Game Progress (No Spoilers)

[Walter Sobchak]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeoCristophe

Well just finished the Tomb of Raithwell..what a crazy scene/incident that happened afterwards! Won't spoil anything but certainly a change of events..

Taking a break now before going to meet with the garifs? Got some clan hunts/leveling up to do for the time being.

Vaan Lv. 18, Ashe Lv. 18, Basch Lv. 19

Tricky indeed. Your levels are high. I just went through the Ozmose Plains and to Jahara, now I am heading to some weird named place. My levels are between 17 and 18, and I havent had a challenge. The enemies I am fighting now just got easier thanks to a new Guest.

I am going to Teleport back to Rabanastre and do a few hunts. My weapons are seriously pathetic. I own all the new Gambits, and a couple of new Spells. I want to buy all the available Spells and Techniques before I advance. Maybe learn a couple more Quickenings.

I got my first Esper. I gave it to Vaan, because he is weak. Penelo was my weakest character, but I bought her a lot of new equipment.

[Hildegarde]

Garoupinha, you aren't alone in not realizing about both areas of the License Board, I went all the way into the uh... jail, all the way trying to figure out a way to equip those damn weapons.
*facepalm*

I also tried my hand at killing the T-Rex with Vaan and Penelo at level 5, but that didn't get me anywere, hah!.
Since I'm not very good at stealth, I didn't fare too well while following the judge in the jail (can't remember the name of the place, it was very late when I did that!), so I just run, constantly escaping all the way through.
Those soldiers quickly gang up on you; I wonder If I could have taken them all on with better equipped weapons?.

I left it at the point in which I'm supposed to get a fuse to open the gate.
As far as I remember; Vaan is level 5 while the rest are level 6.
I did get a mark at the Sky Pirate's Lounge or whatever the name is, for killing over 300 enemies but, for all I know, that ain't nothing, really, especially considering that I'm still at level 5-6.

As for the License Board, well, I'm keepping everyone with their original kind of weapons and I have not delved too much into classes yet, except for giving Fran a few black magic licenses; I'm unsured of what do I want to assign to each one yet or if I want to make them distinctive at all.

[Andromeda]

Well I have been leveling for a while and making some money and LP. After the first hour I was not making any more money since I capped out on items. But I did not want to stop since I wanted some LP, mainly LP. So now I have 3 Quickenings for Ashe, Vaan, and Basch. Vaan and Ashe have 400 MP almost and Basch 300.

Vaan 35
Basch 35
Ashe 35
Rear Guard
Points 297947

Highest Chain 512

I have my guys divided up now into little more specialized groups. Vaan is more general still, with a bit of everything and a lot of accessories available. Ashe is more magic side now, with all of the Magic boosts and MP costs, so she has -30% MP cost. I also have Lv 5 White Magic, Lv 1,3,5 Black Magic, Lv 2,3 Time Magic, and Lv 3 Arcane Magic. Basch has a lot of Techniques now. Now of course I still am required to buy the spells and techniques, but one part of the processes is finished. I'm also set up on the next armor for them too and weapons, so I'm looking pretty good right now.

[Georg Prime]

Nice. I still feel like i need to level up my current weapons and armor. Right now i am just returning from Bhujerba after getting some hunts. Managed to get the Nidhogg and the Rocktoise in one sweep without going back and saving. Though i must say that Rocktoise put a good fight. Gonna try to make a little bit more money to get new armor and weapons before going through the ozmose plains even tho i'm doubting they should be hard.

Vaan. Lv. 19 Ashe Lv. 19, Bash Lv. 20

Tricky indeed. Your levels are high. I just went through the Ozmose Plains and to Jahara, now I am heading to some weird named place. My levels are between 17 and 18, and I havent had a challenge. The enemies I am fighting now just got easier thanks to a new Guest.

Yeah my levels are kinda high. I did a lot of leveling up on the leviathan before fighting judge ghis. Got killed the first time bad by him so really made sure i was ready for him the second time. Gained 3 extra levels there. Then some more going thru the sandsea several times. Honestly i enjoy fighting so much that it's fun just leveling up.

[Andromeda]

Well I'm calling it for the night at almost 30:00 hours right now. I finished up a few things and got past a really annoying Bomb Boss that I wanted to throttle. It is definitely a challenge to defeat. And I am stopping right now, because I'm getting my butt beat almost by normal monsters that are lv 44 and I'm 37. I probably can beat them but I'm not trying very hard.

