Faluzure's Hi-Res Shots (NOT BANDWIDTH FRIENDLY)

[Samar]

Heh, Heya Faluzure =) I figured since I accidently stumbled into yer chat on pol (Faluzure, Fisherkings..they look alike…sorta >.>)when Caitsith and Quetz were down, I’d pop in here and say hi,

There a reason I said you were…err, was godly the word I used? O.O I don’t remember, but bah, basically, you got all the jobs I love to play at insanely high levels, and are going up with other jobs as well , now, if I can only convince my static to start lvling at get past Genkai 1, I might catch up with ye someday…mebbe….if I’m lucky =P Along with what everyone else says, nice pics as always^^, cant wait to get the story moving again, and get to Zilart, I’m sick of being Rank 5 heh

[Faluzure]

Originally posted by Fire
Shrug, I would personally choose a rdm/blm for my party over a rdm/whm. If I'm looking for a rdm to be in my party it's to
A.) debuff (elemental seal is very usefull)
B.) be able to save the party if things go bad (chainspell escape / ele seal + sleepga)
C.) refreash / dispel

Status cures are done by the whm, smn/whm, brd/whm, or blm/whm. Granted brd's dont have much MP but status cures are like 9-20mp?

Also, BLM/RDM isnt all that bad if you not able to get a rdm or brd for dispel.... but I won't try to justify that because rdm sub for dispel/gravity isnt as great as /whm.

These are just my opinions though. see you^^

That reply was not in regards to criticizing Red Mages and their subs. That reply was in regards to party efficiency. I personally don't mind RDM/BLMs. I was stating that more than ever, these newcomers of FFXI do not want to do certain things. They want to be different. The want to be individuals. Because of this, creating a party is more critical. You have all these players with these different subjobs than what you need. In that reply, I was strictly talking about Summoners and their subjob choice. *Someone* needs to be a healer and it is likely the Summoner that has to be one since Red Mages won't/can't. As for Bards, yes they can be backup, but they can only be backup for a limited time until they run out of mana. When creating a party, you have to pick the correct roles depending on where you're leveling. If what you're planning on fighting a mob that has debuffs, you have to have someone to counter it.

That's what I'm doing now as I play FF. Those of you who have kept up with me have notice I've been playing all mage jobs. My plan from the beginning was to be a versatile mage able to swap to any subjob as needed. It makes you that much more valuable. After I'm done with Summoner, I will work on Dark Knight and Ninja next (but only to 37). Why? RDM/DRK is required for HNMs & Dynamis. RDM/Ninja is strictly for solo purposes. Versatility is what I'm working towards. After the party is configured, then I can decide whether it is appropriate to go another subjob. I like BLM/RDM, I've used it. I can solo better with it plus I get Fast Cast and INT bonuses. However, I am willing to forgo those bonuses if it helps my party go faster if they require negative status removals.

Example: Labyrinth of Onzozo - Toramas. PLD/WAR, THF/NIN, <another melee>. Who would you pick to be the support jobs? You obviously need a refresher but what if a Bard/WHM is not available? What if no WHM is available. What if all you have to choose from is BLM/RDM and RDM/BLM (trust me it happens). You need someone to remove Paralyze & Silence. I saw a party in there with PLD/WAR, DRK/THF, SAM/THF, BLM/RDM, RDM/BLM, and RDM/BLM. Paralyzed & Silenced PLD is ouch. Both RDMs only had a BLM subjob available. Nobody else was available within their level range.

Another Example: Gustav Tunnel - Skeletons. Paladin, dual monks, BLM/RDM, Bard/WHM, RDM/WHM. Mass Blind, Mass Poison, Slow. Monks can Chakra, but what happens when the Skeletons do their AoE several times in a row? It is a status that must be removed.

Another Example: You're going to fight Hornflies/Darters/Whatever has an AoE damage range. These can pack a big punch. Curaga 1 & 2 can be very useful. Using Cure IVs or IIIs several times in a row? Big mana waste... especially if the RDM just performed a Convert.

