Final Fantasy XI Then...

[djtickle]

Wish i had read these last three posts before tointe! Im now 0/3 on Mea! ahhh god damm its hard!

Second time tonite i thought we had cracked it, we had 10 Anima. Got him down to half way and i died and it all went pear shaped (just as i was using a Xpotion :/ and i ended up losing it). We had it all worked out before we went in, and also the correct jobs for the job as recommend.

Oh well, im gonna give it another bash tomoz as i hardley lost any exp for some reason and see how i get on. Mea is ment to be the hardest so if i can get though this ill be happy!

More Advice please

[C']

You don't lose much EXP as any death is based on EXP loss as if you were lvl 30.

I agree that Mea is the hardest. When I cleared them I went down to about 20HP on Mea at one point.

[Tobal]

Boring night trigger hunting, getting lost in sky (im really going to have to sort a map out) which resulted in me missing out the zip g.k. drop I was offered.

Wedge you up for exping tonight, need to get about 10k in normal exp if I?m to survive DM(if I make it), Xaracard Dynamis, lesser Gods and CoP(if we do ulima path this week).

[Darwock]

...and CoP(if we do ulima path this week).

If? If? Surely you mean when, we need to keep it moving. How does Thursday suit everyone else?

I had a long and painful experience party, dhalmels in bibiki bay really suck now as rewards are low and healing breeze is a pain in the arse making fights last forever. Think I can do the solo ENM again tonight and then with another invite I might actually hit 68... fingers crossed. Thing is I'm approaching 70 faster than I'm making the gil I need. Got 60 seals now hint hint.

Re. Promyvion: We never had any struggles with Mea, sailed through it on the first attempt with ease - it was Holla that gave us real trouble. Same again with the respective NMs in Promyvion-Vahzl - Holla-type was the killer. I've never quite understood why everyone says Mea is much worse (but I'm sure it can be, just wasn't in my experience)

[C']

Re. Promyvion: We never had any struggles with Mea, sailed through it on the first attempt with ease - it was Holla that gave us real trouble. Same again with the respective NMs in Promyvion-Vahzl - Holla-type was the killer. I've never quite understood why everyone says Mea is much worse (but I'm sure it can be, just wasn't in my experience)

See, I?m completely the reverse. I remember panicking over Holla when we were about to do it based on the horror stories but we sailed through it without a care. I can?t remember ever losing HP on Holla actually.

Mea on the other hand has a couple of nasty AOE attacks (Carousel for example) and that horrible Skewer attack which completely ignores Utsusemi.

I guess it depends on your party setup. With Holla the boss has additional effect Drain on his attacks which we were able to nullify with Utsusemi whereas with a PLD it?s going to be hitting all the time topping itself up.

Mea on the other hand has attacks that screw up Utsusemi so a PLD is much stronger.

Whatever the case, a good anima strategy, and decent meds and the Promyvions shouldn?t be too much hassle. Unfortunately too many people think they can get away with getting through with little effort when that is plainly not the case. As Tsing said, Promyvion is the first real test of a player.

Attempted a BCNM60 last night with Nyoneme as she wanted to attempt to get a Pentinent?s (sp?) Rope. A 3 man BCNM60 against a Torama NM that uses Thunder 3, Thundaga 2 and Burst. Our plan was NIN, WHM and BLM setup. Was really going to plan. I was able to debuff easily and evaded easily (so pleasing after Fenrir), and BLM took responsibility for Stunning Thundaga. However at around 20% he used he used 2 Thundaga spells in rapid succession so Stun timer wasn?t ready and killed me. BLM used Manafont and got it down to 6% and we wiped. Wasn?t able to reraise quick enough and it regenned.

It was really straightforward BCNM really and had he decided to use Burst a couple of times it would have been an easy win.

[djtickle]

Yeah, all the players i played with last night recommended a ninja to tank, but i think your right rare a pld would be much better. Im going to go for pld,nin,war,smn,whm,blm tonite i think and see how that goes. This has got to be my frist real challenge on FF, even though i died i love it, and just want to crack it!

Good thing about it is that when i shout for members most of the time people already have animas ready.

[Tsingtao]

I'd say for promyvions, the set up is mostly irrelevant a standard xp set can take them. SMN does make life a lot easier in terms of the big spike dammge but other than that just go as usualy. NIN or PLD tank is equally suited, just rembmer don't use x-potions, had you taken hi-potions you'd have lived as the cast timer is massively fatster.

For the promies you really should have

Melee 3 x regen food, preferably persikos, 10 x hi-potions (+3 if you can get em), Icarus wing
Magic Users (anyone with MP not just mages) 3 x yagudo drinks,
Mage 10 x ether
In Mea - Antidote (1 stack), holy water (1 stack)
In Holla - Poison potions (1 stack)
Everyone in the party should have at least Physcho and Hystero anima (terro is no real use except to get a breather if things go wrong). You can get by with 3 x psycho and 3 x hystero as a min.r set up pre the RNG nerf (reblance) was

PLD/WAR
BLM/RDM
SMN/BLM
WHM/BLM
RNG/NIN
RNG/NIN

Not sure that would be as effective these days, but then the bosses have taken a weakening as well.

Oh and everyone have reriase up, these things have been killed by weakened players before.

