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.

Vrtra

2005-09-02T02:26:00.000-07:00

Today I went with the NightBane LS to take on Vrtra. It was my first time to fight it, so I had no clue on strategies they were planning on using. I just accepted the invite and observed everyone else.

It was a pretty good fight for 99% of Vrtra's health. I was part of the BLM alliance, so our job was to take out any of the monsters Vrtra summoned. As the battle progressed, the more mobs were summoned. However, we were able to contain it, for 99% of the battle. It was very unfortunate that we wiped at 1% health, I guess everyone got excited and lost focus on the final stretch.

Even though we wiped, it was a very exciting battle! I'm wondering why I haven't been participating before. I'll have to pay attention and catch the times they do go, because it seems like something I'd to do.

In other news. Zoldof got new armor again, and level 37! Things are progressing nicely.

Dynamis-Jeuno

2005-08-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

DownTheRamp Linkshell went on one of it's bi-weekly dyanamis runs. This trip had quite a few af drop. RDM, BRD, BLM, RNG, WAR, DRK, and DRG all dropped. To my surprise, I only died once, as opposed to the 4-5 deaths I usually have. However, my death was very painful..

Zoldof is doing pretty well, changed armor again!

More Sky

2005-08-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

What started out to be a random farming session due to the lack of parties in sky, I ended up staying there the entire day. The linkshell managed to get plenty of nm, as well as a couple gods. To top it all off, we fought Kirin again. This time around, he went down much faster after we figured out what we had to do. It was a little unusual that I went as black mage (because I normally dont go as blm, and I really didn't know what a blm role was in kirin), but I made it look like I knew what I was doing. However, I saw that my fellow linkshell black mages were doing lots of dmg, and I knew I've neglected mine for so long. So, I'm going to try to update this job as soon as I can.

In other news, last Friday, the Linkshell decided to do Totentaz to get Nynja that dagger. We only had 11 people show up, but the fight went on without any casulties. It's a shame that Nynja didn't get the dagger. Oh well, there's always next Friday.

Zoldof hit another level on the 26th. He's now level 35. The next day, he got some new armor again.

Zoldof Status

2005-08-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

Just something real quick. My npc finally changed body armor. He now wears Chainmail, I think. Take a look at the screenshot for yourself

Sky Hunters

2005-08-25T07:54:00.000-07:00

On the 22nd, the linkshell did something we haven't done in months, go to sky. It was somewhat a nostalgic feeling of days gone by, running around hitting teleports, making sure we don't go too close to the dolls, etc. It was pretty busy for us because 1.) It was right after maintenance and 2.) Sky was empty.

We were able to farm Steam Cleaner(twice), Mother Globe, Bragandish Blade, and Despot. Also, with some of our items from previous farming runs, we were also able to take on Byakko, Seiryu, and Kirin.

The Kirin fight was a long, long fight. Since the ranger nerf, we had to find out the most effective way in doing damage. After about 2 hours of fighting, it was still at 78% health. However, we found out that when it would start casting a big spell (Quake, Stone V), the paladins would stop and everyone would skillchain, followed by magic bursts. I switched to monk so I can do damage with my chi blast. However, I had no mind gear, so I was only doing 800-1080 dmg. If I had all the things I needed, I could've been hitting 1400-1700. It seems that Kirin gets annoyed when monks use Chi blast on him. I died twice in a row after using it.

Zoldof Zoolander

2005-08-20T19:43:00.000-07:00

My galka npc keeps amazing me every time I call him. It seems to be getting some sort of income to get new gear, here are some pictures

Becoming A Bushin

2005-08-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

Bushins, mighty as mountains, and strong as the gods. There are but a handful of them left in Vana'diel, but their presence is as great as Altana herself.

Fafnir today was the meanest one the LS has ever encountered so far. It started out with a jp linkshell called Flowers getting first claim. However, they did so with only 5-6 people. However, monsters like Fafnir get stronger over time, and after about an hour, that linkshell couldn't handle it anymore and escaped. We allowed it to cool down a little before engaging it.

