"Accomplished Goldsmith" {mine}!

I understand I haven't made a new entry in a pretty long time.

I also understand that I haven't made a "normal" blog post (i.e: not trying to dissect a fight) in an even longer time.

Coincidentally, I haven't made a post about my Goldsmithing in an even longer time.

To be honest, it's been so long since I last worked on my Goldsmithing formally, that I don't even remember when my last archived Goldsmithing post was! >_< I suppose with the current state of crafting (particularly in the durables department), the drive to actually work on Goldsmithing has more or less died down, as seems to be the case for quite a lot of the crafts lately.

With high costs to level and with fewer and fewer profitable synths, Goldsmithing's more or less been relegated to earning me bits and pieces of small change here and there. As such, it's been sitting pretty at Goldsmithing 87 for the longest time. I'd occasionally make an Orichalcum Ingot back when it was profitable, and now that it's a loss, that too stopped.

Until recently, that is.

For some reason, I just decided to go and get that next level, which meant burning a lot of money. I had forgotten what my exact Goldsmithing level was, other than it was 87.x, but that didn't really matter.

Just like that, I purchased two stacks of Gold Ingots from the AH (pretty hefty, considering I'm a miser now :P) and sat down to work.

The first stack was good- +0.5 skill in twelve synths. The second, gave me this:


Hitting 88 is the magical number to go get a rankup, and so I immediately made a beeline for Reinberta, who decided that, of all things, she wanted a Colichemarde (go on, look it up. -_-)

Anyway, not long later, I went back to Reinberta with a Colichemarde I shamelessly purchased from the Jeuno AH made with my own sweat and tears, to finally get...



Of course, finally reaching the highest rank in the Goldsmithing guild meant that I could finally use my guild points that have been sitting idle for close to a year now. In this case, I am now eligible to purchase my guild furnishing...



And so, for anyone who is just curious on what Fool's Gold actually looks like, here you go:



Title: "Accomplished Goldsmith." Dammitaru, that feels good.

I'm not sure where I'm going to go with Goldsmithing now to be honest. I've got all the guild items, so that's one major hurdle down, so the next would be the almighty 100 (haha, I can dream on :P). Looking at the markets now, Goldsmithing 100 would be more or less a novelty, since I can't really see anything I want to make at 100, except maybe sign my own Manteel if I ever get around to leveling my Bard (dream on!).

But first! Time to recuperate my losses from all those Gold Ingots! /cry

(Edit: Okay, whose bright idea was it to have the Moghancement: Experience from the Miniature Airship overwrite the Moghancement: Goldsmithing from the Fool's Gold?! Now I have to take the Airship down, and I like that airship! /fume)

Something new to solo!

Black Mages have solo'ed several things, from sea mobs to ENMs to KS30s to Apollyon NW.

Well, I've stumbled across this video that presents something new for BLMs to try and solo- Waking Dreams, better known as "the Diabolos fight."

Enjoy!



Just in case the above video does not work, you can see the video here, along with the rest of Vol's solo feats (including Ark Angel MR!)

Random screenshot!

I'm still alive and kicking...sort of. No time to make a real blog entry, so I decided to leave everyone with this-


It's an old, _old_ excerpt from TrueRune. I haven't been on lately, so I haven't seen everyone in quite some time. A lot of the people involved in the chat have since quit, but I'll still protect the "innocent." ^^

BLM solo- Ebony Puddings

Regarding lack of updates:

I am aware that, quite unlike me, it has been over two months since I have last written an update. To say that my real life has been busy is a bit of an understatement, with my current occupation taking up the vast majority of my time, and other real life commitments filling up the remainder of whatever leftover time I have.

Thus, it should come as no surprise that I haven't exactly been doing anything spectacular in game, other than the usual Limbus and meriting, things that don't require a massive time commitment on my side. What all this will result in, I cannot say for sure, but given my recent activities, I simply haven't felt that there was anything interesting enough to write about.

What I can do, however, is go into further detail about something I've been trying to crack during my solo Pudding sessions- how to crack and maximise your xp/hour.


