friday night Kiki went to meet his WAR12 in the Dunes and lend him some new gear to replace the level 7 leather that Quincy had lent him. He was in a party at the time, but they moved camp, he lost them, and they booted him. So after raising a few people in the Dunes, Kiki dragged Ernan off to the Holla Crag for the teleport crystal, then took him into San d'Oria to buy some maps. He hadn't even been through the tunnel in the Dunes before, so he got to see some new territory. The trip to San d'Oria also gave him the chance to visit his moogle and the AH. Then Kiki dragged him back to Selbina, where she left him.

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Saturday evening, Thalia needed her Kazham keys, so Grym and Kiki met her in Bastok, where she'd just finished her Mission 2-3 Dragon fight, and quickly got a key in Palborough. We actually got two keys in a row, and shouted to see it anyone else needed one, and there was someone hunting keys for their daughter (Launa and Hersheys), so we allied and Hersheys got the key. We headed back to Bastok, grabbed a Teleport-Mea from Snowmanb, who also gave Kiki a pearl for the Windurstian EF linkshell, and Thalia headed to Windurst to complete her mission and get Rank 3 while Grym and Kiki headed to Giddeus.

On the way, Launa passed Kiki on Chocobo, so I asked if they were heading to Giddeus, and they were, so they joined our party. Grym got both keys pretty quickly (and a bird whistle off one of the NM yagudos). Hersheys already had her Ghelsba key, so they left us, and we headed to the Grotto with Thalia. We actually got the key in the lower level of the grotto, so that was really quick too. I think TH2 does make a difference with those key drops.

Thalia complained about how lucky Grym and Kiki were to have BLM levelled high enough to use warp and to have Rank 5 to use the airship. I pointed out that luck had nothing to do with it, and it had more to do with the fact that Kiki's playing time is over 61 days, while Grym is fast approaching 90 days. You can accomplish an awful lot in that amount of time. He countered that he'd been playing for months too, but he's talking real world time, which includes long stretches where he hasn't had internet access.

Quests: +Accuracy? Yes, Please! (Chasing Dreams)

It was full moon the other evening, so Kiki and Grym decided to head to Rabao to try to build Kiki's moat carp count (currently 1042/10000). They each had 6 stacks of insect paste, and Kiki used a Carbon Rod, while Grym used a Composite. Kiki ended up with 3 stacks of moat carp, and Grym with just 2 stacks. Kiki's fishing skill is also higher - 31+4 vs. 29+3, but I think it's the rod that makes the difference.

After they used up all the bait, Kiki ran around Rabao looking for someone to sell her sandfish to, and happened to pick up the "Chasing Dreams" quest (the reward is 4K plus a Venerer Ring, Level 34 +3 ACC), which isn't available until you complete the Promyvions. The quest has an intriguing story, but involves a lot of running around all over the place. And if you don't know what you need ahead of time, it would take even more running around.  Here's what Kiki did:

Quest giver wants you to go to Norg
Warp from Rabao to Jeuno HP
Airship to Kazham
Chocobo through Yuhtunga to Sea Serpent Grotto
Sneak through SSG
Talk to people in Norg, they want a drink from Korroloka Tunnel
Warp from Norg to Jeuno HP
Airship to Bastok
Walk through Zehrun Mines to Korroloka Tunnel
Collect water from 4 Giant Clams
Back to Bastok (didn't leave /BLM subbed, but could have)
Warp from Bastok to Jeuno HP
Airship to Kazham
Chocobo through Yuhtunga to Sea Serpent Grotto
Sneak through SSG
Talk to people in Norg again, they sent you to Bastok
Meet Grym at Yuhtunga entrance to SSG
Kill EP and TWTBW Sahagins in SSG for nearly 2 hours to get 5 Eastern Gems
Walk through Yuhtunga to Kazham
Warp from Kazham to Jeuno HP
Airship to Bastok
Set HP in Bastok
Talk to Tenshodo members, trade Eastern Gems for info, get sent to Selbina
Teleport-Dem from Bastok, walk to Selbina through the Dunes
Talk to the Mayor, he talks about the vortex off Siren Sands
Walk to vortex off Siren Sands, go through to Lufaise Meadows for cutscene
Warp to Bastok HP
Walk through Zehrun Mines, Korroloka Tunnel, East Altepa, West Altepa to Rabao
Report back to the quest giver to receive the reward

There may be quicker ways around (like using a Teleport-Yhoat instead of the airship to Kazham), but nothing would make it that much shorter. It's definitely worth it though, a +3 ACC ring at level 34 that you can get without competing with the stroper chyme campers, or spending enormous amounts of gil to get. I spent about 1200 on airships and chocobos, but that was it. People can buy the 5 Eastern Gems on the AH for 2-3K each, but it was more fun getting them by killing mobs (and got another 200 points closer to being safe at level 51 with Kiki's PLD). The ring currently sells for between 150-170K, but Kiki wants to keep hers for her WAR and DRK, and when she's not tanking with PLD.

