Leveling: LLS in Bibiki Bay (69)

Itera managed to find a Summoner to agree to be main healer for our static this past Sunday, so we headed out to Bibiki Bay for the first time in 4 weeks. Yobun wasn't quite yet 69, but the rest of us all were. It was as crowded as usual, and the only open camp we could find just had two Catoblepas and a Goblin Physician and a Goblin Blagger. We pretty much had those two Catoblepas to ourselves, but we had to compete with another party for the Physician. The other party refused to fight the Blagger, so we got stuck with him every chain.

It wasn't our best night, but was better than killing DC Gigases in Delkfutts. We ended up with about 11K exp (without a ring) in just under 3 hours. The SMN was very quick with Silena and Erase, which was nice, but he did tend to overcure, not letting me get many cures in. I really should talk to people about that before we start fighting, just to make it clear. He didn't really use any of his summons, probably because he felt he needed all his MP for healing.

I can't believe that we're so close to hitting 70. I suppose people who level more frequently and don't spend more than a few days at a given level don't really think it's such a big deal.

Quests: Shattering Stars (PLD)

FFXI has 5 level caps that you must break by completing quests for Maat, a tough old man who hangs out near the Palace in Ru'Lude Gardens in Jeuno. These are supposedly to test your skill and see if you're worthy to progress in the levels, but really, they mostly seem to be there to slow you down, like so many things in the game. The more time it takes you to do things, the more money Square-Enix gets from you in monthly subscription fees. It's all part of the game. :-)

The level caps are at 50, 55, 60, 65, and 70. The (current) maximum level in the game is 75. Some of the quests can be done with the help of others, but for the final one, Shattering Stars, or Limit Break V, also known as Genkai V, you're completely on your own, facing Maat one-on-one in a closed arena, with only the abilities of your main job, and whatever items you can fit in your gobbiebag.

I had been dreading this fight since the time I created Kiki to be a Tarutaru Paladin, having heard that the fight for Paladin is really tough for a Tarutaru. I had visions of having to level Black Mage, a job more "suited" for a Tarutaru, just to be able to beat Maat and level past 70. As time passed, and I got closer to actually needing to face Maat, I was able to find posts and blog entries of other Tarutaru Paladins who'd beaten Maat just fine. One video I watched was particularly comforting. I wish I had bookmarked it, as I can't even remember the Tarudin's name, and I'd like to give him credit for helping his fellow Tarutaru.

In order to pick up the quest, you must be level 66. Maat needs a testimony from you before he will fight you. These drop off of high level beastmen mobs that have the proper job type, and Kiki had got a Paladin's Testimony in Beadeaux last November while helping Daden get a Warrior Testimony. I had been planning to fight Maat after Kiki got to 70, since she'd have Protect IV, but as Yobun pointed out, so would Maat.

After hitting 69 a couple weeks ago, I worked on capping Kiki's sword skill, mostly in a skillup party with Anastasia, Erock and Elboron in The Boyahda Tree. I also managed to cap evasion, divine and enhancing magic. I wanted to use Carbonara for food, so another "requirement" was to get Grymalkyn's cooking mule, Qiara, the noodle kneading key item so Kiki can have a reliable supply of at-cost Carbonara. We finally got Qiara the Guild Points she needed for that a week ago. The final thing I wanted was an Opo-opo Necklace, and rather than buy one at a recently-inflated price, I got my own while doing ZM5 on Friday night.

Saturday morning, it was time to show the old man what Kiki had learned. I rummaged through Mog Storage, and pulled out the dusty Paladin Testimony I'd got months ago. Qiara whipped up a batch of fresh Spaghetti Carbonara for me, and then Grymalkyn travelled to Jeuno to make some Sleeping Potions.

My approach was to boost attack and accuracy, as I needed to do as much damage to Maat as I could in the ten minute time limit. I was less worried about damage taken than I am when fighting mobs for experience points. I borrowed several items Grymalkyn uses for her Thief, and ended up with this gear:

Espadon +1 (+attack)
Musketeer Commander's Shield (+agility)
Happy Egg (+hp and +vit)
Blink Band (blink! +evasion)
Opo-Opo Necklace -> Royal Guard's Collar (+attack and +accuracy)
Spike Earring (+attack)
Drone Earring/Hospitaler's Earring (+agility / macro'd for enhanced Cures)
Byrnie (+attack +str)
Creek F Mitts (+str +hp)
Venerer Ring (+accuracy)
Jaegar Ring (+accuracy)
Psilos Mantle (+attack +accuracy)
Lifebelt (+accuracy)
Feral Trousers (+attack)
Creek F Clomps (+str +hp)

For items:
Carbonara
Sleeping Potions (need 4 to get 100% TP)
Hi-Potions x10 (used 6)
Pear au Lait x2 (used 1)
Melon Juice x6 (used 3)
Icarus Wing

I had looked at vile elixirs (190K) and vile elixirs +1 (300K) at the auction house, and decided that I really shouldn't have to use those to beat Maat. I set up a separate set of macros just for the fight, leaving out anything I wouldn't or couldn't use. Because of a lack of suitable macro pallets, Kiki's lost all of her Tarutaru dance macros, but I think she can live without them. I subbed BLM, to warp home later, but in retrospect, that shouldn't have been needed, since if you win, Maat gives you a scroll of instant warp, and if you lose, you need to home-point (unlsess someone happens to be there and raise you).

Hands sweating, pulse racing, I checked and re-checked my gear, and headed over to talk to Maat. He teleported Kiki to the Qu'Bai Arena in Fei'Yin, and I traded her testimony to the Burning Circle, tearing it in the process.

Once inside, I ate the carbonara, drank a pear au lait (since the Carbonara added 150 HP), cast Protect III, Shell III, drank a melon juice to recover MP, then took 4 sleeping potions to get over 100% TP from her Opo-Opo Necklace. Ready to go, I drank another melon juice and started running down the long hallway to the arena, where Maat was waiting in the center.

Maat greeted Kiki with "So, you decided to show up. Now it's time to see what you're really made of, heh heh heh."

