Leveling: Welcome to the Grind (Bibiki Bay 71)

The LLS headed back to Bibiki Bay Sunday evening. When we left Jeuno, it looked like Bibiki was practically deserted, but by the time we got there, there were several other parties moving in as well. We ended up at the same camp as ther previous week, right about the Hobgoblin Angler beach. We spent about two and a half hours killing Hobgoblins, mixing in the bunny and the eft to fill out the chains (usually in the middle though, saving a higher-point goblin for the chain #5).

It was a bit dull, but we're making progress. Yobun hit 71, Wendell was 69, the rest of us were 71. We weren't able to exp on Monday night - Yobun was "stuck" while zoning, and the GMs couldn't help him. Every time he zoned, he'd get disconnected, and had a really hard time getting back into the game. So the five of us opted to do the Crawlers Nest escort quest. Olavia took the hardest path, down into the coffer key mob area, so we actually did get some exp after all. Then we headed to Davoi to get Wendell a tetimony for his Aht Urhgan ferry boarding pass. Hopefully this coming weekend we'll be able to find a camp somewhere in the new regions, just for some excitement.

Our exp session on Sunday was my first since the update and the new enhancements to Paladin: Shield Mastery and Auto Refresh. I did't really notice a huge improvement in my shield use, but I usually seemed to end up fighting in a small bush in our camp, and couldn't really see my character all that well, so I didn't notice if Kiki's shield was coming up more than usual. I did seem to be getting hit for less though, so it probably made a difference. On the other hand, Auto Refresh was much more significant than I had anticipated. That extra 1 mp every second stacked on top of double ballad from Elboron left me with more MP than I'm used to. I used less juice than usual, and only had to sit on my butt once, after we'd had a link. Almost makes me wonder why I've invested in various items for +mp regen while healing (dark staff, lord's sabatons, hierarch belt). :-)

Wendell is very jealous. It's bad enough that my (taru) PLD's base MP is higher than his (galka) WHM's, but then for me to get Auto Refresh is just icing on the cake. Please note that he's got nearly twice as much MP as me when we're actually EXPing, as he wears oodles of +MP gear and food, while I have some MP->HP gear, and he manages his MP better than most Taru WHMs I've partied with.