Caitlin Chronicles

January Happenings

2007-02-06T00:08:00.000-08:00

January came and went rather quickly, with hardly a photo collection to remember it by. I don't know if it was my lack of interest in taking pictures, or lack of interesting things to take pictures of. However, I managed to fire off a few shots for this month. So shall we review my dull month?

First we have our "Kill big monster with zerg tactics" section. This month I participated in a few of these. The first one was the usual Khimaria. If I haven't said it before, this is one of my favorite fights because it's so dynamic in terms of fighting it. It's especially fun when you have to try to time your attacks in between potentially fatal (for a taru) attacks from it. I've also become quite proficient in getting to the area without bringing 2-20 mobs with me. Instead, I save my reraise from my miscalculated attempts to use weaponskills.

Next is Fafnir. Usually this is not even blog worthy because it's so routine. This particular time was different because we were graced by a GM who showed themselves to the public. I can only recall a couple times I've seen a GM materialize in front of me, so having one show up is always a treat! On a side note, we didn't get Fafnir that time.

The next monster takes us to sea where our Limbus runs earned us a match with Proto-Ultima. This is an interesting fight because it will randomly cast Holy 2 on someone in the alliance. I thought it was pretty funny when it would blast some poor mage who hasn't been doing anything to really grab its attention. Another interesting aspect to this monster is a move called Citadel Buster. It counts down from 10 and unleashes a very powerful beam/aoe attack to the person with hate. Next time I hope to get hate and run to the mage group.

The final monster in this series is another trip to see Mr. Bahamut. The linkshell decided to do version 2, his more violent form. We did two runs at 50+ minutes each, so it was a long night for everyone. Oddly enough, I haphazardly stumbled across a video with a linkshell on another server doing this exact same fight in 30 seconds. For us to setup the way they did, would require dark knights, kraken clubs, and a narcissistic enjoyment of watching hp drop faster than a solo rdm against Tiamat. Unfortunately, the linkshell is far from that kind of setup. I think we only have 3 dark knights that are 75. If we are to try it, better do it fast before SE realizes this as an exploit and "fix" the problem.

In other news, I have a friend who decided to start playing this game after a year of trying to upgrade his computer. Finally, do we get to see a next legend? My pupils have all grown up to be legends, is he the next great dark knight? Only time will tell.

In more random news, I've been playing with .dat files as of late and found myself changing everything from clothes, to npcs, to emotions. I found several sites with huge databases of stuff. I feel like going through The Sims 2 all over again with all these new toys. I used the Legendary Sannin to help me take pictures of some of the cool stuff I found. Yes folks! That is the famed Shantoto laugh! My favorite npc doing my favorite emote! I also replaced my Shaded Specs with the Akatsuki headband from Naruto representing missing ninja from Konoha village.

Finally, even though this happened early February, I found it so funny that I couldn't wait until the February update to tell. DTR did Dynamis Beaucedine last week. People in the know will understand that this particular dynamis is home to charming mobs. I'm not saying they're great conversation partners, but they indeed charm other people to do their will.

After months of no charms, it finally happened, people got charmed! My first instinct was to /ta Mcdohl, but he wasn't there. Next I tried to /ta Shinso, you know, because it's fun. I was dissappointed that he left early. So what happens next? My Galka Poacher instincts kick in and I automatically target the closest furball, Salibro. A little dialog ensued in my mind..

Caitlin: Hmm..I wonder if the Kraze Rule is in effect here
Angel Cait: Even though he's not here, think of the guy's xp loss and waste of time being weakened.
Caitlin: Maybe you're right, but...I'm the Galka Poacher
Devil Cait: You know what you must do....dark sider...
Caitlin: Right...

Shortly after, this happened:
I have to admit, poaching galkas is fun because they're so beefy and takes quite a bit to bring them down. The idea of having something so small like me to take out a big thing like those is always funny. Nothing personal Salibro, it's the voices in my head that tell me so.

Well, that's January in a blink! See you next time!

5 lvl 75 jobs: Life {Do you need it?}

2007-01-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

After a few months of pain and suffering, I finally reached lvl 75 on my Ranger. This makes it my 5th trip up the leveling mountain. To date I have Bard, Black Mage, Monk, Samurai, and now Ranger leveled.

This past month has been pretty busy. I found myself getting caught up on the ToAU missions, as well as trying the new "features" SE implemented in a recent update.

The shot I've been waiting for..the big 75. There was so much work involved in doing this, but I'm glad it happened. All that's left for this job is to tweak it with a few pieces of equipment and soon I'll be RngGod 1.0

I thought this was a good picture displaying one of my spam parties in Caederva Mire. This party consisted of 3 rng and3 others. We basically killed stuff nonstop, lots of fun.

