Getting COR knowledge

BLM:75 WHM:58 SMN:41 THF:73 WAR:56 RNG:43

I had a thought this morning that nagged me to writing before going to work. If you have been playing a melee job for a while it's gonna seem rather easy to just sit there as WHM and heal since you have no ws to time or arrows to count or effects to cause.

Bad WHM.

It was just a bad experience all around yesterday cuz forming the party took a while, after about an hour someone left and then we waited for people to come out to Cape Terrigan, then others left or dc'd.

Memo to me: Never wait for people to come out to Cape Terrigan

We finally got the party going again and it seemed like the perfect party. It was PLD SAM THF BLM WHM COR. You're thinking wow the exp must have really come in. But actually without RDM the melees had no Haste; Without /WHM sub of BRD the melees had no Erase for their STR down effect from the crabs; and finally the most important fact that perhaps eluded my deluded state of mind...

COR has no Dispel and we were fighting Crabs.

JP party, ftw.

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:73 WAR:56 RNG:43

This is what they mean by partyin yo ash off. We got a link on the way back and then had a beetle pop at camp and then to top it all off... a tornado. I honestly think sometimes that there are GMs that look at parties that make like more the 10k exp an hour and say to themselves, " Nawwwww! , they ain't getting away with this without at least one death or somethin' "

But unlike other groups that like to Warp home or haul butt to the zone or even Teleport-Altep, we had these guys covered. The party consisted of RDM BRD WHM RNG NIN DRK. They were like nobody's business good at what they did. The whole group of em. They were all JP. I even got invited in JP but cajoled my way in to the party. If the BRD didn't sleep one the RDM backed him up and I even had a macro ready with Sleep Bolts which came in handy a number of times to help sleep the adds.

You aren't gonna believe this but I went from 39 to 43 in one night. And I was only 2k tnl when we quit. We were having such a mess of exp rolling in that it was hard to say stop. "I" certainly wasn't gonna be the one to say stop though they were probably hoping the NA would show his weakness, heh heh.

I have to say that they were probably VERY impressed with me and my RNG. I was pouring damage out to the Desert Beetles we were exping against. I would macro in Acid Bolts and then macro in Holy Bolts to use along with my newly acquired Thug's Zamburak. I don't know if yall remember this but that weapon used to sell for like 600k back in the day. It was the only crossbow that had an accuracy modifier on it. I missed being able to use it with my THF cuz it was so expensive. And now it's El Cheapo.

I gotta tell ya if you're a THF or a WAR or a RNG, this is a great weapon for the 40s. And hands down, the Holy Bolts are like awesome in their damage. Our DRK was using his Great Sword and doing 74 dmg per swing and my Holy Bolts were doing 50 + 20 additional per shot. That's almost the same damage as a Great Sword! My Barrage was doin the same damage as like the entire Skillchain all put together. Once I hit for like 305 dmg!

Ya I was tapping people in the head with my crossbow that day, heh.

The best part of the whole thing was, I wasn't even seeking. :)

Static quo in CN

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:73 WAR:56 RNG:39

Finally, with some help from Mith and Ema, I got my Sleepga II scroll last night and learned the spell. I was tempted to sell it and buy it back maybe later but nah. I would just embarass them if I was on a run with them and didn't upfront the GA-2-ness when called for.

This is a pic of my SMN at the entrance to Crawler's Nest. It's there that I leveled him to 41 and now my RNG is about to pass that level.

I also recently did a static party with Mith and Ema with my RNG and am delightedly happy with how fluid the exp flows. They also like to party for a LONG time which is unusual in pickup parties. When we reach level 40, I wanna ask em if they wanna do A Worm's Turn BCNM 40. It's the one where the one BLM goes in with Sneak and uses Sleepga on all the worms while the RNGs proceed to pound the NM to death. You need one WHM, one RDM (for backup) one BLM( for Sleepga), and hopefully 3 RNGs or maybe a THF or SAM with good ranged gear.

People have tried subbing a RNG for another BLM but I wouldn't. The BLM you get though has to be very good at timing his Sleepga and using Elemental Seal the second time for added effectiveness. He should help RNGs along with Frost if they can manage it.

Aht Urghan Whitegate ftw

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:73 WAR:56 RNG:37

I finally got my Evisceration weaponskill and was using it today in a party. I can't tell what the bonuses on it were though. It seemed to do the same damage as Dancing Edge and Shark Bite, maybe slightly less even, but I still had a good time using it.

Earlier today I did a KS30 run for Operation Desert Swarm. You have to be level 74 or more to go unless you are a healer or something. The strategy for this run I will get into later but I just wanted to let you know that if you go thru the drive-thru, that's like being first in BCNM run.

