Maat Masher

One thing that draws FFXI players together so well is the shared experiences. There are certain events in Vanadiel that we all go through, and there's a distinct pleasure in taking time to reminisce with your linkshell friends. Perhaps its about your first ever party in the Dunes; maybe the first time you saw the Summerfest fireworks, your long hard struggle to clear Genkai 1, the first time you got a drop from a NM, and so on and so forth.

One of the biggest milestones in anyone's FFXI career is finally stepping up to take on Maat. This old fool has wasted hours of your life searching for ancient papyrus, and forced you to endure horrible alliance pickup groups to clear Genkai 2. It's good to finally get some payback.

I had long ago given up any hope of ever reaching 70 on Samurai, but while out killing Demons for Soran's BRD AF, a Samurai Testimony dropped. I was going to throw it away, but Demajen persuaded me to keep it 'just in case'. I was glad I did too!

So, I hit 70. Full of confidence born of having spiky blonde hair, Saikyo read the guides, checked his gear, and went in to teach the old goat a lesson. Everything I had read said it was an easy fight. Meditate > Tachi: Yukikaze > 2 hour > Tachi: Gekko > Tachi: Gekko > WIN.

So off I charged. Seigan & Third Eye up, I waded into Maat. In the panic and excitement I hammered my macros, hooting wildly, and then seconds later I was dead.

WHA?!

I glanced back through the log. What had gone wrong?

Then I saw it.

'Saikyo uses Tachi: Yukikaze, but misses Maat.'

At this point my language became unprintable and I did a little war dance of rage all around my computer, hoping from one leg to the other and making strange howling noises. Of all the bloody times, in the all bloody places... it had to let me down there!

And what is Tachi: Yukikaze anyway?! It generates a big block low res ice over the enemy! Is it even ice?! It looks cheaper than a nude Galka Ninja, tanking in Garlaige Citadel while wielding an onion knife in one hand and carrying an onion sword in the other. It sucks. The only reason us Samurai use it is that after 60 levels of Enpi this, Enpi that, it seems like the best WS ever.

It doesn't. It is tricksy, and false, and tells lies!

So down, but far from out, me and Dema set out to farm a new testimony from the demons in Castle Zhavl. "This shouldn't take long" said Saikyo.

Approximately 600 hours later, we had Coffer Keys, Whine Cellar Keys, every vareity of Keys, but no Testimony. "This sucks." said Saikyo.

Fortunately, help was at hand. Some cheeky fellows were in there farming for something entirely different, and word came they had just got a Testimony drop first mob. These kindly souls (Goshinki and Masterofshade) invited me to their party, allowed me to lot for loot, then wished me good luck.

{All right!}

Back in black to face Maat. I read the guides in exhaustive detail. I watched the example videos. I even bought an Icarus Wing, just in case. I took some depth breaths, took a big swig from a mug of tea, and headed in.

Once I got inside I got paranoid and rewrote my macros 'just in case'. Then I worried I was going to run out of time. I decided to use Sole Sushi for accuracy as the Mithakabobs had let me down before.

Setting my jawline in grim, heroic fashion, I charged into action. Seigan & Third Eye up, then I pummeled my WSes and screamed my defiance. A few seconds later, Maat was defeated, leaving Saikyo filled with a potent brew of joy and relief. I also broke the server clear time record (which was standing at 4 minutes + for some reason). I leapt from my chair and danced a passionate samba, recieving a polite round of applause.

Whereas before I had had rotten luck, on the second fight everything went to plan. Third Eye absorb all 3 hits from Maat's opening Combo. Yuki hit, and my follow up Gekko went off for 980 damage. Yeah, that's gonna hurt in the morning old man. Why not bandage it up with this friggin ancient papyrus?! And have your exoray mold while you're at it to...

As a postscript to this tale of triumph, I went forgot to go and talk to Maat to break my level cap. I subsquently got a party out in the Mire, and was mighty confused to be 1 tnl for several fights. Realising my error, I ran off to break it. Using the warp Taru in Al Zhabi, got to Jeuno, spoke to Maat, popped a warp scroll.... and reappeared in Port Jeuno. Had forgot to set homepoint >_<

So rest assured, that while Saikyo may be level 71 now, he is still a first class dope.

