Another eventful weekend

A little bit to catch up on. So lets start with when me and Josudes went out into Bhaflau Thickets to xp on some colibri. He was needing 200 imperial standing in order to get a silver coin to use the warp taru to get to Jeuno, and asked for some help. So I geared up my PLD, and went out with him. He was a 68 RDM/BLU, and we killed fairly easily. He wanted to try out tanking, so he buffed up using protect IV + Stoneskin + Phalanx + Cocoon which gave him just over 400 DEF. He wanted to try tanking and wanted to try to steal hate from me, so I engaged a colibri and started attacking but didn't use any of my moves. Unfortunately he couldn't get hate no matter how hard he tried, but then again I also have my sword and enmity merited a little bit, and had quite a bit of enmity gear on me ^^

Then on Saturday morning, I logged in thinking that first I would be doing my ENM static, and then Garrison.... only to find out that I had cancelled the ENM static for this saturday and scheduled Garrison to be early. I quickly geared up as MNK and headed to Buburimu Peninsula outpost and waited for the rest of my LS members to gather.

We had expected to do an alliance of 18 members, but as with anything there are always people who don't show. I was a little disappointed because I had even asked that everyone confirm with me that they could make it, and still we had people MIA. This of course, meant that we had to cut our alliance down from 18 people to 12. The problem was of course, that we had 14 people, which meant that I had to ask for 2 people to sit out which I really didn't want to do. If we had gone with 14 people, we would of had a number of mobs that are suppose to be taken down by a full alliance, and I didn't want to risk having any casualties so we cut it down to 12 people.

Now for those who don't know what a garrison is, its when an alliance is meant to fend off 4 waves of mobs. Each wave has more mobs than the last, and the last wave will have an NM. At the end, you are rewarded with gear and 2 Dragon Chronicle Pages (xp scrolls) as well as mannequin pieces will drop throughout the battle.

I went as MNK for the first run, and Xean was our NIN kiter. The first run was great, I got myself an xp scroll (500 xp applied to lolninja) and a pair of mannequin feet. I then decided to give my spot to Buckeyespud so that he could join in with the fun, and quickly OP warped back to San d'Oria to gear up as my RDM. I also picked up another linkshell which I called TBHGarrison so that from now on, if we have extra members but that aren't in the alliance we can still all keep in contact without having to use our main LS which often gets clogged up with regular social chat. Then I headed back, and we went on our second run.

We did a total of 4 runs, and the only casualty we had was 1 NPC death. It was amazing, our members were so pysched and just having a blast. I'm so proud to see how many of them who were new, managed to adapt really quickly to how a garrison is done. I'd say this was by far our most successful run in terms of surviving and keeping our NPCs alive. The only thing that lacked, was the fact that our drops weren't really worth a whole lot. The plan is to sell off our military weapons and split the profits, and though there is a little profit its not as much as we've obtained in past garrison runs. But in the end, I think everyone was more there for the fun of doing another LS event together and the gil reward at the end is only a by-product.

On Sunday, me and Xean finally got back to doing our CoP missions. We were asked to join Sirivalin's CoP static (also includes Alianne, Lokelani, and Kiersten). We were on 2.5, which meant that we had to make our way to Monarch Linn to fight a BCNM. At first, we were killing firedrakes to get an item dropped which is used to open the portals to the different areas, which allow us to get to Monarch Linn. This went pretty well, we manaburned them which was kinda fun.

Finally when we got to the BCNM, we prepped and discussed our manaburn strat. While at the BCNM entrance, Xean decided to pretend he was some powerful being and stood in the light for a bit making some jokes about sensing the power. I'm always able to count on him for a laugh or two. When we got in, we waited for Kiersten to invincible and off we went with our Stonega II..... err..... well at least everyone else did. Apparently I had forgotten to add the "II" to my macro and only let off a stonega v_v. But I quickly changed my macro and caught up with the casting only in time to see Kiersten's health go to 0. I was a little scared at that point as I saw the 3 mobs come after us mages thinking to myself we might not make it. I quickly casted a few more "aga" spells and as soon as my MP was low, I ripped off my manafont and casted a Stonega II before finding myself eating the dirt too. But thankfully we killed it, and won.

