My PLD needs a little work it seems.

I've been doing some thinking lately, and realized that two things about my PLD.

The first, is that I miss playing the job. PLD was my first 75, and immediately after I got it there, I rushed my RDM to 75 so that I could play a job that would have a better invite rate for merits. And from there, I ended up leveling various other jobs so that I could be more useful to my friends and the linkshells I was apart of. Unfortunately though, the end result is that I would rarely have the opportunity to play my PLD because the other jobs I would get to 75 would have more use.

As much as i'd like to be "selfish" at times and bring what I want to whatever event i'm attending, I much prefer seeing "success". So ultimately that means that when i've participated in an event, and if I had another job that would benefit the group more, I would end up bringing that job. And to be honest, this was never really a problem for me. The only time I would find myself irritated with bringing a job I would rather not play, is when I saw other people who could also do the same, yet never offered up to bring a more useful job. Instead, i'd see them bringing "what they want to play" even if the job they chose, wouldn't benefit the group as much.

But anyways, I just haven't really been able to play my PLD much in the last 3-4yrs i've played this game and seeing some friends who now have the job at 75, friends who are just about to get it to 75, and even seeing friends take up an interest and start lvling the job has made me a little bit envious in a way. I'm getting that nostalgic feeling.

And the second thing i've realized, is that my PLD is rusty. My macros are out of date, I haven't really updated any of my gear in a while and well... everytime I have been asked to bring PLD i've always felt very insecure about my tanking ability. I've been able to get some practice as PLD/NIN in the last year, but even still I find it quite a challenge to keep hate without provoke and feel that I could really use a lot more practice tanking with this subjob. I don't like feeling incapable of doing something, especially when I know that FFXI isn't really all that challenging of a game in comparison to others.

So what does this all add up to? A rusty and hardly used paladin.

What do I plan to do about it? Well, first things first... I have a little bit of gear updating to do. Its gonna take a bit of work, especially because I would rather farm up some more gil rather than spend the savings i've been eating away at due to my COR. I'm planning on doing some BCNMs as well as KSNMs as much as I can with Xean and other LS members... so plans to farm seals is already on the way. The other thing i'm hoping to do to help with this, is meriting. Lotsa meriting. If I can get one of those awesome 20k/hr parties, i'm able to accumulate at least 2k worth of Imperial Standing which I can then trade in for 99 Imperial Bronze Pieces which I then put up on the AH for gil! This is probably my most preferred farming method, because I usually enjoy meriting (especially on birds! go go DRG!)

With a little farming, and some questing (and waiting around to for some miracle opportunity to get a rare/ex piece from either my HNM shell that i'm in "part time" or find an endgame shell willing to make a deal for the B.Mask) my long term plan is to obtain the following:

• Ritter Gorget (Einhejar)
• Mermaid Ring (Quest)
• Hades Earring or Hades Earring +1 (both AH)
• Cerberus Mantle (AH)
• Bahamut Mask (purchase from an endgame LS that isn't going to rip me off for a ridiculous price)
• Aegishjalmr (HNM LS - Fafnir)
• Homam Gambieras
• Iron Ram Dastanas
• Iron Ram Hose
  

So, i've got a bit of work ahead of me. The hardest pieces to obtain from that list will be the B.Mask or the Aegishjalmr. I think I will have a better chance at getting the Aegishjalmr with the HNM shell i'm in part-time now, but seeing as I won't be able to participate much, I probably won't really ever have lotting rights unless I luck out and no one else needs the item the day it drops. Of course the other thing I have to keep my fingers crossed for, is that my HNM shell actually gets the claim on Fafnir when I DO attend. So far our shell has been having some bad luck with this other HNM shell called Absolution which from the word of mouth, seems to have a lot of botters. And while I guess any HNM shell could have that, their shell has gotten a majority of claims which makes it quite suspicious. So yea...

I'm also considering investing in a magic defense setup. I would really like to try tanking the ACP final mission fight, where a PLD/RDM is used. I have no experience though tanking with /rdm, nor with the idea of gear swapping at the right time before a magic move is used against me to swap in my MDB gear. Still, its something i'm probably going to look into though not as diligently as getting my other PLD gear.

