Final Fantasy XIFinal Fantasy News

This is the first in a series. What I will be providing here are Vendor Names, Locations and Items. There are no prices listed in these lists becuase they change from day-to-day and character to character. This is mainly meant as a quick reference that might save you some gil by not having to buy at the AH.

As the title states, this list is for Bastok Markets.
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Olwyn (E-11)
"Mjoll’s Goods"

Eye Drops
Antidote
Echo Drops
Potion

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Mjoll (E-11)
"Mjoll’s Goods"

Wooden Arrow
Iron Arrow
Dark Threnody
Ice Threnody

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Brunhilde (F-10)
"Brunhilde’s Armourer"

Bronze Cap
Faceguard
Brass Mask
Sallet
Bronze Harness
Scale Mail
Brass Scale Mail
Bronze Mittens
Scale Finger Gauntlets
Brass Scale Finger Gauntlets

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Charging Chocobo (F-10)
"Brunhilde’s Armourer"

Bronze Subligar
Scale Cuisses
Brass Cuisses
Cuisses
Bronze Leggings
Scale Greaves
Brass Greaves
Plate Leggings
Gorget

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Zhikkom (F-10)
"Dragon’s Claws"

Bronze Knife
Knife
Cat Baghnakhs
Bronze Sword
Iron Sword
Degen
Sapara
Scimitar

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Ciqala (F-10)
"Dragon’s Claws"

Bronze Knuckles
Brass Knuckles
Bronze Axe
Brass Axe
Butterfly Axe
Bronze Hammer
Brass Hammer
Maple Wand
Ash Staff

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Peritrago (F-10)
"Dragon’s Claws"

Light Crossbow
Crossbow
Crossbow Bolt
Mythril Bolt

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Karine (H-9)

Assorted Maps (already had gotten them all so no list just yet)

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Somn-Paemn (H-9)

Goods from Saratabaruta

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Oggodett (I-9)

Horo Flour
Millioncorn
Roasted Corn
Yagudo Feather
Sunflower Seeds

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Hortense (K-10)
"Harmodios’s Music"

Scroll of Foe Requiem
Scroll of Foe Requiem II
Scroll of Foe Requiem III
Scroll of Foe Requiem IV
Scroll of Army’s Paeon
Scroll of Army’s Paeon II
Scroll of Army’s Paeon III
Scroll of Army’s Paeon IV
Scroll of Valor Minuet
Scroll of Valor Minuet II
Scroll of Valor Minuet III

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Harmodios (K-10)
"Harmodios’s Music"

Gemshorn
Cornette
Flute
Maple Harp
Vital Etude
Swift Etude
Sage Etude
Logical Etude
Bewitching Etude

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Raghd (I-8)
"Carmelide’s Jewelry"

Copper Ring
Brass Ring

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Carmelide (I-8)
"Carmelide’s Jewelry"

Tourmaline
Sardonyx
Amethyst
Amber
Lapis Lazuli
Clear Topaz
Onyx
Light Opal
Copper Ring

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Visala (H-8)
"Goldsmith’s Guild"

Copper Ore
Silver Ore
Mythril Ore
Brass Scales
Mythril Chain
Red Rock
Blue Rock
Yellow Rock
Green Rock
Translucent Rock
Purple Rock
Black Rock
White Rock
Lapis Lazuli
Light Opal
Onyx
Amethyst
Tourmaline
Sardonyx
Clear Topaz
Amber
Jadeite
Zircon
Silver MAsk
Brass Finger Gauntlets

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Teerth (H-8)
"Goldsmiths Guild"

Exact same as Visala

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Sororo (H-5)
"Sororo the Scribe"

Scroll of Cure
Scroll of Cure II
Scroll of Curaga
Scroll of Poisonra
Scroll of Paralyna
Scroll of Blindna
Scroll of Dia
Scroll of Banish
Scroll of Banishga
Scroll of Protect
Scroll of Shell
Scroll of Blink
Scroll of Aquaveil

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Zaira (H-5)
"Sororo the Scribe"

Scroll of Stone
Scroll of Water
Scroll of Aero
Scroll of Fire
Scroll of Blizzard
Scroll of Thunder
Scroll of Poison
Scroll of Bio
Scroll of Sleep
Scroll of Burn
Scroll of Frost
Scroll of Choke
Scroll of Rasp
Scroll of Shock
Scroll of Drown

If I saved anyone any gil, then my time is worth it. hope it helps
Stay tuned for more installments to the Vendor Guide.

Basic Professions Uncovered

Details on each of the standard professions in FFXI.

Monday, October 27, 2003

Before you can obtain advanced professions such as Paladin and Ranger, you must level a basic job to level 30. Those jobs are: Warrior, Monk, Thief, White Mage, Black Mage, and Red Mage. Here is a summary of each profession:

Warriors

If you are playing as a Warrior, your job is to “tank” the monster. To tank a monster, use the ability Provoke to get the monster’s attention. The reason to tank is to protect the mages so that they may heal you. Mages cannot cast spells if their spells are interrupted by a monster’s attack. Another reason to tank is because Warriors have better defense than Mages. This relationship between Warriors and Mages require complete faith in each other. When Warriors tank a monster, White Mages are expected to heal the Warrior before himself (unless the mage is near death). Strength, Vitality, Dexterity are important stats for Warriors.

Monks

Monks are meant to be damage dealers in early parts of the game. Do not be surprised to hit harder than Warriors especially if you are using weapon skills. Monks can be good tanks are low levels because at the higher levels, Warriors will get to wear heavy armors compared to the light armors that Monks wear. Strength, Vitality, and Dexterity are important stats for Monks.

Thieves

Thief is an interesting class like the Red Mages because while they carry weapons such as daggers and swords, they are not meant to be front line melees. At lower levels, Thieves are expected to attack normally like a Monk would, but not necessarily tank because Thieves wear light armor as well. Thieves excel in using daggers, which attack more often, however they do not do as much damage per hit compared to swords. Thieves are used for hate control at the higher levels to keep the monster’s attention on the designated tank. In the mean time, a thief’s job in a party is to switch between daggers, swords, and knuckles to accommodate weapon skill chains. Dexterity above all is the most important stats to Thieves because the damage from the job ability Sneak Attack is based on Dexterity.

White Mages

White Mages are the primary healers in a party. Your job is to keep everyone healthy, even if the monster is attacking you when Warrior isn’t doing his job in provoking. When you run out of MP, it is important not to engage the monster because you should spend that time to recover MP back so that you can heal again. Keep in mind that it is also a good idea to warn Warriors that you are low on MP during a battle so that Red Mages can pitch in to heal them. Do not waste MP and over heal with Cure II if Cure I is sufficient in recovering the target’s health. MP, and Mind are important for White Mages because you need MP to cast spells, and Mind to cast them well.

Black Mages

In following the traditions of previous Final Fantasy games, Black Mages cast magic that damages the monster. Old school spells such as Fire, Aero, and Thunder are the types of spells that Black Mages would use. Instead of casting the highest level Black Magic that you have, cast spells that does moderate damage that cost the least MP. In other words, try to pace yourself out because Black Mages need MP to cast spells. This mage tactic is similar to how White Mages should not cast spells that over heals. In a party situation during a battle, stand in the back and cast your magic. This way, if you take the monster’s attention from the Warriors, the monster would have to spend time chasing you. Intelligence and MP are the most important stats to Black Mage.

Red Mages

Red Mages are one of the controversial jobs out there because of the nature of Red Mages. First of all, they carry swords, somewhat heavy armors, and a bit of MP to work with. Because of all those characteristics described above, they tend to be a very flexible class. When fighting with a sword, a Red Mage can hit as hard as a Warrior sometimes, they have decent defense, and MP to cast cures with if needed. This means that Red Mages should play their role according to the party formation. For example, if you party does not have a White Mage, it is your job to cure everyone like a White Mage would. However, Red Mages excel at enfeeble spells. This means that during the earl stages of battle, you should cast spells such as Paralyze to pretend a monster’s blow from time to time, or Dia to lower the monster’s defense and damage. Depending on how you want to develop your Red Mage, some stats, such as MP, or Dexterity could be equally as important as others.

