For King and Country!?

One of the most exciting changes in the June update, at least for me, was the preservation of Outpost Teleports when changing nations. The loss of OP Teleports was the only thing holding me back from changing nations to experience the story lines. I felt it would be extremely difficult to re-obtain both the Ronfaure and Gustaberg teleports, and decided I would switch nations only when I was ready to quit the game. With this change, I was free to switch, since I would still have all my OPs available when I switch back to Windurst.

This was the tipping point for quite a few ClanBEB members as well, so we've all switched allegiences together, and are working on the missions as a group. We didn't have anyone aligned with Bastok, so all the San d'Orians switched to Windurst, while the Windurstians have switched to San d'Oria.

I switched to San d'Oria after Dynamis on Saturday, June 14. Sandy was in second place, so I had to pay 12,000 gil for the privilege of joining their ranks. It was funny getting dropped into the starting cutscene as a PLD75 decked out in fancy gear, as opposed to the ?-mark head in her green Tarutaru PJs I was when I started 4 years ago in Windurst. Two weeks later, on the afternoon of Saturday June 28, Kiki was a Rank 10 San d'Orian, and a San d'Orian Royal Heir. I'm probably going to wait a bit to switch to Bastok, and have gotten enough of the OPs (missing Tavnazia, Beaucedine, Qufim and the starter zones) to keep me happy in San d'Oria for a bit. If the lack of conquest points starts to chafe, I'll switch back to Windurst before doing Bastok.

I had a fun time doing the missions in as much of a whirlwind as possible given time constraints and game-induced delays.

My first fun was trying to solo the Bastok dragon for Mission 2-3 as a BLU25/NIN12. I made three attempts, but it just wasn't quite working out for me, so I dragged Erock out to help me as a naked BLM25. He kept the dragon slept while I quickly killed the eye, then moved on to the dragon. With his help, it was just way too easy. My main problem with soloing was getting drawn in by the dragon while it was asleep. Cheater dragon. This pulled me too far from the eye and I wasted time running back to it and the dragon would wake up and that would pretty much be it at that point. I think I'll try again if/when I switch to Bastok.

It's amazing how quickly the "run around everywhere" missions go when you can teleport/warp places. Not to mention being able to get in places easily, like the basement of Delkfutt's Tower and the magicite areas in the Beastmen strongholds.

The morning of Saturday June 21, we were planning to do mission 5-1 for the groups working on Windurst and San d'Oria missions. We suited up with our level 50 gear and met up in Fei'Yin. We ended up doing two rounds to get the 9 of us through it, but they went very quickly. Much easier now that the first time doing this when we were level 50.

The plan was to continue on with the missions, but I had a terrible migraine and had to bow out after the 5-1 fights. We figured we could get me caught up before the following weekend.

So Sunday morning I decided I was going to try to solo the Shadow Lord (mission 5-2) as my PLD/RDM. I figured it might just work. So I checked youtube for videos, and only found a PLD/WHM who took 3 tries. I figured /RDM would work better, so I wasn't too worried. I walked there all the way from San d'Oria, thinking how much easier it is to navigate Beaucedine Glacier now with all the Dynamis runs I've been on there.

The fight itself was easier than I expected, though it did take nearly 20 minutes. I ate Carbonara for the extra HP, buffed up with Protect IV, Shell III, Blink, Stoneskin and Phalanx, and rested for MP. I started out with my Tatami Shield for the intimidation effect, and because people had said Ice Trousers didn't work with Reprisal, and I didn't look to see how they differed from the Ice Shield. Turns out Ice Shields work just fine with Reprisal...

Anyway, overall, my gear was a little bit odd, with a mix of magic damage reduction, haste, divine skill and enhancing skill. I wore my Parade Gorget as my only additional refresh, and used my Mensur Epee for its low delay and attack bonus while solo. I used Enfire, which was giving me an extra 16 points of damage per hit.

I didn't even bother reapplying stoneskin after it wore. He missed me a lot, and didn't hit for all that much (usually) when he did connect. Between Phalanx and shield blocks, I got hit of 0 a lot. I used Chivalry once, and switched over to my Ice Shield after that. Paralyze from the ice spikes proc'd a lot more than the intimidate from the Tatami. Things slowed down a bit during his melee-immune phase, but I had plenty of MP and cast Holy a few times over the course of the fight. Otherwise it was just my Dia II, Enfire, Reprisal and Ice Spikes that did any damage to him.

It was quite fun really, and I'm pretty sure I'll switch to Bastok if for nothing else other than the opportunity to do it again! Well, that and try to solo the stupid dragon...

Next up was Mission 6-1, which involved defeating a cactuar in West Altepa that loves to spam 1000 Needles. I figured I'd try to solo it as PLD/BST, with my trusty NPC helping out. First I had the two cactuars that hang out in the pond fight each other to the death, then I grabbed a nearby scorpion as my pet, and popped the NM cactuar. The fight went pretty well, and the scorpion held up better than I thought it would, despite the 5 or so 1000 Needles. Balu-Falu ran out of MP, but I had enough for the both of us, and we won the fight without too much trouble. Much more exciting than with a bunch of other people!

Anastasia and Yobun had stopped on Mission 6-2 on Saturday, so I headed to King Ranpere's Tomb to kill the wimpy wimpy skeleton there. For the mission, 3 skeletons spawn, but if you pop them with sneak up, you can pull a single one and let the other two despawn. So I did just that, pulling the WAR-type, and let him "beat on" me for a few minutes while the other two despawned. I don't think he broke my stoneskin even.

New conquest tally that morning gave me three more outposts to get, bringing me to a total of 12 for San d'Oria, versus the 17 I have for Windurst.

Monday night before Nyzul Isle, I finished the cutscenes for 6-2, and started 7-1. For a lot of the missions, I needed to either trade crystals to the gate guard, or repeat the Bat Hunt mission, which was a bit cheaper, but a little more time consuming to go through the dialog each time. But I could just get a stack of bat fangs and stand next to the mission guy taking the mission and trade him a bat fang then take the mission again until the new mission was available.

