Skillchain Renkai Help

Am I right in thinking that any 'Limit Break' can be used in succession to create a skill chain?

Also could anyone help teach me what a Renkai is? More specifically how to make one?

I plan on playing Black Mage, so how can I help in skillchains and othe rparty co-op?

Thanks.

[Skai]

It's not really called "Limit Break" here. The term used in this game is "Weapon Skill," (abbreviated by WS) a weapon-based skill you used to deal extra damage when you gain 100% or more TP (technical/tactical point or something, which you can gain by hitting a monster). In order to create a skillchain, or renkei (its Japanese name; skillchain is abbreviated by SC), Melee A first use his weapon skill, follow by Melee B using another weapon skill a brief while (about 2 to 3 seconds) after the first. If it can connect, it will create a skillchain effect which can deal extra damage to the monster.

There are three levels of skillchain and each skillchain can be of a certain element. Level 1 consists of Liquefaction (fire), Induration (ice), Detonation (wind), Scission (earth), Impaction (thunder), Reverberation (water), Compression (dark) and Transfixion (light).

Level 2 consists of Fragmentation (thunder and wind), Fusion (fire and light), Gravitation (dark and earth) and Distortion (water and ice).

Level 3 consists of Light (light, fire, wind and thunder) and Dark (ice, water, dark, and earth).

The more elements there are in a skillchain, the more damage a skillchain can do. So that would make level 3 the strongest, follow by level 2, then level 1. You should also factor in the elemental weakness of the monster your party is fighting in order to determine the best skillchain to use to deal more damage. Besides factoring in the monster's elemental weakness, you also need to take notice of the melee's weapon skill. The damage of a skillchain is mostly determined by the damage of the second weapon skill (the ender). So while if weapon skill that does low damage ends the skillchain, the skillchain effect will not be able to deal more damage. Whereas a weapon skill that do very strong damage ends the skillchain, the skillchain effect will be able to do more damage, provided the monster did not resist it.

So all in all, when relying on skillchain to deal damage (which every party should do in my opinion) pre-65/65, it is best that you find the weapon skills that can create a level 2 skillchain effect while dealing a lot of damage. Just a tip.

Anyway, continuing on. Since you are a BLM, you would need to participate in a skillchain as the magic burster (magic burst; abbreviated by MB). What a magic burst do is that when a mage casts an offensive spell of an element that is the same as the skillchain's element(s), its potential can be increased. Besides doing this for the stylish factor, it can also increase the power of a BLM's nuke.

For example, Melee A uses a weapon skill and Melee B follows up with another weapon skill to create a Fragmentation skillchain. Right after the combined weapon skills created Fragmentation skillchain, if a BLM casts elemental spells of thunder or wind, a magic burst effect will be achieved. Say if a BLM casts Thunder and it normally deal about 100 damage, achieving the magic burst will cause the Thunder do more than 100 damage. This is a really important aspect of the battle system in this game as skillchains and magic bursts deal so many extra damages that monsters die faster and experience points will be gained faster.

As a BLM, that is what you need to focus on. Learn about the weaknesses of the monsters you are fighting when you level and know what skillchains are best used against them. Having those knowledge will definitely help you become a better BLM and it will make your parties much better than the average Joes.

I know my explanation may be a bit difficult to understand. So here is a link if you want to read an alternative explanation of skillchain and magic burst. I got this link from the official PlayOnline site. It is an article in the Vana'diel Tribune that talks a lot about the elements of skillchain and magic burst. http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/vt/extra/index.html

By the way, here is a very useful skillchain chart that you should get to know better. It helps a lot. http://www.adennak.com/renkei.html

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I'll be sure help you if I can. Happy learning. ^^

I have to publically thank you pal, very helpfull.

I think I understand... I reckon I'll soon get the hang of things when I start playing.

But yeah, thanks for taking the time to help dude.

* One more question comes to mind... When should one start casting a spell in order to trigger a Magic Burst? I guess as soon as the last person hits, considering casting time.

[Andromeda]

It really depends on the spell you are casting. Since spell lengths very you may either need to start before or after the SC. For most normal elemental spells like Fire, Blizzard, etc you can cast it immediately after the SC was made and get a Magic Burst. Just like timing is required on WS, your timing on a Magic Bursts have to be with in 2-3 seconds after the SC, though I do believe that the MB are a little more forgiving.

