Finally managed to get that last elusive +0.1 skill point today. Successfully crafted another Gold Ingot on Iceday, and watched and grinned as the magic words, "Tuufless's goldsmithing skill reaches 48!" flashed past, or at least something along those lines. Traded in a Mythril Ring that I had been saving all this time for this moment, and voila! I'm now recognised as a Goldsmithing Journeyman!
Incidentally, I also just crafted another Gold Ingot, this time on Firesday, and got +0.2 skill points and a successful synthesis. So that makes my Goldsmithing 48.2. ^^
I do, however, have a problem. Goldsmithing's taken its toll, and I am now the poorest I have ever been in a long, long while. I have a grand total of something like 3,000 gil left on me /cry. Of course, this doesn't include the stuff I have listed up on the Auction House- two stacks of Mythril Ingots and three Gold Ingots for about 240k total, but oh well. I'm rather alarmed at how little profit making your base materials turn out, to be honest. Mythril isn't the great moneymaker it used to be (partially because everyone was jumping on the Mythril bandwagon), and as for Gold, well, making Gold Ingots out of Gold Ores is actually a loss. I think when the time comes, I'll just skip the 4x Gold Ore stage and go straight to 1x Gold Ore, 6x Gold Nugget. Some other people have mentioned this on the forums, so I can tell I'm not the only one feeling it. Oh well.
With Journeyman status, I can now buy my sunglasses, too! Unfortunately, I also need about 40,000 more guild points before I can get them. ; ;
Helped a bunch of people with thier AF3 fights today as well. We (finally) got around to getting Akanea his purple helmet, so he wouldn't get so many funny looks from people, and since we had an alliance together, we might as well head down to the Garliage Citadel to help the Red Mages get their hat. Neither fight was particularly difficult- all I did really was Haste my party members to counteract the RDM AF3 NM Guardian Statue's Slowga in the Garliage Citadel. The location was a lot closer than I thought, in fact, it's just behind the first banishing gate. Sooner or later, I'll have to pop back in here to get my BLM AF, but for now, that can wait.
Akanea's DRG AF3 took place in the Temple of Uggalepih (which marks the third time I've been here in four days /grumble). Fortunately, his fight, too, wasn't terribly far away, and to be honest, I haven't the foggiest idea just what we were fighting. I think it was a pair of NM Dolls, but I didn't really get a very good look at it. I do remember that this fight was brutally quick, and I don't mean in the NM's favour, either.
After heading home (and finding that nothing sold! /fume), I soon got the urge to try on my Moldavite Earring, which meant that I had to get level 47. Railston was online as well, so we decided to try and party together. Problem was, we didn't really know how to set up a party that had two Black Mages in it, especially now that Dispel effects are important. We eventually settled upon an initial party of two Red Mages, three Black Mages and a Paladin to tank. Went down to Revelation Rock to practice before eventually heading down to the Quicksand Caves for the real fighting.
One of the Red Mages, however, was a disappointment. He was drunk, at least, or so he says, and after seeing stuff like him not switching between melee and mage gear, casting Stone II on Beetles and not Refreshing/Enfeebling, I suggested he take a break for his own health. The fact that he had to leave for a bit to get his medicine since he had trouble breathing didn't help either. The party was a disappointment, since things were slow, and just felt very clunky. We Warp II'ed him back, and then carried on fighting with 5 people (since we were essentially doing that) until I found a Bard to come.
Once the Bard came in, things were all good. The Bard was a great sport at pulling (since she played a Ranger as well, so was used to it), and she and I would duo pull- she's Requiem, and I'd Sneak her up so she could get back to camp safely. Pulling's pretty hard work, and I have newfound respect for all the pullers who can consistently return with a Helm Beetle on their tails when there are so many Anticans around. The Paladin was great, too. He said he'd be up for a challenge, trying to take a half-BLM party, but he managed to pull it off. I don't know how, but once we got going, it soon became apparent that I could literally cast Blizzard II, Blizzaga, Blizzard over and over again without stopping. The Paladin only rarely lost hate, but that's what Blink was for. ^^
That all changed once I dinged 47. ^^ Once I equipped the Moldavite Earring, my nukes went through the roof. Blizzard IIs for 280 damage as opposed to 230. I had to tone down a little bit, lest I get aggro (and I did die two or three times :P), but overall, the party was very fun, even though we weren't hauling in the xp of a regular party. I guess stubborness pays off, sorta. If I were to do it again, I suppose it is definitely possible with more or less the same configuration. The Red Mage could be replaced with another Black Mage to speed things up a little, since the RDM debuffs weren't really needed, and all we wanted was Refresh. Ice Therondy probably should be prioritised next to Mage's Ballad too, since with Therondy, our Blizzards hit for full damage, and we saved both time and mana. Hopefully I'll get to try this again sometime. ^^
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