SR Takes to the Skies: Genbu

Friday night.

I thought I'd be "good" and go out for drinks with some co-workers for a change. Who knew when I came home I'd be dragged by the Linkshell all the way up to Sky to have a smackdown with Genbu, the God of the East.

Sky. Otherwise known as Tu'lia, the area is privy to all sorts of end game linkshell dramas: from problems with RMT (Real Money Traders) to corrupt Linkshells. The competition is fierce and the drops are on average, horrid.

In general, we've been avoiding dabbling in Sky to prevent such dramas. But recently, Jojax and Gruive had been working hard on gathering triggers for certain Gods. Wouldn't want to put their efforts to waste.
Here's the strike team: Vashanti (RDM), Bigawkward (MNK), Lunakitty (BLM), Gruive (BLU), Lenor (NIN/DRK), Jojax (RDM), Kamos (BLM), Igneusnex (DRG), Kariko (DRK).

The plan was to stright tank, but before the fight, Jojax went over the emergency kite path in the event of a wipe.
Thanks to well co-ordinated skillchains and stuns, the fight went prety smoothly. We didn't need to kite until the middle of the fight when Genbu got in a one-shotter as I was trying to get my shadows back up. It was all over in about 15 minutes.

And our reward:
Genbu's Kabuto went to Bigawkward. Wyrmal Abjuration for Crimson Greaves went to Kariko. Seal of Genbu went to Gruive and the Venomous Claw went to Jojax for future end-game scheming...
But an SR report wouldn't be an SR report without a Deathga Summary!

Deathga Report:
Igneusnex was the first one to go down as Genbu stomped when he took hate after a skillchain. Lenor one-shotted with her shadows down. He was also angry at Lunakitty and Kamos for obvious BLM reasons.

Congratualtions everyone!! \(^ ^)/

Saturay Night Limbus: Temenos Central Floor 1

Thanks to the efforts of the Promathia Zerg Team, we managed to get four new faces into our Limbus group! And what better way to welcome the newbies than to drag them to Temenos Central Floor 1. Welcome also goes out to Arroh for joining our merry band :3Today we are joined by: Spierz (BLM), Gruive (BLU), Jojax (RDM), Snoop (PLD), Kariko (DRK), Stinkypuppy (WHM), Lunakitty (BLM), Tamahiyo (RDM), Arroh (PLD), Igneusnex (DRK), Lenor (THF), Marzanna (BRD), Vashanti (RDM), Kysuke (NIN), Bigawkward (MNK).

And for once, we had more than enough mages!
I ran on ahead so I missed most of the drama, but apparently Igneusnex managed to drown himself at sea on the way to Temenos. This is the aftermath of his recovery. Vashanti was kind enough to resuscitate him. Tamahiyo almost got eaten by a shark on the way to Temenos too. Aren't large-group treks fun.
It's the first time any of us has stepped into the halls of Central Temenos. Floor 1 looks like it was invaded by mobs from Xarcabard. We had 45 limits to mop the floor with the Ghost, Dragon, Skeleton, Ahriman, Weapon and Magic Pot. Sounds easy enough - especially with 15 people.
Kysuke discovers the joy of being lv 74 as the Ahriman decided to spam Lv 5 Petrify.
Overall it was a pretty easy-going run. Everything died without too much drama... for once.

Loot Report: 4 Ancient Beastcoins for everyone. An Orchid Chip for the Linkshell. And some AF+1 piece that nobody wanted went to the floor.

Congratulations on Sea!! (Class of 2007)

After two months of zerging on weekends, the third-gen Promathia Zerg Team has finally made it to sea!

Congratulations go out to: Kysuke (NIN73), Bigawkward (MNK75), Snoop (SMN75), Spierz (BLM75) and Tamahiyo (RDM61)!

The June updates did much to ease the pain for sea-farers these days. PM7-5 proved to be significantly easier than the first time around for me. I was even able to get away with wearing my spunky new Qiqirn Hood!

Saturday Night Limbus, Temenos West

After weeks of begging for Temenos West to be put on the schedule, the Linkshell finally got its wish, so off it was to Temenos West for some much needed AF+1 and Ancient Beastcoin farming.

But first, here's some Galka fan service, courtesy of Kamos!
Eeewww. /gouge eyeballs.

Tonight, we were joined by Igneusnex, Gruive, Kariko, Lunakitty, Jojax, Lenor, Marzanna, Drargen, Kamos, Hiish...
Or at least, until we realised that "pulls" were called for too early and we effectively locked out our only tank. And so, tonight's run was completed TANKLESS (since I was on Treasure Hunter duty as my perma-farming THF).

Apologies to Hiish (/.\)

The first floor took us 15 minutes to clear. Luckily we managed to find a Time Chest on the second floor. As usual, luck played a critical part in completing this area. At one stage we were 2 minutes left on the clock before a Time Chest drop at the sixth floor secured us some chance of clearing the area.
Deathga Report: no one - despite being a tankless alliance, which was surprising o_o Kudos to our support mages for keeping everyone alive and well.

