Roc Stars

I

Roc takes a beating.

vaguely seem to recall a time when Roc was a regularly-hunted HNM on our server. I remember being dragged out to Sauromugue Champaign during my failed membership in Notorious Hunters and standing around with my thumb up my tarutaru ass while another linkshell claimed and killed it. Oh, the excitement! Now that Roc has been stripped of its Healing Staff and the gil it could bring in, the great bird can barely get arrested.

Neyla and I were back on the Campaign trail today, mostly focusing on Windurst areas and making trips to the Necropolis. The latter area is hit-or-miss, because at one point we were fighting -- or rather, whacking ineffectually at -- a gnole that was healing much faster than we were damaging.

By far the worst experience was in Garlaige Citadel, but only because we couldn't find the fucking NPC to start the battle. We know where it's located when Windurst controls the region, but the prick was hidden away in a storeroom this week. On the positive side, we were able to kill a steady stream of imps for impressive numbers with minimal effort. I could get used to that.

While we were doing that, Khrystal sent out a message over the linkshell asking if we wanted to help kill Roc. I missed the first message because I was making a sandwich, but I wasn't too excited when I read the follow-up invite. I was ready to log out and didn't feel like getting involved... but I did.

Khrystal was trying to duo Roc at first, but there were five of them teamed up and mostly dead when Neyla and I emerged from the Citadel. They seemed a little low on firepower. One had to leave because he'd deleveled and lost the ability to equip his sword. We partied up and killed it. The Dryad Staff didn't drop; I wouldn't mind having one for those rare times I'm on White Mage, but I would've passed anyway when there are others who could make more use of it.

Change of Venue

I

Fighting imps in the Necropolis is new to me.

did a few hours of Campaign after work with Neyla, climbing closer and closer to than magical ninth merit point and STR upgrade.

Despite the changes made to the Campaign teleport NPCs a few months back, I've never taken advantage of them to do the battles inside Garlaige Citadel, the Crawler's Nest, or Eldieme Necropolis. Old habits die hard. That changed today. I usually follow Neyla from battlefield to battlefield, and he chose the necropolis at one point.

It's a very different vibe in the past, without all the ruin and decay of the present-day version. Sadly, the main enemy there seems to be comprised of the hated orcs. The few I fought didn't use Orcish Counterstance so I could beat myself into brain trauma, but I'm sure that was just luck.

Demoted

Bleh.

Campaigning again in Meriphitaud.

I popped online to do some Campaign Ops on Warrior and was told my medal had expired. That's not unusual, but the difference is this time when I went for an evaluation they actually took the medal away from me. I lost my Wings of Honor badge. How lame is that?

Busted down a rank, I did the supply run and then flagged the escort. Neyla didn't log on until later in the evening, past the point where I'd already figured he wasn't logging on at all. We did the escort -- I dinged 51 on Warrior -- and then did some Campaign battles.

I need a few more merit points for my next STR upgrade, and then I'll try to get my medal back.

Mog Bonanza Results

I've

I won a statue of Fafnir for my moghouse.

been away on vacation for a week, so I haven't gone near Vana'diel. I'd completely forgotten about the Mog Bonanza lottery, but the results thread at QCDN prompted me to log on and see how I fared. I didn't bother playing on the mules -- I would've been frustrated to win a super-uber-awesome prize on a mule and then be unable to transfer it to my main character -- so I only had ten chances to win.

I won a Rank 5 prize, which I used to obtain a statue of Fafnir for my moghouse. I can't complain, because I didn't win anything the last time they did this.

The winning Rank 1 number was 19367. Crumpet, who used to play on our server, had a marble with 19368. Poor thing. That's when I'd have to cancel my subscription and move to the jungle to spend the rest of my days living in a hut far from technology's heathen embrace.

Warrior AF: Collecting the Goods

I'd

Neyla fought the Shadow Dragon during my run through Xarcabard.

tried to flag my Warrior AF hands quest yesterday morning, but it turns out I still had an active hands quest for Monk. Lucky for me, the old gauntlets were in the Crawler's Nest and I already had a key. When I got home from work last night, I logged on and ran for the nest as Monk to find and pop the coffer. I needed another key, and it dropped from the third mob in the back room.

Neyla came out as Warrior, and I found the next coffer so he could pop it and obtain the Fighter's Mask.

Before logging out, we went to Behemoth's Dominion to fight three goblins. Neyla kited the White Mage and Ranger while I focused on the Thief. It was a fun little fight, and I saved Hundred Fists for the last mob.

We were supposed to see a movie before work today, but I figured I could at least pop on long enough to fight Dark Spark and possibly flag the Warrior version of the same quest. Neyla called to cancel, but said he'd log onto the game awhile.

Instead of spreading the quests out over consecutive nights, we managed to knock out the rest of our AF in about two hours. We took turns babysitting each other. The Crawler's Nest coffer was back in the dragonfly room, so he had to fight the mobs for me. We lucked out in the necropolis because both coffers popped on the upper level.

Castle

My taru mannequin is a sexy Warrior beast.

Zvahl was trickier, of course. I escorted Neyla around first, and we dropped down the goblin and quadav chutes before I thought to check the center area where you can see four pop points at once. That's where we found the coffer. Neyla didn't have a warp scroll, but he had a buffer and used to to bloodport out. I fought off an ahriman and then warped out behind him.

My escort through Castle Zvahl was almost cut short by a UPS deliveryman who buzzed my door as I was heading for the goblin area. Neyla had scouted ahead and found the coffer while I waited in the small tunnel between maps. I was on my way to join him when the buzzer went off. I was able to sign for my package and run back up the stairs two at a time get to to my PC before things took an unfortunate turn.

Naturally, we dumped the armor into NPC storage before we logged out. That makes six sets for me and seven for Neyla.

Warrior AF: The Key Farming

I'm

We kill a Crawler Hunter in the Crawler's Nest.

obviously no stranger to coffer key farming, but there are a few areas that fill me with dread because the mobs tend to be stubborn about giving me what I need. One of those areas is the Necropolis. Neyla and I did the escort and then dropped down to the lower levels to do battle with ghosts, shadows and bones.

Shockingly, they gave us two keys almost immediately. We only had to do one lap.

That was the pattern for the rest of the day. We left the Necropolis and ran for the Crawler's Nest. We cleared the chamber with the Crawler Hunters and Knight Crawler, earning the first key almost immediately, and then got a second from the first round of re-pops.

The one I actively hated was Castle Zvahl, but that's just because the constant running and stair-climbing is as obnoxious as a galka's chili farts. The only saving grace was I was largely on auto pilot and following Neyla while I watched Seinfeld DVDs.

We claimed our escort scrolls and finished up by hitting Palborough Mines to fight Ni'Ghu Nestfender in his egg chamber (I always wondered what the ??? was for) and then traveled to Castle Oztroja to get Parasite Skins from the leeches in the upper pool.

We plan to finish the Warrior AF quests this week and then focus on Campaign awhile.

Warrior Ring Charge

Ah,

Fighting more goblins.

Warrior. I never seriously thought I'd have you any higher than 37 for a subjob, and now here you are... reaching the AF-quest levels.

Nothing too spectacular from an adventuring perspective today, I suppose. Neyla and I went to the desert to burn off an Empress Band charge. We did three rounds of Fields of Valor while we were there and managed to get to Lv. 50.

Our next step will be questing the Warrior Artifact Armor. I have no clue if any of it is worth using -- the upside of leveling jobs outside of the conventional party system is a complete lack of concern about having "good" gear -- but I'll quest it just the same. If nothing else, my mannequin can show it off before I sink it into NPC storage.