By now, just about every BLM75 would have had experience soloing Puddings in Mount Zhayolm, or at least have heard of it. While Puddings are slightly more dangerous to solo, coming from Wamoura Princes, once you get used to it, they are by far the fastest xp/hour for a solo BLM.

It's not difficult to see why they're the ideal solo mob, either. They are mage mobs, so are Aspirable. They also have about 1000hp less than a Wamoura Prince. They also don't have a "magic-resistant" mode, in fact, they take an additional 25% magic damage!

Of course, being mages, they are slightly more dangerous than a Prince, but all that means is that you'll have to deal with the occasional Burn or Shock, or have to Stun a Sleepga or Firaga III, all minor inconveniences to offset the extra xp.

General information
Mount Zhayolm has two weather conditions- Fire weather, which is rather uncommon, and Earth weather, which is common. Within the area are eight Ebony Puddings, each on a 5-minute respawn timer. Ebony Puddings have approximately 4900hp each, and as mentioned earlier, take 25% extra magic damage. They are rather difficult to Sleep, so a good enfeebling set is advisible here. I'm also going to assume that for the purposes of this writeup, you are BLM75.

Casting range here is 21.5 yalms/units/whatever they're called.

If you are not familiar with the layout of the area, you would be well advised to familiarize yourself with the area so you know where all 8 spawn points are, and be careful of the Phasma towards the NE side at night. The southern passageway leading to Halvung provides a safe place to kite a Pudding, as well as an easy zone to run to should something go wrong.

In addition, when soloing, one BLMs generally takes up three Ebony Pudding spawns, so the area can support three solo BLMs comfortably.

Generally, the sequence of events are as follows:

Thunder IV → Gravity → Blizzard IV → Aspir → (subsequent nukes)

Your subsequent nukes would obviously vary depending on your general nuking strength and resists. Personally, I find that I need a second Thunder IV and Drain to finish off a mob, others may need more or less.

If this is your first time soloing Puddings, you may have trouble with your first few attempts as you get used to things, but you should adjust pretty quickly and soloing should be a breeze.


My current situation:

I've timed myself on a few of my sessions, physically taking down a piece of paper, recording my xp before I start and then soloing for a full hour before recording the new value, thus finding out my xp/hour. This is much more realistic (for obvious reasons) than those that xp for a shorter period of time, and then extrapolate out to 60 minutes.

My average xp/hour so far has been hovering around 8k/hr.

However, I've heard word on forums from other BLMs boasting of higher xp/hour rates solo, not to mention that there are a few issues I see with my solo tactics, so I'm out to try and improve on this.


Solo Chain #5

Most BLMs have little trouble hitting Chain #4 solo, in fact, I myself don't have any issues getting a Chain #4. The problem arises when one tries to consistently reach Chain #5, which I feel is the key to faster solo xp/hour, as always. I've managed to get Chain #5s in the past, but I wasn't able to consistently duplicate that, which is what I'm trying to attempt to dissect here.



Mana management

The primary limiting factor you will most likely face is your mana. Even as a Taru, I have to stretch my mana to accomodate Chain #5, so I can imagine how hard it must be for, say, Galka BLMs (My nuking MP is around 996mp).

As per normal, your mana recovery will be through Sanction Auto-Refresh, Aspirs, and your resting. While you do not have much control over the first two, it is important that you pay attention to how much you rest so you manage your mana and time properly. As a general rule, you can afford to rest to full all the way up to Chain #3, but once you start going for Chain #4, you need to pay attention to the amount of time you have left before you lose the chain.

Up to now, I've always held that 600mp is more than enough to kill a Pudding, with extra mana to spare should something go wrong.


AM II versus Thunder IV?

One thing that I see a lot in Mount Zhayolm are BLMs meriting using two -IV spells and AMII. Personally, I can understand the draw of using Ancient magic- you get big, pretty numbers! However, I can safely say that using Ancient magic is not the way to go for one big reason- mana.

Case #1: You use Ancient Magic. This means you kill with two -IV nukes.