Here are a few shots from when I was trying to catch up on the story line missions. This has got to be the best story so far. Shantoto makes it so funny that now she's my favorite character in the game. Her rhyming dialogue and the notorious "Ohohohohoho" laugh makes her the best taru!

A feature from the recent update, Salvage. This just shows SE's sadistic interpretation of entertainment. First of all, you enter with detrimental effects on EVERY stat. This means you go in with -50 on stats, no armor, weapon, abilities, skills, etc allowed. However, you get a chance to remove those negative effects by killing stuff that drop cells. The catch is that, they only drop a few at a time, and the alliance has to decide who gets what first. It's fun, but the time I went, we got destroyed at the end.... oh well, more assault missions in the near future for me;;

Here's a shot of the new HNM roaming around in ToAU, Khimira. I took this shortly after it did some AOE nobody was expecting. As you can see, it almost killed me in 1 move;; Don't worry, I died on the next shot, with its massive coverage area. It's supposed to drop some sword, but to this date, we haven't been able to make one drop. However, our first attempt it dropped a club.

I found this in my screen shots from the month of December. We did go on a few sky runs. I'm still looking for Seiryu's Kote and a W.Abj: Hands to drop so I can further complete my ranger mold.

There you have it, a quick run down of the past month. I would try to dig for stuff from October, but there really wasn't anything interesting to talk about (unless you want to talk about something other than FFXI).

Caitlin v 4.0+?

2006-10-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Six months and no posts until now? Unfortunately, I only have screenshots to actually remember what I've been doing in that time. To make things worse, I didn't even take that many screenshots;; Oh well, I'll just go with what I have.

First let's cover my job progress:

Samurai

I finally got my samurai to level 75 after much pain and waiting. Actually, I made it to 75 a few months ago. With SE readjusting samurai, I might play this job more often. It's not that I completely negate this job, I use it now and then when I go to Dynamis, Sea, sky, etc. Equipment wise, I managed to get myself a few pieces of nice gear that made me satisfied with my current Sam template. A couple more sam af2s and I'll be complete, I think. These shots are with my TP build and weaponskill build.

Samurai TP build

Samurai strength build

Black Mage:

My black mage has been somewhat quiet these past few months, mostly because of my ranger and merit xp. However, it did get a nice update fairly recently. The last dynamis trip I went to was kind enough to drop a Sorcerer's Coat! I also used some of my merit points to unlock Burst II. It's not very good at the moment, but hopefully more merit parties will come my way and change that.

It's Caitlin! Yakuza version!

Monk:

Surprisingly for being the most active job, it's the one with the least news. My mnk has been upgraded a little bit since my last post. My newly acquired equipment includes: Walahra Turban and Shura Togi. The biggest news that my monk recently accomplished is breaking the 4.0 barrier, that's right, I broke 1400!!! I wonder if it took the bans of a few people, thus making something in me snap and realize my potential and that wonderful stuff....or I could just be that good.

Finally broke 1400 with 1423, can the 1500 barrier be broken?

Bard:

Nothing new with bard. I needed space so I had to mule all of my bard gear away. I bring the job back every once in awhile if it's needed, but it has to be really important.

Ranger:

My up and coming job is going along nicely. I was stuck at 67 for about a month due to not being able to get on the job to play. However, it's growing in leaps and bounds. I managed to get myself 2/3 weapons that I believe is needed to be complete, Eurytos' Bow, and Othinus' Bow. The only one I'm missing is a Hellfire +1. Along with my ranged weaponry, I've secured myself a Fransisca and a Kriegsbeil (for when I hit 70). Ranger is another job SE is planning to restructure, so hopefully it'll get better so I'll get more invites.

68 RNG/ 34 NIN lfg;;;

In other news, during my lfg time, I decided to get my avatars (after 3 years of putting it off). My list is almost complete with Garuda, Shiva, Ifrit, Leviathan, and Ramuh. This leaves Titan, Fenrir and Diablos left.
Well, those were all the screenshots I could find. What I didn't take screenshots of were my trips to sea, more dynamis mayhem, some galka poaching in ballista, etc, etc. I will cut my loses for now and just say that my story for these past few months have been lost in antiquity. However, I did find one picture of a recent Sea trip:

See you again!

Caitlin v. 3.5

2006-04-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

Due to the fact that I don't like writing a month's worth of material in one sitting (which can last over 2 hours), I decided to try to write every few days. So let me review of what's been happening since my last entry. *Skims through the 500 mb of photos*

Ah! It starts off with my final "realistic" template for my monk. Sure, I could use a Flame Gorget or a Peacock charm. Maybe I can even through in that Bandamushahaha kote, as well as the Tatami Togi. Sure, I guess I can spend a couple months of paychecks to rmt for +1 versions, but I'm happy with my "realistic" setup. The abjuration came about when the linkshell fought Byakko three times in one night. I believe it dropped on the first one. Now, for me to achieve 4.0, I have to break 1400 in KRT on those bones. I think one of my best friends has to die so something inside me snaps so I can go SSJ4.

