On MMOs and Christmas Aftermath
To start, FFXI ranting/squee. I promise it won't take long.
Scholar as a job SUCKS ROCKS. I know my linkshell said it, I know I didn't believe them, and it might get better when I go up a few more levels, but having seen one in action yesterday, I somehow doubt it. Thing is, you don't get access to a lot of spells for a good long while, and you don't even get decent job abilities beyond your two-hour (awesome but desperate last-resort job ability) and so crawling through those early levels of soloing the starting areas basically involve you spam-nuking weak and diddy spells, trying to keep yourself healed as much as possible, and hitting things with a stick. When your character is a teeny tiny deathgnome with the hit points of lint? This is not a good way to be! But I unlocked it so gods help me, I am going to keep trying. Though gods help me when I get to higher levels and have to join parties that expect me to be main healer when I'm basically gimped in healing magic. Mrgh. That's when it's useful to have a Paladin and maybe a Dancer (or at least someone subbing Dancer) in party, I guess. It's how we survived five levels in the jungles with a SCH as main healer - two DRG (I was subbing DNC), one DNC/NIN (yay Utsusemi!) and a PLD as well as a SCH/BLM.
...I know I just lost most of you there. Sorry.
Dragoon, meanwhile, never ceases to be awesome. Of course, the whole 'HP of lint' thing can sometimes be an issue, particularly if one's tank can't hold hate worth shit, but on the whole, I am loving the hell out of that job. I mean, I have a freakin' dragon! It's a small freakin' dragon, but I'm a small freakin' Taru, so that works out. I don't care if people call them LOLDRG ... mostly because however many people mock the job, DRG's more in demand in party than any other job than White Mage, so the job can't be that gimped. Plus yesterday's party blew me through five levels of 'LOLDRG' - I think that's pretty spectacular. Besides, still not getting the same kind of mockery Dark Knights get. That's got to be a bonus.
(On that note, why am I bothering to unlock DRK, anyway? The quest is a bitch. Well, still, I did want to unlock all the jobs. I guess you take the bitter with the sweet.)
So that was my Boxing Day - watching Hamlet (David Tennant! Patrick Stewart! Awesome all around!) while pounding macro buttons and scoffing
mitchy's lovely Boxing Day feast - cold cuts and chutneys and gorgeous roast parsnips and roast potatoes and some of the mash leftover from my Christmas dinner. Omnom. It was nice, and there was relaxing and all was well.
Today was dinner with Mum and Stepdad, for more gift exchange and general nommage. Mum made my favourite pasta dish (prawns, sun-dried tomato and peas) and we unwrapped the presents. David liked his new mouse mat and it immediately got pride of place in their study. Mum was very pleased with the DVDs I got her (The Great Escape and The Handmaid's Tale), so I did well and am happy. For myself, I got books (Stephen King's most recent collection of short stories and an Ursula K LeGuin book Mum thought I'd like), CDs (Metric, Shinedown and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs), new clothes (the tops work, but I'm not really sure about the dress and as to the bright purple jeans? Um...) and a new coat. They're trying to pry me out of my old, battered black leather jacket but while the suede-effect tan trenchcoat is nice and all, and very John Constantine? I like my leather jacket and I'm not binning it.
Last but certainly not least, there was the cute Christmas card with the Amazon 'gift tokens' stuck inside, one each from Mum and Stepdad. See, apparently my Amazon wish list was too extensive for them to decide what to get, even with the abbreviated 'All I Want for Christmas' default list. So instead, we went online after dinner and I picked out a couple of things from the list. Those 'couple of things' turned out to be Sims 3 and the World Adventures expansion pack, of course. Though I admit to being a little peeved at EA for not only charging for the only custom content we can really get at the moment, but for also putting out Stuff Packs on top of that. Yay for being the ever-milked cash cow? Still, I have uses for the game regardless (character and set design works even if I'm a little crippled without custom content) and I do think it's fun.
Of course, there were a couple of things that made me want to punt my mother through a waaaaall... But I'm not going to go into that overmuch. Just ... y'know, I'm 32, not 12.
