Final Fantasy XI Then...

[mikewl]

Time for all you melee experts to give some tips ^^.

I am lvling Dark Knight and Warrior and really could do with some information, resources etc on a few things.

Lets start with Dark Knight:

Weapon of choice is Scythe as far as I can tell, but I have been lvling Great Sword as well trying to keep them both at max skill lvl, this does mean often using my 2nd best weapon thus not performing at 100% strength. Should I just stick to the one weapon.

Skillchains:
I really dont know much about what combinations work etc, I just use what someone suggests and it works, as im using Scythe or Great Sword what weapon skills do you find work best.

Generally any other tips are welcome, equipment stats etc.

[C']

For DRK, Scythe and Great Sword are both A rank weapons, but Scythe is A+ whereas G.S. is A- so in theory Great Sword is worse. However the difference between A+ and A- only comes into play after level 60 so before then, skill cap and proficiency for the weapon is identical.

I actually think you have the right idea levelling both as from what I have heard from DRK players is that having Great Sword and Scythe fully levelled at higher levels is important. G.S. weapon skills at the lower levels aren?t that good, but the higher level WS are very damaging (especially with a THF sub and stacking with Sneak Attack) Keep doing what you are currently doing I?d say. Neglect one now and you?ll only have to go on a massive skilling session later.

EDIT ? don?t forget Great Axe either. G.A. is B rank weapon for DRK so in theory it is a ?poorer? weapon. However, if you plan to go DRK/THF at 30 (for Sneak Attack) there are very few WS at that level that match the sheer destructive force of Sturmwind. Obviously you?d have to ensure G.S. and Scythe is still levelled but it is also a viable weapon.

As for Skill Chains. Aden Nak?s chart is the one I use. Looks a bit confusing at first but is actually pretty straightforward. Plus Aden plays on Seraph ^_^

Here it is:

http://www.adennak.com/renkei.html

Make sure you read the information on the page, especially regarding A-B-C notations. People ignore the A-B-C priorities and create what they think will be a specific SC and the result will be something else as they haven?t paid attention to priorities.

[Hohum]

Regarding DRK weapons, yeah, you wanna keep Scythe and Great Sword levelled. Reason being is that the later weapon skills available will allow you to close dark skillchains with Scythe, and close light skillchains with GS.

Unfortunately you will more than likely have to find a skillup party at a later date, because you will have difficulty capping both weapons early on... what I did was concentrate on keeping Scythe capped in EXP parties initially, and switching out to GS where possible (spent time helping others with G1, etc). After level 50 it gets increasingly easy to cap both weapons in an EXP party due to the amount of experience points needed

[Darwock]

What is this concept of weapon ranks? Where does it come from? I am aware that some jobs suit particular weapons more than others, but as a mage this is not something I've ever thought about. I've never seen anything mentioned in the game itself classing weapons in categories of A, B, C per job etc.

[Tobal]

I think it was either offical info released by SE or official game guides. Its worth noting for melee player anyway, 'A' weapon's are the only ones worth using in exp party, past lvl 30 as the cap gaps get bigger and bigger, resulting in less Att/acc specially for ranged weapons (even though the Sam is the 2nd best archer, being only c+ result in cap of 220-230 odd end game, far to low for exp mobs)

[C']

Go to Profile >> Combat Skills and it lists all appropriate skills to your job (e.g. skill in weapon types, evasion, parrying etc.). Essentially your rank in each of these skills determines how high this will cap at each job level. The higher your rank, the higher the skill will cap at.

Take Dagger for example (numbers are hypothetical):

A THF is ranked A+ in Dagger so when he gets to level 30 his Dagger skill can go up to 100 (not true figure)

A NIN is ranked C+ in Dagger so when he gets to level 30 his Dagger skill can only go up to 90 (again example figure only).

It is known for a fact that each level you gain in a weapon skill gives you an extra Attack point when using that weapon (this can be seen on the equipment screen). It is also believed that extra accuracy is added. So in theory the higher your ranking with a specific weapon, the more damaging and accurate you are with that weapon, in comparison to a job with a lower rank.

Hope that makes sense.

UPDATE - the information on these ranks all comes from in game data. Every A rank skill for a job will cap at the same point for each level, same for B rank etc. So if a THF with Dagger (A rank) caps at 100 at level 30, then a DRK with Scythe (also A rank) will also cap at 100 at level 30. The data was never officially 'released' (S-E are actually incredibly tight with regards to what they make public about the game system). Players simply noticed a correlation in the numbers of skill caps.

I could link to a very informative page that explains all this but I am wary of it being considered spoiler material

[talizker]

This weekend something so amazing is happening that only happens maybe once a year...

The wife and kids are away!

Obviously I must seize on this opportunity and use at least some of this precious time for FFXI related fun. As of today I am RDM36/BLM19 (plus SAM10/WAR10) and the things on my list of stuff to do are as follows:

RSE Feet & Legs Timing for Hume Male means I won't be able to do this over the weekend but it is set up nicely for Monday night in Gusgen Mines - I want to try for key before hand of course.

Mission 3-3 Up to the top of Delkfutt's Tower...

