Actually, quite a few things have been going on, and even more are scheduled, so... here's an update
Mission Friday
So, this came out of mostly a desire to go finish the new add-on, "A Crystalline Prophecy" in a fun manner with friends instead of doing stuff alone and hoping for a pickup party. The idea is that we'll start doing missions on Fridays, starting with ACP, and working out other missions that people need... preferably for as many people as possible who need them.
This Friday: ACP starting with... well, the very beginning. Just get your opening cutscene in Lower Jeuno. I'll teleport people around around while we all farm the necessary items for everyone (main or sub THF if you have it) and progress through things. We'll see how far we get. I'm hoping to get to at least the Fei-Yin fight.
If possible, read up on the various tasks from the wiki page.
Next few weeks would be to finish up ACP, then work on WotG quests for people to get everyone up to date with the last update. This means the nation quests just past the battle for Jeuno. Beyond that... we'll see... maybe some nation quests, Zilart missions, helping people with CoP or ToAU missions.
Schedule Update
Some slight changes to the schedule
- Nyzul Isle - Sunday only affair, 4 runs, starting at 7:30pm PST
Participants: me, Ghiren, Zurar, Karou, Utaru, and need a 6th helper... Dexie if possible, or Kurai if he actually comes back :P Fuuji has KS99 so chances are he won't be around to help.
- Salvage - Thursdays
This might actually start up this Thursday... I'm not certain I'd actually get anything out of this since none of my jobs actually benefit much from Salvage armor... plus I actually don't like having incomplete armor sets and there's no way I'd be able to afford the body piece. The only thing I actually want out from Salvage is to get a Terpsichore, so we'll have to see how the event goes and how we end up splitting up Alexanderite before I decide how much I commit to this.
All other events seem to be holding steady... ZNMs, Dynamis, Limbus, Einherjar. Also seem to be getting back on the exp treadmill, at least for the time being. Prime exp times are either Saturday afternoon, or Sunday afternoon if I decide to hang out at home, and possibly Tuesday nights.
Exp/Merits
Thanks to Connie's exp parties this past weekend, I'm finally capped on Dancer merits. My Dancer merit choices are probably a little strange compared to what "ordinary" Dancers choose.
Group 1:
- 4x Haste Samba Effect (9% total Haste Samba)
- 4x Reverse Flourish Effect (+12 TP per Reverse Flourish)
- 2x Steps Accuracy (+6 accuracy)
Most people go 5/5 for Haste & Reverse Flourish. I decided to put two into Steps Accuracy as missing even one Step bugs me. So far, this has been working well and I now rarely, if ever miss steps, even in pure Haste gear.
Group 2:
- 2x Saber Dance (4:30 recast time)
- 5x Fan Dance (2:30 recast time)
- 3x No Foot Rise (3 Finishing Moves)
Most people go 5 on No Foot Rise, and usually try to max out Saber Dance and pretend to be a DD. I chose 3 merits for No Foot Rise because I intended to use this as a fill-in for if I ever miss a Step. If we're waiting before an event starts, it makes no difference if I'm using Reverse Flourish on 3 finishing moves, or 5, since I'll eventually hit 300% TP. When combat actually starts, the Steps & Reverse Flourish timer is such that I'll use Reverse Flourish for every 2 steps/4 finishing moves and optimally never use No Foot Rise. However, if I ever miss a step, which does occasionally happen, I can use No Foot Rise to make up the remaining Finishing Moves and use Reverse Flourish on schedule without wasting any moves.
5/5 on Fan Dance makes a lot of sense considering how much hate a Dancer can pull. It's my favorite move actually, turning a Dancer into a make-shift tank that is doing a ton of healing. It has saved my life many times in Einherjar and Dynamis. However, cutting off Sambas means that very often I'd want to deactivate it once danger has passed. Reducing the downtime of Fan Dance cuts down on the window which I'm vulnerable. Between Fan Dance and Utsusemi and high evasion, this makes for a very strong front-line healer/soloer combination.
Final two merits went into Saber Dance. I definitely wanted one to unlock Saber Dance, and I threw the second one there too just to be able to activate it again a little faster. Closed Position is good for soloing, but not very useful in party situations where the mob may not be facing me. The +3 accuracy and evasion will not make too big of a difference as if I'm facing a mob which 3 evasion will make a difference, chances are i can't solo it in the first place.
