Zaggerty

Neyla's vacation from the game continued today, so I decided to spend my time fishing. I was in the Sea Serpent Grotto, mourning the prices of Grimmonites, when I got a /tell from a player named Zaggerty.

He's

Which one is the evil twin?

been playing the game about a week and stumbled across the blog at some point. We chatted awhile, and he seems okay. I'd filled all my inventory slots and warped back to Windurst to unload some, and decided to wander out to East Sarutabaruta to check on Zaggerty's progress as he worked to get Black Mage to Lv. 3.

I bumped into him at the gate and was amused to see we were using the same character model.

"Which one of us is the evil twin?" he asked.

"I'm as pure as the driven slush," I laughed. "I'm putting my money on you."

I logged out awhile after that and came back for Dynamis-Beaucedine.

It was a smooth run, and I didn't have a single death the entire night. Ajs announced before the run that he was starting his own HNM linkshell and wanted to recruit players from lolDynamis because, as he put it, we rock. I have no interest in joining, but I'm sure he'll find plenty of willing members.

The

The Cleric's Briault is never going to drop...

Red Mage body piece dropped and Jescer got it, bumping Neyla to the #2 spot in line for it. We also got a Ninja and Thief piece. We had a moment of doubt near the end when Ajs wanted to farm a few minutes before the final boss fight. Everyone had memories of the last time we did that and lost, so it wasn't a popular decision, but we managed to pull it off... although a bad pull or a Ninja-induced wipe could've ended the run for us.

Before I logged out, I hit the Tavnazian Safehold to check the Auction House. The Sniper Rings are cheap, but the Woodsman Rings are even cheaper. I bought one of those. I'll get a Sniper Ring later, but I'm comfortable with the idea of using a Woodsman and Venerer on Monk for now.

Reckless Abandon

I went seeking on Monk again, fishing for sole in Port Jeuno and thinking about abandoning the effort and just fishing for the rest of the day. Sniper Rings have dropped in price along with everything else, and I'm right on the edge of buying one.

The

I make with the punchy-punchy in the nest.

airship back to Windurst had just taken off when I got an invitation to the Crawler's Nest, so I took the Derfland outpost and rode Paprika to join them. They were camped in the secret room, killing Soldier Crawlers and flies. Two WAR/NINs were sharing tanking duties. The White Mage tried to keep up with all the Cursed Sphere spam. There was also a RDM/BRD, which worked better than I would've thought.

The sixth member of the party was also a Monk. Now, I'm not one to go around checking people's gear unless they're wearing some fantastical thing I don't recognize. You could be using Lv. 1 gear and I probably wouldn't notice. I checked the Monk because every time I party with another Monk I'm paranoid about being Gimpy McGimperson. Wow. There was no comparison here; I was pimped out. The poor thing was still wearing her Chocobo Whistle. Ha! My damage outpost was much higher. Color me relieved.

I wasn't having problems landing my punches, and we made some pretty good xp. Unfortunately, our White Mage took off with no advance notice. Just "Gotta go. Goodbye," disbanded and teleported out. Grrrr. There were no healers seeking, but I didn't mind hanging around and waiting for one.

Nilhaar, a DRK member of my linkshell, asked if there were any good places he and Sihaya (WHM) could do a few scythe skillups so he could get the last two skill levels he needed to learn Guillotine. My party's leader had found a Summoner to main heal; we hadn't started killing anything yet, so I asked him to grab a replacement for me as well so I could help Nilhaar.

I

Steelshells make for faster skillups.

switched over to Beastmaster and took them to Boyahda Tree for skillups. We tried Robber Crabs, but Nilhaar's scythe skill was two high to benefit. The two of them had to leave a little while to eat dinner, but I kept skilling up. An Old Goobue popped on top of them -- in all my time at that second crab pond, I've never seen a goobue there -- and I had to kill it before it could aggro.

