"Dancing With Myself"

My "holiday project" for this year was to try out Dancer as a subjob for Paladin. Early in December, I did the Lakeside Minuet quest to unlock the job. It was a fairly simple quest, with some time travel required, and it wasn't long before I found myself with another job available on my job change screen. I got my Vagabond Gear from Quincy, bought a bronze knife +1, and header out to West Sarutabaruta, as a DNC1/BST1.

My plan was to pretty much solo as DNC/BST, since it seemed like a viable combination - DNC has decent charisma and can heal itself after a certain point, and being on the weak side, having a sturdy pet to help take down the prey would be useful. Plus I hadn't tried subbing BST since they'd made the changes that allow a pet to regen while it's not engaged, and they also got rid of the pet penalty, so I was curious to see how it would work.

It was really quite a fabulous combination. I stayed in the Sarutabarutas until I was around 9, then headed into Tahrongi Canyon. At level 12, I got the bright idea of trying the Tiny Lycopodiums just outside the gate in West Sarutabaruta [S]. I charmed a DC, started fighting an EM, and got murderized after it quickly pummled my pet to death. So back I went to Tahrongi, until I hit level 14.

Dancer at the early levels is really not much different from Thief, with the exception of Drain Samba at level 5, which gives you some HP back each time you hit the monster you're fighting. Dancer has a fairly limited selection of weapons available: some knives, hand-to-hand, and rapier-type swords are pretty much it. I opted to use knives until the first sword was available at level 13, then stuck with swords until I could use my Federation Knife at level 25.

At 14, I headed back to the past, and this time, it was really a great spot. I was there until 17, fighting mandies, bunnies, and the occasional crawler, with mandies and bunnies for pets. Once I got to 15 and had Curing Waltz available, things really started to pick up. I would fight EP or DC mobs to build TP and let my pet "rest", then take on high Toughs, cure-tanking them while my pet did the damage. It was really a rush getting chain #4 for over 200 points while soloing.

Around level 17 I was struggling a bit - my pets were too weak and my prey was too strong, so I looked around for a new camp, and had a great time in North Gustaberg [S]. I had to grab a DC bird from the upper level and take it down to the lower level, then keep it alive while I got nice chains on the worms. I tried fighting a lizard, but decided that was a bad idea after a couple close calls with petrification.

At level 19, I headed back to West Sarutabaruta [S], and had a great time until level 24, using crawlers and birds to fight crawlers and birds. It was really a wonderful spot, since I had it all to myself, and there's nothing around to aggro me. And the birds don't link either. I did get a bit tired of the Campaign music playing so much, but that was pretty much the only drawback.

My next camp was in Buburimu Penninsula, where I leveled from 24-26, mostly fighting pugils with pugils, while using the crabs to build TP when I needed it. I got aggro from the anti-fishbot goblins while I was still 24, but they weren't much of a bother.

After I hit 26, I decided it was time for a new camp and was heading back to town when I got a tell from someone I'd partied with on my WHM in the Dunes last year, asking if I wanted to join a party in the Jungles. I thought it'd be fun to see how Dancer worked in a party, so I changed to /NIN, asked Erock to send me a second Federation Knife, and I headed to Yuhtunga. The party was really pretty fun. We had 3 DNC/NINs, 2 NIN/WARs, and a WAR/NIN, and it was so odd to see a functioning party with no MP. I believe we would have done extraordinarily well if there had been enough mandies to keep us going, and no goblins coming along to spoil our fun. After I hit 27, the exp really fell off, and since the group still had mostly 24-25s, I left the party. I switched back to DNC/BST and fought beetles in Sauromogue to get to 28.

I had the bright idea of trying beetles and funguars in Carpenters Landing, but getting paralyzed is really a terrible thing for a dancer trying to cure-tank. I decided to try Lower Delkfutt's Tower, and it wasn't horrible, but it was pretty slow, and I had limited pets to play with. My next day out, I headed to the West Altepa entrance of Korroloka Tunnel, starting out at level 28. At level 28, I took out my NPC Fellow, Balu-Falu (set on soothing healer), just to help me out until I hit level 29 and had more pets to choose from. There was a too-weak goblin patrolling the fishing puddles, which was handy for starting out my TP, and I fought a few leeches before deciding TP Drainkiss pretty much sucks for a Dancer. I stuck to the crab when I could. This was a really nice spot until 31, though admittedly a bit slow with my weak little knife hits on the crabs.

In my search for a camp at 31, I discovered an amazing spot that I was unfortunately a bit too high for. There's a couple flocks of Lycopodiums near Jeuno in Sauromogue Champaign [S], where there's nothing to aggro you. The Lycopodiums are all level 28-30, don't link, and don't use dream flower. There's even a pixie patrolling the area that might be handy at times. Best of all, the Lycopodiums will often stand around watching you fight, so you don't even have to run off to pull them - they're waiting right there for you to fight. Lycopodiums are a bit charm-resistant, at least for my DNC/BST, which provided for some exiciting moments. I think this might be a perfect camp for parties in the Qufim levels, if people are willing to stray from the norm.

After playing with the Lycopodiums for awhile, I headed to Ranguemont Pass, with the idea that I'd work my way to the back tunnel to Beaucedine Glacier, where the stirges should be appropriate pets/prey. Going into a zone like Ranguemont is great, since there were plenty of too-weaks/easy preys to build up 300% TP before starting my "real" fights. And having "Spectral Jig" on Dancer starting at level 25 is great for getting past mobs that will aggro. The Pass was a nice spot, and I liked fighting the weak-to-slashing bats after the levels of hardshelled crabs.

At 33, I headed to Lufaise Meadows, fighting bees and sheep, getting to 34 before I needed to get ready for Dynamis that evening. I figured I'd end up fighting in Lufaise, both near the safehold and up by the lake, until I hit 37, but I ended up trioing beetles in East Altepa with Thala and Venn as MNK/NINs after Salvage one Friday. Meshe joined us later as WAR/NIN. It was a fun little group, but a bit slow because there were other parties and solo people making beetles harder to find than I would have liked. It was pretty fun, and kept me pretty busy as I was pulling, enfeebling, healing, and even tanking at times. When I hit 35, I got another level of Drain Samba, as well as Healing Waltz, which is somewhat like a super-Erase in tha it will remove most bad status effects, one at a time.

