Triple Shot Of Maat

I didn't do much last night but I felt VERY accomplished as I whooped the old man 3 times and got a SMN burn in.

First off was NIN since I was basically geared and ready to rumble. It was night time so I figured by the time I finished gearing and getting food and getting all the way out to the Chamber of Oracles I'd be ready by the next night, and I was correct. Just as I zoned in it turned night time which worked out perfectly. I started off with the regular buffs and food, and threw in Yonin too. Then I started going at him and once his shadows were down I Retsu'd him to paralyze since I didn't have Jubaku: Ichi. Then I blinded and slow'd him with Hojo: Ichi because again I didn't own Hojo: Ni. From there on out it was pretty easy. Paralyze, slow, and blind were the 2 huge factors because I only got hit once the whole fight for about 85 damage and he never even 2hr'd. In all, fight was a cake walk and even if he did 2hr against me I had over 900 HP still so I would've just kept going and not even bothered healing myself because he was so low on HP already.

Next up was PLD because I didn't have use my 2hr or use an I Wing for NIN so I geared and went for PLD right away. For the most part I was geared for ACC and DMG and used Carbonara for extra damage. Funny story about all this was that I bought Yag drinks and an HP regen food and didn't use any of them. Basically same story as NIN, just straight tanked and Vorpal Bladed when I could and saved Sentinel for an OMG moment that never came. I did use I Wing towards the end just because I was down to about 80MP and about 600HP so I figured I wouldn't bother taking the chance and just unleashed on him. Cake fight that I suggest going DD style because he honestly wasn't hitting that hard and I was never in any real danger.

When I got back from that fight I decided to gear up for SMN since I still had my 2hr as a fall back. By the time I geared up SMN I got asked to quickly come do a SMN burn so I flew out there and got about 4 merits right quick which helped me drop another merit into Lightning Potency which is now at 4/5 and I already have 2 of the 5 ready to cap it.

Once that was done I decided SMN time to go beat Maat. Again, easy fight that as long as you just pay attention and don't lose your head you'll be fine. I could've beaten the record but I decided to go safe rather than sorry. Started with a Blink Band and Titan for Stoneskin, then whipped out Diabolos and sent him on his way. When he got there I used Netherworld Blast on Maat and then Nightmare to sleep his avatar (Titan). Once my rage timer was back up I ran to the entrance and then unsummoned and resummoned Diabolos. By the time Maat had made it to me I had already told Diabolos to attack him. Maat did 2hr at this point and his avatar was awake and within seeing distance, but was way too far out of range to make a difference. When his avatar got there I used Nightmare again and then let Diabolos do his thing. By the time my rage timer was up again Maat was already at about 40% so I Netherworld Blasted one more time and Maat gave up. Very simple fight that takes very little prep or worrying especially when you are 75. I was planning on using my Yag drinks but again just simply forgot to use them because by the time my MP was dropping below 50%, so was Maat's HP and then Blood of the Vampyre was kicking in and I was getting an extra refresh anyways.

Thus bringing me down to 8 levels on RNG and 3 Maat fights, RNG, THF, and DRK. DRK I was starting to gear up for and then saw videos of decently geared 66DRKs 2-shotting him so I think I'm going to try to take that approach. Now I just need to rethink my gear and food a little then go to town tonight. If all goes really well this weekend I'm looking at Maat's Cap Sunday night. :D

Quote of the Day:
I'm not just wearing a sweater vest, I'm wearing THE sweater vest.
- me, pertaining to my pimpin OSU sweater vest that I am currently wearing

I Don't Get It

So last night I guess there was a big problem with Dynamis-Tavnazia where the time extensions didn't pop as they were supposed to so the second group ended up not even going in. Which means yet again no Dynamis-Tavnazia for me.

After that I was going to start a burn party and then another group just went in there. Darn. So I asked if they need another puller/leecher/smn and the guy said please. He asked me to come SMN which I didn't mind because I want to get it to 75 anyways so I can get me some merits. When I get down in the tunnel I see that there are 2 guys pulling already so I'm kinda pumped. I figure we can fly through these burns really quickly. Well the first one went well and the second pull was done in about 40 minutes which is like record time. Too bad the one SMN screwed up and only got to astral flow twice instead of three times and left us with our sync 4k til 19 and Thunderspark.

