The Grind, Again
May. 27th, 2008 01:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thessalianIt's not musical chairs or even musical desks - it's musical departments.
This week, and for the forseeable future, I am sojourning in the breast surgery unit at the same hospital I was doing radiotherapy work at, which is the same hospital that I worked medical oncology and cancer services in a few years back, and they're the same Trust as the garden spot in Whitechapel in which I did neurosciences stuff the other month. I have no distinct complaints about this, except that the staff here treat me like I'm a total and complete n00b. Which, given my predecessor in this role, I suppose I can forgive - my predecessor is one of those people who apparently decided to do her work on the basis of which doctor she liked best in terms of dictation, not date order. And given that there's a backlog of work dating back to the start of May (though I've ploughed through a fair bit of it already now, perhaps not surprisingly), that was probably not the wisest course of action in the world. Ah well, it keeps me in employment and they seem to want to keep me, which I can't really complain about, needing as I do a weekly paycheque. Still, I wish they could get it through their skulls here that I am not my predecessor, I am not a simpleton and I do know who to ask if I need help. Which I doubt I will, as I've done enough work in this section of the field to get me by, at minimum. Oh well, I suppose they have to cover their bases somehow.
In other news, I reached the lofty heights of WHM 49 yesterday. I put up my party flag early figuring that because it was a holiday on both sides of the pond, my chances would be good to get something fairly promising. And I didn't have to wait long for a party - I seldom do with my WHM hat on - but I had to wait ages for the party to properly form up. Our party lead and tank (a Galka BLU named Poohbear) was really obsessed with party balance and I nearly got my head bitten off for making suggestions. Eventually we formed up something halfway suitable and hacked into Garlaige Citadel to go kill beetles and bats for awhile.
(It seems to go as follows, party levelling: crabs, fish, goblins, fish, crabs, fish, bats, giants, spring onions, goblins, beetles, giraffe-cows, caterpillars, beetles, caterpillars, beetles, caterpillars, bats and then more beetles... I dunno what happens after beetles, but probably yet more beetles are involved. I suppose this is in some strange way revenge for the beetles of DOOM that kept killing me stone dead in the Horutoto Ruins when I was teeny. Still gets a bit dull, though. And a real comedown after giants.)
Our tank could not hold hate. At all. I mean, seriously, it wasn't just that our DRG was doing obscene amounts of damage and therefore taking all the hate; it was that he just wasn't doing any damage worth talking about. I didn't take as much hate or damage as I did in some parties as a result of the inability of the tank to hold hate, but mainly because of the DRG and his obscene-level damage done to incoming mobs; I did, however, take a fair few hits and let's not talk about Citadel Bats spawning in the stairwell in which I took refuge to heal people in peace. It got better when a RDM joined the party (replacing our SMN with the WHM PL) and he could keep the two BLUs, the WHM and himself with hot and cold running MP. That made my job easier, though it didn't stop us from getting the stupid Citadel Bats smacking me in the back of the head while I was trying to cure people, people hitting the slept link and waking it up instead of focusing on the mob that was awake and trying to kill us ... oh yeah, did I mention I saw my first full-party wipe in ages? It always seems to be Garlaige. Still, I had Reraise up, the RDM had a Reraise Earring and we got back to it in little to no time at all.
Now, of course, I have to go get my limit break quest started, in preparation for hitting level 50. Because, of course, it can't be as simple as levelling to 75, ooooooh no. Instead, you hit level 50 and your level is capped at 50 until you do this stupid quest where you go around nuking the shit out of specific mobs for specific Rare/Ex drops so you can hand them to this stupid NPC and get your limit break. But of course, it's not even that simple, because after that? Your level cap is 55. Which means you then have to go and do another stupid limit break quest to get your level cap up to 60. And so on and so on and so on until you finally hit level 70, when you have to get your level cap up to its highest - 75. Then the fun really begins, because it's then a one-on-one battle with this NPC who's your level and your job, and you have to take him down. *headdesk* So basically you're beating up on an Evenly Matched mob. And praying you don't run out of MP before he does, in my case. And that before you can level to 75. I'm not sure if you have to do this for every single job you level that far, but ... at least with everything but the one-on-one, you can use your higher level job while you go for the items. I just have this severe case of the meeps because I am a small and squishy WHM and am not sure I can actually do this stuff on my own. And the one person who offered to help me on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ffxi_asura works on Japanese Standard Time so it's going to have to be either over the weekend (and waking up early), beg for help on Allakhazam or stand around Jeuno /shouting for help. Because ... seriously. Stuck on level 50 and having to nuke level 52 mobs for this stuff? With potential links? Noooooo thank you.
