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28Aug

The road less traveled

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

– Robert Frost

I’ve never been one to follow the standard XP route, if I can avoid it. Most of the time I prefer not to play on Easy Mode.  I often go for locations that are off the beaten path, and for prey that aren’t normal squishy, soft hitting wusses.

As such, I don’t expect every player to want to join my parties.  When they do, the expressions uttered are usually appreciative.  For being able to see some scenery creating by the artists at Square Enix while they were inspired.  For being able to listen some music that usually never gets heard because because players never travel to these areas.  For simply doing something that they’ve haven’t done a countless times before.

I also don’t expect a player to go out of their way to explain why they think my location and/or target is a bad idea.  My spots, while not wildly unconventional, usually don’t match the most popular spots for convenience.  But tonight, while assembling an XP party as a Bard, I had one player decide to that.  I sent a tell asking if he wanted to join my party in Sauromugue Champaign with the target being Evil Weapons.  This player responded with “ur joking or a noob.”  The rest of conversation doesn’t really matter.  It was semi-polite, but he explained at length that it’s impossible XP of Evil Weapons in S.Champaign because they’re too hard.  So I looked for another White Mage, and picked up a very nice Japanese player willing to level synch down a couple levels.

With a complete team, we went to work, and 2 hours later I had picked up 3 levels (28-31).  More importantly, we had no competition, we had a blast going after prey most people don’t, and gelled as a team going up against opponents that actually fought back.

In the end, I remember Beermepunk, Medea, Hina, Yurii, and Tyberius as my team members who blazed through chain six, and who all worked together to survive when a duo of Evil Weapons came back to camp hell bent on making us pay for our insolence.

30Jul

Experience flies when you’re a Bard.

So, things have been busy at work, and my time in FFXI has been extremely limited.

Since I knew this was going to be the case for awhile,  I put Paladin on hold and took up Bard, thinking I’d slowly level it to 25 (for Mage’s Ballad) while real life shook out.  With only an hour (maybe two) per week, I figured I’d be set.

So last night, inside of 70 minutes, I went from 24.9 to 26.5.  So now what?

Actually I have lots of other things to do when/if I play the game, but I was a bit surprised at how fast I went up in levels.  I was also amazed at how much Bard can influence the way a party works.  That is not to say the job can make or break a party — that simply isn’t true.  A party that will fail without a Bard will most likely fail with one.  Likewise, a party that will succeed without a Bard will probably do well with one.

However, put a Bard into a good, balanced party, and things can go amazingly fast — as I found out.  Likewise, put a Bard into a balanced party, and the bard is kept busy.  I’ve settled on a routine where mages get Ballad — no surprise, and an etude if applicable.  All front-line jobs get Madrigal for accuracy.  Pure DD’ers get Valor Minuet for the Attack bonus.  Ninjas (if tanking) get Mambo. Paladins are the wild card; they get Knights Minne for Defense, but if MP is an issue then I sacrifice their Madrigal for Ballad.  That’s up to five songs per fight.

I’ve also found I prefer to pull as Bard.  That allows me to land a Threnody or Requiem on the monster without having to try to fit those songs into my routine of buffing the rest of the party.

On a side note; when did players become incapable of leveling without the assistance of a PL?  I ended up putting “PL {No, Thanks}” into my search comment from Qufim Island on, and still had to turn down parties (because the player couldn’t be bothered to read).  I find this ridiculous.  If you want an easy-mode MMO, go play something other than FFXI.

25Jul

Thankful for the newbie

As I’ve stated previously, I’ve been playing bard as time allows.  Level 21 as of this post.  I plan on taking Bard to 25 before going back to Paladin full time.  At that point I have Mage’s Ballad, and finding parties will be easier if/when I decide to come back.

There’s a couple things that have happened to make me start really enjoying bard.  First, and specific to the job, getting Foe Lullaby at level 16.  Second, and completely outside of any SE could do, there seems to have been an influx of new players to FFXI.

How are those things connected?  Glad you asked (actually seasoned players will have already guessed).  First, Foe Lullaby opens up the utility of the job.  From level 10 (when you start to party) to level 15.9999, you play two songs almost exclusively. Sword Madrigal and Valor Minuet.

So the battle sequence would go something like this:

  • Puller announces they’re coming back
  • I start casting Madrigal in time to hit the puller as they arrive
  • I cast Light Threnody
  • I cast Minuet
  • I cast Foe Lullaby (if I haven’t managed to take hate)
  • I pull out my sword and start hacking away.
  • rinse, lather, repeat

*yawn*

That trend would almost certainly continue if I had been in parties where the puller was a veteran player.  However, thanks to many new players, the parties I’ve been in have had the pullers come back with the target and one or more links.  I’m not casting aspersions on new players — pulling is a learned art.    Now suddenly I’m buffing the party, keeping the add slept, and fighting the current monster, and adding Paeon to my buffs right at the tail end of the fight so we can take the second sleeper.  In cases multiple adds, I’m sleeping one, getting enmity of the others and sleeping them on the way to the zone.

This is the kind of support I appreciate being able to provide, and what makes the job fun.

17Jul

A Bard’s tail

A bard whom there were none to praise, And very few to read.

- Hartley Coleridge

Tail!  Mithra!  Get it?

 

<edit: 2009Aug31>

So, in looking at my stats this page is popular with Google for the query “Unlocking Bard.”  So I guess I should actually post some information about unlocking the job.

If that’s how you got here, I suggest following this link.

Things to keep in mind:

If you’re just barely level 30, you might want to ask someone slightly higher level than you to accompany you on your way to Buburimu Peninsula and Valkurm Dunes if it’s night time.  The ghosts like to hang around the song runes, and they might give you some problems.

Another thing.  Although it’s been awhile since I unlocked bard, it was better for me to purchase a full stack of parchment (averaging about 1K a sheet) than a single sheet, and sell the remaining sheets singly on the AH for about 3K.  It took a couple tries to get them all sold, but in the end selling the sheets singly produce an overall profit.  It seems the only people who buy single sheets of parchment are people looking to complete the handful of quests that require it (one of which is unlocking bard).

</edit>

Professional and family life left me with a few hours last night that weren’t filled.  So like any dyed-in-the-wool geek, I jumped into FFXI and decided to unlock and play Bard for a little while.

Unlocking Bard is less than trivial if you have a job over 35.  Under level 35 that and you might encounter small annoyances.  Overall, Bard challenges Ranger as the easiest damn extra job to unlock, and it’s the only job I’ve unlocked that produced a net profit.

A bard is essentially a mage job that doesn’t use mp, so in the early levels it’s an exercise in Masochism like any other mage job.  Not quite the gnaw your arm off to escape level of aggravation that White or Black mage presents in single digit levels; since you can equip a sword and decent armor.  Somwhere between Black Mage and Red Mage lies Bard’s particular brand of soul destruction.

That said, working a mage job without having to worry about magic is an interesting concept.  You can tell SE put some decent effort into trying to keep the job balanced, and did a pretty decent job of it to boot.  I suspect that I’ll continue with Bard for at least a little bit before I return to Paladin full time.