Endgame Activities

[Greylynx]

I am working my way through the upper 60's now, and am starting to think about endgame. Since I have never done any of it before, I wanted to ask my fellow dragoons for some direction. Here are my thoughts so far:

1) Dynamis. Probabally my first choice. I am not too impressed with the relic armor but it would be fun to collect anyway. My only question regarding this is how often the armor drops. Will I be doing dynamis for 6 months or 6 years before I complete the relic armor?

2) Limbus. Don't know anything about this..... is it worth doing?

3) HNMLS. No. Don't have the time or the energy for a second job. Applications, interviews, required attendance, required times.... I don't know why people do it.

4) Salvage. Seems like DRG is a great job for salvage, but the big rewards (read: Ares Set) is to hard to obtain near as I can tell. Anything else a DRG can get from this? As a side benefit I assume salvage LSes do Assaults, which I enjoy doing.

I know as a DRG I might have a hard time getting into a LS for these things, but I'm not worried about that right now. Assuming that I can do all these things, which ones have you all had fun and success with?

[Mog]

I am working my way through the upper 60's now, and am starting to think about endgame. Since I have never done any of it before, I wanted to ask my fellow dragoons for some direction. Here are my thoughts so far:

1) Dynamis. Probabally my first choice. I am not too impressed with the relic armor but it would be fun to collect anyway. My only question regarding this is how often the armor drops. Will I be doing dynamis for 6 months or 6 years before I complete the relic armor?


Seeing as how you're a dragoon, you won't have that much competition for drops. However, drop rates in dynamis are very rare. You could end up with as many as 10 drops in one session, or not get anything at all.


2) Limbus. Don't know anything about this..... is it worth doing?


Limbus, IMO, is worth it. You can obtain your AF + 1 here among other great equips ( brutal earring, boxer's mantle, loquacious earring, etc. ) I got my loquacious earring there and I haven't taken it off ever since I got it.


3) HNMLS. No. Don't have the time or the energy for a second job. Applications, interviews, required attendance, required times.... I don't know why people do it.


I feel the same way. It's too much time and energy, and I really don't think I'm going to get much from hunting sky gods when I already have most of the equipment I need.


4) Salvage. Seems like DRG is a great job for salvage, but the big rewards (read: Ares Set) is to hard to obtain near as I can tell. Anything else a DRG can get from this? As a side benefit I assume salvage LSes do Assaults, which I enjoy doing.


Don't know too much about salvage, but as far as I know, it will take you a very long time to obtain something here. I still don't know anybody on seraph with a piece of Morrigans.


I know as a DRG I might have a hard time getting into a LS for these things, but I'm not worried about that right now. Assuming that I can do all these things, which ones have you all had fun and success with?

I personally think you'd have a really fun time with limbus though. It requires at least a party, and doesn't take that much organization, as opposed to HNMls activities. Me and my friends formed a limbus linkshell, and we've been getting about 10 ancienct beastcoins per run. Not only can you put them toward your AF+1, but you can sell them for nice money ( 30k per ). Only thing though is that you need sea access, so I would suggest getting a good static before you worry about limbus.

[Skoal]

Just wanted to add something about limbus. Homam set. It has some pretty nice pieces for drg.

[Malacite]

Ares set is freaking amazing for DRG, but good luck getting your hands on even one piece >. <

Still, Salvage is a very fun mini-game. As for Dynamis, I'd at least try to get the helm and body armor. The helm powers up your breaths considerably, and the body grants your wyvern your sub job abilities (go go wyvern berserk!)

[Greylynx]

As for Dynamis, I'd at least try to get the helm and body armor. The helm powers up your breaths considerably, and the body grants your wyvern your sub job abilities (go go wyvern berserk!)

I don't wanna get off topic, but I thought the body granted your wyvern one of your job traits (i.e. Double Attack or Attack Bonus), how would it get Berserk?

[Skoal]

It doesnt.

[Aeolus]

Wyrm Mail (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Wyrm_Mail)

According to this its as Malacite put it. Your Wyvern gains your support job abilties therefore if you are /war your wyvern will get Berserk etc.