Thunder IV: 171
Gravity: 24
Blizzard IV: 164
Freeze II: 287

Total: 646mp

Case #2: You don't use Ancient Magic. Thus means you kill with three -IV nukes (and a Drain).

Thunder IV: 171
Gravity: 24
Blizzard IV: 164
Thunder IV: 171
Drain: 21

Total: 551mp

You're looking at almost 100mp difference, which will take roughly 30 seconds to recover through resting. The only logical reason to use Ancient magic over Thunder IV + Drain would be in the interest of saving time, however, the difference is only 3 seconds, so it'd better be a close one. XD


Resting for Chain #5

Of course, you'd want to try and get as much mp as possible before you head off. However, it's obvious that you cannot afford to wait until you are fully recharged, otherwise you'd lose the chain.

The amount of time you have to kill the Chain #5 mob is just 2 minutes. I timed myself, and I take roughly 1:15 to kill a mob (including the time it takes for me to run and engage one), so I know that I have another 45 seconds to sit down and rest.

When you rest, your mana comes back after 20 seconds, and then subsequently every 10 seconds thereafter. For me, that means that I have three ticks of rest (+20, +30 and +40 seconds) before I know I have to head out for the next mob. However, just in case of any accidents, I only allow myself two ticks of rest instead.

A naked BLM75 rests for 27mp for the first tick. However, with +hMP gear, that easily goes up to about 50mp/tick, so two ticks worth is about 100mp.


Putting all this into practice:

All this talk is fine, and I wanted to actually go out there and see how well I could put this into action. This would allow me to see just how relevant all this musing has been, as well as provide some data which I could then use to extrapolate a logical xp/hour target to try and reach.

I went over to Mount Zhayolm (which was thankfully open! :D) and solo'ed six chains, three of which were Chain #5s. I noted down all the relevant timings and did my data collection in the process:

Time taken to move to a pudding
Minimum: 0:03
Maximum: 0:24
Average: 0:08

Time taken to kill a pudding:
Minimum: 0:49
Maximum: 1:18
Mean: 1:01

Mana used to kill a pudding:
Minimum: 325
Maximum: 591
Mean: 445

Mean time spent resting after Chain #X:
After Chain #0: 1:26
After Chain #1: 1:17
After Chain #2: 1:13
After Chain #3: 1:13
After Chain #4: 0:34
After Chain #5: 2:22

Based on these figures, I can now artificially reconstruct a Chain #5 to have a rough idea of just how much xp/hour we should be targetting:

+0:00 Stand up, move to engage 1st Pudding.
+0:08 Engage
+1:09 Defeat #0, rest

+2:35 Stand up, move to engage 2nd Pudding.
+2:43 Engage
+3:44 Defeat #1, rest

+5:01 Stand up, move to engage 3rd Pudding.
+5:09 Engage
+6:10 Defeat #2, rest

+7:23 Stand up, move to engage 4th Pudding.
+7:31 Engage
+8:32 Defeat #3, rest

+9:45 Stand up, move to engage 5th Pudding.
+9:53 Engage
+10:54 Defeat #4, rest

+11:28 Stand up, move to engage 6th Pudding.
+11:36 Engage
+12:37 Defeat #5, rest

+14:59 Mana full, repeat cycle.

Thus, our simulation would take 15 minutes to complete a full Chain #5 cycle (which includes a full heal, ready to start the next chain). The average xp a solo BLM gets from a Chain #5 is about 2440xp, so by extrapolating that, we should aim to get:

2440 x 4 = 9760xp/hr.

Thus, a 9-10k/hr xp rate is theoretically possible, although admittedly difficult to do. But an extra 1.7k over my current 8k/hr is certainly something to strive towards, although I'll definitely have to do more testing (and practice more!) before I can see such results.


Improvements:
One big problem I face with trying to beat the clock for a Chain #5 is that I do not have a Sorcerer's Ring. To be more accurate, my refusal to engage in HNM activities means I do not have the Zenith gear to convert my HP over to activate the Sorcerer latent (this also means that I nuke with Yigit gages, instead of Zenith Mitts. T_T)

The benefits of having a ring are twofold- first, I will be able to nuke down a Pudding in just three nukes, essentially saving myself from having to cast Drain. This saves me the 5 seconds or so it takes for me to cast Drain, and then cast another spell, as well as 21 mana. Is it worth it? In the interest of time, certainly, considering how close I was at times to missing the 2-minute deadline.

