(Beastmaster) (Impossible to Gauge)

After

I like the look of the Crow Beret.

four months of off-and-on leveling as a duo, Neyla and I finally dinged Lv. 50 on Beastmaster tonight in the Labyrinth of Onzozo. The cocks started checking Even Match and Tough, which effectively killed it as a good camp, although we stuck around a bit to get a decent buffer. We also learned the axe weapon skill "Spinning Axe." That's going to be my favorite method of finishing off a mob until we learn Rampage at 55. Don't get me started on our gimped Scythe skills, though.

The Crow leggings and berets make for a nice change in appearance and match the Brigandine, although I was amused to learn Neyla hates that particular piece of gear. "With a scythe equipped," he pointed out over lunch, "we look like any other fucking damage dealer."

We hit Jeuno to check on more gear options and to scout possible leveling locations in the Crawler's Nest. On a whim, we talked to Brutus at the Upper Jeuno chocobo stables to see if we could flag the Beastmaster AF quests. We got the cutscene asking us to take flowers to Fei'yin to honor fallen beastmasters, and that clinched the rest of the evening for us.

There

Tebhi's ass smells like pamamas.

are three pools of water on the lower floor which have to be investigated, and one of them pops a ghost NM. We switched back to our respective White Mage and Red Mage jobs and trudged out there. We built tp on some bats and started exploring. The third pool had the ghost in it. We made short work of him (he had a lot of hit points, but bursting on two Light skillchains takes care of that) and got our cutscene. We returned to Brutus, who sent us to Castle Oztroja.

We had to find treasure chests and use the keys we'd farmed to open it for a bracelet. It took an hour of wandering to find two treasure chests and track down an opo-opo scampering around one of the hallways. Once it was finished, we warped back to Jeuno and spoke with Brutus to receive our Beast Gaiters.

I switched over to Beastmaster and Neyla escorted me as Red Mage through the Crawler's Nest to find my coffer. Once I had my rusty gauntlets, we warped back to Jeuno and switched jobs. This time I escorted Neyla so he could get his coffer. We split up at one point, but Neyla found the coffer and had a Lv. 75 Thief we know named Necrosis standing guard over him.

Back on our main jobs, I teleported us out to Xarcabard so we could take down Dark Spark. He was also a pushover, and we quickly had our Beast Gloves.

The

Dark Spark is cute when he only uses Drain.

Beast Leggings were a washout. We trekked through the glacier and into Batallia Downs to fight a hound and his two tigers in the Necropolis, but that bastard had a ton of hit points and was doing a lot of damage. Neyla was ready to die, but I used Escape and got us out of there. We're going to need more firepower for that one.

Instead, we hit Beadeaux. I went as Beastmaster for the first run, and we quickly found my coffer near one of the Mutes. Some helpful players were there killing the quadav, so I was able to pop it for my Beast Jackcoat.

Neyla's adventure on Beastmaster went differently. He wandered off and died near one of the Afflictors. I raised him and we started looking for the coffer again. It popped in the room where he'd died. I used Sleepga, but the quadav were too far apart and I only got one. Neyla said to cast Escape, so I started casting as he popped the Coffer. The other quadav noticed him at that point and killed him in one hit thanks to his weakened condition. Neyla deleveled back to 49. I was cursed and wasn't going to survive a fight with two quadav, so I slept it and warped out after Neyla homepointed.

We went back to Onzozo so Neyla could get back his level. I stayed on White Mage to keep an eye on him while he went solo and earned about 1k experience on cocks and goblins. The difference in tactics was interesting to see. As a duo, we're rarely in any danger during a pet swap because one of us always has a pet keeping the mob busy. As Neyla pointed out, we live on Easy Street compared to Beastmasters who solo all the way up the ranks.

After that, Hadafal and Hoiy came out to the Citadel to get us through the Banishing Gates. It wouldn't be a trip to the Citadel if I didn't beat Neyla to a coffer. I got my Beast Helm. By this time it was 4 a.m., so Neyla logged out behind the gate to camp the coffer later.

