Flying Furry Squirrels

Chains of Promathia tends to be one of those things you either totally love or totally hate. For some, the difficulty of the missions, coupled with few players wanting to help out or repeat the dreaded experience of CoP battles, left them with a bitter taste in their mouths over this expansion. For others, particularly those with a static group, the challenge and enormity of the adventure brought them closer together than ever before with their friends. I myself am part of that group which considers CoP one of the most memorable experiences in all of FFXI, and also my proudest accomplishment (at least before the missions were nerfed). It is thanks to my linkshell companions that I owe my ability to bring you the CoP mission videos.

Our static was unusual. We had all done the Promies separately, and our LS put together a big 2-3 Aqueducts run before we broke into our final group for 2-5 and beyond. When we started, none of us had any level 75 jobs, and our setup of PLD, WAR, RDM, RDM, WHM, BLM was definitely unorthodox (but it was what we had available). We did remarkably well, considering our lack of damage dealers. Many battles we went 1/1 (Ouryu, Promy-Vahzl, Bugbear, Zdei) or 1/2 (Diabolos, Snoll Tzar), while some proved more difficult and took several tries (Airship in particular, but also Mithra Trackers, Tenzen, and Promathia). What was most poignant to me about our group was how we ended up reverting to our 2-5 setup to finally defeat Promathia – PLD, PLD, RDM, RDM, WHM, BLM.

At some point (probably our 6th or 7th attempt at the airship) we grew so frustrated with our failed attempts that someone from the group exclaimed "FFS!" Noob that I was, I asked what that meant, and everyone started giving various non-sensical meanings to the acronym to keep me from finding out what it really stood for. For no real reason, the name "Flying Furry Squirrels" somehow stuck with us, and we adoped that as the name for the static.

To Jakaal, Morbo, Tigerlily, Yukonjack, and Sophus: my CoP videos are all dedicated to you. While we have mostly gone our separate ways, the hardships we endured and the camaraderie we shared will never be forgotten.

Special thanks to Jak for recording our Promathia battle and preserving the experience (even if it isn't quite up to my quality standards :-p ).


Watch Promathia_Battle

I also want to thank him for the excellent action portraits he put together of me and our static: