I remember back for the first Super Bowl Sunday for our LS.  We'd just started a couple months earlier and since our only event was Dynamis and we go on Sundays, I figured we'd get almost no turnout for a Dynamis that coincided with the Super Bowl, so we decided to cancel our Dynamis for that Sunday.  This action was met with all sorts of "ZOMG no Dynamis, WAT?" responses, because guess what?  Not everyone watches the Super Bowl?!  Yes, it's a crazy concept, but ever since then we've still held events on Super Bowl Sunday although usually in a toned down manner.

Yesterday, we had a good turnout for our Wing 3 Einherjar, but about 13-14 minutes into the run I noticed we were almost done with our 2nd wave of mobs, so I called Chair Dude or King Behemoth boss.  I've noticed that when you get those bosses, you tend to get just a bit more time cause they can be bitches.  At present, the KB boss is the only one we've never beaten... but luckily we've only had 2 serious attempts at it.  So!  The 3rd wave of mobs pops and don't you know ... KB Boss.  Sigh!  We cleared the Marids that popped along side it and gave it our best shot on the boss, but we failed.

Afterwards, the exodus to Super Bowl parties occurred and the rest of us gathered for Dynamis-Bastok.  It seemed to make sense to combine our once a month city Dynamis with a day that many people would be absent.  Overall the run went great.  Normally, we'd get a full clear but we timed out as we were clearing the repops on the way to the Mog House.  Amazingly, wanted AF2 dropped including 2 RDM, 3 BLM, and 2 SAM.  Topped off with 11 Wootz that sold for 200k each and 428 coins, it was a good run. 

Sarameya!
It'd been awhile since our last Sarameyas, but we had 3 pops collected and we TP burned them all with little to no issue... in fact, I don't think anyone even died on the 2nd or 3rd ones.  It was a great showing after the slop we put forth at Tinnin last week.

In addition to the smoothness of the kills, we were rewarded with some good drops as well!  I only screenshotted the best one... which was on Deuteu's pop; the 2nd kill:



Aw snap, that's some Hachiryu Haidate right there!  Also, our 2nd trigger of the night.  We sold the first one for 5mil to a JP that's upgrading Burtang!  The 2nd went to us and now we're 2/3 toward popping Pandemonium Warden.  >.>  Not sure if that will ever happen, but we're gonna have to come across a Tyger's Tail before we need to worry about it anyway. 

In addition, we got an Aurum Armet, two Oracle's Robes, and a Pachipachio.  All told, nice gil for the LS and nice gears for LS peeps ... my definition of a great event!

Other Stuff:
Went to Sky for the 1st time in over 2 months on Thursday.  Farmed up some triggers and then popped 4 Suzaku.  We picked up 3 N.Feet of them, which is awesome due to the fact that it's our most wanted non-Kirin drop.  (Yes, we're mostly capped on Haidates... only new members need them).  On the bad side, I won't talk about our split off group wiping to Brigandish Blade ... oshi-, I just did!

WAR got to level 64 with some FoV, an XP party, and some XP scrolls from quests.  That's a 2 level bump since last week, which is ahead of my self-imposed one level a week pace!  I need to focus some time on farming though.  I need 3 pieces of gear above anything for my WAR to be pretty tight when it hits 75 ... Aurum Sabatons (Dusk Ledelsens in the meantime), Fortitude Torque (P.Amulet in the meantime), and Warrior's Stone.  2/3 of those items are dropped via pop NMs, so I need to get to work on the requisite farming to obtain their pop items.  Ugh!

Nothing else to report aside from two straight Salvage runs that didn't drop any 35s.  Yay Salvage!

When your friends in your linkshell ask for help killing some new NMs, naturally you may want to help them. New fights, new challenges… what could go wrong? I mean, how could you resist that cute taru face smiling up at you?? Resist. Seriously. Or at least until you’ve done more research than we have [...]

Not much has been going on… Got RDM to 61 which is nice. Took a little bit of a break for now, until I get a little bit more free time and until I collect all the scrolls I need. Just have one left, Water III, which I can get off of the Sapphire Quadavs [...]

