Death To The Shadow Lord!!

With the 3 largest beastmen nations conspiring to bring back the Shadow Lord, it was time to strike. We gathered a small party of men to finish the job. We had with us 2 blm's, pld, drk, thf, and a sam. with the assistance of a whm we teleported to Xarcabard and began to make our way westerd. Once on the foot of the mountain, with the Castle Zvahl Baileys staring down upon us, the guardian demons attacked. We took some damage and lost our thf. I mad it to casle door alive and then returned to dead player to tractor his body al the way to the castle and the revived him.

Once inside we made out way through the labrynth known as Castl Zvahl Baileys and into the Castle Zvahl Keep, the tomb of the Shadow Lord. I stoped tp take a few screen shots but once the battle started I forgot to take more. This is me outside the throne room, with the keep behind me.

Once inside it was on like Donkey Kon. Our worst fears were realized. The beastmen did raise the Shadow Lord and we were there to witness it. With time Short, it was out job to kill the beast.

The Shadow Lord's takes on 3rd forms durring battle. The first is inpervius to magic, the second is strongest against physical attack and the the last uses the AOE's constantly til all are dead. We ran in and the mages took up position on the edg of the circle. Thw wariors ran upto him and imediatly let into him with there attacks With only two blm's and now whm, we had to keep them alive and at the same time save mp for the the last 2 forms. Finaly, the he took on his second form. We slamed the Shadow lord with a series for fatel attacksbut then came his thrd form and most deadly. By this time I was out of mp so I poped an a pro-ether for 250 mp. The Shadow lord then beagn a series of AOE's each one dioing 150= damage to me and the others. It was all i could do to keep the tank and i alive, while the warriors finned them off.
I will type more later

Recovering Lost Ground

I had lost alot of xp from dieing in the previos mission and consequently de-leveled. It was time to get my lvl 60 back. I fsrt joined a party in the Labyrinth of Onzozo. We used sneak and invis to get to a remote are to fight some catlike mobs. The xp was great but the Whm sucked ass. The tank died twice. The whm would just go AFK in the middle of a battle to leav us to die. Shortly after the tank and his friend leveled, we disbanded. I was after that i joined a even better party. Supprisingly, we had no whm but we were doing fine. Our party was a PLD, RDM, SMN, BLM(me), THF and DRG.

"We landed right in the middle of the mother of all sand storms."

We met up in Lower Jueno and teleported then choc'd it out to the Kuftal Tunnel. ONce there we used combinations of sneak and invis throught 2 zones to the Valley of Sorrows. The part was kicking. We quickly set up skill chainsa and a macro for my magic burst. We decided to go with a distortion skill chain with my flood (Ancient Magic Spell). It was truly a sight to see. I was hitting ever time for 1200+ with the occasional 1400+. Once I hit 60, it was time for flare and my AF hat. You know me, I had to let Flare rip..it was mad damage. I can not wait for a mb with it.

Farming of the Bones

The next day a friend needed my hel;p with Promvion Holla. We formed a small advance party for make a insertion into the promivion. It was our mission to retrieve recollections from varius mobs in the promyvion. For those who have not won the promyvion missions, DO NOT FIGHT THE ENM WITH OUT THE ANIMAS!!!!! trust me. If you do, it will be a complete ass kicking. This is some pics from inside the promivion. This one is a weeper witha ligthning core. You fight him just like you would a lightning elemental. FOr example, I used Stone II, Aero, and Blizzard to bring him down. Do not forget, these "Empties" are a excellent source for mp and hp (Aspir/Drain). In closing thi8s is a pic of Gigjule casting. She is a blm, like me so things whent smoothly. Triban was the ranger and the other taru was out whm.

In Quest For Artifacts

First off, you will have to forgive me i had taken some wonderful screen shots of the my adventurs these past fewdays but do to user error, they were all lost. A word of advise for ps2 users, you must use the Print Screen button to save screen shots not the R1 button on the game pad. In the future I will be including alot more screen shots.