If you're talking about Magic Bursts, the INT gained from RDM/BLMe is *not* that great. I burst for an impressive amount as RDM/WHM.

A) Debuff is natural for me also. Elemental Seal is once per 10 minutes.
B) Chainspell Teleport saves you just the same (albeit the distance). You cannot sleepga in many zones.
C) Refresh/Dispel (I can do that too).

My point is not to dog on Red Mage sub Black Mages. My point was to argue proper subjobs for Summoner. If you want to be a RDM/BLM that's fine. I have two friends who are RDM/BLM and they continue to be so because they have no WHM subjob. I on the other hand, have WHM and BLM available. So when I get an invite for my RDM, I can give the party leader an option, "do you want WHM or BLM sub?" Just like it's nice to have that Warrior with THF, NIN, or SAM available. Each subjob is good depending on the situation. You have that option for that member to change to form your party as you see fit.

[Faluzure]

To Vanalesca: Welcome to the thread! Thanks for posting! I agree, Summoner gear can be quite expensive. I cried when I had to buy the Austere equipment. The problem was that none have been on sale for 2 weeks. Finally when one was on sale, the crafter decided to jack the price up 125K from the previous price. I just dished out almost 500K on the Austere Robe and Austere Hat. I received the Austere Gloves as a present from one of my best friends. 350K for gloves alone The Austere equipment is very nice (The gloves, hat, and body of course. The boots & pants stink).

I did get all my AF this weekend. I solo'd them all except AF3, which I joined a Japanese Alliance this weekend of 16 level 75s and mowed through that stuff.


To Samara: Welcome! Thanks for stopping by last night. Nice of you to say hi! Thanks for the compliments, I'm quite flattered. Mage jobs are fun, I hope to get Summoner up high soon. I have to admit though, Red mage is still my favorite by far. Summoner will get interesting when I get the level 70 abilities. Keep at it and good luck with Genkai 1. It's a pain for most people. I got lucky when I did mine

[Gokulos]

Its so true about sbout sub jobs...
I remember when training in Onzozo i leveled a couple of times with my 2 friends from LS and they were used to me having an whm sub (my rdm leveling goes really slow so i dont want to use underlevel sub right now ; , and there was a day when i was with another pt in Onzozo and they started making their own pt.
They were PLD and BLM and they got some other peope too and 2 RDM cause there was no whm or brd or smn - one was their long ago friend that was anon but hi said he close to them with lv and another from pick up. I think it was in some way their fault too cause they didnt pay attention and finally they ended in Onzozo with 2 Rdm/Blm that didn't have whm sub cause "its suck" or "make them weaker". They had a blm/whm but him curing status maked battles go slower cause he could not nuke all the time and used more mp curing and MBing.

[Kyrial Arthian]

Yeah, I so agree with you on the issue of subjobs, Fal. I can't stand how people will make a PT suffer just because they refuse to level a sub more suited to their job, under the pretext of 'being different.' I see it FAR too often. -_-;;

[Roulette]

Hmmm Fal I have another small question about race/job combos to interject. (This is sorta a two parter)

Why do so many people hate Samurais? There so anxious to find Dark Knights because they "can do the best damage", but in fact I was always under the impression that Samurais with there number of skillchains and Magic Burst damage they would have a sligh advantage over Dark Knights. (On some level I shouldnt be talking because I havent seen Guillotine in a party situation)

So how do you feel about Samurais as a high level Black Mage do you appreciate seeing Samurais in your party or do you think he is just another pushed aside straigh up DD?

P.S. One more thing..... What is the problem with Dragoons? Some people say these problems are going to be fixed in COP how so?

P.P.S. I know this a picture thread but your full of so much great information about things I had never thought about and I just cant help myself to ask. >_<

[Angelhelix]

I have a request. Can you post a pic of a darknight and the original af gear? I'm sorry if you already posted it, i just wanted to see.

