Arrows, quivers and bolts Oh my!

Level 70 WW obtained! Tens of thousands of arrows and bolts muled! Total cost of running WW to 70 in two sittings? 3.1 million gil. Guess-timated value of muled quivers and lumber 1.75-2.2 million gil. Total estimated loss 800k - 1.25mil gil. All in all it cost me my Marine male gloves to obtain Artisan status, not shabby.
Of course if I take my time and mule the swag off slowely I can get it closer to 300k (another guess). Still no hard data on the returns, I have not sold a single item yet. To be honest I had hoped to go a bit slower and roll with the market on a good portion of it but I caught the crafting bug and went nuts with it. The big hurt came from synthing Demon Arrows and Platinum Arrows, 400-500k per stack of those arrow heads, 3 stacks total between them.

I need a minimum of Lvl 72 WW to bother repairing Lu', but my legendary fish catching days wont be coming around for a while so I will take 70 on up as slow as I can stand, most likely break rod fishing for dual skill targeting large fish for fish skill that will also break my rods to work off those last few levels of WW with repairs.
No fishing the last two days, did not bother to go for GP fish as the points were crap, todays points are just as crappy but I need the last 25k turned in for waders soon. I may start the break rod fishing today if I have the time to sort the debris from my WW marathon out to mules. Kind of sucks that I spent all that time less than a week ago cleaning and organizing mules to have Hurricane Lumber land on them^^.
next on the list is to cap out alchemy and cooking, just a few levels of each to hit that sexy 60. Alchemy at 58 so a night of ogre eels and thats done, cooking is 56 .. I loved cooking but the recipe items take up too much space to make for a comfortable cruise.

So leather, cloth and bone are next on the craft list. I would like to get leather done as a priority since hides etc.. seem fairly easy to farm and maintain an income off of. Cloth mearly as a sub skill and vanity craft, signed fishing gloves and pants to match my guild boots and apron. Bone is the 100% pure vanity craft, no reason to pass 48 after I get those specs^^.
Blacksmithing (28 Currently) and Goldsmithing (23 Currently) both need to climb as I can get to them but the cost on those scares me.

I do not see WW passing the mid 70's unless the skill up rate on broken Lu's is godlike. I'll have 25 or so post 60 skill points to alot to other crafts but nothing is really calling out to me atm.

Save the trees.

Brought WW from 16.0 to 57.4 yesterday. What did I learn from this PL session? I learned that I am stuck with shit loads of arrows and that becoming a ranger with low overhead costs is now a viable option. Oh its not about to get any better either, I picked up all the ingrediants to run up to 69 tonight looks like its time to go skill up archery eh? After 69 my options for skilling "easy" end and I will have to be a bit more frugal with my gil. So far it has been an estimated 50% loss, this is just a rough guess, I have yet to sale a single item yet and did not include unsynthed Mythril Bolts or Demon Arrows. I also have a lot of excess arrowheads, lumber etc.. sitting in storage now for future synth/sales.

Suprisingly this cost far less than I estimated so.... I think I need to get myself a pair of boneworkers Protective Spectacles they remind me of the old style Oakley Frogskins and kind of look like those yellow tinted fishermans glasses. Of course I could just dat mod them in and save some cash but then I wont be able to share the sexy with others^^. I really think I want a pair of shades, I do have gold in the 20's but it would cost insane amounts of gil to boost it to 48, my cloth like bone is sitting at 0, cloth is another option for glasses but it seems like it would cost far more to level than bone, also cloth seems far more time consuming than bone to boost up for vanity. Then again I am bringing cloth up to 30 for signed fishing gear.....

