Feeling BLU.

Hey all,

Sorry for the lack of posting, I was in Las Vegas for a few days throwing all my money away. But I'm back, so here is today's post.

For starters, is there anything more annoying than this?

The answer is yes.


So shortly after my last post, I decided I hated Beastmaster. I know I was all 'woo Beastmaster,' but clearly I'm just a huge liar. My next BST attempt had me with four deaths, all of which had me going back to my HomePoint and walking back, which I hate. See you in hell, Beastmaster.

Out of the ashes of my Beastmaster came my Blue Mage, who up until yesterday I hated also. My biggest problem with this job was learning the enemy skills. I decided to give it another try, even though it meant Dunes leveling.

I hit level 12 and decided to leave the comfort of Windurst for the bitter coldness of Sandy, so I could learn Queasyshroom, Battle Dance, and Power Attack. (I also wanted Sand Spin, but apparently worms hate using that weapon skill.)

This of course meant a lot of waiting...


And waiting...


Sometimes, I would forget to stop hitting the mobs, and they would die before using any abilities. I hate when that happens.

Eventually, Power Attack and Queasyshroom were mine. I also managed to learn Helldive, although I didn't even know that was a learnable skill. I went three hours without seeing Battle Dance used once, and was convinced it was a joke being played on Blue Mages. Finally, one Orc used it one time, and I didn't learn it. Surprise, surprise. After not learning it for three and a half hours, I left, angry and angry.

I headed to the Dunes hoping to get some levels in so I could leave as soon as possible. I was only seeing for two minutes when I got an invite. I excitedly accepted and while on my way to the party, I decided to check the group out.


Yeah. WHM/MNK. Right there I knew I was in for a good time. (Granted, after my BLM/PLD experience a few months ago, nothing really shocks me anymore.) When I got to the party, I found out it was even worse than I thought.

Check out that 1337 gear. This guy clearly went all out on his whm/mnk. I hate the dunes.

When I got there, one of our members was dead, and the group was arguing about Benediction. I casually asked the whm/mnk why he didn't have any gear on.

Pasquale: Hey, (name of whm/mnk), why no gear?
Whm/mnk: I'm lvlin' my magin.
Pasquale: ...?

Right here he left the party because of my party members giving him shit about Benediction and my apparent newbness because I didn't know what 'magin' was.

It took some rebuilding, but I managed to get two levels last night, which takes me two levels closer to leaving the dunes for good. (At least until I switch jobs again.)

I hate the dunes.

Back to basics.

After a week of bad parties, I decided to switch jobs for a few days. I saw it as a way to flush the negativity out, because instead of being mad at SMN, I would be mad at something else.

Mission: Accomplished.

I started with Thief, because I always thought it would be cool to have Flee. My Thief was level six when I started releveling it the other day. When I hit level 10, I was surprised to find I still didn't have flee. {Hmmm.}

A quick search at alla let me know that Flee was a lvl 25 ability, and that I was an idiot.

Immediately after finding out how far I was from Flee, I switched to BRD. I'm still not sure why I switched to BRD, because I was never a fan, but I figured I'd give it another try.

Ten seconds later, I was lying dead after being brutally murdered by a decent challenge Bee.

Next on my hitlist was Corsair. As I was gearing my level 12 COR up, I remembered all the work a Corsair had to do when in a party, and quickly changed jobs once again. (Poor Corsair, didn't even make it out of the Mog House.)

I was gonna try PLD, but I was level 20 and that meant partying, which I didn't want to do. The same went for WAR and SAM. I thought about Ranger, but the thought of pulling for a party horrified me. If you have ever done anything with me, you understand that I am not someone you want bringing mobs to your party, because my mobs never travel alone.

I decided to give Beastmaster another go. Last time I attempted this job, there was a lot of mischarming and crying going on, but I decided to try again, without failing at everything. The 'no party' aspect had a nice ring to it.

At first it was going pretty well. I fought all the way to 10 without having any mishaps. Spiny spawned while I was leveling in his area, and thanks to every rarab and mandragora within a ten mile radius, I was able to take him down. Still no cape drop, and I still hate him.

I think my favorite part about Beastmaster is your ability to save your ass if something goes wrong. I was resting when a goblin decided to try to end me. I ran away and started throwing charmed bees at him like they were bullets coming out of a machine gun. Several minutes later, I was victorious. It was a good feeling, to live through the same goblin aggro that has killed me many times before.

After my triumphant win over that sneaky goblin bastard, I decided I'd farm myself a pair of Bounding Boots. After three hours of losing claims to people without subjobs, I gave up. (Man, I wish I had Flee.) I am pretty much the worst camper ever. (I know three hours isn't much time. I once helped my brother camp Lizzy for six hours, it was awful.) I hear there's a BCNM that also drops them, and that it's pretty easy. Maybe I'll try that.

I'm starting to miss SMN, but I think I'll take BST to at least 20-ish before I switch back.

The MND is a terrible thing to waste.

If there's one thing I can't stand, its main-healing. I do it all the time, because I have to, but each time the little SMN inside me dies a little.

Despite the fact that I strongly dislike doing it, I do do it, and I do it pretty damn well. (Whoa, that's a lot of "do.") Obviously I never thought my healing could compare to that of a WHM, whose sole purpose in a party is to keep everyone alive, but the other day I was proven wrong.

I was seeking in Whitegate, debating if I wanted a party or if I wanted to just wait for the upcoming Besieged, when I got an invite asking if I wanted to start a party. Normally I turn these down, as they are usually a waste of time when it doesn't get filled. This time was different:

Player>> You want to start a party with me?
Pasquale>> If I'm still seeking when you're a little fuller shoot me another tell.
Player>> I'm a WHM, and I already have a tank, it shouldn't take that long.

