You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

[Joon]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

That's his Ranged Attack macro, folks. I don't even know what the others were. Oh, and Call 4. I mean, seriously?

[WishMaster3K]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Dunes suck. I took my job levels out my sig, because I might never raise DRK(7) THF(16) SMSN(8) and BRD(10) SIMPLY because of the dunes. I've done WAR WHM BLM NIN and PLD to 37. RDM to 75. Eff this, I'm done. I quit leveling other jobs.

Nothing is worth the Dune's headaches. You think you've gotten past it. OH LORD, you think iy's over. Then, something crawls in your ear, gnaws at your brain, and you say, "hey, the dune's aint so bad. Let's level FIFTEEN MORE JOBS THERE!"

And by this point, you're already crazy. So it's too late.

I think, while leveling subjobs, people actually stopped being noobs around-
















































Wait, that never happened. There are still noobs in my merit pts. Ppl who know we're going to Dvucca Isle, but they don't bring Oils and Powders and want me to play Russian Roulette with Lamia, and they say, "sneak" every 10 seconds.

Eff that. That's why I solo.

[Lucky and Elizabeth]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

I joined party today as soo nas I got there 2 peoiple got DCed and never came back.

Then we waited for tank and Balck mage

Tank died and I died I was White Mage.

I Hped and rtan back to battle and Tank Hped back to Sandy and left.

We stood aro8und for 30 mins while Bard joined played music and left.

Finally I left and just fought with blm in Highlands for low exp while I showed him how to play

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PS: How do you capture the Chat screens?

...about that.

Yesterday I dinged 15 on my NIN mid-afternoon, and spent the rest of the day running all over Vana'diel getting the things I'd need for my push to 20. You see, I'd held off on joining a party until 15 for several reasons.

1.) I could go ahead and learn all of my (not entirely necessary) Elemental Ninjitsu, which meant that I could level my NIN skill faster, and not have to carry around a bunch of scrolls.

2.) I'd finally have all of the gear, from food (Navarin for good parties and Meat Jerky for crappy ones or soloing), to enough Shihei to last me until 37 (I hope) to all of the various other Ninja tools that I don't really need but I can use to skillup my Ninja Magic with, to the Gassan that I had to get all of my WAR gear out of storage for (Chocoboleech wasn't too bad), to the Shurikens that my Jeuno mule has been hoarding for weeks after daily trips to the Tenshodo Guild shop, to the Hawkeyes that would keep my throwing skill up until I could use the Shurikens, to the two pieces of Bone Armor +1 I'd slide into at 16, all of which would allow me to finish these interminable levels before 20 (not that it gets much better then for a young NIN) in relative peace.

3.) Mostly I just hate leveling on Lizards and Low Range Dunes Gobs.

So this afternoon I decided to start soloing in LaTheine near the Valkurm entrance while looking for a group.

Party #1: Invited by a Rank 10 MNK/WAR. He sent a tell first, which I appreicated, and since he asked me to hurry I tossed on my Return Ring which immediately ported me to the Valkurm Outpost. I set my HP and joined up with the party which was...right in front of the damn outpost. Well, this is starting off well.

"Hey, we have a PL - so don't provoke"

I stayed for two fights, and then sent the leader a tell asking if he'd mind if I looked for a replacement since I didn't want to be powerleveled. He booted me without a word in party chat. Oh well.

Invite #2: Lush 15 BLM


Maybe I could have been friendlier.

Party #2: Invited by a SMN/WHM. Rank 3, only had Carby, but he had a WHM and a RDM, and a MNK/WAR who was Rank 5, and a DRG who almost immediately replaced himself with a BLM (that is not an even trade, folks).

I was asked to pull as well as tank, because none of the mages could (or would) and the MNK had no ranged attacks. Fine. I love tearing through my shadows for fun.

Then the BLM got aggro from a gob, and I nearly died because the WHM and SMN were chain casting Banish instead of curing me. For about 9 damage each time.

Then I noticed that the RDM was casting Dia and then the BLM was casting Bio. I stopped for a moment to explain why that was a bad idea, and the RDM pulled out her "I have a level 75 WHM" card, which, obviously not, because a level 75 WHM should know that Bio overwrites Dia, but she swore it didn't. The BLM began to get beligerent at this point.

After the next fight, the BLM bitched about needing poisona (I'd be dipping into my stock of antidotes because no one seemed interested in helping me out in that area). I asked why he didn't cast it on himself, and he pointed out that he had a RDM sub. Since I couldn't think of any reason why you'd sub RDM to BLM in the dunes, I hadn't even noticed. So I asked if he had his WHM available, which he of course did not, and then he proceeded to yell at me. The WHM complained that we were all acting ridiculous, and the WHM told us all to shut up.

I decided to take my leave. (Kaiz = SMN, Firanx = WHM) alas I forgot to screenie the earlier Dia/Bio conversation. That's ok. We've all had it before.

I guess I did kind of sound like a kid.

Party #3: Invited by a Rank 10 RNG/WAR. I join the party to find that he and I are the only ones with Subjobs. That's ok. They seemed friendly enough. But then the macros started. And never stopped.

That's his Ranged Attack macro, folks. I don't even know what the others were. Oh, and Call 4. I mean, seriously?

The WHM randomly bene'd after a fight and immediately DC'd, never to return again. We replaced him, but the next WHM died before he could get to us. Then we got him a raise, waited for weakness to wear, and then got started. Then the RNG pulled four gobs, and everyone died but me and the RDM. She called us all idiots (I apologized via /tell but she wasn't having any of it), and I finally called it a day.