I've left Dancer at 35 for now, since I won't get any new abilities with it at 36 or 37, so it's pretty much everything I'll get as a subjob for PLD, except for some minor stat increases. Once they release AF for it, I may consider leveling it further, since it really is a fun job. I've tried it out a bit as a sub for PLD, and haven't really found the perfect situation for it. I think it would be amazing for Campaign, especially Aspir Samba, since I'm having problems keeping my MP up. However, I really really don't want to give up /WHM and its reraise. I end up as the only PC in a lot of my campaign battles, and those NPCs just won't raise me, and at 2k a charge, I don't really want to blow through reraise earrings either. Someone told me they're adding a Reraise Samba to Dancer in an update, but even if they do, I fear it will be higher than level 37.

New title: Troupe Brilioth Dancer

Just Like Old Times?

I wanted to post an addendum to my recent "Merit Points and Me" post. I had a pickup party this past weekend, which ended up having 3 other people who are/have been in both ClanBEB and TheUltimates. We sought an open camp, and ended up fighting Trolls on Mt Zhayolm. When we finally got to actually fighting, we had DRK/THF (Latta), SMN/WHM (Anadosia), a WAR/NIN, SAM/THF (Easykill), and BRD/NIN (Alfrodo), and me as PLD/WAR. We orginally had Goto's WHM/SMN instead of the WAR, but he DC'd while we were checking the Mamool Ja staging point, and Ronald's DRG/WAR instead of Alfrodo's BRD/NIN. Ronald switched to RDM when Goto DC'd, but then Ronald DC'd on the way to our Troll camp.

I had a fun time with the party, but it was a bit frustrating when the WAR was there, since he wouldn't line up for SATA from our two /THFs. When I'd move to line up the mob with him, he himself would shift so he was no longer behind.

Goto reappeared after awhile, and when the WAR left, we swapped Goto back in. Then things really got going, and Easykill and Latta were busting out Light skillchains on every mob. Alfrodo always had another Troll ready and waiting for us, though the diamondhide and PLD mobs were pretty much chain-breakers. We weren't getting ZOMG l33t exp, but we were having a fun time, and the exp was decent.

After Anadosia got enough of a buffer on her SMN, she switched to BLM, and was *gasp* Magic-Bursting on the Light Skillchain. It wasn't exactly a Lufaise Meadows party, but it was the closest thing to an Old School party as I've seen in a very long time. I still had to wear all my +enmity gear, even with the SATAs helping to hold hate, but it was a lot of fun.

Fun With White Mage

Leveling White Mage has gone from being extremely painful to being what might even be called fun, which has surprised me. It was so hard getting out of Qufim, but I got lucky with pick-up parties and got from 25 to 37 in three separate leveling sessions.

I've been surprised at how few people seem to be leveling jobs through the 20s, and as a WHM have stood around with my flag up for a couple of hours at times. One Sunday in August, I was invited to a short-lived party in Qufim, then headed to Yuhtunga as a 24. We started out with a SAM, RNG, PLD, WHM, SMN, and WHM, which went pretty well for a brief time. The SAM was replaced by a MNK, then the SMN was replaced by a DRK with a Power Leveler. When the DRK leveled and left, we couldn't find enough people to keep the party going. The other WHM and I decided to try duoing mandies with our NPCs, which worked well enough for the first one, and then the second one was a bit too much for us. We survived, but Balu-Falu ended up dying from poison because I had no MP to cure or poisona him. It was a fun experiment though. I was only halfway through level 25 at this point, and had been such a chore to get there.

A month later, I headed to Kazham as a WHM25, and got a party with a NIN, WAR, BLM, RNG and COR. The WAR was replaced by a MNK, the NIN by another WAR, and the MNK by a PUP. At that point, probably when we first started hitting 28, we headed to Yhoator Jungle, and had a great time getting chain #4s on the IT mandies there. The exp just rolled in - 280 points on the chain #4s. And we didn't have to deal with deadly goblins like we'd been fighting occasionally in Yuhtunga. If it weren't for Dream Flower, we probably would have had chain #5s. I wasn't able to enfeeble those mandies as well as the lower leveled ones near Kazham, but I needed to have my MP a bit as it was. Our Japanese Ranger didn't pause much for MP breaks, but it was never an issue and we just kept on fighting. I hated leaving the party, but Dynamis was coming up, so the party broke up with my WHM at 29.

The following week, I had similar luck. I checked the people looking for parties around my level (WHM29), decided that I wouldn't get one, and headed to Qufim to solo with my NPC. Just after I had used my Signal Pearl to summon him, I got a /tell, "(Party) (Do you need it?)". It was from a RDM26 in Kazham, so I said sure and hopped on the airship. We started out in Yhoator, with a RDM, DRK, WAR, SAM, THF, and WHM. The mandies and goblins pretty much melted under the blows of the damage dealers, and the RDM and I switched off healing duties: one would rest while the other healed. The RDM and DRK had to leave about the time we out-grew the jungle, so we headed to Jeuno to regroup and go off to East Altepa with a PLD and BLM replacing out departing members. We started out fighting beetles. The PLD was very good, and we discussed how much I should heal, with me leaving him plenty of room for hate generation. I mostly just used regen on the beetles. When we moved on to the Dhalmels, things were a bit tougher, but we managed pretty well. They hit so much harder than the beetles, and I had to watch for silence and defense down. After awhile, the PLD and BLM had to leave. We replaced them with a NIN and DRG, but the party just wasn't the same any more. Hate was everywhere, and with everyone taking so much damage from the dhalmels, I could barely make it through two mobs before needing a full rest. The SAM had a RDM75 come out to "assist", and at that point, I just was doing enfeebles and erase. I had to head off to get ready for Dynamis soon after than, and I'm sure the party didn't miss me much. They broke up soon after, as people got their levels.

This past weekend, I was hoping to "finish" WHM, and put my flag up in Jeuno, as a level 34 WHM. After about 30 minutes, I head to Qufim, summoned Balu-Falu, fought one set of bats, and got an invite for a party. Poor Balu-Falu is probably tired of being dismissed so abruptly. Our party only had 5 people to start with, but we headed to Crawlers Nest anyway, as a PLD, WHM, RDM, SAM, and NIN. The SAM had her NPC out until a second NIN was added to the party. Things went fairly smoothly, though the RDM never used Dispel. Since the crawlers pretty much spammed Cocoon, the fights did drag out a bit. After the PLD hit 37, he left, replacing himself with a PUP. Things continued on fairly well, though the SAM died zoning a link at one point. Then one of the NINs DC'd, just as we finished fighting the crawler that got him to level 75. Seemed a tad suspicious. We waited for a bit, but Ryken sent me a tell asking if we could use a THF, and we could, so he came out to join us.