I wanted to let everyone in on the Ranger class. I’d like to post more on some other jobs and such, guess I’ll see how well this one is accepted first. Hope it’s helpful! ^^

So rangers are the premium melee damage dealers, and one of the most expensive jobs to sustain in the game. The nice thing is you usually won’t have a problem getting a party. Seems everyone wants rangers for their damage, and majority of the time you’ll be asked to pull. I myself have been asked to tank as well when the obvious options aren’t available. I rarely agree to do it unless I’m absolutely confident in my healer(s), and that this mob isn’t going to knock me for 500 pts. In those situations, Ranger has the ability to control the hate rather well, and with the moderate defense, agility/evasion, it’s better if we do it than a mage try to handle it ( I would highly discourage doing it unless you really need to get some xp going ). Now for the nitty gritties of ranger-dom

Ranger is a melee class, and consequently melee stats matter, but they are looked at differently than how a Warrior utilizes their stats.
The most important stat for a ranger, in my opinion, is Agility. There really is no way around it. Agility is the basis by which your ranged accuracy is determined. It works out nicely because the more accurate you are, the less likely you are to get hit. Woot for Agility!
The other stats can really go in any order; Attack(derived from strength and combat skill), Dexterity, and Defense.
I prefer to take pure attack over Strength. Ranged Attack is derived from your Ranged Combat Skill + Attack + Dexterity. Likewise your general Attack comes from your Strength, but Attack is a small part of Ranged Attack, and Strength is a small part of Attack, so Strength plays a decreased roll in the final result, however it does help. Now by having a higher Dexterity, you’re going to have a better melee accuracy and crit potential as well, meaning your TP will raise quicker also.

Now that we got the stat lineup out of the way, next is the races. There really is no bad race, there may be races better than the other, but each seems to have their advantages. Mithra is the obvious choice, natural Agility and Dexterity, however a generally lower Attack/Strength. Elvaan and Galka are a toss up, both having a low Dexterity and Agility, but a high Attack. Taru have an especially high Agility, but incredibly low Hit Points. Humes are just balanced across the board, they don’t stand out anywhere but have no real deficiency anywhere either. My personal choice was Elvaan, but Ranger wasn’t my first choice, it just kinda happened, and it’s happened rather well for me I think.

Next on my checklist is the Traits and Abilities.
First you have Alertness at 5, a general low effective Sneak. Never rely on this to happen, but it does generally let you get closer to a Sound Aggressive mob.
Then you have an Accuracy Bonus at 10 that affects both Melee and Ranged.
Third Ability is Rapid Shot at 15. It basically allows you to fire your weapon without the cocking cast time.
At 20 you get a natural resistance to Poison. I have honeslty seen this work 3 times. If the Resist Poison kicked in, the screen will read Resist! an something to the affect of it being resisted.
When you reach 30, you’ll receive another Accuracy Bonus. You won’t see it because it just stacks on the previous bonus.
There’s another Poison Resist bonus at 40, and a third Accuracy Bonus at 50.

Now for the Abilities you get. The Two Hour skill is first, but you also get Sharpshot and the option for Wide Scan under your Map and Markers screen.
The Two Hour is Eagle Eye Shot, a devastating short-ranged attack. Sharpshot lasts about a minute and increased your Ranged Accuracy; recast is 5 minutes.
Wide scan allows you see all NPC and Mobs within a certain area of the map. It also allows you to Track a particular subject, or scan a smaller area outside of your immediate scan for a particular type Mob. It’s incredibly useful for NM Hunts and for general farming.
At 10 there’s a relatively useless skill called Scavenger. It allows you to “scavenge” the immediate area for resources or the occasional quiver of arrows. I supposed you could run a Scavenge Macro while you sleep and see what comes up; recast is 5 minutes.
You get what will be your favorite ability at 30, Barrage. That will basically notch in 5 arrows or other ammo and fires them in one blow. You can miss any or all of them, so I’d recommend using Sharpshot just before Barrage; recast 5min.
Shadowbind is the skill at 40. It’s a fast shot, deals no damage, and temporarily binds the target. I’ve yet to see it fail and I had to use it on a Lesser Manticore recently. The length of bind however will vary on difficulty of the target; recast 5 minutes.

Your Weapon Skills are pretty effective also, goes right along with the Ranger’s high damage theme. I’ve only maxed out my Archery skill, but as far as the three Weapon Skills prior to the first level cap, Marksmanship and Archery skills have the same effect.
Flaming Arrow will be the first one. It’s a high damage, Fire based attack. The higher the TP, the more damage.
Piercing Arrow is second. It’s also a high damage weapon skill, but with greater TP, it’s more likely to ignore defenses.
Dulling Arrow is third. It’s a moderate damage weapon skill, but with greater TP, it’s more likely to lower target’s Intelligence.
I will update the Weapon Skills, Traits, and Abilities as I learn more about them, these will take you up to 50, your first level cap. At this point, I’m nearing 48 myself, so I don’t want to talk about anything I’m not completely confident about. I will mention that Sidewinder is the fourth weapon skill and will be able to learn it around 55. You go a long time and several levels between Dulling Arrow and Sidewinder, but once you get Sidewinder, the Weapon Skills become more frequent again.

So now you think want to be a ranger? Yea, I like high damage too. It’s a power trip. You know the only other person netting your level of damage is the black mage, and he only has so much MP. Unfortunately, a warrior is only as good as his sword, a good sword comes at a price. Depending what stats you prioritize, you may not spend as much as some. Now you don’t need an Emperor’s Hairpin or a pair of Leaping boots, but they’re nice if you can get them. It is good to shell out top dollar for your ranged weapon. In my case it was +1 bows across the board, with the exception of my Ryl Archer’s Longbow. For maximum damage, longbows are the preferred bow. The speed of shortbows doesn’t make up for their lack of damage. Once you hit Power Bow +1, each subsequent +1 longbow does higher damage with greater bonus to Ranged Attack. The Artifact bow is a good bow, however it’s shortbow based, therefore lower damage, but good speed. If shortbows are your thing, you can look forward to the Sniper’s Bow. Otherwise just get it so you can continue with your AF quest.

My Bow order was: Shortbow +1, Royal Archer’s Longbow, Power Bow +1, Great Bow +1, Battle Bow +1, and have a War Bow +1 in my locker waiting for me. On Asura, my prices starting at Power Bow +1 were 30k, 55-60k, 60-70k, 75-95k.
As far as Arrows, I went with Stone Arrow, Iron Arrow/Fang Arrow, Silver Arrow, and I’m still using Scorpion Arrows. Iron and Silver you can get in Quivers, all others only come in 99 stacks. Now, because you run out of Quiver options, it’s good to do Gobbie Bag quests to increase your personal Inventory, and possibly even the Mog Safe quests to give you more room to store other items, like extra arrows for quick restock. It’s pretty obvious that crafting is worth your while. Creating your own arrows and bolts will cut down ammo cost considerably. The only downside is you have to continue to fund the crafting skill to keep it caught up to whatever you’re using. This can eat up a lot of time, and money that may have been better spent on arrows outright.

Our armor issue is both a curse and a blessing. We just don’t have very much armor to choose from. This can keep armor cost down, but you end up like me, and wearing Lizard set straight into Khazam. Killing Mandragora’s with my 60k bow … oh, and I’m wearing no0bish armor, don’t let me get hit. Your choice of armor and when you upgrade is completely up to you. I preferred to hold out for a piece that affected my stats as opposed to increasing my defense and wasting money on armor. The armor I’ve been usually seen in is…
Centurion’s Visor, Ranger’s Necklace, 2 Beetle Earring +1’s, Iron Scale Mail, Swordbelt, 2 Beetle Ring +1’s, Nomad’s Mantle, Martial Slacks, Magna M Gauntlets, and Magna M Ledelssons. However I recently replaced Iron Scale Mail with Brigandine, and sold my Martial Slacks for Gil, replaced with Iron Cuisses, and am in the process of getting the Magna M Chausses. As you can see, you don’t need all the absolute best gear, but instead make sure to have good gear, and keep a balance on your stats. If you gear too much for Agility and Accuracy, you hurt you damage. If you gear too much to damage, you’ll never hit.

If anyone needs it, I can post the Ranger Flag quest, and the AH Quests, but their pretty well discussed in other threads. I just wantd to cover some of the misconceptions and what goes into being a ranger

Alchemy Synthesis Guide |
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This is a guide that pressents simple common synthesis combinations for alchemy from Amateur rank to Novice rank

 

—–Amateur Alchemy Recipies—–

Distilled water(3) = Lightning Crystal +Tahrongi Cactus

Antidote(1) = Water Crystal + Wijnruit + San d’Orian Grape + Distilled Water

Black Ink(2) = Dark Crystal + Windurst Tea Leaves(2) + Nebimonite + Distilled Water

Beeswax(1) = Fire C. + Beehive Chip(3) + Distilled Water

Tsurara(10) = Ice C. + Rocksalt + Distilled Water(2)

Anumal Glue(1) = Fire C. + Rabbite Hide + Bone Chip (2) + Distilled Water

Silencing Potion(1) = Water C. + Kazham Peppers + 2 Leaf Mandra Bud + Scream Fungus

Wax Sword(1) = Water C. + Beeswax + Bronze Sword

Deodorizer(1) = Wind C. + OLive Oil + Chamomile + Sage

 

—–Recruit Alchemy Recipies—–

Poison Dust (1) = Lightning C. + Yellow Globe (2)

Silence Dagger (1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Silencing Potion + Brass Dagger

Bee Spatha(1) = Water C. + Beeswax(2) + Spatha

Mercury(1) = Lightning C. + Cobalt Jelly (4)

