Aeolian Edge, Destiny abyssites, MAB atma, and Zone bosses.Follow

Hey guys, I just wanted to share some thoughts with you about aeolian edge and I also have a question to ask. I'm going to break this down by section with heading for easier reading since I crammed a lot of thoughts into one post.

Abyssites of Destiny.
First off, while it goes without saying, aeolian edge raises amber light FAST when you have all three abyssites of destiny (viridian abyssite of destiny comes from abyss-tahrongi, crimson of Destiny drops from Iktomi, and you get ivory of destiny by defeating all 9 abyssea zone bosses). Since obtaining my final abyssite of destiny I've been able to raise amber light at quadruple the normal speed and I can start seeing giant gold pyxides pop after just one ephemeral. I have all three "fortune" abyssites as well so I can also raise my pearl light at quadruple speed.

Zone Bosses
With that said, I've been playing with giant gold pyxides the past week and I discovered that the giant boxes in abyssea-ulu range drop the Decaying Diremite Fang and Begrimmed Dragon Hide key items which are used to spawn the diremite zone boss as well as Isgebind. I was running with a group of 5 on Monday and we farmed my 6 wieldance items for raider's armlets +2 and three other peoples +2 hands in under 2 hours and we all got an Isgebind pop item. I got to play around with Aeolian edge yesterday for half an hour in abyssea - altep and we got the Tiger King's Hide from a small gold box. I never saw what key items the giant gold boxes had because we exited soon after I capped lights, but I believe there is a very strong chance the Giant gold pyxides of Abyss-Altepa drop the Steaming Cerberus Tongue as well which is used to spawn Orthus. Wiki has documented the ulu range key item drops, but nothing has been documented on altepa yet. Wiki updates slow though so I'm trying to get some confirmation of this.

As it is, you can farm a full Glavoid Pop set from tahrongi gold boxes, and 2/3 Itza pop items are also gold pyxidable while Tunga CAN be soloed with lotsa temp items (and easily duo and triod with them). Orthrus only needs ONE key item to spawn, and if it drops directly from gold pyxides that would have huge implications on do-it-yourself Twashtar (I killed Ortrus with just 4 people being monk (had Victory Smite from WoE), thf (me), blm and cor.... He's honestly not that hard).

Farming Implications
Aside from the various key items we can get from gold boxes there is a lot of gil to be had by farming these. This goes without saying but the Tiger King's Hide currently sells on my server for 150k on auction, and dark rings in konstant NPC for 35k as well as the 7k items we often see (gules mittens, radiant lances, the new knuckles and guns in Heroe's zones).

Mab Atmas!!
And finally, Aeolian Edge's can do impressive damage. This idea is taken from the fact that brewed magic weaponskills do much more than physical ones (My aeolian edge broke 23k when I brewed shinryu!!!). I have two MAB atmas right now. Atma of the Beyond as well as Atma of the Baying Moon. I never defeated proto-ultima but atma of the Ultimate increases MaB by 50, magic accuracy by 50, and drops max mp pool by 25% (which may deter some mages, but has no impact on thf whatsoever). I carry my moldavite earring for aeolian edge and with just two MAB atmas my damage has shot up from ~~~ 500 with no MAB atma/gear to over 1300 damage with + 65 MAB. I bet if I had atma of the ultimate I could break 2K aeolian edges. And we all know how devastatingly powerful a Fell Cleave burn can be right!! Well picture an Aeolian Edge burn. I used aeolian edge on winds day (hence a few getting 10% bonus damage) with baying moon + beyond + moldavite and broke 1k everywhere and immediately after that the giant gold boxes spawned like mad. Imagine if I had the ultimate and a pair of MaB kilas or some MAB mage buffs (like shiva's favor or diabolos's dream shroud ... or scholar wind storm.. or w/e).

Now that the level cap has been broken and the boundaries pushed continually again I have found myself once more specializing in thief (playing summoner and now black mage on the side!!) and focusing my thoughts towards what it can do. I am working on a pair of physical defense earth kila's, a pair of magic defense water kilas, and now a pair of magic attack intelligence kilas on the side (very SLOWLY on these to maintain sanity). But aeolian edge can do a lot, and I'd like to see what others results are should they follow suit with this.

Oh yeah, a final PS: If someone could check and see if Orthrus's pop item does drop from abyssea-altepa I'd love you for it. I'm sitting on 5/50 glav shells, 26/50 itza scales, and 6/75 orthrus's claws and I would LOVE to skip baby cerb and head directly to Orthrus like I did with the diremire boss in ulu range. I work soon and I won't be able to verify this for myself for a while, so confirmation would be much appreciated.

