I really despise NM's...

(omg I published the blog and this is a huge entry... bonus points if you finish it all)

So I got BRD to 68 and finally got around to synthing my Manteel. So far I'm 3/5 with only the hands feet and the head left. One of the ingredients of the Sha'ir Turban is a gem called Pigeon Blood Ruby. It drops off 2 NMs, one 72 hr spawn thats a level 70 (no thanks) and one level 39 leech in Sea Serpent Grotto that spawns every 2-4 hours. Thank you I'll take door #2 please.

I get there around 7:00pm and there's a Japanese 60RDM/30NIN there... wonderful. Within 10 minutes a MNK/WAR from her LS shows up. Great, 2 vs. 1 I love having the odds stacked against me. So I get the ToD and find out it's a 12 minute spawn for the place holders and there's only two of em. So lots of boring downtime. I get 4 spawns in and spend about an hour down there and I get a /tell from a BRD friend that a MNK party is starting up. I got on her last night because she got inot a MNK party and forgot to ask me. This time she remembered so I figured what the hell. I swapped to /WHM and did a little monkey business in King Ranperre's Tomb. Got about 10k in Limit points but the BRD DC'd and we warped out after 20 minutes of waiting. I got to Sandy and activatedmy 4th modifier for Enfeebling Magic, (yay) and Outpost Warped back to Elshimo Lowlands and into the Sea Serpent Grotto.

Those two were still there which lead me to believe that they hadn't gotten the drop. That would really suck because it was now 10:30pm and they had been there since before I got there (7:00pm) and the spawn time is 2-4.5 hours. I had switched to /WAR because voke is much better to claim and within 15 minutes and no pop the did a T T and started to leave. The RDM/NIN was named Onpuu and was saying {No Money!} and they left. I was all alone and felt very confident of claiming. Well a few hours went by and at midnight I logged off real quick to check the Jeuno AH.

I logged in as Tyrhanny (my real life ex-girlfriends character) and suddenly there was a Pigeon Blood Ruby in stock! How strange. I tried bidding on it thinking I'd buy this one and sell the one I camp when I switched but I couldn't buy it. I had 258k on Tyrhanny and even though all 10 sales in the Price History were 250k, it wouldn't sell. How ironic too that Onpuu and Zecross were both in the price history... no money my ass. I did a /search and both were in Castle Oztroja (farming of course). So I came to the deduction that they claimed the NM Masan and were waiting for a 2nd one, but figured why compete, and they left to farm something else.

So here I sit... I have created a spreadsheet and taken down the ToD of each PH I clear, after they're both dead I do whatever for 11 minutes and then look to voke the useless PH every 13 mins. It's 1:54am right now and I'm pretty determined to get it at this point. Even if the suspect farmers got it between 8-10pm that means even at it's latest spawn it should pop before 2am which is fast approaching. I find it funny also that I just got a Carbuncle's Ruby of a Royal Leech place holder. It took me almost a week to get that ruby in Bibiki Bay, yet in a few hours I get it and I had to toss it. Irony.

Moving on from my leech displeasure... yesterday I hit 68 and realized it was time to ditch this Monster Signa. It looks cool, carries a bit of a status symbol (I camped mine didn't buy it) and has alot of CHR (+8) but the VIT (-5) is just annoying and there's better things available to me at 68. So me and my 75SAM friend head out to Labyrinth of Onzozo to try and pop the NM named Soulstealer Skullnix. A goblin THF that drops a Tonberry-like knife called a Kard. A Kard has CHR+5 and is quite fast and strong. It's no Blau Dolch but it's DMG: 22 Delay: 190. When I combine the Elegant Shield (CHR+1) I can get 6CHR with no lost VIT. Fair enough trade off. With my Opo-Opo Crown I'm a 68BRD with 110 CHR so I may be overdoing it a tad. Anyways without getting off on a tangent I camped him 2 days, 1st day no drop. He was a bit tricky with a SAM tank and he has a nasty Triple Attack every 2-4 swings. I pulled in a WHM and BLM and we all took him down and the Kard dropped. I was very happy. Ose was up before we started the fight but someone killed him during. I felt bad, the taru WHM wanted his Ass Jerkin.

I moved over to Mysticmaker Profblix and there was a BST camping him... Eventually 2 others showed up (both in the same LS) and the 4 of us sat there for about an hour. I started spamming Dia and sure enough it popped. I had Dia interrupted 2x (the patch that made it impossible to claim with magic now) and they still hadn't claimed him. By the 3rd attempt I claimed! It sounds so stupid but my heart was actually racing. I took him down easy and all he dropped was a Thunder IV. I warped back happy and upset. I got my Kard and that's what I went to LoO for in the first place. Upon checking the AH I saw that Thunder IV was 100k! All right! At least I made some gil out of it.

But I still despise NM's nonetheless...

*edit - killed Masen at 2:26am which would have been 4.5 hrs from the time the 2 suspicious farmers up and left... (what coincidence??)