Tanks for the Memories!

(Lower-level loving at last!)

July 17-20, 2008

Thursday was a non-day: "Aerinravage was defeated by the DFLS." Many people have this problem and most seem to think it's DNS or firewall/port-blocking related. But I have an issue with PSN also, where I get dumped out randomly, and especially on entering or exiting PS3 mode from PS2 gameplay. Also, some reports suggest Linksys and FFXI don't like each other. NOW I find this out?!

So far, I have tried the following to improve connection reliability:
* Put TheAlmighty into the DMZ
* Turned off DHCP and statically mapped IPs and DNS settings
* Made sure uPnP was enabled on the router and in POL's net connection
* Changed DNS servers (currently using OpenNIC's 208.67.222.222 and 220.220)
* Set up port triggering per various recommendations (this should be redundant with uPnP but I'm desperate!)
* Set up port forwarding (see "redundant" note above")

Note that currently ALL SIX of these stratagems are in place now. I should only have had to enable uPnP but nope... As of the last change (forwarding) I got in 1/1. Let's see if it works again. If it doesn't I think I know what I'll be spending my $75 gift card on...

Friday was a Dunes party on Ninja. A party with some very nice people having a good time getting the s-l-o-w-e-s-t XP I think I've gotten in a party. But I'm really getting the hang of Ninja now, and did a good job holding hate and getting shadows up in a timely manner (usually). I'm pushing for Skillchain work in my melee parties now because faster kills means less grief, and it's just plain cool.

Saturday was more NIN action, but this time in Qufim. This party worked much better and the XP flowed in. I dinged twice this time, taking me to 22. Also, our leader and I discussed DDR after I broke out my Dance macro in response to his /dance emote. Took me a sec to realize he meant DDR when he asked if I could freestyle.

After about 3 hours I set up my rep (Mordare) and then we wound up with a link and two deaths besides mine. I told them I'd HP, come back on WHM, raise and then bail as my rep should be on site by then. The timing worked out perfectly too; Mordare was ready to take my spot once the raises were handled.

I eventually went AFK to put Ape to bed at about 2:30. I told them if I came back I'd PL. And about 45 minutes later I did. I don't know if he meant it but the leader teased my saying he didn't realize I'd been helping. :P I was glad to be there because twice they wound up with hard links that most likely would have ended at least one adventurer's activities.

Last night was Paladin's turn at the XP buffet. I got an invite from Fheyr (fear? neat) almost instantly and outposted. I'm convinced now that this is far better to reach any Qufim camp than going through Jeuno and having to get by the Weapons in the tunnels. Running from the OP to the lake camp takes only a few minutes, and it's easier IMHO to avoid aggro.

While the party started out all right, we had some trouble at the lake when not one, but BOTH banshees aggroed us while we worked on a worm. I used my Reraise scroll once I figured out the end was nigh but it failed to activate.

Now, get this... After homepointing with intent to raise, the party dissolves. I ask the leader what happened and he says he doesn't know. I stop near Rottata and poll the others - they either HPed themselves or survived. Then Fawnaa mentions that Fheyr said he had to go as it was late. She didn't seem happy - this was her first Qufim trip.

So I suck it up and try to rebuild the party as its leader. I'm able to get Fawnaa, Toiletpaper and Chiroptera back in, and two invites and five minutes later, we have a MNK and SMN to replace Fheyr and that other guy who left after the DB. We pick up where we left off, in the lake area. I took over pulling and did a good job there. When night fell I was able to successfully avoid spectral attention.

Tonight while tanking both parties, I did much better at hate control than in previous outings. In fact, I cure-voked more than once to pull a mage-hungry mob back to me before it made it to the back line. I got some SC action in, too. However, getting other melees to recognize {Ready to start skillchain!} as a sign to call their TP has been a so-so effort so far.

We pulled solid XP in both parties, with many dings, until Jet had to jet. At this, we had to downgrade to worms and T/VT snips instead of the IT's we had been creaming. Some worms still gave up 3-digit numbers but it was rough. And man, the lake got really crowded too! I think there were three full parties and at least one guy soloing!

All in all, a fine weekend and I managed not to stay up as late as last weekend.

Reflections:

While roaming Qufim, I stood near a NIN from another party. They were using elemental ninjutsu at our level. Clearly I'm under-equipped spell-wise. Time to find a good Ninja guide and go shopping.

My tanking is improving although I think I need to figure out why my damage output sucks. I turned off some of my party combat filters and others were routinely putting up 3x the damage I was, even for the same moves. I don't think it can be all weapon, as the Flame Sword I'm using is one of the nicer pieces DPS and effect-wise at these levels. I'm wondering if it's racial-my STR might be doing me in, or I may need more Att+ gear instead of Eva.

One example - my Shield Bash seems to only ever do 7-8 damage. Someone else this weekend was on PLD and was getting 42+ per bash! Whiskey Tango Hotel!

I think I'm getting into tanking. I really enjoy my time on these jobs now, even though I never thought I would. I still think it's because of my "protect the others" mentality that dominates my WHM. Being the one to soak up damage and control hate just means I'm saving them with different tools.

On looking at my Gamercard, I see that fully 8 of 10 jobs in use are magic- or magical-ability related: WHM, BLM, SCH, RDM, SMN, PLD, NIN and DNC. Even BST has some neat tricks but it and WAR are physical damage and ability only. These jobs are the only ones I use with NO party support ability, which may be why I'm not sold on them.

OK, TBH I usually go WAR/PLD for the cures and eventually Shield Bash. Plus PLD has some good bonuses too. But at 24 I may switch to /NIN and dual-wield axes and use shadows + Berserk for damage output effectiveness.

And of the magey jobs, I roll 7 of 8 with some level of party support (curing mostly). Only NIN/WAR has nothing for party members. It can enfeeble mobs and enhance me, but that's it. But it's soooo cool.

In RDB news, Wednesday will be another static and I'm wondering if it'll be a 30-level. I can go as either DNC or RDM at those levels, so I guess it should be a challenge.