On A Completelty Unrelated Note: How Myrrh and TBH Have Changed My Life

This is really long, read at your peril. 

I'm not really sure why I am posting this now instead of, say, two or three years ago. Maybe it's because I know no one reads this blog now anyway. That's probably it.

Anyway, a few years ago I was wondering if I should delete this blog from the face of the earth, but I decided not too. Even though the way I represent myself now is vastly different from the way I made these posts years ago, I think it's important to have a record of these things. Plus, some of these posts are comedy gold (I start with "Jyakotsu has terrible grammar," five lines later I say "you should burying the coffing"). I also had a brief stint with trying to use interesting metaphors and similes which amounted to mixed results. Some of those are pretty funny too (as fast as cookies disappear at a Weight Watcher's meeting is really stupid since, presumably, no one would be eating them; plus in the context of that post it was a poor choice of a simile).

I recently found a box filled with stuff from my elementary and middle schools, and I nearly started bawling on the floor of my room. When I was in second grade, we had to write a personal comment to everyone in our class the day that we left for summer vacation. Afterwords, all of the comments that people wrote about us were placed in a notebook and given to the recipient to keep. This meant I had a notebook filled with one comment about me from each of my classmates. There were some that were really silly ("you're a good freind [sic]"), but there was one that honestly made me tear up (keep in mind, this was second grade):

"you're wrilly wrilly nice, your the nicest person in the class!"

When I was in elementary school, I was legitimately nice. I probably was the nicest person in my class. I went to a really small school (grades 1-3 were together in the same room, we had about 20-25 children each year total; grades 4-6 were together with about 15-20; and 7-8 were together with 7 and 5 the two years I was there), so that's not saying much, though. My level of "niceness" was pretty much constant up until after I left that school (so when I went to high school, 9th grade).

For the record, I remember getting FF11 when my brother graduated middle school, which meant I had just graduated 5th grade. My math probably sucks, but I think that means I was about 10 when I first started to play FF11 (let that sink in for a minute! xD). I joined up with TBH I think two or three years in. I don't remember exactly when, but that doesn't really matter to get to the point of this story ("there's a point?" one may be asking now). When Soul lotted the YYR I was in either 8th or 9th grade, 13 or 14.

I'm going to do a short interlude here and comment on the social climate of the LS as I remember it (once again, keep in mind my age: I was 13/14).  Zerayla often joked that she was the "den mother" of the group. Whether she meant it seriously or not, I don't really know; all I know is that, for me, this assertion was certainly true. I looked up to Zer and Xean. As I remember it, they were always kind, supportive, and willing to drop what they were doing to help out an LS member. They were true friends, people I were proud to be associated with. I'm sure I was whiny and annoying at the time, so I know I would come off as stupid or naive or childlike, but I was always treated with respect. It's funny to think, now that I know more about most of them, that I was practically a baby compared to the other players. I don't think I ever said how old I was, but I don't think it took advanced rocket engineering to take a semi-accurate guess as to my age (but in saying that, I have to mention I would guess 90% of the FF11 population are younger than they actually are because they just act like 13 year old girls, so maybe that's not such a strong statement...). Anyways, the point is that we were a close-knit group. At the very least, I certainly considered the majority of the people in the LS (including Myrrh) friends.

I basically had the same set of friends in RL from the time I was 6 until I was 15; pretty much everyone I knew went to the same school as me. The only things I did outside school were piano (a solo thing), choir (there were only like 5 other boys in it and 4 of them were annoying), and some church thing I barely remember (the fact I literally only remember one person, a girl I had a crush on, is a testament to this). Basically this meant that the only friends I had I had either known for a long time (RL) or knew only in FF. Because the number of people at my school dwindled as age increased (3rd grade = 12 people in my class, 8th = 3), I started to put more emphasis on my FF friends. While I wasn't going to start giving out my address or whatever, I did start to trust them, which is the main point here. (I remember Zer and Xean breaking up when I was in 9th grade, so I'm pretty sure I was in 8th grade when this happened, now that I think about it)

Although I'm sure I could articulate my thoughts with more clarity now, I don't wish to comment any more on who was right or wrong in this situation (lotting the YYR, that was a longer interlude than I was planning ｗ　(yes, I really copied that w)). Having kept in touch with Soul, Xean, and Zer for years afterwords, I think I have a certain bias here in the present (the only exposure to Myrrh since has been additional posts on the Flameboard and then shouts in Jeuno, neither of which were flattering). My writing was so terrible that I really didn't want to read past the first few lines in the piece I posted when the event occurred, so I honestly have little recollection of what I said other than the fact that I supported Xean (who, according to my later posts, is an asshole, something I'm sure everyone is guilty of being at some point in his or her life. I probably overreacted with that accusation though, sorry =P). The nice thing is that that's really the one thing that matters in the context of this post. 

