Bat Dance

I retired BlackComet today. He wasn't at First-Class Strength, but he was lovesick and I didn't feel like getting a Celerity Salad off my mule. I traded the egg with the red chocobo inside, so I can start that adventure when it hatches next week.

Neyla and I set the goal of reaching 25 on Ninja today. We started in Buburimu, traveling out to the far western areas to kill dhalmels and goblins. There were still plenty of Tough and Even Match monsters, but we were also getting Decents thrown into the mix.

The

There are still plenty of Tough goblins in Buburimu.

Goblin Bounty Hunters added during Wednesday's update make me feel a little sad. I love it that they patrol the cliffs at mazurka speeds to kill fishbots -- death to all fishbots! -- but they've also made it next to impossible to use the beaches for lowbie leveling. Buburimu was one of my favorite areas for that.

We eventually moved to Qufim Island and killed Seeker Bats in the tunnel leading from Jeuno. They were good xp, but I kinda hated being in such a public thoroughfare. We should've checked the passage to Behemoth's Dominion, but I didn't think about it at the time.

Jahar threw some Cures at us while seeking on Summoner. She has Bard in our level range, and she partied up with me after Neyla dinged. We killed every bat in sight while Neyla powerleveled us.

I'm finally caught up to Neyla at 25. I proposed just burning off a ring charge each day until we hit 37, although it'd probably be easy to do one level each day. I just know I don't want to do two levels again; it takes too long and I need time to make some gil. We'll figure it out next week.

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

The

GhostWing smokes the competition.

kiosks have been set up in Windurst and the other nations for weeks to tease us, and today's update finally opens chocobo racing to the masses. I registered GhostWing, since she has maxed-out physical stats. You have the option of checking the other birds in the paddock, and none of them were very strong.

Needless to say, GhostWing won twice.

I wasn't online very long, but I look forward to exploring the rest of the options later. There are items for slowing down the other birds, making your bird runs faster, etc. You can even buy dye to change the color of your chocobo, although it's temporary and will wash out.

Shadows

Neyla

It sucks when a worm is taller.

and I started our big push to level our Ninja subjobs as a duo today. We tried Buburimu first, running down to the beach and killing crabs. We were going to trade hate as our shadows fell, but I couldn't hold hate to save my life. I don't know if it was all the evasion gear cutting down my damage or if there's a -enmity effect from Jack-o-lanterns I don't know about, but they stayed focused on Neyla for most of it.

I didn't realize he was a level ahead of me, so the xp dried up bad enough that we decided to scope out Korroloka Tunnel. The bats and worms were better xp for us, and we kept going until Neyla dinged 23. He switched over to Red Mage and came back to powerlevel me a bit. I ripped through every worm I saw, and it didn't take long to ding and get a small buffer.

It would probably be faster do grab a healer and some generic damage dealers, but neither of us are interested in learning how to tank as Ninja. That may change when we get Ni, but I'm not counting on it. I'm content to do a level a day until we hit 37 and I can retire it.

Chemical Reactions

I didn't have much luck getting a party on Dragoon today. I kept my flag up while hanging around in Jeuno, and I eventually got bored enough that I jumped at the chance to ride out to Jugner Forest and catch a crystal bass for Crepitus.

There

The Walahra Turban looks good with Noble's and Blessed gear.

wasn't much on the agenda after that. I figured I'd hit Mount Zayholm awhile and burn off a ring charge, but I got distracted when I found out the appraiser had been rescued. I grabbed all those Imperial Bronze Coins off my mule and traded them to receive my Walahra Turban. It doesn't clash with my regular White Mage gear, but I think it makes me look like a clone of every other WHM walking around. I prefer the iconic red-and-white to the turban look, but performance trumps appearance; otherwise nobody would wear a Republic Subligar for as long as they do.

Instead of meriting, I traveled to San d'Oria to level Alchemy. With the impending Ninja leveling, I'll be making plenty of tools. Making my own Bast Parchment would be helpful, although it's has fallen so far in price that I probably don't need to bother. I skilled it up to Lv. 9 before I ran out of material.

I also got into a tense discussion with Quieren, who's starting his own Dynamis shell that'll meet once a week. It's a nice setup, but it conflicts with my weekly ENM static on Sundays. He was kinda miffed because he picked Sunday in hopes that Neyla and I would participate; I told him I sympathized, but if you're going to build a regular event around someone's schedule it would be helpful to find out their schedule in advance.

Scrambled

BigKahunas

This is going to leave a mark isn't it?

did the zone with the dhalmel floor and racked up a good amount of Ancient Beastcoins; everyone received four. I lit out for Al Zahbi as soon as it was over to try for the Walahra Turban again, but the stupid appraiser is still imprisoned. The Mamool Ja were gearing up to invade, so I stuck around and waited for them.

This was my first glimpse of the new rhino-looking monsters, and it didn't take long for the rider to start shooting me until I died. In fact, I spent most of the Besieged in a weakened state from constant deaths. We only had a little over 300 people in the zone, and I was mostly throwing out Raises while trying to stay out of the line of fire. We lost all but the mithra general; I tracked her down to keep her cured while she fought the Fleetfingered NM. The Besieged event ended when the NM died.

The entire evening lineup got switched around. Hadafal couldn't make "Test Your Mite" this week, so Nanunanoo filled in on his Puppetmaster. It wasn't quite at Lv. 40, but we told him to bring it anyway because the rest of us could kill Pasuk. He also joined us for the escort, although he switched over to White Mage for that. Apu couldn't make the escort, but Lepruvian tagged along on his Lv. 65 WAR.

Neyla

Their baby will look good with my Scorpion Harness.

dinged 59, so we're free to start our XP static as soon as we get our Ninja subjobs out of the way. After I'd eaten my XP scroll on Monk, I rode from San d'Oria to Jeuno to trade in those breeding cards for a red chocobo egg. I'll pick it up tomorrow.

It looks like our Proto-Ultima fight will be postponed another week due to maintenance. I'm used to these things happening on Tuesdays, but they've scheduled the introduction of chocobo racing for Wednesday when we'd normally be doing a run. I think I'd choose the Nashira Turban over the Walahra Turban if I ever manage to get the damned thing.