(Another) Level 50 Duo, East Ronfaure (S)

As Almeth was indisposed, Amedelie came out as Ranger with me for yet another level 50 duo in Ronfaure (S). My primary objective was to kill as many freaking Ladybugs as we could...my Dancer A.F. is gonna cost me an arm and a leg, so anything we can get both experience and gil for, I'm all about it. I got to behold the power of Ranger first hand, as right off the bat Amedelie landed a shot for over 1,000 damage (!!!). Obviously, there ain't a hope in hell for me to pull hate after that, but with a bomb like that, the mobs dropped quickly enough that it really didn't matter. Being that we were fighting a lot more Ladybugs than Colibri this time around, the Amnesia effect got to be annoying at times, but luckily there's plenty of Pixie's flying around, dropping Cure IV's on peeps. I do have to say that I love those little fairies, and I wish they were everywhere all the time...but I can see how that'd kinda sorta break the game and all :)

Anyways, some screenshots from our night:

Next on Animal Planet: When Ladybugs Attack!



"Not so tough now, are ya?!"


If these things existed in the real world, I'm betting you'd need a whole case of Raid to put them down.


I have no idea what Ame's doing back there, but I'm betting Mr. Colibri here ain't gonna like it too much...


"Ready or not, here it comes!"


Final Fantasy XI, the only MMORPG where dancing can literally save your life...


"Jesus Christ, Ame, you set it on fire. That's just mean..."

Level 50 Duo, East Ronfaure (S)

Everyone in Bahamut's Dreadnought was off doing other shit last night, so it was just me and Almeth. I had a ton of shit to mule (still do, actually) and Almeth was finishing up some things as well, so we leisurely did our thing while we kicked around exactly where we wanted to go get a band in. There was Western Altepa Desert, fighting Beetles, and originally that seemed like a plan, but to be honest I wasn't really feeling the desert today. That's when I remembered that the Colibri's and Ladybugs running around in East Ronfaure (S) checked as DC to us, and as Almeth had a bunch of cut scenes to sit through and dumpy quests to do in Southern San d'Oria (S) anyways, we decided to give it a shot. I am so glad we did...although it wasn't easy (like anything ever is for Bahamut's Dreadnought lol), but we managed to do pretty well in my oh so humble opinion.

This is a Colibri. Say Hi, Mr. Colibri! Eat a dick, Mr. Colibri!

So Almeth and I run outside, buff up, sync ourselves, yadda yadda yadda. We fought a Colibri and quickly put it down. Almeth shoots another one, brings it over, and we start whacking at it. That's when I notice it do the strangest weapon skill: Snatch Morsel. Thinking to myself, "Now, what the fuck does that do??" I glance up and notice that my food is now gone. The food I just ate. Colibri can steal your damn food from you. What a prick! Well, it's good to know for future reference, I guess, so the rest of the night Almeth and I fought sans food.

"God, can you at least stay still while we kill you?! Shit!"

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Well, if they only steal food, big fucking deal...you don't need food to fight a DC...", and you're right, that wasn't an issue. However, we quickly learned after a few more of them that Colibri have another trick up their sleeve..."Feather something-or-other" (I can't remember the exact name lol). That ability was way more annoying, because what that does is steal all of your TP. Now when it landed on Almeth, it sucked, but it's not too big of a deal. For me, since I kinda use my TP for like everything I do, it's waaaaaay shitty. Luckily, TP gain on these things went pretty quickly, and my steps landed almost 100% of the time (Thanks to the Dancer's Bangles), so as long as I had 5 finishing moves stored up to "Reverse Flourish" with when they stole my TP, things we're ok. The Colibiri's hit a little hard without shadows, but with Almeth and I trading hate back and forth, it wasn't too much of an issue to shift hate around when one of us needed to get Utsusemi back up.

"Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly away home, You're House....OWWWW MY FUCKING EYE YOU BITCH!!!!! DIE!!!!!!!"

After we fought a Ladybug, we worked out a pretty good strategy, alternating between them and the Colibri depending on my TP and how many Finishing Moves I had saved up. Luckily, the Lady Bugs don't steal TP; they have an even better move they do that causes Amnesia. What does that do, you ask? Well, nothing too major, it only prevents you from doing any job abilities at all. Why does that suck? Because, again, everything I do is a job ability...so when they started dumping that shit on us I got to pretty much sit there and swing and wait for it to wear off. Luckily, it doesn't stick for too long, so it wasn't too much of an issue, and it doesn't prevent one from casting Utsusemi. Like I said, these things hit pretty hard, so if it would have, we probably wouldn't have been fucking with them too much. I found out later that fighting Ladybugs was actually a pretty good financial decision...

"Polly want a cracker? BURN, BITCH!!!"

At any rate, from that point on, things went on without a hitch. We killed with impunity, got tons of Colibri Beaks, Colibri Feathers, and a few Ladybug Wings as well. Since Almeth and I are all about the fucking drops, I did some quick research on ffxiah.com to see what we could expect to get for our haul tonight...Beaks are similar to Beetle Shells, going for about 400 a piece, Feathers about 1k a stack, so they're decent, but nothing to get too excited about. However, Ladybug Wings go for 8k a stack on the Jeuno A.H! I damn near soiled myself (I know, I say that a lot, but it's true). That wasn't even the best part...the Ladybug Wings actually can be turned in for a repeatable quest in Southern San d'Oria (S) at the rate of 3k for 4! After about an hour, I came out with 3, and Almeth with 4, and that was switching between Colibri and Ladybugs...in the future, I'm definitely going to focus on the Ladybugs, my Dancer AF is gonna cost me a fortune and I need to make some money like now.