Loot Report: We managed to bag 63 coins tonight which brought us to a whooping total of 70 (7 coins each). It was SAM night tonight, with 3 scarlet odoshi dropping to the floor. Marzanna went home with a Plaited Cord to complete her NIN AF+1 items and Igneusnex took home the WAR AF+1 item. Kariko unwitting ly ended up with the BRD and SMN AF+1.

Good job everyone!

Nekkid Fun! SR's First Salvage Run

A few weeks ago, the "powers that be" in ShadowRavenloft decided it was time to get off our butts and give Salvage a try. Tonight we would be exploring the Silver Seas Remenants. Our brave exploration team includes: Dutrance, Bigawkward, Lunakitty, Lenor, Jojax, Kysuke, Gruive, Marzanna, Vashanti.

We gather around the Gilded Doors of the Silver Seas Remanents, eagerly anticipating what's inside...

...and promptly get stripped of the ability to wear equipment. Our hit points, magic points and stats were severely nerfed too. Job abilities, magic, even support jobs were restricted as well.

FAN-tastic.

Fortunately, after the April patch, they've changed Salvage so that an Armoury Create containing a certain number of "cells" can be found in the first room. These cells unlock certain abilities. Jojax was put in charge of cell assignment. Since it was our first time, people took some time casting lots and passing on cells that weren't assigned to them.
The first floor of the Silver Seas Remanents were full of Fomors. Talking the easier route, we farmed as many as we could in order to unlock more of our party member's abilities.

Overall, they were pretty easy to handle. We made sure everyone came prepared with some meds to make the run smoother.

The first death came just as we were heading to the teleporter up to the second floor. Congratulations go to Marzanna for being the first casualty on our first Salvage run!
Up we go to the second floor. The second floor contained a mixture of Imps and Fomors. The Fomors would aggro and link to sound. The Imps would aggro the Fomors by sight.

We weren't up for massive amounts of Deathga, so we took the "easier" path which involved taking down two Imp Notorious Monsters.

These Imps were annoying. There were two of them in the room: the first one spammed an AoE Silence ability. The second one meleed like it was a Monk using Hundred Fist.
Despite overdosing on Echo Drops, we managed to bring both of them down without too much drama. The second Imp NM dropped the lv. 15 gear for Skadi-leg gear which went to Dutrance - Congratulations!

Up to the third floor we go. The third floor contain Archaic mobs. We've run into them before during boredom Nyzul Isles runs and they are mean little buggers.

In order to progress, we needed to clear the room. Things got a little hairy when they started linking and detecting magic. Kysuke became the second victim during our quest. After clearing the room of all gears, this NM showed up. Beating it down wasn't too much of an issue. It was nice enough to drop an item for the Marduk gear set (forgot which piece - I think it was body), which went to Marzanna. Congratulations!
There was also another Imp NM. He was just as annoying as the others because he was fast and liked to teleport away when the going got tough for him. What a wuss.

We tried to sneak up to the fourth floor, but got caught out by the Archaic Gears. Vashanti died on the way up. We tried to hold back the aggressive gears as one of our members made their way to the teleporter.
We reached the fourth floor with 10 minutes to go. Up ahead were more Archaic gears. Dutrance with his l33t Flee skills ran on ahead to train all the gears in the way with Jojax in tow. Dutrance died for the cause and Jojax teleported us to the last floor.

With only 30 seconds on the clock, we had no chance of taking down the Long Chariot waiting for us on the fifth floor, so I did the only thing I could for a dramatic finish.
Overall it went pretty smooth for our first Salvage run. We're so proud of our minions :p Everyone will have to get used to passing and casting lots in mid-battle though, but it should be something that will improve as people participate in more runs.

Besides the lv. 15 gear drops, we also got two Silver Seas Cards.

Saturday Night Limbus, Apollyon NW

Well, we didn't win against Proto-Omega last week, but we didn't fail miserably either!

With hearts set on revenge, we set off to try to get another set of Central Apollyon chips. Proto-Omega was kind enough to drop us a Smoky Chip last so that left Apollyon SW, SE, and NW to go.
We wanted beastcoins - and lots of it. But we already got the chip for Apollyon NE so it was off to NW. We also wanted to give NIN/DRK a try against the mages.

Roll Call: Lunakitty, Jojax, Vashanti, Hiish, Gruive, Xenonsmurf, Lenor, Drargen, Dutrance, Marzanna, Igneusnex.

Tonight we welcome Hiish (PLD and NIN) into our jolly band of Limbo-ers. Welcome!!


Apollyon NW - where the mages run free. Forget about the mobs staying still after the initial voke. These Apollyon Scavengers didn't even know what hit them. The whole run went smoothly all the way up to the last floor.

Skipping major headaches like Fafnir-like mobs, We had 51 minutes to finish off the last floor. With all the experience we've had playing with Kaiser Behemoth, we wiped the floor with him with 30 minutes to spare...

We probably should have spent a little more time killing the other mobs.

Deathga Reports: Hiish (first floor), Lenor (Kaiser Behemoth), Drargen multiple times (as usual) on Kaiser Behemoth.

