To expand a bit on my last post, red mage Maat is a monster. As RDM is my main job, I don't have any experience to compare it to, but I have to imagine that not many people would have 75s if all the fights were like this.
I've attempted it upwards of ten times; I honestly haven't kept count, but I do know that it's over ten. I've tried every strategy I could find; I had the best results with a combination strategy. Start slow by buffing myself, sleeping him, dispelling and debuffing him, using ethers to regain my MP, then going all-out on chainspell nukes.
The first fight wasn't even an actual attempt, it was a sightseeing trip. I wanted to see the fight so I had some idea of what I was looking at. The second fight, I came unprepared. After that, it was down to business. I brought 100k in consumables to each fight. (That's right, it is not just a matter of consumables, I don't care what the THF, NIN, and SAM fights entail. And screw your cream puff, I was using Crimson fucking Jelly.) I capped my skills (okay, nearly capped, I'm still 6 points short on elemental). I tried every strategy I could find, I settled on what worked best for me. And it still didn't work.
I had multiple fights where everything went perfectly, I was one good nuke away from the win. And then bam, out of nowhere, Maat hits me for 250 and Asuran Fists fucks me for 900. Honestly, I can no longer be near a 71+ Monk in combat. The appearance of Asuran Fists in my combat scroll sends me into hysterics.
You can do everything right. Every sleep can land, every nuke can hit, Blind, Slow, and Paralyze can be unresisted. And the fact is, it comes down to simple fucking luck, every time. Stoneskin isn't a huge buffer, Blink isn't a guarantee. Even with everything going absolutely right for 5 minutes, he just needs to get lucky once.
As always, Cinn has been absolutely awesome. He helped me research strategies, equipment, and consumables. He helped me get my skills capped. He's helped me farm testimonies, and he's been there for me when I've been in tears over this damned fight. And when I finally threw the towel in on it, he decided to level another job with me.
The current plan is that I'm going to level DNC while he catches up to my SCH, and then I'm going to take SCH up to 70. I am not a former mage, I'm not even a former red mage. I'm a red mage who happens to be leveling another job for the limit break.
To everyone who has helped me and tried to help me along the way, thank you. Even though I've taken offense to most of it, I do appreciate that your intentions were good.
12 June 2010
11 June 2010
20 May 2010
Cooking woes
I know that it's still cheap next to the other crafts, but it still hurts to look at my tally sheet and see that I've spent 115k getting Tav's cooking from 11 to 68. It hurts even more knowing that it's partially incomplete, as I haven't tracked everything that Tam has picked up and mailed along the way.
While some recipes along the way have been money bleeds, the majority of my expense has been crystals. And crystals. And more crystals. And, oh yeah, I'm out of crystals again, need more crystals. Having explorer moogles has made getting to the various regional vendors pretty easy, but has probably also been a small unnecessary drain on my finances at 300 gil a pop. I've also had to overreach my abilities a few times and rely on image support, which also starts to add up.
I'm at a point where nothing seems to give skill-ups. I know that if I'm 5 points out, I'm not going to get skill-ups from failure. I'm fine with that. But can I please get maybe 0.1 from every, say, 5 successes? Even that would be frustrating, but much faster than what's happening now, and I may not have to resort to setting the locals on fire! (Which also failed to produce skill-ups. Can't say I didn't try.)
Also, how do Rarab Meatballs justify their expense and skill level? Talk about some food that needs to get over itself! I'm not sure if I'm amused by the fact that their HQ is a Bunny Ball or not. Well, okay, who am I trying to kid? Of course I'm amused by it. I'm just not entirely sure why, or how much. Bunny Ball. Ahahahaahahaaaa.
Anyway.
My aim is to get to the 75 or 80 neighborhood today, but that isn't going to happen if I'm sitting here blogging! Now go away, I have stuff to do!
While some recipes along the way have been money bleeds, the majority of my expense has been crystals. And crystals. And more crystals. And, oh yeah, I'm out of crystals again, need more crystals. Having explorer moogles has made getting to the various regional vendors pretty easy, but has probably also been a small unnecessary drain on my finances at 300 gil a pop. I've also had to overreach my abilities a few times and rely on image support, which also starts to add up.
