This is getting pretty ridiculous. My LS does low-man dynamis weekly. We usually enter with roughly two parties worth. If we're lucky, we get maybe 14 people! And that is a good turnout. Because of the small LS size, everyone has almost everything they want from Dynamis Xarcabard and Beaucedine. We are to a point where THF hands and PLD body *will* be free lotted the next time they drop along with just about ever armor. Sadly, we're still missing two or three RDM hats, SCH hats and BLM hats. We are pretty much doing Xarc solely for these three AFs. The same situation is also found in Beacedine. Though the wanted AFs are NIN and RDM which are two fairly desired pieces.

Out of all this... I have DNC body for my mannequin. I also have SCH body for my mannequin. I'm sitting on 4/5 COR AF2 when my COR is only level 26. The only pieces that I truly want are BLM from Windy and Jeuno. And probably COR from Sandy so I can store them. But damn... these free lotted AFs sure look good on my mannequins!

Pretty ridiculous don't you think? Sadly, we need people and are trying to recruit word of mouth at the moment. Seems like every LS on valefor are also recruiting too.

Run 4:
Rune 003 - Bird
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 019 - Weakness
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 104 - Trial by Silence
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo as SAM/DNC using normal XP/WS gear swaps.
Did not use XP rings.

1st: Single bats. Killed all 10.
2nd: Trio bats. Killed all 8.

Mobs gave 337 xp. Hoardbox gave 1373 xp and 3 marbles. Lockbox gave 137 xp and 1 marble. I entered with 1 CC.

I seem to only finish this in 25 min. These mobs all link. They also path somewhat differently so pulling these are a bit stressful for now. I can handle two mobs at the same time but three mobs requires me to 2hr and attempt to kill one mob as quickly as possible.


Run 5:
Rune 003 - Bird
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 104 - Trial by Silence
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Duo'd with an LS member. I think he was bored.

1st: Birds. Killed all 10.
2nd: Trio bats. Killed all 8.

Mobs gave 220 xp. Hoardbox gave 512 xp and 6 marbles. Lockbox gave 51 xp and 2 marbles. I entered with 1 CC as well.

***
Slowly breaking Spear Weapon. I am currently at 130/300 points.

Rune 003 - Bird
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 019 - Weakness
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 104 - Trial by Silence
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo as SAM/DNC using Spear of Trials. Slowing breaking this weapon latent on these MMM runs.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were big bats. Killed all ten.
Second set of mobs were birds. Killed all eight.

I got 336 total xp from the 18 mobs. The Hoardbox contained an additional 1368 xp and 3 marbles. I entered with 0 CC points. It took roughly 25 minutes for me to finish these mobs using the Spear of Trials weapon. I think it would have been faster had I used Engetsuto.

Compared to last year

Rune 009 - Undead
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 019 - Weakness
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 027 - Light imbued monsters
Rune 104 - Trial by Silence
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

First set of mobs were ghosts. Ghosts honestly didn't feel any easier with weakness rune. I still got hit with pretty significant amount of damage for an EP mob. They still seemed to take just as long to kill without the rune. In comparison, the ghosts in the last chamber of Eldieme Necropolis when I do escort, go down pretty fast even without Banish. The amount of damage those ghosts do are relatively small compared to these MMM ones.

Second set of mobs were mage skeletons. So... where are the big toads? What use is using great warrior rune when it doesn't even work? It makes me think that maybe MMM is glitched. Else, does placement of the great warrior rune matter? It shouldn't but............


I guess its off to birds + tiny warriors. Maybe I should try this with sam/dnc using polearm.

I managed to get a Weakness rune (Rune 019) after farming marbles. I used it today to see how it would go and to see the level of monster difficulty.

Rune 009 - Undead
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 019 - Weakness
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 027 - Light imbued monsters
Rune 104 - Trial by Silence
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were the big toads. Killed all six.
Second set of mobs were warrior skeletons. Killed all eight. I was hoping for ghosts to see how difficult they were with this new Weakness Rune.

I got 276 xp from killing all 14 mobs. I got 1123 xp from the hoardbox. I also got 3 marbles. The lockbox didn't appear since I had zero CC points. One thing I noticed is that the xp I got from the mobs using both weakness and peon were on average slightly lower than using peon rune (on average 2 xp lower). I also completed this in 20 minutes.