Ideally, if I do pursue an MDB set i'll need to get myself the following:

• Merman's Ring x2 (AH)
  
• Corral Earring or Merman's Earring x2 (AH)
  
• Lamia Mantle + 1 (AH)
• Resolute Belt (AH)
• Iron Ram Lance (AH)
• Lamia Kaman (AH)

The lists look like a lot of work, but I think that like with my Burtgang progress... as long as I take it slow and don't stress myself out about getting it all asap, it won't be so bad. One thing i've learned about this game is that you don't always get to have the "uber" gear immediately, and sometimes you won't ever be able to see it at all depending on what it is. Its not exactly meant for every player to have, otherwise the rarity and value would be meaningless. But, sometimes the window of opportunity opens when you're patient and you sometimes find yourself getting lucky. Keyword though: sometimes.

Hopefully once I start getting a few of these pieces, i'll run into some more opportunities where I can play my PLD again. And if not, well... guess its time for me to put together some events where I can play it, and finally make everyone else that has multiple jobs come as something else so that I can have a little more fun XD (Well, maaaaaaaaybe. Its really hard for me to ask people to play jobs I know they don't enjoy)

HNMs wut?

Well, the day that I thought would never happen finally did. I have an HNM linkpearl. o.O

After having tried to find an endgame shell that would be willing to sell the black belt items for 1mil each, and having no success... Xean decided to take up the offer that our Salvage LS leader had made, to join their HNM shell. The salvage LS we had joined was actually an "all endgame" LS, but was putting more focus into HNMs which meant that our salvage had pretty much come to an end. But the leader of the shell seemed to want us both to participate in the HNM part of the LS and offered both of us to join.


I didn't really want to commit, for a number of reasons. The first being that I didn't feel i'd be able to be dependable as a member, because my priorities have always been my social LS. I have some endgame events I attend, but I try to keep these at a minimum. I know that with an HNM shell, you're pretty much expected to drop whatever you're doing if a window opens for an HNM that the shell wants to go after, and I know I wouldn't be able to do that. The other reason has a little to do with my slowly growing hatred for camping NMs. I can't stand it! @_@

The last time I went after an NM was when I tried to get my Sarutobi Kyahan. I think i'm close to 0/10 on this, and even though I know other friends have had far worse drop rates with other NMs (hello there Leaping Lizard) I've reached my limit. I want to get these so bad, but everytime I go, there's always competition and then its back to running around that stupid platform and getting dizzy for 2-3 hrs. Yea... I refuse to camp him alone, and I also refuse to drag anyone out to endure that unbearable camping session, so.. go go fuma sun-ate!

Anyways, back on topic... as much as I want the experience (especially tanking experience) for HNMs, I just can't see myself getting into an HNM LS full time. But I guess things were conveniently put in place so that I wouldn't really have to, but still have a shot at seeing some HNMs! And provided the shell I run with doesn't get outclaimed by botters, I should eventually have a chance at fighting some of these.

So for right now, Xean has joined this HNM shell somewhat full time and attends quite a few windows, where as I only come out and help if I don't have anything pre-planned. So it all works out quite nicely. I don't have any plans for gear, i've played long enough without a dalmatica, an a few of the other e.abjurations so i'm sure not having them won't kill me. But i'm really hoping that at least this way, Xean will be able to get the items he wants for his BB seeing as my attempt to get these for him failed. I still don't understand why endgame shells will post a section on their forum where people that want to buy drops from them can ask, and then they don't even bother replying to a post that is made.

Aside from that, Limbus seems to be looking up. There was a little bit of drama recently because apparently being committed to a LS and showing up on time, every run for over a year somehow makes you "a gear whore" when wanting that time put into the shell to be counted towards something. I think the biggest problem was just that when the shell was originally made, the lotting system wasn't really setup in a way that would allow members to be rewarded based on the points they were earning which showed the time they were putting into the shell. For example, i'm currently sitting on more than 100 pts (currently have the most in the shell out of everyone) and those don't count for anything at this point because i've already obtained the pieces of gear i've wanted most (we get to set an order of preference for the gear we want, from 1-5). But now, leadership is currently looking at allowing members that have contributed more to the shell a way to "be ahead" of new members that join the shell.


