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!