Just amazing what sorts of hardware FFXI will play on! And they say “PS2 Limitations”… lol.

This is just awesome

So, with that, how did this week go??
SMN 32
PLD 41
SAM 42
CoP to 5-2 and we're going in for that on Monday.
About halfway up the Superior Private rank situation -- damn thing timed out on us seconds before we had another win too.

I received word today that a dear friend of mine has passed away last night of congestive heart failure. He was in my static that I had for quite a while, and was the main reason Kauri, Kinkykitty and I migrated to the Ifrit server in the first place. Many times after a static party [...]

I think I've figured out why this game is able to keep drawing me in.
It's the wonderfully entertaining and immersive world history. I'm completely serious, there's something about this world that feels entirely genuine in a way that very few games have been able to do. While I can't quite tell what exactly it is that makes this world so compelling, it has done a damn fine job of it. The number of games I've played over the years that have been able to pull this off can probably be counted on one hand. FFXI is a slightly different flavor, but it's still up there.

Last night I went exploring and learned a lot about Vanadiel while completing the quest to get the map for Crawler's Nest. For instance: did you know that long ago the Tarutaru were planning to use their magic to conquer the world? Yeah, all those sweet innocent little faces are hiding a secret desire to enslave the world. I knew there was a reason I didn't trust them.

It was a lot of fun having an excuse to go exploring all night long. I actually ended up running into my friend right as he was logging in for the night. Turns out he needed to do the quest as well, so rather than leave him hanging we went back and got him all of the monuments I had done the night before. We pretty much spent the entire night running all over the world, on foot, on chocobo or simply having me teleport us around. Some of the scenery was truly spectacular, and I was glad to have someone to share it with.
All told the quest took five hours from start to finish and it probably would have taken even longer if we hadn't been helping each other out.


Adventure:

From Mediocre Mage

Our journey took us to the familiar shores of Gustaberg.

From Mediocre Mage

We spent a lot of time running through the Dunes back to Selbina to get more clay. Why the mayor couldn't just give us a bunch to start with I don't know.

From Mediocre Mage

Mohan contemplates erasing the evidence of the Tarutaru plan for world domination.

From Mediocre Mage

After finding the last monument we decided to celebrate with some fireworks before collapsing in our moghouses after a long night of exploration and adventure.

Each weekend the Player Achievement post is created for adventurers to share their successes in Vana’diel with the rest of the community. To participate simply make a comment to this post and tell us what you’ve accomplished while playing this past week. Comments will be chosen at random and read during the Player Achievement segment [...]

So its been over a month since we had any new information on FFXIV, and I’m thoroughly bored of scavenging online for any possible information. On the bright side I did end up getting a new computer! Its beautiful!  So.. in the meantime… I think I will be looking forward to a game that I [...]

So sleepy right now but so happy. As of 2/5/2010 I've finally dinged 75 NIN. I think that job has become my newest love. I've been working so hard on trying to get the right gear for it. I'm hoping that Byakko gives me some nice kitty pants soon. And earning towards my Perdu Blade slowly but surely. The party I dinged in was fun especially because my boyfriend who was my guru for NIN got to be there with me. Working on his SAM of course. So I finally have my 3rd 75. And im debating on whether I should get to work on merits now that I've procrastinated them for so long, or if I should just campaign them out. Because to be honest I absoutely hate most merit parties. Unless its with friends, or I have something to entertain myself with, I get so bored and after like an hour im ready to go. I can't play like some who can sit there for hours on end meriting.

I also got my Dryad's Staff finally for WHM. Soon as I can get a copy of the SS my friend took, ima post it up. It was my first nm I did on NIN so I was pretty proud myself. Of course was only 74 lol. Soon as I dinged 75 tho it was like I broke NIN in by going after the Dunes Boot NM and then heading to Savage Blade WSNM. And of course some pages in Terrigan to end the night. I can't wait til I get more haste gear. Im addicted to it now lol.