Silence Bahjnakhs(1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Silencing Potion + Brass Baghnakhs

Poison Potion(1) = Water C. + Mercury + Poison Dust

Kodoku(33) = Dark C. + Elshimo Fog + Lugworm + Shell Bug

Echo Drops(1) = Water C. + Sage + Honey + Distilled Water

 

—–Initiate Alchemy Recipies—–

Poison Dagger(1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Dagger

Poison Knife (1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Knife

Mokuto (1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Shinobi-Gatana

Poison Baselard(1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Baselard

Minnow(1) = Fire C. + Brass Ingot + Glass Fiber (Requires Gold Smithing Skill)

Blinding Potion (1) = Water C. + Crying Mustard + Posion Flour + SleepShroom

Sairui-Ran(33) = Earth C. + Kazham Peppers + Bomb Ash + Bast Parchment + Bird Egg ( Req. Cooking Skill)

Silent Oil(2) = Water C. + Olive Oil + Beeswax(2)

Glass Fiber Fishing Rod(1) = Fire C. + Cotton Thread + Glass Fiber (4)

Eye Drops(2) = Water C. + Chamomile + Ahriman Tears + Distilled Water

 

—–Novice Alchemy Recipies—–

Poison Kukri(1) = Water C.+ Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Kukri

Minnow(1) = Fire C. + Copper Ingot + Glass Fiber (Req. Goldsmithing Skill)

Blind Dagger(1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Blinding Potion + Bronze Dagger

Busuto(1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Shinobi-Gatana

Pioson Cesti(1) = Water C. + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Lizard Cesti

Blind Knife(1) = Water C + Animal Glue + Blinding Pition + Bronze Knife

Artificial Lens(1) = Fire C + Blass Fiber(2)

Poison Bahnakhs(1) = Water C + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Baghnakhs

Prism Powder(8) = Light C + Ahriman Lens + Glass Fiber (2)

Jusatsu(33) = Dark C + Black Ink + Beastman Blood + Bast Parchment

Bronze Bullet(33) = Fire C + Bronze Ingot + Firesand (Req. Smithing Skill)

Poison Claws(1) = Water C + Animal Glue + Poison Potion + Claws

Inferno Sword(1) = Earth C + Slime Oil + Firesand + Two-Handed Sword

Living Key(2) = Water C + Slime Oil + Beeswax + Malboro Vine

Firesand(2) = Earth C + Bomb Ash + Sulfur

Potion (1) = Water C + Sage + Lizard Tail + Distilled Water

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Alchemy Guild Info
1.2 Alchemy Promotion Test Items
2.0 Alchemy 0-100 List
3.0 Alchemy 0-100 Walkthrough
4.0 Guild Point Tips

1.0 Introduction

As I’m writing this guide, I am currently at 99.5 Alchemy (with +2 from items). This guide isn’t coming from another forum, I am writing it from scratch based on what I learned as I leveled alchemy. There are several pathways to level alchemy, and I’m sure prices will vary across servers making certain pathways more desirable than others. Also, having other crafts leveled (usually to about 10ish+ on average) can be a big help in finding recipes break-even recipes that aren’t commonly used to level alchemy. However, unlike certain crafts (such as smithing) there aren’t many recipes requiring other skills. The most common alchemy sub-crafts include smithing and goldsmithing, but there is the occasional craft that might require woodworking (such as arrows) or cooking.

1.1 Alchemy Guild Info

The Alchemy Guild is found in Bastok Mines, at K-7. It is open 8:00-23:00 with Lightsday as the holiday. Unlike some guilds, you’ll rarely find yourself buying anything at the guild. Most of the stuff is very overpriced compared to the auction house prices. You will find yourself constantly upstairs though, where you can get advanced synthesis imagery and work on your guild points.

1.2 Alchemy Promotion Items

Recruit (8min/10max) – Animal Glue (fire crystal + distilled water + 2x bone chips + rabbit hide)
Initiate (18min/20max) – Poison Potion (water crystal + poison dust + mercury)
Novice (28min/30max) – Blinding Potion (lightning crystal + nebimonite + mercury)
Apprentice (38min/40max) – Firesand (earth crystal + 2x bomb ash + sulfur)
Journeyman (48min/50max) – Fire Sword (earth crystal + iron sword + slime oil + firesand)
Craftsman (58min/60max) – Hi-Potion (water crystal + 2x sage + malboro vine + distilled water)
Artisan (68min/70max) – Acid Kukri (water crystal + mythril kukri + animal glue + vitriol)
Adept (78min/80max) – X-Potion (water crystal + 2x sage + hecteyes eye + distilled water + reishi mushroom)
Veteran (88min/90max) – Bloody Sword (dark crystal + beastmen blood + revival root + bastard sword)

2.0 Alchemy 0-100 List

* 0-6 : Tsurara x 10 – Ice Crystal + 2x Distilled Water + Rock Salt
* 6-10 (a) : Poison Dust – Lightning Crystal + 2x Giant Stinger
* 6-10 (b) : Poison Dust – Lightning Crystal + 2x Yellow Globe
* 10-16 : Mercury – Lightning Crystal + 4x Cobalt Jellyfish
* 16-20 : Echo Drops – Water Crystal + Sage + Distilled Water + Honey
* 20-24 : Silent Oil x 4 – Water Crystal + 2x Beeswax + Slime Oil
* 24-28 (a) Subcraft: 11 cooking : Sairui-Ran x33 – Earth Crystal + Kazham Peppers + Bomb Ash + Bird Egg + Bast Parchment
* 24-28 (b) : Eye Drops x2 – Water Crystal + Ahriman Tears + Chamomile + Distilled Water
* 28-34 : Artificial Lens – Fire Crystal + 2x Glass Fiber
* 34-38 (a) Subcraft: 13 smithing : Bronze Bullet x33 – Fire Crystal + Bronze Ingot + Firesand
* 34-38 (b) : Jusatsu x33 – Dark Crystal + Black Ink + Beastmen Blood + Bast Parchment
* 38-41 (a) : Prism Powder x6 – Light Crystal + 2x Glass Fiber + Artificial Lens
* 41-43 (a) : Vitriol – Water Crystal + 2x Treant Bulb
* 38-43 (b) : Vitriol – Water Crystal + 2x Treant Bulb
* 43-45 : Carbon Fiber x3 – Lightning Crystal + 4x Bomb Ash
* 45-49 (a) : Carbon Fishing Rod – Light Crystal + Broken Carbon Fishing Rod
* 49-51 (a) : Holy Water – Light Crystal + Distilled Water
* 45-51 (b) : Holy Water – Light Crystal + Distilled Water
* 51-56 (a) : Cermet Chunk – Fire Crystal + 4x Magic Pot Shard
* 56-61 (a) : Glass Fiber – Fire Crystal + 8x Flint Stone
* 51-61 (b) : Glass Fiber – Fire Crystal + 8x Flint Stone
* 51-60 (c) : Hi-Potion – Water Crystal + 2x Sage + Distilled Water + Malboro Vine
* 61-69 : Hi-Ether – Water Crystal + 4x Bat Wing + 2x Dried Majoram + Dryad Root + Distilled Water
* 69-72 : Paralyze Dust x2 – Lightning Crystal + Three-eyed Fish
* 72-78 : Paralyze Potion – Water Crystal + Paralysis Dust + Mercury
* 78-81 (a) Subcraft: 14 smithing – Bloody Bolt Heads x6 – Wind Crystal + Bronze Ingot + Beastmen Blood + Revival Root
* 81-85 (a) : Composite Fishing Rod – Light Crystal + Broken Composite Fishing Rod
* 78-85 (b) : Composite Fishing Rod – Light Crystal + Broken Composite Fishing Rod
* 85-89 : Super Ether – Water Crystal + Ahriman Wing + Treant Bulb + 3x Dried Majoram + Distilled Water
* 89-93 : Icarus Wing – Wind Crystal + 6x Giant Bird Feather + 2x Beeswax
* 93-98 : Panacea – Light Crystal + Mercury + Sulfur + Rock Salt + Philosopher’s Stone
* 98-100 : Turbo Ether – Water Crystal + 2x Ahriman Wing + Wyvern Wing + 3x Dried Majoram + Treant Bulb + Distilled Water
* 98-100 : Sun Water – Light Crystal + Cactuar Root + Philosopher’s Stone + Mercury + Beastmen Blood

 

3.0 Alchemy 0-100 Walkthrough

0-6 : Tsurara x 10 – Ice Crystal + 2x Distilled Water + Rock Salt
Level 0-6 is quick and easy. Buy your rock salt and distilled water from NPC vendors and your ice crystals for ~1k at auction house and you can even make profit (depending on AH prices on your server). Or, if you really want to be efficient, just sell the Tsurara to an NPC for very minimal loss.