During that pull is when I realized that the leader wasn't actually pulling. The one guy was just pulling on 2 chars and then job changing on one and holding on the other. Which meant that I was helping pull but getting no benefit of being a puller. The guy leading was just there to leech. I don't get it! How does a leecher not have a puller job, that is definitely unfair to the guys that are actually pulling! Needless to say I'm not really thrilled about that. It turns out we had a really good pull but it took us 2 hours to do the pull and kill because 1 SMN screwed up. I mean 40 minute pull, 1hr and 20min to kill. I don't get it!

One the bright side of it, I did get my SMN to 74 and I'm only about 20k til 75. That means I need to switch to exp mode on a 75 job so when I ding 75 on SMN all my exp doesn't go straight into merits and I actually get a buffer on my SMN first. I will need a buffer because I'm sure while I'm attempting to learn to play the job I'll be dying some. lol

That still leaves my RNG at 50 and 0 maat fights done last night. I can't say that I'm too disappointed though because I did get over 2 levels on SMN and am now only 1 burn away from being able to merit on SMN now. To be honest though, I really would like to have Maat's Cap first then merit, but we can't be too picky when we're getting fast quick and easy exp.

Quote of the Day:
Damn you!
- Cheyne when I was trying to get us to start a burn party but ended up sneaking myself into the one that was already there

Maat Masher

Let me tell you, Maat is not an easy guy. I lost to him on DRG and BLM and almost lost on RDM. From what I hear is that RDM is really tough but I did it in 1 try which I'm proud of. The RDM fight made me realize something though, when fighting Maat, macro out the fight and run through it at the BCNM before you enter.

For DRG, I was cocky. I went in saying to myself that it would be an easy fight. I went in, slept to 100, Penta, Jump, High Jump, Icarus Wing, Penta, and I was dead. Looking at this you might think it was a good job, but then when you really look at it, you realize I didn't use food and didn't use my 2hr. That right there my friends is why I lost. If I would've used food and my 2hr I would've won because I had him down to 40% when I died. Although I also would've won if he didn't partly guard my 2nd Penta. My first Penta did 660 and my second one only did 330, that bastard! DRG was by far the hardest Testimony to get too, but I at least know I need to go to SSG and it shouldn't be hard and I can make some easy gil in the process.

BLM I choked. I went in cocky again and just choked. If I would've read anything about the fight I would've discovered that I could 2 shot AM2. Instead, I went for 3 T4s and then paniced and got waterga III'd to death. BLM at 75 should be simple, AM2, stun, sleep, AM2. But noooo, I stunned and then nuked again wasting my stun that I should've used for that -ga. Lessoned learned... macro the fight, don't take it for granted, and read up as much as possible, it'll save me time in the long run.

WAR I basically macro'd out and I OWNED Maat. I mean I'm pretty sure he was D-E-D DEAD! Of course being 75 helps a lot with damage. hehe RDM was a lot tougher but not as hard because I macro'd the whole thing out so I could just not panic and smack around my macros in order and bam, done. Although, if his blink didn't take one of my debuffs and one of my nukes it would've been a lot easier.

Now on to the brighter part of my weekend, SMN and SMN burning. SMN burning went very nicely, THF is now 65 and ready to be regeared and exp'd to 66. I only need about 25k to get to 66 and I have to gear the job anyways so I might as well gear it and exp it instead of wasting a SMN burn on it. This means I basically only have RNG to do. Go go power Ranger!!! Yeah, shut up, its funny. Sadly, I do not currently have the inventory space to support my RNG gear. This means I need to do a few more Maat fights then unload some gear. Not to mention I stil need to get my RNG AF which is actually mostly worth while to get.

Getting back on track, my SMN is doing pretty well too. I have to admit, SMN is definitely growing on me. Its pretty fun to have your summon go knock some junk up and not be worried about being injured yourself. What I really want to mention is that last night I went to Whitegate to pick something up from Swifman (which will be explained in todays QotD) and saw a shout for a Fenrir fight. Well gues what, I only needed the Fenrir item to get my Evoker's Ring. 5xSMN and a RDM absolutely owns Fenrir by the way. So when I go home tonight, I will have my shiney new Evoker's Ring waiting for me and my refresh active while Carby is out now!!! I so cited!!! This is the first stepping stone to me gearing my SMN. The next ... Yinyang Robe!

On a side note, I actually did some more crafting yesterday. It was great because with the stuff I sold I made about 400k. Such a great feeling seeing my hard work for Bonecraft to finally start paying me back. Of course 10 minutes after it all sold I went and bought a 630k Jupiter's Staff. So much for a profitable weekend right?

