Camp: Bhaflau Thickets
Targets: Lesser Colibri
Spells to have handy: MP Drainkiss

This is pretty much straight forward. The sad thing is, we aren’t able to successfully pull off a self skillchain… yet. We’re working on it, and I will most likely talk to Orophen on ways to both pull off a self renkei plus keep chain flowing smoothly. Let me say that Wizard Cookies + Dark Staff is a GOD send before Vermy. In fact, it is still a great combo even if you don’t have one (which Orophen doesn’t).

Despite some heavy competition, we managed to find a nice little camp where we were hardly bothered. Which is kind of hard when competing against typical leveling parties. Usually they are much faster than we are, and we struggle to keep up. We had no problem this time around and were able to keep our own set of mobs apart from the other two parties that were near us.

I also have screenshots with us posing in full AF, but with Wordpress not wanting to cooperate those shots will have to come a little later. :\

Now that we are level 60, CoP is going to be coming at full swing once Hiroshiko has moved into his dormitory. We’ll be picking up where we left off (the Three Paths) and plowing our way through as fast as we can now that we will be doing Besieged frequently in hopes of learning a spell or two without having to subject Reiokyu with the torture of putting his meat shield skills to the test. ;o

Camp: Toraimarai Canal
Targets: Impish Bats, Fleshcraver, Mindcraver
Spells to have handy: Bludgeon, Smite of Rage, Geist Wall

To greatly reduce travel time, becoming a Certified Rhinostery Venturer and having a Rhinostery Certificate is a must! This allows you to gain access to the Canal from Windurst Walls and get to the camp within seconds! All we did was zone in, walk down the steps, and basically sat at the bottom of the steps as we pulled mobs to our camp.

This is a very nice, neat little spot and we were hardly bothered by anyone. The only thing to be wary of are the Flesh/Mindcravers. It is very easy for things to go wrong here, and there were times I was only able to survive because Orophen and Mekare were curing me both at the same time before I was dealt a killing blow.

Even at level 57, there were still some VT mobs lingering about before they finally reached a peak at level 58. All in all a great camp because of its location and shortened travel time. Some of our highest skill chains (combined with Magic Burst) would push 1,000 at this level, so it was pretty much fun to watch our damage fly in this area especially thanks to Undead Killer ability!

We now have two more levels to get before we reach 60, and that should take us too long since we have six more charges left on our Anniversary Ring and Colibri are now our target mob for levels 58+. ^-^ So here’s hoping we get to level 60 next weekend!

What, you thought I was dead? Pfbt! Things have been hectic on my end, despite not doing all of the things I thought we were going to do! We still went to Disneyland, California Adventure, and did a heck of a lot of driving and riding ferry boats just to get from point A to B. My cousin has taught me a bit of Spanish, and I probably taught her how to stand up for herself more and curse a lot more than she should. Sadly, my cousin will be leaving on the 25th of July, but it also means one thing: return of precious weekend MMO gaming time!

There are a few games I have tried out since the last time I posted and here are my thoughts on them:

Wii Fit

I actually JUST got this a few days ago, and I am totally loving it. Granted I have poor balance, my right leg isn’t very stable at times, but I am liking that it has basically helped me track where and how I can improve without having to go out to the gym (at least just yet… I will go one day). I wish there were more games, but I guess that’s why I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed for an squeal to be released in the very near future!

the Umbrella Chronicles

Let me get this clear: I hate zombies. HOWEVER, I have a morbid curiosity about Resident Evil games that make me both amused and horribly freaked out at the same time. This game allowed me to enjoy playing a Resident Evil game without having to go through all the suspense alone, and get the gist of the story without having to feel too overwhelmed by being paranoid about everything going on. The solo stories I could do without, however, but I guess that’s what my brother is good for…

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2

I love this game. I love this game so much I am very frustrated I haven’t had as much time to devote to this game as I would like. I often only have time on ferry boat rides, and… that’s pretty much it. There is one thing I am extremely frustrated over, however, and that is being unable to UPGRADE certain weapons whenever I want to. At the moment I have weapons for many other classes other than the ones I REALLY need. My thieves, for example, have been hurting for a good weapon for several levels but an opportunity to upgrade has been at a constant zilch for awhile.

