New or Returning Players Discussion 2: SoA Homeless Veterans Edition

[Guitarman]

#1) Duoing for EXP? I tried to do it between 1-5 and the "new" 200 exp a kill for an EM quickly dropped down to something pathetic. Is that common?

#2) BLM + ??? for a duo? What is a good complementing job? Note: I only have the standard jobs until we hit 30, but don't mind leveling up something else.

#3) Gil. I'm saving beehive chips and crystals but is there anything else to make a decent chunk of change to help us with the 1-30 gear? Note: I'm down for farming and even some low-level crafting if anything's worth a damn. (If you tell me to go check FFXIAH I will humbly go do my own research.)

1. Did you guys level up when the exp dropped? em EXP should stay constant until you level up then it hits decent challenge. Make sure you hit up "fields of valor", floating white books by zonelines that give you quests to kill x of this mob and x of this mob. They give you big chunks of bonus exp after you complete them each time. Very useful for leveling quicker.

2. Warrior is your best bet to use provoke to keep monsters off your wife. Monk can work too if you get a few swings in before she casts her first spell.

3. crystal stacks on the auction house are probably your best bet. You might farm dhalmels in Tahrongi canyon, their hides are 4k each and the bones are 3k each on your server and sell very quickly. Doesn't seem like alot but it adds up fast. and save for a hume fishing rod and buy some bait for moat carp fishing. at 5k/stack you can make guaranteed income that way also.

[Grayn]

1. Did you guys level up when the exp dropped? em EXP should stay constant until you level up then it hits decent challenge. Make sure you hit up "fields of valor", floating white books by zonelines that give you quests to kill x of this mob and x of this mob. They give you big chunks of bonus exp after you complete them each time. Very useful for leveling quicker.

2. Warrior is your best bet to use provoke to keep monsters off your wife. Monk can work too if you get a few swings in before she casts her first spell.

3. crystal stacks on the auction house are probably your best bet. You might farm dhalmels in Tahrongi canyon, their hides are 4k each and the bones are 3k each on your server and sell very quickly. Doesn't seem like alot but it adds up fast. and save for a hume fishing rod and buy some bait for moat carp fishing. at 5k/stack you can make guaranteed income that way also.

Sweets.

She did level up when the exp dropped, but, she was also 2 levels ahead since I was still setting up my account when she started grinding.

She will not wait for me to hit things. Warrior it is.

Dhalmel hides and moat carps I remember.

Thanks! Looks like I'm going to change to Warrior tonight, grab an Axe, and get to whacking on stuff til it dies.

[Guitarman]

Ok the exp makes sense then. The mobs weren't EM to her anymore. Your exp is decided upon the level the monster is to the highest member of the group, that would be why.

[Grayn]

Ok the exp makes sense then. The mobs weren't EM to her anymore. Your exp is decided upon the level the monster is to the highest member of the group, that would be why.

True, but when Easy Prey monsters were giving her 130 exp solo they gave me 39 exp in party, with her 1 level, and dinging to 2 levels above me. The math just didn't make sense in my head but I'm burnt after work and was doing all this right before bed so forget it. I bet it was user error.

[nervous]

Sweets.

She did level up when the exp dropped, but, she was also 2 levels ahead since I was still setting up my account when she started grinding.

She will not wait for me to hit things. Warrior it is.

Dhalmel hides and moat carps I remember.

Thanks! Looks like I'm going to change to Warrior tonight, grab an Axe, and get to whacking on stuff til it dies.

You may have meant to say Greataxe, but in case you didn't, I'd strongly suggest using a Greataxe on WAR, as opposed to an axe.

Are you aware of level sync? If a level gap is giving you problems, you are able to syncronize your level to that of any other member in the party.

[Taruina]

He used the example of a level 1 job. Level Sync only works on level 10+.

[Grayn]

So, after a week of being back there's a few things that I noticed.

