Gone Fission

No,

Neyla and I fight quadav in Campaign.

I'm not dead. I just haven't been doing much adventuring. It seems to be an extended vacation from Vana'diel because I got distracted by other games. Last week it was Mass Effect, which I'd bought at launch and then dropped like a hot rock when I got stuck in the initial space station. Creating a new character and starting over from scratch helped, and I was soon rocketing through space fighting aliens instead of quadav and orcs.

The other game keeping me busy, released this week, was Grand Theft Auto IV. I didn't buy it, but Neyla got a copy and has been playing it at my apartment since his Xbox is still dead. I imagine this is the game that will inspire him to pick up the phone and call Circuit City to ask about the replacement warranty he bought with the machine.

That's not to say I haven't been logging on, though. It's just been for short periods that are barely worth talking about.

There have been two ENMs during my hiatus. We lost the first when Wulfgar passed out at his keyboard and missed the fight, so we didn't have the firepower to take down Pasuk quickly enough or get hate off Crookedmidget when he kept getting interrupted trying to cast shadows. A bummer, but we won the next fight and the only death was Neyla's. Hooray for Reraise.

There were one or two days when I popped on for lengthy Campaign battles. I think the biggest shock was getting a party invitation during one of them. I guess they assumed I was only partied up for Campaign and might like some experience points for Dragoon, but unfortunately I was about to log out for the night when they asked.

Neyla and I spent Monday doing Campaigns, and I came very close to hitting 63. I probably could've finished the level, but I wanted to log out and play more Mass Effect. I plan to ding (and equip some new gear) tomorrow or Friday, depending on when I'm not watching Neyla blow away citizens of Liberty City.

I

I dinged 71 in Woodworking.

also managed to hit 71 Woodworking skill by repairing clothespoles in Beaucedine Glacier. I've been carting around poles and bait and crystals for weeks, but I only seem to use them when I go out there to wait for "Test Your Mite" to start.

I've also popped on to do guild points. The crappy part about that is one evening I logged on for fifteen minutes to catch Jungle Carp out by the Temple of Uggalepih, but I'd put it off all evening and was so sleepy after doing it that I completely forgot to turn in the fish for points. I'd warped back to Windurst and logged out. I didn't realize my mistake until the next day, when I went to catch Emperor Fish and found the carp were still in my inventory.

Poke It With a Sharp Stick

The

The colibri in West Ronfaure [S] are made of tissue paper.

major downside of getting most of my Dragoon experience through the weekly "Test Your Mite" ENMs is that my polearm skill has been gimped. I called up the Skill Database to check the current cap and discovered I was 14 points underleveled. It's not a huge deal when you're constantly fighting a monster capped at Lv. 40, but I've been planning to flag up and try to get a party. The last thing I want to do is get to camp and find myself unable to hit the prey.

So I checked a few sites for soloing guides. At 61, ost of them pointed to beetles in Garliage Citadel or the colibri in Wajoam Woodlands. I was hoping to find some good spots in the Wings of the Goddess areas because the Allied Sigil allows you to stack multiple buffs as well as giving an XP boost.

I started in East Ronfaure [S], where the ladybugs and colibri were Easy Prey. They were extremely easy to kill, but there were no skillups to be found.

From there, I moved to Vunkerl Inlet to fight Robber Crabs. They were rated Tough, but the fights were a little difficult. I was spamming Dia on them so my wyvern would keep using Healing Breath III on me, but it was rough. I killed three or four of them and had to rest between fights. Ugh.

I'd

Neyla tanks mobs in Vunkerl Inlet [S] for me.

moved to Meriphataud Mountains [S] in search of better prey when Neyla logged on. He offered to tank skillups for me back in Vunkerl, so we headed out there and started fighting. He's already hit 70, so the Robber Crabs and Stygian Pugils weren't a problem for him. The pugs were Very Tough to me, so I was getting pretty good skillups off them.

We were out there awhile, but I finally managed to cap my Polearm skill and learn Skewer. I'm not sure how likely I am to party up when Campaign is so addictive, but at least I don't have to be embarrassed that I can't hit anything. I'll just have to find decent WotG camps to keep up to date.

Holyknight Emblem

Today

I almost got the kill on Jagidbod's Warmachine.

was mostly Campaign stuff, which is hardly a surprise because that's all I do these days. Grauberg is like an addictive drug and quickly turning into a junkie.

There were some fun battles. One of them went through three waves of mobs and I was dead for ten minutes because the mages were slacking on their raises, but still managed to get 1800 points.

It paid off, though. I did an entire merit point over the course of the afternoon. I also went for my evaluation and earned the Holyknight Emblem. I don't know if new ranks will be released in the future, but for now I'm capped out. I'll never catch up to Neyla -- I'm strictly a recreational user in comparison -- but at least we have the same rank.

