GUPS 006

No, Ischemia has not suddenly reformed. The picture above was one of our last events prior to Clavical's defection, and I decided to save it for a GUPS post instead of an Ischemia post. My Guttler progress is still pretty slow (nothing new here), so I have been farming a lot in hopes of cutting down my Alchemy costs.

Other Stuff
















Guttler Updates














I finally managed to get a decent snapshot of a KS99 run, but since I am usually very busy during these fights, it is hard to take a perfect snapshot. Unfortunately, I think I used up all my luck at the beginning of the runs (I rolled a 999 to go first); I ended up getting:









Easily the worst drops of the group. I think I made 150k gil in total, and I put it towards earning my third Montiont Silverpiece.







It took a lot of Fishing to make it happen. I even had to sell my remaining ABCs at half price to a friend, but I am now one step closer to earning my Guttler.

Currently, I am working on Stage 2 -> 3 of my Guttler.

I have acquired:
[1/1] Leonine Axe
[1/1] Tabar
[1/1] Darksteel Tabar
[1/1] Tabarzin
[3/14] Montiont Silverpieces

Gil towards next 100-unit currency (subject to change):
[156,313/~900,000] Montiont Silverpiece
Status: 17.4% Complete


Crafting Status

Khaki
[91/100] Fishing Skill (+5)
[16/100] Woodworking Skill (+11)

Fishmule #1

[15/50] Fishing Skill
[11/100] Cooking Skill

Fishmule #2

[11/50] Fishing Skill
[15/100] Smithing Skill

Secret mule

[31/100] Alchemy Skill (+8)

Guest Post: Kyli #2

 
Scholar Part 1: Ari Discovers the Skirt

For those of you who know me (which since this is Khaki’s blog you probably don’t), I abandoned my main character Ariane about a year ago to take up leveling the cute little taru Kyli. I’d lost interest in playing Ari as there wasn’t anything I wanted and at the time my internet was too unstable to do anything endgame. Kyli became my new focus and I only switched to Ari to help people out. Then they released the Wings of the Goddess expansion and I found a new focus for Ari.
I don’t have a lot of playtime these days, and it took forever for my local EB Games to get my preordered copy of the expansion in, so by the time I was able to check out the expansion, many people were already pros at it.

On the day that I decided to explore the past, Khaki came out to show me around. He took me to unlock my first 3 Maws and to quest the three new maps I would need. He also had me start the Scholar quest.

As my current focus was still on Kyli who I have planned to make RDM only, I hadn’t given the new jobs Scholar and Dancer much thought. Dancer seemed to be a great job, but I didn’t know much about Scholar. However, I like to play around on low level jobs sometimes so I figured I’d work on unlocking the two new jobs.

I went back to the Eldieme Necropolis on my own later to finish the quest. I’d been a bit overwhelmed with all the new areas, so I hadn’t really been paying that much attention to details when Khaki was showing me around. Mostly I just followed him and he pointed at NPCs for me to talk to. On my own though I had a bit more time to pay attention.

During one of the cutscenes for unlocking Scholar, it occurred to me that the NPC was wearing a schoolgirl skirt. I suddenly realized that the armor she was wearing was most likely what Scholar Artifact Armor would look like. I was overcome with the desire to level Scholar to 60 so I too could wear a schoolgirl’s skirt.

I finished unlocking the job and immediately went to my hometown of Bastok to begin my Scholar journey. I felt very excited and focused. Ari finally had a new goal. She would be a level 60 Scholar no matter what. I would have my skirt!

To be continued…

The Kafia, Part 2

Contrary to popular belief, the Kafia is not just limited to manslaughter and collecting protection money from its notorious associates. Sometimes, we are generous enough to help people, for a price. Today's post is a summary of last week's deeds and the rewards given by each of our needy clients.


1) Recall - Scroll Quests:
These were rather simple. In general, there was not any fighting involved, so Snippy sharpened her claws upon some rocks while I ran across the globe looking for ??? points. I decided to tackle some other requests along the way because they happened to be in the same area.

Reward(s):



















2) Too Many Chefs (Metalworks)




Has anyone ever heard of this quest before? The Kafia found a strange mitt while attempting the quest below, and it turns out that the mitt was needed for a quest in Bastok (present day). Apparently, the quest is listed on FFXIclopedia, but it has not been updated to the Crystal War quest section yet.