I stayed to help everyone else get their goods and some people got multi-million gil drops like venemous claw and damascene cloth.

Just not me.

Well the upside was that at least I learned how it goes now and am ready for another run as soon as someone with some balls... scratch

...whenever a nice person is willing to go.

Tarus r cuter than tigers

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:72 WAR:56 RNG:37

My WHM did some searching around in Uleguerand Range for a nice spot to party but I didn't ever take advantage of it as a level 55 and now I am too high a level to kill tigers. There is still another spot that is great to level against the raptors there so I wanna make sure I don't miss my chance.

I partied with my THF recently and pulled out my dagger to weaponskill with in a pt. The weapon isn't so bad. It does more damage than the normal weapon I would use although it does have less of a stat bonus.

I was sc with a Warrior though and he was using his Axe of Trials while I was using my Dagger of Trials. It was a real fight though to figure out who would go first in the skillchain, Mistral Axe < > Shark Bite: Light. If I go first, I get 1 point out of the 300 I need. If I go second, I get 5 points. So whoever goes first gets screwed basically.

I went first. I am such a nice guy. I partied all afternoon and went from 71 to almost 73, but I still have the latent effect on my dagger.

Awww.

That's why I picked the tarutaru, cuz they're so nice and cute like me.

Qufim Island teaches you

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:71 WAR:56 RNG:36

This is a picture of my Warrior dated 10/01/05. It's hard to believe it has been almost a full year since I first joined Uchipu and friends in the linkshell. There ought to be an anniversary.

As a Thief, like many other melee class jobs, when you hit level 71, it's time to start working on your final weaponskill quest. For a THF this means you go to Kazham and get your Dagger of Trials from Jako Wacandolo or whatever. This dagger has to be used in skillchains enough times to get a total of 300 points earned. If you open a skillchain or just use your weaponskill, you get one point. If you close a level 1 skillchain you get 2 points. If you close a level 2 skillchain, 3 points. And, if you close a Light of Dark skillchain, you get 5 points.

Weaponskills in general, are earned as you go up in skill level. Your skill level goes up by using said skill over and over again. At a certain point the game "caps" out your skill and you can no longer "skill up" until you go up another level in your job.

Confusing? I thought so, but if I explain too much more I will fall asleep right here so let's skip it.

Your final weaponskill as a THF using a dagger is Evisceration. You have to complete a quest to earn it and a step in the process of earning it is to earn you 300 points using the Dagger of Trials.

My printout however didn't mention anything else about what monsters had to be attacked so I went out to Qufim Island and started farming Lightning Clusters and Bat wings and such and just trudged along knowing that I would have to do 300 weaponskills to remove the latent from the dagger.

I pass the 100 mark and start nearing the 200 mark and I start to feel proud of the time I spent. I had farmed a good bit of stuff too so I was quite pleased at myself for having productively navigated the weaponskill quest so incitefully.

Just then Mith notices that I am in Qufim Island and says Hoh, you gotta do ws on Easy Prey mobs or greater.

...

I remember once watching Bugs Bunny as he finds a litte fella crying and tells him not to cry and that he promises to take him home no matter where that may be. Well it turns out that fella is a penguin and his family can only be found at the South Pole. I can still remember his words...

OOOOH I'M DYYIIIIIINNGG!!!!!!!

A new Burning Circle

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:71 WAR:56 RNG:36

The only BCNM that I like to participate in is The Worm's Turn BCNM40 cuz we tend to win it more often. This is me and my fancifulness breaking down to melee mode against the last worm.

I recently did a KS30 with Uchipu and friends at Balga's Dais and had some great success in it. We lost our first one due to several blunders by several people, but we then won the next five. I don't like to point the blame so I won't mention too much here. The fight was called Season's Greetings. It has 4 trees: a MNK, a NIN, a DRK, and a WHM. We went in with 3 BLMs(Uchipu, Ema, and me), a BRD(Shallowdeep), a RDM(Dealba), and a NIN(Mith). The BRD was the sleeper while the NIN was there to tank the second mob(the NIN) after we blasted the first one(the MNK) to zero with bomb and sleep tactics.

The first fight went badly and even with a couple of blunders, we almost recovered and won but once one thing goes wrong, we are bound to have more things go awry. Our leader for one decided to maybe abort the mission. This after a Sleep is missed and the tree goes after her and kills her. We were all of us left wondering if we still could pull it out. We almost did. But at a crucial moment Ema called out a time to drop a blast and I missed the message. I really do have not enough filters on text. I was looking for a message to kill but while reading other stuff whirling by I suddenly see them both start to nuke and I rush to get my spell off, knowing that I had missed the message.

Believe it or not this happens in a pt to people often. In the midst of several effects going off and messages whirling by, people miss their part in the skillchain.

