Tuesday, September 16, 2008

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.




















Sunday, September 7, 2008

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.

Friday, September 5, 2008

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.