Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Darwock]

I said something similar once and got torn apart for it.. hey ho.

I'm well pissed off having done a semi-regular auction check.. started off light spirit pacts were 100K. Then they jumped to 300K, then 500K, then sort of peaked at 600K where they hovered for months. All that time dark spirit pacts were going for 800K-1 million. So after I reached 700K in the bank, I bought the dark spirit to get the worst one out of the way. Last I checked light spirits had dropped to 400K. Well now, the light spirits are 800K and the dark spirits have dropped to 600K ><

Not only that, now I'm over level 50 I've been wanting a sorceror's ring, only 6K in Jeuno for as long as I've been looking at it. It only pops up rarely though. The last one I saw sold a week or two ago for 10K. I checked today and some muppet has raised the price to 200K. Due to the infrequency of sales, there's no way that price s coming back down.

I've got f*&king sh!tty luck when it comes to timing of purchases!

[C']

Sorceror?s Ring. Is that the one with Latent Effect: Magic Attack Bonus? If so that thing is not worth 200k at all. All the JSE rings at lvl50 seem great at first when you look at the stats they offer. However the importance is that Latent Effect.

LE is vague and is just SE?s way of saying that the effect only activates in certain situations but the ways can vary. I do know how to activate latents on the lvl50 rings but it is not worth it, and obviously I won?t tell you.

However, I would strongly recommend against spending any large amount of gil on that ring.

[Darwock]

I think I know what activates those rings, it's low health isn't it? In which case it would be great for me because whenever I fight solo I'm nearly always dropping into low health (yellow). If I'm wrong, or if it requires red-for-danger health levels, then I agree it's not worth anything. But I certainly would have bought it for 10K.

I have a few latent effect pieces of gear, a magician's earring that gives my black mage +30 mp with summoner subjob, and a wizard's shield that gives my summoner +2 strength with black mage subjob. Both bits are great!

[?pint]

On the level 50 rings and the level 70 earrings, it is yellow HP and below, as well as less than 100% TP. The BLM ring is very much worth it if you have a way of keeping your HP in yellow, as nothing offers anywhere near this kind of stat.

[Darwock]

it is yellow HP and below, as well as less than 100% TP

That's my natural operating condition! So... gutted that it's been bumped up to 200K

[Tobal]

if there end game material then buy them, you'll have them for the rest of your blm career.

[C']

Was funny last night when I got to farming for the first time in my shiny new Scorpion Harness only to swap back to my tried and true artefact armour, Ninja Chainmail. Evasion+10 and Accuracy+10 will be godlt for EXP mobs but against things many levels lower than me (that struggle to hit me and evade my attacks) it?s not so good. The NIN AF body offers enhanced dual-wield which speeds up how often I could attack. Did some tests and it felt like there was about 1 second increase in time between attacks with Scorpion Harness, and considering farming is best with quicker kills, it was a simple choice to make.

However the true power of the Harness came out later in the night when helping Wedge try and get his BRD testimony. Was fighting Sahagins that checked as Tough to me (so probably level 64-65) and as a duo we had no problem taking them down whatsoever. Sadly never got a drop but NIN & BRD duo team works really well. Hopefully a true damage dealer can tag along next time, to speed up the kills, and get Wedge?s drop next time.

[Darwock]

Hey, nice one, you got it! So is that a weight off your mind? Funny to think you were close to quitting the game over it!

[mikewl]

Tobal, if you're on tonight would you want to get some exp.

Also cheers Rare for helping out last night, I alwats enjoy situations where I get to actually attack something melee style.

It is amazing how Ninja's can go whole fights against tough's without hardly taking much damage at all.

[C']

Heh, yeah I got it on Tuesday night. It?s not really fully mine yet in my own eyes (although Bayan disagrees). I came out of my farming run on Tuesday with 240k worth of stuff and my Fuma Kyahan had sold for 800k putting my gil total at around 7.7million. I placed that night?s haul on the AH in Upper Jeuno and was running back to moghouse to log off for the night and bumped into Bayan who was on his way to start a Dynamis run. I stopped and initiated trade to show him how close I was to my total, as I had done a few times previous.

He offered to loan me 360k to put me over the 8 million total and considering I was so close to my target I accepted the loan and rushed over to make my purchase.

8 million gil gone in a few seconds ;_;

Worth every penny though.

Now the farming starts over for a 2.5 million lvl60 katana and the rest of my Promyvion gear (and paying back Bayan natch). For some reason lately, I?ve had an overwhelming desire to explore the Tavnazia region. Once Apathye gets the CoP expansion, Promys will be a priority.

To be fair, my decision to stop playing lay rooted much deeper than needing a Scorpion Harness (although it did play a part). At the time I was not enjoying logging on (doing it more out of routine) so not playing was the natural thing to do. I have returned with a renewed vigor for the game, so the break certainly did me good and every time I play now (even when farming) I enjoy myself.

And now with my shiny new piece of equipment, I have received my reward for my efforts.

