A Mannequin?!

Things finally calmed down today and I was able to get out and adventure. I decided to stop off and chat with Naja Salaheem first thing. First she insulted my singing. Then when Imperial guards arrived she tried to pass me off as a mannequin...

Finally she assigned me to investigate a ghost ship. Fun stuff...

Sprite quickly roped me into doing another Assault mission. That went well and thankfully I didn't get woozy this time around... I've built up a pretty nice supply of Assault points for that area.

After our Assault Fretion and I went back to the Chasm to duo for a short while. I was really, really tired. All the events of the past few days have caught up with me. So we didn't exp for very long before I set up camp in the tunnel. Fret ran back to town to take care of some business. But I'm going off for some sweet sleep ;)

Withdrawl ><

Having some FFXI withdrawl since I am unable to camp right now. Been thinking back over stories friends have told me of their own adventures in Vana'diel and this one came to mind. Enjoy and pray the world will stop shaking and we can adventure again soon! (worksafe video, music is excellent!)

In a Dreamworld

The past few days seem so blurry. So much is going on. I have really rocketed through levels and events in the past couple of weeks and it has been a whirlwind for me. That pull towards 75 is starting to kick in too. There is so much I want to do and I know that a lot of it is possible with beastmaster.

At some point in the last couple of days I fought Diabolos again for about the 53rd time. I went this time to help Fret and Fireice. It took us two tries and some very annoying and testy party members. But at the end I had my second victory over Diabolos (notice the huge range between fights and victories...............)

I think being in his Dreamworld muddles the mind... Speaking of Dreamworld, I went to Dynamis Bubu last night with ChaoticDiamond and that was a lot of fun. I got GREAT skillups on my great sword – it's getting so close to trial weapon and I am so eager. But I left Dynamis early (the first time I have ever done that) because Fretion was farming Starmites in the Canal and I was really wanting to do that as well.

We got two starmite shells for Fret and one for me before setting up camp for the night. Somewhat of an icky place to camp. That makes me sad, since it's the Star Tree roots and it should be beautiful. The architecture of the canal is magnificent. But now with the infection of the tree and the infestation of the canals it's not an easy place to sleep :(

I woke up to find that Fretion and Liabelle, his adventuring fellow, had taken off to go investigate the Empty. Kolui and I had done that recently so I set to work on Starmites again. When Fret and Liabelle finished he headed back to me. I got one shell before he arrived and another soon after. It was pleasing to finish that line of quests.

After we finished Sprite asked over the linkshell if anyone wanted to do an Assault mission. We thought that sounded like a good idea. I'd love to get my next rank up and every little bit helps! We went to Ilrusi Atoll Staging Point and staged for the Golden Salvage. We finished the mission victoriously, despite my getting knocked out (ugh).

After finished that we went to camp my old friend Bloodthirster Madkix. I've never had the pleasure of *seeing* him, but I've sure camped him a lot. He drops the Acha d’Armas, an axe I've had my eye on since warrior came up through these levels.

I found a hidden tunnel down to the second map of Kuftal. I knew about this map but had forgotten it. The second level wraps around to both sides of the upper level. As we came around the other side I got a tell from a person needing help to clear an area so his dead party members could safely raise.

After some initial crowd control trouble and a mischarm which caused Fret a death :( we got the party up. They were most impressed and greatful, and it made me happy to be a beastmaster. Fret died again on the way back to Madkix's spawn which was quite frustrating ; ; (blood aggro.) We finally got back and camped for awhile without seeing him. The raptors down there are very hard to use as pets because they're really resistant to charm. It was a messy camp to say the least. I'd still like to try again.

While down there Sprite sent Fret another telling wanting to know if we'd like to do a BCNM40 so off we went again. Our runs were ok, but not great. No Peacock Charm drop ; ; Then we went and did another Assault. I think Ilrusi Atoll has a negative effect on me because I ended up disoriented and blacked out again. But we did win.

After winning I decided to go talk to Naja Salaheem and was pleased to be moved along to the next mission for Aht Urhgan (still need more assaults for my next mercenary rank, however.) I got even more excited to realize that Fret was only a mission or two behind me and we could farm together for the next mission! So I bought a silver coin for him and we headed to the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins to get him through his next mission and caught up to me.

I really love that area and can't wait to explore more of it. It's so intricate. It reminds me of the inside of the clock. And an undersea area with a huge window...WOW!!

We zoned out of the Ruins to see undead and lamia all around. It took a moment and Fret commenting that they were already on the move for me to realize this was the Undead army advancing on Al Zahbi! It was quite eerie to sneak and invis through the army, hoofing it as fast as possible to get to the city.

We took one of the hidden gates into Whitegate, which luckily Fret had showed me just recently. We arrived in time to participate in the Besieged. After a long, hard battle we won. It was a very, very long day and Besieged on top of everything wore me out. We made it to the moghouses and I headed for my mog. Luckily I am in a rental mog and actually have a bed to sleep in, hehehehe.

