New or Returning Players Discussion 2: SoA Homeless Veterans Edition

[KetSC]

I did Azdaja as SMN/RDM (had TH+1 belt though). Drop rate even with just TH1 was 75% of the time I got 2 horns, 25% of the time 1 horn. I used /RDM to build Azure, Sneak is also helpful to avoid skeleton aggro, and extra Fast Cast is nice to have too.

What I did was build Azure to 128, Amber to max (the chest), kept Ruby 0. Used all offensive atmas (Apocalypse, Razed Ruins, and the last one was the one that increased Crit Rate further, forgot the name but it also gives AGI too). You can use any atmas but at least make sure you have Razed Ruin equipped (this will greatly boost Predator Claw damage) and with at least Razed Ruin Atma, you should be able to get Azdaja down with one astral conduit.

Used Garuda and just used Astral Conduit Predator Claw until it went down (one Astral Conduit should be able to take it down). You also randomly get Revitalizers. This was back when I had only 113 gear (mostly just skirmish) and a few 109 AF pieces (AF109 boots, AF109 head, and AF109 body for BP damage). Even with Sparks gear, you can easily farm this.

You can easily get blue chests that refresh all your cooldowns, HP, MP (so you can refresh Astral Conduit) even with Azure at only 128 (don't build Azure too high though, 128 should be enough to keep you up on timers and refresh while giving you lots of gold chests). If you do start running out of time due to unlucky streaks, of course feel free to build Azure in emergency cases.

Of course even without Astral Conduit, it would only take 3-4 mins or so to take down Azdaja (be careful of getting hit by AoE though, the AoE is huge).

I'd farm for gold chests and the NM (after it respawns) in between pops. Sometimes the Azdaja would release a gold chest with the key item in it (which meant 2 pops in a row). I got 75 horns in just under 8 or so hours of farming.

I'd say SMN is one of the best NM farming jobs for Abyssea (they can easily build Azure and Amber lights; avatars are really strong with Atmas, and being able to refresh Astral Conduit at almost any time means every NM goes down in 30 seconds or less; finally against NMs or mobs that spam death or some move that wipes out pets easily, SMN can easily just resummon over and over without too much worry). That and having your avatar auto-attack anything that aggros is really convenient.

If you don't have Garland of Bliss, use a Dagger and use Aeolian Edge (use Atmas that increase magic attack bonus, wind damage if you are using Aeolian Edge, etc) to build Amber. Once you have lights built up, switch to at least Razed Ruins (crit percent + crit damage), and any two atma you want (I used another atma that increased crit percent and used atma of apoc for triple attack rate).

Also for MP, you generally can easily get it back with Spirit Taker or just blue chests, so you don't really need to equip any MP refreshing Atmas (even if you don't have avatar perp cost gear).

[dasva]

Which are the best smn atma? I really forgot how it worked. I remember I had every atma possible except for like.. Dyna-Tav or something.

Fairly dependent on which avatar you plan on using and which bps. For flaming crush which from what I've seen seems to do the most on preilvl stuff I'd guess the 2 fire affinity atmas and maybe one of the MAB ones. For extra fun assuming it can survive you can do Shattersoul/Retribution -> Flaming Crush -> Flaming Crush for 3 step self light. Alternatively you could I suppose just use melee ones and use mostly melee bps and taking it down in a more controlled manner

[Not Kuno]

Even with Sparks gear, you can easily farm this.

Holy shit this is the best since I forgot a lot of FFXI over the years. My only question is: A lot of the sparks stuff looks like shit for SMN. I got the mage gear for blm (which seems useless for smn outside of refresh) and there's just the staff (which only has avatar MAB) and some ranged item that im not sure what it does.

Are there any other easy to get smn stuff that can help? Maybe +physical attack or something since my merits mostly went into that?

[Ramzii]

You could use sparks (and do SKCNMs) for chapter 1-5s to upgrade artifact/relic/empyrean to 109. I'm fairly certain SMN uses quite a bit of it

[KetSC]

some ranged item that im not sure what it does.

That's probably Eminent Sachet you are talking about and yes make sure to get that and equip it. It raises your avatar's level from 99 (default if you don't have any Satchet equipped) to 115 (also reduces BP delay time too).

Also yes, a lot of Artifact/Relic/Empyrean are useful for SMN. Artifact are the cheapest to upgrade. For starting out, the AF109 head, AF109 body, and AF109 feet are what I recommend. Here are the required items to upgrade them.. The mats for Relic 109+ and Empyrean 109+ are a bit more expensive but if you have them lying around, you can also upgrade them too (check the wiki to check the stats and cost on all the armors). Also if you don't get the option to upgrade relic, talk to Sagheera in Port Jeuno and make sure you click on "ask about artifact reforge" and "ask about relic reforge" which should let you upgrade them after selecting those options (if they didn't appear before). Monisette will have the options (both NPCs are in Port Jeuno).

Of course if you have old SMN gear lying around, you can macro them or even full time some as long as you aren't being attacked (old SMN gear still is useful if you can't upgrade it to 109/119 yet).

As for the sparks (Wayfarer set) gear, it's not a bad set to use on SMN for general stuff (notably the magic evasion and stat boosts help a lot). You definitely want at least Eminent Sachet (115 ammo item for SMN that is bought with sparks) for your SMN (boosts Avatar level to 115). And Wayfarer set and weapons aren't bad to use until you get better items, if only for the huge stat boosts you get on item level gear (or if you have any old SMN gear is fine too).

[Not Kuno]

Also yes, a lot of Artifact/Relic/Empyrean are useful for SMN. Artifact are the cheapest to upgrade. For starting out, the AF109 head, AF109 body, and AF109 feet are what I recommend. Here are the required items to upgrade them..

