Beginner's Guide to Chains of Promathia : FFXI General Discussions

[marq=left]Beginner's Guide to Chains of Promathia[/marq]

Introduction

So you install Chains of Promathia, and you're probably wondering: What's new? Unlike Rise of the Zilart, there are no new jobs in this Expansion Pack. Instead, you get tons of new missions, quests, equipment, monsters and area's. Some you can already access, like Bibiki Bay, but to access the Tavnazian Safehold and its surrounding area's, you must first complete three incredibly, facinating, amazing, super-die-whoopie missions! So what are you waiting for? Get that !@#$%^&* to Jeuno right-away!

Activating Chains of Promathia

Once in Jeuno, head to Delkfutt's Tower Lower in Qufim. You will see a long cutscene. Now go to Upper Jeuno. Upon entering, a cutscene will occur. Once this cutscene ends, head to (G-10) in Upper Jeuno and talk to Monberaux, where another cutscene takes place. You will receive a Key Item, the Mysterious Amulet. Now head to Ru’Lude Gardens, and enter the Grand Dukes Palace. Turn left and go beside the stairs, along the left wall is an idention, in here there is a Guard Post, talk to a guard, location is (G-6), his name is Pherimociel. This will trigger another cutscene, a rather short on, in which he tells you of a stange phenomenon.

Promyvions

Congratulations! You are now able to enter Promyvion - Holla, Dem and Mea. The level cap for these area's is 30. Go to either the Crag of Dem, Holla or Mea and go to the "Shattered Telepoint". Examine it further and enter. Go to the Large Apparatus in the room. One of the two is broken, so if you chose the broken one, go to the one on the other side. If you have entered this Promyvion before, and have not erased your memory (if you enter a Promyvion without killing the final boss, or having the boss killed before, you have to go to the Large Apparatus in the Hall of Transference to erase your memory and be able to enter an other Promyvion), you can go inside through the door at the back, up the stairs.



The Islands

A Promyvion has four floors. No, you don't use stairs to go to the next floor. And they're not really floors either. More like... islands. Tropical islands. Floating in the tropical sea of black emptiness. So what do you do now? On the first island, most Emptiness is Easy Prey. Easy enough, aye? Have the Ranger search for a Memory Receptacle. Go to it and kill it. It will spawn small creatures called Strays, which usually only takes 1 to 2 hits to kill. The MR (short for Memory Receptacle) itself can't hit anyone, but every now and then it uses Empty Seed. This AoE will blow everyone in it's long range back, dealing around 50 to 100 damage, depending on what floor you are on. Also watch out for aggro's from other Emptiness creatures while dealing with the MR. We don't want to be attacked by something else while fighting. Once the MR is dead, a portal will spawn. Step on it to advance to the next island. Now there are multiple MRs. Have your Ranger located one and go to it and kill it. But watch out for monsters. On this floor, they check around Tough. Because there are multiple MRs, there is a chance that the one you kill is a "dud". It will not spawn a portal. So you will have to go to the other MRs and keep killing them until one spawns a portal.

You are now on the third island. This one has even tougher monsters. So try to avoid aggro at all costs. I suggest having the White Mage use a Reraiser if you have only one in your party. If you get an aggro you will be able to kill it with a good party, but for goodness sake, don't get an aggro. Repeat the MR process and advance to the next island. Now you don't have to find an MR, but find the zone to the Spire. You can check maps for Promyvions here: http://www.killingifrit.com/page.php? id=98. When the tower is sighted, have all Summoners you have in your party get Carbuncle out. If you get an aggro just have the summoning attack it (or the tank voke it) and run like your !@#$%^&* is on fire to the tower. Phew, you are in the Spire. Level caps do not work in here. But all buffs you do will dissapear upon entering the boss fight. Only food effects will remain. Heal up and get ready for the fight. Go to the door at the other side of the spire and activate it.



The Big Bad Boss

More information on the Promyvion bosses:

Holla BC mob: Wreaker (Thinker type)

Specials:
Trinary Tap: Steals 3 status effects from whomever is targeted. If your tank is buffed, it will steal the buffs. If your tank has negative status, like Blind, it will Blind itself.
Empty Cutter: High damage attack; can be absorbed by shadows.
Shadow Spread: AOE Curse+Sleep.

Consider bringing Poison Potions to negate Sleep, and Holy Water to handle Curse. (Alternately, Cursna from WHMs can work.)

Mea BC mob: Delver (Craver type)

Specials:
Carosel: 200-400 damage, plus Poison, and resets the hate. Poison hits for 12 damage per tick. Can be absorbed by shadows.
Murk: AOE Slow and Gravity.

Blink and Utsusemi will be invaluable.

Dem BC mob: Progenerator (Gorger type)

Specials:
Fusion: Spawns an Offspring
Spirit Absorbtion: 200 HP drain attack
Promyvion Barrier (Offspring only!): Defense Boost

The max # of offspring on the ground is 6. They will repop if killed. Fusion starts happening after ~50% HP and can be avoided by kiting the mob around.

This NM can regenerate, so throw down 2-hour skills when you see the regen outpace your damage. Offspring can either be corralled or ignored; it is possible to fight this by using ElemSeal+Gravity and kiting the Progenerator while fighting an Offspring.



What is the best strategy?

Now you have seen the basics, it is time to get more in-depth. What is the best strategy to work your way up to the Spire? There is less chance to get an aggro with one party. But if you have a full Alliance, if you get an aggro, that mob will just be killed by the party. So there is no real "better" strategy. Now for the boss fights. What is the best party setup for the boss fight? Again, there is no "best" party setup. But I will try to explain what every job can do for the boss battle, so you can figure out what is best for you yourself:

Black Mage ~ Can nuke like a badass. Manafront + the strongest spells that BLM has = one of the best Damage Dealers for Promyvion. Don't have the BLM be tank though. If the BLM nukes too much, there is a chance he might draw hate and get pummeled by the boss. No need to bring drinks, as you can use Manafront.

