Hornetneedle....sigh

[Pounce]

How has everyone's experiences been with obtaining the Bee Larva?

My THF friend took 8 hours.

My THF friend's friend got it in first kill...lol -_-;

I think I'm approaching my first real life day in the Temple....no drop.

So far I've gotten about 5 full stacks of beehive chips, a dozen beastman seals, a dozen kindred seals, and close to 4000 exp purely from killing Wespes -_-;

I know it's a long shot, but anyone got any "tips"?

[Patchinko]

sounds like bad luck. bring more thf with you, i suppose? people i know have had it take 1-5 hours, but nothing over 5 that i've heard of.

[Gman]

I heard it was really hard to get, but no details beyond that.

As a side question, what level can you solo wespes, and how how hard is the NM that actually drops the Hornetneedle?

Thanks.

[Ashn]

I brought a DRK with me to help kill the bees. We got 2 larvae in 1.5 hrs. I just had /thf sub.

[Apple Pie]

The day before yesterday, I went there to get Bee Larvae for one of my LS members (THF69). Our PT consisted of NIN72/WAR36, THF69/NIN34, and myself (RDM70/WHM35). A Waspe finally dropped it in two hours. NM (Death from Above) was very easy for this trio. All enfeebling spells landed. If we have a good tank (LV60+), I believe we can do it easily.

Today, I (RDM71/THF35) went there again to get mine because I'm finally LV71 and ready to receive WS:Evisceration quest. However, my dagger skill is extremely low (around 120) although my sword skill is capped (232). Anyway, I want Hornet Needle for faster skill-up.

I spent two and a half hours there but I didn't get any... Wespes are easy for RDM71 and I think RDM65+ can solo them without any problem. Always have stoneskin up to avoid direct hits of "Final Spear." Well, the problem is unless we are LV69+, we're still aggroed by some of Tonberries (LV51 - 54) on the first map. This is annoying because this usually results in links and trains.

I'm camping there again tomorrow

[bonovoxpsu]

Originally posted by Apple Pie
The day before yesterday, I went there to get Bee Larvae for one of my LS members (THF69). Our PT consisted of NIN72/WAR36, THF69/NIN34, and myself (RDM70/WHM35). A Waspe finally dropped it in two hours. NM (Death from Above) was very easy for this trio. All enfeebling spells landed. If we have a good tank (LV60+), I believe we can do it easily.

Today, I (RDM71/THF35) went there again to get mine because I'm finally LV71 and ready to receive WS:Evisceration quest. However, my dagger skill is extremely low (around 120) although my sword skill is capped (232). Anyway, I want Hornet Needle for faster skill-up.

I spent two and a half hours there but I didn't get any... Wespes are easy for RDM71 and I think RDM65+ can solo them without any problem. Always have stoneskin up to avoid direct hits of "Final Spear." Well, the problem is unless we are LV69+, we're still aggroed by some of Tonberries (LV51 - 54) on the first map. This is annoying because this usually results in links and trains.

I'm camping there again tomorrow

wow, is it National RDM Hornetneedle day?

i'm doing the same. i'm right at the entrance of the temple, picking off wespes. easy as cake. lvl 67 here too (lvl 20 ninja sub). got my dagger to 127 as well. cyclone is an AWESOME WS.

so much to do (lvl rdm, lvl war, lvl nin, get stuff...)... /sigh...

[Ashn]

I know how you feel Bono. I'm trying to get my subs up to where they should be too.. (mainly whm, blm, drk, nin & war). Plus skill up dagger (135ish) and cap sword (171) (><) There's always so much to do... so little time...

Anyways, I've spent a lot of time in the Temple lately.. i got the larvae easy, but haven't been able to recruit assistance yet to kill the NM. ;_;

[Apple Pie]

I finally got mine (please see the attachment) today...

After I (RDM/THF) spent 45 minutes there, a Wespe finally dropped it. Then, I soloed the NM, "Death from Above." It took me about nine minutes to beat it since it used pollen two (593 + 523) times.

I didn't record a movie this time but I have some statistics here.

Total Damage: 4,678
Melee: 3,315 [Hit Rate: 100% (49/49), Average Damage: 67.7)
WS (Fast Blade): 662 [212, 237, 213]
Enthunder: 507 [Average Damage: 16.4]
Shockspike: 182 [Average Damage: 5.9]
Dia II: 6 (Excluding its slip damage)

Evasion: 67.5% (81/120)

I guess it has around 4,000 HP.

