Okay, this is Vis Maior's diary. Vis Maior (or Maior) is my character in FFXI and this is my journal of my travels in Vana'diel as this character. I've got a wiki where I'll put FAQs and other items. Anyway... stay tuned.

Welp, I've put up some more screenies. Basically, these are some I've taken the last several days.

First of all, there's me and my Moogle. Then there is me wallopping a Yagudo Initiate (note that I downgraded my armor because I switched jobs for building skills). Finally, there is me as my level 10 Galka monk here.

I am also a part of "The Ancients". One of these days I want to get a linkshell of my own and start my own Clan of the Angry Monkey group.

Friday evening I spent a lot of time in parties. My first party (with ParonBaron) was ended ubruptly when PB's cable modem went south. This was no big deal, we were in a fairly easy dungeon (2nd mission one in Horutoto Ruins in Southeast East Sarutabaruta) and I made it out just peachy. After PB's untimely departure I wound up with a group of stragglers wanting to head north into the canyon. It was actually pretty funny because one guy got lost enroute to us and the rest of us wound up waiting a fair bit. Of course, this let me converse with Snaffoo who's a rather interresting bloke. Eventually they all showed up and, after Ergoth's Protectra, we were off.

Granted... we got slaughtered ;-) Basically, we made it pretty far and then got completely surrounded by a gob butcher, two gob thugs and two gob weavers. The butcher and two weavers spawned around us while resting and the ensuing chaos drew in the last two gob thugs we had been preparing to attack. Boy howdy, did we get wasted.

This spread our party pretty thinly and left me in charge of it after the old leader quit to fight easier stuff. For the rest of the night, the party would change, but Ergoth, Dusanu and myself would remain constant. So, we headed out to Giddeus to try and take on some yogs in the caves. At this point, we had me (lvl 10 monk, nearly 11), Ergoth (lvl 9 WHM), Dusanu (lvl 8 WAR), Zip (lvl 9 BLM), and Cianan (lvl 8 THF). (Actually, I may have Dusanu and Cianan's jobs mixed up- Ed.) Really, it should have been sufficient to make it a fair ways.

And, in fact, we did. But, of course, we eventually got surrounded by some rather nasty yogs and got our asses handed to us. Later on, Ergoth, Dusanu, Cianan and myself went to the north tower in West Sarutabaruta to fight gobs. Now here we really should have been able to handle it. However, we'd all been at it for a long damned time and we got sloppy and were killed within the first five minutes.

*Sigh* .... Could've made it to lvl 12 if it hadn't had been for this day ;-)

Still, got some exp, and lots of items, so it wasn't a total loss. Later on, I found this cool stone carving in Southwest West Sarutabaruta. Found it's counterpart in East Sarutabaruta later on as well.

Long story short... I'm about 1,000 exp away from lvl 12 ;-)

I played a bit more during the weekend (obviously). And I have this screenie of a balloon to show for it. These things are kind of a push-over at this point (I'm very close to lvl 12) but they still give around 36 exp.

I've found that, when levelling, there are really two schools of thought:

• 1: You go after the big kills and try for the big exp.
• 2: You go after a lot of little kills and go for the sure exp.

I'll be honest, I'm more of a #2 route myself. Why? Well, firstly you can kill a lot of things without having to stop and heal. I find that usually I can get more cumulative exp between heals this way than I could if I just went after the big kills every time. The big kills, obviously, are tougher and will do more damage, whereas the small to mid-range kills tend to do a lot less.

Secondly, you're less likely to get walloped when going after the small kills. The big kills could be too big or could gang up on you and kill you and then you just lose exp (which isn't very good). The small kills you will be able to take even if they gang up.

Anyway, I've found that I've been able to rocket up levels this way (faster than a friend of mine who is taking the first route). Plus, since I spend less time healing, I spend less time sitting there doing nothing and more time being engaged in the game. So even if it is taking longer in reality... it doesn't feel like it is.

Well, finally made it to level 12! Yay! Spent some time killing Pug Pugils in E. Sarutabaruta, wallopping Goblin Weavers in W. Sarutabaruta, and Yagudos aplenty.

What I found worked was making a big arc from the gate in Windhurst Woods to the gate in Windhurst Waters through East and West Sarutabaruta and slaughtering everything in my wake. Bouncing back and forth this way kept the enemies easy enough to be push overs, and yet frequent enough to make their paltry exp count. Basically, at this point in the game, I can pretty much take on anything in East or West Sarutabaruta- whether it links or not.

