Picking Up Where I Left Off

I'm about to start playing again, haven't really since a few days after the first Abyssea add-on came out (6/7/8 months ago?). I didn't really decide to quit, just haven't had time/motivation to play, until now.

I guess what I'm wanting to know is "Wtf do I do now?". A lot has changed since I've played, and I can't say I kept up with it. But that's ok, because I feel like I'm starting a new game (which is a good thing, for me).

Obviously, the first thing I'm doing is buying the 2 most recent Abyssea add-ons. I have the first one, but I can honestly say I've been in the zones for maybe 2-3 hours max, back when not much was known about it.

So here's a few questions I have:

1. What are some of the first things I need to get "Abyssea-ready"? Should I get all the confluxs(sp?)? Are there quests/requirements to be met? Any kind of info would be helpful...

2. What are Monk's doing now? My "main" is 75 Monk, I'd like to focus on it. Not really sure what their role is now, Or how they are geared post-abyssea. I have decent gear (for a 75), shura togi, haidate, etc... If anyone(*cough*Tigerwoods*cough*) could show me gearsets/options for 90 Monk, that would be great. So I know what to work towards.

Thanks

to get abyssea rdy you need to focus on getting all of the KI that decreases how long you have to wait for a stone and you need to focus on getting your dd atmas.

as for monk's role that would be tank. unless im mistaken monk is the number 1 tank in the game right now.

If I were you the first thing i would do is find a frend and have him/her help you make/join an abyssea exp party and get your self on the track to level 90.

KI? Sorry, feel stupid asking that.


Going to work on this also... Don't really have any friends left, and no LS to come back to XD.

-4hour abyssites are the priority, then it's a bunch of stuff like collecting other good abyssites (merit, furtherance, sojourn among others), atma (razed ruins, gnarled horn, sanguine scythe, voracious violet are good to start), af3 +1 => +2 (most pre-cap increase gear is obsolete), get your empyrean weapon, kill 9 zone bosses and 6 caturae for Shinryu, get 200k brews, win the game.

But like Darkwizardzin said, getting to 90 (and capped skills for club/staff/h2h) is pretty important too.

KI = Key Item :P he prolly means the Abyssites.

I'd say for MNK, you'd want to do a few things:

1. get the most valuable atmas, like Razed Ruins, Gnarled Horn, Voracious Violet, Ebon Hoof, Sanguine Scythe.

2. get the Abyssites of Celerity, X3.

3. skill up your club and staff skills.

4. have Ascetic's Fury, if you don't already.

5. have all the level 40 elemental Ninja spells, if you don't already.

Yeah, I was thinking Key Item at first, but I was thinking it may have been some new Abyssea term XD. derp.

Get yourself access to your new zones by visiting them, thankfully (by the sounds of it) you will have a huge supply of entry stones to allow yourself leveled from 75 to 90.

Save all the new Kindred Crests and High Kindred Crests, as they are used for the new limit breaks and some Magian weapon trials.

Yes, get as many maps and confluxes you can with your cruor, leave any AF3 pieces for later to save on space, until you geat the seals. However, should you want the item, you will have to "farm" for the feet, so make sure you grab them when you get the chance.

For leveling purposes, the new Dominion ops in the "Heroes" zones are the way to go, with Altepa Dolls being a popular choice, but there are many other good ones. These can be done in any fashion, but I personally just gone with a alliance.

For endgame purposes, once you get a grip on the new areas, Monk is a much wanted job. Alongside NIN, THF, and to a point DNC, these seem to be the new "tank" jobs (or rather preferred old tank jobs) with many groups and shells and MNK seems to be one of the most wanted.

Go with a shell that you was once a member of, that maybe once did sky sea limbus etc, or get a active social that does seal nms, both of which should give you a more relaxed and steady flow for progression.

Many, but not all, of the newer Abyssea only shells are mostly focused on getting the core members Emph Weapons, but do rip through the bosses. It depends on what kind of shell you want.

However, there is a big "shout" nature than ever before and pick up groups are more viable options than they used to be for boss fights and other higher end activities.

As regards gear, not being a monk (that high) myself, I'd stick with what I'd know for a while. Theres plenty of nice items out there, some harder to get than others, as ever, but most jobs AF3s seem perfect for most purposes. Get a upgraded weapon for damage output, and I assume you will skill up well if you were capped/near cap when you quit playing.

Other than Wiki what you can, and take oppotunities as regards getting atmas (enhancing key items) and boss titiles, rest is up to you. I myself don't play often and am well behind on many things, but I try not to let it get to me nor hold me back.

