Rawr.

That's right, it's that time of year. We get to know just how much we're online and how much we talk.

Those are my stats as of the first day the Adventurer Appreciation Moogles appeared; amusingly, Sakurato still beat me in chat lines even with taking her like, 4 month breaks.. repeatedly.

We also got anniversary rings again this year, which are lovely little things...

I've decided to use mine getting SCH to 37; with 3 charges I went from 20 to 25 and change. Ranguemont bat pets dying in like, 2 nukes now; I may sneak to the Bibiki Bay camp kinda "early."

Yay for solo chain 5s; this was after band had worn, obviously, just wanted to finish the chain.

I did use one charge on a random pt with Coejus, where I suited up COR again. It's now about 10k to 70, so I may head back to campaigns and get that leveled up at least and do a gear overhaul soon. Outside of Optical Hat, not sure what else to switch into quite yet.. much like SAM, a lot of gear will change around at 72 and 73.

Speaking of SAM: I leveled up from 73-75 in Campaign, so didn't have any super fun "Level Up!" screenshots.. well, that is, until I took my SAM to Salvage and did a bit of a suicide attack on a boss for Kaeko.

The deaths and subsequent Raises left me @100 to level, so we stopped in Alzadaal, and he killed a couple Qiqirns for me.

So now, I can wear the somewhat pointless Saotome Kabuto; just need body and feet to finish SAM AF2, heh.

Have gone meriting a few times, and have gone to Nyzul and Salvage both as SAM. SAM tanking can be pretty fun, though obviously do not really want to use stances when it's important to have good recast timers on a boss. However, can manipulate a little for more Third Eye blinks by using after Utsu goes off; or at the least, if I can't always get that done properly, will use Hasso before using a weapon skill.

I need to finish Store TP merits, and then need to fret about a 6-hit build. Without a Rajas Ring, I can do a 6-hit with not much issue, just requires Hachiman Kote +1. It's kind of funny, how much of a kick in the pants that actually is, since the Attack+ latent on those is for hits over 100 TP and not including WS... In any case, after I (hopefully) get a Justice Torque, I'll have a few more issues getting a good setup, unless I somehow get an Askar body or Usukane feet before then. I can mess around with pieces, like Attila's Earring, Chivalrous Chain, or Bushido Cape, but I have a feeling with what I'd have to sacrifice elsewhere (like TPing in Justi Torque and Bushi Cape or Attila's Earring, then swapping into Cerb Mantle or Triumph Earring and Chiv Chain to keep 11 Store TP on WS - but then I lose a sea gorget on the WS; and for TP, I suppose Bushido Cape isn't *horrible*, though one would hope I don't really need the Zanshin effect bonus, not that it does much anyway; and Attila's Earring means I lose my Fowling Earring for either set (would WS in Brutal anyway, for Double Attack chance)... anyway, I think that doing something like that would end up showing a decrease in damage output, rather than just going a 7-hit setup until I get other upgrades.

Oreo leveled his MNK with me quite a bit at the end there, though he did hit 75 before me; he had the advantage of not having Dynamis and going to EXP instead... So now I believe he's down to only 2 jobs to get to 75, BST and DRG, before he can get Maat's Cap.

All the meriting and such lately has put a good dent in the number of merits I do need for everything, though I still need many many many more, obviously. I may redo a few as well, though luckily nothing I really merited fully or very high.

Store TP currently at level 3; opened Overwhelm and have 1 Meditate merit. Have also upped Katana again and another Earth Accuracy on RDM... I think I'm forgetting something. I know I opened Nightingale on BRD fairly recently too... have done quite a bit more meriting than I normally do (actually used all 6 charges on Emperor Band this week!), but definitely should try to do more. ._.

Let's see.. HNM wise.

Well, a few unusual happenings of the last couple weeks. On a Fafnir only day, ML got claim on Faf while everyone else was at KB or something. They didn't have many people, so after we were done camping whatever we were camping, I volunteered to go help them out. At first Freonski said they'd be ok, but then asked me to come out as extra damage, since they had been in a holding pattern for a while and were worried about not enough damage output and causing it to rage. So off I went.

I think I kinda scared them, doing the usual capping of hate so that I could take hate when tanks were terrored and such.

Double lightning weather, I believe, but not day... and I forgot to eat my pie before this cast. Could have broken 2k!!!

I turned off filters so I could compare damage with their BLMs... It's odd, I remember putting out numbers like this, and yet I worry more about damage being gimped NOW than I think I ever did before my BLM got better equipped. >.>

MISSED ME! Neener neener, silly dragon.

Then later that week, I think, I signed on to find us camping KB, then splitting up to camp Nidhogg as well. We found ourselves in the unusual position of claiming BOTH at the same time (KB's window was 5 or 10 minutes after Nid's.)... which isn't so bad except we only had about 7 at KB, and the Nidhogg team started off pretty low, with very little DD and not our strongest all around. Luckily my damage didn't get resisted too much, so was able to bounce hate as needed with tanks quite easily, and not go overboard... one or two hits from Nidhogg would shed my hate, and it would go back to the tank who hadn't died.

