GUPS 002

Regarding my Guttler plan, I have been hitting roadblocks left and right, mostly from smaller reasons compounding into larger ones. With two Limbus runs per week, tug o' war battles to keep my exp buffers high, my weekly cost of expendables, and my university studies, I have been yearning for a new gil source that can cope with my increased expenditures and shrinking play time.

As such, I have decided to let Khaki remain as my primary fisherman and to restrict my Fishing mules to Fishing only during bad Moon phases or when I am under heavy Fishing Fatigue. I have also moved my mules to lower-level areas where Fishing skill-ups seem frequent, and I have bought two Halcyon Rods for their immediate use in reeling in Cheval Salmon.

Other Stuff














Guttler Updates

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

I have acquired:
[1/1] Leonine Axe
[0/1] Tabar
[1/1] Darksteel Tabar
[1/1] Tabarzin
[1/14] Montiont Silverpieces

Gil towards next 100-unit currency (subject to change):
[215,000/~900,000] Montiont Silverpiece
Status: 23.9% Complete


Crafting Status

Khaki
[67/100] Fishing Skill (+5)
[5/100] Woodworking Skill

Fishmule #1

[11/50] Fishing Skill
[0/100] Cooking Skill

Fishmule #2

[11/50] Fishing Skill (+1)
[15/100] Smithing Skill

'A' is for Antican

But 'B' is for Brutal Earring. Boy, do I love alphabet mnemonics! Now some of you might have noticed that I have been withholding the number of ABCs in my Mog Locker lately, so after dipping into my Guttler fund for five more ABCs this Tuesday, I finally obtained this Sea-related reward.

I am now one step closer to finishing my BST TP set, and at first glance, this new earring looks very impressive. However, after taking a trip to Purgonorgo Isle to test the new earring and create a new site banner, I noticed that the earring did not activate very frequently at all. Moreover, I was lucky to see "Double Attack" activate once in twenty rounds of Axe swings on my BST/NIN. Overall, this earring can be thought of as a small amount of "Haste," and with luck, I might be able to achieve an eight-hit "Rampage" if I am really lucky. I will probably need a Temperance Axe to bring out my Brutal Earring's true potential.















Snippy, Liabelle, and I posing for the new banner.

Unfortunately, my first snapshot (not shown) for the new site banner was invalid because Snippy and Liabelle were sitting on the wrong sides. Since I did not want to confuse any new readers with some of my older posts, I ended up using the picture above for my new site banner.



Notes:
a) The Antica are a race of ant-like, humanoid bipeds that have high Defense and special moves that can cause anyone a headache. If you are wondering why I chose Antican for the letter 'A,' it is because the word got stuck in my head after my brother chimed...

"Welcome folks; today's word of the day is ANTican!"

... out of the blue.

GUPS 001

Due to time restrictions and a lack of creativity, I have decided to amalgamate my Guttler, skill-up, quest, mission, and non-BST related updates together to create a new series of posts called "GUPS" (Guttler Updates and Other Stuff). So what is new, Khaki?

Other Stuff














After breaking the latent effects on my trial weapons, Fishing long periods for Devil Mantas, and dealing with some real life matters, I finally got around to earning my next Campaign Medal. It seems that the more you slack off towards earning your next medal, the more exp you will require to earn it in the end-- so get your evaluations done early! Frankly, I am still trying to use my BLM in Campaign effectively, but unfortunately, magic users do not seem to get much compensation for their efforts.

In regards to the new Allied Notes (A.N.) rewards, nothing seems to catch my eye at this time, so I will be stockpiling on A.N. for the next little while. In addition, I have decided to align myself with San d'Oria [S] because their rewards seem to be the most melee-oriented. If you ever decide to switch nations, you will need to surrender your two highest medals and some A.N. to make the switch.















