Cutting Remarks

I spent the biggest part of my day in Boyahda Tree, which is starting to feel like my second home because I'm always there skilling up scythe these days.

I'd

Neyla and I kill goobues with the help of our NPCs.

managed three more skill levels off Robber Crabs before Neyla turned up to join me, and we went upstairs for more goobue slaughter. We worked off an Empress band charge, and he was close enough to having his Dagger Skill to 230 -- the level required to quest Evisceration -- that we called our NPCs and leveled them a bit.

I didn't have my Tactics Pearl on me, so I warped back to Windurst so we could keep going awhile longer. Neyla's NPC Yawawa dinged 60 and mine got close. My fellowship bond with Gauldeval is stronger, so he usually sticks around a few more fights. We're going to hit Qulon Dome tomorrow so I can take care of his final Limit Break.

It was a good session up there. I'm a little over halfway to having my xp capped on Beastmaster, and to top it off I have a full stack of Tree Cuttings and an almost-full stack of Wisteria Lumber to sell.

Quieren has been after me all day to join his linkshell, hoping to pull me to Sky and assorted HNM events. They need competent mages, he told me, and then dangled the bait of a Divine Might run. I'll admit to being tempted for a few minutes, but he doesn't realize our gaming priorities are too different for me to want to devote that kind of time to an endgame linkshell... especially that one, which expects you to have the pearl equipped most of the time. Dynamis and Limbus take up enough of my time.

"I'm just not ready for that," I finally told him.

"You'll never be ready," he laughed. I didn't contradict him.

Neyla traveled to Kazham to pick up his Dagger of Trials and I snagged my Club of Trials from the NPC in Port Windurst. We're going to start working off points sometime in the near future, I'm sure.

I'd

My first visit to the Blacksmith's Guild.

planned to log out after checking Paprika's status. His lovesickness continues, but I managed to get the Curious Chocobo story from Brutus during a long walk. Paprika's mental stats will probably prevent him from learning that ability even if I spammed him with the story from now until his retirement.

Instead of quitting for the night, I went to the Blacksmith's Guild in San d'Oria to skill up a bit. I started converting all the Bronze Sheets I'd made into Bronze Scales. I'd reached Lv. 7 Smithing skill by the time I ran out of material, but the sheets were so cheap on the Auction House that I bought a few more stacks and kept synthing until I was at 9. I can get one more level out of the recipe before moving on to something else.

Beastmastering

I went to Boyahda Tree and got eight levels of scythe skillups before Neyla logged on. I started at the second Robber Crab pond, but an xp party turned up and started pulling without so much as a "Do you mind if we camp here?" I didn't really mind; I went upstairs and camped near the waterfall, using Korrigans to tank Steelshells for awhile.

The

A Viagra overdose is never a pretty sight.

Thief killing all the Robber Crabs at the first pond left the zone, so I went back downstairs for more skillups until Neyla joined me. We killed Elder Goobues and Steelshells until we'd worked off our Empress Band charges.

We're both happy about the camp. The xp is decent and you get nice money drops.

"And it's good to be back to actual Beastmastering," Neyla said.

I'm in total agreement. After all those days of "cheating" our way to 75 by remote detonating dolls in Sky, it's good to have a little danger again. I'd missed it.

I didn't miss all the mischarming. Good lord, I had a string of them today because the Steelshells just didn't want to cooperate. I wasn't the only one -- Neyla joked that he was turning into me -- but I was definitely the leader in terms of pissing things off. It's a wonder I didn't kite my way the arms of a goobue.

I

Enhanced Mandragoras are a pain in the butt.

left the tree for Limbus, feeling sick dread because I was the only BigKahunas semi-officer online and was going to have to lead the run. We didn't have many people at all, really. I was getting us ready to do a coin-farming run in Temenos West when Quieren finally popped on.

Temenos West is nice because it drops coins like crazy. The only real problem was the Enhanced Mandragora floor because they hit hard and we had a few deaths. We have a tarutaru Monk named Spellbroker, and he's my new hero. He kept ripping hate off the Paladin -- "You're a Cover whore!" Celvantes laughed at one point -- and getting himself ripped to shreds after Asuran Fists. I look forward to the day when I can do the same.