• 1-10 no level sync. Not a big deal but something that I didn't know until I tried it.
• Starter gil was rough. Selling stacks of crystals from the starter area was the best. Beehive Chips and the like just don't drop enough to make more money than pure crystals.
• At level 10 while seeking in Konschtat Highlands I got an invite to an alliance leveling in Gusgen. 10-35 there was ridiculously fast and easy. Just needed a weapon and I went at it.
• Too many stacks of cabbages to get my reputation up! Wish I could trade mass amounts at once but of course SE never made that simpler. Pfft.
• Although someone recommended Great Axe, I had no problems with an Axe and Shield. With the Auto-Regen effect from the collector's edition gear, plus the lower damage, dragging out the fights worked out well. I just continuously kill without resting. Plus, I have axe skill for BST when I go to solo with that.
• NO idea what to model myself after since I don't see anyone that's 99 playing around me. Not sure what looks like fun yet, just remembering charming being interesting.

[Grayn]

So, after a week of being back there's a few things that I noticed.

• 1-10 no level sync. Not a big deal but something that I didn't know until I tried it.
• Starter gil was rough. Selling stacks of crystals from the starter area was the best. Beehive Chips and the like just don't drop enough to make more money than pure crystals.
• At level 10 while seeking in Konschtat Highlands I got an invite to an alliance leveling in Gusgen. 10-35 there was ridiculously fast and easy. Just needed a weapon and I went at it.
• Too many stacks of cabbages to get my reputation up! Wish I could trade mass amounts at once but of course SE never made that simpler. Pfft.
• Although someone recommended Great Axe, I had no problems with an Axe and Shield. With the Auto-Regen effect from the collector's edition gear, plus the lower damage, dragging out the fights worked out well. I just continuously kill without resting. Plus, I have axe skill for BST when I go to solo with that.
• NO idea what to model myself after since I don't see anyone that's 99 playing around me. Not sure what looks like fun yet, just remembering charming being interesting.

Continued:

• Playing as a caster in those Gusgen groups my magics were not even close to keeping up with the levels making me wonder if there's even a point to it since I'll have to play catch-up with combat & magic skills anyway!
• Doing supplies quests for the ability to teleport on the cheap back AND forth was awesome! COMPLETELY forgotten about that neat deal.
• Finding a decent linkshell that is accepting of ungeared players hasn't been as easy as I'd hoped. I'm reading up on the topics of the future (Abyssea, etc.) but still looked down on by most for not being up to par, regardless of just returning or not.

[Plow]

k so a few random questions about bayld/reive and shit:

I could use quite a bit of the bayld gear, is reive spam the way to go for farming it?

The reive weapons, are the reive bonuses additive? like is the greatsword some 288 dmg during reive?

Assuming reive is worth the time, what's the best general approach for it?

[Damane]

k so a few random questions about bayld/reive and shit:

I could use quite a bit of the bayld gear, is reive spam the way to go for farming it?

The reive weapons, are the reive bonuses additive? like is the greatsword some 288 dmg during reive?

Assuming reive is worth the time, what's the best general approach for it?

1. skirmish cirdas/rala is really easy bayld and quick to farm if you make a PT for it
2. no idea never looked at those weapons
3. pet jobs, especially PUP are killer for soloing lair reives or soloing generally in reives. however you can do ceizak reives I think on basicly any job you want.

[Gwynplaine]

It depends on your jobs you like to play, some jobs do great on Reives some don't do so well. Personally I hate doing reives and avoid them until I force myself to try and get some of the capes.

If you are someone who doesn't mind a little bit of tedious walking the Courier's coalition delivery supplies quests are the way to go. Some people dislike the boredom of walking through zones so if that's not for you then there's other stuff. But for me I don't mind, I just listen to a podcast and throw on movement gear/fleet wind/bolters roll. Spam them enough and when you reach the higher ranks Couriers offers the most Bayld per tag for any assignment. 6k and at the highest rank 12k.

Another alternative to Reives is to do Skirmish. You can choose the bayld option at a Noetic Ascencion to get an instant 3k/5k/6k/ or more depending on the area and Statue pieces used. People buy the cheaper ones and then go into Skirmish specifically just to spam it for Bayld. You can just run in pick the Bayld reward at a noetic ascension then leave, and repeat with your party.