Quote of the Day:
Swifman kept telling me he had a gift for me but it wasn't that important. He finally found me last night while I was playing Rock Band 2 with 2 of my brothers so I was obviously afk. After we finished playing I had to run up to Whitegate to get my key item for ISNMs anyways. I find him and am all excited to get my gift. I get my gift in the form of a white arrowhead looking piece which as most would recognize as a Phantom Tathlum. Immediately after trading me he says: "Now quit being a nuub already!" That is right when I lol'd.

One Of Those Nights

Last night wasn't a great night but a progressive night none-the-less. I went in search of some Testimonies to get those out of the way. Of course the one I most desired was DRG so I could do the fight and be able to sell off all of my DRG gear. As luck would have it, I got every other Testimony in Monastic Cavern that can drop except DRG. Luck was so on my side that I even got the DRK Testimony from the Orcish Warlord NM on the 2nd kill but couldn't get a DRG one in about 20 kills... go figure.

It was still semi productive because I got half of the Testimonies that I still needed and I got to toy around with SMN some more. SMN is actually pretty fun, but definitely takes some getting used to. I was mainly playing Screamineagle as PLD/RDM and just using my SMN for Predator Claws and the occasional back up curing. MP management and Avatar Perpetuation cost- is HUGE as a SMN. I wouldn't be able to do most of what other people do because my gear is so lacking and my overall skill as a SMN isn't that great. Pretty much I know what BPs do and when to use them, but I'm definitely lacking in how to use them and the most efficient way of using them.

There is a lot of skill and work that goes into being a good solo SMN and I'm lacking in both currently. When you hear about the difference in knowing how to do something in practice and being able to actually do it, they are two totally different things. Even just last night I learned a lot while for the most part just using Predator Claws. I know my avatar perpetuation cost needs to drastically go down or I would never be able to solo anything. While I was having Garuda attack some mobs I would lose massive amounts of MP just leaving it out. Its bad enough that the level 70 BPs cost 168MP but then the perpetuation cost is the real killer in the long run. It boggles my mind to see some SMNs easily solo mobs and then I sit there and blow 50% of my MP on 50% of a mob. This is definitely something I will need to work on, and with that goes to upgrading some gear.

I don't think this weekend will be all that great for me because I'm starting to not feel well and my gf is already sick. Hopefully I can just do some relaxing exp and knock out some Maat fights. No real goals for this weekend except rank Screamineagle back up in Campaign so I can get him the Iron Ram Body piece.

Learning To Play DRG

People don't understand how to play jobs anymore. They think that joining a TP burn party is just that, you join, you swing, you use your TP, and repeat. If that is your philosophy, just quit the game now because you're ruining it for me.

Now I know as a DRG you do massive amounts of damage on Colibri and its really hard for a NIN to tank against you without hate help from someone like a THF. This is where my latest party with DRG was set up well, but executed poorly. The THF was SATAing a BLU/THF... /headdesk. The BLU was dropping huge damage SA'd spells at the beginning of fights.... /slap. And I was the only one sitting there holding back on my damage so the NIN could be the one tanking.

Dear THF, you're a moron. You are level 60+ and I understand you just love SATA, but with Assassin you can now seperate SA and TA and still drop good amounts of hate on the tank, GO YOU. I had to sadly explain this to the guy so he would actually do it correctly. It turns out that I didn't have e nough time to explain how DEX and AGI work with SA and TA though.

Dear BLU, you were better than the THF because you at least knew he was wrong but its partly your fault too because you can just as easily TA the NIN for more hate which you NEVER DID. Yes, I know the NIN has Yonin now for extra enmity, but on Colibri he has Provoke and ... Provoke unless he wants to get his face blown up by spells. My rule of thumb is wait for at least a second Provoke before you do big damage or you start wasting the healer's MP. That is, wait for the second Provoke if you don't have a means of mittigating the hate you just got.

Dear other DRG, don't use High Jump to build TP to WS and then not have Super Jump ready to shed more hate, your face will get eaten especially because you were /WAR and couldn't even take 1 hit.

Dear me, GOOD JOB! You used Jump at will to help do damage and build TP. You came /SAM so you could get to 100% TP with 1 less swing. You gear swap on WS's to boost your damage and make exp flow faster. You learned that using the combination of Third Eye > Penta Thrust > High Jump or Super Jump usually meant you took 0 damage. As it turns out it was good timing between battles too because you could either use High Jump or Super Jump each fight. You also didn't use High Jump > Penta Thrust > getting your face rapped because you were intelligent. You also learned that when you have someon who relies on being behind the mob for big amounts of damage you should stand next to the tank because you will take hate. Here's to you Mr. Smart DRG Man. Ahh, the joys of an 8k/hr party in a 12k/hr camp....

