Cool thoughts

Warrior gets the nod

2006-04-14T23:44:00.000-04:00

BLM:68 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

I had planned to get an XBOX and play Oblivion for a while during the time I spent looking for groups(lfg) to party with. My WAR/THF is clearly the slowest of my characters to get invites now. But he isn't gimp by any means. I have his Royal Chainmail and Darksteel Claymore +1 all in tow. I have a stack of Bream Sushi in reserve as well and I am saving the Sole Sushi +1 that Inverno gave me to use with my WAR in a party since it will help him the most.

I sent a lot of pictures to my mailbox and lost a lot of them probably because I sent them too fast. It's frustrating to lose so much hard work in so short a time.

I need to find some time to get my BLM leveled up to 70 so that I have no more excuse to put off my Maat fight with THF. I am so lackadaisical sometimes. If LB4 wasn't so easy, I probably would still be level 65.

I have worked recently to get my Leviathan avatar quest opened. I really want to get him done and get Fenrir out of the way. I was lucky to hear from Shanisasha that the Yagudo Necklaces quest in Windy Woods is solely for the purpose of Norg fame, which is where the Leviathan quest is opened. I spent 2 full days almost buying up Yag Necklaces and farming in Giddeus. With luck, tonight someone will be doing Leviathan.

I have several stories to tell about my recent missions in COP which are many and I used to have a lot of pictures all set to go, but I lost them. I will have to find them somehow from my trash bin and resucitate them for use again.

Blogger is also messed up for my other computer, so now I am required to do my updates at the desk instead of in my room. It's all for the best though since it is much easier to type at the desk than with a cordless keyboard.

Norton Antivirus sucks. Don't ever buy it. I had McAfee Antivirus and thought well maybe cuz Norton is more well known they would be less "update-demanding" than McAfee. I was wrong.

The most ANNOYING thing in the world is working well with your party and getting ready to ship off and get a quest done and suddenly BAM, a pop-up from your very own Antivirus software has kicked you out of full screen mode and kicked you out of the game. I eventually learned how to bypass this with McAfee but with Norton I haven't got it yet. What's worse is that this new virus has come onto my new computer and started messing with the font. Since I haven't been on any porn sites or musicmatch BS raggedy websites that started up yesterday, I know that Norton themselves must be "insisting" that I update my Virus Protection for a nice fat fee.

Promyvion OH!

2006-04-12T00:07:00.000-04:00

BLM:68 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

Today was the magic day. I tried to get Promyvion-Mea done with my pals but lost the first time. We went with me as a SMN, Taria as a WAR and Nomadic as another WAR and everyone else was pickup. We had SMN WHM WAR WAR BLM WAR. The last WAR was Nomadic who I helped with winning the thing but we spent a lot of time farming animas and getting everyone some animas to throw at the thing to affect it.

People that don't farm animas to get Promyvion-Mea done don't wanna win it that badly and you really are gonna need the secret weapon out there to offset the boss's favorite word... CHEESE! Ya that's right it's CHEESE!

The boss doesn't care if you have been nice to people in your linkshell, he doesn't care if you show up everyday to talk and joke with your linkshell mates, he wouldn't give a rat's ass to hear you say /hello, he wants you dead and he's gonna use AOE Carousel 2 to 3 times in row and do 150 dmg, each time, at level 30, to all of you, even though you are able to may hit for 120 from a weaponskill. That's Cheese.

Animas are anti-cheese. Depending on the anima you can stop the boss from moving, stop it from using AOE effects, and even stop it from using special attacks. It's in your best interest to farm. If you lose the Promy, the best thing you can do is quit. go farm for an hour and prepare to get up there again and be there 2 hours later, it will probably take you that long to get those things all done.

Anyway getting back to the point, we WON the Promyvion finally. I got Taria and Daftorious their access to Lufaise Meadows and we did it all due to Shanisasha who was a BIG help and wonderful through and through.

Usually I add a sidecrack at this point but nah. Blogger is having problems prob due to a virus I am having with the date. See you next time.

Streetlamp in Bibiki Bay

2006-04-09T00:17:00.000-04:00

BLM:68 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

I have recently spent a lot of time leveling my BLM relative to my THF and feel that perhaps it is best to make my BLM my main after it hits 70. On the other hand, the linkshell already has a lot of 75 BLMs and could probably use a 75 THF more. Tough call. I am gonna have to put off spending too much on BLM for the time being. I really want to get my Penitent's Rope and Black Cloak too, but it's not necessary. I do a pretty good job with just your basic AF gear.

This picture is of the Catoblepas camp in Bibiki Bay at dusk. It kind of looks like a streetlamp is lighting the way huh?

Summoner gags himself

2006-03-31T23:35:00.000-05:00

BLM:68 WHM:54 Summoner: 31 WAR:56 THF:70

I leveled with Uchipu recently as THF and I got this shot of her in her "hoodie".

Why would I subject myself to a Promyvion-Mea mission again? Well, if Taria hadn't stood up and sed Hohito let's do your ZM5 Notorious Monsters so you will be ready to go with us to do ZM6, I probably would not have volunteered to help. But as it stands I now have learned SO much about this particular Promy that I want to help EVERY SINGLE person in the linkshell, that I have known for a while, get this stupid thing done.

More importantly, I MUST get these people through this horrible experience, through to victory.

We went the first time with some Animas in hand. Shanisasha helped a great deal by knowing the way and taking us through the steps and making sure we always moved with FULL mp. We got to the boss fight with almost no trouble. The fight itself was a different story. I was WHM that time and we almost made it, but at a critical moment in the game I needed to cast Benediction and had just used Divine Seal and didn't want to waste that so I casted a Cure spell and then the thing killed me without me getting to use my 2HR. It was almost dead too. This was a very close battle and we only had 5 animas.

The second time, Shani didn't want to come again and she was SMN and since I have a SMN I took mine. But I haven't leveled SMN in 3 months and am really very out of practice. I have been enjoying BLM lately and even using WHM was something that took getting used to. We farmed animas for a long while and it was really kind of peaceful farming in there and killing mobs even without a WHM. Easy fights. 5 of us, each got 2 animas each and when I sent a shout for a WHM I put the message in there that we had 10 animas to use. I got 3 /tells just like that in the next 3 minutes, but I answered the first one and it was a JP person. Unaffected, I invited her and told the others politely that we were full.

