Black Mage does a Promy

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

I dusted off the ole BLM two days ago when I used him to try to do the Promyvion-Mea quest for Chains of Promathia. We had a decent time getting to the end but once we got there the Mega Boss was close to impossible to beat. We had a WAR WAR THF SMN WHM and me, the BLM, in our party and we still had a tough time keeping the tank alive after the monster did its Area of Effect(AOE) attack on us. We all died 3 times.

Yesterday just as I was waking up I got an invite to party as BLM so I decided to go ahead with it since I wanted to get back some of the exp poins that I had lost last night doing the Promy. It was just me and the PLD at first and it was not going well while we were lfg but eventually he asked me to take leader. By that time we had BLM BLM PLD DRK so the last two we needed were a DD and a WHM. But when I finally got a hold of a WHM, who was JP slightly, she sed she and a BLM were a set so I sed OK to the offer since we were going to King Ranperre's Tomb(KRT) and didn't need a dispeller. So we go with 3 BLMs a WHM a DRK and a PLD. We had a good time of it too. Didn't mess up on the way to the Armet Beetle camp. And we exp'd for a good while doing just fine with me doin Ancient Magic(AM) every so often cuz I could afford to. Unfortunately, one of the BLMs fell asleep. I got a nice picture of all of us poking her... it was a group poke, lol. The party there was still fun though just not so palatable since one of the members was asleep. So when we got a replacement, which luckily for us was a BRD who could dispel, we decided it was time to move the camp to Cape Terrigan.

Not a bad camp really but what was bad was the journey there. We waited a while at the zone to Kuftal Tunnel for the Bard to come. However, while waiting, the BLM and his girl the WHM(the set) decided to leave. so I set out to find a replacement for them as well. After a while I got a WHM and THF to replace them and we were set to go.

Well we had some political problems with who thought what and where we should party, so the THF had to go. It's always a hassle being leader sometimes. Especially when you are the BLM that has to give people a Warp 2 home. I direct everyone to the beach at Cape Terrigan and Sneak everyone then the THF, Rank 10, starts to have second doubts about whether we should go there cuz some of the members levels are low, I know what it's like to be in party, have great gear, and start missing the mobs like you got your fishing gear on or something. So, in an effort to show some respect, I tell them that we will stop and do Robber Crabs in Kuftal Tunnel at the zone for a while till the party gets tuned. Well, then he starts asking for Warp 2 since "it was clear we had no idea what we were doing". Well I didn't give it to him. I told him he would have to party for 5 min and then I would do it. I wanted to show him that Robber Crabs weren't going to excessively gimp the exp but he just kept harping "Warp2 plz" over and over and got himself a replacement and when it was clear I wasn't going to immediately do it, he went and got aggro and killed himself on some Robbers. What a jerk!

Soon, his replacement arrives and just then, when we get ready to party, it's about 7pm and then it's time to go play darts. Well it was Tuesday! So basically I got a really nice group together, worked hard with several members, all so THEY could party for a while. Oh well.

I got some good practice in with my BLM while I was in KRT and made good use of my AF gear too. It's great! I did Ancient Magic(AM) and the mob didn't even budge. It was too cool sometimes. Plus I made good use of my Dark Staff that cost me so much gil.

It wasn't a lot of experience points, but I had a good time.

Bah!

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

It was dead dull boring day today. I went to Crawler's Nest as WAR/BLM in an effort to skill up my WAR's GAX and AXE and STF skills and I really tested out my abilities to sub BLM. I started by casting Ice Spikes, since the crawlers are weak to ice. Then I tried casting Bind Bio and Poison among others. I did this because on my hike out there I tested using spells on mobs to see which would work best. On easy mobs the Bind Bio Poison then Choke strategy was working really well. Once inside though I found that the crawlers just brushed aside my low level Bind. So instead I casted Ice Spikes Blind then Rasp. This worked out best I think since it maximized my ability to evade hits in between me casting Drain to up my hit points.

Overall, it worked out ok I guess. I got my AXE skill up from 60 to 95 and moved my GAX skill from 85 to 95. I hate being so far behind in skill though!! Where in the hell am I gonna get a cool 100 points of skill and for two weapons?!!