Right now I don't mind waiting for the people that are "ahead" of me for the gear I want, to get theirs first. The members that are in line, have been with us a long while and come most runs. But because of our low attendance lately, we've had to look at the possibility of bringing in new members, and the way that the rules are currently... allows them to easily "jump ahead" of a veteran member which doesn't sit well with me if our system is based on points in the first place.

Enough ranting though! The good part of this story is that one of the other leads is stepping up to amend the rules and make them a little more fair for veterans. Not only that, but we've also changed our run time on Saturdays to 9am PST which is MUCH nicer for me and Xean. Not too early, and the event is done in the morning leaving us the rest of the day to do other things! Our last run this saturday also turned out well, and we managed to get the last chip needed for another Omega which hopefully we'll be able to do this tuesday. So yes... Limbus is starting to be fun again, no more stress! Now I just need to hope we get lucky with the farming runs we do, because i'm helping Xean get the 75 coins he needs for his Musical Earring. If only I hadn't sold the ~60 or some odd coins we had saved up for his Loquacious last year before he quit! ><

The only other things i've been up to recently have been lvling my COR with Xean's BRD. We're now at 66, and still shooting to get 75. Our progress might be put on hold though soon as i'm planning to get some farming done with Xean's leetTEF. I've spent so much gil on COR in the last month... I've only managed to do one KSNM in the last month which didn't really net a lot of profit, and aside from that the whole "gil making" hasn't quite been a focus for me lately.

Though I did luck out in Dynamis last week! Got myself a L.Jadeshell which I was able to sell for 1,280,000 gil. This of course means no "Month End Bonus" for me this month, but that's alright because... It means a bigger payout to the rest of the LS because my share of what I would have earned (if I hadn't won the 100c) gets added into the LS share. Now to put this gil into a secret fund which I am saving to pick up something special, mwahahaha.


Ooo, and to add to this, the entire LS of RoR now has BEAUCEDINE GLACIER ACCESS!!!!!!!! Its been such a pain for the last few months... every time we have the win for everyone that has joined, we get a few new recruits that need city wins! And not that city wins are bad to go after, its just that sometimes they don't allow for as much farming time... and I think the majority of our LS is really wanting to do more Northland runs. We only have a few pieces of AF in the cities that members need.... so much goes to free lot o.O

Oh, and I guess I should add that I got my SMN up to 65. I'm really not liking the job much, at least in xp party, I find that i'm way too slow with the curing in comparison to a WHM or RDM. I'm glad that i'm finally getting the job up there so that I can have something else sometimes needed for special KSNMs, BCNMs etc, but i'm pretty sure this will be one job that will be sitting on the back burner. I wish there was more to enjoy about it, but really... I find my other jobs much better.

A Crystalline Prophecy!

So, SE finally released some new content through the expansion "A Crystalline Prophecy". As usual, I've gone through the missions and barely paid any attention to the actual story... only this time I really DID try to read through all the cutscenes! I just wasn't able to retain any of the story this time around.



But on a good note, I was able to finish the mini-expansion and get the end reward in just a matter of days!

When the expansion was finally available, many LS members were jumping into the missions, eager to complete them for the customizable gear. I had no intention though to start them. I've never liked the idea of racing to do something the day it becomes available, nor following everyone just because of a new "hype".

But, eventually I got the push I needed to jump into the missions because Xean wanted to start the quests with me. We kinda have this unwritten rule that when it comes to missions or quests, we won't do them without each other. I like this, makes the game more enjoyable to play together and makes everything we do feel like a team effort ^^

So, we started off by farming some crystal items from Beastmen in different parts of Vana'diel. The drop rate was really good, and while we weren't able to get all 3 items (x2) in one session due to other game events we had planned, we still got them done pretty quickly. We then moved onto the next mission, which involved killing goblins in various areas for a key item which would then allow us to pop a goblin NM.

