Level 52 Party, Quicksand Caves/Level 33 Party, Eastern Altepa Desert

Yesterday was a long day...spent a lot of time on Final Fantasy getting levels. The night started out with a trio, comprised of me, Amedelie, and Almeth, and I was getting a little burnt out on Garlaige Citadel...so after perusing the campsitarus we decided to give Quicksand Caves a try...there were Beetles down there to build TP on, and Tough Anticans to fight as well. Of course, this meant we had to figure out a way to get the hell out there, until I /facepalmed and realized I could just outpost warp (duh)...anyways, once Amedelie showed up we all agreed with our plan, and got to moving.

But MOM, he keeps touching me!!!! Make him STOP!!!!!!!!!

At any rate, Almeth and I ran to the "main" entrance of Quicksand Caves to scope it out, and there was already 2 parties in there (it's a popular spot), so that was out. However, the wonderful thing about Quicksand Caves is that there are many entrances to it all over the Altepa Desert, so we just had to find one that didn't have a party in it. Heading south, we found one, Amedelie arrived from Rabao (and a job change), and we got to killing.

We quickly learned with these Antican's that you can't fight just one, because one almost always seems to link, and the one that links is always a caster, which will always spam -ga spells on us. Fuckers...

At any rate, things progressed fine for the most part. The exp was a little weak, especially when our Empress Bands wore off, and then my signet wore off (yeah, I'm a fucking n00b, ok?) so it got really weak...but Amedelie and Almeth both were somewhat close to leveling so we toughed it out. We had some nasty fights...those Antican's really like to spam nasty shit on you. In my opinion, the Silence was the worst...it was AOE, and I had to Healing Waltz everyone to get rid of it. At 20 TP a pop, times 3 people, it add's up. And even better, the way Healing Waltz works, it gets rid of the newest negative status effect on the target. Meaning, Almeth get's Bio II'd then Blinded, Healing Waltz is gonna pull Blind off first. Then I get to wait 15 seconds to cast it again, and pray to God the whole time that the stupid mob doesn't so some other shitty enfeeble to him before I can take off the Bio, while watching his HP happily tick tick tick away. Luckily, shadows absorb a lot of shit but with all the goddamn silencing we had going on, that was hit or miss. So from a Dancer's perspective...kinda annoying.

"We're just gonna go ahead and watch you fight this one, Almeth, if that's ok..."


Another Totally Epic Action Shot


"Son of a BITCH!!!!! Seriously, why does this game HATE ME so fucking much??!!"


Oh, Beetle, you just don't know what Ame's got coming for you....


This picture illustrates why it's kinda difficult for me to see what the fuck is going on at times lol

Almeth, having finally reached 54, breaks out his spanking new AF THF hat. I can't help but stare at it, and Amedelie has to look away. I'm no fashonista or anything, but damn...

Yeah, Almeth, that's the way...get all the mobs!!!

Amedelie had to work in the morning, so that was the end of our trio adventures. Almeth and I were up for some more action, however, so Kamiku invited us along to a full party (I remember those! lol) at 30. Getting everyone together was a bit of a clusterfuck, Almeth and I were full to the brim with drops and shit, so some muling was in order before we could get going. In the end, we managed to get it together and Kamiku put together a kickass party, comprised of me as Dancer, Almeth as Ninja, Kamiku as Monk, and also a Bard, Red Mage, and Corsair. I haven't partied with a Bard or Corsair in forever, so it was interesting. The party fucking rocked, we started out the evening in Yhoator Jungle and we were killing shit so fast I barely needed to use my TP. Many a Mandy and Gob perished to us...unfortunately, the Bard was falling asleep at the keyboard, and since we were syncing to her at 30, we came up with a new game plan, syncing to Kamiku at 33 and moving everyone out to Eastern Altepa Desert. Kamiku grabbed another Monk for some hot DD action, but other than that the party was pretty much the same.

Just before the festivities begin, waiting on COR, who was en route to camp...

Warming up on a beetle, if you can call the 3.4 seconds the thing lived a "Warm up"...

From that point on, since Beetles were such a joke, Kamiku suggested we go after Dhalmels. Technically, we shoulda been a little higher level for them, but since we were manhandling these mobs like champs, we transitioned nicely. For the most part, we were dropping them as fast as the COR could pull them, and the experience was flying. That's not to say we didn't have some slight issues...

"Oh Kamiku, why?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

"Well, fuck it, he's dead anyways...let the rape party commence!!!"

Kamiku, spending some more time inside the Dhalmel's ass...

From that point on, things progressed nicely. We got a shit ton of experience; it seemed like after every mob someone was dinging the next level. I got my Dancer halfway to 57, Almeth and Kamiku each got a couple levels on their Monk and Ninja...as for everyone else, who knows, but I know they leveled at some point. I've been saying "Fuck full parties" for a while now, but based on our experience last night my faith in them has been renewed. We had a great group, everyone knew what they were doing without much communication, and we fucking owned Altepa. All in all, a great night for Bahamut's Dreadnought!