Older content is easier with SoA gearFollow

This is a no brainer, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

My little knot of remaining in game friends has decided to get everyone Captain rank, since it's one of the last things we all missed out on. We did two Assaults on Saturday, Extermination and Lebros Supplies. Both of these were considerably easier than I remembered them.

The difference, of course, is that our level 99 characters are completely decked out in level 106-113 gear. So an Assault that was a struggle to finish with six level 60-75 people is a cake walk with 4-5 level 99ers in SoA gear.

Same thing goes with the Meebles burrows fights. We were able to steamroll through the final boss in Batalia Downs on Saturday, when even at 99 prior to SoA the bosses there gave us trouble. Some of the rewards are now deprecated, but I got a really nice STR+6 ring that allowed me to sell off an augmented Ruby ring I'd been using for the last year or so.

So for those who are bemoaning SoA and how repetative it is, don't forget to go back and complete some of the older content now. You'd be surprised how fun it is when you can just mow through it.

I don't have SoA stuff to make other stuff easier... lol. I'll come back maybe if they server merge - but until then there is not enough to do - no shouts - no chance to get gear... (though I might sub for one month just to get my free cruor before the end of the abyssea extravaganza)

Edited, Sep 30th 2013 2:27pm by Olorinus

Skirmish weapons and augments are faster and easier to get to their best or close to their best stats. The only reason to do Delve anymore is to hopefully get into a group that can make it to the boss room. Even then the plasm is better spent on the delve boss weapons than airlixers. The only real things to farm in delve anymore are Smn satchel (I-113), Alternator, Manibozo parts for +Range Atk augments, Rigors for Pup, Bow for Rng & Sam, Jug pets, Range amo, and a weapon to aug eva for Nin/Thf/DNc (off hand or main). If plasm isnt that important, Airlixers are much better farmed off the Matamata in Morimar with the right low man set up. Even with 18 people you can cycle groups between tanking+TH, pop farming and dealing with umbrils at night. That'll give room for a Blm nuke and ensure 3~ 4 Mnk's will almost always have formeless ready.

However I think that the future upgrades to R/M/E weapons might give older or returning players a workaround so they don't need to go through the headache of trying to farm Delve or Skirmish way after the fact. Now whether or not they will upgrade AF/ Rel/ Emp armor is to be seen.. WIth that said I wouldnt mind an upgrade to our origional Af weapons to make them on par with Geo and Run Af weapons. That would save time on alot of farming early on in Adoulin for temp weapons untill you can get the higher grade stuff.

It all goes back to the same old thing, if you want or need a run, then make your own shout. It's not hard and you should take some responsibility for your seeking your own fun. There is no good reason to be bored in this game.

There is absolutely no need for server merges, at least not here on Bismark. At least 1200-1700 on each and every morning over the last week. It is only during the evenings when the numbers drop to a fraction of that.

Back on topic of older content with SoA gear, if we want a repeat of the fiasco of trying to camp empyrean weapon trigger mobs with lots and lots of people on the same server then by all means,

merge servers
and
carry on

If you can't get into delve without a delve weapon, level Geo. I leveled Geo out of the gate, for fun, and now I can get in lots of shouts for Delve. I got into two last night.

Just make sure to cap your skills!!

If you can't get in as a melee, the standards for COR and GEO being invited are incredibly low. And a good WHM is always needed.

Mythic weapons are still one of the harder weapons to get today and this needs to be sorted out or people just won't do the content at all.

Huh? There are still lots of non-boss Delve items worth farming and upgrading. Besides the stuff you mentioned:

* Offhand weapons for any dual-wield job: Izhiikoh and STR (not AGI/eva) Aphotic Kukri is still the best DD dagger set for THF and DNC, BLU still needs an offhand sword to pair with Bura, etc.

* Some jobs don't yet have a boss weapon: COR is a good example with a bunch of choices - probably want to be able to DW Delve daggers/swords for melee, and will also want Surefire Arquebus unless they have a pricey and rare Donderbuss. Delve katanas are very good for NIN even if they're second place to expensive crafted Pamun.

* Lots of good accessories to buy: Earring sets, Asperity Necklace, oddball stuff like Automaton regen back, etc.

