A stroke (or two) of luck

Not sure if this was a mistake, or the guy doesn't know how to check the AH.


Either way, I sold it on a few hours later for 500k on the AH so that pays for the darksteel stuff I had crafted. I could have kept it as a (very nice) addition to my curing set, but there's a number of reasons why I sold it instead:
1) I like money more than I like curing people
2) My inventory has little room for extras as it is
3) I expect it to drop in price substantially over the next few months, it's still very new and it's a HQ-able synth which tends to mean the NQ ends up dirt cheap after a while (same thing should happen with the fjysggallaia torque thingy).

I finally got invited to do VNMs by a JP group (you know, those people that actually read search comments). It was glorious, and they are all my best friends ever for helping me out.



So that was more trouble than it was worth, but I'm glad it's done. I can now say with complete objectivity - fuck trail of the magians, it is a terrible system on par with synergy & evolith. Fucking UGH.


(In before trial of the magians additions where I can upgrade the same weapon further, and I only have to kill Fafnir/AV/myself 10 times each.)

How I maek money?

I've no idea how you're supposed to make money anymore. I went to Sea Serpent Grotto yesterday, because the fish guys there are supposed to drop coral fragments (which I want to try and craft some HQ coral gear) but I ended up with nothing but an inventory full of BRD songs after 90 mins. I tried a bit of fishing later, which got me level 10 and a Norg Shell which just about justified the trip but it's still lousy gil for the time spent down there.



I had someone attempt to craft me some darksteel mitts +1 as well, which has put me off getting anything HQ'd again instead of buying it from the AH.


Cost me over 280k in materials and a 50k tip I gave to the crafter, when I could have just bought them for 250k. On the plus side, I have about 200k in NQs leftover materials, assuming I can sell them for a reasonable price then the HQ cost me around 130k. Problem is it's going to be a looong time before I've got rid of all this crap.

So now I'm 1/16 on the hands, and 0/3 on the feet. I'm really not going to try and HQ the body because it's a 12k loss per NQ and -3% is good enough to spend and inventory space on.


Other fun things I did!


Took 1~2 hours to pop, I was very mad. 0/6? I'm not keeping track very well, but there's still the times where I've wasted hours camping the fuck and he's not popped.


Leveled BLU to 40, learnt Blank Gaze (Opo-Opos) and Uppercut (pictured). There's a couple more I need around this level, but most important (I think) would be MP drainkiss (leeches) because BLU sucks and needs something to help keep MP up.



Finally got enough Fields of Valor tabs from leveling BLU to try another bow. No such luck. 0/17

Need this god damn level cap to go up already so I can have an excuse to spam FoV.


Cannot unsee.

Brb, soloing sea access.

So SE confirmed what I was looking forward to most from the next update: abolition of CoP level caps.



But that isn't the only change being made. They are removing the level caps on CoP battlefields, so it's now entirely possible that at the very least a few jobs will be able to solo right through past 6-4 (I'm looking at you, NIN and RDM). While this will undoubtebly upset some people, and will certainly cause people to start boasting about beating CoP 'when it was hard', it's great for people who don't have a strong circle of friends or haven't been playing that long and are finding it impossible to find help for these missions. I think it's a great move, even if it does take the challenge out of the fight (even though the biggest challenge about the un-nerfed fights was getting the right people to do it with).

Unfortunately they're also changing the level and monster distribution in the areas

The upcoming version update will see the lifting of level restrictions in Chains of Promathia areas. In light of the planned level cap increase, the level and distribution of enemies in certain Promathia areas will also be adjusted to pose a worthy challenge to players level 75 and beyond.

Which could either result in the addition of high-level exp camps in the far reaches of Riverne or Pso'xja, or at the same time some level 85+ enemies guarding the entrance to the newly uncapped CoP mission areas. Since I was looking forward to the idea of soloing my own Stoneskin gorget after the update, I fully expect SE to ruin my plans by distributing high-level promyvion monsters around the NMs that I want, which is to be expected following SE's first law in MMO development: 'fuck you, buddy'.

As for my activities, I'm not really logging in at the moment so I have less distractions as I procrastinate massively (by writing this, for example) before my final exam. But here's what I did since I last posted:


(Almost) caught up on WoTG missions, I'm on the last available trio of quests for each nation, each of which culminates in a fight of some sort before I can progress onto the final set of missions to truly be up to date, but Juli is on all the same quests as me so I at least know one person who is at the same point as me.


Bored myself to tears in hours and hours of Campaign to finally earn my medal rank back, so I could buy an Allied Ring. Still too low for Fiat Lux, but I don't know enough people to do it with anyway so it's not a big deal. Somehow I've lost 4 ranks since they released the final one, and the worst part is I don't need any exp for my 75's so there's really no advantage to doing campaign anymore.


Did some leveling of subs from 37~40 in East Ronfaure [S]. Never actually partied there before, but it's very easy exp (as to be expected). SAM and WAR now 40 (in the same evening!), even though they don't offer much over /37, and I never use /WAR anyway...but regardless WAR is fun as hell and is a beast of a job (pictured is my best WS at 38, with uncapped skill, and I did another for 500~ at 40 without Mighty Strikes).

