I'm not sure how many people know this, but I love to just run around for hours trying to get an NM to pop.  I'm serious, I find some sort of enjoyment out of it, maybe for the thrill of "Hey over there, is that what i think it is...[hits tab key], nope nevermind just a regular Rarab.

Well last night, I decided that I was going to take on Sharp-Eared Ropipi.  He has a 100% drop rate for and Entrancing Ribbon, which adds +2 to my CHR, which I need all the CHR I can get as a Beastmaster. 

At the time I was level 14, so I figured I could take him solo.  I took Spiny Spipi Solo at when i was level 10 so why couldn't I do this.

Boy, was I wrong.  Sharp-Eared Ropipi was one heck of a fight.  My friend Rionell had been helping me pop him for a while, but had since ran off to the north to get Spiny Spipi to pop.  I started the fight by sending a Carrion Crow after him.  That crow barley even scratched the rabbits ear before he was killed.  At this point I started to panic, didn't know what to do.  I immediatly charmed the nearest thing and sent it to attack the NM. 

I continued this cycle through about 4 different charms.  None where doing much to him, but then I remembered.  The Bees just to the north where pretty strong, plus Rionell is there as a beastmaster as well.  I ran North Charming things along the way to slow ol' Sharp-Eared down.  I got across the bridge and got a bee.  Rionell invited me for a pt and we duo this sucker.  It took about 10 minutes all together, and both of us using our 2hour abilities, but we brought him down

I got the Ribbon, Rionell passed it to me.  He needs the Ribbon as well for his Bard leveling, so if he's up to it, I'll help him get that tonight sometime.

Well BlazingLunar has finally come off of her "Basic Plan" and into her Listening To Music care plan.  She seems to enjoy music very much. 

Her affection to me currently is that as a child to a parent.  I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not that she is so attached to me.  She was crying at night, and the stable NPC thought it was because she missed me.  They gave me a white hankerchief to hold onto for a day or two.  After a day or so, it carried my scent so I gave it back to give to BlazingLunar so she wouldnt' miss me so much at night.

Also I was given a Story last night that the stable NPC reads to BlazingLunar...not sure what to do with that yet :\

Also found out about Kamp Kweh the other night.  It's pretty awesome.  Some guy was doing a /shout for it and I was like, sure I'll do it, what is it.  BlazingLunar got some type of boost for it and me and the guy have decided to meet there every night at the same time for it.  I've also begun to do Kamp Kweh with other people when I've nothing else to do.

Thanks Kalimitaru for the advice on my last post.  I've not really researched a whole lot online for Chocobo Raising because I wanted to learn as I went.  I was wondering what all would raise her stats though, so I'll try out different foods other than the standard greens I've been giving her and put her on more of a standard plan.  I've actually been choosing different ones for a generalized time frame, thinking it would make her stats "average".  I'm not to concerned with this one about making it uber leet, I'm just having fun, raising a chocobo for the first time.

(for video refernce to the fight below, you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/users/dartvalince)

So I decided this weekend that I really want to level beastmaster up some.  I've been enjoying the job alot so far, expecially now that i've learned how to semi-use it.  I hit level 10 and was out farming for silk in East Sarutabaruta (around the Spiny Spipi area) when i got a party invite for the dunes.  Now I'm usually one to jump all of a pt invite, but this time I thanked the person and declined.  I didn't feel i was adequte enough in my job yet to help wipe a party out b/c i suck at it. 

So this is when I decided to give myself a little test.  One that would help me prove to myself that I could survive this job.  I decided that I would pop Spiny Spipi and fight him solo as level 10 Beastmaster.  Didn't take long, only about 30 minutes or so.  The whole time i was waiting for him to come, I was building a strategy up in my head.  There were 4 things i kept telling myself

#1 Get bees to fight him.  Reason being is becuase they have a natural advantage over crawlers, something I've learned from testing things out

#2 Do not engage unless I have to.  This is so all the hate can be drawn onto my pet

#3 Survive

#4 Get bees to fight him :D

So there he was, and there I was.  Standing face to face.  With outstreched arms, I told my charmed bee to attack and the battle was underway.  We were just inside the bend of the river there where he pops.  I ran out into the open trying to find another bee before mine died, and luckly I did.  I set my target on him to get the macro ready for when  my current bee died.  One bee down, and BAM another bee charmed.  I saw Spiny coming in over the horizon, so i sent my new bee after him.  I continuted this process for about 5 mins.  In the end, I walked away from this and Spiny didn't, though I didn't walk away with a cape :|

Since then, I've leveled beastmaster up to 14, and plan on taking it to atleast 30 for the time being. 