For Mission 7-1, you have to defeat a MNK Orc NM in East Ronfaure, which you get to by going through the Oubliette. I did this with Ana's SCH and my NPC, but it was really too easy for us at our level. The Orc scarcely touched me. We finished up the mission cutscenes, picked up 7-2, and headed to a BC fight in Horlais Peak with Yobun's THF, and him dual-boxing Wendell on WHM. 2 Warmachines and 3 Orcs later, we were done with that mission, and Rank 8!

On Wednesday, I started Mission 8-1 before Dynamis, then met up with Ana and Yobun and Wendell at Quicksand Caves to fight 2 Krakens. Then on Friday, it was Mission 8-2, where we met up at the Temple of Uggalepih to kill a Doll there.

Saturday morning, I picked up Mission 9-1, and headed off to the Valley of Sorrows and then Xarcabard to collect some items, then Yobun, Ryken, and I helped Lalandra with her Orc NM in Davoi for Windurst 8-1. Anastasia arrived, and we headed to the island in Batallia Downs that you get to through the Eldieme Necropolis. There we had to fight two greater birds, but we let one despawn.

Then on to the final mission, which included a BC fight in Qu'Bia Arena. So Yobun, Ana, Wendell and I made the long trek back to Fei'Yin, and handily defeated the swarms of Orcs. We had a bit of help from Prince Trion on the final three, but we could have done it without him...

And so my two weeks of running errands for the Royals was complete. We attained Rank 10, got our San d'Orian flags for our moghouses, and something like 319,000 gil in the process. Not a bad way to spend my "spare" time! I actually enjoyed the storyline quite a bit, and learned a lot more about San d'Orian history. I was a bit disappointed at the conclusion of things though. I had envisioned something with a more important role for Claidie.


New Titles: Fodderchief Flayer, San d'Orian Royal Heir

Eternal Mercenary

The August 27th update brought us, amongst other things, the completion of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan missions. Lucrezia organized ClanBEB's runs for the actual fights last Saturday, so we all got our cutscenes done beforehand. The first fight (for Mission 42, Path of Darkness) takes place at the Nyzul Isle staging point, and you have Naja Salaheem helping out. The fight has three phases, the first against Amnaf (a Blue Mage) and 4 single gears. You have to kill all the gears and get Amnaf down to about 50%, when she warps ahead. The second phase has Amnaf summoning 4 triple gears, and again you have to defeat the gears and get her down to half health. The third time, Amnaf has changed into a Soulflayer, but doesn't summon any more gears.

We ended up failing the first attempt, but learned enough to modify our strategy to win the next two fights (we had 7 people, so 5 of us had to repeat the fight). Lucrezia would flee into aggro Amnaf, and kite everything while the rest of us assisted Naja, fighting whatever she decided to fight. The Soulflayer itself was pretty resistant to physical and magical damage, but wasn't a very tough fight.

After a couple more cutscenes, we were ready for the final battle, for Mission 44, Nashmeira's Plea. Yobun had to leave after the earlier fight, so we just had a single team: Lucrezia (THF), Ranzz (RDM), Anastasia (BLM), Ryken (MNK), Goto (WHM) and Tsakiki (PLD). This fight is also in the Nyzul Isle staging point, so travel was a lot easier than it was for some of the earlier missions. For this fight, you first face Raubahn, another Blue Mage, and Razfahd. The BLU reraises twice, so you have to kill him three times, while Razfahd gives up after he's at half health and then you have to fight Alexander, a very large automaton with lots of annoying, powerful, AOE attacks. This part of the fight was actually tough enough to be quite satisfying when we won. We wiped, reraised, and finished him off with little time to spare.

We headed back to Whitegate for a few more "missions", bringing the storyline to completion. I found myself getting a bit misty-eyed at a couple of the scenes. Our group picked out our shiny new rings from Nashmeira (I took Ulthalam's Ring, which has Accuracy +4 and Attack +4, plus STR+4, DEX+4, and Regen in Assault and Salvage), then got our Glory Crown back from Naja.




New titles: Endymion Paratrooper, Naja's Comrade-in-arms, Nashmeira's Loyalist, Preventer of Ragnarok, Champion of Aht Urhgan, Eternal Mercenary

Missions: Legacy of the Lost (ToAU 35)

The update two weeks ago added, amongst other things, the continuation of the Treasures of Aht Urhgan mission series (Missions 33-38). Once again, the missions were mostly cutscenes, but there was one rather annoying BC fight for Mission 35 (Legacy of the Lost). ClanBEB decided to tackle it en masse that Saturday. We ended up with 8 people, so we did it in two bunches.

This BC takes place in Talacca Cove, but you get warped right there from a cutscene at the cutter for the Black Coffin, which was a bit of a surprise. It's not like Square-Enix to give us a short cut when they could make us walk through zones infested with true sight monsters instead.

We've been set up to fight our old ally, Ghesso, and he's got a few annoying tricks up his sleeve, and it took us awhile to work out a strategy to defeat him. Our first crew had Kiki (PLD), Goto (WHM), Ryken (MNK), Diasuke (RDM), Yobun (MNK, and Lucrezia (THF). I don't know how many times we fought him before we finally won, 4 or 5 I'd guess, but what finally worked for us was to completely ignore his shadows, and have them all hitting me, since with Phalanx II from Diasuke, they were hitting me for less than 10 damage each. We also disengaged from attacking him to keep from feeding him TP for his TP moves, since each of his shadows would do one at the same time.

On our other attempts, various things went wrong, like Goto getting hate from all the shadows when they popped and quickly being defeated (I guess Goto had hit me with a Cure IV just as Ghesso was activating them). Mijin Gakure was also a big pain, especially when his shadows were out.

After our win, we got our cutscene and ran back to the starting point. We swapped out Yobun for Anastasia's BLM, and Diasuke for Ranzz's BRD, but two runs with this group didn't work so well, so we swapped Lucrezia out to get Diasuke back in - Phalanx II really seemed to make a big difference. That worked, and we were done for the day.

One of the things that was different with Ana in the group was that Ghesso warped around as hate shifted. With an all-melee group for the first rounds, he hadn't done that at all. It took us by surprise the first time that it happened, and led to our first failure with the second group.

We headed back to Whitegate for a final cutscene with Naja, and now we wait again until the next update for more missions!