Still need to do DRK/PLD/THF/BLU to 40 (not likely to see much use, so not essential) and BLM, but mage jobs are boring as hell and don't get invites, so I'm bound to be lumped with pet soloing again.

New Version Update Announcement! (14/05/2010)

We are pleased to announce that our development team is hard at work putting the finishing touches on the upcoming FINAL FANTASY XI version update, which is currently on track for a mid-June release.

This update promises to be a momentous one, with the first level cap increase in over six and a half years, and a veritable slew of new equipment and weapon skills to accompany it.

But that's not all! Adventurers across Vana'diel can look forward to experiencing the climactic conclusions of the popular Wings of the Goddess nation quest storylines, braving the eerie environs of the new Walk of Echoes area, taking up the gauntlet with new Trial of the Magians trials, and much more! With a host of job adjustments and other refinements on the way as well, this update is sure to offer something for players of all stripes.

As always, detailed previews will be forthcoming right here in the Topics section, so keep watching this space!

It's going to be another month before the update actually hits, but I have a long way to go to get caught up on Wings of the Goddess quests/missions. Not to mention I still need to get all my subjobs to 40 at least. Thankfully, I got SCH to 40 when burning through the last 6 charges on my Anniversary ring so I could get a new one (then used 2 more charges so I could hit 40 faster).


26 > 40 in 2 days is good for me. 26-30 was solo in Yhoator Jungle then Bibiki Bay, got a party for 30-33. Then solo again 33-35 at the Zi'Tah outpost, and a party to finish off 35-40. Accession GO! Also, I'd like to note how useless strategems are pre-30: very useless.


Managed to send some junk to my mule, except that isn't my mule anymore :\
Good thing it wasn't anything valuable

Adventurer Appreciation 2010

This popped up with little warning, and I have 6 charges left on my anniversary ring from last year :\

Anyways, here's the obligatory compilation of stats from previous years:

A whole lot less of everything this year, except I've managed to keep up my momentum on deaths.


We also got some fancy looking dinner jacket set, which has been given a place in my RDM idle set for the time being because it looks nice.

Now I'm going to have to start leveling SCH something fierce so I can use this anni ring up in time to get a new one.

Long time coming

Only a week short of 8 months waiting for the Apollyon drop. I got the second half of my DRG materials in the same run, but I can only upgrade one AF per week, so RDM body then DRG head and I'm done with the essential AF upgrades.


Bow augment of the week. Any day now...

I've been trying to find people to join to kill Farruca Fly. Never thought it would be so freaking impossible to find anyone doing T2 VNMs that would at least let me leech kills, but eh such is life.




Seems I missed the bus that all the competant people doing magian weapons took. So if I happen to find anyone doing the VNMs they are almost always complete morons.

1/6 so far, and far too many hours wasted to get that. Why is everything simple end up so difficult for me? :(


I broke my game as well, only recently noticed that Mithra don't close their eyes anymore when resting (everyone else I asked reported them closed). It could be because I changed my .dats to get rid of the goofy vanilla idle stance.

WTF (Windurstian Teen Force)

Oh, you.

...I finally found some people to do the WOTG mission I was stuck on, and since then have been speeding through them to the next set of nation quests, which I'm in the middle of doing (not checked if I can do them solo though).



Some of these quests I REALLY despise, not because of the story or difficulty or anything, but because some of them are fucking tedious, for example, Beneath the Mask goes something like this:

> Talk to guy in Bastok
> Go to Beadeaux
> Warp back to own nation, warp to Gustaberg and walk to Bastok again
> Go to the Eldieme Necropolis, talk to guy
> Said guy has forgotten some seal, you need to obtain some items to make a new one.
> Trip to Whitegate/Jeuno auction house to obtain said items
> Go to Vunkerl inlet to make seal from items
> Go back to the useless fuckwit in the Eldieme Necropolis
> Return to Bastok again
> Go to Beaucedine Glacier
> Wonder where the last hour of your life went

Another fun example is the Windurst quest I'm on, which is supposed to be a battlefield fight. Except it would be too straightforward to have me go to X zone and press Y button to initiate the fight. No, I've got to go to king's room of each beastman stronhold in the present to get three key items before I can do the fight. I'd be fine with them drawing out shit for the sake of it just to make you go and use old areas, it's cool to go there once in a while, but I have other shit to do and I only live so long, do I really have to keep doing this shit for every quest?


Am not impressed.

One good thing came out of these quests though; I encountered a JP group doing Shoggoth and they let me tag along


I got 4 kills over 1 and a half hours at most. Is good.

Later, I saw someone shouting for it, so I joined against my better judgement as they'd been shouting for a good 30 min with no success and they were failing to correctly spell VNM.


By some miracle we managed 2 kills over the space of 4/5 hours when I finally went to bed at 1am :\
(I must admit though, the 2nd kill was mainly done by 3 BSTs, and it was relatively painless)


So 6 Farruca Fly Kills to go and I'm done with this ordeal.