Finally, Rank 10 everywhere.

Finally, Rank 10 in all three nations!

Yeah, yeah, I know I should've done this much earlier, but you know how these things go. ^^

I won't go into the details, since this is very old content, but I have to say, it's a far cry from back in the day when I was part of whole alliances to try and complete our rank missions. Now, I completed all the missions with three people, max?

I was caught a little off guard when I misread the wiki guide to Sandy 9-2 wrong, and found myself trying to crowd control eleven orcs, instead of the five I was expecting. Not that it was that difficult to control six more mobs as RDM/BLM, but I have to say, I haven't felt this thankful for Phalanx in a long while. ^^

Anyway, this calls for a celebration...



...Coejus and Fishura are ftw. :D

Sadly, the first thing I did after getting Sandy Rank 10 was to switch to Bastok, so I could use the remainder of my Bastok CP to get another Gold Musketeer's Bolt to replace the one I accidentally shot away last month.

Then right after that, I switched back to my original nation- good 'ol Windurst. I missed Windy. :D

Now to somehow get all my OP teleports back. -_-

Baby footsteps into HNM

Despite having played since 2004, I have never really set foot into "the endgame" or so to speak. While I've done certain events, like Limbus or Dynamis or even Salvage from time to time, they were always more on a semi-casual basis, and not something I'd regularly do (well, most of the time, anyway).

So until now, all the things I've been doing were mostly soloing. Every weekend that I got to play, I'd merit a little, I'd do a bit of crafting on the side, and maybe, I'd throw in an occasional small thing like an ENM or an Apollyon NW run here and there.

The problem arises once I can't really do much more, and I'm done with all these. :P

So I had two options: quit, or find a group. I actually seriously considered the former option (as astute readers could've probably figured out by my now very infrequent updates), but in the end, I decided to give the game (more specifically the endgame) another chance.

I considered a couple of linkshells, but in the end, decided to try TeamKANICAN again, after Ashira blogged about TK being open for recruitment. I had tried a couple times before, but it seems that each time, my schedule would get in the way. I didn't expect anything different this time around.

After about a week, my application had been deleted from the forums. Given that "[if] you've heard absolutely nothing from us at all, ever, via PM, /tell, or what have you and it's been over a week or so, then we feel you're not right for us at this time." So, I guess that was it. :/

Thus, you can imagine my surprise when one of my friends inside suddenly asked me what my schedule was like again, and asked to meet me in Al Zahbi.



I was in! :D

First assignment: Dark Ixion. XD


Surprisingly, I was asked to go WHM to this fight. Normally, I'm called to go RDM or BLM, so suffice to say, my WHM is still, to this day, unmerited. >_<

Thankfully, as you can probably tell from the picture, Ixion decided to stop by Jugner Forest [S] which made things very nice for the mages, since we can just stand on the raised platforms to avoid all of Ixion's attacks, while still being able to support the rest of the alliance.

The fight looked cool, even though it felt a little bit repetitive. It was not without a few minor incidents (including one innocent passerby who got caught in Ixion's AoE and died) but everything more or less seemed to be under control.

I took my WHM/SCH to the fight, and while I was initially apprehensive about it since I haven't taken WHM/SCH to anything before, much less a HNM fight, I was worried how things would go, but I found myself really liking it in the end, if for nothing else other than "Penury + Celerity + Raise III = much <3." I wonder though, if this means I would be expected to merit my WHM, especially if I seem to get called on it more often...

In any case, I now have "Ixion Hornbreaker" to add to my pitifully short list of HNM titles. ^^;


Now, onto some minor updates:


Goldsmithing's trundling along sloooooowly, and I'm now at GS92. It's actually fairly after you're past the gold hell stage, with Elemental beads, followed by Orichalcum Ingots, and now I'm skilling up on Scintillant Ingots, which currently sell for a slight profit, and will take me all the way to 98.

The real problem now is availability of materials, which I suspect to be true for any of the other crafts in their 90s, particularly since I'm not online that often to camp the AH for Orichalcum Ores. I will gladly accept any ores people will d-box to me, and I promise I'll pay for them! Really! {please}? XD

I'm also at the stage where I can start to think about synthing some other items. I've already got friends asking me to sign a Koenig Shield and a Sha'ir Manteel (will need to level up CC for that though -_-), and another's trying to scrounge up the materials for me to attempt my first Triumph earring. Things are starting to look up! :P


On the Ranger front, things are going fairly well- I'm taking my time leveling slowly, but strangely enough, what parties I do get have been very good so far.

