Rather than get a party on RDM last night, Falk and I joined together to nuke the crap out of stuff. We started in The Temple of UGH at a camp by the zone. This went pretty smoothly, and took me from 41-42. After I leveled, we moved to West Sarutabaruta [S] for a goblin pet camp at H-8 that works out well with 2 players at 42 or 41. Got to level 43, and Sjoidjgo dinged 66, so it doesn't seem i'll be able to catch up with him if we continue leveling together XD. Here's some sreenshots from our night.

Onedarkflame the Red Mage… wait what? Red Mage?! That’s right! I’ve decided to level RDM while leveling PLD. The reasons for this are simple.


1. Sword Skill. RDM and PLD both use swords so I might as well level them both.

2. Solo capabilities. I find myself with less and less people to play with these days, so it would be nice to be able to accomplish things on my own, or at least try. (:

3. I enjoyed WHM to 75, so I think I’ll also enjoy RDM. Also, a lot of my WHM and BLM gear can transition into RDM so it won’t be so horrible on inventory.



I’d made this decision a few months ago, and leveled my RDM from 37 to 39 in an East Ronfaure [s] party. After that, I really didn’t touch it much since I was still working 24/7 to improve my BLM. Recently however, after talking with Falk, I decided to pick it back up and try and catch up with his RDM, which is in the 60’s, which kinda puts PLD on the backburner, but I’ll be leveling that whenever I can.

I tried my hand at RDM solo for a little bit, but it was clear that my gear and current sword skill were rather inadequate and I ended up having to sleep things and run away. After the failed solo, I put together a Crawlers Nest party which lasted for a little under 2 hours. It was a decent party, and only had 2 deaths.

Funny story about the deaths though. I was level 39 and our WHM died, and I started doing /shouts for someone to get a raise, when the whm says “Doesn’t RDM get raise at 38?” … why yes, yes it does. I had no idea lol. So I raised the WHM, and the party kept going.
I got Convert and Refresh in the same hour, and that was awesome! Things really started moving after refresh since I had invited a BLU who was self skillchaining and I was Magic bursting off him (for loldamage). After I dinged 42(I think) the pt disbanded and I stayed in Crawler’s nest to solo some bee’s near the entrance. They weren’t particularly difficult to kill, but my sword skill was so terrible that it took 14mins for me to kill just one. I killed 4 of them just to level my sword and got about 13 levels on it. It’s still pretty far from cap though.

After my RDM spree, I afk’d and did random things until it was rather late. I was getting ready to go to bed when Buckeyespud logged in. He had been wanting to kill Aquarius for the axe he drops and hadn’t been having any luck getting him to pop recently, so I geared up DDWHM and headed to The Boyahda tree to help him out. We weren’t killing crabs for more than 20mins before the NM popped. Buckey claimed it and started hitting it, and I started buffing us, and quickly took hate. Buckey was able to take hate back with a sneak attack, but after I casted haste on him, Aquarius came over and beat me to death. I RR’d and got up all my necessary things so I wouldn’t die again, and started backline healing with my 300mp pool. I was taking quite a lot of hate, even though I wasn’t really doing much, and even though my WHM gear has –eminty on it. We killed Aquarius in 10minutes and Buckeyespud got his drop. Good for him, bedtime for me.

Did another Omega on Tuesday and got paid from gear-buyers. Actually, the guy who bought from us gave us a 1mil tip. This gil was divided between members. We each got roughly 450k, which was just about the amount that I paid for all the coins for my Brutal Earring, so I was nearly back up to 2mil.

After Omega, I jumped back on PLD and Carste came with me to Valkrum Dunes to PL me through a page before Dynamis. After he left, I ended up getting a party and got a few levels.

The next day, I got a party on PLD in Batallia Downs [S] at a mandy camp that I’d never been to before. It was a breeze with Sigil Refresh/Regen, even while still under the effect of the Jack-O-Lantern I had ate the night before. This party brought my PLD to 25.

After the exp pt I decided it was time to start trying to actually get some gear from Nyzul Isle that I needed. I sat in Whitegate to wait for some /shouts for nyzul, and I joined one, setting my lot as Goliard. We went through the floors with about 2 minutes to spare and killed the boss with ease…and OMG GOLIARD DROP… but wait.. A hat? I had been under the impression I had joined a floor 80, but I had actually joined a floor 100. Anyway, I beat the 1 other person and walked away with my new Goliard hat. Useful for Stoneskin, HMP, and curing. Well, It’s not the Goliard body that I wanted, but it’s not horrible to have, and it’s better than getting nothing.

