Started out doing some missions with Xill and Sloth for Windy in the past. Here we are heading to Fort Karugo-Narugo for some CSes. I hadn't ever really been this deep in the fort, having only run through it previously to get to Windy. The fort was pretty cool and has some pretty intense campaign battles due to its layout. After the CSes, we headed back to spawn the NM we needed to fight.

The NM is a War Lynx, and he's honestly a pushover. The only gotcha with fighting him is the fact that he has one move that does like 90% of your HP in damage in one fell swoop. This means that if you lack the ability to cure yourself (as I did, I was WAR at the time) you really need to bring others along.

After defeating War Lynx and enjoying the CS, Xill and I went and did a Campaign Battle in the fort.

The following weekend we, once again, had our Sea/Limbus farming in ClanAM. Here I am soloing goldfish while I wait. The Limbus event was for SE Apollyon. This time we had our full group going, and managed to get a win. Here we are taking out third floor boss Grave Digger.

Been Beastmaster a lot in the past. I've really been enjoying it, and have been thrilled that SE has given us a lot of lower level areas with the Wings of the Goddess expansion. I've also been leveling BST really quickly (well, when I've been leveling it :-) usually gaining a level or two every few hours. It's been really enjoyable and a nice break from normal partying (even though it seems that Campaign Battles have killed off normal partying 60+).

Here I am with my Conjoined Twins pet and prey. I spent 18-25 between Windy and Bastok in the past as they had tons of mobs for me.

Because of the recent ability to open your moghouse to party members, and because I've been dying a lot in Salvage and Limbus, I finally decided to get my moghouse decorated a bit better. I went for "Moghancement: Experience" to reduce the pain of death, and started by putting beds in my home. I think I ultimately decorated it pretty well.

Speaking of Salvage, here we are entering Bhaflau Remnants. Our ultimate goal was to get to Long-Bowed Chariot, and kill him for his drops. The battle was intense, and everything was going well, until he got off a couple of successive "Mortal Revolutions", which are AoE knockbacks with stun. After those, he chose to turn and nuke the shit out of the tanks and then the mages with his "Homing Missile" attack. Stun plus 90% damage on most teammates and hate reset is a very bad thing and we couldn't recover from that. Alas.

I was then back leveling BST again, and was fortunate enough to experience a few levels while the "pets gain HP from drain samba" unintended "glitch" was in place. Personally, I don't think it should have been considered a glitch, and I think SE should have left it in... but oh well.

I also went and did some BCNMs as a BST. I absolutely love that I can solo so many of them now... even if my drops haven't been stellar.

Post-update, the campaign battles have become more intense (and, IMHO, more fun). Here is Bo'Dho Hundredfist using his nasty AoE move "Wrath of Gu'Dha" to send me flying. All in all, some pretty intense stuff...

Oh, did I mention that in the past I've switched nations to Bastok? Bastok [S] is really a pretty cool place... actually much cooler, IMHO, than the other two nations. It seems that SE finally has given Bastok some much needed love in this expansion pack, and has taken the most boring nation and turned it into something exciting. Hell, they even have Zazarg (the kick ass Galka Monk who is in Al Zahbi during Besieged) as a major military leader. I've actually invented this whole back story for Maior explaining why he used to be in Bastok, why he's in Windy now, and how he's connected to Zazarg:

..during the great Crystal War, Vis Maior was among the Galka who had found refuge in Bastok from the Antica threat. He and his childhood friend, Zazarg, rose quickly in the ranks of the Bastokan army as they tried to repay the republic which had given their people sanctuary many years before by defending it against the Beastmen Hordes. They were integral in many decisive battles during the war.

After the war was over, the two Galka returned to their beloved Bastok to find it had become besieged by a new enemy: Prejudice. Resentment among the Galka over their still low standing in the community despite their many years of service in the Bastok Mines as well as soldiers in the war, combined with overt racism from the native Humes towards their Galka brethren, made living in Bastok as a Galka incredibly difficult.

After a somewhat failed Galkan Civil Rights movement, the two Galka, defeated and morose, left Bastok. They went to Windurst, where Maior's war reputation earned him respect among the locals. However, the quiet life in Windurst combined with the (some would say fanatical) local spirituality, were not for Zazarg.

Maior saw Zazarg off at Mhaura, where Zazarg had chartered a boat and planned to set sail to see more of the world. He intended to head east and see where the winds took him. It was a bittersweet goodbye for the two friends, but they would meet again years later when Maior's own travels would find him in Al Zahbi and the Aht Urhgan empire...

Yes, I know this is all very "Role Playing" of me... but seeing Zazarg in Bastok, and seeing how cool Bastok was, made my imagination run wild... I promise this wont happen much :-P

Anyway went to Beadeaux [S] to check it out since I'll likely have quests and missions there.

Did some more Campaigns. Here is one in Jugner where we fought a nasty Kaiser Behemoth. Was also killed in a really nasty Campaign involving multiple waves of Yagudos and Raigegue R d'Oraguille who brings with him an army of undead. This was a bad battle, as the enemies even managed to wipe the Allied NPCs.

The last update also brought several new items, including the Fourth Division Haube, which is this kick ass little headgear that I'll use for my NIN, WAR and BST. It's also very blunt looking, which is a stark contrast to the pointy Optical Hat I normally wear :-)

Finally, this year we had another Egg event. I managed to make around 160k just from selling eggs to dorks. We then had a party in my house... Weeeee!