Notorious Monsters: No Swift Belt for J00!

Elbryan organized a Swift Belt run for his gods LS, and invited Lucrezia and I to join in on the fun, since we both "need" a Swift Belt. He planned to have us start out in the level 40-capped Phomiuna Aqueducts to farm the Fomor Codices that would be needed to spawn the NMs, then switch over to the level 50-capped Sacrarium for building Fomor hate and spawning the NMs. He didn't think farming would take too long, but it ended up taking about 3 hours to get the six that were needed.

I got dressed up as BST/RDM and headed to the Aqueducts. Elbryan (RDM/WHM) and Littlejohn (THF/NIN) were already there, and we started in killing the lower level Tauri that are in the first room. The team filled up with Kaela WHM/BLM, Yobun DRG/WAR, Lucrezia BST/NIN, Ranzz BRD/WHM, Easykill NIN/WAR, Amyalfrodo PLD/WAR, and finally Davos BLU/THF. As we got more people, Lucrezia started pulling the higher level Stegotaurs from the next room further up. After everyone was there, we split into two groups, with Luc and I duoing the easy ones, while the "real" party moved up to the next area and took on the higher level ones.

There were plenty of Mortal Ray deaths all around, but in the BSTs' case, it was always our pets rather than us. After we got all the Fomor Codices we needed, we headed back to the Safehold and switched to other jobs for the level 50 capped Sacrarium. Littlejohn and Kaela both switched to NIN, Easykill switched to MNK, Yobun to WHM, and Lucrezia to THF. Jugernaut (RDM) and Rassitier (MNK) also joined us to help out.

Swift Belts drop off of spawned NM Fomor in the classrooms in Sacrarium. There is one of each race, and only a member of that race can spawn that particular NM, and they must have a very high level of Fomor Hate in order to do so. The different NMs have different jobs, which make some more difficult to fight than others, so our plan was to fight the Hume (RNG/MNK) and the Mithra (RDM/NIN), but we decided to try the Galka too (BRD/PLD). The Tarutaru and Elvaan are considered much too dangerous. Since we had to have an order for who would get a swift belt from which run, we decided to /random before each run, and the winner would be the one to use "their" codex, and get the swift belt if it dropped.

The first thing we had to do was get people enough Fomor Hate, so we started in killing all the Fomor around the Mithra's room. It took a longer time that we'd expected before we could actually spawn the first NM, but we got a bunch of subligars (I think every DRK Fomor but one dropped a subligar), and a couple chest keys as well, not to mention all the exp. The fights generally went pretty well, but the DRKs seem to like to use Grim Halo twice in a row, usually killing a bunch of us in the process. Amyalfrodo was given priority for the first spawn, since she had to go to work. Kaela spawned the Mithra NM, Caithleann, by trading a Fomor Codex to the Stale Draft spot in the room. We killed the NM, and sure enough, there was a Swift Belt for Amy.

We headed through the maze to the Hume room (since the Mithra room needed 15 minutes for the Stale Draft to return), cleared the area, and either Elbryan or Ranzz spawed Balor, the Hume NM. This one was for Easykill, and again, a Swift Belt dropped. We were pretty excited at that point, since we were 2/2, but ended up hours and hours later with only 4 Swift Belts out of 10 spawns. Yobun and Elbryan got the other two.

Since hate is reset when you trade the Codex to the Stale Draft, we decided to include the Galka, Indich, as well, since Yobun and Littlejohn could both spawn that. So we spent the day moving between the Mithra, Hume, and Galka rooms, clearing the Fomor, building hate, and spawning the NMs and getting or not getting swift belts in the process. We finished up at 8PM, 10 hours after I arrived in the Aqueducts for farming. At this point, we had dwindled down to just 8 of us, the helpers and the first two to get their swift belts having left us. What a long long day it was! There were plenty of deaths throughout the day, but I ended up with several thousand exp on my BST that I hadn't had when we started out in the morning.

Lucrezia and Elbryan have concocted a plan to try again as a foursome with Ranzz and me, since Lucrezia and I still want our swift belts. It should be a lot of fun trying at least. I think we're going to try it as RDM, RDM, THF, and BRD, but we'll see. I headed into the Aquaducts last night as BST/RDM to farm a Fomor Codex for myself, and I got one on the second Taurus, which was really nice. It was also good I did, since another BST showed up just then with the same idea in mind. The three Tauri aren't enough for two BSTs wanting the same thing.

Dynamis: Xarcabard

TheUltimates gathered together at the Trail Markings on Wednesday night, hoping to defeat the Dynamis Lord. TU has been through a lot of changes over the past year, and though they had defeated DL in the past, this was the first time in many months that the group was strong enough to attempt it again, thanks to the influx of a lot of new players. This zone is much more difficult than the four cities and Beaucedine, and we all came prepared with items specifically for the final showdown with the Dynamis Lord: opo-opo necklaces, sleeping potions, icarus wings. And everyone had posion potions and reraise items. Since I'd be using Spirits Within, I also brough all my +HP gear and some Carbonara, to make sure I got the most out of my weaponskill. The run was free for us, thanks to the linkshell treasury and a gift from an anonymous benefactor. Some people had been grumbling about the cost of the required items, but having a free run balanced that out.

Venn and Goldfish went over the general strategy for the zone (and promoted Firenze and Meshe to Sackholders), and we all headed in (there were 41 of us). Easykill was main tank, and I was backup. Leroi and Mayze were the only other PLDs, and Rheanos, Eulucia and Aphex were the NIN team. Goto formed the tank party again, since he really likes being the WHM for the tank party, and that's a sure way to be in it. Firenze also likes that role, but she didn't push the issue. Maybe they can alternate, and have one take Wednesdays and the other take Saturdays.

Dynamis-Xarcabard has mostly eyes and demons. The eyes are dangerous, so we'd fight them first. The demons have very uninspired names, but it certainly helps to figure out which to fight. Can't be any more clear than "Kindred Summoner". There are several platforms in Xarcabard with eyes that spawn trios of Demon NMs. For these, Goldfish or Lucrezia would sacrifice pull the eyes away, while Easykill, Rheanos and I would each grab one of the demon NMs. These can't be slept, so Rheanos and I would kite ours while the group killed Easykill's first. Goldfish and Lucrezia had to die so many times on the run. They really should have been the only ones to get the experience point scrolls, but after others started dying, and then we had a full wipe, people started lotting on those themselves. Our wipe came on our first pull after all of the NM demons were dead. We just got more demons and eyes than we could manage.