Wyrms have been the focus more and more these days within the linkshell. Finally, I was able to get some decent pictures of Tiamat. I was add party, so I didn't know what dropped. These were from the last Tiamat that we fought. Just recently, I was in the main party for another Tiamat and got a title! Yay, I don't have to quit anymore!

The linkshell also decided to do some sea gods since the mobs we were farming didn't want to pop for us. So we took out both Fortitude and Faith. Unfortunately, neither helped us get a virtue. However, I killed Fortitude, which might be the reason for no drops..haha!

Finally, our limbus runs finally paid off when we got to face Omega and win! It only took us 3-4 losses in a row to pull one off. We got the eye and tail, but I'm not a job that can equip any of it, so I don't know if they're good. Judging from the reactions, it could've been.

March Madness

2006-03-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

Please ignore the blatant copyright infringement, but that's the only thing I can think about when I reflect on my adventures this past month. SD has been fairly busy getting involved in things such as new Dynamis death marches, Sea scuba diving, King camps, Sky soaring, and our brand new attraction, Wyrm watching. Aside from that, my personal adventures of npc leveling, samurai leveling, and finishing up my ultimate monk template.

Our Dynamis runs haven't been all the great, with only one victory to this date. The new areas are really not for the feint of heart, or the nerves of straw, or whatever cliche rocks your boat. However, our normal area Dynamis have become more of a routine. I've been trying to get my hands on blm af2 body, or hat and monk af2 head. However, it's been so long since they've dropped when I was around, that it doesn't really matter if I get them or not. Maybe I can start eyeing out those samurai af, or maybe the new jobs.

Our Sea trips usually consisted of running through limbus, grabbing coins, and running out to afk. However, this month marks the start of Sea gods. Farming for drops here makes sky look like a walk in the park. The linkshell has been pretty ambitious with it, and just recently won over Jailer of Hope. Unfortunately, our hopes were shattered when hope decided not to drop the virtue we needed. So, it's back through the gauntlet again for more drops. However, the good thing about doing gods over like this is that we have more chances to win some rare torques. In my case, I won myself the Faith Torque. I'm pretty happy with it, and it really helps my monk template.

King camps have been going on as usual, but this month marks the first time I actually claimed something! Even though it was just Behemoth, it was my behemoth. It was also a show of what a true taru monk can do. I ended up tanking it, thank god for the cure bombs. The linkshell also managed to grab a few kings in as well. Aspid was won with our ninja sneak abilities to confuse our competition on when the pop time actually was. King Behemoth was a result of a few people holding it while SD army flew in from Dragon's Aery. Finally, Nidhogg was won just because of the pure numbers lagging the competition. I'm sure people got some stuff, not going to go into it, it's posted on the linkshell website.

Our Sky trips have picked up since Emulsion decided to take over and actually organize some runs. Hopefully, he can organize something that will let me get rid of these seals I've been holding on to forever. With all these sky runs going on, I was able to obtain another piece in order to upgrade to Cait 3.0, a d.head abjuration. The cursed kabuto has been sitting in my mog house for a good while, and was quickly uncursed soon after that sky trip was over. Now I'm just waiting at my chance to fight byakko for a d.leg so I can complete my monk. Soon, my samurai will start looking for a chance to win a damascus ingot so I can get a haub crafted. Stay tuned when my samurai starts to become as powerful as my monk.

SD has now gotten itself involved in the extermination of the world wyrms. To this date, we've taken out Jorg, Vtra, and Tiamat. My friend Semma hacked her lot to get a pair of those Herald gaiters. However, she has much to learn if she wants to matrix kite like me. I just find it more exciting and interesting when we do wyrms as a ls, because I know the people who get the drops will be there for the next wyrm.

So, that covers my linkshell activities. Now on to my personal ones. First, I finally got my npc to level 65, which is the level cap at the moment. Zoldof now has Adaman armor, however, I'm still working on getting his adaman gloves, boots, and legs. He's on his 7th weapon upgrade and has all the headwear. He's also completed all his missions, and all the bond quests. I've spent alot of gil upgrading his weapon, yet he still misses a good amount. I'm hoping that the new expansion will allow more usage of these guys.

