Solo Grind

[Aeni]

I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with my GLA and why grinding has screeched to a halt after I hit 20 (Actually, maybe since I hit 21 the glass ceiling seems to have been far lower than I expected it to be)

It's very odd because I went with a build that sort of proportioned my attributes with STR, VIT and DEX and added a bit to MND for Cure and Second Wind (assuming MND affects it, I haven't paid attention) Right now, I have the following gear, appropriate for rank (Rank 22 GLA)

FINAL FANTASY XIV, The Lodestone

-Brass Dagger
-Bronze Pelta
-Sentinel's Chainmail +1
-Brass Circlet (Sunstone)
-Leather Toolbelt
-Hempen Trousers
-Dodoskin Leggings
-Reinforced Bronze Mitt Gauntlets
-Brass Wristlet (x2)
-Brass Ring (x3)

My stats (I'm at Work, these are off Lodestone)

78 Str 75 Vit 79 Dex 14 Int 37 Mnd 17 Pie

Health (with gear) is around 1,200 and defense is around 205 or so.

I tried to grind off of (Operating word here is "tried") Does and Arbor Squirrels in the South Forest of the Black Shroud. The does are nasty and quite evasive even for a blue dot and yield 80-90 sp on average. The fight tends to last up to 90s if things don't go my way (I guess the roll of the dice still determines a landing of an attack or not) The squirrels are much faster but least abundant and yield only 40-50 sp in comparison. This fact is complicated when JP players are out farming them for their pelts (both does and squirrels)

I looked at Thickshells, tried one, got it to maybe 40% health and ran off when it went iinto shell mode with 5% of my health intact after spamming nothing but Cures for the last 20s of the fight cause my defenses could not keep up with the incoming damage (and my offense seems to be piss-poor on that very, very high armored mob) These guys are still yellowish ... does can run green and yellow but if they're any indication, thickshells won't reward much sp.

Anyway, I'm getting frustrated, but haven't quite yet given up the prospects of solo grinding. Maybe I'm just looking at all the wrong areas or I'm not quite ready yet to take on anything without getting an ability or two from other classes. Please help me if you can.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Solo Grind

Lead Coblyns. Worth it.

[Aeni]

Re: Solo Grind

Lead Coblyns. Worth it.

Couldn't find any so someone either is farming them or have the same ideas as you.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Solo Grind

Couldn't find any so someone either is farming them or have the same ideas as you.

Other than Lead Coblyns, all I can think of around R20-25 are Thickshells. The problem with them is the "Defensive" move they pull. If you're a mage, blast away... but solo melee? They get rough there. I watched a R23 Pugalist fighting them along-side me today. I killed 3 while he tried to finish off 1. Don't get me wrong, he was appropriately geared and was hardly taking much damage... but he couldn't kill the damn things. I on the other hand... nuked the crap out of them. When they drop into their shell I pop Profundity, hit them with SLOW and Bio and whack them with whatever my highest damage spell is until they drop. I usually get around 270 SP for each kill and it takes me less than a minute each. It's not great... but it works.

[Aeni]

Re: Solo Grind

Other than Lead Coblyns, all I can think of around R20-25 are Thickshells. The problem with them is the "Defensive" move they pull. If you're a mage, blast away... but solo melee? They get rough there. I watched a R23 Pugalist fighting them along-side me today. I killed 3 while he tried to finish off 1. Don't get me wrong, he was appropriately geared and was hardly taking much damage... but he couldn't kill the damn things. I on the other hand... nuked the crap out of them. When they drop into their shell I pop Profundity, hit them with SLOW and Bio and whack them with whatever my highest damage spell is until they drop. I usually get around 270 SP for each kill and it takes me less than a minute each. It's not great... but it works.

Thickshells are so horrible. I took on a yellow one, barely out of orange, and went at it. He didn't hit me at all (I upgraded a lot of different things and moved away from a heavy defense/hp build to a more moderate one with more evasion and so I end up taking less damage overall) but I couldn't put a dent into his health. It took me almost 2 minutes before I killed him and he only gave me 130 sp. I was like ... WTF man. Rank 23 GLA here. I'm getting very annoyed with the whole SP system and hope it's not basing off the Physical rank to award me SP. If it is, then I'm pissed as hell, because it should be solely off your class rank.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Solo Grind

Thickshells are so horrible. I took on a yellow one, barely out of orange, and went at it. He didn't hit me at all (I upgraded a lot of different things and moved away from a heavy defense/hp build to a more moderate one with more evasion and so I end up taking less damage overall) but I couldn't put a dent into his health. It took me almost 2 minutes before I killed him and he only gave me 130 sp. I was like ... WTF man. Rank 23 GLA here. I'm getting very annoyed with the whole SP system and hope it's not basing off the Physical rank to award me SP. If it is, then I'm pissed as hell, because it should be solely off your class rank.

