On Saturday I suddenly decided to join Salvage group for the first time in my adventuring life. Actually it was just because I was curious, was bored, and wanted to hang out with Cornie. I know I wouldn’t have money (or effort) to put together any Salvage gear even if I could obtain the pieces. So it was just to see or try something new.

So, about 5 minutes before enter time, I went to Aht Urhgan Whitegate and obtained my first Salvage Permit ever!!!

When we entered, everyone was naked. It felt like a nudity club…. Was disturbing, but meh, can’t help it. I hate my naked MP, but this was even worse, because there was also a restriction which lower max MP even further!!!  (TwT) Gah!!!

But the fight wasn’t that difficult, because this team seem experienced. I, however, had to strain my focus more than usual because it’s new for me and I never read about Salvage before. Leader gave clear instruction and calls out lots on Cells (to remove restrictions or handicaps) very nicely, so I didn’t have much problem figuring out what to lot or to pass.

After a while, a piece of Usukane pants dropped.

I was tempted to lot!!! But I was new, and I didn’t know if I could assemble the piece for the real pants, and I already have Byakko Haidate so I hesitated and eventually didn’t lot.

Then, after more than an hour, we reached the boss room. It’s the hated Chariot of all time, ever since I started doing Nyzul Isle.

Buffing up, briefing plan, arranging parties. So only 2 SAMs will engage because they have Relic weapons. Others just stand afar and support.

This is not just any Chariot…. It spams Charm on melee people. The plan sounded cool at first, and the battle went nicely. But it turned out to be a big mess before long. Only Bind would work on charmed people, even though my Repose did stick. They said it wears off immediately so it’s useless. Bleh, damn it! Repose used to be my ultimate weapon against charmed comrade. Now it doesn’t work…. Blargh!

And the kiting…. My +8% movement speed wasn’t enough, so I would still get smashed on my head or slashed from the back. I have to learn to path better next time, because I kept running into one of the charmed people or the Chariot itself while running away.

After many deaths as well as attempts to recover, we finally wiped at 3 mins before time out.

The murderer?

One of our Samurais.

I can’t believe he hits me fore 695 on normal hit, non-critical.

(T.T)

The world is so cruel.

Next time I’ll run away faster, Shiki, I swear.

Again, this year the Sadistic Statistic Moogle (or according to Cornie, the GoogleMoogle) is back!

He’s the Moogle that keeps track of everyone’s statistics, the data such as Chat Frequency, NPC conversations, numbers of your battles, battles won, parties or alliances joined, as well as how many enemies you have defeated (which I believe only counting the finishing blows.)

So here’s mine! As of 14 May 2010.

Chat Frequency:  509588
NPC Conversation:  65528
Parties joined:   2966
Alliances joined:   443
Battles fought:  72016
Deaths:  868
Enemies defeated:   41390
GM calls made:  9

————————————————————–

Let’s compare it to last year, May 2009.

So, within 1 year time, here’s the change.
Chat Frequency:  +200324
NPC Conversation:  +21542
Parties joined:   +1018
Alliances joined:   +294
Battles fought:  +16492
Deaths:  +232
Enemies defeated:   +7296
GM calls made:  +5
Comparing to people whom I’ve talked to, for example, Cornie and Aurrek, I have died very few times! Prove me the master of escaping!! Woot!

Ah, and my total playtime from /playlog command reads:
375 days and 6 hours, approximated.

————————————————————–

By the way, Corn’s total stats (as of 12th May 2010) are;

Chat Frequency:  637357 (There, more than me, phew! Haha!)
NPC Conversation: 43081 (A lot! But mine’s still more, me lonely? Had to befriend NPCs!)
Parties joined:   2353 (A bit less then me? I don’t expect me to win like this O_o)
Alliances joined: 484 (We’re close!)
Battles fought: 53299 (Impossible >.> Corn, you are the slaughterhouse beast, why I fought more than you!?)
Deaths:  1398 (500+ more than me, wheeee!!)
Enemies defeated: 32873 (Right, because you usually are busy tanking for me when I kick stuff)
GM calls made: 7 (Way to go, hun)

————————————————————–

And Aurrek’s (12th May 2010):

Chat Frequency:  299591 (Hmmm how curious, not as high as I would expect)
NPC Conversation: 74498 (Gosh, you love those NPCs so much, Aurrek)
Parties joined:   2615 (Our stats is kind of close in this department)
Alliances joined: 548 (A bit more than me and Corn, you’re the big event guy, yeah!)
Battles fought: 94468 (Look whose number went skyrocket O_o OMG are you kidding me!?)
Deaths: 41xx (I zoned, but still this is A LOT!!! You master of death!)
Enemies defeated: 33202 (Close to Corn’s, a bit more)
GM calls made: Didn’t mention.

