Criminal Negligence

I got a party invite today and was told to head for Gustav Tunnel. It's been a very long time since I partied there, so I didn't remember what levels were viable. The leader, a Black Mage, had us go to the back area with all the goblins. When we arrived, he said we were only going to kill goblin pets.

I

Cursed Sphere is a nightmare for a Dragoon's wyvern.

immediately balked. While I'm sure it's great XP for someone who can't get a party, there's no way in hell there could be enough pets there to get Chain 5 for full group of people. It was a moot point, because there were already mages soloing them. We decided to go for the "more reasonable" option of hitting the Crawler's Nest. That made me feel better, because I thought I was going to end up in the position of leaving two xp parties in one week.

The only downside was our White Mage. God, the level of ineptitude on display would make a brave man weep. I tried to send him some helpful advice via /tell, being respectful so I wouldn't come off as a Lv.75 know-it-all, but you can only do so much. I started getting really irritated.

We had a WAR/NIN tanking for the most part, with assists from our SAM puller. You'd think the WHM would have sense enough to keep the tank Hasted, but you'd be wrong. The WAR would get hit by crawler's Slow attack, and I'd have to jump the WHM's ass every single time. "Haste him or Erase him," I said, "but do something."

Don't even ask me if he used Regen spells. Ha!

The final straw was when we had to clear out an Exoray at the mouth of the tunnel. It used Silence Gas and hit the tank and the mages. The only people in the party with Echo Drops were myself and the Samurai. The WAR died, and you'd better believe we jumped their shit about that.

"Never

There's nothing wrong with your monitor. That really is Neyla as Paladin.

needed to have them before," the WHM wailed. "This is my first mage job."

"You need them," I responded. "Even when you don't think you do, you need a stack on you at all times. If you play a job that gets screwed by Silence, you need them."

"They love you when no one else does," the SAM added.

Despite my irritation, it wasn't a bad party. We were chaining okay and didn't have to stop too much. It kinda sucked having Oboro hit by so many Cursed Sphere attacks from the flies, but she only died once. I was spamming Spirit Link like crazy to keep her alive most of the time

After we disbanded, I couldn't help teleporting out to Tahrongi Canyon to watch Neyla running around as Paladin. It was amusing, to say the least.

"I always seem to level the jobs I made fun of," he told me.

Naturally, I said I'd laugh my ass off when he eventually fell in love with Puppetmaster.

Lucky Me

I had just finished the last two Achievements in Clive Barker's Jericho when I got an invitation to party in the Crawler's Nest. Cheering the great timing, I outposted to the marshlands and whistled for my chocobo to ride out there. Midway there, I checked the party roster. It was a BLM trio named Sccrusy, Jsccy, and Uccy. Uh-huh. That looked totally legit. Barely spoke English.

"Must

Batman endorses Purina Dog Chow.

be desperate to invite a DRG," Neyla joked. He could afford humor, since he was bending the laws of time and space by actually leveling Paladin.

"Meh," I said. "Gotta be a fuckin' gilseller trio, but I've gotta see their gear."

They were all the way in the back coffer area, past the Labyrinth Lizards and in the Rumble Crawler area. They had reasonable gear, which suprised me. They also had a higher-level named Tyyussu with 'em. My guess is the same guy was controlling all four characters.

They invited a Samurai as well, but I told them I was going to pass before he got to camp. I disbanded and warped out.

I gave up seeking after awhile, since I'd moved on to Viva Pinata.

"You're like a fucking five-year-old," Neyla told me.

"I'm going to overlook all the time you sank into Animal Crossing," I pointed out.

"That's a serious lesson in commerce and community service, motherfucker."