Demajen and Saik in "The Case of the Awful Thief"

When we level together - an event that happens less frequently than we would like - Saik and myself tend to get parties that fit into one of the following categories:

1) An awesome party that gets great XP/hour, works together, and where everyone knows the role. These are, alas, very rare. We had one on THF/SAM in Quicksand Caves around 50. We had one in Garlaige Citadel in the mid-30s where we made silly xp. And we had a couple of huge parties over in King Ranperre's Tomb on WHM and BRD. Very, very rare.

2) An abysmmal party where the XP/hour is low, where no one except us can do their job, and where most of the party wanders off every fight to do whatever they want, and no one understands the concept of team work. These are, alas relatively regular occurances. When we level together we are usually blessed with not having too many of them.

3) A party that looks good on paper, but fails in practise due to 1 or more members. These are, in our experiences (both XPing together AND individually) the most prevalent type of party in the game. They make mediocre to bad XP, all because 1 character isn't fulfilling their role to even an average level.

Let us examine tonight's party in a little more detail.

Demajen: WAR50 and Saik: MNK50. Never levelled together on these jobs before this party by the way. We started off in Lower Jeuno as parties are wont to do, and decided that we should head to Uleguerand Range to try the bunnies and tigers there.

We gather together at the homepoint, and teleport to Xarcabard. At this point we discover that our thf, Falkon, has been left behind. He doesn't have the gate crystal. >.>

Its OK though, he says, because he has a SMN50 on another character who DOES have the crystal, so he swaps out for this mithra SMN. While we potter around in Xarcabard killing Lost Souls and aggroing an Etemnu (my fault... damn blood aggro) he logs, changes character, and comes to join us.

We make it to camp without aggro or incident (a rare experience). We fight 3 Variable Hares. Then we realise that this was NOT a good idea. Yeah, mobs are worth 200xp each, but take an age to kill. We need to come back there at 52+ maybe for better results.

So we move camp. Quicksand Caves. J-9 entrance from Western Altepa Desert, site of the THF/SAM party where me and Saik hit 50, and Saik hit that FREAK JINPU™ that I don't believe he has to this day equalled. With a familiar locale in mind, and with the THF back (he had the Altep Crystal) we set about the local Beetle and Antica populace.

The first few fights were ok, to be honest. I got first voke, THF SATAd the Paladin, me and Saik bust out a couple of nice Spinning Axe > Raging Fist skillchains.

But it soon became clear that something was not quite right in this party.

The Paladin
Ddragius, our Paladin tank, was good! Even Saik commented that he was doing well, and considering some of the numbers we were pumping out, that's quite a compliment (especially given both Saik and my particular hatred for most PLDs in the game).

The Corsair
Tristen, our Corsair, was good! Both Saik and I love to party with Corsairs now, especially when there is a Thief in the party. Rogue's Roll, which increases Crit+ percentage, is the best thing since Refresh. Tristen was subbing WHM, and kept all the melees vision clear when the antica used sandstorm, for which we thanked him immensely.

The Monk
Saik, our Monk, was as good as ever! He's always liked the MNK job, has good equipment for it, and enjoys using silly macros and hearing the sound Raging Fists makes. He pumped out some damned nice Raging Fists too today, the record being around 420 I think (though that was on one of the beetles).

The Warrior
Me! I'm good. Tanking, pulling, debuffing with acid bolts. I got to do it all at some point in this party. Was fun. Had a few accuracy problems cos I leant Saik my Woodsman Ring, but he said I was still parsing at around 93% accuracy, so I can live with that. My Spinning Axe opener was the bread-n-butter of our skillchaining damage versus the mobs. Can't wait till Rampage at 55!

These 4 players were consistently good in their performance, always giving 100% in a party that, I imagine, did not feel quite right. The next two players, however, created issues!