I wasn't online that night, so my only real recollection of the actual event occurred the day after. After Myrrh had left the LS, I remember going out to Ro'Maeve to offer my help in camping Shikigami.This was important to me; I had promised I would help everyone in the LS get their YYR, and at the time I promised that, the LS had included Myrrh. Looking at Xean's post on Zer's blog, I told Xean "I was just there to watch" and my search comment said I was semi-afk. I actually remember this relatively clearly; I got there before Xean logged on, and I asked Myrrh if he would invite me. I either never got a response back or was just flat out denied, so I decided to stay there in case he changed his mind. I was legitimately not feeling well, so I wasn't going to waste my time staring at my TV (I had a PS2 at the time) when I could be doing something else. Anyway, I never got invited and Myrrh accused me of only staying to get the ToD. The only other person in our LS who needed the YYR was Alienne, and I don't think anyone really wanted to camp it anytime soon after what had happened, so that definitely wasn't why I was there. I remember thinking how angry I felt; while I was online only to offer assistance and help, I was denied. At that age, I couldn't understand why someone would be so cold to me even though we had been laughing together not even a week ago.

This is where the reason I've been writing all these seemingly unrelated anecdotes about my real life will hopefully start making sense. All of the friends I had lost up until now had been for reasons beyond my control, e.g. moving away. But this was a time where I was putting forth all my efforts to be a good friend and yet was still being denied. It was something I could not understand. Were our bonds of friendships so weak they could never be renewed? Why had I ever been friends with someone who would turn his back on me so easily? What was the point of friendship if it would end in sadness?

When I moved to high school less than a year later, I was lucky enough to have one of the people I knew go there too. In addition, this school was really tiny as well; we had less than sixty students in the entire high school, eight or so of which were foreign. My friend from middle school and I become more separated, but I was kind of okay with that because he started to become pretty lecherous which sort of creeped me out, especially when he was that way with my closer friends. By the end of the year, I wasn't the most popular person, but I definitely had the respect of most of my peers and the friendship of half of them. In addition, I pretty much had top marks in all my subjects (I famously got 100% in my geography class because I literally got 100% on all of the tests), and ended up getting an award for "student you should strive to be" or something like that.

At the end of that year, however, my parents decided to move to Iowa. There were certain reasons for this, but in no way were we forced to move out of necessity. I would have kept it a secret from my peers but one of the teachers I asked to write a letter of recommendation (to my new high school) decided to tell everyone in my class I was moving. On the last day of school, most of my friends who didn't already have my email address asked me for it and I obliged (this was during the MySpace phase but even I could see at that time that MySpace was stupid, so I just IMd).

When I moved to Iowa in August of that year, I did something odd. I deleted my email account with no notice. For a long while, I wasn't sure why I did this, but I think I have a reasonable guess now. I once had a friendship with Myrrh, but that friendship failed and left me utterly disappointed. I was afraid my friendships would wain as I was no longer talking to my friends every day at school, so I decided that rather than face the possibility of a failed friendship I would just end it myself before it had the chance to sour. My new school was (compared to the other two) huge, so if I had tried I probably would have been able to find friends. But for the same reason that I erased my email, I decided I wasn't going to make friends. From day one I acted rudely, and just generally spurned everyone who tried to talk to me. It's kind of funny; I knew I would be happier with friends, but I was so afraid that I would just get hurt that I decided it would be better to just have none at all. During lunch, I would go to the library just so I wouldn't have to talk to anyone. It was around this time that I realize how much I hated people my age. I've always been a very reserved person when it comes to face-to-face social interactions, so the way that people talked in this school just disgusted me. I would be lucky if I would hear one comment a day regarding the size of some girl's mammaries/that wild party last night/drugs or alcohol or tobacco/sex, things that I found a) incredibly stupid and b)incredibly inappropriate to be talking about in public (funny story that is sort of related: here at college, I've actually heard someone in the booth next to me in the lunchroom talking about her abortion, I mean seriously how stupid is that). I'm sure that part of me, however, only saw these things as being stupid because I wasn't involved in them and I secretly yearned to be a part of them. Maybe that's true; I don't believe that's the case, but it's certainly a possibility. (On a side note, I also started practicing piano a lot due to the fact that I really had little to do in the evenings with no one nagging me, which was a huge boon to me. Playing piano is such a relaxing thing to do for me now, and being able to play basically anything has been a blessing.)