I haven't partied with a WHM in forever, and this would give me a chance to fully take advantage of the Rage/Ward BloodPact system, without needing my MP to heal. I accepted and within minutes we were off to Aydeewa Subterrane, a place near Wajoam, with a name impossible to spell without the Auto-Translator. I want to say it out loud, but it makes my mouth hurt.

We met at the entrance and I noticed the WHM was wearing a pretty cool looking piece of body armor. After checking it, I was suprised to see the MND- stat, but I figured it was just travel gear, and didn't say anything. When we got to camp our puller pulled a Defoliator (something like that, those green crawler things), and we started.

For some reason, we had a PLD and a NIN in our party. Maybe that's regular practice and I didn't know about it, but I've never been in a party like that before. As we fought the mob, the WHM was spamming Cure IVs all over the place, and understandably ran out of MP halfway through the fight, leaving our hero to finish the fight main-healing.

We rested after the fight, because someone went afk, and I took the time to /check the WHM again. Not only was he still wearing the MND- gear, he didn't have any MND+ stats on anything but his pants, and he used a Dark Staff while healing. Needless to say, I was a little confused.

We started our next fight and the same thing happened. Our WHM ran out of MP halfway through and I had to do his job for him. After this fight our WHM disappeared for 20 min while looking for someone who had sent him a /tell asking for a Raise. We kept going while he was gone, because I was doing all the healing/Hastega-ing anyway.

While fighting some weird looking spider mob, I used Cure II on the PLD, who was apparently afraid of his MP. After the Cure II hit, I got a face full of spider leg, and my health dropped to almost nothing. The PLD voked and I used Cure II on myself and was promptly reacquainted with that spider's leg. Thankfully the mob died before I did, and I could fully heal myself before we began.

We had two tanks, a NIN and a PLD, and one single Cure II pulled hate. I asked the PLD if he could start healing himself, but he replied that he didn't want to take hate..

Our Paladin didn't want to take hate.

I shot him a tell asking him to main tank, because the NIN couldn't keep hate, but I didn't get a response. The next three fights were all the same. I would use Cure II, I would get mauled by a spider.

Finally our WHM decides to come back to us and nothing changes. It took forever and a half to kill anything so I found a replacement for myself and bailed. I felt bad for the guy I got to take my place, but I did warn him to watch his hate and that the WHM sucked.

So yeah, I had a party with a WHM and 2 tanks, and I still ended up almost eating dirt. Anybody want a duo partner?

Coff Drop.

About a year ago, while I was still leveling BLM, I started the AF Hands quest. Little did I know I would soon stop leveling BLM for SMN, and that the Hand quest I had started would haunt me for months on end.

After countless attempts to get a group together to go to Garliage, I sometimes managed to gather three others for the Banishing Gates, only to end in failure. There was always something wrong; either other coffer hunters beating my slow ass to the claim, or death, lots and lots of death.

All that changed last night. After a year of being stuck on the BLM AF Hands quest, I am proud to say I can finally move on to something else.


Soulstar, Ruffyreborn, Ishaela, and I gathered at the entrance of Garliage Citadel determined and angry. (They were determined, I was angry. I seriously hate that place.)

We moved like ninja through the Citadel, swiftly and completely undetected. After the second gate, we split into two groups to look for the coffer chest. While Ish and I were having success finding the coffer, Ryffy and Soul were having success aggro-ing a bunch of beetles, and some huge giant blob-frog thing.

I opened the coffer and got the old gloves, while my escorts fought vailiantly against several mobs. After getting the item, I tried to help, but forgot to change my macros, and succeeded in doing nothing. Summoner macros are pretty much useless while on Black Mage, and by the time I realized I was an idiot, it was too late, everything was already dead.

After a quick stop in Jeuno, we headed to Castle Zvahl to kill Dark Spark. We made it to the torches, spawned the Bomb, and kicked his ass.


Here's a shot of our awesome kill-tastic team. It appears Soulstar is a little camera shy, or I'm the worst photographer ever. Both good.

The coffer good times didn't end there. Ishaela and I went to Toraimarai Canal to get my SMN boots coffer. This trip was much less smooth than the Garliage expedition.

While killing skeletons and hoping for a key to drop, I managed to aggro five Canal Pugils. (Funny story, when Sneak wears off, things can hear you. Things that can hurt you.)

Ish was whm/nin so there was no provoke. While she was fighting the pugils off, I used Astral Flow twice, and brought the health of the group down a bit, while also drawing a ton of hate to myself. When all the smoke cleared we stood triumphant. Wounded and angry, but triumphant nonetheless.

Seven hundred skeletons later, this happened:

Note my manly cheer upon finally getting a key. The extra exclamation points are for extra excitement.

After this, Ish and I parted ways and I hooked up with some linkshell mates to do the longest Besieged ever. We had a good group, except for this red mage who tagged along. He was useless. What was his name... Nermal? Neville? I forget, but oh man, useless. (Naw, I'm just kidding. He did a good job, um, guarding the corner of town from Mothra attacks. He was like one of those British guards, motionless and brave.)

During the Besieged, I felt like an old Civil War nurse, running from wounded soldier to wounded soldier, curing and raising left and right. I tried to use Astral Flow, but I only managed to do an embarrassing 24 dmg.

(Nev- That's for claiming to be 'awesomeerthanjoo.' You can't see it, but I'm shaking my fist in anger.)

Little bit of... (Part 2)

Back in September, I made a post called 'Little bit of...' and used it as sort of a dumping ground for a few things I had mulling around in my head. Today's post is gonna be the same thing, hence the 'Part 2.'

Bonecrafting.
This past week I decided to use my newly acquired wealth to level a craft. I chose Bonecraft for two reasons. First off, Neville needs some arrowhead something crafted if I ever get my skill to 50, so I already know my craft will be useful eventually. Secondly, no matter how boring Bonecrafting gets, every time the little message that tells me my Bonecrafting skill has gone up, I giggle, because it says 'Bone.' (Mmmm... Jr High maturity at its finest. I suck at being twenty-two years old.)

