Neyla: A Traitor and a Turncoat

Neyla sent a message after I'd logged out yesterday. He said he'd temporarily switched his Campaign allegiance over to the San d'Orian army so he could buy the Iron Ram pieces for his Paladin.

The

We cleared out the demons before Dalamar's fight.

first thing I said to him this morning when he got to work was "How's that elvaan taste?"

"Fuck you, man!"

I guess I can't blame him because the armor is pretty nice. It's just fun to tease him because he spends so much time making fun of those stick-up-their-ass elvaan types that it's hilarious to see him on their side. He can't switch back to Windurst until Sunday, which can't get here fast enough for him.

We did some Campaign fights, but mostly we were killing time until Dalamar could log on for his Black Mage AF quests. We had to start out with the weapon fight in Xarcabard, which is against a Choas Elemental that pops near the castle. It didn't take long, but Dalamar had to do some running around in Windurst. Neyla and I stayed in Xarcabard until he returned, at which point we headed inside to find the keep.

We got lost. I've never tried to navigate the place on my own, and it sucked. We were dropping and climbing stairs and wandering all over the damned place. Dalamar managed to stay aggro-free, though. I eventually managed to figure out the right way to get there, and you'd better believe I marked up my map to prevent that again.

After that, it was coffer key farming out the wazoo. We started out in Garlaige Citadel, which was slightly obnoxious but didn't take very long.

The

I hate fighting the orcs in Davoi.

Necropolis was a little awkward because two other people were competing for the coffer key mobs. We'd already spotted the coffer on the way in, but they got their key first and popped it.

The same thing happened in Davoi. It didn't take long to get a key -- which is awesome because I hate Davoi -- but a Thief had popped the coffer. We had to wait for it to respawn before Dalamar could get his piece.

We'll all hook up again on Sunday to do the rest. Hopefully Neyla will be free of elvaan stink by then. Ha!

Iron Emblem of Service

Grauberg

Neyla prepares to spank some gnole ass.

is quickly becoming one of my favorite Campaign battlegrounds. The quadav and gigas are almost always good for serious XP rewards.

It's pretty much the only thing I've done in the game for the past few days, cycling between zones and building up the merit points. I learned that gnoles suck ass, but the stupid flies are worse because they keep knocking my TP down to zero so I can't cure myself. Neyla and I ended up taking two different quadav at one point, and it's a miracle that we survived; we would've fallen if other players hadn't finally noticed and swooped in to help us kill the things.

I want to max out my Kick Attack rate, unlock Formless Strikes, and then finish out the last few levels of Hand-to-Hand. After that, the mind-numbing climb of Strength merits. That's going to be lengthy, but I've got to spend all those points on something.

My evaluation went well and I earned my Iron Emblem of Service. Another week or so of this and I'll be caught up to Neyla.

Seeing the Light

While

No light clusters for you!

breaking and repairing fishing rods is cheaper than the alternatives, I'm not a big fan of shelling out gil for stacks of Light Crystals at the auction house. I've been thinking about farming my own, and Neyla pointed out you can always find them floating around in up in Sky.

My sanity can only handle the burden of working through three stacks of trout paste for these skillup sessions, so I decided to take a run "upstairs" when I'd finished.

The idea quickly fell through. All the elementals, even the Light ones, are Tough or Very Tough. While it's theoretically possible that I could bring down a Tough as MNK/DNC, I don't relish the time it would take considering it'd be using Cure V on itself or something. Meh. I'll just buy the damned things.

I've seen them pop in Delkfutt's Tower, but I don't know how often that happens. I'll have to investigate that option. I punched a few birds to death while I was there. At least I got something out of it.

Still Not Worth It

I

This sucks. Seriously.

tried a few Campaign battles as Dragoon, hoping I could get some decent XP and claw my way through that last bit to ding 61. It's still not worth it. I can't do as much damage, so I don't earn nearly as many points as I do when I'm on Monk. It's really just not worth the hassle. Neyla kinda enjoyed it, since I tried it as /WHM this time and could cast Dia to trigger Healing Breaths when his health got too low.

I finally pulled it off, but the last bit was earned by doing Streetsweeper III. I can finally wear my Amemet Mantle +1.

I'd be much more tempted to level that way more often if my Polearm skill wouldn't get so hideously gimped in the process. I've got to go out and skill up soon or just get a party. I'm going to fall behind and turn into an uber-gimp at this rate.