Capping Shield SkillFollow

The correct answer is pld/rdm and fight the Puks in Den of Rancor.

You should get /RDM if you really want to make this work. /BLU + cocoon can reach close to the same level, if you're careful. /DNC has some good survivability. Try either of those, but know that /RDM would help you the best. For defensive skills, you'll want the Puks instead of Steel Shells - more attack rounds and they hit a little weaker, to boot.

It's a mistype on my part, at least. You want Pucks. You can get a bunch of them by entering Den of Rancor from Yhoatr Jungle near the Ifrit's Cauldron eastmost entrance.

Might be hard to do nowadays... but what I did pre-level sync, was to find a few jobs 72-73 seeking, and go "tank" some Greater Colibri for them. Pecking Flurry and fast attacks capped my Shield Skill very quickly. Went from 260 to 276 skill in probably 4 merits. Mind you this was about 2 years ago.

By "tank" I mean be a flash/voke bitch until they pull hate from you with a WS. -.-

Edited, May 23rd 2009 3:31am by Palides

I don't have /rdm levled to 37, would dual boxing my alt 75 RDM be an acceptable alternative?

Actually, having done both I found pld + rdm to be faster and easier because I could aggro way more pucks. When their attacks line up, I could easily cure myself on pld, and when they were too spread out, rdm steps in. Between defender, convert, phalanx 2, chivalry, sentinel and hasted reprisal, I never had to stop, and 4 mobs wailing on you certainly speeds things up.

Well i capped shield skill reletivly easily down there with my RDM alt. Phalanx was was enver needed but probably wouldhave helped make thins less dangerous. Really the onyl dangerous part was the pulls. Iwent /dnc and poped drain samba 2, for most of the time i was unlocking my brave blade so my redmage was converting every so often so i could use my tp to WS.

When i swapped to joyusse things became easier, i used tp to cure, and my redmage became moreof a backup cure and haste/refresh bitch. Saw another paladin down htere soloing on /dnc with a single hit sword of some type, but they looked to be having trouble and downtime between fights. Even with a joyusse i was soemtiems struggeling to stay up, but the zoneline made that almost a non threat anyways.

Overall pretty easy with a rdm alt, probably doable with /dnc and a joyusse if your carefull and know when to zone if needed. =)

I'm at Den of Rancor trying to Cap my Shield Skill on Pucks i'm using /Red with 194 Enhancing Magic.

Equipment

Weapon: Espadon +1 (Don't have Joytoy or any other kind of 2 Multi-hit Weapon)
Sub: Koenig Shield
Ranged: Lamain Kaman
Ammo: Cheap Arrow for pulling
Head: Iron Ram Sallet
Neck: Shield Torque
Ear1: Coral Earring
Ear2: Coral Earring
Body: Haubergeron
Hands:Iron Ram Dastanas
Ring1:Woodsman Ring
Ring2:Hercule's Ring
Back: Amemet Mantle
Waist:Warwolf Belt
Legs:Iron Ram Hose
Feet: Gallant Leggings

Current Shield Skill is 250 without Merits or Gear
I do have capped Shield Merits

The Problem i'm having is that even the Decent Challenge Pucks are coming close to killing me and i can't figure out what i can do to prevent that other then not trying to solo the skill. Any Advice would be appreciated.

I used /DNC because against 2 Mandies, Cure IV can be interrupted but Dances can't. Also I enjoyed Drain Samba II, Acc Bonus, Spectral Jig, and Steps(For higher acc to build more tp for waltzes). True /RDM has Phalanx and Stoneskin but Mandies still hit pretty hard unless you get a DC one. With /DNC I was able to survive against two T Pucks simultaneously spamming Waltzes(important to use sushi for acc). I probably should have used a type 1 shield but I used a Sentinel Shield for the +1% haste as the +1% was enough to knock a second off Reprisal, and Reprisal seemed to help a lot for skillups.

I think the shield that Admantoise drops has a 95% proc rate as a hidden effect but I'm not sure.

**Edit: Someone removed the Hidden Effect of having a 95% proc rate from the FFXI wiki so I guess it was debunked?

Edited, Jun 16th 2010 11:12pm by TheHolyDragoonSeraphus

i capped in beauc <s> on Gigas Pounders, monk gigas. There are several down the ramp from the op warp there.

Goto besieged flash a MNK type or something that hits FAST, pop Reprisal and use Sentinel, before it wears use Invincible, spam cures, use a Revitilizer, when it wears use Sentinel, then cure back up, when it wears and you're almost dead, invincible again. When that wears use the phys damage shield drink. You should get some 0.4's out of this method.

Edited, Jul 9th 2010 8:32am by TheHolyDragoonSeraphus