New or Returning Players Discussion 2: SoA Homeless Veterans Edition

[Martinius]

I quit a while after Abyssea was released, but it was a pretty long time ago. How long would it take, approximately, for me to get to Abyssea end-game content to the current state of end-game? Will I be completely out of the loop for a while?

Depends on your job. Make friends with a NIN, a WAR, a WHM and a BLM. The NIN and WAR can cover all red procs for harder bosses' popsets, and the NIN and BLM can cover most (throw in a BLU for the last of the grellow procs and a MNK for the blue procs if you can) of the procs that determine the amount of droprates for your AF3 upgrades. Unless you're going for an empy weapon, you'll be out of Abyssea in a week or two, depending on how many jobs you need to gear. The next natural progression is Voidwatch, which is all 1-10% drop rates (mostly in the 1-3% range for the shit that really matters), so will be ongoing, but as you put pieces together (plus some really nice gear from Colonization Reives that's stupidly easy to get) you'll be able to tackle most things competently.

Edit having seen your next post:

Get your VW wins (Each city has a branch. Completing all three T4 boss wins gives you Jeuno access (as long as you have a voidstone on you, you can participate in any VW battle except Provenance, but access to each tier and branch gives you warps and I think KIs), which has 6 tiers. Zilart, Tavnazia and ToAU all have their own branches as well, independent of the cities), then depending on job, spend a lot of time on Pil, Akvan, Kaggen and the Jeuno T6s. By the time you get a feel for that, ask some of your more talented friends to get you through Neo Nyzul and Neo Salvage. Really, the only thing you'll struggle finding a place doing is Legion.

[Deceived]

Awesome, really appreciate your answer. So are people still spamming VWs? Or has a majority of the community gotten to Legion spamming?

[Martinius]

Awesome, really appreciate your answer. So are people still spamming VWs? Or has a majority of the community gotten to Legion spamming?

It really depends on your server. On Shiva, VW shouts during NA and sometimes EU primetime are plentiful but can take time to build (you can do any of the cities 1-4 w/ 10-12 people, but for stuff like Bismark, Morta, Jeuno T6s, Pil/Akvan/Kaggen (those three are a little rarer these days just because they were SO spammed 7-8 months ago) you really do need 15-18 people, so if a dude's starting a shout, it can take some time (bear this in mind if you decide to be proactive and start your own shouts).

I have yet to see a Legion shout that's not in Japanese.

My biggest piece of advice, if you're linkshell-less, is find a group of 8-10 active people with multiple jobs whose company you enjoy. My linkshell (an NA/EU hybrid) averages 14-15 people per event (we normally hit 18 on Sundays) with tremendous job diversity, so we all gather in Ru'Lude 30 minutes before event start and everyone randoms. Winning random picks the VW mob and we kill it 12 times unless someone's farmed an Arch-Limbus pop or something. We shout to fill the remaining spots, and because of our job diversity, we're normally adding whatever and not having to shout for a critical job, because we know we have a talented tank and support and DDs, and just can add whatever (we even took a RUN on a Bismark run last week for shits and giggles) to speed up the runs a bit. Once you win your random, you don't /random again until everyone's gone, and then we start the list all over again. Works really well for us. But seriously, take a less experienced LS with folks you get on well with than a super-talented, kill-everything-in-our-sleep group of assholes. Game should be fun, y'know?

On a smaller level, NeoNyzul and Meeble Burrows only need 6, NeoSalvage can be done with 3.

[Carraway]

I resubbed on March 20th, having quit at level 85 cap with no completed AF3+2 and 3 Abyssea zone boss kills, and with a lot of help from a small group of friends, I've gotten a lot done over the past month. I've also joined a lot of shouts, both NA and JP. Playing regularly, I got carried through Shinryu by March 25th, finished full WAR AF3+2 by April 5th, and finished my first Nyzul piece on April 23rd after running with a static off-and-on for a week. I've climbed the three cities for VW, as well as Tav through Bismarck and Jeuno through T3. So just to reiterate, if you have a small group of friends, the vast majority of content is available to you (and most of it is pretty fun). It's easy to get sick of Abyssea if you're in there every night for weeks, but it's worth it. Adoulin seems to be moving back towards larger-scale content for the harder-core linkshells with Delves/Naakuals, but the entry-level stuff is something you can do on your own time or with one party (Skirmish).

[Jubotski]

I just started the WotG missions and had a quick question. I entered the rolan field maw and also exited through there so it sent me to the crawlers nest. I went there and now I have to go to windy. Am I understanding this correctly that I have to STAY in the past while traveling to windy? Meaning I can't tele it Choco or airship there and I'll have to walk now? If so that bites....ha

[Intense]

I resubbed on March 20th, having quit at level 85 cap with no completed AF3+2 and 3 Abyssea zone boss kills, and with a lot of help from a small group of friends, I've gotten a lot done over the past month. I've also joined a lot of shouts, both NA and JP. Playing regularly, I got carried through Shinryu by March 25th, finished full WAR AF3+2 by April 5th, and finished my first Nyzul piece on April 23rd after running with a static off-and-on for a week. I've climbed the three cities for VW, as well as Tav through Bismarck and Jeuno through T3. So just to reiterate, if you have a small group of friends, the vast majority of content is available to you (and most of it is pretty fun). It's easy to get sick of Abyssea if you're in there every night for weeks, but it's worth it. Adoulin seems to be moving back towards larger-scale content for the harder-core linkshells with Delves/Naakuals, but the entry-level stuff is something you can do on your own time or with one party (Skirmish).