The AF2 was dropping very nicely for us last night (tail end of the new moon?), and we got RDM, WHM, DRK, and DRG. What should have been an exciting run was soured by some petty drama over who was winning the lots on the AF2. Frostwitch won the Duelist's Chapeau, and then Goto won the Cleric's Mitts, and they're both new-ish members. But rules are rules, and they met the criteria for lotting. People should be happy for them and not bitter that they didn't win. If we're going to be a family, we can't have some people eating peanut butter sandwiches at the kids' table while the grownups feast on steak. If people feel like they belong to the group, they're more likely to be there long-term to help everyone get the items they want.

Theodoric now has complete DRK relic, and Kojita won the Wyvern Helm over Venn. Venn was being a bit emo over his squabbling children, and didn't even want to lot, but people nagged him enough so he did, albeit poorly.

As we made our way towards Castle Zvahl, we started fighting the dragons that were lining the zig-zag path up to the entrance. The final two are the Dynamis Lord's "pets", Ying and Yang. We had to kill these at the same time, otherwise the one that was still alive would respawn the dead one. So we first fought one down to about 10%, then the other to 10%, and then the BLMs nuked the two at the same time.

Next up was the Dynamis Lord himself. The melee all slept for TP, Goldfish pulled the Dynamis Lord, and we all started in fighting him, unleashing our strongest weaponskills. The PLDs set up an invincible order, but I can't say we really held hate all that well. The RDM/DRKs were using Chainspell-Stun, the BLMs were nuking, and we got him down to about 50% when he did something that killed a lot of people. Meanwhile, Ying and Yang showed up again, and Easykill took them away from the main group. DL then warped over to the mages, with nearly everyone dead but the PLDs (I wouldn't have survived the 1300-point hit without all my extra HP), but then it was all over with no hope of beating him.

It was a lot of fun though, and we will do better next time. One thing I need to do is swap back in all of my +enmity gear as soon as I've used spirits within, and maybe I'll have a chance of holding hate. I don't think I even got him to turn with invincible, though I'd been using every JA I had at my disposal.

My exp buffer has taken a beating this week. Maybe I can get a party on Saturday and cap it again, and get working on some merits as well. I had one merit point that I used for my first shield upgrade, so I'm sitting at 300 Shield Skill now in my normal tanking gear (AF+1 leggings, Buckler Earring, Shield Torque give me +22 shield skill). I think it's time to add Chivalry to my toolkit, and I'll need 3 merit points to open that.

Limbus: NE Apollyon

We headed to NE Apollyon on Sunday, going for the win, since we needed the chip from there for our eventual fight with Proto Omega. We had 11 people for the run: Venn, Kojita, Ezekiel, Lucrezia, Itera, Ranzz, Meshe, Alfrodo, Neborin, Thom, Kiki. This zone has regular mobs and multiple "boss" mobs on each floor, one of which will open the vortex to the next level, and one will drop the item chest. If you're lucky, you don't need to kill all three, nor do you need to kill all of the lesser mobs on each level. So we skipped quite a few mobs on our way to try to save time.

The first level has mandragoras and a Goobbue boss, and it went a lot better then it had on a previous run. The second floor has vultures and giant birds, and the item chest on that floor had the elusive Blue Rivet needed for upgrading DRG AF. Venn and Kojita were please to finally see it, and Venn won the lot. Then, as we were about to move to the next floor, Ezekiel suggested we drop the alliance to have one party move up to the next level, and fewer mobs would spawn as a result. Just as Kojita was typing "Don't drop the alliance until the treasure has dropped", Venn broke the alliance, losing the coins and the Blue Rivet in the treasure pool. :-( Hopefully we'll find another one again soon.

The Pots and the Dolls on the third floor weren't too challenging, but the fourth floor, with its Opo-opos and Gigas NMs was really tough, mostly because we had two of the Gigas at once. The trio of Gigas NMs each has a different immunity. One's immune to ranged attacks, one to melee attacks, and the third is immune to magic attacks. We died a lot here, but finally got up to the final floor, where we had about 10 minutes to kill 8 Dhalmels to spawn the final chest. It was a really close race against time, but Lucrezia and Ranzz ran off to the chest spawn spot while we were killing the final dhalmel, and they were able to get it open in time. We ended up with a total of 41 coins for the run, but we got the win, and another chip needed for Omega.

Missions: Venn's Dirty Work (CoP 2-5)

In an effort to get more members of TheUltimates access to the CoP Dynamis zones (past the Diabolos fight, CoP 3-5), Allia created a new linkshell, VennsDirtyWork, and has been organizing mission runs for the members who need them. Mission 2-5, Ancient Vows, was scheduled for Sunday. I've offered to help out with missions where I'm needed, if I'm available, and Allia asked me to be a kiter for one of the two teams. I spent most of Sunday morning shuffling gear around so I could get dressed as a BST40/NIN20, and got about 15 Hi-Potions from one of my Hi-Potion Tanks from Assault. Since we were supposed to meet at 5PM, I ran out to Cape Riverne and logged out there, not sure when I'd get home from running errands.

We didn't get going until close to 6PM (all the helpers were on-time, it's funny that one or two of the people actually needing the mission were the ones dragging their feet), and had an alliance of 15 making the journey through Riverne Site A01. Three people seemed to be coming along just for moral support (Kojita, a WHM/SMN who's name I can't remember, but started with an E and was 5 letters, and Tepe, a RDM/WHM). The rest of us were split up into the two teams for the mission, with 4 people who needed the mission on each team. Easykill was supposed to be the other kiter on my team, but he got mad for some reason and left just as we reached Monarch Linn. Seemed to have something to do with a lot of hippogryph aggro that we were trying to sleep and run away from, but I'm not really sure what happened to make him so mad. So Vaevictis got to pull double duty as kiter on the first team and tank for the second team.

