One decision down – Next Crafting Focus chosen

All in one fell swoop, my next crafting class was chosen for me..

I really want this item http://mooglebox.com/entries/gryphonskin-jerkin.php

and since they are SO VERY EXPENSIVE… it’s a goal I need to work towards… so –

Leatherworker it is!

I reached level 18 on it last night…  so odd to be starting all over again.. hehe.

I had been used to having all my different skills to choose from when crafting, and now I’m back down to two. So I’m starting out with Maker’s Muse (3 successful Standards – blacksmith level 10) and Grand Design (Advances Progress by 20% – weaver level 30).

New Leatherworker Progression Path:

Item	crafted	Recipe
Sheep Leather	ltr 04	Sheepskin + Alumen
Dodo Leather	ltr 11	Dodo Skin  + Alumen
Aldgoat Leather	ltr 18	Aldgoat Skin + Alumen
Toad Leather	ltr 27	Gigantoad Skin + Alumen
Boar Leather	ltr 32	Boar Hide + Alumen
Peiste Leather	ltr 41	Peisteskin + Alumen
Deodore Leather	ltr 46	Deodore wing  + Alumen
Raptor Leather	ltr 46	Raptor skin + Alumen
Hippogryph Leather	ltr 50	Hippogryph Skin + Alumen

Busy Weekend – NM hunt, NPC, Statics,Craft

Friday night, I logged in and went to Carpenter’s Landing with Squeekers to get his Bard’s level. We went there, I went as my 19 PLD, and  pulled out my NPC Gunnar to help.  Squeekers attained  level 20!

After that Aerie had logged in, and was offering to help with something, so we decided to go to Ordelle Caves and see if we could find the NM there that Squeekers needed for his Monk belt quest. We killed a few slimes, goblins and bombs etc, and then decided to try the other NM in B. Glacier.  That one is an NM called Nue.  There was one other person there camping it as well, and when it popped, they ended up getting the claim, so we cheered them on. They didn’t end up getting the item to drop either. It was late, so we decided to call it a night.  Not as productive as we had hoped, however we had fun hanging out with Aerie and getting to know her.

Saturday Morning, I helped Blindrage and Pitbull get thier NPC’s. I was nervous, because long ago when I had went to get mine, it didn’t go well, however I was trying to solo it as a clumsy still pretty new level 30 whm.  We went to Eldieme, Blindrage popped his Skeleton NM, and I did a Cure V on it, a couple hits, and it was done for. He spoke to his NPC pal – a small taru with grey hair named Burg-Ladarg.  Then we did it again so that Pitbull could get his NPC, also a small taru, only with blue-ish hair named Balu-Falu. 

We then ended up in Ghelsba Outpost at the hut, so they could fight the Carrion Dragon.  Now everything I’ve read on this has said that they could go in at the same time, but they would have their own dragons to fight, and couldn’t help each other, but this is not what happened.  They went in, and only one Dragon appeared, and so they fought the one dragon, both their NPC’s came out to help, and they defeated the single dragon, and both got their quest finished. After that we went to Qufim to try out their NPC’s, it was fun. 🙂

When Squeeker’s and Jedafu & Velsol logged in, we went to Kazham to party.  Here’s a picture of us waiting for Jeda & Vel in Kazham^^

Jeda was RDM, I was BRD, Blind was PLD, Pitbull on DRK, Squeeks on BST, and Vel on BST. It was fun.. and in the process I got my Brd to 26.

Sunday Morning, Blindrage, Pitbull & I all met up again to party some more. We trio’d in Qufim and I ended up getting Brd to 27. Both Blind & Pit got to 28, so Blindrage was happy that he could now use his Kite Shield.