At about 5% health, Fafnir decided to go crazy. Our alliance went all out and even though we lost a few people to it's Hurricane Wing, we managed to use brute force to take it down.

Finally, a wyrm beard! I had an intention of spoling the whole story behind the black belt, but I decided against it. So instead, I'll post pictures of hurraying with a couple LS mates!

This is with a NA.

This is with that JP pld.

Chapter 2: Growing Pains

2005-08-18T10:17:00.000-07:00

Joining the Gilgamesh server meant losing all my progress on Fairy. Justifying that most of my time there was spent trying to figure out how stuff worked, I decided it wasn't much lost. By the time I got on Gilgamesh, Hakuhatsu was already level 7. He showed me his new spell, "Water". I was amazed at the 11 damage it did on a bee. Taking the things I learned from Fairy(moving, equipping, and spellcasting), I got more accomplished in a few hours than I have been in the last few days.

I managed to find myself to level 7 when my friend decided to leave Vana'diel. So I was alone for now. I leveled near Windurst until I wandered into a new zone called Giddeus. I checked my map, only to realize I had no map. So that meant, no map, no Caitlin! So I hurried back and decided to see what the east side held for me.

When I reached the outpost in West Sarutabaruta, I saw two amazing things. The first was a person riding a chocobo! "Wow, cool, when can I do that" I thought. The second thing I saw was a paladin casting holy on a crawler, causing 100+ damage on it. To a person seeing single digit damages, 100+ was jaw dropping. I thought Holy was an end game spell at that point.

Around the time I hit level 10, I decided to see what this canyon past East Sarutabaruta was all about. I found myself there until level 14 finishing up by fighting Akabas by some bone remains. While fighting Akabas, I got a new little line saying "Soandso invites you to his party" and a little exclamation point appears on top of my health bar. Intrigued, I went ahead and accepted it (blind invite, no tell, no dinner, no conversation, no anything). I was greeted by the auto-translate functions. The party leader, who I shall call Bob for simplicity, tells us that we're heading to Valkurm Dunes. Having no clue where that is, I informed them that Tahrongi Canyon was the farthest I've ever been anywhere. They all understood and we proceeded to head there.

Bob asks the group if we all had touched the crystal at Mea yet. Having no clue what he was talking about, I raised my hand along with 3 other people in the group. So we all took a side trip, and that's when I got Mea.

The next zone we arrived at was Buburimu Peninsula. I was thinking to myself how big this world is and how far away from home I was. We then arrived in my first foreign town, Mhaura. I felt like an adventurer now! Bob tells us we'll take the ferry to head to Valkurm. After paying that expensive 100 gil, we all boarded the ship and I was entertained by the ship cut scene as we were leaving.

This was my first boat trip, and unfortunately my first pirate encounter. The music started to change, and I can hear passengers run up to the deck to prepare for them. All I could hear from my little corner were battle sounds and magic casting. It sounded like a war up there. When the battle subsided, our ship docked into a town called Selbina. Bob points us to the direction of the dunes, and there my Valkurm experience began.

Valkurm, hmm..first impressions.. I can remember it being very very bright. This was also the first time I found out the concept of the camp was. My first party was a disaster. It wasn't that we were lacking the people, but we didn't have the experience. Let's just say we didn't last very long. This would be a theme for my Valkurm trips for many parties to come.

After a string of those bad parties, a japanese player named Allure invited me into a NA/JP party. Three NAs and three JPs. The NAs consisted of Rodney (later to be known as Bemoon), myself, and another person for whom I can't remember for the life of me. Allure's party taught me the concept of magic burst by demonstrating it with his ninjitsu. Allure would forever be known to be my first mentor of sorts. He later would show me how and where to farm, help me acquire several advanced jobs, and help me achieve rank 5. However, these stories are for later. Anyways, I stayed at Valkurm until level 18, then I started my trek to my next big destination, Jeuno!.....

.....to be continued.