Another happy discovery was concerning the Colibri. For shits and grins, Almeth decided to try his Hide-Sneak Attack-Trick Attack-Viper Bite action, and my mouth dropped when it landed for like 690 damage...meaning when we do fight the Colibri, as long as they don't steal his TP before hand, he's got a huge bomb to drop on them. That alone was enough to drop them to like 1/3 health, so powering through them was a breeze. Almeth tried the same strategy on the Ladybugs, but they must detect by sound, because the Hide would drop instantly...but that's not an issue at all. We got some links while we were fighting (based on the fact that the Colibri flew right through us while we were fighting their brethren, they must not link at all, but the Ladybugs sure do, and they're aggresive to boot) but it wasn't too much of an issue, and we managed to put them down without too much difficulty when they tried to gang up on us.

Almeth dings 51, and the crowd goes wild!

Soon after Almeth dinged, we called it an evening. It was actually a pretty good night, I got 53, and noticed that the exp to level to 54 jumped to like 10,400, so getting levels from here on out will probably take a few trips. I knew it was coming, but that doesn't ease the pain very much. Kamiku was on hand to let us know that 60+ is probably going to mean the end of our being able to really trio and 4-man efficiently, which sucks (I really prefer smaller parties, comprised of members of our own LS...there's too many noobs running around out there ^^) but if full parties are what it's gonna take to get 75 sometime this year, then full parties are what we're gonna have to do.

And so concludes the adventures of Bahamut's Dreadnought for another day. Amedelie and I have another Duo scheduled for tonight (Ranger/Dancer combo), and you better believe we're coming back here to get some ladybug wings tonight. I can't wait! ^^

Questing Around...

Tuesday was a big questing day for Bahamut's Dreadnought. Reflaa had a lot of different things he needed to accomplish; breaking the 50 level cap, getting his A.F. weapon, finishing up San d'Oria Mission 3-1 and doing the beginning steps of Mission 3-3.

The first item on the agenda was getting Reflaa his G1 items. When Almeth and I had done this a few weeks ago, we pretty much just sat inside the zone line while Kamiku ran in and annihilated everything. Since there was 5 of us running around this time, and Amedelie was keen to find the treasure coffer down there for the RNG A.F. hands, we decided to try and actually run around in there together. I bet you can guess how that turned out...

"Umm, Reflaa? Why is that Skeleton sucking you off? God, this place is fucked up..."



"Look, Ame, I don't care how much money you're gonna give me, I'm not gonna run down there and poke that thing with a stick!"

Death Tally at this point: 2. One for Reflaa after aggroing a bat, which turned into like 12 bats, 3 skeletons, and God knows what else, and one for Amedelie, biting it to a Tough Siege Bat after Almeth and I decided to try and trio it. Kamiku was off running around looking for the coffer, and I was too busy freaking the fuck out to get a screenshot. I know, I fail...luckily, Kamiku got the Bomb Coal for Reflaa before he died, so at least that G1 item was in the bag.

Since Reflaa and Amedelie both got a free trip back to Jeuno, and Kamiku's search for the coffer now had no point (there were a bunch of peeps running around down there looking for it anyways), it was time to get the fuck out of Dodge. Luckily for Almeth and I, we both forgot to grab instant warp scrolls, so we got to experience what it's like to run through this horrifying shit together. I didn't get any screenshots of that pleasant run, either...again, too busy freaking out and crapping myself.

The next step was to get Reflaa the Exoray Mold and Ancient Papyrus, and since there was really no way Almeth and I could help (unless you count us running in there like lunatics and dying instantly helping), we decided to take a quick trip back to the Rolanberry Fields (S) to duo for a bit while we waited for Kamiku and Reflaa. Amedelie came back with us for a few minutes, but then decided to run off and do something else. I really don't remember what it was now, but it really doesn't matter.

Thank God you can't actually hit your party members in this game, because I'm a Grand Master in the "Flail your arms about like a crazy person" fighting style.

I had to run off and take care of some things for a little while, so I'm assuming that things went well and Reflaa got all his G1 items collected. When I returned, Amedelie was busy helping Reflaa through the prerequisites for his A.F. weapon, the Razor Axe, and San d'Oria Mission 3-1, Infiltrate Davoi. Almeth was already on the scene in Davoi, killing shit trying to Pop the NM Hawkeyed Dnatbat for an Archer's Knife, so I just made my way over to him to help out while we waited for the others to arrive. Luckily, I arrived just in time, as Almeth was fighting like 4 Orcs at once because, well, that's how Almeth does it. Being directionally challenged, I of course took all kinds of wrong turns, but eventually I caught up with him, popped my 2 hour, and finished the fight without a hitch. We were fighting a couple Orcs, minding our own business, when like every orc in the fucking zone came screaming by. Once again, I damn near soiled myself...I wasn't paying attention and never saw the person they must have been chasing. The brief moment of "Holy God, what the fuck did we get ourselves into this time?!" was soon replaced by Almeth and I laughing hysterically as the Orcs kept coming, and coming, and coming, and coming...