*coughselbinacough*

[Freelancer]

Re: Solo Grind

Thickshells are so horrible. I took on a yellow one, barely out of orange, and went at it. He didn't hit me at all (I upgraded a lot of different things and moved away from a heavy defense/hp build to a more moderate one with more evasion and so I end up taking less damage overall) but I couldn't put a dent into his health. It took me almost 2 minutes before I killed him and he only gave me 130 sp. I was like ... WTF man. Rank 23 GLA here. I'm getting very annoyed with the whole SP system and hope it's not basing off the Physical rank to award me SP. If it is, then I'm pissed as hell, because it should be solely off your class rank.

With a leve party in R20 camps you'll SP alot faster.

I linked an R20 leve as R28GLA with my R23 LNC friend at 5stars and he was getting 500sp a mob while I got 300. and I'm LV46 so physical level isn't

Just get 5-10 peoples with leves, link as many as you can, and you'll be getting like 30k an hour, thats What I'm getting lately foing R30 leves in Cass/Ciderwood.
Behest pt turns to leve pt then an hour later another behest run and Boom 30k SP.

I can't recomend this enough, its so great!

[Aeni]

Re: Solo Grind

Well I took a screenshot but I can't find it anywhere. Anyway, did 3 leves in Cedarwood. Did very well, one of them had GLA marks. Went through two of them, a bit slow, making sure stoneskin was up, etc but was never in any danger.

Then I got to "Escape Artist" ... wow this Darkwing Devilet hits kinda hard, but okay, I can handle this. Take down the fire elemental no sweat. Work on the Darkwing but notice something very, very wrong. He's not taking much damage from me. Now I'm worried. Rampart and now Cure spamming. Holy cows he hits ... WTF!?!?

Log: Darkwing Devilet's Impish Incantation hits you for wtfpwn (989 dmg)

/ragequitleve

YG: Darkwing Devilet: Rank 35-59 O_o

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Solo Grind

Well I took a screenshot but I can't find it anywhere. Anyway, did 3 leves in Cedarwood. Did very well, one of them had GLA marks. Went through two of them, a bit slow, making sure stoneskin was up, etc but was never in any danger.

Then I got to "Escape Artist" ... wow this Darkwing Devilet hits kinda hard, but okay, I can handle this. Take down the fire elemental no sweat. Work on the Darkwing but notice something very, very wrong. He's not taking much damage from me. Now I'm worried. Rampart and now Cure spamming. Holy cows he hits ... WTF!?!?

Log: Darkwing Devilet's Impish Incantation hits you for wtfpwn (989 dmg)

/ragequitleve

YG: Darkwing Devilet: Rank 35-59 O_o

I did that same leve with the imp at R23 Conj, kupo. I was with a party of 3 other people all around R25 and one at R28. We had no problems with any of the other parts of the leve until we got to that guy. We beat on him pretty hard until he was down to around 25%, KUPO! We were all around full health when he unleashed his supermove. It went right through shell/protect and SS and hit us all for 1200. This needs to be balanced LIKE WOAH! KUPOPOW!

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Solo Grind

Aeni, I read somewhere that a couple of THM spells can help out with some Tanking-related DoT. I already know that ability space is at a premium (I'm having a hard time getting all the abilities I want to fit in my slots, and I only have GLA/PUG/MRD at 10..), but I'll investigate some more.

Also, what should I be doing in terms of crafting? I want to start making my own armor. This newbie gear isn't cutting it.

Crafting leves for Armorer maybe?

[Aeni]

Re: Solo Grind

Aeni, I read somewhere that a couple of THM spells can help out with some Tanking-related DoT. I already know that ability space is at a premium (I'm having a hard time getting all the abilities I want to fit in my slots, and I only have GLA/PUG/MRD at 10..), but I'll investigate some more.

Also, what should I be doing in terms of crafting? I want to start making my own armor. This newbie gear isn't cutting it.

Crafting leves for Armorer maybe?

