I <3 Chigoes!!!! (shield/parry skillup)

[arkaine23]

Ok, so maybe I'm weird because I just love those sneaky little bugs. Here's what I did for a few hours this Saturday in Caederva Mire:

RDM75/BLM37
I was using a Joytoy/Tariqah and generally high def/attack melee gear. First off, Phalanx pwns Chigoes. It drops their dmg to mostly 0, except for crits. They tend to spawn in groups of 3, in a few places near tunnels, and of course will drop off the sheep and also marids. So I found a spawn spot and picked up 1 or 2 chigoes for practice. I engaged a nearby Caederva Leech, but kept back so I never attacked it (this often meant disengaging when it moved close to me), while getting the chigoes to face me. Maintain the following buffs: Stoneskin/Phalanx/Aquaveil/Regen/Protect IV/Refresh. It helps if your enhancing magic is capped for interrput purposes. The most dangerous thing is to lose Phalanx so I recast it pretty much every other stonesking and aquaveil every 3rd or 4th stoneskin. /war could give defender, and I suppose you could use +vit gear and eat tacos, but I didn't need to. /blm gave me sleepga which was like insurance for when I needed to Convert. These buggers don't miss, so -eva gear is not necessary for good skillup rate.

Anybody who knows chigoes, knows they attack VERY fast. They don't seem to have a TP move, although there are times they seem to go into hyper mode and do a flurry of attacks faster than normal. Well after practicing on one, then two, I moved on to three. I raised my Shield skill from 98 to 171 and my parry from 97 to 134 in just a few hours. People passing thru often stopped to help the crazy red mage being beat on by 3 chigoes, but they respawned pretty quick so I was back up and going in no time even if good samaritans killed my skillup mobs. Guess seeing me in a more or less constant block/parry animation freaked some people out lol.

Next on the agenda is to gear up some +agi and come back with an earth staff and my chevoit cape/jelly ring. That should get parry caught up to shield in no time. And after that play with korrigans in the boyahda tree and spiders in dragon's aery to hopefully get these skills even close to the cap.

Double Post Edited:
Oh and btw, the stretch from 165-171 on sheild was pretty slow so I seem to have hit the skill cap for what chigoes have to offer.

[Omni]

very interesting! i'd love to raise parry however, if what you say is true and the skill ups start slowing down past 170, then it looks like i dont have much room to raise parry :( currently at 164. anyhow, great info!

[arkaine23]

Maurishe in Boyahda should take us to 175 and we can get maybe up to 8 on us with dmg -% gear, defender, and tacos. Korrigans to maybe 185 and we can do up to 2 at once I think. The spiders in dragon's aery would take it a little higher via the same method, but should only be fought one at a time. And I think puks in Ifrit's Cauldron might be next after that, also one at a time.

Skilling up parry and shield to cap is probably the single best way to improve your soloing ability. Shield seems to proc 2x as much as parry when both are at the same skill level, and reduces damage a little more thanks to the recent update.

Just logged after picking up 3 levels of parry on my lunchbreak. :D Did the same method vs 3 chigoes again, but this time weilding a Earth Staff, for parry skillup only.

Sheild 171/189, Parry 137/200

[Omni]

when i'm playing lowbie jobs where my parry is capped, it's pretty damn nice. i was playing blu the other day (lv. 8) even at this level, you parry quite often. on avg, 2-4 times a fight. which is pretty damn nice considering its 100% dmg avoidance.

i need to find some defensive gear, chigoe eat me up pretty fast.

[Aeni]

Thanks for this info! I have a Taru PLD friend who's shield skill is woefully behind (Don't ask ... why) and he's 74 atm. I'll tell him about this to raise his skill. I'm sure he'll be elated... lol.

[Jei]

hmm sounds like fun o.O thanks for the info.
now i gotta find some safe spot with a few of these things.

[arkaine23]

Some monks in my LS were talking about skilling up thier guard skill when I mentioned my masochistic chigoe encounters. Chigoes unfortunately have a propensity to be squished and instantly die from crit hits. I'm not sure if counter attack can critical, (leaning heavily towards yes), but counters would kill them off on its own after awhile. This could still work for say a mnk/rdm, it just might be a bit slower due to killing the chigoe with counters. I might try it after I get guard up to around 100 on mandies in the jungles. Heck, I might try it as mnk/war and pop defender & tacos, and just ask a red mage or white mage friend to cure bot me while I stand there engaged to something else and provoke spam a chigoe.

