The Haubergeon blues...Follow

Warning: I'd say this is a long post, but that wouldn't really do it justice. <_<;; Feel free to just skip on over it if you don't feel like reading an essay. ^^;

I got to WAR59 some time last December I think. I was the main tank for a static, so a Hauby was sorta in the back of my mind as something I'd probably get some day, but it wasn't a priority. Unfortunately, we broke up early in January, and I've been sitting at 61 ever since.

I took a lot of time off from the game after the breakup. It was a situation where we were a group of friends who just decided to level together, as opposed to a convenient arrangement to help make leveling easier. The whole situation left me wanting to get away from the game for a while, so I didn't really do anything substantial till April or so.

When I finally was starting to get back into it, I decided I wanted to be ready to make use of the versatility of the WAR job. So I did a bit here and there - camping a Valkyrie Mask, re-purchasing R.K. Breeches, etc. But the big thing was always a Hauby. It has been the one key thing that I knew I wanted to get before getting back to leveling.

But I was actually a little more ambitious than just wanting to get a Hauby. I've been leveling all along with my wife, and she was busy teaching at the time. So I decided to make use of the extra time I would have and set my goals a little higher. My Smithing was already around lv. 60 at the time. So rather than just go out looking to make money, I got to work on my Smithing and Clothcraft skills. I didn't want just a Hauby. I wanted a Hauby with a [Teratron] in the corner. >:D

The next couple months were a bit of a seesaw. Virtually all the time I put into the game was directed toward crafting. I returned to Gusgen Mines after a long time away, and mined up virtually all the Darksteel I used leveling my Smithing. While I technically made money doing this, the truth is that the materials I mined lost a tremendous amount of value when I synthed them. Then the other synths I did were just pure loss. I probably spent enough gil on leveling my crafts to buy two or three Haubergeons. >_<

But I still kept pushing onward. At long last, I had the required Smithing and Clothcraft skills to make a Hauby. Now all that was left was to make enough gil to buy the Damascus Ingot. I mined, quested, synthed for profit, everything I could think of. It was all seeming to pay off as my gil supply topped 1.4mil. But just as I seemed to be almost in reach, the ingot prices jumped from 1.7 to 1.9mil, and didn't seem to be slowing down. >_<

So, I decided to switch tracks. Rather than just hoard all my gil, I decided to reinvest it. I went back to crafting, leveling Wood and Gold to help my Smithing. I kept pushing forward with my Smithing. I continued to mine, do quests, etc.

Just one little problem. I am terrible at handling money. >_< I found myself with about 200k gil, a bunch of stuff laying around on mules, and no idea where over a million gil had walked off to. >_<

OK, no problem. I refocused myself, and started concentrating on building the number in my equipment screen back up. I managed to get back to about 1.2mil. Everything's going great. I should be able to buy my Ingot soon, right?

Of course it's not going to be that easy. Right about then, the school year ended, leaving my wife with tons of time on her hands. Seeing as how I'd been bugging her about leveling her sub for quite a while, she finally gave in and started gearing up for the trek to NIN37. Knowing that she had absolutely no interest in NIN, I set out to make it as painless as possible. So I pulled out my WHM26 and BLM20, and decided to level along with her. Once we were caught up to my WHM, I would use whichever was needed, then go and catch the other one up while she was out mining or whatever.

As such, I was very busy the next couple weeks. If I wasn't leveling with her, then I was leveling my other mage. The result was a lot of money tied up into two solid equipment sets, and a whole lot more drifting away nonstop to scrolls, food, and juice. (Yes, I also leveled Cooking to 30 just so I could make my own Pineapple Juice. ^^;) And all the while, I had absolutely no income. By the time her NIN and my BLM hit 37, I had less than 100k and still had a few levels to go on my WHM. (Might as well finish it off if I'm that close, right?)

This is when I finally caught a lucky break. A friend was going to do a BCNM, and I got invited to go along. So I pulled out some seals, got an orb, spent most of my remaining gil on level-cap equipment, and went along. There were 6 of us taking turns in one of the 3-person BCNMs. There were two members participating in each fight, and the orb-holder was the third. I was designated as the third person for whenever one of the other two were using their orb. I was getting nervous when the first two groups wiped. Then it was my turn...