The danged thing gets hit by 2 blasts and my blast is only like 4 seconds slow but just then it decides to do a Leafstorm move that put me and Uchipu on the pavement. My third hit never made it. She was yelling from the pavement already for me to pay attention. Try to imagine two tarus facing each other, dead, and one taru yelling at the other one. :P

Even so, we raise using RR that Uchipu told us to bring and try to keep going, but then we learned another lesson about Frost and Sleep. Ya they don't go together. I am not sure why this so wrong to do to the monster Mith was tanking but they tried to sleep it and couldn't and leader sed to just haul butt so we did. This was the first fight so I don't remember specifically what was going on, this might have been the third or fourth mob.

The bad thing about yelling your head off is that noone likes it. After the fight, Uchipu went off like a JP mom at a Sushi restaurant that finds out they are serving her whole family dogmeat. Her statements were all true statements of course. Plus, she didn't insult us so I respected the way she handled it. I would have expected Ema to be yelling actually but I know from what she sed earlier that day that she was feeling no pain.

The good thing though was that we were flawless during the next 5 fights. We were like a machine really. It was hard to believe that something so simple could have gotten so out of control. We collected our treasure and made a good bit of money. We didn't use own orb own drops but used items over 100k split. It was good money and noone got screwed out of their orb. It was a great 3 hours spent.

This is why Uchipu rules.

I need to find out where they get these printouts of these fights. I probably ought to break out a binder and create a FFXI kit. I have so many printouts all over the place, it's a wonder I don't have paper mites.

/em readies Three-Hole Punch.
/em uses Three-Hole Punch.

Somewhere I Belong

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:71 WAR:56 RNG:36

This is me standing in the Hall of the Gods. I owe a great deal to Uchipu and friends(including getting me SKY access) and doing a recent Escort quest in Crawler's Nest reminded me how fun it can be to get together with your linkshell buds. Dynamis is like non existant in my mind now, though I am probably gonna look for one really great piece of AF2 like the gloves and maybe go until I get one piece at least. This is much later though, for now I have run out of room and threw that pearl out.

I was partying in a merit party with my BLM and finally got enough points to get my second Ice ability raise. This allows me to cast Blizzaga for like 360 damage instead of the usual 240 or whatever it used to do. I just LOVE the way that spell sounds... cymbals and then a crash, hah!

My next goal is to get Freeze II. It will be far more efficient to use that in a party than say Blizzaga III which is AOE.

Please guys, I know you think you are doin the party a favor by insisting on Rampage or Spinning Slash or one of the other mega ws to help the party, but if you want big damage numbers, and you got a BLM with an Ice Staff, it's gotta be Distortion.

No.

Distortion.

No, "wow it's Light" sc, no Fragmentation nonsense, no oh cool it's Detonation animation...

Distortion.

My Blizzaga III did 1400 damage BEFORE my merit ability went up. Now it's probably gonna be huge.

I STILL need to get my Moldavite Earring though. That will probably take more time than earning 3 more merit points I'm afraid. I printed out the map though and next time I have some time, I am gonna go check out Mr. Mysticmaker Profblix in the Labyrinth of Onzozo.

I am using old pictures because for SOME reason the ones I send to my E-mail at My MSN haven't been received and it's been like a month. I hope they get that stuff sorted out over there. I am running out of pictures.

Depends for men

BLM:75 WHM:57 SMN:41 THF:71 WAR:56 RNG:36

Working as a leader in a linkshell is tough work.

But as you can imagine, it has its upside like being able to KICK people. It's downside is the bad feelings you get from some people that don't realize how FUN it can be to KICK people! scratch...

Ok, I'm back now. No, that was Bizarro-hohito talking, I sent him back to his own world.

The best thing you can do in a linkshell is let it grow through its need to accomplish a mission. Companies have this, a mission statement, as a basis for their existence and even though it sounds corny, it's true. People need a vision to follow. They need someone admirable. like a chopper with the biggest machete cutting a path through the jungle, to make their future less wild. Obviously this person doesn't have to be smart, just persistent. And that brings me to another of my favorite sayings, persistance is omnipotent. Not nice people. Not even all-that smart people (trust me on this). and not women.. cough... maybe...cough... Persistent people are the most powerful. And so it is that these people are the most admired.

That's my take on Uchipu. She isn't all that smart. she's probably not all that nice really. And she might not even be a woman... scratch....

That was Bizarro-hohito again, he keeps coming back and typing crap I don't mean. I sent him back again. He is SO wrong sometimes, makin fun of people like that.

As I was saying, persistent people make the best leaders and if the linkshell was going to have a purpose, like HNMs or Merit Parties or even Assault groups, you would have to have not very smart people, not very nice people, but you WOULD need dependable people.

We had that. We could have it again.