Dynamis - Xarcabard
Hello. Continued apologies for slow updates. This particular Xarcabard run actually played a bit of a part in my slowness. The reason for this is that, in my eyes, this was the perfect Dynamis run. As such, I felt compelled to try to write some grandiose update to match my pride in our group, and satisfaction with our performance. Of course, despite my intentions, you shall now receive a usual dose of what Talenar calls my "drivel".
As stated above, this run was perfect. Everyone was focused but relaxed, we got a few really good AF and 5 100s, farmed continuously without a wipe, then delivered a flawless zerg to DL. What impressed me most was the group's reactions to bits of bad luck or small mistakes. For example, after TE3 and before moving on to NMs, when we made our trek into AF alley, Talenar inexplicably linked an equivalent amount of eyes and demons to the death wall on the way to DL (a pull that we usually sac half of, and kill in 3 waves). Even after all RDMs were killed off, BLMs rose to the occasion and quickly set up an (ES?) sleepga order, allowing the remaining melees to smoothly dispose of the giant pull, simultaneous to the casualties being raised, resulting in minimal farming time loss. Incidentally, we later linked the death wall, and easily cleared it without incident. Every mistake or spot of bad luck I saw tonight was countered immediately by quickly thought out and independently implemented solutions. As a leader, it's very heartening to see members getting so good at what they do that, in a pinch, they no longer require instruction (which is made more amazing when done in such a way that their OCD Galka leader doesn't freak out).
I will now clumsily and artlessly segue into a blow-by-blow commentary on the run.
Before entering, I noticed a new DRG (we have a lot of new recruits as of late, and, incidentally, recruitment is about ready to close down, so if you have HC interest, you may want to post quickly), Thundros, standing next to an old DRG, Imbria. I found the sight to be somewhat eerie, and flashed back to sordid, intoxicated experiences wandering the streets of South Chicago at night. Once my composure was regained, we filled parties, determined who would job change before dragons for the DL zerg, and entered.
Making our way through the first 3 TEs, the general mood was light. We moved on to AF alley, and I quicly got myself killed. When I returned from my weakened AFK cigarette break, I returned to the auspicious sight of the first 100 of the night (and a giant link). Once that pull was cleared, we pressed on and AF alley continued to pay off.
The run continued smoothly, with 100s dropping here and there, though all the named NMs refused to give up their respective AF. This drought was made up for soon after, when an NQ demon from one of our pre-DL farming pulls dropped (at long last) Revanindoril's Valor Surcoat (congrats).
Farming complete, we sent our RDMs away to change to /DRK, and stormed through dragons. DL then fell easily, as depicted in this screenshot of his crotch. We then gathered for the traditional desecration of his house, screenshots of which I shall leave you with, below:
- Pahn
- Assassin's Armlets - Skrip
- Scout's Jerkin - Tzimisce
- Valor Surcoat - Revanindoril
Dynamis - Windurst
Hello. I missed Dynamis - Windurst. No idea what I was doing instead, but chances are there was alcohol involved.
Tempted as I am to compile another witty update in which I post screenshots provided by my secret source in Hydracorps (see Dynamis - Jeuno update below), I'm not going to. Apologies that updating has fallen behind. I'll have this page up to date soon. For the benefit of anyone who reads this before I get the Xarcabard, San d'Oria, and Valkurm updates up, Hydracorps has been pretty much thriving over the last few weeks, with all wins, lots of currency/money payout, and AF. Also, minimal caps lock key.
Until the triumphant hour when I format all the accompanying screenshots and write up commentary, au revoir.
- Pahn
- Assassin's Bonnet - Loweredshadw
- Warrior's Mask - Vandel
- Valor Leggings - Vandel
- Warrior's Mask - Nitadar
- Cleric's Duckbills - Tryx
- Monster Helm - Tryx
Dynamis - Qufim
Hello. Our recent Dynamis - Qufim was executed skillfully and economically, which is always nice. We came away with a couple useful AFs, and at least doubled the investment of money people, so I can't complain about our drops. Well, I can't reasonably complain about them I mean. I can still, of course, whine that my Saotome Koshi-ate does not want to drop.
Dynamis - Qufim really presents any decent Dynamis group with only 2 significant challenges: 1) Can you stun lock long enough and zerg fast enough to defeat the boss, and 2) Can you avoid blowing all your time dealing with unintentional aggro? Happily, we answered both (1) and (2) with a resounding 'yes'. Normally someone blows it and aggros Snolls (which isn't that catastrophic if you act quickly, to be honest), but today everything was clean. As for the boss, he was dispatched in about 30 seconds, primarily by 2 parties of 4 monks, 1 WHM, 1 BRD, with monks receiving Soul Voiced 2xMinuet for their Hundred Fists (and 2xMarch for after Hundred Fists wore, though the poor Gigas didn't live long enough for that). As always, the boss dropped no 100s, but such is Dynamis.
We took our usual path, as detailed in a previous update (this and this), though this time we had enough time to head toward Jeuno and hit some Nightmare Roc and Nightmare Gaylas (which of course dropped nothing). I didn't get too many exciting screenshots, I'm afraid. This might excite you. If you're me, that is. If large phallic towers looming in darkness excite you, I have what you need.
There isn't much else to report really. This run affirms, to me at least, the goodness of doing as many CoP zones as we have been lately. We had to sit a few people out, but not enough for it to really be an issue. We also had a fair amount of /l chatter about the age at which American teenagers lose their virginity, which was educational.
Next week brings us to Dynamis - Windurst, and its endless procession of squishy, AOE happy mobs. My skin crawls at the thought of traveling to Windurst, but such is the burden I have shouldered. I guess I've rambled enough for today.
- Pahn
- Saotome Sune-ate -1 - Tylas
- Valor Coronet - Spanky
- Abyss Cape - Silverkillswolf
- Assassin's Poulaines - Skrip
- Warrior's Calligae -1 - Silverkillswolf
Dynamis - Bastok
Hello. Another day, another full clear of Dynamis - Bastok.
