Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Tsingtao]

Well for me a nice steady weekend, managed to get muy WHM from 23 to 26 and quickly raised my elathercarfting from 4 -6 another sink hole for gil. Looking at things now I'll be able to go back to PLD soon and start xping again. Grabbed the +1 bathing suits with hicory as well on Sunday night, now I must get back to my goldfish scooping to get my fish set

Tal I'll be happy to tag along and the key finding quest, if you can convine bayan mind my chances of holding hate from him are around 0. Next coffer hunt for me is bedaeux and I'm hearing nasty things about that one. One I hit the mid 57s though I'l be looking to pull that one together...

Tooka shot at getting another RSE piece today but with maintenance couldn't really try to long, farmed fora key for about 30 mins but having not got one decided to call it and go instead. This weeks looking busy, have to see but I have this feeling creeping up next time I get on may be Friday!

[Daragon]

/em shakes fist at POL

I wanted 62 tonight, instead I was cruelly denied after discovering that all playonline services related to customer info were disabled for whatever reason, that means passwords etc took a hit and became more or less ineffective.

Going to have to go back to my whm for a few lvls maybe tomorrow or wednesday. I can't believe how much easier it is to level at 61 than it is to level at 31 with my whm

[Darwock]

I thought it was scheduled maintenance? Back up at 9:00 am today wasn't it? I hope there's no update or we can write off any thoughts of playing for the next two days!!

[mikewl]

Has anyone got a full set of Mannequin yet, im starting to think about getting them now.

I know you can get some parts from a BCNM20 and The Big One quest, not sure about the others.

[mikewl]

Just spotted Final Fantasy XI Arrange Version at cdjapan.co.jp being released later this month. If its on a par with other FF Arrange Soundtrack it should be great

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=SQEX-10050

Hopefully this will end up on Itunes along with most of the other soundtracks, at least then I can try them out to see if its worth getting.

I got the Gustaberg (Bonus Track) on Itunes, its not bad, worth a listen.

[Darwock]

Has anyone got a full set of Mannequin yet, im starting to think about getting them now.

I know you can get some parts from a BCNM20 and The Big One quest, not sure about the others.

Funny, I was thinking about that too! I've got legs and feet. You can at least get head and body from some of the BCNM30s too.

But the place I originally heard about to get them was on Garrison missions... I have three Garrison items and would love an opportunity to use them, but I need to wait for Windurstian control of Zi'Tah, Norvallen and Kolshushu.

edit - seems the garrison ones will *only* drop legs and feet, so won't do me much good anyway. God damn BCNMs are a curse on me at the moment though, I may just try and buy the parts from someone.

[mikewl]

Funny, I was thinking about that too! I've got legs and feet. You can at least get head and body from some of the BCNM30s too.

But the place I originally heard about to get them was on Garrison missions... I have three Garrison items and would love an opportunity to use them, but I need to wait for Windurstian control of Zi'Tah, Norvallen and Kolshushu.

edit - seems the garrison ones will *only* drop legs and feet, so won't do me much good anyway. God damn BCNMs are a curse on me at the moment though, I may just try and buy the parts from someone.

I think most the parts are quite cheap, its the body that goes for about 500k I think, I can understand why too, the BCNM20 that drops it is TOO HARD ft: I wasted about 60 Beastmen Seals of my own and others lost too, I think I tried it about 10 times and lost everytime, just too hard.

[Darwock]

Hmmm.. the BCNM30 at Qu'bia arena against 3 weapons reportedly drops the body, head and hands (and body is listed at a couple of other BCNM30s too, I was looking for the avatar belt). Based on the japanese page I auto-translated though, most are only attempted by ninja or people with a ninja support job.

[talizker]

Think I may have set a new record last night for the least amount of exp gained during a 2? session (in Kuftal Tunnel) with no deaths invloved.

A grand total of 201

[huge] /sigh

[Darwock]

O_O

Did you miss a zero there?

[talizker]

O_O

Did you miss a zero there?

Nope thats 201. One batle in 2? hours thanks to DC's, AFK's, no availble Tanks etc...

[C']

Tal, I can completely relate. Last night I decided that I was going to try and get my first EXP party in quite a while (February or March must have been my last EXP group). Despite this I had my shiny Scorpion Harness, Sairen and Anemet Mantle (with Arhat?s Sune-ate+1 for 63) so I was rather confident. Logged on and, even without sticking my flag up, I got a tell within a minute asking me to PT. I held off (tea was due ) but told them that if they still needed me in 30 minutes I would join them.

Well I join up and although it doesn?t look like the greatest PT it is formed up with a good set of balanced jobs (NIN, THF, WAR/nin, WHM, RDM, BLM). It was decided that we would be heading to Boyhada Tree to fight processionaries (crawlers), however only the RDM knows where the camp there is. The RDM seemed really knowledgeable so I was pretty confident we could do well however I was rather concerned that the WAR was equipped in his AF body piece (which offers no benefit if he wasn?t planning on tanking, Emnity+8). I?m not unreasonable in what I expect from people. Sure a Haubergeon would have been preferable gear for him as a DD but Royal Knight?s Chainmail would have been far more appropriate and isn?t even very expensive. However he told me ?don?t worry, I?ve never taken hate off anyone? when I queried him about it. Considering he was loaded with Emnity, was first Voke for SATA and had Rampage, he should be ripping hate off people easily.

