Working on ToAU Missions
Feb/070
Surprisingly today was quite a productive day in FFXI. Started out with killing Tiamat when I woke up. The teamwork was a bit of a mess actually and it took us a lot longer to kill than we usually do. Adds were plenty and although there were a lot of stunners, Firaga III went off quite a few times. But still, my damage output was still crap as usual, I need to start getting merit so I can unlock level 2 ancient magic 
When I was watching the other black mages unleased their various lvl 2 ancient magic… I felt so small with my Thunder & Water IV
After Tiamat, I felt like levelling my Red Mage or something because it will enable me to solo my merit point. Merit parties these days only want warrior, red mage and bard only Luckily, before I head out to Windurst I realized that I would need to set my home point somewhere around Windurst if I were to level Red Mage. It’s a real hassle to ride the ship back to Whitegate. So I did the Olduum quest, which gives Olduum Ring that enables me to warp to Wajaom Woodlands and run to Whitegate. Definitely a lot faster than the boat ride. Dkhayaa told me to dig around Aydeewa Subterrane to find some kind of fossil from the Olduum civilization. I broke about 5 pickaxes before getting an Electropot which I took back to Dkhayaa. I got a Lightning Band in return that I had to trade to the Leypoint in Wajaom Woodlands… I wish quests can be more straightforward…
I decided to start working on Treasure of Aht Urghan missions. At least plenty of them just require me to run around and talk to people, I won’t be able to catch up with the rest if ToAU missions are like Promathia missions. I started on mission 5 which required me to go to the Chateau in North San d’Oria and talked to the Elvaans there to discover that the crown prince is also called the Lord of Illegibility (nice one). The next mission only told me to go to Jeuno, easy enough… but I had to go there after the time resets at midnight Japanese time *sighs*
I was sitting around sorting through my stuff when I saw my dust-gathering Signal Pearl, completely forgotten about it. So I took Ehgo-Ryugo for a stroll in Sauromugue Champaign while killing Skinks and Tabar Beak. He got tired and dissapeared after about 15 mobs though
My Taru-waru Guy
Jun/060
I had to do a few errands and went out for a shopping spree on the weekend so I couldn’t really get any party. Being so bored, I decided to finally finish my Fellowship quest. When I asked the ls on the difficulty level and job suggestion, Afruu, being a bum that he is :p basically said that I suck and gonna get killed trying to solo it anyway -.- (it’s supposed to be really easy)
And because he said that, I just had to try it. It’s not difficult at all! 
Water II did pretty good damage to it, when the dragon was half dead my NPC jumped in. After that it was a smooth sailing since he melee-ed it and I just had to throw several cures and enfeebles.
Take that, Fruu!
In my quest of getting cash for full HQ staves, I keep on fishing. Been having problems selling though, Gigant Squid & Grimmonite markets are just way oversupplied. They are down to about 10k at the moment, so sad…. I’m having trouble selling them too and cant’ dump them in AH cause that will just bring the prices further down. All I can think of is to level a cooking mule, Shiefu, so I can break the fishies. I can make break them and sell them as various consumables at the moment like stacks of Black Ink (with Wabo’s lv. 80 Alchemy) and take a stack to make Shihei (with my lv. 80 Woodworking). I can’t really break Grimmonites, that’s where a cooking mule gonna come in handy. Besides, leveling cooking is not that hard compared to other crafts.
I get pretty steady skillups lately by fishing in Sea Serpent Grotto or Qufim, but I want my 100 faster. Checked the fishing guild in Selbina and found out that the current fish requirement is Jungle Catfish. Asked another fellow fisherwoman in ls, Jezzabel, who already got two!! Pelican Ring that I want, for an advice. A good place to catch them is outside Temple of Uggalepih apparently.
So now my routine everytime I log on is to fish in Sea Serpent Grotto for an hour (unless my stuff hasn’t sold, like today!!! *grumbles*) and then run to get the catfishies. At least the view there is a lot better than Sea Serpent Grotto. I’m up to 100 ilm now, let’s see which rank I’m gonna get.
Lebros Cavern Assault
Jun/060
I was invited by an LS friend to the first Lebros Cavern Assault. Of course I accepted it. We decided to manaburn it, so in the end 4 BLMs from the ls went to the assault.
It was really easy, we slapped some DOTs on the rocks while one of the BLM kill some rats to get bombs. We usually finish the mission with 10 minutes to spare. Did the mission three times and in the end I got about 3500 assault points.
In the attempts of getting cash for my HQ staves, I’ve been fishing for 2-3 hours everyday. By netting about 100,000 gil an hour while getting skillups for fishing, it’s just great. Got another lvl today
{Dvucca Staging Point}
Jun/060
I put my party flag up hoping that I can get my lvl 75 back, about a minute later I got a tell from a Paladin who just said… “Party”
I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but I consider that rude. And to be honest, whenever someone does that the first thing that comes to mind is.. “Gilseller”
I replied with “Where?” he answered “{Azouph Isle Staging Point}” then invited me without waiting for my yes or no. Fine, I was desperate enough to get my level back so I accepted the invite. I told them that my Imperial Standing point is only 100 so I can’t NPC warp and would have to catch the ship. They all said fine, but hurry up.
I ran and the ferry came right when I reached the dock. Then just as the ship left, one of them said “I gtg in 1 hr” ._. I know that my travel time would be like 25 minutes…. so I was just being curteous and told them if they wanna find another one I’m fine with that and disbanded from the party. Man… why cant they just tell me before >_< Since I was on the boat already, I thought I might as well get the rest of the staging points. I sent a tell to my best friend in the game, Baos
He belongs in another HNM ls, Fortune. It really is too bad that our linkshells are really hostile against each other =/ I do have a lot of good friends there, not to mention that I can't bring some friends from ls to hunt together.
