Quests: Double Dragonian x4 (KSNM30)

Ryken recently returned to the game after a break for several months, and he's pretty much retired his PLD to focus on MNK. One of the items on his to-do list was to finally get Destroyers, the coveted rare/ex Hand-to-Hand weapon that drops from a couple different KSNM30 battles. He'd tried several times in the past and wanted to put together a sure-fire team for Double Dragonian, and recruited Anastasia as BLM, Yobun as RDM, Albany as WHM, Demin as RNG, and hoped for help from one of his NIN friends, having read that stinky PLDs can't tank this fight.

My own previous experience with the KSNM wasn't so great, so I didn't jump up and volunteer either. However, the appointed evening arrived, and none of the Ninjas were available. So he asked if I could help them out. I agreed, warning him of my previous near-failure - I didn't want to be responsible for any lost orbs. However, I have more experience with big dragons, enhanced PLD abilities from updates and better gear than I had last summer, plus a few merit point enhancements as well, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

I warped off the ferry, where I'd been fishing, changed my sub-job and made sure I had all the right gear, paid the taru to send me to Windurst and used the OP Teleport to Ronfaure, and headed up to Horlais Peak, the last to arrive. I was briefed on the strategy: kill the warrior, kite the bard. We buffed up and headed in. I opted to use Pescatore for its defense and HP boosts, though I knew it would be stipped off at some point, and started out in my "tanking" gear. We ran up the ramp, and Ana opened with a sleepga on the dragons. I ran in and engaged and provoked the Warrior, and we proceeded to tear him apart. With Sentinel and Phalanx II, I didn't really take all that much damage. Ryken ended up pulling hate off me and got cursed, then Ana turned the dragon and a Body Slam took out both Ryken and Demin. Demin was hit for 1000 damage, and his max HP is less than that. I guess they didn't have their shadows up either. I had a momentary twinge of panic, but the dragon was nearly dead, and Ana was able to finish it off.

Ana and Yobun kept the Bard asleep while Albany got Ryken and Demin back on their feet. Meanwhile, I built up my hate on the Bard by provoking and flashing when I could. I'd also switched over to my full enmity gear at this point. After a few minutes, the Bard started resisting sleep, so I started kiting it up and down the long valley, with Yobun and Ana keeping gravity on it, and binding it from time to time as well. When the lads were back to full health, they started chipping away at the dragon, while I tried to keep its attention and keep it moving. I took a few good smacks, but Albany kept me healthy when I couldn't cure myself.

Soon, the Bard was dead as well, and when we popped the crate open, we found Ryken's Destroyers. Hurray!

Demin and Yobun both had orbs, so we decided to do two more runs. The next two were even better, with no deaths or even close calls. On the second run, a Subduer dropper. This is one of the best greatswords available for PLD, once the latent is unlocked, so I asked for it and now have to get 500 weaponskill points on it to turn it into a worthwhile weapon. I'll use it while skilling up, and some day it will be ready. A friend of Albany's (Drxcrist) needed a pair of Destroyers and came out to Horlais Peak, but got there a bit too late. We had a second pair drop on the third orb, and he didn't arrive in time and they auto-lotted to Albany. Drxcrist also brought an orb, so we did a fourth run for him, with his MNK replacing Ryken's. That run went smoothly as well, but no Destroyers in the treasure chest.

I really had a lot of fun doing these runs, and am pleased they went so smoothly. We had a great team, and worked very well together. It was nice to be able to show that stinky PLDs can indeed do that particular fight!

General: Lack of Entries

Sorry I haven't been posting lately - I really haven't been in the mood for it. I would have just been whining about one thing or another anyway, so it's probably just as well. I've been keeping busy in-game though, and hopefully will be returning to my normal self soon.

