SeraphPDH: Paladin Man!

They Fought The Law, And The Law Won.

2009-01-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

If you have not heard by now, there was a huge Salvage/Nyzul/Sandworm glitch awhile back that allowed people to increase the normal droprate of items. Until now, many people thought they got away with using this bug to get free item drops, but apparently SE has not taken kindly to the situation, and issued mass bannings. The players on Odin have kept it pretty quiet who was banned and who wasn't.

My character, who has never even entered Salvage, is perfectly fine, ~~and noone I know personally on Odin was affected by this series of bannings (that I know about anyway)~~. I do feel bad for some of the people who recieved the banstick, but honestly this just makes me feel better about my groups shitty Nyzul Isle drop rate. That however, is another story...

Edit: Turns out I do know a few people who got banned. Not sure if they are temp or not, but I'll be nice and keep it quiet for now. :-/

Seraph the Red Mage!?!

2009-01-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

The hell you say!?! Yeah, I've sort of put Paladin on the back burner and taken a shot at leveling Red Mage, to be the more complete player I guess. It's been moderately fun so far, and I have gotten to level 50 with capped skills, and full AF in storage waiting to now be worn. Not too terrible of a situation to be in.

There isn't much to talk about, the job revolves around refreshing the MP users, casting haste on everyone who wants it, debuffing the monster when necessary, and healing when able. Oh, and the routine ten minute converts, to try to compensate for my terrible Elvaan MP situation. -_-

Anyway, Ararith and I got to joking about being able to Ballista once my RDM was 75, and the topic of how I would go about winning came up. I suggested I could just kite her with DoT and movement speed, like any good RDM should.

I'll post a more detailed discussion about my thoughts on RDM once I get to 60 and can take my elemental staves and AF for a test drive. Right now, I do feel sort of like just a refresh whore, and with only decent gear, my enfeebles don't always stick, and that makes me a sad panda. More details when I get to it!...

Updates: Comming Soonish!

2008-06-15T11:40:00.001-07:00

I have been very busy lately, but I have about nine months worth of stuff to talk about. Most notable accomplishments have been:

- Homam 5/5
- PLD AF+1 Set 5/5
- RDM Subjob 37
- Adventuring Fellow Level 66
- Almost finished with PLD merits.
- Exploring WotG content, and working on remaxing my Campaign Rank.

I'll get into the mess details once I have time to put together a real post. Just wanted to let people know I am still around, but haven't really had the time to put together a really good post.

Just Wait Till We Get Our {{Homam}} On You! ™ v2.0

2007-10-14T19:01:00.001-07:00

Does lightning ever strike the same place twice? Well, maybe not exactly, but these drops pretty much kick just as much ass as last week:

Having the Homam Body in my possession puts me at 4/5 for my Homam collection now. All that remains is the feet, and I believe I am first on that list. Probably going to do a few Ultimas since we have been so Omega heavy lately, but lets hope once we do Omega again that the feet drop, so I don't have to keep living the lie that is Amir Boots. >.>;;;;

Just Wait Till We Get Our {{Homam}} On You! ™

2007-10-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have managed to get my hands on some worthwhile PLD item, and after my little drama scene on BG, I didn't think anything exciting would happen again for at least a few weeks. As it turns out, Ararith was off with Tuufless a little while ago trying to leech a DRG or BRD AF item from Apollyon and managed to get the Magenta Chip from the zone (Those crazy BLMs don't have any use for it apparently). For some reason, hearing this seems to have made my Limbus leaders switch gears from 'Ultima' mode, to 'Omega' mode. We decided to put together a run to do Omega, and not only did Ararith get two more of the chips she needed for a full Omega set, but this scene welcomed us when Omega went down and we opened the chest:

After all was said and done, we have three more happy members, and another 5/5 Homam set. I can't complain. ^^

Assuming all goes well on Tuesday, we will have another Omega set we will use on Saturday. That impresses me, since at least half of this set came on accident, and was assembled in just over a week. No complaints from me about it though...

As far as the points standings are now, I am first for both Homam Feet and Homam Body with literally noone even close to me points wise. I'm hoping feet drop Saturday, since the Body is mostly for show, and just a slight DD upgrade since I can't tank in it, and it has no haste. I must say though, it feels good to finally be 3/5 Homam after waiting for a drop for many months now. Future updates as they become available. (^.^)v

Professional Appropriation (and Restoration)

2007-10-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, look what ffxiclopedia stole from me!!!

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/index.php?title=Ravin_Raven

Take a look at my previous post. I gave BG permission to use my images, and then ffxiclopedia burgles them without asking at all. Pricks. Tell you what, why dont they upload this instead?

{{Wikia.}} {{My Ass.}} {{You can kiss it.}}

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After the Fact Edit: Wikia ended up pulling down the image from their page, but I'll leave my rant post here for historical reference. In case you were wondering, the image in question was a cropped portion of the original version of this:

Pretty much just had the part with Ravin Raven and Ararith cropped out. There was alot of drama on BG, but I am hoping some decent 'content borrowing' practices come from all this. Also, my ass is sexual content. Viewer Discression is advised.

Ravin Raven...

2007-10-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

So, the good people over at Blue Gartr had a new pet project going on. Locating the last unlocated NM in the ToAU areas...

http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24327&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

So, I chipped in on the discussion, since supposedy this item was involved...

So, reading through the thread, some info was discovered (read the thread if you want the details) and after a few hours of work look what I found:

...and apparently it can drop things...

Makes a good case for the Birdman Cape to drop here... Ah well, better luck next week. ^^

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Also, pics for my personal use:

Jailer of Procrastination

2007-09-20T22:50:00.000-07:00

Been awhile since I last posted. I haven't had a ton of time to play ingame, but I have managed to get a few things accomplished. I finished the ToAU missions. (Picked the mage ring because the melee one just isn't good enough to warrant losing Autorefresh in Assault type areas). I also managed to get my hands on the RDM Relic Gloves, and a Moldy Earring recently. Yes, yes... I have become semi-serious recently about my claims of leveling RDM. I'll address that in a future post though...

