Archive for February, 2010
When I first started playing FFXI and created Evyen I chose to play MNK. It’s kind of weird because I usually play ranger / thief kind of characters in games. But I fell in love with MNK, it seemed like a really cool martial artist and the ultimate DD job. I considered MNK as my main job, I guess, and it was my first and only 75 job for a while. I took the job quite seriously, spent a lot of times reading different guides and obtaining the best equipment I could get.
I remember when I was a level 18 MNK and read about the Purple Belt quest. Of course at that point I felt like I had already achieved so much: completed my subjob quest, almost gotten through the dunes, I was close to obtaining my rank 3 in San d’Oria etc. Considering all this, the Purple Belt quest felt like a huge challenge. I remember when I tried to get to Tenshodo HQ to open the quest, and the extreme disappointment I felt when I found out I couldn’t even get in there before obtaining an invite which costed 8,000 gil in the AH. I didn’t have that kind of gil! 
I remember saying in LS that “now I need to spend hours farming” or something…. A LS mate Doshin felt sorry for me and decided to send me 10K. I was shocked and swore I’d pay him back (which he of course refused). And after getting my Tenshodo access and the quest unlocked my LS EtVaanOsaa took me to La Theine Plateau and Konschtat Highlands to farm the big scary ram NMs. It took a long time but I finally got the both items needed for the quest and felt extatic!
And then came level 40 and the Brown Belt quest. It was a nightmare because at the time the belt costed a lot and many players did the quest just to make some gil, and therefore the NMs were actually camped. I remember it took me and my friend Shokun (<3) like two weeks to get the belt for both of us. It was completely crazy, we camped Morbolger in the middle of the night and were in seventh heaven if we got the claim!
At the time I laid my eyes on Black Belt – The Ultimate Monk Piece. I decided to get it some day, which was of course a bit silly from a player who had a level 40 MNK as her highest job and had no idea what it would take.
Then I got my MNK to 75 and leveled BRD and PUP. I didn’t forget my dream about Black Belt but I started realizing how much work it would take and that there was no way I could do it alone. At some point I ended up in Europa LS which did KSNM99 and I added the BB items on my lot list, but the line was long and I knew from the start it would be highly unlikely I’d ever get them.
And then last summer Malys started camping Adamantoise and Behemoth for his BB and I decided to join him. Neither of us were able to attend all the windows but we somehow managed to keep track on ToDs. For most of the time there were only two or three of us but we got some claims, even if we didn’t have a lot of luck with drops.
Malys already had the Wyrm Beard and we succeeded to get him the Adamantoise Egg (well, he was actually asleep at the time but in the party nevertheless). We had really sucky luck with Behe though, and in the end he bought the Tongue and got his belt.
After that I took a long break from camping, and also a two month break from the whole game. After I came back, Malys told me he was still doing KSNM99 wyrm with his static and asked me if I wanted to tag along and lot the beard in case it drops on his orb. The guys in his group were nice and told me I could lot if it drops on any orb since no one else there needed it. I was lucky and it dropped on first orb, which was Ejins, and he told me to lot. Thank you!
After that we started the NM static thingy with SecretFellowship. I was surprised of how many people were willing to offer their help with camping, and we had quite a lot of luck with Behemoth. We only camped it for about a week straight I think, before I got my Tongue. I want to say a huge THANK YOU! to everyone who helped me camp, you guys are awesome!
And then there was the turtle. As I said before, I actually thought that would be the easiest part, but for some reason people are really excited about camping NQ Ada on our server, it seems. The amount of people on day 2 camps was just crazy, and we lost more claims than we got. And even when we did get the claim, it never dropped. I was getting really frustrated.
On Saturday the window opened before 10 AM and I honestly didn’t feel like waking up for it. I already thought not to set my alarm and just sleep in, but then I thought that my LS mates are probably waking up early to help and it would be really shitty of me not to show up. So I woke up and dragged my character there. As I had guessed, there were three people who had come there only to help me, and no one else in the whole zone. Luckily it popped on first window, Malys claimed, and I took my husbands character to train all the mobs away to avoid getting links (and for tarutaru sacrifice of course). We killed it easily with four people, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the treasure pool!
