Hi everyone. Thanks for stopping by again as we get this new year started and boy did we get it started right. As you are probably aware, I've been away for the past month visiting family and friends in New Zealand. It was great trip and the time off work went by so fast as it tends to do. I was fortunate enough to have this past week off as well after we got back home on the 29th and the time was well spent recovering from the trip (which was an epic adventure in and of itself) and catching up with FFXI friends and activities.
So while I was away, the Nyzul static got together a couple of times for some 100 runs which ended in some success with Al and Loren picking up their askar hats and Byany picking up his Denali. It was nice to come back from vacation to see that they had been able to see some success in the hat department.
This past Tuesday saw us all back together again for the first time in 4 weeks and what a session we had. With 3 hats left to obtain for people, we were just hoping to knock off a couple and maybe finish up next week. How about Askar first try which I ganked as it was my #1 item since starting, Denali 2nd run for Dyl and Askar 3rd run for Enin. The 3 hats we needed in 3 runs! It was beautiful. The 4th run was to 40 in hoes of knocking off some Denali legs for Byany but the turtle gave us Goliard trews which also went to Enin. 4 for 4 in one night of which all 4 were needed items! Unheard of for us.
Personally, I only have Askar hands and Goliard feet to go before I have all the gear I wanted from Nyzul. I should probably get the pants too to complete the Goliard set but we'll see. So as we get closer to finishing with Nyzul Isle, the plans for a Salvage static are starting to be made. It looks like most if not all the people in the current group are interested in Salvage as well as a couple of outsiders joining up with us. I'm hoping for 8-10 solid people. Stay tuned as we look to start this new venture in February.
With new years falling on Thursday, it was doubtful we'd do our normal 2 runs due to people being away drunk/hungover/miscellaneous so we ended up doing some Brenner. My first time trying it and I haven't had as much fun in a while. Being able to kill ones friends is the height of enjoyment and killing certain friends is even better...right By?
One of my happiest moments in FFXI. I'll have you all know that while By did kill me a couple of times, he had help! Also, PLD/DNC is hax when trying to melee them. I tried Al a couple of times as SAM/DNC and got owned each time though I did get a little pay backs lighting him up with a skillchain when Silkitty and I teamed up against him.
All in all, its cool to see that each job has its strength. Where a SAM might destroy another melee face to face, they fail against PLDs but that same PLD wouldn't stand much of a chance against a BLM for example.
I hope we go and do that some more. Super fun just messing around with friends.
This past week also enabled me to get a few things finished up or close to it. Al helped me out with skilling up Archery for SAM by letting me shoot his targets while pets tanked. Currently sitting at 222 skill with 8 levels to go. Spamming Sidewinder is going to be fun too. I had a chance to take it to SE Apollyon and see how it did and even with 222 skill, my acc seemed good. The numbers put out were kinda nice too. Heres a shot of Sidewinder spammage while skill in the Mire with Al...
I had to redo a gorget before I went away also since Flame gorget only really covered Kasha for me. I decided to get a Shadow gorget for Penta as well for the day I get my Tomoe (for which I have 2 popsets now) so thanks again for the help those of you who helped.
And this week also saw me finish my SAM AF upgrades when i finished off my hat. I have no need for the feet or body upgrades so I'll be moving on to BST and WAR.
Lastly this week, I got ~10 merits or so with which I was able to finish off Overwhelm and start finishing Blade Bash. Once Blade Bash is done, I am done with SAM specific merits and will move on to RDM. I know I still have to get stuck into STR but those 3 9's are scary. Having so many jobs to merit is beginning to be a pain >.>
On a merit side note, congrats Al on zerging that last 10-12k Imperial Standing for your Perdu GA as well as finishing off the GA merits. Now you're a real WAR eh? :p
Well, we're all caught up now. Get ready for a fun year. It's started off so well and it is exciting to consider to possibilities for the coming year. Hope you'll follow along and leave me comments etc to motivate me to write more :p
Cya soon!