Leveling: Static Reaches 51, Sort Of

Saturday we gathered in Jeuno, picking up a SAM/WAR (Jnas) and a BLM/WHM (Arc-something?). We had tried getting a WHM, but the one we found was so annoying that we kicked him/her out of the party before he/she even came to meet us in Port Jeuno. Don't need any WHM With Attitude. So Locmari got to be the main healer. Manon was on painkillers with a bad tooth, so Grym was our puller.

Uncertain of where to go, Jnas suggested Garlaige Citadel, so we headed there. Dropped through the floor and headed through a large open area to a tunnel where a Beastmaster duo (Literaven and Drakan) were fighting Hellmines with bats. Intially I was concerned that we'd be competing with them for prey/pets, but Jnas had partied there before and said they were great. And they were. They charmed a link on a pull to save us, they only used bats, so we only pulled beetles, and best of all, when they got coffer keys, they offered them to us. So Manon and Kiki both got the coffer key they'll need for one of their AFs (Gallant Coronet at 56 for Kiki).

Locmari made a booboo and had BLM subbed, so he made a quick trip back to Jeuno to remedy that. Later, the server had communication difficulties, so Locmari had to log out and couldn't get back for about 20 minutes. The beetle fights were good, and we did quite well (and the Freeze MB on Distortion was pretty nifty), but as the afternoon passed, there were more people killing beetles, and we had to wait a long time between fights. Grym and Kiki both hit 51 at GC. We decided to head to Crawler's Nest and see if we could find Dragonflies, and maybe Helm Beetles (though I had thought those were too high for us there).

We hiked over to CN, headed down to the Secret Room, which was full, then snuck over to the tunnel on the west side. Everything we thought we might fight was only Tough (and it was the wrong type of flies in that room anyway), so Jnas decided we should try a Helm Beetle. Just as he pulled it, Manon said "I gotta go for a minute - wait", but it was too late. That fight was so very hard. I really thought Kiki was going to die (and delevel). I used my two hour at one point, which is probably the first time I've used it to save my life in an exp party, rather than to pull hate off of Benediction. I think the beetle was killed when Kiki had 28 HP and 9 MP left. Scary! Grym and I both got 203 exp from it, and it wasn't a chain. Our first post-50 exp greater than 200.

Manon really had to go, since he was nearly passing out from the pain and/or painkillers. He was only 14 TNL, while Locmari still had another 1000 to go.

All in all, it was a disappointing afternoon, which was a waste, since the party could have done very well in the right spot. We probably only fought for 90 minutes in close to a 4 hour period, and came away with about 3K exp. Manon and Locmari headed into Promyvion-Dem on Sunday morning and both made it to 51.  

The Helm Beetles in Quicksand Caves are a lower level than the GC ones, so I think we might head there for our next static. Elboron started playing again on Saturday, so we may actually have the static wait for him to level his Bard (currently 34) to play with us, like we originally intended.