Ambuscade, enough

[Aysha]

Well, family member and I solo'd (well, duo'd lol...) our first (and second!) Ambuscade last night.

Our wait time was about 10-20 seconds (we're on Sylph, though) and it was a rather easy fight (unlike that time we tried in November, ugh lol).

I think I can see the appeal behind soloing: We tried Yorcia Weald Skirmish which does yield armor, but that armor is only 113 until you get Vials of Transmelange, but to get those, you gotta do Ra'Kaznar Skirmish (which we've yet to do, but I wanna try it!).

One problem I'm having, is the game absolutely spews 119 gear at you and both me and family member are scratching our heads, going ".... ok so which one(s) are better?"

For example, her THF... she's got Reforged +1 which is 119. We have access to the Iuitl set from Yorcia Weald, and if we were successful in getting Transmelange, we could upgrade it to 119.

And now, there's Ambuscade (using the vouchers) armor, and THAT is 119.

Oh, and she's got Su1 and is heading towards Su2 at a decent pace, so there's those two sets.

We're absolutely confused on which armors we should actually be wearing, which is better? Everything is 119 with very little of any indicator which is "better". It's kinda annoying to pull up websites and compare the armors stat-by-stat trying to envision whether +10 STR is better than +20 Weapon Skill or what-not.

So I think that causes a lot of people to just pile into Ambuscade, because at least Ambuscade Armor seems to be rather easy to get, as long as you're capable of soloing the mob.

[Domille]

While this doesn't really relate to the topic at hand.... yes 119 is absolutely retarded.

At a quick glance someone without experience just does what you do "wtf do I wear". There's no "right" answer. Your situation doesn't have you wearing resienjima gear or ru'ann gear.

You just have to look at the pieces. Ambuscade sets are very good for people in your shoes. *very good*

[Aysha]

That's what I thought, that Ambuscade was probably the best we could hope to get (at least for now, though I doubt Reisenjima/Escha is possible with only 2 people?). It's just that... yanno, 2k Hallmarks would take absolutely forever on 50 per run lol.

Buuuut, I suppose that it doesn't matter what the monthly armor is, if you can just get the vouchers one by one. At least the first few are easy to snatch up. It's just that body one, eeew. lol.

[Domille]

It's just that... yanno, 2k Hallmarks would take absolutely forever on 50 per run lol.

Anything less than taking 6 people for Vol2 VD is a complete waste of your and literally everyone on your servers time.

Anything less than going on VD with 6 is a waste of your time... so seriously, don't do it...

[Aysha]

Anything less than going on VD with 6 is a waste of your time... so seriously, don't do it...

You're assuming we can find a group willing to take a THF, lol.

And again, wait times are <10 seconds on Sylph, so we're not wasting anybody's time lol.

Now if we were on a higher population server, that'd be different..

[Domille]

THF isn't bad for the fight. There are other people on your server. With the exact same mindset as yourself. "oh no one would let us join so we'll just waste weeks soloing".

You will never hit 14500 soloing..... and if by some miracle you do, I'm extremely sad for you

[Aysha]

THF isn't bad for the fight. There are other people on your server. With the exact same mindset as yourself. "oh no one would let us join so we'll just waste weeks soloing".

You will never hit 14500 soloing..... and if by some miracle you do, I'm extremely sad for you

I know we're not going to hit 14.5k. We're not trying for that.

We're rather casual players -- I have a variable hour job (which means my schedule is not the same week-to-week) and my family member has other things to do than to be on the game 24/7. We just want some decent gear, and to have reasonable fun obtaining it.

The Body Voucher takes what, 2,000hm? 2200? If we did an average of 11 Ambuscades per week in any given month, we would get that. Now obviously, we're not going to aim to get the whole set in a single month, though there's always the possibility that the set we want would happen to be that month's featured set and as such, some of the pieces would be free.

For example, we already got the free healer/support boots. Both family member and I dabble with WHM occasionally so we picked them up. They're free; why not?

I imagine the gloves should be easily do-able too. We do a couple ambuscades here, a couple there, we'll pick a piece or two of her THF armor this month, maybe one piece next month, yadda yadda.

We're not in a hurry. Our mission isn't to "Max our character ASAP!"

Our mission is to "Have fun checking off a ginormous checklist of things to do". We're not trying to get done asap, we're just plodding along.

That's not to say we're not going to turn down opportunities; if I see a shout asking for VD Vol2 for a job I actually have on 99 and 119, well ya, I'm gonna see if I can get in on it. But, see, all shouts are for GEO, PLD, WAR, etc. I've never seen one say "Any DD" or even DD at all. People want certain jobs, which brings us back to the point that this is a community-made problem, and the problem is people being too picky when it isn't necessary.

[Domille]

Ok, but see, if you DON'T get the HQ gear now, that means you have to waste MORE time later when you -do- want it, instead of getting it now.

It's simple logic. If you think people don't want you to join, NQ ambuscade gear absolutely won't change that.

[Nyarlko]

Ok, but see, if you DON'T get the HQ gear now, that means you have to waste MORE time later when you -do- want it, instead of getting it now.

It's simple logic. If you think people don't want you to join, NQ ambuscade gear absolutely won't change that.

Just admit that Aysha has a different POV than you do. XD The NQ armor is there for exactly the reasoning that Aysha talks about.. Little gametime available, fewer current gear options, little chance of anyone carrying them thru on higher difficulties. The pricing on the NQ sets is w/in range for a newish player to be able to get solo from lower difficulty V2 fights on purpose. You should probably stop complaining about soloers clogging things up while they are only completing content in a system-acceptable and intended way, and focus your complaints on the supposed afkers who are intentionally griefing large chunks of the population instead.

And while it's true that NQ ambuscade armors are not top-tier, they do tend to be enough for a newish player to be be not-useless for stuff like Escha-Zi'tah/Escha-Ru'aun T1/T2. The NQ sets in particular are intended to be stepping stones to be able to start on endgame progression. Sounds like this is exactly what they are being used for to me. ^^

[Aysha]

Just admit that Aysha has a different POV than you do. XD The NQ armor is there for exactly the reasoning that Aysha talks about.. Little gametime available, fewer current gear options, little chance of anyone carrying them thru on higher difficulties. The pricing on the NQ sets is w/in range for a newish player to be able to get solo from lower difficulty V2 fights on purpose. You should probably stop complaining about soloers clogging things up while they are only completing content in a system-acceptable and intended way, and focus your complaints on the supposed afkers who are intentionally griefing large chunks of the population instead.

And while it's true that NQ ambuscade armors are not top-tier, they do tend to be enough for a newish player to be be not-useless for stuff like Escha-Zi'tah/Escha-Ru'aun T1/T2. The NQ sets in particular are intended to be stepping stones to be able to start on endgame progression. Sounds like this is exactly what they are being used for to me. ^^

^^
This, and/or these armors are great for people who do not intend to get into Endgame Progression, who just want some decent armor for solo purposes. I have Skirmish+1 (I abused mules' Red Mog Pells to get it LOL), but I would also enjoy getting some Ambuscade Armor too for other jobs for some decent solo armor.

Escha doesn't sound like anything I'm likely to get in anytime soon, so naturally the next tier down would be Ambuscade. Since they are picky about what jobs they'll take, I'll just settle for the NQ set. Good enough for me, for now.