The Return to Promyvion

So, recently I decided to toss my Ethereal Earring and get a Hollow. Why? Well, I suppose that would make a lot of sense if I knew why I even got an Ethereal to begin with. Oh wait,I didn't! I originally picked Magnetic, because I was really into RDM at the time or something like that, but then I changed it because I wanted to level PLD. Hmm... but I left both of them at level 60. And now my MNK is approaching 60 and I just got a Hollow for it... Hmm, I hope no one else sees a pattern here.

Truth be told, I'm really indecisive when it comes to things like leveling new jobs and picking special items like storyline rewards. Still, I'm glad that you're able to redo a lot of them. It does sort of make me sad that you can't repick your ToAU rings though... I sort of regret getting Ulthalam's since Acc rings are so easy to come by nowadays, and the more I think about it, the more appealing Balrahn's Ring is to me.

Eh, but enough of that. I got to have a little more fun redoing Shadows of the Departed and Apocalypse Nigh this time around, thanks to the new level sync feature. I did both the quests with a static that consisted of me, Deathkitty, Nehallennia, Dinendale, and Believ. Preparing for getting the slivers was easy enough, since I didn't have to get level capped gear and all of that, but it was sort of saddening when I saw that my total +STR gear during WSs on SAM at 30 was only like +4 or something stupid. It wasn't really far from entering nude, but I suppose it's not a big deal, since it wasn't hard to climb the Promyvions either way. Plus, I looked cool doing it.



































My friend Fleurae even made an appearance and helped out, instead of being afk all day like usual! Hard to believe, I know, but I've got screenies to prove it:












































The fight itself was really easy, like usual. We had Dinendale go RDM/DRK and chainstun the kid while everyone 2hr zerged him and Deathkitty kited Kam'lanaut on his PLD. Missed the record by about 40 seconds or so, but I was just be glad to be done with it for (hopefully) the last time. Thanks for everyone who helped me out with it too, and a special thanks to Trapp, who came out and rocked the BC on his WAR for us. Although... I did have to bribe him with a Bomb Queen Core... He was farming for it when I asked him to help, and just happened to have one in my locker, so I guess it worked out well for everyone.

I also took screenies during the CSs, because Prishe is awesome.




















































Exciting, eh? You'd think after all that action, I'd be presented with a reward, but nooooo, you have to wait until JP midnight to pick up the earring. By the way, waiting until JP midnight for a fucking cutscene is the WORST FUCKING PLOT CONCEPT EVER CONCIEVED BY MANKIND. Not only that, but there was server maintenance right before, so I wasn't able to pick it up until later in the evening. But the waiting should be worth it, because this should be really nice for MNK and SAM/RNG, and THF I suppose, since I tossed my Suppa for Bushinomimi.










Aside from tossing and requesting my equipment, I've been having fun doing random Nyzul assaults when I have a few extra tags. Being Captain does pay off, because I usually end up not assaulting for days, and so when I get back around to it, I have 5 again. Nyzul is fun, but doing it outside of a static is less rewarding than I think I can bear. I've done half a dozen or so, and seen a couple nice drops, but I can't seem to win any of them. I even saw a pair of Askar Manopolas with a group that a fellow LS member made, but everyone, and I mean EVERYONE wanted them. We even discussed which drops people wanted before entering and everyone said they wanted Askar. Still, it was kinda entertaining to see them argue with each other about it for about 20 minutes before entering:






















Kay, remember how I said that my LS leader gets stuff a lot cause it's FFA, but he's totally not a lootwhore? Well I take it back. Why? Because not only does he take all the Sea torques, but he takes all the Nyzul drops too!






















Seriously, I'd kick this guy's ass if this wasn't like... the only thing that we've ever both wanted. So grats, I suppose. Or in the words of Matray, FUCK YOU, LEGYND. I did get the WAR Nyzul weapon, so that's cool.

