Final Fantasy XI Then...

[talizker]

Will be on just after 10pm if you want to do Garlaige tonight. As far as the Coffer order. For me, once I had received the feet, I could do hands, legs and body in any order but need to have done all of those before the head I think.

[C']

It?s actually more straightforward than that. You have your first AF quest which will be open to you at 40 (and provides you with a weapon). You have to complete this before any other can be done.

Once that is complete, when you reach 50 you can start your second AF quest (for an armour piece, in most cases the level 52 armour). Complete this quest and you can unlock the 3rd AF quest (which will grant you your 58 or 60 armour, depending on job).

Separate from this, when you reach 50 (and if you have completed the AF weapon quest) you can activate the quest for AF gloves. Once it has been activated (completion is not required) you can also obtain 2 other pieces of AF armour from coffers in different dungeons. These can be obtained in order you like.

The game does not require you to get all coffer items before letting you activate the 3rd AF quest (thankfully as my lvl60 AF was a coffer item and 58 was a quest), so Tal you should be able to start the quest now for your head AF should you so desire.


OK onto another issue. Apathye now has CoP registered which means hopefully we can make a start on Promyvions and catch up with the rest of the LS. I?ll admit was really starting to have second thoughts about this (a fact exacerbated by a disastrous ENM attempt at the weekend) but speaking with Apathye last night has got me psyched for it again. Cassius gave me his email address before he left last week for his new flat and I messaged him last night letting him know that Apathye is now CoP ready so hopefully the group will again be:

Rare ? NIN/war
Moot ? WAR/nin (really hoping having a proper dual blink setup will create better results than the ENM where I tried it solo which is really difficult pre Utsusemi Ni)
Tobal ? not really sure which job he?s coming as, he has loads, whichever DD he feels best with I think.
Vanicent ? WAR/thf
Apathye ? BLM/whm
Cassius ? WHM/blm

If everything goes to plan (and Cass replies in time) I?d like to make an attempt at the first one (Dem is probably best) on Saturday evening. Vanicent told me he can be online at around 7pm that evening (he works Saturdays) which I hope will be good with everyone. If we can attempt to make a prompt 7:30pm meeting at Crag of Dem. I think we have enough anima at the moment to do at least 1 Promyvion so there is no need for further farming.

Obviously this all depends on what Cassius tells me when he replies. However I do know that Cass has already beat Dem so maybe if he can?t make it we can sub in another member to take the WHM role and get everyone up to that stage rather than delay by waiting for him, when he doesn?t need it anyway.

Would anyone who has an equipped WHM30 be available should the need arise?

[Darwock]

Separate from this, when you reach 50 (and if you have completed the AF weapon quest) you can activate the quest for AF gloves.

I have tried to activate the AF gloves quest before since reaching 50, and wasn't able to until last night, after finishing AF2. So I think it's dependant on that rather than the AF weapon.

You also said completion of AF gloves wasn't required for the other coffers, but does completing it remove it from your active quests and prevent you getting the other AF items? Actually scratch that, I know talizker has done his gloves so obviously not.

P.S. Good luck with Promyvion, I can't remember but I think we were quite light on the animas when we beat Dem, and the animas are certainly a lot more essential on the other two - something to consider maybe.

[C']

You must be right there Darwock. Been over a year since I activated all this AF stuff. However something doesn?t make sense.

Both RNG and THF AF gloves are level 52 whereas the second questable AF piece (i.e. not coffer related) is 54 (both head pieces). It would seem rather unfair that they would not be allowed to activate the quest for there level 52 AF until they have completed the quest for the 54 piece (would frustrate me for sure as I enjoyed tackling my AF gear one piece at a time as I got close to the level where it was needed).

As for the question regarding getting gloves first, registering quest complete then obtaining other coffers I can?t say for sure (my gloves were my 60 gear so I obtained the other 2 coffer items beforehand anyway) but I would guess it wouldn?t be an issue.

What would be interesting would be if you obtained the gloves on a job (bot not the other 2 coffer items) then got another job to the stage where you could attempt AF gloves and activated the new quest. Wonder if that would delete the coffers from the first job?

[vwilsonuk]

Obviously this all depends on what Cassius tells me when he replies. However I do know that Cass has already beat Dem so maybe if he can?t make it we can sub in another member to take the WHM role and get everyone up to that stage rather than delay by waiting for him, when he doesn?t need it anyway.

Would anyone who has an equipped WHM30 be available should the need arise?

Let me know if you need a 30 WHM, I can help you out there. Have done the Promyvions and am currently working on 40 WHM ready for the Minotaur with the other guys, anyone know if I'll need to "seal my memories"/re-open any quests to go back in again?

[Darwock]

No you've been granted the freedom of Promyvion

[C']

Looks like next version update has been announced for early October. Not many details so far:

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

Updates to the Fellowship Quest will be interesting as I have really enjoyed working on my NPC, even though it is only 31 at the moment (and probably pissed with me right now as I died in the middle of levelling it yesterday when killing Desert Manticores in Western Altepa Desert) it has been a cool addition to the game and is more to it than I thought there would be.

New areas are referred to (presumably some of the ones that were added to the DAT files with CoP but have so far not been made available). There is an image on the update page that looks strikingly like a Promyvionised version Gustaberg. Could be interesting but I am curious as to how S-E will allow access to any new zones seeing as though the CoP story was wrapped up in the previous update.

[vwilsonuk]

Updates to the Fellowship Quest will be interesting as I have really enjoyed working on my NPC, even though it is only 31 at the moment (and probably pissed with me right now as I died in the middle of levelling it yesterday when killing Desert Manticores in Western Altepa Desert) it has been a cool addition to the game and is more to it than I thought there would be.

