29 March, 2006

A Montage of Happenings

It's really been a while since I last updated! Sorry, but I just haven't had much to write about as of late, but I guess that's just the way things flow. I have on the other hand, accumulated a few adventures, that I could briefly write about though. ^^



Sakurato and Xmode were leveling their PLD and DRK down in Behemoth's Dominion the other day when Xmode ding'ed PLD37. Unfortunately, he had forgotten his scroll of Flash, and so he asked me to quickly bring him one, since I was free then.



Walking down to the party, I then decided to pop over to see if Behemoth was up. Bear in mind, my past experience (or lack thereof) of the endgame has meant that I have never seen Bahamoth, or any of the three king mobs before, and at least getting a glimpse of these mobs have been one of my objectives, if a minor one at that.



So, I continue onwards to Behemoth's spawn point, and guess what I see?







Not just Behemoth, but a King Behemoth, too! I'm not sure what dropped though, but it was fun seeing KB at least. I'm sure if I joined an HNMLS and started camping him though, the tenth time will be a bore. -_-



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I've been ENM'ing a little bit as well, convincing people to do the Bionic Bug ENM as well as duo'ing Brothers with Sakurato on her BLM. The xp in total, amounted to 6,500xp in two ENMs, although the drops, on the whole sucked. I think the total treasure pool from both ENMs amounted to 9k. >_< At least it was fun though. ^^



Someone once asked how to duo Brothers with two BLMs, and really, it's quite simple. Just have one (prefably both) BLMs come BLM/RDM (Sakurato doesn't have RDM leveled, so she came BLM/WHM), and put up the usual buffs.



i.e: Reraise (via Earring), Protect II, Shell II, Stoneskin, Blink, Phalanx, Aquaveil.



One Black Mage casts an Elemental Sealed-Sleep II on the Mindertaur (that is, the big 'taur), while the other Black Mage casts Gravity on the Eldertaur (the small one). Both BLMs then proceed to nuke the Eldertaur with everything they have. Seriously. Forget about hate and all that. Just open with Thunder IV and kite the Eldertaur around (Gravity stuck, right??) if you have hate, keeping it in range of the other BLM's spells. The key is to kill the Eldertaur before the Mindertaur wakes up.



Once the Eldertaur's dead, it's elementary from here. If the other BLM hasn't used Elemental Seal yet, put another ES-Sleep II on the Mindertaur after it wakes up to reset buffs, and catch a breather for some MP, before going for the kill again. Voila! Brothers ENM done!



We also did Bionic Bug with an all-mage setup. On a whim, I got together Onekomaru, Hirushi and Xmode, and we all decided to take on the Bionic Bug ENM, which pits us against a single Bugboy, which can 2hr (Mighty Strikes) multiple times. The nice thing about Mighty Strikes though, is that rather like Berserk, he takes double damage while Mighty Strikes is active.



We were RDM/NIN, RDM/WHM, BLM/WHM and BRD/WHM. Our strategy was to simply kite Bugboy up and down the (long) pathway leading to the main battlefield while the other two people who didn't have hate try nuking the Bugboy out. It was fun. ^^ Initially, the plan was to have Gravity on the Bugboy to make things easier, but as he built Gravity resistance, that plan obviously went to dust. We still (somehow) managed to make a decent attempt at kiting him though, and he eventually gave up the dust.



All that was 3k xp and...a piece of cassia lumber. 1k on the AH. orz



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On a completely unrelated note, I also got around to xp'ing my Black Mage to make up for the lost xp in Dynamis, as well as complete another merit point.



Except I was doing it solo. ^^







King Buffalo on the very top of the Uleguerand Range make for very nice xp for a BLM/RDM, each yielding a base xp of 240-300xp. Chaining them is difficult, since they seem to have quite a bit of HP, but with an Empress Band on, I did get a Chain #1 for some very nice xp. XD







The nice thing about King Buffalo is that they are both Sleepable, and strangely enough, are also Aspir-able, too! In addition, the Uleguerand Range frequently experiences double blizzard weather, so the potential +20% Magic Attack Bonus on Blizzard spells makes the killing slightly easier. I'd really only come up here if I had xp in mind though, otherwise Fire Elementals in sky give a better money/xp ratio.



You really want to be /RDM for King Buffalos though, since Gravity speeds things up a whole lot. I initially was alternating between nuking and sleeping, but after watching some JP BLMs solo these along with me, I've since changed my tactics to Thunder IV-Blizzard IV-Sleep, which I can get off thanks to Gravity.



Anyway, 9k solo xp later, I finally capped my BLM's xp, and completed my merit point. -_- Funnily enough, a BLM manaburn party also came up here and we were sharing the mobs for a bit, except one of the BLMs had plans and needed to go, and since I was just there, well, why not have me replace the BLM? ^^ I got another merit point's worth of xp out of the manaburn. ^^ I have to adimt though, I'm not the biggest fan of manaburning for merits, but hey, the feeling was nostalgic. ^^



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In other news, I've been contemplating retirementaru more and more as of late. I'm not sure why, but I don't seem to have the same drive to do things in-game as I did in the past (hence the lack of updates). In an effort to counter this, I decided to, well, *gasp*, try out HNM once more.



Yes, I know there are those who really don't like the idea of HNM, and I am one of them. However, I feel that the HNM scene is something I ought to at least try out before I go, and so I asked around for ideas, suggestions, and whatnot. My problem is that I feel joining an HNMLS in an effort to revitalize the game is joining for the wrong reasons. I mean, why commit yourself to something when you feel you are on the verge of quitting? *sigh* I don't know really...



The end result is that I've got Sakurato to talk to her LS, TeamKanican (TK) about accepting me as a member. I'm still somewhat reluctant to actually join, despite the fact that Sakurato's pushing really hard for me. Part of this is because I'm a little afraid of what might happen if I join.



Anyway, TK is originally a Japanese HNMLS that has since recruited an NA segment as well. From what I hear, they're pretty respected as a HNMLS, keeping a slightly lower profile than the other "big" LS'es out there. This duality suits me just fine, since I speak both languages (to a certain extent!) and can fit things depending on whichever end of the (real life) planet I happen to be on.



However, to avoid drama, entry into TK is very strict, and works on a veto system. That is to say, if one person says "no", that's it. No.



I'm not particularly worried about the outcome though. If I get in, then I get to experiment around with endgame once more. If I don't, well, it's back to normal for me. ^^

1 comment:

wyred said...

TK's cool, I hope you get in~

Sometimes... No matter how hard you try, drama will still find it's way to you.

So... be patient and try to handle it calmly.

And when you decide to quit. I suggest suspending your account first. Don't delete. >_>