Limbus: Time for another Update

I guess it's time I updated TheNewUltimates' Limbus progress, since I haven't written anything about it for a month or so. For awhile there it looked like we'd regularly get nearly a full alliance going, but we're back to not even filling two parties most of the time, which is too bad. We're fairly regularly clearing the zones we try, adding more chips to our collections for Proto-Omega and Proto-Ultima, but without more people, we can't really attempt those either. Venn's holding all the chips he can at the moment, Ezekiel has close to a full set, but has been having real life issues this month and hasn't been playing, so I'm getting the current chips. So far I just have two "first tier" Temenos chips, which are used to enter the Central Temenos levels.

We did one "metal chip run" in mid-April, taking on CS Apollyon. It didn't go so well, but was fun to try, and we'll know how to do it better next time. The metal chip we used for this run had been a treasure drop at some point, but you can also purchase metal chips from Sagheera for 75 Ancient Beastcoins. Because it has the potential of giving us a lot of loot, we've decided to take all the "extra" coins from our runs and put them in the LS bank to fund future purchases of metal chips.

We did Temenos North a week or so ago, based on heavy lobbying from the team, and that worked out really well, since Lucrezia, Itera, Venn, and I all got items we needed for upgrades. Since I had just got my Valor Surcoat from Dynamis, there was no need to upgrade my Gallant Surcoat, and I couldn't decide if it was worth upgrading my Gallant Breeches or not. I am hoping to get better pants than those in time, but who knows when that will happen. So I decided that yes, it was worth getting my Gallant Breeches +1, and I turned in all the necessary items to Sagheera.

I mentioned this on an AF+1 thread I had started on the ffxiclopedia forums a few months back, and got chided by other PLDs who said there are better pants: Valor Breeches, Homam Cosciales, and Crimson Cuisses. This was after I had already stated that I was hoping to get the first two, but since I didn't know when that would happen, I upgraded my AF. The AF+1 legs are better for me than the Adaman I've been wearing for over a year. And the Crimson Cuisses are from gods, and I don't do gods. Oh well. People seem to not read things very well, just pick up on one thing and tear you apart over it.

However, if we don't get more people into TNU, I'm never going to see any Homam gear, and with 5 or 6 other main-lotting PLDs that need their Valor Breeches, it's not very likely I'll get those soon either. So, I'm very pleased with my new shiny white pants. I guess it's time to start re-questing my boots and pants, and I can get my AF put back into storage. I'm pretty sure I'm done with upgrades. All my coins will go for my brutal earring next.

Assault: Corporal Kiki

Amazingly, our BEB Monday night assault group has been continuing to get together and do 3 or 4 assaults every Monday night. Yobun, Daden, Itera, and I are the "regulars", with Anastasia, Goto, Thoron, Izan, and others being a bit more haphazard. We've been doing a lot of Preemptive Strike, and then to mix things up a bit, we did Lamia No. 13 and Seagull Grounded last week, neither of which Daden had done. Goto hadn't done Seagull Grounded either. After that, they were both able to pick up the quest for Superior Private rank, and we planned to do some SP assaults this week.

Jarbit's Nyzul Isle Assault static has shifted its focus a bit. We did one run of Nyzul Isle on April 27th, got two "easy" levels, and took the win. Then Goto had to leave for his gods linkshell, so we did two runs of Excavation Duty for Allia, to get her enough points for Salvage that evening. Every other time I've done Excavation Duty, we've always killed the Qiqirn to get mines, even with a BLM going off to solo a wall. So I provoked the first Qiqirn, surprising everyone else, since they'd never killed the Qiqirn - or did once and didn't get mines. Fortunately, we did get a bomb from the first one, so the time I wasted fighting one of them was made up for by the next wall going down immediately. The people who'd never used a mine were pretty impressed with how well they worked, but it really does leave it up to chance. On the second run, we just fought all the walls. With the right sort of group, it's a very safe assault and an easy win.

Last Friday, Jarbit and Frostwitch couldn't make it for our assaults, so we had a group of Salvage people do two runs of Leujaoam Cleansing, which was a new win for several of the people. We had Anrita, Venn, Habanero, Goto, Itera and I. Both runs went pretty smoothly - I like the "kill everything" sort of assaults, since it leaves less to chance than some of the others. Plus you get exp or limit points from them, which is always a good thing.

