Quick update

Blighting Brand: 0/1
Eldritch Edge: 0/4

Fellow NPC: Lv49
TofM: No.173 - 62/100 remain

A Crystalline Prophecy: Final Seed/BCNM
Completed all Fellow NPC Missions, all that remains is last level cap increase.

Dynamis - Qufim, Operation Desert Swarm, TotM No. 173, T1 VNM

I swear, having this game on XBOX360 has increased my play time drastically.

I went to Einherjar Wing 3 and Dynamis - Qufim yesterday. We had back luck in Einherjar with mobs (Eyes, Dragons, Vampyr Jarl) and didn't finish, and then we went to DynaQufim. Easy win, full farming, and I got my Red Mage relic pants! Woohoo.



I spent the rest of the day messing about doing random things.

Trial of the Magians
Last night I finished No.172 (100 EP+ Windy/Windsday), and activated my 4th of 6, No.173 (100 EP+ Vermin Windy/Windsday). Every windsday since then (except when I slept), I go out to Bhaflau Thickets and kill Aht Urghan Attercops. I am down to 69/100 to kill, now, and I get spider webs out of it! 2000 gil each!

Voidwalker Notorious Monsters
I decided to try my RDM/NIN tanking skills out on a Tier 1 VNM. I grabbed my clear abyssite from the NPC in Ru'Lude Gardens and went to West Sarutabaruta and eventually found the beetle one. I soon found out that composure is actually your enemy when you are straight tanking a mob on RDM. Without bind or gravity, you need those recast timers to be as low as possible. Anyway, I beat the beetle pretty narrowly, but my abyssite didn't change, nor did it break, so I must kill another. I may ask someone to do this with me to speed up the process. Soloing these guys is cumbersome.

Operation Desert Swarm
I asked Darkcow to go with me on my first attempt on RDM/BLU tanking this KSNM. Well, with the Taco I get to nearly 700 defense, and it showed too. These guys didn't hit me very hard at all. I had trouble with interruption, so I was thankful that Darkcow was there to help heal me in emergencies. I did make a pretty grave mistake though, allowing phalanx to be down for too long and Darkcow was low on MP, so after having almost 3 killed, we wiped, and I died in a poor place. It was a good practice run, and I know that we can beat it next time, and whenever we want, so there's a bright side. For sure, though, I am going to pull them to the hallway next time.

Brothers ENM
I will be doing this every chance I can forever, for the chance at drops. You don't lose EXP so I don't care if I lose sometimes.

Ouyru Cometh, Sky, Trial of the Magians

Last night, I completed the CoP BCNM "Ouyru Cometh" in Riverne A01 5 times with my linkshell, Immortality. The first one didn't go that smoothly, but we won, then every fight thereafter we improved our time.

I got 10k gil from Black Beetle blood that I won the lot on, as well as a Tutelary, which I will eventually sell, but for now I am actually using it in my DEF setups.

Afterward, I returned to the Labyrinth of Onzozo and completed the second trial for my sword, No.165.

Today, I kind of messed around figuring where was best to do my current trial:

100 EP+ mobs on Windsday/ Windy weather.

Oddly enough, I returned to Labyrinth of Onzozo, because they are very low-end mobs and are the easiest for me to kill in a chaining method.

Eventually I bailed on doing this because it was time to go to sky with Immortality. They had 8 Byakko pops, 1 Seiryu, and 1 Genbu. I healed/refreshed as RDM/WHM and got my Genbu's Shield today! Yay.

Now, to pinpoint my future endeavors:

1) Solo Operation Desert Swarm as RDM/BLU. I've watched videos and I have the gear to do this, so I think I'm going to try it soon.
2) Solo the Brothers ENM. Again, watched a video, and I feel like I have the skill to do this.
3) Finish my stupid sword then start working on a THF dagger.
4) Camp and solo Charybdis for my Joytoy, I will I will I will.

Trial of the Magians

I have already completed my first trial of the magians, trial 164.

"Defeat 100 leeches under weather conditions."

After Darkcow and I did some of his (100 tigers) in Uleguerand Range, we level synced to his 25COR and did all my leeches (well, he was AFK for about 50 of them).

So, I now have a Soulsaber and am on Trial 165:

"Defeat 100 Sea Monks under Light/Thunder/Fire/Wind weather."

Now to find a place that meets that.

I am currently doing Ouyru Cometh with Immortality.