As I mentioned, the story's quite good, and there's a second quest that continues the storyline. Apparently you have to be on Mission 2-5 for Chains of Promathia to be able to pick that one up, so it maybe awhile before I learn more.

Leveling: Static Reaches 51, Sort Of

Saturday we gathered in Jeuno, picking up a SAM/WAR (Jnas) and a BLM/WHM (Arc-something?). We had tried getting a WHM, but the one we found was so annoying that we kicked him/her out of the party before he/she even came to meet us in Port Jeuno. Don't need any WHM With Attitude. So Locmari got to be the main healer. Manon was on painkillers with a bad tooth, so Grym was our puller.

Uncertain of where to go, Jnas suggested Garlaige Citadel, so we headed there. Dropped through the floor and headed through a large open area to a tunnel where a Beastmaster duo (Literaven and Drakan) were fighting Hellmines with bats. Intially I was concerned that we'd be competing with them for prey/pets, but Jnas had partied there before and said they were great. And they were. They charmed a link on a pull to save us, they only used bats, so we only pulled beetles, and best of all, when they got coffer keys, they offered them to us. So Manon and Kiki both got the coffer key they'll need for one of their AFs (Gallant Coronet at 56 for Kiki).

Locmari made a booboo and had BLM subbed, so he made a quick trip back to Jeuno to remedy that. Later, the server had communication difficulties, so Locmari had to log out and couldn't get back for about 20 minutes. The beetle fights were good, and we did quite well (and the Freeze MB on Distortion was pretty nifty), but as the afternoon passed, there were more people killing beetles, and we had to wait a long time between fights. Grym and Kiki both hit 51 at GC. We decided to head to Crawler's Nest and see if we could find Dragonflies, and maybe Helm Beetles (though I had thought those were too high for us there).

We hiked over to CN, headed down to the Secret Room, which was full, then snuck over to the tunnel on the west side. Everything we thought we might fight was only Tough (and it was the wrong type of flies in that room anyway), so Jnas decided we should try a Helm Beetle. Just as he pulled it, Manon said "I gotta go for a minute - wait", but it was too late. That fight was so very hard. I really thought Kiki was going to die (and delevel). I used my two hour at one point, which is probably the first time I've used it to save my life in an exp party, rather than to pull hate off of Benediction. I think the beetle was killed when Kiki had 28 HP and 9 MP left. Scary! Grym and I both got 203 exp from it, and it wasn't a chain. Our first post-50 exp greater than 200.

Manon really had to go, since he was nearly passing out from the pain and/or painkillers. He was only 14 TNL, while Locmari still had another 1000 to go.

All in all, it was a disappointing afternoon, which was a waste, since the party could have done very well in the right spot. We probably only fought for 90 minutes in close to a 4 hour period, and came away with about 3K exp. Manon and Locmari headed into Promyvion-Dem on Sunday morning and both made it to 51.  

The Helm Beetles in Quicksand Caves are a lower level than the GC ones, so I think we might head there for our next static. Elboron started playing again on Saturday, so we may actually have the static wait for him to level his Bard (currently 34) to play with us, like we originally intended.

Missions: The Archmage Assassins - Mission 5-1 Completed

We headed out to Fei'Yin Friday night to replace the seal for the Star Sybil, and very nearly didn't succeed. I think our plan was pretty good, but people paid too much attention to the minions instead of just nuking the Archlich Taber'quoan.

For the battle, our team was:

PLD50/WAR25 Tsakiki
THF50/MNK22 Grymalkyn (using h2h, so subbed her underlevelled MNK)
RNG50/WAR25 Manon
SMN50/WHM25 Locmari
BLM50/WHM25 Emith
RDM45/WHM22 Marilyn

The 5 Windurstians used outpost teleport to Beaucedine Glacier, and immediately got aggro'd by two Bat Eyes, and our fight attracted the attention of two Ice Elementals. I thought we were all going to die then and there, but we survived. Marilyn used outpost teleport to Xarcabard, and snuck over to meet up with us. The trip through the glacier was fairly uneventful, with a few small skirmishes. We made it through Fei'Yin to the Burning Circle with no trouble at all with Sneak.