I went WHM/SMN specifically for the last floor, which has several birds clustered together and ready to link. I used Carbuncle to pull the birds back to the alliance one at a time until they were all dead. It was a lot of fun; usually the only time I get to pull with Carbuncle is the Cardian for one of the Windurst missions.

We each received four Ancient Beastcoins. I only need 18 more to get my Brutal Earring. The temptation to hit Batallia Downs and buy the rest is getting very strong.

Goobue Ass

Ever

Anticans patrol the Fountain of Kings.

since I hit 75, I've been thinking about fishing in the Quicksand Caves. There's a spot in there called The Fountain of Kings where you can catch the legendary fish Cave Cherax. I'm interested in Cherax because I can use them to get fishing to 100 and because that fat galka bastard Zaldon guts them for the bait needed in the Ebisu quest. The rings gained from the pirate chart events eliminate the need to gather bait that way, but it can't hurt to try. It also helps that Cherax can break the Lu Shang, which will be convenient when I get Woodworking to that level.

It took me awhile to find the fountain because I went to the wrong cave and had to ride Paprika all the way back to the telepoint and up to the Titan entrance. There are cactuars and anticans around the fountain, but they don't aggro at 75.

The first cast was promising. I hooked a Cherax and wore it down, but my line snapped. Several "You didn't catch anything" notices later, I hooked another and this time I landed it. They're about on the same difficulty level as Titanictus, but you don't have extended periods of waiting for the ferry to leave the dock or worrying about Sea Horror aggro.

While I was exploring my future fishing options, Neyla was heading for Nashmau so we could take out that fomor NM I'd tried fighting a few weeks ago.

I'd almost died chucking every charmable pet in the zone at it and figured a duo would be much safer. Before leaving Nashmau I suggested we try using Carries first. It went well, but like a complete noob I let Sneak drop while standing near one of the skeletons in the graveyard and had to zone.

For

Jazaraat never stood a chance.

the second attempt, we called Carries and let the timers cool down a little before popping him. They wore him down, and we had replacement Carries ready to go when he managed to kill them. Three jug pets working together probably could've survived the entire fight.

We rode back to Whitegate to talk to our mithra overlord. Neyla had to log out at that point for dinner with his mother, so I decided to do some skilling up. I tried Aydeewa for a few minutes but quickly realized how badly that sucked, punched myself in the head for emphasis, and then hit the second Robber Crab pond in Boyahda Tree. I'd managed to add four or five levels to my meager Scythe skills before Neyla logged on again and joined me.

I pulled crabs awhile before Neyla decided he wanted to go upstairs. I remained below, pulling steadily and doing my thing. His health bar dipped low a few times and he had a series of charms and releases to get out of some situation, but never answered when I asked if he was okay. Something went wrong awhile later and he died.

"Thanks for the support," he scoffed, and I asked him what kind of support I was supposed to give from downstairs. I'd have gone upstairs if he'd asked, but he never did.

I

Skimmers make great tanks against Goobues.

went up and raised him. Once his weakness wore off we started killing the Elder Goobues. After all those Empress Band charges we'd burned off in Sky, it was nice being in a good XP spot with some actual effort and excitement. We charmed the flies and crabs and had fun with it. A goobue popped on top of us and linked with our prey, but it wasn't much of a problem.

The second time one popped on us, I suggested moving closer to the mouth of the cave. Neyla started pulling the goobs inside that cramped space, which got me a lot closer to goobue ass than I ever wanted to get.

We're going to burn off ring charges up there until we cap our XP. Quieren thinks we're nuts for doing that -- "Just get a 10k buffer and you'll be fine," he says -- but that's okay. I plan to spend a lot of time up there in the coming weeks so I can earn my Scythe of Trials. I need to quest Black Halo soon, too.

Drink Me To Feel Tall

After

The new temporary items are awesome.

working on guild points, I checked the map and saw the Mamool Ja were advancing on Al Zahbi. I had nothing else to do -- Neyla was in Boyahda Tree skilling up with Firestreak -- and used my ring to get out there. This was my first Besieged in ages, and I was curious to try out the new temporary items they give you.