One thing that stayed the same, however, was the LS. This was around the time we started doing casual Saturday night events, for reference. It's honestly interesting that I didn't decide to quit when I moved as well. I think that because I had know most of the people in the shell for years, I felt that I knew they wouldn't sully my friendship. Later on, the fact that they weren't teenagers certainly helped my affection towards them. I think another part of it was that I feared a real-life Myrrh event would be worse than one online. Whereas I could sequester Myrrh away so that I never would talk to him again, I would be pretty much forced to see someone in real-life every school day. As much as I hate to admit it (Zer always preaches the opposite of this!), I also felt that my character Falk and myself as the player were two different beings; having something pain Falk would hurt, but I could always say it wasn't really me. When the Myrrh event happened, I had not yet made that distinction: maybe that event is what made that idea appear in my head, I don't know. The point is I stayed in the LS.

And I certainly am glad I did. While I acted stoically in school, I could loosen up when I played FF. If anyone who played with me during this time is reading this, they'll know what I mean. I had seen my brother in high school get too attached to the game, so I decided I would only play on weekends, a rule I kept with few exceptions. My main game-time was reserved for Saturday night events and Sunday statics. I can't say how much I loved these events. They were honestly some of the only times I had actual fun all week. Saturday events in particular were amazing; being able to down boss after boss with a group of (mostly) smart people was a real contrast to everyday life (my Spanish classes there were so incredibly stupid, we would go over verb tenses I had learned in 3rd grade for like 2 months and people would still fail the tests, ¿Cómo ocurrió esto?). I think just the fact that I was a part of something was also a large factor in my euphoria. At school, I was always bored and no one ever relied on me, but in the game I was the main healer (i.e. important), and damn it all if I was not an essential part of the group. I felt that the ties of friendship I had with my allies were always reciprocal; I knew they were true bonds.

An interesting note is that I never engaged in any sort of real-life conversations with my LS. I think I said my name once to someone, but other than that I don't think I ever told them a lot about myself. By the time I graduated high-school, the majority of the LS were on Skype and on a first-name basis with each other, but I never used Skype and no one knew my name. Even though I really did see them as friends, I think I still was trying to make a distinction between me the player and Falk the character. In a sense, these two personae were actually quite distinct. The player was the face I represented in my real-life, someone who was always serious and blunt and rude, but Falk was my inner self distilled, someone who was patient, kind, and "wrilly wrilly nice." One of the things that people often say about the internet (and anonymity in general) is that is allows us to act the way we want to (i.e. the way we truly are) because there are no repercussions if people or society don't agree with what we say or do. I think this idea is in action here; Falk is the person I wanted to be in a controlled environment, but the player was the role I played in the way I viewed the world.

So, to review, how has Myrrh affected me? Even now, more than four years later, I still have my outer "player" persona. Although there were other events that may have caused me to act this way (Kelga and Josudes), I'm pretty sure the real reason is because of Myrrh's betrayal of my friendship. I'm sure it's not what he intended, but the event just happened to occur when I was at a very impressionable age. I happened to decide that it was better to have no friends than to have friends that would end up hurting me.

I was so lucky to have decided to stay in TBH. I can say without a doubt that I am a better person now because of the experiences I've had in the linkshell. I have wonderfully memories I'll (with the aid of this blog) hopefully never forget. When TBH "broke" a year or so ago due to inactivity, I had already moved on to college, where part of my Falk persona begin to leak into reality. From TBH I had learned that friendships should always be cherished, even if they can possibly end badly. Although I still mainly act aloof, that just makes the friends I have now even more special, and I truly hope that my friendship is something beneficial to them as well.

I'll end this post, and this blog (unless I play FF again (unlikely) or have some sort of thought that only makes sense in this context), by giving a heartfelt thanks to everyone who has ever been a part of TBH, even Myrrh. I would not be the same person, for better or worse, without you all.

Thanks for the memories, everyone!
Falk

Yay

PLD + RDM = 90min Turul. I have seen it happen.

You need cures? Sorry, I'm too busy meleeing

Finally got my WHM to 90. It was at 80 and I've been using it more often so I decided to just finish leveling it in a pickup party. Anyway, I hate pickup parties because no one has atma (and half of them don't have cruor buffs...), so I decided to screw it an melee on WHM. I subbed RDM and just did VV RR DD, my MP was fine and I was generally doing 1500-2.5k hexas, aka more than the entire alliance. On my 85 WHM. Anyway, people were yelling at me because people in my pt kept on dying, except that it was the one WAR who decided he wanted to attack Megamaw and would then (literally, he either had AaO on or no HP cruor buff) get one shotted by stone5. I decided I was JP and didn't say anything back.