[Raydeus]

Whoah this is very interesting, I always thought DRG end-game activities only involved standing in a crewded areas wearing the pimpest gear and try to look pretty while running around. :eek:

Unless of course that only applied to this one DRG I've known for a really long time. :P

[Skoal]

It adds double attack to wyvern with war sub.

[Sevv]

it adds sub job traits not abilities so no berserk defender etc. double attack etc.

Drg is fun in endgame i do every activity, i only advise you have /whm, /blu, /sam , /war , /thf all done. i know ppl may go O.o /blu if you do limbus with a small group head butt spam can really help a run go alot smoother.

[Rhine]

Actually Double Attack is a Job trait as it is always active.

[Skoal]

I think the armor should read "adds support job..................abilities". Meaning it adds abilities of a support job not the actual support job "Job Abilities".

[Aeolus]

Its should just read adds support job traits seens as thats what you guys are all saying it does lol.

[Vyuru]

Myself personally, I plan on doing Dynamis, Limbus, and Salvage.

Dynamis I mostly want a Gugnir, I have all the none rare/ex upgrade pieces and I'm working on acquiring currency now. Heck, I've been gathering upgrade items for it whenever I had the spare gil since I was a lvl 37 drg, am I insane? Probably :P

Limbus, I mostly want the AF+1, although the Brutal earring, and some of the other stuff look really nice as well, and when I say nice I mean /drool AF+1 interests me for the nice job ability/trait boosts it gives us with the nice +stat boosts, looks like a nice well balanced set of armor.

Salvage, I want Ares, I don't really care how long it takes, but the Ares armor looks to be better than the Hecatomb armor, and honestly how long would it take me to get a full set of Hecatomb? I'd much rather have the Ares armor, get auto refresh, get a Etheral earring, and become unkillable while soloing, not to mention all of the +str/att/vit/acc/double attack on it all.


Salvage and Dynamis I don't expect you to have too much trouble getting a LS for. I know alot of people interested in Salvage and even though I'm lvl 67 I get some pressure to join a few Dynamis shells from people I know every now and then.

Limbus I honestly have no idea on. As I understand it though some of the mobs have different weaknesses. I can't remember everything that a LS mate told me, but it sounds like you either want a Bourdanesse Lance (blunt damage) or you want fully leveled staff skill and a kickass staff for some of the fights in there.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Seems like you're on the right track for your endgame plans. But just a couple of things:

- Linbus is very worthy of a DRG's time. However, seriously consider a extra job for CoPs. DRG can hold its own here, but if you wish to get sea quickly, its best to be flexible and having more jobs at your disposal will help. It will aid you in getting CoP groups. Just be sure to pick a second job you like.

- Avoid sky. Nothing worthwhile for DRG from sky gods. Sky is a big, broken mess in endgame, overrun with RMT. Fighting Kirin is fun, but routine after the third time anyway.

[Mog]

- Avoid sky. Nothing worthwhile for DRG from sky gods. Sky is a big, broken mess in endgame, overrun with RMT. Fighting Kirin is fun, but routine after the third time anyway.

The only thing I ever intend to do in sky is Genbu for my mitts. After that, I'll probably never set foot there again.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

The only thing I ever intend to do in sky is Genbu for my mitts. After that, I'll probably never set foot there again.

Yeah, even though I'm RNG, BRD and BST, I see no point. In time, BST will help me pay for two osodes, I can get Barbossa gear or assault gear and still have a respectable set of RNG gear.

Half the jobs I'm levelling don't really even have anything that applies to them in endgame et, except possible sea gear for BLU, but that's a while off. Dynamis - all my jobs are a rare sight save for NIN. So not much competition on AFv2 for the other jobs.

HNMs - If I wanted to do boring things like this, I'd still be playing Everquest. Its so hard to even find a mature group for this. Limbus, Assault, even Salvage is easier to find a group to work with.

Otherwise I'm just in this game to have fun, experience the story and help friends. I like helping low levels and having a more social experience. I really hate the term "social LS" to start with, people only call it an "HNMLS" or "Endgame LS" to make themselves feel distinguished, whether they actually are or not. For some, its just a status symbol for lots of people and, really, seeking social status symbols in an online game is like ... OK, I don't have a good analogy, its just retarded.