As awesome as that party was they were understanding when I had "something come up" and I had to leave real quick. Funny part was that that "something came up" was a SMN burn party that I could get hella faster exp than I was with them. That was the start of a pretty good SMN burn weekend.

By the end of the weekend I had gotten my THF to 62, my DRG to 65 (in the exp party), and my SMN to 70. My first Predator Claws was also for 1258 on a poor bat in Zeruhn Mines. I know I shouldn't be worrying about my SMN but getting it to 75 is an eventuality anyways. Also, the sooner I get my SMN to 75, the sooner I get to turn these parties into merit parties and put myself into a substantially better position for getting into DF. But I did get 2 more levels on THF which is sorely needed because I really don't WANT to level THF at all. There is a lot of gear that goes into making THF good and I just don't want the hassle of all the swap gear for a few levels. Once I get through THF and get my last level on DRG I will only have RNG. Yeah, I'm PUMPED!!!!!! Just having all the exp done will make me feel great. When I finish all my exp for Maat's Cap I think I will put in my app to DF and while they are talking about not letting me in I can work on fighting Maat. lol 21 LEVELS OR 377K EXP TO GO!!!!!

There's so much I can do after I get done with Maat's Cap its not even funny. For one is stress less about NEEDING exp and HAVING to finish this. I can relax and maybe concentrate on gil making, missions, Campaign, and maybe even finishing off some stuff on Screamineagle. This is such a comforting feeling to be able to see the end and not have any HUGE plans afterwards. Maybe some exp, definitely some merits when I feel like it, possibly crafting, such options!

Oh, and on a quick side note, I did my first Einherjar run in a loooooooooong time with DF this weekend. Someone messed up a pull and linked the last wave of mobs and the boss so we ended up wiping but I'm just happy I got about 1300 points that is going towards my Omega Ring. If they let me in I would love to dual box Screamineagle in there to get him some extra gear as well.

Quote of the Day:
Hmm, lets put it this way, I heard a lot of quotes this weekend and 90% of them are not allowed to be put into print because there doesn't need to be a trail led back to me. Lets just leave it as this was a great weekend. But in the interests of my 1 or 2 readers....
Q: What does a gay horse eat?
A: HAAAAAAAAY!
That is all...

Fast And Burning

JUST LIKE MY PEE!!!! No, not really...

Well, I am happy to say I got 2 levels last night! Actually I got 3 levels last night, but the 1 on SMN I don't really count because it is already post Maat's Cap level. But the other 2 levels were on BST so that is a big step in the right direction as that is my highest Maat's Cap job that isn't 66 yet. I probably got about 50k on my BST from SMN burning when it would've been more but we had 2 huge screw ups on pulls.

Some people think because they know the concept of how an Astral Flow party works they know how to do it correctly. Such as; I know how to pull, I get hate from one of each type of mob and just link everything. Yes, that is how you pull for an Astral Flow party, but just because you can make it all the way across the zone without dying doesn't mean you actually pulled correctly.

The other puller in my 2nd group did not understand how to pull. He just aggro'd and ran, that was it. You have to actually keep the mobs close or they depop. The one good pull we had with the 2nd group was because I cleaned up everything he missed. The guy said, I'll pull the middle, and by the time I got Screamin in the zone there were 10 mobs just at the front part of the middle that had already repopped. So I pulled some bats from up top, then pulled the middle again and we got about 30k which is just from pulling the middle. When this guy "pulled the middle" the second time I didn't have Screamin clean up after him because I had Screamin do an actual upstairs pull. This is where I should have realized it was a bad idea. I got 8k from that pull and that was with my exp ring. 8k... Let me reiterate, 8k. I know my pull on Screamin wasn't that great because the tunnels are narrow and it is very easy to lose a lot of mobs, but this guy obviously got NOTHING from pulling the middle. Needless to say, if I ever do Astral Flows with him, I'm not letting him pull the middle... EVER. But hey, at least our Level Sync target only gained 1 level on his 13 DRG.

Live and learn I guess. Next time I'm only doing SMN burns with people I know and trust because I'm pretty sure I could dual box pull better than that guy "pulls the middle". I was surprised that Korroloka was so empty, but that makes me hopeful for next week. If I can snag Vandy to be my 2nd puller we can easily rock out 60-90k in a few hours and finish off his DNC and maybe start another job for him since he's trying to take all jobs to 75.

Tonight I probably won't have any progress because I have some RL stuff to do and then tomorrow I'm heading to PA to go camping for the weekend with some friends from college. So basically, partying all weekend in the middle of nowhere.

