Promyvion-Mea Ooo

BLM:60 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

This is a picture of us right before going in to fight the Delver. He was very difficult to beat but with the right animas used, we took him. It really was worth the trouble to farm animas for like 3 hrs and having a SMN use their 2hr was very helpful also. I would just not even go without a SMN and at least 4 Psychoanimas and 1 Hysteroanima.

The map quest for the Tavnasian Safehold was very easy to get too. I got help from Shanisasha with that and it was cake. I still have one more cutscene to get to be ready for my minotaur fight.

I might go open my AF Gloves quest for my WHM. Not that I really want to get the gloves but because I have a Nest Coffer key and I might as well use it wisely rather than toss it. The coffer gives a WHM their AF pants which can be worn at 56.

Unfortunately, my WHM is only at 54.

A Good Night

BLM:59 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

This is an old picture of me when I used to fish at Knight's Well. There isn't a fishing gear hat out there so choosing you hat when you fish kind of says something about you to all of your fellow fisher people. I chose my THF AF hat since it's very distinctive.

I haven't fished here in an eon and I really liked doing it too. I find that I can talk on the linkshell like crazy while just scooping up fish by the stacks. I also find that I run out of insect paste rather quickly if I don't load up on it to the nth degree.

I finally finished my Promyvion-Mea quest last night. We had farmed items for anima on Saturday night. We planned to accumulate enough items to get anima for the fight and then go through. I took my BLM/THF to farm since my BLM could d2 ppl and my /THF would give us more drops. Then we got aggro and died from a link and I was forced to use my 2hr which left us without a 2hr to use from my SMN. Well at that point they wanted to quit and do it last night and I told them I had plans for last night with a girl so they said whatever and they called it a night.

Last night my plans with a girl didn't work out so I got home after going out at around 2am or so and lo and behold they were just about to go back in and try again. So I switch to my SMN gear and we start farming for a little while and then we go in.

We were lucky. No aggro at all the whole way and even at the tight spot where we had to aggro a Weeper to get thru, the leader just aggroed and jetted for the exit and I sicked Carbuncle on him and noone was even damaged hardly at all.

At that point we discussed strategy. The Psychoanima is used to keep the NM from using normal attacks and we had four of them so we set up and order to use them. The Hysteroanima stops the mob from using his ws so I advised them to use it after 50% hp and they agreed. I went in as SMN and first thing I did was cast Ice Armor on everybody because I knew from my experience that every paralyzed attack was gonna amt to a whole lot less dmg. Then I cancelled Shiva and brought in Ramuh and used his Thunderspark and sicked him on the NM. Then a little while later, all the while using Melon Juices, I cancelled Ramuh and brought in Shiva to use her 2hr but that's when the NM got crazy and he killed off Shiva. So I summoned Titan with only 86mp to spare and I knew I might not get to use the 2hr so I immediately used Astral Flow but I was too far away. I was clear back with the mages and for my commands to take effect I have to be close to the monster. So I run up to the monster and use Astral Flow and then search for my Blood Pact label but then I got hit by a Carousel and I was running low on mp so I forget everything and stand still and just use my 2hr so that it doesn't get cancelled and sure enough it hits for 426 dmg. I know that I am gonna be able to use it again or even 2 more times so I run to the back, pop another Melon Juice, and hope the party stays alive long enough for me to hit it again. I cancel Titan since he was using up MP and rest, but just as I was nearing the 10 second mark for recast, my party finished off the mob.

I was truly speechless. I didn't even think it possible and as I walked around in Lufaise Meadows, I forgot all about the girl I was supposed to meet. I was in heaven.

Ya think?!!

Black Mage gear on sale!

BLM:59 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

Well I am about to say goodbye to this gear. At 60 I am going to get to use my Wizard's Petasos hat and will be using that with my old Black Cotehardie which I just stopped using for my THF. I really like the way he looks in this setup though, very Shantotto-like I think, heh. I need to figure out what pants would go good though. I already have the AF hands and feet which I think are good til 75 imo but what pants to use? Hmmm. I am thinking of using Silk slacks at 62 since they are white and I think I am just gonna use the White Pants with my Black Cote until then, but who knows, it may look like crap.

I like my BLM to look good since I know that really your use of spells is what makes a difference in a party, so I don't fret too much about extra MP or Evasion stuff really. It's nice sometimes to have a BLM over-nuke the mob and have the mob come over and try to whack a Taru BLM who has his evasion maxed. I know that many other people prob don't have their evasion capped as BLM but since my main job is THF, I usually get hit 1 out of 3 times on DC mobs. This mainly cuz I use Drone Earrings and cuz my AF feet gear(Wizard's Sabots) add even more AGI, plus Tarutarus have high AGI naturally, which makes them good as THFs btw.

Against IT creatures it's very important to have high Elemental and Enfeebling skill if you want your spells to stick but since usually you have an RDM there refreshing you and casting enfeebles you might not need to worry about that part. I have noticed that what really makes the difference in a party is damage. You gotta be able to stick the BIG DMG spells so that you don't waste your time and MP in a party. To do that you are going to HAVE to have the MUST-HAVE-it AF Gloves(Wizard's Gloves). They give elemental skill +15. I believe this skill allows your spells to do more damage although the ability to stick the spells is also affected by this too. I usually toggle with /equip macros the Dark Staff(which allows you to rest for +10mp per tick) and the Ice Staff(which gives a +10 elemental skill bonus). I have noticed often that when my spells get resisted, it's because of my doofusness of forgeting to switch back to the Ice Staff after resting.

