Storms of Fate

Level 72 was fun while it lasted.

I

Fox presents... When Crafters Attack!

logged out in the Safehold last night, and I'd just popped back on and was checking the Nomad Moogle for deliveries when Sandria asked me if I'd finished Chains of Promathia. A bunch of people were gathering there for a run a Bahamut, but they'd had a couple of no-shows and she was offering me a spot. I could smell a deleveling in my future, but I signed on. There were several people I knew -- Bajaratt, Wakmidget, Croge, Asmodius, Truegrave, Arctyrael -- so I wasn't too worried.

Someone pointed that out as we were entering Cape Riverne that we were all members of the CoP Ring Club, so our chances had to be good. You can't be a lame-o scrub if you've managed to walk through that fire.

Nobody bothered to bring 50-cap stuff, so lots of us were either naked or in our crafter's gear. Arctyrael kept admiring my Fisherman's Apron, which he's going to get as soon as he's earned enough guild points. We had few problems getting through Cape Riverne -- Croge got magic aggro from a Nitro Cluster -- and soon our full alliance arrived at the BCNM.

Bahamut

Bahamut gets ready to cut loose with Giga Flare.

has extremely nasty directional AoE, so the plan was for the two tanks to stay in the front with the mages on the right and the melees on the left. The Red Mages had to dispel a ton of his buffs from the start. As you'd expect, the wyrmking is fond of Fire-based attacks and he had to be stunned regularly. He likes to talk just before using the really nasty Mega Flare, so we had plenty of time to make sure we were out of the way so we could cure-bomb the tanks.

Bahamut's two-hour is called Giga Flare, and it packed a punch that dropped one of the tanks. I got taken out by a -ga spell followed by a Touchdown and deleveled, but by that point he was almost dead and there were still enough healers to keep pace. I reraised after we'd won -- I got the key item "Whisper of the Wyrmking" -- and was happy to see I was still 72, albeit only 200 into level. We were all happy and cheering.

Elvenroth, the organizer of the event, was flipping out with joy that we'd managed to take him down on the first try. "I want to do the next fight with this same crew!" he proclaimed.

That presented a few difficulties, as one of the prerequisites for flagging that fight would be the completion of Chains of Promathia and Rise of the Zilart before Sunday's conquest tally. I wasn't scheduled to finish the ZMs until Tuesday.

Pauk agreed to take some of us through the fight right away, so while Neyla and members of my linkshell were trudging through Xarcabard to do Lepruvian's G2, I was heading up to Sky to prepare to face the little brat Eald'narche a few days early.

The

Eald'narche is due for a spanking.

fight begins with Eald'narche floating behind a barrier of Exoplates. Our taru ninja tank went in and kept the brat busy while the Ranger, Warrior, Red Mage and Black Mage started taking down the plates. The plates use a hideous AoE attack called Phase Shift which knocked me out. I reraised just in time to have it kill me a second time before I could cast Reraise.

We wiped and lay there in a heap outside the BCNM for 45 minutes while we waited for someone to come get us on our feet. A BLM from Pauk's linkshell turned up and I had to eat an R1. Bye-bye 72, obviously. Once I'd raised everyone else and the weakness had worn, we went back in.

The second run was much easier. We had enough time between Phase Shifts to reapply Stoneskin and get everyone cured back to full, and as soon as they were down Eald'narche dropped fast. That was only his first form, though. The second version was much more annoying. He flew around the room and liked to use Sleepga and an AoE Terror move that lasted a long time. I died again. The punk was extremely close to death, so Croge launched Chainspell... and then got petrified before he could cast anything.

It took us three more times to kill the creep. The last fight was the most fun because Phase Shift killed most of us and the Ninja had to kite Eald'narche around the arena while we recovered. He used Bind and Terror again. It looked like we were heading for another wipe. I started running down the ramp so I could use Benediction (so much nicer now that it clears all status ailments) but didn't have time to trigger it before the fight was over. We'd won.

The

It wouldn't be so bad if he didn't gloat over my corpse.

final Rise of the Zilart cutscenes are in Jeuno and Norg, so I went around and got them. I took a small detour to the Crystal Spring in Jugner because someone was shouting for a high-level fisherman to help them get a Crystal Bass for one of the San d'Orian missions.

Now that I've gone through this fresh hell, I'll be able to flag the next quest after Sunday's tally. It involves gettng a key item from the Memory Flux on the top floor of the three promyvions, so Elvenroth and the others will be scheduling a run soon. Once that's done we can enter the BCNM fight called "The Final Verse," which ties together the storylines of Zilart and Promathia by making us fight the Archduke and Aeld'narche at the same time.

The reward for clearing that fight is my choice of four earrings. I'm heavily leaning toward the Magnetic Earring, which gives MP+20, "Conserve MP"+5, Spell Interruption down 8%, and MPh+1. I really wish Quieren had been available, because I know he would've loved the Ethereal Earring for his Paladin; one of its attributes is to convert 3% of all damage taken into MP.