Despite it's hilarious name, Bonecrafting has been less than good to me. I bought stacks of mats and crystals, and despite getting Advanced Synth. Support, I still seem to fail at almost every attempt. I've tried everything to make it better. I've changed directions, waited out new moon phases, surrounded myself with mithra (hot), surrounded myself with galka (unpleasant), and even whispered sweet nothings to each crystal before synthing with them. I honestly think that last one helped a little.

TCB.
In the past, it was very rare for me to accomplish more than one quest/mission a week, because I'm just so lazy. Because of this, I am very behind on everything. This week was very different.

This week, I managed to finish my Promys, and take CoP to 2-3. I wanted to keep going but Neville informed me that I, in fact, could not take the 2-3 Minotaur alone. While exploring inside Tazmanian Devil, I also managed to do a map quest, providing me with... a map. (I am a wizard with words. /sigh)

But that's not all, I am now the proud owner of a Olduum Ring, which, even though I can't use it yet, is still pretty sweet. And I also managed to finally turn in G3. That's like five quests/missions in one week, which is huge for me.

Operation Human Shield.
Leader>> Party?
Pasquale>> Sweet god yes^^

I had only been seeking for 20 minutes, and I was obviously too excited to get an invite so soon. No worries, my hopes were dashed seconds later.

Leader>> Ooooh, sorry man, party wants to go with WHM.

I was a little upset, but I understand. I wouldn't want me healing me either. A few minutes later, I get a /tell from the same leader, and I thought my luck was beginning to change.

Leader>> Changed our mind, you still want in?

My heart sang with joy as I gladly accepted the party invite. Much to my surprise we were actually almost full, and not one of those parties that consists of myself and someone looking to snag the only available healer.

(Leader) Out tank d/c, so we need a new one.

After 20 minutes of searching, all hope was lost and we disbanded. There was to be no experience for our hero.

Seriously, you guys need to start leveling Tank jobs. I have a legitimate allergy to pain, so I can't do it, otherwise I totally would. {Meat} {Shield} {Can I have it?} {Yes,please.}

When bad jokes go bad...der.
I'm not gonna lie, I hate farming. Whenever I find myself low on gil, I would grind a low level job and use my beastman seals in an attempt to rake in more cash. Sometimes this plan works, sometimes I get murdered by three pugils spitting water all over me. Usually I get murdered by three pugils spitting water on me.

My brothers quit a few months ago, and I decided last week to reactivate one of their accounts to see if they had anything I needed on them. Upon logging in, I checked the gil and my jaw hit the ground. I fired up a second Windower and traded myself all the gil and expensive equipment. (Is graverobbing your brother's character bad? I vote yes, but I'm petty and lazy, so I won't lose much sleep over it.)

Upon logging back into Pasquale, I was getting antsy to spend money. Minutes later, the logic center of my brain shut off, and away my money went.

I don't remember what my cousin and I were arguing about, but I do remember purchasing a Royal Cloak to rub it in his face. A 4.5 million gil burn. I was satisfied. It feels good being a horrible person.

After the awesomensess of my 'rubbing in' had settled, I threw the cloak in the AH and patiently awaited my 4.5 million to be returned to me.

A few days later, my Royal Cloak was returned instead. I tried to sell it again, but was met with no success.

So now I'm wearing it while I level SMN. My newfound wealth viciously cut down in its prime, because I have a horrible sense of humor. Every time I look at it I think two things: 'Man, I'm an idiot,' and 'Man, I look fucking awesome.'

Giving back.
Last night I helped some people in my LS and a few others with their Carbuncle Mitts. I remember how grateful I was to get help when I got mine, so I wanted to return the favor. I logged into the Temple and headed to meet my LS mates. I threw up Invis and Sneak and off I went.

I ran into a door, and had to take Invis off. As soon as I opened the door, I was met with an angry Torama. I tried to run back, but the door had closed. By the time I had gotten it open, the Torama had managed to eat half of my face.

While running/crying towards the zone, an Opo-opo aggro'd me. Just before I made it out, the little bastard murdered me. (And to think I once used the word 'adorable' to describe them.)

After being raised and escorted (I seriously can't do anything by myself) to where we were going, we started killing the NM for the mitts. We did it three times, and all three times we kicked its ass. Congrats to our new Carbuncle Mitts owners!

This weekend I am going to learn how to solo bombs. I've got a bad feeling about this. See you in-game.

Anima-niacs

So, despite my general dislike for all things Promyvion, I decided to join my LS in a series of Promy runs to take place on Saturday. These things don't always end in happiness and high-fives, but I need to get them done eventually, and the sooner I finish it, the sooner I can swear off all things CoP.

I logged in today to do a little farming, as I needed some animas for when we got to the bosses of each crag. (Funny story, I actually had them all in Storage, but recently dropped them because I needed the space to hold my new Christmas festival items. I pretty much hate myself.)

When I logged in, I was still by the Mission 5-1 burning circle, which meant a lot of travel to get home. After checking to see if I'd delevel, I bloodported home, as I am way to lazy to do any actual walking. After I grabbed up some gear for the lvl 30 cap, I headed to Dem to start farming.

I get in, and right away spot a Wanderer sitting by himself, waiting to be destroyed. Ifrit and I made quick work of him, but nothing dropped. Determined to get my animas, I targeted another Wanderer and began another battle.

While Ifrit and I were fighting Wanderer 'A,' there were two other Wanderers slowly making their way over. It was as if they had decided to aid their weakened friend.

Wanderer B: Hey, it looks like 'A' needs some help.
Wanderer C: Yeah, we should head out, whose fighting him?
Wanderer B: Looks like a lone SMN, with some pretty lousy gear.
Wanderer C: I'ma make him bleed.

