Masochism, Thy Name is Dark Knight

I

I tried to keep Zazarg alive, but I failed.

did some time in Mount Zhayolm to get that last 2k I needed for a merit point, so of course there were two Besieged events today when I logged on. Nanunanoo was in Al Zahbi as a Lv. 61 Black Mage when I arrived to help fight off the trolls, and we eventually partied up. I focused on keeping Zazarg alive. He was okay until the mobs started ganging up on him in greater and greater numbers. I was spamming Zazarg with Cure V, but he died when I had to pause for a Mega elixir.

The Undead Swarm were already preparing, but we had about an hour to wait between invasions. The second Besieged began with two generals. I ran to babysit the mithra, but she died very fast because she never loaded in and I couldn't target her. Curse you, lag!

Nilhaar, Malystryxx and Neyla joined us for that second attack. I tracked down General Rughadjeen and was doing a pretty good job until I got charmed. The general cut me down. I got up, ran to the corridor to rest, and bumped into a horde of mobs. I died without reraise as the gates to the Hall of Binding were thrown open.

There were nearly 500 people in the zone, so it wasn't too bad. We managed to repel the invaders and save the Astral Candy.

I

This is torture.

had nothing else to do, so I hit on the idea of finally unlocking Dark Knight.

My Warrior was Lv. 10 the last time I tried it, and I couldn't even manage to kill one of the mandragoras in East Sarutabaruta because they'd heal themselves between swings. I joked in the linkshell that I'd need a movie to watch while I killed the requisite 100 mobs... like maybe the Godfather trilogy.

I chose the southern tower in East Sarutabaruta because there's nothing but bats and goblins in a ring-shaped hallway; Neyla said it was an ideal spot because the mobs would respawn by the time I'd circled around. I figured it had to be a lot easier as a 37 Warrior, and I was right. Double Attack is a godsend when you swing every five minutes or so. I wasn't doing much damage at first because my Great Sword skill was at rock bottom, but I was eventually chopping the bats in half.

I watched MST3K's Ring of Terror from start to finish while I was hacking my way through the mobs, so say 90 minutes from start to finish. I outposted to Derfland and rode to Beadeaux to get the final cutscene. It only took about three years.

Merit Point

My

Magmatic Erucas can kill anything.

meriting plan nearly fizzled out because I logged in at Mount Zhayolm and immediately returned to Windurst to feed my chocobo. RedGirl is lovesick for the fourth time, which has to be a record for one of my chocobos.

I didn't like the idea of crapping out on my meriting goal, so I trudged back out to Mount Zhayolm and traveled to camp. Galaika was online, so I rested at the stone monument long enough to trade him some pokemon he wanted. When that was done, I waded in.

Mount Zhayolm isn't the greatest meriting spot, but it's steady and I know where everything is. I had a nasty moment when I applying Sneak and realized I was dangerously close to an Earth Elemental, but it didn't sense me. I got my merit point and returned to Windurst to bump up Beast Affinity one more level. I need five merit points to finish it; at the rate I merit, I'll max it out sometime in December.

Loquacious Earring

I

Now I can retire my Geist Earring and upgrade something.

hate Apollyon SE because of the AoE attacks. The first floor with the Metalloid Amoebas was the worst because they decided to spam Fluid Spread this time; Kyrial and I got killed running forward to renew Barwatera on our respective parties. Wulfgar, who was a party all to himself this time, survived because he was there as a Galka Warrior. Figures. The floor with the Inhumer skeletons was better, but not by much.

On the positive side, I got my Loquacious Earring today, a nice companion to the Magnetic Earring I have in the other slot. Quieren gave me two coins before the run so I could buy it. I'm not too worried about the Fast Cast -- I imagine it's so slight I won't notice -- but like the idea of getting 30 MP without losing HP.

I'm 2k from being able to do another Beast Affinity upgrade, so I logged out on Mount Zyaholm. I'm going to do a little meriting tomorrow.

False Alarm

Oops. Was that last post an "I'm back!" kind of thing? Well, not so much.

The

I have to get to Al Zahbi before this guy does.

rabid time-sink that is Pokemon Pearl has been holding my attention and refusing to let go, so I've only been hitting Vana'diel in short bursts to feed my chocobo, do some races, and fish for an hour to restock my mules. There's been no real adventuring to speak of, other than my trips to Limbus with BigKahunas and a Besieged or two.

Speaking of, we had a good run on Sunday and Quieren donated his four Ancient Beastcoins to my Loquacious Earring fund. That left me two coins from having the earring, and I started checking bazaars in Battalia Downs. Then sanity came crashing back in and I decided to wait to get them during a run because the only time I'm ever on White Mage is -- you guessed it -- when I'm doing Limbus.

I got my Anniversary Ring today from the helpful event moogle. He also gave me a rundown of my stats:

Chat Frequency: 250,395
Conversations with NPCs: 57,852
Parties Joined: 1665
Alliances Joined: 236
Battles Fought: 51,538
Number of Times KO'd: 541
Enemies Defeated: 19,727
GM Calls Made: 2