I know, I know... I'm lazy about posting
So yeah... can't believe my last post was back when I beat Persona 3. XD I tried playing Persona 4, but it was a lot harder for me to get into. I got Mana Khemia 2, as well. I started playing that, but then FFXI drew me back in (the version update helped a lot with that :P). I'll get back to P4 and MK2 eventually, I'm sure.
As far as FFXI goes, the new missions were awesome. The server merge really seemed to help in getting people together for them; it's back to the way it used to be. That is to say, I can do the missions when they are released, and there's enough others also doing them that I can tag along with them and get them done right away. The Blitzkrieg-style fight was fun, and the one where you Flee around setting off bombs wasn't too bad once someone made a map with a path to take on wiki. The BC with lolBifrons was pretty easy. The Throne Room fight was also pretty easy, since it was another "keep Lilisette alive and she'll solo it for you" fight. The hard part was getting to the Throne Room in the first place, since there's all those doors to open in the Keep, which were guarded by IT sight mobs (Orcs or Gargouilles, depending on which path you take). We ended up having a death/tractor fest to get through it. <.< And then there's imps by the first teleporter, though they were easy to avoid. And 2 Tauri right before the door to Throne Room, but those weren't too hard to avoid either. I did end up getting aggroed by a Kindred when teleporting around, but I managed to sleep him and continue on with the teleporting. We ended up doing the BC as WHM WHM RDM RDM RDM BLM. The cutscenes, as always, were incredibly awesome. Shadow Lord in the past... he was beyond badass. I won't spoil it for those who haven't done it yet, but goddamn. I don't wanna fight him, I'll say that much. XD The only thing that pisses me off is that I really wanted to see the post-Throne Room fight cutscene with me on SAM, rather than WHM, but to re-watch it, you have to use the Goblin Footprint IN Throne Room (S). -.-
Exploring Zvahl (S) was fun too. Kinda annoying how they put an Amphiptere on the path leading up to it, though. It wouldn't be as bad if there weren't also Tauri to avoid. Amphipteres fly really damn fast when they are up in the air, so when you're running frantically to try and avoid aggroing it, it's pretty easy to run right into a Taurus if you're not careful. But yeah, the zones themselves. Pretty damn cool. They are sufficiently creepy. The Goblin section of Baileys was replaced with Gargouilles, which kinda sucks (since they are sight/sound, not just sight). There's also Zvahl Fortalices scattered around, which look like belfries. They are for the new Campaign Op, Bailey Borer, where you hafta destroy one to complete the Op. There's only 4 per zone (Baileys and Keep), but no mobs in their immediate vicinity, so it's pretty easy to attack them without worrying about aggro. And apparently, they give skillups all the way to cap. They have high evasion, though I'm not sure about their defense. They take extra damage from magic, too; I did 2700ish with Blizzaga III and 1500ish with Thunder III, as BLM71. Just an interesting little tidbit I found. Also, from what I read on wiki, there's an actual non-NM vampyr mob somewhere in Castle Zvahl Keep (S)! Apparently it links with a bat, and the bat links with it. The Keep in general makes me eagerly await the rise in level cap; I'd love to explore it more, but it's just way too dangerous. I did a Campaign battle there once, since the C.A. is right at the zone, and the forts are right there in the first big room. There were a ton of mobs there guarding them, and I was the only person there (aside from the NPCs that showed up eventually). I ended up pulling a Gnole (Moonfang Warrior), and linked a 2nd gnole on the pull, but stayed alive until all the NPCs had been slaughtered and the battle ended, for about 1400ish exp. I've not yet done a battle in Baileys, though. The cool thing (in my opinion anyway) about Campaign in Keep is that the Keep-exclusive force is led by a Vampyr general (Shadowbreath). :o The force itself are Kindred WARs, from the looks of it. The general for the Baileys-exclusive force is a Taurus, and his troops are Tauri as well. x.x
I've also been doing Trial of the Magians. It can be pretty shitty, though. The weapons are quite nice and all, but some of the requirements (mostly weather, but sometimes mob types) SUCK. First I worked on the dagger with DMG:34 Delay:190 AGI+4 Evasion+12 for my THF. For those that haven't looked into Trial of the Magians yet, here's an example of the shit they make you do. Keep in mind that all mobs killed (aside from NMs, but I've not done any paths that require NM kills) have to yield exp, which means EP+ and no Campaign or Besieged or Dynamis/Limbus or anything like that. And the weapon you're "upgrading" has to be equipped for the kills. You can PT up (and even alliance) though, and get credit for your PT's kills, so long as you are in range to get exp. Which is how everyone has been doing it, since it means you don't have to compete for mobs.