Vaevictis NIN/WAR - kiter
Tsakiki BST/NIN - kiter
Mayze NIN/WAR - tank
Saron BLU/NIN
Divinities RNG/NIN
Reefermadness WHM/BLM

Jarbit PLD/WAR - super tank
Habanero BRD/WHM - super tank support
Vaevictus NIN/WAR - tank
Anrita WHM/SMN
Fliggity WAR/NIN
Allia BLM/WHM

Allia had done a great job on organizing things and making sure everyone came prepared with reraise items, prism powders, and a yellow liquid each. We handed those over to the tanks, talked over our strategies, and the first team headed in for its "dry run".

I called a Crab Familiar, ate my food, used my reraise earring, and ran to the end of the tunnel with Vae while we waited for the others to watch their cutscene. Mayze provoked the middle mammet and dragged it back to the entrance, while I sicced my pet on the right one and Vae provoke the left one. Things went really well with the kiting, though I did get hit with -ga spells a couple times, and it took a few hits for my second crab to get the mammet's attention, but the fighting team took down the first mammet pretty quickly. Since Vae was in better shape than me, I took my mammet over to the group. Mayze ended up getting killed on the second mammet. He reraised, but got hit with a -ga spell pretty quickly and was dead again. However, the mammet was quite low health, so we got it killed and turned our attention to the final mammet, with Vae tanking it. When my second crab died, I called a Tiger Familiar to help beat down the mammet, heeling it when the mammet used Transmogrify. The battle was soon over, and the four people needing the mission ended up in South Gustaberg after their cutscene. Vae and I headed back to the Monarch Linn entrance and the second team got ready for their fight.

They were also planning to do a "dry run" first. This team was using the PLD "super tank" strategy: the PLD body-aggros all of the mammets, and has a support person to help keep them alive (they won't pull hate as long as the PLD hasn't actually done anything to the mammets). The fighting party takes one mammet at a time to kill. Once the first mammet is dead, it's pretty much a sure win, barring some bad luck with the mammet abilities. They also won on their dry run, with no deaths.

Dynamis: Bastok and Beaucedine

On Wednesday last week, TheUltimates headed to Bastok for a flag/farming run. It was the first run for both Itera and Lumikumi, and it was nice to have them back in the same Dynamis group with me, though I do feel bad for Snakes having lost them. We had a really good run, with nearly unbelievable drops: 4 100s, and 10 or 11 pieces of AF2. Mayze finally got his Gallant Coronet, and Corbun got his RDM gloves, as a sub-lotting level 69. I was the main tank for this run, and I died way more than I should have. We didn't have a refresher in the tank party until we were ready to pull the mega boss I think, and that made it hard for people to help keep little Kiki alive. Some of the monk mobs are no problem, with Phalanx II and Sentinel and lots and lots of shield blocks, but when you get more than one in a row, it makes it a bit tougher to survive without several people helping out with the cures. I felt like a yo-yo at times. I'd get killed, I'd rest until unweakened, jump back into the fray and get killed again on the first mob. /sigh

All of our sac pulls were extremely clean, and we had tons of time to farm after the Mega Boss. We mopped up the slums and the Gustaberg zone, fighting up until our hourglasses expired.

On Saturday, we headed back to Beaucedine again. Since we're planning on facing the Dynamis Lord in Xarcabard tomorrow night, and our two Bards (Ranzz and Habanero) needed the flag from Beaucedine, we did another flag run. Mayze was the main tank, with Leroi on backup. I'm getting more used to crowd control, but it ended up getting me killed a couple times when I had to keep an NM's attention while the group fought something else. They seem to resist sleep more than the regular mobs.

Our only relic for the evening was Valor Breeches. Easykill won the lot, and is now 5/5 on his Valor set (not counting the cape). I'm not sure if he's going to switch his main lot to MNK, or if he'll leave it on PLD for the cape, but at least he has the opportunity now to switch. TheUltimates requires you to get five of the pre-CoP AF2 pieces on your main lot before being allowed to switch.

We wiped on the Orc NM canyon, and since that cut into our time, we didn't finish the Orcs off and instead made our way up to Fei'Yin for the Boss fight. We had a lot of people getting hit with Death during the fight, but it went well, and we have two more members ready for Xarcabard!

Real-Life: Save the FFXIclopedia!

I'm a huge fan of the FFXIclopedia wiki, so much so that a couple people in ClanBEB call me Tsawiki at times. I haven't been actively editing pages much lately, but it's the first source I turn to for information about FFXI. It's grown into an overwhelmingly popular FFXI resource, and deservedly so. The more people that use it and add to it, the better it gets. The increased usage has led to the need for more, better hardware, and increased bandwidth capacity. In order to be able to afford the upgrades, the people who run the site are requesting donations. No amount is too small!

If you have some dollars to spare, please consider making a donation to help keep the wiki growing. Please see FFXIclopedia Site Support for more information on the fundraiser.

Limbus: Two More Wins (Apollyon NW and Temenos W)

Last Sunday, Itera joined TheNewUltimates. Hurray! He had been easing back from the game, and was planning to mostly retire, partly because we were no longer really doing anything together since I left Snakes. I didn't want to be the one to feed his addiction and drag him back into the game, but I have been blabbering incessantly to him about how fun Limbus is and how much I really thought he would like it. Friday night, I was complaining to Thoron about everyone quitting, and apparently he talked to Itera Saturday morning and talked him into applying to TheUltimates for Dynamis and TheNewUltimates for Limbus. So Mrs. Itera, it's all Thoron's fault, not mine. :-)

We had two full parties, and decided to head back to Apollyon NW and see if we couldn't show Kaiser Behemoth that we weren't such pushovers after all. We had Venn, Kojita, Itera, Lucrezia, Ezekiel, Thunderbolt (RDM), Sarntur, Meshe, Alfrodo, Ranzz, Ardan (SMN), and Tsakiki. It was a really fun run, and we were tearing through the mobs so fast that we decided to kill the turtle and the wyrm while we were at it. The only death before we hit the final boss was Sarntur, when the Wyrm had Terrorized me and the BLM looked too tasty to pass up.

The fight with Kaiser Behemoth went much much better this time, with more mage damage in the group to whittle away his HP. I had a better time kiting, and managed to avoid Meteor every time he used it, but I did end up getting killed once when I was too close to him and got smacked too hard a few times. Ezekiel and Venn also got killed at one point, but we managed hate well enough to keep the mages all alive. We ended up winning with 13 minutes to spare. We got 55 coins on this run, and I got another White Rivet. I may end up upgrading my Gallant Surcoat before I get my Boxer's Mantle, but since I still need another Snowy Cermet, it might be a moot point.

