Bring Out the Gimps

Neyla

The temptation to bare my neck to the goblin is overwhelming.

wasn't feeling well, so we didn't hang out like we normally do on Saturday. I decided to try my luck in the jungles on Dragoon, and it was a freaking nightmare.

Phoese, the Warrior from yesterday's adventure in Qufim, was in the party. He's a nice enough kid, but what I hadn't noticed was his subjob. He was WAR/WHM, and the /WHM was underleveled. We explained how /MNK or /NIN would be better, but he liked /WHM. Can't really argue with that kind of logic.

It's the sort of thing I can overlook if the party's working, but it really wasn't. The Kazham gates were overcamped and we moved further in to that narrow passage with goblins on either side. It makes for some awkward pulls, and goblin aggro is almost guaranteed. I managed to survive one bout of aggro that left the rest of the party dead.

The xp was slow as hell, and I was ready to slap some people when they started commenting on how "good" it was. The Black Mage defended the party by saying it was "better than soloing," and I said I wasn't sure about that. I finally got so frustrated with the pace that I gave some advance warning and disbanded when my time was up.

The

Check out that gear!

absolute crown jewel of the party was our White Mage, Seemehow. It took forever to get started because we had to wait for him to get to Kazham, and when he arrived we saw he was naked. He had a shield, some earrings, the Bastokan starter ring... gimptastic beyond belief. I've always heard people joke that a mage can party naked and get away with it, and now I've seen the proof. It's probably for the best that I wasn't party leader because I would've booted him on the spot. I don't care that he was only leveling WHM as a subjob for his Blue Mage; show some freakin' pride and do the job. Ugh.

He was really just icing on a bad cake. I'm glad I got out of the party when I did.

I took a break and decided to try my luck again. Neyla had finally logged on and was seeking on Bard, but he wasn't making any progress. The undead were gearing up for Besieged. Neyla rode out there, but I got a party invite before I could change jobs and join him..

This

Poor little mandragoras...

second party was better. We had two Ninjas, so this new White Mage wasn't straining as hard and blowing all his MP. One of the Ninjas was Cornflakes from the night before, and we swapped a few /tells about the Warrior. Unlike the WAR from the other party, this one was subbing Black Mage for a ghetto Dark Knight feel. He was also new to the game, and we patiently explained to him what he needed to do to.

Honestly, I don't understand why it's so difficult to stop leveling a job until you're ready to proceed. I can see being in a party and getting a level or two ahead of your subjob by the time it disbands, but that should be your cue to work on the subjob before you go seeking again.

It was a rough day, but I managed to get to 27 on Dragoon before I gave up. Better than nothing.

Fast and Hard

The

It'll be great to move to the jungle after place.

whole Dragoon thing is coming along nicely. I got a party invite pretty quick and lit out for Delkfutt's Tower and more wholesale goblin carnage. There were too many people in that twilight area where they start thinking about moving to the jungles, so the xp wasn't as grand as some would like. I didn't have a problem 'cause it all adds up.

My only real goal for the day was to get to 25 so I could use Spirit Link to heal my wyvern. With the latest update, I can rest for a tick here and there and not lose tp, but it's not an option with a really efficient party.

Cornflakes, our Ninja, was making noise about disbanding if the xp didn't get better. We tried moving to the stairs to kill gigas and bats, but it wasn't a huge improvement and we disbanded after the people who were close got their levels. I was able to try out Spirit Link, but then I had to rest up so I wouldn't get blood aggro from every Wight on the run back to Jeuno.

My biggest gripe with the lowbies is they lack perspective and can't wrap their brains about what's "good" and "bad" xp. They see a huge number after a kill and start jizzing themselves without considering it took five minutes to kill the damned mob and the White Mage blew the entire MP pool. They see a low number after a kill and start bitching about "bad xp" when they could kill multiple mobs fast and hard without downtime.

Beastmaster

One more session will finish Gauldeval and Yawawa.

has certainly stretched my definition of what's "acceptable" xp/hour, but it hasn't destroyed all sense of reason.

Neyla and I also returned to Ifrit's Cauldron to level our NPCs and got them damned close to 65. We had the entire zone to ourselves and killed every bomb and bat in the area. One more session should cap them.