[Kousai]

Originally posted by Angelhelix
I have a request. Can you post a pic of a darknight and the original af gear? I'm sorry if you already posted it, i just wanted to see.

cant see the feet but ._.

[ARCANGEL]

Originally posted by Roulette
Why do so many people hate Samurais? There so anxious to find Dark Knights because they "can do the best damage", but in fact I was always under the impression that Samurais with there number of skillchains and Magic Burst damage they would have a sligh advantage over Dark Knights.

I'm not Fal, but I think I might be able to answer this from personal experience. Most people dislike Sam because 1) they have played with a bad one who cannot perform the Samurai job correctly or 2) Don't think they need a Skillchain (These people usually have a bad under leveled sub from my experience).

I sometimes have to wait upwards of 3-4 hours for a party, but so do some Drks.

Damage wise, I cannot beat a drk at pure damage output. Period
But, I think that a Sam is more "Useable" in a Party because of the vast number of Skillchains we can perform. but I'm biased :p

[Grodo]

Hey Fal how many people in your ls been to the new places cause CoP out in japan >.> maybe u could get some of them to take some pisc ^^ i want to see some of the monster there and maybe there lvl to thanks

but if no one in your jap ls been there then ill just have to wait some more ; ;

[Vairu]

[/B]

Your friggin awesome fal jesus

[sekaran]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I couldn't see/find it..

What is your typical PT arrangement for a speed PT to get past Chain#6? I've heard some being 3RNG, 1BRD, 1BLM, 1WAR/NIN, but being an RDM would leave me out of a said PT like above. Any input on other combinations that could work? Thanks^^

[Faluzure]

To Roulette: I was about to head to bed, since its 12:36 PM already (and I go to work at 7 AM) but I thought I'll try to answer this before I sleep. I'm not even sure how long it will take me to answer... Edit: I fell asleep (haha). It took me too long to make a response. Disclaimer: These are my opinions on the game. I try not to be biased but sometimes it just happens. Thus, take my comments/advice with a grain of salt. If you disagree with what I say, you're welcome to and no feelings will be hurt (just as long as you are tasteful about it).

The Dragoon: Back when I started playing, Dragoons was fairly well liked at a certain level. I don't really care for Dragoons but I've been in *perfect* parties with Dragoons in them. In the beginning, Dragoons were a somewhat mediocre job. There were no real distinguishing characteristics that separated the Dragoon from any other job. Isn’t that the case with all melee though? I mean, from starting at level 1 all the way to Valkurm Dunes/Korroloka Tunnel to Qufim to the Jungles to Garliage, Quicksand, Crawlers, most melees were categorized to either tanks, SATA-capable, or just melee. So at this point, tanks were only Paladins or Ninjas and SATA-capable was Thief only. All other melees were considered “support�.

Now there came a time when Dragoons started distinguishing themselves as a support damage dealer. This was at level 49 when they acquired the level 150 weaponskill known as ‘Penta Thrust’. This attack allowed the Dragoon to use this WS with amazing damage and gain a considerable amount of TP back if all 5 hits connected on the monster. I believe you could obtain about 50% - 60% TP after using ‘Penta Thrust’ and all hits connected. ‘Penta Thrust’ did quite a bit of damage too. Continuing on to higher levels, a very common subjob for Dragoons at the time was Samurai for the 'Meditate' ability. So a 'Penta Thrust' for a good amount of damage (I believe 400-500 damage) to 50+% max TP + Meditate would easily put you back over 100% TP again. Even without the Samurai subjob, many Dragoons were recruited into PTs for 'Penta Thrust' (or otherwise known as Pentaspamming). The problem was... 'Penta Thrust' overshadowed the other weaponskills. Why use weaponskills known as Vorpal Thrust (175), Skewer (200), Wheeling Thrust (225), or Impulse Drive (245) when you could just spam Penta Thrust many more times and do a good amount of damage? A level 150 weaponskill could last you pretty much until 75!