I think Apollyon NW might be my favorite Limbus zone so far. The mobs are tough enough that I can hold hate pretty well, the bosses on each floor are exciting fights, and having a restore chest on each level makes it easy to go all out on each of the bosses, without worrying about saving job abilities and two hours. We also usually get clean pulls too, so links are the exception rather than the rule. Plus it's just so nice to see all the coins spill into the treasure box when we kill the three "baby" Behemoths on the final floor.

Thursday night, we started out with 11 of us: Venn, Kojita, Itera, Lucrezia, Ezekiel, Thunderbolt (RDM), Sarntur, Neborin, Thom (SMN), Tsakiki and Meshe. However, we were in a rush to get into Temenos West ahead of another group, and Ezekiel pulled the first mob, not realizing Meshe wasn't yet in the zone (he'd gotten slightly lost on the way to Temenos). So we had to make the run with no WHM. I was worried that would hamper our ability to win, but it didn't. It was a lot harder than it would have been with Meshe there, but we managed. Ezekiel ended up dying at least 5 times though. I just can't hold hate off of him for long in that particular zone, partly because I usually have links to handle, but mostly because he just does so much damage. I think I died twice myself. I need to get my exp scrolls for this week.

We ended up skipping some of the slimes, I think one lizard, and two of the pugils, since we were worried we'd run out of time on the birds on the final floor. I think we got item chests on every floor, but a restore chest on the fifth or sixth floor would have been handy. The slimes especially really depleted our resources. However, we managed pretty well, and ended up with 51 coins for the run. I believe the Temenos W chip was the last we needed for a fight with Proto Ultima, but we still need one more chip from Apollyon NE, I think it is, for Proto Omega.

It's nice that we're getting consistent attendance now and have a good balance of melees and mages. We should be able to start routinely winning the zones and gathering the chips we need for the O/U fights. Hopefully we'll be able to do well with those and start getting fancy rare/ex armor pieces for people.

Missions: Shield of Diplomacy (ToAU 22)

When the last big update came out last October, Grymalkyn and I spent the first evening post-update running around in Whitegate and environs, getting all of the cutscenes for the new missions that they added. We quickly got up to Mission 22, Shield of Diplomacy, which involves a BC fight with Khimaira 13, in the Navukgo Execution Chamber. We decided we would try to do that one with our usual crew, but since our usual crew doesn't seem to play much any more (and when they did, it was just for CoP or Ninja Blues), I started thinking I'd need to find other people to do it with. Last week SquareEnix announced the next update in early March would be adding new missions, and on Saturday, my husband told me that Grymalkyn would no longer be doing anything in-game other than liquidating assets.

So after Dynamis on Saturday, when someone said they wanted to do mission 22, I raised my hand and said I wanted to go as well. We ended up with a team of 2 PLD/WARs and 3 WHM/SMNs (Mayze, Tsakiki, Meshe, Sarntur, Fliggity), since Karababa does so much damage on her own, and we just needed to keep her alive. We used the Runic Portal to get to the Halvung Staging Point in Mount Zhayolm, and made our way to the Navukgo Execution Chamber. It's a long and scary walk, and three of us ended up getting aggro from the giant mothra monsters (Wamoura), which are true-hearing and not fooled by Sneak or Silent Oils.

From what we'd read about the fight, it seemed a sacrifice had to be made. Mayze volunteered to get aggro and die, so that Karababa would start fighting and we'd just keep her alive. However, it quickly became apparent that Mayze and I could actually tank Khimaira 13. It was a long fight, but no one died, and it was a lot of fun too. Mayze did most of the tanking, but I tried to keep my hate level high and pulled Khimaira off of him when his HP dropped too low. We all blew through pretty much our full MP during the fight (I used a couple of melon juices, and the WHMs were using Devotion on one another), but it wasn't as bad as some people had made out.

On Sunday morning, I completed the cutscenes up through Mission 25, and now have to wait until the next update for new missions.

New Title: Karababa's Secret Agent

Fishing: Artisan and Apron

I've been fishing haphazardly over the weeks, striving to get to level 68, so I could pass the Guild Test to become an Artisan, and finally be able to use the 100K guild points I foolishly stockpiled for my Fisherman's Apron over a year ago. I had no idea it would take me so very long to get from level 48 (when I got my Waders from the guild) to level 68.

One thing that helped a lot was the discovery that I can target a level 75 fish in Al Zahbi - Kayabaligi. It seems to be identical to the Tavnazian Gobies that I'd been using for skillups, and is the only thing that bites on a minnow in Al Zahbi. The only difference is that I don't get any items in Lufaise Meadows, and I don't get any monsters in Al Zahbi, so the catch rate ends up being about the same. With fishing skillups being so random, I became convinced that the Kayabaligi capped at level 67, since I fished up 6 stacks without a skillup at all, but it's at least over 68, since I'm now at 68.3. The last bit was .5 skillups on 10 fish. Go figure.

I have typically been fishing either in Al Zahbi while waiting for Besieged, or before Dynamis and Limbus runs, though I've also made a few trips out to Lufaise Meadows, since it's so easy to get there with my Tavnazian Ring, and warp back to Al Zahbi if I need to get back quickly.

Saturday night after Dynamis, I was waiting for a group of people to do Mission 22 in the Treasures of Aht Urhgan storyline, and got the final .2 skillup that I need to hit 68. Hurray! I still had to wait a bit, so I kept fishing, and got another .3. On Sunday morning, I grabbed the Bladefish I'd caught earlier in the week, and headed to the fishing guild in Port Windurst. I passed my test, and am now an Artisan in the fishing guild. I talked to the guild representative and used 100,000 GP to get my Fisherman's Apron. Supposedly this reduces the number of items you catch, but it doesn't get rid of them completely.

There was a recent update where they had to change fishing a bit again because of the horrible infestation of fishbots, mostly in Battalia Downs, that seemed to be focusing on getting rusty picks which they would then have repaired into War Picks and NPC for a decent profit when you consider they had dozens of characters doing this. I'm convinced these changes also affected some of the fish. One night last week I took two stacks of meatballs to the cliffs in Sauromugue Champaign, hoping for skillups off of Silver Sharks (since I had such a skillup-less streak on my usual fishies). I had the hardest time catching them, and I never had that much trouble with them on the Ferry, and my skill is higher than it was the last time I did that. I talked with Zune about it (he's in the mid-60s himself), and he agreed that some fish became a lot harder last week.