We head inside and head towards camp. Remember only the RDM knew where to go so we should have all followed him however when we arrived only 3 of us were there. 2 others had fallen behind due to Sneak recast and lost sight of us (which happens). RDM went and got them (although the WHM did aggro an elemental and died ><) So we had 5 of us. The WAR was nowhere to be seen. Turns out he had gone in a completely different direction and camped elsewhere. He could have gotten back to us easily with a quick Sneak except (obviously) he hadn?t brought his own Silent Oil so we all had to move to him (although the BLM goes off in a completely arbitrary direction and the RDM has to go and get him too).

He said we could EXP where he had gone although I was concerned that the PTs near us were 64-66 (we were 60-62). We pull our first mob and it is rough. We miss an awful lot, no debuffs stick and the fight takes ages. Certainly there is no potential for high chains so we all go back to the original camp. First pull, everyone goes pretty well and they pull the second and I thought it would go even better as all debuffs stick and I?m hitting everything.

Then it goes wrong.

Double attack removes 2 shadows, then it removes another and another and I?m on Utsusemi: Ichi. 3 more are quickly removed and I?m without shadows with 15 seconds left on recast (I hadn?t managed to evade a single attack). I take a Double attack, followed by a critical then Poison Breath for 350HP.

I?m dead

The RDM is really annoyed now. I apologise but he /tells me saying he?s mad at the PT and that in a 3 mage PT I should have been healed. The WAR said he tried to Provoke (but I never saw it) and if he did the mob didn?t budge which means his damage output must have been pathetic if he couldn?t get hate with the Emnity he has on full AF. I?m not really that bothered about dying and put it down to one of those things (some times the mob does get lucky with removing shadows and I have to deal with it).

After weakness wears we are all set to go again then the RDM disconnects. We wait for around 15 minutes and he doesn?t reappear so we try pulling another. We manage to kill it but it was slow. The THF then goes afk (for about the 4th time in the hour) and a crawler pops near him and aggroes. The 4 of us start on it and remarkably we win but at this point I?m starting to realise this PT is going nowhere. We Escape I presume the leader is looking for a 6th man. 20 minutes after standing there doing nothing the leader then pipes up ?so, should I hunt for a 6th??. My head hits the desk. I make my excuses and log off to watch the football.

I do return at about 10pm and decide I will stick my flag up for 30 mins to see what happens. However instead of returning to Jeuno I stay in the Tree and see what I can solo. I start on even match Bark Spiders. Pretty easy but the slow effect they have was annoying so I move onto Robber Crabs which conned as tough. Prove to actually be much easier and take about 3 mins per kill for 130exp. I decide to really push myself and hunt out a very tough Robber Crab to see what I can do. I was not filled with confidence when Blind refused to stick but after a 9 minute fight I kill it. Netted me a cool 240EXP and I return to Jeuno somewhat proud of what I just achieved (plus I pulled in more EXP in less than 1 hour of soloing than I did in a 2 hour party).

Hopefully my EXP will be better tonight.

[Darwock]

Sounds absolutely painful. It's worse when that sort of thing happens late at night. Tal, how did you break the 200 barrier (by 1 point lol) without an experience chain?

I've been soloing my 33 SMN/BLM, not under /anon but not with my flag up either - never had a single /tell asking me to party under those circumstances, but I got one last night - however I was doing quite well out of the xp and items, and I can't equip my useful gear yet so I declined. Probably the last invite I will ever get lol.

DC gobs doing exactly what it says on the tin and providing a decent challenge, a couple of hairy moments - 1 where I somehow managed to draw more hate than Ramuh after a thunderspark, disengaged but the gob shaman had my HP down to double figures before I could hit the next blood pact to shift it's attention, then to top it off it inflicted drown upon me. Drown wore off when I was down to 15 hp... yikes. That one was a DC72, which is pretty much my limit without using astral flow.

[Tobal]

Lol, welcome back to the world of exping. I?ve been quite enjoying the low levels again bringing up my blm/whm/drk its provided plenty of laughs and shocking player behaviour. Hopefully I?ll be able to get back to my samurai after Sunday, without my Bastok conquest gear helmet I?ve been using since lvl60.

What the situation of CoP at the moment? From what I remember, Rare you?ve now got your gear, Cemoot is waiting for CoP to be delivered? Apa = unknown.

[talizker]

Sounds absolutely painful. It's worse when that sort of thing happens late at night. Tal, how did you break the 200 barrier (by 1 point lol) without an experience chain?

Oh no! Maybe it was worse than I remembered O.o