Within seconds, I had three Wanderers wailing on me, and needless to say, Ifrit did not last long. While he was fighting them, I did the noble thing and ran like a little girl.

I approached what I thought was the exit, but when I stepped on it, nothing happened. This was the result:
Of course I didn't have Reraise up, so I had to run all they way back and try again. After killing a few more, I finally got the Pain Recollection. I kept fighting for a little while to try to score at least one more Recollection. It wasn't a total waste of time, however, there were some good things.

For starters, I was getting killer exp, which helped make up the tons of exp I lost having died twice already.

Sometimes, I got exp and an item. I don't know what a 'remnant of a malevolent memory' is, but I'm sure it will sell for millions when I take it to the AH. Totally banking right now.

And who doesn't love skill-ups? Communists, that's who. Although it made me kinda sad that I was getting skill-ups, because it reminded me that my Club skill was embarrassingly low.

After an hour of killing and no luck with another Recollection, I decided to kill one more guy and then leave.

In the past, whenever I decided to 'go for one more,' it usually ended with my own death.

This time was no different.


The arrow on the right shows our health just before I bite it. You'll note I have considerably more than him, but still manage to die a horrible death. The arrow on the left shows the numbers of the massive damage I was dealing to him with my club, after I had run out of MP and Ifrit had to go away. (Click for larger image.) (I think.)

I seriously suck at fighting everything. Seriously.

(Sorry this update was so late, I was internet-less for two weeks, then it was all woo-holidays. Back to usual schedule next week.)

This just in, I hate you.

I have been having connection problems lately and my FFXI experience has suffered because of it. The most recent of said suffering occurred a few days ago, while fighting Wajaom Tigers. (I'm pretty sure that's what they were called. I guess I could look it up, but meh. They were giant tiger-like beasts in Wajaom.)

The party was actually going really well. I was stuck at main heal, but our tank rocked hard so there wasn't much healing to do, aside from having to cast Paralyna on everyone every five seconds. (Seriously non-stop, I don't think any of my Avatars saw the light of day.) (Damn tigers.)

Experience points were literally raining down on us as we blew through tiger after tiger. It was my first real exp party since I've been back and it felt good.

About an hour in, I got disconnected. When I was able to log back in, I was greeted by a pile of dead bodies.

I apologized to the group and began to Raise everyone. There were some less-than-pleasant remarks made by our BLM about me d/c-ing, and after I rested up we began again.

About 20 min later I notice no one is moving. I quick glance to the top-right corner of my screen let me know I was disconnecting again. Balls.

It took me about 10 min to get back and this time my party was much less forgiving. After Raising everyone again I was informed I was no longer allowed in the group. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure it went exactly like this:

Leader: Yeah... WTF?
Pasquale: Guys, I'm really sorry. I told you when we started my connection was shitty today. Let's just start up again?
Dragoon: Hell no. Fuck you and your connection.
Black Mage: Fuck you.
Pasquale: {Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to pass}
Black Mage: Fuck you.
Tank: Guys let's just start again...
Pasquale: That's quite a vocabulary you've got there.
Leader: No, fuck Pasq, he's a fucking dick. He's gone.
Black Mage: Fuck you.
/blist Black Mage

At this point I was kicked from the party. I called my chocobo and went back to Whitegate to seek for another group.

Twenty-five minutes later I get a /tell:
Leader from before: {Party}?

I decided it was best to ignore it.

Leader from before: Ummm... {Party}?
Pasquale: You can't possibly be this stupid.

There was a pause. I could picture the puzzled look on his face.

Leader from before: WTF?
Pasquale: You just kicked me out of your party half an hour ago. Bad connection? {Death} everywhere?
Leader from before: Oh
Leader from before: Fuck you.

I decided I'd had enough and logged for a bit. When I came back on, I threw up my flag and waited patiently for an invite.

Leader from before, for a remarkable third time: {Party}?

Nothing ever changes.

So I spent the last few days getting reacquainted with FFXI. I know I wasn't gone that long, but in my absence, I played another MMO, and had a different set of controls flowing through my fingers.

I spent my first two days back leveling my WAR. Neville with his 12 blm and me with my 12 war set out to Ghelsba Outpost to kill mass quantities of Orcs, who up until this weekend, I didn't really have a problem with.

After about an hour of merciless Orc-slaughter, Nev and I had both leveled. When I finally hit 13 (huge achievement, I know), I put on my new great sword. As if it were cursed, the great sword led me to a quick and painful death, followed by a delevel.

I haul ass back to where we were fighting and we start up again. I leveled in a few fights and once again equipped the cursed great sword. Sure enough, I was dead within two fights, causing me to delevel again.

Neville and I worked quickly to, once again, get me to level 13 and decided to call it quits because we both had to log. For some unknown reason, I equipped the great sword before I left the game. (I'm lying, the reason was because I look so damn cool with it on.)

Fast forward to the next day. ::Fast forward sounds::

I logged in yesterday and found my self on the business end of an Orc's spear. I smashed my Mighty Strikes macro and made quick work of the monster trying to end me. After this near death experience, I unequipped the great sword, because all doubt that it was cursed had left my mind.

While unequipping, three of the dead Orc's friends decided to come along and avenge their fallen comrade. I leapt into battle, hoping to at least take out one or two of them.

This probably could have been achieved had I equipped a weapon. After getting mauled mid-change, I got distracted and wasn't paying attention. Unfortunately, my little taru fists were no match for three giant stupid Jorcs (Jerk + orcs, oh yeah baby, I'm back) and I quickly died and deleveled, for a remarkable third time in two days.

Needing to shake the feeling of failure from my shoulders, I decided to switch to SMN and help out my linkshell with a Beadeaux Coffer. I figured we'd kill things for an hour and get it done, while having a good time and helping me get used to this new-fangled Dual Blood-Pact system for Summoners (which I friggin love).