After You, My Dear Alfonze

A

I killed a few diremites for Alfonze.

few members of WickedWayz have been working their way through the Chains of Promathia missions in a semi-static group for awhile, and today they were going to fight Diabolos. I'd just taken a break from Team Fortress 2 and logged on to do my guild points when Drahzan asked if anyone else needed it. Neyla is still on that fight, so I said I'd call and wake him up to ask. This was around 1 p.m., and they were planning to do the fight an hour later. The only thing left to do, they said, was farm a Gray Chip so Alfonze could get access to the battlefield.

Neyla logged on and started suiting up Bard while Al hit Pso'xja to kill some diremites. I was fishing for Bhefhel Marlin on the ferry when the guy managed to get himself killed and homepointed. I returned to Windurst -- it was faster and much easier to just buy the fish from the NPC down in the hold -- and put on my Beastmaster gear to go help him.

I told him to stay up top and kill the two weak-ass diremites since I didn't want to babysit and dropped down to tackle the tougher diremites below. They were stubborn and didn't want to drop the chip, which is normal because you end up throwing them away all the time when you don't actually need them. I finally got one on the bottom floor, which has two Tough diremites. I'd never been that far down, but Neyla used to do laps of the place and was telling me what to expect with each descent.

With nothing else to do until the escort, I parked in Batallia Downs and went back to play more TF2. When I returned nearly an hour later, they still hadn't started the fight. It turns out Alfonze hadn't done the legwork and watched all the cutscenes. When they called him out for being a slacker -- the guy'd had an entire week to do this -- he copped a real attitude and Lepruvian broke his linkshell pearl... but only because he beat Wulfgar and Neyla to it. I apologized to Neyla for waking him up and wasting his time.

I

The gnoles are a big pain in the ass.

can't really say I'm sorry to see Alfonze go, but the upside is they're making a real static out of it and will try the fight next week. We also invited Drazhan and Almane to join us for "Test Your Mite," since we had two open slots.

Beyond that, it's been a quiet week of mostly doing offline stuff. I've been doing Campaign battles and unlocked Formless Strikes, which is just as handy as I'd hoped. Mostly I've been total aggro-bait lately. It seems like I can't cross the battlefield without attracting the attention and anger of passing mobs. Maybe Neyla put a sign on the back of my Scorpion Harness.

The Spice Must Flow

I

Shmedly, Neyla and I stay away from the Sandworm.

finally got my first look at the giant Sandworm NM added to the game. It wanders around in the past, crossing from zone to zone. It doesn't seem to drop anything interesting, but it probably isn't heavily hunted and may have a low drop rate. We'll probably discover in a year or so that it drops Herald Gaiters or something.

It was really easy to find this time because it was hanging out around the outpost in Meriphataud Mountains. I was following Neyla out there for a Campaign battle, and the sandworm was slithering around nearby. It'd already killed a few people trying to get tags. Shmedly died in three hits. The beast was a little smaller than expected, but still creepy.

Neyla and I turned to Windurst and focused on campaign battles in other zones. Grauberg was particularly kind to me.

I

The Campaign NPCs battle the Sandworm.

had to log out to get ready to vist my parents, but Neyla called awhile later with some interesting news. He wasn't sure what triggered it, but the NPCs around the tower started battling the sandworm and took it down. It sounded like a hell of a fight, and he was good enough to get some screenshots for me. I would've liked to see it in action.

I'll get back into Campaigns next week so I can finish off the three merit points I need to unlock Formless Strikes. I wonder how that ability would play against one of those elementals in Sky...

Fishing Follies

Neyla

Hanging out at the guild.

has been at my apartment for the past two afternoons, watching Homicide DVDs. I logged on for short periods to do fisherman's guild points after he went home, but otherwise haven't played much.

I'm closing in on having enough points for the final two key items. I'll start with "Serpent Rumors," which unlocks the Ebisu Rod quest. The other is less important, since I won't be needing the live bait extension. If I decide to go after that mythical rod, I'll probably use the ring method to stave off madness.

Magic Sludge

Shmedly has been living in Attowha Chasm for the past few days, camping Xolotl. Neyla went out there today, and they ended up watching linkshells compete for and kill Tiamat.

"Tiamat is going apeshit on them," Neyla said after awhile.
"As an HNM, that's probably a job requirement," Alfonze said. "'Mr Tiamat, are you able to go apeshit at random intervals? ... Really? HIRED!'"

I

My powers are wasted on the Magic Sludge.

was working on guild points, waiting for Dalamar to log on so we could finish his AF stuff. It was largely pain-free.

The necropolis coffer was easier than expected. We didn't even have to drop down below, because it was up top behind one of the gate switches in the final room of the NPC escort.

From there, we headed for Toraimarai Canal to fight the Magic Sludge elemental. I didn't realize the fight was so close to the entrance, so I went MNK/WHM for Sneak instead of /DNC. It wasn't a difficult fight, although Dalamar easily got hate with nukes since we didn't have Provoke. Formless Strikes would've been handy, since it converts physical damage to magical damage.

We needed help getting past the Banishing Gates for the final coffer, so Shmedly sent out his other character to run with us. Neyla managed to grab a huge bat train while trying to get to Old Two Wings; we didn't claim the NM, but I got to kill a lot of flapping things. Heh. We found the coffer and finished up the day by killing Dark Spark.