Edited, Jan 10th 2011 12:51pm by Melphina

I was thinking about this myself back in September.

We could definately put together a solid set for it, and with the regain of brew probably /mage it up for even more MAB.

Two of my ls members gave been doing this with great succes. The newly added atma really help Aeolian Edge a lot. They teamed up with a mnk upgrading Verethragna. He needs Two-leaf Chloris Buds and they need glavoid shells. They go out and first get lights up then swap to MAB atma's and AoE burn mandies in Abyssea - Tahrongi. The mnk uses Cataclysm, staff AoE ws. The thf uses Aeolian Edge. 3rd person is sch or rdm for AoE Phalanx.
The rest of the ls comes out to help and pop chests and leech exp. After almost everyone has a full pop set members swap to proper jobs and kill Glavoid and Chloris.

It still takes a lot of time but Twashstar is a realistic goal now for a lot more players.

Ok, so I went to play around with this a bit the other night (on BST instead of THF, but only because I wanted WS to find ephemerals more quickly.

Essentially I was going for pearl and for amber only (didn't have longer than 2 hours of RL time anyway so azure would have been worthles). I can confirm that somewhere between 6 and 8 amber I was only receiving large boxes. For certain after 6 (counting in party chat) I still received 2 small boxes. After 8 I no longer saw any small boxes.

As for pearl, even after 7 ephemeral kills, 1 "strong" pearl light from a red box and 2 from NQ mobs I was not capped on pearl. I continued to kill mobs after this and eventually capped pearl.

For both of these I had a fairly mixed set up of clionids and limules.

I've had this happen before too where after 8 murex kills worth of pearl I still was not at capped pearl.

I've heard stories before that, based on the xp/cruor received from kills of an ephemeral, you can guesstimate the amount of light gained. Anyone seen this somewhere?

My best GUESS here is that you are correct that lights cap at higher rates with each abyssite (this is consistent with my experience on persipacity abyssite and xp), and that ephemerals:

-provide bonuses to lights, but only if they are EM or higher (tough to find EM+ ephemerals at 90 in KH)
-specific ephemerals only provide bonuses to specific kinds of lights
-ephemeral bonuses to lights don't stack with abyssite bonuses

...or maybe it's just that abyssite bonuses only provide a +X (where x is the number of abyssites) to that kind of light upon obtaining visitant. I'm skeptical that this could be the case, however, given admittedly anecdotal experiences.

You're right, if you are using the WS at 100-200% it should win.

I'd think Smiting Blow would actually be a good atma for Aeolian Edge if you don't have the high MAB atmas (I'm wondering if it might actually beat Beyond).

Any advice on setting up a Gold Box farming session? Last weekend I tried Gold Box farming in Tahrongi with me (90THF), a 90MNK with his dualbox 90SCH, a 90BLU, and an embarrassing number of leeches. We capped Pearl and Azure on Mandies... then we realized we couldn't Amber them, so went to the baby Aspids. After Amber was capped the BLU changed to a leech job and we went back to Mandies. I'd gather the Mandies, and the MNK and I Cataclysm/Aeolian Edge'd bunches of them. We got a few key items, but it took so long to cap lights, we didn't box farm for super long.

So, next time I'll try to cap Pearl on T1 VNM and have a few of the leeches come BLU or BLM at the start to build Azure light. Is it worthwhile to have them hunt for Emphemerals for Azure? There are just so few in the Visions zones as compared to the Scars zones. Is there any mob better than the mini Aspids for capping Amber? I see the mini Fafnirs and the sandworms can also give Amber (and the Emphemerals). Having a few of our leeches come DD jobs at the start would help us take down the mini Aspids faster, at least. I was also thinking about doing bats once we get to that part of the Gold Box hunt. But, does bats inherent resistance to darkness make Cataclysm suck on them?

Another way to raise amber lights in tahrongi is to buy a clear demuile abyssite and hunt down a T1 VNM. While aspids and fafs and worms are a pain in the ass, T1 VNMs are a pushover. Unfortunately I don't think they build lights very fast, but since it's T1 they're usually in plentiful supply. If you have destiny abyssites it goes a long way to speeding up the buildup, and I mean a LONG way. As for the other mobs, Bhumi and Ephemerals have already been covered. Widescan is a great asset in there because the ephemerals are so spread out and hunted down by other scanners and rarely last long.

