Spear

I

Yagudo Genji are made of tissue paper.

wasn't in the mood for Beastmaster meriting in Bibiki Bay yesterday, so I jumped back into the crafting awhile by running around Zeruhn Mines. I've been burning my way through all those fire crystals I'd stockpiled on Dibbler, making ingots and sheets and scales of all types. My goldsmithing skill hit 12 and got pretty close to 13 before I tired of it and left. I can only take about 90 minutes of that at a time.

With Neyla spending most of his time in Onzozo, I decided to dust off my Dragoon gear again and try to get to 65. I did a few Campaign battles and was pleased with my damage output against the yagudo. It's still not as great as what I can pump out on Monk, but it'll do for now.

I got a surprise as I was heading back to my moghouse. Excalibur, a long-retired player who used to be a member of WickedWayz, has come back to the game. He got one of his friends to start playing and decided to jump back in. We'll see how it goes.

Risking Burnout

Using

Two Empress Band charges may've been a bit much.

two Empress Band charges was probably a bad idea, since it felt like we were in Bibiki Bay for a long time. Admittedly, our sessions are usually only 90 minutes and this time we were only there a little over two hours, but it felt longer. The xp is soooooo good, though -- we did a full 10k in those two hours. My NPC Gauldeval dinged 66, which made me happy. We even got Chain 5 when the last dhalmel was gracious enough to use Berserk and die quickly.

I returned to Windurst and did three chocobo races to earn more chocobucks, but it was a washout. I always seemed to end up racing against the uber-birds. I'm used to getting either first or second place, but I actually came in fourth on that first race because I was up against an all-star slate. Bah.

It gives me a potential new project, though. When my current chocobo reaches maturity, I'll try for a green female to complete the breeding pair. After that, I'm going to raise myself a full-fledged racing bird with decent abilities and good stats across the board.

Route Canal

Neyla and Dalmar spent well over an hour in Toraimorai Canal yesterday and had no luck getting a coffer key, so farming was on the agenda for today. I mentioned this morning that we should help Dalamar get backdoor access to the canal, and sure enough the guy had taken it upon himself to start the quests. When I logged on, he just needed help getting through the gates in the Necropolis.

When

The manticore is less annoying than the weapons

Neyla logged on, the three of us headed out there and killed the Lich NM in the lower section. We returned to Windurst and journeyed into the canals. It wasn't as obnoxious as I thought it would be, although I quickly learned to hate the Spectral Jig's Sneak/Invisible from my /DNC subjob. It's very annoying. We found the coffer -- it was beside Oni, which Neyla distracted with a nearby leech -- and then teleported out to do the next two AF fights.

Neyla had read a single Beastmaster could take out the necessary NMs and explained two BSTs should make it a cakewalk. The first fight was in Boyahda Tree against two weapons. I got the Warrior while Neyla tackled the Red Mage. My poor little crab got torn up and I popped some pet food to buy a few more seconds, but it wasn't a bad fight.

Far more annoying was the trek across Cape Terrigan to reach the cloister. It's one of my least favorite zones because I always seem to take a wrong turn and wind up in manticore territory. We got there without incident and fought the manticore NM.

We really didn't have anything else to do at that point, so we went back to Toraimorai Canal to farm starmite shells for Dalamar's quest. I guess we could've done it during our first visit, but we remembered the drop rate as being crappy. While Neyla and I waited for Dalamar to change jobs, we fought a few skeletons near the entrance and got a coffer key from the second mob. The starmite shells dropped surprisingly fast.

Since we're planning to do more meriting in Bibiki Bay tomorrow, we popped our Empress Bands before we logged out so we could double up.

Little Green Men

Returning home from a weekend at my parents' house, I wasn't really up for a lot of adventuring. I mostly logged on to feed my chocobo and do the escort mission with Neyla. It turned out Dalamar had just reached 50 on his Summoner and needed help with his Artifact Armor quests, so I did that.

Neyla

They look harmless right before they take off your face.

was taking him out to Fei'yin for the sapling fight while I geared up, so I met them in the Sea Serpent Grotto. Dalamar and I fought Meww the Turtlerider on the way in, but it didn't drop anything. It took awhile to find the coffer, but we popped it and left.

The Temple of Uggalepih was more entertaining. Dalamar already had a key, so we were spared the farming. We just had to run through the place. The coffer was in the room where Death from Above pops, so Neyla slept the local wildlife. Dalamar moved in to pop the coffer, and I started fighting a Tonberry Cutter. I'd completely forgotten about the Everyone's Grudge move they do, so it was a surprise when he dropped me with 1,759 damage. I really should erase my hate.

We followed up by doing the escort in the Necropolis and killing Dark Spark. I was tired and logged out as they were heading into Toraimorai Canal to farm the coffer key.