Swingin’ in the Sand with Sandrea

I logged in early today, at about 7, since Ape was headed to the Y for dance class. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do since I knew I couldn’t stay on too long past 9. My plans were set for me when Sandrea asked for a Raise in La Theine. I change, tele over and start walking over to her spot.

This was when I realized she was RDM16. Cue evil laugh here… I asked her if she’d mind duoing after her weakness passed. She agreed and after getting her to the Holla crystal, I warped back to change into my Paladin duds, remembering this time to grab my soon-to-be-usable Flame Sword, and some food. I decide the best way back to her in order to maximize XP time is to pay for a tele, so I shout gamely in Windy and after a minute or so, Ib-warp to Aht Urhgan. I wonder if regulars there enjoy seeing a tele-whore like me having to shout for a tele. Schadenfreude indeed.

In any case, I’m soon back in La Theine and we party up. She warns me she may need to leave early if her sis needed the computer and I said that was fine. Turns out, we would duo for almost 2 hours, with no deaths.

We started on La Theine’s stronger mobs but never got more than a pittance of XP. I suggested trying Valkurm, hopeful that at 16 and 17 we could take bunnies at least. After my first bunny pull was ruined by gob aggro, and we were forced to zone, we gave it another go. It turns out that a PLD17 and RDM16 can take T bunnies and gobs, just not at the same time.

Despite the presence of another duo + PL, we were able to find enough mobs to kill. We ran into low HP and/or MP a few times for a little {excitement} but by and large we did well. I tanked solidly and she opened with enfeebs and joined in the melee. We were both using Fire-based weaponskills, so no skillchains.

XP ran between the 40’s into the 100’s and we plugged away, even getting the odd EXP chain 1 or 2. I finally dinged 18 and changed swords. Even after going deep into 18, Sandrea (Andrea? Need to ask) hadn’t leveled. She must’ve dinged just before I arrived…

Not long after I hit 18, we headed for the Oasis in search of better XP. We tried Snips and on one particularly rough pull, both of us were in the low double-digits with no MP. On her final Cure II cast, I had to let her take a couple of hits when the Snip turned her way since I knew no more HP was coming my way. I still feel a little bad about it as a PLD, but as party leader I knew it was the right choice. We both survived and got good XP to boot.

I finally had to go after Ape’s return and bade her farewell. She elected to stay in the Dunes, perhaps to try farming her last SJ item, the worm.

Final notes: Aristobolus (sp), who was seeking near us and had tried soloing a bit, died and asked for a raise. While I was conferring with Sandrea about a visit to the Selbina moogle, the other duo’s PL ran over and did it. I kneeled to him, and went back to work ^^

Also, I don’t know if mithkabobs (the meaty treat Mithra love to eat!) are any better than pumpkins as tank/melee food. My performance clearly benefitted but I don’t know if one or the other actually works better. Why can’t Squeenix make stat-comparisons easier?

Also also, I finally did what one Bannable-Offenses poster suggested to [GM]Dave re: doujinshi. I checked out Futanari Fantasy XX – Thanks Atomic Skull!!! While it was as expected, more or less, I was surprised to see so many “interesting” interpretations of my chosen Mithra model. I guess the Rock Eaters were a bit of a surprise…