Later I tried bringing a Nest Beetle to the entrance so that I could skill up. It worked out for a while cuz when it was almost dead I would just zone and rest outside and when I came back he was at full HP again. I got him on purpose because he didn't aggro others so most people just passed it while on their way. But then one time a party just walked in and hacked it up. I can't blame them I guess since they probably didn't know that it was a non-aggro mob. It was kind of disheartening though because I had to pull it from clear out at the Nest Beetle camp which was quite a ways away. I wasn't about to pull back another one. Sometimes though, it was really pounding the hits on me though and I found myself close to dying several times. Skill ups were working though true enough but as the .3s turned into .1s in the end I just felt light years away from having my weapons up to par. I was not gonna be getting any more skillups unless I fought harder mobs and the harder mobs were gonna kill me. Bah!

The rest of the day was a waste. I walked back to Jueno changed to THF and went out to farm what I needed to finish a stack of Silk Threads which I got from killing the Worker Crawlers I killed before doing the Nest Beetle, but man that took friggin forever!! That last Silk Thread must have taken me a full half hour for it to drop!! I just got disgusted. Bah!

Later I put my flag up and lfg but I really wasn't in the mood to party and didn't get an invite anyway. Bah!

Plus, I got reminded of Uchipu's Escort Quest tonight so in anticipation for the quest I take the airship over to Bastok to open it and "Smack!" I didn't have enough fame. So all afternoon I am hanging around the house not going out cuz I wanted to be sure I was here for the quest and now I am not able to go. Baahhhhhh!!

This day was crap.

Begin PUSH to 70

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

It's never too bad a day in Kazham. I am about to embark I guess on my free trip to 70 now that LB4 is done and I have my title "Cloud Breaker". I have to make sure I keep stock of enough arrows and bolts so that I can keep them both on par. I still need a little skill up on my Marksmanship to be up to speed. I bought special bolts specifically so that I could skill up on that but doing Steelshells in Boyhada is still too high up for me at skill 200+. I need something around skill 150+ to effectively skill that up. My archery is working fine in parties now though. I skill up only a little bit but I do hit the mob about 1 in 5 times. Still, it's not enough to waste money on Demon Arrows though. Those sell for about 18k and cause the "Attack Down" effect that the spell Bio is famous for. Again, it's too expensive. Regular Beetle Arrows sell for 1k sometimes and I don't really need the damage as much as I need the +5 Ranged Accuracy on them to keep my skill ups goin. I have my fundage all the way back up to 200k and am wondering about Erase since doin solo missions now with THF/WHM at 64/32 would allow me to use Erase. Yep, still wondering, lol. The price has gone back up a bit to 600k which is not a bit it's a FRIGGIN 100k more gil that I don't HAVE!
Well, I guess it's KSNM time. I got 30! ^^

Our queen

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

Here is a picture of our queen Uchipu saying hey to Cornholio before our jump to Xarcabard. She really does remind me of a queen sometimes when I look at her and all of her exotic clothing that I know barely anything about. We need to get her a little something that she wears everytime she party's in the ls. A little something that says "Hell yeah DivineExtasy baby!" um uh , what is it called? Can I have it? Oh yeah, a Relic Weapon... the staff. ^^

BLM AF Feet

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

Can you believe the luck? I am doing a skillup party and it's not going very well since it's four people and one of em wants to do Helm Beetles and the rest of us are just fine happy with Soldier Crawlers. For the most part we all got along but fantastically, and lucky for me since I didn't need to skill up on Helm Beetles, we try skillup on a Water Elemental. Well we kill it and I am so happy that we did it that I become completely complacent with whatever they wanna skill up on. I know, selfish me.

Anyway, after that I needed to take that "Bag of Seeds", which is what the elemental drops, over to the Chumimi and open the next part of the quest which is to kill Demon Chancellors for the Whine Cellar Key. Well once again I am saved by my linkshell. One of them, Chaostormentor, is doing a Coffer Key party in Castle Zvahl Bailey and it occurs to me that I can go as THF, help them with the drops, and hopefully get MY key to drop in the process. Well it does and thankfully enough I stay and one of the PLD shows me the way to the "Ore Door" and I get my Wizard's Sabots with ease.

I told him I would stay for a while and help him with his key but Immediately after that I told him I had to go and then I felt bad about it. I was really tired and it was like 5am. I hope to pay him back someday. His name is Porterz.

