I've really been getting into BLM lately. In fact, I made it to the 30s and have been able to finally wear Seer's gear. Granted, I only have the body and the legs (+1) because everything else was covered by RSE pre-30.

Here I am casting a spell in my Seer's. That was in a party shortly after I was first able to wear it. Here I am casting Blaze Spikes in Seer's. And here I am back at Whitegate after the party.

I then went with a bunch of ClanAM people to attempt another Snoll fight. We lost, again.

Afterwards, I went off on something of a BCNM trip. Avatarx, Faoria and I went and did BCNM30: Petrifying Pair several times. We also came back later and did it with other Clan members. We had a winning strategy involving RDM, NIN and MNK. Did the BCNM easily a dozen times and got two Leaping Boots drops. Avatarx bought one pair from the group, and the other was sold off.

Well, I hit Black Mage 41. My RSE may not look the best, but damn if the stats aren't nice. I also got WHM up to 31 (dinged 31 in Besieged by healing and raising, actually :-) which was pretty fun. I don't plan on leveling WHM in parties any more, if I can help it. I'd prefer to just take it up to 42 in ENMs.

After getting BLM to 41 and WHM to 31, Avatarx has taken it upon himself to try and groom me into something of a Summoner. Honestly, Summoner is a job I have very little interest in, particularly because I'm such a perfectionist and I doubt I'd let myself level in a "normal" party with it if I don't have all the summons. I told this little personality "quirk" to Avatarx, who decided to try and force... ahem... I mean, help me get my summons.

So, we went out with Sloth to Ifrit's Cauldron to get Ifrit for me, and Ifrit's key item for Sloth (so Sloth can get Fenrir). Here I am at the entrance to the Cauldron as a NIN/WHM. Funniest looking Ninja ever. I subbed WHM for free Sneak/Invisible, so I wore my RSE to ensure I'd have enough MP to make it worthwhile.

After some trekking through the maze that is Ifrit's, we wound up at the base of the Cauldron and a stone's throw away from the protocrystal. Once at the crystal, we rested and waited for the new day (it was Firesday). I sat at the crystal and contemplated shite and we generally basked in its warm glow.

Once inside we buffed up and began the run up to Ifrit.

Here is Ifrit bearing down on Avatarx with murderous intent.

Ultimately, the battle was pretty boring for me as Avatarx pretty much soloed it. All I did was stand back and toss the occasional Cure, Regen, and Barfira on Avatarx and Suiton: Ni on Ifrit himself. The battle wasn't bad at all, and when we were done we had Ifrit key items.

Avax has still been grooming me for SMN. We headed out and did Shiva. Here we are at the protocrystal. And here we are inside the arena buffing. Again, we stood back while Avatarx fought the Prime.

Afterwards, I headed out with Xill, Therst, Trix and Sloth to help them get some Windy missions done. Wrapped up 6-1, 6-2 and then headed out for 7-1. Xill didn't have the "cool" access to the Canal, so we had to go the long way through the Ruins.

7-1 involves killing some Hinge Oils. There's 3 or 4 (I forget) and you have to kill them VERY quickly. As soon as they are dead, a door opens up and you can enter into the so-called "Sixth Ministry". The gotcha is you need to do all this very quickly before the oils respawn. Unfortunately, this is not without peril.

After we killed the oils, we rested in the Sixth Ministry. As you can see, Sloth is thrilled to be here. Therst was very interested in the Tiny Taru Bed in the room.

Next came..... more avatar killing! We went to the earth protocrystal to fight Titan. This time I came as NIN/BLM so I could nuke.

Then we headed out to the Boyahda Tree and protocrsytal therein. There we fought Ramuh Prime.

We then went to fight Shiva again (because some people needed it, and I wanted those groovy claws). On my way to Sandy to pick up the key item I encountered Fungus Beetle, a low-level NM. Dropped a crappy shield I have no use for and can't sell :-)

Getting everyone to Shiva was a bit of a fiasco. Some people went AFK, and others just took forever to come. This is why I don't lead up many events these days. Anyway, while I waited I leveled my NPC on various mobs near the zone.

Once again, Shiva was a pushover. We enjoyed gang-banging her at the end of the battle.

Afterwords, before I logged, I went out to do some quick NM hunting in the surrounding areas. There I encountered Gargantua, who dropped jack but was fun to kill anyway.