With a decent turnout of 46 heathens forsaking Easter celebration to raid Dynamis, we hoped to usurp our clear time record and end with 100+ minutes left on glass. Let this screenshot serve both to illustrate the life of the Monk in Dynamis, as well as to give a small hint as to why our record did not change. Also, look at this non-sequitur screenshot of Lexi that I almost used as the heading SS for this entry:
There isn't much to say about most Bastok runs. We entered, we killed stuff fast, we gazed at the moon, etc. At first AF dropped slowly, but eventually picked up. For reasons unknown, Hydracorps gets an awful lot of BRD AF.
All in all, it was a good run. Unfortunately no upgraders turned out, so we were forced to distribute currency to money people and let them sell it themselves (or keep it for relic-1 upgrading). I found this vexing, but so it goes. We also implemented our new rule such that money people can receive a maximum of 1 Wootz Ore per person, due to the moderately recent inflation of its value.
Wednesday is Dynamis - Qufim, which is always fun. Hopefully I'll be 6/6 SAM AF when it's over. Au revoir mes enfants.
- Pahn
- Saotome Kote - Talenar
- Melee Gaiters - Meliae
- Monster Jackcoat - Sneaky
- Bard's Cuffs - Birdofprey
- Sorcerer's Tonban - Verde
- Bard's Cuffs - Meliae
- Duelist's Gloves - Melantra
- Bard's Cuffs - Pahn
- Wyrm Brais - Legaci
- Monster Jackcoat - Tylas
- Assassin's Vest - Meliae
- Saotome Kote - Legaci
- Bard's Cuffs - Mithos
Dynamis - Xarcabard
Hello. After locking myself out from updating via technological incompetence and horrible memory, I'm back to get this page updated, yay! On that topic, I recently had a dream where I went to hc-phoenix.com and found that the page had formatted itself such that updates were archived after 10 or so, to avoid the current situation whereby the page continues to grow without check. I take this, like all dreams, to be some kind of wish-fulfillment dream. Oddly, most of my dreams involve me either being murdered, or reuniting with my ginger ex-lover, only to be rejected again at the end of the dream. Wish-fulfillment.
Anyway, tonight's Dynamis - Xarcabard was a good one. Our recent loss due to time spurred Talenar on to devise a new path through the zone, which starkly revealed that our old strategy was a symptom of our history, in that we would kill dragons and then spend the time before DL randomly looking for pulls. Our new, more organized strategy shaved off a considerable amount of time and allowed us just as much farming time as the time-sink losing strategy we employed last run.
In brief, our current path goes: have a RNG 1-shot TE1, pull eyes around TE2 and kill them as an alliance, sneak past the eye (whose name is 'Bob') to TE3, kill those 3 1-eye pulls and TE3, kill Bob and his friends, kill the first NM set (Berith, etc), proceed east for some more pulls, head to main NM camp and kill all but the last NM set as well as the stray eye pulls in the area, proceed to last NM set (Zagan, etc), kill eye wall (aka "Death Wall"), kill dragons, send people to job change while we double back to eye wall for more pulls to the east, then double back to Dynamis Lord and win. It looks basically like this. I may have messed that up a bit, and the blue arrowed-red line is pretty sloppy, but I'd be lying if I said I put much effort into the explanation.
As for details particular to this run, Zagan finally gave up his Wyrm Armet--obviously due to me finally acquiring mine in Dynamis - Tavnazia the other day (this Armet went freelot).
The time leading up to Zagan's epic Pahn-dis was spent as usual, with some members dancing while others looked on confused, or just killing stuff. Note in the latter shot that one of our Monks is bringing it back to '04 with some hot Indra Katars, of which I approve.
Zagan et al defeated, we plowed through eye wall and headed to dragons. A close examination of that SS should yield a pretty good idea of what being in Hydracorps is like. One of the dragons apparently killed Aralix, so I danced on his corpse. It got out of hand by the end.
After some more farming, we gathered for Dynamis Lord, and easily defeated the notorious trash-talker, yielding a 100 and a Shadow Ring.
We ended the night forsaking the usual "Find an unbeatable pull and commit suicide to it," in favor of taking some victory SSs in DL's home. Here's one, and another, and another.
And this entry is over.
- Pahn
- Melee Crown - Meliae
- Wyrm Armet - Talenar
- Shadow Ring - Tylas
Dynamis - Buburimu
Hello. Predictably, this was another short and rewarding Dynamis - Buburimu for Hydracorps.
The run started somewhat inauspiciously, with a late entrance due to some job change confusion and a rough time finding dragons and 2-hour locking NMs. We quickly got over killing incorrect and numerous Quadavs when one statue dropped a 100, securing a good payout for the small amount of money people. Once the ??? was found and boss prep mobs gradually killed off, we made our way to the beach for Apocalyptic Beast, who died fast and without incident (also without dropping any 100s, /cry).
The usual endless waves of crabs yielded a Wyrm Belt, completing Imbria's 6/6 DRG set that was started about 2 years ago. We then moved on to Nightmare Ravens, which decided to be generous with RNG belts again after many months. Notice Dave and Ryutatsu's champion lots.
After killing more Nightmare Ravens than we should have, we moved to Nightmare Dhalmel which yielded nothing. We then tried for MNK and PLD capes from Nightmare Efts, but got only DRG-1 hands (which are okay, but were relatively much better pre-2h update). We closed out the night with Nightmare Bunnies, miraculously avoiding (at least in my alliance) any Monty Python references, which was gratifying. I apparently failed to show the Bunnies adequate respect, as shown here.
We didn't walk away with many of the really good items (NIN+1 hands, PLD cape), but most of what we got was useful. Crossing my fingers that we'll be on our game at next run's DL attempt, for the sake of the veins on my forehead.
- Pahn
- Wyrm Belt - Imbria
- Scout's Belt - Blkkntdave
- Scout's Belt - Ryutatsu
- Wyrm Finger Gauntlets -1 - Blkkntdave
- Duelist's Gloves -1 - Allister
Dynamis - Xarcabard
Hello. Our recent Xarcabard yielded a large amount of AF (all useful pieces as well), and a disappointing loss to DL due to rushing.