————————————————————–

And Arkades’ (15th May 2010)

Chat Frequency:  297563 (Average, is it?)
NPC Conversation: 74917 (You talked to NPCs even more than Aurrek did….wow)
Parties joined:   2949 (Almost draw with me on this one)
Alliances joined: 547 (Almost match Aurrek’s lol)
Battles fought: 117893 (Whoa, dude, we’re talking about 100k battles? OMG You maniac!)
Deaths:  2668 (Are you serious? Dying 2600 times out of 2900 parties joined? That’s a true PLD)
Enemies defeated: 45348 (Ark is a killer!)
GM calls made: Didn’t mention

————————————————————–

Fun XD

I’m looking for more people to compare stats with.  :3

Hmmmm! Today I went to Campaign Battle with Aurrek and he happened to mention a friend whose name was mighty familiar to me. After a few second of fast-rewinding my memory, I recalled him being one of those who were in alliance when I did my Divine Might battle.

So, off I go, browsing my old screenshot folders. And yes, I found them, dating back to 21 February 2010. You can read in detail >>> here <<< because I went back and wrote about it using the date when it happened.

Anyway, looking closely in the pictures, I found this funny trivial fact…

In this screenshot which I took immediately when we beat the battle,

The bottom left corner of the chatlog has it that….

>.> Uhh Aurrek, scene stealer! LOL

Then we were queuing up for D2 service. And as people were leaving, somehow Aurrek and Cornelious glared at each other. I don’t know what they were doing, but probably some kind of mind game, or a face-off to show who’s the macho man and the man of the match! Funny pic, and I was like staring at them hahaha!

RARW!!

Long story short, last night we finally beat Promyvian – Vahzl in Chains of Promathia Mission. It’s been like what? 8 months since our CoP static disbanded? So yeah we gathered and, after an ordeal of getting ready and preparing anima bottled to throw at the bosses (but unsuccessful), we set off to Pso’Xja. Full attack on the mission “The Enduring Tumult of War.” Or CoP5-1.

Joining up with Tenzen, Prishe, and Ulmia, we proceeded through Pso’Xja and to the Stone Door guarded by a Golem. We beat it (no screenshot, sadly) and entered. Rode the elevator down and headed to Promyvian – Vahzl entrance. Then got a mighty long cutscene.

Guess what? We have a company. =_=

That greying, balding guy is Nag’molada. He called us “imcompetent adventurers” because we were too slow in locating the mothercrystals, and he beat us to it. Oh yeah, I can’t reject because we actually took almost a year to get to the north tower of Pso’Xja. Duh!

However, he wasn’t alone! The boy also arrived!

The creepy boy, of whom I used to say “Whoa, he gave me this amulet that seems very important to the mission, he must be a good person!” (to which Leonidus commented “You will regret obtaining that amulet from the boy, *chuckle*”)

A lot of conversation went on, and many things happened, to which I wasn’t paying attention because I was flipping out to the party about the preparation of anima for this part of mission. It was unpleasant and I’ve been mean and bitchy, so I wont write about the detail. Anyway, Selh’teus started to communicate with Prishe who was shouting at either Nag’molada or Diabolos, I can’t remember.

Then, we saw an eerie dream, I wasn’t sure if it was happening at the time or was a flashback of someone’s memory. But I would guess the latter, because Lady Yve’noile mentioned 2 names, Selh’teus and Nag’molada. Also, I wasn’t reading the story carefully enough to remember it, because I was ragingly spamming my enter key to speed up the conversation, just so that I could go back to Jeuno to continue preparing anima.

