Shellbusters

Neyla

The bridge makes a decent camp.

and I started out by burning off an Empress Band charge against the Lycopodia in Rolanberry Fields [S] and dinged 29 on Dancer. With nothing to do until Dalamar logged on for his artifact armor fights, we kept leveling. We moved camp to Lufaise Meadows, where the bees outside the Tavnazian Safehold rate as Toughs. We camped on the bridge.

The initial battles were rough because we end up curing ourselves faster than we can gain TP, but it's a decent enough place. I can't argue with the xp we were getting, but the bees have some truly annoying moves. Pollen restores an ungodly amount of their health without being as crunchy and quick to die as a dhalmel using Healing Breeze. Worse, they have a suicide move called Final Sting which invariably knocked me down into the red.

Still, we plugged away until we hit 30. We got a few nifty abilities at that point, the greatest being Curing Waltz II. Box Step is also nice, since it reduces enemy defenses.

We

Neyla and I kill Dark Spark for Dalamar.

farmed our Florid Stones -- I was still in dancer mode and let my TP build to 300 before I remembered I could Asuran Fists -- and were just finishing up when Dalamar logged on. We headed out to Fei'yin. Shmedly tanked the shadow for us again as PLD/NIN, and the fight went even better than the last time. Dalamar ran back to San d'Oria to claim his Healer's Briault.

Shmedly had other obligations, but the rest of us traveled to Beadeaux to farm a coffer key. The quadav were being especially stubborn today, and it took us over 90 minutes of turtle slaughter before they'd give up the goods. Dalamar popped the coffer and we killed Dark Spark for him.

A productive day, to say the least.

The Ballad of Kitty Genovese

A wayward Puck had wandered into the lizard-filled hallway near the fishing hole in the Den of Rancor, making my quest for zebra eels more interesting than it needed to be. I managed to catch them without getting myself killed, but it was rough. I warped back to Windurst, geared up my Dancer, and lit out for Rolanberry Fields [S] with Neyla after stopping at the guild and collecting my Fisherman's Signboard.

I'm

They just stood around and did nothing while we killed it.

glad Neyla decided to check the Lycopodium wandering around near the Cavernous Maw after yesterday's flight from the Goblin Furrier, because the camp was phenomenal. They were all Tough and Very Tough to us at 26, so the place could easily replace Qufim Island for a leveling spot after leaving the dunes. The area is near the Campaign NPC, but enclosed on all sides by high walls with ramparts to keep out wandering goblins. There are only two types of monsters: mandragoras and bees.

Although we've been /NIN since 20, we've never bothered using shihei for shadows. I still had some on me, and I'm glad I did because using tools was the only way to get enough breathing room to store up TP at the beginning. We ran back to Windurst Waters [S] as soon as we dinged 27 to grab more and start leveling again.

I've always thought the way the mandragoras in the past follow you around was cute... until today. It started to get kinda creepy when I realized they'll just stand around and gawk while you stab their little friends to death. I joked to Neyla that it reminded me of the Kitty Genovese murder from the 60s, where a woman was murdered over the course of about 30 minutes and nobody within earshot called the police.

I know people accuse the developers of 'tarding up the game a little to compete with World of Warcraft, and the mandies would have to be Exhibit A. A puller really just has to run around and they'll follow him to camp and wait their turn to die. It's handy, but still creepy.

The other upside to the camp was the helpful Sprite flying around. She drifted over and cured us more than a few times during our battles against the mandies. I'm hoping against hope that the wasps will be a viable option soon, because that camp is just too good to give up.

Our

I put my Fisherman's Signboard under my stuffed fish.

schedule since pairing up for this has been to stop at 7 p.m. Neyla wanted to push on until we hit 29, but I was ready to stop at the regular time. We're helping Dalamar with his artifact armor tomorrow, but we'll have plenty of time before he logs on to burn a ring charge for our level and xp buffer. We'll probably slow things down a bit when we hit 30 and start going back to some of our regular routine, but at least we're closing in on 37. We'll probably be there in another week or so.

I warped back to my moghouse to set up my Fisherman's Signboard. It looks very different from the one Veresko obtained on his bonecrafting mule. For now, it's nestled between my aquariums, in the shadow of The Big One. I'll probably move it later. Unfortunately, it didn't override the Moghancement: Light from all the mannequins.

Curse of the Goblins

I'll

We eventually killed a few pugils.

have my guild sign tomorrow, after today's trips on the ferry to catch bhefel marlin put me maddeningly close to the goal. As soon as I'd finished, I warped back to Windurst to gear up Dancer for another leveling run with Neyla.

