Magic: Spells have been a little bit of a puzzle to me. I had assumed that as a White Mage I might learn new spells automatically as I leveled up. It didn't take me too long to figure out that spells were actually purchased, but it wasn't until after lvl 10 that I discovered that I could get spells at the Auction House. This is important because until then I hadn't realized how many spells I was missing!
I had been buying my spells at the little magic shop at Port Windurst, but I know now that this shop doesn't offer a complete selection. Now that I see which spells I have access to, I'm a little unsure about what I should be using and what I should buy. I was happy to have Protect early on, and immediatly upgraded to Protectra when I had the chance, assuming it was an enhanced version of Protect. Instead, the spell offers the Protect bonus to other party members as well. Which is great, but now I'm wondering why I ever bothered with Protect at all, since Protectra is clearly better and has the same mana cost and cast time!
Right now my spell casting ritual is pretty simple. I always make sure I have Protectra up,a nd if I'm facing a tough enemy I throw up an Aquaviel as well. I start fights off with a Paralyze, followed by a quick Dia. After that I rely on swings from my Staff for damage, replacing the Dia half waythrough the fight if I need to and casting Cure on myself as much as I have to. That's carried me pretty well so far.
Now I'm wondering if I need to invest in some other spells. I keep seeing stuff like Barstone and Barsleep, which I understand protects against specific kinds of attacks. Are these spells worthwhile? They are very, very expensive, so I'm really hesitant to invest in them. Right now on my must have list is Banish (which never seems to be on the Auction House). I feel like I do very little damage, so having a damaging spell will really help. I hope!
Making Friends: I've been having trouble talking to other players. Part of it is that I play late at night and there just aren't many people around. Part of it is that I'm shy. But also part of it is that a lot of people just don't seem to want to talk to me. I guess I understand that. There are a lot of really high level players on Shiva, and I'm sure they don't want to waste their time with a new player who doesn't know anything. I've been trying to restrict myself to players who are close to my own level (once I figured out how to check), but it took me awhile to realize that just because a character is in the level 1-15 range doesn't mean that they are a new character. I guess there's something called sub jobs, and a lot of characters have multiple jobs? It's kind of confusing!
Anyway, I've had two bits of luck! First, over on this thread on ZAM (which I'm sure you know is a FFXI community site) I was told I could join a Linkshell called Ichiban. I haven't found any of the Ichiban members in game yet, but hopefully I will soon.
My other bit of luck was that I made some friends. While walking through Tahrongi Canyon a Warrior named Artillery and a White Mage named Sythi asked me to join a party. They were really nice, and showed me how to add their names to my Friends List. So now I have two friends! This was my first party experience, and it was a lot of fun. I ended up just healing, since I didn't want to accidentally let anyone die. It seemed to work out okay, and I'm looking forward to doing it again!
Next post: Who knows? Let's see what happens tonight!
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