I also have a newfound interest in Fishing, of all things! Grabbed my rod, dusted off my Angler's set, and went to town, armed with nothing but fishing gear, a Mithran Rod, and lots of Insect paste. Over the course of two nights, I went from 9.1 up to 12.1. That's a lot of Fishing! >_< Trying to get my Lu Shang's Fishing rod now, although with a pathetic 222/10000 fish handed in, that will take some time. >_< At least Fishing has also led to me improving my Cooking skills, and I have also managed to raise my Smithing up another level to 56! ^^
I've also been helping out Railston a bit with his Goldsmithing, taking his Silver goods and trying to turn them back into Ingots for further use. I believe he's ont the Silver Rings stage now after having worked with Silver Hairpins for a while, and is progressing along nicely. Soon, he'll be in the Mythril stage of things where he can finally attain his goal of being able to synth up Mythril Ingots from the golem drops during Merit point parties. Yep, you read that right. >_< In any case, I've discovered a little delight in making Bullets. Not Silver Bullets, mind you, just regular ones. All for one reason- I can HQ them! :D
Picked up materials for twelve synths, or four stacks. Ended up HQ2'ing twice for a free extra 10k in the process, and I'm certianly not one to complain about that! ^^
Anyway, a while ago, I read about a group of Black Mages who would offer their services to people who wanted a shot at a Venomous Claw via Operation Desert Swarm KS30. The catch was that if the claw drops, you keep it, but the BLMs keep all the other drops. Given that most people just go for this particular BCNM fight just for the Claw, that's not too bad a bargain, although other goodies like a Damascene Cloth and Damascus Ingot can also drop. I brought this up during one of my BLM parties, and we kind of left the idea hanging up in the air. Until tonight.
The setup was Kyubigokou, Nikku, Gigoonleegoon, Wegina, and I. Together, we sent several people through the KS30 fight (some even multiple times!), although overall, the drops rather sucked. Enron was actually one of our clients for this, and while his first attempt didn't have much, his second attempt yielded the one (and only) Venomous Claw we saw that night. I think we must've done something like twelve runs in total? I kinda lost track after the eighth run or so...
Of course, one might wonder why people would even do this. Operation Desert Swarm, as you might have guessed, is a complete cakewalk for a BLM setup. All it takes is a Thundaga III, a Sleepga II, and a Blizzaga III from all five BLMs, and the BCNM is won. However, I hear that trying to beat this BCNM battle with a regular setup is like walking through hell. In addition to that, many jobs don't even have the chance to participate in these battles- THFs, NINs, RDMs, and other assorted jobs all need some way to use the Kindred's Seals they've been accumulating, and we provide them with a surefire way to get that chance at a claw. Given the difference between the Claw and all the other drops, to most people, this is a bargain.
On the BLM side, we don't actually get much per run. Assuming one person drops 150k, we get 35k a run, which pales in comparison to the 5 million Claw if it drops. However, we make up for that in volume, and in expensive drops. Overall, I think we came out of that very well, with Adaman Ingots, Orichalcum Ingots and two Damascene Cloths falling into our hands, so we certianly weren't complaining. ^^ I think our total haul is around the 800k region, which is very good for a night's work. ^^ We've since decided to band together to make a LS just for the professional look, calling ourselves BombSquad. As it turns out, that name was taken, so I ended up calling the LS "BombBrigade" instead. We even have a list of future clients who are willing to give up their Kindred Seals for a chance at the Claw, which means more money for us! As for the actual linkshell, Nikku really wanted a light-green pearl, except that it was a right pain to get. In the end, I accidentally hit the right button when I was trying to cross over to the OK symbol, and ended up fixing the pearl colour on a sky-blue colour instead. Oops. ; ;
Enron then took his Venomous Claw to one of Gluey's Bonecraft friends, who was 100 Bonecrafting with all the extra +skill guild items. He'd made several Scorpion Harnesses before, including some +1s, and so Enron approached him to turn his Venomous Claw into that Scorpion Harness he had been eyeing. Earth synth. New Moon, Windsday.
Perfect conditions for HQ'ing.
Unfortunately, as many veteran crafters know, an increased chance at HQ also comes with it an increased chance of failing the synth. And so...
I edited out much of the extra chat that was going on at the time, but yeah...
OUCH! >_<
The Scorpion Harness caps at 86, while this was a 100+ Bonecrafter. The chances of failing are small, but unfortunately, the die rolls just did not turn out right, and just like that, five million gil went up in a poof of shattered Earth Crystal fragments. I didn't know what to do. Nobody likes seeing something that valuable break, and nobody likes failing a synth. Sure, I can imagine Enron must be very upset about losing the claw, and I imagine his Bonecrafter must've been very disappointed to have failed. The synth is beyond trivial, yet things do happen. Looking at this, I don't know how endgame crafting's going to be like for me. On the one hand, it's nice to make the best gear around in the game, yet, having someone place a lot of their time, effort, and money into your hands only to have it shattered must be an awful feeling. I guess that's why I always warn people beforehand, reminding them that there is a very real chance at failing a synth, no matter what the level, but still, such things are unpreventable sometimes.
Enron's disappointed enough at the game as a result of this, and might be quitting the game.
/sigh.
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