A Returning Pup Who's Stuck Pre-SoA.

Short and sweet:
Came back after a long period away from the game. Now that I'm back and there is 100 (exaggerating...) different things going on now, what exactly should I be setting my sights on? I'll be picking up SoA on May 1 when it goes on sale, so having an idea before going in would be a big help.

I went through the 2.0 thread, but it all felt like a bunch of mumbo jumbo that I didn't understand, so some straight forward answers would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

I would recommend you to take a look at this official guide:

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/contguide/index.html

It has a bunch of useful information for people wanting to catch up.

Well, ty. I got some idea of terminology down, I'll go through the thread once more. who knew Pol would do something semi useful.

In the meantime, any baseline gear I should pick up besides sparks gear; AH-able or otherwise?

Another good guide to help you get going in the General forum: http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/45967/returning-player-guide-for-final-fantasy-11/

I would start with Sparks gear, which will be a huge help until you can get Taeon (Yorcia Alluvian Skirmish). You will want to work on reforged AF, Relic and Empy gear as well (http://www.bg-wiki.com has it at the top of the page).

I appreciate that also, thank you. :)

One big thing with returning is that pretty much -anything- you might be doing will have a RoE or Unity quest assigned to it that will get you accolades, experience points, and RoE points that you can spend. Often anything you do can fulfill multiple at a time (my current record was doing something that fulfilled 8 at a time :)

as a PUP the first thing you should do is buy your Animator and weapon from Records of Eminence. after that, the Sparks armor will be a holdover until you can begin reforging your old gear/getting Skirmish gear. if you don't yet have it, unlock Stringing Pummel from Nyzul Isle weapon as it is the best WS PUP has access to most of the time. you'll also want to start getting Bayld ASAP to buy some armor from the Peacekeeper's Coalition in Adoulin, as bits and pieces of that are going to be more useful than Records of Eminence armor while you piece together the rest of your gear.

Oh yeah, before I left, I had SP and Vere. I got the full sparks gear atm with the animator When I came back.. I got the basics without SoA, so I'm good there, Just gotta get ready for when I start all the new stuff.

Job/Gift point #100 changes everything. so get there ASAP.

0. Trust me, you want Trust NPCs. Koro / Qutalda / Ulmia will have you perfectly buffed with Haste II / Double Marches / Chaos Roll, and you will destroy all that lives.

1. Obtain full set of Spark gear for ilvl 117
2. Obtain Spark weapon for ilvl 117 punchies
3. Buy SoA on May 1st
4. Get out to Yorcia sometime so you can get teles
5. Spam Yorcia Skirmish til you get full 119 gear and can obtain 3 M. Wings to get 119 H2H you can augment.
6. You won Not-Tanaka's XI!

It really is that simple and mostly fast to get back into the current game. Once you get Taeon set from Skirmish, you can augment it however you wish with the stones you will gain from the runs, including some neat augments for your puppets. You can try to upgrade AF / Relic / Emp armor to 109 and even 119, but those rely on money at this point, since people don't bother with Voidwatch anymore, which upgrades Relics, nor the Delve Mega Bosses, which drop the upgrade items that cost 2M range on the AH. Emp armor requires beating the new content, as well as specific drops and its own currency, so yeah, Skirmish would do you wonders.

Chilzen gave a really good summary of how to get started. As you proceed further, below is some target gear you'll be interested in from Adoulin. I give a lot of info at the risk of going a little too far, but this should keep you busy a while ;)

Alluvion Skirmish as soon as you can! The Yorcia skirmish light DD set (Taeon) is pretty much the best gear for PUP right now. Even if full augments are too pricey for you now, "Leaf" stones are rather cheap and Leafslit can give Triple Attack +1% to +2%. TA Taeon is THE best TP gear for PUP, period, and is near the top for WS. Can also augment to make more WS-focused pieces (best in slot), or pet-focused gear with -orb stones.

Alluvion Skirmish H2H weapon (Ohrmazd) can be the best non-Mythic weapon in the game, but requires strong augments that can be very expensive to get. A safer bet is to start with Tinhaspa or Oatixur (see below), and once you're more established and have some gil to toss at fate, try for some Ohrmazd augments. DMG+ is the big one, you'll want DMG+20 or more from Duskslit stones, which can be hard to get.

One note is that if you have friends who do Skirmish, you can operate the book in Yorcia without fighting anything - so gear doesn't matter if you learn to use the book. Might want to read up on tips elsewhere for Alluvion Skirmish Yorcia, but basically you're just creating units sort of like an RTS game while your teammates kill stuff to get points that you spend to make units.

Other post-Adoulin stuff you'll want a lot as PUP:

Wildskeeper Reive gear:
* Uk'uxkaj Cap: Drops from Hurkan in Marjami Ravine. Fantastic WS piece, especially if augmented with additional STR (STR augment requires KI from Morimar WKR). Still solid TP piece too, even if not the best.

