GUPS 005

Talacca Cove: the last Fishing hole before one requires legendary fish for skill-ups. It is been a long journey to get this far, but my Fishing expeditions are not over yet. I have been Fishing relentlessly once again, but as I mentioned previously, the gil just is not enough to cover my expenditures. As such, I will be trapped at Talacca until lvl 96 Fishing -- the Fishing skill cap for this area.

Other Stuff























Only fourteen more Fishing levels until level 100!







I managed to rake in enough Guild Points to request my own Fisherman's Apron. The cost? 100,000 Fishing GP. With my new apron in hand, I am turning my sight on the 95,000 GP item that will allow me to start the Ebisu Fishing rod quest: the Serpent Rumors.








Above is a KS30 run that I did last Monday with my LS mates after a canceled LS event. The drops were not very good, but it provided a bit of pocket change towards my next Montiont Silverpiece. I also managed to pick up a pair of Destroyers from another person's orb, so I have just about completed my future MNK's endgame gear for if and when I happen to level it.















I have also been selling Fomor Codices for 50k each when I manage to find them during my weekly Sacrarium trips. The books rarely drop off the Tauri there, and I have even gone weeks without seeing one at all. I suppose if I was less interested in finding a lost cookbook and more interested in exceeding my weekly quota of three Tauri kills, I might have more codices to sell.

Guttler Updates






My second Montiont Silverpiece at last!

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
[2/14] Montiont Silverpieces

Gil towards next 100-unit currency (subject to change):
[87,786/~900,000] Montiont Silverpiece
Status: 9.7% Complete


Crafting Status

Khaki
[86/100] Fishing Skill (+8)
[5/100] Woodworking Skill

Fishmule #1

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

Fishmule #2

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

Secret mule

[23/100] Alchemy Skill (+13)

Adjustments

My feverish desire to complete a Guttler still persists, yet I seem to have overestimated just how much I can make per day via Fishing. Since I would like to now start making money through other crafts, I have decided to fish only during New/Full Moon periods given the poor bite rate during other times.

Now as a BST, I am used to adjusting my strategies when things do not work out, so I will be tweaking my plans and hoping for the better. I have several options that I could explore: they are:

1. Invest gil into Alchemy and raise it to level 100.
2. Level my Fishing mules further to help my main character.
3. Search for a more profitable Fishing hole.
4. Start the Ebisu Fishing Rod quest.

The decision was difficult, but I settled for Option 1 as a short-term solution. As such, I am currently preparing Secret mule to craft once again. I hit a roadblock at level 18 Alchemy because the suggested recipe was Silent Oils, and I did not have enough money to purchase the requisite Slime Oils. However, I was determined to save gil at all costs, so I decided to farm my own Slime Oils (and Beehive Chips) rather than purchasing them from the AH.















For those of you who are not familiar with Alchemy, Silent Oils are a relatively annoying recipe -- requiring two lumps of Beeswax and one vial of Slime Oil per synthesis. To get Beeswax, you will need to synthesize either three Beehive Chips or two Pephredo Hive Chips together; the latter yielding more Beeswax per synthesis. Although I tried to farm Beehive Chips initially, I found myself competing against many others in Giddeus and decided to use the alternative recipe.

The biggest drawback to using Pephredo Hive Chips is that you will need to farm lvl 60 Bees for otherwise uncommon drops. Nonetheless, using my knowledge of previous BST camps, I traveled to the I-8/J-8 camp in the Wajaom Woodlands and sent Red Kissers against Worker and Soldier Pephredos. After several grueling hours on BST/THF, I obtained seven stacks of Pephredo Hive Chips for my mule.















It does not end there however, I still needed Slime Oils to make Silent Oils. Many guides recommend hunting for Slime Oils in the Korroloka Tunnel (where there are around 20 Slimes available), but since everyone knows Korroloka is a good spot, I decided to avoid heavy competition. Instead, I turned to researching alternative sites for Slime Oils, and the next best choice was the Maze of Shakhrami. The Slimes were relatively far apart from one another, and the drop rates were not great...















But after approximately twelve hours of farming, I came up with seven stacks of Slime Oils! For those of you who were paying attention, you probably realized that I needed a 2:1 ratio of Beeswax to Slime Oil, not 1:1. So what happened? To be honest, I was very tired while farming the Slime Oils, and when I counted the ingredients the next morning, I exclaimed, "[s]illy Khaki, tricks are for kids!" I ended up buying the remaining ingredients (the irony) to bring Secret mule close to level 24 Alchemy, but the moral of this story is that one should leave Slime Oil farming to level 75 THFs.



















Here is a map for anyone who wishes to follow in my footsteps. Please note that the Slime NM, Ichorous Ire, is spawned by touching the Fossil Rock at F-8. Other than that, I think the map is relatively self-explanatory, but leave a comment if you have any questions.

Ischemia XX

We are back for round three of those craaaaaaaaaaazy Sky gods. Originally, I was told to go BLM, but I simply refuse to... 

***stops to stare at the gun muzzle that suddenly appeared next to his head***

I mean I would love to show up on BLM for all eternity! So here is last week's list of Sky goodies, none of which happened to be mine. We also did a Dynamis - Windurst at some point.

Genbu
















Suzaku























Dynamis - Windurst














If you guessed that I am writhing in agony above, you are correct! Our LS was in deep trouble after a horde of Yagudo broke through the rearguard of our Dynamis alliance and slaughtered everyone in sight.

