Weekend fun

Time really flies these days... there just isn't enough time to do anything anymore! xD Let's see... what happened this weekend...

• Codex farming + Swift Belt for Varg - Yay! Got the last Swift Belt! Thank you again Vargie for letting me have the belt from the last time <3>
• More Dobsonflies - Funny that we had yet ANOTHER day of 0 drops... and one wipe on Sunday morning xD I'm still laughing whenever I think of that wipe xD Thank you AP for my Sallet <3>
• Soboro - I completely missed this one >.<>

And between all of that, I somehow managed to sneak in one level for Dancer. DNC57 now, and I'm in... what I call my matching stripper outfit -.-;; Scorpion Harness, Subligar, and Dancer Shoes... looks quite kinky :P Just one more level before I can toss the subligar and put on some tights!

School starting back up... looking at my schedule, looks like I might be able to sneak some leveling in on Mondays & Fridays... weekends seem to be completely booked, especially with the schedule Aqqy is putting together for camping nice stuff for AP :D Still, with so little time left to level, I wonder when my Dancer will hit 75... still need to level SAM to 37 to sub, and eventually, get over to another job... poll says that Bard is winnning, though I'm not sure who voted... come on you all! I know you're out there! Put some comments in!

Other stuff... my crappy Windows media center finally died after 5 years of non-stop usage. I guess HD recordings was too much for it. It's been hacked so many times that I'm surprised that it still worked. Picked up a new Mac Mini together with EyeTV software + hardware to serve as my new media center for recording TV and watching anime. It works surprisingly well, recording perfectly, playing back sound in 5.1 surround sound, and no more glitches in HDTV :D My only complaint is that it no longer automatically cuts out advertising for me, something that my BeyondTV setup used to do. ; ; I've managed to get it working with my Logitech Harmony remote control, and what surprised, and amazed me, was that the Mac can actually be turned on and off by remote! It's an awesome (if expensive) cute little setup!

Endgame

Following up from the last post about having no time... let's see where my time has been going.

• Tues & Thurs - Assault Static. Just got to Lance Corporal. We seem to be averaging one rank every 1 1/2 weeks or so given time for repeats/failures, and when people don't show up. With 6 ranks left until First Lieutenant, that's about 2 more months of continous Assaults before we finish the basics
• Wed, sometimes Sat - Limbus. After getting my Brutal Earring... well, I guess Homam armor is still a temptation to go for this, but at 30k/session, it's getting expensive. Now, I'm mainly going to get some coins to pay for expensive Dancer equipment :D Time to save up gil to hopefully buy some of the nice gear that I can use once I'm 70+
• Other fun activities with AP! O-hat runs, panty raids, plus more xD And the low level PL exp blitzes... going from 10-20, or 19-28 in one session is just crazy xD

So, this load isn't too bad... two regular events, plus one random event that seems to occur mainly on Sundays... However, that's a big change from the little Blue Mage that would do nothing but level because that's all she could do! 1-75 Dancer seems both shorter, and longer at the same time... On BLU, I'd probably get at least 1/2, if not one level per night, while on DNC... well, I've been stuck between 50-60 for much longer than I'd like! And even with this schedule, there are still other things I'd like to do!

• Finish the missions! Still need to finish ToAU missions, the last Zilart mission, get rank 10 in Bastok, catch up with the WoG mission-quests
• Ashu Talif "Assault-style" Quests - These look pretty interesting... assault-type quests, and there is a nice pair of pants that I'd like to get
• Nyzul Isle - Now this looks like a fun challenge, requiring coordination and experienced players, intelligent moves. Not too sure about the rewards, but it seems like something that could be very satisfying to complete

Now these are things that I'd like to do, and need to find the right people to static with, and a time slot to do them >.<>

Still, that's not the end of endgame activity... I can't believe people can find time to do other things like Dynamis, Einherjar, Salvage, "sea" and "sky". @.@ That, and people going for a Maat's cap... FFXI can become more than a full-time job!

Out of time!

So much to do, so little time!

Let's see... what's going on... too much! In the next few weeks, I'd like to...

