static update

its been about a week since we started up the static, and we have leveled a lot. however, we haven't stayed together that often. After starting with Simkiel's monk at 41, he is now at 58. People were gone for the Christmas holiday, and so we missed a few days. Anotsu is now 63. We have had some great setups, but the issue has usually been the camp, rather than the party- the lower levels of the Aht Urgan zones are packed with a bunch of low level parties, or soloers (with no /seacom up, which makes finding a camp based more on luck than anything else).

Simkiel and Survive have been posting some big WS numbers- which have been fun to watch. Birds are squishy.

We still have a few AF fights to finish, namely Hoss' and my AF3 fights. Both look like they will require close to a full party of 75s to beat safely.

We won our 6th? Sheep in Antlion's clothing... still no Hagun or Forager's Mantles...

Surv and I did a Nyzul Isle run with Anotsu and Kyochi, and that was fun- even though Moneygod was /wristing over Askar feet. We beat floor 20 Fafnir with seconds to spare- only Kyochi was taking a dirt nap and couldnt pass... so we got NOTHING! WE LOST! GOOD DAY SIR! That said, I'm pumped to start Assaults and Salvage. I SAID GOOD DAY!

revisions

Congrats to Simkiel for hitting 38 on Samurai! We were just shooting for 37, but exp was good, so we kept on going.

After talking to everyone and planning stuff out, I have been able to form a more concrete static setup.

Anotsu: Monk (49)
Circa: White Mage (45)
Hoss: Red Mage (52)
Kyochi: Paladin (62)
Simkiel: Monk (42)
Survive: Warrior (46)

It looks like we will be syncing down to 42. It appears that Survive will pull. If she burns out, I'm cool with pulling as White Mage, so pulling shouldnt be too much of an issue for us.

Myce is out, as he wasn't sure if he would be able to party consistently with us. As it stands, this setup looks like it could last all the way to 75. If necessary, I can change to Bard at 66

I'm looking to get started with the static on Monday, (12/22) as it looks like Hoss has a packed work schedule this weekend. Provided all goes well, I'm hoping to get the static to at least 60 by 12/28. Fortunately, it doesn't look like the jobs we have are too reliant on AF (save for Kyo's PLD, which should already have it). At a glance, the only job that it would really help to have AF on would be RDM. However, this is a minor issue.

For Salvage, Helldemon (DRG) will probably be joining us, so our basic farming setup should be:

Anotsu: Monk
Circa: Thief -or- Samurai
Helldemon: Dragoon (mage sub)
Hoss: Red Mage -or- Samurai
Kyochi: Bard
Simkiel: Monk
Survive: Red Mage -or- Thief

Also, we will need to work on assaults, because at least half of us are T1.

new additions

Anotsu, Myce, and possibly Kyochi will be joining us for the exp static portion of our LS. Surv and I have known Anotsu and Kyochi for a long time. They quit about 6 months ago, and are back. Myce is a friend of Simkiel, and he has partied with us randomly over the last few months.

I'm looking to build a new exp static with the hopes of building an assault/salvage static. While I know this is sort of in the middle of some other static setups that we have made, I'm thinking this new one will help us should we do assaults/salvage. In order to do this, however, we will need monks. While it may be difficult to build a party around a few monks, I'm hoping to pull it off. With the introduction of level sync, it will be a hell of a lot easier to get the jobs we need. Myce has offered to level anything save for dancer (or puller). I'm pretty much done with DD jobs, leaving mages and ninja. Surv has several DD jobs in the lower levels, so she will probably act as a puller. Sim has been leveling samurai with the goal to hit 37, but I may call upon him to level monk. We are left short a tank, so maybe Hoss can sync down as 75 paladin, or Kyochi can come as 59 paladin.

Tentative setup:

Anotsu: Monk (49)
Circa: Red Mage (41)
Hoss: Paladin (75)
Kyochi: Paladin (59)
Myce: White Mage (38)
Simkiel: Monk (42)
Survive: Warrior (43)

As for the start date/time of this static, it has not yet been determined. We are distributed fairly evenly between EST and PST, so hopefully time differences will not play a negative role. Myce, Anotsu, and Kyochi all have fairly open schedules, and Sim is free for the next few weeks (save for dynamis 2x/week). Hoss, Surv, and myself have work schedules, but we tend to be free most evenings.

