I've been indefinitely putting off the last piece of my AF, the Fighter's Cuisses, because I didn't have fond memories of Castle Zvahl Baileys from the Rank 6 mission and I didn't think help would be too forthcoming from the LS anytime soon (heck, I wouldn't volunteer for it).
As soon as I logged into Whitegate, someone was shouting for assistance with a Samurai Testimony drop in Zvahl and was proposing that people come along for their coffer keys. Ding! We went out as a party of three: me, a Paladin, and the Samurai. A key dropped on the very first Blood Demon we killed, but I lost the lot. We got separated when making our way to the next 'hole' when I dropped onto the wrong platform, so they told me to climb back up & wait. The next demon they killed dropped another key, which I of course lotted and acquired. Unfortunately they pulled a link on the next demon, and the Paladin died... however the Samurai solo'd the remaining mob (the other one had thankfully despawned) and got his Testimony to drop.
The Paladin got a Raise 3 and all was right with the world again. All three of us got our items with a total of 4 mobs killed, and it took us less than 30 minutes. Pretty amazing luck...
I got unexpected agro from one of the eyes (apparently these detect by sound and sight? doh!) so I had to warp out and didn't get a chance to look for the coffer. No one in the party wanted to search for it anyway. But I'll certainly go back tomorrow night and solo it. I'm quite a bit more familiar with the zone now and how to access the platforms that lead to the central coffer spawns so, barring any stupid mistakes, it should go well.
So there I was at 11PM with nothing to do and the SAM had an hour or so to spare, so he put a party together. We tried Marids/Chigoes at first in Bhaflau Thickets, which was a disaster even when targetting the Chigoes quickly. Party wiped twice before we ignored the JP Red Mage's advice (he was dead set on the Chigoes and kept calling the Ninja tank 'baka' -_-) and chose a different camp based on my own perusal of Campsitarus. At this point I was the leader, since the SAM had brought in a DRG replacement. People had enough of Deathga (and the hour or so wasted) so there wasn't much debate about my choice: Den of Rancor, Tormentors.
It was a gamble, since the camp only supports one party and it was difficult to tell if people were in the zone for EXP or for the ZMs. But we ended up being the only party at the campsite. After the first few pulls and noticing the mob's +EVA TP move, it became clear that we needed to get a skillchain going if we were ever to hit chain 5. I set up a quick & dirty Skewer + Rampage = Distortion with the Dragoon, and the Black Mage knew what to do. We were set.
By 2 AM, people were getting sleepy, so we stopped at around 8500 EXP and called it a night.
I love nights when I can actually log off with a sense of accomplishment.
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