I felt good but earlier that day me and Taria had a bit of a discussion about lending gil. Many courtesies in life are in fact opportunites that can be exploited for straight profit. Lending gil is one. One of the WARs had leveled THF as a sub but we all knew that having a NIN sub would be far more useful in the Promy fight, so she conviced him to level NIN to 15. Then he told her that he didn't have the gil for Utsusemi: Ichi which was selling for 600k and that there was no way that he would be able to complete the quest that afternoon. Well then Taria sends a tell in the ls asking for contributions to help him get the scroll. I gave my comment that I didn't approve of asking for gil but was happy after she was able to buy the scroll and get him his Blinks for Promy. I felt bad later that I had disagreed with her but it wasn't like I was mad.

Anyway, after all this effort on her part, including farming and leveling her NIN and using Hi potions and throwin all her Animas at the thing. We lost the Promy.

There were 3 WARs Thimien Llessur and Taria. They even set up a voking order which I thought would have been great if I was WHM but I was SMN. Daftorious was the RNG. His wide scan ability really made getting to the Memory Receptacles easy. Plus, he was usually able to one-shot the Strays which I thought was VERY efficient. All sed and done we did a great job of getting to the boss.

This time, as we did the last time, we planned to just run through the third level and follow Shani's advice and sick Carby on the one monster that prob would get in our way that was large, and just high-tail it to the zone. It worked like a charm. Everyone that does this Promy should fight to the memory receptacles but just haul butt when it comes to getting to the boss zone. That level is just too packed with monsters to allow you to fight even a single monster in peace.

The boss fight made me nervous though. I knew that I hadn't learned Shani's method of getting off 3 Astral Flow BPs in one fight. I also didn't have a macro designed for it yet. I also figured that they would need me to not use up all my MP too soon so that the BPs would have enough MP to go off when needed. We start the fight and everything is going well. The mob is stable and the WARs aren't taking too much damage. I cast Paralyze and Dia but suddenly it occurs to me that summoning the avatar too soon may get the avatar killed so I decide to just cure for a while. Then something happens to one of the melee and the WHM draws aggro, I am thinking of summoning the avatar at this point but instead I start to cure and backup the WHM. I continue to cure using Cure Is so as not to draw the monster to me since I needed my MP for the BP. Then BAM, we lose Thimien. I continue to cure. I keep the WARs alive but it seems that we aren't going to win the fight this time and I start to wonder, since I used my Reraise earring, if maybe I should save my 2hr for the next fight. I hesitate, but then Taria dies and Llessur dies. I am sure that we arent gonna make it with 1 rng and 2 mages trying to kill the Delver that still has 50% of its HP left. So I tell them that we should die and just try to kill it next time but then Taria asks if I had used my 2 hr and suddenly I feel guilty for not having already used it. They had used their reraise earring and raise but were running around weakened trying to dmg it, hoping that their SMN would blast it soon. But there was noone left to take hits. Soon they go down, I use my 2 hr but in the middle of struggling to get the command off, I die. I hadn't used my animas, hadn't used my 2hr even once and had almost a full MP bar showing, making me look probably like the King of Fools at a fag party.

It was a disgrace. I was disgusted.

Llessur disbanded without a word. Daftorious wondered in ls how the mob could kill us with 10 animas and a SMN 2hr used and I had to expain. Taria was speechless but soon logged out after. Thimien was kind, but of course thought that this Promy was the worst part of the game ever made. The JP Whm was the only one left in party with me and Thim and she asked if we were going again and I explained "/no". She was fine but I'm sure she was dissapointed as well. She had even used 2 animas during the fight that I didn't know she had

I had to go crawl under a Weeper and bloodport home. Uchipu came on and I wanted to spill my guts to her and beg her to help us, but it was just, just, .. it was time to log and go get a beer.

I spent a good deal of time planning on how we would get the thing done next time, but I wonder how long it will take for these wounds to heal.

Missions Impossible

2006-03-28T19:07:00.000-05:00

BLM:68 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

Missions are very hard to organize. VERY HARD. People are gonna die; people have to be from a certain nation and be on a certain mission and they always better be ready to spend 3 hours at least getting to the end.

I spent a lot of time yesterday doin the Chains of Promathia(COP) Mission 2-3. This is the one that has the minotaur boss near the end of the fight. It was weird that we won the way we did but hey I don't care how ugly the method, I can now continue to the next mission. I will write more about that later. People sometimes abbreviate COP missions as PM so if you see PM or COP, it means the same thing. Completing PM missions eventually gives you access to SEA. It's an area that is bought and paid for with the COP expansion.

Today, I spent working on killing Notorious Monsters(NM) in Ifrit's Cauldron. It was a long journey and most people agree that this is the toughest of the NMs to complete for this mission. This NM is for the Zilart Mission(ZM) 5. After you complete it you can go on to ZM6 and ZM7 and on until you get past ZM13, which is when you will get SKY access. I don't know what that is yet but it's probably a whole new area that was made available when the Zilart expansion came out.

The Bastok Missions are similar in that they give you access to better and better equipment through the use of Conquest Points(CP). If you are wonderin what all those crystals are that are dropping from monsters and don't know why sometimes there are NONE, it's because you forgot to get signet. If you don't get signet, you forego having crystals drop and this keeps your kills from mattering in the regional update. This also keeps you from earning any CP and this means you can't buy the items offered by your nation through the signet guy.

Some of these items are very useful. In fact some sell for more than 100k each, so not clicking signet at the start of any party is like well... it's LIKE OMGa!

Buildin a party soon?

2006-03-25T00:00:00.000-05:00

BLM:67 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

Building parties takes a lot of patience and drive. Sometimes I find people's lack of faith in waiting for appropriate party members disturbing.

In building a partyI use these basic rules for party setup: One tank, one healer, one puller and the rest DDs. This is for partys before 41. After 41, if you don't have a Bard or an RDM in there, you are gonna be hurting the exp bonus, and frankly you will see many Rank 10 ppl just plain not wanna pt and find something else to do. Bards and Red Mages help the party by providing MP regeneration, which allows the toll on mp to be less and pulling to go faster. A smart WHM will usually give the puller the option of pulling when he's at like 130 or so. And with a backup healer you can use the mp of the backup as a buffer when deciding when to pull. OK, getting off the subject here.