Good luck :)

EDIT: Took so long to type alot has already been said. Scanned and theres a lot of good points in those posts, such as atma aims, do what you can and gl :)

This will help alot. Although if youve been gone that long im sure you will have tons of stones already stored.

I took a 3 month break due to massive amounts of work and in that time built up about 200 stones and with all the KI to shorten the time now I never dip below 200 and i spend most of my time in abyssea and if its low man stuff I usually dont even bother farming time.

Here's a MNK gear set I made up just now.

It's nothing mega-elite, but it would certainly get the job done well as an Abyssea MNK tank/melee:

afflictors are worse than destroyers don't wear them

>elanabelle giving gear advice

OA2-3 and footwork

You know instead of trolling elanabelle you could outshine her by posting better gear set advice that way at least the OP still gets help.
edit: made a typo

revenant fists +1/2 | empty | empty | tantra tathlum
tantra crown +1/2 | agasaya's collar | aesir ear pendant | brutal earring
tantra +1/2 (or loki's if neither) | tantra +1/2 | epona's ring | rajas ring
atheling mantle | black belt | tantra hose +1/2 | tantra boots +1/2 (usufeet if not capping haste)

happy?

back to making fun of that piece of trash then

Very much so. Carry on with the trolling then. :)

it is but only with tantra gloves +2 i'm fairly certain, though if +1 work too, GO GET IT DONE

you need +2 to make it break the next base dmg tier with faith torque on (H2H skill X 0.11 + 3), switch tantra tathlum to thew bomblet cause who the *** needs acc. Skip shitty WoE weapons and go for the real thing, same time spent overall on average. Loki on while impetus isn't active, Af3+1/+2 on when it is.

Get both thew and tantra and use them as needed. Low man WoE is a lot faster than low man Chloris, too, but empyreans aren't really hard to get so might as well.

Abyssea ready and pounding out abyssea gear are kinda different things.

You'll want to visit your favorite information site.

check up on a few things. Abyssites, Atma and "Monter weakness procing"

3 types of monster weakness

Red !! Makes Key Items (Abyssite, Atma, KI to pop NMs) 100% drop
Yellow !! ~ Makes 'upgrade' items like seals and +2 upgrade items drop more.
Blue !! ~ makes equippable gear items drop more often.

The methods to proc'ing them are different, should read up.

Abyssites: Abyssite of Celerity and Sojourn are important for more time in abyssea. Abyssite of Merit and Furtherance are important for stat and HP/MP boosts.

Atmas: level 90 makes you more powerful, atma makes you more so. Check a listing of atma and their effects and you'll see what I mean.

Knowing the stuff above makes you ready for abyssea. The rest is research on what gear you want and thats all up to you

Hey Ironguy,
Eat some more paint chips.

The gear set I posted, as states, is AN EXAMPLE of DECENT gear. I don't recall the OP asking for optimal MNK gear. I believe s/he just wanted some suggestions. I took some time to do just that. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with the equipment I listed. If the OP wants to use my suggestions, in part or in full, or not, is his/her business.

Carry on with your paint chips.

First of all. That neck is up words of 1 mil+ and is only going to give you .39% haste in that set. Might as well use an attack neck till you can get A collar which isnt to hard to get.

Afflictors suck. End of story, better H2h to get in abyssea and even better ones to make through trials (which do not take that long to get)

Melee gloves? Might as well get O kotes as those are very cheap now.


So, i wouldnt say there is "absolutely nothing wrong" with waht you listed.

Same with cerb mantle, there are lots of other backs that give more attack that will do more then the +3 str.

Dude, you do know that Afflictors are worst than not only destroyers, but even a pair of NQ hades sainti (even w/ capped acc), which are only 30k on the AH.

Please don't give advice when you clearly have no clue what you're *** talking about.

Atmas: You're going to want Razed ruins, Atma of apocalypse, Gnarled horn as your main 3.

If you're not active in abyssea, killing bosses and doing the storyline, it may take a while to get Apoc. Atma of V-Violet, and Sanguine scythe are also good to have and will be good place holders until you can upgrade.

Some other minor atma, that if you have to can use till you get better, but are nothing to go out of your way for are Stout arm and Harvester.

Atmas do more for you than gear ever could, so these should be top priority.

