New to Abyssea

[Atima]

Currently my wife and I are leveling up the old fashioned way and I figured I'd ask a few questions about Abyssea before we start nearing the content.

First, as a duo, how much of Abyssea content will I actually be able to access? Like how far down the gear path will I be able to go(AH stuff, AF3, AF3+1, AF3+2, etc), or how many NMs will we be able to handle, and as a duo, what 2 jobs would get us the furtherest?

Second, how difficult would it be to level to 90 without Abyssea, or should we even attempt? Is the Exp in Abyssea better than the double Exp everywhere else?

Thanks for any help.

[Seyomeyo]

Hey there. Theres no real short answer to your first question, but I'll do the best I can to answer it without writing a book. Really, you are only limited to what you think you can handle. In Abyssea, there are various buffs you can get to increase your max HP, MP, and attributes using Cruor (obtained from killing regular monsters in Abyssea, from treasure chests, or in larger quantities from NMs) and Atma, obtained from killing various NMs in Abyssea after staggering it with a blue !! [specific physical weaponskill).

As for your second question, a MNK and a WHM can pretty much duo anything with the proper atma. The problem with this is that you're not very likely to get the drops you want because you don't have a wide range of yellow-!! triggering magic (which greatly increases the drop rates for AF3 upgrade items.

[Atima]

Firstly, thanks for your response. Well the 2 jobs we are currently are a Dragoon(me) and a Summoner(my wife), and for the most part we can kill most stuff before it kills us. I use Mage sub and a Defensive Wyvern to keep myself alive, while my wife's summon does dmg and she back up heals. This works for the most part, but occasionally we get brick walled by mobs that hit rly hard to the point I can't keep myself alive.

We did plan on going War(me) and Whm(her) later on, would this combination be more viable within Abyssea as far as getting/doing stuff goes?

Also, as far as leveling, is Abyssea pretty much required after lvl 75 or can you get to lvl 80+ outside and move into Abyssea afterwards? (As a duo).

A final note, anyone know any good casual LS' on the Phoenix server? (Soon to be Titan + Phoenix) or would a server transfer be in order to get a nice big but not oppressive LS? I believe /v/ has an LS on one of the servers, anyone know how they run things, or an LS of decent atmosphere?

[Seyomeyo]

'Pretty much any melee job with HP Atmas could theoretically work well as far as staying live goes. Mobs there hit very hard on average and WHM has the easiest time keeping up with bigger HP maxes. While it isn't required per se beyond 75, it certainly helps to dot hings in Abyssea for exp, even duo. With the Heroes of Abyssea zones, you have dominion ops, which are like Fields of Valor that yield vast amounts of EXP and sometimes seals for AF3+1 upgrades. Can't really say much about the LS scenes on other servers, as I'm from Carbuncle though. Hope this is helpful. Leave another post with any questions you might have and I'll do my best

[Atima]

Thanks for your help, it has given me some insight as to the situation. So with a Whm behind me we should be able to do most stuff without feeling too far behind. That's good to know. How does equipping Atmas work? Are they key items you get by killing NMs and then you choose which ones you want active somehow or something like that?

[Dulcinea]

The 2 jobs you will find that have the highest survival rate killing the NMs in abyssea are NIN/DNC & DNC/NIN. They can solo about 90% of the NMs in abyssea. If you add a BLM/WHM to one of those jobs, you can pretty much duo anything. As a duo of NIN/DNC & BLM/WHM, you can proc red !! with 5 different weapons (katana, gkatana, dagger, club & staff) and you can proc yellow !! quite often. YOu will need some assistance when you first start getting a few atmas and killing the zone bosses expecially the 3 original abyssea zones.

[Seyomeyo]

True, I didn't even think of mentioning that since the OP wasn't really talking about NIN. Also, NIN can proc red with Sword as well, and polearm with WAR sub and the halloween event item "Pitchfork" or "pitchfork +1"

[Topdogg]

Thanks for your help, it has given me some insight as to the situation. So with a Whm behind me we should be able to do most stuff without feeling too far behind. That's good to know. How does equipping Atmas work? Are they key items you get by killing NMs and then you choose which ones you want active somehow or something like that?
Atmas (Key Items) drop from various NM's after getting a red (!!) trigger then defeating it. In order to use an atma you must contain a Lunar Abyssite. There are 3 Lunar abyssites. One is purchased by cruor, and the other 2 are quested. For each Lunar you have, you're able to use an atma. For example, if you have all 3 lunars, you can use 3 atmas at once.

