I have passed a milestone that not many (in the grand-scheme of things in FFXI) have done: I have created a Linkshell.
Relentless, formerly known as lolFail, has been repearled again and is now known as Freefall.
The LS voted me as the new leader, but all that really means is that I now hold the linkshell. I also get the final say in any executive decisions regarding members, points, rules, etc... but hopefully it will never really have to come down to that. I plan on keeping everything the same as it has been for the past 9 months, because it works. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?)
The past few days have been running relatively smoothly with the much-appericated assistance of Lilmama, Cbassx and Altimaomega, my sack-holders. (uh huh ahuhuh huh. I just said they hold my sack.) Lil still takes care of selling gil items (via Puntaru) and passing out the weekly payouts. Cbass and Alti help organize the various farm and god-kill sessions and point out things that I miss from time to time. (ie. "Dude, we really shouldn't be doing Suzaku without a RNG up here") Alti has also been a champ in getting us new members because we have gotten like 10 new members this week. Unfortunately, we haven't done any extensive background checks on these people before giving them a pearl and allowing them to join us on runs. I have already recieved several /tells about 2 of these new individuals that I "should keep an eye on" due to other people's previous experiences with them.
What has NOT been running smoothly this week is that Kirin has just NOT been cooperating with drops for us. All 3 Kirin's we did this week dropped us a total of 2 Kirin's Poles and 4 gil items. That's it! No N.Body (which we STILL have not seen drop since 4/27/2009). No W.Legs (which, as always in sky shells, is one of the 2 most desired pieces of gear). Not even a stinkin D.Body (which used to fall like rain to us)! Alti actually called a GM after last night's run to ask about this. The GM looked in to it and said that the "drop rates seem to be working fine" and, simply put, "our luck just apprently sucks" and there was nothing he could do about it.
Well, at least waters dropped for us quickly last night. We got up to sky and I think we got our 1st water on the 3rd pot. ^^ So, we popped 1 Olla (from a water we got a few days earlier) and before we could even pop the 2nd Olla 15 minutes later, we had already gotten a 2nd water for the evening! After those, we quickly ran up and took out Zip, which ended up giving us 3 full Genbu popsets.
After taking out those 3 Genbu's, we are now sitting on about 5 or 6 full Kirin popsets... so hopefully now that we have more members showing up, we can hopefully get back to popping Kirin twice per night, like we used to. :-D
On a more personal note, I haven't really felt like I've accomplished much in-game lately since my last post, but at least I'm making SOME progress:
- FINALLY beat CoP 3-5... which was kind of funny. we ended up beating Diabolos on what was supposed to just be a practice run. we hadn't taken any food, or used poison pots. we just wanted to make sure we had our stun order down correctly. next thing we know, he was already down to about 55% hp and we were like "uh... so um... should we just try to kill him NOW? or is this still a practice run?" lol
- Guard Skill is now up to 150
- I got my A Hands last night (which now means after I get my W Legs, I can spend my points on N gear and I'm done with sky!)
- I got my Melee Gaiters from Dynamis - Bastok, which should help out a ton with Guard skillups (guard skill +12)
- I got my Melee Cyclas from Dynamis - Beaucedine, which has been nice for just healing up a bit between fights, whether while resting or running
- I attended Khrone's first Dreamlands which was Dynamis - Buburimu last Wednesday and already got my Melee Gloves -1 (woooooooot!)
- incremented my STR merit up to level 3
- leveled PUP up to 46
... huh. I guess I actually HAVE accomplished quite a bit over the past few weeks. And this is all still while I'm attending sky basically 20 hours per week too. ^^ Go go Tattooface!
The next couple days (4th of July weekend) will probably be spent abusing Screamin as a PL to help me level my guard just a bit more before Treu gets back from vacation.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
On This Date in History: 6/13/2008
I just so happened to be wondering yesterday (Friday) afternoon at work "how long have I been participating in {sky}?" So I looked up one of my google docs.
Side-rant
And in case you don't know me, let me just say this: "Worship the Goog". Seriously. Google is awesome. Google has changed the internet drastically in the past several years. If "The Singularity" is ever going to happen, it will spawn from that which is currently known as Google. But I digress...
/Side-rant
So I looked up one of my google docs... of which I have MANY to help me in my trek through FFXI. I have documents that describe my history. I have spreadsheets that track equipment i use on various jobs at various levels and what gear I SHOULD be using. I have spreadsheets that track LS attendance, drops, pop items and points. I have spreadsheets that help determine whether or not LS members qualify for weekly payouts. I have spreadsheets that help us organize Salvage runs. I have documents that list out what my various macros and macro books are. I have spreadsheets for crafting recipies and what levels to do what synths to best save on gil. ... Yeah, I use goggle docs a lot!
I looked in my "FFXI Character History - Khrone" document which I initially created about a month (7/17/2007) after I began playing FFXI (6/14/2007). I used to keep basically a daily detailed log of what I did, but after a certain point, many things in-game become repetitious (ie. sky and dynamis runs, merit parties, campaign battles, etc...) so I stopped logging the random noise and later began to only log the somewhat major happenings of Khrone.