1. Get Dancer to 60 to retire my Crow Gear, and to look cute in my AF
2. Level SAM to 37 to sub to DNC, currently at level 12
3. Get the rest of my Blue Mage spells
4. Do ToAU & Bastok missions
5. Farm tons and tons of gil for DNC
6. Play with other jobs

What other jobs? Well... let's see... survey results have 1 vote each for Bard, Corsair and... Puppetmaster xD Mmmm... which to do.

COR & PUP cost waaaaay too much gil for bullets and attachments... Bard... well, if I really want to play Bard the way I like to, would require tons of gil and equipment farming... I might end up playing around with it just for fun anyway.

Other jobs... Scholar just got a nice update. I've been reading up on that, and it seems to be a lot more complicated, and flexible compared to WHM, BLM or even RDM. That might be something I have to check out :D

Meanwhile... Assault is well on the way towards the next rank. Hopefully we can get into a steady rhythm of one rank up every week until we hit FL. This will depend a lot on both Utaru & Marduke getting on in time for all the necessary missions every week ^^ Should have enough points to buy all the Assault items necessary by the time we're done with Assault, though we might want to go back and farm a few zones in order to get more points. Question would be... do we try Nyzul after that, or not? :o

Finally, the reason why I'm out of time... Spring break is nearly over ; ; School starts up again next week, and I have a sucky Monday-Thursday schedule... at least this is my last "full load" quarter, so come summer, I'll have a light load. Still, it'll suck to basically be gone from M-Th except for Assault + Limbus ; ;

Overcamping

After waiting nearly two weeks to go leveling on Dancer, trying to figure out a schedule to match up with the two friends I've been trying to go leveling with, finally gave up on trying to match with two schedules and just put up party flag last night with Zurar...

... which of course, means that it takes over an hour before we get any invite since everyone who wants to party has already formed their parties two hours ago. It's nearing sleep time by the time someone invites us both... let's see... unconventional party, 2x DNC, DRG, BLU/NIN, COR/BRD and rank 1 WAR/NIN with underleveled sub. Hmmm... warning flags start to go up.

• Rank 1 WAR51/NIN20... alright, maybe the benefit of the doubt... still, an underleveled sub... at least she was using a Great Axe
• BLU/NIN... no, does not work for exp parties. I used BLU/NIN for exactly one exp party in all my time leveling up Blue Mage... there are tons of better subs out there! WAR gives you double attack, beserk, etc., THF gives you sneak attack, hell, even WHM gives you the ability to help out with status cures... NIN gives you... shadows, which you should never need, and the ability to hold another weapon? For all you Blue Mages out there, learn to ride the hate line and use your MP effectively instead of spamming it out!
• COR/BRD... now this is interesting. This is someone who took the COR as a support job role and took it all the way

So anyway, let' s see what happens... Mmm... Kuftal Tunnel. Never actually exp'ed there, just went there for skillups and latent removals on crabs. Well, WAR gets aggro even before camp, then the BLU aggros a crab while AT camp, leading to a party wipe even before we get started. -.- Good thing the party leader had a 75 WHM friend handy to raise and stuff.

So, getting started... mmm... this is really slow... at least nobody is dying yet. WAR can't hold hate, which I can't blame her since Bubble Shower is doing a ton of damage AOE and us Dancers are basically spamming Divine Waltz. As expected, the BLU/NIN runs low on MP pretty fast and has to /heal about... maybe 1 out of every 4 battles. He's trying to use Blank Gaze, but with hate all over the place, it rarely hits. He ends up asking the COR/BRD for Ballad to keep MP up. Truthfully, if he had used /THF, he'd be able to save a ton of MP, throwing off one, maybe two high-hitting spells per battle instead of spamming spells, pulling hate and running out of MP.