As it stands, Survive and I will not be on Friday (we may get on late, but don't count on it) or Sunday. Saturday, we will be on. Due to scheduling conflicts, our ENM run will be pushed back to Monday. Sim/Surv/Hoss: I strongly recommend getting the Key Item: Miasma Filter before Monday, so we can just run to Boneyard Gully, kick ass, and get dorps, leaving time for other things.

EDIT: My company's holiday party on Friday was cancelled due to bad weather, so its possible that Survive and I will be on. If this works out, we may decide to do ENM late Friday. I dont know yet.

Let me know what you guys think, and we can make changes as necessary.

If you think this plan is viable, I would recommend farming/gearing up for your respective job.

Monk(s): As we will be level syncing to ~38ish, I would strongly recommend getting some Boreas Cesti. I used these until Exocets/Patas, and they kick ass. I'm hoping you guys also have Brown Belts.

Perhaps we should have a meeting sometime soon to discuss plans/goals/ideas.

sky farming

After ~6 hours of Aura Statue farming, we walked away with 3 Diorites. We toyed with the idea of having Surv solo Ulli, but she still needs more merits and skillups. It looks like we will need some other players to help us out on the T1 gods, or more than 0 BLMs.

We did another ENM run today, and it went fairly smoothly. One of my friends suggested that we .dat swap the NM's file to a Dhalmel, so its head sticks out of the ground. This sounds hilarious. We got a cloud evoker, but I have no idea what to do with it. Perhaps we could trade it for some help with byakko or something.

sky farming

0/2 on sky runs so far.

Camped Despot and Farmed Diorite for ~3 hours each this week, but with no positive results. It appears my TH3 is broken on Diorite. At least everyone got at least one merit point.

Sky has not been friendly to the galkas. Hoss got one-shotted by meltdown a few times, and Sim got owned a few times following that aoe stun move that strips all shadows.

I'm planning on giving it another shot tonight.

If we get too bored with sky farming, lets resume the RDM/NIN/THF/WAR static.

night falls beneath candlelight,
white squalls beneath winter skies.

schedule

Congratulations to Sim on getting sky access! Now we can work on getting Haidate for all.

Here is the tentative 'regular' schedule:

Monday- Sky Farming
Tuesday- Farming/BCNM/Missions/Free- Sim Dynamis
Wednesday- Sky Farming (Everyone): Despot if Hoss has the next day off, Diorite/Ulli if Hoss has work
Thursday- Sky Farming
Friday- Open Day- whatever the general consensus is (Sky Farming, RDM/THF/NIN/WAR Static, et al)
Saturday- Open Day- Sim has Dynamis from 12-3 PST. Depends who is on and what we want to do.
Sunday- ENM, Sky Farming, exp.


I am usually on around 4:30 PST after I get home from work. Surv is not on a regular schedule, so we may start later.

In order to farm Diorites/Ulli, we will have to travel to the area where he spawns. To get to this area, this link may prove to be very valuable, especially with our lack of navigational experience with sky. Hopefully, we can burn through it pretty fast.

http://roverffxi.blogspot.com/2006/01/ulli-directions.html

Regarding the schedule: let me know if there anything you would like to add/delete/modify.

EDIT: Hoss quit his limbus LS, so we will be able to farm sky a lot more now.

friday 12.5.08

Tonight, would be a good time to do ZM4 for sim. We can try to farm a lantern if you guys want to, but word on the street is that we only need one (thanks hoss). I'm thinking a setup similar to our ENM configuration should work, only surv will have to sub blm for ele seal sleep. The THF is immune to sleep, so melee should zerg it down real fast (only has 4700 hp). Perfect Dodge will probably slow us down, so hopefully the BLM and SMN won't wake up too soon. Everyone's Rancor might cause us some trouble, but if this fight can be Duo'd, I don't see too much to worry about.

I'm also looking to better outline our bst camps, as the last two times we've partied- exp has been terrible. Also, this will probably help me remember where to go.

