Flying Fists of Fury

Quieren

What should I merit next?

invited me to a cannon party in Bhaflau Thickets, but first he led me to the new staging point at Nyzul Isle. From there it was a short walk to the camp, where we killed an endless parade of Mamool Ja. It was freakish seeing Quieren as a Red Mage in full Artifact Armor, and I teased him that if he didn't keep me Refreshed at all times I'd be sure to tell Neyla what a horrible gimp he was.

It was a true cannon party without a tank, but all the monks were /NIN and didn't give me very many problems. I finished off a Merit Point and got to within 3k of a second before we had to disband so Dave and I could get ready for Dynamis-Windurst.

Moink, my White Mage partner-in-crime, didn't stay away. He returned to the game and to the tank party. He asked me about my impending retirement from the linkshell, and I explained I was only burned out on the late-night runs and not Dynamis itself.

We'd just entered the zone when Gladdy said "Hali, I love you."

Not knowing where it was going, I joked: "I love you, too. I just thought you said we weren't going to be open about it."

It turns out he was warming me up before he unveiled his new pull shout macro: "HAY Avatar Icon ONLY STEERS AND HALI COME FROM WINDURST!" It kept me amused all evening, which is probably a good thing because of course the Monster Helm didn't drop. We got Summoner, Paladin and a shitload of Dark Knight relic, but no Beastmaster. Bah.

While

Three crabs do wonders.

all that was going on, Neyla and Hadafal were helping Jahar get her White Mage AF. They were set to farm a Tavnazian Bell in the necropolis as our run was ending, so I switched over to BST and joined them for some Dark Stalker slaughter. Jahar had to go to bed, but her brother stayed on the character until we got it.

Neyla asked if I thought three BSTs could take down the NM in Fei'yin. I didn't think we could because Dimensional Death is deadly for the pets and we didn't have Kyrial stunning him repeatedly with Head Butt, but I was willing to try because safety was just a teleport away if things went sour. We decided to wait until Jahar could be there for real.

What the Puk?

I'm to the point where I'm saddling up and riding to Al Zahbi when I see a Besieged in the works.

The

Awwww... it's a cute little froggy...

Mamool Ja were preparing when I logged on, so I went out there and partied up with Quieren, Veresko and Neyla to wait for the invasion. I died almost as soon as it started. And then I died again. And again. And again. I'd get up, pop a new jug pet, and then get mown down by a passing puk or Mamool Ja AoE attack before my weakness wore off.

The only "loss" was the price of the jug pets, which was annoying. I eventually found a safe place to rest. Still, damn. Quieren was laughing his ass off and cheering the constant taru sacrifice.

Other than Besieged, I spent the rest of the day fishing. I'm starting to get back to it in a hardcore way; I need the gil for a few gear purchases I have coming up, and I'm balancing it with skillup fish because I'm tired of languising at 91.6 even though capping it to 100 won't increase my earning potential one iota.

I also did a little more digging in Valkurm Dunes. More bone chips and seashells, but this time I also got several Lizard Molts.

Gilsellers Anonymous?

If

I'm /anon for a reason.

you want to annoy the piss out of me, one good way is to request a raise while I'm fishing. I was parked at the pond in the Sea Serpent Grotto when some Paladin named Generated asked if I could raise his friend. He wasn't forthcoming with information like where I needed to go or who I was supposed to be raising, but I was almost out of inventory space and thought I'd play nice... an attitude that lasted about ten seconds because of that initial wall of silence.

As far as I'm concerned, most people behind the doors of the grotto are either A) camping a Joyeuse or B) gilseller fucktards. I committed a small faux pas by asking the linkshell if his friend Charisant was a gilseller in /say, but I was past caring.

I followed them through the door and got to their camp, but did I find one dead person? Hell, no. There were three dead. That really annoyed me. I was also annoyed to see a guy named Jinsheng there, because Jin-anything is a big red flag. I did the raises and told them not to die again or they'd be eating R1. They may have been legit, but they misled me... so screw 'em.

I finished up, muled my fish, and hit Qufim Island until time for Limbus.

It

Hooray! More crabs!

as an annoying run because we had too many people for a single run and had to split the teams, which generally means we get to lose twice because both sides are underpowered. I wouldn't mind so much if we just said "two farming runs" instead of pretending we're going to win. It didn't help that my group was doing Apollyon SE -- which I lovingly refer to as "AoE Hell" -- with only one tank and one healer.

We did okay until we reach the Corse boss, who of course opened with Sleepga II and killed Quieren before any of us woke up. His Charmga helped finish most of us off, and it was only by the skin of his teeth that Boondocksaint managed to kill it as the last person standing. There wasn't really a lot of time to recover from that; we got to the next floor and the final boss, but didn't have the firepower to kill him or the MP to keep people standing for the fight. We lost.

Everyone received three Ancient Beastcoins and I got another Fetid Lanolin for upgrading a piece of Beastmaster gear, so it wasn't a complete loss. Just annoying.

I Hate Crabs So Much

Slipping back into my Kung Fu Shoes during Sunday's ENM gave me the urge to start leveling Monk again. I put up my flag and figured I'd do some fishing in Port Jeuno while I waited. I didn't have time to start.

The

Now I know why melees hate crabs.

guy who asked me to come replace him in Kuftal Tunnel was an inexperienced player. He asked me to bring him a Scroll of Instant Warp, and I had to explain to him why that was impossible.

