Blue mage VS imps - dancing with death

I'm sure you've all exped in Caedarva Mire and have come across a BLU or two laying waste to one of those dastardy imps that like to prey upon unsuspecting adventurers. I'm sure you have thought "are those guys nuts?" I guess that's a trait of all of us career blue mages out there. This intricate dance may appear simplistic on the surface, but let's have a closer look.

Know thy enemy

Let us first look at our foe, the Heraldic Imp

Level 78-81
Black Mage
Approx. 2000-2500 HP
Abilities:
Abrasive Tantara - Induces amnesia, which prevents the use of job abilities or weapon skills.
Deafening Tantara - Causes silence. You'll want to remove this ASAP for obvious reasons.

Since they are BLMs, let's look at the heat they're packing.
Fire III - Cast time: 6sec.
Blizzard III - Cast time: 6.25sec.
Thunder III - Cast time: 6.75seconds.
Firaga II - Cast time: 5.25sec.
Thundaga II - Cast time: 6sec.
Sleepga - Cast time: 3sec.
Sleepga II - Cast time: 3.5sec.
Poisonga II - Cast time: 1.5~2sec., enemy only, strips shadows like every other Aoe spell

It has access to a number of other spells, but for the most part these are the ones to be wary of.

You can find these in the area near the Azouph Isle staging point, or Hedive Isle, accessed through Alzadaal Undersea Ruins (Nyzul Isle staging point). However, expect to compete with exp parties with the former, and the threat of soulflayers in the latter area. If you choose Azouph as your battleground, try not to fight near the swamp, especially at night or if it's raining. If you get into low HP during an imp fight, you might have some company in the form of a jnun. At this point you're toast.

Know thyself

Here's what you will need to be able to solo these beasties.
-Be at least BLU74. You can probably get away with it before 74, but it's exponentially safer with utsu:ni.
-A leveled NIN subjob with Utsusemi: Ni (if you're at this point you should have these already )
-Echo drops and shihei by the truckload (if you get silenced and can't finish the imp off in time, you're a dead duck).
-The "big three" multi-hit damage spells (Frenetic Rip, Hysteric Barrage, Disseverment). You could probably stick something else in place of disseverment, but you won't get the same punch.
-The auto-refresh trait. You can get this for 9 points with Actinic Burst/Plasma Charge or Self-distruct/frightful roar/plasma charge. For those without sea, self-distruct/cold wave/frightful roar/voracious trunk.
-Head butt (this is of pivotal importance)
-Refueling for haste
-Magic fruit for those moments when utsusemi is down and you're getting smacked around, or worse yet if you eat one of those 500+ -aga spells as a result of your head butt failing to connect.
-Diamondhide or metallic body to soak up any DOT effects that would prevent you from resting MP after the fight.

Frenetic Rip recast is 28 seconds (25 with refueling).
Hysteric Barrage recast is 28 seconds.
Disseverment recast is 32 seconds (28 w/ haste).

Now let's look at the fight itself.

Find your imp, buff up with refueling, utsusemi, etc.
Open the fight with a head butt since the imp usually opens the fight by casting a spell.
CA+Disseverment. Why do this now with no TP? One word - amnesia. Also, with CA active, you'll hit harder since its secondary stat modifier, DEX will come into play.
Alternate between head butts and damage spells and restoring shadows until dead.

You can often down the imp 5-7 spells, depending on their damage output. If I find an imp is low on HP after a damage spell, I'll follow up with another one in lieu of a head butt if I'm confident I can down it after said spell and/or a couple of sword swings.

Head butt not only buys you valuable time, but can also avert the threat of any nasty spells.

Things can and do go wrong at some point, even with the best setup and capped blue magic merits. The imp may get off a poisonga or sleepga and strip your Ni shadows and/or your head butts may get resisted (one time I had an imp resist four head butts in a row). DO NOT PANIC! Fire off another head butt and magic fruit yourself and get back in there. You may have bought yourself a few more seconds to the point where another Ni might be up, so you can fire off another head butt and throw your shadows back up. It can be difficult to recover from such situations.

The poison effect from disseverment can also be a lifesaver. It does a nice 12hp/tick on your foe, just as if an aern had done it on you. I've had instances where my HP was in the double digits (hell even single digits) and I had just enough MP for a single head butt and I couldn't get shadows back, and seconds later "The Heraldic Imp falls to the ground."

