Random Question Thread (FFXI Related)

DPS trusts are far worse than the healer trusts, they're really not worth using. If anything, one or both of you should probably look into gearing up GEO.

I was actually kind of afraid that might be the first answer I'd get haha, not that I'm totally against it. Just would be something neither of us have leveled so would be a bit more of a project. Probably will end up being me since he thinks his male character shaking a bell looks mega goofy. :D

Some DPS trusts are moderately useful not just for their shitty DPS, but for the occasional utility they can provide.
Stunning TP moves, AoE buffs, or stuff like DNCs that uses a lot of steps (which is like giving you some buffs) and Haste Samba.

Another "useful" type of DD trusts it's those who open SCs for you, especially if you're on a job with SC bonus trait, it's somewhat useful imho.

I'm his duo buddy. Been duo'ing stuff with Madotsuki since 2010 really when we've played together. That said, we've done his BLU with my THF on a lot of things. Would it be better for me to get up a support to complement his BLU since it has a lot more versatility? I know THF isn't all that amazing nowadays, and I don't know if upgrading my 119 Mandau is even worth it from what I'm hearing either.

The real question is, what specific problems are you guys having?

BLU+GEO is indeed a powerful lowman setup, both for the merits of each job in a lowman context and the fact that their respective strengths stack in a way that also synergizes well with various support trusts. It's my go-to setup for just about anything when left to my own devices, though in truth I'd generally default to BLU regardless and I haven't cared (nor needed) to gear anything else up on my alt. THF is fine in the broader scheme of things, it's just not quite as flexible and thus may sometimes have difficulty in a lowman setting. For the most part you'd probably be fine either way.

I'd still consider both leveling it just to avoid either of you getting stuck on the job. Alternatively, one or both of you might invest in an alt.

In general seem to be having an issue striking a balance between having enough DPS to be clearing things at a decent pace while being able to get through alive together.

We actually both used to dualbox together, we were avoiding doing it again to be more casual about things but starting to feel like I might have to again.

The answer is for y'all to come back to Lakshmi

99 on Cerb a few nights ago.. I guess even mules need some time off.

There's no way to make Klimaform last longer than base cast right since it's dark magic instead of enhancing?

Anyone know exactly how often these Return Home to Vana'diel free periods are? I want to resub but I'm broke and constantly busy with school and things now but it's nice to drop by during these. I always end up noticing them way too late though. Is there any kind of predictable pattern they go by?

Those campaigns are almost cycling with some diference here and there. None can say SE will keep the current pattern in the future, but at it sees the return home campaign happens every ~3month (we had one in august, may and march).

So if i have something onthe ah and i forget to take it down and i server transfer, will i get access to it again if i travel back within 3 days?

Unless its something flawed, heres the exact quote from the FAQ:

Kiss that 80 mil goodbye. Thanks for the answer

Nope. Base duration is all you can get.

The problems might not necessarily stem from what job you're playing, but issues like gear, subjob choice against certain enemies, and what trusts you're rolling with. Leveling GEO is advice a lot of people will give, which can solve some problems, but might create different ones (notably, you might find it extremely boring). Creating mules for that purpose will definitely help, but do you really want to spend the extra money when it might not be necessary?

My brother and I were also using his BLU (or DRG) and my THF for the longest time (before trusts), and many enemies that used magic were a challenge for us. I ended up falling in love with RUN though, which solved a lot of issues of survivability (and carries over a lot of THF gear). In regards to damage, keep in mind that BLU and THF aren't exactly the most ideal SC partners, though something like Evis > CDC > SA Rudra's can be devastating.

I suggest for now, describe 2 or 3 specific events/situations that you're struggling with that are big goals for you. Include what enemies you're fighting, trusts you're using, subjobs, BLU spells involved, and WS/SC plans (if any), and other key aspects of your strategy. We can probably narrow down what's giving you trouble.

Is there a setting or work-around that removes movement controls from the numpad?

You raise some going points, I'll give some examples!