Finally, I've been working on getting my samurai as my next 75. This past month, I've managed to get it to level 46 as of this writing. At level 50, I get to wear my kraken gkt, which is the sole reason I've been leveling like crazy. When I get 50, I can look forward to 60s when I sub my thf. When I'm 60s, I can look forward to 70s and wear that cool hachiman gear. Then at 71+ I look forward to reusing my monk gear! So overall, I never get bored and there's always something to look forward to.

Random randoms

2006-02-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

My, I've been pretty busy these past few days ever since the linkshell decided to break the same old routine. We started to expand on some newer prospects like the renewal of our sea ventures and the new dynamis areas. As well as limbus trips to play with proto omega.

First on the list was a trip to see Mr. Omega. We gave him a try on jan. 30 with less desirable results. Nevertheless, it was alot of fun. It was funny seeing people running for their lives only to get run down and stomped..haha. Everything was going fine until it released some orb thing and started standing on 2 legs. I wasn't paying attention because I was too busy running around trying to raise people, keeping a hospital on the north side of the battle area, and running away when it decided to look at me funny.

Second is our trip to one of the new Dynamis areas. This time it was to Valkurm where we started out with no subjobs. Since this was our first time, we had trouble finding where the 3 NMs were that we needed to unlock our subs. Luckily, we were able to find them. The next obstacle was the nm standing guard at Selbina gate. Little did we know that it would spawn mobs if we weren't close to the gate. So, as we started to pull, manticores, goblins, yagudo, etc, etc popped in the middle of our camp and proceeded to put us in our place. It was a messy site. However, we managed to recover and try again. Unfortunately, the Marlboros and their charming abilities overwhelmed us and we wiped. If anything, we learned alot about this and gained some valuable information that we can use for next time.

Finally, our ls had a renewed sense of sea adventure. After farming for several hours, we managed to collect some pop items for sea gods. We've successfully defeated jailers faith, temperance, and fortitude so far. As well as some Ix' mobs. I happened to be one of the lucky few to get their hands on a torque, which is a rare drop from sea gods. The Faith torque I received gave me +7 hand to hand, and marksmanship. Don't forget the +5 mind to improve my chi blasting damage. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to take lots of pictures of our trips.

Caitlin v. 2.5

2006-01-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

Finally, after 4 months of collecting points and watching everyone else get it, Byakko dropped a pair just for me! Actually, he dropped 3 pairs, I just got the first one. My linkshell paid him a visit 4 times in a row today. Luck was on our side because we got lots of good drops. If anything, this moves our somewhat stagnant point positions. With lots of the top point holders out of the way, this gives room for the middle of the list.

In other news, a few things have happened in the past month. Limbus trips have been going well, collecting lots of coins for my next item. With all the coin collecting the linkshell has been doing, I'll be able to get that Brutal earring in no time.

My NPC reached 57 the other day. Also, he reached his 5th weapon upgrade. So that means I paid 100k for a weapon that misses 90% of the time. I'm only a few calls away to get his advanced jobs.

Goodbye, my fellow adventurer

2005-12-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

Today, a fellow adventurer of mine decided to retire exploring Vana'diel. His decision to do so had a pretty powerful impact on my linkshell because he was, in no doubt, one of the core members of the group. Iluvitar was someone I called a friend, regardless of what role he played in the linkshell. We had many adventures together, I only hope that I can run into more people like him in the future.

I met Iluvitar through Hakuhatusu when we were leveling through our 40s. I was still going through my black mage grind when I ran into him, as well as Darrik, Bladewarior, and Bardial. It was fortunate enough that we got to level together for at least a few times. However, our paths would not cross again till we both ended up in Spoondaggers.

So, instead of writing a whole story behind our adventures, I decided to go through some of my pictures I've taken over the years. With the collaboration of Iluvitar's photo journal, I managed to collect a few pictures to show our adventures in Vana'diel.

This shot is from one of our Kirin runs. Kirin was usually a good time to gather around and conspire about ending the Galka race.

This shot is one before we entered the worms BCNM. We would have our fair shares of bcnm battles, some good, some bad..but overall a thrilling experience.

This is a shot from when we first completed the 3 spires (Mea, Holla, Dem) Promathia missions. Even though it was tough to get through those initial missions, it was alot of fun.

After getting access to the new area, we decided to roam around (like any ambitious adventurer). However, we ran into new monsters and didn't know how they would react to our presence. Unfortunately, they didn't believe in leaving us lost wanders alone.

This is from when I got my Scorpion Harness! Iluvitar was so happy for me that we decided to celebrate in the local pub in Jeuno.

Another shot from a Kirin run. It was common to see my fellow tarus gather to take pictures like these.

Here's one from one of my many xp parties with Iluvitar. In this case, Bladewarrior fell besides his all time warrior idol.

This shot is from one of the many Hakutaku runs Spoondaggers held for their members. It was just fortunate that both of us managed to get our hats on the same run!