So far for the above-mentioned dagger, I've had to kill 100 rabbits in any weather (which means you need a weather icon; fair/sunshine/fog/clouds don't count), then 100 crabs in fire/light/thunder/wind weather, then 100 of any mobs either on Windsday or in wind weather (or both), then 100 vermin in wind day/weather, then 150 birds (the ecosystem, not the family) in wind day/weather. And the final trial, which I am currently on, is 200 MORBOLS in wind day/weather. x_x I did the the rabbits in a mix of Cape Teriggan and Uleguerand Range (mostly Uleguerand), the crabs in Vunkerl Inlet, the 100 anything... I don't remember, but I think I did a lot more crabs in Vunkerl. For the vermin, I mostly did beetles behind Banishing Gate #2 in Garlaige. I tried doing bees in Wajaom in between windsdays, since there is wind weather there, but I got hit with a 1200 dmg Final Sting and died, so I gave up on that. <.< For birds, I did a lot of Goblin's Bats and a few Dire Bats in Vunkerl, and a bunch of colibris in Wajaom. I also did a Maze with Bird, Tiny Warrior, Weakness, and Peon, which resulted in Rocs, Colibris, and Bats. For the Morbols so far, I did 6 of them in Maze Mongers (Plantoid, Great Warrior, Weakness, and a level 63 MNK in my PT), and that's it. XD My dagger is decent at this stage, though; it's DMG:32 Delay:190 AGI+2 Evasion+5. It's better than main-handing Thief's Knife like I was doing before, at any rate. :P
I also have been working on a staff for WHM, which, when finished, will have Cure potency +15%. The first trial was 100 Treants (saplings count too) in any weather, which I got done in Grauberg. Now I'm on the next part, which is 100 spiders in fire/light/wind/thunder weather. I got some in Boyahda, some in Kuftal, and some in Bhaflau, but I still need another 32 of them. It's been absolutely horrid trying to get these spiders, because weather has been scarce as hell. It's like anything else in the game I suppose; always around, until you need it. What pisses me off the most though, is the complete lack of thunder weather in Boyahda. COME ON! The Cloister of Storms is there, and it's always been plentiful until now! /rage
Thankfully, that's the last weather requirement for that staff. Next is 100 of any mobs on Lightsday (or weather, but lol @ light weather), then 100 Arcana in the same. After that is something a bit different; land the killing blow with light damage of 50 points or greater on 150 Beasts. This one actually has NO day/weather requirement, which is very nice. But unfortunately, it also means no PTing up with others doing the same trial, because YOU need to have the killing blow. Thankfully, Beasts is a wide category, and with no day/weather requirement, it shouldn't be TOO horrible. The final trial is actually the easiest, in my opinion. All you have to do is trade 10 Bottled Pixies to the Fay Spring in Grauberg. Really, the only annoying part of that is the travel; Bottled Pixies are 100% drop from Yagudo High Priests in Meriphataud (S), but the one I've always used is by Castle Oztroja, so I gotta run all the way out there, kill the Yagudo, then run all the way to the Fay Spring in Grauberg to release it, then go back and repeat until I've done 10 of them (since Bottled Pixies are rare/ex). Hopefully I can team up with a WHM, so we can Recall-Meriph and choco to the Yagudo, then Recall-Pashh and chocobo to the Fay Spring, and repeat. Would certainly speed things up, though I'd probably have to help the WHM get their own pixies, which means waiting on repop before we go turn them in (thankfully they should be 5 minute repop, since it's a field area).
I also finally stopped putting it off and started a Lebros assault point static, so I could get Yigit feet. Did the first run on Wednesday; 5 runs of Apkallu Breeding. At this rate, I may get them by the week after next. Once I do, I'll get back to leveling BLM finally. (It's still level 71.) I really should finish farming organs for Obis, though. I think I'm still missing water, fire, and earth. And I need to get SCH sub leveled too (preferably to at least 40, in preparation for the level cap update, since 40 is the level you get the AoE strategem); it's currently at 27.
And finally, what prompted me to get off my lazy ass and post: this week's episode of Naruto. The new opening made me squee like crazy. SO AWESOME! :D Finally we're getting to Pain's invasion of Konoha! :D (Though I can't believe they actually put Pain ripping out Shizune's soul in there...) AND THE NEW ENDING WAS SO CUTE! AHHHH HINATA <3333 It's nice that the anime can still make me lol at stuff that was already in the manga. Like Naruto getting all excited and tossing that frog statue, making a domino effect with the ones behind it. XD And how Naruto was all horrified that he actually liked the food the frogs gave him. Also, for some reason, when Akatsuki saw Sasuke screwed up at capturing Killer Bee and Zetsu laughed, it amused me. I guess just cuz I never heard Zetsu laugh before. It made me laugh how amused he seemed to be.
