Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Now, That's Refreshing

I realize mana is very important to mage jobs. You need mana in order to cast spells.

You're mages. It's your job to cast spells.

Thus, mana is a big thing.

I totally get that. I mean, without mana, you guys are basically paperweights.

And you sometimes need help keeping your mana up.

Every post-41 Red Mage reading this knows exactly where I'm going.

Refresh is a great spell. It really is. It allows you to recover those mana points that you so desperately love and need.

Sounds great, huh?

Unfortunately, this spell has a hidden latent effect. That latent effect is that the spell refresh can cause many mages and magic users to become absolutely retarded.

It's true. It's like as soon as your party picks up a Red Mage, these people lose their freakin' minds. If they do not constantly have a Refresh effect acting on them, they start to freak out.

Imagine you're a Red Mage. During every battle it is your job enfeeble the enemy, dispel any buffs the enemy may have, watch for your enfeebles to wear off, usually main heal or back up heal, and cast refresh on anyone or anything that has mana.

And melee if you happen to be retarded yourself.

That sounds pretty busy, doesn't it? I mean, that's a lot of shit to do during a two minute battle.

So, maybe it's understandable that the Red Mage may need a second to get your refresh effect back up.

I know, I know. A whole second.

Do you know what would be helpful? Do you know how you can help your Red Mage?

Let him know when your refresh wears off. Better than that, you should start demanding refresh the very moment it wears off.

Maybe you could make a macro.

Oh, and use a lot of calls in your macros. Those never get annoying.

Then, in between battles, you can explain how refresh works and how he should cast it on you more often.

I mean he's been playing Red Mage for a long time and your Red Mage is level retarded, but I'm sure you know better than him. You've partied with a Red Mage before which means you're an expert on the subject.

Maybe you could get a job working at Brady.

I'm sure your new Red Mage friend will appreciate you helping him do his job.

Now, if any of that made sense to you or sounded even plausible, I want you to uninstall FFXI, turn off your computer, and then eat your modem.

You have no business interacting with other human beings.

A Red Mage will refresh you if he has time. He's a busy guy.

And do you know what you do?

You shut the hell up.

This comes to mind because recently I was leveling a mage job. But not my Red Mage.

Oh, no. I was leveling my Black Mage.

Susan was leveling her Red Mage.

We formed a party in Jeuno, set out for our camp, and went to work.

Immediately, I spotted a problem. It seems the Dark Knight we picked up was getting a little "critical" of Susan's refresh cycle.

DarkKnight>> Can I get refresh?
DarkKnight>> Hello? Refresh, please.
DarkKnight>> (( Refresh )) (( Do you have it? ))

I mean she was putting the White Mage, the Black Mage, and the Paladin ahead of the Dark Knight. And sometimes, she'd cast dispel on the mob while the Dark Knight was sitting there not getting free mana.

Can you imagine?

What in the hell was she thinking?

Of course the Dark Knight's spells are more important than... Oh, I don't know... The White Mage curing.

I mean, c'mon.

Still, I am not one to abuse my GM powers, so I relaxed and didn't make a big issue out of it.

That sounds just like me, doesn't it?

*warp*

[GM]Dave>> Hail, Adventurer.
[GM]Dave>> I'm your new teacher, [GM]Dave.
DarkKnight>> What the...
DarkKnight>> Where am I?
[GM]Dave>> Welcome to [GM]Dave's School of Refresh Etiquette.
DarkKnight>> Why am I here?
[GM]Dave>> You're here to learn the three Rs.
[GM]Dave>> Red Mage.
[GM]Dave>> Refresh.
[GM]Dave>> And retarded.
DarkKnight>> What does that have to do with me?
[GM]Dave>> Well, are you a Red Mage?
DarkKnight>> No.
[GM]Dave>> Do you have Refresh?
DarkKnight>> No.
[GM]Dave>> Then guess which one applies to you.
DarkKnight>> Are you calling me retarded?
[GM]Dave>> Of course not, sir.
[GM]Dave>> Technically, I'm implying it.
DarkKnight>> You're not allowed to call me retarded.
[GM]Dave>> I didn't call you retarded.
[GM]Dave>> I implied it.
[GM]Dave>> What are you, retarded?
DarkKnight>> There! Right there!
DarkKnight>> You called me retarded again.
[GM]Dave>> Actually, I asked a question.
[GM]Dave>> That's more suggesting it as a possibility.
[GM]Dave>> I still didn't call you retarded.
[GM]Dave>> I would never call someone retarded.
DarkKnight>> I... Oh, nevermind.
DarkKnight>> Can we just get on with it?
[GM]Dave>> No problem.
[GM]Dave>> Today's lesson is about respecting your Red Mage.
DarkKnight>> Did that Red Mage report me or something?
DarkKnight>> What a bitch.

