Holiday Update + MMM spamage

This is going to be a big post since I haven't been blogging much over the holidays, but I've been doing a looooooooooot of things :)

Scholar 74!

I think it was the week before Christmas that Vanh said to go get Scholar 75... After I had pushed Scholar past level 40, the job became even more fun and broken than before with Accession. The Monday before Christmas, Zurar Kurai & I went to do the final SCH AF fight (with a little trouble from Zu DCing right as the fight started, but that's a story for another time). That pretty much started my crazy attempt to get SCH 75 before the normal "work/school" schedule started up again. I knew that once the holidays were over, I'd pretty much abandon leveling up since I'd be too busy with RL stuff, or FFXI events to even change jobs into SCH.

Luckily, SCH gets invited to parties at a very good rate. A few of my objectives for the holidays was to 1. Catch up on TV/movies/anime and 2. Catch up on various OTHER games I've neglected. Well, I was barely able to completely #1 since I'd get 15 minutes into a show when I'd get an invite on SCH. Contrast that to other jobs like Dancer or Thief where I was able to finish playing Mass Effect while seeking xD

After Sunday's normal "static level-sync" party with Vanh, Fuuji and the usual crew (normally Zurar & Kurai), I was able to get to level 74. Just 40k left until level 75, which is either 1-2 decent parties, or one good merit party. I'll probably get my usual 20k buffer and leave SCH as that. The good news is that my Elemental, Enfeebling and Dark magic skills are actually almost capped, just 4-5 below cap right now thanks to a few well-timed Besieges. So, unlike other mages (many new RDMs out there), I'm actually able to Sleep, Enfeeble and nuke effectively. The Sunday static still needs a healer, especially as they go through the 60s and near 75. I'll continue coming as SCH (unless they'd rather have me on DNC) both to get some more merits, and to get some skillups in Enhancing & Healing magic. By the exp chart, There's about 500k worth of experience between level 56-75. I still need 21 more merits to finish Dancer merits, and I'll probably want some extra merits to work on other things, such as attributes, HP/MP or possibly Scholar or Blue Mage specific merits.

Scholar@75(ish)

So, what's interesting from leveling Scholar was that even before I finished the job I was asked to come as SCH73 to two events so far, Dynamis and Limbus. This was surprising since 1. the job wasn't finished, 2. my SCH isn't geared to be good at anything at all, and 3. I haven't finished learning or experimenting with it yet. I still don't know a Scholar's limits and capabilities and I'm not quite comfortable taking it out yet.

Dynamis: This was a low-man Dynamis-Sandy... we started with barely 19 people and we were going for the win. As far as I counted, we had 2x WHM and 2x SCH for this zone and I was coming to basically mainly heal, which was "ok" for a SCH, but I really felt that I could have done better on DNC. A few times I had run out of MP and many times Wuwu came close to dying, especially when he became the /assist when people started to fall. On DNC, healing would never have been a problem. I'm almost never without TP in Dynamis, and unlike a mage healer job, I pretty much have unlimited stamina for healing people. Dancer really excels in low-man situations, and a low-man Dynamis would have been one of them.

On the other hand, when it came time to nuke the bosses, I didn't have to just stand around idle and was actually able to do some nukes. Unfortunately, since my level, skill level, and gear were totally not prepared for nuking, I barely did any damage at all, even with helixes. Overall not very satisfying. If I'm coming to Dynamis as a healer, I'd rather come as DNC instead and do an overall much better job keeping people alive.

Limbus: Similar to Dynamis, we had a low-man run due to the low turnout from the holidays. Normally, this would have meant that Nain would be on RDM, and I'd be on either BLU or DNC to either back him up, or main heal. Nain wanted to try him on BRD and me on SCH instead, and this turned out to work fairly well.

A few advantages from this setup: We had 2x AoE sleepers (BRD + SCH Manifestation) instead of just one close-range AoE sleeper (BLU using melee-range spells) Instead of having to always heal up damage one person at a time, I could Stoneskin-ga people and use Regen-ga. Instead of Nain having to keep up a busy Refresh/Haste cycle, he could use March, then Ballads on me, so it was overall less stressful for Nain. Final advantage was that we would have Raise II in case of emergencies. Blew through the floors easily with no downtime. I even had MP to throw out a few nukes here and there.

Other SCH endgame: So... when I first started leveling SCH, I had a few things in mind... first was the cute AF! It's one of the jobs that I wanted to level mainly for the AF. Other jobs that fall into this category are... PLD(pretty), RNG(girl scout) & BST(stuffed animal) ^^; The other reasons was to take up a different back-line role for certain events.