I also was able to watch Ararith finish her CoP missions through to CoP 8-2. You know what that means... Hot Limbus Action. It was fun getting to watch and listen to her do the fights leading up to the Omega/Ultima fight, and Tenzen. Her semi-static did pretty good (Diabolos through The Three Paths in a little under 2 weeks), but I ultimately feel it will breakup now that people have Sea access. Certain members of her static were unsatisified with their progress (as fast as it may have been) and deserted the group before the O/U fight. Luckly, we have friends in high places and my Sky shell is all too happy to get another person or two Sea access for farming there. They made short work of the fights with the additional manpower, and that's that. She has told me she already has the Rajas Ring bookmarked, and I can't blame her. A Tamas Ring is all but useless on BRD, and who wouldn't want a Rajas for DRG after the 2 handed weapon update?

On a closing note, more details about the new expansion are comming out. Rumors of the new potential Avatar Atomos, and pictures of one of the new jobs (Looks to be a dancer type class, what it gets officially called is anyones guess) are starting to surface. I'm not too worried about it at the moment, since we have 2 months until the expansion comes out. You could say I've been chilling out waiting for forthcomming details...

I'll try to make a more detailed post soon, most likely with details describing my RDM plans, and expansion information. I just recieved my new widescreen laptop, so between fighting with Vista, an 8000 series GeForce graphics card, and DirectX10, it's been an uphill battle. FFXI runs on it (Amazingly), but the framerate kinda dies with more than a few people onscreen. I'll have to try to mess around with the registry and my graphics drivers a little more to polish things up. Details as they become available...

Questing the Holy Grail...

2007-07-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

Everyone has their Grail. That one thing, that one item, that one event that eludes them. Keeps itself just out of grasp, seems impossible to get. Well, I have one in FFXI. For what I've caculated to be just over two years, I have been trying to get the Crimson Cuisses. What is the Crimson Cuisses you ask? Well, sit down and let me tell you a little story.

There are a handfull of items in FFXI that increase movement speed. I don't mean haste which causes faster attacks and recasts, but actual movement speed. Like, get my ass from point A to point B quicker than before. The Striders Boots, Herald's Gaiters, and Ninja Artifact Boots (At Night), and some Salvage armor piece I can't recall at the moment all increase movement speed. There is, however, one single pieces of cursed god armor that also does this, the Crimson Cuisses. It is a piece of leg armor made using an abjuration drop off of Kirin. The main special quality of this piece of armor is of course, its the only movement increasing piece of armor that Paladin can use. X-D

Anyway, now that my little backstory is over, back to the present. Long story short, in all three endgame sky shells I have been in, either I was never high enough on the points list to get the drop off Kirin, or when I was first for the drop it never dropped. My streak of no drop Kirins where I was first in line stands at a whopping fifteen. So, when I heard we were doing another double Kirin this Friday, I figured I would get another double 'no drop' like we did two weeks ago. For the first time in a long time, I was wrong...

Over two years! Man, I just didn't know what to say. 'Thy suffering hast been rewarded' indeed. I am still kinda amazed by it. I guess I will have to find a new Grail eventually...

Though, it's been awhile since our LS last got a pair, so everyone was pretty pumped. I even got another PLD to tag along for a nice fashion shot after I got the legs...

Thinking that the weekend couldn't get any more fun after hours of running around in my new fast pants, I finally managed to get enough Ancient Beastcoins for my Brutal Earring. I should still be twenty-two short, but a buddy in my LS gave me the rest of his since he is quitting at the end of the month. Ruheibenbai, you will be missed, take care man. In his honor, I am naming the earring "Ruh's Brutal." Five percent of my swings will now be because of him. :3

Oh well, a mixed blessing of sorts I guess. I am looking forward to the new dungeon event thing during Summerfest this year. Also, Ararith is going to make me go scooping again this week so we can make her a signed Goldfish Bowl. /shudder... (o.o);;;;;;;;;;

Silent Reflections

2007-06-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in awhile. My last post was made in anger, and haste. I had seriously wondered about quiting either dynamis, or the game entirely. Between time issues, and getting upset about events ingame, it was starting to wear on my nerves. ( See the Tuufless post which sums up my feelings in this department well: http://tuufless.blogspot.com/2007/06/disgruntled-taru.html )

But, I thought about it, and I always felt I took more good from the game than bad. So I kept chugging along. A lot has happened since my last post. I have gotten my Homam Hat, Valor Gauntlets +1, Loquacious earring, Hrotti, and Aegishjalmr (Fafnir was good to me on Memorial Day). I've also finished all the current ToA missions, beaten Bahamut v1, capped Great Sword at 250, gotten Parrying 208, capped Enhancing Magic at 210, and helped with various events and missions.

I've been a busy bee I guess. There are some issues which have been annoying me lately. Dynamis runs never seem to be the ones I want to do, a few people in my Sky LS have been causing issues, wouldn't mind being higher on the Limbus item lists. You know, the usual things. People bitching, me bitching back, them getting offended. Good Stuff. ^^

I know Goroaki always regretted complaining in his blog, since it burned alot of bridges for him. I generally don't like to specify names, but on this one occasion, because the event that I have never laughed harder at (or been more pissed off at), I'll break my rule:

I realize not everyone in the Res endgame LS is a badguy. I realize Hex and a few of his leaders cause most of the shit. People follow their leaders, and don't want to rock the boat, or be left out. Let's be honest though, there is no reason to screw a different shell just for kicks. They had MPKd our alliance on the Jailor of Justice by DoTing the tanks when they were charmed (effectively slowly wiping the alliance) just to try to steal claim. They stole it, but ended up wiping due to its special moves and adds in about 15 seconds. (Which really, really, really made my day.)

Needless to say, I butt humped Hex for a good 10 minutes and made some sarcastic comments while the alliance got back on its feet (See picture above). I am usually one of the first people to complain about childish antics, but you know what? He deserves anything he gets, so I wasn't too heartbroken over any embarasment or hard feelings. He is an ass to people, he can deal with it.

My advice to the rest of the Res people: get him to clean up his act. You guys get a reputation for being assholes that never seems to go away. Refusal to help or participte with Res members in any way because of the endgame idiocy is a strong stigma. Don't be those guys. Tell the people causing trouble to shut the fuck up, and be real leaders. I'll leave it at that.

To be honest though, most of my nights have been doing endgame shit. Dynamis on Saturday, Limbus on Tuesday and Saturday, Sea/Sky Monday/Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. I haven't been able to really merit or anything. Kinda bothers me; people always want a PLD to tank shit for them, but ask for an EXP invite and that love dies really fast.