O_O

>_<

O_O

I knew I hadn't just read that.

DarkKnight>> She sucked.
DarkKnight>> Her and that Black Mage.


...

...

Oh, it's on like Donkey Kong, now.

[GM]Dave>> For the purpose of today's lesson...
[GM]Dave>> I have made you a level 41 Red Mage.
[GM]Dave>> And I've given you the spell Refresh.
DarkKnight>> Sweet.
DarkKnight>> What do I do?
[GM]Dave>> Your job is to keep us refreshed.
DarkKnight>> That shouldn't be too hard.
DarkKnight>> So, I just keep the two of us refreshed.
DarkKnight>> Easy.
[GM]Dave>> Wait...
[GM]Dave>> Who said two?
DarkKnight>> You said "us".
[GM]Dave>> Oh, silly, silly me.
[GM]Dave>> I apologize for the misunderstanding.

That's when I spawned an army of NPCs all dressed in GM gear.

All named [GM]Dave.

[GM]Dave>> I meant us.
DarkKnight>> Oh crap.
DarkKnight>> What if I fail?
[GM]Dave>> You'll be given a slight financial penalty.
DarkKnight>> ... That's no so bad.
[GM]Dave>> Followed by a perma-ban.
DarkKnight>> WHAT?!
[GM]Dave>> There may also be a dragon involved.
[GM]Dave>> Let's just play it by ear.
DarkKnight>> This is ridiculous.
[GM]Dave>> No, this is education.
[GM]Dave>> Learning is fundamental, you know.
DarkKnight>> This is impossible.
[GM]Dave>> No, no.
[GM]Dave>> It's not improbable.
DarkKnight>> I said impossible.
[GM]Dave>> Oh...
[GM]Dave>> Yeah, pretty much.
[GM]Dave>> Good luck though.
DarkKnight>> Gee, thanks.
[GM]Dave>> There's just one more thing.
DarkKnight>> What's that?

Do you have any idea how annoying it would be to get a hundred tells every second asking for refresh?

Can you imagine how long it would take to drive you insane?

By my watch, about four and a half seconds.

It was almost sad to see Jormy eat him.

Except replace "almost" with "incredibly".

And "sad" with "funny".

[GM]Dave>> By the way...
[GM]Dave>> You're retarded.

Please, people. Respect your Red Mage.

20 Comments:

At 10:00 AM, Blogger Shayde said...

Yes, please respect your Red Mage.

Please, also respect your White Mage. Your WHM's primary job is to keep the party healthy -- casting buffs to increase defense, removing adverse status effects so you stay as healthy as possible, and restoring HP when you have taken damage. We pretty much know that keeping the Ninja hasted will help him/her keep shadows up (i.e. help to be an effective tank). If the party is having an easy time & we're not using tons of mana to keep everyone healthy, we will haste others if they ask politely.

That said, don't assume that you "need" haste just because you're a melee fighter. If I'm getting low on MP & it comes down to choosing to heal the tank or casting haste on the DRK/THF/WAR/MNK/etc..., I'm gonna heal the tank. Get over it.

Oh -- and if you yell at me & curse me & insult me, you ain't gonna get haste. Ever. I may even cast haste on the BLM just to tick you off. I'm vindictive like that. =)

 
At 11:36 AM, Blogger My Name is none of your business said...

<----52rdm - So true and that's when blist comes in handy!

 
At 12:30 PM, Blogger Reeree said...

What's more annoying than a Paladin with full MP sending you a private tell asking for Refresh during downtime between fights?

Him doing so again after you have told the party that if the gimp-ass retard says the word Refresh again, you'll warp.

Perhaps he doesn't understand English. Does he understand /blist?

It's sad when you have to blacklist your party members, but totally worth it.

 
At 3:42 PM, Blogger Baesius said...

As always a very enjoyable post. Nicely done, I would comment on the whole RDM Refresh discussion however being a retired 62 RDM and now a Main 70 DRK I prefer not to.

Keep up the good work [GM]Dave.

 
At 3:54 PM, Blogger Guankim said...

Thank you. That was officially the post that has amused me the most xD RDM 70 main ftw! Thankfully, only 5 more levels of partying for me there, though this skillup thing is leveling me along nicely... hmmmm.