Oh well. Easy come, easy go. Still, I think I'm sorta tired of doing Nyzul when I know everyone's gonna lot against me just because they can, so I'm gonna start a Nyzul static and get to floor 100 on my own disc. It'll be much easier to do now, too, since everyone's disc progresses as you go up now. Besides, I wanna have a floor 100 disc so that I don't have to do like over 9000 skillchains to break Nyzul weapons and get the new Weapon Skills. Oh, did I mention that Tachi: Rana is hot as hell? A three-hit GK WS that's Dark based too? Le fap. As of right now, we still need 2 people to fill spots in our Nyzul group, so if anyone reading is enterested, send me a tell!

I've also been running LS events while Legynd is on vacation to get settled into his new place and stuff. Things like Limbus and Salvage are easy enough to run, I've done all that plenty of times before. But Einherjar on the other hand... that's a real hassle to set up. Not only that, but you can just get completely fucked as soon as you enter. Like this, when we zoned into a zone full like two dozen Soulflayers:















I don't think there's a single mob in all of FFXI that I hate more than goddamn Soulflayers. Maybe it's just me, but I honestly can't remember a single positive experience that ever involved a Soulflayer. But oh well, I'm slowly approaching 15k ampoules again so I should be able to pick up that Omega Ring pretty soon!

Speaking of Einherjar, a really good friend of mine recently defeated Odin with his LS, and he got to walk away with a shiney new Dalmatica.














This is Funkdarryl, and he's fucking awesome. In fact, he's probably the coolest motherfucker on the server. Seriously. Okay, but in all honestly, I'm really glad that he finally got rewarded with something nice. He definately deserves it. Still, considering that his Einherjar LS is lead by TheCoolDudesChillin, it's really surprising that he actually got something. But eh, I guess they couldn't swindle their way around their own points system. Oh, in case you were wondering, I used to be in CDC, and CDC = bad. Well, I can't really say that, some of the coolest people I've ever known are in that LS, like Funkdarryl, Slycer, and Trapp, but what I can say, is that there's a clique in that LS, and I won't name any names, but if you aren't in it, you shouldn't be expecting anything to come your way.

But eh, that's old news. I'm just happy for the guy. He must have been really bored though, because he was in sky at like 11am when I asked him about it and told him I wanted to take a screenshot for my blog. What the hell was he doing in sky at 11am? Hell if I know, but he can apparently solo Zipacna on his RDM, so I'd stay out of this guy's way.
















I know I couldn't be as cool as Funk if I tried, but I did come across an amazing .dat the other day that looks fucking awesome. It's Ike's cape. Y'know, Ike from Fire Emblem? C'mon you've all played Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Thanks to my new friend Jugan for showing it to me, and me alone! I made it my Shura Togi, so I look especially awesome in my TP set on SAM. And yes, my moogle is a Corsair! He's got a gun and everything.

More Salvage Drops!

Last night, Novus did a Bhaflau Remnants farm for the first time in over 3 weeks. Normally, no one really wants anything from that zone, aside from me or Legynd, so it took a lot of convincing to get him to finally take us back up there. A couple minutes into the run, Legynd went to check if our old friend Mad Bomber was up, and for once, he was up! We geared everyone up a bit and then blitz him down to reach the first rampart for a little fun with Gate Widow. Normally, we do this and never even see one, but we saw 5 of them. 5. They weren't dropping anything for a while, and then this happened...






Not only did we all freak out when the little treasure pool icon popped up, but we got double drops! Zerojai took the Macha's Cuffs for her RDM, and I grabbed the Brayettes to complete my Shalwar! I take back what I said earlier, Marduk drops do exist! Afterwards, we tried to pop the second floor rampart, but somehow caused one of the flans to lose it's spikes, which I had never seen before. So instead, we ran up to the third floor to kill some time on the third floor rampart and kill a few Colibri.











We had fun for a little while, but they started to overwhelm us, and so we fireflies'd our at around 10 minutes remaining or so. Plus, Legynd died before we zoned out, so that was awesome.