Summoner ~ Loved for Promyvions. Its Astral Flow can hit the boss with so much, that the Summoner is one of the best jobs for Promyvion. Try to use the first Astral Flow when the boss is around 6/10 HP left, so there is enough time for you to use your other Astral Flows. Bring a couple of drinks and an ether too.

Ranger ~ All of my parties for Promyvion have had atleast one Ranger. These guys can deal major damage and are usually the main DDs for these boss fights. Try to keep Eagle Eye Shot for when the Boss is almost dead, so you don't draw too much hate.

White Mage ~ Not much to say here. You need atleast 1 in every party. Use the 2hour if the party is heavily damaged.

Thief ~ Not very popular. Can make a decent DD, but hard to get Trick Attack to work. Plus, you want as many players to stay out of the boss' AoE as you can. So melee DDs are not recommanded.

Dark Knight ~ Decent DD. But you want to stay out of AoE range as much as possible.

Monk ~ For goodness sake, please don't have a MNK/WAR or WAR/MNK tank! They die way too fast. The only time we had a Monk as tank, he got his !@#$%^&* whooped by the boss' badass damage attacks. Not good as damage dealers either. But the 2hour can be really good.

Dragoon ~ Again, not recommanded to have a close-range DD.

Red Mage ~ Can do a little bit of everything. As long as you don't melee. The Red Mage's 2hour can save your !@#$%^&* if the tank takes too many damage for the White Mage to control. This job isn't very popular.

Samurai ~ Close-range DDs... See Thief. Lots of TP can be fun to do, tho.

Ninja ~ A WAR/NIN would make a perfect tank for Promyvions. The boss' hits so hard that it's better to have him miss a lot by using shadows. Ninja as DD isn't recommanded.

Paladin ~ The boss hits slow, but hard. So it's best to have him miss as many times as you can, instead of having high def and being hit a lot. A Paladin could work out as tank, but WAR/NIN is better.

Bard ~ Overall nice buffer. But for Promyvions you mainly need a tank, healer and as many damage dealers as possible -- not another buffer. Plus, the Holla boss absorbs all buffs.

Beastmaster ~ Can these even do Promyvions? I guess having a pet out and staying out of AoE would deal some... nice damage. But in my opinion, this is the worst job for Promyvions.

After the Storm

After killing all three Promyvions, you get teleported to Lufaise Meadows! Congratulations on beating the three Promyvions! You now have access to the new area's. You can go back and forth to Lufaise Meadows and Misareaux Coast by checking the "Swirling Vortex". The vortex for Lufaise Meadows is in Valkurm Dunes, and the one for Misareaux Coast is in Qufim Island.

Valkurm Dunes -=> Lufaise Meadows
Qufim Isle -=> Misareaux Coast

The one in Valkurm Dunes can be found in a tunnel at the west beach (where the Valkurm Emperor spawns). The Qufim Island vortex is in the tunnel that leads to Behemoth's Lair, north of the Delkfutt's Tower. I will post a Guide on completing Phomiuna Aqueducts and getting the Subligar soon, once I've actually completed it myself. It's not that the mission is so hard, it's getting a party that's tough. Perhaps it's even tougher than the Promyvions. Anyhow, I wish y'all luck with Promyvions and have fun with Chains of Promathia!



Feel free to post any questions, suggestions or feedback.

My character is Rydus on the server Seraph.

has anyone tried the 4th promyvion? vazhl i think it is?

Me. But I'm leaving it open for the "Adept's Guide to Chains of Promathia".

"Beastmaster ~ Can these even do Promyvions? I guess having a pet out and staying out of AoE would deal some... nice damage. But in my opinion, this is the worst job for Promyvions"

You know I thought it was a bad idea to try this out but i figured why not try i have a lv 30bst with full gear for it so when we did Holla for what seemed the 15th time i used bst.

I wasnt for sure if i could charm anything out there so i loaded up a jug of my favorite thing to use. I used Flowerpot bill, lv 23 so he is under the cap of 30 but hits hard and has high hp. I also brought along some Zeta food just so i could keep him alive after each memory fight. After dodging and weaving past every mob there was to the spire and hearing multiple times "Dangit move your stupid pet out of the way i had him on follow instead of you" LOL not my fault. We got to the boss and to make matters worse the third hit on our WAR was a special attack which hit him for 400+ and killed him like a little school girl on a tricycle. But we nearly had the boss all the way down with no spawns what so ever and Flowerpot bill was doing some good damage like always and whooping some ENM butt, and our WHM died, which basically lead to the down fall of our pt in the end, but to tell you the truth, I was the last one standing.

So if anyone is going to try this out with bst, i suggest no matter the race (im taru and lasted) but use all lv 30 gear, sub nin for dual wield and use two military pick axes, a jug of flowerpot bill lv 23, splurg on some Zeta food to keep him going, and you will do good cause even solo as a bst i killed the first memory by myself then i got killed on the second floor.

Are you sure you're not talking about Mea? Because the Holla's boss with most attack is around 200 damage, unless your tank had some BAD equipment and a sub like White Mage. >_>;

<Help me out!> PM 2-5. I can't seem to beat the Mammets at Monarch Linn. Please, if anyone has any info on party strategies to successfully beat this mission, the knowledge would be greatly appreciated. Also, if there are any items that can be farmed for use, as the Recollections/Anima are for Promyvion, I'd really be grateful to know about it. So far I'm only 0/2 on attempts so I'm not very experienced with the fight, but, of the 2 attempts the party's only managed to kill 1 mammet. -.-
Thanks from Carbuncle.^^