Goodness...

Hey, what's this?!
It's been ages; I had forgotten this existed.


Updates?
Too many to list all, but: Maat is now a comedian to the Nomad Moogle instead of an insurmountable obstacle.  Never gotten anywhere with crafting, but don't really care at the moment.  Itazura has more than two million gil, and yet still feel poor.  I became one of those multiple Lv.75 people--Red Mage, Paladin, Bard, Samurai, and Scholar.  Then I became a multiple Lv.80, and now on my way to become a multiple Lv.85.

Yeah, Lv.85 is the highest reachable level in FFXI now, and soon to be 99.  Trippy doesn't begin to describe it.  And, 'endgame' isn't a scary eight-letter word anymore.

Multiple Linkshells seem normal now:

• Blue - Abyssea, Salvage, and possibly ZNM and missions (again!)
• TheVampyKnights - Limbus
• Fireflys - Dynamis
• Quitgame - Sky

Still feel most comfortable in Blue; I tell people it's my 'social' shell, but it feels more like my home than anything else.  It's kind funny that this little LS with an anti-endgame bent is now the #7 LS on FFXIAH's Ifrit ranking, though.  Also odd is how many Linkshells I've left; FinalDestination, iMoogle, HappyHumans (HH), KnghtsoftheRound (KOR), VoltronAlliance are all history, and most quite ancient.

I hand out gil monthly to Dynamis LS members, and love it.  Selling currency on Miraimo for Dynamis LS... Not love it so much--it's quite a chore.  Bazaar'ing on Itazura right now, though, trying to get rid of this Hoard Ring we got from Abyssea.  Probably have to toss it onto Miraimo and display it along with the Dynamis currency soon.




Yet another alternate dimension--but it's mostly good
Speaking of Abyssea, it's been a blast.  While the landscape isn't terribly interesting (the new zones are nearly a carbon copy of the old zones' geography), the NMs are fun to fight and have cool drops, some new system mechanics are introduced, and the contents range from suitable for solo'ers to full alliance. Heck, I always wanted to see alliance exp'ing, and Abyssea loves exp'ing alliances.

Even when it's meh, it can still be giggle inducing.  Out damaging most "damage dealers" in a pick-up group on my Paladin was worth the time for the "laugh out loud" factor.

One thing I have to remember, though: the next time an exp PUG leader asks for my SAM, I'm going /NIN no matter what; completely turtle'd up under Seigan for two out of five hours (and still came close to getting KO'ed every few minutes) because the decent WHM left was not a happy thing.  SAM/DRG can be fun, but not without a strong healer with MP recovery support and bunch of other strong DDs who can pry critters off of me.  I'd give up /DRG in a heartbeat in exchange for Hasso and Haste anyway; I'll toss away my /WAR, too, as a freebie.

Yet, although people in PUGs performed worse than ever (last one had a SAM who needed 15 hits to get off a WS on average.  lol...), the exp/hr actually went up if one has four or five hours for partying.  Hurray for auto-scaling mob repops--the faster you kill, the harder the average monsters spawn around you, and the more exp per monster--all without the worry of experience point chains.  Hurray~


Having fun, yet...
While I'm actually having a great time in-game (especially tanking as PLD in Abyssea), I've been rather blasé about setting goals and such.  So, help me out, vote in the survey--probably will end up ignoring the results anyway, but at least I can pretend I have a direction for a while.

/em points to the right, and then above.

A Profit Synth?!

Incredibly, there is actually a profit synthesis for skill up, and it's in Goldsmithing, of all things.

Goldsmithing: Lv.13.2 -> Lv.14.4

Desynthesis: Brass Ingot (Lv.15)
Lightning Crystal, Brass Ring (from NPC)

Consumed:
Lightning Cyrstals x118
Brass Ring x 87

Results: Brass Ingots x59

Gross Expense: 16,008 Gil
(Adjusted Expense: ~36,000 Gil)
Expected Recoup: 44,000 (selling only 4 stacks)

The Lightning Crystals were from my stores and donation from Joncat; the total amount used is worth 20k on Jeuno Auction House currently, so inflated the cost from 16k to 36k. Still, even given that calculation, this skill up session came out quite nicely at 8k ahead, and even let me squirrel away 11 Brass Ingots at the end.