I'd think most other jobs @ 75 could /rdm (with capped enhancing onry plz) and phalanx/stoneskin/aquaveil/regen/protect II + defensive gears and food + juice and any applicable defensive JA's and still take on 1 chigoe for a good while in relative safety while engaged to a distant mob. Just um, bring a friend as backup in case things go south lol.

[Icemage]

Without native Enhancing Magic, Phalanx will get interrupted a lot, so I think only RDM, WHM, and PLD can really make any use of this trick. Blue mages might be able to do so as well. BLM could, but they have no skill in either Shield or Parry.


Icemage

[Tirrock]

Counter attacks can critical (and they seem to do so often...but I'm a cat with crit merits), but the damage message doesn't change. It'll just say something like 72 damage on the counter attack instead of 40.

[little ninja]

i didnt have much luck with parry skills on those little fleas. but i did find a good method was to find players fighting sheep, then pull the little buggers when they attacked the other guy. if i remember correctly i was in the tunnel just before the sheep, an thats where i Ra them to,

[Aeni]

Without native Enhancing Magic, Phalanx will get interrupted a lot, so I think only RDM, WHM, and PLD can really make any use of this trick. Blue mages might be able to do so as well. BLM could, but they have no skill in either Shield or Parry.


Icemage

How about those equipment that have reduced % of interruption? Does that help significantly?

[Icemage]

How about those equipment that have reduced % of interruption? Does that help significantly?

Not really. Helps some, but subbed Phalanx only gives you -10 damage per hit (-11 with an Enhancing Torque). By comparison my WHM/RDM with AF2 boots gets -24 damage from Phalanx, and a fully decked out RDM can hit -28 with AF, Enhancing Torque and Augmenting Earring.

My experience with it has been that if any damage manages to get through, your spell interrupt chances go way up, especially when you have no base magic skill, which means even recasting Phalanx while it's still active will be a huge chore (aside from MP problems... ).

I fought a Chigo a couple days ago, and it was able to interrupt my cast of Phalanx even with 240 Enhancing Magic. Had to Flash it to get Phalanx back up.


Icemage

[Omni]

has anyone noticed that these little guys are 'weak' to critical hits? if i whack at it with katanas, i do ~80-100 dmg each swing. it'll take me around 15 hits or so to kill one but i noticed when i land a critical on it, the hp bar of the chigoe just drops real fast. i thought i was seeing things but i noticed this b/c i would kill one of them in 3 hits and be like huh? that doesnt add up....

[Muu Yi]

About skilling up Guarding, it's been awhile since I've jumped on my Monk job. But I seem to remember getting guard skillups once or twice when being attacked by aggressive Goblins in low level areas without being engaged. I could be wrong, but if my memory is correct then maybe you can go as Monk/White Mage Protect and Stoneskin up, then aggro them with Banish, then just face them without engaging so Counter doesn't go off?

As far as Phalanx interruption problems go, maybe this shield will help some?:

http://ffxi.somepage.com/itemdb/7471

Usable by lots of other shield-wielding job too. Maybe I'll just try soloing one for the time being on my Thief. Not a great need for me to get too zealous for shield and parrying skillups just yet. ^^;

[Icemage]

The problem with that shield is that it has a 10 minute reuse timer, while Phalanx only lasts 3 minutes. Not practical for this purpose.


Icemage

[ClydeArrowny]

You can always carry 4 or 5 and cycle them. When exping my war I always take along ~10 haste belts, not because of the reuse timer, but the low charges. Most people also carry multiple warp cudgels since it has that 21 hour or whatever cooldown.

[Aeni]

You can always carry 4 or 5 and cycle them. When exping my war I always take along ~10 haste belts, not because of the reuse timer, but the low charges. Most people also carry multiple warp cudgels since it has that 21 hour or whatever cooldown.

Requires a ton of inventory space. You better pray you won't need to swap in tanking gear in place of your TP gear if the main tank in PT goes down (Or similar situations)

[Balfree]

Nice to know!

