Social Engineering II

Some time ago, I was a bit bugged with a comment made by a player in-game, and set out to demonstrate a new technique for earning experience in FFXI's Campaign Battle. To do well, it was necessary to secure an enemy combatant and begin the arduous grind of taking it out. Considering that a level 75 Red Mage would need to convert at the time the opponent was just under 50% of it's hit points, it was a challenge, resulting in lots of down time.

Soloing regular "Campaign Mobs" at level 75 is not trivial, and is really only possible due to the job-ability Composure that was added before the level cap began to rise. With Composure, enhancing magic you cast upon yourself increases in duration, which makes more Mana Points available for other functions, like enfeebling the monster. Enhancement and Enfeeblement are the pillars of Red Mage, and the 150 Mana Points delivered by the classic level 40 Refresh spell were quite enough to sustain parties. Composure triples the duration of Refresh cast upon the user, for a total of 450 MP. This is quite an improvement in efficiency on the 40MP it costs to cast Refresh in the first place.

Many adjustments have been made as the level cap as been raised, and for the Red Mage job, one of the nicest has been Refresh II. Twice as effective as the original, Refresh II when under composure, pumps 900 MP into the battle over time. This is enough MP to overflow the MP capacity of my Hume character, even with the MP boost gear and merit points that have been spent on increasing the Max MP. This extra MP also has a new use, as Tier IV Elemental Magic has been released to the Red Mage as the level cap has increased.

Having gone through the 3rd update sequence that included a 5 level increase in the games level cap, I am brushing level 90 as I finish the grind at level 89. The fact that the Red Mage goes through a drought of knowledge at level 88 was enough of a psychological inducement that once I hit level 89, I no longer cared what the cost of a scroll of Blizzard IV was. Not having that scroll represented an increasing opportunity cost. I was somewhat pleased that the price had begun to fall, as one would predict in a supply and demand economy.

The financial hit is considerably small in the grand scheme of things. While it should pain you to spend more than 250,000 of anything, trading game currency for the satisfaction of producing serious elemental damage is a no-brainer, simply because that extra leverage on the battlefield can be used to increase cash flow and ultimately pay for itself. Until then, I'll take the satisfaction of being able to cast the spell.

On that Engineering thing, well, all I can tell you is that there is either a savant on the FFXI development team, or they got really lucky. While I was pleased with the ability to mow down monsters, I was lamenting the lack of strategy. What real effect would I have as a single player soling just one mob all by myself? Eventually, others calmed down, and got into the groove. They too soloed as they bulked up on experience and skill, and soon, taking down the Bosses was something to begin enjoying.

Apparently, they do take game balance seriously at FFXI. They increased the defensive capabilities of both the Beastman and Allied Forces. While it is harder to hit the opposition force, they can also withstand much more damage, as their health level is correspondingly higher as well. While it is still possible for an 85+ Red Mage/White Mage to survive on their own and eliminate pulling mistakes by putting Reraise to use, it was simply not possible to solo any regular Quadav to the point of getting credit for the Defeat. The opposition force would warp out and the battle would end with 25% of the target's strength remaining.

While it is still possible to chain-kill the Fiendish Leechkeepers that provide healing support for the Beastman Confederate, and Baramnesia is a wonderful spell to have when facing Imps of any kind, that kind of damage is not enough to halt the Beastman presence. It is for this reason that most of the last Campaign Period has been seen battles raging the San'doria of Shadowreign. During the current period, it will be the Quadav Shieldwarriors that are spread thin and invading the capital of Rebel Humes and Galkan Powerhouses.

While I continue to puppet my 'toon in support of the Republican Army of Bastok, and the greater service of the Allied Forces of Altana, I have discovered that I can increase my reward by yet again lengthening the battle. The damage output of the Red Mage is high enough that you are constantly capped. You can do more damage and gain experience than you can be credited for, even with a Medal of Altana. Therefore, like before, the length of the battle will determine the total experience that can be awarded.

Should you be fighting in a battle and receive your remuneration, and find that the number of allied notes received is more than half of the experience that you received, you were just involved in a battle, that if you did nothing more, but it lasted longer, you would get a larger reward. With this in mind, started to adopt a new battle strategy, and that being to wait for a dispatch message sending one or more divisions of allied forces into a beastman controlled region.