Lol, ok, another sidenote: on 7/17/2007 my first note of the day (so, the first REAL post of this document!) reads "met and got help/gear from Hybridkiller" :-D
Anywho... back the the MAIN point of this post XD: my sky history.
Here's some extracts from my history doc regarding sky (and also a little about my character development to show you how new I was): [text in italics and brackets are notes I just added in here and do not exist in my history doc]
5/19/2008 - applied to Astrumnovae (Dynamis & Sky LS) [my first ever End-Game LS]
5/31/2008 - Completed Zilart Missions 4 - 13
5/31/2008 - Obtained access to Sky
6/13/2008 - participated in my first Sky run; fought and defeated Suzaku and Byakko; no drops for me [this is the item that sparked this post]
6/14/2008 - Progressed to MNK 75 with NIN as SJ [lol I didn't even have a 75 job before my first sky run]
6/14/2008 - broke latent on Knuckles of Trials
6/18/2008 - Maxed-out Hand-to-Hand skill tonight (276)
6/29/2008 - Obtained Key Item: Limit Breaker [means I can now start meriting]
6/30/2008 - Merit: Combat: Hand-to-Hand: Level 1 [my very first Merit. "Mikey's all grows-up!"]
Side-rant
And in case you don't know me, let me just say this: "Worship the Goog". Seriously. Google is awesome. Google has changed the internet drastically in the past several years. If "The Singularity" is ever going to happen, it will spawn from that which is currently known as Google. But I digress...
/Side-rant
So I looked up one of my google docs... of which I have MANY to help me in my trek through FFXI. I have documents that describe my history. I have spreadsheets that track equipment i use on various jobs at various levels and what gear I SHOULD be using. I have spreadsheets that track LS attendance, drops, pop items and points. I have spreadsheets that help determine whether or not LS members qualify for weekly payouts. I have spreadsheets that help us organize Salvage runs. I have documents that list out what my various macros and macro books are. I have spreadsheets for crafting recipies and what levels to do what synths to best save on gil. ... Yeah, I use goggle docs a lot!
I looked in my "FFXI Character History - Khrone" document which I initially created about a month (7/17/2007) after I began playing FFXI (6/14/2007). I used to keep basically a daily detailed log of what I did, but after a certain point, many things in-game become repetitious (ie. sky and dynamis runs, merit parties, campaign battles, etc...) so I stopped logging the random noise and later began to only log the somewhat major happenings of Khrone.
Lol, ok, another sidenote: on 7/17/2007 my first note of the day (so, the first REAL post of this document!) reads "met and got help/gear from Hybridkiller" :-D
Anywho... back the the MAIN point of this post XD: my sky history.
Here's some extracts from my history doc regarding sky (and also a little about my character development to show you how new I was): [text in italics and brackets are notes I just added in here and do not exist in my history doc]
5/19/2008 - applied to Astrumnovae (Dynamis & Sky LS) [my first ever End-Game LS]
5/31/2008 - Completed Zilart Missions 4 - 13
5/31/2008 - Obtained access to Sky
6/13/2008 - participated in my first Sky run; fought and defeated Suzaku and Byakko; no drops for me [this is the item that sparked this post]
6/14/2008 - Progressed to MNK 75 with NIN as SJ [lol I didn't even have a 75 job before my first sky run]
6/14/2008 - broke latent on Knuckles of Trials
6/18/2008 - Maxed-out Hand-to-Hand skill tonight (276)
6/29/2008 - Obtained Key Item: Limit Breaker [means I can now start meriting]
6/30/2008 - Merit: Combat: Hand-to-Hand: Level 1 [my very first Merit. "Mikey's all grows-up!"]
(... then lots of uneventful stuff that I logged, NONE of which was any real progress. Yeah, Astrum sucked the big fat fatty.)
7/13/2008 - completed quest "The Walls of Your Mind" and obtained Asuran Fists weapon skill (with help from Kotahitoa, Fadee, Ruiness and ?F*?) [that last "F" name might have been Fludemon, but I honestly don't remember.]
8/3/2008 - applied to HellsBells Dynamis LS [so apparently Astrumnovae had disbanded by this point, which means no more sky until I find another LS]
...
11/3/2008 - joined lolFail LS (sky linkshell)
11/12/2008 - killing gods in sky tonight with lolFail - obtained Dryadic Abjuration: Body (Shura Togi) [yes, just 9 days after joining, I already got D Body!!! This LS r0x0rz!]