I found a SMN holding a marid, just so the PLD could get the chigoes, he didnt engage and he was curing himself stading around, after much amazement at him taking 5-50 dmg, i eventually got a chigoe after my ass, as as rdm 62.. i was pretty much bug food, so chainspelled and warped the Eff outta there.

Good info for the future ^^

[Icemage]

True story: I was looking for the Staging Point in Caevarva Mire last night and ran across 3 dead bodies a short way from town.

Me: o.O. {Do you need any help?}
Them: {Yes, please.} {Danger.} Chigo!
Me: BRB

Go back to town, switch to WHM/RDM, come back out with Stoneskin/Protect 4/Phalanx/Blaze Spikes up, turn off Sneak and get attacked for 0 repeatedly while casting Raise 3. They're like "Whoah" after they see me take around 70 hits for 0. :P

Gotta love Phalanx + 25% physical damage reduction.


Icemage

[Apple Pie]

This (http://grendal.sppd.ne.jp/FF11/diary/200605/02/chigoe.wmv) is not a normal Chigoe but NM for the quest "The Prankster" at Aht Urhgan Whitegate. Normal ones don't have Hundred Fists unlike this NM but they seem to have triple attack and shorter attack interval. What is more, their attack accuracy is crazy although they are EP. Even NIN75/THF37 with a lot of EVA gears cannot stand for a long time because shadows are taken off immediately.

However, each hit isn't hard and Phalanx works perfect against them like RDM in Ballista against Daggers and Katanas for example.

I am not sure how high their LVs are but it is said that those in Bhaflau Thickets and Wajaom Woodlands are at LV71-73. If this is true, they will helps to increase our parrying skill to 196 and shield skill to 185 very quickly. Korrigans at The Boyahda Tree will iventually cap both skills since some are EM.

I usually go to Den of Rancor for Pucks (LV74-77) unless Elshimo Uplands are controlled by beastmans because the outpost is very close. Tough ones hit very hard and just be careful not letting them link.

BTW, Spartan Hoplon is a good one although they don't look great :o . It seems to reduce around 20 damage per hit.

[Aeni]

I usually go to Den of Rancor for Pucks (LV74-77) unless Elshimo Uplands are controlled by beastmans because the outpost is very close. Tough ones hit very hard and just be careful not letting them link.

I meant no disrespect for saying you are crazy to suggest Pucks. LOL They are evil. There's a reason those burnt onions come with such piercing lamps for eyes... *cowers in fear*

[LadyPeorth]

Blue Mage actually does have a Parrying ranking, capped at a D skill.

However, I don't see a BLU working too well against the little fleas. No shield skill to speak of and no Phalanx spell to cast.

[FortMan]

This (http://grendal.sppd.ne.jp/FF11/diary/200605/02/chigoe.wmv) is not a normal Chigoe but NM for the quest "The Prankster" at Aht Urhgan Whitegate. Normal ones don't have Hundred Fists unlike this NM but they seem to have triple attack and shorter attack interval. What is more, their attack accuracy is crazy although they are EP. Even NIN75/THF37 with a lot of EVA gears cannot stand for a long time because shadows are taken off immediately.

However, each hit isn't hard and Phalanx works perfect against them like RDM in Ballista against Daggers and Katanas for example.

Off topics: Yeap, Phalanx + Ice Spikes + Def food = dead Plague Chigoe. I'm still not sure what dealt more damage, spikes or melee ^^; This, combined with the fact that it can be slept make the fight quite easy for us RDM. EnAspir attack can be a pain, though.

And welcome back Grendal ^^

[Dragonsword]

Indeed Apple Pie's suggestion of Pucks is very nice as a zone line is nearby and in case of trouble, just run to zone =P.

Nevertheless, it appears this Chigoe is good as it attacks much faster and hence skilll up way faster. Its funny to see many rdm forums are spreading the news, I trust rdm always seek to better themselves.