Mission 4-1 ^^

Promathia I'm ready to go gear wise and this weekend would be the ideal time...

So just a couple of bits to keep me going! Help with the Gusgen key(s) / chests would be very much appreciated. As far as the other stuff is concerned - if anyone also needs to do / wants to do / wants to help then it would be awesome.

If none of that appeals but you have a job in one of my ranges then I would also be up for some EXP'ing.

Finally, if anyone needs my assistance for anything at all (unlikely I realise) then just ask!

[C']

Talizker mate, I offered help with RSE last time and you never took me up on my offer, and I?ll offer it again this time and hope you can get it. I don?t know any chest locations in Gusgen Mines but can get around the entire area without aggro and with 2 of us looking we should have luck getting a chest.

Please let me help ^_^

I?ll also take you up Delkfutt?s Tower if you like. Been a long time since I went up there so we may got lost on the way but it should be fun

[talizker]

Talizker mate, I offered help with RSE last time and you never took me up on my offer, and I?ll offer it again this time and hope you can get it. I don?t know any chest locations in Gusgen Mines but can get around the entire area without aggro and with 2 of us looking we should have luck getting a chest.

Please let me help ^_^

I?ll also take you up Delkfutt?s Tower if you like. Been a long time since I went up there so we may got lost on the way but it should be fun

Thats great Rare - I will of course let you help Last time I tried for the RSE Ces was on when we started and although I remember you saying hello in-game a little later I was kind of caught up in the moment (ie dieing in that large Scorpian / Undead room deep in the Maze). I know you said before hand you were happy to help but I don't like to keep asking (and thus maybe annoying you!). I am basically free anytime between mid-afternoon Saturday until tea-time Sunday then evening as normals. Just let me know when you are available and I will fit in with that. Thanks!

[Darwock]

Eeeek! You've finally passed me tal! I am still level 35, lol. I've got to ask myself what I'm doing with my time, heheh.

I know one chest location in Gusgen. Take a straight line through to the big cavern at the the back, down the steps... you can sometimes find one at the east wall in this room with the 3 doors guarded by 3 bogies.

While I'm still 35 I'm up for any xp partying you may be doing. I went about 1000xp points in the wrong direction last night, exploring Carpenter's Landing - twice getting jumped by elementals when it started raining mid-fight. That must be a good place for getting water clusters...

Totally demoralized again by the AH.. when I bought my thunder pact it was 200,000 and light pacts were the same. Now that I have nearly 200,000 gil again, I checked the prices and light pacts have shot up to 550,000 :-( This is totally ridiculous. As a comparison I checked Astral ring prices.. and they have gone from 300,000 to 500,000. It's impossible to save gil for these things because the prices go up faster than I can get the money.

[talizker]

While I'm still 35 I'm up for any xp partying you may be doing.

I had a great party in Eldieme Necropolis (how much better than Garlaige Citadel!!!) a couple of nights back so if we can get a party together here then we should be able to get to 37/38. Only thing is the Hecteyes we were fighting were not very responsive to nukes so not a great BLM place...

[Darwock]

Hmmm. Have you tried Crawler's Nest? That place was the definition of easy levelling! But I don't know how far above level 36 it remains a viable option.

What do you think boys and girls, does anyone else have jobs in this range?

[talizker]

Hmmm. Have you tried Crawler's Nest? That place was the definition of easy levelling! But I don't know how far above level 36 it remains a viable option.

What do you think boys and girls, does anyone else have jobs in this range?

Nope - not been to the Crawlers Nest yet but as far as I understand it's a good level place for a while from mid 30's.

Apathe's NIN is around level 36 so he may be a likely candidate for some EXP'ing.

[Darwock]

Just going back to this stuff about combat skill and caps.. bear with me people, but is it never the case that a weapon which is capped lower than another for a particular job can be more effective? Say staff capped higher than dagger - at level 3x I actually bought a level 23 staff, because there were no other staves that looked particularly useful. Now say there was a more appealing dagger for whatever reason (higher level or just better in general, less than half the delay etc). Even though staff skill might be higher, a greater attack rating on the dagger could bring the total to more than the staff. Or the lower delay could result in more damage done because you are hitting more often (even with less attack rating).

I'm just trying to question this notion that there's no point in using any weapon other than the one considered 'A rank'.

[talizker]

Just going back to this stuff about combat skill and caps.. bear with me people, but is it never the case that a weapon which is capped lower than another for a particular job can be more effective? Say staff capped higher than dagger - at level 3x I actually bought a level 23 staff, because there were no other staves that looked particularly useful. Now say there was a more appealing dagger for whatever reason (higher level or just better in general, less than half the delay etc). Even though staff skill might be higher, a greater attack rating on the dagger could bring the total to more than the staff. Or the lower delay could result in more damage done because you are hitting more often (even with less attack rating).

I'm just trying to question this notion that there's no point in using any weapon other than the one considered 'A rank'.

I'm not sure that there's a 'no point' situation as I would imagine there could be times when a weapon that has a lower cap could do more damage (Dagger vs Club when farming for example). When you are partying and fighting IT mobs then I would asume the weapon with the lower cap is likely to miss more often and maybe do less damage thus reducing the efficiency of the party.