The only status that matters is the one you hold with your friends. Endgame widgets just say "I wasted more time standing in that zone than you did."

[Murphie]

The only thing I ever intend to do in sky is Genbu for my mitts. After that, I'll probably never set foot there again.What about helping the folks who helped you get your mitts get the gear they want from Sky?

[Mog]

What about helping the folks who helped you get your mitts get the gear they want from Sky?

I can help them in the form of other ways: KS runs, trigger pops outside of sky, limbus, etc. The unfortunate thing about sky is that almost everything requires you to be in an HNM ls, which I don't have time for. Genbu's one of the only mobs that you can manaburn with < 6 people.

[Murphie]

As long as your friends are happy with that tradeoff, that's cool. But that's not the way it works for most folks.

[Mog]

As long as your friends are happy with that tradeoff, that's cool. But that's not the way it works for most folks.

Let's just say I've done a lot to help a lot of 75 people in the past. Plus it doesn't hurt having plenty of 75 friends in the game.

[Murphie]

That's why I said that. It's cool for you, but for most people, it's a different situation.

[Mog]

That's why I said that. It's cool for you, but for most people, it's a different situation.

yea :/

[Murphie]

I have no doubt you're incredibly helpful, Mog.^^

And that's saying a lot considering you're on Seraph (I was there for 2+ years).

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

As long as your friends are happy with that tradeoff, that's cool. But that's not the way it works for most folks.

Help is help. If you differentiate sky help from somone helping you get a huge score in KSNM, you need help.

I get particularly disgusted with people who try to make a distinction with help. If I show up for events I don't need anything from and you get them, I would appreciate when one of my friend has needs that those people I helped help my friends in turn.

I left my last HNMLS because they would log in like clockwork for HNMs, but after that if it wasn't merits, to hell with you. Yeah, real team we had there.

O-Hat run?
Melees and Tanks: "Please mages, please help us."

R-Pump Run?
Mages: "Where are all the melee and tanks?"

Sound familiar?

[Murphie]

Help is help. If you differentiate sky help from somone helping you get a huge score in KSNM, you need help.I don't. Who said I did? I'm just saying that that's how most endgame LS's work. You don't just get to show up for one Genbu run, get your gloves and then never have to go to Sky again.

I get particularly disgusted with people who try to make a distinction with help. If I show up for events I don't need anything from and you get them, I would appreciate when one of my friend has needs that those people I helped help my friends in turn.Why should your friends who you helped help some third party? I mean, it's nice if they do, because hey, paying it forward goes a long way in this game, but they shouldn't feel obligated to be at your beck and call because you helped them with something.

I left my last HNMLS because they would log in like clockwork for HNMs, but after that if it wasn't merits, to hell with you. Yeah, real team we had there.That's a failing of your particular HNMLS. I haven't had that problem, but I don't hang around with assholes.

O-Hat run?
Melees and Tanks: "Please mages, please help us."

R-Pump Run?
Mages: "Where are all the melee and tanks?"

Sound familiar?No. I got both just a few months ago, and we had the same folks helping on both runs. But we also had people in Sky helping folks get Osodes and Abjurations, regardless of whether or not they were up for them. That's a perfectly reasonable give and take situation.

[LilithAngel]

Assuming that you have Sea access, Limbus should be your number one priority as a Dragoon. As has been covered, you recieve your Drachen +1 set from this, as well as various nice accessories (Brutal Earring comes to mind). Additionally, the coins can be sold for profit. Also, it isn't *completely* nessesary to level Staff skill just for this, as it is possible to fully upgrade pieces while never having to set foot in the path(s) that would take you up against Piercing-resistant mobs (furthermore, not all mobs on all paths are fought, but that goes into actual Limbus tactics, which isn't the point of this thread). All in all, your standard Dragoon setup is good enough to be functionally worthwhile in Limbus (i.e. your job is to do damage, and Dragoon does it well there).