As this run occurred shortly after the recent update, we (along with everyone else in the game) caught a bit of /dance1-4 fever.
It began with some lumbering Galka antics.
An Elvaan joined in.
Notice how sleazy Dave looks in that manteel.
Suddenly a Mithra rushed inside the dancing circle and went insane. The aforementioned manteel is mysteriously absent...
Here is a different view.
Where did Armakoy come from??
That finished, we proceeded to enter and breeze through TE1, TE2, TE3, and the job NMs easily as ever, yielding a few AF. We then split up the demons in the 5 eye Death Wall, without incident. Making good time, we gathered for dragons. It turned out that the crazy hadn't entirely left one of our exuberant Mithra members. As we pulled Ying and Yang, some sort of miscommunication caused Ying to die with Yang still at greater than 75% health. Miraculously, the LS responded by simply burning Yang down in < 20 secs, which was very heartening.
At this point, as always on DL kill runs, we doubled back from dragon area and pulled some more demons. AF continued to drop as we sent RDMs back to change to /DRK, and various BLMs and WHMs to change into DDs. While the farming was good, an unexpected wipe plus a shamefully slow recovery ate up most of our time, leaving us mildly unprepared for DL. When we returned to make our rushed attempt, we were unable to get Bards to everyone who needed them and several melees forgot to use poison pots. DL's well-timed sleepga made non-issues of said melees. The rough start slowed us down sufficiently to leave DL at 8% HP when his revived dragon friends wiped our mages, allowing him to subsequently wipe everyone else.
All in all, it was a good run. Losses are always disappointing, but in general both the effort and the rewards were good. And now I'm almost caught up with front page updates.
- Pahn
- Sorcerer's Petasos - Dangelo
- Summoner's Horn - Cedara
- Cleric's Mitts - Jeffreestar
- Sorcerer's Petasos - Kallstrom
- Koga Tekko - Arutha
- Wyrm Armet - Blkkntdave
- Duelist's Chapeau - Slauter
Dynamis - Jeuno
Hello. I actually missed this run, as I was gallivanting around New York City in celebration of being alive for 26 years.
So, I can't really give too in-depth a description of what happened at this run. However, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, i have a SUPER SECRET SPY in their midst. This secret member has supplied me with details, as well as a few screenshots. His-or-her identity will remain, forever, secret. So watch your back.
According to my secret source, some time before 8pm EST, parties and alliances were formed, and glasses passed out. Then, everyone entered, and waited for the first pull. Someone pulled, then someone else targeted, BLMs killed some statues, and melees fought goblins.
Here is a screenshot of an unidentified Hydracorps Dragoon killing a Goblin. As he had no idea his actions were being photographed, he is (as you can see) in a perfect state of un-self-consciousness as he goes to town on the poor Goblin.
Sometime later in the run, a BLM killed a Goblin, as shown here in another screenshot provided by my super secret source. I assume this Goblin was a Paladin or Thief, necessitating the help of a nukes.
Then, everyone gathered at the AH, and killed numerous Goblins and statues. Eventually, the boss was killed. At some time later, this happened. I'm not really sure what exactly is going on in that screenshot, but it seems to involve a Galka.
Eventually, so I'm told, time ran out, and the run ended.
- Pahn
- Scout's Beret - Darkhell
- Warrior's Mufflers - Davet
- Duelist's Tights - Ladyofdeath
- Warrior's Mufflers - Ladyofdeath
- Warrior's Mufflers - Tryx
- Scout's Beret - Tryx
- Sorcerer's Sabots - Allister
- Duelist's Tights - Erik
- Sorcerer's Sabots - Heep
- Koga Kyahan - Lonekent
- Scout's Beret - Naafeih
- Wyrm Finger Gauntlets - Nitadar
- Koga Kyahan - Nitadar
- Sorcerer's Sabots - Redfrost
- Warrior's Mufflers - Redfrost
- Scout's Sabots - Stodya
Dynamis - Beaucedine
Hello. When I finally go insane and am locked away forever, I suspect that my looping hallucinations will consist of the drab surroundings of Dynamis - Beaucedine; gray walls and white snow cycling underneath me, endlessly. It will be no surprise if traversing the endless wasteland of Dynamis - Beaucedine in game turns out to be the catalyst for my madness.
That said, our glacier run actually went rather well. We only had 38 people (1 of whom a guest from LoD along for the win), which turned out to be sufficient for killing 1 test NM, getting the win, and doing some decent farming.
Our path through the glacier was basically the same as always. We loop around from the starting point, past the outpost and toward Nue's spawn to fight Hydra mobs, either to send off our Assassin team to pop the Vanguard Eye whose death triggers the spawning of Attestation dropping NMs, or just to kill Hydra for the AF they like to drop. This inclination of ours was reinforced immediately tonight, when the first Vanguard Eye was nice enough to give up a 100 piece.
After mowing through some Hydra mobs, Lorka (BRD), Redfrost (THF), Meliae (WHM), Lonekent (BLM), Armakoy (SAM), and I (DRG) broke off to form our "Assassin team". After killing a few Hydra, the rest of the linkshell doubled back in search of TEs and farming mobs, while we prepared to venture to Nue's tower to kill an eye. Lorka supplied us with Hymnus and Mazurka, and we followed a fleeing Redfrost toward the first ramp, to our deaths. Happily, we died in a safe spot just after the first ramp. We RR'd, rebuffed, and repeated our suicidal rush up the next ramp past Nue's tower. Mysteriously, all of us save Lonekent were massacred. After RR'ing and deweakening again, Redfrost flee'd heroically past the inconveniently positioned mobs outside the tower, pulled the eye (who was immediately voked by Armakoy and stunned by Lonekent), then trained the adds safely up north, where he died and waited. We then made short work of the eye, and congratulated ourselves for our triumph.