I was going to make some comments about the new endgame event Einherjar, but a post on KI sums it up pretty well ( http://www.killingifrit.com/forums.php?m=posts&q=155446&d=150 ):

Bjond wrote:

IMHO, you were more lucky than smart. Which spawns you get and how many you get seems to overshadow strategy on Einherjar. That's a real shame, because I hate events where it's more luck than strategy.

There seem to be two basic "strategies" for Einherjar: bring a lot of bards, bring a lot of blms. No one really does anything special. BRDs sleep. BLMs stun and nuke. This is an oversimplication, but it's what things seem to boil down to at present. If your shell has enough with those jobs available, you can do well. If you don't, your chance of just dying is near certain.

If you're lucky, you get a low critter count, multiple critter types (thus all don't come at once), and a manageable boss. If you're not, you get 24 of a single hard-to-sleep critter along with the Marid boss. Waaaaay too much variance there on difficulty, imho. You could keep sacrificing 180k and mules to get a good chamber, but that's hardly what I'd call "viable strategy". It's more like a "clever exploit for a poor design."

Nail on the head, I don't need to say anything more. People in my shell want to keep at it, and I will assist them, but I can only throw myself at the wall so many times before looking for a way around it. I've been mocked for claiming its too hard or rather claiming the variance of difficulty is too severe. Some people like asinine challenges, and that is just what this ends up being sometimes. Bad mob selection? Bad boss? Not enough BRDs? Not enough mages? You lose, good show chap, now make sure to use more lube next time... I am sure we can eventually brute force our way through it where we win more than lose, but that doesn't equate to less disappointment. Yeah, we were like the first (one of the first? I really can't be sure) groups to clear it on Odin, but the drops were shitty. I'm just hoping there is a catch, or a trick I just don't see yet. Something to redeem this lackluster 30 minute clusterfuck.

...alright, I'm getting upset again. I'll tone it down. In the future, I'll try to post more and have some more pictures. Other blogs have seemed to die off, and that kinda bothered me. There used to be a ton of awesome blogs, but most people have stopped updating. I figure at least I can keep contributing on some small scale for the Odin players. Until then, toodles.~

Minus fifty points.

2007-03-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

Busy tanking Dynamis-Xarcabard NMs, SMN AF drops, 5 minutes goes by, forget to pass...

-50 points. So, I got to pay to go into dynamis to lose about a month's worth of points.

Fuck this game.

Debating quiting or at least taking a break for dynamis. Losing more or less a months worth of time, effort, and money to a simple mistake really makes you stop caring about helping others.

Omega Supreme

2007-02-06T21:02:00.000-08:00

So, Limbus has taken the spot as my favorite endgame activity. Not to slam Dynamis (4 hours long), or Sky (goddamn RMT), or HMN Kings (I don't bot, I don't claim), but they are getting boring as of late. Limbus still seems fun to me though. It's relatively short, interesting, and usually faster paced. The 50K a trip pricetag was starting to wear on my wallet, but I think it's finally paid off...

We were going to do an Ultima run on Saturday. I am not really fond of Ultima since it likes to rock my socks (I went through an entire RR gorget last time). Fortunately, the people needed to pull off an Ultima didnt really show up (and those that did mostly didn't want to do Ultima), but we had enough people for an Omega run...

Which brings me to the Omega situation. Our record with Omega has been pretty decent. We have gone 3/4 on the runs I have gone to, and the loss was pretty much due to us trying to kill Omega once with too few people, and not having a backup tank. I've assist tanked a few times, this being the second time with Lordlotuskiller's NIN/DRK build. With a run under my belt, this run went much smoother than the last one we had.

We killed Omega, poped the chest, and out fell the pieces for Homan Hands and Head. As it turned out, I was tied for first on points for the Homam Hands lot, and wouldnt you know it, they dropped along with the hat... ^^

I had one of the absolutely _worst_ lots of my FFXI career though. I was so pissed, since I have wanted these hands since they were put in the game, and this was the first time I had ever seen them drop. As it turns out though, luck was on my side. I am generally liked in my shell, and the other two potantial people lotting were not especially interested in this piece, they were more interested in saving points to be able to compete on future Homam leg lots. So, my lot went unchallenged:

Congrats to Jodah for his winning freelot on the Homam headpiece. ^^v After a quick run to Mhura, I was in possession of possibly the best tanking hands in the game. They are unbeatable for PLD/NIN tanking, and damn good for PLD/WAR tanking too.

They blow my Valor Gauntlets out of the water with the sole exception of the Shield Bash Enhancement. I can definately deal with losing 2 DEF and 5 VIT for 2HP, 20MP, 4 ACC, 3% haste, and the envious looks of many fellow adventurers. >.> I still have the Relic hands in my inventory, but they might end up in my Mog House very soon, as its been days and I haven't even put them on.

Oh well, maybe in a few months I can add a new piece of Homam to my collection... ^.^v

Mixed Blessings

2007-02-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

You know, maybe I am finally getting some respect in this game for a change...

...shit..................

Merry Christmas to all...

2006-12-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

"I tanked Dynamis Lord, and Lived! ...and then died later to a fucking eye."

2006-12-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted, lets get the big stuff out of the way...

So, ExplorerII decided to take a run at the Dynamis Lord again. As far as I know, their previous attempt ( before I joined the shell) ended with a wipe at ~20%. So, being more than a year later, a rematch was in order. The details are boring, but in summary three members got their Necrosythe item thingies for their stage three relic weapons from the dragons on the way to DL. A nice bonus if you ask me. I ended up solo tanking DL *gulp* and did fine. I only needed to live for about 10 seconds thanks to the insane RDM/DRK chainspell stunlock. Invincible kept me alive and DL distracted, and the rest of the alliance did the rest. Not a bad run for only 40 people, and a Shadow mantle droped as well. I didn't get it, but there is always next time... ^^

In other news, my choco-raising effort have finally payed off. I mated my now retired yellow female chocobo RadiantPlume to a friends dark blue (purple?) chocobo with interesting results...

So, apparently, mating a yellow female with a purple male chocobo gives you a red chocobo. OK THEN! Anyway, my new chocobo is a red male named ShadowFlare. I took him in the Strength/Endurance path, so once he grew up, he ended up with a bigger tail and larger feet than normal, thanks to that choco update awhile back. Needless to say, I've been told once I max his stats, many friends want a red chococard, my poor chocobo is going to be a sexual dynamo! ^^

In leveling news, I finally got NIN37! I must say, I really can't stand low level leveling anymore. There is just too huge a pool of idiocy, and not enough decent players to counter it. Not to mention that RMT is releveling after the last wave of bannings. I don't know how these morons get to 75 so quickly, after seeing how bad they do at level 35. It was nice, because the people I was partying with were able to wait until I hit 37 before disbanding. I didn't even get to try out my new scroll, and just as well. I was sick of NIN at that point.