However, the night was only about to get longer as me and Xean went to go solo 3.0 - 3.3. The first two missions, required a lot of running around to and from places. We had to go to Jeuno, then to San d'Oria, then to Carpenter's Landing, back to San d'Oria, then to Windurst. We had to go to and from about 4 different NPCs in 3 zones in Windurst, which seemed to take forever. Finally we had to travel to Attohwa Chasm where we needed to spawn an NM which Xean took out easily with his MNK. But the hard part came next, we had to navigate the mountain and climb up it... which would of been fine, except you barely have a path to walk on, because its width is about as wide as your character and if you step too far you end up falling off to the bottm, and have to start again.

And of course, that is exactly what happened to me. Because we only had an hour in rl time to get to the top, we decided to go back to the NM to get the key item again and try climbing a second time. Only this time, I WALKED! There was no way I was going to mess up and fall down again, that mountain was such a pain in the ARSE! Thanks to Xean's excellent navigating, he got us to the top and we finished the quest and enjoyed the scene. Though I said i'd never do it again, i'm sure I probably will end up having to climb the mountain again when LS members need to do the quest... but until then, i'm staying clear of that zone because my memories are not the fondest of that forsaken mountain! GAH!!!

Subligars...

Not a lot has happened last week, other than meriting on my RDM (I now have 4 merits for my Shield skill, and 2 for my sword skill) and getting lvl 52 on my WHM with Xean's NIN. I did try fishing a little bit in Qufim, hoping to get my fishing lvled so that I can eventually fish on the ship to Mhaura while waiting for the NMs to pop that drop the WHM cudgels that give some really good stats.


Funny part about that, is that I spent two days fishing in Qufim before I figured out that apparently the fishing guild also has a "guild test item".






. . .





Yeah, I felt pretty smart lol. As soon as I figured out that had been the reason I hadn't seen one skillup in 2 days, I finally went and traded in the item so I could go beyond fishing lvl 10. I managed to get one lvl which isn't much, but then again the craft itself is much slower to progress with than other crafts (in regards to gaining skillups)





So over the weekend, I did my usual ENM static with Pseulen, Arimis, Timwakefield, Xean and we invited a friend of Pseulen's, Kyng. We breezed through these, and I even managed to ding lvl 38 on my Ninja. I'm pretty sure that i'll be able to bring my NIN to this static from now on, which means that I can lvl the job without really having to xp on it!!! My goal is to get lvl 58, because there is this one katana that allows you to have cooking skill +3 when equipped, so hopefully in a couple of months i'll make it there considering i'm getting a total of 9k experience points a week on my ninja now.





And the other even which pretty much consumed my weekend, was a subligar run I organized with my LS. We headed down to the Aqueducts, and started killing various formors. We had a few deaths here and there, ran into the Minotaur (stupid mortal ray killed me because I didn't have enough Holy Waters -_-) and killed him. We even took on 4 formors with only 8 players, 2 of which were tanks. Our strategy was to kite a few of them while some of us fought. We even ended up having one of our kiters/tanks die early on because of an NM that linked, but thankfully with everyone pulling together to use their 2hrs we killed the party of 4 formors, and even got the 2 subligars needed from that group (Grats Angeloxi!).





In the end we didn't get our RNG subligar for Shaoulin, but everyone else had their request filled. Many of us, left with more subligars than we actually intended to have. I have 2 different BRD types, a RDM, PLD, NIN, WHM/SMN and I think another type as well. All in all, it was a success and though it dragged on for a very long time (Saturday night our party stayed up until 1am PST/4am EST) I think everyone was pretty happy with the results. Hopefully we'll be able to set up another party soon so that we can get Shaou his subligar, and anyone else who didn't get the chance to come along. It was a lot of fun, and i'm really glad to see some of our newer members to the LS show enthusiasm to come and help with events. I'm grateful that though we've had a few members leave due to differences, we've gained more members that show a lot of potential to furthering our LS, and making it one of those places people just like to come to and enjoy.

1 more WHM AF!

Last night, I logged in and decided to try and get my fishing lvled a bit. Its currently sitting at lvl 10, and unfortunately didn't even budge by .1 the entire time. At first I grabbed a Halcyon Rod and a Sabiki Rig and headed to Port Jeuno to fish up Yellow Globes which cap at lvl 17. I didn't get much success with this, though I did catch 2 Cobalt Jelly.