Duo Again...and Mimics, Yuck...

Fretion and I were pretty close to level 67 tonight so we decided to try out a new duo camp. We found listing of a high level camp in the Chasm so we headed there.

I started off towards the lower level camping thinking it would be near there. Of course I was wrong. We ended up tracking all the way west and north until we finally arrived at camp. It's at F-6 on the map and close to Boneyard Gully.

Our pets were flies and lizards. Prey was antlions. At first we did not think they link but they do. They're just not very smart and don't link often. They do respawn very fast. We worked mainly with 3 of them and were able to get pretty consistent chain 4's.

The exp is not as high as the camps over in the Empire. But it worked well. It was nice to be duo'ing again after solo work and parties. I hit 67 a bit before Fretion - a surprise to me. I suppose he didn't get too far ahead of me in the night I took off =P

Speaking of Fret, he's also got an account of this in his journal. However, he neglects to mention the most amusing part of the night.

I had just grabbed a fly for a pet when I see Fretion say "Help me out Tracker Antlion!" O.O >.> <.< o.O Our prey! All of a sudden I see Fret running towards me as fast as possible with a very angry antlion on his tail. I sent my pet in after it but I couldn't stop laughing! I'm pretty sure I was rolling on the ground in the Chasm laughing at one point. Humor you can only have as a BST ;) Fret made my night! Heeehee.

We got a bit of a buffer and then headed back into Pso'xja to find a chest so that I could get a map. We spent so much time in the zone I think I'm really tired of it now @.@ We ran around fighting mimic chests and avoiding them. Somebody said the real chest won't be in the center of a room so we were kind of avoiding those.

We found an elevator and I decided to cast sneak on the elevator...after it started going down...bad idea. Four gargoyles came to join our party! It was not pretty for me. I ended up KO'd in front of a shattered avatar gate. Fretion and a diremite pet made a most impressive display of killing two of the gargoyles. Then Fret raised me.

We drove on, and after a long while decided we might have to actually kill mimics to get the real chest to pop. So we went around doing that. We killed one on a balcony and saw one below us (in the middle of the room.) I decided to take a rest before killing that one. Fret dropped down after a few minutes and said "this one isn't hitting me." So finally I dropped down and it was a real chest. D'oh. Map obtained.

Thinking of Sea

I headed out early today to Pso'xja. Last night I took the night off from adventuring and I figured Fretion had gotten ahead of me. So down into the towers I went.

I had a good time down there. Fretion doesn't much like the camp but I do. I just use Tough bats for pets and I haven't had trouble holding them at all. It's quiet down there. I haven't seen another soul. Sometimes I like to solo, it's a good time to think.

I was quite chatty today though. The linkshell had a few people on it. I really would like to get a Relaxing Earring, so Kamii and I were discussing farming the items for that quest. Of course I'd like to farm it as beastmaster but I'm not sure that's viable yet. Kamii thinks her summons could share hate (and probably command hate) off of my warrior so that might work. It looks to be a lot of farming, though, the drop rates seem low.

I wish Fretion was able to go to Sea with us to farm for it. But that silly elvaan doesn't even use a dark staff when he meds so maybe he wouldn't want a Relaxing earring either ;) I want anything to help me med mp faster though - that's my main source of downtime.

Party Anyone?

I was supposed to go to Dynamis-Bubu tonight with TD. When I arrived at the Mhaura gate, however, I realized that probably wasn't happening - there were three other people there and a total of 4 people on the linkshell. It was decided pretty quickly to cancel tonight. /sighs

While I was waiting at the gate, however, Elquade sent me a tell and asked if I wanted to exp in a party with him again. I of course said yes, it's been a lot of fun to party as beastmaster. I really do like soloing because it suits me very well, but it's nice to take a break and be in a party. I was quite happy to find that LQ had already asked Fretion as well. I like to keep up with duo partners ;)

We went to a camp in Mount Zhayolm again tonight. Last night we camped at L-8 of the map, but tonight there was a party there so we went across to K-8. We camped crawlers there - it's so interesting to fight crawlers that are fire based. I'm really glad Fretion pulls because I'm not a huge pulling fan. I had to do it a lot as warrior. I do think it's more fun as beastmaster though, because pulling pets are very fast and it's neat to see them out-run their prey!

We had a paladin tank for this party and that was a lot of fun. It's good to see a party go fast and steady with a party. They have a reputation of being slow now, compared to ninja. I felt like we went very fast. The only thing annoying about the paladin was he kept interrupting the skillchain. I don't think he was paying attention to our TP calls. But we did really well in the party and exp clipped along at a good pace.

