Beginning Salvage

[Wizerd]

1. Choose where to go (then have people ask whhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy here, whhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyy there)
2. Plan route (Skip someone's drops for the day, whhhhhhhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?!?! and get cussed)
3. Plan time (Out of time, got blamed...)
4. Cell distro (Whhhhhyyyyyyyyyyy did you NOT give A cell to person B?!?!?!)
5. Decide strategy on boss (Lost fight, got blamed...)
6. On top of 1 to 5, keep up refresh and haste cycle. (If you are RDM)

So, try to get help for the above tasks...Its pretty demanding to run a salvage group properly especially if you are the sole leader^^

I kinda run my shell myself, I have some people that make minor decisions when I'm too busy doing RDM things, but mostly everything comes down to me in the end. It's hectic but it keeps me focused and makes it entertaining.

I'm the same way. I run everything myself in my shell. Sometimes my wife will type out something I say if I'm really busy, but generally I'll still type it.

I find Salvage the most fun this way.

Also don't listen to Geno, if you do Arrapago without a THF it'll be the last time you ever make that mistake.

[Amele]

storm fife was critical to my group being able to accomplish much at all while we were rebuilding (been having trouble finding redmages willing to stick to it in salvage)

think of it this way: it's like getting a free evoker's roll or a third ballad.


I find it interesting how many cell callers seem to be mages (I'm on whitemage) but I co-lead with our main tank, so if I'm busy he'll often take over.

[Wizerd]

storm fife was critical to my group being able to accomplish much at all while we were rebuilding (been having trouble finding redmages willing to stick to it in salvage)

think of it this way: it's like getting a free evoker's roll or a third ballad.


I find it interesting how many cell callers seem to be mages (I'm on whitemage) but I co-lead with our main tank, so if I'm busy he'll often take over.

I find it's easiest to be the main tank (ie first person to get most cells) when calling, especially for the first chest cells, because more often than not I can just lot up to 6 of the cells (WAR isn't leveled yet, I still go MNK, so I don't usually take the first SJ cell). Body, HP, and 2 equip or 1 equip and a STR cell are my favourite combinations for the last 4 cells, and then I just grab the first weapon and ability cells. I tell my other tank(s) to lot cells directly after me, in a certain order, and they know which cells, so person #2 watches which cells I get, person #3 watches which cells #2 gets, etc until it starts to get confusing.

I've tried it on BRD, but it's a little harder for me. I always, always, always pass only after the person who is supposed to lot, does. I've saved many many important and unimportant but useful cells this way, over the few months I've been leading Salvage, so I continue to do it even if I'm not leading a specific group, lol. It's not cuz the people suck, it's because someone may have lost track or got caught up in what they were doing, and accidentally passed. Very simple mistake. Sure, in a perfect world it wouldn't happen, but guess what. lol

[Amele]

I'll trade you! too often my 'forgetful' members get caught up in something and don't pass; I'd rather have the opposite problem.

when I call on whitemage, about half the time (when there's a rdm) I give myself third or fourth magic - so all I have to do at first is give out cells.

when there isn't a rdm, I'm first magic and then things get interesting. I usually take 2-3 of the initial cells (magic, body/rings/mp/mind) and give about 4-6 to the main tank (he knows what to lot just like you do) the rest go to the backup tank or the bard depending on what exactly we got.

[Zarath]

Also don't listen to Geno, if you do Arrapago without a THF it'll be the last time you ever make that mistake.

Well THF is great for both ZR and AR imo, wish I didn't have to as thf though cause my COR is just that good XD.

Anyways, for leadership roles like directing and cell distro I find it easiest with at least 2 people but a group that knows what to lot and when to lot helps a lot, cells gets distributed within seconds, only keeping track of who has what really comes down to the leaders as well as communication with everyone.

Just like Wiz, I'm in the group that doesn't lot till the person who needs it lots, I've lost too many items cause the person who suppose to lot it, passes X,x.

[Amele]

I keep meaning to write a fast parser that just shows a list of who's eaten what.

the only thing I wish I could do is specify who received what too - so you can track what's in people's inventories, but it might be tough to catch what happens when someone trades/bazaars something to someone else.

if I can figure out an easy way to programmatically catch a floor change too (for a master timer) It'll probably motivate me to put it all in one program.

