Monthly Archives: September 2013

Culinarian Apron’s Set

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Warning: Screenshots spam.

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Hehehehe! I didn’t want to brag, but now I want to brag. I recently got level 50 equipment for my Cooking class, thanks to our linkshell’s seamstress master tailor who was so diligent and patient enough to make me all these gear.

MasterTailor01

Before, I was always wearing this Vintage Seneschal Coatee (which had been sitting in my Retainer since 1.0) on my craft classes that are high enough. CUL, GSM, CRP, for example.

MasterTailor02

I like the design because it looks fashionable, though a little bit too exposing. :P

At first, he made me some Linen items to wear on my lower level classes. Then, not long after he hit level 50 on his Weaver, and I managed to harvest Crawler Cocoons, he started to make me level 50 gear. By that time, my Goldsmith was level 50, too. And that was the first body piece of class-specific equipment for crafter that I ever had! (Because on my Culinarian, I chose the hat instead of the apron, LOL).

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It looks VERY fashionable. And seems more appropriate. :P

I dyed it Lotus Pink to match with my Regal Purple hat (from guild test quest).

MasterTailor04

 

The stats are also great! And it came in HQ. ^^

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I got the trousers from him later on. I dyed the trousers Abyssal Blue. And here’s a closer look at the appearance. Except the Mythril Choker, my Goldsmith looks totally fabulous.

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On the same day I got this Goldsmith’s Doublet, I also got a Culinarian’s Apron from him.

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The stats are awesome and I willingly stopped wearing my Coatee, LOL.

I also got the trousers from him later, and dyed them Abbysal Blue as well.

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Below: culinarian’s equipment (and a pair of GSM’s trousers) came in Moogle Mail.

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Usually, I don’t fuss about stats, because I am a very lazy player. And my inventory crisis makes me tend to avoid having many pieces of equipment. I try to share my crafting gear among all my craft classes. Mythril Choker level 39, for example. I am too lazy to make a new one which is Electrum Choker level 49, because my lower level classes wouldn’t be able to wear it. But seeing and using these level 50 gear that can’t be shared with other classes, I feel it is nice to be fussy about gear for stats! As now I can HQ most of my synthesis attempts, thanks to the stats boost from gear.

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By the way, he also made himself the Weaver’s set, and Alchemist’s set. ^^

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I think Alchemist’s set is the champion so far. It looks extraordinary and most sophisticated among all of the class-specific crafter’s sets I’ve ever seen. You know, it has both the hints of professionalism and fashion. Like, from behind, you will look like a mad scientist or a perfectly hygienic doctor. And then from the front, you’re like a designer at work. You have all your tools there, ready to be whipped out whenever you like. Oh, right, this set makes one look like a walking laboratory. XD

MasterTailor09

This pic was when I was sending him Crawler’s Cocoons. He was sitting right behind me when I cooked, but then I got up and ran to the Delivery Moogle to send cocoons. Soon, I saw him arriving at the Moogle to pick up the delivery, saying “I was there all the time, sitting in the bush lol.” Oopsie haha. Well, I might have noticed him but as his outfit was now Regal Purple instead of Abyssal Blue, it didn’t strike me that it was him!! *lame excuse*

MasterTailor10Last screenshot today, this is a candid pic of him when he was lower level. XD

 

 

Tiny Tortoise (Minion)

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Alright, during the past week, once I got to level 48, guess what was the first thing I did. Ha! I crafted some Yumizuno lures and went to the Salt Strand to catch a minion, Tiny Tortoise. Thanks to the information in Kida’s forum, a thread by someone named Truvy~, which lets me know what bait to use and where to go. I was looking forward to catching the Tiny Tortoise since level 46. But looking up the bait info made me kind of gave up and a little discouraged, because many of the posts I found all said that we need to be level 50 and use Northern Krill for this. However, this thread (comment #12) mentioned Yumizuno, which is a level 48 bait. So, yeah, that’s what I did when I got to 48!

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When I run, the Tiny Tortoise spins and follows me instead of walking on its feet! Hahaha!

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I haven’t gotten many minions yet, and Tiny Tortoise is my favorite so far. It is so cute. ^^

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I kept fishing more after getting mine, because I wanted to send to some friends. I ended up sending to 4 friends and put 4 (or 3) more up for sale on my retainers in the market. One was sold at 2000 (before fee) and then 3000, and 5000. It is quite crazy, LOL.

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This pic looks like she’s trying to bite my tail, hahaha!

