Lists of things and leaving stuff out

Sections:
1) Hunting fails. 2) CoP slows. 3) THF flees. 4) Pointy Hat! 5) Other

1) I have a love/hate relationships with NMs. Some, like Mysticmaker or Morion, love me, and drop items well. The counter to this has recently been my bane, the Valkurm Emperor. You see, VE and I go waaaaaaay back to when I was leveling Ninja in Yuhtunga Jungle...and before the item drop was even the femme fatale version. He drops a hairpin. Sounds simple enough, right? And yet last night I have reached an astounding rate of 0/97 in achieving said hairpin. I decided if I went under 1% accuracy (aka, 0/100) that I was going to hang it up for that drop, and likely just level without it, until perhaps I can do the BCNM "Dropping Like Flies."

2) Haven't done much with CoP -- Not sure if it's from the lack of the static members, or from the difficulties some have had going through the Snoll. At this point, I don't know if our whole static is up to the Airship, or if we have to get some people through the Snoll Tzar still...so we'll see what's going on with that this week...

3) THF static went wonderfully well the other night: Lanoire (NIN), Alcindor (SAM), Zaria (DRG), Valynne (WHM), myself (THF) of the usual crew. (Sumiko had other static and thus wasn't in attendance) We brought Eckardt's WHM on as a 6th member, and headed out to the Crawler's Nest, where with two excellent WHMs (Go go Val & Eck), we were never in any danger of death, despite the horrible puller (me) who managed to get a few links through the night, including a set of crawlers before we had gotten Sleep available from the BLM subs. >.>;; But we handled everything smoothly, so I was quite joyful with how it turned out. Now maybe Noire and Alci will like dual WHMs next time! ^_~ Luv ya! Haha!

4) Much thanks go to Lorddocster and the Lords of Hyrda HNM crew - Fade, Legos, Fullen: Team Taliban ftw! and so many others I can't name them all, haha! We did quite a few runs of Hakutaku, and i now have some decent skillup gear when coupled with the Assault body piece I posted about a bit back!

5) I've recently been duoing my BLU with Eckardt's NIN, figuring I'll go up to about 27 and switch to take DRK on up to 37...however, having a 37 BLU sub might just be more useful for RDM than the Chainspell Stun...to have Chainspell Head Butt/Bludgeon. I'm not sure about that at the moment, it will take a bit more thinking on the matter before I decide if the setup is worth it, but going O Hat and high accuracy, it seems at the moment quite a viable option for Stun-nage as well.

And the monsters continued to fall.

Has been a rather fun week thus far, even with the good (but horrible) run we gave the Under Observation BCNM. I will say I think we would've won if perhaps 2 things hadn't happened: 1) I hadn't attempted to cure our most damaging BLM and he died first, leaving me with Divine Seal + Stonega II instead, didn't make best use of my time on that one. >.> And the other BLM that was with us came in a level 1 Aketon and not too much INT gear outside of rings and a seer's piece (not crown)...which hampered the major damage in the party. Besides actively facing the eyes (which can petrify that way), it was also sketchy as to why she was using an ether while having over half her mp as well when it's imperative to quickly -ga down the stupid eyes before they beat us down into oblivion, especially without Stoneskin, but meh, we brought it what looked like under 10% HP; sadly, it smacked me before my final Thunder spell could get off, and I noted the horrible brimstone-esque taste of the BCNM floor.

I have achieved with my thief that which is called "Fuidama," and boy is it ever fun! Even if I do abbreviate it SATA, nothing beats getting to run up behind someone and *WHAM!* - Suddenly doing around 250 damage that the mob thinks your buddy did. Haha, because that's what good melee friends are for, to make you that much better! ^^; Domo arigato gozaimasu Master Kenshinshiro for being my first SATA target and letting the PLD realize he wasn't Mr. Super Hate-holder when a SATA was going off opposite him, haha! /cheer ^^ And yes, I would note we were going to set it up on the PLD, but he was all meh about SATA powers and didn't want to setup really, just voked off the bat and such, so we did an alternate setup SATA where Ken would armor up on BLU, and I would SATA him, the PLD took a while to get hate back, sometimes not even before the mob died. I was easily amused, and as it neared time to go to work tonight, I didn't get to wait long enough to see if he'd comment ((He didn't in the 15 minutes notice I gave, and since 3 of us were leaving, we were disbanding, and soon as that was up, I had to run quickly to work ><)), after his comments about being (mostly) "all capped" and not having problems with hate.

