RAWR

A Mannequin?!

2006-11-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

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 ><

2006-11-13T17:16:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-12T15:49:00.000-05:00

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...

2006-11-10T15:41:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-10T15:38:00.000-05:00

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?

2006-11-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

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

2006-11-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-11-05T15:41:00.000-05:00

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!

2006-11-04T15:38:00.000-05:00

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...

Finally in the Empire

2006-10-31T15:35:00.000-05:00

Today I finally decided to take the long boat ride to Nashmau to check out the camp I've been reading about for quite awhile. The beastmaster reports I've read have been conflicting. Some have said it's a good camp and others have said it is quite bad. But I've been using a lot of my Imperial Standing lately and I was really eager to try BST out in an Aht Urgan controlled area.

I headed out of the west exit in Nashmau. The camp is right at the zoneline (and what's my favorite camp? Right next to a city!). My targets were birds and my pets were saplings.

I got rolling right away. Whoever said it is a bad camp was crazy! It was amazing! Some of the birds are very tough and require a pet swap. But they are easy to fight with the saplings! Some of the saplings popped as T and I charmed them and pulled them to the zoneline to convert them into Even Matches. This is the first time I've really used that strategy and it's quite helpful.

I was able to keep going pretty steadily and the experience I was getting was amazing. I used my empress band and got 492 experience off of one critter. That's amazing! Even after the band wore I was getting well over 200 experience each fight. I will certainly be camping in that area more often.

As a nice side bonus I really like the music in Nashmau :D

A Lot Going On

2006-10-29T15:30:00.000-05:00

So much has happened its hard to remember it all to tell. I took a pretty good break from beastmaster after E.D. quit. BeastofBurden is really my home shell now, though, so that kept me a little motivated.

Had a rough time because the merger being discussed fell through and I was *really* looking forward to it. It was exciting to think of the things we'd be able to do. But it was causing everyone a lot of stress so I'm a bit glad it ended, even though it wasn't the way I wanted it to end.

I've done quite a few ISNMs with BoB and that has been a ton of fun! We do a 60-cap ISNM and I just love it. It's really easy and its fun to be able to do it with a group of beastmasters. Stoketta and Stokes often go and I love being with them. I've known them since I was a young warrior and its fun to see them for events.

I solo'd in the range to help push myself up to level 62. And I found a new duo partner and we've duo'd a few times. We went to the Chasm which was a very hard camp when I went with E.D. but much easier and a good camp higher level. My new partner is Fretion and he is very cool. Nice and level-headed. A good conversationalist too.

I have been spending most of my adventuring time in Dynamis and lying low other than that - Dynamis is a lot of fun but I can only take so much of young adventurers making little jokes at me...I'm sure you catch my drift. It's very nice to be able to quest and exp with somebody who just talks about interesting things and doesn't joke about girls and potty humor all the time! I like exping with Fretion - E.D. didn't talk much though he was a solid little duo partner. Fretion and I can usually find something to talk about and that's nice.

Anyways, duoing in the chasm has been good, even though I've only been able to do it for short amounts of time before something else has called me away.

In other news I finally got my other hickory log and now I just need to find a crafter to make my shield to be ready for our next Gration event!

Solo Again

2006-10-11T15:28:00.000-04:00

I had a sad message waiting for me today - E.D. let me know he's leaving the adventuring world to settle elsewhere :(

I hate it when my friends move on to other things. As I am quite the loner the friends that I do make are very good ones. I of course love my linkshell mates and I do like linkshell chat. It's often fun. And I love events. But really I still stick with a small group of friends.

I've duo'd with quite a few people and E.D. is the only person I've really had a great time duo'ing with, though all of my experiences have been pretty good ones. I'm really sad to see him head off into the unknowns of Vana'diel. He left me two axes which I will treasure :)

I have to admit though, after seeing a lot of friends leave it doesn't sting quite as much as it used to. And it will never sting as much as seeing Olrox leave for the empty… It took a really long time for that pain to go away. Maybe that's why I'm so much more hesitant to make good friends now. It hurts for them to leave. I’m so thankful I have a good linkshell now, and that some of my friends are still adventuring beside me. Kestra, Lunaria, Tre, Laur :) But I will miss E.D. even after the short time I've know him.

Puttering

2006-10-08T22:09:00.000-04:00

I've been lying low a bit on beastmaster. I've been in the mood to play warrior. Having a Rajas ring and a flame ring are a treat :) It's good to play warrior sometimes because I pick merits that will benefit both WAR and BST. One more merit session and I will be able to get another MP merit, which is so helpful as an elvaan beastmaster.

Today I felt like playing beastmaster. It's hard to find a solo camp for level 61 so I decided to go back down to the canal. I had just arrived at the entrance when a friend sent me a tell about doing an escort quest. I agreed as long as we could do a different escort than our usual one (Crawler's Nest). He said ok, so we got a couple of friends and geared up to go into Garlaige for an escort!

It was fun. We lost the first time because our client decided to run into some skeletons without us realizing what was going on. But the second time we won easily. I used a jug pet the first time and realized that's not a good idea. It's much easier to charm the aggressive monsters in the escort client's path.

After completing the escort I went back to the canal but another beastmaster (a ls mate) was down there. I let him be and decided to go explore some in the canal. I finally completed the quests to get the map and I wanted to go see the center of the map.

I made it there in one piece and was very saddened at what I saw - huge roots covered with black rot :( How can I save my beautiful Windurst...

Disheartened I left there and went up to the range. I didn't go to the snoll camp this time, but right to the tunnel at H-11. I used bunnies and battled tigers and the occassional snoll. The experience was good, but I was really just puttering around, a little dejected.

My BST linkshell is about to go through a merger with another big linkshell on Bismarck. I'm excited about the merger but the talk of it, and what to name the shell is stressful. It's gotten a lot of people being a bit harsh and it's not fun. I'll be relieved when it's finally done with.

One more note, I finally cleared Dynamis-Xarcabard on warrior this weekend, so I am completely cleared through the original Dynamis locations :)

Rajas Ring

2006-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

Well after a whirlwind few days I have my Rajas ring! I got it as warrior, so I didn't write a lot in my beastmaster journals. But I am so proud of it. I went as beastmaster to talk to all of my friends from my Promathia Mission adventures. And it was as beastmaster that I first equipped my Rajas ring. I am so proud of it!

I've also been dedicating a lot of time to helping Kolui get his Noble's robe, and today he earned it! We've been running up and down through the river waters of Saruta, killing only water crystal mobs, lol! But it has worked like a charm. My sweet friend Kolui, in his Noble's robe.

I also completed a quest called Chameleon Capers with Kolui. Me, Kolui, and Courier Carrie did an excellent job defeating the Notorious Monster. As a reward, I received the tactics manual to teach Kolui how to be a soothing healer! Nobles robe and soothing healer, what a day!

I spent a long time today in Xarcabard, farming Gigas in the northeastern corner. I was hoping to get two pieces of hickory lumber. BSTofBurden linkshell did a series of Gration fights tonight and I really wanted to go. But I need two pieces of lumber to make my shield (used to pop Gration). It's a very, very hard drop and I only got one. I made about 3k experience though.

While I up there I got a tell from a black mage needing help with his AF1 fight. I went to aid him and realized quickly that I wouldn't be able to. The demons around the area are still easy prey to me and were incredibly tough to him. There was no way I could deal with all of that. Luckily another BST was coming with a WAR friend to fight Dark Spark.

The little BLM and I assisted them in their Dark Spark fight and then they assisted us with the BLM AF1 fight. I had a good time chatting with the other beastmaster and he sent me a tell after we disbanded that if I ever needed help, look him up.

E.D. and I talked tonight and decided that we may wait for duo'ing again until 62. I am having to devote a lot of my attention elsewhere and beastmaster isn't getting moved up so quickly. And I think he wants to go faster than me. So we shall see where that leads.

My beastmaster shell is discussing a merger right now, which I am very excited about and truly hope that it occurs. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a good linkshell name and color though lol! It will be exciting if the merger truly happens!

Finally!

2006-09-29T11:40:00.000-04:00

Today I finally hit level 61! I was so happy :) It took me awhile to grind to it, there has been so much going on all around Vana'diel. But I got there :)

I had a few very tough skeletons and did quite a bit of kiting on three or four of them. It was rough but after them things went smoothly. I'm not sure why I have a harder time on some more than others. Some of the melee skeletons can really hit hard and tear through bats. I try and find an Even Match Bat for them, if I can.

Kolui and I have strengthened our friendship bond enough that I can now pick and lock one piece of his armor. So I've been spending a little time every day working towards new equipment for him. I'd like him to get a Noble's Robe since he's a healer and I know that's the pinacle for the healing class :)

So we've been out in Saruta killing crabs because the Noble's Robe is along the Windy equipment path and we wanted to be in a Windy area battling mobs that dropped Water crystals.

Well, today since I was down in the canal I decided I'd fight pugs, which are Decent Challenge to me. They drop water crystals. So I called Kolui. All went well at first. I just pulled them back to camp like the skellies. Then I killed all the pugs close to camp and decided to move farther in. I went West and found lower level pugs. We killed those.

Then I went back towards camp to see if the pugs had respawned. They had, but instead of pulling them back to camp I decided to fight in the canal. Big mistake. The skeletons on the ledge above couldn't sound aggro me, but they could blood aggro. I took hate from my pet and the pug used Screwdriver on me, dropping me into the yellow. One skeleton aggro'd. I pulled further back into the canal and use Leave on my pet. I wanted the pug I'd been fighting to come to me so that I could make it a pet to fight the skeleton. Well, Kolui kept hitting that pug and took hate off of me. I didn't realize what was going on until Kolui gave his death cry. I escaped with my life, but headed home to Windy, deeply saddened that I'd let Kolui die :(

By the Roots of the Star Tree

2006-09-28T11:36:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to help a friend defeat the Lich for canal access. He and I have been seeing each other a lot, lol! I went as beastmaster this time because my friend is a high level red mage. I sic'd Courier Carrie on him and engaged him myself. He didn't last very long against us, the RDM, and another BRD friend!

Today I was down in the canal more, same drill. I explored a little farther in today, moving around to the east some. I ended up moving down some stairs and into a huge room. It was an awesome site and masterful workmanship. There were many levels of water pouring down. Unfortunatly it was full of crabs and pugils :( A shame to think of what it once must have been like. The Rhinostery is right to fear what lurks around the roots of the Star Tree.

Canal Access

2006-09-27T11:05:00.000-04:00

Last night was a whirlwind night of heading all over the world. Today was quite busy as well.

Last night I went as warrior to help a friend camp for a Jelly Ring. It was a pretty fun time, too. After we finished that went to Eldieme Necropolis and killed the Lich C Magnus over the hume bones. I received a blue ribbon for this and took it to Windy. Turning it in allowed me to progress to the next quest and earn access to Toraimarai Canal from Windy Walls! I peeked into the canal last night but was too tired to camp, so I headed back to my cozy windy mog house and went to sleep!

Today I geared up and headed in. I don't have a map of the area, but luckily camp is very close to the zoneline. Pets are bats which con Decent Challenge and Even match to me at level 60. Prey is skeletons, which con Even Match and Tough. There are two kinds of skeletons, one kind with a scythe and one kind with a club. The scythe-wielders are black mages. The club-wielders are melee.

The camp worked immediatly. I'd charm a bat (they do aggro) and if needed I'd sneak up. Then I'd move towards a skeleton and order my pet to fight it. The skeletons aggro sound but do not link. Then I ran back to the base of the staircase where I entered the canal and heeled my pet and prey in.

Sometimes I fight the black mage skeletons right from the start and sometimes I med a little mp while my pet fights. I usually fight right along with my pet on the melee skeletons because they hit very hard. I've had to use pet food some and Courier Carrie occassionally. The couple of times I've used him I've ended up kiting up and down the stairs because it's hard for CC to get hate off of me :(

It has been a good camp though, exp is steady. It's directly at a zoneline. I haven't had to zone yet but it's comforting to know that its there. And if you've been reading my journals thusfar you know that my favorite camp is one right beside a city. This camp is charmed because it's right by Windy, my home city :)

Food <3

2006-09-25T12:19:00.000-04:00

Today was another quick solo trip to the range. I'm waiting on a Red Mage friend, Kestra, to help me with the NM battle to get Toraimarai Canal access. So I did a little bit more solo work in the range before it was time to head to Dynamis.

I also did some research on good foods for beastmaster. I don't usually use food but E.D. thought it might help our charming. So I looked foods up. It looks like Tuna Sushi is going to be the best bet for good damage dealing food. When we need more tanking-style foods it looks like it will be Tavnazian Tacos. I think I'll buy a stack of each to keep around.

Questing, Questing

2006-09-24T12:18:00.000-04:00

After yet more death today, we've decided to solo to 61, then try a duo in the Tree again. I hope we will be able to work it because I like duo'ing. It is usually very safe and it is nice to have someone to work with. But some solo time will also be nice.

We did do some questing today. We joined Lunaria and another friend Morl on the quest for Jaguar mantles. First we were out in the desert gathering Arnica, and then in Zvhal Bailey's finding soiled letters. Then all around the world working on the quest! We left off with a little left to go, but it will be a sweet reward because the mantle sells for a high price here on Bismarck.

After we finished questing I considered going up to the range, but since E.D. was headed that way and there were already other BSTs I figured it would be too crowded. I looked through my BST guides for another good spot and saw Toraimarai Canal listed. I decided that might be a neat camp. I also decided I'd like to have access to it from Windurst, so I spent the rest of the evening working on quests to get that access.

Oztroja Adventures

2006-09-20T12:17:00.000-04:00

E.D. and I went to Castle Oztroja tonight to help a bard friend of his get her Bard's Testimony. It was actually a lot of fun. We used Courier Carries and fought the Yagudos. E.D. is a good puller and did a great job getting the right yags to us.

It was so cool to be in a party with a bard because she used Ballad and we had our MP refreshed! I had a pretty good time. It took us a little while but we did finally get the testimony to drop ^^

After that adventure we walked back up to the Tree. Things were about the same as yesterday. Pets held hate well but exp was frustratingly low. I'm just not understanding it. At one point I tried to charm a mandragora and failed, getting a link of four onions on me. Death for me...heh.

Souting Everywhere

2006-09-19T12:16:00.000-04:00

I did a little more soloing today, and again I camped in the cave at F-10 on the map. I enjoy the camp. It's quiet and efficient, my favorite qualities for a camp. I haven't seen any other BSTs at this particular spot.

I had to finish a snoll off today. It came at me with just a sliver of health left and readied Hypothermal Combustion. I laughed and laughed as it went off, killing itself and delivering a whopping 3 damage to me.

I headed back into town after a short experience trip and took a break to have a nice hot soak at the Whitegate bathhouse. It's cold up in the range! E.D. sent me a tell to see if I wanted to duo so I suited up again and we headed to hot Altepa desert. It's a wonder I don't get sick with all these extreme temperature changes...

Once in Quicksands we quickly got back into our exp rhythm and all went smoothly. Before we knew it we were hitting level 60! WOOOOOOOOT! Beastmaster pants on and complete Artifact Armor!

We decided to try and move camps. First we went back to the Chasm and tried to duo there. It works but neither of us like it very much. The AoE from the prey is really tough and having aggro pets that hang around your camp sucks. So we tried to think of other places to go.

We went to Ifrit's to scout there. E.D. took a wrong turn and ran into some hecteye mobs and ended up dying. So we nixed that idea. All the mobs were too high for us to charm anyhow.

Next we went to Boyhada. Pets conned Tough there as well, but we could hold them. The prey gave very low experience, however. I feel like the critters have such a huge level range that some would give horrible exp and some would give good exp. We just don't know. One thing about pets there is that they can hold hate very well while you melee with them. We were both really tired at this point and just decided to call it a night.

Solo in the Range

2006-09-18T12:16:00.000-04:00

Not much to report today. I took a quick solo trip to the range. E.D. has gotten a little ahead of me exp-wise while I've been in Dynamis and on missions, so I'm working to catch up with him.

It's a much nicer zone to solo in than it was to duo in. I entered the zone and went down the first ramp. The ramp opens up to a field full of buffalo, snolls, and bunnies. At first I thought I'd camp on the ramp, but then I decided to move across the field to the tunnel opening opposite of the ramp.