Exactly 30 minutes later, we arrived in Promyvian – Vahzl, with a full set of 3 anima at Aika, and only 4 pairs of 2 animas (Hysteroanima [pain] and Terroanima [guilt]) because there was no Recollection of Fear on the Auction House, and Cornelious’ gallant attempt to farm us the Recollections had partly failed because of his modem and port-forwarding problem.

Anyway, Cornie got us 3 Recollection of Pains, netting me 3 more bottle of Hysteroanima. While I dug into Shinmai’s inventory and brought a Hysteroanima I already had, as well as  turned 4 Recollection of Guilts into 4 Terroanima. By the time we arrived at the entrance, Lusian had already fallen asleep. Of course it was about 2.30 A.M…. Can’t blame him for passing out on us.  After a few attempt to wake him up using various <call> in party, we figured he wouldn’t wake up. So, for safety, instead of attempting this part of mission as a party of 5, I asked Arkades to come and help.

Well, he had actually been standing by all the time since we started gathering. I found out that he had been doing nothing but staring at his Moogle (or maybe also beating up on him, who knows) awaiting my SOS in his Mog House. Thank you a million times, Ark. Oh, and Aurrek had offered to help me with CoP as well, but at that time he wasn’t online. ANd this mission trip wasn’t planned ahead, it was like a pop quiz brought up by Elfitine at around half past midnight. So I didn’t poke Aurrek earlier about this CoP run.

While Arkades was getting ready, we climbed up because he said he was positive he could warp up to any floor. Then after 1 death while commuting (Ark was all alone, so he died ; ; /cry) we all reunited.

Then, the lengthy climb, and to the battle!

First boss was quite easy. Though Aika popped it too fast by touching the Flux door as soon as we got there (I would have done the same if I wasn’t far behind, and I already did the unprepared touch-pop once at Golem door in Pso’Xja) the fight went smoothly without any death at all.

So….

The creepy door started to glow….

We joined up with Tenzen at first door. Then Louverance on next. And finally Ulmia on last boss’ door.

The second boss battle with Solicitor, however, didn’t go as nicely as the first. Though we took precaution this time, by Cornelious’ reminder not to pop the boss before mages were ready, the battle still went ugly later on.

Corn: “Wait, get ready first, don’t click the door. No touchy!”
Ark touches Cornelious.
Me: “OMGLOL!!!”
Corn: “Not you, big boy. You can touch me.”
Ark: “=_=;;”

Back to the battle, it killed Elfitine the Paladin near the end of fight. I was too panicked to remember the detail of what happened next, but we were successful in keeping others alive, so they kept fighting while Cornie nuked it, and eventually when we had no other measure, he beat it …. with …. a staff. Guess what, his whack was the finishing blow. He was all psyched up by that and Elfitine, who was still on the ground, went like “OMG Corn killed it!”

Then we proceeded up to the last floor. Taking rest for MP every once in a while.

After the last floor guardian boss, Elfitine was once again the dead body on the ground while we checked the Memory Flux for win. This battle was very hard. This angry boss, Ponderer, spammed a lot of AoE near the end. I couldn’t cure everyone fast enough so eventually Elfi and Aika died at the same time.

The chat log went:

AoE spams….
Cure bombs….
Aikanana casts Utsusemi: Ichi.
Arkades uses Meditate.
Mitaonsya cures self for 614 HP.
Elfitine was defeated by the Ponderer.
Aika was defeated by the Ponderer.
(Elfitine) ><
Arkades uses Seigan.
Arkades used Third Eye.
Mitaonsya weeps in sorrow before Elfitine.
(Aleczan) @#$&^#$%^@
Arkades uses Provoke on the Ponderer.
Mita Cures Arkades for 190 HP.
Arkades readies Tachi: Jinpu.
The Ponderer readies Trinary Tap.
Cornelious cures Arkades for 172 HP.
Aleczan cures Arkades for 190 HP.
Aleczan cures Arkades for 92 HP.
Mitaonsya cures Arkades for 91 HP.
(Cornelious) damnit
Aleczan casts Banish II. The Ponderer takes 42 points of dmg.
Cornelious starts casting Stun on the Ponderer.
Mitaonsya cures Arkades for 91 HP.
(Elfitine) %?
(Aleczan) 1
Arkades used Provoke on the Ponderer.
Aikanana starts casting Headbutt on the Ponderer.
(Mitaonsya) 1
Arkades uses Third Eye.
(Elfitine) go go
Cornelious defeats the Ponderer.
Aleczan cures Arkades for 190 HP.
(Elfitine) check
(Cornelious) READ THAT
(Cornelious) booya
(Cornelious) lol
(Cornelious) staff again!
(Elfitine) omg
(Aleczan) D:
(Cornelious) gandalf!
(Aikanana) >o<
(Aleczan) You psycho black mage.

