Attowha Chasm NM [Too weak]

BLM:70 WHM:54 SMN:35 WAR:56 THF:70

This is me with my two pals Tonozspot and Lordrobson. They helped me with a COP mission and here we are scoping out the subtleties of the next steps to get to the next one. Here we are in Attowha Chasm. Frankly, that was my first time there. I knew it was a zone just north of where the Rockwell lay for my Divination Sphere quest but I never stepped foot in there. It's really neat to find a place that is so huge and so empty. I can't wait to take my BLM there and find a place for my WHM to party.

We were really the uber group cuz Lordrodson was a SAM and Tonozspot was a very skilled BLM. Aggro management was no problem. I ws WHM 54 but since I was feeling pretty good, we were owning everything, including this Antlion and the nxt couple of NMs.

I got my TAU pack installed yesterday and it took close to an hour to load all of the updates. I went out to Cape Terrigan and stood next to the monument there and got my Thief's Testimony from a Goblin Bandit that sits there. It was really boring work though. Ugh. I can't carry two THF testimonies and I am not sure if the Goblin Mercenary that was just north of him carries a separate Test so I just called it a night and today I am gonna get my first crack at Maat.

I already know how it's gonna end though. He is gonna get TP to 100 and lay me out. Then I am gonna hit my Reraise and then he will bop me again. The two attempts I make will fail and I will be forced to head back out to the "Cape" for more pensive-non-sensical-sitting-there good times. :P

Who's your Daddy?

BLM:70 WHM:54 SMN:35 WAR:56 THF:70

I like to put on my Silk Pants and Empress Hairpin on in the city when I am running around because I just think my BLM looks SO well-dressed in this gear. I also like to sub /WHM so that I can skillup my Enhancement skill. My Enhancement skill is so high that when I switch to my WHM to tele somewhere, I can't skillup Enhancement cuz for my WHM 54, the skill is maxed. I usu like to keep my WHM clothes on me also so that my WHM doesn't look under-dressed. The game remembers what you were wearing when you switch jobs if you don't remove the items from your inventory.

My WHM is my most powerful character. Even though I have no AF and no Serket ring or even a Light Staff, I have all the spells. I know a lot more about WHM than say WAR because playing WHM is something I love to do, but when I'm not tired. If I accept an invite kinda late cuz I'm teleporting somewhere and go off into a party with whatever setup, I can miss Erase, Poisona, Barspells, and I might even forget to Reraise cuz if I'm tired, I am not really caring.

I am saving my WHM for that reason. I wanna make my partys and I want to make them interesting. I want to party in Lufaise Meadows and in Ulegearand Range and Attowha Chasm. I want to get those DRG>THF sc against birds setup that make people go, "wth I just ws for 1000?" I want to try new things in a party and take them to a new area that noone goes in like Bostaneaux Obliette. I want my experience with WHM to be one where I am in charge AND I know what I'm doing. So I will level WHM last.

My WAR is a different story. Even though he can hold his own in a party, with no Rampage and no AXE or GAX skill leveled, I am lucky to get an invite at all. I will prob level him next after I get BLM and THF to 75.

After I hit 75 however, I expect to do many new things with Uchipu. She likes to do these ENM thingys that make money and don't seem to last too long. But, you gotta be 75 for those.

On a more somber note, I got the chance to find out what RDMs think of my improved ability to Refresh myself yesterday. I have bought MP gear and not bought a Black Cloak because I want to start the exp chain with as much mp as possible and then unload it all through the course of getting to chain 5. To do this, I need to refresh to max on the chain 1 mob. So when I am ready to heal MP to max, I will forgo the Waterga III and cast Frost and sit there and do nothing else but heal MP and then MB with Blizzard III which costs a lot less MP wise.