So, I started heading towards Giddeus to see how I could handle things there. Along the way I got jumped by two Yagudos and a Magicked Bones that barely took off a single hit point. Once in Giddeus, I didn't find anything that was much of a challenge above ground... which is a stark comparison to my exploits here on Friday ;-) Not even after dark did the yogs do much damage.

So, I completed mission 3 and went on a few supply runs for the War Warlock guys. Then I spent some time sitting by the fountain (and, hocking my wares which are now overflowing my mog house ;-)

Hey, I forgot to point out one of my favorite images so far in this game. That's me, healing, after fishing and fighting. I liked it because of the backdrop.

Wow, what a couple of days! I managed to make it to level 14 due to a productive run through Tahrongi Canyon. Yippee! Hooray! But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself..

Firstly, I finally ventured into the canyon since my last terrible death there. I fought wussy stuff like this Canyon Rarab and this Strolling Sapling. I then came back to E. Sarutabaruta and fought more Yagudo Initiates.

Plus, I went back to town and started working on synthesizing things. I mainly did it to get rid of some of my overflowing inventory (that wasn't selling fast enough at the AH). But I did some Bonecraft and Clothwork. I then sat around selling my wares.

Later on I went with fellow Ancient, Drifter, back to the canyon to fight bigger and nastier things. It actually worked quite well for me, but Drifter was killed by this Goblin Butcher. Sorry Drifter. I rounded out this day with some gardening.

When I next logged in I found this incredible sight. A new moogle handing crap out! I honestly didn't care much to find out what it was, so I headed out with Kyler (also from ancients), Doa and some others back to the canyon. We fought Wild Dhalmel for a bit, then met up with other adventurers (led by the great Znaniecki) who wanted to head into the maze. We formed an aliance and headed out. Ten great soldiers! It was awesome!

Enroute to Maze, we got tailed by a hapless Yagudo Persecutor who didn't know what he was in for when he went after a group of 10 players levels 10-13! After that speed bump, we made it to the entrance to the maze.

In the maze, we fought Maze Makers, which gave decent exp. Here's a cool group healing. But then we got overly cocky and fough a Goblin Leecher and his friend and we were completely slaughtered. I lost 600 exp.... ouch.

So our aliance split up, and my group went back to the canyon to fight more Dhalmels. They were giving us 50-60 exp a pop, and six of us could take them down no problem, so it was worth it. Here I am with my head in a Dhalmel's butt! AAAAGH! I was still with Kyler and Doa at this point, and we were schooling the beasts! We soon got joined by fellow monk Craigshin and we rocked even harder. We skirted the Crag of Mae in our exploits, and I managed to make it to level 14! We also got Kyler, Craigshin and Mikel up levels.

Then I headed back to town to find the egg frenzy had gotten worse. People were selling the freaking eggs for astronomical prices... so of course I had to get in on the action. Here's a cute little Taru sleeping while people browse his Bazaar for eggs. And here's another little Taru who is visitting me (I am only assuming the little guy isn't doing anything illicit).

Speaking of illicit, I met back up with Drifter again at the egg frenzy, and a cute little Mithra started dancing for our amusement (it's Krissa, BTW ;-)

Cassie's little joke about this game is that every time she walks by I'm either killing something small and cute or squatting by a fountain. So, here I am squatting behind a bush... for more decency....

Well, had another very productive run through the canyon and I am happy to announce I am at level 15 and halfway to 16! Wahoo! Yippee! Hooray!

Came back to town to find still more madness with this whole easter egg thing. I even participated (have earned lots of gil thus far). Here's an interesting sight. Dunno if this is an egg prize or not (I assume it's related to halloween, so I'll likely have to wait to get my hands on one). It looks pretty damned cool, especially on Taru.

I also went and solo'ed in the canyon a bit. Basically killing wimpy stuff and collecting what they drop to sell...

Welp, I finally made it to level 16! Yay! Hooray! Yippee! .... Ahem .... Anyway, I made it there and I guess I need to start considering possible sub-jobs. I do have lvl 9 BLM abilities, but that job/sub-job combo just sounds like too much work... Of course, I've met people who've made it work... but I just don't feel like putting that much effort in ;-)

What I'd really like would be a MNK/SAM or SAM/MNK (preferably a SAM/MNK) but as that's an advanced job, it's going to be a while before I can do it. So, in the interim, I should really just pick a temporary one and call it good. This means I'll probably just be boring and do a MNK/WAR until I can do what I really want.

