Back to the Grind

June 11-12, 2008

On Wednesday night, I finished the leveling needed for my Melee-4 to wear the Bone set. I soloed BST for awhile in Tahronghi and dinged 16. I dealt mainly with Dhalmel pets and did OK even without Familiar, charming T’s in one or two tries.

Once that was done, I tried flagging WAR after making room for the Bone set in my gobbiebag. I got an invite from Sektor, and once again the camp was Korroloka. He was in Jeuno but told me to gather in Bastok. I teleported and rode as fast as my rental would run and only got beat to Bastok Mines by a few minutes. I grabbed another pumpkin from the AH and went to the MH to change jobs.

On exiting, the system locked up. I had to reset, and was terrified I would see an endless string of “Disconnecting from Lobby Server” errors, or a party partying with a rep in my place. Fortunately, I got right back in and met up in the tunnel.

The party itself went pretty well, but Sektor was a little overeager on the pulls, shorting the mages on mana a couple times. Our Dancer did a great job main-healing and the SCH and those with /WHM filled in the curing nicely. We went orange/red a lot but only had 3 deaths. Two were Sektor’s. He joked in party-chat that he’d be happy to main-tank if I wanted. Honestly I didn’t want to give it up but I don’t have a whole lot of hate-control tools yet. I went WAR/DNC again but may be able to start using /PLD for its hate-stealing JA’s.

I made it to 16, switching to the Bone set, and finished on 17. The +5 Eva and the higher def didn’t seem to make much of a difference, surprisingly enough.

I felt bad about the deaths but what can I do? I don’t have a high-enough sub yet to add good hate-control to my toolset. Or do I? What can DNC or PLD do at 8-10? I know I need to be a better WAR tank, and especially need to up the DD. My accuracy isn’t too bad but I’m hitting for crap. A lot of my Raging Axe attacks did single-digit damage. I don’t know if I need more Att+, Acc+ or Str+, but I do need something. Maybe there are some good 15-20 rings and belts to consider. At least all 4 of my melees could benefit!

On Thursday, I spent almost the ENTIRE 2 hours online dealing with inventory. I sold a lot of the older gear and put some of the Brass set up in Jeuno. It took three tries to actually get to Jeuno because the first time I Wildcat-warped, I took a T-T fare from Jeuno, after saying “Hi” to Gidgidoni. He mentioned he was ready for his RDM AF and I offered my help. He reciprocated.

The T-T was Emotionless, and I only interrupted my sales work because he was still shouting after I had gone into my MH and taken what I needed out of the safe. Before I finished casting, he added a friend. He then tried to pay me 4k but I refused, saying “One ride, one fare”. After some fumbling by all three of us, I got paid and they got the ride. But I didn’t make it to the AH counter.

The second time I landed in AU, I immediately got a tell from someone still in Windy desperate for a ride to Holla. Me being me, I warp back immediately, pick him up outside the MH and take him.

I finally get to the AH on the third try and put up a lot of junk. I hope some of it sells because I’m getting excited about having less gear to manage and maybe working out unified sets. WAR-NIN-PLD-BST and SMN-SCH. I think RDM and BLM will just have to stick with RSE unless I decide to go after BLM’s AF, assuming I go after Retrace.

Sitting in Jeuno, I decide to farm in the Ruins and so cast Tele-Mea. On the ride through the Canyon towards East Saruta, I get a PM from Dawar asking for Raise assistance, as the decedent’s HP is in Jeuno. I accept and ask for a position. (I-8) he tells me – cool, right near the Ruins! I zone in and after getting to the river I invite him to get the fix. Uh-oh, he’s at I-5. I ran past him… I ask for confirmation and he repeats I-8 and then realizes what he did. Oh well. I was already rounding the cliff.

I finally reach him and the dead guy, a Hume mule with a very Chinese + Taru style name. Sx-something. I Raise, buff, and leave the two of them. The Raise-ee sends appreciation in English but it’s easy to guess it’s not his mother tongue. Now birdless, I run towards the Ruins. Just as I’m approaching the tower, Dawar’s back on – our friend is dead again. /grrr.

I inform him it’s gonna take a bit with the cliff and no bird and he replies with “G5”. At first, I thought he was echoing my suspicions our friend was with the gilsellers, but then I saw it was a 5. Nonetheless, an anon, clearly low-level char with such a name and a HP in Jeuno smells fishy. Without evidence though…

I reach them after encountering a duo whom I buff, and ANOTHER dead guy. I raise Sx* once recast is good and decide it’s time to bolt: {please} {Take care!} – {White Mage} {Time for work!} I warp home and leave farming for another time.

Instead, I switch to SMN to prepare for the next RDB static, which Fhox wants Friday at 8pm. I indicate my desire to help but inability to log in that early. Fhox asks if another night of Desperate Housewives is on tap. Ignoring the bait I tell him not until the new season, and that it was movie night.

A couple of people seem interested in “The Happening” and I hope I can get home soon enough to be helpful. Also, both Vaughn and Yalto were on (I forgot to tell Fhox about my recruiting) and I got to tell the short, sad story of how I earned the title of “Paragon of White Mage {Amateur}”. I did stand up for my abilities a bit, tho’.

Hopefully Fhox will do some weekend statics too because I hated missing out on the one while I was in Missouri. PLing them instead of XPing kinda sucked, but whatever. I’m doing OK XP-wise right now.

On SMN, I was able to grab some good XP but not enough to ding. I’ll probably be underleveled with SMN by the time I can join the other Bridagers, who will presumably have a 4-hour head start. I also screwed up and tossed *eleven* Beehive Chips when trying to toss a single Yag Feather. That sucked! 4k gone…