I logged out to play "Gears of War" with Feriz when it was all over.

Invitation Denied

The past few days have been quiet. Quieren cracked the whip in the Limbus shell about membership and inspired a few people who've been slacking to show up yesterday when we finished our Ultima pop set. Neyla and I hit Al Zahbi for every Besieged. I've been doing a lot of fishing. Standard fare.

Jahar

Flame on? I don't think so!

has been working her tail off the past few days to get her fame up for avatar fights. She flagged Ifrit and Ramuh, so that's what we did today. Wulfgar came along as Ninja to tank for us again. We decided to start at Ifrit's Cauldron; I bought an Ice Cluster to get through the flame spout, but we had great timing because it went down on its own as everyone arrived. The fight was easy enough. Wulf and I hacked away at him from below while Neyla and Jahar stayed on the walkway above.

Ramuh didn't do much better at putting up a fight.

The other big event for the day was a return to the "Saintly Invitation" BCNM for the Windurstian rank missions. Neyla and I have fought those four yagudo repeatedly in the past, but not in recent months.

A taru Black Mage named Taruri posted at QCDN asking for help and Neyla volunteered. Rappa volunteered to join us on White Mage, leaving us free to go as Beastmasters for the first time.

Man,

The fight is kinda sad now.

it was a huge difference. Taruri slept the yagudo and we picked them off one by one. CourierCarrie did dark, unspeakable things to their anatomy. It was the easiest time I've ever had on that fight. I toyed with going BST/WAR for it but changed my mind at the last minute because I wasn't sure I'd need Stoneskin for the Summoner and Ninja two-hours. The yags died so fast I think I'll be comfortable with /WAR next time.

I logged out at that point. Neyla escorted Taruri to the door in Castle Oztroja and did another Besieged for Bard xp.

Fading In and Out

I

This feels very different as White Mage.

saw the Trolls were preparing to march and decided it was time to try a Besieged as White Mage. I get tired of the constant death and throwing away all that money on jug pets, so the idea of running around curing people and raising the dead without any cost to myself seemed very liberating. The big surprise was how boring that can be. I threw out a constant stream of Dia spells and plenty of cures, as well as assorted buffs on any passing melee.

I didn't raise anyone, though. The lag was so bad that I couldn't see any corpses. Someone would appear on the screen and then vanish when they had a gear swap. It was like that for most of the battle.

Neyla rode out and partied with me to get some Bard xp. His 50s-level bones were crunchy and snapped easily, so I raised him a few times.

General Rughadjeen was the only guy standing near the end of the fight. I tried to keep him healed, but he eventually dropped out of sight and never loaded in again so I could target him. He survived and we won.

Daybreak

The

Everyone stands near the Corse to rob him of Charmga.

whole Daylight Saving Time thing throws everyone off, and it seemed at first that people were missing today's Limbus run because of it. We had two parties and I was the only White Mage. Normally I'm the type to snort and mutter "Too fucking bad" when someone turns up late and wants us to wait for them after we've already killed the NM for our color card, but Kyrial popped on as WHM and I immediately said "We'll wait."

I have a bad habit of letting the other parties die when I'm the only healer in the alliance. It's not that they're not important, but they're less important than my immediate party. Doing one of those "AoE Hell" zones like today's only makes it worse. Extra healing was welcome.

Quieren is getting frustrated with the lower attendance numbers we've been having lately, so he decided to reward the regulars by bringing the linkshell bank. We won the zone and everyone got six Ancient Beastcoins. That puts me nearly halfway to a Loquacious Earring.

The

Neyla and I kill time before the ENM.

only other thing going on was "Test Your Mite." Hadafal had some sort of family thing and couldn't make it.

Wulfgar asked the other day if he could start bringing his White Mage job to the ENM, and I readily agreed. He and Cmdrfly can alternate as much as they want; all I care about is that I can bring Monk all the time now. We got off to a late start today because the time change had Cmdrfly confused and he didn't have his Florid Stone when we were due to begin. He and Neyla went off to Nue's tower to get it while Apu, Wulfgar and I waited at the Maw.

The ENM and escort dinged my Monk to 59. Things are looking up. One more level and I can wear my Chivalrous Chain... and another level after that it's Amemet Mantle +1.