Individual battles are taking forever... we're talking 3, 4 minutes each crab. Of course, this is the sort of battle the Dancers excel at since we have basically unlimited healing potential, so nobody dies and there's no real time limit onwhen the battle needs to end. Then I realize that we're hitting for very low numbers... 0.. 1... 2... 16... 0. Some of that is due to Metallic Body, but also due to the defense boost. Good thing the COR was on the ball with the Dispel Quickdraw. However, she also starts pulling the next mob when the current mob is at maybe 10-20%, sleeping it at camp... alright, first off, we have a TON of crabs around us. This isn't a situation where we're competing for pulls. In fact, we have to crowd around a small area so as not to get aggro from the 10 other crabs within ranged attack range! Second... 10-20% for this party is probably another minute or more of fighting! Plus the party is half dead by the time the crab is over. Pulling another crab does nothing except get the Dancers hate even before engaging since we have to cure everyone up by the time the first crab is over!

What else... mmm... COR/BRD was really playing like a support job role... two rolls, one song, some meleeing, and good quickdraws. Unfortunately, I don't think I saw any actual DD going on... I've seen COR/RNGs at work, and they were putting out numbers that made me jealous... playing COR on the cheap side? Mmm... oh yeah, the other DNC (party leader) somehow managed to sit on nearly 300% TP during the battles... Weird... considering I was spamming Divine Waltz, pulling hate and tanking through half the battles. I haven't used this much shihei to get one level before, not even on NIN/WAR!

So we're struggling, barely keeping alive and getting capped exp every battle until the COR fails her sleep shot one too many times and gets killed. We're barely breaking chain #2, with the rare #3 since it takes so long to kill, and we're barely hitting 3k/hour exp. Good time for a break, change of camp. We get replaced when I'm @3k to 54 after Zurar mentions that he's sleepy and the replacement RDM does the smart thing and outposts over instead of teleporting & walking like the party leader thought he would.

This morning, I'm thinking... unconventional party, but it shouldn't be *that* bad... you have dedicated support, two healers, two heavy damage dealers (3 if you count the WAR) What went wrong?

... Robber Crabs are level 60-62... level 51-52 can barely touch them -.-

Dancer vs. Blue Mage

So, one of the things that happened during last week's Swift Belt/Subligar runs was that I got to try out both Blue Mage & Dancer in the level capped zones, specifically the level 50 cap area. I'd taken Blue Mage out at one time, then Dancer another before switching back to BLU. This gave me a fairly decent feeling of how both jobs played in basically the same situation. On both jobs, my main purpose was to heal + do damage.

On Dancer, I ran into a few Dancer limitations at once... First, healing is limited to party-only, same as BLU's native heals, but since I normally sub NIN for Dancer, this means that I really could only heal my party. Gaining TP was generally not a problem, even though it was a little tight with the Fomor TP resetting move. All I needed to do was keep a few Finishing Moves stored away so that I could still regain TP and heal when my TP was reset.

The nice part about Dancer was that I didn't have to stop to rest at all. I could keep going without pause, and all I had to worry about is TP management. What I did miss about coming as Dancer instead of Blue Mage is the utility spells that I normally set... No Sleep spells, and not as many enfeebles. The Dancer enfeebles are oriented towards doing damage to the enemy, not to disable them. I also missed being able to stun-lock the mob using Head Butt. While Dancer has Violent Flourish, the timer on that is much longer compared to Head Butt, and it's the same timer as Desperate Flourish, making it hard to use.

On Blue Mage, the normal Head Butt, do damage, backup heal cycle came in. In this case, however, since there was only me and Aqqy to main heal the party while we were pulling continously, I actually had to rest in a few battles to regain MP. Blue Mages just aren't designed for long periods of fighting, and that's where Dancer excels.

So... which do I like better? It really depends... Blue Mage can be very flexible, and really good in a pinch if things start to go wrong with sleep spells, stun-spam and gravity. Dancer has a much longer endurance, but has less options compared to Blue Mage except to heal, and maybe Gravity & run.

So, that's my brief take at BLU & DNC at 50... on a side note, I started leveling SAM last night as an eventual situational subjob for Dancer... The Emperor Band is quite nice and I got to level 7 in about an hour. Looking forward to this weekend when I can double up on the band and hopefully get SAM up high fast. As a pure DD job, it seems a little boring compared to Dancer & Blue Mage... hopefully it'll pick up soon...

Equipment wishes!