New titles: Salaheem's Risk Assessor, Treasure Trove Tender, Ghesso's Mercy, Emissary of the Empress

Missions: Revisiting CoP

Over the past few months, and especially the last few weeks, Venn's been making a concerted effort to shepherd more members of The Ultimates through the CoP missions. We should have a new crop ready for Limbus before our run this Thursday, which will be nice. I've been helping out where I can, but since most of the activity has been taking place late on work nights, I haven't been able to help on a lot of them.

We've made a couple Tenzen runs for people who have just needed that last mission to get Sea, and they were both for one person each time (Goto, who's already quit TU, and Tye). It's really kind of fun to go beat up Tenzen, just as it was the first time. The melee with the biggest e-peen always pulls hate just before Tenzen lets loose with his first weapon skill, killing that run's Mr. Bigshot with a hit for 2800 damage. The rest of us continue on and Tenzen gives up quickly, and the happy person needing the mission finds himself in Sea after a cutscene. This was before the recent update that made a lot of the CoP missions easier, including the Tenzen fight. I don't know why they made Tenzen easier - we've never had any trouble with it.

I helped a group farming Hippogryph feathers in Riverne B last month, and that was rather fun. We had Venn (DRG), Ryken (MNK), Reefermadness (BLM), Albany (WHM), and Uvela (SMN). I've always done feather farming in Riverne A, usually just the easy ones near the entrance. We were getting great limit points on the Stratus Hippogryphs in B though, better than some of my merit parties in Bhaflau Thickets have been!

A couple of weeks ago, I helped on CoP 4-2 for Jarbit and Frostwitch. I went as PLD, and we had 3 BLMs (Jarbit, Neborin, Darsonavin), with Frostwitch on RDM and Albany on RNG. We decided to just head to Monarch Linn without mistmelts and do a dry run before farming for feathers (again, this was before the recent update which made the items available on the AH). We actually ended up doing 3 runs, and winning on the third. We went through a few variations of sleeping and nuking and kiting and fighting in the tunnel, but here's what finally worked, and worked so well it was quite sad when I reflected how terribly hard this was for my static to win.

Albany had to go AFK suddenly and wasn't sure when he'd be back, so we decided to try it with just the five of us. I found this particular strategy on the FFXIclopedia, and it was just a bit different that what we'd been doing, but it was different enough to make it a cake walk. What we did was have me run in and start fighting Ouryu, with everyone helping fight and keep me healthy until Ouryu took to the air. Then the 3 BLMs cast Freeze at the same time, which did a lot of damage, and brought him to the ground right away. They then slept him and we rested until he woke up and took to the air again immediately. Once again, they cast Freeze, brought him down, slept him, and rested. We repeated this once or twice again, and he gave up. I had disengaged as soon as he took flight the first time, and spent the rest of the battle doing whatever I could to keep his attention on me and not the BLMs.

Later that same night, Venn and Goto and I helped a big group with CoP 4-3 in Sacrarium. We already had the keys needed to open the door with two locks that leads to the Reliquiarium, so we didn't need to fight any Fomor or Keremet. Everyone had cleared hate on the way to Sacrarium, so aggro wasn't an issue from them, but someone had the bright idea to just fight our way through the maze. Blood aggro in there with all the undead isn't pretty. We also fought the Teratotaurs along the way, since we had such a big group. We finally got to the Reliquiarium for everyone to get their cutscene, and we left Venn behind the door and set out to check the classrooms and find the old Professor's ghost.

Since we didn't have Fomor hate, we opted to fight in the classroom, which would help minimize the time wasted when the ghost warps around. In hindsight, that may not have the best decision. Somehow Ryken hit one of the Fomor on a weaponskill just as the ghost warped away (autotarget? I don't know). So after we finished off the ghost, we had to take care of that Fomoor. I was hoping one wouldn't give us enough hate to aggro the others, but indeed it did. We had to kill two more Fomor that jumped on us, and then had to use Sneak to get back to where Venn was waiting and everyone could complete the mission.

I feel bad that people missed out on the "fun" of fighting Keremet, but it does make the mission quicker and safer to use the key that someone else had hung onto from when they did the mission.

Missions: Shades of Vengence (ToAU 31)

A week ago, having defeated the Lancelord Gaheel Ja, a bunch of ClanBEB set out to try to rescue Aphmau and her puppets. We were sent to Periqia at the Dvucca Isle Staging Point, and found ourselves facing a horde of K23H1-LAMIAE. I was with Diasuke (SMN75), Demin (MNK75), Yobun (BLM75), Lucrezia (NIN75), and Ranzz (BRD75). The fight didn't go as well as expected, and we were defeated. Lesson learned - don't stand within blood aggro range of a bunch of Lamiae when you've used Carbuncle to pull one.

The Lamiae have a terrible poison that they inflict that does 80 hp damage per tick, and I tried using poison potions to counteract it, but either it wore off or the Lamia poison over-wrote it. We all had antidotes on us as well, and made heavy use of them. Our second round went a bit better, and we got three of them killed and after another surprising cutscene, completed the mission. Again, I'll not spoil the story here, but I do need to go back and rewatch some of the previous mission cutscenes to see if I can see clues to a twist in the plot. I think they're there, but I want to see them again.

New title: Nashmeira's Mercenary

Missions: Puppet in Peril (ToAU 29)

The new update last week included more missions in the Treasures of Aht Uhrghan storyline. Kiki went to talk to Naja, then headed to the Imperial Whitegate for an audience with the Grand Vizier. He asked Kiki to head to the Aydeewa Subterrane to look for clues in Aphmau's disappearance.

Kiki grabbed a chocobo and made her way to one of the lower rooms in Aydeewa Subterrane, where she found one of the Immortals, Rishfee. He suggested Kiki should head to Walahara Temple in Whitegate. There she found Gessho talking with Nadeey and learned that Aphmau had indeed sought sanctuary there in the temple. Aphmau asked Kiki for her help in rescuing Ovjang from Mamook.

Lucrezia (THF), Ranzz (BRD), and Goto (WHM) were on the same mission, and we banded together and headed to the Jade Sepulcher near the Mamool Ja Staging Point. We found ourselves in a battle with Lancelord Gaheel Ja, who was riding a huge Wivre, the likes of which we hadn't seen. It was a difficult fight, since Gaheel Ja kept curing himself for more than we could damage him, and he didn't have a normal hate mechanism, and would randomly go after any one of us. We ended up failing, with Goto dying twice and Kiki once. Ranzz and Luc were able to make it out of the BC alive.