 
At 5:08 PM, Blogger Kite said...

People should keep their mouths shut if they want to give advice on how to use a certain job.

Unless they already brought that job up to level 75... you know, scrap that.

I had a WAR (or THF) this one time in Crawler's Nest who kept whining and telling me how to perform a magic Burst after a Skillchain. As if I never performed one for the past 30+ levels. He was the one closing the SC.

Somehow, even without his 'tips', I couldn't perform the Skillchain right at times, since the Secret Room, when standing in the green orbing light, makes my computer lag.

---

Pulsex3d - KalOnline? I haven't been on that game for over a year now. Did they release new areas in the meantime?

 
At 6:13 PM, Blogger Justine said...

I'm currently lvling my rdm and I already fear the time when and if it'll hit 41 (/.\) And btw, K Mart has a dancing, foot-tall skeleton that sings "The Land Down Under"... Humanity is doomed.

 
At 6:16 PM, Blogger Goblin Smithy said...

Okay, is it ironic that I have posting bots in my blog?

That seems ironic.

 
At 8:39 PM, Blogger Dyamalos said...

I must reply to this

I am a 69 RDM on Odin, and I've been tolled I'm one of the better RDMs out there. I'm not anal apparently.

See. I have a refresh cycle:

me>pld>whm/smn>blm>blu>drk

now, While the drk is at the end of the cycle, he still gets refresh, however, there are some bad dark nights... I have two high level DRK as friends and they use the absorb spells frequently. as such they need refresh... but if all you do is stun or poison to pull, you don't need it every cycle, it wastes MP

Refresh restores 120MP, cost 40... the thing is, after I cast refresh on the third member of my group, I start to tap into my buff/enfeeble/dispel pool. so I have to manage that MP wisely, you can waste your MP, but if you start wasting mine, we have a problem.

Also, a BRD using Balled is more reliable than a COR using the refresh roll

sereously, team me up with a BRD in aht uragan and I get like 7MP a tick back, everyone gets refresh then :D

The only spell I ask to be reminded of is Haste. I keep haste cycles as well. with a BRD, I can haste myself too for little cost, and my refresh and the rest of the haste cycle go faster due to the recast timers gone down.

 
At 8:56 PM, Blogger Dyamalos said...

After reading some more posts, I have this to say:


The reason DRKs notice this more than anyone else is because they have been "shunned" by the player base...

I've seem some kick ass DRK (my friends) and some retarded ones ( a guy only casting poison, just to pull)

Aspir is nice, true, but if you act that way, the the BLM doesn't get refresh because of the same reason.

And what if your fighting something without MP? what are they going to aspir off of?

Also, now that DRK gets TP-Absorb, which would allow them to REMOVE the mobs TP while adding to their own.

monster readies "Insane rape the NIN in one hit attack"
Dark Knight>> I don't think
Dark Knight casts Absorb-TP
Dark Knight readies Guillotine.
monster dies.


While you piss and moan about not wanting to refresh, this can happen:

Monster readies "Anal rape".
Dark Knight>> Out of MP = no stun/absorb-TP
Ninja was just forked up the ass and is now ling face down in what can only be feces and blood.

(Insert sounds of party members dying)

The reason Dark Knights moan about refresh, is that they have grown so use to doing so. the good ones at least.

Seriously, there are few jobs that can out damage a Dark Knight for stackable melee damage. WAR/NIN maybe, but that's about it.

Also, My Dark Knight is only 13. I am a 69RDM, you can look me up if you have to.

 
At 10:07 PM, Blogger Hawklord2112 said...

which is why im glad im using RDM as sub. no refresh ^^

on the other hand it means i cant self-refresh and as blue mage i tend to spam through my MP rather quickly.

hence me liking parties with bards and corsairs. cos i dont have to bug the RDM.

 
At 11:10 PM, Blogger xvii_thestar said...

AHAHAHAH OMFG that's the saga of every healer\buffer class in every mmo action\rpg game out there

 
At 12:17 AM, Blogger vandemonde said...

[GM]Dave (ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY!)

I've been playing FFXI since the 2004, I registered here just so I could comment on your WONDERFUL blog, I've been reading it for a while now.

I am a 59 SMN and I always ask the RDM's in my parties to please NOT refresh me as I have no real need of it. (but if they want to I won't complain)

I have autorefresh and I ALWAYS carry ginger/wizard cookies and I rest when I need it. (about 50% MP and also I have a dark staff and seer's tunic in a macro with above mentioned cookies)

And besides the only time I get any parties as SMN is when they have the "SMN is a Curetank" philosiphy. (read: I'm sick of solo and need a painful reminder of why I'm out there avoiding the unwashed masses)

My RDM was level 27 when I stopped leveling it and maybe someday I'll resume. (May Jormy eat me first)

That being said, RDM's are worth their weight in gil and I feel that they've enough headaches dealing with the whining of others.

