We're making a ton of progress in Nyzul. Since the previous Sunday, we haven't had a single failed run yet, and except for a few minor mistakes, we're doing these runs almost perfectly! As Fuuji says, we're no longer a "noob nyzul group" :D
We've only run into one ordered lamp floor since the previous Sunday as well. Seemed to be a little confusion during the run, so I figured I'd write a quick clarification about ordered lamps.
- When you first find a lamp, activate it at once and stay there. If you see other lamps nearby that do not have people on them, shout out so that someone can get to it.
- When all the lamps have been found and activated, you'll see all the lamps light up. This tells us that we have found all the lamps and we can start to figure out the order
- This also means that if you aren't on a lamp, you should head back towards the Rune unless someone at a lamp has aggroed something and needs help
- In most cases, if someone has aggroed, try to keep the mob slept. If this isn't possible (i.e. You aren't Utaru, Kurai or me) fight it off and other people should come help you. Be sure to say something to let us know to come
- When we are going through figuring out the sequence of lamps, even if your lamp does stay on, you still need to activate it in the right sequence in the order for it to count. So when I talk about starting the next sequence, make sure you activate your lamp at the right time even if your lamp appears to be "on"
Good progress so far. Last Friday we completed our 16-35 climb, and we're set to climb from 36-60 this coming Thurs & Fri. We're having a ton of weapons dropping, and while I'm trying to keep track of them, it's getting hard to remember :)
Since Thursday, I think we've seen:
SCH - Ghiren
NIN - Utaru
MNK - Ghiren
RNG (again) - Dunno
SMN - Ghiren
SAM - Zurar
BST - Ghiren
At this point, Ghiren says he's 7/20 for the weapons and is going for a full set! Keep in mind that you can store any weapons you're not using for 1 Imperial Bronze Piece, so if you think you'll ever level a job in the future, may as well grab it and put it into storage. We also got our first armor piece on Sunday. Askar feet went to Zurar! Congrats! That's the 1st armor piece we've seen in all our runs, so we're 1/4 in terms of armor. And... that's without a THF xD (though Zu did come /THF)
We're going to try to start a little earlier on Thursdays. The time that we get our 2nd tag on Thursday nights is what determines when our tag refreshes on Sunday, so the earlier we start on Thurs, the earlier we end on Sunday :) So that means, try to be in Whitegate, on the right job and all ready to go by 9:45pm latest. Ashle, try to be there and ready to go as soon as you can login too!
We'll keep to this schedule for at least the next 3-4 weeks. If all goes perfectly, we'll hit floor 100 in the next 3 weeks and then we can decide what to do then. I doubt that we'll have picked up much armor for people given the armor drop rates, so if people are interested in farming armor, we can switch to a slightly more relaxed schedule. I'm thinking just 4 runs on Friday night, plus possibly two runs on Sunday nights as well for a total of 6 farming runs. That will open up Thursday for people to do other things or to get more sleep.
Slightly different topic: Is anyone actually considering unlocking the full weapon?
In other news... just a brief update in other misc stuff.
- I've finished meriting category 1 Dancer merits. Ended with 4 Haste Samba, 4 Reverse Flourish and 2 Step Accuracy. I think this is a good balance between all of them. I can hit dynamis and limbus mobs very consistently with Steps now even wearing full haste gear without food, and my Reverse Flourish gives a significant enough TP return that I'd use it with any amount of Finishing Moves during downtime. For now, at least, I'm temporarily done with meriting Dancer. Maybe it's time to look into HP or MP merits, or possibly BLU merits.
- Been dying a lot for some reason. Seems like every event OTHER than Nyzul has had some form of wipe... ZNMs, Dynamis, Limbus. And of course, in Einhjar, I went down after getting a ton of skeletons beating me up... I guess I was healing my party too much? xD
- DNC/SAM works quite well in exp parties. Tried it out in the mire in a level 69 level sync'ed party against Imps. The extra TP from meditate basically meant that I could main heal without any worry for running out of TP, and even if the mob did face me, it would go back to the tank after hitting me once. Worst case, I could get Third Eye up to prevent a second hit. As long as the mob can't one-shot me, I think DNC/SAM is more effective compared to DNC/NIN
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Nyzul - Great progress, floor 20
Great two Nyzul runs last night. We did 16-20, and surprisingly, we reached floor 20 in just under 15 minutes both times! We hit a series of easy floors... killall, eliminate specific enemy, and lamp floors that only had one lamp to activate. We still need to get some practice on ordered lamps before we can be completely confident of climbing and handling floors with little problem.
Two lessons learnt in last night's run:
1. The XBox 360 overheats and will crash. Especially if you just did something laggy like Besieged, Campaign, or even a merit party. Try not to use the 360 for time-sensitive things like this where you may crash :) (Actually, I stopped using the 360 cos it's just unreliable for FFXI)
2. Be careful which item you use. Fanatic's Drink instead of Body Boost... or... Fireflies instead of Fanatic's Drink ^^;;
Good work on the runs! I think now everyone has a feel of the strategy, items to use, when to use them, etc. After tonight, I hope we'll be about 1/3 of the way to floor 100! That's just in 2 weeks, so good job so far.
Hopefully we'll start getting some better luck with drops... I can't believe we got two Killer Bows last night >.> That's in addition to the one we got last week. And we got no armor drops on the floor 20 boss... twice! (Yes, we had a THF!) Just for curiousity, here are the drops I've seen in both my runs, and a few pickup runs with Varg/Fuuji.
2x BLU - Ascy & Ghiren
1x DNC - Ascy (on a pickup with Varg)
3x SCH - Ascy (on pickup with Fuu), Kurai & one lost due to not passing in time
3x RNG - Ghiren, Ashle & Ascy (auto-lot)
1x THF - Ashle
1x DRK - Utaru
1x WHM - Fuuji
1x DRG - Dexie (was her floor 100 run, so it was a guranteed drop)
Think that's every weapon I've seen drop so far, I think. Need a DRG or SAM one to drop for Zurar so that we'll all have a weapon to go WSing in once we finish climbing.
Btw: For free/auto-lot weapons, there's no harm in picking one up if you think that sometime in the far, far, far future you might want to level the job. There's a NPC in Whitegate (K-10, 2nd floor next to the teahouse) who will store any Nyzul weapon for 1 Imperial Copper Piece. That's where I've dumped my RNG bow, and will probably put my SCH staff once I take it out of storage.
Two lessons learnt in last night's run:
1. The XBox 360 overheats and will crash. Especially if you just did something laggy like Besieged, Campaign, or even a merit party. Try not to use the 360 for time-sensitive things like this where you may crash :) (Actually, I stopped using the 360 cos it's just unreliable for FFXI)
2. Be careful which item you use. Fanatic's Drink instead of Body Boost... or... Fireflies instead of Fanatic's Drink ^^;;
Good work on the runs! I think now everyone has a feel of the strategy, items to use, when to use them, etc. After tonight, I hope we'll be about 1/3 of the way to floor 100! That's just in 2 weeks, so good job so far.
Hopefully we'll start getting some better luck with drops... I can't believe we got two Killer Bows last night >.> That's in addition to the one we got last week. And we got no armor drops on the floor 20 boss... twice! (Yes, we had a THF!) Just for curiousity, here are the drops I've seen in both my runs, and a few pickup runs with Varg/Fuuji.
2x BLU - Ascy & Ghiren
1x DNC - Ascy (on a pickup with Varg)
3x SCH - Ascy (on pickup with Fuu), Kurai & one lost due to not passing in time
3x RNG - Ghiren, Ashle & Ascy (auto-lot)
1x THF - Ashle
1x DRK - Utaru
1x WHM - Fuuji
1x DRG - Dexie (was her floor 100 run, so it was a guranteed drop)
Think that's every weapon I've seen drop so far, I think. Need a DRG or SAM one to drop for Zurar so that we'll all have a weapon to go WSing in once we finish climbing.
Btw: For free/auto-lot weapons, there's no harm in picking one up if you think that sometime in the far, far, far future you might want to level the job. There's a NPC in Whitegate (K-10, 2nd floor next to the teahouse) who will store any Nyzul weapon for 1 Imperial Copper Piece. That's where I've dumped my RNG bow, and will probably put my SCH staff once I take it out of storage.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Respecting time and lack thereof
Warning: Rant follows... you might want to skip this post.
I did a quick calculation and figured that we just blew through the equivalent of 1-1 1/2 man-months worth of work with the two ZNM failures last night. Counting time we spent on the other pops, farming zeni, etc., we basically spent in total over 200 hours between everyone participating in the event...
And virtually nothing to show for it =/
Try telling any project manager that you blew through a man-month without any progress and see what their response will be. I'm starting to remember one of the things that got me frustrated with FFXI the first time around when I quit... also why I've been avoiding doing any NM hunting at all, or trying my best to stay out of any endgame activity (though I've been failing that recently)
One thing that really bugs me about FFXI is that SE does not respect peoples time. Time is one of those irreplaceable things that, once it's past, you can't get back. Money you can spend or lose, but still earn more of. Food is simple, you eat, then once you're out, you go buy more. Time on the other hand, is something everyone has limited amounts of, but the game is set up in such a way as to waste as much of your time as possible in the name of profit.
Let's take a look at the recent things that SE has added that are designed to waste time
Nyzul weapons
Putting a static group together so that you can climb from floors 1-100 isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. SE claims that the average player is supposed to be able to obtain the mystic weaponskills. Their concept of "average" isn't exactly what I had in mind...
In an ideal case, you'd climb from floors 1-100, obtaining your weapon along the way and assuming that every single run is successful, you'd require 10 hours of climbing. Add in another 250 WS points, and assuming that you can find someone to SC light or darkness once a minute, that's 11 hours of "work" spread over 20 days (5 floors per day)
A more likely case for the average player who does not not have a Nyzul static, and can only go with a few pick-up groups is that they obtain a weapon through luck, and then try to unlock the weapons. Current reports say that it's between 12,000-15,000 WS Points to unlock a weaon at around floors 0-5. Rounding that down to 10,000 WS points, that's 2000 light skillchains. Let's say that you can do 1 light every minute, that's 33 hours of doing nothing but skillchains to complete just one weapon.
ZNMs
So, besides the fact that we can get wiped out at a moment's notice due to virtually not fault of anyone involved, the whole ZNM structure is designed to waste time as well. Let's see, we have...
1. Time spent taking photos. Alright, this is actually good compared to the time wasted looking for randomly dropping pop items in Sky. Takes about 15 minutes to get 24 photos assuming you use two cameras, but this benefit is quickly destroyed by...
2. Time spent turning in photos. Yup. You only get to turn in 10 photos per hour. In between, you can do whatever you want... which basically involves... well, doing nothing. Given travel time between places and setting up to do other stuff, do you really think you can do anything else? If you wait too long to turn in your photos, chances are that they would have moved on to another mob.
3. Time spent "climbing the tiers". The way the ZNM system is set up is that for every Tier IV pop you want to do, you need to do 3 Tier IIIs, 3 Tier II's and 3 Tier I's. In theory this would mean that we would be able to spread the fighting around and fight various NMs for different drops, but in practice, this means that we spam the easiest possible Tier I & II fights in order to progress towards Tier IV. Additionally, the 3-1 ratio means that on average, we'll end up with a ratio of 3:1 lower tier drops compared to Tier IV. This means that quickly, we'll be spending most of our time simply farming the lower tier pops for the right to pop tier IV and throwing their drops away. We already see this happening... Nobody wants the Beast Slayer sword from Cheese Hoarder, or the Insect Ring from Chigre, but we still do those in order to farm pop items for Tier III & IV
Anyway, that's just a rant about the more recent things that have been added. I'm pretty sure that we don't need to talk about the other SE-designed time-wasters like Limbus, Dynamis and NM pops.
I just want to say one last thing about time and respecting people's time. We have many scheduled events where people know the start/gathering times, yet still show up 20-30 minutes late while making the group wait for them to get to the location and change jobs. Please try to remember that there are other human beings there waiting for you, not NPCs in a video game. Showing up on time shows that you respect their time, as does being prepared for any event. Finally, when you're doing something, please pay attention. With many of these events, we've been doing them for months, doing the same thing over and over again. It can be boring or routine, but you should at least give your friends the courtesy of paying attention to what you and they are doing.
Tinnin - Analysis of what went wrong
As far as I can tell, in both cases last night, things fell apart once both of our tanks died when Tinnin used two highly damaging TV moves back-to-back. I can think of two reasons for the failure.
1. Healing not fast enough
2. Someone was "drawn in" and triggered a 2nd TP move back to back
For the first case, I'm really not seeing a good solution to the case where Tinnin does two TP moves back to back. Our mages are already casting Cursna *before* Tinnin doesNerve Gas, and we have mages also casting cure at the same time to try to get HP up as fast as possible. White (and Blue) magic casting time means that our tanks have about 1-2 seconds of having low HP. Most of the time, this is okay since shadows will protect them, but when the mob does two TP moves back-to-back that deal heavy damage and ignore shadows, they're going to go down.
One possibility is... keep a 3rd tank ready in the background, not in range to be taken out with the first two tanks, but ready to step up and grab hate if both main tanks go down. This would likely be very hard and might require Invincible to stop Tinnin from chasing mages.
Another possibility is to have a Dancer ready for instant emergency cures in the tank party. Curing Waltz IV can heal about 700-800 HP, and is instant with no cast time. It's a risky proposition and would require split second timing to pull off, but it might be able to keep one tank alive in the case of back-to-back TP moves. Steps could also be used to lower magical defense for the BLMs, and to keep TP up. Dancers do not actually need to hit the mob to use Steps, so giving the mob TP isn't an issue.
I think the real key to winning is to prevent the two "back-to-back" TP moves. Why this happens is quite well understood.