I hate pickup parties.

lol

A little backstory:
We're doing CC lanterns because shut up. Some people come and say they need one Cep-Kamuy, I'm in a bad mood and we were there first so I said no. They respond with a "that's too bad" in which case it clearly was on. So we pop one, they get the next one and all their melee die (it was, of all things, a RDM, a SAM, a PLD/NIN, and a WAR). The RDM kites it and is all "now I'm going to hold it." 15 minutes and 10% later, she dies and we claim it. I fail like a boss and get killed by seismic tail along with our NIN, and he goes passive and our war vokes, except he has KI. So we were going to let him die but he ran after me, so we just decided to kill him. Tank dies again from current (lol) so we just nuke it to death. Then, this happens. (After this fact, they popped one and killed it, took 30 minutes and at least 3 deaths from everyone, 10+ from WAR).

So anyway, I did all day Misereux on Saturday. We did mainly boss farming, it was sort of fun. Some highlights:

lolBLU


Seedspray proccing grellow. Not that exciting.

OMG CHARMED LOLOL

Ahmuluk is not a very fun fight. He's easy but he resists magic so it takes a while to kill it >_>.


~80% of their health.

In the end, I ended up getting a +2 set for my BLU...except I don't have the +1 legs yet >_> nothing was dropping them. Oh well.


Finished up my MDT set, sort of. I think Lamia mantle +1 is better on back, and I need to get +1 coral/ coral visor. That, and then twilight torque.


Got MM. It was a very easy fight. People forgot pop items so it ended up taking a little longer than we thought though.




Got RR as well. Kited the first one for like 10 mins, then decided to stop and just straight tank and proc red. Second one we just straight tanked and killed it in like 5 mins. Got RR as well.

To finish off this lightly worded post, got a pickup party on NIN, VV/RR/DarkDepths (+30% crit rate). I DC'd two hours in after I got one level, since no one was opening ruby chests and we were in tahrongi. That, and I was tanking at level 75/6, and everyone in the party failed at knowing anything about gearing their jobs. Sigh.

Cactuses and Bosses, oh my! (also, Dynamis)

Yeah yeah yeah blah blah blah

Kutharei was laughably easy, the only mildly dangerous thing is the 1HP and hate reset move, but he only used it twice and never followed it with an -aga.

Dynamis was easy as well, we got the Dchap ~30 mins in and TH armlets ~70 mins, after that we wanted to stop (since that was all we needed) so we just did the NIN NM for Sonka, and ended up getting those anyway lol.

We have gotten 2 Ares body and one 25/35 set, one full Morrigan coat and 2 35s. lolsalvage etc, but 4 people can do any zone full farm + boss (except Bhaflau due to ramparts - can do 2 + boss).

Sedna and Itzapshjiaosufisaljasiudf were both dumb. WHM + any DD can duo Sedna, he was stupid easy with 4. I can solo Itz on BLU, with 4 it's a complete joke. I didn't take any pictures, but we also did the Uleguerand boss. It was an easy manaburn fight with BLM RDM BLU BRD, also had another BLM under 50%. Tarsal slam was dodged most of the time, and his TP moves really only did like ~300 damage.

The Grauberg boss was slightly harder, mainly because he double attacks 100% of the time and had instant cast gas. We did NIN RDM/NIN RDM/NIN BRD SAM, I got killed by painful whip for ~1200 at like 90% though lol. After I unweakened, he was at like 15% so I chainspelled and killed him (2 atmad bliz4 took off ~3-4% each). Funny story, there was an 18 person shout alliance killing Melo Melo so they could pop the boss after us - it was at 80% when we got there, it was at 87% when we left.

After this run, I got my 7th boss for my 3rd lunar, so now the game becomes broken. I can 2 shot any regular mob with Bliz4, 2 shot any number of mobs with Whisker etc. We procced grellow on all of them except sedna, because he spams TP moves and it'd suck to do AMs etc.

We also did Chickarney (sp, the cock) in altepa for seals, and he was harder than any of these bosses....We had a THF tank, but she got killed a few times because of 1shot hammer beak, and that NM is a biiitch. Under 25% he hit for ~700 damage in a -31/6% PDT set, critted for 1050 and he has 100% double attack. Luckily he can be kited pretty easily, and 7 shadows on BLU is insane for that fight.