Moral of the story: Everyone can contribute something individually, but working together, that's where true greatness lies. Now...about that vengeance on those Hecteyes....

A return to the airy landscape.

Hmmm, so it seems I haven't done much recently in the way of keeping you informed. Well, that is about to change with this post, as much has transpired since the time I was summoned across the galaxy to assist a 'young' Elvaan woman who had invoked me across the realms. I can only hope that her heart is sorting out the feelings that she was going through and realized that she deserved better than to be led on deceitfully. At least be honest about your intentions, as I will stand by: If you can't be upfront about what you're doing, then you probably have no business doing it. If you're content enough with yourself and secure in your deeds, then as long as you harm none, do what you will. Well, that last part wasn't actually very original, but it fit perfectly to my point.

As many of you know, I was at the point where I needed the scroll for Utsusemi: Ni to take my soloing skills to the supreme level that is envied by nearly every other job around Vana'diel.
Issue #1 with this: Ni sells for around 600k at the Auction House. Ouch, that's a big HELL no.
Issue #2 with this: Ni has a piss-poor drop rate in the BCNMs

After very little deliberation, since multiple people needed either Utsusemi: Ni or gil in general, Master Kenshinshiro came as Samurai, and Vaulaut came as Dragoon (with George, of course.) I joined as Red Mage, and we setup inside Waughroon Shrine in preparation for the Royal Jelly Notorious Monster Battles. As the lone mage, I had a fun time, snacking on a delicious Melon Pie before battle and maxing MP. Upon entering, we buffed pre-battle, and I used a Yagudo drink for refresh, as the blamed area we were in restricted our abilities so that Refresh was just out of my reach! Using the Seal of the Elements, I bound the first of the jellies on my left, and the others dashed right, unleashing an onslaught into the jellies as they began an advance into the circle, where I decided best to make my stand. It was mostly exchanging Dia II on the jellies nearest the others, and as soon as Bind or Gravity was available to alternate them on the jellies on the other side, clockwise, and throwing Cures as needed before reinforcing Stoneskin and converting near the final charge to the last two.

Lord Kenshin was impeccable as always, his blade seeking out the souls of the enemies as his TP shot through the roof, erupting into explosive assaults that detonated the very essences of the piles of preserves that littered the ground. Dragon Knight Vaulaut and George were quite the tag team as well; his skillful spearwork combined with the various degrees of wyvern's breath to unleash incomparable destruction unto the quite...[i]jiggly[/i] targets, bursting through their gooey shells and deflating them onto the cavern floor. We did the run 6 times, setting the current record time for the quest at just over 4 minutes, causing me to ponder what the overall best time had ever been. (SE should store that on the official site somewhere xD)

I ended up with some great drops, getting very lucky and picking up Utsusemi: Ni, Erase, and a Gold Beastcoin for the efforts, making it quite worthwhile and very fun as well! I think I'll aim for a PCC and Empress Hairpin next for good measure, or either Leaping Boots, since Lizzy and VE obviously harbor ill will towards me with the 0% drop rate despite the multitude of times defeating them.

I managed to help Titi with the Beadeaux part of her LB3, but I was very tired, and I bowed out before making the journey to Oztroja or Davoi, those long trips would've done me in for sure, and either at the top of Oztroja or the depths of Davoi, the beasts aren't particularly cheerful. While we were down in Beadeaux, I helped her kill Ruby Quadav, who obliged us by dropping a Red Mage Testimony for her upcoming duel with the old man in the Garden. That will be a fun one, I'm sure, haha!!! Until next time...