Last night, Ranzz, Lucrezia, and Kiki returned to the Jade Sepulcer, with Lucrezia as NIN. Diasuke (RDM), Yobun (BLM), and Corbun (SAM) came along with us this time, and we were able to fairly easily defeat Gaheel Ja. Corbun died, reraised, and died again immediately, but he was the only fatality. Aphmau and her automatons are still in danger though, so we must go further afield to rescue them.

Missions: Venn's Dirty Work (CoP 2-5)

In an effort to get more members of TheUltimates access to the CoP Dynamis zones (past the Diabolos fight, CoP 3-5), Allia created a new linkshell, VennsDirtyWork, and has been organizing mission runs for the members who need them. Mission 2-5, Ancient Vows, was scheduled for Sunday. I've offered to help out with missions where I'm needed, if I'm available, and Allia asked me to be a kiter for one of the two teams. I spent most of Sunday morning shuffling gear around so I could get dressed as a BST40/NIN20, and got about 15 Hi-Potions from one of my Hi-Potion Tanks from Assault. Since we were supposed to meet at 5PM, I ran out to Cape Riverne and logged out there, not sure when I'd get home from running errands.

We didn't get going until close to 6PM (all the helpers were on-time, it's funny that one or two of the people actually needing the mission were the ones dragging their feet), and had an alliance of 15 making the journey through Riverne Site A01. Three people seemed to be coming along just for moral support (Kojita, a WHM/SMN who's name I can't remember, but started with an E and was 5 letters, and Tepe, a RDM/WHM). The rest of us were split up into the two teams for the mission, with 4 people who needed the mission on each team. Easykill was supposed to be the other kiter on my team, but he got mad for some reason and left just as we reached Monarch Linn. Seemed to have something to do with a lot of hippogryph aggro that we were trying to sleep and run away from, but I'm not really sure what happened to make him so mad. So Vaevictis got to pull double duty as kiter on the first team and tank for the second team.

Vaevictis NIN/WAR - kiter
Tsakiki BST/NIN - kiter
Mayze NIN/WAR - tank
Saron BLU/NIN
Divinities RNG/NIN
Reefermadness WHM/BLM

Jarbit PLD/WAR - super tank
Habanero BRD/WHM - super tank support
Vaevictus NIN/WAR - tank
Anrita WHM/SMN
Fliggity WAR/NIN
Allia BLM/WHM

Allia had done a great job on organizing things and making sure everyone came prepared with reraise items, prism powders, and a yellow liquid each. We handed those over to the tanks, talked over our strategies, and the first team headed in for its "dry run".

I called a Crab Familiar, ate my food, used my reraise earring, and ran to the end of the tunnel with Vae while we waited for the others to watch their cutscene. Mayze provoked the middle mammet and dragged it back to the entrance, while I sicced my pet on the right one and Vae provoke the left one. Things went really well with the kiting, though I did get hit with -ga spells a couple times, and it took a few hits for my second crab to get the mammet's attention, but the fighting team took down the first mammet pretty quickly. Since Vae was in better shape than me, I took my mammet over to the group. Mayze ended up getting killed on the second mammet. He reraised, but got hit with a -ga spell pretty quickly and was dead again. However, the mammet was quite low health, so we got it killed and turned our attention to the final mammet, with Vae tanking it. When my second crab died, I called a Tiger Familiar to help beat down the mammet, heeling it when the mammet used Transmogrify. The battle was soon over, and the four people needing the mission ended up in South Gustaberg after their cutscene. Vae and I headed back to the Monarch Linn entrance and the second team got ready for their fight.

They were also planning to do a "dry run" first. This team was using the PLD "super tank" strategy: the PLD body-aggros all of the mammets, and has a support person to help keep them alive (they won't pull hate as long as the PLD hasn't actually done anything to the mammets). The fighting party takes one mammet at a time to kill. Once the first mammet is dead, it's pretty much a sure win, barring some bad luck with the mammet abilities. They also won on their dry run, with no deaths.

Missions: Shield of Diplomacy (ToAU 22)

When the last big update came out last October, Grymalkyn and I spent the first evening post-update running around in Whitegate and environs, getting all of the cutscenes for the new missions that they added. We quickly got up to Mission 22, Shield of Diplomacy, which involves a BC fight with Khimaira 13, in the Navukgo Execution Chamber. We decided we would try to do that one with our usual crew, but since our usual crew doesn't seem to play much any more (and when they did, it was just for CoP or Ninja Blues), I started thinking I'd need to find other people to do it with. Last week SquareEnix announced the next update in early March would be adding new missions, and on Saturday, my husband told me that Grymalkyn would no longer be doing anything in-game other than liquidating assets.

So after Dynamis on Saturday, when someone said they wanted to do mission 22, I raised my hand and said I wanted to go as well. We ended up with a team of 2 PLD/WARs and 3 WHM/SMNs (Mayze, Tsakiki, Meshe, Sarntur, Fliggity), since Karababa does so much damage on her own, and we just needed to keep her alive. We used the Runic Portal to get to the Halvung Staging Point in Mount Zhayolm, and made our way to the Navukgo Execution Chamber. It's a long and scary walk, and three of us ended up getting aggro from the giant mothra monsters (Wamoura), which are true-hearing and not fooled by Sneak or Silent Oils.

From what we'd read about the fight, it seemed a sacrifice had to be made. Mayze volunteered to get aggro and die, so that Karababa would start fighting and we'd just keep her alive. However, it quickly became apparent that Mayze and I could actually tank Khimaira 13. It was a long fight, but no one died, and it was a lot of fun too. Mayze did most of the tanking, but I tried to keep my hate level high and pulled Khimaira off of him when his HP dropped too low. We all blew through pretty much our full MP during the fight (I used a couple of melon juices, and the WHMs were using Devotion on one another), but it wasn't as bad as some people had made out.

On Sunday morning, I completed the cutscenes up through Mission 25, and now have to wait until the next update for new missions.

