On the Road to Maat...

(pics pending)

These past few days have been insane for xp partying. Maybe because I have been staying up uber late and only getting all Japanese parties, but the experience just keeps rolling in almost faster than I can buy new gear and spells for it. I have gone from 66 to 69 in two and a half days.

The pts have mostly been in Caederva Mire, battling heraldic imps and those ugly fnun toads. One group did break the mold by taking me out to Bibiki Bay for a dhalmel hunting party. It was cool to go somewhere I had not been before (yes, it was my first time there on Kaer), and the party was a little unconventional as well. We had a whole pantsload of DNC/NINs in the party, which was awesome to see and really makes me want to lvl dancer myself now. Only trouble we had was from bomb aggro at the end of a chain. The self destruct dropped three people from almost full to worm food. A sad moment, but we recovered and got their xp back for them.

This morning, sitting pretty at halfway to 69, I got into one last xp party and managed to hit 69 and gain a little bit of a buffer. The time was suddenly upon me to go looking for my white mage testimonial. I would show that cranky old man in Ru'Lude Gardens what I was made of! I gathered some Imperial people (Makina as DRG and Kiabrightblade as PLD), and headed out in search of my paper.

Our search led us through the Yhoator Jungles and into the volcanoes of Ifrit's Cauldron. Once again, I was in a new area, exploring parts of Vana'Diel never seen by myself, and only witnessed by a few others as well. We lost a bit of time while searching the the proper goblins; some of it was wasted (like getting separated by a wall of magma for several minutes), and some was well spent (getting both the key and coffer to grant me a map of the zone!), but we eventually found a good camp and slew enough goblin alchemists to get me my testimonial!

We lingered on in Ifrit's Cauldron, continuing to kill. Continuing with the night before, I would continue to be plagued by bombs. My NPC fellow dropped after about half an hour to a bomb's self destruct, one-shotting her all the way back to Ru'Lude Gardens and Jeuno's infirmary. Several times during the night a volcanic gas would attack us because of magic casting, and I, myself, dropped at one point due to a surprise self-destruct that took us all down to our last health. I suppose barwatera is not much of a defense against an explosion, but it aggroed off a cast while fighting another mob and I was too busy trying to magic burst off a light skill chain to realize I was only at 75% HP.

Sadly, Kia had to leave before we finished what he needed to do in there. That put an end to our LS pt, and both of them signed off for the night, leaving me standing in Jeuno with a testimonial, and the burning desire to use it immediately. I struggled through waiting until the morning when a quest could be turned in for a new piece of gear that would help me (bibiki seashell) and my AH items maybe sold off to generate more spending gil for the fight, and just rushing in now while I was in the right state of mind to confront Maat. Luckily, Emilliana was on, and looked over my gear and strategy and helped me decide to go ahead with the battle, however impulsive it was on my part. I went in without an expensive head piece or anything in my ammo slot.

My basic strategy was to buff up as normal, rest, eat a Tavnazian Taco, blind myself with potions (giving me +30 Evasion from earrings), drink a yagudo drink, and get Maat's attention. I spent the next five minutes running from him, letting my Holy Breastplate, phalanx rings, and earth staff lower the damage of his physical attacks against me. He only weapon-skilled once, a dragon kick for 247 dmg. The rest of the time he was hand to handing me for 70-80 dmg, or casting on me. I chose to run from him and kite him along rather than meleeing or standing still in the hopes that it would feed him less tp and also put some distance between the two of us, interrupting his spells and attacks once in awhile. The tp thing worked out alright, but not the distance thing so much.

He was casting Dia II, Banishga III, and Holy a lot. His Holys were only hitting me for a little more than his physical attacks, but his Banishga IIIs strangely always hit me for an even 100 or 200 dmg. Aside from that, he slowed me once, blinded (ha ha, sucker), and silenced me once. He silenced me at a very good time. I had just casted both Regen III and Cure IV on myself, so I did not even bother to echo drop it off right away. I just continued kiting him until I got a little nervous and took it off in case of an emergency arising. My MP started getting really low near the end and I had to settle for a Cure III over a Cure IV once. Before I could use a hi-ether to help me survive and keep casting a bit longer, the battle ended. Exactly five minutes to the second from the time I casted paralyze on him, he gave up and commended my display of skill.