With Redfrost raised, we Tele-Vahzl'ed out, and ran past a tempting Shadow Dragon back to the glacier trail markings. Our inability to successfully get Mazurka up on 6 people at the same time shrouded our effective teamwork just 5 minutes previous in mystery. The brief respite from Dynamis, musing over the speed of Taru legs under the rising sun, was welcome, though soon enough we were back in the despair factory that is Dynamis - Beaucedine.
When I returned from my auto-/follow cigarette break, we had rejoined the group and were about to pull Goublefaupe. I'm not sure if you're laughing at the mere thought of the name 'Goublefaupe', but I am. Our first pull turned into a wipe, as someone foolishly ran out to Goublefaupe's NQ friends, aggro'd them, and then brought them back to camp, MPKing us. This yielded chainspell raises and several lines of profanity-laced CAPS LOCK KEY assertions about breaking pearls, by me. Despite this unforgivable mistake, we regrouped, and then destroyed Goublefaupe easily. Of course, he did not drop Lonekent's Excalibur test, but he did put Lorka one step closer to Bravura, which I'm sure consoled him regarding the deleveling his bard received from Assassin team membership and hairbrained NQ Hydra MPK.
We closed out the run by farming through Orcs on the beach, and all 3 beastmen types at the lake before the boss at Fei'Yin. As usual, Talenar ran the various Pukis dragons far away, while Imbria (NIN), Asurei (SAM), Alkkans (RDM), Lonekent (BLM), and I held the eye at the lake. With the dragons trained practicaly to Ranguemont Pass, Talenar gave the word, we unloaded on Angra Manyu until it warped, then rejoined the rest of the linkshell at Fei'Yin, where we quickly finished off the eye. Our work done, we dropped glass and left the cursed place.
Recent excursions to Dynamis have been giving up many long sought after items, such as tonight's Valor Breeches to Revanindoril. Hopefully our visit to Dynamis - Valkurm on Wednesday will continue this trend.
- Pahn
- Monster Gaiters - Guifroge
- Abyss Cuirass - Guifroge
- Koga Chainmail - Stodya
- Assassin's Culotte - Seydlitz
- Koga Chainmail - Asurei
- Monster Gaiters - Verde
- Valor Breeches - Revanindoril
- Attestation of Force - Lorka
Dynamis - Tavnazia
Hello. Dynamis - Tavnazia is a fearsome, confounding, ridiculous place. Much like romantic entanglement, it is a place that everyone who has not entered wishes to enter, and everyone who has entered wishes to never see again. Myself, having experienced both the empty triumph of venturing into its depths before annihilation and being annihilated ten minutes into the run, I was rather apprehensive about going back.
I wasn't alone in my reluctance. Before gather time, our Dynamis - Tavnazia sign up sheet had about 12 names on it (4 of which, including mine, had notes suggestively stating that we "wouldn't mind sitting out"). As we waited for entry time, I rounded up a few helpful members who had not signed up but were willing to sacrifice some gil and XP for the good of the group, and more members gradually logged on. As the list approached full at 16 (18 people is the maximum size of a Dynamis - Tavnazia group) and I organized parties, my mood began to change into a hesitant optimism.
While dangerously not full, I was pleased with the mix of jobs we had. When we finally entered, the parties were organized as follows:Pahn, SAM/DNC
Imbria NIN/WAR
Armakoy WHM
Talenar RDM/BLM
Killer BLM
Revanindoril WAR/NIN
Lexi WHM
Drecan RDM/BLM
Deathseaker PLD/WAR
Aldrice THF/NIN
Blackphantom MNK/NIN
Lorka BLM
Dangelo BLM
Slauter RDM/BLM
Chikami NIN/DNC
Tylas MNK/NIN
As you can see, we decided to bring in 2 /DNC for healing support in response to having but 2 WHMs. This not only eased some of the healers' MP burden, but also worked to motivate and inspire our members through the graceful art of Galka dance.
DIGRESSION CORNER:
A mild sidenote about the previous linked screenshot. You may notice that my menu's "auto-target" is set to "on", and if you have any experience /assisting or targeting in Dynamis, you probably know the importance of not auto-targeting so as to avoid waking slept mobs, MPKing RDMs, and (if you're in Hydracorps) getting me to break your pearl. Well, if you think there's any dissonance between that fact and the aforementioned screenshot, let me enlighten you regarding the fact that this menu "auto-target" only affects whether or not you lock on to a target once you engage it. Here is an illustration of what menu "auto-target" does:
Here, you see that I have turned on menu "auto-target".
I engage the mob, and am "locked on", so when I run forward, I run at the mob, even if it's behind me.
Now, I turn off menu "auto-target".
So, when I engage the mob, I simply take my weapon out, but am not locked on. End tutorial.
Incidentally, while it is imperative that all melees turn off chat log /autotarget by writing "/autotarget off" in the chat field, it is actually a bit harmful to turn off menu "auto-target" for Dynamis. Especially during big pulls, the targeter is liable to target mobs on any side of you, occasionally even mobs not on your screen. In these cases, "auto-target" ie auto-lock-on is very helpful. If any of our members have been confused by this, I hope this long paragraph on the front page that maybe 5 people read clears it up.
/DIGRESSION CORNER
Subjobs returned and a decent amount of time on the clock, our reluctant group was emboldened, and we moved on to the first set of Nightmare Hornets. I was immediately struck by how useful Soboro SAM/DNC is in Dynamis - Tavnazia. Not only does it spam people's screens with bubbles, but I found myself tossing frequent Curing Waltz IIs to all 6 members of my party, landing Quickstep and Desperate Flourish, and removing annoying status effects like Slow and Blind immediately. As expected, I definitely advocate bringing SAM/DNC to places like Limbus and Dynamis - Tavnazia. It's just as useful as its JA make it seem at face value.
