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.

Ygnas has a similar 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.