Reward(s):





For our efforts, we were rewarded with a tasty Rolanberry Pie from the mitt's intended recipient. Unfortunately for me, Snippy promptly knocked it out of my hands and began gobbling it whole; she seems to have a sweet tooth for such treats.


3) Hammering Hearts (Bastok Markets [S])




New suits of Quadav prototype armor have rendered Bastokan firearms useless, so two Bastokan smiths have taken it upon themselves to find a weakness. There was but one problem: the smiths needed an undamaged suit of armor, so the Kafia was called to the job. For this quest, I would recommend just buying a Heavy Quadav Chestplate from the AH; it seems to be a rare drop from the turtles in North Gustaberg [S].

Reward(s):







4) Seeing Blood-red (The Eldieme Necropolis [S])














Okay, I will be honest: I did not know what this quest was about. Masani asked for help, and I needed something for Snippy to chew on -- she was running out of pie. This fight turned out to be a lot more difficult than I had expected; Ulbrecht turned tier III nukes into tier III, AoE nukes via his stratagems -- causing us a lot of pain. I had to summon Snippy twice throughout the fight, and at some point, I had to tank Ulbrecht for a few minutes before he surrendered.


5) Wrath of the Griffon (Southern San d'Oria [S])














I have skipped the prerequisite for this quest because it was fairly straight forward. This fight, on the other hand, was slightly trickier because I managed to link a Gnole while fighting the Orc NM and was forced to log out immediately. It was fairly surprising when I logged in to witness the Orc NM still claimed under my name, so I had to use my Tavnazian Ring in order to save myself -- I was at critical HP at this point. I would recommend clearing the nearby Gnoles before examining the ??? and fighting the NM itself near the riverbank.

Reward(s): Key item: Military Scrip (worth 20,147 gil)















Speaking of wooden lookouts, there is a certain key item that is used to open a gate in the northern part of Jugner Forest [S]. To get the key item, you will have to search the forest for wooden lookouts until you find the one with the pass (the key item moves around). Although this pass is not all that useful unless you need to explore Jugner Forest [S], it does allow players to bypass the annoying one-way path near the lake.


6) Light in the Darkness (Bastok Markets [S])














Normally, the Kafia does not perform rescue operations; however, a handsome reward quickly changed our minds. After wandering into a certain cave to save a missing ambassador, we quickly came across three groups of Quadav that were patrolling the area. After gathering our courage, Snippy and I jumped one of the Quadav group leaders, and his minions broke and ran after we flayed him. By repeating the process twice more, we eventually managed to scatter all three groups.















Although we were still outnumbered, the Quadav were now divided and scattered. By pursuing each of the divided remnants, Snippy and I eventually destroyed all the Quadav pairs that had regrouped. With the turtles dead, we finally managed to rescue their hostage.

Reward(s): Adaman Ingot


7) Knot Quite There (Windurst Waters [S])






After teaming up with some Mithra mercenaries to save a lone Royal Knight, the knight requested some aid in finding a certain rope that held an encrypted Yagudo message. It took me around twelve Yagudo before I could find the rope (I went on BST/NIN), and it should be noted that the Yagudo inside towers can occasionally wander outside. Thus, you will want to stay away from tower entrances while fighting Yagudo. 

Reward(s): Platinum Beastcoin


8) A Manifest Problem (Fort Karugo-Narugo [S])














This new quest is the best of the batch in terms of plot, action, and difficulty, so I highly recommend it for anyone who has not given it a shot. While trying to solo this quest, many, many things went wrong.

1. The map (above) is misleading; the giant 'X' marks a dead end that is not shown. Do not fall into the same trap that I did by thinking the map is a giant circuit. 
2. BST cannot solo this fight: there are swarms of Yagudo that come rushing at you once you begin.
3. I failed to solo this quest twice on BLM/WHM.

So after three vain attempts on my BST and two on my BLM (including one epic, thirty minute fight), I finally managed to solo this quest (on BLM), and I would like to share my experiences for any eager soloists out there.















As I mentioned, a swarm of angry Yagudo will attack you, after an initial retreat, once you reach point 1 on the map. Once you get close to point 1, they will come rushing at you, so prepare yourself early. Also, it is possible to take out a few Yagudo during their initial retreat without retaliation; I managed to nuke six to death before reaching point 1.















