Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The Home Stretch

I need to post more frequently I know.

It's been 15 days since my last post and there's a lot to report in that span of time.

New gear

Adhemar Bonnet & Adhemar Wristbands

Even though the DPS increase is only slight by adding these pieces to my set, they are nonetheless nice to have. Both pieces are mainstays in my CDC set now and have path B cap augments. I ended up spending most of my beads on Eschalixirs because the price of them has went up significantly since I last needed to use them.

To get both abjurations, I ended up soloing Perithoos and Yilan with trusts. I knew Perithoos wouldn't be a problem, but I anticipated a much harder fight in attempting Yilan. My motivation to try and solo was that I have already made solo work of Belphegor, Selkit, and Taelmoth in Reisenjima which are content 129. Yilan is content 125. I was very surprised how quickly he went down to CDC spam. I used Spectral Floe and Blinding Fulgor on the adds (from my recollection, they went down after one Spectral Floe but to be honest I don't remember if I ever followed it up with Blinding Fulgor). I used my typical trust setup of Gessho, Apururu, Selh'teus, Arciela I, and Joachim. Quick win and got the abjuration on the 1st kill.

Makes me want to go back to Escha Zi'tah and finish up the T2s there that I have not killed yet. Perhaps the T3s are solo-able as well?

Petrov Ring

Another solo kill here. Took me 2 to get this to drop. Added to my TP set in place of Rajas ring for the minor DPS increase.

Ishvara Earring

From my Perithoos kills. Will use in my PLD Atonement set.

Herculean Helm (melee type)

As written last time, one of my LS mates & I successfully duo'd Oryx with trusts and both of us on BLU. It takes a while to just whittle him down but we did it enough to get each of us another Herculean Helm. I augmented this one as a melee piece and currently have augments of Acc+11, Att+10, and TA+4. I have since thrown more Fern stones at it trying to improve the accuracy and attack, but keeping the TA at 3 or 4. So far no luck in that department. Reisenjima augments are a fickle thing.

Soloing NMs

As mentioned above, I have expanded the list of "NMs I have soloed" and while I have found regular success in Belphegor and Selkit, I have yet to have a reliable kill of Taelmoth - I think I am like 2 for 7 on him. The times I have died are times I did not erase bind in time and/or ate a Dark Orb during Azure Lore.

I tried to solo the Tonberry NM in Reisenjima but I keep failing that as well. I erased my Tonberry hate just for this guy and unfortunately I have yet to clear him. I want the Valorous Mitts he drops for my PLD as it is the only slot where I do not have a Reisenjima piece. I would like to retire my Acro Gauntlets soon. I also would probably still like some Despair finger gauntlets so I can re-cap my haste to 25% on PLD. It's the little math things in this game that make it interesting to me.

I would like to try Crom Dubh solo just to see if I can keep away from the darkness TP move. There's other NMs I do not yet have a clear on that would also be interesting to try.

Also as mentioned, going through the T2s in Zi'tah will be fun to attempt. I will also need to do some 125 unity nms in the near future.

Aegis

Still no further progress on this. After last night's attempt at the Khimaira NM in Reisenjima, I need to make this a priority. Not saying I would not have died and caused a wipe with a 99 Aegis, but perhaps that extra -15% MDT would have helped me stay alive for one or two attack rounds longer so the whm could heal me.

Burtgang

I have made the most progress in this department since I last wrote. I am "pulling a Kaht" with the linen purses now. What that means is that I am not popping the purses and just collecting them in my Mog House until I have enough to where the law of averages takes effect. In loose Alexandrite, What I do is turn in my loose alexandrite and store the purses in my mog house. Since I started this, I am now at 51 purses. I usually get at least 3 salvage runs in per day so this amount represents 17 days of salvage. This does not take into account the handful of times I have gotten a double linen drop. It also does not take into account the two times I messed up and killed the rampart in AR2 that pops the Khimaira...before it popped the Khimaira. I bought two "penalty stacks" of alex when this happened both times. I also now switch to clubs to feed the rampart TP and turn the f*#& around when it begins to use reinforcements.

So as of this morning, the alex count is:

25,064/30,000 Alexandrite turned in
51 Linen Purses on Hand

So for those that may not know how Linen purses work, they give on average 75 Alexandrite upon usage. Sure, that range is a bit large because you can pop one and get 50, or pop it and get 99. and by that logic, the purses actually give 74.5 Alexandrite upon usage. So at 51 purses, I can expect to get 51*75 = 3825 Alexandrite when using. That puts me at almost 29k Alexandrite. That means I need to do Salvage about 8 more times to finish up.

