Okay, so it's been several months since an update... so shoot me. A lot has happened.

My 360 broke down again keeping me out of the game for a couple of months. Several friends of mine have recently quit the game. Additionally, due to burn-out I ended normal ClanAM FFXI. All in all, it's been a rather tricky several months, so no updates.

So, I'm going to do what I did the last time I neglected updates for this long and do a series of posts to catch you up.

By way of a small summary update, I've been leveling WAR (currently at 68) but it's on hold until my 360 returns (you just can't get parties that high level in non-ToAU areas anymore, and my PS2 doesn't have ToAU installed). I've also been leveling BST again primarily due to my general burn-out with dealing with people. I have Sea access and currently lead up Limbus events over in ClanAM End Game. Uh... and I've done other stuff... but we'll have to read the next few entries to see the details :-)

Helped out Xill and company get Sky access. They were pretty much on ZM4 (basically, the beginning of the Zilart missions), so we had to beat Grav'iton and his friends. We then had to do the headstones, which was actually considerably easier this time :-) We went and fought the various headstone NMs, but then I had to log. They still won and got Sky access for everyone involved.

I then got roped into another airship battle. This time I was Ninja and was tanking. My first time tanking Omega/Ultima... it was an experience. We won, of course, and got several more people Sea access.

Afterwards, I went with Trix to fight Tribunus VII-I several times to get me a Tungi for my WAR and BST. It took a few battles to get the drop, but we did eventually get it.

Later on, I went and soloed more of my Warrior AF quests, including killing Ni'Ghu Nestfender. While in the mines, I went on some manaburned KSNM battles trying to get various weapons... this, however, wasn't the best experience.

See, this was my group. Now, my group was capable, don't get me wrong. We went in several times and they were proficient. The problem? Well, this group had one major asshole (Miniscrilla, you can see them in the first screen) and at least one person who couldn't follow orders. You combine those two together and you get a HUGE problem.

Problem #1, we died... completely wiped... totally and utterly lost one battle. It was my orb (obviously) so I was out an orb. Joy.

Problem #2, they were dysfunctional to the extreme. After our wipe, Miniscrilla threw a huge tantrum. A giant one. It was so bad, he actually disbanded the party after our next battle causing all of the drops to be lost. So, this meant I effectively wasted two hard-earned orbs. He was a major, gigantic, enormous, dick. The last run actually yielded two items worth ~1 million each too. And the fucker disbands and loses them... Assfuck...

Problem #3, Miniscrilla had been the pool holder for the earlier successful runs. This means, after his tantrum, he was sitting on easily 3 million gil worth of items from my runs alone (who knows how much from other runs). When he threw his tantrum and disbanded, he was never heard from again. A week or so later I saw on FFXIAH.com that he had sold all my items. Now, I have no idea if he spread the loot with his former team-mates... all I know was that I never got any of it. And the few times I've been able to track down the others from the group, they've been less than responsive (and still very pissed at Miniscrilla).

So, this group basically wasted my Kindred Seals and my time... which pisses me off a lot. That being said, I was lucky enough to get a few of the items I wanted (like my Senjuinrikio, but not the Destroyers I really wanted) so it wasn't a total loss. Even still, I can't deny that this experience with Miniscrilla was one of the events that lead to my eventual burn-out in FFXI...

In trying to cut my losses from the Miniscrilla debacle from the last entry, I took my NPC out to level her up and try to break the latent on my Katana. We went and fought bones in the Eldieme Necropolis for some reason. I know that's not the best place to use a Katana, but I think I was trying for some special item there. It probably was a Coffer Key for WAR AF or something... who knows? It's been too long :-P

I then went and fought one of the last Riverne #B01 ENM runs of my open-ended static. I ended the static due to some growing drama between different members of the static (and dealing with that drama weekly was wearing thin... another reason I got burned out... I wound up being "Family Counselor" to people in my clan too often).

Soon, after several more Assaults, I finally got my Pahluwan Seraweels, which were the one big item I was saving up for at the time. Sure, they look rather poofy and fruity... but damnit if they don't color coordinate with my Chocobo!

I then started to lead up some small Sea related events, including small Limbus runs and other farming. I really enjoy Sea, but damn if the underwater goldfish don't freak me out when they rise up (it's the same sound as the sharks! GAH!) To help make myself more useful, I also went and got the map by talking to the NPCs in the zone.

We had several events including general farming and doing further CoP missions. We even started farming sharks, albeit lower level ones. The sharks had some decent drops. Here is the group that did more CoP missions together. Xill and Cyc were already past us in (and finished with) the missions, but they came back to help the rest. After defeating the enemies Dragonlance and I entered the palace to explore further.

By now, I was feeling really burned out... and I was leading up less and less events. In general, I was even avoiding ClanAM simply because I was sick and tired of everyone making such a huge deal about me logging in ("Maior!" .. "OMG MAIOR!" ... "Maior, long time no see, buddy!".. It's flattering everyone loves me so, but it makes every time I enter the game such a production that I actually don't want to play).

Anyway, we had a joint Divine Might run with another LS that I decided to be a part of... and I vowed I wouldn't be roped into leading. When you wind up leading every event, it's nice to just sit back and be a passenger now and then :-)

We headed out to Sky and met by the burning circle. There really were a lot of us, with people from ClanAM and another LS. We also had a good setup, and could have won.

The problem is (and, if you've ever led up any large in-game event you know this) coordinating that many people is insanely difficult. You will have people go AFK at bad times, not listen to directions, not pay attention in the battle... and generally screw things up for everyone else. The key with large events is redundancy... e.g., a lot of redundant people who can make up for it when their contemporaries suck. The problem with this run was we had zero redundancies, which meant everyone had to do their job and not suck. This didn't happen.

Here we are running down the stairs to the arena, and here we are dead afterwards. We actually did this run several times, but these two screenshots sum up the evening nicely. Such joyous fun!

After this, I went and worked more on WAR. There's not much to tell here, basically just leveled up from 40ish to 68 or so (before my 360 broke). I did take a few screenshots of notable events, however.

One event was this screwy RMT party I got invited to in Kuftal Tunnel. I get the invite (as I'm seeking in Al Zabhi) and I spend considerable effort to get there. When I show up, everyone has level 30 gear and is rank 1 except for one other guy (who showed up around the same time I did). This guy and I exchange nervous looks, and send /tells wondering if these guys were RMT or just sucked. Turns out, it was both, because after our first pull we wiped. We actually wiped a few more times, and then the other guy and I "faked" disconnects. I logged in a day or two later and found the same RMTs there IN THE EXACT SAME SPOT! They even tried to invite me again... EGADS!

The next notable event was when I was finally high enough to use my coveted Tungi. Another WAR in my party was very envious of me :-)