A little talk with Utaru this morning and about how a friend of his managed to get a Peacock Charm in the BCNM got me thinking about other "wish I could get that" gear :D
Those of you who know me probably realize that I like to do my best at my job, including getting the best possible gear... Those of you who know me better also know that I can be quite impatient at times ^^; One of the big reasons why I'm refraining from leveling one of the original jobs is that I simply don't have the patience for Dynamis... Even Limbus is pushing my limits sometimes.

So, what other gear would I like to get? Well, for my two main jobs(Blue Mage & Dancer), I have the following...

Working towards getting & will probably obtain...
Blue Mage

• Perdu Hanger - Nice little sword with a hidden effect of Attack +15, Accuracy +5. To get this, I need a higher mercernary rank, and 40k Imperial Standing. I had started doing Assault originally to get this sword, but now that I have a Dissector... well, I'm not quite sure which one is better! Any comments?

Dancer

• Optical Hat - Accuracy for Dancing! <3>
• Pahluwan Khazagand Armor set - This level 72 armor set has a large accuracy bonus and seems to be awesome for a Dancer. Each piece takes 20k of Assault Points in each area. So far, with the Assault we've done, I think I'm about, on average, 1/4 of the way there!
• Cobra Unit Cap & Mittens set - These two pieces of armor come from Allied Notes in Windurst! They are level 68, and have Accuracy and Store TP bonuses, and even give the Counter effect. While they might be useful for BLU as well, I think they'll do quite nicely for Dancer
• Bushido Cape - This cape I'm a little on the fence on... the Store TP +1 attribute is tempting, but I'm not sure if it really is worth 10k Assault points...

Both

• Ulthalam's Ring - This nice little ring gives Accuracy and Attack bonuses... It'll be good for Blue Mage as well, but probably best for Dancer. I really need to get started on ToAU missions... just keep getting distracted by other things, including Assault!

Dreaming of having...
Blue Mage

• Homam Corazza Set - This set is desired by nearly everyone... and still takes forever to do! Limbus is designed to be a time-sink, typical of a MMO endgame activity. I'm not sure I really have the patience to go through with it, but it would be nice to have xD
• Vermillion Cloak - About... 900k on AH? The Refresh is the main thing that attracts me to this little cloak... It's gone down on my list of things to get since I've been focusing on Dancer, but it would be nice to have.
• Genbu's Shield - One of the few BLU-equippable shields... it would be quite useful to have, especially in campaign where I like to get the mob's attention and tank (even while PLDs melee the mob next to me without Provoking xD)

Dancer

• Ecphoria Ring - This brand new ring is a new NM drop that was just introduced last week. It not only has Accuracy +4, Store TP+1, but it also has an enchantment to remove Amnesia! I tried camping it briefly a few days ago, but the area where this NM pops has a ton of people just standing around, waiting for it... My only hope is that it is a common enough drop that it'll show up eventually on AH for a reasonable price >.<
• Barbarossa's Zerehs - I came across these pants when I was looking up haste gear that a Dancer could use. These give Haste +3%, and are a incredibly rare drop from the "Targetting the Captain" Ashu Talif assault-type quest.
• Dusk Gloves & Ledelsens - These two pieces of level 72 gear give a total of +5% haste! Faster hitting = more TP = more heals! Too bad that they're about 800k each, so it'll take a ton of farming, of a few lucky BCNMs in order to get...
• Peacock Charm - +10 Accuracy in a neck piece *_* This would probably replace my Chivalous Chain even at higher levels! Too bad it's such an expensive piece... and rare BCNM drop... I'm not even certain about the NM camp. I really do hate camping NMs >.<
• Tiphia Sting - At about 170k on AH, this little item gives +2 accuracy... not too much, but It would be nice to have... though, with how often I like to actually pull, I might not end up using it too much xD

Other

• Ethereal Earring - An Apocalypse Nigh reward, this little earring has the unique feature of converting damage taken to MP. It would be pretty good for Blue Mage, but the Attack +5 and Evasion +5 would also make it attractive to Dancer. I doubt I'd be able to get this... too many other prerequisite quests in the way, plus I'd have to know a ton of people who want to get this done!
• Nashira Manteel Set - The companion to the Homam set... if getting Homam was hard, this would be near impossible! But... it's so pretty :D~~
• Opaline Dress Set - Yes, I want the wedding dress set! It's pretty ^^ Though I guess Dancer AF actually looks nicer now ^^

And there you go! My... quite crazy list of things I'm working towards, and some that I wish I could get xD

How about you? What's on your wishlist?