I found myself into a PLD COR WHM RNG RNG WAR 64-synced party tonight. Both the PLD and RNG were 75s who wanted to merit, and the WAR brought out a Polearm for the ride. The RNG was completely pwning me in terms of damage with all the gear I would like to have, and suffice to say, we were demolishing Colibris to the point where everybody, even the Japanese were all smiles. After all, {Sidewinder}→{Slug Shot}→{Slug Shot} does take out birds extraordinarily quickly. ^^

I am now RNG65, with just a scant 7k to 66. Just over one level to my O-bow! ^^ All in all, that party was fantastic, and I would've come out of it all smiles, except for one small problem...


...I shot my Gold Musketeer's Bolt! T_T

Level Sync'ed and loving it!

To the surprise of nobody, {Level Sync} has pretty much rewritten how xp goes in this new, revamped world of Vana'diel.


Fortunately, I like the changes. :D

Level Sync has certainly made it easier to party, although I have noticed that the good camps are also saturated a little bit quicker, probably due to the fact that it is now easier to assemble a party together.

I haven't quite figured out all the ramifications of {Level Sync}'s impact, although I imagine that the big plus coming from Level Sync will be that it allows an alternate route past certain very troublesome stages, for example the 49-52 stretch where there aren't very many ideal places to party, and the early 70s for melee characters.

To summarize the major happenings of the last few months or so, I've picked up a new job of interest and have started re-leveling my Ranger. I literally went on a rampage, leveling from RNG58 to 63 in the span of maybe four real life days after I decided, on a whim, to get myself an Othinus' Bow.

Admittedly, that added to the list of other random RA/EX RNG items I have randomly picked up, so yeah, why not level my Ranger some more? :P

In any case, party invites feel more common now, which is probably a good thing, except for one caveat- holy cripes RNG ammunition is expensive. >_<

For the record, I am a crossbow ranger. Part of that was because after purchasing a Eurytos' Bow, I read up on the differences between Archery and Marksmanship before coming to the conclusion that Archery didn't really have much place in endgame. Thus, goodbye Eurytos' Bow, hello er, Armbrust!

Of course, my getting my Othinus' Bow also solidifies the argument in Marksmanship's favour. :P

Because the mobs I've been xp'ing off lately (Colibris and Puks) are all strong against wind, I've taken to using only Darksteel Bolts in my xp parties. So far, on average, I've been using roughly four quivers every hour. A stack of quivers costs 100k.

It was only after the end of last night, at the end of a rather insane party where I actually used an entire stack of quivers, that I realised that over the last few levels, I had spent well over 300k on ammunition alone. That does not include some rather pricey purchases I also made when my RNG dinged 60 and 61, namely Deadeye Gloves (250k), a Precise Belt (125k) and an Amemit Mantle +1 (220k). Ouch. XD

Suffice to say, my walletaru has taken a substantial hit, so it's time to ease off on the RNG for a bit. ^^;

But I just dinged into my Fransisca! My Othinus' Bow is just another four levels away! >_<

Numbers, please!

The Mog Bonanza numbers are out! Here are the lucky and the luckier numbers:

Rank 5: ____1
Rank 4: ___44
Rank 3: __379
Rank 2: _1017
Rank 1: 47396

Ah well, one can always dream- all I got was the Rank 4 and Rank 5 prize. At least I come out ahead though. Congratulations to the 56 people out there with the top prize. Does that mean the Vana'diel economy goes up by at least 5,600,000,000gil? ^^

And of course, don't forget the real big prize of it all: Inventory -10! Wa-hey! :D

{Harpsichord}{Found it!}

Guess what came in the mail today? :D



Admittedly, I wasn't too happy about their choice of tracks, since I feel there are other pieces of music that really ought to have an official piano arrangement out, for example, Distant Worlds. That, and I don't really like much of ToAU or WotG music, as with a few exceptions, the rest are rather "meh." Could just be me though. ^^

Anyway, other than my spiffy new CD, the other thing that I was looking forward to was the in-game item you could redeem through a coupon provided with the CD. Without further ado,


{Harpsichord}{Found it!}

Onto other things. I've taken up to leveling Scholar after quite a bit of debating between PLD, SCH and BRD. In the end, I decided to go with SCH because it allowed me to do one more thing, which is yet another projectaru I'm working on.