I then decided to try my luck in Qufim and go to the lake. My catches were much better here, and the only thing I was fishing were Yellow Globes so I figured eveeeentually i'd have to have a skillup. That wasn't the case and I grew very frustrated. I then decided to download some FF music while I waited for Xean to login, and figured i'd try another time to lvl up my fishing. (And the reason I want to lvl it is so that I can successfully fish on the ship to Mhaura with Xean while we wait for the NMs to pop so we can try and get his rare/ex WHM cudgels)

When Xean finally logged in, we decided to try and go farm my last coffer key for WHM which was located in Beadeaux. I went as PLD, and Xean went as MNK/THF for the treasure hunter. We ended up clearing the place really quickly, and about 40 minutes had passed with no drop. Then our LS member Buckeyespud logged in and asked if he could get some help on his G1 items, and seeing as we hadn't had an opportunity to give him a hand in anything yet, we jumped at the chance.

So we walked to Crawler's Nest and met up with him and Onedarkflame who also came to help and we started to kill Exorays for the Exoray Mold. We managed to get the drop within about 20 minutes, and headed over to Garlaige Citadel next, and because I also had a WHM coffer there I ran to Jeuno and grabbed my key so that I could also look for the coffer while we helped.

We ended up getting Buck's Bomb Coal after our first kill, and then proceeded to open the banishing gate#2. I went and checked the coffer locations, but couldn't find it, so we led everyone to banishing gate#3 and lo and behold, the chest was waiting for me! ^^ {Healer's Cap}{Mine}!

Buck had to leave right away as it was late for him, and Onedarkflame also wanted to head to bed so me and Xean headed back to Beadeaux to try for my other WHM coffer again. We killed Yagudo for about 30 minutes when we finally got there, and finally a key dropped!! And, to top it off the coffer was right in the room where we were camping, so I went and got my key item Old Gauntlets to go and do the Dark Spark fight which i'll probably attempt later this week.

So now, all thats left for my AF on my WHM is the Dark Spark fight, getting a Tavnasian Bell (oh gawd help me for the drops on that x_x) and then the NM fight in Fei'yin. And of course we have 1 NM fight for Xean on his NIN as he already has his coffer keys for his AF, he just needs to go find them!

I love my weekends

The best part about the job that I have, is that I never have to work weekends! Which of course, gives me both Saturday and Sunday to do a lot in the game, which is great because during the week me and Xean are often on too late due to being on PST and so by the time we're logged in, many of our LS members are almost ready for bed.

So starting with Saturday, the first thing that me and Xean did was get ready for our ENM static. I was going as WAR/NIN, and Xean went as WHM. We also had Pseulen (DRK/THF), Timwakefield (MNK), Arimis (WAR/NIN) and Soulstar (SMN) along for the ride. We started with Promyvion Holla, and managed to get lucky with the Memory Recepticles because we didn't have any "duds" and progressed to the 4th and final floor within 30 minutes. We then prepared ourselves, and went in for the ENM which was a breeze though I ended up getting one shotted right at the end. Guess once a tank, always the tank? Lol. We managed to get a Brilliant Vision which is an item that can be used to obtain a healer's earring, and even though it only sells for about 50k our party was pumped because any vision is a rare drop, and we had gotten one on our first run as a static.

We then headed over to Promyvion Dem, and again this was pretty easy getting to the top. We had one dud MR, but aside from that no aggro and we made good time. When we got to the fight, this was easier than the Holla crag and we took down the ENM quickly. Again to our amazement, we got another drop, this time one worth about 700k, the Vivid Vision which can be turned into a summoner's earring. We were quite excited and very pleased with our results so far.

Finally, we headed to Promyvion Mea, and this time took a little longer because we had a few dud MRs. But finally we made it to the top, and we went in hoping for success #3. We did manage to beat the ENM, however myself, Arimis and Timwakefield were all eating dirt in the end. This is suppose to be the harder of the promies, so it was what to expect. Unfortunately we didn't get any drops at the end of this one, but for 3 ENMs we did very well with 9k XP each (my WAR hit lvl 58 woo!) and about 750k to split between all of us. It was a blast, and i'm really glad that this is something we'll be doing every Saturday because its a great way to spend some time with LS members and get in some easy xp.

