Just a short note. I officially relogged in after about an 11 month absence. And lo and behold who do I run into as I zone into Bastok Mines? Zephiris! (on her mule that is). Since no one was in LiberiFatali at the time, Zephiris invited me into Shibby. Saw some familiar faces again. Eckardt, however, ran right past me without a wave (he claims it's because I'm too short and the computer didn't draw me in). I also said hi again to Fullen, Hypnotizd, Demesis, and Blaire. Not sure who else is playing, but looking forward to seeing.
Also I heard about some of the updates. Synergy!?!? Gardeners banned and then reinstated (I wonder if I would have been banned if I was actively playing at the time). Not too many job updates, although the ranger ones are fun (now I don't have to do velocity shot every dang 5 minutes, still need an auto attack cause my fingers get sore).
I was telling Eckardt that I didn't have a Blau for my THF. Then I reread my earlier posts and realized, I actually do have one. My bank account is still relatively healthy. I think I have about 7-8 mil on all my different characters. Going to work on finally getting Alchemy to 100 on Brin, I'm somewhere at 99.x. Then getting goldsmithing to 60 (at 58) on Verrick.
It was funny. I couldn't remember how to get to places. How to even lot on treasure. Or how to start a party. It's amazing what you forget. Well I'm sure I'll have fun again. Also heard about FFXIV.

Just was waxing nostalgic talking about signature making in my LS Imperium. Haven't done one in a while, but was looking through my old ones and finding the ones that I liked the best. I have trouble making good ones for myself.



I really liked the sig I made for Tonyo. It just seemed to capture the duality of PLD and BLM.



Even though he eventually failed as a LS leader and overall "good guy" Lorddocster was a friend for a long time in FFXI. How he ended is quite sad to me. He asked the LS to update his sig for him. Enedin and I had a little sig making war to see who would win.



Hewison's signature was simple in design, but it looked so peaceful and calm. I was fooling around with layering and opacity and thought it came out really nice. I was almost tempted to erase Hewi's character and replace it with mine!



Dukenukem is a great friend in the game. He recently returned along with Kavita. I found this really nice smoky night picture and thought that it would go well with Fenrir. I was happy I found a pose for his PLD.



This is one I made for Duke and Kavita. Both of them are really nice people. And they have some adorable little girls. This was around the cherry blossom time so I was inspired by FFXI's ingame motifs.



Demesis was one of my favorite people in the game. He was part of my second CoP static. Hypnotizd, myself, and Demesis trio'd our way to most of our Yigit sets. When we were almost done, Demesis abruptly disappeared from the game. I don't know where he is. Never got to say goodbye.



Didn't really know Dalkar all that well. I think he was a transfer from Shiva. I just like this sig a lot. It's monochromatic, but just appeals to me. I've never been able to recreate that background.



This one is one of my favorite ones. Simple and clean. This was right after Boktai got his YY robe finally.



Arizod is my favorite galka in the game. Vlacatocc is a close second. Arizod and Gheldhart may be returning to the game in the near future. I'm excited. Arizod and I used to duo our lower level characters. Now with level sync it will be even easier! Get back in the game, damnitaru!



This is my other NIN sig. I think it turned out rather well. I had to do some quick freezing in Altana view to get the characters. I really like Zetuei's kneeled pose.



For myself, I think I like this sig the best. I was caught up in the magic of CoP and was BRD through a lot of it. I felt a resonance with Ulima! I just like how the colors flow through.

I'll post some more about my recent adventures soon!

Caution: long post

Now, it has become a rarity for me to blog very often, usually once every few months, but reader's your in for a surprise! Nary a month has passed an another picture fest from me. What prompted this? Epicness!

I managed to get to CS in terms of assault Rank. It's kind of sad though. I've only done 10/50 assaults. Yes, I was spamming the same ones over and over to get my Yigit Set. I'm doing a few new ones with Godswrath and Jukoss. So hopefully it will be better soon. We managed to get to Nyzul Floor 75. Sometimes frustrating because members don't show up or don't have enough tags. I kind of want to do Salvage, but can't seem to find a group with good times for me.



Dynamis

We have this JP Linkshell that somehow has decided to form and take all the northland zones about an hour or 2 before we go in. It gets so frustrating. So instead of Xarc, we moved to Dynamis-Qufim. It actually went pretty smoothly. Had a little hiccup on MegaBoss, but the pull went clean and the battle wasn't too bad. We had a ton of WHMs, though. I probably should have come as BRD (since it turns out I was in a party with 4 BLMs and another WHM; but it was fun with Bardon!). Unfortunately I have to go into the hospital to see patients before Dyna run so I don't always have the luxury of knowing what job to show up as. Here is the obligatory picture of my death in Dynamis.