For the tank, you need to have his or her level be the highest. That armor is going up against the monsters hits and if it is higher level armor, along with higher level VIT from the tank having a higher level, you will be doing the party a huge favor by starting with just that simple little fact.

Next, make the pullers level also the highest. He is the one that is gonna be checking the con of the mobs and if, like me, he adds up the mobs in his head and sets them up ahead of time, he can save the really tough ones for chain 3 or 4 or even 5 as is convenient. If you get a podunk Thief at the lower levels trying to pull IT++ mobs that he doesn't know are actually IT ++++, you will be doing the party a huge disservice that will become quite possibly the puller's biggest blunder of his career, but actually it was yours.

The next guy that needs to be of a higher level is the BLM. He is your main source of damage. If he is gettnig resisted left and right, the loss in damage to the party is catastrophic compared to the damage lost to melees who may be missing more at the same level. A BLM getting his MB resisted is to a party what using a blunt sword in battle is to a fighter.

The rest is filling. Melees can be helped with Frost and Dia to allow them to hit more, esp if there is a Bard in the party, so whatever level for them is fine. Mages heal for almost the same total no matter what level they are so having a really low level WHM or RDM or BRD doesn't matter too much since they are mostly support jobs.

Finally, these are guidelines. If it's late and you can't find anybody, any level PLD will do and will probably be a better choice than say getting a high level SAM to tank. Actually, I was recently in a party with 2 BLMs and WHM and no RDM and we were still doin chain 4s and 5s pretty often, so it really does mostly depend on the people and on if you got party members that are having a good time.

Black Mage thoughts

2006-03-24T10:33:00.000-05:00

BLM:67 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

I have a new love for BLM now. But there are several big reasons that BLMs love their Ice Staves and Distortion. One, it adds Elemental Skill +10 bonus which makes a monster ability to resist your spells less. This only works however if you have the staff equipped. So if they are doing a Fragmentation skillchain and you are MBing with Thunder, you give up Elemental Skill by trading to a Thunder Staff, which will make your Thunder spells more effective but maybe not stick so much. So sticking to the Ice Staff is preferable.

Also, since the Ice Staff casts Blizzard spells more effectively, casting Aero spells with that staff are less effective. BASTWF is the elemental circle key that I use to remember the order. It sounds like "BASTok WtF". Blizzard Aero Stone Thunder Water Fire are the names. It's confusing when they say Lightning and Wind and then always say Fire for Fire. These are the names of the spells so I stick to remembering this representation of the circle.

Thirdly, you lose +4 INT when you switch to a Thunder Staff. It's a big hit to take in INT when you are fighting IT mobs and esp if you are at the low end of the party level which usually tends to be the case if the party is set up right. More on party setup in future journals. So if you plan on using ANY other staff with your MBs, it's almost stupid to not use Burn before you MB.

Well this is a problem cuz how many BLMs out there have seen TP 95% and started to cast Burn only to miss your MB with your big spell? Ya just as I thought, all of you. I can still catch the MB in time and MB with like a Blizzaga or something (because casting time is shorter) but man you just wasted casting a Burn that would have for sure doubled your damage from doing a pathetic Blizzaga. So usually I add a "call" to my Burn macro just to give them a heads up on HEY BLM OVER HERE WOULD LIKE TO MB WITH SOME GA III SPELLS [Can I have it?]

So, this is why you will see a BLM wince ( or /no emote ) when people call out a Detonation skillchain, because they gotta give up their Ice Staff to do their MBs effectively. If they do, I just pull out my Rose Wand+1(+6 INT) and use that with my Dark Staff instead.

In sum, a Distortion skillchain, on a mob that is weak to Ice, while equipped with your Ice Staff, equals Blizzaga II goodness that is really quite efficient on MP or Waterga III meanness if you happen to be on chain 4 and have been really responsible with saving enough MP for the BIG HIT on the final 2 or 3 mobs of the chain.

I have a story to tell about some people that were telling me that their skillchain was doing more damage than my MB because they had chosen a Detonation skillchain that used Spinning Slash, but I will save it since I gotta go to work.

A Bug's World

2006-03-16T16:59:00.000-05:00

BLM:65 WHM:54 Summoner: 32 WAR:56 THF:70

I have leveled before with BLM and usually have no problem with people that give me a little jab now and again about equipment but this last time I got asked if I had the Morion Earring or the Moldavite Earring and it bugged me. Sure I should have all the upper-echelon gear that people that have taken other jobs to 70 should have but I spent most of my money on my main job THF. In the past I have often not even had the spells they wanted to use like Escape once and Sleep and Thundaga because spells cost money and if I can avoid using them then I don't need to spend the money. But now I HAVE bought most all the spells and am lucky to have the gear I have so I don't need some snot-nosed-I-wonder-if-he-knows-what-a-Moldy-is punk askin me about gear. I should have asked him if he knew where The Lake was.

So you're thinking to yourself, that wouldn't bother Hohito would it? He is a man. He is a very short man. He is a Taru Vundr-Uber-King of the-Sheiste Man. Well it did. I still MB'd just as good as the other BLM there albeit I didn't fling the mp load like some may have liked but hey we didn't have an RDM. The setup was BLM BLM WHM NIN RNG THF.

We were doing fine really but then the guy with the mouth, (you guessed it, the WHM) decides to comment on my macros and finds them annoying. Well you might as well tell someone that you wish their head was smaller cuz then their face would look better. >.<>

Later the THF pulls a Goblin's Rarab and then it links with one of those other bunnies and then he doesn't notice it and pulls the Goblin before we were done with the rarab. Soon after that the Bunny takes out the WHM and proceeds to take out the rest of the party. I start to heal but when I sleep the rabbit and the THF stays engaged to it, I decided it's time to haul butt to the zone. I tried to Stun and take the Gob with me but the rabbit hit me twice and I was in the red and I knew, even though I had a ton of MP, that I wouldn't survive if I did any curing, even to myself.

