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…
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