Khelandros' Wishlist

I will admit it: I have not blogged much lately and probably will not have anything exciting until late April. Since I have been spending most of my time farming gil or collecting GP items, you can expect another GUPS post in March or early April, but in the meantime, I have decided to update my old wishlist.

To make my BST more flexible in any situation, I have split my TP and WS sets further, and ideally, I would choose a set based on the situation at hand. However, this could quickly leave me without inventory space, so instead, I will be lugging my Haste-Accuracy and STR-Accuracy sets predominantly.

Charm: CHR focus
Main: Apollo's Staff
Sub: Bugard Strap +1
Ammo: Tsar's Egg
Head: Maat's Cap
Neck: Temperance Torque
Ear1: Delta Earring
Ear2: Epsilon Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Beast Gloves +1
Ring1: Light Ring
Ring2: Light Ring
Back: Lyricist's Gonnelle
Waist: Corsette +1
Legs: Beast Trousers +1
Feet: Beast Gaiters +1


TP: Haste focus
Main: Guttler
Sub: Temperance Axe
Ammo: Virtue Stone
Head: Walahra Turban
Neck: Temperance Torque
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Suppanomimi
Body: Armada Hauberk
Hands: Dusk Gloves +1
Ring1: Mars's Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Cerberus Mantle +1
Waist: Ninurta's Sash
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Dusk Ledelsens +1


TP: Haste-Acc. focus
Main: Guttler
Sub: Temperance Axe
Ammo: Virtue Stone
Head: Askar Zucchetto
Neck: Ancient Torque
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Suppanomimi
Body: Armada Hauberk
Hands: Askar Manopolas
Ring1: Mars's Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Cerberus Mantle +1
Waist: Ninurta's Sash
Legs: Byakko's Haidate
Feet: Aurum Sabatons


WS: STR focus
Main: Guttler
Sub: Temperance Axe
Ammo: Virtue Stone
Head: Hecatomb Cap +1
Neck: Kubira Bead Necklace
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Triumph Earring
Body: Armada Hauberk
Hands: Hecatomb Mittens +1
Ring1: Flame Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Cerberus Mantle +1
Waist: Warwolf Belt
Legs: Bahram Cuisses
Feet: Hecatomb Leggings +1


WS: STR-Acc. focus
Main: Guttler
Sub: Temperance Axe
Ammo: Virtue Stone
Head: Anwig Salade
Neck: Soil Gorget
Ear1: Brutal Earring
Ear2: Assault Earring
Body: Armada Hauberk
Hands: Hecatomb Mittens +1
Ring1: Flame Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring
Back: Cerberus Mantle +1
Waist: Potent Belt
Legs: Bahram Cuisses
Feet: Hecatomb Leggings +1


WS: CHR-MAB focus
Main: Guttler
Sub: Temperance Axe
Ammo: Virtue Stone
Head: Maat's Cap
Neck: Temperance Torque
Ear1: Moldavite Earring
Ear2: Novio Earring
Body: Kirin's Osode
Hands: Beast Gloves +1
Ring1: Light Ring
Ring2: Light Ring
Back: Lyricist's Gonnelle
Waist: Corsette +1
Legs: Beast Trousers +1
Feet: Beast Gaiters +1

Nomad Mog Bonanza

In what appears to be another desperate attempt to satisfy their player base, SE has announced another lottery: the Nomad Mog Bonanza. This time, you only get one marble per account, and the coveted relic and mythic weapons are up for grabs. For this prestigious occasion, I have selected my five digit number, 30948, from a McCain's pizza box.

Since I have no faith in winning whatsoever after losing the last three lotteries, I have chosen the relic Great Katana as a gag prize. Good luck to everyone else!

Mog Bonanza 4

Another Mog Bonanza? But we just had one six months ago, so surely someone wants me to redeem the 140k I lost in June! This year, I let family members and old friends call the shots, and I think it paid off.
Wait a minute...










... nope!

Once again, I won only rank 5 prizes, so I am definitely choosing my numbers on a more systematic basis next time. In other news, I have less time FFXI time than last semester, but if I am lucky, I will be able to create a FFXI-related website for my writing project.

GUPS 019

It is time for another monthly post, and I will apologize at how it is been almost two months since the last -- I have had a very tedious semester. First off all, I am no longer on Asura. In fact, I have been on Diabolos to rekindle old friendships, but alas, my friends on both servers dwindle with each passing day. Moreover, Diabolos was not ideal for Dynamis currency, so I have migrated to Fairy for a fresh start.

Now this might come as a surprise to everyone, but originally, I started off on Fairy and not Diabolos. Although I had a level 11 Hume at the time, I soon deleted the character to join a classmate on Diabolos, and a timeline of my server history would look something like:

Fairy --> Diabolos --> Asura --> Diabolos --> Fairy --> Sylph

2010 EDIT: Fairy has been merged with Sylph.

Thus, I am returning to my home server, and so far, Fairy looks promising.