Rune 009 - Arcana
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were bombs. I killed two and then skipped the rest.
Second set of mobs were golems. I killed all four.

Got 155 XP off these.
Someone in the LS said Birds work great though even with Tiny Warrior, the cockatrice mobs will still appear. Sounds as if MMM is somehow broken. If you can't set mob preference using Little Warrior and Great Warrior runes, whats the point of using them in the first place?

***
So... Celtics and Lakers games were great. Derek Fischer decked Sculla which was awesome to watch. The Artest Bryant though seems a little stupid to assess Bryant with an after the fact flagrant. They were both under the basket and fighting for position elbows everywhere is common.

-- Family Rune + Tiny Warrior seems to exclude all "large" mobs from being selected. This means that the maze will be populated by monsters that are not classified as "Gargantuan" monsters.
** My observation seems to confirm what FF wiki has at the moment.

-- Family Rune + Great Warrior seems to only allow only one "Gargantuan" monster to populate the maze. The other monster type will be those not classified as "Gargantuan" monsters.
** My observation seems to confirm what FF wiki has at the moment.
** As I get more information, I will update FF wiki to reflect what mobs are considered to be "Gargantuan" monsters.

-- It might be impossible to mix and match two family types with great warrior rune. I need to test this more.

-- Magic casting mobs limits overall success of mnk/dnc. When mobs are resistant to H2H, chance of failure increases significantly. Ghosts from the Undead family are a good example.

Rune 009 - Arcana
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were dolls. These might be the great warrior mob. They do use meltdown but I ran away far enough that it just exploded. Killed all six. Its nice to be able to use Drain Samba on these mobs.

Second set of mobs were single bombs. Sadly these cast magic and they link as well. Killed just one. I died on the second mob when it casted firaga 3.

I got a total of 155 xp off 7 mobs. But I died. I'm lying face down in Lower Jeuno at the moment. Maybe I'll get a sympathy raise 3. I'm surprised there's so little traffic in Lower Jeuno this time of day.

I think I'll try this combination for another 4 runes before making any sort of decision. I want to believe that with the weakness rune (Rune 019) I would be able to clear more of the maze than I've reportted so far. I may try birds + tiny warriors next.

Rune 008 - Undead
Rune 009 - Arcana
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were big toads. Killed all six.
Second set of mobs were the skeletons. Killed all eight.

I actually cleared!
I got 311 xp from the 14 mobs. The box at the end gave an additional 1267 and 1 marble. I entered with 0 CC.

The mob family selection was unexpected. I was expecting big toads and either golems or magic pots. Perhaps its impossible to mix and match family runes to target two types of mobs. Next time, I'll probably drop the Undead and see what Arcana gives.

Next time!

Rune 008 - Undead
Rune 013 - Great Warrior
Rune 014 - Tiny Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 021 - Mobs imbued with Light
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were GOD DAMN ghosts. I skipped them.
Second set of mobs were the big toads. Killed all six.

Only got 111 total xp after killing 6 toads and 1 ghost.

Well I officially give up on the undead + tiny warrior route. Without someone to banish and silence them, ghosts are undoubtedly the biggest obstacle from successfully completing this maze. Adding the Trial by Budget (Rune 101) could increase marble count.

I think the great warrior route will be my next attempt at solo xp. The undead toads are easy to kill. But I'll need to find a second set of mobs that are also great warriors. From the wiki pages, golems and magic pots sound like good targets. Both are relatively easy to kill. Although pots cast magic, they are weak to blunt/h2h. Golems however might be a little trouble.

Next time!

Rune 008 - Undead
Rune 014 - Tiny Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 021 - Mobs imbued with Light
Rune 027 - Mobs imbued with Fire
Rune 100 - Velocity
Rune 108 - Conditional Contract

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were Skeleton Wizards
Second set of mobs were GOD DAMN FUCKING ghosts. Without banish ghosts fucking suck.

Only managed to get 212 XP out of it. Gave up early since ghosts suck.

***
Next run, I think I'm going to try a Rune 013 (Great Warrior) in addition to the current Rune 014 (Tiny Warrior). Getting ghosts 2/3 runs so far really sucks. I don't know if its due to the fact that ghosts are part of Rune 014 set or that it pops randomly because there is only one type of Rune 014 monster for the undead category (ie skeletons).