The other BLM, who was busy healing, gives me a call to help him heal but I know, if he isn't zoning, he is done for. I tell them I will come back and raise the WHM but that didn't get them to stop fighting. I make it to the zone and heal myself and start to put buffers up and tell them that I will Stun and pull of mobs as they show up but by then there were like 4 Bunnies all linked up and looking like a friggin Bunny Army, coming after me. Only one guy made it past and after I hit the zone, I was in the yellow again. Later on I raise the whm and she RB2s some of the members and then one guy decides to wait for RB3 from his ls, but by the time all the people the WHM had raised had becomed unweakened and fully healed, he was still sittin there dead waitin for his RB3. The party then disbanded, BLM, upset, said he was gonna D2 everybody but was nice about it. When I went afk for a bit and came back, the party had disbanded and I was sitting in Jeuno.

So now that the party went to hell, probably because I didn't save them all, I wonder whether I should get the Moldavite Earring?

Bastokian view

2006-03-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

BLM:65 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:70

Well I have finally leveled my THF to 70. I feel the need to immediately go take Jajuju out and go steal some beastcoins and stuff and farm but I spent most of last week watching my Fire Crystals NOT sell. They started at 7k, which I thought the price would go up to 8k and now they are at 4k. All the while they were dropping in price, I was repricing them, and in all honesty I prob spent more on AH fees than I am getting back now that I am selling them at retail( the price in price history).

I also finally got my BLM to 65 so now I have options to go as either a BLM or THF to Dynamis. Woot! What is Dynamis? Hmmmf, I dunno. Well I know you can get rich there and stuff and it really does excite me somewhat but I will just put that off also.

What does concern me is getting my ZM missions done. I got help from Cornnholio and Uchipu in getting ZM4 done. I almost have finished ZM5 also but I need to do just a little research so that I can have printouts ready for when I send a shout for help.

I put my cursed noble's bed in my MH last week Saturday and I spent all week also going back to Bastok checking to see if he would give me the message for the additinal slots and he said nothing until Sunday this week. My recommendation, put the bed in like on Friday or something cuz even though his message happens after the Conquest update Sunday, I think there is a time that it has to be in the house also.

I haven't turned in my Completion Certificate for our Escort Quest that we did last week and wouldn't you know it, it's Monday again.

Curses!

Oh and I was talkin with Durnik in ls chat after we went to go get exp with our NPCs in Labyrinth of Onzozo and suddenly some guys in the ls start saying f-ing this and f-that, and Durnik decides to take his filter off so that he can read what they are saying, so to stun them all I curse out Durnik with a nice big Caps F you. I hope he knew I was just playin. Heh. Durnik is a really cool member of the ls and usually runs the Monday Night Escort Quests when Uchipu isn't around. Fernanda and Inverno(they're married) are in charge of the escorts now.

Maat fight, [Can I have it?]

BuLeeM me, I love Ga

2006-03-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

BLM:63 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

This is the area right before you go fight Ramuh. It's in The Boyhada Tree. We had an ok time of it and noone died as is usually the case if you have a full party of 65+ ppl.

Yesterday, I leveled the ole BLM in Bibiki Bay with some people late last night and though it was going good, I managed to embarass myself and die twice. The first time was when I decided to use Firaga II on a mob during their Light skillchain. I can't help it I love Firaga II but I quickly stopped using ga after that spell. The second time, we were about to chain 5 and I target the wrong monster and cast Frost on an EFT thing. Oh the shame of it all.

Otherwise it was not a bad party. We had a NIN tanking and a PLD/WHM and RDM curing which wasn't too bad coupled with me there. I would cast Frost and then they would chain up their sc and I would MB with either Fire after Fusion or with Thunder after the Light. I tried twice to get Burst to work with the Light sc but couldn't get it right, so I went back to MBing with dinky Thunder II and then to Fire III.

I love Ga. You should love Ga. OMGa, why don't ppl love Ga?

Ifrit, now you're playing w/ power

2006-03-04T23:44:00.000-05:00

BLM:63 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

This is a picture of me getting together with a party to go take on Ifrit in his lair. I gotta say that Ifrit is definitely a step up in power from Shiva but isn't that the nature of Fire, strength?

Anyways, I haven't really put my mind to leveling SMN at all since I want to get my BLM to 65 and actually now that I just red about the hoodie, I think I want one of those too. I dunno. I did finally get to wear my Silk Slacks I bought a few days ago and they look pretty tight with the Black Cote, but not as tight as the Level 20 Black Slacks. And although pt members may snear at me taking a a10AC hit for good looks, too bad!

I just bought my Thunder Staff since it was only 20k and promptly added a macro to switch it in if I ever get into the habit of say "pounding some dhalmels with a Burst skillchain?" I works good but unlike my Ice Staff which helps my Frost and Burn and Choke hit more often, I gotta switch in the Thunder Staff after I cast these spells, and if I am doing a Burst skillchain, I got 3 staves to mess with then. Hey, whattadaya gonna do?

I prob need to upgrade my Lvl 14 Knowledge Rings maybe, but I dunno.

Burst-ing with flavor

2006-03-02T15:18:00.000-05:00

BLM:63 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

I have been leveling BLM lately most specifically because I am being left in the dust by other BLMs most notably Uchipu and Emagyen. I don't mind it though since it gives me a lot in common with them. Plus I don't want to write about stuff that is uninteresting anyways. The life of a THF often pales in comparison to a mage.

Yesterday I was doing AM skillchains in a pt with some buddies and it was going good. We were doing chain 4 and 5s and maintaining a good run for our money. But in the end it got tiring since we had been at it for like 4 hours. You have to have a good setup to make the gathering good and we did. We had NIN Drk/thf SAM WHM BRD and me BLM. They usually wanted to do sc so DRK could SATA onto the NIN and that turned out pretty good. Then we replaced the NIN with a PLD and it got to be much more difficult for the SAM to voke it off of the PLD, so they tried to do it at start and that just turned out to be more difficult. I was tired already from partying earlier so figuring it out was beyond me and getting exp got slower and slower and finally we stopped late last night.

We did manage to get Hottoty his/her level and Daftorious was very pleased with the use of Ancient Magic. I advised him that it was cuz my AF Hat had such a high negative enmity (Enmity-4) that made it possible, then he showed me his boots for his SAM which had Enmity +3, which he said was how he was able to voke it off of me so often.

Bah, I'm tired. I just spent 2 hours sending myself new pictures and cleaning my mailbox and stuff so now, even though, I have a lot to write about, I think I will just save it.

