Monday Nights with Uchipu

Black Mage:50 White Mage:50 Warrior:51 Thief:35

I have found using my Thief to be a great deal of fun when I get people that are patient in a party. I admit that I don't feel like an expert with THF yet and even after reading many posts from people about THF in the Job Forums, I don't feel that I do a lot for the party yet. I am much more oriented with Viper Bite SATA now than I was and I use the ws usually at the beginning of a fight for max dmg. The problem I find usually is that we need a backup voker for me to be able to "do my thing". Sometimes this means I gotta use a RNG or MNK as my "trick partner". But, if they don't voke the mob off the tank, it means I gotta wait til close to the end of the fight to do SATA a second time on them so that the mob can't retaliate too much.

Something also interesting about THF is that you get to tell how the party is doing with regards to damage over time. If the monster is dead before SATA is up then you know you are in a good group. SATA (Sneak Attack Trick Attack) comes up every minute.

I was unable to go last night with Uchipu to Windy to do her Monday run. I was looking forward to it all weekend and planned to be there. I even looked up the quest info. But alas, unforeseen circumstances botched my plans again.

Federation Knife

News I can use, [Can I have it?]

I have been scoping out the best equipment to get for my Thief(THF) after I get rid of my Bone Harness +1 gear which gives an evasion bonus. I was going to switch out all of it for Beetle Harness +1 gear but, as it turns out, THFs aren't supposed to gain hate or aggro and as such, even with me pulling( pulling monsters back to the party ), I never got deep into trouble with my level 16 gear. I wore it all the way to level 30. Of course, I had other really good gear like the Compound Eye Circlet and Scentless Armlets which together with +2 Evasion from the gear gave me a total of +12 Evasion.

I plan on getting two pieces of my RSE(race specific gear). The Wonder Mitts and Wonder Clomps. These have proven to be very difficult to get however. I have ventured 3 times in an effort to get a key and all 3 times I didn't get a key and didn't even find a chest to say "OK, there it is for when I find the key." They give a total of +5 Strength(STR). I have already bought the Mercenary Captain's Doublet, Faceplate, and Hose which also add Dexterity(DEX) and STR bonuses.

I was gonna commit to buying a Federation Knife for 50K and thought man if only I could afford it. I went to all the towns to check the prices and in one town someone got away with spending 20K on one! But mostly, the prices were around 40 to 50k in all areas. One day I saw a new one added to the list of existing ones in the AH, so I sent a lowball bid for 30K, and I got it! Man, that was great! I even got it right when I was level 25 too. This dagger should be with me probably all the way to 50.

I was also eyeing the Republic Dagger because it was almost as fast as the Beestinger and Platoon Dagger I was using which were the BOMB! But that dagger was in the 60s price range yet I almost preferred that one to the one I had. Then I did the math and actually the Federation Knife does more dmg over time than the Republic Dagger.

I suppose I should feel like an uber-THF with my GREAT dagger but I still want my RSE. Funny huh. The more you have, the more you want.

Place of divination 

Divine this

I was leveling up my divine skill as a WHM/BLM with a bunch of Banish spells used most appropriately on gobs venturing too close to Selbina. I found a lot of success in using those spells to "skill up" but as usual the points proved fleeting.

Going solo as a Thief in FFXI

I was going to continue fighting birds in east South Gustarberg so that I could continue to fight vultures and get fire crystals but it got to be too slow waiting on more vultures to pop. I also was eager to get more pots of honey from the wasps I was fighting earlier so I decided to clean up, get my Maple Shield, sell the stack of crystals I had already acquired and head out all the way west to west South Gustaberg near the Dandruf Wadi.

It was a good decision. There were plenty of wasps there and the Goblin Thugs and Weavers were not so harsh that they could kill me although one of em did but that was just careless. I continued to get fire crystals from the gobs and wind crystals and pots of honey from the bees.

I am about to head back there now but am not eager to do it since it really is rather boring.

Soloing is for the birds

There is not much to say here except that soloing is for the birds. As soon as I got my level 7 bow, I reallyl started to cut into some vultures. The vultures drop fire crystals which are worth good cash but I have noticed that this only happens near the western entrance to Bastok.

I have really got to get the extra 10 slots for my Mog House so that I can store more things and switch out equipment more often. Every time I level to new armor I have to wait until the old armor sells to play again. I guess this is the price you have to pay when you have 3 other high level characters.

I really am starting to miss my old character.



Hohito, the Warrior/White Mage, tags a Yagudo with his dagger... his dagger?