Paths to obtaining level 119 armor

[cheyrn]

My one lv99 character is a RDM. I want to get level 119 armor of any kind so that I can experience more of the game content. Beyond that I want various armor because of it's appearance, like the rdm atrophy armor. But, there is a limit to what I would go through in order to get the armor.

I am in the early parts of rhapsodies of vanadiel and adoulin missions and abyssea. I have done no assault missions yet. Windurst, Zilart and CoP are done.

Atrophy armor is both a goal in itself and a way to get level 119 armor. 5 trust npcs and I with wayfarer armor level 117, tried to fight the Ark Angel HM on very easy mode and didn't make the slightest dip in his HP before wiping.

Is there just something I didn't do that would make the fight possible? Also, if I had other level 119 gear would that be a big enough difference to make the fight possible? Finding people to spend 15 merit points to do the fight with me seems unlikely.

I can get some of the rem's tales chapters 6+ from the login campaign and the chapters 2-5 from SKCNM and sparks of eminence, and more limbus, I guess.

Do you have advice about either getting 119 gear or the atrophy +1 gear in particular?

[Vashkoda]

Your armor is wayfarer 117, but what is your weapon? That will determine the level of your trust npcs (so ideally, get a 119 weapon first). Buying one off the ah might be the fastest and easiest, but ah-bought gear is quickly beaten by augmentable gear you can get from endgame events. Assuming you are far enough in SoA to have explored Yorcia, you can shout for a alluvion skirmish run, which drops decent basic 119 gear. Hopefully you have friends or lsmates who can at least guide you through a run. If not, or you are hell-bent on soloing everything yourself, merit bcnms like you are doing drop a few ok basic 119 items, but these items are scattered over multiple different bcnms, each with horrible drop rates at anything below "normal" difficulty settings. You should also be sure your trust setup is optimized with the best trusts for each job, and the right job for what you need. Alternatively, you can level a job other than rdm. Rdm can be very powerful, but it requires a lot of skill and specialized gear. Leveling from 0 to 99 on any job is a matter of a few hours or a few days, depending on whether you have any help. Once you have a job that has an easier time with soloing stuff, like bst or blu, you can use them to collect gear for the jobs you actually want to play. If you choose to only play rdm, you will have a difficult time finding a spot in the "cookie cutter" setups most people like to use for endgame events.

Also, make sure you optimize your character. Since it sounds like you are a returning player, or starting from scratch, you may or may not be aware of merits and job points. Make sure you cap those ASAP, and your performance should get a lot better. Food and elixirs are also very helpful if you need that extra boost, and with the curio moogles selling most items you might need, there's really no excuse not to use them.

[cheyrn]

My sword is an emminent saber level 117. I am collecting merit points in kamhir drifts. Getting there involved going through yorcia weald which involved other things. Doh gates is slightly tough so I get merit points more slowly there. I don't have a single job point yet.

RDM is what I wanted to play from the start. It's always been disliked except during the period when we were the only way to get refresh. I have an unpredictable schedule and pretty much have to play solo for the most part. And, I've assumed RDM is not wanted.

I've been staying way from things referred to as end-game because I'm not there yet. But, I'll look into jumping ahead to participating in skirmish for armor/weapon.

I'm also interested to know if anyone else has pursued reforged artifact armor +1 and if it was done using the BCNM's and limbus alone, or for example accumulating an huge number of sparks of eminence, etc.

[Vashkoda]

There is no way you could be getting experience/merit points in SoA zones and not be getting job points, as those are gained from even killing the most basic mobs in those areas (however, you will not gain them from killing mobs in old zones, as the mobs are too low level, even if you still gain exp from them). My guess is that you forgot (or didn't know) to unlock the ability to accumulate job points by talking to Maat's moogle in Jueno. All you need is to talk to the moogle on a lev 99 job, and you're good to go (you will only accumulate them on 99 jobs, and only for the job you happen to be on when you kill the right mobs, but since you seem to only play rdm anyway, that won't be a problem for you).

If you are lucky to be around when events first get released, you have no problem finding willing participants, and so most people who were around when merit bcnms were first released got to spam them to death and accumulate more REM chapters than they knew what to do with. So for your question on how people reforged their artifact gear, I would say it wasn't even an issue back in the day. I had done a ton of limbus and had all my artifact gear +1 already, so I went directly from that to 109 using whatever REM chapters I had lying around. Nowadays I accumulate so many sparks from repeating basic RoEs while farming or doing regular activities that just for the hell of it, sometimes I convert some to REM chapters to keep from overflowing past the limit and losing them (it is much easier now that you can store them with the upgrade npc instead of having the chapters take up precious inventory space). If I were you, I would be sure that those pieces are really what you want to spend time and money upgrading. For rdm af, the hands are nice for enhancing duration and the legs for enh/cure potency, but the rest of the set is kind of 'meh'. Relic head and feet are good for enfeebles, for instance. Empyrean hand, legs and feet are ok, but being able to upgrade those will require that you beat Vagary, which you don't seem ready to do.

