Zzzzing like I've never zzzzed before!

[thistlechaser]

Such a big FFXI day. Might be one of the biggest I've ever had? So tired, but playing with the big kids will do that to you. :)

The LS O-Hat runs were gathering in Jeuno, so I got there early and just hung out. Not seeking (of course), just standing around. Suddenly a /tell came in:



I was torn between laughing and crying. After seeking for 5 days straight, about 16 hours without getting a single invite, I got one when I wasn't seeking! Such horrible irony. But soon the O-Hat event started, and I forgot about that!

Right off the bat: gbeans is fall-down amazing. I had thought that this would be an EK (a small HNM LS our LS sometimes work with) run with them just helping us, but no! Beanie organized it all, and there wasn't an EK member in sight! (Eh, or there weren't any that I know of. I think it was all us and that other normal LS...)

Getting to the NM spawn site was amazingly painless. Sneaking/invisibling 18 people? No aggro, nothing! We /randomed to set the order for trading eye clusters, and I got high enough to get mine in today! Eeeeeek!

I'd say that the fights all went as well as could be expected. Unfortunately we had a total of three deaths over four fights, but these were such long hard fights (and we had only one WHM!!!) that that's not really too bad I think. (*snugs* to Beanie, Chip, and Niala!) The only thing I wasn't happy about was my own performance. I expected to miss a lot and not hit for much damage, but things were rough stunning-wise in the first battle. My macro was set up poorly (I've never used anything but [bt]), but when I changed it to [stnpc] I wasn't used to having to hit enter after hitting the macro, so the first couple times my stun didn't go off. :/ It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't said so often that I was a good stunner and that I beat the BLMs in XP parties and such. Bah. (And I'm not fishing for anyone to say "awww, it's okay!" or anything, this is just how I feel about how I did today.)

But I got my o-hat, so YAY! But I can't believe how hard the fights were. :) I did nothing but stare at fast-scrolling text for three hours, trying to spot what I would have to stun. *headache* I wasn't looking at the graphics at all. (Which might be why I don't have one single screenshot of any of the fights. Too busy!)

So once the fights were done I was starving and dead tired (I got very little sleep last night, again), but there were no melee 67s seeking, so I put up my flag. Minutes later, I got an invite! Oh so amusingly, we were going to XP on Steelshells. c.c (I've been skilling on those damned crabs like 24 of the last 48 hours! So tired of seeing them!) All through the party I just kept laughing and boggling that I was seeing Steelshells again! So sick of those crabs! (And amusingly, when invited to the party, the chick asked me "do you have scythe skilled?". Ha ha ha! Finally I had something people wanted!)

Oh so so so happy, I dinged 68! YAY! One major goal off my list! The party was really odd, but worked well. BLM, BLM, RDM, NIN, MNK, me (DRK). It was my first time ever being in a party with no healer, but we didn't need one. The NIN (Jessse) was amazing, and I told him so. I never worked with such a good NIN before. Held hate even through the cast-happy BLMs, even once when they used AM! We got about 10,500 XP in just over 2 hours. *BOGGLE* I never get numbers like those! I don't quite have a buffer yet (a few hundred short), but that will be fixed with Eco/Escort tomorrow.

Screenshot time~!

After helping Zee-whose-LJ-name-I-always-forget with her rank 5 thingie, I was came upon a Yag campfire. Which of these things does not belong? Which of these things is not the same~? Or however that song goes...

I tell you, I love the Tree. It's so peaceful and beautiful (assuming you ignore all the mobs that would happily eat your face). I took a screenshot for non-players, that's what I looked at while XPing for 2 hours tonight. :)

And lastly, people wanted to see my new armor, so here's a shot! I'm finally, finally rid of the leaping boots (after 60 levels of them!) and my ugly RK gloves. HQ thick hands and feet! I'm finally starting to look like a real DRK! Yay! (Since DRK AF sucks so badly, no one wears it for XPing and such. The Haub/Thick stuff is really the true DRK "AF".) One more level and I get the last piece of thick stuff and a new body piece! Then one more level after that I can trade in that horrible mask for an uglier o-hat! :D

So very happy! Accomplished so much today! Seems odd to think how unhappy I was with the game just a few days ago. I'm not going to stress out this week! Even if I get no parties at all all week! (Or I'll try not to, anyway. :P )

Comments

[aelice.livejournal.com]

I always hated the tree XD I liked the kinky dungeon levels like the oubliette. >_> Organic levels freak me out :(

Grats on the O-hat! :D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hee! I love the Tree because it's green and looks so alive! I hate, hate, hate the real dungeon-dungeon dungeons (like GS and QC and such).

Grats on the O-hat! :D

Thanks! :D

[kellios.livejournal.com]

Yay leveling and O-Hat! Glad to hear you're having better FFXI days.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

We actually did 5 fights ;3

And yes, I wanted to do a run for people who didn't have a HNM to go to for an Ohat, but wanted to go with good people and not randoms, so that's who I invited :3 I'm really happy / proud with how today turned out. It's a hard fight, but people stuck with it and conquored it.

