Soloed SAM from 1 to 7 and then headed out to Beseiged. This one was very productive, getting me 3 each in Divine and Enfeebling. Only 7 more to cap Enf, but still 30-odd for Divine. I got to wondering if Scholar’s skill boosting and my AF gear was screwing me out of easier SUs. Couldn’t find any details to sway me either way.
Saw Falout amid the chaos.
5/19
Soloed DRK from 1 to 9.5 and this time I was able to use an Anni Band. I had to play inventory sorter for more than 30 minutes but I was finally able to get into my Locker to toss the old band. Having Jesup in Jeuno is kinda convenient, but paying 13 bucks a month for the privilege bites. Yes, I know this isn’t how standard mules work – I’m getting married remember?
Ape and I talked about Jesup’s fate post-nuptials. Odds are he might stick around a bit for Clone the Younger, then go into mothballs pending an economic recovery. It’d be a pity to lose him but he never gets any playtime any more …
Jesup also helped out with a proper weapon for my DRK – the Chaosbringer isn’t meant to be a real weapon and the only thing in Windy was a crappy dagger. So at 6 I had Jesup send over a Deathbringer from Jeuno, and man, what a difference!
While racing to 10, Aleu started asking in shell if anyone wanted to do an Assault mission. I jumped at the chance and soon found myself in AU next to Aleu and Nava. Nava had been shouting for more help and we decided to head out with 5. Which rapidly became 3 when the two recruits decide to tell us on the platform that they don’t have Halvung’s portal.
Nava got upset and kicked them. Aleu found her frustration interesting, saying that it wasn’t like her. We decided to go with just the three of us. While we knew we probably couldn’t trio it, it would be good experience.
The mission is called Excavation, and apparently the goal is to use bomb-type mobs to blow up rockslides blocking the path out. To do this, the bombs need to be pulled right up to the rocks and then beaten on until they self-destruct. The first bomb we encountered we fought in place, nowhere near the blockage. Its explosion took me to 34 and killed Aleu, on SAM72. I find it hard to believe she, with almost 200 more HP and presumably better armor, could be so damaged. Unless self-destruct is a “shaped charge” explosion, delivering more lethality to the most hated player.
In any case, we chatted and waited for Aleu’s weakness to pass hoping another bomb would spawn. Which did happen. This time, we pulled it to the broken boulders and fought. Again, it exploded, and again (!) Aleu died. Knowing we were toast time-limit wise, Nava began beating on the wall directly. I joined in but damage was almost nonexistent.
I stopped to raise Aleu and then all three of us began smacking the “brittle” wall. And lo and behold – I started getting skillups! I honestly had no idea or expectation this was possible. I said so in party chat and was told that they’d been doing this off and on and gotten quite a few of their own SUs. Geez, nobody tells me anything ^^
As soon as were ejected from the mission, I had to go. They resumed shouts for another run and I wished them well.
In other news, VanaCalc evolves again – all 19 of my current jobs are set up for skills and level tracking. I’ve tweaked the auto-highlighting formats and added a level “indicator” and “TNL” section. The 20 jobs and my current levels in them are in two columns. The third column compares a target level to all the jobs’ current level and returns the number needed to reach the target, or 0 if at or above. The whole thing is summed and so I can say that right now, I need 20 total levels to get all my current jobs to 13 for either brass, linen or doublet armor.
I need 58 more levels to get them all to 20. This excludes PUP at the moment, as it isn’t unlocked yet. On a side note, after reading the PUP guide, I *may* mess with it…
The other thing the level block does is color code the levels: orange for “half-subs”, any job 18 or up that can properly sub a 37; green for “full subs” at 37+; blue for 75s. I may change it so the job name goes blue for 75 and Maat-ready job levels (66+) get another color. I doubt very much I’ll ever get 15 jobs to Maat-mashing range, but what the hey… I said I’d never have more than 6 jobs when I was a younger cub... lol
