On the Road to Maat...

(pics pending)

These past few days have been insane for xp partying. Maybe because I have been staying up uber late and only getting all Japanese parties, but the experience just keeps rolling in almost faster than I can buy new gear and spells for it. I have gone from 66 to 69 in two and a half days.

The pts have mostly been in Caederva Mire, battling heraldic imps and those ugly fnun toads. One group did break the mold by taking me out to Bibiki Bay for a dhalmel hunting party. It was cool to go somewhere I had not been before (yes, it was my first time there on Kaer), and the party was a little unconventional as well. We had a whole pantsload of DNC/NINs in the party, which was awesome to see and really makes me want to lvl dancer myself now. Only trouble we had was from bomb aggro at the end of a chain. The self destruct dropped three people from almost full to worm food. A sad moment, but we recovered and got their xp back for them.

This morning, sitting pretty at halfway to 69, I got into one last xp party and managed to hit 69 and gain a little bit of a buffer. The time was suddenly upon me to go looking for my white mage testimonial. I would show that cranky old man in Ru'Lude Gardens what I was made of! I gathered some Imperial people (Makina as DRG and Kiabrightblade as PLD), and headed out in search of my paper.

Our search led us through the Yhoator Jungles and into the volcanoes of Ifrit's Cauldron. Once again, I was in a new area, exploring parts of Vana'Diel never seen by myself, and only witnessed by a few others as well. We lost a bit of time while searching the the proper goblins; some of it was wasted (like getting separated by a wall of magma for several minutes), and some was well spent (getting both the key and coffer to grant me a map of the zone!), but we eventually found a good camp and slew enough goblin alchemists to get me my testimonial!

We lingered on in Ifrit's Cauldron, continuing to kill. Continuing with the night before, I would continue to be plagued by bombs. My NPC fellow dropped after about half an hour to a bomb's self destruct, one-shotting her all the way back to Ru'Lude Gardens and Jeuno's infirmary. Several times during the night a volcanic gas would attack us because of magic casting, and I, myself, dropped at one point due to a surprise self-destruct that took us all down to our last health. I suppose barwatera is not much of a defense against an explosion, but it aggroed off a cast while fighting another mob and I was too busy trying to magic burst off a light skill chain to realize I was only at 75% HP.

Sadly, Kia had to leave before we finished what he needed to do in there. That put an end to our LS pt, and both of them signed off for the night, leaving me standing in Jeuno with a testimonial, and the burning desire to use it immediately. I struggled through waiting until the morning when a quest could be turned in for a new piece of gear that would help me (bibiki seashell) and my AH items maybe sold off to generate more spending gil for the fight, and just rushing in now while I was in the right state of mind to confront Maat. Luckily, Emilliana was on, and looked over my gear and strategy and helped me decide to go ahead with the battle, however impulsive it was on my part. I went in without an expensive head piece or anything in my ammo slot.

My basic strategy was to buff up as normal, rest, eat a Tavnazian Taco, blind myself with potions (giving me +30 Evasion from earrings), drink a yagudo drink, and get Maat's attention. I spent the next five minutes running from him, letting my Holy Breastplate, phalanx rings, and earth staff lower the damage of his physical attacks against me. He only weapon-skilled once, a dragon kick for 247 dmg. The rest of the time he was hand to handing me for 70-80 dmg, or casting on me. I chose to run from him and kite him along rather than meleeing or standing still in the hopes that it would feed him less tp and also put some distance between the two of us, interrupting his spells and attacks once in awhile. The tp thing worked out alright, but not the distance thing so much.

He was casting Dia II, Banishga III, and Holy a lot. His Holys were only hitting me for a little more than his physical attacks, but his Banishga IIIs strangely always hit me for an even 100 or 200 dmg. Aside from that, he slowed me once, blinded (ha ha, sucker), and silenced me once. He silenced me at a very good time. I had just casted both Regen III and Cure IV on myself, so I did not even bother to echo drop it off right away. I just continued kiting him until I got a little nervous and took it off in case of an emergency arising. My MP started getting really low near the end and I had to settle for a Cure III over a Cure IV once. Before I could use a hi-ether to help me survive and keep casting a bit longer, the battle ended. Exactly five minutes to the second from the time I casted paralyze on him, he gave up and commended my display of skill.

Feeling absolutely elated at my victory, I began /hurray-ing outside the BC at Balga's Dias, and a pt of JP players just out from a BCNM all cheered when they saw my "Maat Masher" title. I went over my log, and noticed something peculiar. My blind potion had worn off about halfway through the fight, but I missed it and forgot to drink another one. When I counted how many missed attacks Maat had before and after the potion wore off, I was shocked to see the result. While blinded and having +30 evasion, Maat did not miss me once. I got several skillups to evasion, but he did not miss me at all. After the blind potion wore off, and my evasion returned to its normal white maging state, he missed me four times. Go figure. The entire battle took eight minutes and forty one seconds. I exited the Balga's Dias burning circle with 230 HP and 54 MP. Maybe that was cutting it a little close, but I am quite happy with the results.

Thank you to all for helping me get here. Makai and Mambypamby for tips about gear and strategies, Kiabrightblade and Makina for the testimonial help, Nibelungen and Emilliana for giving me a last-minute inspection and encouraging me to go ahead if I felt I was ready, and Imperial for helping this mithra get white mage up as high as I have, and enjoying that time immensely.

I am now officially a full-fledged white mage.