To prepare for the fight, give yourself the following buffs: "Stoneskin," "Blink," "Aquaveil," "Barsilence," "Baraero" as well as your AF boots and some Defense food. Once the Yagudo start charging at you, start retreating into the narrower portions of the cave to maximize your AoE damage. A good volley of tier II AoEs should hit all 15 to 20 Yagudo rushing for your throat; if there are any stragglers, blast them down as well. Keep retreating because more Yagudo waves will follow the first. Continue AoE-nuking waves until all the waves cease. If you are running low on anything, there will be random HP/MP/TP refills as you slay Yagudo -- use them!















At some point, a Yagudo NM will appear, and the waves will cease. You will need to take out the NM along with any surviving Yagudo to clear this fight, so try to get rid of the weaklings first. The NM itself is a WHM (who does not use "Benediction") and can be kited around easily given his tendency to cast spells. Use "Manafont" to make this fight easier; five tier IV nukes should put him out of commission. If your 2hr is not up, kite the NM around while applying enfeebles, and hope for the best.

Reward(s): Mihgo Mithkabob


9) Other Random Goodies










And finally, a mixed bunch of goodies that I could not really categorize as quests. Perhaps I should consider being a pirate in my next post.

The Kafia, Part 1

Those of you who know me personally might have heard of something called "the Kafia," a crime ring composed of deceitful crabs with me calling the shots. Today, the Kafia went down its hit list and Bugbear Strongman was up first. Despite attempting to negotiate on peaceful terms, this guy decided to put up a fight. Unfortunately, he fled before we could get our goods, and Snippy got lost in the tunnels pursuing him.





We stopped at a local Moblin to ask if he had seen the fleeing bastard, but he gave us the gibberish above. After stopping to decipher the riddle, we realized that the vowels were missing:

Nosy people. Get out of here! I busy now!

Unfortunately for him, Snippy was in a bad mood, and we promptly broke some knee caps, leaving him to think twice about giving us cryptic riddles.





















Next on the list was a Goblin who owed us some money after we lent her a certain Great Axe. Like most women, she (Goblin names with the -ox suffix are female; -ix for male) did not show up for her date, so we spent the next two hours tracking her down. She tried to put up a fight, but Snippy distracted her while I clubbed her from behind. Unfortunately, she was not carrying the Great Axe we were looking for, but we got some money from her nonetheless. We left shortly after, leaving her a note saying she had a few days to cough the axe up.




















After that, we were going after one of our own. A former Kafia member named Aquarius had gone AWOL and even joined a rival gang. Snippy knew the rogue's turf well, so we called for some reinforcements to put him out of his misery. After a brief brawl with many casualties on our side, we crushed the rebel and left him for dead. Remember kids, no one escapes the Kafia!















Stories aside, Kearick needed help leveling his Greatsword skill, so he invited us to yet another meripo. While I was there, I got to parse myself against an Adaberk WAR, but unfortunately, the numbers were against me because I had to pull monsters for the party. I will need to work on obtaining a more favorable parse against heavy DDs soon; I cannot have anything staining the Kafia's reputation.
















Here is the incriminating evidence -- hide it well!















*EDIT* I found a picture of Snippy leaping to attack her foe from the meripo above. Yep, she is one crazy Crab alright. 



Notes:
a) "AWOL" is a military term for "Absence Without Official Leave." It refers to an enlisted soldier being absent from his or her post but not necessarily with the intention of desertion.

New to BLU

Alternative title: The Beast Within
So before I return to endgame or move servers, I have decided to tackle some outstanding goals that I did not manage to finish while in Ischemia. In a nutshell, those goals are:

a) Finishing the final CoP/ZM quests (I am stuck on Shadows of the Departed).
b) Leveling MNK to 40 to finish the quest "Return to the Depths."
c) Leveling SMN to 20 to solo some Albatross Rings.
d) Leveling BLU to 50 to solo the Promyvion maps.
e) Leveling WW to 100; finishing the Ebisu Fishing Rod quest.

In other words, there is a whole lot of leveling to do. I have got a two-part plan where I hope to kill several birds with one stone. The first part involves leveling BLU to 30 in order to climb the Promyvion towers solo and to finish the "Shadows of the Departed" quest; I will also be able to farm most of the Promyvion maps while I am at it. The second part involves taking BLU to 50, as a substitute for leveling MNK, and attempting to clear the "Return to the Depths" quest as a BLU.

