Real Talk, I Need Some Advice.

One job wonders can be difficult to work with if you have someone readily available and is fine with coming that job. Having variety even if it's lacking in gear say like a GEO would take you a lot further.

bard is pretty safe in most situations. Except EA zerg. whoever geo's while you're bard will likely still geo for EA, so SMN would be the safer option to be useful in more situations.
For the times when SMN & BRD buffs are bad (ambu) ... blu?

We're assuming the guy doesn't have mules and doesn't have an AoE job.

A "Couple of years" and struggling to figure out what to do is a little shocking. And I don't mean to be rude.. but what have you been doing that 1500 HMPs seems like a massive mountain to climb after playing the current version of FFXI for this long.

1500 HMPs at 60-70k/ea (on Asura) is only 90-105m.

This game literally throws money at you now. On Asura you get a minimum of 6m a month just for logging in and selling your mars orbs, 8.5-8.9m if you sell three (buying 1-5 vouchers). Capping Ambuscade is worth 40-60m each month. Capping sparks, which happens every couple of days just from playing normal content, is 1m gil each time. Spamming UNMs when you have the accolades can make you millions of gil easily. We even just had an event where Macrocosmic Orb were dropping items worth 500k-1m+ every couple of fights. People were making 5-10m a day spamming them. Dyanmis is easier than ever to farm. Salvage is easier than ever to farm. You can even go into omen and solo farm Astrals, which is slow.. but it's another source of gil. If you don't want to just buy HMPs, VW is easy to solo and you might even get lucky and find a pulse cell, which would sell for 6-10m on Asura. You can sell items from the login campaign every month for a few million gil.

There is no reason why you shouldn't have been able to make 100m for a harp over a year or two time period.

That being said...

If you have 3 songs, a g-horn, and decent gear, most groups will take you to a lot of the content in this game. Find a group that's doing the content that you want, whether that's omen, dyanmis D, escha/reisenjima, or ambuscade, and join them.

AF+2 (feet+3, 2 scales, 112/170 cards to finish +3), other sets all +1. I suppose the next step would be to work on Carn, since the common consensus is you need REA, but REMA is preferred.

Why would you work on Carn before finishing 4 songs?

Running around Port Jeuno in circles for hours, because I don't really know what to do aha... The 1-119 guide was after my time first starting the game, but even reading over it now, it doesn't exactly tell you what to work on in what order, a progression ladder of sorts, but it suggests to unlock all content.


I see that - the problem is that there's so much variety of ways to go get the money that I get very overwhelmed very fast (and end up doing nothing at all). If there's a priority for what I should take care of first before using other methods, that'd be lovely!


I think I've had moderate success finding pugs at the gear level I'm at... but what I would really prefer (and what I've been working toward, I think) is a consistent group of people to log in and play with. Those kinds of groups (at least as far as I can tell from scouring the Asura board every so often) require fully HQ brds since they've already finished everything (I think).

There are plenty of LSs and groups that would appreciate having a 3-song brd.

After I finish Daurdabla, of course. I've heard a resounding "please finish 4 song" for a while, and I'm slowly working on it! I've gotten up to 753/1500 plates, but it's just... :blobcatghostdead:

I sent you a PM. I'll hit you up when I get on later tonight.

If you know of any, please point me their way! I really haven't seen evidence of that (except for maybe this LS, but I haven't asked).

Not everyone follows the standard Ghorn -> 99Dharp & Marsyas -> Carn route and think they would be better off with longer duration songs and sticking with JSE/Blurred/D90. They all reach the same end just taking different paths.

Not having mythic can be worked around, but it makes your job harder, mythic nitro and decent duration gear gets you 11 min songs, so they can keep up marcato nitro honor march and 3~4 more songs if you use your 1h.

However I hope you do like brd, as in love it, after you get those items, especially if your like my mule that has all of them. Playing brd is a chore, Sure people want you, but the same people that want you to have Rema and max gear so they can do more dps, Die so often that you will constantly be re applying buffs to tards that eat ***1 min after you buff them.

Brd in endgame is a very busy job, and the worse your pt is the harder your job gets. The more concerned with dps the players are ironically the less they put on gear to survive mobs and then precede to die. And paradoxically they will blame the brd for their lack in dps or the whm for their death in general.

;tldr Gear your brd, but don't expect having all REMA and gear will get shitty DD off your back. They can and will blame anyone other than themselves for their misfortune. Still as expensive as brd is, It was worth my time and gil.

Having played with you before, to be quite honest, you need to commit to being a better player, but also to having a better and more positive attitude. Look, we have a bard in Enjo who came back, from long absence, and with no endgame-ready jobs. Fast forward a few months and the dude has his 4 songs, he is active on support, when he makes mistakes he doesn't argue or ragequit but simply fixes his mistake and does better next time. This guy has become one of my favorite people to play with and I look forward to whatever job he takes on next. I know he'll be great at it.

