It has been a while since I last posted, but I have gotten a lot done.

A guy named Nay from my linkshell got me up to 8/9 of Abyssea boss clears.  I now can use VV/RR/GH atmas all at the same time.

I have RDM empyrean body +1.
I have Duelist's Chapeau.
I have learned how to solo farm dynamis.
I finished THF +1 hands.
I got to the stage of Antea (sword) where it can occasionally strike twice.

There are other things, like some crafting and a little fishing, but that's all for the most part.

The past few weeks have had me playing FFXI way more than I ever have.

I recently joined a linkshell called Unbiased, which is a casual/social LS that has a lot of awesome, friendly people in it with a lot of experience in the neo-endgame from a casual point-of-view.

I got my fishing to level 33 and am now fishing in Rabao. I've gotten to 2500 moat carps for the Lu Shang quest, which is great, but if I had focused more on it, it obviously would be much better.

I've worked on my occ. attacks 2-4 times sword some more. The current trial I'm on has me killing 600 demons, and I've been killing demons at the bottom of Castle Zvahl Baileys. I'm down to 450 left to kill after many hours down there. It's time consuming, but I think the end reward will be worth it.

I've tried out solo Dynamis - Tavnazia on my BST with Dipper Yuly, and found that trying to get Xarcabard relic from the demons at the top is unrealistic solo. Unfortunately, I only have Beaucedine access for the regular, non-dreamworld Dynamis, so if I want to get my Duelist's Chapeau, I either need to find a friend to duo Tav with, or try to get a Beaucedine win.

The Duelist's Chapeau +2 is honestly what my ultimate goal is, there. A 2MP/tic refresh from a headpiece along with 1MP/tic body RDM body (Estoqueur +1/2) is an amazing idle set, along with a 6MP/tic Refresh II, I could solo way more efficiently. I'd like to be able to go around RDM/DNC dual wielding some magian swords and wreak havok on some stuff, but that's a long way off.

Seekers of Adoulin came out today, and I haven't even bought it yet. Rune Fencer seems great, and I'm sure Geomancer is fun or whatever, but I really just want to get my RDM up to par with what it was before Abyssea. I don't know if I have the patience, though. And I also am not one to ask for help, even with the new LS who seem so willing to help.

Longest post in a long time. At least I'm having fun with XI again!

I've still been casually fishing and have gotten up to 1450 moat carps.
On days that I max out, I end up fishing on my mule if I have more time and actually could keep fishing without going insane.

Bertha started at level 0 because the mule I used to fish on was deleted a long time ago.

Eruntalo is up to 29 fishing, very close to 30, and has accumulated about 8000 guild points. I only do the guild point fish on days that it's convenient. I check out http://www.ffxiah.com/guild-pattern to find out if it's worth it or not.  Crystal Bass, Quus, and the eels that you catch in W. Sarutabaruta beach are the ones that I've done.  I also let Bertha catch up the crayfish on that day, since her low level was making moat carp fishing in Windurst Woods not as easy as it should have been.

Regardless, Big Bad Bertha is level 3 Fishing now, too.

I don't know if I'm getting moat carp at a good enough rate, though. At 33 I'm going to have to move to Rabao and do Sandfish to 50. I know you can do Gold Carp up to 56, and I'm going to assume that skill ups in the 50s will be so bad that I'll finish, but we'll see. Doing guild fish has been skilling me up, surprisingly, and I imagine that will continue.

Oh yeah, and I got 53 Monk, because one day I maxed out fish and didn't want to fish anymore, so I went to Gustav Tunnel and that was all right.  I think next non-fishing outing I'll play around with Puppetmaster because pet jobs are 10x more fun to me.  PUP/DNC FUN TIMES COMING SOME DAY.

Logged on today and saw on FFXIAH that crystal bass were the guild fish for Novice, so I tele-holla'd and choco'd to the crystal spring in Jugner and caught 9 within 20 minutes and got a hefty amount of guild points.

Now I'm just continuing my moat carp grind, hoping the 1/10 dark bass catches will skill me up to 33 before I hit 10k fish. And hell, if it doesn't, whatever. I'll have a Lu Shang. And then I can never catch a moat carp again.

FISHED A BIT MORE TODAY.

28 FSH now.

Finally.

Also above the 1k mark of my 10k moat carps. So, there's that...

JUGNER Fishin'

Decided to spend some time in Jugner until I hit 27. Skillups are much faster there because of the tricolored carp.

26 Fishing

I keep not playing FFXI, which either says that I'm not MMO-crazy anymore or I'm just waiting for FFXIV:ARR. Either way, I got 26 Fishing and I am at 588 moat carps. I don't feel like leveling a battle class still.