On a funnier note. I finally managed to be first in line to get my coin from Pastor. And he graced me with a Bastok coin! The bastid!

Gil

I had manged to sink my funds on my bank to about 2.9 million after buying a Blau for my THF. So it took me about 2 months of gardening, crafting, and some farming to get my bank back into a healthier state. I usually get up to a million on Verrick and then shift 800K to my Bank so I don't spend it all. Luckily I don' t need much gil every week. Just 30K for limbus and sometimes for Dynamis. Yes, yes, I need to buy a hedgehog bomb, but sue me. I'm a cheapskate.



Now to the meat of the posts!

Epic Awesomeness #1

I was just randomly crafting and chatting on the LS when Aeora asked if there were any BLMs that wanted to KSNM. I asked if they were willing to do CopyCat so I could try for a Destroyers. It took a while but the leader said ok. We had one BLM level 70 and Zephiris from the LS who also decided to come. Zephiris was new at the manaburning KSNM idea. So it was a little rough on the job training. We went through various orbs (Zeph got a V.Claw!) until mine. Actually managed to kill it fairly easily (given that fact that some BLMs didn't have two AMII spells). And I managed to snag an O.ingot (that the party leader promptly bought for 200K), a Philospher's stone, an adaman ingot and ...:



Now the reason I wanted a Destroyers was not for me. My MNKey is at level 14 and have no interest in playing it. But our MNK in the small shell, Zadine, hasn't been able to get a Destroyers. And he's always willing to drop stuff and help out. So this went to him! I was so estatic. Everyone else's orb was kinda meh in terms of drops. But we did manage to help someone else get a Destroyers (he was 0/14 before).

Epic Awesomeness #2

I was randomly crafting again. I was chatting with Kaerwyn over Yahoo! and also in the LS chat. Part of the CoP static were trying the airship. I have fond memories of that thing, and also frustrating memories. My first time through, I went 1/9. I think it was because we had too much of a back line (WHM, BRD, and RDM) and not enough Oomph in terms of the melee department. We managed to recruit a BLU for headbutt spam and that's how I got my first win. The 2nd time through I went with my other static with a WHM, RDM, RNG (me!), WAR, NIN, and BLM. I think it took us 5 tries (mainly because the mammets were evil and turned to BLMs like3/5 times and wiped us early).

Unfortunately several members had to leave after doing 4 dry runs. They asked me to come as RDM. Unfortuantely I didn't have a CCB pump so had to buy one off the AH, but Kaerwyn reimbursed me. We had 5 CCB pumps, a PLD/WAR, THF/NIN, MNK/NIN, DRG/NIN, WHM/SCH, and RDM/BLM. I thought I was on a time crunch to do Nyzul in an hour and a half (one member didn't show). So we went in for one dry run since the DRG (Zephiris) hadn't been in the other dry runs. It went kind of bad, BLM puppets, locking the one we were fighting in Hand Mode.

Time was running out so we decided to just do it for real. The plan (and I admit I was bossy and took over the run) was this. Kill Mamets quickly. Kaer focus solely on PLD, leave me the rest. For Omega we would use the Pump at 25% and then another one when it wore off. Zephiris to use her 2HR on Omega. For Ultima the plan was Pump at 40% (Zephiris), followed by Kaer after which Lordstorm would invincible and Zadine would hundred Fists. Miur to use his pump if needed.

Needless to say that didn't happen...

Mammets went down easily enough. We were in pretty good shape. Then came Omega. That thing is nasty. My heart was pounding through the battle. We were starting to have trouble at around the 35% mark so I had Zadine use his CCB pump. Unfortunately Omega killed our tank and then went around killing the mages. Lordstorm managed to reraise and go and die in the safe spot, along with Kaerwyn, Zadine, and myself. Miur and Zephiris died in aggro range. So we reraised. While I was healing, Zephiris reraised, aggro'd Omega and pulled him to me! MPK! (at least she didn't go kill the other 3, hehehe). Luckily I had put reraise back up.

So we regrouped. After we unweakened, the plan was this. Lordstorm would pull and CCB pump. Then Kill as fast as we could. I was going to have Zephiris 2HR, but she said she'd lose her wyvern. So in the end decided just to go all out and have Miur reraise and move out of AoE range. The plan worked perfectly! I was in a little trouble there at the end, because Omega didn't like my nuking him. But we managed to live and kill him!