Stuck. (I hate you, Maat.)

Maat: 4
Itazura: 0

This has been rather depressing. Suffice to say that overall, I seem to be doing worse with every attempt.

Now, even the Red Mage Testimony doesn't want to drop anymore. Meh.

* * *

On a brighter note, some recent accomplishments:

• Paladin Lv.64
• Completed the Wizard's set
• Helped out with CoP 4.3 run
  
• Jelly Ring

The Jelly Ring is especially nice to have, coming one night after the Maat disaster. What made it special, though, is that I couldn've have done it with help and patience from friends. Mosh, Cyrilis, and Lpsojiro, and Valenia deserves all the credit for that ring.

* * *

Crafting! Don't think this would ever go very high, but at least there's progress to report.

Bonecraft: Lv.10.0 -> Lv.12.6
Goldsmithing: Lv.10.0 -> Lv.13.2

Synthesis: Cornette (Lv.14 Bonecraft; Lv.14 Goldsmithing)
Wind Crystal, Brass Ingot, Bone Chip

Consumed:
Wind Crystal x46
Brass Ingot x32
Bone Chip x31

Result: Cornet x22 (Yes, lot's of breaks.)

Gross Expense: 16,100 Gil
Expected Recoup: 19,800 Gil

This is not a profit synth, though; the gross expense figure didn't include some 20 Brass Ingot from my stores. At 11,700 a stack, that's nearly another 20k Gil expenditure, making it roughly a 16k loss. Toss in the extra Bone Chips and Wind Crystals, it's about 19k or so.

Yet, it doesn't seem that bad; 19k Gil for 2.6 level of Bonecraft and 3.2 level of Goldsmithing at the same time isn't entirely horrible for someone so rusty at crafting. Plus, it got rid of a lot of synth material I've been saving.

Will have to find better synths, though, if I want to continue with it. Should really aim to break even, at least.

* * *

I miss leveling BLM...

Haphazardly Progressing

Decided to forget about Master Caster's Bracelets for the moment, and just march on. Some accomplishments in-game since last posting:

• Moldavite Earring
• Olduum Ring
• Casting Wand (BLM Artifact weapon)
• Wizard's Sabots (BLM Artifact feet)
  
• Gallant Surcoat (PLD Artifact body)
• Windurst Mission 5.2
• CoP Mission 4.3
• Zilart Mission 3
  
• Volbow's Outpost Quest (Cape Teriggan)
• Red Mage Lv.68

In addition, progressed to the point of NM fight for the "The Root of the Problem" quest (for Wizard's Petasos), and collected Garlaige Citadel and Davoi coffer keys. Still lack the Eldieme Necropolis coffer key, however. In summary, still haphazardly progressing with the Black Mage Artifact set.

The next major worry is the Lv.56 Sleepga II scroll, a quested item which requires a lot of questing.

Searching For the Right Words
\_ A Candlelight Vigil (Done?)
\_ Rubbish Day
^^^^\_ Collect Tarut Cards (Done)
\_ Never to Return
^^^^\_ Your Crystal Ball

With only two (if that many) of the quests in the series completed, it's somewhat doubtful if this scroll could be acquired before Black Mage hits Lv.56, especially with the Artifact set taking up a huge chunk of the time. It's utterly beyond my imagination on how I am to obtain enough Gil for the some of upcoming Ancient Magic spells still missing. Geez.

There's also Lpsojiro's Soboro Sukehiro as well; not able to gather enough people was very disappointing for me, and probably far worse for him.

One thing is for sure; one can't really run out of things to do.

Damn you, S-E!

Damn you, Squre-Enix and all those FFXI database sites; now I have to get to Windurst rank 8 just for some stupid Master Caster's Bracelets before I can go back to leveling Red Mage. Arrrggggh!

After finally getting the Spider Torque, too. *sob*