Dear Black Mages

Stop opening with Sleepga II.

It's like wearing a neon flashing sign that says "I am terrible at my job."

Why can't I have nice Dynamis runs?

Soloing in a Broom Closet

While it's not exactly a noteworthy accomplishment to solo a level 70 Notorious Monster when you're level 80, today's adventure feels noteworthy all the same.

I've been meaning to get to Sky and I've started the legwork on the missions. Today I've been going around to the Cermet headstones and collecting fragments. But enough with the exposition.

I wandered into Cape Terrigan and tackled Axesarion the Wanderer. He's a Shadow and takes reduced damage from magic, so my nukes weren't exactly melting his face. The tricky thing though, was that he's located at the end of a tunnel that's constantly patrolled by goblins, meaning I couldn't exactly kite him over long distances. In fact I couldn't really kite him more than a few feet. The room was incredibly tiny and the goblins were all breathing down my neck the whole fight, but I somehow managed to keep enough distance between me and the NM that he couldn't swing at me while bound.

This is sort of the problem I've always had with the concept of kiting NMs, there's always an entire zone full of aggro waiting to ruin your attempt if the NM doesn't. Today I started learning some basics of how to get around this. You really don't need much space at all if there's a clear spot that doesn't have aggro. Just enough space that the monster can't swing at you. It kind of blew my mind when I realized what can be done with just a broom closet of aggro free space.

It got pretty hairy when I got caught with Convert down.

That room is so tiny.

Dear Mages...

Cast Haste.

I'm tired of being the only competent mage in Abyssea pickup parties. Don't make me Haste the entire alliance by myself, stop slacking.

Even Quadavs know how to cast Haste. Why don't you?