thistlechaser | I was wrong! (FFXI)

Last night I was puttering about Windy when one of my LS folks invited me to come party with them. I wasn't doing much of anything, and I've not partied with them in a while, so I jumped on the offer. A quick death sent me from the wilds of Windy back home in Sandy, and there we met up and formed our party. Out, out, out we ran, into an area with monsters strong enough to be a challenge for the six of us working together. (Our levels were 16-20, most being ~18-19, me at 16.)

The first two fights went well, then we learned a lesson. While resting and getting ready for our next fight, a walking tree aggro'ed on us! (We hadn't been sure if they aggro'ed (attack without being attacked first) or not.) With us already being low on HP and MP, and not being ready for the fight, it was messy. A few hits and we had dead people, and then someone called that we should run.

It was at that point where I learned a second lesson: No matter that you're with a party, pay attention to which direction you've been traveling! I had no clue which way I should go, so I picked a random direction and ran. People kept dying, and eventually only two of us were left alive. I thought I was far enough away, so I stopped to rest (I was at zero MP and half HP in a place where anything could kill me). Bad idea! I had a good spot (or so I had thought), backed into a nook in a wall, out of sight of most everything. Eventually the tree found me though, and its branches were long enough and thin enough to kill me. Dead Thistle, beaten by a tree! Heehee.

So we all went home and then came back out again. This time the killing was much better (as in: Monsters got killed but we didn't!). We went into some orc camp area (D-something. Duval? Something like that), and killed lots of them. No fights were even close to the party being wiped out again.

During one of the orc fights I gathered too much hate and the thing ignored the fighters and came after me. Usually I'd "eek!" at this point, but instead I was really mellow. Two reasons: 1) My LS people are so keen! They started throwing Cure after Cure on me. I felt so protected! :) 2) I was having fun in the party, and that was more important than XP. I had made enough during the night that even if I died I wouldn't end the night with less XP than I started with, so it was all good!

That brings me to the subject line of this post: A couple days ago I had said I could be happy just crafting, but I was wrong. Fishing and cooking are good because they're relaxing and have no risk of death, but partying is exciting! It's *fun*! And it's so so so cool to work together with a group to take out something much stronger than any one person could handle!

It's just amazing how much difference using the headsets during partying works. To be able to call out "I got [name]!" when that person needs a Cure, or calling out who is doing which spell when three peoples' spells overlap is so totally handy! Typing it up would take ages longer, and while the time it takes to type a few words doesn't seem like a lot, mid-battle it is.

Start of the evening: About 1300 into level 16.
End of the evening: About 1300 to level 17. (A gain of about 1000? 1200?)

Man, I must have been lucky with the lotting system, too. I walked away with tons of crystals! A tiger's tooth, too! It'd be really cool if you could use this stuff to decorate your house: Hang the tooth on a wall, throw a pelt on the floor, etc.

I'm not sure what tonight's plans or this weekend's plans will be. On Sunday evening there will be a good fishing moon, so I'll probably (maybe) pass on any partying plans and fish then. I'm low on cash (which is becoming the norm), so I'll probably put some hours into fishing for moat carp tonight/tomorrow. (Still fishing 18. Catching moat carp in Windy gave me zero skill increase. I believe the carp cap is low.)

Once I use up the raw materials I currently have, I'm going to stop making butter and move to fishing bait instead. It's really cheap to make, and I can use it myself. (Currently at cooking 12.)

I'm glad the weekend is here. I'm very, very tired. I got offline a half-hour late last night, then was way way way too hyper to sleep. :) Hopefully tomorrow morning I can sleep in.