Two and a half hours of battling Quadavs later and there was still no key drop. We were getting tired of killing these Jerk-davs (the hits don't stop coming). Morale was obviously dropping, but we pressed on, determined to get the drop. At around the three hour mark, my usual bad luck finally caught up with me.

I'm not sure if I was more upset that I had lost exp, or that I died looking like a pervert feeling up a passed out chick's leg at a party.

After we got out raises, I had to log. It took a total of five hours to get that coffer, and I'm pretty sure I speak for the whole group when I say Beadeaux is for jerks.

Earlier this weekend I was also in a party where the WAR and NIN got into a fight about who should be the tank, and a MNK who subbed THF, because of Gilfinder. It's good to be back.

Homecoming.

So I logged back on today for the first time in two months. I couldn't stay on long, but it was fun running around Windy and Jeuno and getting myself ready to start leveling again. A strange thing happened when I got back to my mog house...

Aaaaaaand we're back. No, seriously.

So, I quit a few months ago (two months ago. two.) and tried to find something to fill my time. After quitting, I started to post more on my website (www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net) which was good, and I also found myself with an abundance of free time, which was not as good as I thought it would be.

I tried going back to WoW, but I still don't really like it. I like PvP-ing (haha peeing) but other than that I find the game pretty boring. Another thing I didn't like was that I didn't really have any friends on, aside from my brothers, so I never had anyone to talk to, which sucked. (Except Nev, once in a blue moon when I would level my hunter.)

Anyways, yeah. No 'real' first post back, because I haven't actually logged into the game yet, so new post tomorrow or Saturday? I never uninstalled the game, which I may regret later, and I don't think I ever cancelled my content ID, which my checking account regrets now.

Shoot me a /tell if you see me on, let me know how you've been. I don't think I'll dive right into SMN again, until I get the WoW controls out of my hands and get the FFXI controls back in.

I wonder if Spiny's missed me while I was gone?

Unfinished Business.

I promised one last post. Here it is, Pasquale's last adventure.

Day One:

I logged in, forgetting that I had logged out in Garliage, trying to get my BLM hands done. As soon as I logged in, I found myself being raped by this giant black ooze thing, that was apparently guarding the door.

After being immediatly killed, I HP back to Jeuno. I didn't really mind, it's not like I need the exp anyways. (side note - I broke my record for time logged in before death. Things were still loading on the damn screen.)

I was planning on selling my things and sending gil to my friends in-game, sort of a 'thanks for being awesome, have some gil' thing. I ran to my MH to see if everything had sold.

When I got into my Mog House, I was greeted with a full delivery box. Unfortunatly it was full of items, and not gil. It's going to stay full now, because I am too lazy to try again. Sorry, I'm the worst friend ever. (side note - Honestly, It woulda been like 75k a piece, I'm hella broke.)

I switched to SMN and headed to catch the boat to Windurst one last time. As if the capt was waiting for me, the boat departed as soon as I touched the dock, thus causing me to wait for nine minutes. (side note - Damn you SE. Every fucking time...)

Nine minutes of waiting and three minutes of sailing later, I was ready for my final fight. I ran to my MH to take some screenshots of my sweet decorating abilities (I'm at work, I'll post those later) and headed to Saruta, to hunt my white whale.

For three hours I stick around his spawn area and commit heinous acts of crawlercide, hoping to lure him from hiding.

No such luck. It was as if he knew I was coming for him. Eventually, I got tired of waiting and I logged, angry and angry.

Day Two:

I log in and the first thing I see is a giant crawler head covering my screen. Could the son of a bitch have been waiting for me to return?

No. No he wasn't. It ended up being a regular crawler. I made him pay for getting my hopes up by 2-houring his {too weak} ass. Satisfaction guarenteed.

I sat to rest, when the real deal spawned behind me.

Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 11

I started to summon carbuncle, but I decided I wanted to kill this beast one-on-one. I took off my staff, and went into unarmed combat with the king of monsters.

The battle was intense.

Pasquale hits Spiny Spipi for 4 points of damage
Spiny Spipi hits Pasquale for 1 point of damage
Pasquale hits Spiny Spipi
Critical! Spiny Spipi takes 6 points of damage

I believe the word you're looking for is 'epic.'

Sooner or later (later. much later.) my TP hits 100%. I decided to put my staff back on and finish the job with one of my lame, low skill level staff weapon skills.

I forgot that switching weapons erases TP, and was left with nothing. (Give me a break, I'm all mage. I think I've used a WS'd maybe six times ever.)

Before I could see what was happenning, my staff has practically brought Spiny to his furry little knees.

I turned around so I wouldn't finish him. The kill shot had to be perfect.

I waited for his incredibly weak hits to fill up my TP. This took around 15 minutes.

1 man.
1 mob.
100% tp.

I spun in a blaze of glory and struck Spiny as hard as my Tarutaru arms could strike. After the dust settled, and the animation for my WS went away, I stood triumphantly over my fallen nemesis.

My heart stopped as I waited for the drops...

...

...

Pasquale obtains a Silk Thread.

...

...

/sigh

Well played Spiny, well played.

---
Thanks to everyone who read my blog, and thanks to my friend's in-game for making me want to play as long as I did. It's been awesome. Check out my website (www.superawsomecarnivalbears.net) if you wanted to read some other things I write.

Thanks again,
Pasquale (Jason)

The beginning of the end.

Hey all,

I've been thinking a lot about the game and I've decided to quit.

Lately the game has felt more like something I have to do, and not something I want to do.
I've been stuck at 58 for two weeks, and I have no motivation to keep going. I've found that I spend most of my free time in-game, and I really don't do anything else.

Thanks for reading my little blog. The comments and /tells always made my day, and I have made a few new friends because of it.

If you're interested, I write a blog/webcomic at www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net. I also write the Jason vs... section, which is going to get updated more often because of my new found free time.