After they returned from dinner, I took them upstairs and started pulling Steelshells. He started getting skillups at that point and finally learned the skill he wanted. I'd managed to add six or seven levels to my scythe as well. A coffer key had dropped in Nilhaar's inventory earlier, so I took him on a quick circuit of the spawn areas to get a map for him. We didn't find it.

Bitter Failure

Claxton

Claxton puts me in a compromising position.

asked a few days ago if I would join him and a few other Flock members in camping an NM wyvern in Cape Riverne. Aiatar drops some JSE which fetches a hefty price on the Auction House, and they offered me a cut of the profits if I'd come along as White Mage. I pulled together some 40-cap mage gear and headed out to meet them.

Honcho and Claxton were the only ones there when I arrived, so we killed some flytraps while we waited for the others to filter in. Claxton took advantage of my resting to walk over in his subligar and kneel, but the joke was on him because I never complain about being so close to half-naked elvaan guys. That's another notch for my bedpost.

After the others arrived, we set off across the zone. We had two Ninjas, a Warrior, two White Mages and three Summoners. We killed a few hippogryphs along the way and passed through several spatial distortions. I died at one point to Thunder Elemental aggro while casting Reraise, but other than that it was an easy trip to camp. I remembered it from the last time I'd hunted Aiatar with Veresko and some of the others from WickedWayz and cautioned them about the wyverns popping on top of us.

The

Lots of Firedrakes, no Aitar.

fights weren't too bad, although Honcho died a lot from Radiant Breath and Fang Rush attacks. Ishaela and I kept up with the healing duties. In my rush to gear up, I'd neglected to buy Yagudo Drink supplies and somehow managed to run off without my Ginger Cookies. Ugh.

I used my Empress Band and couldn't complain about the Limit Points I was getting. We were chaining wyverns for 200-250xp per kill. I'm now 4k away from my first Merit Point.

Aiatar never turned up, and it was getting close to Limbus time. Ishaela had already taken off, so we decided to go after Carmine Dobsonflies so I could get a Voyager Sallet. Unfortunately, they were nowhere to be seen. I had to teleport out at that point.

Limbus was an absolute joke. We killed a UFO along the way but Apu lost the organ because he zoned before it had dropped into his inventory, and to rub salt in the wounds he couldn't get into the arena.

The

Clank-clank-clank went the baddie...

actual Proto-Omega fight was so much worse. For some reason Dantin was NIN/DRK, which meant he was trying to build hate with Stuns. Everyone was expected to hold back while he built hate, which is hard to justify when you only have thirty minutes to kill a big monster that hits like a truck. Celvantes and Wulfgar could pull hate off him with Flash and ended up kiting, which meant the mages were blowing their MP trying to keep them alive. It didn't help that the Paladins were kiting so far out of range that nobody could cure them. It was a complete and utter clusterfuck.

Veresko tried to give a little pep talk after the wipe, saying it wasn't anyone's fault and that we lost as a team. I disputed that right away. I'm not sharing any responsibility for that one. Letting the main tank bring a useless subjob to the fight is what lost it for us.

Punch Drunk

I was still tired from last night's Dynamis and not in the mood to anything heavy, so I decided it was time for a change of pace. I took care of my woodworking guild obligations and then dusted off my Monk gear. I flew to Jeuno and fished for sole with my flag up.

Nolie,

I predict a Sickle Slash to the face.

a member of the linkshell who's also a 75 Monk and has given me advice on the job in the past, popped in for a few minutes. He saw me seeking and joked that all my levels of fishing have trained me in the ways of patience, a skill I'll need when it comes to getting parties. I'd almost finished a second stack of sole when the invitation came. The .2 fishing skillup I got while I was there made the waiting worth it.

I was replacing a Thief in the party. They'd been killing goblins near the outpost in the Altepa desert but were moving to the cloister entrance of the Quicksand Caves. Healing duties were being split between a Summoner and Red Mage, and it wasn't too bad. Two of the party members, Godofdeath and Briddy, are in lolDynamis, so I wasn't among strangers.