I gave a try to Ballista yesterday and took my WHM out there since I had Seer's Gear and it was a 30 cap Ballista. It was fun for the most part. At first I noticed that I was the only WHM and also noticed they weren't paying me much attention so I went about my business and supported my fellow Bastokers, and we won the first match! Then I set out to become, what I became, namely White Meat! Those guys were eyeing for me the entire time the second match and I died several times even with full buffs up. It wasn't pretty. They won the second and the third match and won the tourney. It was still so much fun though that I immediately signed up for the next one which was level 40 Bastok vs. Windy.

This match was much different since now I had access to Haste and a few more buffs and more equipment, but I still just ended up supporting. There were many more deaths in this tourney and it was choc full of ppl. The first Ballista was 4 vs 4, this one was like 10 vs 10. It was much larger but also more difficult. Still It was great fun, even if it was obvious to everyone else that it was my first time.

By the way, how do you toss a Petra in a Rook?

Darksteel Claymore +1

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

Ah yes, here it is, what you have all been waiting for; its a picture of my nice new Darksteel Claymore +1! It's a beauty and believe it or not people that think I suck cuz I don't have Axe leveled have gotta hand it to me when the mob comes away from a NIN from plain old hacking away at the mob. Heh, that's dealing some damage! Just think what's gonna happen now that I can wear my new Fighter's Mask (AF) which includes not only booyah! armor, but also enmity +1! Ninjas beware!

Artifact Gloves

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

This a picture of me waiting for Uchipu and Cornholio and Chaithai to come to Xarcabard to help me kill Dark Spark. This was been the luckiest two days yet in the game. I have never been more happy than when I finally had my BLM gloves. I thought when I originally got the THF gloves, which Uchipu and Net helped me get, that I had forfeited my right to have the gloves for my BLM character which would have been a huge mistake cuz there are many things that give +3 DEX in gloves but nothing offered BLMs gives them the +15 to Elemental Magic that the gloves do.

However, I found out while exploring Garlaige Citadel that I had very little skill as a BLM now using my new computer. All the spells were out of order and I require the order to be just so so that I can page down effectively from the list of all my spells. When I first started out I used macros but as I got too many spells to count, I decided to continue using the spell list which allowed me to cast lets say "Fire" then "Fire II" then I would wait on my "Fire" spell to cast that again as I watched the timer count down. There's no use in using other spells when the monster is in fact weak to fire. What do you need a kick in the head? The MOb is WEAK to fire then YOU hit it with FIRE, duh! On the other hand, A BLM like me with his nice new AF feet and Tactician Magician's gear going through his spell list while a MNK takes half the hp of the coffer mob down and walks over and pokes you and goes back to fighting is my definition of " YOU SUCK", lol. He didn't really do that tho.

I did my Gobbiebag 3 and 4 quests today so I have max inventory space on my guy now but my Erase scroll is gonna have to wait. Sad too cuz I priced them and they are back down to 500k, and there are 14 of em which means I would have had enough money soon if I hadn't spent a 200k of it today. Oh well. At least I can farm for longer now... oh joy!

Upper Jeuno at night.

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:64

My leveling stint has come to a halt I think. I need to get some things squared away first before I continue levleing my THF. I want the Peacock Charm. Nothing less than the impossible for this guy but hey, I got friends so we'll see. I also need to get those Creek Clomps or whatever cuz they rock more than my current Noct Gaiters +1. I gotta find a cheap way to get a line up on some Squid Sushi. I will even take up fishing if I can find someone that will trade me fish for a stack of Squid Sushi. I also need to get rid of a bunch of crap that's in my MH. I can't level THF knowing I won't be able to collect my stacks of crystals that I am accustomed to and to do that I need space. More on that experience probably in my next journal.

I am also longing to get my AF Hands and Feet for my BLM and my AF feet for my WAR but those guys even though I love em, have got a lot of spending to be done so that they have the kind of gear that a person playing them as their main would have. For the BLM I still have to buy 2 Sleep spells and some II spells and nevermind thinking I could afford AM spells. Both of the AF quests for his hands and feet were started by characters in Upper Jeuno, hence the picture which reminds me of my fave BLM losing my interest slightly even though he is a little more fun to play.