The new icon for my blog is a picture a good friend mine from the game drew. Her name is Nekonaoko and she drew a picture of me and my boyfriend's character together as a Christmas present. Im trying to steal his Ninja gear :X.

Must go pass out now as im tired from lvling. And craving hot wings. Just had to post to celebrate my 3rd 75.

The last few years, we’ve given our listeners the chance to give their very own valentine shout outs to their special someones. The messages are then given some “mood music” and thrown onto an episode of the podcast. If you’re interested all you need to do is call the PFA voicemail and leave your character name, [...]

Mai kinda beat me to it, but this was simply too awesome not to share with everyone. Good for a snowy day like today. =D

YAY! I got a lot of stuff done this week in Vana’diel. - Completed ZM12 so I now I have access to Sky. - Completed Promyvion Mea and Dem - Did a ENM Battle - Unlocked SAM and BLU - Leveled BLU to 10 and got a bunch of Blue Magic - Opened Nyzul Isle upto floor 5 There’s a lot of [...]

I pretty much spent the day on Qufim Island because it the was the only place I could get a party after seeking for 2 days as DRG. So after that I checked the AH and noticed Cream Pies were out of stock and the price was 13K a stack. So I went to do [...]

Nowhere actually! I just stopped playing MMOs. And started to draw again. And taking care of my other sites. So, you’re asking: where are all those things ? My Tumblelog Deviantart Twitter Steam The only games I’m playing right now are Team Fortress 2 and L4d 1/2 ! (Yes, apparently I switched to the FPS darkside) FFXI and Aion were fun, but [...]

I purchased another SH+1 to replace the one i gave to my friend. A failed swift belt run allowed me to get a Rapp Harness to drop. The Haste +4 is really helpful on Shadows. Now that i have swift belt as well i gained 6% haste for my thf.

Tried to get on the FFXIclopedia wiki tonight...
Got two malware warnings on the first two pages I tried to visit tonight, and was able to safely back out.
Someone actually going after the FFXI Net community? Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people, if so...
ON EDIT: Upon a closer look, it sounds like someone has decided to get into wikia itself, as about 100 wikia domains, according to the Google Safe Search page I was able to put up, have been apparently hit. Perhaps malware on the ads or something?

Last night my social Linkshell decided to put me in charge of planning and organizing events.

I have no idea how this happened.

It certainly wasn't by request and to be honest I'm not sure it's a wise decision. I'm not exactly a veteran player so there's a lot of stuff I still don't know. I do not have a lot of experience leading people either, which makes this whole thing rather awkward. Leadership positions are not something I seek out, instead they are things I reluctantly accept because someone needs to do it and some days you just get tired of waiting for everyone else to do it.

Despite all my reservations about this, I'm actually going to make an honest effort to put together some stuff for my linkshell to do. The trick is going to be making sure it's stuff that everyone can enjoy, rather than a bunch of things I want to do. Luckily I think we're laid back enough that people will be willing to try out some stuff that's less about the rewards and more about having a good time.

I actually spent a few hours last night brainstorming to come up with some events we could do. The results got progressively sillier.

Burning Circle Notorious Monster runs
This one's pretty standard. Everyone picks up their pop items and heads off for some good old fashioned monster slaying.

Garrison
This could actually end up as a two part event.
To do Garrison you need to farm an item to activate it, and you can only hold one of these. This means that to do it multiple times we need everyone to bring their own pop item. Since we're all going to be bringing one, why not have everyone go farming together? It's tedious, but with a group it could be less so.
Garrison itself on the other hand can be a very hectic experience. The rewards aren't end game gear, so people don't do it as much but it's still a fun event if you can find people willing to do it. It would also be a good event for any players who are relatively new since Garrison is a pretty low level event.

Artifact quests
Everyone loves free gear that's specific to their job, but it isn't always easy to get it on your own. This is a universal hurdle that everyone attempts as they level their job. I can't think of any reason why we shouldn't be helping each other get our AF gear.

Limit Break quests
Everyone eventually needs to break the level cap and the quests are set up so that it's much easier to do it as a group. Any linkshell that refuses to help their members with something this essential should hang their heads in shame.