Someone on the Allakhazam forums also came up with the idea of killing Puddings two at a time before resting, that is to say that he solos one Pudding, immediately moves to kill another, then rests. It sounds like a good idea, since you save the rest time, as well as having fewer "dud" ticks where you recover 0mp, but I don't know how he squeezes a full rest in time to solo Chain #4 and #5. I'll certainly have to give it a shot though. ^^

BLM Solo- Operation Desert Swarm

A few people have already solo'ed this particular KS30 fight and have written about it, such as Kaeko, and there have been numerous videos about, like Avesta's attempt (although it is quite old now),



However, I had yet to actually do this myself. I'm not exactly sure what prompted me to throw away some 120 Kindred Seals on praticing and fine tuning, but I started on it, and wanted very much to say that I was now able to comfortably solo the KS30.

Here are the basic facts, from Kaeko's writeup:
- 6 Platoon Scorpions.
- Each has exactly 5,000 HP.
- Not particularly resistant to sleep.
- Run at normal speed.

The basic sequence is as follows:

- Buff with Protect II, Aquaveil, Stoneskin, Blink, Phalanx.
- Rest to full.
- Thundaga III → Sleepga (reapply Stoneskin and Blink)
- Blizzaga III → Sleepga (reapply Stoneskin and Blink)
- Take medicines (Pro-Ether in my case, see below)
- Thundaga III → Sleepga (reapply Stoneskin and Blink)
- Manafont
- Blizzaga III → Sleepga
- Thundaga III → Sleepga
- Firaga III (win!)

Here's the log of my first successful run. I've edited it to remove all the "chaff"- the recast timers, "Equipment changed" lines, and so on.



Although I was successful that time, it was a lot closer than I would've liked it to be. Thus, I wanted to go out and solo a few more orbs to get more practice at it before I felt comfortable with a strategy.

Unfortuntely, four orbs later (two of which weren't mine), I had yet to repeat my win. However, it was not a total loss, for there were two realisations I made that I have since implemented into my strategy.

For those who just want to cut straight to the chase, here they are:

1) Bring a Pro-Ether (just in case).
2) Equip a Terra's Staff in your Sleepga macro.

For those who like explanations and reasoning, here are the more long-winded versions:

1) You will need mana items.
Assuming your gear is not of a very high standard, chances are you will be casting six -ga spells, in between at least five Sleepgas, not to mention reapplying Stoneskins, Blinks and Phalanx.

Doing the math, your mana spent (not accounting for Conserve MP) would be:

START

Thundaga III: 322mp
Sleepga: 38mp
Stoneskin: 29mp
Blink: 20mp
Blizzaga III: 299mp
Sleepga: 38mp
Stoneskin: 29mp
Blink: 20mp
Thundaga III: 322mp
Sleepga: 38mp
Stoneskin: 29mp
Blink: 20mp
Phalanx: 21mp

MANAFONT

Blizzaga III: 0mp
Sleepga: 0mp
Thundaga III: 0mp
Sleepga II: 0mp
Firaga III: 0mp

Total: 1225mp

1225mp spent before the Manafont is very high, even for a Taru. As it is, my current nuking gear caps my MP at 1006, so I'm still 219mp away. Thus, medicines are in order.

Based off my nuking mp, I need to make up 219mp somewhere, so a Pro-Ether comes in handy. This will vary from individual to individual, so be sure to check you can make up 1225mp somewhere without the aid of Manafont.

I have to admit, I really really wanted to be able to do this without the use of anything out of the ordinary (nothing more than maybe a couple of Yagudo Drinks), but given the gap in mana, that does not look likely for me, at least not now. Should I ever get Zenith gear, however, there is a chance I will be able to push my max MP setup to over 1225, thus negating the need for any special medicines.

