Finally made it to PS and I'm having fun but could use some tips. I have been manoring and was able to to pick up a Tsurgi and now I'm manoring to get some Theca armor. I know that a homunklous would have been better as it's better to cast at this level (and I still do)but I wanted a change of pace although I can't seem to find C grade Spiritshots let alone C-BSpS (the M atk is still higher on the Tsurgi than on my Crucifix of blood).
Anyway I plan on manoring the rest of the seeds I have now from Giran and figured the next place to move on to would be Oren. But other than that I'm not sure what area would be good or are there other areas like around Hunter's village and so forth that would be good?
A question on cubics, they don't seem to last very long does anyone know the exact time and are they dependent on if you are fighting or at rest like a Shadow?
I love the sound when the spark cubic goes off although I don't think it's really worth the 5 crystals at this point.
Is there anyway to see if something like wind shackle has actually landed or Curse of chaos? I have been using them more often and casting one hurricane and the rest is melee but can't always tell if they have landed.
Beast shots: I haven't used them yet, don't really need to but I asume you put them in your actionbar and use them just like regular shots?
If you are talking about the debuffs you personally cast, if you get no system message, your debuff landed. If you fail you get a system message like "X resisted your wind shackle".
There is no way to see if phantom cubic lands a debuff outside of noticing a drop in enemy damage/attack speed or an increase in damage dealt.
meant to add, yes cubic is dependant on your attacking. Pet won't help it any :(. Personally I don't use spark or phantom cubics unless i'm pvp'ing or raiding. They work wonders on raid bosses. Nothing like watching the raid boss lose like 150 p.atk, p.def, and p.atk speed.
Finally made it to PS and I'm having fun but could use some tips. I have been manoring and was able to to pick up a Tsurgi and now I'm manoring to get some Theca armor. I know that a homunklous would have been better as it's better to cast at this level (and I still do)but I wanted a change of pace although I can't seem to find C grade Spiritshots let alone C-BSpS (the M atk is still higher on the Tsurgi than on my Crucifix of blood).
Don't know which server you are but I never had trouble finding C shots all types. Affording them was another thing. C grade is a bit of a hastle since you still can't really carry a lot of shots. Things get a LOT better when you get to B grade! During the first levels where you're tanking for your summons you will want to split the shots. At least I did. This meant that I couldn't stay in the field solo as long as I would have liked to. Later, as the servitor got stronger I went through a period where I carried more shots for the servitor than for me and , in parties, I didn't use shots for me at all and just used beast shots. I still hit the mobs, but that was just to get the cubic to fire. PS mass cubic is the best one of them all I think. When it lands, it has the chance of landing one of 3 debuffs. There is some evidence to suggest that in a large party where every fighter has the cubic, it may land more than one of the debuffs at the same time. I can't confirm that but I can tell you that when I was in parties with my sons PS, it sure seemed that way.
Anyway I plan on manoring the rest of the seeds I have now from Giran and figured the next place to move on to would be Oren. But other than that I'm not sure what area would be good or are there other areas like around Hunter's village and so forth that would be good?
I would suggest trying the Plains of the Lizardmen for a couple of levels. The Overlords are x2 hp. You should have no trouble soloing there. Just be careful not to aggro the Lord of the Plains group mob. You may have to do a lot of healing on your servitor if you do, and you might just have to leave your servitor there to die as you run away. As long as you don't pull any other aggro onto your self, you will find that in many cases you can be out of aggro range by the time your servitor dies. Also, try to get into parties in the cata's, or build your own parties and go there. Your mass cubic will be very helpful to the kill rate, and the XP is sweet. As you move closer to 44 you can also solo in lower EV, later moving to upper EV. This is a little harder than it used to be since they changed it so that the pots/herbs don't drop there anymore, but the xp is really nice, the mobs are all x2-x3 hp. Now, it's a real grind, but when you get low on adena, you can go out and solo mobs that are green and light blue without shots at all. This is a way to build up some cash, but it can be a little frustrating. and you still have to spend the crystals on the servitor, but you can make some adena this way.
A question on cubics, they don't seem to last very long does anyone know the exact time and are they dependent on if you are fighting or at rest like a Shadow?
I love the sound when the spark cubic goes off although I don't think it's really worth the 5 crystals at this point.
Is there anyway to see if something like wind shackle has actually landed or Curse of chaos? I have been using them more often and casting one hurricane and the rest is melee but can't always tell if they have landed.
Beast shots: I haven't used them yet, don't really need to but I asume you put them in your actionbar and use them just like regular shots?
You want to use beats shots if you can. Will increase your kill rate a lot! As for the cubics....Spark is nice, it seems to land fairly often and the time the mob spends stunned is time you take less damage. This is a good thing! Phantom works well too but you never know which debuff is going to land when it goes off, well you will know when the pdef debuff lands, the mob will die really fast! From what I have seen the pdef debuff is really brutal.
other good places to exp are... near FP cata, you'll find some bugbears and orcs that are about level 40(bugbears drop brig helm&shield mats with good craft profits), past those there are drakes and spiders a little higher(the ogres there drop coins)... the monsters under and around Ivory Tower should be about your level also, be careful under though as most are magic resistant(the mobs under drop rare spellbooks with nice pricetags)... the beginning of Dragon Valley might be good too, levels progress up pretty high as you get deeper so if it works you could chill there a nice long time + a decent coin farming spot(quest from HV, good resale)... Forest Of Mirrors also has monsters ranging from late 30s to late 40s, you can level SA crystals on the bigger ones later if you need cash(can get that quest in giran or aden, although the crystals are in luxury shop now -used for putting SA's on weapons C grade and up)
Thanks everyone for the info. I did a bunch in plains of the lizardmen and tried leveling up a crystal on the Timak Orcs. That didn't do so well, only got two souls and died 3 times. Going to have to just pony up and buy about 100 C-BSpS for emergencies. I ended up at Alligator island and the areas around Heine for a change of pace.
So far I have not been tanking for my Shadow, he has better p.atk and a bunch more hp's. I haven't had to use much in the way of shots and don't really have the money for them after buying a c grade weapon and armor as well as keeping a supply of d crystals. I don't think I could afford to use the Soulless even if I had the book, something like 15 C crystals if I remember correctly.
Now if I could only turn in my chilly cobols before the farmers do. It's been 3 nights and I'm not fast enough.
you can only level crystal up to lvl 2 on the orcs, and as for the seeds...i have about 1500 that i have tried to turn in now for like 4 months...good luck with that
Actually for several weeks I haven't had any problems, sometimes even turning in only hours before they are restocked, Past few days it's either hit it right at 9:06 server which I think is just beofre 9:08 on my watch or your out of luck.