Feeling absolutely elated at my victory, I began /hurray-ing outside the BC at Balga's Dias, and a pt of JP players just out from a BCNM all cheered when they saw my "Maat Masher" title. I went over my log, and noticed something peculiar. My blind potion had worn off about halfway through the fight, but I missed it and forgot to drink another one. When I counted how many missed attacks Maat had before and after the potion wore off, I was shocked to see the result. While blinded and having +30 evasion, Maat did not miss me once. I got several skillups to evasion, but he did not miss me at all. After the blind potion wore off, and my evasion returned to its normal white maging state, he missed me four times. Go figure. The entire battle took eight minutes and forty one seconds. I exited the Balga's Dias burning circle with 230 HP and 54 MP. Maybe that was cutting it a little close, but I am quite happy with the results.

Thank you to all for helping me get here. Makai and Mambypamby for tips about gear and strategies, Kiabrightblade and Makina for the testimonial help, Nibelungen and Emilliana for giving me a last-minute inspection and encouraging me to go ahead if I felt I was ready, and Imperial for helping this mithra get white mage up as high as I have, and enjoying that time immensely.

I am now officially a full-fledged white mage.

Unusual Camping Experiences

(pictures still pending)

People can really surprise me sometimes. For the past two nights now, I have been camping an NM, Hoo Mjuu the Torrent in Giddeus, for a money drop. NM camping, to me, has always carried a certain distaste; much like the fluoride they leave on your teeth at a dentist's office, it is something that needs to be done, yet any sooner then six months or so is unwanted.

My biggest problem with camping is generally with the other campers. As we are all competing to catch the NM the moment is spawns, we drop the usually friendly and cooperative nature that years of xp partying have instilled in us and don a more aggressive, hostile demeanor in an attempt to beat all the others and get the drop. I have been cursed at, griefed, and told to just go home to my moogle and shut up for saying anything to those around me (and that's just the non-RMT).

Not so these last few nights, though. The first time came after beating a rude RMT to the pop, and watching him leave in frustration. A taru red mage (in AF no less, not starter gear) came strolling up during the interim between pops, and we began emoting and eventually struck up a conversation despite our language barriers. The red mage, Cataria, and I laughed, killed placeholders, and eventually he waved goodbye and warped out. He said he did not feel right competing for an NM against me.

I was stunned. To have someone just stand aside and let you step in when gil is involved is rare. We continued to talk even after he left, and once I killed Hoo Mjuu, I gave him the time of death and let him camp it, for it was nearing dawn at that point for me.

Today when I resumed my quest for the big monies, I came across a mithran thief already at the spot. Almost immediately I began receiving tells. Once again, we started talking, and the tedium of camping soon gave way to another sense of camaraderie. It came out that Xnera was camping the signa for her beastmaster, while I was also looking for yagudo beads to put towards my Norg fame. In my eyes, since she was going to be putting the staff to actual use and I merely wanted to sell it, I let her take the claim, and she passed on any beads that dropped along to me. She even offered to stay once she had killed Hoo to help me farm beads, though I needed to leave FFXI at that point.

It was refreshing to meet two people back to back at a camping spot that did not let greed overwhelm their sense of fun. It really lifted my spirits up after poor past camping experiences.

Missions, missions, missions galore!

The day started off simple enough, but with a bang. And a quick thud. A simple besieged raid by the undead swarm turned out to drop me like rocks. I died about three times the entire time, never once from anything I could see. Easy enough xp though, so it was not really frustrating.

Spending some time in Whitegate after repeling the lamia attack, I happened to come across someone shouting for some help for CoP 2-5. Once again, I grasped at the hope that I might better understand this fight by replaying it several times, and decided to tag along. What a mess it turned out to be. I love Riverne Site A01. It is a gorgeous zone. Yet, I hate how it leeches people of their senses, like the lvls being stripped away by the restriction cap also takes the knowledge of what you have learned during that time with it, rather than simply limiting your abilities and gear. I forget exactly how many times we died, but it was frustrating to not even get close on any of those attempts. I will have to look into my friends list to see who still needs this, as I have always had better luck with my friends doing this than with random strangers.