Rune 008
Rune 014
Rune 020
Rune 021 - Imbue mobs with Fire
Rune 027
Rune 100 - Trial by Velocity
Rune 108

Solo MNK/DNC with normal XP and WS gear.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were Hounds.
Second set of mobs were Ghosts.

Only kill 12/16 mobs before I timed out. The damn Ghosts sucked up so much time with its overall physical damage resistance to all types of weapons.

Only got 250 xp out of it.

Rune 108 - Conditional Contract
Rune 008 - Undead
Rune 014 - Tiny Warrior
Rune 020 - Peon
Rune 027 - Light
Rune 099 - Replenishment
Rune 101 - Trial by Budget

Solo as MNK/DNC using my normal XP gear and WS swaps.
Did not use XP ring.

First set of mobs were Hounds.
Second set of mobs were Skeleton Warriors.
Only went in with 1 CC.

340 xp total from all the mobs.
1386 xp + 2 marbles from first chest.
138 xp + 1 marble from second chest.

***
Why am I doing this?
To try and see if I can find a maze that I can complete 95% of the time.

BLM does not need an upgrade.

They are the most powerful DD class that requires the least amount of support in just about every event in the game. In dynamis/einherjar, all they need is a source of refresh/ballad. In pre-TAU HNMs and NMs, all they need is a sourse of refresh/ballad. You can manaburn just about every KS99 BCNM. You can manaburn just about every COP mission (2-5, 4-2, 5-3 Mithra and Bomb, 6-4, 7-4). You can manaburn pretty much everything. You even have BLMs like Kaeko soloing Apollyon NW. No melee job can do that.

When TAU came out, SE specifically designed the HNMs and in someways xp mobs to combat this mentality of manaburning. There are quite alot of mobs that have very little HP (no more than 5000). Coupled with the fact that some mobs are annoying (Imp silence, Colibri reflect, Puk knockback), it cemented a growing paradigm shift in how to build XP PTs. If you recall, melee burning in sky weapons as well as in KRT bones was just getting popular right before TAU came out. The quick repops and relative "no-brainer" action of meleeing and hitting WS macro made TP burn pretty popular. Even the HNMs have a fairly high MDB. Khimeira, Cerberus, Hydra are all pretty resistant to magic damage when you compare them to the NQ/HQ King's HNMs.

As a comparison, to melee burn anything HNM... you need support (BRDs/CORs), you need healers (RDMs/WHMs), and you need well geared melee. Just the addition of the healers requires some sort of refresh. And finally, you also need a backup plan in case you fail. I think its alot easier to fail melee burn then failing manaburn only because when a manaburn fails, the tank and support group is left relatively intact. While in melee burn, everything goes under. In XP situations, melee burns are much easier to set up only because of the multiple camps that are available.


So... BLMs DO NOT NEED AN UPGRADE. In my opinion the root of all this disgruntled resentment is the lack of high xp/hr that BLMs can get. No amount of job "adjustments" will be able to change the viewpoints of an entire gaming community. What needs to change is the dynamics of the XP PT and only SE can do that.

What SE needs to do though is to create a zone preferably a new zone not yet introduced to people like... Xarcabad [S].
In this new zone there are:
1) multiple safe camps and easy to get to.
2) monsters in this new zone must also have a high base xp (500+ for a mob that is only VT+/IT-) and also have a 5 min repop timer with *MANY* respawn points.
3) monsters should not link with each other (but can aggro players).
4) monsters should be weak to SC damage. Creating Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 SC will affect the damage taken by the monster.
5) monsters should also be weak to MB damage. Creating SC will incur some form of bonus damage to the MB.
6) monsters should ideally be resistant to normal melee damage. This prevents the zone from being over run with melee burn PTs.
7) monsters should have XP bonus as well.
8) these camps should *ONLY* be for 71-75 PTs.

The goal is to:
a) create a new attitude shift back towards the traditional 1 tank, 2 melee DD, 2 support healers, and 1 magic DD party.
b) allow the total xp received in 1 hour of going fighting the monsters and getting chain up to 5 or 6 each time to be equivalent if not better than an average TAU melee burn of 15k/hr.
c) allow magic DD (BLMs/SCHs/BLUs/SMNs?) to join in on the high xp/hr rate.