I completely lucked into this entire experience, and I'm glad I did. I finished the day 6k from 72, but I can easily get that back. Getting my taru mitts on the Magnetic Earring and having those bragging rights will be worth the extra bit of leveling I'll have to do next week.

Fire the Cannons!

I wanted to level White Mage, but I couldn't motivate myself to put up my flag. I caught some Emperor Fish and Black Sole and got as far as putting my TNL (20k) and a green dot by my name, but didn't actively seek. I teleported out to Xarcabard and leveled my NPC a bit. Boredom was setting in and I was ready to log out.

As I was preparing to quit, I got a /tell from a Monk asking if I wanted to join a monk cannon party in King Ranperre's Tomb. I was intrigued and said I'd gladly give it a shot. I've always heard about them but wasn't expecting to be in one anytime soon.

"They're

Three monks smash skeletons like plates.

pretty rough on the White Mage," he told me, "but the xp is very good. It'll probably be lower for you since we're all 75."

Our party setup was MNKx3, WHM, RDM and BRD. It took a little while for everyone to get ready, but once we reached KRT we found ourselves a clear starting point and cut loose. This was easily one of the most intense experiences I've ever had. Those caves are full of bones, and three monks can destroy them like they're nothing. There's not a dedicated tank, so I'm reduced to cure-bombing everyone while also trying to cure blindness and paralysis. Woooooooo! The RDM was curing just as much as I was.

The other fun part? You don't get much time to rest. The BRD runs out and pulls the next skeleton (provided they haven't already swooped in from blood aggro) and sleeps it next to the others to create a punch-fest stable of mobs. The party is constantly on the move, making a looping circuit through the place, so if I'm lucky I'd get to rest a tick or two before scrambling to get to them. We got swarmed at one point pretty early into the session and I had to use Benediction.

I'm not going to lie. I felt very inadequate as a White Mage. I was constantly running out of MP (even with Refresh and the Mage Ballads on me) and wasn't able to keep up with Hastes. I apologized to the party leader, but he said I was doing fine. Maybe it's standard for these parties. All I know is saying the party was "hard" on a WHM was an understatement. More like "brutal." Thankfully it was also a lot of fun.

We

Somebody get this monk some pants!

fought our way to Vrtra's lair a few times and got bogged down by all the undead there. The door is not a good place to have a death, because the skeletons start to pop again by the time the fallen's weakness wears. And each of us died at least once, usually when the BRD disconnected and wasn't there to sleep the bone adds.

I can't argue with the xp, though. We were usually getting Chain 20 or so, depending on where we were. They had to do some Sky farming and asked my tnl, which was 8k at that point.

"We can do that in an hour," the leader said. "No problem."

In fact, I got to 72 and got a 1k buffer before I Escaped us out. I'm now able to wear my Cleric's Cap and use the Errant Houppelande for resting MP. I told them to seek me out if they wanted to party again. They're all in the same linkshell, so I might get lucky. I never thought I'd get 20k in less than three hours.

The Sacrifice of Angels

Back when I was doing the Zilart missions for Sky access, Onaule and Rorion were killing time in the Den of Rancor and took out the tonberry NM that drops the Asklepios. They let me have it. It seems fitting that today, the day I was set to resume those Zilart missions, I accidentally tossed my Asklepios when I meant to throw away some Pantam Kelp. The worst part is I had to confirm I really wanted to throw it away. I'll miss my little rug beater, even if it was only good for a tiny MP boost at the beginning of a chain. I'm very glad it was that useless thing and not my Noble's Tunic.

Quieren, Hayatox and I were the only lolCoP members present when the short maintenance ended

Neyla and I are ready to fight!

It sucks that Truegrave, Aarjuna and Asmodius weren't around, but you can only delay these things for so long. Quieren said "Screw it!" and arranged a run at the Ark Angels with Neyla, Apu and a RDM Q knows named Araegeon (a Lord of the Rings name, for those keeping track of fantasy geeks) as replacments. I reminded Q that he'd have to be my guide because I have no maps and don't know my way around Sky at all. Our setup was PLD, WHM, RDMx2 and SAMx2.

There may be a preferred order for these fights, but we sorta hit them based on which teleport was closest. The first fight was against the Galka, who summoned a wyvern and went nuts doing skillchains on Quieren's face, killing him. Hayatox also went down near the end, but we beat it and started for the next arena before the weakness from the raises could wear off.

Our second fight was against the Elvaan, which Neyla was anticipating because his motto is "The only good elvaan is a dead elvaan." This fight took longer because Quieren had to kite it around the arena with me chasing behind him to through out cures and Silena every time it used Dominion Slash. Hayatox died in this fight, too. Neyla managed to get the killshot.

The

Ark Angel HM looks confident.

Hume was a serious pain in the ass. He opened with Mighty Strikes and then dropped Quieren like a rock. We were all shouting "Holy shit!!" over that. I immediately raised Q so he could scramble out of the way while Hayatox and Apu kited the Ark Angel and swapped tanking duties to wear him down. We'd almost killed him -- "He was one nuke away," Neyla said -- when he used Mijin Gakure and killed us. I waited until we were ejected from the arena to reraise and get us all back on our feet. Our second run at him was much easier.

