Quickie FFXI update

[thistlechaser]

Tired, tired.

Monday night: Went to Eco and Escort as RDM. Was strange. Not as much fun as melee, though I did enjoy burning things with fire. FIRE. FIRE! Woo woo!

Got an invite to a manaburn party, and was sorry to turn it down. I would have liked to have seen how it went, but I wanted the "free" XP from Eco/Escort for DRK. (I thought manaburns only worked in the later levels? Would it work in the 60-63 range?) I've not done the solo ENM BC for free DRK XP in weeks, so I really don't want to lose the Eco/Escort XP for it.

Tonight: A "mostly LS and friends" XP party. Ead MNK, Theonion SMN, Des NIN, me (RDM), and two randoms. The random RNG was seriously bad about hate, but it gave us something to bitch/laugh at. I would have let her die, but we were waiting on Des's level to disband, and I was tired and didn't want to extend the party longer. Other than the RNG, the party was really good: Fun and relaxing.

I'm like 2K from 61, which is really odd. Our XP per kill was seriously low (90 unchained, 130-150 chain 5), but we killed really fast. Went to U-whatever Range and killed raptors. Bibiki Bay was too crowded, which was really sad.

I need to work on BLM really really soon (can't hit RDM 62 without becoming gimped) and while I hate playing the job, I want to work hard on NIN, too. (It's 6 now... don't ask me how I can hate a job I only took to level 6. :P ) Mentally my solution to all melee or party problems is to slap /NIN onto things ("Gah! This RNG sucks so much! If only she were /NIN she'd not be so nearly dead so often!"), so I really should have it leveled myself too, eh? Plus RDM/NIN is like the most uber thing out there.

Comments

[aelice.livejournal.com]

BLM can do mana burn once they get Freeze. XD When RDM get those nice ga spells, they can do it too :D

[onionkiri.livejournal.com]

You can really manaburn anytime from the 50s onward, it's just rare cause it's hard to find that many BLMs around the same level pre-73. Personally, I'm dreading them when my static breaks at 73, they just bore me to tears. You won't have that problem though, it's always busy as RDM, no matter what the party. =P

And amen on the RNG! Though in retrospect, she was just on the borderline of 'annoying but not a serious problem and fun to complain about,' it kept the party interesting hehe.

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

Pyromaniac Thistle scares me.

[sel-s.livejournal.com]

NIN ish fun! Really, once you get a taste of tanking you might not want to go back.

At least you don't have to lvl DRK. All the high lvl RDMs I know have complained about having to lvl DRK. ^^

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

NIN ish fun! Really, once you get a taste of tanking you might not want to go back.

After I made the post and logged off, I did wonder if I'd find it fun once I got to the levels that you could actually do NIN-ish stuff. I suspect it might be a "busy" job like RDM is -- something you have to keep your mind on.

At least you don't have to lvl DRK. All the high lvl RDMs I know have complained about having to lvl DRK. ^^

Ha ha, yes. Some RDM said something like 'Wow! At least you don't have to level DRK!' and I was like 'Um, it's my main job, I like it...'. Hee.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Because I'd be even hotter than usual~?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, most people say *burn parties are dull, but I'd still like to give one a chance and see what it's like... especially if the XP is better than usual!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Huh! Good to know! Maybe I'll get asked again soon. :)

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

Bad pun. Bad.

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

I'm of the opinion that *everyone* regardless of mainjob should have WHM and NIN leveled for subjob purposes. Those to jobs offer far too many benefits as a sub to ignore them just because they're not something you use every day in an XP party.

There are 2 reasons I use NIN: To tank/farm and to keep myself alive. (The second seems pretty obvious, but needs more explaining). For the tank/farm, depending on the mob, I can hold hate well with just the damage I do. If people need coffer keys or something, I can totally do that assuming the people going with me understand to not do uberhate-grabbing things like IV spells (though Who's done that to me before without taking hate) or SA+Spinning Slash. If they damage a bit slower/carefully, the mob will stick to me like glue and no one gets hurt :3

The MNK/NIN that I *really* appreciate is in Dynamis. /NIN does two things for me in that situation. The first that for nasty AoE spamming mobs like Yagudo and Goblins and the Orc MkII's, /NIN can blink off their attack with 3 shadows. So yeah, the spin kick, fry pan, and that AoE gravity move takes all my shadows and I'm not stunned or gravitied. It's really nice :3

The second, more pressing reason is that it seriously nerfs my damage output. That might seem like a disadvantage except for the fact that I can still pull hate on Dynamis mobs if I try. (It's even easier to get hate with /WAR because of the attack bonus and double attack firing off.) So when I do pull hate I can usually blink tank them until they are yanked off me again. With /WAR, I just get to stand there and soak it and possibly die.

