New or Returning Players Discussion 2: SoA Homeless Veterans Edition

[Mortilox]

Thanks damane.

What's the best way to level up a character nowadays?

[Kyreth]

Thanks damane.

What's the best way to level up a character nowadays?

Depends. Right now, Abyssea in large groups + Records quests, Pages + Records quests when soloing- since it's double exp at the moment outside Abyssea. You can sit there with the "gather crystals" and "kill 10 monsters" repeating in Bost. Oubliette while doing bloodsuckers down there and solo at a nice clip from 75 onwards, really.

[Missnasty]

dont bother with kannagi, just unlock empyrean WSs via a quest in WoE by turning in a 99 Walk of Echoes weapon.

Sorry for the newbness but is there an "easier" route for making a 99 Walk of Echoes weapon now?

[Psion]

Sorry for the newbness but is there an "easier" route for making a 99 Walk of Echoes weapon now?

There is actually. Grab a -1 of your weapon in the splintery chest, and do the trial for it. unlike the old paths with a billion NM kills, this one starts at the old 30 coins, 100 die 100 residue to hit 99. If you prefer a cheaper though longer route, you can do the old nm hunt trials to turn that cost down to 15/50/50. Keep in mind most of the old nms for the trials are now much quicker repops, but you still gotta deal with the voidwalker nm silliness at the end.

[Siphias]

Hello. I'm a returning player from Lakshmi that quit back in 2011 after transferring there to play with a "friend" of mine who promptly quit a month later and left me high and dry. I was originally on the Bahamut server with the name Catastrophe.

What should I do first?

Edit: Finally got in after updating and I am so lost. I have a bunch of gear I'm sure is outdated now and a job at 95 I don't even remember leveling. I figure I might as well level BST up so I can solo stuff for other jobs fairly easily then take up my 93 DRG. What sort of gear should I be looking at getting ast a 95 BST with nothing but Cruor gear and a few augmented Trial weapons?

[silentsteel]

Actually, one of the best things you can do is get to 99 first, then worry about getting equipment. With this last update the release Records of Eminence that can easily give iLvl117 equipment. Search for it if you don't know about it yet. Look in your quests tab in your main menu, start the first one, and it explains rather well where RoE goes from there.

[Flanteus]

Home point travel + RoE(exp & weapons) + trust(healbot & party feel!) + increase movement speed = best time to come back/leveling mules without dying out of boredom...windy is the best place to start a new char now.

oh also windower mini map, best shit ever.

[Mortilox]

windy is the best place to start a new char now.

Why's windy the best?

[Mortilox]

Depends. Right now, Abyssea in large groups + Records quests, Pages + Records quests when soloing- since it's double exp at the moment outside Abyssea. You can sit there with the "gather crystals" and "kill 10 monsters" repeating in Bost. Oubliette while doing bloodsuckers down there and solo at a nice clip from 75 onwards, really.

Is there a way to increase the XP from Records? Bost. Oubliette kill 10 mobs only rewards 100 XP, which is kinda sad considering valkurm dunes gives 550.

[Flanteus]

Why's windy the best?

just initially cuz Kupipi (healbot) is from there, but if your char already have access to other cities then it doesn't matter

[Terravcota]

No idea where to put this... I've been noticing my WHM mule is sometimes getting less exp than my main and other mule while exping all in the same party. What would cause this? SoA kills, all characters 99, all w/ Ionis. Does coalition rank affect bonuses from Ionis? He's hella far behind on tag usage, only real difference I can think of.

[fingleburt]

Is your main using an ilvl weapon? Because that will do it.

[matix]

No idea where to put this... I've been noticing my WHM mule is sometimes getting less exp than my main and other mule while exping all in the same party. What would cause this? SoA kills, all characters 99, all w/ Ionis. Does coalition rank affect bonuses from Ionis? He's hella far behind on tag usage, only real difference I can think of.

Is your main completing lots of the 500+dmg roe's?(or other ones) I was noticing in my sessions farming merits that my main was getting to 30 faster than my mule when they started at the same amount, then I realized its cause he was cranking through RoE's while the mule was just tossing cures and singing. Might not be the case for you but I thought I would mention it.

[Terravcota]

So jobs are Drachenfly (WHM Mule), Shaitaan (MNK Mule, Oats), Terravcota (BRD, my main). So Shai has an iLevel weapon, but he's getting the same EXP as Terra, who isn't wearing an iLevel weapon (unless I get caught mid-song w/ my Carn but I tend to Nitro songs and auto follow with her so I only do shit every ~10 min). Fly cures in iLvl gear but does not idle in any. I'm not talking about getting to 30 merits faster (though, that's totally true!) but actual exp different on mobs. And it's NOT every kill. Here's an example of the different exp:

[22:27:16]Limit chain #8!
[22:27:16]Drachenfly gains 1980 limit points.
...
[22:27:44]Limit chain #9!
[22:27:44]Drachenfly gains 1928 limit points.

[22:27:16]Limit chain #8!
[22:27:16]Terravcota gains 2078 limit points.
(Terra did songs and switched back to non-ilvl gear at 22:24)
...
[22:27:44]Limit chain #9!
[22:27:44]Terravcota gains 1928 limit points.

[22:27:15]Limit chain #8!
[22:27:15]Shaitaan gains 2078 limit points.
...
[22:27:44]Limit chain #9!
[22:27:44]Shaitaan gains 1928 limit points.

Thoughts?

[zothane]

Just came back from a long break (and XIV which I didn't really enjoy). I haven't done any of the SoA content, but I did manage to grind out a set of the RoE gear for monk.

My question is - is this gear sufficient to start doing Skirmish/Delve and/or the reforge armor BCs on normal. If not, any advice on how to get gear?

I have mnk, pld, blu, drk, war, bst, whm, all with abyssea level gear and I'd consider lvling something else (no clue what's good anymore)

[-Zer0-]

I just returned after a year or so off. Curious...is it just me or do Ninjutsu spells seem off? Utsusemi: Ni seems like it's 3 seconds or so even with Magoraga, and the San spells are now 3-4 seconds when they were closer to 2 before.

[Modoru]

So um. I'm really curious. Is any of Phorcys still viable after all the WKR/Delve gear? Deciding whether or not to just ignore the body and just do Thaumas, I'm so lost after all the new stuff.

[Kyreth]

Pretty much the only piece I see nowadays is Thaumas Coat- but that could just be me.

[Hitou]

Phorcy's body is still useful for any 1 hit ws, the attack % doesn't cap on it and 7% ws damage is nice. Legs can still be used for some xhit builds but I donno if they're really a good idea anymore. Rest of phorcy's is useless now. As far as thaumas goes, I don't use anything but the body now.

[Darkmagi]

The attack bonus caps at 50.