Full metal apathy

So last night was our final Xarcabard sortie of the year. What do we have to show for it? Oh, just a pair of BRD pants and a BLM hat. Had BLU hat dropped, it would've been all mine as no one had commented it. As usual, we had 3 or 4 surcoats commented.

I MPK everyone for the second consecutive run. However this one was an honest mistake. I'd inadvertently flashed an eye nearby that I thought was part of our pull, and thus asleep. Needless to say it wasn't, and we get gangraped by it and a few more demons. I feel myself slipping as I am no longer asked to be back-up tank. Perhaps a degree of apathy on my part has begun to set in. Hence my lack of desire to obtain one of those coveted valor surcoats. It's nice and all, but it's better suited for someone that uses their PLD more than twice a week.

As far as other jobs go, I haven't had any motivation to exp on my DRG in a good while. I guess it's due to the hurdle of having to take SAM to 37 sooner or later. The job is cool and all, but I just can't stand leveling in the teens-thirties. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.....

After DRG, I may just stop as far as 75's go, but who knows? I may one day end up leveling a "proper" mage job someday.

Naw, fuck that.

This shit, that shit...

I'm typing this as I wait on the ship to Windurst, since we have Dynamis-Windurst tonight. God I fucking hate Windurst! I should just aggro the death house and MPK everyone for shits and grins.

Nah.

Not a whole lot has been going on lately, aside from getting my brutal earring the other day. I acquired around 18 coins by running limbus, then I bought up whatever I could. The last 18 wer graciously donated by an LS mate (thank you Jorm). One of the only double attack pieces we blue mages get, aside from Tizona. Would've been cool if we got Ridill or Justice Sword, but meh. It'll be fun to couple with joyeuse on PLD once I get atonement (assuming I ever find the motivation to get a nyzul disc going).

Speaking of limbus, we have an Omega next tuesday (12/23), so there's some ho-ho-homam in store for a couple of lucky people. I may not see my first piece until after our next jaunt in Temenos most likely, since there a number of people needing pieces of said armor as well.

Now off to goddamn Dynamis - Windurst late as usual, and then Xarc sunday. We probably won't get our last crack at ol' Dynamis Lord this year, though I doubt we'll win. Some of our DD's are "questionable" at best, and I'll leave it at that. Maybe I'll get the chance to blast DL in the back with a loaded cannonball on BLU/THF one day. Not likely, given that I'm requested to sub ninja 99% of the time when doing something with a group.

OK time to shove off to this bore-fest! Happy Chrismachanukwansihoweverthehellyouspellit!

~Zeotah

Goings on the past few days

Let's see... Where to start...

The evening of Thanksgiving, I'm just slaughtering imps as I normally do, when I receive a tell from a friend asking me to come out and help bag King Vinegarroon since his LS didn't have too many people around on account of the holiday.

The result: we get skunked, which I guess is par for the course.

As much as I dislike the "hurry up and wait" nature of camping HNM's, I'll have to admit the fight was rather enjoyable (despite most of us dying) and can understand why people do it aside from the drops.

The other night, I finished my blue magic skill merits! W00T! Next up is swords, followed by HP/MP most likely.

Earlier I got my hands on a piece of snowy cermet from Temenos, which is sure to be no more than a freeloading safe resident for the next 3-4 months.

Maybe I'll merit up diffusion and/or convergence at some point so maybe I can bring my BLU to dynamis, which brings me to my next topic.

Now I like playing PLD, really I do, but it gets stale rather quickly, especially in a venue like Dynamis. Voke these sleeping mobs, kite these statues while the BLM's blow them up, yadda yadda yadda... It does become amusing whenever the main assist goes down and I wind up calling mobs and doing a bit of actual tanking. However, it just irritates me that I'm unable to flex my blue mage muscle here, especially given that I've spent more money and merits on it than PLD thus far. I feel that it is a waste of talent that could be applied elsewhere, especially now that we aren't as short-handed on paladins/ninjas as we were at the time I joined up in August. I almost got to bring it to a Jeuno run one night, but one of our PLD's redballed and never came back that night, so I was asked to switch at the very last minute before we started. I smell a conspiracy, but meh.

It certainly opens up new potential, especially with Diffusion. BLM's getting ready for a nuke fest? Swap in a BLU, fire off a diffusion + memento mori or amplification and let 'em rip. Hey if the shit dies faster, it saves time in the long run, meaning more potential AF2 and money after the fall of the mega boss. Everyone wins!