That's all I think, and back to school for me so I won't be doing much. lol

FUUUUUU MASAMUNE

So we did La Thiene yesterday. I always told Kets that I (and the rest of our little group) would gladly do an Empyrean for him, and I guess he finally found that to be true. We entered the area at like 1PM and ended around 3AM, because everyone was getting lazy and we wanted to go to sleep (around 2, Dom started hysterically laughing and didn't stop until we left; he hasn't logged on today yet).

Setup this time:
NIN/WAR, WAR/NIN, THF/NIN, RDM/WHM, WHM/RDM.

We ended up getting ~12 Carby gems, 2 bullwhips, 2 serpentes, 2 lady panties, a pair of heafoc mitts (got blue, no katana =/ ), and then atma/win from Bria and Carb.

All the NMs were lol except for Carb, mainly because our WHM was afk for 2-3 runs. It SUCKS being the only healer on WHM, Aeroga III does an insane amount of damage, and I don't have high tier curagas.

Housekeeping stuff: my controller is still not here, so I'm stuck being relatively useless (edit: nvm it just came in lol). We also did attohwa a few days ago and completed ~8 sets of +1.

This week, in Abyssea!

So I finally got my laptop up and running, with all expansion packs loaded. Since that was the case, I could actually do Abyssea this weekend (omgyay)! The downside is that I don't have my PC->PS2 controller adapter yet, so I'm stuck using crappy keyboard/mouse which I'm not used to (that's why in all these pictures I have gimp non-ideal gear, because I couldn't swap anything). I did get spellcast though solely for aliases so I could just spam //cure5 ket (which is all I did). Anyway, a quick write up of what we did in Konshscnsaifgaislknfcat this week.

Setup:
Me! : WHM/SCH
Mish: RDM/BLM (stun)
Kets: NIN/WAR
Sonka: WAR/NIN
Grin: MNK/NIN
Fyre*: BRD/WHM

*Fyre fell asleep before we did any NMs, lol.

Misc. NMs:

Gangly Gean (omgcutetreant): Helm is like a 100% drop, I even got one of them. Even with blue, only got 1 NIN neck though. =( Did get everyone key items though.

Khalamari: Got atma and Vagina Helm, which I got because everyone already had it (procced blue, no neck, see a trend?) Procced blue with hexa like a boss.





Depths Digester: T2 VNM, really only for getting to T3. We got stuff but no one cared. Note how I managed to type a message to Carste in the middle of the fight. Yeah.




Turul:

What. A. Bitch. He's really not hard, his stupid spikes for some reason just lasted for literally like 5 minutes one time, omgsucksucksuck. Anyway, his agas hurt and thank God I was on WHM and not something like BLU. We procced blue once out of three times, got cape but no body -_-. Also got Atma, nice for people who don't have the windy one, and acts as a seconds atma for my WHM. Tbh this fight would have been easier with NIN RDM WHM and no one else, it's a pain having 2-3 people in range for -gas....

Funny story: Nearly wiped at 1% the time we procced blue, he went into rape mode and did calamitous wind -> -ga4 and killed everyone except me. I kited it and Kets RRd and Jin'd it to death. Go WHM kiter I guess?



Hadal Satiator:

I have to preface this with a funny story. We were looking for Turul and couldn't find it, so we just decided to pop the T3 VNM. Anyway, Turul, being the paragon of party crashing, decided to find us IMMEDIATELY AFTER WE POPPED THE NM and aggro our TANK of all people. At least this NM is stupid easy to kite, so we just kited until Kets became unweakened. Triggered atma but no blue, which is weird since we got (basically) full drops anyway. The atma is now awesome, since RDM and BLU get Bliz 4/5 respectively. That would imply my RDM is 90 though, which it is not >_>;



So overall, awful run but not too bad lol. We did get a KK popset and an EE, so we'll probably get those atmas/wins later. VV would be nice for my BLU lol.

Gearz

These are out of order (well, the order I'd like them) but idc really lol.

RDM:



RDM MND build. Main things I need include Karka/6mnd rings, muse tariqah, promise badge (I have one, but don't have room in macro), augur body (getting it once I get WotG back, since he's on a 15m respawn now), teal chapeau (I really should use this, have it already lol), and a second MND earring. A lot =(


Swap HQ staff and uggy if applicable. Need +2 legs, a better back/waist, eradico mitts, novio (lol), witchstone, artemis medal, +1/2 AF3 hat. Also mangina staves.

Haste. Trying for a RDM body, but I feel bad doing glacier since we don't need anything else there >_> (the 5 man group I'm in is easily capable of doing any zone). Back should be Umbra Cape, macro still had cheviot in it lol. Also nashira legs, and HQ dusk (not going to happen). Perhaps sentinal's shield, but I rather like my earth staff.


