Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Darwock]

I've still got my seals to use up, hopefully one night this week we can have another shot at the BCNM50 at Balga's Dais? It's really just finding a moment when we're all online and otherwise unoccupied.

The only other thing I can clear off my list at the moment that doesn't require a few more levels, is the garlaige citadel furnace trip. I'm willing to help with anyone else's quests that I'm useful for though.

[C']

Not much myself I am pottering along.

I really want to get my Promyvion game on but I?m reliant on Apa and Moot to be able to do that. All the gear that I need for that has been obtained.

My current equipment is as good as I could ask for to get back to EXPing (it occurred to me that since starting again 2 months ago I haven?t been in an EXP PT once) but once I hit 63 I need Arhat?s Sune-ate+1 and Anemet Mantle+1 which will set me back a shade over 2.5m for the both. However I really want to avoid EXPing without my Hototogisu so I really need to pull the usual suspects together for {Temple of Uggalepih} {Full Attack}.

So apart from farming every few days, working on my crafts (Woodwork to 60 then Alchemy) I?ve not got much on. I am trying my hand at camping Mee Deggi the Punisher every so often to see if I can get some Ochiudo?s Kote which I will sell to fund Horomusha Kote.

[Tsingtao]

If I can help you rare just give me a call and I'll come to the temple with you. I've never been there so it might be a nice change

[Vanicent]

Not done much this weekend really, as I was working. I did manage to get a few useful things, including a level 15 Katana for when I level NIN (Thanks Moot ^_^), and a few more stacks of items worth about 60k.

If they all sell, I'll have 567k. Not bad, imo, it's definately the most money I've ever had in game.

[C']

Bought my Arhat?s Sune-ate+1 last night in preparationfor level 63. Price history was 1.5m although they hadn?t been one sold for about a week despite always being one listed. I have a suspicion the seller was trying his luck and attempting to list it for 2m due to lack of competition. However I noticed another had been listed last night and I was able to get it for 1.4m which I?m happy about. Is a nice set of gear with Evasion+5 and Emnity+2 which will be great for EXP although it does mean I will lose my Movement speed bonus at night time. Dropped my gil to under 200k which is the poorest I?ve been since buying Scorp Harness.

Just need an Anemet Mantle+1 now (price dropped to 1m over night but has creeped up a touch again) and I am set until 65 (where Evasion Torque is needed). Which means I really want to get Hototogisu sorted if possible. Getting Hototogisu means I can go with a Sairen/Hototogisu combo which is cool set (and pretty 1337 if I do say so) and sell my Kabutowari+1

Bayan and Wedge have been really enthusiastic about trying again but I?ve been putting it off due to fear of attempting 4 times and no drop again. However I?ve realised having the Tonberry Rattles and not using them is a waste so if Apathye, Bayan, Tobal and Wedge are all free on Thursday I would like to try then.

Other than that I?m just going to farm for Anemet and leave woodworking until the fruits of my previous crafting sessions have all sold.

[Tobal]

im free all the time ^^;

Back to leveling my BLM till thursday then.

[Tsingtao]

Well a small set forward last night, I've now crafted up half the materials I need to get from clothcraft 4 - 10. So far been fairly standard yagudo farming, popped the cest twice so far for a grand total of 1.6k (whoo) I hear you say.

Prior to my Yagudo bashing spree I managed to pick upa tidy 5k of experience in CApe Terrigan leaving me just 7k tnl now. Looking like I may just make 57 this week and then the fun begins, I still have nowhere near the money for the gluttony sword. In fact after buying my Earth Staff last night I have the least cash I've had for months.

[Darwock]

sigh... yet another evening wasted in the burning circle, and another orb down. I don't give a stuff about the seals but I'm close to giving up just cos it's so damn demoralizing. This time the turning point was a stupid fumble from me, starting to cast a spell on the wrong raptor and wasting valuable time while I interrupted and waited for a recast. Again it was one nuke that was the difference between tsingtao living or dying before it was put to sleep again. AARGH!

[Tobal]

Good night for me, heard a rumor about 4th G.K that was added to the patch that nobody had mentioned, main 3 people the Lvl.10rare/ex, lvl50 2double attack one and the lvl75 killer G.K.

So the hunt was one for the Dosetsu Tree in Qufim island. Spent 3hrs camping for it with no really info to go on, other than it spawn in 3 possible areas,only during certain weather. Easy kill for me, and one Rare lvl56 G.K 'Raikiri' +10 ATK in Thunder, 437 Delay, 69 Damage, +3 ACC, Thunder Element +10, and Decreases Movement Speed. and all blue weapon with gold trimmings






also while i was hunting he popped up on sidescan... dropped nothing though

[bokawel]

Bayan and Wedge have been really enthusiastic about trying again but I?ve been putting it off due to fear of attempting 4 times and no drop again. However I?ve realised having the Tonberry Rattles and not using them is a waste so if Apathye, Bayan, Tobal and Wedge are all free on Thursday I would like to try then.

if you ever need some more help Rare pls let me knw. i want to see this famed Tonberry for myself though can only do it on the weekend...