About 100k and 14 hours later, I got to go claim my prize! Since I didn't need my AF+1 pants anymore, I tossed them. I felt sort of bad for doing so, but the Shalwar actually does look a lot better, doesn't it?




























This also marks the first drop I've gotten from Novus! Bout time, eh? I don't suppose I can really complain though, I'm also up for a couple other nice drops, like E. body and Justice Torque. Yep, told you I liked this LS.

Busy, Busy

So, I've been really busy this past week in Novus! To start, we've just started tier 3 in Einherjar, and I'm already back up to around 5k ampoules, for my Omega Ring. Tier 3 is a bitch, though. We've had really bad luck with Ortlinde's Chamber for a few days now. The first time around we got bombs, which can wipe an entire alliance when they self-destruct. And on our last attempt, we managed to get Krakens. Woooo.
















As if that wasn't lame enough, we also got the lamest boss possible two timed in a row. Still, I think we do pretty well in Einherjar, and I can't wait until we reach Odin.
















We've also been doing quite a bit of Salvage lately, and as usual, I get nothing but negative exp. We were able to grab a few drops from Zhayolm though, and it was nice to see Zerojai get a drop, since the only thing she's gotten in Salvage that I know of is her Skadi's Jambeaux. Zero got a pair of Freya's Trousers from the 5th floor frog, and then a pair of Deimos's Leggings dropped from the 6th floor, which Abunaii took. I was really excited when I saw the little treasure pool icon pop up after killing it, but of course, it doesn't drop any Marduk. God fucking damn Enlil's Tiara. It doesn't exist. Seriously.















Lovely drops, right? This is what I get when I enter Salvage:














We also completed Matray's Marduk's Shalwar, and I took this screenshot of him in whitegate. Matray is actually a very good bard, and doesn't do stupid things, like wear Zenith Mitts... I won't name any names but, if you're reading this, YOU ARE RETARDED. He's also got a lot more merits on BRD than I do, so I'm not really sure why Legynd ask me to go BRD instead of him. Oh right... he's a BLM, yeah.






















What else have we been doing lately... oh yeah! We've been camping HNMs, since their windows have rolled around into NA times again. We've been claiming Fafnir really well lately, but we still haven't gotten a Nidhogg. All in good time though, plus, we got a beard from faf! wtf?
















It's too bad our resident MNK wasn't there to lot it, and we gave it to fucking Believ. FUCKING BELIEV OMG WTF Y DIS HAPN.









Believ was actually talking about leveling MNK though, so I'm sure he was happy to actually get a head start on that. The little bastard... just look at him.















We also got A. Feet from another Faffy like yesterday, and it went to Nehallenia, who by the way is one of the coolest person's I think I've ever met in any LS. Not only is she this really cute taru WHM, but she's also British! And as such, never leaves her house without her monacle.






















The LS has actually been progressing pretty well, but we recently had to kick a few people in our LS who were causing a lot of drama, and a lot of it was stupid. I mean, wanting to lot W. Legs to get Blood Cuisses when they had Crimson already kind of stupid. One of them was a sackholder, which left a vacant slot open for a new sack in the LS, so Legynd decided... to make me a sackholder! I'm not sure what he was thinking, but it is kind of flattering that he considered me for it, and he let me lead one of our last limbus runs, which was a lot of fun. Still, I think he might just be retarded. So you know the kind of leader he is, this is him irl:















Aside from HNM activity and LS events, I've also gotten back to my favorite past-time of camping KA. I know that sounds incredibly exciting, but I actually did run into a bit of a surprise on the way there the other day.



























Yep. He was just running around unclaimed, so I took a few screenshots before I finished him off. No drop, of course, but I'm hoping the karma pays off with a drop from KA pretty soon. Still, KA is sort of fun, even when we don't get claim/drop, because it's nice to know that people are actually willing to help you with it. Plus, Abu likes to kraken the Knight Crabs.



