Quote of the Day:
Just remember, you're still better than Tom.
- me to someone I play v-ball with, its funny if you know the whole story, but I'm lazy

Astral Flowing Through Levels

Let me start off this post by replying to Brian and his misinterpretation of what I meant by "SMN burn". I did not mean you get 5 SMNs and a COR and just go fight mobs. I actually meant an Astral Flow party using Level Sync. Without Level Sync this idea would be almost impossible because you would need everyone to be 10-14.

How this works:
Find a level sync target that is between 10 and 14 (or even 15) and get a few SMNs and a leecher or 2 depending on your set up. The usual set up is a level 12 target with 3 SMNs and 2 exp leeches. Then the big part is having 2 or 3 of the people with access to a level 75 RDM or PLD/RDM to pull the entire zone of Korroloka Tunnel. RDM works best because you are less likely to get interupted but I have yet to die from interuption. Usually you have one pull the mobs down the middle while the other pulls the mobs up top. Once you get as many mobs in the zone as you possibly can together you get them in a very close spot. There is a way to transfer mobs from one person to the other by curing and then resting but there have been times where I have gotten stuck resting and ended up dying because I couldn't move from there being so many mobs on me. Getting locked has only happened to me twice so we still transfer mobs to Screamin so the RDM can do an extra pull of mobs.

Anyways, once all the mobs are together one of the pullers picks a big mob, usually a Sea Monk or a Giant and starts spamming spells on it to gain a lot of hate and calls for help. This will be the target of all Astral Flows, or more specifically Diamond Dusts, because there will be very little hate gained by the SMN but the mob will still be targeting the puller. Once the mob is selected you have someone in the party engage the CFH mob so the SMNs can just assist that person for the target. Then there is a 3 or 4 SMN rotation of about 10 seconds apart of Diamond Dusts. Since you are Level Syncing so low, if you don't level between DDs you can pop 1 Hi-Ether and have enough MP to summon Shiva again and DD again, easily allowing you to get off 3 DDs per person and basically killing all 100+ mobs. This normally gets us about 30-35k per pull and takes about an hour total for the pull and killing all the mobs and using the extra 3 people in the party to use their COR 2hr to reset the 2hrs of the SMNs so you can rinse and repeat. On a really good pull you can get up to about 40k with a good COR exp roll and a low enough level sync.

Using this method I have easily gained over 200k worth of exp and finished my SMN off doing so. When I first discovered SMN burns I was a level 44 SMN and am now a 67 SMN. Not to mention I was also able to leech my BST from 55 to 60 last night as well greatly lowering the time I will need to spend getting to 66 on the rest of my jobs.

PLD I was able to just get into a really good party that I had to leave earlier than I would've liked for a SMN burn party. :D But I did get my PLD to 58, giving me another piece of AF to wear and 1 less piece of extra gear I need to have. I am having some fun with PLD because I'm definitely getting a better idea for hate control as a tank just by knowing how much enmity my abilities get me and doing certain things to keep hate on myself.

I know this feels a little like I'm cheating to get my Maat's Cap but I know these parties won't last because we'll run out of sync targets eventually. I also realize that my time with FFXI will be slowing down once my girlfriend moves home this weekend so I won't be able to dedicate the time like I can now, so I want to get in as much as I can before then. After this weekend it will be a real struggle to get the rest of my jobs to 66 because of my time constraints. It will also stink for events since I won't know when I will be able to make them or not because it will all depend on the woman saying she wants to spend time with me that night or not. Stupid RL getting in the way of my goals for Dynamis, Salvage and Maat's Cap.

Quote of the Day:
Hellbunny: What job are you leeching, PLD?
Me: Guess again.
Hellbunny: PLD?
Me: lol, I'll give you a hint.
(I charm a mob)
Hellbunny: BST, good choice.

Productive Weekend (Happy 69)

As this was my last weekend of "freedom", I got a lot done. Now the target number til Maat's Cap is lucky number 69!

Lets just start out by saying, thank you baby jesus for allowing SMN burns. That being said, my SMN is now 65. It is retarded how awesome it is to be able to fly through levels like this. It was about a week ago that my SMN was 44 and now its already 65 and only 2k til 66. This has been going by so fast, and now I know a bunch of people that want to SMN burn with me since I have a 2nd char that can pull. Actually when I get home tonight, I know a guy that wants to make a party because he doesn't have a puller char and needs me. He said he has people to sync with and SMNs that he could invite, but to have an effective SMN burn you need 2 pullers.

