When Good Parties Disband Early
May. 5th, 2008 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianFirst of all, can I just say - Levelling. Is. Expensive.
Seriously, for mages in particular. All the melee types out there, you do not know how lucky you have it. Spell scrolls really amp up in price as you get higher up in level. 23.4k for my last spell upgrade! From the shops! Dear flippin' gods! I nearly didn't bother. I mean, I'd managed well enough with Cure III previously, so what on earth did I need Cure IV for? This is what I asked myself, with something like 46k gil in my inventory and an unwillingness to blow more than half of it on one spell.
Then I got my party invite. Well, the first thing that happened was someone called Taruyuki tapped me in /tell and started talking to me in Japanese characters. Which ... you know, not helpful. Then eventually he started using the AutoTranslate feature and asked if I spoke English. To which I replied, "((Yes, please.))", which is the closest one can get to a just plain "yes" in AutoTranslate. What I got back was "((Hmmm.))"
Yeah. Being judgemental over my not speaking the language when I can use AutoTranslate perfectly well does not exactly endear you to me, fella.
Then I got a party invite, and off I headed to Crawler's Nest. At which point I passed the spell scroll shop and thought, "...This is going to be one of those situations when I hit a party and they ask me if I have Cure IV and I have to tell them no and it'll be embarrassing and potentially fatal, isn't it? I have a feeling." So I went to buy the scroll, thinking, "Bug broth tomorrow, please let there be shell bugs at the Bastok AH..."
...And then I got the tell. From Taruyuki. "((Experience points)) ((Party)) ((Do you need it?))"
If he'd asked me instead first of pondering it and going "((Hmmm.))" in my general direction, he'd have had a WHM, wouldn't he? But I had a previous committment, so I gave him the "((I'm sorry. I'm busy now.))" (read: "No. Go jump off the airship.") and headed off to my party.
I hate Crawler's Nest, just so you know. It's dank, it glows in funny ways, and I never, ever know what aggros. I've finally checked the Vana'diel Bestiary to work out what the hell I should actually be worried about down there - I've been casting Sneak and Invis on myself (and getting laughed at; fuckers) every time I've been down there thus far just to be on the safe side? But it's a little tough to know what I'm really supposed to be on the lookout for.
Death Jackets apparently don't aggro. Worker Crawlers apparently don't aggro. Maze Lizards apparently don't aggro. Killer Mushrooms, Nest Beetles, Hornflies, Caveberries (sapliiiiings!) ... no aggro.
However. Doom Scorpions and Puroboros (more of those exploded tomato jack-o-lantern-lookin' things)? They aggro. The Puroboros to sight and magic, the Doom Scorpion to sound and scent. Wespes and Soul Stingers (which are just glorified Death Jackets)? They aggro to sight and scent. Blazer Beetles (glorified Nest Beetles) aggro to sight and scent as well. Exorays are glorified Killer Mushrooms (stupid funguar) and they aggro. Labyrinth Lizards are glorified Maze Lizards and they aggro. Rumble Crawlers, Soldier Crawlers and Knight Crawlers? They aggro. And then there are the Elementals that spawn in the bottom area. By the time you get to the lower levels of Crawler's Nest, apparently casting Sneak and Invis isn't so silly after all.
Anyway, so we get to the bottom level and there's this secret room that leads to the Strange Apparatus in the area. So we hid there and got to work. For a change, our party had Black Mages. Yes, I said BLMs, plural. Two of 'em. Of course, both were Hume and neither could hold MP worth a shit, but in what starts to amount to a manaburn party I suppose that's not overly surprising. However, overzealous pulling meant I had a hard time keeping MP within decent levels, but at least I managed more or less reasonably. No one died, anyway, and I kept people poison-free after intense overuse of Poison Breath by the Soldier Crawlers we were killing on this particular jaunt. Seriously, by the time I was three-quarters of the way to my level 42, I was very fucking glad I had invested in Cure IV, because if I hadn't, I'd have had to Raise half the party. I was also glad I invested in Haste, as it was a lot better to keep Haste on our tank (Galka - sloooooow mover at the best of times) than to have to keep casting Erase every time the Crawler we were killing used Sticky Thread in an attempt to hit our tank with Slow. But mostly it was the Poison Breath that got me. Poison Breath - Poisona. Poison Breath - Poisona. Poison Breath hitting half the party, including me because the tank couldn't hold hate - Poisona, Poisona, Poisona ... oh, didn't notice the DD got hit with it too, sorry; Poisona.
