First off, Apoc Nigh.

Our first thoughts were “Its easy, and we need a monk and a summoner, pyra can dual box it”.  It was much harder than I’d expected.  A wipe later, I switched to Monk and White Mage, with the White Mage on the main computer to focus on her.  As was mentioned in our party chat, “Ahh good ol’ CoP missions, where you can never win on your first try.”

It worked better, but I would not want to dual box it again.

Also, I got the kill shot

Which includes something interesting — the wiki only warns of a Light Skill Chain.  Here we see a Fusion causing him to recover HP.  Didn’t know that before, and didn’t notice until I was editing the image.

After the win, the cardinal lady comes back, and does something.

Then a quick CS in Jeuno with Aldo, then a wait until JP midnight .

After this CS, I went to work on my SAM in its run to 37.  I hit 35, about 2K to 36 before I had to go for Limbo.

We decided on Proto-Ultima, which is a fight I still really hate.  But the drops are good and my friends (and my summoner) want some items, and they all help on my goal of becoming a full homam princess, so I happily go.  But I’m usually shaking and wishing I wasn’t sober.

This time, I got to go as a MNK/WHM for the first time since I finished my /WHM for chi blasting.

So I got to test out the full effect of my +MND gear.

Without a massive amount of money spent on 2 earrings and 2 rings for a total of +4 more (also there is a +4 MND belt that drops from a NM Gnole, but I only found out about this a day ago and have not looked into it more), this is about as high as I can get.  Still, 64+81 is not bad no matter how you look at it.

It got me these two Chi Blasts (no bard songs either).

I don’t know who would be embarrassed by those numbers on a Ultima.

One of those got me Holy II’d, then a later Chi caused me to be the target of a Buster.

I was not going to go down quietly.

I’m a little disappointed.  He only Armor Busted me, which wouldn’t have killed me.  It was the melee hit and the Holy II that caused my demise.

Bye bye Kitteh indeed.

It was worth it, even if 2 of our BLMs d/cd before the fight and didn’t come back (so we went in with 1 BLM and a couple RDM/DRKs for stuns).

As a tradition in our shell, we always /random for opening the final box, especially if we have time and it was a really hard fight.  I randomed highest (which is so rare for me).

The Whammie reference is what got us 2 legs, I know it.

About time Ultima put out for us.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have my Apoc Nigh earrings to go retrieve (only 2 1/2 years after beating ZM17 with my old shell to help them get their earrings).

-pyra

Anyways…

New Mission!

Apparently you have to go into the present to get a ticket for the past.

But I got a golden ticket….

Then you hand it to the new CS NPC, who is a flaming dancer.

Who doesn’t accept it.  Then you get saved by that elf again.  I like him, but, he’s an elf, and elves are just gross.

So anyways, there is this performing group.  The lead is this half-elf, half-hume.

And she couldn’t be any more JP in her movements.

On the upside, whoever is scripting the movements has gained a lot of skill since the original game was released.  The movements are much better, on par with the rest of the WotG CSs.

So the elf who saves you has to go rally the troupes.  I know this because they all hold their swords high, like they are about to do something.

But they are elves, so they don’t end up doing much more than this…

The half elf looks like she wanted to go.

Look at that pout.  Reminds me of my younger siblings when they were 8.

So you run off to whatever Davoi is called in the past.  But someone left the oven on.

And stuff is burning.

Then, for some reason, you fight a dragon.

It is a very easy fight.  Only took me 8 1/2 minutes, and was followed by a 10 minute CS.

Which has some fomor-type elves in red mage AF recolored blue.

They give the half elf a lesson in possible futures.

In which sandy burns.

The oddest part about this is that I was just watching Farscape, season 4, which covers a lot of the theory of possible futures and possible realities.

Then she wakes up.

Anyways, that’s it for the storyline.  It ends with this CS.  See you again in 4 months story.

As to this elf–

She is so creepy.  It is the most realistic character that has been added, so while she takes advantage of the last 6 years of technology, she doesn’t quite fit in the lower-polygon count world we all love and waste our lives in.

Once again

CR

EE

PY

Creepy!

Oh, and for another reason yet to be shown, there is more than on Cait Sith.

Its like herding cats.