When you ran with us you had an attitude of "oh, I suck" and general negativity, along with a utter lack of desire to improve as a player. Wouldn't listen. Wouldn't take direction. You won't improve unless you change these things. And that goes beyond gear. That goes beyond having more jobs to offer. It's the moment-to-moment choices that we make in gameplay and also our interactions with others.

There's many sparks addons floating around, as well as npc addons to nearly automate the process.

Really the trick is the latter while having 0 inventory and buying up all the accolades several times and being able to dump them all in under 10 minutes.

I can see where you're coming from, here. I self-deprecate a lot, mostly to try and seem humble and beneath people who have played longer and/or are better at the game at me, perhaps to get their pity and advice. It's a common approach that I've found works with me as a person, and while I do acknowledge it can be annoying to be around, that's pretty much who I am. I don't want to be bright and cheerful when I know I'm dead weight.


I'm really glad to hear that! I have a feeling I might know who you're talking about, and that's a really good thing for you guys to have! I'm not sure if these specific examples are ones you're pulling from our time together, but they definitely speak to their character!


Do read above. While "negative", not particularly toxic to anyone but myself. Although... you emphasize "utter", but provide no examples to add as evidence to that argument, so it just feels like you're adding formatting to drive home your (justifiably) negative opinion of me.


That's just not true. :( Multiple times I've asked questions, only to be met with silence. What direction there was, there definitely wasn't a lot of it to be had. I do like to think I do what's asked of me to the best of my ability, but when nothing is asked in the first place, well...

Yup, In my LS we would actually kick people if they didn't have at least 1 good DD, a Tank job, Healing job, and Buffing job.

It's not fair to other people to force them to go something because you refuse to level other things.

We'd leave them be for 2 or 3 months, but after 3 months if they still only had 1 job, we let them go.

If someone is unwilling to change their attitude or listen to others let alone admit when their wrong that person will never improve. Or at least read some guides..I always recommend those to newbies or people coming back. The ones that actually read them do better.

I'd say, if you have the Ghorn already, finishing Daurdabla should be almost your only priority, but until VW campaign you should see about building a strong m.acc set, and FC sets. That's because convincing someone to help you get aeonic when you're a 4-song Ghorn bard isn't all that hard... Hell if you're on Asura, I'll help you do it myself.

But you see, finishing Daurdabla is the key here. If you can't do it with Ambu or anything else, just do what you can to make some gil outside the Voidwatch campaigns, then hit it hard on the VW campaign to get your plates... some groups bot that thing, and will seriously just let you leech as long as you're quick at emptying the box, because they're probably going to just AFK anyway. I know that seems a little crappy, but hey, it's easy progress.

As for the Abyssea part, that part is pretty easy to do, and alot of people consider that part to be harder, because you can't just pay your way through it... So I'd say get that part done if you haven't and it will feel WAY more doable when the plates is literally all you need.

Hey! You might not remember, but I contacted you on Discord about some BLM stuff not too long ago. I've got Gjallarhorn and Marsyas, and have gotten up to 90 Daurdabla, 753 plates deep so far (and 3 cinders into the next one). Some of those were from the most recent campaign, too! The issue I'm running into is mostly "too many things to do, which should I do first?", I think.

I've seen tons of people "choke" in the game

mostly because most guides today only care about the absolute ultimate optimal gear set. some ppl tend to get themselves locked on the end goal not able to get their focus away from it.

this is one of the reasons i made an easy to do whm cure set that was pretty optimal without any really hard pieces to make and i wish more guides would show more gear progression rather than just what to finally aim for

if this is the case my advise will always be. try to find improvements on what you can do now and here.
Small improvements are better than hammering the head against not getting that big improvements

also if you can find 1-3 ppl to roll with weekly that helps a lot on keeping the grind going and keeping the game fun.

I've tried establisnh a few friends in the game to team up with and helped quite a few getting improvement on starting gear. sadly it seems like once it fitted them they just jumped ship...




any way in short
- focus on a job and only use other jobs to help evolve the main job. you can have multiple working jobs but focus on the main.

- read the guides. they contain a lot of good info

- look into any small improvements that can help you land the next bigger improvements

- find 1-3 ppl to join up with and boost the fun in the game

Best way to boost is to sub monk!

In all seriousness great points as usual :).

You have Ghorn and Marsyas. You have Regal Necklace. You don't have to be dead weight! You have two strong support jobs that you could build a foundation around. So that's a choice. Look, I'm hardest on myself when I make mistakes in the game. Because I know that I can do better. If you just accept that you can't do better then you are going to be stuck in a constant rut.