For some events where I go as BLU/WHM (or BLU/SCH), I usually end up as a back-line job throwing out heals, casting Diamondhide or trying to use Breath spells as a magical attack. The reasons behind taking up a back-line BLU are normally to avoid feeding a mob too much TP (our big hitting spells can easily push a mob up to 100% TP in a few seconds), or for mobs that are taken down purely by magical damage. As Scholar, I can do the back-line job much better than coming as BLU. The SCH Stoneskin costs much less MP and can be repeated more often. Throw in Phalanx for even more damage mitigation. Switch to Dark Arts and a SCH can throw out more nukes, at a further range instead of having to be within AoE range of the mob like BLU or risk having the mob move out of position.

So, basically, any event where I have to "stand back" instead of being up there in front of the mob, I'll probably break out SCH. This is mainly Omega for Limbus, but may include certain ZNMs. (like Cheesehoarder, or that Gears one that keeps running around and makes me dizzy if I try to melee it) If healing is needed, I'd rather take Dancer out since Dancer has not only unlimited stamina for long fights, but can also switch over to become a tank in the event of pulling hate instead of having to constantly log out to get rid of hate. BLU would be used for cases where flexibility is needed (mainly Nyzul), or in the event that simple DD is all that is needed (unlikely since so many people prefer to DD than to heal).

What next? Well, SCH is my "mage/nuking" job for at least the foreseeable future. BLU is my DD job, and DNC is my tanking/healing job... I'm considering if my next job should be a "support" class, either BRD, COR or RDM. That would probably depend on how SCH is taken... if I'm asked to constantly come SCH where my DNC would do just as well, or a better job as a healer, then I'll probably *not* level one of those "4life" jobs.

Furthermore, I really need to gear up my SCH sometime. The gear I'm using right now is simply AF and my +MP gear from BLU and a couple of magical accuracy rings I had lying around. No Moldy earring, no int/mnd gear from the AH at all. The only Scholar-specific items I've bought (besides spells) are a Light Staff and Ice staff, so it may be a while before my SCH is fully geared up to handle nuking. Finally, I'm also still fully concentrated on Dancer as my main job, so I'm still much better at Dancer in terms of ability, merits and gear!

Meanwhile... I might go back to toying with PUP. A lot of my Dancer/Blue Mage gear can also be used on PUP, and with Fields of Valor, I think it might be fun to bring this pet job up through the levels solo!

Lots of lewt!

Let's see... I've gotten a lot of loot since the last big post. What do we have...

- Etoile's Toe shoes -- aka Dancer AF2 Feet from Dynamis Jeuno. Good accuracy piece and Dancing Edge WS piece

- Mirage.. erm... gloves -- BLU AF2 gloves from Dynamis San d'Oria. I was a little surprised when I actually got to lot on these, but... I guess we didn't have that many people with us that night ^^; These aren't really *that* useful for a BLU given that I have Enkidu's gloves as well as Homam gloves, but the +Dex, +Mnd & +evasion are nice... and of course, this brings me that much closer to finishing the AF2 set :)

- Enkidu's Leggings -- Excellent haste & attack piece. Goes on full time for both Dancer and Blue Mage for almost all situations. The only times I'd swap them out is if I need more accuracy, or if I'm going heavy on the nukes on BLU. This replaces my dusk feet. Thank you to Teia who agreed to swap my Vargie-signed boots for her normal ones. She now has a pair of signed Dusk feet, and I have a bit more gil ^^

- Askar Head -- Picked this up helping Fuuji's group with a floor 100 run. Since they all already had all the Nyzul head gear, any head gear that dropped would go to me... and this happened to drop ^^; Unfortunately, I don't have any jobs that can use it yet... I guess I should look into leveling SAM at some point. I didn't know that floor 100 used to be a 100% drop >.<

- Denali Kecks -- This is an interesting piece... For BLU, it adds Magical Accuracy & Attack. For DNC, it mainly adds the +3 evasion. They look like PJs, so chances are I won't be putting them on much, but this piece brings me that much closer to finishing my evasion setup on Dancer. The main thing I need now is just the Boxer's Mantle, and I'm only 10 Ancient Beastcoins away from finishing that. Also picked this up with Fuuji's group... they really seem to have more luck with drops than we do.

