I’m back in Vana’diel for the Nth time. An old friend of mine, the original owner of my second account in fact, started playing it again and posted on Facebook that he needed an Earth Staff. So happens I had one on a mule signed by someone who was in our old HNMLS on Ragnarok that helped the two of us camp Wyvernpoacher Drachlox all those years ago, so I reactivated and let him borrow it.
My first priority was finishing my stupid Fire Shikargar, which I eventually did. After that I finished the Wind Shikargar for more evasion and dual-wielded them for a bit until the recent update that made Coins of Glory and the other Walk of Echoes coins sellable in bazaars. I quickly bought 30 of them and turned my no-helms-turned-in Nobilis into a Badelaire, which became +1 and +2 right away, thanks to the plethora of Kindred’s and High Kindred’s Crests I had stored up. I guess I wanted a CdC-equipped sword to use until I get motivated to camp the NMs and VNMs again then farm up helms, skins, and horns to make a 90 Almace. So far it’s impressed me a lot, being very effective for taking down old content and for dealing large damage in Abyssea despite being the cheap knock-off version.
On the jobs front, I now have Ninja at 99. That is one job I swore I would never take past subjob levels, but after reading this excellent guide on the FFXIAH NIN forum one day, I realized I had equipment already in my inventory to get started once I’d completed the NIN AF quests. So a couple of Fell Cleave parties later and my NIN was 99, all ready to be skilled up. I capped Evasion and Katana a few days ago, and Ninjutsu is in the 150s, so I still have a ways to go before I can really start using it to farm seal NMs or just goof off.
But the biggest highlight is finally getting my White Stratum Abyssite to VI. Over the past few weeks I watched the live shouts page for Voidwatch Jeuno Tier Climb shouts, taking one that started out fine, easily felling the Tier 1 NMs in the present, but it went sour after we lost nearly an entire party and the group disbanded after several wipes on the taurus in Sauromugue [S]. Thankfully, another one popped a few days later, and that one got me to Tier 3, but it was far too late by the time the group hit Tier 3, so it disbanded pending completion the next day. Well, I didn’t join in that group because I was helping a friend with CoP missions, but another potential full climb happened a few days later on a Friday night. I had to work the next day, but I decided I’d go with it and see just how far I’d get before it got far too late. The answer is Tier 4, leaving me with Stratum Abyssite V and very little sleep for work.
In the meantime, a person from my old Dynamis LS, who was frequently the WHM in my party in fact, was in need of Jeuno T1-6, and very nearly got into the second T1-3 climb, but due to her not logging on soon enough missed out. I told her I’d keep an eye out for tier climbs, and one popped the following week after my run to Tier 4. She ended up getting through Tier 4, so we were then on the same stage. This past Saturday night I did a repeat, sort of, of my Zilart M6-12 run years ago by standing in the midst of Port Jeuno shouting, well /yelling, for a long while to get a full alliance that stayed pretty much together for the entirety of 1 T3 fight and T4-6, excepting Botulus Rex and Ig-Alima. I used two Void Clusters on Kalasutrax and refused to take payment for them, as I’d wanted these done as much as the next person.
Thus far I’ve not touched the expansion too much besides unlocking Rune Fencer and Geomancer. I guess spending so much time away from the game in the past 3 years since I quit for WoW has my in-game priorities shifted to a very different point than it was years ago.
But there is still plenty to do in Vana’diel!