Ballista

This game has evolved into massive AoE KI grinding sessions to pop mobs to build and endless amounts of Empyreans, with the cruor being used to Spam Shinryuu.

(^And people think this ***is hard.)

If anyone from Titan/Phoenix who used to Ballista wants to (or anyone in General) Please post here or send me a /tell in game.

I am a huge fan of 1v1's but I've seen some OM's go off for the uncapped venue and I'm sure we could do more.

I am incredibly bored and am looking for some fun and excitement.

Come to Fenrir yo

Come to Odin, I've been shouting: "Anyone want to PvP? If you get best out of 5 reward: 100k, if you lose no need to pay anything." all day lol.

Too bad we are not on same server upbeat, I could use a quick 100k :)

I never really liked 1 vs 1, the annoying "run around target" is stupid. I liked the group vs groups in brenner though.

I wish I could find someone to pay lol. Out of 5 people today no one even came close :(

Honestly I'm just happy I was able to do PvP with 5 people today, It seems like the only way to get people to PvP with me is to offer gil. Maybe if I post every PvP match on youtube and make it a "Thing" more people will want to go, but that would probably backfire and no one would go =/

I'm the other way around. I like brenner if it's a group, never really liked ballista in a group. I probably would like it if I had a static group of people to work out strats and plays, but I'll probably never have something like that lol.

I LOVE good 1v1s though, like PLD/RDM vs NIN/RDM... there is nothing else in the game like it.

Yes, Sakaio/Urteil, please go to Fenrir.

Grow some balls.



I'd come to Laks or Fenrir, but I can't just abandon my Linkshell. Oh how times have changed.

ballista is dead on most servers, i hope they do something about the pvp system on this game, because it's almost non-existent, maybe a button on the gui menu that flags you as hostile for others hostile players, automatically disabling the feature when entering a zone or town, that would be so cool

Only gimp sniveling morons think anything Abyssea is hard >__>.

That being said, I like Ballista, I just don't like how some people use Ballista to "Act tough".

Oh? Your Ukon WAR killed my SMN? You're so hard bro! Or as if Ballista actually requires skill. "Oh look, You're running in a circle around me, Thats talent!".

I do however Wish i could help you in your endeavor... But I'm not on Phoenix :(

sleep bolt spam go!

Karbuncle I think it would be fun, however people try to run around me, Black Mages and Red Mages attempt to gravity/kite - all the time and - I have zero problems hitting them.


And sleep bolts only work like, what twice? Sometimes never with even two tiers of Resist Sleep, and for 3-5 seconds if that.

I hate the run around thing, it's cheap and looks stupid. Odin sounds like it would be fun though in a group setting lol.

Its cheap and stupid if you don't know how to move from point A to point B. I learned how to do that once I handed in my adventuring coupon.

<3 Ballista. Best thing ingame was 12v12 and up in 60 caps. Got my money's worth back on Fairy server.

Ballista was always fun to me, and alot of people used to do it daily on Quetzalcoatl, but on Carbuncle almost nobody ever does it from what I can see. I really do miss it, haven't done an official match since maybe 08.

I'd usually go MNK at 75 (Mind you, this was my old char and back at 75), subbing either /BLU, /DRG, or /PLD varying from one scenario to the next. Sometimes I'd change to Faith Baghnahks if it was a NIN or THF and the like, or something I'd just went to get TP on faster.



The above set with Cocoon or Sentinel and cheap crab food usually made alot of melees do pretty ***damage on me, besides BLUs of course...they just always raped.

Majority of the time though, I played as either MNK or BLU in 75 caps, or rolled SAM/RNG in 60 caps. Was quite fun.

I totally remember gear sets like these and the days of old, it brings back great memories. With your setup I found that Blue Mages did poor damage with all their physical spells.



On the note of Blue Mages however:
People especially people who play strictly martial jobs with no overt magical aptitude are overly intimidated by them. People might think that jobs such as Ranger, Ninja, and Thief have no chance versus jobs with an MP pool, but SCH sub gives amazing utility to many martial jobs, and in many ways balances and gives viable strategies for them to overcome many other professions. Considering the person has half a brain.


For example:

I'd merit 120mp and sub scholar and run a few mp pieces on MONK, and run the rest with PDT/HP equipment versus a BLU.

Feasibly without much sacrifice and with the almighty Black Belt, you are looking at 400-550mp, and some great all around stats to ruin someone's day.