Since I call CoP, CSoP, I’m hereby coining the name — Wings of the Cut Scene.  It fits, since 90% of what there is is Cut Scenes.  Don’t get me wrong, I like CSs and story, but I like making fun of things even more.

-pyra

But I like chess.

Knight to King’s Rook 3

I’m sorry, I wasn’t listening, I’m so good at this game, did you say something?

Indeed.

But he’s too cool for all of them.  And instead, he decides to go for the Pyra.

And he sniff me.  Weird.

Hmmm.  You smell like cat food.

*Sniffs again*

Interesting.

I am Zonpa-Zippa, I command the Cardians.

Fly my pretties, fly!

Awww, reinforcements.  I was having too much fun.

Zonpa-Zippa:  Made of Win.

Except that attack was a distraction, the real force is using some tunnels for a sneak attack on Windurst!  Quickly, go and ensure the day is our’s!

Ok, so way to fail there.

Round 2!

Victory is Mine!  I was quite surprised by the performance of a White Mage with a staff.  I think that Ata killed more than Pyra did.

However, this fight is VERY laggy (maybe buggy still), so I wouldn’t recommend such a small group — nor would I recommend dual boxing it with just yourself.  You do lose exp in this fight.

We made it to Windy, and just in time!

For the Glory of Windurst!

Fight with all your might!  If we win here, we win the day!

The Yagudo master is retreating!

But still getting the last word in.

“I’ll be back.”  Yes, we all love the Terminator, but isn’t that line a little overused at this point?

Just when everything looks like it can’t get any worse, help arrives.  From the damn elves.

And I can’t believe my eyes, nor can the tarus.

I was so happy when this part happened.  I have a real attachment to windy, and I like it better when it survives.

So, the elves come along and fight the yagudo alongside the tarus.

Er, ok, they basically take care of them.

Yeah, I know, they fight the yags.

That armor is just so nice.  I want.  Don’t care what job I have to level, I want that armor.

Best Cut Scene to date.  Really, it is.

Taru mages are meleeing!

And something’s about to go boom!  The suspense is building.

Yes, I am going to leave you hanging there.

Its the Chess guy!  Looks like he won his match.

(this is one long, but amazing Cut Scene, and it isn’t over yet!)

I’ve seen this scene before, Mel Gibson has his face painted blue and white right before the big fight with the British.

“So, what we did last night, we take that to the grave.  We tell nobody.”

“We hold this line.  The fort cannot fall.”

“Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes.”

“This moment will define us.”

“These are my people, my friends.  I believe that before this day is over, I will be burying a friend.”

“Whatever happens, no matter the outcome, history will know that on these walls a handful of mithra stood up to an army of Yagudo.  Am I quoting the 300 now?”

“A leader is born.”  As an aside, this Cut Scene (I believe) really shows how Perih Vashai becomes the mithra leader.

“Yagudo are in the Fort.”

“Romma is outnumbered.”

Hmmm, I’m obsessed with my own awesomeness.

Hmmm, I wasn’t doing what it looks like I was doing.  I was, fixing my pants when you startled me.

Hmmm, I have a tail.

Hmmm, now I’m in Castle O for some reason.

Hmmm, this could be bad for our heroes.

What story doesn’t begin with a meeting of the War Warlocks.

I think something might be up, just look at their faces.

Every taru blm wants that hat too.

Hmmm Pyra, I don’t trust them short folks, you should follow them, see what’s happening.

Oh look, you randomly run into a lost elf.  Kill it!

I mean, we should help him, because we think he’s cute (yes I know, we haven’t seen a male in far too long).

So, we’ll stay here and flirt, you go find … um … something, can you just leave us alone for a few minutes.

—- Few Minutes Pass —-

Oh, back already?  Ok, lets go see his friend in, ugh, we gotta walk to Sandy?

Pst – I think he might be a white mage

Orly, what was your first clue?

Meanwhile, in the Chateau:

*sniff* as a long time citizen of windy, this is so painful to watch.

Look at me!  I have awesome red armor on.  Therefor, I won’t help you.  Good bye.

Meanwhile, back in Heaven’s Tower:

A male mithra plays chess for some unknown reason.