I also got around to doing a choco quest which put my WHM over the edge and now is 66. That is 1 more job completed and 6 to go. Well, 5 to go really because SMN is only 2k til being done.

PLD on the other hand I don't mind taking the time to finish it off because I have been getting some good shield skills and a few parrying skills while leveling. Both are a huge pain to skill up so I might as well do it while I'm getting good exp for it from birds.

I got my PLD to 57 in a birds party with a not too smart WHM that was definitely under geared and missing spells. This WHM NEVER Regen II'd me, let alone Regen'd me, nor did he cast Auspice once. One thing I noticed was how much more a bird uses TP moves when we didn't have Auspice active. My face was getting eaten off by TP moves as PLD, but when I was doing WHM and using Auspice I would have to say the bird was using about 3 less TP moves per fight. I would have to admit that Auspice is definitely a worth while spell. Also, after reading a little more about how Auspice works, it reduces TP dealt by 10% which definitely adds up in a TP burn party.

And as a side note, in Dynamis-Beaucedine I got the Argute Gown for SCH which is really nice piece for when I get my SCH to 75 using SMN burns heheheheHAHAHAHAH.... cough cough :D

I think that's about all for today. Hopefully I can get some more levels on my SMN or my PLD this evening. Oh, and about what I said earlier about this being my last week of "freedom", my gf moves home from graduating from college on Sunday. This means that all of this extra time I've been spending playing FFXI will be drastically cut down. That's why I need to get in as much game time this week as I possibly can!

Quote of the Day:
Women, can't live with them, can't shoot them.
- Unknown

You Just Got SMN Burned!!!

ZOMG!!!! I am in love with a stripper!!! Oh wait, I mean I'm in love with SMN burn parties!!! I got 14 levels last night on my SMN just doing 3 or 4 burns. This wasn't just 14 levels from like 14 to 28 either, this was from 44 to 58.

I've decided if I can't do SMN burns, I'll be leveling PLD for now. Well, I didn't even get a chance to get the gear that I wanted for PLD last night because I got sucked into a SMN burn so quickly. But that's about when I started thinking "darn" too. lol SMN is nice now because I have all these extra BPs that are fun to use and I don't have to go through the hassle of the 40s or even low 50s. If I can get a few more of these SMN burn parties I could probably get myself to 66 in a few nights! Before I logged last night Sush was trying to get me to do SMN burn parties with him and told me that one of his friends has 4 lvl 11/12 jobs that could go through burns. Which I am totally ok with since that would probably take me to somewhere around 65. Then Drivvt also has his COR at 11 which means that could be a 5th burn which would definitely take me from 58 all the way to 66+. I SO CITED!!!

If I can burn through SMN like this, maybe I can get my BST into one of these parties and fly that through since I would be one of the extra ppl pulling which gives me some (you ready for this) pull in the party. BST will be the only other slow job to get to 66 because I would be basically just soloing the whole time which isn't so much fun when you're only doing about 5-6k/hr on average. At least I will have my Anni Ring to get me through it all.

Ohhh, last night was quite a glorious night. Then I was told I was needed for a Kirin burn and when I got geared up on Screamin, got him up there, and then he never even got an invite even after people were dropping dead. Oh well, at least I will get the points for the Kirin.

Last night they were also helping me through some of the SMN AF which was nice because when we all go as SMNs we can just use the mini forks to get to the fights and then blow up the mobs. Now that my weapon and first SMN AF is done, I just have to get ready and do the 2nd one and I'll be done with another set of AF, well, after I do the coffers and Dark Spark again. I am just happy to be having some uber progress right now.

Tonight I have volleyball but then I will be hoping to get myself into another SMN burn and finish off SMN and maybe see if I can get a lil extra on BST. But if I finish off SMN tonight I will be super duper happy.

Quote of the Day:
Bolivia?!
- Spring Break '06 .... ahhh, crazy people in LA

Lots Done

I guess I'll just start with all the exp that has been done this week. It hasn't exactly been what I had planned but moving towards Maat's Cap is really the big goal which I have been doing.

Started with a SMN burn party that was nice but its so short because it only lasts 2 pulls and then you need to find a new person to level sync to 13-15 with. Its a great idea but just not legit for a long term party. I suppose I can't really complain though since I did get 4 levels on my SMN in about 2 hours.

On MNK I got some exp in E. Ron [S] parties and am now 55. This is really the job I want to concentrate on this weekend because I set a goal of having it at 66 by Sunday and as of right now I really have no chance to do that unless I exp all day Saturday and Sunday.