I realize this is a shitty way to end the blog, so I am going to have one more post either Wednesday or Thursday. There is still one more thing I have to do before I quit...

Full of murderous rage.

There are not enough words in the English language to describe how much I hate Garliage Citadel. I could sit here and type word after word of how angry I am, but that'd be a waste of time. Everyone knows its the worst place in-game.

Ok, maybe just a few words.

Fuck you SE you $^&#$ jerks. Good fucking plan putting doors throughout the place, making it completely unaccessible to anyone, unless there are people there. (Strange how I couldn't type 'Fuck' twice in that sentence. I'm retarted.)
This is a screen shot of a giant pot thing, that aggro'd me, while I was trying to Raise someone. Needless to say, it ended me, and I was stuck there for a while til I got a raise for myself.

The reason I'm so angry, is that the only reason I'm there is to get my BLM af hands, so I can get my SMN af hands. I made the mistake of flagging my BLM hands, thus totally boning me.

Rargh.

Ok, that's enough of that.

In other news, seeking blows.

You know when you've been seeking for like two hours, and you finally get an invite? It's a good feeling. Finally you can accomplish something. You peel the cobwebs off your mouse and click "Accept."

Then, at the peak of your excitement, you find out there is only one other person in your party.
"It's ok," you think, "it should be full soon enough."

That's the thought that keeps you warm, and prevents your breakdown. That warm feeling helps when you are waiting 20+ minutes for the party to fill up. Each invite sent makes you smile a little bit.

>> Dude, sorry. It doesn't look like we're going to be able to party.

And that's the thought that crushes your dreams. Your dreams of finally hitting 59 (What? I aim low, as to prevent further disappointment.) That's when you realize not only have you wasted 2 hours seeking, but now you've also spent 30 minutes filling yourself with hope, and having your hope torn away, in a flash of purple letters.

After that happens, you think to yourself "Hmm. Maybe I'll try to get that coffer done."

Livin' the dream.

Hey all,

I felt a lot better after posting yesterday. I think I just needed to rant a little. I had some time to play yesterday, and now I have a real update for today.

Yesterday, I was seeking in Whitegate. That's neither new or exciting, everyone does that every day. While seeking, I killed time by talking to someone about our mutual hatred for Goblins, and to a SMN about Diabolos. In the middle of our conversations, I get a /tell, and my night began.

>> {Party} {Do you need it?}

I reply with a polite 'yes, thanks' and I'm on my way to meet them at the AH. Normally, after I accept an invite, I get a /tell stating that I had to be Main Heal. This time was a little different.

>> Hey, is it cool if you DD? we already have a WHM.

Never if my tenure (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm looking for) as a smn have I been asked that question. This was every summoner's dream.

I replied yes, (I went a little crazy with the exclamation points, I'm so very lame) and we headed to Gustav.

On the way, I started thinking what Blood Pacts I was going to use. Currently, Meteorite was the most consistent, but Double Slap did more damage, when it hit.

I decided to open with Double Slap and go from there. Our RNG pulls a goblin, who is followed to our camp by his close friend, another goblin.

20 minutes later, our party is triumphant, although battered and broken. Our poor whm lay dead in a corner, and no one had any MP left. Bad start, but it was cool, we were going to keep going.

Finally our RNG pulls just one gob and the fun begins. The BLM uses Bio II, and I used Double Slap.

Shiva uses Double Slap
Goblin takes 16 points of damage

Balls.

It turns out I'm a horrible DD. I found myself wishing the whm would leave, so I could take over as main heal, where I'd feel considerably less useless.

Shake it off man, shake it off. A minute is up, and it's time for something new.

Carbuncle uses Meteorite
Goblin takes 120 points of damage

Damnit.

At this rate, the Goblin will be dead next week.

Eight years pass, and the goblin is finally dead. There was little rejoicing. The next gob went considerably better, although still not great.

Carbuncle uses Meteorite
Goblin takes 360 points of damage

As if fearing the beating he would get from me when we got back to our Mog House, Carbuncle stepped it up and delivered for the rest of the night. I put my rolled up newspaper away and let him do his thing.

I was so close to hitting 59, that I let myself get excited. As soon as the 'giddy' hit, my party disbanded, leaving me so very alone, and so very angry.

Feeling totally jived, I went to level BeastMaster for a little while.

I am so bad at BST, that I could make even the proudest BST embarrassed for his job, as they saw me failing charms and running or crying.

Sometimes both.

Usually both.

Overkill.

Hey all,

As you may have noticed, there has been some serious not-updating going on. I'm sorry 'bout that, and come Monday, things should be back to normal.

There is some shit going down at my place of employment, involving a takeover of the hostile variety, and apparently its bugging me more than I thought. Everyone here is very 'worst case scenario' about the whole thing and its starting to get to me. I guess the guy whose trying to buy us out is total prick, and has a habit of slimming down his companies, which would mean our hero would become very unemployed, very quickly.

Anyways, all this stress and extra work has given me little time to play, thus giving me little to update with.

I plan on spending a nice sized chunk of this weekend hitting 60 with my smn. I'll see you all Monday, with a new update.

Thanks for reading.
-Pas

Totally Staged.

So today, I was planning on getting the Staging Points, which meant a lot of unsafe travel. Luckily, I had registered Shadow Wing, my handi-capable chocobo, and that meant less running.

I decided to start with the Mamool Ja Staging Point. No real reason, I just figured I had to start somewhere.

After calling Shadow Wing, and practically crawling through Wajaom, I was excited to be in Mamook. The Mamool look really cool, despite the fact that I would be one-shotted, should I decide to start some shit.

After walking around the area for a while, I came upon some Visquous Liquid. (I butchered that one, I know.)

{Hmm.} A strange thing in an unfamiliar zone full of mobs that could eat me in one bite. Sounds good to me.