1. Everyone in the alliance has hate building up. The PLDs have more hate than everyone else, but the BLMs and healers are building hate right behind them.
2. Tinnin does a TP move that wipes out 3/4 of the HP of the PLDs. Taking damage reduces their hate level to below that of other members of the alliance
3. Tinnin changes targets to a helpless BLM or healer. Tinnin draws the person in and immediately uses a 2nd cone or AoE TP attack. This wipes off another 3/4 of the HP of the PLD before any WHM can cast cure. Since 3/4 + 3/4 = 6/4, the PLDs die and we wipe.
So, to prevent this from happening, we just need to keep hate on the PLDs. We can do this in two ways...
1. Push the hate line higher... Frodorn & Cronus are already doing their best to do this. The only thing more I could imagine is to have all our melees sub THF and Trick WS's onto them. Wu is already doing this, but having everyone do it would help more
2. Reset hate for mages. No matter how high the PLDs set the bar, Tinnin is going to do a TP move that will hit them. To prevent this from triggering a "draw-in" event and wiping everyone, mages who think they have a high amount of hate can log off, and come right back on with their hate reset. Logging off takes 30 seconds, and another 30 seconds to log back in, so you won't be out of the fight for that long. Additionally, everyone really needs to be aware of how much hate they are pulling, both healers and nukers.
So... yeah, hope the next time we come up for Tinnin we won't wipe again >.<
I did a quick calculation and figured that we just blew through the equivalent of 1-1 1/2 man-months worth of work with the two ZNM failures last night. Counting time we spent on the other pops, farming zeni, etc., we basically spent in total over 200 hours between everyone participating in the event...
And virtually nothing to show for it =/
Try telling any project manager that you blew through a man-month without any progress and see what their response will be. I'm starting to remember one of the things that got me frustrated with FFXI the first time around when I quit... also why I've been avoiding doing any NM hunting at all, or trying my best to stay out of any endgame activity (though I've been failing that recently)
One thing that really bugs me about FFXI is that SE does not respect peoples time. Time is one of those irreplaceable things that, once it's past, you can't get back. Money you can spend or lose, but still earn more of. Food is simple, you eat, then once you're out, you go buy more. Time on the other hand, is something everyone has limited amounts of, but the game is set up in such a way as to waste as much of your time as possible in the name of profit.
Let's take a look at the recent things that SE has added that are designed to waste time
Nyzul weapons
Putting a static group together so that you can climb from floors 1-100 isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. SE claims that the average player is supposed to be able to obtain the mystic weaponskills. Their concept of "average" isn't exactly what I had in mind...
In an ideal case, you'd climb from floors 1-100, obtaining your weapon along the way and assuming that every single run is successful, you'd require 10 hours of climbing. Add in another 250 WS points, and assuming that you can find someone to SC light or darkness once a minute, that's 11 hours of "work" spread over 20 days (5 floors per day)
A more likely case for the average player who does not not have a Nyzul static, and can only go with a few pick-up groups is that they obtain a weapon through luck, and then try to unlock the weapons. Current reports say that it's between 12,000-15,000 WS Points to unlock a weaon at around floors 0-5. Rounding that down to 10,000 WS points, that's 2000 light skillchains. Let's say that you can do 1 light every minute, that's 33 hours of doing nothing but skillchains to complete just one weapon.
ZNMs
So, besides the fact that we can get wiped out at a moment's notice due to virtually not fault of anyone involved, the whole ZNM structure is designed to waste time as well. Let's see, we have...
1. Time spent taking photos. Alright, this is actually good compared to the time wasted looking for randomly dropping pop items in Sky. Takes about 15 minutes to get 24 photos assuming you use two cameras, but this benefit is quickly destroyed by...
2. Time spent turning in photos. Yup. You only get to turn in 10 photos per hour. In between, you can do whatever you want... which basically involves... well, doing nothing. Given travel time between places and setting up to do other stuff, do you really think you can do anything else? If you wait too long to turn in your photos, chances are that they would have moved on to another mob.
3. Time spent "climbing the tiers". The way the ZNM system is set up is that for every Tier IV pop you want to do, you need to do 3 Tier IIIs, 3 Tier II's and 3 Tier I's. In theory this would mean that we would be able to spread the fighting around and fight various NMs for different drops, but in practice, this means that we spam the easiest possible Tier I & II fights in order to progress towards Tier IV. Additionally, the 3-1 ratio means that on average, we'll end up with a ratio of 3:1 lower tier drops compared to Tier IV. This means that quickly, we'll be spending most of our time simply farming the lower tier pops for the right to pop tier IV and throwing their drops away. We already see this happening... Nobody wants the Beast Slayer sword from Cheese Hoarder, or the Insect Ring from Chigre, but we still do those in order to farm pop items for Tier III & IV
Anyway, that's just a rant about the more recent things that have been added. I'm pretty sure that we don't need to talk about the other SE-designed time-wasters like Limbus, Dynamis and NM pops.
I just want to say one last thing about time and respecting people's time. We have many scheduled events where people know the start/gathering times, yet still show up 20-30 minutes late while making the group wait for them to get to the location and change jobs. Please try to remember that there are other human beings there waiting for you, not NPCs in a video game. Showing up on time shows that you respect their time, as does being prepared for any event. Finally, when you're doing something, please pay attention. With many of these events, we've been doing them for months, doing the same thing over and over again. It can be boring or routine, but you should at least give your friends the courtesy of paying attention to what you and they are doing.
Tinnin - Analysis of what went wrong
As far as I can tell, in both cases last night, things fell apart once both of our tanks died when Tinnin used two highly damaging TV moves back-to-back. I can think of two reasons for the failure.
1. Healing not fast enough
2. Someone was "drawn in" and triggered a 2nd TP move back to back
For the first case, I'm really not seeing a good solution to the case where Tinnin does two TP moves back to back. Our mages are already casting Cursna *before* Tinnin doesNerve Gas, and we have mages also casting cure at the same time to try to get HP up as fast as possible. White (and Blue) magic casting time means that our tanks have about 1-2 seconds of having low HP. Most of the time, this is okay since shadows will protect them, but when the mob does two TP moves back-to-back that deal heavy damage and ignore shadows, they're going to go down.
One possibility is... keep a 3rd tank ready in the background, not in range to be taken out with the first two tanks, but ready to step up and grab hate if both main tanks go down. This would likely be very hard and might require Invincible to stop Tinnin from chasing mages.
Another possibility is to have a Dancer ready for instant emergency cures in the tank party. Curing Waltz IV can heal about 700-800 HP, and is instant with no cast time. It's a risky proposition and would require split second timing to pull off, but it might be able to keep one tank alive in the case of back-to-back TP moves. Steps could also be used to lower magical defense for the BLMs, and to keep TP up. Dancers do not actually need to hit the mob to use Steps, so giving the mob TP isn't an issue.
I think the real key to winning is to prevent the two "back-to-back" TP moves. Why this happens is quite well understood.
1. Everyone in the alliance has hate building up. The PLDs have more hate than everyone else, but the BLMs and healers are building hate right behind them.
2. Tinnin does a TP move that wipes out 3/4 of the HP of the PLDs. Taking damage reduces their hate level to below that of other members of the alliance
3. Tinnin changes targets to a helpless BLM or healer. Tinnin draws the person in and immediately uses a 2nd cone or AoE TP attack. This wipes off another 3/4 of the HP of the PLD before any WHM can cast cure. Since 3/4 + 3/4 = 6/4, the PLDs die and we wipe.
So, to prevent this from happening, we just need to keep hate on the PLDs. We can do this in two ways...
1. Push the hate line higher... Frodorn & Cronus are already doing their best to do this. The only thing more I could imagine is to have all our melees sub THF and Trick WS's onto them. Wu is already doing this, but having everyone do it would help more
2. Reset hate for mages. No matter how high the PLDs set the bar, Tinnin is going to do a TP move that will hit them. To prevent this from triggering a "draw-in" event and wiping everyone, mages who think they have a high amount of hate can log off, and come right back on with their hate reset. Logging off takes 30 seconds, and another 30 seconds to log back in, so you won't be out of the fight for that long. Additionally, everyone really needs to be aware of how much hate they are pulling, both healers and nukers.
So... yeah, hope the next time we come up for Tinnin we won't wipe again >.<
Monday, September 22, 2008
Nyzul - Lamps & progress
Good progress so far on Nyzul Isle. Up to floor 15 right now, and we tried one stab at floors 16-20, but we got hung up on an ordered lamp floor and barely ran out of time. We had 3 minutes going into the boss floor with virtually no MP, but we still took off a good chunk of the tortoise's HP before we ran out of time.
Good news is that we're getting much better at flooring up with minimal hassle. The first 2 floors only took us about 10 minutes, and about 10 minutes was spent on the lamp floor. The 4th "killall" floor we drew was a tough one as it also included a Darak >.> I'm pretty confident we can get through 16-20 easily this Thursday and continue climbing.
Lamp Strategy
There is still some confusion over lamp floors... Not too surprising as they are confusing, and even I'm not quite ontop of this yet! Here's a little info to help us out.
There are three types of lamp floors. You won't know what kind of lamp floor this is until we find the first lamp and touch it.
1. Activate all lamps at the same time - Easy... Just split up, find a lamp and stay there. There are between 3-5 lamps. Once we have people on the lamps, I'll call a time and we'll activate them. The person who does not have a lamp should either help with aggro, or go back to the rune and prepare to get us up
2. All must activate one lamp - Even easier. Everyone must go to one lamp and touch it. This means everyone has to move out. First person to activate the lamp should go back to the run and bring us up
3. Lamps must be activated in a specific order. More details below
For specific order lamps, here is some information on the behavior of the lamps
(Mostly taken from http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=79;mid=119498020713612950;num=14;page=1)
- The lamps will not light up until all of the lamps on that floor have been activated. So, if we've hit all the lamps that we've found and they do not light up, that means that there is another lamp we're missing
- Once we have activates the lamps in any order, they will all light up for 10 seconds. After the 10 seconds, the ones that are in the right order will continue to stay lit. The ones in the wrong order will fade and turn off.
- If a lamp is in the right position in the sequence and is still "lit", when we start doing other sequences, you still have to "activate" the lamp even though the light is still on. We need to hit all the lamps in the right sequence for it to work.
So, if we get a lamp floor, this is the sequence of what will happen for an ordered lamp scenario:
- Fan out and search for lamps. This is a fully-independent floor and everyone is on your own to avoid aggro. Keep in mind which mobs are sneak and which are invis. If you can sleep (me, Utty & Kurai), take a more dangerous lamp. If you see someone who has aggro and has to fight, go help and kill the mob ASAP. We may take out some mobs near some of the earlier lamps when we're still grouped together
- Whoever finds the first lamp should touch it and immediately say what kind of lamp it is. If it is an ordered lamp scenario, activate it at once
- Other people will continue to search for lamps, activating them as they find it and staying by their lamp. Make sure to say something in party chat (i.e.: "Found a lamp... one more S of me")
- As soon as we find all the lamps on the floor, they should light up since we've been activating them as we find them. At this point, we need to determine the order
- To figure out the order:
- Wait 10 seconds after the lamps activate. Some lamps should go out. If yours goes out, call out "off" in party chat
- I will call out an order to reactivate the lamps.
- Once you activate your lamp, do "/" in party chat so the next person knows to go
- Once everyone goes, the lamps will light up, if they are not already. We have to wait 10 seconds, then SOME lamps will go off
- If your lamp goes off, immediately say so in party. People with lamps that remain on should also call out that their lamp is "on" as soon as they see that someone else's lamp is off
- I will call out another order immediately. We repeat until we get the right sequence.
The logic puzzle behind the lamp activation order is actually fairly simple. Lamps that are lit up in the correct place in the sequence will stay lit. Lamps that are not right will turn off 10 seconds after the sequence of activations has been completed. This means that if your lamp stays on after the sequence completes, you will always be in the same position.
Example scenario:
- After me, Kurai, Zurar & Ghiren find and activate 4 lamps, the lamps actually light up.
- At this point, Utaru & Ashle should be heading back to the runs to prepare to release
- 10 seconds later, one, or all of the lamps will go off. If your lamp turns off, say so
- I'll call out an order... "K, Z, G, Asc"
- Everyone activates their lamp in order and use "/" in party chat to indicate that they have done so
- The lamps that are off will light up... Wait 10 seconds, then some lamps will go off again
- Let's say Zurar & Ghiren's lamps go off. In party chat, it will be:
Ghiren> Off
Zurar> Off
Kurai & Asc> On
- I'll call out another order... "K, G, Z, Asc"
- Same thing, and this time since we swapped the only two lamps that turned off after the sequence, it will activate the rune and we're done.
Critically important: 3 messages need to be said in party chat:
1. Use "/" to say when you have activated your lamp. This will let the next person know they can activate their own
2. After the 10 seconds is up, if your lamp turns off, make sure to say so in party chat ("off" or "lamp off")
3. After you see someone saying "off", if your lamp stays on, say "on" or "still on" to help figure the order out ASAP.
I think that's it for lamps... that's the last puzzle for climbing that we have confusion on. I'm pretty confident that we can get to floor 100 now that we're getting used to Nyzul :)
Boss Floors & Farming
Sunday nights are our farming nights. Hopefully we'll just need to pick up 1 person who has a tag available and wants to get something. Thanks Marduke & Fuuji for coming along the last run.
How late our tags refresh on Sunday actually depends on how early we start our 2nd run on Thursday. We can pick up a new tag at the same time that we pick up our 2nd tag on Thursday. Hence, if we start at 10:00pm and pick our 2nd tag up at 10:40pm, we won't be able to do a 2nd run on Sunday until 10:40pm.
Kinda makes it hard to farm if we're running that late :) As such, try to be on time, or even early for runs so we can get through and let people sleep!