Bastok Rank 9, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, other

Darkcow and I have officially hit our duoing road block in the Bastok missions. And wouldn't you know it? We're stuck on the final battle. He and I just can't keep Volker alive, and it's because we don't have enough dps to get those shadows down fast enough. Honestly, one more person would make a huge difference.

So, we're rank 9. We did 8-2 and 9-1 last night, winning both of them on our first attempt. Once we get this last fight done we can finally start San d'Oria, which I'm really not excited about, either, especially since we have to fight Taber'quoan again.

Today, we decided to do the first mission of A Moogle Kupo d'Etat add-on scenario, and it was mindless farming for drops, but it is now done.

And lastly, right up until about 30 minutes ago, Darkcow and I level synced my BLU to his 15 SAM/WAR and we duo'd in Dangruf Wadi. We zoomed through it, and Darkcow was almost 17 when we quit. This was a much more entertaining way for me to level my Blue Mage, for sure.

Oh, also, we did MMM this morning and I got Maze Run 096. Maybe Darkcow and I will eventually try the synthesis voucher.

Servers Merged, Rank 8, BLU, MMM?

Today, the servers came back up, but with 8 less servers. My server, Cerberus, has acquired the Hades server, nearly doubling the current population. I am happy about this, for certain. More people = more action, and maybe I could even party my Blue Mage instead of soloing in Xarcabard.

Darkcow and I attained Rank 8 in Bastok on Sunday evening. We blazed through 7-1, demolishing the golems in Ro'Maeve. Duo'd as 75THF/NIN and 75WHM/BLM.

Then we went to Palborough Mines and into Waughroon Shrine and fought the 4 Quadav BCNM (4 Yagudo equivalent in Windurst) and won in 25 minutes of the 30 minute time limit. It wasn't terribly easy, but we were never really scared of dying except for maybe once. Duo'd as 75RDM/BLM and 75WHM/BLM.

The Antican fight (Bastok 8-1) was certainly difficult, but we managed it. As RDM/BLM I pulled them all the way to the zone, and Darkcow waited on the side and cast Repose on the Warrior NM. After zoning to Altepa, we rezoned to Quicksands and duo'd this rather tough Antican, and got our cutscene.

3 missions remain until Bastok is complete. 8-2 is an easy ghost fight, when sneak-pull is used. 9-1 is the Gigaplasm fight, which is apparently a nightmare, so that will be fun for us. And last, but not least, the 9-2 fight vs. secret enemy. He's easy except for the fact that he spawns two shadow adds. I am thinking that, if they can't be slept, that I will go as RDM/BLU and fight them separately while Darkcow stays on the secret enemy. We'll see, that's the one I've always been worried about us duoing since we have low damage per second output but high survivability.

My Blue Mage is now 56, and still aiming to get to 60 as soon as possible. I need to work on getting spells though. I've gotten pretty far behind.

And, finally, Moblin Maze Mongers.

I have been doing a lot of reading on this. It seems incredibly fun and a potential place to gain experience in a closed but easy way. Darkcow and I gave it a try doing it legitimately, but it was taking too long and we got Tigers, and their paralyze hurt us. (He went as NIN/DNC and I as BLU/DNC.) We beat the tigers, but got to the Mandragoras and realized we had too little time left. Either we need to get another person to play it with us, or we need to go as two strictly damage dealing jobs with no MP to rest up.

Paragon of Blue Mage Excellence, Salvage

As you can guess from my title, I have defeated the Nepionic Soulflayer NM for the final AF quest for Blue Mage. I saw a Japanese fellow shouting for it this morning and decided to join their group, if they would let me. They did, and despite the THF getting one-shot by a huge spell, we won pretty easily.

To celebrate, I decided to level my BLU a bit, and am further into level 55 now. The 50s are where the EXP gaps get bigger at a much faster rate, and it's getting tedious now that it's exceeded 10,000 experience per level. However, I very much want to hit level 60 Blue Mage, and soon. I love Blue Mage, I really do, and I want to wear all the AF, now.

4/5 on BLU AF armor, only missing the lv58 body piece now.

As for Salvage, I went to a pick-up group one today, and it was terrible, but at least now I can say that I've done it? :)

Salvage is incredibly cool in theory, and I wanted to see if it really was as cool as it seemed. Well, it is, but you need non-retards for it to go well, clearly. I wish I had more friends on this game.