If you are an RDM and are reading this and ever get the urge to cast Frost Rasp Drown on the mob because you think you are being thorough, please don't. RDMs may have high elemental skill perhaps compared to other jobs but to try to stick an elemental spell on a mob when a BLM is present is just dumb. It's like me trying to cast enfeebs when a RDM is present. It's just redundant and stupid. I was partying the other day and what I normally do before I switch to my Ice Staff is cast a Blind spell since it is a Dark Skill based spell and my Dark Staff makes sticking those more effective. I sometimes will get off a Stun too just to be skill up Dark skill but I have found that this REALLY pisses the mob off and if you are a THF trying to get SATA off, this really probably pisses YOU off. lol So, I have stopped doing Stun at the start. Anyways to continue, after that I will switch to Ice Staff then and either cast Frost to give the melees a chance to build TP and then switch to Burn when it runs out, or I will straight out cast Burn and then Choke if the skillchain is almost ready to go or we are fighting easier mobs and the fights are not lasting very long.

I was in a party yesterday and an RDM was casting Frost Rasp Drown at the start of every fight, and though he was saving me a lot of time since I didn't have to cast those spells, my Burn was never ready for my MB cuz Burn can't be cast in concert with those spells. I thought I was gonna choke him!

BLMing is like the BEST job. Every party should have a BLM cuz it just makes everyone happy to see the fireworks go off close the end of a fight. Even when I'm just a THF running around doing my candy-poke Shark Bite ws to mob, I gotta go WOW when I see a slam-dunk Firaga III Magic Burst(MB) blast the mob for like a thousand dmg. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so close to the mob so I could get a better view.

I can already wear my Black Cote at 59 but I think I am just gonna save it until I reach 60 and then sell off this entire gear. Not once have I partied in a zone that was under Bastokian control to where the bonuses of the +1 actually helped me. Still, I like the way it looks.

ON a final note, I was partying as BLM the other day with people who didn't want to do a skillchain. Is it just me or does every other BLM reading this also want to immediately D2 ALL OF THEIR BUTTS TO THEIR HP?

BLMing it

BLM:58 WHM:54 Summoner: 29 WAR:56 THF:68

(Don't set this picture to wallpaper and stare at it or else you will start having dreams of being with a taru.)

I had a fun time with BLM again yesterday. I got it to 58. It's been awhile since I have been wanting to level and esp with Emagyen gone from the ls my mood has been rather meh lately.

Such a waste of a Shaman's Cloak. :P

Anyways, I also got my skill up last night in a skill-up party and really had a good time. Eventually they all left but I hung around til the very end helping em since there were only like 4 people left. We were doing 200+ skill-up and getting WS points. Me, I was just leveling my Archery and Marksmanship. I gotta agree with Nomadic that he probably wouldn't have gotten a lot of skill up points at level 179 which he sed is where his staff skill is for his PLD. I noticed a marked increase in skill ups when I got to 197 or so which verified his statement sort of.

Now I just gotta ask myself one more question, if my wife asked me to quit the game because she wasn't happy with it, would I quit FFXI ??

HELLYA!

Summoner Thoughts

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 29 WAR:56 THF:68

Well it's been a long time since I was a level 1 SMN. This is me trying out my Ice Spirit for the first time. I am surprised how easy being a SMN is but it is also very involved as well. You have the ability to deal a lot of damage through Blood Pacts and through regular fighting with your avatar, but it's also very easy to use up almost ALL of your MP in one battle.

I think people wonder sometimes why I am just sitting there even though they continue to fight. For one, noone asked ME if it was ok to pull. Second, if I am out of MP that's all I can do is rest up until I have MP again. If I see the fight is going well without me, or that the mob is VT or something I will just skip the battle altogether. This way I have full or close to full MP for the next one.

I wish I would have gotten my Garuda Dagger though. I don't even feel like playing THF anymore till I get it. Besides, being SMN has been a lot of fun. I almost have enough Conquest Points to get my Presidential Hairpin. It allows "Regen" in areas outside of Bastokian control and has more DEF(@18) than my Empress Hairpin which has 0. The best part is that the switch in equipment will come as I switch from my Empress Hairpin to that during the pull. I will lose +10 Evasion though during the pull but since we are always fighting ITs and they always hit me anyways, I probably won't miss it.

I have been thinking a lot about the SMN job as a sub and for WHM I think it works out great. I use ZERO nuke spells as WHM and usually just stick to my variety of Regen, Haste, and Cure spells. At level 50 the WHM/SMN gets Auto-Refresh as an ability, so that's another reason to sub SMN. For BLM though it's not so useful. I often find myself backing up the WHM with Regen or a couple of cures and I think it is the BLMs duty to watch out for the WHM if his MP gets too low.

I have enough Beastman's Seals to do another "A Worm's Turn" BCNM. Hmmm, I wonder if I should sub SMN as a BLM? :D

Some of her thoughts

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 24 WAR:56 THF:68

Oops, I meant to say Summoner Thoughts. Hmm, wonder where my mind is?

I have decided to stop leveling my Summoner for now I guess since I don't want to have to upgrade his equipment again. I need to keep on trying for my avatar fights but after my first encounter with Miss-one-hit-wonder-that-hits-for 568-dmg Shiva (OMG I said all there is to day about her) I have decided to put that off for a while.

I probably will level SMN up to like level 26 though so that I can spend some time in Kazham leveling the ole NPC Jajuju who hasn't seen daylight since I started leveling SMN about 2 weeks ago.

I am excited to have finally reached level 24 though because now I get to use Shining Ruby. I think this is perhaps the SMN's best secret weapon because even though you may not think stackable Protect, which upgrades everyones armor and doesn't get worn out til it expires is that big of a deal, I do. I would put this up there with Paralyze in effectiveness.

I mean, why wouldn't you want to take a chuck of dmg out of EVERY hit the monster makes?

Anyone know a good one word text-message to send to a girl?