Leader (No Thanks)

After

I'm not the only Monk meriting in a Scorpion Harness.

the strong run of meriting I've had since getting Monk to 75, I guess I was due for an unpleasant party experience.

I was summoned out to the Mamool Ja Staging Point to fill a replacement slot. I think the entire party was made of replacement slots. It was one of those revolving-door situations where it seems like someone is taking off every thirty minutes. It didn't help that the guy in charge when I arrived was also heading out soon. The yellow dot ended up on me for some reason.

I hate being the leader, but I don't mind it if I'm starting the group from scratch. I really hate inheriting a party from someone else. Tack on more annoyance when everyone replaces themselves without asking me if I want them too. Ugh. It completely blows.

We did okay, though. We only had a White Mage as our healer, but it didn't slow us down (suck it, Red Mages) and we chugged along steadily for an hour or so. I managed to get a Skoffin pic for Pankration.

I

This sucks ass. Hard.

was 700 away from having my fifth hand-to-hand merit when we disbanded, so I decided to try getting it in Sky. I wanted to try it as BST/NIN, using a Rune Axe and Gaudy Harness combo for the Regen. I quickly remembered I don't like fighting pots and can't understand why Beastmasters go up there.

I went back to my old way of doing it: sending in the birds and letting them kill the things while I sat back with my thoughts. It takes longer, but it's much less annoying.

It'll be awhile before I can enter my wyvern in the pit fights. The lines are still too damned long.

Testimony

I went seeking on Monk again for more meriting. I was in moghouse in Windurst when Neyla called; he'd been trying to help a linkshell member obtain a White Mage Testimony in Cape Terrigan and got disconnected, so he needed me to let her know he'd be back on. Turns out Neyla's connection was going downhill fast, so he asked if I could farm it while he tried to get back on.

I

I'd like to get a picture of the Skoffin for use in the Pit.

geared up Beastmaster and headed out, inviting Zandra while I fought the Alchemist near the outpost. It didn't drop, but Neyla's connection stabilized long enough for us to fight a few more until we got it.

I returned to Monk and eventually got a party at the Mamool Ja staging point. I felt kinda guilty doing it, but I swapped out my Tiphia Sting for the Soultrapper and tried to get some pics of the Skoffins when we fought them. I could never seem to get one and I finally gave up. It was a good session, though; I was able to put a fourth merit into my Hand-to-Hand skill.

Zandra used her Testimony to enter the Maat fight, but exited the arena without fighting him while trying some gear-swapping strategy she'd read. Oops. Neyla managed to stay online long enough to get her a fresh testimony, which she used to survive Maat's onslaught.

Pankration

The Pit finally opened its doors today, and the little tarutaru beastmaster NPC stationed can finally breathe a sigh of relief that her efforts worked.

Choosing

The puk blinded my manticore and wore him down.

a monster was difficult, but I finally decided to teleport to the desert and snag a manticore near Kuftal Tunnel. Image in hand, I returned to the Pit and tried to figure out the registration process. Ice Crystals were already at 1k each on the auction house and were steadily climbing all day from all the people eager to try the event.

The area was packed with players, all shouting requests for info about how the system worked. I finally managed to register my pit monster and waited for the announcers to page me for a fight. I lost to a marid two levels higher. I registered again and lost to a puk who used Flash. A lot.

It's a fun system, though. I can definitely see it becoming a place to wait around for party invitations. Even Neyla, who scoffs at Pokemon and said he didn't see the big deal with Pankration because being a Beastmaster means he sees monsters fight all the time, was there the entire evening... except for the two Besieged events, anyway.

I grabbed more film and figured I'd hit the glacier to farm up some Ice Clusters, but there were three or four people waiting at every pond. Instead, I ran to Fei'yin and shot photos of the different mobs to see what stat boosts I could get. From there I hit the Horutoto Ruins to shoot cardians and ended up in Boyahda Tree to take a pic of a Korrigan.

Black

Neyla, Nanunanoo and I watch a stegotaur take out a morbol.

mandragoras are pretty much the ultimate Beastmaster pet, as far as I'm concerned. I named him "Nimble Nemesis" and entered him for some fights, which he lost. I need to train him and work on his abilities, or maybe I'll scrap him and start over.

Speaking of pets, Veresko got a Lv. 2 dhalmel from Tahrongi Canyon. It died embarassingly fast, of course. When the Mamool Ja invaded for Besieged, he got a pic of an Attack Zis (cockatrice) and turned it into a very good Lv. 9 pet with some abilities already learned.

It'll be fun to chart the progress of the game over the next few weeks. People will be shooting pictures of every monster in Vana'diel and compiling longs lists of stats they can give for Pankration boosts. I'll eventually settle on a pet. There's just plenty to explore right now.

Key Hunting

I flagged up early in the afternoon, but didn't really expect to get a party invitation. I was only going to seek for an hour and got the call shortly before I was about to change jobs and do something else.

Most

Diamondhide is a pain in the butt, but it won't stop us.

of the merit camps were taken, so we went to Mount Zhayolm to fight trolls. We had a Bard puller, and he did a good job of bringing us fresh things to kill. The trolls are more spread out, so I didn't have to worry about punching the wrong one very often. Unfortunately, we were only together about 90 minutes before people needed to leave. I got close to two whole merits in that time.

Neyla asked if I wanted to do a little coffer key farming for his White Mage -- we're both big believers in getting it done early and quickly. I'd gotten a Teleport-Mea at party's end, so I just rode straight to Garlaige Citadel from the crag. We fought weapons, bones and bombs down in the basement; if it moved, we killed it. It didn't take too long.

The one I dreaded, the Beadeaux key, wasn't nearly so bad. I'd rushed to change to Beastmaster and took off without my Gaudy Harness, forgot to hit the Mutes and ended up cursed by Afflictors, and other craptacular shenanigans on the way. Luckily it only took one round of quadav to get the key.

"Test Your Mite" was easy, and I went in on XP mode to pad my Monk buffer. I'm not going to cap my XP, but I'll probably take it to the halfway mark. One more ENM and escort should do it.