Superior Private! (+more)

Yay! Another mercernary rank! Just got promoted to Superior Private on Monday, after spending 2+ hour searching for that Warhorse Hoofprint. Started with the volcano, then through both areas on chocobo, finally finding in Caedava Mire...

Last night, we also got Utaru & Marduke up to Superior Private rank, so we can finally move onto the next set of missions! We cut it really tight for the last mission, finishing with just under 30 seconds and ignoring the lockbox completely. After looking at the SP missions, it looks like the next rank up should go smoothly :D

We farmed Lamia No. 13 before doing the supply mission... Since this mission is just really easy with two summoners and dispellers, we started to fool around, attacking charmed people... Let's just say... erm... Frenetic Rip really hurts ^^;;; Sorry Ashle! But it's nothing a Divine Seal Magic Fruit can't fix, so at least you didn't die, right? ^_^;;

Let's see... what else... it's time to level subjobs again! Samurai, specifically, as a subjob to Dancer. Since Samurai gets that nice TP gaining job ability Meditate at level 30, it's usable by a level 60 Dancer. It'll probably be useful at higher levels and missions. This will be a little weird... I've never leveled a heavy hitting pure-DD job before. I wonder how fast I can go from 1-37.

Busy busy busy...

Wow, been really busy!

First off, thank you thank you thank you AP, everyone for helping me with the Swift Belt! Thank you for your patience, and for staying up late, and coming out each time, especially Aqqy & Utaru who bought extra codexes, and to Varg who let me have the belt when it dropped on his codex. I can't believe that it took that many times to get them to drop >.< I owe you all so much!

With the belt and my new Rapparee Harness (thanks to AP again ^^), I'm about ready to go leveling Dancer again :D I have all the AF, plus Scorpion Harness and other accessories from my Blue Mage. I'm all set to take Dancer to 75 now ^^ All that I need is more Assault points before level 72.

Speaking of Assault, just got promoted to Superior Private! That Warhorse Hoofprint was a pain to find >.< Spent two hours just wandering around dangerous zones last night to find it... I was about to give up completely when I found it... then immediately aggored an Imp. Good thing I was on BLU, subbing DNC for free, non-magic Sneak ^^ Just for reference, it was in Caedava Mire (I-9) as of midnight Pacific last night (3/17)

Mmm... what else... oh yeah, finished with my school finals last night as well. Next week is spring break, so I'm trying to get some time off work to relax a little and catch up on games ^^;; Besides FFXI, that is :)

Looks like voting for the job people think I should level next is tied between Puppetmaster & Bard! Hmm... PUP/BRD? :o In any case, I'll have to level my DNC subjobs soon... Samurai would make for an interesting sub post-60, so chances are I'm going to pick that up next and try to get it to 37 ASAP.

March'08 Update!

Wow! The update has hit and lots of things have happened! So much to do that I'm not exactly sure what to do next! Let's see... what have I succeeded in doing so far? Mainly Dancer AF! First thing I did after logging in was to grab the hard-to-get items for the AF from the AH, then start on the quests.

Dancer AF Quests
The weapon quest is quite easy, one single spawned NM in Grauberg... Unfortunately, the way to the NM goes through a section with some EM-to-75 True Sight mobs, and I got a little careless on the way there and got two-shotted x.x Syrinx was online and helped me fight the NM, making for an easy kill! Still, the weapon is a... War Hoop. Chakram-type weapon that seems virtually useless. At least I've been skilling up throwing so I can actually *hit* exp mobs now... I've been pulling a lot in the recent exp parties as I'm too impatient to wait for another puller to get out there, but I still don't think Dancer pulling is optimal. I'm usually trying to get in one last step before the mob dies, and end up taking too long to pull for even my taste. I'd much rather have a Bard chain pull ^^;

The first armor AF quest was even easier... a short cutscene at the lake in Jugner where the DNC quest first started, then get some Rare/Ex Yagudo Glue from any Yagudo Bard in the past. I got the glue easily on my 2nd Yagudo Piper kill on BLU/THF. There was only one other person camping the pipers, so I think the drop must be quite common.

