Oddest XP party ever

[thistlechaser]

I get very few invites on BLU, only one since I hit 50. So when I got a /tell tonight in all JP squiggletalk with a "60" in the middle of it, I got excited. I replied through the translator that I didn't speak Japanese and asked {Party}?.

No reply. 10 minutes, 20, 30... I gave up. So many JPs won't party with NAs, I figured this was one.

After 45 minutes I got another tell from him asking in broken english if I'd mind a JP party. I /cheered at him and we gathered. (I'm guessing he wanted a JP, but couldn't find one so settled for me.)

Sheep in the Mire he /telled me. I went all o.O .

I've been out of XP circles for a while. I've never done 60-70 in random parties before. But I've never heard of anyone XPing on sheep in the Mire or anywhere other than the Dunes...

Beggars can't be choosers, so I took the invite anyway. Through the translator and his best effort at English, he explained to me that I'd be soloing the fleas. Don't melee, just cast spells on the fleas. o.O

Surprisingly it worked. We got up to chain 40-something. With my XP band on, the high chaining fleas were ~500 XP. o.O

However, while the XP was good (14K/hour without band), it was easily the most exhausting party I've ever been in. It was like being on ultra-stun duty for hours on end. I had to head butt fleas as soon as the sheep WSed, then solo tank/kill them. When things were bad, I was trying to kill 2-3 of them at a time by casting. Hello interruptions!

Got two levels in the party though, so yay!

Unfortunately I may have missed out on RP. :/ We were supposed to continue tonight, but we were still waiting for someone at 6 PM, so there wouldn't have been more than a couple hours of it at most. Still, I had wanted to RP! Oh well, maybe tomorrow

zzzz

Comments

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Oh god a flea party! I haven't been in one of those since near when ToAU came out! They are really fun and usually really good EXP. I didn't know they still worked but I guess it makes sense cause they just changed the way the flea exp worked was all. Leave it to a JP group to still be doing it though. Grats of you're levels! See, NA and JP can get along and level together!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I missed all the parties before they were nerfed! I had heard such good things about them, too.

See, NA and JP can get along and level together!

Sure can! I love all JP parties. Nice and quiet and no one "lol"ing endlessly! ("w" doesn't bother me.)

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Well plus I find even when JPs W it's usually like:

JPtalkJPtalkJPtalkJPtalkJPtalkJPtalkJPtalk w.

Like, you know, they are actually adding to the conversation instead of:

lulz.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that too. The "w" isn't the subject, verb, and punctuation of their sentences.

lol i kno lol lol lol

[calandra.livejournal.com]

I've never been the right level for a flea party, but I've duo farmed the sheep out there (I can make some interesting belts from the wool). Properly organized, they work really well, since you're killing several mobs per pull.

The mammoths spawn fleas too.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those elephant thingies were the original flea party mobs. Wish I had been able to try one of those before they were nerfed!

{That's interesting.}

[tuufless.livejournal.com]

Oh? Hmm...sounds like something to add to Campsitarus...but first, I'll need some details. XD

First off, mind if I ask exactly what level were you guys? And second of all, where exactly in the Mire were you xp'ing? I'm going to assume the part just before the Damselfly/Imp camps?

Re: {That's interesting.}

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yay Campsitarus!

We were synced down to 59 at first, but by the end we were 61 and the XP was slowing (still 12K-13K/hour, but the fleas were bringing in only 50-150 depending on the chain instead of into the 500s).

We were camped right where that NM sheep spawns. (Which unfortunately was pulled at one point and killed us all. It spawns two fleas per TP move and I couldn't keep up with that.) J-9, mages were in the tunnel's mouth to try to avoid sheep song, melees were more into the white circle where he spawns. http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Image:PeallaidhMap.png

That room is nice. There were... hm.. I'd guess at least 8 sheep there. However many there were, even when we hit 61 the puller didn't usually have to run far to get one.

No other XP parties around, of course. Now and then a single person would run through and /huh at us. :P

Sheep often pop in camp, but oddly they don't link (!!!).

[almontffxi.livejournal.com]

Wow, never heard of this but I guess it makes sense. I would've been totally confused as well, getting the "okay, we're going to be killing sheep in the Mire" /tell from a party leader.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, very odd! But the party leader was a RDM 75, so I was willing to put a little more faith into it than if he had been lower level. (Plus... heck, I was happy for any invite!)