This Monday, we had Daden, Itera, Ana, Yobun and I. Goto was trying to do CoP 8-2, and didn't join us. We did three SP runs, starting off with Saving Private Ryaaf, which was new to Daden. Yobun came as PLD/SAM and I as PLD/BST. The roaming Experimental Undead were behaving well, and we had an easy time making our way from room to room, and had another easy win.

Next, we decided to try Troll Fugitives. For this assault, you have to find and eliminate 15 Broken Troll Soldiers. They all have between 25% and 75% HP, but the PLD types will heal themselves and others, so some end up a bit closer to full health. They're scattered throughout Lebros Cavern, alone, in pairs, or in sets of three. We didn't have any troubles with them, but without a strong DD group (like Daden and Itera), it would be pretty easy to run out of time on this one. Yobun had switched to RDM for this, and between Phalanx II and Sentinel, the one Troll that used Hundred Fists on me was sadly disappointed at how little damage he did.

Last up on the agenda was Extermination, set in Ilrusi Atoll. This one is also a kill everything assault, with leeches, crabs, doomed, and slimes scattered throughout the islands and boats. They can spawn an NM version of themselves when killed, and we did get one Undead Leech NM, which was much tougher than the regular leeches, but still not too bad. This is another one where you can get pretty tight on time. We left the slimes for last, and I was sent to the spot where the Rune of Transfer would appear so I could hit it as soon as everything was dead. I think we finished with about two minutes to spare. I got enough limit points to get another Merit, so I have the three I need to finish my shield skill upgrades. Next up will be HP, I think. I'll need 24 Merit points to get it where I want it. That's going to take me forever. :-(

After our assaults, Itera and I both were able to pick up the quest for promotion to Corporal. We headed out into Wajaoam Woodlands on chocobo, looking for a Warhorse Hoofprint for Naja. She gave us quartz transmitters to place in the hoofprint, which will somehow give her the ability to track the Dark Rider. I searched the southern section, while Itera got the northern section, where he found the hoofprint. Task completed, we headed back to speak to Naja and receive our promotions. Woohoo, longer Sanction time, and a new set of assaults available to us!

New title: Corporal

Quests: Summoner Preparations Complete!

I had been on a Carby Mitt run awhile back with a group Plumpixie and Chanell had put together, but I was only there for the first fight. I knew that I would probably not be able to stay the whole run, since I would have to get to Dynamis-Beaucedine, so I said I would go last. I didn't want to be a "got her mitts and ditched the rest" type of person. Sure enough, after our first kill, I was summoned to the Glacier, as another LS was gathering, and we needed to get people there early to make sure the zone wouldn't be stolen from us by another group (we're using the Rusty Bucket calendar, and wish all the other linkshells would as well). I knew I'd have another chance some day, and there certainly wasn't any rush for me to get mitts that can only be worn by a level 20 Summoner.

Now that Goto's actively leveling his SMN, he really could use a pair of Carbuncle Mitts, so I tried to get some people together to help. Thanks to Luiss dragging his friends into it as well, we had a decent little group with me (PLD), Goto (WHM), Luiss (BLM), Yumex (WHM), Madbender (BLM), Itera (MNK) and Fabian (MNK). Gilgameshrulz, another BLM, wanted to join us, but got girlfriend aggro just before we got the spawn area for the Crimson-toothed Pawberry, so he had to leave. On our way there, we stopped to pick up another offering, which was for Gil, but since he left, that offering was used for Madbender instead. Yumex also had an offering, so we fought the NM 4 times.

The fights went really well, with Rampart on my party preventing any damage from the first Searing Light, but I don't think we would have been damaged much even without it. We didn't get any Light Spirit Pacts to drop for our helpers, but we got the four pairs of mitts that people wanted.