[Plow]

I have a dual box so reives are pretty easy regardless of job, I'm able to clear morimar colo reaves with drk+rdm with the 200k ah greatsword, and just grabbed the fists so I'm sure it'll be even easier with monk.

I've also seen people on SMN just smashing the walls with titan, or on blm spamming stone tearing them up without even bothering with the mobs... I have options to do that stuff, too, wondering if that's a more efficient approach. I noticed I don't appear to get jack shit for bayld until I clear out enough to actually get to the walls with melee jobs.

[bungiefan]

So I had 14 months away involuntarily. I don't have Adoulin yet, due to having to track down a JP code to register it. Does this Monstrosity thing require it? SHould I still try to get +2 Abyssea gear?

[Warusha]

I would highly recommend getting the new expansion pack and earning gear that can be bought with bayld.

[Psion]

My question on returning, I was thinking of starting a new character after a couple years, and was wondering about a couple things:

1. I've read up on the patch notes, but wording and reality are often two different things. Are there any major game changing things I've missed in those two years? (for instance, I played pup before i left, is there any major job changes to it?)

2. Monstrosity. Is it a thing where you can actually use your monster in a party setting, nms, instances? or is it solo only? Do other players get to fight you? lol

3. Having been an ffxi veteran for several years, I was thinking of purposely making things harder for myself as a challenge, and my challange I was thinking was: pick one of 6 starter jobs at random, level it to 99, no subjob. Then, pick any of 22 jobs at random and repeat. Obviously, field of valor would help with this, but I would probably be solo for the most part since I'd rather not make parties suffer my gimpness unless they don't mind for whatever reason, lol. Is there any new gears, ways to gain exp solo, etc that would help me in this endevor? Perhaps major roadblocks I'd have to deal with? (obviously I wouldn't be getting much party experiences, heh.) On the bright note, I guess maat would be a peice of cake for me, having so much experience without a subjob anyways. XD I'm mainly doing this as a way to spice up the game and hopefully get more insight into jobs I generally don't play.

[Lyramion]

1. Basics havent been changed much. For nuking a new stat called "magic damage+" on high level gear makes nuking with low tier nukes damaging and very cost efficient. The biggest change is the gear part where we now have "itemlevel" gear in adoulin with levels above 99 making old content into a yawnfest.

2. Atm monstrosity is solo only and only for certain Areas. Party play might get added soon(tm)

3. In adoulin you can do Coalition Asignments for your daily tags. These give good EXP and many can be done without fighting. Alternatively you can complete it with a high level job and turn it in with a low level one. Field of valor now give continuously increasing buffs and exp upon completing them as long as you don't zone out. (logging out doesnt count!) So chaining some EP mobs endlessly is most likely the fastest way to solo your way up.

[Psion]

1. Basics havent been changed much. For nuking a new stat called "magic damage+" on high level gear makes nuking with low tier nukes damaging and very cost efficient. The biggest change is the gear part where we now have "itemlevel" gear in adoulin with levels above 99 making old content into a yawnfest.

2. Atm monstrosity is solo only and only for certain Areas. Party play might get added soon(tm)

3. In adoulin you can do Coalition Asignments for your daily tags. These give good EXP and many can be done without fighting. Alternatively you can complete it with a high level job and turn it in with a low level one. Field of valor now give continuously increasing buffs and exp upon completing them as long as you don't zone out. (logging out doesnt count!) So chaining some EP mobs endlessly is most likely the fastest way to solo your way up.

Go figure, the random number generator picked black mage, a job i haven't played since... 2004? or something. <_<; I have a little experience with how magic worked a couple years ago, thanks to excessive use of spiritreaver, but I know there's been a lot of magic changes. First one i noticed was my stone spell only cost 4 mp, lol. Does this mean that black mages tend to use their lower level spells more even at low levels, or is it generally still "use your highest powered nuke that wont get resisted" and spam it?