@4am? heh juz came back frm work ft:

[Daragon]

Not a bad evening for me yesterday. Joined up with some of my bst buds from sixaxearmy and tackled the new BCNM 40 in Horlais Peak (a 3 member stand off against a trio of Hecteyes), hoping to get ourselves at least 1 peacock charm. Sadly, luck was not with us and for the 2 of the 4 fights we actually won, our loot was relatively poor
As has been a habit over these past few days, I "cleverly" join a party @ 12am when I happened to be over 15k to my next lvl. About 2 or so hours later, I end up with 4k tnl before sleep finally got the better of me and I took off.

[Tsingtao]

Well mixed bag for me last night, though I can't say any of it was amazing fun. Eventually finished farming up grass cloth and thread in Giddeus and set off getting clothcraft to 11. After much anoyance, space problems, crap skill ups and money spent I finally made 10 this morning before work. Got about another 0.5 of skill ups to go to reach the elusive 11, I have to say I'm really not a fan of clothcraft right now, it seems to be a cash sink hole for the first 11 levels with little better to look forward to. I'm guestimating it's cost me around 150k to put those levels on and the skill up rates couldn't suck any harder if they tried.

The other part of last night action was another shot at the rapid raptors in Balgas Dias, unfortunately it wne the same way as the last couple of attempts and wound up with wipes. Managed to die twice this time in the same battle which left a noticable hole in my tnl but that's nothing compared to the number of orbs now spent on these things. Essentially I can see no clear way to take these things on, surely they must be beatable without burning 2 hours all over the shop.

[Darwock]

Sorry Tsing, it was very optimistic of me to bring raises into the equation - I didn't consider that you would lose double the xp for it as a result <hangs head in shame>

With hindsight we should have all just cleared out of the arena at that point. The raptor was asleep and we were all alive :-(

I think the only way we could be guaranteed a victory is if we all had uber-gear.. if I had a sorceror's ring and the two bits of equipment I'm trying to get out of these (ironic really) my damage output would be upped considerably, which would definitely help.

As it is, we certainly can take it down to one raptor (but there is absolutely zero margin for error, and last night I was not 'in the zone' at all).. but would we be able to cope with the remaining one even if we did? That last raptor hit both me & tal for 400+. If we'd got that far and still been slaughtered I would definitely be throwing in the towel.

But since we didn't really learn anything new this time I don't know what to do. People can't keep dying indefinitely. It took me five or six attempts at the avatar fights before I finally found the little details that led to victory instead of death - like for example, a detail from last night would be the importance of de-targetting the 1st raptor completely before starting to nuke the 2nd. sigh.

[Tsingtao]

I think we did learn something new last night, had a think about what happened and here's my take.

In terms of mistakes we will always make some, we're not bots. You said you fumbled the sleep, but I tried to cure myslef while being attacked by 2 mobs rather than taking the potion, equally I didn't pull up defender or sentinel which may have bought me an extra hit.

What I thought from last night though is that our problem is when the second mob wakes, I can't handle the damage from 2 mobs beating on me as I can't cast Cure without interuption. Now here's my thoughts, on our first run we got the first mob down to around 50% before mob 2 woke up. I don't think we used any 2 hours that time so I can tank these things, they hit hard but with tals support I can survive I think. So given this I think we're slightly off on our tactics, here's my best guess

1) Enter the arena and buff
2) ES and sleep the left raptor
3) I provoke and grab hate on the right raptor
4) We work normally on the mob, casting and beating as we go
5) Mob 2 wakes up
6) Tsing hits invincible to grab hate from both mobs
7) I tank while we get sleep to stick on second mob
8) Manafont / Chainspell and blow the living bejesus out of the first mob
9) Rest and then take the second mob

Danger I see is if I can't hold hate, but I'm usually pretty good on that front. So that my best guess at how we might make this work. What do you think...

By the way I don't claim the above will be easy, if I screw up you 2 got torn apart like dolls by these things last night so the end would be damn fast.

As for the 2 deaths I could have turned down the raise but I thought we may get away with it as well. The mobs hit me for around 140 for physicals and 250 for breath.

[Darwock]

By jings I think you're on to something!

I like the sound of that... except by that stage of the fight tal may not have the MP to make chainspell worthwhile. So would I use manafont for Freeze or not, hmmm.. it *does* take a lot of health bar off these things.