Of course, should you get lucky on your Conseve MP, by all means save the Pro-Ether for another day! >_<

2) Damage reduction in your Sleepga macro

This is the big one.

You will notice that in Avesta's video above, and in other videos around the net that the general strategy is to run away from the scorpions after your -ga spell has gone off before casting Sleepga.

This makes sense, since if you have Herald gaiters, you could feasily outrun the scorpions, that and you might as well gain some distance before casting Sleepga.

However, I do not have gaiters, nor can I run away because of lag issues. In my case, I have to consciously stop and wait a second or two before I cast a spell, otherwise the server-side will think I am casting a spell while moving, and thus interrupt my spell even though I appear to be standing still client-side.

Thus, I cast Thundaga III and immediately start casting Sleepga while standing at the same spot.

One thing I noticed in my subsequent attempts was that there were occasions where my first Sleepga would not resolve simply because the six scorpions were able to tear down my Stoneskin and land a hit on me, interrupting my Sleepga. Once Sleepga is down, there is no way to recover, so it is imperative that Stoneskin remains up.

Let's do the math:

* A Platoon Scorpion hits me, in Enfeebling gear for, on average, about 90 damage/hit.
* With capped Enhancing Magic skill (200), Phalanx reduces all hits by -18 damage.
* A scorpion thus hits me for around 72 damage/hit.

* With 114 MND, Stoneskin is capped at 350 damage.

So, with Stoneskin and Blink up:
Case 1: Two shadows absorbs, 4 hits- 288 damage (Good)
Case 2: One shadow absorbs, 5 hits- 360 damage (Risks interruption)
Case 3: No shadows absorbs, 6 hits- 432 damage (Risks interruption)

As you can see, the problem above lies in the reliance of both Blink shadows absorbing two hits from the scorpions. Should even one fail, then you risk being interrupted, and thus lose the KS30.

So, I needed a way to prevent some more damage while still in my Enfeebling gear. Fortunately, this can be solved by using a Terra's Staff instead of a Pluto's Staff in my Sleepga macro.

Now, with the damage reduction from the Terra's Staff, the numbers look like the following: (Note that the damage reduction from the Terra's Staff is applied first, then Phalanx is applied.)

* A Platoon Scorpion hits me, in Enfeebling gear for, on average, about 90 damage/hit.
* With capped Enhancing Magic skill (200), Phalanx reduces all hits by -18 damage.
* A scorpion thus hits me for around 72 damage/hit.
* With 114 MND, Stoneskin is capped at 350 damage.
* Terra's Staff reduces all physical damage taken by -20%.

Thus, I take:
(90 x 0.8) - 18 = 54 damage/hit.

Giving us the following three cases
Case 1: Two shadows absorbs, 4 hits- 216 damage (Good)
Case 2: One shadow absorbs, 5 hits- 270 damage (Good)
Case 3: No shadows absorbs, 6 hits- 324 damage (Good)

As you can see, the inclusion of a Terra's Staff dramatically improves Stoneskin's duration. Now, there is almost no way the scorpions will be able to break through your Stoneskin before your Sleepga goes off, even if all six Scorpions successfully connect, and you even have some room to play around with should a scorpion land a critical hit on you.



In fact, even if you gave yourself an error margin and assumed that scorpions hit you for 100 damage/hit instead of 90, a Terra's Staff setup would still let your Stoneskin last five hits without wearing off.

What about Magic Accuracy?

When I first considered Sleepga-ing in a Terra's Staff, my immediate concern would be the accuracy of my spells. After all, while it has not been conclusively proven to my knowledge, there are many people out there (including myself) who seem to vouch that equipping the corresponding staff to your spell increases its accuracy.

By wearing a Terra's Staff instead of a Pluto's Staff, my Stoneskin will go off, but the chance that it will actually stick may go down.

Fortunately, when I went to test this out (yes, on yet another orb -_-), I was pleasantly surprised at having absolutely no difficulty landing my Sleepgas whatsoever.

For reference's sake however, my current Enfeebling gear puts me at an Enfeebling Magic skill of 285, which would've also helped.

Is there a way to keep Stoneskin up and still wear a Pluto's Staff?