Three minutes later, the fight was over. We won! Easily even. It turned out that the groups just weren't balanced enough with the first two orb holders. We were using a very specific strategy, and they didn't fit into it very well. But I was able to fit into it perfectly. My reward? Just under 3 million gil worth of drops! @_@

It took almost all the gil I had left to pay the AH fees. I think I was left with less than 10k gil. Naturally, it wasn't until right after I put them up that I remembered the 16-hour update the next day. >_< Nearly a third of my selling window would take place while the servers were down, everyone would be too preoccupied with new stuff to bother with old BCNM drops, and I couldn't afford to re-list them. How do I manage to ***** everything up so badly? >_<

Well, it turns out I didn't need to be quite so worried. On the third evening after the BCNM run, I got online and found that they had all sold! I now had more than double the largest amount of gil I had ever had before. @_@ And what's more, the Damascus Ingots had fallen in price! They had peaked at 1.9mil, and dropped all the way down to 1.5. o_O Only one problem... There was only one in stock, and I couldn't get it for 1.6. >_<

It turned out I didn't quite miss the boat after all. I camped the AH the rest of the night, and was ready when someone listed one at the current price history. The ingot was finally mine, and for only 1.5mil! It turns out I was very fortunate. The one I bought was the last ingot to go for 1.5. The next one after mine was 1.6, and they were up to 1.7 or 1.8 the last time I checked. ^^;

So finally, the following evening, I settled in at the Smithing guild in Bastok with all my ingredients. I waited for ideal crafting conditions. Having finally managed to get the ingot, I wasn't about to waste it on a break. Everything went well, and I now finally have my Hauby. And yes, I remembered to sign it. ^^; If I were home right now, I'd put a screenshot up. :p

Anyway, that's my tale. It's taken me six months of working toward this goal. Well, more or less toward this goal. I obviously did a lot of crafting, and I leveled some subs quite a bit. ^^; I even turned down a party invite from Mumitroll at one point since I wasn't ready to get back to it yet. o_O But I'm finally done, and ready to get back to leveling again. Well, just as soon as I can convince my wife to put some gil into her THF instead of Goldsmithing. <_<;;

I got mine right as I decided WAR would be my new main.

Originally I was THF, obviously, and I was limited on paly time from school. So, with the 2 or 3 hours a day I had, I collected ingredients and cooked or skilled up. This was about 2 months I did this I think... Anyways, having three mules, I was able to make gil very fast. I had about 3.5 million gil thanks to cooking. I was saving for a scorpion harness.(6 million gil average on Leviathan.) I decided THF wasn't much fun for me anymore, it really wasn't. WAR was my true love in this game as I played it off to the side. I already had gear for the level my WAR was at, so, I decided... Ditch my THF gear. Sell it all, and take WAR all the way. I sold my THF gear leaving me with well over 4 million gil. I then bought a haubergeon for 1.7 million, and maximized my WAR gear.

I've never made a better choice in this game(Beside dumping my level 75 PLD ex-boyfriend. Goddamn prick. *Swings axe*)

My quick and simple Haub story. Still don't have one. LOL

Just recently I have accumulated the gil to buy one, but I am so close to needing the Hauberk that I am just going to wait for Lv. 69. I seem to spend most of my time farming & helping people these days anyway. Not to mention I am going to need other armor items at Lv. 68 & 69 to compliment the Hauberk and a better fighting experience for myself as well as any party that I am honored to be with at the time. RL has gotten a little busy, thus shorter game-time for me on the weekdays.

Note: At time of post I am/was Lv. 67

Edit: Poor Grammer/Spelling

Edited, Wed Aug 3 17:14:20 2005 by Delgatti

Started with 200k:

Sold hojo, jubaku and kurayami for 500k
Sold tele-yhoat and tele-dem for 300k
sold venerer's ring for 200k
Sold Ryl. Knight's Chainmail for 200k
Sold Ryl. Knight's Mufflers for 100k
Sold Viking axe for 190k

so i am currently sitting at 1,756,100 (living expenses etc.)
I have a stack of beastmen's blood and a Lecouse Voulge (which won't sell >_<;;) in the AH.

I was browsing bazaars in Rolanberry when i got a tell asking if i was looking for anything in particular, i said a hauby and the teller offered me one for 1.8 million (2.3 in AH) so i jumped on the offer.

Going to pick it up tomorrow after beastmen's blood sells :D

WOOT

Just picked it up, it's fooking awesome. All i need now is tofind my Eldieme coffer for my AF hands >_< (it's never up!)

Oh, and: (Haubergeon) O

Rockin'. You'll enjoy wearing it. I enjoy mine quite a bit and it's been a month since I got it. I still brag about it, to be honest :P



Ironically enough, out the many times I've helped with EN hunts, it's only been on the Beaucedine side once. When I helped an LS member get her EN coffer key, the coffer was right next to the hume bones camp. When I got mine, I found the coffer after less than 15 minutes of looking. It took 4 hours for the key to finally drop but we got it. All the other times it was in a rather easily accessible area, but that one time (my first hunt) we spent looking in the whole necropolis it turned out to be on the BG side.

Tibor, I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck. >.< Hopefully the price hike is temporar and will drop the other way in a while. I wish you luck.

Teratron, your story is really moving. The ammount of dedication and effort to realise your vision of a hauby signed by you, good to hear such things are rewarded in the long run. And hey, with all those subcrafts you hopefully have youäre future set for you. =)

Personally I'm allready saving up for hauby among other things and I still have 18 levels to go. ^^d

Go check bazaars in rolanberry, you may get lucky and find a cheap one. Or, buy the ingrediants and find acrafter.

