A trip to Abyssea Altepa.

So I actualy got some stuff done today! I'll get to that in a minute but before that...

Until today, not all was well in Granis Land, after a few days of some botched runs/shouts of Alfard that'd didn't go well at all. and some sarcastic comments by a random guy about my gear in Adoulin during a random Colonization Reive, I wasn't really feeling confident, but today, it feels like things are starting to turn around just a little bit for me, But maybe just a little.

First off, after what happened with that Reive, the first thing I did when I logged in today was run packages to Morimar to make Bayld to spite those jerks in Reive, and well, I bought Orvail pants for my fast cast setup. More about those later, though.

Onto the main event! Me and some LS people went to Abyssea-Altepa to go do some Bennu, with some Hedjetjet in between Bennu pops.

It went much better than it looks, honest! I Reposed some adds up, even though I did make mistakes. :( I actually wound up getting Break'd by Hedjetjet on the very first pull and dying without a reraise up like a derp, but after that I knew to not stand close to either of these NMs, I buddy system'd with Jayhawk to try and find a nice sweet spot between being out of AoEs and being able to catch people with cures and hit dat grellow for Light.

Everyone in the group was really awesome, though, and helped mitigate my mistakes and helped me out a ton. (I think my healing and link reposing on the last Bennu went better than the rest as a result!)

First we have the ever helpful cat-lady NIN Alahra! while she was tanking like a boss, I feel bad because me getting Petrified on that first Hedjetjet contributed to her only death of the run. She picked up some Ardor Jewels for one of her other jobs (COR, I think?) so grats to her.

Next we have Jayhawk! From what I understand, he's new to the LS but has been really helpful! after that unfortunate Break on Hedjetjet, I just simply stayed with him to avoid those troublesome AoEs even if I could quite reach our DRK sometimes, but I eventually wiggled a bit to get in range without getting hit by AoEs eventually. I don't know that much about BLM damage these days but I thought a 1.8k nuke was pretty cool!

And last but not least, we have the Lord of the Waffle Fries himself, Tibs. For those of you who don't know, Tibs is one hell of a player. While the reason I look up to him and respect him is for WHM, He wound up coming on DRK today, and even barring a few deaths (which very well could have been my fault for not reacting quickly enough or being out of range because I was being too conservative for wanting to stay out of AoEs.) He really busted out some damage. And as usual, offering up sagely WHM advice like the pro he is.

Not pictured is Napup! He only came out for a few pulls before he had some business to attend to, but the 'pup is still awesome, he even came out on RDM to give me and Jay some beautiful Refresh II, though it's kinda silly in Abby with Minikin and all. But it's the thought that counts! I <3 you Napup.

So even with my screw ups, how did it go? I think these pictures speak for themselves:

Thoughts on gear:

Orvail Pants: It's a decent little fast cast macro piece. I had to play around with my spellcast XML a bit today since Orison legs are still better for precasting Healing Magic, but this is a nice boost for getting Enhancing out and enfeebling and proccing.

Orison +2 body: Before I got the +2 body, I was worried that the improvement from +1 might have been marginal since I was struggling to get those damn cards until today and karma might slap me in the face like that. I was pleasantly surprised to find that was VERY MUCH the contrary. that extra 1mp/tic of Refresh is actually more noticable than you might think! Also, a whole 5 percent increase to Solace cureskin is just nuts. The more obvious things like 5 extra Healing skill is more just icing on the cake. I finally feel like I'm getting my foot in the door of gearing as a WHM. I'm not trying to say I nessecarily deserve this gear or trying to argue or complain when I'm upset for not getting my gear, I'm just so happy to finally get something that seem like, to me, is at least something of a moderate, resonable accomplishment, though I realize I still have a very long way to go, this is just one piece after all. I think I said something similar on FB or in-game when I completed Arka IV.

I realize I'm still not good, and well, more than the gear, I just appreciate the run. More valuable than gear is just a chance to learn how to play the job better. Yes, I made some really derpy mistakes, Tibs died more than he shoud have. I should have not gotten hit with Break, I should have had RR up on the first pull, I should of healed more consistantly despite range/AoE concerns. Then again, I book burned/Abyssea'd to 99, I have to learn how to heal better, because I couldn't really while leveling and runs like this is how I should practice, I suppose.

Big thank you to Jayhawk for making time on the weekend to help me out, big thanks to Alahra for coming out as well as Napup. And of course Tibs, for being so helpful and supportive. Sorry I let you die so much. I'll learn. Somehow, I'll learn.