To be new again.

As I briefly mentioned the last time, I had the unique opportunity to teach a bunch of Japanese newbies party dynamics, and how to play.

I know what you're thinking. Japanese? Newbies?

Yeah, they exist, alright.

In any case, I was seeking as my Corsair, soloing in the Konschtat Highlands when I got a Japanese invite from a MNK. I was evidently the first person he invited, and soon after the complimentary greetings, he asked me to help look for members. I told him that a Bard was lfg, and so we picked her up as well. It was then that I found that the MNK had only been playing for just over a week, and had already unlocked his subjob, and was now working on his MNK through the Valkurm Dunes.

I soon found a WAR to come along with us, although the Warrior at the time was in San d'Oria, and I used the time to try and find more members. I found a BLM to fill in the next spot.

The BLM's reply to my invite intrigued me. See, when I look through people's search comments, I see general comments about their stats, their food/gear they have/use, what subjobs they have available, if they are Japanese, or some haughty comment like "NIN tank only", "Burn party only", "{Veteran}{Please invite me.}", or the equally snidish "{Amateur}{No thanks.}"

The BLM's search comment indicated that he was a new player, and his reply to me was "I'm a new player, is it still okay if I join?"

Of course, I let him in. Besides, it was the dunes, so I'd expect a few new players (I suspect he must've noticed my Rank 10), but his humility certainly caught me a little off guard. I certainly could never imagine an English-speaking player to inquire if their newness was okay- many players nowadays seem obsessed about trying to advertise themselves instead, which I suppose works, although to be honest, the only crucial pieces of information party leaders really need to know are your tnl, what subjobs you have, and which areas you can go to.

Anyway, the five of us (WAR BLM BRD MNK COR) stood around for a little bit, when a JP WHM started seeking. I was hesitant at first, but you can't really turn down a WHM at this level, and afraid she would get invited by someone else quickly, I just instinctively asked if she wanted to join in.

She replied yes, and we were off to kill Snippers at the beach.

Unfortunately, my fears came true. With the WHM, our party setup was WAR MNK COR BRD WHM BLM, and try as I might, COR is not frontline DD, and the crabs were taking far too long to kill, and draining too much of the party per kill. On our second crab, two of our members died, after which I warped back to Aht Urhgan to switch over to WHM, and then came back to raise the fallen.

The problem now was that here I was as a WHM, with no real way of getting back to the party quickly. In the end, I offered to just drop and powerlevel them until they found a sixth member, but the BRD didn't like the idea of it (I suspect for the same reasons I do). When the BLM asked what "PL" stood for, I replied with "Power Level", and the BRD chipped in with "Something the foreign players often do."

Gee. -_-

In any case, I suspected that I needed to take action, otherwise we'd just spend more time talking at the beach, so I dropped from the party there and then and told the MNK (who I gave back the leader) to pick up the WAR that was seeking. I headed over to the crag of Dem where I met up with the WAR, and escourted him over to the rest of the party, and a good thing too, since I think they caught Goblin aggro while moving to the oasis and two more party members died. ; ;

So I stood there and watched. I didn't powerlevel them- I just stoodback and watched to see if they could handle things. As I suspected, things went a lot better, with the second WAR in for additional damage, but also to act as a supporting tank of sorts.

Practically the entire party were newbies (sans the BRD) though. I ended up giving pointers about what to do (like telling the Warriors to constantly Provoke to manage hate). Later on, Deadend from my Dynamis LS came down to watch as well (Apparently, Joy, our BRD, is his {wife}), and he explained this thing called a "Skillchain" and "Magic Burst".

This part also caught my attention. While Deadend and Joy were explaining how to create a skillchain and land a Magic Burst, nobody interrupted. Everybody just stood there, "listening" to the explanations we were giving them. It was a real, "time-out" session where we got their full attention to explain battle mechanics to. Those of you who are aspiring teachers irl would empathise with me when I say it's a real pleasure to teach to people who listen.

Deadend had set up a skillchain that went from Scission to Fusion. The melee executed the skillchain, but the BLM missed the magic burst, since the MNK did Combo, closing the Fusion skillchain before the BLM's Stone MB could land.

I then suggested that for new players, perhaps the skillchain was a little too complex, and suggested they just focus on Combo. The next time, the MNK did Combo too quickly, almost immediately after the starting weaponskill. After the battle was over, we told him to slow down and take his time.

The next crab came by.

Skillchain: Fusion
Magic Burst!

Everyone /cheered!

This is what things should be like, learning how to skillchain and land a Magic Burst in the Valkurm Dunes, as opposed to say, Qufim, or the Jungles. -_- Granted, I don't think we taught the melee how to actually set-up a skillchain, in terms of actually selecting jobs and weaponskills to create one, but they're already miles ahead of the majority of the Dunes players from what they did that night. -_-

Heck, I learnt how to magic burst in the Dunes as well (and actually took me many, many tries because I couldn't distinguish the skillchain effect from the weaponskill effect >_<), and I don't see why anybody else couldn't. Besides, it's really not that difficult, yet for some reason, people seem unable to piece this together until much, much later. I wonder why?

In any case, the party ended soon after. It was a two-hour long party, with perhaps like, 8-10 mobs killed. But they learnt one of the most important parts of battle tactics, and that, in my mind, made that party a resounding success.

We even escourted them up to the Crag of Holla to get their gate crystal, and to top things off, I gave them their first Teleport! (Over to Dem :P) All in all, a good time. ^^