That was so AWESOME!!!

Aika got up quickly after he died, and helped out with the fight while Elfi remained dead. So when we finished, Elfitine was the only corpse on the floor XD

So, in we go. And then to the Spire of Vahzl.

We met up again with Nag’molada. Now when it comes to the big decision, I like how SE make NPC characters ask, and look at me in hope of getting a correct answer. Then let us pick a choice…. Of course I asnwered “Yes.” So, Nag’molada made the path for us.

But well, things can’t go as smooth as it seem. Nag’molada called out for Selh’teus, but instead 3 Promy bosses showed up.

Buff up…. Get ready. Anima throwing order has been agreed. Full attack! We picked Agonizer first, just so we have plenty of anima to throw at the hardest boss.

The battle was so damn long. Especially in Agonizer. I think it lived for a very very long time after hitting 20% HP. Because we used 2 or 3 bottles of Terroanima to scare off the long-legged Cumulator while trying to finish off the creepy spider-tree. Battle went well. Difficult and long, but steady. No one died. In the end we had just a bottle of Terroanima and Hysteroanima left at Arkades. So, I would say our effort and time spent in getting animas was actually useful. Aika’s animas excluded, because he had them ready since long ago. Made me feel bad for not farming any Recollection of Fear earlier. ; ;

So once we won, Diabolos appeared and said something so stunning. The plot was so complicated and grand that I had waves of goosebumps. Oh no, we must stop this!!! Help!!!

After the long conversation, Prishe finally woke up and argued with Diabolos. She mush have known something… Hmmmm! And yeah I can’t hate her. She’s the type who bluntly speaks her thought and is headstrong. Very straightforward, almost seem demanding and self-centered.

She yelled at Diabolos…. And if I wasn’t dreaming, I think I saw him flinching at her words and got upset. Maybe he has some kind of sad memory and didn’t want to think about it. So he was like yelling back at her…. “What do you know!!!?”  It sounded bitter and painful. I’m really curious what had happened. We must find out by proceeding with the mission!

Hm… So yes, on Thursday, 13 May 2010 I talked to Aurrek and he happened to mention a friend named Optimussss (I can’t remember how many “s” LOL) and that rang a bell. I knew that guy, from somewhere. Then I recalled he was one of the helper when I went to do my Divine Might battle. DM is a battle in Sky which is closely related to Zillart missions. To participate in this battle you’ll required to at least have past ZM13: The Gate of the God, and be on, or past, ZM14: Ark Angels.

That epic gathering took place on 21 February 2010, according to the date on my screenshots. As far as I remember, we started off in Aht Urhgan Whiregate, and other people slowly popped into the alliance. Then each person made their own way to the place by themselves. So, after going back to the spot in the Shrine of Ru’Avitau to make sure I’ve already has a conversation with Lady Yve’noile and am eligible to enter the battle field of Divine Might, we gathered in front of La’Loff whatever that I cannot spell nor remember… and waited for the whole alliance to arrive.

It was a big event, therefore a lot of mishaps occurred. Some people could not come, some people recruited new members, some people left. Little delays added up, but eventually we were ready. I’m very grateful to those who put their effort to organize this run. Cornie had been monitoring this run since he heard from friends (maybe) that they were seeking people. Or maybe Cornie and his friend just saw the shout somewhere, I cannot remember the details. Anyway, he notified me of the run gathering in progress, telling me to wake up early to check on it, since it seemed the alliance would take several hours to assemble.

So, I woke up the next day and immediately logged on, then got invited, and headed to sky as mentioned above. After a long while, because hurling over such a big group of people is not an easy task, we were ready and talked about strategies in front of the Battle Field entrance. Some people got quite impatience and antsy, itching to kill some stuff, I guess. Then, following the long briefing, we all headed in.

