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.