And oh yeah, I have decided it is a she, and she is a finicky fella! Look at how rebellious she was when I said no Tortoise allowed on my bed!

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Fishing and Fishing

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Days went by so quickly! I didn’t intend to neglect my weblog this long, but it’s been a tough week for me. Real life stuff got so busy and I hardly had enough time to rest a spell. As my real life duty was exhausting and deprived me of my sleep, when I had spare time to get on the game, I wanted to be as lazy as possible LOL. Plus, my brain had quite slow reaction due to lack of sleep, so I didn’t want to do any brain-straining activity.

So what had I been doing? Gathering, of course. Mostly fishing, specifically. I went around fishing in new locations, getting new fish, trying new baits, and stuff. So this week I finally got my Fisher to level 50.

Fishing Bronze Lake 1

 

Fishing Bronze Lake 2

Bronze Lake has nice nighttime sky. I love the stars in FFXIV so much.

Moondrop

Giga-fishing, oops, I mean cave-fishing. It’s quite annoying at Moondrop, because people always come here to kill the gigas for quest or maybe hunting log. Someone got me in the crossfire and then proceeded to die because s/he ran around while fighting a giga and ended up aggroing 3 more. That was dumb LOL.

Raincatcher Gully

Rain Catcher Gully Docks. The spot is called Agelyss River, though. I guess it was East Agelyss River, can’t really remember.

Zahar'ak

Trying to finish the fishing map in Southern Thanalan, I had to go fish in the beastman’s stronghold, Zahar’ak. LOL. Gotta love the Stealth ability.

Dune FishingDUne Fishing

Dune fishing. Fishing without water! It bugs me, though, that when I land a fish, there is water splash sound effect. There is no water!!! Make Sand Splash sound please, SE! Damn you!

DUne Manta

By the way, there are 2 locations for Dune Fishing in Southern Thanalan. One is called Sagolii Dunes, at around X:25 Y:36, in the gorge (cliff) on the east end of the desert, the other is Sagolii Desert, on the west end at around X:12 Y:36. Here’s a quick screenshot of the actual map next to the fishing log map.

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Fishing Forgotten Springs 2

Me looking serious while fishing at Forgotten Springs.

Fishing Forgotten Springs 1Forgotten Springs Foggy

Foggy weather. And then I took a rather derpy-looking screenshot of my character LOL. Gotta hate when you take pics and they blink or half blink! Looks like a kitty on crack, don’t I? XD

Forgotten Spring Fishing

I also went stealth-fishing at Sapsa and Reaver Hide, in Sahagin’s stronghold. Here, too, my peace was often disturbed by other adventurers. Hate when battle noises are so loud I couldn’t hear my fishing rod when it creaks, as I usually fish by ears.

Sapsa - Reaver Hide

 


By the way, here are short clips of “The fish gets away” messages that I got at Sapsa Spawning Grounds. Guess I didn’t have enough Gathering for the fish. Still can’t guess what fish it was, though. My fishing log at Sapsa was completed and none of the fish I got had reacted that way!

Fish Gets Away (Sapsa) #1

Fish Gets Away (Sapsa) #2

 

 

Fish gets away at Sapsa

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Today I returned again to Sapsa Spawning Grounds to try to catch the last unrecorded fish in my entry. From Kida’s info here http://www.disciplesoftheland.com/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=1172 it should be Nautilus and should be caught by the Mooch ability. I eventually caught a Nautilus by mooching a Fullmoon Sardine. Well, actually I caught two. I got a HQ Nautilus after recording first one in my fish guide.

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However, there is SOMETHING else in that water. It must be something….even though my fishing entry at the spot was already completed. I’ve been hooking it, and failing, since yesterday when I tried to fish Red Coral for a random GSM who contacted me about it.

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When I got a bite from that elusive fish, my fishing rod would make a distinguished creak, the sound that makes me think the rod was going to snap and break into two! And every time, every time, I pushed the “Hook” button, I would always get “The fish gets away…” message. It really bugs me to not know what fish it was. Anyway, yesterday I was 46 and I thought maybe I got lucky and hooked a Nautilus which was beyond my skill, so it kept getting away (yesterday I haven’t been able to get any HQ Fullmoon Sardine at all during my 2-hour session). After that, I leveled up to 48 and came back home to regear. I made myself a Gilded Rosewood Fishing Rod, a HQ one, and waited for my rematch.