Now, many players would cringe that it might be just a "fort-whacker" where all you do is beat on the Fortification and get really pittance damage.

Not entirely true. As it would happen, Square has increased the patrol rates for the Beastmen, and this can be discovered by reviewing the "unit movements" with your local intelligence officer. You will soon discover that certain units of the Beastman Confederate are primarily responsible for particular zones. Look at these units to see if there is activity in the zone, or, if you're relaxing in the barracks, just watch the dispatch reports.

Once you see the message that Allied forces are being dispatched to a nice zone, all you really need to do is know one of the paths that the incoming troops will be taking, and set up a solo session right in their path. If you find yourself off center, just drag your target mob along with you, until the supporting army attacks. Position yourself so that the mob continues to face you, and the army is left or right, so that the mob will be facing the target with greater hate.

Once the mob is steadily on the army, disengage from the target and run back to the fortification for another beastman. Try for a single one, and if you get two, well, sleep the second one as you solo the first. At level 85, this should be second nature to a Red Mage. Pull the mobs within the aggression zone of the arriving army members. Once they finish the first mob, they will glomb on to the next. As more NPC's arrive, the damage output of the army will be such that they can handle double-pulls as fast as you can bring them.

The goal here would be to keep the NPC's happily chewing on one or two regular campaign mobs, as you move the army into easy pulling/striking distance. After feeding them everything but the boss(es), you could either let them loose, or pull a boss. Using this method, don't be surprised if you need to recast Reraise.

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FFXI GOM - Goal Oriented Management

Yes, I play what many would be considered an aging MMO. Considering that fact that I have explored perhaps 15% of the entire game in the time that I have been playing, I'd say that it is aging rather gracefully. I only hope that I do the same.

That being said, I am also one of the less party-prone players in the game, and this has me at somewhat of a disadvantage. Beastmaster would be the job choice for most such as I, however, I do like the swiss-army knife of options that Red Mage brings to the table, and so, this is my high-level job. Weidling either dagger or sword give the Red Mage a number of options in the weapon skill department.

Recently, a fellow player was coerced into obtaining their Sapara of Trials, which once used enough, will earn you the right to fight a Notorius Monster. Once said NM is defeated, you can gather a special key item that will unlock a new and more powerful weapon skill. How the use builds up on the Sapara of Trials (and other trial methods) is simple. You get a point for using a weapon skill. If it closes a first-level skill-chain (follows a combining skill used by another player) you get two points. If you are the 3rd player to use a compatible skill in a chain, that adds another element, you get 3 points, and if you are the 4th player that adds yet another element, you can get 5 points for the effort.

Now, consider the fact that you can fire a weapon skill after amassing 100 or more Technique or Tactical Points, with a maximum of 300 TP. Yes, it takes three times as many strikes or damage taking opportunities to achieve 300TP as it does to achieve 100TP, so, if you were alone, you would want to fire a weapon skill every time >=100TP was available. If you have someone to open the skill chain, and they can generate TP faster than you can, then it makes sense to close skill chains rather than solo them, and it will take half the time. On the other hand, if you find yourself waiting till you have 200TP before your partner opens the skill chain, you're not much better than if you were solo.

When choosing a skill chain or a weapon skill to fire, it is advisable to use skills that are skill chain compatible. If you are tackling mobs that meet the minimum required Easy Prey, and you can handle them comfortably, then milking them for TP is well advised. Apply these rules to your battle as long as you can handle it.

• choose a low damage weapon skill or skill chain


• let your weapon do the damage


• avoid DOT spells (Dia, Bio, Poison, Choke, Rasp . . . )


• minimize casting to maximize weapon use


• letting the mob heal will make more skill activations per mob


• take damage now and again to get more TP

Using these techniques, I was able to break the latent effects on both the Sapara of Trials and the Dagger of Trials. While there is an arduous set of steps necessary to access the Sapara NM for unlocking the weapon skill, there is a NM that spawns in the zone that is highly sought after. These NM hunters were kind enough to offer assistance, and hence my success at acquiring Savage Blade.

Evisceration was acquired without ever firing a skill chain, leading to the discovery that only attacks that land on the opponent are counted. My record keeping recorded 317 weapon skill activations, which was 17 over the requisite 300. Missing 17 of 300 indicates and accuracy of 94.33%, so feel free to budget accordingly: forget to record one every 20 activations.

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