Well yesterday this RDM decides "hmmf I think I will enfeeb and nuke more and refresh the WHM more often since BLM has MP close to max." You see, I am not used to that. I am used to people setting up skillchain, I cast Burn and 3 or 4 spells later the mob has lost 2000 hp and is dead and I have the whole party going OMG! At this point, I am used to RDM casting Refresh just on principle even though I don't need it.

In that party however, we were on chain 2 mob and I am down to like 200 or so MP and RDM is not refreshing cuz I'm sitting there trying to get to max MP. Two things can happen at this point. I can become his pet dog, or he can become mine. Well about 2 missed MBs later the whole party was wondering wth is up with no refresh! LOL It was a very bad experience after that though because I was forced to MB everytime but I would immediately rest after that to make the most of the Refresh that he liked to cast during MB. There was no nuking the mob to zero, there was no "I will cast Frost to help the party". There was only me and this RDM trying to decide whether he or I was gonna piss off the party more. In the end, he eventually sed he had to go so I let him. It was a "harsh" experience even though it was pretty good exp. We were in the Dragon's Aery fighting Darters and Bark Tarantulas.

I think people misunderstand when they see me sitting there resting while the mob is close to dead but not yet dead. Three important things to learn about NOT nuking a mob to zero:
1) Subtle blow - I don't know what this means (Catoblepas ring a bell?)
2) If you skillchain at start then you can use that time while I'm resting to raise TP
3) Is this chain 1 or 2 mob? OH! No wonder he is sitting there.

I am gonna buy ToAU soon but I wonder if it will be all that much fun. I hope so.

Two words, OH MY GA!

BLM:70 WHM:54 SMN:34 WAR:56 THF:70

This is a picture of Mithrandel and Emagyen at their wedding. It was a beautiful cermony and it was my first chance to attend an FFXI wedding. We were given Popstars to pop and they were positively splendid for the occasion. I am here standing next to Uchipu in the picture.

I leveled my SMN from 32 to 34 in one night and since it allowed my BLM 69 to not appear gimped in a pt, I decided to try BLM/SMN. Before trying it I thought about what I was doing in a party: I was casting Frost, waiting for TP, casting Burn, then MBing and then nuking the mob to zero. Recently, I was given a chance to BLM without a refresher(not fun) and I was forced to seriously ration my MP for effectiveness. We still were able to pull chain 4 and 5 because I used only spells that I knew would not be resisted. I would usu cast Burn at start of skillchain, MB with Waterga III or Aeroga III if it was Light, then cast a Blizzard III and then cast Frost after Burn wore off and rest til sc was up again. I thought this was most efficient. I noticed that I didn't cast a single Cure spell. Even though it is sometimes convenient to Poisona yourself and Erase whatever, I thought "Hmm, Auto-Refresh".

Well after trying it yesterday and then again today, I have two words to say about BLM/SMN... OH MY GA! Since I am a serious MP hoarder(usu til chain 4 or 5), I noticed the difference straightaway. It was HUGE. We were doing sc to Burst yesterday and today sc to Freeze and MP was no issue. Seriously! MP was no issue! MP was coming back in spades and though I like having the MP+25 from my hat added to my MP total to make it over the 1000mp mark, I shudder to think how fast I would gain MP back if I wore a Black Cloak. I am definitely going to have to get those MP and INT earrings though cuz Im getting resisted a lot more even with Burn sometimes. I have a total of 9k now cuz I just bought a Steppe Rope to use at level 70, which now puts my MP at 1100.

If we have a Bard for Refresh I might go back to /WHM to help healing but otherwise, I am going to /SMN from now on. It is MUCH more useful to have /SMN as the party's nuker than it is to have more cures. Philosophically speaking, you are the party's Blade in battle! I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner. If you are a BLM, and are able to /SMN, ...you gotta, dems da rules !