It was a very long night, but very rewarding. We plan to level as quickly as we can to 60 so we can wear all of it, and then we'll take a nice looooong break from the job until we again hear the call of the wild.

Return to Onzozo

I headed to Jeuno to prepare for the day's defeat at the hands of the Snoll Tzar, but Aarjuna still seemed to be having connection problems, Truegrave needed to write a paper for one of his classes, and we didn't have very many cluster cores other than the three I'd farmed on Tuesday. I was getting frustrated at standing around with my taru thumb up my ass until we finally agreed to call off again.

"Now what?" Neyla asked when I told him I was free for the rest of the day.

"I'm

Neyla, Halifirien and leeches take down a scorpion in Onzozo.

thinking about synthing some biscuits and leveling Beastmaster again," I said.

"Word."

We returned to the first room of Onzozo and jumped back on the leech vs. cockatrice train. Some of the goblins still checked Even Match, so we'd drop them into the middle of the xp chain so we could finish off with Very Tough cocks and scorpions. The weather was against us, and an Air Elemental was almost always in the tunnel to making casting Blink an adventure.

The two of us worked steadily and dinged Lv. 49. Some of the cocks were still checking Very Tough, so we're going to go back tomorrow and grind our way to 50 since we know the camp and have a good rhythm going. We won't be able to level there beyond that, though.

We were in the yellow as we were leaving, but we charmed some leeches to take out those three goblins near the entrance. One of them threw a bomb that knocked me down to about 12 HP just before he died. After surviving a few hours of VT and IT mobs, dying to a Decent goblin would've been too embarrassing for words.

We finished up by leveling our NPCs in Zitah (Neyla's dinged 49) and then checking out some upcoming gear upgrades. I'm thinking I'll buy a few pieces of the Crow set. We're also thrilled by the stats on the Kabraken's Axe.

"That actually gives me a hardon," I joked.

"Yes," Neyla agreed, "it does."

Beastmasters With Big Cocks

Neyla

Neyla and Halifirien "leech" xp in Gustav Tunnel.

and I had a great run on Beastmaster today. At Lv. 46, we weren't quite ready for Labyrinth of Onzozo, so we started out by traveling to Gustav Tunnel. The Golden Bat NM was flapping around the entrance, so I charmed the other bat and started hacking away. It only dropped a bat wing, so there goes my hopes of getting a nifty cape for the eventual Ninja leveling.

Gustav wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. A lot of the hawkers rated Tough, so we'd have to convert them to Even by charming them and dragging them out of their normal roaming area and releasing them (one of the few great things about the MPK nerf). We roamed from the entrance through the first two rooms, fighting goblins. They're nice prey because they have a tendency to kill themselves with bombs.

We didn't stay long after hitting 47, though. Nearly all the flies checked Even at that point -- which made finding pets easier -- but the goblins were down to Decent and Even.

The Labyrinth of Onzozo was much better. You have to use Prism Powder to get past the three goblins near the entrance, but once you're in the tunnel with the leeches you have that first large room with lots of cockatrice and goblin prey to keep you busy. A high-level Red Mage was leveling his NPC when we got there, but as soon as he left it really started picking up for us.

Leeches

Neyla and Halifirien admire the size of the cock.

are great against cocks. We were using Decent leeches against Very Toughs and Incredibly Toughs with no problem; best of all leeches intimidate them and they don't link. It only sucked when they'd petrify a leech, in which case you'd just release it and grab a fresh one. We had almost no downtime, chaining them for 200-250xp.

I can't believe we did two entire levels so quickly, but we dinged 48 and headed back to Windurst. I weaved right through the three goblins at the entrance without aggro (something I'd never try on another job; go-go BST cojones). We're going to party again on Friday and Saturday, so we should have no problems hitting Lv. 50 and getting our AF.

"At the rate we're going," Neyla said, "we'll be wearing our Beast Gaiters before you go on vacation."

Crookedmidget, a higher-level BST we know, was in Windurst when we got back. We talked with him a few minutes, and I took time to admire the stats on his Hauby. I was trying to decide between the Hauby and a Scorpion Harness since I'll also be leveling Monk, but I think I'll go with the Hauby. I'll need it long before I get Monk to those levels.