As for farming, weapons drop pretty much randomly from NMs. As for armor, think about which pieces you'd really like to get and we'll concentrate on those floors. Right now we can only farm the feet piece since we only have access to level 20, but in a couple of weeks if not by this week, we'll probably have access to level 40 armor. Let me know which pieces you'd like and we'll concentrate on the appropriate floors :)
The armor sets are:
- Askar Korazin Set (Heavy melee)
- Goliard Saio Set (Mages)
- Denali Jacket Set (Light melee)
Floor 20: Feet / Floor 40: Legs / Floor 60: Hands / Floor 80: Body / Floor 100: Head
Good news is that we're getting much better at flooring up with minimal hassle. The first 2 floors only took us about 10 minutes, and about 10 minutes was spent on the lamp floor. The 4th "killall" floor we drew was a tough one as it also included a Darak >.> I'm pretty confident we can get through 16-20 easily this Thursday and continue climbing.
Lamp Strategy
There is still some confusion over lamp floors... Not too surprising as they are confusing, and even I'm not quite ontop of this yet! Here's a little info to help us out.
There are three types of lamp floors. You won't know what kind of lamp floor this is until we find the first lamp and touch it.
1. Activate all lamps at the same time - Easy... Just split up, find a lamp and stay there. There are between 3-5 lamps. Once we have people on the lamps, I'll call a time and we'll activate them. The person who does not have a lamp should either help with aggro, or go back to the rune and prepare to get us up
2. All must activate one lamp - Even easier. Everyone must go to one lamp and touch it. This means everyone has to move out. First person to activate the lamp should go back to the run and bring us up
3. Lamps must be activated in a specific order. More details below
For specific order lamps, here is some information on the behavior of the lamps
(Mostly taken from http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=79;mid=119498020713612950;num=14;page=1)
- The lamps will not light up until all of the lamps on that floor have been activated. So, if we've hit all the lamps that we've found and they do not light up, that means that there is another lamp we're missing
- Once we have activates the lamps in any order, they will all light up for 10 seconds. After the 10 seconds, the ones that are in the right order will continue to stay lit. The ones in the wrong order will fade and turn off.
- If a lamp is in the right position in the sequence and is still "lit", when we start doing other sequences, you still have to "activate" the lamp even though the light is still on. We need to hit all the lamps in the right sequence for it to work.
So, if we get a lamp floor, this is the sequence of what will happen for an ordered lamp scenario:
- Fan out and search for lamps. This is a fully-independent floor and everyone is on your own to avoid aggro. Keep in mind which mobs are sneak and which are invis. If you can sleep (me, Utty & Kurai), take a more dangerous lamp. If you see someone who has aggro and has to fight, go help and kill the mob ASAP. We may take out some mobs near some of the earlier lamps when we're still grouped together
- Whoever finds the first lamp should touch it and immediately say what kind of lamp it is. If it is an ordered lamp scenario, activate it at once
- Other people will continue to search for lamps, activating them as they find it and staying by their lamp. Make sure to say something in party chat (i.e.: "Found a lamp... one more S of me")
- As soon as we find all the lamps on the floor, they should light up since we've been activating them as we find them. At this point, we need to determine the order
- To figure out the order:
- Wait 10 seconds after the lamps activate. Some lamps should go out. If yours goes out, call out "off" in party chat
- I will call out an order to reactivate the lamps.
- Once you activate your lamp, do "/" in party chat so the next person knows to go
- Once everyone goes, the lamps will light up, if they are not already. We have to wait 10 seconds, then SOME lamps will go off
- If your lamp goes off, immediately say so in party. People with lamps that remain on should also call out that their lamp is "on" as soon as they see that someone else's lamp is off
- I will call out another order immediately. We repeat until we get the right sequence.
The logic puzzle behind the lamp activation order is actually fairly simple. Lamps that are lit up in the correct place in the sequence will stay lit. Lamps that are not right will turn off 10 seconds after the sequence of activations has been completed. This means that if your lamp stays on after the sequence completes, you will always be in the same position.
Example scenario:
- After me, Kurai, Zurar & Ghiren find and activate 4 lamps, the lamps actually light up.
- At this point, Utaru & Ashle should be heading back to the runs to prepare to release
- 10 seconds later, one, or all of the lamps will go off. If your lamp turns off, say so
- I'll call out an order... "K, Z, G, Asc"
- Everyone activates their lamp in order and use "/" in party chat to indicate that they have done so
- The lamps that are off will light up... Wait 10 seconds, then some lamps will go off again
- Let's say Zurar & Ghiren's lamps go off. In party chat, it will be:
Ghiren> Off
Zurar> Off
Kurai & Asc> On
- I'll call out another order... "K, G, Z, Asc"
- Same thing, and this time since we swapped the only two lamps that turned off after the sequence, it will activate the rune and we're done.
Critically important: 3 messages need to be said in party chat:
1. Use "/" to say when you have activated your lamp. This will let the next person know they can activate their own
2. After the 10 seconds is up, if your lamp turns off, make sure to say so in party chat ("off" or "lamp off")
3. After you see someone saying "off", if your lamp stays on, say "on" or "still on" to help figure the order out ASAP.
I think that's it for lamps... that's the last puzzle for climbing that we have confusion on. I'm pretty confident that we can get to floor 100 now that we're getting used to Nyzul :)
Boss Floors & Farming
Sunday nights are our farming nights. Hopefully we'll just need to pick up 1 person who has a tag available and wants to get something. Thanks Marduke & Fuuji for coming along the last run.
How late our tags refresh on Sunday actually depends on how early we start our 2nd run on Thursday. We can pick up a new tag at the same time that we pick up our 2nd tag on Thursday. Hence, if we start at 10:00pm and pick our 2nd tag up at 10:40pm, we won't be able to do a 2nd run on Sunday until 10:40pm.
Kinda makes it hard to farm if we're running that late :) As such, try to be on time, or even early for runs so we can get through and let people sleep!
As for farming, weapons drop pretty much randomly from NMs. As for armor, think about which pieces you'd really like to get and we'll concentrate on those floors. Right now we can only farm the feet piece since we only have access to level 20, but in a couple of weeks if not by this week, we'll probably have access to level 40 armor. Let me know which pieces you'd like and we'll concentrate on the appropriate floors :)
The armor sets are:
- Askar Korazin Set (Heavy melee)
- Goliard Saio Set (Mages)
- Denali Jacket Set (Light melee)
Floor 20: Feet / Floor 40: Legs / Floor 60: Hands / Floor 80: Body / Floor 100: Head
Friday, September 19, 2008
Nyzul - Stable setup & Strategy
So, I think we've finally got a stable group of people together to do Nyzul runs. Schedule is a little crazy, and it was a pain to figure out a schedule that worked with everyone, but I think we finally have something. I really admire other leaders who are able to hold people together for various events like Varg, Fuuji & Rooks. Getting 6 people together for Nyzul gave me a headache xD
Weekly Schedule:
Thursday: 9:45pm PST - 1-2 runs
Friday: 9:30pm PST - 3-4 runs
Sunday: 8:00 PST - 2 runs
Make sure you pick up a 4th tag between Sunday & Wednesday so that we can do 5 runs between Thursday & Friday. We're definitely climbing on Thurs & Fri to get to floor 100 ASAP. Sunday, we'll either be climbing if Ashle makes it, or we'll be picking up a 6th member and doing some armor/weapon farming.
For the most part, the jobs & responsibilities will be:
Ghiren: WAR/NIN - Heavy DD & backup tanking. Provoke mobs as necessary to get them off mages, especially in the case that we get a slept link that has woken up. For the most part, we'll be killing so fast that no real tank is necessary
Zurar: SAM/DNC - Heavy DD & backup healing. Concentrate on DD unless the mages are low on MP. Keep the party alive, and be ready to switch over to Seigan if you get too much hate
Ashle: THF/NIN - DD, hate management + running back to the rune. Be ready to accomplice the mages in case we have to cure bomb the party. DS Curaga IIs are actually quite common after some bad AoEs. You can trick attack either onto Zurar (Seigan) or Ghiren (/NIN)
Utaru: DRK/NIN - Heavy DD, sleep/stun. Utty, you're also pretty much on top of the group when it comes to going ahead and pulling mobs whenever possible
Kuraikaze: BLM/WHM, later SCH/WHM - Healing as the priority, sleep/stun. Nuking is secondary to help finish off harder mobs (Psycheflayers, etc.) Once you have SCH leveled up it should help a TON with Regen-ga and the ability to remove all status effects from everyone at once.
Ascule: BLU/WHM, later possibly DNC/SAM - Main healing, sleeping. I can get a basic 3MP/tick Refresh during Assault, but that's not enough to keep up with all the healing of the group. DNC has the recast issue on curing status effects, so chances are that I'll be going BLU for more flexibility and faster status effect curing
Strategies & Items
For the most part, I think we have the climbing strategy down and just need a little practice. Here are a few things that we need to pay attention to:
- Avoid unnecessary aggro and fighting. During floors where we don't need to kill certain mobs, don't attack them! We have 3 sleepers and we can easily keep 2-3 mobs asleep long enough to go up to the next floor if necessary. If you have trouble disengaging from mobs, turn off auto-targetting.
- Bring echo drops! All of you! No *need* to spam them, so if you don't NEED to be Silena'ed immediately you don't *have* to use it, but if the party is getting beat down and both Kurai & I are busy keeping everyone alive, use it and get your shadows back up!
- Upon entry into Nyzul, make your item purchases and let everyone know you're done ASAP with a simple "/"
For the most part, we're going to climb ASAP, going up 5 floors at a time. Hopefully we'll also get a "kill all enemies" floor where we'll get a shot at killing a NM and getting a possible weapon drop. Assuming we get to the 5th floor with time to spare, we'll search for and kill the NM for that floor for a possible weapon drop.
For boss floors (20, 40, 60, 80), basically the same strategy, but everyone will need to spend some token on buying items.
Melees:
- Body Boost (Doubles max HP. The bosses hit for 3-500 pet hit, and CAN triple attack)
- Fanatic's Drink (Invincible - Use this when you're being targetted by the boss)
- Optional: Dusty Wing (300% TP. Zurar: Use this after you 2-hour to continue spamming WS's. Use a Fanatic's drink too so that you don't die!)
- Optional: Monarch's Drink (Regain affect... aka TP regen)
Mages:
- Body Boost (Kurai! Your HP is scary low... use this for boss fights!)
- Strange Juice (Refresh - 300MP. Pretty sure it does NOT work with Sublimation. I've been using this even during regular climbing)
- Dusty Ether
- Bring a scroll of Instant Reraise. In case of an impending wipe, use it so that we can at least recover and hopefully complete the floor & exit.
Use body boosts as soon as we enter the floor, then we'll top off HP and go for it. Unless we're farming the floor, feel free to 2-hour at will to take the boss down ASAP with as few casualities as possible.
Rewards
Our main objective is to get the Nyzul weaponskills. As such, we need to both obtain the job-specific weapon, and to climb to floor 100. I've been researching the number of WS points necessary, and it seems that while having the runic key (clearing floor 100) requires only 250 WS Points, the requirement grows steadily down to around 8000 WS points at around clearing floor 20, after which it grows exponentially as it approaches floor 1. Current report of floor 12 is that it takes over 12,000 WS points, so where we are at floor 5 isn't very good.
Good news is that at least we can climb :) Other good news is that progress is counted on every floor, so exiting at floor 99 would count towards progress (about 300 WS points vs. 250 on floor 100). Final good news is that any WS's you do on the weapon after you start the quest counts towards your final number, so you could do like 300 WS points, THEN clear floor 100 and immediately obtain the WS.
For weapons, this is what I have for people's main jobs. Good news is that there is very little overlap!
Ghiren - PLD, WAR, SMN, MNK & RNG (obtained)
Zurar - SAM, DRG
Ashle - NIN, THF
Utaru - NIN, DRK (obtained)
Kuraikaze - SCH, BLM
Ascule - BLU, DNC (both obtained)
Lots of other jobs are basically free lot. I think a lot of you are also leveling more jobs, so if you see a weapon drop that you want, just let everyone know. (i.e.: Ghiren nearly has WHM done, Ashle is leveling RDM(?), Utaru is coming up on THF)
Armor wise, we have the 3 sets of armor:
Askar - Heavy Melee (WAR, PLD, DRK, BST, SAM, DRG) - Ghiren, Utaru & Zurar
Denali - Light melee (MNK, THF, RNG, NIN, BLU, COR, DNC) - Ghiren, Utaru, Ashle & Ascule
Goliard - Mages (WHM, BLM, RDM, BRD, SMN, PUP, SCH) - Ghiren & Kuraikaze
Basics are... lot if you can, and *will* use the item. If nobody will actively use the item, then lot if you can use the item. If everyone who can use the item already has it, then lot it if you think you'll want to use it in the future xD
Example: Of the Denali set, I'll actively use the feet and head pieces so I'd lot them if they came up. For the other Denali pieces, I'll only lot them if nobody else will actively use them. Finally, I'd like to have Goliard gear for when I eventually level SCH or RDM, but I won't lot that unless nobody else wants it.
Finally... let me know if I'm pushing too hard. I'm a very task-oriented person, and when it comes to getting the job done, I'm very quick to parse out resources and give orders ^^; I probably come across as curt during assaults due to the time pressure involved. Some of my management team members like it as I can get the job done, but it does sometimes rub people the wrong way. You all have my AIM, so do talk to me if there are any issues!
Weekly Schedule:
Thursday: 9:45pm PST - 1-2 runs
Friday: 9:30pm PST - 3-4 runs
Sunday: 8:00 PST - 2 runs
Make sure you pick up a 4th tag between Sunday & Wednesday so that we can do 5 runs between Thursday & Friday. We're definitely climbing on Thurs & Fri to get to floor 100 ASAP. Sunday, we'll either be climbing if Ashle makes it, or we'll be picking up a 6th member and doing some armor/weapon farming.