The first and second hornet sets dropped with ease, so we moved into their corridor and pulled an eye and its accompanying demons. Continuing the trend of "Are we really in the Hell of Dynamis - Tavnazia??" the eye dropped a 100 (Silverpiece I believe). It was a difficult pull however; eye can't be slept, loves to spam sleepga, -ga3, and lv5 Petrify, Kindred Black Mage waiting to land -ga3 or sleepga but that needs to be killed after Kindred Summoner (plus the mobs are all higher level than their D-Xarc counterparts). Due to the intricate requirements presented by eye, BLM, SMN, and avatar, Kindred Summoner was able to let loose an Astral Flow, causing our first wipe of the night.
We reraised and regrouped quickly. We pulled the demons back, and were astonished to receive my long sought after Wyrm Armet. Next we pulled a particularly lv5 Petrify-loving eye, and his Nightmare Taurus friends. With RDMs and BLMs massacred from the inconvenient petrifications, we killed the first 1-2 Taurus quickly and then gradually were killed off by the remaining 2, wiping with the 2nd to last Nightmare Taurus at an infuriating 1% health.
At this point it became clear that we would not make it to the next TE. Tale suggested we drop glass, but the general fervor of conquest persisted in the group and we insisted on taking revenge on the 2 Nightmare Taurus, perhaps taking home a nice D-Tav-specific piece of Hydra Armor for our trouble. Sure enough, on the last mob of the night, we were rewarded for our murderous intent:
With 3 minutes left, we quickly found out who could equip them and wanted them, lots were cast, everyone else passed, and congatulations Deathseaker. And then the run was over.
It may seem like we only made a tiny bit of headway into Dynamis - Tavnazia (and in fact we have gone further in the past), but the run was still a success. Before we entered, people were grumbling about wasting money and time. The general attitude changed completely as we left with a needed AF, a 100 piece, and a nice rare trophy, all in a fraction of the time it takes to storm Dynamis - Xarcabard. And of course we had fun, which is apparently important.
I'll end this mammoth entry with some ridiculous DRG fashion shots. After the run, given the proximity of Lufaise Meadows, 6 of us decided to embark on an impromptu pseudo-DRG burn party like it was 2004. Here's my newly 6/6 DRG armor. Is the resemblance coincidental? Three dragoons congregate fashionably, then put on real gear and head out to make low, nostalgic XP.
- Pahn
- Wyrm Armet - Pahn
- Hydra Sollerets - Deathseaker
Dynamis - Xarcabard
Hello. The mixed baggery continues. While happy about the AF we received, I think the picture above sums up my feelings about this run more so than the following entry shall.
For tonight's DL attempt, we had the mandatory jobs, though we were a bit underpeopled, and had what i would consider "just barely" enough DD to fell DL in the requisite 30-60 seconds. It turned out that "just barely" wasn't enough, but I'll get to that later.
Despite my moaning tone, it wasn't really a bad night. Before Dynamis, I went to Ro'Maeve with Lexi and Aldrice to help Talenar with his Black Halo WSNM. Apparently he's caught the SAM bug, so he needed to cash that quest out in order to open up Tachi: Kasha. Before the fight, I stared him down.
After crushing the Black Halo pot, we gathered in Xarcabard and organized our parties. In an effort to maximize farming and minimize the number of things that can go wrong, I chose to have as few people as possible job change before DL. This lack of overpreparing DD-wise (I could have had several BLMs and WHMs come zerg jobs, and had a MNK stay BRD when others could have taken his place) was, in my opinion, largely responsible for our loss to come. My bad.
We entered Dynamis, and as usual breezed our way throughh TE1, TE2, TE3 and its demons on into the job NMs. Duke Skox gave up his hat, then Seere his gloves, but King Zagan remains stingy with his armet. I attempted to beat the Healing Breath enhancing headpiece out of him with blows to the crotch and ass, but alas I was failed.
At some point during the run, I decided to intimidatingly stare down Armakoy as I had Talenar hours before. He persevered under my steely-eyed stare, so I had to raise the intensity. The intensity level reached maximum, and then tapered off inexplicably.
NMs down, we proceeded to the eyewall and made our way to dragons without incident. We then doubled back for pre-DL demon farming. On one of our last farming mobs, Koga Tekko finally dropped (it's been awhile), so I'm at least partially cheered up about my decision to keep our farming forces strong at the expense of DL readiness.
Then we marched up the hill to DL and our death. No one really made any grievous errors, but 3 or 4 small mistakes compounded, and before we knew it DL was walking off like "What?"
- Pahn
- Abyss Burgeonet - Drecan
- Cleric's Mitts - Vite
- Koga Tekko - Imbria
Dynamis - Buburimu
Hello. As usual, Dynamis - Buburimu's harvest was bountiful, with many exotic AF drops and a nice payout for the few people who didn't go AF.
We began the run immediately finding ???, which was nice. Things quickly became a bit less orderly as we scattered to find various dragons and communicated rather poorly. This resulted in no problems but for maybe a couple minutes lost. Once all the necessary mobs were found and pulled, we rolled lazily through Apocalyptic Beast and onto the endless sea of Nightmare Crabs.
After getting -1 WHM and Wyrm Belt (which is a nice piece for jumps at least), we got a rather statistically improbable 2 -1 Koga Tekko in pool at the same time. We then moved on to the highly evasive Nightmare Ravens, then onto Nightmare Dhalmel, the latter of which were generous enough to give us Abyss Cape (another useful relic). We ended the run going west and hunting the difficult to pull Nightmare Efts, and the "Is it possible to fight these without someone making a Monty Python joke?" Nightmare Bunnies (who really are quite hellish). The former gave up our last relic of the night, Valor Cape, which is another "Why aren't all AF2/relic/whatever-you-prefer-to-call-them this useful?" piece.
Speaking of Valor Cape, I brought that equip forth from the abyss through the strength of Galka Treasure Hunter, which I informed disinterested LS members at the time is like normal TH only it works.
I had a bit of a headache during the run, so I didn't get too many candid action shots of weird humanoids battling monsters. I did manage to catch 2 somewhat interesting views of myself however. In the first, I'm caught in a lunge that illustrates the plainly impractical nature of standing next to about 10 guys and swinging a giant sword around with reckless abandon. In the second, I express my boredom with Dynamis - Buburimu by trying to fly away.
