Random Question Thread (FFXI Related)

Ygnas is godawful. He runs around randomly, he has an AoE WS, his Haste interacts strangely with at least one other trust (couldn't tell you whether it overwrites or some trust just doesn't cast Haste 2 when his is up, but I sure noticed something was up)... just always do never be using Ygnas.

When I returned to the game after a long break and didn't have any set groups for anything, I made it my first goal to get Ygnas/HQ rings. I made a spreadsheet of every single quest I completed, had currently flagged, and had not started. From beginning to end, it took about 8 days from my then-current progress. The quests are relatively easy, and some of them are in the same or similar zone. You can flag multiple at the same time and knock them out. Go DNC, Jig yourself and wear 18% movement speed while you do them. You can complete all of it in about a week or so if you just hack away at it.

As far as Ygnas goes, everyone's opinion is different. Personally, he's the best non UC healer trust by far, and it's not close. Unlocking him means you can fulltime Sylvie for solo play, who IMO IS the best trust outside of Cornelia. Ygnas is still a trust (so, an idiot); he won't have superior logic outside of the rest of them, so expect him to have some weird quirks that you can work around. With that said, he has higher magic evasion than other trusts, has "stand away" logic" that can be encouraged to an extent by moving the mob further out of range. Unless the terrain or zone is weirdly shaped, Ygnas generally does not run around erratically, unless the surrounding area or terrain is not a flat or linear plane, or he's still somewhat within a certain distance of the monster. He will spend several seconds trying to find the correct spot (but also Yoran/Apururu do the same thing). He will user lower tier cures to get you out of yellow, and will prioritize higher cures the lower your health is. He's subject to recast timers sometimes, and you can die if he just cast a higher cure on you and he's waiting to use it again. IMO, if you need heals for sure, use a combination of Monberaux + Ygnas. This combo is very useful. If for some reason you can only use one healer, Ygnas is the better of the two. Ygnas does have an annoying AOE move which often gets him killed in Limbus or w/e while solo. His Haste is also AOE and overwrites RDM Haste II. Chances are you won't ever see it go off, and RDMs won't attempt to cast over it. Its a slight annoyance because I believe his haste is 25% for 3 minutes, but unless you notice your attack speed slow down or catch it in the log, it's a minor thing.

In any events I am serious about, my trust order is always (Cornelia RIP) Sylvie first, then (Do you need Haste 2? If so, Koru here) Ygnas, then (Do you need attack? If so, Qultada/Excenmille S) Monberaux. If it's something like Odyssey RP farming, Ygnas is phenomenal with his beefed up stats. If it's something like Limbus soloing, I don't bother calling Ygnas because you get healed every floor and it's a waste of a trust slot IMO.

Monberaux serves a slightly different "healer" purpose to me. He can be used to cover, is quite tanky, will only ever follow the last summoned trust, but has less annoying quirks than Ygnas. His heals are JAs instead of spells, so they are instant. He can also restore MP indefinitely with Ethers, which is helpful for you like on BLU (w/o Tizona) or another mage trust like Koru who is notorious for running out of MP. Monberaux also will use Negate Sleep ability if he's hit with a sleepga of any sort, which enhances the group's resistance to sleep. Useful. He has enhanced Magic Evasion and Defense compared to other trusts (usually he's one of the last alive). He also has the very useful "Last Elixir" ability which is basically like a one-time full heal if you pay him. But again, I think if you really need heals, a combination of both Ygnas+Monberaux is best. Otherwise, just take less damage/be more tanky and use one.

As far as finishing TVR, it is a LONG scenario story, because of all the forced cutscenes. It might take you a solid week or two if you focused on it. Some of the fights require other people, but 95% of it you can do yourself. Between both quest lines, you can be done them in under a month if you casually pick a few of them per day.

tldr - if you are a solo, non-multibox player who doesn't often pair off with friends but still like to get general things done on your own (Odyssey RP, Chest farming, HTBF, Swart farming, low level limbus or ambuscades etc), Ygnas is 100% worth the effort. Mog Gardens sucks donkey balls and it's the dumbest crowbarring of content I have ever seen in the game, but it is what it is.

Ygnas & Monberaux pros and cons from me:

Monberaux works even if silenced and is fast, very fasty to remove any debuff.
His single target heals tend to be weaker than other widely used trust npcs, but he never, never, never runs out of mp simply because he doesn't use mp to begin with.
His Pro/Shell is applied instantly but only lasts 5 mins, dang.
He also has an Allstats+ move that he uses quite frequently, boosts your damage.
Last but not least, he has an Elixir that he uses (with a cooldown) to slightly replenish a bit of your MP.
This can be compared to Apururu's and (I think?) Yoran-Oran's Devotion, but is uses way more often.

