Rawr.

So of course, since we are now trying to GET dagger for Pookypoo in UL, we will probably get something like 20 Attestation of Harmonies (as we got something like 19 Daggers when going for Masago's horn, and Pooky wasn't with us then). I got our first this past Sunday and stuck it in storage.

I've always toyed with the idea of upgrading Gjallarhorn. I really do not need to worry about being stuck as BRD if I do upgrade it, as we already have two in our shell and frankly, they don't go BRD that often in general. I already go in Salvage, etc, fairly often as I have a Storm Fife (as does Payu).

But it would definitely be nice to have one on the NA side, esp for those times we may need to hold something, and also to let Ryagi and Yuchi be available as something else possibly (Yuchi has COR which Kaeko would like to use more, even though she doesn't like it... well, they both have practically every job anyway, but I digress).

The obvious big thing that deters me is income. I do not really have a very reliable method of making gil, and there aren't a ton of farming opportunities etc that would be consistent income.

Perhaps if I get lucky in future BC/KSNM runs I can use that as a jumping off point. Unless others out there have suggestions. Unfortunately, my craft of choice is cooking, so not a ton of opportunity there either.

I had a chance to try NIN/DNC (with DNC severely underleveled... HELLO /ANON) some this week, it was quite fun really. Allows some more flexibility for soloing, and TP is really no issue, can easily weapon skill for the damage dealing.

And it's always fun to just start hopping around waving one's katanas wildly. DNC in general will likely become the subjob of choice for many soloing melees, it's almost silly *not* to use it. No need for MP resting at all, as it uses TP, etc? It's too practical!

Hm, I seem to be lagging behind a bit here...

On a somewhat related tangent, had a handful of merits to spend recently and finally got my third in HP (5 MP, 3 HP); and well as put another in GKT for leveling up SAM. Should get Gekko hm... two levels early?

Randomness while a handful of groups showed up at Nyzul.

Ugh.. Nyzul... I'd rather not go into that right now. /sigh

WHM75 | BLM75 | SMN75 | NIN75 | BRD75 | RDM75 | COR65 | SAM62 | WAR40 | THF39 | DRK37
RNG27 | DNC22 | MNK21 | PLD18 | SCH15 | BLU10 | BST10 | PUP06 | DRG05

Hope everyone's had a great holiday so far! (Me and Noneko in Dominion. )

So Kaeko, in his SCH leveling push, hit 56, so I joined him for only a few levels on my COR (since he apparently is too impatient to wait for me to get to the end of my day to sign on and level further with him ). We started on Goblin Bats in Movalpolos, which was decent. When that camp was occupied later, we tried Fossorial Fleas in Aydeewa which required a little more finagling until we both leveled at least once. Used a third party pull which was also there to cure and get hate off Kaeko if Gravity resisted/wore early; but overall, after we got it figured out, it was really easy and really damn good EXP.

And then with ring:

YAY HAT!! Seriously, Mithra look really good in COR AF...

As I said, Kaeko abandoned me at 60, so I was forced to seek for regular PTs. In my first PT after 60, I finally got Marksmanship up enough to get Slug Shot, since the scrolls/duoing doesn't exactly give me much opportunity to fire my gun.

Good timing on that parry: My last shadow had gone down, and it got another attack in before Utsu finished casting.

Mostly I was pretty good about using Slug Shot so I *wouldn't* get hate, but I think I went a little too soon this time.. Such a horribly inaccurate weapon skill, though; in later PTs I tended to wait until 150-200 TP, usually busy rolling and such anyway.

My next PT still did decently EXP wise, but god the members made me want to drive nails into my temples. The first tank, a PLD, was level 62 or whatever but only had AF feet (and as I recall, PLD AF is actually decent...). He kept barreling around, "follow me follow me this way this way" - took us to Diremites in Aydeewa, which was good EXP but there's like, one pop short of good chains. We killed them all and had to wait for pops; so instead of just waiting he runs to a tunnel to kill a worm which Stonega IIIs everyone since the mages are nowhere nearby to Silence it... then he runs back and pulls a Diremite while the mages are still resting, and I'm going crazy trying to land rolls on people. He dies and kills most of the PT (MNK finally disengaged and I got off Light Shot a few times and we both logged while WHM reraised and raised everyone), and then wonders why; I tell him the mages weren't nearby when he pulled and he laughed at me... /rolls eyes.

