I was hoping when I tracked down the winning Mog Bonanza numbers today that I would be able to buy a nice Mog House on a secluded piece of beachfront real estate. Nope. I got a page from Miratete’s Memoirs which is good for around 1k XP. I guess all in all it’s a wash because it would take me about as long to grind 1k as it did to farm 10k gil to buy the marbles. And it was fun waiting to see what would happen. Apparently there are *56* people across all worlds who will be getting a 100 million gil payout. Yikes!
The only other thing I did was get three more levels on SCH, now at 6. It’s getting a little easier to grind now that some magic is becoming available for nuking or healing. Once I get to 11 I’m going to buy the Doublet set for SCH and SMN to share and see if I can keep them matched for the next several levels.
As for the job itself, I haven’t really unlocked anything worth mentioning. I still don’t have access to my Grimoires, nor any other JA. Honestly, I’ve been playing like a BST, since it’s the most “offensive” sub I can put on SCH. With Stone, I can duo mobs using a DC pet and nukes and take out 5-6 in rapid succession for about 250XP per rest. It’s mindless work but easy and risk-minimal. Honestly, I think I can probably solo about 2k an hour if I can keep up a supply of mobs of the appropriate toughness and a suitable pet to duo with.
I figure by the time I claw my way to 11 or 12 and get proper gear (she’s wearing her wash day rags now) it’ll be time to party. It seems likely that both SMN and SCH will be desirable enough to get regular invites.
Now that I’ve had a taste of all 10 jobs I plan to level, I’ve found something to like about all of them, except for BST. Maybe I just do it wrong but soloing isn’t very fun on BST. I know I’m unconventional in that I stick with one strong pet rather than toss meat bombs at VT or higher enemies until they drop. I know I’m late to the whole Beastmaster party but having to worry about where the next sacrificial lamb (or rarab, or…) will come from while a truly horrifying mob is one swing away from heading straight for me just isn’t my thing.
There’s a good chance BST will only be used far enough to prop up the magey jobs when I can’t party, or for a diversion when other jobs are passed over while seeking.
Aerinravage's GamerCard
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Fighting Warrior
June 27-29, 2008
I may be getting more into WAR than I ever expected to, despite Saturday’s “interesting” party. But I need to do Friday’s update before getting into that. Actually, Friday was a long session with almost no activity. I happened to get off work early after going to an early off-site conference. I logged in with enough time to farm two sets of tests, one Gravity, and 4 daggers. I split the items between Windy and Jeuno and then logged off for the Friday festivities. After movie night (WALL-e) and saying goodnight to Ape, I logged back in, hoping to get a party on PLD or WAR.
I waited for over an hour, switching between them, and eventually fell asleep on the floor. I packed it in and hoped for more luck Saturday.
Since Ape had to babysit, and left at about 5:30, I was able to log in pretty early and wound up online for about 6 hours. Some of that was Brigader chat time, and some was LFG time. Eventually, I got an invite on WAR from Zanbuza and bound for Qufim. It took awhile to kick the party off properly but close to 8pm I was in Qufim with 4 other players. Zanbuza never did find a sixth. We messed about with worms and eventually made our way to the lake camp. I soon died, riiiight about the time Zanbuza DCed. He was the BLM and I suspect the loss of his nukes was enough to tip the balance in favor of the worm. It didn’t help that we pulled a link too.
Zanbuza never did log back in, leaving me with 3 Japanese players. Fortunately, they kept me and Neoshannyn took lead and began filling out the empty slots. Despite a player swap and the slow movement through the area, we did OK. There was a fair degree of wait time because of deaths. I died 4 times, including a full wipe when a Wight found us near the Conquest NPC tunnel.
I and another player worked pulls and by and large everyone worked as a team. I even picked up a friend as Doumone (sp) befriended me as he raised a couple of us.
By the end of the night, I had blown 4k on two pumpkins that were lost early in their life from death, and who knows how much XP from 3 raises and an HP. But I actually hit *21* and got about halfway to 22. I still didn’t unlock Shield Bash…
I don’t regret the party – it was quite fun in fact - and hope I did well enough in my role. I certainly did my best to be the first to drop after doing everything possible to keep damage spread evenly.
Sunday was another pretty long night ending far too late… /yawn Basically, I did my first post-update Campaign, helped Logjammin (and his buddy Sartoros) with Windy 2-3 (and gave him an RDB pearl in the process, and chatted with 10 other Brigaders – 11 at once is a new record!
The Dragon party was in Ghelsbpa this time, which was new for me. But we did well and had no drama. I got screenies too which will be posted soon. [edit 7/2: Here they are. Before, at the start, and after. Does that last shot's background look familiar?]
Campaign on the other hand, sucked. Really sucked. If this battle at Fort Karugo is representative of the new system I think I may have to pass on Campaign. I died well over 10 times, largely from the new Yagudo siege engine that had pulled up to our fortification and begun shelling it relentlessly. The blast zone from these shots was considerable and I found myself double-dying repeatedly. I also died a few times from cure hate and a few times by random enemy aggression while resting.
I got a number of raises from allies as well as the new NPC buffer, the Salvemixer. Even so, I nearly gave in but decided to see how it would turn out. I wound up with 1,200 XP and questions about what I would have gotten with fewer deaths. After this fiasco, I did a synth quest and flagged another.
Oh, almost forgot, I unlocked SCH last night. It turned out to be stupid easy. I spent 14k on vellum, teleported myself into the past, changed to RDM (Hi Fhox!) and cloaked my way into the Necropolis and found the NPC. It took maybe 40 minutes start to finish and there was no aggro. The CS was kinda neat though. I got SCH to level 3 before heading off to help Log.
Reflections: WAR isn’t so bad but I still don’t expect to take it much further. But I now prefer it to NIN tanking. Evasion is nice but I need to focus on accuracy. I miss far too often to build TP efficiently. And even with +7 Eva, I get hit quite frequently.
I may be getting more into WAR than I ever expected to, despite Saturday’s “interesting” party. But I need to do Friday’s update before getting into that. Actually, Friday was a long session with almost no activity. I happened to get off work early after going to an early off-site conference. I logged in with enough time to farm two sets of tests, one Gravity, and 4 daggers. I split the items between Windy and Jeuno and then logged off for the Friday festivities. After movie night (WALL-e) and saying goodnight to Ape, I logged back in, hoping to get a party on PLD or WAR.
I waited for over an hour, switching between them, and eventually fell asleep on the floor. I packed it in and hoped for more luck Saturday.
Since Ape had to babysit, and left at about 5:30, I was able to log in pretty early and wound up online for about 6 hours. Some of that was Brigader chat time, and some was LFG time. Eventually, I got an invite on WAR from Zanbuza and bound for Qufim. It took awhile to kick the party off properly but close to 8pm I was in Qufim with 4 other players. Zanbuza never did find a sixth. We messed about with worms and eventually made our way to the lake camp. I soon died, riiiight about the time Zanbuza DCed. He was the BLM and I suspect the loss of his nukes was enough to tip the balance in favor of the worm. It didn’t help that we pulled a link too.
Zanbuza never did log back in, leaving me with 3 Japanese players. Fortunately, they kept me and Neoshannyn took lead and began filling out the empty slots. Despite a player swap and the slow movement through the area, we did OK. There was a fair degree of wait time because of deaths. I died 4 times, including a full wipe when a Wight found us near the Conquest NPC tunnel.
I and another player worked pulls and by and large everyone worked as a team. I even picked up a friend as Doumone (sp) befriended me as he raised a couple of us.
By the end of the night, I had blown 4k on two pumpkins that were lost early in their life from death, and who knows how much XP from 3 raises and an HP. But I actually hit *21* and got about halfway to 22. I still didn’t unlock Shield Bash…
I don’t regret the party – it was quite fun in fact - and hope I did well enough in my role. I certainly did my best to be the first to drop after doing everything possible to keep damage spread evenly.
Sunday was another pretty long night ending far too late… /yawn Basically, I did my first post-update Campaign, helped Logjammin (and his buddy Sartoros) with Windy 2-3 (and gave him an RDB pearl in the process, and chatted with 10 other Brigaders – 11 at once is a new record!
The Dragon party was in Ghelsbpa this time, which was new for me. But we did well and had no drama. I got screenies too which will be posted soon. [edit 7/2: Here they are. Before, at the start, and after. Does that last shot's background look familiar?]
Campaign on the other hand, sucked. Really sucked. If this battle at Fort Karugo is representative of the new system I think I may have to pass on Campaign. I died well over 10 times, largely from the new Yagudo siege engine that had pulled up to our fortification and begun shelling it relentlessly. The blast zone from these shots was considerable and I found myself double-dying repeatedly. I also died a few times from cure hate and a few times by random enemy aggression while resting.I got a number of raises from allies as well as the new NPC buffer, the Salvemixer. Even so, I nearly gave in but decided to see how it would turn out. I wound up with 1,200 XP and questions about what I would have gotten with fewer deaths. After this fiasco, I did a synth quest and flagged another.
Oh, almost forgot, I unlocked SCH last night. It turned out to be stupid easy. I spent 14k on vellum, teleported myself into the past, changed to RDM (Hi Fhox!) and cloaked my way into the Necropolis and found the NPC. It took maybe 40 minutes start to finish and there was no aggro. The CS was kinda neat though. I got SCH to level 3 before heading off to help Log.