In the past few days I got my artifact (af) feet, body and hat. The Body and Legs where the easiest. The body was a snap. I ran into Davoi and the Monastic Cavern i ran a quick search for people. Most people have there info on anon so you will not beable to see there lvl or job. I just started asking people down the list, if the could help me get me coffer key. For those who do not know, the Body and Legs are simply inside a coffer in these two areas, the other 4 pieces may need a key but are involved in a quest. I was lucky, the first person i asked said yes, a lvl 75 blm. I does not get better then that. He was hitting the mobs with thunder IV for over 1200 hp damage. WOW! after a couple of hours of waiting and one failed rescue attempt on my part to save the blm from death, I had the key. He was even kind enough to show me where the coffer was. Which by the way, the coffer pop locations can be viewed on the maps linked from my blog.

Wizard's Coat
Level: 58
Flags: Rare / Exclusive / Not NPC Sellable
Slot: Body
Type: Artifact
Jobs: BLM
Races: All
Defense: 38
Auction House Category: Armor / Body
Effects for Wizard's Coat:
MP +16
Vitality +5
Enfeebling Magic Skill +10
Enmity -3

The Legs
I actualy got the legs before the body. When i poped on in Lower Jeuno some one was doing a shout out for the coffer key party. This one is in Eldieme Necropolis. A less of fun place to visit. This area is labrymth of moving doors, trap doors, filled with high lvl undead. Having a higher lvl with knowledg of the necropolis is deffinit help. The only good news is, you mainly only need sneak to get arround.

We had seven people including a lvl 73 blm. He conserved his mp and just mainly pulled. The part dragged on and on with six of us needing a key. After about 2 hours, one finalay droped. I lotted and won. We continued on for anouther 2 more hours. Then slowly people started to drop. Finaly it was down to just two, the lvl 75 decided he wanted a tanzanian bell for a whm quest and after he got it, he took me right to the coffer. Sweet, it does not get any better then that. Come to think of it, it was one of the few times i have been in there with out dieing at least twice. lol

Wizard's Tonban
Level: 56
Flags: Rare / Exclusive / Not NPC Sellable
Slot: Legs
Type: Artifact
Jobs: BLM
Races: All
Defense: 27
Auction House Category: Armor / Legs
Effects for Wizard's Tonban:
MP +14
Evasion +5
Dark Magic Skill +15
Enmity -1

The Hat-Let the Circus Begin (The Root of the Problem)!!

Later that evening I was about to log when I heard some one doing a shout out for the AF Hat. the day before i had opened the mission and set everything up for the big fight. That is all you have to do is get a silk cloth (Provided by nukky), and goto Chumimi in Heavens Tower and get cut scene. The amusing taru's continue the story line about the sick star trees. they deside to send me into the Toraimarai Canal, yet another labrynth filled with undead. They give me a magic doll to help me in my efforts. After cut scene, i had to head to Koru-Moru in Windurst Walls. His monor is just outside of Heavon's Tower and listed on my map. I goto him and trade him the silk cloth and reiceve another cut scene. He gives me a Sluice Surveyor mark and then i am ready for the NM fight.

Fast forward to the next evening, i was about to log and some one is shouting out for help with the BLM Af hat. I was thinking, wow this is my oppertunity to get it now. So, i join up and inlist the help of Nukkyaka, a whm. To get into the canal you must have a rdm. whm, blm to open the gate. So we assemble this party of 10 peopl, 7blm's, rdm, whm, and lvl 75 galkin pld. So we are assembled at the gatway, allthe mages get on the right circles and pop the gat open and we run in, but guess what? some of the mages where left behind. So they begin to debate how they are going to get the others through. 9 peeps with escape and they are going to debate how to proceed. Finaly Nukky just disbands and joins my party, i escape us out and run bacy through to the gateway. We pop it and we all enter this time.

We bgin to search for these 2 spots where we get cutscenes. The first one is at I-9. of cources it never fails in a group that big ther is alwasy one who lets his sneak wear off. they he aggros a mob, then others attack, lossing there sneak, thus aggroing more mobs. Next thing i know we had 5-6 mobs on us the pld uis going down, so we all escape.

We rested and in east sabataru and discussed tactics. in the course of discussion we find out one of the players had a charm that can open the gate, all along. So we did not need the other mages!! It was late and nukky had to go, so she logged for the evening. Over and Over the allience leader kept asking, if we could all fight the same one ore fight it one at a time. I must have told him 6-8 times we could all fight the same one, but he comletly ignored me.

Did you ever get the feeling that this was all going to end badly? I have nothing against younger players, but they seem to be indisisive. One of the things the army tought me was, in some situations it is faster to just do the job then to discuss the "Best" way to do it and then do it.

