Astral rings

[Jokerboy1]

Yea i think thats how u spell them

but are they worth it? I mean i can get them in teh AH.. but there goes all my money =(

But im a elvn smner.. so it would be good to get them and my RSE rite?

i got two of the peices..

but im jsut wondering if its worth buying them.. or should i wait to 40 and get the other rings?

and i herd there was a quest to get the ring.. can someone tell me how/ req/lvl i should be at... oh and my fame lvl to plz?

Thanks it would be alot of help

~Ryjin

[neighbortaru]

well, they are very nice at 10-30, but after that, I'd say just wait for the electrums.

2 BCNMs drop the astral ring: BCNM50 Treasures and Tribulations and BCNM20 Wings of Fury.

[Jokerboy1]

how do i do the BCNM 20?

[Icemage]

Astral Rings are pretty good for SMN between level 10 and level 40. After that you get Electrum Rings which pretty much serve the same purpose (5MP less converted per, but that's not significant).

Should be noted that the drop rate for Astral Ring is pretty iffy on both of those BCs. Roughly 1/3 for each successful attempt, and Treasures and Tribulations is worse because 2/3 of the time you get a Mimic instead of a treasure chest which will most likely smoke you (so really 1 in 9 for that BC). Best advice: Find some SMN or BST friends and go in with Aerial Blasts blazing to win Wings of Fury.


Icemage

[neighbortaru]

level cap is 20.
Trade 20 Beastman Seals to get an orb from the guy in P. Jeuno.
head to Horalis Peak and trade the orb to enter the battle field.

[SharMarali]

Just in case you need further proof that you CAN do without astral rings...

I'm an elvaan mage, and I always have been. I've played XI for almost 2 and a half years.

I've never, ever, ever, EVER owned an astral ring. Ever. Not even one.

I have RDM at 75, SMN at 73, BLM at 41, and WHM at 40. I put forth the effort to learn to play without astrals at low levels and it eventually became more of an "I'm determined never to own an astral ring" thing than an "omg astral rings are so expensive" thing... Heh.

Eventually, I did upgrade my other (non-evoker's) ring to an ether ring, only because I was sick and tired of looking at the electrum ring after all this time.

Bottom line, yea, astrals are nice to have. No, you won't be a bad mage (EVEN AS AN ELVAAN!) if you don't have them.

[Jokerboy1]

lol people alwase look down on my when im my blm.. or my smner =/

I got my Blm to 32, and my smn is at 20 rite now. but heh.. people tell me i will never live up to a taru, or hume or anything else.. thats half way decent in mage classes.. . =/ its kinda sad.. and after awile it just kinda makes me want to quit =(

but ugh... screw it.! im not gonna give up. yea screw getting astral rings.

I think ima be like u SharMarali =D i dont need them =D

[SharMarali]

Hehe... Truthfully, the MP difference *can* be pretty heinous at early levels. The higher you get though, the less difference it makes. Sure, a taru SMN with similar equipment to myself would have ~200 MP more than I have (I know one taru SMN who never has any gil who actually has LESS MP than me ^^; ) ..But when you have over 1000 MP, does 200 more really seem to make that much difference? You're never at full during a PT anyway, and you're USUALLY never empty either.

Just ignore the naysayers and do what you think is fun ^^

[Jokerboy1]

lol it makes sence ^_^ and i will thank u

[Bahamut Kaiser]

SharMarali is right, after parties start making good use of mages ballad, refresh and juices, MP max isn't nearly as important. Having an additional 200 mp will mean they can do an extra BP or two, but they will also slow the party down trying to regain it. After lvl 41, MP is focal around how fast you can get it back instead of how much you have to start with, and an elvaan can regenerate his MP at the same speed as a taru.

[nanatsu]

Well, I don't think it matters if you have more or less at that point really. Sure you have more MP to regain with an additional 200 mp, but no one says the party has to wait for you to regain that mp. As long as you can conserve your mp enough to keep the chain going it's not neccessary for you to rest until you have a full mp bar. If you're able to refill it completely without necessarily causing more downtime than anyone else then that's excellent.

