Garlaige at 31?

[LoneGamer]

Hi all,

Can PLD perform effectively in Garlaige Citadel at 31? I wrapped up a Yhoator party 1090/5900 into 31, and would like to avoid making another trip out there if possible. Without food and Protect, I have:

548 HP
141 MP
165 DEF
45 VIT
29 AGI

I don't have Eisen feet yet, I haven't been able to find them on AH. For food, I've been using fish kabobs, sometimes chiefs, depending what's left over after crafting. Is it possible to get away with 31, or should I go back to the jungle for one more round?

Also, once I hit 29 and started wearing Eisen gear, I found I'm now taking so little damage, it's difficult to self heal for aggro, so hate is getting a bit loose. How can I effectively use my JAs to hold aggro? Also, should I be curing with Cure 2 or Cure 3? I seem to remember something about Cure 3 being reduced aggro.

[KoukiRyu]

You can head to Eastern Altepa Desert and fight beetles at this level range? Get to about 33-ish if I remember right, and then go to Garlaige instead of one extreme or the other. Garlaige might be tough for you, so try Altep for now?

[LoneGamer]

I'm not sure how common Altepa parties are on Phoenix, but worth a try. Thanks.

[Aeolus]

Take control of it yourself, if your the leader make them go to altepa if they can. Its fast exp and there wont be complaints once they relise that.

[Van'derfel]

most people on my server go to citadel at lvl 30 on any job. at 31 or 32 some prefer crawlers nest. altepa is really only used by all the late night JP parties

[Murphie]

People love to over hunt in this game.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

31 sounds like a level or two too early for a blood tank in Garlaige. Something tells me the mobs there will dish out more than enough damage for you to self heal.

[Celeal]

As above posters mentioned, Beetles in Eastern Alpha Desert is very good. Another camp I suggest is Carbs outside of Norg at the zone. In that camp Carb's spawn rate, difficulties and exp gain should be just right for lvl 31 parties, without touching the Bones at all.

[LoneGamer]

I completely forgot about outside Norg and Sea Serpent Grotto. Haven't dealt with a low level job in quite a while. But, yeah, I did enjoy those couple spots when doing DRK and NIN way back.

[Armando]

I wouldn't go to Garlaige 'til 34. If you bribed me, I might consider 33. Might. Probably not. I know I'm just echoing everyone else's posts here, but go to Altepa. Sometimes you gotta put your foot down if the party leader's making questionable decisions.

Any Cure other than Cure V generates hate proportionate to the HP it recovers. That's all you need to know. Which cure you need to use? That's something only you can decide. You should be using the least amount of MP that'll still allow you to hold hate. You don't have enough MP to throw around (mainly due to lack of refresh and a dependency on actual resting) to waste any MP at this point.

Your JAs? Those are for emergencies. They make a lot of hate, but it decreases rather quickly afterwards. On the other hand, they'll buy you enough time to get hate back without you needing to waste 48+ MP just to turn the mob.

[tuggler]

Your JAs? Those are for emergencies.

Sorry, not wanting to derail the thread here, but I'd say that the only JA's that are for emergencies are Invincible and Cover. Sentinel, Rampart, Shield Bash, Defender etc (yes, I know the OP won't have akll of these) should be used routinely to generate hate, not just in emergencies.

[LoneGamer]

For some reason I had it in my mind that healing with Cure 3 was less aggro than doing the same with Cure 2. *shrug* I guess I'll try to avoid Garlaige for now. Almost at 37, then I can start seeing if RDM/PLD is at all feasible in parties or if it will remain a solo sub.

[tuggler]

I can start seeing if RDM/PLD is at all feasible in parties or if it will remain a solo sub.

It's definitely a good job for soloing when you hit the higher levels of PLD, but not so useful in parties. The main reason being that you'll lose Provoke. I assume you're thinking about /RDM to give you more MP? Just add a few MP gear pieces (don't overdo it) to give you a little extra MP if your VIT and DEF are ok.....but remember, it is not your job to keep yourself fully healed, that's the mage's job. Use your cures to generate hate by curing yourself or by curing a party member to whom you have lost hate (only if they've lost HP, of course) and also use it if you really are getting low on HP (if the WHM doesn't seem to have you covered). But remember, the WHM is more responsible for your actual HP than you are.