I used this as my camp and found it ideal. The Snolls use Hypothermal Combustion, which is their self-destruct move. They don't use it as often as bombs in Garlaige do, however, so I often had to finish them off myself. I found that I usually needed two pets for this. I would use a bunny I grabbed from the snow field to start the snoll. Then when it died I grabbed the Esbat that spawns inside the tunnel to finish the bomb off. This worked perfectly.

The esbat does aggro (but the worm in the tunnel doesn't). It doesn't come all the way to the mouth of the tunnel, though, so it's safe to sit just inside the tunnel. I leave the snoll and bunny a little ways outside the tunnel fighting. I have been wearing my AF at this camp because many of the pets I'm charming are still Toughs.

There is an ice elemental that spawns fairly frequently and hangs around that area, so I have been careful to run into the tunnel to cast magic. I also saw an undead hound on my widescan of the snow field but I never actually saw him while I was out grabbing pets and prey.

One Long Day

2006-09-17T12:15:00.000-04:00

Today was a huge day and I went non-stop most of the day. E.D. and I had just begun to duo some and were discussing other camps when another beastmaster our level got onto the linkshell. I had duo'd with him before in Sea Serpent Grotto. We'd been discussing Attohwa Chasm and so we asked the other BST if he'd like to try a trio there.

We headed to the chasm and ended up taking a ridiculously long way around, heh. In the process of this we saw tons of people run by and wondered if Tiamat might be expected to spawn. We also got to see some horrible monsters known as Corses. They look like very scary undead >.>

We finally made it to our camp, where plenty of scorpion pets were waiting for us. Our trio went well and we got good experience but the camp itself was rough.

It was hard because the monsters we were fighting - lizards and flies - have strong AoE attacks that hurt us pretty badly. Our pets themselves are also aggro. So when we used Leave we had to quickly kill our prey and then move away so that our pets didn't turn on us.

None of us really liked the camp very much. The exp was good but it just didn't seem to be too safe. We reached level 59 for our trouble, however. After getting a small buffer on we decided to go ahead and try to trio for our AF3 armor - our Beastmaster Trousers!

We geared up and went to the Necrolopolis. The strategy is simple. The notorious monster comes - it is an undead hound and two tigers. You charm and 2hour the tigers to hold them, then fight the hound.

I think we were a little overzealous and didn't allow our tiger pets (and Courier Carrie) to get enough hate. So the hound turned to us frequently and when the tigers died we couldn't get hate to stay on Courier Carrie. We ended up wiping.

Our linkshell mate had to go at this point, so E.D. and I took a short break, then decided to go out and fight some more. We happened to get a teleport from a good friend of mine (and a Summoner member of BSTofBurden) who was porting to raise funds for something or another. He offered to help us with our AF fight.

So we made our way back to the Eldieme Necropolis barrow and cleared the room while we waited on Nights to come back as SMN. When he got there we used the same strategy. It was a bit easier this time around, however, with the help of avatars to fight the hound!

It felt so good to get our BST pants, and to see the title Paragon of Beastmaster Excellence. We still have a ways to go, but getting here is so sweet.

Later on that night E.D. went to solo a little bit while I went on a mission as warrior. I have to mention it here because it was a Promathia Mission - and I got to Sea. I was so happy and amazed at the same time. Finally to Sea, after such a long time trying.

I got a new title from getting to Sea, and I was sure proud. But I was even more proud of my Beastmaster title. So I visited the Merry Minstral in Jeuno and had the bard there change my title back.

I went from a little BST puppy to BST Paragon. I guess now I should change the title of my journals to Beastmaster: from puppy to paragon and beyond :p

Sandy and Smooth

2006-09-16T12:13:00.000-04:00

Another day of duo'ing in Quicksands. We've found it to be a great camp spot. We have worked out a system where we fight a melee antican or two. For these we fight along with our pets. Then we pull a black mage antican (which has high-tier -ga spells and ancient magic) and let our pets work on that while we rest for mp.

This has worked really well and means we have essentially no downtime. E.D. is our puller and he does a great job. We occassionally find ourselves without a lizard around and we can call Courier Carrie. Sometimes we both sneak up and open the door directly ahead of our camp and grab the lizard back there. Another lizard pops right at the zone entrance and I usually run back there and grab him once every exp chain or so.

We got to talking some about BCNMs tonight, and I would really like to do some more soon. I'd like to do some that will be nice and lucrative, lol!

Level 58

2006-09-13T12:12:00.000-04:00

I went scouting in Uleguerand Range (hereafter known as "the range") today to see if there might be some good duo spots. I was happy to see bombs there - Snolls. After a quick scouting trip I headed back to town.

I decided I'd like to try and solo a little bit because E.D. was still ahead of me and had hit 58 already. So I headed down into the pit in Garlaige again. To my utter frustration there were tons of parties down there and thus absolutely no pets.

It is very, very aggravating to have that happen. I grabbed a bat and made my way up the stairs slaughtering weaker bats and feeling quite grumpy. I decided to go back to Jeuno and take a break until E.D. could join me.

Later on after I'd cooled off we made our way to the range. Our targets were snolls. Many of the pets up there conned very high. E.D. found a bunny he could charm and I called out Courier Carrie and we set to work on a bomb. Though it conned nice and high, we were dismayed by the low experience it returned.

We moved to a slightly different place and attempted to fight bunnies and tigers as well as the snolls but overall the experience was very poor. How annoying. We did manage to slug me up to level 58 (Beast Jackcoat, yay!), but then we decided to return to Quicksands.

At level 58 our luck there was much better. We battled for a little while before deciding to set up camp for the night.

The Never-ending Paladin

2006-09-12T12:11:00.000-04:00

Got up this morning and got to work again. I solo'd along for awhile. The nice thing about being back here in Garlaige is that I can solo or duo and the exp is still good. It's slower soloing, but still good.

I hit level 57 and celebrated by having some lunch ;) I'd just finished eating when E.D. arrived. He'd been out getting his own jackcoat. We decided to duo some more and got to work. With me hitting level 57 while soloing we were about at the same point in experience, which was nice.

The exp was a little slower at 57. We thought about changing camps and thumbed through our guidebooks looking for good spots. We decided to give Quicksand Caves a try.

We got a Teleport Altep and picked up Chocobos in Rabao. The entrance to Quicksands we needed is the most southern entrance. In fact, it's not on the map. You must ride all the way down through the desert and through a tunnel to come around to the entrance.

Once in the ruins we examined our camp. It was a pretty straightforward "L" shaped tunnel. There were several lizards that we would use as pets. The lizards do not aggro, but do link. When we arrived at 57 most of them conned Tough to us, though a few would pop Even Match.

We began battling. We realized it would be slow going because the Antica we were fighting had a lot of hitpoints. We kept at it, though, and got into a pretty good rhythm.

E.D. taught me something I did not realize about our Tame job ability. If you aggro a mob you can use Tame to calm it. I thought it only worked on monsters you failed to charm but it works on any aggro mobs. And it doesn't matter who aggro'd.

I learned this because I mischarmed a lizard right next to another lizard. I used Tame on my lizard and then E.D. used Tame on the other. Problem solved! A duo is nice. Both of us have also been able to Charm mobs that the other mischarmed. It makes things much safer.

Our funny story of the night was an Antican PLD. This critter can use Cure IV. And use it did. We had it almost dead - no more than 5% health, so we used Leave on our lizards and went to work killing it off. Well, the PLD ant had other ideas. It used Cure IV. E.D. called a Courier Carrie to help us get through it. Then it did it again. I recharmed a lizard. Then it did it again. This kept going on and on. We finally decided to zone. When we went back and counted, that stupid PLD ant had used Cure IV 17, yes seventeen times. @.@

Behind the Gates

2006-09-11T12:11:00.000-04:00

I had a Dynamis run tonight as warrior, but it didn't go very long. After the run I headed down to Garlaige to meet up with E.D. again. This time some friends from BSTofBurden came to help us get through the gate.

E.D. and I duo'd again. It was a little tough due to the level of the pets but we made steady progress. When we got ready to stop for the night I fished out my Garlaige key.

I was pretty excited about getting behind the door and I wasn't disappointed! The incinerator room looks cool. I was able to complete two quests once inside. The area is also very safe, so I made camp there, near the warm incinerator.

It's so strange how I used to hate some places, like Garlaige. But after going there as beastmaster I figured out my way around them, and I figured out how to survive in them. Now they are not nearly so horrible. And it's actually nice. Somewhat peaceful. Being behind the gate where not many people come is quiet. Away from hustle, bustle, and competition. That's one of the things I like about beastmaster.

Jackcoat!

2006-09-10T12:10:00.000-04:00

I woke this morning and decided I wanted to try and find out what was behind the door I'd camped in front of. I went up to the top floor of the citadel and began to hunt fallen evacuees. After about an hour of work I got a Garlaige key to drop, just what I was looking for! Then I decided to head to Jeuno.

One of my best friends, Chipmunk, needed to get a key for his Beadeux coffer, and so did I. He asked if I wanted to go key hunt and I agreed. With the help of a ninja friend we headed in. I took +mp gear and food since I was going to be primary healer (hehe).

We got to camp relatively easily. Another group was there, but they must have gotten their key because they quickly cleared out. I called Kolui and the NIN called his adventuring fellow out too (a girl taru :) We had a lot of fun getting the keys to drop.

Chipmunk won the lot on the first key so we kept working. Kolui decided it was time to go, but luckily I had a charge left on the Tactics pearl and was able to call him out again. He came back out in Taru starting gear and was quite cute!

Finally my key dropped. Just before it did, the NIN spied a coffer! Oh what excellent luck! We had to clear mobs out from the coffer area. On the last mob left in the room, Kolui leveled to level 44! It was so awesome. I got my coffer and opened it to find my Beastmaster Jackcoat! Yay! Now only to get to level 58 to use it >.>;

My Best Duo Partner

2006-09-09T12:09:00.000-04:00

Today proved to be a great day. After soloing for awhile in the pit of the citadel another beastmaster came down. We greeted each other and quickly joined up to duo some. Our duo went really well and we were having fun.

Then the parties started coming in. Soon there was nothing for us. We decided to trey out a new camp. My duo partner got a couple of people from his linkshell to help us and we went behind Banishing Gate #2.

The reason we needed help is because there is a series of four switches that must be pushed down to open the gate. So four people are needed, one for each switch. We got through Banishing Gate #1 and headed on teh Banishing Gate #2 with little trouble.

Behind the gate is filled with beetles. Tons of beetles, three bombs, some undead, and a couple of weapon-type mobs! A lot!

Most of the beetles were still conning Tough, so we pulled the bomb we were after and left our beetle on it, then ran a ways away. If a beetle came uncharmed we recharmed and quickly ran it back up. This worked very well and the camp was very good.

We also did a little work with the undead. My duo partner, Eternaldarkness, didn't have his Garlaige key yet so we kept hoping for a key drop.

The experience was great and rolled right in. It was a great camp. Another nice thing about it is that coffers pop back there behind the gate. We found one up and I got to use my key. Beast Helm obtained! Woot! We went back to leveling to get E.D. his key and to hit 56 to use it ;)

Before we went to bed that night, we'd hit 56 and I was wearing my helm! We also got the key for E.D. I decided to camp beside the incinerator door. I made camp while E.D. continued to search for his coffer.

Royal Knight ^^

2006-09-08T12:09:00.000-04:00

More solo time in the pit of Garlaige today. I got a coffer key for my Garlaige coffer, which is very nice. My level 56 Artifact Armor comes from a coffer in the citadel.

I was back to mostly fighting bats against beetles during the first part of today. I occassionally went for a bomb. I worked steadily, killing as quickly as I could until I hit level 55! A huge level for me!

I went back to Jeuno and got new armor :) I got Royal Knight's Chainmail and Royal Knight's Breeches. Finally an alternative to the Darksteel Codpiece I've been wearing for a few levels. I'm keeping it until I get my AF pants, however.

Once I geared up with my new equipment I headed back to down to Garlaige's pit. I found it a little bit easier at level 55. Not only did I have better armor, I was able to charm better. I took on some bombs and quickly got a good buffer into 55. A satisfying day.

Duo'ing Again

2006-09-07T12:08:00.000-04:00

I headed back into the basement today. There was only one party today, so I had some pets to work with.

I was mostly using bats against beetles again when a mithra beastmaster showed up. We agreed to duo together. It went well!

We used bats against the four bombs. When the bombs were gone we battled beetles so there wasn't a lot of down time. A duo is so much smoother. When a pet comes uncharmed or dies, there is another pet holding hate to give you time to recharm or find a new pet.

Sometimes the bombs don't self-destruct and it's good to have another axe there swinging when the bomb comes at you. I've found that it usually only take a couple of hits from an axe to kill a weakened bomb off.

Occassionally I had to call a jug pet out to fight a bomb when we were waiting on other pets to repop. I've been using crab familiar and he works fairly well to hold over until I can find a native pet.

Frustrating Parties :(

2006-09-06T12:06:00.000-04:00

Today I went down to the pit in Garlaige to solo some. It is much, much harder to solo than it was to trio. If my pet comes uncharmed I have the bomb come right at me. If my pet dies and I need to pet swap, I have the bomb come at me.

I mostly ended up fighting bats against beetles and avoiding the bombs. Until I can reliably charm the beetles it is very dangerous to have a bomb coming after me!

I began to meet with a little frustration at this camp because it is also a party camp. Competition can be fierce and there were times I found no pets or monsters to fight. I eventually decided to call it a day because there were three parties and nothing for me :(

Beastmaster Gloves

2006-09-05T12:05:00.000-04:00

I awoke this morning to find that somebody had thankfully taken care of Mouu the Waverider, so I got right back into fighting. The experience flows freely in that camp because it's so efficient. Pit a leech against a Sahagin, sit back a moment then join in and slaughter. Rinse and Repeat.

It was nice and works so well. I moved on up to level 53. I was able to call Kolui out with me some as well. We leveled together for most of the day in a marathon exp session. I love having a Tactics pearl so that I can call him out often.

Speaking of pearls, I had several black pearls drop off Sahagins, so this camp made me some money as well as giving me smooth, easy experience.

A friend sent me a tell near the end of the day asking me to go with him for an escort quest in Crawler's Nest. I agreed. I decided to go as beastmaster since I would be with a party anyways.

We moved quickly through the escort and I was thrilled to have a coffer key drop. I had already talked to Guslam in Upper Jeuno about finding a coffer with a model of my Artifact Armor gloves in it, and had gotten the tip that I'd find the coffer in CN.

So I spent a little extra time in the nest and sure enough, I found my coffer deep in a back room. I headed out of the nest and went back to Bastok to get my reward for the escort quest - and experience scroll that boosted me to level 54!

I went back to Jeuno and left my glove model in the old toolbox in Port Jeuno. Then I changed to warrior and headed up Castle Zvahl Baileys to fight Dark Spark. A summoner friend from the linkshell came to help me and we made quick work of him :)

Back to Jeuno where the ghost of Borghertz made my Beastmaster gloves. Putting them on the first time was so great! I'm starting to look like a real beastmaster now =D

Solo in Sea Serpent Grotto

2006-09-04T12:04:00.000-04:00

Today was back to soloing. I decided to go back to Sea Serpent Grotto and solo some more. It was a good experience. Leeches make good pets. The leveling is pretty quick and easy. The camp spot is safe, and leeches don't aggro.

The leeches do, however link. I had a mischarm and ended up with a few leeches following me >< I used Tame on the original mischarm which thankfully stuck. Then I charmed the next leech and ordered it to fight the third leech. It was a little scary for a moment there, but I came out ok.

All was going smoothly and the experience was rolling in when my friend Mouu the Waverider popped again. I moved camp from where I was at J-5 to right behind the Mythril door. This camp is workable but is more risky. For some reason there were people down nearby there as well. I'm not sure what they were doing, but they were killing my experience mobs.

After a little while I decided to just call it a night. I moved back to the safe camp at J-5 and set up my camp deep in the corner, away from Mouu the Waverider and his sahagin buddies.

My first Duo...and Trio!

2006-09-03T12:03:00.000-04:00

Today a linkshell friend asked me to duo. I agreed because I had never been in a duo before and thought that it sounded like fun. We went into Sea Serpent Grotto, and area I had planned to solo in.

