There's no place like...
Life on Valefor has been amazingly pleasant since my return, and I'm happy to say - in larga part, normal. ^^ It's good to see a lot hasn't changed. Pat still punches stuff. My friends are still goofballs. My enemies are still retarded. Anonymous KI trolls still try to stir up drama with lies and bad information. There's no place like home, and honestly? With friends like these, why would I ever want to be anywhere else? :D
With the new semester starting, I thought I'd have less game-time again like I did last semester - and it certainly has taken a bite out of my FFXI-time. However as luck would have it, I decided to drop an unnecessary class to ease the workload for myself, and at the same time - without intention - opened up two hours between classes, to do homework and study. :D Wewt for time saved!
I'm currently still in limbo, but have found that surprisingly, being without a linkshell isn't so bad as long as I still have friends to talk to, and play around with. ^^ Besides, it's been really good for me in the sense that I definitely have more time to work on my personal goals. :D
Doing Assaults with Pat again has been awesome. :) And even though this stupid doggie keeps munching us up, I'm enjoying myself. The problem with the Cerb carbon copy, has been the elementals. Until now, we've tried having a mage take care of them, but now we're thinking I should be the one to kite them, since I have decidedly better survivability, and just have Pat /nin tank the puppy. I'm thinking /nin would be the sub of choice for me, even for kiting, but ideally I'd finish my /rdm.
Dracula was much more pleasant. :D Unfortunately we ended up wiping the first time, due to my stupid internet. x.x Since I just moved and have not had cable installed yet, so I'm currently leeching wireless from the neighbors. XD Silly college town, just around my house there are six wireless networks in range, hehe. Unfortunately, that also sometimes leads to disconnects at the worst possible time. Like say, when tanking Dracula, just as he pops a hard-hitting Pat-doppelganger. The second time, though, we did some ass-whoppin' in a solid way. ^^
I've also been doing dynamis with DynamisX, and since Regn's buffer suffered a bit as a result, I got some leveling in. With plenty of groping, of course. <3 Thanks to Hollitz for letting me leech his Marid exp. ^^
I applied to Ultima a while back, but I've been really bad about showing up to their events so they can see my tanking skillz (or lack thereof, depending on how you view it). One event I did make, however, was Proto-Ultima! I've never tanked Proto-Ultima before, and I had an absolute blast! With my current lack-of-endgame-shell status, I haven't been working on my resist builds at all, so of course when I got hate on a CB, I dropped like a sack of potatoes! It was the most fun I've had in a very, very long while. And I ended up with a nice, new title. :)
I've been thinking about Proto-Ultima and resist builds. Obviously, I can't do that neat -25% magic damage Aegis trick (yet), but there are other gear I could get to reduce the damage from Citadel Buster. I heard a friend of mine (one of the most solid tanks I know of) opted for a lot of Coral gear. I think I'd suffer greatly from losing the haste or enmity I need for /nin, but maybe I could work on a set to macro in for when CB is close to going off? After all, it's got that nice countdown. I was thinking something like this:
Haste/enmity setup:
Main: Mac[tab] +1
Sub: Koenig shield
Head: Walhara Turban
Body: AF (Team Gallant... go... ; ; )
Hands: Homam
Legs: Wyrmal
Feet: AF+1
Neck: Shield torque/Harmony torque (situational)
Ears: Cassie/Ethereal
Rings: Sattva/Hercules
Back: Resentment Cape
Waist: Trance (0/1 on Swift Belt, hoping for a new run soon)
Citadel Buster -% magic damage setup:
Main: Iron Ram Lance (-10% damage taken)
Sub:
Head: Walhara Turban
Body: Coral Scale Mail (-3% magic dmg, -4 on the +1)
Hands: Coral Finger Gauntlets (-1%, -2% on the +1)
Legs: Coral Cuisses (-2%, -3% on the +1)
Feet: Coral Greaves (-1%, -2% on the +1)
Neck: Shield torque/Harmony torque (situational)