On Sunday we return to Dynamis - Xarcabard. If King Zagan does not drop my Wyrm Armet, I will break the pearls of 3 random members.
- Pahn
- Cleric's Mitts -1 - Heep
- Wyrm Belt - Guifroge
- Koga Tekko -1 - Armakoy
- Koga Tekko -1 - Asurei
- Abyss Cape - Rubicante
- Valor Cape - Cyl
Dynamis - San d'Oria
Hello. Tonight's Dynamis - San d'Oria was, like last week's Dynamis - Xarcabard, another mixed bag. This time, we managed to put in a rather sorry effort, for which we were rewarded with great drops.
The run was sponsored by Lonekent, and he apparently picked the right run to sponser, because we got 4 100s. Of these 4, 2 of them dropped within seconds of each other. I thought that they had dropped off the same mob, but as the keen-eyed observer will notice, they did not. While I recognize that this barely merits a spot on the front page, I've already cropped the image and this entry is rather short, so for your viewing pleasure:
Along with paying off Lonekent 3-4fold, we got a large amount of needed AF as well. Our Melee Hose dry spell not only ended, but yielded enough kick pants to go free lot. It was a lucky night.
And a messy night. We died a lot more than there was any excuse for. We still won of course, but we didn't come close to clearing (Dynamis - San d'Oria should always be cleared, even if only 25 people show). We experienced so much death that by the end, Talenar and I surreally transitioned from furious to detachedly discussing music taste with everyone over /l. I'm sure this transition was partially enabled (at least for me) by the unfortunate mention of Brokeback Mountain, which led my thoughts to the Ang Lee film Hulk. The mere thought of Hulk puts me in a state of fury that cannot be approached even by 2 Astral Flows going off in a row. Admittedly, such mistakes come close, but I really hate Hulk.
On the bright side, our wipe as we first passed the Auction House on the way to NIN Alley did provide me with a nice epeen rush, as I got to solo an Orc. Here's a picture, with silly "Hey look at me" damage included. Talenar stole my thunder a bit by firing a Mercy Stroke in between Gekko an Kasha, precluding what would have been a rather massive 3-way Light skillchain. Needed to get that Treasure Hunter debuff up so we could get another Relic Bhuj. Oh well.
Despite the sloppiness, I can't say I'm disappointed with the run. We got what we came for and then some, which is more than we can say of some runs. Hopefully Dynamis - Buburimu will be equally generous.
- Pahn
- Melee Hose - Effluo
- Valor Gauntlets - Seydlitz
- Warrior's Calligae - Birdofprey
- Melee Hose - Meliae
- Cleric's Cap - Jeffreestar
- Summoner's Pigaches - Zozandy
- Wyrm Greaves - Erik
- Valor Gauntlets - Sturm
- Melee Hose - Sturm
- Wyrm Greaves - Asurei
- Cleric's Cap - Legaci
- Monster Trousers - Caocao
Dynamis - Xarcabard
Hello. Tonight's Dynamis - Xarcabard saw a strange mix of good and bad luck, and good and bad effort from our members.
On the one hand, we were unlucky in that we got 0 AF. 5 or 6 pre-NM pulls, each job NM, "death wall" pull, and several stray pulls after we killed Ying and Yang, yet not a single AF drop (not even BRD, which we seem to get every D-Xarcabard!). On the other hand, we got a 100 off one of the job NMs, Count Zaebos (very rare), and both mantle and ring from Dynamis Lord (probably not that rare, but the first full-drop DL we've had since first beating him over a year ago). I'd say these two balance out, but I'd also say that my damn Wyrm Armet needs to drop already.
The aforementioned split of good and bad effort from our members was much more lopsided, happily in favor of good effort. The bad aspect was simply that we were slightly underpeopled, and I wish more people had shown up (38 people is, as evidenced by tonight, adequate to win D-Xarcabard, but we have enough active members that we should see a better turnout than that). The good aspect was very good, with smooth, efficient pulling, killing, healing (and raising) throughout the run. The night was capped off by a flawless Dynamis Lord fight, during which no member even came close to dying. While my hatred for King Zagan grows with every visit to Northlands from which I return without a Wyrm Armet, I must say that I was pleased with our group tonight.
Due to the overwhelmingly positive response I receieved to my last two updates (which included a picture of a treasure pool), I've decided to liven this update up with some pictures as well. By the way, I imagined the overwhelmingly positive response.
Here we are clumped together in the unmistakable pre-Dynamis Lord "/l EVERYONE STAND EXACTLY ON ME DAMNIT" formation. The other melees look like an extension of my powerful Galkan body, don't you think?
And here is the result of such tight organization. Notice that 17/18 of us are in white HP, 1/18 just barely in the yellow, and Zilo is walking off like, "What?"
As we waited for the final few minutes on the glass to run down, Serpentus and I posed for a picture as usurpers in DL's home. I suppose this is sort of analogous to sending a picture of yourself and your lover in bed to your lover's spouse.
Finally, I took a nice sentimental Hydracorps shot while we were waiting for one of the NM pulls. Incidentally, I was by this time rather drunk.
- Pahn
- Shadow Mantle - Slauter
- Shadow Ring - Leciant
Dynamis - Windurst
Hello. Another adventure in the slums of Dynamis - Windurst.
Predictably, it was business as usual in Dynamis - Windurst. I at first intended to placate Talenar and various WHMs by coming MNK/NIN to counter those yagudos' infernal Sweep, but was put off this idea when my more or less static WHM Spanky told us that he wanted to die repeatedly tonight. So, I switched to MNK/WAR, and enjoyed the steady repetition of "engage, wait for stun, engage, WS, die, rest weakness, repeat". Eating Eagle Eye Shot and Hundred Fists grew a bit tiresome. Other melees need to be less shy around these mobs. Selfishly letting others die every MNK and RNG is not exactly a winning or welcome practice.
Catty melee talk out of the way, the run was, for the most part, smooth. We finished a decent amount of pulls short of clearing, but managed to rack up a staggering 20 pieces of AF (our record is something like 24 in Basty). Here, I will liven up the appearance of our modest front page with a picture of 5 AF in pool at once!