You only ran with us a few times, but the last time was a casual Vagary run. And on Brimboil, even when I emphasized to everyone *no nukes, no WS* you kept nuking him, and he split and split and was a major headache. And then you said you had the KIs for Plouton/Perfidien, and then you actually didn't, and it cost us a lot of time. That could have been fixed by a simple look at BG-Wiki. Which I believe I pointed out. Then you just ragequit. I didn't take it personally, not everyone is a good fit in every group, but several of us were running multiple characters and don't have the ability to hand-hold through content beyond "hey, this is what we're doing". There's a level of self-reliance, basic knowledge of an event, and, at the least, listening to instructions, that is necessary.


This is a good point. But understanding the incremental progression of gear requires an understanding of the job. The really good guides DO offer progression sets (Falkirk's BST and Spicyryan's DRG guides, for instance).

If that was the one run I went BLU, I didn't really participate at all outside of slowly casting aoes during failed shell games. The other two runs I was COR and being a rollbot (which is all I'm good for on that job). And yes, I did cost you all a lot of time (45 minutes or so if I recall correctly). I was quite confident that I was finally right about one thing (I still have those 5 fabricated pearls, in case you were wondering), for once (which never happens by the way!), and for it to turn out that I didn't - it was a very embarrassing moment for me. I unsubbed that night not 10 minutes after I threw out my pearl, not out of anger or rage, but more chagrin and self-loathing about being right about my lack of skill and knowledge. If I was upset or angry at anyone, it was (and generally is) myself. Besides, you guys didn't really need the shitty Haste 2 I was providing, anyway.

I regularly have 20-30 tabs of BGWiki (and some XIclopedia for that matter) open up at any time (to the point that I've crashed my old PC before due to the resource load of chrome trying to handle that many tabs). What might be a simple look for someone else isn't really simple for me.

I acknowledge that multiboxers need to focus on doing multiple jobs at once, but I do need my hand held, because while I have gear, it was handed to me on a silver platter by seasoned veterans that used me as a curebot for their events. I didn't earn any of that except Gjallarhorn, and I still don't really know what I'm doing. I can make educated guesses based on lingo I've picked up, but that doesn't mean I'm knowledgeable enough to be reliable in any way (which is why I'm trying to find a good place to start learning!).

I don't harbor any ill will to people, but I don't think they realize how truly ignorant I am, given the gear they think I got conventionally.

Veteran players get noseblind to how much knowledge this game actually requires. For a while I was considering making a series of videos on basic mechanics.

A player who has been playing consistently (hopefully) understands all of it already, but it is a mountain of crap to familiarize yourself with pDIF, DT, DT II, Cure pot(1/2/received/MND), fTP, WSC, Blunt/Pierce/Slash resist, Magic Damage, Defense Buffs How they stack, how they don't, Defense down debuffs, how they stack, how they don't... Which buffs overwrite buffs/debuffs and vice versa, Which job combo's are most common for content and why... all that shite.

It's a journey, not a destination! Remember you login to have FUN. Be competent and make friends. The fun and success in FFXI will flow from that.

@ Gistofanything. Dude as a REM Bard and Thf main, I can offer you advice on how to save gil for Heavy Metal Plates and bard tips.

Gear up thief. It's cheap to do and TH gear is easy to acquire. This allows you to farm older Dynamis areas for big bills, small bill stacks, Sparkling Stones (Dynamis Jeuno) I've picked up 2.5 stacks of Sparkling Stones (700k per stack) and upwards of 10 big bill and 3 small stacks in one 2 hour run. This is something that you can do solo and not deal with judgmental *** that pop up constantly.

Gain Exp was mentioned above, hit it up.

Save your SP Gobbie Keys over the months until a campaign (like March Campaign) that has an increased Equipment rate per key. I got an Orpheus Sash (45 mil) from this campaign, along with another 65 mil in items popping 1900 keys saved over 5/6 months.

Bard: Be thorough in your macro setup, read the BGWiki page for gear sets and take your time carefully planning your macro sets. Have a 2nd book dedicated to a DD bard Setup so you can even kick in some damage and help your party out. Have a macro that rotates between DD bard book and Support Bard Book. An efficient bard (even 3 song bard) can be a great asset to a group. Practice and proper gearing/macro setup goes a long way.

This is what I tell all my LS members when someone new gets brought in and they're not at the super high gear level everyone else is at and lags behind slightly.

Everyone has a starting point and although OP has quite a bit of AF1 +2 and +3 and a good start on Bard he still has a mountain to climb if he wants to join the ranks of everyone else that is approaching their summit.

Do people still farm old dynamis? I thought the only thing in there were bots and desperation.

Its a cheap and easy way to kill a bunch of NM's in Dynamis Jeuno, as a thief who enjoyed hunting NM's back in the day its fun to kill a bunch of funny Named gobbies while listening to you-tube comedy skits, mindless and fun.