Leveling: Holiday Ninja

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything here for awhile. I've been using up my vacation time over the holidays, and as usual, spent more time playing than I should have.

One of my "projects" for the holidays was to get my Ninja to level 37, and have it as a useful subjob for my Paladin. I had soloed Ninja to 20 well over a year ago, with some assistance from Grymalkyn's WHM and Elboron's BRD for the last few levels, but then read exp scrolls on it, bringing it up to 28. That was just taking too long, so I decided to try soloing with Balu-Falu set as Soothing Healer.

I bought the quested scrolls I had previously sold for Blind, Slow and Poison, made a bunch of Shihei, Tsurara, and Sairui-Ran, bought some Kaginawa and Koduku, and gathered up the gear I needed, mostly from Grymalkyn and her mules. I headed out to Carpenter's Landing as a NIN28/MNK14, since the beetles there looked to be the right level. Things went pretty well, but one Tough Tiger was just too much for us, and I had to use my two hour after Balu-Falu was killed and I was paralyzed and couldn't get my shadows back up.

After that, I headed to Lower Delkfutt's Tower, and fought bats and giants. The AOEs from the giants weren't quite as bad as the tigers, but Balu-Falu had a couple pretty close calls there as well. When my empress band was active, it more than made up for the exp cut from having my NPC out, but it did get slow when it wore off. I got to 30, and decided I'd try looking for a party.

I had to buy the quested scroll for Jubaku, crafted a couple stacks of Jusatsu, replenished my other tools, and put my flag up. I didn't have to wait long for an invite, and headed off to replace a person in a party in Yhoator Jungle. I was pretty nervous to be tanking as a Ninja in a party for the first time, but figured I pretty much had the basics down. The party wasn't bad. We had a WAR/MNK who had been doing most of the tanking (I "replaced" the WHM), a THF who was about to hit 30, a BLM, a RDM, and a DRG. The WAR and I bounced hate around pretty well, and we made good progress. After the THF reached 30 and got SATA, we had the WAR first voke and then I'd get the SATA. This helped us keep the mobs off the BLM too.

The party dissolved, and I soon got another one. This one had a second NIN, and it was fun once we got in the groove and shared hate. The THF from the earlier party showed up as a replacement for the other Ninja, and when people started hitting 32, we headed for East Altepa, picking up another Ninja to replace a WAR that left. We had a really good time fighting the beetles, and even the dhalmels weren't so bad, though I did get killed once by them. I was surprised that it wasn't so bad playing NIN in a party after all, and finished up the night at level 33.

The next day, when I was getting ready to put up my flag, I got asked if I was interested in a party. I said yes, and headed off to Garlaige Citadel. The same THF (Blckfrncs) was in the party too, so I was hoping it would be another good one. Alas, it was really bad. The WHM was the party leader, and announced that he was dual-boxing another character to power level us, and wouldn't be doing much on his WHM character. We had a BLM, a WAR/NIN, and eventually a WAR/MNK rounding out the party. The WHM didn't cast protect, didn't once erase the constant evasion down from both the bats and the beetles, and had a hard time keeping up with the cures when my shadows were gone within 5 seconds of getting them up. The WAR/MNK didn't seem to know how to use provoke, and the WAR/NIN didn't like sharing tanking duties (was in DD gear rather than tanking gear). I ended up dead twice in less than an hour of fighting.

Then the WHM said he had to have dinner and would be back in 10 mintues. An hour later, he finally came back, but Blckfrncs had had to go in the meantime. We decided to continue as a 5-some, hoping he'd be back soon. After my third death of the party, shortly after we started fighting again, I said I just couldn't do that any more and left them. I've never once bailed on a party like that, but I was so furious that I couldn't stay. I killed easy prey beetles in Sauromogue for a bit and got to 34, then headed into Jeuno and got ready to go back out with Balu-Falu.

I decided to level around the Tavnazian Safehold, and killed bees and sheep in Lufaise until I hit 35, then mostly sheep, bugards, and crabs in Misareaux into 36. I'd also got scrolls from two escort quests, chocobo races, and cookbook quest over the weekend, and ended up less than 1000 exp from 37. I got my utsusemi ni scroll, and headed for East Altepa from Bastok, fighting a few giants in Korroloka Tunnel along the way. Balu-Falu and I fought a few tough beetles and I got my level! Hurray! I was "done" with Ninja! I read my pricey scroll and fought another mob to see how Ni worked. It's amazing how fast it casts.

It's just wrong that I could "solo" Toughs and get 252 points on a chain 1, but it was definitely fun. I was typically getting closer to 100 points when my ring was active, and I did have to let Balu-Falu get back his MP every few kills, but it was so much better than having to deal with idiots in a party. Using MNK as a subjob helped by having counter, but boost didn't generate quite enough hate for those times when Balu-Falu would pull hate. I had quite a few close calls with him.