I also was able to finally trade in some of my Limbus items for a pair of Gallant Leggings +1. It's nice to see artifact armor in a white box, and the +12 shield skill isn't anything to laugh at either.

Finally, sometimes I think the game hates me only to discover it has pity upon me occasionally. I have been trying forever and a day to get a Resentment Cape. It's just a decent level 40 cape with +2 Enmity on it, and a -5% magic damage taken effect outside nations control. Nothing insane to be sure, but it's R/EX and drops from yet another 21 hour repop mob (see Intruder Earring.) Anyway, I went with Akanea to go kill the Death From Above NM for the low delay dagger he wanted, and wouldn't you know it on the way back to the outpost I see the NM that drops the cape. It definately wasn't there when I came through not 10 minutes earlier. With the three people on hand we destroyed the mob, and the cape actually dropped. Everyone else passed, and I became the proud owner of a new Resentment Cape. ^^

On monday, the new update comes out. I am curious exactly how the announced PLD changes will be, and I'll keep you posted to all the other game changes as well...

Divine Might

2006-11-28T12:57:00.000-08:00

It's been while since my last post. With the holidays starting up and the ladyfriend home on break, I don't have all the free time I'm used to.

Anyway, onwards to buisness...

There was alot of DRAMA in one of my more recent Dynamis Windurst runs. We were running really short on time, and had to make a few sacrifice pulls. Essentially, all of the THFs in the alliance were sac pulling the special NMs and I was pinpointing them, bringing them back to the group, and then running off with another THF to make another pull. Things worked out nicely though and we got the clear.

With all our pullers down though, we tried some "safe" pulls that almost ended up wiping the alliance. I went down on one of the middle mobs in the group, and not 30 seconds later, what happens?

So, I'll be honest. I know the Valor Leggings aren't that great, but I seem to be the _only_ dynamis PLD that doesn't have them, and that bothers me. So they dropped, I was dead, and kinda freaked out. I got a raise, but the problem was i was smack in the middle of the action, so I was killed by AoE before I could even lot. Four Raise 1s later I finally get out of batlte range, and win the freelot. (I was late to getting there and missed reserving it.)

So, between that and a 100 Byne Bill I got in Bastok, Dynamis has been fairly nice to me lately. I'm still saving points for the Valor pants, but I am also tempted to blow some points on more 100 bills, since I need some gil.

I'm also still leveling NIN, and I managed to get NIN30 the other day. Only 7 more levels! I used most of my 100 money to get NIN gear and finally buy Utsusemi:Ni. I still really can't get into the whole shadows thing, I think PLD is just too burned into my head... More developments as they unfold.

As the title of this little post suggests I have dabbled in the BC known to many in the FFXI endgame world. My previous attempt with L7 ended tragically, since I had to skip out in the winning run to make dynamis. I tried doing it a second time with a pickup group, but despite the good planning, the execution wasnt there, and we ended up running out of time (and burning my Ark Pentasphere.) It wasn't a good sign when the first run was ruined because someone entered before the item was traded AGAIN. Seriously people. You must be able to read to play this game, listen to the group leaders. K THX BYE.

So, a friend from my dynamis shell (and a rival sky shell, but thats cool) heard about my DM plight. They wanted to plan 2 runs, but really needed a tank, since they had no PLDs available. I said I would love to, and we did 2 DM runs. The planning was good, people listened this time, and we went 2/2. Yay!

After thinking about it for awhile, I did decide to get the Suppanomimi. Just look at it, it screams PLD/NIN, and besides, I already have a ton of Shield Skill gear. Now I am kinda looking forwards to finishing up the ZM missions, since it's a prereq for the Ethereal Earring quest. Big thanks to all those guys who helped out with the runs, and congrats to all the new DM earring holders. v(^.^)

Right after our DM runs, Erat invited me to do the latest ToAU mission battle, since they had 4 DDs, a WHM, and no tank. The mission went smoothly, and it was quite humerous, especially during the actual fight...

Thats actual NPC text during the battle. Totally awesome if you ask me, it is the little touches like these that make the new missions kinda fun. I even got a little e-peen boost in one of the cutscenes after the battle...

I don't know if the text is the same for everyone, reguardless of job, but that is awesome text for a Paladin. /blush The missions ended fairly well, and left you with a cliffhanger scene with the ghost pirate captain Luzaf standing in front of what can only be described as a painting of Odin Vs. Alexander... If CoP tells me anything, its that those wall paintings always predict the future...

Strange Things Are Happening...

2006-11-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

So, for the most part it has been a boring few weeks. However, there have been a few humerous events happening in sky:

In my defense, Aurelius got another key not 10 minutes later, so I don't feel bad in the slightest. Also, I got my first sky kill:

The irony was that we were undermaned at the pop, I had just got there, Faust was at 1% and I decided "Why not?" BOOM HOLY HEADSHOT.

Also, there was some weird stuff going on in Dynamis Xarcabard...

That is the _first_ time I have ever seen the RDM drop for us, ever since I joined my Dynamis LS. That's easily well over a year, and then poof, 2 drop within 15 minutes from each other. The complete run went 100, THF, PLD, SAM, WAR, RDM, RDM. Pretty much the best Xarc run ever... \(^_^)/

"Go on and increase in valor for this is the path to immortality."

2006-10-07T22:52:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a little quote from The Inferno to brighten your day. What does this have to do with anything? I'll get there in a minute...

So, things have been kinda slow lately, not a whole lot going on. I went on my second sky gods run with LuckySevens (L7) on Friday, but it turned into more of a farming run than a god run, since we were missing some people who needed items. We ended up fighting what is now my third Genbu with them. Genbu is by far my favorite sky NM. I know most people make fun of him, or hate him, but he is just a "Tig ol' Burtle" and I laugh wnenever I fight him (her?). Anyway, the loot drops and wouldn't you know the W. Feet Abj. drops and it happens to be in freelot status since noone reserved it...