It took us a few fights to get coordinated, and things went fairly well until we got a link and two of us died (I had reraise up - I'm not quite to the point where I remember to keep it up at all times, since it was a new thing for me at WHM33). The second NIN DC'd right after that fight, and we replaced him with the same PLD I'd partied with the week before in the desert. The party became vastly improved at that point. It's amazing what a difference a good tank can make. The RDM replaced himself with another RDM when he hit 37, and the second RDM was a much better RDM, and the party became awesome. We plowed through the crawlers a bit too fast, but didn't want to change camps for the Nest Beetles, since we didn't have much longer to party. When I hit level 36, I had a fun time reading my three teleport scrolls. Ryken and I had to leave to get ready for Dynamis, and others were nearing the end of their partying time as well, so we broke up after the newest party additions got a level. I got to use a teleport spell for the first time, dropping Ryken off at the Holla crag.

I really did enjoy a lot of my WHM parties, so who knows, maybe I'll end up leveling it further, but in the meantime, I finally have my fully-leveled White Mage sub job for my Paladin. I wonder how much I'll actually end up using it.

WHM Ready for the Jungles! (20-24)

I managed to get two parties for my White Mage over the weekend, and got from level 20 to level 24, so next time I take it out, I'll probably just head to Kazham.

My party on Saturday had a THF, SAM, WAR, SMN, and another DD that I can't remember, and me as WHM. I had a really hard time keeping up with the curing on my own, and the little Summoner didn't help as much as he should, and ended up getting kicked out of the party after repeatedly failing to respond to requests from the leader. I ran into the leader the next day in Lower Delkfutt's Tower, and apparenty the same SMN had been kicked out of that party as well, by someone else. I kinda of feel sorry for the little noob, since he just doesn't quite seem to get how to work with a party. Even when he wasn't helping out with healing, he didn't even have his avatars out, so he was kind of just standing around. But he seemed like a nice enough person, and wanted to be helpful - he just didn't quite know how to do it.

We started out near Pug Alley, but there were two other parties there, so we were closer to the cliff. We ended up heading into Lower Delkfutt's Tower. I had a hard time with hate, partly because either the WAR, who was the lowest level in the group, was tanking, or the SAM was tanking, and they took lots of damage and needed lots of healing. When I hit Level 21 and had Regen available, it did help a lot, but not nearly enough, especially when fighting the low ITs. We ended up disbanding with me just 80 points away from level 23, as I had to get ready for Dynamis. I'd agreed to stay until the SAM got a level, so was already past my "cut off" time, so I didn't mention how close I was before we disbanded.

The next morning, I did my weekly chocobo race before the Conquest Tally, and used the scroll on my WHM to nudge me up to level 23. Later that afternoon, I put my flag up in Jeuno, and got an invite to a party as a "replacement". The invite came from a WHM, so I assumed I was replacing him, but I actually replaced the PLD. Apparently the WHM had decided it was just to hard to have a single healer in Qufim (an opinion with which I heartily agree), and so we were a WHM-greedy party and had two. The party had 3xSAM, a WAR, and 2xWHM. When the WAR hit 24, he left, and was replaced with a MNK, who was nominated "tank" based on his "high defense" of 113. I put up Cocoon and pointed out my defense was 151, but no one suggested I tank...

The party worked quite well. I sort of did the RDM role, and was using paralyze, slow, and dia on the mobs, while hitting people with regen, bar spells, and protectra/shellra. I also helped dump cures when damage got too high, but the other WHM did pull hate a lot more than me. At least when I pulled hate, I usually had Metallic Body up, so I didn't take much damage. The other WHM and I worked pretty well together, without really discussing it, and we rarely negated each other spells, so it was pretty nice. It's too bad that we felt like we had to have the two of there in the party.

We ended up moving into Lower Delkfutt's for awhile, and everyone got a level before we disbanded. I now could have Drain from subbing BLM, but I still think BLU will be better until level 30 (when I'd get Elemental Seal from /BLM).

Leveling: White Magery (17 -> 20)

This past weekend, I decided to dust off my White Mage gear and see if I could get a party. This was partly because I was able to pick up the three main crag teleport scrolls for a small fraction of what I'd sold mine for over two years ago, when I was absolutely positive I'd never level White Mage. My husband laughed at me for buying them, since my WHM has been leveling at a glacial pace, so I figured I should hop to it and just get it to 37 and be done with it.

Saturday afternoon, I put my flag up, and used the OP teleport to go to the Dunes, and I stood by the Outpost and waited. And waited some more. After about an hour, I decided to head back to Windurst to grab my Signal and Tactics pearls to head to Buburimu to solo with my NPC instead. Of course, as soon as I got to my moghouse, I got invited to replace a WHM in a party back in the Dunes. They were fighting on Goblin Hill, but we moved to the Secret Beach as soon as I arrived. The party had a MNK, WAR, BLU, BLM, DRK, and WHM. The WAR left and was replaced by another BLM, and later when the original BLM left, a NIN joined. The party had a WHM power-leveler, but as PL'd parties go, it wasn't so bad. People mostly did their jobs, except for me - I pretty much played RDM-lite, buffing the party and enfeebling the mobs with dia, paralyze, slow, silence, and blind. The PL asked me if I had healing magic capped, showing some concern for the poor little WHM at least. It was nice being able to enfeeble though, it really helps the party. I generally can't spare the MP for too many enfeebles when I'm trying to keep the party alive.

Having a PL does make it really hard for me how to toe the hate line as a WHM, since as a career PLD, I use Cures as one of my main hate tools. It's hard for me to learn how to keep a party alive without pulling hate if I have someone else doing that for me. But since my intentions for WHM are to use it as a sub for PLD in certain situations, it's not a long term issue. I do try to hold off using Cure II until just after a provoke, but some times I don't feel I have that luxury as people are getting hit hard, and of course the mob comes running after me. Regen should help a lot when I hit level 21. The party broke up after one person hit 20 and two others decided to leave as well, so I headed back to Windurst to get ready for Dynamis, with my WHM at 19.

On Sunday, I decided to try WHM/BLU to see if Cocoon and Metallic Body might help, and I found that I was able to get a decent MND boost over /BLM, with just 5 less MP. Losing BLM spells at that level is really immaterial too, especially if there's already a BLM in the party. I headed to Jeuno and threw up my flag. I got an invite pretty quickly, as the first invite for a new party. The guy quickly filled the party, but one of the members was a linkshell mate of his: a level 19 Monk who was still in the Dunes and didn't know his way to Jeuno. So I switched to my PLD/RDM and met him at the Dem crag to walk to Jeuno with him. I kept him sneaked and invisible most of the way, and we avoided any aggro.