[Atima]

Now the proc'ing of yellow/red effets, is that necessary to even kill something or is it required for various results like more treasure, cruor, key items, or all 3? Also, when you say Nin/Dnc has the best survivability, do you mean they're the ONLY ones that could hope to do most of the abyssea stuff in small groups or are they just the best at it? Thanks for all this information, I'm beginning to get an idea of what we'll need to do once we get to 75+

[Topdogg]

Red (!!) enhances droprate of key items when defeating a NM, Yellow enhances droprate of Seal/AF3 upgrade items and Blue (!!) enhances droprate of Gear/Weapons.

[Atima]

But they still have a chance to drop these regardless of activating the effects, or is it required?

[Topdogg]

Yes but a lot lower droprate.

[Seyomeyo]

NIN/DNC certainly isnt the only job that could survive. Alone, possibly, but certainly not with another person; especially a WHM. As for the stagger !! effects, I'll break them down for you
-
Amber !! (often called Grellow throughout the community) triggered by a randomized white, black, ninjutsu, blue, or song magic spell corresponding to the elemental day of the week in which a NM is popped or claimed. Yellow can be triggered by a spell of the day, the preceding or following elemental day. Ex: On firesday, the yellow weakness could be triggered by spells of the dark, fire, or earth element. Grellow !! affects the frequency of "common" items (seals or crafting materials for the most part)

Red !!: proc'd by an elemental weapon skill Ex: Red Lotus Blade, Blade: Ei, etc. makes mobs drop their associated Key Items at what is assumed to be a 99% rate.

Blue !!: proc'd by physical weaponskills (tachi: gekko, Hexa Strike, etc) affects "rare" item drops , mostly equipment.

Full lists can be found in various places. I don't know the policy about linking things in this forum yet so I'm not going to do it, but you can find it easily )or if you can't, let me know)

[Felren]

I strongly recommend not planning on soloing everything first off. To get to the point where you can duo NMs you'll want to have atma for sure, which you can have up to three set on you at once.
How to get atma:
1. Obtaining said atma: Certain NMs in abyssea can drop atma to your entire alliance, and tend to only drop them if you exploit its red weakness (I recommend reading up on wiki about abyssea NM weaknesses), and then when the NM dies everyone in the zone that is alive will get that atma as a key item. (Dead+close and you wont get it, alive+other side of zone and you will, kind of messed up)
2. Equipping the atma: To equip an atma, you need to have a Lunar Abyssite (Key item), there are up to 3 Lunar Abyssites obtainable currently. When you get one, you can equip atma through the Atma Infusionist in every Abyssea zone.
a) How to get Lunar Abyssites 1. Buy one for 100k cruor in Abyssea-miseraux, attowha, or Vunkerl 2. Complete one mega boss abyssea mega boss quest 3. Complete seven mega boss quests (Mega boss = the mob they show in the cutscene when you first zone into an abyssea zone for the first time)

This means to become fairly strong in abyssea, you'll need to kill NMs for atma (and proc red weakness), and obtain lunar abyssites. Duoing all these monsters is possible but you're better off finding groups for them.

Luckily, in either port jeuno or whitegate, you'll find people shouting to start groups for mobs that have atma, or to kill mega bosses. You can make your own as well and I'm sure you'll get a few people to respond as well assuming you're playing near a prime time.--- This is really how I got all my atma/mega boss kills, as I was behind when I started playing again like a month ago

Leveling- you could do 75-90 outside of abyssea... SE placed mobs pretty high in some random seeming spots outside of abyssea you could level off of if you really really wanted to. The exp/hour you recieve in abyssea though is just hard to pass up.... you could get those last 15 levels in a day. Campaign battle could work too if they fix it soon.

[Atima]

Thanks for all the info guys, looking forward to getting into this content. If anyone frequents the Phoenix server and wants some new recruits to their LS, give me a shout. Thanks again.