New Title: Karababa's Secret Agent

Missions: Dawn (CoP 8-4)

Friday night marked the end of a long and wonderful journey that Kiki made together with her friends Grymalkyn, Elboron, Itera, Wendell and Splinte. We started off just over 10 months ago with Ancient Vows, fighting 3 Mammets in Monarch Linn. We were determined to complete the entire Chains of Promathia together as a team, despite some people telling us we'd probably have to level different jobs for some of the missions, as our line up of PLD, THF, BRD, MNK, WHM, and WAR was considered unlikely to succeed.

We did use different jobs for two of the missions, with the PLD and THF both using BST for the Mammets, and the PLD as DRK and the WAR as NIN for Diabolos, but other than that, we stuck to our guns, and proved that we could do it. It wasn't the easiest way to get through CoP, but we didn't see it as something to simply "get through". We enjoyed the challenges each mission presented, and it was very satisfying to come up with a winning strategy for each.

At times, real life seemed to threaten our progress, since Friday evenings were the only time that all six of us could be together in the game. This just meant it would take us that much longer. It's not like there was any time limit on saving the world. I'm so happy that we were able to do it all together as a team.

This past Friday, we headed back to the Empyreal Paradox for the final showdown with Promathia. From our sight-seeing trip the previous week, we knew the first form was pretty easy, and that I would have to bulk up my HP while I was kiting the second form. Grym, Itera, and Splinte all subbed NIN for some protection from shadows, Wendell subbed SMN for the autorefresh, while Elboron was his usual /WHM and I was my usual /WAR. We slept for TP before entering the BC, buffed up and headed in. With my gear and food (Carbonara), I had just over 1500 HP, and as much enmity as I could have, balanced with the increased HP.

The first form was pretty annoying, using his stun move more than I would have liked, but we got it down, rested up and started in on the second form. I was kiting around the edge of the BC, as I had with the Elvaan Ark Angel in Zilart Mission 14, but this meant I was out of range of Wendell's cures too often. We ended up wiping, but Splinte and Prishe made a valiant effort when the rest of us were dead. A timely Benediction from Prishe got the two of them back to full health, and Splinte avoided Promathia's attacks for a good while, but got a bit over-zealous with a Rampage, pulled hate and died. I really hate the AOE stun, the amnesia, and the perma-silence from Promathia too.

Itera and Elboron had both used their two hours on the first attempt, but we weren't concerned about having them missing for our second attempt. This time the first form was less annoying, and I opted to kite the second form across the circle rather than around the edge. This worked a lot better. It also helped that Promathia used Comet more than Meteor, which meant only I was taking damage, if I was in range when he finished casting. I ended up dying as we got him down to under about 10%, having got hit twice quickly for ~300 points each, then hit with Comet for over 1000 damage, all in quick succession. Everyone else finished him off, and we had won!

After our cutscene, we headed to Blueblade Fell for a final group picture. That's the location for the final cutscene from the missions, and I didn't think we'd be able to do them as a group, but thought it would be a fitting setting for the last group picture. It was a bittersweet conclusion.

On Saturday, I traveled around Vana'diel to see all the cutscenes to complete the mission, effectively saying goodbye to the starring characters. I started off in Windurst, headed to Mhaura to see the Sin Hunters, then Purgonorgo Isle for the Chebukki siblings. Later I went to San d'Oria, followed Louverance to Uleguerand Range, and then back to San d'Oria. Next I went to talk to Cid in Bastok, and said farewell to Tenzen, then saw Jabbos in Oldton Movalpolis. It was off to Jeuno where I talked to Wolfgang at the Palace and then Esha'ntarl at the Marble Bridge.

Esha'ntarl offered me my choice of three rings as a reward: Rajas Ring, Tamas Ring, or Sattva Ring. My intention for months and months was always to get the Rajas Ring, which is considered by many to be the supreme melee ring available in the game. My life in the game has changed significantly since I made that decision, and I'm actually doing things I never thought I'd be doing: "end game" tanking.

I'm a PLD, I love being a PLD, and I really don't envision leveling any other job past 60. So it became clear to me that the Sattva Ring was the right one for me. There's just so much good on that one ring. It's like having a Nimble Ring, a Robust Ring, a Hercules Ring, and half a Bomb Queen Ring all on one finger. I get 5 VIT, 5 AGI, 30 HP, and 3 Enmity. How could I turn that down? It's true the Rajas Ring would be much more useful for other jobs, but even then, I see it as a weapon-skill-only ring, as I'd generally be wearing +Accuracy for TP-build.

After getting my new ring, I headed to Tavnazia to see Ulmia and Prishe. Prishe went running off, but I found her in Lufaise Meadows, above Blueblade Fell. A final fullscreen cutscene later, and it was all over. I'd completed the Chains of Promathia, along with my best friends in the game. It's a very sad conclusion to our long journey though, as it signals the end of the game for Grymalkyn, and most likely Elboron. I'll miss them both so much, but I'm glad that we got to save the world a few times together (Mission 5-2, Windurst Mission 9-2, Zilart Mission 16, and CoP Mission 8-4). Hopefully the world won't need saving again, since it will be hard to do it without them.

New titles: Averter of the Apocalypse, Banisher of Emptiness

Missions: When Angels Fall (CoP 8-3)

A week ago Friday, our static met in the Tavnazian Safehold and headed to The Garden of Ru'Hmet for the penultimate mission in the Chains of Promathia story line, When Angels Fall. First we had to make our way to the top floors of three of the towers in the Garden, so that we could each get a key item specific for our race. The Galkas needed the Light of Al'Taieu, the Mithras needed the Light of Dem, while the Tarutarus needed the Light of Holla. Good thing we didn't have a Hume and Elvaan in the group, as it would have taken a lot longer.

We had to do a lot of sneaking around and some fighting as we made our way through each tower, and we had a few deaths along the way. The strategy that worked pretty well for us was to have Grym flee through each level, gathering up the mobs between the entrance and the exit elevators, hopefully making it to the elevator safely. Then the mobs would despawn and the rest of us could make it through.