So only those AF1 pieces are good? Is the upgraded AF2 or Abyssea armor not worth upgrading?

[Hitou]

Holy shit this is the best since I forgot a lot of FFXI over the years. My only question is: A lot of the sparks stuff looks like shit for SMN. I got the mage gear for blm (which seems useless for smn outside of refresh) and there's just the staff (which only has avatar MAB) and some ranged item that im not sure what it does.

Are there any other easy to get smn stuff that can help? Maybe +physical attack or something since my merits mostly went into that?

If you have any melee jobs anything /dnc can solo him easily. Just use violent flourish to stun aga spells and have holy waters handy if you get endoomed as previously mentioned. For SMN you're best off with empyrean/relic 90 if you don't have any 109-119 af/relic/empyrean gear, sparks is fine for MP or nuking but is useless for perpetuation and BP. get sparks staff and sparks smn ammo and you'll do a ton more BP damage than you would with 99 gear. Ducal guard Atma is useful to keep the avatar alive but it will likely only die to endoom anyway. otherwise go for anything with MAB + and probably Minikin Monstrosity for 10 tic refresh. Razed ruins is useful too if you want to go physical BP route.

[KetSC]

So only those AF1 pieces are good? Is the upgraded AF2 or Abyssea armor not worth upgrading?

AF109 head, body, and feet are the all around (good enough to full time in, except body can be switched for a refresh piece / avatar -perp piece when idle) starter SMN gear.

Convoker's Horn has refresh 2, high blood pact delay reduction, SMN skill +15. Body has +11% Blood Pact damage and high blood pact delay reduction. Boots have avatar perp cost and +6% blood pact damage.

Overall, those are three really good starter SMN gears you can try to get. I'd go for Body first if you are just using SMN for Abyssea (as you can easily get MP back from blue chests or temp items or spirit taker), then feet, then horn.

For Relic 109, the gloves are fairly good too for a melee set (pet haste, blood pact reduction, and smn skill in one item). The relic body is also not a bad alternative to artifact but only after you capped blood pact delay (there are two seperate caps to blood pact, "Blood Pact Delay" and "Blood Pact Delay II", both have a max of -15 second reductions).

For the Astral Conduit method I mention above (in abyssea) I'd recommend AF109 body > AF109 feet > AF109 head > Relic 109 hands. Those three AF109 pieces and the Relic 109 Gloves are good starting items to try to get for SMN.

Also if you have lots of seals (can convert them to sacred seals), I'd suggest doing Macro Orb battles to get the rem chapters instead of buying them with sparks (which may take longer). It's probably best to try to get 1-2 people to help (TBH I haven't tried doing any of them solo, you can try soloing very easy and easy mode with trusts and still get decent amount of chapters).

Here are the links of the stats of 109 SMN gear:
109 Artifact set.
109 Relic set.
109 Empyrean set.

The empyrean set requires farming abyssea NM bosses items to upgrade (artifact and relic mats can be bought from AH), so I don't think you should focus on them until you get some AF109 or Relic 109 pieces. Again I recommend AF109 body > AF109 feet > AF109 head > Relic 109 hands as those are probably the best all purpose SMN gear you can get when starting out.

[Lolwutt]

The SMN guide on ffxiah has impeccable gearsets:
http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/46...ners-guide-v2/

Some of these may be difficult to obtain(high-tier mission battlefields and unity will require grouping and you'll be expected to be a bit more geared/potential job restrictions), but all of the AF/emp/alluvion skirmish(helios) gear should be reasonably easy to get, even if the AF stays 109 for a while. They list the augments that are preferred, but keep in mind the pieces are very easy to get and having even minimal augments will make them competitive.

[Vil]

This has kind of bugged me when I've done coalition ops or whatever they're called and/or just unlocking RoEs. What determines the recasts on colonization and lair reives? Lairs seem to repop really fast (by comparison), but what would it take for colonization ones to repop quickly? Nobody doing them ever? I really don't follow how the whole colonization of each zone works and never pay attention because they're always all ~80%.

[Josiahkf]

Lairs used to be a 15 min spawn and colonizations 1 hour, wildskeeper reives 2 hours. How often they are killed does not change respawns.

[dasva]

Different zones have different respawn rates as well. or at least did. Certain sets are at 5 minutes for lair for example

[Draylo]

Draylo, teach me your blue mage ways. I just unlocked it yesterday.

Pretty much one of the best jobs in the game atm, so enjoy it Lots of good info on ffxiah though with the guide.

[Josiahkf]

Different zones have different respawn rates as well. or at least did. Certain sets are at 5 minutes for lair for example

It would make sense if they tried to make the outside zones colonizations respawns faster than gates zones, purely for higher demand etc.

[AidenCarby]

Pretty much one of the best jobs in the game atm, so enjoy it Lots of good info on ffxiah though with the guide.

Farming spells is gonna fucking suck though. Should I just get what I can while getting to 99 and then worry about hardcore farming after?

[Draylo]

Yeah, get the important ones first. Mostly doing different types of content you'll slowly get a lot of the spells too from all mob types you fight.

[Vil]

Ouch @ 1 hr. I guess that's nice when I don't want to deal with that crap, but trying to do assignments in Morimar (1 of each) and having to scour the whole zone to find a single colonization one is a pain in the ass when the lairs keep repopping.

[AidenCarby]

What I find works @ Vil is to run to a section and wide scan to find the branches.

[AidenCarby]

Just finished Ark Angels mission, am I reading this right on wiki; just finishing the mission opens DM2 and I don't have to actually do DM1?

[crux]

To unlock DM II you need to clear all five AA II fights on normal or higher difficulty.