Simply stay within 5-6' and never stop moving and they are forced to land a Crowd Control spell on you to be able to use any heavy hitting spells, but then that is where your PDT/HP comes into play. This will make it very hard to get your hp below 50% to cause sublimation to cease, and make you susceptible to sleep.

If done correctly the BLU should never land a single hard hitting spell without them being forced to immobilize you first. However a good BLU will be able to eventually do this.

You'll be able to whittle their hp down and fight in Light arts mode to give you a quick erase if things get shitty (Regugitation Lands), or if you want to get fancy with DoT's or sleep them and Drain them.

I'd recommend using an Earth Staff to cap out the PDT and wear the BLU down using Cataclysm for the WS, or use a Pair of Magian fists.

However if you have Victory smite, it pretty much does the soft damage cap in Ballista 100% of the time, landing for 998 or 999 consistently.

BLU really gets a run for its money (and all jobs do.) vs. NIN/SCH with capped Ninjutsu and MP merits is especially nasty with its high evasion, inability to be slept and at the speed it throws those :San spells around.

I often used Primate Staff or Terra's Staff and /SAM with Seigan/Third Eye, retributions at 75 easily did 700 to non-PDT melees believe it or not, and was able to spam them with pamamas due to very fast attack speeds.

However, my post was on a 75-stand point. And a smart BLU will just pinecone bomb to sleep you if you're running around too much, actinic burst to blind you, and head butt you, and then unleash a few strong DD spells on you after they've landed a gravity (if they find the need to gravity you)

Besides, I played on BLU as well and there were many spells that made things very easy so that melees couldn't escape from you. Blast Bomb does the trick as well for binding people.

You can't sleep someone with Sublimation which you get at SCH35, if they Acintic burst you can simply run around till it wears within a small circular radius.

Light Arts -> Addendum White, gives you erase, so you can simply erase the bind as soon as it lands. Or Celerity -> Erase if things get hairy. This also works for gravity etc, just stay on top of it as MNK and its hard for them to stack debuffs to pull this off.


Headbutt won't last long enough to get multiple spells, but you shouldn't be within that range long enough to begin with.

Versus a Blue Mage using scholar sub you should be employing a few pieces of "Resist Bind" Gear, so after a few erases it will stop sticking and last 1-2 seconds at best.

While you are doing the Rope-a-Dope, bob and weave to martial artist your way into attack radius and retreat nimbly just outside their casting range.

Is what I used on BLU as either /RDM or /PLD. MNKs would hit me for riduculously low damage on that, there is honestly no chance for them to survive against me. I mean, trust me I've beaten plenty of BLUs on my MNK, but a *good* one who knows what they're doing and doesn't get extremely unlucky will usually find a way to beat said MNK. Cocoon + cheap AH defense food put me at around 750 defense that way iirc, with a protect 4 or 5 easily above 800, but that would be cheating. Add phalanx into that and factor in PDT and I might as well have been a PLD/RDM.

Initial head butt lasts long enough (3 seconds or so) to put in one strong CA DD spell, and if the MNK attempts to sprint away, all you'd have to do is blast bomb them and sprint to their range within a second, head butt again for 1-2 second duration, and throw another spell at them. Usually disseverment is on them by this moment if you've chosen the right two DD spells, and they'll chakra away the poison. At that point, sure, they can get away alive. But they sure aren't beating you.

There's also regurgitation which is low recast and decent magical damage as well as bind if they want to play the chase after each other game. That's where wlegs come in to catch up to them, assuming they aren't using hermes or herald g8rz

BLU at 90 now is ridiculous, my friend Ballista'd the other day and did a spell for around 1200 damage with a 50 TP CA, cant remember what spell. It was on a decently geared (no PDT though) DRK/RDM

Thats a decent PDT reduction, and with minimal Phalanx. With the insane amounts of DMG on weapons including the Empyrean Verethgrana BLU is going to get hit hard, our defensive Values have not kept up with the offensive.

The Monk could use formless though to bypass that and they'd hit you for full damage, but with ratings on weapons it would still be respectable at the speed they would be.

The monk ideally will have about 2.2k hp with around 30-35% PDT depending on the quality of their Dark Rings.

If your BLU/RDM or /PLD the Monk can easily sleep you to aspir/recover/reapply stoneskin/blink at their leisure.

If the monk is in Light arts and paying attention casting Erase during the BB animation is easy enough to wipe the bind instantly.

