A Nation on the Brink

This post continues my WotG spoof series and contains spoilers up to WotG 14: A Nation on the Brink.

Click here for part one of the spoof series. 
Click here for part three of the spoof series.















After clashing with the Spitewardens in La Vaule [S], we decided to seek out the medicine man in Davoi so he could patch Rage's grievous wound. The offscreen miracles in FFXI never cease to astonish me.















Oops, I spoke too soon. It appears Rage is experiencing severe chest pains.















Do not worry, Rage; I will not tell anyone about the wound. Although in return, I will be getting very friendly with your daughter. Since Rage lost consciousness during Lilisette's enlightening conversation, I believe I will paying her a visit soon.















Worry not, Portia; Rage will recover in no time. Now if you will excuse me, I have to find Lilisette.















Unfortunately, my search proved fruitless until Lily's troupe master, Mayakov, suggested she might be practicing dance routines in the Jugner Forest [S]. Upon arriving there, I knew something was fishy, literally, but if you are wondering why I braved the outdoors naked, I assumed it would prove irresistible to women.















See what I mean? There she is, and woah, what are you other girls doing?!















It seems that I was knocked unconscious by the entire dance troupe. Please ladies, one at a time!















After regaining consciousness, the other ladies mistakenly believed that I was Lily's boyfriend.















Which means I can probably skip the stalking phase altogether! Thanks ladies, I knew I could count on SE for intimate fantasies.















Unfortunately, Lily was not interested in making out, and instead, she wanted help catching a live Cait Sith to cure Rage's illness. I just hope there is a big reward for helping.















So we assembled a simple trap, using a Gold Beastcoin as bait.















Along came a curious Cait Sith...















... that soon found itself trapped in a barrel. Great job, Lily; we caught ourselves a cat! Now about that reward...















Unfortunately, Lily does not treat animals very well, so she will have to change that if she wants a BST boyfriend.















Moreover, I decided to talk with the Cait Sith, apparently her name is Naoi, and she agreed to bring several of her friends to tame Lily's savage personality. In fact, Naoi and her friends even invited Lily to a tea party, but she did not want any part of it.















To make matters worse, the Caits refuse to stop the party, so can everyone please get along?!















And oh snap, it is Sir Cry-a-lot -- I mean Aquila! How did he find us?















What is this? He can turn the Caits into stone? I thought he was weak!















Quick, Lily, let us make a break for it!















And I guess Lily wants to put up a fight. Does anyone cooperate in this storyline?















Unlike Rage, Aquila seems to have a good memory and still remembers that I killed his pet Dragon! Now we are in trouble, Lily!







Thankfully, Aquila backed down and fled, so we did not eliminate one of the bad guys preemptively.

Afterward, Lily confessed that she had eavesdropped on the Caits' tea party and learned that a certain resin might treat Rage's wounds. Unfortunately, we needed a tree that would take years to grow, so we decided to plant a seed now and recover the resin in the future.















Unfortunately, the tree grew faster than we thought and knocked Lily unconscious upon arriving. Since I was not about to let a Treant beat me to fourth base, I decided to intervene with the help of some nearby players who also needed the fight.















Fast forwarding a bit, I saved Lily from the perverted Treant, made the magical medicine in present San d'Oria, and warped back in time to deliver the medicine to Rage.















Back in Southern San d'Oria [S], I managed to catch the douchebag of CoP, Nag'molada, flirting with Portia behind Rage's back! Thankfully, Portia ignored Nag'molada's silver tongue, but we soon learned that he would not take "no" for an answer. In fact, he had already convinced Jeuno to surrender and would have the Beastmen execute Rage once San d'Oria [S] followed suit.















Luckily, we managed to catch the slimy diplomat just before he could sign the instrument of surrender. Alright boys, we will shoot the Orcs first and then Nag'molada for fun. Has anyone seen Lily?















Oh, you foolish girl! You were supposed to wait for the snipers!















Great, Lily has blown our surprise attack.
