We both opened with Flash, so I didn't use Vorpal Blade right off the bat. I wanted to wait until I was no longer blinded to reduce the chance of missing and wasting the TP I had spent precious time getting. I had heard Maat hits pretty hard, so I wasn't too surprised to be taking 100-125 damage from each of his punches and kicks. I was a little dismayed that I was only hitting him for 35-50 myself though (critical hits around 90). After Flash wore off, my first vorpal blade hit him for 179, which was encouraging.

Maat opted to use Banish II on Kiki three times. It was just as well, as it has a fairly long cast time, and did only 73 damage. At some point, I realized I hadn't used the blink band, and I still had my Opo-Opo Necklace on, so I decided to use the blink band mid-fight. It saved me a few hits, so I suppose it was worth it. Maat used Maat's Bash twice during the fight, but one missed me. When I got over 100% TP, I used Vorpal Blade again (193 damage), then used my Icarus Wing, just as Maat used invincible. So I had to hold back until his Invincible wore off. I decided to cast Holy on him while his Invincible was up, and did 99 damage for the 100 MP. I don't think that's something a non-Tarutaru PLD would do in a Maat fight, but I thought it'd be funny. Plus every bit of damage would help. When Maat's Invincible wore, my third Vorpal Blade did another 108 damage.

After 4 Cure IVs, a couple Flashes, and the Holy, I was getting pretty low on MP and used Invincible and started chugging hi-potions, trying to time it so I could get a hit or two in between potions. Then suddenly Maat said, "Hm. That was a mighty fine display of skill there, Tsakiki. You've come a long way..."

I couldn't believe it - I had won! He seemed to give up after I had managed to get over 1700 points of damage in on him. The final total for damage had Maat basically kicking my butt for 2663 damage (two and a half times my max HP), but since I had regained 2000 with cures and potions, I was still standing. I did 1768 damage total to Maat. The fight took 7 minutes and 32 seconds.

I was a bit confused to find myself outside the circle with no instant warp scroll, but I checked my title, and sure enough, it was Maat Masher. Then I remembered I had picked up a warp scroll the night before and had it in my mog safe, so I couldn't get another one from Maat. I warped back to Windurst, and hopped the airship to Jeuno and went to talk to Maat again. He raised my level cap to 75, and gave me a long story about how I had to help make sure things stayed OK around Jeuno.

Things I could have done better: I didn't use Rampart, I didn't use a second au lait when the first wore off, I think I could have used Flash more, and I should have remembered my blink band and necklace change before I ran in and started fighting. I have heard that he doesn't use Asuran Fists until after 8 minutes, and that wouldn't have been so good. If not, I got lucky on what he decided to throw at me (banish II, Maat's Bash). However, my only misses on Maat were when I was blinded by Flash (plus 0 damage swings when he used Invincible), so I think my +accuracy gear paid off.

New Titles: Maat Masher, Star Breaker

Missions: Headstone Pilgrimage (Zilart Mission 5)

For Zilart Mission 5, Headstone Pilgrimage you are required to visit 7 Cermet Headstones scattered throughout Vana'diel. Three of them can be done solo, but four require a party to defeat some monsters before obtaining the items you need from the headstones. Over the past two weeks since we completed ZM4, Kiki, Grym and Elbo visited the headstones in the Cloister of Frost (Fei'Yin), La Thiene Plateau (through Ordelle's Caves), and West Altepa Desert (through Quicksand Caves).

On Friday night, we met up with several of the ClanBEB linkshell members, and set out to complete the mission. The hardest part really is just getting to each of the headstones. We had:

Ryken PLD71
Wendell WHM67
Itera MNK69
Grymalkyn THF69
Elboron BRD69
Tsakiki PLD69
Onima MNK73

We met in Jeuno, and headed out to Behemoth's Dominion. There, we spawned two NM Weapons, and killed them pretty quickly. The only trouble we had was that Elboron tried to sleep one of the weapons and couldn't. So we just fought both.

Next Wendell teleported 6 of us to Yhoator Jungle, and Itera use the OP warp system to meet us there. This was probably the hardest part of the whole mission - making it through Ifrit's Cauldron safely. The headstone is actually in a canyon in Yuhtunga Jungle that can only be reached through Ifrit's Cauldron. A lot of alliances fail at this part of the mission. Others will send a WHM with Raise III through Ifrit's and then everyone else dies in a spot that the WHM can grab people with Tractor and then Raise them. We just made sure everyone brought enough silent oils and prism powders. Thanks to the wonderful map on the FFXI Wiki in the walkthrough I linked above, we really had no problems getting through Ifrit's Cauldron. The only thing that would have been bad is if we had run into the Ash Dragon. I think he would have eaten us for lunch.

Once back out in the jungle, we fought things for TP and spawned the NM Opo-Opos at the headstone. Killed them with little trouble, and got the fragment we needed. We also knew about the quest Wrath of the Opo-opos and came prepared with garnets, so each of us traded a garnet to the headstone and got an Opo-opo Necklace as a reward. I needed one of these for my Maat fight, so I no longer had an excuse to put off facing Maat.

Wendell then teleported 6 to the Altepa Crystal, while Kiki used her Trick Staff II to get to Windurst, but it turned out that almost everyone headed to their hometowns first and used the OP warp to Cape Terrigan. Only Onima made the run through Kuftal Tunnel. Then we made the less-painful-than-Ifrit's-Cauldron trip through Cape Terrigan to the Cermet Headstone there. It's in the far northwest section, not too far from the Cloister of Gales. There were a couple decent challenge Goblins there that we had to kill, and then Ryken spawned the NM Shadow we had to defeat for that headstone. He didn't cause us any real trouble either. There's another "secret" quest here that involves trading a Rain Lily to the headstone (Wandering Souls), and Wendell provided us all with Rain Lilies, and we each got a Flagellant's Rope.

For the final headstone, we made our way to the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah (Teleport-Vhazl, OP to our homes, then OP to Zi'Tah). I really love the OP system. :-) Onima was a bit worried about the Doomed NM we would face in Zi'Tah, but it was no match for us, and we quickly put an end to it. I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get any cutscenes for the mission, nor any real indication that we had indeed completed it and that ZM6 had magically appeared in our mission logs.