After that, me and Xean decided to get a few merits, so I geared up my RDM and he got his MNK ready. Our first party had a slow start because the BRD hadn't told us he'd gone AFK to change his baby's diaper, and so we were waiting in Bhaflau Thickets for about 15 minutes taking a few mobs in between. But when the BRD finally came, xp picked up quick and things were going great... that is, until the BRD had to leave, as well as our party leader and our ninja tank. In the end our party disbanded and me and Xean headed back to whitegate with our seeks up again, hoping to get in a few merits before the end of the evening.

Well we did get another invite, but I would have to say this party was far less enjoyable than the last. We went up to Sky and were chaining 10s on weapons. The xp was ok, except I wasn't use to "mobile camp" xping and was falling behind a lot because i'd be casting something and the party would move forward. And to boot, the BRD we had was an elitist . I had gotten stuck on some vines, and fell behind before a gate was closed on me. The BRD made some comment about me "horsing around" which made me just want to smack the little tarutaru. I mean seriously, do you think I come into a party to "horse around" -_-. Moron.

At last that party ended, and me and Xean decided to give our friend Zakuta some help camping Sewer Syrup Jelly NM so he could get the "Jelly Ring" drop for his PLD. We headed down into basement of the San d'Orian Castle, and killed Mousse and Haunts while trying to pop the NM as it was a lottery. 4 hours passed before it spawned, and me wanting to test my skills as RDM/NIN HAAAd to solo it, and so I did. All was going fine except in between, some mobs popped. Zak and Xean took these on, but somehow they ended up getting a total of 1 Werebat, 1 Mousse and I think 2 Haunts on them. I tossed a few sleeps as I could, and some refreshes and they killed their aggro with just barely any MP left to spare. And a few minutes later, I killed Sewer Syrup and got Zakuta his Jelly Ring!! I was psyched because aside from some help from my NPC, i'd taken on my first NM by myself. I felt I did better on this than I had with the avatar runs i'd done a few weeks ago, so I think as long as I continue to get some practice in there will be a lot I can solo if needed.

And on Sunday, I logged in to give a hand to Demonwolf and Falk with Garuda. I went as RDM/NIN and the battle was easily fought with their help. At the very end of the battle, I decided to Chainspell and Blizzard III Garuda, which did close to 500 each hit. This was without any of my INT/nuking/Aquilo's Staff too, as I had my MP gear setup at the time. Because I already had the rare/ex item and the avatar pact, I decided to get myself 10k as my reward.

Later on, me and Xean decided to quest some of our AF for our WHM and NIN. I got my AF feet and pants, and then farmed my Garlaige Citadel Coffer key with Alianne while Xean had to go on the boat to Mhaura to kill an NM for his AF. When we were done this, we all headed back to Al Zhabi because Tim had scheduled an lvl 60 Cap ISNM (Imperial Standing Notorious Monster). Our setup was myself (RDM), Xean (MNK), Timwakefield (MNK), Alianne (SMN), Cronelic (SAM) and Khajit (NIN).

Our first run didn't go so well though. There was a bit too much talking and not enough voking, and I ended up dying first which unfortunately meant that the party wasn't going to have too much longer to live. Everyone ended up 2hring, but the NM kept using a charmga move (I swear like 10 times) which left our party unable to fight, while it regened. In the end, we all ate the dirt but we were determined to try again so Alianne HPed and came back to raise us all.

Our second round was much easier because we only got charmed maybe 3 times, and because I didn't die I was able to keep the party cured and we won. We decided to try one last round before Alianne had to go to bed and again, this was a success. Seemed we'd figured out our setup and our strategy after our initial failure. Unfortunately the drops weren't anything special, but again as with anything we do as a LS, the prizes are always a bonus because the experience and memory is what we take with us in the end. Hopefully we can do this again sometime, it was more fun than I expected.

Much accomplished..

Last night I got quite a bit accomplished. I got home early because I had to leave work early for a doctor's appointment, and just decided to stay home afterwards. When I logged on, I decided to complete another Treasures of Aht Urghan mission, which just involved me talking to Naja to get a cutscene.

As bad as it may sound, I really don't know whats going on with the story because i've always been in a hurry in the past scenes to do something else, so i've never read what has been said. The most I remember from this, is that there is a puppetmaster dressed in white, and that I'm going to help her accomplish something for the Empress of Aht Urghan. So now I believe i'm on mission 12: Royal Puppeteer which I will hopefully try to tackle this weekend.

