Panzer Percival

There's a Lv. 20 Great Axe called "Neckchopper" which I'd really like to have. It has good damage and +5 Accuracy, which is great because the delay is so long between swings that I die a little inside every time I miss the monster I'm trying to kill. The price at the Auction House was 150k, so I decided to camp it first.

The

Panzer Percival refuses to put out.

axe drops from a beetle Notorious Monster called "Panzer Percival." He spawns among the stag beetles in two small areas of Jugner Forest. I've spent a lot of time in the past few days running between those two spawn points and killing the beetle placeholders.

The first time I spotted him he was beating the shit out of an unfortunate Lv. 23 Dragoon who thought he could take him. I probably should've thrown a cure or two, but greed got the better of me and I finished off Percival myself. I got a beetle jaw for my trouble. The second time I spotted him he was just chugging around his little area and I clubbed him to death for another beetle jaw.

The price of the axe went up to 180k-200k, and there's really no reason why I shouldn't just buy it. Considering the time put into catching enough fish to afford it versus the time it takes to camp it and get nothing, I'm losing money by camping it. It's sort of a challenge, though.

Speaking of fishing, a high-level bonecrafter has placed an order for "hundreds" of gavial fish. I'll be fishing myself to the point of fatigue every day for the next week or two until he's satisfied. I'll come out several million gils richer.

Back to the Throne Room

Neyla and I took Moriki through the frozen wastes of Xarcabard to fight the Shadow Lord. This was our first trip back since our original victory, and we were curious to see how we'd do.

The

Neyla, Halifirien and Moriki fight the Shadow Lord.

trip was largely uneventful, and we soon found ourselves facing him down across the battlefield. Once engaged, we started slamming him hard. I mostly focused on clubbing him to death while keeping Moriki's health out of the danger zone. Things got a little testy when Shadow Lord became impervious to physical damage and we had to start nuking him, but it worked out well.

The second round didn't work out as planned. Shadow Lord uses some kind of energy pulse which does a lot of damage to anything close to him. Neyla needed to use Convert, so I used Flash to draw Shadow Lord into a corner away from them, but the energy pulse hit Neyla and killed him.

"We lose," Neyla said.

I was still standing, though. I kept Stoneskin going and steadily beat the hell out of Shadow Lord while Moriki rested at a safe distance. I raised Neyla after I won and we were transported outside. It was nothing but bad Convert timing, but I couldn't help feeling amused.

We took Moriki for the Mission 6-1 fight against the Cardians, and that's where I logged out for the night.

I'm Free! Free!

I met the king of the noobs when I arrived in Valkurm Dunes. He said he wanted to start a party and invited me first. The first thing he did was tell me I should take off my helmet because it didn't "look cool." Nothing about the stats or better replacements, but just "coolness."

"It has 7 DEF," I told him. "What it looks like doesn't mean dick."

"Hey!" he said, "Don't cuss!"

"You wear enough subligar, you stop caring what you look like."

"I will never wear a subligar," he assured me, and I almost laughed myself to death at my keyboard.

When

Pugils can be very awkward for tanks because they hit fast and hard.

he saw my jobs listed in my bazaar comment he asked me to switch to WHM and help him get his subjob items. I told him to forget it because I was there for xp. Neyla, who turned up at the Selbina gate on the way to the ferry, also got hit up for items. The noob disbanded and went off to do his own thing, and good riddance.

I was tapped to replace a Paladin who was getting ready to leave. I watched his party take a few minutes to kill a pugil (some of them had to use their two-hour abilities) and was not filled with confidence. In fact, the first pugil I tanked for them did Screwdriver and killed me.

That was my only death for the day, thankfully. Rhayne was there on SMN and was also controlling Dajade to act as the party's powerleveler. They eventually had to leave and another player's Red Mage friend came to handle the PL duties. At one point he told me not to voke off the PL, but I nixed that pretty fast. You don't learn how to tank by letting someone else do it.

I reached 20 and another player was close so they stayed for him to level. He needed a buffer, so the remaining four of us fought crabs until he got one. Lv. 20 is the magic number where you can leave the dunes and move on to Qufim.

Dagry, my Lv. 75 WAR mentor, took me to Qufim and tanked worms and crabs so I could get my Great Axe skills high enough to avoid embarrassment when I start partying there.

Another Portrait

Otak, one of the leaders from Wicked Wayz, drew this portrait of Neyla to celebrate the recent victory over Maat.

The Dunes Still Suck

We've had adventures the past few days. Neyla and I took Hadafal and Confetti through Windurst missions 6-1 and 6-2, first fighting one of the cardians and then doing the Yagudo BCNM fight. Unlike the last time we did this, there were no deaths and I was able to melee my way through it for fun and Hexa Strike goodness.

We died getting past the Yagudo High Priest in Castle Oztroja, though. Confetti and I had Reraise up, but we were attacked and taken down again. Luckily for me, I had already cast Reraise again. I bided my time and revived when it was safe so I could get everyone back on their feet and through the door.

Neyla

I almost feel sorry for King Arthro.

and I accepted pearls into Quieren's HNM linkshell, TheNameless. I joined them at the King Arthro camp in Jugner Forest. TheNameless has claimed that super crab every day for over a week, selling the Damascene Cloth drops for six or seven million each.

Arthro is easier to camp because a group of Knight Crabs spawn first. King Arthro pops a few seconds after the last Knight Crab is killed. A few members of Notorious Hunters were there, and one of them claimed a Knight Crab but wouldn't kill it. I don't know if he was waiting for reinforcements or something. For whatever reason, he finally killed it and we claimed Arthro and killed it.

I'm still working out how involved I'll be with The Nameless. I like the idea of fighting HNMs, but I'm not giving up two or three hours of my daily playing time for it. This is going to make for an interesting balancing act.

After

There are plenty of flies to kill in the dunes.

leveling Monk in the jungle with Nolie (wearing the Angler's Tunica on his White Mage, of all things) and Sakhmet, I finally bit the bullet and decided to take my Warrior job through the dunes. I took food for the Damage Dealing and Tanking roles, doing my best to fit in where I could. It didn't take long to realize I enjoyed tanking more, but I didn't complain when I was paired with a Ninja and only used my Provoke when she needed to recast Utsusemi.

That party was actually pretty good, and we were all freaking out that we were doing so well. We had a Ninja, Warrior (me), Monk, Dark Knight, Black Mage and White Mage. We were carving our way through goblins and only had one or two deaths the entire time.

I spent Sunday morning running through the aquaducts with Wicked Wayz for another minotaur fight. This time Hadafal, Quieren and Confetti needed it. I lost my Internet connection after the fight but before we could get to the libraries. I called Q and told him to go on without me. I warped back to Windurst when I was able to log in an hour or so later.

I put on my Warrior gear and traveled to San d'Oria for another trip to the dunes, but I logged out for the evening instead. I only need two more levels there and I can safely head to Qufim Island.

In crafting news, I got my fishing to 78. Vansing got his cooking to 95 and has offered to buy all the Black Sole I can catch, so I sold him six stacks for 150k. I don't mind discounting in exchange for fast sales, considering the Auction Houses are flooded with sole.