Another celebration shot. This picture was from when I got my black belt. In the usual routine, I'd send a tell to Iluvitar and ask him to take a picture with me in celebration of a great event!

This shot is one from our many trips to sky, farming items to pop gods. On this occasion, our linkshell just beat Mother Globe.

This shot was from......hmm...I don't exactly remember what this was from. However it has Iluvitar there missing the synchronized emotes(one of many instances).

Following an ongoing LS nickname, Iluvitar made a mule to hold all his cooking stuff. While waiting for other members of our party to finish some rank mission cut scenes, I took this picture showing Ilu and his evil twin.

Victory is ours! We finally beat Windurst Rank 10! To celebrate, our group all got Akeons and took this screenshot. We see why I call Iluvitar's twin evil. Ruined a good shot /cry.

Here we have a fight against Garuda Prime. This would be my first avatar I had to fight for. Of course, Iluvitar is there to help me on, as well as Bladewarrior.

Here's one of our 6 attempts to get some rse earrings. Unfortunately, we didn't get anything (and by anything as in empty treasure chest). But we managed to get a synchronized emote for once...

This was from when Voluptuous Vivian was wandering around and no one to play with her. So our linkshell decided to go for Looloo. How fortunate for her that we got it on the first drop. Another adventure that involved Iluvitar.

This was from a ENM trip in Bearclaw Pinnacle. I'm not sure which we did, but it was an adventure getting up there to say the least.

Here's one from when we were waiting for people to gather to fight Fafnir.

Through thick and thin, Iluvitar has always been there for not only me, but for everyone that relied on him. That's why he was such a core member for the linkshell. Thanks for the good times, good laughs, and this taru's adventure more interesting. I hope you enjoy your retirement!

Bahamut, part 1

2005-12-15T09:07:00.000-08:00

Today, my linkshell decided to tempt fate and confront the Wyrm king, Bahamut. After gathering information from fellow adventurers from all servers, we decided that the best way to fight him was to treat it like a King Behemoth fight.

In my opinion, this first encounter was anti-climatic in the sense that he was almost too easy. We had a much harder time getting to the bc rather than the actual fight itself. I'm not saying that Bahamut was a pushover, but it definitely didn't feel like a "you're fighting the wyrm king". However, this is just the first part of the quest. As of this date, no one knows how to use the "Whisper of the wyrmking" key item. Some say, there's an orb you need to get. Others insist it's a timed quest like the Mithra Trackers. In any case, the next fight will surely be an epic one.

In other, rather now insignificant news, my npc hit lvl 46. I decided to make him a healer type now that I'm starting to run into monsters that have the potential in hurting me.

What to do, what to do...

2005-12-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Ever since the completion of my adventure through Promathia, things have been rather dull. These past few days, I've been capping xp for my 75 jobs, camping some kings, and leveling my npc.

I almost feel guilty for neglecting my npc, but then I see the galka, then I resume thinking that it's my slave. However, slave or not, he managed to get to 44 today! Yay! I have to see what all this expansion of the fellows npc is. I'm guessing I'll have to do something like a genkai when he hits 50.

Another activity I've been pursuing is my elemental obi. The quest requires me to get a colored chip(depending on what I want), and a silver obi. After that, I have to go farm 3 tissues, 7 of one type of organ, and 3 of another type. At least that's what I understand, I could be wrong, considering the npc wants everything.... On one occasion I found myself soloing for organs (with no success...) and I happened to take a screen shot of one of my more powerful casts.

Banisher of Emptiness

2005-11-29T22:47:00.000-08:00

The title one receives after beating one of the most exciting (exhausting), mind blowing (expensive), and adventurous(painfully long) journeys I have ever been on. After much hardships and complications (scheduling, member issues), we finally got through it all. The final battle was pretty harsh on us all.

Our last leg started with 8-3, a 4 hour trip running through the Garden of Ru'Hmet getting branded by stuff for whatever reason, as well as finding certain towers in order to receive some key items needed to continue. We also ended up running through rooms to intentionally die to get through it faster. The end of this mission? A fight with 4 pots that can't be silenced.. we killed one pot and 95% through another one before we wiped. Fortunately, we wiped far enough away not to get agro'd when we reraised. After recovering from the wipe, we managed to defeat the rest of them easily.

Four hours later, we decided to finish it right there and then. So we headed down to the Empyreal Paradox to come face to face with Promathia himself. The good thing about this is that we had the help of a couple npcs with some neat tricks!

With the assistance, Promathia's first form was fairly easy. It was straight forward, not so difficult fight. His second form however, was a bit rougher on us. It wasn't because we got lazy, but it was the fact that he decided to do more skills in a shorter amount of time. Our problem was we were getting hit by his meteor attack, as well as alot of his AoE dmg stuff. At the end, it was one of our NPC helpers that won it for us. After a few more cutscenes, I was finally able to get my Raja's Ring!!!

