another returning to ffxi sam threadFollow

I've read a lot about abysea and it sounds fun, so I activated my old ID's.

I gave away all my money and expensive gear before I left, so I am broke. Where do I start? I need two merits for the level break quest to 80. I will have to merit on my sam with some stuff picked up at the AH. I have picked up my first travelers stone. Will I be able to party outside of Abysea, or is it possible at 75. All my old friends are gone, I know I'll have to find a new LS. I only did sky twice, so I don't have any of that gear. I barely have traveled around in the past through the maws. I hated toau, so I don't have any of that gear. Can I jump right into trying for abysea gear without prerequisite gear?

What are my priorities to get going past 75? Here is what I'm working with right now, fishing my brains out for money atm.(I see this changed too)

Weapon- soboro, unbroken Gondo (lol)
grip- pole grip, mythril +1
ammo- Tiphia sting
Head- w.turban, O-hat, Wyvern helm, af1
neck- chiv chain
ear1- bushi
ear2- brutal, fowling
body- af1, hauby
hands- ochi kote, pallas, trying to get hachi kote
ring 1- rajas
ring2- woodsman
back- amemet mantle+1, smildon mantle (not sure if nq or hq)
waist- swift, life belt
legs- af1
feet- s.kyahan (haste), savage gaiters (3 str)

Yeah I know, pretty bad
8/8 gkt merits
7/8 polearm
full stp,
and some more I can't remember, only 1 in str so far

A lot overwhelmed, fellow sams, please help me out!

Thank you so much for the reply. I keep reading and reading about the changes, but it's nice to have someone from the community give advice personal to my situation. You've definitely pointed me in the right direction, I'll probably have to solo the merits on rdm since I don't have dnc sub leveled. I'll check back in after finishing the above in your post. Gracias!

You need to be level 80 to begin working on Keitonotachi, as I think that's the level of the base weapon.

Thanks for the reply. I'm getting my other two abysea expansions, and I just entered for the first time, just to explore yesterday. Got my limit break, gonna start working on /dnc sub, getting to 80, and k+2.

another quick question: What do I do about pants? I'm sure my af1 won't cut it. I tried in the past to get byakko's haidate and kirin osode, but I always was behind other people in points. Are there Abysea legs I can get, or am I still going for the byako's?

I didn't read the link (sorry) but SAM AF3 'Unkai Haidate +1' legs are what you need, their level 83 and I actually quested them, but it took a fair amount of abyssea time - something i'm guessing you don't have right now?

If you do, and at the same time you get to learn the Scar zone The quest

You have to keep zoning in/out each completion and takes a while even after you've nailed it. Obviously, when you start farming NM's for your AF3 gear quests become compltely pointless, but to catch up your also going to need zone boss wins, abyssites, and atma's (best way to get these is to keep wiki at hand (so you know what the person is /shing about) and join /sh's at first.

Once your comfortable with how abyssea works, lights, weakness procs etc you can make you own /sh's for the things you need. Having a helpful LS is a good thing too, GL finding one though in the current gear obsessed loot grabbing XI community.

It probably depends on your gear/atmas. If you need Unkai's Store TP and/or if your accuracy is good, Unkai should win out. If your accuracy isn't so hot, then Byakko's probably wins.

I'd say that is a bad idea. Chances are we will get another set of WS's naturally, and i'm sure there will be another set of challenge-to-get ws's post 99. Waiting to see if the next one we get doesn't have dmg varies with TP and is actually better than YGKF is pointless. Get yourself the current good Keito, then work on Fudo is you want a YGK beating WS. The WSD+10% Keito just isn't very good.

SE have also said in the future they are thinking of introducing a JA that adds a TP bonus to the next WS we use.

That would be the case, but I would almost recommend not using Smiting Blow if you have the TP Bonus Keito+2. Any TP over 100 would be wasted, which would diminish Smiting Blow's benefit.

1) Tachi: Shoha is a new weaponskill that you get by meriting it once you reach lv. 96 and doing a very small mini-quest to activate the ability to do so.

2) Which Keitonotachi is it? If it is the TP Bonus +100 one, that is still a very good one to use, and once you get it to its 99 version it will be one of the best Great Katanas you can have.

3) By trial, I assume you mean Magian? If so, you can do those simultaneously, as you can have up to 10 trials in your Magian Trial log at any one point.

4) For Samurai, as far as damage, one of the common Atma setups is Atma of the Smiting Blow, Atma of Apocalypse, and Atma of the Voracious Violet. This gives a rather significant TP bonus for the weaponskill, a significant Triple Attack rate for TP and WS, and +50 Str, high Double Attack, and 2 TP/tic Regain effect.

5) They have their uses, but just be advised that in most "endgame" situations right now, you'll have multiple melee spamming weaponskills as soon as they can, so coordinated skillchains are somewhat a thing of the past. It is decent though to maybe throw those abilities there to set someone else up for a skillchain, or in hopes of closing a skillchain randomly.

6) Yeah, pretty much that's how the Bluffalo camps are.

7) As far as damage goes, Ageha isn't that great. Its additional effect though, when it lands, makes it decent to start a fight off with since it inflicts a decent Defense Down effect.