So while we were waiting for Miur to unweakend we formulated strategy. We were going to have about 10 minutes or so for Ultima. Plan was to use CCB pump at 40%. Kill hard. Kaerwyn would use his pump when he saw Ultima readying a move. Then Lord and Zadine would Invincible and Hundred Fist and hopefully kill him fast. We walked out and saw our time left.



Plan went pretty well until ...



You can see how concerned I was. I forgot to put a period after Shit. Kaerwyn and I were just a fraction late in healing Lordstorm. I thought we were a gonner then.

Luckily Zephiris had managed to place a CCB pump on it! I had Lordstorm raise and while weakened he popped his invincible and Zadine popped his Hundred Fists. I popped Chainspell and started nuking. Next thing I see is Kaerwyn using his CCB pump when he saw Ultima begin a move. My heart was pounding in my ears. I looked at Ultima and right when Kaerwyn used his pump he was already at 9%! I had a mini heart attack when he was at 1% and I couldn't nuke anymore (yes I had MP I had just converted). I think it was lag because I saw this right after ...



So we managed to get that Bastid down in about 6 minutes! Much smoother than my other runs. Kaerwyn was shaking when he won! He tossed his hat off in elation! I gotta say this group was fun to work with and dedicated. So go Imperium! Took several pictures in the Meadows and I'll end the post with them! Congratulations team Imperium! Next week Airship for the remaining static (Makina, Kiabrightblade, and Disfunctional). And much luck on your road to sea!

Happy Holidays to everyone out there in FFXI blogger land. Admittedly I haven't been updating very regularly. Real life has been crazy. I recently bought a new house and have been moving in and working hard. I mainly log in to FFXI to do Dynamis, Limbus, and garden. Real life will be slowing down in a bit, so you might see more of this tarutaru!

Oh and I have to update my jobs on the side. I managed to get THF to 75. Yes, my second job ever in FFXI (RDM was first, then THF, then WHM for those of you who haven't been paying attention) is now 75. That puts me at 6 jobs at 75 and likely to stay that way for a while. I don't have the urge for Maat's cap (although Eckardt is crazy and aiming for it). THF is fun, nice and relaxing. I did most of it through campaign though, so still getting used to TA and SA and such forth. Need a haste set going (yes yes I need a swift belt).

Dynamis

So what is a Verrick blog without Dynamis? Nothing!

Yesterday, we did Dynamis Jeuno. I've nicknamed it Dynamis-Jeuno: Operation Overkill because we had a crap ton of people. Vlacatocc wanted to clear the zone. But some of those pulls were like 40 mobs at once. Needless to say I died multiple times, about 3K loss. Did I ever mention I HATE Dynamis-Jeuno?



I managed to snag some RDM legs. This puts me at 3/5 (hand, leg, feet) for RDM, 3/5 (body, leg, feet) for BLM, 3/5 (head, leg, feet) for RNG. I'm not even thinking about going for THF. At the rate I accumulate points though it will probably be another 3 years before I see a RDM or BLM hat. So better get back that buffer! (And I'll probably stick to being WHM at Dyna, hehehe).

We seem to have a lot of Galka in DynaLounge! It's scary.



Crafting

I decided to make a push on Wist to get cooking up there. It was languishing at 86 for the longest time. I thought, hey might as well get 2 crafts in the 90s (although they are only Alchemy and Cooking, the easiest crafts by far to level). I haven't been motivated to craft much, since I don't spend much gil and don't have to work to make much gil. Been slowly replenishing my gil back after I bought a Blau for my THF.



Randomness

As I was muling around, I randomly get a tell from Winzip asking me if I could help him. He must not be used to people agreeing because when I said ok (after he told me what it was) he was very surprised. I think he was Japanese, but he had a good grasp of English (some odd syntax only). He assured me that as a 75 BLM I could kill the NM leeches for the NIN job quest with ease (2 or 3 AoE he said). So I trucked down to the tunnel. Sleepga. Thundaga III ... and ...



Season's Greetings

Just thought I'd end this post with some holiday cheer. Pastor is one of the fune people that I do Dynamis with. He has his own LiveJournal blog (which he needs to update too!). In fact, Pastor was the one that charged me with updating my blog. So here's for you Pastor!



In other good news, I randomly got a phone text from Arizod. He has a new phone finally! We lost touch after a while when Aznmahavailo irritated me to heck. Then Arizod and Gheldhart left the shores of FFXI. I'm imploring the galka to come back! And his little tarutaru fiend ... I mean friend.

Happy Holidays, Season Greetings, and all that Jazz. See you in 2009!

