Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Darwock]

Mine runs fine, although I run FFXI off an external HDD caddy (by firewire) so I don't know if that may reduce the load on the laptop itself.

[Tsingtao]

Well it's been an alround pretty good stint for me, high points have to be getting my Dash Sash which has taken far longer than it ever should. Spent about 8 hours killing toro's before I just wandered outside Sandy yesterday and it was up.

Straight after that one got a /tell from some folks I know and we set off to take down the NMs for my final AF piece. Setup was a 5 man party 75 RDM, 75 NIN, 75 RNG, 66 WHM and me a 60 PLD. Spawned the NMs and took them down in quick time and finished the quest. I am now fully AFed and ready to get on the xp trail again as soon as I get my knightly mantle, next on the list will be a Jelly ring.

On the job front finished up opening the last 2 jobs I had to get and picked up my NPC. Finally I've also got woodworking to 59, all in all its been a busy few weeks

[Daragon]

On the subject of Promys, if another one is going ahead, could someone post details on here please? I logged on last night and found that one had been planned for 7pm yesterday evening and because I wasn't in game at the time, I didn't know about it.

Like I said, I still need all 3 doing and it seems pretty stupid to me if by the end of this I'm the only one in the LS who still needs to do them because I wasn't a part of this group.

[Darwock]

Not for me to say but from what I've read here about this Promy run they've got a fixed line up, so it's not like you really missed an opportunity anyway. If it's any help I see people shouting for Promy missions (not ENMs) all the time in Jeuno, you shouldn't have to rely on Rargh.

[C']

The one that was planned for 7pm last night is the one I have been trying to sort for a few weeks now.

Sadly only 6 people can enter the Promyvion mission battle at a time and a group has already been sorted for quite some time so even if you knew about it beforehand (which you did technically) there was little that I could do to accommodate you in the group.

However from what I gather there a few more LS members who need to do Promyvions and I have heard express an interest in doing them. Akashi (MNK main) and Theanu (RDM I think) both need them completing which would give you a three member partyto work with and build on (you have a BST30 which I hear is good for the boss battles).

If you could get one sorted and have them completed it would be good as the whole reason I put together a group of 5 members who needed the mission completing (Tobal is coming along just so we have some semblance of knowing where to go) was so that we would have more LS members at the same stage in the CoP story, with plans to work through it all at the same time. Would be pointless if some other people aren't at the stage and efforts to make this a LS event are pointless.

Hope you can get something sorted

[Tobal]

I can?t remember the last you?ve been on in recent weeks Dara, the GSWD you lent me as been in my send box for 2 weeks now waiting for its master to return. And as the promey line up, we need to gather list of how actually needs to pass these missions and who can help or is helping. The big difference this time compared to last time we did promey is the ability to return to the spire gate (if you complete it) and perhaps start a 2nd team we a couple of players redoing the fight.

[Daragon]

Well there's no immediate hurry in getting the promys done yet, the areas they're linked to tend to be mostly for CoP missions which I won't be continuing until I finish Zilart. Would be nice to visit the areas to look around tho, but as long as there's still enough LS people around who still won't have done them then I suppose thats ok.

As for my absense, I've been away for about a week and the rest of the time I just felt like a break from the game. Night after night of continuous lvling wasn't doing anything for me as a person and after realising that the only time I got invites was during US primetime which also happened to be UK bedtime I favored the early night as opposed to the early morning.

[C']

As expected the Fellowship system is due to expanded on greatly in the forthcoming update. This is what is posted on the POL website:

Additions to the Fellowship System

The version update in early October will bring the following changes to the Fellowship system:

-Several Fellowship quests will be added, including one that raises the NPC's level restriction.
-There will be an increase in the variety of equipment worn by the NPC.
-Extra conversational options will be available at the Rendezvous Point.
-There will be more fighting styles to choose from.
-More information will be displayed on screen, such as the NPC's hit points.

These changes and more will be included in the upcoming version update. Details may be found on the FINAL FANTASY XI main page as soon as they are released.

Really looking forward to this. More quests are always appreciated and further fighting styles currently you are limited to

->Open Spoiler<-

Shield, Attack and Healer

after using your NPC a number of times.

Perhaps most interestingly is the picture next to this news on the POL main page at http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

That shows the NPC in one of the Movalpolis zones which is a dungeon and currently we cannot call our NPCs in dungeons.

