Playing with Fire

It's Purple!

Last week I started leveling Dragoon, and I have to say, it's damned fun. Granted, I'm gimp and all, but when am I not? I've also taken to my digital companion, Sasavi, and having a blast with the emotes. Automatons can go drown; Wyverns have all the style.

Leveling is taking awhile, but I spend a good deal of time doing Fields of Valor or other soloing to keep me busy. After what seems to be forever, I'm finally at 64. My thanks to those East Ronfure [S] invites.

The best part about leveling a new job is the AF quests. I mean, what else is more fun than farming coffer keys, then trying to navigate various areas where the enemies would completely wipe the floor with your tail while you try to open a treasure chest containing armor that you're currently too low to use? Of course, you could always wait until you're high enough to go through the areas solo, but by that time you don't need the armor anymore. Unless you're an RDM. Red Mage AF is forever.

Thankfully, Davik came to the rescue. We headed out to the zones and got the keys with ease. Then it was a matter of me trying to find the coffer and not get myself killed. Surprisingly easy this time around, especially in Ifrit's Cauldron, but that's mainly because Davik and Maximas were leading the way. Regardless, I'm an official Dragoon with all of my cool gear. My new nickname is now "Purple Haze."

Last-Minute Hero

As mentioned before, I'm currently attempting to de-gimp my Samurai class. It's a huge pain, to say the least. Researching sets, making inventory room, trying to get pop items, blah blah blah. Since that usually drives me crazy, I decided to take a chance yesterday and form my own Nyzul Isle party.

To be honest, I was scared. I absolutely hate making parties of any kind. Nyzul and Salvage parties scare the crap out of me. Granted, they can both be fun if done properly. Set up the wrong party and you've just bought yourself an aneurysm. So I went online, took out a life insurance policy, and proceeded to shout for members.

The whole thing took about 45 minutes or so to get a full party. Nyzul 100, locked Askar and everything else was up for grabs. Personally, I didn't think people would go for a locked run, but they did. Most wanted Goliard, but there was one...Tiel...who wanted Denali. It's always a shocker when someone wants Denali gear for some reason. The setup was SAMx3 (myself, Limubai, and Tiel), RDMx2 (Krazykarl and Yokorye), and a THF (Regina). Looking back, I think maybe I like SAM too much. The good thing is that we all had Haguns and Polearms, so there was a little versatility in playstyle even though we had the same jobs.

Things seemed ok at the start, but I ended up being the idiot who forgot sneak tools. Then I got nervous when we had a lamp floor and it was order. We all worked together and got things figured out. Once we got to the final floor, we were greeted by the flaming puppy, Cerberus. No deaths on this run, and surprisingly, a pretty cap dropped. Tiel was happy and we exited. I had four tags and asked if anyone would go again. Everyone agreed, so off we went.

Now it wasn't fun anymore. Lamps, Ninjutsu restrictions, Gears...you know, the crappy stuff. I end up catching aggro during a lamp floor by a wyvern and die right at the lamp. So now I'm weakened and we're short on DD. The rest of the group takes care of things until I'm good to go and we arrive at the boss. Guess what?

Yeah, Cerberus again. Only this time, we got the 10 minute warning. I didn't panic, but I was certainly nervous. Myself and Lim used our 2 hour on the earlier run, and Karl used his while trying to reset ours with Wild Card. Still, we got TP and went at it.

First, I forgot to use my body boost before the fight. Fail on my part. Everybody is hacking away at this damn dog and I'm trying to use my medicine. I felt so dumb. Then things start to go downhill. Karl pulls too much hate and gets killed. Yoko soon follows. Then the DD begin to drop.

Regina 2hrs and gets a few good hits in. By this time, Cerberus is nearly dead. I got back up and tried to attack. Of course, I kept getting the message "You must wait longer...blah blah" and couldn't do anything. Meditate was down, 70 TP, and no 2 hour. It looked like everything was over.

...and then it happened.

In the distance, Tiel got up. I put up Seigan and Third Eye as Cerberus turned to me. Not like I could live for more than a few seconds, but desperation was all we had left at this point. I see the 2hr animation back where Tiel is. Hot damn, there's still a chance. Granted, all it would take is one hit and Tiel would drop, but we had a chance. I see her coming towards us and at that moment, our puppy has a treat:

Cerberus readies Gates of Hades.

Son...of...a....BITCH!

This was one of those moments where everything is in slow motion. I'm standing at Cerberus without enough TP to do anything. Regina is alive, but paralyzed. We're a couple of seconds into the GOH animation, and Tiel is charging in with the only possible hope of winning. I closed my eyes, and then...

I couldn't freaking believe it. Not only did we win, but Askar dropped!! While everyone did an amazing job, Tiel is definitely the hero of that battle. So now I'm 2/3 done with the Askar items I want, and only hands / kitty pants to go!!