On a side note, anyone who decides to level SCH and go to HNM with it, please be sure that you get yourself gear to max out Phalanx and Stoneskin. /nod

The KB team hadn't been faring as well, and one time KB went yellow, Luna stole claim on it. Amazingly they said it was a mistake and all zoned... honestly very shocked there. So after Nid was dead, we booked it to KB to finish him off; killed it with about 30s to rage mode. ;D All in all, made for a very interesting/exciting morning. And I got both killshots. Killed KB with Bio II, LOL.

Otherwise, we've been camping Xolotl a bit lately; Oreo and Poko want the Harpe, and Shall wants the kote. He's been a bit stingy, obviously... one kote drop when Shall wasn't there has been the best so far.

I've gone quite the assortment of jobs to Xolotl camps so far... the first night we camped it was just three or four of us, and what a glorious fuckup it was.

Random RDM nuking:

Finally put the D.Leg Abjuration I had sitting around to use, what with SAM leveling up.

Obviously, too, took care of getting Kasha as soon as I could. Payu helped with chains, and Oreo, Shukudai, and Doofus helped with the NM, though I don't think I actually needed that much assistance.

In other random event stuff, we got Payu through ToAU missions so he could get his ring and sell off Toreador's to upgrade his Marduk's Body.

Kaeko had read about someone using WHM/DRK as tank for Alexander, so after we got through the Amnaaf mission, we tried that as well. Unfortunately, we timed out, as we didn't really have enough damage output in our small group. Also, the fact that the one move... bleh, whatever it's called, can't recall now, actually interrupts spellcasting causes some problems, as it's difficult to get Stoneskin back up right off sometimes.

So when that didn't work, Shukudai got to come tank on his PLD, and Kaeko was like, all excited to see a PLD... it was all rather dorky.

We did Apocalypse Nigh for Saku so she could change her earring; I got to go SAM to it, though I had JUST hit 75 and really think I basically sucked, but hey, I got the killshots. This fight was also before I opened Overwhelm, and I think I preferred not having to worry about trying to get in front of the mob. SO annoying. ._.

Kaeko and I have started running some ENMs again on a somewhat regularish basis; have done both Antlion and Brothers. No good drops yet, and Antlion we had one good run on and the rest have gone kinda poopy, with a mix of bad luck on pops and me just not really paying much attention to what's going on, leading to time outs.

Tried to get some Rutter Sabatons, but the NM is stingy. So are the damn Hobgoblin Blaggers you get the Air Tank pop item from. -.- Have another tank, thanks to Oreo helping with that farming, but haven't gone back again yet to try.

Also helped a SMN Ore and I leveled with on SAM and MNK, respectively, get his Fenrir item to get his Evoker's Ring.

Then I decided "hey, I should do avatars at least twice a week, that's 120k a week if I do..." but after doing 3 one night and that taking just.. forever... I gave up on that plan. However, I did find out that I can indeed solo prime avatars.

We mixed a few Salvage runs the past couple weeks into our Nyzul climbs. Salvage is sure a fun way to feel like you are the most super awesome damage dealer EVER EVER IN THE WORLD.

Have only done a couple serious boss runs lately; we got Pokorny a piece for Ares' body, since her group really just spams one particular run currently. Otherwise, nothing really spectacular in drops for anyone.

Nyzul has produced what, a Mushroom Helm, a Cerulean Pendant, ...oh and some shoes for Shukudai.

I got to SAM tank our boss floors too; Fafnir was pretty fun. I love wonky terror poses!

Dynamis has been pretty good to me this past month; at this rate I'll have RDM AF2 done before NIN AF2... 4/5 now. Actually won the lots on the Tabard; but lotted nice and high for shoes with no competition... go figure. I do <3 the Tabard... very smart looking.

Recent Dynamis-Beaucedine of course brought the plethora of charms and people trying to kill other people... this was probably most fun one: Derian Shield Bashes me to stun me, breaks my Stoneskin... and Senrez uses Tachi: Kaiten on me... and I live! MWAHAHAHAHA... he left me with like 6 HP.

Dynamis always a good place to do some Taru Death Watch, too! And some more dead Payu... where he MPK'd me too, essentially. Damn sheep.

And.. Galka Dance Watch! Orcish sure likes to dance....

Can someone explain this to me? oO

I love people who don't take the time to read basic things in game:

One night, when we were kinda joking around with Bing's (one of our JP players) name (Bing Crosby, Bing Behemoth, etc..) he said, "No, Bing Chandler!!!" So we're all like "Oooh, Friends! /cheer!" Then a couple days later, I completely spaced out, wasn't watching the clock, and missed a first window camp while I was online.. he responded with this, and I couldn't help but laugh:

Typical discussion: Oreo got N.Legs off another Nidhogg we had recently, and got this comment about them in a merit PT we were in... I always knew there was something odd about Oreo...

And finally, in a random discussion (like most of ours always are), we talked about what we would name 'reincarnations' of TK if we ever reformed.. I believe the discussion was brought about by the fact BBQ just reformed pearls and went back to BBQGold, though the shell isn't... gold. But I digress.