The WAR has his GAX skill at 80 but I am sure ppl gonna start wondering wth ! no Rampage?! Axe skill is at 5 now. Luckily my Archery with THF has really improved now that I use my Ranged Accuracy rings when I pull. I was even able to switch out my bow to my crossbow and Sleep an add the other day, twice. I felt like great at that point cuz ppl were probly like "HEY! The THF slept it! He can probably sleep all his own links." Well, no not yet but when I get crossbow leveled to my archery then yes. Sleep bolts sleep every time usu if you hit with em but sleep arrows are a waste of money, don't buy em they rarely sleep even if they hit. ARchery 186 Marcksmanship 155.

I gotta kill a Water Elemental in Crawler's Nest to get a leg up on my BLM AF feet quest so I have been studying how my BLM could maybe solo him. I dunno if sleep would work on a water elem but if I could sleep it repeatedly, I could maybe chain some burst spells in on him and do it solo. I dunno. Gotta skill up dark skill I know that.

Yuhtunga Jungle

Black Mage:56 White Mage:51 Warrior:56 Thief:63

I know, the last thing you guys wanted to see was a screenshot of THIS god-forsaken place. It has Fire Elementals, those godawful Smithys running around, and it's just teeming with Ivory Lizards that don't wanna give up the drop for my Teleport-Yhoat scroll.

Well I gotta say that the scenery looks really cool sometimes now. And when it starts raining, it looks positively majestic in there. Still, I am not happy that I don't have my Elshimo Marble, which drops from the Ivory Lizards. I am also not happy that the last time the Teleport-Yhoat scroll sold in San d'Oria it sold for 40k and I WASN'T smart enough to wrangle it in while it was cheap and more available.

Nevertheless, I gotta keep the focus. I have set my hp to Kazham now so that I can Warp there and check on AH prices in Windy, take a choco to the outpost and outpost warp home to Bastok, and then I can Teleport-Altep and hike it to Rabao and check AH prices in San d'Oria. Too neat huh?

Well try telling that the party leaders when they have to wait for me to take an airship to Jueno. Usually they don't wait but sometimes they will. When I get into a party this way though, it is a very good one by the time I get there.

I got into just such a one yesterday. It was not completely done when I got there but since the leader was patient enough to wait for me to get there, he was patient enough to get a good group together. The setup was WHM BLM BRD NIN MNK THF. And, even though I love hitting for 1376 dmg (it's my max) on the birds in Bibiki Bay, I don't like taking on the gobs there. My Black Cotehardie has nice elemental resistance to most things +3 but -30 resist to fire. This is bad against Goblin bombs. I died twice. I don't like dying. I don't mind losing exp too much but I DO mind losing money. I now use Squid Sushi exclusively since I am gonna treat THF as my main til 75. This esp since I don't need to buy another weapon for him. More on that later. Squid Sushi sells for 22k and that makes every death cost me 2k about in food. It takes about 10 gobs or so to get 2 Goblin whatevers from the Smithys that are gonna get me those 2k back. That's too much money lost and too much wasted effort. Having died twice, I was now 4k in the hole.

In the past I would switch off between using Bream Sushi and Meat Miths just to see which "value-conscious" food would give me the most benefit. Bream Sushi gives a bonus to DEX and VIT and Acc; and Meat Miths give bonus to STR and Attack; Squid Sushi gives the bonus to DEX and to AGI as well as Acc. Well I would settle for the first two because Meat Miths sell for 5k a stack and Bream Sushi was usu at about 15k a stack. Squid Sushi, though it was at 15k, is now pushing 22k a stack! I used to think no big deal if I miss out on a little AGI and save some money esp before I was level 60 when I was still using Viper Bite.

But recentlly on the THF forums in Allakhazam I found the multiplier used to calc the dmg on Dancing Edge and the AGI is a very significant part of the Trick Attack damage. As a matter of fact that being said, with the +7 AGI that the Lust Dagger adds to your stats, I don't think there is any other dagger that I am going to be using period. For a significant change to take place I would need to have DMG go from 20 to 25 and even at LVL70 daggers are giving about 23 or so as a stat. I might try the Harpe(DMG:28) and see but I know it will probably affect my Dancing Edge negatively because it doens't add a bonus to any stat.