New title: Coastline Caster

Dynamis: Windurst and Beaucedine

Last Wednesday, we headed back to Dynamis-Windurst. We had been scheduled to take Dynamis-Jeuno, but since we had just done that on Saturday, we took the only free city zone. It was a really good run, and an easy win. We had about 38 people there for most of the run, and brought down the Mega Boss even quicker than we had on my previous run there with TheUltimates. The most exciting moment for me was when Valor Leggings dropped and I was the only main-lotting PLD who didn't already have them, so they were mine! They enhance the effects of Sentinel, so I'll macro them in for that and use them for kiting, but my AF+1 are better for normal tanking with their +12 Sheild Skill.

We got quite a bit of AF2 on the run: 2xPLD, 2xWAR, BLM, DRK, and SAM. The linkshell also got a Jadeshell, which gets added to the treasury. Jarbit was main tank for the run, with Meshe as back up. I had a better time with crowd control than I've had previously, but poor Allia, the RDM for the tank party, kept getting killed by mobs neither Leroi nor I had voked or flashed.

On Saturday night, we did a flag run for Dyanamis - Beaucedine Glacier. We started a bit late because there was another LS finishing up when we were ready to go, but that won't affect our start time next Wednesday. Jarbit was main tank, and I was backup tank for the evening. Backup tank in Dynamis is a role I can really sink my teeth into, as I'll fight alongside the main tank (so I'm ready to take over should he get killed), but there's none of the "OMG did I pick the right mob?" stress I get when I main tank, and it feels more "defined" than being part of the crowd control crew. I'll still Flash and Provoke incoming and slept mobs to help keep them off the sleeper crew, but I do my best to make sure the main tank stays alive. Jarbit died once before the mega boss, on one of the Monk-type NMs, but he was back up quickly to resume his duties. Goto's made up his mind and is now officially in TheUltimates, and somehow we managed to get him as the WHM for the tank party.

The run went very smoothly. We had 36 people in the zone, and though there were a handful of deaths here and there (and of course our THFs Goldfish and Lucrezia sacrificed themselves for the greater good all too often), it was a really painless run. The final boss for the flag in Beaucedine is interesting. It's a giant eye, located near the entrance to Fei'Yin. It spawns 4 dragons that are tied to it for hate. The strategy for this final fight is to have the THF puller aggro the eye, getting hate from him and the 4 dragons. The PLD tank grabs the eye off the train as the THF goes zooming past. The THF keeps running, all the way to the Ranguemont Pass zone. Meanwhile, the rest of the team is not allowed to do any damage to the eye whatsoever, as it would cause the dragons to suddenly come running back to help the eye. When the THF gets them to the zone, the signal is given to go all out and kill the eye.

For the four or five minutes it takes for the THF to get to the zone, we would provoke, flash and stun the eye to keep him occupied, and build up a good hate threshold as well. The eye has a bunch of annoying AOEs, like sleepga, silencega, and dispelga, but nothing too deadly in that phase of the fight. Once we actually started fighting the eye, it would occasionally warp around the "arena", but SMNs had their avatars on it, and DRGs their wyverns. The pets would head towards the eye when it warped, so it was easy for us to quickly find it and keep fighting it. The urgency here is to get it dead before the dragons get back from the zone, and once you get the flag from the ??? spot, you drop your hourglass and get the hell out of Dodge to avoid a nasty death from the dragons. Both Jarbit and Mayze ended up getting hit with Death, but they reraised quickly when we defeated the eye and were able to get the flag.

Zune needed the flag, but he managed to fall asleep before we fought the eye (or while we were fighting it). It was close, but he managed to wake up and get the flag before a gruesome death. Most of us had already dropped our hourglasses before we realized Zune was asleep, but a few people stayed in and made sure he got his flag. There were also a few people who wanted to play with the dragons, so they stayed behind as well. I suppose it would be fun to see them some day!

Because of the way the boss fight is, you can't really farm after the mega boss is down, unless there is someone waiting at the trail marking to hand out new hourglasses to people when they drop their hourglasses to get out. I wonder if the drops are better after the mega boss fight, since they're so horrible beforehand. At least we got one item this time - Koga Chainmail that made one Ninja happy.

New Title: Dynamis-Beaucedine Interloper

Limbus: Temenos West

TheNewUltimates decided on trying Temenos West again on Thursday, hoping for the win. We had 9 people: Venn (DRG), Lucrezia (THF), Ranzz (BRD), Kojita (DRG), Sarntur (BLM), Neborin (BLM), Thunderbolt (RDM), Meshe (WHM), and Tsakiki (PLD). We got a slightly late start because Ranzz and Sarntur both disconnected a couple of times, so we won't be able to pick up our Cosmo-Cleanse on Sunday until 9:15. Since Limbus is pretty short, that's not so bad.

Temenos West has "enhanced" beast on each of 7 floors, with no bosses. The chest drops are random - you could get one each of Time, Restore, and Items, but you might only get 2. The mobs on the floors are tigers, mandragoras, beetles, slimes, lizards, pugils, and birds. We skipped one of the mandragoras and two of the lizards, but cleared out the others on the first six floors. We got a bit unlucky on the Time chests and hit the top floor with about 5 minutes left to kill 6 birds, and we didn't quite manage it. I think we got 3 of the 6 birds dead, and we would have lost Ranzz if we didn't time-out when we did. However, it was a good run, and we got a total of 52 coins, which meant most of us got 6. If we keep that up, I'll have my Boxer's Mantle sooner than I thought!

