Fields of Valor, WHM 24-26

I had more fun with WHM/BST, charming birds and dhalmels doing the crawlers/dhalmels Fields of Valor page. I was dying a lot, though, so I ended up throwing in the towel and started looking for a party, instead.



Well, after grabbing lunch, I found Resheph and his girlfriend on, and they asked if I would like to team up with them in Valkurm. I ended up hitting level 25 there (in a surprisingly great party), but soon after leveling I had to go to practice.

After the practice and eating dinner, I hopped back on and ended up doing more Fields of Valor, but this time with Darkcow and Riibob in Buburimu Peninsula and eventually Rolanberry Fields, where I hit level 26.



I have said it many times and I will say it again. I love Square-Enix for their addition of the Fields of Valor combined with Level Synchronization. They have made leveling jobs so much more enjoyable, since now you really can do it with your friends, whenever you want, however you want.

White Mage, Einherjar Wing III

For the majority of this morning and early afternoon, I was in Valkurm Dunes and Buburimu Peninsula as white mage/beastmaster, charming bunnies and mandragoras and killing goblins as well as completing the Fields of Valor each day. In Valkurm Dunes I spent a short amount of time leveling with Darkcow, until he had to leave for work. Then, once I got to level 21 there, I hopped over to my favorite leveling spot in Buburimu and eventually hit 22 there.

Then I parked myself in Nashmau before I had to go to softball practice for the team that I assistant coach. When I got back, I joined Immortality Linkshell in doing Einherjar Wing III. We started it with leeches (gross) and marids, and the third set of mobs were Soulflayers, which are absolutely disgusting black mage-type mobs.

Then the boss of the area, which we began fighting with ten minutes remaining was a behemoth. He was vicious, casting instant Meteor every minute, while doing vicious AoE TP attacks, wiping out our entire 36-man alliance piece-by-piece. We had him at 20% health when we timed out. Regardless of the loss, however, I did get right under 2,000 ampoules of therion ichor, which goes towards my goal of 15,000 for a new ring for my red mage.

After Einherjar, Darkcow, Riibob, and I teamed up, level synced to my 22 white mage, and we did the later pages at the end of Buburimu Peninsula, on the coast near Mhaura. We flew through mobs, often getting exp chain #5s, which you normally only see in full 6-man parties. After completing one, all three of us had leveled, and Riibob had to leave. Darkcow and I did about 3 more sets, killing other random mobs as we saw them, and he got two more levels while I only got one more, hitting level 24 white mage.

Now, I am going to buy all the new white mage spells that I have missed then head to bed. Only 13 more levels of white mage to go then I can use it as one of my subjobs for red mage. Woo.

DRK, WHM, and Garliage Shitadel

Two subjobs for red mage that I have always wanted to level but never did were dark knight and white mage. As you can tell, I have been making a serious effort to fix that. For the past week or so I have been soloing (and some parties, I might add) my way up in levels, aiming for 37.



Once I hit 29 in one of my last posts, I moved from Meriphataud Mountains to Batallia Downs, right outside of the Duchy of Jeuno. The beastmen in the area are pretty high level, as are the tigers in the area, but everything else was in my range to kill, so I cautiously used this zone to go from level 29 to level 33. I kid you not, I soloed 4 levels. Anyone who plays FFXI knows that jobs that do not normally solo (like dark knight) would find soloing 4 levels in the 30s to be excrutiating.

What made it easier was two things:
1) I used my Tactics Pearl (and Signal Pearl) to call Yoli out several times in that process, which eased the pain quite a bit. Her heals and enfeebles (as well as extra damage) made things go a lot more quickly.
2) Dark Knight/Dancer. At level 30, DNC sub is level 15, which is when you get Curing Waltz, which heals for approximately 67 HP at the cost of 20 TP. Well, I never used my TP, and as a result, I could more or less cure myself infinitely if the fight was too hard while Yoli chipped away at the mob's health. This was the case until about 32 when nothing was so hard that I was spamming the waltz.



Today, starting at level 33, I moved to the other side of Jeuno, into Rolanberry Fields, where the mobs were slightly higher. Before I could hit 34, I received a party invite to Garliage Citadel, where I remained until...



I hit level 37 dark knight-- my goal. I am done leveling dark knight UNLESS I want to get get it to level 40 for the Diabolos fight, which I haven't decided yet. Going from 37 to 40 is kind of rough, but I suppose I could manage it.

Once I finally got out of that marathon party, I switched to WHM and joined Resheph in the Valkurm Dunes, where I leveled from level 18 white mage to level 20.

Oh, and I really really hate white mage.

17 levels to go.

Einherjar Wing II tomorrow! Yay!

Tactics Pearl; Pso'Xja Pass

Yesterday, while Immortality was doing Dynamis-Xarcabard, I finally got Chains of Promathia installed on my new computer. And, to celebrate, I decided to go into Promyvion-Mea and do the weekly Tactics Pearl quest with my Adventuring NPC Fellow, Yoli.