For the most part, the jobs & responsibilities will be:
Ghiren: WAR/NIN - Heavy DD & backup tanking. Provoke mobs as necessary to get them off mages, especially in the case that we get a slept link that has woken up. For the most part, we'll be killing so fast that no real tank is necessary
Zurar: SAM/DNC - Heavy DD & backup healing. Concentrate on DD unless the mages are low on MP. Keep the party alive, and be ready to switch over to Seigan if you get too much hate
Ashle: THF/NIN - DD, hate management + running back to the rune. Be ready to accomplice the mages in case we have to cure bomb the party. DS Curaga IIs are actually quite common after some bad AoEs. You can trick attack either onto Zurar (Seigan) or Ghiren (/NIN)
Utaru: DRK/NIN - Heavy DD, sleep/stun. Utty, you're also pretty much on top of the group when it comes to going ahead and pulling mobs whenever possible
Kuraikaze: BLM/WHM, later SCH/WHM - Healing as the priority, sleep/stun. Nuking is secondary to help finish off harder mobs (Psycheflayers, etc.) Once you have SCH leveled up it should help a TON with Regen-ga and the ability to remove all status effects from everyone at once.
Ascule: BLU/WHM, later possibly DNC/SAM - Main healing, sleeping. I can get a basic 3MP/tick Refresh during Assault, but that's not enough to keep up with all the healing of the group. DNC has the recast issue on curing status effects, so chances are that I'll be going BLU for more flexibility and faster status effect curing
Strategies & Items
For the most part, I think we have the climbing strategy down and just need a little practice. Here are a few things that we need to pay attention to:
- Avoid unnecessary aggro and fighting. During floors where we don't need to kill certain mobs, don't attack them! We have 3 sleepers and we can easily keep 2-3 mobs asleep long enough to go up to the next floor if necessary. If you have trouble disengaging from mobs, turn off auto-targetting.
- Bring echo drops! All of you! No *need* to spam them, so if you don't NEED to be Silena'ed immediately you don't *have* to use it, but if the party is getting beat down and both Kurai & I are busy keeping everyone alive, use it and get your shadows back up!
- Upon entry into Nyzul, make your item purchases and let everyone know you're done ASAP with a simple "/"
For the most part, we're going to climb ASAP, going up 5 floors at a time. Hopefully we'll also get a "kill all enemies" floor where we'll get a shot at killing a NM and getting a possible weapon drop. Assuming we get to the 5th floor with time to spare, we'll search for and kill the NM for that floor for a possible weapon drop.
For boss floors (20, 40, 60, 80), basically the same strategy, but everyone will need to spend some token on buying items.
Melees:
- Body Boost (Doubles max HP. The bosses hit for 3-500 pet hit, and CAN triple attack)
- Fanatic's Drink (Invincible - Use this when you're being targetted by the boss)
- Optional: Dusty Wing (300% TP. Zurar: Use this after you 2-hour to continue spamming WS's. Use a Fanatic's drink too so that you don't die!)
- Optional: Monarch's Drink (Regain affect... aka TP regen)
Mages:
- Body Boost (Kurai! Your HP is scary low... use this for boss fights!)
- Strange Juice (Refresh - 300MP. Pretty sure it does NOT work with Sublimation. I've been using this even during regular climbing)
- Dusty Ether
- Bring a scroll of Instant Reraise. In case of an impending wipe, use it so that we can at least recover and hopefully complete the floor & exit.
Use body boosts as soon as we enter the floor, then we'll top off HP and go for it. Unless we're farming the floor, feel free to 2-hour at will to take the boss down ASAP with as few casualities as possible.
Rewards
Our main objective is to get the Nyzul weaponskills. As such, we need to both obtain the job-specific weapon, and to climb to floor 100. I've been researching the number of WS points necessary, and it seems that while having the runic key (clearing floor 100) requires only 250 WS Points, the requirement grows steadily down to around 8000 WS points at around clearing floor 20, after which it grows exponentially as it approaches floor 1. Current report of floor 12 is that it takes over 12,000 WS points, so where we are at floor 5 isn't very good.
Good news is that at least we can climb :) Other good news is that progress is counted on every floor, so exiting at floor 99 would count towards progress (about 300 WS points vs. 250 on floor 100). Final good news is that any WS's you do on the weapon after you start the quest counts towards your final number, so you could do like 300 WS points, THEN clear floor 100 and immediately obtain the WS.
For weapons, this is what I have for people's main jobs. Good news is that there is very little overlap!
Ghiren - PLD, WAR, SMN, MNK & RNG (obtained)
Zurar - SAM, DRG
Ashle - NIN, THF
Utaru - NIN, DRK (obtained)
Kuraikaze - SCH, BLM
Ascule - BLU, DNC (both obtained)
Lots of other jobs are basically free lot. I think a lot of you are also leveling more jobs, so if you see a weapon drop that you want, just let everyone know. (i.e.: Ghiren nearly has WHM done, Ashle is leveling RDM(?), Utaru is coming up on THF)
Armor wise, we have the 3 sets of armor:
Askar - Heavy Melee (WAR, PLD, DRK, BST, SAM, DRG) - Ghiren, Utaru & Zurar
Denali - Light melee (MNK, THF, RNG, NIN, BLU, COR, DNC) - Ghiren, Utaru, Ashle & Ascule
Goliard - Mages (WHM, BLM, RDM, BRD, SMN, PUP, SCH) - Ghiren & Kuraikaze
Basics are... lot if you can, and *will* use the item. If nobody will actively use the item, then lot if you can use the item. If everyone who can use the item already has it, then lot it if you think you'll want to use it in the future xD
Example: Of the Denali set, I'll actively use the feet and head pieces so I'd lot them if they came up. For the other Denali pieces, I'll only lot them if nobody else will actively use them. Finally, I'd like to have Goliard gear for when I eventually level SCH or RDM, but I won't lot that unless nobody else wants it.
Finally... let me know if I'm pushing too hard. I'm a very task-oriented person, and when it comes to getting the job done, I'm very quick to parse out resources and give orders ^^; I probably come across as curt during assaults due to the time pressure involved. Some of my management team members like it as I can get the job done, but it does sometimes rub people the wrong way. You all have my AIM, so do talk to me if there are any issues!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
On Dancer as a main job
My blog posts seem to come in bursts, so here's another one!
From looking around the server, I noticed that there just aren't that many people with level 75 Dancers. Not as rare as PUP, but still pretty rare. I guess part of it is that people have a low opinion of Dancers in the first place since many of the people taking it to sub levels simply... don't play it well, possibly because they tend to be melees who simply want a sub for campaign and do not have the right mindset to be a healer. They're forcing themselves to level a job that they don't enjoy. I think Frodorn put it best the other night when he finally completed his DNC sub, wondering how I managed to get DNC to 75 and expressing relief that his ordeal was finally over. For me, Dancer was always much more fun than any other job, and I really enjoyed the leveling experience. Of course, I enjoyed it a lot better after level 40 when I got Reverse Flourish! I'm always surprised by people talking about either Dancers who don't heal, or asking if a Dancer can handle main healing a part (the answer is yes :P) or even better yet, "What can a Dancer do?" (was asked this Monday afternoon)
Then again, I'm still discovering what Dancer can actually do myself. I've always figured that DNC was a good main healer, and with /NIN, a good backup tank at low levels. In the past, I've been experimenting with other things, such as focusing on enfeebling with Stutter Step for BLMs, or Box Step for melee DDs. With /SAM, I've toyed with doing some DDing, and I'm surprised at the skillchain results from just using Wild Flourish. I'm not even macroing in any special gear yet.
So, here's a super-sized post about Dancer as a main job... partially for myself so that I can get my thoughts together about my gear and what pieces I still need to upgrade, and partially to help understand what Dancers can do.
What Dancer is:
Dancer is... a hybrid class. This groups it with Red Mage, Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, Corsair, Scholar and possibly more. As I think about it, Dancer is actually closest to Red Mage in terms of capability and responsibilities. We can both heal(Waltz), enfeeble the mob(Steps & Flourishes), and support the party(Samba). Both Dancer & Red Mage have an incredible amount of endurance. However, as a hybrid, it is harder to define exactly what a Dancer should do because... well, it can do quite a few things!
Dancer is... a main healer. Yes, this includes healing before White Mages. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Our heals are instant. White Magic still takes a second or two to cast.
2. Our TP builds up over the course of a battle, basically meaning that our cures are "free" as in it does not contribute to the downtime of a party. The ability for a party to handle emergency situations depends on how high the White Mage's MP is. A Dancer will regain TP during the course of any battle
3. If not curing, White Mages can use their MP for other things that will contribute to the party, such as throwing up some enfeebles, Hasting, etc.
Of course, this doesn't mean that a White Mage doesn't have things to do in a party with a Dancer. Due to the Waltz recast timer, we're limited in how fast we can cure people. While a WHM can go from Cure IV to Cure III in rapid succession, we have to wait out a single timer. This means in AoE or emergency situations, a backup healer is necessary to help the DNC keep up with the load. Additionally, while a Dancer can handle curing a party, removing status effects is not something that Dancers are good at. Healing Waltz has a long recast timer, takes a lot of TP and prevents a Dancer from curing damage. If a WHM or /WHM sees status effects on the party, remove them as it'll let a Dancer concentrate on healing damage.
Dancer is... an enfeebler. Yes, those Steps we use to build up finishing moves actually do serve a purpose! If we're fighting a Thief-type mob, Quickstep lowers their evasion. If we're manaburning something, throw a couple of Stutter Steps up and it'll really help get those Black Mages killed. All other mobs, Box Step will help with overall damage. One other thing that many people don't realize is that our Steps will not wake a sleeping mob. They don't do damage, so it is possible to sleep-nuke a mob while a Dancer steps down their magical defense. We do need to be engaged to the mob, but simply keeping our back turned will let us use steps on the mob while keeping it asleep. Oh yeah, we also have two flourishes that get often overlooked... Violent Flourish is basically equal to Head Butt, just on a 30 second timer instead of a 3 second timer. Desperate Flourish is Gravity.
Dancer is... a supporter. Haste Samba. 5-10% haste depending on merits. My understanding is that this does not add to the magical haste cap, so one of these days I'd like to take a party with 2x March, Haste + Haste Samba and Haste gear to see how fast people swing. :o
Oh, and in emergency situations, we'll switch to Drain Samba to try to keep the party alive. Finally, if there's a PLD, BLU or DRK, we'll be keeping an eye on your MP and throw up Aspir Samba if possible. Finally, we have Wild Flourish that lets us set anyone up for a self-skillchain. All we need to do is throw Wild Flourish out before someone WS's and we have an instant skillchain. Of course, coordinating this is really hard given that I can't read people's minds on when they're going to use their TP :)
Dancer is... a damage dealer? Ok, this is the area which I have the least experience because I'm normally concentrating on the other tasks. I've pulled out a few surprising Dancing Edges, and combined with Wild Flourish, some good SC results. I should experiment using Building Flourish with that other quested WS (forgot the name). With /SAM and Reverse Flourish, we'll probably WS a lot if we concentrated on doing nothing but damage. I'm still not convinced that this works well, but... I'll give it a try!
Dancer is... a tank? Well, at low levels, a DNC/NIN can tank as well as, if not better than a NIN/WAR. Between Animated Flourish for an initial provoke and the crazy amount of hate our heals generate, most Dancers have to hold back in the 30s, or simply accept tanking half the fight. At high levels, well... our evasion is high enough that we can get away with toying with Easy Prey & Decent Challenges without problems. A Dancer is probably a Thief's best farming-duo partner.
Wow... that's a lot longer than I thought it would be. Hope that helps someone in their image of Dancers. Next up, something more for myself to get my thoughts out onto paper.
Dancer - Equipment breakdown by slot
I'm currently quite happy with my Dancer's equipment. Unlike BLU, I think I'm fairly well equipped on DNC. Gear wise, I've been focusing on two aspects: Accuracy & Haste. I put on as much Haste gear as I can, and swap it out for accuracy as necessary depending on the mob. So far, I've rarely needed to resort to accuracy gear, only when I'm dealing with mobs like Kaiser Behemoth, or highly evasive mobs like Chigre.
Main Hand: Azoth - Accuracy +4, Evasion +4, and high DPS
It was Ashle who convinced me to plop down the gil to buy this super-expensive knife. I think it's actually better than even the mythic weapon Terpsichore due to the increase in accuracy, and that to take full advantage of the Terpsichore, you have to WS, which is something Dancers rarely do in the first place.
Alternative: Terpsichore - If I had this and was /NIN, I'd simply off-hand the Azoth xD
Off-hand: Currently Jambiya - High DPS
Alternative: Kard - +5 chr, low delay
I still have my two Jambiyas that I like to keep around for show... and to wear during WoTG cutscenes with Lilisette :D It has a high DPS rating, but otherwise, nothing too special about it. Alternatively, the Kard would be a good choice for an off-hand due to the lower delay, and the additions to Chr which would help in main healing.
Ranged: Currently: War Hoop (+4 chr, pulling)
Alternative: Tiphia Sting (+2 Accuracy & Attack, but -4 evasion)
Ever since Aquelia put me through "pulling boot camp" on my lowbie WAR and during my last levels exping Dancer, I've been addicted to pulling whenever possible... almost to the point where I get too impatient and pull mobs when I'm not supposed to ^^; Chances are that I'll be using my War Hoop since it can be used for pulling, and the charisma boost is always good.