Reflections: WAR isn’t so bad but I still don’t expect to take it much further. But I now prefer it to NIN tanking. Evasion is nice but I need to focus on accuracy. I miss far too often to build TP efficiently. And even with +7 Eva, I get hit quite frequently.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Bonding with the Brigaders
Once again I logged in early in an attempt to get my FFXI thang on and still have time to hang with Ape and go to bed. When I finally made it in at about 8:30, there were nine other Brigaders on – I think this is the record. Fhox and four others were farming in Davoi and he asked if I’d like to join.
I normally don’t like this style of farming but figured it’d be fun to hang out with a group of Bridagers. After putting up last night’s loot at the AH, I made my way there and eventually found them.
While I expected I wouldn’t get to do much more than heal, it turns out the orcs we were killing were high-enough level-wise to offer skillups. So over the course of about an hour I got 2 in Staff and I think one each in Divine and Healing. I really need to update VanaCalc…
We found ourselves in low HP situations quite a bit since Fhox, Archer and I were the only high-levels. Ali, Enzio and Isabiel were here in their 20’s, and some of the AoE spam would really hurt them.
I did my best to hold or share hate with Fhox and Archer to minimize risk on the other three but Fhox and Archer’s RDM nuking and enfeebling made that hard. I could usually pull hate through my own AoE, Banish spam, or Curagas.
We had a number of deaths, too. Enzio bought it twice, and I did as well. Fhox had Escaped us during a major aggro beat-down but Enzio was dead and stranded. Fhox and I ran back in to get him and as we’re making our way to the tougher section of the map, my Reraise falls. I didn’t put it up immediately because Fhox was rushing to find Enzio and I figured we’d find a safe spot and tractor Enzio before raising him.
Unfortunately, I passed an orc (Warchief?) that thought a WHM68 would be fun to sharpen his blade on. Thinking Fhox was almost to Enzio, I try to run the mobs the other way so he can get Enzio to safety. This is about the time I realize I don’t have RR, and I can’t get Stoneskin up because of multiple hits coming from several directions. So I wind up dead in a corner.
Enzio must’ve been under guard because it took Fhox several minutes to get him raised. He finally made his way to me and cast Raise. I immediately threw up RR2 thinking we were going to relocate on foot. Instead, he cast Escape, just as RR2 landed. And, as FFXI loves to do, I managed to die, again, *after* the warp animation. A Farkiller started shooting arrows at me and although he missed initially, once he connected, it was a one-hit kill. After the warp.
So Fhox is outside again and I’m still dead. I explain what happened and he comes back in. Several more minutes later, he’s casting Tractor. It fails because RR breaks Tractor for some reason. I didn’t want to dump RR2 because I was losing enough XP, but left it to Fhox to call. He didn’t care but wanted me to do something fast, as a few orcs, including my murderer, are now beating his Stoneskin to nothing.
I go ahead and pop and immediately cast Tele-Mea since it’s a faster cast than Warp or Escape. Well, I would have, but I was out of MP. And Fhox had managed to Escape. ONCE AGAIN, I’m stuck by myself amidst a group of bloodthirsty orcs. But at least this time, I’m still alive. I manage to get sneak and invisible up just as the orcs “unlock” from Fhox. They turned towards me but didn’t aggro.
I am literally sweating as I try to find a place I can rest and finally cast my way out of this deathtrap. I pick a corner behind a hut and wait for my refresh to do its thing, fearful that I’d pull hate by resting. Once I can, I zap myself away to Holla and rejoin the gang after a long run. We pretty much split up at this point because it was late, Archer had a company tour to arrange in the morning, and I was past time too.
Actually, as we were playing the “find a way to keep Aerin alive” game, Matt and I watched Naruto together from 10:30 to 11, as he was bored and banned from his DS. We chatted about the repetitive structure of the show and the sheer amount of dialogue. By the time Naruto had ended, I had wrapped things up and teleported Enzio and Ali to Holla and logged off.
Quotable quotes:
Fhox: {Amateur}
Me: These orcs don’t think I’m an {Amateur}. They consider me a {Veteran} pincushion!
Fhox (Upon returning to raise me): Who’s yer daddy?
Me: Well, you *do* have the Pimp Hat on, and I *am* a tele-whore, so….
Reflections: This was a lot of fun but with too much frustration, mostly because I died a lot. I’ve clearly been away from WHM for too long if I let RR fall so casually. I should have done a better job keeping my buffs up in full tank mode but I didn’t. Also, Enzio didn’t need to die that one time – I thought he was Converting but he wasn’t even on RDM…
Speaking of RDMs, I chastised both Fhox and Archer for not party-warning ahead of Converts. This is one of my pet peeves as a main healer. Normally, the RDM wouldn’t be in battle and would often be where I could see them, and see they were just fine. But since this party was in {Full attack!} mode, both Fhox and Archer were taking damage regularly. So Converts just really freaked me out. As it turns out, Fhox did add a party chat line for his Convert macro, but it doesn’t have a delay between the warn and the ability use… And Archer wanted to but needed macro help.
I’m going to spend time this weekend and move the screenshots I’ve taken from the PS3 to my Yahoo account. I really want to get some good ones pulled and added to the blog. Every time we do a Brigader party, Fhox asks if I brought the camera. I try to remember to take screenies (I did today) but I don’t do anything with them.
And finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about Aerin as a character. I’m cool with her looks and basic mannerisms, but she needs a voice! I’ve turned over several “she sounds like” voices, and haven’t really found one I like. I started wanting something a little raspy or guttural to go along with her feline nature and the odd “grunts” that play during combat.
But the more I think about it, I may have to raise the pitch a bit in light of her small size. Enzio had fun standing next to me making me feel small, again. For now, the kind of voices I’ve considered for Aer sound like these: The Major (GitS), Lady Tsunade (Naruto), Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), Amy Lee (Evanescence), Elaine (Seinfeld) and Cuddy (House).
I normally don’t like this style of farming but figured it’d be fun to hang out with a group of Bridagers. After putting up last night’s loot at the AH, I made my way there and eventually found them.
While I expected I wouldn’t get to do much more than heal, it turns out the orcs we were killing were high-enough level-wise to offer skillups. So over the course of about an hour I got 2 in Staff and I think one each in Divine and Healing. I really need to update VanaCalc…
We found ourselves in low HP situations quite a bit since Fhox, Archer and I were the only high-levels. Ali, Enzio and Isabiel were here in their 20’s, and some of the AoE spam would really hurt them.I did my best to hold or share hate with Fhox and Archer to minimize risk on the other three but Fhox and Archer’s RDM nuking and enfeebling made that hard. I could usually pull hate through my own AoE, Banish spam, or Curagas.
We had a number of deaths, too. Enzio bought it twice, and I did as well. Fhox had Escaped us during a major aggro beat-down but Enzio was dead and stranded. Fhox and I ran back in to get him and as we’re making our way to the tougher section of the map, my Reraise falls. I didn’t put it up immediately because Fhox was rushing to find Enzio and I figured we’d find a safe spot and tractor Enzio before raising him.
Unfortunately, I passed an orc (Warchief?) that thought a WHM68 would be fun to sharpen his blade on. Thinking Fhox was almost to Enzio, I try to run the mobs the other way so he can get Enzio to safety. This is about the time I realize I don’t have RR, and I can’t get Stoneskin up because of multiple hits coming from several directions. So I wind up dead in a corner.
Enzio must’ve been under guard because it took Fhox several minutes to get him raised. He finally made his way to me and cast Raise. I immediately threw up RR2 thinking we were going to relocate on foot. Instead, he cast Escape, just as RR2 landed. And, as FFXI loves to do, I managed to die, again, *after* the warp animation. A Farkiller started shooting arrows at me and although he missed initially, once he connected, it was a one-hit kill. After the warp.
So Fhox is outside again and I’m still dead. I explain what happened and he comes back in. Several more minutes later, he’s casting Tractor. It fails because RR breaks Tractor for some reason. I didn’t want to dump RR2 because I was losing enough XP, but left it to Fhox to call. He didn’t care but wanted me to do something fast, as a few orcs, including my murderer, are now beating his Stoneskin to nothing.
I go ahead and pop and immediately cast Tele-Mea since it’s a faster cast than Warp or Escape. Well, I would have, but I was out of MP. And Fhox had managed to Escape. ONCE AGAIN, I’m stuck by myself amidst a group of bloodthirsty orcs. But at least this time, I’m still alive. I manage to get sneak and invisible up just as the orcs “unlock” from Fhox. They turned towards me but didn’t aggro.
I am literally sweating as I try to find a place I can rest and finally cast my way out of this deathtrap. I pick a corner behind a hut and wait for my refresh to do its thing, fearful that I’d pull hate by resting. Once I can, I zap myself away to Holla and rejoin the gang after a long run. We pretty much split up at this point because it was late, Archer had a company tour to arrange in the morning, and I was past time too.
Actually, as we were playing the “find a way to keep Aerin alive” game, Matt and I watched Naruto together from 10:30 to 11, as he was bored and banned from his DS. We chatted about the repetitive structure of the show and the sheer amount of dialogue. By the time Naruto had ended, I had wrapped things up and teleported Enzio and Ali to Holla and logged off.
Quotable quotes:Fhox: {Amateur}
Me: These orcs don’t think I’m an {Amateur}. They consider me a {Veteran} pincushion!
Fhox (Upon returning to raise me): Who’s yer daddy?
Me: Well, you *do* have the Pimp Hat on, and I *am* a tele-whore, so….