I had Balu-Falu out as a Fierce Attacker for the last fight, since Itera had to leave. Balu-Falu leveled up to 57 when we were clearing the regular Tonberries out of the room, so that was nice too. He was nearly done in by the first Searing Light, but hung in there and fought with us until the next AOE got him.

Then on Sunday, Anrita put together a team for Diabolos Prime, which Frobro and I needed. He recruited Itera, Allia, and Habanero, and needed another MNK, so I asked Thoron if he'd like to go as well. He needed it too, so was very eager to join in. The seven of us made our way to the Shrouded Maw, and the three MNKs all slept for 100% TP. We headed into the arena for the fight, with Anrita waiting outside to raise us, just in case things went wrong.

The MNKs boosted a few times, Habanero used Soul Voice and gave us double attack songs, Itera Chi Blasted Diabolos and we were all drawn in. Allia let loose with Chainspell Stun, and three MNKs tore into Diabolos with Hundred Fists and their weapon skills. I cast Cure IV on Itera, then on Thoron, and then a Cure III on Thoron, and it was over. The poor avatar never stood a chance. I feel like it was cheating, but after my 6 failures and 10,000 exp lost to Diabolos Prime last year, maybe it's not so bad. I was just making the best use of available resources. Yeah, that's it. At any rate, it was pretty impressive to see them demolish him so easily.

I headed to Windurst Waters and claimed my pact with Diabolos, and ran out to play with him for a few minutes before heading to Jeuno for Sunday's Limbus. I'm still not sure if/when I'll ever level Summoner, but if I do, I'll have a full set of avatars on hand to do so. I'm still missing three of the elemental spirits, I think: Thunder, Light, and Dark. I think the prices have come down a lot, so even if I resort to buying them, it won't be too bad.

New title: Heir to the Realm of Dreams

Leveling: Pet Static (Yuhtunga Jungle 25-28)

Itera recently started a static with his Puppetmaster and Rovont's Dragoon. They added in Goto's Summoner, which led me to call it the Pet Static, since the three all have pets. It's not pet-only, as they added in Rovont's friend Varghoss (aka Bubba) on Dark Knight. I joined them two weeks ago with my Thief, at level 25.

We met up in Kazham, but couldn't find a tank, so I volunteered my NPC Balu-Falu's service as a Stalwart Shield. It worked out relatively well, though it was more difficult for Goto to keep an eye on him, and it was odd to have the tank following the puller around everywhere.

We were camped near the gate - I really hate pulling there, especially when there are a couple of other parties there. Sometimes you have to go really far to get a mandy, and then run into trouble with the goblins in the narrow path back to camp. We tried fighting goblins, sometimes with great ease, and other times with deaths, but with the town right there it was easy for one of us to change jobs and raise the dead.

Eventually we found a Ninja to tank for us. She died a lot though, so we ended up having Goto switch to his WHM75 and PL us through a few goblins to get her a level before we disbanded for the day.

This weekend, we met back in Kazham, most of us at 26, and Goto at 27. We picked up a Monk to be our nominal tank, but with everyone but Goto and I subbing Warrior, the plan was to have us bounce hate around. We started out near the gate, but the first goblin killed half of us. The area was too busy to get enough mandies, plus with Goto and Kikishi, the MNK, at level 27, the exp wouldn't be worthwhile unless we had an endless supply.

I forced us to go beat up Goblin Furriers near the outpost, which is a bit tricky without barfira and curaga, but the furriers are so soft and squishy, I was hoping we'd do ok. Other than Itera dying once (and was quickly raised by a WHM that happened to walk by), it did go pretty well, and more importantly, it was kind of fun.

I really like fighting there - it's fairly easy to avoid aggro and links, since you stay away from the malboros, and the goblins are spread out enough. There's no one else around, so there's no competition for the pulls. Playing THF in a party where everyone shares hate can be a bit frustrating. More times than not, someone would pull hate and turn the mob just as I activated sneak attack, causing it to miss. But I got in some really good smacks, especially combined with a Fast Blade. It will be fun to see what I can do with SATA Viper Bites in a few levels. I pulled my share of hate, but at least with shadows and high evasion it wasn't too painful.

