Breaking into Abyssea.

[Bluecube]

Man you just keep piling on the useful information. Again, it's much appreciated and gives both me and my group some sense of direction here. I figure I might as well add what info I can about our LS, although we only just recently started playing again. It's fairly small though, averaging maybe five to seven people depending? We've got some of the major jobs covered though, MNK (myself) THF and WHM, there's also a few others... think we've got a DNC, a PUP (leveling BST too), an RDM and a BLM. Given THF works as a tank, I might focus on my WAR to help cover red procs then, which I think we're a little iffy on. Also completely lacking a NIN right now, but I'm not sure how expensive that'd be to level right now or if that'd be a priority over having a WAR, since we have a THF.

[Komori]

Aw, I really wish you guys were on Bismarck so I could actually help you guys out. (: I would try to explain but I'm terrible at doing so, and Arcon has covered most things you need to know.

[Arcon]

We've got some of the major jobs covered though, MNK (myself) THF and WHM, there's also a few others... think we've got a DNC, a PUP (leveling BST too), an RDM and a BLM.

THF does indeed fare very well as a tank, it has naturally the highest evasion (by a large margin), and is able to hold hate reliably. Also, with a THF you always have TH guaranteed, which is very nice for seal farming (grellow stagger) as well as equipment farming (blue stagger). DNC can tank about as good, situationally even better, however you'll be lacking TH in that case. It's still a help, especially for people just starting out.

With a WHM and a BLM, the only thing missing is red procs. WAR/NIN can do 10/13 red procs (all but Katana and Great Katana), WAR/SAM can do 8/13 (all but the aforementioned, plus Energy Drain and Cyclone). However, with a THF tank you already get the two dagger procs, so WAR/SAM it's basically the same as WAR/NIN, plus it can generate TP a lot faster, and when the time to DD comes, it wins by a huge margin.

PUP and BST are both good to solo, and PUP can complement a WAR when it comes to blue stagger WS. WAR + PUP can cover almost all blunt WS, and WAR can cover a majority of the slashing WS, so you'll have it good when it comes to procs. However, aside from soloing purposes and blunt procs, PUP doesn't play well with others, pet jobs rarely do inside Abyssea. BST can be useful if you're about to wipe and need someone to hold the NM while you recover, a pet tank can do quite a lot in that regard, especially when the BST has the appropriate gear and Atma for it.

RDM, sadly, isn't as good as it used to be and has just a supporting role inside Abyssea, however it can still be useful on certain NMs, to backup heal and keep the WHM's MP topped. RDM does however have a different role, one that can be extremely useful to you in particular: Phalanx whore. It doesn't sound very appealing, but it's a tremendous help with skilling up your weapons extremely fast once you get your WAR leveled higher.

It may sound a bit restricted about jobs, and that's sadly one of the drawbacks of Abyssea, however leveling itself isn't as hard as it used to be, and if you need other jobs they shouldn't take long to level up. And once you get a few jobs done, it'll be a lot easier to gear the next batch, you'll see once you're at that point.

I'd say you have a decent enough setup with what you described, the only thing lacking from that would be a NIN, but honestly, you can live without one too. It's extremely popular inside Abyssea, because it's a great hybrid of useful jobs: it can DD reasonably well, survive very well and on top of all get most red procs on a NM. However, you won't really need it if you have a WAR for red procs and THF+DNC for tanks, especially with a WHM support.

[Bluecube]

Well then, seems like I just need to get my WAR going, although it's down in the 40's at present. So I guess that brings me to my next question, what's a good method for leveling up these days? It seems like GoV is quite good up through the 50's and maybe into the 60's, but are there any places people GoV at past the Crawler's Nest? The EXP in there starts getting kinda slow, and pushing to 75 there would be a little tricky on top of leaving me with poor skills for Abyssea. And well, I'm only sitting on about 80-90k cruor, so Abyssea leeching is pretty much out of the question. It seems like there's a distinct gap between about 60 or so and 75.

[Arcon]

So I guess that brings me to my next question, what's a good method for leveling up these days?

As weird as it sounds, the best way (if you don't have a strictly anti-leeching policy/mentality) is to get two high levels in your LS who kill things for dominion ops, while you and others leech EXP from pages. After a while you can take turns and let others leech while you level them. Doesn't sound very exciting, and it isn't, but it's the fastest way, aside from paying for a FC party.

[Alpheus]

Not sure if its been said but WAR can cover jinpu with /SAM with either the hardwood katana or the Ibushi Senai gkt from the festival of swords event. Additionally with full merits and gkt skill headband and i think one of the +skill sea torques off a Jailer would allow WAR/SAM to do Koki as well.

Honestly the only feasible and not so outta the way one for WAR to cover would be Jinpu.

Also not saying this is feasible just saying if you for some reason take being a proc-bot seriously (not that that's common).


As far as GoV exp u can do the pages in The Boyahda Tree i think from 65-75? and skill up at the same time as well

[Meyi]

Aw, I really wish you guys were on Bismarck so I could actually help you guys out. (: I would try to explain but I'm terrible at doing so, and Arcon has covered most things you need to know.

I'd be willing to help too if you were on Bismarck. I like helping people get abyssites and stuff.

[Arcon]

Not sure if its been said but WAR can cover jinpu with /SAM with either the hardwood katana or the Ibushi Senai gkt from the festival of swords event. Additionally with full merits and gkt skill headband and i think one of the +skill sea torques off a Jailer would allow WAR/SAM to do Koki as well.

I didn't know that, actually, I thought it was just if your main had native skill. I actually have the Lotus Katana, so I guess I'll have something new to gear for.

[Alpheus]

now that i think about it you might need full gkt merits for jinpu too but this was at a lower lvl cap (90 or 95 last i really looked into it) so im pretty sure the 99 cap allows for more leeway merit wise for jinpu, full merits def needed for war/sam to pull off koki tho

[Arcon]

now that i think about it you might need full gkt merits for jinpu too but this was at a lower lvl cap (90 or 95 last i really looked into it) so im pretty sure the 99 cap allows for more leeway merit wise for jinpu, full merits def needed for war/sam to pull off koki tho

Actually, with the right gear you'd only need 2 merits to pull it off. However, since I assume most people won't get a Bushinomimi just to proc a WS on a job that doesn't natively have it, you'd need 4 merits. Requires Moepapa Annulet, Kengo Hachimaki and Justice Torque.

I'm omw to skill Great Katana to cap now on my SAM49, should cap at 150 exactly, meaning no gear or merits required for Jinpu, if it works.