Fiat Lux – The Battle Against the Shadow Lord

Let’s start with what just occurred recently. This past Tuesday I pulled off getting the Medal of Altana. Making all of that Campaign Battling I do pay off, lol. And with that came a real surprise.

This past Saturday, the Japanese player base on Carbuncle pulled out an all-out assault on the northland areas, and by some miracle, by the time 11am hit, San d’Oria had pulled off a major coup, and took over all of it.

With this, the chance finally came for a showdown with the Shadow Lord in the past. Of course, with all Shadow Lord gear being mostly designed for jobs I don’t have leveled up, I figured a Hecate’s Cape would be a nice consolation prize for not getting some crazy looking great sword.

I became the sacrificial lamb of sorts, and had to Diaga the shadows the Lord put out of himself, and go run to a corner and die. And die. And die some more.

All this dying helped out the rest of the group though, led by super WHM, Bubbo, and we pulled off the win in typical style of groups I’m in — at the last minute. We had all of 1 minute and 7 seconds remaining in the battle.

Our reward?

Maybe next time, lol.

So What Else Have I Been Doing?

Before going to the Throne Room [S], it was off to the present day Throne Room to assist my darling Destiney (<3 Destiney) in battling Riko Kupenreich in getting a new Moon Cap.

Much like the battle against the Shadow Lord later, I ended up dead somehow, but even with that shortcoming for me we still pulled off the win.

Also, since my last post, I have become part of yet another new linkshell, TranslucentArmy. With TA I have seen Dynamis for the first time in almost 18 months (although no drops for me just yet), it’s looking like I am going to see an Ultima pretty soon, and other assorted things. While getting a lesson in Spanish everyday, since most members do speak the language, I’ve been enjoying my time with them thus far. Now if only Ennayram would bring his Kiwi ass back online, lol

Leveling up other jobs in an attempt to try and mix things up. Samurai is now up to 21, and Dancer to 20. Will I level further into these jobs? Probably. When? Who knows.

Did I mention how awesome Destiney is?

That’s About It

And finally, I leave you with random screenshots. Enjoy!

As per the “mandate” that Ennayram has mentioned, I will be trying to put due dilligence in trying to update this blog more and more. As such, I will probably go on and on about real life happenings, as I deal with that more than I could ever say about goings on in FFXI.

Dynamis – Xarcabard + Dynamis Lord Attempt!

This past Monday we tried our luck against the always challenging Dynamis Lord. On the way there we saw Valor Surcoat #7 drop within a month. I am almost tempted to get my level 32 Paladin up to snuff and try to get a Surcoat for myself while the chance seems to be there, lol.

Anyways, onto the the actual Dynamis Lord fight.

It didn’t exactly go as planned. It was going very well initially, as he went all the way down to a measely 7% in hit points, but then OBLIVION SMASH. Down we all went, and the Dynamis was over. Maybe next time we will take care of that son-of-a-you know.

Nyzul Isle…Wait, Nyzul Isle??

Yes, that’s right. I am now doing Nyzul Isle Investigation with some kind of regularity. I’ve now joined fellow network bloggers Ennayram and Alessandra and now will be investigitagating the Isle every Tuesday night. Maybe one day I’ll see a piece of Goliard gear, maybe, perhaps?

Meanwhile, have some screenshots of some of our activities:

The AFC Championship

Today is the AFC championship game between my Steelers and the always tough Baltimore Ravens. You all know who I will be rooting for, lol. GO STEELERS!

Happy Birthday George!

And finally I want to say to be sure I put in my happy birthday wishes to my younger brother George, who is celebtrating his 23rd birthday today (Jan. 18). With everything going on the second half of the day today (Odin, Steelers game, etc.), the drinking may have to wait a bit…

That’s it for today! COMMENT!

So yeah, we are in the home stretch of the holiday season, so we are going to not talk about that. Instead, I’ll speak up about the goings on in Vana’diel, and whatever else I am in the mood to type at almost 5:00am.

The December Version Update

So the new version update has arrived, and I must say, my feelings about it are mixed.

New Missions

Firstly, I am very much looking forward to the additional missions and such for Wings of the Goddess. I really do not like how they space out the mission additions over two updates, while throwing in the nation quests in between. I really like the main storyline of the expansion, but going so long without doing anything to progress through it is really souring the experience for me. Add to that, I need to still finish the previous set of nation quests to progress is just a pain in the ass.

Scholar and Dancer Relic Added

See the image on the right? That is what I hope to have my Scholar look like one day, lol. We did a Dynamis – Xarcabard run after the update, and although no new piece dropped, it’s good to know that they were added so quickly.

I will need to get used to seeing the name “Argute”, and hope to see a piece drop soon!

Fields of Valor & Treasure Caskets

I have already given these a try, and if you go and look on my Profile page, you can see that my Ninja has actually been leveled up. This is thanks to Fields of Valor. Going out and completing the somewhat simple tasks for a nice bonus of experience and gil is certainly encouraging me to go out and take on the tasks at hand.

As for the Treasure Caskets, I have happened upon a few of those on my new found leveling swing, and it is nice to get some items to help with moving things along quicker, rather than having to stop after every other mob to recover HP/MP. Fields of Valor also helps in that you use “Tabs” you earn and can get a long lasting regen/refresh, or foods to help you along.

All in all, this is a very nice addition Square Enix has added that not only helps low level play, but also could help in bringing people back to the “old” areas.

Of course, they also delayed the Moblin Maze Monger feature from being added, which was a bit of a bummer, but going by what I have heard MogKnight say about the bugginess of the demo at the Fan Festival, it’s probably best that they are delaying the release. Hope to be playing that before the holidays. Speaking of the holidays…

You Changed The Blog AGAIN?!?

File this one in the “You’re never satisfied” folder. I have returned the blog to the first look it had way back when I started doing this a few years ago. A couple things to note are that the layout looks similar to the previous “dark” look, the navigation is much less “MS Paint” in design, and the sidebar actually changes depending on the type of page you are viewing. Well, only the navigation changes, but I am working on getting the picture to change as well.

Please be sure to let me know your thoughts on this “back to the future” look.

Dynamis – Xarcabard, Proto – Ultima, & Bahamut!

Strictly a farming run this time around in the northlands, as there were only 17 of us max. I failed to get a screenshot of the ending when Commander’s controller died, and set an angry mass of demons directly towards us and killed everyone in sight.

Then there was another successful Proto – Ultima run, where I seemed to be the target of many Holy II castings… In the midst of that, there are no screenshots of that wonderful event.

And then there was Bahamut, and another success!

Enjoy the pictures!

There you go! Wow, that filled up a lot of space, lol. Hope to see you online!