How do you level it? I was watching Tsing mess around with his hume girl the other day and it wasn't clear whether it was kills that levelled the npc or just time out and about. What happens when you die? Also, I wonder if the npc has weaponskills just like a normal player, and what effect the npc has on party xp.

It certainly is a very cool quest mind. Will be getting myself an npc as soon as I've decided what race/characteristics I'm looking for.

[C']

I think the NPC receives EXP as normal from kills and I also believe (but am not certain) that the EXP the NPC requires to go from one level to the next is the same as a regular player would require.

However the NPC does not receive a penalty in EXP received for EXPing with a higher level player like a regular player would (again from what I can gather from messing with mine). I took mine to Xarcabard for the first few levelling sessions against Demons which were classed as Easy Prey to me but would be Incredibly Tough to my NPC (by a fair margin). I was getting about 20 EXP per kill on average (I did receive a cut in EXP from the kill than if I had soloed them, just like if I teamed with another player) but on the third session Fhig (my mithra friend ^^) levelled up to 31 after a kill. There was no indication of when this was going to happen but the fact that it happened straight after a kill suggests that it is kills that are required, not just time out.

When you die your NPC simply despawns just like he/she would have when they decide they have had enough levelling for that session. However it doesn?t say anything whereas normally you get a message ?phew! That?s enough for today? (or something similar). They just disappear even if other people in your group are still fighting the monster (I was teamed with Apathye last night when I died alongside my NPC). I?m sure I read in the previous update notes that your relationship with your NPC can be affected by either yourself or the NPC dieing.

My NPC (and I think everyone elses) defaulted to a Sword and Shield but Moot?s (who he has had a lot longer than mine) is now equipped with a Great Axe (I think) but I have not yet figured out how to change that. NPC will also perform weapon skills and can even be skill chained with, but you have no control over when/what weapon skill is performed or even any idea how much TP they have. However mine has used Flat Blade and Red Lotus Blade and sure enough when I performed Blade: Jin afterwards I got a Fusion Skillchain (which was great for Demons and added another 300 damage).

One thing I would like to know is if everyone?s NPC shares the same stats or whether the race you choose affects the statistics like it does for a player. I chose a Mithra simply because I have a dirty mind but it would be interesting to know if a Galka or Elvaan NPC would hit harder or a Taru would have more MP.

[Daragon]

On the subject of Promys, I still have yet to complete all 3 so I could go in Cassius' place if he doesn't respond. Failing that, would it be possible to get together a group of people who have already beaten them to help me out?

[Tobal]

all i know is something is in the works as apa as CoP so promey part1 will go ahead sometime soon, that leaves rare,moot,apa,dara,Cassius who else?

i know those that have already past have multple job roles we could use to fill holes in the formation, so getting a full party together won't be problem.

[vwilsonuk]

My NPC (and I think everyone elses) defaulted to a Sword and Shield but Moot?s (who he has had a lot longer than mine) is now equipped with a Great Axe (I think) but I have not yet figured out how to change that. NPC will also perform weapon skills and can even be skill chained with, but you have no control over when/what weapon skill is performed or even any idea how much TP they have. However mine has used Flat Blade and Red Lotus Blade and sure enough when I performed Blade: Jin afterwards I got a Fusion Skillchain (which was great for Demons and added another 300 damage).

One thing I would like to know is if everyone?s NPC shares the same stats or whether the race you choose affects the statistics like it does for a player. I chose a Mithra simply because I have a dirty mind but it would be interesting to know if a Galka or Elvaan NPC would hit harder or a Taru would have more MP.

Cool - thanks for all the info. Since my last post I did a bit of digging around on Alla and found this guide someone has started putting together, which answers quite a few questions. Am wondering about those stats questions myself, and also whether to choose a job/fighting style that compliments my character or one that plays to its strengths. For example, would my WHM be better off with a WAR to tank (or dd), a BLM to dd purely with magic (not sure one of these exists yet) or additional WHM power? Right now I'm erring on the side of a WAR and its probably going to be a mithra as I've not created one of those yet (and I am from Windurst). All four of my mules are Taru so I don't really fancy another one of those.

[Darwock]

I would like to obtain my NPC but as I'm sure you all know I'm quite stubborn about reading walkthroughs for quests, and having finished 'part 1' of it (received fanfare and reward) I've been given no indication of what I need to do next ><

I've not stumbled upon it by accident yet either. Is it true that the eventual fight is now a 3 man battle, or can you still do it solo? I saw people shouting this a few days after the update.

I didn't realise you could also choose the job of the NPC.. I'd picked a Galka through ignorance of what I was being asked to choose, but after some thought decided that would probably be quite good after all.. what with me being a puny mage with Bastok roots lol.

[NoelEdwards]

I went into the fight with my pld ( lvl 69 ) I didn't know it was caped at lvl 40 >_< . I still won tho ^_^

[vwilsonuk]

I would like to obtain my NPC but as I'm sure you all know I'm quite stubborn about reading walkthroughs for quests, and having finished 'part 1' of it (received fanfare and reward) I've been given no indication of what I need to do next >< I've not stumbled upon it by accident yet either. Is it true that the eventual fight is now a 3 man battle, or can you still do it solo? I saw people shouting this a few days after the update.

Haven't done it yet so difficult to say (and I don't want to give the game away for you!), but I think there is some consistency in how the quests are started/finished. You can still do the battle solo, its just that you can also take other people in if you wish.