Once we had all obtained our Light, we had to then get the Brand of Twilight and the Brand of Dawn, from opposite ends of the second floor of the Garden. To get to the central elevator, we had to pass through a gauntlet of 4 pots. The door at the far end would shut as soon as they leave their pedestals when they spot someone in their room, so our plan was to have Grym run in and have them all kill her in a corner while we hid in an opposite corner. That didn't work as we planned. So Wendell reraised and managed to raise the rest of us without the pots noticing after they returned to their posts, and we were able to get through the door and head up the elevator.

After more sneaking around, we were ready to enter the battlefield for the mission. We first fought some of the Ghrah to build up TP, and we headed in to fight four pots, called Ix'zdeis. Our plan was to have me run in first to get aggro from them all, and pull them to the back side. The two at the back are BLMs, and it's best to kill them first, since they can cause more problems with their -aga spells, and they have a bit less HP than the other two pots, which are RDMs. We hoped to kill both of the BLM pots before wiping, and hoped to reraise safely and continue with the fight after we were unweakened. Wendell would use Elemental Seal+Sleepga to put the other 3 pots asleep, with Elboron trying to see if he could land Lullaby on them as well (couldn't, not even with Soul Voice).

It didn't work quite the way we intended. The pots bound me before I got them all the way to the end, and then we only got one dead before we wiped. We were using free weaponskills rather than a chain, since our best weaponskills didn't make a good chain. The pot's special moves really did us in, as we got petrified repeatedly, and there was little we could do. Then, before we could reraise, Wendell got disconnected, and we also figured we were going to get aggro on our reraise, so we just stayed down and got booted out after 3 minutes. Meanwhile, Wendell got logged back in.

I wanted to try a dry run, since Itera still had his two hour left, and I needed to see what that would do so we would be better prepared for the following weekend. We were running short on time, so we didn't get TP either. We had the same problems with petrification, which ended up wasting most of Itera's Hundred Fists, and then just as we got the first pot nearly dead, it jumped back up on its pedestal to "regen", which looked more like a Benediction, since it was instantly full health. That was good to learn as well.

It was a pretty discouraging evening overall, and I wasn't really sure how we could improve. One idea I came up with was to merit Fealty, which would give me 60 seconds of "powerful resistance" to status effects, which could save me from a lot of the crap the pots were throwing at us. So over the week I soloed Lesser Colibri as PLD/NIN and my new Mensur Epee, and had some fun getting the 4k limit points I needed to get to my 3rd merit point, and I "bought" Fealty with it.

For our rematch on Friday, Splinte decided to come WAR/SAM for the TP gain, and I decided using powder boots might help me make it to the back of the BC before getting bound. We had better luck making it to the central elevator this time, with Grym managing to sneak past the pots and through the door, which she could open for the rest of us. I then ran in to aggro them all and die so that the others could all make it up the elevator safely. Elboron got caught though, and died as well. Wendell gave us R3s, and we headed upstairs.

After building our TP, we headed into the fight. My powder boots did get me to the back of the room fast enough, but the one BLM pot that was our first target didn't follow, and sat right next to its pedestal. So we ended up fighting it there. Elboron used Soul Voice and gave us double attack songs, while Wendell put the other three pots to sleep. The fight was much smoother this time, whether Fealty helped, or we just got lucky with the TP moves, I'm not sure. Grym, Itera, and I did our 3 part light skillchain twice, first with the TP we had coming in, then using icarus wings and doing it a second time, and that helped take out a good chunk. Splinte spammed his WS. I think Itera also used Hundred Fists on the first one. It was very scary when the first pot was almost dead, as it started to hop back up on its pedestal for its "regen", but we got it dead somehow. We moved on to the second pot, and Wendell ended up using Benediction and I used Invincible, but we both ended up dying halfway through the second BLM pot. I think it was Splinte, then Elboron, then Itera, then Grym, but they all survived long enough to kill the second pot, and get about a quarter of the HP from one of the RDM pots.

We reraised, rested up, and finished off the last two pots. Splinte did some big weaponskill right at the end and got blasted with Optic Induration for about 1800 damage, so he was dead at the end of the fight, but it was over, and we had won!

We headed across the room for a cutscene, and since the night was young, we decided to check out the fight for the last mission, with no items or two hours or even a plan - just to see what was in store for us the following Friday. It looks like it will be a pretty fun fight. You face Promathia, but have Prishe and Selh'teus helping in the battle. Promathia has two forms, and we killed the first form (I died pretty fast), and even got the second form down a good chunk before wiping, so I think we'll be able to do it just fine when we face it for real.

New Title: Warrior of the Crystal

Missions: A Fate Decided (CoP 8-2)

Some of the people in our CoP static were pretty busy over the holidays, so we didn't get to Mission 8-2, A Fate Decided, until New Year's Day. We met up in Sealion's Den, and headed into the Grand Palace of Hu'Xoi. Yobun wanted to come along and help us, and met us there.

For this mission, we have to escort several Quasilumins though the corridors and rooms in the Palace in order to pass through certain gates and teleport between floors and finally make our way to the room where we fight an NM. Erecia's guide says this can take 4-5 hours, so we were concerned we'd be able to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. Yobun and Akuma both said it was more like 2 hours, and Daden recently did the mission with a pickup group, and he said it took them 3 hours, so that made me feel a bit more comfortable.

The Ghrah mobs in the Palace change forms, and when they're in their ball form, they don't aggro, so we were able to avoid fighting several of these. Many rooms had spinning pots that detect by sight, and I don't think we managed to slip past one of these without fighting. For the parts of the trip that we had to escort the Qausilumins, we just killed everything along the way, to make sure the Qausilumin didn't get killed. The fights weren't too bad, though one of the Ghrahs hit us with a Blizzaga III followed immediately by a Core Meltdown, and Elboron got killed. We also had both Itera and Wendell disconnect at some point on our trip, but they both got back quickly.

One of the Quasilumins made it to his final spot while we were busy killing a pot, and it despawned before I could talk to it and get the gate unlocked. Fortunately none of the mobs had respawned along that path, and we just had to follow along as the Quasilumin sloooowwwlly floated along its path.

We were hoping to make it to the NM fight while it was still Darksday, since it will spam spells of the element of the day, but we ended up starting the fight on Firesday. The NM spawned in ball form, and sure enough, started spamming Firaga III on us toward the end of the fight. We lost both Grymalkyn and Splinte during the battle, but we won. Wendell raised the dead, and we all got our cutscene to complete the mission.

