Anyway, there hasn’t been much excitement going about since last I updated. I DID have to go through the hassle of installing and updating FFXI plus Expansions three times since I was convinced by a friend that his EU version, with the expansions Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia, would work with my US account. We tried. It failed. So there goes 3 hours of updates… PLUS five hours of update(the US version in my possession is a lot older than the EU version) when I had to reinstall my own version. Hooray.

Not only did this keep me from playing during one of my “up-times”, it also made me realize I have to purchase Chains of Promathia and Treasures of Aht Urhgan imported and overprized. Hooray.

After finally getting to log in, I realized once I did my usual check of my character, that my enhancing skill was at 8. Yes, 8. Being a Red Mage at the moment, I panicked. How could I have levelled to 18 with my White Mage and still only be at Enhancing 8? Much to my own embarassment I realized I had to level them up with spam.

So I went to the Bastok Port moghouse, which is the one with least people around, and started spamming enhancing spells. I made a macro of three spells cast, so that eased the workload a bit, but it was still hours before I was done. I’d switched my main to WHM, so now I’ve got 52 in enhancing, enough to keep me at cap for a while as a RDM. I did get a lot of people stopping to look at me, but at least no one did anything more than that. I’m never doing that again.

The original party sans the puller I’m the crouching mithra with the ugly hat.

After switching party members every now and then we ended up with me, a Warrior, the Summoner, Red Mage and thief, but no Damage Dealer aside from the Warrior. Even worse, when we searched the area, We were the only people lvl 11-13! In Valkurm! After some idling it was decided that the party split up, which was just as well since it was getting late for me too. We said our goodbyes and I added the japanese player to my friend list. He showed some interest in learning english (he was studying as he said), and I wanted to learn japanese, so I thought we could help eachother out every now and then.

All things considered, this was a great start for my new career as lone FFXI-player in my circle of friends. I was reminded again and again why I love this game. =D Besides, finally getting in on the action and DOING something besides healing felt great… Who knows, I might turn around and make my RDM main. Stranger things have happened.

~Ann Kalanie

So much for that.

Recently I have been sort of falling in love with my Empress Band. I know, I know, it’s terrible for skill growth but I can’t help it. Nothing beats getting 45 exp from killing a patheticly weak Stone Eater or a whooping ~120 by smacking around a goblin.

Of course, it does have its prize. I switched my job from White Mage to Red Mage for three reasons.

1. Powering up a Sub-Job I was pretty sure I’d keep for a while.
2. Gaining some levels in my embarrasingly low Enfeebling skill.
3. Do something else after hours of macro-casting Cure I

As you might have guessed, I’m a little aggravated by the stunted development of my Enfeebling skill, but as experience have told me, Valkurm Dunes will correct that.

Although Alleatha is a relatively new avatar for me, I have previously played the game as Jeikobu, the obnoxious and money-hungry Taru. I don’t know how many times I’ve stopped my account, telling myself things like “I guess MMOs really aren’t my kind of games” or “I could have used all this time for something better”, but again and again, like a drug addict without proper rehab, I’ve returned to Vana’Diel, tail between my legs and begging for forgiveness.
Last summer I fished moat carps to buy myself a complete Field Gear and the summer before that I grit my teeth while enduring parties that God forgot.

This time, though, it was the combined efforts of me and three friends that got me back to serving good ol’ Bastok again. I managed to convince a friend to start playing and together we got the other two over on our side. We made a pretty good team-up, especially during LAN-Parties, but after finally breaching lvl 18 and getting our sub-jobs, we all agreed to more or less go our own ways. So now it’s just me again, the other three have quit playing and I’m fooling around without any real purpose and a Linkshell as dead as my grandma.

Some other time I might write down what I remember of my past with FFXI, but right now I just feel like sleeping for a few hours and then get back to finding a party to level up with. I’m planning to return to white mage once red mage is lvl 18 or so.

Kalanie
Leviathan

P.S.

I’m currently on the lookout for serious RPers on the Leviathan server. If you’re part of a LS, or know of one, that fits the description, I’d be grateful to know. :)