11/13/2008 - bought Cursed Togi for 949,000 gil and obtained Shura Togi
11/24/2008 - killing gods in sky tonight with lolFail - obtained Dryadic Abjuration: Hands (Shura Kote) and Genbu's Shield both by accident [lol, in my n00bness, I must not have passed the items. not like I was going to, or even could, use them anyways]
12/9/2008 - sky - god killing; 10pm - 3am; Suzaku, Sieryu, Genbu x2, Byakko (x1 fail); Byakko x3; Treu and Exion got Haidate; Lux booted for being annoying [lmfao Lux. that's so awesome i actually logged that. and yay Treu for FINALLY getting his first Haidate. yeah... FIRST of TWO haidate. lol]
1/22/2009 - Sky - Byakko - Obtained: Byakko's Haidate
3/5/2009 - Sky - Seiryu - Obtained: D Head
3/7/2009 - Zilart Mission 14 - Divine Might - Completed; Obtained Bushinomimi
3/10/2009 - Promyvion - Dem (cleared)
3/10/2009 - Began CoP Chapter 2 [yeah, still not even close to getting sky-warp yet]
3/5/2009 - Sky - Seiryu - Obtained: D Head
3/7/2009 - Zilart Mission 14 - Divine Might - Completed; Obtained Bushinomimi
3/10/2009 - Promyvion - Dem (cleared)
3/10/2009 - Began CoP Chapter 2 [yeah, still not even close to getting sky-warp yet]
But that's about it. Oh! I guess I can add this past Thursday's item:
6/11/2009 - Sky - Kirin - Obtained: Kirin's Osode [yay! my very first Osode!]
Something else I just realized: all of this time and effort I have put into this sky LS... and I have only obtained 4 items. Ick!!! Well, then again, they ARE pretty big items. And I guess I can't really use anything else anyways, since MNK is still my only 75 job. lol
I kind of wish I had logged other somewhat-major happenings like "Sush has finally said he is not coming back to the LS and not giving back the LS gil or items he has", "I am now the sole-person responsible for taking attendance" or "Zal and Shiiga taking a break [or announced they weren't coming back] so Lilmama and I are apparently the de facto leaders of this LS" etc.... But I guess all of that never actually happened on any specific date; it just kind of happened over a few weeks' time.
But anyways...
Happy First-Sky-Event Anniversary to Khrone!!!
wow... and I didn't realize until about 30 minutes after posting this that tomorrow is Khrone's 2nd birthday! Yeah, look up at the top of this post where I said "I began playing FFXI (6/14/2007)". lol
Go go 2-year-old Tattooface!!!
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Always do everything you ask of those you command
Well, lately it has finally occurred to me that, no matter how much I deny it or try to ignore it, I am most definitely a commanding leader in Relentless Sky LS. lol
I started off just joining this LS (back when it was called lolFail) just to get a few much-needed pieces for sky gear. I had heard that this LS was spamming sky like madmen, so I'd be able to get it quickly. 9 days after joining, I had already gotten my D Body!
I kept sticking with it, going up to sky for 5 hours a night, 4 nights per week, because I needed Byakko's Haidate and the gil to pay back everyone I had borrowed gil from. After a while, it seemed like the leader (Sush at that time) was getting burned-out from the administration side of running an LS, so I did what I could to help him out. I began taking attendance every night. I kept track of what items dropped from what gods. What items were sold, and to whom. What items could be sold on the AH to go towards the weekly payouts.
Oh yeah, weekly payouts back then were also given to anyone who attended sky and obtained ... what was it... 15 points? Basically, you needed to be up there for 2 full nights. (The rule was later adjusted because too many people were abusing the system. They'd show up for a Kirin burn, which might take an hour out of their evening, but they'd still obtain 5 points.)
Well, long-story short ("too late"), I've still been going up to sky basically every single night, for the entire night. My attendance and experience have put me in a position of leadership. A position I did not want to take up, but it has none-the-less been forced-upon me. If I quit, I have no doubts the whole LS will crumble within a week or two, because no one else is up there as often as I am and no one seems to have the patience and diligence I have to take meticulous notes and attendance.
I actually WANT to quit this LS sometime soon (it takes up too much of my time... and it's SUMMER damnit!), but before I do that, I want to make sure someone can take up the reigns of what I have been doing all this time. I really don't want the bad karma of being the reason for the destruction of what once was a great sky LS. Shiiga recently gave me admin access to the DKP, so now I am taking attendance, keeping track of drops, and keeping track of points. Lilmama keeps track of who has what pop items, selling gil items on the AH, and contacting/collecting from sky-gear buyers.
ok, now I'm just blabbering on about nothing... /sigh
I need sleep.
This will be continued in a later post...
I started off just joining this LS (back when it was called lolFail) just to get a few much-needed pieces for sky gear. I had heard that this LS was spamming sky like madmen, so I'd be able to get it quickly. 9 days after joining, I had already gotten my D Body!
I kept sticking with it, going up to sky for 5 hours a night, 4 nights per week, because I needed Byakko's Haidate and the gil to pay back everyone I had borrowed gil from. After a while, it seemed like the leader (Sush at that time) was getting burned-out from the administration side of running an LS, so I did what I could to help him out. I began taking attendance every night. I kept track of what items dropped from what gods. What items were sold, and to whom. What items could be sold on the AH to go towards the weekly payouts.