So, what about other stuff? Well, I won third place for the Moogle Lottery Thingy-Ma-Jiggy and will hopefully be able to take my BLU up several levels without having to stress out too much over funds. As for WoW, I FINALLY have a mount but am desperately trying to get Exalted (kind of like getting Hero rank) for the city of Night Elves. I also got severely pwned after logging back in after logging out on the road in a desert zone. Orz I kind of learned my lesson after that, but I’m hoping to extract my revenge on that giant someday…

Oh, and before I finish: WATCH THE DARK KNIGHT. <3

Health update: I’m currently feeling a lot better than I did earlier in the month. Besides the flare up of the mono, I had bronchitis AND a sinus infection that made my eyes super red! Can’t a girl catch a break? Jeez! I get exhausted easily, but as long as I take things at my own pace I often do fine. Though I still need to do a blood test to make sure my liver is doing ok…

Anyway, now you pretty much know why there haven’t been as many updates recently! I have been getting back into the groove of things lately, and we have even managed to get some things done with BLU. The specifics of the BLU leveling will be on its own post, but I am so glad we are able to get together again to do BLU stuff! Even though I play WoW on the side, I can’t give up my Taru as easily either and I still have a love for BLU and BRD (despite saying all the shitty stuff about BRD at times). It also made me glad for some things I have on FFXI compared to WoW at the moment.

Doing a lot of quests on WoW as of late, I end up finding myself having to run from point A to point B. This is kind of problematic for me because I tend to be impatient and frustrated easily when I have to keep doing it over and over and over and I think you get the point here. So having something like Mazurka + Sprinter Shoes is like a god send because I can get to areas a lot more quickly. Sure I have something like Mazurka on WoW’s Hunter, but its still not the same and I am just grateful I am getting closer to being able to get my own Mount (kind of like a chocobo).

On WoW we currently have an event that is called the Midsummer Fire Festival. It is based off of a real festival of the celebration of the solstice, but with some WoW twists added in there! Some of the things we do on WoW is pole dancing, where you twirl around really fast and look like a helicopter. Its ridiculously funny the first time around, and you even get a bonus of slightly higher exp for killing beasts the longer you do the pole dance! We also have to talk to people around the world to get more Burning Blossoms that can be traded in for items. However, unlike in FFXI, these don’t stay the whole year! So you can’t just save them up and decide to use them later on. You actually HAVE to use them or they will just disappear! A total bummer, but I think I can live with it and just hope I have enough time to get the remaining blossoms I need to get the item I want!

Back to the talking to people to get more blossoms… now you can choose to do one of the following: Honor or Desecrate. Of course you can’t desecrate your own faction’s flame, but you can go to the opposing faction’s (Horde vs. Alliance) and desecrate their flame! Which is kind of fun but also freaky as hell if you are just a low level person like me who is on a PvE (Player vs. Enemy) server. I actually had instances where Horde players waited to see if I was on my way to their flame, and I would have to covertly look like I am busy trying to kill mobs so I wouldn’t be bothered! The first time I did it, however, I tried hard to make it to a sanctuary before a Horde could get me. I found my way to a retreat with a bunch of level 40 Night Elf guards surrounding me. Haha, but then a single Horde player tracked me down and was actually patrolling the area to get to me. ;o; I totally freaked and logged off for awhile because I didn’t want to get my ass handed to me. Yes, I know, I’m a wuss.

