Ghostie Busters

I didn't start playing FFXI until close to 8 or 9 p.m., and I didn't have any major goals in mind other than a little fishing. I was planning to log out and play something else when Neyla said "I'm thinking of Starmite Shells." I had two of the shells in my moghouse, so we needed four more to get the shortcut certificate to Toraimarai Canal. That's how we ended up killing beetles for the next hour or two.

Once we each had our three shells, we needed to clear other quests to get access to the Starmite quest. Neyla had already done three of them. I knocked mine out pretty fast -- delivering food to hungry tarus, gathering water from a spring in Giddeus, picking up some lost luggage in Mhaura -- and we were left with the final task of killing Lich C Magnus in the necropolis.

Lich C Magnus dies while I hum the "Ghostbusters" theme.

The quest is to take a haunted ribbon to the original owner (the bones) and lay him to rest. Trading the ribbon to the bones pops Magnus, who must be killed to remove the curse. The researcher keeps the ribbon awhile before he sends you to the necropolis, so we were bored and decided to fight the mandragoras in Purgonorgo Island for Neyla's map of Attowha Chasm. By the time we'd killed them and made the long run to the Boneyard Gully where the dragon Tiamat is fought, our ribbon was ready.

The lich is fought in a section of the necropolis where a pile of Hume Bones is found. It's a great camp because there are plenty of enemies around but they're not close enough to aggro on their own. Magnus is a tall bastard, but he died easily enough both times. I could easily solo him if I had Hexa Strike.

We returned to Windurst with the titles of "Ghostie Busters." We spoke to the taru for the canal quest and this time he hired us to kill starmites. When we gave him our shells he was happy to hear we'd "squishy-squished" a lot of bugs and we are now able to go directly to the coffer mob area of the canal from Windurst.

Surprise Party

Break out the butter, because this crab is about to die.

I didn't have anything better to do, so I decided to toy around on Monk a little more. I figured I'd wander out to Buburimu and smack some goblins to solo some experience points. I didn't have my 'seeking party' flag up, so I was surprised to get an invitation to party in Qufim Island.

Very... very... surprised.

The conventional wisdom on any melee job is they spend a long time waiting to get a party, and the physically-weak tarutaru melees wait even longer. It's one of the reason I held off leveling Monk as long as I did; I figured it would be best to wait until I could keep myself occupied by fishing for Black Sole in Port Jeuno during those long periods.

Maybe damage-dealers were in short supply ("If they wanted a DD, why did they invite you?" Dagry quipped in a /tell at one point) or they saw I was Rank 9 and obviously had my shit together. I didn't question it. I flew to Jeuno as quickly as I could, snagged a few new pieces of gear at the auction house, and joined the party. Neyla sent some Pamama Au Lait, which helped.

There were three Japanese players in this group, and one of them was the Paladin. Because of the language barrier, I wasn't able to bitch him out for doing a bad job. He was always slow to provoke the monster, and at one point he went afk without warning and I ended up tanking two fights (I swapped in my VIT gear for that). Neyla played guardian angel and stayed nearby to take out Banshees and Wights and anything else which might've disrupted our flow. We soon disbanded and I went back out to Buburimu to solo the rest of my xp to 21.

Neyla tracked me down at the outpost to Raise me when a goblin wore my health down enough to cause zombie aggro. Once the weakness passed I started fighting stuff again.

Tarutarus beat the hell out of a crab in Qufim Island.

Shortly after I hit 21 I got a second invite. Again, I wasn't even looking. This next party was all taru except for the Hume White Mage. We had my Monk, a Paladin, and a Dragoon beating up on shit, and watching a bunch of tarus fight is just frickin' adorable. It wasn't so adorable when we got aggro from a giant and had to run into the tower to escape it. The Paladin died and the Dragoon and I kept swapping vokes to give the mages time to run ahead.

I reached Lv. 22 with that party, and when it disbanded I started fishing in Port Jeuno with my flag up. I caught a stack of Black Sole and was about to give up when I got my third invitation. This time we were fighting Greater Pugils from the area players call "Pugil Alley." The Warrior and I were constantly doing Detonation skillchains (not the best for those monsters, but every little bit helps and it's what we had). Our White Mage was a Galka named Thorak, a high-level cook who could easily afford the two Astral Rings he was sporting.

Here's how different it is to be a melee from a mage: I didn't even realize Thorak was the White Mage until close to the end of the party. As long as the Paladin and I were still alive, I didn't care what the mages were doing. I was muttering "Freakin' mages!" several times when they'd draw hate and I'd have to go running after the mob to hit it. It's a very different perspective.

So that was my day. I went from "I'll just solo maybe halfway to 21 'cause I'm bored" to getting my Monk to Lv. 24. That's also where I stop for a little while, because the next big equipment upgrade is Lv. 25, and I want the Penitent's Rope first. I spent enough today.