Seriously, I wonder if this person really knew exactly how many Orcs they managed to link. I can't believe the whole server didn't Blue Screen.

Just when you think that's the last of them, 20 more come flying by. This has got to be, literally, every Orc in the zone.

"Okay, fine Almeth, I'll run out and hold an apple over my head, but I swear to Christ if I catch a bolt in the eye I'm gonna be fuckin' pissed..."


Not long after all that, the rest of the crew arrived and we got down to business. Reflaa's A.F. weapon required fighting a couple of NMs, Gavotvut and Barakbok, so we all formed up and got together at the spawn point to bring them out and kick their ass. It almost wasn't fair, with us having two 75's and three 50's involved, but I stress almost...I've eaten enough deaths to Orc's over the years to not give a shit about fair.

"Look, we both know there's no way for you to win this fight, so why don't we just skip the formalities and you just give us what we came here for? No can do? Well, alright, if you insist..."

With the Sword Grip Material in hand for his A.F. weapon, Reflaa stuck around for a bit to kill the various Orcs and such with Almeth and I, while Kamiku and Amedelie ran off together to farm for a Davoi Chest Key. Not too long after they left, Reflaa headed back to Sandy to finish up some loose ends with his missions, and logged off for the night.

"Smile, bitch!"

Unfortunately, there was some terrible aggro and links, and both Amedelie and Kamiku bought the farm. I wasn't there to witness it personally, but I figure if it was bad enough to put down a couple of 75's, I'm pretty glad I wasn't there, if you know what I mean. Luckily, there was a White Mage in the area, and after a quick tell begging her to take care of my peeps, she obliged, and Kamiku and Amedelie were back on their feet. This brings our Death Tally for the evening to 4: Amedelie in first place with 2 deaths (on two different jobs, good work Ame! ^^), and Kamiku and Reflaa tied for second with one a piece.

Almeth and I continued working on trying to pop the NM he was looking for, but we were shit out of luck, as he never showed. Oh well, you win some, you lose some...we still had a pretty productive evening. Kamiku and Amedelie were off fighting an NM in Monastic Caverns (and who knows what else?) for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, but after they were done whatever they were doing, we all decided to call it an evening, Amedelie hooked me up with a Teleport-Holla, and I made my way to San d'Oria, where I promptly logged off.

And so concludes the evening's adventure. Stay tuned for our next episode of The Reflaa Chronicles: Reflaa versus Delkfutt's Tower, coming next week!

More Screenies!

Sunday night Kamiku helped me out in a big way by helping me get the Yagudo Glue I needed for my Dancer A.F. quest from West Sarutabaruta (S). Since we all needed to unlock the Maws from the Jeuno area out to Windurst, we did yet another epic run through the past. I do have to say that the run from Sauromugue Champaign (S) out to Windy was a lot easier then the previous trip through Jugner (S). The Yag Glue dropped pretty quickly, so Almeth, Kamiku and I finished up some of the Harvest Festival events and got our Eerie Cloaks and Pitchforks and such, despite some stiff competition from some asshole Blue Mage that was giving us dirty looks and fuming at us the whole time (I think he thought the event was just for him or something, but fuck that guy). After that was completed, we ran out to Valkurm Dunes for a level 18 4-man party, and although 3 of us died at one point during a nasty fight with a Pugil, we managed to get some decent experience in the short time we played, and killed an Empress Band in record time. Party setup was MNK/WAR (Kamiku), BLU/NIN (Almeth), BLM/WHM (Amedelie), and WHM/BLM (me), and it worked out fairly well ^^

At any rate, on to the screenshots...

Beating the piss out of a crab...Amedelie is off to the side dropping those Black Mage bombs again...

Almeth preparing to pull...

The closest I've come to death, without actually dying, in a long time. This is what happens when a White Mage uses Benediction, but it was either that or have another wipe on our hands.



My reward for the Yagudo Glue bullshit, the Dancer's Tights. I can't even wear them for 6 more levels, but in order to get the rest, this needs to be completed. Thanks again to Kamiku for helping me get the item I needed!!!

And the next piece of A.F. gear, the Dancer's Casaque. This quest was actually a joke, I had to do a "dance off" in Upper Jeuno, no fighting involved, just shaking my ass for the crowd. I can't wear this for 8 more levels, either, but I'm all about getting this shit done early :)

Questing in the past...

Saturday Almeth and I spent the bulk of our time questing around in the past. It's 20 years in the past, to be exact, and let me tell you, the mobs were really pissed off back then. We were both 50ish, and pretty much everything we ran across that was aggresive would have raped our face if it would have seen us, so it was quite an adrenaline filled afternoon.

Now, my main reason for wanting to go into the past was to get the War Hoop, Dancer's A.F. weapon. It's a ranged throwing weapon, kinda like a Frisbee, except for if you were to catch this Frisbee they'd be calling you "Stumpy" for the rest of your days. Anyways, getting the War Hoop required travelling to Grauberg in the past, which I think is the past version of Konschtat Highlands but I could be wrong, and fighting the Migratory Hippogryph to receive a Key Item. Almeth's always down for a good fight, so I knew he had my back... ^^

The only way one can travel between the present and the past is via Cavernous Maws...and the Maws can only be unlocked from the past side to be used in the present. Basically, this meant we were going to have to run all the way there through hordes of really angry shit that wanted us dead. I mean, this is shit that can trouble level 75s. However, Almeth has big nuts, and last I heard, he don't give a fuck about that shit. So when I logged on Saturday, I knew we were going to have that War Hoop by day's end.

