Harvest, Assault and Savage Blade

Saturday

I started the day late. Since people were busy doing things I continued doing some harvesting. Then I got the call for a single Assault run. This was one of the smoothest assault runs I've ever been on. Devious, Thundar and Vexen (or something like that), needed a new RDM. Their previous DD bailed before the last run and Vexen went to change from DD to RDM. Only 1 aggro and we got the mission done withing 20 minutes. Most excelent.

Also the ??? Necklace that dropped turned out to be a Spectacles. This is currently going for 400k on the AH but since I've always wanted one, I decided to buy out the rest of the people. So I gave 100k to each of the other 3 and I now have my Spectacles.

Spectacles

Very happy with my evening (short though it was), I logged for the evening.

Sunday

We had talked about doing a Savage Blade run today. But it was late when I got on, and Autumnal (who also needs it) was not on at all. Cane also hasn't broken his latent on his Sapara. So I figured we wouldn't actually go on any run.

However the run itself involves the Altepa Gate. This is a little more tricky as it involves clicking 4 column scattered over inaccessible places in Western Altepa Desert. Then running to a specific gate and getting through it before it closes. Neither Devious nor Thundar knew the exact route, so I printed the instructions out and we set of to "reconnoiter" the route. We then proceed to wander about the desert and the associated Quicksand Caves. Homing in on the various columns we need to examine. Since we were only 3, we did it in the following order: Emerald, Sapphire, Topaz and finally Ruby. During the run around we actually managed to go through the eye of a tornado. Very funky. Topaz and Ruby were already clicked by someone else and we ran to the gate and got thru the gate. A quick zig zag later and we were in the room with the ??? for savage blade.

Heading for the eye

Well we're here. And we know we're good. So Thundar tells Devious to start pulling mobs in the room. Sure enough we clear out the room post haste. The mobs being only DC means they went down like ten pins to the Monk/Bard/Red Mage trio (poor poor Atticans). I then popped Girtablulu, the Scorpion NM for Savage Blade. This was obviously a longer fight. With me laying on the full layers of debuffs and Devious alternating between double marching Thundar and double ballade-ing me. With me hasting and healing Thundar. Soon enough the NM fell. I got my Annals of Truth key item and it was off to San D'Oria for my weapons skill.

After the usual airship waits, I made it to the Chateaux and got my Weapon Skill.

Savage Blade is now Mine. I now have all the main weapons skills a red mage can get (I think, I'll need to check club).

Savage Blade

After that I headed off to bed. Well satisfied with my weekend.

Two days woth of harvesting and assaults

Well Sunday I basically did nothing but harvest for all of it. I no longer need to bring a stack, I got about 60-70 items harvested for the cost of a single sycle. I'd love to know what harvesting rank I am, but I'm getting prety up there. Anyways need to concentrate on getting cotton and red moko for the barrons set I'm making.

Monday, didn't have a lot of time, basicaly, logged on and was immediately sucked into Preemptive Strike x 3. All went relatively well. The first was the smoothest with Brolly. Then the next two with Eoware were agro city. Lucky Dev and I are prety good RDM and BRD team. Kept everything under control and the DD's alive. I now have over 5k Mamool Ja assault points.

Aborted Promivion run, Assault

Well I tried and failed to organize some Promivion runs for those who needed it. Mainly because they didn't show. Such is life. I did manage to get a whole set of anima and a backup set of recollections. I also bought an entire set of Shade Armor +1 for when I run more Promivions.

I did end up doing 3 Assault runs with Thundar and Devious and someone named Vion. So 3 wins in Preemptive Strike (Mamool Ja Staging Point - PFC). I also managed to get prepared for the serious amount of harvesting I'm going to need to do soon.

Assault, Salvage, Key farming

I started the evening off with the acquisition of the Fire and Water tunning forks. That way when there are any avatar runs I'll be ready. Then it was off to an assault run. After a bit of confusion due to Scab thinking that Assault took all the points from a particular Assault area instead of just 2k points from a particular area. We went on the Leujaoam Cleansing assault mission.

Start of the Leujaoam Cleansing run

This started out well enough and we were ripping along but people got over confidant and an attack in the last room went ahead without checking for adds (they got too far ahead of me and the bards). We could have won after the first 3 deaths but then people got a little over anxious resulting in more deaths. Even with a chain raise for that we were already too far behind the 8 ball. We failed on the before last worm finally. Moral of the story: Don't get ahead of your sleepers. Make sure they are in position BEFORE you start pounding.

After that it was time for another Salvage run. I think this will become our usual Sunday night fare. My social LS is slowly morphing into a Social/Assault/Salvage LS. This can be good or bad. Good because we DO need more people. Bad depending on the type of people. We'll see in the long run how people fit in.