I'm jealous at all you've been able to accomplish! This game was much more manageable for me when I was single. After an hour or so of being on, I can feel the eyes burning through the back of my head lol. ;-(

[Kurstone]

I just started the WotG missions and had a quick question. I entered the rolan field maw and also exited through there so it sent me to the crawlers nest. I went there and now I have to go to windy. Am I understanding this correctly that I have to STAY in the past while traveling to windy? Meaning I can't tele it Choco or airship there and I'll have to walk now? If so that bites....ha

Yeah, if I understood correctly. You can only unlock maws from the past>present. It gets easy to travel later on with campaign warps, teles and nation staffs.

[bungiefan]

I just started the WotG missions and had a quick question. I entered the rolan field maw and also exited through there so it sent me to the crawlers nest. I went there and now I have to go to windy. Am I understanding this correctly that I have to STAY in the past while traveling to windy? Meaning I can't tele it Choco or airship there and I'll have to walk now? If so that bites....ha

Maws have to be unlocked by passing through them from the past to the present, so you have to walk to the maw manually the first time in the past to be able to use it from the present. Sneak/Invis will help you greatly, or your Destrier Beret on a level 30- job, since you won't lose EXP. Your first priority should be to head straight toward the nation of your choice in the past so you can unlock Campaign NPC warps, because then you can quicken travel back to zones that lead to ones you still need to unolock. Also, just entering a zone unlocks the Campaign warp for it, so if you die and homepoint back to the past nation, you can jump ahead a little bit in the zone. It makes the Glacier area a lot less annoying to get to, and Xarcabard if you are heading to the castle for Fortalice skillups.

There are no airships in the past that you have access to ride (Jeuno is shut to adventurers), and chocobos are only found in the main cities to be able to rent one.

[Eldelphia]

With care you can run a mule all the way from Jeuno area mules to a city in the past. Doesn't have to be the same as your present home town and I found Bastok [s] easy to get to. Just don't forget to pick up your card KI. Did this sub 30

[Farleen]

Well, after several years out of commission..I wanted to get back into this again. Just I really don't know where to go or anyone to talk to. ^^; So if anyone happens to be on Lakshmi..Hell, I can even do a Server jump if necessary, I would sincerely appreciate any help and direction.

[Thalandor46]

So I've unlinked my lost token, purchased Seekers, and logged back in. Woohoo! Things have been pretty alright so far, save for one glaring issue. I built a new PC last fall, with an i5-3570K and a GTX 670. And it seems every time I level, the Level Up effect crashes my display drivers and the game. Pretty lame while I'm trying to level GEO and RUN. I thought it might have been Windower 4 at first, but I've confirmed that it also happens in vanilla. I checked, definitely have the latest nVidia drivers. Is this by chance a known issue, with perhaps a known solution?

[Buffy]

That's a new one to me. You could try checking the "graphic stabilization" box in the config before you log in. I've had some friends have that fix really weird stuff.

[Jubotski]

Just don't forget to pick up your card KI

.

Card KI? Not sure what this is?

[Cairthenn]

https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/The_Fighting_Fourth https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Steamed_Rams https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Snake_on_the_Plains

[Thalandor46]

That's a new one to me. You could try checking the "graphic stabilization" box in the config before you log in. I've had some friends have that fix really weird stuff.

Wow, I managed to completely overlook that one. But sure enough, it did the trick! TYVM!

[gaogaostegosaurus]

Sorry, this is in continuation to my earlier question about NIN, but what exactly caused it to fall so far in the DPS standings? I'm assuming that the people I played with during mid TOAU (when I quit) weren't terrible, but I remember (perhaps incorrectly lol) being not terribly behind the newly buffed SAMs with decent gear. Did job abilities or our knowledge of how to play jobs (dramatically?) change since then? Or was it something else that happened as the level cap went to 99?

Just trying to catch myself up on mechanics... And making sure there isn't some incredibly obvious DD thing I'm not aware of lol

[Kohan]

Superior new weapons and WS for other jobs are what happened. That's a summary, but it is what it boils down to. You can hunt down the specifics if you want, but the surface knowledge should tell you that NIN isn't worth prioritizing.

[remdynex]

Been back for about a month or two from a two year break.

Been doing VW city clears and i get that the weapon skill weakness is sort of like Abby but what does it mean with people say H2H - 4 instead of just H2H, i never get any number or other suggestions when i get the message about the monsters weakness.

From looking at BG wiki VW ws weakness chart, i thought maybe it's the 5th ws in the list or the 5th column. So far i have just been lucky in getting it on my third or fourth ws i try.

[Rocl]

When people say something like "Fire BLM 3" or "Fire BLM 1" or "Fire BLM 5" it's a way of differentiating the levels of weakness. Apparently the JP client says something like:

The fiend appears weak to hand-to-hand weapon skills!
The fiend appears weak to hand-to-hand weapon skills!!!
The fiend appears weak to hand-to-hand weapon skills!!!!!

For the English equivalents, it's "appears vulnerable to," "highly vulnerable to," and "extremely vulnerable to."

V = 1; HV = 3; EV(EX) = 5.

Different servers/different pick up groups/different linkshells tend to use different lingo. All the pick ups I did on Bahamut did 1/3/5, and luckily enough playing on the English client I could make out wtf v/hv/ev meant on Valefor

[remdynex]

Thanks Rocl.

Makes a ton more sense now.