* The Delve upgradable armors are still quite good, beating Skirmish gear in a lot of cases. I'm not too familiar with the mage/heavy DD options, but Manibozho certainly isn't useful for ranged only: legs, feet, body are still best in slot choices for melees for certain situations (TP, WS, acc focused sets, etc).

* Besides boss weapons, there are several best-in-slot armor/accessories from the mega bosses. So save that plasm in case you can't get the direct drop once you finally break through and get Delve boss wins, you'll probably need it.

Don't get me wrong, Skirmish gear (and the +1 weapons) is good and at the very least is a respectable stepping stone even if it's not the absolute best piece. Sometimes it clearly IS the best piece. And it's stupid easy to get with generous drop rates and wing drops. But I'm disappointed with people who just lazily assume it's the best and 5/5 it for everything. Especially the people I see waaaay too often running around with un-augmented skirmish armor (really, you can't even toss a single 10k NQ stone at it to get SOMETHING for an augment?) Also worth mentioning that in many cases, in order for Skirmish armor to beat other non-Skirmish options it requires very good augments, so you're going to need great luck or a ton of gil burning stones for that super rare DA+2% or whatever.



But yeah, this. Certainly if you're complaining that you don't have decent gear and there are no shouts, you're not trying very hard. Even a less than 6/6 party with Bayld gear and no Delve weapons should EASILY be able to take care of a 1/1/1 Yorcia Skirmish, and it's my experience that there are plenty of Skirmish shouts, and plenty of people willing to join if you start a shout. It's not super job-dependent, and doesn't need a meticulously planned 18/18 alliance. Get yourself some Skirmish armor/weapons and you're in pretty good shape in current endgame.

Yes, players still have very specific Delve requirements to get into shouts, especially for dime-a-dozen DDs. That brings with it some problems. But you can do a ton of stuff with easy to get Skirmish gear, like being completely overpowered for any pre-SoA content (back to Catwho's original point from this topic, which I totally agree with - I've also been having a lot of fun doing stuff like Meebles and Limbus lately).

Edited, Oct 1st 2013 5:15pm by Anza

I think Abyssea did things a lot better though. Starting from scratch, there was a LOT to do, particularly if your aim was getting some empy weapons.

With things like Delve, all it takes it hopping on a few good runs, possibly even just one, to get what you want.

At one point, every group consisted of people who had never done the event before. Now with that said, if you want to ease yourself into Delve, the best way is to play a less complicated or less gear-dependent job. That's why I recommend COR, GEO, or WHM if you can play it well. Everything else has a harsher gear or skill requirement. The worst thing you can do is try and make your own group to tackle 1-5+mega boss.

Skirmish is easy though. Even if you're the type of person who learns better by doing, a brief wiki consultation is more than enough to bring you up to speed.

That's a fair point. Some players may perform inadequately but it may have less to do with leveling and gearing a niche job for a specific purpose and more to do with players being lazy and/or bad. I know people who leveled jobs to fill niches for us and performed admirably.

Aside from that, many of your examples are things that can be taken care of if pointed out. I think a lot of CORs don't understand the importance of relic +2 feet or even know how Light Shot works. Some MNKs might not have the knowledge of current strategies to obtain the relevant pieces of gear that enhance Formless or Mantra (or to even have the proper merits). That kind of thing can be taught.

For many people who don't have the connections, it's a legitimate way to get your foot in the door. But put in the effort to learn the job and play it well.

Like I said before, cap your skills!

At this point you don't need those 3-4 song BRDs anymore. You can get away with 2 Marches and either 2 Minuets or Minuet/Madrigal. For zone bosses, you have even more flexibility due to Soul Voice. For example, on shark I do double Water Carol and on Tojil I throw a Minne in just because I can. Those are obviously luxuries and can be dropped if you have a NQ BRD.

Still, every little bit counts, and if you have a less-than-optimal BRD, combined with a WHM who is a step slow and a Rigor MNK and so on, it makes it slightly more difficult for the group to win. When the failure rate of pickup groups is so high, I can see where group leaders are coming from when they have gear checks to join. The solution is absolutely not to make your own run unless you're intimately familiar and experienced with the event mechanics and strategies but rather to get your foot in the door through any means possible, even if it means leveling and gearing a new job. It's no different from an aspiring chef washing dishes and busing tables at a restaurant he wants to eventually cook at.