Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Darwock]

Yeah sorry I didn't make it online for the return to the cluster bomb, I had an unexpected guest... I'd already forced him to sit through the following so couldn't ask him to watch FFXI all evening.

I've got my first ever NM camping story to tell (so excuse me for going into great detail, I want to make the most of this!)... I decided I should do something to improve my equipment for the next CoP as my stuff is almost universally ****e.. without the AF equipment I've got nothing useful for boosting my damage output. So I thought I'd take a crack at Mysticmaker Profblix. I knew it would be pretty much suicide but had to try... at level 60 I would get aggro from everything else in the room and also didn't have stoneskin available from any subjobs. Came up with a vague plan to pre-empt his high tier nukes with the appropriate bar- spell, and use my lillith's rod to steal his mp and stay in the fight as long as possible.

Anyway logged in after tea and there was nobody there but a beastmaster who appeared to be doing his own thing. I sat there for half an hour, then realised it was so quiet because I was in the wrong place. Doh! When I got to the right position, there was a mithra there who I assumed was afk. Anon, but they had the luxury of not needing to invis so were obviously higher level. Never having camped an NM in my life I didn't have a scoob how to approach it... I just ran around in circles scanning the area. The other person turned out not to be AFK as on inspection I noticed her head was moving, so she was clearly just waiting to strike.

After maybe an hour, other people start turning up. It soon looks like grand central station... also appears that many of these people are with the mithra, and they seem to be clearing the zone for her. There was maybe another twenty minutes of tension, then the f*&ker spawns, right in front of the other people. I hit my row of stun macros, and got the claim! Ran up to the wall, profblix stopped a short distance away and began nuking me. I was completely at a loss for what to do... partly through the shock at actually getting the claim and partly cos I'd been only half paying attention while also trying to hold a conversation with my friend. Drank poison, au lait, started nuking... small chip in his HP but he hadn't really hurt me yet either... remembered my plan of absorbing his MP and closed in to melee. This is when he started tearing me apart. He was hitting me with Blizzaga/Aeroga IIIs and all sorts, I'd completely abandoned my attempts to bar his nukes.. managed to cure myself but realised I would soon be out of MP at this rate.

The other campers in the room had formed a semi circle around me and Profblix, felt like a f*&king firing squad. Somebody checked me, presumably they'd noticed I was not a suitable job to survive this and they were just waiting for the inevitable chance to steal the claim. Couldn't bloody believe what happened next... I got a Cure V. The next thing I'm getting an absolute torrent of healing magic from all these people! I got a tell asking if I want help and an invite popped up. My first thoughts were not to accept, as they would understandably want a shot at the earring if it should drop. Then I figure I would be dead by now if not for them so they deserve that chance, and accept. A single guy joins my party, didn't notice what job. Profblix manafonted around this point, but thankfully he didn't hit me with any AM (would have meant instant death even at full HP.. no way does this NM do normal level 50 damage).

I manafont by return, knock back another yag drink and hit him with all I've got left. Not quite enough. The guy helping me starts casting banish III while I wait for my rod to absorb enough mp so I can nuke again. I get enough for a single drain, and that's what finished him off. Goblin mask, goblin armour, thunder III, moldavite earring. Holy motherf*&ker!!! Got my head together enough to cast the lot, and the earring fell straight to me... the other guy had passed O_O

The main reason I've never gone NM hunting before is because I had developed a low opinion of the sort of people you'd expect to meet on such an endeavour (mainly through witnessing lizzy campers)... and it turned out to be the other campers who made it possible for me to succeed. Maybe they took pity on me for trying it with no assistance and a bad job combo... but thank f*&k they did! Now I get to say stuff like I'm 1/1 on the moldavite earring

[Daragon]

-_- Congrats Dar (never going to get that earring myself - I just hope that the expansion releases some more blm gear thats slightly more accessible with similar effects)

Sounds like you really struck it lucky, if I stole a claim from a room full of campers, I know for certain it wouldn't be cures I'd recieve.