The NMs were laughauble. Well, at least for a lvl 75. We then had to head back to Qufim to fight a few waves of mandragoras which also were a piece of cake. All it took was one -aga spell to obliverate each wave.


Around this time, some acquaintances from my Dynamis shell were also doing the same mission and asked to climb up to the top of Delfkutt's tower with us, to take on the last and final mission.


The climb was pretty easy, and thanks to our friend Anderoc who came along to escort us we got to the top pretty quick. Anderoc also offered to help us out with the fight. Our setup seemed really good (We had WHM (Xean), RDM/DRK (me), PLD/RDM (Anderoc), BLM (Verdandi), RNG (Vague), RNG (Standpoint)), but... for one reason or another, we had some really bad luck with the "charms". During this fight, there's a possibility of party members being charmed, and we had this happen 3 times. The last time was ultimately what caused us to lose, because we had 2 pty members that got charmed.


In the end, Xean was the last "elvaan" standing (our entire group was Elvaan) which I thought was pretty funny.


So after a couple of days, me and Xean were able to arrange another run with all LS members (If you want something done right, you gotta do it with SoTW members!). We picked up Soulstar on SMN and Sabene on BLM.


This run went much better. Slowly but surely we got ourselves the win! I really enjoyed the RDM/DRK aspect.

After we got the win, we swapped out Sabene's BLM for Athoz's MNK. We actually did quite well, though this setup was just a little trickier. The role that Sabene/Athoz had, was to kill the adds that popped throughout the fight, which were actually clones of various party members. We were doing pretty well and managed to get the NM down to about 40% (I think) before things went wrong. I can't remember how it happened, but Anderoc ended up taking a really nasty hit and died and from there... well, lets just say that RNG's don't do well at tanking mobs that have a really powerful magic attack =P

Since we weren't able to get the win for Athoz and had a few other LS members that were needing this fight, we decided to put things on hold and schedule another run later on. To date we've had one other attempt, and we tried the "zerg melee method". This didn't go quite well, but i'm pretty sure that if everyone was prepped we could have gotten it. Here's to hoping that the next time we'll finally get the win @_@

And onto the end result of all this expansion stuff...

I got myself a new PLD body! Neuvo Corselette!


I chose the augments: Emnity +5 & Fast Cast +5.

I did have a little bit of difficult deciding which body I was going to go for, because I was strongly considering a body that would benefit my up and coming COR. But in the end, I decided to go with PLD just because it has always been my favorite job in the game, despite not having many opportunities to play it.

And speaking of my COR... I finally obtained Slug Shot! Can I get a Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

In the last few parties i've had, my weaponskills have been doing some really nice dmg. The only other job i've lvled that parsed as high during ws on birds was my DRG. My WAR, SAM and MNK are all weak in comparison! @_@

I owe the fun to Xean though, because he goes out of his way to give me Hunter's Prelude >=)

Our bird parties have been really fun. Pulls come in really fast to keep up the chain, and overall progress is really fast. We've managed to get ours friends Drimergirl and Standpoint a couple of lvls here and there, so the company is also nice. Sometimes the whole "starting" process takes longer than desired, but once we get going, its smooth sailing.


Speaking of sailing...


I got my COR AF3 done! Timwakefield, Drimergirl, Xean and myself went to Arragapo Reef for the BCNM. I was a little worried that our setup might not be enough because I seem to have had a memory of the fight being difficult the last time I did it, but as usual... I get proven wrong. The fight was ridiculously easy. All I had to do was bind + gravity the BLU, while everyone else killed the other bad guy. Then when the hume was killed, everyone came after the BLU which was killed a minute later.


Now all I need to do is finish questing my COR hands (why does SE make some pieces of AF so crappy?????) so that I can store the set. And the reason why? Because I have about 1-3 pieces of open inventory on my character now.

Which brings me to another thought...

Rather than waste precious space in this blog entry though, I will just sum up my thoughts about SE and their POL Customer Service:

Insert Vulgar Language: Here.


Yep. Long story short, I ordered my security token the day it became available, which is suppose to come with a Mog Satchel >>>> + 70 Inventory Spaces for me!