So we started our epic journey in Rolanberry Fields (S). [For future reference, any zone with an "(S)" following the name denotes a past area. Don't know why, but that's what they call it in game] Now, there's really very little that we could actually stand a hope in hell of fighting and surviving back here at our levels, so Almeth's ninja sneaking skills got full use in our adventures. Not only was the War Hoop a goal, but as neither of us had those maws unlocked, we made it a point to stop and get every one we could. Sneaking around shit, we made it from Rolanberry Fields (S) pretty easily, and zoned into Pashhow Marshlands (S).

See that dragon thing there? It's pissed. See that dragonfly looking thing? Also pissed. See me? I pissed myself...

Getting around shit in Pashhow (S) was scary as hell. There are Quadav's running around all over the place, and really angry Peiste's as well (those are the dragon things, so you see the name is surprisingly apt). Almeth and I both had an ample supply of Silent Oils and Prism Powders, but we actually lucked out and didn't need to use any through this zone, as the mobs cooperated and moved so we could run around them, giving them a very wide berth. Not to say that there wasn't times I damn near soiled myself, but luckily neither of us aggro'd anything, as aggroing something here would not have been pretty. Sprinting through Pashhow (S), we made it to the zone into Grauberg (S) unscathed...

Grauberg (S) was goddamn scary. This was the one place where our Silent Oils and Prism Powders would have done no good at all, as many parts of the zone are full of truesight Hippogryphs. Truesight means they can see through invisibility, so all we could do was pray to God we didn't aggro anything and sprint through whatever openings we could. There were some pretty sticky situations there (it really does seem like the mobs sensed what were doing, as they tended to move to cut us off at times), but we managed to make it through, yet again, with no aggro and death. I give Almeth all the credit there...I was busy running up his heels as I alternated between blubbering like a baby and screaming like a little girl.

A Wivre...despite looking angry as hell, they're actually non-aggresive. Almeth ran up to give it a big sloppy kiss.

Once we hit this point, we were pretty much home free. The mobs we did run across, like the Wivre's, were either non-aggresive or weak enough that they were no real danger to us. With a huge sigh of relief, and a stop to change my underware, we continued on to the location of the fight for my A.F. weapon...

All bullshit aside, this is seriously one of the coolest looking areas in the entire game, and well worth the trip.

Once we got to our destination, I did a quick check of Ffxiclopedia to double check what we were going to be up against, we made our preperations, and I clicked the "???" to spawn the NM and begin beating it's face in with my fists.





With the Key Item "Essence of Dance" in hand, all that remained was to speak with Laila in Upper Jeuno and the War Hoop would be mine. However, since we were already back here in the past and had run so far, we decided to push on further and make our way to Bastok (S) to unlock any remaining Maws along our route so we wouldn't have to come back here and run through these angry areas again, at least, unless we absolutely had to..

Sprinting to the Cavernous Maw in Gustaberg (S)

With the Maws opened up all the way to Bastok, we warped back to present day Jeuno so I could turn in my quest. With my new War Hoop, we decided to begin the next quest for my Dancer A.F. gear, "The Road to Divadom", which required yet another trip to the past. Since this took us partway along the route to Sandoria (S), we decided to make the journey together yet again, to unlock more maws and save us time later.

First stop was Battalia Downs (S). Since Almeth didn't yet have this maw unlocked (I already did), I took the opportunity to skill up my throwing with my new War Hoop in the present Battalia Downs while Almeth jogged over to the maw in the past from Rolanberry Fields (S). Once he was through and had the Maw unlocked, we pushed on further to Jugner Forest (S).

Upon zoning into Jugner, there was one scary, and funny, moment. Almeth, being the fearless person he is, was happily charging through when he came across a Biddybug. Those things look like giant ladybugs, and as Almeth wondered if they were aggresive or not, he soon had his answer as one charged him and attempted to eat his face. Popping Flee, he sprinted for the zone line, while I watched in horror. It was like a car accident, I just couldn't take my eyes away. Luckily, we hadn't gone far, so the zone was pretty close...but it still managed to take a decent chunk of health away from him, and without Flee, he probably would have died. Those ladybugs can move...and it just goes to show how the cutest things in Vana'Diel deal out death just as easily as the ugly ones.

With that crisis averted, we made our way to the lake in the north part of Jugner (S) so I could click on some glowy pebbles for the first part of the quest. I clicked on them, some dude showed up and babbled on about playing with his pipe and shit (I dont watch cutscenes, can you tell? ^^), he told me to go get some Yagudo Glue, which drops off of angry Yagudo in Saruatbaruta (S), so the questing portion of our day was done as we got down to the business of unlocking Maws all the way to San d'Oria (S).