[Srxjo]

It's definitely a good job for soloing when you hit the higher levels of PLD, but not so useful in parties. The main reason being that you'll lose Provoke. I assume you're thinking about /RDM to give you more MP? Just add a few MP gear pieces (don't overdo it) to give you a little extra MP if your VIT and DEF are ok.....but remember, it is not your job to keep yourself fully healed, that's the mage's job. Use your cures to generate hate by curing yourself or by curing a party member to whom you have lost hate (only if they've lost HP, of course) and also use it if you really are getting low on HP (if the WHM doesn't seem to have you covered). But remember, the WHM is more responsible for your actual HP than you are.

he ment going RDM/PLD not PLD/RDM

[Armando]

Sorry, not wanting to derail the thread here, but I'd say that the only JA's that are for emergencies are Invincible and Cover. Sentinel, Rampart, Shield Bash, Defender etc (yes, I know the OP won't have akll of these) should be used routinely to generate hate, not just in emergencies.Again, the hate from those abilities disappears shortly after being use. If you're using them routinely you're just wasting them since the hate isn't going to stay with you for the rest of the fight. Sentinel and Rampart can be used routinely for damage mitigation purposes (e.g. fighting Erucas, throwing Rampart about ~20 seconds into the fight will often catch early Incinerates, and Sentinel after an early incinerate will prevent an unlucky double attack from one-shotting you afterwards, or if you use it early in the fight it'll keep your HP up.) There's no real reason to be using Shield Bash routinely though.

[LoneGamer]

RDM/PLD, not PLD/RDM, tuggler. I am enjoying leveling PLD though, seems to have a better feel than counting shadows did. Maybe because I have some actual DEF instead of just Blink. Maybe I'll take it further, I dunno.

As for self-cures, I've been having healers that are very active, so I usually self cure as soon as Cure 2 will have full effect. Haven't had MP problems yet. Sentinel is really great though. How does the +enmity work on it, though? Is it a flat boost when you activate the JA, or do all your actions while under the effect of it increase enmity?

And, when I get Cover at 35, how do I use it properly? Stand between mob and player, use Cover on player?

[DrivenTooFar]

Sentinel is really great though. How does the +enmity work on it, though? Is it a flat boost when you activate the JA, or do all your actions while under the effect of it increase enmity?


I believe it is both. You get a boost when you activate it but each additonal thing you do adds to your +enmity.

[Aeolus]

And, when I get Cover at 35, how do I use it properly? Stand between mob and player, use Cover on player?

Yes, that is exactly how you do it.

[Armando]

Yeah, it's both. Sentinel has some spike hate on activation, but the real beauty is what it does to your enmity during those 30 secs. Always leave room for at least one Cure when popping Sentinel, it really does a lot. Not to mention you'll lose very little hate in the meantime as well due to little damage taken. I usually wrap it up with a Flash right before it ends to both extend how long I'm not taking damage for, and that one last enmity push. After that it's smooth sailing hate-wise.

Sentinel makes so much hate so quickly that in my opinion its best use is to communicate with the DDs and agree that they can be "reckless" with their damage on fights you start with Sentinel. Letting the DRK Souleater early or that RNG use WS + Barrage really shortens the fight.

As for Cover, you have the right idea. You'll want at the very least /p Cover <stpc> in your macro line. Some sort of notification would be ideal as well. Select the party member you want to Cover, then make sure you're between him/her and the mob. A few things, though...Cover's duration is relatively short (usually 15 secs.) That's barely enough for 4 mob swings. Using Cover after you've lined up, rather than using it and then lining up, will save precious time. Also, it's generally a lot easier for the DD to get behind you than it is for you to get between him/her and the mob. Finally, some DDs just aren't aware of Cover. It's good to tell them they can pull hate every now and then and let them know when it's up.

