Linkshell Party

Veresko

Goblin Furriers have no defense.

came as WHM and Nanunanoo joined us as Paladin for for today's trip to the jungle. There were three or four groups fighting for mandragoras outside Kazham when we were ready to start getting xp. There's a clearing to the immediate south-east which has plenty of mandragoras and delicate Goblin Furriers, and it seems like nobody ever parties there.

Veresko knew the way, so we followed him to camp. The Dancer and Black Mage took a wrong turn and got lost, but we were eventually able to settle in and start killing stuff. It was smooth sailing for the most part. Every so often we'd have to deal with a Goblin Smithy, and that was almost always rough unless they killed themselves and saved us the trouble.

We didn't party nearly as long as yesterday. Nanu had to take off for work, so Neyla tanked mandies until we dinged 27. By a fun coincidence, we were all lined up to ding our levels within a range of two or three fights.

Neyla had offered to kill Leviathan Prime for a tarutaru summoner named Dalamar, but we still had plenty of time until that was due to happen. We went out to Pso'xja and farmed our Florid Stones for the ENM and turned them in. I was still lugging around a ton of Samurai gear, so I started shuffling them off to my mules and waited for fight time to roll around.

Veresko

Neyla and I battle Leviathan Prime.

was going to come Ninja and tank Leviathan for us, but he logged out to get some food and never came back. Neyla went RDM/NIN and I was BST/WHM. Dalamar, who'd managed to solo all the mini-fork battles except this one, had himself teleported from Norg to the cloister so we wouldn't have to escort him through the Temple of Uggalepih.

The fight wasn't bad, although it started rough because Carrie was tanking at the beginning and Leviathan ground her into crab meat. He started hitting me, but Neyla got hate back by tossing a Cure IV my way. My jug pet timer eventually wore down and I summoned another crab, but this time she didn't take hate from Neyla.

Pugil Alley

While

Fighting crabs at Delkfutt's Tower.

I shouldn't really fault a White Mage for not knowing what he's doing at the Qufim Island levels, the one we got for our party -- Instability -- was semi-lame. I only say that because he insisted he had "over 200 levels of WHM" on other characters, so he should've been better. Unless, I remarked to Neyla in linkshell chat, he sucks on those. The guy wasn't patently awful like that uber-gimpass Seemehow I partied with months ago, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much... especially considering he stayed with us the entire session.

I've handled the party-building honors in the past and figured I'd get saddled with it again today. Instead, Neyla put it together. I was surprised to learn this was his first time assembling an experience points party. Getting a group together is easy, but catching lightning in a bottle and building a good one can be rough.

We started out on worms and crabs before eventually moving to the entrance to Delkfutt's Tower. Neyla was the puller and tank, and I'd voke stuff off if he started getting beaten down too hard. We eventually moved inside to fight goblins.

Neyla invited a second White Mage to share curing duties. I got cracked up because WHM #2, Augustine, gave us about forty-five minutes of advance notice before he said he had to leave. About five minutes before we reached his deadline, he said "Ack lightning... I think I am losing my connection" before disconnecting. I'm soooo sure that was a lightning strike. I don't know why he did a forced d/c when he'd already told us he had to leave.

We also went through two Dancers while we were partying. The first didn't bother using cure waltzes on anyone but herself, which was annoying. The second Dancer was a lot better, although he eventually went AFK and I had Neyla kick him after a few fights because he was leeching xp at that point. We got a Black Mage to replace him.

That

Pugil Alley provided great xp.

kick happened when we'd left the tower for Pugil Alley. Neyla pulled until he ran out of ammo, and then it fell to me. I'm not an experienced puller by any stretch of the imagination -- I've done a little while Neyla and I were on BST, but even then it was mostly Neyla -- so I was a little nervous. It turns out pulling pugils there is easy because it's a small area and you don't have to run all over the place.

The xp wasn't great when we first arrived since the Puppetmaster was a few levels higher, but Neyla privately asked him to move on. The numbers jumped up significantly after that. I took a Screwdriving hit that knocked me into the red, but I didn't die. We chugged along as a group of four -- WAR, SAM, WHM and BLM -- until we dinged 25. I certainly didn't expect to get through all of Qufim Island in one session.

We hit the jungles tomorrow. Veresko has his White Mage in that range, so he's going to party with us.

Crafting Fools

I'm

Veresko's bonecrafting mule visits my moghouse.

starting to get back into fishing in a big way, working on guild points and trying to buy one of those nifty new guild signs. Veresko's bonecrafting mule got one, and he invited me into his moghouse to check it out. I'd tried that "Open Mog" thing before, but didn't realize you had to speak to the old Rent-a-Room NPCs outside to enter someone else's home. I could resist inviting him into my place so he could check it out.

Fishing pretty much dominated the day. While Neyla was leveling his WHM job in the Quicksand Caves, I hit a few spots to see what I could catch. I eventually grabbed a few stacks of meatballs and hit the Quicksand Caves to try for Cave Cherax, but the bite rate was awful and I gave up after a little while.

I'm curious to see if the Fishing Guild Sign, combined with the Watering Hole Map, will make the Ebisu Rod quest any easier. I think I'll start raising the points to unlock that quest after I get the sign.

Nudged from the Dunes

It

Neyla babysits me in Buburimu.

really didn't take long to fight my way from 19 to 20 with Neyla curing me. I mostly focused on the mandies and rarabs in Buburimu, but I eventually started on the birds (Toughs) and goblins (toughs who suicide). A few mobs were juiced up on steroids and didn't want to die, but they eventually went under.

We're going to hit Quifim Island on Thursday. Hopefully the stars will be aligned and we can get a good group together.

Powerlevelers Galore

It

We started out with flies near the outpost.

never fails that when I try to get a party and fail miserably, the chances of someone saying "(Party) (Do you need it?)" will skyrocket in the two or three minutes between my deciding to log out and watch a DVD and the time I actually start to type /logout. I was right on the verge of quitting for the day when I was summoned to the dunes.

It was an odd setup, to be sure. I was on Samurai, and the other members were Ninja, Monk, Dark Knight and Black Mage. There were two powerlevelers, if you can believe it. We started out near the outpost, killing flies for the most part. The Monk acted as puller by running out with a powerleveler glued to his ass, punching a mob, and then running back to camp with it.

I can't say I really cared for the party. I get bored enough with one powerleveler, but two? Ugh. Nobody was tanking the mobs, so the poor tarutaru BLM was getting the stuffing kicked out of him on a regular basis until I started using Provoke. It didn't keep him from getting drilled and dying a few times when we moved to the beach and started killing pugils. Our Ninja had long since disappeared at that point, so it was just the four of us.

The

The four of us fight a ghoul under the watchful eye of a powerleveler.

leader was getting antsy to leave since he'd dinged 20, but they agreed to stick around until I hit 19. I disbanded and ran to Selbina so I could trade a Ryugu Titan to that fat galka bastard Zaldan, but of course he didn't find anything inside.

Neyla said he'll babysit me tomorrow in Buburimu while I claw my way to Lv. 20. We'll probably hit Qufim Island on Thursday and start our big subjob push. The temptation to handle these jobs the way we did Ninja is somewhat overwhelming, but I guess it can't hurt to go the legit route.