I think the slime level slowed us down a bit, since they take awhile to kill. I also had a hard time holding hate off of the BLMs with the slimes. Sarntur and Neborin both died on the run, and we had several close calls with them as well. I find it so hard to use cover in Limbus, since we try to keep the fight away from the mages, so when they pull hate, I have to go running after the mob, trying to get its attention and then try to get between it and the squishy mage to use cover. There were also a few spots during the run when we had one or two links. I always have a tougher time with hate when I've got to spread my hate tools over two or three mobs. If I can go all out on one mob, with the help of Lucrezia's TA+WSs, the BLMs can hit the mobs for 1700+ damage without it blinking at them. That's not the case if I have to provoke one, flash another, shield bash a third. But it sure is fun trying. :-)

Leveling: Last Gasp for the Ninja Blues? (Yhoator Jungle 37->38)

I realized that I never wrote up an entry for what was probably the last outing for the Ninja Blues, what with everyone but Kiki playing less and less every week (and Kiki having Dynamis and Limbus scheduled for 4 evenings of the week). Ryrra joined us again as WAR/MNK, and I decided that we should go to the Yhoator Jungle camp the Elboron, Itera, Grym, and I had had such a great time at when we had our sub job static there early last year.

We arrived on chocobo at the camp, and I was dismayed to find an IT++ goblin roaming in our camp. There was never a goblin there when we had leveled there before. They can be as high as level 48 there, so we decided we'd kill the goblin and work on the crawlers. It wasn't a pretty fight, but we won, and started in on the crawlers. We had to kill the new goblins as they spawned, which was usually a tough fight, but things went relatively well for awhile. Then we had some bad patches - like having three of us get killed by an Anemone that was accidentally aggro'd (passing people raised us), and Itera getting one-shotted by some massive attack from an Opo-opo. He home-pointed and came back I think, but I can't really remember. We stuck it out until we all hit 38, and headed home for the night.

I just don't see us getting to 40 like I had hoped, and even that would be pointless, since I partly wanted 40 so we could try a bunch of BCNMs with 3 BLUs, and if Grym and Elboron aren't playing, there's just 1 BLU. :-(

Limbus: Apollyon NW and SW

With Thunderbolt now available on Thursday Nights, TheNewUltimates started in on a twice-a-week schedule. Last Thursday we decided to return to Apollyon NW, which we had attempted on my first night with the linkshell. We had 9 people, Venn (DRG), Kojita (DRG), Lucrezia (THF), Ranzz (BRD), Thunderbolt (RDM), Meshe (WHM), Ardan (SMN), Neborin (BLM), and Tsakiki (PLD). The run went pretty well. On the first floor, we fought all of the ghosts and then the Doomed boss. On the second floor, it was buffalo with a Ram boss. The third floor has buggards, but we skipped the Turtle boss, since it took us so long to kill the previous time. The fourth floor has wyverns with a Wyrm boss, and we skipped him as well to get up to the three behemoths that drop 5-7 coins each. We mopped them up, and still had plenty of time to try to kill the final boss, Kaiser Behemoth, but we just couldn't do it. He pretty much has to be kited, and we were a bit low on ranged/magic users, and I don't have a lot of experience with kiting. He got me with Meteor a couple of times.

But it was a lot of fun, and it was nice to have no deaths until Kaiser Behemoth kept killing us over and over. We got the AF+1 items for SAM and NIN, and a total of 42 coins for the run.

On Sunday, we had to start a bit late, since we can't get Cosmo-Cleanse from Sagheera until 72 hours after we've last entered Limbus. We'll have to try to get going quicker on Thursdays so our Sunday runs don't run too late. At least Limbus is pretty quick, so I wasn't up to an ungodly hour playing my silly game.

We decided to try Apollyon SW, with a crew of 10: Venn (DRG), Lucrezia (THF), Ranzz (BRD), Meshe (WHM), Thunderbolt (WAR), Ezekiel (SAM), Thar (RDM), Sarntur (BLM), Neborin (BLM), and Tsakiki (PLD). Thunderbolt has so many jobs at 75 that he gets told which is best once we've decided where to go. For this area, there are four floors. You're only allowed to open one chest on the first two floors, so you have to decide whether you need the time chests or the item chests. It's best to not use the restore chests on these floors, just because it's a bit of a waste.

The first floor has 10 Fomor, and they are clumped in groups, so we rarely had one at a time. They were pretty soft though, and went down quickly. We took the time chest on this floor. The second floor has Treants, which spawn another monster when you kill them - sapling, bee, beetle, bird, etc. I ended up getting killed by the sapling spawn, since it had put us all to sleep a few time. The final time, I kept getting interrupted as I tried to cure Meshe to wake him, and I died, but no one else did, so it was OK. We continued on, and I still mostly tanked while weakened. This floor has a boss Treant, and fortunately I got unweakened just as we started fighting him. He was definitely the hardest mob of the bunch, with a nasty nasty AOE poison that nearly ended up killing Sarntur. I think he was down to 24 HP before someone got him unpoisoned. We ended up missing one of the Treants before we headed up to the next level and didn't get a chest for this floor.

The third floor has a bunch of chests that all look alike. Most of them are Mimics, but the time, restore, and items chest are here as well. On this floor, you're allowed to open every chest, so we got items, time, and restoration. The mimics are annoying as mimic always are, but we headed up to the final floor with plenty of time. On the fourth floor, there are trios of elementals. You can kill all of them if you like, hoping for single ancient beastcoins from each, but if time is pressing, the trick is to kill the trio for the element of the current day (or maybe it's the day you entered Limbus). This trio will drop the final chest. It was Watersday, so Ezekiel pulled the trio of Water Elementals, we killed all three, and Ezekiel ran off to open the chest.

We'd cleared the zone, and got the charcoal chip, which is one of four needed for Central Apollyon (Proto Omega). We had a smaller haul of coins on this run, just 26 for the 10 of us. The AF+1 items we got were for NIN, THF, and BST.

Quests: Shiny New Boots (Artifact Armor +1)

One of the benefits of doing Limbus is that you can get items that are needed to upgrade Artifact Armor. I had been lucky enough to get both the pieces I needed for my PLD AF, a White Rivet and a chunk of Snowy Cermet. Originally, my intent was to save up coins for a Boxer's Mantle first, but since I already had both of the upgrade items, it made more sense to upgrade my Gallant Leggings, since I'd wear them pretty much full-time, while my mantle would be situational, for when I am straight tanking and don't care about the extra HP and Enmity from I get from High Breath Mantles. So I talked to Sagheera in Port Jeuno and she told me that if I wanted to upgrade my Gallant Leggings, I'd also need a Blessed Mythril Sheet.