After completing my ToAU mission, I decided it was time to go after the final quest for my NPC fellow Epilleve, which would require me to go to Fei'yin and fight a BCNM50. I made my way there as my WAR/NIN figuring it would be good to have a DD and have ninja sub. When I entered Fei'yin, I noticed that Miser Murphy was hanging out and stayed clear of him because the last time I had run into the zone, he had killed me within minutes before I knew what the heck was attacking me.

When I entered the BCNM, there was a little cutscene where the bad guy turned into a demon called Vassago and me and my NPC went forward to cut him down. The fight was really easy, and I just had to make sure that right before the mob would use his special move "Blighted Gloom" that I would have to run away and let my npc deflect the move with "Blessed Radiance". Well this happened twice successfully, and right when he went to go use his move for the 3rd time I was going through my menus to get ready to weaponskill him so I wasn't able to run away in time, and me and my NPC ended up taking quite a hit, but I finished him off with my weaponskill. So after that, I headed back to Jeuno to talk with Luto.

I decided that since I still had some time to spare, i'd finish off "Chameleon Caper's" quest (I think thats the name) so that I could get the tactics manual: Might, that could teach my NPC the job style: Fierce Attacker. A friend of mine from LS, Alianne gave me a hand in completing the quest which involved me having to take the airship to Windurst to talk to a tarutaru NPC, and then back to Jeuno which seemed like a lifetime. Then I had to run to Lower Delfkutt's Tower and get a few more cutscenes before fighting a magic pot, which I could of soloed but because Alianne had been giving me a hand I let him join in on the fun as his THF. The more the merrier right? Finally, I got my Tactics Manual: Might and taught my NPC the new job style. Then because Alianne had previously done this quest and obtained the Tactics Manual: Endurance, we swaped and my NPC Epilleve also learned Soothing Healer which is currently what her style is now set to. So now i'll keep around the manual for any LS member that needs it because they are re-usable and tradable.

And so to finish up the night, myself, Xean and Timwakefield went to go do Final Bout BCNM50 again. We'd gotten about 1.8mil the last time in drops, and so we hoped we'd make good profit again.

The first run unfortunately was a wipe, because Xean's pc had some lag. It was funny though, after Tim and Xean died, I was still alive and had the mob down to 1% HP, but he got in the final hit. So me and Tim home pointed, and made our way back to Palborough Mines where Xean waited for us to raise him. I went as my WHM because I figured it would be quick to go to Bastok and change jobs.

We also had Alianne stay around as Corsair to see if he could renew our 2hrs, because the secret to winning this BCNM is for everyone to 2hr as this ensures a guaranteed win (as long as there is no lag ^^;) but unfortunately it only renewed our abilities.

So we waited for our timers to go down so we could 2hr again on our second run, and just as expected, it was an easy success. We also managed to get good drops on this run, including Spiked Finger Gauntlets which go from 500-700k. And because we split our drops, we'll each get a share of this. Then on our last run, we also had an easy success and this time only got maybe 300k in drops, which wasn't too bad. We also managed to set the record too!

Now all we need to do is farm up another 50 seals so we can do this again. Its always a blast to be able to do BCNMs with friends, you never have to worry that if you screw up you'll be flamed or harassed but instead you can feel safe knowing everyone will laugh about it later, because everyone's doing it to have fun mostly. And besides, we did end up getting decent drops for 2 orbs so it was well worth it.

Mithra Fang Sacks DO exist!

Last year, our LS TheBrotherhood had expressed an interest in doing a lvl 30 Garrison in Buburimu Peninsula. This is where up to 3 parties, will fight a total of 4 waves of monsters, with the last wave also having an NM. You are capped depending on the area, and if you win, then you are awarded prizes which include equipment (sometimes up to 500k), mannequin pieces and Dragon Chronicle Pages (xp scrolls). Well, in order to do this event you need to trade a rare/ex item and when we decided to try Buburimu Peninsula, myself and Xean set out to Maze of Shahkrami to farm Goblins to get the drop "Mithra Fang Sack".

After quite a few hours of farming, and no drop we decided that if we couldn't get the piece, other LS members might have just as hard of a time so we opted to change our Garrison for that month back to West Ronfaure, which we were very familiar with and successful. And from that point on, we continued doing our garrison runs in West Ronfaure.