Our party consisted of a NIN, BLM, MNK, DRK, WAR, WHM, and we headed up to fight worms. We added crabs and bats to the mix, and things mostly went pretty well. I really do like using BLU as a sub - stoneskin and cocoon both saved my butt a couple of times. After awhile, a WHM73 friend of one of the party members came along and I got relegated to enfeebling once again, though this PL was a bit more haphazard than the one in the Dunes, so I did have to throw out cures on and off. We moved to the ice pond, since the banshees wouldn't be a problem with the PL. I have to say I absolutely hate running from worm to worm at the ice pond. The parties get so uncoordinated, and everyone thinks they should be the "puller", and multiple mobs get engaged, usually meaning disaster for the party. And as a mage job needing to rest for MP, it's just for hard to have to keep getting up and scurrying after the melee.

This party wasn't quite that bad, but when the PL had to go AFK for a bit, the party kept going at things as though I had the resources that a WHM73 has at their disposal, leaving me lower on MP than I would have liked when they started in on a new fight. The BLM decided to melee and was getting badly damaged, so I had to hit him with a couple of cures (I don't mind pulling hate on worms, with barstonra, the spells don't hit so hard). Suddenly, a crab comes tearing over to smack me, which I didn't understand until I later scrolled back in the chat log and saw the meleeing BLM had decided to use a -ga spell on the worm the party was fighting, and hit a crab. Since I cured the BLM, the crab got quite angry with me. The crab killed me pretty quickly, but the rest of the party managed to survive.

The BLM decided he'd been partying too much that day and disbanded the party. The PL came back and tractored me out of harm's way, raised me, and waited around for my weakness to wear to hit me with a Cure before I could get blood aggro, which I thought was pretty nice. The Monk and I snuck back to Jeuno (I had hit level 20 and now have Sneak on my WHM), where he looked for a new party while I got ready for Limbus.

I think I'll see if I can keep my WHM gear on Kiki rather than mules so I can easily look for parties when I have free time in the game. As soon as someone needs me to help them with something on another job or with a level cap, I'll have to swap stuff over to mules, which will make it harder to quickly get ready for white magery excitement.

Leveling: Pet Static (Yuhtunga Jungle 25-28)

Itera recently started a static with his Puppetmaster and Rovont's Dragoon. They added in Goto's Summoner, which led me to call it the Pet Static, since the three all have pets. It's not pet-only, as they added in Rovont's friend Varghoss (aka Bubba) on Dark Knight. I joined them two weeks ago with my Thief, at level 25.

We met up in Kazham, but couldn't find a tank, so I volunteered my NPC Balu-Falu's service as a Stalwart Shield. It worked out relatively well, though it was more difficult for Goto to keep an eye on him, and it was odd to have the tank following the puller around everywhere.

We were camped near the gate - I really hate pulling there, especially when there are a couple of other parties there. Sometimes you have to go really far to get a mandy, and then run into trouble with the goblins in the narrow path back to camp. We tried fighting goblins, sometimes with great ease, and other times with deaths, but with the town right there it was easy for one of us to change jobs and raise the dead.

Eventually we found a Ninja to tank for us. She died a lot though, so we ended up having Goto switch to his WHM75 and PL us through a few goblins to get her a level before we disbanded for the day.

This weekend, we met back in Kazham, most of us at 26, and Goto at 27. We picked up a Monk to be our nominal tank, but with everyone but Goto and I subbing Warrior, the plan was to have us bounce hate around. We started out near the gate, but the first goblin killed half of us. The area was too busy to get enough mandies, plus with Goto and Kikishi, the MNK, at level 27, the exp wouldn't be worthwhile unless we had an endless supply.

I forced us to go beat up Goblin Furriers near the outpost, which is a bit tricky without barfira and curaga, but the furriers are so soft and squishy, I was hoping we'd do ok. Other than Itera dying once (and was quickly raised by a WHM that happened to walk by), it did go pretty well, and more importantly, it was kind of fun.

I really like fighting there - it's fairly easy to avoid aggro and links, since you stay away from the malboros, and the goblins are spread out enough. There's no one else around, so there's no competition for the pulls. Playing THF in a party where everyone shares hate can be a bit frustrating. More times than not, someone would pull hate and turn the mob just as I activated sneak attack, causing it to miss. But I got in some really good smacks, especially combined with a Fast Blade. It will be fun to see what I can do with SATA Viper Bites in a few levels. I pulled my share of hate, but at least with shadows and high evasion it wasn't too painful.

I think I might start offhanding an archers knife and switch to squid sushi before level 30, just to get my bolts to land more regularly. It's frustrating to have capped marksmanship and only hit what seems like one out of three bolts. Some Noct +1 gear at 30 should help too.

We finished up the day with most of us at 28, I believe, and Goto hit 29 on our last kill. Next week, we can either try weapons in Sauromugue or by the waterfall in Yuhtunga. Bubba's talking about switching to Paladin since it's hard to find tanks, so he unlocked that Saturday and hopes to get it caught up to us before next weekend. This would also allow us to look for a WHM or RDM to main heal and let Goto be a Summoner instead of a half-level White Mage.

Leveling: Soloing as WHM/BST (15-17)

On Sunday, I decided to see how soloing as WHM/BST would work out. I got all my gear ready, grabbed three Vampire Juices Qiara had made out of red terrapin she had lying around, bought a brass hammer at the AH, and headed out from Windurt. I made my way to the Maze, stopping in Buburimu Penninsula on the way to check the mob levels (mostly Tough). The bats in the Maze were also Tough, so I fought the Akbabas near the zone, using one as a pet to kill the others. This went fairly well until night time. A Tough ghost proved to be much too tough, and I high-tailed it to the Crag and popped into Al'Taieu to escape its fury.

After that, I headed west a bit, and mostly fought Dhalmels. I'd been a bit displeased with how things were going with charmed mobs, so I called Balu-Falu to help me. I'd set him as Stalwart Shield before I left town, and that worked out really well. He pretty much held hate, and did more damage then pets did. I kept his health up, and bonked the mobs with my hammer. Things went quite well, and I managed several Chain #2s, which isn't bad for a solo WHM. :-)

Just after I hit 16, I spotted Serpopard Ishtar, the NM Dhalmel. The last time I saw him was before I created Kiki - back when Grymalkyn was a subjobless newbie herself. There was an Even Match Dhalmel near him, so I ran up, charmed the EM, and sent it in to fight Serpopard. I started fighting as well, but ended up getting scared, and ran off, leaving Balu-Falu and the dhalmel to whittle him down. As soon as I got out of range and put my weapon away, Balu-Falu came running after me as well. He still had hate, and as Serpopard got closer, I saw that they'd taken a good chunk off his HP, so I popped a vampire juice and started fighting again.