Next time Chapter 3: Jeuno, The City that Never Sleeps

A Galka's Life

2005-08-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Before my move, I managed to get my npc Zoldof to come out and xp with me for a little while. To my surprise, he had new gear on! Then today after my move, I had a chance to xp with him again. This time, he changed clothes again! I can't wait to see this npc in some cool armor.

Chapter 1: A Brief History

2005-08-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Starting in Windurst, I found myself trying to find the best way to move around. After about an hour of accidentally opening menus when I wanted to turn left, I was able to master the art of moving. I can remember my first thought after the initial cut scenes were over, "What now?"

I decided to go ahead and turn it that Adventurer's Coupon that was given to me during that cut scene. Just to let you know, Windurst is not the ideal place to learn how to navigate. Even today, I think it's a confusing place. The quest was to find a cardian called The Jack of Hearts in Windurst Woods. I can remember that a map marker was made for me by the friendly npc who greeted me into the world. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to find the marker itself. After that, I found the cardian I was looking for! Trading for the first time was a quest in itself. When I finally traded, I was rewarded with 50 gil. "250 gil! This must be alot.", I thought. Little did I know that in three or four days, I would discover the Auction House and how wrong that thought would be.

My gil didn't stop my enthusiasm. "I want to fight something!" was my next thought. I wandered around town, trying to find an exit until I found myself in West Sarutabaruta. There I targeted myself a small onion thing called a Tiny Mandagora. So, as a black mage, I pressed the attack button and charged! Needless to say, I died, about 3,4,5,6 times. I knew Japanese games were tough, but this was getting ridiculous.

The world I resided in at the time was in Fairy. However, my friend Hakuhatsu was on Gilgamesh. We both started around the same time, but he was having better luck over there. He was working on getting the 1000 gil for my world pass so I can join in. On the other hand, I was working on not dying, but having no luck there.

During one of my usual dying xp runs, a friendly stranger comes up and asks me why I'm not holding a weapon. He further questions me on why, as a black mage, I was meleeing the way I was and not using any spells. My responses were in the line of "What, isn't this how you fight?" and "I thought you just learned spells as you level." He must have had a good laugh or two from my clueless ways and decided to help me out. After a few minutes, I learned how to equip my weapon and used my first scroll, "Stone". After that, stuff got easier, much easier! Just to let everyone know, I got to level four without casting a spell or equipping a weapon. A couple days later, Hakuhatsu told me that obtaining a worldpass was a little too tough for him at the time. Being resourceful, I surfed the message boards and found myself a free pass, so I was able to find my way into Gilgamesh...

..to be continued.

Next time, Chapter Two: Growing Pains

Passing the time

2005-08-11T17:00:00.000-07:00

Today, real life events will prevent me on going on adventures from the 12-15th. So now I sit here on the floor with no desk (in the moving van) writing a little this and that to pass the time. Other than the hectic, loud, "something sounds broken" noise of the move, everything is just fine!

In Vana'diel, there isn't much for me to do during the day. So, I did what any taru would do, take the galka slave out xping. However, this slave of mine is lazy (doesn't like to stay too long), and talks to much (aka /say "Bring it on!" /ja Provoke). I noticed he got himself brand new gloves, leg, and feet armor. However, he still has that ugly scale thing body armor, and that stick he carries around calling it a sword. Our camp was by the Eastern Altepa Desert outpost where I would harass the goblins in the area. He even gained a level while we were there, Zoldof is now level 31. I really hope he gets some new gear next time I bring him out.

Later that day, Bladewarrior asks me to help him out on a quest for a Jaeger Mantle. To the uneducated, this mantle is good for monks at his level (I believe he told me his monk was 46ish..I wasn't really paying attention, you know, loud noises.). He managed to bring Yuber along for the trip, and the 3 of us decided to pay a visit to Davoi. To make a long story short, he ended up getting the item he needed, and tried to mpk me when I went afk. Silly hume, everyone knows Tarus are the dominant race. I wish I took screenshots, but there wasn't really anything to screenshot.

To wrap up, our linkshell plans another trip to Fafnir, hopefully Nidhogg. I'm really hoping to get the claim so I can get my black belt. It would be a nice going away gift..until the 15th.