Though at least there was one good thing about my Garlaige party yesterday - while we were waiting for the RDM to show up, I threw Sneak and Invisible up and trundled around for that bucket of divine paint that I needed for my Teleport-Dem quest. Hopefully that'll sell at the AH shortly as I am in sore need of gil just now. Now the only ones I have left to do that I already have the spells for are Holla and Altep. Apparently Altep is really easy provided you have Sneak up at all times, but my issue there is not having a map to the Quicksand Caves. To get one, I'd have to go kill things to get a Quicksand Caves Chest Key, and that involves killing things I was levelling off not so long ago. Probably not wise. So it's writing down detailed directions and hoping. Holla should be easier - I mainly have to go trundling through Gusgen for that, and if our excursion with Gjoll for magicked skulls is any indication, I'm about of a level now where I should not fear aggro overmuch. Plus, you know, Sneak. Invisible. Running for my teeny Taru life. (And care when I get to the final room because hell, there's bombs down there and they aggro sight and magic.) Then there's Yhoat, which should be marginally entertaining as it involves going back to the infernal Jungles again and killing off lizards for a chunk of ivory, though those I might actually be able to solo these days. And after that, Vahzl. Which is going to involve me horking off through that bloody Raungemont Pass again (STILL NO MAP), trucking through Beaucedine Glacier (I can at least do this map quest, as I bought the quest item from the Jeuno AH last night), and making a run through Xacabard to get the Tele crystal I need for that awful place. Frozen wastelands FTW?
I got asked why I do this for fun after complaining about the amount of time I spend mashing macro buttons and looking at featureless beach, featureless desert or cave walls. There are a few reasons, I suppose. One is the social aspect, to a point - you meet interesting people. Some of them are righteous arseholes who you just want to hit, granted. Others, though, are really nice; for example, the high-level DRK who helped me camp the Battering Ram for my stupid lanolin cube because she was camping the mob for ram horns, or the guy in one of my Qufim parties who noticed me making my own melon juice and then handing me all the water crystals he picked up from the pugil slaughter, saying, "When you get high enough level, I like sushi". (I haven't yet, but I'm still saving up for raw fish handling, and the day I get it and am high enough level to make sushi at all, I'll be sending a fair bit to a Galka named Mongosmash.) That's part of it. There's also the challenge of it - keeping your party alive against all odds, levelling high enough to get that new weapon skill or spell, beating that particular NM, getting that really rare or otherwise funky drop... It's not all bad; just sometimes there's a bit of a grind, is all. Even one's hobbies require work, at times.
Plus there are the funny moments like this:
Player: Raise needed at (H-8) ((Please assist.))
HighLevelPlayer casts Raise on Player.
Player: Thanks, Dad.
I should get back to it, but ... well, I was bored and wanted to share.
This week, and for the forseeable future, I am sojourning in the breast surgery unit at the same hospital I was doing radiotherapy work at, which is the same hospital that I worked medical oncology and cancer services in a few years back, and they're the same Trust as the garden spot in Whitechapel in which I did neurosciences stuff the other month. I have no distinct complaints about this, except that the staff here treat me like I'm a total and complete n00b. Which, given my predecessor in this role, I suppose I can forgive - my predecessor is one of those people who apparently decided to do her work on the basis of which doctor she liked best in terms of dictation, not date order. And given that there's a backlog of work dating back to the start of May (though I've ploughed through a fair bit of it already now, perhaps not surprisingly), that was probably not the wisest course of action in the world. Ah well, it keeps me in employment and they seem to want to keep me, which I can't really complain about, needing as I do a weekly paycheque. Still, I wish they could get it through their skulls here that I am not my predecessor, I am not a simpleton and I do know who to ask if I need help. Which I doubt I will, as I've done enough work in this section of the field to get me by, at minimum. Oh well, I suppose they have to cover their bases somehow.
In other news, I reached the lofty heights of WHM 49 yesterday. I put up my party flag early figuring that because it was a holiday on both sides of the pond, my chances would be good to get something fairly promising. And I didn't have to wait long for a party - I seldom do with my WHM hat on - but I had to wait ages for the party to properly form up. Our party lead and tank (a Galka BLU named Poohbear) was really obsessed with party balance and I nearly got my head bitten off for making suggestions. Eventually we formed up something halfway suitable and hacked into Garlaige Citadel to go kill beetles and bats for awhile.
(It seems to go as follows, party levelling: crabs, fish, goblins, fish, crabs, fish, bats, giants, spring onions, goblins, beetles, giraffe-cows, caterpillars, beetles, caterpillars, beetles, caterpillars, bats and then more beetles... I dunno what happens after beetles, but probably yet more beetles are involved. I suppose this is in some strange way revenge for the beetles of DOOM that kept killing me stone dead in the Horutoto Ruins when I was teeny. Still gets a bit dull, though. And a real comedown after giants.)
