Genkai 3 Complete!

And I did it solo... as WAR/THF. This is probably my proudest moment in the game so far, just short of what I felt when I hit 60. I know it might seem like, meh, no biggie to a mage with Powder Boots for {Flee}, but I did it the hard way, and won. Garrrrr!

It didn't go without some mishaps, but overall ... ah who cares, I did LB3! Woohoo!

Anyway, here's how it went if you're curious. I loaded up on Prism Powders, equipped a Warp Cudgel, brought my Scroll of Instant Reraise, and headed out.

First I decided to map out the path to each code statue, checking mobs along the way to see where I would start to need powders (the walkthroughs and ffxi-atlas maps don't show you where things start to get messy). I'm glad I did this, because after checking all 3 code statue paths, the path for code #2 seemed to not be worth the time and effort if I was indeed going to solo this within the 24-hour time limit. Too many EP mobs on the way there and around the outside of the door and the statue itself. Secondly, I decided I would indeed need the switch combination, unlike what the Alla walkthrough indicated. You can't just stand there flipping switches until you get it right, because there are two EP mobs right there just waiting to rip you a new one... stupid walkthrough. Anyway, getting the combo would be easy since I wouldn't need to drop invis. Good.

So I had my plan - starting at 0:00 Get code #1, Flee as much as possible, run to code #3, run to the gate combo, run to the brass gate, throw switches, run through 'leech area', go to whichever torch in the 4-torch room (all equidistant), {Flee} to trap door.

It mostly went as planned. But there were glitches... Number 1: I had a stroke of bad luck and hit the wrong switch on the first door out of the first zone and got dropped into that little dungeon. So that took 4 hours off of the counter. Got the gate combo without any problems. The code #3 statue, by some stroke of luck, had just been hit by a party or something, because no mobs were guarding it (a little yin, a little yang). That's two less prism powders to eat, good. Ran to the gate and fortunately the combination was only off by a couple of switches. This is where I acted weird (hey... stress) and made a mistake that cost me a bit of EXP later. I decided I might need to take on the 2 EP mobs hanging by the switches and I called Khuma... then I changed my mind and decided I would only engage them if I were spotted. I successfully threw the switches and got Invis back up in time. But I noticed, as we made our way to the 'leech area' that Khuma's buffs, namely Haste, interfered with my powder timer (causing a misfire). I brushed it off as a fluke.

We made it to the 4-torch room and I arbitrarily chose the Southeast torch, loosely guarded by a couple of mobs. I managed to hit the torch without agro and hit my Invis macro, and Flee macro a second after that... not realizing that Khuma had cast Haste on me right before I used the powder. So, unbeknownst to me, I was {Flee}ing like a lunatic in plain sight of all mobs in the room... who of course caught up to me at the trap door and wiped me out pretty quickly. I waited for the despawn and used Reraise (hooray for planning!), and there I was in a nice empty room with the code entry statue in front of me.

Clock was at 15:00 or 16:00 so I had some time to guess the 2nd password and dropped to the final stretch. I took a picture of what was in my perception, as my heart thudded in my throat, the longest passage I had ever seen, with the Yagudo High Priest at the very end of it, just waiting for me to screw up. "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

He wasn't wandering too far away from the ???, so I stayed back until he was at least turned away, and not moving... and ran up that pesky sideways ramp, dropped invis, hit the crest, and warped the hell out. I got aggro a couple of seconds after getting the crest, but the HP lost was only around 300 before the warp took.

Looking back, I know I'll never use the NPC in cases where using a consumable quickly is important, and targeting stuff quickly is equally important (since she sorta gets in the way... no offense, Khuma). And I'll also know that nothing is absolutely unfeasible if I'm stubborn enough to form a plan , follow through, and keep trying when things get ugly. Of course EXP has to be a little expendable in these cases, but... there's lots of EXP out there waiting. I can get it back.

Addendum: Special thanks to Tsakiki for her advice and forewarnings about the difficulties in the quest (ones not described very well in any of the walkthroughs). I would have gone into this much too brashly if she hadn't offered her helpful comment. Thanks again.