Galka Guru

Last weekend we held a "winter formal" debutante celebration. The theme was "Paladin's First Dragon," and the setting was Uleguerand Range. In the harsh, frigid mountains surrounding the Dark Kindred realm of Xarcabard, lay the ancient dragon Jormungand. There, this overgrown, colassal lizard was awaiting a challenger to set foot in her domain to make a feast of; though little did she know, she would be in for the fight of her life.

I volunteered to organize this Saturday LS event (mainly 'coz I wanted some new PLD fun, but it turned out to be pretty fun setting up LS events..), and it was quite the successful Jormungand battle, which was already a departure from our normal Saturday sky/sea/KS/Ouryu etc. farming events. Actually, it was, personally, only my third Jormungand ever! Maybe it was just because I was in the front lines tanking, but it seemed to be a very quick fight compared to our last bouts against the mountain's ice-cold guardian. I remember around the time I quit playing, 3 ½ years ago, that was when CoP was fresh and these HNMs had just been introduced, and I never was able to participate in the first battles versus the grand Promathia dragons. Nevertheless, I've done my research and was confident that I had what it takes to get the job done! What better way to break in my brand-spankin'-new, baby PLD than to throw myself into a Wyrm's dinnerplate!

(Granted...), this is probably the easiest Wyrm in FFXI, but it is still a learning experience, nonetheless. And it was these kinda fights that I was really looking forward to as I lvl'ed my Paladin. Recycling the best DRK gear I had into premium PLD/NIN equipment was a major plus and gave me an edge in entering the world of Final Fantasy XI Paladin. I believe the fight lasted no more than 1 ½ hrs., which seemed pretty short compared to the past two encounters I've had this year vs. Jorm on my Samurai. We did have a couple more Summoners than the last Jormungand fights, which more than likely almost doubled our killing speed.


It was very encouraging to be able to tank the Wyrm for most of the duration of the battle; probably a good 70/30% split of enmity between Jay's PLD and me. I made an extra effort to glue the beast onto me, as MP was maintained well and I spammed my self-Cure, moreso than any enmity-generating tactics my co-tank could perform, along with the properly-timed spread-out JAs. Though in an easy fight such as Jormungand, this enmity-hogging doesn't pose a threat, I could see how not cooperating with your co-tank could lead to some serious problems in some of the more difficult fights. Hell, this is a already a given, from Subjob-Ninja 101... Anyway, the drops weren't so great. Just a few Molybdenum Ores (did we get a M. Pole???), but the fun times and new job experiences more than made up for our shitty Dawn-dorpz luck!

Walking away from my first LS event as PLD, I could say it was a pretty successful learning experience for me. Being my first front-line wyrm experience, I could really use some practice positioning these gigantic things when they get up in the air. The only thing I wasn't prepared for at the fight was the take-off period, in which wyrms will spam magical attacks at you while they are in-flight. To counter this damage, I just saved Rampart during the wyrm's flights as I really didn't need it as a last-resort hate tool during the fight at all. Even without specialized Magic Defense gear, I was still quite surprised at Rampart's effect versus the wyrm:



This week, however, I was able to work on my Magic Defense build a little bit more and made an equip-change macro for such occasions where I'd need it. Preparing for our next Proto-Ultima, I geared myself for maximum Magic Damage Reduction to counter her devastating Citadel Buster.

This set-up offers me exactly 25% Magic damage taken reduction, in addition to 6 raw Magic Defense Bonus and a total HP of 1564 (PLD/NIN).. With a once-merited, Shellrva V (unlocked only), I'm at the Magic damage taken -% cap already, so I could see some improvement in this set-up with more Magic Defense Bonus traits and/or more total HP.

Another fun incident during Jorm that I was pretty amped about was Shadow Mantle processing on an Utsusemi: Ichi cast! Yeah, my gimp ass doesn't have Boxer's Mantle yet for a Shield skill+ build, so I macro in Shadow Mantle during Ichi casts on PLD/NIN (full time this thing on PLD/WAR). Too bad I didn't SS it though! I used to think macro-ing in Loquacious Earring for Utsusemi on my melee jobs was a bit over the top, but now with PLD, I don't think it's too much at all. My specific Utsusmi: Ichi casting macro for PLD is looking like this:



Maybe if I were in a position with two Bards in a tank PT with dual Ballad and dual Marches running at once, I could opt for Gallant Leggings full-time for +10 Shield skill, instead of the Homam (most PLD probably substitute the Wal-Mart Turban for a high-enmity piece, such as Aegishjalmr or Bahamut's Mask, but since I have neither of these, a Shield+ piece in place wouldn't be out of the question). If only PLDs were able to have as much EQ-swapping freedom as normal DD's... but the consistent maintenance that a healer-role is responsible for wouldn't bide well with a constant blinking tank. As it stands, the only visible (blinking) EQ-swaps I have are for my Magic Defense set, which in most cases won't call for heals or status ailment spells much to begin with.

Guess that about does it for the recap of my first real HNM PLD experience... hopefully there will be plenty more to come!! I'll try not to neglect my other dedicated jobs as much either, but I'm just havin too much damn fun!