Fast forward to this month, we decided to try again to farm this elusive Mithra Fang sack and get a garrison run in Buburimu Peninsula for the end of the month. I scheduled a farming party last night so that any members in the garrison, could get their item.

Our farming party consisted of myself, Sirivalin (BLM), Evanai (WHM), Inari (WAR), Pasquale (SMN) and Alianne (THF). Later on, Carste also headed down to give us a hand with his THF though he didn't need the item. We farmed for maybe 40 minutes and started to get a bit discouraged with no drop. The more annoying part, was that there was only about 12 goblins to kill and we killed them so fast that we had some down time in between pops.

Eventually though, Alianne's treasure hunter II decided to work and after killing 2 consecutive goblins, we had 2 mithra fang sacks. We all lotted on these, and the first two went to Sirivalin and Evanai (Oh, Evanai is actually Lokelani now. Due to some retarded unknown event, her character had been deleted and when SE restored it, they made her change the name... but I still call her Ev). Then the next 2 that dropped within the next 30 minutes went to Pasquale and Inari, and finally the last one I got by default. Everyone had to go, and I needed to check up on AH sales so we disbanded.

I waited for Xean to get home from school, and when he logged in we went back to Maze of Shahkrami. We farmed for about an hour before his finally dropped, which is just typical... but at least the item did drop. Then because it was kind of late and I wasn't really feeling energetic about doing anything else in the game we logged for the night.

So now its just a matter of waiting until February 24th, which is when our garrison event will be. So far it looks promising, many LS members have signed up and I just hope that we do as well as we've done with past garrison events. I'm really looking forward to being able to do a larger scale event with the LS, because its been a while since we have and I want everyone to be able to take some time out from the grinds in this game, and just have some fun.

I miss my WHM in Dynamis ; ;

First before I start recalling last night, I just wanted to include a little part about me and Xean where we decided to go and get our AF weapons for WHM and NIN on Monday night. It was about 10pm, and I figured there wasn't much time to do anything so seeing as we had both hit lvl 48 on our jobs, and would soon need to flag our AF equipment we might as well start with the weapons. So off we went to go flag the missions, Xean to Norg and I went to San d'Oria. Assuming that we would have to do the NM fights for these quests as our job, we outpost warped to Altepa first, and went after 2 spiders for Xean's NIN AF weapon. That was a piece of cake, because I went as PLD and those things were hardly hitting me.

Then we went back to San d'Oria, and changed jobs so that I could go get my WHM AF weapon in Valkurm Dunes. He came along as MNK to pummel the thing to death... So we get there, and i'm searching for the ??? but can't seem to find it. I've done this quest before for him on his WHM, as well as for other friends so I KNOW its where i'm looking. I decide to go check online to make sure there wasn't another NPC I had to talk to (don't you just hate when that happens? -_-) and sure enough, it said I had to wait until night which made sense seeing as the NM was a shadow.

So while we waited for night to come around, me and Xean role played a little for fun with our emotes. Everytime he does, it always takes me back to the very first time I learned about emotes in West Ronfaure forest, where he taught me you could type out your own personal emote. I won't really get into the ones we used, because they're not necessarily PG rated but needless to say, its always fun to be able to joke around with my bf Xean, in game because the way we tease each other, is pretty much how we are in RL. But anyways, finally night rolls around and we take down the NM. I tossed in a Banishga II and did about 250 damage on the lvl 41 NM, so I was smiling. Its likely due to the fact that my divine magic is capped because of my PLD <_<.

So now on to Dynamis. Well, things are finally coming along for SpiftasticAdventures. We're finally getting committed people that actually work for the success of the LS. We had experienced quite a few people who just wanted the drops, and weren't willing to put a little work into the LS because they'd rather go with a more established one that had little to no deaths... which is fine for them, because we don't want members that can't grasp the concept of working for everyone's success.

We had a few more recruits last night, and some of them showed some potential to being dedicated members so I was quite happy. But aside from that, I have to say last night was probably one of my most unpleasant runs i've had since SA started a few months ago. First, the lag I was experiencing was more than normal which I think is a sign that my PC is going to crash in a matter of time... every run it gets worse. This time, I would select my target but because of the lag, I would end up targeting myself or whatever I had selected last which I think might of caused confusion to our melees. Seeing as I'm main tank, that is NOT a good thing because we can't have slept mobs waking up.