Through all that, I was taking pictures like a tourist! I got some really nice screenshots! I hope you enjoy them.

Ouryu ver. 2.0

2005-11-23T10:32:00.000-08:00

My linkshell decided to give the upgraded Ouryu a try a couple days ago. We managed to pull off a win the 2nd attempt.

On the first attempt, we went on Earthsday (if you didn't know, Ouryu is an earth based monster) and ended up running away after dying/reraising 4 times. The second time was much better. My role as a blm was to assist the rdm in keeping the adds slept, as well as participating in the magic bursts. MP wasn't so much of a problem because all I had to do was aspir any of the 5-6 other monsters. I had no idea how much the drops are worth, but I heard they are pretty good.

In other news, I finally got my hands on a pair of Sorcerer's Gloves. To give you an idea on how long I've been trying to get a pair, just imagine this. My mind was set on trying to get them before I even started leveling monk, which is now 75. So it's been a good year since I've been trying to get my hands on a pair.

C.o.P. Progress

2005-11-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a long month for our C.o.P. team, but we've managed to persevere. As of yesterday, we finally got to chapter 7 in the story! This meant getting past the dreaded airship battles. The average loss of gil for everyone in the party was around 2 million, which lead most of us to being broke or really close to it.
So here's how it broke down:
Cakes: NIN/WAR
Bardi: NIN/WAR
Telok: RNG/NIN
Twanger: WHM/SMN
Haku: RDM/WHM
Cait: BLM/WHM

Mammets:
The mammets were much easier than their brothers in chapter 2, so this was a cake walk. Cakes, Bardi, Haku, Telok, and myself kited one as Twanger watched our general health. Mammets cannot sleep, so kiting in my case was done by bind, stun, and repeat. I usually didn't use Yellow Liquid until I see them take out a polearm weapon. When they take out a staff, I just silenced them.
When my target was bound, silenced, etc and my buffs (blink, stoneskin) were up, I'd go ahead and nuke one of the melees's mammet. Eventually, but quickly, the mammets died and HP/MP went to full. Then we went on to Omega

Omega:
Omega, the source of all our problems, and the reason of our lack of wealth. However, the time we beat him was the time he decided not to go all crazy on us with very damaging moves. The ninjas would go take it to the other side of the ship, while everyone else stood back and did ranged dmg. At this point, I was making sure I aspir'd whenever I could, and went ahead and used half of my hi ethers I brought along.
At around 40% it started going crazy, in which case I decided to just yell out when to use CCBs. After using the first CCB, I went ahead and skillchained with the nin and rng, then followed up with e.seal Burst which took off about 7% of it's health. I believed we used 2 CCBs for Omega and it stayed docile with the weaponskills....Thank god.

Ultima:
We've only seen Ultima 3 times. 1st time we wiped, and 2nd we ran out of time. The 3rd time's a charm! We pretty much treated this as an Omega fight, but it started to go crazy on us at around 50% Using the rest of our CCBs( I think we had 3 left), we managed to keep it pretty calm. However, it turned a couple times when it was at 15% and petrified the entire back line. At this point, we thought we lost again..but our ninjas are very very good at staying alive and managed to do so until our petrifaction wore off. After a few more spells, I thought I would get the finishing blow. However, it was stolen from me by Haku;;;;;;;;; A rdm ftw is so wrong...
However, my taru rage and revenge type nature subsided when we won and were treated to very cool cut scenes.

The good thing about beating airship is well...beating it! No more spending 200k for meds and wasting hours of prime xp time. Another good thing is that it's the last of the capped battles. So now we can all go there with our 75s and finish it right.

C.o.P. Progress and Random randoms

2005-10-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

My CoP group teamed up with another linkshell called Final Chapter to assist each other through the nightmare that is known as Promyvion-Vhazl(CoP 5.2). I was very glad we did, because this trip was no walk in the park.

First of all, the zone is a level 50 cap area, which got us in trouble right away when we passed the stone door to get to the elevator. During 5.1, we had to go through the same area to get a cut scene. There were no enemies then, so we thought there were no enemies now. We were wrong. As we got in, people started casting spells on the elevator. This attracted those nice pots sitting around that weren't there before! We managed to fight off the entire room with only 1 casualty. After that wakeup call, we knew we had to pay attention the entire time. We bravely entered the unknown, with our webpages full of information telling us where to go..lol

Secondly, this area is all true sight, meaning no way to sneak or invis around anywhere. So we attempt to "sneak" by stuff, only to get some straggler who manages to get a mob or 3's attention.

