The song of Roland will play

Just in time for the conclusion of this months' campaign...

Pouches upon pouches upon pouches...

 ...which saw me doing lots and lots of what you see above. So much so that I was waking up earlier than usual so I could have a solid amount of time to farm as many pouches and cinders as I could.

Turning pouches to plates, and depositing into what appears to be a not so sturdy crate.

After procuring 76 pouches on Friday morning, I popped them all in hopes of having enough to beat the statistical average by 33 and finish the trial.

Press Your Luck...

 Unfortunately, after popping the pouches, I still had 41 plates remaining to finish the trial. With 24 hours to go in campaign, I was not really looking to do another session of Qilin, still needing 4 more riftcinders. My LS came through, however, with one guy selling me the 14 plates he had for 75k each, and another member coming through with a loan so I could purchase the remaining 27.

The trial is finished!

 So with that, the most difficult stage of Empryean Weapons was complete! I have no regrets - I know this sword is going to be amazing when finished!

With metal plates out of the way, I proceeded to one more Voidwatch session the following morning (yesterday, during the last hours of campaign). I only wanted to kill 30-40 Morta in hopes of getting any of the remaining 4 riftcinders. I lucked out and got 3, planning to use Ambuscade to buy the remaining riftcinder. I also lucked out and was able to sell the loose 14 plates I received to a LS mate along with 2 riftdross for a good gil haul. All the Belladonna Sap I had received has also sold as of this writing, although a friend has 3 stacks still on him that I can begin selling as well.

After some solid Ambuscade, I had 60 riftcinders and completed the final upgrade for Magian Trial Almace!

(Ok, not final, but seriously who on any server has turned in 3,000 riftcinders for Afterglow?)

Thanks VW! It's been real!

I want to thank Yzzerdd in particular for allowing me to use one of his alternate accounts to make this trial actually doable. Without the extra chest pop each battle, I definitely would not have had enough time to farm Voidwatch during campaign to get all the materials I needed. It went by efficiently enough to not drive me completely insane.

So now that campaign is over, what's next for me?

Well as expected, time to make Tenzen my...dispenser.

I have enough experience with Tenzen that I have a spellset dedicated specifically to fighting him. On D with a Vile Elixir +1, I can definitely solo him. However, I have already joined two pick up groups that fought him on VD and three members were the same both times. One guy controls the PLD and the BRD and the BRD does a great job of sleeping the tarus, and the PLD has a full +1 Souveran set and an afterglowed Burtgang. We have fairly efficient runs and it is always good to walk away with two cases/boxes/parcels each fight. Also, one guy is working on a relic AG and is trading me his boulders for my plutons.

Between those two runs and some purchases, I have 600 boulders already. I am saving the Beitetsu cases/boxes/parcels for the eventual AG of my Burtgang - I haven't forgotten that! - and trading in the boulders.

Of course, 300 of those boulders had to go for the 119 upgrade on Almace. Unfortunately after lots of playing with the DPS spreadsheet, the closest I could get to my current TP set and one including a mainhand Almace (with AM3) was -140 DPS. This means I have to last a while longer with Tanmo +1/Nibiru A as my go to for BLU. It is looking like when I do finish the AG upgrade for Almace that Tanmo +1 will be the better offhand sword. I do not have any current plans to make a Tizona. I'm not counting it out right now, but it seems very unlikely.

So until that upgrade process is done, my playtime will likely look like this:

1) Farm merit points - currently I am farming them while camping Warder of Dignity.

2) Join or make Tenzen PUG or go with LS mates.

3) Trade Plutons for Boulders and purchases Boulders with gil (currently about a million gil per stack on Cerb)

4) Rinse and repeat.

While doing this, I am slowly getting more JP for BLU. I am at 1350 right now.

I am of course hoping for another campaign like the rainbow campaign to make my AG farming a bit more efficient, but I am not counting on it. Still, after only two rounds of Tenzen I have already 3% done with the AG trial. That's promising!

Almace 119 AG Progress

291/10,000 Boulders

Sorry I did not get a chance to do my BLU post I promised last week. I will get on that soon!