The White Mage
I know WHM. I have played the job myself to level 63. It is a thankless task, but there are certain rules and guidelines I live by whilst playing the job.
a) Erase and nasty status effects like Spoil on the DDs.
b) Keep any dual-wielding job Hasted. Especially the NIN or WAR. Do not haste the MNK unless you have a damned good tank.
c) Heal as need be.
d) Do not constantly go AFK. Your party needs you.
Teala was our WHM for this party, and she was mediocre to say the least. She kept us Silenad (eventually) but I don't think she cast Haste or Erase at all during the whole party. She also spent a great deal of time AFK, including one time she was AFK for 3 fights. Admittedly I barely noticed, but I imagine the PLD did. Anyway, the only death in the party was me, and that shouldn't have happened (more on that at the end).

The Thief
It is a well-known fact that I have great love for the Thief job. I have played it myself to level 61, and until I discovered Blue Mage and Warrior, it was my favourite job. Thief is not an easy job to play well, but the Thief in today's party failed on almost all accounts. Let us examine this in detail!

Firstly, a thief at lv.50 has a wide variety of excellent equipment options. Two of the most important are, I would say, the Life Belt (lv.48 waist, +10 accuracy) and the Hornetneedle (lv.48 dagger, 150 delay) for offhand dual-wielding. Accuracy+ rings are almost always necessary too. Our Thief did not have any of these. From memory, he had the following equipment:

head: lv.9 cat's eye circlet
neck: can't remember
body: doublet
rings1&2 lv.14 dex rings (+2 dex)
waist: lv.15 Warrior's Belt +1 (+3 vit, yeah that's useful!)
gloves; battle gloves
legs: lv.20 royal footman's trousers iirc
boots: hume RSE boots
main hand: lv.40 AF dagger (not bad, but much better available at 50)
off hand: a sword of some kind (though did switch to dagger much later)

While he did have a crossbow with acid bolts equipped, he did not seem to use them, leaving me to debuff the Beetles and Antica.

Now, I am a firm believer in the fact that you can be a good player with poor equipment. My equip is not always great. Sometimes I simply cannot afford the good stuff. But the above stuff is not even remotely good, and neither was the player who equipped them.

There are many ways you can play THF, but its core responsibilities are quite simple. Place hate on the tank and keep it there while doing as much damage as possible. This is usually accomplished by an opening SATA onto the tank, possibly with an accompanying weaponskill such as Viper Bite.

If a DD can tear hate away from an opening SATA+VB, something is very wrong. Needless to say, Saik and I were doing it constantly. Without trying. I kinda get the feeling that our PLD was shocked at how much he had to work to hold hate with a THF. Falkon, our THF, sucked. Big style. I cannot begin to describe how useless he was, from pulling links, going afk mid-fight, missing SATA constantly, having poor equipment... the list goes on.

His presence there was good for only one thing: the fact that Rogue's Roll receives a bonus if there is a Thief in that party.

Avoid.

So yes, a classic example of how 1 or 2 players in an otherwise good party can bring it down for the players who actually TRY to play their jobs well!

~Dema

Oh, that death I mentioned? The very last mob we pulled was an Antican Signifier, to get Saik his lv.51. About 10 seconds before it died, it started casting Tornado. This was not an issue as, as I mentioned, it was dead shortly after.

Or so I thought.

You see, our THF managed to get a link while we were fighting. It was a Warrior mob, so that wasn't an issue, but instead of fighting it, we all ran to zone instead. No point fighting ANOTHER mob, apparently.

Anyways, as I was running up the ramp, away from the fading corpse of the signifier, with the hastatus having pounded my shadows down, I suddenly fall dead to the floor.

Checking back through the log, I find the following line:


The Antican Signifier casts Tornado.
Demajen takes 688 points of damage.


Well I'm sorry, but how the HELL did he finish the spell if he was dead?! It must have been a good 6 or 7 seconds AFTER he died too....

{I don't understand!}

So not the best way to end the party, but at least Saik levelled, and I got plenty of buffer anyways.

Here's the screenshot I took, in case you don't believe me XD