OK, now I know this sentiment is the farthest thing from new with this game, and folks have been like this since the time people started being able to enter Dynamis or take on Kirin or kings. I know of a few grumbling RDM's/BRD's/PLD's/NIN's/BLM's that are dragged to events on said jobs, in spite of not being quite as well-geared as some of their other jobs. Yes, I get it!

Selfish? Perhaps. But if we all weren't just a bit selfish from time to time, we'd still be slogging it out in the lowbie zones getting chased and killed by goblins.

OK, that's enough ranting for now. Happy adventuring!

~Zeotah

The life cycle of Thanksgiving turkey

Day 1: Bird is ready to enter the oven and the aroma begins to permeate all areas of your home. Finally, the bird is done and all gather round to imbibe vast amounts of food, including said bird. After the feast, bird is further segmented and distributed to guests and/or placed in containers to be refrigerated.

Day 2: The bird is still greater than or equal to the word. More turkey and other such turkey-based dishes (assuming you didn't offload too much to your guests the previous day).

Day 3: Yay.... more turkey. Oh, a sandwich here, maybe some turkey for breakfast.

Day 4: Oh, you're still here? GTFO MY FRIDGE!!!

OK, so what does this have to do with FFXI?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!

So, happy and safe Thanksgiving to those that observe it, and if you're a part of a dyna/limbus/other endgame linkshell that's suspending their events, enjoy the downtime and chill with your loved ones!

Fun in Nyzul Isle

So, I was just soloing some imps in "the mire", when i get invited to do floors 11-20 of Nyzul. So I happily accept, and moments later, we were off.


Floors 11-15 went swimmingly. Our next sortie found us at 16-20. On one of the floors, we encountered a Dahak, but it was subdued without much difficulty. Go go well-placed head butts!

At the 20th floor, we met up with this guy.


What do we get for our troubles?


Stingy bastard that giant turtle, but whatever. I need to get my own disk going sometime!

On another note, a good friend and mentor has moved on to greener pastures. Good luck out there buddy!

Mirage Jubbah GET!!!

Dynamis - Beaucedine was very good to us last night, considering we had a number of MIA's. Thank you ADC!

So it begins...

For starters, let me tell you a little about myself. Like so many, I started playing FFXI during the initial US PC launch. Several old friends from a previous game (Phantasy Star Online) had joined the Bismarck server. I played on and off until around April of the next year and left around the time our old linkshell fell apart. At around that time, I became so disenchanted and irritated with the game that I just gave up. I got to about level 32 on monk and never got past the jungles. I would start playing again on another server in March of 2006, but I would stop again after being invited into the Japanese closed beta of Phantasy Star Universe.

In October of 2007, I would find myself back on Vana'diel, this time as a mithra red mage. I even wanted it as my first 75, but after reading about how it worked at 75 and the journey up there, I decided against it. After getting RDM to 30, I then proceeded to open up blue mage after getting the six sub job items to get into Aht Urhgan. After a few levels of BLU, I was hooked. I then began working on subjobs such as ninja, warrior etc. However, it wasn't my first job to 75.

My first 75 turned out to be paladin. I actually unlocked said job out of total boredom one morning in January, and just started riding that momentum. At about level 67, I started to have static exp sessions with my friend Snk's RNG and a BRD in our linkshell. However, these sessions were few and far between. In between exp sessions on PLD, I started pushing my BLU up the levels and also finishing my THF sub. At about 72, invites started falling by the wayside, and I found myself campaigning and leveling BLU more. I'd finally ding 75 on PLD in late July.

The road to 75 BLU was a much more turbulent one. This was due in no small part to the long hard road to sea. Some time ago, I promised myself I would not level past 72 on BLU without sea access and the spell Disseverment. I finally got past Promyvion Vahzl in late September after being like 0/6 on the boss at the end, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. The next nightmare came with getting past the dreaded three paths (mission 5-3). I spent practically the entire month of October trying to finish this, and get past Ultima and Omega. I was ready to quit the game altogether if I didn't have sea by month's end. After being roughly 0/16 on that fight, I managed to get past it with the aid of Burnout, Blackout and Gippal, as well as two others from my dynamis shell that needed said fight. A couple of days later, I FINALLY GOT SEA!!! After getting some of the spells from there, including Disseverment, I resumed leveling BLU in earnest and dinged 75 a couple of weeks ago.

So where do I stand now? Currently I'm working on finishing my blue magic skill merits by soloing imps (since no one ever wants us in those manic 20k/hr bird killer parties). Recently I've started doing limbus with the people from my dynamis shell, and I'll say it's a lot more fun than dynamis. I'll have my homamz soon enough.... I hope.