Also, you said your weapon was a single saber. Keep in mind that dual-wielding by subbing /dnc, for example, might allow you to kill things faster than single wielding a sword (assuming that's what you're doing). Also, make sure you do coalition assignments, as those offer quite a bit of merits and bayld (I believe 13,200 for turning in one vanadium ore using 3 imprimateurs is the highest rate, but the courrier's assignment for warping to kamhir drift outposts probably requires the least amount of effort). I've leveled quite a few of my mule's jobs to 99 this way.

[cheyrn]

Actually, I do have 1 job point now and almost 10000 capacity points. I accumulate limit points at something like 4000 per fight but around 300 capacity points for that same fight.

For using /dnc I would have eminent dagger on one hand and same vastly lower dagger for the right hand. Right now there is one dagger for lvl99 rdm in the AH and it is going for many millions of gil, which I don't have. But, I am planning to explore that.

Spending sparks of eminence on rem's tales would take me a long time the way things are now. 80,000 sparks for one piece of reforged af +1 armor. Most quests result in 100 sparks.

Atrophy armor is a goal in itself because it looks like the original RDM AF gear and it looks like I could actually wear it while playing. I am also doing abyssea and dynamis for the game content so might shift my attention away to relic or empyrean armor depending on how things go.

[Urthdigger]

Probably your best bet for getting level 119 would be Alluvion Skirmish. Obtain copper vouchers by doing daily objectives, and convert them into obsidian fragments. Then when doing alluvion skirmish, turn them into puissance to summon your army. This lets you avoid needing to actually fight while obtaining a set of decent ilvl 119 gear.

[cheyrn]

Thank you. Can you elaborate a little? How do I turn the obsidian fragments into puissance? I read a description of alluvian skirmish referring to summoning pets. How do I do that? I entered skirmish approached the cantonment and was then swarmed and died after a couple of minutes. Clicking on the cantonment seems to do nothing.

[Urthdigger]

Cantonments are in regular Yorcia skirmish, not Alluvion Yorcia Skirmish. The difference is you turn in a eudaemon item alongside your simulacrum pieces when making the entry item to create a different KI called a "Yorcia Eudaemon". While both focus on defending a base, the regular Yorcia skirmish requires you to run out there and fight them yourself, while alluvion's version has you using a book to summon various Valiant monsters to fight for you. It costs Puissance to do so, which you earn by either defeating certain twitherym and fluterini mobs within the skirmish, or by using the book to convert obsidian fragments into puissance.

You'll probably use a couple thousand puissance per floor in my experience, so come prepared with plenty of fragments (you can do multiple floors a run, and should to increase rewards). I generally find upgrading the book to access higher tier monsters to be a waste, just make do with crabs, colibri, and the shijin (which one you get depends on the eudaemon item used)

[cheyrn]

Since writing the text below, I got further. On the first floor, at least, there is a book that is behind and to your left when you enter. If you choose exchange, you can exchange obsidian shards for "motes of puissance". A worm Valiant is 80 puissance and a crab was the same I think. I spent the 1000 puissance exchanged from obsisian shards.

The worms don't move and protect the marchland. The crabs attack the malicious enemies and then switch to attacking the stronghold when they can. I guess, you run around trying to find the escalents to kill, get more puissance and run back to the book to buy more valiants. This later part I didn't figure out until the marchland was almost gone.

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I got into alluvian skirmish this time, but didn't figure out how to summon valiants. After entering from the augural conveyor, there is a book and another waypoint. The book describes the objectives and what valiants are. But, I did not see a way to summon valiants. Going onto the first floor, I did not see a book. There is a marchland standing totem thingy and near by there is a noetic ascension. At the noetic ascension I purchased 20 motes of puissance. Essentially, that is what got as a result of clicking the menu item about puissance. But, then what do I do? How do I summon valiants? I fought one escalent and then the marchland was destroyed and that was the end of that.

For anyone reading who doesn't know this, to get the Yorcia eudaemon you have to talk to Lola then Oston back and forth many times (not Lola twice), the key being that Oston eventually asks for the 3 segments and the 4th item.

[Kensagaku]

You've got the basic strategy down for soloing it. Generally, you'll want a few worms as a "last line of defense" and then sic crabs and colibri while you go build enough Puissance to summon a Shijin. They can change the battle, and of them all I recommend you use a Eudaemon Sash for your statue to get the Kirin Shijin (if I am remembering this correctly), which will absolutely wreck things. Also note that the Valiants cannot destroy the enemy Stronghold; they can get it down to a single HP, but a player must deal the final blow to destroy it.

Keep at it.