Now, the cool thing about freelotting in L7 is that the items are actually free. I got an item I have wanted for some time now, absolutely free in terms of sky points. I was very happy. Now, I know these aren't the best feet ever, but they present a nice alternative when staff tanking, or kiting. Besides that, they look kinda cool and will hopefully someday compliment my pair of Crimson Legs. >.>

Now, just when I thought a weekend couldn't get any better (I mean come on, free item!), ExplorerII was doing a Dynamis-Xarcabard run on Saturday. I have been after the Paladin Relic Body Armor for a long time now, and for two reasons I have been unable to attain one. First, for a long time in Explorer due to my schedule and the timing of runs, I didn't have Xarcabard access. Secondly, there are something like 6 people who wanted the body ahead of me. When I started active lots there were 3 people ahead of me. So, I was 4th in line for an item that never seems to drop. Three coats have dropped since then, and I was currently the point leader for the Valor Surcoat (but I assumed since my luck sucks it would never drop now). Now, there are certain NMs in this zone (one per job pre ToAU jobs) that have a pretty decent chance to drop their respective relic. The Paladin NM never seems to drop because it Invincibles, and it gets "Magic Killed." That destroys the droprate on items. Some people don't agree with me on this, but I tend to find that it is the trend. Anyway, the only Valor Surcoats I have ever seen have dropped off this NM. Today's run went like usual, no AF dropped off the NMs (except the DRK relic helm which Aurelius was not online to lot...so it got trashed...again...). I figured the run was going to be the usual BST, DRK, and DRG relic dropping marathon it usually is. I ended up dying from a weird pull consisting of alot of casting BLM mobs, and before I can reraise what do I see? A gosh darn fricken Valor Surcoat. Immediately everyone knew the drop was going to me, and people started to panic since I and a few other people were down, and unable to lot/pass. Thank heavens for Reraise Gorgets, I was back up, and lotting...

I couldn't believe it! (Except for the crappy lot in true Seraph style, that I can believe...) After a few minutes of alliance recovery, everyone passed and the coat was mine. I can finally sent the Adaman Body to my Mog House where it belongs.

Afterwards I went running around in my new gear, I think it looks pretty spiffy. It feels good to be one piece closer to 5/5 relic armor. All I need now are the Valor Breeches and Valor Leggings. The pants are going to be tougher since I am second in line, but the feet should be no problem, assuming they finally drop. (^.^)v

Oh I love a {Parade Gorget}!

2006-09-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, there was this long standing mystery in the FFXI world since about Summer 2005. The question was how to get a Parade Gorget. Few knew about this rare item, and even fewer knew how to get it (a handfull of JP players on Ifrit.) The debate on how to get it raged on for over a year, until finally the news broke...

An interview with a SE representative finally produces enough clues to allow for the crafting of Goblin Drinks, the supposed pop item for the supposed NM Goblin Wolfman which supposedly dropped the Parade Gorget. Turns out they were right...

Needless to say, the recipe was cooking 80 cap, and since im cooking 102, I ran off to make a stack of them or so to get myself a gorget. I spent sime time farming ingredients, and managed to make 11 drinks. While in the Sea Serpent Grotto farming an ingredient for the drinks, I managed to grab myself a pair of Frog Trousers from a NM there. They aren't great, but they have a cool name so I figured I would keep them incase I ever level a Mage job.

After spending 2 nights in Oldton, I finally managed to get a Parade Gorget for myself, Aurelius, Theora, and Willriker. Congrats to everyone. I'm glad this mystery is finally solved... ^.^

Now, the latent on the Parade Gorget is a little funny as far as auto-refresh goes. It offers 1mp/tick as the standard auto-refresh, but it is triggered by having more than 85% of your "naked HP" plus the amount of HP given by visible armor (armor that redraws your character as you swap it.) So, say you had 1000hp naked, and 100hp added from visible equipment. The latent effect kicks in at 950hp/1100hp. This is a unique latent effect, and nice in that I don't have to be half dead to get more auto-refresh. With this and the Herc ring, I get 2mp a tick except roughly when I'm between 50% HP and 75% HP. That's pretty darn cool...

In other news, I finally dropped 2.5M to get a Gigant Mantle...

This is one of the last pieces of buyable tanking gear I need. With it, and my other +HP gear, I can get over 1650hp without food and merits. I think thats pretty solid for right now, considering most PLDs don't even have over 1500 even with good gear.

The only other things I can even consider buying for "tanking" are a Vermy Cloak, a Cassie Earring, and maybe a pair of Hades Earrings+1. These items are all way overpriced, so I am not too worried about it. There are some DD items I am looking into as well, namely some rings, earrings, and a back piece. These can also wait for now, since I am almost out of gil at the moment. Hopefully once I get another 10M gil or so, I can get every piece of gear my PLD could ever wear, and that would make me a happy panda! (^.^)/

Busy, Busy, Busy...

2006-09-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

Well, I can sum up most of the events of the past several weeks as follows:

To explain a little more deeply:

- I managed to complete the series of CoP missions up to and through CoP 8-4. I was thinking about getting a Rajas Ring, but decided to go for the Sattva Ring instead, being a PLD at heart and all... ^-^

- Dynamis Bastok decided to not suck for once, and I won a free lot on the Valor Coronet drop. As it happens, a second one dropped going to the person lotting against me, so I don't feel so bad about winning the first lot.

- I did some prep for a Divine Might run getting my Ark Pentasphere which is needed to initiate a run. Unfortunately, we wiped on the first run and I had to leave for Dynamis, afterwhich the second run went flawlessly. >.< Maybe I'll get my ZM earring next time.... :-/

- Needing a break from endgame, I decided to camp the VE in the dunes hoping for a drop. I ended up going 0/11 and almost decided to call it quits. However, the members of TrueRune almost as a joke one evening decided to camp VE since we were all bored. VE spawned, I spotted it, and Akanea got the claim. We waited about five minutes waiting for our LS THF Saoirse to show up with TH2, and after she SATA'd it in the butt, it dropped the pin! The LS decided since I had been camping it the longest, I got to claim the item, on the condition I would finally level NIN to 37+. As a side note, I have gotten it to 23 so far... ^_^

- I have wanted my very own Walahra turban for quite some time now. I figured it would be a nice item to have for my future PLD/NIN build, having MP+30, HP+30, and haste+5% on it. Imperial Gold Coins were down to 30K each one night, so I blew 10K ISP and bought the other 10 coins, and after something like 350+ NPC trades, I had my very own {feather tickle} {hat}!

