Soloing the Primes

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to try soloing the 6 Prime Avatars (the Celestial Avatars) in the "Trial by (element)" quests. Lots of people have done this, but I just wanted to see how I'd fare. I was mostly worried about Garuda and Leviathan, since they can heal themselves, so I thought I'd start out with Titan.

However, I mentioned this in BEB one evening, and Yobun needed Shiva, so my first "solo" ended up being a duo. Yobun didn't really do anything, though. In fact, he sat down to watch after casting one (resisted) spell. This was a good way for me to try out soloing, with a SCH standing by in case it didn't go so well... I did go back a few weeks later for a true Shiva solo, just to keep it consistent with the others.

One the things this exercise reinforced was just how much better the Paladin job is now than it was back in the day. Yobun had tried soloing avatars years ago on his PLD, but had either timed out or been blasted by a two-hour. These days, with the changes to Rampart, Shield Mastery, Sentinel, and new things like Atonement and Reprisal, Paladin really has come into its own. Not to mention there's a lot of really nice gear available now that wasn't around back then.

The fights took from just under 8 minutes (Shiva) to nearly 13 minutes (Leviathan), so they weren't slam dunks by any means, but for most of the fights I never felt like I was in any danger of dying or timing out either. Ramuh proved to put up the biggest fight of the 6, mostly because of his en-stun effect.

I went to each fight as PLD/RDM, for the bar spells as well as innate magic defense bonus. For gear, I wore a hybrid magic reduction set with accuracy where appropriate. Valhalla Helm, Avalon Breastplate, Iron Ram hands and legs, Askar feet, Joyeuse, Ice Shield. I used Parade Gorget to help with MP recovery.

I cast Protect IV, Shell III, and Stoneskin and then rested to full MP before entering the arena. Once inside, I cast Phalanx, and the appropriate bar- and en- spells, then ran up to face the avatar. I didn't recast Stoneskin after it was broken, but in at least one fight, it lasted until the avatar was nearly half-dead. The other buffs I'd reapply when they wore, and would cure myself as needed. I saved Rampart for the Primes' two-hour abilities, which drastically reduced their power:

I would use Atonement whenever I had the TP. I think for Ramuh I did need to use Chivalry, but I didn't run out of MP on any of the other fights. It was a fun "experiment", and I even made 50k gil out of it, and got a Water Belt for my fire kit too!

Still Kicking Around

So where were we? Ah yes, FFXI seems pointless, with marginal improvement for massive effort, etc. I'm not really sure why I stopped blogging for nearly 9 months, but it certainly isn't because I stopped playing. I've been playing pretty much as much as ever.

A few things have changed in the meantime. For starters, TheUltimates no longer exists. We had our last run in June. I think I'm mostly to blame, since I'd been trying to leave for months, and Allia just didn't want to lead it without me there helping out. I had tried not coming on Wednesday nights, but it still wasn't enough.

My Warrior hit 75 around New Year's, and is still a work-in-progress. I've spent a lot of gil on nice gear for it already, though my weapon skill gear could use a bit of work. Merits are coming slowly, but I do have 8/8 in greataxe and 3 of the 4 I want in double attack. I also leveled SAM and DRG for subjobs. I really enjoyed SAM and will probably take it higher one of these days (I left it at 40). THF was at 30, and is only used on rare occassions for Dark Ixion, so I have been a bit slow at "finishing" that. It's sitting at 34 at the moment.

I've been settling in to Salvage a bit better, and am often one of the tanks on WAR. Sure beats being a tag-along like I had been when I could only come PLD. Just last week I finally got my first 35 for the Ares's set - the piece for the mask. It's the only 25 I didn't have, so I still need a drop to complete the piece, but it seems more hopeful now than it ever has. I'm able to make more than one run a week now, which helps too, though often the times I can make runs, we end up cancelling because we have too few people, or are missing a critical job.

I've been very fortunate in Eminence, and have gotten a lot of nice things since I last wrote: Aurum Sabatons, Hermes' Sandals, Martial head, Fenian Ring, Algol, Byakko's Haidate, Genbu's Kabuto, Crimson Cuisses, Valhalla Breastplate, Kirin's Osode. I love my new breastplate. It was our 14th Odin kill that finally dropped it. It's pretty much a kiting or blood-tanking piece with the -5% slow on it, but it is so nice for those situations - with 50 hp, +5 enmity and the highest defense of any of my body pieces. Plus it has a hidden latent effect of Cute +10 when equipped on a Tarutaru with the Valhalla Helm. I had an Avalon Breastplate for awhile, but between the new Iron Ram Hauberk, Valhalla Breastplate and Haubergeon +1, every situation where the Avalon had been useful is covered. I turned it back in to the LS bank after getting my Valhalla a week and a half ago.

I scanned through all my screenshots to try to find something to illustrate this entry, but didn't really find what I was looking for, so I leave you with a happy Kiki in her outfit she stole from Odin.