First off, I just want to give a big middle finger to Square-Enix, because this trip was a complete bitch. Jugner (S) is all blocked off with walls and shit, so you actually have to run through an adjacent zone, Vunkerl Inlet (S) in order to get around the barriers and continue on to Ronnfaure (S). Whatever happened to La Thiene Plateau, the connecting zone in the present, I have no idea, it just doesn't exist in the past. At any rate, Vunkerl was very angry, with a lot of tight passages filled with Gigas dry humping each other in some goddamn beastmen orgy, so our Prism Powders got a lot of use in that area.

Pausing in relative safety to take a quick picture together. Before you ask, yes, we are gay like that.

We made it through Vunkerl (S) unscathed, and zoning back into Jugner (S), we made our way all the way back north to grab the Recall Crystal and the Maw for this area. About 500 feet from the maw, and safety, Almeth aggro'd a Decrepit Gnole, which quickly became a few Decrepit Gnoles, which quickly became a herd of Decrepit Gnoles and a bunch of Gobs. Popping Flee, Almeth sprinted for the maw to try and pass through, but before the little cutscene could trigger the mobs caught up and quickly killed him. For some random reason, one of the Gnoles broke off the chase and, rather then despawning, turned around and immediately aggro'd me. I tried to sprint my way to the Maw myself, but without Flee there was no freaking way I was gonna make it, and I ended up taking a dirt nap right next to Almeth's corpse.

This presented us with a really huge dilemma. We could return to our respective Home Points, but then we'd have to do this ridiculous hour long trek through Vunkerl again...something I personally equated to eating broken glass. We were really in a bad spot here...since we were dead, there was no way for us to shout for raises or anything, and since we were out in the frigging sticks, the odds of someone running by and shouting for us were pretty damn remote. That's when Almeth had the most brilliant idea I've ever heard in FFXI. I was literally dumbfounded by the pure unadulterated genius. I wanted to have his babies. It was that good...

So we're dead, right? Not much we can do, right? Well, the one thing I could do, which never even occured to me, was to force D/C from the game, log onto my Jeuno mule, and /shout in Lower Jeuno for someone, anyone, to please come back through the Jugner Maw and raise us. I was desperate, and worried that I wouldn't get any responses. However, within moments, I got a response, explained the situation, offered some cold hard cash, and we had a raise inbound. Logging back in to my main, we waited with baited breath for our savior to show up, and not long after, he did. After a quick Raise, we we're back on our feet, tears of joy streaming down our cheeks, as we went through the Maw and got it unlocked. Sabre, if you're reading this, you made our fucking month... ^^

From there, it was a pretty uneventful trip. We got to Ronnfaure, unlocked the final Maw on our itinerary, and stepped into Southern San d'Oria (S). The coolest thing was going into the Mog House, where I found my home looked very different in the past...

Compared to this room, my house in the present is a huge bag of shit.

At any rate, this concludes our adventures through the past for the day. We got a ton of shit done, saw some really cool shit, and had lots of fun, Bahamut's Dreadnought style.

Questing in Ordelle's Caves/Level 49 Party, Garlaige Citadel

Friday night was a good opportunity for me to get my last piece of Racial Gear (been sitting on 3 of 4 forever now), and since we didn't have anything set in stone as far as levelling goes, Almeth and I ran down there to get my last Magical Pattern and try at getting my R.S.E. Ammo item from the Aroma Leech, among other things.

One fly in the ointment was my lack of an Ordelle Chest Key. Almeth and I both swore to freakin' God that I had one, but for some reason I didn't when we started making preperations to go down there. I still don't know what the hell happened there, but as it's really easy to farm off of the mobs down there, we headed on down to Ordelle. Turned out, it didn't matter anyways, I think we ended up getting like 6 Ordelle Chest Keys while we were down there, which was pretty funny.

"Dude, seriously, got two words for you: Breath Mint"

At any rate, we killed the Aroma Leech and no drop (I thought it was a 100% drop since Almeth got it on his first try, but I got the finger), and since it has a 30 minute respawn timer, we headed down into the basement to continue hunting for the chest, kill any Stroper Chimes we see to try and get a Shikaree Knife, and kill the Napalms that hang around for a Flaming Degen, needed to get the map of Castle Zvahl. Unfortunately we got none of those things as we ran around, but we did manage to get my Magical Pattern. Before we left Ordelle, the Aroma Leech was up again, so we killed it...and once again, no drop. This goddamn game, I swear...

While we were fucking around in Ordelle, LS member Godzillax showed up, and asked what we were up to. Since we were soon to be getting done where we were, and Almeth was keen on getting some exp, we invited him to join us in a Trio party somewhere...we hadn't quite figured that out yet. After some research Almeth suggested Garlaige Citadel, to work on bats down in the basement of the place. Since we were in Sandy, Almeth and I jumped on a boat towards Jeuno, and Godzilla waited for us there.

Waving to Almeth, I attempt to throw myself from the ship, but the goddamn invisible barrier kept me from doing it.

At any rate, we got to Jeuno, invited Godzilla, made our preperations, and made our way through Sauromugue Champaign to Garlaige. I'd been down here before, but only actually levelled in here once...waaaayyy back in the day, I remember coming out here as like a level 30-something Monk with Amedelie, and I hated the zone. I remember having to constantly stop what we were doing to run for the zone line when Beetle's and Bat's linked and in general, it sucked. However, down in the basement at 49, it really ain't so bad.

These little bats were a real bitch in the beginning, but as we got in our groove they went down pretty easily.