I solo'd (well, duo'd if you count Yoli) my way to the second floor and proceeded to kill 30 mobs to max out EXP for Yoli. Then, when she was about to quit, I finished the quest at the ??? on the 2nd floor. I went as THF/DNC, level capped at 30 but in my normal lv73 THF gear. (Thank God for the gear fix to level capping.)

Right after I finished the quest, Resheph got on, and I coaxed him to do it too while I helped him. Again, we travelled to the 2nd floor and killed mobs until his NPC was about to quit, then he completed it. In that whole process my THF got 1500 EXP which isn't too shabby. Yoli got 2400 (cap for the 2nd floor) on the quest, and now I have a Tactics Pearl, which will allow me to call her 4 times with a 10-minute cooldown, if I ever feel like leveling her hardcore.

She is currently at level 44, and though she's set at soothing healer I might put her back as an attacker since managing her MP is annoying. (NPCs max at 65 as far as I know.)

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This morning, to continue my CoP fun, I decided to get a step ahead in my missions. I am currently on 3-5, which ends with a fight against Diabolos in the Shrouded Maw, inside Pso'Xja. Well, before you can go into that portion of Pso'Xja, you have to farm lizards or diremites for a chip for a quest in Lower Jeuno.

I went on my 75RDM/BLM, OP warped to Beaucedine Glacier, and trekked up the mountain all the way to the uncapped entrance to Pso'Xja that you don't need a pass to enter. I proceeded to kill all the diremites and lizards I could find, eventually dropping to the lower level where the mobs are in their mid 60s.

There was a 75NIN fighting the diremite spawn there, but I saw 2 lizards standing side-by-side and I pulled one with Blizzard III. Well, the other linked (surprise) and I proceeded to dangerously chip away at their health, and I eventually killed both, the second giving me a Carmine Chip. So I warped out, went to Neptune Spire's Inn in Lower Jeuno and turned it in, and now I have the Pso'Xja Pass for Promathia Mission 3-5.

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Other updates:

Road to the Lu Shang Rod: 100/10000 Moat Carps turned in.

Durrrrrrrrr.

Einherjar Wing I

I've been out of town with my family for the past week, so I haven't gotten to play at all. However, I got back yesterday, and today they allowed me to join them on my first Einherjar!

We did Wing I: Rossweisse's Chamber, and we got the win!

The mob sets were ghosts and triple bats, which, with corsairs, bards, and white mages, went incredibly smoothly. We had plenty of time for the marid boss which went down without any deaths.

Thus, I got the feather for Rossweisse's Chamber, which is one step closer for me being able to go fight Odin in the final chamber of Einherjar.

Unfortunately, I still need Dynamis-Jeuno and Dynamis-Windurst to be able to do Dynamis-Beaucedine, which in turn will give me access to Dynamis-Xarcabard.

Also, I need to beat Diabolos in the Chains of Promathia missions in order to go to dreamworld Dynamis-Buburimu and Dynamis-Valkurm.

However, at least I can do Einherjar, lower Dynamis, and Sky with Immortality right now. I'm sure I'll get access to others soon enough.

Yuhtunga Jungle, DRK, Crafting, Moogles!

Yesterday, for the first time in almost a year, I pretty much played FFXI all day.

At first I just got on to create an EXP buffer on Eruntalo's thief. However, after getting about 5000 EXP doing Campaign battles, Darkcow and I got to talking and decided to level my dark knight, since 75RDM/37DRK is useful in endgame. I've been trying to level it for ages but I hate leveling jobs, but now that there is Fields of Valor, maybe it'd be easier.

Anyway, he came as his level 19 ranger, and we teamed up in Buburimu Peninsula, duoing the first page (6 mandragoras and 1 rarab). We played up until the emergency maintanence at 12PM central, and in that time I hit level 24, and he hit level 21.

After the maintenance was over, I decided to afk-Fields of Valor near Mhaura, where I hit 25. Soon after hitting 25, I got an invite to a party in Yuhtunga Jungle fighting mandragoras. Since I had nothing better to do, I obliged. (Plus, I was really sick of soloing, and sick of Buburimu.)

The party wasn't awesome, but I did manage to reach level 28 in the few hours that I spent with the party.



Afterward, I went to Meriphataud Mountains and got the rest of my level, closing my day as a dark knight at 29. I very quickly used 50 tabs to repatriate, and then starting farting around with other things until I bazaared and got off FFXI.

Well, in my farting around, this happened:




Long, eventful day, and only 8 more levels of dark knight to go!

Dynamis - Bastok

About to do Dynamis - Bastok. Good to be back. :)

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Edit: Actual Update

So, since I did actually get my thief to 73, I became a little more upbeat about playing Eruntalo over Bertha.



Whiles looking for an EXP party, I fished about 8k gil as well as 24 Moat Carps (which would have been another 7k gil) to turn in for the quest for the Lu Shang rod. Only 9976 to go.

Anyway, today I went to Dynamis - Bastok, as I said before in my original post. We got the win and fully cleared the repops after the boss. Lots of AF2 dropped, including my THF AF2 body.

It's a terrible piece and I'd definitely wear my Rapparee or Scorp. Harness over it, but it's a nice novelty... and my very first relic armor!