Still, that Diremite camp isn't bad, I'll have to keep it in mind. It's odd though, exping on that hill, it made me kind of dizzy. I also was pulling my hair out trying to tell people.. repeatedly.. to set up so I could land rolls properly. And then my favorite moment had to be "I missed you with Evoker's that last round, PLD, when I can roll it again in just a bit I'll get you," since you can't roll something still on yourself; literally five seconds after I said that he said "MP ROLL PLZ." I just kinda went "..." and rolled it.

So anyway, then he got a NIN to replace him, and the SAM wanted to go back outside to Colibri (he was the PT leader). I told him though, as I had already at least three times including when he built the party, that Colibri wasn't a wise choice with a BLM in the PT, because you basically render one member fairly useless. But he heads off that direction anyway. The MNK had logged back on and never set his default chat to /p so for the rest of the party, anytime he said something in response to pt chat, it was in /say.... the SAM keeps saying {Bird} {Bird}, and I think the JP WHM and BLM were counting the minutes before they could beg off for sleep. I managed to convince them to camp near the Halvung entrance and pull Eruca (not only did we have the BLM, but there were 2 PTs already on Colibri in the area, at the tower and in the passage to that opening near the Halvung entrance) - though my Dark Shot was the only Dispel; but I just didn't use any others, and it worked out okay. Now and again the SAM would pull a Colibri, and of course it would eat the NIN's food (he turned out to be pretty cool ), so eventually he had to say "if you pull another bird, I will not provoke it," lol.

Ended with me like, 200 to 62, but a Besieged was incoming, so we bailed to go to that.

Typical Besieged, with people shouting 'NO MAGIC ON GURFURLUR' 'EVERYONE FOCUS ON GURFURLUR' (nevermind that there are like, five other NMs around)... they actually killed him and Besieged still kept going, which made me crack up laughing. Still, that kill certainly helped contribute to this: Nice, eh? Was the cap for that run, so I was pretty happy considering how many of my Slug Shots and hits landed for 0. ;D

Think I also found my current elemental shot cap, at least in the bits of gear I do bother to swap out. And actually got one unresisted on one of the NMs.

And so my COR hit 62; then we made a LS party of 61-65s (Dio THF61, me COR62, Mizz's alt RDM63, Myshella PLD65), and picked up a 64MNK and a 63DNC; and went back out to Erucas as both Colibri camps were again taken. The PT was SO fast! Good times, good times, good laughs at Mizz not having Barfira. I had a lot of luck in my last three parties, too, hitting lucky numbers, and probably only 3-4 Busts per. DNC really has some nice abilities to help a PT, so I do look forward to leveling it up in the future. I think the Steps and such helped a lot, because I only missed like, 2 Slug Shots this entire party, though I also tended to wait for higher TP.

Not nearly as fun damage numbers as on Colibri, obviously, but I was able to close out a few chains and get a few decent renkei numbers as well.. only got one screenshot though.

So Corsair is now only about 8k to level, and since I'm on sort of a roll, I think it'll be the next 75, with SAM going a bit slower. I've opted to use the EXP scrolls on the Tavnazia quests on RNG now, too, to finally get it to 37 for COR sub, because I just hate leveling it for some reason.

Let's see... recent sky run, I got to witness the weird Despot craziness: We're starting to think it isn't a glitch so much as to maybe try and fuck up people so subpar groups (ie, RMT) won't do so hot. Who knows. /shrug

I was RDM on this run, first time I did RDM in sky; for some reason, which I don't know, I went /WHM instead of /DRK - but s'all good. We did a four person Zipacna (where I got Ushikirimaru hehe), a.. what, six person Faust, before more people came up and we got pretty much all triggers except Olla, including that Despot. Fought Suzaku and Seiryu when Cerberus popped; Jokers got, but no big deal, we're not exactly camping it for any interest.