We moved behind the Mythril door and found an excellent camp. Our duo went very smoothly and compared to soloing, duo'ing is very safe. It was fun, though my duo partner seemed very intent on leveling quickly. I enjoy quick leveling, but I also enjoy playing beastmaster and scouting camps. I like the whole experience of the job.

After a little while a Notorious Monster called Mouu the Waverider popped right in our camping area. We decided to try and get him out of the way. I changed to warrior and came back. It was a tough battle, but we won. We had peace in our camp for a little while.

My duo partner hit level 53 and I hit 52. At that point we decided it might be good to find another camp. We were on our way to camp at Fei'Yin when a summoner in our linkshell asked if we wanted to trio.

We decided to give it a try. This turned out to be very interesting and a huge learning experience. We went down into the pit in Garlaige Citadel. In a back room of the pit four bombs pop. We would pull a bomb, then leave our pets with it at one end of the tunnel. We would go to the far end of the tunnel and wait for the bomb to self-destruct.

It was very, very interesting. It was hard because the pets we used - bats and beetles - were too high for us. So sometimes they would come uncharmed and we'd have to recharm and run them back. It was strange to stand back and let pets do all the work, too. And we had to watch carefully for the self-destruct. If it doesn't kill the pet you have a split second to use leave or else you take an experience penalty.

On the whole a very, very interesting day. I got a lot of experience and learned a lot of new things. A good day.
things.

Elemental Staves!

2006-09-02T12:02:00.000-04:00

Back into Crawler's Nest today. I'm such a glutton for punishment :/

As it was yesterday, CN was pretty frustrating today. I can't believe how many people run through that little area. It's truly unbelievable.

I got lucky today and Lunaria, one of my good friends (and whm) decided to come down and help me out. Having another person there making sure that I don't die is very nice. Especially when I have to be a little risky due to competition.

With Luna there I ranged around a bit more, taking in two rooms of lizards and moving on to funguars when I could. I used caveberries a bit. I was less nervous about them with Luna there, but a mischarm on caveberries usually means massive linking and death.

Luna pushed me to go as quickly as I could while she was there to help. So I moved through and killed as fast as I could, trying to get quick experience. I also used my exp band which helped it go a little faster.

It was a rough push, most definately a grind, but I hit level 51. I have found that some levels just seem to be really hard.

After hitting 51 we went back to Jeuno. I splurged and bought and Apollo's staff, and I picked up a normal quality dark staff. I was so excited! A dark staff truly makes a big difference in med'ing mp, and I know it will reduce downtime. Apollo's staff is rumored to have the hidden effect of +15% charm effectivness.

After we grabbed my elemental staves Luna encouraged me to let her accompany me to work on my artifact armor quest.

I changed jobs to warrior since we weren't totally sure what to expect. We journeyed down into the depths of Fei'Yin and found one of the pools Brutus has spoken of. When I checked the pool a notorious monster spawned!

We defeated the monster relatively easily. Upon checking the pool again a ghost beastmaster appeared! I spoke with him and then took the Aquafloras around to the pools in Fei'Yin.

I headed back to Brutus and he told me to head to Castle Oztroja to try and find out more. We went to Oztroja and found a chest key, but could not find a chest. We were tired at this point and decided to call it a night. The chest would have to wait.

I Hate Crawler's Nest

2006-08-31T12:02:00.000-04:00

Upon asking BSTofBurden where I could camp next I was told Crawler's Nest. CN is one place I did not want to camp in. With the exception of weekly escort quests and the uncommonly good party I had in the Nest, I do not really like the area. But I really wanted to get to level 51 because that level means the ability to use elemental staves!

I decided to give it a shot, and at least slug it out to level 51. Once I got there I headed down deep into the nest. I went to the area with lizards because those were my targets.

I immediatly learned some of the frustrations of the area. Tons of people are through there all the time for all kinds of reasons. People doing escort quests and people leveling up their adventuring fellows. This means that there isn't a whole lot of prey at all times.

I was fighting lizards against lizards, caveberries against lizards, and sometimes caveberries against funguars. A tip from the linkshell helped me find a little area with bees against funguars. That little room was nice but there were only three funguars.

On the whole it was quite frustrating. A caveberry coming uncharmed caused a death for me, and I'd forgotten reraise. Luckily a linkshell mate had white mage leveled and ran down to raise me. I decided to call it a day after that, and limped back to Jeuno @.@;

I felt a little bit better when I went into a Besieged later today and got to use Raise for the first time ;)

Level 50! Ding!

2006-08-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Today I went back to Gustav and made my last push to level 50! Woohoo! What excitement to have finally reached 50 :) I can now Raise people! I put on my Ophiuchus Subligar for a picture and then headed to Bastok.

I ended up having to go back to Jeuno because Brigid wanted me to model in some ridiculous armor that I couldn't buy in Bastok. I also had to do the quest as warrior. But I got it done and selected my Gaudy Harness. I was so, so thrilled to get it. Time for more pictures!

After taking plenty of shots of my Gaudy (can you tell I'm proud of it?!) I tested it out. Sure enough, if I go under 49mp it's right there, ticking up.

I headed back to Jeuno next, to begin the next of my artifact armor quests. When I got there I was frustrated to find that Brutus wouldn't talk to me at all about my armor, and instead wanted me to help him out with a chocobo.

So off I went on a chocobo quest that took quite awhile to complete! My reward was a chocobo egg. I took my egg to the chocobo stables in Windurst where the stable attendants agreed to look over it.

Then yet another trip to Jeuno to finally begin my artifact armor quest. Brutus wanted me to visit Fei'Yin and offer Aquafloras, a special type of flower, to those pets that have been laid to rest. I made plans to visit Fei'Yin later, as the day had already been long and I was ready for a break.

Deeper into the Empty

2006-08-29T11:59:00.000-04:00

More camping in Gustav today. The experience is definately slower now but I am pushing towards 50. The camp has such plentiful prey and I am enjoying helping Kolui leveling up. So today was just mob after mob.

After a good long camp session I decided to journey into the Empty again with friends. I went with my DRG/BLU friend as well as a MNK friend. We decided to go on up to the second level of Promyvion-Mea. Kolui was glad to be able to explore this new level of the Empty. We all got moderate experience as well.

It was a little tough because I forgot to bring level 30-cap gear, which I really should have done. The monsters on the second floor hit a bit harder. Next time we plan to go with all adventuring fellows instead of just Kolui and I know that will be easier.

Again I was gifted a Tactics pearl for helping Kolui out in the Empty. That's four more chances to summon him this week, on top of my daily summons =D

Slowing Down

2006-08-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

Not much to note today. I reached level 49 and experience has slowed down quite a lot, but I like the camp a lot and want to stay here for now. I'm using leeches and lizards as pets all the time. I've found leeches work best on goblins and lizards work best on fish.

I camped at the front of the tunnel for a little while today. There was no party there and another beastmaster was at the back. I didn't enjoy the front as much as the back. The goblins are packed much more closely and there are not really any good safe places to camp. It's workable but not ideal.

More time with Kolui and just basic hard work today.

More Under Observation

2006-08-26T11:58:00.000-04:00

More camping in Gustav today and more good experience. After I'd camped for quite awhile I got asked to do another BCNM40 with friends. I thought some gil sounded nice so I agreed.

This was a very interesting run of Under Observation. We went as Beastmaster, Ninja, and Dragoon/Blue Mage. Quite unique!

Our first run was very rough and we barely won. We tried having the NIN take one small eye, myself and my pet taking one small eye, and the DRG kiting the big eye.

The DRG went in to grab the big one first and got hate from all three, meaning he got smacked hard right off the bat. Then I had trouble with hate issues. My poor paralyzed pet couldn't hold hate very well!

Our next two runs went much more smoothly. I called out an Antlion Familiar, which is a pretty good tanking pet. I sent my Antlion to get his small eye first. This put the hate of all three eyes onto my pet, leaving us safe. Then the NIN picked off his small eye and the DRG got the big one. Much better.

I joined the NIN in meleeing his eye this time and left my Antlion to fend for itself. It did pretty well ^^ We quickly finished off the first small eye and whipped through the second. We moved on to help the DRG with his big eye.

Nice smooth runs but no good drops :( Oh well.

Amikiri and Golden Bat!

2006-08-25T11:57:00.000-04:00

Another day in the delightful Gustav tunnel. I really enjoy this camp. Today I've seen a couple of other beastmasters in here. It's not impossible for two beastmasters to camp here, but it gets a little crowded in the back of the tunnel. I was glad when the other beastmasters moved on.

I got to see a Notorius Monster fight today. Amikiri, a scorpion NM pops down in the depths of the tunnel. A party pulled the scorp up today and fought him around my camp. It was interesting to see and I got some pictures of it. It was a small party and it took them some time to kill off Amikiri.

Speaking of Notorious Monsters, on actually spawns right in my camp. It is Bune, but I haven't seen it yet (edit: I didn't see it at all when I camped Gustav).

More of the same old today, but Gustav is such a great camp it's a lot of fun. Getting the Tactics Pearl with Kolui is also great because I have been able to call him a lot. He's gotten a lot of experience and is up into his 40's now. He can haste me!

We worked hard and got me to level 48 as well. This was a big accomplishment because it means I can use my life belt and viking axe on beastmaster. Woot.

I had to head out of Gustav this afternoon to prepare for a Dynamis raid as warrior. On my way out of the tunnel I came up Gold Bat, a NM bat who spawns in the Dunes. I quickly claimed him and my jug pet destroyed him. I got a drop from him! Night Cape (all right!)

Makara Rolls

2006-08-23T11:56:00.000-04:00

Today I got to know Gustav more. It is certainly a roaming camp and I love it. I quickly learned where the goblins in the back part of the tunnel spawn making it easy to move around them. I occassionally had to pet swap.

I decided to fight against the Makaras as well. They are aggressive but do not link, so it was easy to pull them. If you study the maps of Gustav you will see a small pond at G-9 and H-9. In between these ponds is a small section of the tunnel. This became one of my favorite spots to camp. I could pull a Makara here and fight it safely. There are two Makaras in each pond.

I called Kolui again today and we had a lot of fun moving around and taking things down. I really love this camp. I ended up setting up camp for the night in the back of the tunnel again. One of the things I love about beastmaster is how easy it is to settle down all sandy and sweet beside a fire close to your experience camp. Roast something or whip up some sushi and you're set until the next day when you hit the dirt again. Makara rolls, anyone?

Just Run Up to It

2006-08-22T11:55:00.000-04:00

I decided to explore a new camp today. After checking out my well-worn beastmaster guides I decided on Gustav Tunnel. I took an Outpost Warp to Valkurm Dunes and then headed on to Gustav.

Parties frequently camp the front of the tunnel and sure enough there was one there when I arrived. At my level I knew I would only be on the top level. There are goblins throughout the tunnel so I used prism powder to get past them.

I checked out the monsters for aggressivness. My favorite technique for discovering if a monster is aggressive or not is to run up to it. Hehehehe. Upon running up the the Makara fish I discovered that they are, in fact, aggressive. Other than that only goblins are aggressive. At least on the top floor of the tunnel.

At this point some of the critters I was hoping to use as pets were still Tough. I was able to charm an Even Match bat and use it against a Tough bat. I also used some bats against goblins. Since I was already on the verge of my level I quickly hit level 47.

After I hit 47 I called Kolui out and we fought side by side for a little while. Then I moved fat back into the tunnel, almost to the Cape Teriggan zone, and made camp for the night.

Party Time

2006-08-20T11:52:00.000-04:00

I did some more camping at Zi'Tah as beastmaster today. It was enjoyable today. Once I get familiar with a camp I find it easier to roam around and that's nice. I had to be a bit careful at night because bats come out at night and they are aggressive. But I really did discover Zi'Tah to be a roaming camp.

As puttered around with some goblins and got a tell from a friend who was bored. He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was getting experience as beastmaster. He said he wanted to get some experience too, on his paladin which was the same level. So I agreed to make a party.

I headed back into town and invited him to my party, then picked up some other party members. We decided to go to Quicksands Cave. It actually ended up taking a long time for the party to start because one of our members didn't have the Altepa Gate Crystal.

I changed to warrior and went to pick him up at Korroloka tunnel. Our white mage got impatient and left while we waited on the thief to make his way to Bastok. Thankfully everyone else remembered that they, too had had to go through this at one time and was willing to wait.

I found another friend who happened to be our level and on white mage and asked her to come out. She agreed. I got our thief safely through Korroloka and to the Altepa gate crystal where he got his own crystal. Then we headed to Rabao so he could buy maps and I could change jobs.

At Quicksands we had a very good party. I pulled again with TigerFamiliar. I enjoy pulling with him, he's an excellent puller and a decent damage dealer. I would like to charm native pets but there were not any in the caves I could use. We pulled ants and beetles.

The party was efficient. I hit level 46 and got almost to level 47 before we had to break. It was a good day and it was a lot of fun to get to party with a friend, and to show the party what beastmaster can do ;)

Gaudy Harness

2006-08-19T11:20:00.000-04:00

This morning I suited up for an important mission - going to solo for my gaudy harness. I had it planned for quite awhile. Even though I can't use it until I hit level 50, I wanted to go ahead and get it while I was still using mostly level 40 gear. This is because the Aqueducts where I needed to farm the item for it is a level 40 cap area.

The strategy I planned to use is based on beastmaster 2-hour, so I got everything ready and planned to camp the day, as long as it took me to get the drop. The item I needed was an Ophiuchus Subligar. Giving that to Brigid the Stylist in Bastok earns a Gaudy Harness. You have to do a couple of quests for her first, though.

As I was about to go into the Phomiuna Aqueducts Lunaria sent me a tell asking me what I was doing. I explained it to her and she asked if I wanted company. I said sure and she joined me as her summoner.

This mission was really a lot of fun. We went into the aqueducts and scouted the location of the fight. Then we scouted out the pet. I was seeking a slime to target. Slimes are a bit resistant to charm but make excellent pets. These particular slimes were in a pretty tough range. They were also far from camp and would have to be pulled back. They path to camp included some true sight monsters so it was tricky!

The slimes were down in the sewer water. Theoretically if I failed to charm a slime I should have been able to run through the water and have it loose aggro. This didn't really work in practice. It worked once or twice but it wasn't foolproof for me. I was glad to have Luna there to cure me!

We got into a couple messy scrapes and had a couple of deaths across figuring out what to do when and avoiding the true site mobs. The basic strategy was to attempt to charm a slime until I got it, then 2 hour it to keep it. In reality this was very funny because the slimes conned around a T. So I would position myself (with sneak up) hit charm and take off, in case it didn't work XD

Luna tried to make sure I didn't run out in front of a true sight mob. It was comical. At one point we did get hate from a true site Tarus and tried to climb the ladder and run back towards zone. It was pretty funny.

Finally I got a slime charmed and immediatly 2-houred. We moved to camp only to find there was no beastmaster Fomor! That was our target. We decided to kill a ninja. Right after Luna pulled with Carby the BST Fomor spawned. Oops. We killed the NIN, then took the BST. No drop, and not enough time to wait for another spawn. So we puttered around for another hour and a half waiting on my 2 hour timer to go off. Luna decided to explore and get herself killed. Quite usual for her.

When the timer was up it was back to the slime area for more amusing charming and running, with Luna trying to play referee and throw cures at me after botched charm attempts. Finally I got another and repeated my 2-hour drill.

We moved back and targetted the Fomor BST right away. We cleaned off his bat and then grabbed him. We were victorious and we GOT THE DROP! WOot! BST panties were mine :) Luna asked to wait for the repop on the BST to try and get her a subligar too, in case she levels BST or BRD. So we did and lo and behold, got another drop! We were very happy with ourselves.

We decided to try and get a map, but after some aggro and another death for Luna we nixed that idea ;) I warped out. I decided to save my subligar until level 50 when I could wear it for a screenshot :D

If you're a fellow bst looking to try this, I recommend this little guide to prepare you for your trip.

RUN . . . >.>;

2006-08-18T16:47:00.000-04:00

Back to Zi'Tah today for a little while. I decided to explore a little further today. I went some south to a glowing pool filled with crystal formations. It was a little dangerous to make a permanent camp because several goblins roam around. But it made some pretty pictures ;)

Next I decided to move west. One of my beastmaster guides had mentioned a possible camp to the West. I went through a narrow area and came out to see a couerl. I moved around it and up north slightly to find another area of goblins and golems. I sent a pet after a goblin only to get aggro from a golem!

