Fan farming

[Apple Pie]

I'm back from three hour farming at Castle Zvahl with 2x Drone Earrings instead of 2x Dodge Earrings.

First of all, here's the general info.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/drone01.gif

I kept up farming 1 ahriman and 4 demons in the room located at Orc area. Total kills are 49. Here's the result.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/drone02.gif

Then, compare them to the ones I took the other day.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/dodge01.gif Replaced with the new one
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/dodge02.gif Replaced with the new one

Well, it's not a legitimate comparison because I always hang around the room located at Yagudo area. This time, the place was taken by my SMN friend...

Spawns are a little different in each room.

[Orc Area]
- Arch Demon (fixed)
- Blood Demon (fixed)
- Abyssal Demon or Doom Demon (random)
- Abyssal Demon or Doom Demon (random)

[Yagudo Area]
- Blood Demon (fixed)
- Doom Demon (fixed)
- Abyssal Demon or Arch Demon (random)
- Abyssal Demon or Arch Demon (random)

I'm going to farm at Orc area for three hours next time with 2x Dodge Earrings to have better comparison.

Anyway, back to the topic, +6 AGI didn't seem to give me extra chance to either parry or shield-block according to the statistics. I guess +6 bonus wasn't enough to make a difference. I may try wearing Errant Houppelande (AGI -7) all the time along with 2x Dodge Earrings --- Total 13 AGI difference compared to 2x Drone Earrings.

Finally, AGI is said to reduce the chance we take critical hits from mobs but again, there was no difference (0.6% for both case) between Dodge and Drone Earrings.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/dodge03.gif (Dodge Earrings) Replaced with the new one
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/kenshou/drone03.gif (Drone Earrings)

EDIT: Some pictures are replaced with new ones. Please take a look at my next post for detail.

[Apple Pie]

OK, here we go.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/...comparison.htm

I spent another three hours over there with 2x Dodge Earrings. In summary, +6 AGI from 2x Drone Earrings wasn't able to show any improvement on parrying, shield-blocking and critical hits taken this time.

On the other hand, evasion got a little worse with Drone Earrings. It is hard to tell +2 AGI = +1 Evasion, too.

However, as we know, both Arch and Blood demons are hard hitters. RDM75 still takes 50+ damage on average and sometimes 150+ damage by their critical hits. As a result, I'll go with Dodge Earrings for now.

In conclusion, such a small advantage of stats doesn't drastically improve our performance (except for SA/TA and some weapon skills that rely on specific stats).

[DrSerpico]

Some feedback

I've been having a blast with zvahl, and despite the odd summoner and coffer pt, it's never really crowded, not even on rag.

Fun thing tho, The path that's worked best for me is a mixed one.

I use rdm af hands and gloves, since they give +10 parry, 4dex and +10shield, 3agi respectively.

I parry and block a lot, and get great skillups on both skills. (both are 100-ish right now.)

I have stacked eva more than atk/str. No dmg > dealing low dmg. I had the luck of getting genbu shield too, which is perfect for this. Genbu shield + Joyeuse + Savage blade = win. Besides these I use survival belt and dodge ears for evasion, and amemit mantle + spike necklace + ogre mask for str/atk.

Usually I finish the round of 5 mobs with between 1-4mins to spare before ahriman repops, enough to rest full and rebuff.

So, in closing, do you think it would be possible for you to compare your blocking and parry with and without af gloves/boots? I'd be interested in seeing if I only "feel" it's a difference, or if it really is. ^^

Thanks for the inspiration, as always.

[Hetaira]

Hrm, interesting. Thank you for the detailed page on the statistics! Now I'll have to go get money for some Dodge Earrings

Out of curiosity, what is your Parry/Shield skill level? I would assume your Evasion is capped; maybe the skill level on Parry/Shield has to do with the ineffectiveness of the Drone Earrings?

[Apple Pie]

I have 143 for parry and 138 for shield.

I guess the reason neither parrying nor shielding rarely kicked in was because I evaded 50+% of their attacks. It is said that the system first checks whether I'm able to evade their attack or not. If I don't, then it checks whether I'm able to parry, shield-block or I'm hit. Lastly, it checks whether I'm able to guard it or not.

Speaking of my equipments, I prefer to have as many attack+ gears as possible because I believe "Offence is the best defence" here. Accuracy seems to be capped (94 - 97%) and no accuracy+ gear seems to be necessary.