Oh yeah, weekly payouts back then were also given to anyone who attended sky and obtained ... what was it... 15 points? Basically, you needed to be up there for 2 full nights. (The rule was later adjusted because too many people were abusing the system. They'd show up for a Kirin burn, which might take an hour out of their evening, but they'd still obtain 5 points.)
Well, long-story short ("too late"), I've still been going up to sky basically every single night, for the entire night. My attendance and experience have put me in a position of leadership. A position I did not want to take up, but it has none-the-less been forced-upon me. If I quit, I have no doubts the whole LS will crumble within a week or two, because no one else is up there as often as I am and no one seems to have the patience and diligence I have to take meticulous notes and attendance.
I actually WANT to quit this LS sometime soon (it takes up too much of my time... and it's SUMMER damnit!), but before I do that, I want to make sure someone can take up the reigns of what I have been doing all this time. I really don't want the bad karma of being the reason for the destruction of what once was a great sky LS. Shiiga recently gave me admin access to the DKP, so now I am taking attendance, keeping track of drops, and keeping track of points. Lilmama keeps track of who has what pop items, selling gil items on the AH, and contacting/collecting from sky-gear buyers.
ok, now I'm just blabbering on about nothing... /sigh
I need sleep.
This will be continued in a later post...
Thursday, May 28, 2009
That which does not kill us makes us stronger
My current guard skill-up gear setup:
/equip main "Black Adargas"Not much more time has been spent on leveling guard, but I have finally been buying some more equipment that should help me out in my quest to cap this thing out. I tried spending some time up in Wojaom Woodlands as MNK/DNC; even though I got some experience and plenty of items to sell on the AH or to NPCs, skill-ups were practically non-existent.
/equip sub
/equip range
/equip ammo "Tiphia Sting"
/equip head "Genbu's Kabuto"
/equip neck "Guarding Torque"
/equip ear1 "Coral Earring"
/equip ear2 "Coral Earring"
/equip body "Temple Cyclas"
/equip hands "Ochimusha Kote"
/equip ring1 "Woodsman Ring"
/equip ring2
/equip back
/equip waist "Tilt Belt"
/equip legs "Temple Hose"
/equip feet "Suzaku's Sune-Ate"
I'm still only sitting around 136 though. /sigh
Well, at least with the XP I earned, I got a 3rd Merit point and decided to unlock Invigorate. Turned out to be pretty nice for when I'm soloing too. My next merits will probably be dumped into Penance (4 and 5 points for the next upgrades) unless I still can't find a Salvage LS to join... in which case, I will just start filling up STR (9 points for the next upgrade).
As for my blackbelt items... I have been to all 3 camps several times over the past few nights/mornings and still haven't had any luck. I haven't seen Excellence claim an HNM yet. /cry And worse yet, apparently there's some guy ("Hanzo"?) who's been telling every HNM LS out there that he's willing to pay 5 million for his blackbelt items. So clearly it's gonna be a little longer til I can get mine. /sigh
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Be vigilant...
... guard your mind against negative thoughts." - Buddha
This weekend was a Guard skill-up extravaganza! I'm really trying to keep a positive mind on skilling-up my guard because I KNOW it will be beneficial in the long-run for me. Especially during Salvage runs.
I started off by spending some time getting my PUP from 40 up to 42 and constantly seeing my Guard skill-up as I went along. Obviously I can only do this while tanking, which meant I had to solo again, but it was fun. I even started toying around with various heads and bodies on my automaton and finally started skilling up Lobo's ranged skill... although I doubt I will ever really cap this because it just doesn't seem all that useful. He'll probably always just be my back-up mage while I solo. But once my Guard hit about 94 (?) I decided to head back to SSG as MNK/RDM and see if my Guard started proc-ing more. And whaddayaknow?! It DID! :-D
Well, actually, I spent some time running around to various zones and trying different mobs before heading back down to SSG. (Davoi, etc...) Lower-level mobs (my guard skill / 3 = mob level) will get a better guard proc rate. Unfortunately, mobs in the 30's basically cannot hit me due to my high Evasion, and when they COULD get a swing through, I would counter it basically every time.
So I decided to head back down to SSG and use the same tactics I had used before. Now that I had GREATLY increased my Enhancing magic skill, hopefully my Phalanx and Stoneskin would be a little more effective too. (and yes, they were.) I think a set of Sahagins (typically 3 Marsh/MNKs at a time; I'd get a Bog/DRG every now-and-then when I couldn't find 3 MNKs, but the DRGs tend to hit me for a lot more, so I'd always end up deliberately killing them before my counters took them out.) would typically last around 20 - 30 minutes. In general, I got about 1.0 skillups per hour. There was a stretch where I was getting about 2.0 skillups per hour, but I decided to log off at that time because someone was running through killing everything in site, which meant I couldn't "target something in the distance" and make my mobs last longer.