We have a pretty long history duo'ing as BLU+THF but it has been a while since we last played. For skillchaining, we often do Chant Du Cygne + Mercy Stroke since he has Mandau. That has often served us well in the past. Usually we are either sub WAR if its pushover stuff but sub NIN for Utsusemi in stuff we're not familiar with or seems dangerous.

Our trust selection isn't quite comprehensive since we've only resubbed a few times since they were added (haven't been around for many of the login campaigns that offer some of the neat ones). I usually fill out our 4 spare slots with purely healer and support, so usually Kupipi, Ulmia, Mihli Aliapoh, and Cherukiki. We recently unlocked a few more though so now I have Koru-Moru at least and he seems like an improvement... more than open to advice on good trusts since I'm not really familiar with a lot of their skills/full capabilities.

We tried doing Ambuscade at normal difficulty since that's brand new for us but got pretty wrecked by that Belladona while subbing /NIN. That silence aura+trusts blowing their MP left us up a creek. Perhaps we should've done an easier difficulty... but I suppose a better question is, are most of the ambuscades similar to that Belladona? Or is this one just a bit tougher than the norm?

For REM chapter fights, we seem to be able to handle the Normal pretty well but attempts to do the next difficulty step up didn't go so well. Was doing PLD/WAR+THF/NIN. Mostly was just healer trusts would run out of MP then eventually we'd crumble over time.

That said, this weekend has been a bit better for us. We managed to clear Rhapsodies (that final fight was quite a nuisance), I upgraded my Almace to final stage, and now we're assessing how to proceed from here. Neither of us have much Job Points earned yet, so I imagine we'll need to try and work on that soon. Trying to get GEO up as well since I am a bit interested in having it available as a support if needed.

Hey there! Here's my advice on those points.

1.) It would likely be worth it if your friend changes to GEO for quite a few reasons. a.) One melee only results in less TP feed per-second which is less dangerous in that regard b.) Geo frailty/fury result in more damage, resulting in more damage-per-tp-feed c.) Geo debuffs can offer protection that is required in some fight, like vex/wilt/attune/barrier d.) Geo-haste is a more reliable way to cap magic haste inbetween MGs than ulmia's double-ballad (what? we both know she likes to give ballad instead of march, lol ><) and much better than having the THF stack tons of DualWield fulltime, DW resulting in much lower WS frequency. e.) Spamming a buffed (by the GEO) CDC will be more DPS than often holding TP while one partner waits on the other.

2.) Your trust selection logic is good and it could be refined. You're using healers+support which is good, just choose better support and drop some healers for additional utility out of the tank trusts depending on the fight. Perhaps not so for fodder mobs but for Escha Geas Fete NMs it's good to have a tank. August + Qultada + Apururu is a potent combination. August is just-about the best trust tank. Qultada doesn't get much chance to swap to evoker's since his rolls last 6mins compared to Ulmia's 2mins. Apururu gets high regain, a MP weaponskill, and convert. For the fourth spot you can choose it depending on the difficulty. If what you're doing is pretty difficult and hate-reset is likely then you can use Amchuchu, a second tank, to bounce hate with August so that you're not left tanking after a hate-reset on the main tank. Otherwise you could choose a second healer, Koru-Moru, or Arciela(tier I, not tier II, and she's a RDM btw).

3.) I don't know, haven't started Ambuscade this month.

4.) Setting Dream Flower and popping it during these fights on 'Difficult' can make them very easy if you are able to cast the spell without being interrupted or resisted. Have good fast cast and magic accuracy gearsets, and be able to kill them quickly (2-3 CDCs per mob). +200 Magic Acc (I never include magic acc skill+ gear in this stat for transparency's sake) should be enough. I've tried doing that on VD with 350 ish Magic Acc gear but they still resist Dream Flower.

Alternatively the GEO can sub BLM and use Sleepga or ElementalSeal+Sleepga to start the fight. If you don't kill them all before sleepga wears then I suggest the BLU casts Dream Flower once they wake since the GEO's sleepga might get interrupted.

