Abyssea Experiences

[Grizzlebeard]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

As more people cap their jobs at 80 there will be less and less choice of jobs to take in there. The way the event is set up the exp reward doesn't become decent until around the 3-4 hour mark by which time most 80s who entered with no merits will be close to capping out and having to leave to spend them. I've capped all the jobs I had at 75 now and have zero reason to enter Abyssea for exp. S-E really need to remove the archaic mechanism of only being able to spend your merits inside your Mog House.

[Elwynn]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

Disagree with you slightly IfritnoItazura. It's more mobs vs lights and how they are built. Brds and Cors have largely so far been an oddity for me to see, starting to see them a bit more now, but still not terribly common. There might be one Brd and one Cor on average per alliance, nowhere near enough to make a difference IMO. Even then they are commonly the chest openers, and rolls/songs are not being kept up.

As a PS2 user, I'm kinda cool with that. BRD and COR effects show up on multiple people at the same instant, and that's exactly the kind of thing that causes my PS2 to go into 0.1FPS mode if there's too much of it in a small area. Some BRDs seem to like to recast their stuff before it's even halfway worn off, and of course if they're doing that, they're also doing both front line and back line buffs, so they're casting even more often. Ultrasonics from bats just makes everything worse. Add in WS kills mode and my UI gets one hell of a Gravity effect. Just farming in Pso'Xja with a bard nearby (didn't even have to be same party) has been enough to cause this. Even if I try to run away from the crap, it doesn't end until every fucking effect involved finishes its last frame.

In extreme cases involving NPCs fighting each other (campaign, besieged), it can even cause a PS2 crash. In one extreme case where I died under NPCs fighting in a hallway, the reraise prompt took five minutes to appear. At least I haven't crashed in Abyssea so far, and the only time I got constant 0.1FPS mode, I was already capping off my 11/10 merit.

Unfortunately the effects filter does not filter out everything on PS2, just the long shiny parts. It helps a little, but not much.

you can focus on getting gold/ebon/silver light chests and getting the exp up to 600 exp/kill.

Silver? Don't silver lights only increase your cruor per kill? After one or two Abyssea alliances you have more cruor than you can ever use, unless you want to try that 999 stats drink.

[Vyuru]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

Silver? Don't silver lights only increase your cruor per kill? After one or two Abyssea alliances you have more cruor than you can ever use, unless you want to try that 999 stats drink.

Well, yes and no.

If you are ever in the position of chest opener, you need about 4 stacks typically at minimum, which comes to 24,000 cruor, upfront. So having additional cruor is quite nice. Also I am thinking that SE will have more uses for cruor, so again stocking up on cruor is good to do.

And finally, if you are the main chest opener, there is no reason you shouldn't open silver light chests. Especially since quite often the chest opener is someone who is below lvl 70. Temp items also fall under this category of often ignored by the chest opener.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

It's more mobs vs lights and how they are built. Brds and Cors have largely so far been an oddity for me to see, starting to see them a bit more now, but still not terribly common. There might be one Brd and one Cor on average per alliance, nowhere near enough to make a difference IMO.

Well, think about it this way:

Alliance A: Kills one mob every 40 seconds on average.
Alliance B: Kills one mob every 25 seconds on average.

Which alliance can build lights faster? And, at the same exp/kill, which alliance will be making more exp/hr at that moment?

While the light building requirement makes it a bit more complicated, the fundementals have not changed: Stronger damage output leads to faster kills, and thus better exp/hr.

It has been explained to death what March x2 + Haste (+ Haste Samba) do for melee DDs, so I'll skip that. (COR has some good stuff as well, of course, and it's an even better fit for the nukers.) Suffice to say that when you have three strong DDs and someone to cast Haste for them, adding a BRD will do more for the damage output than adding a fourth DD. (Of course, if you don't have three good DDs to start with, you might as well just add yet another average DD instead of getting a BRD.)

You want the DDs to be well geared, well merited, and buffed by BRD/COR/DNC. If you can, spare a COR for the nukers, too.

Because faster kill is, well, faster.