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Today I came here to Sapsa again and made a stop at Reaver Hide. I eventually landed a Dinichthys ★★using double mooch from Merlthor Goby => Wahoo. It was freaking HUGE! 141.3 ilms, WTF? I wonder why and how my Miqo’te hasn’t broken her arm from reeling in such monsters yet. I also double mooched and lost the 3rd fish, but I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice if it made the same creak like when I lost the mysterious fish at Sapsa. It could have been a Rock Lobster, as my entry on that hasn’t yet been filled. Or it could be a very large Dinichthys so I lost it simply by its weight?

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Well, after getting to level 49 at Reaver Hide, I walked over to Sapsa to try again. I did get a bite from that fish, with the same creak that cannot be mistaken. And guess what, it eluded me yet again!!! It irks me that I could never land the fish when my rod screams like that. I am very very very curious as to what fish it could be.

Logically, there shouldn’t be any other type of fish in that spot…. So maybe the THING at Sapsa was just an exceptionally huge Sea Devil or some weird HQ of whatever fish that’s on the list. L But that creak noise from my rod is really intriguing. Someday I will return again, fully geared, and figure out what it is!

——–

I returned a few days later and recorded the fishing when fish escaped. Though the rod’s noise was faint, if you listen to it closely, you will understand what I meant about the creak being different.

Fish Gets Away (Sapsa) #1

Fish Gets Away (Sapsa) #2

 

 

Goldsmith Quest lv50

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I just finished level 50 guild test quest for my Goldsmith. At first, I had SO MUCH to say about this quest, but then, there is TOO MUCH to say about it, so I’m not going to talk about the story, LOL. Let’s simply leave it at “OMG It is awesome! You should do Goldsmith guild test quests and see it!!!!!!!”

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The story is truly stunning. Wonderful plot, not just hilarious. And for all of you who had played FFXI (Aht Urhgan expansion) before, this quest line will remind you of the automatons in Whitegate and Puppetmaster job from FFXI, which is a huge reason to complete it! (I’m talking about the automaton because it is less likely to be story spoiler, as these mammets are everywhere in Ul’dah, not a secret.) The final quest, Jaded, will shake your emotions. Although it MIGHT not be the same identity, as the outer appearance is totally different, that name rings a bell and made me silently weep with reminiscent longing.

 

Hab, an odd zombie

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Today I went to mine some Mythril Ores in the far southeast corner of Sagolii Desert and met this lone NPC. He is a corpse-type NPC similar to those fallen enemies we used to slay every now and then.

Hab_Zombie_Lancer1

LOL! SE never fails to amuse me with their NPC dialogues. That’s why I love to hit a small conversation with random NPC I met. Some of them say funny stuff.

Hab_Zombie_Lancer2And this one might be involved in a quest or something, as I saw quite a few adventurers – non-miner – came to visit him over there, talked, and then returned or teleported. I don’t want to look it up now because I don’t want to spoil myself until I’ve run into that quest on my own. XD

 

Something About Fishing

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Some people asked for tips to level up fisher faster in FFXIV. Today I’ve been grinding EXP on my fisher, so I feel it is a good time to write about leveling up in fishing. But first thing first, let’s see how different fishing is, compared to the other two Disciples of the Land.

Fishing_TackleBox

 

Advantages:
– We are not limited by the gathering node. We can just cast the line into any body of water (well, most of the time, as there are some bodies of water where there is no fish).

– We don’t have to run around finding exact specific spots which will pop in fixed possible places and then exhausts after 4 or 5 gathering attempts. We can just stand there at the same spot and keep fishing without moving until the fish gets agitated. (I have only experienced it once in ARR, it happened in Limsa Lominsa near the Fisherman’s guild.)

– In general, EXP per fish is higher than EXP per successful logging or mining attempt. And when you obtain HQ fish, you get +300% EXP as a bonus, while Botanist and Miner only get +200% for HQ item!

– Once you cast your line, you can hardly miss the fish (except if you don’t hit “Hook” button fast enough, or if you hit it too fast – before anything bites). Mining nodes and logging nodes have success rate on each item, and you can get “You obtain nothing” even when your success rate is 98%.

– Mooching is FUN!!!!!

Fishing_FishingLog

Disadvantages:

– We have to carry baits or lures around, which consume inventory space.

– We have to choose and use proper bait/lure for the level of the fish and the location.

– Unlike choosing item from the mining/logging node, you cannot exactly specify what fish you want to gather. It is pretty much random, although you can control the scope of the fish to bit by selecting your bait and location.