Once they just could not get the Crawler off me. I hadn't done much - Divine Seal + Cure III on our flagging Samurai - but that had apparently generated so much hate that not even two Provokes could successfully stop the stupid Crawler from trying to kill my arse. Thankfully they eventually managed to hit it enough to get it away from me before I got too far into the red, and Drain, Cure II from the two BLMs and the natural ability of WHMs to slowly regain HP just by standing there kept me from having to be even more glad than I already was that I'd had the sense to cast Reraise during this jaunt. This wasn't anywhere near as bad as the accidental link we got during one pull (not the puller's fault - a Crawler spawned right in his path while he was pulling the other one towards our camp; everything in Crawler's Nest links) and we had a hard time keeping the link asleep while we tried to kill the first one and I wasn't at great MP levels to begin with. In the end, I was reduced to resting mid-battle only to get up enough MP to stand and cast Poisona on someone before resting again. I don't think it was the party's fault; just sometimes, shit happens.
Which, incidentally, is how the party broke up. Our Galka NIN tank had to take off to get some food and our puller also had to bail, and we didn't think we could find a replacement NIN so the puller wasn't looking for a rep at first. The party lead found someone in their LS but we lost the one potential puller we had (a Ranger somewhere who logged out just as we started asking) so we eventually had to disband. All that and I only got one level. FUCK.
That said, I need to start clawing myself up some gil again. Teleport scroll quests. I should go see how high level you have to be to solo your way to rank 4. Sneak through Eldieme to get the second to last stone monument impression. And bug broth, bug broth, bug broth first of all. I could seriously use the gil after this last set of upgrades. Yeesh. But then again, at least it's another two levels before we get to the point where I really need to upgrade again (Barpetra's at level 43, but Regen II, which would be very fucking handy, is level 44). Then just a couple of more spells and ... then I hit level 50, which is my cap, so I have to go do the quest that raises my level cap to 55. Yay.
I do love this game, don't get me wrong. I mean, there's always something to do in it, if I'm bored enough and have enough time. But that's the thing - there's always something to do. Levelling Dancer. Levelling Summoner. Unlocking and then levelling Scholar. Unlocking and then levelling Blue Mage. Unlocking and then levelling Ranger, perhaps. Levelling WHM. Levelling BLM. Doing quests to earn the gil to pay for all this stuff. Missions and... Gah.
Well, who knows? Maybe I'll find some higher-level help tomorrow and get at least my Rank 4 mission out of the way. The 5k gil will come in handy.
Tomorrow's a bank holiday (well, today is) so there will also be nice dinner with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dodgyhoodoo. What we'll be having I have no idea, but it will be nice, damnit. And maybe we can beat the DVD player into working, or something. Either way, nice lazy bank holiday Monday. I like those.
Seriously, for mages in particular. All the melee types out there, you do not know how lucky you have it. Spell scrolls really amp up in price as you get higher up in level. 23.4k for my last spell upgrade! From the shops! Dear flippin' gods! I nearly didn't bother. I mean, I'd managed well enough with Cure III previously, so what on earth did I need Cure IV for? This is what I asked myself, with something like 46k gil in my inventory and an unwillingness to blow more than half of it on one spell.
Then I got my party invite. Well, the first thing that happened was someone called Taruyuki tapped me in /tell and started talking to me in Japanese characters. Which ... you know, not helpful. Then eventually he started using the AutoTranslate feature and asked if I spoke English. To which I replied, "((Yes, please.))", which is the closest one can get to a just plain "yes" in AutoTranslate. What I got back was "((Hmmm.))"
Yeah. Being judgemental over my not speaking the language when I can use AutoTranslate perfectly well does not exactly endear you to me, fella.
Then I got a party invite, and off I headed to Crawler's Nest. At which point I passed the spell scroll shop and thought, "...This is going to be one of those situations when I hit a party and they ask me if I have Cure IV and I have to tell them no and it'll be embarrassing and potentially fatal, isn't it? I have a feeling." So I went to buy the scroll, thinking, "Bug broth tomorrow, please let there be shell bugs at the Bastok AH..."
...And then I got the tell. From Taruyuki. "((Experience points)) ((Party)) ((Do you need it?))"
If he'd asked me instead first of pondering it and going "((Hmmm.))" in my general direction, he'd have had a WHM, wouldn't he? But I had a previous committment, so I gave him the "((I'm sorry. I'm busy now.))" (read: "No. Go jump off the airship.") and headed off to my party.
I hate Crawler's Nest, just so you know. It's dank, it glows in funny ways, and I never, ever know what aggros. I've finally checked the Vana'diel Bestiary to work out what the hell I should actually be worried about down there - I've been casting Sneak and Invis on myself (and getting laughed at; fuckers) every time I've been down there thus far just to be on the safe side? But it's a little tough to know what I'm really supposed to be on the lookout for.
Death Jackets apparently don't aggro. Worker Crawlers apparently don't aggro. Maze Lizards apparently don't aggro. Killer Mushrooms, Nest Beetles, Hornflies, Caveberries (sapliiiiings!) ... no aggro.