In any case, Seiryu gave me a goodie.

So a goodie for RDM, esp RDM/DRK or /BLM, and for the future of my COR.

Oh yes, I was NIN at Faf recently (spillover from an Aspi camp), and we claimed it, so that was pretty fun. Ryuzi and I were both NIN/WAR rather than the usual NIN/DRK, so it required a little more work to keep hate, but all in all I feel much more confident in my abilities to tank and keep hate ever since participating with Kaeko in his enmity tests. I threw Denali feet into my Ninjutsu macros (since I don't have AF2 feet yet) as well as Jin, and I think it definitely helps; only had I think 2 resists on any of my enfeeble Ninjutsu.

Speaking of Jin: I mean, no reason, a Kulshedra isn't a big deal, it's just.. I really like the look of those shoes, dammit. Plus, they're like, color coordinated with sky gear/abjs. Same orangey trim and such.

Also have been debating, now that I have Denali feet, and Shura head, if I should switch to Osode for Jin for the modifiers... hm. It's probably one of those situational things; if on an HNM, maybe stick to Haub+1 for the Attack bonuses. Hm.

On a random whim I got some ingredients and made a bunch of Sweet Rice Cakes. Not in any rush to finish it, I don't really use it for anything, but meh.

Campaign! Campaign is a pretty fun way to spend some time. Jugner gets annoying sometimes, had a run of like five in a row that lasted like, all of 5 minutes as people ran out, killed all the peon mobs, and that was it. But after three or so waves like that, everything comes in and it's much more worthwhile. It's nice, too, because, as you can see above, you don't have to be 75 in order to actually benefit/help. I went out on 62 SAM earlier today to try and inch its EXP up closer to 63 and had no problem hitting mobs or anything. I died pretty spectacularly a few times, mostly to um.. Gwajboj or whatever's AoE.

This lovely Sprite Cured me as I needed it; but later as ten of us lay dead, it Raise III'd one Galka and then floated away. Then it flew back and forth a few more times and never Raised anyone else. Sprites: playing favorites or just lazy?! News at 11.

Hate in Campaign is pretty weird though. One I went to as WHM, trying to get my buffer back up.. WHM/RDM since I know everything can be Dispelled and usually needs it. Here everyone is beating on Bakgodek, and I just Dispel as needed, enfeeble, cure people etc, and every time I hit /assist I was actually his target, though he didn't really come after me because of everyone beating on him. At least not right off anyway.

But I've found, and others too, that meleeing gets points up faster, so now I just am sure to engage with Templar Mace, Hexa as I get TP, and still cure etc everyone... easily done, as I use a <stpc> macro so I just tab around until I see someone with low HP.

All in all, good fun, a good way to pass some time with relatively little stress.

Off to Dynamis-Xarcabard now - wish me luck on Koga Tekko!

WHM75 | BLM75 | SMN75 | NIN75 | BRD75 | RDM75 | COR62 | SAM62 | WAR40 | THF39 | DRK37
RNG27 | DNC22 | MNK21 | PLD18 | SCH15 | BLU10 | BST10 | PUP06 | DRG05

EDIT: VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION

As many of you may or may not know, there has been a rash of hacked accounts throughout FFXI and WoW, and a big big portion of this has been linked to somepage and their front pages and news articles. It does appear the exploit has now been removed, apparently, but I would strongly encourage everyone who:

a) uses Internet Explorer as their main browser on the same PC they play FFXI
b) are not on Vista
c) doesn't necessarily bother with software updates, especially perhaps on the standard RealPlayer install in your computer
d) has used somepage in the last three months
e) doesn't have an AntiVirus scanner, or uses Trend Micro or Norton (both missed this trojan)
f) has friends who has their account information and thus you don't know WHAT software etc they use on their system

Please go to this thread, the very FIRST original post has all the recommendations needed to see if anything has been installed on your computer and how to get rid of it: http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27226

Now, some people have claimed to have gotten these on Firefox (shouldn't be the case, as it's an exploit with ActiveX or something? which Firefox doesn't support), or with Vista, or from other websites (FFXIAH ads seem to have caused some concern - however the admins at that site have remedied that issue already). So anyone who's visited either website should probably run a good scan with AdAware, SpyBot, and their AV software in any case. And keep your software UPDATED. This exploits a RealPlayer bug that was fixed in an update back in September or October.