As far as FFXI goes, the new missions were awesome. The server merge really seemed to help in getting people together for them; it's back to the way it used to be. That is to say, I can do the missions when they are released, and there's enough others also doing them that I can tag along with them and get them done right away. The Blitzkrieg-style fight was fun, and the one where you Flee around setting off bombs wasn't too bad once someone made a map with a path to take on wiki. The BC with lolBifrons was pretty easy. The Throne Room fight was also pretty easy, since it was another "keep Lilisette alive and she'll solo it for you" fight. The hard part was getting to the Throne Room in the first place, since there's all those doors to open in the Keep, which were guarded by IT sight mobs (Orcs or Gargouilles, depending on which path you take). We ended up having a death/tractor fest to get through it. <.< And then there's imps by the first teleporter, though they were easy to avoid. And 2 Tauri right before the door to Throne Room, but those weren't too hard to avoid either. I did end up getting aggroed by a Kindred when teleporting around, but I managed to sleep him and continue on with the teleporting. We ended up doing the BC as WHM WHM RDM RDM RDM BLM. The cutscenes, as always, were incredibly awesome. Shadow Lord in the past... he was beyond badass. I won't spoil it for those who haven't done it yet, but goddamn. I don't wanna fight him, I'll say that much. XD The only thing that pisses me off is that I really wanted to see the post-Throne Room fight cutscene with me on SAM, rather than WHM, but to re-watch it, you have to use the Goblin Footprint IN Throne Room (S). -.-
Exploring Zvahl (S) was fun too. Kinda annoying how they put an Amphiptere on the path leading up to it, though. It wouldn't be as bad if there weren't also Tauri to avoid. Amphipteres fly really damn fast when they are up in the air, so when you're running frantically to try and avoid aggroing it, it's pretty easy to run right into a Taurus if you're not careful. But yeah, the zones themselves. Pretty damn cool. They are sufficiently creepy. The Goblin section of Baileys was replaced with Gargouilles, which kinda sucks (since they are sight/sound, not just sight). There's also Zvahl Fortalices scattered around, which look like belfries. They are for the new Campaign Op, Bailey Borer, where you hafta destroy one to complete the Op. There's only 4 per zone (Baileys and Keep), but no mobs in their immediate vicinity, so it's pretty easy to attack them without worrying about aggro. And apparently, they give skillups all the way to cap. They have high evasion, though I'm not sure about their defense. They take extra damage from magic, too; I did 2700ish with Blizzaga III and 1500ish with Thunder III, as BLM71. Just an interesting little tidbit I found. Also, from what I read on wiki, there's an actual non-NM vampyr mob somewhere in Castle Zvahl Keep (S)! Apparently it links with a bat, and the bat links with it. The Keep in general makes me eagerly await the rise in level cap; I'd love to explore it more, but it's just way too dangerous. I did a Campaign battle there once, since the C.A. is right at the zone, and the forts are right there in the first big room. There were a ton of mobs there guarding them, and I was the only person there (aside from the NPCs that showed up eventually). I ended up pulling a Gnole (Moonfang Warrior), and linked a 2nd gnole on the pull, but stayed alive until all the NPCs had been slaughtered and the battle ended, for about 1400ish exp. I've not yet done a battle in Baileys, though. The cool thing (in my opinion anyway) about Campaign in Keep is that the Keep-exclusive force is led by a Vampyr general (Shadowbreath). :o The force itself are Kindred WARs, from the looks of it. The general for the Baileys-exclusive force is a Taurus, and his troops are Tauri as well. x.x
I've also been doing Trial of the Magians. It can be pretty shitty, though. The weapons are quite nice and all, but some of the requirements (mostly weather, but sometimes mob types) SUCK. First I worked on the dagger with DMG:34 Delay:190 AGI+4 Evasion+12 for my THF. For those that haven't looked into Trial of the Magians yet, here's an example of the shit they make you do. Keep in mind that all mobs killed (aside from NMs, but I've not done any paths that require NM kills) have to yield exp, which means EP+ and no Campaign or Besieged or Dynamis/Limbus or anything like that. And the weapon you're "upgrading" has to be equipped for the kills. You can PT up (and even alliance) though, and get credit for your PT's kills, so long as you are in range to get exp. Which is how everyone has been doing it, since it means you don't have to compete for mobs.
