Now what?

Merits capped, and still not decided on another job, or have time to level it so...sword/dagger merits gogo?



Also, Hades got Martial Master kupower for the first time in a while, so I went off to finish my ranged skills.


Moar blue numbers! I spent 10 mins getting the last 2 levels on Archery (Even Match), then 30 mins without a single 0.1 on throwing, which was spent on Easy Prey. So either EP is too low for me (I thought this was unlikely, being at 173 skill) or I'm horribly unlucky.

That's all. What an exciting life I lead ;\

Moogles, Merits and Medals.

MKD spoilers ahead, be warned. Not that it matters anymore because people just read about it on the wiki ahead of doing missions anyway.

Despite it being a week since I've really done anything, I've managed to do alot in the past couple of days, including beating the moogle expansion~


Chamber of Oracles fight was a bit rough, since the boss spams a nasty TP move which you can see killed two of our DDs in the final moments (because I started nuking, haha!) but other than that it's a simple sleepga > kill adds > fight boss > repeat.



This is then followed by some interesting, but still long-winded quests (or mini games) which are interesting if only because it isn't kill X mobs for Y drop. The only downside is after you've spent an hour doing all the challenges and then fail the final BCNM, you need to repeat them all from scatch which makes it just as bad, if not worse than ACP in that regard.

Thankfully, I went 1/1 on the final fight, which is a relief because 4/6 members were Japanese and the leader was English-speaking. They still managed to explain the strategy quite admirably with the auto-translater. Though it probably sounded a horrible mess to the JP members I had a feeling they knew what they were doing anyway.


And they did! Because the boss spams heavy AoE damage and draw-in every time he hits 75%, the melee should do nothing to get hate on him for the majority of the fight to avoid pointless sponging (hence why we stand and watch on the stairs). Our 2 BLMs basically did most of the work, tanking the boss with stoneskin against a wall (because of knockback) and they were even able to rest because his normal attacks were too weak to break stoneskin. BLMs would nuke him down then sleepga the henchmen, which we dealt with. After 2 waves of henchmen, we slept the 3rd wave and finished the boss off with DDs and BLMs going all out.

All in all, it's a decent expansion, even though they've taken the bad points about ACP (re-collecting key items to repeat fights, competing for low-level mobs to farm) and made it even worse. At least the story wasn't as horrible, but the mid-level augmented items from the chest seem to be no good compared to ACP's augments.


Here's my kupo hat in my new DRG WS setup, it should give me plenty of accuracy now so I've ditched my acc rings for STR in my penta thrust set up as well. I'm still not sure about N.body vs ACP hauby (7 STR vs 10 att + 5 DEX) but at least the body/head combo match here.

The day before I did MKD, I was spamming Campaign battles out of boredom, and I wanted to play on DRG, and ended up getting myself a new medal, along with a T. whiteshell (plus other junk) from Union chests.



And I got enough EXP to finish my attributes merits


I could be criticised for not going 5/5 STR but there's bigger wastes.

Two out of Three.

Paralyze II is now 2/3 (and falling, when I get more merits) to make way for Phalanx II. The latter being much more helpful for Salvage (particularily first floors, I'm hoping it might speed things up a little, although MP never really was an issue before). Naturally, during a Silver Seas run Paralyze actually starts paralyzing things that I cast it on, making me instantly regret deciding to get rid of it. After having watched Powderkeg Yanadahn be rendered immobile for a good few seconds by my spell, I complain and announce that I'm retiring RDM because Paralyze II apparantly operates in an absurd counter-logical fashion.
However it seems Yana, being a fellow RDM, felt pity for me and gave me some trousers to help make me feel better :D.


This puts me on 2/3 for Morrigan's Slops, which is all well and good, but we can't beat chariot bosses yet so it'll still be a while before I see them completed.

More Paralyze madness on some Gears NM;


It especially irritated me that this would happen when I was short of a back/waist cell as well. The gears weren't quite as sympathetic to my whinings so didn't bother dropping the legs we wanted from them. Due to the random nature of paralyze, I'll just write it off as bad luck, and Paralyze I would have performed just as adequately had I used that instead.


In other news, another Adventurer Appreciation campaign is on, which basically involves moogles being stationed around to give you some moderately interesting statistics about your character to compare with others. Also new Anniversary rings for all, which nobody can complain about.

Obligatory 'this is what the moogle says to me' picture:




This is what an anniversary ring does:


I'll be using mine on either getting DRG to a respectable level, or speed through it in Merit parties to cap Phalanx II merits ASAP. Also, the hour recast on it allows for Anniversary ring > Emperor Band > Anniversary ring goodness in merit parties.

Cuddles has got his second ring too, so MNK will take a healthy boost in EXP should I ever get a party on it. The Astral Candescence was recently stolen by the Undead Swarm, so few are going to be partying until the mystery superJP weekender team rescue it for us lazy westerners.