When people started logging in for our 60’s static, I headed to Bibiki Bay. We got there and noticed that the birds are getting alot easier, so I think we are going to need to look again for another place to party.  In the process of this static, both Kauri & Squeekers leveled. Kauri got 64 rdm, and Squeeks got 65 on his monk.  He also got his long-awaited weaponskill “Dragon kick”. I took a picture of his first use of the new WS, but being a mage in the back, I really didn’t get to see it that well. I guess he does a somersault of some kind, and its cool looking. I mostly just saw rocks coming up from the ground… maybe its dirt..  Here is the picture I got though.

After that we went and helped Talishe do her Mission 3 dragon fight. Kauri went as bluemage, and actually was able to sleep the dragon with sheep song.. lol.  It was a pretty quick fight.

Then we headed out to work on our 20’s. It was getting late, so we didn’t get to stay long, but a few of us leveled.  Squeeks stayed behind after we disbanded and helped Fuddy and I get our levels. 

After that, we ended up on another Rank 3 Dragon fight, this time for Amras. We headed to Palborough mines this time, and defeated his dragon.  By this time.. I was tired.. lol  so I logged for the night.

And at somepoint during the weekend, I got Alchemy to 27 ^^

Bard, etc

This past weekend there was no static, so I leveled my Bard with Blindrage on his Pld & Pitbull on his Drk. We were joined by Talishe (whm) , Velsol (bst) and Squeekers (bst). Talishe only partied with us until we got her level.  We met a new friend, a Bluemage named Aerie, who we gave a linkpearl to, She seems really nice. 

I ended up getting my bard to 24 with 1k tnl.  I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to use my mages ballad scroll that Kauri gave me. She has no interest in Bard and knew that I wasn’t to far off, so she gave it to me, which was nice, and saved me about 30k.

Monday night and Tuesday night, I decided to try and get my level, so I went to Carpenter’s Landing and brought out my NPC Gunnar to assist me. Right now, Gunnar only stays for 20 mobs, so I did 20 on Monday night, then 20 more on Tuesday night. I ended up getting my level! /cheer

Alchemy is now 26 ^^  Oh, and I got Shadowstitch (sp?) Weapon skill on my Dagger while working on Bard.

Alchemy

I’ve decided for the time being, I’m going to focus a little more on Alchemy. Last night I reached level 21 Alchemy skill. The current recipe I’m working on, is level 28 and makes Automaton Oil, which I actually use on my Puppet.. /cheer ^^. 

 It is relatively cheap to make. I bought a stack of Plasma Oil’s off the Auction house for 10k, which would seem like alot for a ingredient, but it is a stack of 99, so breaks down to about 101 gil each. Polyflan paper also comes in stacks of 99, which I bought for 6 gil a piece in Whitegate, and Olive Oil I buy from the merchant in San d’Oria, for about 14 gil each. The Water crystals I farm, but if I would buy off the AH would be about 83 gil.    So worst case, If I bought the crystals, I’d be spending 204 gil on each synth, that ends up producing 3 Automaton Oils – so roughly 68 gil a piece. 

When you buy Automation Oils from the shop in Whitegate, they cost 200 gil each oil, so I’ll actually be saving gil to make these myself, which is cool.  Right now stacks of Automaton Oil (12) go for 3k, so If I end up having some that I want to sell, I might even make a slight profit from skilling up on these.. one can only hope.  I don’t know how quickly they sell though, but even if it is for my own use, because it ends up being cheaper, It will still be worth it, and space will be the main issue.

Because I was only level 20, I’ve been sitting in the Guild area in Whitegate and asking for synth imaging help. For the most part, I’ve had much more success than breaks, so I’m happy.

Quick Post

Not much to report except Cooking skill is now @ 35 !

Spent last few nights (when I wasn’t sick >< .) farming wild rabbits with low level jobs to get the hare meat and earth crystals needed to make Meatballs (cooking 35).  Because of this, my BST is now level 8.. lol.  Sent all the rabbit hides to Laurelai to help her get her Sandy Fame up, as she has a bed for the first quest to get more inventory space, but not enough fame.

Made Melon juice for the very first time as well ^^

Small Goals / Crafting

It’s been pretty quiet. Mostly I’ve been working on leveling thf, and leveling crafts fishing & alchemy.

