13 March, 2005

Welcome to Dynamis.

Dynamis, the Shrouded Land.

The place where some of the very end game gear is sought. Relic Weapons, Ancient Currency, and of course the second AF set. I had been wanting to go to Dynamis for quite some time now, but could not find a linkshell to go with. It might be my (lack) of a seeking technique, which basically comprises of it cropping up in random conversations with friends, but I guess it's bound to work eventually. Anyway, my Dynamis linkshell is called Explorer. It's (mostly) Japanese, although we have a few American players as well, and everybody is at least level 70. I came to know of the linkshell through Starfox, when we were partying in King Ranperre's Tomb. We started talking, and eventually I mentioned my want to try and get into a Dynamis linkshell, to which Starfox gave me an invitation, saying he'd check with the leader to see if it was okay. In addition, it turned out that one of my party members (Stev), was also in the same linkshell, so all of a sudden, I had two people on the inside who could help me get in. Hee! ^^

Their raid was scheduled for today, and so, I was asked to wait for a reply. I was anxious at first, and as the hour approached, and I heard nothing, it looked like they didn't need me. Eventually Starfox logged on and we started talking again. Then, one particular tell stood out:

Starfox>> Join.

Woohoo! ^^

I (and two other new members) went up to meet with the leader, Elmas. Honestly, I was very nervous at this point, and tried to conduct myself accordingly, although what really happened was me fumbling around and Elmas traded me a linkpearl quietly. I didn't really know what to say or do at the time, really! >_< Anyway, since Starfox is bilingual, he explained the linkshell rules and system to us while Elmas looked on. Basically, the linkshell works on a point-based system. You get points for participating in a run, and points are deducted when you receive certain items.

For us, it +10 points per Dynamis run, with a deduction of -5 points for a Relic weapon, -20 points for a 100-Byne Bill, and -50 for AF. I'm personally in agreement with this system. since certain items are very competitive, and ideally, you'd want the person who had worked the hardest to get the item first. After all, the last thing you want is to go through twenty Dynamis runs before seeing your AF, only to be out-lotted by some new member, hence we don't compete lots for items. This is especially true for Black Mages, since BLMs are so useful in Dynamis, our numbers in a raid usually end up in the double-digits.

We were originally going to do Dynamis-Windurst today, but when the time came, we found that another linkshell was already doing it (only one group's allowed in one particular Dynamis area at any time) and so we switched over to Dynamis-Jeuno. At this point, I was very nervous, this being my first Dynamis run and all, and I didn't want to screw up. Starfox, Stev, and Kyubigokou (who I was pleased to find out was also in the LS) were all giving me a brief rundown on what it's going to be like.

My "portion" of the linkshell would be comprised of all the Black Mages. Our alliance is split into three parties- a BLM "nuking" party, a BLM "Stun" party, and a pulling party. What would happen is that the pulling party would go and well, pull, and train the mobs past everybody. The nuking party's goal is to take out the statue-like mobs, since only magic is effective against them. The Sleeping party's task is to Sleepga everything so things don't go out of control, and to Stun certain mobs when needed.

For example, MNK-type mobs use Hundred Fists, and upon seeing it, one person repeatedly yells out "Hundred Fists!" (or something to that extent) and everybody must disengage the mob so the BLMs can Sleep it. Then, it's just a matter of waiting 30 seconds for Hundred Fists to wear off, and it's back to work. NIN-type mobs can Mijin Gakure, which would result in much death, and so must be controlled. We cannot Sleep NIN mobs, otherwise we cannot kill it, so it's basically the entire raiding party against one NIN mob with all the BLMs continually firing Stuns at it to make sure it never moves. Then there are the SMN-type mobs, which can Astral Flow (obviously a bad thing), and so, the avatars must be kept slept. After all, a party wipeout to Carbunce would be rather...embarassing. BST-type mobs can Charm(-ga?) and also have their pets. Because of this, the BST is killed first, then the pet, since with the pet around, the BST cannot Charm. Personally, I'd say the pets are more annoying, as the Slime-type mobs kept casting Paralyga, which had a huge area of effect!

I was part of the "nuking" party, which meant that all I had to do was take out the statues as they came in, and then I could go help out with the regular mobs once that was done. I was probably playing overly cautious, as out of fear of hitting the wrong mob, I waiting until there was some sign that the mob I was targetting was also the one scheduled for destruction. Combine that with the ridiculous lag you get there, and most of the time, the mob was dead before my nuke resolved. >_< I had an early death (first Dynamis death :P) thanks to something going awry, but we managed to handle it in the end. After that, the rest of the Dynamis raid pretty much went on without event, other than my disconnecting and not being able to get back on, but that was rectified in five minutes. >_<

I tried taking some screenshots, but now I realise why so few Dynamis screenshots exist- it's really quite hard to take good screenies of Dynamis, especially when you're in the back rows. Oh well.

We started at the Mog House exit, and slowly worked our way towards the palace grounds, where we'd fight the final boss for the area. During this time, we got two WAR AF, a RNG AF, and RDM AF! While I suppose I could go on telling how Dynamis was done, once you get used to it, it all becomes very repetitive, and not terribly interesting, but oh well. We eventually got to the final boss, a giant Goblin Golem, and with everybody against it, it went down without too much event, well, killing five people in the meantime.



A ??? appeared where the Golem died, and I got the key item (some Hydro Corps map thingymajigy), and more importantly, the title:

"Dynamis-Jeuno Interloper"

/cheer! Dynamis-Jeuno cleared! All that remains is clearing the other three basic Dynamis zones- namely Dynamis-Bastok, Dynamis-San d'Oria, and Dynamis-Windurst, before gaining access to the next tier up: Dynamis-Beaucedine. From what I hear though, the ice zone Dynamis areas (Dynamis-Xarcabard../shudder) make the basic four look like a walk in the park. Eek!

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