New titles: Friend of the Opo-opos, Bearer of Bonds Beyond Time, Bearer of the Eight Prayers

Notorious Monsters: Crimson-toothed Pawberry

Last Monday night we had a linkshell Carbuncle Mitts run, since we had a bunch of people wanting these special Summoner Mitts. Six people had offerings, and we had a total of 13 people to start with, though two of those characters were actually being dual-boxed by characters with their offerings.

Offerings:
Yobun BLM75
Wendell WHM67
Vawn PLD75
Muirnin THF67 (hoping for light spirit pact, had mitts already)
Richelle BRD53 (getting mitts from Muirnin's offering)
Lalandra SMN52
Anastasia BLM75

Helpers:
Erock WAR75
Elboron BRD69
Grymalkyn THF69
Tsakiki PLD69 (subbed RDM)
Latch MNK69 (Vawn's second character)
Lyre WHM75 (Muirnin's second character)

We headed to the Temple of Uggalepih, and spent a lot of time unsuccessfully hunting for a Prelate Key before we finally gave up and headed to the big room with the Manipulator and headed up the stairs to try to aggro something through the Granite Doors and get them open. This worked, but I think Lalandra had two deaths in the process.

After we got to the room with the ??? spot for the offering, we cleared the room, and Yobun used his offering to spawn the Crimson-toothed Pawberry. I had known he would use Searing Light, but I didn't know he did it first thing after spawning. One of the parties took substantial damage, but we managed pretty well. I'm not sure if Lalandra died on that run, but she did end up dying on several. Searing light, even with Light Carol up, seemed to hit the characters in their 50s much harder than those of us at a higher level. Erock ended up doing most of the tanking since he was doing so much damage. I think Vawn's Paladin pride was a bit wounded.

We had to wait about 15 minutes between each time spawning the Tonberry, and just after we'd killed him the first time, another party showed up. They only had to do one fight, so after our second go-round, we let them take the next one. Aside from Lalandra's repeated deaths, it went quite well, but it did get quite late. As the evening progressed, people started needing to leave, so by the final spawn, we were down to 9 people. The fights took a bit longer, but weren't any trouble. Stoneskin and Light Carol make a huge difference for the fight.

Quests: A Bait and Switch

Grymalkyn dragged Kiki off to Bastok Sunday morning so they could try the relatively new A Bait and Switch quest.

Salim wanted us to get rid of a friar who's been poking around in the Temple of the Godess in the Metalworks. When we went to investigate, we ran into Luto Mewrilah and her shape-shifting Tarutaru partner-in-crime. They were trying to get their hands on Salim's reportedly hidden, ill-gotten treasure, and asked for our help. There's a trap set in the altar to protect it, and can be deactivated by pressing three switches in the Metalworks in the proper sequence.

Luto offers you an item to help distract the guards hovering near the switches, and to get the Key Ring Belt we were after, we chose the Lucky Charm. We then talked to several NPCs to determine the switch sequence, which ended up having 8 steps. We activated the switches in the proper order, each time needing to distract the guards first. We would either have Luto taunt them and run away, have the Taru shape-shift into a guard and have him "relieve" the real guard, or we would use the lucky charm and some Jedi mind trick to get the head guard to go look elsewhere.

Grymalkyn didn't have any troubles, but Kiki's sequence didn't seem to work and she failed repeatedly on reaching the 7th step (have to start over from the first switch when you miss one). So she reset the quest and started over, and had no trouble that time. They both were rewarded with a Key Ring Belt from Salim for getting the friar to leave. Fortunately he didn't realize we'd helped Luto make off with his loot.

The belt is actually a really nice belt for a THF, having +1 Steal on it. It also has +1 DEX, making it the best belt for a THF from level 20 to level 30. Other rewards from the quest include silent oil, prism powder, hermes quencher, hi-potion, or hi-ether, based on the item you choose from Luto. There's also a mystery item, but no one knows how to get that option available. The quest is repeatable once each week after the conquest tally, but it's a bit annoying, so I'm not sure how much we'll be repeating it.

Quests: Trial By Ice (Shiva Prime)

Saturday night, we decided to tackle another one of the prime avatar fights (our fight with Garuda is the only other one Grym, Kiki, and Elbo had done). We had Kiki PLD69, Grym THF69, Elbo BRD69, Itera MNK69, and Wendell WHM67. Wendell's in the process of collecting whispers for his Moon Bauble, and could only fight Ramuh, Shiva, and Garuda. He needs Ramuh twice, so we thought that would be a good one. Unfortunately, Itera was a bit lacking in fame in Mhaura and wasn't able to get the Tuning Fork of Lightning. So we opted for Shiva.

There wasn't really anyone available to recruit for the sixth spot, but we figured we'd be fine with just the five of us. Wendell gave us a Teleport-Vhazl, and we ran and ran and ran and ran to Fei'Yin and the Cloister of Ice. Elbo and Wendell got their macros set for Ice Carol and Barblizzara, while we waited a few minutes for Fireday. Then we ate our food, buffed up, and headed in. We had decided to fight up top, since Wendell was the only mage in the group (rather than bring Shiva down the ramp and have Wendell up above the fight), so Kiki ran up to the top, provoked Shiva and got into position for the fight.

Things went quite well until we got her down below 50% and she hit us with her first Diamond Dust, just as Grym was about to close our light skillchain, and Elbo was about to re-sing Ice Carol, with Soul Voice active this time. Grym and Elbo were both hit for about 1350 damage, which is several hundred more than their max HP. The rest of us took less than 200 damage each, and we continued the fight and won, thanks to Itera's 100 Fists. Kiki at least was pretty well drained of MP by the time we were done. The fight took just over 6 minutes, and aside from the deaths, it was fun to fight our second avatar.

Wendell's R2s for Elboron and Grymalkyn eased the sting of death a bit, and we headed to San d'Oria for our reward. Itera chose Shiva's Claws, with +attack and a paralysis effect that seems to process quite a bit, while Elbo, Grym and Kiki got their pact with Shiva. We headed out to Ronfaure to play around with them for a bit before turning in for the night.