Promyvion-Mea Ooo

2006-02-22T13:18:00.000-05:00

BLM:60 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

This is a picture of us right before going in to fight the Delver. He was very difficult to beat but with the right animas used, we took him. It really was worth the trouble to farm animas for like 3 hrs and having a SMN use their 2hr was very helpful also. I would just not even go without a SMN and at least 4 Psychoanimas and 1 Hysteroanima.

The map quest for the Tavnasian Safehold was very easy to get too. I got help from Shanisasha with that and it was cake. I still have one more cutscene to get to be ready for my minotaur fight.

I might go open my AF Gloves quest for my WHM. Not that I really want to get the gloves but because I have a Nest Coffer key and I might as well use it wisely rather than toss it. The coffer gives a WHM their AF pants which can be worn at 56.

Unfortunately, my WHM is only at 54.

A Good Night

2006-02-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

BLM:59 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

This is an old picture of me when I used to fish at Knight's Well. There isn't a fishing gear hat out there so choosing you hat when you fish kind of says something about you to all of your fellow fisher people. I chose my THF AF hat since it's very distinctive.

I haven't fished here in an eon and I really liked doing it too. I find that I can talk on the linkshell like crazy while just scooping up fish by the stacks. I also find that I run out of insect paste rather quickly if I don't load up on it to the nth degree.

I finally finished my Promyvion-Mea quest last night. We had farmed items for anima on Saturday night. We planned to accumulate enough items to get anima for the fight and then go through. I took my BLM/THF to farm since my BLM could d2 ppl and my /THF would give us more drops. Then we got aggro and died from a link and I was forced to use my 2hr which left us without a 2hr to use from my SMN. Well at that point they wanted to quit and do it last night and I told them I had plans for last night with a girl so they said whatever and they called it a night.

Last night my plans with a girl didn't work out so I got home after going out at around 2am or so and lo and behold they were just about to go back in and try again. So I switch to my SMN gear and we start farming for a little while and then we go in.

We were lucky. No aggro at all the whole way and even at the tight spot where we had to aggro a Weeper to get thru, the leader just aggroed and jetted for the exit and I sicked Carbuncle on him and noone was even damaged hardly at all.

At that point we discussed strategy. The Psychoanima is used to keep the NM from using normal attacks and we had four of them so we set up and order to use them. The Hysteroanima stops the mob from using his ws so I advised them to use it after 50% hp and they agreed. I went in as SMN and first thing I did was cast Ice Armor on everybody because I knew from my experience that every paralyzed attack was gonna amt to a whole lot less dmg. Then I cancelled Shiva and brought in Ramuh and used his Thunderspark and sicked him on the NM. Then a little while later, all the while using Melon Juices, I cancelled Ramuh and brought in Shiva to use her 2hr but that's when the NM got crazy and he killed off Shiva. So I summoned Titan with only 86mp to spare and I knew I might not get to use the 2hr so I immediately used Astral Flow but I was too far away. I was clear back with the mages and for my commands to take effect I have to be close to the monster. So I run up to the monster and use Astral Flow and then search for my Blood Pact label but then I got hit by a Carousel and I was running low on mp so I forget everything and stand still and just use my 2hr so that it doesn't get cancelled and sure enough it hits for 426 dmg. I know that I am gonna be able to use it again or even 2 more times so I run to the back, pop another Melon Juice, and hope the party stays alive long enough for me to hit it again. I cancel Titan since he was using up MP and rest, but just as I was nearing the 10 second mark for recast, my party finished off the mob.

I was truly speechless. I didn't even think it possible and as I walked around in Lufaise Meadows, I forgot all about the girl I was supposed to meet. I was in heaven.

Ya think?!!

Black Mage gear on sale!

2006-02-17T11:28:00.000-05:00

BLM:59 WHM:54 Summoner: 30 WAR:56 THF:69

Well I am about to say goodbye to this gear. At 60 I am going to get to use my Wizard's Petasos hat and will be using that with my old Black Cotehardie which I just stopped using for my THF. I really like the way he looks in this setup though, very Shantotto-like I think, heh. I need to figure out what pants would go good though. I already have the AF hands and feet which I think are good til 75 imo but what pants to use? Hmmm. I am thinking of using Silk slacks at 62 since they are white and I think I am just gonna use the White Pants with my Black Cote until then, but who knows, it may look like crap.

I like my BLM to look good since I know that really your use of spells is what makes a difference in a party, so I don't fret too much about extra MP or Evasion stuff really. It's nice sometimes to have a BLM over-nuke the mob and have the mob come over and try to whack a Taru BLM who has his evasion maxed. I know that many other people prob don't have their evasion capped as BLM but since my main job is THF, I usually get hit 1 out of 3 times on DC mobs. This mainly cuz I use Drone Earrings and cuz my AF feet gear(Wizard's Sabots) add even more AGI, plus Tarutarus have high AGI naturally, which makes them good as THFs btw.

Against IT creatures it's very important to have high Elemental and Enfeebling skill if you want your spells to stick but since usually you have an RDM there refreshing you and casting enfeebles you might not need to worry about that part. I have noticed that what really makes the difference in a party is damage. You gotta be able to stick the BIG DMG spells so that you don't waste your time and MP in a party. To do that you are going to HAVE to have the MUST-HAVE-it AF Gloves(Wizard's Gloves). They give elemental skill +15. I believe this skill allows your spells to do more damage although the ability to stick the spells is also affected by this too. I usually toggle with /equip macros the Dark Staff(which allows you to rest for +10mp per tick) and the Ice Staff(which gives a +10 elemental skill bonus). I have noticed often that when my spells get resisted, it's because of my doofusness of forgeting to switch back to the Ice Staff after resting.

If you are an RDM and are reading this and ever get the urge to cast Frost Rasp Drown on the mob because you think you are being thorough, please don't. RDMs may have high elemental skill perhaps compared to other jobs but to try to stick an elemental spell on a mob when a BLM is present is just dumb. It's like me trying to cast enfeebs when a RDM is present. It's just redundant and stupid. I was partying the other day and what I normally do before I switch to my Ice Staff is cast a Blind spell since it is a Dark Skill based spell and my Dark Staff makes sticking those more effective. I sometimes will get off a Stun too just to be skill up Dark skill but I have found that this REALLY pisses the mob off and if you are a THF trying to get SATA off, this really probably pisses YOU off. lol So, I have stopped doing Stun at the start. Anyways to continue, after that I will switch to Ice Staff then and either cast Frost to give the melees a chance to build TP and then switch to Burn when it runs out, or I will straight out cast Burn and then Choke if the skillchain is almost ready to go or we are fighting easier mobs and the fights are not lasting very long.

