Holla holla holla holla HOLLA!

Not too much went on last night. No campaign. No leveling. No farming. Not much sold in the AH. ...

But at least I got one of my Prommies done! {Promyvion-Holla} seemed to go a LOT smoother this time than the other 3 times I've tried it. Maybe because there was less stress on our party because we had 3 WAR/NINs instead of just the typical 2. Plus the fact that we all had at least 1 anima to use. Plus the fact that we had a very competent leader who layed out the game plan ahead of time and made sure everyone knew what they were doing before just rushing in there screaming KILL KILL KILL!!! Only 1 person died while fighting the boss and that's because everyone else was asleep while he was gettin smacked-down.

So, hopefully the same group of people will go do another Prommy later (probably sometime next week) and we'll have just as easy of a time there too.

Tonight: ... no ^^ cuz I'll probably be out boozin it up with a bunch of friends. Although, if I manage to get back at a decent hour (ie. before 3am) I might go do a couple campaigns because I should be able to get evaluated tonight for my next campaign rank-up.

Tomorrow Treu is gonna try to rush me through the ZMs so I can get {sky} access and start joining the LS up there too.

The rest of the weekend will be dedicated to leveling my MNK. I will hopefully be able to make the run from 70-75 over the next week or so.

It's the end of the world as we know it

After puttin the smack-down on the old-man, I waited around in Port Bastok for less than an hour until my first LS event: {Dynamis - Bastok}

Last night was my first time doing Dynamis. (My first End-Game event!) It was... well, it was {fun} cuz I didn't die. ^^ But it was also a lot faster-paced than what i had expected. It was just non-stop "Assist Main Full Attack Vanguard Whatever!" for almost the entire time. We only paused maybe 4 times for some resting (for characters as well as RL. lol) All-in-all, I had a good time with it. The boss went down Über-fast. No major wipes. Got the key item for the clear. I was informed by the LS leader that I did not screw up at all. (or at least not that he saw or anyone else mentioned.) ... All is well with the world. ^^ Next one up is Sunday night for {Dynamis - San d'Oria}.

There were a few things that I had questions about that Treu already filled me in on.
- (Q) Why was I the only MNK there? (A) Cuz everyone else apparently has other (stronger?) jobs they wanted to play. But apparently there are very few MNKs in the LS, so i guess that means I have better chances at pickin up all of my AF gear. ^^
- (Q) Are they (MNKs) worthless in Dynamis? Worthless in Dynamis-Bastok? (A) No and no. Again, probably just a coincidence.
- (Q) Is it always this fast-paced? (A) For our LS, apparently not.
- (Q) Is it always this (seemingly) easy? (A) Not always. We apparently normally only have around 18 people going in. This time we had a full alliance as well as my full party on the outside too.

Tonight's plan: maybe add a screenshot or two in here from my first Dynamis, prolly do some campaigns, and then go on a Prommy run or two.

I hope this good-luck streak never ends. ^^ Can't wait to hit 75 and start on my merits!

I also read about some of the changes that will be coming in thsi update (which should be done by now). Monks can now apparently restrict their attacks to just Kick Attacks. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me. I can only think that maybe there is a new piece of feet gear that greatly improves the damage dealt from your kicks (something better than Wulong Shoes, Dune Boots, etc...); otherwise, why would you want to NOT use your fists? You're just missing out on more damage that way. The only other new JA I was interested in was that BRDs can now focus a song on an individual rather than an area around them. This could make them even more useful in parties (as if they weren't already awesome) for helping out ... well, anyone who needs it. I guess we'll see how often it's used, but I'm willing to be it'll be used as much as I spam Berserk - Focus - Dodge in my xp parties. (ie. as often as possible)

w00t! I was ready to hit the Maat!