* Buquwik Cape: Drops from Achuka in Morimar. Fantastic WS piece. Dirt cheap on the AH, but you probably want to do Morimar WKR anyway to get key items to augment stuff so you may get the drop.

Delve 1.0 gear (Ceizak, Foret, and Morimar zones):
Note: can either get via direct drops from the Delve NMs, or buy them with Plasm (Delve currency) once you've defeated any Delve NM of the appropriate tier (NM1-3 is tier 1, NM4-5 is tier 2, boss has boss drops) in the appropriate zone.

* Bladeborn/Steelflash earring set (DA+7% is the set bonus when wearing both, and is PUP's best TP ear set). Bladeborn from Morimar NM1-3 KI (or drops directly from Raptor), Steelflash from Ceizak NM1-3 KI (or drops directly from Scorpion). Get these right away, they're fairly easily obtained and even if you don't get a drop they cost very little plasm.

* Asperity Necklace: Good for most jobs that can use it, though non-Mythic PUP can almost always get by with Cirque Necklace (which is often still best in slot). Asperity comes from Foret Delve NM4-5 KI (or drops directly from Nerrivik)

* Oatixur (H2H) and Hurch'lan Sash: Both drop from Tojil, the boss of Morimar Delve. Oats are not as good as some weapons like an upgraded Tinhaspa (Delve 2.0 zones drop) or a well augmented Ohrmazd (Alluvion Skirmish weapon), but they're still respectable and near the top of the heap - and probably little competition these days for the drop. Hurch'lan Sash is a nice Master+Pet belt with good haste and accuracy for both.

* Whirlpool Mask (Dakuwaqa, Foret boss): Still very solid Acc/Atk headpiece. I dunno that I'd spend plasm on it if you don't have much, but a great drop item that's still competitive with top options.

Delve 2.0 gear (Marjami, Yorcia, Kamihr zones):
Note: these are pretty difficult events, but at least you should be able to get KIs for the non-boss tiers (NM1-3 and NM4-5) with a little help, even killing the NMs outside of Delve provides access to the KI.

* Tinhaspa (H2H): From Kamihr NM4-5 KI, or drops directly from Mirka. This is the standard high end weapon for PUPs these days, beaten only by Mythic, Empyrean, or a very well augmented Alluvion Skirmish H2H. You'll want to augment them to rank 15 on the "B" path (Accuracy path), and fully augmenting will cost 6 Airlixir+2s (or a lot of NQ/+1 Airlixir). It even has automaton Atk/RAtk/MAB stats!

* Ighwa Trousers (Kamihr mega-boss): There are other options, but these are still an excellent WS piece for Stringing Pummel.

* Qaaxo gear (various): Can be augmented to be good endgame stuff, though it's now mostly beaten by Taeon so getting more irrelevant. Body in particular is still quite nice.

* Chaac Belt (Marjami mega-boss): Treasure Hunter+1 for any job. With this Belt (macro it in for a single hit) and /THF, PUP/THF can get TH3 - a really nice job for farming Dyna or Salvage for currency/alexandrite.

JSE Cape:
* Dispersal Mantle: JSE capes come final rewards from Reives (WKR, Colonization, Lair) or from the Incursion event. JSE capes are random between all 22 jobs, but you can trade any 3 for 1 of your choice at the Library in Eastern Adoulin. PUP cape is a nice Acc piece with some good pet stats. Can augment it further with random augments for the cost of a Refractive Stone (AH or buy with 15,000 Unity points) - for PUP, Martial Arts is the really good augment you want, but can also get STR, DEX, and automaton TP bonus. Incursion drops come pre-augmented. You can overwrite augments.

Skirmish 1.0 armor:
Otronif set. Original pieces drop in Yorcia Weald Skirmish (Skirmish 1, or, NOT the new Alluvion Skirmish event in the same zone). They're upgraded to item level 119 with higher stat vomit by getting key items in Outer Ra'kaznar Skirmish.

Otronif remain useful for DT- sets, as PDT- augments are common and go up to PDT-4% (best in slot for PUP in most slots). If you augment the NQ item level 115 version, augments are wiped when upgrading the gear to +1 ilevel 119 version, so take care. I'd recommend trying to get to 119 first, since if you're making a set focused on DT- the substantially higher defense of the 119 pieces is definitely relevant.

You can also use "wings" items that drop in skirmish zones to buy armors, 1-3 Lebondopt Wings (Yorcia) per NQ piece. 6 Pulchidropt Wings (Ra'kaznar) to buy the KI to upgrade a piece to +1. Note that Leb Wings sometimes show up in login campaigns (including this month) and Mog Pell rewards.