I think I might start offhanding an archers knife and switch to squid sushi before level 30, just to get my bolts to land more regularly. It's frustrating to have capped marksmanship and only hit what seems like one out of three bolts. Some Noct +1 gear at 30 should help too.

We finished up the day with most of us at 28, I believe, and Goto hit 29 on our last kill. Next week, we can either try weapons in Sauromugue or by the waterfall in Yuhtunga. Bubba's talking about switching to Paladin since it's hard to find tanks, so he unlocked that Saturday and hopes to get it caught up to us before next weekend. This would also allow us to look for a WHM or RDM to main heal and let Goto be a Summoner instead of a half-level White Mage.

Dynamis: San d'Oria

On Saturday night, after winning my Valor Surcoat and putting it on and admiring it for the first time, I noticed my Creek F Mitts, fondly referred to as the Oven Mitts, just didn't do my new coat any justice. I said to the LS, "When are we doing Sandy next? I need some gloves to match my my new jacket." Well, wouldn't you know it, San d'Oria was next on our agenda. So Wednesday night, we gathered together in San d'Oria, going for the flag for a couple of new members, and hoping for a good bit of farming as well.

Amyalfrodo won the lot for main tank, and despite her trepidation about the role, this being her second dynamis run ever, we insisted on throwing her into the deep end to teach her to swim. San d'Oria's really a pretty good place to start learning anyway, and with Jarbit, Lumikumi and I backing her up on the PLD team, along with Daden as NIN, we figured it would go pretty well. Goldfish was pulling like a mad man though, so poor Amy was getting a bit overwhelmed, but she's catching on quickly. Hopefully she enjoyed it as well.

We had some massive pulls, but it was a pretty uneventful journey up to the Megaboss. Amy and Crazyxen got their flags, and we continued to farm afterwards. One of the mobs killed Amy, and I took over main tanking, and I believe it was the mob that actually killed Amy that dropped the Valor Gauntlets, just as I believe it had been the mob that killed Lumikumi that dropped the Surcoat on Saturday. Since it was Amy's second run with us, I was the only PLD lotting on the glove, and they were mine! Hurray! They look so much better than my oven mitts. I miss the HP I've lost by not wearing my RSE mitts, but I think the Enmity and Defense are probably worth it. I'll keep the mitts around for when I'm a lolDDpld, and when I need max HP, but I think my Valor Gauntlets should be my default tanking hand gear, at least until I get my Homam gloves. :-)

We ended up getting probably 8 drops of relic that night, and ended up wiping horribly, twice, near the death courtyard that we had so much troubles with on an earlier run. These late night post-Boss famring runs tend to break down a bit, as people start to leave, and the ones who stay are perhaps getting a bit sleepy.

Here's a couple of screenshots comparing my oven mitts to my proper Valor Gauntlets:

Sure is a big improvement!

Quests: Spice Gals for Goto

I've told Goto about my weekly exp scrolls, and he was very interested in doing them himself. In order to do Secrets of Ovens Lost, you first need to complete Spice Gals, which involves a trip through one of the Riverne sites to pick up a key item rivernewort. On Saturday, the two of us headed to Riverne Site #A01, as a BST40/NIN20 - WHM40/BLM20 duo. I prefer going through site #A01, since if I recall correctly, the ??? spot you have to get to in #B01 is in the middle of an aggro-filled island. It's true you only need one dragon scale instead of the two in #A01, but then again, there's also the fact that I know my way around #A01 a lot better than I do #B01.

We had to kill 7 or 8 Firedrakes to get the two scales we needed, and had quite an exciting time in the process, with lots of near-death experiences, and unfortunately one death for Goto. The birds I needed to use for pets were mostly Toughs, and rather than try to convert them to Even Matches, I used the Toughs as pets for a few of the fights. Of course they'd come uncharmed before the Firedrake was killed, but at least I didn't have any charm failures on my recharms.