Maat Fight - Level Break

Job: Monk
Level: 70
Race: Hume M

Skills: (no, none were maxed-out)
Hand-to-Hand: 248
Evasion: 223
Guarding: 63

Equipment entered with:

• Main: Tactician Magician's hooks +1
• Sub: n/a
• Range: n/a
• Ammo: Smart Grenade
• Head: Temple Crown (will change later to Mercenary Captain's Headgear)
  
• Neck: Opo-opo Necklace (will change later to Chivalrous Chain)
  
• Ear: Fang Earring
  
• Ear: Fang Earring
  
• Body: Scorpion Harness
• Hands: Ochimusha Kote (Custom M Gloves used later for WS)
  
• Ring: Sun Ring
  
• Ring: Sun Ring
  
• Back: Amemet Mantle +1
  
• Waist: Brown Belt
  
• Legs: Aikido Koshita
  
• Feet: Temple Gaiters (will change later to Wulong Shoes)
  

Strategy (for the most-part, obtained from FFXIclopedia - Shattering Stars (MNK) - Alternative Strategy):

1. Equip all of the gear listed above and talk to Maat in Jeuno
   
2. Trade "Monk's Testimony" to the Burning Circle
   
3. Eat "Meat Mithkabob"
4. Use "Sleeping Potion" and wait until your TP increases 25 points
5. Repeat step 4 three more times (until you get to 100 TP)
6. Run over to Maat
7. Run macro to fire-off Counterstance, Focus and Dodge
8. Run macro to equip fighting gear (listed above)
   
9. Select Maat, Attack, and approach him
10. After the first hit (to make sure you're close enough and aimed at him) execute WS macro (equipped "Custom M Gloves", WS "Howling Fist", equip "Ochimusha Kote")
11. Fire-off "Hundred Fists"
    
12. When HP starts getting low, fire-off Chakra (I macro-ed in "Temple Cyclas")
13. When TP reaches 100, execute WS macro

And that's that folks! I didn't even need to use an Icarus Wing and WS again! From my initial swing until he gave up: 26 seconds.

In hind-sight, I probably should have:

• included step 11 in with step 7 to save a second or two
• not macro-ed in AF for Chakra... or maybe not even used Chakra at all!

I think it mainly just came down to a little (or a LOT of) luck though. From looking at the log, Maat only made contact with me 4 times... for an average of almost 200 per swing. That seems to be a big difference from the first time I fought Maat when he only was hitting me for around 100 - 120.
Maat's swings against me:

• miss
• miss
• miss
• 188
• 210
  
• countered (i countered him for 52)
• countered (i countered him for 50)
• countered (i countered him for 53)
• miss
• countered (i countered him for 83)
• 225
• 159

I'll post the log later tonight. We have my first Dynamis run in a few minutes. ^^

Beaten to the Punch

Not as much accomplished today as I would have liked, but progress was still made, lessons were learned and future tasks were planned.

Progress made: Leveled my MNK up to 70, which means it was now time for the Maat fight for my final level-break! ^^

Lesson learned: Maat is one tough sumbitch. I voked him and within 40 seconds I was dead. I thought I did everything right: Opo-opo necklace, 4 sleep pots, boosted as much as i could between pots (without wasting any time), switched back to Chiv Chain, chi blasted for the initial voke, WS, Ic Wing, WS, Chakra and then before I could even initiate my 2-hour... K.O. I followed the directions precisely, so I don't know what went wrong. Unless I need to go in naked. Some people say you need to; others say it's a myth. /shrug Guess I'll try it next time. I think I'm also gonna have to macro-out the entire fight for next time because every second apparently counts.


Oops. I selected option #1, when I should have chosen option #2.
Task(s) planned: Was gonna go on a Promy-Holla run tonight, but one of the guys went afk and never came back, so we're just gonna (hopefully) go on Thursday night. I also put all of our future Dynamis runs into my Treo and set 1-hour alarms so I don't forget to show up. (Next one: Bastok on Wednesday @8pm EST)

I also ended the night doing another campaign. I'm starting to actually enjoy these... but I realize that you pretty much CAN'T do a campaign unless you have a decent tank or 4 and several healers. If you don't have that, you might as well not waste your time. (everyone dead = no fun, no xp, and no ATs) Participating in more campaign battles is giving me motivation to level my SMN up though. ^^

We're gonna need a montage...

Lots of stuff happened over the past few days. Lots of ups and downs. Started off with a bunch of downs. :-p I tried to take care of several quests all at once and it turned out that I hadn't completed the quests up to the point that I thought I did, or I couldn't read the map in order to find out how to get to the Cavernous Maws that I don't have yet, or I was running to a far away area as the wrong job, or.... Get the point? So I just flat-out gave up for a night or two and decided that I REALLY needed to catch up on some sleep.