6-10 (a) : Poison Dust – Lightning Crystal + 2x Giant Stinger
6-10 (b) : Poison Dust – Lightning Crystal + 2x Yellow Globe
Buy either giant stingers or yellow globes based on whichever is cheap or available. Make the poison dust and either sell the poison dust at the auction house or save it for future use (guild point items requiring Poison Potions or Poison Potions for special events like dynamis, BCNMs, etc…).

10-16 : Mercury – Lightning Crystal + 4x Cobalt Jellyfish
Before CoP came out, it wouldn’t be pleasant to make Mercury because cobalt jellyfish were relatively rare (since you need so many to make mercury). So, you’d lose quite a bit of money. However, now there’s a new fishing guild NPC found near the entrance of Bibiki Bay that can sell the jellyfish, costing anywhere from 40-60G. Usually you can get at least 6-10 stacks from the guild before it runs out for the day and at this price you can actually make profit.

16-20 : Echo Drops – Water Crystal + Sage + Distilled Water + Honey
Since echo drops (which remove silence) are a must-have for mages and ninjas, they sell very well in all cities. You can buy sage at the grocer in South San’Doria or you can buy it for a pretty similar price at the auction house. Honey will also need to come from the auction house. Generally you can break even or make profit on echo drops.

20-24 : Silent Oil x 4 – Water Crystal + 2x Beeswax + Slime Oil
This is a painful but practical leveling range. Silent oil sells well and there isn’t a whole lot else to make in this range, but you will have to deal with a fair amount of gil loss. Beeswax and slime oil are both pretty expensive. At this stage it still isn’t worth trying to make your own beeswax (any profit from HQ would be extremely small and you’d most likely have some loss), so both slime oil and beeswax should probably be bought at the auction house.

24-28 (a) Subcraft: 11 cooking : Sairui-Ran x33 – Earth Crystal + Kazham Peppers + Bomb Ash + Bird Egg + Bast Parchment
Sairui-Ran sells pretty well (used for Kurayami, ninjutsu Blind) and although it seems expensive to make, I made a bit of profit selling these ninja tools. If I remember right, stacks of Sairui-Ran sold for about 7k, and each synth yields 33. This requires some cooking (I’d suggest 6+) to synth.

24-28 (b) : Eye Drops x2 – Water Crystal + Ahriman Tears + Chamomile + Distilled Water
If you can’t make Sairui-Ran then eye drops are the other option. The synth materials are expensive (because of the ahriman tears) but you shouldn’t lose much gil selling the eye drops. Generally the eye drops sell quite a bit slower, though.

28-34 : Artificial Lens – Fire Crystal + 2x Glass Fiber
At this stage you’ll need to buy up a whole bunch of glass fibers from the auction house. Some people like to buy goblin masks and try to desynth them, but it’s not very economically smart to do so. Profit margin will be extremely low at this skill (if not loss counting lightning crystal cost) so it’s not something I’d suggest doing unless the supply of glass fibers is low. Unfortunately, the lenses don’t stack so they can be quite the hassle. Make good use of mules to save these for making prism powders later or just sell them at the auction house for about 1k each for minimal loss.

34-38 (a) Subcraft: 13 smithing : Bronze Bullet x33 – Fire Crystal + Bronze Ingot + Firesand
I made bronze bullets and broke even on them in this range, but you need smithing to do so. They sold a bit slower than other things, but I spread them out on my mules in Windurst, San’Doria, and Bastok to sell them. The ingots and the firesand should just be bought at the auction house.

34-38 (b) : Jusatsu x33 – Dark Crystal + Black Ink + Beastmen Blood + Bast Parchment
This is an alternative to making bronze bullets. Jusatsu is the ninja tool used for Jubaku: Ichi, the ninjutsu paralyze. It sells just as well (if not better) than the Sairui-Ran. You should come close to break even making this, but the materials are a bit more expensive so breaks will suck. Being only 4 levels lower than the cap with advanced synth support and you should have very few breaks, though.

38-41 (a) : Prism Powder x6 – Light Crystal + 2x Glass Fiber + Artificial Lens
One option is to make prism powder with those artificial lenses you made earlier. Back when I was leveling alchemy, there was the whole ripped cap / padded cap craze so light crystals were 7-10k a stack, making this seem much less nice. However, with the ripped cap nuke, light crystals are back down to ~3-3.5k making this a bit more feasible. Like silent oils, prism powders sell quickly all over. A good way to sell those artificial lenses.

41-43 (a) : Vitriol – Water Crystal + 2x Treant Bulb
After, you’ll want to make vitriol. This is extremely cheap to make so you can sell to NPC for very minimal loss. Usually you can get treant bulbs at the auction house for ~1k gil a stack or less.

38-43 (b) : Vitriol – Water Crystal + 2x Treant Bulb
Another option is also to skip the prims powder phase and just make Vitriol from 38-43.

43-45 : Carbon Fiber x3 – Lightning Crystal + 4x Bomb Ash
Carbon fibers sell pretty well in bastok and jeuno. I’ve always been able to buy bomb ash the cheapest from windurst AH. This should be pretty close to break-even.

45-49 (a) : Carbon Fishing Rod – Light Crystal + Broken Carbon Fishing Rod
You can repair carbon fishing rods for skillup in this range if you wanted. The easiest way to do it is to hang out at a place like Windurst where people fish a lot (or jeuno) and just buy them up 7 at a time, repair them, and fill up your auction space listing them. Then head out and exp, farm, or do whatever else you plan on doing. Come back periodically check your sales status. As they sell, buy up more and list them.

49-51 (a) : Holy Water – Light Crystal + Distilled Water
After, make holy water. With light crystals being cheap again (I had to do it for 8k/stack light crystals), you can sell the holy water directly to an NPC for break even.

45-51 (b) : Holy Water – Light Crystal + Distilled Water
Another option, and the one I’d suggest, is to simply drill out holy water from 45-51. It’s easy to do and conveniently sold to an NPC, making it very quick. Holy water sells for ~393 gil to a guild and a bit less elsewhere, meaning it’s break even / profit with light crystal prices at about ~3.5k a stack.

51-56 (a) : Cermet Chunk – Fire Crystal + 4x Magic Pot Shard
One option at this stage is to make cermet chunks. The synths are going to be pretty expensive, and on some servers you’ll wind up with some noticeable loss if you don’t HQ (which you won’t). Losses can also be a bit costly, but it’s pretty convenient to synth up and skillup on. Just be sure to have that advanced synth support.

56-61 (a) : Glass Fiber – Fire Crystal + 8x Flint Stone
This is an extremely cheap synth. Much like holy water and vitriol, it’s a gift to skilling up alchemists. Your product (glass fibers) are also extremely easy to sell. The only problem is it requires a large amount of flint stones, using 2/3 of a stack per synth. This can be a bit inconvenient especially if flint stones aren’t in stock. Good use of a mules in San’Doria and Windurst can help you buy up flint stones everywhere and skillup.

51-61 (b) : Glass Fiber – Fire Crystal + 8x Flint Stone
A possibility for people not wanting to lose gil on cermet chunks is to grind out glass fibers starting at LV51 skill. You’ll run out of flint stones pretty quickly and need to take breaks though, making skilling up a bit slower. You’ll also see quite a few breaks even with advanced support, but doing this is also the only time I’ve seen a 0.3 skillup in alchemy.

51-60 (c) : Hi-Potion – Water Crystal + 2x Sage + Distilled Water + Malboro Vine
A third option is to make Hi-Potions. I always found making these to be extremely inconvenient though, since they don’t stack. If you have a mule somewhere like jeuno though, you can send them off and bazaar them overnight to help sell them. A good alternative once you run out of flint stones but still feel like skilling up.

61-69 : Hi-Ether – Water Crystal + 4x Bat Wing + 2x Dried Majoram + Dryad Root + Distilled Water
There isn’t a whole lot else to make in this range that won’t result in loss. You actually make some profit (at least on my server) making these. Dried majoram can be bought up in the catalyst shop in Windurst Waters cheap (and it’s not a guild shop so supply isn’t limited). Unfortunately this requires tons of bat wings, but usually there’s lots between the three main towns. Since hi-ethers don’t stack, a good use of mules and bazaaring will be needed to help you sell off all of your ethers.

69-72 : Paralyze Dust x2 – Lightning Crystal + Three-eyed Fish
This takes a bit of time and some auction house camping, but it will be worth it. Not only do you save a considerable amount of gil on paralysis dust needed for your next skilling up, but the skillup rate always seemed good to me. This is one of the rare times when I’d suggest not bothering with advanced support and just synthing them as you buy them, usually in either bastok or jeuno.

72-78 : Paralyze Potion – Water Crystal + Paralysis Dust + Mercury
These sell decent because they are used in a few other synths, Mamu****os (a ninja katana that 100 alchemists make for HQ profit) in particular. Use your paralysis dust from skillup but, but you’ll most likely also need to buy some more from the auction house to get to 78.

