More Aht Urghan

I started the evening off with a check of the Alchemy Guild to see what the guild item was. Turns out it was a Cutlass. Since this has a 46 Smithing sub, it was a no go for me for now.

While I was preparing to go to Aht Urghan, I got a random /tell. Turns out someone named Crave wanted to join my LS after noticing on Alla that I was recruiting. Turns out is a level 75 PLD on the Quetzalcoatl server. Just that he got tired of the lack of end game activity for PLD and his friends have been leaving. So he wanted to try out a new server. We'll see how he works out.

After getting Crave his pearl it was off to the Empire. Pretty quickly it was time to get together the essentials. In the case of a Salvage run, this means getting the following in preparation: 1 stack of Echo Drops, 1 stack of Silent Oils, 1 stack of Prism Powders, and as many hi-potions as you have saved up/purchased as practicable. For mages/support jobs, you'll be putting them up on your bazaar for 1 gil a piece so the DD/Tanks can grab em quickly (don't put em up till you're actually IN the Salvage run though).

For this trial run we decided to go as a single party. No intention of getting to the boss. Just go and get experience and don't wipe. On that front, it was a successful run. We managed to get plenty of kills and although we had a few deaths (mainly at the last fight), we never wiped. My advice is that anyone wanting to try salvage out should get their feet wet in single party runs. They are less confusing than full alliance runs and allow you to learn the lay of the land. Strangely enough we had maps for the new areas.

As you know, you start off the run totally gimped. No weapons, no armor, no job abilities, no sub-job, stats at -30, HP and MP at 1/2 normal. We did our run in Bhaflau Remnants. The party consisted of the usual suspects: Thundar(MNK), Isyan(BLU), Scab(BRD), Devious(BRD) and myself(RDM), with a random pickup for the actual run: Darkblade(RDM) (I think - I really do need to get better at snapping pictures during the action). Thundar went as MNK of course. A good progression for a single party seems to be: Get 2 weapons, get some armor (2-3 kills worth), get max HP on fighters, get some magic on a healer. Then go and back fill the rest of the party till everyone is un-gimped

Thundar is feeling the breeze

Bifrons: weapons
Wamouracamps: armor
Trolls: various
Flying wamouras: magic and job abilities
Flan: magic

Now we were taking it pretty easy on this first run for most of us. Isyan had a few runs under his belt. Darkblade had 1 run, the rest of us this was our first run.

My advice for any mage: bring a melee load out and cap your melee skills. Yes your there for magic. But your magic is probably going to be unlocked much later in the run than you would wish. Your weapons will probably be unlocked before your magic. Equip accordingly. This will not be as good as a party made up of a mix of 4 MNK/WAR/PUP and support (which should just burn through things and get a great head start on the whole thing). But initial speed is important. And the initial mobs are weak enough that you'll be getting decent damage even as a mage. As a red mage I was getting in about 50-60% of the damage of the monk. Remember till he unlocks his JA a DD doesn't have the nice damage spike so it's pure DOT. Yes mages damage things slower than a pure DD but it's better than nothing. The whole thing about the first stage is speed killing. So every little bit helps.

After the run, we decided to go help Scab with his Windy 7-1 mission. The hardest thing about this was the trek out to the canal. 4 Hinge Oils and assorted bats up, 4 Hinge Oils and assorted bats down.

Then we decided to go to the Navukgo Execution Chamber and get the Shield of Diplomacy mission done (Although Diplomacy may not be Shantotto's forte). Well we managed to find the perfect way to keep Shantotto alive and in the fight the whole time. Sic Thundar on the Khimaira 13 he manged to do enough damage to keep hate from AMII spam-ing Shantotto. I had originally been assigned the job of keeping her alive while the rest of the party kept Thundar alive. a quarter of the way into the fight I notice that my assigned role is totally moot. Spam AMII all she want Shantotto couldn't rip hate off of Thundar. So I slip into party healing mode and simply keep an eye on Shantotto just in case. By the end of it the entire party was almost at full health. The Khimaira didn't even breath in her direction. Probably one of the easiest mission fights we've had in a while. The black coffin fight was tougher.

Shantotto and a King Cardian

She may call herself Karababa but do not be decieved, she's Dr. Shantotto at her psychotic best. Man, Shantotto is da shiznitz. Anyone who can piss Naja off that effectively is all right in my books.

I then logged for the night.