Anyway, enroute to 16, I went around with Crescentia in Giddeus and completed the retreive the bad food from the yog offering quest. We actually had help in the form of a showoff little high-level BLM who'd drag trains of yogs through the caves. We appreciated it, of course, but I would have liked to have made some kills myself ;-)

So I went to the canyon and killed some things on my own to level up. The thing that really amazed me after hitting 16 I could actually take on Dhalmels!

Wow! Now this was quite a day! First of all: No, I did not make it to level 17. I came pretty damned close, but not quite. I started out the day solo'ing to build up levels, and even met up with Kyler and Cres (husband and wife duo) as well as fellow Ancients member Drifter to build levels. Of course, I led them all to their doom when I made the dumb suggestion we take on a Poltergeist. Drifter and Cres bit it, and Kyler and myself nearly bit it.

Then Kyler and myself took on Dhalmels (not a big deal anymore) until a Yagudo Earth Elemental appeared next to us and slaughtered Kyler. It chased me all the way to East Sarutabaruta. I would have died too, except a respawned Drifter healed me up along the way.

Kyler was raised by a friendly high level mage, and met back up with Cres in the canyon.

So far, so good, right? Typical levelling up stuff, no? Well, here's were my story gets off-kilter.

Kyler and Cres had wanted a change in scenery. Cres wanted to take a boat to Bastok and check stuff out there. I had asked if they thought they'd make it (because I heard the trip was hard) and they laughingly said "yes". Of course, they didn't realize you had to travel through the Buburimu Peninsula, hop a boat ride at Mhaura, fight or avoid sea monsters, just to get to Selbina, which was still miles away from Bastok. I knew these things, and had been avoiding the Peninsula because of the staggeringly difficult nasties calling it home.

So, Cres suggested, since I at least somewhat knew the way, that I escort them to Mhaura. I said we could try, but doubted we'd make it. Little Drifter (who had already died once, mind you ;-) our level 13 WHM wanted to tag along too. Plus, Craigshin (my friend from before, a level 14 MNK, I think) wanted to come as well. Throw in good ol' Znaniecki and we were off.

Granted, we weren't really off. We made it a bit into Buburimu and a gob killed off Cres and Drifter. Then, once they returned and we bolted for Mhaura, a Goblin Butcher picked off Drifter again (who was our straggler in the rear). I tried to save her, but the thing killed her in like three hits. Sorry Drifter, not quite your day :-(

But our aliance did make it to Mhaura (sans Drifter) and we all bought boat tickets.

The boat ride was a grand voyage. Here's Cres and Kyler smooching below deck. Once we were on our way, we went above deck. I spent some time fishing off the staircase next to the cabin. Kyler and Cres checked out the view from the bridge. And it was all and all a very pleasant journey.

Or it was until the Sea Monk crawled on deck. Now, what happenned next all occurred so quickly I didn't get any screenshots. So, use your imaginiation.

First, I think we were all too stunned to do anything. Everyone kind of just stared at this leviathan. But it wasn't long until people began to panic. Znaniecki ran to the bridge and encouraged others to follow. I bolted for below-decks and waited for others to come my way. When nobody came my way I chanced a peak outside to see where they all were. Bad mistake.

The beast was waiting on the other side of the door. It used the open door as an invitation to attack. I fled deeper into the vessel, but was cornered in the cargo hold (nowhere to run). I was killed in three hits. It then returned to the deck and headed for the bridge where the rest of my group was wedged up against the captain. I wasn't there, of course, but was told someone openned the door up there and it began attacking them. It killed Cres and Kyler, and started chewing through Craigshin and Znaniecki- but they were saved by the ship ariving at dock.

So, our carcases were thrown off the boat and we found ourselves lying face down on the beach at Selbina. Quite a welcome, no?