*Sidenote
This is a little off topic of the whole scope of things, but I managed to find a cute, yet addicting game. It's called Nanaca crash. This little flash game makes you hit a guy with a bike and sending him off. Now the point is to get him as far as you can, with little boosts along the way. Anyways, just google the game and you'll find it. Here's a shot of my best score so far, feel free to beat it and send it to me.

NA {Sleep} {Do you need it?}

2005-08-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

This is what those jpn players were thinking when us NA people are claiming HNMs on their time. Today our linkshell managed to outpull 2 other jpn LS's. These jpn were known to camp fafnir everyday, anytime. However, our super star Stamp ver. 2 managed to get down to Dragon's Aery at lvl 25 and pull. This Fafnir was tougher than most, but he dropped alot of stuff! Good job everyone!

Maintenance Monday

2005-08-08T14:12:00.000-07:00

SE decided to make a 18 hour playonline maintenance today, so no adventures for me. However, there were a few things I did yesterday that I guess I feel like talking about.

First, Guriri needed to get the last part of the npc quest completed. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get that far in the quest, so I spent a good 20 mins catching up. When I finally did, we recruited Semma's help and we all went to Ghelsba Outpost to say hello to the dragon. Since the fight was capped at level 40, I went in as my black mage with a shield, summer wear, and my lvl 1 country ring. It was also a chance for me to play with my newly acquired Stonega 2 (Guriri told me I needed it, but Fire 2 ended up doing more damage.) which I spent 160k for. After a rude line cutter, we got ready to go in ourselves. To our surprise, Semma could not join us for the fight. So it was up to Guriri and myself. It wasn't too hard of a battle, our npcs came out at 50% to assist us. It turned out that we both got the exact same npc..galka slaves....

After the fight, we decided to go play with them over in Eastern Altepa Desert. They didn't like to stay out for very long, and soon we headed to Bastok.

In Bastok, I decided to go ahead and painfully grind a level on Goldsmithing. As of this writing I've made it to level 51 after going through a million gil! It's a little slow, but I'm really set on getting those guild glasses before playing with the platinum materials.

Later that day, an old friend of mine, Hakuhatsu, decided that he wanted to unlock the samurai job quest. So I helped him fight the 2 NMs and he did just that.

After the maintenance, I'm hoping the Linkshell gets another chance at Fafnir! Excitement!

Totentaz, again?!

2005-08-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of the week where the linkshell goes on its daily trip to Mr. GAK's place. This time around, there was plenty of participants. We had to break it down to two groups, the semi SD time oriented and the true SD time oriented. My group, the semi-sd-oriented started about 30 mins past the scheduled time. I wasn't online long enough to know when the other group went, or what dropped from their trip. However, we got very good drops on our trip! I expect to get some nice gil from this, only to lose it trying to craft later on.

In other news, I decided to help my sister out on rank missions, so we managed to get 2-3, and 3-1 completed. We plan to finish off 3-3 in the upcoming days.

Journey to true power starts with a single taru

2005-08-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

After countless hours, several Giddeus trips, and a few thousand k, I was finally able to unlock the quest for my black belt.

After the hume laughed at my attempt to even dream of obtaining one, a taru comes to my rescue. However, he's asking me for things in exchange!! That no good greedy taru.... Oh well, my quest will go on. As of this writing, I've obtained 2 of the 3 things necessary to complete this quest.

Of the few quests I have ever done, this one is a big achievement for me. My tells are blocked out because, you know, they're private..

JP Onry!

2005-08-02T16:01:00.000-07:00

Wow, what can I say? Today we got Nidhogg and it was great! I thought I was fighting in a jpn LS. Although the drops were ok, we got the important one, the abjuration needed for the pld's koenig body. Mcdohl turned into a jp today when he got his equipment uncursed. It was a tough fight, but congratulations to all my fellow Nidhogg slayers!!

This is the day Mcdohl became JP ONRY!

Fafnir Foiled!