I flinched, as I expected instant death, but was pleasently suprised when I re-opened my eyes:

Yeah. That's me, in what i can only assume is a Halloween costume.

I ran around, disguised as a rejected Ninja Turtle, for a little while, until I accidently clicked it off.

...Accidently clicked it off while I was surrounded by these huge Rhino/Elephant things. Needless to say, all kinds of death immediatly followed.

Death Count: 1

Luckily I had Reraise up.

Oh wait...

As soon as I foolishly Reraised myself, my soul was immediatly re-sent to hell.

Death Count: 2

I home-pointed back to Whitegate, picked up a map, and headed out, determined to succeed this time. Once again I called Shadow Wing, and off I went.

Armed with a map, I was able to get a little farther in. Then Invis started to wear.

I ducked in a corner and began re-casting Invisible on myself. Unfortunatly, I didn't look both ways.

Death Count: 3 (morale dropping)

Good news for me though, Reraise was up again.

Death Count: 4

Back in Whitegate. One last try. Shadow Wing seemed slower this time, as if warning me to stay away.

This time I make it all the way to the Bhaflau Thicket zone, which is where I think I'm supposed to go before zoning back into Mamook.

Much to my dismay, I am blocked by a big door. A door which required a key to open. A key which I did not posess.

I decide to cast a spell on a mob past the door, so he can open it for me, and I can run through. It was a good plan.

It was a horrible plan. I cast Dia on the Mamool Something-or-other, and eagerly awaited the door to be opened.

Instead, that son of a bitch killed me through the door, thus ruining my plan entirely.

Death Count: 5 (here I finally de-leveled)

I decided to give up and help a LS member get a key in Garliage. We killed for a while, but no drop. It wasn't a total loss, however:

That was my first 4-digit attack, ever. Granted it was against {Easy prey}, but I thought it was pretty fucking sweet.

Little bit of...

So I had a few ideas about what to post today, some good and some less good, so instead of just making two posts, I've decided to cram it into one post. Its 5am, I got two hours of sleep before waking up and being unable to go back to sleep, so I apologize if my spelling/grammar isn't up to par.

brb {bio}

Back. Here goes:

Dear Paladins,
There's this bar, under your HP bar. It's kinda yellowish/green. That's where your MP goes. MP can be used to heal yourself, so I don't have to spam cures on you and burn my own MP.

I know, I know. I have 900+ MP (p.s. im awesome) why do I care about curing so much? I've gotten used to main healing. I prefer PLD because it makes my job easier, unless hes not doing anything, then it gets harder and more annoying.

Mmmm... Delicious.
Food + exp party = Good Times. Food + Colibris = Bad Times. Colibris are like the Hamburglars of ffxi. You're stupid, and having 5 min of "totally awesome accuracy" or "zomg defense" can't be worth the gil you lost, losing food 15 times.

The Boyhoda Tree.
I love you again. Two days ago, we were waist deep (head deep for tarutaru) in linked spiders, which sucked tremendously. Yesterday, we practically bathed in experience points.

AF coffers.
Ok, why can't all the AF quests be NM battles? That's both fun and easy. No one likes farming a key and hunting down a chest while competing with nine-hundred other people.

Also, thanks to SE for making me have to finish my already started BLM hands before I can get my SMN hands. Garliage Citadel is the worst place for coffers and I hate you for wasting my time.

Ok, that's about enough of that. Here's some screenshots of stuff. (Descriptive, I know.)

55% of my playtime is spent seeking. Also, I look like a badass in this shot.















If 55% is spent seeking, 20% is spent eating dirt.















Goblin Coifs are cool. I don't have one, so here I am rocking the next best thing.















The first thing I get asked in every party is wether or not I have Fenrir. No I don't, but not for lack of trying.

Why I don't play with myself.

I hate seeking. Although I have had some pretty good conversations while seeking, it still ultimitely feels like a waste of time. I often get asked why I don't just solo as Summoner.

I can tell you right now why I don't solo. I'm lazy. And scared. ...Aaand scared. I tried soloing once, two weeks ago, and it was most disastrous.

::flashback music::

After seeking for two hours (grumble) I decided to try to give soloing a chance. I was just high enough to get free Carbuncle, and figured it would be a good way to earn exp while waiting for an invite.

I headed over to Garliage Citadel to fight some bomb type mobs. I had never solo'd like this before, but I had read a guide online on how to do it. (Lies. Replace 'read' with 'thought about looking up.')

I didn't think it would be very difficult:
1 - Summon Carbuncle
2 - Make Carby fight Bomb
3 - Run away
4 - Bomb blows up
5 - Bathe in a tub of experience points

In reality, it was more like this:
1 - Get aggro
2 - Hastily summon Carbuncle
3 - Fail
4 - Summon Light Spirit
5 - Run to zone, crying the whole way there
6 - Repeat three fucking times.

After finally getting the hang of it, I was able to get to a safe spot, and begin my soloing adventure.

I sent Carbuncle in to attack a Bomb, and I sat back and watched. Carbuncle eventually died, and I sent in another one.

Blah blah, this happened until the Bomb-thing Self-Destructed. For some reason it didn't occur to me that I may have been too close for comfort.

Bomb-thing uses Self-Destruct
Carbuncle takes a lot of damage
Pasquale also takes a lot of damage

I'm not gonna lie to you, that killed me. Luckily I had reraise on. Unluckily, I did not see the beetle behind me.

I think you know what happened next.

Pasquale starts casting Cure II
Beetle sneaks up behind Pasquale
Beetle uses Spawn-Kill
Beetle defeats Pasquale, and walks away, triumphantly

Argh. After someone in my ls found me a raise, I was determined to succeed at least once before logging and killing myself.

I found another bomb mob and sent Carby in. I ran the fuck away and did it right. Eventually the bomb blew itself and Carbuncle up, and I got 70 exp for it. Woo.

