03.18.08
Playing with Gnats
Yesterday’s escort was the Windurstian escort, so that meant we had to help the npc (non-playable character) get through Garliage Citadel. This escort is usually the one that no one does because it requires at least 4 people to get through the first banishing gate. I don’t know why it’s called a banishing gate. There are 4 “platforms” that need to be weighted down before the gate opens. Each platform only needs one character to weight it down, however they are placed in separate areas. So only a group of 4 people can “weight down” all 4 platforms at once to open the gate.
Sounds easy? Well, maybe initially… Until you add aggressive monsters that will attack your character if:
1. They see you.
2. They hear you.
3. Your character is low-leveled enough. (Example: level 32) Luckily if you’re already level 75, you won’t be attacked by these monsters because they’ll check as too weak to be worthwhile.
4. You happen to cast magic around a monster that will attack you for uh… Casting magic. (Aka bombs, magic pots, and dolls.)
Not to mention that there are holes in the ground in which you can fall down and areas that are completely blocked off by said holes! Hey, Garliage Citadel was a war zone about 20-50 Vana’diel years in the past! They haven’t had time (or money) to repair it, I bet. Amazing those gates still work reliably. @_@
Ahem. Anyway, cooking dinner cut into the beginning of escort, so Aslann had my character /follow his character around while I cooked. I used my white mage melee macro set to cast spells since those, for the most part, don’t involve me changing my gear while casting spells. So, I could cast spells when Aslann was standing still and still follow him. Didn’t know you could do that, but it makes perfect sense! :D
Next, we prepared to go fight the NM (notorious monster) gnat (Bloodlapper) which has a chance of dropping vicious mufflers for black mage, dark knight, and scholar. You need to farm some gnat pellets ahead of time from Yagudo Nokizaru (a ninja-type), Yagudo Yojimbo (a samurai-type), and Yagudo Superior (a summoner-type) before you can trade the pellets to the appropriate ??? target in Meriphataud Mountains [S]. Our tank found out the hard way that even regular gnats check very tough to 75s and and just plain suck in general:
The fight itself against the Bloodlapper isn’t really that hard, though you need to watch out for the gnat’s Drain spell (can drain a massive amount of hit points) and for the gnat’s “2-hour” ability, Blood Weapon. Our tank almost died on the first run because of that stupid thing. XD The gnat also casts Virus on random people and has a move that gives AoE (area of effect) Burn and Choke. I’m not sure if I just happen to get burned and choked or if that same move just randomly choses two of the black mage enfeeble spells. I think that AoE move is blinkable though, since I see it taking shadows. o_O
Most of it takes preparation and waiting for the ??? target to re-appear about 15 minutes after the fight. We had 5 pop items on us from yesterday’s farming session (which was more like a lazy style merit party with 7 people, heh). Unfortunately, the gloves are not a guaranteed drop; you may not get them each time you kill the Bloodlapper. Luckily, we asked Aslann to bring his thief for his TH3 (Treasure Hunter 3). :D
We had 9 people join us: a paladin subbing warrior (Finduilas), 2 monks subbing ninja (Kayanna, Shinlong), a thief subbing ninja (Aslann), a warrior subbing ninja (Fogoazul), 2 black mages (Flemming and Talin), a summoner subbing white mage (Shuzer), and me (a white mage subbing summoner). All jobs were around 74 to 75. I think we had more than enough people to kill the gnat, but it is fun to hang out with linkshell members. :)
Another party came to the same spot right after we killed the our first Bloodlapper. They also needed the gloves. o_O; Well, after that party watched us kill the second Bloodlapper with relative ease, (relative ease being accidentally having another gnat attack us in the middle of the fight, argh) they asked if they can join us. They had a smaller party than us (about 5 people?) and most of them left once they joined up. Only 2 people, both black mages, stayed. (I guess they were the ones who really needed the gloves.) The fights became even shorter since 2 skillchains (fragmentation and darkness) + 4 black mages = one dead Bloodlapper pretty damn fast. Lol.
The good news is that everyone who wanted the gloves got them. Yes, even the two that joined us. I think we had a total of 7 pop items between us and the 2 people that joined us. We got a total of 4 gloves out of the 7 pop items, so that was pretty nice. Congratulations to Flemming, Talin, Huruku, and Pompeii for getting your zenith mitts replacements! :D