GUPS 003

Since I have been falling behind in my studies, I will be operating at a minimum output level until I catch up. Although I feel that building a Guttler is still my ultimate goal in FFXI, I have neither the time nor stamina to be building at the pace of other BSTs; I am hoping to make a larger push during the summer.

Other Stuff








Originally, I wanted to expedite my mules' Fishing skill-up rates, but after lengthy skill-up sessions, the effort proved futile due to how random skill-ups can get. Although I have decided to leave my mules in Nashmau to continue Fishing Istiridyes, I could truly use some Pelican Rings to help my skill-up rates in the long run. On an interesting note, additional skill-ups under the Enchantment: Fishing effect seem to stack with natural ones, as shown when I caught the Dil below:



Do you remember that Fish Ranking contest I told you about two GUPS ago? Well it is that time of the month again, and this month's request is:






Now these fish are not easy catches for my skill level. Given that the winning requirements happened to be the Emperor Fish of the heaviest weight, I have decided to start Fishing early. For the most part, Trout Balls and Peeled Crayfish seem to provide similar bite rates; however, I would advise against Fishing them in Jugner Forest because you can catch other fish there.

Guttler Updates














It has been about a month since there were any Tabars on the AH, so I decided to camp the Trickster Kinetix NM and got the Axe on my first try. Unfortunately, my LS KS99 run got canceled today due to a lack of healers, so I have not been able to afford my second Montiont Silverpiece.

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
[1/14] Montiont Silverpieces

Gil towards next 100-unit currency (subject to change):
[364,000/~900,000] Montiont Silverpiece
Status: 40.4% Complete


Crafting Status

Khaki
[70/100] Fishing Skill (+3)
[5/100] Woodworking Skill

Fishmule #1

[11/50] Fishing Skill
[4/100] Cooking Skill (+4)

Fishmule #2

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

Name Changes

In an effort to look slightly more professional, I have decided to go through all my posts and attempt to capitalize letters correctly. However, since I am not an English major and since I have difficulties understanding grammatical rules, it is up to you -- the reader -- to throw large, stone-like objects or to leave comments (preferably in this post) whenever you notice anything incorrect.

The following posts have had their titles altered:

KSNM30 Runs -----------------------------> KS30 Runs
And They Crowned Him King ------------> Coronation Day
Re-enter the Abyss ------------------------> Return to DRK
Guest Post #1: Kyli ------------------------> Guest Post: Kyli #1
Another word regarding my Blog --------> Khaki Recommends Firefox
Reflections III ------------------------------> More About Liabelle
Call it "Campaign" -------------------------> Campaign Calls
Exit the Abyss ------------------------------> Dark Subordinate
Decisions, Decisions... --------------------> Tough Decisions
And the results are in... -------------------> The Haidate Field Test
"A" is for Antican --------------------------> 'A' is for Antican
How to Play "Tag" with Snippy ----------> Snippy Tag
I'm a maniac, maniac, yes I know--------> He's a Maniac, Maniac on the Floor
Countdown ---------------------------------> A Small Break
Aymur-Nyzul Axe--------------------------> Aymur 

Where "------->" represents a crude 2D arrow.
Updated September 2010. 

Return to Stellar Fulcrum

Warning! The following post contains spoilers from ZM5 through 12.














So just how far can one PLD (Kearick), RDM (Masani) and BST (me) progress through the Zilart storyline? You are about to find out because Kearick just so happened to request help gaining Sky access, and I was eager to assist. With "Snarl," Snippy literally managed to tank over half our major battles while the rest was left to our trusty PLD.

For the most part, a BST should be able to solo all the fragment NMs for ZM5, with the exception of the NM pictured above unless your BST happens to be insanely skilled. For all other NMs, I would advise popping with "Sneak" and/or zoning the NMs to duel them on equal grounds; the Cape Terrigan NM can be defeated using local pets if preferred.















