Artifact Tails

I always loved how interesting Mithra look with their armor, and how creative the tails look when they come out of the armor. Yes, I'm a cat lover, so I am very partial to tails. I remember the first time I got a new artifact armor, how dissapointed I was that it just came out. I mean the Iron Curass that is worn by Jeuno guards has little tail guards that are the cutest thing!

Anyway, I wanted to write a short article about Artifacts; not a complete one, but about the Artifacts that I have obtained. And blogger makes me look good, and will let me take pictures too. Who knows.. maybe people will find this useful instead of long winded.. hehe.. naw.. not way I could be anything but long winded.

The first place to start with Artifact Quests is to say what is common to everything. Understand, this doesn't count for the three new jobs -- Corsair, Blue Mage, and Puppet Master -- who have their own rules. This is for all the jobs from the start to Rise of Zillart. But even then, the reason for the artifact quests are to give people FREE and (hopefully) useful artifact equipment to use. There are many arguments about what is better than what...and heck... some of them might be right. But its free, useful in some level and worth getting. If nothing else but for the nifty title.




The first step in EVERY quest is at level 40 to obtain the artifact weapon. Each job has a different weapon, and each one is different levels. The ninja and bard weapons are level 40 weapons (making them very good BCNM equipment), but the Dark Knight weapon is 43. Even if you cannot equip the weapon, you can still obtain the quest once you reach level 40. No matter what, you must complete this quest BEFORE you start your Artifact Armor quests.

The next step does not start until level 50, when you can first obtain the new set of cut scenes. The important part to remember is that to FLAG a quest, you MUST be the job that you are doing the quest to get. This only applies to quests. The first step is to talk to the "Big Red Galka" in Upper Jeuno.

(sorry, my first time ever doing 3-3 mission, I couldn't enter the BCNM because I failed to speak to a "Big Galka wearing Red" in bastok. That became to symbolize to me the one last thing I forgot to do before some event)

This Galka (Guslam inside the armor shop) will tell you about "the best guantlets" were made by the legendary man named Borghertz. (He must have been amazing since he does the same thing for every job and spreads them all over creationg). He then says that he heard rumors that they were seen inside some dungeon some place, and names the place. The place itself depends on the job, but it translates into "Coffer Hunt" (I'll go into that later). The only difference is that you get the key item "some old guantlets" and you return to Guslam. He will then tell you that he could never repair them, and only the Great Borghertz can fix them.

So how do you find this man; well, he's dead now. But he haunts his old tool box. If you goto Port Jeuno, and head to the Auction House, next to the "Duty Free" shop (love that name) you will find a tool box with a ??? on it. However, you first need to be told by an NPC Yin Pocanakhu in the Tenshodo shop of Lower Jeuno before you can really "know" its there. Yin will require 1000 gil for this information, except you only have to pay this once (which gets inportant after your 3rd or 4th armor set). Once you find it, you will get a cut scene with the Bog-man himself who asks if you want to make an order with him (yes.. you HAVE to say yes if you want your AF), and says "bring me shadow flames" and walks away. Whats that? Its yet another NM that must be killed.

Now you must travel to the northlands (here's a map) Xarcabard to Castle Zvahl Baileys. Once there you get to summon a bomb Notorious Monster Dark Spark. The part to remember in this castle is that deamons link like nobody's business, and will even a slight agro on one corner can bring 10 or 12 training right ontop of you in no time flat.

At F-8 on that map, there are four torches that you can examine. Once you examine it, the bomb will appear, and attack. This NM actually casts black magic and yes can self-destruct killing everyone. Once dead, the people who need the shadow flames simply examine the SAME torch that was used to spawn the ugly thing and you will have your prize. Simply return to the haunted tool box and you will obtain your new artifact hand armor.

The next step is what is lovingly called "Coffer Hunt" where you must travel all over creation to find at least three coffer keys (and some cases four) and three coffers to go with it. The two most important thing to remember is that you must first at least speak to the Galka Guslam before you open any coffer AND you must be the job that you need that coffer to obtain artifacts. If you are after white mage armor, you must be a white mage as you are opening the coffer. And speaking with Guslam starts you on the coffer quests, and sets the job you are working on at that time. (Take this from someone who took 5 coffer keys on one piece.) You will need at least 3 coffers in total, two for random pieces and one for the hands.

The last part of the artifact hunt is the "Artifact Quest." These quests are continuations of the first quest to obtain the artifact weapon. They are usually refered to as AF1, AF2 and AF3; each getting to be harder than the previous one. The white mage artifact quests starts with an easy Shade monster to obtaining two easy drops to one of the hardest Shade monsters in the game (lots of arguments there, but it was a pain). In some cases items are required like an extra coffer key in the cases of Paladin and Ninja, or velvet cloth like the red mage quest. Once you have completed these quests, you immediatly get the title of Paragon of your job's excellence.. even if you haven't finished your coffers yet. Some of these are really good cut scenes. The red mage hat and the paladin body are both my favorites.

Now that I have described the general, I will try to entertain everyone with what I went through to obtain my four sets of artifact armor.

