Travels in Vana'diel

Gone Fission

2008-04-30T20:55:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-17T05:00:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-14T04:33:00.012-04:00

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

2008-04-13T04:47:00.004-04:00

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

2008-04-03T17:40:00.002-04:00

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

2008-04-02T05:39:00.003-04:00

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

2008-03-31T17:13:00.004-04:00

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.

Neyla: A Traitor and a Turncoat

2008-03-28T17:16:00.003-04:00

Neyla sent a message after I'd logged out yesterday. He said he'd temporarily switched his Campaign allegiance over to the San d'Orian army so he could buy the Iron Ram pieces for his Paladin.

The

We cleared out the demons before Dalamar's fight.

first thing I said to him this morning when he got to work was "How's that elvaan taste?"

"Fuck you, man!"

I guess I can't blame him because the armor is pretty nice. It's just fun to tease him because he spends so much time making fun of those stick-up-their-ass elvaan types that it's hilarious to see him on their side. He can't switch back to Windurst until Sunday, which can't get here fast enough for him.

We did some Campaign fights, but mostly we were killing time until Dalamar could log on for his Black Mage AF quests. We had to start out with the weapon fight in Xarcabard, which is against a Choas Elemental that pops near the castle. It didn't take long, but Dalamar had to do some running around in Windurst. Neyla and I stayed in Xarcabard until he returned, at which point we headed inside to find the keep.

We got lost. I've never tried to navigate the place on my own, and it sucked. We were dropping and climbing stairs and wandering all over the damned place. Dalamar managed to stay aggro-free, though. I eventually managed to figure out the right way to get there, and you'd better believe I marked up my map to prevent that again.

After that, it was coffer key farming out the wazoo. We started out in Garlaige Citadel, which was slightly obnoxious but didn't take very long.

The

I hate fighting the orcs in Davoi.

Necropolis was a little awkward because two other people were competing for the coffer key mobs. We'd already spotted the coffer on the way in, but they got their key first and popped it.

The same thing happened in Davoi. It didn't take long to get a key -- which is awesome because I hate Davoi -- but a Thief had popped the coffer. We had to wait for it to respawn before Dalamar could get his piece.

We'll all hook up again on Sunday to do the rest. Hopefully Neyla will be free of elvaan stink by then. Ha!

Iron Emblem of Service

2008-03-27T16:53:00.003-04:00

Grauberg

Neyla prepares to spank some gnole ass.

is quickly becoming one of my favorite Campaign battlegrounds. The quadav and gigas are almost always good for serious XP rewards.

It's pretty much the only thing I've done in the game for the past few days, cycling between zones and building up the merit points. I learned that gnoles suck ass, but the stupid flies are worse because they keep knocking my TP down to zero so I can't cure myself. Neyla and I ended up taking two different quadav at one point, and it's a miracle that we survived; we would've fallen if other players hadn't finally noticed and swooped in to help us kill the things.

I want to max out my Kick Attack rate, unlock Formless Strikes, and then finish out the last few levels of Hand-to-Hand. After that, the mind-numbing climb of Strength merits. That's going to be lengthy, but I've got to spend all those points on something.

My evaluation went well and I earned my Iron Emblem of Service. Another week or so of this and I'll be caught up to Neyla.

Seeing the Light

2008-03-24T16:38:00.000-04:00

While

No light clusters for you!

breaking and repairing fishing rods is cheaper than the alternatives, I'm not a big fan of shelling out gil for stacks of Light Crystals at the auction house. I've been thinking about farming my own, and Neyla pointed out you can always find them floating around in up in Sky.

My sanity can only handle the burden of working through three stacks of trout paste for these skillup sessions, so I decided to take a run "upstairs" when I'd finished.

The idea quickly fell through. All the elementals, even the Light ones, are Tough or Very Tough. While it's theoretically possible that I could bring down a Tough as MNK/DNC, I don't relish the time it would take considering it'd be using Cure V on itself or something. Meh. I'll just buy the damned things.

I've seen them pop in Delkfutt's Tower, but I don't know how often that happens. I'll have to investigate that option. I punched a few birds to death while I was there. At least I got something out of it.

