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*

What goes through their minds?

I wonder what goes through the minds of other people sometimes.

Yesterday, just as I came out of Promyvion-Dem as RDM67/NIN33 (not on /anon) , with nothing but Lv.30- gears, some dude /check'ed me and started to send me /tell's.

Unholyangel>> y u not got the ochudes cote or w/e it is?
>>Unholyangel : pardon? who are you?
Unholyangel>> just lookin at ur wares
Unholyangel>> just wonderein y u aint got those gloves that r like 2mil
>>Unholyangel : >_>? 1. I don't have 2 mil
>>Unholyangel : 2. RDM cannot use Ochiudo's Kote.
Unholyangel>> o im srry just say the hairpin & the boots
>>Unholyangel : 3. That's Lv.33, not usable in [Promyvion - Dem]
Unholyangel>> my bad srry ; ;

How could someone interested enough in Ochiudo's Kote to know its price missed the fact that only MNK, NIN, and SAM can use it? Plus, he checked out my hands slot, so he must have noticed I was using Battle Gloves, which NIN and SAM cannot use--but I couldn't have been a MNK since I was wielding dual Centurion Swords. >_>

The "hairpin" he referred to was the Empress Hairpin, by the way--rare/ex; no way to "purchase" one. Leaping Boots aside, I had nothing which marked me as a possible Rich Player. (Those boots were a gift from a friend who left FFXI.)

Maybe just a not-so-clued gil buyer? Who knows?

The mis-adventure of a not so great solo'er

I don't like solo'ing much. Even on BST, I liked duo'ing much better--in fact, I once made a friend go duo'ing with my BST/WHM as WHM/BST. However, my main is RDM64, if I have anything that could be called a main, which is supposedly a great solo job in hands of a capable player. I'm no such player.

My RDM macros are not solo friendly--just about every spell switch weapon, and some switch in stuff with extremely low defense. My last sword upgrade was to Lv.55. I don't even own a dagger over Lv.34, unless you count Minstrel's Dagger. Heck, I type all my spells when I want to keep TP, since I've never bothered to organize my spell list.

* * *

Instead of leveling to RDM Lv.65 like I should, I spent most of the night just wandering about Tavnazian Safehold first, and then Misareaux Coast. In doing so, I accidentally spawned Bloody Coffin, a Lv.50 NM crab with very high resistance to physical and magical damages.

It was a long fight.

Started OK; sleep'ed it, buffed, then debuffed. Took a quick glance on Wiki and saw level "50-52", and decided to stright melee it. ("I'm 12-14 levels above; what can go wrong?")

Once I figured out it cast spells, I just silenced it. Its HP went down slowly; sword strikes were doing high single digits, enspells were around 4 per proc, and it was fairly resistant to Drain. However, it did seem doable, especially since Aspir worked ok.

Halfway through, it started to go hyper on me; must have gotten a haste through while I was busy with other stuff. Things became a bit hurried--it landed a Bio II, and I ran low on MP.

I bind it and gravitied it, then moved away for Convert. Rebuffed, redebuffed--then it all went downhill.

The bloody Bloody Coffin became resistent to silence, and paralyze started to wear off fast. Because I didn't want to lose TP, I was typing all the spells by hand (macros all have staves switches), and I had a hard time keeping up with all its nasty tricks and fast fading enfeebs. Worse, it was landing Paralyze and slipping Ice Spikes through, so I was paralyzed a lot. >_<;

When it had just about 3% of life left, I realized that my Protect and Shell have dropped, along with most of my buffs. Bio II was on me, and I have about 40% HP and dangerously low MP--with Refresh nearly gone. Quick check showed that Convert was nearly three min away. Ouch.

Popped up Protect II, then the Bio II on me and a crit hit ate away my poor Stoneskin. Tried to silence it, and it resisted. My HP was low, and going down fast--my time was running out.

Cure IV'ed myself, Gravity'ed it, Bio (I), and started to kite it. Refresh run out. Not enough MP to recast. Convert still over two min away. Not good. Not good at all.

Run away... but to where? (At least the Bio II on me worn off.) There's only so much room, since I've already moved past the exit from the coast area. Luckily, it kept stopping to cast spells (and not Bio II). It had just a sliver of life left, but I was down to 476 HP and 12 MP.

So, I ran toward it.

Started to cast a Poison on it... figured I'll take him to my grave, if I can.

It noticed that I'm in range, and started casting--Ice Spikes. I landed my Poison, and turned tail to run away again.

~10 seconds passed by...

"Bloody Coffin falls to the ground."

7 MP left.

I lived.

* * *

I took a moment to breath, then dumbly checked my convert timer again; still over a minute.

That, was not an easy fight for this RDM64...