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.