I think I did my time. I'm just going to solo tomorrow.

And before anyone mentions it, I was going to make my own party, but I was looking at that weird time when EU time is winding down, but most NAs aren't online just yet, and for a bit there I was the only person looking for a party from levels 14-17. Had there been just a few other folks, I could have figured something out.

Anyway, I just had to share with someone. I'm going to turn this all into an LJ entry later, when I can reformat some of the screenshots.

[Murphie]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

I use a program called clipper. There was a thread earlier today on how to do full screen captures. In Off-Topic maybe. Or the How To section (If we even have one of those).

[Feba]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

I'm not playing yet, and i know dia and bio don't stack.

Yes. Yes you do.

/em pats his pet newb.

[McBride]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

I have taken nine jobs through the Dunes now. I hate that place with a passion. The only times I've ever had a good time leveling there were with Thief and Ninja, and that's because no one spoke English at the time.

There's something about certain parts of the game... Personally, I love Qufim. It's the point where people seem to finally begin understanding how the game works, and I've had a fair amount of good parties there. It's also short-- you normally only last there from 20-25. But, in Elshimo, Dunes, and Crawlers' Nest, I almost never, EVER have good parties there.

You know, I never have awesome high level parties anymore either. I may be cursed. The last time I had a party on thief was two months ago, when I obtained 75. I haven't even tried an AU party yet, but that's because I get sick of going LFG for over 2 hours. I sort of gain an instant anxiety at times, and it hinders my ability to lead parties... People give me huge headaches, I can't help it.

[Telal]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Telal > Newbs

I've taught you well!

You and a few others.

[ikkleste]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Hate to say i told you so lol

Dunes levels are especially painful as a NIN in parties, I think. I've leveled the job twice before (I must be crazy), and I much prefer for a WAR/MNK to tank while I pull or DD, but everyone wants me to main tank, and no one wants to be a useful backup provoker.

yeah, as WAR there recently with a NIN in party i was asked to pull while the NIN tanked... seemed odd to me but the NIN seemed happy with it...

[Jei]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

The sad fact about the dunes...

To be honest, if the PT bring PL, just... ignore it and take the ride >.<
Get your level and get out of there. It's much more fun in Jeuno when you can gather people easier and pick who you want for your group.
Qufim isn't that much better, but still better.

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

I found it was a nightmare with parties until the white mages picked up Erase. Too many bad memories of telling idiots to not pull spiders in Quicksand Caves because haste doesn't overwrite the Web effect. Regardless, they thought they knew better and I ended up tanking IT++ spiders (Omgz teh IT++ giv teh uber xp!1!) perma slowed and eating sickle slashes like they were going out of fashion. It's true what was pointed out earlier though, inept assmonkeys like the ones you mentioned are prevalent throughout all levels of the game. It's always down to a mixture of good luck and your Spidey sense kicking in where PuGs are concerned.

[Susurrus]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Before the 360 version was released I was having a great time leveling various jobs through Valkurm pretty well. Sure, there was the occaisional retard party, but most weren't too bad. I think this is because it was mostly just people leveling thier 2,3,4,5,6,7,etc job. Then the 360 version came out and all went to hell. I had no fun trying to get my Corsair through there. And since it just hit 40 recently, I'm about to pick up Pupeteer (if you can't tell from my signature, I'm trying to get all jobs to 40).

[Nazo]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

See, this is why SE gave us higher levels NPCs to play with. After a bad run in Yuhtunga the other night I took my Nin 25 back to Qufim and solo'd worms and clippers with my NPC Nanako in soothing healer mode. She was wonderful, she cast protect and shell on me, she healed me when I got whacked, she often did enough damage with her polearm to get enogh hate to allow me to recast utsusemi, she dia'd, paralyzed and slowed the mobs (not always at the same time admittedly) and even silenced the worms. She didn't spam my party chat with stupid macros, never used annoying <calls> and told me when her mp was low so I knew when to stop pulling and not get carried away. In other words she was better than 90% of the parties I've had at that level and we tore through the mobs. If only she'd stay around a bit longer she'd be damn near perfect.

[Kirsteena]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Amen!!

[Nakti]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Obviously the reason those WHMs were mainly casting Banish was because they were so used to PLs! And that WHM that Benedicted - s/he was already seeing R=0 and was pressing all the keys on the keyboard to get something to react in the game.

I just /blist people who use excessive foul language or spam. If they're old enough to play this game, they're old enough to know how to speak properly in public. Too bad for them if I don't realize they need a -na spell.

Aelathir, Since you're pretty familiar with a lot of Vana'diel, maybe you should create your own parties. Even if they're just with 4 or 5 people I'm sure you'd be able to take your party somewhere decent.

[Taolynn]

Re: You know how I said not to hate the dunes so much? Yeah...

Ouch, sounds like the typical Dunes party. Lots of frustration and annoyance.

If your having trouble in the dunes(or just sick of the place in general), build a PT, go to bastok and fight worms in Korroloka.

I've only taken 1 job through Valkurm because I wanted to see how bad it was. All other jobs have been leveled in korroloka tunnel. Usually go there from levels 12-20. Best time to go there is NA prime since most NAs do not go there. However, if you try during JP prime then good luck. It's massively packed then.

Good luck and hope you have better experiences