After we got the two scales, we safely made our way to the island before Monarch Linn, where we both picked up our rivernewort from the ??? spot. I try to make sure I always have this repeatable quest active, just in case I happen to be in the area. For some reason, I'm doing well on my exp, and haven't actually gone to pick this scroll up yet, as I still have last week's cookbook quest scroll in my inventory. The ENM on Saturday night made up for most of my Xarcabard deaths, and Preemptive Strike on Monday capped me off again, since I somehow made it through Limbus without dying on Sunday.

In a mood for more exploration, we headed over to the island with the stone monument. We were careful to avoid the atomic cluster that hovers near the monument, and examined it. I'd forgotted that was the island for the Minstrel's Dagger quest, Confessions of a Bellmaker, but Goto was treated to the cutscene that starts it. It was a fun couple of hours, and now Goto can do the weekly Sacrarium runs too!

Quests: The Moonlit Path (Fenrir)

A couple of weeks ago, Anrita gathered together a group to fight Fenrir Prime. At least one of us (me) had never beaten him and a couple others wanted items for the Evoker's Ring quest, and still others just wanted to help out. We had Anrita (WHM/BLM), Allia (RDM/DRK), Habanero (BRD/???), Frobro (MNK/NIN), Fliggity (WAR/NIN), and Tsakiki (PLD/WAR). The fight started out pretty well, but we didn't do enough damage during Allia's Chainspell-Stun, and ended up wiping, with Fenrir at a sliver of health. We sort of hoped Anrita's Dia II would be enough to finish him off, but it wore pretty quickly. We agreed to try again in two weeks.

So yesterday, the same group gathered, only with Itera joining us as MNK/NIN instead of Fliggity. We went over our strategy in detail before heading in, and confident that we knew what we were going to do, we headed into the burning circle. Frobro, Itera, and I slept for 100%TP, Anrita buffed us up, Habanero used soul voice with madrigal and minuet and we ran in to fight the big puppy. As usual, he was hitting pretty hard, but Anrita kept us well-healed. I used Sentinel and then Invincible to help hold hate and keep my damage down. Once Allia started using her chainspell-stun, both Monks used 100 Fists, and I pretty much didn't have hate for the rest of the fight.

Fenrir managed to get his two hour off between stuns, but we all survived. I missed the message that he was readying it, and didn't get Rampart off, which might have saved us a lot of damage. Anrita ran in for Benediction, and Fenrir didn't even look her direction - he was too mad at the monks to bother with the little white mage. Frobro took a huge Eclipse Bite, knocking him down to 28 hit points and I ran over to cover him, but Itera had pulled hate, so cover didn't really do anything. We got Frobro's HP back up, and cure-bombed Itera to keep him going. Then all of a sudden, it was over. Fenrir was defeated! Finally I could have a pact with Fenrir, after 5 failed attempts.

These fights are sure a lot more fun when we win! Anrita escaped us from Full Moon Fountain back to East Sarutabaruta, and we ran to Windurst Waters to talk to Leppe-Hoppe and get our rewards.

I headed to my moghouse to switch to PLD75/SMN1, and headed out to West Sarutabaruta to pick on some tiny animals, just to play with my new puppy. Hopefully I can leech with a group of Monks and a RDM/DRK to win against Diabolos Prime, and have my avatar set complete. I'd still rather be an integral part of the team, but my 0/6 record on him is making that look unlikely. I don't really see that I'll ever level SMN, but I always wanted a complete set of avatars.

New title: Heir of the New Moon

Dynamis: Happy Xarcabard Farming

I had an exciting weekend, with lots of things to write about, but the one I'm most excited about is TheUltimates' Dynamis run on Saturday. We actually managed to do Dynamis-Xacabard as Venn planned. The Japanese shell that seems to be there every Saturday evening (Sunday morning for them), must have had something else to do. We still don't have the numbers to want to try taking on the Dynamis Lord, so it was just to be a farming run. Lumikumi won the lot for main tank, with me as backup. Jarbit came as PLD, and Daden was our only NIN. We'd only had three tanks on our previous run, and I felt more comfortable going in with 4 of us.