However... after 2 weeks of waiting, I called up SE and after waiting for more than 30 min, I was finally able to get through to a representative who was only able to confirm that my token was "still being processed" (aka - has NOT been shipped!) and advised me to call back in a couple of days to check on the status again because he would not be able to provide any information on when it would be expected that my token would be shipped.

*Smiles*


(No sarcasm, I swear!)


So what else have I been up to recently? A little bit of meriting here and there... saving up my merits to apply to my COR (now lvl 62) which I hope to have at 75 before the end of the month.

Xean joined an HNM shell too, and while I haven't committed myself as a member because I don't feel that I would be dependable enough due to my other game events/priorities, I have been tagging along to help out when I can. So far i've been present for an Adamantoise fight which was killed way too fast for me to remember ; ;


I just went to a Fafnir window, but sadly the LS Xean is with didn't get the claim so no fun there. (I was even able to play BLM!)

I really wish that I had gotten some response on QCDN about an endgame shell willing to sell the black belt items, but after posting on a few sites (with no response -_-) we've decided that this might be the only way for him to get the belt. It'll probably take a lot longer to accomplish, but its something to do while playing the game and work towards. Plus I just really want to play with Xean's MNK finally geared up (minus the Usukane which seems to be out of reach for now).

As for other random things, ZNMs are still happening with our LS, though we haven't really been able to do the Tier 3's recently. Its a little discouraging at times, because I really don't like having to tell people "we can't do this ZNM", but with low turnouts and not enough of the right jobs, there's only so much you can do. I'm hoping that with the addition of some new members (and returning members) that the interest will pick up again. We have done so well with the ZNMs in the past, and I really like the idea of our small little social shell being able to gear up members with rare/ex pieces that most people believe are only possible by joining "endgame shells".

I've also been able to help Vepion, Darce and Xean get floor 71 in Nyzul Assault. We've started a somewhat permanent static on Mondays, and we've had a good success rate with our runs. Anderoc has volunteered to help us out as well, and so we usually just need 1-2 pickup members which haven't been too much of a hassle to find.


It's interesting how when I first started doing Nyzul, I despised the event. I didn't know much about how it was done, and found it to be very stressful. But now with the static that I do on Fridays, and this one that i've been helping with, I actually find myself enjoying the runs. I think its just a matter of getting used to the different tasks so that you actually know what you need to do, and having everyone else on the same page. And thanks to Skype, doing this event is SOOO much easier now because both static groups I run with, we use it and makes communication so much quicker. So much time is wasted when you have to type out instructions >< style="text-align: center;">(Me and Xean enjoying the view on our way to farm the coffer key for Castle Zvahl Bailey's)

(La Theine Plateau)

(Getting TP during our CSN ZNM run - Chigre!)

CorLEET.

So i've finally reached lvl 51 on my up and coming Corsair.

I've been leveling the job with Xean's BRD, and so far we've had some pretty good parties. The only real complaint I have is the lack of finding tanks and healers during the times we try to get a party started. It can get a little frustrating too, especially when we don't have more than 3hrs to party and we spend half of that seeking because you can't find a tank. But somehow, we've still managed to get some xp here and there.

I'm hoping that we'll be able to hit 75 before the end of April, but that will really depend on the other in-game activities we're involved with. Right now we do Einhejar, Dynamis and Salvage (though the Salvage runs have been cancelled recently) and then I have a few statics throughout the week. Then there's usually some LS events that we help out with (including our Saturday ZNMs) so at times it can seem a little busy.

I'm finding myself a little more excited now though because I finally have more goals to reach, in terms of obtaining gear. For a long time, i've had most of the gear i've needed for all my jobs and haven't really been pursueing anything too special (aside from Homam in Limbus) But after having looked into the gear I can obtain for my COR at 75, I now have quite a list! I'm going to be trying to get some Denali pieces through Nyzul, and hope to eventually get some Enkidu's gear through ZNMs. Getting the pieces I want will take time, and there's a good chance I might not get everything because luck will always play a factor in this game, but at least there's more drive for me to play.

The one thing i'm not looking forward to with my "COR" progress is the AF. The gear isn't all that bad, but the quests... remind me of my SAM days. Long. Annoying. Repetitive.