Third, this stage was just long. It involved 5 levels of climbing, 2 of which you fight memory globe things in order to advance. The final 3 added a nice NM fight to save some people (I mean, it would've only been 2, I didn't think the Elvaan needed saving). The neat part about beating these NMs is that once they're dead, you can warp to that floor! No need to climb through at least the first 2 floors.

Finally, it all culminates to an epic battle between your party and the three previous "boss" mobs from Holla, Dem, and Mea. Our CoP group always goes in well informed and prepared when it comes to big fights like this. We did beat this without too much of a problem. Twanger got Freeze off before I did to finish..no fair!

While rummaging through my screenshots during maintenance, I had forgotten that I took this pic on a rare event. Voluptuous Vivian is a once a day pop with a even worse drop rate for her ring. This picture shows it dropping on Looloo's first try! As you can tell from the picture that everyone was pretty surprised.

C.o.P. Chapter 5 and King Behemoth

2005-10-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

Today was an active one for me. My linkshell decided to camp Fafnir and Behemoth. Fafnir popped during the first window, however, we were unable to claim it due to a fast Chi Blast. The story was different with King Behemoth. Needless to say that we won, via kiting, which is well practiced in our linkshell (even though sometimes not on purpose.....). I'm not too familiar of what drops on King, but we got drops nonetheless.

In other news, my CoP team finally reached Chapter 5 in the story. I never ever want to go through that forsaken place ever again. Let's just say it was a rough trip. We were very fortunate to run into another group doing the same mission. Without their help, we might failed for tonight.

Fafnir!

2005-10-11T00:09:00.000-07:00

After a 7 hour maintenance today, the linkshell found most of it's members logging in from Dragon's Aery. We managed to pull Fafnir again, even with a rough start. However, the win was well earned, and the prizes were very nice. First was a Ridill. This is our second one to drop (As far as I've been there). The other was of a more personal goal, the Aquarian Abjuration: Hands. I finally got my hands on one! I quickly rushed over to San'doria to get my mitts uncursed! So now I'm a proud owner of Zenith Mitts.

Ouryu Overthrown!!!

2005-10-07T00:15:00.000-07:00

What an exciting fight! After hearing many stories of this monster, my CoP team decided it was time to pay a visit to Mr. Ouryu. The navigation was a little rough, but we managed to all make it there in one piece, sort of. We had a death on the way there, as well as several disconnects! At least we didn't start the fight on Earthsday. Prior to this encounter, we decided to go fight with 3 BLM, RDM, WHM, NIN. Our plan was to freeze volley, and sleep. After 2 volleys and 2 mistmelts, all the blm turned on Manafont and won! With our precise synchronized Freezing (led by me, a thank you), we were able to get in 9 freeze attacks to kill it! Everyone on CoP team did a very good job, with very good knowledge going into the fight!

A journey revisited

2005-10-06T23:36:00.000-07:00

I must apologize for the lack of updates, it was just a matter of motivation and time constraints that prevented me from updating my journal. I regret not having to update in over a month because plenty of activities were going on.

Just a quick update on what's been happening... My linkshell, Spoondaggers, recently decided to do more sky runs as the kings stayed on "Japanese" time. During those few days, I managed to win myself a very hard earned, long overdue Kirin's Osode! It set me back a few points, but due to some very persistent actions, I have been xping on Ulikummi, which is worth 10 points! So now, I'm back up in position to bid on my next item, Byakko's Haidate.

In terms of King runs, SD has been going on a good streak of participation. Last Fafnir camp I attended had 2 full alliance and half of a 3rd. I'm still waiting for my chance for A.Hand abjuration. I have the cursed gloves sitting in my mog house waiting to be freed!

In CoP news, my team finally beat Diablos on the 3rd attempt. For anyone who wants to know, STUN NIGHTMARE!!!! It used that nightmare attack 4 times on us. We managed to contain 2 but 2 of them were able to go off. However, the ones that hit us came very late in the game. So Darrik was able to use Benediction on the melees as Bardial turned on the Heavy Strikes 2hour for the win! I of course, died....alone...again.. Oh well, we won and that's what counts!

In National news, I finally reached the rank of 10 for the nation of Windurst! In celebration of our victory over the Joker, our Windurst team got the national uniform! Shortly after our victory, I changed over to Bastok to do it all over again!

In miscellaneous news, I finally got some avatar pacts! Garuda and Shiva officially work for me! I was so happy to be able to cast my first avatars in the middle of the Altepa Desert! For now, I have to work on getting the rest of the forks so I can complete my pokemon collection.
Speaking of collections, my collection of str items include one very elusive earring, the Waetoto's Earring. This sly piece of equipment drops off a ENM called Automation Assault. My taru squad (Semma, Iluvitar, Caitlin) have attempted this 4 times. Unfortunately, we've gotten NOTHING all 4 times. When I say nothing, I mean, the treasure chest was empty! Thankfully the timer is back up so we can attempt it for the 5th time...