The picture should say it all ... except it should read 8/12/06 to 9/27/08. Was too excited and rushing to get this posted!

Dynamis

I started Dynamis with LoHDyna, an offshoot of my social shell LordsofHydra. It was rough in the beginning. We had no clue what we were doing and had many, many wipes. But the group got better and stronger. And we kept on going. Pretty soon we were an established shell doing Northlands and some CoP.

Then the shell broke for various reasons. Mainly the LS leader, Lorddocster, running away to Kujata to join ... Demo. Along with the LS bank. And his cronies of Fade (now Byte) and Fallyn. I still have not forgiven him for that piece of idiocy. Nor did he ever seem contrite about it.

So most of the old shell moved to OceanidsDyna, an offshoot of the endgame shell Oceanids. Unfortunately due to my playtime I could only make Saturday runs. For a long time we were in the cities to help new people get the wins. Then we did runs to win the Northlands. Then we killed the Dynamis Lord. And spent a whole ton of time in CoP Dyna. Along the way, the dynamis shell broke away from Oceands to become DynaLounge.

I had frankly despaired of ever getting my full WHM AFv2 (not couting relic belt). I could only make Saturdays and could not drum up the points to stay at the top of the list. I had received only RDM feet and hands for a year of being in the shell. With us doing CoP dyna I was getting more and more discouraged. Especially after Hypnotizd who started doing Dynamis a while after me got his full WHM AFv2, BST AFv2, and most recently BLM AFv2 Hat before me. I was feeling discouraged and frustrated.

With the new dynamis entrance fees and drop rate we were able to do some more Northlands. In Xarx 2 weeks ago I managed to snag the cleric's mitts that Kavita had outlotted me for way back in LoHDyna. Last week we did the glacier. I was up for RDM Body and RNG feet, but had to pass in order to keep my spot on the WHM list. Needless to say, the briault did not drop. My last chance was this weekend, because after we were going to be doing a lot of Xarx and cities to get new people the win.

Bardon (who also started Dynamis after me, but is able to attend both runs doing the week, and got his full AFv2 a while go) kept on trying to encourage me. He predicted it'd fall this run. Wooooodum (who leads the shell and was an old friend and member of LoHDyna) tried to buck up my spirits. Eckardt (who incidentally has full NIN AFv2 from a while ago) also predicted a drop. I wasn't too convinced, seeing as I had not seen the drop in over 2 years of dynamis (the one time it dropped it went to Acreana since I was unable to make that one run in LoHDyna).

But lo and behold, the damn thing FINALLY, FREAKIN' FINALLY dropped! And as a consolation prize, RNG feet dropped again and I got to lot it. So, after over 2 long years of Dynamis I finally have the coat the inspired me to start it all! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Incidentally ... we managed to snag 18 AF this run and three 100 bills. Damn never had it this good.

RDM - ENEDIN for 15 points
BST - FULLEN free lot
PLD - FULLEN for 15 points
BLM - ACREANA for 15 points
WAR - ELBRYAN free lot
THF - BOI for 15 points
WHM - VERRICK for 15 points
BLU - BOKTAI for 15 points
RNG - VERRICK for 15 points
PUP - VLACATOCC for 15 points
PLD - KIRCE for 15 points
MNK - OLHADO for 15 points
BLU - GUIVOND for 15 points
PLD - ETAF for 15 points
PUP - GUIVOND for 15 points
WAR - ECKARDT free lot
DRK - ETAF free lot
WHM - OLHADO for 15 points

I haven't really been gone from FFXI. Just been really busy with real life and not updating the blog as much as I used to. A lot of things have happened in the meantime so here is a chance to recap it. I haven't been as faithful taking pictures so bear with me. Been under pressure from Kaerwyn to update.

ToAU Missions

At the last writing I was on Gessho, proceeding merrily along with the Imperial people. Well, we actually managed to bludgeon our way through the rest of the fights. The BLU mage fight with the gears actually went pretty well. We were a little unprepared the first time we fought and gears came on in a rush and several of us died. I actually went as a RDM. However, we were able to regroup and actually complete it. Then we decided to try our hand at Alexander. That evil BLU hurt us a lot on our run throughs. So we decided to try again the week after.