If you're finding it takes a long time to cap amber in tahrongi I REALLY suggest you look into collecting as many abyssites of destiny as possible. It's had a profound effect on how fast I can cap amber light. Getting all three of those abyssites will enhance your gold box farming above anything else, and if you incorporate that with ephemerals you'll be shocked at how much easier it makes things.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 11:08am by Melphina

I think it has something to do with tahrongi being a Visions area, and an inherent change between visions --> scars --> heroes. I have 3 abyssites of destiny and I need to kill about 15-18 Aspids to cap my amber light solo, and I can kill three or four Ephemeral Limules and STILL not cap amber. However if I'm farming abyssea Altepa after I Aeolian Edge an elemental I'm already getting tier 3/4 gold boxes, and after killing a second elemental I'm at giant boxes. If I manage to kill three elementals my amber ights is way capped, not that it matters because if I wanted I could amber about 9-12 scorpions for the same effect. Visions zones seem to take a lot longer to cap lights, and ephemerals don't seem as powerful in there as they do in Scars and Heroes zones. I don't think it has anything to do with your abyssites SKSmokes, just the zone you're using them in.

Try it yourself, I would like to see what results you get. Go to a heroes zone and spam aeolian edge kills and tell me how much faster you see giant gold boxes than you do in tahrongi. I have a feeling you'll see the same thing I do. For the record, I remember what building amber lights was like BEFORE I had all 3 destiny abyssites. When I was level 85 with only one destiny abyssite I took a oor and blm with me to help with turtles, and after 30++ kills later we still weren't capped (close.... but not quite capped). Now I can cap them in about half the time, so I do notice a BIG difference, its more that tahrongi sucks to raise amber and that's all there is to it.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 12:53pm by Melphina

If the con of the mob had anything to do with it you could verify that. You would need to get two people with all three destiny abyssites each, one level 90 and one level 75-80. It's a simple enough process from then on. Round 1 you have the level 90 character get every killshot and see how many turtles it takes to cap amber, and round 2 you allow the level 75-80 character all the killshots and again check and see how many kills it takes. Since the destiny abyssites work the same way regardless you only need someone on a lower level job, and that can be brought up to par pretty fast. If you get a solid run on that then you'll have your answer of whether or not the level the mob "checks" to you has anything to do with light buildup. Just keep in mind "capped" lights are a rough estimate and you can sometimes get lucky. I've already gotten a time extension off the first mob I killed inside abyssea-grauberg with no lights at all, but there's always a trend and you can tell pretty well when you're finally capped.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 6:15pm by Melphina

Scars/Heroes zones automatically provide you with a boost to lights based on the status of Bastion/Dominion in the area.

There's appropriate NPCs at the entrances in each Scars/Heroes zone that will give you an outline of the current beneficial effects provided upon request.

We usually get spanked in Bastion so the beneficial effects aren't always there, but Ephs are also a lot more plentiful in Scars zones compared to Visions (or so it seems to me, anyway) that it's not really an issue anyway. Heroes zones have rarer + more annoying "Eph" mobs, but Dominion is a lot easier to be "maxed out" on than Bastion. So yeah, it is actually pretty common to see high-quality chests drop in Heroes zones with zero of the appropriate light.

Edited, Feb 3rd 2011 7:51pm by Fynlar

To cap light fast I usually solo surrounding easy NMs in Vision area.
In La Theine I pick usually the rabbit, bird then wasp. Rinse and repeat. Usually need only 4 kill of those to cap anything. But now I'm looking toward Tahrongi... I wonder which will do the job. The tiny mandragora comes to mind. The coeurl also but this one can kill me instantly if I don't focus a bit :P

What about you on Vision Area ?

The only zone with fewer ephs than any other is Tahrongi. Both Konschat and La Thiene are swimming in ephs like scars areas.

Any information on how many more lights ephs provide based on some formula of some kind? I've also encountered situations where 9 azured murexes later I was still consistently getting 800 cruor/1K xp chests.

I have been doing this on Dancer using the described Atmas in Konschtat to help friends gold box farm and finish my OA2-4 dagger (which I incidentally intend to use basically just for Aeolian Edge spam). This is my build:
http://www.ffxiah.com/item-sets/197516

In general I do about 1800 at 100TP. On DNC/SAM with Tacos I can round up about 8-10 EM monsters and kill them solo (Fan Dance). With a healer or sleeper I can do an entire monster population. This made my 700 lizard kills for the last stage of the OA2-4 dagger very fast. With a Beastmaster and Bard (the BST was using Nanzuna to sleep sometimes), I could do pretty much the entire Eft population at once.