Thanks for putting up with my "pointless wall of text"

please keep up the GREAT work as far as I'm concerned it'll NEVER get old


=^.^= Vandemonde =^.^=

 
At 5:29 AM, Blogger Bellemithra said...

Wow I can't believe he called Susan a bitch!!! Good thing feeding him to Jormy!!!!!!

 
At 6:53 AM, Blogger Letrange said...

Welcome to the biggest dead horse of the RDM world. As you can see by the posts from the multitude of supporting RDM's (not to mention the amount of posts), being asked for refresh as soon as you hit 41 is a big problem for a lot of RDMs.

When it happens to an RDM in his early 40's the result is usualy a warped red mage (see that /blm they have? It means if you piss them off they have the means to get back to their home point for free). If you realy piss them off you might even get to see Chainspell->Warp. Usualy immediatly afterwords you'll discover he's also /blist'ed you.

The thing is when an RDM hits level 41 he's got the biggest relative casting load of his career. This is because the refresh load at 41 is the same as a refresh load at 75, but the poor RDM has much less MP at 41 than at 75. Plus he's just learning it. Plus he's got all these other duties he's supposed to take care of. Like sleeping the adds the idiot puller brings to camp. And you wonder why most Red Mages in the 40s get a little irritable when you jiggle their elbows at this stage...

P.S. Tell Suzan it'll get easier as she levels and has more MP to play with.

 
At 3:48 PM, Blogger Kerensky said...

"Imagine you're a Red Mage. During every battle it is your job enfeeble the enemy, dispel any buffs the enemy may have, watch for your enfeebles to wear off, usually main heal or back up heal, and cast refresh on anyone or anything that has mana."

Kerensky lv 75 rdm btw you forgot haste.. :D.

and it's refresh haste refresh haste refesh haste enfeble debuff /magic burst if no black mage /heal /heal the whm /heal and repeat

new z0ne = "new fun" rdm is favorit main healer in a 3nin brd rdm smn party it ='s all un fun

ps: half the jobs can't rest because you lose TP.

red mage needs refreshga bard has it corsair has it rdm doesn't and has the single highest enhanceing magic in the game that I know of..

pps: as rdm it is sad that I have a macro to switch to full mp gain to heal with.. dark staff +10 body armor +5 belt +1 pants.. exc

me> you waist my mp!
nin> cast haste!
me> I did
nin2> silence
me> already did
brd> haste me!
me> are you on somthing?
nin3> I am dead and it's your fault
me> you pull a triple link and it's my fault you die?
nin2> yes you main healer it's all your fault
me>"should have subed blm.. resist blood warp resist blood warp"
smn> I'm going to pull another mamoolja philosipher
smn> pull ######macro#####
nin> ok I'm pulling the dragon
nin2> I got the scout
me> mp 109/???
nin3> I'll pull another while we are waiting..
nin3> pulls mamoolja philosipher
nin is defeated by
nin2 is defeeted by
smn is defeeted by
kernsky is defeeted by
me> this is just great
nin3 is defeated by
nin3> I am never going to party with again, you are a bad red mage!
me> **error you are not in party**
me> /l party kicked me for their own mistake?

:I hate staging point battles:
*brink more rum*

 
At 5:16 PM, Blogger Vatar said...

I have one thing to say to ppl in general... if you yourself don't have the job to lvl 60+, the stfu and let the person do their job. RDM, WHM, BLM, SAM, BLU, if they got their job higher than yours, then they know more about the job than your hand knows your pants. Thank You for your aspiring words [GM]Dave ^.^

As far as the bots, too bad you can't ban their IP >.<

 
At 8:41 AM, Blogger MooseHP said...

Thanks man, thanks.


RDM58 Bismark

 
At 8:02 AM, Blogger Luckyseven said...

man this blog rocks.. RDM rules give us a break^^ Turkeysurgeon are you from the Remora server?

 
At 3:33 AM, Blogger Imaginary of Hades said...

Kind of a late comment on this one. Just started reading, and I really enjoy the posts.
My Taru's main job is RDM. This particular post makes me wish I was a [GM].
People like that somehow end up not recieving cures from me.
It's rather strange.
I mean funny.
Very, very funny.

 

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