Other Dancer merits I've already unlocked are:
- 8/8 Dagger
- 4/4 Evasion
- 4/4 Critical hit rate
Overall, Dancer is really shaping up nicely. I still have a few pieces of gear I need to round the job off, including:
- Etoile gear... finishing the set, but especially the tights which will be a full-time piece replacing my Cobra Unit Subligar due to the 3% Haste
- Enkidu's Harness & Subligar - Finishing off my accuracy/dd set
- Ermine's Tail - +8 evasion, high damage dagger - This would replace my Behemoth Knife as my full-time off-hand dagger. Drops from that MMM Dhamel NM Purushamriga. This was the mob that Kurai & I were always looking for help in fighting, but thanks to Zurar & Utty, I've set up my maze in such a way that I can solo it on DNC/NIN. It takes a long time to beat it down since it has over 10k HP, has a TP move that heals for over 2k and hits for over 300 per hit, but Fan Dance and my evasion equipment let me slowly chip it down. Now I just need a drop >.> I've already gotten the RDM rune from the hoardbox, so... hopefully sometime soon >.>
Other merits
I'm now looking at doing the following merits:
- Go for 8/8 Max HP
I think this will help all my jobs... BLU, DNC for having a higher HP, and Scholar benefits indirectly since this increases my Sublimation cap. Max MP looked interesting, but I still believe that MP regeneration rate matters a lot more compared to max MP. The only job that really benefits from tweaking max MP would be RDM
- Possibly: 4/4 Spell Interruption Rate (for a total of 8%)
I'm not sure how much this will help preventing enemies from interrupting Utsusemi casting... I normally do a Violent Flourish to stun if I'm having trouble, but of the "other" category, this seems like something reasonable to round things out
- Attributes, I'm not certain... possibly increase Dex, Str or Int. Dex helps accuracy, WS damage on DNC, and Hysteric Barrage on BLU. Str helps damage and a lot on BLU, and of course Int for nuking on SCH. I probably won't touch this for a looooooooooong time
- Scholar: Not many really good merit choices, unlike DNC
* I've just unlocked Stormsurge for my first SCH merit... I can now give people either a +3 to any one attribute(+3 Str for Firestorm, +3 Int for Hailstorm), or +1 to all attributes. I'm debating whether to continue pumping merits into this... max would be +7 to a single attribute with max merits
* Of the remaining SCH-specific merits, not many are that appealing... I suppose if I had lots of merits to spare, I'd put some into Helix magic accuracy and unlock Enlightenment, but neither of those are that interesting
- Blue Mage: Been neglecting merits on this lately...
* Merit Diffusion down all the way to 10 minutes
* Finish up sword... I'm 2/8 right now, so bumping this up to 8/8 would help overall
* Finish up Assimilation for more BLU spells
* Merit Chain Affinity recast down... this does more for spells compared to everything else in group 1.
Exp
So... I'm still looking at leveling PLD at SOME point... mainly due to my desire to have a tanking job for a change of pace, but also because... well... the armor looks good! I thought PLD AF looks very noble, plus among the various ACP pieces, I thought the PLD/heavy DD piece looked the best.
Problem now is finding time to level this job ~.~
Other
Well... talking about ACP armor, I think I've pretty much decided that I'll hold off on the reward until I finish leveling PLD. Besides the fact that I like the looks of the Nuevo Coselete, I don't have much use for the other pieces...
- Mirke wardecors... has +dex, +str, and I could put on accuracy, fast cast, or evasion, but for DNC, I mainly use my Rapperne harness as is due to the +haste, and I'm hoping to eventually get an Enkidu's Harness or Etoile Casaque which are both significantly better. My BLU is better equipped with the Magus+1 and Mirage bodies for the Blue Magic Skill or Refresh
- Royal redingote... +MP, +Int... and I can throw on magical accuracy and magical attack bonus. However, Scholar's Gown has "enhances dark arts" which is a +15 skill for all BLM-type magic. The relic armor increases the effect of Sublimation, so there really is no place for the Royal Redingote
Other things... besides the other things that were mentioned in the last post, this update also brought about something called "Allied Note Notorious Monsters", or ANNMs as people are calling them. Apparently these are popped NMs similar to the ISNMs, using Allied Notes and are fought out in the field instead of in instanced battlefields. So far, some testing has been done and the rewards are significant. Besides exp, we have:
- Augmented regular gear like Errant pieces... and good Augments too, not the dumb ones
- Expensive crafting materials such as Angel Skin and O-ingots
No exp is lost if you die while fighting the NM, and it only costs either 1500 or 3000 AN to do the fight. Unfortunately, everyone in the party/alliance needs to buy the key item for the fight using AN, so it isn't as profitable on a per-person basis compared to ISNMs, but AN is a lot easier to come by. Perhaps sometime we can go poke around with this? More information is available on the wiki.
Otherwise, it's life as usual in FFXI... maybe a little busier due to the update + add-on expansion.
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