So, I always have Carapace Gauntlets +1 for my gloves because the latent effect is similar (HP < 75%) to that of Fencer Ring. Attack +9 (+11 with Meat Mithkabob) and additional defence is nice to me. As for my boots, I have Dance Shoes for +6 evasion. I can replace it with Ogre Ledelsens but there's a tradeoff (attack +10 but evasion -5).

Anyway, I'll try both AF gloves and boots on next time. I'm also interested in what's going to happen. In fact, [DKN]+10 of Warlock's Gloves is useful to resist Aspir, Drain, Sleep, and Hecatomb Wave. In a sense, Joyeuse is the perfect weapon here since it also has [DKN] +14.

[Squerril]

In fact, [DKN]+10 of Warlock's Gloves is useful to resist Aspir, Drain, Sleep, and Hecatomb Wave.

I heard that Jack O' Lanterns give +10 ACC +10 Evas. -10 CHR and +25 DKN.
I'm not sure if thats correct, but,
DKN+25 and -10 CHR I know are correct, and it'd help you resist Aspir, Drain, Sleep, etc.

[magnius]

It is true that Jack O' Lanterns give +10 ACC +10 Evas. -10 CHR and +25 DKN, I use them when I level ninja for the evasion and acc. Thing is though, on Odin they tend to cost around 2k-3k each and only last 30 minutes. So is it really worth it to spend 4k-6k on food for an hour of farming? Especialy in this case since a lot of these rdms have it timed perfectly so that by the time the demons start to respawn they're already fully rested. So sure it would reduce down time, because you would get hit less, but you would have to wait for respawn maybe. As I stated before, I am still way too low to farm here so please correct me if I am wrong as this was just kind of an educated assumption. :sweat:

[Apple Pie]

First of all, +10 EVA and +25 [DKN] of the Lantern is nice but I'm afraid if it isn't a good cost performer as magnius said. In fact, 1 Jack-o'-Lantern = 1 stack of Meat Mithkabob costwise.

Second, although ahrimans and demons over there are EP, my ATK (= around 440 with Meat Mithkbob ) doesn't seem to be capped enough. Average damage is around 70, much less than that I do to TW mobs.

As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible for us to beat each one of them while most buffs are up working (180 seconds) without ATK+ foods unless we have Joyeuse. Even though I have it, I sometimes have trouble with Blood Demons. They have strong defence as well as attack.

If we ignore the cost, Red Curry must be the best food here but it's over 30K each. Yellow Curry is also nice because it provides us with "Resist Sleep" and "Resist Stun" while it offers the same attack boost as Meat Mithkabob does. Well, it's as expensive as the lantern (3.2K each).

Therefore, the finalist is Meat Mithkabob for me. It costs around 3K for a stack (= for 6 hours) but just one Shellbuster will pay for it and we still get some changes

[Apple Pie]

I finished updating the chart.
http://www5.sppd.ne.jp/grendal/FF11/...comparison.htm

I am just back from the castle after spending another three hours at the same place. Drops weren't too bad although there were some coffer key PTs. Total 140 - 150K for three hours.

As I promised, I replaced Calapace Gauntlets +1 with Warlock's Gloves and Dance Shoes with Warlock's Boots. I lost 9 (11) attack, 18 defence and 6 evasion while I get 4 DEX, 3 AGI, 10 parry and 10 shield skill.

According to the result, +10 skill for parry and shield didn't seem to help increase the chance to parry or shield-block. What is worse, I was only able to evade 48.0% of all attacks. I think it was mainly because of the loss of 6 evasion from Dance Shoes.

Anyway, unlike the main weapon, there seems to be no best choice for gloves and boots. Most of gears have both pros and cons like Ogre Ledelsens (+10 attack but -5 evasion). So, it's up to us.

[Gokulos]

Only here to say : After the patch Jack o last i think 3 hours. For sure its more than 2 hours.

[magnius]

I'm really starting to like all the things they did with food in the past update, nothing huge overall from the update but all these little things are nice. Grendal I see you are using a spiked buckler for your shield, do you recomend buying one? Spiked on my server are around 250k I think while darksteel are only 20k. Is it really worth spending an extra 230k for 2 attack or is it just one of those things to buy when you have some extra gil floating around so you can have the BEST equipment?

