Adventures in Coffer Land

With Neyla's Dragoon at 50, it was time to start on Artifact Armor. He'd originally proposed taking it slowly and doing one piece per day, but that's the sort of thing I prefer to knock out all at once. I don't hate coffer key farming, but I also don't switch gears easily these days and like having most of the day dedicated to one activity.

We

The anticans were stubborn about giving us a coffer key.

went to Batallia Downs to kill the Sturmtiger. We also killed Ahtu, since Neyla had never done that quest and it's an easy 10k gil. Dalamar joined us for the key farming, starting in the Quicksand Caves. The anticans were being stubborn about the drop, but I couldn't complain because I'd popped my Empress Band in hopes of rebuilding my Monk's XP buffer.

Dalamar and I headed for Kuftal Tunnel while Neyla flagged the next section of quests. We were going to camp on the Terrigan side of the zone, but Guivre was running around. Nobody was on the desert side, so we started fighting Robber Crabs and Haunts. I got a coffer key before Neyla got there, but it didn't take long to get a second once he'd arrived.

Ifrit's Cauldron was a little more entertaining, given my inability to navigate the tunnels. We killed bees, bombs and bats until we got the key. Dalamar at the coffer while we returned to Windurst to change jobs. I switched to Beastmaster while Neyla jumped on Dragoon. My "bodyguard" skills were not needed, since I was the one who managed to get bomb aggro and Neyla had no problems getting to the coffer and popping it.

We finished up by killing Dark Spark. We'll take care of the fight in the Temple of Uggalepih on Sunday.

Mad Skills

More

Neyla skilled up on weapons in Batallia Downs.

leveling today, starting out with Fields of Valor in Qufim Island. The place was nearly deserted today, which alleviated my very minor feelings of guilt about killing stuff in a major party area. It didn't really matter, since we were mostly killing leeches and parties avoid those like the plague. We also killed most of the weapons near the spine. I kept my TP for healing, so Neyla was free to go crazy with Meditate and use lots of weaponskills for extra damage.

After a few rounds of that, we headed back to West Sarutabaruta [S] to kill our old friends, the Savanna Dhalmels. I was about 300xp into Lv. 70 when we started and finished up 7k in, so I consider that a good bit of progress.

With all the level sync parties he'd done on Samurai, his Great Katana skill was underleveled, so we hit Batallia Downs so he could skill up. I went as White Mage to keep him healed and Hasted until he was capped.

Dial It Back a Bit

Level

The bigger they are...

sync impresses me yet again, because today's XP romp had Neyla switching over to his Samurai job. I was still on Dragoon, of course. Now that we're back to lower levels, we did Fields of Valor in Qufim Island. It's a trickier, more guilt-ridden zone to participate in because it's a known party spot, but I think we managed to stay out of everyone's way. We did three rounds of it, spending the waiting period between sign-ups by killing bats in the tunnel to Behemoth's Dominion.

When we'd finished there, we returned to our old haunts in Rolanberry Fields [S], although this time we were killing the mandragoras and staying away from the Death Wasps. We fought a Tough wasp at the end when Neyla was ready to burn off his two-hour, but even then it took a beating and skill kept pummeling us. We killed it, but I was glad no other bees linked to it.

I was so close to 70 that I was able to finish my leveling requirements by doing the Crimson Domino III op. I think they must have tweaked it during the update, because I only had to track down the lost supplies one time out of the seven ops. It may be completely random, but I'm not complaining.

I rode around and collected my avatar bounties, and then hit the Tavnazian Safehold to check the auction house for the nifty new Lv. 70 gear. The Barone stuff is nice, but I'll be damned if I'm spending 350k for feet when my RSE2 will work just as well.

Rolling On

The

More colibri slaughter in East Ronfaure [S].

dragoon steamroller keeps moving forward, gathering speed and building up huge quantities of experience points for me and Neyla. This new "Fields of Valor" system feels like cheating. We went to the glacier, knocked out a few rounds of gigas and ahrimans, and then returned to East Ronfaure [S] to kill colibri.

A party was killing the birds south of the Campaign tower when we arrived, but we never ran into their puller or otherwise competed with them for kills. I had an amusing moment when, after following Neyla around in search of prey for a few minutes, he admitted he was lost and had no idea where the tower was. I guided him back; I'm prone to getting lost, which is why I mark that sort of thing on my map.

I was also amused by some random Campaign player who shouted "All on Conquerer Bagofdicks!"

Neyla dinged 50 on Dragoon, and I was about 10k from Lv. 70 when we stopped. It's going really fast, and I should ding tomorrow or Friday. He's going to switch to Samurai, so we'll be backtracking to earlier camps.

Valor

Neyla

I love colibri. They're squishy.

and I went back to Beaucedine Glacier for more Fields of Valor action, one of the last few sessions we'll be able to do there because we're moving beyond the level range. Hell, the tigers don't automatically aggro anymore. We moved to the higher pages, focusing on gigas and ahriman for the most part, netting a 990xp bonus when we'd completed our quota. I really like this system, and it's pretty much the only way I could level a job I really detested like Thief if I ever got really drunk and decided to go after Maat's Cap. By the time you ran out of Fields of Valor monsters, you could start getting your XP in Campaign.

We went back to Ronfaure for more Colibri slaughter, getting Neyla to 46 and shooting past that to reach 47. Neyla took the tanking a bit more seriously this time, using steps to build up to an Animated Flourish which kept the bird's attention on him so I could keep TP for healing. With his merits, it didn't take a lot of effort on his part.

When we'd finished, I was halfway to 70. I'm looking forward to that, because then I'll be able to use Drain Samba II and Curing Waltz II, which will be a great help for skillup sessions. I could solo as DRG/WHM, but I get really antsy about letting my health get that low because a tarutaru doesn't have as much HP to work with. I'm a much bigger fan of DRG/DNC.

Squishy Birds

I

Colibri are very weak to Dragoons.

logged on briefly Saturday morning to use my Empress Band so the charge would be active today. Neyla and I skipped the Fields of Valor, figuring those areas would be busy on a weekend, and instead spent some time killing more Death Wasps in Rolanberry Fields [S] again. Neyla hit 45 and I hit 69.

For my second ring charge, we outposted to East Ronfaure [S] to check out the Colibri. I'd been out there as a solo DRG/WHM ages ago, but I was late to the party and everything was Easy Prey. Synced down to Neyla's level, they were all Even and Tough. We'll be able to hang out there a few levels, whichh is nice because Colibri are notoriously weak to piercing weapons and therefore allergic to Dragoons.

I'd forgotten about their Feather Tickle move, which removes your TP and makes the Dancer subjob a little rough. Thankfully, Neyla's enmity merits were in full effect and the birds stayed focused on him for most of it, leaving me with plenty of TP for healing.

We also did the Sunday escort and killed Ramuh, Titan and Shiva Prime. Neyla came Red Mage this time, and I think it helped the fight go faster. I logged out as soon as I got back to Windurst, because I'd been dealing with a huge headache all day and just wanted to sleep it off.