The idea is to expand Campsitarus to include all the viable {Beastmaster}{Pet} camps throughout Vana'diel, since I've taken to solo'ing a few jobs every once in a while, and I find myself looking up more or less the same information I want to know when I want to take a party out to camp.

I started my SCH up again from SCH19, and at the time of writing (and after more {death}s than I can be bothered to count -_-), I am now standing at SCH24. :D

I also have plans to level BRD as my "drag parties to random places" job, too, although that's going by...a lot slower. ^^;

Finally, to wrap things up, here's the tracklist for FFXI's Piano Collections for those who are interested:

1. A New Horizon- Tavnazian Archipelago
2. Ronfaure
3. The Grand Duchy of Jeuno
4. Whispers of the Gods (Aydeewa Subterrane)
5. Stargazing (Windurst Waters [S])
6. Faded Strife -Besieged-
7. Mercenaries' Delight
8. The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah
9. The Cosmic Wheel (West Sarutabaruta [S])
10. Griffons Never Die (Southern San d'Oria [S])
11. Wings of the Goddess (WotG title screen)

Last but not least, good luck for the Mog Bonanza tomorrow! :D

Where is the Tarutaru?

{I'm back!} and {/welcome} to The Bloggaru, v2.0! :D

It's been way, waay, waaaaaay too long since I last blogged about anything, though as I'm sure I've lamented time and time again, it's mostly due to nothing particularly interesting to blog about.

Sure, I could join the masses of people that have since blogged about the ZNM update, or some new precious acquisition, but I think I'm kinda late for that, and have since missed the bandwagon. ^^;

So, I'll write about a new personal projectaru of mine instead. ^^ See, I've suddenly taken to going {sightseeing} all over Vana'diel, and taking screenshots of me doing the famous, and original tarutaru dance (read: none of that "/dance4 motion" crapparu :P) in all sorts of places across Vana'diel.

I've since compiled what I've done so far into an album, as well as a slideshow over on the sidebar. It's...quite satisfying to say the least, and I'm oddly enough having quite a blast doing this. If nothing else, it's certainly nice to get away from all the xp grinds, Assaults, merits, whatnot and just sit back and marvel at what a beautiful place Vana'diel actually is, if you took the time to explore. Here are a few samples of what I've been up to:



Now, unfortunately, when I was making this new template, I intentionally shot all my pictures so that they would fit nicely as a slideshow on the sidebar, but it seems that my current template, or at least the widget automatically resizes it down to whatever you see over on the top-right hand corner! Is there anyone out there who could {Help me out!}? >_<

Some of you out there might be wondering though, "Hey, isn't this...?" Yes, the idea is not entirely original (me dancing all over Vana'diel, that is). In fact, this was largely inspired by a particular YouTube video, that I understand has since become some sort of an internet meme:



Well, about two years ago, I was introduced to an earlier video of his, where all I saw was, well, someone dancing in places all over the world. I kinda watched it with my college roommates, had a little chuckle over it, and that was it.

Fast forward two years later. I'm randomly browsing through YouTube again, and I see a new video by the same guy (Matt Harding), except bigger, grander and honestly speaking, better!

It seems that his little dance has really taken off somewhat, and he even has his own website/blog, titled "Where the hell is Matt?" (hence my own title, "Where is the Tarutaru?") where he writes about all his travels, which even includes a three-part talk he did in Champlain College, Burlington, Vermont about his video, how it started, and so on. I found it interesting watching. ^^

But in any case, I then figured, why not I try the same thing in Vana'diel? And you know what? It's really fun! :D

Although now that I'm thinking about it, I probably should've shot video instead (which means I'll have to revisit every location again -_-) of just taking pictures, but the idea is still there. ^^

Now, anyone know of any video taking software (like fraps?) and some editing program I can download and use? ^^

"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!

Whew!

In drastic contrast to my lament last week, this weekend was really, really productive! I'll try to keep things brief:

It all started when myself, Trebla (BLM) and Sodalitas (SMN) were busy doing our own things when someone happened to ask on the linkshell if anything was going on. Since I had picked up my Zephyr fan last week, I offered up the Brothers ENM. I thought it'd take a while, but as it turns out, both Sodalitas and Trebla also coincidentally had their Zephyr fans as well. :D

So, our first order of the day was to plow through that ENM for some easy xp.

Unfortunately, nothing good dropped (drops were only worth 4k in total -_-), but it was the start of what was to come. We were contemplating what we could do with BLM BLM SMN when I offered Apollyon NW as an option, which was quickly taken up on.