Dancing Shadows

So the cat on his fiddle played hey-diddle-diddle, a jig that would wake the dead: He squeaked and sawed and quickened the tune, While the landlord shook the
Man in the Moon: "It's after three!" he said.... Now quicker the fiddle went deedle-dum-diddle; the dog began to roar, The cow and the horses stood on their
heads; The guests all bounded from their bedsand danced upon the floor.... The round Moon rolled behind the hill, as the Sun raised up her head. She hardly believed her fiery eyes; For though it was day, to her suprisethey all went back to bed.
"Merry Inn" Song J.R.R. Tolkien's work

Tolkien wrote a little poem that you never know what will happen when you leave your door. This past week I've been leveling Ninja.

Its a fustrating point. In some cases, I have had a few parties that made me feel like I'm an amazing ninja and that I could do anything. I'm just a dancing shadow dealing death to monsters. Other times... I can't do anything right. And I am constantly getting hit. I'm sure the reason for this is in the monsters I have been fighting--Funnel bats have an attack that eats 3 shadows at oncce--and some monsters have higher accuracy than I have evasion.. which leaves me with some cases that I have no shadows at all. My previous party seemed to be a case when I could keep hate, and was in little danger of dieing. But I was fustrated, and very close to leveling. So I used 3 xp scrolls and obtained my level 49.

My next party was a very fustrating one. I was in a party with a war, sam, whm and two black mages. No matter how often they took hate, and even after one died, they constantly spammed spells. To top it off, they wanted me to do a skillchain, which always throws me off for keeping shadows up. And to round the whole thing together, the whm was one who constantly spammed banish and holy; which made it hard for me since I was constantly getting hit. "(Holy) ha takai desho?"

I never know what to do in these cases except to "ride the xp wave," except that most of the xp we got in that party was pretty bad. Its funny how ninja makes you think XP in terms of how much each point is costing you in gil. But eventually we finished up, and I finally arrived at level 50 ninja.

So starts the Artifact Armor hunt. Ninja is one of those lucky ones that require 4 coffer keys, but thankfully, I was able to get the first 3 fairly easy. I solo'd crabs in The Boyardee Tree (yea.. not the name, but I like it), bees in Ifrit's Cauldren, and was joined by my friend Malika and her friend in Sea Serpent's Grotto.

Then there comes the "official" quests... those are amusing. This is my fourth set, and it very interesting how you can do the whole quest as another job; but you have to flag the quest as a single job. I flagged the new quest to get a tick box, but they had to make it annoying, so they made it only spawn on the ship from Mhaura to Selbinia at night. I'm not sure how many people have tried to farm Ice Spikes, but this is a pain. You have to leave just at the right time, but somehow.. I made it! And first trip I killed it, and had a long 10 min ride to stand around and look pretty.

I haven't finished the second part yet, but I just wish it included a fiddle.

MOOSE! INDIAN!!

If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. --Henry Thoreau

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it. --Murphy's work laws

There's a lot to be done in a game as wide and varied as this one we keep comming back to. This mission I completed for the Chains of Promethia was long, arduous, costly, draining, and it was agreeably indepth and rewarding. The access to sea is not quite yet a serious advantage to myself--that place just scares me. But the mission story line was wonderful, and the ending itself was just sublime. Made me tear up (but thats not too terribly hard to do).

I just wonder sometimes if how much is too much of any one thing. If you spend all your time doing one thing, when do you stop to do another thing. And the game itself requires that you periodically figure out ways to get gil.

So when do you stop and re-evaluate what you are doing to see if you should change? Should it be when it fits your ideal or should it fit someone else's ideal?

Personally, I think the times when the game becomes like work, then it is time to change what I am doing, and find a better way.

Simplicity, Simplicity, Simplicity.

Thoreau had his problems, but in this, I think he has a point. Find the center of what is the most fun, and head to it. This past Sunday, instead of doing another XP party, I was talked into doing the Fenir BCNM, and now I finally have that summon after all this time (even if it is a dog). The fight was fun, exciting and broke all the normal rules people told me about this animal--something I enjoy a lot.

We shall see.

Forever Now

"Its the right of every woman to change a man's mind." -- Author Unknown

"Evolve Or Maumba." --Some Crazy Kitty

At some point in the past, someone said "Darlene, you should do dynamis." I, as a matter of course said "TUNAAAAAAAAA" afte which asked, "What's di-na-miss?" The answer involved me attending six seperate runs that left me so discustpiated that I swore off dynamis "forever."

Well... forever just passed, and once again, this kitty has decided to start doing dynamis once again. I have found a shell that had a place for me, and even hinted that I could sometimes play a job other than white mage, and that I could probably lot on things that nobody else wanted. Well... this was exciting. But just wait.

The first thing that waited for me was a horde of monster, both Yagudo, Yagudo Stones (the ones that can only die with magic), and pets of various nature (some are too cute to kill... FORGIVE ME CARBIE <3). And, in my last shell, this was a cause to swear. And a cause for wipe. This group of people poured out on these monsters with precision and expertice. And horde after horde.. they kept winning.

I could scarcly believe my eyes. I was nearly getting board, trying to wait for someone to get hurt enough to cure. There was a couple times when people were one shotted, a couple times when the puller was too far to cure, but over all.. it was FUN. I just love being apart of a group that knows what its doing, and works together to get it done.

Hopefully, I wont get myself too excited, but I am getting ready to c

ommit myself to not only this, but also Limbus--another version of Dynamis that I know noth

ing about.

Never say never. Sometimes there's a good reason to go back and try again.