I took off running. I prayed that my pet would last against the goblin. Just as I uttered the words to Altana my pet died. I kept running and praying. If I could just get to the outpost I could warp away...

I moved away from the golem and hit the outpost. When I reached it I looked around for a minute and realized nothing was chasing me. They must have lost aggro. I was a little confused and wary but after sitting for a few minutes I realized they weren't coming after me. Perhaps they lost aggro as I ran over some water, or maybe I just go far enough away.

Needless to say, I didn't head up there again. I did get to level 45 ;)

Exploring Camp

2006-08-16T16:45:00.000-04:00

Today I ranged a little away from the outpost, moving to the north around the big crystal there. There are several little corner areas up there that are ok to camp in. I mostly just roamed around this area. A golem sticks close to the crystal in the middle and I had my eye on him pretty constantly, since I didn't want to tangle with him ;)

There are tons of goblins around and the leveling is pretty easy once you get used it. There are pets all around. I like using leeches because they are really sturdy and can take damage. I do have to watch out with so many monsters around. Sometimes the pets use an AoE attack and aggro a monster standing nearby. Then I have to be careful.

There are always people running through here because the Outpost Warp is used very often, however I have not had any competition from other beastmasters or from parties. I like this zone because it's pretty and it has pleasant, though slightly eerie music.

As I was leveling today I got asked to do BCNM40 again. This time was with two very good friends and it was enjoyable. We didn't really get anything good, but it was fun. We went as RDM, NIN, and BST. The RDM kited the big eye with gravity and I put a pet on one of the small eyes. Then I assisted the NIN in killing the other eye, which went down quickly. We moved on to the next small eye after that. My pet was able to keep that one at bay while we finished the first. I used an Antlion familiar which is a good tough tank.

After finishing the little ones we moved to the big ones. Smooth and systematic. And a lot of fun with friends. We each made a couple of hundred K. Not great but not too terrible.

My First BST BCNM40

2006-08-15T16:44:00.000-04:00

More camping at Zi'Tah today. I do enjoy the camp and I'm able to roam a little now that I'm more used to where the goblins patrol. Widescan is so useful and I don't know what I would do with out it.

After my camp session finished I was asked to do a BCNM40 with some friends from BSTofBurden. I was excited about going since it would be my first time as beastmaster. We got up there with our orbs and started prepping for the battle. It wasn't until after we were getting ready that I was told we would go your orb your loot.

For those of you not BCNMing yet, that means that what drops on your orb is your loot to keep. The other alternative is to pool and split - meaning you sell the loot from your orb and split it evenly. For fights with strangers I usually like your orb your drop. But with friends I'm used to pooling and splitting.

On this BCNM40 it's definately best to pool and split, because the drops are not that good. The reason we do it is for the chance of getting a peacock charm, which is very nice. A few other good scrolls drop too but on the whole the chance of good drops on Under Observation seems low. So pool and split is best.

I wasn't happy with your orb, your drop and I almost left. It seems almost selfish on this BCNM. But I stayed. Nobody got the peacock charm, which I was actually pretty glad of. I got a scroll of Erase and was happy. The other two guys got bad drops and I'll admit to being a little pleased that the one who suggested your orb, your drop got horrible drops :/ Not nice of me, I know.

After that slightly dissapointing first BCNM40 bst experience, I went back to leveling. Heh. After some hard work I hit level 44 and things got even quicker. I brought out Kolui to level a little with me. He's such a useful little friend ;)

Besieged

2006-08-13T16:38:00.000-04:00

I enjoy camping at the outpost because I can warp right back to Windy when I am done for the day, or if I need to get somewhere else quickly. It's sweet.

I have my homepoint set in Whitegate, and I've been keeping an eye on the status of Besieged instances that go on over in that part of the world. The Empire of Aht Urhgan seems to have even bigger beastman problems than we do. The beastmen hoardes over there regularly raid the city o.o

I've done quite a few Besieged raids as warrior, simply moving in and helping to beat back the beastmen. As a reward for assisting the Aht Urhgan forces you receive fame and experience points. I decided I'd like to try and get that experience on my beastmaster.

Lunaria told me I shouldn't because I wouldn't be able to give my all, but Kestra assured me I could help quite a bit ;) I decided to go as a healer. I wore my holy phial and my electrum rings (along with my RSE hands and feet which I normally wear). I also ate Rolanberry pie which gives an additional 50mp. This gave me quite a bit of mp and allowed me to heal others during the battle.

It worked well. Death during Besieged does not cost experience so I didn't need to worry about that. I did die a couple of times to AoE attacks, though. As my hitpoints rise that will not be such a problem.

I know that as warrior I was always glad for people healing me and so I am able to do that for others on the front line. I have quickly discovered that the best place for me to be is on the parade (the large open area in Al Zahbi). I can safely med my mp behind the tents - for the most part. I can also run up and heal, then move back away from the frontlines.

It's exciting for me since I'm not usually a healer. A nice change from the ordinary and I enjoy it. I also enjoy the relatively risk-free experience I get from it, usually from 300-700 experience depending on the size of the battle.

Goblin Beastmasters...Oh My

2006-08-11T16:27:00.000-04:00

A friend has been able to craft some yagudo drinks lately and brought me a few this morning. It's a good thing he did because I found myself needing it! I'd been advised before that a beastmaster should carry one or two with them and I find this to be good advice.

Yagudo drinks gradually refresh MP. Today I found myself with very low HP and goblin poison. Luckily goblin poison doesn't last long but I was still worried. Since I had no MP left after that particularly rough fight I popped a yagudo drink. Whew...mp.

It was rough trying to battle monsters at level 42, but I was lucky and had several goblins suicide bomb to give me good chains. Reaching 43 made a big difference for me.

One of the problems with this area is that some of the goblins are beastmasters. I made sure to kill of the beastmaster pet first. Then I told my pet to attack the goblin. Otherwise there were two things hitting my pet at once.

At one point I got aggro from a beastmaster goblin...I put a pet on his pet and tried to kite (run around with) the goblin around the outpost while my pet finished his pet off. It didn't work as well as I'd hoped and I ended up dead. Ouch.

To the Outpost

2006-08-10T16:25:00.000-04:00

Today I returned to the jungles. I remembered today that I have the Barfira spell and I have been using it whenever I go to engage a goblin. I have found that they use gobbie-bombs pretty often!

There were a lot of other beastmasters in the jungles and that's pretty frustrating. There's just not enough goblins for more than 1-2 bsts. I never really mind sharing a camp area with another bst because most camps can support two. But more than that and it get aggravating.

I always put in my search comment where I am camping and I wish that other bsts would do a sweep of the area to see if someone else is there, but many just don't think about that.

After having 3 beastmasters move into the one tiny goblin camp I decided to go elsewhere. I'd had the Sanctuary of Zi'tah in mind. It's recommended for level 43 but I figured since I was close to 43 I would give it a try.

It was pretty grueling, to be honest. It is hard to be in an area that you are really too low for because it's harder to find pets to charm. But at least there were no others there. I camped right behind the outpost. Camping in front of or to the sides of the outpost could result in moster aggro.

By the time I arrived there I was pretty tired, so I just looked around a little and then made my camp in the outpost, which was thankfully owned by Windurst this week.

Down in the Jungles

2006-08-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

Today I decided to try and camp in Western Altepa desert near Rabao. I was enthusiastic, but upon getting there I realized it wasn't really a great camp. Many of the monsters were too high for me to safely charm and there didn't seem to be a safe area to pull them back to so that I could fight.

A linkshell mate suggested that I give Yuhtunga Jungle a try. I figured that I may as well and headed out to the jungles. I quickly found the area that he was talking about, a small cross-shaped area in the very southwest portion of the jungle.

My prey there was goblins. Some of these goblins were Very Tough and even Incredibly Tough - higher level monsters than I have taken myself, with the exception of some I used a 2-hour pet against.

I charmed crawlers as my pets. On the IT goblins I found that I had to pet swap and went through two crawlers on each goblin. The camp is a pretty good one, though a bit risky. I have to watch for goblin links on my pets and I have to watch out for bombs thrown by the goblins. The experience rate is very good, however, and I reached level 42 quickly.

AF Axe and a Good Party

2006-08-08T22:22:00.000-04:00

I began today by questing for my Artifact weapon, a very nice axe. I talked to Brutus in Jeuno and he requested that I seek for a bell in Delkfutt's Tower. This unique bell is able to ring a pet to proper rest once its time in Vana'diel is done. Brutus wanted it to send off a deceased chocobo.

I decided to do this quest as warrior since I didn't have anyone to help me. After moving up into the middle of the tower I fought Gigas warriors for awhile. I eventually found a key on one of them. Upon finding a treasure chest I was rewarded with a the bell I had been sent for!

I returned the bell to Brutus and was given my Artifact axe in return. It's a very good axe and I'm really pleased with it.

I decided to head to where I hoped to camp for the next couple of levels. I went to Riverne - Site A01. It is a 40 capped area. It's also very cool looking and I was excited.

When I got there, however, I found that the mobs were a little hard to charm. In addition the hypogryphs can dispal reraise. That is NOT something I like as reraise items are expensive and it is essential that I have reraise up when leveling beastmaster.

As a final blow to the idea of Riverne - Site A01, I cannot call Kolui to me when I am there. I really want to be able to have him with me so I decided to seek another camp.

As I headed into town I received a tell asking me if I wanted to join a party. I decided to go ahead and say yes and I'm very glad that I did!

We went deep into Crawler's Nest, beyond where I have ever partied on another job. My party was very good and it was a great experience for me. I used Tiger familiar to pull and found out that he is an excellent puller and a pretty good damage dealer in a party. I went with a warrior subjob so that I did more damage myself. In the party I reached level 41 and good a good buffer!

Royal Squire :D

2006-08-06T22:17:00.000-04:00

Today my dilligent work was rewarded and I gained level 40! I was so happy. Level 40 means not only a new camp, but also the start of my Artifact Armor quests. And it means new armor.

I have Royal Squires chainmail that I keep in storage in case I go to a level-capped area on warrior. I was very happy to bring it out for use on beastmaster! It is probably my favorite armor by looks. I love the red.

It felt very good to put that and my Royal Squire's breeches on. To me it was a big milestone.

I spent a little bit more time on the island building up a bit of a buffer before I prepared to move on to a new camp. Heading into town I felt very happy. A new level and a new armor. It was also a new place of respect amongst my fellow beastmasters, since I have reached the level to do BCNM40 with my fellow bsts :D

Into the Empty

2006-08-04T22:12:00.000-04:00

Today began with a very exciting quest. I went to talk with Kolui before heading out to the field and he told me he'd been requested to investigate in the Emptiness. He requested my assistance.

I sent a tell to a friend who had mentioned that her adventuring fellow had also been assigned the mission. Kestra and I teamed up and headed for Promyvion-Mea. It was my first time going into a Promy as beastmaster.

We called our adventuring fellows out, Kolui and Kestra's buddy Paku (a taru female). We traveled around the Empty exploring and defeating monsters. I had Kolui and a crab familiar out since you cannot charm monsters native to the Empty. Crab familiar works well in there but I may also experiment with other familiars next time we journey in.

Soon Kolui and Paku felt that they had gathered enough information and after checking one last location on the first floor we headed out. Upon talking to Kolui in town again he gave me a gift for my help - a Tactics Pearl! It allows me to call him an extra four times a week. A wonderful gift for a bst :)

I headed on to camp on the island after our adventure in the Empty. I am now able to roam completely all over the island and fight with Opos and with the black mandragoros. I have noticed that as I am fighting Opos I need to stand to the side of them. They have a special attack that dispels if you are standing behind or in front of them. It dispelled my reraise effect - ouch!

taking a break

2006-07-29T17:19:00.000-04:00

I'm just putting a message across my little blog network that I was in a car wreck (but I'm ok!) and that's putting my blogging/updates behind.

Back soon, and thanks for reading!

Keeping Hate and a New Bst Shell

2006-07-28T21:33:00.000-04:00

I really enjoy bringing Kolui out with me as I camp. It's nice to have the company sometimes and it's also reassuring to have someone there to help me finish off monsters. Seeing Kolui gain skill and level is also a lot of fun. I know that our bond has grown as we have continued to level together.

I am constantly having to re-evaluate the way that I engage monsters with my pets. I am learning more about how to control hate as my pets begin to be a little bit better at holding it on their own.

I find that I am engaging the mob when my pet has had several swings at it. I then fight right alongside my pet and I turn from it if I gain hate over my pet. As an elvaan I am pretty powerful physically. In addition I have trained extensively in combat as warrior, meaning I have an increased chance of scoring a critical hit against my enemy. So I have to monitor how much I am hitting the monsters compared to my pets!

I find this pretty easy and I like to melee with my pets. It does mean that at this point I tend to take a few hits along with my pets. I've tried to hold back on the melee a little bit in order to reduce my downtime. I usually save my tp so that I can deliver a weaponskill to finish my enemy off after I have told my pet to leave.

Lunaria came out to join me for a little while again today. It's truely nice to have someone else to laugh and joke with sometimes, though I also really enjoy the solitude of soloing as a beastmaster.

A friend from a linkshell now gone caught up with me when I headed back to Jeuno today. She's a high level beastmaster and I have always admired her. When she saw that I was on beastmaster she pretty much threatened my death if I did not join her beastmaster linkshell, and so I did. I am now a proud member of BSTofBurden and hopefully will be a good shell :)

A Roaming Camp

2006-07-28T21:16:00.000-04:00

I camped for much of the day today (due to being stuck in my chair after a car accident irl). I worked more with opo opos and discovered them to be a bit resistant to charm. It's important to make sure they are not near any other opos when charming. If the charm fails, the opos will link.

I love the island because I can roam all around it. I'm still watching for clots but for the most part it is a good and safe camp all over. I've take quite a few photos of it just because it's so nice.

For such a secluded spot I am suprised how many people I see running about. I have had another beastmaster here some - the island seems able to support two bsts easily. Today two sets of loving couples stayed on opposite beaches for quite awhile. I tried to battle quietly in the background ;)

I ended my massive session by reaching level 39 and Kolui reached level 34. I was able to use a new axe when I leveled, one I got on a BCNM40 run I did as ninja. It has slightly lower damage compared to other axes its level, but it adds a + to charm and I like that.

Kraken Capers >.>

2006-07-27T21:08:00.000-04:00

I started out today with a bang and an exp ring, hoping for a quick level 38. I was able to start using a couple of opos as pets, though not many. I mostly stuck to jagils and birds.

I did get a little bit brave and decide to take on a Kraken. For the record, krakens have very powerful special attacks. I got hit by one and then got hate from a kraken and my pet could not get hate back. I ended up dead.

Luckily for me Lunaria was again feeling generous and came out to raise me. She then sat by me as I successfully got revenge on the kraken and moved quickly on to level 38. A second lovely day on the island!

To the Island!

2006-07-25T20:41:00.000-04:00

I have had my next camp in mind for several levels because I have been looking forward to it so much. I have been planning to go to Purgonorgo Isle in Bibiki Bay. It is an absolutely beautiful place.

So today I started working in Lufaise knowing that I only had one more level to go to get to Purgonorgo. Exp seemed to have slowed down quite a bit and I was looking at a definate grind level.

I was chatting with friends in Nightfall's Favor linkshell, where the coolest white mage kitty Lunaria makes her home. She offered to go ahead and accompany me to Purgonorgo a little early so that I would be able to survive.

I was thrilled and off we went. The boat to the island can sometimes take a long time to come into the docks. I was able to charm efts around the dock and fight eft against eft for some moderate experience while waiting on the Manaclipper.

We boarded the clipper and took a nice boat ride to the island. I was so excited to finally hit the sands of the island. It's a charmed place, with beautiful beaches and lovely coves filled with lush greenery. Do I sound like a fan? I am ;) Vacation at Purgonorgo lol!

Most of the mobs there on the island were too high for me to charm. Luckily not many things on the island are aggressive. Krakens and clots are aggressive. Opos, birds, and Jagils link but there is a lot of room to work. I just ignored the ..... they have a poison that hurts badly.

With Luna helping me I was able to find Jagils to charm and use them to fight the birds on the island. With Luna's excellent help I hit level 37 pretty quickly. Quite a happy day!