New title: Heir of the Great Ice

Missions: Ancient Vows (CoP 2-5)

Our newly formed CoP static is off to a great start. After months and months of thinking about how we were going to tackle this mission, the pieces came together and we finally had a group of six people who really want to do these missions together. The challenge is to find strategies that fit with the jobs the six of us have available.

Last night we were finally ready to face the Mammets in Monarch Linn. This fight is capped at level 40, and we opted for this set-up:

Grymalkyn BST/NIN
Tsakiki BST/NIN
Elboron BRD/WHM
Itera MNK/WAR
Wendell WHM/BLM
Splinte WAR/NIN

With everyones' pockets full of hi-potions and yellow liquids, we set out from the Tavnazian Safehold, and made our way to Riverne Site #A-01. Elboron had a giant scale from a previous outing in Riverne, so we would only need to get one from a Firedrake. These are used to stabilize Unstable Spatial Displacements, and we would have to go through two of these to get to Monarch Linn for the fight. This was good, since it would minimize the amount of fighting along the way. The drakes and hippogryphs have some special moves that can be pretty hard on a party, so the less we had to fight, the easier the trek would be.

Grym and Kiki both picked up an Even Match Riverne Vulture to accompany them along the way, and without too much fuss, we made it to the final displacement that takes us to Monarch Linn. We had to fight only one Firedrake and one Hippogryph, so it was a pretty painless trip. Grym and Kiki had been using leave/charm to keep their pets with them for the whole trip, and then made a fatal mistake. We both jumped into the portal to Monarch Linn without releasing our pet birds first. 5 of us made it in, and Itera wasn't there. He'd gotten attacked by our birds after we zoned, and by the time we all got back out to him, he was dead in the grass. We MPK'd Itera. :-(

Wendell raised him, and we all headed back to the BC area, rested up, and went over our strategy. Wendell has already got up to CoP 4-2, but fortunately agreed to join our static now, and re-do the missions with us, so we had one person with prior experience with this mission with us. Nervous as a bunch of cats in a room full of rocking chairs, we headed into the BC.

Immediately after the awesome cutscene on entering the BC, Grym and Kiki called their first crab, to get the cool-down going. We also used Familiar to toughen up our first pet, and get them to last as long as possible. We got reraise on everyone, thanks to our handy Charm Wands from the Valentione's event, Wendell cast protectra ii and shellra ii, we ate our food, and waited for Wendell's MP to recover. Wendell said he was ready, and suddenly we notice Itera has the Red Dot of Doom next to his name, and poof, he vanished. Ack!! I think Splinte nearly had a heart attack.

Fortunately, Itera got back quickly - his anti-virus software started a scan and kicked him out. I think it would have been much much worse if we'd actually started in on the fighting before he'd been disconnected. He did lose his buffs though, so we had a little bit more of a delay. By the time we actually headed in to start fighting, we'd been out of the cutscene for 5 minutes, as our Call Beast timers were back to 00:00.

Grym sent her crab after the left mammet, Kiki sent hers after the right mammet, and Splinte voked the middle one, and pulled it back in to the hallway, where Itera, Elbo, and Wendell were waiting. Grym and I ran and used Sic and Heel on our pets, but hadn't got far enough away and pulled hate from our mammets, so we had our pets re-engage for a bit. Since our pets weren't on the run, they took more damage than they might have, and our first pets died pretty quickly. I think our second, non-Familiared crabs lasted a bit longer, but it's so hard to tell. Grym and Kiki basically ran counter-clockwise around the circle area, with their pets running after them and the mammets running after the pets.

Meanwhile, the mammet the others were fighting refused to switch into a "good" mode, and kept using Transmogrification, which meant it would absorb damage and heal instead, so they would have to turn around and just stand there until they could start hitting it again. Finally it switched to DRG, they locked it in with a yellow liquid, Elboron used Soul Voice and +attack and +accuracy songs, Itera used 100 Fists, and Splinte used Mighty Strikes. Apparently it died quite fast - I would have liked to have seen it!

Grym took her mammet over to the hallway, while Kiki continued to run around the circle. When my second pet died, I opted to just run and use Charm on the Mammet to bind it. I wasn't sure if my call beast timer was back yet, and didn't want to take the time to check either. Grym and I had both equipped a Minstrel's Dagger and a De Saintre's Axe to maxmize our CHR and +Charm just for this purpose (plus we had our Noble's Ribbons, Loyalty Rings, Corsette +1, and Bird Whistle). It worked very well - each Charm "landed", binding the mammet for a few seconds, letting me get a bit of distance and get a few hi-potions in me. My mammet decided it wanted to be a BLM and kept nuking me, but the others quickly killed the second mammet, and I went running over to the group with 120hp left, and Wendell and Elbo quickly healed me up.

Despite having 4 melees, a funguar, and a tiger ripping into the final mammet, it seemed to be a bit slow, simply because it used Transmogrification 3 or 4 times and we'd have to stop hitting it. Then suddenly, it was all over, and we were in another cutscene. Our clear time was 17:56. Hurray! We had won on our first try, and didn't have a single death. Our plan worked, and we were well-prepared for it.

Five of us found ourselves washed up near the Bubbly Bernie spot in South Gustaberg, while Wendell was left behind in Monarch Linn. He came to meet us in Bastok so I could take a picture, and the rest of us continued running around getting cutscenes for the next two missions, and are now on CoP 3-3. After being "on" CoP 2-5 for over a year, it's weird to finally have it done.


New title: Tavnazian Traveler

General: Show and Tell

Itera's had a Goblin Coif for awhile, and on Monday, while we were waiting outside Crawlers Nest before our weekly jaunt with Olavia, he urged Kiki and Elbo to try it on for size. I have to admit I think it's much cuter on Tarutarus than Galkas!