Last night we were about ready to do Salvage and then Caol d/c's and couldn't get back online. Although when he d/c'd it was already about 10:20 which made us uber late as it was. Dray was seemingly trying to stick us being late on me, Khrone, and Hybrid. When I joined the party he said something along the lines of "that is why I wanted to change the times and change some people." I took that as a personal assault on myself because I knew starting off Dray didn't think I was reliable. When I have only missed 1 run and that was because Khrone got into a car accident that day and he wasn't sure how bad he was still shaken up by it since he did roll his Jeep. I was just going to do whatever he wanted to do that night because I was, and have been since, my brother's driver since he is still carless and I just wanted to make sure he was all good. Argh, I am just really frustrated right now about this whole thing because people are still looking at our group as an LS instead of friends doing this together. I mean I know there have to be rules but some of them are pushing so hard about how "the shell" is run ... shell? ... its 9 friggin people folks, can't we just come to a consensus on this between us instead of try saying, he's the leader he will tell us how it is? Bleh, ok, feeling better now that I'm finally just saying some of this, even though basically no one reads my blog. lol

Since we ended up not doing Salvage I went up to sky earlier than I expected and we ended up doing a lot of gods and 2 kirins. Overall the night was crappy to the LS but at least semi nice to Khrone who got his D Head ... FINALLY!!! Byakko was also extremely stingy and didn't drop his pants for us (yes I know how that sounds) either time we killed him. What is really cool is that for Haidate right now it is Wardemon -> Buyer -> Screamineagle. :D That means I am ever so close to finishing off Screamin's MNK for as far as I can really take it without doing other events with him. We also found out that the people that asked for payout are getting somewhere around 1.2M gil a piece. I'm uber pumped for that because that puts me right at the point where I could actually afford a Morrigan's Robe just by selling like 2 or 3 pieces of gear!!!! w00t!!!

Back to Screamineagle, I have been able to dual box him in some assaults and actually got him a new assault done last night. Maybe I can rank him up to FL eventually while we're moving Khrone, Hybrid, and the soon to be gone Mac up in the ranks. I also realized, just now actually, that I am totally done with Mamool Ja Training Grounds assaults! Now if I can get this one escort assault won I will be done with the first 4 ranks of assault as well.

Tonight is going to be a busy night though. After work my friend is gonna cut my hair, then I will probably exp or do assaults, then I have Salvage, then maybe another assault, then we're supposed to be going and doing Promyvion-Dem for Khrone to get him going again in CoP. Yeah, busy friggin night and then I want to just spam the crap outta my MNK so I can get moving quickly to 66. The one thing about my MNK is that it is at a bird camp level which is nice incase the 37 bird camp is full. Guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes this weekend. Til next week.

Quote of the Day:
I come a different way, I come a different way, I come a different way... hahaha
- Oh, Lindsey-loo, you crack me up even when you don't realize what you are saying lol

I Bring the Pain

Last night Khrone and I did a little duoing out in Eastern Altepa before we went to do some Avatar fights with Arckk. While we were out there I got to show Khrone what kind of damage a real THF can do on those pets. I was starting off just doing SATA on him because Screamin would pull hate pretty easily with me loading him up with enmity gear. I would do about 200 or so damage per SATA which isn't too bad since the pets only have about 400-500 HP. Once I showed him what a SATA + Viper Bite looked like he was quite shocked. After the 320ish damage from that I asked him to do a little parsing. I think we were about 3 mobs into parsing and he said I was doing about 75% of the damage because he couldn't swing fast enough and WS fast enough. What was really funny is that I basically just SATA'd and that was it too. He was the only one doing any real melee damage. On actual mobs he would probably destroy me though. lol

When Arckk got back on we went and killed Shiva and Ifrit which were both pretty easy except for Ifrit's 2hr which actually did 1300+ damage on Screamin to which I was VERY shocked. Granted that was more Arckk's fault because he didn't have Barfira up at that point. Oh well, he only lost like 200 exp and he's only about 400 from recapping exp again anyways.

Its nice doing things with friends again, I like the relaxed atmosphere. Lazy exp with Khrone is nice too because I'm helping him out, but at the same time I'm getting THF to 50 in hopes of my goals. My THF is now 44 by the way, so only 6 more levels before I can be done with THF for a long time. Hopefully I can find some parties that will let my THF be a THF for once.