Head: Walahra Turban (+5% Haste) / Optical Hat (+10 Accuracy & Evasion)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Hat (+8 Accuracy, +2 Dex, +2 Subtle Blow), or
- Panther Mask (+5 Chr, +2% Haste, resist paralyze), or
- Denali Bonnet (+4% Haste, +3 attack & evasion) or
- Pahluwan q-thingie (+7 accuracy, +5 attack)
Right now, I have to choose betwen haste or accuracy, which isn't a big deal really. My alternatives all trade off a little haste, or a little accuracy for something else like attack & evasion. Denali's Bonnet & Enkidu's hat both look like good alternatives for when I need to mix things up, and I'm considering picking up a Panther Mask for the extra charisma when curing.
Body: Rapparee Harness (+4% Haste) / Scorpion Harness (+10 Accuracy & Evasion)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Harness (+10 accuracy, +5 evasion, +10 attack, +5 str, +5 Subtle Blow)
- Pahluwan k-thingie (+10 accuracy, +Crit Hit Rate)
Again, a trade-off between haste & accuracy. For upgrades, Enkidu's Harness is a significant upgrade compared to the scorpion harness even though the evasion is slightly lowered. I guess dot would be higher on Enkidu's due to the higher attack & strength
Hands: Dusk Gloves (+3% Haste) / Cobra Unit Mittens (+4 Accuracy, +3 Store TP)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Mittens (+5 Accuracy, Str & Dex +4)
- Pahluwan's d-thingie (+5 Accuracy)
The same haste/accuracy trade-off. Again, Enkidu's Mittens are a significant upgrade over the Cobra Unit mittens. We really need to go do more ZNMs... I want that Enkidu's set!
Legs: Cobra Unit Subligar (short shorts!) (+5 Accuracy, +3 Store TP)
Alternative: Barbarossa's Zerehs (+3% Haste, +4 Str)
Finally a piece where Cobra Unit > all! No other piece gives as high accuracy in this slot. Denali kecks does give evasion, so that might be useful for soloing, but for once Enkidu's subligar does not outperform Cobra Unit, at least not for Dancers. I still need the Ashu Talif pants in order to complete my haste set... hopefully we start that up again soon.
Feet: Dusk Ledelsens (+2% Haste, +4 Attack) / Cobra Unit Leggings (+4 Accuracy, +4 Store TP)
Alternatives: Enkidu's leggings (+2% Haste, +4 Attack, +3 Dex, +2 Subtle Blow)
- Denali Gamashels (+5 accuracy, +3 Str)
In this case, we have good replacements for both my haste & accuracy gear. The Denali Gamashels would be quite a significant upgrade with one more accuracy and the extra strength, while the Enkidu's leggings would at let me actually run at normal speed, plus I'd be able to sell my dusk feet for some gil ; ;
Earrings: Brutal Earring (Double Attack) & Suppanomimi (Enhances Dual Wield) OR Minuet Earring (+1 Str & Dex, Minuet: Accuracy +3)
Alternatives: Coral Earring (+5 Attack, Magic Damage -1%)
- Roundel Earring ("Waltz" potency +5%)
Earrings is one place where I find it hard to figure out good equipment. Right now, I'm using a Minuet earring when I'm not /NIN to pair with my Brutal Earring. The Roundel Earring would be the obvious "killer" piece for both WHMs & DNCs, but so far, nobody knows where it comes from.
Rings: Blood Ring (+5 Accuracy) / Rajas Ring (+5 Store TP)
Alternatives: Ecphoria Ring (+4 Accuracy, Remove Amnesia)
- Other super hard-to-get accuracy rings
I'm actually pretty happy with my ring combination. The Rajas Ring gives enough Store TP that when I'm using /NIN, my first two hits gives me 10% TP, which is enough to start stepping. I normally hold onto my Ecphoria Ring just in case I really, really need to remove amnesia, or if I need a little extra accuracy for some reason. The only other rings that I've noticed are even higher accuracy rings which area really hard to get (Absolute Virtue, or Promy-Vahzl ENM >.>)
Back: Amemet Mantle +1 (+2 Str, +15 Attack)
Alternatives: Psilos Mantle (+1 Accuracy, +12 Attack)
Back pieces are hard to figure out. There really isn't too much to choose from. I've been using the Amemet +1 since I use that on BLU, but I really should pick up a Psilos just to get that +1 accuracy. It's only 30k on AH, so... once I raise enough gil... yes, I'm that broke right now ; ;
Waist: Swift Belt (+3 Accuracy, 4% Haste) / Nu Sash (+10 Accuracy)
Alternatives: None!
Well, not counting the impossible-to-get alternatives like the Speed Belt or Velocious Belt for an extra 2% haste. These two belts are basically the best that I can get on DNC! Thank you everyone from AP who put up with me when we did the Swift Belt runs all those months ago (and especially thanks Vargie who let me have his Swift Belt drop). The Nu Sash was a lucky drop during our Assault rank-ups. If I didn't get this one, I'd probably still be using my Life Belt, or bugging people to go repeat that one assault >.>
Equipment Conclusion
Let's see... I have a short shopping list:
- Psilos Mantle - 30k
- Panther Mask - 5k
For drops, basically I want Enkidu's Harness set. Specifically, the leggings, mittens and harness are all high priority items that would replace my existing equipment. The subligar & cap I'd want to just finish off the set ^^; Upgrades from Enkidu's Harness would result in
- Accuracy: +1
- Attack: +10
- Strength: +9
- Dex: +7
- Subtle Blow: +7
Add on Denali's Gamashels for an extra +1 accuracy and +3 strength and Barbarossa's Zerehs for my haste equipment with +3% Haste and +4 Strength.
I forsee lots more ZNMs & Ashu Talif in the future. I wonder where the Roundel Earring comes from...
Dancer Merits
Last bit... With the category 1 merits added for Dancer, I've been meriting both Haste Samba (4/5) & Reverse Flourish (3/5). I'm still considering how to handle the last three upgrades I have for this category. I'm definitely going to push Reverse Flourish to 4/5 so that when I reverse with 4 finishing moves, I'll get 46+12 = 58% TP, which is enough to do a Curing Waltz IV after I do a WS assuming I get at least 7% TP return.
For the last two upgrades, I'm thinking of putting them both into Step Accuracy to gain +6 accuracy on Steps. The effect should be more noticable compared to another 1% in Haste Samba, or an extra 3% TP return.
Well, that's it for Dancer right now... comments welcome as always!
From looking around the server, I noticed that there just aren't that many people with level 75 Dancers. Not as rare as PUP, but still pretty rare. I guess part of it is that people have a low opinion of Dancers in the first place since many of the people taking it to sub levels simply... don't play it well, possibly because they tend to be melees who simply want a sub for campaign and do not have the right mindset to be a healer. They're forcing themselves to level a job that they don't enjoy. I think Frodorn put it best the other night when he finally completed his DNC sub, wondering how I managed to get DNC to 75 and expressing relief that his ordeal was finally over. For me, Dancer was always much more fun than any other job, and I really enjoyed the leveling experience. Of course, I enjoyed it a lot better after level 40 when I got Reverse Flourish! I'm always surprised by people talking about either Dancers who don't heal, or asking if a Dancer can handle main healing a part (the answer is yes :P) or even better yet, "What can a Dancer do?" (was asked this Monday afternoon)
Then again, I'm still discovering what Dancer can actually do myself. I've always figured that DNC was a good main healer, and with /NIN, a good backup tank at low levels. In the past, I've been experimenting with other things, such as focusing on enfeebling with Stutter Step for BLMs, or Box Step for melee DDs. With /SAM, I've toyed with doing some DDing, and I'm surprised at the skillchain results from just using Wild Flourish. I'm not even macroing in any special gear yet.
So, here's a super-sized post about Dancer as a main job... partially for myself so that I can get my thoughts together about my gear and what pieces I still need to upgrade, and partially to help understand what Dancers can do.
What Dancer is:
Dancer is... a hybrid class. This groups it with Red Mage, Blue Mage, Puppetmaster, Corsair, Scholar and possibly more. As I think about it, Dancer is actually closest to Red Mage in terms of capability and responsibilities. We can both heal(Waltz), enfeeble the mob(Steps & Flourishes), and support the party(Samba). Both Dancer & Red Mage have an incredible amount of endurance. However, as a hybrid, it is harder to define exactly what a Dancer should do because... well, it can do quite a few things!
Dancer is... a main healer. Yes, this includes healing before White Mages. There are a few reasons for this:
1. Our heals are instant. White Magic still takes a second or two to cast.
2. Our TP builds up over the course of a battle, basically meaning that our cures are "free" as in it does not contribute to the downtime of a party. The ability for a party to handle emergency situations depends on how high the White Mage's MP is. A Dancer will regain TP during the course of any battle
3. If not curing, White Mages can use their MP for other things that will contribute to the party, such as throwing up some enfeebles, Hasting, etc.
Of course, this doesn't mean that a White Mage doesn't have things to do in a party with a Dancer. Due to the Waltz recast timer, we're limited in how fast we can cure people. While a WHM can go from Cure IV to Cure III in rapid succession, we have to wait out a single timer. This means in AoE or emergency situations, a backup healer is necessary to help the DNC keep up with the load. Additionally, while a Dancer can handle curing a party, removing status effects is not something that Dancers are good at. Healing Waltz has a long recast timer, takes a lot of TP and prevents a Dancer from curing damage. If a WHM or /WHM sees status effects on the party, remove them as it'll let a Dancer concentrate on healing damage.
Dancer is... an enfeebler. Yes, those Steps we use to build up finishing moves actually do serve a purpose! If we're fighting a Thief-type mob, Quickstep lowers their evasion. If we're manaburning something, throw a couple of Stutter Steps up and it'll really help get those Black Mages killed. All other mobs, Box Step will help with overall damage. One other thing that many people don't realize is that our Steps will not wake a sleeping mob. They don't do damage, so it is possible to sleep-nuke a mob while a Dancer steps down their magical defense. We do need to be engaged to the mob, but simply keeping our back turned will let us use steps on the mob while keeping it asleep. Oh yeah, we also have two flourishes that get often overlooked... Violent Flourish is basically equal to Head Butt, just on a 30 second timer instead of a 3 second timer. Desperate Flourish is Gravity.
Dancer is... a supporter. Haste Samba. 5-10% haste depending on merits. My understanding is that this does not add to the magical haste cap, so one of these days I'd like to take a party with 2x March, Haste + Haste Samba and Haste gear to see how fast people swing. :o
Oh, and in emergency situations, we'll switch to Drain Samba to try to keep the party alive. Finally, if there's a PLD, BLU or DRK, we'll be keeping an eye on your MP and throw up Aspir Samba if possible. Finally, we have Wild Flourish that lets us set anyone up for a self-skillchain. All we need to do is throw Wild Flourish out before someone WS's and we have an instant skillchain. Of course, coordinating this is really hard given that I can't read people's minds on when they're going to use their TP :)
Dancer is... a damage dealer? Ok, this is the area which I have the least experience because I'm normally concentrating on the other tasks. I've pulled out a few surprising Dancing Edges, and combined with Wild Flourish, some good SC results. I should experiment using Building Flourish with that other quested WS (forgot the name). With /SAM and Reverse Flourish, we'll probably WS a lot if we concentrated on doing nothing but damage. I'm still not convinced that this works well, but... I'll give it a try!
Dancer is... a tank? Well, at low levels, a DNC/NIN can tank as well as, if not better than a NIN/WAR. Between Animated Flourish for an initial provoke and the crazy amount of hate our heals generate, most Dancers have to hold back in the 30s, or simply accept tanking half the fight. At high levels, well... our evasion is high enough that we can get away with toying with Easy Prey & Decent Challenges without problems. A Dancer is probably a Thief's best farming-duo partner.
Wow... that's a lot longer than I thought it would be. Hope that helps someone in their image of Dancers. Next up, something more for myself to get my thoughts out onto paper.
Dancer - Equipment breakdown by slot
I'm currently quite happy with my Dancer's equipment. Unlike BLU, I think I'm fairly well equipped on DNC. Gear wise, I've been focusing on two aspects: Accuracy & Haste. I put on as much Haste gear as I can, and swap it out for accuracy as necessary depending on the mob. So far, I've rarely needed to resort to accuracy gear, only when I'm dealing with mobs like Kaiser Behemoth, or highly evasive mobs like Chigre.
Main Hand: Azoth - Accuracy +4, Evasion +4, and high DPS
It was Ashle who convinced me to plop down the gil to buy this super-expensive knife. I think it's actually better than even the mythic weapon Terpsichore due to the increase in accuracy, and that to take full advantage of the Terpsichore, you have to WS, which is something Dancers rarely do in the first place.
Alternative: Terpsichore - If I had this and was /NIN, I'd simply off-hand the Azoth xD
Off-hand: Currently Jambiya - High DPS
Alternative: Kard - +5 chr, low delay
I still have my two Jambiyas that I like to keep around for show... and to wear during WoTG cutscenes with Lilisette :D It has a high DPS rating, but otherwise, nothing too special about it. Alternatively, the Kard would be a good choice for an off-hand due to the lower delay, and the additions to Chr which would help in main healing.
Ranged: Currently: War Hoop (+4 chr, pulling)
Alternative: Tiphia Sting (+2 Accuracy & Attack, but -4 evasion)
Ever since Aquelia put me through "pulling boot camp" on my lowbie WAR and during my last levels exping Dancer, I've been addicted to pulling whenever possible... almost to the point where I get too impatient and pull mobs when I'm not supposed to ^^; Chances are that I'll be using my War Hoop since it can be used for pulling, and the charisma boost is always good.
Head: Walahra Turban (+5% Haste) / Optical Hat (+10 Accuracy & Evasion)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Hat (+8 Accuracy, +2 Dex, +2 Subtle Blow), or
- Panther Mask (+5 Chr, +2% Haste, resist paralyze), or
- Denali Bonnet (+4% Haste, +3 attack & evasion) or
- Pahluwan q-thingie (+7 accuracy, +5 attack)
Right now, I have to choose betwen haste or accuracy, which isn't a big deal really. My alternatives all trade off a little haste, or a little accuracy for something else like attack & evasion. Denali's Bonnet & Enkidu's hat both look like good alternatives for when I need to mix things up, and I'm considering picking up a Panther Mask for the extra charisma when curing.