Still Not Worth It

2008-03-23T15:58:00.002-04:00

This sucks. Seriously.

tried a few Campaign battles as Dragoon, hoping I could get some decent XP and claw my way through that last bit to ding 61. It's still not worth it. I can't do as much damage, so I don't earn nearly as many points as I do when I'm on Monk. It's really just not worth the hassle. Neyla kinda enjoyed it, since I tried it as /WHM this time and could cast Dia to trigger Healing Breaths when his health got too low.

I finally pulled it off, but the last bit was earned by doing Streetsweeper III. I can finally wear my Amemet Mantle +1.

I'd be much more tempted to level that way more often if my Polearm skill wouldn't get so hideously gimped in the process. I've got to go out and skill up soon or just get a party. I'm going to fall behind and turn into an uber-gimp at this rate.

Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock

2008-03-21T15:45:00.004-04:00

Oh,

I'm always adding to my chocobo collection.

I did some stuff today. Farmed my Florid Stone, did multiple Campaign battles, earned my Copper Emblem of Service for my evaluation, even some fishing... but really the day was mostly about collecting egg furniture. I'd already claimed Windurst's Hatchling egg, but I decided I wanted the rest of them.

It's an egg hunt, with moogles dispensing a new letter to you each hour. By forming combos, you get items. For the nation-based eggs, you had to spell out the first five letters of a region controlled by that country.

Players make a lot of gil from these egg events by bazaaring letters and marking them up outrageusly. I saw an "H" in one bazaar for 10k! Luckily most are content to keep it under 2k-3k. I spent a lot more gil than I should have, running between Windurst, Bastok and San d'Oria to find the letters I needed.

The Clockwork Egg is also pretty cool because it keeps accurate time, staying in sync with the in-game clock.

Brawl

2008-03-20T15:37:00.004-04:00

I've been playing a lot of "Super Smash Bros. Brawl."

gaming life has been overwhelmed by two titles for the past week. The first is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and the other is Army of Two. Neyla has been spending a lot of time at my apartment so we can play them, which means I've spent very little time in Vana'diel.

Sunday wasn't bad, because we had the escort and ENM before helping Shmedly do the yagudo BCNM for the Windurst [S] quests. I really need to buckle down and try to get a party on Dragoon. It's not like I don't have plenty of things to keep myself occupied while I seek. I'll get there eventually, because I really do enjoy going stab-stab-stabbity-stab with my polearm.

The only other productive things I've done (if you can call it that) were getting the Hatchling Egg for my moghouse and repairing enough clothespoles to get Woodworking to 70. The Hatchling Egg is neat because it makes sounds and gives me the creepy feeling I'm in Jurassic Park.

I

Odzmanouk is a new and startling addition to Campaign.

was back and having some quality time today, though. This was my first solid attempt at doing Campaigns since the big update, and it's definitely changed. I like hearing the troop dispatches while I'm waiting around in Windurst, but it seems to take the waves of enemies longer to reach camp. There were a few battles where the music started but the mobs took so long to appear that I gave up in disgust and followed Neyla back to Windurst to try a more productive battlefield. He managed to ding 66 on Paladin while we were at it.

A fun addition I didn't expect was the arrival of a wyrm during the battle in Meriphataud. Odzmanouk fights on our side, at least. We'd be in deep dragon doo-doo if he was working for the Shadow Lord.

I'm closing in on a second merit point, so I may try for a third tomorrow while I finish up the requirements to earn another promotion.

Crafting Bug

2008-03-13T04:59:00.001-04:00

I broke and repaired clothespoles for woodworking skillups.

really want a Red Hobby Bo for my moghouse, but I don't feel like paying 300k for one. I checked the crafting requirements for making them, and it turns out I'm not far from being able to make them myself.

I was mostly playing the new Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii today, but I did spend some quality time in Beaucedine Glacier this afternoon. I bought a bunch of clothespoles and started breaking them on the Emperor Fish near the outpost. Repairing them earned me a few skillups. I can get to 73 on this synth before moving on to serious Lu Shang repair; I'll probably be living in the Quicksand Caves for awhile when I reach that stage.

Depending on how much chocobo dye I get, I may have to build myself an entire set.