By the way, as you see the statistics above, it attacked us very fast (while I swang my R.G.F 49 times with Haste, it attacked me 120 times). Therefore, I recommend casting Shockspike before we start the battle. It greatly worked in my case.

As for Hornet Needle, wow, I love it. I'm going to Monastic Cavern from now （´∀｀）.

[Gman]

Hehe, so I'm not the only one with low dagger skill. In fact I'm the highest at 140 ^^

Actually, I just got it to 140 the other night in a pt getting papyrus for someone. Tomb Wolf and Lich provided great skillups from 133-140.

Would a 3 person party consisting of RDM/BLM, THF/NIN, BLM/WHM all lvl 60 be able to take the NM ok? A few from my LS are thinking of going for it.

Thanks.

[Apple Pie]

Would a 3 person party consisting of RDM/BLM, THF/NIN, BLM/WHM all lvl 60 be able to take the NM ok?

It looks O.K. Make sure you guys wipe out all other active monsters in the room before you start to fight. Actives are:

- Branding Iron (LV55 - 58) -- Only one
- Rumble Crawler (LV53 - 56)
- Tonberry Cutter (LV51 - 54)
- Tonberry Harrier (LV51 - 54)
- Tonberry Stalker (LV51 - 54)
- Wespe (LV52 - 55) --- Only two

I believe they respawn in 16 minutes.

By the way, I was in Monastic Cavern for one and a half hour. The skill went up from 124 to 157. I think I'm learing Energy Drain (175 WS) tomorrow. This weapon is insane, especially with Haste... There are a lot of thieves (/NIN) who use it for their secondary weapon but I think I understand why...

[Echo]

Originally posted by Apple Pie

By the way, I was in Monastic Cavern for one and a half hour. The skill went up from 124 to 157. I think I'm learing Energy Drain (175 WS) tomorrow. This weapon is insane, especially with Haste... There are a lot of thieves (/NIN) who use it for their secondary weapon but I think I understand why...

Heh.. shortly after I got mine, I went to Sea Serpent Grotto to help a friend get a coffer key for SMN AF. She was recasting Sneak and a DC water elemental aggroed through a door.

Haste, Enweapon and -melee- elementals easily.

[Ruic]

Wow. I didn't realize I was weird for keeping dagger capped every level. I even have the silly energy steal WS, just learned it.

Every level I try and cap Enfeebling, Sword, Dagger, Club, Archery, Elemental and Enhancing, and I am usually successful.

The only skills I tend to REALLY lag behind are divine, darkness, and healing. But healing is raised when I PL people, so it kind of gives me more incentive to help others out. Divine and darkness rely heavily on having a properly associated subjob to those skills, which I just don't utilize in XP PTs.

Dagger is a very necessary and powerful part of my arsenal. I've carried a beestinger for so long it's like a piece of me. RDM/WAR with beestinger and an enspell is a joy to watch, double attacks meld into streams of triplets. The dagger isn't as nice as archery per se, but I really enjoy it.

I can't wait to get my own Hornet Needle so I can pair it with my Bee Stinger and have the lowest delay combo of weapons in the game with an enspell attached. The combo may even replace my swords as my weaponry of choice in an XP PT, I may attack 27-28 times a minute with them which is a boatload of TP, and a ton of enspell damage.

[bonovoxpsu]

pfft this NM is a joke.

lvl 67 rdm, lvl 69 sam, lvl 66 pld. the sam could have solo'd it himself.

and i'm fairly certain that a lvl 67 rdm could do it. i thought about it... but didn' want anythgin to get scrwed up.

any duo around lvl 65 could easily take this thing down.

[bonovoxpsu]

and if you love low delay stuff....

get this. hasted hornetneedle feels like a double attack. its unreal.

glad i got it.

[Patchinko]

Originally posted by Ruic
Wow. I didn't realize I was weird for keeping dagger capped every level. I even have the silly energy steal WS, just learned it.

You melee during xp pt, most RDMs don't (most don't even have 1h sword capped). However, I certainly don't think keeping Dagger up to date is weird, especially since some of the WS seem to be made for us!

I'm wondering if I'd be better off skilling up with Hornetneedle and Beestinger or Triple Dagger. Thoughts?