The first time statue pull didn't go quite they way we wanted it to, but we only had two demons come after us, and the BLMs got the statue and the time extension. The two eye pull went smoothly, now that we all know what to do. We made our way to the second camp, and while killing the eyes and demons there, a Melee Crown dropped! I'd never seen Relic drop from a normal mob in Xarcabard, but apparently TU has had a couple pieces drop over the years. Itera and Rassiter both lotted, and Itera won! Hurray!

We continued on to the NM demon trios, and had a number of deaths in the process, but overall, things were much cleaner than the last time, mostly because we had a "spare" tank to jump in when one of the others died. All the pulls went pretty smoothly, with just the BLM NM being troublesome, having blasted Daden with a Thundaga III before he moved off of his platform. We had to make a second sacrifice pull to get him.

On the final set of NMs, the Dragoon King dropped the Wyvern Helm. Venn was the only lotter, and finally, after 3 years, he's completed his Dragoon Relic. It was pretty exciting! At this point, had we been going for the Dynamis Lord, we would have snuck past a line of demons and eyes to get to the dragons in front of the Castle. Goldfish told us it had been a really good run so far, and we would have had plenty of time for DL, so that was really encouraging.

Since we weren't going for DL, we were going to kill all those demons lined up on the way to Castle Zvahl's. The first pull looked clean, but then turned a bit ugly. We were swarmed with angry eyes and demons, and ended up with a full wipe. We dusted ourselves off, rested up, and worked on killing them a few at a time.

After cleaning them up, we headed south, I think, for more farming. Goldfish pulled an eye, and we got quite a few warrior, monk, bard, and white mage demons. We went through them rather efficiently, with a few deaths, then on to the the next set. Lumikumi had gotten killed, and I jumped in to take over on a Kindred Bard. I was so surprised to see "You find a valor surcoat on the Kindred Bard" when we defeated it. Jarbit, Lumikumi, and I were the only main-lot PLDs. We cast our lots, and mine was the highest (then I was promptly killed by the Kindred Monk I was tanking). I couldn't believe it! I'm never that lucky. I'm currently the only person in TU with the Valor Surcoat. It seems to be a curse for the LS, since the PLDs who've won them in the past either quit the game or leave the linkshell. I don't plan on doing either.

We continued killing mobs and another Melee Crown dropped, completing Rassiter's MNK relic set. And then another mob soon after dropped the BLM hat, which has been promised to Sarntur. He'd won one on a previous run a year ago, but the hourglass expired before the hat had dropped to him and it was lost. That piece completed Sarntur's BLM relic. So it was an amazing farming run for us: 5 Xarcarbard relic pieces, which completed 3 sets, and the other two made Itera and I very happy, and our wins were blissfully drama-free. I think it's pretty neat that we both got our pieces on the same run. Now we should both get our Glacier drops on the same run too. :-)

As time was winding down, we had another swarm of angry eyes and demons that killed us all, so Venn called it a night and people were given R3s. I really hope we can have more Northlands runs like that. We need more relic armor for everyone!

I still can't believe Kiki actually has a Valor Surcoat. I remember talking about it with Yobun maybe two years ago, when what may have been the first NA linkshell to beat the Dynamis Lord got the Surcoat. We both figured it was something our PLDs would never have. Of course, back then, there weren't many good NA dynamis groups yet, nor did I think I'd be doing Dynamis, or any other "end game" sort of activity. Since then, I've seen Valor Surcoats popping up all over the place, so it was no longer had the unobtainableness it once had. I never thought I'd have mine just over 6 months after starting Dynamis, and just over 4 months with a shell that had enough members with access to the Northlands. I'm 3/5 on my relic now, with the hands and legs missing. I had been planning to upgrade my AF Surcoat with Limbus items, but now I think my AF pants are the logical upgrade.