Mandau levelingFollow

Just finished 991. U. Range with all of its tigers and rabits worked pretty well for that. Even with lots of people, there were plenty to go around.

Now I'm on to 1500 vermin killshots. Anyone have suggestions for 992 and onward? I started last night killing chamber beetles in Garliage, which was fast and easy, but I can forsee some exp parties getting annoyed with me. I'm looking for someplace secluded or with an abundance of fast pops. Either way, I don't want my presence to be a burden on others.

uggg I should not post at 6 in the morning.....

Edited, Jul 20th 2010 6:45am by Breaze

The initial 1500 on Beasts I did in Jugner [S] on the Gnoles. I'd sit there with full evasion gear on and WS every time I hit 100. They actually help you out a bit in that they heal themselves to increase their uptime. During full moon I actually popped a sushi because I noticed an increase in their evasion.

The 1500 Vermin kills I did in the Tree. I liked the grouping and the fact that they were easy to kill. I swapped to a full haste setup and didn't swap gear for the WS like I normally do. I only weaponskilled once for the killshot as these pretty much had their HP knocked off by the time you have 100% TP. The good thing is that they're grouped close together and you can actually make a little money filling up a mule with sellable items. The bad thing about these was their poison (I remember -9HP/tic or something) and the slow effect. I'd sometimes have a mule on /follow or a SMN that would just happen to be in the tree needing Vermin under weather. I know at least two SMNs were cleared via autofollow and I was able to see the effects of Avatar's Favor.

The 1500 Plantoid kills I also did in the Tree on mushrooms. I don't think these were as bad because I wasn't under a slow effect. I subbed /DNC in order to rememdy Paralyze and just knocked them out in groups as well. If I was able to use a RDM mule, I'd have him autofollow and wouldn't swap gear (the upside of autofollow is the fact that you always have a trick buddy there for use too).

The 2000 Bird kills I did on Abraxas/Vultures in XP parties, Colibri outside of Whitegate, and then the birds outside of Nashmau on the way to Einherjar. I was frustrated with the Colibri because I had just enough subtle blow where they would do their TP move one round after 100%TP. On about 80-90% of them, it wouldn't matter because I'd hit my WS right at 100%; you do get those ones that steal food or wipe TP and drive you crazy though. I instead did a constant loop of 8-9 on the birds right outside Nashmau.



During the initial WS trial I did as many as I could at one time. The following killshot ones, because you can't really speed up the fact that you need to kill one at a time, usually was limited to a personal goal of 100 a day. While I don't like the fact that the WS Killshot trials made me antisocial in terms of trial invites, I do like the fact that these trials keep a relic weapon from becoming obsolete as new weapons are released. I could bitch about the fact that these are tedious, but this is something I did by myself and doesn't require an entire linkshell to dedicate it's focus on a specific NM for drop collection.

While some people think of competition as a bad thing, it actually made me stay longer than my goal in many cases. I'd consider myself to be pretty stubborn and if I witnessed pulls from under me I'd usually take it as a challenge that they wanted to compete against me for enemy claims.

Kila +1 doesn't have Mercy Stroke.

Yeah, I know I left a few things out. Lets not forget the poison!!!!! My comment is more towards level of effort.

~500 into my 1500 plantoids. Doing Funguar in B Tree. As Archain says, the grouping is really nice. Its also fun to fight 5 at once. Seems to be going very fast.


5000 more kills until 85 cap dagger. What then? Something to make it all worth while?

Last night I was in Abyssea with a friend whom I just helped to get a Masamune. ONLY TOOK A MONTH! (Again, level of effort just doesnt compare with old relics.) Now IF, I am lined up right to stack SA, I could land 2-3K Mercy Stroke. Not too shabby. However, our SAM friend if poping off 5K Fudo, self SC light, another 5K and his regular melee attacks are all around 1K. We somehow got on different mobs, (Frogs in lathiene BTW) so I am reduced to regular weapon skills. While I fought one frog, I watched him tank and kill 8 (not using 2 hr), then come over to finish mine off. If I was parsing I would guess 95% him, 5% me. Absolutely amazing to watch that weapon in action!

Now I dont dream of relic THF being top dog, but I did enjoy how I used to hold my own with any other DD in the game. I really doubt final upgrades will balance things out. Do I get those final 5000+ who knows how many more kills, or do I put in 1/10th the effort and get an Empyrean weapon?

