[Megathread] Final Fantasy XIV

[Kazgrel]

So yeah, I can safely confirmed the anima light grind is nowhere near the godawful PITA it once was. Light gain has effectively been tripled, for starters. All dungeons in 50/60 roulette now also provide light. I still need to confirm whether or not the CT raids give anima light (since you can get those through alliance raid roulette). If they do, those two roulettes will be my best friend, especially the latter with it's humongous xp gain + sturdy light at worst (which 3 clears at sturdy is a whole rune now).

Got MCH to 70 and was finally starting to get a good grasp of it and have been having fun with it. Haven't put Flamethrower to much use yet; gotta work on optimizing the whole setup and oGCD use during overheat at this point. I still think I'm a little better (and prefer) BRD, but I feel confident I could run MCH in group content and not fuck it all up.

Just NIN and DRG left, and I'm working on the former first. Something that may only humor me; my DRG set has one of those ilvl 280 Coven weapons from Diadem, and since I'll be building the anima for it, that 280 weapon may never get used a single time...lol. Anyone who remembers the mountain of salt those weapons caused back near the end of HW may either find that worthy of a chuckle...or maybe they just cry on the inside.

[lawow74]

Just NIN and DRG left, and I'm working on the former first. Something that may only humor me; my DRG set has one of those ilvl 280 Coven weapons from Diadem, and since I'll be building the anima for it, that 280 weapon may never get used a single time...lol. Anyone who remembers the mountain of salt those weapons caused back near the end of HW may either find that worthy of a chuckle...or maybe they just cry on the inside.

I know some people joked about the Diadem weapons being Yoshi raining loot from the sky, but anyone who actually read what it entailed knew it was a crapshoot on the level of winning the Jumbo Cactpot. You should glam it to have that look just for grins.

I have DRG, MNK, SAM and NIN left. MNK is 66, and DRG is 67, I'll be finishing DRG first then raising SAM to 66 before returning to MNK. Command Missions with the squad are a nice way to fill in some extra XP, spamming SV is pretty decent for the time it takes, and if you snag the 5 dungeon drops it only ends up costing like 790 Seals after turning those back in.

[Kazgrel]

I know some people joked about the Diadem weapons being Yoshi raining loot from the sky, but anyone who actually read what it entailed knew it was a crapshoot on the level of winning the Jumbo Cactpot. You should glam it to have that look just for grins.

I have DRG, MNK, SAM and NIN left. MNK is 66, and DRG is 67, I'll be finishing DRG first then raising SAM to 66 before returning to MNK. Command Missions with the squad are a nice way to fill in some extra XP, spamming SV is pretty decent for the time it takes, and if you snag the 5 dungeon drops it only ends up costing like 790 Seals after turning those back in.

The Coven Spear uses the same weapon model as the ilvl 180 pvp spear (basically it has a behemoth head impaled on a stick, more or less). So those weapons don't even have unique models. From what I recall, the other Coven weapons were similar in that regard (aka they re-used other weapon skins).

The xp from the command missions, at least from what I saw, was dismal for any of the jobs I ran through it. I have everything at either 60 or 70 now, though; I've heard the xp gain is massive for jobs below 50.

[Graeham]

It was tough trying to get people to work together for the special mission in Diadem. I'm just glad I managed to do it once for the achievement - I imagine it must be hell to try and hunt that down nowadays. I just hope Eureka lasts for a long time and that there's less room to be screwed over by the mindless hordes.

[lawow74]

The xp from the command missions, at least from what I saw, was dismal for any of the jobs I ran through it. I have everything at either 60 or 70 now, though; I've heard the xp gain is massive for jobs below 50.

SV takes around 11-12 mins and rewards about 400k XP, and this is on a DPS job. I'm sure it's faster with twin ARC DPS, I've heard as low as 7 mins. For something you can do at will and completely solo, that's pretty rewarding.

[Kazgrel]

SV takes around 11-12 mins and rewards about 400k XP, and this is on a DPS job. I'm sure it's faster with twin ARC DPS, I've heard as low as 7 mins. For something you can do at will and completely solo, that's pretty rewarding.

I can definitely vouch for rogues doing really good damage as squad mates, and arcanists (along with pugilists) are fail since they spend half the time either using Bane/Arm of Destroyer on single target or moving around to get positionals (which includes Miasma 2 for the ACN).

I might do another SV run with double ARC (since I have 2 now) if I have 1-49 on WT book and see how that goes.

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It was tough trying to get people to work together for the special mission in Diadem. I'm just glad I managed to do it once for the achievement - I imagine it must be hell to try and hunt that down nowadays. I just hope Eureka lasts for a long time and that there's less room to be screwed over by the mindless hordes.

