A King Dethroned

There are three constants in life: death, taxes, and my ability to mischarm mobs.

Well,

Neyla and I merit in Bibiki Bay.

there were three constants. I safely packed away my Mischarm King crown in the hopes that a worthy recipient can be found. It was such a simple change that I can't believe I didn't do it 74 levels ago: I added my Apollo's Staff to my charm macro. I know, I know... there are probably Beastmasters reading this and congratulating me the way you would a Special Olympian crossing the finish line.

I'd always carried the staff for potentially awkward charms, but I'd never used it all the time because I wanted to retain TP for Rampage. After Neyla recounted his experience with Crookedmidget, I decided to try it for myself. It made all the difference in the world. I only mischarmed twice with the staff equipped during our entire time meriting in Bibiki Bay.

I felt like the Star Wars stormtroopers who go up against the redshirts from Star Trek and finally find out what it's like to be able to land a shot.

"I... I never knew it could be this way."

Building TP on the dhalmels wasn't really a problem unless they used Berserk at the very beginning of the fight and didn't stave off death with a Healing Breeze. I made a copy of my charm macro and removed the Apollo's Staff line in case I wanted to keep the TP going, and that macro failed a few times.

We had a good session out there and got our Merit Points before heading out.

I

Gauldeval and Yawawa dinged 62 in Ifrit's Cauldron.

didn't have Dynamis to worry about, but I couldn't really think of anything to do. Neyla suggested leveling our NPCs in Ifrit's Cauldron on bombs up near the Hurricane Wyvern area. I readily agreeed. There was a NIN/BST soloing bombs along the way, possibly to get at the mining points, so we moved into the open area with the wyverns. We had to clear some of them out to get to our intended prey; a Wyvern Skull dropped on the second kill, which made us smile.

After the Ninja left the area, we moved back into the tunnels to kill bombs. Gauldeval and Yawawa hit 62 while we were out there.

The only other item on my agenda was to reset my Beastmaster AF quests. I need my Beast Gaiters and Beast Leggings if I want to put the full set into NPC storage. I had to pay 10k to start them over.

What

Neyla located the chest for me.

I hadn't counted on was the need to quest my Barbaroi Axe all over again. Getting a chest key in Delkfutt's Tower was a nightmare when Neyla and I originally did the quest, but it wasn't so bad this time. We didn't have our elevator keys on us, so it actually took more time to reach the upper floor with Mimas than it did to get the drop and find the chest. I returned to Brutus, but I couldn't receive the axe until I'd flown back to Windurst and thrown the old one away. That caused a slight pang because I'm sentimental about such things, but I did it and claimed my prize.

I'll do the quests one day next week when Neyla and I are bored.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

I've

It's always a thrill-a-minute experience to seek for a party.

been very lucky on Monk so far, because I usually don't have to seek very long before getting an invitation. Today was very different. I put up my flag while I was in Windurst and mostly farted around on Final Fantasy V Advance while waiting for a /tell to come my way. When nothing materialized, I rode the airship to Jeuno to fish Black Sole in the port to pass the time. I managed to get a .1 skillup (hooray!) and two stacks of sole, but no joy on the party front.

Wulfgar died in the Sea Serpent Grotto while soloing a Mindgazer, so I switched over to White Mage and patched him up. I flew back to Jeuno, went Monk again and put my flag up. After a fruitless hour of that, I took my flag down and tried to find something else to do.

I tried skilling up my Divine magic on the goldfish in Al'taieu and quickly discovered how boring as fuck that is when you have to wait 33 seconds between each Flash.

Then I switched over to Summoner, thinking I'd try to track down some worms my level and sic Carbuncle on them. Instead, I decided to try that stables deal where you return a chocobo to another city on the off chance that I'd get an xp scroll. All I got was a gysahl green and saddle sores.

A big part of the wandering was spent talking to Evildr about chocobos. He managed to track down a guy with a black female and scored some breeding cards. He gave me two of them. With the black male card I got from Zoner, I think I have a good shot. I plan to put to use them when my current wildcard bird is finished

Speaking

The newly-hatched chick follows me around East Sarutabaruta.

of the wildcard, he hatched this morning. I still haven't decided on a name and will probably wait until adolescence again.

I also got a /tell from Aerdrie, whose latest bird hit Day 19 today. My GhostWing was the mother, and we'd been hoping the blue coloration would pass along. No such luck. I passed along a few more cards to her, so maybe she'll get lucky this time.

While all this was going on, Neyla was in Bibiki Bay with Crookedmidget. Crook is the Beastmaster who first inspired Neyla to take up the job, and it amazes me that we had long ago shot past him on our climb to 75. He started out this evening about 12k from 75, and Neyla partied with him until he got it.

The only other thing I did was work on a new sig for the boards, this time focusing on chocobo breeding because I'm running out of fun things to say about fishing.

Should've Stayed in Bed

Quieren

The weapons in Qufim are not safe from my gimped Fenrir.

was off in the dunes today as Summoner, the job he's always sworn he'd trade two of his 75-level jobs to have. He's planning to static with Eormanric's Bard, which will probably come in very handy. Like Q, I'd like to have Summoner at 75 without having to level it. Specifically, I don't really want to learn another way to be a healer.

The most use I get from /SMN is for the extra MP, slightly more Auto-Refresh, and Aerial Armor. I'd usually go /SMN for Dynamis, but I always use it for Limbus because sometimes pulling with Carbuncle is just easier.