It was a really close fight, and when my pet came uncharmed, I was afraid it was all over, but I recharmed it, and we killed Serpopard! Both Balu-Falu and my pet Dhalmel had about 10 HP left, but at least we were all still standing. We got a bit lucky - Serpopard's last TP move was Berserk. If he'd used healing breeze, I think I would have lost the fight. I got 140 points for the kill, even with the penalties for having an NPC and a pet. I'd like to say I soloed a level 20 NM as a level 16 WHM, but really it was a trio...

My experience points dropped off a bit at 16, so I headed back to Buburimu, and was happy to see some of the bunnies and mandies were now even matches. Balu-Falu and I would fight those, or I would charm them and use them to help fight Toughs. I really did like soloing with Balu-Falu, and didn't end up charming all that much for the two levels, but when I do this again, I will keep subbing BST. It gives me that extra bit of safety in emergencies, as well as allows me to take on tougher mobs than I could without a pet. One thing I ended up doing a lot was charming a pet, sending it off to fight a tough mob, and waiting for the mob to kill the pet and come after me. Balu-Falu and I would then finish it off, and I'd get more points than I would if I had both Balu-Falu and a pet.

One interesting I noticed - Balu-Falu changed his outfit when I zoned with him, just as he normally would when I'd call him again after having him out.

After hitting 17, I walked back to town to send all my WHM gear back off to the mules and get back to my PLD75 for Limbus later that evening.

Leveling: Black Mage, Solo versus Party (34-35)

Easter Sunday, I decided it was time to dust off my Black Mage gear, and see if I could get a level or two. I figured I'd go solo worms in Attohwa Chasm, so after I pulled together all the gear I needed, I used the OP warp to Bubu and walked up to the Chasm, using a Silent Oil to get past the Hecteyes so I could kill the worms near the first bridge. I had just finished killing my first worm when I got a tell from a THF34 that was trying to put together a party for Garliage Citadel. I hadn't had my flag up, but I said sure, and warped back to Whitegate, headed to Jeuno, grabbed a stack of Melon Pies +1, and headed to the Citadel with the party.

I knew it had been awhile since I'd played BLM, but was surprised to realize that I hadn't actually leveled BLM since February 2006, especially since I easily fell back into the BLM rhythm of Rasp/Frost/Choke, wait for the second provoke, nuke, repeat enfeebles as needed, help out with healing, sit on my butt for MP. The party itself was a bit odd: THF/NIN, Galka MNK/WAR tank, DRK/WAR, WHM/SMN, RDM/WHM, BLM/RDM. When I say "odd", I guess I mean it was a pretty crappy little party. The MNK had loads of HP, but took loads of damage. The DRK/WAR loved popping Berserk and Last Resort, which of course pulled hate and he'd take massive damage. The WHM would tell the THF to pull when he had less than 30 MP, since the little Taru BLM had "plenty" (i.e. 150/499), and we all know that little Taru BLMs love using all their MP up dropping weak Cure IIs on people.

I did get to 35 with the party, but the WHM suddenly announced "g2g" and disbanded. No one seemed to want to reform, so I made my way back to Attohwa Chasm and spent a couple hours nuking worms. It wasn't very speedy experience, but was kind of relaxing really. I'd pretty much just kill a worm, wait for Rasp to wear, rest until my MP was full, and repeat. Handy when I need to go AFK a bit. I think I'll start in on Goblin Pets the next time I take my BLM out to play. That should be pretty exciting!

Leveling: White Mage meets the Dunes (11-15)

I've had a couple of Fridays off work recently, one on an at-home vacation week, the other for Good Friday, and I opted to take my White Mage off to the Valkurm Dunes both of those days. I changed into my WHM11, gathered the gear I needed, and spell scrolls for the upcoming levels, and got a Teleport-Dem from Ijin. I was a little disappointed that the Dunes were fairly deserted, but I stood by the outpost guard at the zone with my flag up and waited. And waited some more. Eventually, a subjobless WAR14 asked if I wanted to team up, and since it's less important for the WHM to be the same level as the rest of the party, I agreed.

It took us awhile, but eventually we put together a full party. I'd been given lead at one point, and the level 13s and 14s were reluctant to even respond to tells from a WHM11, but I pointed out the rest of the party was their level and I was just healing anyway. We tried hard to be a good little party, but just couldn't quite pull it together. It took hours to get one level, and then it was time for me to head off for my Friday night Nyzul Isle Investigation static (which I really should write something about at some point).

The next free Friday, I was feeling masochistic or something, and repeated the process. I was in Bastok at the time, and with the Egg-stravaganza event, I was hoping I could get a Teleport-Dem from there. Before I'd finished getting my WHM12 dressed and ready to leave town, I got a tell from a WAR13 in the Dunes, promising me a party if I could get out there. I finished my preparations, shouted in Markets to offer 5k for a Teleport-Dem, and got one nice and quick. I figured from one of the starter cities, you have to make it worth someone's time... Meanwhile, the WAR13 had disappeared. So, I put my flag up and stood next to the outpost guard at the zone until I was invited to a newly forming party.

The party started out with a BRD, DRK, WAR, WAR, WHM, and BLM I believe, and we camped up on the ridge near Siren Sands. We had a PL for a bit, which I still don't like. Between the PL doing all of the curing, and the BLM casting Dia, Paralyze, and Slow, I didn't feel like I had much to do. The PL left, and we mostly did OK, though once in awhile we'd get a tougher than usual Snipper and we'd have a death or two. I couldn't keep up with the healing using Cure Is, and I'd pull too much hate with the Cure IIs. Usually the WARs could pull it back off of me before I died, and I even resorted to trying to kite one or two to buy some time. I'd set my HP at the zone guard, so I was quickly back to camp after my deaths.

The afternoon turned out to be better than I expected, but that's not really saying it was a good time, it was still the dunes. I got to level 15 though, so at least the next time I take out my WHM, if I need to go to the Dunes, I can chocobo there from San d'Oria or Bastok. When the party disbanded, I made my way to the Holla crag and took the short-cut to the Tavnazian Safehold through Al'Taieu. I guess I could probably have run to San d'Oria in about the same amount of time, but there's something about running through Sea as a level 15 White Mage that I find amusing.

