Assault sucks...but Zilart Missions are fun!

Thursday is our obligatory Assault day, so we all jumped on and got started pretty quick yesterday. We've been working on the mission Imperial Agent Rescue for a while now, and while we've actually managed to win a few, so far it's been damn ugly. The basic idea is that this dude locked up in one of three cells, and we need to pull mobs to attack us while we stand in front of the cell door. By hitting us (with certain abilities), the mobs will damage, and eventually break down, the door; hopefully the dude is in there, we rescue him, and go on our merry way. In practice, the mobs are a piece of shit and never do the abilities that will damage the door, and when we do manage to break the fucking thing down, the dude isn't even in that one...so we need to drag the mob to the next door and try again.

"You know, you're a real asshole, dude..."


Firespit, one of two ways that the Mamool Ja can actually damage the door. This is probably why they just can't stand doing it, and when they do, 75% of the time it misses the fucking door for no reason.


We try to focus on mobs that have an Axe or a Staff, because they will throw it at us and bring the door down in one hit. Sounds easy, right? Well, it would be if one fucking crit from us didn't break their goddamn weapon...


Yup...someone crits and there goes the ballgame. This is so fucking frustrating...

I ended up eating it at one point, and that was it...it's really a pain in the ass, actually. The problem is, Ame and Almeth can't do a lot of damage...they just need to feed the mob as much TP as possible so that it will do it's "Firespit" move. Since they're not doing very much damage, the slightest cure on my part pulls hate. I eventually get drilled, so I have to cure myself again, and the cycle repeats until I'm dead. I fucking love it...

At any rate, our success rate on this mission is pretty damn dismal; we win maybe 1 in 5 attempts...through no fault of our own, mind you, the mobs just fucking suck. That being said, we were a little burnt on this particular mission, so we decided to give another one a try: Leujaoam Cleansing. This particular mission is pretty straightforward...you've got 30 minutes to kill 15 worms. Piece of cake, right? Wrong...

Making our way to the worms...

"This isn't so bad! We may actually be able to do this!"

Fighting the worms one at a time was pretty damn easy. The problem is, after about 5 or so you come to a room with about 6 of them. Worms link pretty damn easy, have nasty -aga spells that can drop all our shadows in one shot, and silence us to boot. Upon entering the room, we linked one, and discovered that these worms can cast ancient magic...things were going ok until Almeth caught a Quake to the face for about 930 something damage, and he went down. Amedelie and I ran like little girls and used our fireflies to get the hell out of there. All in all, we had two deaths for the evening and not a single win...bummer.

Amedelie had to log after that, so Almeth and I discussed what we wanted to do for the rest of our evening. We kicked around a few ideas, and Almeth suggested we try and shout for help with Zilart Mission 4 in Whitegate. To be honest, I didn't expect to get any replies from people; FFXI has been out a while, and there aren't a whole lot of people out there who haven't already done these things. Because of that, I damn near shit my pants when we started getting tells mere minutes after our first shout. Within 20 minutes we had a full party, with great jobs to boot.

Everyone gathering together for a Teleport-Yhoat.

We didn't have a WHM to teleport us, so I was happy to change jobs for ease of transportation. This required me to run to Norg and change back into Dancer, but that was fine by me, plus one of our members needed to do the Tonberry Hate quest as well...that didn't end up happening (I still have no idea why it wouldn't give him the quest) but it didn't matter anyways. After some running around, we all got together and made our way.

ZM4 is a bit of a pain in the ass in that you need to light 4 lanterns to open the doorway to the BCNM that concludes the mission. Almeth and I had our unlit lanterns, so that wasn't too big of a deal, but there was a lot of running around involved in Den of Rancor, where the mobs are pretty pissed off, even to a 75. Although it was pretty scary shit, we managed to make it through unscathed and got where we needed to be. Entering the BCNM, we were confronted by three Tonberry NMs...

With a 6 man group, 4 of which were 72+, this was a pretty damn easy fight.

After completing the fight, there was a long cutscene, with this cult doing some shit. I dunno, I prolly should pay attention to this crap, rather than just mash the Enter key compulsively.

After that was finished, our helpers offered to start working on the next Zilart Mission: Headstone Pilgrimage. Not wanting to pass up such a good opportunity, we all readily agreed, and we were off. First stop was Sanctuary of Zi'tah...

The basic jist of this mission is you go to these headstones, click on them, and some of them have NMs which pop that you have to defeat. After the NM is done, you click on the headstone again and receive a fragment of some element. I didn't watch the cutscene, so I have no idea why we're doing this, but at any rate it's gotta be done.

"Wow, that's quite a tongue you've got there..."