However. Doom Scorpions and Puroboros (more of those exploded tomato jack-o-lantern-lookin' things)? They aggro. The Puroboros to sight and magic, the Doom Scorpion to sound and scent. Wespes and Soul Stingers (which are just glorified Death Jackets)? They aggro to sight and scent. Blazer Beetles (glorified Nest Beetles) aggro to sight and scent as well. Exorays are glorified Killer Mushrooms (stupid funguar) and they aggro. Labyrinth Lizards are glorified Maze Lizards and they aggro. Rumble Crawlers, Soldier Crawlers and Knight Crawlers? They aggro. And then there are the Elementals that spawn in the bottom area. By the time you get to the lower levels of Crawler's Nest, apparently casting Sneak and Invis isn't so silly after all.
Anyway, so we get to the bottom level and there's this secret room that leads to the Strange Apparatus in the area. So we hid there and got to work. For a change, our party had Black Mages. Yes, I said BLMs, plural. Two of 'em. Of course, both were Hume and neither could hold MP worth a shit, but in what starts to amount to a manaburn party I suppose that's not overly surprising. However, overzealous pulling meant I had a hard time keeping MP within decent levels, but at least I managed more or less reasonably. No one died, anyway, and I kept people poison-free after intense overuse of Poison Breath by the Soldier Crawlers we were killing on this particular jaunt. Seriously, by the time I was three-quarters of the way to my level 42, I was very fucking glad I had invested in Cure IV, because if I hadn't, I'd have had to Raise half the party. I was also glad I invested in Haste, as it was a lot better to keep Haste on our tank (Galka - sloooooow mover at the best of times) than to have to keep casting Erase every time the Crawler we were killing used Sticky Thread in an attempt to hit our tank with Slow. But mostly it was the Poison Breath that got me. Poison Breath - Poisona. Poison Breath - Poisona. Poison Breath hitting half the party, including me because the tank couldn't hold hate - Poisona, Poisona, Poisona ... oh, didn't notice the DD got hit with it too, sorry; Poisona.
Once they just could not get the Crawler off me. I hadn't done much - Divine Seal + Cure III on our flagging Samurai - but that had apparently generated so much hate that not even two Provokes could successfully stop the stupid Crawler from trying to kill my arse. Thankfully they eventually managed to hit it enough to get it away from me before I got too far into the red, and Drain, Cure II from the two BLMs and the natural ability of WHMs to slowly regain HP just by standing there kept me from having to be even more glad than I already was that I'd had the sense to cast Reraise during this jaunt. This wasn't anywhere near as bad as the accidental link we got during one pull (not the puller's fault - a Crawler spawned right in his path while he was pulling the other one towards our camp; everything in Crawler's Nest links) and we had a hard time keeping the link asleep while we tried to kill the first one and I wasn't at great MP levels to begin with. In the end, I was reduced to resting mid-battle only to get up enough MP to stand and cast Poisona on someone before resting again. I don't think it was the party's fault; just sometimes, shit happens.
Which, incidentally, is how the party broke up. Our Galka NIN tank had to take off to get some food and our puller also had to bail, and we didn't think we could find a replacement NIN so the puller wasn't looking for a rep at first. The party lead found someone in their LS but we lost the one potential puller we had (a Ranger somewhere who logged out just as we started asking) so we eventually had to disband. All that and I only got one level. FUCK.
That said, I need to start clawing myself up some gil again. Teleport scroll quests. I should go see how high level you have to be to solo your way to rank 4. Sneak through Eldieme to get the second to last stone monument impression. And bug broth, bug broth, bug broth first of all. I could seriously use the gil after this last set of upgrades. Yeesh. But then again, at least it's another two levels before we get to the point where I really need to upgrade again (Barpetra's at level 43, but Regen II, which would be very fucking handy, is level 44). Then just a couple of more spells and ... then I hit level 50, which is my cap, so I have to go do the quest that raises my level cap to 55. Yay.
I do love this game, don't get me wrong. I mean, there's always something to do in it, if I'm bored enough and have enough time. But that's the thing - there's always something to do. Levelling Dancer. Levelling Summoner. Unlocking and then levelling Scholar. Unlocking and then levelling Blue Mage. Unlocking and then levelling Ranger, perhaps. Levelling WHM. Levelling BLM. Doing quests to earn the gil to pay for all this stuff. Missions and... Gah.
Well, who knows? Maybe I'll find some higher-level help tomorrow and get at least my Rank 4 mission out of the way. The 5k gil will come in handy.
Tomorrow's a bank holiday (well, today is) so there will also be nice dinner with
dodgyhoodoo. What we'll be having I have no idea, but it will be nice, damnit. And maybe we can beat the DVD player into working, or something. Either way, nice lazy bank holiday Monday. I like those.