One thing that I found interesting was that there are still a lot of subjobless people working their way through the dunes. I'm sure some of them are new characters made by experienced players, but a lot of them are completely new. It's nice to see people are still being attracted to a game that's coming up on its 5 year anniversary. I can't believe I've been playing for over 3 years myself.

Leveling: Nyzul Isle (75)

On Saturday morning I decided I needed to work on getting my exp back to capped, and get some limit points on top of that, so I got everything I'd need for PLD/WAR, PLD/NIN or PLD/RDM, put up my flag, and fished Black Sole in Port Jeuno while I waited, and waited, and waited some more, for an invite. One finally came, from a BLU74 trying to put together a party. I canvassed BEB, and Goto was eager to join in, and once we had our tank and main healer, the other three were easy to add. We started out with a WAR/NIN, MNK/NIN, and RDM/BLM in addition to our BLU/NIN, WHM/BLM, and PLD/WAR. We first headed to the Mamool Ja Staging Point, but there were 3 or 4 parties there, so we headed to Nyzul Isle instead.

We headed out to Bhaflau Thickets, and fought on the second level, mostly Greater Colibri, with an occasional Bugard. I really think SquareEnix needs to add more "snack" foods to the game, if they're going to have mobs that snatch food away from you. I refuse to waste stacks of Tavnazian Tacos or Dorado Sushi, just to have it last until the bird gets TP. I actually prefered fighting the Bugards, since I didn't have to worry about Flash getting reflected, and I could hold hate on them much better. After I decided Flash wasn't so bad, since it would mostly be hitting me instead of one of the DDs, hate wasn't quite so bad on the birds either.

Over time, we morphed into a party with a different WAR, a different MNK, a SAM instead of the BLU, and a BRD instead of the RDM. I've decided that a BRD in an exp party is the bane of my tanking life. Once the BRD arrived and started singing the wonderful songs melees so love, I just couldn't hold hate any more. I was quite astonished at the difference, but it does really make sense. Too bad the only +enmity song they have is a merit ability, and just doesn't outweigh the extra damage the party puts out with march and minuet (or whatever it is the BRDs are singing). When I left the party, I replaced myself with Aphex, a NIN from TheUltimates, and they probably had a better time as a burn party at that point. I capped my exp, and have 2 merit points waiting for me to spend now.

Leveling: Last Gasp for the Ninja Blues? (Yhoator Jungle 37->38)

I realized that I never wrote up an entry for what was probably the last outing for the Ninja Blues, what with everyone but Kiki playing less and less every week (and Kiki having Dynamis and Limbus scheduled for 4 evenings of the week). Ryrra joined us again as WAR/MNK, and I decided that we should go to the Yhoator Jungle camp the Elboron, Itera, Grym, and I had had such a great time at when we had our sub job static there early last year.

We arrived on chocobo at the camp, and I was dismayed to find an IT++ goblin roaming in our camp. There was never a goblin there when we had leveled there before. They can be as high as level 48 there, so we decided we'd kill the goblin and work on the crawlers. It wasn't a pretty fight, but we won, and started in on the crawlers. We had to kill the new goblins as they spawned, which was usually a tough fight, but things went relatively well for awhile. Then we had some bad patches - like having three of us get killed by an Anemone that was accidentally aggro'd (passing people raised us), and Itera getting one-shotted by some massive attack from an Opo-opo. He home-pointed and came back I think, but I can't really remember. We stuck it out until we all hit 38, and headed home for the night.

I just don't see us getting to 40 like I had hoped, and even that would be pointless, since I partly wanted 40 so we could try a bunch of BCNMs with 3 BLUs, and if Grym and Elboron aren't playing, there's just 1 BLU. :-(

Leveling: Flag Up (Mamool Ja Staging Point, level 75)

I really wanted to cap my exp (my buffer dropped under 30k last week), so on Saturday, I gathered everything I'd need for an exp party, and dressed myself up as PLD/NIN to go solo colibri for the hours I figured it would take me to get a pickup party. I got Sanction with Regen for a change (don't run out of MP while soloing PLD/NIN), set a lame search comment, put up my flag, and ran for the secret exit to Wajoam Woodlands in Whitegate. I hadn't even gotten out of the main square when I got not one, but two party invites. So much for the stacks of Shihei I bought!

This was my first pickup party on PLD since last May (level 73 party in Lufaise Meadows), and that party in May had been the first pickup party since the 50s in the summer of 2005. Having been in two different statics for nearly my entire PLD career always makes me worry about how I'll do with people who I don't know, but it was a fun party, and I didn't feel like a useless lolPLD at all.

Our party started out with MNK, SAM, RNG, SMN, WHM, PLD, but ended several hours later as a WAR, (different) SAM, BLM, RDM, WHM, PLD party. We headed to the Mamool Ja Staging Point and fought Sea Puks, various Mamools, and the Skoffins. I was eating Dorado Sushi and wearing my High Breath Mantles, and was able to hold hate quite well. Too well on a couple occasions that ended up getting me killed, but it was usually towards the end of the fight and no one else suffered. My favorite moment of the party was when we had several mobs piled up that the RDM was keeping slept. I had been using flash and provoke on the slept Skoffin especially, since they hit pretty hard. When we were about to start in fighting the Skoffin, the RDM started running for the zone and said "I'm going to zone to shed hate", but the Skoffin didn't even look at him and went straight for me when he woke up, and I kept his attention. "No need, the PLD's got him," from the WHM elicited a ":/" from the RDM. I guess he's not used to having a tank managing the sleeping mobs properly. :-)

Rampart is wonderful to use with the Skoffins, since it pretty much negates Radiant Breath, and I liked Sentinel for the hard-hitting Mamools. They really gave PLD such a nice boost with that last update. I was taking a bit more damage from the mobs than I might if I'd been eatting tacos, but I really like the enmity and accuracy boosts from the Dorado Sushi.

It's one of my "goals" in the game to never ever delevel from 75, so I want to maintain a healthy buffer, though it does seem to be a bit of a waste when I could be using those exp points as limit points instead and getting merits. However, since my first PLD75 pickup experience was fairly painless, I could definitely see spending a few Saturday afternoons a month working on merits too.

Leveling: OK, Maybe I Should Just Cap Exp

With all my deaths these days, I've decided that maybe I should just get my exp capped at 43,999/44,000 and stay on experience mode so that I gain exp when I'm not capped, and limit points otherwise. Now that my Ninja is "done", I can read scrolls on my PLD again too. So, I actually went out for a couple short exp parties with other ClanBEB people over the New Years weekend.