Darth Quieren

Aarjuna's computer was on the fritz, so the CoP static didn't meet today. I was relieved by that news, since I'd been busy all weekend and hadn't farmed any cluster cores. I was already stalking around Lufaise Meadows and waiting for fog weather when Quieren announced we weren't going; I managed to get three cores when the fog rolled in, and I'll go back for more later.

I know Quieren must've been devastated at having to level Black Mage instead. The boy is a machine, grinding out levels like mad. He already has Paladin and White Mage to 75, but now he's in love with BLM, and he was excited as hell to be able to wear his Demon Cloak so he could call himself "Darth Q."

He

"Darth Quieren" and Halifirien party in Bibiki Bay.

had his flag up about five minutes after he said we weren't meeting, but I searched again after snagging my third cluster core and saw he was forming his own party. I gave him a small heart attack by asking "Do you need a White Mage?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

The running joke with Quieren is that I never level, so it was fun to let him see me in action. We went to Bibiki Bay's angler camp at first (I had no idea that cave was there and wonder if it'll lead somewhere when the new expansion arrives) but moved to an open camp with plenty of dhalmels and hobgoblins before we fought anything.

Vang came along as our puller, and it was nonstop action. I was amused the first time a dhalmel used Cold Stare and silenced the Ninja. I'd already used Silena and a few seconds later both Quieren and the Red Mage cast it.

"Too slow, punks," I laughed.

"Force of habit," Quieren said. "I must be dreaming... Halif's leveling and I'm in a party with a White Mage who knows what he's doing."

We weren't out there very long, but I got halfway to 71 before Quieren started getting wife aggro and the Red Mage had to leave for Sky. We disbanded and I fished gavials for an hour or so before quitting for the night.

Neyla and I are going to be leveling Beastmaster for the next few days when we're on and questing our BST AF, and Otak is scheduling a subligar run so we can get our Gaudy Harnesses. Once all that's out of the way, I'm going to make the final push and party every chance I get until WHM is 75.

I need to pick up an Errant Houppelande for resting MP, too. The price skyrocketed to over a million during the Christmas gil-buying craze, but now they're back down to 350k-400k. I was going to buy one before I logged, but none were for sale.

Closer and Closer

Neyla

Halifirien and Neyla fight a treasure chest mimic.

knows what a map whore I am, so after his recent trip through Pso'xja with Evildr I told him I would drag him out there to help me get a key and find a treasure chest. We had an hour or two before we were supposed to level our subjobs, so we went to one of the uncapped towers to farm a key. We had to start by popping two dolls which alternate invulnerability to physical and magical damage; killing them earned a key item to open a door leading deeper in the tower.

We made a circuit, killing diremites, cryptonberries, bats, lizards and magic pots until I got a key. We'd already found a real treasure chest, so we backtracked and I popped it to get the map. I can't wait to explore some of those areas again and start marking stuff. Neyla had a key but didn't bring it along, so I'll go back with him later to get his map. We kill things pretty fast as a team.

I was happy to discover I could solo Easy Prey lizards, too. Have I mentioned how much I love Hexa Strike?

Our trip through subjob hell is rapidly drawing to a close, although partying with linkshell members makes it more fun than toil. Neyla grabbed his White Mage gear and I decked out my Summoner crap. Once Apu (Ninja) and Nolie (Black Mage) were logged on, I started looking for two damage dealers to join us in the jungle. I found a taru Warrior and a hume Samurai. The SAM was Rank 4, but the rest of us were Ranks 9 or 10, and it was a great party.

We

Shiva goes for the magic burst.

camped in the same tunnel as last time, the one with the goblins on either side. The only difference is this time we could fight the gobs without getting our asses handed to us. There were a few nasty moments when our melees moved too close to the mouth of the tunnel and got goblin aggro while fighting mandies, and one of those encounters led to three of us dead on the ground. I didn't die, but I'm not sure how; the goblin came back to camp and hit me once before despawning.

Nolie didn't stay the entire time, but I found a Rank 10 BLM to replace him. The xp started drying up near the end, but it was still not too bad. Neyla and I hit Lv. 30 and Apu hit 31 within a three-fight span of time; the replacement BLM was close to leveling, so we stuck around for him even though another party had decided to camp on us and slowed everything down.