So what happened? It turns out that a certain new recruit decided to agro the "Death House," splitting the alliance in two with a wall of Yagudo in between. Several of us attempted to reunite with the other half by running counterclockwise from the "Death House" and through the bridge east of the "House of the Hero"; our only problem was that we had to break through four Yagudo Simulacra and their summons before we could reach the other group.

Unfortunately, the BLM team (included yours truly who was kiting mobs around) failed to take out the Simulacra fast enough, so we were slaughtered trying to hold half a dozen angry Yagudo at bay. This makes three failed attempts since our last success, so I was in need of lots of exp to restore my BLM's exp buffer.

Random Merit Group














And so I end this post with a meripo that I had with one of my friends the day after. Kearick (the PLD to the far right) and I decided it would be fun to watch Snippy play tag with some Greater Colibris, and as you can tell, Snippy tends to get rough with her tagging. But do not fret for the poor birdies; there is always more pink Colibri popping into the area, so Snippy is never short on new playmates.

He's a Maniac, Maniac on the Floor

And he is dancing like he has never danced before! Songs aside, I have decided to try out (read: go and actually unlock) the new WotG jobs. Now under normal circumstances, I would not have bothered to level DNC with so many of my other goals outstanding, but I figured I could kill several birds with one stone. Namely:

a) Secret mule was in need of Beeswax/Honey, and low-level areas have plenty of Bees.
b) I wanted to confirm whether a BLU/DNC could solo his way to the top of any Promyvion spire.
c) I needed a break from Fishing.

The following is my DNC experience from levels 1 to 19:















Levels 1-10: South Gustaberg

The only thing I remember is death and a lot of it; I cannot stress how terrible DNC is prior to level 5. It is like being a THF with lower Dagger Skill, so choosing expensive, low-delay Hand-to-Hand weapons is recommended all the way to level 19. For the most part, I would not touch anything higher than DC because "Drain Samba" was not enough to handle my stronger foes. The picture above is the aftermath of a duel I had with a Young Quadav, ending in mutual defeat.















Levels 10-13: Valkurm Dunes

For the most part, I felt like a leech. "Drain Samba" was only marginally effective because only one person in my PT was being hit at any given time. By this point, I was in deep regret for not buying a pair of knuckles earlier: my Dagger was hitting for zeroes even with Meat Jerky.















Levels: 13-17: Korroloka Tunnel

I got an invite to a JP party, at level 13, where I was told to use hit-and-run tactics on the local Worms. Essentially, I would distance myself from a Worm, use "Provoke" at maximum range, and run far before my foe could retaliate. My comrades would then bash the Worm to death while it was distracted, and I would come back and "Provoke" if the Worm started beating on my comrades. The process would then repeat itself as necessary until the Worm died. Unfortunately, there were still deadly moments because Korroloka Worms can cast low-level Black Magic, and those spells tend to have quick casting times.

For the most part, there were few players who stuck around with our unconventional group, but things changed when our leader invited several JP DNCs and SCHs to join us! Our party ended up becoming a DNC burn with two SCHs to back us up, and we were killing Worms almost indefinitely by the time we hit level 15. Above, we took down three Worms simultaneously without breaking a sweat.















Levels 17-19: Qufim Island

Although I forgot to take pictures for these levels, I would like to mention that it took four Worms attacking us simultaneously before one of us actually died in the Korroloka Tunnel. A party of Dancers is a pretty strong force to reckon with even at low levels, and the same deal happened on Qufim. We engaged Land Worms, Clippers, and Dark Bats as a lvl 17, 18, and then 19 party and slaughtered everything in our path. Although my journey ends here because I only needed a level 15 DNC for a capped Promyvion sub, I look forward to prancing again in the distant future.



Notes:
a) "WotG" stands for "Wings of the Goddess" (the latest FFXI expansion pack), DNC is an acronym for "Dancer," and "JP" is an acronym for "Japanese." If I happen to have any new readers, please visit my Glossary & Acronyms page for any abbreviations that you do not recognize.
b) Apart from the six basic jobs (WAR, THF, MNK, RDM, WHM, and BLM), additional (advanced) jobs are unlocked via quests. These quests vary in difficulty, but all advanced jobs require you to have at least one level 30 basic job.
c) A FFXI leech refers to a relatively useless player, not the blood-sucking organism found in certain bodies of water.

GUPS 004

So I have been leveling Fishing extensively again; however, it seems to be a bad period to fish at the moment. Since half-moon phases seem to be the worst times for Fishing, I am hoping that things will pick up during the next moon phase. Personally, I believe that I have been hitting Fishing fatigue earlier than usual with my latest fish or that the other fishermen in the zone are snagging all my would-be bites.

In other news, I have decided to start a third Crafting mule in hopes of further aiding my Guttler fund. I have also managed to win Pelican Rings for my two other mules thanks to a week's worth of Emperor Fish. Hurray!

Other Stuff



























Guttler Updates

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):
[650,000/~900,000] Montiont Silverpiece
Status: 72.2% Complete


Crafting Status

Khaki
[78/100] Fishing Skill (+8)
[5/100] Woodworking Skill

Fishmule #1

[14/50] Fishing Skill (+3)
[11/100] Cooking Skill (+7)

Fishmule #2

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

Secret mule

[10/100] Alchemy Skill