So we get our second ???, get cut scene, activate my 2-hr and then get another cutscene. then we were off to find the third ??? for nm fight. In typical SE fasion, the ??? is in a room filled with mobs. We cleared the room wiith not much touble. I noticed Idid 10-30% mor damage then the other blm's. that is not bad considering 6 of them where taurus and all where my lvl or higher.

After we cleared the debating began again. Who should spawn the nm and if we had to one a time it or killing one was enough. I told them 3 more times, "We each spawn the nm, one at a time then wait til the despawn down to one, then we kill that one" but they ignored me. So they aked who was going to go first. I guess they were to chicken, so i volenteered. i figured if we kill any of them it will be the first one. I uses a reraise scroll then I spawned. The nm is called Magic Sludge a lvl 64 resembling a dark elemental. As expected, it is highly magic resistant. All 8 mages open up and unload on the nm. there was so many nukes going off it was hard to tell them apart. I am getting down to about 300 mp and i notice, no one is curing the tank. He was about half dead. i stop nukking ans start curing, i and the rmd give him a rapid hit of cure 3's and build him to full. finally we were all out of mp and the nm still had 1/4 of his hp left. We rested just long enough to build to finish the job. BTW hats off to the pld. Even with all those nukes going off, he never lost the hate. Upon its' death i got my final cut scene.

With out mp low, we rested. but our rest was to short. While resting one of the other taru's spwaned the nm again while just having 60%mp we all jumped up and began nuking once more. All was goin well we had it about 1/2 dead but our mp was at 48. The it happened. Somthing i did not even expect, the mobs that we cleared from the room began to respawn. The pld provoked the lvl 65 scorpion but then 3 lvl 63-65 undead spawned and let into the tarus. I t was a slaughter. all of them to low on mp to cast much of anything. they started to drop like flies. I was curing the pld and trying to sleep the scorp but he kept on resisting my spells. one he droped i turned and ran. The scorp and nm chased after me. Leaving the room, i had no sneak so ever mob started to aggro to me. Running on the catwalk i couls see all the mobs on the lower lvl aggro and chasing me along. I turned a corner and anouther and another then into a dead with ramp.. the mobs came up the ramp and from behind me and killed me in an instant.

When the mobs cleared I hit the reraise but a leech senced my low hp and smacked me again, for a quick death.

Once again the debaiting began again. I hp'd it and ran to the airship to return. Evidently the mage with the gate charm did not want to hp it to let in the rescue party. So they scroung up anouther whm at this point it was 1:30 am, and i said "sorry guys i got to go" they got all pissy with me. I guess they were mad becuase i got mine and was leaving but it was notlike that. I was going becuaseit was late and some, not all, but some of them were idiots and wasting my time. I agree to stay, and run out to the portal. While waiting for the calvery to arrive, one of the other players say,
"Why don't we each spawn one, then wait for them to despawn down to one and kill that one"
The Allience leader thought it was a excellent idea. I told them, "i have telling you guys that all night long!". then they invite 3 more blm's so I just logged. I was like, screw this.

The next day I ran back to Chumimi and got my hat and after that I ran to Kupipi in the office in heavon's tower for the Earth Charm. I think it might be for opening the gate, but i am not sure.

Wizard's Petasos
Level: 60
Flags: Rare / Exclusive / Not NPC Sellable
Slot: Head
Type: Artifact
Jobs: BLM
Races: All
Defense: 20
Auction House Category: Armor / Head
Effects for Wizard's Petasos:
MP +25
Intelligence +4
Resist vs. Lightning +10
Enmity -4

Magic Burst & Skill Chains

Anyone in the game that cast spells can magic burst (MB) including Ninjas. For a blm it is inportant to land the MB becuase it increases the damage of your spell by 20-50%. A spell that normaly does 800 I have seen do 1200+ on a MB.

before we talk about MB we must first talk about what is a Skill Chain. A skill chain is am effect that is generated by two or more waepon skills being preformed in a row. The MB comes into play when an elemental spell is cast on the second weapon skill. The elemental spell must match the skill chain. Like elemental spells, the skill chains have elemental propertie associated with them.

As you can see from the list below, there are chain #1 and #2. Skill Chain #1 have only one elemental property, and chain #2 have 2. both elements work equaly well with chain #2's.

