First of all my sincere apologies for the incredible delay, but as usual real life got to me and as most of the other FFXI bloggers know, it takes a while to get a decent webpost prepped

Anyway, with the last FFXI update came the final installment of the "Treasures of Aht Urhgan" story. I must warn you for some spoilers ahead, if you haven't finished the ToAU missions yet. 

The bosses became harder and harder toward the end of the story. It is as if SE finally understood that we're not the regular WOW players and that they realized the missions were becoming a little too easy. Alexander (the bad machine on the picture above), wasn't exactly the easiest nut to crack, but in the end he landed on the same scrapeyard as Ultima-Omega.

After you have completed all the missions, you are rewarded with one out of three rings (sounds familiar?). As I chose for the Tamas ring after the completion of COP, I found it was appropriate for Veroninja to choose the melee ring this time. At the end of the story you also get the infamous Glory Crown, which is mere symbolic in value as it has no stats on it.

After my final cutscene I noticed that I also had my next AU_mercenary_rank quest flagged: First Lieutenant !

The quest mainly involved: locating piggies, catching intruders and saying "I like coffee" in a different language.
So basically all the fun stuff together lol…

Apparently there is still a final rank of Captain after this one, which you automatically obtain by completing all the 50 different assaults. The main reward for achieving this rank is that you can accumulate an extra assault ID tag (big deal).
Although I do like the sound of Captain Verohawke, it will be a difficult task to gather parties to finish the uncompleted assaults. Even worse, I am not sure if I can remember which ones exactly I still have to do

Naja looked sad during the cutscenes as if she realized that all the -bullying me around- fun had finally come to an end :'( 

And since we were on the subject of pigs anyway, my latest encounter is the perfect thing to conclude this post with. Unfortunately he's not back at all, but King Pig is merely abusing his virtual body

Well it was bound to happen at some point… after a few new assault missions and countless repetitive ones, I was finally able to get to the second lieutenant rank, the ninth and currently highest rank of the Aht Urhgan Empire (Although one last rank will be added soon enough though).

I accumulated so many assault points that I couldn't help spending it on various pieces of rare/ex armor, including the yigit outfit of which I now have the complete set after obtaining the body piece last week (bloody Periqia).

There is more though; with the recent addition of the second lieutenant rank, they also added some nice items that go with this rank and which you can get by trading Imperial Standing Points to the Imperial guard. I didn't hesitate to get myself a nice shiny Perdu Blade to make Veroninja happy :)

This katana is truly amazing, the mechanics of the latent effect can be compared to the one of the Blau Dolch. The latent is triggered when TP is under 100% (including during weaponskills). While the latent is active, the katana not only gives a higher base damage, but will also activate an additional hidden effect of ACC. +5 and ATT. +10. I didn't really have to do much math to decide that the Perdu Blade would become my new permanent *good looking* off hand katana and the most beautiful part is that this katana didn't cost me a gil.

Well, I can't say I didn't work for it though, all these assaults to get to the required rank and collecting the needed 48 000 Imperial Standing points weren't exactly a walk in the park for me, but it was all well worth it. Now let's just cross our fingers that SE doesn't add too many nice items for the next rank. Actually no, they should add new fancy things ! It will however definitely take me some time to accumulate 56 000 ISP for it as I am starting from scratch again… Meanwhile I'll just keep assaulting, it's too fun anyway, besides I need the salvage points and the other fashionable looking sets anyway ;)

According to FFXIAH the Shivan economy is booming…
No kidding eh, recently I saw certain items on the auction house being sold at double prices for no reason at all.
Is it so hard to wait for an item people? I mean, if you need a certain item, is it really necessary to have it RIGHT AWAY? No wonder you don't have any money left to buy my undervalued Aristocrat's coats. You all needlessly waste it by grossly overbidding on items at the auction house.

Anyway, I don't care anymore…

Meanwhile:

That's right, Sergeant Major - Wohoooooooo, at last !! It took me a while, but I eventually got there. Only 2 more ranks until Second Lieutenant…

YAAAAAY

The latest Patch added a new assault rank of Second Lieutenant and as the name already suggests, there will probably be at least one more addition of a next rank soon.

UGGGH, As Sergeant I have been struggling a lot to find as many pickup assaults as possible to try and get my rank up this way. Unfortunately most of these parties are PFC types, which means it only gets me 1 rank point each time I complete them, while you need 25 of them -_- I think I am halfway to Sergeant Major now, but hey it looks to last forever…

Yesterday I got to join my friends in RftD on the new Nyzul assault, we rushed through floor 56 to 60 to find HYDRA waiting for us at the end of the line. Guess who was allowed to tanky tank it?

As for the Aht Urhgan Missions itself, I am completely up to date ! 

or Mission 35 (already!) you have to go to Talacca cove to fight against the evil Yagudo Bird "Gessho".

Actually this fight was rather hard, especially if you compare them to the previous Aht Urghan mission fights.

Great fun GREAT FUN

Now if I could only find a way to finish these assaults in a more effecient way

It was time to take a look at the newly added ToAU missions
For once I am just going to go through it by only adding some screenshots **

Seeing all these magnificent cutscenes about Corsairs,
I am really getting more and more convinced to start leveling that job !
Meanwhile, I changed my BLM AF clothing to Luzaf's outfit (Prince of corsairs):