Even then they are commonly the chest openers, and rolls/songs are not being kept up.

Thankfully, I have not seen any idiot leader making BRDs do this. Just about every alliance I went to has one lower level player on boxes. Sometimes a RNG or some spare DD when the lower level player gets too busy. Wasting a BRD like that would have been stupid.

I can sort of see COR in nukers' party opening boxes, since the rolls lasts what? Four minutes? But, definitely not BRD.

If I've had an Abyssea alliance that made under 30k/hr it was typically on mobs where you could not build ruby light for instance.

If you had looked at my list, you'll noticed the vast majority of the alliances--including the under 30k exp/hr ones--were on lizards in Konschtat. Can definitely build ruby on those.


* * *

Yes, with enough badly geared DDs not using food, holding TP, and skilling up and/or breaking latent, it will take over 40 seconds to kill each mob on average. Seen it happen way too many times. /sigh

* * *

This is not a "scientific comparison", but to give you an idea why I take strong exception to " one Brd and one Cor on average per alliance, nowhere near enough to make a difference", especially for BRD. Both sessions were on Shadow Lizards; was using same food, and nearly identical gear except feet for WS. (Rutter -> Perle)

SAM77-78: COR in party; he kept switching buffs between Chaos/Samurai/Fighter, I think. No Haste. After a few DDs swapped out (for the worse), I couldn't keep Hasso up and stay alive.
Melee DPS: 12.76
WS DPS: 24.66
Total DPS: 37.44

SAM78-80: BRD and RDM in party. RDM left after a few hours, but while he was there I was getting Haste consistently, and the BRD did only March for front line jobs.
Melee DPS: 19.48
WS DPS: 33.20
Total DPS: 52.68

I was at 93%+ accuracy (melee hit rate) for both sessions, so accuracy wasn't an issue.

Part of the improvement was due to being at higher level, but I don't think that explains a whopping 40.7% increase in DPS (37.44 -> 52.68). The better buffs (i.e. March and Haset) and the timely cures (which let me keep Hasso up) deserved most of the credit, I think.

And, get this: I was holding TP a lot more in the second one--someone kept demanding we don't kill with WS. Holding TP to 250% in an exp setting made me die a little inside every time... I use Hagun, so anything over 200% is an automatic waste. lol.

[ShepardG]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

If you had looked at my list, you'll noticed the vast majority of the alliances--including the under 30k exp/hr ones--were on lizards in Konschtat. Can definitely build ruby on those.

I agree, but now your dealing with the fact that lizards just suck, AoE Dmg, Evasive (you and i know that pick up groups are gonna have the Domaru Sam's) and they link. Admitedly, they go down fairly quick, but the fact that half your DD's are probalby /war or something not suited to self sustainment, puts a tax on the support that the other camps (birds/mandies/bats/Crapaudy's) don't have.

I was main tank on mandies for my pld on friday. I Idle in this:

Hauteclaire(Magain is better nowadays, i just haven't had time to do it)
Koenig
Lamia Kaman+1
Dst Cap +1
Repellting collar (-1pdt,+1mdt)
earrings don't matter
Versa Hauberk
Dst Mittens +1
Jelly ring
Odium ring
cerb mantel +1
Warwolf's Belt
Dst Subligar +1
Askar Gamberias (or DST leggings +1)

I could hold 5 manides at once. I was litterly going out, banish,flash,provoke,ranged atk, coming back to camp, Defender, sentinel(if it was up), reprisal, phalanx and i could usually cure 4 myself through the hits even with 4-5 mobs on me.

with a rdm to refresh/cure me, I was pretty much untouchable.

Guess that's sorta off topic, but I was subtley trying to inform any fellow plds on the best way to tank those pacy's, also it will near cap your shield skill.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

but now your dealing with the fact that lizards just suck, AoE Dmg, Evasive (you and i know that pick up groups are gonna have the Domaru Sam's) and they link.

"AoE Dmg": Fireball is pretty easily countered with Shell, Barfira, and Curaga. If a SCH is in party, also have option for Accession Stoneskin (and Phalanx if SCH/RDM). WHM80/SCH or RDM/80/SCH can also provide AoE Stoneskin, of course.