Reflections: This was a lot of fun but with too much frustration, mostly because I died a lot. I’ve clearly been away from WHM for too long if I let RR fall so casually. I should have done a better job keeping my buffs up in full tank mode but I didn’t. Also, Enzio didn’t need to die that one time – I thought he was Converting but he wasn’t even on RDM…
Speaking of RDMs, I chastised both Fhox and Archer for not party-warning ahead of Converts. This is one of my pet peeves as a main healer. Normally, the RDM wouldn’t be in battle and would often be where I could see them, and see they were just fine. But since this party was in {Full attack!} mode, both Fhox and Archer were taking damage regularly. So Converts just really freaked me out. As it turns out, Fhox did add a party chat line for his Convert macro, but it doesn’t have a delay between the warn and the ability use… And Archer wanted to but needed macro help.
I’m going to spend time this weekend and move the screenshots I’ve taken from the PS3 to my Yahoo account. I really want to get some good ones pulled and added to the blog. Every time we do a Brigader party, Fhox asks if I brought the camera. I try to remember to take screenies (I did today) but I don’t do anything with them.
And finally, I’ve been thinking a lot about Aerin as a character. I’m cool with her looks and basic mannerisms, but she needs a voice! I’ve turned over several “she sounds like” voices, and haven’t really found one I like. I started wanting something a little raspy or guttural to go along with her feline nature and the odd “grunts” that play during combat.
But the more I think about it, I may have to raise the pitch a bit in light of her small size. Enzio had fun standing next to me making me feel small, again. For now, the kind of voices I’ve considered for Aer sound like these: The Major (GitS), Lady Tsunade (Naruto), Faye Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), Amy Lee (Evanescence), Elaine (Seinfeld) and Cuddy (House).
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Patience is Key
Ape and I met for dinner and the Y last night, but I left while she was still in her dance class. So naturally, I logged in to FFXI. I was hoping to find Aleu and help her with her keys and just maybe, log out around 10 or 10:30.
I made it in around 8:30, and she was ready to go. When I asked who needed key help, she enthusiastically replied, “Me me me” and Ali and Enzio asked for help too. Since that couple only needed the Palborough Chest Key and Aleu needed all three, I figured we’d start there so Ali and Enzio could cut out once the keys had dropped.
I made my way to Jeuno via Ibwam and after changing jobs to WHM (so-o-o refreshing) I went to track down Aleu after sending the invite. That’s when Lordbrax PMed me to ask if I was in a party. I told him I was helping shell-mates with keys and he wanted to know if it was Coffer keys we were after. Nope, just Kazham Airship Pass items. Even so, he *still* wanted in. I had already tele’d Aleu out to Holla to meet the others and he said he could get a tele. So we waited, for like 2 minutes, and *poof* he appears.
We tele to Dem and start the ride when I realize Brax is headed to Gusgen Mines. I asked him if that led to Palborough but he didn’t answer at first. So we zone in (waste of choco fees ><) and start walking in. At the first intersection, I clear the room by casting Diaga to get the skeles’ attention and waste all 5 with Banishga II. This earned me a few oohs and ahhs from my mage buddies.
Brax appeared not far from us, just to the east and we ran to meet him. Going through the zone landed us in Oldton Movalpolis. We had one problem – Enzio hadn’t registered whatever expansion includes Oldton and couldn’t zone in. So he and Ali agreed to meet us after traveling the normal choco route.
I wanted to go with them. I really didn’t want to trek through this area to reach Palborough – the mobs here would eat my Brigader friends for lunch, and use me as the dessert. Turns out, that wasn’t the plan. I learned a new super-great shortcut: Gusgen > Oldton > Escape > N. Gustaberg. In like 5 minutes. And near both the Pal Mines entrance and Bastok. In the wise words of Frank Barone: “HOLY CRAP!”
Once we zoned into Pal Mines, I figured I’d be doing the fighting and they’d hang back since they were around the low 20’s, but it would turn out that even at that level they can handle their business fine. We eventually split up with Brax taking the southwest pocket of key mobs while Aleu and I went for the southeast. Eventually, one dropped and Aleu lotted and received her prize. We kept killing anyway because that one drop (even with Brax’s TH2) took forever.
By the time the second had dropped Ali and Enzio had made it in. As keys dropped, they lotted and eventually all three Brigaders had the Pal Chest Key. Aleu and I met up with Brax, Escaped, and then I went back in to collect Enzio and Ali. Once all 5 of us were together, they said their thanks and took off. Brax, Aleu and I then teled to Mea to hunt the Giddeus key. I chose this leg specifically because I knew I was going to have to bail soon – it was already after 10, and Ape was back.
After a long choco ride to Giddeus and the inevitable hole / ledge confusion reaching the area far south with the high-level birds we needed, we finally got Aleu’s second key. I think Brax had to make two runs to reach the mobs while Aleu and I had to do it three times. I had it right the first time, until I stepped over a one-way ledge… The second time I forgot which way I was headed altogether - /sigh
This one key took about an hour to get, so once we were Escaped and back on the Saruta plains, I had to bail. Aleu was super happy and thankful and I paid my respects to Brax for his spontaneous offer of aid. I even tried to pay him, for the help but especially for the Gustaberg shortcut. After recently learning of the Altep > Korroloka shortcut, I may need to look into all the ways Escape can help me get around.
As I was checking out, he and Aleu continued on - I'll have to see if they got the final key. Nice guy that Brax!
I made it in around 8:30, and she was ready to go. When I asked who needed key help, she enthusiastically replied, “Me me me” and Ali and Enzio asked for help too. Since that couple only needed the Palborough Chest Key and Aleu needed all three, I figured we’d start there so Ali and Enzio could cut out once the keys had dropped.
I made my way to Jeuno via Ibwam and after changing jobs to WHM (so-o-o refreshing) I went to track down Aleu after sending the invite. That’s when Lordbrax PMed me to ask if I was in a party. I told him I was helping shell-mates with keys and he wanted to know if it was Coffer keys we were after. Nope, just Kazham Airship Pass items. Even so, he *still* wanted in. I had already tele’d Aleu out to Holla to meet the others and he said he could get a tele. So we waited, for like 2 minutes, and *poof* he appears.
We tele to Dem and start the ride when I realize Brax is headed to Gusgen Mines. I asked him if that led to Palborough but he didn’t answer at first. So we zone in (waste of choco fees ><) and start walking in. At the first intersection, I clear the room by casting Diaga to get the skeles’ attention and waste all 5 with Banishga II. This earned me a few oohs and ahhs from my mage buddies.
Brax appeared not far from us, just to the east and we ran to meet him. Going through the zone landed us in Oldton Movalpolis. We had one problem – Enzio hadn’t registered whatever expansion includes Oldton and couldn’t zone in. So he and Ali agreed to meet us after traveling the normal choco route.
I wanted to go with them. I really didn’t want to trek through this area to reach Palborough – the mobs here would eat my Brigader friends for lunch, and use me as the dessert. Turns out, that wasn’t the plan. I learned a new super-great shortcut: Gusgen > Oldton > Escape > N. Gustaberg. In like 5 minutes. And near both the Pal Mines entrance and Bastok. In the wise words of Frank Barone: “HOLY CRAP!”
Once we zoned into Pal Mines, I figured I’d be doing the fighting and they’d hang back since they were around the low 20’s, but it would turn out that even at that level they can handle their business fine. We eventually split up with Brax taking the southwest pocket of key mobs while Aleu and I went for the southeast. Eventually, one dropped and Aleu lotted and received her prize. We kept killing anyway because that one drop (even with Brax’s TH2) took forever.
By the time the second had dropped Ali and Enzio had made it in. As keys dropped, they lotted and eventually all three Brigaders had the Pal Chest Key. Aleu and I met up with Brax, Escaped, and then I went back in to collect Enzio and Ali. Once all 5 of us were together, they said their thanks and took off. Brax, Aleu and I then teled to Mea to hunt the Giddeus key. I chose this leg specifically because I knew I was going to have to bail soon – it was already after 10, and Ape was back.
After a long choco ride to Giddeus and the inevitable hole / ledge confusion reaching the area far south with the high-level birds we needed, we finally got Aleu’s second key. I think Brax had to make two runs to reach the mobs while Aleu and I had to do it three times. I had it right the first time, until I stepped over a one-way ledge… The second time I forgot which way I was headed altogether - /sigh
This one key took about an hour to get, so once we were Escaped and back on the Saruta plains, I had to bail. Aleu was super happy and thankful and I paid my respects to Brax for his spontaneous offer of aid. I even tried to pay him, for the help but especially for the Gustaberg shortcut. After recently learning of the Altep > Korroloka shortcut, I may need to look into all the ways Escape can help me get around.
As I was checking out, he and Aleu continued on - I'll have to see if they got the final key. Nice guy that Brax!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Weekday Warrior
OK, so maybe I don’t hate Warrior quite as much. Or maybe this party was just a lot more fun. In any case, I logged in around 7, hoping to get done by 10pm and then hang with Ape until bedtime. I got an invite around 7:30 from Sprinzer(?) and accepted. Since I always use auto-trans when first joining a party, this prompted him to ask if I spoke English. I said, “Most days, yes ^^”
I made sure I had a pumpkin and arrows before outposting to the Dunes. We had some time to kill while we waited for our 6th and so we chatted a bit. Turns out Justice was a total initiate in the world of gaming. And many of these players besides our PLD were relatively new to FFXI. I did my best to be helpful and encouraging, pre-party and during. Which began when we got our Corsair, Fui.
We started out in the Oasis and after some confusion who would pull (I think our leader wanted Fui to), I stepped up and tried out my new pull with arrows macro. The Snipper I’d chosen was going down smoothly when I noticed Eternia (sp) fighting a Leech. I shouted to the party that, “THESE LINK! {Take care.}” It didn’t matter. Just as we took out the first one, a sympathetic leech joined in and we started dying. Some bystanders tried to help but would die as well. The PLD and I HPed and changed outfits to Raise. There were 5 deaths total, including ours. But fortunately, the rest of the night would go pretty well, with only one more death.