Way to trigger a retaliation on Jeuno, Lily. You really need to work on your teamwork skills.















And your priorities! The big, bad, Orcish leader is the strongest of the bunch; he is supposed to go down last!















So the rest of us had to mop up what Lily could not finish on her own. Regarding this BCNM, we split into groups of two and assisted each of the three nations with their encounters. For the Orcish leader, we had a SCH "Curaga" the NPCs and kite the boss around, and with the NPCs in close pursuit, we slowly chipped the boss' HP to zero.















Thanks to my efforts, the folks at Jeuno rewarded me with yet another flag. This makes what -- five now? Thanks for the useless rewards, SE.









I suppose if you ever want more Allied Notes from Campaign, this is your flag!















Look, it is the Archduke of Jeuno himself! And what is this? He is turning my victory into propaganda? What a guy.















And so all is well that ends well, right? Well except maybe for the four Caits that Aquila butchered.















Speaking of which, it seems like Aquila will be executed for botching his cat hunt, and I cannot complain with that. I do not know how his friend can extend a sword from his palm, but I want one too!















Unfortunately, Haudrale spared Aquila's life, and to make matters worse, their mistress, Lady Lilith, descended onto Vana'diel soon after.















It will be most difficult laying a finger on this sultry babe, but for wounding Rage, I am more than willing to bump off Aquila and Haudrale. Like many other fans, I also believe Lady Lilith is Lilisette's sexy alter ego from the future!















And if Lily appears just as voluptuous ten years from now, I just might tolerate her behavior today. Now if only I could figure out what her alter ego is like.

Liabelle Returns!

My sultry companion returns in what might be her final feature, but do not fret if you will miss her, I expect Lia will appear in cameos every now and then. Now onto the star herself, I decided to work on Lia's time extensions and dream apparel again, and originally, I wanted her to sport a new pair of Noble's Pumps. However, after going through all the possible options again, I settled on a pair of Gavial Greaves instead.



















For the most part, I felt the greaves better matched Lia's harness and chapeau, and although I wanted to replace Lia's mitts as well, I could not find a better-looking item for that slot. Unfortunately, I needed a fourth armor lock before I could retain the new feet, and that alone took a whopping 60,000 Fellow points.



In addition, the time extensions were also costly at 30k, 50k, and 70k Fellow points, respectively, and in total, I have spent 210k Fellow points to maximize Lia's potential. To put things into perspective, thirty DC/EM/T monsters only amounted in 8k Fellow points, and with the same number of kills in a duo or alliance, I received even fewer points.




However, Liabelle has proved her worth time and time again, and she can even deal some damage occasionally. As a level 70 Soothing Healer, Lia always prioritizes my safety first, even when she is at critical HP.















Finally, Lia is great for any group picture, and I knew I wanted a pose with her (and Snippy) after just finishing my Stage 3 Axe last month. Look forward to more on the Axe in my next GUPS post!

BST Merits and You

There comes a time when one must decide which BST merits are worthwhile and how those merits should be allocated. Ideally, there are two types of BSTs at level 75: the melee and non-melee BSTs. As such, I have recommended merits for both types below:

Legend:
Red - Do not invest in this merit.
Yellow - This merit might be worthwhile.
Green - Definitely invest in this merit.

[Group 1]

Killer Effects [Melee/Non-melee]
This merit increases the activation rate of all "Killer Effects" by 1% per upgrade. I only recommend this trait for non-melee BSTs because melee BSTs should be using "Snarl" frequently.

Reward Recast [Melee/Non-melee]
This merit is recommended for both types but for different reasons. For non-melee BSTs, healing your pet can be very important, but for melee BSTs, there does not seem to be much else worth getting.

Call Beast Recast [Melee/Non-melee]
A useful merit that shaves almost a minute off your "Call Beast" recast when fully merited. Recommended for both types.

Sic Recast [Melee/Non-melee]
Only useful if you like using pet moves more often. Even with jug pets, I find that most pet moves tend to be unimpressive in general.