Another thing that I saw that wasn't touched on was the CoP-specific Dynamis (Valkurm, Buburimu, Qufim, Tavnazia). Dragoon gets some rather important items from here, mainly the Relic -1 set and the Wyrm Belt (http://wiki.ffxiclopedia.org/Wyrm_Belt). The Relic -1 set requires both the normal Relic piece and the -1 version, but you end up with the Relic +1 piece in return when you turn them in (with the appropriate amount of Dynamis currency to Sagheera, the same lady you get your Limbus rewards from). There are some pretty nice +1 pieces for us, including Wyrm Mail +1 (which is rumored to give the wyvern *all* of your sub job's traits at once), and Wyrm Armet +1, which has some nice combat stats (I personally would say best in that slot) on top of the helm's beneficial effect on Breath Weapons. The rest are pieces you would need to decide on, but all in all, each of them has a use, and does a good job at fufilling said use.

[Greylynx]

I apprciate everyones comments. I think that I will start with Dynamis to collect my relic armor. As I am doing that I will get high enough in CoP to gain access to sea. I imagine that might take awhile. When I am ready I'll move on to Limbus.

Thanks for all the tips on Limbus, I don't know if it isn't popular now or what, but for whatever reason it never crossed my radar. I have never heard anyone talk about doing Limbus, just Dynamis and Sky NMs. Sounds like they are missing out.

[Vyuru]

Thanks for all the tips on Limbus, I don't know if it isn't popular now or what, but for whatever reason it never crossed my radar.

Well, the Brutal Earring has something like what, +3% double attack on it? I'm surprised you haven't heard about more people wanting to get one, it's practically what all the melee in my LS talk about at any rate ;) Well, that and the thf who actually got a Pcharm in our LS, I still can't believe he got the drop >.>

Oh, another bit of gear that has my interest is the Flawless Ribbon. The Flawless Ribbon enhances all killer effects, and increases resistance to all status effects. I've toyed around with the Elegant Ribbon, never conducted enough tests to see if it really was that effective at blocking status attacks, but it seemed to be. So I want to see how this Flawless Ribbon works. At some point in time I want to lvl pld, and I think this might be a good piece of head armor depending on how potent the killer effects are. A Flawless Ribbon + Tatami shield should be an interesting combo.


Also, it isn't *completely* nessesary to level Staff skill just for this, as it is possible to fully upgrade pieces while never having to set foot in the path(s) that would take you up against Piercing-resistant mobs (furthermore, not all mobs on all paths are fought, but that goes into actual Limbus tactics, which isn't the point of this thread).

Good to know, now I can chuck my staff! :P

There are some pretty nice +1 pieces for us, including Wyrm Mail +1 (which is rumored to give the wyvern *all* of your sub job's traits at once),

While that sounds pretty cool, I wonder how useful it is? If you're going for a melee setup, you're probably subbing thf, sam, or war. Thf nets you evasion, sam nets you +tp, and war gets you +att/def (only +10 though, which is nice, but not alot), double attack, and I think that's it. Not counting the resist traits that you get for each job.

However now the blm sub intrigues me, what would mulitple +elemental attack traits do for your wyverns breath attack?

I completely forgot about the Wyrm Belt, yes by all means go for that. Since it's lvl 70 I might have to look into a dynamis shell soon, that's too good to pass up on the road to 75. I think, given my planned gear setup, I'd rather have a Wyrm Belt rather than a Life Belt/Warwolf Belt/Potent Belt.

[onorok]

Some of this has probably been stated. If your only job for now is going to be DRG:

- Dynamis : six pieces of DRG specific armor; the AF2 slots and either a belt or a cape from CoP Dynamis. I think you need to be past the Diablos CoP fight to access the CoP Dynamis areas. Also, take a look at what Dynamis shells are on your server, are they point based, open invite, etc.

- Limbus : get sea access; just need to be at CoP 8-1 to get in to Limbus, but finish so you can get the reward ring. Main thing with Limbus is the AF1+1 items, the rare/ex items like Boxer Mantle, and then the Homam armor that drops from Proto-Omega. Make sure you know the rules of the LS you do these with; my LS defines a Limbus cycle as a full Proto-Ultima run (collecting all chips to pop Proto-Ultima) AND a full Proto-Omega run (collection all chips to pop Proto-Omega; we tend to split in to four groups and blitz all zones in one night, and pop Proto-Omega the next night we can enter). Members have to adhere to a main job lotting order (I'm PLD main), and lotting rights are granted to those that have a 50% participation rate in the cycle. This is just an example of one group's process for Limbus.