If you want to view my FFXIV v1.0 blog, go to http://eruntalo.tumblr.com.

Fishing - 25

After going from 9MNK to 51MNK in a very short time (while also getting NM drops on the way), I decided that I would level fishing again to break the monotony.

Since I still don't have a Lu Shang, and they're currently 7M gil on the AH, I decided to do the "Lu Shang leveling path", which has me fishing out in West Sarutabaruta leveling on Dark Bass. 

I started the trek at LV24 fishing with only ~150 moat carps turned in, and after a few days of casual fishing, I've hit LV25 fishing with ~500 turned-in moat carps.  I actually hit the 200 fish cap yesterday, and my moat carp to dark bass ratio from that fishing spot was around 160 moat carps and 40 dark bass.

This fact is going to make the dark bass cap 33 goal pretty slow, as I only see skill-ups once every 20 or so dark bass (and that's being optimistic).

Fishing in XIV was so much easier! But I'm going to keep at it.

Monk, Retaliators

I've been leveling Monk more since my last update.

I'm up to level 46 now and am doing grounds of valor in Sea Serpent Grotto.

I managed to get the Retaliators (rare/ex versions of Cross-Counters) from Western Shadow, 1/2.

I've also been dabbling in fishing Moat Carps with my mule Bertha.

I've been thinking about hopping on my 99BST/DNC and farming Dynamis currency, but at the same time, I don't know if I really want to spend the time doing that.

The problem is that I don't know what I want to be doing in the game (which is probably why I'm leveling Monk just because it's something to do).

With FFXIV being down until ARR comes out (whenever that may be), I've decided to play XI casually until then to bide my time. My focus for now is leveling my Monk. I'm not sure why I picked that, but whatever. It was at level 8 when I started, and now it's level 40. I camped Mee Deggi and Quu Domi, and got my Sarutobi Kyahan (1/2) and enough gil from Impact Knuckles and scrolls for Magic Finale/Horde Lullaby to ultimately buy Ochiudo's Kote (since I was 0/12 and they're only 50k gil now).

 My route was:
 - Last page of Sarutabaruta until level 10. (lol)
- Mandies/Bees in Tahrongi near the crag until 18.
- Goblins/bats in the maze until mid 20s.
- Bats/crawlers in the Buburimu side of the maze until 38.
- Gigas (page 1) in Upper Delkfutt Tower until 40. I'll do these until mid 40s hopefully.

Limit Break: 99 / Leveling

Guichard's Axe +3:  [||||||||| ]
Guichard's Axe +2:  [|         ]

Ferine Set    [Head:o|Body:o|Hands:o|Legs:o|Feet:o]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Ferine Seal: Legs 2/8
Ferine Seal: Body 2/10

Beastmaster: LV99
Red Mage:    LV99
White Mage:  LV83

In the last version update, Square-Enix raised the level cap for the last time in Final Fantasy XI-- to level 99.

I was lucky enough to get a 5xBST + 1xWHM pick-up group, and we obliterated the fight.

I quickly joined the first Abyssea party that would take me, versus Colibri in Abyssea - Misareaux. I achieved 99BST in that party, as well as getting 30 merits.

I dumped my merits to complete group 1 and most of group 2 merits for Beastmaster (Call Beast Recast, Reward Recast, Beast Affinity, and most of Feral Howl).

I changed to my 85 white mage, and a few hours later I was 99 Red Mage with 30 merits again. Since I didn't want to give up the great group I was in, I requested being the key whore in the party, and brought my level 40 white mage for the ride.

And I got White Mage all the way to 83 before I called it a night.

It was a long day, but it felt good. I also managed to get the BST AF3 feet to drop in that group, so that's out of the way, too.

Before this update, I managed to get a few Ferine seals off of Koios in Altepa and the lizard in Misareaux.

That's all, I think? The FFXIV update came out and I've been trying to split my time, but I feel like FFXI is what I want to mainly play, still.

Trial of the Magians progress 3

Guichard's Axe +3:  [|||||||   ]

Ferine Set    [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Yesterday I made HUGE progress on my trials.

When I got home from work and logged on, there was another BST there to do the same trial, so we teamed up and I completed the bombs very quickly. I returned and grabbed the next one, came back, and in less than an hour I had completed the 150 arcana trial.

I took a break for a bit at that point, but then returned right before bed to work on the 200 skeletons trial. There was a brief earth weather so I knocked out about 25% of the trial before bed. I have about 150 skeleton objectives to go, and then all I have to do is kill 250 Aquans in Mount Zhaylom and then it's straight up soil geodes for the remainder!

