I don't play FF anymore, and haven't for awhile. I've no intention to return; the only thing left for me would be end-game and the few months that I participated in that type of activity was not enjoyable. I mainly lurk on a few private forums because I have a few friends that still play and post. Lately, I have been feeling a bit nostalgic though. Mostly I reminisce about THF (largely soloing). If you have a good story about doing something fun with your THF job, I'd love to hear about it. It doesn't have to be amazing, just interesting and well told.
I'll start this off. I was a decent player with good gear, but I certainly wouldn't classify my character as "elite." Still, as long as you don't expect to hear a tale for the ages you may still find it entertaining.
I had a quest for the Den of Rancor flagged for the longest time. It was the one where you had to carry 4 flames of rancor to a room, light 4 torches and then kill the NM bomb that spawns. I forget the exact name, but was practically useless, so there wasn't much hope of finishing it other than dragging a few friends along to help. Still, I didn't want to waste my friends' time just to clear a BS quest.
By the time I got my THF to lv 75, I'd gotten pretty adept at soloing with it. After all, that's where a good number of the levels had come from. The wiki said that the NM bomb was soloable by "some jobs" and although thf/nin wasn't specifically mentioned it seemed as likely a winner as ninja for the task. I got a warp scroll and headed for the Den.
Getting into the Den of Rancor is a simple matter for almost any lv 75 job, and I already had the paintbrush and the unlit lantern. Still, I decided that my first order of business would be to get the map. Silent oils and tonko made it easy to wander around until I found a chest; I found one in less than 20 minutes, so I considered myself lucky.
The chest was tucked away into a blind alley, a cul-du-sac if you will. I had my thieves' tools ready, and was prepared to fight a mimic if I should fail to pick the lock. I just wanted to be slick and avoid useless fighting if I could; so, I tried to wait for the right time to drop invis and open the chest. Unfortunately, FF 11 had other plans for the occasion. There was a bat, a tonberry melee type and a tonberry blm hovering around the area. When sneak started to wear off and the bat wasn't moving, I had to back into a corner and try to re-apply some silent oil. The instant I dropped sneak, the bat decides to finally move, and of course comes my way. Annoying, but no problem; it's only EP and easily soloed.
I had barely gotten a few hits on the bat when I see the combat log say, "The tonberry <whatever> (it's been a long time and I don't recall all the mob names) begins casting thundaga." Awesome. Thankfully, I have a macro for links that is essentially: /equip ammo "sleep bolt" and /ra <stnpc>. *Pop*, a hit before the spell goes off, and it's asleep for now. After just a few seconds, the bat has just a sliver of life left but a tonberry melee-type mob has linked with the sleeping mage and joined the fun. The bat dies, and now I start in on the melee. I auto-attack the melee tonberry and periodically pop the tonberry blm with sleep bolts. After the bat, I had enough TP to use DE on the melee tonberry. That almost wipes him out, but he has a final F-U for me. I can normally get away from throat stab, but I was literally in a corner... so not this time. BAM, and I'm at about 100-something HP. That bastard tonberry dies an instant later.
One -ga spell will now wipe me out, shadows or no; so my adrenaline gets going when I see another -ga spell being cast. However, my tonberry mage is still asleep. It's the new one standing right next to the first that is casting. *Pop*, sleep bolt that one. I can't risk a -ga spell going off, but I really don't want to run through the Den with under 200 hp and two tonberries soon to be giving chase. So, I keep alternating sleep bolts on the mages. Once I have 100 TP, I begin to melee the first blm. Almost immediately, he starts to cast a -ga spell, so I blast him with a DE and interrupt it. A few hits later and he's dead. I use sleep bolts on the second mage to get 100 TP, then repeat the tactic. I also manage to get a few HP back from a bloody bolt or two. Now the area is pretty much clear of aggro and it's just that chest and me, with no real key and only about 200-300 HP. WTF, I use my tools and open the chest. I get lucky and get the map rather than a mimic. I then sneak/tonko back to the zone line and rest up.
Getting the flames and lighting the right torches after that was just a matter of effective use of sneak/tonko. Doing it 4 times to spawn the NM was simply a long process. The NM bomb itself wasn't nearly as exciting as the string of ep to dc mob links I'd just been through. This bomb doesn't explode, so I just had to keep up my shadows and hit it with acid bolts, blind bolts and bloody bolts as needed.