Then the other annoying thing, is that because we had more melee than our previous runs, I was having a really difficult time getting to any mob because of all the characters I had to run through. I literally felt like I was walking through molasses or something, and wasn't feeling like my performance was as great as it could be because by the time i'd get to the mob the DDs would have it dead, and I wouldn't have been able to voke it and keep hate on myself. Its good that we can kill so easily, but i'm a PLD.... so it bugs me when others are getting hit and not me >_<

Anyways, we did very well and really exceeded our last run in San d'Oria time-wise... until we got to our second NM pull, near the West Gate. For some reason, this NM ALWAYS gives us a hard time. Last time, we couldn't get him to pop and I swear this was due to some glitch.

This time however, we didn't have any THF 2hrs up (Perfect Dodge) to run into the gate, and pull out the NM as a sacrificial pull so we decided to use PLDs + Invincible + Rampart (with Crimson legs). This unfortunately didn't work. We tried this twice. We then decided to try THF with flee, and we aaaaaaaaaaalmost had it, but sadly again, we gave yet another member to the orcs to feed upon ; ;. In the end, we probably should have just killed some of the mobs before heading in there after the NM but not everyone was on the same page. We ended up losing a lot of time due to a few wipes because as with any new member, not everyone knows all and a few mistakes were made (leading mobs to camp, resting while NM pull was done) so we had about 10 minutes where we just farmed.

While many people were frustrated, as we didn't get any drops but just some xp loss I really hope that the members will still work with us because we have good people that aren't harsh when mistakes are made. Instead, we're fun and pretty friendly so I think that down the road, when we work towards harder things we won't suffer the same negative atmosphere that other dynamis shells sometimes have because people can't be sympathetic or understanding. We just need to learn from our mistakes, and perfect what we have and i'm sure we'll make it!

And in case your wondering, the reason for the title of this blog isn't because the WHMs in SA are not skilled, because they are and do a very good job at keeping me alive... but I miss having Xean in the LS as my WHM. Maybe one day I can convince him to come back as MNK, hehe.

When you aren't looking for something, it always drops.

Last night, me and Xean were going to go lvl our WHM and NIN but because he needs the Hojo: Ni scroll, and because there were none on AH (nor had there been any in the last few days) we decided to head over to castle Oztroja and farm some Yagudo Assassins in hopes that one would drop.

But as we could have predicted, Xean's bad luck with drop rate was present because in 4 hours of farming, not one had dropped. We didn't exactly farm non-stop because there was a time when both of us had to speak to some other people and while we could have kept fighting, it is better to pay attention to the convesation than have a bunch of high lvl Yagudo link and kick your arse. So i'd say we had about an hour break in that farming.

Anyways, we didn't end up getting his scroll but we did get some other interesting drops. We managed to get about 4 Coffer keys and 3 of those had dropped within our first hour and a half. The last time we had come here to farm these keys for LS members for their AF, we didn't get ONE drop within 3 hours, and that was 2 nights in a row. Sometimes you really have to wonder if someone like the GMs are out there watching you, intentionally messing up your drops with what you need -_-.

We also popped one of the coffers and got a Painite which sells for about 40k, and we also got a Tornado scroll to drop which is about 120k. Funny part was that both dropped to Xean, which is unusual because he never gets the good stuff. It doesn't matter though, he needs the gil more for his NIN and we always work together when one of us needs something. His gil is my gil, and my gil is his gil. It just seemed that for reason his luck was better than mine last night, because he was winning all the good drops AND a lot on a beastmenseal.

Oh, and though I didn't get any scrolls or anything, I did get a total of 5 Kindredseals. I think my collection is now 99 + 50ish? Hopefully i'll be able to do some KS30's soon with our LS because it would be nice to get a little profit, and buy some +1 gear for my RDM, mwahahaha!

Overdue Update!

Well its been a very long time since i've posted, but I think i've decided to pay a little more detail to this blog now, because it would be nice to have something to read in the future if I ever quit the game and want to read up on the memories and experiences I had in this game.