Apu, Neyla and I decided to do the necropolis escort mission for a little more xp. Nanunanoo was bored and joined us. Neyla and I dismounted our chocobos to escort a taru through Jugner and Batallia for his first visit to Jeuno. Once we reached the necropolis it took awhile to get started because another group was there to escort the NPC around, so we waited until she died and popped a fresh one. When I switched over to SMN and ate the scroll, I found myself only 600xp away from Lv. 31. We'd managed to get almost three full levels in one day.

We finished the evening by traveling to Fei'yin to do the sapling fight for Nanu's Summoner AF. Although Nanu died to weapon aggro on the way to the cloister, the actual BCNM was a cakewalk. Nanu didn't seem to be using Stoneskin and took some hard hits, but nothing we couldn't manage.

Maat Masher

I

Stepping naked into Balga's Dais.

tried taking on Maat for the first time yesterday morning. I had all the normal stuff they tell White Mages to take -- Earth Staff, Druid's Rope, Bat Earrings and Blinding Potions, Yagudo Drinks, bottles of Mulsum, Hi-Potions and Ethers, and even a Vile Elixer from a King Arthro camp I went to.

I went in naked, buffed myself, and then fought him. I tried kiting him a bit, but finally gave up that strategy and just tanked him. I tried to keep calm, but I was frazzled enough that I'd forgotten to eat the Shallops Tropicale I'd brought along and kept forgetting to blind myself for the Evasion+30 earring bonus. He didn't kill me, but I ran out of time and was ejected from the burning circle.

Neyla and I were supposed to level our White Mage and Summoner jobs today, but he didn't log on until about 5 p.m. and at that point I was too tired to focus on leveling. I was going to log out early, but he suggested we try to farm a new testimony. We outposted to Cape Terrigan and got one on the second Goblin Alchemist.

I returned to Windurst and grabbed all my Maat stuff. I paid 50k for a Medicine Earring, which reduces physical damage by 30% when your health is in the yellow. I also snagged another stack of mulsums, since you can pretty much spam them for MP.

Round

Bring it on, old man!.

two. I ate my food and went in naked. I Protect IV and Shell IV'd myself, and equipped all my gear while I was resting back my MP. Then I popped a Yagudo Drink, cast Aquaveil and pulled him with Paralyze (which didn't stick). Then it was basically Cure III spam. I didn't bother with Haste, Stoneskin or the Bat Earrings this time.

Over the course of the fight I used two yag drinks and eight mulsums. I didn't use any of the Hi-Potions or ethers or my Vile Elixer. Maat liked using Dia II, but I didn't Erase it. He paralyzed me a couple times, but I always got it off quickly. One bout of paralysis interrupted me and knocked my health down into the scary zone, so I used Divine Seal+Cure III to take care of it.

Right near the end he used Dragon Kick and sent me into the red, at which point I used Benediction. He hit me again, and the next Cure III ended the match. Clear time: 7 minutes, 27 seconds (19 seconds shy of the record).

It feels very good to have that roadblock out of the way. I'll probably level White Mage a bit when I'm on vacation next week, but I'm not in a hurry to get to 75 because I have other jobs requiring my attention. I want Summoner out of the way and want to level Beastmaster to 60 so I can dress up like a fluffy sheep.

Otherwise,

The Mhaura-Selbina ferry passes Windurst.

it's been a very quiet weekend. I spent most of it fishing gavials for Acute. He also needs a ton of Titanictus, which is less thrilling to me because they're a lot harder to target than gavials. Using meatballs on the ferry also attracts Silver Sharks and Ryugu Titans; I'm glad I don't have the Serpent Rumors key item from the fishing guild or I'd also have to worry about Gugrusaurus biting the line. My rod snapped on a ryugu and I had to ask Veresko to repair it on his mule, but otherwise it worked out.

I didn't get any skillups, though. I'm only .2 away from having Lv. 85 fishing skill. Hopefully I'll get there soon while I'm on the ferry.