We put that guy down in about 3 minutes, so it was onward to Behemoth's Dominion for our next headstone and fight...this one involving a couple of Weapon-type mobs. While en route, Almeth and I ran into an old friend and LS-member, GodzillaX. It'd been a while since we'd talked, so we caught up for a few minutes while waiting for other party members to arrive. He told us what he'd been up to, we did the same, and we all promised to get together sometime soon to level or something. All in all, it was very good seeing him again, so if you're reading this Godzilla, "You rock, son!!" ^^

At any rate, we made our way and did our fight. I didn't get any pics of the fight itself, but I did manage to snag a pic of the "Swirling Vortex of Death" along the way. I don't think it's actually called a "Swirling Vortex of Death", but that's the name I'm giving it, cause it's cool...

Almeth's got nuts big enough to click on this thing, but luckily it didn't spawn Satan or anything...

After completing the fight, it was way past our bedtimes, so we bid everyone farewell and headed home. A few peeps said they were interested in doing the rest of the headstones on Saturday, so Almeth and I are defintely going to try and participate in that.

All in all, we had a very productive evening...in closing, I'd just like to thank everyone who helped out: Zackthegreat, Twinblade, Whispers, and Muffinman. You guys all rock lots, and it was a blast running around with y'all! {/bow}{/salute}

Questing in Promyvion-Holla/Temple of Uggalepih

Almeth and I had a lot on the agenda for tonight's festivities. I was a little late logging in due to real life crap (stupid real life taking away from my game time!), and my first order of business was to get my lazy ass down to Windurst to turn in the Guild Test Item and get my cooking cap from 80 to 90. I had my Whitefish Stew in hand, so I was good to go. Only 20 more levels and I will have my first level 100 craft! Woot!

When finished with that, Almeth and I got down to the first order of business for the day...finishing off the remainder of my Anniversary Band from the night before. I really had no idea how long that was going to take (I secretly prayed it wouldn't be very long), but I steeled myself for the worst. A quick Recall-Jugner and Outpost Warp to Southern San d'Oria (S) and Almeth and I were ready for some real grinding. Almeth changed to his NIN, and we got to work...

You'd think the Colibri would just run from us at some point...

Luckily, I must have been damn close to finishing my band off last night, because it wore in like two mobs. With that completed, we made our way back to town, and moved on to our second goal of the evening: completing the Tactics Pearl mini-quest for Almeth, since the game dicked him out of it the other day. At any rate, we made our way to Holla and got to work...

"Sealing my memories" or whatever the fuck it is...


"Yup...you're fucked!"


"O...k,...sounds...good...to...me........"



Here we have a Wanderer, or, as I like to call them: Sperm Monsters. You'll notice Almeth's Fellow just can't resist taking hate, which makes me want to punch her stupid face.


And this beauty right here, I have no idea...


Winding up for the home-run swing...


Almeth, I swear to God, if that bitch doesn't stop taking hate, I'm gonna kill her myself...



"Maybe if I dance for it it'll be nice..."

"Ok, scratch that, not a very nice creature!"

Fighting these "Memory Receptacles" is the only way to move from floor to floor. Seeing as how they're constantly shitting out those Sperm Monsters, I cannot help but feel like this was inspired by some sick Japanese Animated Porn...


"If that's not his tongue, Almeth, I'd say this guy at least owes you a drink or two..."


"Yeah, dude, you take the ass end, we'll go all 'fingercuffs' on him!"

"Look at her Tank that shit, player! What a stupid bitch!!"

In all fairness, we did manage to keep Almeth's Adventuring Fellow alive, despite some close calls, but in all honesty, you really need to keep an eye on your helper or else they will take hate and die a fiery death. I just wish I could cure her...but as she's technically Almeths "pet" (how fucked up is that?!) I can't do a damn thing to help her. Major bummer....but we got Almeth his Tactic's Pearl...so there'll be much more Adventuring Fellow leveling in our future. ^^

With that completed, I realized I left home without a warp item (Good going dipshit!) so I had to rent a Chocobo and run out to Valkurm to outpost back home. Almeth's Home Point was in Jeuno, and I proceeded to bounce around all over Vana'diel to meet him there so we could move on to goal number 3: Heading out to the Temple of Uggalepih to get our Paintbrush of Souls key item and hopefully find a coffer to open (and thus get rid of another goddamn key in our inventory). This was a prerequisite to our loftiest goal of the evening, number 4: to attempt to put together a pick up group to go tackle Zilart Mission 4. That is something Almeth and I really need to do, as it needs to be completed before you can quest the Opo-opo necklace, which is pretty much the key to beating Maat on almost all jobs.

We made our way out to Good ol' Ugly and got our Paintbrush of Souls pretty much without incident. In our quest to find a coffer to open, we hit a slight snag:

Motherfucking Tonberries, I fucking hate them so goddamn much...

Thank God there was a White Mage in the area that was willing to Raise me...but after waiting for links and shit to be killed before I could be safely raised, it was getting pretty late, so Almeth and I warped the hell out and went home. Zilart Mission 4 is just going to have to wait for another day...

