View Full Version : Thoughts on Return to Vana'diel Campaign
Ok so last return to Vana'diel Campaign I finished the Rhapsodies missions. So this time I thought get some merit points, because they uncapped all the stats and weapon/magic skills. I need tons of merits to cap out my stats.
Now here is the main problem I am running into. There is no exp parties at all. In FFXI you always needed a group to get good exp. Since I came back just seems really inactive. Feels like they need to merge servers or something seeked a very long time did not find a party. Nobody is doing abyssea alliences either. It is very hard to get any kind of merit points. You can solo random mobs in seekers mobs with trusts but that is very slow.
There is the ability to get 105 in your main stats now which that grind seems to be very huge and with no parties seems like a impossible task at the moment.
How do you find other people that need merits to exp with because I can't seem to find anyone.
Escha Zi'tah, go to the monkeys, the dragons are usually taken by people cleaving. It's easy, they are weak, the NM that randomly pops is about as hard as the mosquitoes. Old Abby parties move at a snail's pace compared to this.
I was just in one of the Escha areas and hit rate is too low to kill anything solo. Yes it gives a lot of exp when you finally kill something but not when it takes avg of 5 min per mob to kill.
You finished the RoV missions but can't hit the monkeys in Escha Zi'tah? The problem is probably with your gear then.
I got ark angel gear soloed them the AF1 119 gear. Says I am ilvl 119
Obysuca
05-22-2016, 03:56 PM
If you're 119 and can't hit, summon up some trusts, go kill aerns in Escha Ru'aun, let them do the work, takes about 10-15 seconds to kill an aern for about 10k+ a kill
Well I am a Paladin not exactly a high damage job so stuff dies slow.
Someone in my LS just told me that Escha zones are like Abyssea and I don't have the abyssites that drop from NMs that increase stats which is probably why its hard to kill anything in there. They said you have to kill NMs or something which I never did and I don't think anyone does now so I am pretty out of luck there I guess.
So probably need a group for merits or something.
Pixela
05-22-2016, 07:15 PM
How can you have full 119 gear and have finished Rhapsodies and not be able to destroy escha zitah mobs in seconds?
Did someone just carry you through the entire story? I can solo kill escha mobs in seconds and get 10k xp per kill (unchained), merits are nothing now. I haven't even finished Rhapsodies yet because I had to gear up in order to do it but you have finished it and can't kill zitah mobs?
It sounds to me like you have 1 piece of 119 gear and all the rest has no item level or something, or are you trying to kill with no trusts? Your real level is based on your gear level, type /checkparam <me>
Your average item level is your level compared to the monsters and your trusts levels too, I'm guessing it's very low. No way you're fully 119 and can't kill those fast.
How can you have full 119 gear and have finished Rhapsodies and not be able to destroy escha zitah mobs in seconds?
Did someone just carry you through the entire story? I can solo kill escha mobs in seconds and get 10k xp per kill (unchained), merits are nothing now. I haven't even finished Rhapsodies yet because I had to gear up in order to do it but you have finished it and can't kill zitah mobs?
It sounds to me like you have 1 piece of 119 gear and all the rest has no item level or something, or are you trying to kill with no trusts? Your real level is based on your gear level, type /checkparam <me>
Your average item level is your level compared to the monsters and your trusts levels too, I'm guessing it's very low. No way you're fully 119 and can't kill those fast.
First of all I beat Rhapsodies all solo except for the last boss. Asked a few people, shouted for others too fill out the party. I have a paladin i have full 119 gear upgraded my Excalibur to 119 and have ochain lv 90.
Proof of beating the last boss recorded it for youtube in November of last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoY3kiuGxss
proof of ilvl 119
http://i.imgur.com/NLBxtWL.jpg
If you watch the video you can see how I miss so much because this boss is the same as Escha mobs in that they set the evasion too high. Its the other damage dealers that are killing him not me.
I definitely do have full 119 gear from soloing ark angle bcnm fights a couple years ago, this gear cost about 50m gil back in the day from having to be expensive crafted items required to get it.
I play paladin, I went in the Escha zone at teleport mea I don't remember which zone it was but, I can kill the mobs it just takes so long that its not worth the time it takes. Yes you can get 10k exp a kill its not worth the 5+ min it takes to kill them. On a tank job which is meant for taking hits not doing damage is part of the problem.