Here's the deal: Cres, Kyler, and myself had just spent a lot of time getting here. If we died, we'd respawn waaaaay back in Windhurst. This was pretty much our only chance of making it here at this point. So, good old Znaniecki, Craigshin, and Mzhiyuu went looking for a WHM with raise. We had one WHM psych us out and never show, we had a second raise Cres and then catch his boat to Mhaura without helping Kyler and me. So Cres kept watch over our carcases while Craigshin went looking for more WHM. Eventually, the Elvan WHM Saluca saved us and everything was fine. Of course, we were lying dead on the beach for 40 minutes ;-)

Kyler and Cres had had enough "fun" for the day, so they logged out. I should have as well (this had been 8 hours and counting) but Craigshin still wanted to play and I felt like I owed him for faithfully trying to raise us. So we partied a bit, taking on stuff we never fought before. Eventually though, we did split.

I decided to work my way north before logging out. I passed by the Crag of Hollis and obtained a crystal (next time, I fly ;-) I also fought cool things like this Orcish Neckchopper and this Mad Sheep. Soon, however, I came to the Ronfaure region of San d'Oria, the home of the Elvans. It was indeed a wonderous and strange place compared to my Windhurstian home. Soon I arived at the gates of San d'Oria itself and entered the city just before dawn. The sunrise over the gate at Victory Square was spectacular and the quaint streets were unlike anything I had seen in Windhurst.

Of course, now I am alone. Out of my country, miles away from my friends, in a strange land with strange people and strange ways. I have gil, of course, and am a mere 90 exp away from level 17. But I wasnt really planning on this trip when I woke up this morning, and otherwise I'm unprepared. I left three plants at home nearly ready for harvest, and my inventory is full. Who knows what will become of me....

Woke up in San d'Oria. Honestly, I was a bit disoriented. But I explored it a bit, discovered how snooty the Elves were, and headed out to level up.

Fought me some orc things, many of which gave very good exp (50-100 solo'ing). Also some misc. sheep were destroyed. Poor sheep.

Drifter made it across the boat to Selbina so I met her in the dunes to escort her down to Cres and Kyler in Bastok. She had dropped to level 12 thanks to our efforts yesterday, so I protected her from nasties along the way. Kyler met up with us in Gustaburg and led us into Bastok proper.

After spending some time there, I discovered I liked San d'Oria better at the moment (greener, and with meaner enemies) so I began the long trip back up alone. Stopped by to sniff some flowers and kill some things along the way.

I'm lvl 17 now, and about 1/4 of the way to lvl 18. I think I'll stick around over here to do my sub-quest (they say it's easier over here) and then I'll head back to Windhurst and kill me some dragon.

The quests for your subjobs suck. That's what I did on Friday evening and Saturday morning. Basically, I started my day travelling north from San d'Oria and hacked at some Orcs. I then went back to San d'Oria and explored a bit.

Soon, I reached level 18 (or maybe I had already reached it before, I forget) and went out with a party to obtain the subjob quest items. The reason I came to Quon in the first place was because the subjob quest items were reportedly easier to find over here. Instead of a Bogy, you just had to kill Ghouls. Ghouls are generally easier to kill, but are more rare than Bogies and drop their wares less often. Anyway, I headed out to the dunes north of Selbina and partied with some people looking for the items as well. We started out in the hidden beach which is always a good place to find critters. I managed to get my Crab Apron pretty easily.

The party gave up eventually so I went back north again and explored some more. I then went and fought things like Skeleton Warriors for more exp.

I met up with some more players and we went to the Gusgen Mines to find our Ghouls and obtain the Magicked Skulls. Here we are entering the mines. Unfortunately, we had our asses handed to us, so one of our team members revealed he was just levelling up his subjob and was really a lvl 50 WHM. He basically came back and went to get our skulls solo while we just sat around. The guy's name is "Pippen", and he had a cohort named "Mystywysty", so if you see either of them in your travels on the Phoenix server, be sure to give them my regards.

The problem? It took forever to get those damned skulls. We needed four in our group, and it wound up taking all Friday night and into Saturday morning. We finally obtained the last one around 5:15am Saturday, and then we headed out to kill Damselflies for the last item. We played so long, we were actually kicked off the server for server maintenance! Holy cow.

Enroute back to San d'Oria, I saw a rainbow. Somewhere a Carbuncle or something was born.

As I was levelling my subjob, I was trying various ones to see what combo I'd like to stick with. I first tried my MNK/BLM (simply because my BLM was already level 9). Aside from the psuedo-pull ability with the BLM spells, I don't have the patience to make that combo work. I then tried THF/MNK (to level up THF so I could do MNK/THF) but I was greatly disappointed in THF. Steal never seemed to work, and my defense wasn't great. I finally settled on boring, predictable MNK/WAR and began levelling that up. What I found was that I could take on things that were tough with high defence quite nicely with that combo and I was able to rocket up levels.