"Evasive": They are not. TP set with reasonable accuracy plus Marinara Pizza would just fine for two-handed DDs. (I TP in Askar body on SAM, by the way, and I got 93%+ hit rate in both sessions.)

"Link": Nope. They don't link, they don't aggro.

Lizards aren't really all that bad, but the real draw is how easy it is to reach the camp for those without the Veridical Confluxes activated.

Admitedly, they go down fairly quick, but the fact that half your DD's are probalby /war or something not suited to self sustainment, puts a tax on the support that the other camps (birds/mandies/bats/Crapaudy's) don't have.

Most of the DDs were smart enough to use /NIN, but, yes, there were always one or two idiots with /WAR and /SAM.

IIRC, birds have AoE damage, too. Mandies stripe shadows faster with hand-to-hand and counter (plus they have Guard to lower damage taken from the front). Crapaudy hit harder than lizards, plus they link, and practically immune to light based sleep.

I could hold 5 manides at once. I was litterly going out, banish,flash,provoke,ranged atk, coming back to camp, Defender, sentinel(if it was up), reprisal, phalanx and i could usually cure 4 myself through the hits even with 4-5 mobs on me.

with a rdm to refresh/cure me, I was pretty much untouchable.

Guess that's sorta off topic, but I was subtley trying to inform any fellow plds on the best way to tank those pacy's, also it will near cap your shield skill.

Er. Or you can just gear up as a DD on PLD/NIN, have a BRD do the usual stage pulling, and direct the fight as the main /assist like in Dynamis. (I mean, think about it; what if the current target dies while you're off 'pulling' another? All the melees would have to run after you? That's just not efficient; much better to keep one slept and ready at all times.)

There's no need for a 'tank' in an Abyssea exp alliance; a main /assist who won't bleed all over the floor is all that's needed. Frankly, if the melees can't pull the mob off of a PLD/anything with WS, you need to replace them with real DDs.

I guess you can play puller on PLD if you don't have a BRD to pull, but it really isn't ideal.

[ShepardG]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

The do link, you should go check, lizards always link with other lizards.

We had a main assist, but when I roll up into camp with 4 Pac's on me, and the get sleepga'd, and I roll out and get 4 more, it made for easier kills. also didn't have a bard, because yeah, bards are scarce and/or already to 80 and nobody wants to play them anymore lol.

That's what's so damn awesome about abyssea, you can do it 10 different ways and 9/10 times its going to have the same result.

I'm pretty sure lizards do a TP move called "Secretion" which enhances Evasion. You personally might not have had a problem with Acc, but anyone below 85% should have probably done something to correct that situation, BUT again, probably didn't affect the party as much as it would had there been only 6 people. I fucking love abyssea.

Litterly did this for 2 1/2 hours last night on Brd:

Sing Victory, sing advancing....

Look for my only mage

run to them and sing Ballad, Ballad 2

run to the mob, sing march x2

shit was so easy, and so god damn boring.

[Truece]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

and 9/10 times its going to have the same result

Which, for me, has just been 120 minutes of mediocre xp...

I'm hoping for another good abyssea experience soon!

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

The do link, you should go check, lizards always link with other lizards.

Shadow Lizard - 4 hr 41 min: 27.2k exp/hr average
Shadow Lizard - 2 hr 51 min: 21.5k exp/hr average
Jaguarundi - 3 hr 29 min: 40.9k exp/hr average (JP alliance; I left once to use up merit points then returned)
Pachypodium - 3 hr 35 min: 21.1k exp/hr average
Shadow Lizard - 3 hr 42 min: 35.0k exp/hr average
Shadow Lizard - 1 hr 37 min: 15.9k exp/hr average (failed to achieve sustainability)
Shadow Lizard - 2 hr 16 min: 17.0 exp/hr average (slowly collapsed)
Shadow Lizard - 3 hr 49 min: 52.7k exp/hr average

Think I had another one which I forgot to turn on the parser for. Can believe me, now, when I say they do not link?