On a side note, I may pick up mining in Mount Zhaylom soon. Khroma ore goes for 400k? I want to have the gils. I know it's a "very rare" thing to mine, but if I keep with it, I will get one. Even just one would make my millenium.

BLU, DNC, AF

I have been leveling BLU more since Taber'quoan, and I am now up to level 53. I am, at this moment, in the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah doing the 3rd page of the Fields of Valor, and am one page from leveling.

Once I hit 54, I will be heading to Whitegate to purchase the BLU AF pants that are equippable at level 54. I know they aren't great, but I plan on wearing full AF while I level (though I may wear my Scorpion Harness instead, I haven't decided). Besides, I am sick of wearing the dirty diaper Republic Subligar.

Since my DNC is not yet leveled to 37, I was approaching a point where BLU/DNC was going to be gimped because of a low dancer sub, so I leveled Dancer a bit today, going from 27 to 31. It seems like a big leap, but easy fields of valor and a nice party make that happen pretty quickly.

One last note, I tried to solo the final BLU AF boss, Nepionic Soulflayer, as RDM/BLU for Head Butt since that's the only form of stun to which he is not immune. He kicked my ass. I will need Darkcow for it, I think, but even then, I'm not sure if we can duo him. He's rough. These are times I wish I were Summoner. He's a joke with a summoner soloing.

Bastok - Rank 7; NMs!

Darkcow and I had a sloppy night on Saturday night. We made our first attempts at duoing the Mission 5-1 fight, vs. Taber'quoan. We had one reraise earring between us, which allowed for 6 fights.

We ultimately realized that we needed more MP drinks if we were to be successful.

So, tonight (Sunday @ 9CDT), he and I made our way, again, to Fei'Yin and fought Taber'quoan. Our first match didn't go that well, and then our second we timed out at 2% health! It was awful, haha. We thought we won, but there was no cutscene. But we had our strategy down.

After we got the two mages down, Darkcow would focus on Taber'quoan and I would MELEE down the incoming warriors and Head Butt/Bludgeon Taber'quoan inbetween, rather than waste MP on battle dance, meanwhile helping keep Darkcow (and myself) alive with Curing/Divine Waltz.

We won on our third attempt of the night in 12min 25sec.

We did not celebrate long, and quickly made our way to Castle Zvahl to fight the Shadow Lord to get Rank 6. We made quick work of him, duoing as RDM/BLU (me) and WHM/BLM.

Darkcow was hopped up on energy drinks and I never sleep, so we decided to aim for Rank 7. The first fight was very simple. Darkcow Teleport-Altep'd us to the desert, and I sneak-spawned the two sphinxes, and we only fought the Eastern Sphinx. The Western Sphinx had despawned by the time we defeated the other, and we received our key item from the ???.

Bastok Mission 6-2 was a little more difficult, and more time-consuming, but it was still easier than anything we ever had to do in Windurst. We traveled t'Norg, talked to our old friend Gilgamesh, then we took our 30,000gil adaman ore and sneak-spawned Magma, a NM bomb. He hit like a truck, but we outlasted him, especially after he spammed berserk instead of self-destruct. We made quick work of him, defeating him in 4 minutes.

We returned to Bastok after turning in the frag rock to Gilgamesh, and now Darkcow and I are one rank closer to never having to see Bastok again, at least unless we have to do some silly side-quest there at some point in the upcoming expansions.

As for other adventures, my BLU is now 51, closing in on 52 so that I can wear the AF boots that I got from doing the BLU AF2 quest, defeating an Immortal Flan in Navukgo Execution Chamber.

Also, after losing to Taber'quoan on Saturday night, Darkcow and I went up to Upper Delkfutt Tower as THF/NIN and WHM/BLM and farmed Jotunns up there for gil, Gigas socks, Gigas necklaces, and the rare/ex items used to spawn NMs Alkyoneus and Pallas. In due time we managed to get both items, and we duo'd both of them. They both dropped socks, but not their heavily-sought bracers.

On the bright side, I often HQ the desynth of the socks.

Gigas socks + 1 lightning crystal =
(NQ) 2 wool thread
(HQ1) 4 wool thread
(HQ2) 6 wool thread
(HQ3) 8 wool thread

We gathered 2.5 stacks of wool thread out there, which sums to 28,000gil alongside the gil dropped by the gigas (~150gil per kill).