Since I've been so busy, I still haven't gotten much done as far as exping MNK goes. I got 51 and Kick Attacks, but I'm still a long ways from using that Black Belt. I do have this to help me get around in exp areas though:






















Pretty, huh? I named her ScarletMelody, because I knew she was probably going to be red when I bred both her parents for the egg. What I didn't expect, however, was for her to inherit Gallop! I raised her to max strength and endurance from the start, and it only took me about 46 days to completely cap her in both areas. Since she has capped physical stats and gallop, she actually runs a little bit faster than rental chocobos, I'd say about 1.05 to 1.1 times as fast. It was kind of annoying to raise a chocobo, but I think it was worth it in the end, because not only does she just look really awesome, but being able to call her from anywhere in the zone comes in handy when a party disbands in Quicksand Caves or something, and you wanna run back to town in a timely manner, and without aggro.

A Little Fun with AltanaView

So, over the past couple of days, things have slowed down a bit. We're sort of taking a break from camping KA, since his window overlaps LS event times now, and I've been trying to use the extra free time to get some MNK exp in. But alas, it would seem that no one wants to exp with MNKs until 75, even MNKs with capped hand-to-hand and crit rate merits and stuff! A couple days ago I was lfg on MNK for over 6 hours. 6 hours. that's like... 2338265090372123475032 times as long as it takes to get an invite on BRD. But eh... I do have a little something to help keep my mind on track.


















I recently acquired all the items for a Black Belt, and I really couldn't resist with something like that lying around in my storage. Besides, it's another job that I can show off my Usukane Sune-ate on. I'm still not entirely sure that using it on MNK at 75 would be better than Fuma, because I'd be lowering myself down from the +25% haste equipment cap to 24, and haste works best in increments of 5%, but then again, Asuran Fists is an 8-hit WS, and so accuracy and attack usually have more of an impact than STR or VIT. But I guess it's nothing that a few parsings wouldn't sort out.

Since my MNK is now level 50, I made sure to camp the Western Shadow to get myself a pair of these:
















The transition from Boreas Cesti at 49 to this at 50 was a whopping +13 base DMG, which will go a long way to increasing my Raging Fists damage, as well as my DoT. Still, the thing I'm most excited about for MNK is that I'll get Kick Attacks at 51! Woooooo~ I can't wait to kick people in the face!






















Aside from the occasional (occasional) party on MNK, Novus has finally started doing Sea again! Sea is my favorite event. Of all time. I'm not really sure why, but I really enjoy fighting Jailers. Some of them are relatively easy, but they're all pretty challenging in that they each have a specific strategy to them. Plus, I'd really love to get myself a Justice Torque for my SAM. As of right now I'm sort of stuck between first and second for it, but I'm not really that worried. I don't plan to lot much of anything until I get it, so I've been passing on a lot of other stuff I'd really like to have, like this:






The lucky recipient was actually our LS's leader, Legynd. This makes his second torque drop out of about 4 or 5 total that we've gotten so far, since starting Sea about a month ago. What a lootwhore! He's gotten a lot of stuff from the LS lately, at least, more than I've gotten so far anyway (0 drops so far! unless you count the buccaneer's belt I got from Einherjar ampoules). People in the LS like to remind him that he's gotten a lot of stuff lately, but I think what they sometimes forget is that a lot of the stuff he's gotten was FFA. No one even lotted the Fortitude Torque when it dropped, but he decided to spend 10 points on it, when he could have only spent 1. He also finished Ares's Flanchard in Salvage, but both the 25 and 35 pieces were completely FFA to all jobs that could use it when they dropped, and he just happened to win both. Still... I could do with a drop of some sort too! But oh well, I'm happy for him. I shouldn't really complain anyway, it's only a matter of time before some things I want begin to fall my way.

I also had a chance to use my Samurai when we helped a few of our new LS members with Storms of Fate. I do love a good zerg, especially when the chainstunning doesn't go exactly as planned. Still, we pulled off a fairly easy win, and I got to watch a few cool cutscenes again.



