- As a last little note, two pairs of Valor Gauntlets dropped on our last Dynamis Sandy run. The funny part though, was they were from back to back mobs. Kinda weird, to be honest. I already have my own, so the first pair was free lotted, and the second fed the trashcan. Oh well, I still got a kick out of it. I just need Valor Breeches, Valor Surcoats, and Vallor Leggings to drop like that... ^_^

So, I have been busy IRL lately. I am moving into a new house, so my playing time has been severly limited. Most days all I have time for is to log in to check my chocobo and do dynamis runs when they come along. As it turns out, my chocobo is a female named RadiantPlume, and she is yellow. I am trying to set her build to be fast, focusing on Strength and Endurance. I figure, maybe i can breed her to a male black chocobo and get a fast black chocobo later down the line...

So, with not a ton of time to play, I am thinking I might start making leveling NIN my fulltime priority until i get it to around 40. That way, I have a nice new sub for my PLD main, and also can use NIN to do some BCNMs... I'll keep you posted. (^.^)v

Warrior of the Crystal

2006-09-01T12:55:00.000-07:00

So, I've been a little busy lately. First thing first, I decided to merit after getting to level 75. After getting about an 18K exp buffer I switched to merit mode, and plowed away at about 35K exp. My first action once reaching my mog house was to unlock the Chivalry job ability. What Chivalry does is act like a sort of twisted version of Convert, in that your TP is changed into MP. The ratio is about 1: ~1.4 in that if you have say 200tp, you would lose all TP and gain 280mp. I have only used it a handful of times but I must say sometimes getting a full MP bar back is much more useful than one weaponskill, especially when tanking since the move has a huge hatespike, somewhere near Invincible if you have 300tp.

Recently, my dynamis shell Explorer has decided to dive into the CoP versions of Dynamis. Now, most shells only do the "original five dynamis zones", but with the promise of the relic accessories and AF2+1 armor, I guess the shell leaders couldn't resist. Unlike the standard zones, these ones have an additional prereq. for you to fufill, you must have defeated Diabolos in the CoP storyline. (Not the Diabolos battle to summon him, just the level 40 cap one.) That is in addition to the standard level 65 requirement.

Now, we have never done one of these zones before, and there is a twist. You start the run with no subjobs. That's right, I get to enter as a glorious PLD75 / WAR00. However, there are ???s spread throughout the zone, and once someone touches the correct one, everyone's subjobs come back, making the run alot easier. Our beta CoP dynamis run was Dynamis-Buburimu. The idea is to kill some of the NMs that are running around in order to disable certain moves and 2-hour abilities of the Mega-Boss. Assuming you do nothing, and go straight for the boss, he will have access to every 2-hour in the game, and in addition a few more nasty moves that he will spam. We were able to take out some key moves (like Benediction) and defeat the boss getting the clear!

Now, this zone is weird in that farming comes only after you defeat the boss. New "Nightmare mobs" (as seen above) spawn that can drop the items new to these zones. We farmed for awhile getting some money drops, the BRD Relic Cape, and WAR AF-1 gloves. Decent drops for our first run, but what I found funny was I got the first drop in the new CoP zones in the Explorer shell. Go me!

Now, I have had torn feelings about CoP as of late. I always promised I would not abandon my TrueRune CoP static, but alot of things have changed lately. One of our mages Tumble has pretty much gone AWOL as of late, and my Co-Strat man Tuufless has retired from FFXI. In addition, our SMN / SAM Chummy was away due to home/school issues, and wasn't supposed to return until sometime in September. My fears were that it would be near impossible to beat CoP at this point due to us being short 2-3 people, and me losing half of our strategy team. It doesn't help that information about CoP becomes less and less available the further you go, obviously caused by the fact that fewer and fewer people get that far in the missions.

Now, it was at this point I was approached by my PLD75 buddy Willriker. He knew that I had wanted to complete CoP 8-1 solely to get the Tavnazian Ring so I could get a new warp item. He invited Akanea, Saoirse, and myself to tag along when his static did it so we could get the rings as well. Now, doing this mission doesn't put you too far ahead of anyone else, its just killing 9 mobs and clicking a few doors. Things went bad when one of Will's static people didn't show, and they decided to cancel.

Now, Will explained that they only had 5 people in their static, and were looking for a 6th member. He seemed somewhat upset, because with his 5th member's mysterious absence, and lacking a 6th person, this placed them with a group of 4, and that made doing pretty much anything impossible, especially by their September 4th deadline. Now, I am a loyal dude, but I saw 2 opportunities here: I could help out a friend in a different static, and I could see how they did things, in the hope of gaining some experience for my TrueRune static saving us a great deal of time, exp, and frustration. After talking it over with Akanea, I decided to go ahead with Will's static for the hell of it (while still being a part of the original static, I mean, I like these guys ^^), since they were running out of time, and to be honest curiosity had gotten the better of me.

To be brief, we started CoP 8-1 with a PLD, PLD, RDM, WHM, DRK combo (with some assistance from a BLM for 8-1 to sleep links). Mission 8-1 went without a hitch, and I am convinced a group of 4 people could pull it off, assuming you had a tank, and a BLM for sleep. Once finished, we proceeded to get our Tavnazian Rings and enter the main castle area of Sea called the "Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi", continuing with mission 8-2.

Mission 8-2 is essentially following a very mazelike path consisting of 2 levels with 5 wings each, trying to escort verious NPCs around to open doors for you. Most things agro all levels, when they are in certain phases (usually in their "I'm not wrapped up in a small ball" phase.) It took us awhile, especially since we got lost for the first hour, but after taking a few minutes with a seperate marked map, I was able to make sense of things, and became the new map person. After finishing 8-2 and getting a CS, you are granted access into the center of the tower in a zone called the "Garden of Ru'Hmet" This marks the beginning of CoP 8-3.

Now, CoP 8-3 is essentially very similiar to 8-2, but the one major exception is there is a BC fight at the end. Now, the mission starts by requiring you to climb up to 5 towers depending on what races make up your group. If you are all tarutaru you would only need to climb one certain tower. If you were all Elvaan and Galka, you would have to climb 2 certain towers, etc. Now, we happened to have 5 people, and 2 Elvaan, 1 Tarutatu, 1 Hume, and 1 Mithra. Damn, that means we get to climb 4/5 towers. However, with me at the helm (in a sense since I had the map), it didn't take long since we used the "Sleep and Run" approach. After getting everyone their key items at the top of the towers, we proceeded to have to take an elevator up, and the only way (until you finish the mission) is to run past 4 pots that are almost impossible to run past without tripping the door shut. We decided to run to the door, die, wait until the pots reset (reopening the door), and reraise running quickly through. Once to the elevator, we were able to go up to floor 2 (the basement was not available.......hmmm...) and proceeded to run around getting 2 more key items needed to access floor 3. This went without a single hitch, and before you knew it, we were up to the third floor, where the BC fight would take place.