Congratulations ^^

My stories more of a folly. I saved up 2M while growing saplings. I was so happy when I reached the going rate. Took me quite awhile. Was about to buy haubergeon for my 60 warrior and was totally outraged when my bid failed. I then sold my snipers ring and my bid still failed a few hours later. Then I went and was like ***** it, decided to sell my other snipers ring and accidently sold it for 45k instead of 450k and was totally mad at myself.(the goin rate turned out to be 3M) I was like #$%k warrior, I'm going pld or blm. I bought a vermillions cloak for 2M for kicks and lastly a couple astrals for 200k with the rest of my money. I go on deployment for 8months

~8 months later. I'm busy looking for party for my blm to take it on hardcore and find the price of hauby sank down to 1.9M. I start thinking, maybe I could give warrior another go arround so I decide to sell my vermillions cloak and am like, OMG! 6.5M! Few days later I end up with a hauby+1 instead of the original haubergeon I was after and I sell my astral rings for 750K each to buy double woodsmans instead of snipers and was totally living it up as warrior from then on.

Its also frustrating that the Haubergeon is better than WAR AF body armor. It also seems to me that you are expected to have this gear when you xp. I just find it all unsettling.

I'm tempted to quit this game for the simple fact that i can barely afford what is "expected" of me past lvl 60. I have some friends who play EQ2 often and are just amazed at the costs that we have to spend on gear.

The game is becoming more stressful than fun.

I was once booted from a party when using my NIN because I didn't have the emps hairpin. Also too bad.

I don't know about other servers economies, But Asuras economy sucks, badly. It took me months to get my war past 55 simply because I couldn't afford the CP gear. LOL

This game is such a time sink. :(

I think right now the only thing keeping me in it, is my LS friends.

How do you guys handle the costs? Do you sell off all your gear from other jobs each time you switch? I have my Jujitsu Gi that my NIN uses, i bought for 650K. Last I check it was going for 1.2mil. Its tempting to sell that and all the other gear i have just to invest it into lvl 60 armor.

I farm my *** off any chance I get, and craft as much as possible. But in the 3hrs or less a night I get, its just insane to be able to pull in that kinda of money. And i refuse to buy gil online. Maybe thats how ppl get money so fast. They just bite the bullet?

Edited, Tue Aug 9 20:38:14 2005 by Majae

my story is just starting, i currently have about 2.17 mill. and i have worked my *** off for it. i am a cook and my 3 mules are always full, i use my thf with my RL friend to farm ram skins for hours on end, first to raise his crafting but then we discovered a prime market of sheep leathers and ram leathers. apparantly people who power level leathercraft are willing to pay a lot of money to not farm. we make about 18k a stack for sheep and 40k a stack for ram, add that with the ram horns and a couple hours for a couple thf's adds up quick. we get both from farming in the same area, hunting rams for his brown belt. it goes by even faster when we are tearing up a case of bud light.....:) i watch the market and do some trading from mule to mule making 1-2k here and there etc etc, you get the idea.

my first thought was to level my crafts enough to sign almost all my equipent. but honestly that is seeming less and less worthwhile. i am only lvl 34 with my war and have more than enough for the hauby, god only knows how much i will have by that time. this money making venture was to make some cash for my RL friends mnk, from lvl 35-40 mnk expenises are just sick. what is funny is he is broke and i still have all my money. i have seriously thought about buying the hauby now, cause there is no telling how much it will cost by the time i get there.

gotta be honest, i am very disappointed that the WAR af is not endgame, for DD anyways which is what i love, cause i personally think there is no sexier creature than a WAR in full AF.........

but some of these stories are amazing, the dedication i see is truly awe inspiring. makes me feel how i feel when i see a lvl 75 mnk if full AF, and knowing the road it took to get there.

as fo people buying gil, i actually know a few who do. i am not bitter really, yeah they just log on buy their money and go back to leveling. that is their choice, but i do think they miss out on a fun part of the game. one poster was ******** about how time intensive game this is, and i totally agree. that is why i play this instead of city of heros, or EQ2, or WoW. cause not just any bum can pick up a controller and prosper at FFXI, and some of the best times I have had have been out farming and getting drunk with RL and online friends. partying and getting Xp are just an added bonus.

now that my RL friend and myself have chosen our endgame jobs (after leveling almost every other one to some extent) we are both very excited to get higher and take part in some of the battles and missions that i can only watch videos of right now. we just need to find a kickass LS that we don't feel like dropping after 2 days of owning it.

i know this has gone just a tad off track, but i am still just amazed at the dedication i have read about. this game is either the coolest thing i have ever played or the most profound sickness i have ever caught, i am still undecided........