With Almeth pulling as THF/NIN, Godzillax tanking as NIN/WAR, and me healing us as DNC/NIN, we were pretty much unstoppable. It took me a little bit to get a decent TP buffer built up, as my dagger skill was kinda weak when we started, but I started getting skill ups, hence I started connecting more, and eventually the TP issue went out the window. I actually managed to cap out my dagger skill to a level 49 , which is awesome; I'm still a little behind where I should be at 51/52, but I'm a hell of a lot closer now then I was.

The competition was getting more and more fierce for the bats the longer we were down there; there was one party in particular that was checking us over and over again...I seriously wanted to ask them what the fuck their problem was. Almeth figured it was probably because we were just such uber leet sauce and we were three manning the shit that they needed a whole party to put down. At any rate, things were still fine, but then another party decided to come in and camp right on top of us.

Seriously, when did it become standard practice to camp right on top of another group? I mean, I have never seen such an issue with that shit as I have lately. Ever since the level sync it seems like party etiquette has gone right out the window. Anyone that reads this, do me a favor: Don't camp on top of other parties. It's annoying, if they got there first, suck it up and move on. There's plenty of other places to level in Vana'Diel.

At any rate, Almeth got 50 ({Congratulations!}{Good Job!}), and since Godzillax was passing out at the keyboard, we called it a night. All in all, a very productive evening, and a good time for Bahamut's Dreadnought. :)

Level 47 Party, Western Altepa Desert

Pretty typical party last night...we went out to Western Altepa Desert again, right back to the same camp we had on Saturday. Reflaa was already on the scene, since he got d/c'ed out there Saturday night when his power went out. I had my own issues yesterday with my network, so I was a little late getting on...but after ripping my hair out and beating my router with a wrench eventually I was able to get my shit straightened out. I hate networking issues...

At any rate, it was pretty relaxed. We were going after Desert Beetles again, which started out Tough with the occasional VT, but as we levelled they quickly turned to crap. Almeth was forced to pull DC's because they would pop right in front of us, and thus link with the harder ones Almeth was actually going for, so towards the end of the night it becaming increasingly difficult to exp chain effectively. We worked a few Antican's in there at the end for decent exp, but all in all, a new camp is most definitely in order for us next time we static.

All told, Amedelie got Ranger to 50, Reflaa got Warrior to 50, I got White Mage to 49, and Almeth got Thief pretty far into 48. I was getting decent skillups on my Club skill, which was awesome, as well as ridiculously good skillups on Enhancing and Enfeebling magic. Trying to cap out Mage jobs sucks...

"Um, Reflaa? Are you aware that your crotch is glowing? Just curious..."

Amedelie dinging 50. Way to go Amedelie!



Using my new weapon skill, Starlight. It's got the coolest animation out of any I'd seen yet, but the weapon skill itself is absolute garbage. It's a goddamn shame...



Almeth grinds his crotch in my face; Amedelie says "Fuck it, I'm out!"

And so concludes another party for Bahamut's Dreadnought. In closing, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate my fellow team mates for not eating a single death last night! Go us!!

Level 47 Party, Crawlers' Nest

Yesterday afternoon, I logged on early to work on getting some more guild points. This involved travelling all over the place to pick up ingredients for Colored Eggs, but I really wasn't too upset about it for a couple reasons...they're cheap to make, as all the mats are easily gotten from vendors, and also because I wanted to check out Colored Eggs anyways, as I plan on making a ton of them this coming Easter for the Egg-Stravaganza event they do every year. Since they are used in that event, the price on them skyrockets due to much higher than normal demand...so I'm hoping to make a fortune selling eggs. Of course, knowing my luck, this year they'll change the event...and I'll be pissed. But I guess I'll just cross that bridge when I come to it.

Riding the airship between Jeuno and Windurst...that's the Crag of Mea in the distance.

Due to some changes in schedules, our typical Tuesday party with Reflaa is getting moved to Wednesday's for the immediate future. With that being said, Almeth and I decided to try and get an Empress Band's worth of experience. Almeth suggested working on the easier stuff in Crawler's Nest, so I changed into my Dancer (now that the level 50 cap is lifted for me, I can actually get experience on Dancer again), picked up some better gears that I'd been looking at, and we made our way out.

Since I was capped at 50 before, my experience was actually 7999/8000 into 51, so I pretty much dinged on our first kill. The crawlers were all Easy Prey and Decent Challenge, but that was ok by me, as I'm a little burnt out on the drawn out battles in the desert we've been having lately and wanted something a little easier for a change, something without the fear of death.

Judging by the size of these Caterpillers, I'm so not fucking with them when they turn into moths. Somebody better get Godzilla on the horn like stat...

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Ah, they had a pretty safe and easy night, then". You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. I excel at finding death in the unlikeliest places, and tonight was no different. I was pulling the mobs and starting them off so Almeth could SATA Viper Bite them, and we caught an unfortunate link, aaaaannnnndddd....I died. I tried running away, but as this was my second trip to Crawlers' Nest, and I'm directionally challenged, I didn't know where the fuck I was running, I just started booking. I didn't get a screenshot of this death, unfortunately, but luck was on our side, as there were a couple higher level mages of some type near us fighting Lizards (Almeth actually had an idea of what they were doing exactly, but I can't remember what it was, because I just don't remember shit) , so they were nice enough to give me a Raise, and actually chased down Almeth and gave him a Cure IV while he was running for his life towards the zone. So, whoever they were, they were cool as shit, and they have my most sincere gratitude :)

Whatever this green shit is, it really fucks with the framerate...