It was awful, honestly. I was lucky enough I got 2 or maybe even 3 clears of the EM boss, but it all was within the first 2 weeks of Diadem 2.0 release. The weapon I got was from first or second clear. By the third or fourth week, there was pretty much never enough people in there to complete it.

The fight itself was actually kinda cool with having to organize 50+ people...but it's also barely-controlled chaos. I'd like to see them revisit the concept of that fight in an upcoming 24 man raid, but with some more wrinkles (mechanics) thrown in. Course, that could become an issue were there one of the three groups full of people being carried by the other two groups...

[Katchii]

So what is the go-to/ most effective method for leveling secondary jobs from 60-70 now? Specifically DPS jobs since I know tanks and healers have easy queue times and should just do roulettes and/or spam highest available dungeon. I still do beast tribe quests as they're decent xp, and queue for leveling and alliance raids during this time

I have all tanks at 70 now, just got WHM to 70 and don't want to level another healer right away so I'm getting my SMN up in order to double dip on SCH (which I just can't get my head around playing and have no interest in figuring out since I like WHM and AST a LOT more) and the DPS queues SUCK. I'd take slow but consistent over the nothing that happens during queues after beast tribe quests are done.

[Kazgrel]

So what is the go-to/ most effective method for leveling secondary jobs from 60-70 now? Specifically DPS jobs since I know tanks and healers have easy queue times and should just do roulettes and/or spam highest available dungeon. I still do beast tribe quests as they're decent xp, and queue for leveling and alliance raids during this time

I have all tanks at 70 now, just got WHM to 70 and don't want to level another healer right away so I'm getting my SMN up in order to double dip on SCH (which I just can't get my head around playing and have no interest in figuring out since I like WHM and AST a LOT more) and the DPS queues SUCK. I'd take slow but consistent over the nothing that happens during queues after beast tribe quests are done.

You've the the right idea for the most part. I'm down to NIN and DRG being last 2 jobs I have left to level, and having just leveled MCH, I've become all too familiar with the awfulness that is dps queues. That said, 4.1 has been a blessing for two reasons: Kojin quests and Alliance Raid roulette.

How I've done it recently:

- Queue leveling roulette. If it's showing 15+ min queue, grab some of the daily hunt bills in RR/Kugane, then head out to Ruby Sea and do the Kojin quests. If you complete those before queue pops, work on the hunt bills (whole set of hunt bills is ~600k xp).
- After those are done, queue up alliance raid, or if a miracle has occurred, go back to finishing the Kojin quests and/or hunts. I think the longest I've had to wait on that one has been 7-8 mins.
- Frontlines: Eww, pvp, I know, but at least prior to 4.1, it was a grand total of 15-20 mins per match (that's including the brief wait to get in) and a win is worth more xp than any roulette short of leveling and alliance raid, and it's spammable. FL spam was easy for me to stomach for a while; I leveled alt jobs (BRD, AST, and SCH) while doing the Makai/Garo achievements (all but the Feast mount done) and also farmed light on anima weapons (for AST and SCH at least). If you have an alt job stuck on the light farm, I highly recommend leveling this way to knock out two birds with one stone, especially with the light gain being buffed; I leveled AST and SCH almost exclusively through FL and got to rune 8-9 out of 10 prior to 4.1; were I to do that now with the remaining anima weapons/jobs (NIN and DRG), I'd have the light farm done by the time I'm 67-68, maybe sooner. I'd recommend a ranged dps of some kind or a healer if it's your first time trying pvp.

[Katchii]

You've the the right idea for the most part. I'm down to NIN and DRG being last 2 jobs I have left to level, and having just leveled MCH, I've become all too familiar with the awfulness that is dps queues. That said, 4.1 has been a blessing for two reasons: Kojin quests and Alliance Raid roulette.

How I've done it recently:

- Queue leveling roulette. If it's showing 15+ min queue, grab some of the daily hunt bills in RR/Kugane, then head out to Ruby Sea and do the Kojin quests. If you complete those before queue pops, work on the hunt bills (whole set of hunt bills is ~600k xp).
- After those are done, queue up alliance raid, or if a miracle has occurred, go back to finishing the Kojin quests and/or hunts. I think the longest I've had to wait on that one has been 7-8 mins.
- Frontlines: Eww, pvp, I know, but at least prior to 4.1, it was a grand total of 15-20 mins per match (that's including the brief wait to get in) and a win is worth more xp than any roulette short of leveling and alliance raid, and it's spammable. FL spam was easy for me to stomach for a while; I leveled alt jobs (BRD, AST, and SCH) while doing the Makai/Garo achievements (all but the Feast mount done) and also farmed light on anima weapons (for AST and SCH at least). If you have an alt job stuck on the light farm, I highly recommend leveling this way to knock out two birds with one stone, especially with the light gain being buffed; I leveled AST and SCH almost exclusively through FL and got to rune 8-9 out of 10 prior to 4.1; were I to do that now with the remaining anima weapons/jobs (NIN and DRG), I'd have the light farm done by the time I'm 67-68, maybe sooner. I'd recommend a ranged dps of some kind or a healer if it's your first time trying pvp.