Sorry this update was so long in coming.

WHM75 | BLM75 | SMN75 | NIN75 | BRD75 | RDM75 | SAM75 | COR69 | THF43 | WAR40 | DRK37
DNC29 | RNG28 | SCH25 | MNK21 | PLD18 | BLU10 | BST10 | PUP06 | DRG05

We got a Fafnir recently. I actually had passed out earlier that night and woke up sometime around, oh, 11 pm. Going to Fafnir was well worth it.

Well...

Yeah....

Hmmmm.

We also got Nidhogg that week, which resulted in this: This made Cyphun and Oreo very happy, but other people not so much, as shown in my last entry.

More king stuff.. Sunday we got an Aspi. Was basically us and like, 3 people from another LS, and singles of others... this was our claiming/holding party while everyone was camping Nidhogg:

We got about, oh, 6-8 adds, including three birds.. so for a while, the fight was basically this:

Me vs a turtle, with minimal support. Not entirely easy to tank when not damaging him and he doesn't retract into his shell, honestly. Can't be slowed, no one para'd (didn't have time for Jubaku since I was trying to keep shadows up ), I only had one March (Ballad for other song), Haste wore after a while, support was trying to deal with adds.. etc. Anyway, we managed, I had fun, but nothing spectacular for drops. We couldn't even do the play on words and say we were "D.Feeted" (defeated), cuz we got M.Feet. -.-

DANCE BREAK:

Have been doing a lot more Salvage recently too, which is beginning to show in my lack of BRD and RDM buffer (and Payu's... he deleveled to WAR74 yet again on a run, and permanently, which fucked us over for the boss on that run... oops). And my lack of Imperial Standing. ._.

Have done reasonably well though, here's a smattering of recent drops: Enlil Gambison for Payu, Freya legs for Saku (who now has her Skadi legs, congrats!), Bodb feet were Oreo's, and I believe he now has a finished pair of Morri's shoes. All in all, not too disappointing in general. Now if only Payu's MOCHA coat would drop.

Did MNK AF NM for Oreeooo recently. My THF is still 43 and he's nearly 65MNK.. go figure.

We also randomly helped Doofus with his Evisceration fight after a merit PT on trolls where he complained I never used my MP on BRD/WHM. Which I would have done more often if he didn't Cure V everyone all the time! /slap

More merits: Tuufless wanted to test Castle Oz in the Shadowreign for merit possibilities. We actually fought all the way up. It was pretty nice, base EXP on the Yags on the top are around 200. Chains can break kind of easily though, with having to run between mobs, but once we got to the top I think we could have gone pretty well for a while, but the other BRD kept DC'ing and Tuuf had to go for an emergency. Also, the Yagudos using Feathered Furore is pretty annoying, because it spams in your log for each person it hits (removes one piece of armor, sometimes weapon, etc). But all in all, they weren't terribly difficult mobs; people just need to know which are what jobs (i.e., don't pull BLM mobs with Elegy; use Lullaby instead. /nod)

DANCE BREAK - GALKA DANCE WATCH:

Oh, so my chocobo is full grown. I got a very nice pretty black chocobo this time.

Too bad he's slow as fuck. Think I do better running. ._.

I also haven't been to feed him in a while... he's probably run off by now, my affection rating was only so-so with this one. ._.;

Lessee, what else.

Dynamis Lord kill #26 for ULDynamis. Also:

Of course I lost.

We've started tier 2 in Einherjar in TK, finally, having finally gotten everyone all three Tier 1 feathers. First two runs (I missed the second, unfortunately) have been successful, yay. On a random note, I finally gave in and sold two pieces of gear that were VERY situational and I rarely used anyway... my Druid's Slops (now macro in Nashira Seraweels for full Elemental on BLM - and still need that damn Merciful Cape ._.), and my Elite Beret +1. After getting Marduk's Tiara, with its higher Divine and Summoning skill (though I usually just used AF1 horn for Summoning, same rating), all I used the beret for was WHM Enfeebling. Subbing in Nashira Turban there, which doesn't lessen slots in my bag, but opens up an overall inventory slot at least. Was so hard to do.

HNM hasn't been the only thing I've been going NIN to more often out of the blue lately. Sea runs are always fun, too, especially with charming and whatnot. Sakurato tried to kill me with nukes, feigning innocence ("oops, I didn't mean to target you, Ashi!!!!") while doing so. Then here, Tinkly was the one charmed. No skillup though! ;;

Some campaign bits:

DANCE BREAK.

The definition of frustration:

And those fun random chat log moments:

I am just not going to go into all the possible implications of this statement. Just remember Payu's nickname is "sheep," at least.

Payu has this bizarre dream of an army of Mashira Automatons...

Yes, that is Payu making out with a Carbuncle.

WHM75 | BLM75 | SMN75 | NIN75 | BRD75 | RDM75 | SAM69 | COR69 | THF43 | WAR40 | DRK37
DNC29 | RNG28 | MNK21 | SCH19 | PLD18 | BLU10 | BST10 | PUP06 | DRG05