With thf, I have reached 17 – entirely solo’d. The reason was three-fold.
* First – I wanted to actually see if I could actually level a job to 20 without stepping in the Dunes. Not that I’ll make a habit of leveling other jobs that way, but kind of feels like a bit of an accomplishment that I actually did it alone.
* Second I was farming for items I needed for crafting at the same time, two birds with one stone if you will.
* Third – it was just a change of pace. I was also trying to work on capping skills before I level, attempting to keep the char skills on that job pretty solid, which doesn’t seem to happen when I jump into parties and hurry to level. I have a bit to go to reach 20, don’t know if I’ll make it, but we’ll see.

Crafts:
On Alchemy – My Goal is to be able to make Poison Potions (18), then Echo Drops. In the past few days I have gone from level 9 to level 12 making Poison Dust (12) with Lightning Crystals and Yellow Globes. Which makes me aware of what a great place Qufim is for this particular recipe… Run over here.. Kill an Thunder Elemental or two.. then run over there and fish the Yellow Globes. No gil cost, only the cost of time, and a few Sabaki Rigs ><.

Fishing also reached 12, though my next targeted fish is not going to help me skill up any, but I will need them for Alchemy to reach my goal there. Once I have done that then I’ll be able to target Shining Trout and Cheval Salmon and use them to work on skilling up cooking once more.

With the Holidays over, and people finally back.. lol.. I am anxiously awaiting our static to start again. I really would like to use some of the scrolls sitting in my MH collecting dust.. lol. We are set to begin again this next Sunday.

Happy Holidays!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! And wish you an even better New Year!

Things to remember for the New Year:

#1. Happiness is a state of mind that needs to be found within. Anytime your happiness is tied to someone else’s actions, presence or behavior, you are more likely to be disappointed.

#2. “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box” – Italian Proverb 

#3. Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. (from Strengthening Your Grip by Charles Swindoll)

#4. If you do not change the direction in which you are going, you will end up where you are headed. ~Confucius

#5. “Feel the rain on your skin, No one else can feel it for you, Only you can let it in” – Unwritten by Natasha Beddingfield

#6. People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind.
Think big anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

#7. It takes 21 affirmations to undo the damage done by one negative comment – So think before you speak.

#8 He who dies with the most toys.. is still dead – don’t forget to enjoy the little things in life.. thats why we are really here.

 #9. There are three things, that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love.– 1 Corinthians 13

#10. Make an effort to build up the people around you.. invest time and love in your family and friends. There will come a day when you will be weak and need their strength.  Like lighting a candle, the flame is not diminished by lighting more candles, it just creates more light.

On the FFXI front: I have been enjoying my time with my family this past week so I haven’t been online much, however in the hour I did login I did manage to get my cooking skill to 26. /cheer

Stray Mary & Static

On Saturday morning, (early morning) I woke up.. noticed I had quite a lot of dark crystals from when I had been farming sleepshrooms for cooking, and figured I would put them to work, and clear my inventory a bit. So I headed to Konstat Highlands for sheepskins.  I would make a stack of sheep leather, (or try,  since I had no skill level in Leather craft yet) fill my inventory to the brim, warp back to Sandy, send it to my mule Laurelai, and then return to the Highlands to do it again. After a few hours of this, and even after going back to bed for an hour, I came back out and was wanting to find a few more to finish my stack.

 When what to my wondering eyes should appear.. (lol.. sorry.. ’tis the season)..  Not Santa.. but Stray Mary!!  The very one I have read about so much about in other’s blogs, and had always heard how elusive she is.  So I threw a Dia on her quickly before anyone else claimed her.  I really lucked out. She was standing on the other side of one of those windmills.. and as I had walked by.. I had just watched a high level theif warp out  on the opposite side of the same windmill.  I claimed her, and got a sheepskin, a jug of Mary’s Milk, and Mary’s Horn!! 

