A walk on the darkside

So I've decided that my next 75 will be.... Dark Knight, which is 22 as of this posting.

And with no pocket BRD either... Oh this is gonna be funnnnn.

Guess this'll mean lots and lots of campaign, and then besieged for skilling up. I'm told it isn't as bad as it used to be leveling up, but it's still a gritty and painful road. Of course level sync and FoV make the lower levels trivial now. It's the mid to upper levels that could prove problematic.

Though I can say that there were times when leveling BLU was no walk in the park and it took me close to a year of leveling it on-and-off (yes, super slow-mo I know. Bite me!), but this was back when I was starting back up again. Of course this time I have 3 75s under my belt, just not one that has native scythe skill (like, WAR/DNC), so pre-meriting is out of the question. However, I DO have PLD, which has native great sword, which is another popular weapon of choice for DRKs. I may very well just go that route. Luckily I did hold on to a majority of my gear from when I leveled PLD, save for the haubergeon, however the NQs are worth considerably less these days, and a steal in contrast to the "era of mass inflation" when several pieces ran for upwards of 20mil.

I know I'll probably never rise to "kraken eater" status (since said weapon isn't within my reach like most people), but I already have a couple of the standard zerg pieces. I've already got a bomb queen ring, a swift belt and a turban, and I'm starting to get decked out in homam. I'm kicking myself for getting rid of the DRK panties that rotted to me during my many trips to ye olde sacrarium last summer for my swift belt. So this means I'll have to do ANOTHER "panty raid" in the aqueducts or sacrarium sometime in the future.

So now my priorities have shifted if I get lucky on bonanza, I'll opt for a v-belt on rank 2 (if I don't do so on a mule) and most likely an Algol for rank 3. Rank 1? Take the money, buy a goddamn kraken club! Not sure what I'd do with the rest, since it's bound to be an obscene amount of gil.

Speaking of paladins, I know I may fry for this, but I may just sell off my buyable PLD gear and grab my last couple AF2 pieces then bury it forever. You're probably screaming "THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LOT A VALOR BODY???" Well... What can I say? AF2 are like Pokemon - gotta catch 'em all. Besides, in the past six months, I can literally count on one hand the number of times it's been seen out in the wild. I could do very well with it if I gave a flying fuck, but I can honestly say I don't at this juncture. It's just.... there for the most part. But I'll hold off on this at least until after Dynamis-Tavnazia next Friday, just in case. However I see myself going as a DD (leaning toward DRG, since "BLU fails in namis" according to Aenemy) or most likely not going at all that night since only one alliance can go in at any given time.

Back on the subject, I have a number of established DRK friends, so at least I can pick at their brains as I go along.

Well, here's hoping I don't turn "super-emo" by the time I reach 75!

Yet another milestone.

So last night, USD did something it hasn't been able to do in quite some time -- farm Dynamis - Qufim. With that, it brings myself and a number of others to having all three dreamland slivers, thus granting access to Tavnazia!

In the words of Glenn Quagmire, "Oh yeah! Gigity Gigity!"

Closing a chapter

It's been a long time coming, but as of today it's finally done. What am I talking about? CoP is fucking DONE!!!

Yesterday, a few US members that needed the last couple of missions teamed up to bust through the pot fight in 8-3 and later on take down Promathia. I couldn't be there for the latter since my internet went out on me for a while. So today I asked if anyone wanted to come and beat up the big guy since I missed out yesterday, and Dreadlockrasta, Zaih, Scorpios, Zabeena and Shirosaki (both of whom needed 8-3 yesterday) graciously came along. Our first attempt, we straight tanked both phases and Selh'teus bit the dust at around 30%.

After regrouping for a few minutes, we decided to try kiting the second phase. That one actually went considerably smoother than before. During that last 1% I was unloading everything I had until Prishe dealt the finishing blow.


To think at around this time last year I wasn't even past promies, and didn't even have a 75 yet. Moreover, three paths and Omega/Ultima gave me so much grief I was ready to bid Vana'diel a not-so-fond farewell if I wasn't in Al'taieu by the end of last October. Indeed this victory means a great deal to me. Yes, I've heard the stories of "'Nam flashbacks" from when this stuff was still fairly new. Yes I know anyone with the manpower and half a brain can plow through CoP these days. I'll never know what it was like to beat it before ToAU came out and all the adjustmants that followed, but it still doesn't change the fact that it feels great to have it all behind me once and for all.



Come tomorrow, I'll be the proud owner of a Rajas Ring! What a nice storyline, and such a cool final battle. Seeing Promathia's final moments and the epic scenes that followed made all the headaches worthwhile.

Many thanks to the people who have lent their support along the way from tagging along on a few missions to encouraging me to keep moving forward.

So what next? Probably Divine Might and wrapping up Zilart missions followed by Bv1 and Promyvion slivers. Hell, maybe I'll even get around to the national missions!

These boots are made for walkin'....

So now I'm starting to have something to show for the months of stoneskin-whoring, SA-cannonballing and more recently Einherjar fishing. I think I'm beginning to get the hang of the third one though, except my MPKing everyone with a nasty link toward the end of tonight's sortie. I'll likely be banned from pulling after that, but I digress.

So why is this titled after a Nancy Sinatra song? After the first of our twice-weekly beatings in Hazhalm, eighteen of us from "US Proper" were off to Central Apollyon to tango with our pal, Proto-Omega. Methinks I'll save the big cannonballs till the fight's almost over. So, a few minutes and 50 DKP later, I'm now the proud owner of a pair of Homam Gambieras.


Those are +1 AF hands, mind you!

I leave you now with the namesake of this blog.

{Blue Mage} {Einherjar} {Fishing}

So after weeks of losses to the denizens of wing 3 of the Hazhalm Testing Grounds, we've had to make a number of strategic changes. The most recent of which being that we have a BLU in both alliances doing the pulling and sleeping in lieu of a BRD. My first pull had me face-down after 5 or 6 demons all casted drain on me simultaneously and there went my shadows, at which point they ran after me to beat my face in. Someone else had to step in while I was dead/weak. When the next wave came, my second pull went slightly better as I managed to bring back what soulflayers I could and get them to sleep. Soon after, they wake up and the ones not being fought at the time decide to manaburn me. I felt like I let everyone down since I was dead or weak for a majority of our time there. I can see this is going to take a couple more runs before I'm finally comfortable in this new role. It was the second closest we had come to winning a T3. Well, there's always Thursday.