The escort quest was notable only because it was Rovont's first time with us, as his PLD59/WAR29. I think he had fun. Afterwards, we headed to the Eldieme Necropolis to help Narm (WHM53) get the Tavnazian Bell he needs for his WHM AF. There was another WHM there with a MNK friend looking for the same thing, so we had to share the measly 4 Dark Stalker spawns every 16 minutes with them. It was getting late, and I had said I needed to go on the next set, but our competition got a bell on that set and left, so we agreed to one more set. Fortunately, the bell dropped for Narm on that one. He lotted 12. Ha! 12! Good thing he wasn't trying to lot against anyone.

The rest of the evenings this week have been devoted to preparations for CoP Mission 2-5, which we're finally doing this Friday night. Tuesday evening, Elbo, Grym, Kiki and Wendell farmed in Rolanberry, and gathered 44 malboro vines, along with some silk threads and tree cutting - no sense in just leaving the crawlers and goobbues alone. :-)

On Wednesday, Grym and Kiki headed to San d'Oria for easy access to Sage, and Grym did about 50 synths, resulting in about 42 hi-potions, and some skillups. Kiki and then Qlone were on hand to help out with holding the materials and hi-potions. Grym got her alchemy up a few points over 59, and I said, "I wonder what your guild test item for Craftsman is?" and looked it up. What do you know, it was a Hi-Potion. Taking one out for the Alchemy Guild, and adding in what we had on hand already, I think we have 48 ready to go for Friday night. Hopefully everyone will have gobbie bag room for enough to help us make it through the mission successfully.

Tonight we'll have Qiara make a bunch of Pear Au Laits, and start the great gear shuffle that accompanies a job change. Making for extra hassle this time is that I need to have lots of room for special items for the mission, so I want to make sure my gobbie bag has only things that are needed. Even then, I'm afraid I won't have room for as many hi-potions as I'd like to carry.

Between charm gear, fight gear, reraise wands, pet food, jug pets, au lait, tacos, shihei, shinobi-tabi, and yellow liquids, I'm not sure how much space I'll have left. I guess I'll find out soon enough! After worrying about this mission for so many many months, it feels weird to finally have it actually happening. I just hope we don't fail miserably.

Missions: Moon Reading (Windurst Mission 9-2)

After completing Windurst Mission 9-1, Kiki had to donate 8 stacks of crystals to the WW guy to get enough rank points to be able to take on her final Windurst Mission, Moon Reading. First, she was told to go to Heaven's Tower, where Semih Lafihna, Apururu, and Ajido-Marujido told her that she needed to collect three ancient verses, scattered throughout Vana'diel.

Kiki headed off to Ro'Maeve with Grymalkyn and Elboron, where they got their first verse from the Qu'Hua Spring near the Hall of the Gods.

Later, they headed to the Temple of Uggalepih with Itera and Wendell. Itera and Wendell both needed a Paintbrush of Souls and an Unlit Lantern for our Zilart Missions, so the 5 of us killed Tonberry Cutters until we got 3 Uggalepih Keys, and Itera and Wendell got their paintbrushes. Next, we headed to the outside walls to get two lanterns from two Tonberry Jinxers. Then it was back into another level of the Temple, and we used the third key to open the door into a library. We headed to the ??? spot on the far side and examined it for a cutscene and our second verse, and ended up needing to escape from the temple when the whole roomful of tonberries decided they didn't like us.

Wendell then took Grym, Elbo, and Kiki to the Chamber of Oracles (we needed someone to hel open the doors in Quicksand Caves). There, we got our final verse, and headed back to Heaven's Tower to let them know our progress. We got another cutscene that let us know the Yagudo declared their treaty with Windurst had been broken, and we were told to head to Full Moon Fountain for a battle.

Weeks later....

We were on target to have at least 12 people in the linkshell ready for the 9-2 fight on Saturday night, but we ended up with several people not yet ready for the mission and others just plain absent, leaving us with 9 people. Since this is a 6-person BC fight, it meant we had to have three people repeating it. So we decided on these two teams:

Tsakiki PLD69/WAR34
Grymalkyn THF69/NIN34
Elboron BRD69/WHM34
Wendell WHM67/BLM33
Yobun BLM75/RDM37
Anastasia BLM75/WHM37

Yobun PLD74/WAR37
Anastasia BLM75/RDM37
Wendell WHM67/BLM33
Akuma BLM69/RDM34
Vyce SAM67/WAR33
Muirnin THF67/NIN33

Akuma, Vyce and Muirnin had to wait for the first group to do the fight, go back to Windurst, complete the mission, change jobs, and head back to Full Moon Fountain to repeat it with them.

The fight itself was quite challenging, with a really nice cutscene leading into it. We started out facing four Ace Cardians. Yobun, Ana and Elboron were responsible for keeping them slept while we picked them off one at a time. Grym ran in to pull the Ace of Batons (BLM) first, and got slept and nuked, dropping her health quite quickly into a dangerous zone without waking her up. I felt we were off to a bit of a rough start, but we recovered quickly, and proceeded to put an end to the BLM. The BLM did cast a lot of AOE spells, dropping all of our health quite a bit. I understand why people recommend to kill this one first. Next we moved on to the Ace of Coins (RDM), then the Ace of Swords (PLD), and finally the Ace of Cups (WHM). After the Ace of Cups used Benediction, we disengaged at 50% health, slept it, and rested to full before killing it.

Then Ajido-Marujido showed up. We knew we would be facing a wyvern, Tatzlwurm, and a manticore, Yali, for this part, neither of which can be slept. Our plan was to see which one Ajido-Marujido would attack, attack that one ourselves, and have Yobun kite the other one. Ajido didn't run in until we did, so I think we probably could have rested after killing the final Ace, but people say to do it the way we did it.

Ajido-Marujido first seemed to head for the wyvern, but suddenly veered off to the manticore, and we nearly lost him. Some quick healing from the mages saved him, and I used Flash and Provoke to get the manticore's attention. Yobun kited the Wyvern, Wendell made sure Ajido stayed healthy, and the rest of us concentrated of gettting the manticore dead. Then we turned our attention to the wyvern. Unfortunately, I was bound on the other side of the room and couldn't get to the wyvern for a few moments. When I finally could move, I ran over and used invincible on top of my flash and provoke to make sure I had his full attention, since he seems pretty interested in eating the mages at that point.

