That's right. Killed Odin. Fun, hectic, essentially pretty easy. Here are the pictures:
We brought 2 PLD, 2 Amano SAM/THF, a slew of RNG and SMN for damage, and a bunch of support mages for keeping everyone alive and kiting the adds - which, noob that I am, didn't realize even existed.
We ran in, engaged, and lined up for SATA WS's. Usually, when WSing, I keep my eye fixated partly on the chat log - for damage, and partly on my TP gauge - to see if I'd missed or gotten a double attack proc. For some reason, probably since it was my first time up against Odin, I kept my eyes on his HP bar. The first WS went off and took 2% of his health and at that point... I knew we would win. All of his bullshit aside, if we can hit him that hard, we can bring him down - even if it means throwing exp at it.
So we continued to hack away at him.
Oh! Forgot to mention, Odin put me up over 15,000 Ichor so I was able to pick this up:
Oh, I finished Bastok missions and got a Harpsichord for my MH. As a celebration afterward, we all gathered and watched the Harpsichord play:
Let's see... other random shots:
Another maintenance, another blog post - and this time, the update is quite a doozy.
Around the beginning of July, I started going to events in the day with MercuryX. It started off with just Dark Ixion, but progressed into other areas. About a week after I'd started, I missed my first Magitek event to fight KV with MercuryX and later that week I was pearled and joined MercX fulltime. It didn't go as smoothly as I'd have liked it to, but it wasn't terrible. Magitek had lost 2 of its leaders to sheer disinterest in the game, attendance wasn't being taken by the remaining leaders, points not getting updated. Things spiralled downward quickly and came to a head on a Sunday while I was in Dynamis. A few members had finally realized that I had been going to events with MercX - though I'd not kept it much of a secret (staying in Magitek while doing things with Mx, talking about it in-shell, etc.). There was some over-reacting and some heated discussion, but we talked it all out and things were more or less cool.
The only thing I can really say is that if you're a member of a linkshell and you have a concern, talk to your leaders directly. Don't gossip, don't freak out, get the scoop first-hand. Some members did exactly that and parted from Magitek amicably prior to my leaving. From what I gather, Edwina and Zwicked are still more or less running things, though the shell seems to now be more of a social than an endgame shell.
It was difficult to leave Magitek, and difficult to leave Dienamis - though recent events in Dienamis made it a little easier. I'd been fed up for a while with Dienamis leadership taking a very relaxed view of the disparity in the efforts of some vs. others. Some people really try hard in dynamis, giving it their all, and some just squeek on by, afk half the time or not really doing their jobs. That's Not Okay with me, but it appears to be ok with the leadership. I talked to them directly about it, but nothing ever got done and my frustration mounted.
But as difficult as it was to say my goodbyes, I must say that it was worth it. These past couple weeks in MercuryX have been the most fun I've had in-game in quite some time. I can push my jobs to the limit knowing that I'll be supported - no holding back, no playing it safe. It's quite a bit of fun. What's more, I'm doing things I've never done before - not ever having been in a proper HNM that did ground and whatnot. More on all this later... first... crafting!
While it was a bit disappointing to ding 100 on a crit break, that's what happened. Along the way I've made some neat things:
...and now my crafting menu looks like this:
Lookit all them pretty blue thingies... now to work on Fishing, if I can ever find the time...
Meanwhile, I've been having a lot of fun in Campaign. I've been trying to keep up with my Ops and also using Campaign to keep my jobs buffered. I worked my Samurai buffer from 100/44000 (thanks, Dienamis) to fully capped. I've gotten all the way up to Wings of Honor, which apparently is the highest rank you can currently get. I've also been getting Cobra Unit gear for my MNK/PUP:
God, I look like such a fucking tool. Aaaanyway, because of all the aforementioned Dark Ixions, I've needed to change allegiances to Sandy rather than Windy - as Windy is constantly under siege and I can't get out to the zone where DI's popped:
Now I'm just collecting AN until the new Cobra Unit body is out, then I guess I'll start on the Iron Knight stuff. Hopefully we'll be able to store these sets...
