MMM, Assault and Starlight Celebration!

So yesterday we did a couple of Assaults because people had tags. First we did Lebros Cavern PSC (most of us needed points from there) which was as easy as always. Our setup was PUP, BLM (duoing the north wall), DRG, DRK and MNK.



For second Assault I chose Periqia PSC because I needed points there and because it was a new assault for a couple of people. Unfortunately I didn't remember how much the mission sucked. I was controlling the NPC which is the worst task in this assault, since it's almost impossible. I've done it a couple of times now and I still don't really know how to make him stop or move. And he also likes to run away every now and then so I need to be ready to catch him. I didn't even have time to answer to /tells I got during this assault (sorry, I was seriously busy).

Anyway, after that one of us had to leave and another person wanted to save his last tag for Nyzul just to be sure he'd have four for that. So we decided to go and try MMM instead. Only one of us had tried it before and he had got himself killed so we didn't really have almost any idea about the whole thing. We just gathered 5 people and decided to give it a try. Our setup for the first run was DRG (68), DRK (70), PUP (75), BLU (75) and WHM (75).



We got warped to Everbloom Hollow and found a maze full of EP crawlers and slimes. It was easy and we finished with about 10 mins left I think.



From this first run we got 30 marbles (I think) which meant we all could buy the cool eyepatch for 10 marbles!





For our second run we decided to change our setup a bit. I changed from PUP to BRD and our lowest level member changed from DRG to MNK which was 75. We got warped to Everbloom Hollow again but this time there were DC (our lowest level party member was still 70) Krakens and Coeurls. Good thing I was BRD because those thing linked badly and it was really good to have someone to sleep them.

Yesterday we also had our LS Xmas event! We gathered in Northern San-d'Oria and first we did the card exchange thing for a while. After that we went out to smack some boxes and when all had their Dream Robe and the bell key item, we went to do that quest in Southern San-d'Oria for the HQ bell.

We also did a little "secret santa" game. Everyone who wanted brought a present (worth max 1000 gil) and then we gave them to our Santa Lary (Galkas make the best santas!) who mixed them and gave to different people. I was really surprised when he traded me and I got a linkpearl! The LS was called "LesAmis" ("Friends" in english) so now I can carry my friends with me everywhere I go! ^^

Some pictures of our event:













Merry Starlight and happy New Year to all of readers!

Fields of Valor coolness and other stuff

Yesterday I did a bit Xmas shopping and it was so exhausting and horrible I decided to reward myself with a lot of playing... As a result I played a bit more than I actually wanted to.

Anyway, we tried that new Fields of Valor thing with a couple of LS members. We decided to go as a party and level synced to 22. We checked the level recommendations and didn't realize they were for soloers, not parties of 4 people, so we chose to go to Valkurm Dunes. We took the hardest mission available there: we needed to kill 4 sheep and 4 damselflies.





For a group of four, the EXP wasn't of course as good as it could've been, but at least we figured the system out and two of us got levels! One of us had to go and then we moved to Jugner Forest and chose to kill funguars and tigers there. It was fun and easy and I got 3 levels while we were there!

Today I decided to continue exping my DNC in FoV. My DNC was level 28, so I chose Qufim Island mission 4: level recommendation 28-30, 6 gigas and 4 pugils. The mobs were all EM or T for me so it was really nice EXP. Every time I got those 10 mobs killed, I got 735 extra EXP and gil. I was soon level 30 so I've got 5 levels in the last two days just with FoV! I think I'll take my DNC all the way to 37 like that.

FoV makes at least soloing and duoing so much easier and more fun! The system really gave me motivation to EXP my subs. It's so nice that I can just take OP, choose mission and then get all those nice buffs without spending any gil! For example today when I was exping my DNC, I had free reraise, protect, regen and attack food on the whole time. It's a really great addition to the game, thank you SE!

Yesterday we also did a couple of Assaults: Mamool ja Training Grounds PFC and Periqia PFC. It's weird that no one else but me ever wants to do assaults in certain zone, everyone just says "I don't care, I can do anything". I know I need certain points to get some pieces of gear I want but I feel bad if I make everyone else spam the same missions all over again...



Anyway, those assaults we did yesterday got me the promotion to Second Lieutenant! I can't believe I'm only two ranks away from Captain now... Well, two ranks and a million Assaults I haven't done.



