Defeating Maat for the First Time

Alth Aaiaa, Level 70 White Mage and Maat Champion.

So I'm 1/1 on my very first Maat fight and thank goodness, too, because you know I've got a fragile ego, lol, and I might not have handled defeat in a very lady-like way. ;)

Clear time: 6 min, 37 sec. I broke the clear time record for Shattering Stars (WHM)! And you know what that means, right? I'm the most daring and swift WHM to fight Maat since.......... the records were reset... and they do that every Sunday, right? Lol. But I don't care, breaking a record is still breaking a record in my book. Which is to say, it's still awesome sauce.

He resisted Repose twice (because I didn't bother to cap my Divine Magic skill... which was 208 without equips and 230 with), but I was able to keep him from killing me. Lucky for me, he's an old man and runs like one! With all the running I had him doing, he couldn't cast spells like Banishga II at me. ;) Repose stuck three times and he was mid-nap when I was running back towards the start area and everything sudddenly stopped. I thought maybe I'd ran too far away or something but, thankfully, it all stopped because I'd won. Wow. :D

I didn't even have to use any of the medicine I'd brought or the Tav. Taco I bought (okay, so I forgot to, sue me, lol), nor Benediction (I feel a little cheap as a White Mage for not using it during my Maat fight, lol, but it was over before I knew it!). I did equip a Phalanx Ring that I won from something, though, a Divine Torque I bought, and a Noble's Tunic I borrowed. :) I'm ever-grateful for Repose because, if I hadn't had it, I would've had to learn how to tank. Eww.

As it were, the only skills I needed were healing, resting, relieving status ailments, running away, and not panicking -- well, not TOTALLY panicking -- as I was getting beat on down to half my life. All things that White Mages are very good at, if I do say so myself, haha.

This has been a long time coming. Maat asked me to recall when I first became an adventurer and I remembered back to being a little lvl 1 White Mage, scurrying around Windurst and cracking wise with my best friend (at the time) Ellsie the Tarutaru Warrior (well, as I recall, she was a warrior, and a fierce little one at that). I called her Ellsie-Wellsie or Elly and she's primarily the reason I can't call Eleadora "Elly." She retired to a fishing boat.

But I'm going off on a tangent here. See, I started playing in December of 2003 (or that's what I thought until I looked at my billing information... turns out it was early January of 2004, lol, and I must've gotten FFXI for Christmas). In any case, NA PC release, which was the first release outside of Japan, was October 2003. So, the point is, I was a newb when everyone was a newb.

And it was grand. Sure, we sent the economy into a tailspin (same as when the PS2ers came, the European players, the XBoxers, etc...), but we always had plenty of people for EXP groups.

And group we did. We grouped in Tahrongi Canyon, in Bubumuri Peninsula, in Valkurm, and skipped on over to Jugner Forest. After we were all of sufficient level (18-20), my EXP group and I made the arduous journey to Jeuno through Batallia Downs. I had no idea what they were talking about, what this Jeuno was, or what laid ahead for me in my future.

Looking back, I can see that coming to Jeuno was the end of an age... an age of innocence. But it was an amazing journey to get there.

And I've experienced many amazing things since in Vana'diel. I'm sure I'll look back on defeating Maat as yet another milestone as I prepare for the world of Endgame.

Thanks to:
1. Deathfog for coming with me to skill-up in The Boyahda Tree right before the fight and for lending me that Noble's Tunic for the fight. :) Deathfog also utterly destroyed his Maat right after mine, so congratulations to him.
2. Korlic for coming with me to get my White Mage Testimony in Gustav Tunnel last month.
3. Braxus for believing in me, offering to be my male cheerleader, offering to give me a ton of stuff to help me and also help me in any way he could.
4. Evvy for giving me that tip about watching Maat WHM fights on YouTube. I decided to fight him on Lightsday because of it.
5. All my LSmates, all my friends, and everyone who ever helped me get EXP for my white mage job, lol. Guess that would include my "Hume Helper" Jesimae. ;)