That's what's so damn awesome about abyssea, you can do it 10 different ways and 9/10 times its going to have the same result.

Well, just from the ones I've looked up, 6 out of 8 times the results were ho-hum. There were also two or three other complete failures I didn't list.

It's fun and addictive, but not always fast exp. If you want fun and fast exp, bring a fast kill alliance (plus all the Abyssea specific requirements like a good box opener w/keys, someone to direct lights, etc.).

I'm pretty sure lizards do a TP move called "Secretion" which enhances Evasion. You personally might not have had a problem with Acc, but anyone below 85% should have probably done something to correct that situation

Like I said, pizza for two-handers. (Which implies decent sushi for one-handers.) Not a problem for any real DD who puts efforts into their builds. Even AH DDs should be able to get above 85% with ease.

This isn't a Mamool Ja THF we're talking about here.

shit was so easy, and so god damn boring.

If it was easy and you had time to be bored on BRD, your alliance was doing it wrong.

You should've been pulling for a fast-kill alliance. My BRD routine on Jaguarundi:
March
Run off.
Sleep one with Lullaby (away from party), pull another with Elegy.
Run back.
Sleep the incoming #1.
March, while waiting for the previously slept one to wake up.
Sleep the incoming #2.
If alliance was a bit slower at this point, attempt to sneak in a Ballad on the COR/WHM*.
<repeat run off, lullaby one away, pull another with Elegy, etc.>


Pulling one at a time wasn't nearly fast enough for that JP alliance. Several times, I've actually intentionally used Horde Lullaby on two to three of them while away from camp to bring them in a batch. Thankfully a few also repop in camp and most pulls were short distanced, otherwise I'd never been able to keep up.


* DD/NIN x3, DNC, BRD/NIN (me), COR/WHM was the party build.

[ShepardG]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

I can't believe you didn't notice that they f'ing link, go agro one, and run it infront of another one! wtf man!

Like I said, pizza for two-handers. (Which implies decent sushi for one-handers.) Not a problem for any real DD who puts efforts into their builds. Even AH DDs should be able to get above 85% with ease.

This isn't a Mamool Ja THF we're talking about here.

That's all well and good, but I can't dictate what every joe schmoe eats or wears for their job. I'm saying most of the time these guys aren't breaking 85%, especial not with secretion up.

And yeah I agree brd should be pulling with elegy and Ranged weapon, considering I have 48 -pdt and but guess what, again, people that don't know or understand efficency are going to be the predominante crowd your dealing with when you /shout in WG. Am I upset when their gimpness causes a time out, or just crappy exp? sure, but i'm not beating my fucking head into a brick wall trying to teach every 14 year old on an xbox how to play their game.

Hell most schumks in those parties don't swap gear to WS. There are a thousand reason they get away with it in the social group, but i'll be damned if I'm going to attempt to "nice" them into any semblance of respectable job play. I'd quit the game before I could convince 5 people how to gear for drakesbane, when I see them WSing in dusk gear ><

Again, yeah it was boring on brd, but I was being lazy two, and i made 60k in 2hrs and left with 113 mins on the clock, acceptable by me sure, best there is, nope, but I wasn't trying, cause if I was, I wouldn't have been in a shout group in the first place.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

I can't believe you didn't notice that they f'ing link, go agro one, and run it infront of another one! wtf man!

They do not link. I don't know why you do not believe me, but every single group I've had camped at the exact same spot (on the hill), where some of the Shadow Lizards would pop directly in camp. I've been there as PLD, too, so I'd definitely notice if the lizards link.

They just ... don't link. Period.

Again, yeah it was boring on brd, but I was being lazy two, and i made 60k in 2hrs and left with 113 mins on the clock, acceptable by me sure, best there is, nope, but I wasn't trying, cause if I was, I wouldn't have been in a shout group in the first place.

I find that attitude offensive. If I want to play with a group, I owe the group my best effort, shout group, pickup party, or otherwise. If I don't want to put in the effort, I should leave--you wouldn't others to leech, so why do it even partially yourself?