After those assaults a LS member Lary asked if we could help him to get Destroyers from Double Dragonian BCNM. The assault party agreed to help and some of us got orbs too. I remember when we tried to get my Destroyers it took us 8 orbs so I wasn't too confident we could get them for Lary with our 4 orbs. But well, Larys orb was first and Destroyers dropped! Then on the next orb they dropped again and on the last orb again... They only didn't drop on my orb, which means that I just have a horrible luck with that weapon I guess.

(Taking a break)

Just a short post now, as I'm a bit in a hurry. I slept late and I'm eating breakfast at the moment. In an hour I should be on the bus on my way to iaido practice.

On Monday was the big September update in FFXI. Everyone had been waiting for it for a long time. Personally, I was mostly curious about the PUP AF+1 and relic pieces. The AF+1 was a bit of a disappointment for me, but the relic set seems great. The increases in drop rates seem also very promising.

On Tuesday I had my first Japanese class. It was a cold and rainy day and I had to almost run to the class, so when I finally found the right place, I felt like I had just ran marathon in a shower. But well, the class went really well. Our teacher is a charming japanese lady who mixes Japanese, Enlish and Finnish in her speech in an interesting way.

In game I have done some Campaign. I got a new medal (Wings §§§) and dinged 75 on my PUP! I enjoy doing campaing, it's fun and easy way to get a bit EXP. One day I found myself alone doing the offensive battle in Garlaige Citadel with the NPCs:



And then I found something shocking! A dead MacGyver, how can it be?



I've also tried a bit the level sync partying with my social LS. We've had two very good parties, one in Yhoator Jungle and one in Crawler's Nest. It's so nice to be able to play friends, I really love the level sync function!



On Wednesday and Thursday we camped Simurgh (no boots). I succeeded to forget I had blockaid on and complained about no one inviting me. Go me!



We also made two new assaults with our static, which meant I got a promotion to Chief Sergeant. I took some funny screenies from the quest:









Yesterday we had a sloooooooowga ZNM run. It took us over 1,5 hours to just gather and travel to first pop place... So when we popped the first NM, it was already 10.30 PM for me... It wasn't the fault of our leaders but the people who didn't listen and / or follow the instructions. I felt frustrated and tired, I'm really hoping it will be better on the next run.

One screenie from the ZNM run:



This will be my last post for a while, since I'll be starting my FFXI break after tomorrows HNMLS events and Dyna run. I'm really happy about the break as I'm getting very tired with all the drama there has been going on lately.

Killing big meanies (and some players too)

I have only one week of vacation left before my studies at the university begin again. I'm really looking foward to studying again! This year I'm studying whole new subjects, mostly education (I'm studying to become a teacher). I'm also planning to start studying Japanese, but I'm not sure if I'll do it at the university or at an adult education center. Anyway, I've been thinking about taking a little break from FFXI to focus on my studies again. Maybe a week or two, maybe more, I don't know, but I definitely could use one. We'll see.

Anyway, on this week I've done quite a lot in game. On Monday we had a great Limbus run. We did Apollyon S/E with 11 people, it was an easy win and we got a nice amount of coins. Also there were several drops, though half of them floored. Anyway, I can't remember when was the last time I've had such a great time doing Limbus! People seemed to be on a relaxed mood, no one complained about anything, we were joking and it was really fun.



Also, I did the biggest damage weapon skill I've done so far:



For some reason the mob got mad at me after that. ^^;

After Limbus we had an assault static run with two of our members missing. We got replacements for them from out linkshell and decided to do a Lebros Cavern PFC assault Lebros Supplies which I still hadn't done. That assault sucked more than any assault I've ever done! I mean seriously, on wiki it seemed so easy (just run from NPC to NPC avoiding aggro) but somehow we got loads and loads of aggro and people just kept dying. On the first try we lost it and I felt really horrible, because I knew no one wanted to do it and the only reason we did it was because I hadn't still done it (I was ill the last time they had done it). Well, we decided to try again, and we made it on the second try. There were still deaths though, and I felt really horrible about them. After that everyone swore they'd never ever do that assault again, me included.

On Tuesday I decided to get a bit EXP for my BRD. I got a nice merit party (the setup was a dream: RDM, BRD, NIN and 3 x SAM) and the whole colibri camp area was empty! I dinged 75 before I could say it and got a really nice buffer too. Next I'll focus on getting my PUP to 75 and gearing and meriting all my jobs like crazy.