After maxing out the XP at the Oasis, we moved to the regular beach, and then to Secret Beach. By then, I’d really gotten the kinks out of my pull macro. And we got a PL too – Ronuma. XP got better off the pugs here and we had less competition for the mobs.
At one point, Ronuma asked us to stop voking to which I responded, “I’m trying to hold unless mob goes for mages”. His answer? Don’t voke then either and he’ll re-pull hate by curing the mage. I may have to steal that idea but I’m not convinced it would work if we were seriously over-reaching with our pulls. These pugs were pretty much level appropriate for our group. Something a few levels higher, as made possible by a PL, could likely wipe a weak / off-guard mage with a TP move.
Another interesting twist came when Aeries said he had to go get food IRL. After some back and forth, he apparently did leave, and our leader kicked him. I understood the reasoning, but didn’t agree. I’d rather let a good player leech a little XP rather than kick them and leave them defenseless. If the player was a known leecher or was otherwise not helpful, that’s different.
That said, the slot was still open when I grabbed a rep just after 10, a BLU17 called Hirana, IIRC. For a few pulls, I stayed in with him, and then eventually said my goodbyes.
Overall, this was a much more enjoyable Dunes party than most recent ones. Partly because things went well, and partly because I didn’t have to sole-tank. I split hate with our PLD and even without Ronuma PLing, it was all working well. Also, this was a much more *fun* group – our leader insisted we all have fun and not get too serious. My only retort there was to insist I wanted to do my job well (tanking) so everyone else could have fun. But other than that, I was in total agreement – we did really have fun!
I hit 18 but haven’t popped any PLD abilities yet, so I still can’t use those for extra hate control. I probably need to hit 20 for that. Also, I committed to help Aleu out with her Kazham airship pass items, so that’ll probably be my focus the next couple nights.
I may stick with WAR to 20 and see how /PLD affects it then and depending on my experience, will grind some more or switch back to NIN and PLD to get them over 20. Not being able to choco places sucks…
I made sure I had a pumpkin and arrows before outposting to the Dunes. We had some time to kill while we waited for our 6th and so we chatted a bit. Turns out Justice was a total initiate in the world of gaming. And many of these players besides our PLD were relatively new to FFXI. I did my best to be helpful and encouraging, pre-party and during. Which began when we got our Corsair, Fui.
We started out in the Oasis and after some confusion who would pull (I think our leader wanted Fui to), I stepped up and tried out my new pull with arrows macro. The Snipper I’d chosen was going down smoothly when I noticed Eternia (sp) fighting a Leech. I shouted to the party that, “THESE LINK! {Take care.}” It didn’t matter. Just as we took out the first one, a sympathetic leech joined in and we started dying. Some bystanders tried to help but would die as well. The PLD and I HPed and changed outfits to Raise. There were 5 deaths total, including ours. But fortunately, the rest of the night would go pretty well, with only one more death.
After maxing out the XP at the Oasis, we moved to the regular beach, and then to Secret Beach. By then, I’d really gotten the kinks out of my pull macro. And we got a PL too – Ronuma. XP got better off the pugs here and we had less competition for the mobs.
At one point, Ronuma asked us to stop voking to which I responded, “I’m trying to hold unless mob goes for mages”. His answer? Don’t voke then either and he’ll re-pull hate by curing the mage. I may have to steal that idea but I’m not convinced it would work if we were seriously over-reaching with our pulls. These pugs were pretty much level appropriate for our group. Something a few levels higher, as made possible by a PL, could likely wipe a weak / off-guard mage with a TP move.
Another interesting twist came when Aeries said he had to go get food IRL. After some back and forth, he apparently did leave, and our leader kicked him. I understood the reasoning, but didn’t agree. I’d rather let a good player leech a little XP rather than kick them and leave them defenseless. If the player was a known leecher or was otherwise not helpful, that’s different.
That said, the slot was still open when I grabbed a rep just after 10, a BLU17 called Hirana, IIRC. For a few pulls, I stayed in with him, and then eventually said my goodbyes.
Overall, this was a much more enjoyable Dunes party than most recent ones. Partly because things went well, and partly because I didn’t have to sole-tank. I split hate with our PLD and even without Ronuma PLing, it was all working well. Also, this was a much more *fun* group – our leader insisted we all have fun and not get too serious. My only retort there was to insist I wanted to do my job well (tanking) so everyone else could have fun. But other than that, I was in total agreement – we did really have fun!
I hit 18 but haven’t popped any PLD abilities yet, so I still can’t use those for extra hate control. I probably need to hit 20 for that. Also, I committed to help Aleu out with her Kazham airship pass items, so that’ll probably be my focus the next couple nights.
I may stick with WAR to 20 and see how /PLD affects it then and depending on my experience, will grind some more or switch back to NIN and PLD to get them over 20. Not being able to choco places sucks…
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Friendly Fire
June 20-22, 2008
I don’t really remember Friday, but I don’t think I got a party. I do remember a lengthy conversation with Stoik while flagged up on NIN. He and I commiserated about girl troubles (Ape, my stories were all before you so put that hammer down please!).
Saturday was a late-night affair in the Dunes on NIN. I had originally gotten an invite from Bigweezy who informed me he was still building the party. Then about 15 minutes later he says he got an invite of his own. He may have tried to get me space but I don’t remember-I was too annoyed at that point.
I had been chatting with Archer who had just gotten his own invite on his PLD but his group didn’t have any space and Bigweezy was not his leader. However, about 30 minutes later, I get an invite from Oghr. I accept and OP warp. On tracking down the party on the Secret Beach, I see Bigweezy.
It turns out Oghr had invited him before me and that’s what had happened to him. It also turns out that they booted him for gimping the XP, opening a slot for me. And for the next neat thing, this was the party Archer had gotten into.
So for about 3 hours we grind away with me as the puller. Archer and I were doing our best to out-voke each other but since nobody set any role expectations, meh. In fact, other than Oghr and his alt Plantice on PL duty, there was very little communication.
I won’t dive into every detail but basically, voke-pulling sucks, I tweaked my macros to alert rhe party to pulls and TP readiness, and I died three times. The first was my fault, falling to 3x Bounty Hunter love while fishing for fish in the far west tree-lined cove thingy. The second was combat-related (pug hit + special IIRC) and the third, well…
Our PL went AFK, which meant Oghr was also AFK. Being about 200 away from 19 I start pulling Snips which the 5 active players can handle easily. Returning from a snip pull, I see Archer fighting off a pug. So now we have two mobs, 5 players and no PL or BLM for Sleep. Archer and I both bite it.
Annoyed, I ask the party who pulled. Annoyed partly because I was dead and partly because the leader had made me the puller and I had announced the pull. Turns out it was Archer! He didn’t know the PL was AFK, or that Oghr and Plantice were one and the same. I may still need to /slap him the next time I see him.
When Oghr returned, he was stunned to see two corpses and a lot of low HP. He asked what happened and I throw Archer under the bus. A couple more Raises and we fight our way to our levels. By now, it’s 4:30 and plans to head to Qufim are abandoned.
Sunday was another non-day. I logged in and flagged up but bailed soon after so I could work on MGS4 and MGO and because we were doing Family Movie Night featuring Temple of Doom.
Reflections: Do not EVER go as WAR or NIN again without arrows or other ranged. Voke-pulling is too short-ranged to do safely and it slows things down.
Other than that, I was ok with my performance. I was able to mostly hold hate but I hit for a lot of zeroes. I unfiltered party combat to see many of the others having the same issues so maybe it was a combat thing.
NIN tanking still kinda bites. I think PLD is where it’s at but if I want to take DNC to 75 I think I have to have /NIN…
I don’t really remember Friday, but I don’t think I got a party. I do remember a lengthy conversation with Stoik while flagged up on NIN. He and I commiserated about girl troubles (Ape, my stories were all before you so put that hammer down please!).
Saturday was a late-night affair in the Dunes on NIN. I had originally gotten an invite from Bigweezy who informed me he was still building the party. Then about 15 minutes later he says he got an invite of his own. He may have tried to get me space but I don’t remember-I was too annoyed at that point.
I had been chatting with Archer who had just gotten his own invite on his PLD but his group didn’t have any space and Bigweezy was not his leader. However, about 30 minutes later, I get an invite from Oghr. I accept and OP warp. On tracking down the party on the Secret Beach, I see Bigweezy.
It turns out Oghr had invited him before me and that’s what had happened to him. It also turns out that they booted him for gimping the XP, opening a slot for me. And for the next neat thing, this was the party Archer had gotten into.
So for about 3 hours we grind away with me as the puller. Archer and I were doing our best to out-voke each other but since nobody set any role expectations, meh. In fact, other than Oghr and his alt Plantice on PL duty, there was very little communication.
I won’t dive into every detail but basically, voke-pulling sucks, I tweaked my macros to alert rhe party to pulls and TP readiness, and I died three times. The first was my fault, falling to 3x Bounty Hunter love while fishing for fish in the far west tree-lined cove thingy. The second was combat-related (pug hit + special IIRC) and the third, well…
Our PL went AFK, which meant Oghr was also AFK. Being about 200 away from 19 I start pulling Snips which the 5 active players can handle easily. Returning from a snip pull, I see Archer fighting off a pug. So now we have two mobs, 5 players and no PL or BLM for Sleep. Archer and I both bite it.