Ygnas has an AoE move that boosts Att and Mab, but less frequent (higher cooldown?).
The annoying part about Ygnas is that he uses haste1, messes up with the trust haste2 logic more often than not (unless you can haste2 yourself of course), he also has an AoE debuff move that will tag all mobs around the one you're fighting, situationally extremely annoying. Also, while he has dagan to restore his mp and a strong regain and some autorefresh, he has extremely low priority to use Dagan/Nott and he can easily run out of mp in heal intense or long fights.

Pros and cons, I tend to use Monberaux 99% of the times but if you need more "serious" healing, Monb won't cut it probably.

This is all helpful thanks! I guess I should have provided a bit more context, but I think I get the jist. Sounds like he's primarily a liability with the aoe and haste issues. My quad box setup is usually run, cor, (brd or blm), and (geo or rdm). So haste is typically covered although I cry evertiem cornelia leaves. I play with others like once a year (why interact with real people on an mmo?) Yes I can heal myself in emergencies, but I'm usually a bit busy doing other things and it seems the best use of trusts.
I'm hearing Monb/Ygnas typically and then Apururu can replace either based on aoe liability, status removal, and cure bombing needs?
I just got monbreaux a few weeks ago and I've been pretty happy with him. Debuff removal was a huge need for when meva fails.

Monbro is pretty damn good.

It's irritating that his 5 minute proshell overwrites real proshell but if you have haste covered and don't need a rdm trust, it's not much of an issue.

The ether tosses every 90 seconds are crazy good too. Stupid hard to get good trust mp management.

PLUS no damned haste1

I must be one of a very small minority that likes doing mog gardens but can't stand doing Adoulin quests, or quests in general tbf.

Mog gardens gets you your very own Skormoth pet to kill and get gil from. What's not to like.

Rank 7 furrows is dumb af tho. Checking in daily should have capped your rank at about the same time as everything else. Checking on it hourly a few hundred times is BS. You'd spend more time zoning than interacring if you came/went frequently. I don't belive in botting but I'm not going to waste hours of my life watching my mog garden load or watching revival roots grow. Like maybe while I do other irl things would be fine, but probably not happening that way.

you may feel that is shitty, but it isn't even close to the worst title within mog gardens, which are the pond/sea titles.

I got all the furrow titles accidentally more than a year before I finished my pond pulls.

If you're on a job like RDM, you can actually prevent Monberaux from overwriting Pro/Shell by individually casting it on every targetable trust and member of your party.

It's useful in a sneaky way in some respects, because Guard: Drink and his other buffing drinks still share part of his 2 Drinks per however many seconds timer, so he won't waste a precious heal or status removal on Guard Drink.

Of course, the second you or a Trust gets a Pro or Shell dispelled, or one dies and you resummon and forget to re-Pro/Shell, he will Guard Drink without hesitation, causing you to go, "Oiiii veiiiii... *face palm*"

Don't forget Yoran-Oran.
Both are by far the BiS healers but, like all mage trusts, have the MP issue I mentioned for Ygnas.
They do have high regain (and a bit of autorefresh) and can use Dagan/Nott to replenish their MP, but the priority is so low that in intense fight with lots of stuff happening, they will basically sit on 3000 TP and run out of MP.
Their logic is so flawed that they will wait for mp to replenish enough mp to cast cure1 (doesn't take much time) and that will "lock" them into that behaviour instead of using Nott and continuing their regular logic.

Apururu and Yoran-Oran are basically the same but Apururu is the only healer trust that uses AoE healing, whereas Yoran-Oran is the only trust that uses Cureskin. It's weak compared to a player, of course, but it's still good and that makes him the best by far healer for single target.
Also Apururu has the annoyance of Haste1 thing mentioned before, whereas Yoran-Oran doesn't haste.
Before Monberaux existed and I moved to perma Sylvie, Yoran-Oran used to be my favourite Trust healer, except for those rare content/situations where I deemed I absolutely needed AoE healing.

For any haste 1 users and Sylvie uses as well, Arciela 1(not 2) will overwrite it with her Haste 2. I don't have ygnas so I don't know how those 2 interact. But she is a really nice replacement for Koru or King who do not overwrite haste1 but you lose dia3. Slight inconvenience maybe.

She'll do the same with ygnas, ygnas' (additional) problem is his aoe buff that wipes haste2 of any duration with his 1 min haste2, same for any enspell with his much weaker enlight, really annoying if you're on RDM

She does but she has other inconveniences.
First, she alternates two modes and will only use Haste2 in one of them (where she sits most of the time).
Secondly she has some AoE moves that tag/aggro mobs surrounding you.

Last but not least she only casts buffs on player, not party members (the same applies to KoH. Koru is the only RDM that will care for other trusts/players I think) and she will not Dia the targets.

I mean, she makes the Haste1 issue less relevant but doesn't completely remove it and brings in other cons, alas.

One other benefit of Arciela is she will haste you regardless of job, King will do the same, but Koru will only haste certain jobs, (WAR, MNK, THF, PLD, DRK, BST, SAM, NIN, DRG, BLU, PUP, DNC, RUN) and flurry or refresh the others.

