Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Daragon]

I'm usually around too but my account's on hold atm having just paid for a week's holiday I'm skint, so all non-essential subscriptions have been temporarily canceled.

[C']

rares on a quest to collect every piece of rubbish from the new NM's

Hey, this is character building.

Anyway got these 2 pieces over the weekend.



NM for these was a right pain. Was a cluster type mob so it only spawned in foggy weather which is not a very regular occurence. Even when he did pop his droprate was awful. Went 1/7 in the end which doesn't sound too much but was spread over almost a week worth of camping. Thankfully Lufaise Meadows was a nice zone to hang out in and even made a decent amount of gil off Megalobugard in the time spent camping.

They pretty much went straight onto a mule after they dropped and will likely never be seen again. Apparently they are really good for SMN (pre-relic anyway) but me, SMN? *laughs*



Conversely these were no hassle at all. Went to Palborough Mines. Tracked NM on widescan, used Barrage, NM died, gloves dropped. These are actually really good melee gloves for their level and they've allowed me try and sell a couple of other pieces I was keeping on a mule as these are better for 20 cap stuff.

My next target is these:


From the sunds of it, these are the hardest new NM I'll have gone after so far. Looking forward to it.

I did actually do other stuff Tobal. I did Campaign again for the first time in ages yesterday. Got my max rank back after losing it in my absence. Campaign is quite inefficient as RNG but I'm fed up of getting RNG to 75 and never being able to use it for anything. Another 3 merits needed to have capped Snapshot merits.

[InvisibleKid]

Got my subjob last night! Will definately make it level 21 WHM if I play tonight.

[C']

Are you on Seraph? There's not many of us online at once these days, but I'm sure someone could sort you out with a linkpearl if you want to chat with us in game.

[InvisibleKid]

I am indeed - character is Estrathio if anyone could drop me a pearl that'd be great

[C']

My next target is these:


From the sunds of it, these are the hardest new NM I'll have gone after so far. Looking forward to it.

1/1

Was a fun solo actually. The NM gained a Dread Spikes effect every time it used a TP move (seemed to only use Whirl of Rage) so every time this happened (with increasing regularity as it got fewer HP) I had to turn away and switch to a cycle of ninjutsu nukes. Stupidly my macros were incorrect (and only noticed when it was at 10% HP) so I was casting Ni level nukes instead of the San ones I had merited. May have been quicker had I used those.

Felt slightly guilty as a COR showed up around halfway through the fight and sent me a tell saying he was 0/12 on them.

[C']

Got these last week but only just become able to upload the image (seems to be dodgy wireless card).



They are just as awesome as I hoped (especially Robel-Akbel).

Also couldn't believe when i opened the final box to see who the secret character was going to be. They kept this hidden up to release, and even the boxes they come him only had the first 4 on show (the space for the 5th character was only listed as ?).

Was proper psyched when I realised it was Ark Angel TT. And he looks awesome with his kickass scythe. He even has a specially designed stand so he can levitate.

[Tobal]

where can i buy them from!!

[C']

They are out of stock on Play-Asia now. I think S-E have said they will get a US release (but that is not going to include the 'secret' Ark Angel TT figure).

They don't seem to have gotten a massive production run so quite hard to get hold of it seems.

There's some listed on Ebay (search for tarutaru Trading Arts) but don't look cheap. The guy I bought them off on Ebay charged me $32 + postage. Same seller now wants $50 + postage.

[Darwock]

I'll have a look in Nipponbashi, there are entire shops of nothing but trading arts figures. Also it gives me an excuse to go there

[talizker]

They are AWESOME!

[C']

Just cleared the A Shantotto Ascension fight in Gustav Tunnel that pissed me off just before Christmas.

Turns out it is soloable by NIN/DNC.

[Rep]

Just cleared the A Shantotto Ascension fight in Gustav Tunnel that pissed me off just before Christmas.

Turns out it is soloable by NIN/DNC.

It's a piece of piss as WHM/NIN* Did it first time!




























*Warning, fight impossible without 12,000 uses of Mystic Boon

[C']

Yeah it was really easy in the end. Topped up my TP to 300% before the fight and went full evasion and combination of Drain Samba II and Curing Waltz II whenever it was available meant I was never close to dying.

I really don’t know what the problem was first time out. I think I never realised the main guys entered the fight but once I took the Galka out it became a joke.

[C']

Cleared the 6 NMs in Ro’Maeve for the A Shantotto Ascension mission. Was more of a trial than I expected. And annoyingly the 2 that caused me the most difficulty to kill were also the ones that required multiple kills to get the key item. The 4 that I killed easily dropped 1/1.

I started with Steely Weapon. Now I didn’t actually know what I was up against at this point so was quite surprised that my attacks did 0 damage. It was only by chance that I tried a ranged attack (only had Unger Boomerang available) and managed to slowly whittle away the NM’s HP. Then it depopped at 50%.

It was at this point that I looked up what exactly I was up against and saw how the NMs worked.

First up was changed to RNG/SAM in the hope of killing the ranged damage NM (Steely Weapon). And RNG is **** for soloing and whilst the kills were doable, some were really very close (a little too close on one occasion). Eventually went 1/4 and changed back to NIN in the hope that the remaining 5 NMs would be easier.

Next target was Lode Golem only taking damage from magic and only meaningful damage from spells with darkness affinity (i.e. Ice, Earth and Water). My first plan was to load up on the MAB/INT gear I had and use the San spells in a cycle but found that casting light-based spells was not worth the time it took for the massively resisted damage. I then changed tact focussing only on the spells that did full damage but cycling through the San then Ni versions (i.e. Suiton: San > Doton: San >Hyoton: San > Suiton: Ni > Doton: Ni > Hyoton: Ni). This had better results (each San spell landed for about 140 damage whereas the Ni versions did about 90) but I simply couldn’t kill it quick enough before the 3 minute timer forced a depop, timers weren’t ready by the time I’d finished the cycle so valuable seconds were wasted idling.

Changed to full Haste equip and even summoned my NPC hoping that she would cast Haste on me reducing timers even further (I’ve since learned that NPCs will not cast Haste unless you are actually engaging a mob). And this almost worked. Annoyingly close in fact. About 7 attempts at the kill and each time it depopped with <5% of its HP remaining.

A little exasperated at this point I was about ready to give in and hope I could get some proper magic assistance but I had one last idea and a subjob change later I was back as NIN/DRK. Same prep as before, Haste gear and spell from NPC and pulled the NM with Bio in the hope that the DoT effect would apply and deal the extra bit of damage I needed. Continued the same spell cycle as before but reapplying Bio at the end of each one. It worked. With about 10 seconds to spare.

No drop.

Had to repeat this about 5 times until I finally got the key item I needed, but felt fully deserved.

I don’t know if the above is a sign ingenuity on my part altering my strategy bit by bit until I got a win, or sheer stubbornness.

Now ready for the first BCNM battle in the expansion but will be reliant on spotting a shout and may have missed the boat on these being regular.