Now once I finish up, I will need to return myself to a regular sleep schedule. In real life, I have been waking up a bit early in the morning with the purpose of doing 2 or 3 salvage runs. A bit too early in my opinion. I need to focus on getting back onto a regular sleep schedule as I have a lot of things going on in real life during the next few months. I will need to scale back my playtime just a bit, but especially in the morning hours. Sure I will still play some in the morning, but that time will be reduced by about 50%. This will make my trials take a bit longer, but that is fine. My real life is awesome and great, and I don't want this game to interrupt that in any way.

To do

* Finish Alexandrite
* Finish Aegis trials
* Get Adhemar Jacket and/or Herculean Vest
* (perhaps) upgrade my Almace from level 90.
* (perhaps) do a Aeonic weapon
* (perhaps) consider AG options
* (definitely) complete Burtgang trials

Thanks for reading!

Monday, March 14, 2016

The progress is small, but the impact is big.

I've continued to make small bits of progress, but after having found more and more things to do, my Burtgang progress rate has decreased slightly.

Sure I am still making progress, and have hit some milestones since I last wrote.

Let's look at the major acquisitions since last time I wrote.

Aegis (85): I easily finished the first two trials of Aegis in the same day. The only complaint was that the mega boss pop item was not a 100% drop (but still high, like 67%). I did end up with a random M. Silverpiece after killing one of the NMs so that was a nice surprise. I'm stuck on Goublefaupe for now, but it's more because my login time has been limited as of late. When I do log in, I usually am doing other things like Salvage, LS events, or daily RoE quests. I have 2/5 of the required kills. I'm still hoping to get a lucky TH augment on one of the extra pairs of Odyssean Cuisses I have (more on that in a minute) but the DM campaign has given me nothing of note.

Loyalist Sabatons: From my first SR win. Unfortunately everything they offer is surpassed by gear I already have. My other choices were a DRG polearm and something else that did not fit my sets. They currently occupy a spot in my mog safe.

Lilitu Headpiece: From SR win #2. This was augmented with 9 STR and 9 DEX. It's a good BLU Physical spell piece right now, so that's where it is.

Asklepian Belt: PLD Divine Magic piece. Every little bit helps there.

Tanmogayi +1: Boom! Our LS did Sarama twice this week and our time on the 1st night was spent ironing out the exact strategy. Once we experimented with the setup and strategy, we clobbered him a bunch on the 2nd night. For the most party I was getting Sarama Hides and at one point the Haidate he drops (another Mog House slot). On our last kill before a few people ran out of accolades, the last coffer dropped me this sword - not the nq, but the hq. This sword is beastly. Since I have no plans on getting a Tizona (but haven't forgotten about the 90 Almace that is sitting in my mog house), this is my new main hand sword. I have retired my Claidheamh Soluis and put it in the mog house. I swung that sword a lot so don't really want to give it to the reclaimer. I am still using Nibiru in the off-hand on the DEX and Acc path for now. Sarama proved pretty evasive so I needed all my ACC gear as well as sublime sushi. My best parse was about 85% Accuracy. Of course, our mythic/empryean AG BLU wiped the floor with us, but that's what he's supposed to do :).

Cacoethic Ring (+1): I haven't used this piece just yet (finished upgrading it during Gain XP yesterday) but next time I need to adjust my accuracy set I will include this. Since I'll likely be going for max ACC, I probably will use Enlivened and this for a total of +19 accuracy in the ring slots.

Mythic Progress: I ended up getting pretty lucky and got 3 double linen runs since the last post I wrote. I crossed 20k Alexandrite turned in, and now have 7 assaults remaining in Leujaoam. I had two LS mates help me out with Orichalcum Survey because that assault is still super random with when it puts out the needed item.

Alexandrite: 21,203/30,000

Reisenjima gear/augments/NM killing: I have successfully and reliably soloed Belphegor multiple times, getting a 2nd pair of Herculean Boots and lots of stones. I'm not buying any more stones. He's an easy solo for me providing I don't get unlucky with sleepga (and even then, he's still very manageable). You need to remove his MAB boost because his magic damage increases significantly with this up. I probably should consider using poison potions all the time when fighting him just to protect against sleepga. I use Gessho to tank him and he never has any issues holding hate against me. I've gotten two extra pairs of Odyssean Cuisses and an extra pair of Herculean Boots, plus lots of stones. I've been using the Fern stones to try for better augments on my Herculean gear. At the moment, I have TA+10 total on my 3 melee Herculean pieces, along with nearly 90 accuracy.