Anyway, he told me that I wouldn't need another Lamian Fang Key because the door can be opened from the other side. He NPC warped to Dvuccan Isle Staging Point and we were to meet at the door. As I made my way to Arrapago Reef he told me that he was lost o.o
He ended up Escape-ing and pretty much warped to the same entrance as I am.... which means we would need the key, lol.
We tried to duo a Lamia, would've worked if he wasn't a White Mage :p not to mention he kept disconnecting. In the end he went back to Nashmau and changed into his Monk >.> then we had easier time. We got the key and went through the door with no problem. On the way we stopped to get “???” for Corsair quest which is on one of the boats in the Arrapago Reef
From there, it should’ve been pretty simple… but Baos told me he knew the way and we ran forever before he told me he didn’t know where we were heading…. *kills*
Good thing he has a map, and about 15 minutes after he told me he knew where to go we reached the staging point. I was gonna do Ilrusi Atoll too, but after all that running… I was just sick from seeing the cave :p
After taking a little break, ls friend said that Cerberus popped. I was going to bed, but I want to see that three-headed puppy so I went along. That thing has a high magic resistance, my Water IV did 0 damage! So I just help in healing and removing status ailments… oh! I was also assigned as a backup stunner for its Gates of Hades, a really strong AOE attack.
We were killing it with no problem and stunning Gates of Hades perfectly, until at one point Cerberus started spamming it and none of the stunners had Stun available. It went off about twice in a row, the tanks down below dropped dead except for one. All the mages tried their best to keep that tank alive.
Cerberus was at 1% health, but it just wouldn’t die!!! Nuking didn’t work, most of the melees died. Tomiko killed himself with his Chainspell + Stun which means he stunned Cerberus continously for 30 seconds, which of course, grabbed hate. I kept my eyes glued on the chat log, trying to stun every Gates of Hades that might go off and wipe the rest of us. Thank God it finally died.
Was a great experience 
the better because we gather after it popped, not waiting for it to pops like other HNMs.
Gonna go back to Arrapago Reefs with Baos to get Ilrusi Atoll Staging Point and to finish Corsair and Puppetmaster quests.
{Runic Portal} 3/5!
May/060
I finally dragged my lazy ass to do Aht Urghan second mission, Immortal Sentries. Damned Naja Salaheem just assumed that I want to be a mercenary and sent me to go to one of the staging points to deliver supplies and to introduce myself to the Immortals, supposedly chosen elite units that guard each staging point.
I picked Azouph Isle Staging Point first, loaded up Vana’diel Atlas on laptop and I took off. It was pretty straightforward, take the boat to Nashmau (my absent-mindedness took me to Mhaura instead :p) then exit through the north or east gate to Caedarva Mire, the staging point is located at K-9. Go through the door and trade the supplies to the NPC there. He will then show you the Runic Portal. You have to use it to warp back to Aht Urghan Whitegate otherwise you won’t be able to NPC warp from the city.
When I reached the city, I went back to see Naja Salaheem and she just tricked me into being a mercenary…. eternally!!!
After the second mission is finished, Mog Locker, Sanction and Assault became available. Too bad I don’t have the bronze piece to pay for the locker rent just yet.
Next on the list was Dvucca Staging Point. Headed to Caedarva Mire again, but this time I had to go get a Lamian Fang Key by clicking on a “???” behind a sleeping Jnun, a flesh type mob. The key can only be obtained from the “???” once, after that you have to either kill Lamias or skeletons which were Decent Challenge to a lvl 75.
I zoned out to Arrapago Reef at I-6, no problem so far… followed the path to the Iron Door, I had to cross a boat which was full of lamias and skellies, but with sneak and invisible up, I had no problem. Used the key, and turn left, I faced another Iron Door, which doesn’t require another key. From there something strange happened, I headed south-west to zone out to a different map… crossing another boat with lamias and skellies on it, both sneak and invis were up. In the middle of the boat, my sneak wore off with no warning at all!!!!! I couldn’t get too far because I was bound by the skellies, and died in the middle of the boat. I had reraise 2 on, but reraising at that spot was just suicide as they will just attack me again. I just HP-ed back
I’m just gonna leave this and Ilrusi Atoll Staging Point for another time, since I will need help in killing the mobs for another Lamia Fang Key
I set off to Halvung Staging Point next. I headed to Wajaom Woodlands and zoned to Halvung at C-8, after I zoned in, casted Escape to quickly reach Mount Zhayolm. After I was out, it was just a short walk to K-6 to find the door to the staging point. Had to warped back again using the portal.
Last one on the list was….. Mamool Ja Staging Point. I went to Wajaom Woodlands again and zoned out to Mamook at D-12. When I got there I was so confused in picking the right way. I didn’t have the map and ended up lost.. so I warped back before I got killed. I didn’t want to give up though… I need to start doing Assault so I can get my Yigit set.
This time I printed the map out first, and just trace the way with a pencil so I won’t get lost anymore…., thank God the second run was a success! I zoned out to Bhaflau Thickets from Mamook and from there it was just a simple run to H-10 - H-11 to find the staging point and warped back through the portal.
I deleveled to 74 again now I’m going to kill some mobs to earn me some Imperial Standing points so I can use the NPC Warp…. good times T_T