Of course, then I have to start the next axe, but hey, progress is progress!

Trial of the Magians progress 2

Guichard's Axe +3:  [|||||     ]

Ferine Set    [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Last night was dedicated to relaxing and making more progress on my axe.

My current trial was killing 75 amorphs in earth weather/day with my pet getting the killing blow. Guides pointed me to Eldieme (S) for gazers, but after checking out the area, earth weather wasn't exactly abundant, and neither were the gazers.

After doing a little research on the new mobs added to old zones, I noticed that they added leeches to the Maze of Shakhrami, so I decided to find them and do some grounds pages while waiting for weather... you know, two birds with one stone.

After a couple hours, there was enough spotty earth weather to get me the kills that I needed, as well as finishing up several pages, awarding me a couple merits.

After spending 3 of them another charge of Call Beast Recast, upgraded my axe and received the next trial-- 150 bombs earth day/weather, pet = killing blow.

I then made the mistake of trying clusters outside Halvung Staging Point, but they don't give credit. I made my way into Halvung itself, because I knew there were bombs there, but they are few and far between. I only knocked out 3 kills (it was earth day), and decided that was not the place to be.

So I caved and went down into Eldieme (S) at another entrance (where skeletons and djinns are), and waited for earth weather. It's pretty spotty in there, too, but jeez there are a ton of bombs down there.

Last night and this morning, I managed to knock it down from 150 to 87 while casually browsing the internet while keeping tabs on the weather. I'm getting very close to my final axe, and the rest of the kill trials are going to be in this small area (except the last):

- 150 bombs (87 remain)
- 150 arcana (bombs again)
- 200 skeletons
- 250 aquans

Then all I have to do is dump soil geodes and I am done! Killing mobs in earth weather has been giving me quite a few geodes, but I need 15 for the 90 axe and 40 for the 95 axe. I just hit 15, so I need 40 more. I don't think I'll be getting enough of them, so I may have to dump gil into the final product, or leave it at 90 and work on the next axe hoping for more of them.

I have several geodes of other elements that I suppose I could sell and use that gil to buy the others, though. That's what I'll probably do.

Ducal Guard and Magians

Guichard's Axe +3:  [||||      ]

Ferine Set    [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Atma of the Ducal Guard: o

I got off pretty early yesterday, and Vacious and I (and zombie Yukobe) were incredibly productive!

We decided to give the NM for Ducal Guard atma a try. We wiped on the first attempt with 5% to spare because of bad timing on pet deaths, but we knew we had it, so we decided to make another attempt soon thereafter.

I stupidly allowed myself to get killed with 10% left, trying to quicken the fight with melee. Vacious managed to solo (basically) the remaining 10%, and we got the kill and a level 4 battle echelon trophy!

She raised me and then we turned in the quest, and now all three of us have the Atma of the Ducal Guard! -50% damage taken for our pets in Abyssea. It was exciting.

Before all of this, though, I ran down to Attowha Chasm to check out the weather (and it was about to be Earthsday) to work on my 75 lizard in earth weather trial, and the weather was up! I was getting credit for 6 for each kill. It was wonderful. I finished it within 10 minutes.

After getting the Atma of the Ducal Guard, we killed a few Kharons. Got 2 Caller Seal: Heads and one other, but no Ferine Seals. :(

Ducal Guard Progress, Misc

Guichard's Axe +3:  [|||       ]

Ferine Set    [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Atma of the Ducal Guard: x

Vacious, Yukobe, and I went out into Abyssea - Grauberg last night and did all the Dominion Ops that are required for the Atma of the Ducal Guard quest. That left us with only the two standard quests to do to open up the quest that rewards the atma.

Egg Enthusiast was a very simple quest and we found the needed egg on our first try.

However, you need level 3 fame in Grauberg in order to access the other quest, Brugaire's Ambition. So, we proceeded to spam and easy quest that involved trading goblin food to random places in the zone. We had to do it 19 times in order to hit the fame we needed, and I got some random hand seals as rewards in the process, two of which I actually wanted (RDM).

---

Vacious had to get off at that point, so I decided I would accomplish one other thing before I went to bed. I ended up farming pop items for T2 Gigas NMs in La Theine (A), and I ended up getting them pretty quickly. I won't fight them until I have the Ducal Guard atma, though. Getting the key items for Briareus will help me for when I shout for a group to kill it so I can get my 2nd lunar abyssite.

Dipper Yuly and Cooking

At the current level cap (95), Dipper Yuly is one of the best pets out there.

Now that I'm 95, I went to buy a stack of the jug so that I could start making way on my Dominion Ops to get the Atma of the Ducal Guard.

