Dhalmel-necks, Dancing, Dying, and Dyce.

Random Picture of the Day: Anacalius prepares to lop my head off.
Step one: Pick up Great Axe.
Step two: Aim for the Dhalmel-neck.
Step three: Swing!

Dancer has progressed to 18 now.

Had a few Dyce involvements again. He came with Valion and me when doing a WoG mission. We toyed around with the three of us being on PLD, declaring the mission in the name of "Team Paladin." Typing that looks really dorky. Anyhoo, pic:


Sicfreak randomly announced that he was tired of being Rank 6. He asked for some assistance on Bastok 6-1 and 6-2. Encino, Dyce, and I obliged and the four of us completed both missions.

First I had to teleport Dyce to Yhoator Jungle so he could get his Outpost Warp:

Then he was slain in battle (wasn't me this time).

Encino and I went to Caedarva Mire to get him some more EXP and close the gap to 75BLM. Right at the end of the party we ended up with links and death. I still got a Merit Point. Entertainment go!



The ~65 static went out for EXP on Thursday night. We almost all leveled, and are now within range of our final member to add in. The lineup shall be as follows:

Encino: PLD/WAR - Encino does a pretty good job. I've been static with him since 37 when I was on THF and Galb was with us on WHM. That particular group stopped off at about 62 and is now defunct. Soda-Galb-Draco group has now picked Encino up along the way. "Imp" as I call him has been under my guidance and has learned to do well, though after his long FFXI hiatus, he's rustier than all hell. I'd normally ream him more and make sure he was playing as closely to perfect as possible, but we've also got a NIN in the party and I'm able to keep up extra curing slack most days anyway. We do fine and we have fun.

Galbatorix: NIN/WAR - What can you say about "The Chief" without sounding like his personal agent? G-rix is about as professional as they come. He's quiet, he does his job, and he's quite simply the best Ninja I've ever had the pleasure to play with. It's nice that he can go full Damage Dealer style now that we've picked up Encino. Very little fear of anything going wrong when I've got two tanks who're capable of keeping a fight under control.

Sodako: THF/NIN (occasionally /WAR) - Soda had reached 59THF on a previous character, and in our static this time around has surpassed that. He's got lots of pulling experience, unlike some Thieves (and pullers in general) who keep you multi-tasking more than anything. Soda averages about one link per session, rarely more than that. He's got WHM experience too (Lv75) so I get advised (see also: hassled) about my White Mage and he's also pretty good with keeping the party's pace manageable MP-wise.

Sicfreak: DRG/SAM - Sic is another of my oldest friends, and he'd be considered Draco's brother if it wasn't for Sic being a Hume. He's got experience in damn-near every job in the game, much like me. We are also kindred spirits in the fashion of dropping a job and picking it up at completely arbitrary and unpredictable times. Thursday was our first session including Sic's Dragoon, and having his steady damage will be helpful throughout the push to 75.

Valion: COR/RNG - A career Samurai first, Paladin second, and now Corsair, Valion is one of the most experienced players I know. For this static, Val brings camp knowledge, advice, pulling if needed, and of course, a smartass attitude. What more could I need? Oh, right... he also has those fancy little Phantom Rolls. Refresh and extra MP recovery while resting for me, and any combination of various effects for the melee jobs. Extra Critical-Hit rate, Double Attack rate, Accuracy, Attack, and more. Add in a Corsair's damage from Guns and the party slot couldn't have been more aptly filled.

Draconum: WHM/BLM (or /RDM) - I'm mostly here to tell the other guys when & where to show up and to stand around being charming and... I dunno, whatever else it is I do. By and large, I'm OK at keeping everything going smoothly from my end, but then again I'm fairly spoiled working with the boys. WHM at this point is a lot of Haste and Regen. Once we hit Caedarva Mire's Imps, I'll be busy with Silena as well, but it's really not that bad. I'll probably start subbing RDM (I've dubbed this combo "Pink Mage") for Dispel on mobs like Imps who enjoy their Blaze Spikes. All in all, I'm probably not an amazing White Mage, but with a crew like this, who cares? I'm not trying to be a career mage, never wanted to in fact, so in the end it works fine.



In Wings of the Goddess areas, you can look to the skies and see what would appear to be a comet streaking by. At first it was just a neat aesthetic but after thinking about it some more, I've begun to theorize a bit about this visual clue's relation to the WoG storyline. I'm curious to see what happens, as this will be my first expansion in which I can fully participate from the get-go. I'll stay tuned~