March'08 Update!

Wow! The update has hit and lots of things have happened! So much to do that I'm not exactly sure what to do next! Let's see... what have I succeeded in doing so far? Mainly Dancer AF! First thing I did after logging in was to grab the hard-to-get items for the AF from the AH, then start on the quests.

Dancer AF Quests
The weapon quest is quite easy, one single spawned NM in Grauberg... Unfortunately, the way to the NM goes through a section with some EM-to-75 True Sight mobs, and I got a little careless on the way there and got two-shotted x.x Syrinx was online and helped me fight the NM, making for an easy kill! Still, the weapon is a... War Hoop. Chakram-type weapon that seems virtually useless. At least I've been skilling up throwing so I can actually *hit* exp mobs now... I've been pulling a lot in the recent exp parties as I'm too impatient to wait for another puller to get out there, but I still don't think Dancer pulling is optimal. I'm usually trying to get in one last step before the mob dies, and end up taking too long to pull for even my taste. I'd much rather have a Bard chain pull ^^;

The first armor AF quest was even easier... a short cutscene at the lake in Jugner where the DNC quest first started, then get some Rare/Ex Yagudo Glue from any Yagudo Bard in the past. I got the glue easily on my 2nd Yagudo Piper kill on BLU/THF. There was only one other person camping the pipers, so I think the drop must be quite common.

The last AF quest is even easier! Instead of fighting, or even sneaking, you get to play DDR! Well, not exactly... you need to dance in a certain sequence to attract people to come watch you instead of the competition. Turns out that the Dance troupe is competing with a circus troupe in Jeuno for an audience, and all you need to do is make sure you have more audience members. Here's a picture of the Dance-off in progress!

It's a bit dark... I should have done this quest during the daytime hours ^^; Yes, that's an elvaan girl on the far right doing the "robot" thing that you often see in tourist traps!

As for the quest storyline itself, it's a cute, almost romantic story, very appropriate for the Dancer job, and... seemingly very out of place in a game which has such a focus on fighting! In fact, the AF quests themselves have no real fighting in the story, and the NM fight even felt like it was tacked on for no good reason. Quite a contrast to the dark, depressing, "lose your soul" Blue Mage story. I wouldn't be too surprised if DNC G5 turned out to be nothing but a simple Dance-off competition again! The cutscene for the final DNC AF quest is very sweet, and one of my favorite (other than the CoP storyline)

Semi-good news on the other AF pieces is that they are crafted... I think overall prices on AH for all the necessary pieces is over 500k right now >.<>

Just need one more piece crafted from Syrinx and I'll have my full Dancer AF! Just need to get Dancer to 60 now ^^;; Kinda strange to have almost all the AF, but I can't wear a single piece!

Blue Mage

New spells are out for Blue Mage! Unfortunately, they don't seem to be anything to write home about... So far, I've only picked up Seedspray, a ranged attack + Defense down. The damage seems decent for 61MP, only slightly less than Frenetic Rip, and the Def down effect means that I'll probably end up swapping this in for Hysteric Barrage and use it instead since it's only 2 Blue Magic points :D

Haven't gotten the other spells yet since I've been concentrating on Dancer more... From what I've read, Asuran Claws is pretty weak compared to our original spells. However, Blue Mage gets a new job trait that we can set: Counter! Need to see how well that works ^^

Missions

About WoG... only one word... Windy quest/mission, go check out the... mithra :D

Other missions: For Assault, finally have enough mercernary points for the next promotion quest! I'll be spending time searching for that Warhorse Hoofprint tonight, hopefully in time for the next round of Assaults tomorrow >.<

Other Stuff

Wow... lots of other stuff happening... for starters, Aqqy is arranging for an O-hat run at the end of the month, so I need to go farm up the eyes necessary for the Hakutaku Eye Cluster... Dancer can now use the Rapparee Harness, so I'm interested in getting a Gemini Subligar... and if I'm going to work on Haste equipment for my Dancer, well... time to look into a Swift Belt ^^;;

Too much to do, too little time @.@