You will need someone on kite or "Sleep" duty for the ZM6 fight (above). We went with the latter and decided to kill the BLM first, the PLD second, and the RNG last. Ultimately, this battle felt analogous to fighting three VT mobs with copious amounts of HP, but if you can keep hate under control, they are not too bad. Shadows are advised for the RNG mob unless you are a PLD with high Defense; "Eagle Eye Shot" can really hurt.















Ah yes, the "younger" of the Zilart princes. I must say, "Paralyze II," "Dia II," and "Slow" made real short work of this boss. On average, I managed to pull off 680 damage "Rampages," and occasionally, I got to see a 900 damage "Rampage" when some Critical Hits kicked in. We managed to clear the fight in eight minutes; not too shabby for a three-man effort. A special thanks goes out to Snippy for sacrificing herself twice in this battle.















Last but not least, the Magic Pot NM of death: Ancient Vessel. I have tried soloing this NM before as a level 72 BST but failed quite miserably on multiple occasions. I would not recommend trying to solo this NM without "Beast Affinity" merits and a lot of pet food -- Ancient Vessel can hit CC for ridiculous amounts of damage. Although there are some local pets near Ancient Vessel, they are not very reliable because they are unlikely to survive a mere three hits from this NM.

Overall, I am quite impressed with my gear improvements and what they have allowed me to do compared to when I first cleared these missions almost two years ago on my first character and a year ago on Khaki.



Notes:
a) The duke of Jeuno, Kam'lanaut, has an older brother who resembles a child. Unfortunately, his brother, while childish and playful, is pretty manipulative and deadly later on.
b) Bring about a dozen Courier Carries and Pet Food Zeta biscuits if you wish to attempt soloing the Ancient Vessel NM. You will probably need the same number for the Doomed Pilgrims NM, but only two or three biscuits for the Evil Weapon or Opo-opo NMs. Slightly more might be needed for the Shadow NM.
c) We did not attempt ZM4 as a group, but I think we could have done it in a similar manner as ZM6.

Ischemia XVIII

What is big, purple, and ugly all over? That is right, it is a Behemoth! However, Ischemia has not moved into the HNM scene just yet; the one pictured above is actually Chlevnik from the KS99 "Horns of War." We managed to do eight runs on Monday, and overall, the runs were smooth with the exception of our last run. For our final run, there was a lot of deaths and struggles to pull off a win -- we only had six seconds to spare! Below are the KS99 drops that we obtained; see if you can guess which one is mine.
































































If you said, "[s]illy BST, gil is for real jobs"; you are correct! Actually, we did not have enough time to finish all sixteen orbs in the queue, so I am hoping for some luck and success on round two next Monday.

Snippy Tag

Other than select Limbus runs, Sky might be the only endgame area where I get to utilize my BST. After spending two hours with my LS hunting Diorites (we only managed to get one in three hours), I decided to challenge Snippy to a game of tag. If you happen to be interested in running your own game of Snippy tag, the following describes how you can do just that.

First, find a medium to large-sized object that you can run laps around without Snippy cutting you off. This means finding something with a decent radius or cross-sectional width.















Snippy will attempt to catch up, but your goal is to keep running around the perimeter of the object in vigilance. If the object is large enough, she will always be behind you so long as you can keep up the pace. If she starts running in the opposite direction, you have a medium sized object, and you will need to reverse direction to avoid being caught.















If you have gear that increases your movement speed, take into consideration that you will be moving faster than Snippy. Once you have played several rounds of Snippy tag, you can apply the same idea to monsters in the wilderness if you ever need to stall them for time. Some monsters, like Tigers, have naturally enhanced movement speed, so you will not be able to outpace them easily. Do not even think about playing Snippy tag with a monster that has "Draw In"; you will lose every time.















Snippy always wins unless I can outlast her for 30 minutes, which is almost never, so here I am giving up for the day. I usually reward her with a picnic basket full of fish if she wins, but unfortunately, she gets offended if I do not eat the fish alongside her. I suppose it takes a while to get used the raw fish, but after a dozen or so, it is not so bad.



Notes:
a) "Draw In" is a unique ability used by NMs that can teleport anyone with enmity directly on top of said NM. This makes running away from the NM pointless.