2005-08-01T15:48:00.000-07:00

This camping trip is a little different now because of the update. SE decided to change how nortorious monsters are claimed by extending the time of non-claimability (is that a word?). What happens is that no one is able to use abilities or spells for a set amount of time after it pops. Doing so will suspend that action for a duration of time.

How we claimed it was amazing in itself. One of the LS monks, Brucelee, was resting at the time of the pop. He got up and claimed it with Chi Blast. It was pretty amazing. The battle itself went smooth, no real emergencies, and no real need to sleep it.

We got it to drop a Ridill! I'm sure people were excited. True power eludes me once again, no wyrm beard. Oh well, there's always tomorrow. I need to talk with Nidhogg tomorrow to make sure he logs in.

Free Fafnir!

2005-08-01T00:55:00.000-07:00

About an hour before the scheduled pop time, I look to see who is in Dragon's Aery. To my surprise, nobody! This is when I start sending tells to our Fafnir coordinators whether or not we should camp and letting them know that the place was empty.

It was pretty amazing how fast we assembled. We got about 12 people for the first window, and filled it to 18 by the second one. For once, aery was lag free and didn't hold 70 people in it. Drops were ok, we were able to get another Hrotti to drop. Congratulations to Timmytank on his brand new sword!

Corses!!! Corse you all!

2005-07-30T04:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a little hectic for me. I managed to get myself killed twice just getting to the ENM site. It all started with my usual walking down a path while watching tv routine. Someone then shouts on the linkshell chat that a NM called Xolotl had popped. At the time, I was mildly paying attention to the chatter. I knew it was up somewhere. Going along my merry way, I noticed corses on the way there. Having traveled that way many times, I knew this was a common site during the night hours. What I failed to realize was how badly I misjudged the position of this NM. I run past it, not paying it any mind when I realize one of it's minions was casting Blizzaga 3 on me. It was then that it dawned on me that Xolotl had realized I was there and decided to have me for dinner. I further realized as I was running, I was running into the group who were shouting it's appearance in the first place.

I didn't feel like MPKing anyone today, so I just ran back the way it came. That's when the Blizzaga 3 hit, as well as 3 other bones plus Xolotl hitting me at once. Now, my character had about 1400-1450 hp, pretty beefy for a taru. I saw my HP go from 100% to 0% in a matter of seconds. Maybe having that summer wear gear on at the time didn't help my defense any.... that was death number 1.

So the story continues, people start gathering for this fight. Thinking we were ready, we started our assault. Now, 10 seconds after we started fighting, we realize that a group had teleported out of the zone...something that was overlooked. We also realized that our ninja tank was afk...again, something overlooked. However, due to the unnatural talents of our linkshell mages, they managed to kite the minions and kept Xolotl busy long enough for our ninja to wake up and start tanking. I have to say our mages did an excellent job as well as a couple of summons playing tank roles.

After the ninja takes hate, I also went in to engage. It was pretty straight forward after that. If I got hate, I turned around to wait for ninja to reclaim. It was going pretty smoothly until towards the end where it decides to charm the tank and myself. I started going after one of our black mages *coughTemjincough*. Luckily, I was slept before any more damage was done.

Finally, the ninja and I woke up from our sleep and continued to finish it. When Xolotl was at 10% hp, it decided to pay attention to me. It hit me about 5 times before I died, again...death #2

So! We finally took that thing down!! What was our big prize?! A Dark Crystal! WOW! I died twice for this? I couldn't help but laugh, then I cried when I looked at my exp loss....

Now, after we get to Boneyard Gully, we geared up and ready to go against Mr. GAK. This guy was a pushover this time. I didn't even get charmed until the very end. We didn't get the knife, but I got my 3500 limit points! After I get my next merit point, I'll be able to max out my Monk Counter rate...good times!

I have to apologize for not getting screen shots on the Xolotl battle, it was pretty crazy the whole time, I didn't have time to snap some photos..

*Side Note - I finally was able to get my high quality version of the summer wear! Yay!