I ran through Qufim and met up with Neyla in Port Jeuno to deliver some chocobo breeding cards from Evildr. It was fun to have Fenrir running after me, but I forgot to dismiss him and was surprised when I teleported out with BigKahunas over an hour later and found him chasing me through LaTheine Plateau.

Today's run was a total clusterfuck, the kind where you want to grab people and hold their heads underwater until the bubbles stop. We were supposed to be fighting Omega today, but several key roles were missing and we switched over to a farming run in Temenos West. I don't object to farming -- Omega fights are wasted days for me -- but it took us forever to get out of Jeuno because people were still wandering into the linkshell after we were supposed to be long gone.

Then we finally get to the zone and one of our members says he has to go afk a bit. He zones in so he can get the key item, but he was gone so long we finally went without him because people had Sky activities right after. The guy finally came back, cursed us out and tossed his pearl.

We

Surf's up, Big Kahunas! Get ready to catch that Tidal Wave!

had good luck with the chests, though. We only popped one avatar the entire time, and of course it was Leviathan. His Tidal Wave move flattened the other two parties; my crew was the only one with a White Mage and those higher buffs and Bar- spells made a huge difference. I probably didn't fill people with joy when I said anyone with Raise should start using it because we didn't have the time or MP for me to hand out R2 and R3 to everyone, but that's why the Jeuno auction house sells Reraise Gorgets.

I had fun Carby-pulling the earth elemental floor... at least, at the start. We were halfway through the third fight when someone popped the chest. No more farming there. /sigh

Oh, and did I mention that Quieren accidentally slipped his macro bank and warped out in the middle of the run? That was priceless. We still won and didn't even have to fight Fenrir, but those petty annoyances added up to put me in a very lackluster mood for the rest of th day.

If there's a high point to be had, it's that I got a Smalt Leather from the Leviathan floor. I ran back to Windurst and gathered up my items as soon as the run was over. I was one coin shy, so I bought one from a Batallia Downs bazaar. I can return to Port Jeuno on Sunday and pick up my upgraded Beast Gaiters. Let the good times roll.

Parting Gift

Once I'd made the decision to retire from lolDynamis, I chose today as my last run because it would give me a Windurst and two Glacier runs to try for the relic I still wanted. I figured it would be pretty frickin' awesome to get a Cleric's Briault on my last run with the group.

Of

I'm going to miss this place.

course Dynamis is an A-grade bitch about such things, so I knew I likely wouldn't see the damned thing. I just focused on having fun. Moink wasn't there, so I grabbed Crystophr to be my partner in the tank party.

Celvantes, freshly returned from his hiatus, was struggling to get the attendance and tier information updated. At first he announced Seikatsu was ahead of me, but I corrected him. Even with Friday's absence, I was still close enough to be able to lot. Blackmagik thought I'd quit already. Celv didn't join us for the run, so it was Tormknight and Taurothar in the lead tanking roles.

So of course the Cleric's Briault dropped, and because Altana has a deep sense of humor I lost the lot on it to Seikatsu. No parting gift for me. A few people sent me consolation /tells, but I assured them I wasn't too bothered by it. It was a fair lot, and I can't really cry too hard about a piece of gear I'd only macro in for Regen. I know that sounds like the sour grapes approach, but it's true.

Still, I had a lot of fun. I got caught in a charmga incident during one fight and started chasing down Rubystar. At some point I mentioned to Gladdy that his pull macro didn't actually say what he was pulling, so he changed it awhile to say he was pulling my ween. That's the sort of thing I'll miss about lolDynamis.

I won't miss the bitching about Raises, though. There were only three White Mages, and I was being very militant on that whole "eat the Raise you get" angle tonight. I don't like giving plain vanilla Raise, but sometimes you have to suck it up in the interests of time. We had two nasty wipes and it took longer to recover because people were sqeamish. We ran out of time on the final boss fight, too. Ah well.

Now I have to decide what I'll do Friday evening. I predict meriting or leveling Monk.

Stupid Pigeon

I abandoned my plan to raise GhostWing's mental stats and teach her some abilities, electing instead to retire her and finally start hatching the egg I quested from Brutus many months ago when chocobo raising was first added to the game. I'm curious to see the odds of getting a bird other than blue or yellow now that I have two plaques on display in my moghouse; I have no qualms about retiring this one if it's a disappointing color.

I

The Blue VCS Plaque takes its place on my workbench.

may raise a mental bird later and teach it abilities to pass along to another generation, but there's not much point in worrying about it until chocobo racing is finally introduced. I'm content to let GhostWing be fast and stupid.

There was precious little online gaming this weekend, since I was at my parents' house and their computer likes to reboot at random when I'm playing. Obviously there was no Dynamis for me on Friday, which no doubt nudges Seikatsu ahead of me on the Cleric's Briault list for tomorrow night's run.

I escorted a Lv. 1 mule through Jugner this morning while I was heading there to turn in my Florid Stone. They're so cute when they lurk at the edge of the woods and hoping for someone to take pity on them, although you'd think they'd just bring along some oils and powders. The mule died once about midway through because she stupidly ran up to a goblin while I was fighting a tiger. The goblin killed her with a single crossbow bolt to the throat.

Tonight's ENM went well, although everyone ran up and started fighting Pasuk while I was back at the entrance and resting MP. Wulfgar got slowed and weighed down, and I told him he should've waited for me. It was a minor thing, since we killed it easily and I finished off a merit point.

We did the escort after that and I ate the scroll on Monk. I'm now 800 away from Lv. 55, so I'll probably party on it at some point. The linkshell static party idea fell through, so there's nothing to hold me back.