Double Dragon

Nanunanoo

Hundred Fists? More like Ten Fists.

was helping one of our linkshell's newer members with the Windurst rank missions when I logged on. Neyla and I were planning to merit in Bibiki Bay again, but he hadn't logged on yet and I figured I had time to help Chiasuka get Rank 3. I grabbed my lower-level Monk gear from my mule and headed for the Yughott Grotto with Gliran. Two monks doing Hundred Fists would spell quick death for the unfortunate dragon and his keeper.

We had a bit of a clusterfuck getting it done. I was starting at the Warchief Vatgit when some confusion came up over which part of the mission Chiasuka had flagged, so they came up to kill the warchief and returned to San d'Oria. Turns out he'd actually completed the Bastok part after all and so we had to trudge back up there to do the dragon fight. English isn't Chisuka's first language, so I can't get as irritated about it as I normally would.

I figured we could go in and start off with Hundred Fists to take down the eye and then grind the dragon into powder. The ahriman used Level 5 Petrify at the last second and we were stuck like statues. By the time it wore and we finished off the ahirman, we only had a few seconds of it to unload on the dragon. It still died quickly, but not as dramatically as I would've liked. Ha!

Neyla had already logged on and was waiting for me in Bibiki Bay after I'd changed over to Beastmaster and geared up. We did our rounds, killing the same four catoblepas over and over, hauling in great handfuls of limit points. I had enough when we finished for the third Critical Hits upgrade.

I

Fighting Biast in Xarcabard.

was getting ready to do some fishing when Neyla outposted to Xarcabard and started fighting the Shadow Dragon. I was just about to leave Windurst when he said "Oh shit!" because Biast had popped right behind him. He popped out a Courier Carrie and I outposted to join him. His crab died and the dragon was chasing him in my direction when I got there, so I threw one of my own at it. It eventually killed her and it came after me, so Neyla used Charm to bind it in place.

Neyla put on his Flock pearl to see if any of the others wanted to come out and kill it. Zaltana came as Summoner and Khujo ran out as Beastmaster. We took it down, but the stubborn bastard didn't drop the helm we all wanted. Ah, well.

The experience made me see the value of meriting down my Call Beast timer, though. I'm going to start working on that after I get the last Critical Hit upgrade.

Chocobo Song

The

The Nemean Lion is a freakish sight.

past few days have been nearly identical, as Neyla and I have spent most of them meriting in Bibiki Bay or doing Besieged. Usually we do our 12-13k on the dhalmels and follow up by defending Al Zahbi from attack. The camp was taken by another Beastmaster duo yesterday, but it was okay because the undead were already on the march. By the time that was over, the camp was clear again and we ran out to kill catoblepas until our eyes bled.

The Lv. 8 Besieged is very different since the recent update. I'm extremely thankful that it only lasts an hour; there have been a few times when I'd be chasing General Zazarg around the zone and saying "Only fifteen more minutes..." and counting down how long I needed to keep him alive. The generals have been seriously bulked up, which also helps. I don't have to stand there and spam them with Cure V the entire time like I used to.

I also got my first look at the Nemean Lion, which freaked me out a bit. Zazarg had fallen in battle and I was in the main courtyard when Neyla said "Get a pic." It terrorized me multiple times when I got close. Too bad I didn't have my Soultrapper with me.

Today

I teleport us out of Bibiki Bay after another round of meriting.

we had back-to-back invasions. The undead arrived first, and Neyla was ecstatic because his Bard finally dinged 73. He can now use Chocobo Mazurka, the song most directly responsible for getting him to take up Bard in the first place. I didn't get to try it out, since I didn't feel like sticking around to fight off the trolls and logged out instead.

We're winding down our Bibiki Bay sessions and should finish tomorrow or early next week. I finally capped Beast Affinity, and he's almost got another MP upgrade. He'll need another five merit points for the last upgrade, but we're saving that for later when we need another strong dose of Beastmaster.

Hungry for More

It's kinda funny, Neyla pointed out as we were meriting, we were so burned out on Beastmaster that we took the easy route in Sky and inched along to 75, but we've been meriting hardcore for even more points in Bibiki Bay in the past few days.

I

More Catoblepas slaughter in Bibiki Bay.

couldn't disagree, but then again I'm not burned out on Beastmaster right now. I'm burned out on punching things to death as Monk nonstop for limit points, so this is an extremely welcome change of pace. We did a little over 14k, I think. Another session will get him a fifth merit so he can boost his MP again.

I think I'm going to hold off on raising hand-to-hand and instead use the points for the last level of Beast Affinity. Truth be told, I'm not sure why I bother to merit the hell out of Monk because I know I'll most likely be taking White Mage to any endgame activities I do. It would be more realistic for me to use Monk to earn a zillion merit points and pour them all into Beastmaster.

Normality reasserted its treacherous hold over me and I mischarmed more than Neyla. I was heading out to pull the norhern-most dhalmel and mischarmed the bunny twice.

"Who's the mischarm bitch now, bitch?" Neyla laughed.

"Angry bunny," I explained as I finally landed the charm and dragged the dhalmel back to camp.

"Suck it, Trebek."

"The day is mine!" I responded.

I'm just glad I actually rode out to Bibiki Bay and checked the camp when I first logged on. I had done a search from Windurst and it looked like a party of 75s was meriting there. It turns out they were mostly in duos or trios at odd corners of the map and nowhere near our camp at F-9. The only other people we saw was a small crew killing Hobgoblin Blaggers to farm an airtank, and they didn't get in our way.

My Kingdom for Some Fletchings!

I need a stack of black chocobo fletchings, but I swear the things disappear from the auction house as soon as they're put up for sale. I need a stack to begin my next wood leveling binge. If this keeps up, I'll have to ask Hadafal to synth some for me.

The

Yay. 3,000xp for me!

entire gang was online for today's "Test Your Mite" ENM. I was really looking forward to popping off Raging Fists for my second weaponskill, but I never got a chance because I pulled hate. Ghaleon got it back, but not before Pasuk hit me with Gravity and Slow. I couldn't build up enough TP to strike him again. Booooo! I can't complain, though. It was another 3,000xp into my Monk buffer, followed by an extra 834xp from the escort scroll.

Beyond that, I wasn't on much today. I'd popped on for a few minutes this morning -- I was immediately booted out of Al Zahbi because the Undead Swarm were attacking and the trolls were preparing -- and saw Wulfgar and Veresko had their Beastmaster jobs to 15 in Tahrongi Canyon.

Neyla escorted some Lv. 10 tarutarus through Buburimu and rode the ferry from Mhaura to Selbina with them. It's a good thing he was playing bodyguard, as the pirates attacked and a Sea Monk spawned as soon as they were finished ravaging the deck.