And last, but not least, I did get the Spellcaster's Ecu from Mucoid Mass in Ranguemont Pass. I went 1/2 on that 25% drop.

Longest post I've had in a while, eh?

BLU and NM hunting

Having FFXI on XBOX360 has gotten me to play it a whole lot more than I used to. I got my Blue Mage to 50 yesterday, finally, so Darkcow and I are ready to duo Archlich Taber'quoan. We have scheduled to attempt that on Sunday, and then, after we win, we will do the Shadow Lord, and perhaps aim to hit more ranks that day.

I camped Yal-un Eke in Lufaise Meadows for a little while against a pretty obvious gilseller (Ciic on Cerberus), who has been monopolizing the NM for apparently months for the 150,000 gil drop (10% rate of drop on a pretty frequent spawn window).

I got bored with that and decided to get started on my Blue Mage artifact gear, which begins with the sword. That was a really simple mission, and now I have to wait until tomorrow to begin the quest for the Lv52 BLU AF shoes.

Now, I'm in Ranguemont Pass camping a couple NMs.

Hyakume, who drops this --


and Mucoid Mass, who drops this--


I'm mainly here for the Spellcaster's Ecu so that I can use it while I level my BLU while I sub DNC, since I may as well have some kind of shield. It's only worth 30,000gil, and I could just buy it, but I would rather farm around a bit and see.

I am currently 0/1 on both drops, farming on my 75THF with Thief's Knife, so TH3? Anyway, I will continue farming these (getting a lot of Mercury this way too, which is 7000gil a stack on my server), at least until Darkcow and I head to do the BLU AF shoes fight in Navukgo Execution Chamber.

Archlich Taber'quoan 50BLU/DNC Duo Strategy

Archlich Taber'quoan Strategy:

Set-up:
Blue Mage Spells:
- Bludgeon & Smite of Rage = Undead Killer
- Healing Breeze & Sheep Song = Auto-Regen
- Wild Carrot (for emergencies)
- Battle Dance = AoE Physical
- Cocoon = Defense Boost
- Blank Gaze = Ice Spikes Dispel

Items:
- Yagudo Drinks
- Lv50-appropriate meat
- Reraise Earring
- Regen Drinks (au Laits)
- Icarus Wing (1 each)
- Poison potions (2 each)
- Ether x 6 (emergencies)

1. Walk to the edge of aggro range and use all 5 items.
2. Cast Cocoon.
3. Darkcow runs in and fights Archlich Taber'quoan. (Save Head Butt for nasty spells. Otherwise, only use Bludgeon for MP conservation. Sleeping is always an option if you need to rest, assuming Eruntalo can manage to grab every warrior that runs in.)
4. Eruntalo goes in behind him and grabs both of the sorcerers, and drags them to the doorway, from where the warriors will run.
5. Eruntalo slowly fights down both sorcerers, and then joins Darkcow to finish off Taber'quoan.

Note: Use battle dance only when there are 3 warriors on you. Otherwise, it is a waste of MP.

Bastok - Rank 5; more BLU

Around leveling my Blue Mage (which is now level 45), Darkcow and I have managed to get Rank 5 Bastok as well. The magicite mission was easy, as you would expect for a pair of level 75 characters.

We are leveling our Blue Mages so that we can attempt at duoing the Archlich Taber'quoan fight, rather than asking for help. I probably mentioned this in the previous post.

Well, I've also been purchasing gear here and there to be at maximum potential for that fight. I really want this to go well because I have a good feeling that we can duo all the way to Rank 10. The only fight I see real issues is the Zeid fight at the end, once we beat Taber'quoan. But I also think the Zeid fight is doable. It's a hell of a lot easier than the Windurst Rank 10 fight. Good lord.

Bastok - Rank 4; BLU

Darkcow and I have done a little more work the past few days in terms of progress through the Bastok missions. We are now Rank 4, and once we do the fairly easy, but time-consuming Magicite mission, we will be Rank 5.

The first fight in Rank 5 for every nation is Archlich Taber'quoan, whom I despise, and have a very mean name for that I will not share on the internet.

Darkcow and I are leveling our Blue Mages to 50 to try to duo this LV50-capped fight. The strategy, I think, will be 2x BLU/NIN, we take down the 2 mini-boss adds, which causes Taber'quoan to summon a bunch of little adds, on which Darkcow and I will alternate casting Sheep Song.

This time, we need to remember to take reraise earrings, though. ;)