GhostWing

Today

GhostWing uncovers another Celerity Salad.

GhostWing reached adulthood, and she is indeed a very blue bird. I was online long enough to register her to my whistle and try her out during a round of Hot and Cold in the highlands.

She's not as fast as a rental, but it still beats walking. I thought about registering Paprika again until her speed increased a few notches and then dismissed the idea. As slow as she is right now, there's a whole "Look at me! I've got a colored chocobo and you don't!" angle that's hard to resist.

Yeah, I'm shallow like that.

Decisions, Decisions

Jefa

Drop a briault, damn it!

got a Cleric's Briault during last Friday's visit to Dynamis-Beaucedine, moving me to the top of the White Mage tier. I'm only a few attendance points ahead of Seikatsu, so missing a single run would have us lotting against each other. Two runs missed and he moves ahead of me.

Despite being in a such a great position to get it, I told Neyla and Quieren I was ready to leave lolDynamis at the end of the month. My Tuesdays at work are hellish because I'm up late on Monday night... and the rest of the week doesn't get much easier because I'm tired. As much as I enjoy Dynamis and a lot of the people in that shell, it's just not worth it.

Actually getting to the top of the tier makes it a bit harder, although I should keep in mind Neyla was next in line for the Red Mage pimp hat and it still hasn't dropped yet.

The Cleric's Briault, as nice as it is, doesn't have the same hold as the Monster Helm. I'd really like to go 5/5 on Beastmaster relic. I could have 100-point lead over all other White Mages and I'd still retire from Dynamis if I got that helm. Maybe I should just leave the tank party; then I could skip all that post-win farming and still retain lotting rights for when Windurst rolls around.

Tonight's run went really well. We were short on time near the end, so Gladdy didn't get to pull the dragons as far away as he normally does. This was my first time running with Celvantes while he kites the boss, but Xynin relayed Moink's advice about how to handle it. We slaughtered the eye and I immediately dropped my glass before the dragons could get back.

Aerdrie, the Summoner in the tank party, has been on a push to get Diabolos because she feels gimped without him. I offered to come along for a shot after Dynamis. I'd hoped for a quick start, but we had to wait for the RDM/DRK to finish an assault and I was starting to doze off by the time we actually reached the Shrouded Maw. I took along a stack of Poison Potions and distributed them.

We lost, but Celvantes was certain a few tweaks to the strategy were needed. I made it clear I was only going to be awake for one more attempt. Diabolos won that round in about sixty seconds.

"Let's try again," Celvantes said, but I was done. I raised everyone, buffed them, and said good night. Gladdy was on his way out to replace me. Hopefully they got it.

Cookie Monster

Quieren dragged me out to the Mamool Ja Staging Point for a merit party. We had a Red Mage, but he had to go AFK a few minutes and then kept getting disconnected. Q's pretty sure the guy was faking it.

He

I'm glad I brought extra cookies.

tried to find a refresher for me, but there weren't any seeking and I was the only mage. He got another melee. I think I managed to keep up very well. The Noble's Tunic, Sanction Refresh and Summoner subjob, coupled with massive consumption of cookies, let them keep killing with no downtime. I only ran out of MP once, which of course resulted in Quieren's death. I rested a few ticks and had them start pulling puks, which the Warrior could tank with no problems.

We were out there a little over an hour and my buffer went from 1.1k to 20k. I really need to spend more time out there and start some hardcore meriting. I earned my second merit point over the weekend and used to to raise my Critical Hit Rate by 1%, which should serve me well on Monk when I start leveling it again. It's a stat I'd like to max out.

I asked Neyla if he wanted to come to Boyahda Tree with me to work off the rest of my Morgenstern points. Kyrial was passing through Windurst and reminded me that I'd offered to help out with the White Mage AF fight in Fei'yin, since she'd upgraded some armor and needed to quest the old stuff again so she could keep it in NPC storage.

I

Dimensional Death is nasty as hell.

wanted to go and see how Carrie would do against him, considering I'll probably upgrade that piece and need to do the fight again myself at some point. Neyla and I ran out there. The bastard opened with Sleepga II and had almost killed my crab before we woke up. It wasn't a bad fight, but his Dimensional Death attack was harsh and he liked to spam it. Neyla died just before we brought him down.

I was going to run back to Windurst and change to White Mage to give Neyla a Raise III. I didn't want to leave Kyrial stranded, so I offered to tele her out as well. We'd just appeared in Tahrongi Canyon when Neyla said "Ummmm...." We'd forgotten to wait until the mask dropped. Ooops.

Kyrial's going to farm another pop item, and I offered to help out with the fight if I was available. I'm thinking a Poison Potion might be handy when that day rolls around.

With that diversion out of the way, we went to Boyahda Tree to finish off my points.