This idea also crossed my mind, and resulted in a quick flurry to the Bostoneaux Oubliette in search of a Jelly Ring before I changed my mind. The idea was that with a Jelly Ring and an Umbra Cape, I might be able to prevent enough damage and still hold my Pluto's Staff for Sleepga, but doing the math unfortunately proved me wrong:

* A Platoon Scorpion hits me, in Enfeebling gear for, on average, about 90 damage/hit.
* With capped Enhancing Magic skill (200), Phalanx reduces all hits by -18 damage.
* A scorpion thus hits me for around 72 damage/hit.
* With 114 MND, Stoneskin is capped at 350 damage.
* Umbra Cape and Jelly Ring reduces damage by 11%.

Thus, I take:
(90 x 0.89) - 18 = 62 damage/hit.

Giving us the following three cases
Case 1: Two shadows absorbs, 4 hits- 248 damage (Good)
Case 2: One shadow absorbs, 5 hits- 310 damage (Good)
Case 3: No shadows absorbs, 6 hits- 372 damage (Risks interruption)

Which is only slightly better, assuming the Cape/Ring effect is applied first, otherwise Stoneskin still falls within five hits. In fact, if Phalanx were indeed applied first, then any percentage reductions, we'd need:

(90 - 18) * 5x < 350
x < 0.972

13% damage reduction, which is only available by having a Jelly Ring, Cheviot/Umbra Cape and Goliard Slops, which aren't exactly accessible to everyone. Even then, you still get interrupted within 6 hits, so for now, I prefer to just stick with a Terra's Staff.


So, has all this helped?

After the changes, I made one more trip into the Waughroon Shrine armed with a new Sleepga macro and a Pro-Ether. Suffice it to say, I was very happy with the results, particularly the staff as you can see from the above chatlog excerpts.

In fact, I would've won by a very comfortable margin, except that in order to play things extra safe, I popped my Pro-Ether, cast Sleepga II (just to be sure), then Manafonted into Blizzaga III.

I then Sleepga'ed, Thundaga III'ed...

...then found out my Sleepga II still had six seconds on its cooldown. >_<

Oops. >_<

In any case, I still haven't quite gotten the technique quite down for myself just yet, which is something that's been frustrating me. I went on another run after the Sleepga II blunder, and this time, one Scorpion woke up prematurely, causing me to have to run back into the Scorpion cluster to sleep it, and then my final Sleepga was partially resisted by two scorpions just before my Blizzaga III would go off, so it missed a scorpion.

In essence, there are still a few things that can go wrong. For now though, I'm at least satisfied with the breakdown thus far, and with a little bit more practice, I should be able to do this without any further hitches.

Of course, the problem now is that I'm about 10k experience down from all this testing...>_<

Big Update! Part I - Storms of Fate

Once again, I haven't actually made any meaningful updates in a while, so I'll compensate by making one big update covering three different topics! The other two parts to today's entry can be found below. ^^

But first!


Ever since TrueRune (with the help of Fishura) beat the main Chains of Promathia storyline, I've been wanting to move on and finish the fights that represent the culmination the storylines of both Chains of Promathia and Rise of the Zilart.

Fortunately, I had already completed the Rise of the Zilart storyline quite a while ago, so after beating Promathia, I was all set for the first showdown against Bahamut himself.

All that was missing, as usual, was a team to do it with. >_<

Fortunately, Fishura was here to the rescue once again. :D

For some reason, I had managed to get the TrueRune sea group out in Al'taieu farming Phuabo organs for Saoirse and Akanea, when Fishura and I just so happened to be chatting with one another via /tells. It was then I found out Fishura was up in the Celestial Nexus completing ZM16 for some people, and there were plans to take on Storms of Fate afterwards, so I asked Fishura if there was room for us to join, and sure enough, there was!