[talizker]

An allround top night last night! We headed to Castle Oztroja with Rare, Tobal and Darwock. I was after the Coffer, Rare the Testimony, Tobal some WS stuff and Darwock was along for the ride^^

Apart from an unfortunate death to Darwock after a nuke that was a little too large for the time in the battle! everything went by the book. The Coffer Key came up after about 25 mins, the Testimony followed about 25 mins later, and I popped a Coffer shortly after that

Darwock and I were hoping to head back to do the Oztroja part of G3 but it seems that Sneak wears off when you open a Coffer and I got agro'd by 4 Leaches and had to Warp.

So, back in Jeuno with 3.5k exp until I can wear my AF body... Party flag up, invite from a 58-60 party in Gustav Tunnel. Basically made 5.5k exp in a couple of hours which was sweet.

One thing I liked about this party. Unlike some parties that have to fight mobs that give 200+ exp every time, but are long, hard, dangerous fights, we were happy easily chaining mobs that gave between 100 and 200 exp which worked soooo well.

So, thanks to Rare, Tobal and Darwock for last night /salute

[Tobal]

Ripping up them mobs with sc3 rocked, sadly after rare said something about having to fight easy prey and above, I went as checked? I now have to wipe 100points off my total... bugger back to 87 points.

[Darwock]

Good night for me too, only died three times! After my dinner I logged on and casually shouted for help with my Davoi key.. amazingly I got three responses from that first shout! One person wanted a warrior's testimony and the rest seemingly just wanted to help... there were none of the skillchain arguments from the previous night. Took about 15 minutes for us to get a couple of red mages to heal, and off we went.

While fighting regular orcs waiting outside Monastic Cavern, I got a quest item I needed as well /cheer. One small problem followed when our dark knight ran on ahead (far beyond the chosen camp) on his own and lost invisible - he died surrounded by orcs... tractor was impossible so we had to rally round, trust in our sleeping abilities and fight them off. He accepted the raise while we were still fighting, and an orcish battle dance put him right down again ><

Good part is the warrior's testimony dropped during the rescue. So we eventually get back to the originally planned camp, and notice a lot of the orcs are being claimed by a group of three players (2 thieves with support) who were out to steal gold beastcoins. They offer to help kill in exchange for stealing rights, and so we form an alliance. The very next orc dropped the coffer key.

So now we were all geared up with nothing to do... until someone suggested killing the 'overlord'. I had my doubts about this, but they'd taken deaths for me and requested I stay for Warp II, so I went with them. Rare later told me it was a 60 cap HNM so I wasn't really doing something far ahead of my time.

Now I have my suspicions that the thing we killed wasn't the Overlord. Everybody kept referring to it that way.. and it was definitely 'impossible to gauge' and took a lot of punishment.. but it was called 'Orcish Warlord'.. hmmmm. We defeated him, but he didn't drop the dark knight testimony somebody wanted so we waited for him to respawn. In the meantime we killed his two cohorts, a nasty BLM hexa-something and another type called 'Protector'. 2nd kill dropped the test, then we all went our separate ways after Escape. I went back in to find my coffer.

I headed to the Monastic Cavern area where I'd seen one on Sunday, and just started checking all the caves. In one of the rooms I noticed an altar.. went over to investigate (fully invisible) and suddenly I hear an Orc reacting to my presence.. wtf!!

Orcish Warlord hits Darwock, Darwock was defeated by the Orcish Warlord. OK.. so there's *two* of them??? Surely you can't have two Overlords! I reckon that must have been a common or garden variety warlord we all killed.

That put me back in Jeuno just in time for joining on the Oztroja hunt... which went smoothly up until when fighting a ninja, I went to strip off his shadows, had a lapse in concentration and picked the first -ga spell I came to (instead of the usual Stonega). Firaga II for 450ish damage.. not a good way to open the fight. When fighting with higher level players I always make the assumption my actions are pretty irrelevant so tend not to focus so much... lesson learnt I think.

Got a bit hectic after Tal found his coffer too... we needed an Escape from there but we'd achieved all the objectives.

Now I just had to find my coffer. Back to Davoi, steered WELL clear of the altar room, and lo and behold there it was! Two Zerkers sitting on top of it, so I just waited for an opening (took ages!) then quickly opened it and warped.

