Plethora of Elations and Disasters

Yeah, it's been a while, sue me. I'll attempt to be chronological, but if it's not, or if I leave something out... meh.

ITEM: Obtained Shaman's Cloak and Stonega II for my BLM with the help of Rodie and Nedavia. Thanks you two. :3

ITEM: Serena passed away June 5th, 2008 while I was on vacation. This is a very sore subject for me, so I won't go into it, as it's not at all game related (but this blog is).

ITEM: Managed to get my Black Mage to 43, kicking and screaming. Actually this is a devilishly fun job, which I solo'd and duo'd with Thaedan. 1-24 subbed Blue Mage, then sub Ninja for dual wield and Utsusemi shadows. We found some impressive camps, then at around 41, it just died. Literally there were zero camps that delivered the amount of experience we desired. So we broke off and tried soloing. I've no idea where Thaedan's at with his, but mine's 43, and I think I found a camp we can duo at once more. I'll have to discuss this with him soon.

ITEM: After the update, my Assimilation merits were uncapped (I was 3/3). I took a break from levelling (read: being frustrated at) Black Mage to recap and ding'd 10 merits in 4 days. Not at all bad, and a 4xBLU, RDM, BRD rocks hard at my favorite Nyzul Imp camp. Thanks go out to Don Peshcorleone (Pesh), Armonde, Bethany, Rodie, and Sekundes for the awesome 4th day party.

ITEM: SoulPiratesElite has been reformed as WorshipTheFloor. There have been issues, we've pissed off a few we never expected to, we FAILED to scare off the people we'd rather NOT continue to participate, and our inaugural run was... pathetic. The shell's a different color, the rules have been tightened up, yet people lose their minds despite it being the SAME shell and officers. Yeah, okay, whatever. Time will tell if it was worth it or not. Still... we've got a really nice web presence and the forums are very professional. Robnar's done a bang-up job overall, well done.

ITEM: The current trend for both my 75 jobs to be FAR under the exp cap, "FAR" is defined [by me] to be under 40k, is completely unacceptable. Yesterday had TWO really good point, which was outside the game. Everything else was shit. The details: I find a potential solo camp, turns out it's an even better duo camp, for Black Mage. Earned a decent bit of exp duoing with some random BLM that showed up, then lost ALL of it trying to solo at the SAME camp after he left. Logged out. Logged back in later, went to Castle Oz for some NPC fellow levelling fun, and was raped by 6 Yagudos. Ate a HP and logged. Afterward I noticed my BLU was below 40k exp and logged out completely pissed off (and I still am, to the point where I just don't want to bother playing).

I think this about covers the activities from my last post until 1hr ago. I need to take a few weeks off from this game and everyone/everything associated with it. Games are meant to be recreational, but this is more like work, and the rub is I'm PAYING for this completely absence of fun. NOT A GOOD THING. Perhaps I should fire up Okami again and forget FFXI exists for a bit... like last time. Problem is, before I had ZERO responsibilities/obligations. Now, I'm a senior officer in a renewed Dynamis linkshell AND an active participant in a Limbus linkshell.

I'll figure something out. I always do...

Cake with Icing

Yesterday will go down in history as probably THE singularly most productive day I've EVER had in FFXI in the nearly five years I've played.

Saturday, I logged out near the Ranger AF1 (weapon) tree in Jugner Forest, since the "???" will only give the cut-scene during the full moon, which it was going to be Sunday morning some two hours before conquest tally. Considering the little sleep I managed to get because I was ripping apart the entertainment center to integrate the Wii, I'm surprised I heard my alarm and stumbled forth from the tomb.

I took care of some necessary housework and logged into FFXI. In no particular order accomplished ALL the following things:

- finished AF weapon quest
- obtained Hunter's Beret +1 (woo!)
- advanced to Steelknight Emblem in Campaign
- obtained another pair of sprinter's shoes
- finished Hunter's Beret quest and stored the entire AF set on NPC.
- built a phenomenal merit party with Bethany, Armonde, Xmaru, Orlinde, and a truly amazing Bard named Selaine ({Nice to meet you})
- participated (read: died a lot) in Dynamis
- built ANOTHER merit party, a little less exp per hour but damn decent (Armonde, Orlinde, Kazesan, Chaosity, and Siraj were in attendance. Congrats Armonde on 75THF!)
- capped my Spell Interruption Rate modification merits (FINALLY)
- gained another merit point in Campaign with Thaedan

Considering all the running around involved in FFXI, most of all how SLOW it is, getting this much stuff done in a day is amazing.

Fast forward to Monday, Memorial Day. I hopped in game and was happy to see Orlinde ding 75 Black Mage (cook ze bunnies! BOOM!). Apparently she needed Thunder IV, so they invited me to come out-pull other campers with them, "they" being Peshcor, Armonde, Siraj, Orlinde and Thaedan. First pop of Mysticmaker scored my Blue Mage/blm / Black Mage a nice Moldavite Earring, but no Thunder IV for Orlinde (dropped Thunder III instead).

Two and a half hours later, there were 2 campers (a 75 Red Mage and a Dark Knight), so we had a bit of a challenge (Shadowbind + Loxley/Striders Ranger 75 vs 75 Red Mage's Fast Cast Dia). In the meantime, we popped chests for maps (didn't know I was lacking a map of Labyrinth of Onzozo before today; Thaedan, Siraj, and I all got one) and slew a lot of Cockatrices for TP build and drops for Siraj [she's crazy for cock meat and tons were dropping! ].

The moment of truth came, and I was very happy to yoink Mysticmaker out from under the Red Mage camper, who was facing the wrong way when he popped. Whamo! Thunder IV for Orlinde and Thaedan scored the second Moldavite Earring drop for his Black Mage. Zuriel, my brother and quite decent Red Mage was impressed with the claim, and I logged to hang out with him for a few hours.

I logged back in after Zuriel left and helped Thaedan with his Bastok Rank 6.1 (twin Manticore NM) fight. That was a little close, but we nailed it (grats Thaedan!). Our super team was Armonde, Orlinde, Thaedan and I. Then it was time for Limbus. Limbus was fun, as always, and I actually ate the floor (Fluid Spread for 1430-ish damage = dead Ranger) in Apollyon SE. I think we were just happy to get through it with the sparse magic support -- I believe we had only one Black Mage.

Finally, did a fast Crawler's Nest Escort with Feiht to dump another exp scroll on my [retired] Thief. That job's "scroll only" now, as I've sold off most of my Thief gear.

In closing, a LOT has been accomplished these past two days. I'm still in disbelief, if you couldn't already tell, due to the nature of FFXI. Hopefully this is the beginning of a nice trend. Tomorrow's goal: Black Mage to 40. We shall see...