Blessed Mythril Sheets aren't often on the auction house, but are an Alchemy synth that Grym could easily do, so I bought a mythril sheet and sent it to Grym along with a light crystal and a flask of holy water, and had her make it for me. Then on Saturday night after Dynamis, I headed to Port Jeuno, and traded 20 Ancient Beastcoins, my Gallant Leggings, the White Rivet, Snowy Cermet and Blessed Mythril Sheet to Sagheera. She told me it would take a few days to get my AF restored, since they had to be sent off to the Near East.

I returned the following morning after the conquest tally, and my improved boots had arrived. Hurray! These are really the best boots in the game for a sword/shield tanking PLD, so it's very nice to have them. Thanks to TheNewUltimates for helping me get the items I needed for the upgrade! It's a bit odd for Kiki to have started getting things I never really thought she'd get: Sattva Ring, Valor armor, AF+1. If I start talking about how I need Koenig armor and Crimson Cuisses or something, I think the world will explode. I am enjoying Limbus immensely, and Dynamis still has its charm, but I still can't see me surviving long in a gods/HNM LS. That does seem to be the only way to get some of these harder quests, like Divine Might and the Bahamut fight, done, but at too high a cost.

Leveling: Flag Up (Mamool Ja Staging Point, level 75)

I really wanted to cap my exp (my buffer dropped under 30k last week), so on Saturday, I gathered everything I'd need for an exp party, and dressed myself up as PLD/NIN to go solo colibri for the hours I figured it would take me to get a pickup party. I got Sanction with Regen for a change (don't run out of MP while soloing PLD/NIN), set a lame search comment, put up my flag, and ran for the secret exit to Wajoam Woodlands in Whitegate. I hadn't even gotten out of the main square when I got not one, but two party invites. So much for the stacks of Shihei I bought!

This was my first pickup party on PLD since last May (level 73 party in Lufaise Meadows), and that party in May had been the first pickup party since the 50s in the summer of 2005. Having been in two different statics for nearly my entire PLD career always makes me worry about how I'll do with people who I don't know, but it was a fun party, and I didn't feel like a useless lolPLD at all.

Our party started out with MNK, SAM, RNG, SMN, WHM, PLD, but ended several hours later as a WAR, (different) SAM, BLM, RDM, WHM, PLD party. We headed to the Mamool Ja Staging Point and fought Sea Puks, various Mamools, and the Skoffins. I was eating Dorado Sushi and wearing my High Breath Mantles, and was able to hold hate quite well. Too well on a couple occasions that ended up getting me killed, but it was usually towards the end of the fight and no one else suffered. My favorite moment of the party was when we had several mobs piled up that the RDM was keeping slept. I had been using flash and provoke on the slept Skoffin especially, since they hit pretty hard. When we were about to start in fighting the Skoffin, the RDM started running for the zone and said "I'm going to zone to shed hate", but the Skoffin didn't even look at him and went straight for me when he woke up, and I kept his attention. "No need, the PLD's got him," from the WHM elicited a ":/" from the RDM. I guess he's not used to having a tank managing the sleeping mobs properly. :-)

Rampart is wonderful to use with the Skoffins, since it pretty much negates Radiant Breath, and I liked Sentinel for the hard-hitting Mamools. They really gave PLD such a nice boost with that last update. I was taking a bit more damage from the mobs than I might if I'd been eatting tacos, but I really like the enmity and accuracy boosts from the Dorado Sushi.

It's one of my "goals" in the game to never ever delevel from 75, so I want to maintain a healthy buffer, though it does seem to be a bit of a waste when I could be using those exp points as limit points instead and getting merits. However, since my first PLD75 pickup experience was fairly painless, I could definitely see spending a few Saturday afternoons a month working on merits too.

Dynamis: Beaucedine Glacier and Jeuno

Last week, we had two late night Dynamis runs. Venn's started using the RustyBuckets calendar to schedule our runs, but another LS that is particularly without honor snagged the zone before our start time. So we waited for them to finish, and started our run at 10:30, which meant for a very late night for me. Venn had me main tank, which was a bit of a challenge. I'd never been in the zone, so I didn't know what to expect when. Plus the lag was so bad that I often didn't even see mobs until they were already running past me. One time we goofed up and started meleeing an Orc NM, which got a bunch of us charmed. It's so funny seeing us all run around chasing after our team mates. We got all of the time extensions and farmed for a full 3 hours, but we didn't get a single piece of AF2 to drop.

Because we started late on Wednesday, we had to start late on Saturday as well, and since we weren't at San d'Oria at our scheduled time, another linkshell took it. Jeuno was the only one free, so we settled on that. Of course just as Venn broke the Timeless Hourglass, the other group finished San d'Oria, but it was too late at that point. However, we had a really good run. I was main tank again, but at least I'm familiar with Jeuno. The only notable event was when we were fighting a BST NM - the BLMs killed his pet before we got the NM dead, and he charmed me instead of spawning a new pet. With cries of "I thought Tsakiki was on our side," someone put me to sleep until the NM was dead. It still seems most of my deaths in Dynamis now are at the hands of the Ranger-type monsters. Sentinel really mitigates the damage from the Monk-type mobs, and having people quick to cure keeps the tanks alive.

We mopped up all of the mobs and still had time left, so our farming run turned into a flag run. Goldfish, Mayze and I made a clean pull of the Mega Boss, and a couple people got their flag. It was late, we were all tired, and some people dropped their hourglasses when we decided "one last statue". It was an amusing wipe. Better to wipe having fun after completing than wiping and losing! We ended up with 4 pieces of AF2 (BRD, THF, BLM, WAR), and two pieces of 100 currency for the linkshell.

Between the entrance fees for Dynamis and Limbus, plus my tacos, high breath mantles, and reraise gorgets, I'm draining about 300K from my savings account each week. I'm really going to have start actively making gil, rather than relying on my passive income, which is much lower than it once was.

Quests: Experience Point Scrolls

OK Michael, this one's for you. :-)

I try to do these three quests every week for scrolls that give experience points. There are several others that can also grant such scrolls, but they tend to be a bit harder to do on a regular basis.

First off is A Chocobo Riding Game, which anyone with a chocobo license can do. I only do the Bastok->San d'Oria or San d'Oria->Bastok route, simply because I can't win the longer rides to Windurst. This grants a Dragon Chronicles page, which can be read on any job level 4 or higher, and grants between 500 and 1000 exp. The race schedules can be found at MithraPride. It took me a few failures to get my route down pat, but I haven't failed it once I got the hang of it. You really do have to find the most direct path through the zones. We also believe that a fast PC zones quicker than the PS2 - Elboron started really zooming ahead of us once he switched from PS2 to PC.

