Vana Report: merits capped!

Merits

Participated in a lot of campaign battles. I have slightly more than 200,000 Allied Notes, lol

Capped merits and EXP buffer for my DRK and PLD. I might consider downgrading my 8 levels of Great Sword skill and put merits into Sword skill. But that’s only when I get my lolAegis done (if I ever get it done).

Finally, no more campaign battles for me and I can fully concentrate on levelling my SCH.

lolAegis

Couldn’t find the motivation to go into hardcore crafting mode to fund that relic shield. For now I’m just working towards getting the last 4 levels of smithing and last 5 of alchemy on my mules before I start earning gil for dynamis currency.

ToAU Missions

Also finished Treasures of Aht Uhrgan mission story. I’m no longer crazy over Aphmau now. Instead, Razfahd’s my new idol because of this one line he said: “I am resolved to be remembered as the villian in this chapter of history.”

The setup was BLM, BLM, MNK, RDM, BRD, PLD/WAR. I was given 2 ballads and refresh and told to constantly spam flash and voke from a distance while the BLMs and MNK slowly deal damage to the final boss. It was a very very long fight. BRD and RDM are dual-boxed and we went in mostly expecting to wipe. Our first run was supposed to be a practice run but we won on one try, haha.

I even forgot to bring all of my PLD equipment and wasted 2 slots.

Overall, I enjoyed the story very much. The cutscenes were great and some were so funny my friends and I watched it again at the event NPC.

PLD,DRK Gear

Trying to setup a static Nyzul assault party once a week with friends so I can work towards getting a few Askar pieces for my DRK and PLD. I want the body and legs piece for DRK and hands and feet piece for PLD. I’d love to have the whole set just so I can cosplay as Razfahd (oops, spoiler?), haha!

Previously, I went and redeemed the full Amir set, bought a Great Club from the AH, and together with my Tatami Shield, I dressed up like Mihli Aliapoh and stood next to her while AFKing until besiege starts.

My social LS just began organizing weekly Salvage runs and I only have one competitor for the Ares parts. Finally there’s hope in getting better gear, but funding the creation of these gears is going to be another major headache. :/

Sky (I know, lol) and /nin tanking

The best PLD, V, in my Sky LS has left FFXI for real life endeavors along with a few other members. Currently, I’m the only person capable of PLD/NIN tanking.

So with only 9% in haste gear but with a BRD and WHM for support, I tried tanking Suzaku and it turned out to be fine. I was surprised that I was able to hold hate for a large portion of the fight. And there was a period during that battle where I tanked using only Utsusemi:Ichi, lol, thanks to March x2, Haste, random stuns from the BLMs and my capped parrying skill.

This fun experience has given me more confidence at /nin tanking to the point that I went and borrowed Ancient Beastcoins from a friend to go redeem a Loquacious earring (yay fast cast!) and also gathered some HP- gear for my a hate generating trick which V taught me before he left.

Cast Cure3 on myself, macro in HP- gear, switch to HP+ gear with macros again before Cure3 finishes casting for some extra hate. V could create a gap big enough for Cure4, but I could only create a gap of around 120HP. Need to work on this area.

Summary

After 4 years, FFXI still remains fun for me.

Though occasional drama happens, I’ve become numb about it and can just move on easily now. Valkurm-like PTs continue to fascinate me instead of irritate.

This year, I look forward to tanking more stuff on PLD/NIN!