Saturday turned out to be awesome: {Monk} {Experience points} {Long time} {Yes, please}
Progressed my MNK from 66 to 69 over a span of something like 12 non-stop hours. Time flew by. I was havin a blast cuz the xp gain was rockin and every time we needed a position filled, we ended up finding an even better person to fill the spot. Our first BRD was afk probably like 50% of the time we were out there; it was getting REALLY frustrating. She'd tell me she was gonna be gone for a few minutes and then wouldn't come back for like 10 or 15, and then she'd do it again a few mobs later. I came so close to just booting her from the party a couple times. Luckiy she left and we found an awesome replacement who actually PLAYED his JOB (and knew how to do it well, and where/when/what songs to play, etc...).

I also used my final Anniversary Ring charge and, well, that was that. Now I'm gonna be back to boring (slower) leveling again.


Sunday was more focused on randomness rather than leveling.

• The lack of partyin was just more of the usual: had my flag up for hours and no invites... couldn't put my own pt together because it seemed like there were only DDs lfp everytime I searched....
• I had stacks and stacks of crystals that I needed to get rid of so I bazarred a ton and AHed the rest.
• Ditto for random items that I've picked up over the past week (scrolls and whatnot that the Yagudo dropped while I was camping NMs).
• I actually, finally, got my 10 marbles for the Mog Bonanza, before I procrastinated too much and missed-out.
• More wandering around in the past which resulted in obtaining a map of Grauberg [S], a Smart Grenade and ... (drumroll please) ... 2 more jobs!
  

• More camping in Castle Oz for a bit when I was having some random middle-of-the-day meal, which resulted in more disappointment. (the camping, not the meal - only 2 claims, both failz)
  

• and last but not least, I did my first few campaigns... which resulted in:

So, all-in-all, another successful weekend. Some disappointments, but much accomplished. Hopefully I'll be able to find another great party in the next day or two so I can get my MNK's xp up another 50k and then head off to kick Maat's wrinkly old balls from here to Tu'Lia.

OMFG! I SUCK! I just realized tonight was Sunday... and I missed a Dynamis Bastok run with the new LS. >< Why the hell didn't I realize this sooner!?? GDI. I'm only like... 7.5 hours late. This totally sucks. ... Now I'm screwed. I'm not gonna be able to make it into any of the rest of their Dynamis Icelands runs later on cuz I missed out on a city.
...
...
...
{/sigh}

Yes way, Ted!

Last night I camped Mee Deggi for my own personal O Kote again because I couldn't get into {Dynamis-Beaucidine} with the rest of the LS. Lucky for me, there were only 2 other people camping it too. Unlucky for me, one was a 75NIN/THF who was spamming {Flee} and constantly running around the pop zone (like I was, but he was just running a lot faster) and the other guy was a 75PLD(?)/RNG who was constantly popping his Sprinter's Shoe and was using widescan. Lucky for me, killing all those Yagudo while waiting (at only 50gil a pop, mind you) made me something like 5k. Lucky for me, I saw Mee Deggi pop. Lucky for me, I got the claim before either of the other two got there. Lucky for me, ah gots mahself mah ownz O's Kote!!!

I also managed to pick up an Air Spirit Pact while killin Yags too, so now I actually have a 2nd summons for my SMN1. (only like 20 to go til I hit one of my random, obscure goals! lol)

So then I head over to camp Quu Domi for some haste +3% feet... long story short, one of hte other two guys got the claim... and HE got the rare drop too! Crazy good times to be campin NMs last night I guess. ^^

Then just random BS for the rest of the night... mainly farmin coeurls and Auction Housing stuff to make me some more cash so I can afford my own Scorp Harness and Treu can get back another one of his items from me.

Oh, and finally picked up my LS pearl for AstrumNovae at the end of the night too. Dicked -around a bit before logging: Treu was foot-racing Caldera so they could gauge whether or not Flee stacks with Mazurka. Apparently it does cuz Treu kicked Cald's ass from where I was standing. Like, by a LONG shot.

Things have certainly changed around here.

"I remember when this was all farmland as far the eye could see. Old man Peabody owned all of this. He had this crazy idea about breeding pine trees."

So I spent most of the evening back in time and got a lot more necessary stuff taken care of.