Vaan 37
Basch 37
Ashe 37
Vanguard Rank now
337629 Points

I have not done a lot with the license grid since the last time. I mainly just been running through the maps to get to where I can. I probably should have gotten a lot farther, but seeing as I was having fun killing for 2 hours that happens.

I beat the boss that I was leveling up for and I did a Quickening on it to finished it off. I got 11 hits, or 11 Quickenings that totaled up to 36,000 damage. I then tried Quickenings later on the Bomb Boss and could only get two. My MP stores were low, only 1 cart each. So I think if you only have one cart it is really, really hard to do Quickenings. The best time to do them is when you still have a couple carts available, so that you can pull off a sizeable number before it dropping out.

I also got a new Esper, which was the boss that I fought and killed with the Quickening.

My license grid I have been wondering if I'm going to be filling it all out before I end the game. I mean I think I'm at 50% completion right now. Balthier has 1865 LP, Fran 2267 LP, and Penelo 2497. You can tell that I have not done much with them.

[Walter Sobchak]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeoCristophe

Yeah my levels are kinda high. I did a lot of leveling up on the leviathan before fighting judge ghis. Got killed the first time bad by him so really made sure i was ready for him the second time. Gained 3 extra levels there. Then some more going thru the sandsea several times. Honestly i enjoy fighting so much that it's fun just leveling up.

Yes! This is one of the few FFs that is actually fun to level up in. FFX had a really boring fighting system, and it interrupted the flow of things. Not so with this game.

I am still so supposed to go to Bur-Omisace story-wise, but I havent progressed. I spent a ton of time fighting monsters in the Ozmose Plains, and did two Level II marks. I am going to do the last posted Mark, and then take a crack at Montblanc's. My characters are at Level 20. I made so much money doing this, so I went back to Rabanastre and bought all of the spells and techniques. Vaan learned his first Quickening, so now he, Basch, and Ashe make a deadly combo.

I am starting to make my characters into different classes, because I was just having them use the best weapons afforded before. Ashe is my Knight, Basch is my Dragoon, Fran is my Archer-Black Mage, Balthier is my Gunner-Time Mage, Vaan is my Red Mage, using light one handed weapons, and Penelo is my White Mage, using rods.

[LionheartVIII]

I got through sandsea finally... It took forever. When I got to the tomb I was greeted by a boss that pretty much raped me, before I could even take away 1/4 of his health. I rushed myself so my levels were to low to stand a chance. So after getting destroyed I am now leveling my characters.

Progress:

Vaan-15- He uses mainly one handed blades, I have him use a dagger as of now. Im letting him learn some black magic. Im not %100 sure where to go with him.

Baltheir-15-I want him to use guns and crossbows, but at the moment since I cant find any more

(Ill add more to this post latter I have to leave now)

[Georg Prime]

Originally Posted by LionheartVIII

I got through sandsea finally... It took forever. When I got to the tomb I was greeted by a boss that pretty much raped me, before I could even take away 1/4 of his health. I rushed myself so my levels were to low to stand a chance. So after getting destroyed I am now leveling my characters.

Ha yeah he raped me the first time i tried to fight him too. I guess i never knew his "weakness". I managed to beat him on Lv.17 i think it was?

Yes! This is one of the few FFs that is actually fun to level up in. FFX had a really boring fighting system, and it interrupted the flow of things. Not so with this game.

Sooo true, with battles this seamless things are so easy. As much as i have loved the standard turn based systems, leveling up isn't so much of a chore. I feel like i could run around all day just fighting people.

Here's kind of what i'm going with my guys:
Vaan (Weapons: Dagger, Sword, Pole, Magic: Lv. 3 White, One Quickening, Belias Esper)
Basch (Weapons: Swords, Hammers, Axes Magic: None, One Quickening)
Ashe (Weapons: Sword, Staves, Magic Lv. 3 White, One Quickening)
Fran (Weapons: Bow, Crossbow, Spear Magic: Lv. 2 White, Lv. 1 Black. Lv. 2 Green)
Penelo (Weapons: Dagger, Spear, Mace, Staves, Magic: Lv. 2 White, Lv. 2 Black, two Quickenings)
Balthier (Weapons: Guns, Bombs, Maces, lots of technics, Magic: None)

