Einherjar!

As I mentioned in my previous entry, one of the main reasons I applied to Eminence was to participate in Einherjar. I meant to get this posted sooner, but I've now been on 4 runs, and they're really a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the event isn't very good for taking screenshots, so no exciting colour to spark up the entries. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, here's a bit of background.

Einherjar is similar to Dynamis and Limbus in that it is a closed battlefield with a time limit and an entrance fee. You can do Einherjar once every three days, and need to have 6-36 people level 60 or over to enter. You're allowed 30 minutes for the battle. Entrance is gained by using a Smouldering Lamp, which costs 180,000 gil. Eminence pays for the lamp, and sells the crafting drops obtained on the runs to fund future runs. The chambers are accessed from the Hazhalm Testing Grounds near Nashmau.

There are a total of 10 chambers, with 3 chambers each for Tiers I through III, and the final chamber being Odin's Chamber in Valgrind. Previously, you had to complete each of the nine other chambers before being allowed to enter Odin's Chamber, but in the update on June 9th, it was changed so participants for Odin's Chamber only need to have cleared one chamber for each of the 3 tiers. The key items you get for clearing the chambers are feathers, which are from the wind of the Valkyrie for whom each chamber is named.

In addition to possible treasure drops (abjurations, crafting items, armor from Odin), each participant also gains ampoules of Therion Ichor, which can be used to purchase items from Kilusha in Nashmau, the NPC that also sells the smouldering lamp. The items are are rare/ex, so the only way to obtain them is to participate in Einherjar. The item I'm most interested in is the Ritter Gorget, a neck piece with VIT, Enmity, and HP.

On my first day in Eminence, before the update, they were planning to try a Tier II or Tier III run. Under the requirements prior to the update, I would not have been able to participate, but I made my way to Nashmau to be on hand in case plans changed. Plus I wanted to "meet" my new linkshell. :-) Because of the number of people with only Tier I access, they decided to do a Tier I run instead, and appointed me to be the main-assist. Thanks guys... great way to start the newbie out. We made our way to the Hazhalm Testing Grounds, Bleu traded the lamp and handed out copies to us, and in we went to Grimgerde's Chamber.

There were about 12 Skeletons, which Genno pulled, linking all of them. Sasu was PLD/BLM and was spamming sleepga to help hold hate off of the squishier mage sleepers, and I was in charge of selecting which to fight, with everyone using "/assist Tsakiki" to fight the right one. It was a lot like Dynamis - the mobs would die in 20 seconds, so I'd switch to the next before the one we're on was dead, avoiding the delay of putting away my sword and having to take it out again. With the kills happening so fast, I some times didn't have any hate-grabbing abilities available for a given mob. It was pretty much provoke, flash, provoke, shield bash, provoke, flash, provoke, oops, sorry melee...

Next up was a tiger, which apparently will strengthen the boss if you don't kill it. We did kill it, and moved on to the boss. The boss was a buffalo, Himinrjot, with a ton of HP and a pretty nasty AOE knockback move, so we tried to fight it up against the wall. It was all over so quickly, and I had my first Einherjar feather, and 500 Ampoules of Therion Ichor!

On the next Tuesday evening, the day after the rules were changed in the update, Eminence had over 42 people show up for the 36 slots. This caused a bit of grumpiness, but it was pretty much the first ones there were the ones who got to go. Tier III was on the agenda, to try to finish complete feather sets for Odin fights (the person who initiates the event must have all 9 feathers, while the other participants merely need 1 from each tier).

Naramaska distributed the lamps, and we headed into Ortlinde's Chamber. We ended up with three waves of monsters before the boss: Utgarth Bats, Berserkrs (demons), and Wivre-X, followed by Dendainsonne, a Behemoth. The "extra" monster on this run was a bird, Huginn, which dropped a chest with temporary items. The Wivres slowed us down a bit with their high defense, and the Behemoth was pretty hard on us with Meteor and other abilities, but we won with only a few seconds to spare. Fortunately the chest was popped in time, and we got the win. We ended up with 1460 ampoules on this run. It seems the new amount is based on the waves, with 480 ampoules for each.

Last Saturday, we had 50 people show up wanting to join in on the event, but again it was pretty much first-come, first-served, so late arrivals were left out. Another shell (SearchAndDestroy) offered to take along a few people, but most of the late people had already left the area. I believe only one went with them. This time, we entered Gerhilde's Chamber, for another tier 3. We ended up with 4 waves of mobs. First up were some skeletons, followed by Odin's Jesters (Imps), then a bunch of Soulflayers along with Liquified Einherjars (Flans). These were all fairly unpleasant, and time was running a bit short when Vampyr Jarl showed up at the end.

Vampyr Jarl was relatively squishy, and we thought we had it in the bag, but suddenly he split into a pack of hounds that took off in different directions. We had a lot of casualties, but enough people managed to do enough damage to the various hounds, and they turned back into Vampyr Jarl. The group got him down to 1% when we ran out of time. It sure was fun though, and we ended up with 1920 ampoules for our efforts.

Tuesday night was my fourth Einherjar. Again, we did a Tier 3, this time Brunhilde's Chamber. We had a full crew for the fight, and started out with a wave of chigoes. These nasty fleas managed to strip off all of our buffs, including food. Losing Reraise was especially annoying. We got them all killed, along with the tiger Saehrimnir. Then the boss du jour arrived, Motsognir, a Dvergr, or as I prefer to call them, a floaty chair dude (like in the FL assault, The Price is Right). He was accompanied by 12 named demons, which needed to be killed before Motsognir would take any damage. He would lose a percentage of his HP for each demon we killed. Kabbalah was calling, so I was assigned to try to keep Motsognir away from the group fighting the demons, and Genno was on crowd contol/backup for Kabbalah.