78-81 (a) Subcraft: 14 smithing – Bloody Bolt Heads x6 – Wind Crystal + Bronze Ingot + Beastmen Blood + Revival Root
This is a great synth if you have some smithing. They sell quickly and at break even price (or close anyways) in San’Doria especially. Everything needed should be bought from the auction house.

81-85 (a) : Composite Fishing Rod – Light Crystal + Broken Composite Fishing Rod
The next step is to repair composite rods. The best approach is to buy broken ones in Jeuno, repair them, and list them as you have auction house space. Check in frequently in-between exp sessions and repair + list them as you go.

78-85 (b) : Composite Fishing Rod – Light Crystal + Broken Composite Fishing Rod
The alternative (if you don’t have any smithing skill) is to just make composite fishing rods from 78-85.

85-89 : Super Ether – Water Crystal + Ahriman Wing + Treant Bulb + 3x Dried Majoram + Distilled Water
These surprisingly sell pretty well, but ahriman wings can be a pain to get your hands on. There isn’t much to suggest except that dried majoram can be bought cheap in windurst waters from the catalyst shop there. If Ahriman Wings are extremely expensive on your server or if you have a hard time selling these, you could skip ahead to the Icarus Wings early, although I wouldn’t suggest it.

89-93 : Icarus Wing – Wind Crystal + 6x Giant Bird Feather + 2x Beeswax
These are generally pretty nice and easy skillups. You’ll want to sell these in jeuno, since they won’t really sell anywhere else. This will require a ridiculously large amount of bird feathers. Before CoP, giant bird feathers were annoying to get a hold of in such large quantities. Multiple CoP areas added a lot of new Big Bird-type monsters making the farming of g. bird feathers easier than being restricted to cockatrices, and the supply is way larger than it used to be. So luckily, all materials should be easy to get your hands on. Make your own beeswax to save yourself some cost.

93-98 : Panacea – Light Crystal + Mercury + Sulfur + Rock Salt + Philosopher’s Stone
This leveling range will require you to have quite a bit of gil lying around. Philosopher stones typically sell from 35-40k each. Your first concern with this range should be that panacea itself is pretty worthless. It restores any status ailments, but definitely not worth the 35k+. However, you can make gold nuggets (86 cap) using them. Just fire crystal + panacea + gold leaf = 9 gold nuggets. It’s usually about break even. The other alternative would be to make platinum nuggets (96 cap, so additional skillup) but I stayed away from that because of the huge amount of loss. Since you can garden the platinum nuggets, they are about half the price of gold nuggets. I would strongly suggest at this range you start buying up wyvern wings and ahriman wings as you see them available and store them on your mule(s), if you have the extra gil to invest. In the next range you’ll need lots of them and wyvern wings especially are very rare, and they are bought up quickly as a popular item in leathercrafting and alchemy.

98-100 : Pro-Ether – Water Crystal + 2x Ahriman Wing + Wyvern Wing + 3x Dried Majoram + Treant Bulb + Distilled Water
Sell these suckers in jeuno. The wyvern wings are pretty rare, the lowest level wyvern that drops these are the hurricane wyverns in Ifrit’s Cauldron (same ones that drop skull) and the drop rate isn’t great. Most wyvern wings you see on auction house come from the rare drops people get exping off of Ladons in Kuftal Tunnel or the ~1-4 that drop off of the various wyvern NMs. Ahriman wings are also kind of rare/expensive, but you still see quite a few of them when you need them. It’s also kind of a pain that you need a total of 3 unstackable items (2 ahriman wings + 1 wyvern wing) per synth. People buy these sorts of items for bigger fights (Kirin, Tiamat, etc..) and for BCNMs (Maat, etc..) so they tend to sell in spurts.

98-100 : Sun Water – Light Crystal + Cactuar Root + Philosopher’s Stone + Mercury + Beastmen Blood
This is an alternative to pro-ethers, but cactuar root only drops off of the cactuar-type NMs so they are extremely rare. Sell them directly to BST friends or list them at AH. These tend to sell pretty slow, though.

Congratulations! You’re now 100 Alchemy. Now to figure out how to HQ those Espadons, Hawker’s Knives, Mamu****os, and Cursed Gear. But even I don’t know all the answers to that, so I’ll have to make another guide for that some day.

Guild Point Tips

Getting guild points is now something all successful crafters will want. The guild point items can give up to +2 alchemy, along with Moghancement: (insert name of craft here). However, this takes a lot of time and dedication. The way it works is like this:

* You can start getting guild points once you are a Novice (28+ and exam taken). You start the contract by talking to a special NPC at the guild. It should be one of the NPCs near the guildmasters.
* You can only contract yourself with one guild at a time for guild points. Switch contracts and lose all guild points you have. So use up any guild points before switching.
* You can buy the HQ Crystals as soon as you’re contracted for 200 guild points each, except for HQ light and dark with are 500 guild points each.
* You can buy the 70,000 point item (caduceus, wand, +1 alchemy) at 48+ skill.
* You can buy the 100,000 point item (apron, armor, +1 alchemy) at 68+ skill.
* You can buy the 150,000 point item (Emeralda, furniture, moghancement: alchemy) at 88+ skill.
* The item requested changes every day based on when it’s midnight JST. This is approx. 10AM Eastern Standard Time (EST).
* The way it works: An item from skill 0-10 is requested one day, then 10-20, then 20-30, (etc…) all the way up until your current cap. Then it will loop back and request an item picked at random from 0-10 skill, 10-20, etc… All people with the same skill cap will be asked for the same item each day. So all people with completely uncapped alchemy (88+) will always be turning in the same item. People with different caps will run on a different cycle.
* You need to go to "current limits" when talking to the guild contract NPC to see how many points you can obtain total for the day and how many days (Vanadiel time) you have left before a new item will be requested. Trick: The amount of guild points you get for turning in an item is approximately equal to the amount of gil you will get from selling an item to a standard merchant (non-guild) with no fame. So if you want to check approx. how many points you’ll get for an item without turning it in first, simply see how much it will sell for at a vendor.

There are many ways to make money in Final Fantasy XI, but for some reason people want more. The reason you see many complaining about making money though, is because people don’t want to waste time on crafting or mining. My friends, you must. I will give you a simple walkthrough on mining and how to really cash in. I will build this guide in steps as best I can.

Step 1 >> My first recommendation to the beginning miner is to logout, get a new handle and start up a mule character. If you already have one, then you are set. For those not in the know, a mule is basically a holding bin character. Not necessarily a character you’re going to play, but just someone to hold items and so forth. YOU MUST START A NEW CHARACTER IN BASTOK. Why is this you say? Well, Zeruhn mines is my answer. In the bastok mines district there is a low level mining cave that you can get started in.

Step 2 >> The gear. Now, if you have a little cash with your REAL character, go ahead and forward about 2k to your mule. This is for a set of 12 pickaxes, they usually go for 206 a peice at Boytz goods in the mines district. They sell from the vendor in the back room of his store.

For those of you who don’t have this money, not a problem. Grab signet, head to the mines and start killing bats. Drops include ~ bat wings (1.5-2k on ah), wind crystals (1-2k on ah), and Zeruhn Soot (1.5-2k on ah) After 30-45 minutes, you should have at least 12 of one of these items. Put it on the ah, go back to your main for a while and level or whatnot, come back later and you’ll have some cash in the bank. Use it to get your pickaxes.

On a side note, my mule is a mithra theif, during the mining, kill everything and continue collecting wings and soot and crystals and you’ll also slowly level up. At 15, theives get the drop bonus. Just a recommendation.

SO. Now that you can afford some pickaxes lets move on to our next step, the armor. Field armor is what you’re going to be buying, and for a full set you’ll be spending about 50k. WHAT?! 50k you say. That can be made in a few hours if you do it right.

Now, I prefer buying in this order >> Gloves ~ 5k, Feet ~ 5k, Body ~ 28-30k, Legs 10k (I think).

Get in the mines and get to work. At Zeruhn you’re primary ores you’re selling are going to be Zinc and Iron. You’ll also get pebbles, tin, and copper. Those are useless. Forget them. Drop them. You need the inv. space. As a matter of fact, it’s best to mine with only your pickaxes, and your mining gear, and maybe a weapon (I just use hand to hand). Now, mine and mine, until either A. You break all your pickaxes, B. you fill up your inv. with iron and zinc and if you’re lucky, some Darksteel ore. What you want to do first, is head to your mog house and transfer all your bat wings, soot, and crystals into your safe. That way, everytime you finish a mining exp. and you drop these items off, you can sort them and have them build to 12 without taking up space in your inv.

Head to the AH. Typically I pull in about 7-10k for every 2k I spend on my picks, and 12 picks go in about 30-45 minutes depending on how crowded the mines are.

So on another side note, it’s best to start mining an hour before you think you’re going to log, or before you have to do something or whatever. That way you can throw your ore on the ah, put the rest up in your bazaar for maybe 50gil; less than the ah, and sit down and leave your comp alone for a bit. Typically you can sell it all. If that doesn’t interest you, you’re ore will typiucally after aboutu 30 minutes of being on the ah. So go back to collecting wings and what not.