Vaan is my well rounded guy with some healing. So far i've liked him the best with a pole, though i kinda got screwed because i had him equipped with the cypress pole while fighting the rocktoise and it's earth elemental property healed it. Baasch is my tank, not leveling up any magic just trying to get as many strength and hp boosts as posible. Just equipped him with an iron hammer so he's doing pretty good damage. Ashe is my main healer, kind of paladin like. I'm going to teach her time and maybe some green magic too. She has a lot of potion/phoenix down etc lores as well. Also a good fighter. Those three are my active party and all have one quickening. Penelo is on the flipside of Ashe, and my main offensive mage. Going to have her focus on black and arcane magic. She has two quickenings already! Fran and Balthier i haven't been leveling up/using much at all so i'm still kinda undecided as of what i'm going to do with them. Fran has some magic already but Balthier just has a lot of techs. I'm probably going to keep them how they were, though i'm teaching each of them atleast one melee weapon to use. Don't remember what armor i have for all them, would have to check that.

Is it just me, or is offensive magic almost completely useless? The only time i have used magic is when i thru in penelo to keep spamming the water spell on Belias. Other than that i have had no need. All i really use is white magic.

I am still so supposed to go to Bur-Omisace story-wise, but I havent progressed. I spent a ton of time fighting monsters in the Ozmose Plains, and did two Level II marks. I am going to do the last posted Mark, and then take a crack at Montblanc's. My characters are at Level 20. I made so much money doing this, so I went back to Rabanastre and bought all of the spells and techniques. Vaan learned his first Quickening, so now he, Basch, and Ashe make a deadly combo

Man i tried to get that croakadile on my way to the ozmose plains, and i had it with literally a sliver of life and next thing i know he had full life again! maannnn.

[Hildegarde]

Oh my goodness my party got killed like dogs after doing a very lenghty skeleton chain in the Lhusa Mines!.
I had even gone up a level with everyone, them being now level 12.
But, once I got to those bad guys (Bangas are they?), I tried to run away, but even so, Balthier got killed off-screen and things went downhill from there.
I'm guessing that next time I better remember to turn those gambits off when necesary.

Is it just me, or is offensive magic almost completely useless? The only time i have used magic is when i thru in penelo to keep spamming the water spell on Belias. Other than that i have had no need. All i really use is white magic.

Well, it might become more useful when we get to have very specific gambits like " fire enemies" and such.
I also hope that the MP levels will go much higher by then, or it will still be kinda useless.

[Rumrunner]

Hi all, I'm brand new here, so hello!

Right now I'm on my way to the to the kings tomb and my characters are all level 25 except for Fran, she is 21. I am so addicted to this game lol.. Anyway, how exactly do chains work?

[Andromeda]

It is best that you ask questions in the question thread that we have set up. But since you are anyway. Chains are made by killing the same monster over and over again. It does not have to be the exact same, it has to be of the same family. So you can kill a Green Chocobo and Black Chocobo and still get a chain. Just like you can kill a Zombie Warrior and Ghast, they are both undead.

[Dimi]

Right now I'm currently in the Tomb of Raithwell. I gotta admit that the battle system is really fun and addicting. I've already completed all the Level 1 Mob Marks and right now I'm facing the Wall Demons which are really hard. The Garuda boss when you first enter the Tomb is quite a surprise because I didn't expect a boss real quick after crossing the Sansea's. Anyways as for my characters here are the stats and levels for them:

Vaan Lv.21: I've been using him a lot in the game and I would say he is my strongest. He is generally everything from All the magicks to the tecknicks to using heavy armor and swords and shield as well.

Ashe Lv.21:Same as Vaan except she's using poles instead of swords and made her more suitable for bows too.

Penelo Lv.20: Same as both of them but is better using magicks than fighting with weapons. I made her use staffs too.

Belthier Lv.21: Still using guns and is generally a bit of everything.

Fran Lv.20:A Bit of eveything and is using spears as her primary weapon.

Basch Lv.21: Knows all magicks technicks and is using heavy armor and spears.

Everyone of my characters except Basch has learned 1 quckening. Anyways I'm trying to give the extra bonuses like HP +100 and stuff like that. I'm still a Rearguard with a 75,242 points.

[Wolf]

Well I'm on my way to Jahara after the tomb of Raithwell. I've been leveling my party members evenly, and been doing mob hunts and getting gilz for skillz. My whole party is level 20 and mosty uses heavy armor, swords, axes/hammers, and bows.