We had one party at King Ranperre's Tomb with Itera (MNK/NIN), Thoron (MNK/NIN), and Elbryan (RDM/WHM). I went as PLD/RDM, and used staff since skeletons are weak to blunt weapons, and having Spirit Taker for getting MP would be handy. We probably fought for about an hour, but it was fun with just the 4 of us. I also got up to 265 on my staff skill - only 4 more levels to go until it's capped.

On New Year's Day, after I got my NIN to 37, we had another group head out to the new part of Bhaflau Thickets, where we fought VT Mamool Ja. I got to go as PLD/NIN and not have to pretend to tank, which was kind of fun. It was especially fun when we had about 4 mobs on us at once and we were all getting put to sleep and dangerously low on health. However, my damage numbers were pretty low, since I was spending half my time casting Cure IVs on everyone. We had Daden (WAR/NIN), Splinte (WAR/NIN), Easykill (MNK/NIN), Vyce (BRD/WHM), Yobun (RDM/WHM), and Kiki (PLD/NIN). Daden, the monster that he is, did 34%, Splinte and Easykill were both about 27%, and poor Kiki was just 11%.

I'd like to see how I could do in a party where I didn't cast a single spell, but that's never going to happen. My gear wasn't terrible (+34 STR with food, +47ish Attack, capped sword with 2 merits), but since that exp group, I've already improved it with a pair of dusk trousers I bought (another +15 attack, plus 35 HP to boot), and an upgrade to an Amemet Mantle +1 (another +1 STR and +5 attack). I picked up a Spike Earring, and am now trying to get a Bayard's Sword, but missed one on the AH by about 10 minutes. There seems to be one up a week, so I'll just have to keep at it. I guess I'll have to break down and get people to help me get a Joyeuse some day. I really hate asking people for help.

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.

Leveling: Ninja Blues hit 37 (Behemoth's Dominion)

The Ninja Blues headed back to Behemoth's Dominion on Saturday evening, a mix of levels 34 and 35. Charcole has officially abandonded the static, and Ryrra's WAR has filled his spot. It's a good thing we weren't the Ninjas Blue, since we're down to just one Ninja now.

Since this static was formed mostly to get Charcole and Itera's NIN to 37 to use as fully-leveled subjobs for their MNKs (and the extra shadows they get from Utsusemi Ni), as well as Wendell's SMN for his WHM, I'm not sure how much further we'll be taking this. I know I've been having a lot of fun with it, and it would be handy to have our BLUs at 40 at least, for more possibilities for some BCNMs, but we'll see how it goes over the coming weeks. Elboron seems to be enjoying BLU as well, but he's playing less and less these days.

We spent an uneventful evening fighting bats, and stayed until we all hit the magic 37.

Grym and I spent a bit of time over the next couple of days picking up some more spells - Digest (black slimes in Hurototo Ruins), Pinecone Bomb (walking trees in Jugner), and Uppercut (goobbues in Rolanberry Fields). One of the side benefits of having Sea access now is that we have a relatively quick way back to civilization if we happen to be near one of the crags. We just use the Dimensional Portal to get to Al'Taieu, run to a nearby Auroral Updraft, which takes us to the Updraft that goes to Sealion's Den, and then we're in the Tavnazian Safehold. I suppose most people just use warp cudgels or something, but we've always tended to use free travel options when we have them.

Leveling: Ninja Blues in Behemoth's Dominion (33-35)

The Ninja Blues static headed to Behemoth's Dominion to fight Lesser and Greater Gaylas on Saturday night. Charcole wasn't able to make it, so we had Ryrra filling in with her WAR33/MNK16. We were probably "over camping" at 33, since the fights did take a bit longer and use more MP than we were used to, but it was all good fun, and the exp added up pretty quickly. We ended the night with Ryrra and Itera at 35, and the rest of us just shy (had another triple level-up with Wendell, Grym and Kiki at 34). The three Blues all got to learn Jet Stream as well. It's always a nice bonus to learn one of our spells while exp'ing.

The next morning, Grym and I headed to Attohwa Chasm to try to learn Death Ray from the Hecteyes there. I ended up dying to one, but a group that must have been doing an ENM or something happened to be there when I died, and they raised me. We both learned Death Ray and squeaked across the boundary to Level 35, with me soloing a bit in the Maze to get caught back up to Grym.

Leveling: Red Mage Hits the Jungles (25-30)

Kiki's joining a 32-33 static as a Red Mage on April 10th, so she has some catching up to do, since her RDM was only 25. So she got all the gear she needed, set up her macros to swap INT and MND gear, and headed to Kazham. While waiting for the airship, a WHM26 invited her to join a party, so it sure seemed like she was off to a good start. I won't go into all the details of the three EXP sessions she had on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (and not just because I don't remember them all), but just wanted to comment on a few things.

Got from 1000 into 25 to about 1000 into 27 on Saturday, but it took over 8 hours. Between all the people going AFK all the time, then people leaving without notice and needing replacements, it just was so slow. There also seems to be a new trend for Power Leveling. I think a PL is ok as long as it's someone's friend, and they're more there to make sure you stay safe rather than replacing the normal party functions, and I was happy having Itera around for a bit, but for someone to say "I've hired a PL and you all have to chip in" just seems wrong. Seems like people die more often with a PL than they would if the party was trying its best on its own.

One WHM we had joined when Itera was still there, but didn't seem to notice when that he had left soon after that. They never did their job, and really seemed AFK most the time. Finally they said "I've got to go to the store, I'll be back in 20 minutes, the PL will take care of you". We all said "we don't have a PL", but they were already gone. After 30 minutes we kicked them out of the party and got another WHM.  

I also think the young warriors of Vana'diel aren't taking their jobs very seriously. Not one of them I partied with from 25 to 30 used either axe or greataxe. Sword, scythe, and polearm seemed to be the choices. If they realized just how much more damage they could do with a greataxe, they could be so much better at holding hate and killing mobs faster. And don't get me started on underleveled subjobs.... Had one tank who kept running all over the place, so I finally said "Can the tank please stand still?", and he seemed to jump around a bit less after that.

Sunday and Monday evenings Kiki had more efficient parties, and made it to 400 away from 29 on Sunday, and then 1.4k over 30 on Monday.

Got an invite pretty quick on Sunday for a party that was just forming and getting ready to head to the second jungle. That party's surprise was a WHM28/BLM1 who didn't even have a chocobo license. Apparently she was trying to get to 30 as fast as possible, at which point she was going to become a Beastmaster. This person also has a character that's a level 56 Summoner. Kinda odd.

