Valkurm Emperor {Found it!}

After much thinking and looking at my options, I think the job that I want to "pimp out" is Red Mage, instead of Black Mage, which is a little unfortunate given how BLM was my first job to 75, and I already have fifteen merit points invested in Black Mage, but I have my reasons.



Firstly, the competition on the Sorcerer's Petasos is nothing short of ridiculous. Geo and Kaibara have accumulated 430 points and are still waiting for their Petasos, and we don't go nearly enough times to get the hat. Competition for the Duelist's Chapeau, on the other hand, is lesser, although I'll have to verify that the next Dynamis run so I can do a "/sea all linkshell rdm."



Secondly, the style is more active, and is more attuned to my playstyle. I like being busy, and while a Black Mage's role in a party can be quite busy, it is a very specific tool, and doesn't have the versatility of the "jack-of-all-trades" class that the Red Mage is.



Thirdly, pimping out Red Mage is going to require me to level up several other subjobs, helping out the Campsitarus site in the process (something which I need to work on). This includes /BRD for those times when you are nothing more than a battery, /DRK for those Chainspell-Stun days, and /NIN for solo play.



Of these, I have interest in leveling my Ninja, however, gear is one thing that has been keeping me from doing it. For one, I can't stand large purchases, and I hate parting with my money (yes, I know, I'm a miser). However, I also dislike camping, so either way, something had to give. I was willing to go on without Bounding Boots, maybe, but I was certainly not going to forgo Evasion +10, and so needed to either fork over the cash to buy an Emperor Hairpin, try to BCNM it up, or camp the Valkurm Emperor for the Empress Hairpin drop.



I certainly wasn't willing to buy the Emperor Hairpin, and nobody was around to help me with the BCNM, so it was off the the Dunes!



Most people say camping the Valkurm Emperor for the Empress Hairpin is even worse in terms of difficulty getting the claim compared to Leaping Lizzy, not to mention that the drop rate would be pretty bad for someone without Treasure Hunter, so suffice to say, I wasn't really looking forward to camping him. Actually, I had gone a few times before, but each time, impatience wore out (within about five minutes, too ^^), not to mention competition, and I warped back soon after.



This time wasn't much different. I was bored, and completely on a whim, decided I would go to the Valkurm Dunes and try to get me a Valkurm Emperor, which would be quite hard given that, strange as though it may be, I have never even seen the Valkurm Emperor before. And so, I switched over to RDM/RNG (a very gimped subjob, btw >_<), and headed down to do some Emperor camping.



When I got there, there was nobody else around, sans for one other Red Mage who left shortly after I arrived. I'm guessing this is a rather unusual case, since in my previous times, there have been at least two other people camping, hoping to get a hairpin. By sheer stubborness, I stuck around, and started killing Damselflies, and occasionally checking Widescan to see if the Emperor popped.



Call it beginner's luck, or the luck of the taru, but just ten minutes or so after I started camping, I decided to walk back to some other Damselfly camps I cleared earlier when, not even on widescan, I approached a Damselfly with an unusually long name. My heart skipped a beat.



Valkurm Emperor {Found it!}



(And for the record, you can tell I'm a n00b at this camping business for announcing it in the linkshell before actually claiming it myself.)



There it was, sitting by itself without another living thing, PC or NPC in sight. I took it with Dia before taking out my trusty Fleuret for battle.







One half of the battle- the claim, was won. But would the hairpin drop?







I am now 1/1 on the Valkurm Emperor. Luck of the taru, indeed. XD