For fights like this I've found that filtering so that I only see my party's actions helps to spare my sanity some. I should have recommended that to you if I'd thought ahead more --;

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

We actually did 5 fights ;3

Oh, duh, right! I was #4, then we had one person after me. (With the number of people we have left to do, do you think we'll get them all done next week?)

good people and not randoms, so that's who I invited :3 I'm really happy / proud with how today turned out.

It really did turn out well! You rock! :) That other LS was pretty nice to work with! Even the *twitch* Galka you stuck in my party. ;)

For fights like this I've found that filtering so that I only see my party's actions helps to spare my sanity some. I should have recommended that to you if I'd thought ahead more --;

*beats you* With all the stuff you were planning, I would hope that telling me things like that would totally fall off your list! I'm going to see if I can tighten my filters further, or failing that fight with the chat log in full screen mode. (The only downside of that would be it would be harder to see when I'm out of position.)

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

We have 3 people on the list now and 2 of Phalanx's people had /telled me that they couldn't get the hat this week, but they were still interested in getting it. So I would expect at least 2 more hats to be added if they can get their eyes in time. (Plus whatever other randomness happens. I'm not adding any more *people* to the list. So either the people who don't have one come up with a cluster of they don't [shrugs].)

Ookii is a nice galka :P How often do you get to play with a Galkan RDM, huh? I've actually partied with his BLM during a mission farming run :3

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ookii was very nice, for a galka. But they're so big and scary! You never know what they might... do. c.c

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

You mean... Something like this...? Don't sit down! (http://www.centragarden.net/ffxi/dontsitdown.jpg)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Poor Nif! :D

And after our last comment-exchange I was looking up more test hunting info. In MC it's only one orc that drops it (apparently the Warlord is a NM, not a family of DRK-types). The other choice is Doom Guard(s?) in Gustav Tunnel. I haven't yet found info if Doom Guard is a type or a NM as well...

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

Doh, [thinks] I know I helped someone get a DRK testi there recently, maybe we did kill the warlord o.O Doom Guards aren't NM, but they're kinda not happy. I can show you were they are sometime, but imagine a dungeon with a room full of undead and a scorpion here and there. Not fun to pull :/ Aren't there DRK goblins or something?

Ooh, somepages says Arch Demons drop them. That's good! Nif and I are going to be leveling our NPCs in Beastman controlled areas and Castle Baileys is under Beastman control this week. We could swing out there and smack the coffer key demons to get your testimony :3

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ooh, somepages says Arch Demons drop them. That's good! Nif and I are going to be leveling our NPCs in Beastman controlled areas and Castle Baileys is under Beastman control this week. We could swing out there and smack the coffer key demons to get your testimony :3

Word on Alla (as much as that can be believed) and my own experience says they're very rare drops there if they drop at all. We did the group key hunting thing for Ead, killing them for a couple hours, and didn't get one test dropped. (Three keys dropped, no tests!)

However, I'd still be happy to go stand at the zoneline if I'm online when you to go leveling though! :)

Doom Guards aren't NM, but they're kinda not happy. I can show you were they are sometime, but imagine a dungeon with a room full of undead and a scorpion here and there

Ugh. Sounds like the Warlord might be best then. At least he drops some high level spells that the people helping could have and sell!

Aren't there DRK goblins or something?

There are DRK gobs all over the place, but none of them drop tests. :/

Another stupid question from the non-player.

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

Isn't the Yagudo hat made out of a (killed) Yagudo? Shouldn't they be upset at having a Hume guy parading around in the corpse of one of their own species?

Or is it just a normal hat made to look like a Yagudo?

Either way, I like the screenshot. :)

Re: Another stupid question from the non-player.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I didn't do the quest to get the hat (I bought it from someone who did) so I don't know the whole storyline behind it. You do have to kill yags to get the hat, but I think you kill them to get some item they're holding, then a NPC uses that item to make the hat. So I don't think it's an actual head of a yag, just made to look like one.

But either way, I do wish yags would be more upset by it! They're smart enough to talk to us, one would think they'd be annoyed by seeing a hume walking around with a yag hat!

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Congrats! I was sort of watching the fights over D's shoulder. :) Sounds like you all did really well, and that's saying a lot for such a big undertaking. Glad you got your hat!

And the song is:

o/~ One of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong...

Or something like that. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And ah, yeah, that version of the song sounds more correct than the one I guessed. :)

[draymor.livejournal.com]

I did nothing but stare at fast-scrolling text for three hours, trying to spot what I would have to stun. *headache* I wasn't looking at the graphics at all. (Which might be why I don't have one single screenshot of any of the fights. Too busy!)

Story of my life :P

10k in 2 hours... you lucky piece of armor toting... I haven't gotten numbers that high since my early 60's >>;

Congrats on not wanting to bite heads off after you /logoff! >:D

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Story of my life :P

Ha ha, yeah. Very mage-like! :D

And thanks! :)