The next day, I’m not sure what I did. All I have record of in my screenshots folder is me helping Elden get some EXP on BLM doing puddings.

On Saturday we did Limbus, NE Apollyon, and Carste came back from lolquitting to run with us and lot chips. The run was quick and successful. Kawa died a few times so we got lots of coins.

After Limbus, I went to Mount Zhalyom with Anderoc to kill puddings so he could test out some gear. We teamed up with a BLM already out there and killed for a little under a hour which helped my buffer a little bit.

My PLD is progressing rather quickly. I formed a late night party for Vepion’s WAR and myself in Yuhtunga Jungle and I went from level 23-25 or 26 or something. I don’t really remember. It was a pretty decent party, and it was the first pt I actually used DEF food, and I couldn’t believe the difference it made.

The next night, I joined another Nyzul shout in order to try to lot on more gear, but we didn’t get any drops. Did kill Serket though, the ??? ring appraised to crap.

After that I went out to help Vepion level his WAR some more by PLing on WHM. There was another WHM already there, so we spent some time curing and devotioning each other. Eventually Hesper got bored and wanted to try to flex his WHM penis muscles by lolmelee. My hexa strike is tha best.

After the Vepion’s pt was over, Vep opened his Mog House to visitors and we got to go inside and play around… well, ok you got me. I spent 10mins chasing Hesper doing /em humps Hesper.

That’s all for now. More to come!

I’ve done a decent amount of playing in the past week or so.. but unfortunately my screenshot button didn’t get a lot of use, so I don’t really remember what I’ve been up to… I’ll start where I remember, and there is a good chance that none of this will be in order. Also, not a lot of screenshots, sorry kiddos.

We’ve done a few limbus runs, and we did 1 Omega, and ended up getting paid off a Homam gear buyer, which was split evenly between those people who were at the Omega fight. The fight went well, and we ended up not having any deaths, and got paid. I don’t quite remember how much we got. The shell leaders (lol) are trying to devise a point system or something to even out the gil for those members who weren’t at the Omega, but did help farm the pop set. It’s a good idea, if they can get one started.

I’ve done 2 Dynamis runs with ROR since my last post. One of the runs was Dynamis – Jeuno. I don’t remember what I was lotting on in this zone, but I didn’t win anything. The other Dynamis we did, was Windurst, or at least it was supposed to be. We got our zone stolen by a rouge shell that doesn’t use the QCDN scheduling threads, so we got forced to do a Sandy run instead, which really fucking sucked, because I needed the win from Windurst in order to attent Northlands for the rest of the month. I think we’re doing some scheduling changing to get our Windurst in before northlands, which would be awesome. Also, the Month End Bouns from the Dynamis shell was a pretty penny, even for someone who only got ½ the full amount. By the time I got my payouts from the Limbus, Dynamis, and the Failnaught that Carste and I sold, I was up to 2Mil gil. High roller. (not really) So I spent some of that gil upgrading certain slots for my Samurai. I’ll talk about that a little later in the post.

I bought the materials for Carste to Synth me a HQ Thunder staff, and sign it. Sadly, all I got was a signed Thunder Staff. This isn’t really relevant information, I just wanted my 3 readers to know that Carste fails.

Not entirely FFXI related, and doing a bit of bragging here. Carste and I were talking on Skype, when we decided to bring Hesper in on the call. We were talking for a little while, when I asked Hesper what his real first name was. When he refused to give it to me, Carste and I (mostly me) went on a internet rampage to find out who Hesper was. He was a self proclaimed “Hermit” and “Didn’t exist on the internet”. Well, 20minutes later, and after he lied to me about everything I asked, I eventually tracked him from his graduating High School in Texas, to Illinois in a small town, and found out his full name, address, phone number, and parent’s names. Even after I found all that out, he wouldn’t admit to it, and we had to trick him into telling us what we wanted to know. So, Hesper, the Fox/Wolf hybrid, I tracked you, and won. Don’t ever assume you’re not on the internet. Because you are. And it’s not that hard to find. This was a hilarious night, and Hesper has never been so uncomfortable in his life. We also found out that Hesper puts his money in a blood bank… (inside joke)

We’ve been continuing with our Wings of the Goddess Mission static, and we’re progressing at quite a rapid pace in my opinion. We’ll be done long before the update rolls around and the new missions/areas will be added. Last week we got a M. Ingot which was a nice free 230k.