Notice, of course, it's not a Hydracorps multi-AF screenshot without at least 2 pieces of BST AF.
Despite a strange wipe or two, there isn't much to say about the strategy or execution of last night's run. Aldrice is continuing to practice pulling while Talenar enjoys his new spot in the "Just as filthy-mouthed but perhaps a bit more non sequitur" alliance. Our targeters, pull path, and all other strategic elements remain the same. I would talk about that at greater length, but I'm not going to.
Well, all same old same old with one exception. Allister had a bit of an accident at the tower. I waved. I waved again.
So ends another installment of the epic story of Hydracorps. Dream of this.
- Pahn
- Warrior's Mask - Legaci
- Sorcerer's Gloves - Dangelo
- Scout's Bracers - Naafeih
- Abyss Gauntlets - Drecan
- Warrior's Mask - Vite
- Abyss Gauntlets - Aldrice
- Valor Leggings - Nitadar
- Monster Helm - Ergoth
- Summoner's Spats - Ergoth
- Valor Leggings - Lexi
- Abyss Gauntlets - Seydlitz
- Saotome Haidate - Allister
- Sorcerer's Gloves - Ergoth
- Saotome Haidate - Imbria
- Cleric's Duckbills - Jeffreestar
- Monster Helm - Blackphantom
- Assassin's Bonnet - Blackphantom
- Monster Helm - Caocao
- Cleric's Duckbills - Melantra
- Abyss Gauntlets - Rubicante
Dynamis - Qufim
Hello. Only a week behind in updating! I’ll pretend that I wrote and posted this immediately after our triumphant visit to Dynamis – Qufim.
As mentioned in the above somewhat self-defeating paragraph, our recent visit to Dynamis – Qufim was triumphant. While we weren’t without death of course, we were without aggro and managed to maintain a solid focus the entire time. I was especially proud of our performance against Antaeus, the gigas boss of the zone. Our kill speed was slightly lacking (mild DD turnout), and Antaeus managed to outlive CS Stun by at least a minute or two. I was impressed by the continued support of our remaining stunners and healers—the transition between CS Stun to normal stun was basically seamless. About half of us were face down by the end, but I still thought it was impressive.
The rest of our Qufim run went just as smoothly. Tylas’ Melee Cape dropped early, followed by a steady procession of -1 AF. We continued our preference of going south toward through snolls toward raptors, rather than our old suicidal tradition of manta and tigers (see our path, here and here). The Nighmare Weapons acted strangely. They refused to link for the first 5 pulls or so, then once we were used to fighting one at a time, they decided to come altogether in a pack of 10-15. I thought it was funny.
As usual in CoP, no 100s, but 4 AF isn't bad. And this entry is over.
- Pahn
- Melee Cape - Tylas
- Monster Gaiters -1 - Zilo
- Sorcerer's Sabots -1 - Tzimisce
- Saotome Sune-ate -1 - Pahn
Dynamis - Beaucedine
Hello. As usual, Superbowl Sunday Dynamis yielded a low turnout. We got pretty good drops for a low-person northlands run (NIN, PLD, and 2 100s). Superbowl distraction (amongst other things) made for a rather unfocused time, resulting in us failing to defeat the infamous Angra Mainyu (we didn't have time to pull the dragons away). Even 5 minutes more time would have yielded a win, which is either reassuring about our understaffed performance, or infuriating, depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist (guess which one I am).
While losses are always disappointing, the run at least proved that an ls is never too old to learn new things or improve. Our performance in Glacier caused Talenar to opine (and me to agree) that we need to focus on having more DRK-capable members come DRK to perform much needed stuns on various mobs while BLMs are otherwise engaged. Despite my general negativity, I appreciate anything that pushes us toward maximizing efficiency, so I'm pleased that this run, at least, brought this insight to light. Dynamis obviously requires many different people performing many different tasks, and when some fail to be performed, it shows. Let this rambling paragraph be a lesson to you--nay, to us all!
Next run is Dynamis - Qufim, which is enjoyable when it goes well. I'm crossing my fingers that Snoll aggro is kept to a minimum, lest I bash a hole through my wall with my face. Lots of members want CoP AF, so I'm hoping for maximum farming time, and of course maximum drops. Doesn't-really-do-anything Treasure Hunter, don't fail us now! And I'm done.
- Pahn
- Koga Chainmail - Vulcan
- Valor Breeches - Seydlitz
Dynamis - San d'Oria
Hello. Tonight's Dynamis - San d'Oria saw a healthy turnout of about 50 people. Accordingly, mobs (and players) died fast. Targeting at a frenetic pace is always a good way to avoid falling asleep or going crazy and yelling at someone for no reason at all.
While AF drops were good (as shown below), our THFs apparently forgot to set their Treasure Hunter to 100. This run was sponsored by Kallstrom (his last sponsored run, having finished Spharai awhile ago), and his luck with sponsored runs remains bad. We got 0 100s, but about 400~ singles. We got a healthy smattering of PLD and NIN, but the very-useful-for-people-without-b.haidate and pretty-nice-for-MNK/DRG-jump-macros Melee Hose continue to elude us. We've gotten several over the years, of course, but unfortunately there's been a dry spell as of late. BST dropped of course.
The run got a bit ragged near the end, with my party especially incurring many deaths (mostly in virtue of my distracted, immediately-engage targeting and Imbria's DRG-ish love of suicide). We exited a few pulls short of clearing.
At one point during our time in the Chocobo Stables, BLMs and a few melee managed to get charmed while I was targeting some NQ orc out of range. I briefly considered targeting Leciant, but for some reason hesitated, and before I knew it, the NM had fallen and Leciant decharmed. Verily, I will regret this until the day I die, and I attribute this entry's muted, unenthusiastic tone to this shameful mistake.