I was in a party yesterday and an RDM was casting Frost Rasp Drown at the start of every fight, and though he was saving me a lot of time since I didn't have to cast those spells, my Burn was never ready for my MB cuz Burn can't be cast in concert with those spells. I thought I was gonna choke him!

BLMing is like the BEST job. Every party should have a BLM cuz it just makes everyone happy to see the fireworks go off close the end of a fight. Even when I'm just a THF running around doing my candy-poke Shark Bite ws to mob, I gotta go WOW when I see a slam-dunk Firaga III Magic Burst(MB) blast the mob for like a thousand dmg. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so close to the mob so I could get a better view.

I can already wear my Black Cote at 59 but I think I am just gonna save it until I reach 60 and then sell off this entire gear. Not once have I partied in a zone that was under Bastokian control to where the bonuses of the +1 actually helped me. Still, I like the way it looks.

ON a final note, I was partying as BLM the other day with people who didn't want to do a skillchain. Is it just me or does every other BLM reading this also want to immediately D2 ALL OF THEIR BUTTS TO THEIR HP?

BLMing it

2006-02-09T14:07:00.000-05:00

BLM:58 WHM:54 Summoner: 29 WAR:56 THF:68

(Don't set this picture to wallpaper and stare at it or else you will start having dreams of being with a taru.)

I had a fun time with BLM again yesterday. I got it to 58. It's been awhile since I have been wanting to level and esp with Emagyen gone from the ls my mood has been rather meh lately.

Such a waste of a Shaman's Cloak. :P

Anyways, I also got my skill up last night in a skill-up party and really had a good time. Eventually they all left but I hung around til the very end helping em since there were only like 4 people left. We were doing 200+ skill-up and getting WS points. Me, I was just leveling my Archery and Marksmanship. I gotta agree with Nomadic that he probably wouldn't have gotten a lot of skill up points at level 179 which he sed is where his staff skill is for his PLD. I noticed a marked increase in skill ups when I got to 197 or so which verified his statement sort of.

Now I just gotta ask myself one more question, if my wife asked me to quit the game because she wasn't happy with it, would I quit FFXI ??

HELLYA!

Summoner Thoughts

2006-02-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 29 WAR:56 THF:68

Well it's been a long time since I was a level 1 SMN. This is me trying out my Ice Spirit for the first time. I am surprised how easy being a SMN is but it is also very involved as well. You have the ability to deal a lot of damage through Blood Pacts and through regular fighting with your avatar, but it's also very easy to use up almost ALL of your MP in one battle.

I think people wonder sometimes why I am just sitting there even though they continue to fight. For one, noone asked ME if it was ok to pull. Second, if I am out of MP that's all I can do is rest up until I have MP again. If I see the fight is going well without me, or that the mob is VT or something I will just skip the battle altogether. This way I have full or close to full MP for the next one.

I wish I would have gotten my Garuda Dagger though. I don't even feel like playing THF anymore till I get it. Besides, being SMN has been a lot of fun. I almost have enough Conquest Points to get my Presidential Hairpin. It allows "Regen" in areas outside of Bastokian control and has more DEF(@18) than my Empress Hairpin which has 0. The best part is that the switch in equipment will come as I switch from my Empress Hairpin to that during the pull. I will lose +10 Evasion though during the pull but since we are always fighting ITs and they always hit me anyways, I probably won't miss it.

I have been thinking a lot about the SMN job as a sub and for WHM I think it works out great. I use ZERO nuke spells as WHM and usually just stick to my variety of Regen, Haste, and Cure spells. At level 50 the WHM/SMN gets Auto-Refresh as an ability, so that's another reason to sub SMN. For BLM though it's not so useful. I often find myself backing up the WHM with Regen or a couple of cures and I think it is the BLMs duty to watch out for the WHM if his MP gets too low.

I have enough Beastman's Seals to do another "A Worm's Turn" BCNM. Hmmm, I wonder if I should sub SMN as a BLM? :D

Some of her thoughts

2006-02-01T03:38:00.000-05:00

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 24 WAR:56 THF:68

Oops, I meant to say Summoner Thoughts. Hmm, wonder where my mind is?

I have decided to stop leveling my Summoner for now I guess since I don't want to have to upgrade his equipment again. I need to keep on trying for my avatar fights but after my first encounter with Miss-one-hit-wonder-that-hits-for 568-dmg Shiva (OMG I said all there is to day about her) I have decided to put that off for a while.

I probably will level SMN up to like level 26 though so that I can spend some time in Kazham leveling the ole NPC Jajuju who hasn't seen daylight since I started leveling SMN about 2 weeks ago.

I am excited to have finally reached level 24 though because now I get to use Shining Ruby. I think this is perhaps the SMN's best secret weapon because even though you may not think stackable Protect, which upgrades everyones armor and doesn't get worn out til it expires is that big of a deal, I do. I would put this up there with Paralyze in effectiveness.

I mean, why wouldn't you want to take a chuck of dmg out of EVERY hit the monster makes?

Anyone know a good one word text-message to send to a girl?

Help from Net

2006-01-30T11:32:00.000-05:00

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 22 WAR:56 THF:68

I got help from Net the other day getting my second horn for my Purple Belt quest. He called out that he had sighted Lumbering Lambert and I told him that I could be right there with my WHM. So he got off his chocobo and luckily he was in his MNK 75 character and told me to hurry and he would keep the Ram engaged "until he pisses me off" he said.

So I went and I got the drop and then Teleport-Holla us back to crag so he could grab another chocobo. It was great fun sort of. I used Haste and Regen II on him as expected and the mob keeled over soon after. I was finally rid of that Rampaging Horn that I had from killing the Tremor Ram about a year ago.

After I finished the quest, I went to see how much the Purple Belt sells for and it was at 40k. 40k! That quest is next to impossible to finish because you have to wait for TWO NMs to pop and it's not like they are poppin every 10 min or so. I JACKED up the price to 80k and sure enough it sold about 2 days later. With the time I spent holding on to that other horn I should have charged more!

