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.