Close call.

Instead of a long rambling diatribe with little relevance and even less coherence, lets instead focus today on in game happenings. Last night we did an Omega, and I have to admit it was ugly. We were a little light on healing and we tried out a semi-new strategy that worked to strain that mp, so we had to run all the way to the end to get the win, but the win we did get. I, sadly, wasn't able to get a screen shot of Jess who got Omega's Tail for the Homam feet, or Sholo who got Omega's Hind Leg for Homam Legs, but I did get a shot of Tco's new Homam Body! We have gotten 2 two Homam bodies in about 6 Omega's, but I hope more drop soon for those that need them. We have a good number of THF, DRG, DRK, PLD and BLU that need the gear so the more often that get to do Omega the better.

In other news, I managed to get 65 on MNK. I did part of this soloish before Limbus on Puks (I got something like 615 on one of them) when a nice string of mobs came strolling through. At first I saw several Scout Puks coming at me, and I thought to myself, "OH MY GOD! THOSE SHOULDN'T LINK!" and then I realized that I was fine and went back to killing a few of the Puks, then after Limbus I was in a 65-67 party when I was still 64 but I was doing OK damage when I wasn't in a constant start of not being able to WS from Abrasive Tantra. I have heard several people suggest that it is a elemental based ability, because some summons resist it greatly, which means that it is based on some kind of skill and being level 64 in the mire my defensive skill had to be much lower than their offensive skill, and I was left in a state of constantly punching the mob, which actually isn't that bad for a MNK, but it was annoying when almost every time I was using my string of MNK buffs, which actually is pretty important to me and let me explain that after going to grab my lunch.

Ok, now the way that I use my buffs on MNK is to use them all at one time. Now, people might think that is inefficient but I do it for a particular reason, and that is that I usually am pretty bad at noticing when I should put up buffs when I am XPing because I am usually much more engaged in looking at the HP of the current mob, looking for the next mob and what other people are doing. So to fix this with my other jobs, I just put the buffs in between my equipment switch for WS and the WS macros, which means that I will always put up my buffs before the WS if they are up. The problem with MNK is that there are more buffs than would be reasonable to use between the equipment switch and the WS macro, so instead I use Counterstance as the way to know when my buffs are ready again. When Counterstance goes down, I use all of my buffs again, which means that I am using them pretty efficiently. The problem comes when I am hit with Amnesia in the middle of doing my buffs, which totally screws up my buff cycle. Ahh well, the best laid plans... anyway, if anyone has a better suggestion for how to do these buffs I would love to here them. Right now I have all of these buffs on independent macros, but I am thinking that I might put them together into offensive and defensive macros. Offensive would put up Focus and Berserk while Defensive would put up Counterstance and Dodge. Once I get to a level where I am going to be doing enough damage to pull hate consistantly and I have to use sub NIN all the time the Offensive macro wont matter as much, but I have noticed that when you use a macro on an ability that isn't up it can prevent you from starting a new macro, so I made cancel the extra macro lines on Berserk with an extra "/" on the wait and Berserk line. Once I get a chance to burn on my MNK I will put some more thought into it.

If you remember from Monday and my little encounter with the normal players XPing with those RMT's, well here is another one of them in a normal party, proving that they are just a jerkbone that didn't care about what they were doing and was willing to XP with RMT. I hate people like that, they are the kind of people that buy gil and the kind of people that ruin the game because they don't care about how their actions effect other people. You can see these kind of people all the time in real life too (and to me these are the kind of no-brained people that ruin other people's real lives also), and they just suck down my will to live at times.

Second update, still more MNK talk to come.

Now I have said that MNK is a rather easy job to equip and I have yet to do a review of my MNK gear as it stands right now. Lets just say that its pretty standard right now, with very little variation between TP build and WS equipment sets. Here is the run down:

Main: Tactician Magician Hooks +1 (I would love Cross Counters, and I may consider getting them for end-game even with other options because of the solo use they will have.)
Ranged: Tiphia Sting
Head: Emperor Hairpin
Neck: Chivalrous Chain
Earring1: Mermaids Earring
Earring2: Coral Earring
Body: Scorpion Harness
Hands: Ochiudo's Kote
Ring1: Ulthalam's Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring (WS: Sniper's Ring)
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Brown Belt (WS: Life Belt)
Legs: Temple Hose
Feet: Windurstian Kyahan

There are some gimpy things in there, like the head, legs and feet, but honestly what better is there for MNK for head and legs? For feet yes there are better, like Kung-Fu Shoes, etc., but I really can't be bothered to get items for a job that I am leveling that aren't very cheap or very useful. I don't level jobs like other people. I can't stand around with my flag up and worry about how I parse at level 65. I am always looking forward, and considering what comes next and what I will need for end-game. Lets look at the progression for gear for each of those slots.

Main: Tactician Magician's Hooks +1 >> Wagh Baghnakhs >> Destroyers. Alternatives that I don't have and probably wont get any time soon are Avengers and Hades Santi. Avengers because we probably wont be doing another Bomb Queen run any time soon, and Hades Santi because the cost is prohibitive.
Ranged: Tiphia Sting, no change.
Head: Emperor Hairpin >> Optical Hat >> Walahra Turban. Alternatives are much more expansive for the head slot but also underwhelming, including Pahluwan Qalansuwa, Panther Mask (and it looks cool!), Rasetsu Jinpachi, and Brigand's Mask. For WS's I will use Shura Zunari Kabuto when I can equip it.
Neck: Chivalrous Chain for TP and also for WS until Soil Gorget.
Earrings: Merman's and Coral seem fine. I might also use Minuet for the Accuracy.
Body: Scorpion Harness >> Pahluwan Khazagand >> Shura Togi than at 75 Kirin's Osode becomes an option depending on the event.
Hands: Ochiudo's Kote >> Melee Gloves which I don't have yet, but I am start Dynamis again so I might be able to get them.
Ring1: Ulthalam's Ring
Ring2: Rajas Ring (WS: Sniper's Ring)
Back: Amemet Mantle +1
Waist: Brown Belt (WS: Life Belt)
Legs: Temple Hose >> Pahluwan Seraweels >> Shura Haidate >> Byakko's Haidate, with Shura Haidate for WS.
Feet: Windurstian Kyahan >> Dune Boots and then maybe Fuma Sune-ate depending on the situation. For WS the discussion is more difficult because there are so few options, I guess I could get a pair of Pahluwan Crackows for the Accuracy or maybe some Rasetsu Sune-Ate for the Attack. Some Denali Gamashes would be great but with my focus on Assault and Salvage at this point I don't think Nyzul Isle is much of an option.

Now of course if we could ever get something to drop from Salvage that would change up some of the ideas that I have for TP and WS options but I am not going to worry about that until it happens.

That really is it for today, see you tomorrow.