A New Interloper+

The past few days have been a roller coaster. Saturday morning, I was going to bid on a Gigant Mantle, when my roomate apparently stepped on my keyboard (I play on 360 with a compact Logitech keyboard, it was in the floor...) and, while I didn't notice the change on my screen, made me bid my max gil for a Torama Mantle. An 8,ooogil Torama Mantle. 418,073 gil for it. The seller's name is Bowii, and it's apparently someone's mule. I've tried contacting him, but of course, no luck. I know there's nothing in the ToS saying he'd have to give it back.... but still. When it's happened to me before, I have tracked the person down who overpaid and given them their excess gil back. And, I mean, if it's a tiny amount, a few hundred or something, that's questionable. But a 410,073 overpay? I should have known I wouldn't be so fortunate. I hope you're enjoying all my gil, Bowii..

At least I got one of my Snow Rings before that happened. Seeing the '0 gil' on Vacious was devastating, especially considering I sold my Vermillion Cloak to get it.

Anyway. On to less depressing news. In a bit. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to do Einherjar today, even though I needed the win for that Chamber and all. And I showed up two hours early just to make sure I could go. Le sigh. Someday, maybe, the Omega Ring (and Odin fight) will be mine.

Now, the good stuff. It's time for the Doll Festival again!

I love seeing the decorations around town for it- so beautiful! I wish I could see Cherry Blossom season in real life.. Anyway. I always enjoy the cross-culture events on XI; it's interesting to see what other cultures celebrate and find meaningful.
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This week's Dynamis is Xarcabard, which we ran through today.



With, as always, a highlight picture!:


That crowd is how you spell 'utter rampage.' But we had a good time, netting several Af2, including 3 (maybe even 4?) Duelist Chapeaus and 3 Warrior's Loricas.. the WAR pieces dropped 2x in a row, then like a mob inbetween, then the third. Awesome. We also took a shot at the Dynamis Lord.


That second one is him unleashing a TP attack on my head. Good times. :D Much to our delight, it was a success! He KO'd several of us at about 10% HP, but the few survivors (and a few that Reraised) came to the rescue and took him out. ♥ Lifter of Shadows // Dynamis -Xarcabard Interloper for the first time! I was uber-excited!!
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I'm back to working on Bard! It's sitting at roughly 9,000 til 66. Awww right.

Workin' on gettin' the goods.

Hoi... Nice & neat Intro placed here? My brain feels like mashed potatoes.


Our mid-week Dynamis - San d'Oria went pretty well, though we did hit some snags.




Some highlights! We had some trouble with links, then the DRG's wyverns not sleeping.. which made us actually 'time out' on the Mega Boss. @_@; But we did manage to get a few AF2 and only a fraction of the usual coins.. Luck just wasn't on our side that night. However, I did manage to net my Valor Gauntlets!



I also won a free lot pair of Melee Hose. 3/5 on MNK AF2! Apparently, the Gods really want me to be a Monk.. again.
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I randomly decided to try Escort for Hire (San d'Oria) for the first time last night. It went pretty flawlessly with Vacious as SMN/WHM, Darkcow as WHM/NIN, and The 'Talo as RDM/BLM. A quick 10,000gil and 1,310 EXP for my Bard. W00t. I plan on trying Eco Warrior (Windurst) soon, simply because I've never done 'em before. In nearly 5 years of playing, I sure haven't done a lot..
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And, for the final piece of business for today- A 'Buy Me!' List:
Snow Ring(s): It's high time I finished upgrading my BLM, and this/these are a start. I say '(s)' because I'm hoping to get an Omega Ring before long.
Prism Cape: More INT = BLM happiness! Paying nearly 500k for one more INT = not so much.
Uggalepih Pendant: This is more of a luxury item, considering the fact that just about anytime MY HP is below 51%, I'm toasty~roasted Taru.
Phantom Earring+1?: This is another luxury item, but it IS one more INT.. I chose the Bushinomimi instead of the Abyssal Earring, because I thought it would better compliment my Taru self.. too bad I'm all *Mage thus far. I *could* redo Divine Might and get a different earring, but that's a ton of hell to go through when I can just use the Bushi on later jobs. Even if I did redo it, I'd probably just choose the Suppa anyway...
Minstrel's Ring: Yeah, it's not for BLM, but it's so good. And 75% HP latent is much easier to accomplish without me biting the dust.
Gigant Mantle: I think this would go nicely with my PLD.
Steppe Sash: If only one of these would pop on AH...

Hmm, there's probably more, but I can't think of it... and now back to your regularly scheduled program of Campaign.

ZNM Drop Rate = emo

I'm excited with how productive I've been lately! This week, I have an extra day off (SUN, TUE, WED, all right!) and I'm using it all to the fullest.

Yesterday, while I didn't get to level Bard, I did manage to finish getting the zeni to pop Iriz Ima. I was really psyched to duo it with Eruntalo! Unfortunately he couldn't get on (due to schoolwork, GO TALO GO!), so I played both of us (at least til one of my friends took over The Talo); 'Talo was RDM/BLM, myself as BLM/WHM. I was really nervous to pop this guy in a huge swarm of Marids, but thankfully, he doesn't link at all. (Yes, I read that on a testimonial, but they weren't 100% positive.)
 

After an hour and a half of kiting / gravity / bind / nuke / warp, we took him down! At the last tiny spec of health, a 75THF ran past and asked if we wanted Treasure Hunter, so we put him in (Thank you Sephirus!). Sadly, nothing dropped from the NM except his trophy (which is what I actually needed anyway), and an earth crystal. We did get 242 EXP for killing him, as well as 1,749 gil.
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I tried working some on Scholar yesterday, too. Yukobe and I formed a party, then Resheph and Darkcow joined the equation. We wiped. D: But 'Cow decided to come back and graciously PL us.