I completed the "SNAKES on a M****r-F****n PLAIN!!!" quest and joined the Windurst [S] Cobra Unit. I decided for Windy (instead of my home nation of Basty) because of some of the Cobra Unit gear; Windy [S] seems to be the only place to get MNK gear with Allied Notes. Now that I finally belong to a nation in the past, I can start doing Campaigns for more xp. ^^ I also got the North Gustaberg [S] Maw and the teleport crystal in Pashhow. (I wasn't even planning on going after the crystal; I just happened to see it in my way as I was running for another maw.) After making it down to North Gusta [S] I was astonished how close I had actually gotten to making it all the way there maybe a month or two ago when I tried with just a level 1 job; I used to just go for the maws as level 1's and not even bother with sneak and invis cuz I'd rather not lose xp (or gil) when I randomly aggroed something and died. (This was back when my highest job was only in the low 40's and everything aggroed me no matter what job I was.)

Besides that, just more randomness that eventually needed to get taken care of anyways. Ran up to Kazham to buy and learn Monomi (Ninja Sneak). ... Ran up to Xarcabard (CS) and then to the Bastok Mines Trail Markings (another CS) so that I can now gain access to Dynamis. ... Ran around a bit for Treu looking for Biast while I was up there. ... A little elemental farming while I was up in Beaucedine. ... Cleaned up some storage space by utilizing the Event Item Storer and selling more stuff in the AH. ... Put together a list of the necessary craft levels to make Ninjutsu Tools. ... Even crafted a bit when I saw that Big Fluffy Sheep Skins were selling for only 100 gil in Basty. ....

Getting a party together never happened. ; ; Partially because I was busy running around everywhere taking care of all of these odds-and-ends and just didn't really try hard to find people. Partially because every time I searched I'd just find that only 3 BLMs are lfp and no one else. And I guess partially because well... no one invited me to an existing pt. /shrug

So, other than leveling my MNK, I accomplished all of the other goals I had for the evening (and more!), so I'm pretty happy 'bout dat.


Tomorrow night Treu's LS... oh wait... "my LS" (i just joined AstrumNovae today ^^) is doing {Dynamis-Beaucedine}, which I clearly don't have access to just yet. So, while they're all doing that, I suppose I can just sit and camp Mee Deggi so Treu can eventually get his OKote back from me. After that... prolly more maws and quests in the past.


Gotta go back in time....

A Change of Pace

Well, camping Mee Deggi again with half-a-dozen other people got boring really quick tonight. I ended up just leaving before I saw it spawn even once (after about a 60-90 minutes) to go take care of a bunch of other things I've been meaning to...

1) FINALLY began Zilart Missions (did the first 3 cutscenes)
2) Got 2 more Cavernous Maws (Meriphataud Mountains and West Sarutabaruta)
3) Made the trip to Crawlers Nest [S] and then to Windurst Waters [S] to join the Cobra Unit

Now that I know I can survive in the past, I'll probably be going there more often, whether it's to xp or just do more WotG quests or whatever. Need to build up those Allied Notes to buy me gearz0rz...

Yeah. Surviving in the past. Pixies are awesome. Saved my butt. I musta ran halfway across one of the maps cuz I aggroed something and it kept chasing after me. Woulda been dead if I dind't see a pixie and see it cast a Cure IV on me. Then I just kept fighting the mob and trying to chase the pixie around some more so it would keep healing me. lol ahhhh good times. I eventually killed the mob (after 2-houring and boosting and focusing and dodging and chakra-ing and ... basically any available JS I could lay my hands on that would help me survive) with 138 hp to spare (out of my initial 1414!)

I also noticed something weird about the Mandy's in the past... they seemed to be like... following me. First it was 1... then 2... then 3... after a while there were 6 of them just following me around. Not attacking. Just standing there and staring up at me. It was pretty funny... after they eventually left I realized I should have gotten a screenshot... but it was too late.

On a final note, grats to Treu who got his Dodo Skin and Nue Fang tonight (also abusing Disdain's TH) thus completing his brown belt as well.

Tomorrow will hopefully be dedicated strictly to lvling more MNK (and punching things faster!)

QotD

Thought this was interesting...

Quote of the Day on my iGoogle homepage:
It is a paradoxical but profoundly true and important principle of life that the most likely way to reach a goal is to be aiming not at that goal itself but at some more ambitious goal beyond it.
- Arnold Toynbee

So... what is there to aim for when I actually want full Usukane and a Black Belt? I mean, seriously... what's beyond THAT? Should I be aiming to be able to solo-claim-and-defeat the HNMs for my black belt items? Should I actually be aiming for ALL Salvage sets... obtained within a year? Should I be aiming to fully-merit MNK, SAM, NIN and, what the hell, just to get full use out of the Usu, PUP too?