So according to Playonline's website, something BIG is fixing to happen.  From the article i basically gather that we are now going to be treated to User Made Dungeons.  How is this going to work? (the creation process I mean).  I interpreat from the article that you will specify several custimizations, and the Moblins then make the dungeon for you.  If so then there can only be so many that can be created (or maybe a billion but still there would be a limit).

The other thing that concerncs me is how is this going to affect the ingame economy.  What if RMT's start making their own dungeons, and use it to gain gil more eaisly through good drops.  RMT is always going to be a problem but this could increase it's potency. 

Anyone that reads my blog, do you have any information on this?

So I finally had time to sit down with the beastmaster job and try it out last night.  So far it's one heck of a "love/hate relationship".  Let me explain!!

Love
I find it amazing that I can charm a tough and use it to fight other toughs for me.  What a great way of getting Xp.  Also knowing the Beast Strenght Chart really helps, but not only that, trying out different mobs on mobs helps as well.  For instance, charming a Giant Bee in East Sarutabaruta was ftw last night.  I took out crawler after crawler after gob after crawler  I learned very quickly though to keep my target on the bee at all times in case he became uncharmed.  This allowed me a quick macro charm to keep him on my side. 

It's also very thrilling to use beastmaster.  It's not worth it really to charm anything that's a decent or below, because lets face it, I want to fight toughs and they just aien't tough enough.  Its so heart pounding to tell your crawler to attack another crawler, then in the process lose the charm, try to recharm and it fail.  This results in both crawlers linking together to attack you.  As I was running, I waited for the cool down time of charm and BAM!!! recharmed my crawler.  Survived so many times last night by the just a little bit.

Hate
There is only two things I hate about this job.  One is the xp is kinda slow.  Its to be expected though.   This is one of the "solo" jobs, so I didn't expect it to be a sinch getting from 1 to 75.  But seriously even with the new updates on EP and DC mob Xp, it still took me like 4 hours to go from lvl 1 to lvl 9 last night.

The other thing I hate is the dying, which correlates back to the first thing I hate.  I died more times last night than I've ever died in this game...period.  It's ridiculous how much I died.

 

So all in all, I give Beastmaster a 8/10 rating for a job based on first impression.  This may change down the road, but we'll see.  So far it's looking for the better :D

<(-.-)> Dart

Not much new has happened.  My chocobo seems to really enjoy it when I'm around, and she behaves herself while i'm not there :D.  Went for two walks yesterday, and on both walks she found items for me.  One was a clump of grass, the other was some more wildgrass seeds. 

I've noticed also that even though I take her for walks, none of her stats are increasing.  They are all "poor".  Well she only has one more day left in the "Basic Plan" of care i picked for her, then it's on to "Listening to Music" for 3 days.  I think that when the care plans switch that, that is when she starts to get boost's in her stats. 

I went to visit my chocobo yesterday, and boy was she glad to see me!!  I watched over her for a moment, and she presented me with a gift. It was a Goblin Mask.  Apparently when you take your chocobo for a walk, everyonce in a while, they will find an item and bring it back for you, how nice :D. 

She was very hungry, actually they told me she was starving, so I quickly gave her a few helpings of Gysahl Greens.  That perked her right up and she was compltely full!!.  After that I took her for a short walk.  It's so funny to see her walking beside/behind me b/c I'm such a little guy that we're almost the same height lol.  After the walk, I watched over her again and she had apparently found another item for me.  This time it was so form of grass seeds. 

Her stats have not raised any from the walks we've taken or the food I've given her.  She has alot of affection for me and is in a good condition healthwise. 

So I didn't have much to do yesterday afternoon and had time to kill, so I decided to take a quick trip to Jeuno. I don't know why I say quick though, it never is.  Takes 10 mins from even Teleport-Holla or Teleport-Mea to get there on Chocobo.  Oh well.