[Andromeda]

Well I have spent 4 hours leveling up because I went into an area that I have to for the story to move that was ten level higher than me. The monster up to that point were 33 at most, I was 37. So I figured I was way over leveled from last night's 500 chain I did. Well I go into the next area after that boss fight and I get completely destroyed almost. All of the monsters are 44-47 range now. I'm like, what the? What logic is it that makes you increase the monster difficulty in the middle, the middle of a story path? And it is not just some simple, a few levels, but 10. These guys have me on the defensive the whole time healing my party as I slowly drain away my MP.

So I go and level, I get a 999+ chain, the cap is 999 so everyone knows. I am now 44 and so I march back in there with a new strategy. During all of that leveling I have been busy on the License Grid. Ashe now has almost all of the Magic and Abilities, meaning the left half of the board at the top is all finished almost. I'm only missing one from the abilities and like 4 from the Magic. I can't even buy the magic yet. Basch and Vaan have all of the important Abilities learns and some extras. They also have all of the Heavy Armor, Shield and Sword learned as well. So I'm set whenever they drop new items in the stores. Basch also have most of the techinques at this point, 1,000 needles being one of them. I have tried them out, but they are pretty useless so far. I might use traveler on large groups of monsters.

I had so many items that I made 170k in gil. And I got these Monograph things that I'm still trying to understand somewhat.

My new strategy is Basch is the tank, Ashe the healer and Vaan the back up with, back up healing and removable and negative status. I also in almost full FFXI party mode now. Those playing it will understand. I'm watching all my buffs and debuffs. Ashe drops Slow on the monsters, Disable if its not immune, though pointless it seems at this point, they are all immune right now. And casts Decoy on Basch, which makes him the auto-tank, because it directs all monsters on him. Also all my guys have Haste and Protect in their gambits. Ashe throws Curaga at 70%, which is 1000 damage right now, and I cure for 1400, and she seems to go up to 2400 at times. Vaan is the same on curing and Basch is set down at 50% just in case. Vaan also have Poisona and Blindna on him. He uses Libra too. I had Ashe using Steal for a while, but that gets me in more trouble than good and with the monsters I'm fighting, I don't need her running finding more troubles for me.

Vaan 44
Ashe 44
Basch 44
Vanguard
596056 Points
103470 Gil currently
34:29 Hours

[Merlin]

Lol, yeah. I've been playing in FFXI mode from the get-go. I just got to the SandSea and all my chars are level 17. I'm leveling them all up evenly, which takes longer, but hey... I know from experience that if shit happens in the storyline, you better have a backup plan. I don't know if any characters might kick the bucket in the storyline or be missing for god-knows-how-long, (like the bit with Penelo in the beginning), so I'm covering my ass. But my logic is not that simple.

I actually have two parties, both of them pretty similar. Why do this? Each of my 'main party' characters have a replacement, so if they die, I can swap in a replace which has full HP/MP. That's such a great feature of this game. You can change all kinds of stuff on the fly right in a battle. In any case, here's my current setup:

Main Party:
Fran: I set her up as a Dark Knight, focusing on heavy weaponry, heavy armor, and Black/Arcane Magic. Points are more heavily distributed in melee, but abilities that lower MP cost are definately not overlooked. She can lay serious hurting on anything I fight so far. I did not lose track of her bows though. At any time I can swap out her gear for light armor and a bow to take out aerial targets.

Basch: I set him up as a Paladin Tank. Focusing on boosting HP, defense, shields, etc and single-handed weapons. Although he doesnt put out the damage of Fran, he can stay alive quite well.

Ashe: All-Around Mage. Am I stereotypical? Nah. Actually I was being an ass because of her attitude. She wants to be 'strong' and do everything herself, so I showed her who's boss (me) and made her into a WHM/RDM of sorts. Evil... INDEED!

--------
Backup Party(New Kidz on the Block):

Balthier: He takes a similar role as Fran, but not as a DRK. He focuses on Ranged for pumping out massive damage.

Vaan: Paly Tank. I knew he was going to be this from the moment I gave him Cure. His cures are strong and he uses them effectively. Yeah yeah.. gambits.. whatever. His AI seems a bit more intelligent in the healing dept, to me...

Penelo: That leaves mage of course. Same exact setup as Ashe pretty much.


--------
Is it just me or do a lot of you use the same characters as each other, overall? I haven't seen too many people using Fran as a main. I mean come on... a Bunny in a sexy black outfit just screams Dark Knight... and Vaan should stick with the children. I let Balthier keep them in line as a parent-figure. ^_^

[Bryan 2.0]

Did a little bit of leveling today at the Sandsea. I was in for a wonderful suprise when I stumbled across those huge ball of flame looking things. Not the bombs, just like this giant glowing ball of fire.