I went around San d'Oria doing quests, and trying my hand at various synths (quite the specimen, no?). But Cres and Kyler wanted to do Rank 2 Mission 1 with me, so I headed back to Windhurst and did the mission with them. Later on, I fought things and levelled up more.

Well, I levelled my sub (WAR) to 10, and now I've got my MNK18/WAR9 setup and will be set until MNK20 or so. I played a bit more but then there was the version update of the software. Crap, Squeenix needs to do some massive server overhauls, I had so many problems downloading that upgrade it wasn't even funny. They created a setup where all those players like myself performed this huge DOS attack on their own servers. It finally managed to work, but took 3 hours to complete. The changes are many and noticable.

I then went more north from Windhurst than I had ever been. I fought Jubjubs in the Meriphataud Mountains. Killed some more Yogs in the canyon. Completed my Rank 2 Mission 1 (nearly getting killed by a damned Blob that was supposedly "easy prey"). And bought myself a spiffy new headband.

Wow did it take me a long damned time to get to level 20. I basically had a really hard time finding a party. At 19 I was either too high or too low. It was freakin' bizarre. Anyway, I started off 19 good with a decent little party that wanted to level in the Buburimu Peninsula (which is a good place for people our level to gain exp). Here we are healing and waiting for last teammate. It actually worked pretty good until we nearly got slaughtered by two Bull Dhalmels. So, we wound up in Mhaura and disbanded (some went to Selbina, others went back to Tahrongi Canyon). I watched my friends sail away and then headed back to the canyon myself. I travelled north to the Meriphataud Mountains and saw Drogaroga's Spine for the first time. I then tried to go north more to get to Jeuno, but was killed by a pack of Sauromugue skinks. So I went back to complete some quests.

One quest took me to the Horutoto Ruins, where I fought this nasty little Rotten Jam that nearly killed me in spite of being "Easy Prey". I eventually broke down and decided to try my hand at Selbina again. Enroute, everyone was fishing and nary a Sea Monk showed up.

When I got to Selbina I discovered a glut of adventurers which meant it would be hard to find parties. There was even this guy who may be needing a new look. Can I just say "Yikes!". There were soooo many people there that it took a really long time to find a party. And then, once I did find a party the area was so packed with people fighting that trying to time skillchains and even find enemies was nearly impossible. So I eventually solo'ed and went places like Ordelle's Caves and the bottoms of the crevices in La Theine Plateau.

I finished off this day in a party where everyone else levelled while I died. I wasn't too upset, tho, and headed back to Mhaura. The boat ride this time included a pretty cool stage show when a Sea Monk appeared. See?! That's what killed me when I first sailed to Selbina!

After much difficulty I made it to Jeuno. Both Jugner Forest and Batallia Downs were way too hard for lil' ol' 20MNK/10WAR me. So I just bolted through them. Aside from nearly getting killed in Jugner (stupid aggro gobs) the trip was uneventful.

Spent some time trying to get my damned chocobo license. Freaking 6 hour quest. So I headed back to Gustaberg and Dangruff Wadi to kill me some hares. These things were way easy and I'm going to have to come back later to kill 'em and make me some dough.

Just a quick mention that I got my chocobo license. Freakin' awesome. Zipped around like a mad person.

Welp, after my chocobo license I went back to Selbina to sail the ocean blue for a bit and try to fish (I needed Quus for a quest in Bastok, and I also just needed cooking supplies so I could make some money). I basically rode the ship back and forth between Selbina and Mhaura several times and caught a bunch of stuff. Of course, one trip was ruined by pirates. I apologize, the screenshots aren't the best, but that was because I was hiding in the Bridge. Eventually I did exit and went back to Bastok to level up my subjob and do some Bastok quests.

As I was levelling up my 10 WAR, I happenned upon a group that was fighting things in Valkurm. I personaly didn't think we'd make it at our level, but, sure enough, as long as we stuck to IT Hill Lizards we were fine and made some excellent EXP.

Afterwards, I went back to Dangruff Wadi to level some more and try and get some items to sell. Man am I broke!

Then I hopped on my chocobo and headed north so I could take the boat back to Mhaura and head to Windhurst. The boat ride was uneventful, but very rainy.