Tame Recast [Melee/Non-melee]
The only merit that I do not recommend for both types given that "Tame" has a base recast of ten minutes; invest your points elsewhere.

[Group 2]

Feral Howl [Melee/Non-melee]
A somewhat useful skill if it lands, but it tends to work poorly for anything EM and above. It can also serve as a secondary claiming tool if you have a jug pet out.

Killer Instinct [Melee/Non-melee]
This skill has been tuned up a notch with the March 2010 update, but it remains useless on some mobs given the current jug pet selection. In addition, it only lasts one minute per use.

Beast Affinity [Melee/Non-melee]
Only useful if your favorite jug pet(s) is/are capped at your current level.

Beast Healer [Melee/Non-melee]
If your letting your pet do all the work, get this and your "Reward" merits to the cap. For melee BSTs, choose this merit if nothing else interests you.

Updated: September 16, 2011

Scrapbook Collection, Page 2

Since I have not done much for my BST lately, I decided to hunt down a Herder's Subligar for testing purposes. Initially, I started slaying monsters on BST, but after some time, I thought of a more efficient way of dispatching my foes: AoE Weapon Skills.















And what better job for AoE WSs than DRK? By rounding up ten to thirty monsters at a time, I could decimate the entire mob via "Shockwave," a Weapon Skill that induces AoE "Sleep" around its target.

Most of the time, the critters dropped blue caskets, so I used them to recover my HP, MP, and/or TP between waves.






As for brown caskets (these drop the Herder's Subligar), I had a decent shot at opening them most of the time, but sometimes, I got unlucky with the number of available hints. In total, it took me some six hours worth of brown caskets before I finally found my Herder's Subligar.

Unfortunately, the trousers share the same model as a Bone Subligar, but look forward to testing on the Accuracy effect in a future post.










I have also been Fishing in the Quicksand Caves lately, and occasionally, I will manage to pick up an Antican Tag on route to my Fishing spot. The tag is used to pop the NM above, and upon its defeat, it has a chance of dropping a Tungi and some random ores. Since I already own a Tungi, I was mainly after spare change.















I also hunted Bright-handed Kunberry just after the big update last month, and overall, I ended up going 1/2 for the cape. Usually, I can avoid fighting the NM's Tonberry friends by using a pet pull, but I have also fought the NM and links simultaneously before.















While on route to a Fishing spot in the Sea Serpent Grotto, I spotted both Wuur the Sandcomber and Masan on my "Widescan" list. Initially, I was only after a few Grimmonites for Fishing GP, but I decided to take a detour and slay the NMs first. Gil is gil after all, right?















Next on the list is Campaign. After stumbling into Jagidbod's Warmachine, I attempted to flee from the NM, but instead, I soon found myself pincered between Jagidbod and an Orcish Strongarm. Not surprisingly, I ended up dead moments later.















After receiving a "Raise" from a passing WHM, I immediately retaliated by attacking the nearby Belfry. Although Belfries summon periodic reinforcements on their assailants, I decided to abuse some pet mechanics to bypass this defense.

Moreover, by attacking the Belfry with local pets, I could pacify a reinforcement that attacked my pet by using "Release," and by doing so, the reinforcement would then attack the nearby outpost. Afterward, I could assault the Belfry again by reacquiring my pet, and by repeating the process several times, I demolished half a Belfry before my Campaign battle ended.















I have also been Fishing in the WotG areas, and to summarize the experience, it is really, really bad. Not only do most fish have notorious bite rates, but they can also snap your line (or rod) frequently. Even with an Ebisu Fishing Rod, I only managed to catch the fish above after receiving no less than two dozen line snaps.















I only shudder at how a Lu Shang's would fare. If I am correct, these fish will serve some purpose with Zaldon after the next update, and I pray that the corresponding items are worth the difficulty.















To add insult to injury, these fish are only worth slightly more than their older counterparts, which makes them otherwise useless for now. As such, I will be funding my Guttler via older fish until the new ones are fixed price-wise.