My favorite, though, are these on Herculean gloves:



The feet are still a small work in progress, but I do have more accuracy on them now and the Triple attack +3 to go with them.

To do: I want another Herculean Helm to augment with melee stats. While I did significantly improve my Taeon head with +9 DEX, +15 Att/Acc, and +12 WS Acc, I know that Herc helm can have better overall augments as well as superior statistics. Unfortunately, I cannot solo Oryx with Gessho tanking. One of my LS mates also needs a helm and since I got Oryx to 30% solo, I am pretty sure we can finish him off as a duo. He also has Amchuchu as a tank and he is much better off tanking Oryx than August or Gessho (although both are preferred).

April is looking to be Burtgang month for me. It's getting closer!

Sunday, March 6, 2016

This starts with a picture


I did it!

I got my Aegis this past Thursday after two straight awesome days of WKR.

It seems my entire server is on the WKR train right now given the 4x HP-Bayld, chance at boxes, etc. I was able to take full advantage of this and sell about 3 stacks of HP Bayld to an LS mate at a discount. The gil I earned from that was enough to purchase the remaining Silver I needed. In addition, another LS mate who finished his Aegis not too long ago was willing to loan me the last 30 pieces.

I had to go to Xarcabard to get my last pieces as well as hit Davoi to get my R. Goldpiece. I got the Animated Shield pop item on my 10th kill and easily dispatched it to get my fragment. I then got my Necropscyhe on the 1st kill.



Then the trek to get my shield - starting with a Teleport-Holla :).

 And then the awesome trade. I had never watched the CS before and I kind of predicted that owl was gonna be part of it.

I have used the Aegis a few times and still am completing trials with it. It's a great thing, but I know that my other two shields will still see use. Unfortunately, the one that is least used by me for anything significant is the Ochain.

I have done the first two trials and have 2/5 kills on the level 90 trial.

New Equipment

Herculean Trousers: Selkit finally put out with these trousers for me on Friday morning. A summoner in our LS helped me and another ls mate with a few kills of Selkit and I was able to get this super awesome piece. I also was lucky to have great augments on it relatively quickly.

So long Taeon Tights! Thanks for the memories.

Valorous Hose: This morning we did more Reisen mobs - particularly Belpheagor and Taelmoth. I got to put my Aegis to good use on both and we were able to win all of the pops. Kind of unfortunately, it dropped 3 of these and I got one. I will use them on my PLD's lolDD set. I threw a few stones at it and they have Store TP at the moment, but nothing else notable.

Herculean Gloves: Another direct drop for me. I got very fortunate because as mentioned above, they did not drop as loot. I will be augmenting them eventually with Triple Attack, but the fern stones I did have so far put WS damage +4% on them as well as solid DEX, Acc, and Att. Those will hold me over until I see a TA+3 or better. These will go into my TP and WS sets on BLU, which will allow me to relegate my Rawhide Gloves to strictly MAcc.

I soloed Cunnast three times last night because I would like to pick up some Despair Finger Gauntlets for both my PLD and BLU. I want them for my PLD because currently I do not have capped gear haste in any of my sets. These hands augmented on Path B would be enough haste to put me back at 25% and free up my waist for my Windbuffet again. On BLU, these make good physical spell hands and since I lack Adhemar for them, I will be able to put them to use there. The only draw back to soloing Cunnast is it takes some time. I can safely kill him on PLD with trusts but it takes 8 minutes. I have to use my Priwen because Aegis does nothing to mitigate his Radiant Breath so the DT helps there. On BLU I lack August and Gessho did an ok job but I did pull hate frequently. I don't have the same kind of DT gear on BLU so even though I didn't die (thanks Mighty Guard), it's a bit more risky to kill.

Mythic Progress

Salvage is salvage. No change there. Almost done with Periqia Log. Wake the Puppet is next.

Alexandrite: 18,719/30,000

This week: Get Cunnast to put out those gauntlets, more salvage, unity/sparks tasks for JP/gil, and hope for an SR campaign.

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

16999 and counting

I had a goal last week to reach 17,000 Alexandrite before March. Per usual, I peppered in a bunch of in-game tasks with my relic/mythic farming.