Ears: Merman's Earring x2 (-2% on each)
Rings: Merman's Ring x2 (-4% on each)
Back: Resentment Cape (-5% with Signet on)
Waist: Trance (or Swift when I get it)
Depending on how many +1 pieces I get (if any), and if I opt for the lance (losing the TP from weapon-swapping might hurt me bad), macroing in this for CB, would bring my total -% magic damage taken up to between -24% and -38%. :) I guess it's something to work on, and see if it does me any good. :D
I also got my first shot at tanking Dynamis-Valkurm with DynamisX, which also was mass fun! :D I'm not a huge fan of main tanking dynamis - it's very chaotic, and I know that I hate when the main tank is slow with targetting, so I always freak out when I get that pressure on me. I much prefer the laid-back environment of backup tanking, voking slept mobs off mages and such. However, seeing as how it's... oh, maybe a year? At least? Since the last time I mained dynamis, it was a refreshing change of pace! :D
As part of my whole, "Lexa getting back to her roots" thing, I went back to doing something I forgot how much I enjoyed: Helping random shouts with CoP. ^^ It's always fun helping people through these missions, and it's extra fun when you run into intelligent, smart people, who aren't being stupid about aggro, about gear, supplies, strategies, or anything! :D This group beat Diabolos and Ouryu in a couple of hours, and then got the keys for 4-3 farmed up. :) We're currently trying to set up a time that works for everyone, to do the rest of 4-3 together. ^^
I tried leveling my RDM and THF a bit, both level 18 and struggling through the hell that is the dunes, but... well, with parties like these? It's not going to fast. :p I've been soloing a lot.^^
What I have been doing rather successfully, however, has been crafting. :) Thanks to all the flan meat I collected while manaburning Regn in Mount Zhaylom, I've been getting some decently okay Alchemy skillups, bringing me a bit closer to my goal of 60. Smithing has gone from 17 to 32, and I'm hoping to get it to about 47-50, so I can mine Mount Zhaylom with maximum effeciency. My Guild Points in the Goldsmithing guild are now up to over 75k, which isn't too bad considering I'm still not past Novice. :D I'm gonna be spending 50k of them on Sheeting and Gold Purification before I get to the level where I can buy my items, but I'm fairly confident I'll be able to get both the glasses and the apron the second I'm ranking up to be able to buy them. ^^
Crafting is probably going to be my main focus for a while. Smithing is obviously the sub I'm currently working on, and after that I'm aiming to finish my Bonecraft (currently at 27). Then there's Cloth, Leather and Wood - though not necessarily in that order. They're not crafts that interest me even the least bit, so I think it'd going to be painful to be motivated to level them, but oh, well - gotta be done. :)
Finally, more proof of why I love my friends:
And Moggles - of a different kind:
That's all. :)
With the new semester starting, I thought I'd have less game-time again like I did last semester - and it certainly has taken a bite out of my FFXI-time. However as luck would have it, I decided to drop an unnecessary class to ease the workload for myself, and at the same time - without intention - opened up two hours between classes, to do homework and study. :D Wewt for time saved!
I'm currently still in limbo, but have found that surprisingly, being without a linkshell isn't so bad as long as I still have friends to talk to, and play around with. ^^ Besides, it's been really good for me in the sense that I definitely have more time to work on my personal goals. :D
Doing Assaults with Pat again has been awesome. :) And even though this stupid doggie keeps munching us up, I'm enjoying myself. The problem with the Cerb carbon copy, has been the elementals. Until now, we've tried having a mage take care of them, but now we're thinking I should be the one to kite them, since I have decidedly better survivability, and just have Pat /nin tank the puppy. I'm thinking /nin would be the sub of choice for me, even for kiting, but ideally I'd finish my /rdm.
