Good EXP solo spots ~lvl 46

[Telera]

Somedays, I'm seeking and I get snatched right up. Other days I either don't have the time I'd like to dedicate to a full party, or just never seem to get invited.

I know I can still solo EP in Rolanberry, etc. But I was thinking more on the level of how some SMNs bomb solo. I don't think I'm quite at the level to do *that* yet, but is there anywhere that I could do something similar and get more than 20 exp and having to rest every 3-4 kills? It's very slow going, and not really worth it in the end. At that rate my time is better spent crafting.

[Tirrock]

Re: Good EXP solo spots ~lvl 46

http://ffxi.somepage.com/mobdb/list....0&level_max=50

I don't know if you can actually solo those, as I never bothered with bomb soloing until the 70's... Bombs work best because they don't have many TP moves. They either berserk or blow up.

[Shirai]

Re: Good EXP solo spots ~lvl 46

You can try to have Gobbies blow themselves up near the outpost in eastern Altepa desert.
Just make sure you bring enough drinks with you since you won have a free carbuncle until lvl 51 and Craby will cost you 2MP/tick until you get Austere robe at lvl 50.

Bombs however can be soloed at lvl 51 tho I recommend 55+ for Ifrit's and Uleguerand range because Carby will survive longer.

[Kitalrez]

Re: Good EXP solo spots ~lvl 46

Hmm, Tirrock gave you a pretty good list there, the only problem I had with the ones he mentioned is that they aren't guaranteed spawns. You have to wait on most of those for a specific weather pattern in order to pop them.

Having started bomb soloing around the same levels you are doing now, I recommend you start out using Azers in Eldiemme Necropolis. They're 51-53 according to Somepage, but I found them pretty doable starting at 43-44. Just make sure you're wearing carby mitts if you bomb kite, since every once in awhile you get a bomb that just does not want to use Self-Destruct.

On that note, here's what to watch for on Azers:

1. You have only two spawns you can reach at a time, reachable from the South entrance in Battalia Downs. Unless someone else is there hitting switches for you, you should only have access to the first switch room, and the switch room directly across the map from that going right to left.

2. Kiting is done using the large round hallways to move in a circle. From the first switch room, I head back around that stairway loop that leads back towards the entrance with the two Revenants, then back to the large room just before I found the bomb, and back around. To pull the far room, you'll want to go down one of the two long hallways and lead the bomb back into that loop you did the short run with. That way, when you finish the long kite, the short one is about ready to respawn.

3. As it's only 2 spawns, and they're on a 15 minute timer, this isn't the best exp ever. The main use of it is to train you how to bomb kite in general, and more importantly how to bomb kite in a dungeon with sound, low-hp, and magic aggro mobs nearby.

4. To avoid aggro in this situation, you need to keep sneak up all the time. Which means you're going to lose a few deaths before you figure out when it's safe to recast sneak on yourself and not aggro the hounds, as well as how far you need to be away from the bomb in order to not get hit and possibly cause a low hp aggro. There isn't a magic formula for this, you have to learn how to eyeball it. Expect a few unraised deaths, and chock them up to learning. On that note, the long hallways you'll be kiting through have elemental spawns in them, watch the weather, and realize that you can time your casting to avoid elemental aggro the same way you're doing things with the hounds and sneak. It's a little harder, but once you get it down it starts to become very natural.

5. Player aggro is also big here. In Eldiemme Necropolis, you have people doing the escort mission. Some of these will undoubtedly be the dumbest players on your server, unfortunately you have to deal with this. You have very little control over where carbuncle is going to stop the mob, and sending the extra commands to move him around tends to result in aggro and death on yourself. After the first dozen of these interruptions I adopted the view that if someone was running this mission, they were obviously smart enough to move the NPC out of Self-Destruct range. You will run into players who make an issue of this and they may call GMs on you. Be prepared to explain what you are doing and especially that you were doing it well before they showed up. So far, the few Linkshell Officers and GMs I met on this subject didn't harrass me after I explained what I was doing and the difficulty involved in doing it. Just remember, they may have taken a massive dmg hit in that Self-Destruct, but they *chose* to take it in order to avoid having a skeleton mob use Blood Saber on them for a fraction of that damage.

Now, assuming you haven't thrown up your hands in frustration and cursed every last bomb in the game, you will have learned how to bomb kite effectively in a dungeon. Useful stuff, because your next hunting ground is Garlaige Citadel. The mob in question is Explosure, you have two rooms of 3 spawns behind the first banishing gate. The strategy here is pretty simple, you have 2-3 points where you want to stop and prepare to resummon carbuncle. First spot is in the hallway just before the first explosure room. Second is at the top of the stairs heading back toward the gate. The final point is up against the inside wall of that square room section, basically just run forward from the hallway to the stairs and stop when you hit bricks. On the return run past the bomb, use the bottom of the stairs instead of the top for the second point. You will have little to no downtime between kitable mobs in this camp, which will come as a relief after the long boring sections in EN when that Azer decided to blow early and you don't have another spawn for 10 minutes. I rarely managed to clear the first room before it respawned, but in those occasions, I just summoned carb, ran through the empty spawns, and hit the second room.

You will have player aggro issues in GC the same as EN, but they're rarer and easier to deal with. Most of the time, if someone has come to that part of GC, they're prepared to deal with a bomb, and are smart enough to move. If someone muscles in on my bomb camp, I typically just run to the next point, and resummon early to move it away from them.

Once you get both of these locations down, you'll be ready to move on to Ifrit's Cauldron, and have a major leg up on everyone else since you already know what you're doing. Just remember, everyone who has ever learned to bomb kite has spent an unfortunate amount of time face-down while still in training. If you do this at your level, it's a lot easier to take then post-50 in Ifrit's.