I did PvP a bit when the Garo sets came out and geared out my healers with all the stuff since I liked the set. I'm not much of a fan, but it's not unbearable. I did probably 30 or so runs during the Garo event and just the other day queued for Frontlines roulette on WHM to get the last little bit from 69-70 and got my first win ever. I just don't like PvP gameplay, but can stomach it for leveling purposes I guess if queues are short and the xp is relatively consistent. I forgot about hunt bills, I'll add those to my list of things to do while in roulette queue. Thanks for the info!

[Kazgrel]

So apparently some sort of FFXI crossover event is slated to return on November 10. I don't recall the first time this one occurred...perhaps before I started playing...aha, found it! It apparently was during the span of 3.1, which was the one patch during HW that I didn't play while it was current.

Bit of a self-centered rant, but do they really have to time server downtime for a hotfix smack in the middle of prime time for most NA players? Even were it around midnight EST as a start time, that would put the maintenance being completed right before JP would be leaving work (for the most part) and EU would still be snoozing.

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I did PvP a bit when the Garo sets came out and geared out my healers with all the stuff since I liked the set. I'm not much of a fan, but it's not unbearable. I did probably 30 or so runs during the Garo event and just the other day queued for Frontlines roulette on WHM to get the last little bit from 69-70 and got my first win ever. I just don't like PvP gameplay, but can stomach it for leveling purposes I guess if queues are short and the xp is relatively consistent. I forgot about hunt bills, I'll add those to my list of things to do while in roulette queue. Thanks for the info!

FL spam can be rather grating with the amount of bots that occupy it (in Shatter, at least). Games full of actual players can be pretty doggone fun, though, and generally end up with a close score at the end; that sucks, though, because the winner gets a fair bit more xp than those coming in second/third.

Hopefully the new upcoming Battlebots pvp mode will work as well or better than current FL for the purpose of leveling alts. Minus the bots, of course.

[Katchii]

FL spam can be rather grating with the amount of bots that occupy it (in Shatter, at least). Games full of actual players can be pretty doggone fun, though, and generally end up with a close score at the end; that sucks, though, because the winner gets a fair bit more xp than those coming in second/third.

Hopefully the new upcoming Battlebots pvp mode will work as well or better than current FL for the purpose of leveling alts. Minus the bots, of course.

Yeah, that's why I don't like PvP in general because it's rarely my personal skill or ability that affects anything it's the group performance and most of the time it's like herding cats and I have only ever gotten Shatter, which gets mind numbingly boring after a VERY short time and I have absolutely no interest in the PvP gear sets or anything other than the xp, which varies so wildly between first and third place.

I'm looking forward to the next iteration of Deep Dungeon as a reliable way to level alts, whenever that may be. I'm absolutely convinced though that it will be connected to the gigantic tower in Ruby Sea. Time will tell.

[Kazgrel]

Yeah, that's why I don't like PvP in general because it's rarely my personal skill or ability that affects anything it's the group performance and most of the time it's like herding cats and I have only ever gotten Shatter, which gets mind numbingly boring after a VERY short time and I have absolutely no interest in the PvP gear sets or anything other than the xp, which varies so wildly between first and third place.

I'm looking forward to the next iteration of Deep Dungeon as a reliable way to level alts, whenever that may be. I'm absolutely convinced though that it will be connected to the gigantic tower in Ruby Sea. Time will tell.

I've also only gotten Shatter from the daily roulette, and it's the only one that has a reasonable queue time at this point. Annoying, but it is what it is. The xp variance is intended to get people to win, and while I agree with the principle, it doesn't really accomplish anything since botters are gonna bot regardless. I dealt with some really horrible teams/losing streaks, though, due to bonus windows for anima light; didn't care if all I got was third if I was getting sturdy every 15-20 mins. Sure, for the purpose of light farming, A1S is significantly faster, but I'd rather get the light farm done before 70 so I have a nifty glamour weapon and I would also not get to clear a boss fight I've literally done 600+ times.

The bigger surprise would be if Heaven-on-High wasn't this expansion's PotD. Too bad the base of it isn't underground, with it popping up out of a crater a la the Tower of Bab-il in FF4...but maybe they are saving such a thing for getting us into a space-faring airship that'll let us take it to the Ascians on their lunar base.

