So I decided to give it a try. Behemoth seemed like a nice NM to camp because it always drops hides which sell for 450K on our server, and it also has a (low) chance of dropping a Black Belt item which I know would be nice for me and my many MNK friends. But my main reason for wanting to try and camp it wasn't the possibility of getting a BB item or the gil but the excitement of trying something totally new.
I was there on a few days with a couple of friends. I noticed soon that the hardest part wasn't actually claiming, but getting some friends to help with killing it in case we'd get the claim. The only one dedicated to camp it was me, and even though some of my friends have said they're interested, they're mostly unable to come online when the window is open. I couldn't do anything but decide to be patient and be there every day just to get ToD if nothing else.
Today when I woke up, I noticed that the window would be open in around 30 mins. I didn't wake up for it in purpose, but my husband had to wake up early today and I wanted to have breakfast with him before he had to leave. I logged in and decided to check the zone. There was no one there yet. I decided to run both my character and my husbands character there just in case. Then I got the idea to also bring my friends WHM there. When the first window opened, there were only me with my 3 chars and a person from a big HNMLS. Of course, I couldn't be so lucky that it would've popped on first window.
After a couple of windows more people started to arrive. I was starting to lose my hope of claiming, but I wanted to stay to get the ToD at least. 15 minutes before the second last window a friend RDM Artemision came online and I asked him if he wanted to join us (my husband had come home at this point). He said yes and hurried to the zone. When he was still on his way, the window had already opened and both me and my husband were hitting our claim macros as fast as possible. Suddenly I saw something huge on my screen and realized it had popped right in front of me. I really didn't know what I was doing because I was in kind of panic but suddenly I noticed its name turn red and saw the text appear in my log: "Evyen uses Chi Blast. The Behemoth takes damage."
First thought in my mind was "What the hell just happened?! o.O" I screamed to my husband: "I got the claim, I got the claim!" and couldn't believe it myself. It took us a while to get over the shock. My husband started building hate (he was there as PLD) and I just stood there next to the mob. Then I suddenly remembered I had brought my friends WHM there so I started to cast buffs on us, just to do something. When Artemision had arrived to us, we started to kill it.
It wasn't really difficult. Our setup was PLD/WAR, MNK/NIN, RDM/BLM and WHM/BLM which was also played by me. The only "problem" was that I was taking the hate off the tank, but it wasn't really a problem since the mob didn't hit very hard. It had also quite bad accuracy, since it missed most of the TP moves it used on me. It wasn't really a difficult fight, I used my 2hr but it was just to make the fight a bit shorter and because I had the hate most of the time anyway.
It was such a great feeling to see it fall down dead and read "Evyen defeats the Behemoth". We were all so happy and proud that we actually claimed and killed it together! A couple of pics here..
The name! It's red!
Notice how pathetic the poor taru tank (the one hiding behind its foot) looks in this pic:
We did it!
I had such a great feeling about our accomplishment that it got me thinking the people who choose to do these things in the "easy" way, cheating. Yesterday was the emergency maintenance which apparantly fixed a glitch which had been widely abused. If I understood it correctly, the glitch made at least some NMs drop 3 of all items. Think about 3 Ixion cloaks and so on from just one NM... I don't really know more about it, I just read a bit BG and Alla this morning and got bored with all the QQing going on there.
I was surprised so many people were actually complaining about SE fixing this glitch so that they can't abuse it anymore. When I read about the glitch, my first thought was "Why didn't anyone report it sooner?" Seems like there's something wrong with me because I honestly thought I'd report it asap if I saw something like that happen. Of course, it's easy for me to talk because I don't do for example Salvage, which I understood was the place where the glitch was mostly abused. But for me, the right thing to do would be to report it. I wouldn't really feel I deserved the gear if I got it in a way I wasn't intended to get it. It would take all the warm and fuzzy feelings out of it, it wouldn't feel like an accomplishment to me.
Same applies to camping NMs. I've never really understood why someone wants to use bots to claim them. I know that if I had used some unfair means to get to claim today, it wouldn't have been the same at all. I wouldn't have been so happy, probably I had just felt ashamed and guilty. It would've taken all the excitement and fun out from the experience.
I'm quite sure though that those people who do bot aren't really looking for that fun and excitement, but something else. I'm also quite sure that they think I'm really stupid to be so excited and happy about claiming one tiny NM once. But I don't really care, it's just my way to feel and my way to play this game. The only sad thing is, my way of playing doesn't really hurt anyone elses experience, but their way of playing does.
Anyway, enough thinking for now... I haven't again done much this week because I've been ill (a horrible flu, still). But on Tuesday there was my husbands birthday party in Windurst. I stayed there for a while even though I felt horrible, just because I didn't want to miss it. But when everyone else decided to go out and start singing and dancing, I decided to go to sleep instead. Anyway, the party was fun and my husband got a lot of great gifts!
And for the end a landscape pic I took while I was exping my DNC in Tahrongi Canyon:
2 comments:
Put in no uncertain terms: I have already sent a message to the Special Task Force asking for a comprehensive investigation of these exploits.
From all the people that I read saying, basically "F--- Salvage", it's clear that a significant number of players have knowingly been exploiting this in a manner which has to get them and their characters banned from Final Fantasy XI.
One may even have to question the future of Salvage -- this horse may be so far out of the barn that game balance may be completely nerfed.
But the Special Task Force has got a real problem on its hands -- and don't think this is the only part of it.
Seriously, I truly believe that there are players who probably bought their way to level 75 and then basically cheated their way through end-game. I believe this through the arrogance of the "Me first, F--- you." crowd I've seen in Besieged and the general incompetence of game-play of these louts.
Starcade on Asura
Congrats on getting Behemoth claim Evy, looks like fun.
Gogo Tahvo, Taru-tanks are the best! :D
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