I was thinking Garuda Dagger also maybe but nah. I am convinced that the Lust Dagger is the best weapon to use for Dancing Edge, period.

The Best Party EVER

Black Mage:56 White Mage:50 Warrior:56 Thief:62

This was the best party yet with my THF. We didn't even setup SATA always and more importantly, we used a NIN tank, but it was excellent. I expect that we did a chain 5 everytime and if we didn't, it didn't matter cuz we were RAKIN in the exp. This wuzza my second time in Ulegearand Range. A fantastic spot to party. Raptors are all over the place except on this slope so it's very easy to pull. In fact our monk pulled for us this time which made my job a lot easier. She ws great too. The NIN was a bit of an ass tho but still I can't complain when everything was so coming together for us {Do you know what Assassin is?} I would gain TP very fast with Haste on me and the MONK too and soon after that we would do the Howling Fist > Dancing Edge > Distortion > Bilzzaga II chain and it ws the BOMB. I would hit for consistent 700 damaage (sometimes 800) with about 300 dmg to Distortion, then the BLM would consistently hit MB for 700. Mobs were dying quick. I am not sure if they were as impressed with me as I was with them but at the end of the pt they thought I was the SHIZat!

I can't decide if I want to level some more or bring up my other jobs. Usually I like to level my other jobs soon after I find new camp spot so I can use the drops for gil. I did this with Beetle Jaws in Garlaige Citadel--I put 3 jobs through there and then sold 2 stacks of em for a total of about 50k or so.

New computer is the BOMB

Black Mage:56 White Mage:50 Warrior:56 Thief:62

Yes I deleveled my WHM doing a danged BCNM 40 but I at least finally got my feet wet in a BCNM(ie. Burning Circle Notorious Monster). Erase didn't drop though and 2 people lost their seals when we lost the first 2 and then won the last 2. I was fourth so I won but the most valuable thng I got was a Black Pearl and a scroll of Ice Spikes. I immediately put the pearl up for sale at 30k and it sold in less than an hour. To compensate the two that didn't get anything for their seals I sent them each 10k. It''s not much but hey I couldn't have got my stuff without them so I felt it was fair. I might have sent more if I got like a major drop. The other guy that won his BCNM got a Survival Belt which I would have LOVED to have been able to use with my THF during pulls. It sells for 300k tho, and I aint spending that much for switch-in gear. It has a +5 Evasion ability.

I just upgraded my computer last week in an effort to reduce the lag I got playing THF and not getting SATA off quickly. I don't know why, but after a couple of hits from the monster, I usually end up at camp and hit my SATA macro and if I do that and I get a Cure III, I get frozen in place for a while and that, as I have said before, puts the WHM in danger cuz he's gonna have to cure the first-voker. I also wanted to be able to finally have bump mapping which I couldn't do with my old video card which was 128K but MX series NVidia. The computer I have now has 3.0 GHz processor speed, 1GB RAM and a 6800 series 256K video card from NVidia.

Well I am in heaven. Not only do I have no problem with SATA now even with full graphics and effects turned on, but just look at how beautiful the scenery looks. I sit there now amazed at the landscape sometimes. Even YUHTUNGA looks good. And you all know how much I like Yuhtunga Jungle.

I talked some more in Uchipu's ls called DivineXtasy. I hope I can manage to stay in there a long time. I have made a lot of friends in Nobodyzangel ls but I can tell that they don't relish my use of another ls. Still sometimes I just want a different set of ppl to speak to.

I have leveled up to 62 with my THF and I think I am gonna take it to 65 before I stop. I find it pleasant to be among really high level ppl like Net Uchi Ema and Mith and Corn and Kineal etc. and it drives me to want to get at least one of my characters to 75. I used to not care so much about maxing a character out since that would just be one less character I could level, but I dunno.

I have also recently wanted to get my Erase scroll even if I have to buy it and it occurred to me today that if I sell my Teleport-Yhoat and Teleport-Vahzl scrolls, that they would bring in about 450k and then since Erase is at 500k I could afford it but would lose my teleport ability to those areas. Still, I noticed recently that Erase is at least as effective as Dispel against some mobs and to be honest I would be ashamed to not be able to cast Erase as a White Mage.

White Mage is on hold.