Seem So Oddly Familiar....

Last May, I reset my Paladin Artifact armor quests, after upgrading my Gallant Leggings and then my Gallant Breeches. Since I lost the original pieces in the upgrade process (they repair your originals with the materials you provide), I no longer had my full AF set, which is handy to have for level capped events. Plus it's nice to be able to store the set when I'm not using it. Any relief on inventory is welcome!

The first step in the reset process was to drop my Honor Sword, and then head to Lower Jeuno to pay Vingijard 10,000 gil to make me forget everything I had done for the original quest. After that, I took the airship to San d'Oria to restart the quests.

For Sharpening the Sword, I first talked to young Ailbeche in Northern San d'Oria. He remembered me as the person who'd returned his fishing rod, and needed some help sharpening his father's sword. I set out in search of a special sharpening stone in Ordelles Caves, where I had to fight Polevik, an Earth Elemental. I brought the stone back to the lad, and he was so pleased, he gave me his father's sword.

I chatted with him some more (picking up A Boy's Dream), and he lamented that his "friends" were going fishing, but he needed some giant shell bugs to use as bait. So I headed to Crawler's Nest to kill the Dreadbug 3 times over the course of a couple of hours, getting 4 giant shell bugs in the process. Ailbeche decided I should go catch the monster fish myself instead of him, so later that day, Thom (who also was re-doing the quest) and I headed to Castle Oztroja to fish up the monster fish. It was certainly easier than when I first did it as a level 50 PLD. Thom and I took our fish back to Ailbeche, and he recommended that we take them to Zaldon in Selbina. Zaldon gutted our fish for us, and we received a pair of yucky old knight's boots that Zaldon found inside. Since this is a key item, I decided to wait until I got the coffer I needed to replace my pants before I would head to Prince Trion to get my new boots, unless I needed them beforehand.

At some point, I talked to Guslam in Upper Jeuno, to restart Borghertz's Stalwart Hands quest to get my Gallant Gauntlets, and to make the treasure coffer pieces available. I didn't pursue things further until mid-August, when Meshe needed a Tavnazian Bell to replace one of his WHM AF pieces. Meshe, Erock, Anrita and I fought the mobs in the Eldieme Necropolis for a short while, ending up with Meshe's Bell and 4 coffer keys rather quickly. The next morning, I returned to Eldieme, and eventually found my coffer in the Hume Bones area. I returned to Guslam with the Old Gauntlets I had found, and then talked to the ghost of Borghertz in Port Jeuno. He needed an old flame to repair them for me, so I headed off to Castle Zvahl Bailey to fight Dark Spark. As a PLD75/RDM37, the fight was even easier than I thought it would be. Once again, I didn't complete the quest, to avoid having the new piece of AF until I was ready to store the complete set. At this point however, I dropped my original pair of Gallant Gauntlets, figuring if I needed them, I could pick up the new ones.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to finish up my re-questing. I was getting close to having what I needed to upgrade my Gallant Surcoat, and I figured it would be nice to get my AF set complete again and put it back into storage. I headed to Beadeaux with my trusty NPC Balu-Falu (set as Soothing Healer). I was hoping to get some Great Sword skillups while I was hunting for keys, but I hit 217 on the first Quadav, and didn't get another skillup. It didn't take me long to get a coffer key, probably 10 Quadavs. I discovered one drawback of having Balu-Falu helping me - when I used the Mute to get past an Afflictor without getting cursed, he immediately used Silena on me. However the coffer was next to the first Afflictor, with two Quadavs guarding it. Balu-Falu and I took care of the Quadavs, and I opened the coffer to get my shiny replacement breeches.

I walked to Jeuno to get my Gauntlets from Borghertz, then took the airship to San d'Oria to get my Leggings from Prince Trion, then I put the entire set into storage with the NPC in San d'Oria. Hurray! At that point, I had just Under Oath left to do. If I ever open a coffer in Garlaige Citadel as my PLD, I'll get another Coronet, but I'll just leave that be. I started the quest in San d'Oria before heading off to Dynamis.

The next day, I headed to Castle Zvahl with Balu-Falu to fight the coffer demons and eyes. I was actually surprised how easily I could solo them, as they always seemed so much tougher than the normal beastment coffer level mobs. The BLM ones were the hardest, but even when I had a BLM and a SAM on me at the same time, I wasn't in any danger. It took me two or three hours to get my key, and the coffer was in the next Demon room that I checked. I headed to San d'Oria with the old paintbrush I'd found in the coffer, and continued with the quest.

Last Friday, I recruited some help after Salvage, and Venn, Meshe, Albany, Erock, and Serenity came to Davoi with me to kill the two Orc NMs I needed dead in order to get a well weight. The fight was over quickly, and we headed over to the old monastery and killed the NM there for Serenity's Windurst Mission 8-2.

I sent the materials for a Gold Brocade to Venn's clothcraft mule, and on Sunday morning, I picked up my second Gallant Surcoat (with the original safely in storage with the NPC), and took it to Sagheera along with the Gold Brocade, a White Rivet and Snowy Cermet from Limbus, and 30 Ancient Beastcoins. It seems really odd to be upgrading the replacement, but as far as the game is concerned, I didn't have my original on me, so it worked. When I came back later for Limbus, Sagheera had my Gallant Surcoat +1 ready for me. I still wonder if this was worthwhile, but it has +6 VIT, so would be really good for tanking big things that I have to fight PLD/WAR and need to care about how high my VIT is. My Valor Surcoat has more enmity, a bit more HP, but DEX instead of VIT (plus the nifty damage->mp while using cover), and will remain my default body piece. But I had the items, and it's definitely a nice piece to have around.

I think that's it for PLD AF upgrades though. There's no point in upgrading the gloves (and I don't want to do my PLD AF a third time), and the coronet seems a bit of a waste. I suppose I should macro it in for cover, but I can leave that decision to some other time. Now we have more PLDs in Limbus, I won't be getting the white rivets and snowy cermets all to myself any more. They'll get much more use out of Gallant Leggings +1 than I ever would from a Gallant Coronet +1!

Not so new title: Paragon of Paladin Excellence