The fact is, with the amount of freetime I actually have, there really isn't anything more ambitious to set my sights on other than what I already want. Unless I want a Maat's cap, but I'd rather be spending all that extra time meriting rather than leveling jobs I don't particularly enjoy.

{Hmmm.} Trying to think of what other random/pointless goals I could add to my list, just to make it more painful...
- Obtain all summons before my SMN even gets out of level 1. (yes, I actually plan on doing this... assuming it's possible)
- Get a mage job up to 75 so my character can be abused as a PL (like I've been abusing Dis, Screamin and Treu for the past year)
- ...

ok, just spoke to Treu about that, and I guess SMN might just end up being the next job I level now if me, Treu and Dis wanna start up another trio-static. So, maybe getting all summons before I get SMN out of level 1 isn't an option anymore... but I'll still see what I can do about getting as many in there before we start up.

De Camptown ladies...?

Sure! You know!
De camptown ladies sing dis song,
Doo-daaar, doo-daaaaar...

Magnificent weekend, if I do say so myself. Spent Saturday camping and leveling up to MNK66 (and within spitting distance of 67). Spent Sunday camping various NMs all day/evening.

Oh Em Gee! Is that a voke I see?
yeah, check out that log too. we were busy killin other stuff when it actually popped. we uh... kinda did a lot of screwin around, which made the time go bye a little nicer.They call me crazy bat-for-a-head guy! Gimme some CANDY!!!
Items obtained:
- Morbolger Vine - for both myself and Treu
- Nue Fang - for me; after a few failed drops, I just logged on to Dis as his THF75 and brought him up to abuse his TH... which I should have just done in the first place.
- Brown Belt - for me; well duh, what else am I gonna do with a Nue Fang, Morbolger Vine and a Dodo Skin...

Items camped for but no luck:
- Dodo Skin - tried to go after this for Treu (only for maybe a half hour though) but no luck; I already got mine a while ago
- Ochimusha Kote - yeah. Mee Deggi is a punk. I beat him down twice and no luck. Every other time I saw him, one of the other 1200 people in there got to give him the smackdown. I gotta get this sooner than later cuz I'm currently using Treu's O's Koke, which he would like to have back to level his NIN with.
- Sarutobi Kyahan - Quu Domi was the same situation as his aforementioned counterpart. These haste feet would be nice, but not critical to my gear at the moment. There are just too many people camping these two guys on the weekends. I'll try again later this week in the evening when Treu is too busy with LS events to come level with me.

To-do list, for this week:
- {Monk} {Experience Points} {Yes, Please} (as always)
- do the necessary randomness to gain access to Dynamis (head up to Xarcabard, etc...)
- get my own OKote
- clear up some inventory space for the lottery marbles
- Black Belt items!!!!!!! (j/k)
- get back to looking for parties for my Prommies? maybe start on Zilart missions?? Assaults??? There's just too much to do!!!!!!!!! (the rings you get at the end of AU and CoP would be really nice to have right about now....)

I wanna rock and roll all night and {party} every day

Camped Morbolger last night right after work. There ended up being 8 of us in the room. Treu and Disdain were partied up with me to help me get it. (altho Treu had already stated that if we got it, he'd lot against me cuz he wanted it too.) Then this dude Wardemon, who I've seen in there camping it too for the past few nights, was there partied with 3 of his friends. Then there was a lone Galka standing off in the center of the room by himself.

Long story short: the guy who was there alone got the claim. ><

So, no Brown Belt for me just yet. ; ;

ON TO THE NEXT CAMP!

Treu has been bugging me to get my own O's Kote because I've been using his since like.. well, forever. (and which I am immensely grateful for... along with all the other gear I've mooched off of him, and Disdain, and Screamineagle, and Hybridkiller, etc...) So after we failz in Ordelle's, I headed over to Castle Oz to get my own (Rare/Ex) O's Kote and, while there, decided to go after the haste feet that are up there too.

Long story short: I saw Mee Deggi the Punisher (Ochimusha Kote) spawn twice and got both claims... unsuccessful on the drops. I saw Quu Domi the Gallant (Sarutobi Kyahan) only once, and only after he was claimed. (he popped on the other side of the map from where I was.)

oh well. Might camp these again this weekend... but probably not since I want to level more. ^^ And yes, i know gear would definitely help me, and the rest of the party that i'm in, level quicker....