There are problems with this in terms of magic bursting... 'Penta Thrust' is a located on the 'Dark' section are of the skillchain chart. Being in this area only allows for 2 skillchains. Detonation and Transfixion (wind and light respectively). Most of the mobs you fight at that level are weak to Ice, thus a Distortion skillchain is ideal. Many times in the past, when you would form a party, the dragoon would be told to go solo and not chain with anyone. They would be requested to spam Penta Thrust whenever they got it. This was bad for the black mages. Given that Paladins mainly use 1-handed swords or ninjas using katanas, there weren’t many skillchains you could effectively do in regards to the black mages.

The 2nd weakness was the dragoon's 2 hour, Call Wyvern. The Wyvern is indeed very strong. It uses its breath weapon every time the dragoon does a weaponskill. See the advantage now? Penta Thrust + Wyvern for several times per battle is tons of damage. However, Dragoons had no way to actually heal the wyvern without actually resting themselves. The HP gain from wyverns is very low when resting, that's why AF2 has so many Wyvern bonuses. So say you fought a mob with area damage. You can say goodbye to your wyvern maybe after the 2nd battle. Waste of a 2-hour if you ask me

The 3rd weakness is the dragoon's nature in a PT and I believe this is the biggest issue. They are pretty much classified as the support melee. In a general PT, you want 3 melees and 3 mages (bard included). Of the melees you definitely want a tank first. After you get the tank, who do you get? 2 more melees. That's where the problem lies... Any one of the remaining 8 melee jobs in the game can fit this role. Typically you want someone to SATA, so someone with the ability to do so (whether pure thief or those subbing thief) will take up the 2nd slot. That leaves the 3rd melee. The person that starts the SC so the thief can finish it. So think about it. If you had to fill a role for melee, who would you pick? Again, that's the problem.... there's so many jobs you can pick for this role! Unlike tanks, only Paladins have to compete with themselves and Ninjas. For Refresh, only Redmages and Bards. For nuking? Blackmages or Redmages. For healing? Redmages or Whitemages. Only 2 jobs have to compete against each other for those roles. What about melee? Dark Knight does nice damage as a support melee. This is why people like them so much because their abilities they have allow them to pump out more damage from Last Resort and Souleater. That leaves Warrior, Samurai, Monk, and Dragoon.

Now with that said, you now know that dragoon is a support melee. The problem with support melee is that they miss... a lot. If you look at any decent Samurai, Monk, Warrior, Dark Knight, or Dragoon, you will notice that they have accuracy+ equipment. Since each of these jobs (except monk) attack so slowly, that means less TP gain in a battle. That means no skillchains. That means it takes longer for enemies to die. Every hit counts when you are a support melee. That's why you see everyone stressing to stock up on acc+ equipment and it is not cheap!

Then a patch came out a few months back. S-E decided to change the way TP was gained on multi-hit WSkills. Now this affected Pentathrust big time. Pentathrust was a 5 hit WS, that is why you got so much TP back. With this patch, you would gain a very low amount per hit if your WS was a multi-hit one. In turn, this affected the potential heavy damage a dragoon could do not in the WS itself, but the frequency in which the dragoon could use it. Thus you could maybe use Penta Thrust 1-2 times per battle instead of the 3-4 or even 5 times in the previous patch. This is where people got scared. The major shock to everyone was that dragoons are useless because they can't dish out heavy damage anymore. Thus they were no longer searched for in terms of creation of parties. They were pretty much "last resort".

Another bad thing is that they do have crap equipment compared to other support melee, but that's why S-E boosted them in this CoP patch.

I think in the same patch, S-E also added the Spirit Link ability, in which the dragoon could transfer their health to heal the Wyvern to max health. This is very good for the prolonged use of the dragoon's 2 hour, but it is also more HP for the healers to heal. No big deal though, this change was a good one.