[Zarath]

I have a pretty good memory when it comes to things like that, but you can't always be 100% sure and an easy question of "All the melee have X cell" and get an easy yes/no answer works for my group. Since lets face it, if your going with a lot of people, you're doing Salvage the wrong way.

[Amele]

right. it's just a convenience tool. - I wouldn't want to write anything more powerful than a convenience tool myself lol.

[rithridan]

This topic inspired me and a few people I know in trying to make a small salvage ls mainly composed of a group of friends. Now we have started just a week ago with only 1 run a week in mind and have already notched that up to 2 a week, with one of them even going in solo when he has the time

I must say its really fun and a lot different from most other events this game offers. Hopefully we will take down the boss soon Just wanted to say thanks to all the info people posted in here, it helped a ton in preparing for salvage! :D

[Stromgarde]

I made this for our last LBC run and kept a magic marker on hand for blacking out blocks as cells were obtained. Only have to fill in names once, the other two spots for em are references to the leftmost name blanks. Needs 0.40" margins to print out correctly though. The other nice thing about having a written reference is that you can write in cell priority numbers so you don't have to remember them.

[bzs]

That is alot of extra work just for salvage lol
cell distribution, just make sure your tanks and mages get what they need to take on whatever you plan on doing
usually I remember who gets the vital cells they need for their job and role, for example, if Im taking on the chariot boss, I make sure my tanks and casters are cell'ed before my melees/extra casters are
if its just farming, I am much more loose on cell distribution as long as one tank and one healer is given what they need

main thing you gotta hope for, make sure your members have common sense too
example, a extra melee war/nin trying to lot a magic cell over a caster or some melee lotting a ranged cell over a rng/cor
people should honestly know better...

[Lycidia]

main thing you gotta hope for, make sure your members have common sense too
example, a extra melee war/nin trying to lot a magic cell over a caster or some melee lotting a ranged cell over a rng/cor
people should honestly know better...

This is where the YMMV factor strikes.

I know this OP was a month or so ago, but since I'm also about 2 months into a starter Salvage group I though I'd summarize my experience.

Mostly, I know my group, so I had to work out their weaknesses. I know, for example, that I might have to remind people to follow me and not the person with the pretty shiny armor, or not to open doors because they are overcome by the beautiful golden color, or to lot cells in the order I've called, and not lot the first one of that name in the treasure pool against the other two people called to lot.

Some people do know better. Most people are, by nature, noobs. Love them all you like, they're still noobs.

I started doing Salvage runs with an 8-9 man group about 2 months ago on Carbuncle. I'm leading as Bard, so it's an amazingly hectic thing--and more fun than just about anything I've done in game in 3 years.

My basics:

1. I also put up large and detailed posts about Salvage on my ls website. They include useful information like, "If you're a mage and you bitch because you aren't getting a weapon cell, you're a noob. Period. Shut up."

2. Don't expect people to read these posts. They're just for the purpose of CYA. When they do something stupid you can say, "If you'd just read the gd post, you stupid noob...!"

3. Since I'm pulling, buffing, and calling cells, I have a spreadsheet for drops very similar to the one above. It's a HUGE help (especially because sometimes I suspect my group would slit throats over Virga cells). I tried to get a second person to do cell drops for me, but it really just didn't work. They weren't fast enough (call me Ms. Control Freak Bitch).

4. Expectations are everything. My first boss run I advertised it to the group by saying, "Next week we're gonna wipe to LBC! It's gonna be awesome <death> for everybody!" After that kind of marketing, the win could only be a disappointment, right?

5. I decided to do 3-4 runs to each area in the first round so we could get a feel for things. On the way I tried to get every regular attendee at least a lvl 15. Even if you KNOW it's cake to get 4x15s in one run because every NM you hit was a 100% drop...it's a good feeling.

6. TH. It's not just a placebo anymore. Helps cell drops so much it is to /cry. Drops...not so much. Curse you, SE.

7. Gears are fun. I pull them by casting cure on myself. They seem to link less when pulled non-agressively. But then again...I'm also a noob so I'm pretty sure I'm running on placebo effect myself.

8. Storm Fife: enough said.

9. Everything I know about Salvage I learned here before I learned it the hard way. Knowledge is power, power is everything (except good drops, which don't exist). Thank you, thank you, thank you.