It was also really fun trying to get flames as Hunter since Hunter has so many ways to do espionage. I can either control my pet to let me see into Enemy territory or I can just an ability that lets me zoom in really close to the area of my choice and seek out what is going on. Cool, huh? I actually did this a few times before getting a flame so I could plan out my moves and either wait it out or go in and piss all over the flames. Its probably not as cool as this Tauren player who shrunk himself down to midget size and ran all over the place by himself to douse flames! He was so cool, and I couldn’t stop laughing for awhile just seeing him work the guards and everything.

For the next month, my schedule will be pretty chaotic. My cousin is visiting from Spain until July 25 and there will be times I will be away from home and visiting Canada (I always look forward to visiting because its so beautiful!), Oregon, and hitting up Disneyland. So while I may not be able to play MMOs at this time, at least I have my trusty DS! Haha!

That basically sums up the insane weather I have been seeing in my state, with snows capping our mountains in June and cold temperatures that have forced everyone to bring out their winter coats once again. I guess you can also say my lack of posting is also like the stillness of winter after snow has freshly fallen, but I’m here now waiting for spring or summer to make its debut (and for my sickness to go away… again).

I have recently decided to start up WoW again. It was mostly out of boredom and concern for my best friend whom I hadn’t seen in awhile. I got hooked back into it, and have played more often than I should have thanks to seasonal blues. I’m an Ally this time around, and a Hunter since I couldn’t find a race I could jive with to be my Rogue. Night Elfs are weird looking and they partially look like clowns, Humans look like gorillas to me, and the other races are too short (yeah, this coming from a Taru lover). I still have my BE Rogue, which I plan to level up to catch up to friends so that we can play when we want more lovey-dovey time with the three of us.

As for FFXI, I am foaming at the mouth with excitement for the new update. I’m extremely eager for the new missions and quests, and I kind of want to see Reiokyu do the can can for everyone. We have also leveled our BLU separately for Reiokyu’s sake, so that we can at least get 55 and be ready to march on ahead with Anniversary and Emperor bands. The only problem in that seems to get in the way is Mekare’s computer and my bouts of illness. I tried to push myself today, but even checking my mail in WoW was exhausting and I’m already starting to get towards my limit by typing this entry. Hah, if Orophen weren’t asleep right now I would probably be scolded at the moment…

After being diagnosed, misdiagnosed, and uh… diagnosed again… the doctor speculated I had mono. I don’t know what to believe in anymore, but I do know I was feeling much better this weekend save for the back pain I suffer once in awhile.

At any rate, I have been trying to scramble to do as many Campaigns as I can to get back my medals and to level up my WHM. It has sometimes failed by the Campaigns either ending by the time we get there or disconnecting just minutes before the Campaign ended. We also lauded the return of my brother back into the gaming and *gasp* LEVELING up. It was the marking of the end of the world seeing this, but I guess it was sooner or later before the apocalypse had to come.

I didn’t stay on for as long as I wanted to, however, due to health reasons, but I managed to get a bit done before my MRI on Saturday and then watch as my desktop’s wireless connection choked, gurgled, and then died when trying to update FFXI. Seems like I will be playing and working on my laptop a little bit longer than I anticipated…

Anyway, I want to Congratulate Hiroshiko on graduating from High School and being accepted to Howard University! Its a big achievement for such a little guy who used to cower in fear in my presence. Oh how did his knees quake when he saw me looming over him oh so many years ago. If only I had dangled him from the tree then… then maybe I would have had a more obedient pet to add to my lineup.

I know we have all poked at and laughed at S-E. Even though we knew certain additions or changes could have helped us for the many years some of us have been playing, we kind of just gritted our teeth and bared with it when those changes never took place. Now, as the game is headed through the geriatric stage, S-E has finally decided it was worth implementing the following:

Nomad Moogles in Selbina and Mhaura
Supply Quest Records
Item Autosort Function

If it weren’t for the fact I’m already tired as heck (been awake since 4:45 A.M.), sick, and still depressed over the fake out over the new MMO Orophen mentioned to me yesterday? I would be hitting my head on the table a few times asking what the bloody hell took them so long.