[talizker]

Goblin mask, goblin armour, thunder III, moldavite earring. Holy motherf*&ker!!!

All Right dude - thats awesome Congratulations!

-_- Congrats Dar (never going to get that earring myself - I just hope that the expansion releases some more blm gear thats slightly more accessible with similar effects)

Why?

[Tsingtao]

Well did some reading following last nights loss and based on what I saw in the fight here's my thoughts.

1) Number of SDs does not impact drop rate, theres a number of anecdotal type references but evidence shows it to be arounda 50% drop regardless. This is backed up by the conculsions on somepage.

2) SD kills tanks and melee outright it must be stunned, hit me for 800 damage.

3) Nukes have little impact on it, checking alla this is confirmed with only astral flow being noted to give real damage from magic (about 50% of mob health). AM is also resisted according to posts from parties.

4) The mob is sleepable, for between 30 secs to 2 mins with elemental seal. If we were to coordinate we could sleep when the mages run low for the first time then all rest and go again.

5) Best consistant damge is SATA + Viper Bite stated to land for aroun 300 damage.

From this I would say the ideal set up for this would be 2 parties of PLD + THF + RDM + BRD + WHM + BLM. Now obviously we can't do that and I do think last nights is a viable set up but we need a strategy just hitting it is not going to get us home.

I would suggest we need the following

1) Stun all SDs, if SD goes off sleep the mob with ES + Sleep

2) Do damage fast, its a lot easier to do last resort kills if we've caused it big damage. would suggest using SAM 2 hour and paladin invincible after about 3 vokes from PLD.

3) Do not use DoT, will make the mob unsleepable

4) Try to get a THF, Rabs springrs to mind. Even with only SA VB I think we'd see a big improvement. Not to mention TH2 would increase the drop!

5) When mages are low call a diengage all melees disengage and move to mages, once they're clear PLD dissengages and ES + sleep. Everyone rests, Paeon and regen on melees and refresh and balad on PLD and Mages. BRD watches for wake up and lullabies backed by and we keep it asleep for as long as possible. PLD will flash and voke to hold hate when it wakes.

6) Sort out main responsibilities, we had BLM curing last night and PLD not holding hate.
WHM - Cure tank - watch for tank flash to allow tank a full potency Cure II for hate and barfira
RDM - Cure Melees + Haste on melees and tank, chainspell hey I just don't know. If we could make the sleep method work save convert till close to death then covert sure and nuke like crazy, may be a dash for home move.
BLM - Nuke + Stun no DoT
BRD - fire carl up at all time on melee + tank and madrigal. Support healing for tank
SAM - Get 2 hour off early and get the mofo down on it hp as fast as possible, should follow PLD invincible early in the fight.
PLD - Stay alive and generate as much hate as possible, could use some extra emnity. Suggest we use invincible to allow mage to rest wehn they get to around 50% hp.
NIN - Lay it down however is best if you think Gun NIN will work go for it.

Any other healing and DD we can get will help bit I think these points might get us home.

[Tsingtao]

-_- Congrats Dar (never going to get that earring myself - I just hope that the expansion releases some more blm gear thats slightly more accessible with similar effects).

Whys that he's not that tough, you're 70 Darwocks 60 you should be able to own that. None of the mobs there will agro you so whats the issue?

Sounds like you really struck it lucky, if I stole a claim from a room full of campers, I know for certain it wouldn't be cures I'd recieve.

In what way is it a steal, thats just claiming faster it's no ones mob till its pulled.

[Daragon]

All Right dude - thats awesome Congratulations!



Why?

You may or may not have noticed Tal, that Daragon + NM camping = {No thanks} Ok sure, its all fun while you're stood around doing nothing for anywhere between 10 minutes and 6 hours - but after 2 hours go by and up it pops with the claim going to someone else, I (at least) like to run off to the nearest corner to sit in and cry uncontrollably.

