Paragon of Friendship Excellence

I think I decided to take up Samurai mainly because I really wanted to finally have a true damage dealing job. I know I can handle myself well with jobs like Red Mage or Paladin or even White Mage, but by no means do I deal the amazing damage like Theif or Samurai does. I didn't suddenly become a numbers person.. no.. I still play the game for fun. But every once in a while I'd just like to be able to say "yea, I broke 1k damage again today."

Well, getting invites for Samurai has been rough. I started leveling it mostly through my NPC Raka, chaining Toughs and Even Matches in Valkrey Dunes or Gustav Tunnel at different levels. One time I was even asked to tank (I've been informed that Samurai were supposed to be a tank when Zillart came out, but people used Ninja instead. Go figure) with only one death. It's been a fun time, and has given me a chance to level something while I wait for my ninja static to meet.

I really am not sure about how good I'm doing with this job; I think I don't use Meditate enough and I have nothing to really compare my damage with... I mean... only examples I've ever known for Samurai are all level 75, and one is fully merited (it's a bad day when he does under 2k damage...). But I talk everyone's ears off about gear advice and so forth (lol.. I know.. big shocker.. me talking people's ear's off..) so I'm fairly confident that I'm mostly the right things, and I'm having fun with it. And I finally made it to level 50, and it was time for the Artifact Race.

Artifact coffers are a pain in most jobs, and especially bad in some cases. The coffer spots in The Castle Demon Galore is risky even in the easy spots. Garliage Citidel can only be entered with four people minimum. Many spots in Kuftai Tunnel are perminatly guarded by 10 haunts that check as Decent Challenges at level 75. But I consider myself very lucky for the ones I had to do for White Mage, Ninja, Red Mage and Paladin; most of the keys were easy to get, and (except for whm when I was a just starting and made lots of mistakes) was able to use those coffers without much trouble, if a bit of patience. Even ninja, which had Ifrit's Coffee Cup Coffer, I got lucky and found a coffer that spawned around non-agroing monkeys.

Then, of course there is Samurai.. which has the reallly annoying spots. At the start, I really had considered going without AF's for Samurai completly, and just using some of the useful gear that's out there. I then mentioned it to someone who sent me a laugh and said "you can do it with friends." (not exact quote, but you get the idea). That was when I decided to ask people and give it a try. For the first time, I was actually getting excited by the Samurai AF.

Quicksand caves was interesting, since I've often searched out coffers because I used to solo there a lot, but Saras, Skreb and Darthyoda came with me, and when we found the coffer surrounded by Anticans, Saras was able to kill them while I opened it. (I also learned that you cannot open a Quick Sands Coffer with a Kuftai Tunnel Key no matter how much you try. Thanks to Malika for helping me with getting the two keys). Then I searched out Kuftai Tunnel, where I logged in first thing in the morning to find the coffer stuck right in the middle of those said Haunts, and decided to open it and run. Much to my suprise... I lived.

The one that really scared me was the Temple of Uuuuuuuuugggggggg! (I can't spell the name, but I'm sure thats why they named it... the sound you make when getting throat stabbed). I wasn't sure what dropped the coffer keys, but found out I had to goto the legendary part of the zone inhabited by the decimation and thief knife NM's. I was alone (why burden friends when I can easily solo these monsters) so I really didn't want to tangle Tonberries, so I killed Temple Bees and Hover Tanks. This was harder than it looked, since they popped spiradically and were guarded often by those lime colored creeps. What was really funny was the fact that I got the impression that people were trying to Monster-Player Kill me. I fought things at the zone to avoid magic agro, but I kept well out of the way of others. But they kept zoning Bees when I was fighting bees and just stood there getting attacked waiting... And then they zoned that black mage NM which did agro me, so I zoned. In spite of their efforts.. I didn't die (even after getting Flooded) and I got my key.

The next day, I ran to the temple and scoped out the spots. Unfortunatly, all of the coffers spawn in the area where you have to open this wooden gate. And this gate is always surrounded by monsters that agro sight. And most of the spots are past doors that require visibility, a special key or a very special key. (I still don't understand that...) And two of them spawn past the Gate Guardian that always makes me nervous without having stun available. What really shocked me was that even though I walked past the same two Rumbler Crawlers several times without sneak (just invisible) at one point I was suddenly attacked by one, forcing me to zone. Even later, I passed by several of them without sneak by accident, and didn't get agro. It was all too confusing.

To those who don't know, I am constantly looking at my friends list and talking to them. Without even having me ask, both Skreb and Kotsu agreed to come help me find a coffer. Kotsu got there first with Kloud (he cheated being a whm and teleported) and we started the search. The coffer wasn't in any of the easy spots, so we started trying to get the Temple Key from tonberries, when a pair of people came through and killed the gate guardian. So we ran in and did a quick search.. and the coffer was in the Paintbrush room! I had the impossible artifact!

The next thing we did was to run to bastok, and Kotsu, Kloud, Skreb, Gengistwerp, and Madness did the last AF3 quest for the Samurai helmet. Thanks to my friends, I have my Samurai Artifact Armor.

What a horrible game this would be without friends.