Sleeping Orc, oh my!

2006-07-24T21:21:00.000-04:00

Today I decided that I'd venture over to the lake camp in Lufaise. When I got there I was not impressed. I just didn't see that many pets and I couldn't locate a place that would be considered "safe." There were many orcs around.

I headed back to my usual camp. I've been camping on both sides of the bridge and it seems to work very well. I am getting eager to explore new camps, however.

I had an interesting experience today. I was fighting using a sheep pet and I was a little farther out into the clearing than I should have been. An orc spotted me and headed up to me just as I ordered my pet to sic. I realize this now, but at the time I didn't realize the orc had aggro'd!

I saw him running up but my sheep used sheep song and put the orc to sleep. I saw him stop and thought he hadn't aggro'd me after all. I finished off the mob I was fighting and headed along on my merry way only to see the orc wake up and head after me, lol! I was able to grab another sheep and kill him, but it took me several minutes to figure out what happened ;)

Whew! Down to 1 hitpoint

2006-07-23T15:09:00.000-04:00

Today was a whirlwind day, lots of enjoyable exp'ing. I love the Lufaise Meadows zone and I'm so pleased that I was able to camp here.

I've been working on cooking and was happy to find that I can buy supplies I need to make pet food deltas in the Safehold. This is great becaues I can craft right before I go out. Rye flour is a pain because it doesn't stack. It takes up a lot of space in my gobbie bag. A source right next to camp is excellent!

I was fighting a sheep today and my bee couldn't keep hate off of me. As I was trying to let my bee regain hate it came uncharmed with just a sliver of life left. I turned the bee to finish it off as the sheep hit two criticals in a row.

A poison landed on me and I started to madly try and save my skin. I got the bee killed and threw a cure on myself as the sheep continued to beat me up. I pulled out a crab familiar and prayed furiously.

I almost closed my eyes as I swung my axe. Finally I scored a critical hit against the sheep and it went down. With 1 hitpoint remaining, I was alive. I was alive. Then I felt that glorious surge that comes from leveling up. A narrow escape for the glory of my next level. Thanks to the powers that be of Vana'diel.

Awwww Yeahhhhh!

2006-07-20T14:22:00.000-04:00

Today, today I finally achieved that holy grail of beastmaster -- I hit level 35 and I learned "Leave." Oh, what a happy day :D

It was a bit understated, no bragging to the linkshell (ok, nobody was in the linkshell), no loud cries across the meadows, no bouncing around. But it was an amazing thing for me and I felt a deep sense of accomplishment when I felt that level surge hit and I mastered my new skill.

Of course I had to try it out, so I picked up some bees and went to fighting, using Leave just in the nick of time to gain full experience for the battle. Ah, what a nice thing it is =D

Leave seems to work just like Tame does -- if I tell my pet to leave in the area where it would usually be it becomes uncharmed and gradually rebuilds its hitpoints. If I tell it to leave outside of its normal spawn area, it disappears.

I haven't tried fighting a pet that has gotten to 100% after I've told it to leave to see if it gives me experience or not. I think that it would give experience after it is to 100% but I am not sure. I may test that in a lower level area.

I'm so happy that I got to 35. I called Kolui out with me for a little while once I leveled so that someone could celebrate with me :D I also wanted to get a good little buffer on 35 with some company.

I'm going to try and stick around Lufaise Meadows until level 37, and then move camps. Now it's just the push to level 40, and the ability to do BCNM 40!! Then it's on to 60 and full AF ;) So much to look forward to =D I love beastmaster.

Oh and on a side note, I get to use my drone earrings now, and sell the dodge for quite a nice little profit ^^

Pet TP?

2006-07-19T21:01:00.000-04:00

Today was a pretty good day. I was back in my Lufaise camp. I've tried to branch out a little bit, but so far I haven't had much luck with it. I've stuck near the zoneline to the Safehold and just over the bridge.

Buggards are tough to fight, they are aggressive, and they can't be charmed. Since there are a lot of them it's hard to travel around. Not to mention all the orcs hanging around make it even tougher!

I am wondering if my pets lose TP when I rest. I am sure that my put had full TP (a bee) and then I rested. When I had the bee fight another monster I used Sic, but my bee didn't have any TP. So now I'm not sure if he lost TP or if I was just mistaken and thought he had TP when he didn't. I guess I need to do some tests to find out. Maybe I'll go to a lower level area and play around with that some.

Hello Kolui

2006-07-13T21:27:00.000-04:00

Today I called my adventuring fellow Kolui out with me. It's been awhile since I've had him in the field with me, mostly because of my extended break from beastmaster. But now that I'm back to working on beastmaster regularly, it's good to have company in the form of an adventuring companion.

Kolui looks similar to a friend I had long ago. This friend went on adventures to other parts and I have lost touch with him since then. He was my best friend in Vana'diel and my heart still aches for him sometimes. I have surely guarded it much more closely since he left. His name was Olrox. I would like to adventure with him again :) Kolui has the same silver hair and wears it in the same style. He's also a pretty quiet fellow, which Olrox was. I sometimes wonder if they are related =P It makes me happy that Kolui enjoys adventuring with me and I'm glad he came along today.

I got to level 34 just before Kolui joined me. Right after I level is an ideal time to have him along. He's a very strong and smart adventurer, and I can be assured of relative safety when he is with me. So it's a good time to build up a buffer of experience.

With Kolui beside me I ventured out farther than I have before, moving over the bridge and east through narrow pass. After this pass the area opens up to a wide area bordering the coast. I didn't really go down there. We stayed up in the pass area and hugged the stone wall, moving directly across the open area to another pass farther east one time, then we headed back.

With Kolui to help me I ranged back and forth across the rope bridge. Since hitting level 34 some sheep are even match to me, so I decided to try using a sheep pet against a buggard. It went pretty well and I am now able to use buggards and some orcs for enemies. The large open area where they roam is dangerous though, because so many mobs cluster together. I think it will become even more ideal as I get higher in level.

I'm excited with hitting level 34 because I can now cast shell on myself. I don't really fight magic casting monsters here, with the exception of a few orcs, but it's still nice to have shell.

An interesting observation about this camp is the weather. Even if it is sunny out, I can still hear thunder and lightning in the background. The entire zone is a bit surreal, and I like it. I know a little bit about it from missions but I'm sure there is much more to be learned.

My final achievement of the day was questing for a venerer ring, which gives a nice +3 to accuracy. My white mage friend Lunaria and I ran all around Vana'diel trying to find a young girl who had run away. Surprisingly we caught up with her in Lufaise Meadows ;) Her friend rewarded each of us with a ring, which I will happily use in Lufaise =D

2006-07-12T17:22:00.000-04:00

I left from Bastok this morning because that's where my warrior journeys took me last night. I'd finished up an escort quest and used the experience scroll on beastmaster, then headed to my rental mog for the night.

So this morning I suited up in Bastok and rented a chocobo to take me to the swirling vortex in Valkurm Dunes. I used the vortex to teleport to Lufaise. This put me quite a ways away from my normal camp. I had to be sneaky working my way to it.

I picked up a bee on the way, which is a good thing. Just as I thought I was safely in the home stretch an incredibly tough orcish impailer came after me. I had my bee fight it and I ran for the Safehold! Lucky for me I made it ;)

After catching my breath I headed back out to happily start charming. I really like leveling beastmaster because it's so much different than leveling in a party job. It's peaceful, and I can truly play the way that I want to play.

Today I was frustrated when a white mage came up and started to kill the monsters I was using as pets and enemies! I could not figure out why he was doing it. He was much too high level to be getting any experience and according the beastmaster handbooks no Notorious Monsters spawned around my campsite.

The white mage seemed to understand that he was taking my pets and prey, and stopped killing them. He ran back and forth a few more times and threw random cures at me.

I have expanded my camp to cross the bridge to the bees just on the other side. I was bringing a bee from the opposite side back to the Safehold side when it came uncharmed, right in between two other bees. All three bees linked and attacked me. I quickly recharmed my bee and set it onto the Tough bee, then started to kite the other bee.

Kiting simply means running around with the monster. I was planning to let the Tough bee kill off my pet, then I was going to charm the bee I was kiting and set him on the tough. The white mage happened to come through as this was happening and cured me as the kited bee hit me. I was glad for his kindness then.

Another Very Tough sheep popped on me. There were no tough bees around, so I decided to experiment a little with my Tame ability. I charmed the sheep and to my surprise, charm stuck.

I immediately began to run for the Safehold. Just before I got there, the sheep came uncharmed and I used Tame. It worked and calmed the sheep. Just a moment later the sheep despawned. In about 60 seconds he respawned as a T. Mission accomplished =D

I think that he disappeared because I'd pulled him out of his spawn area. Later on I was working with bees. I mischarmed one bee, causing it and a friend right next to it to attack me.

I used Tame right away on the mischarmed bee. The bee calmed down and stopped attacking, but didn't disappear. I hadn't moved it out of its spawn area, and I think this is why it didn't despawn.

A second friendly white mage came by and put a Protect II on me as I leveled. I have seen quite a few high levels running by on their way to the safehold. It is nice when people show kindness to me.

I can hear the death bells

2006-07-10T14:20:00.000-04:00

Today I died a lot. Actually I died twice. Once I had reraise on and was able to get up quickly. The sheep can turn into really tough enemies really fast. They hit very hard. And they have a sleep-ga attack which can make things very messy.

The second time I died (again to a sheep!) I didn't have reraise up. I was very distraught until my ls mate Lunaria, who is a white mage, came to my rescue and raised me.

I was only about 500 experience points away from level 33, so Lunaria stuck around to make sure that I got there without dying. It was very nice of her =D After taking a brief break upon leveling, I moved back out to Lufaise.

I got to have a lot of fun with a Very Tough sheep. There is only one sheep that spawns in the camp right outside the zone. It repopped very tough, and I was worried! I noticed a tough bee buzzing around me. So I tried to charm the bee. My charm was successful! I immediately used Familiar (bst 2-hour, remember!) and sealed my charm onto the bee. Then I had him attack the sheep.

It was quite a thrilling fight, and it went very well. My bee performed perfectly and I was able to defeat the sheep quickly after the bee died. It was an effective way to deal with a VT popping up instead of a friendlier T. I should mention that I have been using food to help me with these mobs because they are pretty tough. I am still working with Bream sushi. I think that it has helped me defeat harder mobs (and it gives a + to charisma.)

On the Road Again

2006-07-09T22:14:00.000-04:00

Since I got to level 32 in my party I decided to try a camp that I have been very excited about - Lufaise Meadows. This camp is not accessible by everyone, as you must have cleared the first three Promyvions (Dem, Holla, and Mea) to gain access to the Tavnazian Archipelago region, where Lufaise Meadows are located.

Lucky for me, I had done it. I love this zone. It is beautiful and the music is gorgeous. The limited access also means that it is likely there will not be much competition for camps.

Following the lead of beastmasters who have gone before me, I chose to camp outside the first zone from Tavnazian Safehold (the I-6 zone from the Safehold map). This camp is mainly bees and a few sheep. These bees make very interesting and enemies.

Bees have pollen, which makes them harder to fight, and it makes them good pets. It does make ghetto-leaving (using heel and letting the pet be killed off) a little harder though, because sometimes when I use Sic my bee uses Pollen and gives itself a huge hitpoint boost. Pollen is a cure spell that bees can use as a TP attack.

I usually have my pet keep swinging until the very last minute on a bee, because if it uses pollen I want my pet to be right there with me, and not dead, haha. It can be pretty scary to have my pet die off only to see pollen restore my enemy to 30% hitpoints!

Another problem related to pollen is with my pets. Sometimes pollen will give my pets enough life that they are able to fight off the enemy without dying first giving me an experience cut.

It can also cause problems by allowing them to live so long they become uncharmed. That means two mobs attacking me at once which is not fun!

Another bee quirk I've noticed is the TP attack Final Sting. It can be good, bad, or ugly. It's good when final sting finishes off my pet and kills the mob. I don't have to do anything! It's bad when it doesn't finish off my pet and I take an exp cut because the mob always dies.

It's also bad when the mob uses final sting on me, because it hurts! It's ugly when I use Sic and my pet uses final sting, because it often leaves me with a strong mob and no pet. I had this happen only once and I hope it doesn't happen again.

EXP Party o.o

2006-07-08T18:11:00.000-04:00

Today I got a party invite out of nowhere! I was just preparing to head to Batallia to do some leveling and I got a tell asking me if I wanted to party. I decided that I would go for the party and try and experience how bst might help a group.

I changed my subjob to warrior to give me berserk and provoke, in case I should need it. I also grabbed a stack of crab jugs so that I would have crab pets. Later in the party a beast friend came by and mentioned that I could use tiger jugs, which I hadn't realized. I wished I'd brought tigers, but oh well - live and learn! I also grabbed some meat mithkabobs and headed to Garlaige Citadel, where the party was going to camp.

We ended up sitting around the Citadel for quite awhile, because it was overcamped and the camping parties were higher level than us and able to pull much faster. We ended up deciding to go back through Sauromugue Champaign to camp weapons there. We quickly got to the camp and our thief pulled weapons off the Spine of the World that runs through the Champaign.

We got experience very quickly because we were able to pull so fast, but our party leader kept complaining because we weren't getting much experience per kill. I know from leveling warrior to 75 and partying in merit parties that fast chains do add up to a lot of experience in the long run. I also remember it was hard to grasp that concept at lower levels. It was still annoying me to no end that the party leader wouldn't stop complaining about the exp.

Finally he convinced everyone to go back to the Citadel. I did a remote search and found that there were still 4-5 parties around our level there. Some of my linkshell mates were preparing for an event, so I courteously told my party that I was going to assist them, and quickly excused myself (I did go help my ls mates.)

Though the party leader was really, really annoying and we wasted a good hour in the Citadel at the beginning of the party, we got good experience when we moved to the weapon camp and I got to level 32. That meant I got to use my warrior's axe, which I enjoyed. I didn't really like being a party beastmaster, though. It was good not to worry about hate, but the party gave me a headache! I won't write parties off completely and I'm very open to duo'ing with another beastmaster, but as of right now I prefer to solo.

good beastmaster ;p

2006-07-06T14:08:00.000-04:00

I've found that my favorite place to camp is right around G/H 7+8 on the map. There are plenty of barrow mounds to camp (a couple have ghost pops at night, be careful). And two of the barrows have zones to the necropolis, should I need them. And I have a few times!

This particular camp I've been using tigers as pets and fighting other tigers and goblins, mostly. These goblins got me into trouble when I came out of a barrow mound and turned left and came face to face with a goblin gambler. I took off with the gobbie in tow, scanning for a tiger to be my pet.

I found the tiger and had him take care of the gambler, then used heel to allow the gambler to beat my pet. Just as I was about to finish the gambler off, a shaman came up and linked. Since the shaman was a Tough, I called a crab familiar to distract the goblin shaman and I ran off to find yet another tiger! I located a tiger and used him to successfully defeat the goblin. I was pretty happy and felt like a good beastmaster for handling the situation smoothly.

I have been mostly meleeing with my pets. I allow them to get a few hits, then join in the melee with them. I try to allow the pet to keep hate, and I gauge how much damage the monster is taking. When it seems to be under 10% I heel my pet and allow it to be killed off, then I finish off the mob. Most of the time this works very smoothly. I have been using a level 20 axe to help my pets keep hate, but I think that when I hit level 32 I will upgrade my axe and see how that goes.

I forgot to mention that I got the job ability Tame at level 30. It seems to be useful after a mischarm, to calm the angry beast down. But I haven't really experimented with it extensively to report exactly how it works. I also got the ability to cast the silence spell, and that has been useful on spell-casting goblins.

I 2-houred!

2006-07-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

Today was a good day. No deaths is always a good day. Batallia Downs has proven to be a good camp. There is no set camp, though I favored a couple of locations. It's very nice because there are barrows scattered all across it. This means there are plenty of escape routes, if needed, and there are plenty of safe camps. Some of the barrow mounds are not safe at night, however, because ghosts appear.

My Batallia map is now scrawled with notes telling me where each entrance to the Necropolis is, and where there are empty barrow mounds (and where ghosts appear at night). I have found that widescan is a great asset camping here, because it allows me to sit safely under a barrow mound and locate where potential pets and enemies are.