While waiting on the BCNM platform…. That tiny room suddenly felt so packed, almost to the point of suffocating people LOL.

Since there were so many, many, many people, I took 3 screenshots instead of one just to try not to miss anyone.

And since I don’t personally know, or even familiar with most of them, I won’t really mention their names in my blog. Just see the screenshots for yourself if you want to find out who else were in this event.

Then we got up and starting to enter. After buffs and resting MP, I believe.

All pumped up and psyched, weren’t we? Yeah, full attack! Kill them! Get the earring!

Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present;

The Frightening Five!

Shadow Warriors or Warriors of Crystal something? I can’t recall what they were called.

Time to jump in and engage those badasses!

Sp the BLMs all gather out front, judging their casting range before calling time, to signal all mages to nuke at the same time. This process was done carefully to ensure that no one would nuke too late and cause other mages to die due to the enemy not dying.

However….

Things didn’t go according to the plan.

The bastard Taru. That @#$%#$%^@ jerk…..he warped back away and out of casting range, so only half of the BLMs’ spells landed correctly, resulting in a havoc breaking in the front line of battle. Tanks and melees ran in, mages ran away. But…. WHAM WHAM! AoE Bind and Silence. somehow got us baffled and by surprise. So…. 2 WHMs went down after the commotion passed, including me.

So yeah I fell into the crack on the floor and laid dead. While the fiends that was done slaying other adventurers walked back, they kind of trotted over me, or above me. First Elvaan, then Galka. GRRRR!

Hmmmmphhh!!! I shall have my revenge! You have my word!

The memero from that day is now very vague. Not only because it was long ago, but also because I was sleepy during the run and the day itself was so hectic for me. My memory got a bit messed up…. So well, I guess we eventually wiped and got timed out. So we had to sit outside and regroup again.

I can’t recall now what strategies did we change or alter from first round, but apparently it went better. Mobs were pulled correctly to the kit area, through the tunnel, and spread out to reduce disturbance from their AoE on the main mob’s tank. So we managed to kill them one by one, with a few sacrifices, like, for example, the BLMs – namely Cornelious and Blinks.

So yeah, like I mentioned in the more current entry that I just noticed it was Aurrek who stole the glory…. We finished off the last enemy – Ark Angel HM the hume eventually. The final blow was delivered by none other than Aurrek the PLD. Everyone hurray’ed and congratulated each other. Thanks were said, farewells were bid, Warp II was handed out all around. And a happy ending! Quest done, Earring received.

I, myself, selected Suppanomimi so that I can wear it on my WAR and THF when I play sub NIN.

When I woke up at noon, I was surprised to see Cornelious in the game still. He said he wasn’t sleepy yet, so we tried to think of some adventures to do. Bleh….it was hard to be creative in that department because I usually hang out by myself or just tag along with a group of friends. Thinking of something to do as a duo party has always been difficult for me even since I was playing with my boyfriend.

Anyway, I asked him if he’d like to go to Altepa Gate. He said yes, and we headed there. Long story short; we went in and found Lusheeta in there, sitting near the NMs platform. Since I didn’t want to be rude, and I recognized she’s one of Maxpeter’s best friends, I asked if she was hunting the NM. She said NM & EXP Ring (through auto-translation.) Therefore, we decided to leave and bid her a farewell. Once outside I was once again overheating my brain to think up a place to go. It was still difficult, damn!

So….while I was feeling frustrated with myself’s lack of creativity, Corny said he would pick a random letter from English alphabet and then go anywhere that starts with that letter. So I closed my eyes and poked a button on my keyboard, then tried to hit enter button, so we got “m.” in the chat log.

I couldn’t think of any place at the moment so Cornelious named a few, one of them was Merophatuad Mountains. So, we Teleport-Mea. Then when I thought about Meriph. the place Castle Oztroja popped up. So, I brought him there. We killed some Yags in NM room until each of them popped. No drop though. Then we left, and Corny said he wasn’t going to bed yet and that he would stay for a short time.

Therefore, off we go, to the Parradamo Tor, my favourite place to go and contemplate upon my lonesome self. Here are selected pics from the picnic. And Corny, if you want any of the pics in original size, just let me know, k? The original screenshots are 1600 pixels in my computer. These are resized (clickable.)