Lolmdt. A rather gimp set as I've never really had to use it. I don't know if hexerei is better than lamia +1 back, but I have both. Need merman's earrings x2, resolute belt, coral visor +1, greaves +1, and maybe body and legs +1. Funny note, it took me like 3 months to find a kebbie lol.


Idle, omg a decent set! Body is Pluviale, if that wasn't obvious. All I really need here is serpentes boots (which I'll get soon), an augmented dark ring and some PDT earrings. That and Goliard Trews or Crimson legs, whichever.


Other RDM sets include:
Enhancing (really just duelist hands + warlock legs)
SS, capped at 380.
Full enfeeb set, warlock body/dchap/torque/macc/int gear.
A melee set with lolkogglemander, lol.
PDT set, which is basically just idle with darksteel harness and cap +1. Need a big upgrade.


BLU:



Crap. Need orc helm or something else, ire torque (+1), triumph/vulcan earrings, +1AF body, heafoc mitts, stirgoi/+6 rings (or another +5 >_>), Mavi +1/2 legs (I will get those soon, didn't bother getting anything else before then). Also better swords, see TP.

Casting, specifically regurgitation. I looooove this set. Anyway, need morry robe, morry hands/AF3 +1/2, novio, +6 int ring, and basmak (feet) +2. Also artemis' medal.


Casting idle, used when I'm only nuking/grellow proccing. Pretty simple, needs more pdt and serpentes feet though.


TP build. Swords are a big problem. I generally use hannibal/koggle in Abby since I have temps/ISL/atmas, outside I use koggle/demon slayer. I'm working on a DEX shamshir, and there are some nice new 85-90 swords out, so I may just get those. I HATE magian trials.... Anyway, also need Mavi head +2, some better neck, brutal/suppa/attk+6 earring, dusk+1/homam hands, toreador/rajas ring, cuch mantle, velo/bullwhip/goading belt, mavi +2 legs. (I actually just got homam feet, so pretend those are there).

Other builds include:
Sanguine Blade, STR/MAB/INT
Idle melee build, just puts on serp hands and nodowa.
Magic fruit build, MND/potency, with and without staff
Macc build for 1k needles, MP drainkiss etc.
Head Butt build (haste/blu skill/macc/acc)

I'm redoing my macroes so that each spell now has a separate casting build, so that way I can stack up modifiers depending on the spell.

Signs of Life

Boo.

Going to update more, I'll at least make a equipment post for the lols and to show off my leet (read: gimp) new shinies. Also updating goals/layout/some random stuff now.

Hoo hah!

Oh 75, how you elude me.

Due to someone Q.Qing over something to do with an update, here I am.


Misc. things first; I sort of decided to level to SCH. I say "sort of" because it is currently stuck at 51 because I simply can't level RDM. T_T It's funny because my "dead zone" of jobs seems to be 50-55 (BRD54, BLU53, SCH51), which are right below colibri range. I just can't stand non LS exp, it's just horrible when you end up having a party where your SAM fights a crab without telling anyone and then dies, HPs, says something angry and then disbands. Trust me, that was the least of my problems on RDM...but enough about that lol.

One of the reasons I chose SCH was for the fact that I could solo/duo up to 75, albeit slightly slower than regular ToAU EXP. The upside of this, however, is that I don't have to deal with people like the SAM above. The other reason I chose SCH is that it will allow me to be a hybrid healer in cases like ZNMs/misc. events I do in SoTW. I'd say that about half our fights end up being manaburns due to low TP gain/mob mechanics, so SCH allows me to act as a DD for part of the fight, and switch to support later if needed. I still love WHM, but nearly killing myself so I can nuke Iriz Ima with Misery isn't nearly as fun as it sounds after the 10th time (whenever I duo with Kets and need to get hit to charge Misery, I call it "charging my lasers"; sadly enough I actually end up nuking a lot on easier mobs).

Speaking of SoTW, I'll move on to the most exciting part of the post! Also, note who kills it: Holy is my friend at 1% >_> <_<


Not pictured: Soul dying to Claw Cyclone, reraising, and then dying again at 5%.
Also not pictured: The 15-20 hours (and 8 merits) to took me to dual box a Diorite, and the 3 hours it took to guide people up Ru'Avitau to kill Ulli after I had made many people confuzzled about the specifics of the night.

Anyway, first SoTW god fight! It went incredibly smooth (the fight at least, not getting there; can you say WHM sac pull?) and even put out a pair of pants! As greedy as I felt, since I farmed the popset...


Shmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
You do not know how happy I am to have gottten these pants so quickly and easily!
However, you may notice one thing; I'm 74 -_-. Unfortunately my static was plagued with Mamool and a DRG/WHM who never used his MP and meleed 1/2 the time in 3/5 heca gear. I'm currently at 12k to 75...and like half the areas for Campaign are lolfortifications. I may wait until next Sunday to ding, but I really want haidate+turban!

Oh, forgot to mention this as well: Finished 3 paths on Thursday! Next week is airship fight, so wish us luck!

On the list of incredibly minor things I did recently, I finished the "Beast of the East" quest. The final cutscene was incredible (and funny), as most WoTG quests are.



And I think thats about it. @_@ I'm sure I'm forgetting some stuff, but whatever.

Lucky Me

So two days ago:


Who needs SAMs? Also A. Hands dropped to Kets, and I got the Kabuto (...). Oh joy. Later that day I went 0/7 on Senju, so I guess my luck wasn't all that good that day.

Flash to the next day:


That makes us 2/3 on Hagun the past 3 weeks and 1/3 on KA. =) Plus the ToD is getting earlier and earlier which makes it easier for me to just wake up and camp him.

I know lack of blog posts etc. but I'm trying lol.

I leave you with this pro Abso member's macro: (warning-a lot of spam because I don't want to edit it all)

[14:14:32]Purple Ipoped = King Arthro -------> /em ftw?
[14:14:32]Shellers starts casting Flash on King Arthro. ----------> fail
[14:14:33]Purple Ipoped = King Arthro
[14:14:33]Elyssa's casting is interrupted. ----------------> fail
[14:14:35]Purple Ipoped = King Arthro
[14:14:35]King Arthro is out of range.
[14:14:37]Sjoidjgo uses Provoke on King Arthro. ---------> win (True story; I'm awesome)
[14:14:38]King Arthro misses Sjoidjgo. ------> lol


EDIT: It claimed today. Not pictured: HF during paralyze. And they didn't have a BRD/COR.

Obligatory Maintenance Update

Woot! This past weekend, I gathered a small group of LS members to take down Haku for me and Seth. We managed to "6.5 man" him (I was 2-boxing Kets), and it was actually really easy. I felt bad though, as I kind of let Xean die since I was busy WSing on Kets when he got triple attacked. >_>; Oh well.

Other misc. things:

MMM soro! Oh joy....




I failed the next time because I linked 2 mantas lol. ;_;

I've also leveled a few random jobs...a quick recap would be:
WAR 35 -> 36
NIN whatever it was since last time -> 70 (yay)
SCH 21 -> 30
DRG 18 -> 19
DNC 15 -> 18
COR 5 -> 16

And then a couple of merits on WHM. I now have 3/4 crit hit, so I need to finish that. T_T

Sorry for the short update, but there *should* be another coming soon. Summer ftw.

Off to camp Shikigami after maint., /dance.

Color me BLU

Well, as of a couple of weeks ago, I have decided to level my BLU to 60. I've managed to get it from 47-51 off pets (I'm stuck at 51 now since I can't seem to log on early enough to get Kets to PL me; I suck at pulling so I usually link the master >_>;;;;;), and hopefully I can continue to solo up to 60.

The main reason that I wanted to level this job is twofold...first off, Kets and a couple of LS members recently got Sea. I've always been a slow mission person (except RotZ, LS static burned it in 2 days ^^) , so I'm in no rush, but I've always wanted to finish CoP. I hate when people ask for help with things that I can't do (i.e. shark organs, later missions, jailers/Ix's etc.) because I don't have that area unlocked. I know that it's a very small window of events, but I still would like to be able to do as much as possible to benefit the LS. Plus, I've always wanted every area, and since I already have Sky, guess what I'm missing? (I'll give you a hint, it's Sea) BLU brings to the table a powerful DD, a stunner, a backup healer, and more importantly, not NIN or WHM <_<;.



So why does that matter? Well, the ACP body isn't really that good for WHM (Fast Cast+5 and some random crappy augment like enmity-5 since I don't care about that stat), but it's relatively nice for NIN (acc and DW). I'm pretty sure I'll get the Redingote when I finish it this weekend (hopefully), but I may drop it when NIN gets 75 for the Waldercors. Anyway, the point is that it's also good for NIN. But, the main main point is that I got this earring from the Fei'Yin BCNM (there's something that I accidentaly took a picture of in this; kudos to you if you can see it):


As far as I know, the only earrings you'd use for spells are Triumph/other stat enhancing piece. If I can manage to get one Triumph, I could probaby let this slide in the other slot for added effect proc rate.