We outposted back to Buburimu and headed for the eastern coast. Most of the goblins were still Toughs to us, with some Even Match birds thrown in for good measure. He'd spent a little time leveling solo yesterday to whittle down my xp lead, and we dinged 24 on two consecutive fights.

We started fighting our way back to the outpost and wandered down to the water to fight a few pugils. They were easier to kill this time (especially without a Goblin Bounty Hunter jumping in), but we only did a few before we left.

I'd read that the beetle camp in Sauromugue Champaign was viable at that level. I'd partied there once years ago, and it wasn't too bad. There are only four beetles, but they respawn quickly and we weren't running out of prey. They're tougher than the Buburimu mobs and hit a lot harder and took longer to kill, but once again we were in no danger of dying. Neyla and I hit 25 on the same beetle and swapped in our fancy new Federation Knives for extra damage, at which point the beetles got a lot easier to bring down.

We

The beetles are not as squishy as I'd like.

killed a few more and then moved on to Rolanberry Fields to target bees and goblins near the zone line. It's a nice zone, but you really have to keep track of your surroundings because the goblins and quadav like to wander. We eventually started working our way south along the road, killing bees and bats when we had a clear area.

The big pain in our ass was the Goblin Digger. Unlike most mobs with their tight little territorial boundaries, he can wander the entire zone. He managed to find us twice and make our life hell. The first time he was Very Tough and we barely managed to kill him. It was extremely rough, and we'd lost most of our TP keeping ourselves alive.

The second time was down near the Pashhow Marshlands zone. I'd just been thinking about how much I disliked the Digger when he was suddenly there and hitting me as we were wrapping up another fight. This time he was Incredibly Tough, and we started hauling ass for the zone. We were curing each other like crazy while he ran after us and stabbed at our backs. If the first encounter was an epic battle, this was an epic retreat. It's a miracle I didn't blunder into a quadav or Goobue Farmer and add them to the chase.

We managed to ding 26 and started working our way north to Jeuno to sell off our older knives. We managed to catch aggro from a nasty Goblin Furrier and had to run for the Cavernous Maw to escape him, but he was using ranged attacks and did a poor job of keeping on our heels like his Digger brother.

A Chorus Line

While I was off fishing Zafmlug Bass for guild points, Neyla was finishing his climb to 20 so we could start our Dancer duo. He came back to Windurst to acquire fresh armor and weapons. We partied up and outposted back to Buburimu.

The

It's the New Zu Revue, comin' right at you.

duo worked even better than I'd hoped. The Zu birds and dhalmels were all Toughs when we arrived, as were most of the goblins out closer to Mhaura. They died pretty fast, too. We were shocked at how much faster it was than when we were duoing on Beastmaster out there.

Best of all, Curing Waltz largely guaranteed we weren't going to die. We got a few angry goblins wandering into our battles and trying to horn in, or we'd each take a dhalmel when they were standing close to each other, but it wasn't rough.

I was halfway to 24 when we stopped, so we'll return there tomorrow to burn off an Empress Band charge. The xp was getting thin enough that we'll need a new camp after that; I'll scope out Korroloka Tunnel and see how the worms rate.

We ran down to the beach before outposting back to Windurst to check the pugils. They were all Tough and Very Tough, so Neyla pulled a VT fish. They weren't as much fun because of their evasion and ability to slow us down, but in another level or two we could probably carve through them with few problems.

Helpful Shadows

The

This Dark Stalker was feeling generous.

fishing guild needed 29 Shining Trout, so I flagged up on Dragoon in a token gesture toward getting a party while I fished them up on East Ronfaure. It took awhile to reach quota -- the Cheval Salmon were equally interested in biting at my Minnow Lure -- and I returned to Port Windurst to turn them in. Barring a fire or flood or meteor strike, I'll have my guild sign by Thursday or Friday.

I took a break to watch the Rifftrax version of Batman and Robin, then logged on again to help Neyla farm up a Beadeaux coffer key for Dalamar. They were running around the Crawler's Nest when I popped on, and the plan had changed from keys to getting him a Tavnazian Bell from the necropolis.

We traveled out there and put him at a switch so he could safely work the gates without getting aggro. We got a bell off the first Dark Stalker we fought. Heh. Didn't see that coming. We ran back to Dalamar and he teleported us out.

Neyla will catch up to me on Dancer tomorrow, so we'll probably team up for awhile or start the duo on Wednesday. It'll probably depend on my luck getting an xp party. I always doubted I'd be a soloing Dragoon, but it's starting to look more and more appealing.