/sigh We'll see.

Camping sucks. (as if anyone reading this didn't already know that)

Nothin in-game tonight though. Heading downtown after work and goin to Game 6 tonight (Cavs vs. Celtics) then off to a RockBand party afterwards for (literally) the rest of the night. Hope I can still remember how to play; I've been dedicating basically all of my freetime to leveling my MNK for the past week or two. ^^

You see me rollin'...

MNK 65. Booyaaahhh!

I'm cruisin along. Man, i'm finally like über-interested in the game again. When I hit the upper-50s thru 60, I started loosing interest because it seemed like I was at a standstill and just could NOT find a party... or could only find parties that just sucked so bad, we'd spend literally 3 full hours and maybe get a total of about 3k xp. (complete waste of a xp-ring charge) No, I'm not exaggerating; it actually happened. A couple times. But at least it hasn't been as bad as that one party I was in with my WAR, where we sat around for several hours, killed only a couple mobs and ended up dying at the end anyways.

So happy to be leveling again. ^^

So happy I only have the Maat fight left to uncap me until I can hit 75. ^^

So happy to use Emperor's Rings and the Anniversary Ring. /\/\

So happy I'm getting so close to getting my own Brown Belt. //\\ //\\

Whoa, I just realized, I can enter Dynamis now! Time to go lookin for an LS. (although I might not exactly be useful to them; at least I can start getting some experience in about what to expect.) Schweeeeeeeeeeeet.

I was originally gonna just join AstrumNovae cuz that's where my brother and a lot of our friends are members, but at lunch today I heard about more troubles going on over there. (like how horribly they failed Dynamis-Windy last night.) So, maybe I should be looking elsewhere if these guys are teetering on collapse. (despite the fact that it seems like more people are joining all the time) But whatever. Treu is always in a grumpy mood just cuz he REALLY want his W-Legs and his LS is Too Weak to fight Kirin. Which is understandable. (Being pissed, that is. Having a Sky/Dynamis LS that can't fight Kirin is NOT understandable.)

ok. Think I'm leaving work early. Can't stop thinkin about gamin... That damn Morbolger better show up one of these days....

Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill

Lucked-out again last night. Got an invite from a great pt: NIN, SAM, THF, SMN, BRD and my MNK... with 2 PLs. ^^ We killed birds (and the occasional crawler) for hours, with maybe only 2 breaks. I got to double-up on my Emperor's Band last night, but I could have been slicker; a bunch of the others were using the Anniversary Rings over and over again the whole time. I kinda wish I knew more about the rings before I went out there... but whateva. No biggie. I still got probably around 30k xp with 1 party in only a couple hours, so I'm happy. ^^

I REALLY hope this luck keeps up. Might not be that long til I can start thinkin about some end-game stuff.

shoot.... gotta run to a meeting...

Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' on

Not much to say except that this was a successful weekend for me: actually managed to find a couple decent parties and leveled my WAR to 35 and MNK to 62; made a little crafting progress on my smithing and leathercraft; started and completed my G4 (woo hoo!); and learned a few more things in-game (what party setups work better than others, where to camp, etc...)

Of course, you can't have the Good without the Bad: There was also another invite I got that wasn't so great. Got invited and ran out to their camp (even died on the way there. Yes, the death was my own fault cuz I thought Puks only aggroed Sound, not both Sound and Sight.) but once I got out there they informed me that our blinktank had already left without notice and they were hoping he just went back to town and was coming right back (he didn't)... and he apparently left before I even left Whitegate. :-P

Whateva. I'm just happy I can get back to MNK basically fulltime again. Won't have to worry about the subjobs until I hit 71. ^^

I said - WAR! Huh Good God y'all

What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing

well... except as a subjob for my MNK ... and I guess when I'm trying to do my Prommies along with /NIN ... and I've heard that end-game WAR is pretty slick too... ok. Just forget I said "absolutely nothing".

Well, I finally was invited into a very competent party with an incredible PL. Got my WAR from 30 up to 33 tonight, and my food effect (jack) still hadn't worn after we had tele'd outta there, ran to an outpost, tele'd home, ran around Bastok, sold some stuff and recharged my Emperor's Band. Yeah, I could have double-ringed tonight too. >< oh well. I guess I still have 3 charges for the rest of the week. Hopefully I luck out again with finding a good pt.

Oh, and our average xp/hr was hanging around 16,000 the whole time. Oh so nice. We even hit a chain-8 and a couple chain-7's.