So far for the above-mentioned dagger, I've had to kill 100 rabbits in any weather (which means you need a weather icon; fair/sunshine/fog/clouds don't count), then 100 crabs in fire/light/thunder/wind weather, then 100 of any mobs either on Windsday or in wind weather (or both), then 100 vermin in wind day/weather, then 150 birds (the ecosystem, not the family) in wind day/weather. And the final trial, which I am currently on, is 200 MORBOLS in wind day/weather. x_x I did the the rabbits in a mix of Cape Teriggan and Uleguerand Range (mostly Uleguerand), the crabs in Vunkerl Inlet, the 100 anything... I don't remember, but I think I did a lot more crabs in Vunkerl. For the vermin, I mostly did beetles behind Banishing Gate #2 in Garlaige. I tried doing bees in Wajaom in between windsdays, since there is wind weather there, but I got hit with a 1200 dmg Final Sting and died, so I gave up on that. <.< For birds, I did a lot of Goblin's Bats and a few Dire Bats in Vunkerl, and a bunch of colibris in Wajaom. I also did a Maze with Bird, Tiny Warrior, Weakness, and Peon, which resulted in Rocs, Colibris, and Bats. For the Morbols so far, I did 6 of them in Maze Mongers (Plantoid, Great Warrior, Weakness, and a level 63 MNK in my PT), and that's it. XD My dagger is decent at this stage, though; it's DMG:32 Delay:190 AGI+2 Evasion+5. It's better than main-handing Thief's Knife like I was doing before, at any rate. :P
I also have been working on a staff for WHM, which, when finished, will have Cure potency +15%. The first trial was 100 Treants (saplings count too) in any weather, which I got done in Grauberg. Now I'm on the next part, which is 100 spiders in fire/light/wind/thunder weather. I got some in Boyahda, some in Kuftal, and some in Bhaflau, but I still need another 32 of them. It's been absolutely horrid trying to get these spiders, because weather has been scarce as hell. It's like anything else in the game I suppose; always around, until you need it. What pisses me off the most though, is the complete lack of thunder weather in Boyahda. COME ON! The Cloister of Storms is there, and it's always been plentiful until now! /rage
Thankfully, that's the last weather requirement for that staff. Next is 100 of any mobs on Lightsday (or weather, but lol @ light weather), then 100 Arcana in the same. After that is something a bit different; land the killing blow with light damage of 50 points or greater on 150 Beasts. This one actually has NO day/weather requirement, which is very nice. But unfortunately, it also means no PTing up with others doing the same trial, because YOU need to have the killing blow. Thankfully, Beasts is a wide category, and with no day/weather requirement, it shouldn't be TOO horrible. The final trial is actually the easiest, in my opinion. All you have to do is trade 10 Bottled Pixies to the Fay Spring in Grauberg. Really, the only annoying part of that is the travel; Bottled Pixies are 100% drop from Yagudo High Priests in Meriphataud (S), but the one I've always used is by Castle Oztroja, so I gotta run all the way out there, kill the Yagudo, then run all the way to the Fay Spring in Grauberg to release it, then go back and repeat until I've done 10 of them (since Bottled Pixies are rare/ex). Hopefully I can team up with a WHM, so we can Recall-Meriph and choco to the Yagudo, then Recall-Pashh and chocobo to the Fay Spring, and repeat. Would certainly speed things up, though I'd probably have to help the WHM get their own pixies, which means waiting on repop before we go turn them in (thankfully they should be 5 minute repop, since it's a field area).
I also finally stopped putting it off and started a Lebros assault point static, so I could get Yigit feet. Did the first run on Wednesday; 5 runs of Apkallu Breeding. At this rate, I may get them by the week after next. Once I do, I'll get back to leveling BLM finally. (It's still level 71.) I really should finish farming organs for Obis, though. I think I'm still missing water, fire, and earth. And I need to get SCH sub leveled too (preferably to at least 40, in preparation for the level cap update, since 40 is the level you get the AoE strategem); it's currently at 27.
And finally, what prompted me to get off my lazy ass and post: this week's episode of Naruto. The new opening made me squee like crazy. SO AWESOME! :D Finally we're getting to Pain's invasion of Konoha! :D (Though I can't believe they actually put Pain ripping out Shizune's soul in there...) AND THE NEW ENDING WAS SO CUTE! AHHHH HINATA <3333 It's nice that the anime can still make me lol at stuff that was already in the manga. Like Naruto getting all excited and tossing that frog statue, making a domino effect with the ones behind it. XD And how Naruto was all horrified that he actually liked the food the frogs gave him. Also, for some reason, when Akatsuki saw Sasuke screwed up at capturing Killer Bee and Zetsu laughed, it amused me. I guess just cuz I never heard Zetsu laugh before. It made me laugh how amused he seemed to be.