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thistlechaserOur "low level static" is both rocking and starting to outgrow its name. Because Aurian was home sick yesterday, we got to start about three hours early, and boy did the time fly!
Draque - ranger
Eadwyn - warrior
Linmayu - white mage
Aurian - paladin
Nimbex - thief
me - dark knight
We started at 12, and ended with five of us at 16 and Draque at 17! Sure those are still "low-level levels", but four of them is great! I had been hoping we might hit 15, but hadn't dared to hope for 16! And we're nearly at 17! (Luckily most of us brought two sets of armor!)
We got very, very lucky area/camp-wise: After a very poor time last week in the Dunes, we went to Buburimu Peninsula this week. The first camp was right behind the outpost (thus we were safe from goblin and undead aggro). There were endless hares and mandys to kill there! Nim really got his feet under him as the puller, and we were just mowing them down non-stop (he'd run off to pull again before the one we were on was dead, thus we'd have no downtime!). We actually got up to a chain 5, which I don't remember ever being a part of before!
Almost as important as the experience, most of us non-mages were former mages, thus we had zero experience with skill chaining. Boy did we get lots of it yesterday! :) We tended to have two different ones set up at any one time, with two people in each of them.
While I love my great sword to death, I switched to a scythe every time it got capped. Plantreaper! (Or "Plantraper", as it came to be known.) It was a gift from Aurian, Ead, and Draque! :) (And isn't it odd seeing a PLD in non-white armor?) <- I love how the bunny in the background is sort of peeking over the hill, watching us. It knows it's next! I ended up skilling scythe about 15 levels (yes, it was very low before!). Gsword is currently capped, which makes me very happy.
The second camp we went to was down on the beach (again, no aggro), where we (sometimes slowly) killed crabs. Tough little critters! By this point it was getting surprisingly late, so we wrapped up. (I cannot believe how fast time time went! We started at about 10 AM, and when we stopped it was 4:30! I was just amazed, it felt like maybe an hour had passed, not the whole day!)
DRK is interesting, but I think I can understand why a number of people think the whole job sucks:
1) I have the very very best equipment money can buy (leaping boots, 2 balance rings +1, every single piece of my armor is HQ, etc), and yet I still miss a whole lot. Either all that good stuff I have makes little difference or people who go with average/below-average stuff must never hit. With my gsword, I seemed to hit about 50% of the time, and the scythe was somewhat lower. With weapons as slow as mine, that's a big darned deal! I can't imagine missing even more!
2) Stealing hate is so much fun. :) (Sorry, Aurian! Don't hit me!) And I know it's a bad mindset, but I love it when the monster actually tries to hit me! Problem is, the only person in the party more fragile than me was the white mage!!! And I was in great armor and stuff! Imagine! I did use Last Resort every time it became available when we were fighting crabs, but that was only because they didn't hit hard enough to hurt me. I cannot continue to use it often against things that might hit hard... but it's so tempting! I'm supposed to be the one doing a ton of damage, but ranger Draque blew me out of the water. Even thief Nimbex did tons more than me, stacking Combo with SA! (Heck, he beat Draque that way, too!)
We had a few (three?) deaths, but for that amount of time, it wasn't too bad. Somehow I wasn't one of those deaths though! Sheesh! When I'm ready and willing to die, it doesn't happen! :)
Too bad our time next week will be shorter, but at least we're off to a good start now! :) Yay us!
And one last thing: I'm so so so so glad my leveling burnout is gone! And that I don't have to play WHM anymore. I'm loving playing DRK! ...I just need to break Draque's bow so he stops out-damaging me. ;)
Draque - ranger
Eadwyn - warrior
Linmayu - white mage
Aurian - paladin
Nimbex - thief
me - dark knight
We started at 12, and ended with five of us at 16 and Draque at 17! Sure those are still "low-level levels", but four of them is great! I had been hoping we might hit 15, but hadn't dared to hope for 16! And we're nearly at 17! (Luckily most of us brought two sets of armor!)
We got very, very lucky area/camp-wise: After a very poor time last week in the Dunes, we went to Buburimu Peninsula this week. The first camp was right behind the outpost (thus we were safe from goblin and undead aggro). There were endless hares and mandys to kill there! Nim really got his feet under him as the puller, and we were just mowing them down non-stop (he'd run off to pull again before the one we were on was dead, thus we'd have no downtime!). We actually got up to a chain 5, which I don't remember ever being a part of before!
Almost as important as the experience, most of us non-mages were former mages, thus we had zero experience with skill chaining. Boy did we get lots of it yesterday! :) We tended to have two different ones set up at any one time, with two people in each of them.
While I love my great sword to death, I switched to a scythe every time it got capped. Plantreaper! (Or "Plantraper", as it came to be known.) It was a gift from Aurian, Ead, and Draque! :) (And isn't it odd seeing a PLD in non-white armor?) <- I love how the bunny in the background is sort of peeking over the hill, watching us. It knows it's next! I ended up skilling scythe about 15 levels (yes, it was very low before!). Gsword is currently capped, which makes me very happy.
The second camp we went to was down on the beach (again, no aggro), where we (sometimes slowly) killed crabs. Tough little critters! By this point it was getting surprisingly late, so we wrapped up. (I cannot believe how fast time time went! We started at about 10 AM, and when we stopped it was 4:30! I was just amazed, it felt like maybe an hour had passed, not the whole day!)
DRK is interesting, but I think I can understand why a number of people think the whole job sucks:
1) I have the very very best equipment money can buy (leaping boots, 2 balance rings +1, every single piece of my armor is HQ, etc), and yet I still miss a whole lot. Either all that good stuff I have makes little difference or people who go with average/below-average stuff must never hit. With my gsword, I seemed to hit about 50% of the time, and the scythe was somewhat lower. With weapons as slow as mine, that's a big darned deal! I can't imagine missing even more!
2) Stealing hate is so much fun. :) (Sorry, Aurian! Don't hit me!) And I know it's a bad mindset, but I love it when the monster actually tries to hit me! Problem is, the only person in the party more fragile than me was the white mage!!! And I was in great armor and stuff! Imagine! I did use Last Resort every time it became available when we were fighting crabs, but that was only because they didn't hit hard enough to hurt me. I cannot continue to use it often against things that might hit hard... but it's so tempting! I'm supposed to be the one doing a ton of damage, but ranger Draque blew me out of the water. Even thief Nimbex did tons more than me, stacking Combo with SA! (Heck, he beat Draque that way, too!)
We had a few (three?) deaths, but for that amount of time, it wasn't too bad. Somehow I wasn't one of those deaths though! Sheesh! When I'm ready and willing to die, it doesn't happen! :)
Too bad our time next week will be shorter, but at least we're off to a good start now! :) Yay us!
And one last thing: I'm so so so so glad my leveling burnout is gone! And that I don't have to play WHM anymore. I'm loving playing DRK! ...I just need to break Draque's bow so he stops out-damaging me. ;)