Don't bother with non-Alluvion weapons (Ninzas are the H2H), they're not worth it.

Reforged AF/Relic/Empyrean Armor:
Luckily or unluckily for PUP, depending on your perspective, most of the item level 119 reforged gear for the job isn't that amazing so not a necessity to upgrade.

AF: None of the pieces are particularly good, don't stress about any of the set.

Relic: Body is still quite nice as a master and pet hybrid piece (or even just a DD pet focused piece). Head is a good idle regen and automaton refresh/regen piece.

Empy: None of the pieces are BAD, it's just that Taeon is better gear and is easier/cheaper to get than upgrading Empy to 119. Karagoz legs are probably the best of the bunch, but I'd focus efforts more on getting Skirmish armor.


No, grinding 100 job points does NOT change everything. Two extra elemental slots for automaton attachments is certainly a nice bonus, but it doesn't fundamentally change the way your play the job or make you THAT much more effective. Just allows for a slightly more optimized automaton loadout.

If you have to choose between spending your time getting gear in other Adoulin activities or grinding conquest points/JPs, definitely do the other stuff.

Also note that PUP's job point categories are really disappointing. As in, maybe the worst set of JPs of any job in the game. They're bad. The gifts that come along with a certain # of JPs spent are helpful, but not game breaking.

@Capuchin

I sincerely appreciate your in depth guide regarding this! This info is extremely helpful, and I will definitely look into everything you had mentioned! ^^

While i agree that most of jp categories are crap, i will disagree that the 100 trait isnt that great.

Its pretty much the same as getting pet level +3, more mitigation here, more attack there, more acc, more double attack, can use double haste + drum magazine, etc.

I would definitly say focus on gear first, but dont down play the 100 jp gift, its one of the best 100 jp gifts there is, and it DOES change pup a lot.

I would skip the Skirmish H2H and get these with OAT/crit augment to start. Skirmish augments are too random, and your Skirmish stones are better spent on Taeon armor to start.

Also, get a Divinator ASAP.

Don't get me wrong, the 100 gift is good stuff and if you're into PUP it's worth getting eventually. It's just a matter of prioritization: if you took the same amount of time that it took to grind out 100 JP and put it toward acquiring SoA gear (or farming for gil to buy upgrades), you'd be a much stronger PUP. Get the gift eventually, focus on the gear.

Note also that PUP is a little different than some jobs that get more substantial bonuses from the JP themselves. We aren't a BLU getting spell set points (amazing JP) or SAM with excellent Hasso bonus - you want those ASAP. PUP gets pretty lousy JP, so you're really doing them for the gifts.

As far as use of the 100 gift for PUP, it's good but let's not overstate the impact of additional elemental slots. Mage frames get a fairly minimal boost - there's basically nothing necessary that you aren't already capable of equipping with default capacity. OK, maybe you can add some stronger defensive attachments... not a world of change though. VE and SS clearly take more advantage of the gifts, but there's also the issue that VE and SS frankly aren't that great in difficult content anyway (and if you're just using them for easier stuff, buffing the puppet more is less meaningful since things are already easy).

If you want to specialize in quirky stuff like Nezha's duos of easy merit point fights, well, OK, buff that automaton all you can. For a PUP doing more "typical" FFXI activities, it's all about gearing the master as priority #1.

Thanks for mentioning Maochinoli (which need OAT augment to be relevant at all). That being said, they're for a niche use of low-level content where the low skill doesn't hurt them. Amazing for stuff like Dynamis and Salvage, or the bottom end of Adoulin content, but their skill is far too low to keep up on any relevant ilevel content.

For anything that matters, you definitely want to obtain an ilevel 119 option. Tinhaspa B probably best hit the sweet spot of price/performance. They're a set price (get the weapon from drop or with plasm, then upgrade at a cost of 6x Airlixir+2), they're excellent performance, and you can fight anything in the game with them. Oatixur are solid too, perfectly acceptable weapon that will hold you over well and can probably be had easily for free if you can get into Delve.


I'd tend to agree that augmenting Skirmish armor takes priority over weapons, but don't discount how strong Ohrmazd are with a good DMG+ augment. If you're looking at DMG+20something Ohrmazd, that's likely beaten only by Kenkonken. Of course, it could take you one stone to hit an awesome damage augment... or it could take many millions of gil.

FWIW, I reactivated a ton of mules for this campaign and loaded up on Dusk+2 stones. Used three stones on Ohrmazd for my MNK (since I have KKK on PUP), and managed a DMG+26 augment (max is +29). Paired it with DA and Acc (working on Acc/Atk), and that makes a weapon that's better than any existing H2H besides Glanzfaust and Kenkonken...

Again, not that I'd recommend starting out there unless you have lots of excess gil (if you're rich, go for it though). If you're on more of a budget, probably best to get well set on the rest of your gear first.