Dark Knight vs Squidgy Things

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that my first love in FFXI was the Dark Knight job. I've always been fascinated by the dark imagery, the scythes, and the storyline of Zeid, the archetypical dark knight in the game. However, I've found that at higher levels (ie. at 71 where I've been for the last 8 months or so) it was quite difficult to get parties. It may still be, but in the last 48 hours I've been pretty lucky.

In the latest update, Dark Knights got a new spell: Absorb-TP. I bought this, and immediately started looking for a party that I could try it out in. I haven't partied in the new Aht Urghan areas on DRK, so I was kinda looking forwards to it.

I've been in 3 parties these last 48 hours. All 3 were in Caedevra Mire, a zone near the Leujeum Sanctuary staging point (and thus very easy to get to via Runic Portal). The area is great for 70+ parties. There are 3 real types of xpable mobs here:

1) Heraldic Imps ~ Have true sight, BLM-type, and like to cast tier 2 -ga spells. Very very squidgy though. A 600pt Cross Reaper will take away almost half their HP.

2) Spongillic Flies ~ Or something like that. Have all the normal fly attacks (Venom, Cursed Sphere). Again, vey squidgy, though not as much as the imps.

3) Jnun ~ toad mobs. Big, fat, lazy undead who sleep through half the day.

All three mobs are pretty squidgy because most of them con VT or low IT to a 71. To a 72-73 they start dropping into the T-VT range, but that's fine, because they are so easy to kill the possibility for chains is huge.

In the third party I was in last night (the one where I made 18k xp in 2 hours) the highest chain I saw was I think chain #20. And that was a normal XP party setup, not a WS burn party, which can get ludicrous chains.

So I started off 48hrs ago as 4k to 72. I was looking forwards to getting ground strike for my GSWD and stuff.

Today, I'm 500xp into level 73(!) mainly thanks to the Resurrection LS party of:

Demajen: DRK72/WAR36 (yes, I tried WAR sub. Was great fun!) >>> hit 73
Damen: BLU72/NIN36 >>> hit 73
Aluve: NIN74/WAR37
Edari: RDM72/WHM36 >>> hit 73
Numair: SAM72/WAR36
Taru BRD74/WHM36 (forgotten her name, sorry ><) >>> hit 75 (grats!!)

I've got my new shiny Balin's Sword (new greatsword, FINALLY!) and I bought a Demon Helm just for fun, cos I like the look of it.

Oh, and Absorb-TP rocks! Time it right and you can get loads of TP for just 33mp. My highest so far is a 72 point drain!

~Dema