– Fishing locations are not revealed to you on the mini map (radar), and you won’t see it in your Fishing Log unless you have already fished (and landed a catch) in the location at least once. So, for the first time in a region, you have to make some effort to locate the fishing spots.

– Unlike gathering log for logging and mining, you cannot see the fish you have never caught before. Your Fish Guide will only reveal the fish entry once you manage to catch the species for the first time.

– From both the two disadvantages above, it means you cannot foresee where to catch a specific type of fish until you have already caught it.

That’s all I can think of for now.

Fishing_FishGuide

Next, leveling up tips for fisher:

I’ll write from my experience, and as I was already level 43, my insight might not be as useful for the low level people, but I believe that the general ideas I provide here can be applied to any range of level.

  1. Try to complete every guild test quest as soon as you can access it, you get free gear and free fishing rods from these quests.
  2. Update your outfit for stats at least every 10 levels.
  3. Boost Perception if you can, as Perception will influence the rate to catch larger fish. Larger fish, if large enough to be a HQ (High-Quality) one will yield huge amount of EXP (+300% to be specific).
  4. For lower level fishers, you can buy and eat Jack O’ Lantern if you like. It is cheap and is sold at food vendor NPC in any of the three city-states. Food effect will also grant +3% EXP bonus. It is not much, but it adds up in the long run!
  5.  Buy (or make) and equip new bait (or lure) whenever you can. Higher level bait will be able to catch higher level fish, which means more EXP.
  6. Try to explore and open new fishing location when you can. Also, landing a new type of fish for the first time will give +100% EXP bonus for new entry being recorded.

That’s about it for the tips I could recall for now.

For more specific tips, I can only say that at level 15, once you can equip Midge Basket for freshwater fishing, you may want to check out Raincatcher Gully (Docks) in Eastern La Noscea (closest Aetheryte for teleport is Wineport). Although that location is level 40, the lowest fish available in that spot is level 20 (Copperfish) and it will be the only fish you can catch from there with that bait. At level below 20, I could land Copperfish for 1,000 EXP each. And if I got lucky and landed a HQ one, I get like 4,000 EXP.

Fishing_HQClownLoach

Another specific spot great for EXP is at Forgotten Spring (level 35) in Southern Thanalan. You can also catch the Copperfish here using Midge Basket. This spot is great for EXP even at my level, which was 43.

At level 43, I used Honey Worm (level 35) which can be bought right here at the Merchant & Mender NPC shop. I was reeling in a ton of EXP. While NQ Ropefish (level 32) gave about 2,200 EXP (with rested bonus effect from Sanctuary/Inn Room, which is +50% EXP), a Clown Loach (level 36) gave about 3,300 EXP NQ, and 10,000 EXP when HQ! It was 10309 (+353%) experience points, to be exact. Moreover, if you’re lucky enough to catch a Golden Loach, that will net you around 4,100 EXP (I had +53% effect) for normal quality, and about 12,000 EXP for HQ.

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I leveled up from 43 to 44 in a short span of time in this convenient location.

Well, I better stop bragging and continue my fishing. Happy hunting, everyone! ^^

 

My lv 43 Fishing Gear

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Today I stopped being lazy and started to regear my gathering classes. I saw that Rosewood Fishing Rod (lv. 43) was dirt cheap, so I ditched my Horn Fishing Rod (old one, level 37, been using since 1.0, LOL!) and grabbed it. Then I bought Mythril Mesail (lv. 42) and Boarskin Jerkin (lv. 43). Now this is what my Fisher (and Miner and Botanist) look like.

Alec_Fishing_Gear43Quite fashionable, eh? LOL!

Today I’m trying to record fish and fishing locations in my fish guide and fishing log. Going around in Central Thanalan, I needed up to level 25 bait (Bass Ball)! Also, it was the first time I ever used a fly lure in 2.0. Crow Fly is level 20 and was for Dark Bass. Unlike baits, the character does a slow reeling motion while waiting for a bite on the fly lure. I find it amusing. But what’s most amusing is that whenever I hook an Aegis Shrimp (using Bass Ball) my fishing rod makes a creaking noise that sounds as if it is going to snap! It always made me shudder, envisioning my fishing rod breaking into two, like back in FFXI if I tried to land a fish larger than my rod could handle.

I’m not sure if I’ll be diligent enough to carry this on until higher levels, but now I’m recording what fish bite on which bait. I hope I can come back to look at the info and make use of it later whenever I need to catch a specific fish.