Starved For It

2008-03-12T04:39:00.001-04:00

Neyla's

Neyla and I fight off invading yagudo.

eagerness to finish the new Windurst [S] quests was well-founded. I had to finish up the last one with a quick trip to San d'Oria, but I rushed to join him at the fort. An idiot tarutaru had sent the mithran forces off to join the battle at Castle Oztroja, leaving the fort largely undefended because the yagudo had developed magic-resistant armor.

The battle cutscenes were awesome, followed by a truly wild BCNM. Basically, the yags had tunnels running to Windurst, so Neyla and I had to get in there and cut them off. There were dozens of them marching around in there, but they were pathetically weak and died in one or two punches once we managed to catch up. I don't know how many we killed before Laa Yaku the Austere finally arrived, but I immediately switched over to her and started hitting. Eliminating her prevented the spawn of fresh troops, so it was simply a matter of finishing them off.

I'm enjoying the arrival of the "manthra" character. The lack of mithran males has always been kind of annoying to me, but it's always been chalked up to their society's matriarchy keeping the males at home while the women go out and fight in wars and have all the fun. It's a shame, because I wouldn't be playing a tarutaru if this option had been available.

I

Not just cute, but a chess player as well.

followed up our victory by watching the final cutscenes. Clearly the mithra are starved for cock, because they were all over this poor guy. I'm sure lots of fanfiction ink has been spilled over hot mithra lesbian action, so seeing them slobber all over him probably burst a few fantasy bubbles. Heh.

Neyla lagged out and repeatedly disconnected while trying to watch the cutscnes. I think it took him about thirty minutes before he was finally able to push through it and see the execution of the lamebrain tarutaru who put our beloved Windurst in danger.

With that out of the way, I set out to quest the new teleport scrolls. Vunkerl Inlet was hair-raising because of the Djinns clustered around the ??? at the tower, but I managed to get it without aggro. I actually felt more dread about running through Grauberg because I have a highly-toned sense of paranoia where Chigoes are concerned.

Tied in Knots

2008-03-11T04:01:00.004-04:00

Hooray

The new teleport gate crystal in Meriphataud Mountains [S].

for the new update. It took awhile to download yesterday, so the only thing I did when I was finally able to log on was to distribute more of the gil from the Woodsman Ring sale.

Among the update highlights are major buffs to the Scholar job, the new Retaliation ability for Warriors, tweaks for adventuring NPCs, and new teleport spells for White Mage and Warp spells for Black Mage. There are also new quests added to the "Wings of the Goddess" storyline, which had me salivating.

The new teleports don't strike me as the most useful things in the game, but then again I'm not sure how the rest of the WotG storyline will play out. The one in Meriphataud Mountains will certainly be handy if I ever need a shortcut to Castle Oztroja, but otherwise... meh. I wasn't going to let the opportunity to learn new spells slip away, though.

It took awhile to find the one in Jugner because I didn't realize I'd have to work my way around a big mountain and hit it from the other side. I grabbed the Cavernous Maw while I was there, since it was the only one I'd missed when the expansion was released. When I'd finished traveling around, I rode out to Purgonorgo Island to catch a few Moorish Idols for guild points.

Neyla

Neyla acts as healer while Shmedly and I kill yagudo.

and I started on the new Windurst quests after that. We had to help a San d'Orian traveler find a 108-knot quipu he'd stolen from the yagudo, since he'd gotten himself attacked and lost it out in Sauromugue Champaign [S].

There are fortifications along the eastern side of the zone, each containing two or three beastmen. We teamed up with Shmedly and started hunting. Shmedly was eventually called away for an NM fight, but Neyla and I kept going until we'd obtained the drops and returned to the Jeuno gate for the cutscene.

I love this storyline. I was a big fan of Chains of Promathia's story -- not so much the level caps and insane BCNMs like Snoll Tzar -- but this one is rapidly overtaking it in my affections.

Catching Up is Hard to Do

2008-03-09T18:31:00.002-04:00

I've

It's a pet parade of death.

been mostly out of the game since finishing Dancer last week. I've popped on briefly to do guild points and hit a Campaign battle or two, but mostly I've been playing other games and relaxing from the Dancer marathon.

The only real high point since then wasn't even mine. Neyla got his Jelly Ring on Tuesday, the day after we'd finished Dancer. His friend Scheetaru went with him on Thief instead of Black Mage, using Garuda's Dagger for elemental damage and had a sword in the other hand for Spirits Within.