At any rate, outside of that death, the fights from that point on were pretty typical. We took care to not link any more Crawlers, and the fights went pretty much without a hitch. In our travels around CN, we came across a room that had some Scorpions in it, and while they were a bit harder, we fought them as well, especially after discovering that they drop some pretty decent selling shit. As Almeth and I are all about the money, we made it a point to take them out whenever we made our way around there.

You are one ugly mother fucker...

Because the scorpions hit like a ton of bricks, shadows were a must. They had a really nasty move the did, Death Scissors, that hit for like a bajillion damage. It wasn't enough to put either of us down in one shot, thank God, but I had to dump heals on whoever was unlucky enough to get hit by it, and spent a up lot of my TP doing it. There were only a few that hung around in that area, though, so it really wasn't too much of an issue. There was actually this really strange occurance down there concerning the scorpions. We were getting ready to start picking them off when we noticed some tard bait sleeping them all right in front of us, and then running away. What they were doing, I have no idea. Anyways, we go to try and start fighting one, but as soon as I hit it, it started running off after the other people. Almeth and I gave chase, but we could never get in range close enough to actually hit it and get it to stop chasing those other people. Then it seemed like when they got to the zone line, they just stopped running and then decided to start fighting them. This was pissing Almeth and I off, as we'd try to grab something and somehow they'd have it claimed. Eventually, we were able to get one aside and start wacking at it...and then the retards zoned anyways (??), and for whatever reason, instead of despawning like it should have, it linked to the one we were fighting. It wasn't a big deal, just annoying as shit.

Yesterday was actually one of the more active days in the linkshell, with the number of people signed in. Chrimsun showed up for the Tuesday static (unfortunately he didn't get the memo that it was changed to wednesdays...sorry Chrim ; ;), Kamiku was online, as well as Mikers. Almeth and I were focusing on killing shit, so we weren't very talkative, but we chatted a little back and forth as we were able.

Kamiku offered to help Almeth get an uber Dagger for his Thief, the Hornetneedle, so as soon as we finished off our Empress Bands, we started making our way back to Jeuno to dump some shit and so I could change jobs to White Mage. On our way through Rolanberry Fields, we stopped to kill any Goobbues we could find, partly for the drops, partly for some revenge on Almeth's part (guess he died to a few when he played FFXI back in the day). They were stingy bitches, however, and we only got a dumpy Dahlia flower.

Goobbues, yet another of the really strange looking things that wander around Vana'Diel.

Back in Jeuno, we dumped whatever shit we could, and I Teleport-Yhoat'd us so we could make our way to the Temple of Uggalepih (henceforth known as "The Temple of Ugly", a very apt name for a very angry area ^^).

Kamiku got the Hornetneedle for Almeth pretty much as soon as we got there, and as we had some free time, he made a try and getting Almeth another dagger in a different part of the zone. For this, we actually had to make our way through the first part of the Temple of Ugly, so I had to Sneak and Invis Almeth and I through some really angry shit, and my Sneak's and Invis's suck ass, so it was kinda scary dodging shit, watching "The effect of Sneak is about to wear off" scroll up my chat log. At any rate, we made it, and once we got to our destination, Almeth and I pretty much sat and bullshitted back and forth while Kamiku ran off and did whatever it was that he had to do.

Without Kamiku, this thing would have dropped us in like 1 hit. I couldn't even hit the freakin thing...

At any rate, Kamiku ran around farming for the item he needs, but unfortunately ate an "Everyones Grudge" for like 2k at one point, and as me trying to get to him to Raise him woulda been like trying to walk through Hell itself, we called it a night. Before Almeth and I teleported out of there, we ran outside to get a picture together, 'cause it is a pretty neat looking area...

"Almeth, are you looking at my ass? God, you're such a hornball!!"

And so concluded the adventurers of the evening. Almeth got much closer to 48 on his Thief, I got about halfway to 52 on my Dancer, and Almeth got an ubertastic dagger to boot. All in all, it was a lot of fun... ^^

Level 46 Party, Eastern Altepa Desert

Last night was another party night; it was very relaxed and calm for a change. That's not to say that we didn't eat any death's...c'mon now, this is Bahaumt's Dreadnought we're talking about here. We always find some way to die...shit, I think that's a permanent Latent Effect on my character or something. At any rate, I don't mind dying here or there, as long as I actually end up positive in the end.

Anyways, back to the story...so yeah, Almeth and I were questing around the day before, so we both met up in Northern San d'Oria, I Teleport-Altepa'd us, and we met up with Amedelie in Western Altepa Desert, who was waiting for us at the camp we partied at the other night. We were a couple levels higher this time out, but the Beetles were just a little too hard for just the three of us. We coulda killed them, but it woulda been rough as hell and the downtime between mobs while I had to rest back all my MP woulda been long enough to drive us insane. So, after fighting one mob, we said "Fuck it" and ran back across the zone into Eastern Altepa Desert, to hit up our old camp and work on the Gobs that run around by the outpost.