All those levels of Beastmaster have really screwed up my perceptions of what constitutes "good" xp amounts, but I could tell we were overhunting. It took awhile to kill the spiders and beetles, and my punches missed more often than I liked. I definitely need those Sniper Rings before I try another outing on Monk. I had a lot of fun tanking the mobs when the Ninja would get interrupted.

The Summoner announced he had to leave soon, but agreed to stay since I was close to getting my level. One or two fights after I dinged 43, the Summoner took off. Our Red Mage had a White Mage character on another account, so he trotted her out to control both at the same time.

We

He is dead! How unfortunate!

pulled a beetle and had been whacking away at it a few seconds when we realized the Ninja was not there. I tanked so everyone could zone, and of course I ended up dead with my subliglar-clad ass exposed to the world. I couldn't complain too much because the beetle returned to camp and killed the Ninja. I guess the guy fell asleep, because he didn't come back. There were no other tanks seeking, so we slapped a Raise on him and disbanded.

I finished out the evening by setting up some Ceramic Flowerpots in my moghouse. I'd tried growing chocobo supplies on one of my mules, but I constantly forgot to check on them and the plants would wither and die. At least now I should be able to grow some stuff and have it ready for the next bird I raise. Paprika is nearing retirement.

Where's the Beastmaster Love?

My NPC, Gauldeval, hit 60 in Boyahda Tree today. I'd toyed with leveling a different job, but in the end I decided to go with Beastmaster because I'm so close to having my xp capped. Neyla and I burned off an Empress Band charge against the Elder Goobues and then called our NPCs to level them a bit. My guy finally dinged midway through his time.

I

Is this the line for the free cheese?

went fishing in the grotto after that to kill time until Dynamis-Windurst. This was our third Windurst in a month, and still no Monster Helm in sight. Neyla's starting to think it's a myth, and I keep swearing up and down that I've seen it drop... once... a long time ago... when Asmodius was still in the linkshell.

It was actually a solid run. We killed stuff quickly and got the win with plenty of time to farm. We didn't wipe, although we got close in the last minute or so. Plenty of relic armor dropped. We got three Cleric's Duckbills, two Valor Leggings, and I think also a Ninja piece. The big joke was the Warrior Mask, because we got five of those.

Neyla theorizes the GMs read our lot comments before we go in. Everyone in the linkshell jokes about how Beastmaster relic falls like rain, but we haven't seen that much of it. I can only assume it's because someone actually wants it.

Partners in Crime

It was a busy weekend.

Friday, I skilled up scythe in Boyahda Tree until Neyla logged on. The two of us went upstairs and worked off a ring charge against goobues. Another group came along and started pulling our mobs from the other direction, which was pretty annoying.

When

Death looks like a black wave of demons.

we'd finished, we switched over to our mage jobs and hit Beadeaux for my NPC's final Limit Break. There's a Ruby Quadav along the way, which Neyla was going to kill for me. It wasn't necessary, since someone was there and had already dispatched it. I ran in, clicked the ??? I needed for the cutscene, and warped out for Jeuno to complete the quest.

Dynamis-Xarcabard was a mixed bag. The first pull, the one that's normally such a nightmare for us, went really well. Gladdy was running late and Demonknightx had to fill in as puller, and the second time he brought back a ton of mobs. It was terrible. Ajs managed to aggro another batch a little later. It took us so long to recover from both mishaps that I wasn't sure we'd be able to take out all the demon NMs, but we eventually got our shit together.

The most amazing part was how we handled the wall of eyes. We slammed them hard and did a remarkable job against all the demon spawns. It eventually got away from us and we wiped, but we didn't have nearly as many things running around as usual.

Not a single piece of relic armor dropped the entire run. All the deaths whittled away my tiny buffer, and I was deleveling with every death. Praise Altana for Reraise III.