The alliance that went in to take on Bahamut was as follows:
Me (BLM/WHM)
Lucimon (SMN/WHM)
Magicman (SMN/WHM)
Akanea (SAM/THF)
Drilex (BLM/RDM)
Flo (BLU/NIN)

Khimari (NIN/WAR)
Eratosthenes (WHM/RDM)
Seraphpdh (PLD/NIN)
Rife (NIN/WAR)
Gunblade (SMN/WHM)
Blksatin (RDM/WHM)

Fanya (NIN/WAR)
Tidusany (SAM/THF)
Keebu (WAR/NIN)
Depon (BLM/WHM)
Sneakee (WHM/BLM)
Xichi (SMN/WHM)

For the record, that's three Black Mages, four Summoners, two White Mages, two Samurai, three Ninjas, a Blue Mage, a Paladin, a Red Mage and a Warrior. Not exactly your standard setup, and actually, we paid very little attention to what jobs were going, but it was enough to get the job done.

I'll be the first to admit that strategy-wise, I can't actually say a lot about the fight, simply because well, I was too busy taking screenshots as opposed to actually concentrating on the fight itself.

I do remember that my first impression was that Bahamut is huge. I do not have some Distance measuring thingymajig, so coming into the fight, I had no idea just how big or how far Bahamut actually was until I was able to actually step close enough to cast a spell on him, which was a lot closer than my first guess turned out to be! >_<

As you might except from a haphazard, cobbled together setup like ours, the run did not go perfectly, although we did fairly well considering the alliance we went in with.

Basic strategy for the Black Mages would be to look out for Firaga IV and Dispelga to Stun. Bahamut starts the fight fully buffed with Protect V, Shell V, Phalanx and Stoneskin, all of which need to be removed before any real damage can be dealt to him.

Basically, all I did was nuke in front of Bahamut (to prevent Sweeping Flail) and stun whenever appropriate to keep things going. Occasionally, the chatlog would be filled with calls of "Megaflare!" to let people know Megaflare was coming, although really, it's very hard to miss Bahamut's warm-up taunting. All my nukes were in Elemental Skill gear.

When Bahamut was getting low on life, the call for a {Full Attack!} went through, which was where I Manafonted and started blasting Bahamut with whatever I had from behind. Evidently, I managed to turn Bahamut after just three nukes, which turned out to be a pretty good thing, considering he spun around and then used Gigaflare, which hit all of five people standing behind him, including myself.

One quick Reraise and a few more nukes later, Bahamut gave up! A quick run back to the Ru'Lude Garders later, and we were now primed to take on Apocalypse Nigh and Bahamut's second, and more deadly form.

Unfortuntately, it looks like once again, it'll be another one of those "try to hop on another group's run" type of ordeal, except for Apocalypse Nigh, which TrueRune should be able to do, although not everybody has completed the Zilart saga just yet.

Big Update! Part II - The State of my BLM

With my current time restrictions, I came to the decision that it was time to just focus and concentrate on just two jobs- in my case, my Black Mage and my Red Mage. I enjoy playing both jobs, and each has their own unique challenges that come along with it. Furthermore, with people appreciating the benefits of a RDM/NIN tank, the combination of these two jobs would allow me to play four different roles in any setup- direct damage, healing, support, and tanking.

For now though, much of that remains in the future. As my first job to 75, much of my time has been spent working on my Black Mage. Of course, the ability to solo faster xp off Ebony Puddings is also pretty good incentive as well. -_-

As far as merits go, my choice of jobs echo the Magic category upgrades very well. Whereas previously with only 8 total upgrades, there needed to be a conscious decision between splitting Elemental Skill and Enfeebling Skill merits for BLM (I am of a firm stance that BLM needs some Enfeebling skill merits, not to mention that I had RDM considerations as well), now with the maximum capacity expanded to 16, I can simply just go for 8 merits into each category.