Chains of Promathia missions
We were doing some of these a few months back and they got put on hold for some reason. I'd like to start them up again and at least get everyone through the Promyvion zones. Especially Promyvion-Holla. I harbor a grudge for the Notorious Monster at the end of that one.

Map runs
You know, with so many maps in this game that need to be quested or discovered in chests while in the depths of dangerous dungeons it's a wonder people don't do this sort of thing more often. Seriously, how many players have wandered into a zone and kicked themselves because they don't have the map because the quest to get it is something they can't do on their own until they're a much higher level? It's silly. People should be able to get the maps for the zones they are going to be partying in.
We can fix this.

Eco-warrior runs
For those of you not familiar with this, Eco-warrior is a quest that requires approximately 18 adventurers and has a level cap of 20. These adventurers cannot recieve outside aid. They are then sent into dungeons designed to kill people twice their level to hunt down various monsters and are expected to somehow come out victorious. The rewards are negligible. The bragging rights would be legendary.

Notorious Monster camping
If someone needs an item from a NM we could spend a night helping them do it. Misery loves company and all that good stuff.

Adopt a player parties
The general idea would be to form most of a party from linkshell members and then pick up one or two random people to hang out with for the night. There are a lot of directions we could take something like this, but I figure at the very least it would be a way to meet new folks without the headache of a terrible pickup party. If we like the people we find, we can even add them to the linkshell. I think I need to explore this one more fully, there's a lot of potential here.

Roaming party
This would not be your typical experience party. Instead the goal would be to pick a zone and explore every inch of it, killing things along the way would just be something of a coincidental bonus. There's a lot of interesting stuff out there and it would be fun to experience it as a group rather than just stumbling across it all by yourself.

Alliance experience parties
It would be like a normal exp party, only with more people.
Practical? Absolutely not.
Fun? Possibly.
Memorable? Absolutely.

Crafting runs
Taking a night off to help someone farm crafting supplies, either for skillups or to make a specific item. I'm still convinced we should have some piece of equipment that we all wear in town that's been made by one of our members.

Scroll farming parties
Because we all either need gil, or need to fill up our spellbooks.

Whitegate Conga Line
Do I really need to explain why this would be awesome?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This blog still exists. Promises about when I will make my full return have gone unfilled. Your heart was broken. Whatever. I am planning on making my full return on Monday. I just have to find all the writers and get them back in the slave pens. It's not like a lot hasn't happened. We joined up with the largest LS on the server, so there are some personal things to go over. There hasn't been much in the way of major game announcements recently, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been mulling things over or haven't made any new discoveries.

I am going to try to get Omoi to let me go NIN to Limbus tonight so that I can tank it which I haven't done in a while. That was a random factoid you can gnaw on until Monday.

There, you got your update. Eat you jackals.

That’s right, first hand proof that fishing makes your hair grow long and your eyes grow all droopy! All that, and you can also expect crappy skill-ups in the process. Seven stacks of bait giving out all of a .3 skillup = /angry Tarutaru.

Least being a Black Mage here I have an outlet for my [...]

Episode 190: Oh Ten Mog Bonanza, Valentione’s Day, Customer Surveys and more! 2/3/10 1:04:24 Download audio file (Episode190.mp3) Tarutaru Figurines in Japan LBR Episode 50 Wand of Wish Bestowing LBR and HSSS Site issues Moggy New Year Bonanza Customer Support Survey Voicemail Apps for synergy and evolith show DJ Plaeskool- Zi’Tah: Rhythm of the Sanctuary DJ Plaeskool- On Being Taru DJ Plaeskool- Rolanberry Jam DJ Plaeskool- Melody for the Kingdom of [...]

Yarly. OK, I like this job but this is my slow time, fun time job. I won’t have time to gear it as well as my other jobs but I am preparing a lot of stuff up front.  I already own a Mermaid’s Ring, IR Lance, Macha… whateverthehell it is +1 (cricket bat) and a [...]