Summer wear

2005-07-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today, I teamed up with Guriri and we both worked on getting our summer swimsuits. This is Vana'diel's summer event, and we wanted to check it out. It involved getting 2 people in a party and talking to a moogle, who is located in 2 places in each city. The point of the game is to find certain check points around the area to see if you can find a doll. The moogle gives out clues by telling where the check point is, relative to your partner's position. This takes some teamwork because one person has to sit by the moogle guiding the partner around by telling what direction to go.

As of this writing, I only have the normal quality version. Hopefully later tonight, Guriri will come back so we can finish getting our high quality version.

Promyvion-Holla Reloaded

2005-07-29T17:08:00.000-07:00

This event happened yesterday, but due to it's late happening, today was the first chance I had to write about it.

After two unsuccessful attempts at the Divine Might BCNM, I decided to go help out a group who needed some Promyvions done. My role was just to babysit, to make sure they get up to the top alive. Unfortunately, I was the one to die on the way up to the boss.

As we were traveling through the area, I can remember why I hated going through that place. All the mobs are true sight, they were ugly, and made no real resemblance to anything on Vana'diel. Also, since I always went as white mage, I couldn't any damage. Our damage was relied on a tin can taru, smelly galka, and gimp rangers. Alas, I was just there to be there, I couldn't complain.

However, we ran into a neat little surprise, a NM! This thing called Cerebrator was the mini version of the boss they had to fight. It dropped a couple of ra/ex drops. One was for a map of the area, and the other was to pop another monster that would drop some bow.

We finally got up to the top and I wished them the best of luck. At first it was going great, then things got ugly, fast. My chat screen filled with frantic provokes macros, and utsusemi macros. One by one, the warriors fell as I sat by the entrance, helpless. They came out dead, but not defeated. So they try again...and this time, they died and were defeated. After the 2nd attempt, everyone was tired and decided to go again another day.

Dynamis- Bastok

2005-07-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

At first, I really didn't feel like going on a dynamis run today because all my crafting materials I put up on auction sold. However, since I was already at Bastok, and since my friend Semma was already going, I decided just to go. You know, for moral support.

So, digging through my mog safe, I dusted off my old black mage gear and joined DownTheRamp on their trip to Dynamis-Bastok. It was a very good run, 12 total drops, 8 unique pieces of equipment. Going as black mage reminded me what usually happens every Dynamis, I die about 5-6 times. As usual, there were some funny moments, as in Gaiden's lot of 10 to win a af.

Even though I didn't expect anything out of this run, yours truly got lucky and got herself the bard af gloves! Maybe I should go do more things in the name of moral support more often. The pictures can be found at Caitlin's Album

In the screenshot, you see me in my usual form, dead on the ground.

Crafting, Fafnir, Totentaz, Oh my!

2005-07-22T23:07:00.000-07:00

Today was an interesting day. My bank account is a few hundred thousand gil smaller, thanks to my rush to get to the next stage of goldsmithing , Journeyman. After a painful skilling session, I finally made it to level 48. My next goal is to get those guild sunglasses so I can Ballista in them.

Later that day, our linkshell got Fafnir again! Pretty good drops too! One of our paladins, McDohl, got a Hrotti, and Aegishjalmr. This fight went really smooth, no real emergency, and no need to sleep it. It was a good camp because he did us a favor and popped during his first window. It saved us the boredom and headaches.

Even later that day, the linkshell went on the weekly ENM trip to Boneyard Gully to fight Mr. Gwyn Ap Knudd. However, he didn't want us to have his dagger this time. The general strategy to this guy is just to go all out before he starts getting serious with his minions. So in my case, I turned on my Hundred Fist and let them do the talking. Unfortunately, he thought they were talking too much and decided to charm me. That's when Nynja and Tur died... I'm soo sorry. Torxim was getting hit next, but Mr. GAK died before I can do any more harm.

Monk Madness

2005-07-22T22:52:00.000-07:00

Going through my screenshots, I found a couple from July 20th that were interesting. This particular xp party consisted of 3 Monks, 1 rusty Red Mage, 1 White Mage, and a Bard. We got lucky and got King Ranperre's Tombs all to ourselves. I think even Vtra was thinking "What's that noise?" as we pounded our way through the hapless, helpless skeletons that stood in our way. They might have just as well have a big sign over their head with "Free XP" written on it.

