Back to Basics

I've switched jobs from Black Mage to White Mage, changing my focus from creating lots of carnage for wandering monsters to healing others. It feels strange to be bumped back down to Level 1 and losing all of my abilities.

Lots of people congregate at the Auction House every hour of the day.

I found myself running around outside the walls of San D'oria and healing anyone I encountered. One lady is simply "babysitting" the account for soldiers serving overseas who didn't want to lose their characters while they were gone. She seemed to be enjoying herself, although she wasn't certain she could hit their addiction levels.

I had to focus on killing rabbits again, since they were the only creatures which wouldn't kill me in a single blow. The only Black Mage spell I can cast right now is "Stone," which is enough to do most of the damage. Because it is my support job, my abilities are capped at half the main job's levels. WHM 10/BLM 5, WHM 12/BLM 6, etc. It only took a few hours to get to Level 5, at least. My rampant bunny slaughter also resulted in lots of hides to sell at the Auction House.

When I hit Level 10 in this job, I'll switch back to Black Mage and start going on missions again. I want my Chocobo license, dammit! Running from location to location is annoying when there are beautiful giant birds I could be riding.

Show of Support

I finally have my support job in Final Fantasy XI

Friday night's trip to the dunes was a major disaster for me. We had a rotten tank who wouldn't use Provoke every thirty seconds to keep the monsters from attacking the mages. When I kindly pointed out that we needed to know when he was using Provoke, he blew me off and said "You just cast your spells and I'll take care of you." He was full of shit. Even a low-level spell was causing monsters to charge me. I also jumped one of the players for using the word "fag," and told him if he used it again in a derogatory manner they'd be looking for a new black mage in their party.

Despite the idiot boy masquerading as a tank, the experience might not have been too bad. Unfortunately, he was impatient and wanted to fight Pugils, these ill-tempered fish thingies which swarm the beach. Killing one would deplete our magic, which meant we'd have to rest, which meant our tank would get more impatient. The tank died four or five times and couldn't understand why it was because he was a stupid fucktard. I finally gave up and left.

Man, I want my own pet dragon. You even get to name it.

Saturday and today, in contrast, were much more relaxed affairs. I'm in the slow-and-steady mode for this game: I'd much rather take my time by taking on enemies who are easier to kill than go for a bunch of incredibly tough monsters where the large experience strides are knocked out by constantly dying and being penalized. One guy in the party was playing a Dragoon and had his own pet dragon to join the fights. That would be so cool to have.

I completed the quest to obtain a support job, which means I'll soon be switching over to White Mage. I like the idea of being able to deal out large quantities of damage as a nuker while also being able to serve as a backup healer. Or being a white mage who can nuke. Eventually I need to work as a Red Mage to be able to throw out enfeebling spells. All I know is I love playing a mage.s