Time for Battle

Neyla

Don't ask Titan about the loincloth.

and I hit Bastok to flag the Titan Prime quest. A DRK ran up and asked if we were going to fight him, but we were already starting to teleport out and didn't respond.

"No way I can keep hate off a DRK," Neyla pointed out.

He didn't have much more luck keeping hate off me when I used Hexa Strike, but we managed to bring the big guy down. Neyla was RDM/NIN, but I went /BLM and died near the end of the fight. Neyla was irritated that I didn't go /NIN, but I wasn't really worried. I only lose about 200xp with Reraise III, and I easily get that back just killing all the mobs Quieren aggros on the way to Limbus.

The next time we try the fight, I'll go /NIN. I have to get used to using it sooner or later.

I put my flag up on Monk after that and got an invitation. We were going to hit the undersea ruins staging point and zone out to a Caedarva Mire camp to fight imps, but it took nearly an hour to get started because two members of the party had to walk. Then one of them found out he didn't have enough coins to enter, so he had to run back to Whitegate and then managed to disconnect twice.

The XP was really good once we finally made it to camp. I set the modest goal of getting halfway to 67 so I could avoid being out there the entire evening, but of course it's hard to turn down that kind of party. The only hitch was the constant stream of Soul Flayers our puller had to zone, but they never attacked us.

I

Abrasive Tantra has to be the most annoying move in gaming history.

very quickly tired of Abrasive Tantra from the imps. I've had to deal with them on WHM by spamming Silena, but being a melee is so much worse. I couldn't use Berserk or Focus or any of my weaponskills while it was in effect. I didn't want to open the fight with Howling Fist, so of course I'd get hit with it. There's nothing like hitting a soft, squishy monster with 300tp built up.

Our healer had to take off and the party seemed set to disband, but our leader found a new one. Unfortunately, the WHM changed his job to BLM before he joined us. He wasn't hideous, but the bait-and-switch aspect was annoying. I'd long since announced the time I planned to leave, but I was close to getting my level and decided to stick around a little longer.

The leader got disconnected while I was about 200xp from dinging. He'd planned to leave and we figured he'd done it on purpose. I was too disgusted to wait more than ten minutes to see if he'd return, so I returned to town when we disbanded, changed to MNK/BST and got the last bit of XP I needed.

Rejoining the Flock

The Beastmaster linkshell Neyla and I used to be in, TheFlock, has been making a name for itself. They merged with a Summoner linkshell and have been killing Kirin and everything else under the sun. They took down Jorm the other day. I've been toying with the idea of rejoining them so I can get Sky gear.

Neyla

Bune doesn't last long under the Beastmaster assault.

was in Gustav Tunnel and spotted Bune walking around, so he informed the Flock and asked me if I wanted to head out. I'm not really familiar with the area, so I followed Manasha to charm one of the Decent pugils back near the bones. We killed Bune, Goblinsavior Heronox and Wyvernpoacher Drachlox. I also got a new pearl to the linkshell. I'll have to check into their schedule, but I'm going to focus on getting Monk to 70 before I do anything.

I started trekking around to turn in my avatar whispers from previous fights to get a gil reward. Neyla wants us to duo some avatars now that we have Utsusemi: Ni, so I'll make the rounds tomorrow for fresh tuning forks.

For more adventure, Neyla wanted to do Jahar's G2 limit break. I still had 30 minutes before I needed to be in Jeuno for Limbus, so I headed to Xarcabard. Nanunanoo tagged along on White Mage. The boreal animals for the quest didn't last long under the assault of two Beastmasters. I didn't even have my good melee gear with me and managed to do an 1800+ rampage on the hound.

I finished the day with a run through Apollyon SW and got five Ancient Beastcoins. I'm saving them to upgrade my Healer's Cap. I'm tired of the turban.

In other news, my Archer's Ring sold and I bought my Wulong Shoes. I'll need to buy a few more armor pieces before I start leveling again.

Fisticuffs on Mount Zhayolm

Short maintenance today, but it only took me a few minutes after I'd logged on to get a party invitation to Mount Zhayolm. This time everyone had the runic portal, so we were set.

We

I like them better as pets, but they're good for xp.

started out strong with a Paladin, Dark Knight, Blue Mage (Clocian, again), Thief, and myself on Monk as the damage. We had a lone White Mage as our healer; she managed to keep up, but she was in Cure-bot mode and barely used Regen III until I kept drumming it into her head that it would save her a lot of MP.

We killed Magmatic Erucas fast and I was drawing close to 66 when we had to make some replacements. The leader was bailing to do a CoP fight, but he snagged some fresh recruits. I decided to tough it out.

The Red Mage he brought in was a total waste of space who didn't Refresh and basically leeched xp... until he noticed the level gap and started bitching that he wasn't getting much from it. I wasn't sorry to see him take off. The Dark Knight who replaced him speeded things along.

I finally got to 66 and pulled off a 4k buffer before my brain turned to oatmeal and I needed to log out.

Ni Deep in Jelly

Crookedmidget

We're ready to rumble.

signed on to help me and Neyla with another round of Royal Jelly BCNMs. After last week's disappointing run, I was prepared to cave in and buy the Utsusemi: Ni scroll if it didn't pan out. I didn't really want to do it -- I had 600k and the scroll sells for 400k -- but weighing the gil opportunities of all those Beastmen Seals against throwing them away on a scroll I couldn't get, it made sense. I wanted to see how it would go.

Neyla came as RDM/WHM and let me and Crook handle the Beastmaster angle. I was surprised that we went the entire evening without a single "(Tarutaru) (Too Weak)" comment.

Neyla's orb was first, and we won it handily. Right there in the treasure pool was a Ni scroll, which had us cheering. The part we didn't notice was the Archer's Ring. We struck out on Crook's orb and then my own and had already returned from Jeuno with fresh orbs for a second round when Crook asked Neyla about the ring. I'd watched for an Archer's Ring to drop when we did the fights with Wulfgar, but was so overjoyed by the scroll that I must've mistaken it for a shoddy Marksman's Ring.

"You know how much that thing is worth?" I asked Neyla.

"Enlighten me."

"One million."

Needless to say, I was overjoyed. My cut from the sale of the ring would almost be enough to pay for the scroll if nothing else dropped.

And then we got another Archer's Ring from Crookedmidget's second orb. Heh.

We

No deaths and one hell of a payday.

once again struck out on my orb and decided to do one last round. We hit Jeuno for fresh orbs and trekked back to Palborough. Neyla traded his orb and buffed us up inside, but his computer crashed. He called me and told me to exit, but I declined and said we'd stick around and see if he could get back online in time. It was a close one; he reappeared in the Burning Circle and we destroyed the jellies with 42 seconds left on the clock.

I was hoping like hell I wouldn't strike out on my third orb. We didn't get another Ni scroll, but we got a third Archer's Ring. Nine run-throughs and we each pocketed a million gil for our troubles. We also got plenty of sell-to-NPC crap like Steel Sheets, staves, axes and Fire Spirit Pacts.

I used my ring to hit the Tavnazian Safehold to buy my scroll and put the ring on the Auction House. There are a few items I'll need for Monk when it sells.

In other news, Cmdrfly invited me and Neyla to join his Einherjar linkshell. They run too late on Wednesdays for us to participate, but Cmdrfly doesn't have a problem with us being Sunday-only players. I just have to get my Monk to 70 so I can lot on the Dryadic Abjurations for the Shura gear.