I was on today, though. The escort went fine, and then we did "Test Your Mite." The only one missing this time was Ghaleon. We got a Woodsman Ring and a Geist Earring. It was like a pet parade, with two Beastmasters and a Dragoon. Too bad we didn't have a Summoner and Puppetmaster to complete the set.

Before logging out, Shmedly passed me some green female chocobo breeding cards. Now I just need to find a stud... and a green male chocobo.

Speaking of green things, some delightful people traded a bunch of items and took over the Gustaberg region for the great nation of Windurst. Huzzah!

John Lithgow Would Be Proud

2008-03-03T16:58:00.002-05:00

The mandragora cultists followed us.

returned to the camp in Rolanberry Fields [S] to fight the bees, which were now Toughs to us. The mandragoras we'd fought before were still Easy Prey, so we built up 300tp on them before starting in on the serious Dancer leveling.

The bees were pissing me off at first because they kept hitting me with Final Sting and knocking me down into the red. I'm surprised it never resulted in my death, but then again Neyla was usually quick to patch me up if I waited too long with the Curing Waltz. I was relieved when the bastards started hitting Neyla with it, because up to that point it seemed like they had a grudge against me.

We used two Empress Band charges, and we finally met the goal and reached 37. Now when I go into Campaign battles as MNK/DNC, I won't have a gimped subjob. I'll eventually go back there and start leveling Dancer again on my own... but not for awhile. I'm burned out on Dancer. That creepy minister from Footloose will be pleased to hear that.

Movin' On Up

2008-03-02T16:52:00.004-05:00

"Test

Neyla's taru brigade prepares for battle.

Your Mite" was a little rough today because the game crashed on me at the beginning of the fight. I'm glad I didn't have to reboot my computer or anything, and I was able to get back into the battle pretty quickly. Pasuk was going after Neyla and it seemed like everyone was in the yellow, but we took it down and I got my bonus xp. Whew. Not bad for a mithra and three tarutarus, since Ghaleon and Wulf weren't there this week.

I also passed my Campaign evaluation and earned myself a Golden Star. I now have access to "Streetsweeper III," which will make for some nice XP each week without leaving town.

There wasn't much to do after that except hit the Tavnazian Safehold to buy supplies for tomorrow. Neyla and I will finish getting Dancer to 37, and we popped our Empress Bands before we logged out so we can have the effect twice tomorrow.

Covered in Syrup

2008-02-29T15:53:00.002-05:00

Neyla has been wanting to get a Jelly Ring, which drops off a large slime called Sewer Syrup. It lives in the Bostaunieux Oubliette. The stats on the ring -- -5% physical damage taken, but +5% magical damage taken -- are nifty. Hell, I wouldn't mind having one for Campaigns.

Some

The mousse take a long time to kill.

psycho had included a note on Sewer Syrup's wiki page that it was soloable by "any melee with Dancer sub." It seemed like a pretty strong endorsement for the idea that we should get our butts in there so I could beat it to death... even though I know how much jellies resist blunt damage. Hope springs eternal!

We were killing mousse for at least 90 minutes when the thing popped. Another duo had entered the zone a few minutes before and happened to arrive at that exact moment, which really makes you wonder about hacking. I still managed to use Animated Flourish to provoke it out from under their noses. Neyla used Gravity and we started moving it to the Ronfaure zone.

Neyla managed to get aggro from all the undead and died before getting there, so I was on my own. Again, the person who posted that /DNC melee gibberish was on high-grade heroin, because that thing handed me my ass. It was damaging me a lot faster than I could cure myself, and I was running out of TP.

I had to zone out and leave it to the other two. Neyla's going to come back some other time and camp it with Shmedly on Black Mage. He'll probably be able to kill it in three or four nukes.

I think it would be fun to go back and fight it with Formless Strikes and Hundred Fists. If I ever unlock that ability, I may seek a rematch.

Skillups

2008-02-28T04:38:00.002-05:00

I've been toying with trying to cap my guard skill, despite the howls of laughter that generally brings whenever the topic comes up on Monk message boards. It seems like it would be very easy to do as MNK/DNC.