I know that I want to finish MNK next, which'll open all new problems as far as getting more merits and such, but looking beyond that, I know I'll want to level another job again, but the question is... which? I guess if I really had to choose, it'd be between RNG and BLM. Ranger, because I really enjoy the job, and I also have a few key pieces of gear and merits for it, and Black Mage because I think it'd be nice to have a job that's useful for manaburns and such, and aside from BRD, which is a bit opinionative, I've never gotten a mage job to 75. Since I can't really decide, I'll add a poll to this and let some of you help me to decide!

Finally, my blog has a shiny new banner now, thanks to Abunaii! We were messing around with it for over 3 hours, trying to decide what would look good and what wouldn't. Since I like Sea so much, he stuck a few higher tier Jailers on it, and also put a really good image of my SAM as well. While we were messing around with AltanaView, I came across this emote under "others" in the Wings of the Goddess folder...






















I thought it was worth a good laugh. I still don't know why such a gay emote is listed under Hume M, but oh well. This is a JP game, after all. I look like such a schoolgirl... Wow. Just wow.

Where to Begin...

For the longest time, I remember thinking that I'd never make one of these things, but I think a combination of utter boredom and friends urging me to make one have led me to do so. So... where to begin? This is a blog about my FFXI counterpart, Sazaku. Since I'll assume that the only people that would be reading this are fellow FFXI players, I'll skip the boring introduction about what FFXI is and all that. I've actually been playing this game since 2004, but don't think I could remember everything that far back if I tried, so I'll just start with what I've been up to as of August, 2008.

A little over a month ago, I joined a new LS, after taking a 2 week break from FFXI to get some RL issues in order. It's called NovusCruento, which is latin for "bloody noobs" or something to that effect and I really like this LS. We're really active every week, but not to a ridiculous extent like most hardcore endgame LS's are. We do a wide variety of events, including Sky, Sea, Limbus, Salvage, Einherjar, ZNMs, and even sparse HNM camping when they come around into good windows. Events only last around 2-4 hours a night though, and 1-2 nights per week are completely free, so it has a really laid back atmosphere, but I think the thing that's most appealing to me about this LS is that they actually let me go something other than brd! what?! How dare they! But in all honesty, I think it's really refreshing to get some use out of my other jobs. It sort of makes me feel like capping STR and such instead of CHR wasn't a waste.

Speaking of Samurai, I've recently become set on gearing up my SAM with a /RNG set. I figure that since I have a Hope Torque that's just lying around and collecting dust in my mog locker, since I never play NIN anymore, I should put it to use by gearing SAM/RNG and maybe even leveling RNG as a main as well. I also snagged this little prize from Einherjar after finally getting 15k ampoules the other day:







To end this post on a positive note, I've also been very busy camping various NMs with my good friends, Abunaii and Tokii. Lately it's been pretty hectic because I've been keeping track of Centurio XII-I, Eastern Shadow, Simurgh, and King Arthro. The three of us have been camping KA for god knows how long, and with pretty good success. As of right now we're something like 2/50 or so on the belt. Just need one more! Too bad it happens to be mine. But that's fine I guess, I appreciate them sticking around to help me get one. Besides, I'm sure we'll get another... eventually... We've only recently been killing the Centurio and Simurgh, originally to get Abunaii the earring for his kraken DRK (did I mention that Abu is a fucking beast? seriously. go ffxiah that shit), and to help Krusk get Trotters for a job that I didn't even know he had. Still, I can't really complain because after getting both drops once, they actually helped me kill them both again and I made out with both of these:













I seemed to be on a lucky streak, because I also ended up getting this little toy after only 7 attempts (apparently 1/7 is pretty lucky, and I believe it):












Now to level RNG! Seriously, I'm considering it, what with the Hope Torque, Buccaneer's Belt, Vali's Bow, and Archery merits... hmm... yeah... Oh, not to mention I can run fast as RNG because I have Trotters as well! But I still have a lot more meriting I want to get done before I level a new job.