 

I logged out after that.. leaving on a high note.. lol  Much later, I logged back in and Kinkykitty was needing a cube of Lanolin that drops from Battering Rams in La Theine Plateau.  We killed a couple and then noticed that there was a guy in crafting attire following us while we were looking for the Battering Rams. I asked him if he was needing something from them, he said yes, so I suggested partying up, since all Kinky needed was a cube of Lanolin and he agreed.  He was a 75 thf/rng. It was so cool watching him, widescan must be pretty great, and almost made me want to go level ranger.  We ended up getting Kinkykitty’s Lanolin and I got one too, for when I decide to do that quest. It was fun.

Sunday night was our static, and I have to say, it was one of our better ones. We all had so much fun. We were able to invite a BLU named Ellenzar who fit in wonderfully.. lol.  They are a very fun bunch. I guess we are a little different than the normal static, in that while it is our intention to level, we are pretty easygoing and enjoy each other’s company. Its not all about the grind. Ellenzar and Squeekers both reached 62, Kauri, Kinkykitty & I all three reached 61. Which means that we can do the GK4 now and get it out of the way.

There were actually times where we had to wait for everything in the room to respawn. I’d never seen that room completely empty before.. lol.

Choco Rant / Static

So I find myself in Sandy, and think that while I’m there, I might as well re-charge the chocobo whistle, which I’ve done quite a few times..  so I go to the chocobo stable.. and trade my whistle to the NPC just like normal… and what’s this???  I have to pay 1000 gil per use now???  When did this happen?  Depending on how many times you’ve used it, that is now how many thousand gil you have to pay to re-charge it. So if you’ve used it 20 out of the 25 times, you now have to pay 20k to recharge it!!  This seems a little over the top to me.  First off, my chocobo is slow, and not special in any way other than he has a cool name.. lol. Now it is cheaper to rent a  regular fast chocobo than to take my slow-poke bird out of the stable.. how ridiculous is that! It’s pretty much spoiled the whole chocobo raising part of the game for me.  I figured that before it equaled out because of all the gil you had to put towards food /raising etc for the chocobo. I might as well leave my whistle in my mog house now..  200 gil for a fast choco vs 1000 gil for my slow one… hmmm… anyway.. sorry about that … /rant off

We did get to static this weekend and we got Fuddy to 60, so now he’s a beautiful Paladin with all his gleaming white AF gear.  Congrats Fuddyduddy!!!

Congrats to my friend Laiden, who got married in game to his real life wife!!  How fun! sorry I missed it 😦

I was able to obtain Recruit rank with Alchemy, and even turned Kauri on to Alchemy.. Kauri is now level 5! Course now we both have to go do some major farming for gil.. lol. I was also able to get my cooking skill to level 17, one more and I can get the Novice Rank, although like I said it may be a bit, due to funds.

pld AF / short static / crafting

Most of Saturday I leveled thf and farmed things for crafting.  Really I had only started working on thf to get items because I didn’t want to buy them, but I’m starting to kind of like thf. Thru farming only, I have leveled it to 15. At this point I’m actually thinking I might continue to use it to farm and level it on my own.. maybe even get it to 20 and skip the dunes all together.. I don’t know.. we’ll see.

I farmed enough sleepshrooms to get me from level 11 to level 15 in cooking, so that was good. I also got Alchemy up to skill level 8, so I’m ready to turn in the item in Bastok to become a Recruit rank, so I’ll do that soon.

I also picked up most of my songs for my bard thru level 18.

We spent the first hour or so of our static time getting Fuddyduddy’s AF body piece. We are now partying on Sunday nights again and Fuddy is going to be our pld again as Isinwen seems to be MIA. Not even his linkshell members have seen him the last three weeks.. and the natives are getting restless.  Once we got his AF body piece, we met in Aydeewa Subterrane and killed about four Defoliators, before we disbanded.  It had gotten late..

On a side note… I love this game…… but   … there are times when it becomes all too serious..