Neyla

Steelshells make wonderful toys.

charmed Skimmers and let them tank the Steelshells. We did Decimation and Black Halo for a Light Skillchain, and it didn't take long to finish off the last 200 points I needed. I even managed to raise my Club skill from 239 to 244 while we were there.

In other news, GhostWing's physical stats have already raised to A Bit Deficient. My misunderstanding of Basic Care cost me a solid 20 days of real development, but she's certainly making fast progress and putting PapaPaprika to shame. I also gave Neyla a stack of Vomp Carrots for Charisma Baron; he can grow his own if he decides to raise another bird, but I'm helping this one along as best I can.

Hello There, 74

Quieren

I'm waiting for the Grah to give Quieren a Sickle Slash to the face.

finally quested the map of Altiaeu, and today we were set to go inside the palace and get that map by tracking down the NPCs. Thelema (Black Mage) and Janelly (Red Mage) joined us, with Thelema acting as our guide.

Q wanted me to come White Mage, but my xp buffer was nearly gone -- I deleveled Monday during the wipe at the stables in Dynamis-San d'Oria -- and I went as Beastmaster instead. I brought a good supply of funguars since I refused to pay 30k for a stack of Fish Oil Broth in Jeuno.

It felt very liberating to be there and not constantly monitoring his HP bar. I toyed with going /WAR for it, but I'm glad I went /WHM because I was removing most of Quieren's status ailments. The two mages were kinda slow on the draw.

We had to kill most of the spinning pots we encountered because we never got the knack of avoiding the side with the eye. The grahs were easier, but we still managed to get aggro from some of them. Quieren died from a Sickle Slash attack by one of the spider-type grahs, and I got attacked and died at one point because Q wasn't paying attention to voke it off me.

Q even managed to throw his Bomb Core. He reported it to a GM and they're going to return it.

We

Quieren kites King Behemoth around the arena.

ran out of time and had to leave for Limbus, but we're going to hook up again soon and finish it off.

The Limbus run went well, but I died and deleveled three times during the Fafnir fight. I'd hoped to avoid it altogether, but I was outvoted on that one. By the time we got the win, my xp buffer was down to 1.1k. Ouch.

"Wanna merit tomorrow?" Quieren asked me.

"Hell yeah."

Three Kings

Neyla and I climbed up Ifrit's Cauldron to fight the Hurricane Wyverns. I haven't been there in over a year, and at the time we took several people and ended up making an alliance to bring down the NM for a Dragoon who needed the polearm.

I

Ash Lizards do fun damage against Hurricane Wyverns.

love that the two of us can waltz in and kill those things now. The Ash Lizards, mostly rated Tough with a few Even Matches mixed in, are great pets. Their Baleful Glare move is devastating to the wyverns and petrifies them for a nice chunk of time. I didn't even have problems with mischarms for the most part.

Two other people were already up there when we arrived, and we finally gave up competing with them for pulls. Instead, we called our NPCs and killed all the bombs in the area. Gauldeval got very close to dinging 61 by the time the other people left.

The only rough moment came when Neyla got magic aggro from a bomb while trying to cast Paralyna -- Dread Shriek sucks ass -- and we ended up dying. Thanks to the constant Dispelling Wind attacks, neither of us had Reraise and we had to homepoint back to Port Windurst.

"It's almost like real BSTing again," Neyla laughed at one point.

"We're surrounded by death on all sides," I told him. "Trust me, it's real."

But he was right. It's been far too long since I did anything approaching heavy lifting as Beastmaster. This was the first time since we capped our XP in Boyahda Tree that I've carried all my gear at the same time. It was glorious to slip back into the role for real.

I got my skull, which Neyla told me to lot because he anticipated a lot of farming with Hadafal. We eventually got a second skull and decided to finish burning off our Empress band charges before leaving. Neyla gave me money to buy a Mithran Fishing Rod from the guild so I could break it on the ferry.

Hadafal

Hadafal, Neyla and I are royalty now! Opo-opi!

was logging on, so he sent me his rod and I took them to the ferry. I only managed to break one because pirates attacked and I kept landing Sea Zombies, so I gave up and the three of us returned to the volcano. Hada's skull dropped off the first wyvern.

"You see?" I joked. "I told you bitches you needed a taru for good luck."

I hit the ferry again, broke Neyla's rod, and joined them in Kazham for all the item trading. The three of us received our Opo-Opo Crowns (which look terribly small on mithra) and celebrated our new titles "King of the Opo-opos."

Although I guess really that means Neyla is their queen.

Worth Their Salt

Happy

Bugards in the highlands... something you don't see every day.

