Parties...

Over the course of the past few days, I have, of course, been leveling every now and then. For some strange reason, I also seem to find a rather large number of other Black Mages seeking, and have been tempted to try out a heavy BLM party, just to see what it'd be like, and also because the 2x BLM, 2x SAM, PLD, BRD party got me to quite like multiple Black Mages in the same party. Unfortunately, after talking about it a little with a Japanese Rank 10 Black Mage who was also seeking, we decided that it'd be too dangerous and inefficient without either a Refresh effect (no BRD seeking) and no Stoneskin or Blink. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Eventually, other jobs filtered in, and I put together a party of RNG, THF, PLD, WHM, BLM, RDM in the Eastern Altepa Desert. It was a little tricky since the THF had to fire off the SATA from the RNG, but he managed to pull it off fast enough such that the RNG's life never was really threatened. That party was, compared to all the other parties I've had recently, amazing. To put it simply, the only time we got less than 200xp off a kill was at the start of a chain. And we were consistently hitting Chain #5s. I find it rather amusing that our Paladin said he needed to go in an hour's time, but after seeing the rate at which we were filling up those xp bars, he decided to stay an extra hour. ^^

He even sent me a tell saying that this was "the best party I have ever been in." Aww, shucks. /blush I like it when people tell me that, although really, it's a group effort by everybody.

I left that party to go to lunch, and then decided to log back on afterwards. Since the AH was still out of Mythril, I randomly decided to put my party flag up. I hadn't even opened the menu to type in my search comment when a /tell came in asking for a party.

"Jeebus, I haven't even begun typing my search comment in!"

The party again, was in the Altepa Desert, and once again, it did not disappoint. It was a little strange seeing as how we had no WHM, and the Rank 5 DRK41 didn't have the Altepa Gate Crystal either, but I feel that the trip is worth it. And indeed, it was. The rate wasn't as ridiculous as this morning's party, since overall, our levels were higher, but all of us were glad at the result. It sure would've beaten the Crawler's Nest anyday. I even hit 40, and that meant learning Warp II. Sadly, I had to leave early, so my first Warp II recipient was....myself. ^^

Compared to the parties over the past three days, today was a godsend. Seriously, I can excuse people in the Dunes, and Qufim Island too, to a certain point. But having underleveled subs, not having key spells, and in one case, not even knowing basic information, at this level is really, really well, bad. I actually had this said to me:

{Distortion} burst with {Thunder} or {Aero}

He also happened to use Bird Eggs for food. That, and he's a Mentor. There needs to be some system in place to make sure Mentors are actually people who can help. Then there was the Red Mage who, at level 39, still did not have Dispel. Or the White Mage who literally said "Well screw that, I don't intend to get it (Erase)." /sigh This, is a welcome relief.