I've had other encounters with multiple mobs of EP, DC and even EM mobs before while soloing on thief. Sometime I'd die, sometimes I'd pull it off. But the tonberries were the most memorable for some reason. But this has been more than long enough of a post. Tell me about your encounters.
I'll start this off. I was a decent player with good gear, but I certainly wouldn't classify my character as "elite." Still, as long as you don't expect to hear a tale for the ages you may still find it entertaining.
I had a quest for the Den of Rancor flagged for the longest time. It was the one where you had to carry 4 flames of rancor to a room, light 4 torches and then kill the NM bomb that spawns. I forget the exact name, but was practically useless, so there wasn't much hope of finishing it other than dragging a few friends along to help. Still, I didn't want to waste my friends' time just to clear a BS quest.
By the time I got my THF to lv 75, I'd gotten pretty adept at soloing with it. After all, that's where a good number of the levels had come from. The wiki said that the NM bomb was soloable by "some jobs" and although thf/nin wasn't specifically mentioned it seemed as likely a winner as ninja for the task. I got a warp scroll and headed for the Den.
Getting into the Den of Rancor is a simple matter for almost any lv 75 job, and I already had the paintbrush and the unlit lantern. Still, I decided that my first order of business would be to get the map. Silent oils and tonko made it easy to wander around until I found a chest; I found one in less than 20 minutes, so I considered myself lucky.
The chest was tucked away into a blind alley, a cul-du-sac if you will. I had my thieves' tools ready, and was prepared to fight a mimic if I should fail to pick the lock. I just wanted to be slick and avoid useless fighting if I could; so, I tried to wait for the right time to drop invis and open the chest. Unfortunately, FF 11 had other plans for the occasion. There was a bat, a tonberry melee type and a tonberry blm hovering around the area. When sneak started to wear off and the bat wasn't moving, I had to back into a corner and try to re-apply some silent oil. The instant I dropped sneak, the bat decides to finally move, and of course comes my way. Annoying, but no problem; it's only EP and easily soloed.
I had barely gotten a few hits on the bat when I see the combat log say, "The tonberry <whatever> (it's been a long time and I don't recall all the mob names) begins casting thundaga." Awesome. Thankfully, I have a macro for links that is essentially: /equip ammo "sleep bolt" and /ra <stnpc>. *Pop*, a hit before the spell goes off, and it's asleep for now. After just a few seconds, the bat has just a sliver of life left but a tonberry melee-type mob has linked with the sleeping mage and joined the fun. The bat dies, and now I start in on the melee. I auto-attack the melee tonberry and periodically pop the tonberry blm with sleep bolts. After the bat, I had enough TP to use DE on the melee tonberry. That almost wipes him out, but he has a final F-U for me. I can normally get away from throat stab, but I was literally in a corner... so not this time. BAM, and I'm at about 100-something HP. That bastard tonberry dies an instant later.
One -ga spell will now wipe me out, shadows or no; so my adrenaline gets going when I see another -ga spell being cast. However, my tonberry mage is still asleep. It's the new one standing right next to the first that is casting. *Pop*, sleep bolt that one. I can't risk a -ga spell going off, but I really don't want to run through the Den with under 200 hp and two tonberries soon to be giving chase. So, I keep alternating sleep bolts on the mages. Once I have 100 TP, I begin to melee the first blm. Almost immediately, he starts to cast a -ga spell, so I blast him with a DE and interrupt it. A few hits later and he's dead. I use sleep bolts on the second mage to get 100 TP, then repeat the tactic. I also manage to get a few HP back from a bloody bolt or two. Now the area is pretty much clear of aggro and it's just that chest and me, with no real key and only about 200-300 HP. WTF, I use my tools and open the chest. I get lucky and get the map rather than a mimic. I then sneak/tonko back to the zone line and rest up.
Getting the flames and lighting the right torches after that was just a matter of effective use of sneak/tonko. Doing it 4 times to spawn the NM was simply a long process. The NM bomb itself wasn't nearly as exciting as the string of ep to dc mob links I'd just been through. This bomb doesn't explode, so I just had to keep up my shadows and hit it with acid bolts, blind bolts and bloody bolts as needed.
I've had other encounters with multiple mobs of EP, DC and even EM mobs before while soloing on thief. Sometime I'd die, sometimes I'd pull it off. But the tonberries were the most memorable for some reason. But this has been more than long enough of a post. Tell me about your encounters.
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