I know Limbus has been around for quite some time now, but I've certainly been taking my own sweet time with it. Part of it is because I don't have a Limbus shell, but also because I prefer to duo Apollyon- just I don't have a fellow BLM I can go with on any regular basis. Thus, I take whatever duo offers I can take. :D

To be honest, I've only duo'ed this twice before (yeah, I wasn't kidding about the slow part). Both times we got up to Kaiser Behemoth, but couldn't kill him in time, probably due to unfamiliarity with him, but still net somewhere around 15 coins each for the run. This time, with a third person (SMN), I went in with the idea of killing Kaiser Behemoth.

It was Trebla's and Sodalitas' first time against Kaiser Behemoth as well, and while we did have a couple of mishaps, it was still a very fun fight, probably because of said unfamiliarity. XD

There was a point where a freak accident killed all three of us close to one another, so I ended up having to kite Kaiser Behemoth, weakened, while the other two rested off their weakness. Then, as Kaiser Behemoth was around 2% health, a Meteor-gone-wrong killed off both Trebla and I, leaving a weakened Sodalitas to fend off Kaiser. Fun times ensued. :D



But in the end, Kaiser went down! To make things even better, both Sodalitas and I went in hoping to get the BLM and SMN upgrade items, and voila, my Diabolic Yarn dropped off Pluto, while Kaiser dropped the Astral Leather for Sodalitas. Congratulations to him in advance for his Evoker Pigaches +1! :D In addition, after splitting the coins, I now had enough coins to purchase my first Limbus item...



Ta-dah! :D

(Too bad I only put it in my standing macro. >_<)

We then went outside into Al'Taieu to farm organs to complete Trebla's Hyorin Obi, since he was fairly close to completing it. In doing so, we also got the organs I needed to complete my Karin Obi. :D

And finally, all that ENM, farming and whatnot let me complete something I've been working on for a while now...



84 base INT ftw. :D Now to work on maxing out Elemental and Enfeebling skill! This weekend really goes to show just how much can be done if people really set their minds to things. ^^

A disgruntled taru.

I'm well aware that I haven't written anything for just over a month now. It's not that I've completely ceased playing, I haven't. However, my time spent online has taken a drastic cut. Gone are the free-wheeling days where I could log in everyday and burn a good chunk of time in Vana'diel.

My current occupation only gives me some 36 hours a week to do my own things, and with this change of environment, said free hours have grown to be very precious.

Which begs the question, just what has Tuuf been doing in-game, anyway? To be honest, I'm not sure myself. Nothing substantial, nothing that I feel worthy enough to write a blog post about. I've just been slowly chipping away at working on my Black Mage, picking up the occasional merit point here and there, and I've since funneled the proceeds from my Noble's Tunic into a Mahatma Slops and Prism Cape.

In terms of purchasable BLM gear, I just need to pick up HQ versions of the various pieces, and get myself a Sorcerer's Ring, although without access to any Zenith gear, the Ring doesn't look mighty tasty at the moment.

But anyway, I digress.

I was doing my usual rounds of people's blogs, when I came across this entry, entitled "On CoP" by Frohike.

His words strike home to me. Admittedly, I do not know much about Frohike, being on a different server, so all I know comes from his blog and his comments. What I do know is that in his real life at least, he is happily married (at least, I certainly hope he is! :D) with a baby son to take care of. As he explains in his entry,

I'm faced with a choice when I stare at the Playonline screen: do I want to spend the 2.5 to 3 hours of free time that I have tonight playing an MMO? And "spending" that time is really what I do. It has a cost, consisting exactly of what I could be doing rather than carrying out a virtual life in Vana'diel.

In the brief span of time between my kids' bedtime and my own, I could read one of the slew of books I've deceived myself into thinking I actually have the time to read. I could watch a good film with an appreciation that can't really be achieved during the kids' waking hours. I could continue to hone my writing, or finish the odd number of poems I began years ago. I could have a meaningful, uninterrupted conversation with my wife. Hell, maybe I could play something other than FFXI for a change.

What I think some of the other adults playing FFXI don't understand is the impact of this trade-off. We can't just come home from work, put in a few hours, log out, and go do something else in RL. Those few hours are it for some of us.

What Frohike writes echos my current real life quite well. With not a lot of time to do my own things, the opportunity cost of logging in increases. At the risk of sounding /emo, my one (and a half) days that I have a week need to be divided amongst all my responsibilities, my family, my friends and relationships both online and offline.