We buffed up, healed for MP, and headed in. Kiki flashed the Archlich, gathered up a bunch of minions, provoked the Archlich and started swinging away. Used all 3 Hi-Potions I had brought with me, had a pear au lait and a melon juice, tried to heal when I could. Used Circle Blade when ever I had full TP, which usually killed 3 minions. I used Invincible not too long after my first Circle Blade, since that's when Emith was going to use Firaga, and I didn't want things to go running after him. It was probably earlier than I should have used it. The minions kept on coming...

Locmari used Thunderspark and got too much hate, and I couldn't get the minions off of him with a couple of Cure IIIs, so he went down first. Kiki was next, then Manon, then Marilyn, then Emith (who was kiting 10 minions at one point). Grym was left fighting alone, and with the help of a 250+ point Backhand Blow, managed to defeat the Archlich with less than 100 HP left. So, yay! We won!

Felt funny to have the title "Archmage Assassin" when I was lying facedown for the end of the fight.

Looking back at the log for the fight, I realized just how bad RNGs really are against skeletons. Manon's hits were all for single digits. Grym's backhand blows and Emith's Thunder IIs were the only things that did really good damage (high 200s). We'll most likely have to do it again when Elboron has to do it, and this time we'll be a bit better prepared. If Locmari had been able to use Astral Flow, that probably would have made the fight a lot shorter.

Missions: Chains of Promathia, Chapter One: Completed

On Sunday, Kiki went with ClanBEB for runs on both Promyvion-Mea and Promyvion-Holla, and we completed both. This meant four more people in BEB now have access to Tavnazia. It was a lot of fun, and I've been enjoying the storyline quite a bit.  

We did Mea first, with this lineup:

Yobun. PLD/WAR
Anastasia, WHM/BLM
Trow, RNG/NIN
Neodragon, RNG/NIN
Deventra, BLM/WHM
Tsakiki, WAR/NIN

The journey to the spire was relatively trouble-free. The memory recepticles were all the right ones (i.e. yielded the stream to the next level) and we didn't have to fight much as we made our way.

The boss fight was very tough. I was tanking, since utsusemi blocks one of its worst special attacks, but I felt I really had a hard time keeping hate. Plus my anima macros were wrong and I had to change them on the fly. Even with a couple hi-potions and an au lait running, Kiki got killed, as did Neodragon. I think what did us in was that the mob did one of his special attacks twice in quick succession - a sort of spinning leg move that reminded me of sickle slash (Carousel?). Fortunately, as long as the party wins the battle, it counts as a win for the dead as well.

We headed back to Jeuno, got replacement animas, and stocked up with more hi-potions, poison potions, echo drops, eye drops, and holy water. The Holla boss absorbs buffs, so Kiki switched to PLD/WAR in order to backup tank if needed. In hindsight, I would have preferred to be war/mnk for better damage. Then again, it was useful to help heal as well.

The trip to the spire in Holla was much harder than in Mea. There's one section of fences that act like a maze, and we had to fight a bunch of the empty. There were a lots of spots that we had to wait quite awhile for the mobs to move around so we could sneak past. At one spot, we were careless, got split up, got aggro from two, but rather than fight, Deventra was killed by one and Kiki by the other, but everyone else was ignored.

After raises and recovery, the rest of the trip was smooth, though the Memory Recepticles did seem a bit harder in Holla than they had been in Mea.

Now, I've heard about how horrible the Holla boss fight is for months. I have to say I was amazed at how smoothly it went, but I'll chalk that up to all of our preparations. We kept ourselves dosed with poison, so when the boss put us all to sleep, we woke right back up when the poison ticked. We used our holy water when the boss cursed us all, to get us back to normal hp/mp. We used our eye drops when we were blinded. I don't remember using echo drops, but maybe we did get silenced as well. Ana and Yobun used their sets of animas, and that was all that was needed. Yobun kept hate, we kept him healed and kept bashing away at the boss.

When it was over, more cutscenes, and Ana, Trow, Neo, and Kiki were all magically transported to Lufaise Meadows. Yobun met us there, and escorted us to the Tavnazian Safehold, showed us around a bit, walked us through the map quest, and had us activate the second CoP mission (minotaur fight in the Phomonia Aqueducts). We peeked into the Aqueducts and got to see our first Fomor (Tarutaru summoner).