[ln14jr]

Forget astrals and just get pies and juices. These are cheaper and will come in more handy than astral rings any day.

[Ayrlie]

3 words: overpriced, overrated, and overhyped.

fasting ring and energy ring will suit fine from 15-40, where you can use electrums that you can get for 1/10th of the cost. fasting ring you can get for free, the energy ring costs about 20k. when i'm equipped I only got 166 HP at level 15 - if I use astral ring I would only have 136 HP. Its not good when you're at a point where you're doing flies and you will die if it spams cursed sphere. If you pull hate you're also screwed.

[Gwynn]

3 words: overpriced, overrated, and overhyped.

fasting ring and energy ring will suit fine from 15-40, where you can use electrums that you can get for 1/10th of the cost. fasting ring you can get for free, the energy ring costs about 20k. when i'm equipped I only got 166 HP at level 15 - if I use astral ring I would only have 136 HP. Its not good when you're at a point where you're doing flies and you will die if it spams cursed sphere. If you pull hate you're also screwed.

Um... Actually you'd have 141 HP with 1 Astral, and 116 HP with 2 Astral... unless I'm not understanding something in your post ^^;

[Jei]

I've played FFXI for 3+ years. All 4 chars I've played have at least a 50+ mage job. And I never own a single astral ring.

I HATE astral rings. It's the reason I couldn't find my OZ coffer for weeks, spending over 50 hours for my AF body. And every fricking THF I met in OZ had like 10+ Astral Rings in their bazaar. I got sooo close to openning my coffer once when it popped in the middle of the pool. I ran into it aggro all parasites, and while I was trying to target the chest, a THF flee'd in and open it and let me die.

It made me so sick and I sweared I'd never ever buy astral in my life time.

The ring no longer is obtained from OZ, but doesn't matter. I still hate it. If BCNM drops it i'll throw it away.

[Kittyneko]

To Jei:
I think youre a little bit overreacting here.. The only reason why many Thiefs would have an Astral Ring would be because theyre rich enough to craft it, or have the needed skills for the specific BCNMs. Astral Ring is very helpfull, not yet THAT good.. i mean 25 mp is usually like 1, maybe 2 spells.. (yea i know 1 spell more can save your life, okay.) But like said by someone else earlier, theres enough other equipment to get MP at various levels and I dont think you will suck as mage without an Astral Ring. Though, if I would finally level my mage jobs higher I wouldnt mind an Astral Ring. And if I get it through a BCNM or something similiar I would just sell it and appreciate the gil I get for it :). All that Astral Ring is, is another item of the game, nothing more. Maybe more helpfull then other rings.. but nothing too special.

[LadyPeorth]

Just wait till Electrums. If anyone voices a complaint, ignore them.

[Gobo]

I borrowed Astral Rings from someone for like 5 lvls on SMN, until I could wear electrum and there really wasnt much differece than when I didnt wear them. Plus the HP loss can get pretty scary at lower lvls. Astrals are never needed, esp at the prices they are now. Did all 3 promys in Saintly rings on my SMN and proud of it :p.



About the castle oztroja astrals, pre-patch:
Those were the bain of RDMs existance. Sure BRDs and DRKs had coffers there (THFs too, but they'd just pick a coffer and be on their way), but the best piece of RDM AF was in those coffers. I spent way too long in the castle trying to get the coffer. Every thf and their grandmother were in Castle Oztroja hunting coffers because Astrals were their source of gil and that was the only place to get them. And to see thfs flee and run up right has you target the coffer was so annoying. Until they moved the astrals to the BCs, I really detested astrals cause they made my life so miserable ingame.

[Jei]

sweet - astral ring can never be crafted. For over 2 years, the only way to obtain them was by OZ coffer. Same coffer some jobs need AF from.