So let’s summarize the situation with Dragoon:
1) Competition for parties causes them to compete for the job of support-melee against 8 other melee jobs. Nearly all support melee tend to miss a lot. Thus a lot of money is required to make your support-melee job (in this case Dragoon), a good one. Money is quite difficult to get if you don't put time into it. Trust me, a support-melee decked out in great gear (especially ACC+) will be remembered and invited more often than one that isn't.
2) When compared to their rivals, Dragoon’s equipment just sucks. Of the major upgrades you get at higher levels, the dragoon cannot wear anything that is worthwhile compared to their rival jobs. They cannot wear the Haubergeon (WAR/PLD/DRK/BST/SAM/NIN), or the Byrnie (WAR/PLD/DRK/BST/SAM/NIN), or the Hauberk (WAR/DRK/BST). Even the ‘end-game’ armor (Crimson set) doesn’t help the DRG much. The Assault Jerkin is nice, but that’s Rare/EX. There are other armor that is noteable, but again the focus is that they do not have anything that is “great�.
3) Their weaponskills are not as versatile as their primary rivals (DRK, SAM, WAR). Thus you are limited in the skillchains you can perform for optimal skillchain/bursting capabilities. Wheeling Thrust did get a big boost, so this helps Dragoons out a lot and only applies to high level Dragoons. It does nothing for the lower level Dragoons.

People are still apprehensive about Dragoons. They really aren't that bad now. The dragoon is very versatile as it is one of the few jobs that can almost use as many subjobs as Warrior. DRG/SAM, DRG/WAR, DRG/THF, DRG/WHM are most common. Plus the Dragoon can also be a decent solo-er with the WHM sub. Plus the ability to remove ALL hate with Super Jump makes it where you can actually SATA on a dragoon instead of a tank! No more fumbling in a PT trying to get hate on the tank. One Super Jump and the mob should turn on your tank. Regardless, I think what I stated as the dragoon's flaws is what left a sour taste in everyone's mouth over the past few months. Most of all, I think it just comes straight down to the fact that "why pick dragoon when you have other more mainstream jobs?" I think that's the mentality that most people have.

[Faluzure]

To Roulette: Here's the Samurai reply. Disclaimer: These are my opinions on the game. I try not to be biased but sometimes it just happens. Thus, take my comments/advice with a grain of salt. If you disagree with what I say, you're welcome to and no feelings will be hurt (just as long as you are tasteful about it).

The Samurai: The Samurais when I started playing were not very popular. When people think of Samurai in general (not in terms of FFXI), they think of an awesome swordsman. So many people, who like Japanese culture or are fascinated by it thought, "Yeah! I'll be a Samurai!". Well it so happened that word got around that Samurai is the TP master and can self-skillchain and all that. That made people want to be a Samurai even more. However, here's the kicker. Being able to self-skillchain is fine and dandy but you rarely would want to do this in PTs. It takes away hate from your tank. In addition, many people who chose to become Samurai quit being one due to lack of invites. Again, I'll address the issues with Samurai as I did with Dragoon. This one shouldn't be as long though

As ARCANGEL stated, "they have played with a bad one who cannot perform the Samurai job correctly". This is entirely true and I'm about to go on a tangent here. When the Samurai advanced job was introduced, the Japanese players and importers already had a strong foundation of how to play FFXI. They had a complete understanding of battle tactics and fundamentals. The problem with many of the newcomers that play, they predict that they want to be a certain advanced job. Thus they rush immediately to level 30, then choose the advanced job of their choice. The problem here lies with the fact that, you don't see a lot of the game when you play to level 30. That's what, Yhoator Jungle/Altepa Desert? Are you getting my point? They are lacking the experience and fundamentals of their job type in general. This argument also expands to so many Summoners. Traditionally, Summoner was healing and party support. Those that picked Summoner up played another mage job up to level 60 or higher so they could get the avatars. They knew how to act as primary healer. These days (with help of recent patches), anyone can be Summoner. However, those that are Summoner fanboys/fangirls want to be Summoner because "it's cool" and have little understanding of the role. Most have little experience in terms of healing. I admit this patch has changed the role of Summoner a bit, but you cannot stray from the fact that you will be primary healer sometimes. As primary healer, you cannot leave your avatars out to gain that TP to do those skillchains or magic bursts often. As you'll run out of mana to heal. It all boils down to knowing your role, which a lot of people lack. Anyway, back to Samurai.