Once you raise up your money buy your equipment and now you’re really going to start bringing in the money.

This is the best I can do for everyone now. I’m going to jot down the ore that can be mined in certain places, and the levels you need to be there as far as I know. There are more I’m sure, but my highest character is in his 30′s so I don’t really get access to all the great places.

Zeruhn Mines 1 and up
Iron Ore ~ 500gil
Zinc Ore – 2-300 gil
Darksteel Ore – 5.5k – 10k
Silver Ore – 300gil

Palborough Mines
Iron Ore
Silver Ore
Mythril Ore – 2.5k
Platinum Ore – 17-20k

Yughott Grotto
Iron Ore
Silver Ore
Gold Ore – 12k

That is about as much as I can offer now. I will add more as I learn. Remember to always check the ah on prices and good luck. In my first 2 days of mining, I made about 100k +. It only takes a little patience.

The D.
Midgarsormr Sever. Akurei and Anrui

White Mage Power.

There are times where we have all experienced the dreaded…. KO with the little "Would you like to go to HP?" laughing at us in our faces. We slam our fists on the table, slap the crap out of the monitor, throw the mouse, and sometimes we break stuff while saying some words of profanity in there too.

The worst thing that any player can do, is to (/tell) a player that he/she was at fault (even if they were), blame them for what has just happened, call them a NEWB, say any negative comments about that person even though they have negatively commented on you regarding, your character, job, etc… And the list goes on indefinitely.

An angered response to another party member may be the catalyst for the disbanding of the party, or even worse, disbanding in the middle of a battle! (I had that happen to me, and I was pissed!)

There have been more times than I can count where the party I’m in, turns violent. Where players are consistently arguing with each other about what someone did or said. Because of this, player’s reputations are damaged, and those players who were arguing (and possibly their link shells and friends), are likely to never party together again.

Here are some things that players can sometimes dispute over:

-not getting enough exp
-can’t find a WHM
-puller not pulling good exp creatures
-calling a player a newbie
-being called a newbie
-any comment that degrades, insults, or attacks a specific player’s skill, job, ability, remarks, etc…

So if you are the leader, or another player/party member has some "beef" with you: here are a few suggestions to help ease tensions to work together again;

————————————————–

-We ALL started playing at one point or another. We had to learn how things worked in the world of FFXI. I have found that this is the most effective method of dealing with most, if not all situations, simply resolve by saying:

"Hey. It’s cool man, we all had to learn "……." at some point."

In fact, we all had to open the FFXI Box and pull out the 5 cd’s to install on our cpu’s or figure out witch way the hard-drive goes into the PS2 ^^

————————————————–

-All of us want a lot of exp, but some party combos won’t yield a great amount of exp, party members often disband because of certain party combos, (mainly ones without healers) but these parties that are formed in the area your in may be your only option. This is the MOST common situation that I have scene. Some players are used to getting 50 to 100 exp, while other players are used to 150 to 200 exp a pop. Some of these players can become frustrated, making a wrong decision or pulling to quickly (in order to get a chain, per say), and end up costing the whole party valuable time and exp; and the worst case scenario, KO’ed.

Thus: we might ask what amount of exp is acceptable for the capabilities of the party.

"So hey "……." what exp are you used to getting? I’m fine with what we have now, maybe we could chain T’s to get more exp? equal to defeating IT’s that aren’t there."

"There are only T’s in the area. Perhaps we could move to a different location for more exp?"

"IT’s may yield us every good exp, but it would be a little risky and some of us may not survive the fight."

Once everybody is satisfied on the expected amount of exp received, then the party’s concentration will be focused on the fight itself (skill chains, exp chain, MP%.. etc..) rather than worrying about what exp the fight will bring once it’s over. Of course, look at your party’s capabilities and see what might be your best option.

————————————–

Sometimes we have the urge to blame someone for a bad decision that costs your party time and exp. Perhaps someone pulled something too hard for the party to deal with and they end up killing the whole party.

Rather than pointing the finger at a member, or giving them one, you could ask how did it happen.

"Its ok guys, we got smoked, lets learn from our mistakes.. what when wrong?"

what NOT to say:
"WTF ppls I though we had it going, but I guess NOT!"

Having your whole party loose experience, that’s bad, but to have a party that will never party together again, that’s even worse.
By learning from the party’s mistake, it can help every member enhance their future game play with other groups, not making the same mistake twice. If players were to quit and not learn what went wrong, then potentially, they would make the same mistakes again in another party.

————————————————

White mages are the best group characters in the game. Why? Because they keep everyone alive. Sometimes it’s very difficult to get a WHM or a RDM when the demand for them is really high. Member of a group sometimes demand to have a WHM, so that they will have an efficient party. Here is a way to satisfy the healer of the party, as well as the member who is demanding a WHM.

"Sorry, there are no WHM’s around, we will still look for one, and perhaps we can use a RDM instead?"

———————————————–

There will always be the arrogant, hotshot that people will get to love and love to hate. These people can become the key factor in a party’s success or failure. Most importantly, use your best judgment on dealing with these issues. Remember that you are playing with other people in the real world, not just their character.

FFXI is a HUGH game, with a lot of ppls on it, if you have a positive attitude, then your party will have a positive attitude. With fewer conflicts you and your party will gain respect for one another so that your party can get the job done.

If anyone has anymore ways to solve player disputes, then by all means, post them here! Remember, your reputation lies within others judgment, and if you can solve player on player disputes, then your respect amongst them and others will be gained.

I have read many forums on this site and learned a lot. I signed up two weeks ago! This is my second ever post. ^>.<^

I hoped I helped out someone, if not everyone!

Not that I have encountered alot of people who dont know how to handle the basics of Yokodama, but I feel that for all players above level 30 who will risk partying with a Thief at some point need to know their role in this process, and what can be done in an emergency in order to protect your mages and weaker defense melee jobs.

What is Yokodama?

Yokodama is the combination of Sneak Attack, and Trick attack to cause massive amounts of damage. Sneak attack alone will boost the damage by 6-10 times, Trick will boost an additional 4 times. These abilities stack with specific weapon skills only. Most notably Fast Blade, Viper Bite (100 dagger skill, or level 33 for a Thief), and Dancing Edge (200 dagger skill). The addition of Viper bite will add another multiplier to your damage and poison the target.

Positioning for Yokodama

The positioning needed to use Sneak Attack is for the Thief to stand directly behind the target. There is a small bit of movement you can have behind it but it’s not a great deal. When in doubt, move to a better spot. Trick Attack is a bit more complex. It requires you to stand facing the monster, with another person standing between you and the mob. Trick attack will transfer the hate from the attack you made onto the person who is standing between you and the mob. Together you must have at least 2 other people to do this, you need one person to hold the aggro and one person to stand behind the mob, and you behind them. It will look similar to this as I’ve seen many other people use.

THF —– Trick Buddy —– Mob —– Aggro Holder
—->———->————–>————–<

Ideally, the aggro holder will be a PLD and the Trick buddy should be some kind of tank or semi-tank like a WAR or DRG. Once the PLD gets the aggro he/she needs to remain still. This is KEY to success. The 2nd voker will stand opposite them and adjust to best get behind the mob and stay close to it, or else the THF will not hit because they are too far back behind them. Once in position STAY STILL, I cannot stress that enough. Missing Yokodama because somebody moved is very irritating.

Doing the Deed

For the purposes of this tutorial we will say that the PLD is the trick buddy and a DRG/WAR is the second voker. The THF will stay behind the PLD when it is time to perform the Yokodama for maximum effectiveness.

When the THF is nearly ready the PLD needs to stop healing and try to shed some of the hate so the DRG can get a good aggro hold for a second. When the THF is ready the DRG will voke, berzerk, jump, Double Thrust, use everything available to grab aggro. The THF will then start the Sneak/Trick attack and after it lands the PLD will voke again and the aggro should be solid for a good long while. If the DRG can’t get the aggro swing around behind him and Yokodama off of him so it doesn’t go to waste.

Emergency Yokodama

This is key to a good party with a THF here. THFs at higher levels only job is damage, and hate control. If the mages grab too much aggro and they can’t provoke them off, it’s our time to shine. Step #1, DONT PANIC. I see alot of mages try to run around, it doesn’t spare you damage or hate so stay still and let us work. The tanks need to line up behind the mob ASAP so the THF can set up a good Yokodama to pull the aggro. I don’t think anything would still be aggrod after that much hate and a provoke. Once again, the key to this my soft little mages is NOT TO PANIC. I see alot of parties get wiped by mages who lose their heads about getting aggrod.