Unfortunately, it turns out that Dipper Yuly jugs, called Wool Grease, sells for 80,000 gil a stack. Outrageous.

I looked into why it was so high, and I still don't know why.

45 Cooking: 2 x Lesser Chigoes, 1 x Shell Bug, 1 x Wind Crystal

All easily farmable. Vacious has her cooking in the late 60s I believe, so I could hit her up, or I could just level it myself.

I checked out a guide, and it seems incredibly cheap to get my cooking up to 45. I'm already at 25, and I can get to 30 on an incredibly cheap synth, so I may do that, and see how I feel after that.

Dipper Yuly is a THF Ladybug with TH2, 75% resistance to wind, high evasion, triple attack, and enhanced crit rate. I could solo Kharon (BST Head Seals) with her. I want it.

BST, DNC complete

Quick update:

95BST:              [||||||||||] Complete
49DNC:              [||||||||||] Complete 
Guichard's Axe +3:  [|||       ]

Ferine Set    [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Atma of the Ducal Guard: x

I had a busy weekend! Friday after work I came home and was working on Magians, hoping that earth weather would finally show its face. Well, an hour passed and it hadn't.

Then, my good friend Vacious offered me her spot in her Abyssea - La Theine party. In that party, I hit 85 and capped merits. Then, I stayed in the alliance, broke my level cap to 90, then I OP warped to Cape Terrigan and got the 1 EXP I needed for level 86. Then! I broke my level 90-95 cap. All of this in a 30 minute period, then I rushed back to Abyssea.

By 2AM I was level 95 BST.

I spent the rest of the weekend leveling my dancer from 37 to 49 for my main BST subjob. Whether I level WHM and/or NIN to 49 (40 and 41 respectively) is still up in the air. I don't think I need it, but we'll see.

My main focus will be getting atmas and the base BST AF3 Ferine set and begin work on seals.

Also, leveling RDM up to 95 is a possibility.

Trial of the Magians progress

Quick update:

95BST:              [||||||||  ]
Guichard's Axe +3:  [||        ]

Ferine Set    [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +1 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]
Ferine Set +2 [Head:x|Body:x|Hands:x|Legs:x|Feet:x]

Last night I hung out in the ugly temple for an hour without weather. It was pretty frustrating. I killed random pots and tonberries (I already had hate anyway so whatever) to kill time and milk any EXP I could get out of playing the waiting game.

Who came to my rescue? DUN DA NA!! Darkcow!

He let me level sync down to his 27 THF and we plowed through bees in the rainy marshlands of Pashhow. Got my 50 credits in a matter of 10 minutes. It was lovely.

Now here's the funny/frustrating part: I turned in my axe, got the new version, and FORGOT to get it enchanted with the next trial. I FORGOT.

I didn't realize this until I had already dragged Darkcow out to Attowha Chasm and earth weather came and I wasn't getting credit.

Fortunately, he needed wind weather kills, and the chasm provides that weather, as well. We finished off his current trial, and I hiked back to Jeuno to get the trial activated.

I returned, and after about 30 minutes weather showed up again, but it was gone before I was finished. I need 15 more, or 3 more in weather.

At least I finished the bee one.

78 BST / Trial 330

95BST:              [||||||||  ]
Guichard's Axe +3:  [|         ]

Last night, after work, I decided to take a break from leveling, so I grinded out a few pages to hit 78 Beastmaster and a little buffer, then I returned to Ru'Lude Gardens to start work on my PDT- axe.

I ran over to the Magian Moogle and grabbed a Chopper, and enchanted it to the first trial-- kill 50 crabs in any weather.

Well, don't you know it, I was just in a zone (The Boyadha Tree) that has frequent weather (lightning/rain) and EP crabs!

I quickly made my way back up there, grabbed the 62~66 Mandy/Crab page and went to town until I finished my trial.

To my surprise, each kill gave me credit for 5! Not sure why, but hey, I'll take it.

I finished 2 pages in the process, which was an extra 4k EXP to add to my 78 buffer. No complaints here.

I returned and grabbed my reward, a Skeggiold, and enchanted it with Trial 330, 50 bees in the dark side of weather (water/earth/ice/dark). Wiki pointed me to Crawler's Nest Wespes, so I made my way in there and stood around for 2 real life hours. Only saw fire weather.

I did a little research and found out that it may be better for me to go to Temple of Ugly and fight the bees there, since there are apparently frequent "squalls" of rain (double weather), though they are short. Considering you get credit for 5 per kill, I decided that's where I was going to do the trial.

But at that point, it was late. Hopefully I can make more headway tonight.