Salvage @99 Questions

Hey everyone, it's been a long time since i've played and I recently got back into the game. I have a few questions though regarding Salvage and how it is now that we aren't capped at 75 anymore. Back when I played, our setup used to be MNK/MNK/THF/BRD/RDM/WHM. We were able to consistently clear every zone completely with minutes to spare most of the time.

I want to know if this can be done now with an even lower amount of people, say MNK/THF/RDM or MNK/THF/BRD? Is it possible to do full clears comfortably with those combinations? Can it be done with even less people? Maybe THF+RDM/WHM? I'm basically looking for the most efficient combinations to do it with the least amount of people possible.

Also, some other, more specific questions:
It seems like nobody subs ninja anymore on Monk, is it better to just sub warrior for Salvage as well?

Some zone specific questions that i'm wondering about-
Bhaflau: Would the above setups be able to pump out enough damage to clear the 10 gear floor prior to the boss?
Silver Sea: On the CC floor, is it possible to just kill the gear train outright now?
Arrapago: Can the above setups kill the qiqirn NMs that teleport away fast enough?
Zhayolm: Does the 5th (IIRC) floor choke-point room in between the Madame Poroggo room still require a sac pull, or can a monk with cstance just outright tank and kill all the gears in there?

So i'm still pretty rusty and need to catch up on a lot of things, but if I remember anything else, i'll be sure to ask. If anyone has any experience they can share with low-man setups here, please share your knowledge.

hi, i finished 30k alexandrite recently, doing a lot from salvage. when i finish dynamis here rq in 15mins ill answer all of your questions ;o

ok, well first off, unless youre just going for only certain small gear, you won't get ***done with thf + rdm/whm. thf just doesn't cut it for dd. you can full clear everything mnk + rdm/whm though (but then you need th so need a th mule!).

so bhaflau yes, you can kill it with mnk + th mule + healer
SSR, yes, you can jsut kill the train out right. rdm needs to come /sch for sleepga here.
arrapago obv. yes again. you could probably kill them with thf + rdm (nuking) if you just were going for 35 bodies. i think i did complete this zone once duo thf + rdm (no 7min floor rats, but killed mb just barely)
zhayolm, you can just counterstance kill that ***. it's retardedly easy now, Zr gears. just try it and its a joke haha.

you can mnk/war everything too.

this is provided you have gear ofc and know the runs.

You can clear all zones with relative ease with any 2x DD+healer combos now. I still like using MNK in Salvage, and my preferred setup is THF/MNK/RDM or WHM. Subbing /nin on MNK is not worth it at all anymore, and /war is superior. If you need sneak/invis, use items or mage.

Edit - beaten by a min.

Oh okay, sounds good. Also, how much Alexandrite were you reeling in per run? And which zones would you say are the best for farming it (if there's anything done differently stratwise that would help too)? I'm not considering doing a mythic but just curious.

Also, is Red Versus Blue still the best way to get assault points, or is there a better assault to do?

SSR will yield about 85 Alexandrite per run average with TH2, in my experience. Not including Linens off the boss.

RvB is still the best for assault points.

^ except a little lower i think. 70-75 sounds more right. depending on luck with purses ofc.

I can duo any zone as Thf and Rdm. True story.

Bhaflau: Would the above setups be able to pump out enough damage to clear the 10 gear floor prior to the boss?

A: Yes.

Silver Sea: On the CC floor, is it possible to just kill the gear train outright now?

A: Yes.

Arrapago: Can the above setups kill the qiqirn NMs that teleport away fast enough?

A: Thf and Rdm can kill the Qiqirn before it warps, just have your rdm nuke the crap out of the rat.

Zhayolm: Does the 5th (IIRC) floor choke-point room in between the Madame Poroggo room still require a sac pull, or can a monk with cstance just outright tank and kill all the gears in there?

A: It can tank it outright, however Mnk counter is more hurtful than anything, when it hits a mob that had sight aggro, it becomes harder for the mage to heal because cures will pull aggro.

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In short, it is possible to clear every zone as Thf and Rdm, however, it is a little more streamlined to bring another dd.

As Thf Sam Rdm (my usual setup) I usually exit after a full run with 20 minutes to spare.

My last four runs were 83/91/86/95. The linen I got gave me another 57 (lol -,-;).

I kill all the gears and ramparts and chariots and whatever else along the path.

how are you doing full nm clear + gear farm with just thf dd?

My runs are only DNC/THF + RDM/WHM and I clear Hammerblow -> Powderkeg -> 3F Archaic Machinery -> GG3 -> 4F Archaic Machinery -> CC -> Boss in 80~85 minutes.

Also, the above comment about Counter breaking a supertanking strategy is wrong. Counter does not put you on the hate list and will have no effect on your supertanking.

idk, seems weird to me, but then again i did about half my runs with pug so i might be biased.