New Year, etc. I popped on this morning to handle my chocobo duties and play the Hot and Cold game out in the Highlands. I was amused to see a herd of bugards roaming the area as part of the holiday celebration. Trading items to them earns random buffs or a gift to exchange with a child in Port Windurst. Veresko, Otak and Zoner teleported out to chase them with me.

I can't help thinking what a shock they must be to people who've never completed the Promyvion zones and seen them over in Tavnazia.

Neyla ended up farming wyverns with Hadafal last night after I logged out, but they didn't get any skulls. He said they didn't have any problems killing the wyverns. I felt a little cheated at not getting to share in that particular adventure, but I'll be dragging him back there soon enough.

I ventured out to the Boyahda Tree to try for a Lucky Egg. I made a circuit of their pop areas, pulling with one mandy and releasing it to prevent links as needed, then charming another for the actual fight. I'd been in there well over an hour before Neyla logged on and joined me. I won the lot on the first egg and Neyla's dropped shortly after.

I had a coffer key and was going to try for some easy gil, but a Japanese player questing his Artifact Armor asked if I'd seen the coffer around. It was Auto-Translate hell, but we found it and guided him to it.

Hadafal

The paladins are great for points.

logged on, so the three of us traveled to the Quicksand Caves to kill worms for Ancient Salt. There are only four or five such worms and it takes fifteen minutes for them to respawn. I switched over to White Mage so I could work off points toward unlocking my Morgenstern and so I could stay right up until time for Dynamis.

Another crew turned up and camped against us, but we got claim most of the time. I was relieved when they finally left. Hada and Neyla let me lot the first salt since I had to leave. It was over an hour later before the second dropped. When a worm finally coughed up the third, they hit Ifrit's Cauldron for more wyvern farming.

Dynamis-San d'Oria went well, although the wipe at the stables was particularly nasty because it seemed every White Mage tried to be a hero and raised up only to be cut down before they could cast Reraise again. Seikatsu was the only mage who could get up, which saved the run. I actually deleveled, which horrified me because I didn't realize my xp buffer was so small.

I pulled Chrystophr into the tank party with me. With Moink out of the game, I want him in the other slot on a permanent basis. He was happy to be there, and I told him flat-out that I'd always invite him and to decline any invitations from other parties if I didn't get to him first.

Crowning Achievements

Limbus was an easy win in Apollyon SE, although we were late getting in because a Ninja was soloing the zone. I took a break to play Twilight Princess (I beat the cloud city dungeon) and planned to resume after the "Test Your Mite" run, but Neyla asked if I wanted to do the Necropolis escort. Wulgar tagged along and we hacked our way through the undead and claimed our scrolls.

"I

Pahh the Gullcaller protests fishing.

think I'll start farming Opo-opo Crown items," Neyla said. Instead of logging out, I joined him in the Sea Serpent Grotto. We went to my favorite fishing spot. Neyla charmed the hecteyes on the walkway above and I took the crab. We only needed to kill Brook Sahagins to get a Blackened Toad, but we slaughered any sahagin that moved since they link. It dropped, and on a whim I decided to start farming stuff for a crown of my own.

An NM named Pahh the Gullcaller appeared near the water and killed a fisherman and started attacking another. We dispatched it and I raised the dead guy (the other had warped out). I felt a little guilty, but now I know how I could fuck with fishbots in the future. See, kids? Education is fun!

We traveled all over Vana'diel to collect items. Every stop we made, I let Neyla lot first because he'll get the most use out of it when his Bard gets that high. Admittedly, I could use the Charisma boost from it because I'm the freakin' King of Mischarms.

Tonberry Stalkers in the Temple of Uggalepih provided the fish bones we needed. I hate tonberries because they're fond of playing Ninja and being all annoying with Throat Stab, but we managed just fine.

The

Utukku are stubborn bastards.

Utukku in Fei'yin were the worst, since they're so spread out. They love their ancient magic, but I don't think they ever managed to complete the cast. It took a long time to get the Wandering Bulbs to drop.

"The sad thing," I pointed out to Neyla, "is that I've sold or thrown away almost every item on this list at one point or another."

The Sands of Silence were the big shocker. Those things sold for a decent sum ages ago when I was still a lowly White Mage. Now you can buy them for 5k in Jeuno. I couldn't believe it. We also bought two Ten of Coins cards, which go about 80k now. I've camped that cardian before, and it's annoying enough that I didn't mind spending the gil. Neyla hit San d'Oria to buy Workbenches; I had one in my moghouse already, but I use it for my Vomp Carrot garden and VCS plaques.

"A busy night," I said.

"Yeah," Neyla agreed, "but we're getting shit done."

We tried to farm Lucky Eggs from the Knight Crawlers in Boyahda Tree, but luck was decidedly against us on that one. I can't wait to start farming wyverns in Ifrit's Cauldron. It's been a very very long time since I was up there.