The last AF quest is even easier! Instead of fighting, or even sneaking, you get to play DDR! Well, not exactly... you need to dance in a certain sequence to attract people to come watch you instead of the competition. Turns out that the Dance troupe is competing with a circus troupe in Jeuno for an audience, and all you need to do is make sure you have more audience members. Here's a picture of the Dance-off in progress!

It's a bit dark... I should have done this quest during the daytime hours ^^; Yes, that's an elvaan girl on the far right doing the "robot" thing that you often see in tourist traps!

As for the quest storyline itself, it's a cute, almost romantic story, very appropriate for the Dancer job, and... seemingly very out of place in a game which has such a focus on fighting! In fact, the AF quests themselves have no real fighting in the story, and the NM fight even felt like it was tacked on for no good reason. Quite a contrast to the dark, depressing, "lose your soul" Blue Mage story. I wouldn't be too surprised if DNC G5 turned out to be nothing but a simple Dance-off competition again! The cutscene for the final DNC AF quest is very sweet, and one of my favorite (other than the CoP storyline)

Semi-good news on the other AF pieces is that they are crafted... I think overall prices on AH for all the necessary pieces is over 500k right now >.<>

Just need one more piece crafted from Syrinx and I'll have my full Dancer AF! Just need to get Dancer to 60 now ^^;; Kinda strange to have almost all the AF, but I can't wear a single piece!

Blue Mage

New spells are out for Blue Mage! Unfortunately, they don't seem to be anything to write home about... So far, I've only picked up Seedspray, a ranged attack + Defense down. The damage seems decent for 61MP, only slightly less than Frenetic Rip, and the Def down effect means that I'll probably end up swapping this in for Hysteric Barrage and use it instead since it's only 2 Blue Magic points :D

Haven't gotten the other spells yet since I've been concentrating on Dancer more... From what I've read, Asuran Claws is pretty weak compared to our original spells. However, Blue Mage gets a new job trait that we can set: Counter! Need to see how well that works ^^

Missions

About WoG... only one word... Windy quest/mission, go check out the... mithra :D

Other missions: For Assault, finally have enough mercernary points for the next promotion quest! I'll be spending time searching for that Warhorse Hoofprint tonight, hopefully in time for the next round of Assaults tomorrow >.<

Other Stuff

Wow... lots of other stuff happening... for starters, Aqqy is arranging for an O-hat run at the end of the month, so I need to go farm up the eyes necessary for the Hakutaku Eye Cluster... Dancer can now use the Rapparee Harness, so I'm interested in getting a Gemini Subligar... and if I'm going to work on Haste equipment for my Dancer, well... time to look into a Swift Belt ^^;;

Too much to do, too little time @.@

About Blue Mage

Blue Mage is a very powerful job. There are tons of guides out there on how to play BLU, what equipment to get, macros, spell combinations, etc. so I'm not going to touch on that. Instead, here is my take on the strengths and weakness of BLU.



Strengths

• Very versatile job - Can heal, enfeeble, enhance, support, and of course, deal damage


• Can deliver high amounts of damage in a short period of time

Weaknesses

• Versatility needs to be determined before things start. It's very difficult to change roles in the middle of a battle


• BLU has no endurance. Once a BLU deals out all that damage, that MP needs to be replenished before more spells can be cast

The last weakness is quite significant for Blue Mages. In most typical situations, you don't want to deal out that much damage quickly since you want the tank to keep the attention of the mob. Hence, a Blue Mage will have to hold back, gradually casting spells to let the tank hold the mob's attention, using up MP, but not having any way to get it back. Meanwhile, other DDs can basically keep going forever, while Black Mages can rest between spells.