Assuming no support or Sleeper support:
Sekka Aeolian Edge -> Waltz -> Aeolian Edge -> Reverse Flourish -> Aeolian Edge -> NFR/Meditate/Presto Step -> Waltz -> reverse Flourish -> Aeolian Edge

With a WHM or RDM, I do the same thing without the Waltzes.

I imagine Thief would need support to do this, but if you had it it may be worth considering subbing Samurai. Sekka eliminates the TP Bonus of Martial, but lets you start with two Aeolian Edges right away and Meditate gets you to at third faster.

Using a martial knife would raise your Aeolian Edge damage but drastically kill your DoT, to the point where the time you gain by killing with a stronger WS you would offset and infact lose because your killspeed in the TP phase is much worse.

Like, melee a mob to 10% with real dagger, use Aeolian Edge for kill. Or Melee a mob with martial to 15% and use aeolian edge for the kill. Sounds better except that it'll take you longer to get it to 15% health with martial than it will to 10% with a proper dagger.

Leave that trash on the AH imo.

GreyBis is spot on. I can get amber light just by using aeolian edge at low hp with regular weapons and atma. You don't need to change ANYTHING to get amber light, but an aeolian edge burn is like a fell cleave burn so I use MaB atmas full time for those. In my opinion the "perfect" aeolian edge burn atma combo would be the Atma of Gales, Ultimate, and Baying Moon. I can never find a martial knife on the auction house either and the price has been steadily rising. However I intend to finish a nuking 9 INT/10 MAB Kila +2, and I think it's even stronger than martial knife is to aeolian edge with.

Aeolian Edge (30% dex and 30% INT mod)
100 TP == 2.75
200% TP == 3.5

Martial Knife
Damage 27 --- TP mod

Nuking Kila +2
Damage 43, 9 INT, 10 MaB

Furthermore the Kila +2's will only grow stronger next update. Nuking Kila +2 has 16 more base damage than Martial knife in addition to 9 INT and 10 MaB. Not only does the INT raise base damage directly (magic weaponskills base D is affected by dINT in the same way physical weaponskills are affected by fSTR) but the 9 INT is also a secondary modifier (30% INT mod), and the 10 MaB is the coup de grace. I'm working on a pair of these myself, and while most thieves probably don't have them they are a strong investment for an aeolian edge burn/build. I'm pretty sure the nuking Kila +2 is flat out better than the martial knife is to aeolian edge with. If aeolian edge had a larger difference between the 100% and the 200% fTP mod I would say otherwise, but 3.5 is not a terribly big improvement over 2.75, and the difference between nuking Kila +2 vs. Martial Knife's "standard" stats.... is. Plus, while DoT is much less relevant when you're aeolian edge burning, it's not IRRELEVANT, and Kila +2 utterly demolishes martial knife on that front, which IMO seals the deal for the nuking Kila +2.

Edited, Feb 5th 2011 10:27am by Melphina

Thanks for that idea Melphina. I think I'll drop my Fusetto (only 2 trials in anyways) and work on the INT Kilas. The nearly constant weather in U range should make them super fast to finish. I still have 1600 WS to do to finish the TP bonus Fusetto. Ugh.

I have only seen the highest tier with no lights in Heroes zones, but I've gotten varying tiers with same lights in pretty much all areas. I do not believe they give enhanced light builds at all since I've on two occcasions done multiple amber kills on T1 VNM, talking 10-15, and still not seen big boxes drop. As for the theory about giving lights every time you kill, no. Azure, amber and ruby will give you the appropriate light every time unless the mob does not give that light (and maybe some have a lower rate for certain lights), but to me it seems like pearl is the only light that's not 100% (compare azuring and ambering ephemerals (or anything really) with pearling them).

You could just spend time doing the TP bonus + 100 trial fusetto, and it wouldn't have wank damage in the TP phase unlike martial.

damage in the TP phase is kind of bad... dont want to accidently kill that mob too soon and lose engagement. It usually doesnt happen, but it can. Mkris is great tho for AE burns, more ws in less time ftw.

Auto target acts funky when 15+ mobs are on top of each other. You often target a mob that moves behind you or to the side giving a lockon and turn to melee or ws.

More important point is TP damage does not matter. if yo have 15 mobs and 1-2 die early it still takes the exact same amount to ws to kill the group in the exact same amour of time. WS frequency and damage arevthe only way to kill the group faster. Hard to say if martial/mkris, single wield mkris, or mkris/some oat, or even kris/rapidus would come out on top.

I guess martial and fusetto would do the exact same thing. But one is just Gil the other is a big time sink for a dagger I wouldn't use for much else.

Neither function in the offhand. :\