I am often in and out of the barrows. It really is ideal, the way they are scattered across the landscape. It makes working with aggro pets and working in a large area much easier. I don't need to worry about making long pulls back to camp because there are so many "camps" across the landscape. The only thing to watch for is the ghosts in some barrows at night. I am not sure if these ghosts can blood aggro if I am on top of the barrow mound (I haven't tried it to find out!) but I do try to be cautious about fighting on top of a barrow holding a ghost.

I used my 2 hour ability for the second time ever today. I had a tiger fighting an orcish impailer (they are really tough monsters!) and he quickly went right through my tiger. I decided to run when I saw my tiger dying so quickly. I scanned to find another pet and the only thing nearby was a tough tiger!

I figured I may as well go for it and tried a charm. Lucky for me my charm landed. I immediatly 2-houred, knowing I wouldn't be able to hold a tough for long otherwise. Then I set that tiger on the impailer and ran off to cure myself and rest. That impailer went through another tiger! My tiger was able to do enough damage for me to finish the impailer off, however. I felt pretty good because I used my 2 hour effectively!

Into the Barrows

2006-07-04T10:40:00.000-04:00

At first I thought I'd go to Qufim, though I didn't really want to. Batallia Downs sounded appealing, but was listed for level 31-33 in the guide. I decided to chance it and just take the time to explore, and hopefully get some exp while I was at it.

I started out going straight across the southern part of Batallia. Batallia Downs is the site of the Coveffe Barrows...many of these barrows dot the landscape of Batallia. Some of them have entrances down into Eldieme Necropolis, where the old elvaan nobility is buried. Though I do not want to go down into Eldieme, the barrows make handy camp or resting spots. I marked on my map each barrow that had an entrance to Eldieme.

I gradually turned North. I was able to charm tigers and birds to fight against other tigers and orcs. Orcs and goblins roam this zone. I discovered one barrow with a ghost in it, and marked that on my map so I would know to avoid it.

I moved back east and ended up along the coastline, which is at the northeast corner of the map. There I found clippers, tigers, orcs, and birds. It seemed to be a promising camp, with a barrow nearby and a lot of room between the mobs. By this time I was both tired and hungry, so after fighting a couple of orcs (using pet tigers) I hunkered down in the barrow to have a good nap.

death, death, death...and death!

2006-07-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

Well today has been a typical beastmaster day...I've died a lot, lol! It's days like these that make reraise earrings worth the money they cost. It really is frustrating to die so much, but I know that many more deaths will come and I need to stay used to it.

I scouted a bit for a new camp in Korroloka and I found one. It's a room with crabs that do not aggro or link. There are greater pugils in the room too, they are aggressive. And there's a room full on spiders (non aggro) nearby. Pets can be drawn from the spider room to the crab room. This worked out well because the crabs are still a little high for me to charm.

I quickly found that pugils are pretty tough to fight, even with even match pets against them. I died a couple of times to pugils. Their aggressive tendencies also mean that I have to be careful.

The rooms are actually set up as three rooms side by side. The middle room, which you enter from a tunnel, is small. The crab room is to the left and it's large. The spider room to the right is also large.

A pugil pops in that smaller middle room. Sometimes, it seems, a jelly pops instead of the pugil. That's very nice because jellies are very good pets :)

A party decided that they wanted to camp the crab room this morning and I decided to take a short break. I sat down in the tunnel and fell asleep to the sound of bat wings. When I awoke the party was still in the crab room and I found another beastmaster had moved into the spider room.

I decided to try and go back into the main part of Korroloka tunnel, which was a huge mistake.

First I found what seemed to be a safe spot in between two small ponds. There a leech killed me. This made me angry because a couple of beastmasters ran by me and none of them offered a cure, which would have allowed me to live.

I moved up the tunnel back towards Bastok and found another promising camp location. While I was fighting a spider a Giant gigas appeared! I backed away from the gigas straight into another spider, which linked with the one I was fighting. Death #4. Frustrated by this time I just ran back to Bastok. I listed some things on auction and nursed my wounds.

After consulting the bst guides I have I decided to try another camp. Korroloka was wearing on my nerves just a little. I got on the boat to Jeuno, ready to find a new camp.

A BST shell!

2006-07-01T13:25:00.000-04:00

Today was a very good day. I had a good time hunting in my Korroloka camp. I've begun to consult the beastmaster manuals to get advice on a new hunting spot because the monsters are starting to seem a bit weak. I may do some scouting farther into Korroloka.

I was busy battling monsters with my various pets when another beastmaster approached me and asked if I'd like to be part of a beastmaster linkshell. I quickly agreed! I haven't felt part of a linkshell in a long while, though there are a few that I flit in and out of. This gives me the opportunity to have a linkshell community as well as having beastmaster friends to ask for advice. I'm very happy about it.

I learned today that jellies are pretty tough little pets. Once you get past the fact that they are very, very hard to charm, they can stand up to a lot. My jelly got three links today (a spider and his buddy, and then a bat due to me telling my jelly to Sic and not seeing the bat in range.) He just kept on trucking along with the links and got the original spider down low enough for me to be able to defeat when the jelly finally died.

Most exciting event of today was hitting level 30. Finally! I am so excited about it. Now it's time to head back into town and get some tougher armor, then back into Korroloka to scout out a new camp!

Back in the Game!

2006-07-01T13:24:00.000-04:00

Ahhhhhhhh, back to beastmaster!! I must say, I'm thrilled. I quickly moved back into a comfort zone with it. It was so nice to be back in the game, that's for sure. I really love the solo aspect of beastmaster. I can just head to camp and be there on my own time, just me and my pets.

It took me a few minutes to reaclimate myself with all my job abilities and remember my old techniques, but after that it was smooth sailing. I went back to my Korroloka tunnel camp and it was quite nice. I am wondering if I will need to start exploring a new camp when I hit 30, however.

a break for meriting

2006-06-30T13:13:00.000-04:00

I took a break from bst for awhile to work on warrior and get some merits. I have been thinking hard about my merits because I have tried to consider beastmaster as I planned them out. Some merits have been easy and some have been tougher. I have put no merits in warrior traits because I want to benefit bst with my merits.

Since I am in my 20's right now, 2 merits on each skill work for beastmaster. Soon I will be level 30 and then 3 will work.

I capped critical hit % out, which is 4 levels. 3 of them will soon be active on bst. I have been working hard on leveling axe, and it has 6 levels of merits in it. Again 3 will soon be active on beastmaster. I hope to see this difference.

I have taken 3 merits in hitpoints, which all will soon be evident on beastmaster (giving me 30 extra hitpoints).

I took one merit in mp to help beastmaster, but I am not sure where to go as far as my hp/mp merit category now.

While I have been meriting I have also been doing escort quests weekly and have gotten beastmaster to level 29 and almost to 30 using the exp scroll rewards. I can't wait to get back to beastmaster and soon will do so!!

Taking a little vacation

2006-05-26T23:45:00.000-04:00

I'm taking a bit of a vacation from adventuring, kicking back around Vana'diel and enjoying it. I'm also going to be meriting warrior a little bit. I plan to get back to beastmaster in a couple of weeks :)

The Worst Luck

2006-04-30T22:35:00.000-04:00

I had an absolutely horrible day hunting today. First I mischarmed a bat in a really nasty area, which left me with links that I could just barely handle. Then I got aggro from a jelly while fighting other mobs. Then I got more links…

The list goes on. It was a rough day. I’m fighting almost exclusively on the main floor of Korroloka now, but I’m not going past the first land bridge very often. A gigas roams back and forth under it and he would probably eat me alive.

Jellies make excellent pets and they would make my experience there easy and pain free. However, the jellies are also intensely hunted because they drop slime oil, a valuable item to find in Vana’diel. I’ll admit that when I run through Korroloka as warrior, I kill the jellies. I don’t think I’ll do this anymore if I see a beastmaster in the zone…I feel the pain too much.

I hit level 28 only to die and lose it. A most frustrating experience. It was so frustrating that I forked over the 44k gil and bought a reraise earring so that I could keep reraise on myself. It has 10 uses and hopefully I won’t go through them too fast.

I was able to use it twice today, however :/ The second time I used it I raised myself up only to be aggro’d and killed again by a jelly. That took the wind out of my sails. My homepoint was in Al Zahbi and I simply stayed there.

I decided to take advantage of being in town to cook some pet food. I make some pet food Delta and it was very exciting and rewarding to do so. I made two stacks of pet food and I increased my cooking skills as I cooked. These pet food biscuits restore almost three times the amount of health to a pet that a pet food Beta does. I think that this will make rewarding my pets more effective and useful, even though I’ve found it to be quite useful so far.

While I was in Al Zabhi an enemy army – the Undead Swarm – began advancing. I went to the gates to await the arrival and do my part for the city, though I am very low for such battles. I planned to send my crab familiar in and run out of area attack range. However, the swarm was turned back before it even reached the gates. Though it was good for the city it was a bit disappointing for me.

Speaking of crab familiar, I have started carrying jug pets with me – crab familiar, obviously. I don’t use it very much because native monsters are far stronger. But I have pulled a jug pet out a few times when I needed some quick extra help fighting a monster.

Familiar Fun

2006-04-28T15:34:00.000-04:00

Today I experienced the fun of using Familiar for the first time. Familiar is a beastmaster’s special ability, meant to be used in life or death situations. Until today I had never used it.

I had a red mage friend from my linkshell join me in the tunnel. He needed to level his archery and Korroloka tunnel worms are a good place to do that. He tossed me cures every now and then and it was nice to have some companionship.

I found a tough jelly on the main floor of the tunnel. My rdm friend encouraged me to charm it. It took four tries with my rdm (level 75) buddy curing me so that I didn’t get mauled. Cure pulls hate so the jelly kept hitting him.

I finally charmed the critter and then used my special ability – Familiar – which allows a beastmaster to keep a pet charmed for 30 minutes and increases the power of the pet. With my super strong pet and a level 75 red mage to cure me, I proceeded to plow through all the monsters sitting in my path. It was really a lot of fun and a nice change from the daily beastmaster grind!

After the red mage headed off for the day I kept going and hit level 27. 27 is an exciting level because I was able to use my RSE gloves. RSE is race specific equipment, and as an elvaan my gloves give a huge boost to magic points. I now have enough MP to cast three cure II’s, which feels like a luxury! I was also able to wean off the +MP earrings and went to +evasion earrings. They are -2 attack each and I really don’t like that, but I have to tough it out until I get to level 29 (I think) for dodge earrings which don’t have that same penalty.

Learning to Heel

2006-04-26T15:33:00.000-04:00

I’m pleased to say that I’m much better at heeling. Some more experienced beastmasters refer to “ghetto leave” in the bst manuals. I think this may be what they are referring to. At level 35 I’ll learn “Leave,” which is a much safer way to accomplish this same purpose.

I found at lower levels that I could not use Heel very much because it was far too dangerous, but now it’s not so dangerous. My pets build more hate for themselves and I have more hit points. I do sometimes still get pretty beaten up using heel, so I have to judge whether it is the best choice in each situation.

Using this heel technique allows me to get full experience for each battle (I don’t have to share with my pet). If it appears that the enemy will die before my pet – this usually happens if I’ve switched pets or if I’ve meleed too much with my pet – then I heel my pet to me. The monster follows my pet and kills it off. Then I take one or two hits to kill the monster off, collecting full experience for the battle.

Like I said, it seems to work most of the time, but it is a bit risky. I look forward to getting Leave.

The opposite situation sometimes occurs – the pet is going to die way too soon. I’ve gotten better at dealing with this too. Sometimes my pet just needs to get a few more hits in. I feed pet food in this case. I think that old school beastmasters don’t use pet food too much, but I like using it. I’ve been using Pet Food Beta, which is cheap and it gives my pet a little boost to get in a couple of extra swings. I think that I’ll need to switch to a higher quality pet food soon, though.

I have to be careful with the pet food while I melee. Sometimes it’s just right. Sometimes it isn’t enough and I still need to find a new pet to finish off the monster. But sometimes I feed my pet and then it ends up killing the monster so I take an exp cut. It’s a learning process for sure.

I figured out today that I could drop from the ledges in Korroloka, which is quite nice for getting around. I’m still mainly working on seeker bats, but sometimes I can find a jelly that I can charm. Jellies are resistant to charm, but if I get one – wow! They make excellent pets and I can normally take them through two monsters. I’ve died a few times from losing charm on them though :( I die a lot…

Getting Sic

2006-04-25T12:31:00.000-04:00

Another day in the tunnel of delights saw an early reward. I hit level 26 and learned the pet ability “Sic.” This delightful ability allows me to command my pets to use their “tp,” or tactical points, to do a special attack on the enemy monster.

I was very excited to learn Sic and used it with the first pet I could. I learned a fast lesson about it – I can’t pick which TP move my pet uses, and it may be AoE, lol! Basically it means that my pet can get hate from other monsters that get hit by the area move it does.

My first Sic was using a bat against a bat. I ordered the bat to sic his opponent which he did immediately! It was quite a rush until I realized that his “ultrasonic” move also hit a nearby worm. Luckily I’d decided to try sic out with relatively weak bats.

Allowing my pet to sic where it can get hate from other monsters is potentially dangerous because it causes all monsters hit by the tp move to attack my pet. Then not only is my pet getting hit by two or more monsters, all the attacks distract it. My pet will turn and attack one of the other monsters instead of the one I told it to.

Even though the monsters that my pet hit with its tp attack don’t turn on me, it’s still very dangerous because my pet dies faster and it may not do enough damage to my target for me to finish it off.

It’s a bit of an adventure and I’m finding I don’t use sic much of the time. I expect that I’ll use it more as I level more.

Kolui came and joined me for awhile today and I happily reached level 26. I was also saved a few times today by passing adventurers. A rdm soloing on worms sent out a couple of life saving cures. And a fellow beastmaster tossed me a few cures and cheered me on. She was in her 60’s. I cannot wait to reach that level myself.

I’m realizing that it’s going to be a long, slow road…I die quite a lot, and the experience is only marginal, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

I Seem to Like the Tunnels…

2006-04-24T20:29:00.000-04:00

Korroloka Tunnel is a good camp. I was able to settle into fighting almost right away. The zone line is pretty far away but this didn’t bother me as much as it did in other camps without a nearby zoneline.

I think this is because the camp is full of non-aggressive monsters. I really enjoy these camps where I don’t have to worry about aggro. I did have to watch for links, but I didn’t have to constantly watch my back as far as beastmen or other nasty critters were concerned.

I quickly established a rhythm of fighting bats. There are tons and tons of worms in the tunnel and the little bit I did get to exp on them was nice, because of course, they can’t chase me. But Korroloka is a very popular place for a lot of people, and most of them want the worms.

I was able to watch several blue mages soloing – quite the fun experience that was. Blue mage is a job that has come out of the new lands in only the past few weeks. It seems to be very powerful. It involves learning the techniques of various monsters of the land. I saw a lot of blue mages using the bee ability “pollen” which restores hitpoints. Blue magic appears to have no recast timer – very interesting indeed.

Another new job has surfaced along with blue mage – that of puppetmaster. I watched a few puppetmasters with their puppets. I saw what appeared to be a ranger puppet and a dark knight puppet, as well as a mage puppet. The mage was casting black magic. Very intriguing.

I quickly learned to watch out for bat links as I roamed back and forth in Korroloka. At this point I’m not going down onto the floor of the tunnel. I’m mainly just in front of the main floor and off a little side passage. I explored along the ledges that run to the side of the tunnel as well.

I learned a pretty deadly lesson when I crossed a small land bridge from on ledge to the other. A Gigas beastman was roaming underneath me and apparently spotted me. He quickly climbed the ledge and had me for breakfast :/

Thus far it appears that only the gigas and jelly-type monsters are aggressive, but I haven’t ventured deeply into the tunnel to completely verify this yet.

A Bit About Pet Food

2006-04-22T15:28:00.000-04:00

I awoke in the morning refreshed. I enjoyed stretching in my rent-a-room – Yep, I finished my mercenary tenure in Bastok (achieving rank 10 in the process) and am now back to my beloved Federation of Windurst.

