trying new things

It has been far too long since I updated this properly (with the exception of the understandably much needed Promathia win entry). So here goes, let's try and fit this all into a compact size for all to digest easily:

Responding to a post on Alla's Garuda page, I joined a Divine Might run setup by some of Verrick's EU friends. We did the run with many Imperial members, as word spread quickly among those of us who needed it. It meant waking up at 9 o' freaking clock in the morning, but Zephiris, Emilliana, and I all got the win! Verrick, friend taru and WHM mentor, joined us, but he really does not need any of the missions I am ever on. Damn his leetness.

After finally hitting the later levels of SCH, I realized I had just spent 67 levels playing a WHM by another name. Now, SCHs do make good WHM standins, but I had neglected the other aspects of the job, the nuking aspects of it. I joined a few BLM burn parties in Mount Zhayolm (this went well, though I learned I am horribly geared for nuking at the moment), practiced some soloing in Mount Zhayolm and Aydeewa Subterrane (this did not go over so well, I perform better in a duo or group then solo), and even a few parties as main healer in Caederva Mire all lead to one thing: DINB!

Yes, I got my second job to 75 in less then a year after my first job hit 75. Of course I leveled other jobs as well, but it is nice to be able to sit on two 75s at the moment. I am just terribly frightened at the amount of gil it looks like I will be dumping into SCH to get the standard nuking and enfeebling gear. I am going to be so poor. ;_;

I also took ninja up to 37, just one level lower then my first character's main job was. I finished off my red mage for now, leaving it at 37 as well for subbing with my scholar. Finishing off ninja really gave me a taste for leveling a melee job, so I took up blue mage (partly because I also accidently won the homam head from Proto-Omega and had no job to use it on).

The first few levels were brutal; spell farming almost made me quit before I even hit level 5. Thankfully, things sped up a bit once I raised my blue magic skill up a bit, helping me to learn pollen and cocoon. Both helped me terribly much while both XPing and spell farming.

The downside is, no one really wants a BLU in their party. I spend hours upon hours searching, going for two or three days with my flag up before I get an invite to a group ten levels or more lower then I am. I have become intimately aquainted with Fields of Valor in this time, which has also helped me farm spells on the side. It has spoiled me though, as I am severely dependent upon the book's refresh and reraise. Being without them, my buffs bar just looks sad and empty.

Assault has been sad of late. Bluefenris, Makai, and I had a good couple of runs spamming Apkallu Breeding for points, but we have hit a dry spell. I am doing only one or two assaults every few days, and barely managed to eke out enough to rank up to Chief Sergeant. Now I just have to earn 10k more Imperial Standing to pick up a perdu weapon!

In sad news, the Imperial/Imperium shell is no more. It broke due to several members losing interest in FFXI, and leaving for WoW. The shell only ever seemed active on our CoP night, and even then members would just fail to show up for not particular reason. After waiting for two weeks, we were frustrated and had enough. This prompted the remaining Imperialites (sans Verrick or Emilliana sadly) to join our Dynamis LS, TeamSuicide full-time.

We found enough members there (along with Kael, a friend of mine from the Garuda boards) to flesh out a party and kill the pots and roll straight into Promathia (more on that below, in case you missed it). However, even though we had joined TS full-time as a social/event LS, we could not let CoP outlive our beloved Imperial LS. Zephiris, Zadine, Lordstorm, and myself all donned the familiar pearl for our final fight. We held a brief ceremony after our victory, remembering all the people we gained and lost (around forty) among the three shells (Imperial, Legion, and Imperium) we tread during our journey. It was a rough path, but Imperium was there to see it to the end. We could not let Chains of Promathia kill our linkshell.