On a side note, I got a Keitaro pearl while I was in Buburimu. I've been on their forums all week, getting to know the other players and letting them get to know me. They seem like a pretty nice group. I'm not giving up Wicked Wayz, but it's nice to have somewhere to go when WW is empty.

Incredibly Tough

Neyla and I weren't really in the mood to level our respective White Mage and Summoner jobs, so I ended up tracking down my Monk gear and switching to that job for a trip to the Maze of Shakhrami to punch some worms to death.

Halifirien puts the smackdown on a goblin.

Before I could start, I needed to upgrade a few pieces of gear. I bought some stuff in Jeuno and then found a quest for Power Sandals (VIT+3, which lowers the damage I take from enemies). I switched back to White Mage for a run through Davoi to fetch them.

Once I had my Monk gear ready, I rode out to the maze to hit worms. They turned out to be a major hassle and were creating way too much downtime, so I left the maze to fight dhalmels, goblins and yagudo in the canyon. Neyla wandered out to synth Pamama Au Laits (a nifty drink which regains hit points for several minutes) and gave me some of them.

I eventually moved to Buburimu, where the goblins and mandragora provided better experience points. I got my monk to Lv. 20 and used the outpost to teleport back to Windurst. I love the monk job and can't wait to level it again. Tarutarus have a harder time being taken seriously as damage dealers, but it can be done with the best gear...and my fishing skills guarantee I can afford anything I need.

Dem Redux

Zaria, a member of Wicked Ways, is saving up for a Scorpion Harness. Part of the strategy is to obtain any item rumored to stack on extra Treasure Hunter stats. Zaria, Veresko, Malystryxx and I ended up in Boyadha Tree today trying to kill Knight Crawlers for a Lucky Egg. I'm not sure I buy the idea of a Lucky Egg really helping, but it doesn't matter. We farmed for about an hour before giving up in disgust.

Wicked Wayz prepares for the mad dash to the spire.

The main activity for the evening was another run at Promyvion-Dem. My last attempt resulted in a party wipeout at the final boss because he kept spawning smaller creatures and we didn't have much anima.

The setup was different for this one. We had a lot more people, enough for two parties at the final boss. I was there for the first run with Maly and Hadafal acting as nukers, Wulfgar as the tank, and Veresko and Errati shooting at it. This fight was much easier, and I only used one of my three animas.

Hopefully we'll do Holla next week. I want access to Lufaise Meadows and the other areas added in the Chains of Promathia expansion. I'll eventually do Dem again so Neyla can clear it; he was helping a member of Keitar get a Quicksand Coffer Key.

In other news, I hit Lv. 70 fishing. I also splurged and bought the Freshwater and Saltwater Aquariums for my moghouse. Considering I've been saving for a Penitent's Rope, I should probably be soundly beaten for doing that.

Grind Grind Grind

I'm pleased to note my level grind is about to slow down a bit.

I partied with the folks from Notorious Hunters again Friday evening, this time taking along Maly from Wicked Wayz as our Red Mage. They had an NM fight (Shen, who drops the Lv. 75 Reverend Mail for WHM melee action), but I told them I had no problems waiting for them to finish if it meant we could party again. Maly had to drop out of the second run, but I got to within 4k of Lv. 66. I could've leveled, but most of the NH people were Swedish and the time difference put them around 5 a.m. and ready to sleep.

More Processionaire fun in the Boyadha Tree with members of Wicked Wayz.

I hit 66 this morning when I partied with Maly, Otak and Veresko in Boyadha Tree. It's nice to party with linkshell members, but having a Red Mage and Bard in the same party meant I didn't have much to do. By the time it was over I was looking for excuses to use MP and would sometimes throw out a Cure V when I probably could've used Cure III.

Neyla scrubbed the advance work for Mission 9-2 as some key people were either backing out or not online. None of it will take very long, so a delay shouldn't be a problem. Instead, we went to Carpenter's Landing to pop the Mycophile for Neyla's cuffs.

I've been selling Gavial Fish in Dibbler's bazaar all week. I found a high-level Japanese bonecrafter who is more than happy to buy them. That's giving me about 150k each day, and I have additional income from the rest of the fish I sell on the auction houses with my other mules. With luck, I'll be able to buy a Penitent's Rope by the end of the week.

Next on the agenda are leveling SMN with Neyla, leveling BLM to 37, capping my Enhancing skills, and pushing on to 67 to learn Hexa Strike. With that out of the way, I'll continue to Lv. 70 so I can learn Raise III. The hard slog is out of the way, so I can be a little more relaxed about advancement until we start working on Rise of the Zilart missions.

I've also made overtures to the Keitaro linkshell to have somewhere to go during those extended periods when Wicked Ways is a ghost town.

And of course my looming fight with Maat is beginning to cast a shadow over my mind.