I know its blasphemous but I am starting to contemplate end game again because I'm seeing all these people that I used to play with in other LSs have all this nice gear and I'm just kinda getting left in the dust in that aspect. I want to have that nice gear to show for all the work that I'm doing too. Its nice to have the versatility that I will eventually have but then again none of my newer jobs to 75 will have any GOOD gear because I haven't spent any time doing end game. I know I shouldn't pick on Khrone, but its so easy because he's my brother, but I look at him and all his talking about wanting to pimp his only 75 job and he's not really doing anything about it. He has a dynamis shell but can't go to most of the events because they are all places that he can't go to since he is still waiting for his Windy clear. But I know that he really should join a sky LS because no matter how long a line is for specific gear there is no way he's going to get it unless he gets in that line. I just don't want to see him waste a lot of time in game like I did the first 2 or 3 years. The other thing is that I could EASILY get him into an LS because I know a few good people out there. Meh, I really am feeling less and less accomplished in game as this is going on. I need to find some way to rekindle my desire to level and get stuff done.

Tonight will hopefully be getting a few more levels on my THF with Khrone on his SAM. Besides that I don't really have anything else to do. Maybe I could go run around and make sure I have all the tuning forks for both myself and Screamin so I don't have to hold people up like I did last night. After that I could try to finish up the rest of my AF weapon fights and quests. So I potentially have a filled evening. Although its very tempting to go run up to sky with Sush's LS...

Quote of the Day:
Me: I almost stopped down the hall to get a taco.
Rick: Down on the 2nd floor? Because I could go for some tacos.
- Now this doesn't sound funny without a little back story ... Just before the meeting that Rick said that in I told him there were a lot of women that worked on th 2nd floor of that building. Now use your perverted mind and you got 1 HILARIOUS comment from a guy about 20 years older than me. lol


And a little bonus reading for SMN:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=15;mid=1221367955244698150;num=86;page=1

Treubond attains level 40!

Well, I finally decided to take a screenshot of something... even if it was after the fact. But I convinced the party I was in last night to stick around for 1k more let me hit 40 on SMN, which they did! They were cool with it because I was PLing the party and the tank blew and I just would not have been able to keep up with cures on my SMN. Also, notice the nice little Diamond Dust I did to finish off the mob. hehe I guess Calec doesn't know how strong a SMN 2hr can be, because I could've done that 2 more times.

Lets see, other than SMN hitting 40 I just played some more Wii Fit last night. Apparently I already lost weight from the day before so I'm less "overweight" now. lol But I just need to keep going on it to open up more games and stuff to do with it. Some of the games are pretty slick and very challenging. I figure to spend about 20 minutes a day playing that so I don't cut too drastically into my FFXI time.

It was kind of a struggle last night to hit 40 on SMN because it was getting really late and I don't like staying up too too late anymore because it makes me so tired for work the next day and I'm really attempting being more productive at work. But I didn't hit 40 until about 1:45AM and didn't actually get to bed until about 2:15 or 2:30 because I went back to Bastok and then to Jeuno and geared up my MNK ... whoops. Surprisingly I haven't been too tired today which is pretty awesome because that means I won't have to take a nap after work and I can just game when I get home. :D

Now that I'm back to MNK I am really looking forward to my next tier of leveling to 50. MNK will be the first job now to 50 because I don't feel like hitting 40 then switching to another job and going to 50. I figure why not just go straight from 30 to 50 right? Right! While I was gearing up my MNK I realized that I had everything I needed to actually gear a MNK except a weapon which was pretty darn hot. So I bought a pair of Bastokan Knuckles because I didn't feel like splurging on a weapon that I would wear for 2 levels then use Impact Knuckles until about 38. It'll be glorious because MNK is actually a strong DD job so I'm thinking I can just go rock out in my desert paradise of solo exp and not really need to stop because I won't have to wait for MP. Level 33 and 34 will be the big 2 levels on my MNK because that's where I get P Charm and O Kote respectively. When I get those I should be rocking and rolling through Altepa and into Crawler's Nest to get Raging Fists. Ahhhhhh, such excitement!

As for tonight, I need to do some laundry, Wii Fit, and sort through some mail but after that I will be gaming up until I have to leave for Volleyball. I've already surpassed any goal I was going to set for myself this week because SMN is already 40. I suppose we can set a lower goal then since the week is already half over .... hmmm. Let's say MNK at 33 by the end of Saturday. I'm pretty sure I can hit that quite easily, but you never know what's gonna pop up and suck up all my time.

Quote of the Day:
I just wanna PUNCHPUNCHPUNCH!
- Khrone, well it wasn't said recently but that's about how I feel right now (MNK POWA!!!)


P.S. I think I'll try this whole Labels thing now too. Not really sure if it helps with searching, but why not.