Feels damn good if I?m honest ^_^

[Darwock]

While I was beating up on dhalmel's in altepa I watched a level 35 ninja killing sand beetles that were still easy prey to me at level 51, and he was taking no damage at all. And they say beastmaster is the ideal solo job?!

[talizker]

Quick question regarding farming...

I have managed to get to level 49 with no dedicated farming. I've got all my gear through selling items dropped during the course of things, selling Leaping Boots and various quests / BCNM's etc.

At 50 there are a lot of items I will be needing in the coming 5-10 levels that are 200k+ each so I want to do some serious farming to supliment the quests I plan to do. Last night I went to Meriphataud Mountains for a couple of hours to farm Raptors and other things... Took down about 30 Raptors (+ a NM one) without a single drop of anything. Picked up some bulbs and grain from Sapplings and a few various bits and gil from gobs.

On the whole not very impressive really and its going to take a whole bunch of time to make 200k doing this! How much of a difference is subing THF15 going to make to the items I get from mobs like these?

[Darwock]

I've never been one for hardcore farming for gil either, it just doesn't appeal to me (yet I can spend hours on end repetitively killing mobs for other reasons, weird..). That said, when I'm out collecting crystals/seals I usually get pretty decent gil rewards too - brought in about 150K from the anticans just through antican pauldrons. Of course, that was over the course of a week, nothing compared to Rare's 240K in one evening type of deal!

[C']

NIN can solo well Darwock, but we have to be somewhat picky in what our targets are. Any MNK type beastman (along with Mandragoras) are hard to do as they have 2 attacks per round which means they find it easier to break through the shadows and lay down a beating. Also mage types with powerful Ga spells will lay cause major hurt as a Ga spell removes all shadows instantly and deals damage. I discovered this against Mysticmaker Profblix, a BLM goblin. Would probably be Easy Prey to me yet he took me down with about 4 Ga spells.

However, stuff like BRD type beastmen, crabs and beetles are incredibly easy to solo. They don?t have Double Attack and lack any serious AOE spells (Beetle Evasion Down is a possible concern but nothing major). For example, at 61 before I faced Shadow Lord I wanted capped Throwing so I could toss Shuriken at him. I was about 20 levels behind the cap so I went to Kuftal Tunnel and wailed on Robber Crabs there (Even Match ? Tough). Wasn?t fast kills but I was never ever in danger of dying. It?s a good way to get some Beastman Seals too. I reckon, with the right target, I could solo a Very Tough enemy. Would cost a bit of gil in tools and would take forever but I think I could do it. Team me with a BRD and I think Incredibly Tough kills would be possible.

In fact, I?ve mentioned this before but at lvl57 I soloed a BRD Sahagin and received 250EXP. I?m not sure what level that means he was but it took ages (I think I used Berserk 3 times in the fight which has a 5 minute cooldown).

Now Talizker, farming. Firstly I would highly recommend getting THF to 15. Farming without Treasure Hunter is not advised. It doesn?t mean will get drops every kill, and rare drops will still likely be hard to get (i.e. Raptor Skins) but it does help. It can be difficult to quantify how useful it is sadly.

Droprates do seem to depend on various factors such as day, moon phase etc. For example, sometimes when I farm in Korroloka I can get 3 stacks of Slime Oil in an hour (my record was a full stack in 10 minutes) and then struggle to get 1 stack the next. So based on this you could say TH is not needed, if you knew which factors made for more profitable farming. However it is impossible to say that had I not had TH I could have got 2 stacks in the hour when I got 3 and half a stack when I struggled for 1. That?s why I will always sub THF as it certainly can?t make things any worse. It may just be a placebo effect but for a job trait to offer no benefit would be weird.

Choice of target and where to farm is also important. I?ve never tried Meriphitaud Mountains so can?t say what would be good. I?ve farmed many areas in my FFXI career. The need to experiment to find an area that suits you best is necessary.

[C']

Oh, and the hardest part of farming is the start. You?ve got an empty inventory, an empty AH and it feels like it will take forever to get what you need. No matter how many times I?ve farmed that motivation factor rarely goes away (occasionally I can log on and really want to get money making but that is rare). However I find once I get going and that first drop comes in then it becomes easier to lose yourself for a few hours and you find yourself with a nice stash of goodies at the end of it.

I also need o try and keep social when I?m farming. Whether that is communicating on the LS, chatting with Apathye or someone else via /tells etc. being in constant communication with ?reality? really helps. Last night for example we were chatting about something and I check my inventory to find I had 9 stacks of Slime Oil in my inventory when I thought was at around 7 and a half. I?d lost myself so much in the task, and been distracted with LS chat that I was clearly on autopilot. That was cool.

However, farming isn?t for everyone and is but one way to make money. Some people swear by NM hunting. Personally I don?t like the risk factor involved. For me to spend an evening in game camping a NM and potentially have nothing to show at the end of it would feel like wasted time. Farming may not bring the big gil, all at once, but I make steady, consistent progress which I like.

You just need to find the gil making solution that?s right for you.