One exciting discovery was a merchant in the chocobo stables of Bastok who sells pet food. He only sells low level pet food, but he sells it for an excellent price (around 80g per pet biscuit). I’ve had several close calls and a death or two that would have been prevented if my pet had had a little more life, so I’m trying to build my “Reward” instinct. Pet food gives a little more hit points to a pet that is failing fast. Pet Food Beta, what I’m buying now, gives 60hp.

I think the Aht Urghan merchant sells Pet Food Gamma, which restores 100hp. I want to find the merchant again because I will soon be upgrading to carrying Gamma. I’ll report in my journals when and where I find him or her again. This is critical because pet food from the auction house is very expensive.

Me, Kolui, and the Tree

2006-04-22T15:26:00.000-04:00

After a break for a week I was finally able to gear up and head out as beastmaster again. This week has been a big week across Vana’diel because the Tenshodo arranged to have a ship route to the other side of the world opened.

I was amazed to take the ship and step into the world of Aht Urghan (culture shock is an understatement!) It is so different than the side of Vana’diel that I am used to. The monsters there are also formidable and I can only venture out as warrior. I cannot wait to get beastmaster experienced enough to venture out into the new lands.

I found a pet food merchant in one of the new cities but now I cannot remember where. To say that the cities are big and confusing is an understatement… I am really eager to get beastmaster to a higher level and enjoy exploring there.

Today I decided to go back to Carpenter’s Landing. At level 23 the exp was slowing down quite a bit, but I wanted to be in a secure camp since I’d been out of practice for a couple of weeks. I decided to call my adventuring fellow, Kolui-Polui to go with me. I had a lot of fun adventuring with him and bit by bit I inched towards level 24.

Once I hit level 24 I stayed in Carpenter’s Landing until Kolui got tired and headed out. Then I headed on to Jeuno, charming random pets in Jugner Forest along the way. I got a good amount of experience doing this and was feeling quite proud of myself until I encountered a walking tree.

The walking tree conned tough to me and I had an even match pet. So I threw my funguar at the walking tree and quickly realized I needed a few more pets. The tree went through several pets and then got to me… It came down to one hit left in each of us. Unfortunately, the tree got me… I got a quick trip back to Aht Urghan, where I’d set my homepoint. Luckily there is a taru mage there that will warp adventurers back to Jeuno – or at least close by ;) and I headed in. I decided to try Korroloka Tunnel again, so I flew to Bastok to spend the night.

Oh Glorious Day

2006-04-16T21:40:00.000-04:00

It’s funny how such a smooth day of camping makes up for all the deaths to get to that day. It was just wonderful to have another day of perfect camping. I was again in Carpenter’s Landing. Same camp, same mobs, same drill. It was just nice.

I did need to zone a couple of times. One instance actually made me happy because I used a beastmaster only technique to escape. I was able to see that I really needed to zone because otherwise I was going to die. So I charmed my enemy! I was fighting a tough so it was a gamble as to whether the charm would stick or not. To my delight it did, and I was able to hurry to the zoneline without getting hit. I will file away that little trick for future use.

I got to level 23 today, a big level. I can now officially use jug pets! I did a little bit of reading in the beastmaster guides I haul around with me and decided that I should carry some crab jugs. I know that jugs aren’t often used in solo play, but it never hurts to be prepared.

After I got a good buffer of experience in level 23 I headed back for Jeuno. I took a nice leisurely walk back. I charmed a few pets and had them fight a little along the road. It was really a lot of fun. A high point for me was charming an even match tiger. It was my first tiger and somehow it felt very powerful and beastly ;)

As I ran across Battalia Downs I picked up an even match Mayfly to accompany me. It turned out that I needed the mayfly when a goblin leecher I was trying to avoid turned and saw me. Unfortunately my plans went awry when my mayfly came uncharmed and I then had two mobs on me. I managed to re-charm the mayfly as I ran to the Jeuno gates.

I’m thinking that I’ll move on to a new camp now. At least I have one in mind that I’d like to try. If it doesn’t work out, then I’ll go back to Carpenter’s Landing for another level. But tonight I my moghouse I cranked open the map case and pulled out my maps of Korroloka Tunnel. It’s another zone I’ve been looking forward to, so maybe I’ll scout it out tomorrow :)

Smooth, Just Smooth

2006-04-15T14:36:00.000-04:00

Today I journeyed out to Carpenter’s Landing. I chose the entrance to the Landing accessible from Jugner Forest. It’s the entrance beside the Maiden Spring. An interesting note is that chocobos can be ridden into Carpenter’s Landing. I didn’t know that until just a few days ago and it’s a good thing to know. The camp that I used was right at the zoneline, but a chocobo is good for scouting out camps safely.

I set up at the camp and hunkered down for a plate of bream sushi. Feeling strong and a bit more charming ;) I moved in. I found a pet and pitted it against a monster. At around 50% health I came to my pet’s aid. I was able to defeat the monsters in the camp this way. I got a little bit more beaten up than before, and I had a few close calls. On the whole, however, this strategy worked well. I got good amounts of experience.

Occasionally all the monsters around the camp would be toughs, so I would zone out the Jugner. There were two crabs and two pugils around the Maiden Spring that conned decent challenge or easy prey, and I would kill these. I had to be careful at night however, because a bogy hovers around the spring at night. It makes me wonder what the story of the little spring is…

I finally reached level 22, and once I got to that level I was able to comfortably stay in the cave. I began to grow more used to the camp and learn what I could and couldn’t do there, and how to get around. The funguars are aggressive and detect by sound, but often I could hug walls and run around them. Once past the first big room there’s a tunnel where I could often find another funguar that was perfect for a pet or to fight. There are bees just a little farther in that tunnel that make good pets. I don’t think the bees are aggressive.

I didn’t go far into those tunnels because the first room really provided all that I needed as far as hunting. I had a wonderful, smooth hunting session. I was able the skirt the funguars and move back and forth across the main room. There are also beetles in there that I could use as pets or enemies. The beetles are not aggressive.

I found a practical use for heel. I’d heel my pet to me after I ran to the zone line if I’d started them fighting far out in the room. That way when I went to melee with my pet, I wouldn’t be out in the middle of the room where a funguar might find me ;)

I also bought some pet food beta but haven’t really used it yet, so I’ll report more on that as I use it. I got halfway to level 23, which is exciting since at 23 I will be able to use jug pets.

Death Must be in Style -.-

2006-04-13T22:34:00.000-04:00

Today was another really rough day. I died about five times. It’s very tempting to get very frustrated, but I realize that as a beastmaster I’m going to die a lot, and it’s much better to take a good attitude towards it. Each death costs me exp, true, but it is also a valuable learning experience. I really want bst to be my second job, and so I need to learn to tough it out and move on.

First I went to Jugner to try running along the path using leeches against funguars. That worked out ok until I had a mischarm leading to links and goblin aggro. After that death I decided maybe I just wasn’t ready for the Jugner area and headed back to Bubu. I died a whole lot in Bubu, lol. I kept getting a Teleport-Mea from the same whm and I’m sure that I funded his retirement.

Bubu was frustrating because I just wasn’t finding any solid camps where I could be safe from goblins. I was also having trouble finding new pets to throw at my target enemies when the enemies killed off my first pets.

It was after dying to a pugil after it killed four pet crabs that the thought of trying to melee lightly with my pets occurred to me. I picked up some Bream Sushi in Jeuno. I selected it because it gives Vitality bonus as well as a Charisma bonus and and Accuracy bonus. I’m not sure how much the accuracy bonus comes into play at my level, but the vitality is useful for meleeing with my pets – I don’t get hit so hard, lol. And the charisma will help some with my charms…

After testing this approach it proved to be very successful. Once my pet got to about 50% health I’d start doing a little meleeing, using my judgment as to how much I should help or not. I still wanted the monster to kill my pet so that I’d get full exp. This works sometimes and other times my pet lives. But it’s safer than dying and so I’m pretty happy with the setup.

After this major breakthrough in beastmaster life I decided that it might work well at Carpenter’s Landing. A goblin got the best of me after a hard fight in Bubu and sent me on a quick trip to my homepoint in Jeuno. I settled down in my moghouse for the night, anticipating a new day at Carpenter’s Landing the next morning.

21 or Bust

2006-04-11T14:33:00.000-04:00

Today I moved back into Bubu dead set on getting the elusive level 21. I knew that a lot of new armor was awaiting me at 21 and I was ready for it. I started gingerly at the outpost, pitting easy preys against easy preys and decent challenges. To my surprise, there were quite a few campers around the outpost. I was forced to move farther in.

I made my way to the Mhaura town gates, hoping to camp near there. I was saddened when I saw another beastmaster there. I moved off to the northeast of Mhaura and found a camp similar to the one near the gates. I was able to hunt the same things; however, it was not as secure.

I picked dhalmels for pets and normally pitted them against crawlers. I found myself having to run into the safety of Mhaura several times, however. It was frustrating and I was gaining experience very, very slowly. At one point I decided to fight a goblin lecher. I will not do that again, at least not until I can use a silencing spell. Two of my pets got the leecher’s health down pretty far, but it was able to cast two powerful cure spells on itself. I ended up running into town again.

Finally after a few grueling hours I reached level 21. I was so happy. As I’d though, quite a few of the dhalmels were now even matches, and I was able to hunt a little more easily. I decided that I wanted to head for Jeuno to pick up my new armor. I fought along the way, and to my surprise, I’d gained over a thousand experience points by the time I made it to Tahrongi Canyon to pick up a chocobo.

After grinding away until 21 the experience that I got on the way to the chocobo stable seemed to flow easily and in a very short time. I’m not sure why that was. It cheered me a little, because I was frustrated from grinding to 21 and the several deaths between 20 and 21. I was even more cheered upon riding into Jeuno and selecting my new equipment. I then headed for the moghouse. I shed my armor and to a quick soak at the bathhouse, then I dropped into bed for a well-deserved nap ;)

Landing Again

2006-04-08T11:27:00.000-04:00

I have officially determined that this camp is frustrating. The dock is really the only safe place to camp. I’d gotten into a good system of engaging a tough mob with my pet then running to the dock-side of the wooden structure I talked about yesterday. When my pet died I’d grab a pugil from along the shoreline and have it fight the mob, then I’d run to the dock and wait for the monster to kill off my second pet (sometimes I needed to grab a beetle from beside the dock for a third pet).

I didn’t worry about heeling my pets and I didn’t worry about having a pet when my enemy died. I’d rather take the exp cut than die. Things were going pretty smoothly until an orc discovered me in my “safe spot” beside the structure. I had a pet battling a flytrap when the orc aggro’d me. When the flytrap killed my pet I was able to charm the flytrap and I fought alongside it to kill the orc.

I decided shortly after that, however, to try out a new camp. First I rode to Jugner Forest to the lake in the North of the zone. That didn’t work out too well, since I was killed by a tiger pretty quickly. A linkshell member passing through Jugner gave me a raise and I headed for the Carpenter’s Landing zone off the Maiden Spring in Jugner Forest. I am pretty sure that it will be a choice campsite at level 21, but right now the monsters are mainly tough. I tried to charm a tough and pit it against another tough to clear the mobs out and change them to even matches, but my pet turned on me and I died :/

I decided to go to Buburimu Peninsula since it’s more familiar to me and my luck in Junger and Carpenter’s Landing was not good. I started out by the outpost and decided to work my way down to Mhaura. That actually ended up working really well, and I got about 1k experience going down to the end of the mountains, where the mobs became higher levels.

I twisted my way around very tough goblins to the Mhaura town gates, then scouted there a little. I found a potentially good-looking camp of dhalmels and crawlers with some goblins roaming around. I didn’t stay because I needed to move back to Jeuno to prepare for Promathia missions.

I did have a nice fight with a Skeleton-type mob today. It was a tough and I two pets on it. Just as the second pet died and it started running towards me I cast Banish, a light type spell on it. The skeleton dropped dead at my feet. It was a great strategy and it made my day a little brighter :)

Carpenter’s Landing

2006-04-07T20:25:00.000-04:00

I decided to try Carpenter’s Landing as a campsite today. It was appealing because I’ve never done much there, it’s always fairly empty, and the camp I wanted to go to was accessed right through Sandy. It’s always nice to camp next to a city.

I figured out pretty quickly that this was not going to be an easy camp. There’s a tunnel leading into the zone which would have been a good camp at level 17-18, I think. But at 19 I needed to move farther into the zone. There are beetles and bees in Carpenter’s Landing which are not aggressive. But there are Orcs roaming all around that are. There are also funguars, but they’re not as much of a problem because they stay isolated in their little areas (there are one or two in the tunnel leading into the zone, however).

At the landing are some pugils which are not aggressive and make good pets. An interesting non-aggressive monster called a flytrap lives near the water as well. These are pretty strong and seem a little resistant to charm. There is a nice, safe camp at the dock on the landing. The problem with this camp, however, it that it is too far away from the other end of the bank where the mobs I ideally wanted to be fighting were.

I ended up dying a couple of times today from getting aggro from orcs. It was frustrating but I wanted to persist at the camp because I wanted experience at a dangerous camp while I’m still low level. I located a spot along the shore that seems relatively safe, but I have to be sure that I’m right at the waterline or orcs can aggro. The spot is next to a wooden structure. It seems like perhaps barge repairs are made on/at the structure.

In hindsight I could have tried heeling my pets to the dock which is a very safe camp, but heeling itself is a little risky. I did manage to save myself from death at one point and had a good beastmaster moment doing it. I had a pet fighting a flytrap when an orc aggro’d me. My pet died so both the orc and the flytrap were on me. I grabbed a bettle pet and told it to attack the flytrap then I engaged the orc. My beetle finished of the flytrap then came to aid me in fighting the orc. The orc killed the beetle, but I was able to finish it off. I got a pretty high experience chain from it and I was very happy.

Carpenter’s Landing is still a really tough camp though, mainly due to all the aggro potential from Orcs and the lack of a good camp spot on the side of the bank that I needed to be on. I got to level 20 though, and I think that I will head back to Carpenter’s Landing to get a better buffer and experiment there a little bit more…

A Perfect Day

2006-04-05T11:23:00.000-04:00

Today was a perfect day. No deaths at all. I’m starting to grow a little used to dying, so today was a real treat ;) I went to Ordelles again and spent the entire day there. It’s an excellent camp. The camp room itself has no aggressive monsters so it was very relaxed. I was able to fight for a little and then take good breaks to regain my wind and will to fight. I made a note in my Beastmaster Anthologies (the guidebook I’m always thumbing through) that Ordelles is an excellent camp. It’s suggested again for some higher levels and I may revisit.

Today I mostly gave up trying to heel my pets to have them killed off. It seems more worth it just to take the slight experience cut and remain safe myself. I also began to try and get my enemy down much lower than I had been before I fight it. I’d been fighting at 30% if that was all my pet could get it down to. However, today I chose to seek a new pet if the monster’s health was still so high. It kept me safer. I shot for 10% health or under.

Sometimes this resulted in a pet who won with half of his health left, which is a little annoying. So I worked more on pet swapping. I’d send the half health pet in and stand beside a fresh new pet. As soon as the old pet died I’d charm the fresh pet and send it into battle. Often I could find a decent challenge pet, which is not so strong, to send in and my enemy would defeat that pet so that I could get full experience for the battle.

My favorite battle was when the enemy was basically dead itself when it killed my pet and required only one swing from me to finish it off. This happened a couple of times. I also found that I was able to go without resting for longer because I was sending in pets to do most of the work for me. I still wasn’t able to build much tp though. I know that a lot of bsts build tp to finish off their enemy with a weaponskill. I’m still resting too often to do that reliably, however.

Slowly and steadily I hit level 18, and then 19 just before I decided to call it a day and head to Sandy to gear up for Bastok mission 7-2 and Dynamis Windurst (both wins!)

In the Alleys and Under the Streets

2006-04-02T07:20:00.000-04:00

Today I decided to venture across the world to try a completely new area. Some veteran beastmasters have compiled a guide of sorts giving excellent outlines for all areas to level in. Upon thumbing through the guide I came across the entry for Ordelles Cave. I’d been there before briefly for some questing and had thought it was pretty, so I decided to give it a shot. Ordelles caves crisscross deep beneath the roads and hills of La Theine Plateau.

I flew to Sandoria by airship and grabbed a chocobo. It’s so nice to be able to choco from the cities. I followed the Sandorian soldiers right up to the entrance of the caves I wanted to use. They have a lookout posted or something. I didn’t enquire because they didn’t look all too eager to speak to me. I suppose it’s because I’m Elvaan and not from Sandy.

