Minor update: Fishing and NMing (fished NMs, that is)

This is in no way complete, as too much has gone on since my last post to fit all into one entry. This merely covers one day.

Today was very different from my usual experiences in FFXI. I spent the morning in Kuftal Tunnel fishing in direct competition for devil mantas, and more accurately, their angel skins. It started out rather boring, but began to pick up as I got the hang of it. Zephiris and I were duoing, and when one of us pulled up a pugil or crab, she would solo it while I continued fishing.

As hours went by, Verrick joined us as well, though he was more interested in light xp and skilling up on his THF than fishing up any mobs. A few times all three of us were essentially soloing because we had the misfortune of all pulling up monsters at the same time. Things were always in hand though, even when we decided to pop the Phantom Worm at a nearby ???. We only got two claims on the Devil Manta, and no angelskin drops, but it planted a seed in my head of wanting to finally start lvling fishing.

I was in a level sync party during the day, and managed to bring my SCH up to 40. Accession seriously rocks, and I was happy to finally have a chance to Protectra and Shellra without having to rely on my /whm's capped versions. Our puller was infamous among Imperial for his random comments (and unforunate delusion of adequacy), and he did not disappoint this time. This screencap speaks volumes:



I met a nice samurai there who was also a fisherman, so after the pt disbanded we rode the ferry back and forth. I only raised my fishing skill up to 2.2, but I learned about lures on the ocean. I managed to come out of there with seven stacks of bastore sardines and two stacks of quus, along with assorted noble lady, yellow globe, and cone calamari singles.

The true fun began on our second to last trip on the ferry. Melana had opened the door, but stopped short before setting foot on the deck. It seems even on her dancer, she was afraid of the Sea Horror currently on deck. And who wouldn't be? This NM has caused more full zone wipes and xp loss than any other monster I have ever seen. We looked at it for a moment, decided we had strength in numbers and bravely stepped onto the deck with our weapons drawn.

The fight was tough, Melana dropped dangerously into the red during it's Hundred Fists (or is that tentacles?) when I was low as well, and I was forced to disengage and rest to keep the two of us alive. In the end, this sea monk's six arms were not enough, and a final blow from a darksteel maul brought us some closure and relief after having fallen so many times before it.

The Savage

Our LS (both of them really) has been abuzz over the past week about dragons. Ouryu, to be precise. The last three days have brought both Sage's and Imperial through Riverne Site #B01.

I cannot even keep track of how many people have gotten sacrarium access anymore, but I could easily estimate it around twenty or so. It starts off with a reflective moment along the Misreaux Coast cliffs, with Prishe consoling a young Ulmia.


Things quickly descended past words once we reached Monarch Linn, however. Bahamut seems to have little respect for Tenzen's mission to delve into the mysteries of The Emptiness.


Very quickly, we were sucked into a fight with one of Bahumut's friends. A kind, gentle wyrm anmed Ouryu. His interests include casually flying around, casting stoneskin on himself, and killing taru mages with massive AoEs. Somewhere in there, he finds time to chomp on armor wearing paladins.



Just when it seemed all hope was lost, and we were nearing defeat, the fight was over, and the dragons retreated. We were all a little worse for the wear, though it looks like Tenzen was the one who got the most winded.


Next up, Sacrarium! Though, not for awhile.

In ninja news, I am currently sitting at lvl 20, after having duo'd goblins in the dunes last night with Makina's bard. I am still loving it, and relearning when to cast, and when to hold for those long-ass ninjutsu spells. I have even managed to save a bit of gil in the way of shihei as well, by being picky about which AH to buy from. It is fun though, to play a proper melee character after having been a mage for so long.

Uggalepih Pendant Run (w/ Legion)

Legion is up and running lately, bringing members from both Sage's Wanderers and Imperial together every Tuesday. Our farming has paid off this past week, in the form of a few fights again the Uggalepih Pendant NM, Golden-Tongued Culberry.

This was a fun fight. Once our RDM (Thayos) popped the tonberry, Galluspit (PLD) voked it and off he ran. And ran. The entire fight involved bouncing hate between our elvaan and galkan paladins. I found it humorous to see such noble pillars of sacrifice and defense running away from the beast, but it worked well in this case. We ran into very few snags, mostly accidental Death spells getting through uninterrupted, causing a quick hate bounce to the other paladin.

We went through three pop items, and got one drop (from the first one, oddly enough). So Verrick has himself a shiny new bauble to hang off his pimp chain. We managed to get two really good screenshots from this run as well. The first was lining up for our success shot:


the second was an accident immediatly afterwards, in which a tonberry popped in front of us, and we watched Atul and Zarovich's diremites beat down the poor ugly bastard. We just passed the popcorn and watched the show.


In personal news, Hell has frozen over. I decided to start leveling ninja so I could have a greater breadth of melee jobs to choose from. Though I am still hesitant about the gil sinks inherent to being a ninja, I can remember why I stuck with it four years ago. I enjoyed it then, as I enjoy it now, and just might take it up to a point I can use it in events. Spent the evening leveling in Buburimu Peninsula with Zadine as a WHM, and three other pick up players. Currently sitting at 18NIN.

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.

Hoo's in Giddeus?

I logged on knowing I needed to pt as WHM, but not really in the mood for it. Seeing how not many people my range were even on, I decided to just farm away on my nin/thf mule. As it so happens, an ls mate, Miur, was just heading out to Giddeus needing yagudo beads for Norg fame. This was the perfect oppurtunity to do something boring, but with someone you know, which always makes it a little better.

I have not been on melee for quite some time, so to just tear things up as nin/thf was exciting to me. Few people were in the zone, so I decided I wanted to try and camp Hoo Mjuu while using my TH powers to get Miur his beads. I managed to get the claim, and wonder upon wonders, I actually got the drop!



Unfortunately, I was also full on items most the time I was in there. I had been throwing away so much worthless trash, it became second nature for me to hit discard. I went to lot on the signa (Miur graciously passed), and hit "Pass" by mistake. I fealt like such a damn n00b. Watching that coveted cash cow drop off into oblivion was a sad moment indeed.

Refusing to let one bad experience put a damper on the night, and because I still needed more beads, I came back and began another round of camping. Once again, I got the claim, but this time only the Zeolot's Mitts dropped. Can't win them all, now can we?



Still optimistic and believing Treasure Hunter will come through for us in the end, we began another round of camping. We had some competition, but once again, we managed to claim the NM. And once again, we were rewarded with Zeolot's Mitts.



At this point I was starting to get tired. Running around a small area trying to grab mobs as fast as you can before someone else hops to it can be frustrating, even with the successes we had been having on claims. This time, Hoo was taking forever to pop. Our spawn times went from an hour and fifteen minutes to two and a half hours. By this point, we were the only ones even trying for this bastard, so of course we got it and killed him. No Zeolot's Mitts this time. Oh no. This time we got S-E's way of saying "F*** you!" to the player base. I would have actually been happier had nothing dropped, rather than the dreaded loldeodorize scroll.