Ballista!

It was all quite a blur. To be honest, I'm not quite sure how it all started, but I think it went something like this. Akanea was (once again) trying to get some xp going, to no avail. Bored, he eventually discovered that there was going to be a Level 60 capped Ballista event in the Pashhow Marshlands, with Windurst against Bastok.

I did not join in that particular event, although I believe Enron and Ncloud went in to fight as TrueRune (Windurst) representatives, since after all, 95% of TrueRune in Windurstian anyway. In the meantime, I decided to go level up my Summoner. About an hour later, the linkshell was filled with chatter. Windurst triumphed over the forces of Bastok, and from what I gathered, it looked like a blast to play in, as well.

It wasn't long until the next Ballista match was to start. Once again, Level 60 cap, this time in the Meriphataud Mountians. Only this time, it was Windurst versus San d'Oria. ^^

Those Elvaan were going DOWN! ^^

One death warp and a quick flurry of job and equipment changing later, I found myself riding a chocobo from the Crag of Mea over to where the others were assembling. Having never done Ballista before, I was obviously nervous. It was a little annoying since I had to make sure I had my full AF with me, due to the Level 60 cap. Even had to dig up my old Druid's Rope that was starting to collect dust in the Mog Safe since my Hierarch's Belt was Level 71 gear. Unfortunately, I forgot that my Elemental Torque was Level 65, although by the time I realised I had left my Black Silk Neckerchief in my Mog Safe, I was in the Meriphataud Mountains and registered for Ballista. >_<

Anyway, the match was starting shortly, and I spent the time reading the rules of the game. It seemed simple enough. Use /quarry to dig up stuff, and hopefully get a Petra. Once you get a Petra, defeat somebody on the opposing team to get Gate Breach status, and with that, toss the Petra into a Rook to score. There were other things I found out along the way- one could not change equipment during Ballista-- doing so gives you a penalty, which is basically an extended Stun, so I had to lock myself into one gear setting, particularly annoying with all my Elemental Staves. In the end, I chose to stick with my Dark Staff to enable my Sleeps, since Sleepga II is a very good thing. ^^ Meanwhile, registration was going on.

When the match started, it would be a good 10 versus 10 skirmish. This particular Ballista session would be played best of three style, with each session lasting a fixed amount of time.

Well, I'll spoil the surprise and tell you how it ended.

Windurst OWNED San d'Oria, taking the opposing team down 3-0! ^^

Of course, the grizzly details are to come. First off, Ballista is FUN. There's so much going on (and nifty music, too), not to mention that this was a completely different way of playing the game. It was time to exploit each person's weaknesses to one's own benefit. At least, that's how it looked like when both Ncloud and I opened with an Elemental Seal-powered Sleepga II on the San d'Orian team, and from there, it was easy picking them apart. We really should've gone with Sleepga II -> Blizzaga II, but it seems that the melee didn't want to co-operate with this plan, so we ended up doing whatever we pleased. I ended up trying to stop everybody who was trying to run away, with combinations of Stun, Bind, and Sleep to immobilise people so that the others could catch up. Unfortunately, I was lagging quite bad, and so a lot of my spells were interrupted midcast. >_<

One thing though- Red Mages and Bards were annoying! >_< Their RDMs were pretty good at getting around to Silencing us efficiently, and I always found myself slept with a Horde Lullaby of some sort. Eventually, I realised that /quarry could dig up Poison Potions and Echo Drops to counter both of these, and that Blink was very good for stopping RDM Silences and Sleeps. I figured out what Provoke actually did in Ballista, making you unable to target anybody else, and realised that RDM melee still wasn't very good. SATA wasn't terribly good when I can just turn around to counter its effect, and I even managed to score a few kills here and there, courtesy of sneaking in a Blizzaga II in the middle of chaos, to a simple Aero III on someone about to eat dirt. ^^

Actually, I ended up playing the role of WHM most of the time, trying to squeeze in some Cure IIIs on people, especially Enron who had a knack for running off into someplace where nobody could find him, then yell bloody murder, demanding a Cure when everyone was on the other end of the battlefield. Course, I would've preferred it if Enron actually stayed with the rest of the group, but I guess that didn't work. ^^ For the record, I didn't die once during any of the three matches, although I did come close twice. Some DRG tried to Super Jump me, but fortunately I had Stoneskin up and as a result, a Stun and a Bind later, he was on the receiving end of many many jabs from fellow Windurstians. ^^ Another time was that WAR who Provoked me. Since I couldn't change my target, I decided to run away (because my health was rather low ; ;), then, spotting the other members of my team, ran to them for help, and that poor WAR suddenly found himself ambushed by eight Windurstians out for blood. Good times were abound. ^^

We're planning on making this a weekly LS event now. I'm certainly looking forward to our next match. ^^

In other news, my plants were finally ready after many days of checking and fertilising, and so, I reaped the benefits of twenty Tree Cuttings, getting seven stacks of Platinum Nuggets in the process. A little disappointing, since I was expecting something around 9-10 stacks, but oh well. I also got Rock Salt for the first time, too. >_< It was then a matter of time waiting until today, where Firesday, Full Moon would allow me to synth up those Platinum Nuggets I had been saving for.

Despite Firesday, Full Moon, powerful Fire Moghancement and Goldsmithing shades, the 9-level gap still meant that I failed a lot. I didn't keep stack of just how much material I lost, but it didn't particularly matter to me since most of it was grown, and as such, had minimal financial investment. I think I lost something like three Platinum Ores and twenty or so Platinum Nuggets trying to synth, but I was getting skillups insanely fast for something in the 50s. By the time I had successfully completed my first stack of Platinum Ingots (yay!), I had gained a whopping +0.8 skill points, which is practically unheard of in the post-50 crafting world. Of course, that meant...*drum roll*...



Ta-dah! ^^

If this keeps up, I'll be able to get a skill level every week or so, which will take me up to the cap at Level 64, or two months from now. Then, I can figure out how I'm going to fund all those Platinum Rings I'm going to have to make... >_<

Finally, I'm back to leveling up my Summoner in preparation for this weekend's scheduled Promyvion runs. But would I xp in the Dunes? Hell, no! ^^ Let's just say that after killing many many Worms in the Maze of Shakrami, then in Korroloka Tunnel, I'm a nice Level 20, and quite still quite a whiles away from the Level 30 that I need, it's still a good start. ^^ The rate of xp isn't great- only 2k/hr, but it's nice to know that I can at least solo that, and I don't have to put up with bad players in the dunes. it's also very nice to see yourself solo a mob for 200xp, too, although Incredibly tough mobs are just that- {Incredibly tough.} >_<