Kiabrightblade bought some equipment to reduce physical damage. Our static was actually 7 people so we had to stagger a bit. Kia (PLD), Makina (DRG), Zarovich (BST), Kaerwyn (WHM), Thayos (RDM) and myself (BLM) went in first. It took us some strategizing but basically we manaburned the BLUs 1st form. Then TP burned the 2nd form. Then killed as fast as we could on the 3rd form. Most of the Eyes on Mes were stunned and the few that got through, Kia survived with his new Equipment and the healing of Kaerwyn. The interlude was a joke. Alexander was a fun battle. Bright sparkling lights descending on the PLD and him being terrorized. His mega move flattened us, but we recovered and went to do battle. At the last few seconds I managed to beat him down with a blizzard 3 (after manafronting for some AMII). We actually won with 9 seconds left.

It took us a few weeks to do the fight for Zephiris (DRG). This time we won with a minute to spare. We would have been faster, but as luck would have it, when Thayos Chainspelled and I Manafronted, Alexander decided to be immune to magical damage. It was frustrating and comical at the same time.

Dynamis

I've continued on trooping with OceanidsDyna. I managed to snag 2 RDM pieces, but the cleric's briault continues to elude me. *grumble*. Triple *grumble*. We did manage to beat all the dreamworld CoP so now I have access to Tavnazia.



We're going to try and actually kill the DL in the next few weeks. I get to come as BLM then switch to BRD for the final fight. I still want my full WHM set. And after 2 years, I'm still without my briault or mitts. *sad face*

Limbus

I have some sad news regarding Limbus. Limbus is one of my favorite things to do in FFXI. It's short, fun, and some decent gear (although Nashira is lacking compared to Homan). I, however, had to leave my Limbus shell. The leader of the shell constantly aggravated me. He was continually late because he had to cycle through his DB. We left later and later, sometimes waiting over an hour. He would never respond to things in the LS. He would blatantly disregard basic strategy. In addition he caused he aggravation when we were leveling in our static. He left without warning, wouldn't show up, and basically showed disdain. In addition, he lotted on all the AF (yes he has a Maat's Cap) even for jobs he swore he hated thus depriving people of valuable AF material for jobs they used. I basically had to leave to keep my sanity. I miss the rest of the people in the shell and wish them the best.

I was randomly farming things in Zitah when I struck up a conversation with a friend of mine, MadKatter. She found out I was limbus shellless and mentioned to me that she was about to go on a run. She asked them if I could join and viola I have a new limbus shell DeepSea. I actually like it a lot. We leave on time generally. We have been splitting up Apollyon zones so we do bosses faster and get more coins (e.g. 5-9 a run). Proto-Omega and Proto-Ultima went down flawlessly.

Legion



The social shells of SageWanderers and Imperial joined together to form Legion. Basically we're sort of lax popped NM, CoP shell. We got together and farmed pop items for Gration and for the Uggy Pendant. My first time ever fighting for the Uggy Pendant and it was a ton of fun. I actually on the lot on the single pendant we won (we went 1/3 on drops). We had some fun taking pictures.

Ranger



I managed to level up my RNG to about 74 in the PLD, RDM, RNG semi-static before I lost my patience with Aznmahavailo. I actually manged to ding 75 through a series of campaigning and mini LS events. Currently I'm working on capping the XP through Campaign and the Worm Assault to get my Yigit Pants (the last part of the Yigit Set I need). I love playing RNG, but I sometimes wince when I think of the gil I'm spending. I finally get to use my Kirin's Osode for a good purpose.

Crafting



After many many months and years I got Brin's Alchemy to 99. I went on a little crafting spree and managed to make another million or so from Alchemy profits. Since I didn't win in the Mog Bonanza I'll have to be content with that. Thinking of getting into crafting again.

Statistics



Overall

I'm still enjoying myself in FFXI. I'll eventually work on my COR again. Maybe SCH. Maybe even DRG. I'm inspired by the DRGs in my LS, seems like a fun overall job. I have to get my butt going on the WotG missions. Some sad things have been left behind, new friends and opportunities have arisen. FFXI lives on!

Dynamis-Windurst

Last week Saturday OceanidsDyna chose to do Dynamis-Windurst. Our regular puller Vlacatocc was unable to make it. Instead Zalia got to pull. They didn't do too badly, but we had several wipes due to uncontrolled linkages. We killed the MB but it died in the last 30 secs so we didn't get the official win. This time with Vlacatocc pulling we managed to kill the MB with 30 minutes to spare and farm afterwards. No BLM or RDM. In my time with the shell no RDM AF has dropped (I can only attend Sats though). Meanwhile Hypnotizd (from my LS AlwaysFUNE) managed to get a cleric's briault (I've been lusting after this one for a while) in his Dyna :-(

Storms of Fate

After finally kicking the little twerp's face in ZM17 I heard about a possible Storms of Fate run. However, I was in an xp party at the time and couldn't go. Much to my delight it got postponed until Saturday. Right after Dynamis I got a tell asking if I wanted to go on a run. It took a while to get set up and I managed to see a lot of familiar faces from my past. Ultimatechidori and Sesshi (from LoHHNM/Valour), Kiobi (from GYS), Guivond (from RuinousOmen) were there and I got Ashur (AlwaysFUNE) and Zarovich (Imperial) invited too. I died to a cluster (wasn't paying attention when casting) but finally made it to the area. Once there we buffed up and hit it as hard and fast as we could. There were several deaths in a heart pounding battle, but we managed to win! Now I have to climb the promies and then I can FINALLY do AN!