Why the crazy crafting schemes with no long term goal? Well there is a goal of sorts. I have done my share of exp and I loved almost every minute of it, I wouldnt trade it for the world but it lost its luster. I could never focus on any one given job without burn out so I bounced many jobs accumulating gil and gear as I went. I was never happy with the standard stuffs and drove myself to obtain the best gear I could, not always the most outrageous +1 items but in the end I would show up to party in gear far above the norm. I made and lost fortunes: one week I had 43 million in my pocket, at the end of the week I was killing giants in quifm for choco money, a few days later I was dropping millions again. A constant circle of buying and selling gear, creating mules to store choice items or sell those same items, etc... In the end I had a lot of good stuff but never really held onto anything I would pour myself into one job only to short change myself in another. Changing jobs on a whim was a bad idea to say the least.
Then I said fuck it all and started fishing. little to no overhead, lvl1 gear no worries about pt's or ls's, the good life, retirement. Hmm no jobs to worry about, multiple mules packed to the gills with equipment, time to get a nest egg going. I told myself when I hit this or that level wealth I would invest in a certain job again and streamline my gear.. wait damnit thats what got me here in the first place. So after a bit of thinking I decided to take retirement seriously. No jobs, No gear, No exp. What to do with this steady flow of income from liquidation? Well first off was my Lu Shangs, dumped a lot of money into moats and fast tracked that. Near the end of my Lu' run we hit the jackpot with the mercurial kris, loaded again. Now back in the day my cut of the kris cash would have been gone in a flash on some trinket, now with nothing to buy but bait, a self imposed ban from the AH and that steady flow of cash from my mules my nest egg had to be saved for a rainy day or invested in something. I first thought about working the AH to stockpile an X-mas fund but given the current deflation trend that could turn out small profits or even a potential loss. So I started researching crafts.
I knew I wanted WW to 80ish to repair Lu' if I should ever get my fishing that high. While I was to sick to play last week I researched other crafts and started building a list of what I want need and the best or easiest route to get there. The goal with crafting is for the most part to spend every last gil I get raising my guild levels until I am 100% completly flat broke, no gear to sell, empty mules, no nothing. Then I will start a job from scratch or pick up a currently leveled job. I like the idea of taking one of my few pre-dunes jobs and giving him a fresh start with the tools to carry it via crafting, fishing etc.. and seeing what I can make of it. I know its a reckless plan at best, more thn likely I will kick myself in my broke ass at the end of it but like I said I will have the tools at my diposal that I never gave a second glance to back in the day.

Subligar scare me.

Spent the weekend in buburimu again, skill 30.1-35.5 there on shall shells. Almost like taking candy from a baby these guys are sooo easy to target.

I tried to keep up on my gp items even though fishing up four stacks of bastore sardines is rather sucky, easy enough to do but it killed my fish count for the day causing fatigue to set in early. I still managed to land 140 or so shall shells before I gave up.

As my skill goes up it seems like the stamina bar for shall shells is taking on a more random depletion rate. It used to be a fairly flat rate but now I get a few that seem to come in much faster. This adds a twist to fishing them since I stand a good chance of losing a 50k lure if I misread a stamina bar. The fake bites so far have been Bluetails (rod goes all over the place) Yellow Globe (almost the same rod action but slightly faster than normal depletion) and Rusty Buckets and Subligar (subligar can snap my line). I dont mind the Bluetails since I will be storing them for bait to fish for Inside The Belly, the Subligar scare me though.

Early to bed.

pic is the "keeper" out of the four I caught, much larger than the other three I'll hang onto this one for a while ^^

Not feeling well this evening so I cut it short.

Decided to check out a suggested guide area for 28 in West Sarutabaruta, a few dark bass and giant catfish later I gave up. Just seemed like too much work for little reward.

Bought a shiny new Rouge Rig and hit Buburimu cliffs to try my luck at shall shells. Amazing spot. averaged 2 stacks per hour and lost only one 50k rig taking a gamble on the stamina bar. Before I knew it I hit 30.1. Whoot off to get that pesky quest knocked out. Pretty easy and straight forward, the best reward was my new title "The Love Doctor" from the pre-quests.

Will be out of town for two days, taking our son to a waterpark/hotel for his birthday so I leave the slaughter of the Noble Ladies to you shani^^

All hail the Novice Fisherman!

As noted in last nights half-asleep post I hit 28. As a matter of pride I intended to go fish up that Giant Catfish but it got late and I was about to pass out so I snagged one off the AH when I went to sell my catch. Fairly crap GP items for now but with some luck I should be able to mix in some skill fishing with gp fishing.

I really do not want to leave the ferry, the regular income over the last week has been so very nice to have. Pouring over guides and databases it looks like I may be better suited targeting fish for skill vs. sitting on the boat hoping for skill ups on fish 30 lvls+ over me.
I did solve the "no skill ups for hours" problem this morning it seems I was trying to skill 27+ on Nebs that cap at 27 /blush. Good thing I did lose that last Shrimp Lure.

I have a pretty good collection of fishing items in storage now, rods, lures etc.. Trying to get at least 2-3 of every rod as a back up and I am trying to make room for a stack or so of the more common gp items.

I still plan to attempt my Lu Shang's rod asap (asap lol) but will more than likely change focus towards the profit fish then buy moats than actualy fishing up a decent % of them.

Skill to 30 is the priority goal I will probably hang out on the ferry for this so I imagine it will take a few days, padding of the pocket keeps me there. I have been staring at the Inside the Belly quest for years and eagerly await crossing it off "the list".