 

 

Alec’s Recent Days

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Oops!!! I haven’t written anything in this blog for a few days. Well, to my excuse, I now have a friend who visited and is staying over at my house. We went out on Saturday and Monday. And she has some troubles from losing her wallet on Sunday, so I was pretty busy trying to help her sort stuff out (with great helps from my dad and mom – because I don’t drive!) I haven’t had any interesting story (or rant LOL) to write about, as I was always grinding some kind of EXP whenever I had time during the weekend and didn’t turn my attention to adding new content to my blog. Right now I still don’t know what to write about, but I don’t want my blog to be too quiet XD So I’ll just be lazy and post some pics from the game during the past few days.

Alec_recent_days01 I’ve been participating in the Moonfire Faire and taking some pics with the paper bomb balloon decorations.

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I like the balloon pool. It adds a nice touch to the festivities.

Alec_recent_days02   I’ve been cooking. I made a lot of dishes in-game. I even finished my tier 3 Cooking Achievement, Savoring the Realm:Apprentice (to synthesis 750 items of level 21-30)

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Then I realized I had an old crafting body in the Calamity Salvager, so I went and got it back, then dyed it pink. ^^

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I’ve also fished. Somehow I feel it is harder to collect all the data in fishing log when I am already high level fisher than when I started anew on new char in phase 4. It’s like I can fish anywhere, so I was lost as to where to go next. LOL.

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FATE: Return of the King. From my observation, few people know that the Bomb Balloon can attract the Bombards and let us kill the bomb faster and easier, because they gather together. Many of the low level Bomb King FATEs I have joined would fail if I fail to activate the Balloon (like getting attacked by an aggro mob which makes me have to run away to lose aggro before coming back to the Balloon), which pretty much means that no one else was doing the job. ><;;

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I also moved my lazy butt and went out to continue the main scenario quests. Damn Thancred, why would you make me run all the way to here to meet you in a rain storm?

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Then we continued the story with sister Ourcen. Ifrit (quest) was easy because Corn was the tank. XD I never liked anyone’s tanking more than his, LOL. Makes me feel spoiled as either a healer or a damage dealer.

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And I went on until I got to revisit the Waking Sands. This merchant…. hmmmp!

Alec_recent_days10So I stopped here last night before joining a Grand Company, as I had to go do my watch duty at grandma’s house. Then today I continued and got back into the Immortal Flames. ^^ Finally!

Easy Ways to Blacklist RMT

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Alright, with the outrageous amount of RMT /shout spams and /tell spams, I believe we all have this problem of the endless list of people to blacklist. It is so annoying that it gets on my nerves, and probably many other players’ nerves too. One of the reasons why it is highly annoying is that some of them had developed a strategy to make it harder for us to add them to blacklist. Yep, by shouting at high speed, making your chatlog run at the speed of Shinkansen Train.

Not only that their names are usually absurdly long, sometimes the names are made of total gibberish. More often than not, whenever I try to manually type in the name like “Adgfrtafsh Hjkjyta” to add in the blacklist, I will get it wrong at first attempt. The fast-scrolling chatlog now adds to the challenge. So I THOUGHT I was smart, as I have learned to drag my mouse cursor over their names and copy, then paste it in the blacklist box.

However, that doesn’t always work, especially against the high-speed spamming. The always moving text lines makes it almost impossible to copy the name.

I had complaint about this in-game several times, and today someone by the name of Qauj sent me a tell with a tip. Instead of trying to highlight the name, just right click on it and select “Send Tell” which will put their name directly in the typing box, which does not move or run away from me! Oh great! Thank you very much!

Then, later on, while I was cooking in Limsa Lominsa, someone else angry ranted about the RMT shout spams, and someone by the name of Wilan replied saying “right click > send Tell > change /tell with /blacklist add > add “quotation marks” around the name > profit”

Now, that is even smarter! I do not have to manually open the blacklist menu, but can directly use text command, like back in FFXI, to blacklist these ever so annoying spammers. But as a very lazy person, I tried to make this even easier, just for blacklisting RMT that send messages in /tell, by using the command /blacklist add “<r>”  Because the syntax <r> will point to the latest sender of /tell that we receive. I have also put it in a User Macro and placed the button on my Hotbar.

RMT_Blacklist

Hitting this button will bring up a prompt asking if you really wish to blacklist the person, so do not fear that you might accidentally blacklist your friend if they happens to send a tell right after the RMT and right before you use this text command.