- Sky : I think it was Omgwtfbbqkitten that said to avoid sky, but I disagree somewhat. Sure, sky is a mess, but it's not impossible to farm pops and DRG can get three pieces of Hecatomb gear from sky (hands, feet and body), which is great WS gear. There are three pieces of Crimson gear DRG can get from sky as well, but I don't think it would have much use to a DRG, not sure though.

- ENM75 : You can do three different ENM fights every five days. You're probably looking at an hour to get the key item to get in to the battlefield. The party member # varies per battlefield, from 3 up to 18, you get a shot at some decent gear to keep or sell, plus you get exp and death in an ENM has no exp loss.

- Assault : fun. Do it. Rank up, get gear from it. I haven't had time to do Assault in a while, but will do more once I finish up some other things in game.

- Salvage : I don't have much of an opinion on this since I've only been once. Don't have the time to do regularly right now, but the rewards look good, however I expect this to take a ton of work. Probably more time-intensive than any other option.

- KS30/KS99 : 6-man vs. 18-man fights. If you have a lot of Kindred Seals, good gamble to make money. I say gamble because you might do a series of runs and only get one or two good items.

- Instanced fights : similar to KS99, but requiring rare/ex key items that come from ENMs (Cloud Evoker) and these fights, or quest chains. Mainly speaking about Ouyru, Bahamut v.1 & 2, Divine Might and the final ZM/CoP fight. The LS I'm in does Ouyru and Bahamut v.2 fairly regularly. DRG might not get a chance at Bahamut v.2, based on what a lot of LS's use for their alliance set-up (e.g. a battery of BLM & SMN, a tank party and support). Also, avatar fights might fit in to this, there might be some rewards you could use, or just complete what is needed to try Fenrir (I still have not done this fight), or do the Diabolos v.2 fight.

So to sum up, there is a lot of stuff you can do at 75 outside of merits or sitting at HNM camps. There might even be some HNMLS on your server that does a good mix of things, and only camp HNM when they fall in a specific time-frame. The main thing, IMO, is to focus on maybe two or three things at maximum, do them until satisfied, and then move on to something else.

[silentsteel]

However now the blm sub intrigues me, what would mulitple +elemental attack traits do for your wyverns breath attack?
Yeah, that could work if the /blm had the Wyvern Breath Attacks =p

I've been looking into drg a lot lately & while I only have it at 23 currently, I'm planning on doing a huge lvling splurge. While doing this though, my only subs would be /sam & /whm. (prolly LS static =p) Anything particularly bad about this?

[LilithAngel]

I've been looking into drg a lot lately & while I only have it at 23 currently, I'm planning on doing a huge lvling splurge. While doing this though, my only subs would be /sam & /whm. (prolly LS static =p) Anything particularly bad about this?

Fundamentally, no. However, /sam begins to get the tools it needs to perform optimally starting at level 50, while at the level you stated, /war, /thf, and yes, even /rng provide tools early enough to be worth it (BTW, /rng works best from levels 20-30, after that, I would strongly urge you to not consider it, as the main benefit from it is replaced by a native version). As much of a proponent as I am to be known for the superiority of /sam over most other subs, that holds true only for Dragoons 50-60+; before then, it just happens to take a back seat to other jobs.

As far as /whm goes, it's a good, solid choice that every Dragoon should make sure they have. /Blu comes in at a good second, most easily tied with /rdm. /Blm takes 4th in my book, but that's just my preference. /Whm will start to become viable for solo/small group play at around 20, when you gain Healing Breath II (and, subsequently, begin to heal more efficiently using that than Cure II).

The rest is simply a matter of choosing the proper gear and targets for your role at the time. That, and making sure you're having fun! :thumbsup:

EDIT: BTW, Brutal Earring is 5% proc rate. A *very* noticeable 5% at that, too.

[coolboym99]

aww, boo *doesnt want to lvl war XD*