In a word, I'm in love with the Giant's Drink. I drank it and suddenly had well over 2,000 hit points, which is this tarutaru's equivalent of dying, going to heaven, and being surrounded by naked elvaan guys who want to "experiment" all day. It was awesome, and I put those points to good use by slaughtering invading Puks and Mamool Ja.

With victory achieved, I did a little Smithing work and waited for the Undead Swarm to move in. They were a little trickier and I died near the end, but it was still a pretty easy victory. I can't wait to try a Lv. 6 event. Heh.

I like the cutscenes they've added at the end, with the assorted generals boasting and commenting about the victory.

I

I can't believe I haven't died.

had to hustle to get back to Windurst and check on Paprika (he's currently lovesick, and his strength upgraded to "Outstanding") before gearing up for Dynamis.

Tonight was one of those great death-free evenings. Neyla even managed to survive the night without eating dirt, although part of that was getting disconnected; if he hadn't been running to catch up, he probably would've been in the middle of the Ninja explosion that wiped a large chunk of the alliance.

No Cleric's Briault, but we got a few other pieces and I received a few more coins to add to my bazaar.

Decimate This

This

Maly and I stay comfortably in the back.

seems to be the weekend for ordinarily-smooth operations to go awry. First there was Friday night's Dynamis, and today it was Limbus. We hit one of the Apollyon zones to farm coins from the mandragoras and assorted birds. The fun started right away because Otak decided to try out the Black Drop she'd received after finishing the Chains of Promathia missions; it turns out Black Drops are Warp medicines and she vanished in the middle of the first fight. I thought it was hilarious and spent the rest of the run giggling about it.

"It could've been worse," I said. "It could've been Escape food."

Her absence bit us on the ass, though. We got to the Opo-Opo floor and couldn't take out the gigas duos because one of them is immune to physical damage. With only one Black Mage in the alliance, there simply wasn't enough firepower to be had. We wiped and ran out the clock by farming the monkeys we normally avoid.

Neyla, Hadafal, Apu and I have been needing the Decimation fight for a couple weeks, so the four of us ventured off to the Temple of Uggalepih to fight the NM named Yallery Brown. Three of us popped out Courier Carries and sent them wading in; it seemed promising at first but went bad in a hurry. We managed to get the sapling down to about half its life, but our Call Beast timers were nowhere close to being cooled down and we had to zone out.

After

I wanted to fight him...

the "Test Your Mite" ENM was over (Neyla and Hadafal swapped roles to help Neyla rebuild his RDM buffer), Veresko popped on and volunteered to tank the sapling for us as Ninja. I went as White Mage Neyla as Red Mage instead of Beastmaster. This time we blew the little bastard away.

I brought along some Poison Potions for the fight, but like a total noob I'd put up Stoneskin. I didn't wake up when it used Slumber Powder the first time, so I immediately clicked it off as soon as I was awake. The second Slumber Powder got me because the potion had just worn off and I was in the middle of using another one. Then, because jokes works best in groups of three, Apu's wyvern Bo cured my poisoned status and I got slept again.

Neyla and I rushed off to Jeuno after the fight to speak to Brutus and unlock Decimation. I wanted to try it out, so we hit Batallia Downs and started carving our way through Evil Weapons and building TP. It's a pretty move (my first quested weapon skill), but I still like Rampage more. We were cutting up goblins, crabs and tigers while we were out there. If it moved, we'd try to kill it with Decimation to see how the damage looked.

Not

Neyla and I prepare to unleash our fury.

a bad day, really. I synthed a bunch of Bronze Ingots in Mhaura while I waited for the Yallery Brown fight to start and got my Smithing skill to 3. The next step will be converting them to Bronze Sheets and then starting on the next item. I'm also two Ancient Beastcoins closer to having my Brutal Earring.

Tomorrow Neyla and I are going to try that fomor NM in Caedarva Mire. I'm not expecting an easy fight, but pet swaps should be a lot easier with two of us.