It is so much more interesting to /SMN in fact that now I am thinking of leveling Ranger so that my THF can /RNG. I mean to the party, you aren't the main DD (you wanna know who the main DD is? do I gotta slap ya?), you are the puller, and as the puller you got one thing to keep in mind on the pull, YOU GOTTA STICK that MOB! You don't want to mob taking a bite out of your little innocent resting BLM on his way back, you don't want some other THF or RNG guy "taking" your mob from you cuz you lost aggro, you don't want people laughing at you in the party after the 50th time you miss! So, as a THF, you gotta sub /RNG. Dems da rules. Plus, from what I read, /RNG gives Acc Bonus! XD

Well I guess I gotta go back to sucking as THF for a while though cuz I gotta beat Maat first with THF and then I think I will take BLM/SMN to 75! ^^

I'm still in Bibiki.

BLM:69 WHM:54 SMN:32 WAR:56 THF:70

I have seen a lot of BLMs with their Black Cloaks on and yesterday I saw one guy with it on in a party without a refresher so I gotta say I am tempted to get the black cloak for its bonuz to INT and for Refresh.

Still, I am happy with my hat though. I don't like to get items that are great and replace them often. This hat is uber. It just about maxes out my ability as BLM. I am thinking about getting Floral Cotehardie or the Justacorps so that they will better complement the hat.

I am almost to 1000 mp with my BLM at level 69. In fact, if I had leveled my SMN to 35, I could prob have that total now. But it's just not responsible to have a SMN subbed in exp group in my opinion. I might try it though next time, if I see that they have both a WHM and RDM. I can become dedicated nuker and then it WOULD be very useful to top off Auto-Refresh with regular refresh PLUS Black Cloak refresh.

I am mostly concerned though with getting my BLM to 70. After that, I gotta figure out if I wanna beat Maat, raise WHM to 56 or 60, finish COP or get SKY. I still wanna keep my THF as my main though, but I love partying with BLM.

It seems like I have been in Bibiki Bay forever. As THF I went there from 62-70 and now BLM has been there that long too. >.>

[Crawler's Nest] [ Can I have it? ]

Skillchain > Freeze [Huh?]

BLM:68 WHM:54 SMN:32 WAR:56 THF:70

I like my BLM a lot more now. He really is very useful for helping other people with their various quests that I would normally help people with. I like to pull him out to help with Avatar runs and various AF quests. Unlike my THF which does a lot of damage to whatever, my BLM can warp people back home and do a lot of damage from a distance. Theoretically, to get help for a quest you would need like one 75 PLD or NIN and one 75 BLM and you could duo these things with just 2 people helping you.

I was recently in a party with Daftorious working on getting our Garuda avatar quest out of the way and we took along a guy that wanted to change everything I said. Garuda is an elemental being of wind so attacking it with Ice is what will do most damage. So I ask him to do a skillchain with Daftorious( who was a 68 SAM) for Distortion. Spinning Slash <> Tachi: Gekko

We had a warrior 75 along too but he was tanking since I wanted the DRK to be a part of the sc. Well the DRK disagreed and requested a Light skillchain with Mistral Axe. About this time everyone is starting to get restless and requests that we start. Well there goes my sc and me as a BLM am gonna have to sit it out instead of doing sc > Freeze like I wanted to.

Then Daftorious has the idea that he could do his own skillchain Tachi:Enpi > Tachi: Enpi. I'm like wow that would be great since I would start the skillchain to freeze and he would basically do all the timing for it. Well we never got it off cuz I was standing too close to the avatar. Her 2hr buried me just as I started the sc.

I was a great idea though. Me and Daftorious could basically sc to Freeze any mob and that makes this duo a great DD to have at the party. Come to think of it, Mith and Ema have been leveling SAM and BLM lately and I am SURE Ema would be like, [Yes please] 1100 MB, [Can I have it? ] It would be easy to practice too since it just requires two people.

My new BLOG

Well it was time to change over to a new BLOG cuz my old one is full of a year's worth of information. I will keep a link to the old blog available on this one so that the old comments don't become unavailable to anyone.

I hope this works out pretty good.