Saying a prayer to the Goddess Altana, asking to be allowed to have just one party without any deaths. I think Altana's on vacation or something, though, 'cause our prayers went straight to voicemail...

So, we hung out by the tent at the outpost, slaughtering Gobs by the thousands. The experience was a little weak at times, but at least we were relatively safe from harm. I decided to melee alongside Almeth and Amedelie to try and get some Club skill ups, and I actually did manage to get a few this time, which was awesome. We had a great skillchain set up; Almeth would SATA-Hide-Viper Bite, Amedelie would Flaming Arrow, and when I was able, I would Seraph Strike and then cast Banish for the magic burst. Since the mobs were a little weak anyways, that would usually be enough right there to put them down, or at least get them pretty close to death. We did catch some really bitchy Bomb Tosses at times, but all in all it was ok.

Believe it or not, there is a Gob back there... you just can't see him through all the death that surrounds his bitch ass.

Things progressed well, but eventually another party showed up and started stealing all of our mobs. It was actually a little strange, people kept showing up at the outpost, and they'd be all up in our business, checking us and talking to us and shit. It seriously felt like they'd never seen a trio before or something. At any rate, Almeth was running farther and farther away to find Gobs for us to kill, so a move was in order. We packed up our shit and and made camp on the other side of the Oasis, where there were Antican's roaming around for Almeth to pull when Gobs got hard to find.

Our new camp was a little more dangerous then the one we just left, mainly because mobs had a nasty habit of just wandering on over while we were trying to fight shit. Since links can quickly lead to death, it was a little frustrating at times having to move around constantly to avoid them. Things progressed a little more slowly then they did before, but we were making good progress. Unfortunately, tragedy struck, and I ended up eating it...I don't remember if it was a Lost Soul or an Antican that killed me that first time, but luckily I had Reraise up so it wasn't too big of a deal, just annoying. The really annoying part came as I lay there dead...when you come back to life after being raised, you have extremely low health. The Lost Souls (skeletons) actually aggro to low health, and they have a pretty big aggro range, so I had to wait until the coast was clear before I could stand back up...otherwise, they would have just ran over and killed me again, and I ain't having that shit. Fuck that...I've given this goddamn desert enough deaths over the last few days...

"Oh, Jesus Christ, will you just get the fuck out of here already?! Go grief that other party over there for a change...they said you ain't shit, I heard 'em."

Eventually, the Gobs and Skeletons finally gave me a break and stopped humping my corpse, so I rejoined the land of the living and waited for the death sickness to wear. I recast Reraise on myself (you can really see how important that shit is out here) and we got back to business.

Things went on as usual for a while; Almeth was edging closer and closer to 47, which was our main goal of the evening. Swapping back and forth between Anticans and Gobs, we we're doing ok. Almeth discovered that, since Anticans aggro by smell as well as sight, his Hide ability was useless against them, so that kinda sucked, but we adapted. So far, with only one death under our belt, we were actually doing pretty good, comparitively. Can you guess what happened next?

Fuck you, Antican Speculator, fuck you very much. Fuck your mother, fuck your father, fuck your whole fucking family.

Wise men say, "A picture is worth a thousand words...", and I feel that the above picture is sufficient explanation of what happened next. Needless to say, with Almeth so close to levelling, and the end of our adventures in the desert for the night in sight, that wipe really pissed us off. As with the death I ate earlier, the mobs in the immediate vicinity decided that the best place for them to hang out and play with themselves was right on top of our corpses, so I had to wait a while before the coast was clear and I could bring myself back to life. The delay was made even worse when, even after I was able to raise safely, the mobs decided to crowd Almeth and Amedelie's bodies, so again we played the waiting game. Eventually, I was able to raise us all, our collective sickness wore after what seemed like an eternity, and we got back to business and pushed to get Almeth the last 1000 exp or so he needed.

At that point, the game decided to have mercy on us, and we were able to finish off Almeth's level pretty uneventfully. In the end the Death Scoreboard stood with me in first with 2 deaths (I win I win!! /wrists), and Amedelie and Almeth tied for second with 1 each. To some parties, 4 deaths would be considered a bad evening...but compared to the last few parties we've had, I consider only 4 deaths to be a win. Like I said, this is Bahamut's Dreadnought we're talking about here...we don't fuck around! :)

Questing, all over the freakin' place...

Amedelie and Reflaa were busy Sunday, so partying got put on hold for the day while Almeth and I ran around and tried to get some more of the Monuments, among other things. All in all, we both got our Adventuring Fellows unlocked, got the last items we needed to get our G1's done (thanks to Kamiku yet again!), unlocked Dragoon for Almeth, and in general just had a blast.

"OMG, Almeth, wait for meeee!!!!!!"

After over 2 years of playing, I finally break the level 50 cap! Woot!!

See that dragon? We killed that bitch! Ok, you're right, I'm lying... :)



"Look, I don't care if you heard it or not, I hear something breathing back there in the dark and I'm not waiting around to find out what it is!"



Almeth taunts me from the ledge, and a little piece of me dies...

And, to finish off today's post, video's of the two dragons we did fight. The first was the Carrion Dragon to finish off the Adventuring Fellow quest, the second Cyranuce M Cutauleon, the dragon fought at the end of "The Holy Crest" quest to unlock the job Dragoon.