Firesday, 8/7/1034

Yuhtunga Jungle. Level 42. Defeats = 0
The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah. Levels 43, 44. Defeats = 1
Crawlers' Nest. Level 43. Defeats = 1
Yhoator Jungle. Level 44. Defeats = 0

It has been a rough few days. It has been over a year (Vana'diel time) since I was last defeated as a Beastmaster. Well, I guess I was due, because I just suffered three defeats in the last week. Still, I did make some decent progress on my way to level 50.

I picked up where I left off in Yuhtunga Jungle. When I first arrived there was a Blue Mage soloing at the camp. Luckily he did not stay long and I started fighting when he decided to leave. I put up my camp in my Search Comment, buffed up, and sent one of the two Soldier Crawlers in the cave against the Very Tough Goblin Robber there. It was then that I truly noticed that Robbers (who are Thiefs) have really high Evasion. The Easy Prey Crawler pet could barely manage to hit the goblin at all. I really should have converted the pets to Even Match before starting. Oh well, there was another Crawler pet to use. I switched back and forth between pets using Leave as I described in my last log entry. However, I screwed up and let one pet get too low on health and it was defeated by a Goblin Rush. The second pet was defeated soon after and the Robber still had about 15% of its health left. Thats was still too much for me to take out alone, so I ran down the path to get another pet, only to find my path blocked by a Goblin Poacher! Luckily I backed off before it could see me. I ran out of the cave in the other direction with the Robber hot on my tail, desperately seeking another pet. I ran by a level 47 Puppetmaster on my way, but she did not help. No matter, there were some Young Opo-opos around that I could use in a pinch. I was just about to Charm one when the Goblin threw a bomb at me but blew itself up. Whew, that was a lucky break. But it was already the start of a bad day.

I immediately ran back to the cave only to discover the Puppetmaster fighting a Crawler that must have just spawned there. That was a bad sign. I figured she was a farmer or something, since the crawlers had to be mostly Easy Prey to her at 47. I tried to recover as soon as possible, sensing I might have some competition. It turns out I was right. I spent an unpleasant day or so fighting for the limited spawns in the area. I probably should have just left, but I hate it when someone tries to camp on top of me. I was fighting goblins while she was fighting the crawlers at first. This might have worked out ok, but I needed some crawlers to use as pets. Several times I was almost defeated because she would claim a Crawler just as I was about to Charm it. For now I'll assume she wasn't intentionally trying to kill me. Still at this point I was pretty annoyed. I was running for my life while she was killing a Crawler for less than 50 exp. (/sigh) Anyway, I won't go into more details on our little feud. She eventually hit level 48 and started fighting the goblins too, for a while. That was tough, but she eventually left soon after that (I guess she got a buffer or something). At least I managed to avoid defeat despite some close calls.

Once I had the place to myself again, things picked up considerably. This is a pretty good place to fight at level 42. I was regularly hitting chains #2-#3, and sometimes chain #4. I could kill the goblins even if they didn't manage to blow themselves up. I could even fight alongside a single pet against an even Match or low Tough goblin. Soon, I managed to reach level 43 with a buffer, and decided I needed a change of scenery. In retrospect, I probably should have just stayed until 44.

I went back to Jeuno and noticed that I had over 100 Beastmen's Seals in my Mog Safe again (I have several more in my furniture Storage in Windurst). Well, I still needed money, so it was time to try for an Astral Ring again! I got some minimal gear and made my way to do the level 20 BCNM. I never really had much trouble in the past soling this, but this time it ended in defeat! It turns out I didn't bring enough Hi-Potions. In my past 3 successful attempts, I had only used 3-4 Hi-Potions per fight. I brought six with me this time. It wasn't enough. This time around, I failed my first three Charm attempts in a row! This is really bad, because I had all three bats beating on me mercilessly during that time. I had to burn most of my Hi-Potions at the start of the battle just to survive. I actually managed to get out of the rough beginning and almost turned it around. I got Colo-colo down to a tiny sliver of life, then missed my Raging Axe that would have finished him off. Defeat came shortly thereafter. This was the first time I had ever lost that fight as a Beastmaster. I was pretty upset. But worse, I had lost some of my buffer experience points.

I decided to start leveling again, and I heard that The Sanctuary of Zi'Tah was a decent place and made my way there. It is a beautiful area, with tall, majestic trees and a secluded, serene atmosphere. I rode my chocobo to the outpost and saw a few high level adventurers hanging around. I also saw a level 34 elvaan Blue Mage there too. I though for sure I would be the lowest level character in the area, but I was wrong. As it turns out, he was leveling off the Goblin's Leech pets of the Goblin Traders. That was a risky proposition, but the experience was probably pretty good at level 34. I made a note to keep this area in mid for later when soloing with one of my other jobs. I thought about leaving for another area after my previous poor experience with another player, but decided to give it a shot. It worked out pretty well actually. I mostly targeted the Goblin Robbers in the area, and tried to avoid the Goblin Traders so the Blue Mage could kill their pets. Sanctuary of Zi'Tah has lots and lots of viable pets roaming all over the place, including Myxomycetes (Funguars), Goobbue Parasites (Leeches), Ogreflys (Flys), and Lesser Gaylas (Bats). The Lesser Gaylas are the lowest level pets, but they are also the most annoying because unlike the others, they will agro if you get too close. The bats only seem to come out at night, but there are lots and lots of bats roaming around. Between them and the goblins, it can be pretty dangerous to roam around the area at night. But at least there was no undead. The area is much safer during the day; in fact it is one of the safest areas I have ever adventured in. The best part of the area is the pets are all good, and tend to have excellent TP abilities. Many of these abilities affect an area though, so it is best to utilize the Heel command to pull your battle away from any potential additional monsters.

