Believe It!

November 17-18, 2007

Saturday was very busy with car stuff and yard work until about 6:30. Ape was off with Charlene at the Corn Maze and would eventually go to dinner while on the road. I decided to log in and see how far I could get with Ninja before I had to quit. And since I’d be soloing that would be easy to do when I had to.

Once I was in, I saw Lust had already made it to Nin11! I hadn’t even been to Norg yet. So that was next. It took me some effort but I finally figured out the route. It’s a pretty easy ride/walk, comparable to other taxi routes. I got the final key item in Norg after triggering a cutscene – it seems I completed ZM1 without even trying!

Back in Port Bastok, I complete the quest and watch a touching scene involving Ensetsu, his dead Ninja wife and his two daughters - /cry. Then I head to Windurst to get started on my shinobi training.

It doesn’t take long to realize that I need to reorg my inventory to allow for all the farming drops, and to get space for gear. After a few loops through East Sarutabaruta, the AH and back, I set my homepoint in Windurst. Leveling goes pretty quickly and I don’t fall in battle once on my way to 6. I did die TWICE from poison though, once right outside the gate and once at the steps of the Residential Area. I guess I know have proof you CAN die in a town! I was able to get raises both times – many lulz aimed my way I expect – and kept on.

At some point close to 10 Fhox finally appears. I hadn’t seen him in two days. I update him on my progress and we chatted a bit about Stoik. Fhox said that Kitty was very upset at how he had handled her. I think Fhox meant the before-Vahzl-disaster flirting and failure to prepare for 5-2. He also mentioned all the time wasted and I made my last statement of apology for my part in it saying the time I wasted was what made me so angry at myself. I think Fhox is OK with it though. Kitty too. They seem far more concerned with Stoik’s non-activity (still WAR45/NIN18).

Lust also chimed in and we mentioned we were Ninjas. In fact, when Fhox logged in he must’ve checked the link list and seen my new job because one of the first things he said was “O.o Aerin=Ninja?” Lust also asked if he could get a pearl for his buddy Ronrico. He had wanted temporary sack status but Fhox just wanted to meet him and trade. However they took care of it, Ronrico was in the shell not long after.

Not much else happened except that I got Ninja to 8, bought a Wakizashi, and started work on Norg fame for the ninjutsu scrolls. I’m getting decent returns on my farmed goods too.

From what I’ve been able to read up ninja-wise it seems I need /WAR for this one too – urgh. I didn’t want to level yet another subjob. But I guess I will. I think I’ll hit NIN10, try out dual wield on WHM and RDM, and then think about leveling PLD with /NIN then WAR with one or the other.

Monday probably won’t see a lot of play because Ape and I are celebrating #13 again. Tuesday will be the last day before the Wings of the Goddess release and I’ll be in Tennessee for that. It looks like I’ll have to buy WotG up there and get my reserved copy credited back.

I know I plan to unlock and level Dancer and after reading the Fan Festival notes it looks like DCR will be even better.

Ninja is already a terribly expensive job and I expect Dancer won’t be much cheaper. I wish the Test Answers market hadn’t died… I need to find a good way to make gil and fast.

Oh yeah, Chucho was looking for 4-1 help late Sunday night. I had to beg off but then he realized it was late too and we said we’d give it a go Monday if possible.

In any case, once I can get back on after the expansion opens I’ll have a lot of options – I flagged AF3 and 4, so I can work those or do the coffer drops for 5 and 6. I want to go after the new jobs. I have 3 unlocked jobs to level and learn. The Shell is growing and Fhox is gonna want to start ranking up again.

And finally, the revised VanaCalc spreadsheet rocks! The Skillcaps page is really handy and works very neatly, allowing easy job pairing what-ifs and skill analysis.