Two final Thunder IVs from Yobun and Anastasia killed off the manticore, and we were treated to another cutscene. Hurray! We'd won! It was a satisfyingly challenging fight, and a good completion to the Windurst Missions. We ran back to Heaven's Tower to talk to the Star Sybil and be granted Rank 10. We also received our Windurstian Flags, and 100,000 gil. The final cutscene had such a "game completion" feeling to it that I almost expected to see the credits start to roll. My husband said, as he always does when we've accomplished something, "We've won the game, time to quit." /sigh

Ana, Yobun, and Wendell changed jobs as needed and headed back to do it all over again with Akuma, Vyce, and Muirnin. I wish I had taken more screenshots - a Galka BLM in an Igqira Weskit is a sight to behold - but I was a bit anxious before the fight, and too busy during the fight, to remember to.

Kiki ran off to the gate guard to use some conquest points to get a Federation Signet Staff, then headed to her moghouse to put her new flag up on the wall. Windurst has been slacking off in the conquest lately, so it may be awhile before Kiki can get her Federation Aketon. A few of us are thinking of doing some Expeditionary Forces to help our nation, but I'm not sure if we'll get time this week.

As much as I really would like to do the Rank Missions in both Bastok and San d'Oria, I simply can't give up my outpost teleports, so I think when I do those, it will be my last weeks in the game.

New title: Vestal Chamberlain

General: Ersatz Leveling

Last Thurday night, Elbo, Grym, Kiki and Itera headed to Upper Delkfutt's Tower, to kill bats and giants and get some exp while they were at it. The giants ranged from Decent Challenge to Tough, while the bats were a bit lower. Kiki and Grym both managed to hit 69, so we returned on Saturday as well, but Itera wasn't with us this time. Since we were lacking his damage output, both Grym and Kiki had their NPCs come to help out. It's been a long time since Wagwei and Balu-Falu have been out to play. Having the NPCs out cut into our exp a bit, and Elbo used his empress band, so we narrowed the gap between him and us while we were at it. We got Elbo his level, and all felt more comfortable going into our Windurst mission Saturday night.

Balu-Falu and Wagwei both hit 52 on our first fight, and they both then hit 53 on our second round of summoning them. That's probably the best exp they've gotten in many levels. Unfortunately, Wagwei got killed once. I think Trick Attack hit him instead of me, and by the time we noticed, it was too late to remedy the situation.

We got lots and lots of Gigas Socks from killing the giants, and Grym had a very good success rate with desynthing them into wool thread, with a surprising number of HQs as well, so we got a few stacks of wool thread out of the experience as well.

---

The Low Level Static didn't make it out to level again on Sunday evening, so Elbo, Grym, and Kiki decided to go ferry fishing, hoping for pirates for a sand charm for Elbo. Qiara's still skilling up on Tuna Sushi, so our plan was to catch lots of tuna and some noble ladies, which would give us skillups. Grym ended up getting .2 skillups and hit 51, while Kiki got .3 and is now 53.1.

Elboron had a rougher time with his fishing. We gave him crayfish paste balls so he could catch nebimonites for black ink, but with his composite rod, they were all too small. The only rods we could buy on the ferry were Tarutaru Rods, and those ended up snapping too easily to be of any use. If we do this again, I think I'll lend him my Halycon Rod. We did have pirates on one trip, and got Elboron a Sand Charm, so he can finally do the quest to get his map of the Bostaunieux Oubliette.

Missions: The Temple of Uggalepih (Zilart Mission 4)

We figured that it was high time we made some progress on our Zilart Missions, so last Friday night, 7 of us set out for the Sacrificial Chamber in the Den of Rancor to investigate an old hermit reported to be living there. We had the following group of adventurers:

Ryken PLD70/WAR35
Elboron BRD68/WHM34
Wendell WHM67/BLM33
Itera MNK68/WAR34
Tsakiki PLD69/RDM34
Grymalkyn THF69/NIN34
Muirnin THF67/NIN33

Lyre, Muirnin's WHM75 character, came along to help with the trip to the Sacrificial Chamber.

We had previously obtained our Paintbrush of Souls, Unlit Lanterns and had activated the quest to clear Tonberry hate, so first we headed to the room to pay the Tonberry priest in the Temple of Uggaleph to reset our hate, then we made our way through to the Den of Rancor. The Temple Gaurdian didn't blow us up this time, and the tonberries in the room with the paintings weren't too troublesome. In the Den of Rancor, we first headed to the Rancor Altar to light our Unlit Lanterns with the Flames of Rancor. Then we headed to the lower level and found the lanterns we had to light to open the gate. Kiki thought she could make it past the bats before her sneak wore, but alas was not able to, so our clearing of the room was a bit more chaotic than it needed to be. Kiki can be such a n00b at times.

Since the fight is a 6-person Burning Circle, we did it first with Grymalkyn, then made our way back to the chamber (having escaped to Yhoator Jungle after stumbling upon a Treasure Coffer in the Temple of Uggalepih, which gave Itera his Temple map), and swapped Muirnin in for Grymalkyn and repeated the fight. It was convenient that we didn't have to head to Norg or something to complete the mission first.

Both fights were pretty much the same. We had Elbo sleep the Tonberries, and first fought Grav'iton (THF), then Molyb'iton (BLM), and finally Tungs'iton (SMN). Astral Flow knocked our health down a bit, but we were never really in any danger. It was even fun doing it a second time! The Zilart Mission storyline is pretty interesting, though some of the "missions" sound a bit lame.

Quests: An Undying Pledge

Yesterday Yobun was looking for someone to complete the Undying Pledge quest with him. Kiki had picked this up a long time ago, but had heard the NM Sea Monk you need to fight is quite difficult, so hadn't finished it either. You get the quest in Norg, from Stray Cloud. He tells you about a friend of his who had gone to explore Sea Serpent Grotto and never came back. You then run into his friend when you leave Norg, and he tells you about a Hume who saved him and that he had left the Hume to die. So here it is, months later, and Yobun and Kiki meet up in Sea Serpent Grotto. Yobun was PLD74/RDM37, and Kiki was PLD68/RDM34.