Tune in next time chums, when we'll be discussing the Tachi of Trials and how FFXI Wiki is not always to be trusted. Bet ya can't wait! ;-)

On the Campaign Trail

Hello! Tis I, Saikyo! You may remember me a whole host of FFXI related blogs. This blogs were usually characterised by the following:

#1: Bitching
#2: Moaning
#3: Talking about fishing.

Well, as some of you may already know, Dema and myself quit FFXI around last November - December time. There were a number of reasons for this, which I won't bore you with, but a key factor was disillusionment with the party system. Hours spent fruitlessly LFG eventually decays your very mind. But without it, how could you ever level up?

Of course, we left just as Wings of the Goddess was released, complete with its Campaign system. On returing to the game, this was one of the first thing I wanted to examine, mainly as two linkshell buddies had told me they had level all the way to 75 purely through Campaign. That sounded very tempting for a jaded old Samurai such as myself.

So I trotted off, did the quests to get into the rather wonderfully named 'Iron Rams' of Sandy. (Thought 'Rampaging Rams' would have been a cooler name... or maybe 'Rutting Rams'.... maybe not.) I read up on how Campaign worked, didn't understand it but saw it involved killing things for XP, and so headed out to East Ron with my trusty great katana.

First of all, I was flumoxed by the fact there has to be a battle in progress to actually get campaign tags. I ran around looking for an NPC who could get me started for about 5 minutes before I actually realised this. I blame the fact I was drinking tea at the same time.

Anyway! A battle soon started, and I followed the crowd of players to get my tags. Beastmen held East Ron at the time, so it seemed to involve beating on the walls of a tower for about 10 minutes. This did not seem particularly thrilling. Then a message appeared saying "The Orcs of Ass Kicking are making a stalwart defence of East Ron".

"Hmmm." Thought me. A while passed, and no orcs appeared.

I kept beating on the wall.

Then I saw:

Orcish Ultimate Fighting Champion hits you for 4232 damage.
Orcish Ultimate Fighting Champion hits you for 546 damage.
Orcish Ultimate Fighting Champion crits you for so much damage it actually can't be expressed in numerals.
Saikyo was defeated by Orcish Ultimate Fighting Champion.

Said Orcish Ultimate Fighting Champion proceeded to lay waste to all PCs who were foolish enough to stand in his way. (His real name was something 'Poisonhand' but my description fits better.)

I lay around dead for bit, and then battle ended. Even though I was dead, I got 1100 XP. Basically all I had done was attack a wall for about 8 minutes, and then get killed! It was a bit like the Siege of Troy, except with Orcs.

However, buoyed up by the prospect of XP for essentially nothing, I decided to play some more Campaign. A lot of Campaign. So much campaign that by the end of it my eyes were drooping out, I had levelled up from SAM 65 to SAM 66 (13000xp or so) and all I could mutter was 'The horror....the horror..."

And horrors there are! The Beastmen NMs range in toughness from relatively wussy (a big Ahriman called 'Shadoweye' seems to be laughably poor, and gets hammered in seconds by a decent sized group) to monstrously unstoppable. (An Orc Warmachine NM - didnt catch the name - killed about 20 characters with just a few AOE moves... gave me Promyvion Death Squad flashbacks).

There's a huge amount of stuff I don't understand about Campaign. I don't understand how and why Beastmen waves spawn the way they do, nor do I understand how or why you sometimes have tons of NPCs reinforcements, and other times none. Attacking a wall could hardly be described as thrilling. Equally, running in terror from a mass of {Impossible to Gauge} beastmen is not much fun either. You get killed an awful lot (but at least you don't lose XP!)

But gathering a little team of PCs and teaming up to take down the Beastmen one at a time is strangely addictive. Surviving a Beastmen onslaught gives an odd feeling of satisfaction. In fact, much like fishing, I find that the entire thing is oddly compelling - and it gives you XP!

I picked up about 13000 XP playing campaign, enough to level up with a buffer. Disappointly, when you level from campaign you don't get that great little fanfare, but levelling up is still levelling up, so I'm not complaining!

So, to conclude.

#1: Saikyo is back.
#2: He isn't bitcing.
#3: He's found something he likes in FFXI almost as much as fishing!

Yahoo!