In that respect, it could be argued that maybe this isn't the game for me, but fortunately it would seem I'm not the only who shares a "NM drops and 10 million gil items are luxuries and not necessities" attitude - I certainly wouldn't have made it to lvl 69 with my first job otherwise. I'm not saying I wouldn't like some of these items, of course I would - just that I believe many of them to be tailored for soloers and I'm not at a stage yet where I solo, other than for farming purposes.

Things like quests rewards, or items which drop from normal mobs which are plentiful would be more accessible to those gamers who share my lack of patience when it comes to camping - I didn't enjoy it during my EQ days and I sure as hell don't enjoy it here either. S-E bring on half of these problems themselves - how difficult is it to give a NM a RANDOM spawn point as opposed to a set one?

[Daragon]

Whys that he's not that tough, you're 70 Darwocks 60 you should be able to own that. None of the mobs there will agro you so whats the issue?


In what way is it a steal, thats just claiming faster it's no ones mob till its pulled.

I didn't mean it as a steal in that sense, just that some other campers who many have been waiting for it longer may have considered it that way.

[Tsingtao]

I don't get what you mean dara Profblix isn't a lottery spawn its a timer, pops between 2 and 2 1/2 hours after ToD in a fixed room. He's not hard to camp, you can even get ToD without being there on timed mobs.

Biggest issue on Prof is his drop rate is low, best camping time wil be around 3 - 5 pm weekdays due to low competition.

[oblivion_6]

Toying with the idea of getting this, i was wondering how far along is the game and is it easy enough that newbies can pick it up and run with it?

Ive played quite a few mmorpgs like WOW, DAOC, lineage etc

And i think i need a new fix

[Daragon]

He's not a lottery spawn? I thought that was all the rage now after Leaping Lizzy had been changed (Am I only the only one who actually believes she used to be on an hour spawn rate)?

A 2 hour spawn window I can handle, a possible 6 hour window can go and **** off right now

[Tsingtao]

Ah Mr Tickle just saw your post and yes bonecraft makes big money on Seraph beyond about 80. Getting it to 60 is a massive expense on the server these days though, looking alosing several miliion, unlike most crafts I just can't finda profit route.

As for events yes we do quite alot, I'd say a couple per week but they're not all money makers. Crafting is a much more reliable gil supply then anything else really.

Members I'd have to say not sure we have about 25 at a guess, with a core of about 15 that are usually around.

Oh and before you mive servers turn your gil into items you'll have much more that way.

Oblivion a new release of the game is due on April 20th when it goess live on xbox as well, should see an influx of new players and the game itself is still good for new guys, I'd recommend starting prior to the xbox release to get yourself a bit of a head start.

[Darwock]

So I can see that the unstable cluster remains the undisputed heavyweight champion of Riverne site #B01, but how did it go? Was it a near victory, or a party wipe? Don't know if I can make it on either tonight or tomorrow but I'll certainly help if I can.

[Daragon]

Toying with the idea of getting this, i was wondering how far along is the game and is it easy enough that newbies can pick it up and run with it?

Ive played quite a few mmorpgs like WOW, DAOC, lineage etc

And i think i need a new fix

Its certainly not as Newbie friendly as it was back when I started in Jan 04, RMT (gil sellers) have crippled the game's economy on the whole. Getting the gil for your first load of items to about lvl 20/30 shouldn't be that much of a struggle unless you want to show the you're an elite by possessing gear worth upwards of 30 million.

Unfortunately, crafting (I find at least) would seem like trying to push a boulder up a hill using only a twig compared to WoW's system. You will need a good, strong bank account to fund it past lvl 10, and thats if luck is on your side.

The game itself, if you can look past the economy/item campers issue, is very strong - very much story based, with some truly exciting battles and events and with a community that would put something like WoW's to shame.
Always something for you to do, and always a group for you to level alongside due to the allowance of job change.

[Lupine]

Mysticmaker Profblix is a static 2 - 2 and a half hour pop window ie. once you've seen it die once, you have 2 hrs to kill before you need to start paying attention again.

Just MrArgus it.

[Daragon]

MrArgus?