Annoyed, I ask the party who pulled. Annoyed partly because I was dead and partly because the leader had made me the puller and I had announced the pull. Turns out it was Archer! He didn’t know the PL was AFK, or that Oghr and Plantice were one and the same. I may still need to /slap him the next time I see him.
When Oghr returned, he was stunned to see two corpses and a lot of low HP. He asked what happened and I throw Archer under the bus. A couple more Raises and we fight our way to our levels. By now, it’s 4:30 and plans to head to Qufim are abandoned.
Sunday was another non-day. I logged in and flagged up but bailed soon after so I could work on MGS4 and MGO and because we were doing Family Movie Night featuring Temple of Doom.
Reflections: Do not EVER go as WAR or NIN again without arrows or other ranged. Voke-pulling is too short-ranged to do safely and it slows things down.
Other than that, I was ok with my performance. I was able to mostly hold hate but I hit for a lot of zeroes. I unfiltered party combat to see many of the others having the same issues so maybe it was a combat thing.
NIN tanking still kinda bites. I think PLD is where it’s at but if I want to take DNC to 75 I think I have to have /NIN…
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Defeating Evil Through Dance
June 18-19, 2008
Wednesday was a non-day, since all I did was log in to check auctions.
Thursday, I jumped on at about 10 (thinking it was 9) and soon got a party on Dancer. I really wanted to ding 30 for the new abilities, armor options and satisfaction of progress. When invited by Kimka, I was told we were headed to Sauromugue Champaign to fight evil. Evil Weapons that is. I don’t think I’ve ever camped here, although it’s convenient to Garlaige, the next stop in the level grind.
We were loaded on the healing, with two dancers, Opobant and me and a WHM, Americanangel. We even had a PL. We also had a NIN and DRK if I recall, and 4 of us could cast Utsusemi. The party was largely easygoing, with all of the heal-capables throwing out HP boosts. I handled Quickstep and Opo did Box to enfeeb. Darion (sp), our ninja, used a couple of the elemental ninjutsu techniques as well. For the most part, the Weapons went down smoothly, but not too quickly. I believe my Quicksteps helped some, seeming to really kick in at level 3.
Pretty deep into the party, American quizzes me in party chat about tnl and I reply. Later she PMs and I reply again. She (and probably the others) were concerned about me gimping XP because, once again, I was the lowest-leveled. I did finally ding and we carried on until Darion got wiped out by a Weapon. I had been standing up looking for cough drops on the coffee table and had looked away for a minute. I checked the screen and saw him in the yellow so I reach for my Curing Waltz II macro. What I didn’t see was that the Weapon had already prepped Smite of Rage and it landed before I could take a single step.
The rest of us finished the Weapon and literally, NOT ONE WORD was said in public or party chat. Our PL raised, and he waited out weakness in silence. I felt really bad but wonder why neither Opo nor American did anything either. I can only assume Darion’s shadows fell and he got rocked by a hard hit or crit, and Smite landed too quickly for anyone to stick anything on him.
Speaking of that, this particular PL didn’t impress me. I don’t recall his name, and I know PLs are usually volunteers, but he seemed to focus more on enhancing magic, and we had to cure a *lot* more than I’m used to in a PLed party. He definitely helped, but he didn’t seem focused on the tank or main melees. Darion and someone else went orange far too often.
Near midnight, I PM Kimka and ask if he wants a rep. He does, and the seeking players don’t excite. Only a pair of 30’s, which wouldn’t help the XP. He asks instead for me to find a DNC32, and I search all players, finding two. Marlaa responds almost immediately to my blind invite and after 10 minutes or so, she’s on hand to rep me. I say my goodbyes and head back to Jeuno.
I take a few more minutes to change back to WHM, warp home, and check out the level 30 gear available from our War Warlocks. Opo was wearing a strange mix of gear and or course he was probably kicking my butt on accuracy and damage. He had a couple of the Mercenary’s items which I can buy for 4k CP each. I need to find out what stat boosts accuracy and what helps evasion because if I swap the Bone/Beetle gear I need to know it won’t make me a worse dancer.
Oh, speaking of Opo, before we got rolling, I joked about how tall he was compared to me. He’s Elvaan, but I think I might have been half his height.
Now, as for the mention of the miscue on the clock read… I thought I was going to play for 2 hours, ending at 11, and go to bed when Ape did. Since I started late and we were fully involved, I had to skip out and she got upset. I need to make it up to her, and since she’s roped me into game night at Cari’s maybe that’s how ^^
Wednesday was a non-day, since all I did was log in to check auctions.
Thursday, I jumped on at about 10 (thinking it was 9) and soon got a party on Dancer. I really wanted to ding 30 for the new abilities, armor options and satisfaction of progress. When invited by Kimka, I was told we were headed to Sauromugue Champaign to fight evil. Evil Weapons that is. I don’t think I’ve ever camped here, although it’s convenient to Garlaige, the next stop in the level grind.
We were loaded on the healing, with two dancers, Opobant and me and a WHM, Americanangel. We even had a PL. We also had a NIN and DRK if I recall, and 4 of us could cast Utsusemi. The party was largely easygoing, with all of the heal-capables throwing out HP boosts. I handled Quickstep and Opo did Box to enfeeb. Darion (sp), our ninja, used a couple of the elemental ninjutsu techniques as well. For the most part, the Weapons went down smoothly, but not too quickly. I believe my Quicksteps helped some, seeming to really kick in at level 3.
Pretty deep into the party, American quizzes me in party chat about tnl and I reply. Later she PMs and I reply again. She (and probably the others) were concerned about me gimping XP because, once again, I was the lowest-leveled. I did finally ding and we carried on until Darion got wiped out by a Weapon. I had been standing up looking for cough drops on the coffee table and had looked away for a minute. I checked the screen and saw him in the yellow so I reach for my Curing Waltz II macro. What I didn’t see was that the Weapon had already prepped Smite of Rage and it landed before I could take a single step.
The rest of us finished the Weapon and literally, NOT ONE WORD was said in public or party chat. Our PL raised, and he waited out weakness in silence. I felt really bad but wonder why neither Opo nor American did anything either. I can only assume Darion’s shadows fell and he got rocked by a hard hit or crit, and Smite landed too quickly for anyone to stick anything on him.
Speaking of that, this particular PL didn’t impress me. I don’t recall his name, and I know PLs are usually volunteers, but he seemed to focus more on enhancing magic, and we had to cure a *lot* more than I’m used to in a PLed party. He definitely helped, but he didn’t seem focused on the tank or main melees. Darion and someone else went orange far too often.
Near midnight, I PM Kimka and ask if he wants a rep. He does, and the seeking players don’t excite. Only a pair of 30’s, which wouldn’t help the XP. He asks instead for me to find a DNC32, and I search all players, finding two. Marlaa responds almost immediately to my blind invite and after 10 minutes or so, she’s on hand to rep me. I say my goodbyes and head back to Jeuno.
I take a few more minutes to change back to WHM, warp home, and check out the level 30 gear available from our War Warlocks. Opo was wearing a strange mix of gear and or course he was probably kicking my butt on accuracy and damage. He had a couple of the Mercenary’s items which I can buy for 4k CP each. I need to find out what stat boosts accuracy and what helps evasion because if I swap the Bone/Beetle gear I need to know it won’t make me a worse dancer.
Oh, speaking of Opo, before we got rolling, I joked about how tall he was compared to me. He’s Elvaan, but I think I might have been half his height.
Now, as for the mention of the miscue on the clock read… I thought I was going to play for 2 hours, ending at 11, and go to bed when Ape did. Since I started late and we were fully involved, I had to skip out and she got upset. I need to make it up to her, and since she’s roped me into game night at Cari’s maybe that’s how ^^
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
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…
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…
Monday, June 16, 2008
Static Party and Party Static
On logging in I gave Dancer a flag up, but at 10 past 11, I knew it was too late. I was thinking of PLing someone and had PMed Fhox about helping him and Starfire. This soon turned into a shell chat request for a party. We quickly inventoried the available levels and settled on a Dunes party in the 17-20 range.
I was the designated driver for Fhox, Star and Isa and had to make my way to Bastok the hard way not wanting to use Ibwam to get to Jeuno. I chocoed through Jugner and Battalia instead. It was at least 12 before we actually landed on the beach.
Fhox-MNK, Isabiel-WAR, Starfirex-WHM (returning Brigader), Yalto-RDM, Aleu-WAR (with Yalto), and me, as PLD. It took us forever to get going and XP sucked. The first pull resulted in near-death and the use of my and Star’s 2-hours. We kept tweaking the formula and worked out a sane voke strategy with me as sole tank.
Fhox also asked me to explain skillchains to our newer Warriors, which I tried and hopefully succeeded. There was much macro tweaking going on at least.
On a later pull, I died heroically just prior to the mob, keeping the rest alive. While weakened and waiting for Fhox to switch out to raise, we chatted strategy until someone (Isa? Aleu?) said something about Star doing something unpleasant. I couldn’t see her with the chat window up so I hid windows only to find her sitting on my dead head… I joked I’d forget to voke off her the next time she pulls hate ^^
As it turns out, I was probably the XP-gimper since I was too early into 17. I had thought I was close to dinging but that must’ve been another of my 17 jobs. Also, we were having trouble pulling good mobs – they were either too easy or too hard, with way too much red HP and little MP.
We tried to make it to 1:30 am (my interview notwithstanding) but gave up when we were wiped trying to put down a stubborn Pug and the Gob Digger that aggroed in. I volunteered to HP and raise, with Yalto and Aleu opting to HP and log out.