Thankfully, my Imperial ls mates stepped up, and fully delivered what I had been craving. We continued last week's ToAU static party and faced the Shield of Diplomacy battle (AU 22). I think the little imp in the cutscenes has to be my favorite new NPC to watch. I seriously screenshotted him more than anyone else I can think of. Maybe because he reminds me of something that would appear in Disgaea. Anyway, I am calling him Impy McFly. Oh yeah, the battle was pretty fun too.


We decided quickly to not take the easy road, and show both Shantotto and Khimaira 13 what Imperial can do on the battlefield. Whlie Shantotto's spam casting Ancient Magic IIs definitely helped, it was clearly an Imperial victory. Everyone but Zarovich would drop at least once during the fight, yet we all popped back up and continued to fight, unwilling to let our comrades in arms down. After taking a pounding from Makina's Shiva, Shantotto's AMIIs, and Zaro's nukes, Thayos and Kia managed to tank and kite the beast to the point it just collapsed. Check out a moment from the midfight here:

In addition to spam nuking though, Karababa was trying to "coach" (or is that berate?) us into an effective party. Here are a few of the tips she passed on midfight to us:



After the regular planned LS event, I was able to find some help for a mission NM of my own. I had to warn Fort Karugo-Narugo about a yagudo sneak attack, and rescue poor widdle Ajido-Marujido from an NM. The fight itself was not too difficult, though the stupid amounts of damage the War Lynx could dish out caused my PLD to cry out "LAWDY!" once as a single attack dropped him by 982 HP.


The resulting cutscenes managed to inspire as well. I got to see Perih Vashai when she had sight, dropping yagudos like it was nobody's business but her own, got to see Ajido-Marujido disciplined while still a troublesome youth, a peek into the inner turmoil between mithra and taru politics, while being introduced to a mysterious new War Warlock. Last series of cutscene events I had the chance to undertake (bringing me to the end of the current WotG storyline) involved getting eaten by a maw (again) and meeting up with Cait Sith.

{Long time.} no {sea}

I guess I have not really documented anything since the expansion hit, tohugh I have been loving every minute of the campaign battles from Wings of the Goddess. Easy enough to get into, and yet challenging enough that you need to watch yourself or drop like you were standing naked in front of Lamia #2, they seem like much more controlled and brief versions of Besieged. It is a great way to just defy everything about FFXI, jump in for one hour, log off afterwards, and feel like you accomplished something. With the recent updates making each battle longer, the scope went from short blitzkrieg attacks to epic battles against organized waves of foes. I have a feeling I will be doing these a lot. I love just partying with ls mates and just calling out the moment we see that sword appear on /cmap.

Speaking of LS times together, this past Tuesday was quite the Imperial event. Off an invitation from Makina (I had not been on the forums for a few days) I learned we were going to static pt through the Aht Urghan storyline as an LS. I signed on and just barely made it time to witness this:


I have always loved doing missions, unfolding the events that make Vana'diel deeper than just another grind fest. The fact that we were doing it as a linkshell just made it that much sweeter. The setup for Black Coffin was pretty simple, and being the WHM, my job was simply to keep everyone alive. I only took aggro once during the BCNM, while trying to keep Gessho alive from his foe (seriously though, why does a ninja NPC need THAT many cures thrown their way?). The fight was over soon enough, and I was rewarded with many hours of cutscenes to sift through afterwards.

During them, I learned why Kia and Makina are so in love with PUP:


While also being able to tease them once again about lolpup:


Two minor persoanl achievements this past week have been finally hitting 65 WHM last night, and helping three players finally get Lufaise Meadows access (on one Promy-Dem run). I learned something also, bards own during the Memory Recepticle and Dem boss fights. I never even thought to sleep an empty before (much less the memory recepticles or boss and offspring), and was surprised to see how susceptible they are to it.