My Guard skill is currently sitting at 135, which makes me feel pretty good. I'm still getting the majority of my skillups anywhere from 0.3 to 0.5 so I figure I can stick around SSG to do this for still quite a while before needing to find somewhere else to go.
Since this skillup procedure is pretty boring (I could engage and then walk away from my computer for 5 minutes at a time without the slightest worry of dying) I ended up watching a lot of tv (SciFi had a Land of the Lost (from the mid 1970's) marathon) and doing more reading up on some randomness. While surfing around, I found someone else's tips on how they got their Guard skill capped.
Funbard's Guarding Gear Sets: http://funbard.livejournal.com/20898.html
Funbard's Guard Camp Summary: http://funbard.livejournal.com/16613.html#cutid1
Unfortunately for me, his camps don't start until around guard level 160, but I guess I can start looking at those once I level up a little more. Hopefully I'll be up around that range by the end of this coming weekend.
In other news:
Our sky LS has been fairly uneventful due to the holiday weekend, but hopefully people will be back online and up in sky tonight.
Nomar gave the bank that he was holding to Lilmama and she started handing out payments. She also started giving out payments frmo last week's runs too. It was only about a 3.4 million gil bank, but only 6 of us asked for it, so we're still getting a nice payout.
Shiiga mentioned that she and Zal are finally moved in together and will probably be back online by this coming weekend.
Hopefully with all of this good news, people will begin to start spamming sky again and we can start using up all of these Kirin sets that we are sitting on.
In closing: life is good. I'm still leveling and therefore making slow progress on the AH rankings. (Yeah Pimpsterer, I'm ahead of you again! haha!) My guard skill-up is proceeding as planned (although, a little slower than I had initially expected). The weather is nice. The Cavs have been playing well. And I am in good health. Game on!
This weekend was a Guard skill-up extravaganza! I'm really trying to keep a positive mind on skilling-up my guard because I KNOW it will be beneficial in the long-run for me. Especially during Salvage runs.
I started off by spending some time getting my PUP from 40 up to 42 and constantly seeing my Guard skill-up as I went along. Obviously I can only do this while tanking, which meant I had to solo again, but it was fun. I even started toying around with various heads and bodies on my automaton and finally started skilling up Lobo's ranged skill... although I doubt I will ever really cap this because it just doesn't seem all that useful. He'll probably always just be my back-up mage while I solo. But once my Guard hit about 94 (?) I decided to head back to SSG as MNK/RDM and see if my Guard started proc-ing more. And whaddayaknow?! It DID! :-D
Well, actually, I spent some time running around to various zones and trying different mobs before heading back down to SSG. (Davoi, etc...) Lower-level mobs (my guard skill / 3 = mob level) will get a better guard proc rate. Unfortunately, mobs in the 30's basically cannot hit me due to my high Evasion, and when they COULD get a swing through, I would counter it basically every time.
So I decided to head back down to SSG and use the same tactics I had used before. Now that I had GREATLY increased my Enhancing magic skill, hopefully my Phalanx and Stoneskin would be a little more effective too. (and yes, they were.) I think a set of Sahagins (typically 3 Marsh/MNKs at a time; I'd get a Bog/DRG every now-and-then when I couldn't find 3 MNKs, but the DRGs tend to hit me for a lot more, so I'd always end up deliberately killing them before my counters took them out.) would typically last around 20 - 30 minutes. In general, I got about 1.0 skillups per hour. There was a stretch where I was getting about 2.0 skillups per hour, but I decided to log off at that time because someone was running through killing everything in site, which meant I couldn't "target something in the distance" and make my mobs last longer.
My Guard skill is currently sitting at 135, which makes me feel pretty good. I'm still getting the majority of my skillups anywhere from 0.3 to 0.5 so I figure I can stick around SSG to do this for still quite a while before needing to find somewhere else to go.
Since this skillup procedure is pretty boring (I could engage and then walk away from my computer for 5 minutes at a time without the slightest worry of dying) I ended up watching a lot of tv (SciFi had a Land of the Lost (from the mid 1970's) marathon) and doing more reading up on some randomness. While surfing around, I found someone else's tips on how they got their Guard skill capped.
Funbard's Guarding Gear Sets: http://funbard.livejournal.com/20898.html
Funbard's Guard Camp Summary: http://funbard.livejournal.com/16613.html#cutid1
Unfortunately for me, his camps don't start until around guard level 160, but I guess I can start looking at those once I level up a little more. Hopefully I'll be up around that range by the end of this coming weekend.
In other news:
Our sky LS has been fairly uneventful due to the holiday weekend, but hopefully people will be back online and up in sky tonight.
Nomar gave the bank that he was holding to Lilmama and she started handing out payments. She also started giving out payments frmo last week's runs too. It was only about a 3.4 million gil bank, but only 6 of us asked for it, so we're still getting a nice payout.
Shiiga mentioned that she and Zal are finally moved in together and will probably be back online by this coming weekend.
Hopefully with all of this good news, people will begin to start spamming sky again and we can start using up all of these Kirin sets that we are sitting on.