Happiness

Checked out the Pso'Xja camp today - pretty good. It was easy to get to. There are two camps and I took the one on the right hand (east) side. The camp is in the Pso'Xja tower just under the Xarcabard zone. You enter the tower then pick left or right. Sneak and invis up then drop down the hole into the camp area. There are a couple of rooms without mobs - base there. Be careful about the holes in the rooms though! Don't cast too near them in case a bomb is near.

The east camp consists of a whole lot of diremites and bats, plus two lizards. The bats are the main pet. The have mostly been popping as Toughs. At first I tried to keep converting them. By the end of my camping session I had begun to use even the Tough bats as pets and I didn't have trouble holding them at all. They did much better against the diremites than the Even Match bats did.

Fret came down and went to the camp on the other side. That side contains magic pots and thousand-eyes (along with bats). It sounded like that was a bit of a tough camp as well.

Fret still needed his gaudy harness and we got to talking about it. I finally convinced him that we should try to go get it ;) We headed out of Pso'xja to gear up for the quest (excitement!)

I took a little trip to Sea to enjoy the peacefulness of it while I waited on Fret to get to the safehold. I saw Kamii farming there so I stood with her for a little while. I do really like the Sea area :)

When Fret was prepped we headed down into the Aquaducts. I remembered the way there from getting my own Gaudy and we made it pretty quickly. Lucky Fretion charmed the slime on the first try! He 2-houred right away. We had to wait on the tarus mobs for several minutes before we could make it to camp.

Our friend the beastmaster fomor was up, along with his bat pet and two hell bats. I tried to make a sacrificial pull with Courier Carrie but that did not work at all. We got the beastmaster, pet, and one of the hell bats. I just went ahead and died right there XD

Luckily Fret's slime pet was one tough critter and was able to tank all of that. I got back up and sent a Courier Carrie into the fight while I rested for a minute. Then I just decided to go ahead and get back into the melee ;)

We killed off the beastmaster and WOOT! Drop! First try! Fret said it was because I died for it hehe. But maybe it was just luck ;) It was worth the death to get Fret his gaudy, it's such a good piece of gear. And he's a good player and deserves it.

Later on we were hoping to exp - or xpizzle, as LQ calls it - with the party again but never got anyone together. So Fretion and I went down to Kuftal to farm the last things we needed for the Star Onion Brigade quests. It was very nice to finish those up. The quest ending is excellent. I'm hoping we can finish up the blue ribbon storyline soon as well. Today was a huge day, and a very good day. I'm happy :)

XPizzlin!

More party work tonight. Again a lot of fun. The ninja we had tonight wasn't very good so Fretion and I ended up doing a skillchain together instead of relying on the NIN. It was a bit funny to see how we, two beastmasters, kept taking hate off the NIN. It was not funny to see poor LQ take hate from it (as blm), however...

We did get our BSTs to level 66 (wow, 62-66 in one week!!)

Before the party Fretion and I went down into Pso'xja to help a linkshell mate get a chip she needed. That was fun. Very interesting and now I'm even more curious about Pso'xja. I know there are some possible experience camps and I want to scout them out.

Chipmunk also helped us and after we got the chip for Klik and one for Fireice we went to do an escort quest. Chip, Fretion, and I did that and we went to Crawler's Nest. It's much more fun to do that escort as beastmaster than it is as warrior. It's pretty easy too! Fret and I just charmed everything ;) Escorts are a lovely way to get experience points.

Doing the escort also reminded me I had an exp scroll from Dynamis I'd saved until beastmaster got to 65. So I used that and got a few hundred extra experience points. Not too bad!

EXP Fast!

This past week I have been on a beastmaster rush! The mire camp is so good and the experience flows so fast. I have just been fighting hard. There is virtually no down time and it's wonderful.

The camp has enough room for two beastmasters though it's not good for duo'ing. So Fretion came out in we just leveled near each other. Nice to have someone to talk to!

When I say the experience is fast...I mean it's fast. I got to level 63...and level 64... Only then did it begin to slow down. Fast, furious, and a lot of fun.

I also decided to try out a camp in Upper Delkfutt's tower. That was a rough camp. Fretion came out and we duo'd some. Then we called our adventuring fellows out with us and that was fun. A little less experience but it was fun. Kolui hit level 46. I feel bad that he's so low level. I need to take him out to get some experience at some point.

Tonight a buddy in BoB started a party our level and needed two damage dealers. So off Fretion and I went as BST/NIN lol! It was really a lot of fun. I love playing beastmaster really any which way I can get it. But this was a lot like playing warrior and that was enjoyable for me. I liked being part of a skillchain again and I was really pleased to see that my rampages are consistent and pretty high =D Our party did really well and we go a lot of experience. It feels good to be level 65 ^.^ only 10 more levels to go.

I haven't been able to play beastmaster as much lately but I really enjoy it when I can. I like duo'ing with Fretion and I'd like to get to level 75 with him. I know after 70 some of the sweetest camps are duo and trio camps. I hope I can keep up until then...