Also, how do Rarab Meatballs justify their expense and skill level? Talk about some food that needs to get over itself! I'm not sure if I'm amused by the fact that their HQ is a Bunny Ball or not. Well, okay, who am I trying to kid? Of course I'm amused by it. I'm just not entirely sure why, or how much. Bunny Ball. Ahahahaahahaaaa.
Anyway.
My aim is to get to the 75 or 80 neighborhood today, but that isn't going to happen if I'm sitting here blogging! Now go away, I have stuff to do!
18 May 2010
I'm not a white mage
It's weird, really, since I always intended to be. My first character, the level 50 mule, was created to be a white mage, because I wanted to be Teh Healing Bawm. As I leveled it, I realized it wasn't what I wanted. The pressure that gets put on a WHM in a standard exp party in this game is enough to make the whole game feel like a chore. So I made Tamberly. Intentions and ambitions aside, I ended up falling in love with her as RDM.
RDM is a great job! In a party, I'm the buffer, debuffer, and healer. When I'm not doing any of that, I get to swing my sword at the mob. I run /SCH. Light Arts takes my healing magic rating from C- to B+. It reduces the cast time and MP cost of my white magic. Dark Arts does the same for my black magic.
There are those who say that I have to level WHM. They say that it's the only way to be the most effective healer. It never seems to occur to them that if I wanted to be the most effective healer, I wouldn't be RDM. Period. Why would I take a job that has a lower healing rating than PLD if I wanted to be the most effective healer? I think that would qualify as a serious lapse in logic.
I'll never have Erase or Curaga as /SCH. But I'll never have Drain or Aspir as /WHM. And running with a MNK and DRG, Drain is good for bursting. But wait! There's more! Erase is SCH39, Manifestation is SCH40. Your arguments, my little number-crunching friends, just went south.
I really wish I felt like I owed apologies for the things that I said yesterday. But I was told that I'm an inconsiderate, bad RDM because I don't play the way that a WHM would play. I'm sorry that I don't have any desire to live up to your expectations of what you think I ought to be doing. If you need a white mage for a job, don't bring a red mage. Don't tell me that I'm the one who is inconsiderate.
RDM is a great job! In a party, I'm the buffer, debuffer, and healer. When I'm not doing any of that, I get to swing my sword at the mob. I run /SCH. Light Arts takes my healing magic rating from C- to B+. It reduces the cast time and MP cost of my white magic. Dark Arts does the same for my black magic.
There are those who say that I have to level WHM. They say that it's the only way to be the most effective healer. It never seems to occur to them that if I wanted to be the most effective healer, I wouldn't be RDM. Period. Why would I take a job that has a lower healing rating than PLD if I wanted to be the most effective healer? I think that would qualify as a serious lapse in logic.
I'll never have Erase or Curaga as /SCH. But I'll never have Drain or Aspir as /WHM. And running with a MNK and DRG, Drain is good for bursting. But wait! There's more! Erase is SCH39, Manifestation is SCH40. Your arguments, my little number-crunching friends, just went south.
I really wish I felt like I owed apologies for the things that I said yesterday. But I was told that I'm an inconsiderate, bad RDM because I don't play the way that a WHM would play. I'm sorry that I don't have any desire to live up to your expectations of what you think I ought to be doing. If you need a white mage for a job, don't bring a red mage. Don't tell me that I'm the one who is inconsiderate.
17 May 2010
The last choco post
...probably. Just wanted to post a couple screenshots of actually riding the chocobo, now that I've gotten the whistle!
16 May 2010
About as photogenic as I am!
I seriously messed up and can't get my whistle until tomorrow at the earliest, but hey, lesson learned!
(For anyone wondering, the lesson is do not give the chocobo his normal food until you have the whistle quest completed. I gave him his normal Azouph Greens x2, so he's completely full. Ran out of energy while trying to get the key item. Can't get more energy until tomorrow, as he is too full for any energy-restoration foods to work.)
FML.
12 May 2010
Woodworking 67
Woodworking is officially done until I decide where I want to allocate the remainder of my over-60 crafting points. I had been planning to leave it at 60, but my income is mostly coming from crossbow bolts, which are mostly level 16 woodworking—pushing it to 67 puts me in the highest HQ bracket on them, which will hopefully prove to be worthwhile.