On the way to it, at nighttime Parradamo Tor looked like an enormous pile of cake in the distance. I love this deep blue colour of sky, it has slightly lighter shade near the horizon.

Waiting for the emission to die down so we can pass, I took an opportunity to take a screenshot.

When we arrived up top, it was almost dawn and the moon was setting on one side.

We sat down to wait for the sunrise. This was also the place I brought my fellow adventuring buddy to sit and take some pics.

I’ve always thought that the colour of sky in FFXI is wonderful. Nice graphic. And the colours could change so much it’s amazing. Look how it’s changing from night to day. That pinkish colour was pretty.

The deep blue sky lightened up. In the clouds, the reflection of golden ray from the rising sun shone. I couldn’t resist the urge to dance!

The light-coloured sun showed up. I danced a lively jig. Good morning Vana’diel!

Cornelious joined in, so there were 2 crackheads oops! sickos oops, no! weirdos dancing in the morning sun, atop the mountain. Hahahaha! Oh, and before we left Bastok, I told him we must bring screenshot gears, so he brought those…. At first I only wore my puzzle-face maker, Trainee Axe, but then I ran back into my Mog House to get the twin clubs from Valentione’s event.

After a few attempts, we managed to screenshot this.

Then I grabbed his bum and he got freaked and ran away it was also nearing dawn on Cornelious’ timezone, so he had to leave, heading to bed.

Good night, Corny! Sorry I kept you up, hope it wasn’t too much a torture. 

After that, I tele-ed out myself. Now see, the sky has no cloud, and it’s clear blue! Woot!

However, I like it more when the sky has various cloud formations. It looks more interesting that way.

I think I have a ton of screenshots from Parradamo Tor. I’ll upload them later.

So…. after leaving the Boyahda Tree and parted with Elwyn and Kujimaro, I dragged my sleepy head to King Ranperre’s Tomb along with Cornelious for this Treant NM. Actually I’ve seen this NM with Maxpeter a few times already. But I was never there soon enough to see the Saplings. So, when I heard from Cornelious that they will kill the Saplings soon, I got interested.

We arrived in the Ronfaure and Corny asked me to invite his friends, and they told him they got 2 or 3 sub DNC so there will be 3 Erase available at a time. Corny said, well, we have Esuna. So they started yelling he never told them he had a White Mage friend! lol! No! I’m not his WHM friend! I’m his MNK friend!!!

(Corny would object to my claim for sure, because whenever I met him in Sky, I was always White Mage, lol!!)

Anyway, when I arrived they were already killing some Saplings.  After killing 3 or 4 (as far as I saw) the big tree popped!

Well, this was a bad screenshot, because Corn and friends were still out there to the far left after finishing the last Sapling. =_=

Then we fought, it was a longer fight than I thought. And the NM ran around a lot because it has hate resetting move. The buffs removing move was also annoying.  I was frustrated, because I’ve always hated mobs that remove buffs. Seiryu, for example.

The fight went well, though not very smoothly. There was no fatal injuries, no NM stomping on mages (well it kinda poked and slapped Abigor around a bit, but no stomping.) And also….no drop lol! However, that was fun. Thanks for letting me in guys! Finally got that romantic & sweet title again, Mon Cherry.  ^^ Hehehe.

Oh, wait, after the fight, Cornelious was angry that the tree didn’t drop what he wanted, oops, wanted to go home the quickest way, so he blew himself up.

But hey, I was resting right there! Of course the worm aggroed me and Corny said oops, I forgot. LOL Yeah, people always forgot. I had at least 3 Ninjas doing the same thing to me before.

It’s ok though I have my lovely Repose. I really liked this spell since when it was newly added. It is truly a White Mage’s lifesaver. Through linkging, adding in party, as well as Dynamis runs, I’ve learned to master the quick-cast of Repose. Also, the other people were there looking out for me too. They got ready and engaged so quickly But when they saw it’s slept, they didn’t run in.

Abigor casted a teleport spell and we were out at a Telepoint Crag, leaving the only corpse behind Sorry Corny, dead body isn’t allowed in the taxi.

So it was time for me to log out and crawl into my bed. Good night! Sleep tight!