[Srxjo]

Whats the best BCNM to drop Utsusemi: Ni?

[KoukiRyu]

Here ya go buddy, I'd recommend bookmarking this site btw. It has any info you will -EVER- need about FFXI. ^^

http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Utsusemi:_Ni

[Srxjo]

i use it all the time but never knew it recorded that so ans so bcnm is like a 50% drop rate, etc

[Sabaron]

You will be doing BCNM40: Royal Jelly.

This BCNM is incredibly easy. The drop rate is quite good and you can also get Erase or the occasional (read: Rare) Archer's Ring which buys many Scrolls of Utsusemi: Ni.

The standard setup is as follows:

2 x Melee DD (with adequately-skilled Ranged Weapons preferably)
1 x Healer (This is either a RDM or WHM with Black Mage sub. The technique employed by the mages differs.)

The DD's start at one end of the "moon" and the Mage starts at the other. The DD's will tag-team each Princess Jelly in turn around the ring. The mage will use Gravity and/or Bind to slow down the jellies at the end of the ring. Elemental Seal is used on the first Bind for either RDM or WHM, but the RDM will start with Gravity which is much more effective than Bind (even with Elemental Seal). Each time a Bind or Gravity recast timer comes up, you will use the appropriate spell on the Jelly closest to the center. I recommend the mage stand at the center to better discern distance using an overhead view. The Mage also has curative duty, of course, and WHMs should keep 2x Haste up to compensate for the lack of Gravity. It should not be necessary to use Refresh drinks, but you may bring a beverage (ether-type potions or Yagudo Drink) if you want to hedge your bets. RDM needs to run away before using Convert as RDM will generally have hate on a few of the spellcasting Jellies.

One of the Jellies (the Earth Jelly) casts Bind itself. This is where the Ranged Attack comes into play. If a DD gets bound, he should revert to his ranged weapon when out of range while Bind is in effect.

[Taskmage]

About how often does Ni drop from royal jelly, Sabaron?

[Sabaron]

It drops "ok". I got mine in 3 runs (120 seals) and I got Erase as well. I also briefly tasted the Archer's Ring, but my giddy dumbfoundedness turned into idiocy when I Warped out before it dropped in my inventory. Ever since then, every time someone I know goes on a BCNM run I always say this:

1. QUARTERMASTER!!!

2. (Make sure you have space in your inventory for at least 8 items.)

The primary reason you do this particular BCNM is that it's so easy that almost no one ever fails it even on their first try and the drop rate is quite good (as good as you can get for a scroll of this one's rather considerable value. Some (I think 4) of my LS mates and I have obtained our Ni scrolls in this way although one had fantastically bad luck... I would expect that you'd see at least 1 scroll every 3-6 runs (-ish). We run it during Full Moons as we do with all BCNMs--I don't know if that actually does anything, but at least it feels like it does.

The Wiki classifies Utsusemi: Ni as a "Rare" drop in this BCNM--of course, it rather unhelpfully does not quantify the relative percentages in even a very rudimentary sense. Archer's Ring in this BCNM is probably around Peacock Charm drop rate of 5% or just slightly lower and is classified as "Very Rare", so I'd say your "worst" chance would be something like 1/8 with my estimate hovering very very shakily around 1/6.

Utsusemi: Ni drops in the 30 and 40 cap BCNMs and is quite rare in the 30s.

Taking a look at the 40 caps:

Under Observation: If you've got the right setup and are fairly well practiced, I would probably do this one in lieu of Royal Jelly, not for the scroll, but for the Peacock Charm.

Undying Promise: I've never heard of anyone attempting this one. The drops look rather mediocre compared to UO and RJ. I'm not really looking at the Ni drop rate here (just assuming that it's roughly similar for the 40 caps and lower for the 30 caps), but I am looking at the nice thing that can drop from the BCNM.

RJ is easier than UO and is much less stringent on party setup requirements.

[Taskmage]

I've done Undying Promise a few times. It's really pretty easy with a mnk or I guess pup now for DD and a healer that knows how to ration their mp. Pretty much any tank will work. You're right that the drops are pretty lackluster compared to other BCNM40s though. In the three runs I went on we barely got 100k in drops iirc, and that was back when Ni was well over a million gil and Phalanx and Erase were actually worth something.

Under Observation is what I usually do. I think in 15 runs we've seen 3 Ni scrolls drop total, so the drop rate seems to be about 20%. Then again we got 2 PCCs in our first 9 runs, which is way ahead of the estimated 10% drop rate, so this really isn't a large enough sample to draw statistical conclusions from.

[Neomage]

Off Topic, Taskmage do you have an auto-updating signature that changes whenever you switch jobs? At first I thought you just made several sigs and switched them whenever, but they've been changing from SAM to WHM to BLU and back again alot lately, and that'd be way to much hassle for me to change manually :/

[Taskmage]

It's a php script Stromgarde showed me: Signature discussion

I have a handful of sigs and the script randomly chooses between them everytime you load the page.

[Aksannyi]

Every time I've ever done Royal Jelly, it's made much more sense for one melee to go right and the other to go left, while the mage stands in the middle and tosses out cures as necessary. Sometimes the queen comes out and sometimes she doesn't, but it's very easy either way.

[Raydeus]

For MP conservation and debuffing purposes having the 2 DD melee 1 jely at a time has worked better for me.

I only have to toss 1 Dia at a time and since the mob only hits 1 of the DD your healing gets cut by half, which lets you use that MP for other stuff (compared to 2 DD getting hit at the same time).

I never see the Queen because I just spam Bind, and Gravity on a jelly with the extra mp.

Easy win 99% of the time.

[Sabaron]

I've never had a problem with this NM. It's very newbie friendly. We stick with the two-on-one strategy and I've never had a jelly reach the center. Of course, I'm a RDM. The faster a jelly dies, the sooner it isn't spamming spells, so I like them to die faster--it uses less of my mp for cures. The setups I've been in have either been RNG/NIN, SAM/NIN, RDM/BLM or WAR/NIN, SAM/NIN, RDM/BLM. It's fast, it's easy, and you'll be back at the circle resting before your Convert timer is up. You have two melee two hours to use in case things get hairy, and with RDM, you can do three-on-one near the end to easily seal the deal (I use a Buzzard Tuck with Enfire).

[Aksannyi]

Well the reason I've always had the melees go one-on-one is that Bind almost never sticks when I do this BCNM and it turns out to be a waste of MP. There isn't much I can do in terms of extra enfeebling magic skill at that level, so I've found it much easier to toss cures. Most of the time my party members are /NIN anyway, which makes it very easy for us to win.

[Srxjo]

ok now after a long time i finaly got my Stonega II to drop off the Orcish Warlord thanks to my lvl 75 THF friend i'm planning on doing UO all i have to do is find another BLM to run with me and my friend, wish me luck

[Taskmage]

Good luck.

I was wondering why you were asking about that NM ..