Skill Chain #1
Liquication-------->Fire
Transfixation------>Light
Detonation-------->Wind
Inpaction---------->Lightning
Sission------------->Earth
Compression------->Dark
Reverberation----->Water
Induration--------->Ice

Skill Chain #2
Fusion------------->Fire/Light
Fragmentation----->Wind/Lightning
Gravitation-------->Earth/Dark
Distortion---------->Ice/water

Click on Chart if you dare!!

now to be honest, i would rather do my taxes then read this chart. Generaly it is not the job of the mages to set the SC, but just incase you are in party with a bunch of nubes i will show you how. First thing you want to do is establish the weapons the melee are using and what Weapon Skills they have. locate one of the weapon skills on the chart the try to locate the second player's weapon skill on an tablr adjasent to the first.

Example:

Shining Blade (sword lvl10)-------> Raging Axe (axe lvl10)= Detonation (wind)

What are the 1's and 2's for?

The 1's are 2's are to correct errors on the tables. Becuase of the structure of the chart some conflicts arrise. The numbers only relate to the second part of the skill chain. It indicates the the second weapon skill is shown on more then one table adjacent to the first. The #1 has priority over the #2.

Example:

Redlotus Blade* (Swd lvl 50)----->Avelanch Axe (Axe lvl 100) = Scission(earth)

*Ignore the number by the Redlotus Blade becuase it is the first part of the wepon skill.

It is all in the technique

Having part members that comnucate there tp help greatly when trying to land a MB. For the most part you will be using you reg. elemental nuke. These can be cast just as the second WS is being animated. For the most part this will work and try not to cast to early.

Ancient Magic W/ Magic Burst

For those that are lvl 50 and above, you start to get your ancient magic spells. These are exceptionaly powerful but must be MB'd to justify the MP cost. As a taru one of them wipes 1/2 my mp. To land a MB with a ancient spell you must cast it before the SC is initiated. I sugest this macro:

/ma "Freeze"

/p Casting Freeze Now!!!!

/wait 5

/P Begin Skill Chain now!!!!!

when working with a thf, you may need to shorten the "wait" to 3 sec instead of 5. Remember to have blink and stonskin up when this is done and hope to god you have a good pld tank. there is no way a nin tank will pull the mob off of you after you smack it for the damage you will do. Don't worry though, usualy the WC's, SC, and the MB will kill or wipe 1/2 to 3/4 of the mob's hp. I hope this information was some help. If not let me know.

Elemental Magic 101

At the request of a good friend, I am writing about the blm's elemental spells. To undestand the fundamentals of SMN and BLM we must first look to the origins of the game it self. In oriental culturs the belief in a balamce of elemental properties is inportant to harmony in life ans spirit. In the game FFXI everything can be associated to one or more elements. I present to you the elemental chart for FFXI.

FFXI Elemental Chart

How To Read the Chart

The first thing i want you to do is disreguard the white/dark elements becuast the are only opposed from each other and there are realy no DD associated . What is inportant to understand is that each element is strong against one ans weak to a different one. The 6 elements form a circle of one element over the next. So, for example, earth is weak against wind becuas the wind element is over earth. Additionaly, earth is strongest against lightning, once again, earth overlaping lightning.

The chart does have a shred of commun sence to it.

Fire melts Ice

Ice chills the wind

Wind errodes the earth

Earth grounds lightning

Lightning travels through water

Water puts out a fire

Choosing Your Elemental Spells

It is inpotant to know what elements you target is weak against. Elemantals are easy, just hit them with the highest spells you have with out using the spell the matches the elemental and what it is strongest against. A Earth elementat will be almost inpervius to Earth, and lightning spells, so use wind (it's weakness) and the 2 other of your high spells. Mobs from COP are not listed and other that are not listed do not have a elemental weakness. The ? is for unknown.

Monster Elemental Weakness List

Bat: wind, light

Bee: ice

Beetle: ice, light (Aspir Works)

Bird: ice

Bomb: fire

Cardian: unknown

Cockatr: ice, wind

Coeurl: earth

Crab: ice, lightning

Crawler: ice, lightning, dark (Aspir works)

Demon: light

Dhalmel: wind, lightning

Doll: lightning

Doomed: fire, light

Dragon: ?