I can craft up to Bronze Haubergeon (Rank 27 gear) so just let me know what you need. Shields, daggers, swords ... I can repair most items worn by GLA up to Rank 30 (BSM) I'm leveling my crafts in a horizontal fashion in which I plan on getting everything to at least 30 with emphasis on BSM and ARM to 50. Craft w/e you have the most fun in as that's the most important thing and if you need mats just ask and I'll see if I can make it or not.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Solo Grind

I can craft up to Bronze Haubergeon (Rank 27 gear) so just let me know what you need. Shields, daggers, swords ... I can repair most items worn by GLA up to Rank 30 (BSM) I'm leveling my crafts in a horizontal fashion in which I plan on getting everything to at least 30 with emphasis on BSM and ARM to 50. Craft w/e you have the most fun in as that's the most important thing and if you need mats just ask and I'll see if I can make it or not.

Thanks for the offer. I'll try my best to take advantage of leves and farm things of my own skill, but if I need higher level guidance, I'll reach out to you during those two hours a day you seem to be on, lol.

[Freelancer]

Re: Solo Grind

I can craft up to Bronze Haubergeon (Rank 27 gear) so just let me know what you need. Shields, daggers, swords ... I can repair most items worn by GLA up to Rank 30 (BSM) I'm leveling my crafts in a horizontal fashion in which I plan on getting everything to at least 30 with emphasis on BSM and ARM to 50. Craft w/e you have the most fun in as that's the most important thing and if you need mats just ask and I'll see if I can make it or not.

What route do you plan on taking for BSM 20+ I'm at 21 and not sure where to go from here, lol.

As for ARM I recommend you do brass vampraces to 25 (can milk em to 30, easy if you're not going any further with ARM) then switch to iron squares, you'll need around 30 stacks handy to grind to upper 40s and you'll get good exp from grinding squares in your 20s.

I went with brass to 31 and suffered a great loss in shards while crafting squares with no real exp gain from them.

32-33 Iron barbut visor, to bridge you over, then 33+ celata visors are epic 400-350sp synths, and at 36 I'm still getting 350-290 a pop.

[Aeni]

Re: Solo Grind

What route do you plan on taking for BSM 20+ I'm at 21 and not sure where to go from here, lol.

As for ARM I recommend you do brass vampraces to 25 (can milk em to 30, easy if you're not going any further with ARM) then switch to iron squares, you'll need around 30 stacks handy to grind to upper 40s and you'll get good exp from grinding squares in your 20s.

I went with brass to 31 and suffered a great loss in shards while crafting squares with no real exp gain from them.

32-33 Iron barbut visor, to bridge you over, then 33+ celata visors are epic 400-350sp synths, and at 36 I'm still getting 350-290 a pop.

Thanks for the tips Free ... although because of horizontal leveling I cannot focus on one craft too long. It's not exactly just hopping around either ... very complicated and difficult to explain. Leves is straight forward ... I will take any leve that risks botching because they have the best yields versus time spent on them. This probably means just 1 leve per craft everyday but w/e, I think I'm doing reasonably well for the time spent. I'm in no hurry although GLA is pissing me off atm (can you tell that it annoys me? lol) and not sure what I'm going to be doing with that. Maybe I should just focus on crafting for now ... but I need crystals and shards ... argh.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: Solo Grind

Thanks for the tips Free ... although because of horizontal leveling I cannot focus on one craft too long. It's not exactly just hopping around either ... very complicated and difficult to explain. Leves is straight forward ... I will take any leve that risks botching because they have the best yields versus time spent on them. This probably means just 1 leve per craft everyday but w/e, I think I'm doing reasonably well for the time spent. I'm in no hurry although GLA is pissing me off atm (can you tell that it annoys me? lol) and not sure what I'm going to be doing with that. Maybe I should just focus on crafting for now ... but I need crystals and shards ... argh.

I do the same thing with leves myself. When I was R18 I took the R20 leves... got support and slapped on Preserve and Fulfillment for good measure. I hardly ever failed and managed to boast almost 550sp/synth.

My Signature is up to date... and I just finished the R20 Leatherworkers quest.

Sidenote: After you run back and forth between the Chocobo stalls... talk to the dude in the guild TWICE!!! And still check your journal before you run off halfway through the forest for nothing.

I do have a serious question though... I'm R24 CONJ and approaching (or have reached) R20 in all 3 of my crafts but have had very few opertunities to earn marks in any of them. I've got almost 7k Conj Marks and 3k Leatherworker marks... and thats it. Am I missing something? Is there a way to earn them that I dont know about... like in FFXI? Do I need to sell crap to the guild to earn them?