Body: Rapparee Harness (+4% Haste) / Scorpion Harness (+10 Accuracy & Evasion)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Harness (+10 accuracy, +5 evasion, +10 attack, +5 str, +5 Subtle Blow)
- Pahluwan k-thingie (+10 accuracy, +Crit Hit Rate)
Again, a trade-off between haste & accuracy. For upgrades, Enkidu's Harness is a significant upgrade compared to the scorpion harness even though the evasion is slightly lowered. I guess dot would be higher on Enkidu's due to the higher attack & strength
Hands: Dusk Gloves (+3% Haste) / Cobra Unit Mittens (+4 Accuracy, +3 Store TP)
Alternatives: Enkidu's Mittens (+5 Accuracy, Str & Dex +4)
- Pahluwan's d-thingie (+5 Accuracy)
The same haste/accuracy trade-off. Again, Enkidu's Mittens are a significant upgrade over the Cobra Unit mittens. We really need to go do more ZNMs... I want that Enkidu's set!
Legs: Cobra Unit Subligar (short shorts!) (+5 Accuracy, +3 Store TP)
Alternative: Barbarossa's Zerehs (+3% Haste, +4 Str)
Finally a piece where Cobra Unit > all! No other piece gives as high accuracy in this slot. Denali kecks does give evasion, so that might be useful for soloing, but for once Enkidu's subligar does not outperform Cobra Unit, at least not for Dancers. I still need the Ashu Talif pants in order to complete my haste set... hopefully we start that up again soon.
Feet: Dusk Ledelsens (+2% Haste, +4 Attack) / Cobra Unit Leggings (+4 Accuracy, +4 Store TP)
Alternatives: Enkidu's leggings (+2% Haste, +4 Attack, +3 Dex, +2 Subtle Blow)
- Denali Gamashels (+5 accuracy, +3 Str)
In this case, we have good replacements for both my haste & accuracy gear. The Denali Gamashels would be quite a significant upgrade with one more accuracy and the extra strength, while the Enkidu's leggings would at let me actually run at normal speed, plus I'd be able to sell my dusk feet for some gil ; ;
Earrings: Brutal Earring (Double Attack) & Suppanomimi (Enhances Dual Wield) OR Minuet Earring (+1 Str & Dex, Minuet: Accuracy +3)
Alternatives: Coral Earring (+5 Attack, Magic Damage -1%)
- Roundel Earring ("Waltz" potency +5%)
Earrings is one place where I find it hard to figure out good equipment. Right now, I'm using a Minuet earring when I'm not /NIN to pair with my Brutal Earring. The Roundel Earring would be the obvious "killer" piece for both WHMs & DNCs, but so far, nobody knows where it comes from.
Rings: Blood Ring (+5 Accuracy) / Rajas Ring (+5 Store TP)
Alternatives: Ecphoria Ring (+4 Accuracy, Remove Amnesia)
- Other super hard-to-get accuracy rings
I'm actually pretty happy with my ring combination. The Rajas Ring gives enough Store TP that when I'm using /NIN, my first two hits gives me 10% TP, which is enough to start stepping. I normally hold onto my Ecphoria Ring just in case I really, really need to remove amnesia, or if I need a little extra accuracy for some reason. The only other rings that I've noticed are even higher accuracy rings which area really hard to get (Absolute Virtue, or Promy-Vahzl ENM >.>)
Back: Amemet Mantle +1 (+2 Str, +15 Attack)
Alternatives: Psilos Mantle (+1 Accuracy, +12 Attack)
Back pieces are hard to figure out. There really isn't too much to choose from. I've been using the Amemet +1 since I use that on BLU, but I really should pick up a Psilos just to get that +1 accuracy. It's only 30k on AH, so... once I raise enough gil... yes, I'm that broke right now ; ;
Waist: Swift Belt (+3 Accuracy, 4% Haste) / Nu Sash (+10 Accuracy)
Alternatives: None!
Well, not counting the impossible-to-get alternatives like the Speed Belt or Velocious Belt for an extra 2% haste. These two belts are basically the best that I can get on DNC! Thank you everyone from AP who put up with me when we did the Swift Belt runs all those months ago (and especially thanks Vargie who let me have his Swift Belt drop). The Nu Sash was a lucky drop during our Assault rank-ups. If I didn't get this one, I'd probably still be using my Life Belt, or bugging people to go repeat that one assault >.>
Equipment Conclusion
Let's see... I have a short shopping list:
- Psilos Mantle - 30k
- Panther Mask - 5k
For drops, basically I want Enkidu's Harness set. Specifically, the leggings, mittens and harness are all high priority items that would replace my existing equipment. The subligar & cap I'd want to just finish off the set ^^; Upgrades from Enkidu's Harness would result in
- Accuracy: +1
- Attack: +10
- Strength: +9
- Dex: +7
- Subtle Blow: +7
Add on Denali's Gamashels for an extra +1 accuracy and +3 strength and Barbarossa's Zerehs for my haste equipment with +3% Haste and +4 Strength.
I forsee lots more ZNMs & Ashu Talif in the future. I wonder where the Roundel Earring comes from...
Dancer Merits
Last bit... With the category 1 merits added for Dancer, I've been meriting both Haste Samba (4/5) & Reverse Flourish (3/5). I'm still considering how to handle the last three upgrades I have for this category. I'm definitely going to push Reverse Flourish to 4/5 so that when I reverse with 4 finishing moves, I'll get 46+12 = 58% TP, which is enough to do a Curing Waltz IV after I do a WS assuming I get at least 7% TP return.
For the last two upgrades, I'm thinking of putting them both into Step Accuracy to gain +6 accuracy on Steps. The effect should be more noticable compared to another 1% in Haste Samba, or an extra 3% TP return.
Well, that's it for Dancer right now... comments welcome as always!
Post-update update
It's been a week since the Sep-2008 update, so I figured I'd dump a few of my impressions out there.
Level Sync
Definitely an interesting idea. I don't think there will be many parties in the future that won't take advantage of level sync. It's too easy to keep a party synced to a low enough level to yield max exp for a specific camp. The only disadvantage I could think of is that if you're always levelnig up in a level sync'ed party, your skills will quickly become out of date, and the first non-sync'ed party you join afterwards, it'll take you a while to recap your skills.
Personally, I've only tried it twice, once on BLU in a dunes party, and another on DNC at a level 45 party. In both cases, the feeling was... nostalgic. I haven't tanked on BLU/WAR since... well, the dunes, and toying with low level DNC is always fun. In both cases, it let me play around with some friends that I would normally not be able to while they were leveling other jobs!
Only annoyances of level sync are... you lose TP when you sync, or whenever the sync'ed person levels up, making it super annoying... plus that for level-capped missions, you still get your armor, so no more "naked dragon fights" ; ;
Campaign
Everyone noticed that the /brd-bot nerf took place, and having the C.A.'s empty of people just afk there is a welcome change. However, I noticed that other aspects have changed as well, making it actually easier to get exp. One thing I noticed is that for some reason, wall-hitting exp has significantly increased.
Previously, no matter how long I went to hit at a wall, I'd get only about 1k exp. This is whether you're hitting the wall for 15 minutes, or 45 minutes. To maximize this, I'd refresh my tags about once every 15 minutes, adding some travel time to wall-hitting. Now, I noticed that even after 15-20 minutes of wall hitting, I was still hitting the time cap. i.e.: I was still getting more than half allied notes compared to exp. This was for doing nothing but hitting the wall. More testing needs to be done here to see how viable this is for afk-exp :)
Oh, and I've changed to doing campaign on DNC/WHM. I can't hold hate as well compared to BLU/WHM since I can't spike damage, but I can last a lot longer when soloing a mob. Actually, I can hold a mob off pretty much indefinitely as DNC compared to BLU where I'd eventually run out of MP and die xD
Nyzul
Started doing Nyzuls... not only doing a group on Thursday, but also random farming groups with other AP members. I've done a total of 6 nyzul runs since the update and I already have all the Nyzul weapons I wanted o.o; Thursday night we did 2 runs, and I got my BLU weapon off a random NM between floor 1-5. Sunday afternoon, did a 95-100 run with Fuuji's group to get Dexie her runic key item and I picked up the SCH staff, and Sunday night, we did some farming runs with half of Varg's group and I got the DNC dagger.
Weapons seem to be pretty common drops. I guess the hard part is having the weapon you want drop. I seem to have lucked out for now, getting 3 of the 2 weapons I wanted. I've activated the quest to unlock the weaponskills for both weapons, but I don't think I'm up for doing 5000 WS points just yet xD
Still, from what I've read, you can do WS points at any time, and if you go up Nyzul enough to clear the # of points necessary for that floor, the WS simply opens up, so I'll be open for any skill-up or WS party out there.
Other Dancer stuff
Merit wise, I'm currently at 4/5 on Haste Samba, and 2/5 on Reverse Flourish merits. Haste Samba I can't really eyeball the difference between 5% haste and 9% haste... I'm assuming it's there, but my attention is usually elsewhere... i.e.: the HP bar. Reverse Flourish merits are immediately noticable since instead of getting 46% TP return on a 4 finishing move Reverse Flourish, I"m getting 52%.
I'm now considering how I want to finish the Dancer category 1 merits. I want Reverse Flourish to be at least 4/5 since that'll give me a 46+12 = 58% return with 4 finishing moves, which lets me do a WS and immediately follow up with a Curing Waltz IV given the TP return on any WS I use. I'm now debating whether I want to use the last two merit increases on finishing off Haste Samba + Reverse Flourish, or to put them into Step Accuracy. 1% more on Haste shouldn't be that noticable, but having an additional +6 accuracy on steps might be more useful on those hard NM fights where I have to go in full accuracy gear in the first place.
I'll put together another post about Dancer soon xD
Blue Mage Stuff
Did two Limbus runs since the update... I haven't seen a single AF+1 item drop for BLU yet, though we did see a single COR the other day. I'm already saving up ancient beastcoins to upgrade my body piece. We'll have to see if it's possible to obtain the actual pieces necessary to unlock it.
Since their schedule matches up with mine for the most part, I've asked to join BMO in Dynamis to hopefully get some AF2. I saw one person running around with the BLU AF2 body so far, and I must say that it does look pretty slick xD. It's been a while since I've done Dynamis at all, and Ascule does not have any northlands dynamis access, so it might be a while before I get any progress in this department.
Level Sync
Definitely an interesting idea. I don't think there will be many parties in the future that won't take advantage of level sync. It's too easy to keep a party synced to a low enough level to yield max exp for a specific camp. The only disadvantage I could think of is that if you're always levelnig up in a level sync'ed party, your skills will quickly become out of date, and the first non-sync'ed party you join afterwards, it'll take you a while to recap your skills.
Personally, I've only tried it twice, once on BLU in a dunes party, and another on DNC at a level 45 party. In both cases, the feeling was... nostalgic. I haven't tanked on BLU/WAR since... well, the dunes, and toying with low level DNC is always fun. In both cases, it let me play around with some friends that I would normally not be able to while they were leveling other jobs!
Only annoyances of level sync are... you lose TP when you sync, or whenever the sync'ed person levels up, making it super annoying... plus that for level-capped missions, you still get your armor, so no more "naked dragon fights" ; ;
Campaign
Everyone noticed that the /brd-bot nerf took place, and having the C.A.'s empty of people just afk there is a welcome change. However, I noticed that other aspects have changed as well, making it actually easier to get exp. One thing I noticed is that for some reason, wall-hitting exp has significantly increased.
Previously, no matter how long I went to hit at a wall, I'd get only about 1k exp. This is whether you're hitting the wall for 15 minutes, or 45 minutes. To maximize this, I'd refresh my tags about once every 15 minutes, adding some travel time to wall-hitting. Now, I noticed that even after 15-20 minutes of wall hitting, I was still hitting the time cap. i.e.: I was still getting more than half allied notes compared to exp. This was for doing nothing but hitting the wall. More testing needs to be done here to see how viable this is for afk-exp :)
Oh, and I've changed to doing campaign on DNC/WHM. I can't hold hate as well compared to BLU/WHM since I can't spike damage, but I can last a lot longer when soloing a mob. Actually, I can hold a mob off pretty much indefinitely as DNC compared to BLU where I'd eventually run out of MP and die xD
Nyzul
Started doing Nyzuls... not only doing a group on Thursday, but also random farming groups with other AP members. I've done a total of 6 nyzul runs since the update and I already have all the Nyzul weapons I wanted o.o; Thursday night we did 2 runs, and I got my BLU weapon off a random NM between floor 1-5. Sunday afternoon, did a 95-100 run with Fuuji's group to get Dexie her runic key item and I picked up the SCH staff, and Sunday night, we did some farming runs with half of Varg's group and I got the DNC dagger.
Weapons seem to be pretty common drops. I guess the hard part is having the weapon you want drop. I seem to have lucked out for now, getting 3 of the 2 weapons I wanted. I've activated the quest to unlock the weaponskills for both weapons, but I don't think I'm up for doing 5000 WS points just yet xD
Still, from what I've read, you can do WS points at any time, and if you go up Nyzul enough to clear the # of points necessary for that floor, the WS simply opens up, so I'll be open for any skill-up or WS party out there.
Other Dancer stuff
Merit wise, I'm currently at 4/5 on Haste Samba, and 2/5 on Reverse Flourish merits. Haste Samba I can't really eyeball the difference between 5% haste and 9% haste... I'm assuming it's there, but my attention is usually elsewhere... i.e.: the HP bar. Reverse Flourish merits are immediately noticable since instead of getting 46% TP return on a 4 finishing move Reverse Flourish, I"m getting 52%.