Now, Willriker had realized we probably stood a Snoll Czar's chance in hell with just the 5 of us, so he had talked to another group and they agreed to help us by splitting up and going as 2 runs making up 2 good parties with what each group had. Some people would go once, some would go twice. Now, I ended up going into the first group which was made up of PLD, NIN, DRK, WHM, BLM, BLM. The idea of the fight is you have to fight 4 pot mosters at the same time. Sleeping them at the start and taking them down one by one was the way to go. The NIN Jokerr (a friend in my dynamis LS) said he would main tank, and that I should DD. Luckily, I had brought along my DD setup including my O. Hat, Haub, and Joyeuse.

We entered, buffed, and Jokerr ran in, got hate, gathered the pots, and the BLMs slept them. We engaged the first pot, and took it down quickly. The second pot went down almost as quickly, but without a RDM, the mages started running out of MP. I used Chivalry and keep things going to where we started killing the third pot. Now, something happened where Jokerr died and I ended up main tanking towards the end of pot #3. Now, pot number 4 woke up, and since I had already Invincibled and used a 300tp Chivalry, I was prime target. Now, in a panic I switched back to my Terra's Staff and did the only thing I could do, kite the thing like no tomorrow. As I was able, I switched back into my tanking gear, and gave the mages time to raise Jokerr and regain MP. It was a nasty kiting situation, since the room was small, and the pot was a quick flying thing. Most of this time I was kiting with under 300hp, but the WHMs cures, my cures, and my Hi-potions from Will kept me alive long enough for the BLMs to nuke it slowly to death. Victory, and a cool CS followed!

Now, things never go this smootly in FFXI, and of course we hit a snag. The second group was plagued with player disconnects, and never got the clear even after three tries. Now, initially I was really upset about this, but it presents an interesting possibility. Now, the original problem was we had two PLDs that eneded the BC, but now since I have the clear, only Will needs to go in. If they can get 2 BLMs to finish the BC with them, they can get the clear on Sunday and everything will be fine. With all the initial 8-3 stuff out of the way getting to the BC takes all of 10 minutes now.

After waiting awhile for the people with connection problems to return, we decided to call it quits. I went and got all the CSs I needed to get to the last CoP mission 8-4. I was even brave enough to enter the final fight just to see what it was like, and it really is the coolest looking fight in the game. I used a warp cudgel to escape before I was in any danger, but it was cool to see anyway. With any luck, I can wrap this all up Sunday and start figuring out how to get TrueRune through all of this as well. (^.^)v

Paladin. Seventy. Five.

2006-08-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

So, I made the final push to finally get Paladin to the almighty seventy-five!

It feels good to finally be an "endgame" paladin. I quit the night with a small 2K buffer, and I know that I will have to get a much bigger buffer than that...

I'm also thinking about what to merit first on paladin, and I think it might be a good idea to take NIN from 18 to 37 to compliment my DD setup. The Joyeuse seems to severly boost TP gain and damage, but I'd like to see it in action with a Company Sword. At a quick glance, it seems like I need about 100 merits to get all the things I want, should take awhile o get all of that. XD

One other awesome thing to report is the chocobo update is here!

I am currently completing the quest in Jeuno to get a free egg, and will start raising my chocobo tonight. I'm hoping for either a black or a blue one, though I think I could deal with red as well. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks. ^^

A Little Bundle of {Joyeuse}

2006-08-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

So, Dynamis Windy rolled around again. I was hoping against hope to possibly expand my Relic collection to include the PLD boots as well. However Windy is never kind to me, and produced not only zero PLD drops, but only autolotted two bills to me as well. Talk about insult to injury...

So, I figured the day was done. I was bored, it was my day off, I went to take a nap since I didn't want to deal with more disappointments in FFXI land. I returned to find Theora (75 RDM / 75 BST) was logged on. Now, Theo and I had just gone and destroyed my Staff WS mob, so I figured maybe she was interested in camping Charby. We both needed the sword, and in the event we actually got one, my craptastic lots almost ensured she would win it. She seemed bored, and agreed to head down. One RDM down, one NIN and BRD to go. Now, there might be a thousand NINs on the server, it seems I dont know many of them... It just so happens that the one LS NINs who usually isn't on all that much popped on. Pilfer didn't have alot to do at the time, so he came down. Now, we went down at about 7:00pm and discovered after the fact that the spawn window opened at 9:15pm. Great. Well, in the meantime we got our other LS RDM Hiroaki and LS BRD Shelden to start heading down. The time for the window rolled around and people seemed to start comming to check for a pop. Wouldn't you know it but one of the first pops in the window was Charby. o.o A few minutes later our crew got there, and we were ready to engage as RDM, RDM, NIN, BRD, PLD.

Wouldn't you know it though, the other placeholder spawned making a clean pull all but impossible. With the gilsellers in the area getting antsy, we decide to pull, me taking the add, and our NIN taking Charby. Just as I voke the add, the gilsellers voke Charby and engage. What the crap? It's a few NINs and a few WHMs, what do they need a Joyeuse for? Can they even take Charby? Well, it turns out they were just messing around, the NINs 2 houred making charby lose a good few points of life and go unclaimed again. Pilfer immediately claimed and went to work. After managing to solo the add with some ballad assistance, I went to work curing Pilfer and laying out the occasional flash. Things went pretty smooth for the first 50% health, but then another huge group showed up, and apparently were hoping we would wipe. The additional lag didnt help things, as Pilfer got to under 200 HP a few times. Top it all off, with Charby at 25% health, the other placeholder pops _again_ and is really close to the action. I rest up, take the add, and before I finish killing it Charby is down! Joyeuse (and a pearl) drop!