As such, I have started leveling BLU about a week ago, and so far, it is fantastic. Despite a slow leveling rate at first, things changed quickly once I learned my first spell, and I decided to grab an offensive spell first because I wanted to slay monsters more quickly.






"Foot Kick" took me five tries before I finally managed to learn it. Given that the factors for learning Blue Magic are:

a) Blue Magic skill.
b) Defeating your foe with Blue Magic.
c) CHR.
d) Partying with a BLU that already has the desired spell.
e) BLU AF gloves.

... your first BLU spell will likely be the most difficult to get.















I highly recommend leveling BLU as a subjob and secondary job. As a BST, I am familiar with the monster correlations used in Blue Magic, and the ability to select desired spells is a definite plus -- something I cannot do with my jug/charmed pets. I stopped leveling BLU at level 10 for now, but I did quite well for a day's worth of leveling judging by the picture above. I have high expectations for this job in the future; however, it is time to collect some gil for Secret mule.



Notes:
a) "WW" stands for "Woodworking," one of the eight major crafts in FFXI.

After the Storm

After Clavical's traitorous actions, Ischemia fell apart almost immediately the next day. There are several reasons for the collapse: many players resented Clavical's prioritization of drops based on seniority rather than job priority, and nobody could be trusted to take his place. That is not to say our LS is guilt-free itself; Clavical probably left the LS after certain members harassed him to be next in line for particular drops.

This entire ordeal has left me with a great deal of scorn for endgame LSs, especially those on Diabolos. Although I have not experienced every LS here firsthand, greed and power have corrupted many a LS member time and time again. And so, I would like to ask my readers, as a fellow BST, for an endgame LS on another server. I feel that I need to be among other passionate BSTs to enjoy myself in FFXI. Ideally, I am searching for a LS that tackles:

• Ground Kings
• Dynamis - Northlands and CoP areas
• Sea Jailers
• Sky Gods

Information on LSs to avoid is equally welcomed. Just leave a comment below and possibly an email if you are interested in helping me relocate; I might be on your server soon enough!

The Fall of Ischemia

Today, I was shocked when a LS member directed me to the image below. Our LS leader, Clavical, had bought over 10.7M in gear with one of his mules, Millywonka. The numbers are far beyond what I expected he could afford, especially when he mentioned that he did not want to spend more than 500k for a Thalassocrat. At this point, I believe Clavical has taken our entire LS bank, worth approximately 10M last month, and spent it for himself.












If you check Clavical's FFXIAH page, the sales and profile areas are now blank where it was once heavily detailed about the fifth highest-ranking achiever on Diabolos. Our LS website has also been deleted; the URL now redirects to the ProBoards.com homepage.



















Fearing the worst, I decided to check if Clavical was still on Diabolos and immediately logged into the Linkshell Community website to confirm that he was still on our server yesterday. Since I did not want to jump to conclusions for a one-day disappearance act, I decided to wait until Saturday to see whether he would show up for an explanation.













Unfortunately, an answer never came. As you can see from the picture above, Clavical no longer bears the LS Pearlsack, and to my knowledge, this means he:

a) no longer has a Content ID and thus unsubscribed from FFXI.
b) removed himself from the LS Community Page manually.
c) is no longer on Diabolos.

I wanted to believe that there was the chance someone had hacked Clavical's account; however, the loss of our LS website, the purchase of items well beyond his finances, and his silence in the matter have proven otherwise. Although Clavical had a bad day leading Thursday's Sky event, I feel that his current actions are inexcusable and downright selfish. Given the image above and the items he has purchased, there is a good chance he has joined another server to use them at his leisure, so I hope this post helps other LSs identify the traitor should he come to your server.

Thank you for reading.

Clavical is a large Elvaan male of hairstyle 6B (the same as my own) and was last seen under Windurstian allegiance. He claims to have been a DRK at heart but also had interests in DRG.

Ischemia XXI

I have done it! Thanks to Ischemia's relentless raids into the Dragon's Aery, I have finally earned my own Ridill! So fantasies aside, Ischemia had its fourth round of Sky gods, and we had a pretty good haul overall -- most notably a pair of Zenith Mitts and another Byakko's Haidate. I ended up getting a Seiryu's Sword because no one else lotted it, so here I am posing with my fake Ridill, proudly following in Decu's footsteps.

Genbu













Seiryu








Suzaku








Byakko