In closing: life is good. I'm still leveling and therefore making slow progress on the AH rankings. (Yeah Pimpsterer, I'm ahead of you again! haha!) My guard skill-up is proceeding as planned (although, a little slower than I had initially expected). The weather is nice. The Cavs have been playing well. And I am in good health. Game on!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
I scream, You scream...
We all scream for icecream!
er... I mean for Screamineagle!
That's right. Screamin finally FINALLY got his Byakko's Haidate last night! Woo hoo!!! Which, unfortunately, means he will probably no longer be joining us up there anymore, which *gulp* means Treu is more-than-likely done with sky too. I suppose he may stick around for another week or so just for payouts because we still are sitting on a couple Kirin sets, but then I'm sure he's out like a fat kid in dodgeball.
His BRD and SAM shall definitely be missed for Kirin burns, as will his RDM for farming, but he deserves a break. 4 years of sky tends to cause mental issues. (And I know this after only spamming sky for ... what... 8 months?)
Also, three cheers for Lastok! Bastok took over Sarutabaruta! So that was one more Supply Run Mission (outpost) that I can cross off my list. Only Ronfaure and Tavnazian Archipelago to go!
As for personal progress: I did end up putting that next merit into STR, taking it up to 2/5.
My whole "skill-up guarding" plan though... well, long-story short, it didn't work out like I had expected it to.
I went out to Caedarva Mire to kill some Chigoes. I MNK/RDM and throw up Stoneskin... which lasts all of 4 - 8 hits and it's gone. (not NEARLY as effective as I thought it was supposed to be.) And even worse, I would counter them every now and then and take out a third of their HP. (and this is me fighting barefisted too!) 6 Chigoes later, I decide to take this elsewhere because I had only gotten a single 0.1 increase to my Guard skill.
Next stop was SSG beyond the Mythril Gate to fight some MNK Sahagins. These worked out alright at first... until 2 respawned right behind me and took me out before I even realized what was going on. Again, Stoneskin basically made no difference. Hell, even Phalanx didn't seem to do anything. I swear, with Phalanx up, they were hitting me for 25-28. When Phalanx wore, they were hitting me for 22-25. WTF Mate? So I die. Had to bring Screamin down to Raise me. Then I start using him as a PL. Step 1: I attack 1 BRD Sahagin and run him around to aggro 2-4 MNK Sahagins. Step 2: Take out that initial BRD and the target something in the distance and, while still staying engaged, face the MNKs so that the only hits they're actually taking is from my counters. Step 3: Screamin cure-bombs me... and never takes hate because I haven't touched the other mobs. ^^ Well, after probably around 2 hours, I had still only gotten a single 0.3 skill-up. /sigh
So I give up and decide to get back to PUP. Yes, PUP. Fought a few randoms in Korroloka Tunnel and headed out to Altepa to kill Spiders. It actually went fairly nicely. With my h2h capped and fully-merited, I really didn't have any issues with my accuracy at all. And my automoton (Lobo) is pretty smart in knowing when to cast Silence and DoTs and nukes.... Having a PL helped because I was just soloing, but I ended up getting all the way up to 38 this past weekend. The Field Manuals helped a ton too. Att+ Food. Regen. Niceness. ^^
Pretty sure I'll be getting the White Turban once I hit 40 because I can then use Lobo as a backup healer in any party I join. ... OR I could go for the Black Turban and use him as a nuker, but then there's always the problem of him taking hate and dying on me. Yeah, probably WHM, but still not 100% sure. I also decided to get my RNG automoton head and body... but I don't even know why considering I will more-than-likely NEVER use them. Whateva.
Using Maneuvers more and more is definitely helping me understand how they work and how you can use them to control what Lobo does next. (Thunder to cast more often and for magic attack bonus. Water to reduce hate. Light to regen himself and to cure me. Dark to refresh himself. Earth for stoneskin. And obviously all of this depends on the attachments you have active too.)
Oh, and btw, while leveling PUP, my Guard skill increased about 3 full points. This might just HAVE to be the way for me to go... at least until I get my Guard up to around 100 or 120 and then start trying again on my MNK.
Another note: It definitely seems like a Full Moon helps with skill-ups. Again, it could be a coincidence, but whenever I'd see multiple skill-ups within a minute of each other, I checked the time and yeah... Full Moon. And just because I was curious, I did 3 quick little Leatherwork synths... and 2 of them gave me a 0.1 skillup. I'm about 95% convinced a Full Moon helps skillups now. But what do I know. I'm just a n00b. lol
THF @24. Almost have flee!
Aight. Enough for now. Back to work. haha
er... I mean for Screamineagle!
That's right. Screamin finally FINALLY got his Byakko's Haidate last night! Woo hoo!!! Which, unfortunately, means he will probably no longer be joining us up there anymore, which *gulp* means Treu is more-than-likely done with sky too. I suppose he may stick around for another week or so just for payouts because we still are sitting on a couple Kirin sets, but then I'm sure he's out like a fat kid in dodgeball.
