Guess who killed a Dahak!

Finally, I got another down. Lame drops though, eh?
I enjoy the gil though. It took me 20 minutes to beat one. He only did "Thornsong" which was a dispellable "Damage Spikes" buff. Now if only he dropped a heart. :)

I think I'm going to keep trying to solo them until one kills me or I go to bed.

A wild Fishing appears

In all honesty, doing this has made fishing a lot more instantly gratifying. The market for Moat Carps is so steady, as is Insect Paste (which I could probably make if I really tried).

And once in a blue moon I'll get a skill-up from Gold Carps.

Anyway, I made it my first goal to get my money back for buying a new Halcyon Rod, which I did pretty quickly. I can either start working towards the Lu Shang rod or maybe just work on leveling fishing, OR I could just keep fishing for profit until I want to stab myself.

Regardless, this will be a nice break from Clothcraft which has gone to hell for me.

Roadblock?

I had a lot of dead time today so I got back on FFXI after my classes to level my Clothcraft some more and also try out those Karakul in Caedarva Mire.

First, I went to Nashmau as RDM/THF and made my way to where all the Karakul are kind of close to Azouph Isle Staging Point, but before the imps (which is why I took the Nashmau route--much safer). Well, they conned Decent Challenge to me, which I probably could have guessed just by looking at the wiki for them, but for some reason I was expecting Easy Prey. Anyway, just like Marids, they spawn a Chigoe every TP attack, which, when you melee, happens often. Well, it was surprisingly challenging to beat them, though I did it without real fear of death because I was actually paying attention. I killed one, and it dropped the Karakul Skin that I was looking to get. Well, it took quite a while just to kill the one, and they can only drop one maximum, and at a kind of low rate (below 50% according to ffxiclopedia). I killed another and didn't get a drop, and at that point, after all the hell it took just to kill one, I decided it definitely wasn't worth pursuing.

I decided this for 2 reasons. Level 14 Leathercraft just to turn the Karakul Skin into Karakul Wool, which means 9 levels of Leathercraft leveling just to get to the point where I can make the wool without many breaks. With Sheepskin it didn't matter so much because I was getting 1-3 Sheepskin per Broo, and I was killing them in under a minute. I suppose Sleep-nuking them would be a little easier, even as RDM/THF, but in all honesty, I just don't think it's worth it at all.

So I walked back to Nashmau, warped, and decided to buy some more Insect Wings and aim for 52. 4 stacks of Insect wings and I got 2 skill ups. 0.2 each. The guide says that it's slower past 50, but good lord that is a massive drop. I recall Vacious telling me about how crafting hits a huge wall at higher levels, and I'm guessing 50 is where that wall begins. Great, I'm so excited...

As a side note, I had 6 Silk Threads on me that I had forgotten about, so just for a test, I made them into Silk Cloth, and funny enough I did get a skill-up from one of them and both were successful synths. It's a LV55 synth, but I figure the skill-up rate can't really be better than Insect Fletchings, so I think I'll just stick with those until 52 then hit 55 on Silk Cloth. I keep asking myself if I really want to keep going with this, since I'm hitting the point where it's probably going to cost me a pretty penny to make real progress.

Journeymantalo

Yet another splurge by me led to the following:



All of this occurred within a 30 minute period. I have to say, Insect Fletchings have been very good to me, if you can't tell from my last 2 posts. The mere fact that they are only 1,000 gil per stack on both Windurst and Jeuno Auction Houses says a lot to begin with. With Wind Crystals as low as they are, it is only costing me about 225 gil per attempt, and as you can tell by the picture, within 5 levels of the synth cap you can get skill-ups on breaks, which actually more often than not tend to be cheaper since you don't always lose all your mats (and I hardly ever lose anything with Insect Fletchings).

Anyway, rushing to get the mats for the Wool Bracers actually cost me about the same as 5 stacks of Insect Wings and 5 stacks of Wind Crystals, which is really unfortunate. I could have farmed the majority of the materials, but I was just so excited that I hit 50 and I still had a few mats left and was hoping for more skill-ups before my classes today.

Once I hit 52, I really have absolutely no clue where to go. I could farm crawlers for 20 years until I hit 55 on Silk Cloth, or I could farm Karakul near Nashmau for their skin, synth that to Karakul Wool (level 12 Leatherworking, I'm at 4...), which would also take 20 years. I will be doing research for an alternative, but things don't look good on the way to 60. I'm not really surprised, though. What is surprising is how quickly and cheaply I was able to get to 50. In fact, I'd definitely say I've made a good chunk of money doing it.