But! The best part of it, is that by increasing my own survivability with /NIN, I also dramatically decrease the amount of MP that's spent on me. That frees it up for doing other things, like Haste *_* (Our WHM last night didn't cast anything curative on me until well into the Dynamis, like an hour and a half to two hours in... If I got hurt I just Chakra'd it off.) So yes, I will let my precious little ecock take a hit and not do the uberdamagez since, in that situation, it benefits the overall effort more for me to keep my nose clean.

/WHM is, well, obvious. Free sneak and invis and teles~

[gbeans.livejournal.com]

After I made the post and logged off, I did wonder if I'd find it fun once I got to the levels that you could actually do NIN-ish stuff. I suspect it might be a "busy" job like RDM is -- something you have to keep your mind on.

It is :3 Besides focusing on tankish things like Provoking and building hate by casting elementals, debuffs, etc. NIN needs to track their shadows carefully and keep an eye on what the other nitwits..er..party members are doing. When playing as MNK/NIN I sometimes have a hard time concentrating on /l or /tells because the mob is being a twit about taking my shadows immediately (and I don't have to put nearly as much effort into holding hate on a farmed mob as, say, a NIN in an XP party would.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

When playing as MNK/NIN I sometimes have a hard time concentrating on /l or /tells because the mob is being a twit about taking my shadows immediately (and I don't have to put nearly as much effort into holding hate on a farmed mob as, say, a NIN in an XP party would.)

I'm really enjoying RDM because it requires so much more attention. (Often I have to ignore /l while in an XP party.) With DRK, I really only had to "wake up" when we were going to SC (assuming I wasn't on stun duty). With RDM, I have nearly no mental downtime. It's more draining to XP as RDM, but it's so much more interesting, too.

So yeah, maybe NIN will work for me. *crosses fingers*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm of the opinion that *everyone* regardless of mainjob should have WHM and NIN leveled for subjob purposes.

Agreed, and I'm so glad that WHM was my first job, because it's the very last thing I'd want to level now. Yay for it being at subjob levels forever!

I can totally do that assuming the people going with me understand to not do uberhate-grabbing things like ... SA+Spinning Slash

But how else would one level their evasion~? ;)

The second, more pressing reason is that it seriously nerfs my damage output. That might seem like a disadvantage except for the fact that I can still pull hate on Dynamis mobs if I try.

No, I totally understand that. Sometimes I had to ask people not to haste me as DRK (or clicked it off) because I got hate through just damage.

That, combined with the shadows eating the bad things, makes it really understandable to use in that situation.

But! The best part of it, is that by increasing my own survivability with /NIN, I also dramatically decrease the amount of MP that's spent on me.

That's what I'm thinking too, at least for soloing stuff as RDM/NIN.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You can thank me for that in person tonight~

[sel-s.livejournal.com]

DRG was my first job I took to high lvl, so I know what you mean. After that I took up PLD and it was a lot more fun exping when you have to concentrate to do your job well. That's what makes tanking fun...

I actually enjoy PLD tanking more than NIN tanking. Sometimes I wish I could level PLD all over again.

NIN tanking is also fun, but it's more like abstract tanking... c.ca

(there's also the matter of spending a small fortune for every exp session)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if I had to pick between leveling NIN and PLD, I'd pick PLD hands down. Many, many reasons why, but one of the biggest is that it seems like a PLD is less likely to die often. (If a NIN's shadows fall, then what? You have to depend on the skills (ha ha ha) of your random party to save you?)

(there's also the matter of spending a small fortune for every exp session)

Before I start leveling NIN, I'm going to make a kazillion of every tool I'll need. Might take a while, but hey, I have time and it'll save money. (Just need to find space for it all...)