Something New: Final Fantasy XI

Or to be more specific, Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan, the newest expansion pack to the MMORPG that offers more than just the conventional upgrade and list of new missions. The Empire of Aht Urhgan is vast, huge, beutiful and dangerous. Since my avatar is not of the level that can participate in a majority of the newly added content, I will tell about the exciting things that I was able to accomplish as a level 46 thief. I think the main draw for me and everyone else who ran out to purchase the new expansion pack was the three new jobs that can be unlocked; Blue Mage, Corsair and Puppetmaster. I have just finished unlocking the last job last night and I had already been playing for a week. The popularity of the new jobs is surprisingly contagious, everyone wants to have these new jobs. I haven't even unlocked all the normal jobs I've had access to (I believe I have Paladin, Dark Knight and Bard left to do) and still, like many others, I had to have access to all of these new jobs before I could continue my everyday virual existence.

But that's not what I found most surprising about this new expansion. The creation of the new jobs was like setting everyone's counter back to zero. High levels were hanging out with low levels, those with more experience were open and willing to share it with those who had less. The most interesting story I have to share was my jouney to become a Corsair. After dying for the forth time out in the wilderness of Arrpago Reef, I was about ready to get back on the boat and go home. I had no idea where I was going, or what I was even suppose to do and quite frankly I was getting sick of dying. I "shouted" for anyone who was doing the mission, or knew what they were doing or anything that could help me get this one, incredibly evasive new job. There was no answer. I hung my head, paid the boat fair, and got on the ferry. All of the sudden I recieved a tell from someone inviting me to their party. I asked what was up, and they said,"your doing Corsair, right?" I ran off the ferry and joined the party. There were three others, all high level. One of them, "Tenla", was guiding us. She was generiously using her magic to keep us hidden from the monsters that would kill me iin two hits. we ran through the marshe, stopping only to reapply the spells that kept us hidden. We had almost made it to the reef when a Mature Treant came down on 'Reap". We decided to fight it, and what a fight it was. This thing was kicking our collective asses and I couldn't even hit it. Even the high levels had to use all their power and techniques to make a dent in this thing....then the imp came. Maybe we could have beaten the Mature Treant if we had it alone, but the imp was a problem. Tenla put the imp to sleep and we though we had this one in the bag, but then, another imp showed up. We started dropping like flies. We ran, hoping to make it to the zone area. Unfortunatly, there was a lamia and two undead skeletons blocking the way and the only ones getting through were the thieves, that was me and another guy I can't remeber the name of.

Tenla fell in the thick of the lamia spawn area, Reap fell just before the zone (I hate when that happenes). I needed to revive my new found friends because I was dead meat with out them. We made it to he reef but we still had no idea where to go. We needed a black mage's "tractor" and a white mage's "revive". There was no way to get Tenla out of the lions' den without it. As luck would have it, there was a party of two coming toward us; a black and a white mage. We were able to regroup, revive, and return to the mission. Out of gratitude, we added the two newcomers to our ranks.

Like a centipede, we crawled though Arrpago Reef, making sure we didn't leave anyone behind, refreshing our spells, and tring to remain unseen. Something that we weren't used to was that the lamia and imps had "true site". This means that even with the affects of "Invisable" and "Sneak" (the spells we had been using to evade detection) if we came close to one of these creatures it would attack regardless. So it was a very dangerous task to undertake, but it was well worth it.