I'm expecting another 3000 kills for +4 DMG and maybe another +5 Attack for next trial. To make Mandau comparable to Empyrian they really need a few better upgrades.. some suggestions (Maybe SE reads Alla too?)

Higher TP multiplier: 3.0 --> 4.0
Longer Aftermath: 20 secs --> 1 Min
Better Aftermath: ~4% Crits --> 50% Crits
Higher 3x DMG proc rate: ~2% --> 10%
Better added effect: 10HP/sec poison --> 50HP/sec poison or add something else like drain, stun or para
Increase Modifier: 60% STR --> 80% STR or change to 40% STR 40% DEX
Lastly, Make MS a guaranteed crit hit, so it doesnt need SA or TA.

Yeah I know.. Not going to happen, would "break the game", however would need ALL of the above just to be equal to the lvl 85 Masamune I saw and god know how much better that is going to get.

Finally back on topic. For last trial. Vermin recap.

-The Caedavra chigoes were slow as hell. Sheep always seemed to only pop one and then die.

-Spiders in B Tree were OK. Mainly because I collected about 500 spider webs. Did about 1/2 of my kills on these.

-Also tried pephredo in Wajaoam. Fast and Easy, but 50% of the time will use Final Sting 0.5 seconds before you WS. Didn't like that.

-The flies in Rolanberry S were the fastest and most efficient, but no spider webs. Did my other 1/2 on these. Variety is good.

Edited, Nov 30th 2010 1:17am by Everydamnnameistaken

Edited, Nov 30th 2010 1:23am by Everydamnnameistaken

I did my 1500 plantoids in Fort Karugo-Narugo [S]. Tele to Fort Karugo-Narugo [S] and you are at camp. Rafflesia here are at the low end of EP and go down really fast. Tp attacks from Rafflesia are easy to deal with. They have a 6min repop timer as a posed to the 16min repop timer the Funguar have in the B. Tree.

And yes Masamune is rather easy to make.

Oh. I really havn't spent a whole lot of time since I'v been back doing Abyssea stuff. I spend a lot of my time with the trials. When I do go into abyssea its to help someone else.

So my Atma really do suck. Best I've got is Strong Arm, which with +50 STR, you would think would be amazing for Mercy, but it isnt. Also only have 1 futherance abyssite. I know it will get a little better.

Atma of the razed ruins will boost your damage by quite a lot more I should think. You will have 50 more DEX for sneak attack damage and 30% boost critical hit damage on top of that.

Couple that with its critical hit rate increase of 30%, you will be parsing at about a 54% crit rate and each of those should be well over 200+ with stout arm and a relic.

I don't have a relic, but I myself run with Razed Ruins and gnarled horn. Puts me well over 70% crit rate and my stacked eviscerations are in the 4-5k range

I'm not saying that a THF>SAM (although I have yet to be outparsed by one in abyssea...means nothing etc). But it sounds like this guy has top of the line gear/atmas and you haven't quite finished that relic yet and are lacking some of the better atmas.

IE: It will get much better :)

Edited, Dec 2nd 2010 1:51pm by ThiefKiller

All relic trials have been reduced by about 75%. But have fun getting your LS to do 5 attestation NM kills in northlands for lvl 90 Mandau.

Level 95 is probably going to be Dynamis Lord or somthing.

Edited, Dec 6th 2010 6:03pm by Lobivopis

Wow! I really feel for those of you who ground through those full trials. On the other hand I now know what it feels like to be the THF who got rewarded for procrastination. (recall: when SE made THF knife acquisition a joke)

I don't think the 90 trial will be hard. Way back in the day, it was fairly easy to kill 2-3 attestation mobs in a single run and also farm half the zone, sometimes kill the boss too if your groups were split up right. If it is ANY attestation mob kill, then 1-2 runs may for lvl 90 players. If they meant 5x dagger attestation mobs, where the dagger attestation drops.... then maybe it will be a bit difficult.

I don't even have a dynamis shell. I can probably just camp the entry point and wait for a group to tag along with. Just need to knock these 75% reduced trials out ASAP and I'm sure there will be plenty of groups going in for the same thing.

Very happy with the new trials. Kinda disappointed in the actual upgrade though. Still hoping for some boost to the hidden effects or aftermath.

I had a big feeling the magian trials were going to continue to be reduced. One of the big reasons I haven't been spending my time in-game.

But you only have to kill, not deliver a WS killshot. There's no reason you can't have a bunch of people team up to mow though those trials, unlike the relic trials.