'Kobe and I got from 10 to 12! Not bad... but I still need 25 levels. It didn't take us long though, smashing (and nuking) lizards in the Dunes. I really like what Scholar can do so far... looks like I've got another 75 lined up! I mean, I have every spell except for the SCH-unique ones, awesome gear for it, hell why not? ♥
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Immortality is supposed to do Dynamis-Sand'Oria tonight! I'm really hoping for lots of AF2 drops, especially SMN and/or PLD for myself. Summoner, pretty please! In the event that San d'Oria is occupied, we'll be doing Bastok... in which I don't really need any AF2 from, so mayhaps moneys? I spose we'll see!
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Time for a random picture before I go to farm!

Yukobe's Gold World Pass netted me a Lunar Cap. :)

Quick, fast and in a hurry.

Our mid-week Einherjar run was Grimgerde's Chamber this time around.



Our first (and only) monster set consisted of Hazhalm Bats, which sucked to try and sleep! Oi, stupid bats. Our boss was the Morbol Emperor- we took him down with only a few deaths, and successfully cleared the chamber! One feather down, two to go for Odin's Chamber access!
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After Einherjar Wednesday night, I decided to attend a low-man Dynamis-Xarcabard with a few Immortality (Einherjar, more like it) mates. It was a lot of fun! Suprisingly, we suffered only a few deaths (& only 1 full wipe) and managed to net 5 AF2 pieces. Not bad for a two-hour, 12 person Dynamis.
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While it was only a farming run, yesterday's Dynamis-Beaucedine was a huge success! We managed to leave with twelve AF2 pieces and nearly 600 coins. Awww right! While no Summoner dropped for me (ungh give up the goods plz~), I did get a free-lot Monk body! That's 2/5 MNK AF2 I've got now, I'm so excited to level it! ...which I've decided will be right after I finish Bard ...which I got to 65 today!



Woohoo~awesome with that Opo-Opo Crown goodness. I'm pretty pleased with my Bard progress thus far. I'm hoping to finish it by... the end of March? That's an exaggeration, I hope it's much sooner, but I'm setting that as a realistic (i.e. I HAVE A JOB emo /sigh) goal.
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This upcoming month, Immortality is doing several ZNM runs. I'm currently working on getting the zeni to pop Iriz Ima, to get to Dea. Gogo Oracle's Pigaches. Sanraku is obsessed with bombs today, so I've gone to Mount Zhayolm and Halvung, sleeping (and blowing up!) bombs/clusters.


At 1,687 zeni... he keeps wantin' 2,000! So close..

Missions, the second go 'round.

GOOD GOLLY, Miss Molly. I have waited waaaaay too long (and taken way too many pictures) to wait this long to update. So, on with it!

I finally made a decision about my characters. I realized (as I may have said before?) that I was doing everything from a 'Strictly Business' view. I wasn't doing things because it was fun, I was doing things because they were easier/faster/more effective with Vacious, etc. yada yada. So I started working my butt off on missions as Kiila.

First, I got (a million) cutscenes that lead up to Chains of Promathia 3-5, including the NM fights on the way.
 

I managed to successfully solo Overgrown Ivy & (with my NPC, Tsuim) Lioumere. And then it was a matter of climbing to the Parradamo Tor.

At first, I made it halfway up the mountain.... and fell off. I was emo! But, I still had time, so I started the trek again. I finally made it to the top! All right!

Once I completed up to Darkness Named, I decided to head to the Past and work on Wings of the Goddess quests/missions. After wiping to Fingerfilcher Dradzad solo, Darkcow came out as WHM/NIN to help me out.

We then moved on to fight the Cobraclaw Buchzvotch Notorious Monster. Unfortunately, we didn't have any luck with him.

That stupid Gnole.. Sigh. That was as far as I was able to get by myself. The next missions require more firepower!
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Aside from doing Missions, I've just been doing Campaign. Yay?

I think too much.

Bleh, I haven't logged on since Dynamis-Bastok. I missed last Sunday's Einherjar and Dynamis. I'm sorry! It wasn't because of the Super Bowl, either, I just had way too much to do between work, schoolwork that was due, and house maitenance.. :(
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Today was Dynamis-Qufim! Originally, I said, "and if some Summoner goodies happened to fall, I'd dance like a stripper in a room full of poles. Yes~sir!" But alas, no SMN. We did manage to get a few accessories, a good bit of AF2, and only 2 free lot items! Yay for getting what people need!

Just had to post a pic of this awesome Vedder~pull. :P
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While I'm still working on Bard, I've really had to step back from XI. I burned myself out on EXP parties, and I realized that I've been playing from a business perspective. Instead of playing to have fun, I have been playing to get to the next step. I'm always running 100MPH, like "OKAY let's not waste time do this, to get here, to be able to do this, get this item, that item, gogogo" ... but where in that is the fun? Where is the stop and enjoy it moment? I think, perhaps, I'm not meant to be one of those people with the finest of fine gear, the max of everything, because I have spent my entire FFXI life jumping between like 7 characters. Seraphic, which is leveled, has a subjob, Rank 5, and highest is 30BRD; Vash who is Rank 5, subjob, level 24; Strawberri who is Rank 5, has Aht Urhgan access and a Mercenary rank, and 40WAR with AF weapon; Vacious & Kiila; and others who have all been leveled up, lost interest in, and deleted. Maat's Cap? Heh, maybe in 15 years.. or if I focused all my energy and time into one character! maybe about... 3 years? Hell if I know. I'm wondering if I'm just wasting all my time though, fiddling with Kiila when Vacious has stuff to do...