The demons couldn't really be slept, and we were having trouble keeping Motsognir under control. I'm not sure how hate works with him, since I had a demon run over and smack me when I hadn't done anything to any of the demons, just had been provoking and flashing Mr. Floaty Dude. He used the same annoying Hellsnap ability and cast a lot of tier IV and -ga spells. My Shadow Ring proc'd on at least one, but I took too much repeated damage for Peti and the others to keep me alive as I ran around trying to keep Motsognir's attention. I popped back up and kited while weak to buy the crew more undisturbed time with the demons, but didn't last long, so I tried yet again.

It really was a fun fight, but quite a few casualties. We won with a few minutes to spare, and the chest contained the Marital Feet Abjuration! Yeah, I know the M. Feet aren't much to get excited about, but it was an abjuration! Apparently it was the second one Eminence has seen in six months of Einherjar. Tanta and Cupcake lotted on it, with Tanta winning. There were a few Platinum ingots as well, and we all were rewarded with 960 ampoules for the fight.

This is my favorite sort of event - a battle with a short time limit, and a boss tough enough to require actual tanking. And being able to get neat items makes it all the more fun. I'm really enjoying it quite a bit. As it looks now, I won't be able to participate in the linkshell's first Odin fight, since I still need a Tier 2 feather, and they're planning fight Odin as soon as the final Tier 3 feather is obtained by characters with the other 8 feathers already. But it will be soon, and it's all new and exciting for me. :-)

Perhaps it was Inevitable

I applied to Eminence last week. Yes me, the Taru that was never going to do anything end-game. I applied to an HNMLS. Really. And they've given me a trial pearl. I think Beaucedine Glacier must be melting, and flowers are blooming in Xarcabard.

This came about mostly because there are things I'd like to do in the game that I haven't done yet: like Einherjar and, as I put it in my app, helping tank bigger and badder monsters than I've encountered in the past. I was talking to Goldfish earlier last week about Einherjar, asking if he thought TU might be able to cobble together a competent enough group of people to try it, since we're probably killing Salvage. I figured most people who were interested in it were already doing it with other shells. He said "You know, you should just join an HNMLS," and added that Eminence was open for applications.

I talked with Goldfish a bit about the shell, wrote up an application, talked to Peti as well, and then the next evening got a bit of encouragement from both Diasuke and Aksukia. So I actually submitted the application last Tuesday evening. I feared my lack of end-game experience and the fact that I have only PLD at 75 would weigh heavily against me, but I do have a lot of experience with Dynamis and Limbus, and have done a lot of different things like missions, assaults, and Nyzul. And I really do have a lot of nice gear on my PLD, thanks to all the people who've helped me over the years.

The Eminence schedule seems TU-friendly, since we have members who are in both (Goldfish, Peti, Dasheeit, and Reefermadness), and the few open spots in my schedule seem to fit in nicely with them. However, I do have a lot of in-game commitments, not to mention my long commute and full-time job allowing me only a few hours in the evenings for FFXI. Hopefully this won't be a problem going forward.

The public reaction to my application was welcoming, and on Saturday afternoon, Nyx/Muffins found me in Southern San d'Oria [S] and gave me my pearl. I attended my first Einherjar run (Tier I) and a Sea farming excursion that afternoon, and it was a lot of fun, though I felt very much out of my element, not to mention nervous, while trying to make a decent impression. I felt a bit like a bug under a microscope. I'll get over that soon enough I'm sure!

The End of an Era

Venn, the founder of TheUltimates and its sister shells, has quit FFXI. He'd been pulling back significantly over the past school year, as it was his first year in law school, but finally decided it was best for him to leave the game entirely. Some of us knew he was thinking of quitting, but most just thought he was taking a break for finals in April/May. However, I don't think his departure came as a huge shock to anyone. Fortunately for the shells, Venn put a good team of sackholders in place, and we'll continue to run things as we have been. Allia will get the dubious honor of being the shell owner when we re-pearl, so she'll get to head up the Complaints Department. Lucky girl!

I know he didn't have the best reputation with some people, but I was fond of our emo DRG leader. He had his ideals, and he stuck to them. His wild mood swings were even entertaining at times! Venn, if you're out there reading this, here's a /salute from one of your lieutenants. Best wishes for your life's endeavors!

Hmmm... I guess this as good a place as any for a quick update on Dynamis. The shell has been doing well lately, which is really nice. We seem to have the right combinations of jobs and players, and are beating the zones that have sometimes proven troublesome, like Qufim and Xarcabard. It's always so sad to wipe when the Dynamis Lord has just a sliver of health left. It's much more fun when we win. Even if he doesn't drop lovely Shadow items.

We're routinely going after the attestation mobs now every time in the Glacier, which provides a bit of a diversion from the normal exploratory or flag runs. I really dislike the PLD/WAR/RDM one, Goublefaupe. He uses Mighty Strikes when the sac puller aggros him, so I get beat on with huge critical hits as I drag him back to camp, usually dying just short of camp since Sentinel wears off before I get there. I used Invincible once on the pull, and that at least got me back to camp safely.

The tank pool is currently in good shape too, after a couple of months where Thom and I might be the only two tanks in attendance on a run. Lumikumi's back after a 2 month break for real life, and we've had a couple new PLDs join: Synne (our first Mithra PLD!), and Lobster. Elide is also back now one another character (Azadan), and he can come as either PLD or NIN.

One recent disappointment was not getting to do Tavnazia again. We had it scheduled for May 24, the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, but not enough people signed up for it. I don't know if that's because a lot of the people with access were away for the weekend, or if people just don't want to do it. I really want to do that again. However, we ended up doing a terrific Qufim run instead, and got some more people access in the process.