So After making sure I had all the right items, it was off to Bhaflau Remnants. I took the usual Bhaflau Thickets to Alzadaal Undersea Ruins route. Note to self: get the damn map to this place. Once at the entrance point to the salvage run, I waited while I made my portion of the hi potions. Note to self: next time take a picture of the thing above the door.

The door to Bhaflau Remnant

We were off to our usual start. There were a bunch of no-shows so we were once again reduced to a farming run. We went West at the start this time. Please note that this has the consequence of blocking off a portion of the Remnants. We've come to the conclusion that going east is good when you have a mage heavy party, but going west is good when it's a melee heavy party. This is mainly due to the mobs available.

The usual start - naked

The usual progression thanks to Isyan's leadership is Biffrons till 3-4 weapons unlocked and some HP/MP-> Wamouracamps for a bit of armor -> Wamouras (flying type) for some magic/job abilities -> wipe the floor. Mind you at about the half way point it started going a little more roughly. Namely Thundar accidentally used his firefly. This is a bad idea as it boots you from the run. Lesson learned. We also lost Bonoandedge for a while to his dinner. During this period, we managed to learn that a RDM with his spells HP/MP and a weapon make the absolute best tank in terms of not needing to be healed. Phalanx totally owns the first floor. This has the implications that one of the first orders of business is for any salvage run to unlock their RDM's magic as soon as feasible as we make the perfect link handler/healer for once the hi-potions are gone. The first floor is also weak enough that the melee/tanks need to wean themselves of the desire for utsusemis. They do not need these on the first floor once a WHM or RDM has his magic back. Sure the casting needs to be unlocked by the 2nd floor but not on the first. Casters need to be a priority over any utsusemi. Magic is just 10 times more flexible than shadows.

Once most of the equipment has been unlocked

The run ended without very many drops or NM's encountered. This was our 3rd run as a team and the post run hash session was much more animated than the first two. The main complaint Devious and Scab had was felling useless for a farming run with a small party. Loath as I am to leave any ls member out from activities, they do have a point that if they aren't feeling like they will contribute, it's not fun for them. It was pretty much agreed that till we get more people and necessitate 2 bards for a run, they might be better off alternating weeks and save their assault points. We're at the point were we need to do a bit more research and start putting together a plan of attack with the objective of getting to the gears and stuff. We're starting to get our feet under us in there, but there are things to improve: We need to use the people that are not un-gimped early in the run as scouts. We need to improve the point at which we decide to move on. we definitely need to unlock some stats by the 2nd floor.

Note to Devious and Scab: you may still both get drafted if we're short on personnel for a full 6 person run. But such is life in a small linkshell. Oh and everyone feel free to use the comments section here to continue any post run hashing.

After that it was off to the Crawler's Nest for me to help with Jelley's AF key farming. We only got a bit of farming done (I forgot my /THF) before we needed to log for the night. But I've discovered why Jelley keeps complaining about her soloing ability: She doesn't have Drain/Aspir like she should at this level and she has no soloing armor set. This is one of those situations where the blazing speed with which she is leveling is having it's consequences. This game is set up to really limit your options if you don't pay attention to gear and character development.

Key farming in the CN

One of the reasons I go on these farming runs is that it allows me to work on my Sapara of trials. I still plan on unlocking Savage Blade before resuming leveling. Not that I wouldn't help out even if this wasn't the case, but it's always nice to have a 2nd reason to go.

Fluffy!!!

Started the evening out where yesterday left off. In search of the new staging point. One white teleporter and a bit of a zig zag later the runic portal was found. Two of em actually. There's some really funky stuff in the windows down there.

Funky stuff down in the Subterrane

Then it was off to join Thundar and Isyan for 3 Assault runs. These were no problem as they were the one at the Atoll. So I now have plenty of points for the next Salvage run.

Then I got lucky. There was a shout for a Fenrir fight. They were looking for a BLM and a RDM. I immediately indicated my willingness to join the fight. We gathered over at the tower in east Sarutabaruta. Then it was off to full moon fountain. The fight itself was surprisingly easy (except the 2h, that was tricky). No one died, although Trix the tank admitted to luck as she parried a hit while she had only 33 hp and no shadows. Towards the end of the fight I had to take over healing duties, but not for long as Trix decided to end the fight with a Mijin Gakure.

Long and sort of it is, I can now summon Fenrir:

Fluffy!

2nd Salvage Run

I started off the evening by putting some warp cudgels up on the ah. Prices are nice and high at the moment. The main reason is that Windy has been out of first place for 2 weeks in a row and it's the middle of the week. If windy stays out of first place for another week, expect to see 50k a cudgel soon.