The second one that's easy to solo has a pretty high barrier to entrance - you need to have Sacrarium access (on CoP 4-3), and have completed Spice Gals in order to pick up Secrets of Ovens Lost in the Tavnazian Safehold. For this quest, you need to find a ??? spot in Sacrarium, which will give you a page from a cookbook that you bring back to Jonette, the quest giver, and she will reward you with a page from Miratete's Memoirs. This can be read on any job at level 20 or higher, and will grant between 750 and 1500 exp. This is level capped at 50, and I make sure I have zero Fomor Hate, and usually do this as PLD/RDM. The reason for this is that I can run to Sacrarium aggro-free as PLD75, and I need Sneak from my RDM to get past the mobs in the maze as I make my way back to the classrooms where the ??? can be. I use the ffxi-atlas map of Sacrarium to make my way through the maze (walls shift based on the day). If there's a Stegotaur blocking the entrance to the maze, I hit it with Gravity and zone it to despawn it. Then I quickly head back, sneak up, and get through the maze. Since I have no Fomor hate, I don't worry keeping sneak up around them. If I have to get to the back class rooms, I wait for the Teratotaurs to turn their backs and run behind them.

The third one I like to do, but pretty much requires at least one other person (some jobs could solo it, I think I'd have a hard time as PLD75), is one of the escort quests, usually Escort for Hire - Bastok, which involves safely escorting an NPC through Crawlers Nest. The fastest way to do this is with a couple of high level BSTs, though Grymalkyn and I had really good success with our BST60 subbed on our THF75 and PLD75 (charm ability seems tied to the level of your BST, even when it's subbed). This way we can charm the aggro mobs and use them to keep other aggroing mobs away from the NPC. We used to go with Elboron and Itera when we were in our 60s, and killed everything that would aggro. She has 4 different paths, and one goes down to the basement, past all the coffer key mobs, and that can be really difficult if you're not high enough level to kill them quickly. (You have a 30 minute time limit for the quest.) Lately, I've been leeching, erm, I mean, going along with Lucrezia and Ranzz when they do it. They're BST75s, and we complete the quest in just a few minutes, since we don't need to kill anything. This quest also gives you a page from Miratete's Memoirs.

Other repeatable exp scroll quests that are less convenient, but can be fun:

Dragon Chronicles:
Eco-Warrior: Bastok
Eco-Warrior: San d'Oria
Eco-Warrior: Windurst
Garrison (possible drop)
The Big One

Miratete's Memoirs:
Spice Gals
Uninvited Guests

General: Blog Boredom

I feel like my blog's fallen into a dull routine: Dynamis blah blah blah, Limbus blah blah blah, CoP mission blah blah blah (but that's all done now). I feel like I'm not doing much besides that and trying to get all my exp scrolls every week to keep my buffer healthy. I'm still busy trying to get fishing skill, both on my short free evenings and while waiting for besieged attacks, and I've been trying to help get all of Grym's mules' inventory sold off, which consumes a good chunk of time.

A week ago, I was sort of hoping to get some real exp after I'd done my two cookbook quests (one pre-conquest tally, the second post-conquest tally) and my chocobo race for the week, but instead I got killed by Guivre helping Vawn get a Kuftal Coffer key, and then a bit later, fell to Hakutaku while helping on the last few clusters on a Snakes O-Hat run. They had enough people to start out with, but as the day wore on, people started leaving after they got their hats. Vawn, Latch, Yobun, and I headed to the Den of Rancor to help them out, and Akuma joined us as well. We ended up wiping on the very last run (more people left by then), which was sad for Krimsonfury, but he was pretty good natured about needing to replace his cluster. I got to see Goto, Lumikumi, and Itera get their silly pointy hats. I suppose I'll need one some day, but it's not high on my list of priorities.

After finishing with the Optical Hats, a bunch of us ClanBEB people headed to the Temple of Uglypeople to help Vawn with his DRG AF3 fight. Goto came along with us, and I gave him a ClanBEB pearl. Hopefully he'll like the LS and be an active member!

We got a Temple Coffer key when we killed the Temple Gaurdian on the way to the Den of Rancor, and Yobun and Vawn let me have it, so I'll have to go coffer hunting to finally get my map of the place. I tried yesterday, but I think the coffer was in the room that I needed both an Uggalepih Key and a Prelate Key to get into. I killed the Temple Guardian three or four times and was relieved to not have him Meltdown on me at full health.

A few weeks back, I got a random /tell while in Windurst late one night. The person was looking for a tank for Windurst Mission 9-2, and I love that fight, so I was happy to help. We ended up with a team of 6 level 75s, 5 of us already Rank 10 in Windurst. I think the other 4 helpers were in the same linkshell as the person who needed the fight. We had a WHM, BLM, MNK, RNG, PLD, and RDM I think. The MNK was the legendary Zoya, with her fully upgraded relic knuckles. The fight was over pretty quickly, and was fun as always.

On Friday, Thoron needed some help with Windurst Mission 8-1, which involves killing the Orc NM in Davoi. Turns out 3 of the 4 other people in his group were all members of TheUltimates (Reefermadness, Zune, and Darsonavin). It was fun helping them out!

We were hoping to fight Fenrir Friday night with our CoP static, with Thoron in for Splinte, who doesn't have a Moon Bauble yet. Elboron was having internet issues, so we asked the Bard who'd also be doing WM 8-1 to come with us. Grym, Itera and I slept for TP and opened with our old three step light skillchain with red lotus blade -> raging fists -> sharkbite, and took out a huge chunk of Fenrir's HP to start. Things were looking pretty promising, but I got killed by three fast hits (300 crit hit, and an 800 Eclipse Bite followed by a 600 Eclipse Bite). Of course everything had been dispelled, including my reraise, so I couldn't do anything but lie there. Fenrir used his two hour, and everyone lived. Thoron and then Itera used Hundred Fists, but they died too soon, and Fenrir killed the rest. We did get him down to just a sliver, but that's not good enough. We just tried the once, since we had no more sleeping potions, and no useful damage two hours. One day, we'll get him.