Anyways, I checked my title and it said Purple Belt. Hmmm. THF + Purple Belt = Bleah

Hohito's new title: Wandering Minstrel

Thinking about avatars

2006-01-29T10:46:00.000-05:00

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 22 WAR:56 THF:68

Here comes the bad news. i gotta do my LEVEL 20 avater fights. I am probably gonna put this off as much as I can until I am thinking of nothing else. I want to just be able to skip it but I think part of the Summoner experience is getting through these avatar fights.

I have learned something else that was ingenious about SE and what they did to Summoner. They included a skill that you have to work on in between parties. I sat there for at least 6 hours the other day and raised my Summoning skill from 28 to 51 by just Summoning avatars. I was thinking that perhaps this was a waste of time since someone told me that all it did was increase my spell interruption ability, but no, I have noticed that my avatar now hits far more often during fights and does decent damage with their spells.

Whew, I was about to sell my Energy Rings too which give +6 MP but nah. I can see now that they are better than the Knowledge Rings that give +4 INT. It's lucky I went to the job forums too and learned a little bit about the job from the experts. They say that INT has NO bearing on whether your avatar's Blood Pact(BP) will get reisisted.

Dunes Day

2006-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 20 WAR:56 THF:68

This was my last day out in the Dunes . It's so nostalgic to be out there again after not having been there for so long. But this time I had NO fear of the gobs. I never got aggroed once. Oh strike that. I was pulling with my SMN once and had this one gob going this way and the other one coming towards me so I used Dia to pull since it's fast and quick and sure enough the other gob does a 360 and links with the other one. That was so wrong.

I got this one comment from a guy that said that a mage shouldn't pull but to honest, esp with what I learned from exping solo, if you are gonna pull non-stop on low exp mobs, the SMN is ideal cuz he can keep his avatar over there dealing dmg while he goes and casts Dia and brings back the next mob in the set. Who'da THUNK it?

I am surprised sometimes when people come to the Dunes and don't expect to die. I KNOW I am gonna die when people are playing this game for the first time and are learning to pull and Nuke and whatnot. I expect to have to cure the WHM for over-curing and to heal many fighters cuz the mOB is bouncing around like a top.

It is important to note also that if you have done your supply quest to the Valkurm Dunes when your country has control of it, that you will be able to Outpost Warp home once you hit level 20. I was so relieved to hear that and sure enough it worked like a charm and saved me the long hike back home.

Anyway for the most part I enjoyed my stint out here. I got plenty of levels and met many people that are soon gonna party with me in Qufim Island to help me get to 25.

I gotta say though, I'm glad to be done with Valkurm Dunes.

Valkurm Dunes... never gets old

2006-01-23T11:06:00.000-05:00

BLM:57 WHM:54 Summoner: 12 WAR:56 THF:68

I finally did get my drop for the Empress Hairpin. After the pin didn't drop using my WHM, and after a couple of cracks from the whip of Miss Emagyen, I decided to come out here and do this the right way. So, I spent 6 hours camping this guy and sure enough after I got the claim, I got the drop. Yay. I was very excited to get this drop since it is so useful for use in a party.

Melli was leveling Summoner the other day and talking on the ls. She was on level 6 and sounded lonely. Her husband is Mav and he was taking a break from playing this and was playing WOW. If you don't know what that is, good. So she offered to party with me and I decided that it was quite possible to catch up to her and to party with her. Well I think I went overboard cuz I hit level 10 in one day on my own.

I started to level Summoner. I really enjoyed it too. I already had 2 avatars from fights that I had opened after I hit level 65 with my THF. I had Shiva and Titan. I bought the Ice Spirit and the Earth Spirit straight away because I thought I would have to wait til level 20 to use my avatars but nope I was able to use them right away. It was very fast leveling cuz I would just pop out my avatar start chaining mobs til the MP went away, plop, rinse, repeat. It was like I was on a rampage sometimes. I always got no more than 40 exp or so but I got boatloads of crystals and seals. I actually made money from plain ole leveling. I would try to level on bees and bats as much as possible so that Wind crystals would drop and vultures and gobs so that Fire crystals would drop.

I got 40 Beastman's Seals! I started out with 18 so as you can tell I have gotten a bunch in the last two days of leveling. Yep, TWO days.

I have made it to level 12 and am on my way out here btw. I can't wait to get into a party again since I am eager to try out my Stone II and Blizzard II MBs with my avatars. I actually got invited to party out here as level 10 but no way was I gonna hike it out here and party-poopy when I was so rolling in the seals and exp on my own.

I feel bad for Melli though cuz she is leveling but with no avatars. I wanna help here get fame in Sandy and at least get Shiva since the ICE MB, as I have sed before, is the most common one in parties. But, it is a LOT of fame needed to get the quest opened.

My BLM likes Frozen Fish

2006-01-20T08:12:00.000-05:00

Black Mage:57 White Mage:53 Warrior:56 Thief:68

Yesterday, I had a good time leveling with my BLM, I got into a party with another BLM and, with some help from the party, I showed them the art of the Double Freeze MB = ALL DEAD. The setup was BLM BLM BRD NIN SAM THF. We were partying in Cape Terrigan against the Crabs and Fish and Raptors there. Later the BRD was replaced with WHM and we lost the SAM and got a WAR but even so we were still able to do Chain 4s using a different skillchain. It was a very good time but eventually we had to go. I got lucky enough to get immediately invited to another party but only after I had started my own party and had sent an invite. I had a BRD already and was about to get another BLM from my ls to party with us but we disbanded to join their group and they invited us but then didn't invite the BLM and had already gotten a RDM, so I sed forget it. I was sort of tired anyway from partying earlier.

Well that's when I guess my mood turned cuz now I felt like partying and I wasn't gonna wait so I started a party with a me as WHM then I got a NIN SAM THF, and then I was able to invite a BLM who actually sent me a /tell asking if he could party which was cool. This is where it got hairy though cuz we needed a refresher and I couldn't find one.