The week (so far) in pictures...

More of the same for BD...we're a boring Linkshell, aren't we? ^^

We've been doing Campaign, trioing and 4-manning, leveling our NPC's...all that typical shit. Almeth and I did manage to trigger the next Adventuring Fellow quest to get the Tactics Pearl, which involved bringing them into a Promyvion and clicking on a "???" (as well as killing monsters for more experience); alas, Almeth's NPC musta done something really fucked up at one point and ended up biting it...I tried voking but it was no use. I did manage to finish it up myself (mine lived), but unfortunately, Almeth has to do it again...not a big deal, but annoying anyways. We still have no idea what the hell she did to get so much hate right off the bat. Unfortunately, due to the fact that I was concentrating on us not dying ourselves, I didn't get any pics in there (way to fail!) but I'll try and get some when we do the re-attempt for Almeth...

At any rate, here's the pics I did take over the last few days...

"I do believe in Faeries!"


Level 65 Puk trio in Wajaom Woodlands...these things were a lot easier then the last time we tried them.


Preparing to strike...


Aww...isn't he cute?


"He's dead, Jim"


"Why are these things always so pissed off at me?"


This knock back move these things do is so fucking annoying, since they like to spam the shit...


"My, what big teeth you have..."


Going after Almeth for a change...


Terrible picture of an "Orcish Turret"; I'd never seen one before, but they killed it before I could get close...


Almeth, getting shoulder checked by an Antican in Quicksand Caves.


Almeth, our fearless Ninja, tanking an Antican with a sword that's larger than he is...


You know you've got an awesome group going when one of you can sit and rest the entire fight without any problems ^^


That's not to say I didn't get in there and mix it up with the rest of the crew, when I could hit the freaking things, that is...


"Yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and sit this one out, too, ok guys?"

In closing, I cannot say enough how awesome a DNC/WAR/NIN/WHM party is. We were able to put down these IT+ Anticans with little effort, and only had a couple close calls due to nasty Firaga II's when Silence wore and I wasn't able to get it back on them in time. The experience was awesome; with an Anniversary Band is was getting up to 500 a piece, and we chained with ease. At this rate, I'll have my WHM leveled in no time ^^

Until next time...{See you again!}{/goodbye}

Hot Adventuring Fellow Action or: How I Learned To Slaughter Ladybugs by the Dozens

With our Linkshell members busy doing real life shit (crazy talk!!!) Almeth and I, once again, have had some free time to kill lately. Outside of the obligatory Thursday Assault Runs, and helping Reflaa get through the beginnings of the Wings of the Goddess crap, we didn't really have a lot going on. That being said, we've gotten back into getting some levels on our Adventuring Fellows. We've still got a long way to go, but we've found a pretty damn efficient way to accomplish our goals and make a little bit of money while we do it.

Now that Almeth and I are both 65, the Ladybugs and Colibri are easy enough that we can tackle multiple mobs at once, and by multiple I mean 5 or 6. With Almeth's Treasure Hunter the Ladybug Wings drop like water, the mobs are high enough level to give max Exp for our fellows, so we've been capping them out in like 10 minutes. It's been fun as shit (really really fun), and I'm gonna miss being able to do this when our fellows get higher. At our NPC's levels now (I think 38 and 37, although I could be wrong) we've still got some time before that happens...which is awesome. ^^

At any rate, some pics for posterity:

Fighting 5 Ladybugs and 3 Colibri simultaneously. This is the rare time when they were all relatively lined up; normally we just get swarmed...


Gust Slash {You can have this}!


Only 4 this time; our Adventuring Fellows must be getting exhausted...


And then there were 3...


This time it's 4 Colibri and 4 ladybugs...I dunno why but I just find this all hysterical. I wonder what people think when they run by and see us surrounded by mobs ^^


After 10 minutes or so, our Fellows were done for the day...but the carnage didn't end there.


Almeth, in a move of pure brilliance, decides to break out his recently acquired Valentione's Day stuff and get some club skillups...it was retarded how fast he got skillups ^^


I like to call this piece "Good God, Man!" Basically it's a cut and paste job illustrating just how frigging fast Almeth was racking up those club skillups. This is only about 5 minutes or so worth of chat logs...the red boxes outline the solid chunks...triple attack ftw!!


"Good God, Man! Part Deux"...again, the red boxes highlight the solid blocks of skill ups this guy was getting. Needless to say, I'm going to make it a point to bring out some dumpy weapon myself and do the same thing next time...

So there you have it. What we learned today:

• Leveling your Adventuring Fellow on Ladybugs fucking rocks!
• If you're high enough level, just grab as many as you can at once as possible...it's full of lulz!
• If you have a low enough weapon skill in something, skill up on Ladybugs!

This is Deuce, signing off...