Anything in salvage can be done w/ DD+healer now. My personal favorite (if you have 3) is war+thf+whm. A good war can easilly cleave entire floors with out much issue. Its not like salvage is ever a long event, but cleaving makes it faster!

I'm spamming SSR for alex as well, and i can clear the whole zone with me DRG, my friend thf + his mule whm.

So like ppl stated before, DD + heal, and put an extra thf if you're aiming for alex.
I saw gears drop up to 3 alex sometimes.
I think ppl used MNK in 75 setup, coz they didn't need weapon cell to deal dmg.
But if you're lowmanning, your only DD will get an incus cell, so, i'd put an heavyer DD there.

And for points, RvB still works, but I like doing khim, it's faster than rvb and yeld the same points.
Boss is a joke to duo with just a dd + a whm.

But still, if you consider doing a mythic someday, you should try and aim for captain rank, and use tags on assaut you never done before.

Edit : DRG works actually rly good in ssr. On the boss, you just can super jump to evade the charm move. The wyvern will have hate, and with the new drg tools, you can make it tank the whole charming time.

Ahh my bad, I always thought it did. Counter away!

Thanks for the help, all.

Its good to point out that Byrth is very skilled and probably best geared DNC among servers and Rekial has Twashtar and Mandau. So full clear with dualboxing might be pretty hard for avg player.

You dont need to sack at ZR floor5 if weather isnt up you can hug the wall and get to the frog without agro, Im not even sure gears in the room drop or have even a reasonable drop rate on alexandrite. As for SSR ive seen 4 alex on 1 gear drop in citadel's room. Also if you want to make things a bit easier in SSR have a thf port 1st to citadel floor and flee to catch up gear train before it hits the chariot room and pull it back to kill them all, these can drop upto 3-4 alex per gear also.

Also in SSR now at 99 if you do take a bst with thf and rdm this is almost as good as mnk + thf + rdm, esp for boss after the thf is charmed once pet will tank for the rest of the fight, and the chariot will just repeatedly try to brainjack gooey or whoever you use to no effect and the thf can just hit away assuming they dont pull hate back.

I sometimes go mnk/dnc should really be mnk/war with the thf going sub dnc, but im lazy and the run still gets won id rather the free sneak invis and violent flourish is also nice for a zone like AR if you are doing bhoot - perdition.

You can do AR under 7 min floor at 99 with very weak dd trio and still win like 2x thf and a rdm ive won it before in about 4-5mins still.

And lastly the 10 gear floor in BR a single smite or exenterator is likely to 1 shot them, very little chance of those warping unless you link on the pull.

Oh and yes counter doesnt put you on hate list or send enemies after mages if a mage cures a countering/supertanking monk.

BLU + RDM is the fastest combo I've used. SSR takes about 60-70m doing the route byrth posted. Just round up all the mobs and whirl of rage them. Kill the gears one by one however or you'll get less alex to drop.

Fun fact: the chariot can be petrified strangely enough.

Ya all chariots can be petrified, can be useful if low manning a discoid spamming ZR mega boss.

So DNC/WHM/MNK shouldn't have any issues with any portion of Salvage?

(Edit: I've never stepped foot in Salvage and haven't even looked at the wiki in quite some time. I know nothing about it.)

Discoid boss (Zhayolm Remnants) might give you trouble. Other than that, nope!

I wrote a series of guides on bgwiki at the 90 cap. They're linked at the top of each salvage zone page and may give a better idea of how to handle the zones now that we're demigods.

I'll definitely take a look, Byrth. Thanks.

How do you bypass the 6 person requirement to do Salvage? I have been looking into starting it up, but if we don't have enough interest, I know we would like to trio it.

We are currently running assault right now for captain rank and enjoying it, since we never experienced it before.

np!


There is no 6-man limit. There is a 3-man limit, but you can bypass it by having someone DC while your entering person is "connecting to server." It is actually easiest to have the person who enters DC, because then they can time it without any party communication.

OK, total duh moment, thank you. I guess I was reading too many things at once and the 6 man requirement stuck in my head on the wrong thing. I appreciate the information.

It used to be 6 people, but they reduced it to 3 a while back. Too bad it was after salvage died, barring alexandrite... x:

Unless you're talking about way before the box patch and my memory has failed me, it was never a 6 person limit. People always used to get two others to DC with them so they could enter and farm Arrapago 35s solo.

I do Salvage as MNK/WAR THF RDM or WHM. Sometimes SAM/WAR THF RDM. The only empyrean being a Verethragna.

Bhaflau: Yes

Silver Sea: I pulled 3 triple gears and aggroed the entire gear train on my THF and just evasion tanked them all while taking out the gears with the MNK

Arrapago: Yes

Zhayolm: I evasion tanked a bunch at a time (whatever linked) on THF. They're not that hard to kill anymore.