So far, most of my merits have gone towards my Black Mage, although if you want a complete map (also for reference's sake), here are my merit upgrades to date with respect to my Black Mage:

HP/MP:
Max MP 4 (10 merits)

Attributes:
INT 5 (36 merits)

Black Mage:
Lightning potency 5 (15 merits)
Ice potency 5 (15 merits)

Freeze II 1 (3 merits)
Burst II 1 (3 merits)

For a total of 82 merit points in total. (I know, this is a lot less than those with 200+ points, but still...>_<)

More recently however, my social, Singapore-based linkshell, Doom, has started to do a few low-man (<6 members) Limbus runs, and after a lucky week where the BLM upgrade pieces finally dropped from both Apollyon and Temenos, I can finally say I have one of the best BLM hats in the game to add to my collection:


I hope that this will be a more regular event, as I would like to complete a set of upgraded AF1 for my BLM, as well as for my RDM (although the BLM upgrades are more notable, in my opinion). I have no idea if we will be able to move onto Ultima and Omega because of our numbers as well as our available jobs, but I'll figure out how to cross that bridge once I get to it. ^^

So, gear-wise, at the risk of embarrassing myself, my Black Mage gear (as of today) is as follows:


There are still some glaring things missing. For example, I have no Zenith pieces, not even Zenith Mitts for that matter. The only piece of relic gear I have is my beloved Sorcerer's Petasos. I'm still carrying around my self-signed Wisdom Ring instead of a Snow Ring. Speaking of Rings, I don't even have a Sorcerer's Ring, nor the HP Convert gear required to activate said Sorcerer's Ring.

As far as purchasable gear goes, I'm missing a Sorcerer's Ring, a Snow Ring, as well as HQ versions of most other pieces. Outside of what money can buy for my Black Mage, I'm missing a few Zenith pieces, most notably a pair of Zenith mitts for nuking and Convert gear. Other than that, I'd like to pick up a Static Earring from Apocalypse Nigh, as well as complete the BLM's relic set, seeing as how all my remaining pieces (Sorcerer's Coat, Sorcerer's Tonban, Sorcerer's Gloves) have some relevance.

Unfortunately, a mishap with my (now ex-)Dynamis LS that resulted in the leader accidentally deleting all my points (without any backup records, too I might add -_-) has seriously discouraged me from continuing Dynamis with that linkshell. I'm up for suggestions on how to re-enter Dynamis though, and I've often thought about low-manning Dynamis as well, although I do not have the resources just yet for such a venture.

Granted, a Novio Earring would be nice, but alas, is much too far in the future to really consider with any seriousness right now.

Big Update! Part III - /emo Taru!

I guess it's about time.

In Part II, I spoke about my Black Mage, here, I'd like to talk about my Red Mage. My Red Mage is not as developed as my Black, although thankfully a lot of their gear overlaps. However, the subjob demands of a Red Mage are considerably higher- I have /WHM, /BLM and /NIN leveled for their various purposes, but I have yet to level the last, very important subjob for RDM, which you can probably guess from the picture above.


/DRK.


Yes, as much as I hate to level DRK, and as much as RDM/DRK does not fall within the typical template of "damage, tank, support, healer," the RDM/DRK's 30-seconds of pure awesome in Chainspell-Stun is just too powerful (arguably the most broken thing in the game, next to Blood Weapon, KC-DRKs) to ignore. And so, reluctantly, I take up the scythe and get to work.

I'll admit firsthand, I don't like melee. Up to now, the most "melee" I really committed myself to was RNG and NIN, of which one is ranged (i.e. doesn't really go in there and brawl with the mob) and the other's effectiveness is more based on casting than actually beating things up.

So you can imagine my reluctance in leveling up my Dark Knight, not to mention the pains of having to go through the newbie levels and whatnot all over again.

Fortunately, I have yet to spend any charges on my Anniversary Ring. :D

In any case, I'm slowly working myself up the leveling treadmill. As I write this, I'm now DRK13, and have yet to get myself into a party (not that that's a bad thing). One perk I've noticed is the benefits of having capped Dark Magic skill from my BLM, which lets me easily solo Even Match mobs with good Drains.

However, there are two things that are driving me nuts about this job- capping my weapons (Great Sword and Scythe), and omg, DRK's Accuracy is terrible!


Hopefully this will be done sooner, rather than later. >_<

The Tarutaru Times Online

One of my good friends Wyred has been working on a little bit of a projectaru of his own for some time now. He has recently decided that it was ready for launch, and voila, check it out at...



The Tarutaru Times Online!