But anyway, while I'm talking about ACP...last weekend Kets set up a static for the mission. It contained:

• Me: Guess what?
• Kets: SAM
• Bromeo: SAM
• Codewa: SAM (see a trend?)
• Mindswepr: PLD
• Mish: RDM

We started off with the goblins. It probably took us ~1 hour to get the item for everyone, and then ~1 hour to kill the NM. The mandragoras were a joke...one blizzaga 1 did 580+ damage to all of them and basically pwnt them. They seemed to take like 2.5x damage from elemental nukes, but I think my Banishga II did about the usual damage =(. I feel bad for the melees though; they would target a mob and then it would die from an -aga lol.

The Fei'yin fight was...interesting lol. About 30 seconds into the battle while me and Mish were buffing people/enfeebling, Kets got hit with a 950+ damage SA Goblin Rush and died. We ended up easily winning, but it was kind of funny. D=

And then there was the tower...I went up first before our escort got there, and I guess this is what I get lol.


(If you don't see it, it's that when I canceled invis, I accidentaly canceled RR ; ; But I got the stone!) Anyways, eventually the rest of the group gets up to the top, and we enter. Only Kets has /RNG, so we had 2 SAM/NINs that would TP off the thralls and then WS the stone. The stone used SoNihility of us very early in the fight, while we were trying to figure out where to stand. Unfortunatley, it reset EVRYONE'S job abilities, so I couldn't bene and Mish couldn't Convert. So, we eventually got it to 45% and wiped. Since that weekend, Codewa has gotten RNG to at least 30ish and Mish has gotten 73BLM. When everyone is ready again, our plan will be (did I mention Bro has RDM at 75? I don't think I did):

• WHM
• SAM/RNG
• SAM/RNG
• RDM/DRK
• PLD/WAR
• BLM/RDM

That will hopefully work a little better.

On my way up, I also got this:


Random fail ftw lol.

While I have this picture here, I may as well mention that my BLU has incredible luck. I think I'm 1/1-5 on most spells now-a-days.


Speaking of incredible luck, Kets, Mish, and I have been trioing Sheep in Antlion's Clothing for the past ~2 months. We've gotten the regular ENM stuff, satin, an evoker (! that someone whose name starts with "K" dropped ._.), 2.5k exp etc. I've actually managed to get 4 merits between this and random mobs at ZNMs lol. The past 2 weeks, we've done it earlier while Mish was cat-napping and got these:


(The Hagun has a funny story behind it; when I lotted a 25 and opened the chest I yelled out "Hagun!" (jokingly) and walked over to Kets' comp (I was on his PS2 at the time) and he went "Omg Hagun!" and I was all like "Srsly??" and then I saw it. It was a 1.3million gil angel falling into my lap!)

Kets outlotted me on the Hagun (we split everything, but we always joke around to see who wins the lot -- see the mantle), but I won the true prize, then wand! lol

But pretty much, our new formula is:

• Enter BCNM with 2 people
• 2 hour Tuch before his last Sandpit
  
• Kill Tuch
• Lot less that 50
• Take off pants
• ???
• Profit

-

I mentioned ZNMs a little bit earlier, so I'll make a little comment about it here. Our little LS has managed to romp and stomp every ZNM we face. T1s are a joke...Vulpagne dies in like 30 seconds (although everyone is usually dead when it dies xD), and Chigre dies in like a minute. Cheese Hoarder usually takes about 2-4 "waves" depending on how many BLMs we have. T2s are a little more difficult, but Iriz Ima (as always) is just sad. I've actually started investing in a nuking set so that I don't feel entirely useless. >_>; We've also done Verd many times (did you know that you can melee him?). I don't think we've actually done any troll path T2s yet (although I know we've killed Ob a few times, so someone is holding out on their seals `_`). We've done a few T3s as well, although we may have to stop due to some people not being available (a.k.a. we don't have enough ranged DDs on a usual Saturday). We have done many Armed Gears though, and we've managed to defeat Dea, Nuhn, the Mamool, and the Lamia.

I only have one complaint, and it's a pretty bad one. I shoudn't complain since I usually can't farm up Zeni (or I guess I do other stuff would be the way to put it ._.), but I swear we've done 1235342421 Cheese Hoarders, 875964 Chigres, 658653 Iriz Imas, and 76453 Verdelets. I actually have a Beast Slayer because no one else wanted one. It's fun doing these easy mobs, but some variety is always nice lul. ^^;

I'm very proud of the way our LS has banded together to get some ZNM gear for all of our members. However, the most important part of this event is that it gives us time to just relax...away from heavy endgame, RL events, etc....and just beat some tiny bugs into the ground!