I wonder if he’s Catsith?  And I wonder if the taru is the opponent, because it looks like the male mithra is playing with himself.

This is getting interesting.

So here’s why.

A long, long time ago — October 2006 to be exact — a friend hooked me up with a CoP static.  We started with 6-4 Airship and went to the end.  It was quite possibly the most fun I’ve ever had in this game.  The group was fun, the Cut Scenes, amazing.  We really bonded as a group for those few days.

It was four members of the Linkshell “Mercury” on Diabolos, and me, mostly a member of a small social called “UniversityFFXI“, and partially a member of the shell “PheonixPinion”.  In the interest of not bringing up old drama, I had to leave PP due to completing CoP, and that’s all I’ll say about it.

It was a very fun group, and it helped that they had a lot of experience working together — and a KC DRK friend for the Tenzen fight .

Anyways, as a part of the CoP 8-3 Mission, you have to get the “Brand of Dawn” and “Brand of Twilight” key items.  These are on the second floor of The Garden of Ru’Hmet.

This is the start of the CS.

And here is the full screen from which my avatar was cropped.

If they never get another mention, here they are.  These people were at one point, my friends.  I do miss them.

Hemorabe — Now a Mandau Thief.  Member of MercuryX, Phoenix server.
Silvez — Now a D Ring/Aegis/M Body Paladin.  Member of MercuryX, Phoenix server.
Fleance — Now a member of Apocalypse, Diabolos server.
Jessi — who I have not seen in a long time.

I talked to Fleance a couple months ago.  He’s in Apocalypse and doing well.  Have not heard much from the others, but I only really talked to Hemo regularly of the other 3.

We were all in agreement though — we were all both happy, and sad, to be done with CoP.  It was a fun experience, something I haven’t experienced since.

To remember this event, and the good time we had, I use the symbol for the Brand of Dawn as my avatar.

And that is the story.

-pyra

This is the telepad for Recal-Merph.  It looks like a place where a telepad belongs, raised up above the ground, and with no monsters nearby, unlike Jugner which has a high chance of being jumped before the zone loads, and Pashow, where the location looks quite forced.

Inside of the Nest, there is this sign.

I know this is a worldwide game and all, but that really looks like Kanji with a reduced dpi to make it unreadable.  There are similar signs in Garliage.

If you have not done so yet, there is a mini quest involving a Lycopodium.  There are 3 of them, one in Garliage, one in North Gustaberg, and one in the Downs.  If you talk to them in the past, you can trade a flower to the spot in the present, and it will teleport you around the barrier.

I haven’t traded a flower yet, but I did get all 3 triggered, just in case.

Final pic for this entry.  I got myself promoted.  It was about a week ago, but I have not been playing too much lately.

-pyra

Yes, it is a good one.  Go, quick, finish missions, kill baddies.

-pyra

Did a Proto-Ultima at the end of February.  It went well, and I got to play with some of my new chi blast gear.

Yes, I know I was /drk, but I’m more focusing on the +80 part (with a mushpot on of course).

Which got me this nice blast.

It also got me dispelled, but c’est la vie.

There were also some really good drops!  I blame my 707 Chi Blast for them.

The next day, I went and did Shadows of the Departed, in order to get ready for Apocalypse Nigh fight (soon I hope).

It was a lot of fun, even with a lolPUP.

And, um… crap.

I deleveled my whm to 36 even.  Stupid job, about 200 shy of getting my level back too.  Oh well, its only a chi blasting sub.

I also finally, after about 2 years, turned in my magic trash.  Here’s a pic from the back room in Garliage.  If you go there in the past, bombs aggro you through the door (but it may be openable with the key, I didn’t have one to try).

Sometime later, I did a couple avatars with Miz.  We do a bunch of avatar fights to help pay for our limbo runs.

And I noticed something.  The background that looks so neat in the cloisters, is a weather effect (same as the sky in the [S] areas, try it yourself, turn off weather and look at all the stars disapear).

Anyways, with weather:

And without weather:

More to come!  Pics from the Cut Scenes leading up to Apocalypse Nigh, Dancer AF1, Cut Scenes, Exploring the [S] areas, Campaign, and the likes!