Last week we had a Wildskeeper Reive campaign - and I hadn't seen it since I returned to the game. It was fun to run around with a mass of players and kill Tchakka, Colkhab, and Achuka over and over getting High-Purity Bayld, equipment to trade for bayld, stuff to NPC, and actual bayld as well.

It was also a good source of sparks, and a small but still nice contribution to CP.

I was hoping for a Sinister Reign campaign this period but that was not to be. There's still time for one though.

New Equipment

Carmine Greaves: I had this abjuration in my mog house for a week or two and was unsure if I wanted to acquire this piece. I had read on the ffxiah blue mage forums that these make a decent (not best) feet piece for TP when accuracy is not an issue. This is mostly due to the Store TP+7 and Double Attack +2%. They also have solid stats for Requiescat. I put these in for my TP piece (low acc set), but they were recently replaced.

Sanctity Necklace: Finally! Took me lots of kills of Quetz to get this to drop. And good thing I got it before the WKR campaign, as the dragons on our server are now pretty much getting ignored. This went into my MAB set as well as my accuracy and magic accuracy sets.

Henic Torque: Although I am really after the other drop from this Warder, this still is a nice skill piece I will use on Paladin for divine spells.

Odyssean Greaves: I was surprised to obtain this piece - especially since it was a direct drop. I didn't know last week there was a Reisenjima campaign going on where you get an extra personal drop when killing a Geas Fete NM. We were on a run where I was asked to tank Dolores and I did a good job on the first go, but on the 2nd one she leveled up a bit too much and we wiped. Was still a fun fight and a good time. I augmented these and they have STR, Acc, Att, and double attack on them currently. To be honest, I am not sure these are the kinds of augments I should be trying to get. I'm thinking I should put these kinds of augments on Valorous gear (like my Valorous Mask) and try to get more tank-type augments on the Odyssean gear.

Odyssean Cuisses: I got these while duoing Belphegor with another LS mate, who tanked it using his PUP. And it was awesome! He's pretty easy as long as you blank gaze (and have sufficient magic accuracy to land it, which I do :)) his Memento Mori, and the bonus to having an automaton tank is it can't be charmed at 25%. At 10% he chainspells and uses Mori before each spell so you have to spam Blank Gaze during that time. He dropped these on the 2nd kill. I augmented these similarly to the Greaves, but I have yet to try and fit it into my gear sets as of yet.

Herculean Boots: And these dropped on the 1st kill of Belphegor. Amazing piece. I spent a bunch on stones trying to augment these with Triple Attack. I currently have STR, Acc, Att, and Triple Attack +3 on them. I would like to see more acc on them, and hopefully the rarer Triple Attack +4. Still, they were a noticeable improvement on Salvage as I was regularly self-lighting nearly every time I CDC'd twice on the same mob.

Mythic Progress

I wanted to get to 17k Alexandrite before March hit, and after I was about to log out on February 29th I turned in my Alexandrite for the day and ended up needing to turn in 13,001 Alexandrite to Paparoon. Thanks for the troll :)

This morning I got 4 runs in, making it a habit to have a remnants permit on me before I log so that way when I go next, I can use that permit, buy another before the day change, go again, buy another permit, go again, and only have 10-15 minutes before I am able to buy another permit. It's working pretty well. I got 505 Alexandrite this morning in 4 runs. Both SSR2 and AR2 have been stingy on double linen and it has likely been 2+ weeks since I last got one. I am halfway through my Periqia log book and only have Leujaoam not started. The other three are complete and turned in.

17,504/30,000 Alexandrite

Relic Progress

I got more Silver a couple days ago and have been storing gil and being a thrifty spender with it. I almost have enough gil to get to 70 pieces, so I will need to make a stop or two over to Dynamis Xarcabard in the near future for the two items I need for stage 4. I am trying to buy discounted bronzepieces and silverpieces as I encounter them, but the last two days I have not seen any.

30/100 Montiont Silverpieces

We have a person in our LS who is working on Idris and is buying the HPB we get from Wildskeeper Reives, so I will try and get more during this weeks' WKR and increase my gil stock that way. It's pretty cool though that I am almost at the point of being a relic owner, and the mythic is getting closer each day. Hopefully I can finish this up during March, but it will more than likely happen in April for the mythic.

I will also be trying to fill out a few more gear pieces from T1 Reisenjima nms, as they have been pretty fun to fight especially lowman. I want to fill out my Valorous gear as well as Herculean gear. Odyssean would be nice but is not as high of a priority. Herculean hands and legs would be my most desired items. If I can just figure out how to get Selkit down easily.