Best path to “hundreds” of PotD aetherpool?

[Omedon]

As I’ve mentioned in other threads, I happen to be fortunate enough that my character’s entire aesthetic aligns perfectly with Kinna weapons, the second, “red and black fire” evolution of the PotD appearances. I am an Omni-job “single character altoholic,” and for me personally, for this character, I don’t see any iteration of relic weapon aligning so perfectly with my character as the Kinna motif, so of course a long term project in the back of my head is to collect more and more Kinna appearances. Currently I use a Kinna weapon appearance on my main job only, but there are jobs where the glam options I’ve collected, while a good foundation, could use an update, and of course Kinna weapons are an inevitable, reasonable grind.

I am largely a solo player, for many reasons, so my options for grinding palace of the dead seem to boil down to two really: Solo climbing, or herding cats (essentially just hoping, really) in a random group that may clear floors faster and safer, but at the same time may do so at the expense of missing out on blue and silver chests that advance your aetherpool set.

For those who have perhaps targeted the goal of potentially hundreds and hundreds of aetherpool points, which path feels more efficient while remaining relatively inevitable? I acknowledge that the more manual party finder might be an option, but I’m not sure how popular this particular farm might be, so it feels like solo or random are my only efficient options.

Thanks in advance for any and all helpful replies!

[ItMe]

Start at about 40/40 (at the lowest) and attempt a solo run.

If you open every silver chest, by the end you can easily be around 99/99.

If you're just in it for the aetherpool, I recommend starting around floor 50. At 40/40 earlier floors take 40-50 minutes per set from all the exp farming, but after you hit level 60 floors should only take 30-40 minutes per set, though you'll be going even faster if you're not trying to stockpile poms for the later floors.

Feel free to go as far as you want / can, and just reset your aetherpool when you start a new run.

It sounds scary, but honestly outside of a few bumps PotD doesn't actually become a threat/challenge until 141-171. This is also around when respecting the clock starts to become relevant to your clear, so until then you're free to go out of your way for every silver you see.

Good luck buddy~

[Omedon]

Start at about 40/40 (at the lowest) and attempt a solo run.

If you open every silver chest, by the end you can easily be around 99/99.

If you're just in it for the aetherpool, I recommend starting around floor 50. The earlier floors take 30-40 minutes per set from all the exp farming, but after you hit level 60 floors should only take 20-30 minutes per set, though you'll be going even faster if you're not trying to stockpile poms for the later floors.

Feel free to go as far as you want / can, and just reset your aetherpool when you start a new run.

It sounds scary, but honestly outside of a few bumps PotD doesn't actually become a threat/challenge until 141-171. This is also around when respecting the clock starts to become relevant to your clear, so until then you're free to go out of your way for every silver you see.

Good luck buddy~

These are great tips, thank you!

I imagine I could search this specifically but I might as well ask here: Being able to use any job for this grind, am I correct in assuming that Paladin is likely the best bet for soloing PotD? It just seems to tick all the boxes of a powerful soloing job, though I may be framing that in the context of a level 70 toolkit (where all my non-main jobs are at the moment) which won’t manifest in PotD.

[Nekaru_Infitima]

These are great tips, thank you!

I imagine I could search this specifically but I might as well ask here: Being able to use any job for this grind, am I correct in assuming that Paladin is likely the best bet for soloing PotD? It just seems to tick all the boxes of a powerful soloing job, though I may be framing that in the context of a level 70 toolkit (where all my non-main jobs are at the moment) which won’t manifest in PotD.

RDM or MCH according to the solo guide.

[ItMe]

Being able to use any job for this grind, am I correct in assuming that Paladin is likely the best bet for soloing PotD?

The best are widely agreed to be:
MCH
RDM
NIN
PLD/GNB

And, believe it or not, MNK gets an honorable mention.

[Omedon]

The best are widely agreed to be:
MCH
RDM
NIN
PLD/GNB

And, believe it or not, MNK gets an honorable mention.

I assume this is based on a “round them up, burn them down” tactic? I honestly haven’t soloed a deep dungeon before so I’m likely going to read some guides before I sit down to try it.

[Theodric]

I assume this is based on a “round them up, burn them down” tactic? I honestly haven’t soloed a deep dungeon before so I’m likely going to read some guides before I sit down to try it.

For a solo run, the favoured tactic is to take each enemy down one by one. Traps never spawn at the edges of a room, so it's good to get into the habit of only ever fighting in the corridors between rooms and then running along the edges inside a room to avoid triggering any traps. Enemy patrols range from an annoyance to a danger. You should keep an eye out at all times for anything sneaking up behind you.

Pomanders are best saved for emergencies/bosses and a healthy supply of the Deep Dungeon exclusive potions are desirable even if you're playing a job that can self heal as they help a lot with keeping your character alive.

[ItMe]

I assume this is based on a “round them up, burn them down” tactic?

For tanks, yes.
The other jobs are squishy enough that they don't need to AoE down several mobs at once to move quickly, and (sometimes even with Steel) they're generally too squishy for it to be safe to round up many enemies at once, let alone a whole floor's worth of enemies like some tanks can (though admittedly you won't be doing that at less than 99/99).

[Duskane]

for Solo i recommends you look up Maygi text guide for solo and also look up angelus demonus on youtube as both of these are very informative sources.

so you can read up and get a good visual representation of solo'ing to get a good grasp of the game plan.

[Liam_Harper]

I'm stocking Aethergrips at the moment for Endwalker and personally I'm just running standard 51-60 runs with randoms. Whenever my aether gear is around 50-60 I make one Aethergrip, which keeps me at a decent gear level. Sure you don't get every silver chest in DF and I won't go out of my way to grab a chest halfway across the map when the passage teleport just popped, but you get most of them and you're blazing through so fast that it works out at a good income. Always pop Fortunes and Affluences. Plus you can level alt classes.

Leveling MCH from lv32-48 was 1 Kinna weapon for example.

Since we're on the subject, a general reminder to others that Sage and Reaper will almost certainly get PotD weapons and a Padjali Noulith or especially a Kinna Scythe is likely to look rather nice. Worth stockpiling some Aethergrips just incase.