Saturday morning saw me committing Beastmaster adultery by partying with Quieren a bit. He needed 2,000 more limit points for another axe merit and asked me to kill dhalmels in Bibiki Bay with him. Out of morbid curiosity to see how he handled himself -- Q and Hadafal died a lot in their duo -- I agreed.

"Please be gentle," I joked. "I've never been with another BST before."

He

Quieren and I fight dhalmels in Bibiki Bay.

took me to a great camp with three or four bunnies hopping around, and those things absolutely shred dhalmels. I wasn't always able to get 100tp against some of the Very Tough ones.

I returned to the tree after that, but I didn't stay long because Quieren was organizing a linkshell merit party at the Mamool Ja Staging Point. I didn't have long before I needed to log out to see a movie with Neyla, but I joined them.

They had to get Razzo to the staging point, and along the way they encountered one of the new Poroggo monsters. Quieren thought it was a just a cute little frog, but it whipped his ass and killed the others pretty quick. I managed to fall down a ledge next to an NM and some archaic mirrors, but got back up without dying.

I was only able to party an hour, but it was enough to rebuild my White Mage xp buffer to a comfortable level. I won't be deleveling again anytime soon.

And then there's today.

I did some quality scythe time in Boyahda Tree until a skillup party camped on top of me and started pulling mobs. They'd been at the other pond until they'd popped Aquarius and got attacked. I'd passed one of them running for the zone on my way in, the big crab nipping at her heels. I completely ignored them.

My scythe skill was at 165 by the time I left for Limbus. We did Apollyon SE to obtain the final chip for a Proto-Omega set. Bajaratt and Ikari were locked out because they'd done a Limbus run on Thursday, which meant I was the only White Mage for the alliance in a zone I think of as AoE hell.

Asmodius (in this case, his girlfriend Ast playing Asmodius) quit the linkshell in a huff because Galiant joined. There's some old Dynamis drama there, with Asmo branding Galiant as a thief and a liar over some Black Mage relic from the northlands. As much as I like Asmod and feel a bond with him -- we walked through the fires of Chains of Promathia together -- I was there when that all went down and his accusations are groundless and I have no sympathy. I'll miss him, but it's his loss.

On the positive side, I got a Fetid Lanolin, one of the two items I need to upgrade my Beast Trousers. Sweet.

Today's

I'm not sniffing his butt, I swear.

big news is that, after many months of being away, Feriz returned to the game. I met him in Bastok so we could do the Dark Lilies holiday event together. It's fun. You agree to work for a visiting exorcist and have to disguise yourself and spy on a wandering ghost to learn why they're in the area without being seen. You have to stay behind him and move quickly when they stop and start to rotate on the spot. I blew it, but Feriz got his Witch Hat.

We flew to Jeuno so he could quest a Chocobo Egg from Brutus, and I teleported him out to LaTheine to find the chocobo tracks. I had to warp out after that for the "Test Your Mite" run.

Neyla was down with a migraine, so I asked if anyone in the linkshell wanted to join us. Apu came along as Warrior. We got off to a late start because the Daylight Savings Time change confused some people. Hadafal also managed to aggro one of the hecteyes on the way in, resulting in death for him and Cmdrfly while the rest of us were already at the red warp zone. Other than that, it was a smooth run.

I

The lanterns are a nice addition to my moghouse.

returned to Windurst to do the Dark Lilies event there while chatting with Feriz. I had an easier time of it and got my Witch Hat, but I had to wait for the next Vana'diel day before I could stalk the second ghost to obtain a Coven Hat. I parked next to the exorcist and waited.

The second ghost is a taru, and he moved fast. Because he's so small, it's a little harder to tell when he's spinning around. I managed it, though. I snagged my Coven Hat from the exorcist. I was happy to learn the event moogles will sell lanterns for your moghouse if you're wearing it, so I bought a Bomb Lantern, Pumpkin Lantern and Mandragora Lantern. I'll probably put the pumpkin and mandy ones into NPC storage, but that Bomb Lantern is way too cool to hide.