MithraPride

It all started with upgrading my machine.

My Dynamis LS has commented on how fast I am with spells lately. My melee kitty has had no further trouble unloading TP in Dynamis. Heck, its even fun being the first off the platform after a tele.

Went up against Early Bird Catches the Wyrm, a KS 99 featuring one of the bigger dragons in the game. Got to use Chainspell-Stun for the first time since I got DRK to 37. Died lots, but worth it just for the experience.

The melee kitty, SAM 75 had a merit party with actual Skillchains!! L III Darkness, pretty effects. Even better, her partner was DRG/SAM, a combo that can almost keep up with her TP wise. The EXP/hour wasn't remarkable, but I haven't had that much fun EXPing/meriting for... like ages. Got to pull, even tank Puks after the tank DCed.

Indeed, my own best parties are boring. Chain 100+, I am casting Haste more often than C III, and never need convert.

Don't get me started on the "perfect" Meripo parties: Haste x4, Regen III on tank, heal. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Unless we're fighting Trolls and the puller grabs one of the RNG's, the tank's a NIN and I miss my Barfira recast then its more like: Haste, OMFG THE NIN'S GONNA DIE CURE V! CURE III!, Haste, OMFG THE NIN'S GONNA DIE CURE V! CURE III!, Haste, (Repeat that two more times), <Call> WHM out of MP, party groans.

If you want to put together a SC party you should try the zombie things in the Reef or the other side of the Mire, SCs kick big ass on those

There's a good spot on the other side of one of the lamia key doors in Arra Reef too.

My last SC party (two weeks after ToAU release) was there. Constant Chain 5s, very little down time and my highest damage MB nuke (at the time) was 1.3k and I was free nuking for around 900 on the qutrubs, Light just kills them- although I've heard of Dark doing some crazy damage on them too.

Both areas are good places for PLD tanks too- NINs get eaten up too quickly imo.

Otherwise OT:

I've been having a lot of fun lately leveling ninja. (As seen in the accomplsihments thread.)
Initially I was taking up nin to 37 as sub for my whm and occasionally smn. (Soloing uncapped ENMs)

However playing a nin was more enjoyable then I expected so thatś my next job to 75.
Kind of a nice relieve from the constant healing and back up healing as well.

Shirai wrote:Otherwise OT:

I've been having a lot of fun lately leveling ninja. (As seen in the accomplsihments thread.)
Initially I was taking up nin to 37 as sub for my whm and occasionally smn. (Soloing uncapped ENMs)

However playing a nin was more enjoyable then I expected so thatś my next job to 75.
Kind of a nice relieve from the constant healing and back up healing as well.

Well, to be honest, no matter how much you love being a mage there comes a time when you feel the unbridled desire to beat the crap out of mobs.

It's the same with me. No matter how much I love being a tank, sometimes I wanna do something else, hence WAR75 now, and WHM coming up soon I think.

Keavy wrote:

Shirai wrote:Otherwise OT:

I've been having a lot of fun lately leveling ninja. (As seen in the accomplsihments thread.)
Initially I was taking up nin to 37 as sub for my whm and occasionally smn. (Soloing uncapped ENMs)

However playing a nin was more enjoyable then I expected so thatś my next job to 75.
Kind of a nice relieve from the constant healing and back up healing as well.

Well, to be honest, no matter how much you love being a mage there comes a time when you feel the unbridled desire to beat the crap out of mobs.

That is why I have a melee kitty also.

Shirai wrote:Otherwise OT:

I've been having a lot of fun lately leveling ninja. (As seen in the accomplsihments thread.)
Initially I was taking up nin to 37 as sub for my whm and occasionally smn. (Soloing uncapped ENMs)

However playing a nin was more enjoyable then I expected so thatś my next job to 75.
Kind of a nice relieve from the constant healing and back up healing as well.

Back when I was lvling my Ninja I had fun with it as well, was just a pain in the ass at the time cause all the ninja tools were so expensive, not to mention the gear wasn't cheap either.

The only real downside to NIN is that it's hard to be chatty while you're blinking. I've died from too much talking.

Okuza wrote:The only real downside to NIN is that it's hard to be chatty while you're blinking. I've died from too much talking.

I think that is the case with both tank and healer jobs.
Also probably why I like them so much, if you don't stay on top of things you or other people bite the dust!
It keeps you active and concentrated, as what I noticed playing warrior in a non tank/first voke (SATA) position (read it's currently only 37 currently) I could attack the mob, go afk and make some coffee to come back, toss a WS and get my coffee before the next mob is pulled.

Personally I like the active way of playing even though I will probably level warrior too eventually.

Shirai wrote:I could attack the mob, go afk and make some coffee to come back, toss a WS and get my coffee before the next mob is pulled.