[arkaine23]

Ok, I've been working on Morioche's, Korrigans, and Bark Tarantula's at the tree. I think the chigoes spoiled me, because the skillups are of course much slower. My Shield seems capped agaist the Moriche. I had 9 of them on me and was using parry+ and agi+ gear with earth staff, plus defender and tacos and the usual buffs. Got a couple of Parry levels, and finally decided to blaze spikes and start fighting back. Was pretty funny to watch. ^^

Worked over some Korrigans, one at a time. Not too difficult, but interrupt rate on Stoneskin is pretty bad, even with aquaveil up, and I have 2 merits on interrupt rate and capped skill. ; ; Might have to rethink gear and add interrupt -% swap on my stoneskin casts if I hope to take on two of them at a time.

Against a T spider things got a little hairy. I melee'd it the whole time which was probably a bad idea- acid breath lowers def and eats SS, and we all have got to <3 Sickle Slash. Wound up converting midway through the fight. Got a link too. >< I'd changed tactics to disengaging to Sleep, then stoneskin by that point, and with the link and no sleepga, I had quite an adventure keeping one asleep while sleep/nuking the other to death. 200 limit points each! wohoo!

Skillup's are not bad on the Korrigan's. Just got to come up with a tactic/gear combination to handle two at once without a lot of risk, but I'm starting to doubt enough intterupt -% gear exists to accomplish this. I guess ice spikes might turn the tables a little vs 2 Korrigans in my favor at the cost of some skillup rate.

Shield 178 Parry 148 sans gear


Also note: Plague Chigoe = pwned but no skillups like I was hoping for, and enaspir is really lame

[WishMaster3K]

Thanks for the info guys.

Omni, the only gear that comes to mind for NIN would be Arhats +1. I'm not sure what NINs can really use, but my friend tanked Faust using damage-% as a NIN. NIN/RDM might do this well, but I'm not 100% sure. The Parry Knifes wouldn't hurt either >.>;

[Omni]

yea arhats gi, arhats jinpachi, jelly ring, and...... i think thats about it... cant recall anything else. then sub rdm for stoneskin and phalanx. :(

parry really is awesome if you have it capped. /sigh~

[Aeni]

Indeed Apple Pie's suggestion of Pucks is very nice as a zone line is nearby and in case of trouble, just run to zone =P.

Dunno about you, but if you got a very bad link (read: gangbanged) on those pucks, you're screwed if you're caught up with a group of them. Hence my comments about it being crazy idea. I think those con Ts to a 75 IIRC (I was in there as a 72 DRK and they were VT to me)

[Dragonsword]

The Pucks can be located at:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/dragon_rdm/den-of-rancor_pucks.jpg

Indeed, we need to be very careful but fortunately zone line is close. I have seen Apple Pie farming in Castle Z Centre High Platform vs T mobs, so I have little doubt on his little dare adventure here, :lol .

But without doubt, I will try out the Chigoes and then may go thru tougher mobs at later stage.

[Prefect]

Since the Chigoes cap at 171 shield, given that RDM has F in shield, that would mean they cap at level 66. So you can get the E-ranked parry up to 182.

[Zempten]

wait, so you can get parrying up to 182 on Chigoe?

[Vyuru]

What is more, their attack accuracy is crazy although they are EP. Even NIN75/THF37 with a lot of EVA gears cannot stand for a long time because shadows are taken off immediately

I'm a bit confused as to why people say the chigoe are really accurate, their accuracy seems about the same as any other DC mob that I might solo as a dragoon. I started soloing the chigoe and the other bugs down in the adayasomething subterrane at about... lvl 64 I think. They seem to miss me just fine, it's just that they have a very fast attack rate, and a triple attack that kicks in every now and then.

But yes, they are GREAT for parry/evasion skillups, exp, and kindred seals! :D

[Aeni]

I'm a bit confused as to why people say the chigoe are really accurate, their accuracy seems about the same as any other DC mob that I might solo as a dragoon. I started soloing the chigoe and the other bugs down in the adayasomething subterrane at about... lvl 64 I think. They seem to miss me just fine, it's just that they have a very fast attack rate, and a triple attack that kicks in every now and then.

But yes, they are GREAT for parry/evasion skillups, exp, and kindred seals! :D

People think chigoes are accurate. They are not. But they hit with such frequency that it's more of a "put out a hundred blows and at least one will land" mentality. Mandies are similar, in that they don't have great accuracy either, but they hit quickly so that a NIN's shadows get eaten before they can recast.