Clothcraft is up to 20, leathercraft at 30, alchemy 53, but nothing much to report as most of my crafting has been for profit this week. Cooking 12 and Synergy 1! That's a story for another time, heh.
Clothcraft is up to 20, leathercraft at 30, alchemy 53, but nothing much to report as most of my crafting has been for profit this week. Cooking 12 and Synergy 1! That's a story for another time, heh.
09 May 2010
Could it be?
/happydance
06 May 2010
Packrats Anonymous
Really, I need a support group. I feel compelled to save everything because "I might be able to use it one day." Or someone I know might need it. Dhalmel leather, treant bulbs, cotton thread, beehive chips, fish, crystals—random crafting materials are pervasive throughout my inventory. I don't even want to talk about lumber.
My inability to walk away from a locked chest when I'm out solo or walk past a NM without at least thinking about it is another problem. I have a firefly, a pestle, pilgrim's wand, and more. I don't know who Phlegethon is, but his trousers are in my storage. If you happen to run into him, please let him know.
Of course, not everything is Exclusive, and therefore could theoretically be mailed off to a mule. The problem is that the Sandy mule's inventory is already crammed full of gear and mats, and the Bastok mule's inventory is well on its way. Now that I have two of them, I need to spend some time dividing their inventories up into categories—it's already kind of working out that the one in Sandy is gear and crystals, while the one in Bastok is mats, but there's still some overlap that needs to be cleaned up.
Tamberly's inventory still holds the gear for the jobs that I'm "currently leveling". BLU and DRK gear is taking up a bit of space just now—at least they're currently at the same level and use basically the same stuff. Most of the RDM gear that I replace on RDM is still needed for SCH, so it stays, too. Then there's the issue of carrying six different weapons for RDM (no wait, 8 counting the bow and arrows for pulling in Ro'Maeve), various meds that I'll probably never need, chocobo food, flowers for quivers and lyco ports, and now two different exp rings.
Oh, and of course, there has to be the stuff that serves no purpose other than making me smile. The various fireworks and costume serums that I've made as I level alchemy are prime offenders. The red rose that I have no use for at all will continue to not only take up a space in my storage but be manually moved to the top after each auto-sort. The Trainee Axe from the woodworking guild is completely useless now, but looks entirely too cool to toss out.
What I'm trying to say is, "HELP! I only have 24 spaces left!" (And thanks to leveling clothcraft again today, that's an improvement from this morning!)
My inability to walk away from a locked chest when I'm out solo or walk past a NM without at least thinking about it is another problem. I have a firefly, a pestle, pilgrim's wand, and more. I don't know who Phlegethon is, but his trousers are in my storage. If you happen to run into him, please let him know.
Of course, not everything is Exclusive, and therefore could theoretically be mailed off to a mule. The problem is that the Sandy mule's inventory is already crammed full of gear and mats, and the Bastok mule's inventory is well on its way. Now that I have two of them, I need to spend some time dividing their inventories up into categories—it's already kind of working out that the one in Sandy is gear and crystals, while the one in Bastok is mats, but there's still some overlap that needs to be cleaned up.
Tamberly's inventory still holds the gear for the jobs that I'm "currently leveling". BLU and DRK gear is taking up a bit of space just now—at least they're currently at the same level and use basically the same stuff. Most of the RDM gear that I replace on RDM is still needed for SCH, so it stays, too. Then there's the issue of carrying six different weapons for RDM (no wait, 8 counting the bow and arrows for pulling in Ro'Maeve), various meds that I'll probably never need, chocobo food, flowers for quivers and lyco ports, and now two different exp rings.
Oh, and of course, there has to be the stuff that serves no purpose other than making me smile. The various fireworks and costume serums that I've made as I level alchemy are prime offenders. The red rose that I have no use for at all will continue to not only take up a space in my storage but be manually moved to the top after each auto-sort. The Trainee Axe from the woodworking guild is completely useless now, but looks entirely too cool to toss out.
What I'm trying to say is, "HELP! I only have 24 spaces left!" (And thanks to leveling clothcraft again today, that's an improvement from this morning!)
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