Personally, I've been finding that I prefer to play Blue Mage as a versatile mage instead of going for pure DD. This means in alliance situations, I'm throwing up DiamondHide, using Diffusion with Cocoon or Refueling, and subbing White Mage for Erase and status cures. The lack of endurance really annoys me at times since I do not want to disengage and rest for MP, but waiting for Refresh to get my MP back just leaves me fustrated.

Maybe that's why I like Dancer so much :)

Treasures of Aht Urgan!

Can you believe that with a level 75 Blue Mage, I actually have barely touched the content from the Treasures of Aht Urgan? I've barely spent time in Whitegate, or done any quests, missions, anything! So far, the only quests I've done are the Blue Mage AF quests, Corsair & Puppetmaster unlock quests, and... the two imp wing quests -.-;;

Well, good news is that... hopefully "Assault" is off to a stable, regular start. After two false starts, 1st was an attempt at 65... low-manning uncapped Assault since other people only had equipment for 75, 2nd was an irregular meeting schedule didn't quite have enough people, now have a regular twice a week Assault schedule. Starting from Private Second Class again, but after doing those missions once, I have a pretty good idea on how they go.

The only problem right now is that we have a very tight time window to do the missions... 10pm - midnight... Hence, the missions seem to be very rushed, getting in, giving instructions and rushing through the missions with people logging as soon as the mission is over, or logging in barely before the time to meet. I'd really much rather prefer a more relaxed schedule where everyone can bond with each other instead.

Hopefully everyone isn't too put off with the bossy schedule... time is tight, and we're trying to get 3 missions in per night ^^; I'll try to talk to people individually when I see them on to get an overall feeling of how people like the Assaults. I kinda feel like I'm being too bossy at times >.<


Next up! ToAU missions! Need to figure out how to schedule these and get people to help :)

The inhabitants of Vanadiel

A surprisingly wide range of people play Final Fantasy XI. In the short few months I've been playing, who have I met...

• The father of two working on his Maat cap
• The mother of a 3 year old son trying to get into a HNM LS
• Multiple undergrad students juggling FFXI & school
• Someone applying for grad school and pondering how that will change their life
• Jobless but still playing FFXI, going month to month

From casual players that play only a couple of times a week, to hardcore players who are on nearly 24x7, to retired players who come by for a few weeks at a time, then disappear without a trace, there are so many different types of people in FFXI.

Me? I'm a part-time student, full time worker who somehow manages to free up enough time in my schedule to play for an unhealthy amount of time!

How about you?

How Dancer plays

Level 44 Dancer as of last night, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of the job! Here are my impressions of how I've been playing Dancer so far...


Levels 1-19: Drain Samba, melee, get bored... oh yeah, spam Cures whenever possible.

Levels 20-39: DNC actually starts to get fun! Using Steps whenver possible, then use Violent Flourish to get hate and tank as necessary. For these levels, a DNC duo-tanking with a NIN is awesome. With a PLD tank, it's a lot more relaxing, but less fun.

Level 40-??: Reverse Flourish changes how DNC plays completely. Instead of struggling to gain TP, it'll come easily... step step flourish to build TP up as high as necessary.

My party experience so far has been generally pretty good! Usually within the first couple of fights, I have enough TP to take over main healing. At that point, I do my best to relegate the WHM or RDM to Haste, Regen & Refresh duty and take care of cures myself. Since DNC cures are instant, I can usually get a cure off before another mage finishes casting.

What makes DNC stand out compared to other healing classes is... the longer the party goes, the more TP the Dancer has to work with. Unlike mages who have to /heal in order to regain effectiveness, a Dancer wants more and more mobs to fight. Since I've been puller in many of my recent parties, for me, this means that I just go out and pull another mob as soon as the last one dies. I still need to work on my timing to figure out when to start leaving early to pull mobs. I guess at higher levels, with a Bard pulling, I won't have this issue.

The only time I've had problems with Dancer is when I was the lowest member in a party that was camping above our means. Level 42 camping against level 52-54 mobs, I had problems hitting them even with Sushi +1. The bad news was that me, and another Dancer (Level 41) were main healing! I rarely broke 100% TP in this party and there were quite a few deaths :( Hint for those inviting Dancers: Try to make sure we're near the top of the level range so that we can hit!