Got to Jeuno and was unsure what to do.  I was going to just walk around, say hello to people, but then I remembered.  There was this NPC that I had talked to and wanted me to do something, but I can't remember what he wanted me to do.   I decided to go pay him a visit and see if he mentions it, then maybe I could complete it.  As soon as I got to his house, a cutscene started.

He was telling me that his son was sick and that he knew of a root of a certain flower that could heal his son.  He couldn't go get it because he had to stay by his son's side, so instead he asked me to go get it.  I happily obliged the quest.  He informed me it was in Qufim.  At this point, I was pretty sure I knew where to go.

Once i got to Qufim Island, I immediatly ran to the area I thought i was supposed to go and I was correct.  The only problem was this.  It was a narrow path going down the cliff side.  The path had a Goblin Butcher running up and down it.  Also this flower only blooms at night time, so I had to go between 22:00 and 5:00 (game time) which means there were banshee's.  Goblins aggro by sight and Banshee's agro by blood.  I casted Invisible on myself so the gobs couldn't see me, and also Sneak, just incase i need to not be heard.

As I ran down the cliff side, low and behold, there it was.  THE KRAKEN.  I checked him and he gauged as Increadably Tough, which means he no likey me and I no likey him.  I had Sneak and invisible on so he couldnt' hear or see me so I was in the clear.  The only problem was, he was guarding the flowers I needed so desperatly.  I did a quick one on him, and deactivated Invisible (b/c you can't be invisible and click the flowers :p), tabbed the cursor over to the flowers really quick, and got theh cutscean before he could kill me.

During the cutscene, the guy who sent me on the quest came up and said he was following me.  He said that these were the flowers he needed and then a chocobo came up and helped out.  Now this is the same chocobo that this guy (in a previous cutscene a WHILE back) had badly mistreated.  The man was releived that the chocobo was so sincere to help even after all that

He got the flowers and headed back home.  I as well headed to his house.  When i got there, his son answered the door only to tell me his father wasn't home.  Instead the father had left a gift for the son to give me.  2100g and a Beast Whistle :D. 

After this, I preceeded to the Chocobo Stables in Upper Jeuno.  I always forget that to get a Chocobo here, i have to enter the stables.  Instead I always accidentaly talk to Brutos.  Only this time when I spoke to him, another cutscene happened.

The first guy appeared and started talking to Brutos and I and the Chocobo.  He expressed his thanks to the chocobo and said a few nice remarks about me.  After he left, Brutos informed me that I would make a fine Beastmaster

dun duh dunnnnnnnnn
I have now unlocked Beastmaster job class

who knew...i didn't thats for sure

So I've decided I'm going to keep a log of my Chocobo raising.  To see where I make mistakes or not mistakes, which ever.  I'll be updating this every day till the raising process is finished. You can find more posts (when there are more) on it by clicking on the Chocobo Raising tag under Categories to the right.

So the egg hatched today, what a glorious site.  It is a female chocobo, named Blazing Lunar.  Caring for it is something new for me so I'm learning this slowly.  I watched over her a few times and then decided to take her for a walk.  As we were walking, she met a nice little chocbo named spring.  Hopefully they can become very good friends.  After the walk, I set up a care plan which includes Basic Care for 3 more days, then some long walking for the following 4 days.

I should also point out that since this morning, I've taken her on another walk where we found a hopelessly lost chocobo.  Poor thing was lost from it's owner, so we took it back to the chocobo stables, and now I get to help find the owner :D.  This should be fun

Last night, my wife (IRL) decided to start playing FFXi. :D is all i could say.  We spent some time talking about the different races, nations, jobs, etc.  She finally decided to be a female (duh) taru (yay) Thief (THF).  I've never actually used THF, so this is going to be a new experience for me and her.

She did pretty good for her first night.  Traded the Adv. Coupon to Jack of Spades, picked up a quest (Creepy Crawlers), picked up Mission 1-1 in Windurst, and hit lvl 5.  I'm proud of her for being able to pick up on this game so fast.

I can't wait till tomorrow, when our DSL line becomes active and we can both play together at the same time.  One of us will be on the PC while the other will be on the PS2.