I run up to it with the gang thinking: "HA! I'll get to kill something new!".

Oh, but I was wrong...so, so wrong. It decided to cast Firaga on me, forking over 2K in damage, killing half of my party. It was just a regular enemy, too! It was pretty grand. Wasn't quite ready for that guy yet.

Anyway, I've put like 17 hours into the game. My highest character is level 17 I believe.

[Overdriven]

Oh, believe me Alucard, I thought the same thing when I stumbled across that guy.

"A big flaming ball? No problem."

He slaughtered me without hesitation or restraint. Twice.

[Andromeda]

Anyone having played FFXI should be familiar with what you fought. They are what we call Elementals, and what they Elementals too, though they have a proper name that makes them a little hard to notice as Elementals. You see these monsters come out during the time of weather, like rain, heat waves, sand storms/dust storms, etc. Elementals are notoriously dangerous in FFXI and are always the toughest normal monster in the map. In FFXII they are even more dangerous, being almost completely immune to physical attacks, having high magical damage and being 20 levels higher than you puts you at a serious disadvantage. Fortunately they are neutral until you cast magic, and than lock on to you like no ones business. Avoid magic around them and your are safe. If you talk to some of the NPC in the game they will tell you steer clear of them. That is the best advice anyone can give you, you will not beat them until you are much higher than them in level. You will have a better chance coming back after playing ten hours and you can one shot all of the monsters in the area. Even then you might have trouble, because I don't know how strong these are here. I have not fought and defeated one yet, I have fought one on accident, because my gambit got me killed from casting a cure spell before I could stop them.

[Dimi]

Well last night I finished the Tomb of Raithwell and I finally got my first esper. I must say the battle with Belias was really easy. I just used water or just attcked most of the time and went down really quick. So I decided on the license board I would equip him with Vaan.Anyways after that I'm back and Rabanastre and I'm gonna stay there for a while and complete the mob hunts and buy some good armor all the technicks that are available at this point.
Here are the stats for my characters:
Vaan:Lv.24
Ashe:Lv.23
Penelo:Lv.23
Basch:Lv.23
Fran:Lv.23
Balthier:Lv.22

I'm trying to use them each in battle and leaving no one out. All my characters have already learned at least one quickening and now Fran has learned her second quckening too. I was really glad that her MP doubled which was really good for me. The game in my opinion is really getting better and better as you play the game more. My Clan Rank is still a Rearguard with 101,345 points.

[Georg Prime]

Originally Posted by Fishie

Well last night I finished the Tomb of Raithwell and I finally got my first esper. I must say the battle with Belias was really easy. I just used water or just attcked most of the time and went down really quick. So I decided on the license board I would equip him with Vaan.Anyways after that I'm back and Rabanastre and I'm gonna stay there for a while and complete the mob hunts and buy some good armor all the technicks that are available at this point.
Here are the stats for my characters:
Vaan:Lv.24
Ashe:Lv.23
Penelo:Lv.23
Basch:Lv.23
Fran:Lv.23
Balthier:Lv.22

I'm trying to use them each in battle and leaving no one out. All my characters have already learned at least one quickening and now Fran has learned her second quckening too. I was really glad that her MP doubled which was really good for me. The game in my opinion is really getting better and better as you play the game more. My Clan Rank is still a Rearguard with 101,345 points.

Wow, you are at a really high level for where you are! I think i was on 18 or 19 when i beat the tomb of raithwell, and some people thought my level was high! I unfortunately haven't been using my other characters enough like you, My Basch, Ashe, Vaan team are 5-10 levels higher than penelo, balthier, and fran. I need to catch them up soon. Yeah Belias was pretty easy especially if you use the water spell, i basically just had penelo constantly spam the attack and she does things really quick because i have a few of those swiftness things on the license board activated. Once she was out of MP i threw in Basch so i had my normal Bash, Ashe, Vaan team and they quickily finished him off.

I have actually taken the last two days off from playing, or atleast for the most part. I had a busy day yesterday doing some work, then later i decided to have a FF XII-less night and see Borat instead.

Today is kinda the same deal, had lots of raking/moving/mowing to do among other things around the house. So i probably won't get around to playing sometime later this evening once it gets dark but i'm hoping to