They all have their issues, I have much more issue with Kings insistence of bursting Firaga than I do with Arciela's amnesiaga which she uses much more infrequently.

Koru would be the absolute best... If he would haste my cor, but no he insists I require Flurry...

Arciela definitely gets slept on by a lot of players. Constant fast Haste 2 (and she will over-write any regular source of Haste), good debuff use (minus Dia) has an incredibly strong AOE heal that can be used every 60 seconds or so, AOE MDEF+, can single target pro/shell if needed and she will spam instant Dispel on anything she can remove. The one and thing you have to mind is that she has an AOE Amnesia WS but since it doesn't do damage it won't interrupt sleeps or other CC. It also has a strangely high chance to actually land on most things so it is barely a downside at all.

Lacking Dia and getting you insta-killed in Sortie A / E boss are her only detractors.

"only detractors"

They're deal breakers.

Also; Does not refresh other trust. (less important if Monbro is your healer)

The only things a RDM trust should do are Haste/Cure me. Dia the mob. Refresh my whm and themselves. Absolutely nothing else. (convert is ok)
Phalanx is a "nice to have" she also doesn't do that.

She fails at 3/4 of those

hey

KoH also buffs Shantotto with higher priority than the player/himself

Arciela is necessary for Haste II with Sylvie.

Right now when solo I run Arciela, Qultada, Sylvie, Koru-Moru, and Monberaux. Haste is uncapped unless I'm on BRD, NIN, RUN, or GEO, but attack and healing are goodish.

Not "necessary" but waaaaay more convenient.

You can use just koru, and manually click off haste 1
(could probably automate it, if motivated, despite it being the same '33')

Who are the best DPS trusts for leveling?

I ask this because I had an answer in my head (Shantotto II > Valaineral > Semih Lafihna > Halver) and I failed to consider at least two things:

1) Rainemard's enspell damage is so high he's beating everyone but Shan2 in my testing. (obviously this does not help a new player since you need the Bundle of Half-Inscribed Scrolls, but does help a somewhat new player.)
2) Balamor/Arciela/Teodor/August have magic attacks, not true autos, so they don't miss no matter how low their physical accuracy "should" be. (and some other trusts? Mumor maybe? I don't know.)

Anyone got the definitive list for the 17th time a singleboxer is leveling up without any other humans online?

If you're using Shantotto II, which you should if you own her, you really want to be constantly Skillchaining. Balamor, Teodor, and August use TP with the same intelligence of Qultada, making no effort to SC. Arciela is more support-based and won't generate any TP if the mob is moved away from her.

I've always found success using Valaineral/Shantotto II/Iroha II/ Semih Lafihna, with the last being a flex depending on if I need a healer, if Matsui-P or Cornelia are available, etc. Use Shantotto, Iroha, and Semih as SC closers while yourself and Valaineral can be openers. You can force Uriel Blade by pulling another mob while engaged, which then triggers your closers to finish the SC and Shantotto II to murder the primary target.

Zeid II is by far the highest damage Trust (in a leveling to 99 situation) as long as you are in the level range past where he knows Ground Strike.

Physical damage. But he's dwarfed by all the magic melee.

This is my favorite trust-abuse mechanic lol.

Also, Iroha II is so good. Been using her for solo Lilith farming, both her Light skillchains, magic bursts, and her Rise from Ashes WS restores HP/MP and gives cureskin.

Whats real fun is if you two box, and you purple yourself, he will SPAM it. Nonstop.

Regardless of targets as long as you stay on top of the purpled hate list.

That's hilarious lol

It becomes more and more useful for solo odyssey farming as your trust level increases and val becomes tanky enough to hold ~5 mobs without instantly dieing, at least on floor one.

If the claims with justice and peace breaker regarding def and mdef down for Naja Salaheem (UC) are true then she could be interesting for hybrid WS DDs.

Ayame (UC) has Tachi: Ageha for def down over the regular Ayame.

Both can be a decent choice as SC partner for job points at certain lower apex camps, however you'll want to bring Marine Stewpots if your job doesn't have some form of acc+- or they'll whiff too much.

I'm sure it may have been brought up when the dynamis shared instances initially dropped... but last night was the first time I did one where some other players did actually show up (I haven't gone much myself). Is it pretty normal to see wierd mob behavior there? My pal and I were several pathways into Dyna-Windy, and when we spawned mobs off a statue we saw them go sprinting off towards the entrance of the zone (a solo THF had entered after us). This happened for a good few statues, but eventually it stopped as we got farther in.

I've been trying to do dyna daily since it opened up and last Saturday was the first and only time I've seen this happen. I was solo and so was another player. They grabbed the first statue & when I popped the second, 2 out of the 4 mobs that spawned went after them. Happened a few more times during the run. This was Bastok. No idea how/why it happened.