5.) Congrats! As for leveling GEO - I highly recommend having your friend be the one who levels GEO. BLU is offered much more utility through their job traits, available self-buff spells, and mob-debuff spells and so they are often the better low-man choice to pair with a GEO so that you can get as many buffs/debuffs as possible out of those two players.

From my limited experience you can grab 1 tank 1 GEO and 4 DD to farm VD Vol2. Make sure people have RDM as a sub to keep them selves alive and It's pretty easy. By now I also think people Might have figured Vol1 as well out. I did it up to normal.

For the REM fights I do most on Normal with my thief solo. 2 tanks 2 healers 1 support. Straight forward. I die on D solo.

A good easy trust to get if you dont have August is the AAEV trust which is super easy to get. I am starting to prefer him over Amchuchu.

Good luck.

Is ffxidb still tracking (anything)?

What causes it to track kills etc? I know that personally I've killed some mobs more than the entire site has tracked.

I'm sorry I kidnapped them Rooks (no, not really sorry, plz don't bant me)

Anyone remember the name of the bed that could be fished up in Jeuno back in 2002-2003?

edit: nvm, answered my own question: http://www.ffxiah.com/item/7/gold-bed

Gallantry reward armor is always the hallmarks one from the previous month. We had vouchers in October as they were the September hallmarks reward. As far as I know the only way to get the vouchers right now is the mog pell SE is sending out now (and only for NQ pieces)

For the Reive/Incursion JSE capes and their augments, are the augments from Refractive Crystals the same potential augments as the Incursion Augments, or are they different? Just curious if Incursion is worthwhile to look into or if I'm better off doing Reives hoping for cape drops+spending unity accolades on crystals to augment if they're the same potential augs. (If Incursion augs are separate, I see it requires at least 3 players? Can trusts be used in the content?)

Delves as well... we weren't around when Yorcia/Marjarmi/Kamihr were originally added and there's quite a few nice items I see come from them. Is Delve still 'full alliance' content, or can it be low-manned (I do see it requires at least 3 people though)? I don't like paying for content clears in MMOs but if people don't do it anymore I suppose I wouldn't be totally adverse to it...

Appreciate all the thoughts and recommendations! I think I am going to continue working on GEO as another part of my repitoire since it is starting to pique my interest and I'm hoping it will help us eventually be able to join Capacity Point parties because we have so many Job Points to earn... looking at all the points I'd need for BLU+PLD+GEO is quite overwhelming. I know I'd have a ways to go before joining parties since there's a fair amount of gearsets to assemble plus skills needing to be capped (which I'm already almost done with thankfully).

Never noticed a difference between crystals vs Incursion capes but now most people just to incursion during HQ coffer campaign to farm HQ NM coffer (T2 Reisenjima pop items). Most of those capes have been completely outdated by Ambuscade ones. If you still want to get try incursion as your job cape is still useful (e.g. GEO one is really nice with indi-duration + pet pdt) it can be 3-manned easily with either mage or melee setup as long as you have a sleeper (blu works well with dream flower if you have enough magic accuracy). Again, my advice is to wait for next incursion campaign and shout to spam it so you can also get yourself a free CP bonus cape (up to 50% bonus).

Moving to new delve, it still requires 3 people to enter but has been soloed by SCH several months ago. More realistically and with less endgame gear, you should easily be able to win with sch+sch/blm+geo (1 SC + a strong helix and couple nukes are generally enough). Unfortunately also in this case 95% of the gear is completely outdated by the easy to obtain Escha Zitah/Ru'Aun one so people don't do it except to farm plasm for Idris and money items. You best option is to find a group of 3-6 people (maybe in your ls?) needing some items and go farm them.

I see... yeah, it's mostly a few things I see that are very nice for specific uses like Pet:Regen+ pieces for GEO and a few other misc. odds and ends. Don't really know anyone that mains SCH or BLM unfortunately so maybe its something I'll have to think about later on.

We only very recently cleared Rhapsodies so I haven't really checked to see if there is anything Escha related that we can feasibly take on yet. I know there's quite a lot of good gear/weapons to be gained so will have to do more studying of the content.