"How am I supposed to get out of here?" he asked me.

"You could always die and homepoint," I suggested. He didn't like that idea, so I told him I'd put some Silent Oils in my bazaar and he could buy them when I arrived at camp.

He of course didn't have the map and spent a few minutes wandering around before managing to find his way back to us. I guided him from there, asking him to relay his position every so often so I could point him in the right direction.

The party itself was pretty good. The leader was a Ninja, Beka, who posts regularly at QCDN and has four or five jobs at 75 and quite a few more in the 60s. She saw me seeking and nabbed me right away because she knew from the boards she wasn't getting a total noob. Hooray for reputation!

I learned right away why monks weep and wail when the topic of crabs comes up. We were parked at the Terrigan zone, and I quickly remembered why I grew to hate the armored bastards when I reached this level range on White Mage. There's nothing worse than popping off Raging Fists for 2 damage because the little prick managed to use Shell Guard. Bubble Shower's reduction on my already meager Strength was also a highlight. This was the first time I've really had to focus as a melee, keeping track of when the mob's defenses are down (our Red Mage was slow to Dispel and the White Mage focused Erase efforts on the tank) and picking the best moment to strike.

Like a horrible noob, I spent the first thirty minutes fighting in my fishing waders. I'd forgotten to update my gear macro to equip my Kung Fu Shoes. /sigh

I

Gimme my limit points, you undead bastard!

got to 54 and achieved a nice little 4k buffer before we disbanded. Beka extended an invitation to join them again on Thursday, and I'll probably take them up on it. Quieren may have to return my Scorpion Harness sooner than expected.

I finished out the evening by riding to Al Zahbi and fighting off an attack by the Undead Swarm. I went BST/WAR to try it out, but I think I'll just stick with /WHM. I'd rather be able to take care of my own status ailments, although I'm more than happy to let all the random mages Raise me when I fall. I'm about 5k away from another merit point.

Dig This

I've

GhostWing pecks the sands in Valkurm Dunes.

been contemplating the Chocobo Digging aspect awhile now and decided to give it a try today. I bought five stacks of gyshal greens and went to Valkurm Dunes, since the guides I looked at said it's a good place to skill up because the items suck.

I rode around on GhostWing and managed to find five four Bone Chips, four Seashells, and some Pugil Scales. It's actually kinda fun, but the process doesn't start paying for itself for a few levels and hundreds of stacks of greens. Veresko has high level digging skill, and he's gone through thousands.

After GhostWing's physical stats are maxed out, I'll start working on some of the mental things to help with digging.

Later...

I was tired as hell and decided to take a nap before Dynamis-Xarcabard and ended up not making the run. I finally bit the bullet and posted on the linkshell forum that I'll be leaving at the end of the month. I'm sure there will be more Dynamis in my future -- I enjoy it too much to quit entirely -- but it'll have to be with a linkshell that starts hours earlier.

Triple Takedown

Big

Proto-Omega dies squeaking for the oil can.

surprise today for BigKahunas, as we had a fight against Proto-Omega today and killed him fast. I was mentally preparing myself for the fight by trying to guess how much XP I'd lose -- I was putting my gil in the 3000xp range, figuring I'd manage to die and RR3 a few times before MP got so low I compromised at RR1 to keep the tanks alive.

Instead, we brought the sucker down in about seven minutes. I died once to an AoE attack and waited for him to use another TP move so I could pop up and scramble out of the way. It was right after my feet touched the ground that we got the "defeated" message. All I can say is "Wow."

We got Homam legs, head and body pieces off him and will be starting a new Omega farming run Wednesday. It takes four zones to pop Omega and seven for Ultima, so in terms of time I guess it's only fair to go 2-to-1 on fights, but I made it clear people need to stop bitching when it comes time for Nashira gear.

Cmdrfly

Cmdrfly and I kill time... and gigas.

came to the "Test Your Mite" run as White Mage this week, which meant I could go on Monk. At 52, most of the critters outside the tower still rate Easy Prey to me. I usually get to the glacier about thirty minutes before the fight to invite people as they arrive, and we spend that time slaughtering everything that moves depending on how bored we are.

The actual ENM went well. I dinged 53 on Monk, Neyla dinged 40 on Bard, and Cmdrfly hit 71 on White Mage. We got another damned belt, which never drops out of the treasure pool because we always leave before it can dirty one of us with its foul touch.

The Necropolis escort slowly has been turning into a post-ENM event, so today I made it official by telling Wulfgar and Apu to have it flagged and ready to go if they wanted to join me and Neyla on a regular basis instead of asking every time if they can tag along.

The

Tros has to die so Neyla can get a Paper Knife. Crazy bards...

only other thing I did was travel out to Ranguemont Pass with Neyla for his Bard job's Paper Knife artifact weapon. He didn't need any help from me, but I was bored. It's a kraken mob, and two funguars and rampaging Beastmasters reduced it into sushi in about twenty seconds. The knife looks like it has decent enough stats, although the Monster Signa is probably better.

In other news, I snagged a Chococard from Zoner. He has a black male bird, so I'll try for that color at some point. I still have the quested egg from Brutus to hatch after I finish with GhostWing, but I'll retire that thing in a second if it's not a color I want.