More than anything, communication is the key when using Cover. When the DDs actually work with you by giving you a heads-up and getting behind you before doing whatever it is they're planning, Cover can work beautifully. When the DD doesn't give you any kind of warning, doesn't move, doesn't leave space between him/her and the mob, or worse, the both of you keep moving, Cover can be a pain in the ass. Oh, yeah, and it's usually best to use Cover when the DDs pull BIG hate. If they don't pull so much that a Shield Bash or a Cure III would've done the trick on its own, it's kind of wasting its potential for buying time.

Don't forget that if it's up, you can also buy time with Flash. Flash to Cover or Cover to Flash are both good ways of keeping the DD safe for a relatively long amount of time in a situation where you would've had to use a lot of MP or 2 JAs in a row just to keep the mob from beating on the DD for the next 20 secs.

[Lmnop]

To hit topic, despite the fact that the OP is already above this level... Garlaige is fine @32 in my experience. Most parties in Altep @32 have 33s in them, and for some reason I was never satisfied with Altep exp @33. At any rate, I really enjoy Garlaige 32-36. Mnk + Rng does really well in there. Both, bats and beetles, are pretty weak to Fusion, so Dulling Arrow (or whatever it's called that lowers INT and thus decreases resistance to the SC/MB damage) to Combo will destroy them pretty quick. Of course, RNGs will rip apart bats just on merits of piercing (and Armando tells me bats are a bit weak to smashing as well??? That would help explain why they're always the party star - as Mario would say). So yeah... if you happen to stumble across a party layout like that, you'll be fine @32. 31, however, very iffy.

[LoneGamer]

OP is PLD31, hence why I'm asking. Back in Yhoator right now..

[Van'derfel]

ive been lvling in garlaige since i was 31, and only once did we have troubles but thats beacuse our stupid puller happened to grab 3 differnt things

[Murphie]

ive been lvling in garlaige since i was 31, and only once did we have troubles but thats beacuse our stupid puller happened to grab 3 differnt thingsWas the rest of the party 31 as well?

[Celeal]

For Garlaige Citadel at level 31, I think it is fine for back-line jobs like WHM, BRD, BLM, back-line RDM, etc. Before the range-attack adjustment, toss in RNG/NIN was great on Bat at level 31 in Garlaige Citadel --- the old RNG/NIN shoot-it-and-tank-it at blank point style.

Some exceptional parties should be fine too, like having a BRD, or PLD and mages make juice at the camp, etc. If the party is doing bad in Garlaige Citadel at level 31, I usually suggest the party move to Sauromugue Champaign (G-6) camp, fighting Evil Weapons.

[LoneGamer]

Well, I've been taking advantage of my Cooking skill to keep me in Pineapple Juice until I get Auto-Refresh ever since I hit Kazham.

[tuggler]

[System Message: You are not allowed to post URLs as you have not yet contributed sufficiently. Please try again at a later time.]

Edit: Weird, I'm sure I didn't post a URL, lol.

[tuggler]

RDM/PLD, not PLD/RDM, tuggler.

D'oh! :wtf:. Well it was late at night when I read the thread and replied.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

ive been lvling in garlaige since i was 31, and only once did we have troubles but thats beacuse our stupid puller happened to grab 3 differnt things
Were you doing a mage job as a level 31 in Garlaige? Because that's a whole lot different than being a tank. It really hurts a tank job when it's forced to over hunt, especially if it's a blood tank. Blink tanks and mages can get away with it more easily.

[Van'derfel]

Was the rest of the party 31 as well?

yeah everyone was 31

Were you doing a mage job as a level 31 in Garlaige? Because that's a whole lot different than being a tank. It really hurts a tank job when it's forced to over hunt, especially if it's a blood tank. Blink tanks and mages can get away with it more easily.

yeah i was a rdm/whm but we were doing fairly well, forget the rest of the pt cause it wasnt a static but we got 5 lvls that day, but then i logged on got aggroed and deleveled