Proto-Ultima

RuinousOmen finally finished up another Ultima set. This time around we had several new people from the crew that used to come. We missed Eldercid, Toxicity, Loren, and Dubajaba. The battle was intense and long. Several dissipitations went off which threw a kink into things. Our PLD/NINs died quite fast leaving Arizod and Vashstarwin (WARs) tanking for a bit. Nice to see WARs who were not afraid of vokes. Citadel Buster was irritating. It took a long time to wear him down (we need to hit harder during Citadel Buster and let the guy die instead of running at 30). But we managed to snag the win and the title. Belgarath got the feet and Hovaz got the head. For our three Ultimas we have received 4 Turbans...*sigh* a hand and a foot. Given that Ultima is so much harder than Omega I find it funny that our win percentage on Ultima is 100% and our win percentage on Omega is 87%.

ToAU/CoP





The Imperial ToAU static (Zarovich, Thayos, Kaerwyn, Zephiris, Makina, Kiabrightblade, and myself) managed to get to the Gessho fight. We tried to straight up tank him a few times with Kia but he ended up dying too fast. Luckily you don't lose XP in ToAU battle zones. Our 3rd try we decided to kite kill him ala Kirin. Zarovich charmed/kited Gessho as BST while Thayos enfeeb'd and took care of the clones. Our DRGs (Zephiris and Makina) and PLD (Kia) hit him when they could and Kaer and I healed. It wasn't the most elegant of fights, but we won! Gessho is a pain in the ass.



I'm actually enjoying the CS of ToAU, the story is getting to be interesting too. We have 2 more fights to finish the missions off! Hurrah!



I enjoy being in Imperial, especially since AlwaysFUNE tends to be a little slow at my prime times on the weekdays. On Saturday we did Promy-Mea for Zadine. 3 SMN, 1 PLD, 1 WHM, and 1 MNK raped Mea! I think I'm going to have some fun doing CoP for a third time ^^.

I also have fun and get to chat with Pikko in Imperial. I listened to her radioshow with Exodous today and it was entertaining. I find it funny that I know both Allakhazam admins from Garuda and they're both in the same LS. We were waving to Pikko's little boy who loves her character.



Registery

I managed to learn how to make FFXI beautiful by tweaking the background resolution. However, my computer can't run it. When I oversample it, I get 4 frames a second. I wish I knew what I needed to do to keep it like these pics ... I wonder if I have to get a new graphics card.





DATs

I found some really nice .dat files to switch up. I really like the Young Griffin armor from the Sandy Past. It's now my "Naked Taru" armor. I also found Nation Moogles! They have a Windy, Sandy, Basty, Jeuno, and ToAU one. I really liked the ToAU version. And I didn't realize, I have a mule (Stal) who is the same model as Pikko! BTW, if you're on Garuda and get a chance to know Pikko ask to see her MH. It's really nice.

I'm back and hopefully will be updating on a semi-regular basis. I was gone from FFXI for a while due to a computer meltdown. My processor just decided to stop working. I borrowed a laptop for awhile and got a little playing time, but didn't have photoshop or image capture program loaded on. I finally got myself a new computer so things are back to normal. I'm still the attendance monkey for my Limbus shell. I'm still part of AlwaysFune, but also have joined Imperial.

I'm not sure how many people still read this, but here's hoping for some comments! And I gotta track down Taritai's new journal. So if you read this taritai or anyone who knows where it is, can you drop a line?

Red Mage

When I first started Final Fantasy XI I chose to be a Red Mage. I had been ready the Brady Guide and thought that Red Mage seemed like a good balanced job. I could use both White and Black Magic (I tend to be a magey person) but I could also swing a sword decently. So I grabbed my gear and headed outside of Bastok to wail on things. However, after 7 levels of Red Magery I gave up. For some reason it didn't appeal. So I thought, hrm, maybe I'd like to be a melee. And that THF had Treasure Hunter and the gil multiplier thingie.

