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....