I scouted around the first room of the caves and quickly found an abundance of bats that do not aggro! There were also two crabs. Farther in I discovered bunnies and goblins. All toughs. Most of the bats were toughs too.

I started with some bats and things were going relatively smoothly. I found that I was getting beaten up a lot after the fights, however. My pets were also getting linked on by other bats if I was not careful.

I decided to play a little bit with the “heel” and “stay” commands. Heel allowed me to tell my pet to stop fighting and return to me. Stay allowed me to tell my pet to remain where it was. I figured out that Heel could allow me to have my pet killed off just before the mob was killed so that I could gain full experience. One problem with this, however, was that I got a lot of enmity for using the pet commands and often the monster would turn on me.

Another problem that I quickly and painfully discovered involved linking bats. Once my pet was killed off the enemy bat would fly to me. The problem with this was that he was joined by other bats on the way to me. It was a very painful situation.

This caused my first death of the day. After this death I homepointed back to Jeuno and secured a teleport to the Crag of Holla in La Theine. I decided I’d try out “funguar alley” until level 17. I had been enjoying Ordelles but thought it might prove to be a better camp when I had a level on me. Funguar alley is a system of three deep chasms connected by tunnels to the north of the crag. I headed down into the first chasm and discovered an alternate entrance to Ordelles at one end of it.

I chose to head to the other end, however. I found out pretty fast that funguars are aggressive! They also have special moves to place just about every negative status effect possible onto their prey. I liked being down in the chasms, it’s quite an idyllic location with pleasant green and plants everywhere. Some of the plants even float. It was a nice change from the more arid Tahrongi.

I battled up and down the chasm until an even match funguar used a paralyze breath on me and I stayed paralyzed through most of the fight. This allowed to funguar to neatly finish me off and I took a quick trip right back to Jeuno.

A friend gave me a teleport to Holla again and I chose to go back to Ordelles because I was very close to level 17, even with the death. After a few bat fights, I hit my level and Ordelles became an even more appealing camp. Another beastmaster arrived after I had been there awhile. There were plenty of pets and prey for two bsts of our level so we just worked the camp alongside one another. I did learn that it is good beastmaster etiquette to leave my job information shown so that another bst scouting for camps will be able to see.

Going Under

2006-04-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

I was getting a little bored of Tahrongi Canyon, so I decided to give the Horutoto Ruins a try. I’m very familiar with them from doing many missions for Windurst down there. I used the J-7 entrance from East Saruta. This is also known as Lily’s Tower, though I’m not sure why.

I moved into the tower and through the cracked wall in one of the corner rooms. This leads into an area full of mobs. I moved past the first goblins and skeletons, which were too weak for me.

I quickly found an area with beetles and bats that conned from decent challenge up to toughs. I was able to work with these monsters a little. It was hard to find a solid camp so I sort of roamed.

I learned a valuable lesson here: bomb type monsters cannot be charmed, haha! Luckily it was a fairly weak bomb that I tried to charm and I was able to defeat it. I found an area with good tough goblins, but it wasn’t a safe area, and there were really no safe places to pull to. At the time I hadn’t read up on the Heel pet command so I didn’t realize that I could have used that to my advantage in the area.

I moved back to the beetles and ended up having a beetle spawn on top of me. This and the monster I’d been fighting quickly led to my death and a trip to Bubu, where my homepoint was set. So I ended up back in Tahrongi anyways!

I was very close to level 16 so I decided to just stay in the canyon. I had my most disappointing death so far there. I had set an even match dhalmel against a tough dhalmel and my pet was dead so I was working on killing off the tough. I missed a cure spell, so it was down to me with about two percent health and I’d say he had about one percent. I had just prepared to use my weapon skill when the dhalmel scored a critical hit and killed me. I was forced to homepoint and I was really upset. It had been such a close fight and I would have leveled off of it.

After cooling down for awhile I got back out and got my level, then called it a night on beastmaster and headed back to town to rest for some Promethia missions.

A Lesson in Friends, Foes, and Following

2006-03-29T23:37:00.000-05:00

As morning dawned I decided to call my adventuring fellow. His name is Kolui-Polui and he chooses to visit with me for a short time every few days. His resemblance to a very good friend is uncanny, and I am glad of it for this friend has long been lost to me.

Kolui is very quiet and never talks much, but he is a good companion. He’s quite a bit stronger than me, so I was able to move into the dhalmel camp near the Meriphataud Mountains zone and fight dhalmels with him and only a little assistance from pets.

He’s currently practicing the healing arts (though he’s still a good swordsman!) and it was nice to have someone who could backup heal, and who could also debuff the mobs.
I truly enjoy my time with Kolui. A close friend, the adventurer mithra Kestra, has an adventuring fellow who she does quite a lot with, and who has grown quite skilled. I hope that Kolui and I will have a bond like that.

I know that Kolui will be especially excited when I reach my 30’s because he’s currently level 32. Hopefully we’ll be able to level up together then.

After Kolui left I was able to play more with pitting even match dhalmels against tough enemies. My targets were mainly dhalmels and yagudo. It is very thrilling. I am becoming better able to judge when I can finish a mob off and when I should run or throw several easy prey pets in the way to wear the tough mob down more.

I hit level 15 as I was experimenting more and it enabled me to fight even more effectively. I also learned more about using my Wide Scan ability to my advantage. I can locate mobs to use as pets, obviously. I can also set my radar to track a specific mob. I find this most helpful. I locate a tough mob that I’d like to fight and set my radar on that one.

Then I move over the terrain until I can find an even match mob to charm for a pet. My radar has been tracking my tough target, so I’m able to charm a pet and quickly move back to the tough mob for the fight. This eliminates some frustration that comes from finding a good target and then loosing them as I search for a pet (those dhalmel move fast!)

Besides learning that I need to be familiar with my camp area, since I tend to range across it and could come across an aggressive monster, I also learned I need to watch for links. Obviously I learned this the other day when a mischarm on a bird found me running for my life from that bird and his friend. But I learned a different aspect of linking monsters today.

Monsters will link on my pets. This is ok when I’m fighting an easy prey. Maybe even a decent challenge. The linked monster will not come to me when his buddy does – it will stay and only the original target will come. There is still a problem though. I found this out with dhalmels. I set an even match dhalmel onto a tough dhalmel. Another dhalmel came to aid his buddy and the two of them together made short work of my pet.

The problem with this became clear when a relatively healthy dhalmel came tearing towards me – my pet hadn’t had enough time to do significant damage to the tough dhalmel, and I had to resort to tossing quite a few easy preys at the dhalmel to get it weakened enough to where I could fight it. (on a side note, I learned to use monster weaknesses to my advantage in this kind of situation – saplings can sometimes intimidate dhalmels because beasts are weak to plantoids – so I tried to find saplings to throw at dhalmels if I needed a quick escape).

All in all, today was wonderful. I learned a lot, then snuck back to Jeuno to spend more gil on beastmaster in celebration of reaching level 15 and the ability to ride a chocobo from the cities! I plan to look through the guidebooks and see if I can find a new place to try camping for my next beastmaster session. I hope that soon beastmaster will be my primary focus.

Back to Beastmaster

2006-03-28T22:32:00.000-05:00

I had to take several days away from beastmaster. I managed to get to Rank 7 Bastok, I merited warrior a little (and died twice ; ;) and did a few other odds and ends. The biggest end was getting my white mage to level 37. It was very satisfying to know that I am done with that job, though I still eventually need to get the teleports.

But today I headed back out as beastmaster. I decided to give Tahrongi Canyon another go and I am very, very glad that I did. I was close to level 14 already, so I spent some time hunting easy prey enemies on the way through the pass and hit level 14. Bastok took the Kolshushu Region so I took a quick detour into Bubu to set my homepoint. I normally hesitate to change my homepoint, but as beastmaster I feel like it’s the best idea.

I’m also normally hesitant to spend gil and to camp notorious monsters, but for beastmaster I seem to watch the gil fall through my fingers. It’s deeply satisfying to feel excited about getting the best gear for my job. I’m truly loving bst and I’m happy to have a second job that I really enjoy. All of my subjobs felt like chores. This is fun.

I was immediately excited when I checked a dhalmel con and saw “even match” scroll by. This is what the veteran bsts have been talking about! I’ll admit that I was frustrated before because I couldn’t really find even match pets. I did some more reading through my guidebooks this week and found that that is somewhat normal at lower levels. So I went into today’s hunt with a more positive attitude and wasn’t expecting even matches.

But when I saw that dhalmel my heart beat faster. I hunkered down for a minute to refresh my mp and flip quickly through my guidebook again. I know this will soon be second nature, but a brief review helped me feel ready for the fight.

Nearby I spotted a tough dhalmel. I moved up to the even match dhalmel, muttered a brief prayer, and started charming. Success! I had a dhalmel pet. I immediately told him to fight the tough dhalmel and ran off in the other direction, towards the crag.

The Tough dhalmel finished off my pet and so I grabbed a few bees nearby and let the dhalmel tear through them in rapid succession, then engaged the dhalmel to finish him off. Victory! It was so wonderful. I realize now, in hindsite, that I probably could have engaged and defeated the dhalmel a little sooner, rather than throw several pets at him after he finished off my even match pet. But I’m still learning so it’s ok.

After this exciting victory, night was falling. I found a few crawlers and some easy prey bees, onions, and rabbits to practice my charming skills on before I found a small camp and hunkered down for the night.

A Little More Work

2006-03-23T23:54:00.000-05:00

Wow, this is really tough. I spent some more time working with pets and I really only have good success with the easy preys pitted against easy preys. In Tahrongi it is hard to find even matches to charm. After a close call just after hitting 13 I decided to roam some and fight with easy preys to give myself a bit of a buffer.

I set my homepoint just inside the Meriphataud Mountains zone and moved back into Tahrongi. I visited my homepoint once when trying to trade up pets. A yagudo killed my akbaba and I failed a charm on a new bird, resulting in that bird and his buddy coming after me. So the two birds and the yagudo destroyed me.

Other than that, however, the afternoon was death free. Pet swapping is not easy. I like crawlers as pets so far. They seem to stand up to quite a bit and they can do some good damage. I can pit a crawler against a tough yagudo and then throw a couple of easy preys at it, allowing me to finish off the yagudo alive.

I roamed up and and down Tahrongi a few times and didn’t really find a place to camp. All of this still feels so new and raw. I’m unsure of what to expect and what to do. I thumb through the beastmaster guides when I’m resting for a few minutes, but I have the feeling that a lot of this is going to be figuring things out on my own.

I turned and headed back for windy as the sun began to sink. I needed to move away and reflect. A friend was also urging me to return to town and to my delivery box, where I discovered a gift – a scroll of Erase J So I’ll probably push white mage on up to 37 now so that I can sell that gear off and be done with it. Tonight I plan to spend more time reading beastmaster strategy. I’m also going to be studying foods. It doesn’t seem that my usual sole sushi is going to cover my needs as bst. Time for some research.

Tahrongi Again

2006-03-22T21:32:00.000-05:00

I decided to make an attempt at Tahrongi again today. All the works by veteran beastmasters that I’ve read have suggested that I should seek even match pets and face them off against even match or tough mobs. However, I seem to have trouble finding even match pets. I find plenty of tough enemies and plenty of decent challenge pets, but not really any even matches. It has been perplexing me.

I did want to give it a try again today, however. The area around Windy is my hunting grounds, I know it intimately. I am eager to level there. With other jobs, I’m forced to move to where the parties are. That means Valkurm Dunes. But I don’t want to go to the dunes with beastmaster. It’s a little frustrating to have to shift paradigm and learn a totally new way of leveling, but at the same time, it is exciting. It is exciting to think that I can carve out my own camps, that I can make my own choices, that I can fight the mobs that I want to fight.

So I really want to stay on this continent and not move to the more populated Bastok or Sandy side leveling places. I headed straight back for the dhalmel area early today. I was able to see that it just wasn’t going to work out, however.

I managed to charm a tough dhalmel. I quickly learned that tough mobs do not stay charmed long. The dhalmel kept turning and attacking me before I even found a mob to have it fight. I ended up zoning into Bubu to get away from my own pet! I’m very glad I went /whm and I can’t wait until I get protect.

I had another close call with a tough yagudo. I had to zone him as well. I’m trying to learn the limits of what I can finish off myself after my pet has died. On tough mobs, my pet has to do most of the damage, leaving only sliver for me. Otherwise the tough mob will tear through my defenses.

I chose to work up towards the Crag of Mea thinking that perhaps there would be a good camp around there. I did have some success there and there are plenty of pets. It’s still frustrating though, because most of them are easy preys. I found some decent challenges and pitted them against other decent challenges. That brought in moderately good experience for me.

Thumbing through my thick beastmaster volumes I found the suggestion that I should try and camp near the Meriphataud Mountains zoneline. I headed that way from the crag. I enjoyed the trip over there. I found a tree with two crawlers and pitted the crawlers against each other with great success.

I soon found an area teaming with mobs just west of the Meriphataud zone. I know the area because I leveled red mage a little there with a friend. There is a section of bones just up against the mountain wall and I have to be care there. At night undead spawn, and I’m sure they would present quite a problem for me at this level.

There are akababa bird mobs in that area and I found them to be very good pets. Bees and onions also seem to make excellent pets. They hit pretty hard. I pitted some birds against each other and I also took on some Yagudo. This worked well, though I had to send several mobs at each yagudo. I’m not sure if this is normal or not.

There are still frustratingly few even matches. I didn’t have much time at that camp before I needed take a break and rest, however, so I still need to explore it more. I found a cave to make camp for the night, and I plan to read a little more about this region and the opinions of seasoned beastmasters.

Moving Up

2006-03-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

At level 11, I realized that Saruta was not going to offer me much anymore, so I began the trek to Tahrongi Canyon. I also decided to go with a whm sub from here on out. I’m very familiar with Tahrongi because I solo’d my first job, Monk, up to around level 14 there. It’s been quite awhile and I was really surprised to find that the onions and saplings there were already only easy preys with a few decent challenges.

I moved through Ahopahgo Pass practicing more charming and fighting on these easy mobs. I also tried working a little on goblins and crawlers but wasn’t having much luck there. I began to get my first taste of failed charms here as well. I got to level 12 simply experimenting and learning more about my new job class.

I worked my way to the dhalmels by the Buburimu zone and attempted to fight crawlers at the tree nearby there. I’d successfully defeated a crawler only to find myself being beaten on by a goblin. In a last ditch attempt to save my own life I tried to charm a tough dhalmel. I failed my charm and between the dhalmel and the goblin I was quickly toasted. A quick trip back to Windy was the end of my beastmaster journey for the day.

I switched back to warrior and got rank 4 and rank 5 Bastok with a few friends, bringing me a little closer on my trek back to the Windy side (I’m truly miserable as a mercenary for Bastok).

My Second Adventure

2006-03-19T21:04:00.000-05:00

On the second day of leveling I headed back out to the same spot on the Nompipi river. I was found there by a Mithran white mage friend. With her assistance I was able to range all over East Saruta. I melee’d for the most part, since with her help I didn’t need a pet. I reached level 9 in this way.

Shortly after reaching level 9 it was time for some events with my warrior so I headed into Windy to change jobs. We did several quests and had a good bit of fun. I also secured help to defeat the rank 3 dragon in order to satisfy my Bastoker employers.

As soon as I could, however, I returned to beastmaster. The pull of excitement for me is great. It is a completely new job to me! I learned through studying the words of more experienced beastmasters that a certain Notorious Monster moves through East Saruta and will drop a ribbon granting the wearer +2 Charisma – a delightful little item for the baby beastmaster.

I set out to camp this NM, a rabbit of the name Sharp-Eared Ropipi. She spawns around the southernmost tower of the Horutoto Ruins, where I had been just the day before. I spent a good 2 and a half hours camping her, defeating easy prey enemies all around me as I camped. I reached level 10 and 11 off these easy enemies.

Finally little Ropipi popped. My mithran friend, this time adventuring as Summoner, aided me in the fight against Ropipi. Carbuncle and I were victorious (I kited Ropipi for several minutes while looking for a crawler pet, but couldn’t find one). I got my ribbon, which I wear proudly. It was an excellent and victorious end to the day.