Oh, I got another Fhox compliment – while setting up the party Fhox teased me about something. I joked that the only reason I hadn’t let myself get recruited by other shells is that I like him. He PMed that he liked me too and that I knew that. I replied that this was the reason I was willing to stay up too late with them.
He also said that RDB had the one and only WHM {Amateur} – which I took as a compliment, adding that we needed to call Ripley’s about Fhox’s positivity.
Despite the XP and death problems, I was glad to hang out. I hope we do get a static going soon!
I was the designated driver for Fhox, Star and Isa and had to make my way to Bastok the hard way not wanting to use Ibwam to get to Jeuno. I chocoed through Jugner and Battalia instead. It was at least 12 before we actually landed on the beach.
Fhox-MNK, Isabiel-WAR, Starfirex-WHM (returning Brigader), Yalto-RDM, Aleu-WAR (with Yalto), and me, as PLD. It took us forever to get going and XP sucked. The first pull resulted in near-death and the use of my and Star’s 2-hours. We kept tweaking the formula and worked out a sane voke strategy with me as sole tank.
Fhox also asked me to explain skillchains to our newer Warriors, which I tried and hopefully succeeded. There was much macro tweaking going on at least.
On a later pull, I died heroically just prior to the mob, keeping the rest alive. While weakened and waiting for Fhox to switch out to raise, we chatted strategy until someone (Isa? Aleu?) said something about Star doing something unpleasant. I couldn’t see her with the chat window up so I hid windows only to find her sitting on my dead head… I joked I’d forget to voke off her the next time she pulls hate ^^
As it turns out, I was probably the XP-gimper since I was too early into 17. I had thought I was close to dinging but that must’ve been another of my 17 jobs. Also, we were having trouble pulling good mobs – they were either too easy or too hard, with way too much red HP and little MP.
We tried to make it to 1:30 am (my interview notwithstanding) but gave up when we were wiped trying to put down a stubborn Pug and the Gob Digger that aggroed in. I volunteered to HP and raise, with Yalto and Aleu opting to HP and log out.
Oh, I got another Fhox compliment – while setting up the party Fhox teased me about something. I joked that the only reason I hadn’t let myself get recruited by other shells is that I like him. He PMed that he liked me too and that I knew that. I replied that this was the reason I was willing to stay up too late with them.
He also said that RDB had the one and only WHM {Amateur} – which I took as a compliment, adding that we needed to call Ripley’s about Fhox’s positivity.
Despite the XP and death problems, I was glad to hang out. I hope we do get a static going soon!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Failure Mode
June 13-15, 2008
Father’s Day weekend started with dinner and a movie with Carrie & Ray. After eating at Renna’s we went to see The Happening – it’s like Final Destination but with suicides instead of accidents and plants instead of Death. After returning and putting Ape to bed I logged in around 2am and was able to get a party on Dancer, led by Evildog.
While things went well enough in the jungles outside Kazham, let me just say it was not my finest night. I had planned to be on until about 5:30 but at four-ish I just got crushed by sleepy-waves. I dropped the controller three times and nearly fell out of the chair. Between pulls I walked around and did the cold-water-splash thing. I never saw any HP issues and only missed healing dances a few times, but I stuck with since we were nearing the scheduled end of the party. I feel really bad but believe there was no harm done. I got most of the way to 29.
Saturday the fam got up, piled into Mom’s van and we all went to Orlando. Mom and Dad had a RL dancing event and the Bradlees were staying at a Hilton resort and planning on some shopping and possibly Universal time. Once we saw our room, we pretty much stayed on resort property – 5 stars! We even did a poolside movie, Enchanted, and hung out. I didn’t log in until about 1am and quickly abandoned party plans. Yalto needed a Raise in the Dunes and I knew I’d just exhaust myself starting a party this late.
So I tell Yalto I’m on the way and zoom out to meet his corpse outside Selbina. Just as I zone in, he tells me apologetically he got a random raise. It was OK, because I was going to PL him a bit anyway. While he’s recovering and I’m chatting in the dark, he gets killed again. I couldn’t see because I was straining to see the keyboard in the dark hotel room and was looking down ><
I raise him, we head inside, and I mention my PL plans if he’s still up for it. Almost immediately he runs out and tells me to follow him to the outpost. So we run up the hill, I buff him, and I wonder just how it is a nearby bard’s songs are buffing him and not me. Then I realize he got into a party. On being quizzed, he points to Nava and says she’s his RL girlfriend’s sister. I hadn’t planned on party-PLing but what the hey. I warn him about my time constraints and we set off.
The initial fly pulls soon gave way to pugs on the beach due to poor XP and once there, we had a lot of excitement from Gob Ambusher aggro. No deaths, and I didn’t have to crowd-control – they just took the links in stride. Things went well and everyone dinged IIRC. I logged off at 2:30 am and the whole party was very gracious.
Sunday was Father’s Day in Universal to see the new Disaster show/ride and to eat at Margaritaville. Both things went really well (note: find out how they do the walkin’ Walken holo) and we leave Orlando at 5pm. Once returning home and getting settled, I log in close to 10 with plans to party on Dancer again. After about 15 minutes with no invite, I’m in my MH on the Change Jobs menu when Rodicus sends me an invite.
It takes me about 10 minutes to reach them in the southern Outpost area in Yuhtunga. As I’m a rep, I get to hang about for 5-10 minutes until the slot opens. As DNC/NIN, I can’t do anything helpful until I actually join the party.
We have a slow start on some rough gob pulls since the PL left with my predecessor. But we soon get a rhythm worked out and not only are the Goblin Furriers going down easy, I’m hitting hard and often, for once. So I have tons of TP for heals. In fact, I may have annoyed the WHM Shadowmane and RDM Tathlun since I was healing a lot. And since dances are pretty much insta-cast I was beating them to the punch before they could interrupt their casts. I even apologized to Shadow for possibly wrecking his groove but he seemed fine.
Honestly, I think I was trying so hard to make amends for Friday’s dismal performance. I may be imagining things, but near the end, it really seemed like neither of the mages were casting heals much at all. Which worked because it helped keep aggro off the back-line and let them focus on nukes and enfeebs.
Speaking of enfeebs, it must’ve been 45 minutes in before I remembered I was a Dancer and not a Ninja… I fessed up in chat and began Quickstepping as well, with a very high success rate.
The party came to an early end when Rodicus wanted to move us down the cliff towards Sea Serpent Grotto. I’m not sure if this was in response to Brim’s apparent AFK during battle or because of XP concerns. In any case, we hit the wrong hole and someone got aggroed by a Gob Robber. I thought we were fighting in earnest and started in. However, it was obvious this guy was WAY beyond us – he still had full HP after a minute of party attacking and I wasn’t hitting anything.
I tried the PLD-wannabe-hero thing and voked the Gob and ran, but wound up dead in a dead end. I warned the rest that he was headed back… Two more deaths later, I homepoint in order to Raise, outpost and medicate. However, being close to 12:30, and with Matt’s first day of early-morning Space Camp ahead of me, I know I’m done. As I’m making my way back, I realize Shadow is still alive, asking pointlessly in party chat if he survived. He can raise too, duh… It’s been awhile since I partied with a WHM when at these levels… Lately I’m either co-healing with non-WHM mages or the main healer is a Scholar.
Turns out I needed to go as WHM to clear the room and allow Rodicus to wake up. After a wrong turn and long trek back up the cliff, I find him, with a Robber sitting right on him. I go into WHM Badass mode and nuke the gob with all the offensive white magic I have. Aigisu joined in the melee confusing me until I remembered I never left the party and the target was up for grabs among us. I escort Rod and Aigisu back to the original camp and have to leave.
I don’t know what Rod did after I left, but I know Brim had exited as well, and I thought one other partier did too.
For once I really felt “right” on Dancer. I was doing good damage, I kept hate front-line with my heals, enfeebs and occasional vokes, and I even tried tanking by opening with a voke. THIS time, hate was squarely at my feet and I nearly died. Eventually, Rod was able to voke off me and I recast shadows and healed and made a note not to do that again. But I really had a blast! /NIN really seems to work well, although it seems Bomb Tosses are not blocked by shadows.
I want to get Dancer to the early 30’s for the new abilities, and then I’ll be back on PLD, WAR and NIN for a bit. I may also go ahead and sink some gil into the Beetle +1 set. It’s basically the Bone +1 set with Eva +5, but with more Def. Also, need to really sort out accessories to boost Def, Atk, Eva or Agi. I did better this time, but still not as good as I could have.
Random RDB Update: No static whatsoever this weekend, and aside from general chat, Fhox had an interesting reaction to my sleep-spell: he DCs. And he seemed concerned about whether I had my pearl on (I did). I couldn’t tell how serious he was… I’ve only fallen asleep twice controller-in-hand, and the other time was playing Gran Turismo.
Father’s Day weekend started with dinner and a movie with Carrie & Ray. After eating at Renna’s we went to see The Happening – it’s like Final Destination but with suicides instead of accidents and plants instead of Death. After returning and putting Ape to bed I logged in around 2am and was able to get a party on Dancer, led by Evildog.
While things went well enough in the jungles outside Kazham, let me just say it was not my finest night. I had planned to be on until about 5:30 but at four-ish I just got crushed by sleepy-waves. I dropped the controller three times and nearly fell out of the chair. Between pulls I walked around and did the cold-water-splash thing. I never saw any HP issues and only missed healing dances a few times, but I stuck with since we were nearing the scheduled end of the party. I feel really bad but believe there was no harm done. I got most of the way to 29.
Saturday the fam got up, piled into Mom’s van and we all went to Orlando. Mom and Dad had a RL dancing event and the Bradlees were staying at a Hilton resort and planning on some shopping and possibly Universal time. Once we saw our room, we pretty much stayed on resort property – 5 stars! We even did a poolside movie, Enchanted, and hung out. I didn’t log in until about 1am and quickly abandoned party plans. Yalto needed a Raise in the Dunes and I knew I’d just exhaust myself starting a party this late.
So I tell Yalto I’m on the way and zoom out to meet his corpse outside Selbina. Just as I zone in, he tells me apologetically he got a random raise. It was OK, because I was going to PL him a bit anyway. While he’s recovering and I’m chatting in the dark, he gets killed again. I couldn’t see because I was straining to see the keyboard in the dark hotel room and was looking down ><
I raise him, we head inside, and I mention my PL plans if he’s still up for it. Almost immediately he runs out and tells me to follow him to the outpost. So we run up the hill, I buff him, and I wonder just how it is a nearby bard’s songs are buffing him and not me. Then I realize he got into a party. On being quizzed, he points to Nava and says she’s his RL girlfriend’s sister. I hadn’t planned on party-PLing but what the hey. I warn him about my time constraints and we set off.
The initial fly pulls soon gave way to pugs on the beach due to poor XP and once there, we had a lot of excitement from Gob Ambusher aggro. No deaths, and I didn’t have to crowd-control – they just took the links in stride. Things went well and everyone dinged IIRC. I logged off at 2:30 am and the whole party was very gracious.
Sunday was Father’s Day in Universal to see the new Disaster show/ride and to eat at Margaritaville. Both things went really well (note: find out how they do the walkin’ Walken holo) and we leave Orlando at 5pm. Once returning home and getting settled, I log in close to 10 with plans to party on Dancer again. After about 15 minutes with no invite, I’m in my MH on the Change Jobs menu when Rodicus sends me an invite.
It takes me about 10 minutes to reach them in the southern Outpost area in Yuhtunga. As I’m a rep, I get to hang about for 5-10 minutes until the slot opens. As DNC/NIN, I can’t do anything helpful until I actually join the party.
We have a slow start on some rough gob pulls since the PL left with my predecessor. But we soon get a rhythm worked out and not only are the Goblin Furriers going down easy, I’m hitting hard and often, for once. So I have tons of TP for heals. In fact, I may have annoyed the WHM Shadowmane and RDM Tathlun since I was healing a lot. And since dances are pretty much insta-cast I was beating them to the punch before they could interrupt their casts. I even apologized to Shadow for possibly wrecking his groove but he seemed fine.
Honestly, I think I was trying so hard to make amends for Friday’s dismal performance. I may be imagining things, but near the end, it really seemed like neither of the mages were casting heals much at all. Which worked because it helped keep aggro off the back-line and let them focus on nukes and enfeebs.
Speaking of enfeebs, it must’ve been 45 minutes in before I remembered I was a Dancer and not a Ninja… I fessed up in chat and began Quickstepping as well, with a very high success rate.
The party came to an early end when Rodicus wanted to move us down the cliff towards Sea Serpent Grotto. I’m not sure if this was in response to Brim’s apparent AFK during battle or because of XP concerns. In any case, we hit the wrong hole and someone got aggroed by a Gob Robber. I thought we were fighting in earnest and started in. However, it was obvious this guy was WAY beyond us – he still had full HP after a minute of party attacking and I wasn’t hitting anything.
I tried the PLD-wannabe-hero thing and voked the Gob and ran, but wound up dead in a dead end. I warned the rest that he was headed back… Two more deaths later, I homepoint in order to Raise, outpost and medicate. However, being close to 12:30, and with Matt’s first day of early-morning Space Camp ahead of me, I know I’m done. As I’m making my way back, I realize Shadow is still alive, asking pointlessly in party chat if he survived. He can raise too, duh… It’s been awhile since I partied with a WHM when at these levels… Lately I’m either co-healing with non-WHM mages or the main healer is a Scholar.
Turns out I needed to go as WHM to clear the room and allow Rodicus to wake up. After a wrong turn and long trek back up the cliff, I find him, with a Robber sitting right on him. I go into WHM Badass mode and nuke the gob with all the offensive white magic I have. Aigisu joined in the melee confusing me until I remembered I never left the party and the target was up for grabs among us. I escort Rod and Aigisu back to the original camp and have to leave.
I don’t know what Rod did after I left, but I know Brim had exited as well, and I thought one other partier did too.
For once I really felt “right” on Dancer. I was doing good damage, I kept hate front-line with my heals, enfeebs and occasional vokes, and I even tried tanking by opening with a voke. THIS time, hate was squarely at my feet and I nearly died. Eventually, Rod was able to voke off me and I recast shadows and healed and made a note not to do that again. But I really had a blast! /NIN really seems to work well, although it seems Bomb Tosses are not blocked by shadows.
I want to get Dancer to the early 30’s for the new abilities, and then I’ll be back on PLD, WAR and NIN for a bit. I may also go ahead and sink some gil into the Beetle +1 set. It’s basically the Bone +1 set with Eva +5, but with more Def. Also, need to really sort out accessories to boost Def, Atk, Eva or Agi. I did better this time, but still not as good as I could have.
Random RDB Update: No static whatsoever this weekend, and aside from general chat, Fhox had an interesting reaction to my sleep-spell: he DCs. And he seemed concerned about whether I had my pearl on (I did). I couldn’t tell how serious he was… I’ve only fallen asleep twice controller-in-hand, and the other time was playing Gran Turismo.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
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…
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…
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
It’s A New Record!
June 5-10, 2008
I had an interesting few days as I worked on my lower-level jobs.
While running around Saruta I see a RDM03 called Niihih struggling with some mobs. I cured him and he asked for help. I told him I wouldn’t be much help as a PL but that I was glad to try. It didn’t work so well… The first crawler we tried killed him and he HPed. I finished it off for great XP. I think the prior claim only voids XP if the other player isn’t killed. I’ve done this like 3 times now and I realize that the times I got XP were when the original claimant died.
I saw Niihih again running around trying to kill stuff. As I was working on my own XP needs, I see Snowman run by, followed by probably every single Crawler and Yagudo in the zone. I tried to help but then realized he was high-level and not in any danger. So I said, “Mob train! Whoo~whoo~” which he chuckled at. Then he started PLing me.
I let him for a couple kills and then politely asked if he’d go help Niihih who needed it far more. In fact, I wasn’t having any trouble on PLD taking DC and the occasional EM. He didn’t respond but a few seconds later Niihih /shouted for help (again) and I ran off to see if I could find him. I never did, but some time later found Snow helping Niihih. I bowed to Snow and cheered Niihih on, and then left.
The next night, at PLD08, I decide to see if I can get a duo going and find a WHM seeking. Logjammin agreed to join me and we started killing everything in sight. With his cure-help and the DD he could deliver, we killed nonstop for quite awhile. We both dinged and then he asked if I could help with his first Windy Rank. Thinking that the Ruins were a little hard at around level 7-8 (though we were now 8 and 9) I recommended switching to WHM68. Turns out my memory might’ve been off, because there was little aggro and when he was done with 1-1 and death-warping home, it took some time for the two gobs to kill him. Oh well!
Now for the record-breaking bit… Saturday I logged in at around 7:30 to solo PLD to 11 in preparation for the Dunes. I got there and headed home to gear up in my Brass set. On flagging, it wasn’t too long before I got an invite and I finished my inventory management and AH sales and outposted. The party proper began at about 9:30 or so.
SIX HOURS LATER, I was halfway to 18 and didn’t die once! I need to get my notes from home but this was a great group, with a couple of replacements as time wore on. It began as a Mithra-burn having 4 of 6 slots taken by tail-wavers. It took us a bit to find a groove but we did eventually and even worked out skillchain/magic burst timing and used it regularly.
The only real problem we had was when a MNK who had tried to join earlier but DCed found his way back to us. Bigdawg was an obnoxious ass who kept harassing our leader and spamming stupid party and emote text. In fact, one of the BLMs told him to shut up.
Eventually, he decided he was done and summarily ran off without checking with our leader. Bad form all around >< He then tried to beg for money! We told him to piss off, and our leader used her PL char to say so in public.
Sunday was basically auction and a little WAR leveling. I’m finally starting to get rid of gear I no longer need since I think I’m done with melees. Once BST and WAR hit 16, I can ditch the Brass gear and start using the full five-piece Bone +1 set I grabbed. NIN, PLD, WAR and BST can all use it and for the most part, the upcoming major sets work on all four jobs. So my goal is to try to keep these four as close together as possible so I don’t need lots of gear sets lying around.
Monday was the June Update and no playtime happened.
Last night was another WAR party, where I split tanking duties with Gothicprincess. We never really found a good camp and after about 2 hours we disbanded when the puller overdid it (again) and we finally wiped. He insisted on brining ITs and wasn’t checking the def/eva stats. On wiping, three people bailed immediately. Luscious even came by to chuckle at the body count.
I decided to switch to BST and try getting it to 16. I only managed 14 and a half but did OK. I saw Tieryn again, as she was PLing someone in the Canyon and bailed me out of a bad goblin aggro.
Over the next few days I’m going to try to get WAR and BST up to at least 16 and then go back to NIN and PLD. So far, PLD tanking owns, with NIN close behind. WAR tanking is boring, and doesn’t get enough hate-controlling tools. The cool thing is, as the tank for so much recent activity, I’ve had to learn what life is like on the other side of the PL. I did my best to position myself so I could see when vokes were really needed and tried to never pull off the PL. All in all, I’m happy with that part of my performance.