It was now just gone midnight, and I got a party invite. I would have gone to bed but saw an opportunity to recover from the deaths earlier. Bevan was also in the group. Off we went to the Boyahda tree. Bevan did an amazing job tanking I have to say.. his hate was unshakeable, I was hitting crabs with sealed Burst and they didn't even notice me! That gave me enough confidence to hit a crawler with Tornado followed by Freeze in the same fight, and I still only managed to turn it for a few seconds. So despite my best efforts I wasn't able to get myself killed again.. that honour fell to our red mage who nuked a mandragora instead of the mob we were fighting, which linked with another mandy. First sleeps were resisted, so I hit sleepga and immediately started escaping, but it didn't last long enough and they woke up and stopped me. Party wiped out. Still happy though, it was a good friendly team and the day had been a success.

[C']

Yeah being able to hit those Yagudo with a level 3 Darkness skill chain felt great. I really like Blade: Ten and at the moment it seems comparable in damage to Blade: Jin so think it will be my main WS for the time being.

Was unfortunate that Darwock died once but sadly without the natural hate spike ability of a PLD I couldn?t do anything but watch on helplessly after he hit a Firaga 2 straight after my first Provoke. Really sorry about that.

Apart from that mishap, I think we worked well as a group and I think we rivalled that other coffer key group behind us in terms of efficiency (and they had a greater number of members). I think our ability to create Darkness was what made us better. They seemed to be restricted to the level 60 weapon skills which could have been a factor.

Now that I have my Ninja?s Testimony I want to make an effort to get to 70, get myself a Fudo and show Maat who?s boss. I?m currently 20k from 67 which is technically possible tonight but I think realistically EXP sessions tonight and tomorrow will push me to 67.

[Tobal]

hehe, buy the time you hit 70, i might 72 at the rat eim going.. PARTY TOWN ^^

[Tsingtao]

Yesterday for me was something of a mixed bag, first of all apologies for not making it to Oztroja but by the time I had finished what I was up to it was quite late.

Kicked off the day selling off most of the rest of what I had crafted and then synthed my way to 59 woodworking. The down side seems to be that the scorpion arrow market is flooded right now so I'm stuck with tons. My mules sat outside Jeuno as I type in the vain hope I can sell them.

After that made a visit to Ordelles Caves and completed my RSE. Now having done this I have a question, if I sell an RSE peice can I request it or do I have to buy it again?

Finally yesterday came the bumer, for a long time I've been interested by the strange apartus scattered around the land. Have been ever since I saw my first one about 25 levels ago. Anyway I finally bit the bullet and found out how to work the things, well now I wish I hadn't. I won't go into detail (if you want to know feel free to ask) but I sit here today a total of 400k worse off with a bunch of crap to get rid of that may not sell...

...thought I'd found the magic way to profit, turns out I'd found the way to the poor house. Farming time again!

Oh and if anyone wants scorp arrows at 3k per stack place your orders!

[C']

I know of your Scorpion Arrow pain. Seems like a great synth at first as it goes from something like 51 to 59 and is really inexpensive. However like you said the market is flooded and prices fluctuate massively. I synthed up some on the weekend and stuck them on the San d?Oria AH with a price history at 3k a stack. They still haven?t sold (luckily I only made 3 stacks) and when I checked last night the price was down to 1.8k.

I think the RNG changes recently made have had an impact on arrow sales as well.

Even though I can in theory get to 59 on them (58 at the moment) I?m simply fed up of synthing them so last night before bed I tried a different synth which I thought might work out. Darksteel Bolts.

It is a more expensive synth (Yew Lumber + Darksteel Boltheads, the boltheads are 23k a stack in San d?Oria) but each stack of Darksteel Bolts seems to sell for 10k a stack (and the market is nowhere near as flooded as Scorp Arrows) which means you break even if you get 3 breaks. I made 1 stack of materials worth last night (i.e 1 stack of boltsheads and lumber) and gained 0.7 skill which is a much better return than I got on Scorps so I think I will use these to get to 60. I did get 3 breaks but only 1 of the breaks caused me to lose any ingredients.

As for RSE. You can only quest each piece once. If you sell it on the only way to get it back is to buy it off the AH. I rarely use any of mine (the gloves are a permanent part of my WAR/thf build) but don?t think I?d ever sell it just in case.