I've also been doing Bastok missions with Edwina, and we finally caught up to Ibows - now it's just a matter of getting us all online and un-busy at the same time to finish these so I can move back to Windy for a bit:
Ever notice the President of Bastok looks like a SCH? Mhmm.
So as I said earlier, I've been keeping quite busy with MercuryX, and it's been a lot of fun. One thing that worried me was that they said they wanted all members to have a mage job, which I'm definitely lacking. After spending some time with them, I can see why. There are some HNM's where melee just isn't that useful. On Behemoth or KB I'll go as THF and run around using Collaborator on BLM's to keep them alive just a wee bit longer. If I happen to take too much hate, I'll kite for a bit until a proper tank pulls it off me. On Tiamat, I'll come THF and pull the adds and zone them once night hits. Really, what I need, is to finish my BRD. And I intend to. My MNK, more than halfway to level 70, is now on hold until I either finish BRD or finish my Black Belt (which I'm now 1/3 on).
I really love the above shot of Cerb. We did that Cerb with so few people I was scared toward the end. Two tanks, 3 DD's, and a handful of support mages. That's it. MercX tanks Cerb in a way I'd never seen before - sticking both PLD's right at the base of his tail. The DD's then get put right up in front of his face - just a little ways out. It works quite nicely. There were only a few times where I managed to pull hate off the tanks, and it didn't last for very long.
We do Dark Ixion every day. Finale has camped against us once or twice, but usually it's either out of their window or they don't have enough people. Fighting Dark Ixion is pretty simple if you adhere to a few basics. Tanks should stand with their back to a wall. DD's only attack from behind - preferably RNG, but also SAM and DRK are good if they /THF. Personally, I prefer RNG. I don't get to use my RNG for much else, and for the most part you can stay out of AoE range. Mages need to be near enough to the tanks and DDs that they can cure, but with a sufficient height difference that DI's AoE's and charges won't destroy them. That's about it. Making proper use of terrain really is the key to this fight.
In the above picture, we placed Dark Ixion right between the warp-in point and the Outpost in East Ronfaure[S] - so we quickly drew a lot of bystanders which ended up getting themselves killed. I didn't like this placement, as it put the mages and DD's on an even playing field and many deaths ensued.
Took forever to beat him that time.
The above shot is kinda pretty with the silhouette of the Fort against the night sky. Here you can see where the mages and DD's stand.
The above shot is the only picture I have of my first time fighting Dark Ixion as SAM/THF. It was way too easy to either take hate and get owned, or run in at the wrong time and get owned by an aoe. Forget it, I'm coming RNG from now on. Who wants to stand that close to a horse's ass anyway?
My first Dynamis run with MercuryX went really well - we got BLM, RDM x2, PLD, NIN, DRK, 2 jadeshells, and BRD right at the end which didn't get lost! We went for a GKT Attestation but predictably, Velosareon disappointed us by dropping one for Bow. Oh well.
Ok, so I'd only fought Khimaira in Nyzul Isle prior to this. I went SAM/THF, and made it all the way there without agroing anything (a victory in and of itself)... we claimed, buffed, and did the whole Meditate... run in, Sneak Attack, WS, run away, etc thing. I ended up tanking a few times and only got killed once at the very end... just before the sword dropped. Woo! It's hard to believe that someone would spend 30m to buy it from us, but they did - and did again just a few days after on the very next Khim. Unbelievable. Khim is definitely one of the more fun fights.
Finally got the win on KV as well. I'd only seen him twice prior to this - once when GYS tried and failed, once when no one else was around. It was good to see his HP bar melt away. I have problems fighting him, though - or at least, getting used to fighting him. It seems I take hate early and get hit with a move that knocks me back and binds me, putting me out of commission until he's dead. Kinda lame. Don't know how to avoid it while simultaneously zerging. Tough one. If you have any hints, let me know.
I've done a few Salvage runs with MercuryX, always going SAM/NIN for boss tanking. It's quite a change from the runs I'd done with HomingMissiles. Still, on the first run I got the killshot on AC to drop Skadi 35 - which no one really needed. I've also gotten the 25 piece for Skadi body that no one else wanted. Since I'm spending so much time on THF lately, I'm thinking about actually upgrading it.