Nomadic player looking to settle down and finally get stuff done

[Doombringer]

The NMs that give +1 seals - Are they easy to kill in small groups, or even solo?

good news / bad news time...

good news! just about everything in abyssea can be done effectively with 3 characters and the right mix of jobs.

bad news! dragoon is not one of those jobs... like ever.

the "ideal" setup will vary depending on what you're doing, but it will generally be made up of some combination of NIN WAR WHM BLM MNK and THF

lemme give you some context now that i've kicked your favorite baby down the stairs. (sorry, it's not my opinion, it's my observation)

abyssea basically revolves around it's proc system, which is divided into 3 categories: red, yellow, and blue.

- Red procs guarantee the drop of key items.

key items in aby are hugely important, they include atmas, abyssites, and the pop items for higher tier NMs. Red procs are inflicted via elemental weaponskills like seraph blade, raiden thrust, shadow of death, so on etc. all "RED WSs" are relatively low level. low enough that a warrior can learn about 90% of them, everything except dagger, katana, and great katana. (that's where the ninja comes in) so while building pops, or hunting for atmas/abyssites, the "ideal" low man setup is NIN WAR and WHM

- yellow procs hugely increase (but do not necessarily guarantee) the drops of emp armor items.

seals for +1, and assorted stones, cards, coins, and jewels for +2. Yellow procs are inflicted via magic. most mage jobs bring some yellow procs to the table, but the overwhelming hero job here is BLM. BLM has about as many yellow procs as every other job combined, and if you really wanna get crazy with it they can even sub BRD to pick up that entire line as well. (elemental seal will make them land even with sucky /BRD skill) then when you consider your tank (NIN, or even THF/NIN) and your healer (WHM) already bring a handful of their own yellow procs, a 3 man team of NIN WHM BLM is excellent for farming your armor. (though +2 NMs are almost always key item pops. ideally you build the pops with a war and have him swap)

- Blue procs dramatically increase (but do not guarantee) equipment drops.

MOST of the stuff you want out of aby is not dropped directly as 1 whole thing, it's pieced together from seals, stones, or is an emp weapon, but there are notable exceptions, and this is how you get them. Blue procs are also inflicted via weapon skill, but from a very different pool. "Blue WSs" are all physical, and generally higher level than red. rather than being broken up by element, they are broken up by type. blunt, piercing, or slashing. you can control which category you get by spawning the NM at a certain time. the hero job here is definitely MNK. MNK alone learns ALL but one of the blunt weaponskills, and that one MNK is missing WHM can learn. (hexa strike) a good monk can tank fairly well in aby, so eventually you will be able to do most of your blue procing with just MNK and WHM. in the meantime your trusty NIN can tank, or you could use a THF for treasure hunter. (never hurts to have more treasure hunter)


the last thing you'll do in aby is build emp weapons. the items to build emps are always dropped off higher end NMs, so you will need to build the pops using red weakness. (the old NIN WAR WHM setup) but once you actually have the pops, the WAR isn't all that important. emp weapon items themselves are not affected by any procs, so swapping the WAR out for a THF is a decent move, though not required. they ALWAYS drop 1, TH will help you get the 2nd sometimes, but if the war helps you kill significantly faster, well... up to you.


i know this is all gonna come off as kinda dickish, and i understand every job brings something to the table here. blu has yellow procs... but only about 15% of them compared to the other 85% you can get without a BLU at all. is it worth bringing an entire 4th person? paladin is the only job with swift blade, a blue proc. but is that 1 unique proc worth a whole 'nother person? especially when you can mitigate the need for it by focusing on the blunt procs? just about every melee job has some red procs, but when you can get every red proc between 2 jobs, why bother with more?

i mean it sounds like you're already short on manpower as it is. if this comes off as a hard truth, i'm just trying to help you get the most bang for your buck.



overall i recommend you start out by getting yourself and all your friends the big atmas and abyssites. they're common drops, meaning if one of you gets them, you all get them. so it's very easy to team up with strangers if you have to. no competition for drops.

then try to get at least 1 zone boss win, to allow you to equip a second atma (the first can be purchased via cruor) and your +1 armors.