So here I am investing in BLM merits in order to better serve my LS and standardize myself relative to other endgame BLMs. Essentially, I feel BLM is my weakest job, so merits are a good way to improve it without spending a lot of gil. So far, there has been a small but notable difference with my new BLM merits; I feel that I am finally starting to land spells accurately on various Sky gods. Hopefully, the merits will have a larger impact once I get them all, but if they do not, I will purchase some Elemental Skill items to further the cause.



I also managed to get Kearick (PLD) and Masani (RDM) to assist me with the Great Axe WSNM, Greenman (Treant), last weekend. Sani was running low on MP towards the end, but "Snarl" allowed both Kear and Sani to recover while Snippy took over tanking. Overall, it was done fairly well for a three-man fight. Hopefully, I will be finishing my BLM merits soon; I really want eleven more merit points to create a Rune Chopper build for my DRK (more on this later).

Guttler Updates















The results of two days worth of Fishing abuse with a Pelican Ring. I am still waiting for the Fish Ranking contest to reopen, and hopefully, I will earn more Pelican Rings for both of my Fishing mules. I have also bought my first Montiont Silverpiece thanks to an Angel Skin I sold a while back!








(I will be copying and pasting the lines below as a template for future GUPS posts)

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

I have acquired:
[1/1] Leonine Axe
[0/1] Tabar
[1/1] Darksteel Tabar
[1/1] Tabarzin
[1/14] Montiont Silverpieces

Gil towards next 100-unit currency (subject to change):
[182,000/~900,000] Montiont Silverpiece
Status: 20.2% Complete


Crafting Status

Khaki
[62/100] Fishing Skill
[5/100] Woodworking Skill

Fishmule #1

[11/50] Fishing Skill
[0/100] Cooking Skill

Fishmule #2

[10/50] Fishing Skill
[15/100] Smithing Skill



Notes:
a) Allied Notes (A.N.) are credits that can be used to purchase various rewards. You can earn A.N. by partaking in Campaign Operations and/or Campaign Battles.

Ischemia XVII

So my life continues to be busy. Although I am still trapped on my BLM, here is what my LS has been up to lately. Above, Ischemia takes on its first Sea god: Jailer of Faith. Unfortunately, I was very sleepy during the run, so I do not have pictures of Faith's drops or the subsequent Jailer of Fortitude and Faith fights we attempted a few weeks later. No torques from any of these Sea gods, however.








Yup, I finally managed to land the deathblow on Kirin by using "Elemental Seal" and "Tornado" when he was around 2% HP. As one can tell, we have been seeing Kirin's Osodes drop like no tomorrow, and we still have a 100% drop rate on them. This puts us at 5/5 on Kirin's Osodes, and 2/5 on Kirin's Poles.








Oops, I spoke too soon. Make that 6/6 on Kirin's Osodes, and 3/5 on Dryadic Abjuration: Bodies.








Oh no, we just went 7/7! Kirin sure loves to take his shirt off for us, and although we throw him out in the cold afterward, we still love the belongings he leaves behind.

Slow Motion

I would like to make a fair warning to all my readers (if I still have any): future blog updates will likely be slow and less BST-related because I will be spending more of my time collecting Guttler funds. In addition, I feel that I have run out of BST-related activities to attempt, and I am sure my upcoming midterms will have me hard-pressed on time very soon. So I will be juggling FFXI and real-life matters delicately; we will see what happens. 

Back to FFXI matters, I will need to start leveling my mules a bit before I can start funding a Guttler. As mentioned previously, my Fishing mules cannot pull up Mercanbaligis or Ahtapots at this time, so I will be catching Istiridyes until they reach level 50 Fishing skill (they are around level 10 at this time).

Now you might be asking yourself, is it reasonable to attempt Fishing Istiridyes with a forty-level skill gap? It turns out that my mules can pull the shells up after some trouble; however, Fishing skill-ups have been fairly abundant nonetheless. As such, I will be attempting to get my mules some Pelican Rings in the next few weeks when the Fish Ranking contest reopens. Hopefully, they will not ask for more legendary fish.