Samurai is indeed a TP master. They gain TP insanely fast and even more so with certain equipment. With that said, you'll likely find a Samurai to be able to hit 300% TP when your other melees hit 100% TP. In general, this is good. It allows Samurai to do 2 skillchains with the 2 other melees in the PT. However, I've seen many parties where the Samurai wastes their TP because they're waiting for their partner to gain 100% TP. Also, like ARCANGEL said, many of the parties you get in will sometimes just not do skillchains. Why they don't is beyond me. I understand if there are no blackmages/redmages, but skillchains can add to extra damage and doing them is better than doing none.

In addition, Samurai is also very good because with the GK alone, they can perform nearly any skillchain available if they have the right partner. Unlike Dark Knight, one weapon will be able to perform all SCs. This is *extremely* helpful for nuking mages, especially in HNM battles. The downside is if the mages do really good burst damage. As a black mage who magic bursts twice will likely get more hate than the tank.

The downsides to Samurai in summary are the following:
1) Again, Samurai is classified as support-melee. As said with Dragoon, nearly all support melee tend to miss a lot. Thus a lot of money is required to make your support-melee job a good one. ACC+ is a must. Money is quite difficult to get if you don't put time into it. Trust me, a support-melee decked out in great gear will be remembered and invited more often than one that isn't.
2) Being a support melee causes them to have to compete with other jobs for roles in parties. As an option for all support melees, the role changes depending on the subjob. This is why I constantly stress to people, level all subjobs that match with your main job. It makes you versatile and more valuable to PTs. When you hit level 60, all support melees have an option to change from support melee to SATA melee. Samurais that sub thief are nearly as deadly as Dark Knights who sub thief.
3) The Samurai equipment almost rivals the Dark Knight & Warrior but beats out Dragoon. They can't get the Hauberk, but Haubergeon does very nicely at mid-level.
4) The Samurai does not do as much damage as a Dark Knight. It is very hard for them to do so as their GK cannot compare to a Dark Knight's weapons + Soul Eater and/or Last Resort.
5) They have the ability to gain considerable TP, however that much TP gain is a waste if your other melees are either gaining TP too slowly.

I'll say the exact same thing as I said for Dragoon: Most of all, I think it just comes straight down to the fact that "why pick Samurai when you have other more mainstream jobs?" I think that's the mentality that most people have.



To Kousai: Here's your DRK picture from when I was level 62 BLM. The feet are slightly cut off, but that's him.




To Grodo: When I checked yesterday, I'd say 90% of them were in the other areas. The other 10% didn't install it yet or buy it. Most of them were attempting to do the first Promathia mission. I could ask them to take pictures, but they wouldn't be high resolution and it's somewhat of a hassle to get them to send it to me. I've been running out of content to post on this screenshot thread, so you can expect to see a new flood of my adventures in Promathia to show up soon when I get it.


To Vairu: Haha thanks man. Chain 11! :D


To sekaran: It's ok. Nobody asked me what my PT was except someone on my server. Your suggested config does work as well as variations of it. The 3+ Ranger PT can kill things insanely fast, however the most I've ever heard of or seen with that PT is XP chain #9. I've been in speed parties several times, but my party specifically in this setup where you saw XP chain #11 was PLD, DRK, MNK, BRD, WHM, RDM. Another setup that I have been in was PLD, DRK, NIN, BRD, WHM, RDM.


Finally, I leave you with a few pics of my late self. Summoner has been very slow lately. I'm afraid I'll have to stop it when Promathia comes out next tuesday. At least I got all my AF though as a level 54 SMN.

[Tchernobyl]

Man, your Job replies are as good as the quality of your screenshots!

Could i request one for Warriors, even though i prolly can guess what's gonna be said... still i'm interested on your opinions about the job itself, and the subjob choices people make, early on and later on