My celebration was cut short when I got aggro'd by that same fucking beetle, who had been waiting in the shadows for me to put my guard down.

Needless to say, I didn't make it.

I changed my Search Comment to reflect my newer, higher 'tnl' and went looking for another bomb.

After sending Carby in and waiting a few min, I was worried something was wrong. Normally I would have recast Carbuncle by now, and have moved to a new spot. Foolishly, I decided to 'take a peek' around the corner to see what was happening.

Just as I got there, Carby died, and the very much undamaged Bomb was charging for me.

Balls.

I throw up a Light Spirit to hold hate and I make a bolt for the stairs, hoping to somehow make it to the zone.

As I approched the stairway to heaven, I was met with a familiar face.

That same fucking beetle.

I already had very little HP left, from the Bomb's first assault on my face, so the beetle made short work of me.

After going back to my HomePoint, I decided to log. I had spent the night losing more exp than I could count, and just wanted to go to bed.

Pasquale will logout in 20 seconds
Pasquale will logout in 15 seconds
Pasquale will logout in 10 seconds
Pasquale will logout in 5 seconds
Player>> {Party} {Do you need it?}

Spiny strikes back.

I had a pretty lousy week on smn last week. I started the week at 53, peaked at 54, and fell back down to 53, after seeking for three hours. Needless to say I was bummed out. After not being able to play this week, due to drinking and recreating my website (www.superawesomecarnivalbears.net), I finally logged on last night, looking for a change.

I'm not saying I quit smn, I just wanted to try something else, til I got that loving feeling back. After tending to my Choco, who lost his second race, and was scolded harshly for it, I went to my MH to change jobs. After spending a few min looking at my job levels, I went with Puppetmaster, because I felt I had unfairly judged it as the worst job ever.

At the brisk level of 6, Allouette (my puppet, with a name I regret choosing) and I grinded our way to level nine, and were innocently camped around the area where My arch nemesis Spiny Spipi resides.

After an epic battle with two dec goblins, I sat down to rest. Suddenly, lurking through the shadows came the demon who has haunted me since week 1.


Pasquale -vs- Spiny Spipi; Round 10

I spun the camera around to make sure I was alone, and rested to full. I stood up, and sent Allouette into battle. I immediatly used my 2-hour, and our battle began.

Pasquale uses Overdrive.
Something happens to Allouette.
Pasquale has no idea what the 2-hour does.

I assume it did something, because Allouette didn't die right away. After Spiny was down a little bit, I jumped into the battle, a flurry of fists flying to the face of my ferocious foe.

It was close, but victory appeared to be at hand for our hero. Just then, I noticed a 45thf/nin standing behind me, like a vulture watching over his prey. He sends me a /tell telling me not to call for help when I died. Motivating.

I wasn't worried about death, because Allouette and I were winning.

Were being the key word in that sentance. We were winning, until a Goblin Weaver decided to step in.

When the gobby spawned, I hoped the thf would take care of it, in a gesture of kindness. Then, as the gob ran past the thf, unharmed, I was reminded that too many people in this game were jerks, and that no one likes helping other people during NM battles.

Goblin Jackass casts Dia.

This was great, because I wasn't losing enough health from Spiny's poison and all the head-butts the bastard was slamming me with.

Goblin Weaver hits Pasquale.
Spiny Spipi mauls Pasquale.
Goblin Weaver crushes Pasquale.
Spiny Spipi maims Pasquale.
Goblin Weaver shanks Pasquale.

Things looked grim for our hero. After a " :( " from the thf, he kills the goblin as I fall to the ground, and then proceeds to take Spiny away from me.

I HP'd to Windurst, feeling an umpleasent mix of anger and anger and disapointment. Reluctantly, I ran back to Saruta, determined to hit lvl 10 before I logged. I ran into the thf while I was killing Giant Bees. Trying to kill Giant Bees, as he ended up taking most of them, including ones I was about to fight.

You win this round, Spiny Spipi. Enjoy your first and only victory, for it will be a cold day in Ifrit's Cauldron before I fall to you again.

Hate me today.

First things first, you may have noticed the awwwwwwwesome new header at the top of the page. Thanks to Elpon for making that. It took me an hour of 'guess and check' to get it to fit and to make the title still visible, but it was worth it. (Shut up, I'm not a computerologist.)

As the title would suggest, today's discussion is about hate and how much I hate (note to self, get thesaurus) getting hate (note to self, read previous note).

I honestly have no problem Main Healing when I'm in a party. If it means I'll get exp then I'll do almost anything. I do, however, have a problem with getting pecked to death by birds furious that I stole their Fuit Loops - The Lesser Colibri.

Everyone loves these things because they usually go down quick and they give great exp, which is why the party I joined decided to fight them for a while, hopefully hitting levels 54 and 55 in the process.

That's all well and good, but for some reason our NIN could not keep hate last night, which caused me to suffer immensely. The hate was bouncing from the NIN to the RNG to the MNK like crazy, causing me to Cure II everyone, causing the Colibri to hate me, leading to my inevitable beak-stabbing.

As a Taru SMN, I have about 400hp at my level. After the first hit blew through Stoneskin, I knew I was boned.

Lesser Colibri hits Pasquale
Pasquale takes 24 points of damage. <----- Stoneskin wears
Lesser Colibri hits Pasquale
Pasquale takes 180 points of damage.
Lesser Colibri hits Pasquale again, this time with gusto.
The Lesser Colibri scores a critical hit!
Pasquale takes a million points of damage.

Finally someone vokes, and i have 14 hp left. I wanted to heal myself, but I was afraid of the Colibri coming back to finish the job, so I sat there and waited until it was over.

10 minutes later. What can I say, it was a slow night.

The moral of the story is to stop sucking and learn to keep hate. I couldn't even drop a Cure II without getting mauled by Toucan Sam.