[lawow74]

I might do another SV run with double ARC (since I have 2 now) if I have 1-49 on WT book and see how that goes.

Slam that Engage button. Mobs and bosses will melt like a Sno-Cone in a microwave.

[Katchii]

I've also only gotten Shatter from the daily roulette, and it's the only one that has a reasonable queue time at this point. Annoying, but it is what it is. The xp variance is intended to get people to win, and while I agree with the principle, it doesn't really accomplish anything since botters are gonna bot regardless. I dealt with some really horrible teams/losing streaks, though, due to bonus windows for anima light; didn't care if all I got was third if I was getting sturdy every 15-20 mins. Sure, for the purpose of light farming, A1S is significantly faster, but I'd rather get the light farm done before 70 so I have a nifty glamour weapon and I would also not get to clear a boss fight I've literally done 600+ times.

The bigger surprise would be if Heaven-on-High wasn't this expansion's PotD. Too bad the base of it isn't underground, with it popping up out of a crater a la the Tower of Bab-il in FF4...but maybe they are saving such a thing for getting us into a space-faring airship that'll let us take it to the Ascians on their lunar base.

Zeromus is end boss of Deep Dungeon!

[Graeham]

Well, that was a pleasant surprise. I joined a Garuda (Extreme) group for a Wondrous Tails sticker and ended up rolling 97 on the Nightmare mount.

It evaded me for a long time - since even after farming every other 2.0 Primal mount it either refused to drop or I lost out on the rolls.

[Kazgrel]

Slam that Engage button. Mobs and bosses will melt like a Sno-Cone in a microwave.

Going to try that instead of actively trying to provide dps myself as a healer (even though that goes against everything I've ever learned/done). Even without engage spam, I could see the squad folks using CDs at an alarming rate, at least compared to how often players could use the same abilities.

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Zeromus is end boss of Deep Dungeon!

Golbez being the halfway point boss, yes, then a pomander that summons him (or transforms you into him) later on.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, that was a pleasant surprise. I joined a Garuda (Extreme) group for a Wondrous Tails sticker and ended up rolling 97 on the Nightmare mount.

It evaded me for a long time - since even after farming every other 2.0 Primal mount it either refused to drop or I lost out on the rolls.

Was in a group a few days ago that had one drop and it almost hit the floor...last person in the group to leave got it, and turned out they were the only one among us that didn't have it. Anecdotal sample size is just that, but geez, I thought Nightmare was a more rare than that (I've personally seen it drop 3 times).

I've also been that asshole that beat someone's 97 with a 99. My Sophia bird is proof of that.

I'm just dreading the day karma will bite me in the ass due to my (IMO) relatively good luck with mounts. I've only seen Susano dog whistle drop once in ~60 runs, though, so there is that.

[Anzaman]

What the..?

Was doing NIN quests in Kugane.. suddenly random male Au Ra ran from bush, slapped me (twice) followed by hug. Shortly afterwards just got tell from him "the fck u lookin at".

[Katchii]

Golbez being the halfway point boss, yes, then a pomander that summons him (or transforms you into him) later on.

What about Fusoya? The four fiends/ Archfiends? The Giant of Bab-il? The Lunar Whale? oooh the possibilities. Maybe they should hold this for the 24 man raid in the next expansion instead.

[Kazgrel]

What about Fusoya? The four fiends/ Archfiends? The Giant of Bab-il? The Lunar Whale? oooh the possibilities. Maybe they should hold this for the 24 man raid in the next expansion instead.

The Four Fiends would be fun to face as primals. The Warring Triad from 6 got that treatment, so why not them? I'd be a bit disappointed if they ended up nothing more than final floor bosses in a new version of PotD. The Giant would be a case of perhaps too soon, seeing that we just spent an entire raid tier running around in a giant robot. Fusoya could be the NPC that tracks down the WoL and introduces them to the Tower.

Having the tower as part or the entirety of another 24 man raid could be cool, although some may complain that it's "yet another tower raid" since we had the CT series in ARR. But seeing that CT hasn't been relevant for over 2 years now, who cares?

[lawow74]

Going to try that instead of actively trying to provide dps myself as a healer (even though that goes against everything I've ever learned/done). Even without engage spam, I could see the squad folks using CDs at an alarming rate, at least compared to how often players could use the same abilities.

And unless the Dmg+ gets beat out by having another Mastery significantly higher, put them in Offensive soon as you can. Offensive is +12% a rank, you have to have Independent at 4 or Balanced at 3 to beat that at 1, and only Balanced 5 can beat Offensive 2. From my experience it's random if and what Mastery improvements you get.