Evil Weapon: fire, Light

Fly: ice

Fungar: light

Ghost (undead): fire, light

Goblin: light

Hound: fire, light

Leech: light

Lizzard: ice, wind

Mandragora: fire,ice,lightning, dark

Morbal: fire

Orc/Orc Warmachine: water

Pugil: Ice, lightning

Quadav: Lightning

Rabbit: lighting, water, dark

Raptor: water

Sapling: ice, dark

Scorpion: ice, light

Sea Monk: ice, lightning

Shadow: Fire, light

Sheep: Lightning, water

Skeleton (undead): Fire, light

Slime: fire

Tiger: fire, lightning

Treant: fire, dark

Worm: wind, light (Aspir Works)

Wyvern: dark

Yagudo: Ice

Spells By Element

Fire: Fire1-4, Firaga, Flare, Burn

Water: Water1-2, Wateraga, Flood, Drown

Lightning: Thunder 1-4, Thundaga, Shock Spikes, Burst, Shock

Earth: Stone 1-4, Stonaga 1-2, Rasp, Quake

Wind: Aero 1-4, Aeraga 1-2, Silence, Choke, Tornado

Ice: Bliazzard 1-4, Blizzaga1-2, Frost, Freeze

Dark: Aspir, Drain, Bio1-2, poison, sleep1-2, sleepga 1-2

Light: Dia, Bannish1-2, cure(undead)

BLM Casting Technique

The obove charts are quides and are not absolutes. With that being said, i usualy nuke with my top 2nd and 3rd spells with the occasional highest nuke. It is also inportant to pace you self to not get the hate. I usualy nuke in a steady rythum to avoid the hate. This will also conserve your mp and allow the mellee to have more tp for skill chains. Additionaly if something goes wrong toy can turn up the rythum for more damage. As the blm, you realy set the pace on how fast the mob dies because you do 50-70% of the total damage form the party.

I will write more on Magic Burst, euipment, and ancient magic later tonight.

Black Mage, The Best Job Ever?

I know a lot of people have an oppinion of what they think the best job in the game is. For me it is the Black Mage with a White Mage sub. A taru blm/whm kicks much but and is very flexible in his duties. As a lvl 59 blm i have all the most inportant whm spells, like cure 1-3, riase, sneak and invis. Additionaly, by the time i reach 75 blm, i will have the tele-dem, holla and mea, Erase, shellra II, not to mention the nukes.

Did I say nukes?

Black mage does the most damage in the game with the exception of the ranger. At lvl 59 I can Magic burst spells for over 1400 damage. Even on a regular spell like Aero III, the highest of my regualer nukes at 59, I do 450-500 with out MB. BLM's have realy powerfull AOE spells that make farming for keys and other items from linking mobs a snap. I can run through Giddius and link every Yugado in the joint and then -ga them. There is nothing better then killing 30-40 mobs in one shot.

The only down side to blm is soloing "easy preys" or higher, at my level might mean an ass kicking. Alot of mobs arround my lvl have a high magic resistance, so when ever possible you need to boost your intelegence. Additionaly, when soloeing higher lvl mobs, you will want to sub whm so you can use aquaviel, blink, stone skin and protect. The biggest danger to a blm is silence and having his/her spells interupted. I have been killed before by mobs i should have turned in a crater, just because i could not get my spells out

BLM is cheep to level.

All of the blm's most vital spells can be quested or purchased from a npc, until about the mid 60's I do have ione foot note about that. Your race and city location make a considerable difference in the cost of lvlnig blm. My recomendation is to lvl a taru blm in San D'Oria. There is a quest there that alowws you to lvl your fame in 4 cities at once and it is very cheep, like maybe 2k a level. Alot of the spells I bought and then later quested, mainly the quest was to difficult or in a distant city. i was from sandi, so i quested the Drain spell, but bought Aspir, warp and warp 2. All these spells i then later quested when i was a bit higher and sold them. Spellls I recomend not to buy are, Ice Spikes, Stonaga II, Quake, Tornadoe. A good blm should not get hit, and the spell only does damage when he/she is getting hitso i think the "Spikes" spells are worthless. Stonaga II is nearly 1 mil on my server. don't bother buying it, you only use ga spells for farming masses of low lvl mobs so this one can be skiped. Lastly, Quake and tornadoe, both are part of the ancient magic spell set. On my server both of them cost 500k each. To much money for a spell that you may never use. The ancient spells realy should only be used to get a jump on a mob or in a Magic Burst (MB). Most of the skill chains in parties are distortion, or can use fire, ice, water spells, (quake-earth, Tornadoe-wind). I will talk about farming and equipment for blm.