I am going to see if I can get in some sky runs with Immortality as they come to thank them for this, and hopefully they run Dynamis - Jeuno and Windurst soon.

Stop and Go

As a result of me getting into the online part of Mario Kart on the Wii, I have not spent as much time on FFXI as I have previously this month. I did a bit of leveling Bertha before this morning, and through all of that and what I did this morning, I got her to level 11 monk.



She's now ready to go to Tahrongi Canyon and begin the Fields of Valor chains there. I have bought here a nice set of [Tropical Punches] to wear as well as the full Brass set, which looks better than the stupid Kenpogi crap.

Later on, Resheph got on and we started talking and decided to go duo Fields of Valor stuff as my thief and his ninja, level synced at 67.



At first, we tried the final page in Western Altepa Desert. However, we found it too easy and the ants were too spread out, so we thought we'd be adventurous and go check out Cape Terrigan, through Kuftal Tunnel.



It was quite a bit more difficult, since we quickly became bored with fighting the rarabs and lizards there and moved up to crabs and raptors. Well, regardless, we completed about 6 sets today all of which rewarded around 1300 EXP. I popped my Emperor band and Eruntalo's thief got to 2000 to the next level before Resheph had to go.

So, now, I am currently soloing the last page of Western Altepa Desert trying to get that last bit and hit level 73 thief. Finally, I will get it, I think.

Subjob: check

With the assistance of zombie-Darkcow (dual-boxed by yours truly), I was able to acquire a little sooner than planned the Bloody Robe needed for the subjob activation quest in Mhaura. I did manage to get the dhalmel saliva on my own against Even Matched dhalmels, but all the bogies I encountered were tough and above, and, well, my attempt to solo one using my 2-hour as well as 2 potions that I had saved up during the Fields of Valor. However, I came up short, getting it down to 15% health.

I shortly requested access to Darkcow's character and soon thereafter went through that whole process, got the robe, and now I can use subjobs.

So, now, I am back in East Sarutabaruta, right outside of Windurst, leveling my monk with warrior subbed. Monk is so easy and mindless, too.



It is already level 6, and I am leveling it as we speak. I'll be back in Buburimu Peninsula soon enough, I'm sure. However, I may make a trek to Jeuno soon so that I can get my Chocobo License.

Buburimu Peninsula and beyond

After my last post I decided to move on from Tahrongi Canyon and head east for Buburimu Peninsula. The first mobs in the area were Decent Challenge or beyond, and the goblins in the immediate area were Tough. I wasn't sure if I should stay, being only 17, but I figured I'd check out the first page of the Fields of Valor and see what I would have to fight. Well, the list was one bunny and seven mandragoras, all of which were in the Decent Challenge-Even Match range (with a few that were Tough, as well).

Anyway, I decided to go ahead and do it after getting Reraise, Protect, and Regen from my tabs. Well, I have to say I have died a couple times in this third area. However, I have gained 4 levels in the past 2 days, so that's something worth mentioning. This game really wasn't designed for you to solo past level 15, at least for most jobs. However, I am doing it and it is both challenging and slightly enjoyable, but only because of the Fields of Valor.

In this area, each completion awards 475 EXP and gil, and 47 tabs. I have kept pretty even gil-wise with this, which is nice.

After hitting 21, I decided to head to the port town at the edge of the Peninsula, Mhaura.





While I was there I went ahead and grabbed two quests--one to get my subjob, and another that was just a random one when I asked a guard where I could find some work. I already turned in the Wild Rabbit Tail for the subjob, but now I have to get a cup of Dhalmel saliva (yum), which drops from guys that are currently Even Match to me. I think I'll hit 22 before I try to solo them. However, I think that I'm gonna need a little help getting the Bloody Robe from the Bogies in the area. They are lv. 23-25, not to mention they take reduced damage from melee which means they are going to be a nightmare for me to kill.



Hopefully I will have my subjob within the next 2 days. Then I will start leveling my monk. Hell, I may even keep going with monk after it catches warrior. I really don't like warrior and I've already leveled it to 75 on Eruntalo.

Hello, Bertha

I have been spending most of my FFXI time doing the Fields of Valor on Bertha.

To summarize them, they give you, every game day, a set of mobs to kill. If you complete the "regime," then you are awarded three things: gil, tabs, and experience points.

Gil and EXP are obvious, but what tabs do is you can spend them on Field Support. Field Support are things such as Protect, Shell, Regen, Food, and Repatriation (returning to your home nation).

I feel like these Fields of Valor questlings are a good way to break the monotony of the grind, as well as fund your individual character in terms of gear and the like. Granted, Eruntalo has been giving Bertha some money to make the gear a little better than average, but regardless, she is more or less doing everything on her own.

Right now, she is a level 17 warrior. At level 18 you can do the quest to acquire your sub job, which will be monk for her. I will at least wait until then until I start leveling the monk. I don't really know what my plans are for her, but it's fun leveling a new character, nonetheless.

I might pick back up on leveling Eruntalo, but I haven't and don't really feel like it, anyway. The linkshell that Vacious and Darkcow got me in is doing a Sky run on thursday, so I might go to that. That all depends on whether or not I go to my litter sister's softball game that night or not, though.