Yes there are some melee PTs that can push 20k/hr. But the average I usually get from just seeking tends to fall around 15k/hr. I don't remember how long it takes to go chain 5/6 but let us assume it takes 10-15 min (including resting time) to get chain 5/6. I propose that each chain 5/6 should get 5000 xp in order to make it worthwhile to use such traditional PT setup.

I've decided on giving up a usable 6-hit build until I can somehow get both a Rajas ring AND Sattva ring at the same time. I now understand why some people on SAM forums say that Rajas ring is critical to SAM 6-hit. The Store TP+5 frees up so many different options to build around. Giving up that 6-hit build though allows me to at least focus on gearing a 7-hit SAM to my satisfaction.

I spent a good chunk of gil on the WS gear that I need, mainly STR rings and earrings. Overall I am noticing a slight increase in average WS damage with the upgrade on Greater Colibri's. I just need one more piece (AF Hands +1) to round it out. Well... two if you count a decent STR piece for the feet. But MNK and NIN are like that too... there really isn't any good WS piece for the feet for MNK/SAM/NIN.

SAM is halfway to cap. I've been slowly xp/meriting (once a week). I've also been trying to take SAM into other types of activities (dynamis, limbus, einherjar, nyzul) to see how I stack. In dynamis, if feels like SAMs also tend to hold TP alot. I *still* don't understand why DD/nin hold their TP. For example in a Dynamis-Bastok with two other SAMs, I had more WS than the two of them combined! Pretty ridiculous don't you think?

Store TP is 5/5
Meditate is 2/5
Overhwlem is 0/5
Shikokyo is 0/5


My latest conquest:

A couple campaigns worth of hitting foritifcations in Eldieme [S] got me level 75.  No shiny graphics accompany the level up though.  Now I can truly set my TP and WS gear down cold.  Having to continually jury rig the equipement swaps due to level sync really got tiring.  I think I gave up in the 70s trying to optimize every piece of equipment every time I PT'd. 

So a couple things to keep in mind:
1)  6-hit build requires +46 Store TP.  +25 from job trait, +10 from merits +11 from gear.
-- Currently have: Shini. Haidate (+6 sTP), H. kote (+8 sTP), Brutal (+1 sTP), H. Sune-ate (+5 sTP).
-- Also have: B. Haidate (5% haste), Fuma (3% haste), Turban (5% haste).
-- Also have: Shura Haidate (+5 str, +acc) and can get the Shura Kabuto uncursed as well too.
- -A SAM in my LS has 160 STR for WS.  110 TP.  I'm not sure if he has 6-hit.  He might have 7-hit judging by what he wears.

2)  5/5 Store TP, 5/5 Meditate, 5/5 Shikokyo, 5/5 Overwhelm.
3)  Unlock Tachi: Rana.
4)  Cap job.
5)  Merit again. =p
6)  Need polearm build. 
7)  Cap GK and Polearm weapon skill.
8)  Obtain AF hat (again) and AF2 Hands for meditate macro.
9)  Need to get Snow Gorget (Gekko, Yukikaze, Rana), Flame Gorget (Asuran Fist, Kasha, Atonement)

@8k to 75.  Joined a friend's PT.  WIll probably campaign the rest of hte 8k.  Its a manageable chunk of XP.


Level 74
Level Sync 62 @ B. Thicket Colibri's
Total Deaths : 3
DOT (Melee+Jump):WS = 1.10 (polearm)
ACC = 74 (RNG + Chaos Roll)
Contribution of Total Damage: 36.9

Took a while to finish it.  I was waiting to get to a high enough level so that the mobs around where the Uggalepih coffer do not aggro.  Now to redo the AF quests to get the helm again.  The helm is the final quest in the AF arc.  Maybe I'll be able to solo it as mnk/dnc this time around. or... maybe sam/dnc

Hediva Isle Imps... Meat still sucks on these even at 70.


Level 73-74
Level Sync 70 @ Hediva Isle Imps
Total Deaths : 3
DOT (Melee+Jump):WS = .974 (Engetsuto)
ACC = 90 (Sushi + Minx2)
Contribution of Total Damage: 41.4


DOT (Melee+Jump):WS = 1.06 (Engetsuto)
ACC = 69.4 (Meat + Minx2)
Contribution of Total Damage: 36