I did have a DRG waiting to party but do you think I should have taken him over waiting for a BRD or RDM? I dunno. I took the DRG and called myself lucky to have a full group. So we set out for Garlaige Citadel and started to camp weapons. Well in hindsight, I must have been tired from quitting the previous party cuz I didn't catch that the BLM had subbed SMN and I didn't catch that the SAM had subbed RNG. I didn't need any specialty DDs though, what I needed was a backup healer. I also needed a skillchain partner for THF. Well the DRG filled that role nicely but noone told him he was first voker so getting the party organized was sloppy from the getgo. That was later on. Right after we got to camp though the brazen BLM decided to go Carby-pull a weapon before any of us were set and we got our hiney's pasted straight away without me going over the strategy or nothing. This also without Reraise up. So I do the responsible thing as leader and homepoint and choco it back to the dungeon to Raise them.

It was my fault mainly I guess for not being meticulous in my instructions, but that BLM just threw all my plans into the waste bucket. He was like but-this and but-that. I mean if he was so smart (or she cuz it was a female character but real females arent so stupid), why couldn't he see that I needed a backup healer?

The SAM/RNG, bless his heart, decided that he would pull along with the THF. Both of them along with the NIN were having big problems with the DRG who wouldn't first voke. They would just stand there and call him names and stuff and the DRG would just run around like he was JP. I'm sure they were just trying to get him to do his part in the party I guess.

Well both of them pulling wasn't a problem until the two of them pulled 2 beetles and bat all at the same time at which point we almost died but our BLM used Escape. Then out of the blue the NIN decided he wanted to leave. I mean I was like "Why would you wanna leave this GREAT party?"

Later on I talked to my ls about it and Kirbyprime advised me that Over Weapons were RDM monsters that had a full set of buffs that they used and in hindsight I probably should have kept them silenced, but I was so thrown into the fighting and healing that I couldn't enjoy what I was doing.

I threw out an Erase spell every so often just for laughs. The bats did Area of Effect(AOE) Attack Down which reminded me that many such enfeebles are AOE which makes me think hey that Erase spell may not be so special after all. I mean who can afford to throw out 3 Erase spells in between Healing and Hasteing the party? For the most part, I didn't get to use Erase.

WHM power is going up

2006-01-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

Black Mage:56 White Mage:53 Warrior:56 Thief:68

Although I really enjoy pulling and playing THF and doing stuff to manage aggro, I enjoy playing WHM more I think. I really like to be in charge. When soloing, I use Flash to get the attention of mobs. At first, it was because it was a Divine Skill spell and using it gets my Divine skill up. Back when I had less gil, I purposely didn't buy those spells because I didn't use them. But Flash was cheap so I got it and started using it for that purpose. Now, I use it because it is very fast. I also have learned to use consistenly whenever we use a NIN as tank since a PLD would be using Flash himself already.

Other spells weren't as cheap however. I recently got my WHM fully caught up in spells and the cost was on the order of 130k. That was all for spells from an NPC. I probably will still get the occassional poke about "where's your Light Staff?" to which I would reply " Why haven't you leveled your BOW?!!!"

This is a picture of me camping in Valkurm Dunes. I took a partial day off Sunday so that I could work on ZMs but it wudn't happenin. I decided instead of getting a party I would come camp the Valkurm Emperor (VE) for the Empress Hairpin. I had camped him before so I already knew the spot that I had to wait and more or less when he would re-spawn so I went a plopped my butt out there and waited. I figured hey if people get the ZMs going, I can just warp to Jeuno in a poof.

Well, I didn't get any ZMs done and I think I am gonna have trouble with getting them done now that so many people have done them.

Oh well, I did actually get the Valkurm Emperor to spawn and I was lucky enough to get the claim too! but as WHM I didn't get the drop. I probably should have subbed THF... ya think ?!!!

Fighter's AF feet, complete

2006-01-17T15:07:00.000-05:00

Black Mage:56 White Mage:53 Warrior:56 Thief:68

This is Mufferino. He is in our ls DivineXtasy. He is sort of high-strung. As you can maybe tell from his equipment he is a level 75 MNK and 75 BLM so that puts him on par with Uchipu, the leader of our linkshell. Well don't ask me why but people always wanna bring down a leader somehow. I think I am rather outspoken about what I know and honest about what I don't know, which I think is how people should be. I don't mind saying I don't know, since there is so much that I DO know. What I don't like to hear is other people bringin people down. If you brag, hey you got cause to brag cuz otherwise we would be callin JOO a FOO, but if you say "Hmmph, he thinks he's all that" then it's YOU that's sittin with your tail between your legs yappin like you aint been fed lately. When I see people with great stuff and hear them brag I try to ask about the experience and learn from what they are sayin.

Anyway, that being said I like the guy. Yesterday he offered to help me with my AF feet for my WAR so it was cool. We head off to Palborough Mines to fight the NM that guards the eggs there. It was kind of long but since I had done my BCNMs there and since I had a printout of the quest made, I had already on several occassions figured out where the boss was and had set up a marker on my map.

The battle was sort of a breeze. The printout said that you should take a party of 50s there so Mufferino went as his MNK 75 and I went as a BLM 56 so that I could WARP 2 him and heal him and stuff. It went as planned to. He subbed NIN I think and I cast my usual Paralyze and Choke variety and then after he was halfway down, started to pound him with Thunder spells including Burst. He died with no problem and I got my Mottled Quadav Egg without a hitch.

It's unfortunate I didn't have more of my BLM spells cuz I recently started to buy up all the spells I was missin for my BLM and my WHM since I am now sure that I will be able to make back the money easy enough with the economy being the way it is.

That's what is great about an economy where people pay more for things but the NPC items stay the same price, you can afford to buy more stuff now. I mean in the old days paying for Holy at 30k was considered stupid at least by me since it costs a whole lot of MP to use and most of the time you were healing anyways. Besides, having Divine Skill up is kind of hard when you spam cures the whole time. But now, getting 30k is only 3 stacks of bat wings away which makes it not at all hard to save up for.

This is a pic of me without my Iron Musketeer's Sabatons, which are white, and with my Fighter's Calligae feet on. The Fighter's Calligae add more DEF, +3 AGI, and increases the ablity of "Double Attack" which co-incidentally and actually more by choice is what they say in the forums the +1 INT of my Fighter's Mask does too. Fortunately or unfortunately the two items add +2 to Enmity so that makes a NINs job slightly harder when partying with me but hey, at least the WHM isn't so succeptible to attacks after my OH so subtle PROVOKE! Hah!