Atma farming...Follow

That would be fun. :) We'd need to figure out when everyone is free. Friday is pretty free for me pending raids/time with SO.

I would like to try out the cross-server DF stuff before we get everyone roped into this, though. Not even sure it will work. We could all potentially queue into a time zone that isn't in its prime time (for instance, for 9 EST we could use German or French languages) which would increase the probability of all getting into the same DF. The uncertain thing, for me, is if we are actually stuck on the European datacenter if we do that or if it uses matchmaking to put us at the closest datacenter. I don't want lag to interrupt us...but when I queue with JP and EU players, I normally don't lag.

Perhaps you and I can test it, Gnu? And anyone else interested.

And like you said there is a problem for people who get plopped into the wrong DF. We can remedy this by queuing at the same time and calling out when our queue pops. If not everyone has the queue pop, then we withdraw. This could be problematic for tanks and healers, potentially.

I would ideally like to get people through Titan Ex from those who have said they cannot find a PF group for it. T5 can come after.

Edited, Apr 30th 2014 8:44pm by HitomeOfBismarck

Friday @ 9pm EST is good for me too, but I'm not up there Yet, but hopefully when I get up there you guys are still doing this lol.

I'm not even 50 yet, but I plan on jumping up several levels here shortly (within the week).

Currently @39 about to do Stone Vigil. I took a break on my leveling path because some of my stuff (namely jewelry) had fallen behind and tank jewelry just was not dropping from dungeons whatsoever at all, nor were quests rewarding any. My GSM got high enough to make half of the jewelry last night, and another level should get me caught up, should easily be enough to get me up to mid-to-high 40s from there and I'm also building up a bunch of leves so I can bump a craft or two up a few levels (again! lol) when my PLD gets a little higher.

Hoping to be at 50 and able to do endgame content here within a few weeks or so, depending on how much stuff exactly needs done.

All of the jewelry is in Cutter's Cry.

Sounds good Hitome, not this week but next? Ok. I'll checkout Steam, haven't used it for msg'ing yet.

On topic here, I spoke with one of my FC mates that has already upgraded the WHM Relic Animus with x9 books. He compared the mirror-upgraded Wave Wand / Tidal Buckler to the Relic Staff x9 and guess what: the exact same stats. He called it a "slap in the face" considering the time and effort.

So there you have it. Alternate paths.

Looks like Relic is always going to be tied/second best (to High Allgan of course). I think someone, or two, or a bunch of people mentioned that days ago. ;)

Gotta compare the Animus with the x9 book stats added and also gotta factor in the Tidal Buckler on the other side.

COMPLETELY disagree with this guy. Don't play 14 no more why have an opinion on something you don't do.

Atma farming feels like your getting no where, there is no status bar, no 1/100 - Nothing. You stay in a zone, run from one fate to another, hope you get there before its already won, get to a few others and hope your not the only one.

There is no 1/100 as I said before, there is no feeling of progress till you get that drop. Which could be 1/20 fates, 1/100 fates, I know people who have spent an entire weekend in a single zone. The complaints for Atma farming are high, complaints on books low.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out why, because books have progress, go kill 100 of them, go get a ton of myth, go in these dungeons.

Grinding isn't a problem, im an old XI player and I remember what REAL grind is before SE cut down the requirements of exp (this is pre the Alzabi/WOTG expansions). I could handle the hours and hours for that 1 single level, what was ridiculous was the 7 hours seeking as a THF hoping you can create a party because you had to have a tank, healer and another voker to make it work then the BLM to MB.

If there was a status bar it would help BIG time. I would be happy to do all fates in a zone 3, 5, 10, 30 times over as long as I knew I was getting some where.

It's the same as farming for a specific drop. You dont get a progress bar on that either.

There's nothing wrong with this. There's no need for a progress bar since you're just looking for a specific drop as you have been years before. You either get it, or you do not. If you dont, you kill another set of monsters (or a FATE in this case).

You're going to get it eventually. It's not ever going to be the case that everyone else gets it, and you do not. A chance for a drop is just that, a chance. People who want this system changed are just spoiled like hell...

What's next? Oh, i didnt get the specific dungeon drop i want. I want a progress bar that gets me my chest piece from Coil ! Dont be rediculous... Seriously.

This is not worth even HALF the attention it's getting. Is it the best system ever? No. Is it bad? No. Keep at it and you'll get it, period.

Best analogy yet.

Rate of kills was much faster, rate of drop was also probably better if you used Treasure Hunter like you should be, you only needed one key to receive your reward instead of twelve, and the reward was usually something more than just cosmetic.

So yeah, it was way different.

You actually needed three for each set of AF, not one.

Sometimes you also needed a treasure chest in addition to a treasure coffer, depending on the job.

At least FATES pop back to back usually. Anyone who remembers being on the Ullikummi team or the water pot team in {sky} or the Ix'DRG aern in {sea} can recall the frustration of waiting an hour in between pops (only to lose the pop to the rival team and/or to not even get the drop after it popped.)

True, that was a thing originally, but only a really really long time ago. Like, long enough ago that I can't even remember when they patched it, and long enough back that I never personally had any problems with nabbing that coffer (unless it was behind that one door that you couldn't open and get past by yourself without Flee or a Hermes quencher, which they also eventually ended up patching, except much later down the line). I wasn't a late starter either; I've been playing nearly since NA release, and RDM was the first job that I took up to AF level. I remember hearing stories from some about how getting AF there was a pain so I know it was a problem at some point, but that coffer has been a relative non-issue for a really long time now. That ended up getting patched faster than several other glaring issues in FFXI's history, at least...

The biggest coffer hassles I had personally were in Garlaige Citadel, only because the spawns were all behind gates that you needed 4 people to get past, and there weren't any other ways around that back then.. It was a notable annoyance when your coffer was located there because no other area required you to bring that many along.



Not talking about sets though, I'm talking about individual pieces. You didn't have to finish all of your quests/coffers before you got a reward.

Edited, May 5th 2014 9:06am by Fynlar

You did have to gather ~8,000 pieces of currency to get your reward in Dynamis, though, then another 7,000 with a borrowed 3,000 to unlock it outside of Dynamis. If we want to compare apples to apples.

It's kind of nifty, they actually introduced a +3 version of the old AF armor in a pretty recent patch. "Reforged" armor. My ratty old BLM AF +1 coat got turned into the Spaekona Coat, turning it from a staple of my enfeebling wardrobe into a viable piece again in its own right. So funny to see people running around in what appears to be AF again.

Anyway, to sum up my feelings about atma coherently:

1. Does the Atma drop rate suck? Yes. Yes it sucks.
2. Is the worst thing SE has ever thrown at us? In XIV, yes. Yes it is.
3. Were they meaner to us in XI? Oh god yes.