Mission: Ark Angels (Rise of the Zilart)
-Last time, I arrived at the floating island, Tu’Lia, in pursuit of Prince Eald’narche as he tries to open the Gate of the Gods.
-Am I in Florida? The enemies I have to fight here are “sprinklers” and flamingos.
-I head to the huge building in the middle. The Shrine of Ru’Avitau, moving through a crapload of Groundskeepers, doll-type enemies.
-Yve’noile, the Dawnmaiden from last time who helped me reach this place, appears. She says that this was the heart of Tu’Lia. Inside this shrine, the Celestial Nexus that opens the Gate of the Gods lies.
-Five guardians block my path to the Celestial Nexus. The Five Warriors of the Crystal.
-It sounds like once I beat the Warriors, I have to take their shards, and bring them to a spring in Ro’Maeve under the light of the full moon. I have to then use some items to create an ark pentasphere,
-Okay. It sounds like I have two options for this next part: I can either try fighting the Warriors one-by-one, or all at once. Um. One-by-one please.
-This place is confusing to navigate. The floating islands are connected by a network of blue, red, and yellow portals that I only sort of get.
-Found the first Warrior.
ARK ANGEL TT: “You shall be consumed by the cowardice that binds you…”
TT must mean the Tarutaru one. Crap. This is gonna be a squirrely mage, isn’t it?
-It is. I win the fight, but just barely. He took out most of my party first leaving Lion, Semih Lafinah (a Mithra ranger), and me at low health. I spent most of that fight paralyzed, unable to move or act as I watched the Tarutaru Ark Angel teleport all around the arena.
-One down. My reward is the Shard of Cowardice.
ARK ANGEL MR (Mithra): “You shall be twisted by the envy that drives you…”
-By the way, I’m glad I kept red mage as my subjob for one main reason: Refresh. A spell that lets me recover mana at a faster rate.
-Arg. I died. That was a frustrating fight, for the same reason as the last fight. She kept using an AoE attack that kept putting me to sleep. I couldn’t heal. I have a white mage NPC, so going to break that out.
-Yay! Second time’s the charm. My main strategy was… well, a bit cowardly. When I saw she was readying that spin attack that put me to sleep, I backed tf out.
-Got the Shard of Envy.
-Next is the Hume.
ARK ANGEL HM: “You shall be defeated by the apathy that plagues you…”
-Even with Refresh, the buffing process each time I prep for one of these boss fights is a bit tedious.
-This is the most straight-forward of the fights so far. Three down, two to go. The Galka and Elvaan are left.
ARK ANGEL EV: “You shall be overcome by the arrogance that disfigures you.”
-The Elvaan has a shield and large sword, and is just flat-out destroys me. I thought I was getting close, but then he used Benediction to heal himself up to full and… no chance.
-I’ll grind more (currently 82) and come back later.
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Quest: Beyond the Stars (Limit Break #8)
-When I hit 85, I do the next limit break quest. Same kind of quest as before. I just have to get some merit points and Kindred Crests.
-lolol – I thought this quest would be the same as all the others, with some moogles inflicting pain on me, but a new person shows up. A guy named Degenhard who wants to do a limit break quest with Maat. He tried a while ago, failed, and has been training since.
-Now I have to help Maat beat Degenhard in a Rock-Paper-Scissors type mini-game.
Raging Beast > Silent Wind
Soaring Dragon > Raging Beast
Silent Wind > Soaring Dragon
-It seems pretty random, so idk. It’s pretty funny to watch these dudes fight, but I don’t know that there’s any strategy I can use. Just the luck of rock-paper-scissors. For instance, I have to use Raging Beast and hope that the other guy uses Silent Wind and not Soaring Dragon.
-I lose the first mini-game, but due to pure luck, win the second round.
-Level cap now bumped to 90.
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Quest: Dormant Power Dislodged (Limit Break #9)
-Leveled up from 85 to 90. Some of that was on bats and crawlers on my own in Maze of Shakhrami, but much of it was against higher level enemies with linkshell-mates, tigers and worms, in Kuftal Tunnel.
-While I was there, I learned about a core mechanic that I probably should have learned about 60 levels ago: Skillchains.
-When Character A uses certain weapon skills or magic, and Character B follows up 3-5 seconds later with certain other weapon skills or magic, that causes a “skillchain.” An extra burst of damage against the enemy.
-Sounds simple, right? Right?
The expanded version and details: http://tinyurl.com/myue84x
If you answered “Right!” then you clearly forgot this is FFXI.
-I’m only sort of starting to begin to understand this mechanic. But essentially I can combine some of my skills with those of certain party members – including Trust NPCs – to increase damage.
-Anyway.
-I hit level 90, saved up 10 merit points (the equivalent of around two full levels worth of xp), and am ready to turn this next limit break quest in.
-I like how as the limit break quests go higher and higher, the number of participants required to make the magic work keeps going up too. This time, a couple of Tarutaru join Maat and the moogles.
-The newcomer tarutaru’s name is “Chamama.” She’s a pickle seller, which I’m going to take as an FFIX callback, whether it’s intended or not.
-I have to do a bizarre mini-game. And I do mean bizarre. I have to let the Tarutaru cast his magic on me, wait ten seconds EXACTLY (I failed a few times by going too fast or too slow), and then push to expel an egg that the pickle seller weighs.
-The Tarutaru then magically transforms the egg into a “soul gem” and I have my limit break.
-Tarutaru are super fucked up. A race of Chucky dolls, I swear.
But whatever. I got my level 95 cap increase.
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Quest: Beyond Infinity (Limit Break #10)
-I’m already level 91 after finishing this quest, so I decide to pick up the final limit break. The one that will let me get to 99.
-Atori-Tutori, the Tarutaru who did the egg magic, asks me to find a “seasoning stone.” I got that in a recent leveling session, so that’s easy enough.
-I turn it in. The final challenge it seems will be a fight. Against Atori-Tutori himself. Or at least a part of him, like an alter ego.
“After all, were I to unleash my full strength, I might mistakenly blastaru you into dust with an errant tap of my pinkie-winkie finger.”
Somehow, all the cutesy-adorable verbal stylings of the Tarutaru make it all the scarier when they lay down a threat.
-Atori-Tutori asks me to meet him at one of the various battlefield arenas around Vana’diel. I won’t go through with this fight now, but I’ll remember this for when I hit 95.
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Mission: Ark Angels (Rise of the ZIlart) (continued)
-A bit stronger now. Time to try that Elvaan Ark Angel again.
-VICTORY!!
Just BARELY. Absolute skin of my teeth.
-One more to go. The Galka.
ARK ANGEL GK: “You shall be burned by the rage that controls you…”
-This Ark Angel has a great katana. This is gonna hurt.
-Note to self: I probably won’t one-shot this boss. Use this first attempt as a learning experience.
-Aw crap mirror match – he’s a samurai but also has a wyvern and uses dragoon jumping attacks.
-WOOOHOOO ARK ANGELS DOWN!!!
-The Elvaan was by far the hardest of the group. This was an awesome series of bosses.
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Next time: Eald’narche’s Warriors of the Crystal. Pushing on towards Eald’narche himself.