Anyway, I thought I would share in my excitement/good fortune. Have a good one.

Busy Busy Weekend

I seriously have only played for like an hour total since my last update. I am so sick of college, it's ridiculous. However, I am graduating in December, so there is a light at the end.

Anyway, in the short amount of time I got to play I decided to splurge and buy all my mats with which to level my Clothcraft.

Insect Wingx48 = 4,000 gil
Wind Crystalx36 = 1,800 gil (They were cheap in Jeuno last night!)

Total = 5,800 gil

Sold 4 stacks of Lightning Crystals @1,500gil, = 6,000gil.

I have to justify my spending at all times. :)

Anyway, here are the results of my synthing:





My skill-up rate was insane last night. Seriously, every other successful synth was a 0.1 or 0.2 skill-up. I am only 0.2 points from hitting 48 now, too, which means I can soon raise my rank which opens up some sweet Clothcrafting spectacles!



70,000 guild points. Only 68,200 to go!
Goals are fun, though.

Durrr Treasure Chests

I was farming Upper Delkfutt Gigas on the 10th floor for their nice gil drops as THF/BLM (along with the Thunder Elementals that spawn there and Mimas for a free 8k Huge Moth Axe) and after getting a Delkfutt Chest Key, I went back down to floor 9 (Middle Delkfutt) to open a chest (which was a Tourmaline instead of gil, sad day).

Well, about 20 minutes later another chest key dropped. I continued killing stuff on the 10th floor and came across another chest. Enjoying my good fortune, I attempted to open the chest. Well, I got the message "This chest was merely an illusion." And it disappeared. I still had my key, though.

Soon after, I came across another chest, and the same thing happened. It suddenly dawned on me that Square-Enix must have made an update where the same person can't open contiguous chests? Or maybe there's a time-length where you can't open another chest in the same zone? I searched through the Updates history of FFXI and found nothing of the sort, but I figure that's the case.

Regardless, I think that, while I see the merit for this update, it severely limits the amount of gil/hr I can get in Delkfutt. I've considered going back to farming Sheepskin > Sheep Wool > Wool Thread, but I like to shake things up a bit from time to time to break the farming monotony.

I don't want to level my THF, but I really should. Sigh. :(

EX-PP

I got in an EXP party last night after completing my stupid Computer Audio project to blow off some steam before bed. I managed to get about 21k EXP in the 3 hour party, which is good EXP/hr I guess, compared to what I've been getting lately in groups. So now I'm about 16k from hitting 73, which leaves only 4 billion EXP until I hit 75THF.

Today, I decided to spend half of my gil on Gobbiebag quests III-V. So, now I have 55 slots on Eruntalo, which I think will help me farming quite a bit. Though, I know I'll eventually find ways to make 55 slots not be enough, but whatever.

The reason I didn't do VI is because it requires [Iolite] which was too much gil for me to spend right now. I mean, I could do it, but I don't feel like being broke.

Well, that's all for now.

Spring Break approaches...

While I managed to get my Clothcraft to 45 yesterday, I have definitely hit the point where my desire to farm for Clothcraft is down to zero. My desire to level my THF in a marathon party is also zero. My desire to farm, period, is zero, mainly because I have no purchase goals.

So what should I do? I leveled my PUP from 11 to 13 while farming the bees in Giddeus for Insect Wings (for clothcraft, lv52 Cap), Beehive Chips (3000gil a stack, Jeuno), and Honey (3500gil a stack, Jeuno). That was slightly entertaining but having to deal with a pet has always been irritating for me on FFXI. BST was fun from time-to-time but keeping up with the pet was always more of a headache than fun for me. Same for SMN, and I never messed with DRG much, not that DRG is really in the same ballpark in terms of pet-jobs.

I have considered fishing expeditions, but fishing is less fun than farming. I read a lot about Clothcraft trying to find different strategies for leveling. I keep an eye out on guild point gaining since I am 3 levels from being able to get my +1 skill Spectacles, though I don't nearly have enough points. 2k/70k? :) I have a lot of work to go there.

Anywho, I hope I find something worthwhile to do, though I know that I should prioritize leveling my THF to 75. I just don't wanna.

Busy Weekend

I managed to accomplish two different things:

1) I hit level 72 Thief, which allowed me to put on my lovely Pahluwan Crackows!

2) I leveled my Clothcraft a ton and hit 44 Clothcraft! :D