Layout Changes and Addiction

First off new look in the house!
New Template using the beta blogger.
Added in the Catch of the Day and Top 10 #'s in Recorded History lists. Try to keep them semi-updated as I can.

Its late and I'm tired. Lost 10 Shrimp lures total tonight thank god I synth them from mining loot. Forced to switch to minnows my catch-per-hour numbers are suffering now from too many !!!'s. Shrip lures have been silly easy to skill on as Nebs are very frequent and noble ladies have been very easy to reel in 90% of the time. Minnows on the other hand have been a royal pain in the ass. The easiest fish being Cone Calimary is semi-rare compared to noble, bluetail and !!!'s, but the bluetails are still semi-borederline to hard for me to land 100%.

No Horror sightings yet, always a bonus ^^

Did get to see Blackbeard today!! as soon as I remember to run memory stick to work I'll post some pics

!!!! As of right now 1:06 am I am Lvl 28 fishing!!! /huzzah

Time to hit jeuno AH fish, hit windy turn in item, go snuggle choc egg so it wont be born mentaly challenged and pass out. More in the AM.

Chocobo Eggs and 10 Stacks of Fish

Went ahead and did the chocobo egg quest with Corn last night. You get a free egg after completion, seems like a good idea till to you add up the costs of op warping, chocobo at tele etc.. and compare it to the 1k cost of an egg. My baby choco is is safe and sound in Bastok. I really do hope it does not die of neglect.

Fishing was great last night. The ferry was pretty quiet with chobo fever going on. Landed around 90 Nebs and 30 Noble's before calling it quits. No Sea Horror was a bonus. Finaly saw the NM Silverhook too, 70+ smn almost got him down before dying. Noob was killed by a monster, I raised him and monster killed him again.

Going to end this session early.

Fishing Skill 26.2

I Believe in Ferry Magic!

No not "Fairy Magic", like mithrandel becoming a mage but the magic of fishing on the Selbina-Mhaura Ferry. Skill ups, Cash, Sea Horror eating young un's, its the whole package!

Netted about 300k so far fishing, just about paid for the weskit I bought yesterday @ 400k, at least I dont have to roll out in full af any more ^^.

"X's guide to the Sea Horror and You."
1. It's mean.
2. Dont run blindly onto the deck.
3. Fishing half way up the stairs is no longer safe.
4. see #2 then let someone else run blindly onto the deck.
5. While person from #4 is occupying it run out and get to a safe fishing spot.
6. Tractor #4 person and raise them.
7. #4 will probably cling to you if you are lucky they will think stairs are safe so keep them between you and the S.H.'s path. I like to call this "The exp buffer" as they provide a buffer between myself and the S.H. and allow me to save exp.
8. Have a chuckle when a "noob" is killed and someone tractors him to the center of the deck, runs away and casts raise just as the S.H. is coming back from a light snack in the cargo bay.
9. /sigh when the same "noob" has that happen to him twice.
10. Dont be a hero, but DO play S.H. tag with someone if you are bored. S.H. like to play tag and there is no mistaking when you are "it" (did this with a sam and a thf as a blm till they quit and I had to warp out)
11. Cheer the 75 nin who gets sick of watching people play S.H. Tag and kills it.

In the course of ten rides saturday the Sea Horror popped 5 times. I ate hot steamy death three times and warped out on my fourth aggro. A 74 BLM/WHM cannot kill it when he is only wearing fishing gear and taken by suprise while fishing and watching tv. Well at least this 74 blm can't.


Current Fishing skill: 24.5

Slow but sure the climb to 30 skill is under way. Why 30? I need to set a point where I can trade off skill fishing for profit, guild points and moat carps. 30 is also the level for the Inside the Belly
quest and that can bring some loot and the fishing rings.

Took some time off the ferry yesterday to fish South Gustaberg for ogre eels and cobalt jelly fish to knock off a few alchemy levels on venom items. Craftsman Rank obtained!! Still debating getting at least the Trituration gp item for alchemy before I switch to fishing since I have 4k gp left and 10k are needed. Back to the gustaberg cliffs, I managed to land six Bastore Bream a lvl 86 fish sales are not that great on them so I'll stash them for gp item.

Two new additions to "Shani's Strays" arrived yesterday so I'm no longer the new guy /hurray. Mrfrodo pointed me to an excellent fishing database I had not found. I'll be adding it to the links: Kida's Fishing Database.

Fishing Skill @ 20.1

Really wanted to hit 21 but I choose to sleep ^^.