I

I beat a Steelshell to death behind the waterfall.

wanted to toy around with the idea, so I traveled out to the Boyahda Tree and started fighting the Robber Crabs. Neyla tagged along as Paladin so he could skill up his Divine Magic by spamming Flash. I think we must've fought a dozen or so crabs before I got a measly .2 skillup.

For the proverbial shits and giggles, we went upstairs so I could try my hand against one of the black mandies. I got a few guard skillups, but more surprising were the evasion skillups; I'd assumed that was already capped. It was a rough fight, but we didn't stay long because there was a Beastmaster fighting the goobues and I'd essentially stolen one of his pets. I went behind the waterfall and punch a Steelshell to death before we took off.

We did a few Campaigns instead. We'll ding 36 on Dancer tomorrow.

Photo Finished

2008-02-27T04:36:00.004-05:00

Neyla takes a yagudo-induced dirt nap.

was running errands for a big chunk of the afternoon, so there wasn't as much gaming today. I logged on and followed Neyla from one Campaign battlefield to another in search of a really good signature image he can use at QCDN. He wants a Paladin-themed one, so we figured it would be best to get a pic of him tanking one of the Campaign NMs.

We had some decent luck with the yagudos in Meriphataud Mountains. They have very distinctive helmets, to be sure. I ran in close and tried to get a usable pic before we died from the AoE spam. I also totally forgot to get a second set of Allied Tags during back-to-back fights, which I dismissed as trying to avoid Campaign aggro.

I managed to finish off a third merit and used them to raise my Kick Attack Frequency another level.

Double Dipping

2008-02-26T04:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday

I kept the goblin busy while Neyla fought the dhalmel.

and today ran the same pattern. Neyla and I gathered in Bibiki Bay to fight bunnies until our ring charges wore off and then did a bunch of Campaign battles. The end is nearly in sight, because we dinged 35 today.

We varied it up a bit, too. After several days of killing the same three bunnies over and over, we branched out and added some birds and dhalmels and a goblin BST. The latter made it entertaining because he summoned a bunny which would link with one of the nearby Island Rarabs.

Hitting 35 gave us Drain Samba II and Healing Waltz. I couldn't wait to try them out in Campaign, and it was a definite improvement. I finished off a second merit point, earned a Mythril Star in my evaluation, and probably earned enough Allied Notes to pass the next evaluation. One of the North Gustaberg fights got particularly hairy when the demon commander turned up with Dark Elementals in tow; I was on the verge of death when the NPC cavalry arrived and pulled them off me.

In addition to the festival furniture items, I found a nice parting gift from Veresko in my delivery box. It's going to suck not having him around.

/sigh

2008-02-24T04:16:00.003-05:00

I can finally wear my helmet.

the good old days, the weekly "Test Your Mite" ENM had a stable cadre of players who never missed a run unless there was a real emergency. Lately, it's a complete toss-up. I spent the weekend at my parents' house and hustled back to be online in time, but we had to cancel the run today because it was just me and Neyla. He's thinking it may be time to throw in the towel, and I'm starting to agree. It's starting to be too much of a hassle to get people to show up because of conflicting schedules.

But I wasn't going to let it stop me from finally getting Dragoon to 60. I was so very close, so I decided to try DRG/DNC in Campaign. It worked surprisingly well, considering I could only use the first Curing Waltz. I also scrambled around Windurst Waters [S] between fights to burn off all the Campaign Ops I'd built up.

I can finally wear the full AF. Hooray for me.

Flashdance

2008-02-20T04:24:00.002-05:00

Gigas invade West Sarutabaruta [S].

said we were going to do a level a day until we hit 37 on Dancer, but it's starting to get a little tedious. We're scaling it back even more and will just do an Empress Band charge each day until we get there. We dinged 33 on Island Rarabs in Bibiki Bay, but didn't feel like staying around much longer than that.

It's not like we have to rush, because we've achieved the major goal of boosting our survival rate in Campaign battles. I took a break to do a little fishing before joining Neyla in the past to do some fights, and it was sweet. I miss popping off Asuran Fists every few seconds for heavy damage, but it's offset by how I don't miss dying every few fights because nobody will throw a Cure my way.

I finished off a merit point and Neyla almost dinged 62 before we logged out. We'll get halfway to 34 tomorrow and probably do more Campaigns. I applied for an evaluation and earned my Sterling Star. Two more promotions and I can do Streetsweeper III.