Cost-benefit analysis: Samurai

So it appears the last few months have found me bouncing back and forth between perfecting my DRG and my SAM. Actually this seems to happen with my other jobs too, even my largely-ignored PLD. However it is even more so prevalent between the two-handers. At one point, toward the end of last year, my SAM had been all but "retired" until roaring back to life around February. I'd seriously considered doing that to my DRG around October/November.

Yet another milestone

So today was a POL maintenance which also required FFXI itself to go down as well. I log back on to see double earth weather, and KV's up. Uncontested. Ours for the taking! So as people logged in, we begin rallying the troops and proceed to claim him.

More people begin to log in and even a couple of outside people come out to help.

Our strike force is finally assembled, and our bards commence their buffing. We join up with the kite party and proceed to lay waste to the overgrown arthropod. Oh what joy that filled us seeing the loot pool once the smoke had cleared.

The one thing we came for. No more and no less.


There it was.... after several weeks of assisting others with getting this thing. Now it was my turn.

Once the others passed, I became the proud owner of an Ace's Helm. Something that I'd never imagined that I would see.



Many thanks to Devdas, Kaishen and everyone else in Beyond for helping make this dream come to fruition.

Green Eggs 'n Ham?

SAM I am, green eggs 'n ham!

Have I lost it? Nah. But apparently it seems I REALLY like slicing things with an overgrown meat cleaver. So I dinged 75 on SAM this past Tuesday after being put out of commission for two weeks by my PC breaking down. It crapped out on me not once, but TWICE. I bring it home from the repair shop the first time after it being gone for a week with a new power supply, and it goes out on me the very next day about an hour before I was to go to Einherjar that evening. Back in the shop it goes first thing that following Monday. That Friday rolls around, and I take it home again. Out again within not even 20 minutes of turning the damn thing on! I politely told the retard that fixed it to go fuck himself and took it to another shop in town. Got it back the following Tuesday and things have been fine since, but I digress.

At any rate, I've been on a real meriting kick in the past few days. Store TP merits were finished the other day, now I'm working on Overwhelm. I'd forgotten what it's like dealing with primadonna BRDs and RDMs. Also, this apparent crock of shit called "respecting the healer with utsusemi". Apparenlty I'm being too nice by going along with these, but I need the merits and as DD's our bargaining posture is highly dubious. In spite of that, I really don't mind meriting too much as long as kills go as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Have I given up on BLU? No. Though I have been sliding away from it in the past few weeks. Lately I've been re-examining it however. Have I been "doing it wrong" all this time? I dunno. If we win our next T3 on Tuesday we'll have an Odin coming up on Friday. I'll be ready to cannonball him in his backside on that day while sorting out my identity crisis.