[DrSerpico]

Mmmkay

Okay, thanks for trying out the af Grendel-san. Maybe the reason it works good for me is that I use spirit torque (+5 eva, +10mp) and genbu's shield (-10% physical dmg, +10 evasion).

The way I see it, the more I dodge, the less I have to cast stoneskin/cure. And that means I can whack away for more time at length. The way it looks now, once I replace my electrum rings (haven't gotten hold of fencer and a good price on str +3), and up my mantle to amemit +1, +get 2 merits in evasion, and get my parry and block up...

I'll farm the easier ones on one stoneskin. I do that sometimes already, when I can start off with ws. that means no heals, so I waste more mp on dia II and poison II. The dot on those 2 combined + the extra dmg from def down is marvellous.

A thought:
Whenever I encounter Arch Demons (drk type) they chew through my stoneskin very fast. I've started to use Bio II and Poison II after it struck me how much less I hit for when they throw Bio II on me. This seems to work better for me.

I also only use dia I on ahrimans and abyssal demons, since they are physically weak. I "save" dia 2 for blood/doom demons and use Bio II to lower the atk on Arch Demons.

I also like to convert before the mob before the ahriman. So I fight the last demon just after convert, then I fight the ahriman. Reason for this is that in case ahriman does "Mind Break" (max mp down) you loose a fresh convert.

If I see ahriman ready mind break, I quickly hit my "mp gear" macro, so I can save some mp. Sometimes it's to slow, and sometimes I switch gear in time.

Lastly, I'd like to extend a big hearty thanks to grendel for bringing this up in the first place. I had never thought of farming in zvahl before, and now I'm halfway to my haubergeon +1.

Arigatou gozaimasu, grendel-san

[Apple Pie]

I see you are using a spiked buckler for your shield, do you recomend buying one?

It's not necessary if you already own or plan to buy Darksteel, magnius. Save your money for other necessary mages' gears first.

By the way, because of the change of food effect, I have 20 - 30 less attack with Meat Mithkabob resulting in 3 - 5 average damage decreasing. I think I'm going to eat Yellow Curry instead since it's recommended when we have 325 - 416 base attack.

[Snafu-SI]

Thanks for all the great suggestions Grendal, time and time again, you bring on some new ideas to freshen up the gameplay of rdm.

I've been trying to figure out where to farm at my lvl, haven't really done any farming whatsoever.... in ... well... ever. I think I would like to get my thief subjob lvled up before I do this though, it's only at 25 solely just for the tresure hunter, I should take it up to 37 before I think about doing these though. Guess it gives me something to do. Also, about that shiled, I'm using the Master Musketeers sheild thingy with 12 def and +3 agl. which is 2 less def and no att+ compared to a darkstell buckler. Do you really feel that I should go for the Darkstell or Spiked? Will I really notice the +3-5att, or should I concetrate on spending my gil elsewhere?

[Akebono]

Apple Pie,

I just wanted to say thanks for putting up this guide. I tried farming here first with /blm sub incase I messed up and I was able to kill the eye + 3 demons. I didn't have much melee and attack + gear so it was taking me a while to do it.

Then I came back with my /thf and it was much harder, especially when I was going against those Arch demons. I mean jesus, 3 hits and my stoneskin was off.

So I went and leveled up /thf to 37 and I'll be going back there tonight to farm and see how it goes. I'm sure it will help a bunch with the +evasion trait.

Oh here are some tips for you guys if you're ever in a "OMG I'm gonna die". Disengage the demon. Cast sleep on it, (unless you have a DOT spell cast on him, then just do bind and hope it sticks) flee, cast invisible, drop down and go up the stairs. If you are lvl 75 you wont get aggro'd by the 2 eyes heading up the stairs. after this you shouldn't get any aggro at all.

Now here's the thing, these demons have memory. so even if you zone, if you come back to the general area, they will aggro you right away. So I fixed that by zoning, then logging then coming back. Yes this sucks but hey you just saved yourself 2400 exp.

Now I have a suggestion, what if you got enough TP, then did a disengage >> sleep >> sneak attack + WS onto the back of the demon. This would give you uber damage right? I know SA stacks with fast blade. Not sure about spirits within or savage blade. I'll try this out tonight and tell you how it goes. Once again, thanks Apple Pie, I always knew we could farm demons but not sure what they dropped. Your post helps the RDM community a bunch, very much appreciated.