Most of my first quests require me to go to this ??? in Arragopo Reef, which also requires me to use a Lamia Fang Key to get to. I can either get the key by killing Lamia (hello time sink!) or by clicking on another ??? in Caedarva Mire. The catch with clicking on the ???, is that I can only do this once a week. So i'm going to be relying on getting friends to help pick up some extra keys so that I can get my AF done this week.

So far me and Xean have managed to get our AF weapons. We're a little bit behind, but then again we've been doing mostly lvl sync parties so its not like we would have been able to use our weapons anyways.

Oh! and I finally got my Mercurial Kris! I sold my Hagun and Haubergeon +1, and used the gil to pick myself up this wonderful little dagger. From what i've heard, this will end up being a good investment because it will save me from buying the expensive bullets I need from 50-75. Now I just need to get a non-level sync party to try it out!!!

Aside from that, i've been working on removing my merits from my Great Katana, so that I could merit Polearm (for DRG) and get 8/8. I'll admit I am a bit sentimental about retiring my SAM, because for a long time it was my favorite job... but, there's something about the famous loldrg that just seems more enjoyable. ESPECIALLY during drg burns!


I finally had a chance to do a DRG burn recently, and it was craaaaaazy! Well, I guess it wasn't exactly a "full" DRG burn because our setup was WHM, THF, RDM, DRG, DRG, DRG... but, close enough! We actually managed to get a really high chain too which was impressive to me considering we didn't have a BRD. I'm pretty sure I remember Xean even doing some pulling to help speed things up. (Lol Dia pull ftw!)

In addition to regular merit parties, me and Xean have also managed to get some more merits by helping out our friends Vepion and Janko. They're lvling PUP and it hasn't always been easy for them to find the "tank and healer" combo. In fact, they've had some pretty bad experiences with players after mentioning the setup.


But thankfully we've been able to save them the hassle of finding the tank and healer on a couple of occasions and had some fun. Well, that is if "fun" can be defined as being scorched by a red crawler and watching your HP go from 1000+ down to 0, all in one animated motion. x_x

Oh, and I won't mention the time that Janko got aggro and ran into the tunnel with the dead end... wait, I just did! Its ok though, me and Xean had our revenge on that slime. Go go lolsword + club dmg!


Speaking of Vepion... he also managed to get the ToD for Charybdis, and recruited me and Xean to help with the fight. Initially I wasn't too excited about camping this NM, because I have really really... reaaaaally grown to dislike NM camping. BUT! In the end I was glad that I had come along because we managed to get claim (took about 4hrs for him to pop) and the fight itself was smooth. The funny part is that Xean had to leave to do some errands and just as he had predicted, Charybdis popped soon after. I think it was about 10 minutes?


Hopefully i'll get a chance to fight this again in the future when other people I know go after him. Its a pretty fun fight and if you don't have a NIN tank, it becomes a bit of a challenge for me to manage my hate because of my emnity merits. >=)

And last, looks like i'm finally going to have a chance to do some Sea gods. Janko and Xean are wanting to pop Jailer of Faith to get the Faith Torques for their Hand-to-Hand skill. The pop item for this NM isn't too hard to get either, and just requires killing some NM flowers up in Sea. The drop rate was pretty decent too, and I think between the two of them we'll have about 5 pops.


The only difficult part now will be finding enough ppl to do the actual Jailer of Faith fight. It can be low-manned, but knowing enough people willing to come help that have access to Sea is a challenge on its own. We actually do know enough ppl right now, but it might be hard to find a time that will work for everyone because we're all on different time zones. I'm sure we'll figure something out though, and if luck is with us during these fights... we'll get both Janko and Xean their torques, which will save them the trouble of buying a PCC or going after the dreaded Argus. I deeeeeeeeeeeeeeefinitely don't have the patience to camp Argus like a certain little Tarutaru, Mithra and bearded mage I know. >_>
Well that about covers most of what i've been up to recently.

For laughs, i'll finish this post with a pic I took during our Vulpangue ZNM fight last saturday. The elvaan men in our LS, like to goof off and bare it all for each other. So much love in the air!