[ShepardG]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

I find that attitude offensive. If I want to play with a group, I owe the group my best effort, shout group, pickup party, or otherwise. If I don't want to put in the effort, I should leave--you wouldn't others to leech, so why do it even partially yourself?

I don't want others to leech, but they do. My half ass is usually twice as good as someone elses 100%, but I've stopped getting in arguments with idiots that can't understand why capping pearl is better than azure 1st, or who think it's o.k. to have 3 level 40's in the party with their 14 dmg Magic bursted Stone 2 nukes.

I'm not gonna waste my night, completley and totally focused on the monitor so I can skill chain as soon as i get 100tp, no i'll probably get up go get a drink, come back and WS at 140tp instead of 100.
I mean, I put more "effort" into this game than 90% of the people I play with, and that was in my LS (which I'm currently taking a break from, because i can't work on my jobs and do events every day because i work from 0530-0330 M-F) iiZerg if your curious.

But why would i leave? my entire last 2-3 posts were the fact that you can play at half assed and most of the time, your still gonna be making ridiculously good EXP. It's why people are so happy, it took a 1 in a million setup of great geared players to get anywhere near 30k/hr EXP at birds which was arguably the easiest most reliable place to level at. I mean, people can charge 500k an pull summoner burning, because people are 1. lazy, 2. uninformed, 3. don't care enough to go and do it their damn selves.

Also, go fucking aggro a lizard, and walk infront of another one. or go on wiki and read about the entire Lizard family, and how it LINKS. and remember there's about a 5 second delay on pop, before it will aggro anything. The fact that your touting all this information and you can't seem to realize this one simple fact makes me question your comprehension of all things FFXI related.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

Also, go fucking aggro a lizard, and walk infront of another one. or go on wiki and read about the entire Lizard family, and how it LINKS. and remember there's about a 5 second delay on pop, before it will aggro anything. The fact that your touting all this information and you can't seem to realize this one simple fact makes me question your comprehension of all things FFXI related.

Not lizards in general, just Shadow Lizard.

Have you fought them? Even one? I've literally had witness over a thousand (if not two thousands) of them pulled and died before my eyes. No link.

And, FFXIclopedia's wiki? Abyssea - Konschtat
(No 'L' listed for Shadow Lizard in the "Notes" column.)

Want it said more explicitly? Allakhazam: Shadow Lizard

• Not Aggro
• Not Linking

How about in video form? [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT5KM0TJJPs"]YouTube- &#x202a;Final Fantasy XI Online: Vision of Abyssea's Abyssea-Konschtat (Shadow Lizard camp - 490,000xp+)&#x202c;&lrm;[/nomedia]

4:36 Can see a lizard walk to the melees fighting, then just turned and kept walking.
5:16 Look at where the mages are--right near a couple of lizards. See also where a lizard is in the middle of boxes? The lizards are often fight right where they are spawn.
6:15 A small lizard walk right up to the melees fighting--no running. And, didn't link.
6:26 Hmm. lol. I'm in this video... (Didn't know that before I started watching.) Upper right hand corner of the screen. A bit unexpected, but this proves I did fight these lizards, no?

[ShepardG]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

I'll have to check that when i get home, cause youtube is crippled on gov. computers, but if i'm wrong, I'll coneced and i'll take a picture of myself in some way apologizing in a funny way, but I'm pretty sure your wrong, and also you smell.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: Abyssea Experiences

I'll have to check that when i get home, cause youtube is crippled on gov. computers, but if i'm wrong, I'll coneced and i'll take a picture of myself in some way apologizing in a funny way, but I'm pretty sure your wrong, and also you smell.

Sounds like you don't really want to apologize even though you're wrong. Heck, you still seem reluctant to admit you were wrong, and that you were wrong for a pretty lousy reason ("I believe this way, but you say otherwise, so you must be ignorant!").

Tell you what, forget the apology, and just answer this:

How many Shadow Lizards have you fought?

I suspect anyone who hasn't fought those and somehow still on the fence about the Shadow Lizard linking or not linking would be reassured if you answer honestly.