We killed the too weak Sahagins, bats and leeches around the ??? to build up TP for Spirits Within, then cast Blink, Stoneskin, and Phalanx on ourselves, and Yobun popped the NM, Gryryvilu. He was a cute little Sea Monk. :-) We both unloaded our 300%TP Spirits Within and realized that this wasn't going to be as bad a fight as other people had led us to believe.

Which was a good thing, as Yobun got disconnected, leaving Kiki alone with Gryryvilu. Fortunately, when it started spamming Cross Attack, it was hitting for only around 350 (one was even only 70), and Kiki had plenty of time to get some Cure IVs in between hits. Yobun was able to log back in before Kiki killed the NM, and I invited him back into the party. We defeated Gryryvilu, and got a cutscene and key item.

We headed back to Stray Cloud in Norg to give him the key item and tell him what had happened. It seems that so many quests in FFXI have quite sad stories behind them. We were rewarded with a Light Buckler, which has Shield Skill +5 on it, so I'll probably use that when I'm trying for shield skillups. I'd really love to get that capped before I'm level 75.

General: Evening Exploits

I never really feel like I get much stuff done in the game during the week. We do play every evening, but when you know you only have 2 to 3 hours to play, and it takes an hour to do anything that requires sending/retrieving stuff from mules (level other jobs, craft, fish), we don't tend to make any big plans. We've settled into our regular Monday night escort quests in Crawlers Nest. Splinte and Rovont were supposed to start going with us this week, but neither of them were quite ready for it. Anastasia recently hit 75 on her BLM though, and has decided to switch to limit points and wants to get exp scrolls regularly to help with her buffer over 75. Since we had room for another person, she joined us this week. Olavia took the short route, so it was over fairly quickly.

Afterwards, Itera, Elbo, Grym and Kiki decided to head to Ro'Maeve to kill some weapons near the entrance. Itera had never really been in there (being San d'Orian, he's had less reason than the Windurstians), and we figured we could pick up a bit of exp on the weapons. For the first time, we notice that Ro'Maeve has some nice background music, but unfortunately we mostly heard battle music, since we were mostly fighting. The weapons were EPs with a few low DCs thrown in, so we only got 18-22 exp per kill, so it wasn't the best use of our time, but it was different. As has become usual for just messing around, I subbed RDM. I think I'm getting addicted to tanking with Stoneskin up. :-)

Tuesday night, we weren't expecting Elboron to be playing, so we planned on getting Qiara some Cooking Guild Points. The item of the day for her was Rarab Meatballs, which are decent points-wise, and have the benefit of being something she could skill up on. We were surprised she didn't actually have any Hare Meat on hand, so we spent an hour farming it. I took Quincy's level 9 Warrior out to East Ronfaure and killed a bunch of bunnies, getting 5 pieces of Hare Meat, while Grymalkyn took her THF68 from West Sarutabaruta, to West Ronfaure, to La Thiene, to the Dunes, getting a stack of meat in the process. Qiara ended up getting .3 skillups on the 12 synths, so that was good. She now has about 22K GP, about 8K short of what she needs to get Noodle Kneading. I want her to be able to make Carbonara for Kiki, since it sells for about double what we could make it for, and it's my preferred special mission food now.

On Wednesday, Elbo, Grym and Kiki headed to Attohwa Chasm to see what the lizards and flies would be like for us to trio. They were mostly DCs, with a couple EMs thrown in, and we spent about 2 hours killing them. We figured out we could do a Light skillchain with the three of us: Burning Blade -> Flat Blade -> Sharkbite. It was really fun seeing the flies just melt with a 1000 point sharkbite followed by a 1651 Light skillchain. :-) At this rate, I should indeed hit level 69 before our Windurst 9-2 Mission Saturday Night. I think maybe I'll go fight Maat for the first time on Saturday too. Other highlights of the evening: I got nearly 3 full levels on my shield, but I'm still about 20 levels below my cap, and I finally capped my Enhancing Magic. I think that's the first time I've had it capped on my PLD.

General: No Healer Means No Leveling

The Low Level Static spent about an hour searching for a healer on Sunday evening, then gave it up and headed to Castle Oztroja to get another Monk Testimony for Itera. There was one SMN67 seeking, but he refused to main-heal for a PLD party. /sigh I had really wanted to reach Level 69 (was just over 8K to-next-level), since it would give me that much more "confidence" going into the Windurst Mission 9-2 fight next Saturday. I may still pick up enough exp during the week though, so we'll see.

Itera tried a few people who weren't seeking, but no one was interested in an exp party. It's so frustrating when you've got a tank, a bard, and three melee, and there's nothing we can do without someone to main-heal. I noticed the SMN67 who doesn't like PLDs was also a NIN75. I wonder if they've ever actually partied with a Taru PLD. I try to take care of as much of the healing I can, and with about 480 mp and double ballad and juices, I can do quite a bit. There seemed to be a tank shortage last night as well, since I got several tells asking me if I wanted to party. Weirdest thing was getting them when I was already in a party, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

So Itera subbed WHM and Kiki subbed RDM (stoneskin/phalanx FTW!), and we headed to the Castle, and got Itera's testimony a bit quicker than expected. At that point, Yobun asked if we needed anything from the Temple of Uggalepih (Hornet Needle, Unlit Lanterns, Paintbrushes), but since none of us did, we decided to drop down into the High Priest's area and fight the tougher Yagudos there.

It wasn't too bad killing the Yags. Itera and Yobun each called their NPC fellow (one after the other), so we had a bit of extra damage from them. We ended up getting about 2.5k exp just on the Yags, and even got an Aero IV scroll, which we sold for 500k, getting 100k for each of us.