[AlexRuzhyo]

Alright. I quit between Adoulin Launch and its first patch, which added Delve. What did I miss?

I've WAR, DRK, PLD, RUN, PUP, BLM, and SCH. Still using Magian Weapons, AF3, and Bayld Gear. I plan on using DRK, maybe RUN, to get into Delve or whatever.

What content is still relevant? Am i too gimp for Delve?

I need job-specific advice on...

RUN: Bought Sebaak Nagan. I see the AF is out and it looks pretty sick. How hard are the NMs for the quests? What gear should I be aware of? What are good merits? Do they have a define "role" now?

DRK: Bought Sebaak Nagan. Please tell me DRK's Resolution is still worth a shit. What gear should I be aware of?

PUP: There doesn't seem to be a decent H2H weapon on the AH? It's a shame because Ido most of my solo stuff with PUP. I'm still using DMG: 35 AH H2H, what would my next step be? Did they add anymore attachments or AI Adjustments?

[Damane]

Alright. I quit between Adoulin Launch and its first patch, which added Delve. What did I miss?

I've WAR, DRK, PLD, RUN, PUP, BLM, and SCH. Still using Magian Weapons, AF3, and Bayld Gear. I plan on using DRK, maybe RUN, to get into Delve or whatever.

What content is still relevant? Am i too gimp for Delve?

I need job-specific advice on...

RUN: Bought Sebaak Nagan. I see the AF is out and it looks pretty sick. How hard are the NMs for the quests? What gear should I be aware of? What are good merits? Do they have a define "role" now?

DRK: Bought Sebaak Nagan. Please tell me DRK's Resolution is still worth a shit. What gear should I be aware of?

PUP: There doesn't seem to be a decent H2H weapon on the AH? It's a shame because Ido most of my solo stuff with PUP. I'm still using DMG: 35 AH H2H, what would my next step be? Did they add anymore attachments or AI Adjustments?

magian weapons are useless, AF3 is mostly useless (ecxept if you want to cap haste or want some +DA or +TA or it enhances some kind of ability). Bayld gear is okeish compared to delve gear. Delve and skirmish 2.0 are/were relevant but I think people are capping out on both. if you have/had excellent gear pre delve/adoulin launch you shouldnt have problems doing very good in delve, if not go do some skirmish 2.0 or try to replace some gear with bayld.

RUN: is pritty much uselees in delve and have so far no defined role (well SE wants them to be a magical tank but tanks dont work atm in FFXI, besides there is aegis ofr that)

DRK: resolution is still worth it

PUP: no idea


as for your gear question: skirmish 2.0 and delve gear + some wildskeeper stuff mixed in with some bayld gear or so

[Hitou]

Alright. I quit between Adoulin Launch and its first patch, which added Delve. What did I miss?

I've WAR, DRK, PLD, RUN, PUP, BLM, and SCH. Still using Magian Weapons, AF3, and Bayld Gear. I plan on using DRK, maybe RUN, to get into Delve or whatever.

What content is still relevant? Am i too gimp for Delve?

I need job-specific advice on...

RUN: Bought Sebaak Nagan. I see the AF is out and it looks pretty sick. How hard are the NMs for the quests? What gear should I be aware of? What are good merits? Do they have a define "role" now?

DRK: Bought Sebaak Nagan. Please tell me DRK's Resolution is still worth a shit. What gear should I be aware of?

PUP: There doesn't seem to be a decent H2H weapon on the AH? It's a shame because Ido most of my solo stuff with PUP. I'm still using DMG: 35 AH H2H, what would my next step be? Did they add anymore attachments or AI Adjustments?

Nothing new for pup puppet-wise besides 30k plasm animator called Alternator that makes your puppet a demigod compared to pre-adoulin. There's a bayld animator as well that isn't as good but will hold you over till you can get Delve NM wins and plasm. Can grab bayld h2h as well, they're not great but better than the AH h2h. Craggy Bluff in peacekeepers sells the bayld weapons/ammo.