So when casting a spell check to see how long it will take to cast, the higher level spells will take long and you will need to start when the first WS is sent so you get the MB in time. And for spells like Flare you will have to start 10-15 seconds before even the first WS goes off, in which case you will be tell your members when to go.

But those are advanced techniques that you will not have to worry about until you hit 50. First it is best to learn how to Magic Burst and successfully do it consistantly.

[Skai]

What Andromeda said that I missed. Though for Ancient Magic (Freeze, Burst, Tornado, Quake, Flood and Flare), it's actually shorter than that, like around 5 seconds. Just to clarify in case.

[LocoColt04]

Hey, Andro, I think you and Skai should tweak that post of his and use it as a Skillchain explanation for the FFXI portion of TFF.

Seriously though, that's probably the best explanation of the system I've seen.

You should probably also include a list of the skillchains, though I know we can find one just about anywhere.

[Skai]

I wouldn't mind someone tweaking my post to make it a guide for TFF.

If we were to make a list of skillchains, it would be a big hassle because there are many weapon skills and a whole lot of combinations. It is best that people use Adennak's skillchain chart instead. It is easy to read and have all the possible skillchain combinations. Besides, when people look for a skillchain, it is for the effect and not the weapon skills. The weapon skills are just the requirements to create the skillchain effect. In my opinion, Adennak's chart is just awesome.

[Andromeda]

Yeah if you have seen the Skillchain charts you would know it is very hard, for even them to display them all and not get confusing. With so many weapons, and each weapon using having 7-10 WS each, you end up with something like 100+ WS, and they all can form SC in some way with at least 4 or 5 other WS. So it just gets more and more confusing as you go. Not to mention including Lv 2 and Lv 3 makes it even more challenging. For most first time players and people up to about 50, the FFXI Strategy Guide has a good simple chart. Because the only thing that I do not like about the online ones is that they get massive and mixed up very quickly and tend to order things in strange groups. So I would say buy the guide, it will not fail you, mostly. And it is a good quick reference for almost anything pre-50.

I have wanted to make up my own SC chart one of these days, grab a few people and just do SC all day to find out all the combinations. But I would need a lot of people, since WAR only goes so far to hold weapons. Though Skai would probably have a lot of weapons mastered.

[LocoColt04]

Originally Posted by Skai

It is best that people use Adennak's skillchain chart instead.

Well then... I suppose either Andro or myself (probably me, since I'm sorta in charge of all the inter-site communications) should contact Adennak and ask permission to either use or link to his chart from our FFXI skillchain explanation page. If you can tell me where to find the chart and possibly how to contact him, I'll get right on that.

[Skai]

I have the link at the bottom of my first post in this thread, but if you're too lazy to scroll up, here it is: http://www.adennak.com/renkei.html.

Andromeda, you should really check out Adennak's chart. It is pretty and very organized. Much more than the other ones I see out there, which is why I say his chart is awesome. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Adennak's chart also includes blood pacts of avatars.

[LocoColt04]

HAHAHAHA, so you did. I'm sorry, but I wasn't fully awake when I read your post this morning. My apologies. I'll send him an email now. I'll be modest and simply ask for permission to link back to his site, rather than permission to use the image itself. I'm far far FAR more likely to get a "yes" that way.


edit:
Sent the email. I'll let you know what sort of response I get, and then we can start building the Skillchain section.

[Andromeda]

His was the one I was talking about. I have seen in on other sites. I don't like it. I don't like the way he organized it. I prefer the FFXI strategy guide one. It unfortunately only covers up to 150 WS, so it has become almost useless for me, not to mention it does not cover Lv 3 SC. But yeah, that chart is pretty common across FFXI sites, I am not fond of it. I have used it, but I really don't like it.

[ZRO]

Like it or not Andro, I have to admit, I'll take it over anything else I have seen for Skillchain connections. Which mind you, isn't much, but that's still saying something. And since it does include lv.3 SCs and he's still doing constant work on it.

Also of note is someone's site that Aden himself linked to.

http://stu.westga.edu/~jsotos1/scx/chaininput.php

It allows you to select up to four weapons and then lists their SC possibilities. I've not done any extensive testing on it myself of course, but such is that site's purpose. It runs a bit slow tho, or it did for me. I can look up chains faster now that I've gotten used to the Renkei chart.

And while the chart may be confusing at first, and you may not like it, I know I didn't when it still confused me, it gets easier to understand as you look at it and begin to actually figure out the SCs for yourself to an extent.