How does it play?

Dancer is a surprisingly intensive job... this is how my battles tend to go.

Step/Flourish cycle: Quickstep -> Boxstep -> Reverse Flourish - This keeps TP high, and enfeebles the mob. Always do Reverse Flourish before the next step so that there is a Finishing Move available for...

Animated Flourish: Takes 1-2 Finishing Moves. Invaluable for keeping the mob away from the squishy mages, or giving a Ninja tank the chance to recast Utsusemi. Keeping up both the cycle and making sure you have steps available while still...

Curing/Healing Waltz: Keeping eyes open for any debuffs, the Dancer has to decide whether to cure HP, or remove the debuff, keeping in mind that it takes 8 seconds before a Waltz can be used again. While doing all this, keep up...

Sambas: Fun Dances that just contribute slightly to the party. At least it only needs to be done once every two battles or so, but it is still something to keep track of.

So, while doing all that, I need to keep track of my TP, party member's health levels, the number of Finishing Moves I have so that I can consume them with Reverse Flourish, which Step to do next in order to keep them on the mob. Overall a busy job, compared to...

Blue Mage: Keep track of MP, buff up, enfeeble, spam damaging spells

Red Mage: Keep Haste/Refresh cycle up, enfeeble, cure

I think what makes Dancer a little more complicated to keep track of is the Finishing Moves. I don't want to ever be out of Finishing Moves in case I need to provoke, but I also don't want to waste Steps when I have the max Finishing Moves. I also don't want to use Reverse Flourish when I have almost 300% TP, so there is a fine balance between TP, Finishing Moves & Hate that needs to be managed. If I'm overflowing with TP, I may end up cure spamming the party in order to use it up and hopefully let the mages use their MP for something else. Adding to the complication is if I'm duo-tanking, then... I need to count shadows :)

Level 45 coming soon, which means new daggers, and more importantly, Haste Samba and Violent Flourish!

The problem with hybrid classes

Being a 75 Blue Mage, I know the power of the job. I've tanked, main healed, did lots of damage, debuffed the mob and even nuked at times. I know what the job can do, much more than an average DD, and the concentration that goes into playing the job well. When I formed parties, I would make do with the jobs available and fill in the role of whatever job we lacked. One of the best parties I put together in the 50s did not have a healer, and was reliant entirely on BLU for healing.

So, last Sunday night I was playing around on Dancer again. As always, I do a quick search to see if it is possible to put a party together using the people who were seeking... Let's see... a Paladin, lots of DDs, no White or Red Mages, but... what's this? A Blue Mage seeking! If I invite him, he can handle the initial cures while I stored enough TP to handle main healing!

Then... the hesitation set in. Would the BLU be able to handle it? Or would he spam all his MP into doing damage? How would he react to being asked to main heal initially? Would the party die on the first mob before I even got enough TP to cure? In the end, this hesitation stopped me from forming the party as I was not confident of another player's capability to play a complex job.


There are a number of hybrid classes in FFXI, and each one has developed into a specific role that people think that they are only capable of doing. This ends up feeding back onto itself until the players of those jobs end up believing it themselves, or worse, become afraid to invite someone to take on a role outside of the norm for fear of the player being unable to rise to the challenge.

The hybrids:
- Blue Mage - Perceived as DD, capable of tanking(at lower levels), main healing
- Dragoon - Perceived as DD, capable of backup healing with /WHM
- Corsair - Perceived as a support class like Bard, capable of DD with guns
- Puppetmaster - Perceived as... I'm actually not sure. I think it's capable of DD, nuking and healing

So, what do you think? Would you invite someone you've never met before on a hybrid job and trust them to do something that isn't typical? Would you have invited a Blue Mage to main heal?

First post!

This is a completely random set of rambles from my experiences and thoughts on Final Fantasy XI (FFXI). If you've made it here, that means that you probably know me in some way, so drop a comment, say hi or give me a /poke :)