Final Fantasy XI Then...

[C']

I had considered the self destruct thing. However, last night we only lost because of silly mistakes. The first one with the near wipe lost us about 5 minutes and we still nearly completed it. Second run was a bit of miscommunication and lack of concentration which led to people (read: me) running off when we shouldn?t have done. Then there was the mistake with the 3rd bomb which again added minutes to the run.

However, despite the losses we learnt a lot from the runs. Experimentation with SC has revealed that they did 0 damage with no noticeable added damage from magic burst so it?s clear the best tactic is build TP as quickly as possible then use your most damaging weapon skill. I know Tobal, Xandman and I were all consistently hitting ours for 15-20 damage.

Mosley trying to use Rolling Thunder was quite clever thinking but sadly the Enthunder add. Effect always hit for 0. Nice thinking though from the team

So each of our failed runs had clear points where you can point out moments that cost us vital minutes despite the fact we spend 10 minutes on the first wall.

EDIT - seems like a lot of people cannot try again tonight so hopefuly we can repeat the run tommorrow. I'm really eager to beat this one now based on how close we came last night.

[Tobal]

Well if we agro a bomb at all on these run i recommend fight up aginst a wall, just to see if it works.

[mikewl]

I doubt I could solo the bomb wit a jug pet, unless we are lucky and it self destructs early.

Best bet is to use barfira and fire carol if we try that way.

Still I have my doubts it will work, seeing a when using a mine it doesn't blow the wall unless engaged in battle .

[Darwock]

I really want to see what ancient magic does to it just to find out if it's more efficient. If it's significant it would probably be quicker to regain the MP from AM nukes than spend it all firing out little ones. Damage from spells does go up with the higher tier nukes, it's just not worth the MP on (for example) blizzard II for 10 points. I can imagine Flare landing for 50 points or something. If so I do think I could regain 380 mp in the time it took to do the same damage with smaller nukes.

[C']

Oh, and I think we also spotted certain moments in the second run where the wall seemed noticeably weaker (I started hitting for 3s on non-criticals for example). Unsure what caused this. The big difference on the second run was that Wedge came as BRD instead of BST.

Now, this could mean the damage boost came from attack song but it seemed to peak and trough despite the song always being on. I did spot that Wedge started using Earth Crusher on that run. Perhaps the use of Earth based weapon skills created the weakness?

[mikewl]

It could have had something to do with it, I suggest we try everything that seemed to work or possibily work.

We should all be back to 3 I.Ds Saturday so we get a few tries to test things out.

[Darwock]

Saturday is 50/50 for me, been asked to go to the pub and that's not a good start for being home on time. I'll do my best though, if I'm not around just get someone else.

[Tsingtao]

I'd be up for a try later, have we tried the WHM hasting all the DD to get the wall down faster? If we went for haste builds we might find some better results.

Other thing is what impact to skill chains and bursts have? Is it worth using light dark skillchains + tier 3 or ga bursting?

Does chainspell give us any major gain?

[Darwock]

We had hastega from mosley, and march from wedgemoon, plus rare was using a latent effect haste ring. Skillchains and bursts have zero effect. There's no obvious trick that would cut the time by half or anything, it's just sheer effort that's required. The one thing I think might be a big advantage is hundred fists. Also on the first attempt it was the ranger who did the most damage to the wall. Meric used chainspell the first time and it was pointless, just did the same job in less time (a few nukes for 10 per hit) then he had to rest.

[Darwock]

Interesting evening...

Happened to be on the ferry to Al Zhabi when the undead started attacking the town, there was only 1 other person on the ferry with me and he asked if he could team up. When we arrived we grouped with Rare and eventually Tsing. The whole thing was way more involved than last time, the mobs were all over the moghouse area and everywhere.. not just a few by the gate like before. Was a real effort to take the mobs down and we all died many times (and always got raised soon after).

I was regretting inviting the other BLM though, he was really getting on my nerves constantly asking where he could get sanction (even though he couldnt) during all the chaos. After the battle the undead had taken 5 npcs back to arrapago reef, so we jumped on the boat and went after them. Nothing to be done though, when we got there the prisoners were all freed soon after.. so it was after the last staging point instead.

This is where it went tits up as our dangleberry BLM decided to tag along, sans invis or sneak, and got aggroed by an IT mob when there were only the three of us to deal with it. I blatantly have leanings to the dark side cos my first thoughts were "finally no more annoying guy".. unfortunately Rare chose the path of light, tried to save him and got killed. I would have gone back and opened the door for you mate...

Anyway I figured any involvement was suicide, and with no RR I stayed well out of it and lived to try and find the staging point, but we had been going the wrong way. Ended up back in the same place I ended up when searching for Ilrusi atoll, so I thought I was going to be in for another 4 hours of torture but actually found the right exit after not too long.

Afterwards me & tsing were at a loose end so went off to camp Centurio once more, after 45 mins we had competition but just before tsing left they offered to team up as they weren't after the cloak.

We've had the place to ourselves for an hour and a half, and now three more interested parties have turned up. Writing this to pass the time between pops, guess I should find out one way or the other soon enough.

[Darwock]

2:05 am.. wearing my new shaman's cloak

[Tsingtao]

Congratulations mate there have been a number of times recently now where I have seen some genuinely community minded play for others. Our server may have its douches but it also has its saints so a lordable mention for Silvertongue, Squint and the other dude who's name I've forgotten

[Darwock]

Silvertongue, Squint & Rahyiyi. Top guys. That's exactly why I came on, was too late for me last night and I forgot to give them their due! They got a stonega II so I think they made about 100K each, shame they didn't get quake.

[Darwock]

Inanimate walls make for skill up success!

Me, wedge & tal tried lebros caverns uncapped as a test, and while it took us 25 mins to break the wall down, it was constant skill ups all the way. Wedge on axe, me on elemental magic & tal on magic+sword... that's gonna be awesome once my weapons are higher (or even at lower caps).. cos there's no danger or downtime! You wouldn't even need to be there for weapon skills lol

Anyway fort william tomorrow, will be back by 9pm for CoP, hope it's still on.

[talizker]

Definately up for the rest of the CoP Mission tomorrow. Are we still looking at doing some Lv30 ENM's on Monday evening?