Ask and Ye Shall Receive

As requested, one picture of Maholm getting his fish-catching on:















Fishing is a lot more fun in this game when you've got a friend angling as well. That way you can chat with your buddy while sending out casts.

Of course, that can be a bit of a waste when you realize that you could be out kicking butt in the wilderness. And just so you don't think Chuck spends all his time mucking around with fishing, here he is laying the wood to a very unfortunate Rock Lizard:

Gone Fishing

I just wanted to share a few pictures (that's right, I figured out how) of Bronco and Maholm fishing; and of Maholm's new fishing gear. Here is a pic of Bronco fishing with Maholm in some sort of green moat in the mining district of Bastok. I'm not sure if I would want to eat the fish out of there, but so far it has been the best place to catch fish in Bastok for me. I wanted to take a picture of both of us fishing but when you are fishing you cannot use the menu to select anything, let alone take a picture. Jeff had wanted to post a picture of Bronco fishing but he couldn't take a picture of himself so he asked me to. He also took a picture of Maholm fishing but I don't have it right now. Maybe he will post it later. Or maybe we can do something crazy and have a 3rd person take a picture of us both fishing. Stay tuned for that exciting update.

Here is a picture of the new fishing gear I picked up at the auction house the other day. I started leveling up Maholm as a white mage (for when I complete my subjob quest) and I discovered that I didn't have any level one clothes that a white mage can wear. I went to buy some at the auction house in Bastok but there was nothing available for cheap and not much to choose from at all. It turns out that I sold all of my level one clothes that you start the game with to free up inventory space in my mog house. I ended up buying this fishing shirt (which gives a +1 to your fihing skill) for 7000 gil and these fishing hose (which I think are really fishing tights) which also give a +1 for another 7000. So I spent 14k on some new threads so I could lay down the law on some level 1 hugh hornets. Now that I have some sweet fishing swag I can work on getting my fishing skill above 1/100.

DING

Level Up!!! That's right, I'm now a level 18 Red Mage.

Welcome Maholm

Hello all, my name is Chuck (or should I say the bucket) and I'm going to be playing FFXI with Jeff and helping out with this blog. Mainly I'm going to be playing a mmorpg and occasionally dropping by to discuss my progress on this blog. I'm actually playing FFXI right now as I'm writing this post; I'm grinding out a few levels in the Konscgtat Highlands. I'm currently a level 17 Red Mage and I trying to get to level 18 so I can complete the subjob quest and begin working on my subjob. I should be there within the hour, but I still need the third item for the quest which is a Magicked Skull. Does anyone have a spare?

Let me first warn you all that I'm not a scientist. I don't want any bad press for miss-representing myself as one with the sciences. I'm just a friend of the scientist who runs this blog and of the scientists that have "gone wild" in Europe. However, I will do my best to uphold the scientist mantle that has been placed upon me and add some scientific insights into the mmorpg of FFXI.

And finally, let me apologize for not posting earlier this week. I wanted to include a picture from the game in my first post but I still have not figured out how to get the in-game pictures from my 360 to my computer. As you can see, I decided to post without a picture but I'll do my best to have a picture ready for my next post. I'm sure that Jeff knows how. With that I'm going to end this introductory post focus on getting to level 18.

The Dynamic Duo

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I'm back with big news. The Bucket has made the leap to FFXI, so we can all welcome Bastok's newest hero, Maholm!

To commemorate this occasion, we took a picture together. And to commemorate the hilarity of Maholm's bronze armor set/S&M outfit, TUFF insisted that I use this picture. For those with sensitive eyes...I'M SORRY:

I also gave the Bucket author rights on this page, so hopefully he'll take a monent to introduce Maholm to the blogging community. Welcome to the game!

Lord of the Flies

And here's another common foe in the Dunes, the Damselfly:















Damselflies are pretty important to new players, because they drop a key item required for the "subjob" quest. When you hit level 18, you can participate in a quest to prove yourself worthy of having a subjob. It's a bit complicated, but a subjob is like an added boost that allows you to have some of the abilities of a second job, creating an opportunity to customize your character. For example, a normal Warrior can't use any magic. But if Bronco the Warrior picks White Mage as a subjob, then he gains the ability to cast some basic Cure spells and the like.

However, that's a pretty poor combination, since Warrior will always be pretty crappy at magic. It's generally better to pick a subjob that compliments your main job, rather than something completely different. I like to use a Monk subjob for Bronco, because it adds a lot of health and attack power, as well as some handy abilities for a front-line fighter like Counter and Boost.

In other news, I hit level 30 this weekend and opened up a few advanced jobs - Paladin, Beastmaster, and Dark Knight. Unfortunately the Bucket is having a bit of trouble getting set up to play (Damn you Play Online!), but I'm confident he'll get it worked out eventually!

He Who Controls the Spice Controls the Universe

I'm still focusing on gaining experience for the steady climb to level 30. Sometimes I join up with groups, but lately I've been doing a lot of soloing in Valkrum Dunes. Grouping is fun, but it can take a while to get your party together. Solo play is more slow and steady, and it gives the added bonus that you can work on Fields of Valor training.

In most areas, there are these Field Training books with various pages, each with a different training regime. For example, you might need to defeat 5 worms and 3 hornets. If you succeed, you get an experience bonus, cash, and special tabs that can be used to gain temporary beneficial effects.

In the Dunes, I often slug it out with sheep like this one:















It may seem ridiculous to battle a sheep (even a Brutal Sheep like this one), but these guys can be surprisingly tough customers. They have a lot of health, they can headbutt you pretty hard, and they even have a special ability that can put you to sleep. Maybe by forcing you to count it?