In the past week, I’ve gotten 3 item’s I’ve been craving. Allied Ring (exp ring), Patronus ring, and Anniversary Ring. I’m saving the Anniversary ring for BLM once the new level caps come out, I’ll probably use the Allied Ring on DNC or SCH or PLD to help move those faster. The Patronus ring is a quite a good item for me to have, since it can be used for all my jobs in one way or another. (Especially for Samurai tanking in Campaign)


In the past, Spirit of the Wolf LS has done some amazing ZNM fights, and shattered records on some of those fights. We decided, under the guidance of Carste, to farm Sarameya pop sets, and sell items off that ZNM, as they are very profitable. So, after about 2 months of non stop farming and killing, we had 4-5 Sarameya pop sets. Sadly, time after time, we gathered full alliances and threw them at Sarameya, and failed miserably. These losses made SOTW not want to touch ZNM stuff for a long long time. Eventually I was the only remaining person with a Sarameya pop and I’ve had it for quite a long time. Long story short, I’ve done lots of reading and research on Sarameya fights, and I feel that we can successfully lowman him with 6-7 people using a strategy that Kaeko outlines in his blog, and was able to do successfully. I chose my team of 6-7 rather specifically, and have been prepping my Samurai for the fight for quite a while. I’ve built Physical damage reduction gear sets, Fire resist sets, and even taken a merit out of Meditate to lower the timer on Third Eye so that I get hit ever-so-slightly less. I’m getting so picky about my SAM for this fight, I’m even considering using an item that drains 1MP to give VIT +1, which I know is stupid. The only other upgrades I can make for my SAM for this fight would be to get an Arhat’s Jinpachi +1, and a Cassie Earring. (Cassie earring would be used to even out my HP from my TP gear into my Damage reduction. But, sadly, that’s 900k in upgrades for 2 slots that I’ll only use for this fight, so I probably won’t be getting them. Here are the items I’ve gotten in the past few days for the Sarameya Fight.

Dusk Lesledans
Patronus Ring
Orochi Nodowa
Brutal Earring

I ended up spending a bit of gil to get my Brutal Earring, since I previously threw away a handful of ABC’s.

I also joined a Lamprey Lord shout, which wasted 3 hours and we only got 2 successful kills, and no earring drop. Blah. I hate shout groups.

Just the other night, we went on a Jailer of Faith killing spree, and went 2/3 on the torques.. We even had a special quest appearance…

That’s all for now. I’ll update when I do something cool… or not.

Updates in this blog are becoming farther and farther apart, due to increase workload at the office, and lack of motivation to try and sift through screenshots and remember what the hell I’ve been up to.


Wednesday – More and more and more Campaign. Ughhh, but it will pay off very soon, I’m going to be getting my Patronus Ring, and if San d’Oria is ever able to take over Northlands, we’ll be able to get a new EXP ring (Allied Ring) that gives insane exp, similar to Empress/Emperor ring. I wonder if I’ll be able to have Emperor AND Allied? Probably not, but that would be sweet. Also on this day, Carste and I continued our Kracken Club BCNM static with nothing to show for it. Here’s some screenshots though.

On Thursday, we formally ended our Lebros Cavern Assault Static, and 4/5 of us finally got our Yigit Crackows!

Finally! Now, I had asked these same members if they would be interested in doing some Sea farming for Obi’s and NM’s so we can further pimp our mages, but I am unsure if it will happen, due to my free time is going to be limited come the next few weeks with my girlfriend coming home from college. I still really like the Sea farming idea, but will have to do some fine tuning to the times we would run. There’s quite a bit that Sea has to offer BLM’s, but with the new updates coming, and new gear/levels, I’m unsure if it would be worth putting all that time and effort into farming those NM’s since we’ll be getting gear pretty soon.

Friday – We continued our WOTG mission static, and were able to hammer out a few fights, and we’re progressing rather quickly. I was a little late getting my cs’s done for the missions, and we started about 10-15 minutes late because of that, but the rest of the night went pretty smoothly, except for this...

That’s right, 65 of them. I accidently dropped them when I meant to drop some crystals to make room in my inventory. So, I called a GM, and it turns out, that you’re only allowed to retrieve a dropped item once in your game career, so I declined the offer to replace them, because although I had spent 2 months saving my coins from Limbus, It was only 450k worth of coins, and I would rather use that GM service on something more valuable that I’m bound to drop in the future. Here is the fun conversation I had with the GM. Sadly, he won’t help us with Sarameya ):

The rest of the night went fairly smooth with the missions, I died a few times, that’s always good, and we accomplished quite a bit, despite poor Zerayla getting aggro 100x in Jugner Forest [s] and dying.