His BRD and SAM shall definitely be missed for Kirin burns, as will his RDM for farming, but he deserves a break. 4 years of sky tends to cause mental issues. (And I know this after only spamming sky for ... what... 8 months?)
Also, three cheers for Lastok! Bastok took over Sarutabaruta! So that was one more Supply Run Mission (outpost) that I can cross off my list. Only Ronfaure and Tavnazian Archipelago to go!
As for personal progress: I did end up putting that next merit into STR, taking it up to 2/5.
My whole "skill-up guarding" plan though... well, long-story short, it didn't work out like I had expected it to.
I went out to Caedarva Mire to kill some Chigoes. I MNK/RDM and throw up Stoneskin... which lasts all of 4 - 8 hits and it's gone. (not NEARLY as effective as I thought it was supposed to be.) And even worse, I would counter them every now and then and take out a third of their HP. (and this is me fighting barefisted too!) 6 Chigoes later, I decide to take this elsewhere because I had only gotten a single 0.1 increase to my Guard skill.
Next stop was SSG beyond the Mythril Gate to fight some MNK Sahagins. These worked out alright at first... until 2 respawned right behind me and took me out before I even realized what was going on. Again, Stoneskin basically made no difference. Hell, even Phalanx didn't seem to do anything. I swear, with Phalanx up, they were hitting me for 25-28. When Phalanx wore, they were hitting me for 22-25. WTF Mate? So I die. Had to bring Screamin down to Raise me. Then I start using him as a PL. Step 1: I attack 1 BRD Sahagin and run him around to aggro 2-4 MNK Sahagins. Step 2: Take out that initial BRD and the target something in the distance and, while still staying engaged, face the MNKs so that the only hits they're actually taking is from my counters. Step 3: Screamin cure-bombs me... and never takes hate because I haven't touched the other mobs. ^^ Well, after probably around 2 hours, I had still only gotten a single 0.3 skill-up. /sigh
So I give up and decide to get back to PUP. Yes, PUP. Fought a few randoms in Korroloka Tunnel and headed out to Altepa to kill Spiders. It actually went fairly nicely. With my h2h capped and fully-merited, I really didn't have any issues with my accuracy at all. And my automoton (Lobo) is pretty smart in knowing when to cast Silence and DoTs and nukes.... Having a PL helped because I was just soloing, but I ended up getting all the way up to 38 this past weekend. The Field Manuals helped a ton too. Att+ Food. Regen. Niceness. ^^
Pretty sure I'll be getting the White Turban once I hit 40 because I can then use Lobo as a backup healer in any party I join. ... OR I could go for the Black Turban and use him as a nuker, but then there's always the problem of him taking hate and dying on me. Yeah, probably WHM, but still not 100% sure. I also decided to get my RNG automoton head and body... but I don't even know why considering I will more-than-likely NEVER use them. Whateva.
Using Maneuvers more and more is definitely helping me understand how they work and how you can use them to control what Lobo does next. (Thunder to cast more often and for magic attack bonus. Water to reduce hate. Light to regen himself and to cure me. Dark to refresh himself. Earth for stoneskin. And obviously all of this depends on the attachments you have active too.)
Oh, and btw, while leveling PUP, my Guard skill increased about 3 full points. This might just HAVE to be the way for me to go... at least until I get my Guard up to around 100 or 120 and then start trying again on my MNK.
Another note: It definitely seems like a Full Moon helps with skill-ups. Again, it could be a coincidence, but whenever I'd see multiple skill-ups within a minute of each other, I checked the time and yeah... Full Moon. And just because I was curious, I did 3 quick little Leatherwork synths... and 2 of them gave me a 0.1 skillup. I'm about 95% convinced a Full Moon helps skillups now. But what do I know. I'm just a n00b. lol
THF @24. Almost have flee!
Aight. Enough for now. Back to work. haha
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
I bathe in their blood
And no, I don't look red from leveling my RDM lately...
[ For some quick/somewhat-disturbing humor: http://www.explosm.net/comics/1636/ ]
I think I'm finally done leveling my Red Mage!
I FINALLY hit 34 last night (I just haven't had much time to spend on getting RDM from 20 up to 34 lately), which means I can now cast Stoneskin and proceed with increasing my Guard skill. (MNK/RDM ftw?)
Well... I might not be COMPLETELY done with RDM just yet... because I think there was SOME reason for me to possibly want to get it up to 35. (Fast Cast II?? whatev.) I'll eventually be taking it up to 75. Eventually. It still won't be for a long long time though. Not til after SAM and SMN are there first.
{sky} has been keeping me busy lately (as always) but at least I'm finding time to spend on other important things... like CoP missions! I've already made it up to the 3-5 fight, which we will hopefully be doing tonight, assuming Sana and Nomar are online at a decent hour and aren't too busy. Otherwise I'll be heading off to {Dynamis - San d'Oria} with HellsBells and then off to start using /RDM.