"The betting pool is now open," I joked as we were heading into the mithra fight. "How much HP will she have when Hayatox dies this time?"

The mithra was fun because she used Charm on Quieren, who then had to be slept. Again, Hayatox and Apu tanked her and wore her down, and to my surprise Hayatox survived.

The

Quieren gets a Raise III.

tarutaru angel was extremely easy. The little bastard liked to warp around the room and toss out Sleep II, but he didn't do anything too nasty. Quieren took great delight in killing him. Once we finished, we went into the shrine to clear the mission and begin the next.

While Neyla went running around to help a tarutaru he'd met in the dunes get some Kazham keys, I hit Norg to talk to Gilgamesh for the next cutscene. I spent an hour fishing in the grotto (I didn't make nearly as much today as yesterday) before teleporting out to LaTheine to help Neyla and the taru get the key in Yughott Grotto. We ran out of time on that one, though. We'll get his key tomorow.

Next Tuesday, assuming everything goes well, that little punk Eald'narche is going to die.

Fishing Report

I didn't put my flag up, but I was open to the idea of partying if some random invitation came my way. It didn't. Instead, I hit the Sea Serpent Grotto and decided to use Reraise as my timer to find out exactly how much I was gil I was making per hour.

While

Chiimi loves fishing and thinks she's cuter.

I was there, another angler named Chiimi wandered over and poked me.

"Ha ha," she said, "I'm cuter than you."

We started talking a bit. It turns out she took up fishing a week or so ago and fell in love with it, skilling up from 4 to 18 in that time. I answered her questions and gave her advice. I love it when people take up the craft, although it's sort of a drag when you realize they're eventually going to be a competitor.

In one hour's time, taking course over most of Windsday and a 12% Waning Crescent moonphase, I caught the following:

Bastore Bream - 15
Cobalt Jellyfish - 1 (discarded)
Damp Scroll - 2 (1 lost)
Grimmonites - 15
Nebimonites - 16
Norg Shell - 2 (1 lost)
Rusty Bucket - 3 (discarded)

Factoring in current auction house prices, I made roughly 380k in that hour. Not shabby by any means. I love these inflated fish prices. I also went to Jeuno for awhile to fish some Black Sole, which have dropped to 95k with 45 stacks on the AH. Either a lot of people have caught on, or the main botting culprit is back from vacation.

Neyla was helping Nanunanoo find a coffer in the Temple of Uggalepih for Nanu's Summoner AF, but they didn't have any luck; I went out to meet them and give Nanu a teleport. I returned to Jeuno, finished off the stack of sole, and then teleported out to Xarcabard to level my NPC.

Speaking of, I finally went into Promyvion-Mea to get my first Tactics Pearl. The ??? you have to click is pretty close to the entrance, so it didn't take any time at all. I went as Beastmaster and used a Crab Familiar. I slaughtered a wanderer with the help of my pet and NPC, but didn't bother killing anything else.

Progress

I

Galkas give the best hugs.

fished two stacks of sole in Jeuno this morning, trying to wake up from a long night of watching Viva La Bam and Robot Chicken with Neyla. I was about to log off and go back to sleep when I got a party invitation.

Our first attempt was for the tiger camp in Kuftal Tunnel, but the spot was already taken. It took us awhile to find that out because our Paladin disconnected when we were stuck outside the rock. Flashbacks of my previous tank disconnect kept going through my head, and I was starting to think I'd never get to level.

Once he returned, we hit Bibiki Bay and spent most of the day there. I quickly hit 71 and ate my Curaga IV scroll. The Paladin disconnected again much later, and this time he didn't come back. We got a new Paladin -- a galka this time -- and decided to move camps. They wanted to go through the Moongate, but weapon aggro soured everyone and we rode back out to Bibiki Bay and stayed here.

The

Pasuk fights us on the top level this time.

party ended on a sour note. We were chaining dhalmels and efts. We'd agreed to disband in another thirty minutes when our puller (WAR) brought back a link and the Red Mage and Black Mage didn't sleep them. If there's one thing I constantly forget, it's that I can sleep things. When I remembered and started to fumble for it the efts ate the tank alive. Death... death all around. The only survivors were the Black Mage (who warped back to Whitegate) and the Red Mage (who booked it all the way to the zone). The Monk homepointed and logged off before we even knew what had happened. I would've at least stayed for Raise III.

That part sucked, but I finished the day halfway to 72. Hopefully I'll be wearing my Cleric's Cap by the end of the week.

We managed to do the "Test Your Mite" ENM. Neyla and I went BST/WAR this time (both of us /anon to hide our gimped subjobs). It was a cakewalk since we could provoke the diremite off the mages when it did its hate-resetting move. Another 3k xp on BST and a Geist Earring for Nanunanoo to sell and split the gil.