That lasted a whole 3 levels.

Then I tried out White Mage and Verrick's Final Fantasy journey began. It took a while slogging through the levels, questing the tele-scrolls, whoring and begging for Erase, eeking through the limit breaks, saving and saving for my blessed and noble's tunic, but I finally hit 75 on WHM. After that I went through BRD, and eventually BLM (after swearing I wasn't going to level BLM, but you know, it's sometimes fun to blow things up). I then started up COR and realized I needed RNG as a sub. So I decided to level RNG up and stopped at 65 (getting some xp on RNG through ENMs) after my static broke when I was on leave from FFXI due to a move. So what does a taru do when he comes back?

He goes back to his roots.

So I picked up my RDM again. I had left it at level 41 right after I received refresh (I had finally leveled it for a soloing sub for BLM). I'm in HI so my playing times are limited/screwed up with the rest of the nation. The famous RDM invite rate seemed to elude me. But I slowly managed through main healing parties and sneaking in with BLMs to duo/trio. Finally on January 28, 2008 I was about 4K from 75. I managed to snag a party on Greater Colibiri and hit 75, capped xp, and managed to get a merit.

Congratulate me. I'm finally a 75 RDM after 2.5 years!



In honor of this momentous occasion I finally made myself a new signature.



Missions

Eckardt and I finally managed to make our way to San d'Oria. After getting some help on the 2-3 dragon and the 5-1/5-2 mission fest we worked our way through the long-neck missions. With gracious help from AlwaysFune members, Bardon, Blaire, Kael, Lavina, and Aznmahavailo we managed to hit Rank 10 in San d'Oria. The Sandy missions were kind of dry and you had to listen to long-winded and haughty elvaans talking.



Exploring a little bit of the past, however, brings you face to face with the Young Griffons. Young Elvaans in the past are cute.



During one of the missions (I can't remember which) there was a ray of light that bathed me. I had to snap a screenshot because I happened to be wearing some of my WHM gear at the time. It just seemed to me the perfect backdrop for a WHM.



I managed to FINALLY do ZM-17 and beat that punk kid to a pulp. Now I have to figure out a way to finagle a Bahamut v.1 so I can do AN and get another earring.

My CoP static broke apart after they beat 8-4. Demesis left for a while. Nojoke joined an HNMLS and basically doesn't come into the social shell anymore whlie loot whoring. So I was talking with Thayos. I did some ENMs with Imperial (the promy ones) and had a blast. They were also going to do ToAU missions and I just happened to be on the mission they were on. So I managed to join up and hopefully will be able to finish up ToAU too! The story is just starting to get interesting and make some sense.



I finally got around to unlocking the WotG jobs. I still haven't unlocked BLU or DRG yet. I have no real urge to play DNC (although it seems like a fun job), but I had been hearing about SCH as a subjob for WHM. After reading about it and seeing how Light Arts can affect casting time, recast time, and MP I felt it was a good sub for WHM. So I've started to level it. It's fun and seems like a good sub for RDM if you don't need the -na spells from /WHM. I managed to slowly get to level 11 with some soloing and some duoing with Arizod on his mule. I want to get Accession and be able to AoE regenII, AoE protect and shell on other parties in the alliance (go go BLM alliance). Maybe SCH will be my next job. Poor COR and RNG. On the back burner yet again.

Verrick was created on the Garuda Server with his home city in Bastok because I was playing with RL friends from that city. Bastok was a comfortable home for the first few years as I got to know more about Vana'diel. I never felt at home in Windurst whenever I visited. It seemed to so vast and difficult to maneuver through.

All that changed recently. I took the plunge, erased my OP warps, and changed over to my homeland: Windurst! I've become better at navigating through the sprawling city using the warp tarus. And I got the chance to see my nation's unique storyline.

I will say that Windurst missions and their stories were more satisfying than Bastok. Bastok was so clinical and technologic. Windurst has the mystery of magic and faith. It just seemed grander and more fitting to a taru. Eckardt and I plowed through from Windurst Rank 1 to Windurst Rank 5 in one night. We managed to snag some help for the 5-1 and 5-2 fights. We managed to pick up Pikko (yay, Alla administrator), Demesis, and Kavita along the way. Once you start doing the missions you really want to know what happens next in the storyline and this took us on long night missions. You can see we got a little loopy sometimes. Here is the first of some Eckardt and Pikko posts I'll have over the next few posts.



You've gotta love the tarus that beseech you for help. This one taru is completely adorable.



We revisited the Full Moon Fountain for some exciting battles and beautiful CS.