Our tank could not hold hate. At all. I mean, seriously, it wasn't just that our DRG was doing obscene amounts of damage and therefore taking all the hate; it was that he just wasn't doing any damage worth talking about. I didn't take as much hate or damage as I did in some parties as a result of the inability of the tank to hold hate, but mainly because of the DRG and his obscene-level damage done to incoming mobs; I did, however, take a fair few hits and let's not talk about Citadel Bats spawning in the stairwell in which I took refuge to heal people in peace. It got better when a RDM joined the party (replacing our SMN with the WHM PL) and he could keep the two BLUs, the WHM and himself with hot and cold running MP. That made my job easier, though it didn't stop us from getting the stupid Citadel Bats smacking me in the back of the head while I was trying to cure people, people hitting the slept link and waking it up instead of focusing on the mob that was awake and trying to kill us ... oh yeah, did I mention I saw my first full-party wipe in ages? It always seems to be Garlaige. Still, I had Reraise up, the RDM had a Reraise Earring and we got back to it in little to no time at all.
Now, of course, I have to go get my limit break quest started, in preparation for hitting level 50. Because, of course, it can't be as simple as levelling to 75, ooooooh no. Instead, you hit level 50 and your level is capped at 50 until you do this stupid quest where you go around nuking the shit out of specific mobs for specific Rare/Ex drops so you can hand them to this stupid NPC and get your limit break. But of course, it's not even that simple, because after that? Your level cap is 55. Which means you then have to go and do another stupid limit break quest to get your level cap up to 60. And so on and so on and so on until you finally hit level 70, when you have to get your level cap up to its highest - 75. Then the fun really begins, because it's then a one-on-one battle with this NPC who's your level and your job, and you have to take him down. *headdesk* So basically you're beating up on an Evenly Matched mob. And praying you don't run out of MP before he does, in my case. And that before you can level to 75. I'm not sure if you have to do this for every single job you level that far, but ... at least with everything but the one-on-one, you can use your higher level job while you go for the items. I just have this severe case of the meeps because I am a small and squishy WHM and am not sure I can actually do this stuff on my own. And the one person who offered to help me on
ffxi_asura works on Japanese Standard Time so it's going to have to be either over the weekend (and waking up early), beg for help on Allakhazam or stand around Jeuno /shouting for help. Because ... seriously. Stuck on level 50 and having to nuke level 52 mobs for this stuff? With potential links? Noooooo thank you.Though at least there was one good thing about my Garlaige party yesterday - while we were waiting for the RDM to show up, I threw Sneak and Invisible up and trundled around for that bucket of divine paint that I needed for my Teleport-Dem quest. Hopefully that'll sell at the AH shortly as I am in sore need of gil just now. Now the only ones I have left to do that I already have the spells for are Holla and Altep. Apparently Altep is really easy provided you have Sneak up at all times, but my issue there is not having a map to the Quicksand Caves. To get one, I'd have to go kill things to get a Quicksand Caves Chest Key, and that involves killing things I was levelling off not so long ago. Probably not wise. So it's writing down detailed directions and hoping. Holla should be easier - I mainly have to go trundling through Gusgen for that, and if our excursion with Gjoll for magicked skulls is any indication, I'm about of a level now where I should not fear aggro overmuch. Plus, you know, Sneak. Invisible. Running for my teeny Taru life. (And care when I get to the final room because hell, there's bombs down there and they aggro sight and magic.) Then there's Yhoat, which should be marginally entertaining as it involves going back to the infernal Jungles again and killing off lizards for a chunk of ivory, though those I might actually be able to solo these days. And after that, Vahzl. Which is going to involve me horking off through that bloody Raungemont Pass again (STILL NO MAP), trucking through Beaucedine Glacier (I can at least do this map quest, as I bought the quest item from the Jeuno AH last night), and making a run through Xacabard to get the Tele crystal I need for that awful place. Frozen wastelands FTW?
I got asked why I do this for fun after complaining about the amount of time I spend mashing macro buttons and looking at featureless beach, featureless desert or cave walls. There are a few reasons, I suppose. One is the social aspect, to a point - you meet interesting people. Some of them are righteous arseholes who you just want to hit, granted. Others, though, are really nice; for example, the high-level DRK who helped me camp the Battering Ram for my stupid lanolin cube because she was camping the mob for ram horns, or the guy in one of my Qufim parties who noticed me making my own melon juice and then handing me all the water crystals he picked up from the pugil slaughter, saying, "When you get high enough level, I like sushi". (I haven't yet, but I'm still saving up for raw fish handling, and the day I get it and am high enough level to make sushi at all, I'll be sending a fair bit to a Galka named Mongosmash.) That's part of it. There's also the challenge of it - keeping your party alive against all odds, levelling high enough to get that new weapon skill or spell, beating that particular NM, getting that really rare or otherwise funky drop... It's not all bad; just sometimes there's a bit of a grind, is all. Even one's hobbies require work, at times.
Plus there are the funny moments like this:
Player: Raise needed at (H-8) ((Please assist.))
HighLevelPlayer casts Raise on Player.
Player: Thanks, Dad.
I should get back to it, but ... well, I was bored and wanted to share.