Another busy campaign for me, discovering more and more things I would need for my next adventures. This time however & unexpectedly, most of my effort has been focused solely on Puppetmaster job. BTW, I'm also including my progress during august free login which I don't have time to compile due to IRL stuff.
Turns out, the job is quite complex to prepare. Not only puppet has it's own skills, thankfully only 3 which is melee/ranged/magic, players have to unlock all head & frame setups which specialize on each of those skills up to A+ ranks. And there's also puppet attachments, which works just like how mage jobs learning spells from scrolls, or bards learning songs from scrolls as well and corsair learn dice rolls from dices, which is another plan to complete since some of them are quite expensive. Not only that, grinding skills on puppet can't benefit from skill buffs normally, but thankfully there's attachments that help sped this up by a bit. Unfortunately, majority of current free login wasted on PUP skill grind, at least got capped skill on both melee and ranged, leaving magic for another time.
Other than that, there's that newest story content introduced in FFXI called Voracious Resurgence. The 1st segment released during august free login campaign doesn't tell much stories other than this lost galka kid getting into trouble, then later on needing help getting better disguise by participating in a sort of fashion contest, which kinda a bit flawed, especially since getting 1st prize requires gear piece only obtainable from certain old events, which I sadly weren't even start playing this game at all.
The 2nd update which happened on current free login finally start kicking off to a more interesting plot. Apparently from quick research discovered this old
2016 digest interview trying to revive the "what if" scenario that was previously abandoned, but now saw the chance to implement. This might be also part of ongoing series building up for the upcoming 20th anniversary next year. This update also saw quite number of battles, which thankfully not too hard, but probably still offer quite challenge for newer players.
Mid of new story content kinda semi-forces me to start grinding clothcrafting job (FF14's weaver equivalent), thankfully didn't take long for me to produce the required items for the quests. (yes, that's how weird crafting in FF11 as shown in pic... lol)
BTW, small tip I received to remove that annoying cell-shaded jaggedness effect on avatar summons or trust's 2nd version, by entering this macro command:
/localsettings blureffect off
(forgot taking example pics showing the changes, maybe next time...)
As for rest of stuff I did during August 2020 free login:
- Finished doing all job limit break battle with Maat to earn his priceless cap.
- And to rid of old job limit key items, had to do rest of non Maat battles, which unfortunately requires starting their respective artifact gear quests.
- Corsair story has quite interesting story about camaraderie.
- Blue Mage story, as expected, involves in quite thrilling tale of failed mastery that leads up being consumed & transformed into hideous figures. Yikes!
- Puppermaster story felt rather endearing, a tale about taru-taru tries to win back his old rogue puppet's trusts.
- Geomancer, involves in a battle that's quite hard to clear since it's from Adoulin expansion that introduced item level 100+. Had to recruit help to clear this fight in the end.
- Done major inventory clean-ups. So many spaces I have now, all thanks for capping all battle jobs! :D
- Done farming GEO's reservoir spell. Ninjutsu skill grind actually finished on current Dec 2020 though, turns out faster doing rotation of elemental offense spam.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Geomantic_ReservoirNew to-do list:
- Farming rest of PUP attachments, one of them requires farming from this
Hilltroll Puppetmaster since they drop quite number of different attachments.
- Last skill grinding ever, PUP's puppet magics. Leaving guides for reminder:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/String_Theoryhttps://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Puppetmaster:Easy_Magic_Skill_Uphttps://www.reddit.com/r/ffxi/comments/b6y1ac/automaton_skill_leveling/- During latest Omen outing, one of LS member checked my RUN setup & gave great suggestion for farming DT (reduced Damage Taken) gear sets from various relic pieces: current artifact body & hands +2 upgrade to +3, and empyrean legs & feet piece.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Erilaz_Armor_SetAF body +3 needs roughly 7 million gils includes getting these upgrade items: Niobium Ingot, Cypress Lumber, Cyan Orb x3.
Also, finally got my Gin clear, netting freebie Gin's scale reward. Need to farm at least 4 more scales to upgrade rest of AF gear pieces.
- With recent implemented restriction for Domain Invasion to only 100 points farms per daily, this is another thing I'd best not absent. Can totally understand since it was hugely packed & players complain they can't even land a hit & receiving rewards due to how congested this content was, though I kinda regret I didn't focus enough time on my previous free logins. ^^;
- Also, due to weekly restriction of spending RoE (Records of Eminence) sparks and Unity accolades implemented some time ago (big thanks to RMT apparently :p ), I need to find quicker option for capping them weekly, and most option still takes time to finish, even more than a day. One of LS member suggested this as a better option, farming this easy VW (Voidwatch) NM since it can spam those 500+ damage hit RoEs:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Dimgruzub (btw, this NM also perfect for upcoming RoE requiring 99999 hit which I've yet unlocked)
Then I realize there's another much faster way, albeit a bit cheating: the power-level camp at Escha Zitah, which at a time can cap this super fast with only like half hour only. There's also another problem which that fast half hour apparently affected by certain double experience campaign or season, because the other day I tried joining for another weekly cap, it grows super slow, nearly similar rate as doing that VW NM spam. Need further investigate.
(btw, these are easy option to make million of gils since a weekly limit roughly equals to 1 million gil, which I really need to)
- Just recently realized that I probably need to hit ambuscade even more to farm normal hallmarks, which I can trade for around 700+ HP-baylds I desperately need for my RUN mythic weapon upgrades. If my RUN mythic weapon ever done, alexandrite still another good option along with HP-bayld, maybe for future GEO mythic, and sap for gallantry which said best for JSE cape upgrade. Also fibers for mummu sets should be enough for +1, just didn't got time to upgrade last time.
- My monster rearing pets thankfully nearly done with already past their final evolution, just need to max-rank them to obtain their memento cheer effect which I really need for job point grinds in future.
- Somehow gotta do this side quest since I have item drop requirements for it, probably not really that important:
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Struck- and old to-do lists (revised):
** BST still need proper i119 wep/head/body pieces, while SAM needs body/legs, & WHM needs wep/head/body/hand/feet. WHM staff from Arke UC should be suffice if it's not in enrage in case someone spamming it. Other option for WHM shield is from Brothers D'Aurphe II loots.
** starts focusing on CP party grinds for 2100 job point (JP) mastery at least. And, according to recent info, still even need further JP for next ultimate relic upgrade as well. Even now with CP bonus event going on, per session only averagely nets me around 50-100 JP. Plan for now at least mastery on RUN then THF.
** Still need to restock dark clusters ASAP, pretty low amount atm.
** Get more mounts from free logins. Too bad current login doesn't have any returning selections.
** As said earlier, RUN ergon still need huge amount of HP-Baylds, around 15k amount of it along with delve drops which also very expensive over market or with delve currencies.
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Quiescence
currently needing: waktza rostrum, cehuetzi claw, verdiigris stone x115, hp-bayld x2445
** With that, really need to unlock rest of Delves
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Yantric_planchette
** BLU spell farms, especially those needed since BLU are best sub-job for RUN.
** and for a really long term runs: job mastery. Even discovered one of LS mate already have their job mastery on all jobs! That's 22 jobs times 2100 JP (job points). Wow....
(reminder that your JP farm still not finished after that since apparently REMA weapons still need further JP to spend with. REMA = Relic/Empyrian/Mythic(Ergon)/Aeonic) ^^;
** Monthly RoE deeds for latest trust, Monbreaux. Need 480 total, but can only do max 40 points monthly.
** good RUN tanking guide for practice
https://www.bg-wiki.com/bg/Rune_Fencer_End-Game_Tank_Guide