I can only imagine that progressing through PMs will be easier and easier as we go along because I've had people constantly asking to join our group when we catch up to them. (someone is at 5-1, someone else at 5-2, someone else at 5-3, etc...) Oh goodie! Maybe I'll actually get to complete this!
The AH site shows that I have been making some progress in achievement points... and yet I'm getting ranked lower and lower each day on our server. WTF Mate? I still can never tell if this means that more people are signing up on the AH site or if more people are just progressing faster than I have been. /cry
Whatev. I'm happy with the progress I've made lately. :)
Other random progress I've made over the past few weeks include finally capping-off my Counter merits (5/5) and leveling PUP up to 30. And yes, soloing PUP is hella easier than trying to solo RDM... and a lot more {fun}! Those lil automatons are pretty smart, knowing when to cast Silence or finish off a skillchain, etc.... I also have another 6 merit points to dump into something tonight... which will more-than-likely be STR, taking it up to 2/5. I COULD get 1 merit in 2 other MNK Group 2 areas... but I figure STR would probably be a better choice for me at this point because it can still help out with other jobs (ie. SAM) and I don't really need those other Group 2 merits. They'd be nice to have to better my MNK and might possibly be a little helpful in Salvage if we ever start back up again... but I think I'm gonna stick with STR and THEN maybe into those other areas, because my next STR will cost me 9 merit points. ugh!
Treu and I have also been discussing possibly starting to get a gruop together for Salvage runs again. And after hearing last night that Lilmama now has all 3 items for her Marduk Feet (still needs crafting items) I think I'm really wanting to start up Salvage again. I crave Usu so badly, it hurts sometimes. /cry
We have a few people in mind that we are going to ask to join us. Some we really would like to have; some we will take just because we know they are good people that have jobs that we'd need and they wouldn't try to screw us over (ie. get their gear and then split). We're aiming to maybe start up our runs again in a couple weeks, but obviously that depends on everyone's schedule.
We'll see. We'll see.
[ For some quick/somewhat-disturbing humor: http://www.explosm.net/comics/1636/ ]
I think I'm finally done leveling my Red Mage!
I FINALLY hit 34 last night (I just haven't had much time to spend on getting RDM from 20 up to 34 lately), which means I can now cast Stoneskin and proceed with increasing my Guard skill. (MNK/RDM ftw?)
Well... I might not be COMPLETELY done with RDM just yet... because I think there was SOME reason for me to possibly want to get it up to 35. (Fast Cast II?? whatev.) I'll eventually be taking it up to 75. Eventually. It still won't be for a long long time though. Not til after SAM and SMN are there first.
{sky} has been keeping me busy lately (as always) but at least I'm finding time to spend on other important things... like CoP missions! I've already made it up to the 3-5 fight, which we will hopefully be doing tonight, assuming Sana and Nomar are online at a decent hour and aren't too busy. Otherwise I'll be heading off to {Dynamis - San d'Oria} with HellsBells and then off to start using /RDM.
I can only imagine that progressing through PMs will be easier and easier as we go along because I've had people constantly asking to join our group when we catch up to them. (someone is at 5-1, someone else at 5-2, someone else at 5-3, etc...) Oh goodie! Maybe I'll actually get to complete this!
The AH site shows that I have been making some progress in achievement points... and yet I'm getting ranked lower and lower each day on our server. WTF Mate? I still can never tell if this means that more people are signing up on the AH site or if more people are just progressing faster than I have been. /cry
Whatev. I'm happy with the progress I've made lately. :)
Other random progress I've made over the past few weeks include finally capping-off my Counter merits (5/5) and leveling PUP up to 30. And yes, soloing PUP is hella easier than trying to solo RDM... and a lot more {fun}! Those lil automatons are pretty smart, knowing when to cast Silence or finish off a skillchain, etc.... I also have another 6 merit points to dump into something tonight... which will more-than-likely be STR, taking it up to 2/5. I COULD get 1 merit in 2 other MNK Group 2 areas... but I figure STR would probably be a better choice for me at this point because it can still help out with other jobs (ie. SAM) and I don't really need those other Group 2 merits. They'd be nice to have to better my MNK and might possibly be a little helpful in Salvage if we ever start back up again... but I think I'm gonna stick with STR and THEN maybe into those other areas, because my next STR will cost me 9 merit points. ugh!
Treu and I have also been discussing possibly starting to get a gruop together for Salvage runs again. And after hearing last night that Lilmama now has all 3 items for her Marduk Feet (still needs crafting items) I think I'm really wanting to start up Salvage again. I crave Usu so badly, it hurts sometimes. /cry
We have a few people in mind that we are going to ask to join us. Some we really would like to have; some we will take just because we know they are good people that have jobs that we'd need and they wouldn't try to screw us over (ie. get their gear and then split). We're aiming to maybe start up our runs again in a couple weeks, but obviously that depends on everyone's schedule.
We'll see. We'll see.
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