At one point in Sunday's party, the BLM needed to go AFK, but rather than saying anything, he just had his roommate take over for him. His roommate normally plays MNK. So when the BLM used Aeroga and aggro'd the lizard and 12 people died, he was very apologetic.

Monday evening Kiki didn't wait long for an invite, and was to replace a level 31 Red Mage in a party in the second jungle. Nice camp - dead end cave with a lizard living in it, but no golbin spawns. Very safe as long as you stayed in far enough. The party had lots of people coming and going, and ended up being quite decent, but at that point Kiki was already staying later than she had intended, keeping the party full while waiting for other people's replacements. I also don't understand people not giving any warning before leaving.

As Kiki was leaving (logged out at the camp), the Taru Ninja, Drxcrist, gave Kiki a linkpearl to Leprechaun, a Taru-only linkshell.

Index: Leveling

With a wide variety of jobs at various levels, Tsakiki has been in a lot of experience points parties over the years (and more recently limit point parties). I've opted to group them by level rather than job or time, in hopes that makes a handy reference for where I went at what level.

Baby Levels (1-12)

01/2006: Christmas Dragoons
05/2006: Filling the Empty Vessel
07/2006: Blue Mage Duo (8-15)
08/2006: Puppetmaster Duo from 1 to 10
08/2006: More Baby Jobs

The Teenagers (13-19)

04/2007: White Mage Meets the Dunes (11-15)
07/2006: BLU Trio
04/2007: Solo WHM/BST (15-17)
08/2006: BLU Trio in the Dunes (16-17)
01/2005: Thief in the Dunes (18-19)
08/2006: Ninja Blues 17-21
08/2006: White Magery (17-20)

Young Adults (20-29)

08/2006: Ninja Blues Hit Qufim (20-23)
08/2007: WHM Ready for the Jungles! (20-24)
10/2004: DRK in Qufim (21-24)
11/2004: DRK in Qufim (23-25)
08/2006: Ninja Blues, 23-25 in Qufim
04/2005: Red Mage Hits the Jungles (25-30)
09/2006: Ninja Blues, 25-27 in Yuhtunga
05/2007: Pet Static in Yuhtunga (25-28)
09/2006: Ninja Blues, 27-29 in Yuhtunga
11/2004: The Not-So-Static Party (25-31)
11/2004: Kiki's DRK goes to the Jungles (25-28)
12/2004: Dark Knight Kiki Returns to the Jungles (28-32)
01/2006: Kiki's BLM to 31 in Yhoator Jungle
10/2006: Ninja Blues vs. Evil Weapons (29-31)
10/2007: Fun with White Mage (25-37)

Middle Age (30-49)

02/2006: Just Another Nuke-Happy Tarutaru
11/2004: Static in Eastern Altepa Desert (30-33)
01/2007: Holiday Ninja (28-37)
11/2006: Ninja Blues in East Altepa (31-33)
03/2005: DRK to 34 (Garliage/Altepa)
11/2004: All Over the Map (31/33 and 34/35)
11/2004: Static in East Altepa (32-34)
11/2006: Ninja Blues in Behemoth's Dominion (33-35)
11/2004: Another Evening in Altepa (34-35)
04/2007: Black Mage, Solo Versus Party (34-35)
03/2006: The Sub-Job Static (?) in Eastern Altepa Desert (34-37)
12/2006: Ninja Blues in Behemoth's Dominion (34-37)
04/2006: Subjob Static In East Altepa (36-37)
12/2004: Yet Another Evening in Altepa: Not-So-Static Reaches 38
01/2007: Last Gasp for Ninja Blues (37-38)
12/2004: Static Party Levels in Sanctuary of Zi'Tah (38-39)
12/2004: Smaller Static Heads to Gustav Tunnel (38-41)
04/2006: Subjobs hit 40
12/2004: Evening in West Altepa Desert (41-43)
01/2005: Partial Static Gets to 46
01/2005: Semi-Static Hits 48 (Yhoator Jungle)
01/2005: Static Party Reaches 50 (Yhoator Jungle)

The Slow Levels (50-74)

02/2005: Static Reaches 51, Sort Of
12/2005: Kiki's RDM58 heads to Kuftal Tunnel
01/2006: Chapeau?! Paladins don't wear Chapeaux!
11/2005: LLS goes to Attohwa Chasm (60-61)
11/2005: Another interesting evening for the LLS (61-62)
12/2005: LLS in Uleguerand Range (62)
12/2005: LLS back to Uleguerand Range (62-63)
01/2006: LLS Passes the MLS
01/2006: LLS in the Den of Rancor (65-66)
01/2006: LLS Returns to Bibiki Bay (66-67)
01/2006: LLS (66-67) versus Flies and Crabs in The Boyahda Tree
02/2006: LLS in the Boyahda Tree (67)
02/2006: LLS in Gustav Tunnel vs. Bones (67-68)
02/2006: The LLS Hobnobs with the Hobgoblins in Bibiki Bay (68)
03/2006: LLS in Bibiki Bay (69)
04/2006: LLS in Kuftal Tunnel (69-70)
04/2006: LLS Welcomes Wendell (Bibiki Bay, level 70)
04/2006: LLS v. Hobgoblins (71)
04/2006: Welcome to the Grind (Bibiki Bay 71)
05/2006: LLS in Bibiki Bay (71-72)
05/2006: Maybe Bibiki Bay isn't so bad after all (72)
05/2006: Two Evenings in Mount Zhayolm (72-73)
05/2006: Behind the Gates of Halvung (73-74)
05/2006: Extracurricular Party (Lufaise Meadows 73-74)
05/2006: LLS in Caedarva Mire (74)
06/2006: Fun with Fleas (Caedarva Mire level 74)
06/2006: Nearing the End (Caedarva Mire 74-75)

Merits, Merits, Merits (75)

06/2006: Bhaflau Thickets (75)
06/2006: Dvucca Isle Staging Point (75)
07/2006: LLS in Bhaflau Thickets (75)
07/2006: Spinners in Mamook (75)
07/2006: Mamook Spinners (75)
07/2006: More Spinners (75)
08/2006: We're all 75! (Mamook Spinners)
08/2006: LLS and, wait for it, yes, Spinners! (75)
08/2006: Mt Zhayolm Hilltrolls (75)
01/2007: Maybe I Should Just Cap EXP
02/2007: Flag Up
03/2007: Nyzul Isle
10/2007: Just Like Old Times?