Only two more missions to go!

Missions: The Warrior's Path (CoP 7-5)

Since we'd had a hard time getting the static together during November and didn't finish CoP 7-4 until Friday night, we opted to give up our Ninja Blues static time on Saturday to face Tenzen and the Tarutarus and see if we couldn't finally reach Sea. Saturday evening, we met in the Tavnazian Safehold. We all went in to the BC either singly or in pairs to see the cutscene, look at the layout of the battlefield, and watch the Chebukkis celebrate when Tenzen defeated us. The most amusing thing about this was that Grymalkyn went as a level 1 Summoner, and sicced Ifrit on the Tarutarus. Tenzen came running over to help them, and missed Ifrit. Twice. I think the man has some serious accuracy issues if he has that much trouble with a level 1 avatar. Too bad he doesn't seem to have so much trouble with a full party of level 75s.

The fight for this mission is uncapped. It takes place on one of the airships, just like the Ultima/Omega fight. For this fight, for reasons we can't quite make out, Tenzen has turned against us and has hired the Chebukkis to help him. The Tarutarus can't be harmed, but as a RNG, BLM, and WHM, they do make the fight a little more annoying than it would be with just Tenzen. For this fight, Tenzen ends up self-skillchaining with 4 weaponskills, which end up ejecting the group from the battlefield if you aren't able to defeat him before that point. We decided to approach this fight like we had the Snoll Tzar fight, and go all out to get him dead as fast as we could.

Our set up for the fight was WHM/SMN, BRD/WHM, MNK/NIN, WAR/NIN, THF/NIN, and PLD/WAR. Since Utsusemi blocks most of Tenzen's weaponskills, we felt it prudent to have /NIN on the damage dealers so when they ripped hate away from me, they might survive. We're given 30 minutes for the fight, and we knew the actual fight would only take a couple minutes, so we had plenty of time once we entered the battlefield. Everyone except Wendell put on their Opo-opo Necklaces, and used sleeping potions to reach 300% TP. We all used a reraise item of some sort, so that if any of us died, we could get back up immediately and continue fighting. I was going to use Spirits Within, and had bulked up my HP to over 1500 with gear and Carbonara. After about 15 minutes, we were ready to start the fight. I didn't have a chance to go back over the log in detail, but here's pretty much how it went.

Itera chi-blasted Tenzen to get his attention, and the fight was on. I flashed and provoked him to get his attention, and we all immediately unleashed our strongest weaponskills. My Spirits Within did over 700 damage, thanks to all my extra HP. Grym used TA on me for the extra damage boost. Then the 4 of us meleeing used Icarus Wings and weaponskilled again. Splinte was using Mighty Strikes and Itera Hundred Fists. Splinte ended up getting hit by Tenzen's first weaponskill without any shadows up, and took about 2,250 damage (his max HP is under 1400), dropping him like a sack of rocks. He got right back up, but a -ga spell from Kikki-Chebukki dropped him again. Wendell was getting peppered with arrows from Makki-Chebukki, meanwhile, Itera ended up tanking most of the fight, so I focused on helping keep his HP up and flashing when I could. I'm not sure if Elboron used Soul Voice or not, but as always, his songs really helped the battle go smoothly.

It was over very quickly, and after a long long cutscene, we found ourselves in Al'Taieu. We still have quite a few missions to go before we complete Chains of Promathia, but finally having Sea access feels like a major milestone. We got the first cutscene for Mission 8-1, The Garden of Antiquity, and then spent about an hour exploring Al'Taieu, mostly going from Quasilumin to Quasilumin in order to get our maps for the area. The Quasilumins are NPCs, and look somewhat like an elemental. They're "guides" to the area, with each one giving you a bit of information about Al'Taieu. In order to get the map to the area, you simply need to speak to each one.

Most of the mobs in Al'Taieu will not aggro you. They've all got weird names, so people generally call them by more familiar terms, like "goldfish" (we think they should be called dolphins), "squid", "shark", "UFO". These last two do actually aggro - the sharks coming up from below, and are untargetable until they're coming after you, and the UFOs dropping down from the sky, certain doom for most parties. We had to fight several sharks, but managed to avoid the UFOs. The area is really different from anywhere else in Vana'diel. I really enjoyed our visit there, but it seems to be a playground for BLMs, SMNs, and RDMs rather than the more mundane melee jobs, so I'm not sure how much time we'll end up spending in there. It's cruel that the In the Name of Science quest requires drops from the UFOs for the gorgets the melee types would want. There's no way we could get those without a lot of people helping.

After we got our maps, we decided to see where each of the Dimensional Portals at the three main Crags would take us. We also learned how the Auroral Updrafts work - one near the entrance to the Grand Palace takes you back to Sealion's Den, while the other 5 take you back to the first one. It makes it really easy to travel around, since Updrafts are located near the Dimensional Portals from the crags.

New Title: Seeker of the Light

Missions: Calm Before the Storm (CoP 7-4)

Because of US Thanksgiving and other Real Life stuff going on with various people, we ended up doing CoP Mission 7-4, Calm Before the Storm, three times with various combinations of our group to get everyone through so we could move on to the big fight with Tenzen in 7-5. We all had run around everywhere to get our cutscenes for Missions 7-1 through 7-3, and started Mission 7-4 with Cid in Bastok.

For this mission, you have to fight three NMs: a bugard in Misareaux Coast, a kraken in Bibiki Bay, and 4 Tonberries in Carpenter's Landing. Our first time through we had Itera (MNK), Splinte (WAR), Grymalkyn (THF), and Tsakiki (PLD). We decided to use our NPCs, set on Soothing Healer, to help fill in the party, which worked out really well. Yobun joined us as his SMN to help with the Tonberries, and we found a dead NIN/WHM there as well. He'd been trying to solo them, and was happy to join with us. He ended up dying again, but at least we killed off all the Tonberries and were all able to complete the mission.

The bugard is highly resistant to physical damage, and since that's pretty much all we had, that fight usually took us awhile. For the third time we fought it, we decided to try our old three part light skillchain (red lotus blade -> raging fists -> shark bite), and with Elbo's Light Threnody on the bugard, ended up doing over 1000 damage with just the Light part. The fight was a lot shorter that time.