Started on the ferry shooting for nebs the bite rate was far to random still to bother I think I managed 3-4 catches per trip for a total of 30 nebs =50k gil ^^

Switched it up to skilling on tricoloreds, dark bass and gold carp in jugnar forrest for the remainder. SE's random fishing script was on virtual crack last night I imagine as I ran into a steady streak of gold carp ( a nice 300+ gil to npc) that I have never seen before. I wont bitch tho since I got some skill ups and left early after 5 stacks or so of paste.

So I started my fishing career selling my cure clogs for a nifty 1.4 mil or so thinking I would use this as survival money for a long long time. Last night after getting my 100th /tell for raise/cure/etc.. fishing ANON from people I DO NOT KNOW I gave up and bought a scythe for my blm to wear while fishing and wandering about, now I'm down 180k.
I had heard that "The Big One" gave a speacial moghancement fishing that boosted skill instead of items so I swung by the AH and snagged one, now down another 500k.

"The Tale of Xylos and The Big One"

Fuck TBO.
I ran to bastok to hang my stuffed fish.
Recently I had juggled my furniture to avoid the "bad" moghancement fishing and had my mh energy swaying on the line between light and water.
I hang the fish see "Moghancement Fishing" check my key items and see ... increases odds of fishing up items" or w/e.
Fuck me. 500k to get more rusty buckets ...
So I sent it to a mule and he gets "Increases fishing skill"
Now i'm between a rock and a hard place. Problem 1: my storage is at 80 and 75 of that being rare/ex I cant off load to a mule or in my case mules are packed I would have to create a new mule. Problem 2: my storage, safe and locker are full. Solution: Dump 10 coffer keys, r/ex items for quest I have been saving for years, stock piles of crystals, and so on .. I did this bit by bit always getting the same "items" version as I went. Prior to this disaster I had only cabinets and mannequins for storage.

Whew now I'm 0/0 storage and feeling a bit sick from tossing out those items time to hang TBO.

Moghancement Fishing. I check key item ... /huzzah "skill"
Add cabinet (4 to water)
Check key item .... "items" #$@#%@#@#%@#%@#%!!!!!!!!!
First thought is any water added will throw off the type of moghancement and that means .... 1/1 storage a.k.a. I'm now effectively fucked for storage forever if I want that tiny bit of skill.

I just tossed out 40 or so not so easy to replace rare/ex items to find out I have a choice between storage and +1-3 fishing skill ><><><

Add a few mannequins back: Skill and still at powerful energy!!!!

So a few hours of dicking around and tragic loss of many good rare/ex tidbits later I'm back to 60 or so storage.

Fishing isnt expensive my ass.

Gone Fishing.

Date: Last week.
While cleaning and organizing my mules for yet another attempt at prepping myself to take some time off I stumbled on a fishing rod.
Flash back two+ years: I am a lvl 30 mnk this is my highest job and I am sitting in east ron trying to catch chevel salmon to hit 13 fishing.
Whoa. Its been a while since I tried to fish ...
So I grabbed some insect paste left over from pl'n my cooking and hit the pond in west ron. I could not for the life of me figure out how to fish with the new system so pestered corn for info made a sucessful catch or two then bam snapped my rod.

This made me angry.

So I head back to town buy up more gear and new rod paste fixin's and run out again. Corn sends me a tell about fishing in Rol for moats so off I go. 10 stacks of moats later I'm hooked (no pun intended) and off searching the web for skill up info. After I spent a good portion of my night researching fishing spots, calculating time till lu shangs if I balance moats and skill, muling excess gear (during wich I discovered I had overwellming water energy explaining my almost 1:4 rusty gear to fish ratio) so I can start my fishing day with 60 slots open minus fishing gear etc.. it hits me. I started my night trying to find a way to get down to one mule max and "retire" if not quit entirely and ended up with a new past time.

I like fishing.

Alot.

No stress, no time restrictions, no B.S., no parties, just good honest fishin'. I can watch tv between bites, roll up a cig, cruise the net w/e no worries.

So far its not been a "profitable" venture for me maybe 200k invested in gear, rods. bait and paste items. But I have made back maybe 1/4 of that in npc/guild sales. With alchemy and cooking where its at for me I can do a few things to maximise profits and I do plan on leveling cooking more to hit the sushi train someday.

Lu Shangs by my birthday is the goal, I have till mid november. As soon as I can hit some more profitable fish I will pad my moat catches with gil earned via fishing. I figure about two nights a week of pure moat fishing and two or three devoted to skill should work nicely. I will exp rdm a bit or craft/mine/farm for sanity.

Shani gave me a pearl to her and mrfrodo's LS, I am no longer alone ^^.

Fishing Skill 19.1
Lu Shangs Journal an excellent fishing guide.