Personally I like the active way of playing even though I will probably level warrior too eventually.

Back in EQ, there were end-game mobs where I would literally set my monk on auto-attack and then walk away for 45m or so. The only people that really had to do anything were the tanks and healers. Everyone else just did damage (forever). It wasn't until I leveled a healer and dual-boxed it during those fights that I had to actually do anything.

FFXI end-game is 99% claim and 1% fight. I thought the few marathon afk fights in EQ were bad, but I'd much rather have those than have to deal with claim-bots.

Okuza wrote: FFXI end-game is 99% claim and 1% fight. I thought the few marathon afk fights in EQ were bad, but I'd much rather have those than have to deal with claim-bots.

A little more off topic (sorry), but that might change soon with Einherjar confirmed to drop some King Abjurations.

The first tier chambers are confirmed to drop Earthen Legs (Adaman)(King Behemoth), Neptunal Legs(Hecatomb)(Nidhogg) and Dryadic feet(Shura)(Aspidochelone).
In today's patch Einherjar will be made easier, depending on how much easier it might become a popular way to obtain these and the higher tier chambers might even drop the body abjurations like Aquarian (Dalmy), Earthen (Adaberk), Wyrmal (Crimson) and Martial(Koenig).
This is just speculation for the moment of course but with with confirmed King abj. drops in the lower tiers one can only have bigger expectations for the higher rooms.

If this theory is indeed true then Einherjar might become a very popular way to attain these.
It wouldn't mean the end of the king camps and such but it would make Einherjar most definately a more popular way to attain hard to get these rare items, save a huge amount of inter-endgameLS drama.

These drops will most likely have a lower droprate then from the actual kings but at the same time the chance is a lot higher since you can try to do these every 3 days instead of having a chance of claiming against botters every 3 to 7 days without other linkshells (read: greedy @$$holes) trying to lag you out to steal your claim or MPK you.

Shirai wrote:A little more off topic (sorry), but that might change soon with Einherjar confirmed to drop some King Abjurations.

It's confirmed? I may actually be able to get Hecatomb cap and legs then (not that I have the other bits).

It is indeed confirmed, not only have I checked ffxiclopedia (Since it's not always as accurate and truthful.) but also the einherjar boards on KI and Allakhazam have confirmed several king drops.

(Some with screenshots of the actual abjuration dropping.)

the other parts are purely speculative at the moment since so few people have actually done einherjar actively because it's just so damn hard.
This update they are making it easier so time will tell. (I know my LS is starting them up again soon.)

Einherjar is soooo broken. The randomness is utterly ridiculous at the start. SE has absolutely no clue about how to make things "hard" if they think randomly varying the difficulty from ultra-easy to impossible just based on initial spawn is the only way to do it.

Abjurations are nice, but at least 75% of the reason people do Kings are not for abjurations. It's for the other drops -- the best-in-game items you can ONLY obtain from the Kings: d-ring, ridill, and free 100%-drop BB parts. I don't care about abjurations at all. Judging from how people are spending DKP in my shell, most others don't really care about them either. There are a few parts people want, but most of them are ignored and left to rot.

Okuza wrote:Einherjar is soooo broken. The randomness is utterly ridiculous at the start. SE has absolutely no clue about how to make things "hard" if they think randomly varying the difficulty from ultra-easy to impossible just based on initial spawn is the only way to do it.

I'm constantly surprised when people (not saying you personally Okuza) start complaining about SE's definitions for "hard" and "challenging."

Since AV's introduction 3(?) years ago its been pretty obvious that the Devs like making things a)insanely hard or b)insanely random for us.

And that they have a sick sense of humor.

As to abj's going to waste, I've started to see it too in my sky shell. I think in a lot of cases its just that the more experienced players have been in endgame for so long that they have what they want for gear or are actively working towards Salvage/Assault gear and don't want any more Rare/Ex items taking up space in their MH.

Abjs and Relic are no longer the absolute best gear available in the game, a lot of Salvage and even Assault pieces are just as good or nearly so- and in the case of Assault gear- easier to obtain.

Ya, back in the "old" Zilart days, Abjurations were a thing to collect just to get a full set -- mostly because there were no other options. Most of my shell doesn't have abjurations. They're just not interested in them. I think it's because there's so much gear out there now and so little inventory space that unless you're actually going to use something a fair bit, no one wants it.

IMHO, Einherjar becomes an option for gearing people up when you can easily and regularly succeed using the same crew you'd use on a King fight AND when the drops include the FULL list of king gear: D-Ring, Ridill, BBs, etc.. That means Einherjar would need to be doable by a group of 6, though, which is too easy by far. It's just that requiring 36, half of which are BLMs isn't my idea of a well designed event.