Confusion

(Unexpected Leveling)

August 15-17, 2008

Once again, my memories are a blur. And for the next several days I'm gonna have more recollection defections. My family is now on a new "school time" schedule, wherin ALL of us have to get up at about 6:15am. Many of you may look at that and wonder what the big deal is. Well, last year, only Ape had to get up that early, while the rest of us could sleep in an extra hour. Because of one kid being in middle school and the other still in elementary, the logistics are more complicated. But whatever. I'll be getting off work earlier too and may switch to pre-dinner partying since bedtime for all of us is 10 ~ 10:30pm now ><

Friday, after Tropic Thunder (massively funny, BTW) I logged in and both Fhox and Isa were still on, so we planned to hit Promy-Dem again. Before I headed out though, I told Fhox I was going to see if anyone bit on my flag, and I also needed time to sort gear. Isa was most helpful in tracking down Windy's Event Item storer so I could free up some storage space.

Once I had enough room in my Gobbiebag, and with no party requests, I outposted. Taking the Valkurm route was faster, and a lot less annoying. I did get held up a bit when I assisted the same player *twice* after he got aggro he didn't want. Dancer FTW!

Farming went well, although it was a lot shorter this time. We headed for the second floor almost at once and took on a half-dozen mobs before Fhox and Isa yawned their goodbyes. I didn't stay much longer and warped home.

Saturday started rough but would turn out fine. I got an invite while seeking on NIN22. Joshctc wanted to party in Qufim and once I made it in-zone he invited me. He was still building the party and having a bit of trouble. Zane, the only other partier so far, was offering advice. I asked Josh in PM if I could help and he replied he was going to help me. He had already said n party-chat that he was gonna hook me up with parties. Ummm... He was also WAR25/WHM07. Not very encouraging. If he hadn't already been wearing a pearl I'd have offered him one.

Fhox jumped on and asked what I was doing and I told him I was hopefully going to be leveing Ninja. I really wanted 23 so I could use Hojo and free up more inventory. As luck would have it, Fhox was *in* Qufim and came to a timely rescue when Josh and a Wight came together.

After more trouble with the party roster, he says he's going to bed and disbands. Then five minutes later, he's back. He grabs Nava and the Japanaese Taru that came in just before the bedtime announcement, then promotes Nava to leader and bails again. Thankfully, Nava was up to the task and we soon had a full roster of 6. She was a little concerned about not having a main healer and when I saw she was a Dancer, told her that she was it ^^. We also had two Blues and a Bard.

I offered to pull since no one else answered Nava's call, and I wasn't the tank (thankfully!). Omni, on PLD, took care of that. Even so, XP sucked. We were a spread of 22-25 and Qufim can really peter out at 23, even in a level-tight party. I voted we head to the jungle and everyone else agreed, once the 22's hit 23. We had an interesting time, with a little Wight and Banshee aggro but we did fine making our way back to Jeuno and the Airship.

Once there, we took the very first camp behind the wall and I was still pulling. This wouldn't go as well because there were no other parties in the area. Normally, having a zone all to yourself is teh win, but since nobody else was taking any gobs, I ran into adds a few times. I died twice (reraise, and a raise from Gunts - random PL) and zoned once or twice. But thankfully, I didn't get anyone else killed. Nava died once when a gob wandered into camp well after the pull. I don't think anyone noticed at first because she took a lot of damage before we reacted.

Our BRD seemed to be getting impatient with my pulling and he grabbed a couple on his own. Hey, it sucks but that path from the fort to the drop is narrow and there were two gobs roaming that stretch... Anyway, we stayed on for almost three hours and I had a nice time and got two levels.

After splitting up I did some shopping. Beetle Earrings (for NIN, DNC, PLD, WAR and BST) will add +6 Attack, and a Federation Knife will add +5 more to DNC. I didn't see any katana for NIN that would add anything besides low delay.

Sunday was an early on kind of day. I managed to pull the macros and screens from TheAlmighty, and then, other than some chatter with GD, not much. I leveled with Sufhi in Sea Serpent Grotto. This was MUCH better than bugs in the desert! Aside from the fact that Aerin is a natural bones-breaker, I think the mob levels were much closer to ideal than in Altepa. I got through 15 targets lickety-split and in fact, Sufhi bailed on me when #15 dropped and I was left with #16 and #17 (I was intentionally careless with -ga and AoEs).

I grabbed some more -ton ninjutsu while in the area and dumped my goodies on the Jeuno AH. I also asked Aleu to pass on my compliments to Nava on her party. And they mey be trying for another BCNM run once they analyze and strategize. During the reflections on the beating we took the first time, I joked about having screenies. They seemed a little surprised and I told them once I pulled them I'd post. Someone suggested the post be titled "GreenDeath gets Spanked". I would have used that, but the post was already written!

Also, I finally found out from Arch why he called it what he called it. It was simply his liking of the color green combined with the group's liking of mob elimination.

Oh, GD, the screens will be delayed because I can't send POL mail from my PS2 yet. I have no clue what my mail password is since I set it 18 months ago on my PS3... Once I get a response from S-E I'll post.

P.S. If I ever meet George Lucas, can someone make sure I kick him in the balls? Clone Wars wasn't as bad as people said, but damn. Battle droids should not be used for comic relief that way. Srsly. Jar-Jar? Sure, he's a living, sentient dork. But not droids. Please?