Focusing solely on the Robbers was a little slow for my tastes however. And the Robbers were perhaps the most irritating of the goblins with their crazy Evasion. Once I ran out of goblins, I would carefully fight some of the other creatures in the area. Be careful doing this though, because they all link. I made it about 1/3 of the way through level 43 when I decided to leave, thinking the experience was a little slow. It was about 2k per hour... not too bad but I've done better. I though hte experience would probably have been acceptable if I had the area to myself.

I think part of me just wanted to try out a lot of different camps today. I went back to give Crawlers' Nest another try. This time I dropped into the main room and walked down a corridor leading to a room full of Killer Mushrooms. In the corridor there were two Worker Crawlers that would make the perfect pets. Learning my lesson from my fiasco in Yuhtunga Jungle, this time I used Leave to convert both pets to Even Match before starting. This turned out to be a very good decision, because those Mushrooms are nasty! They were all Tough-Very Tough, and as I alluded to before, Funguar have very good TP moves. Frog Kick is a high damage single target attack. Spore is a strong Paralyze effect. Dark Spore is an cone-area Blindness effect that also deals nearly 400 damage. Silent Gas is like Dark Spore, but Silence instead of Blindness. They have several other abilities ("-shroom" attacks) that deal single target damage an also cause a status effect like Paralyze or Poison. When fighting here, always try to stay opposite your pet so you don't get hit. Losing half your health in a single attack and getting Silenced to boot is not a fun experience.

This was a very difficult camp for me, but I managed to hold my own for quite a while. I had to make frequent use of the pet swap. Against a Very Tough Killer Mushroom, I had to swap between pets at least two times and sometimes as many as four times. And you have to be very careful with melee. I tried to only enter the fray when I was reasonably sure my current pet and I could finish off the Mushroom without an additional pet swap. This is because if I fought alongside a pet then found I had to swap, the new pet would take a while to get hate from me. The Mushrooms hit so hard and have TP moves that can take 40-50% of my total health in a single hit, so they can make short of me if I have hate. Long story short, it is very important not to take hate here if you can help it. I made frequent use of Blink and Regen here, which made pet swaps much easier.

None of the enemies agro in this little area, but they all link. The room has about 5 or 6 Killer Mushrooms in it, which make some of the pulls a little dangerous. However, once you start killing the Mushrooms it gets significantly easier to pull them out of the room and into the tunnel. Despite this area being very stressful and difficult, I actually liked this camp quite a bit. I am not sure I could have pulled it off solo as any other job. That said, it was not very fast. While each Mushroom gave 150-200 experience (usually 200), it was almost impossible to chain them. The Crawlers just took too long to kill the funguars. I think the highest chain I managed was #2. I think I might try again after level 45 when I can Charm the Killer Mushrooms and have them fight each other.

I felt like I was walking along he edge of a knife the whole time. Eventually, I slipped. I pulled a Very Tough Mushroom and started the fight as normal. During the battle, my Reraise Earring effect wore off. Of course it did. I go to make a routine pet swap and... Mischarm! The Mushroom starts beating on me as I immediately hit Tame on the mischarmed Crawler. It missed. Both are beating on me and I finally manage to Charm the Crawler and send it after the Mushroom. But just as I do, the Mushroom double attacks me and the next thing I know I'm eating dirt. Of course, in hindsight I might have survived if I had done things differently. I could have summoned a jug pet and had it buy me some time while waiting on my second Charm timer. I could have tried to Charm the Mushroom instead and used Leave to make it despawn. Oh well, I figured defeat was only a matter of time in that place. Since I had to go back to my Home Point (/sigh), i checked Sanctuary of Zi'Tah and saw that the Blue Mage was gone. Time to give it another try.

My second stint at Sanctuary of Zi'Tah was much faster than my first. I was now pretty sure where each goblin spawned and could run to each spawn point and take them out as they popped. When I first arrived, some higher level players were farming the bats, which made my life far easier as well. Soon, I was level 44 and cruising along and nearly 3000 experience per hour. At level 44, the experience slows down quite a bit as several of the goblins start to spawn as Decent Challenge. I thought the area's relative safety would help make up for it though, so I continued to grind it out. I made it about 5000 experience into level 44 and to be quite honest I started feeling pretty cocky and invincible. Then Reraise wore off. And you can guess what happened next (/cry). This time I was fighting alongside my pet while fighting a Tough Goblin Robber. I was out of MP and already somewhat hurt, so I had no business fighting. But like I said, I was feeling overly confident. It somehow managed to kill my pet Ogrefly and turn to beat on me with a Goblin Rush. I grabbed another nearby pet immediately and sent if after the goblin. But it just could not take the goblin's hate from me before I was defeated. It didn't help that the Robber went on an Evasion spree and started dodging our attacks all Matrix-style! I knew I should have bought a Woodsman Ring or two...

I Home Point, again. By this point I was pretty exhausted, but also determined to recover my lost experience. This time I decided to go for Yhoator Jungle in the vicinity of the Telepoint. I needed that Yhoator Gate Crystal anyway, so I killed two birds with one stone. One again, my pets were Worker Crawlers and my prey, Goblins. The Goblins here were slightly higher level than their Yuhtunga Jungle counterparts. While there was a party fighting at the Telepoint, I moved a little ways to the west and found a decent secluded campsite. There, I fought Goblin Poachers and Goblin Reapers until I got my experence back from my most recent defeat, plus a little more. Part of me really wanted to go for level 45, but I could hardly keep my eyes open and did not want to make another mistake. I made camp for the night and resolved to pick things up again soon.