I'm now considering how I want to finish the Dancer category 1 merits. I want Reverse Flourish to be at least 4/5 since that'll give me a 46+12 = 58% return with 4 finishing moves, which lets me do a WS and immediately follow up with a Curing Waltz IV given the TP return on any WS I use. I'm now debating whether I want to use the last two merit increases on finishing off Haste Samba + Reverse Flourish, or to put them into Step Accuracy. 1% more on Haste shouldn't be that noticable, but having an additional +6 accuracy on steps might be more useful on those hard NM fights where I have to go in full accuracy gear in the first place.
I'll put together another post about Dancer soon xD
Blue Mage Stuff
Did two Limbus runs since the update... I haven't seen a single AF+1 item drop for BLU yet, though we did see a single COR the other day. I'm already saving up ancient beastcoins to upgrade my body piece. We'll have to see if it's possible to obtain the actual pieces necessary to unlock it.
Since their schedule matches up with mine for the most part, I've asked to join BMO in Dynamis to hopefully get some AF2. I saw one person running around with the BLU AF2 body so far, and I must say that it does look pretty slick xD. It's been a while since I've done Dynamis at all, and Ascule does not have any northlands dynamis access, so it might be a while before I get any progress in this department.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Nyzul - 1st run & "hints"
Tonight will be the first "serious" Nyzul session. I think we have a good group of people who can climb to the top, but for the most part, we're a bunch of newbies at this! So, to hpoefully help things along, I've put together a small list of hints that might make things go more smoothly.
1. If you haven't already, check out http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Nyzul_Isle_Investigation for information about what the basics of Nyzul are all about!
2. Take initiative. This is a small group event, and we have lots to do with very little time to do it. Climbing 5 floors in 30 minutes means that we can spend an average of 6 minutes per floor, so instead of waiting for instructions, figure out what you need to do and go do it. (find the NM to kill, figure out what the objective of the floor is, go find those lamps
3. Communicate. Along with taking initiative, tell other people what you're doing and what you've found so there isn't any duplicate effort. If you found a lamp switch and intend on staying by it, announce it to the party. Also, follow instructions that you're given
4. Know your role & help others. If the party has split up and you see that someone has aggro, help them out real quick instead of letting them solo. Also, when the party splits up, try to make sure you're with someone who you will partner with well. Two mages together won't last long against mobs, nor will two DDs without healing. Sleep links if you can, and be independent as much as possible. This includes bringing powders and oils if you aren't able to cast sneak & invis on your own, and being able to hold off a mob by yourself until help arrives. (i.e.: NIN or DNC sub, sleeping/stunning the mob, etc.
5. Actions upon completing a floor. Once we complete the objective of each floor, someone needs to go back to the starting point to either get us to the next floor, or to exit Nyzul Isle. Since only one person has to do this, everyone else can do... something else! Like mages can (and should) immediately /heal in order to regain MP, even melees can do that for HP. Whoever goes back should declare it, and hopefully have enhanced movement speed. Additionally, if you see that we are about to complete the objective and know that you'll be the person that will go back to the rune, head back early so you can hit the floor up as soon aswe complete the objective. (most likely going to be Ashle when he comes on THF)
That's it for now... hope that helps somewhat!
1. If you haven't already, check out http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/wiki/Nyzul_Isle_Investigation for information about what the basics of Nyzul are all about!
2. Take initiative. This is a small group event, and we have lots to do with very little time to do it. Climbing 5 floors in 30 minutes means that we can spend an average of 6 minutes per floor, so instead of waiting for instructions, figure out what you need to do and go do it. (find the NM to kill, figure out what the objective of the floor is, go find those lamps
3. Communicate. Along with taking initiative, tell other people what you're doing and what you've found so there isn't any duplicate effort. If you found a lamp switch and intend on staying by it, announce it to the party. Also, follow instructions that you're given
4. Know your role & help others. If the party has split up and you see that someone has aggro, help them out real quick instead of letting them solo. Also, when the party splits up, try to make sure you're with someone who you will partner with well. Two mages together won't last long against mobs, nor will two DDs without healing. Sleep links if you can, and be independent as much as possible. This includes bringing powders and oils if you aren't able to cast sneak & invis on your own, and being able to hold off a mob by yourself until help arrives. (i.e.: NIN or DNC sub, sleeping/stunning the mob, etc.
5. Actions upon completing a floor. Once we complete the objective of each floor, someone needs to go back to the starting point to either get us to the next floor, or to exit Nyzul Isle. Since only one person has to do this, everyone else can do... something else! Like mages can (and should) immediately /heal in order to regain MP, even melees can do that for HP. Whoever goes back should declare it, and hopefully have enhanced movement speed. Additionally, if you see that we are about to complete the objective and know that you'll be the person that will go back to the rune, head back early so you can hit the floor up as soon aswe complete the objective. (most likely going to be Ashle when he comes on THF)
That's it for now... hope that helps somewhat!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Endgame - Nyzul
Fast post to get this out there. With the September update, new weaponskills were introduced and... like many others, I want them!
From my understanding of what limited information out there, you need a runic key in order to get the quest to unlock the WS. In order to get this key, you *now* need to progress from floor 1-100. Simply joining someone at a higher floor and going to floor 100 does not give you the runic key. So, my goal is to put together a group of 6 dedicated individuals that will go from floor 1-100 together with the goal of getting everyone both the runic key, and the mystic weapons that they want! And as a side note, we'll pick up armor along the way :)
The fastest this can be accomplished is between 3-5 weeks of continuous successful floor climbing. The initial goal will be for the group to get to floor 100, then we'll start farming various floors for both weapons and armor. Since weapons drop from any NM now, once we hit floor 100, we can pretty much pick & choose where we want to farm. Realistically, I think this will be a 3-6 month time commitment of a 2 hour time block a week in order to get everyone what they want.
So, two big questions... 1. Who wants to join? and 2. What time?
For who, I have:
- Ashle, Utaru, Zurar - all previously expressed interested in doing Nyzul when we disbanded our assault static a few months ago
- Kurai - Is interested! Never done assault! I know Kurai's an oldbie, but to me he seems new and very enthusiastic!
- Ghiren - "Maybe", hasn't done nyzul in a while
- Frodo - Varg says he's interested xD
As for time... well, I'm trying to set a time that won't conflict with people's schedules, and does not impose too much on people's lives. As such, the following days/times are out:
Monday nights - AP has ZNMs
Wed & Sat nights - Half of us have Limbus in the evening
Tues night - School night! Even though we used to hold assaults on Tuesdays, I know a number of us are going to school still so I'd rather keep this night free
I'd also like to try to block off Friday & Sunday nights so that everyone can have a social life... unless for some reason everyone who signs up for this agrees to meet during on of these times... Sat & Sun daytime is out. Go outside and have some fun!
So, that leaves... basically Thursday night, unless people are also okay going on Sunday nights xD
Hope this is okay with people... Ashle: Do you still have a late night start? >.> I'll contact everyone individually to see what people think...
btw: Where's Utaru been? >.> I know he was trying to arrange for something too... but what happened? And are we still doing Ashu Talif? ^^;
From my understanding of what limited information out there, you need a runic key in order to get the quest to unlock the WS. In order to get this key, you *now* need to progress from floor 1-100. Simply joining someone at a higher floor and going to floor 100 does not give you the runic key. So, my goal is to put together a group of 6 dedicated individuals that will go from floor 1-100 together with the goal of getting everyone both the runic key, and the mystic weapons that they want! And as a side note, we'll pick up armor along the way :)
The fastest this can be accomplished is between 3-5 weeks of continuous successful floor climbing. The initial goal will be for the group to get to floor 100, then we'll start farming various floors for both weapons and armor. Since weapons drop from any NM now, once we hit floor 100, we can pretty much pick & choose where we want to farm. Realistically, I think this will be a 3-6 month time commitment of a 2 hour time block a week in order to get everyone what they want.
So, two big questions... 1. Who wants to join? and 2. What time?
For who, I have:
- Ashle, Utaru, Zurar - all previously expressed interested in doing Nyzul when we disbanded our assault static a few months ago
- Kurai - Is interested! Never done assault! I know Kurai's an oldbie, but to me he seems new and very enthusiastic!
- Ghiren - "Maybe", hasn't done nyzul in a while
- Frodo - Varg says he's interested xD
As for time... well, I'm trying to set a time that won't conflict with people's schedules, and does not impose too much on people's lives. As such, the following days/times are out:
Monday nights - AP has ZNMs
Wed & Sat nights - Half of us have Limbus in the evening
Tues night - School night! Even though we used to hold assaults on Tuesdays, I know a number of us are going to school still so I'd rather keep this night free
I'd also like to try to block off Friday & Sunday nights so that everyone can have a social life... unless for some reason everyone who signs up for this agrees to meet during on of these times... Sat & Sun daytime is out. Go outside and have some fun!
So, that leaves... basically Thursday night, unless people are also okay going on Sunday nights xD
Hope this is okay with people... Ashle: Do you still have a late night start? >.> I'll contact everyone individually to see what people think...
btw: Where's Utaru been? >.> I know he was trying to arrange for something too... but what happened? And are we still doing Ashu Talif? ^^;
Monday, September 8, 2008
Re: Next job
So, besides spamming campaign whenever I can to get merits in anticipation of the update, I've been playing around with other jobs. Last week I managed to finish off my Warrior subjob, though I'm doubtful that I'll use it too much. Still, it's good to get that off the plate and sell my axes xD I've also been toying around with PLD, and as of yesterday, SCH.
Thanks to Zurar and his super-mule-in-training Yasunami, I've actually been able to survive leveling 1-10 twice in the last week or so. I hate soloing at low levels and I tend to die a lot trying to get to 10 xD
So, impressions on the jobs...
Paladin
PLD 22 right now. I figured that I'd enjoy PLD since I was having fun with SAM tanking through 37. Little did I know how different PLD tanking is compared to SAM, NIN, or even BLU tanking >.<
First... I'm surprised by how much I was missing on PLD. Considering that this job has an A+ rating in sword, I figured that I would be hitting a lot more often... I was also figuring that in the future, I'd be using defense foods, so I figured that I shouldn't cheat and use rice dumplings or something to increase accuracy.
Second, I didn't realize how long White Magic takes to cast. I'm constantly getting interrupted when I cast Cure. I'm getting the timing down now, but it's quite annoying to actually always have to time your casts to between mob swings. On NIN (or WAR/NIN), I'd just count shadows and recast just before the last shadow goes down before having to resort to casting between swings. For SAM tanking... well, everything is a job ability, so it can't be interrupted. DNC/NIN can stun the target for a brief moment to recast shadows. BLU magic casts so quickly that it's very rare that I get interrupted in the first place.
Third, so far... Paladin doesn't seem too challenging or interesting ^^; Maybe it's cos I'm being PL'ed all this time so there haven't really been any exciting incidences when leveling up. Still, a PLD's job is to keep the attention of the mob... period. It has lots of tools to do that, but it's not very flexible. I guess that's one of the big reasons I prefer BLU/WHM as I can switch from doing DD, to support & healing, to sleeping and handling links all at the same time.
So, right now PLD is sitting at level 22 and will stay there for a while as I experiment with SCH. I probably need to get into a real, 6-person party situation and tank seriously on PLD to form a more solid opinion on the job. Right now I'm leaning towards retiring it and putting it on the "would be nice to have at 60 cos the AF Armor looks pretty" list together with BST, RNG and COR ^^;
Scholar
Scholar level 12 as of last night, so I only have the most basic of job abilities right now. Again, I'm being PL'ed, so most of my damage is through swinging my pole (and pulling hate with it too! Who says mages can't DD xD) but I've been playing around with switching between arts and using the one strategem available.
Current impression of Scholar is that it's a good hybrid job that can easily switch between support/healing & nuking at a moment's notice. I already do a lot of the support-type stuff on BLU/WHM, but whenever I want to switch over to magical nuking, it always takes me at least 2-3 minutes to switch spells around (1 minute downtime + 2-3 minutes searching for and selecting the correct spells) I'll have to experiment with SCH and see what it plays like at higher levels... This might be the next job I take up for magical nuking + support-type play.
Thanks to Zurar and his super-mule-in-training Yasunami, I've actually been able to survive leveling 1-10 twice in the last week or so. I hate soloing at low levels and I tend to die a lot trying to get to 10 xD
So, impressions on the jobs...
Paladin
PLD 22 right now. I figured that I'd enjoy PLD since I was having fun with SAM tanking through 37. Little did I know how different PLD tanking is compared to SAM, NIN, or even BLU tanking >.<
First... I'm surprised by how much I was missing on PLD. Considering that this job has an A+ rating in sword, I figured that I would be hitting a lot more often... I was also figuring that in the future, I'd be using defense foods, so I figured that I shouldn't cheat and use rice dumplings or something to increase accuracy.
Second, I didn't realize how long White Magic takes to cast. I'm constantly getting interrupted when I cast Cure. I'm getting the timing down now, but it's quite annoying to actually always have to time your casts to between mob swings. On NIN (or WAR/NIN), I'd just count shadows and recast just before the last shadow goes down before having to resort to casting between swings. For SAM tanking... well, everything is a job ability, so it can't be interrupted. DNC/NIN can stun the target for a brief moment to recast shadows. BLU magic casts so quickly that it's very rare that I get interrupted in the first place.
Third, so far... Paladin doesn't seem too challenging or interesting ^^; Maybe it's cos I'm being PL'ed all this time so there haven't really been any exciting incidences when leveling up. Still, a PLD's job is to keep the attention of the mob... period. It has lots of tools to do that, but it's not very flexible. I guess that's one of the big reasons I prefer BLU/WHM as I can switch from doing DD, to support & healing, to sleeping and handling links all at the same time.