And just a random thought: do Beastman Seals drop more frequently when the zone is under beastman control? Like, do they drop in place of crystals or something? I swear, I think I got about 20 BS's when I'm used to seeing maybe around 3 to 5. /shrug Then again, maybe I was just really lucky with the drops.

Happy days. I can finally get back to leveling my MNK without worrying about "gimp" comments. Well, at least for another 7 levels or so. ^^

Oh, and {Welcome Back} Hybridkiller. He said he was gonna take this month off for personal issues. Yeah, I think his account was inactive for all of 4 days. lol Sometimes you just gotta give in to your addictions. ^^

Let me count the ways

There's a conspiracy out there. They're all out to get me.

I don't get it, but it is really starting to seem like EVERYONE in-game is deliberately doing everything they can possibly do to prevent me from leveling my MNK. No... leveling ANY job.

At first I thought it was just my MNK. I was stuck at 59 forever (ok, partly my fault for not being online while I was home sick for a week) but I swear I still spent somewhere around 24 hours lfp since then and I'm still barely inside level 60.

Yesterday was a great example. I'm sitting around trying to think of what I could be doing, so after a couple hours I decide to go on a choco-quest. (I always do Bastok-Sandy.) I finish the quest and FINALLY get a party invite... too bad the invite apparently came during the 60 seconds that I switched from MNK over to NIN to use the Exp Scroll. :-P

An hour later I get another invite (this time actually for my MNK60) but I didn't reply immediately because I was starting to look up what I could be crafting to start boosting my smithing. I reply 60 seconds later... and get a response of "oh, sorry. nm."

Another hour later that evening, another invite comes but, as my timing would have it, I'm afk. I come back and reply not even 1.5 minutes later... and am told "nm. pt disbanding"

Oh, you think I'm exaggerating? Check it out:

And that's just one time where I decided to actually grab proof of this.

Tonight was fun too. A couple hours lfp on MNK60 finally just convinced me to switch over to WAR30. I get an invite almost immediately asking me to come out to Kazham. I tell him I'm omw but it might take a while due to airship schedules. I finally get out there... and he's already logged-off. No "sorry, nm, pt disbanding" this time; no warning whatsoever. Just not online anymore. {fun}

So I get an invite to come out to Bibiki Bay "and we have a PL ^^", so I'm thinking "sweetness! my luck has finally changed"... but the Fates had a different plan for me. I get out there, meet the pt and we kill 2 dhalmels and our PL says "this way" so we follow him our onto the ferry to Purgonorgo Isle. We kill 1 Mandy... wait.. I need more emphasis on this... we killed ONE STINKING LITTLE MANDY and the PL says "ok, gotta run"... and then our DNC does the same. So we do a bunch of this:

Since this is getting pretty long, I'll speed it up ("That's what SHE said!") We find a new member, and by the time they are almost out to us, one person leaves the party without notice. We find another person and ANOTHER person leaves. (I kid you not, this honestly happened. Again, no exaggeration here.) So we're waiting on ANOTHER person to come out and one of our members aggros a Viscous Clot and dies. We have no PL and no WHM/ so we have no Raise. So she HPs and heads back out. (ok, I'm not shortening the story at all... so here it goes:) We finally get a full pt. We fight our first Mandy, and another wanders close enough to link... thus killing us all horribly fast. I'd say it took less than 15 seconds for the party to die, HP and completely disband. {fun}

And for the record, I logged-on around 7:00pm and the party disbanded around 12:30am. Yes, 5.5 hours to LOSE about 200xp on my WAR. /slap <me>

Too much negativity here so I need to change pace...

Well, on the bright-side:

1. I made 2 new friends (the 2 that were in the party with me since I first met up with them)
2. I got to see a new zone that I've never seen before (Purgonorgo Isle)
3. I learned that new places to level typically SUCK and that's exactly why noone goes there to level
4. When Treubond came out to Raise me at the end of the hours-upon-hours of shenanigans, he realized he could do something for a quest while he was out there, so it wasn't a complete waste of his time to come out and help me. (and I got to watch him kill a dozen Mandys all at once)
5. I raised my smithing almost 2 since yesterday

This Karma payback should be awesome. After all of this agonizing, I'm thinking I deserve to win both the Mog Lottery (Rank 1 of course) as well as this Friday's MegaMillions. ^^