Skillchains and Magic Burst

When using Yokodama, the most popular skillchain would hands down be Distortion. I’ve done up to 233 damage on that skillchain against mobs in Garliage Citadel and Crawlers Nest. Magic Burst for that is water I believe, and light. The most popular weapon skills to chain it on are Double Thrust, Tachi: Enpi or Goten, or Piercing Arrow. Simply the most pupular, not the only ones. The damage can get extremely high. With one skillchain including Magic Burst we did 200 (Double Thrust), 370 (Yokodama and Viper Bite), 230 (Distortion), and 260 (Water II Magic Burst).

Take note of this Non-Thieves and Thieves alike, these things can save your life.

Someone may have stolen my idea for Bastok, but I did it for Windurst.

And let me tell you, this is one heck of an annoying process. And I will include the price, because even though it does vary, this will give you a general idea of what you could find.

It’s simple to follow: first, I will show the area. Then, I will show the location: person to talk to. And a note about the guilds: just because I say something is there, it might not be in stock. Guilds sell back what people sell to them (as far as I can tell) so you might not be able to buy what you want.

Windurst Woods

I-8: Wije Tiren
Eye drops – 2724
Antidote – 331
Echo Drops – 839
Potion – 955
Ether – 5073
Herb Pastoral – 113
Distilled Water – 12

H-12: Boneworker’s Guild
Retto-Marutto
Bone Chip: 121
Sheep Tooth: 320
Turtle Shell: 30,264
Seashell: 90
Chicken Bone: 70 (as of yesterday, sells for 1000 in the AH!!)
Fish Scales: 132
Bone Arrow: 8

H-13: Nchaa’s Good Goods
MONO MCHAA
Bone Arrow: 5
Crossbow bolt: 6
Hunter’s Prelude: 3,023

MANYNY
Sinewy Etude: 3,590
Dextrous Etude: 3,212
Vivacioius Etude: 2,520
Quick Etude: 2,184
Learned Etude: 1,789
Spirited Etude: 1,444
Enchanting Etude: 1,142

F-12: Weaver’s Guild
Meriri
Moko Grass: 15
Saruta Cotton: 80
Flax Flower: 187
Sheep Wool: 675
Crawler Cocoon: 264
Grass Thread: 45
Cotton Thread: 312
Linen Thread: 900
Wool Thread: 3,330
Silk Thread: 763
Silver Thread: 960
Gold Thread: 20,520
Grass Cloth: 512
Cotton Cloth: 1,024

Port Windurst
H-8: Kususu
Cure: 71
Curaga: 1,590
Poisona: 209
Paralyna: 377
Blindna: 1,155
Dia: 96
Protect: 256
Shell: 1,847
Aquaveil: 419

H-8: Aroro
Stone: 71
Water: 163
Aero: 377
Fire: 976
Blizzard: 1,847
Thunder: 3,805
Burn: 5,417
Frost: 4,302
Choke: 2,625
Rasp: 2,131
Shock: 1,590
Drown: 7,427

H-9: Hohbiba-Mubiba (these names are so silly…)
Maple Wand: 54
Ash Club: 75
Chestnut Club: 1,826
Ash Staff: 67
Ash Pole: 440
Bronze Dagger: 163

H-9: Taniko-Maniko
Bone Axe: 4,898
Bronze Zaghnal: 361
Harpoon: 113
Shortbow: 46
Bone Arrow: 5

H-9: Kumama (yo mama)
Brais: 2,215
Slops: 201
Gaiters: 1,480
Ash Clogs: 130
Lavan Shield: 125

Garuna-Maguruna
Hemp Gorget: 1,134
Doublet: 2,882
Robe: 251
Leather Vest: 705
Gloves: 1,590
Cuffs: 138

(I ignored the fisherman’s guild because I don’t fish. And therefore, I do not care about what the Fishermans’ Guild has to offer. Although, I’m moderately sure they sell fish and fishing supplies. go figure.)

Windurst Waters
G-7: Federal Magic Reserve
Shohrun-Tuhrun
Cure III: 3,805
Protect IV: 104,999
Protectra IV: 99,749
Dispel: 81,480

Hilkomu-Makimu
Stone II: 6,709
Water II: 9,450
Aero II: 13,964
Fire II: 19,320
Blizzard !!: 25,514
Thunder II: 32,549

H-7: Baren-Moren Hatter
Orez-Ebnez
Headgear: 2,032
Hachimaki: 866
Cotton Headband: 2,100
Bronze Cap: 176
Brass Cap: 1,716

H-9: Ensasa’s Catalysts
Ensasa
Earthen Flowerpot: 1,050
Tarutaru Stool: 1,033
Bone Arrow: 5
Earth Threnody: 323
Fire Threnody: 734
White Jar: 5,449
Lugworm: 12
Little Worm: 4 (heh…little worm…I bet he’s envious of the big worm…)

Upih Khachla
Dried Marjoram: 50
Eye Drops: 2,724
Antidote: 331
Twinkle Powder: 404
Pickaxe: 209
Sickle: 315
Thief’s Tools: 4,158
Living Key: 6,299

F-10: Timbre Timbers
Taajiji
Tortilla: 147
Puls: 630
Dhalmel Stew: 2724
Distilled Water: 12
Windurstian Tea: 209
Windurst Salad: 1,952

If you don’t like my random humorous comments…feel free to write one of these things yourself.

Enjoy.

Basic Job Description

A thief is a job with many perks which serve many different purposes. A thief is good for getting loot, dealing damage, and controlling hate within your party. Treasure hunter and flee are some of the other perks, making it a fun and useful job not just as a main, but as a subjob as well.

Job Skills Description

Job Abilities

* Perfect Dodge – LV1 – Duration: 30 seconds – Recast: 2 hours : The thief two hour abilities gives what the name implies – a perfect dodge over a period of 30 seconds. In other words, you’ll take no physical damage, however you’ll still get hit by spells. This is still extremely useful if you: 1) Perfect Dodge > Warp Scroll or /logout and 2) Perfect Dodge > Flee and run away.

* Steal – LV5 – Duration: Instant – Recast: 5 minutes : This is one of the many defining attributes of a thief. In general, you will use steal to steal from beastmen types (goblins, orcs, yagudo) for the various types of beastcoins, or from higher level version of creatures (crawlers for silk, spiders for web, etc…). Having +steal equipment becomes important for a thief when going for those better items, such as gold beastcoins (see http://www.multiplayerstrategies.com/ms/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=14574&categoryid=18 for a tutorial about stealing gold beastcoins).

* Sneak Attack – LV15 – Duration: 1 minute – Recast: 1 minute : Sneak attack is probably the most basic yet the most important skill thieves will ever get. Using Sneak Attack will give your character a status effect, much like protect or anything else, that causes your next hit to do a large amount of damage if you hit the monster from behind. The effect disappears after your first attempted attack, whether or not the sneak attack is successful. Also note that if done properly, your sneak attack will never miss.

* Flee – LV25 – Duration: 30 seconds – Recast: 5 minutes : Increases your movement speed (approx. the same as a chocobo although it may seem faster) for 30 seconds.

* Trick Attack – LV30 – Duration: 1 minute – Recast: 1 minute : The concept of how trick attack works is similar to sneak attack, it places a status effect that will do extra damage if your next attack meets a certain condition. Your next attack will deal extra damage if there is someone directly in front of you. In other words, there must be [ You -> Someone else -> Monster ]. The damage you do with trick attack, places the hate on the person you trick on (the "Someone else") as if they attacked it themselves. This is very useful considering trick attack stacks with sneak attack (can use them both at once) for a high damage attack which will place a large amount of hate on the person you trick attack on, which is generally the tank. For this to work, you need the monster to face away for sneak attack to work and for a person (who will take the hate) to stand in front of you, therefore this setup requires at least 3 people: [Person attacking monster -><- Monster <-Trick partner <- You (thief) ]. This will be discussed more later.

* Mug – LV35 – Duration: Instant – Recast: 5 minutes : similar to steal, except you steal a small amount of gil. In general, this skill seems relatively weak, stealing very low amounts of gil.

* Hide – LV45 – Duration: Changes – Recast: 5 minutes : this makes the thief go completely out of sight, also losing all aggro. For example, let’s say you’re fighting something solo and halfway through the fight, sneak attack is ready. You can use hide and it will stop attacking you (warning: it will not longer be claimed by you), run around behind it, and sneak attack it. This also applies for higher level aggressive monsters. Hide can be particularly useful when applied with steal, for more info see http://www.multiplayerstrategies.com/ms/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=14574&categoryid=18

 

Job Traits

* Gilfinder – LV5 : Increases the amount of gil dropped by enemies (only if that enemy drops gil).
* Evasion Bonus – LV10 : Adds a bonus to evasion.
* Treasure Hunter – LV15 : Increases the chance of obtaining items (getting drops). Exactly by what factor is unknown, but this skill is why thief is also a popular subjob for farming items.
* Resist Gravity – LV20 : Adds resistance versus Gravity.
* Evasion Bonus – LV30 : Additional evasion bonus.
* Resist Gravity – LV40 – Additional resistance versus Gravity.
* Treasure Hunter 2 – LV45 : Additional chance of obtaining items. This is currently unique to thief (would require a level 90 main job to have this ability with a subjob). Again, the exact factor is unkown, but it makes thief undoubtedly best for getting rare drops, for example from Notorious Monsters.
* Evasion Bonus – LV50 : Additional evasion bonus.
* Triple Attack – LV55 : Allows for a chance to attack 3 times instead of the usual 1. This is an extremely useful trait which can actually work with the warrior’s LV 25 Double Attack (warrior would have to be your subjob), allowing you to either Double Attack or Triple Attack.
* Resist Gravity – LV60 : Additional resistance versus Gravity.
* Evasion Bonus – LV70 : Additional evasion bonus.
* Resist Gravity – LV75: Additional resistance versus Gravity.

