Weekend Update

Thursday - quiet time with Ape

Fri - late-ish night. Chatting with Dark prolly cost me claim on VE (missed by less than 5 seconds to RNG75 called Linrin). Spent rest of night with Arch and two others for Arch's WS quest. Involved opening Gate of Alteps via 4 columns, then fighting a monster of a scorp. Major wipe, plus it killed 4 idle players not even involved. I R3'ed everyone.

Interesting leadup - we were clearing room, Puma called to back up but Arch got a link. Tried our best to CC but it wasn't working. I deliberately avoided Bene because I believed it would be wasted - we were taking far too much damage and the two ants were still too healthy. I retreated to die in a safe place then raised the group once the lead and despawned.

During the NM fight we were dying and I died, leaving Arch alone. I RR and tried to help him out but it wasn't working. AoE attacks were pretty rough too.

I feel bad about the deaths but I'm satisfied (for once) I handled the situation appropriately, i.e. blowing Bene early or other magical heroics would not have altered the outcome. I did use Bene (I think) during the scorp fight but it wasn't enough. Also felt bad four non-combatants got flattened. Thankfully, once again /SCH saves the day as I was able to speedily R3 7 people.

Sat night - lost claim again, this time while passing a Taru I thought was farming or skilling. Nope, as soon as I ran past, he finished up, saw VE and claimed. I completed my sweep of the far corner and found him in battle.... /sigh,. Got to tease Dark about it tho'. Also ran into Firekiss again (don't tink I've seen her since September and she remembered me as a nice person ^^) and a party wipe. Aaaand a marraige proposal. I did my best to let him down gently.

In WG was witness to major shout war. Tried shouting for SU help then announce I was going to retreat to Jeuno if anyone wanted to come along ^^ Actually got two takers! Cottoneyejoe (PLD/RDM) and Funkysloth (THF/?). They agreed to try SSG and after a lot of running around we found some worthy foes. Not a lot though and it was slow going. We were all getting the odd SU and then on the way lower to the mantas Funky DCed. A fight and 5 minutes later, no Funky. Joe and I continued and had good luck with mantas for SU. He actually made it to 220 from like 212, and I got from 213 to 218.2.

Twice had my CC skills put to the test and I think I did quite well - I'm definitely getting better at it. Had to deal with 3x mobs when I pulled aggro, then alter with just Joe had crab + 2x manta. We packed it in when we decided to give a NM fish DRG a shot and it was clear it wasn't happeneing. Even with long-lasting MP, neither of us were making significant progress. I called for a tele retreat and we eventually made it safely to Mea. We split up there and I was very grateful for his (and Funky's, wherever he wound up) help.

It was already after 3 but I went to Valkurm and camped, mostly alone for an hour but no pop... /yawn

I think I'm going to go after Maat when I unlock Hexa whether or not I get the Empress hairpin. But before THAT, I need to make sure the DVD recorder works. I'm going to have a permanent record of my success or failure!

P..S. Remember me saying I wasn't going to write a backstory fo Aer? Changed my mind - I've got an outline and the opening begun.