Then things go busy in the linkshell. We didn't have much time before the salvage run so we booked it it Ilrusi Atoll to get the extra points needed. Only Devious and I needed the points. So Devious went to the chest spawn spot and I became Thundar's battery for the run. As usual, things went very smoothly and we got the points and the Remnant permits necessary for our salvage run.

Gathered for the Salvage run

So off we went to Bhaflau Thickets and the northern most entrance to Aydeewa Subterrane. I still don't have the new new staging point, but I'm going to have to learn how this works. Once all gathered and in a party: Thundar, Devious, Scab, Isyan, Autumnal and myself started up the Run proper. We were our usual gimp selves at the start of the run

Gimp party

Parts of this run went smother, parts not so smooth. I really need to make sure I have a Salvage kit out ready to go for the next time. I ended up dieing twice. First time due to in-attention of the melee segment of the party, 2nd time due to casting cure IV while weakened and getting one shotted. We got unlucky with weapon drops this time. Getting weapons first is very critical. We also need to get better at doing more of the first floor. We definitely need to get smoother at the start of the run. We also need to get better at getting the calling out of who should get what. It would be good if someone tracked the important cell drops. that way less time is wasted after a particular drop.

Partially Un-gimped

I didn't feel like I was up to par this run. Partly because I started the evening with a brand new cold. Yuck. We did manage to get Thundar a pants drop. Our first salvage item that leads to one of the new sets. The BST/RNG/THF/??? Pants (norn set???) dropped from one of the 3rd floor ranger mobs. Thundar won the lot vs Isyan, the rest of us didn't have the right jobs. We'll have to do more.

I logged in the subterrane and will have to get the new staging point next time.

BLU 20

In the dunes again when I logged on. I must be a glutton for punishment. The evening started off pretty good. Had to bail out of a sucking party to go have dinner. When I got back had a party with Colacub that went OK. I managed to get to level 19 with that party. But it eventually fell apart. Typical Dunes action. I had another abortive party. Finally got re-formed and Colacub was randomly in this party as well. This went much more smoothly as Thundar came over to PL for a bit. We managed to get both of us to 20 in very short order. Thanks Thundar!

Then it was off to the assault run. We took Excavation duty this time. This one is fun for a RDM since you are usually sent off to solo one of the out of the way walls. Again this was no problem, although they main party did miss-count and ended up finishing mine off after they miss-counted and thought mine was the last. Nope they only did 2 in the time it took me to get to 25% on the one I was doing. I would have soloed it if they had gone on to the next one like they should have. Ah well. All was good in the end since we won that run.

Almost ready for the Assault run

Oh, I also got the latest gil from my warp cudgel sales. Going to have to make another batch today at some point.

Long day but good day

Started out the day early. I decided to skillup cooking. I managed to get from 51 to 56 so only 4 more points to go and I will cap cooking at 60. Needless to say this took quite a while. While this was going on my warp cudgels final sold so I needed to do another batch. Typical mid week warp cudgel market. managed to sell 3 for 40k a piece.

Took a break then got back for the evening assault runs. We got 3 done. Two times the Ilrusi Atoll in parties of 3. This consisted mainly of running around following Thundar and keeping refresh on him. This is because the main tactic here is using Carbuncle to take care of the mimic while we move on to the next chest.

Ready for the mimics

Once the Leujaoam Sanctum one. This time with more firepower (literally since Thundar came in as RNG for this one). I've now been successful with 3 separate assaults. 2 more different ones or 7-8 more of the ones I've one and I'll be able to get to PFC.

Zoning into an assault

Then while the others went and got their coins for the Black Coffin mission, I headed directly there to wait for em. Eventually they got there. Devious had the mandatory death along the way.

The party is gathered a 2nd time

Then it was into the mission. The mission got done finally. The fight was nothing special this time. Darn mobs are horribly resistant to any form of sleep but it's all cool. I manage to keep alive while the boys kill the captain. Sleepga is great for grabbing hate even if you don't sleep the formor. This time it was a success. The Black Coffin sure is an ominous ship. Cool though.

The Black Coffin

The captain

We also get to see more of Gessho. He's the Yagudo NPC involved in the various missions in the expansion.

Gessho

Poor Gessho though, he gets no respect for being the coolest Yagudo around.

Poor Gessho gets no respect

Then it was off to do the BLU AF hat fight for Devious. Again, no big problem, although the soulflayer is one funky mob.

The usual suspects

Then it was a matter of progressing through the various missions as far as possible. Which means dealing with her spikiness. The following picture should explain why we call this mithra "Her Spikiness".

Her Spikiness

I'm now able to go on Salvage runs should I wish to. I also got my pass for my first salvage run. I also had to pick up so new gear to get thru the mission. I can now look like a real hippy.

Hippy Strangeone

In parting, my only comment is that her spikiness, Naja, is a total whack job.

Naja