To sum up, alot of activities have been going on during this past month! Hopefully more exciting times await me with the new CoP challenges and the adventure of my future job, Red Mage!

Vrtra Vanquished!

2005-09-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

In the wee morning hours of today, Nightbane finally took down the last cop wyrm. Vrtra. I wasn't in the main alliance, so I didn't get to see what dropped. However, from the OMGs and WOWs, I assume they were good drops.

In other news, Zoldolf hit the big 40 today. He had some new armor that actually looked cool!

Mission 8-1

2005-09-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

On September 8th, I decided to go ahead and finish 8-1. This involved getting a wand from a nm in Davoi. We had 5 people needing that wand, and the nm will only drop 2 per kill. So, we had to fight this thing three times. With a 15-30 min respawn time, we had a lot of nothing to do.

The nm is a black mage type, and had a habit of casting AoE spells to start. However, our rdm was pretty good with sticking the silences, so it wasn't so bad.

Fafnir!

2005-09-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

On September 7th, our linkshell managed to grab Fafnir via Stun. This new claiming system has really leveled the playing field between the Jpn and NA's. It wasnt a super mean one, so the fight went pretty smooth. The drops were on the weak side, but we still claimed Fafnir nontheless.

Dynamis San d'oria

2005-09-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

On September 6th, DownTheRamp went on it's bi-weekly trip to Dynamis. San d'oria was next on the rotation. This trip was full of af2! Unfortunately, no monk af dropped. However, I did get hit with 3 Eagle eye shots, and was victim of 2 Hundred Fists. You can see the photos I took at Caitlin's Albums.

Before going to dynamis, Zoldof gained another level! He achieved level 39 and new armor.

AF 1s

2005-09-09T12:06:00.000-07:00

September 5th was a pretty slow day, so I decided to finish my af 1 for my White Mage and Dragoon. The white mage af was first. I stole xp mobs from a group to gain tp and started the fight with a 300 TP Asuran Fist. The fight took about 3 mins to finish. This af is more useful than, let's say, monk af 1. It has the mp, which I'm told is most important for white mage.

The Dragoon AF was a walk in the park as well. For fun, I decided to turn on Hundred Fists. The NM knew what I was doing and decided to turn on Invincible at the same time. At the end, my Destroyers would live up to it's name and the antican nm went down.

After the AFs, I called Zoldof and went to xp. He had a change of armor again! Where does he get the gil to buy it?? Seems a little shady to me.

King Vinegarroon and Zoldof too

2005-09-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

On September 4th, I log in to find that most of the linkshell is in Alteapa Desert. I curiously ask around to see why this is so, and was replied with "King Vinegarroon!! Fighting right now!" This must be one of the new notorious monsters that I've read about, that or my knowledge of desert mobs must be pretty weak.

With an interesting name like that, my curiosity led me to the outpost and headed to the fight. From the hectic fury of commands and comments from fighting this monster, I learned that it had an uncanny regeneration rate. I also learned that the linkshell has been fighting it for over 2 hours and the monster was still at 100%.

The strategy they had going at the time was to try to nonstop skillchain with magic bursts. Apparently, they got it down to 80% (I wasn't around at that time to see it happen) by using this method. However, they were lacking the manpower to generate the appropriate skillchains.
The scorpion had a nasty habit of drawing in the alliance and using it's AoE attacks which would cripple, if not kill much of the alliance. It wouldn't have been so bad if it didn't do it every 2 mins.

At the end, the linkshell decided that our strategy wasn't working and had to use a new one if we had a hope of taking down the king. So we just gave up and left it alone...until next time.

After that whole experience, I decided to go to Xarcabard to level with my npc. He's leveling nicely, achieving level 38 during the session.

Mission 7-2

2005-09-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

On September 3rd, my friend Semma decided to complete the final mission for rank 8. Naturally, I helped out because it was only a matter of taking out one monster. Sounds easy right? However, the placement of this notorious monster was around sight agro tonberrys, magic agro dolls and pots.

Even with everything around, Semma managed to cleanly pull with Carbuncle and the fight began. It wasn't so bad at first, even though the two Throat Stabs almost killed me. At around 20% hp, it decided to use "Everyone's Rancor" on me. I hit the floor harder than Mcdohl does against me in Ballista, it was brutal.

Unfortunately, this left Semma in a difficult position. So the Reverend Mail came out and she finished it off, along with tonberry add and a pot. Luckily, she killed the nm before the pot finished her off.