My Equipment While in a Party:
Main: Dark Staff/Ice Staff 380k/250k (lvl 51-?)
Head: Seer's Crown +1 50k (lvl 29-AF)
Body: Pyro Robe 7k (lvl 45-AF)
Neck: Black Silk Neckerchief 20k (lvl 20-?) *
Hands: Seer's Mitts >10k (lvl 29-AF)*
Legs: Seer's Slacks >10k (lvl 29-AF)*
Feet: Wizard's Sabots (Af2)
Ring1: Zircon Ring 150k (lvl 54-?)
Ring2: Zircon Ring 150k (lvl 54-?
Earring1: Cunning Earring 100k (lvl 29-?)
Earring2: Cunning Earring 100k (lvl 29-?)
Back: Red Cape >50k (lvl 43-?)*

I need to do my AF quests but as you can see most of my gear is from lvl 29. The staffs are expensive but you need them. Up to lvl 51 use wands, they are cheep and give a great int bonus. There is no reason to buy the +1 version of items. Most are 10-50 times more gil then the normal version and your party will not now the difference. The seers crown does give an additional int for the +1 version and was not that much more then the normal version, so i splerged on that one. But considering most of the gear you keep for 30 lvls the cost over time it not bad at all considering mellee jobs bye new equipment all the time. *i put that mark on the ones i could not quite remember the price but it was cheep.

Later i will be posting good farming spots for blm and techniques on raising fame.

Gardening My Way To Ritches!!

I have stumbled on perhaps the most secret of brotherhoods in the game of FFXI, the Gold Smiths. A few number of gold smiths of high level, keep there secrets of there craft a complete secret.

Everyone knows you can grow different foods and crystals with gardening but what most people don't know is that rare metals and ore can be grown as well. What is needed is special pots and items to plant.

This is my mule Amberdawn, he is the char i will be using for growing an exceptionaly rare ore called fire ore. IN the AH it sells for 450-500k. Its' only pupose in the the game is the main component of the Fire Staff. Fortunetly the only other source for fire ore is a lvl 40 bcnm. I had Nukkyakya synth me 22 maple tables giving me a moghancment of +132 gardening. I purchased the porcelain pots from the ah at 15k each. Then i was got Ambere the field gear to handle the pots, that was another 100k and the treecuttings that cost 190k.

The pic above is of my mog just after the cuttings were planted. They will take about 2-3 weeks to grow into saplings. I then take the saplings and grow them. I takes 19 days and then i will harvest them on a full moon. With any luck i will be rolling in money.

This is the way you do it. first you need one complet set of field gear, 22 maple tables, 2 stacks of fire crystals, 1 stack of tree saplings and 10 porcain pots. You must plant them on fireday, check them ecery earth day on fireday, feritlize them twice with a fire crystal on firesday and you must harvest them onj a full moon on fireday. do this and the rate is about 50-60%...Wish me luck!

8k to 60!!

Wow has ir realy been almost a month earth time? I am lvl 59 blackmage now and loving it. I just abtainded ab bunch of new spells inclouding Flood. For those newbs, blm (blackmage) get a set of 6 spells from lvls 50-60, called ancient magic. They are the most powerful single spell a blm has. Although they use about half of my magic, on a magic burst i do 1200+ on freeze the weakest of the 6.
Leveling from 47-56 was slow and painfull. A long list of realy crappy parties and low xp was the cause of this. if people tell you to part in Garliag Citadel, run away! The xp sucks and it is realy not a place for partieing. At 56 I was at King Ronphers tomb fighting bats and the it was to cape terriagon to fight crabs and pugs. I lvled off of those til about mid 57 then we went into the Valley of Sorrow......mmmm xp. Finaly it was xp in the 200+ range. killing the rapters is the best, leave the birds. I am still looking for the ever alusive 400+xp. I know it exists, some where out there.
Lastnight, the Promyvion static was back together again, we got 6000 xp, killed two bosses and set the record for the fight!!! In the last fight we wiped. It was ugly, first the tank dropped, then the wightmage, them me. I hit reraise, as did the whm and continued to nuke, but with no animas to weaken the enm, it was pretty much a done deal. It continues killing the rest of the party and finished the whm and me off again. But still I am only 8k from lvl 60!!