Chasing Dreams

Neyla has been meaning to quest a Venerer Ring for weeks, so today was the day. I tagged along for teleports and the chance to smash things with my hammer.

After

Open wide, Giant Clam!

visiting the Auction House, he still needed one Eastern Gem. We went into the Sea Serpent Grotto and killed dozens of sahagins until one of them finally coughed it up. We went to Korroloka Tunnel and tracked down the giant clams and ran around a bit more. He got the ring.

With that finished, I suggested he do the first limit break for his NPC since we still had plenty of time before Dynamis. Again, lots of running around between Windurst, Bastok and the oh-so-lovely Korroloka Tunnel.

We were almost to Castle Oztroja when Magix sent word that a party had invited him to party in Garlaige Citadel, but he had no idea where it was. I turned around to help him out while Neyla carried on. I was going to help smack the Yagudo Muralist around, but I couldn't pass through the door this time. It didn't really matter. At least now his NPC can get to 55.

Dynamis-Beaucedine

Nukers take down a statue far below.

went very well. Cythe didn't die this time; in fact, there were no mass deaths. We had a fun moment when Cythe wanted to "try something new" and had the Black Mages nuke one of the statues from high above to get a time extension. Elemmire shuttled everyone else off to a quiet corner in case the mages screwed it up and brought a huge train of monsters down on us. They nailed it. No train.

The Monster Gaiters dropped again and Neyla got them this time. He now has three Monster pieces.

We do Xarcabard on Monday.

Cape Terrigan

Cape

The goblins near the outpost like to blow themselves up.

Terrigan was much better when we returned there today to get a 5k buffer. The lizards and bunnies were Decent and Even, and we'd turn them loose on all the goblins running around. The Robber Crab close to the outpost was Decent, but it kept resisting my charms and I eventually gave up on it.

Goblins are easy because they suicide so often, but they can be frustrating because I don't always know they're blowing themselves up. If I'm too slow to release my pet, I get an xp penalty. The only "tricky" goblins are the Alchemists because they have Cure V and the Shepherds because their pet bunny links the surrounding bunnies if given a chance.

We ran around the outpost and the surrounding area until a solo Beastmaster came along. We had our buffer at that point, so we left for an hour of scythe skillups in the Crawler's Nest. I finally learned "Spinning Scythe" (125) this week; our scythe skill as BST65 caps at 209... so I have plenty more to go.

I'm still working on my Hauby, although the gil has slowed a bit because some schmucks flooded the market with Grimmonites and knocked the price from 15k to 10k and slowed sales to a crawl. I hit the Sea Serpent Grotto, Qufim and Gusgen over the course of an hour to diversify my bazaar a bit. I even managed to get two .1 skillups on grimms. With any luck, I can afford my Hauby in another week. People need to start buying my goddamn fish.

On the Third Day, God Created Boredom

I think Neyla wants to kill me.

We

Kill me now.

logged in and the Caedarva Mire camp was open, so we started killing birds. And we kept killing. And killing. And killing. That first day, the birds were spraying xp on us like water from a garden hose. The second day, after our torture run through Cape Terrigan, it was blessed relief. On this, the third day, it devolved into mind-numbing tedium.

After the first hour, I worked out our xp rate and saw we could easily go from 64 to 65 in one evening there. I just didn't account for how mind-numblingly boring it can be to hack away at the same five birds for six hours. Neyla thought I was insane. He'd suggested switching camps once we got 8k in, but at that point I figured it couldn't get much easier than what we were doing.

"If only you were this driven on your WHM," he said.

We dinged 65 and were more than happy to get the fuck out of there. Our only real excitment came from fighting an imp from the graveyard, although it used Amnesia and kept us from releasing our pets in time to get the full xp.

We'll hit Terrigan tomorrow for a 5k buffer, but no heavy lifting. I think Neyla is all BST'd out.

