What a party!

I guess I must've gone on another xp hiatus, since I don't actually recall actively partying in recent memory. A lot of my efforts have been focusing on leveling up my Goldsmithing, and I guess xp must've taken a back seat to that.



However, occasionally I get the one nuts party that just goes on, and on, and on, and on.

It all started when I felt like xp'ing my Red Mage. At the time, I was RDM68 with about 6.5k tnl. Doing a quick search, I noticed two things in particular- there was a BRD68 seeking, and two WAR70s. I figured this might be a good enough base for a Warrior party, based off my first experience with an axe-burn setup. So, I talk to people and got a base of BRD WAR WAR RDM. The third Warrior, on the other hand, was quite a pain to get. -_-

After talking to Mystrall about what we could invite instead of a Warrior, I decided to invite a NIN/WAR to the party, although no sooner did I invite him that a WAR69 started lfg. -_- However, when I asked the Ninja if he had a DD build, he said that, without a Haubergeon he'd be hard pressed to really do damage, and perhaps I should find someone else in his place. I felt bad asking him to leave, but I really wanted that third Warrior in the party. To round things off, one of my existing Warriors told me that his friend was about to be done killing Byakko, and he'd like to join. Fortunately, his friend was also a Bard, and so, once I gathered everybody together, we were off!

WAR WAR WAR BRD BRD RDM!

Yes, that's two Bards. Double Minuet and double March is pretty fun, last I heard. ^^

The party did not disappoint. We were literally plowing our way through everything in Bibiki Bay, which was fortunately open. There were some clashes with a nearby manaburn party though- it got to the point where we were even pulling from adjacent camps because the Catoblepas' 5-minute repop timer was too slow! >_<

Anyway, with the xp ring, I had managed to work off my 6.5k tnl to RDM69 in under an hour. I wasn't quite sure just how fast we were going, but it was at least 7k/hr, which is pretty impressive, not to mention a very intense party- heck, we were literally pulling merit style, where the Bard would go pull, (in this party, I also helped pull) and we'd "claim" the mob first by Sleeping it closeby, where I can then juggle in between buffing the party members, and debuffing the next mob. Othertimes, the Bard would go to the adjacent camp far off, and pull a mob while I also went down south to pull some (closer) Goblins- that way, the Bard's back in time to catch the xp from the Gobiln kill, we have our next mob lined up, and have also burnt some extra time for the Catoblepas to respawn. XD

The numbers ticked off as time passed by. There were some hiccups, like an unknowing Bard claiming a Catoblepas that I had already slept, and so when it woke up, I had the hate, but couldn't touch it. Needless to say, two of our party members, including myself died because of that (SquareEnix should really fix that problem -_-.) which resulted in some heated exchange, but that was eventually cleared up.

Several hours later, I hit RDM70.

Yes, that's one full level at the late 60s in one party sitting. In total, I think we made just over 44k xp during the course of the six hours we were there. I know I'm not one for long parties, but when the xp flow is this good, it's both fun, and you really do feel like going on and on!

Of course, some of our members had switched out in the meantime- two of our English-speaking Warriors had to go, and so found Japanese replacements as the time shifted into Japanese peak time. In the end, I think the final party setup was four Japanese, myself, and an NA Bard. Of the six, four of us were there from the beginning.

It's been a long time since I last had some a long party, and to be honest, thinking about it, I don't think I really want such a long party ever again, but the whole change of pace was like taking a breath of fresh air, and showed a whole different style of play compared to the usual routine of buff/debuff, wait for melees to get TP, skillchain, Magic Burst, rest, repeat.

But then again, if someone invited me to be their Red Mage in their Axe/Fist/anything-that's-not-"mana~" burn party, would I accept? In a heartbeat. ^^