Sky Map

Bibiki Bay was already taken, so Neyla and I hit Sky again to farm a second coffer key. We outposted to Zitah and I used my Chocobo Whistle to summon Paprika and ride for the zone, and I laughed when Neyla said "Cheater."

We

It would be funny if they dropped Ancient Papyrus.

didn't get another key, but we burned off our Empress Bands and did the Necropolis escort when we finished. It's a lot easier than the Crawler's Nest because it's all narrow hallways and I can run ahead and start killing everything without worrying about aggro from every direction.

While Neyla headed off to San d'Oria to get in place for Dynamis, I switched over to White Mage and returned to Sky to look for the coffer. I haven't spent much time up there, and when I did I'd always be following closely behind someone and not really taking it all in. I explored most of the outside area.

The coffer was on Byakko's island, sitting neatly between two of the alcove dolls. I buffed myself like crazy -- Blink, Stoneskin, Aquaveil, etc. -- and ran over to trade the key. One of the dolls attacked, but the shadows kept me from getting hit and I obtained the map, then turned around and ran for the zone. At least now I can keep myself oriented when I'm up there.

Dynamis-San d'Oria was kinda "meh" but not too bad until we got to the end. We had some melees barking orders to mages about things they clearly didn't understand -- scream until you're blue in the face, but Red Mages and Black Mages aren't going to be sleeping hecteyes anytime soon -- and we ended up wiping trying to get the time extension near the mansion.

Our Red Mages died in a heap pretty fast, and without them to silence the hecteyes we were were getting slammed hard by -ga spells; my Reraise was knocked off three or four times. Naturally people were still yelling at the Red Mages to do their job even though they were all dead.

The Cleric's Cap had dropped, but we ran out of time and Seikatsu didn't get it.

Nerves are definitely fraying in the linkshell with Cythe gone, and I know of a few people seriously considering quitting it altogether. I'm willing to stick with it awhile longer to see where it's all going.

The Pugilists

The camp in Bibiki Bay was occupied when I logged on, so Neyla and I returned to Mount Zhayolm for more pugil killing.

With

The engraved stone is becoming a significant landmark in my gaming life.

the Empress Band and Sanction bonuses, the xp was still pretty good. After the ring wore it slowed down to about 150-170xp per kill on the higher chains, turning it into a bit of a grind.

I wasn't too worried; we were making progress, and I ended up watching some videos while we were at it. I was in a mood for siege movies, since I had Assault on Precinct 13, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight and the MST3K version of Attack of the Killers Shrews to keep myself occupied.

We went in with an xp goal in mind, but we pushed passed it and dinged 74. We'll go key farming in Sky tomorrow to get our buffer.

In Chocobo news, Papa Paprika is hopelessly spoiled. The Chocoguy suggested I discipline the bird, so I scolded him. We'll see what kind of effect that has.

Goals

Neyla's

How about a little death from above?

been breaking our xp sessions into easily-attainable goals, making it easier to ignore that big 40k mark. It works, too. I'm kinda surprised at how close we are to 74. Our schedule revolves around the "light days" -- shorter sessions we do on Monday, Wednesday and Friday before Dynamis and Limbus take over the schedule -- and the "heavy-lifting days" of Tuesday and Thursday when nothing is on the agenda and we can xp all day if we want.

Today was another light day, and we spent it up in Sky trying to farm another coffer key. The bastards were stubborn this time and wouldn't drop for us, but we finished at the 27k mark.

The closest it got to exciting was on the very last Groundskeeper. Neyla disconnected right after we'd put our birds on it, and I was caught by surprise without buffs. I slapped on Reraise and went looking for a bird to swap, but they were all Toughs. Naturally, I mischarmed on my first attempt and had to kite until I could get a fresh pet. I finished the fight in the red, but I killed the doll.

Limbus started nearly an hour late because they decided at the last minute to ask Wulfgar to come along. I was ripping my hair out over that one, although to be fair it would've been the same no matter who they'd asked. I hate the late starts and I'm getting more vocal about it.

Our

I wonder where the Enhanced Dragon came from...

target today was the first floor of Temenos Central. There are only six mobs, and you have 45 minutes to kill them. You get that much time because they're total bastards.

They're actually paired up, although the members of each pair are divided by distance and don't link. When you kill one, the other becomes stronger. For example, the Ahriman and Enhanced Dragon are a duo -- I'd like to think Limbus is where they started hiding out after the Rank 3 burning circle fight. We killed the dragon first so the Ahriman would get the stat boost and not the other way around.

The only rough fight was against the skeleton. He loved his Blood Saber and would regain a lot of health by sucking it from the melees like juiceboxes. It took longer to kill him, but we managed. Each of us received three Ancient Beastcoins for our troubles.

I returned to Windurst and visited the stables to check on Paprika before I logged out.

Big and Butch

I need to start checking prices. Today's guild item called for eight Crossbows, which were selling for 4k each on the auction house. I bought the four in stock and then checked the +1 versions... which were selling for 2k. Live and learn. I turned them in and had enough points to obtain my Carpenter's Gloves. I also took the rank exam and got promoted to Craftsman.

Once

Healing Breeze can't save these pencil-necked dhalmels.

Neyla logged on, we hit Bibiki Bay to give it a shot. There's a small plateau loaded with birds, and that's where we made our camp. I'd partied there on White Mage back in the early 60s, but it felt odd to be there on another job.