Leveling: The Sub-Job Static (?) in Eastern Altepa Desert (34-37)

Elboron, Grym, and Itera all had had their subjobs for their main jobs at 34, and as we approach 70, it was time to get them leveled. Itera got his to 35 before we managed to get around to this, and Kiki had both BLM and DRK at 34, and decided on DRK, and Rovont's WAR was at 34 and Elbryan's BLM was 35, so on Saturday afternoon, we ended up starting out as:

Itera WAR35/MNK17
Elbryan BLM35/WHM17
Elboron WHM34/BLM17
Grymalkyn NIN34/WAR17
Rovont WAR34/DRG14
Tsakiki DRK34/WAR17

We headed out to East Altepa, and camped just north of the zone to West Altepa. We didn't get off to a great start, with Grym getting killed on the second Dhalmel (so much for her three-hour Navarin), and Rovont was killed soon after Grym's weakness wore, but we settled in pretty well after that. The dhalmels in the east desert have such a broad level range that some are too easy and others will tear you apart, but we were the only party camped there, so at least there was no competition. The Japanese players seem to love this area, while North Americans feel it's too much trouble to get to and head to Garlaige Citadel instead. As long as it's the middle of the night in Japan, it's usually pretty quiet in the desert.

When Elbryan hit 37, he left us, and Itera brought out his NPC Fhig as our sixth, since we probably wouldn't be staying too much longer anyway, and it wasn't worth dragging some stranger out to join our party for a short time. Things actually went pretty well with this set-up. We ended up disbanding soon after Itera hit 37, since I was really hungry and needed supper. The rest of us ended up at 36, and I think we all want these jobs to at least 40 (except Elbryan), so we'll go out again some time in the not-too-distant future.

I enjoyed being a damage dealer for a change, but I still am not really sure what I should be doing as a DRK. My only two absorb spells at this level are charisma and mind, and the first seems totally pointless, though the second is useful to help slow and paralyze stick, so I was doing that. I also shot acid bolts and had a decent hit and process rate for the Defense Down effect, so that was useful. But I don't know when to use Berserk, Last Resort and Souleater to their best effect, I just know you're not supposed to stack them all with a weapon skill or you probably end up dying. We were doing a couple different Fragmentation skillchains on the dhalmels, since they're weak to both wind and thunder, and I would burst aero and then thunder when I got it at level 35. I'd cast Drain when I needed HP, but we fought so few beetles that Aspir wasn't much use. With Grym using Ninjitsu for Blind, and having a BLM for most of the party, I didn't cast much. Perhaps Bio would have been useful, since when Itera pulled hate, he was getting hit really hard.

Missions: Distant Beliefs (CoP 2-3)

On Friday night, Kiki and Grymalkyn led a group of ClanBEB members through CoP 2-3, Distant Beliefs, pretty much exactly one year after Kiki's first time doing the mission (March 4, 2005). And we still haven't done 2-5. This was probably my 4th time doing this mission. I think it gets easier every time.

This mission takes place in the Phomiuna Aqueducts, and is capped at level 40. We had 4 people who needed the mission (Ryken, Splinte, Rovont, and Elbryan) and 5 people as helpers (Grym, Kiki, Erock, Itera, and Eternalyx). Our setup:

Ryken PLD40/WAR20
Splinte NIN37/WAR18
Rovont PLD40/WAR20
Elbryan WHM40/BLM20
Grymalkyn BST40/WHM20
Itera MNK40/WAR20
Erock WAR40/THF20
Eternalyx WHM40/BLM20
Tsakiki BST40/RDM20

It was handy having widescan to see where the Taurii and Stegataurii were hanging out, and we were able to mostly avoid them, though we had to kill the ones in the tunnels. Eternal also took an inopportune moment for an unannounced AFK, and got left behind when we ran behind one of the Stegs when its back was turned. She ended up getting aggro'd and killed by it (in two hits it seemed, perhaps three - squishy mages).

Ryken, Splinte and Rovont had never encountered any of the Taurus-types before, so we warned them about Mortal Ray, and the pain of Doom, and they did a great job tanking backwards when they had hate (Mortal Ray is a gaze attack, so if you're facing away from the mob, it won't affect you).

The Minotaur itself didn't present too much trouble, and after killing it, we headed for the library to get the cutscenes for the mission-goers. Grym had had a Bronze Key in her mog safe, so we didn't have to kill any Fomors to get a key to get through the Iron Gate on the way to the library. By the time we had finished up the mission, some people had to go, and we didn't really have enough people to do any subligar hunting, so we'll have to organize that as a future LS event, since there are more people wanting their level 50 JSE from Brygid's quest in Bastok.

Now that Splinte is ready for CoP 2-5 (the Mammets), I think I've got a full team ready, and maybe we can finally get this done. My plans are for 2xBST, WAR, MNK, BRD, WHM, with the 2 BSTs kiting. Hopefully it will go smoothly, but I've heard so many horror stories about this mission that I've got a bit of anxiety.

Quests: Even More Gullible's Travels

Kiki was in Kazham this weekend, and dropped in to see Magriffon at the bed and breakfast there. He once again spent all his money helping others in need (this time a maiden in distress), and needed some help to keep from getting kicked out of his lodgings before his "top-secret" mission has been completed. Kiki's a bit suspicious of him, since she's given him quite a lot of money in the past, but he's such a charming young Elvaan that he's difficult to resist. So Kiki forked over 20,000 gil, and Magriffon gave her a treasure map in return.

Kiki took the map and headed into Yuhtunga Jungle and found the 3 locations marked on the map, but instead of treasure, she only found giant Blue Rafflesia flowers. She got three jars of Rafflesia Nectar from these, and got covered with pollen in the process. The third one made her quite dizzy as well.

She headed back to town, and Magriffon had already forgotten about the treasure map, but told her she could sell the nectar to a shop. All of the Mithra in town seemed quite repulsed by her scent from the pollen, but the Opo-Opo seemed to adore her now. A nice Mithra Beastmaster, Vuih Stecoppah, explained that the Opo-Opo thought Kiki smelled like the jungle, and Kiki should be able to give them presents and they would reward her. Vuih also said that Kiki had to be careful to observe the strict heirarchy of the Opo-Opo tribe, and make sure to give the presents in the proper order. The first Opo-Opo wants a Broken Mithran Rod, so Kiki will have to return to Kazham later, after she's able to break one.

New title: Even More Gullible's Travels