XPing With Ansible, Skillup, and BLU (Big Post Part #2)

Where was I?

Oh yes, as well as complete PM3-3, I've been to party in Bhaflau Thickets with the members of Ansible.

Ansible XP and *ahem* skillup

I've never actually partied with Charless, Odrade, Obsidion and Tiggeress at the high levels before, but with my newfound love for killing things that aren't Incredibly Tough, I tagged along with them and a pickup WHM. Because I am the cheeky type, I subbed NIN and went in dual-wielding axes, just to see if I could even hit the mobs.

First mob. Whiff Whiff Whiff Whiff Whiff. But it got better. Pop some sushi, switch to ACC+ gear, and get Chuck to cast Blade Madrigal as well as March, and even at axe 196 I could hit quite comfortably. I got some pretty crappy Rampages but they got better. And the skillup was incredible. I learned Calamity (skill 200) about half way through the party, but its a WAR-onry skill so can't use it until I level WAR. By about Axe 210 I could hit the Sea Puks we were killing easily without Madrigal, and the Mamool Ja were taking a beating too. By the end of the party I was about 21k xp remaining to level 75, and had reached axe 218 which was, quite frankly, astounding, so I thank the Ansible members of the party for not bellowing at me for those first few mobs!


Blue Mage
Next up on the list of things done, I've been levelling BLU. I've had a couple of parties this week, thanks to a BLU called Ammon, who invited me twice. Both parties were in Wajaom Woodlands fighting the Lesser Colibri. Party 1 we both hit 55 so I finally got to wear my level 55 gear that I've had ready since 50 but never got to use cos of slow invites and general DRK stuff.

Party 2 was interesting. It was a BLU-burn. The last one of these I was in it was utter shit, so I was a little worried about this. But actually, we kicked a lot of ass in this party.

About 30 minutes in, our RDM levels. No problem, he's only as high as the rest of us so no big deal. 10 minutes later he says he'll BRB, so we kill a few without him. When he comes back he says he's "GTG", disbands and logs. There are no replacements for him, just a WHM who is gonna be at least half an hour cos she's in the middle of doing KS30.

What to do?

Well, here's what we DID do. We found a BRD somewhere, and I went and subbed WHM, stuck on as much MP+ equipment as I could find, grabbed my Light Staff, and I went and main-healed for a bit. Sure I wasn't anywhere near as good as a WHM, but I didn't really need Erase of Haste (Lesser Colibri have no status attacks, and BLU can haste themselves with Refuelling). Oh, and Healing Breeze with a Light Staff equipped heals for like 150 damage EACH. Don't do it in the middle of a fight when there's no actual tank =)

I think we had 3x BLU/NIN, a BLU/WHM, a COR/NIN and a BRD/WHM as final party setup. And we were probably at it for a couple of hours, during which time I levelled TWICE. BLU57 and got to wear my shiny scorpion harness on a second job! Yay!

Look out for part #3 of the big post for info on our PM3-5 fight, Saik's Samurai Helmet fight, fun in the temple of Uggaleipeh, and me learning some "hard" BLU spells.

~Dema