Secondly, I have changed my character name from "Exemplar" to "Khelandros." For the most part, I did not want an ambiguous noun for a name anymore, and similar to my past server transfer, I made my name longer as well.

Khaki (5) --> Exemplar (8) --> Khelandros (10)

Perhaps I can extend it longer yet!

Other Stuff




Just as I was about to finish my Group 1 BST merits, SE drops "Ready" on me, and now, "Sic" Recast looks much more desirable than "Reward." As such, I have decided to undo my "Reward" merits to make room for "Sic."







Got a Joyeuse on Diabolos thanks to the help of several old friends. I am not sure whether I will get around to using it anytime soon, but if I do level PLD, I will be sure to put it to good use.















My best Union rewards to date. Leveling THF does have its perks if you can get the drops to yourself.















Soloed the WotG quest NM above without movement speed, and boy is it scary to fight. The NM has a 100% "Double Attack" rate, uses "Mighty Strikes" repeatedly under 25%, has over 10k HP, hits for 200+ a hit, and automatically agros if you are within 15 yalms. Thus, the only way I could solo it was through DoT spells and constant zoning over a one hour period.

Guttler Updates
Okay, so I have put my Guttler on hold again. Once again, I am out of cash, and leveling another craft is my best solution. Unfortunately, I wanted three more crafts at 100, and between Woodworking, Smithing, and Bonecraft, I could not decide which to tackle first. After a serious mental debate, I decided on Smithing, and although I am closer to finishing Woodworking than the other two, I expect Smithing will be much more profitable in the end.

As such, I have raised my Smithing skill from level 28 to 79 on Smithing mule and from level 20 to 53 on Khelandros. If you are wondering why I spent the money to level my main, it is because there were a lot of high-level recipes that required lower ones, and I had plenty of leftover materials at times. While there are only 21 levels remaining for my mule, I expect that I will need another 15M gil to finish, so I will be giving up my Stage 4 Axe for now.

Currently, I am working on Stage 3 -> 4 of my Guttler.

I have acquired:
[1/1] Dynamis Axe
[1/1] Attestation of Bravery
[25/60] One Hundred Byne Bills

Gil towards next 100-unit currency (subject to change):
[0/700k] One Hundred Byne Bill
Status: N/A


Crafting Status
Name changes:
Exemplar ---> Khelandros

Khelandros
[100/100] Fishing Skill
[78/100] Woodworking Skill
[53/60] Smithing Skill (+33)
[14/60] Goldsmithing Skill (+1)
[8/60] Bonecraft Skill (+1)
[8/60] Leathercraft Skill
[38/60] Cooking Skill

Cooking mule
[100/100] Cooking Skill

Smithing mule
[79/100] Smithing Skill (+51)
[20/60] Goldsmithing Skill (+1)
[35/60] Leathercraft Skill
[7/60] Bonecraft Skill

Alchemy mule
[100/100] Alchemy Skill
[19/60] Goldsmithing Skill
[34/60] Smithing Skill
[16/60] Bonecraft Skill

Bonecraft mule
[30/100] Bonecraft Skill















See you all in 2010! Happy new year, everyone!

In the Name of Windurst

Tired of waiting for a certain region to appear under your nation's control? Looking for a certain Outpost Warp (OP) out of convenience or to finish collecting them all? Well look no further, because today, I will be revisiting what it took to conquer Valkurm Dunes in the name of Windurst!

For starters, each Outpost NPC will exchange a small amount of Regional Influence for weapons or armor. The influence is dependent on the sell value of said items to local merchants; the more your item is worth, the more influence your nation will receive. Generally, it will take a lot of gil to win over a starter area, such as Ronfaure, than a region like Zulkheim.

This collage depicts my first (failed) attempt at conquering Valkurm Dunes (with ~200k worth of items). In general, another nation loses influence when you donate items and the difference is then added to your nation. Moreover, the nation that loses influence seems to be random because both Bastok and San d'Oria lost influence (above) at different points in time.

It would be almost half a year before I made a second attempt, and this time, I found a much more economical way to obtain influence. It turns out that Iron Ram Shields provide the best gil to A.N. ratio at 1.36 gil per A.N, but the downside is that you can only hold one shield at a time (unlike most Conquest items).

To bypass this limit, I sent my shields to a mule, and with 180k worth of shields ready, I waited mere hours before the conquest tally to prevent an influence reversal. As luck would have it, Windurst was already the dominant influence the night before, but I decided to donate all my shields just in case.

It worked. While I do not claim all the credit for stealing the Valkurm Dunes, I would like to point out that 200k worth of items moved the influence bar only once rather than thrice before. With the Valkurm Dunes OP under my belt, I can now teleport to any region from Windurst, and this OP will be very useful for the day I level new jobs.
















As an aside, I forget two items for my previous GUPS post: a Goliard Chapeau and a Caract Choker. On the former, I received the hat after a friend asked me to temporarily replace him in a Nyzul static, but the latter came out of a brown casket from Sky. The Caract Choker is not as useful as my new hat, but I suppose I could use it right before my Uggalepih Pendant kicks in.