But when you only have (okay, for practical purposes) one day a week, how do you spend it? The question that faces me each time I log in is, "what can I accomplish now?"

I fully sympathise with those struggling to maintain their packed RL schedules on top of FF. I know a common complaint about FF is its time-consuming nature, and that has become even more apparent to me lately with my limited time. Suffice to say, with the clock ticking, I'd rather not spend my time sitting in my Mog House looking for a group, or staring in front of an empty screen camping some NM. Thus, I've just been soloing, making little progressions here and there on my own.

Sadly, for the most part, these little progressions are just that- little. An ENM here, some solo there, farming organs or crafting materials, and that's it for the week.

Oftentimes, I find myself wondering what all this is for now. I only log in four days a month (if even that), and I've seen people level up and overtake me, and subsequently, outperform me because they are able to participate in endgame activities while I am not.

It's good that SE is moving away from massive timesinks like the original Dynamis areas onto something that's more friendly for those with tight schedules. But how much of FF's timesink nature is inherent within its basic idea that everything should be done in a group environment?

For now though, the news of increased merit capacities have got me interested in pursuing the two jobs I love the most thus far, BLM and RDM. The real question though is how much can I really hope to get done on my own, and should I just ditch everything and start anew with a different job instead, or even a different game?

/sigh

Shattering Stars- WHM

I decided to quit WHM, this time for good. Not that I have anything against WHM- after all, it was my first serious job, and I took it all the way to WHM62 before switching over to BLM. It's just that with three mage jobs, one of them was bound to eventually get the boot, and in this case, it just so happened to be WHM.

Literally everything I get called for calls for me to come on either my RDM or BLM. My WHM? Maybe the occasional Raise III here and there. Either way, I have very rarely used my WHM for anything since I actually hit WHM75.

Quitting WHM and selling off all my gear would free up a lot of the money that I have stored in gear, but also free up my Mog Locker which I need if I am to pursue other jobs (seeing as how I'm very pressed for space at this time). Just today, I went on a merit party with my WHM, and I was so out of practice, I made up my mind there and then that it was time to move on.

However, before I go ahead and quit WHM for good, there was one last thing I wanted to do:



Beat Maat. Again.

See, in the very, very, very rare instance that I actually level up all my jobs to 66+ and am able to obtain Maat's Cap (yeah, right!), the last thing I'd want to have to do is to revisit all my jobs again, repurchase gear, etc. just to fight Maat.

The WHM Maat fight is primarily won through endurance. I wasn't quite sure what exactly the alternate win conditions were, although supposedly it hovers around just being able to survive five minutes, or healing yourself for a certain amount. In either case, after farming Goblin Alchemists up in Cape Terrigan for about half an hour, my first attempt was a flop, mostly because I had no idea what to expect. Maat was hitting me quite hard (about 100 damage/hit), and the jig was up when he Combo'ed me for the kill.

Some more extra reading into the fight gave me the idea of damage mitigation instead. Thankfully, such items for WHM are very cheap, and so, armed with this extra knowledge, I went to the AH and picked up a few items, giving me the following gear setup:



Food: Shallops Tropicale

Main: Terra's Staff
Ammo: Fortune Egg
Head: Healer's Cap
Neck: Memento Muffler
Ear1: Insomnia Earring
Ear2: Medicine Earring
Body: Noble's Tunic
Hand: Blessed Mitts
Ring: Phalanx Ring
Ring: Medicine Ring
Back: Aurora Mantle
Waist: Hierarch Belt
Legs: Healer's Pantaloons
Feet: Healer's Duckbills

The rationale was to maximise VIT, DEF and damage reduction, which explains most of the choices I made. Of particular note is the Medicine Earring, whose -30% damage reduction triggers upon <50% hp. Combined with the Terra's Staff, it's a straight 50% damage reduced.

Note that I kept this setup even when casting Cure spells (i.e. with a Terra's Staff). I figured that the extra +Cure potency from the Medicine Ring and Noble's Tunic would make up for the loss from not equipping my Apollo's Staff.



This particular setup worked very well for me. I only needed to use one Yagudo Drink to last the entire fight, and although it was cutting things close, I still had Benediction available should the need arise. Essentially, all I did was tank Maat and lasted him out with a combination of enfeebles (Slow and Paralyze are very important!), Regen IIIs, cures and Flashes.

For the record, my battle log says I cured myself for a grand total of exactly 3000hp. I'm not sure how accurate this is as far as alternate win conditions go, although admittedly the number is strangely, well, round.