My god, the dhalmels are so crunchy and brittle! Two birds would shred them so fast it wasn't always possible to get 100tp off a few of the Tough ones. The dhalmels repopped quickly and we were regularly getting Chain 4 and 5 without having to add goblins to the mix. A lot of the dhalmels were Very Tough, so we could easily get to 75 there.

The excitement came about two hours into the session when a party showed up and camped on the hill to the west. They weren't an issue while they were fighting goblins, but their puller -- some DRK/THF douche named GunnerX -- took a bird and then eventually a dhalmel. I started mentally preparing for a pissing match, but of course I try diplomacy first.

The leader of the party, Reddogneo, is someone I only know through QCDN posts. He's pretty BST-friendly when the whole BST vs. Party issue comes up, and he didn't get pissy when I sent him a /tell requesting that they not crowd our xp camp.

Gunnerx wasn't nearly as levelheaded, though. Neyla charmed a bird he wanted, and he got pissy and called Neyla a fag and eventually started saying we needed to leave. Neyla's response -- "We were here first. You fucking move." -- probably made the poor guy want to start cutting himself like the really cool emo DRKs do. GunnerX would Flee into our camp, snag a bird, and then hightail it back to their side. I toyed with using Leave to link a bird to whatever he'd pulled.

"Please put a leash on your puller," I told Reddogneo. "We're not going to be here much longer, so play nice."

I'm glad Red was leader of that party. If GunnerX had been in charge with that attitude Neyla and I would've ground his xp to a screeching halt out of pure spite. We may not be able to MPK like the old days, but Beastmasters can still fuck up your xp and walk out alive better than any job out there.

We

Papa Paprika is under the weather.

were halfway to 74 when we left. I returned to Windurst's stables to check on Paprika. It was Day 43, and I received a message that he was at the peak of his abilities, which I'm hoping isn't a sign of capped stats. I want to keep building his speed and riding time. His strength is now "Average" and endurance "Substandard," so there's still room for improvement.

I finished out the evening with a fishing binge in all my old haunts. I did the grotto a bit and then the glacier. I also hit Port Jeuno for black sole, which I normally don't like. The moon phase had them jumping into my pockets this time, so I hooked two stacks and got a .1 fishing skillup.

Northern Lights

Neyla

The Groundskeeper wanted us to stay off the grass.

and I had planned to try a camp in Arrapago Reef we'd read about. It's a looping area with charmable crabs and kraken mobs to kill. Unfortunately for us, the listing was out of date and didn't show the Flayer mobs added during a recent update; the camp is no longer viable for Beastmaster leveling. I'm glad we found out before we'd made the trip to Caedarva Mire.

Instead, we decided to try farming a coffer key in Sky. Charming the birds and using them against the Sprinklers and Groundskeepers is supposed to be great xp, but I mostly wanted the map. I rode PapaPaprika from the Zitah outpost to the Ro'maeve zone, which is one of those "this was worth it" moments resulting from chocobo raising.

I can see why BST/NIN is the preferred way to level there. There's just too much danger of magic aggro for me to feel comfortable. The dolls and pots aren't so bad because the birds rip them to shreds, but the thought of an Elemental deciding to zap me is very unpleasant.

After a Meltdown knocked us into the red, we decided to remote detonate the dolls like bombs. We just let the birds peck them to death while we stood at a comfortable distance with our thoughts.

Near the end, Light weather came up, draping the entire zone in an aurora of colors that had me spellbound for a bit. It was an unexpected bit of beauty.

We

The aurora effect surprised me.

got a key and Neyla told me to lot it. We're going to go back Wednesday to farm another.

As for Dynamis-Windurst, the best way to describe it is "clusterfuck." It started out promising, considering a few key players were performing roles normally left to others, but it all went to hell when we reached the House of Death. Someone managed to aggro the house, and I was in the group of ten or so people who managed to die on the ramp beyond the house. We were cut off from the group by a crowd of angry yagudo.

Blancho ran through and pulled the entire train to give us a chance to rejoin the main group, but it was really over by that point. It was the first time we'd ever lost Windurst. A Monster Helm would've been a nice consolation prize, but no such luck.

Searing Pain

I bought another stack of Scorpion Arrow ingredients and returned to Carpenter's Landing to synth more Arrowwood Lumber. It's amazing what only a few levels can do for your chances to HQ a recipe, because I was regularly knocking out 6-9 pieces at a time. Once I had enough, I churned out more arrows. I capped out halfway through, but I synthed the rest to sell for a profit.

Today's

I feel guilty killing something so cute.

Limbus run was great. We did the second floor of Apollyon Central. There are a few elementals and avatars which have to be killed, but Veresko had a walk-through which kept those avatar fights to a minimum because Astral Flow is a pain in the butt. I got caught in Shiva's Diamond Dust move and lost about 800hp, putting me in the red and on the verge of death.

The main fight is against Carbuncle and two Light Elemental pets, whom we'd been slinking past on our way to each camp until we were ready to circle back. His Searing Light knocked me and Dantin into the red, and one of the Light Elementals got loose and killed me while I was trying to cast Cure V. Thankfully, Veresko was also on Ninja and stepped in to tank it. We all received two Ancient Beastcoins at the end.

Speaking of, Quieren introduced a new points system for the extra coins. We've been banking them, and after a month we'll be able to bid our points (earned through attendance) in an auction for sets of five coins. It seems like a lot of record-keeping and hassle to me, but I'm not the one stuck with the paperwork.