If the monk is played right that Headbutt won't be happening initially or very often, while they pummel the BLU who can't sleep, or Bind them because of the Monk being on top of Erase is key.

I'd imagine as /sch I'd just poisona away the poison once I had distance, or sleep the BLU once their shadows were gone to recover.

BLU is very managable, they have considerable power but pay the price for the severe handicap that is their casting range.

Considering with SE and LR and Caladbolg on I can crit for 500+ every 4 seconds instantly up to 7' away.

And no PDT versus a BLU doesn't mean decently gear, I'd be happy to give them lessons.

Well, he was using gear to boost his WS, and Quietus hit me for 600 on SAM wearing PDT gear and no defense or sub that would help mitigate damage, so had I been wearing similar gear like I noted a few posts ago on BLU/RDM or BLU/PLD...would mitigate alot of damage.

Even worse on the list is Ochain PLD though, I simply could *NOT* put any damage into them. (Twilight Scythe would probably work wonders on something like that?)

No, the secret to beating an Ochain PLD is using DoT on DRK to rot them to death, I can do 19/tic currently which is an amazing amount of pressure. Your friend should invest in the 12% pdt scythe for his PvP endeavors, or a Caladbolg for a 100% TP ***-Your-Couch button. I happily employ both.

He should also cap his marksmanship, merit it and try acid bolts because -12%~ defense is nothing to scoff at, verus plate-mail classes your accuracy is not so bad.

Paladins are hard to sleep however increasing the dINT between the DRK and the PLD will help considerably, always Absorb-INT then try to sleep. However my personal strategy is to just load the DoT's before the inevitable fealty, or bind if I can. Then go to dispel-town.


Bind them and dispel their buffs and literally 'eat' them by aspiring and absorbing their HP into oblivion. Granted your swings will do little, but if you can stun -> WS they cannot block/parry/evade, or simply WS them from behind or from the right side beyond the blocking radius.

Employing this Method the Paladin might as well be wearing a paper plate as your important physical WS attacks are not mitigated by the shield whatsoever.

If you can Aspir their MP and remove Enlight the DPS of the PLD drops considerably, and without the Mdef of Aegis to save them the PLD is about to have some serious trouble.

The true shield for ballista is Aegis, but I would assume Ochain would be good in groups, however I'd just switch to magical damage.

Keep enlight off with a Magian PDT scythe and eisen grip and I can fight Paladins with 46% PDT, guillotine seals the deal and I can Alacrity Drain Kill them.

Or throw some T3's around which give me 16%-20% TP a nuke with AF3+2 boots + Oneiros Belt. Which do 250~ damage and just let me Infernal Scythe/Torcleaver/Guillotine again.

I prefer Guillotine as it allows a DRK/SCH to have the utility of silence with respectable damage, with four separate chances of it getting to land.

NIN/RDM is really the only job I use for 1v1s. Depending on what I'm fighting I'll use one of the three sets(Most of the time I'll make minor tweaks for each fight):

The main/offhand weapons really just depend on the other person. Sometimes I use Kannagi/Sekka +2, Sekka+2x2, Tsukumo(Augmented Ensilence)/No offhand, Kannagi/Tsukumo, Kannagi/Hochomasamune, Hochomasamune/Tsukumo. It all depends on the other person's playstyle, and their job.
I really only use this set to level the playing field vs melee onry jobs, I'm lucky if I can do 1 pvp match every 2 weeks... So I really can't just nuke rape everyone and expect them to want to keep playing.
And this set... Oh how I love this set lol. There is nothing like spamming 300 damage NIs, and 700 damage Sans in PvP lol. This set easily rips apart any DD job. (I use Iga Kyahan +2, not Ninja Kyahan +1)
And just because... Here are two really awesome fights I've posted to youtube. The first is NIN/RDM vs Burt+Aegis PLD/RDM. Second is NIN/RDM vs RDM/BLU.

Watching someone else actually execute ideas that have been floating around in my head is quite the sight (though I'm not claiming these ideas understand.)

I feel with /sch and the ability to aspir his MP with Alacrity and drain some HP for yourself with B+ dark arts.

You would have claimed victory easily.



Employing a Terra on NIN and using your magic is quite the display of ingenuity. I would fight you gladly, maybe you should pay me a visit on Phoenix.

Much respect.

That NIN vs RDM fight was epic.

I'm glad I watched that.