So, right now PLD is sitting at level 22 and will stay there for a while as I experiment with SCH. I probably need to get into a real, 6-person party situation and tank seriously on PLD to form a more solid opinion on the job. Right now I'm leaning towards retiring it and putting it on the "would be nice to have at 60 cos the AF Armor looks pretty" list together with BST, RNG and COR ^^;
Scholar
Scholar level 12 as of last night, so I only have the most basic of job abilities right now. Again, I'm being PL'ed, so most of my damage is through swinging my pole (and pulling hate with it too! Who says mages can't DD xD) but I've been playing around with switching between arts and using the one strategem available.
Current impression of Scholar is that it's a good hybrid job that can easily switch between support/healing & nuking at a moment's notice. I already do a lot of the support-type stuff on BLU/WHM, but whenever I want to switch over to magical nuking, it always takes me at least 2-3 minutes to switch spells around (1 minute downtime + 2-3 minutes searching for and selecting the correct spells) I'll have to experiment with SCH and see what it plays like at higher levels... This might be the next job I take up for magical nuking + support-type play.
Septmeber 2008 FFXI pre-update
Whee... September update! Lots of fun stuff... biggest ones for me are the Dancer merits, Blue Mage AF2 & AF+1, and Limbus cost down! <3 the last... my wallet thanks you SE!
As for the rest... well, I'm just looking at the announcement and dat-mined stuff and posting my opinion based on that information right now. We'll see how things change once the update is out.
Dancer Merits
I'm not too impressed with these merits... what do we have:
Step Accuracy: Most Dancers are going to have a crazy high accuracy build to begin with and will rarely miss steps. I think I'm at over +60 accuracy from equipment alone before the accuracy bonus job trait and merits. I think the only time that I've missed steps is on either a highly evasibe NM-type mob, or something big like Kaiser Behemoth, and that's nothing that some Sushi can't fix
Haste Samba Effect: This has some potential to be good. Haste Samba is pretty much the main Samba that Dancers use under almost all circumstances. The only time I switch Sambas is either when the party is heavy with melee mages (BLU, PLD, DRK) for Aspir Samba, or when things are looking bad and I think that the party could use with some HP. Increasing the effectiveness of Haste Samba will probably be significant when fully merited
Reverse Flourish Effect: I normally reverse flourish every two steps for a return of 46% TP every 30 seconds instead of wasting half a step for 60% TP return. One of my original guesses for a Dancer merit was that we'd get the ability to increase the number of steps we store. I guess enhancing Reverse Flourish for more TP return would be just as good! Depending on how "enhanced" it gets, full merits on this might be pretty good. I think I'm already comfortable WSing with 5 finishing moves stored up + meditate... Getting more TP back would just make it that much easier to do more as DNC
Building Flourish Effect: Ugh... No idea where this came from... Building flourish enhances the effectiveness of the Dancer's own weaponskills... However, under *most* circumstances, Dancers should not really be weaponskilling unless TP is flowing and things are under control. I think I've only WS'ed maybe once or at most twice per party I've been in, and I almost never use Building Flourish as I want to save the finishing move for Reverse Flourish. The damage increase is barely noticable in the first place >.<
Likely candidates for meriting are: Haste Samba & Reverse Flourish. If it was "enhances step effectiveness" or "Wild Flourish Effect", the other two might be worth considering... I really think SE dropped the ball on Dancer merits compared to Scholar merits. What Dancer really needs is: Waltz Recast down & Divine Waltz II. The way Dancer is now, main healing any large event still requires a decent backup healer because the timer for Curing Waltz IV is too long to cover things in an "oh crap" situation. Divine Waltz also needs an upgrade. At 75, Dancer doesn't cure enough in a AOE situation.
Scholar on the other hand, has definite winners for group 1 merits... Max sublimation is a definite fully merited ability. As for the others, I'm guessing Grimore recast down or helix attack up are contenders.
Blue Mage AF2 & AF+1
This is an interesting section for me... while I consider Dancer to be my "primary" job, I still go to many events as BLU because it's a more flexible and can adjust as necessary to handle different situations. That... and going as BLU is cheaper instead of popping sushi on DNC with my haste equipment xD
As such, my BLU is only averagely equipped. I've been mainly gearing up for physical magic and sword damage since that shares a ton of gear with Dancer (Dusk gear, Cobra, etc.). I've only *just* started getting magical gear in the form of homam head, insect ring and that ToAU magic ring and while I've seen improvements to MP Drainkiss with this gear, my breath attacks still aren't worth using compared to just supporting the party.
Anyway, now that AF2 & AF+1 gear has been dat-mined... time for a quick look at the various gear to see if any of it is worth getting!
Head piece
AF+1 - DEF:24, MP+25, INT+5, MND+5, Increases Monster Correlation Effects
AF2 - DEF:24, HP+15, VIT+3, Blue Magic Skill+5, Increase Breath Damage
Neither of these are very interesting. I don't even use my regular AF head piece as the "Increases Monster Correlation Effects" feature is too much of a pain to use. For AF2, "Increases Breath Damage" would be interesting, but still has limited usage... Voyager Sallet & Homam Head would probably get better usage compared to either of these two, Voyager for physical magic, while Homam for magical.. erm... magic
Body Piece
AF+1 - DEF:45 HP+17 MP+15 STR+5 DEX+5 Blue Magic Skill+15, HP & MP recovered while healing +1
AF2 - DEF:45, MP+20 Accuracy+10 Enmity-2, Adds "Refresh" effect
These two are both killer pieces. AF+1 is awesome when casting any spell. The +5 Str & Dex, and the Magic Skill +15 is good for both physical & magical attacks. The AF2 is a great replacement for the Scorpion Harness for meleeing since it has the same Accuracy+10, but it also has Refresh, so you can not only be meleeing, but also regaining MP. I'm definitely going to go for the AF+1... however, is the AF2 worth going to Dynamis for? >.<
Hands
AF+1 - DEF:17 MP+20 STR+3 INT+3 Parrying+10, Increases learning >.>
AF2 - DEF:17 HP+12 MP+12 DEX+5 MND+5 Evasion+5
Neither of these are really worth writing home about... Str+3 is nice, as is Dex+5 for various blue mage spells, but when Light Gauntlets also give Str+3 for 8k on the AH... >.>
And at level 74, why do you still need gloves that increase chance of learning?
Legs
AF+1 - DEF:34 HP+25 DEX+5 VIT+5 AGI+5, Interruption down 12%
AF2 - DEF:31 HP+10 MP+10 STR+3 Acc+5 Magic Acc+3
Mmm... both are decent pieces, but nothing really stands out... A few extra strength or dex is always good. I currently use the Cobra Unit Subligar which already gives Acc+5. If anything, I think the AF2 piece is comparitively better just cos it gives strength, accuracy and magical accuracy
Feet
AF+1 - DEF:14 HP+18 MP+18 Acc+3 Evasion+10 Enmity-5
AF2 - DEF:16 MP+15 AGI+3 INT+3 Attack+5 Enmity-3
Neither of these are much of anything... nothing stands out on either of these. Dusk Feet + Cobra Feet both have accuracy & attack, so...
Overall, only the body pieces seem worth getting. The AF+1 body piece is a definite upgrade over the AF body. Since I still use the AF body for casting spells in, it's a no-brainer to consider upgrading to AF+1
For AF2, the body piece is the only piece really worth getting as a melee piece. The other pieces are also decent, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble of doing Dynamis to get these pieces >.>
What do you all think? Is there a Dynamis shell out there that matches my schedule that's willing to take someone who only wants BLU armor? >.>
As for the rest... well, I'm just looking at the announcement and dat-mined stuff and posting my opinion based on that information right now. We'll see how things change once the update is out.
Dancer Merits
I'm not too impressed with these merits... what do we have:
Step Accuracy: Most Dancers are going to have a crazy high accuracy build to begin with and will rarely miss steps. I think I'm at over +60 accuracy from equipment alone before the accuracy bonus job trait and merits. I think the only time that I've missed steps is on either a highly evasibe NM-type mob, or something big like Kaiser Behemoth, and that's nothing that some Sushi can't fix
Haste Samba Effect: This has some potential to be good. Haste Samba is pretty much the main Samba that Dancers use under almost all circumstances. The only time I switch Sambas is either when the party is heavy with melee mages (BLU, PLD, DRK) for Aspir Samba, or when things are looking bad and I think that the party could use with some HP. Increasing the effectiveness of Haste Samba will probably be significant when fully merited
Reverse Flourish Effect: I normally reverse flourish every two steps for a return of 46% TP every 30 seconds instead of wasting half a step for 60% TP return. One of my original guesses for a Dancer merit was that we'd get the ability to increase the number of steps we store. I guess enhancing Reverse Flourish for more TP return would be just as good! Depending on how "enhanced" it gets, full merits on this might be pretty good. I think I'm already comfortable WSing with 5 finishing moves stored up + meditate... Getting more TP back would just make it that much easier to do more as DNC
Building Flourish Effect: Ugh... No idea where this came from... Building flourish enhances the effectiveness of the Dancer's own weaponskills... However, under *most* circumstances, Dancers should not really be weaponskilling unless TP is flowing and things are under control. I think I've only WS'ed maybe once or at most twice per party I've been in, and I almost never use Building Flourish as I want to save the finishing move for Reverse Flourish. The damage increase is barely noticable in the first place >.<
Likely candidates for meriting are: Haste Samba & Reverse Flourish. If it was "enhances step effectiveness" or "Wild Flourish Effect", the other two might be worth considering... I really think SE dropped the ball on Dancer merits compared to Scholar merits. What Dancer really needs is: Waltz Recast down & Divine Waltz II. The way Dancer is now, main healing any large event still requires a decent backup healer because the timer for Curing Waltz IV is too long to cover things in an "oh crap" situation. Divine Waltz also needs an upgrade. At 75, Dancer doesn't cure enough in a AOE situation.
Scholar on the other hand, has definite winners for group 1 merits... Max sublimation is a definite fully merited ability. As for the others, I'm guessing Grimore recast down or helix attack up are contenders.
Blue Mage AF2 & AF+1
This is an interesting section for me... while I consider Dancer to be my "primary" job, I still go to many events as BLU because it's a more flexible and can adjust as necessary to handle different situations. That... and going as BLU is cheaper instead of popping sushi on DNC with my haste equipment xD
As such, my BLU is only averagely equipped. I've been mainly gearing up for physical magic and sword damage since that shares a ton of gear with Dancer (Dusk gear, Cobra, etc.). I've only *just* started getting magical gear in the form of homam head, insect ring and that ToAU magic ring and while I've seen improvements to MP Drainkiss with this gear, my breath attacks still aren't worth using compared to just supporting the party.
Anyway, now that AF2 & AF+1 gear has been dat-mined... time for a quick look at the various gear to see if any of it is worth getting!
Head piece
AF+1 - DEF:24, MP+25, INT+5, MND+5, Increases Monster Correlation Effects
AF2 - DEF:24, HP+15, VIT+3, Blue Magic Skill+5, Increase Breath Damage
Neither of these are very interesting. I don't even use my regular AF head piece as the "Increases Monster Correlation Effects" feature is too much of a pain to use. For AF2, "Increases Breath Damage" would be interesting, but still has limited usage... Voyager Sallet & Homam Head would probably get better usage compared to either of these two, Voyager for physical magic, while Homam for magical.. erm... magic
Body Piece
AF+1 - DEF:45 HP+17 MP+15 STR+5 DEX+5 Blue Magic Skill+15, HP & MP recovered while healing +1
AF2 - DEF:45, MP+20 Accuracy+10 Enmity-2, Adds "Refresh" effect
These two are both killer pieces. AF+1 is awesome when casting any spell. The +5 Str & Dex, and the Magic Skill +15 is good for both physical & magical attacks. The AF2 is a great replacement for the Scorpion Harness for meleeing since it has the same Accuracy+10, but it also has Refresh, so you can not only be meleeing, but also regaining MP. I'm definitely going to go for the AF+1... however, is the AF2 worth going to Dynamis for? >.<
Hands
AF+1 - DEF:17 MP+20 STR+3 INT+3 Parrying+10, Increases learning >.>
AF2 - DEF:17 HP+12 MP+12 DEX+5 MND+5 Evasion+5
Neither of these are really worth writing home about... Str+3 is nice, as is Dex+5 for various blue mage spells, but when Light Gauntlets also give Str+3 for 8k on the AH... >.>
And at level 74, why do you still need gloves that increase chance of learning?
Legs
AF+1 - DEF:34 HP+25 DEX+5 VIT+5 AGI+5, Interruption down 12%
AF2 - DEF:31 HP+10 MP+10 STR+3 Acc+5 Magic Acc+3
Mmm... both are decent pieces, but nothing really stands out... A few extra strength or dex is always good. I currently use the Cobra Unit Subligar which already gives Acc+5. If anything, I think the AF2 piece is comparitively better just cos it gives strength, accuracy and magical accuracy
Feet
AF+1 - DEF:14 HP+18 MP+18 Acc+3 Evasion+10 Enmity-5
AF2 - DEF:16 MP+15 AGI+3 INT+3 Attack+5 Enmity-3
Neither of these are much of anything... nothing stands out on either of these. Dusk Feet + Cobra Feet both have accuracy & attack, so...
Overall, only the body pieces seem worth getting. The AF+1 body piece is a definite upgrade over the AF body. Since I still use the AF body for casting spells in, it's a no-brainer to consider upgrading to AF+1
For AF2, the body piece is the only piece really worth getting as a melee piece. The other pieces are also decent, but I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble of doing Dynamis to get these pieces >.>
What do you all think? Is there a Dynamis shell out there that matches my schedule that's willing to take someone who only wants BLU armor? >.>
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