Scholar as a job SUCKS ROCKS. I know my linkshell said it, I know I didn't believe them, and it might get better when I go up a few more levels, but having seen one in action yesterday, I somehow doubt it. Thing is, you don't get access to a lot of spells for a good long while, and you don't even get decent job abilities beyond your two-hour (awesome but desperate last-resort job ability) and so crawling through those early levels of soloing the starting areas basically involve you spam-nuking weak and diddy spells, trying to keep yourself healed as much as possible, and hitting things with a stick. When your character is a teeny tiny deathgnome with the hit points of lint? This is not a good way to be! But I unlocked it so gods help me, I am going to keep trying. Though gods help me when I get to higher levels and have to join parties that expect me to be main healer when I'm basically gimped in healing magic. Mrgh. That's when it's useful to have a Paladin and maybe a Dancer (or at least someone subbing Dancer) in party, I guess. It's how we survived five levels in the jungles with a SCH as main healer - two DRG (I was subbing DNC), one DNC/NIN (yay Utsusemi!) and a PLD as well as a SCH/BLM.
...I know I just lost most of you there. Sorry.
Dragoon, meanwhile, never ceases to be awesome. Of course, the whole 'HP of lint' thing can sometimes be an issue, particularly if one's tank can't hold hate worth shit, but on the whole, I am loving the hell out of that job. I mean, I have a freakin' dragon! It's a small freakin' dragon, but I'm a small freakin' Taru, so that works out. I don't care if people call them LOLDRG ... mostly because however many people mock the job, DRG's more in demand in party than any other job than White Mage, so the job can't be that gimped. Plus yesterday's party blew me through five levels of 'LOLDRG' - I think that's pretty spectacular. Besides, still not getting the same kind of mockery Dark Knights get. That's got to be a bonus.
(On that note, why am I bothering to unlock DRK, anyway? The quest is a bitch. Well, still, I did want to unlock all the jobs. I guess you take the bitter with the sweet.)
So that was my Boxing Day - watching Hamlet (David Tennant! Patrick Stewart! Awesome all around!) while pounding macro buttons and scoffing
mitchy's lovely Boxing Day feast - cold cuts and chutneys and gorgeous roast parsnips and roast potatoes and some of the mash leftover from my Christmas dinner. Omnom. It was nice, and there was relaxing and all was well.
Today was dinner with Mum and Stepdad, for more gift exchange and general nommage. Mum made my favourite pasta dish (prawns, sun-dried tomato and peas) and we unwrapped the presents. David liked his new mouse mat and it immediately got pride of place in their study. Mum was very pleased with the DVDs I got her (The Great Escape and The Handmaid's Tale), so I did well and am happy. For myself, I got books (Stephen King's most recent collection of short stories and an Ursula K LeGuin book Mum thought I'd like), CDs (Metric, Shinedown and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs), new clothes (the tops work, but I'm not really sure about the dress and as to the bright purple jeans? Um...) and a new coat. They're trying to pry me out of my old, battered black leather jacket but while the suede-effect tan trenchcoat is nice and all, and very John Constantine? I like my leather jacket and I'm not binning it.
Last but certainly not least, there was the cute Christmas card with the Amazon 'gift tokens' stuck inside, one each from Mum and Stepdad. See, apparently my Amazon wish list was too extensive for them to decide what to get, even with the abbreviated 'All I Want for Christmas' default list. So instead, we went online after dinner and I picked out a couple of things from the list. Those 'couple of things' turned out to be Sims 3 and the World Adventures expansion pack, of course. Though I admit to being a little peeved at EA for not only charging for the only custom content we can really get at the moment, but for also putting out Stuff Packs on top of that. Yay for being the ever-milked cash cow? Still, I have uses for the game regardless (character and set design works even if I'm a little crippled without custom content) and I do think it's fun.
Of course, there were a couple of things that made me want to punt my mother through a waaaaall... But I'm not going to go into that overmuch. Just ... y'know, I'm 32, not 12.