Later I ran around the Tavnazian Safehold and talked to every NPC, picking up a few quests. I can't wait to do more exploring.

Quests: ClanTen Friday Night Quests

Since Windurst had control in Fauregandi last week, and because I thought these quests would be a good thing to do before we do Mission 5-1, we did an outpost supply run to Beaucedine Glacier, went to Xarcabard to get the Vhazl teleport crystal, then headed back to Beaucedine and Fei'yin for the "Curses, Foiled A'Golem!?" (aka Warp II) quest.  

We decided on a sneaky approach, trying to avoid fights where possible, so Grym was THF/WHM and Kiki was PLD/RDM. Locmari (SMN/WHM) and Emith (BLM/WHM) were fine, and Manon had a supply of silent oil and prism powder. Actually, most of us had oil and powder, since we'd be in places with magic aggro mobs.

Everything went very smoothly, and we never had aggro from anything other than easy prey. And now we know the way to Fei'yin, so it should be a piece of cake to head up there again this Friday for Mission 5-1.

Xarcabard was a bit spooky. I'd like to take a better look around there some time. The blizzards in Beaucedine made it hard to see anything. At least Grym and Manon had mob radar.

Only bad thing was Emith had several disconnections, and nearly gave up before we finished the warp ii quest. Fortunately his connection held up!

Quests: Genkai 1 - Complete! (In Defiant Challenge)

We set out on Saturday morning, not really knowing where to go, or what we could do with just the four of us, and ended up, 13 hours and a total of 5 deaths later, with our new title of "Horizon Breaker", and the ability to level past 50. Many many thanks to all the people who helped us throughout the day! We really wanted to do this "the hard way", but even with all the help we ended up having, and the people we helped as well, it still feels like we really did earn it, since the items certainly weren't handed to us on a silver platter.

We headed to Crawler's Nest first, since the exorays seemed to be manageable from a level standpoint for a PLD/WAR, THF/NIN, RNG/WAR, SMN/WHM, all at 50. We headed to what I think of as the Race Track Room. There was a group of 42s fighting Soldier Crawlers, which worked out quite well, since the kept the area free from the crawlers which would aggro us (DC), and we were able to help them with a link or two. The exorays weren't too bad to fight, but their Silence Gas attacks were devastating at times. I ended up dying when I had been hit lightly once or twice, and we didn't heal me, then I got smacked for 58, Silence Gassed for 560, and smacked again for another 58, all too fast for us to do anything.  

We got lots of mushrooms, lots of dark crystals, and decent exp (80 a pop), but it took about 2 hours to get our first exoray mold. We didn't want to ask anyone for help, but after 3 hours with only one mold, when Anastasia asked if we'd like some help, I said "Yes, please!". My new linkshell is filled with nice people, they're definitely a group of people I want to be associated with and help further their reputation! So Ana and Demin joined us as BLM60 and NIN54, and things started going quite a bit faster, though it took us a fight or two to get organized. Our group also grew. Erock came to help with his RMD60, a THF50 asked to join for his mold, Bootylicious, a THF60 wanted to come to help and get skillups for her sword, a SAM50 (Bloodghost, who Grym and Kiki helped to Mission 3-3 awhile back) needed his mold, and Wendell was able to get his mold as well. There was also a WHM, Concreteman, waiting for a coffer pop who helped out as well.

I believe it was some time after 3 that we finally had got 7 molds for the 7 of us who needed them, so a bit over 5 hours. We were a bit disappointed that it took so very long when we had three people with TH2! Another really nice thing was that Erock was killing Exorays solo in another area, and he kept finding treasure chests, so we made sure he'd get the key drops, and we all ended up with several thousand gil!

Kiki died again in a fight that also killed Locmari, and another one killed Demin (I really hated having someone who was just helping out because he's nice getting killed on my behalf!), so he ended up going back to Jeuno and coming back as his RNG73, which also nearly got killed because he was lagging. That would have been too much to bear.

Ana, Demin, and Wendell had to leave, and Concreteman had to stay in Crawler's Nest for his coffer, but Erock and Bootylicious offered to take us all to Eldieme Necropolis to get our Ancient Papyrus, so Ana D2'd us all, and we headed off to San d'Oria. I don't remember what time it was, but it did take us a little bit of time to get to EN, as we had to resupply, walk through Ranguemont Pass and Beaucedine Glacier to get to the "good" entrance to EN. Along the way we picked up another SAM50, but lost Bloodghost, who had to log out.