Merits are not nothing they take a long time considering each stat merits are like 15+ merits now. The lack of finding other people to do merits with is what is totally infuriating now.
Pixela
05-23-2016, 03:29 AM
Get Shantoto2 from login points, she is a beast damage dealer. I think 500 points. Also get Kupofriend (XP bonus) from the red box moogle in your home nation.
Goto this page:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Escha
Goto Escha - Ru'Aun via Home Point #1, (G-5) in Misareaux Coast.
Take one of the warps that lead to some aerns (keep in mind aerns link) or whatever mob you want to kill, kill those. I think the problem is that you went to Reisenjima and your gear has almost no accuracy on it.
Heck even killing easy prey mobs in adoulin areas (even teh mandragoras outside west adoulin) will give you a 5-6k per kill and you can murder those.
Also do the quests > tutorial > intermediate quests, if they don't show up do the basics ones to get them. Completing those will give you a lot of gear for your other jobs (including 10 of every rems page.
Oh and get your Escha ring from the moogle in your home nation, these give double XP upto 30k, also get the Trizek one, you can also get another escha ring on a mule if you have one and send that to your main swapping them out of del box to use 2. These give a huge chunk of free xp.
Gear upgrades for paladin are:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Alluvion_Skirmish_Armor
This is a starter 119 set, you can augment accuracy or other stats onto it, this is a fairly expensive and bog standard set but it's pretty easy to get.
There is also this set:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Ambuscade_Rewards
This is a good dps set for your pld but you'll need a good haste waist and a head piece with haste on it or something.
This is your goal armor set for paladin:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Souveran_Armor_Set
You can augment tons of additional stats on it, you can either do the content or you can probably merc some pieces (or get lucky with login campaign).
Also you can get rems tales from the npc in your home nation via sparks, you don't have to do the ark angel fights for them. If you wanted to though, you can solo them on very easy.
Diavolo
05-23-2016, 04:14 AM
First of all I beat Rhapsodies all solo except for the last boss. Asked a few people, shouted for others too fill out the party. I have a paladin i have full 119 gear upgraded my Excalibur to 119 and have ochain lv 90.
I was in the same boat as you last year when I entered Reisenjima wearing full relic 119. Collecting vorseals (BG's got 'em all laid out here) (https://www.bg-wiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Escha&redirect=no#Vorseals) will make a word of difference. Some of them require a decent time investment, but it'll make life in game far easier for you in the long run.
vienne
05-23-2016, 04:36 PM
When i have trouble poking stuff, i use Kuyin Hathdenna (or w/e the name is) as a trust for acc, koru-moru for distract II, Ulmia, shantotto II, selh'teus. I use food and only have few of the vorseals (barely touched escha cept for solo grind). Mobs in escha zi'tah and ru'aun should die in a matter of seconds as everyone stated above (and yes i'm on pld with similar gear like you cept for the excalibur)
Larien
05-23-2016, 04:51 PM
Looking at the screenshot, as someone else said your issue lies in the fact that your gear has almost no accuracy on it. The reforged AF 119 is now essentially only a tiny step above sparks gear outside occasional macro pieces for JAs on some jobs. You need to look into the Alluvion Skirmish Yorcia set which should give the accuracy with decent augments to then from there get the sets from Escha Zitah and Ruaun. Remember that it is a progressive case still for gear - and that to hit Reisenjima mobs (final tier) you need in the neighborhood of 1100+ accuracy as I recall before food for a consistant hit rate.
Krashport
05-23-2016, 07:31 PM
You're a PLD that doesn't mean you have to full~time (Assuming, only radical reason why you're missing so much), Artifact: ilv119 has next to nothing for accuracy. Think you're just trying to get them to merge servers which I am personally against, why? cause here on Odin™ there's lots of people to play with and seeing things are over run by Trusts it would be a bad thing, just jump to a populated server.
Diavolo
05-23-2016, 11:48 PM
Think you're just trying to get them to merge servers which I am personally against, why? cause here on Odin™ there's lots of people to play with and seeing things are over run by Trusts it would be a bad thing, just jump to a populated server.
If servers like Asura and Odin are already well populated and you suggest people to transfer rather than wait for SE to merge servers aren't you effectively advocating for a server that's more populated than you would like anyway? Odin and Asura generally wind up being the only two choices, so one way or another those numbers will slowly climb whether you want them to or not. SE can stem that tide.