when you are ready to work on your +2 armors, start thinking about what emp weapons your group wants to make, all emp weapon NMs ALSO drop +2 items, and you'll be killing a lot of them to make those emp weapons. there may be a few good opportunities to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. even if you don't feel ready to make emps yet, if a +2 you need lines up with an emp you want, why not get your +2 there if it's an nm you can take?

once you have your +2s it's probably time to focus on zone boss and caturae kills so you can finish off the abyssea storyline and fight shinryu. this is where it's gonna get tough to lowman. but no shame in brewing a few here and there. i'm pretty sure that's what brews are for, the lowman safety net. they're crazy expensive until AFTER you beat shinryu though, so see if you can get someone to help you out; and you can "owe them a brew" later. (if you keep an eye out you might even be able to "leech" these wins. just like atmas, everyone in the alliance gets credit for the kill, so most people shouldn't mind you tagging along) 6 wins will allow you to equip a third atma, and shinryu himself has some decent gear and an excellent atma. once you have that you almost can't lose and aby is your playground. farm it to your hearts content. go back and pimp out those jobs you had to give up on earlier.


good luck man.

[Totema]

Hooray! A game balance issue that finally applies to me! I can feel connected to the community at last!

That just really sucks. I never found much appeal from any of those jobs, even back in the day... They just felt too generic to me. I've always preferred the feel of the more unique jobs. If I'm just going to be a warrior with an axe or a ninja or something, why should I play this game over something else that lets me play the same sort of thing? I'd even rather take something like DNC or PUP...

So I guess my options at this point are to: 1. Suck it up and spend time leveling one of those jobs; 2. Find a LS that is patient enough to help me (and my less-than-talented friend...) or; 3. Deal with what I have until changes are implemented to make DRG better at what it's supposed to do. And that's if they are implemented. From what I can tell, DRG has always had the short end of the stick compared to other DD jobs, and now its no different, though I guess it has more company.

[Demon6324236]

Its not impossible to get things done as whatever job you wish to play, its simply more difficult, I know a few people who only play 1 job, which no one generally wants for Abyssea.

[Moppet]

FFXI players tend to be all about using dominant strategy ad nauseam.

I absolutely hate the proc system, it turns one of the biggest features of FFXI (the diversity of jobs) on it's head.

In my opinion you should stick with what you like to play and try to find some like-minded people. It may take you longer to get what you need, but it's still totally possible.

If you end up on my world I'd be happy to help out.

[Luvbunny]

My advice, level beastmaster, whm, blm and thief. Those 4 jobs are the most versatile, some has uses in endgame, others excel in abysea and dynamis. Dragoon is a great job, for solo, but terrible in farming and pretty much bring zero usefulness in seal farming party, totally worthless. Why get stuck in one job that is not exactly group friendly when you can be versatile and adapt to party needs. Dragoon is still good for some activities like nyzul, limbus, abyssea alliance party and meeble burrow. A solid DD that needs very little heal support.

[Luvbunny]

Its not impossible to get things done as whatever job you wish to play, its simply more difficult, I know a few people who only play 1 job, which no one generally wants for Abyssea.

LOL yeah I know a few myself, and the ones I do know are super nice and friendly and very helpful, but it is so frustrating when you bring them and you know their jobs can't really do much in abysea seal farming set up (ranger, dragoon) and end up as extra baggage that only making things more difficult.

[Totema]

How about DNC? I've been levelling that for the past week, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I guess the big downside compared I can see compared to THF is lack of TH, but how is it other than that?

[Demon6324236]

Good for solo, good for tank, not the best for party but works fairly well if nothing else thanks to its ability to tank just as well or better than a THF and can heal itself so no need for WHM on most things.

[Totema]

Well, I guess it's not too far of a stretch to work on THF when I'm happy with DNC. I only wish I wouldn't take so long, but that's more the fault of my play schedule than anything else.

[Doombringer]

dancer is a good, maybe even great, dynamis job. once you skill up and learn how dynamis works you can almost print money. even with just average gear.


as for aby it's only so-so. any strong evasive job can tank seal NMs, but dnc brings no procs or treasure hunter so it's kinda meh.