We headed down the stairs, killed one of the dogs that was in the way, Bootylicious pulled a Lich, and *boom* there was an Ancient Papyrus! Us level 50s were joyful, thinking maybe it wasn't going to take so long after all, but Booty and Erock assured us that we were in for a long evening of Lich killing. The SAM50 won the lot, but said he'd stay, which was good of him. There was another party fighting Lichs, so we didn't get as many as we would have liked until after they left, and we moved to the camp they had been, which has easier access to 6 Lich spawns. We had to fight a lot of Mummys and Kas as well, and Manon got killed by a Dimensional Death attack from a Ka. After a few hours, the THF50 announced that he would leave after the next drop, whether or not he won the lot. So a Lich or two later, we got another drop, and Kiki won that lot. The THF and SAM left, leaving just the 6 of us, Booty, Erock, Manon, Sawdust, Grym, and Kiki.

Erock had changed to RDM/WAR before we headed to EN, and was doing almost all of the tanking, though the thieves were trying to SATA back and forth between me and him. That didn't work too well until it was just the 6 of us. We were a much more efficient party at that point, and were able to kill them a lot faster. We also got two more Papyrus to drop fairly quickly, took a break around 9 to eat some supper, and several fights later, got the final papyrus we needed. So that part probably took 5 hours to get 5 Ancient Papyrii.

Erock then offered to take the 4 of us to Garlaige Citadel to get the last item, so we headed through Jeuno, Erock switched to RDM/BLM, and we headed to GC. The hardest part was actually getting to the Explosure spawn area. Loc and Erock tried to keep us sneaky and invisible, with help from a couple silent oils, prism powders, and Tonko, but we still managed to get some aggro from some bats. So we ended up fighting two sets of bats, but they were only tough, and weren't bad for the 5 of us. We got down to the Explosure area, Manon pulled one, we killed it without incident, and got one Bomb Coal. Manon pulled a second, and it dropped three! Woohoo! We were done! A quick Escape from Erock, and we all headed back to Jeuno to /slap Maat and give him the items we'd spent 13 hours acquiring.

We decided that Erock should henceforth be known as U-Rock. It was so nice having people spend so much of their time helping all of us! Bootylicious, who was just getting skillups out of it, didn't even know any of us at all, and stuck with us until we all got our Papyrus (and even was the first to say "do you guys want to go get your paper now?" when we finished the Exoray Molds).

Quests: Friday Night Quests

Friday night was quest night for ClanBEB, with Bastok Eco-Warrior, the Gustaberg Tour, and the Kuftal Tour on the agenda. We gathered in Bastok, trying to get enough for the Eco-Warrior, and ended up merging with another LS Eco-Warrior group, so we had a full alliance of 18. From ClanBEB, we had Yobun as MNK, Ryrra as MNK, Charcole as WHM, Marilyn as WHM, Deventra as BLM, and Kiki as RDM. We also had Izan, Vynala, Sasukeosiris and Wendell as escorts.

The trip to the spawn point was uneventful, but as often happens with such a large group, the fight itself went badly, since over half the group was fighting the Pudding that was put to sleep, leaving less than half of us fighting the other one. I got too close and was one-shotted by Fluid Spread, Charcole used Benediction to help the others and got smacked dead, and Deventra also died. I think all three of us delevelled too. The Puddings were killed, we got our raises, ran back to the entrance to re-get the ointment, went back to get the key item to complete the quest, and headed on our way. The worst part of these is the hours it takes trying to get everyone organized. I got over 900 EXP from my Dragon Chronicle page, so my RDM has a nice buffer over 25 again (was 1 TNL after my death).

Then 6 of us switched to sub-level 5 jobs, and headed to the waterfall in North Gustaberg to do the Gustaberg Tour quest. Marilyn escorted us, and it was really quite painless. I believe it was Yobun, Wendell, Sasukeosiris, Charcole, Erock, and Kiki. Then we headed to Rabao for the Kuftal tour. Easiest 8K I ever made in the game. We had to have jobs level 40 or under. Yobun, Ryrra, Erock, Marylyn, Sasukeorsiris and Kiki made the trip. Drakel wanted to, but didn't have enough Rabao fame to do it. Kiki's a Hero in Rabao, which surprised me. I guess it's tied to Selbina. Anyway, we simply took a chocobo to Kuftal Tunnel, walked past the non-aggroing lizards, clicked on the question marks, watched a cutscene and either warped or snuck back to Rabao to talk to the quest giver again.