 

Thief’s Role in a Party

A thief serves two main purposes in a party situation: being a damage dealer and a hate controller. Until level 30, a thief can only serve as a damage dealer. As a warning, thief is a tough job to start out as. This is because the thief has very little to offer until level 15 when thief gets sneak attack. Until then a thief is much like a weaker version of a warrior: you can do little else than melee attack monsters and can use less equipment than other jobs such as warrior and monk. However, once the thief learns sneak attack all that changes. As described in the above Job Abilties, sneak attack makes your next melee attack (if from behind) do greatly more damage than usual. While I won’t get into the very basics of party mechanics, generally your party stays in a safe spot ("camp") while 1 member of your party brings a monster back to your camp to kill. This is the role of the thief, to run up and ranged attack a monster (usually with a boomerang or a bow) and bring it back for killing. What a smart thief does is use Sneak Attack (and Trick Attack) right before using his/her boomerang to bring the monster back to camp – you don’t lose your sneak attack when you ranged attack and the status effect duration is as long as the recast timer (1 minute). It should last long enough for your tank to provoke the monster and get your sneak attack in with about 10-30 seconds left on the recast timer, allowing you to practically sneak attack twice in a row.

Sneak attack also allows for greater skillchain damage – the damage done by your skillchain is proportional to the damage done by the weaponskill that ends the skillchain. Sneak Attack will stack in terms of damage with certain weaponskills, generally those that are melee based – for example Wasp Sting (normal attack that can poison) and Shadowstitch (normal attack that can bind), but neither Gust Slash or Cyclone (wind damage attacks) stacks with Sneak Attack.

Aside from being a damage dealer, a thief is used to help place additional hate on the tank at level 30+. As previously stated, sneak attack and trick attack both stack to perform a high damaging attack that will place a lot of hate on the person you use to trick attack (see Job Abilities). For this to be effective, the thief’s party setup generally requires that two people have provoke. Generally these can include a warrior/anything, monk/warrior, dark knight/warrior, dragoon/warrior, or a samurai/warrior in addition to a paladin or a ninja tank. Here’s an example of the start of fight if your party included a paladin/warrior and a samurai/warrior:
-thief runs out and find a monster he wants to kill for experience.
-warns the party he’s about to ranged attack it ("pull" it), uses sneak attack and trick attack, then ranged attacks the monster.
-as the monster gets close, the secondary tank (samurai in this case) provokes the monster, while the main tank stands directly behind the monster, and the thief directly behind the main tank (paladin in this case). So it looks like this, where each arrow indicates which way each thing should be facing ~

* thief-> paladin-> monster-> <-samurai

-everyone attacks the monster, if done right, the thief’s first attack should do a large amount of damage while placing all the hate from the attack on the main tank.
-the main tank can now provoke, and use whatever other skills it has to generate more hate.

Generally if done right, it won’t matter if the thief sneak and trick attacks off of the secondary tank partway through the fight for additional damage. A thief will almost always use a dagger, at least at LV33+, if not earlier (for reasons discussed below in the Equipment and Stat Focus). The two powerful weaponskills that will use most often are: viper bite (from LV33-60) and dancing edge (from LV60+) and they both skillchain the same way. As described in the second paragraph of this section, the amount of damage your skillchain does is proportional to the damage of the last weaponskill used in the chain – for this reason you will always want to be the second (which is generally the last) weaponskill of the skillchain. With viper bite and dancing edge, you’ll always be producing distortion skillchains, which is an ice/water level 2 skillchain, which is convenient because many monsters you level off of are vulnerable to either ice (crawlers, crabs, mandragoras and more) or water (raptors and more).

Subjob suggestions

There are two subjobs which work best with thief in levelling situations when trying to maximize damage. These include ninja and warrior. Ninja allows for dual wielding for easier TP building and some extra stats, depending on what second weapon you use. In addition, you can use some ninjutsu, most importantly utsusemi:ichi. This absorbs three hits, which can be very valuable when pulling for your party (especially if you pull monsters that run quicker than you, such as tigers, raptors, and coeurls). On top of it all, agi and dex are the two most important stats for a thief (see the below Equipment and Stat Focus) and you get some extra dex and agi with ninja subjob (although not all that much more than warrior).

Warrior also contirbutes a lot of extra damage, you get to use berserk for noticeably more damage, as well as have the double attack to do extra damage to offset the lack of dual wield. You also get an extra attack with multi-hit weaponskills such as dancing edge.

But a thief is used for more than just levelling, it is very effective for farming for loot and hunting notorious monsters because of its treasure hunter abilities as well as hunting treasure chests/coffers because of their ability to pick open coffers using thief tools (these include thief tools, living key, and skeleton key in the order of stength of the tool). These situations call for different subjobs. When hunting coffers or chests, it is a good idea to have white mage or red mage subjob at level 25+ for the sneak (level 20) and invisible (level 25) spells taking aggression. When farming for loot, ranger subjob is effective for using the widescan ability to track down the monsters you wish to farm. When hunting Notorious Monsters (NMs) for rare and expensive drops, warrior subjob is again best for using provoke to get it before anyone else.

Equipment and Stat Focus

A thief is a damage dealer, so it would be in your best interest to additionally read http://www.multiplayerstrategies.com/ms/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=18975&categoryid=18 , which is a damage dealing thread I wrote that will cover a few points that I may leave out in this section. However, unlike some of the other damage dealers where +accuracy is much more important than any other stat, dex and agi are the main stat focuses for thief, where dex is slightly more important than agi. In addition to contributing to the accuracy of your regular attacks, dex will increase the damage of your sneak attack whereas agi will increase the damage of your trick attack. Sneak attack will contribute more damage than trick attack, which is another reason why dex should take precendence over agi if given the option.

Keep in mind that sneak attack will never miss if done properly, and anything stacked with sneak attack (trick attack and weaponskills) won’t miss either, making accuracy not so important until you hit 60 and use the multihit weaponskill dancing edge (as long as you have no trouble with missing too much). While dex and agi should be your focus with equipment, meat mithkabobs remain the most helpful and cost efficient food, adding a +5 str and a very large +21.9% attack to boost the damage of all your attacks, including sneak and trick attack.

Thieves have by far the best combat skill rating with dagger, which is why it should be used instead of another weapon. As stated in the damage dealing thread, each point in the dagger combat skill adds +1 attack, so even as early as level 25, your dagger skill cap is 78 compared to the 68 cap with sword, that’s a 10 skill point difference. That’s essentially like your dagger having an addition +10 attack bonus on the dagger on top of having a better hit rate. Take that into consideration when deciding between sword and dagger (pre-lv 33… at lv33+ you should be using dagger no matter what).

Sample Macros

These are just some sample macros, having the right macros can make the difference between a good thief and a bad one, since timing is everything when stacking sneak and trick attack with weaponskills. My first suggestion is to combine sneak attack and trick attack in a single macro, while placing your weaponskill in a second macro. Note that the square brackets are meant to represent that auto-translator. Here’s an example:

Sneak / Trick Attack Macro

/ja "Sneak Attack" <me>
/wait 1
/ja "Trick Attack" <me>

 

Weaponskill Macro

/ws "Viper Bite" <t>
/wait 1
/p "[Viper Bite] ~ TP : <tp> <call3>

 

* What’s important to notice is that you viper bite a split second before the delay and party chat, that’s because after sneak and trick attack you must quickly use your weaponskill or your character will auto-attack with a melee attack, using sneak/trick attack and not stacking it with a weaponskill. This can especially be an issue because you use daggers, which have low delay.

Enemy Sighted Macro

/p [Enemy] @ <pos> – [Found it!] <call14>

 

Ranged Attack / Pulling Macro

/p [Ranged Attack] >>—-> <t>
/wait 1
/ra <t>

 

TP Report Macro

/p TP: <tp> @X [Viper Bite] <call14>

 

* Where the X after the @ is your position in the skillchain, for example if you’re second, you put @2 [Viper Bite].

Flee Macro

/ja "Flee" <me>

 

Steal Macro

/ja "Steal" <t>

 

Hide Macro

/p Losing aggro >> [Hide]!
/wait 1
/ja "Hide" <me>

 

I hope this helps, if you have any questions or corrections, feel free to reply to this thread or PM me.