Of course I immediately ran to Jeuno to do the quest:
And OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG:
It has been a long road but I finally got the one piece of gear I’ve dreamed of for about as long as I’ve played the game. And it’s all thanks to my amazing friends who have spent so much of their time just to help me. Words can’t describe how thankful and happy I feel. <3 you guys!
Been a while, haven’t played much. We had our second Ultima and it was another success, even with only three BLMs (several of our members are currently on a break). We used NIN tanks again and RDM/NINs as backup tanks. This time we also had a PLD but he wasn’t in the tank parties so he didn’t get that many buffs and only got hate once – after using invincible. I think we’ll keep trying different options though to see what works best for us.
The other week our dyna LS had our very first Dynamis-Buburimu run, and to our surprise it actually went really well and we even won! I don’t think anyone expected us to win on first try but we were well prepared and focused and everything went really well. But naturally, we did have our traditional wipe in the end of the run:
On Sunday we tried Dynamis-Qufim, but only got the boss to around 50% before we wiped. Our biggest problem there was that our only RDM/DRK died in the start of the fight so we didn’t have CS stun. Next time we should maybe bring two RDM/DRKs just in case. Anyway, I’m really happy we’re doing dreamlands zones since it’s fun to try something new and I’ve been drooling over the PUP cape and SCH belt for a while now…
We’ve also been camping Ada a bit. I’m still 2/3 with the Black Belt items, only missing the egg. We’ve gotten some claims but the egg just doesn’t like to drop, it seems. It’s a bit frustrating…every day I’m heading to the Valley of Sorrows I keep thinking “This might be the day I finally get my belt!” and then – it never is. But I try to think that if I only keep going there, I will get it, sooner or (most likely) later.
The other day was the worst Ada camp ever. For the first 2,5 hours there was no one but us. And of course, as it ended up being a last window pop, just before the window a HNMLS ran there. And naturally, they claimed and killed. But what happened next was just unbelievable: the guys got the drop and tried to sell it to us! I mean, wtf…a HNMLS ran to a day 2 (!) Adamantoise just to claim and kill it for the drop they didn’t even need! What the hell were they thinking? “Hey, I see a noob LS trying to get NQ Ada, le’ts go claim it from them, I’m sure they’ll want to show their support and pay us for that!” There’s no way in hell I’d pay anything to anyone who behaves like that towards other people.
I don’t mind competition, I really don’t. I realize I’m not the only one who want certain items and when there’s only one mob which drops the said item, competition is natural. I hate it when people treat their competition like they’re some spawns of Satan just because they’re after the same thing. But what I do mind is when people do something just to screw other people over. I mean c’mon, we’re all civilized adult (well most of us are, I guess) people who are playing an online game to have fun (I hope). Why would someone want to ruin the experience for others? I just don’t understand it. What do they get out of it? Why would someone want to be a part of a group which behaves like that?
I was so pissed off after that experience, I just shouted and swore in LS chat. I don’t think I’ve ever behaved like that in LS before. I of course overreacted and apologized for that – it’s not like it was like my LS mates had done anything wrong so they really didn’t deserve me shouting at them… I was just so tired and frustrated.
But amazing people that my LS members are, they haven’t given up with offering their help. We’ve been camping every day now for almost a week and there have always been people to offer their help. I’m really lucky to have these people in my LS and as my friends. <3
Yesterday we got a whole different experience of Ada camps. It was a first window pop (for once), and when we got it, a person from a HNMLS /cheered us and wished us good luck. That’s how people should behave in NM camps. It shouldn’t be all blood, sweat, tears and drama, but rather friendly competition and having fun.
Other than Ada camping and dyna, we’ve done some Nyzul. I finally got my second Goliard piece, the pants, and oh-me-god are they ugly:
We also had our second ZNM run which went pretty well but we weren’t really lucky with drops… Except with Lil’Apkallu which dropped Numerist Pumps on every pop! Alix also got a Dragoon’s Earring from Chamrosh:
On next run we will finally start doing tier IIIs. I’m really looking forward to it, hoping to get some nice drops for people!
I’ve also done some CoP again (what do you mean I have a problem)… Did 8-3 and 8-4 for Lary and Wasch. When we were getting ready for the pot fight, we started talking about the storyline and noticed none of us had any idea if the fight had anything to do with it:
And I got yet another proof of how much my LS members really like me….
And here’s my Mog Bonanza prize from this year! As always, I let the moogles choose the numbers. This time they gave me the full series of king statues:
