Why Didn't I Do This Sooner?

(It's still work...)

I'm talking about skilling up mano-a-mano, rather than being in a SU party. I don't think I considered it until I desperately searched for skillup advice and saw a nugget of wisdom regarding using Phalanx. I have Phalanx! Hmmm... So why didn't I try this sooner?

Well, aside from the fact I can be a little slow, I never thought much of WHM as a soloer. I don't tend to think of myself as a squishy, but I'm no tank, either. But what the hey - I had a good enough buffer and some strategies for soloing skills in the Tree.

Heading in to find Robber Crabs or Steelshells, I forgot the sound-aggro tendencies of a few mobs. Even at 70 I got hate and stupidly ran for it. I totally forgot with /RDM I could bind one, gravity another and set up Stoneskin and cloak. Or teleport. Couldn't warp or escape since I wasn't /BLM. But no, I ran instead and got run over by a crab and crawler mob train. WHOOO-WHOOO~~~

Back at the entrance I tried again. Turns out, I was gimped enough to be able to use the Bark Spiders and wound up getting 10 on club and who knows how many on Evasion. Shield went up too. I did eventually cap out on the spiders and tried Robber Crabs, AFTER returning home briefly for my Lilith's Rod. This, plus Starburst, meant I had MP for the entire fight. Which laster ober 10 minutes per crab. But it's not too hard to stay healthy. Further skillups came but clubs were fewer and farther between, which was odd because according to VanaCalc my current level left several "dings" before capping on the lowest-possible crabs. Oh well.

I ran through maybe 3 crabs before going to bed. Some chatter with Dark and Phax, and grats from Isa on hitting 70 (continued thanks for reading Isa!).

Tonight I plan to continue in the Tree. I checked the scenarios on VanaCalc and it looks like I'm too close to cap on club, eva and shield to make leveling on other higher-ranked jobs useful. I'd have to go into the 50's on other jobs to reach where I am on WHM.

I need 23 more on club, 13 more on eva and about, ummm... 99 on shield. I don't think I'll worry too much about capping that one. But I'd love to face the old man with club and eva ready. I might also pay some attention to enfeebling...