The second time through the fights, we had Wendell (WHM) and no Splinte. Once again, the NPCs were a big help. The only tricky bit was again the Tonberries, with Wendell ending up getting killed. We had tried to pull the NIN away from his minions, but didn't get him far enough, and they all ran to help him when he called.

For our final time through for Elboron (BRD), we did manage to pull the NIN Tonberry far enough and killed him without trouble. However, it turns out you really have to kill all four Tonberries. We had let the 3 others despawn, and Elbo couldn't get the cutscene. He popped them again, and we had a very messy fight with Astral Flow killing all of us but Itera. However, he managed (with his NPC's help) to continue fighting, and Wendell reraised and kept Itera alive until the Tonberries were all dead. Wendell raised Elboron, and he got his cutscene and could complete the mission.

New titles: Esha'ntarl's Comrade in Arms, Prishe's Buddy

Missions: Rovont and the Shadow Lord (San d'Oria 5-2)

Rovont (PLD60/WAR30) wanted to get Rank 6 this past weekend, and recruited Itera (MNK75/WHM37), Grym (THF75/NIN37) and I (PLD75/RDM37) to help him fight the Shadow Lord. I was curious to see what the fight would be like at 75, since it was pretty challenging for us as a well-balanced party at level 56. Splinte was supposed to come with us as well, but he got waylaid before we got to the fight. It's a lot easier making our way to the Throne Room at level 75, but even without needing to worry about sneak and invisible for anyone but Rovont, it still take quite awhile to weave through the rooms and wait for the teleporters to be active.

We buffed up and headed in to face His Massiveness. Getting antsy while Rovont was busy with his cutscene, the three of us went ahead and got started on the fight. We had Itera Chi Blast at the start, then Grym SATA'd on me to make up for my lack of Provoke. The Shadow Lord wasn't a pushover, and even with all my MP as PLD/RDM, I pretty much used all of it (plus autorefresh and a couple of melon juices). When the Shadow Lord became impervious to physical damage, Rovont and I used Holy and Banish, and Itera used Chi Blast to keep the damage up. I also had enblizzard on, so though my sword hits were doing 0 damage, I was still getting additional damage of 15 from the effect. Grym was hoping to use bloody bolts for the HP Drain, but hadn't really mentioned it to me, so I had cured him when he took damage, negating the effect of the bloody bolts. Sorry about that. Through the course of the fight, we all ended up taking quite a bit of damage from his AOEs, so I used a lot of MP curing myself and others too. It was a fun fight, and Rovont now has Rank 6!

Index: Missions

Tsakiki has completed the Missions for Windurst and the Rise of the Zilart, but still needs to complete missions for Chains of Promathia and the Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Since Assault and Besieged are never-ending, I've put those entries into their own index.

Windurst Missions (complete)

10/2004: Magicite (Windurst 4-3)
03/2005: Magicite For Elboron
02/2005: The Archmage Assassins - Mission 5-1 Completed
11/2005: Saintly Invitation (Windurst Mission 6-2...
01/2006: The Sixth Ministry (Windurst 7-1)
01/2006: Awakening of the Gods (Windurst 7-2)
02/2006: Vain (Windurst Mission 8-1)
02/2006: The Jester Who'd Be King (Windurst 8-2)
02/2006: Doll of the Dead (Windurst 9-1)
03/2006: Moon Reading (Windurst Mission 9-2)

Rise of the Zilart Missions (complete)

03/2006: The Temple of Uggalepih (Zilart Mission 4)
03/2006: Headstone Pilgrimage (Zilart Mission 5)
04/2006: Gate of the Gods Unlocked (Zilart Missions 6 through 13)
08/2006: Ark Angels, 2 down, 3 to go (ZM 14)
08/2006: Ark Angels (ZM14)
08/2006: The Celestial Nexus (Zilart Mission 16)

Chains of Promathia Missions (complete)

01/2005: Promyvion-Dem (CoP 1-3)
02/2005: Chains of Promathia, Chapter One: Completed
03/2005: Static Hits Promyvion Dem
02/2006: Promyvion-Holla
02/2006: Rag-tag crew for Promyvions Mea and Dem
03/2005: Distant Beliefs (CoP 2-3)
03/2006: Distant Beliefs (CoP 2-3)
03/2006: Ancient Vows (CoP 2-5)
02/2007: Venn's Dirty Work (CoP 2-5)
04/2006: CoP 3-1 through 3-4
04/2006: Darkness Named (CoP 3-5)
05/2006: The Savage (CoP 4-2) - rounds one and two
05/2006: The Savage (CoP 4-2) - Third Time's the Charm
06/2006: The Secrets of Worship (CoP 4-3)
07/2006: Desires of Emptiness (CoP 5-2)
07/2006: Following Tenzen Around (part of CoP 5-3)
08/2006: Head Wind, Round 1 (CoP 5-3U2)
08/2006: Head Wind complete (CoP 5-3U2)
08/2006: Past Sins (CoP 5-3-3)
09/2006: Ancient Flames Beckon (CoP 5-3U3)
10/2006: Getting Ready for Omega/Ultima
10/2006: One to be Feared, Round One
11/2006: O/U Grounded
12/2006: Calm Before the Storm (CoP 7-4)
12/2006: The Warrior's Path (CoP 7-5)
12/2006: The Garden of Antiquity (CoP 8-1)
01/2007: A Fate Decided (CoP 8-2)
01/2007: When Angels Fall (CoP 8-3)
01/2007: Dawn (CoP 8-4)
06/2007: Revisiting CoP
09/2007: Apocalypse Nigh

Treasures of Aht Urhgan (complete)

For the most part, the missions for ToAU simply involve running around and getting cutscenes, and I haven't written many individual entries for them.

08/2006: The Black Coffin
02/2007: Shield of Diplomacy
03/2007: Puppet in Peril
03/2007: Shades of Vengence
06/2007: Legacy of the Lost
09/2007: Eternal Mercenary

Other Missions

Once in awhile we'll need to help people with their missions. I've put some of those entries in this section.

11/2006: Rovont and the Shadow Lord