Dracula was much more pleasant. :D Unfortunately we ended up wiping the first time, due to my stupid internet. x.x Since I just moved and have not had cable installed yet, so I'm currently leeching wireless from the neighbors. XD Silly college town, just around my house there are six wireless networks in range, hehe. Unfortunately, that also sometimes leads to disconnects at the worst possible time. Like say, when tanking Dracula, just as he pops a hard-hitting Pat-doppelganger. The second time, though, we did some ass-whoppin' in a solid way. ^^
I've also been doing dynamis with DynamisX, and since Regn's buffer suffered a bit as a result, I got some leveling in. With plenty of groping, of course. <3 Thanks to Hollitz for letting me leech his Marid exp. ^^
I applied to Ultima a while back, but I've been really bad about showing up to their events so they can see my tanking skillz (or lack thereof, depending on how you view it). One event I did make, however, was Proto-Ultima! I've never tanked Proto-Ultima before, and I had an absolute blast! With my current lack-of-endgame-shell status, I haven't been working on my resist builds at all, so of course when I got hate on a CB, I dropped like a sack of potatoes! It was the most fun I've had in a very, very long while. And I ended up with a nice, new title. :)
I've been thinking about Proto-Ultima and resist builds. Obviously, I can't do that neat -25% magic damage Aegis trick (yet), but there are other gear I could get to reduce the damage from Citadel Buster. I heard a friend of mine (one of the most solid tanks I know of) opted for a lot of Coral gear. I think I'd suffer greatly from losing the haste or enmity I need for /nin, but maybe I could work on a set to macro in for when CB is close to going off? After all, it's got that nice countdown. I was thinking something like this:
Haste/enmity setup:
Main: Mac[tab] +1
Sub: Koenig shield
Head: Walhara Turban
Body: AF (Team Gallant... go... ; ; )
Hands: Homam
Legs: Wyrmal
Feet: AF+1
Neck: Shield torque/Harmony torque (situational)
Ears: Cassie/Ethereal
Rings: Sattva/Hercules
Back: Resentment Cape
Waist: Trance (0/1 on Swift Belt, hoping for a new run soon)
Citadel Buster -% magic damage setup:
Main: Iron Ram Lance (-10% damage taken)
Sub:
Head: Walhara Turban
Body: Coral Scale Mail (-3% magic dmg, -4 on the +1)
Hands: Coral Finger Gauntlets (-1%, -2% on the +1)
Legs: Coral Cuisses (-2%, -3% on the +1)
Feet: Coral Greaves (-1%, -2% on the +1)
Neck: Shield torque/Harmony torque (situational)
Ears: Merman's Earring x2 (-2% on each)
Rings: Merman's Ring x2 (-4% on each)
Back: Resentment Cape (-5% with Signet on)
Waist: Trance (or Swift when I get it)
Depending on how many +1 pieces I get (if any), and if I opt for the lance (losing the TP from weapon-swapping might hurt me bad), macroing in this for CB, would bring my total -% magic damage taken up to between -24% and -38%. :) I guess it's something to work on, and see if it does me any good. :D
I also got my first shot at tanking Dynamis-Valkurm with DynamisX, which also was mass fun! :D I'm not a huge fan of main tanking dynamis - it's very chaotic, and I know that I hate when the main tank is slow with targetting, so I always freak out when I get that pressure on me. I much prefer the laid-back environment of backup tanking, voking slept mobs off mages and such. However, seeing as how it's... oh, maybe a year? At least? Since the last time I mained dynamis, it was a refreshing change of pace! :D
As part of my whole, "Lexa getting back to her roots" thing, I went back to doing something I forgot how much I enjoyed: Helping random shouts with CoP. ^^ It's always fun helping people through these missions, and it's extra fun when you run into intelligent, smart people, who aren't being stupid about aggro, about gear, supplies, strategies, or anything! :D This group beat Diabolos and Ouryu in a couple of hours, and then got the keys for 4-3 farmed up. :) We're currently trying to set up a time that works for everyone, to do the rest of 4-3 together. ^^
I tried leveling my RDM and THF a bit, both level 18 and struggling through the hell that is the dunes, but... well, with parties like these? It's not going to fast. :p I've been soloing a lot.^^
What I have been doing rather successfully, however, has been crafting. :) Thanks to all the flan meat I collected while manaburning Regn in Mount Zhaylom, I've been getting some decently okay Alchemy skillups, bringing me a bit closer to my goal of 60. Smithing has gone from 17 to 32, and I'm hoping to get it to about 47-50, so I can mine Mount Zhaylom with maximum effeciency. My Guild Points in the Goldsmithing guild are now up to over 75k, which isn't too bad considering I'm still not past Novice. :D I'm gonna be spending 50k of them on Sheeting and Gold Purification before I get to the level where I can buy my items, but I'm fairly confident I'll be able to get both the glasses and the apron the second I'm ranking up to be able to buy them. ^^
Crafting is probably going to be my main focus for a while. Smithing is obviously the sub I'm currently working on, and after that I'm aiming to finish my Bonecraft (currently at 27). Then there's Cloth, Leather and Wood - though not necessarily in that order. They're not crafts that interest me even the least bit, so I think it'd going to be painful to be motivated to level them, but oh, well - gotta be done. :)
Finally, more proof of why I love my friends:
And Moggles - of a different kind:
That's all. :)