For Want of a Hunting Ground

One

Mount Zhayolm slides into view during the long boat ride to Nashmau.

of the great myths about the Beastmaster job is that we can level anywhere. It's not true. A full party of six can level on any prey they can kill. Beastmasters require prey in close proximity to pets we can charm. We're more limited in our options. Today, for example, was a pure hellclimb of trying to find a good camp. Neyla and I rode the boat out to Caedarva Mire as soon as the maintenance was over, and the first thing we found was an anonymous Beastmaster leveling on the birds.

Beastmaster etiquette demands that you don't xp with your job hidden. There's nothing worse than taking 30-40 minutes to get to a camp and find out some schmuck is already there and didn't turn up on your initial search of the area. Ideally, you put your camp location, pets and prey in your search comment so other Beastmasters know in advance what you're doing.

Neyla must think I'm a hot-headed taru who bitches such people out because he told me not to argue with the guy, but I wasn't arguing. I sent the guy a /tell explaining why what he was doing was inconsiderate, but I was polite.

We tried Cape Terrigan after that. Some of the lizards and rabbits were charmable, but a disturbing number of them were Toughs that resist charm. We tried to convert them, but some of them got really pissy about it. Bunnies and lizards link, so when you piss one off you have to deal with all of its friends.

We

Goblin Mercenaries have nasty Bomb Tosses.

ground our way along, rolling with the punches by fighting lizards and goblins. Lack of pets, plus goblin bombs that regularly knocked me into the red, and the constant running around... it was hellish and slow. The Beastmaster from Caedarva Mire sent me a /tell apologizing for being anonymous and to let me know he was leaving the camp if we wanted it, but Neyla didn't feel like traveling all the way out there again.

Eventually we gave up in disgust. In another level or two, when the bunnies con Decent and Even, Cape Terrigan would be a lot better.

The only other option I could think of was Boyadha Tree, but it didn't pan out. The spiders and funguars were charmable, but competing with xp parties for crabs close to their spawn points had little appeal.

A Beastmaster was at the Wajoam Woodlands camp where you charm bees and sic them onto the birds, and another had moved into Caedarva. I sent /tells to both and was happy to learn the Caedarva BST was near the staging point, far from the camp we wanted.

"If we go there," Neyla said, "I want to stay through the level."

And

Back to the mire, where life is good.

that's what we did. The camp was empty, and we set to work. There are five birds between Nashmau and the path to the graveyard, and we spent the next few hours cycling through them to get the 12k we needed to ding 64. By the time we killed the last for Chain 5, the first ones had repopped and we could run back and start all over again. It was blissful, although Neyla died at one point to linking birds; the great thing about being so close to town is I could run inside and switch to White Mage to give him Raise III.

Necrosis sent me a /tell asking if we were at the same camp as before, because he was in a party and that's where they wanted to go. I told him I'd really prefer they didn't -- we ignored them last time, but we were getting more xp per kill to compensate for the lack of birds -- and made it clear I'd screw their xp if they insisted. He went silent awhile and eventually asked if it would be okay for them to camp in the graveyard.

"That's fine," I said. "That first bird as you go down the path is our Chain 5. Anything after that bird is yours."

A crappy and discouraging day, for the most part. I'm just glad we got 64. We logged out in Nashmau, and we're going to party there again tomorrow. The birds still con Tough, although now there are some Evens in the mix. We'll get a buffer there, at the very least.... if the camp is open.

While all this was going on, Quieren and Hadafal got their Beastmsters to 42 in Yuhtunga Jungle.

Numbers Game

I know high-level Beastmasters, like high-level fishermen, are very rare. I always end up thinking Vana'diel is busting at the seams with them for one simple reason: I always notice them. I couldn't tell you how many Monks or Dragoons or Rangers I pass in a given day, but I take note of the Beastmasters.