Can't believe I didn't remember to put this info in in the first place. At least five people I personally know and play this game with in some manner (Dynamis, etc) have gotten their accounts jacked and items sold off, etc. So even if the threat itself is for the most part gone now, it is still worthwhile to do the checks on your systems.

Now back to your regularly scheduled post.

Ah yes... SSJ FAFNIR! I only wish I had screenshots of the carnage. The best I can offer is this:

Which she later also said in ALL CAPS as the original LS died and people waiting to claim did so... while it was still raged.

Basically, RB claimed, and some random group of people kinda messed with the Faf, curing them from the tail and such... while also shit talking in /say about how long it was taking them to kill it, after they themselves made it spin around and cause problems for the shell. They were taking so long that everyone started sending groups *back* to the Aery from the Aspi camp nearly everyone had moved to.

In any case, RB never properly recovered to get Faf killed quickly enough, and so it raged. After they died, we knew to wait until all that was left of the group messing with it died; nearly everyone else jumped the gun, not waiting for a fourth person to get chomped. Yuchi also Dia'd it too soon (so we all logged super fast), because she saw BBQ and LB claim as well. BBQ got it first and promptly got nom-nom-nom'd; then LB, half of whom Escaped. Teffy had the awesomest Faf kiting around the Aery ever, he made it like, a full lap. GO TEFFY! <3

In any case, Tef died, Kaeko ES Slept from outside the alliance, and it landed; so we knew no more rage. It was a pretty Terror happy dragon, and we were single tanking with Senrez (you can see we only had six total in the Aery there fighting). At one point, Kae purposely took hate when Sen was terrorized and also became so, so I pushed up my hate with some Cure IVs on Kae and Sen, some Dispels, and voke/Warcry/etc (was subbing /WAR on RDM); when I got hate, I popped Chainspell to keep Stoneskin/Blink/etc up (esp since I was also going to need to Convert soon), and cast more Dispels to keep hate, as well as Refresh the PT etc. Sen flipped out at me, not knowing what I was doing. I was a little miffed after because it made me feel like he doesn't trust I know what I'm doing as a player. Bah at him!

Anyway, he got hate back np, and we killed it and got 2 N.Head drops. Shoulda been a Ridill, cuz that would have been hilarious. >.>

More Fafnir~ this time in Nyzul. We've been doing for a while since Salvage is sort of on hold; are currently on Floor 20 until we get feet drops we all want. We went in with five: Senrez, myself, Kaeko, Payu, and Sakurato - SAM, RDM, BLM, BRD, THF. Interesting setup, eh? Killed it with no issues, and had our first feet -- Denali -- drop, which came my way as most everyone wanted Goliard (I think Sen wanted Askar maybe?), and I was the only one with any other interest in Denali, for NIN WS.

Same STR stat as what I currently use, my RSE gaiters, with additional Accuracy, so yay Blade: Jin.

We also got a Tiamat last week. Slaut was camping on an alt and saw that it had popped probably 15 or so minutes after she did so. No one seemed very interested in responding, and I felt bad because at least twice in the eight or so pops he'd seen before we could have had a group hold until something else was finished and people could come out. So I said, ok, we're going! Was going to be me RDM, Slaut's alt as WHM for Bar until more people came out, Payu BRD, Slaut NIN; then I just said "tia plz go" and people started piping up and changing jobs.

I wanted to test Repose landing on her, but only got to try once. We literally had perpetual wind weather, so I kept many of the elementals slept for BLMs. Then we got fog so I helped with Bombs... then of course nighttime came around. We had people ready to kite them away, but another LS that came out to watch (they were there for Rostrums) wanted to "help" and cured our kiters... so they got hate from the Corses that outweighed the kiter's, but it was still claimed to us; so I had to start Reposing them too. ._.

