This Could Get Interesting

(Still not sure if it was worth the sleep deprivation)

I wasn't able to log in until almost 9, but I flagged up immediately on WHM hoping for any kind of party, Level Sync or otherwise. I got one invite quickly but then the player wrote back saying there was a change of plans.

I decided to take Sufhi out for a bit and about halfway through my first pearl I got another invite, to Qufim. It's probably been close to a year since I White Maged out there so I was nervous about doing a good job. I finished up a set of mobs and warped.

Based on the expectation that I could keep my gear, I made no effort to "re-gear" for the low 20's. Everything worked as descrived in the update but it was obvious lower-level pieces could work *better* in some cases, especially items with stat boosts/effects. Most of my leet WHM stuff was acting as "plain" equipment at 23, where we were synced.

Almost as soon as I joined the party between the lake and the tower, two adventurers had to run - Menelaus was one of them and I wondered if he was off to a LS event with Vagustae.

It took some doing but we eventually got 6 people together and killed stuff. I got just over 3k XP in about an hour and 15 minutes of actual fighting. I lamented that this bested my XP take for the previous 10 days.

Combat was tricky because I had no clue what I could cast and what I couldn't. I resorted to using the Magic menu and looking for non-grayed-out spells. I manually sorted as well to put things in a sensible order. By the time we went into the tower I had a pretty good setup going.

I think I did OK with buffs and cures. Nobody died anyways. And I wasn't the only one feeling awkward playing advanced jobs at beginner levels again ^^ The night's excitement came when our puller Chewtoy warned of a link. He zoned one while we took the other. However, another gob joined in and XP was dropping fast. I pulled out Benecide and thankfully, the gob was close enough to death that the crew put him down before any harm came of it.

Amid the cheers and gj's I shouted "Not on *MY* watch, Gob!" which got some cheers. Then Chewtoy (jokingly) said he could pull more links. I said, "Sure, in about two hours..." Giggle-time ^^

As midnight approached I worked on finding a rep but I couldn't get anyone to come to the tower. Sararose, our leader had already expressed frustration at people's pickiness to "power down". I can sympathize with the reluctantcy - While being able to run around at full power until actually IN the party is great for not dying on the way, the whole "optimal gear" thing is a problem. Technically, I was gear-gimped once I synced.

I warped out as they debated continuing or packing it in. Just before bed I checked on Sufhi. I got another appointment with the Empty, which I'll do after I burn off my last Tactics charge. But she's still 39. I could have sworn the last time I checked she said she was halfway, and tonight she said she had plenty of work to do... And I still can't trade "upgrade 3" gear to Luto for Sufhi's use, despite her AF bond being over 45. Argh.

In RDB I chatted briefly with Raki (killing time and crabs on the boat), Fhox, Isa, Dex and Kitty. But besides some fun with Raki, nobody was talking much. I jumped on GD briefly to see if Yalto or Aleu were on. It looks like Hurricane Ike might have a go at their area so I'm wondering how they're doing.