{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.