All in all, considering all the crazy stuff one doesn't usually plan on, it was still a relatively short fight. Only about an hour or so, and with good result that means we don't need to camp her for a while.

So on my way out to Riverne the other day, I ran by Upyri as you can see. Hehe. Killed it for fun; got both boots and cloak. Woohoo, 15k for me.

But just a hint; before you walk all the way out to Monarch Linn to get Rivernewort and do Uninvited Guests, be sure you flagged Uninvited Guests.

The good news is I don't need to farm another scale to go this week, as I piggybacked on someone else who had just gone through the Unstable Displacement. But yeah, I was annoyed and wasn't going to run back then, so only 2 EXP scrolls last week.

I also randomly went along with the JPs in TK to help out in Omega; they didn't need it but I was bored. Was on SMN from that above mentioned pointless run to Monarch Linn, so just stayed so. It was pretty fun actually, was able to swap out BPs in its varying forms, obviously -- unlike on BLM where I just stand there waiting for two legs again.

Titan I think had the better damage out of the physical BPs; I think I had a Diabolos Nether Blast around the usual 530 or so when it was magic susceptible.

It's very strange, I've been using SMN a lot lately after feeling like I hadn't for a while. It's just such a nice "safe" way to do things solo; not as fast as BLM, but less risk involved sometimes.

I also decided to move forward with rank missions again, and got through Sandy 8-1; again on SMN. ;D Was pretty simple, really; typical 'two mobs, pull one the other despawns' mission. The next part was more annoying, as I needed a Prelate Key. In farming them in Den of Rancor (killing Tonberry Slashers down near the one Altar, in the entrance from the Jungle), I passed a Coffer, so also killed Bombs and the Tonberry SMN in the area in hopes for a key drop. Which I got, so I finally got a Den of Rancor map! Woot. Oh leave me alone, I'm lazy.

Also had some way fun BP numbers on the slashers; of course, they are only EP.

And all this SMNing reminds me that I need to go get those stupid Evoker Cuffs off Lamie No. 9 still. Stingy bish.

So I got my key, and then went to finish the rank mission; clearing out the hallway first I ended up dying in a bad spot so couldn't even reraise... so I'll finish and get Rank 9 later. ;D

This is a result of people not IMing me telling me not to log back in yet after needing to reboot in Dynamis Beaucedine. All of you UL members who know my AIM/MSN names, I hate you!

Randomly helped out in Dyna-Bastok on Janice with BG this week; though they definitely didn't need the help. Was a good refresher though so that I could be crazy BLM yesterday on Ashira in UL in the same zone. ;D It was a pretty good run, though slow to get first drop; we ended up with MNK, BLM (YAY), RDM, PLD, BRD, SMN, and THF.. I think that was it. Not too shabby, the SMN, RDM, BRD, and BLM are all very decent pieces.

OMG DID YOU SEE CAIT SITH?!

Overall though, a medium week. A little busy. Amusing Fafnir pops on day 5 Nidhogg the day before update, Unsent claiming KB and dying -- forgot to mention that one! Nothing massively crazy though.

For those asking, Kaeko is crazily leveling SCH (fucker left my RNG behind ) so he can finish it before winter break is done, and thus our Enmity testing may be put off for a bit. He has a list of things he wants to test though, esp with the new jobs now; and there are a few things that have come up from people we want to try to figure out and verify.

Chat log amusement:

Mazing is actually Oreeooo, whose credit card had expired so he doesn't have access to his regular account yet and is stuck on a Galka alt. ;D I dunno, I thought it was funny.

WHM75 | BLM75 | SMN75 | NIN75 | BRD75 | RDM75 | SAM62 | COR56 | WAR40 | THF39 | DRK37
RNG27 | DNC22 | MNK21 | PLD18 | SCH10 | BLU10 | BST10 | PUP06 | DRG05