[djtickle]

Cheers Tsing, will give that ago later.

[C']

Remember that at level 30 a NIN is not able to tank Promyvion solo. I tanked all Promyvions but the fact is I couldn?t have done it without having Moot in the party as a WAR/nin. You have both tanks alternate hate depending on who has shadows. The shadows will most likely not last long enough with a solo tank.

Out of curiosity do you yourself have any anima farmed? You need to take responsibility and do your part for the mission. I don?t think anyone on here simply decided one day to do Promyvion then cleared it that evening. It took days of organised anima farming. I know for our run we never skimped on it. I remember literally dragging Apa, Van and Moot on dedicated farming sessions.

There are 3 animas each with different effects. Sadly I don?t remember the exact names but I quick bit of searching should tell you, but the effects of the 3 are as follows:

1 stops all regular melee attacks for a short period of time (30 seconds?)
1 stops all TP attacks for a short period of time (30 seconds?)
1 causes the Empty to go into a ?panic? state and starts running around randomly (this is for emergencies only).

It?s the first 2 that are the most important and ideally you want tat least 3 of both of them.

Ideally you use type 1 and 2 when the mob is at 75%, 50% and 25%. The problem is a person cannot use 2 anima in quick succession so have to be done in pairs with another party member. That means whoever goes first has to do a clear macro with a <call> to inform their partner an anima is about to be used.

You may not need to use type 3 anima but again it?s good to have just in case. I think Moot used one in Mea after a nasty AOE and it bought us enough time to recover and win the fight.

[C']

I'd say for promyvions, the set up is mostly irrelevant a standard xp set can take them. SMN does make life a lot easier in terms of the big spike dammge but other than that just go as usualy. NIN or PLD tank is equally suited, just rembmer don't use x-potions, had you taken hi-potions you'd have lived as the cast timer is massively fatster.

For the promies you really should have

Melee 3 x regen food, preferably persikos, 10 x hi-potions (+3 if you can get em), Icarus wing
Magic Users (anyone with MP not just mages) 3 x yagudo drinks,
Mage 10 x ether
In Mea - Antidote (1 stack), holy water (1 stack)
In Holla - Poison potions (1 stack)
Everyone in the party should have at least Physcho and Hystero anima (terro is no real use except to get a breather if things go wrong). You can get by with 3 x psycho and 3 x hystero as a min.r set up pre the RNG nerf (reblance) was

PLD/WAR
BLM/RDM
SMN/BLM
WHM/BLM
RNG/NIN
RNG/NIN

Not sure that would be as effective these days, but then the bosses have taken a weakening as well.

Oh and everyone have reriase up, these things have been killed by weakened players before.

That?s? a lot of meds

Did you really take that much stuff? I know I?d never be able to carry all that if I wanted to. Persikos Au Lait also seems somewhat overkill. Pear/Panama are fine and a fraction of the cost. I think we took maybe 3 Hi-Pots each.

As for Promyvion bosses being weakened can anyone evidence this? I know there was an update not long after CoP was released (so around October 2004) where the Promyvion zones themselves were made easier (most notably the Memory Recepticles) but nothing I can find mentioned the boss figths being changed and certainly nothing in 2005.

[djtickle]

Yeah i have 2 items that i can turn into anima now, i beleive i have to trade them to a woman in upper jeuno? Not sure which ones they are though, 1,2 or 3.

Ive looked about but cant find out which mobs drop which or do all mobs in mea drop them all.

[C']

The items to create Anima are known as Recollections of? (fear, pain and something else). You trade to Harith in Ru?Lude Gardens and he gives you an anima in return (I think this costs a small amount of gil too).

Recollections can drop of any empty in the Promyvions. But only 2 of each type will drop on the first floor of each zone (where it is easiest to farm) and only 1 type will drop off Wanderers in each zone (i.e. the easiest mob). That means to farm easily you need to farm across each of the Promyvions.

[Tsingtao]

I never use all the meds I take, thats how I know I took enough with me

I know space is a challenge but for the boss runs I gear off to my mules and only take my kit for the fight. The only ones I used everything for was Ouryu and then the boss fight in Promyvion-Vahzl. I went for persikos to off load the mages and as tank I think its kind of my responsibility to not die. Like I say overkill but its much more expensive to go back twice than use big meds on one run.

As for Thursday night CoP I assume you're having a laugh that would be Englands next match I can do Wednesday as I'm already out tonight after that I may be free on Friday or Sunday.

[talizker]

Some great info here. Just a little extra piece of info from personal experience. RDM at Lv30 is a bit on the useless side for these (the BC fight) - it is far better to have BLM, WHM or SMN. Saying that I went as RDM for Mea and Dem, although my contribution wasn't nearly as much as I wanted (glorified backup healer). After several failures on Holla D moved from BLM to SMN and I leveled BLM from 20 > 30 to go as that. We then (easily) won 1st time...

The moral of this story... Don't bother with a RDM for the Lv30 ones!

[Darwock]

That?s? a lot of meds

Did you really take that much stuff? I know I?d never be able to carry all that if I wanted to.

I know I certainly didn't! No way I could ever carry 10 ethers, back then or now - but anyway I did the missions as summoner so anything more than 2 hi ethers for the bosses (plus a regen drink and poison/antidote etc) would have been pointless.