After exping I asked if one of our linkshell members still needed help with his PLD AF weapon fight. He said yes so we decided to go do it. I had just done the fight a while ago for my husband, so I knew where it was, how it was like and so on. So I geared PUP/WHM, met my friend in Jeuno and teled us to Holla. I remembered that the mob (an elemental) had hit my husbands char very hard when he had popped it, so I told my friend he should Flash it so that it will miss him. Well, I have to say that was a horribly stupid idea. I had no idea flash would generate so much hate. So, my friend died, and I felt like a total idiot. The saddest thing was, I was PUP/WHM but I didn't have enough MP for raise and no MP gear with me... So I had to ask my husband to bring his character to raise our friend. Well, at least he got his AF weapon, even though everything went wrong.



While we were waiting for my husband to come to the rescue, I had fun playing with my BLM puppet. I haven't used it for a long time, so I had never seen it cast tier III nukes before. I decided to tease some bunnies and test them.



Yesterday I helped a new linkshell member with his Sandy rank 2 mission. I also showed him how to get to the Dunes, and we got him tele-dem and holla crystals. He seems like a great guy and I had a great time with him.



When my friend Shokun logged in, I asked him if he'd like to come farm some sea organs with me again. We spent maybe 2 or even 3 hours in Sea and this time even got some drops. When we were just talking about how we were starting to get bored with organ farming, a friend of ours who was camping Charybdis told us it had popped. So we ran to help him. We had a NIN, RDM (who wanted the joytoy), BRD (me) and WHM. Things were smooth and easy until our NIN had to go afk in the middle of the fight and he died. And then the rest of us died too... So we called some reinforcements (another NIN and a THF(?)) just in case, reraised and rested. At one point I was moving to a safer spot to rest when my sneak suddenly wore. I kept running becaue I thought I didn't get aggro. When I was next to our WHM, something smacked me hard and I died... and then it proceeded to kill the WHM too. I felt so sorry, it was such a stupid mistake from me. Anyway, when we all were gathered and unweakened, we claimed and killed it again and of course got the sword for our RDM friend. A happy ending is happy.



After the Charybdis we had to hurry to our HNMLS event. We were going to try Bahamut v. 2. The fight went really well for some time, but (in my opinion) we didn't have enough stunners and WHMs, so after a couple of Gigaflares got off, we wiped. We got him to 20% and he didn't summon anything in that time, so I think it was ok for our first try.



After failed Bahamut v. 2 we decided to do Ouryu, which went a lot better. It was a long but a fun fight, I was there as BRD and was quite busy the whole time.







Today I haven't done anything in game. Our social LS has ENM + promy run today but I left myself out of the setup because I had to do it to someone. I have limbus and assault this evening, but before that I think I'll just do something else than play.

Feeling guilty

I had a horrible day yesterday. First of all, I waked up at 8AM and I was tired as hell. I just wanted to go back to sleep but I had some important things to do so I had to go out. When I came back home, I started to study. I didn't get one book for my exam until yesterday so I had only one day to read it. So I read until I felt my brain was going to explode.

At 10PM my time we did a Limbus run in Temenos and a BRD item dropped. My BRD is only level 71 at the moment, but I've been asked to use it mostly in all events. I haven't been doing Limbus long and I wasn't sure about our lotting rules, so I asked who could lot it. One person wanted the item, but it turned out that he already had one piece of BRD AF +1 and our rules say that in those situations persons without any AF +1 should be able to lot first. So they told me to lot, the other person passed, and I got the item.



I said I hope we'll get another drop on the same run so the other person can have the item too. Then they told me it was a really rare drop and he had been waiting it for 6 months... I felt so bad for him, if I had known that, I would've passed the item. But it got even worse... Our point person said that I had a right to lot it because BRD was my main lot and only the secondary lot of the other person. Well, BRD isn't my main lot... He had messed it up and in the end it wouldn't have been my lot at all. So a person had waited for an item for half a year and then some noob in the LS comes and lots it even though he had every right to lot it. I felt so horrible, so guilty the whole evening because of that. I really hope another BRD will drop soon and he'll get it.

But I also have some happy news! Yesterday I decided to spend all my gil for Ancient Beastcoins so I could get something very nice for my Bard:



I'm loving it!

Also, yesterday after Limbus we did four assaults with our static, and I finally got promoted to Sergeant Major (I don't think I've done any new assaults for this promotion so it certainly took some time). The promotion quest was one of the most disturbing ones I've seen:



I'm so happy it's weekend now and I finally have some time to relax and play. We'll do some ZNMs today and I'm looking foward to it, but before Sunday I don't have anything else planned. I think I might farm a bit and maybe level my Bard.