Windsday, 3/24/1036 (part 2)

Yuhtunga Jungle. Paladin Level 25, 26, 27. Defeats = 0
Yhoator Jungle. Paladin Level 27, 28. Defeats = 0

This will be a short entry because it has been months since this adventure and the details are a little foggy. I teamed up with my friends Papaya, Pitaya, and Chili in Jeuno, and we made our way to Yuhtunga Jungle. We also recruited a Ranger and a Dancer by the time we reached Kazham. We then started our adventure, starting with the Yuhtunga Mandragoras outside.

This was the first time I had ever adventured alongside a Dancer. They are pretty cool. I can see some of those abilities even being useful as a support job for my Paladin or Beastmaster. Our ranger seemed to be an experienced puller. We cut our way through the Yuhtunga Mandragoras with ease. There was little to no downtime with both a Dancer and a White Mage in the party. We also hit Chain #5 a few times, and almost always hit at least Chain #4. At times I had a little trouble holding hate when the Black Mage and Ranger would cut loose, but the vast majority of the time I held it well. We fought a few Goblins as well, but they were much more dangerous and hit way, way harder than the Mandragoras. In the future against Incredibly Tough+ monsters like that I might have to resort to using defensive food. I dislike overhunting like that, but sometimes we have no choice.

Around level 27, our Ranger had to leave, and the Dancer took off shortly thereafter. After a while, we recruited another Dancer and a Bard. I was a little concerned about the lack of direct damage on that party. However, things worked out well in the end. At the request of our new Dancer, we made our way to Yhoator Jungle this time. I gotta tell you - having a White Mage, Bard, and Dancer for support is really nice for a Paladin tank. I never lacked for any healing, my attacks would proc either drain or aspir, I got some MP refresh effects from the bard, and songs would help out our attack and accuracy in combat. In fact, since the Yhoator Mandragora's attacks are so weak, sometimes I had too much healing. That is, sometimes I could not Cure myself for hate effectively because none of us would be hurt. But in those cases I worked on dishing out the pain instead! As usual, Chili and I worked together to form skillchains, and Papaya and Pitaya would magic burst as appropriate. At level 28, I equipped my first Size 3 shield, the Kite Shield. Now that's a real shield - not some wussy buckler. For the first time, I felt like a knight! With that shield, my shield blocks would reduce the Mandragora damage down to as low as single digits, even without defense food or a lot of vitality gear. Heck, with this party I might have even used Berserk if we had reached the level to get it. Unfortunately, our adventure cut short after we hit level 29. Oh well, I need to buy a new set of armor anyway.

Next stop, level 30! And then we can do CoP missions and the advanced job quests!