Jin_Uzuki
05-24-2016, 09:50 AM
If you are having problem with Reisenjima, try Escha Zi'tah, the mobs there are weaker (the one at the entrance are at level 50 lol)
You should be able to get merit easily in Adoulin zone, like the Ravine bivak #2, 1-2 merits per kill.
But really, merits are easy. May as well join an Apex party, the BLM/SCH/GEO always need a PLD/RUN to hold the mobs for them before they nuke them down.
Honestly, merits are so easy to get these days that most people probably cap them without realizing and worrying much. It's no coincidence that SE practically turned them into another endgame currency.
Krashport
05-24-2016, 10:19 AM
so one way or another those numbers will slowly climb whether you want them to or not. SE can stem that tide.
Key word: slowly climb, cause not many people want to pay for it and having to do so stops the super climb.
Diavolo
05-24-2016, 11:54 AM
Key word: slowly climb, cause not many people want to pay for it and having to do so stops the super climb.
And this is a good thing in your eyes?
Krashport
05-24-2016, 02:59 PM
And this is a good thing in your eyes?
Yes. Odin is already over run but Trusts.
Ok so last return to Vana'diel Campaign I finished the Rhapsodies missions. So this time I thought get some merit points, because they uncapped all the stats and weapon/magic skills. I need tons of merits to cap out my stats.
Now here is the main problem I am running into. There is no exp parties at all. In FFXI you always needed a group to get good exp. Since I came back just seems really inactive. Feels like they need to merge servers or something seeked a very long time did not find a party. Nobody is doing abyssea alliences either. It is very hard to get any kind of merit points. You can solo random mobs in seekers mobs with trusts but that is very slow.
There is the ability to get 105 in your main stats now which that grind seems to be very huge and with no parties seems like a impossible task at the moment.
How do you find other people that need merits to exp with because I can't seem to find anyone.
Wow, first of all, congrats on soloing RoV... I'm a bit stuck myself, trying to improve my gear and catch up on missions so I can go forward.
It's really a shame you missed out on ambuscade last month as it had a fantastic gear set with -DT and Acc on it (in exchange for not much haste)
You can still get it with "gallantry" which requires you to team up with people - but I bet even without much acc you're still a pretty boss tank - so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding people to group with.
If you're on Asura I'd totally group with you on normal - I can hit stuff no problem but trust tanks aren't really excellent for doom and stuff.
You can then use the gallantry to buy some of the Suleiva set that you missed. It's really good - even the NQ would be a huge upgrade for you. https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Category:Ambuscade_Rewards
First of all I beat Rhapsodies all solo except for the last boss. Asked a few people, shouted for others too fill out the party. I have a paladin i have full 119 gear upgraded my Excalibur to 119 and have ochain lv 90.
Proof of beating the last boss recorded it for youtube in November of last year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoY3kiuGxss
proof of ilvl 119
http://i.imgur.com/NLBxtWL.jpg
If you watch the video you can see how I miss so much because this boss is the same as Escha mobs in that they set the evasion too high. Its the other damage dealers that are killing him not me.
I definitely do have full 119 gear from soloing ark angle bcnm fights a couple years ago, this gear cost about 50m gil back in the day from having to be expensive crafted items required to get it.
I play paladin, I went in the Escha zone at teleport mea I don't remember which zone it was but, I can kill the mobs it just takes so long that its not worth the time it takes. Yes you can get 10k exp a kill its not worth the 5+ min it takes to kill them. On a tank job which is meant for taking hits not doing damage is part of the problem.
Merits are not nothing they take a long time considering each stat merits are like 15+ merits now. The lack of finding other people to do merits with is what is totally infuriating now.
Soloing on PLD in tank gear is indeed miserable. I wouldn't put yourself through that misery.
The Acro skirmish gear is pretty easy to get and can be augmented with Accuracy and Double Attack. So that might be a good place for you to start.
Your LS member is right that vorseals help a lot in the Escha zones. I would try to find an active LS with members who actually want to group up and do things like kill notorious monsters. Because in the end this is an MMORPG and being solo all the time is going to severely limit your options and enjoyment.
But you should have no trouble grinding merits on your own after you build a decent Accuracy/Double attack set. Getting some good trusts can make a huge difference as well - and speed things up dramatically. Completing the Seekers of Adoulin missions will give you access to Arciela who makes a great solo companion for paladin.