I'm averaging a week between posts now, probably to give me plenty to write about when I do.
We're still kicking over on Cerberus and making efficient work (most of the time) of the monsters we choose to fight.
So here's the rundown of the past 8 days of FFXI for me. Keep in mind for most of this time I was on break, so I was able to get some more play time than usual. I would like to think I made the most of it!
New Gear:
Shneddick Ring: I finished my SoA missions last week and chose this as my reward. Despite some "why didn't you get <insert other choice> instead?", I am very happy with this selection. It does stack with crimson so I actually move even faster than 18%. It helps no matter what since everything requires some type of traveling. It has made my salvage runs more efficient (more on that later), and in general has upped my efficiency. The other choice could have been the TH ring, but I decided against it since I can already get TH3. Vocane was not really a consideration because of my dark rings, and the one with the MAB and Acc (Karieyh ring I think?) was a side-grade at best.
Plus, I was effectively able to solo every SoA fight (with trusts). I did receive help from an LS mate for the Hades' fights and even he was completely shocked how efficient the final fight with Hades was. Blue mage is a powerful job.
Nibiru Cudgel x2: It took 9 fights to get the first cudgel. We got lots of Tabars and Grips though! Seriously, that fight was not nearly as taxing as we thought it may have been. We used August to tank (a trust I really really want by the way) and he was an absolute beast. We coordinated skill chains to keep the lanterns down, and really made the fight go quickly each time. I ended up getting the 2nd cudgel a couple days later on the first kill, so it took me 10 total kills of Kamohoalli to get both cudgels. They are a significant improvement over the Gabaxorea, and currently for me I think they are the best MDMG option. Unless 2x Colada with MAB is better, but still for my main use of them they work very very well.
Hagondes Coat +1: I spent more gil on this than I was hoping to. I saw first hand how terrible the Skirmish augment system really is. The fact you can get an augment that only has PDT on it and nothing extra is already terrible, but other options definitely do not have equal chance of occuring in my honest opinion. In likely 100 attempts, I saw MAB once, and MACC twice. If anybody has both on any of their gear, they are extremely lucky. I decided to do this during this past weeks' assistance campaign because at the time it was a viable alternative to Amalric body and Gyve body IF you get the right augment. What I did end up with is not bad for a standing piece - PDT -4%, MDT -4%, and Fast Cast +5. Still, could have been much more. On the upside, my BLU was able to solo a V-V-V Ra'Kaznar skirmish and that was my primary source of stones. I did buy some off the AH (and spent a good chunk of gil doing so) and used up vouchers to get more fragments to get stones from the NPC. Still as mentioned, decent standing piece.
Eschite Gauntlets, Souveran Diechlings, Lustratio Subligar: I cashed in two abjurations and got these gauntlets as improvements for my PLD. The Diechlings immediately went into my tanking set, but I am holding onto the Acro Breeches for situations where I don't need to tank (such as soloing mobs, etc.) since they are still a better DD piece. The subligar is a WS piece for CDC thanks to the huge DEX boost they offer in the leg slot. I haven't augmented the subligar yet but will likely path B it. The gauntlets went into my divine magic set with their very nice boost. I have not augmented them either since I really just need them for the divine magic skill.
Amalric Doublet: And my favorite acquisition of the week is this bad boy. I did spend a bit extra in getting the cursed piece as our LS leader had a Hexed Doublet -1 for sale for 10M gil. I thought for a while and even knowing that the HQ chance was low, I felt it was worth the chance. I know it equates to 1/4 of my stage 4 relic requirement, but I still wanted to try. While we fought Pakecet, we did get an Eschite Ore drop so I was able to get the stuff over to one of our shells' alchemists. Still, I ended up with just the NQ. I originally had them on Path A, but needed to move it to Path D for salvage (more on that in a bit). It did take us 3 attempts at Pakecet to get the V. Body to drop, but the first two ended in wipes. When we went for the 3rd and 4th attempts, we used PLD BLU GEO BLM WHM COR for the setup. Despite some worries that we wouldn't be able to do enough damage, we managed to kill Pakecet in about 5 minutes for the 1st kill. That is the one that had V.Body drop. I think the main reason it went so well is because our Geo has Idris and caused my Subduction spam to hit for 5k-7k per cast. That's a lot of damage. And since I popped, adds came to me and died in 1 cast of Entomb. For the 4th kill (I had an extra pop and others wanted potential drops) we added another BLU and killed it even quicker. I had to go afterward, but they kept most of that group and killed Vir'Ava a few times. Our PLD got Souveran Body on the 4th kill. A very efficient run.
Salvage report: With all these new acquisitions, how is salvage going you ask? Extremely well. I was fortunate to get double linen 3 times in the past week and despite still only going 2 times a day on average, I have made good progress on Alexandrite. I am averaging about 20 minutes in AR2 and am using two sets of BLU spell setups. I use a full MAB spell set for the first part of AR2 and SSR2, then switch to a melee spell setup for the Chariot floor in AR2 and NQ boss in SSR2. I buff before switching spells (Azuresets is great by the way - highly recommended for any blue mage that uses windower) and then by the time I need spells the cooldown has passed. My SSR2 best time is 16 minutes, not counting transit time to the zone, zoning in, and getting rid of initial pathos at the beginning. Gears now die in two casts (although they went to 1% before I switched the path on my Amalric Doublet to path D). I don't have to eat a fruit parfait any more, and can full time the Chaac belt when I get to the Alexandrite dropping mobs. Plus with the extra movement speed, I can clear floor 4 and get to the NQ boss without having to open the last door and going back to get more mobs. I am quite pleased with the efficiency of my runs now.
Relic/Mythic Progress: After spending 10M on the -1 doublet, I am restocking gil to purchase more silverpieces. I did acquire one since I last wrote, but now with my blue mage pretty much maxed out for salvage, I have more room to spend gil on pieces for Aegis.
Alexandrite: 14,601/30,000 - almost 50% there
23/50 Assaults - turned in Lebros and Ilrusi logs, working on Mamool Ja now.
other items all complete
16/100 Silverpieces
I did spend some time CPing this past week as well, and am now up to 772 JP on BLU - 3 away from another capacity point increase. I am doing accolade/sparks/bayld runs each day in Adoulin to fill out daily unity tasks and am getting some CP that way as well. I find those relaxing and obviously quite efficient on BLU. Sometimes I go to Escha to complete the tasks as well, but I make sure that, with the exception of Arcana, I am getting CP each kill. If you know of an Arcana spot that gives CP please let me know, as the only quick one I have is Sky.
So the plan is very simple for me - Alexandrite and Silver. Taking advantage of Gain XP as well is in my plans. I stocked up on SP keys if the gobbiebox item campaign returns as well.
Thanks for reading, and good luck with the abjuration keys this week!
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