In this screenshot, you see the mighty heros looking to the distance, where free xp awaits them. All stand ready, except the red mage, who insists on sitting instead of healing. He claims that his timing is too good for resting. The stars include: Brucelee as Monk 1, Clay as Monk 2, Caitlin as Monk 3, Iluvitar as Rusty Redmage, Looloo as White Mage, and Vampira as Bard.

Fafnir flopped x2

2005-07-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

On July 17th, our linkshell managed to grab Fafnir yet again! Overall, the fight went pretty smoothly, as we were able to contain it. The drops were ok, no Hrotti, Ridill, or Wyrm Beard. However, due to limited space of the lotter, we lost a couple items. Here are some shots from that battle.

Person who was lotting the items has been erased for their anonymity. The item loss wasn't so bad, but no need for pointless badgering to the person by others.

Dynamis Xarcabard

2005-07-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not updating, I had some real life business to take care of for the past few days. Since I have some time now, I'm going to try to remember what I did in Vana'diel these past few days.

My Dynamis linkshell, DownTheRamp, decided to try Dynamis-Xarcabard on Saturday, July 16th. This trip was our 2nd attempt, and unfortunately, our 2nd loss to him. We had a working strategy, but we either didn't A.) have enough stunners or B.) not enough damage fast enough. The reason why is because his AoE's have very very damaging effects. But you know what they say, "Third time's a charm". He will go down next time, oh yes, he will go down....

Dynamis Lord wasn't the only thing that was disappointing, it was also an AF2-less dynamis. All we got were xp scrolls and the usual currency drops. Finally, as usual...the terrible lag makes my screen look like a slide show. My video card must hate me every time I make it go through Dynamis. I managed to take a few screen shots as well. If you're interested, please visit Caitlin's Albums

Other than that, it was a pretty good run, even though we wiped to Dynamis Lord. His bragging rights end next time we pay him a visit, that's for sure.

More Crafting

2005-07-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

It seems that I'm progressing nicely in Goldsmithing. However, the gil I'm losing seems to get bigger and bigger. Anyways, here's a shot of me being promoted to Apprentice.

Total Totentaz

2005-07-15T22:49:00.000-07:00

My Linkshell, Spoondaggers, go on weekly trips to Boneyard Gully to do ENMs. This week, we did one called Totentaz. The fight overall went pretty smooth, at least I didn't get charmed or get killed by a charmed person (you know who you are....). Unfortunately, this week's drops weren't as good as expected. The good news is that only 14 people showed up, so more loot for everyone.

Another unexpected surprise today, my sister came back to FFXI and just gave me 1 million gil! All I had to do was post a picture here and mention her in my chronicles. It's a good deal if you ask me.

Random randoms

2005-07-15T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today wasn't that active of a day, so I decided to craft. Being ambitious in nature, I decided to pursue Goldsmithing. After 3 days of crafting, I finished today with a +1 synth and the rank of Novice! So, for being a boring day, it was pretty productive.

Fafnir Slayer

2005-07-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day! After several attempts to claim Fafnir, our linkshell was finally able to. Unfortunately, the item I was interested in didn't drop. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

An introduction to a legend

2005-07-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

As the post title says, this will be an introduction to what will be an entertaining blog. First of all, my name is Caitlin, and this is my character's blog for the game Final Fantasy XI. At the time of this writing, I have a 75 BRD, 75 BLM, 75 MNK, and various levels on all the others. I'm currently living in the Gilgamesh server and part of a linkshell called SpoonDaggers. I've been playing this game since the NA launch, so I can consider myself a veteran.

The purpose of this blog is described in the title. This will be a detailed narrative of my adventures in Vana'diel. It will include legendary material and historical events. Now you may think that having three jobs at 75 will assume that I've done it all and seen it all. However, there're so many things left for me to do. I hope you keep tuned in and enjoy my stories I bring in the future.