So, time to lot. I've had crappy luck with this lot in the past, and so has Theora. I decided to let Theo lot first, and this is how it went:

Whoa... I really didn't believe it, my crappy lotting had finally won me a lot in something that mattered! ...and by a whopping 17 bid point too! I was really happy, but felt kinda bummed for Theo. It should be alright though, since we know TrueRune can take Charby now, it's just a matter of getting people together for it. It's cool to see what your social LS can do sometimes, isn't it? I know I'll be down there many more times since about four more people in the LS want the sword...

Afterwards, Tuufless hearing my good news decided to head to the meadows and play with out pointy swords. It was nice taking some time to fool around with Tuuf, I can tell he definately doesn't want to leave just yet, but maybe the Tuuf will return someday in all his shortness glory...

We took the time to stop by Willriker's CoP Airship battle run. After a good dry run, they headed in and wiped the floor with the airship. Good job on the clear guys! (...with a PLD might I add...) Maybe our shattered groups can combine to go through the rest of CoP, who knows... Until then, I'm just going to enjoy my new toy (that matches my outfit too!)

Slow day at the office...

2006-08-15T19:34:00.000-07:00

So, I realized I haven't posted an update in about a month. Now, looking back I feel there really wasn't any event important enough by itself to make a post about, but group them together and I guess I have some tasty material. ^_^

Anyway, where to start? I need a nice picture or something. Oh, I know!

I actually decided to cowboy up this year during the summerfest event and get to goldfish scooping. I managed to get enough Goldfish Sets (240 points in fish, ugh) to make three bowls. I made two "Fighting Fish Tanks" (Right Bowl) and a single "Goldfish Bowl" (Left Tank). I gave one of the bettas to Ararith for helping me scoop goldfish one day. Getting Woodworking to 20 wasn't especially fun, but making 3 signed furnature pieces was worth it. They have made a pretty addition to my already cluttered Mog House.

In other news, I also (finally) got around to unlocking the Retribution staff weapon skill. I have had the latent broken for some months now, but could never get a party together to fight the NM needed. Theora in my LS offered to take her BST75 out there and solo it, and by george did it. I must say, it was quite an impressive feat, and many animals were harmed in the obtaining of this WS. Nice work Theo. ^^

A few weeks ago I managed to scrape together enough gil to finally buy a Hauby too. (Again, thanks Ararith ^^) It adds to my DD PLD setup I am working on, and hopefully will get to test out once i crack PLD75 and NIN 37.

I must say though, FFXI has been kinda slow. The new patch with the new missions was fun, but short. It did give me a reason to get all five runic portal teleports though. I'm still awaiting the chocobo raising update for something to do. Ever since my sky LS broke up, Ive been a tad bored ingame. Dynamis keeps me occupied, but it seems I can never manage to get a drop, or win the lot when things drop. XD With alot of people on vacation, it makes the game a tad boring, and losing Tuufless this week to the maelstrom of real life isn't exactly exciting either. :_: We will miss you tarutaru. /wave

Hopefully, in the comming weeks, I can get some money back together, and get my butt leveling to get some of those new merits. Should be fun, and I am about 16K tnl 75 too... Hmmm...

As Vana'diel Turns (Twenty-One Hours At A Time...)

2006-07-11T20:17:00.000-07:00

So, it's been awhile since I made a post. I started working a 'full-time part-time' job, and as such my FFXI time has been reduced drastically. The things we do to pay the bills...

To bring things up to speed, after getting sea access, I took a little break from FFXI. Comming back, after a few days, I decided I wanted to get a Joyeuse which is a sword that "occasionally attacks twice." Occasionally attacks once is more like it, it's like having super double attack without a /WAR subjob. I have spent many a night in the Sea Serpent Grotto, but alas I have turned up empty handed. However, two people I know have gotten their swords, so at least my time wasn't totally wasted in there. If you want to try to help me spawn Charby, give me a yell ingame, I would appreciate it. ^^

But that's not the BIG news! Oh no! Check this out:

That's right, my sky linkshell has taken a sudden liking to the Land King HNMs, Fafnir in particular. We were able to claim Fafnir back to back two nights in a row, and I had the honor of co-tanking (and for 5 minutes the second night, solo tanking) this formidable monster. Let me just say, it was a blast. Even at level 73, and without "optimal tanking gear" I was able to hold my own, and assist in two Fafnir kills. All that dropped both times were the Adaman Hands Abjs., but the battles were good training for the linkshell on how to battle a land god. I got the title "Fafnir Slayer" and was congratulated on a tanking job well done. ^^ Willriker also tells the tale (hehehe, tail...) here at: http://willrikerpaladin.blogspot.com/2006/07/fxunlimited-and-fafnir.html I'd like to say that honestly he is a formidable hate foe, but for the record, he has a crapload more gil than I do, and not to mention 2 extra levels on PLD... Reguardless, awesome job to the PLDs of FX.

During the meantime, I decided to take on another monster in FFXI that like Fafnir, had a 21 hour minimum repop timer. This time I was after this little breauty: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?fitem=9450

The Intruder Earring possesses some nice stats for an endgame Paladin: Defense, HP, Dex (kinda useless), and Agi (shield blocks). It drops off a mob named Centurio XII-I in East Altepa. The mob is a timed spawn, so no killing is necessary, but patience is. Believe me, getting a Time-of-Death on a non-famous mob that few camp (and those that do are not willing to give you the ToD) and not to mention it's not even a 100% drop. Jeepers Creepers indeed! Anyway, I was able to get an approximate ToD from a PLD I camped it with that was 2 days old, so using a little math, and approximation, I had a decent ToD guess. Within minutes of my girlfriend comming out with her 36WHM/01RNG setup to help me camp it, the NM poped, and noone was there but me to claim. Oddly enough, I saw pop before she caught it on widescan, but it's the thought that counts. ^^

The battle wasn't too bad, the NM is a Ranger type Antica mob, that does possess the Eagle Eye Shot 2 hour. However, with my awesome defense (a 300 EES is just too weak) and my NPC helper Romidiant there to assist cure me (level 62 Healer NPC), the battle was a joke, and amazingly the earring dropped first try. I've heard horror stories of people going 0/20 on this thing, which is the better part of a month camping a NM and never losing claim! Needless to say, I was very pleased with the drop. ^^

I also was able to recently convince my better half to tag along for an avatar fight, Titan specifically. She is usually not too keen comming to things as her 60+ Dragoon for fear of dying and losing precious experience, but I was able to get her to come anyway. The battle went smoothly, and she enjoyed it quite a bit, and didn't even panic when the mob 2-hour almost killed her. Good Job on your first real avatar babe! ^^