Itamz: 47 Ancient Beastcoins acquired in total. 4 coins each. DRG AF+1 for Drargen. Nothing else worth mentioning.

The Deathga Reports: Murder at the Sacrarium

With the new CoP team reaching mission 4-3 after last week's win against Ouryu, and an increased number of people who want a swift belt, it was decided to hold another swift belt/subligar/sacrarium key farming session.
Bigger group than the last time we ran Swift Belt events. Beating down these Fomors should be a snap!

Of course the first challenge we faced was getting such a large group through the high-aggro labyrinth without getting lost or being eaten by the undead...
Deathga Round #1
It was phailure to the max. The first Noob Award of the night going to Zaeon for running headlong into the undead maze without putting on Sneak first. Snoop died during the rescue operation and Samuri died because Sneak wore in the middle of the maze.

Well, after we got everyone up, we set up camp just outside the classroom where Balor popped and started clearing the area of ever single fomor in sight. There were eight people with Fomor Codexes that night - nine if you count the fact that Dutrance has a "spare". We were in for a long haul, so there was no time for mucking around!

Dutrance had the first chance at popping Balor which went off without a hitch. Unfortunately Balor didn't feel like parting with his precious belt (T^T)

Second pop belonged to Samuri. Balor was feeling generous this time and he scored himself a Swift Belt - Congratulations!!
Deathga Round #2
It was either right after Dutrance or Samuri's pop that things started going pear-shaped. Note the guys wearing the blue linkshell in the background. They were there for Promathia Mission 4-3 - The Secrets of Worship.

We had just gone back to camp outside the classroom when, unable to take the heat, the guys in the blue LS came to the entrance of the classroom and one-by-one started dropping like flies.

The Good Samaritan Award goes to Snoop for raising the other guys when asked to.

Of course, being a Good Samaritan in FFXI is a double-edged sword. Good Ol' Professor Mariselle didn't like having his victims interfered with, and decided to start eating our alliance. Things weren't looking good, so I ordered my party to Escape.

The next 15-20 minutes would be spent watching shrieks of panic and disbelief as Professor Mariselle and his little Pupils continued to eat our alliance even after some people logged out to try to reset hate. Not even zoning helped. Mariselle took the trouble of sending one of his Pupils to send welcome us back - how sweet...

Lesson learned: Be a Good Samaritan AFTER NMs DESPAWN, otherwise they may decide to get revenge on you. Hate will not reset even if you log off.

Not since the first trek through the Phomiuna Aqueducts and the Library murders has there been a massacre so big among the SR ranks.

Since most of my party managed to get out in one piece, I wasn't there to witness the carnage. If you want to know more about how Professor Mariselle schooled the people of ShadowRavenloft, free feel to read Kysuke's account of it on the LS forums!
The Aftermath. Lookit all the dead bodies - not including the ones who logged off in the hope that Professor Mariselle would forget about them.

After picking everyone up and re-establishing the alliance, it was back to business. We cleared the room and Gruive popped Balor on Watabou's behalf while I used Dutrance's second trigger. Unfortunately Balor wasn't willing to part with anymore of his Swift Belts. The death toll continued to rise with Samuri getting beaten down by a pile of eyes who didn't find him very {Charm}ing and Tamahiyo eating Eagle Eye Shot by one very annoyed Balor.

It was quite busy that night in the Sacrarium with another group running a Swift Belt run. Kind of tried of begging Balor for Swift Belts, we decided to let the other group monopolise Balor and moved to the other side for some Mithra Fomor action.
Somewhere in that mess of spells and job abilities is Caithleann, the Mithra Fomor NM. She wasn't too bad although Chainspell could be dangerous to Ninja tanks. Luckily we had the numbers that night to make sure she didn't get any funny ideas with it.
Bigawkward was kind enough to use Foreversaijin's trigger on his behalf. Indich the Galka Fomor tried to use lolSoulVoice against us. Maybe it would have been more of a threat if he spamed Horde Lullabye or something...

Caithleann was robbed of Swift Belts two out of three times with Tamahiyo and Kariko receiving theirs and Spier, unfortunately missing out. Indich was kind enough to drop one for Foreversaijin.

We had one Fomor Codex pop left to do that night. Unfortunately quite a mass of people were still gathered outside Balor's room.
It's been a long night of struggles against the undead. Some of us were destined to become zombies in the morning if we didn't escape, so unfortunately, Kysuke's trigger was to be postponed for a later date.

Everyone was warped or teleported home, or deathga-warped out Ninja style.
Loot Report:
50% drop rate that night. Congratulations to Samuri, Tamahiyo, Kariko and Foreversaijin. Condolensces to Watabou, Dutrance (x2) and Spier for missing out.

Quite a number of underpants that nobody wanted dropped as well. lolDRG x2, lolBRD all fell to the floor. But Samuri (BRD), Tamahiyo (RDM), Kariko (DRK), Zaeon (DRK), Foreversaijin (SMN), and Bigawkward (MNK) went home with some.

Make sure you get Brygid to wash them before use!