Elshimo Blues, and Advice

Thursday was my day off, and I spent about half of it in my room, playing Final Fantasy XI. For the most part, this time was spent in a single party, which got my theif up to 26. Flee is totally awesome, and is a great tool for pulling and zoning aggro, as well as a handy ability for getting around more quickly.

I was told that swords are better than daggers until your mid thirties, but I find this to be terribly inaccurate. First of all, the cap on daggers for thieves is MUCH higher than with swords, which results in my accuracy dropping through the floor when I equip my Small Sword (Dex +2). It was also said that your overall damage is better with a sword, but I found the damage to be almost exactly the same, meaning that the dagger is preferable due to it being a faster weapon. Finally, it was said that Sneak Attack and Fast Blade make for a lot of damage, which is true, but to say that Sneak Attack does not work well with any dagger weapon skill until Viper Bite is a falsehood. I averaged about 110 damage with SA + Fast Blade, and ~150 with SA + Shadowstitch, a dagger weapon skill, with 187 being my greatest spike. Regular sneak attacks seemed to favor the dagger as well, and keep in mind that the damage rating on the sword is greater than the dagger I carry.

This teaches me a valuable lesson: Advice is great, but put it to the test before you take it as law.

The second two pictures were taken of the group I mentioned, led by Dragonoftheeast. It was an excellent group with great, funny people, and I had a blast. The first is just a random Qufim party, but it's a good photo...gigas are very intimidating ^^;