With that, I finally drew my WHM career to a close. I promptly sold off my gear, and am waiting to decide what my next move will be. Chances are, it might involve that Red mage's testimony that's been sitting in my Mog Safe for some time now...

More sea farming...

It's been about 5-6 weeks since my last entry. As promised, I haven't quit the game (obviously), but to those still active in-game, you would have noticed that my playtime has been drastically cut. ; ;

What little time I've been able to squeeze out of my playtime thus far has been towards upgrading my Black Mage some more, for reasons I briefly detailed out in my last entry.

To be quite frank, my BLM gear leaves quite a bit to be desired, particularly for someone slowly gearing up for (light) endgame activities such as myself. Last time around, I worked on getting my Rairin and Hyorin Obis, as well as my Relaxing Earring. Now, I decided to work on another Obi- Anrin.



The Anrin (Dark) Obi requires seven Aern Organs, which proved to be even more of a pain than say, ten Phaubo organs. Part of this is because of the low drop rate, part of it is because the damn Aerns reraise, part of it is because the damn Aerns link with one another. -_-

Admittedly, I could have farmed the Aerns outside in Al'Taieu, but I figured I might as well get some xp for my troubles, so I decided to take on the Eo'Aerns inside the Grand Palace of Hu'Xzoi instead. The advantage is that all the Aerns here are VT, reaping 240-300 base xp/kill, but all the Aerns here also have a chance of dropping the HQ organs, needed to pop Ix'MNK.

I camped in the western room from the entrance- the start point of the escourt for CoP 8-2. Frankly speaking, either the western or eastern rooms would work, but I preferred the western one, since the Aerns that spawn in the western room are either WHM, BLM, DRK, RNG or WAR. Three of the jobs are Aspirable, while the RNG has (noticeably) lower HP, which is a lot easier for me to handle solo, than say, DRGs.

Things get tricky when links occur, although a quick Sleepga followed by a dash back to the entrance of the Grand Palace easily fixes that. The problem is that because all four Aerns roam across the entire hall, it can be quite trying to safely kill an Aern without any of the other three linking. Especially when it Reraises.

Reraises are more of a time sink than anything since although you get xp for the first kill, nothing will drop. The problem is, you're out of mana so ou finish it off with a dance of Sleep II, resting and nukes while you can. All while trying to avoid links again. However, the main problem I had with Reraises was that it threw off the respawn timer making it difficult to predict when to expect the next Aern to pop. A solo BLM can just about clear all four Aerns within the respawn timeframe, but with Reraises thrown into the mix, it gets difficult to anticipate.

In any case, as I mentioned, the droprate is terrible. In the time it took me to get my seven Aern organs, I had racked up some 40,000 limit points. -_-



Of course, in a rare occurance, stuff like the above happens, but I only saw a double drop like that occur once. >_< Fortunately, I have three HQ Aern organs for my troubles. My next step would be to get the squid organs and tissues (I only got one T_T) and see if I can find people to help me out with Ix'MNK. ^^

{/goodbye} again. -_-

I understand it's been nearly a month since my last entry. It's not that I haven't been playing- I have been, but rather, the writer's bug hasn't bitten me, or nothing significant has happened that has made me want to write.

Two rl friends are back in the game, and are currently working on what will hopefully be a BLU75 and SAM75. On my side, I've been focusing on my BLM, given that we plan on working together as a casual-ish endgame LS of sorts, and I'm probably going to be the resident BLM around.




Thus, the sea farming. I finally got around to getting my Ice and Thunder Obis, as well as my Relaxing Earring, and I have to say, those organs were a pain to get. I actually solo'ed some 30,000xp just trying to get those organs, if that was any indication. >_<

Fortunately, all you have to think is "organs first, xp is a bonus," and things become a lot easier to stomach. It's actually easy to solo in sea as a BLM once you're used to things- not as good xp as, say, Puddings, but remember, organs first, yeah? ^^

I've also made some recent discoveries including finding out the convenience of having a PLD tank around as Seraphpdh and I duo'ed a few Euvhis, simply by him standing in the middle, covering me while I had 15 seconds or so of nuke heaven to kill the offending flower/spider/pot/whatever. It was fun. :)

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to take another extended break now. Unlike my last break, where I planned on quitting for good, this time I'm not planning on quitting, but also cannot say when I will be back. I know it will probably be at least six more weeks before I get back, and even then, I will not be able to play with any real frequency.

All I can say is "we shall see how things turn out." Wish me all the best of luck!