13 Months…The Journey of CoP

12Nov07

I realized that titling this post the time since I last posted made sense (in that I’ve rarely posted twice in a row in a while) but the new title makes more sense.

I began Chains of Promathia last October (possibly September but I don’t think so). Rajas Ring (though originally it was Tamas Ring) has been a goal of mine for a long, long time.

1-3 : “Static” with original friends playing the game for one Promy. Pickup Promys (many failures) finally led my own Promys after my friends left for good (though Draethor remained). This was definitely still a part of my newbie phase and I played a lot of follow the leader. Ironically I would revisit this later as a leader myself.

2-3 (Minotaur) – Pick Up alliance. Was interesting, I have a screenshot here, that was in June (6/9/07)when I came back after playing WoW last winter. 1/1

2-5 (Mammets) was with a CoP static that I joined, an offshoot of the Minotaur alliance I believe. We absolutely kersmashed this fight with a Nin, Nin, Blu/nin tank trio. I went Red Mage and screwed up my first ever usage of Convert to die, but we still won (I had RR). I believe Kiaara was here, Dragonking, it featured my meeting Bobandtom and Draethor helped out (he was already ahead of me at this point, he surpassed me during the WoW phase). This was completed in July. 1/1

Chapter 3 (Diabolos) – I did this with my static as well, Kiaara (as Dimitrii), Draethor, Bobandtom … I think that was it. We also 1/1′d this. Debonair was probably there too (as well as at 2-5?). This was completed in August of this year.

Chapter 4 (Ouryu) Death of the 2nd static. We couldn’t beat Ouryu as we were and this took a long time. I think I actually ended up PuG-ing this mission as BLM. We bursted Aeroga II as per my strategy with a PLD and Samurai skillchain. It worked beautifully as there were 2 BLM. It was still very close but we 1/1′d.

Chapter 4 -> Chapter 5 was a long time. Though I completed Chapter 3 in August and Ouryu soon after, I wouldn’t actually bother to receive the Chapter 5 cut scene until 9/11/2007, almost a month later. You can see in this screenshot Alukards and Trindane, two of my real life friends. I actually ended up running Trindane and another ex-friend (we won’t mention him here) through ALL of the Promys again to catch them up, but we never got to the Minotaur battle before they both quit.

(in case you’re wondering, we’re talking about Royal Jelly. It was really easy. We got a ring that day!)

Chapter 5 was the new static, consisting of Sagari, Sephrin, Sklyar, Altimaomega, myself and Ferien. That was a great static. Sagari was the leader and was just amazing. We banged out missions of CoP multiple times a week, rocked Pso’xja, destroyed all the fights of Mission 5-3 (the longest chapter)…it was grand. That static lasted to 6-4 (the first airship) and sadly died before we could complete it. We 1/1′d every fight we fought.

Chapter 7 greeted me here a few weeks back after 1/1′ing the Airship (assuming a 1/1 counts as the first time you actually see Omega =P). It was a complete PUG, and a bit of a mess, but we did have 6 (yes, 6) CCBs. We still had a fairly tough time with Omega, but Ultima was a blur of CCB stuns. Chapter 7 itself wasn’t bad, the Tenzen fight was a fairly unspectacular zerg and that was done Saturday of last weekend. We did wipe about 6x in a row on the Carpenter’s Landing fight (yay for bad kiting lol). I met Pierro here again, who I met for the first time in an XP party in Mount Z on Samurai, and then later we did 6-4 together too. 1/1 on Tenzen.

And finally Chapter 8. 8-2 was the longest walk ever, Pierro was there, even Draethor showed back up! He went missing from my journey after Ouryu! I was happy he was back as he had taken a few weeks to play FF: Tactics, plus it was good to finally be caught up to him in the Missions. He got the map during 8-2, but I screwed up and didn’t (frowns). We pushed on to 8-3, which was one of the few missions I can’t say we 1/1′d. It was everyone in the Promathia screenshot though some were different jobs. I actually am responsible for this failure (reminiscent of the Convert disaster of 2-5) as I ES+Sleepga’d the pots before they woke up (I saw them change forms and panicked). We still won with ease on the second go around, as I sleepga’d correctly. Also the 8-3 maze wasn’t really that bad, thanks to Appreciation picking up the slack. I was able to lead us once I finally understood the path and what was happening on Erecia’s guide (simply, amazing guide). I was surprised by how easy the 8-3 path was to the pots (after the obligatory wipe through the pot room), after 8-2 and 8-3’s race towers I really expected to get destroyed fighting our way there.

And of course, 8-4, below. So all in all, 13 months. It really accelerated in June for me, but then paused in September for Promys, and then paused again for a few weeks last month before 6-4, but it was well worth it. Easily the greatest accomplishment in my Final Fantasy career to date. The ending cutscene definitely affected me, the music, the full screen cinematic, the Cardinal alone on the hill as the sun set … this was everything I want in a game.

It was amazing.

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