As for confluxes, if you do an exp pt or event and have a more than 120 mins left over while you're in the zone, do it. If not, it's nothing to waste stones over (unless you bought abyssea before you came back and had a bunch building up, in which case it wouldn't make a diff).
Edit: re-read op, k you should have some stones.


Another thing you'll want to work on are your abyssites.

You'll want to start doing quests in Abys Kons to build fame. It's a bit of a tedious process but nothing too tough, once you work your way up you can start doing the picture quest (kinda like getting zeni) where you'll have to take pics of NMs. This will be your repeat quest till you cap fame.

Why are we doing this? Abyssite of merit. You'll want all 6 of them. (One of them comes from the quest you can do w/ lv 6 fame in Kons). Look them up on wiki and obtain all 6.

You'll also want to look into the abyssites that give you more time per stone and that reduce the time you have to wait between stones. You'll want to do these sooner rather than later.


Now that we're rolling in abyssea, I'll go over gear.




Weapon: Vereth > Rev Fists+2 > Taurine Cesti > Taipan fangs (magian str+ wep)+2 > Furor Cesti

Now, I included things you probably won't want to spend your time on getting, but just listing the order since idk how high up in the food chain you want to go.

Furor Cesti will probably be your easiest option and are just a smidge under Taipan fangs (if you don't want to do magians, though keep in mind you'll want to do magians eventually because they'll only become better). Until then nothing would be a major increase over Destroyers or hades sainti, so aren't worth worrying about, unless they just fall in your lap (heafon for example).

Taruine are currently best non smite weapon, but will be passed by magian options in upcoming updates. The NM isn't too bad, but for some basic groups/beginners, they find him to be one of the more difficult NMs, so you can take that into account.


Ammo: Thew Bomblet (acc capped) > Tantra Tathlum (Acc uncapped)

Order swaps if you're not capping acc, which may be an issue until your h2h caps out at lv 90 and tantra worth having anyways for WS (hopefully you have ascetic's fury and if not did some nyzul before you quit).

Head: Tantra +2 > Tantra +1 > Turban > Usu
Special note: Brisk mask can situationally better than Tantra+2, but not unless you're capping haste w/ brisk

Turban is self explanatory, work on AF3 upgrades when can.


Neck: Faith Torque (if h2h gives you DMG+1 > Agasaya's Collar = Tantra > Faith torque (if doesn't give you dmg+1).

Special note here is you have to be wearing kick shoes for tantra to be worth anything, so move it to the end of the list otherwise. If you have none of the above, can stick an acc piece on there, but really doesn't do much/anything for you except help you skill up.


Ears: Brutal > Aesir > Merman's

If you don't have brutal, stop what you're doing and go finish CoP.


Body: Tantra+2 > Hachiryu > Juogi+1 > Loki > Shura > other stuff

Note: Tantra+2 is powerful due to it's augment to Impetus. W/ Impetus down Hachiryu moves to #1, Loki and Tantra+2 and Juogi+1 will battle for second depending on what gear/atma you have in other slots.




Hands: Tantra+2 > tantra+1 > Aurore if need haste, Tantra+2 (If getting dmg+ from h2h skill) > Bkote (Okote) > Tantra+2 (If not getting dmg+ from h2h skill) if you don't need haste in hands to cap.




Rings: Epona's > Rajas > attack+8 ring > attack+7 ring

If you don't have Rajas, get one, Epona's is the best ring you'll ever get. Until Epona's pair rajas w/ an attack+ ring. The +7 one should be on AH, +8 is rare/ex I think.



Back: Atheling Mantle > Cerb+1 > Forager's

If you have Charger's, you're probably capping fstr, so it's better than cerb+1 to TP in, but it's not on the list because Ath is so easy to get, you're wasting ABCs on a Charger mantle.



Waist: Black belt > Brown belt > Twilight

If you're capping haste w/ twilight, can use it over brown belt, if not, 1 haste > 2 DA.



Legs: Tantra+2 > Tantra+1 > Byakko's > Usukane > Aurore

If you don't have at least, Byakko's, keep usu on (if you have) or get Aurore from the AH and start working on Tantra+1 as one of your first upgrades.


Feet: If not capping haste: Usu > Fuma > Aurore

If capping haste w/o using feet slot: Tantra+2 > Tantra+1


For ws, it's going to mainly depend on the ws you're using, but w/ AFury/Victory smite, Just stick w/ the STR mod and you'll be fine, but use obvious pieces to use (such as DA/TA gear)


Edit:
Also, want abyssites of furtherance.

Thanks Tiger, been looking for a guide like this.