And... not sure if I mentioned these... I got both of these in the previous week before the holidays
- Mirage Jubah -- BLU AF2 body. The +accuracy and Refresh effect make this a full-time body piece. The only time I'd swap out to my AF+1 body would be if I *really* need the Blue Magic skill, which would mean I'm doing magical attacks

- Delta Earring -- The 15k Einherjar piece! FINALLY got it just before the holidays... Good thing too! This is a good piece for Dancer due to the +dex, +chr & -enmity. Since I usually /SAM, I don't always use my Suppanomi earring and this makes a really good replacement.

Phew... lots of loot there. Boxer's Mantle will probably come this week after another Limbus run. I still need a few pieces more to complete what I consider to be my "ideal dancer setup", most of which is the DNC AF2, but I just discovered another piece that I'll cover later... I still haven't figure out what I'd want/need for Scholar yet. So far, I've got Goliard armor on the list once we finish Kurai's set, and probably SCH AF2...

Speaking of Goliard and armor...

Nyzul Isle Issues

So in the past, we've been inviting some people to come along with us for Nyzul runs, normally when we've been 5/6 or occasionally, 4/6 people. While we'd like to help some of our friends, we've had a few cases of people grabbing items and... disappearing after getting gear, going away without even a thank you, or even worse, afking during Nyzul itself and risking losing the whole event, or losing other item drops. The purpose of a static is to make sure everyone knows what to do, and to get gear for everyone in the static, not to have people hop in, get gear and disappear.

Going forward, we'll be taking on a policy similar to other groups: Gear that nobody in the static needs can be lotted on by "guest" people who come along. Our static group is very friendly and won't lot on something that we "might use in the future". We don't even lot on gear that our secondary jobs can use if the job is retired.

So, if you'd like to tag along with our group with the hope of armor, please be aware of this restriction. This includes all notable gear. Currently, since we're still relatively early in the farming stages, the only piece of armor that isn't spoken for is Askar Body since all of our heavy melees already have it. We've almost finished one set of Goliard, so I'm expecting Goliard drops will soon become available too.

If you're interested in joining in on runs with the understanding that you'll only be able to lot if and only if nobody in the static needs the item, please let me know. Of course, we'll do our best to accommodate the chance of you getting an armor drop (i.e. scheduling a floor 80 for a chance at Askar body). We run at 8:00pm PST on Sundays (2-3 runs), and 9:45pm on Thursdays (3-4 runs). Sunday runs are when we'll most likely have 1 slot open for a guest. The more runs you come on, the higher on the list of invitees you'll be, and of course, as we complete our armor, the more other drops will be available.

Finally... if the above doesn't interest you, I'd just like to say that it is not *that* hard to find a group of 5 other people and climb Nyzul for yourself. I know at least 7-8 people who are still at the beginning and want to climb. The hardest part is the first few runs when you're still learning what things mean and figuring out how to best work as a group. If you stick together, you can climb through the levels very fast once you get over the initial learning curve. It took our group 5 weeks to get from floor 0-100 once the Nyzul weapons were released, and we even had a few farming runs too. We didn't start off perfect, and our first run failed at floor 1!

Moblin Maze Mongers -- Loot revealed!

So... after getting back to... ahem... "work", I was digging around a few forums and came across something interesting. Apparently some people have figured out the combinations of mazes to finally get MMM to give out some significant items! What caught my eye was this:

Ermine's Tail - DMG: 34 Delay: 194, Evasion +8, "Lizard Killer" effect, +7% crit rate vs. lizards

And... most importantly, this is usable by Dancers! Low delay, high damage and most importantly, a significant boost to evasion! This dagger is almost as good as the Azoth for Dancers. The only thing Azoth has over this is the +accuracy. Ermine's Tail actually does more damage due to the lower delay. This is the ideal off-hand weapon for a DNC/NIN, and possibly a main-hand dagger for situations where accuracy isn't as crucial, and evasion is needed. Plus from the picture, I'm guessing that it has a pretty Jambiya-type model instead of the Azoth's weird sickle-shape.

Sooooooooooo.... that means... I want one of these xD According to what I've seen, this has a chance of being in the Hoardbox for a specific configuration of maze, specifically:

007 Liquidation Team (100 Marbles) -- This is the "single NM" maze

004 Beast Rune (200 Marbles)

094 Lost & Found (500 Marbles)

Total of 800 marbles. The mob popped is a Dhalmel-type mob called Purushamirga. From our single try with Kurai vs. an elemental-type NM, these fights are fairly easy, but do require you to be on your toes. The level of the mob is based on the highest level in your party, so no cheating by bringing along a level 1 mule.

I'm currently at around 300-400 marbles, so as soon as I get enough, I'll be reconfiguring my maze to pop this mob exclusively. I'm pretty sure Kurai will be doing the same :)

Anyone wanna run some mazes?