-pyra

Yes, I was there for TH-Whoredom, but they pulled it to the bottom of the cliff so I could hit it once.

While hoping for a D. Ignot to sell, we got a dryad staff instead.  As the only White Mage present, free lot for me!

So its a free 50 MP.  Not too bad for a short run.

But you might say, a short run from where.

Well, I had just outposted to the Merphy Mountains to finish up mission 6-2.  Earlier in the day, I was a bit bored and decided to duo the fight with myself.

The fight is quite easy for a MNK/NIN and a WHM/BLM.  Although it did go bad after the first Yag, the final 3 went very smooth, especially since I managed to get the SAM and WHM to use their 2 hour abilities before I died.

After my trip to Castle-O, I went to see the Star Sibyl and now my signet lasts 1 hour longer than before.  Yay!

Oh, and the 40K is nice too.  Payed for that night’s Limbus run.

I also finished up my 4th Star in Campaign.  Hopefully I’ll be un-lazy and get the first metal this weekend.

Other than that, I’ve only done a Dynamis – Xarcabard.  Thief hands finally fell after a 5 month break.

1 more person off the list before I will get mine.

Since we always do a Dynamis Lord when we go to Xarcabard, and I always go to Xarcabard as Monk, I got to try a decent Chi blast on him.  I was in mostly melee gear as a MNK/DRK, and I only got 10 boosts, and its Dynamis Lord, so this isn’t horrible.

Part of this came from my newly acquired Temple Crown +1, and a borrowed Osode.

Speaking of a borrowed Osode, here is what I look like in 4/5 of the Sky Set.

Soon I’ll have one of my own.  Hands are kind of meh for monk, I prefer the Melee Gloves, or the +1 if I can get them.  According to Genome, they help with counter rate, aside from the obvious evasion granted by 15 extra AGI.  But I would put myself at the bottom of the list for Seiryu’s Kote, Rangers, Ninjas, and even Samurai deserve them before a Monk would.

-pyra

As mentioned previously, Ata finally got Evoker’s Pigaches +1.  So, I took a picture and posted it.

In addition to this, I finally managed to cap my evasion on Thief.  Evasion was bad, Marksmanship is proving slightly more annoying, as it is taking me about 100 bolts to gain 1 skill level.  Its currently at 228 (cap of 230) because I ran out of bolts.

When I capped evasion, I switched to my Tatami shield, since more evasion is never bad, and I was going to try to kill Even Match – Tough’s with just Acid Bolts.

You can see how much I’ve used a shield.

Approximately one hour ago, I finished ToAU Mission 44.  I’ve been stuck on this one since around September, and when I got the invite, I jumped on it.

I’m now done with the current ToAU missions on both Pyra and Ata.  Ata is also a Rank 10 in both Bastok and Windurst.  I don’t plan on doing the Sandy missions anytime soon, unless a change is made so I don’t lose my outposts.

Other than that, I hit 38 on Dancer, going to try for 50 before they introduce AF gears.

But I need sleep, night!

(a very excited)
-pyra

Star #3.  I should get Star #4 at the end of this week depending on how much time I have.  Does anyone actually know that that symbol is on these?

While doing campaigns, I ran across some new, and bazaar, names.

I’m not sure what Instant Love is, nor why she was making some inappropriate emotes towards Xenith.  Maybe I just don’t want to know.

Here was something completely unexpected.  I was asked to join an Assault group, and we did one I’ve never done before.

We did worms, and I did a 1K Darkness o.O !

And it was just enough for the promotion.

About time hardly describes it, but I was still happy about this occurrence.

The quest was interesting, you have to run around to 5 lakes around the thickets and woodlands.

And I got this screenshot.  If you know my dislike of elves, it makes sense why I liked it so much .

That’s right you smelly elf, bow down to the cat!

Oh, and also about time.

I got my astral leather for Ata’s SMN Boots +1.  I got the Temenos half forever and a day ago.  I turned them in right after limbo, so they are ready as soon as I need them.  I also finished a Monk set for Pyra, but have not decided which piece to upgrade yet.  I also will need more coins since I’ve been using them as fast as they come in and only have about 5 left.

Finally from me, I took this picture in my last dynamis run and wanted to post it.  Click for a larger version.

-pyra