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.

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.

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.