So lets see, whats new since i've last posted? Well I managed to get RDM to 75, and even began meriting so that I could "beef up" my PLD. I added a few points to my MP, Enmity, Shield Skill and one to my Vitality. I surprisingly have grown fond of playing on my RDM because it really keeps me busy, and because I have my ninja available as a subjob, I can now solo things I couldn't before as PLD. It might take a very long time, and be a little costly with the shihei but I still enjoy every minute of taking down a really strong mob all on my own.

In fact, i've even had the opportunity to attempt soloing some avavatars. Just the other week, I went to give Shiva and Titan a try. I had a few LS members show up to act as backup healing and cheer me on. Things went alright, but in the end I wasn't able to solo the avatars entirely on my own without a few cures but that just means I will need more practice and eventually i'll get it. I was happy with how well I did for having done very little as RDM/NIN before the avatars. Most of what I know, if not all has been taught to me by Xean, and I guess his advice has paid off because I think I did pretty well. I ended up getting Shiva down to about 40% before I needed some curing because I had forgotten to recast stoneskin and while panicking to get that back on, I didn't notice my other buffs wear. And with Titan, I got him down to 30% or so, and had I not realized that my refresh had worn off before then, I probably would of had enough MP to defeat him.

What else? Oh, two good friends of mine, Sirivalin and Evanai had their wedding in December. The ceremony didn't seem to be as great as I thought mine and Xean's had been, because the speech the Wedding GM gave, reminded me too much of a typical RL wedding but nonetheless it was fun to attend. I only wish that I had been able to participate in their Brenner match after which was an event open to all LS members and friends that attended the wedding. I heard that Sirivalin got it handed to him by his newly wed wife, lol. Hopefully things will work out for them in RL too, because their relationship goes beyond in game ^^

Other than that, i've decided to take up WHM next to 75 because I plan to lvl it with Xean's NIN which he enjoys... despite the fact that Ninja is still {Too weak} when it comes to tanking, lol. But the truth is that Xean's actually very skilled when it comes to tanking, I usually have very little healing to do which is kind of nice because it allows me to do more of my preferred RDM duties such as enfeebling, and hasting. Now if only I had the ability to MB!!! haha, I kid.

So I guess this takes me to this weekend. Saturday me and Xean finished farming up a stack of Demon Horns in Castle Zvahl Bailey's, which we'll put towards funding his NIN. We then waited a few hours before we got invite on WHM and NIN, which resulted waiting for another hour until we had 5 members in our party: WHM, BLM, SMN, NIN, SAM. We didn't have a refresher, and the pt leader decided it would be best to try killing some mobs in Crawler's Nest until one popped, so we all headed there.

When we finally got there, the first mob took a long time to kill. We were a little too heavy in the mage department and lacking in the DD. When our puller grabbed the second mob, he got a link and unfortunately that got our SMN killed and we had to escape out. Needless to say, Xean didn't want to be wasting his tools on fights that would take forever, and so he went afk until they found a replacement which was a THF. This meant that our fights were still taking too long. Eventually though, our SMN was able to get a BRD replacement and things started to speed up, but our SAM was beginning to show how much of a bad player he was, because he would pull when asked to wait (repeatedly) and wasn't doing what was needed to allow our THF to SATA. In the end we had one mega link with 4 mobs, and two of the PT members disbanded and left so me and Xean went back to Al Zhabi.

At that point we decided to gear up and get ready for our ENM static which we were replacements for. All in all the event was great, but it didn't start on time and a few of the people in the static didn't show. But despite the frustrations, we still got some LS members to jump in and help, and had a hell of a time thanks to our crazy Galka Timwakefield who always manages to be humorous and keep us laughing. And hopefully now that it doesn't seem all the permanent static members are as committed to this, there might be an opportunity for me and Xean to do this weekly which I hope happens, because not only can we get awarded 3000 xp but its another great way to do a LS event and have some fun.

And lastly, as of today I spent the morning farming up some Royal Jelly from the bees in Crawler's Nest in hopes of raising my Cooking which is now at 99.1 +2. In an 1.5 hrs, I only managed to get 2 drops, and none resulted in a skillup -_-.

I then got asked to help past LS member with a BCNM 50 "Final Bout" where I went as PLD. It was easy because we all 2hrd, and was done in 2 minutes and 22 seconds which broke the record. Unfortunately nothing good dropped, but still I love being able to help with these and gain more experience.

And now, I wait for a party invite on my WHM. For some reason the once popular NIN + WHM isn't so popular. /sigh.