We return to my favorite zone, Dynamis - Beaucedine, on Sunday. So, expect the intensity level of the next installment of this pseudo-blog to be like that you have never experienced. I'm now going to upload this and then rewatch the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I suggest you do the same. Broadcast order only please.
- Pahn
- Koga Hakama - Stodya
- Wyrm Greaves - Tyr
- Duelist's Boots - Naafeih
- Scout's Braccae - Vulcan
- Monster Trousers - Guifroge
- Valor Gauntlets - Tyr
- Valor Gauntlets - Spanky
- Koga Hakama - Arutha
- Warrior's Calligae - Legaci
- Summoner's Pigaches - Nitadar
- Koga Hakama - Asurei
Dynamis - Beaucedine
Hello once again. Hopefully this second update of mine will give all of you loyal readers hope that this page will remain continually updated (preferably with comments about whether or not the site/blog is being updated, because the internet does not have enough blogs with such content). Yes, I am writing this a mere five minutes after the Dynamis – Xarcabard update below, but do not let that diminish the hope of which I spoke so few sentences ago.
Today’s Dynamis – Beaucedine was very much business as usual, though with somewhat less attendance and more inappropriate /l banter. Due to our low numbers, we began with a more or less constant cycle of death and raising that continued for most of the run (my MNK/DRG lost a respectable 3000 XP from r3 only). I'm not sure what caused us to only have a turn out of 38 or so tonight, but at the same time I really don't care.
We began with an early BST drop, obviously portending great things to come. Being a test run, we ran the endlessly repetitive path through this, far and away the most yawn-inducing of Dynamis zones, to the Hydras near the Xarcabard zone. There, we gave our 6-member assassin team a sendoff consisting of several uninvited Vanguard Eyes and bizarrely-geared Fomors.
The tension caused by mass death was gradually alleviated by a few middling AF drops, and the inevitable levity of Lexi’s severely inappropriate /l mts. Despite the ragged state of our HP and MP, we progressed making fine time, and easily defeated the hilariously named Goublefaupe, and later Velosareon. I think Velosareon’s name sounds vaguely like something a young boy or girl would pilot in a late 70s, early 80s anime space opera series. I’m sure this is interesting to you.
Alas, Goublefaupe once again refused to hand over Lonekent’s long awaited Attestation of Glory, rather dropping what is probably our 5th or 6th unwanted Great Sword test. Velosareon similarly withheld Tylas’ Attestation of Decisiveness. While in the past we have convinced Velosareon to hand over the great katana test to my friend Baudelaire, we have yet to see a sword test from Goublefaupe after years of trying. I’d like to explain this with some kind of joke relating to Goublefaupe’s name, but I imagine I’m the only one that finds the name funny anyway (also, I can’t think of anything).
We closed out the run with strained references to Harry Potter, getting lost, killing mobs, passing currency, etc. Our payout was nice for a run with no 100 drops, and no one went crazy and got /breaklinkshell. In closing, I hate Dynamis – Beaucedine.
- Pahn
- Monster Gaiters - Tylas
- Abyss Cuirass - Rubicante
- Assassin's Culotte - Blackphantom
Dynamis - Xarcabard
Hello Hydracorps members, prospective members, and disinterested Hydracorps fans. I am Pahn, one of the leaders of Hydracorps, and the newly appointed maintainer of this beautiful front page of our helpful, user-friendly site. From now on, I shall be reporting on each of our runs, listing our drops and giving riveting commentary (the two updates below this were written by Talenar, who made this site, and who likely doesn't enjoy rambling and then engaging in outrageous self-congratulation as much as I do). The point of this is to avoid letting our main page stagnate, to entertain anyone who is so bored at work that they would read the musings of someone who is more often than not drunk while in dynamis, and to record for posterity the incredibly important doings of our fair linkshell. It is only a matter of time until I make some coding mistake that destroys the entire site, so I hope that you, dear reader, will stick around for that.
So, getting right to it, today’s was a very special Dynamis – Xarcabard (not that we don’t treasure all of our time amongst the monotonous snowflakes). Instead of felling Dynamis Lord, or spamming /l with caps lock after failing to fell Dynamis Lord, we revisited our old friend, Animated Dagger. As a result… congratulations Aldrice on Mandau! That marks our fifth in-house relic, along with Talenar’s Mandau, Leciant’s Claustrum, Kallstrom’s Spharai, and Deathseaker’s Aegis. After the run, I followed Aldrice to The Sanctuary of Zi’Tah for the victory party, pictures of which can be found in the Graphic Archive section of our public forums (once Lexi posts them. Or I suppose I could do it).
The run was an all around success, or at least I think it was. I don’t remember yelling, or storming away from my laptop to have a cigarette, which really doesn’t indicate anything at all. And so ends this startling amazing entry.
- Pahn
- Scout's Jerkin - Zilo
- Cleric's Mitts - Armakoy
- Assassin's Armlets - Redfrost
- Ornate Fragment - Aldrice
Dynamis - Xarcabard
For our lone Xarcabard run this month, we took a trip to visit our buddy Dynamis Lord. Normally, he talks some trash, kicks us around, and leaves us wondering what the license plate number on his sword was.
Today was different.
Dynamis Lord went down, fast and hard. Nobody died. Nobody. Duke Gomory took more people out than Dynamis Lord did. Prince Seere took out more. Really. Just sad. No shadow items dropped, sadly. Did get MNK, BRD, WHM, WAR, and DRK AF drops, as well as 2 100s.
Dynamis - Beaucedine
Another day, another attestation run. Tonight's run was free, courtesy Benz. Attestation NMs went pretty uneventful aside from the aggro on Mildaunegeux. One thing we've learned is that if there is a God, he is getting revenge for all the "loldrg" jokes. We had 6 attestations drop, but sadly 3 (polearm, great axe, and bow) went freelot.
- Warrior's Cuisses - Repta
- Sorcerer's Coat - Tzimiscme
- Wyrm Mail - Mithral
- Wyrm Mail - Jinxsta
- Attestation of Legerity - Benz (guest)
- Attestation of Harmony - Ivaden
- Attestation of Invulnerability - Wolfraban