The marathon party gave me a good chance to work on my macros for TP announcing and skillchain firing. As PLD I was the opener, and later on WAR I was the closer.
Fhox finally returned and there was some chatting. I never got to announce the two new Brigaders I picked up while on PLD. I did crack a pocket fisherman joke after Archer asked for pole recommendations. Fhox chained by referring to my staff… I was speechless O.o
If I remember my levels, it looks like this:
WHM68
DNC27
PLD17
BLM36
RDM33
SMN10
NIN17
WAR14
BST14
I’m pretty happy with this arrangement of jobs. The only other two possible new job candidates would be SCH and BLU, although I think BLU would have to be a total boredom thing. SCH looks like the ultimate sub for WHM especially in Campaign settings.
I had an interesting few days as I worked on my lower-level jobs.
While running around Saruta I see a RDM03 called Niihih struggling with some mobs. I cured him and he asked for help. I told him I wouldn’t be much help as a PL but that I was glad to try. It didn’t work so well… The first crawler we tried killed him and he HPed. I finished it off for great XP. I think the prior claim only voids XP if the other player isn’t killed. I’ve done this like 3 times now and I realize that the times I got XP were when the original claimant died.
I saw Niihih again running around trying to kill stuff. As I was working on my own XP needs, I see Snowman run by, followed by probably every single Crawler and Yagudo in the zone. I tried to help but then realized he was high-level and not in any danger. So I said, “Mob train! Whoo~whoo~” which he chuckled at. Then he started PLing me.
I let him for a couple kills and then politely asked if he’d go help Niihih who needed it far more. In fact, I wasn’t having any trouble on PLD taking DC and the occasional EM. He didn’t respond but a few seconds later Niihih /shouted for help (again) and I ran off to see if I could find him. I never did, but some time later found Snow helping Niihih. I bowed to Snow and cheered Niihih on, and then left.
The next night, at PLD08, I decide to see if I can get a duo going and find a WHM seeking. Logjammin agreed to join me and we started killing everything in sight. With his cure-help and the DD he could deliver, we killed nonstop for quite awhile. We both dinged and then he asked if I could help with his first Windy Rank. Thinking that the Ruins were a little hard at around level 7-8 (though we were now 8 and 9) I recommended switching to WHM68. Turns out my memory might’ve been off, because there was little aggro and when he was done with 1-1 and death-warping home, it took some time for the two gobs to kill him. Oh well!
Now for the record-breaking bit… Saturday I logged in at around 7:30 to solo PLD to 11 in preparation for the Dunes. I got there and headed home to gear up in my Brass set. On flagging, it wasn’t too long before I got an invite and I finished my inventory management and AH sales and outposted. The party proper began at about 9:30 or so.
SIX HOURS LATER, I was halfway to 18 and didn’t die once! I need to get my notes from home but this was a great group, with a couple of replacements as time wore on. It began as a Mithra-burn having 4 of 6 slots taken by tail-wavers. It took us a bit to find a groove but we did eventually and even worked out skillchain/magic burst timing and used it regularly.
The only real problem we had was when a MNK who had tried to join earlier but DCed found his way back to us. Bigdawg was an obnoxious ass who kept harassing our leader and spamming stupid party and emote text. In fact, one of the BLMs told him to shut up.
Eventually, he decided he was done and summarily ran off without checking with our leader. Bad form all around >< He then tried to beg for money! We told him to piss off, and our leader used her PL char to say so in public.
Sunday was basically auction and a little WAR leveling. I’m finally starting to get rid of gear I no longer need since I think I’m done with melees. Once BST and WAR hit 16, I can ditch the Brass gear and start using the full five-piece Bone +1 set I grabbed. NIN, PLD, WAR and BST can all use it and for the most part, the upcoming major sets work on all four jobs. So my goal is to try to keep these four as close together as possible so I don’t need lots of gear sets lying around.
Monday was the June Update and no playtime happened.
Last night was another WAR party, where I split tanking duties with Gothicprincess. We never really found a good camp and after about 2 hours we disbanded when the puller overdid it (again) and we finally wiped. He insisted on brining ITs and wasn’t checking the def/eva stats. On wiping, three people bailed immediately. Luscious even came by to chuckle at the body count.
I decided to switch to BST and try getting it to 16. I only managed 14 and a half but did OK. I saw Tieryn again, as she was PLing someone in the Canyon and bailed me out of a bad goblin aggro.
Over the next few days I’m going to try to get WAR and BST up to at least 16 and then go back to NIN and PLD. So far, PLD tanking owns, with NIN close behind. WAR tanking is boring, and doesn’t get enough hate-controlling tools. The cool thing is, as the tank for so much recent activity, I’ve had to learn what life is like on the other side of the PL. I did my best to position myself so I could see when vokes were really needed and tried to never pull off the PL. All in all, I’m happy with that part of my performance.
The marathon party gave me a good chance to work on my macros for TP announcing and skillchain firing. As PLD I was the opener, and later on WAR I was the closer.
Fhox finally returned and there was some chatting. I never got to announce the two new Brigaders I picked up while on PLD. I did crack a pocket fisherman joke after Archer asked for pole recommendations. Fhox chained by referring to my staff… I was speechless O.o
If I remember my levels, it looks like this:
WHM68
DNC27
PLD17
BLM36
RDM33
SMN10
NIN17
WAR14
BST14
I’m pretty happy with this arrangement of jobs. The only other two possible new job candidates would be SCH and BLU, although I think BLU would have to be a total boredom thing. SCH looks like the ultimate sub for WHM especially in Campaign settings.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Hit Parade
June 1-4, 2008
This week has been focused on leveling WAR to the point where I can party with it. I succeeded last night, main-tanking for a Valkurm party led by Tuns. One of the members, Astraeal, had an alt to PL us and by and large things went well. Oh, before we started, one of them said, “Barak says hi”, and that Barak said to slap Fhox. Lol – I said I already had that on my to-do list ^^
There was much {fun} and {excitement} when we finished a tough gob fight and began resting only to get aggroed by consecutive pops. But nobody died and everybody leveled at least once.
The party wasn’t too long but saw 5 reps including myself. I wound up leading just before the end and was responsible for handling 3 of those lineup changes.
Being on the other side of the mob versus the PL, so to speak, was a very interesting experience. I did my best not to voke off the PL, called Holygeno. By and large I could control hate if not completely hold it. I had to let the other melees take a ding or two either because Provoke wasn’t ready or I had taken too much of a beating. I also had to voke several times when the mob decided to head back-line for one of the mages.
The party was very kind and complimentary to me. I certainly appreciated their understanding. It is clear that I need better damage output. The Jack-o-lantern I ate did seem to help tremendously with accuracy but I was hitting for single-digits too often.
I pulled at first and eventually, one of the others (who likely had a high-level main) insisted I not pull. Tuns and our rep warrior Freyjrx then took turns and it worked for the most part. However, when Frey voke-pulled my voke wouldn’t do much but cancel out and he’d still have more hate.
Subbing DNC seems to work well (need to confirm drains actually hurt the mob’s HP) and my macros worked for the most part. I need to work on voke recast alerts and should start thinking about weaponskill coordination. I accidentally SC’ed off the THF for a detonation, but we never planned any SC’s.
All in all we were in the dunes for maybe 90 minutes and I didn’t get great XP. But I didn’t stink up the joint and I got needed tanking exposure. I really need to go shopping and may think about subbing PLD if I ever level it – some online pundits suggest its capabilities give the tank more hate-control tools, and I desperately need them. I hear MNK does too but I don’t want to level another pure melee.
This week has been focused on leveling WAR to the point where I can party with it. I succeeded last night, main-tanking for a Valkurm party led by Tuns. One of the members, Astraeal, had an alt to PL us and by and large things went well. Oh, before we started, one of them said, “Barak says hi”, and that Barak said to slap Fhox. Lol – I said I already had that on my to-do list ^^
There was much {fun} and {excitement} when we finished a tough gob fight and began resting only to get aggroed by consecutive pops. But nobody died and everybody leveled at least once.
The party wasn’t too long but saw 5 reps including myself. I wound up leading just before the end and was responsible for handling 3 of those lineup changes.
Being on the other side of the mob versus the PL, so to speak, was a very interesting experience. I did my best not to voke off the PL, called Holygeno. By and large I could control hate if not completely hold it. I had to let the other melees take a ding or two either because Provoke wasn’t ready or I had taken too much of a beating. I also had to voke several times when the mob decided to head back-line for one of the mages.
The party was very kind and complimentary to me. I certainly appreciated their understanding. It is clear that I need better damage output. The Jack-o-lantern I ate did seem to help tremendously with accuracy but I was hitting for single-digits too often.
I pulled at first and eventually, one of the others (who likely had a high-level main) insisted I not pull. Tuns and our rep warrior Freyjrx then took turns and it worked for the most part. However, when Frey voke-pulled my voke wouldn’t do much but cancel out and he’d still have more hate.
Subbing DNC seems to work well (need to confirm drains actually hurt the mob’s HP) and my macros worked for the most part. I need to work on voke recast alerts and should start thinking about weaponskill coordination. I accidentally SC’ed off the THF for a detonation, but we never planned any SC’s.
All in all we were in the dunes for maybe 90 minutes and I didn’t get great XP. But I didn’t stink up the joint and I got needed tanking exposure. I really need to go shopping and may think about subbing PLD if I ever level it – some online pundits suggest its capabilities give the tank more hate-control tools, and I desperately need them. I hear MNK does too but I don’t want to level another pure melee.
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