The final battle was epic. Kavita was a WHM (a taru seeking to overthrow the Star Sybil and become the Star Vita), Demesis was a WAR, Eckardt came as a RDM, and I was a BLM. We joined the battle against the cardians. Our first attempt did not go well as we did not realize those cardians aggro'd from such a far distance. I was unable to get a sleepga II off. Our second attempt we were much more prepared and took them down without too much trouble. A NPC joined the fight casting AM. Eckardt took the Wyvern while we picked on the manticore the NPC chose. Unfortunately, Demesis voked the manticore away from the NPC, but the NPC decided to teleport straight into the maw of the Wyvern who promptly killed him before Vita could get a bead on his location.

So we tried a third time which went extremely well. Eckardt died while kiting the Wyvern but we were able to triumph! I lost the Rank 10 animation in the Cutscene, but I did manage to get the flag!



Next up (after Eckardt comes back from Vacation/Work) is to infiltrate the long-necks and take down the city from within! *cue evil tarutaru laugh*

I'll post more in the upcoming days/hours. But I'd like to leave you with a quote from Demesis when we got to Sea after beating Tenzen.



A-LA-PEANUT-BUTTER-SANDWICHES! Now who remembers who used to say that?

I have returned to Vana'diel. But it's a different Vana'diel than when I left.

I left my social LS grown into an 'endgame' shell. Valour was doing pretty well, attempting to camp kings, etc. They did Apocalypse Nigh and so on and so forth. Later I got some text messages from my friend Eckardt telling me that Vlacatocc had left for Oceanids. Then I heard about a lot of issues going off in the background.

I returned to FFXI to level my RNG with Eckardt and Lorddocster. However, with a new job I've become very busy and was not able to make it every night to level. Then one day I hear that Lorddocster has left and gone to Kujata. Basically I came back to a broken social/endgame shell.

Now I had talked to Lorddocster on Teamspeak and he was on my friend's list. He helped me out with a lot of things, camping NMs, AF, etc. And I tried to do the same. Yet I find out that he applied/got into Demo, one of Gardua's most infamous LS that moved to kujata. And ironically one of the shells he used to quote disdain for. And he left without a single message explaining (and yes he was on my friend's list).

He has had some tough times in real life. Not sure what his motivations or what exactly happened. All I can say is I was sorely disappointed in how it was handled. Now there are two others that apparently have moved servers with him. I've had my share of disagreements with those people, and they were a part of issues that people had with the social/endgame shell as well. I'm sad, disappointed, and somewhat angry.

So now people are scattered to the winds. We have created a new social LS called AlwaysFUNE with Boktai as the leader (FUNE was based on a mistype I had a long time ago). The new LS captures the same spirit and fun the old LS had when I first started. We're no longer together in terms of endgame though. That makes it sad. Vlacatocc and Enedin have spread their wings to Oceanids completely. Dukenukem may be applying for SA. Eckardt has been doing things with PwnShop. Hypnotizd has joined an NA dynamis shell.

I've decided to break with most endgame activities. I never really enjoyed doing sky/camping kings. I had turned down other endgame LS that used to salivate when they heard I had BRD, WHM, and BLM (although so many people now have leveled those jobs, I doubt there is a shortage). I only did them because it had grown out of my social shell. I've joined Oceanids for Dynamis since it has a lot of old LoHDyna members.

Right now I'm just having fun talking in the social shell. I've joined up as a permanent member in Hypnotizd CoP static. I had helped them out before but with some members moving back to Shiva they asked me to be part of it permanently. I've had a blast going through CoP a second time. Demesis (WAR), Hypnotizd (WHM, BST), Endril (RDM), Ashur (RDM, BLM), Nojoke (THF, BLM) and I have been progressing well. I joined up permanently with them at 4-3 and we've made it past the 3 paths and are ready to take on the airship. Let me tell you Snoll Tzar with 3 RDM chainspell Fire II + Flare from a BLM + Mighty Strikes/icarus wing GAxe WAR, and a WHM for cures was super fun. And bonus, I get xp now! Yes, they made CoP a little easier, but it's still a challenge of staying power to do all the CS and come back week in and week out to do battles and farm the needed items.

I'll post more about my recent adventures with pictures later. And lastly I left Bastok for the greener pastures of Windurst. After languishing for almost a year on Bastok Rank 7 and blitzing through to Rank 10, I have turned my eyes toward the other nation storylines. I've enjoyed Windurst's story very much. And have achieved Rank 8 in the short span of 2 weeks (well 3 days to be precise).