54-57 (maybe 58): Garlaige Citadel: Bats/Beetles v. Bombs/Pots

57-59 (maybe 60): Quicksand Caves: Lizards v. Anticans

59-61 (maybe 62): Uleguerand Range: Rabbits/Tigers v. Tigers/Snolls/Buffalos

59: Attowha Chasm: Scorpions v. Flies

60-63ish: Boyahda Tree: Fungars/Rabbits/Crabs v. everything. (everything links though, so bring RR)

62-66: Cape Terrigan: Lizards/Rabbits v. Goblins/Cockatrice

62-64: Ifrit's cauldron: Bats/bees/opo opo v. bombs

So yeah. I plan on ditching bst when everyone is 66. Only 12 more levels to go! Hopefully we can get that within another month.

Surv and I will be gone Saturday, but we can ENM/BST on Sunday. Saturday may be a good time to do ZM5 for Sim (I recall it being cake). We can BST/ZM thoughout next week, then hopefully get Sim sky access by next week (then start farming triggers).

future plans

I hate sky. It's boring.

However, I want a few pieces of gear from it- namely Byakko's Haidate and some Shura legs. This isn't just for me- I'm sure all of you want at least the Byakko pants. Fortunately, both these pieces drop off of Byakko. I figure once Sim gets sky access, we can go up and farm Ulli and Despot to get a bunch of triggers. Fortunately ulli is popped, and Despot is 100% claim if you pull the right doll. We can then find an endgame LS that still does sky, use our triggers, and bribe them with the Byakko gil drops- in exchange for the pants. I am willing to do this for anyone who is willing to help out with farming the pop items. Pretty much everyone has a job that can use the Byakko's Haidate, so I figure this could be a regular event, until we all get drops. We could probably spend a couple days a week farming pop items, and once we get 4 sets, we can go commission a LS, then spend a few hours in sky killing Byakko. Alternatively, we could get another 4-6 people to help us out on the fight, but I'm not sure if I want to spend the time/risk the drama doing that.

Next item: Swift belts. Sim and Hoss both need them still. Ideally, this should only take one or two nights to finish. We can do the same thing we did last time with Helldemon/Hellslayer, or we could try to 4 man it on BST, as everyone's bst is now over 50. I wonder how that would work- its probably doable. Sim and Hoss might want to farm/buy codexes, or I can come out and help farm if needed. Get that fomor hate up, and we might be able to put a concrete date on the schedule.

Resuming WAR/THF/RDM/NIN static: I want to get this going again. If you guys want to take them to 75, I'll probably switch to MNK at 66.

Assaults/Salvage: Looks like we all need them. Assaults look like we would be able to do some of them as a 4-man group. Salvage; However, looks like we need a minimum of 6 to enter. I am considering asking a long-time friend to join the LS (for at least a trial period). She has a bunch of random jobs leveled, and I don't know if her schedule would work, but who knows. I think she is leveling BLM at the moment, and that would help our setup out alot. Basically, my goal is to farm a bunch of level 15 pieces, and perhaps snag a few 35s, if possible. The level 25 pieces are dropped by the Salvage bosses, and I don't think we are able to low man them just yet. As for those pieces, maybe we can all join a larger LS later on for those. I figure if we are able to do assaults, we can start to explore and become familiar with the salvage areas and strategies. Salvage is fun, challenging, and very rewarding. Starting this post-sky/swift belts would be fine with me.

Let me know what you think!

update 12.4.08

The [S] areas have been great for exp. Unfortunately, the great exp passed as quickly as it had came. We targeted djinns in east ronfaure [S] and Batallia Downs [S] for several levels, getting us to level 53. Subbing black mage for elemental nukes fed the bombs massive amounts of tp, and we were able to incite a number of self-destructs (a few of which one-shotted us- hurray for reraise).

After djinns stopped providing decent exp, we decided to try our luck in the crawlers nest. Exp would have been good, had we been able to kill higher tier beetles, but there was a party there. We chained Ts for a bit, and then moved to the basement in Garlaige Citadel. Too early. It was difficult to find EM bats. We ended up getting ~4k exp/hr, and got tired after about 90 mins of failure. I suspect once we hit 54 all the bats would check EM, and we can start throwing them at bombs.

In other news, Surv and I decided to ditch bastok (albiet temporarily) and head to sandy. I do not suspect we will stay there very long. We hit rank 5 with ease, and are planning to hit up 5-1 and 5-2 soon. Looking ahead, there shouldnt have too much trouble with the missions themselves. Its not that I don't like San d'Oria, I just miss having all the outposts and 190k conquest points. Sucks not being able to recharge your Emperor Band.