New NPC factsFollow

As Im aproaching the last levels to cap my Npc Im facing a lot of questions in what kind of weapons should my Npc and I use, thing is I would really like to do L3 Skillchains with my Npc.

Currently Im using a Martial Anelace as Rdm (love using Savage Blade with it) and I have followed the Great Katana path with my npc, only lacking the elusive Kikku Ichimonji (and since If I would have loved to choose Sam if I leveled a melee job instead of a mage one its been very gratifying to raise my own little Mithra mini-Sam of sorts)

I like so much this setup of weapons but theres no way to L3 with them at the current level cap (not even at 70 maybe) >_<

So from this point I would have I have to choose the best option posible to enable L3 Skillchain while trying to optimize the damage output between my Npc and my char...

1) The first and easier solution seems to upgrade Npc to Spear instead of Great Katana and that would allow me to L3 Light with Wheeling Thrust.

Pros

* Easy to change.
* Still being able to use Martial Anelace
* L3 Light
* Spear and Sword seems to skillchaing ok (exception being penta thurst that its in an anward place in the skillchain charts >_>)

Cons

* Lose my mini-Sam Npc ; ; (although at least Spears -or lances dont remember- is a sort of a Sam weapon also)
* WeaponSkills not as powerful as Great Katana?

2) The second option is to level Dagger (greatly underleveld atm) - quest Evisceration - Get a decent dagger. That would allow me to L3 darkness with my Npc.

Pros

* Get to still use G Katana with my Npc
* L3 Darkness

Cons

* Long road to achieve this combo.
* Cant use Martial Anelace :/
* If I get a Joyuese in my hands in the future no Dagger seems a good option while soloing with my Npc :/

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Now the questions:

1) (This is a Noobish one :/) Do L3 Skillchains work both ways, I think they do but Im not totally sure (ie do Evisceration - Tachi:Gekko and Tachi:Gekko - Evisceration do both Darkness?)

2) How good/bad are Polearm Weapon Skill damage and Skillchains with Sword? And how its the damage in comparison to Great Katana -regular hits and Weapon Skills-?

3) How good/bad are Dagger Weapon Skills damage and Skillchains with Great Katana?

4) Ive read somewhere that Darkness does get more resisted than Light, is it true? I dont think I will be facing too hard mobs while messing with my Npc so maybe I shouldnt bother while chosing Light or Dark?

5) [This is an odd one] Is it posible to reverse Skillchain with the Npc?, I was trying to do this last times I played (this past last month I havent been able to play) but couldnt get it right when I rememberd about it.

Since Npcs now warns you when they are almost at 100 tp, the idea was to use the weapon Skill after this warning and since the Npc also uses Weapon Skills if they get to 100 tp and you are not over 50tp that would probably make a reverse Skillchain posible with the Npc...

I know its not that eficient, but I would so love to be able to Savage Blade - Tachi:Gekko - Fragmentation with my Npc at least once (Double Jumping L2 Skillchain Sweetness :S)

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And now the final questions.-

6) What combo can be potentially more damaging between these options? Martial Anelace - Npc Polearm or Dagger - Npc Great Katana

What if a Joyuese is in the mix?

7) What are good Rdm dagger options, if I remember correctly after Blau Dolch (wich I dont thing Ill be able to get in the near future), theres Misericordie (+1) right?

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I will probably change the Npc to Spear @ 65 while setting up the Dagger option, but I would really like some opinions about what combo should be the most efficient between those...

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.

Edited, Sun Apr 2 11:36:00 2006 by Valnooir

Yes, either of those would produce the results you desire.
Well, since you prefer Savage Blade, you can reliably do Distortion even if she doesn't use Wheeling... only Penta Thrust and Leg Sweep won't chain that way. As for WSes, I found my NPC is outdamaging me with her Polearm, and I'm intentionally not upgrading it to retain it's look... thenagain RDM isn't precisely well-known for damage.
Well, while you can do Gekko > Evisc, note that very few of the GKT WSes can create more than L1 SCs with either Dagger or Sword... you do need an alternative in case she doesn't use Gekko; and GKT WSes are just too 'around the board' for that.
I don't know about 'resisted', but enemies tend to be weaker against the elements that compose Light. Mainly, though, for the enemies you'd likely be duoing with your NPC, it should be fine either way.
Yes, but it's suprisingly difficult; They'll warn you at 90% TP (if they're on Fierce Attacker), but that gives no guarentee that they'll WS in time, or even use the right WS.
I think, unless you find a really good dagger, that sword would do better in most respects... plus the infamous Joyeuse just makes it fun.
Yeah, Misericorde is the best purchased option for RDM I think... you don't get the "knife"-style weapons, sadly.

Tonight my and my LS did an ENM run, and decided to get the tactics pearl along the way. Someone accidently called her npc inside the promy before we made an alliance, but the NPC didn't leave when we made one.

This was our party setup:

party 1:
BLM+NPC
WAR+NPC

party 2:
SMN+NPC
SMN

party 3:
WHM
BST+NPC
WAR+NPC

We killed about 5-10 mobs on the 1st floor and about 30-40 on the second floor (we wanted to be sure we got max exp). The WAR from party 1 died on the second floor (we didn't pay attention, oops ><) so her NPC left. The rest of us decided all was well and click the ??? on the 2nd floor (although our aim was the 3rd floor).

Now here is what happend: We went to the ??? and clicked it, and our NPCs all got 2100 exp.

According to all formula found here and on ffxiclopedia, it should be 1700 exp. I'm not complaining, but I do wanna know why we got 2100. Anyone an idea?

It was in Promyvion-Dem btw. And I'm 100% sure we were on the second floor.

I got a few theories:
1) Maybe you can kill more than 30 mobs if you click ??? on 2nd floor? 40 mobs x 40 exp + 500 = 2100 exp

2) Maybe NPCs get more exp from being in an alliance with more NPCs.

What do you think?

ding 60 npc tonight on the 28th mob tonight. I can't wait for him to use skewer but I will have to wait for that to happen tomorrow.

Yep the final great katana is the hagun look. I have it on my npc and it's just dead sexy.

My NPC hit 65 recently and I havn't noticed her doing any WS's along the lines of Hexa strike for Swinging Blade :( Does any know know if they even do these Higher WS's? Or if my hope of doing light or darkness with my NPC smooshed?

Has anyone actually read all these posts? Probably not. Will anyone actually read my post? Probably not. I think the OP has created the longest post ever. OP, you are the king.

Don't worry, it is possible to do light and dark skillchains with your NPC at lv65. It's just that they're still not that bright and don't do the best ws often enough. ; ;

I havent been on this post for a long time so i dont know if this was taken into account. You could have gotten more EXP b/c of the last update, which SE increased the amount of EXP you would get on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor.

today, i leveled my npc on steelshells, only got in 20-25 crabs (lost count after a while). but after the session, i went to the point in north sandy and he was wearing austre slops! i locked it to go with his austre hat.

really quick npc question, that i haven't seen answered or detailed...



does the npc have to attack to get the max exp? ie: if i'm fighting in a party with someone else... and as i'm resting, the other person kills something that the npc would get exp for, even though the npc never hit it... would they still get exp?

in the same vein... if my npc is out, and i one-hit-kill something with magic (ie: freeze) will the npc gain exp from the kill, even though they never attacked?

my npc dinged 61 tonight. almost halfway to 62 already. peeps in boyahda skill up parties were dropping jaws when npc was using cure v on me.