The

It's frickin' freezing out here.

rarity of Beastmasters becomes much more obvious during Dynamis, because there isn't a lot of heavy competition for Monster gear. Hell, I imagine there are plenty of runs where someone gets it by default and they end up selling it to an NPC later or just throwing it away. In lolDynamis, Asmodius is the only 75 BST, and he has all of it (except possibly the hands, which drop off Dynamis Lord). With the tier system they use for Northlands lotting, I was at the top of the list for Monster Gaiters in tonight's run through Dynamis-Beaucedine.

"Hooray for longer attendance," I told Neyla.

"Fuck you, taru," he laughed.

The gaitersdropped early in the run -- "Obligatory BST," as Cythe put it -- and somewhere in the middle of cure-bombing him, I lotted a 982.

"Jesus, Hal," Asmodius said.

Elemmire was also laughing. "Hali is like 'Bitch MINE!!'" she said.

Takumifujiwara chimed in with "He wants his shit...NOW."

They have nice stats, and I'll definitely be using them when I get to 74. This bumps Neyla to the top of the Beaucedine BST tier, where he pretty much sits alone at this point. The only other piece of AF2 to drop the entire night was the Summoner's Doublet, which went to Aerdrie.

The run itself was smooth and largely uneventful. Cythe died twice. The first was against an orc NM while I was scrambling forward to cure him and could've been prevented if I'd been faster. The second was to the boss, who did Chainspell+Death on him. I really like Beaucedine; it's a more relaxing run than the cities. Neyla got the win, so we're both set for Xarcabard next week.

In other news, Neyla and I did the Crawler's Nest escort between the end of maintenance and the beginning of dynamis. We had a scary moment in the first Rumble Crawler room, but otherwise it went down without a hitch. When the Dynamis run was over -- "Bitch, give me my AF2!" Neyla said when we got back to Windurst -- I teleported us out to Bastok to collect our prize. We ate the scrolls on our respective Summoner and White Mage jobs, putting each of us about 2k into 33.

Roc Stars

I

Roc will never fit in the oven.

started the first limit-break quest for my NPC this morning. It's not hard, but it requires a lot of running around. I had to go to Selbina and then to Bastok before heading into Korroloka Tunnel to excavate a Bal Shell. Once I had that first part out of the way, I teleported to the outpost and started running for Castle Oztroja.

I had just reached the castle when Veresko spotted Roc walking around unclaimed. The bird is heavily-camped because it drops a Healing Staff worth millions (I'm not impressed by the stats, but then again I don't need the extra MP it gives the way a Galka or Elvaan would). Zoner, Nanunanoo, Veresko and I ran into Garlaige Citadel to get through the banishing gates and up top before someone noticed him. Otak logged on and we told her to jump on Bard and get her butt out there. We still needed a tank, so Zoner asked Eormanric to join us.

It was an easy fight. I kept Roc silenced, paralyzed and slowed while they worked him down. He used Benediction (I'd forgotten he had that move), but that was the only hiccup. He didn't drop the staff, but we got the "Roc Star" title, which Nanunanoo and I consider a fair trade. I still can't believe nobody was there to claim it. Hell, nobody came along to bitch that we beat them to it.

I

A true artist is never appreciated in his time.

returned to Castle Oztroja and tracked down the room with the Yagudo Muralist I had to kill. From there, it was off to Windurst and then back to Bastok to complete the quest and raise my NPC's level cap to 55. The storyline for the quest was actually pretty touching.

I logged for a few hours after that, returning later for fishing, the "Test Your Mite" run and more scythe skillups with Neyla in the Crawler's Nest. During my fishing trip to the Sea Serpent Grotto (Arctyrael and Machao were there), Neyla farmed Elshimo Marble for the Teleport-Yhoat quest. FunguarFamiliar tore through Ivory Lizards like tissue paper.

Speaking of, I killed time before "Test Your Mite" by camping Nue. It was my first time camping him as Beastmaster, and the difference was amazing. Instead of White Mage, where I have to keep Stoneskin, Haste and Ice Spikes going to avoid death by goblin, I could just sic the Funguar on the prey and they died fast. I actually cleared the area and had to wait for repops. I'll never camp him on WHM again.