Ye Shall Be As Gods...

This weekend my sky linkshell decided it was once again time to take on the gods. I have never done all the gods at in a row before (In fact, I have only done Kirin once before this whole thing...) so I was looking forward to a fun experience. We fought the four standard gods on Saturday and took on Kirin on Sunday. Our first fight was against the tiger god Byakko:

Getting to the fight was more challenging than the actual fight in my opinion. Apparently, there are still mages at this level that do not get the "magic" in "magic agro" and as such we had a few deaths. I decided to take one for the team so to speak, and use my 2 hour Invincible to clear the area and train all the mobs to the zone so people could be raised since the Raise spell will draw agro. The fight itself went smoothly, very few deaths and the standard assortment of drops. Unfortunately, there are no drops off this fight that I want, so I was there merely for points, and to backup cure. Ironically, that is what i pretty much do all the time in sky is assist cure the tanks, since I am by no means teh best tank, or even PLD in the shell. After this fight, we took on the dragon god Seiryu:

Now, this battle drops an item I am after. The Matrial Head Abj. drops from this mob, and is used to uncurse the Koeing Helm making it usuable. Amazingly, I was one of only 2 people who wanted the drop, and won lotting rights with a 25 point bid. The battle went very well for about 50% of the mobs lifebar. All of a sudden, I see /linkshell chat full of "Hundred Fists, Run Away!" This is one of the nasty god 2 hours, and can kill alot of people. Usually, we shadowbind the mob, and all is well. This time however, a new BLM decided to keep nuking, and the shadowbind was broken, allowing the dragon terror to literally wipe out all of our tanks...

...except me, who was safe at the time in the backup healing alliance. Faster than you can say 'MPK' I was kicked from the healing alliance and brought into the tanking alliance. Now, up until this point, I had little hate since all i was doing was dropping the occasional Cure III, and it was up to me to try to gain hate over all the DDs in the fight. I proceeded to go through every hate gathering move I had, and once i went to Invincible, it didn't go off. In a flash, I recalled that I had used it to save the alliance wipe before heading to our first fight. It happens that Provoke was up again, and this time I got the mobs attention. May I say, I don't think he liked me, and his 40% lifebar made me worry I wasn't going to live very long.

Now, consider the following; I am a level 71 Paladin / 35 Warrior. I have no God gear (yet), I am wearing full PLD AF. The only thing standing between me and this monster is my trusty Terra's Staff. With that in mind, I was able to solo tank Seiryu for the rest of the battle, only losing hate briefly once to a MNK going all out to kill him. Soon following, I was greeted with the following sight: My item didn't drop, but a few others did. I was given a pat on the back for saving the run, and the melees jokingly said, "I have never seen to many cures in my life!" It was the first time I had even tanked a god, and I lived. (^.^)v

Still a little shaken from the battle I gathered myself up and we moved on to mob #3, the turtle god Genbu:

I should really say god #3 and #4. We fought Genbu twice since we had the needed pop items. Now, Genbu drops TWO (2) items I want. The first and more important is the Martial hands Abj., used to uncurse the Koeing Hands. The second is the W. Feet Abj., that is used to uncurse the Crimson Feet. With the rule that you can only lot on one item per god, I decided to take the item I wanted more: the M. hands Abj. As it turns out, everyone that wants this item, has it, and I was able to bid 20, the minumum number of points for it, since I was the only one who wanted it. Both fights went smoothly, Genbu can be taken with as little as 6-7 people. Luck was not with me however, since my item didn't drop after either fight. The W. Feet Abj. did drop however, and went to one of the DRKs in the linkshell. After talking with a fellow PLD, I was told this should be the absolute last thing I get, since it isn't all that much better than my AF feet, so I didn't feel so bad about not lotting on it. After a quick regroup, we went on to fight the last battle of the day, the greater bird god Suzaku:

This fight is hard for a single reason, this bird likes to cast magic. Nasty magic. Flare, Firaga3, and so on... Now, being a fire based mob, we can prepare for it (Now is a good time to take off that Bomb Queen Ring...) and take the needed precautions. Again, as with many mobs, this mob doesn't possess any drops I desire, so I didn't bid on anything. After defeating the nasty bird with few complications, we called it a day. On Sunday, we went to tackle the god of the gods, Kirin:

Now, Kirin is a sort of special fight. Getting to him involves a 'trick' with one of the teleoprters in sky. When teleoprting to his room, you need only take a single teleporter, but you can ONLY teleport on a time ending with an even number. Times like 11:52, 11:54, 11:56, 11:58, etc. This can prive to be tricky, and many a sneak oil can be lost in the process. Last time I went to Kirin, I was 1/6 in successful attempts, this time I went 1/2. However, on the first attempt, my sneak oil wore at a very bad time, and I got agro. Luckly, Invincible saved me running to the zone, and I emerged with a scant 128 HP.

After getting to the battleground, we sat around waiting for everyone to be ready, and began the fight. Another 'special' part of this fight, is that he is able to summon all four of the gods you already defeated to pop him. They are at about 50% strength as their original forms, but when you are kiting Kirin, and fighting another god, things can go badly very fast. This isn't Kirin's two hour ability however, he can also get off a lightening fast Astral Flow, that usually kills anyone around him.

Even with all these problems, we still won the fight in just over 41 minutes, not bad by any standards. The drops were also very good for this fight.

Now, Kirin is one of the harder mobs in the game, and his drops reflect that. He has some of the best items for mages, tanks, and damage dealers alike. The one drop in particular that interests me, is the W. Legs Abj. This item is used to uncurse the Crimson Legs, which offer superior defence compared to even my AF legs, +25HP, +25MP, +20 to several resistances, and movement speed +12%. Few items offer so much, and in the legs slot no less. I was willing to bid as high as 60 for this item, even though the minimum bid is 20. However, another Paladin in the LS has a good 100+ points, and dashed my hopes of winning the lot with an impressive bid for 100. Now, as it so happens, the W legs Abj. dropped, and now I am potentially the next in line for this awesome item. >:D


After all the gods excitment, we decided to put together a quick Divine Might run. Now, for those of you who don't know, Divine Might is a quest in sky that replaces the ZM14 mission. You fight all of the Ark Angels at once with 18 people, instead of one at a time with 6 people. There are some awesome level 72 earring rewards for completing this BCNM, and I have my eye on this particular beauty:

This earring was designed with PLD in mind, and I wasn't about to pass up the chance for one. We managed to get 18 people together, and were going to take a crack at the BCNM. However, one of our members jumped the gun, and joined the wrong BCNM ( 'Ark Angels (2)' if you wanted to know...) and ended up locking out some of us from the fight, essentially forcing us to not do the battle.

I wasn't too upset, since I knew we had only a small chance at winning, but I wanted to try anyway. You live to fight another day Ark Angels...