After the static, Carste and I decided to go do some NM’s again, like we used to do before we got burned out. We went and killed Draketrader Zlodgodd, which is ALWAYS a fun fight.

However, resulted in no gil drop, so we made our way to Castle Oztrjoa [s] to fight Suu Xicu the Cantabile, which drops Failnaught (1.5mil). I always enjoy this NM because it’s challenging, and this time, WE GOT DROP! Fuckyeah, getting paid is the BEST. There were a couple times during the fight where it Regened about 25%, but I’m glad we didn’t give up on it. A decent 750k each from that once it sells. I’m gonna be rollin in Gil come May, getting paid from Dynamis, Failnaught, and possibly Limbus. (I should drop ABC’s more often.)

Saturday- Today I did my 2nd ever ISNM with a pickup group, the Puk one. The group with 5/6 Khroma Ores, and I won one. Hot damn! More gil! I put it up on the AH for the going price (440k) and it sold while I was running back to my Mog House.

After the ISNM, I saw a /shout for Soboro GK run, and decided to join it. Sadly, the moron putting it together brought 14+ people, and I didn’t feel like waiting 4 hours to get a Soboro, so I left that rather quickly, even though Falk came out to assist us.

After I left the Soboro run, Falk and I continued our Toredor Ring Static. This time, I had put another merit into Polearm, and used Penta Thrust, and ended the ENM 2 weaponskills short of using a GK, each WS doing 200-300 more damage than Tachi: Jinpu. Sadly, no payout, but always a fun time.

After ENM, I decided I needed some fresh air, and went for a quick run outside, and was surprised how quickly I had to stop and catch my breath. I’ve gotten rather out of shape. It seems the more Onedarkflame progresses, the more Andrew is regressing. Gonna have to fix that pretty soon.

I did some Campaign and other random useless crap until it was time for Limbus. (Oh, I forgot to mention, since I’m such a tard and dropped all my ABC’s, Carste is letting me have all his coins from the runs as long as I pay for his Cosmo Cleanse. What a pal.) We had enough people to dualfarm zones, and the majority party went into SW (I think) and Carste, Zerayla and I went into NW Apollyon. This was a shit load of fun. This is the zone I tried to BLMsolo a few months ago, and failed on the first floor.

The run went pretty smoothly, except for the part where Zer pulled a mob and didn’t see Carste go AFK, and I was looking at another screen and only swapped back in time to watch her die ): . Once we got to Kaiser Behemoth, Carste explained to me how to run opposite each other around the zone, and to nuke when we cross paths to bounce hate. It worked really well until I got killed by Meteor. I’ve really gotta do something about my Inventory space so I can work on a Magic Defense set.

After Limbus, It was time for Zerg-a-palooza. This is an event Vepion set up for the social shell, where we started at one end of Northlands, and worked our way to the other end, killing everything I decided to pull. It was an OK event. I was on BLM, meaning I was on crowd control, and I decided to delegate myself Puller as well, so I spent the night pulling mobs with blind and gravity, and binding or sleeping them near the party. The evening mainly consisted of Vepion or Fizzywig attacking mobs that I had slept, and those mobs chasing me because they weren’t able to take hate with the one hit that they had done to wake the mob, or break bind.

We spent a good portion of the night trying to aggro Greater Amphiptere from the sky, but he just wouldn’t come down for us.. That is until we were in front of the castle dealing with 3-4 demons at a time, but that was OK, We had a NIN tank. (lolfalk). We were able to kill it with just Valkyrion and myself still alive (I think), and we had a pretty much total wipe, and that’s when we ended that event.

 

Sunday – I logged on and put together a ISNM Jade Sepulcher group together and went to try and make another Khroma Ore drop. This time however, we went 1/6 on drops. Not too bad I guess though. I’m 1/3 on that ISNM. Zerayla has done over 20 runs without a drop, so I don’t feel so bad XD. After the ISNM, I did some more Campaign. Turns out, San d’Oria was able to take Northlands while I slept!! Hot damn! Later in this week I’ll be able to rank up and get Patronus ring and Allied Ring.. I better start saving my points!! I did campaign WHM/NIN for a little, but then had to swap to /blm and go to Attohwa Chasm because the ls was going to do a Rostrum Pumps run, and although I had signed up, I had to bow out due to my grandfather and grandmother being in town and wanting to have dinner. Despite not being able to go, Zerayla offered to log in for me and get my Pumps. I graciously accecpted, but when I got home, it turns out that hardly anyone was able to show up for it and it never got off the ground. I felt bad that I wasn’t able to keep my commitment, but I had a good time with my family.