Divine Knights of Bastok

Okay, so I thought I would write my AF experience down to offer some reading entertainment, but also to provide some sort of guide if it’s at all helpful to see what another person did on things. Probably just good reading versus a guide, but oh well.

This is also a request for assistance with my final AF piece. Temple Hose. There is no way to solo this, and requires a good sized party from reading about it. It’s an NM in Castle O and I could probably do it with a 75 Paladin (to tank), 75 Black Mage (to sleep possible links), and at least 1 or 2 other DD’s and of course a Healer somewhere in that mix LOL. I don’t want to say I’m in a hurry for this item, because I’m not. But I would like to scratch it off the list. Also, this would be a grrreat piece of gear to have for my Maat Fight (+10 Counter would help)

I know we have a lot of peeps needing key farming and that takes time. So whenever there is free time to kill and NM, the request is out there. Now onto my AF Journey, LOL… multiple posts due to its length.

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AF1 (weapon)
Item: Beat Cesti
Obtained by: Quest / Notorious Monster
General Use: None really – better weapon options

So this quest was activate by total accident. I had just turned 41 (40 required) and was in Port Bastok waiting for the airship. I decided to go into the Steaming Sheep Restaurant >.< and talk to the NPC’s to see if there was anything interesting. So I walk in and talk to the first NPC available. Oggbi it was. And low and behold he gives me a quest to do my first Artifact Armor piece. Well, weapon I should say. Well it wasn’t until I reached 42 shortly after that Brydin grabbed me to go fight the NM in Gusgen Mines. Was harder than he remembered, but we survived ok. On the way out of the mines he Mijin Gakure’d and said that I killed him. I was like… WTF did I do? I was still pretty new and didn’t even know what that ability did. F’er, LOL.
Beat Cesti Obtained! Thanks Brydin for the /assist.

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AF2
Item: Temple Gaiters (feet)
Obtained by: Quest / Notorious Monster(s)
General Use: Macro Item – Better equipment to use generally.

As soon as I turned 50 I went and started this quest. I can’t remember what level I actually got the item, but I know it was the low 50’s. Once again I owe Brydin many thanks on this. I had to go to Davoi and kill 2 NM’s. Well there were three of us that went on this mission.. while doing so I think it was Edmund (could be wrong) that came with because we needed to find something for his AF as well. Can’t remember who it was really, but Ed comes to mind, lol. Well we killed them fairly easy with Bry’s help of course.
Temple Gaiters Obtained! Thanks Brydin.

KEYS

Ah yes.. we all have to do them.. and we all dread them for the most part. Here’s what I did to get the three I needed. All for the Hand, Head, and Body Quest.

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Crawler’s Nest Coffer Key: Attempt 1

So I was around level 65ish and I decided to head down and find the mobs that gave these keys. The intention was to just find the locations and such. I figured I’d try to fight a mob to see how tough they were, but totally didn’t expect to be able to farm a key. Well, I was right, LOL. I picked a Knight Crawler and he owned my ass. I put this key on hold for quite a while.

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Garlaige Coffer Key: Attempt - Several

So this key “overall” was a pain in the ass. This was actually the first key obtained after my first attempt at one of the others (above). Sooo many people needed this key. There were several hours spent in parties with Benton, Tovan, Arp, Ed, you name it, lol. It came down to Burn scheduling a Key farming party on the /lsmes a week ahead of time. This was such a great idea, because there were so many people that needed the key. Well the time came and Burn, Kat, and I were there… but noone else was. We waited for a good half hour fourty-five mins and noone else still. So we headed off. And I’m glad we went because Burn had a much easier location to farm the keys that weren’t behind any gates. Dammit, where were you earlier Burn, LOL. Well the three of us farmed for about half-hour I’d say and we got a key for me. I felt bad that others didn’t join up, but I’m sure there were RL situations that prevented them. And by all means.. those take priority.
Garlaige Coffer Key Obtained! Thanks Burnhard and Kataklysm!

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Beadeaux Coffer Key: Attempt 1

Well I had my Garlaige key for about a week or so and finally was able to get time from Burn and Kat to go attempt this key. I still needed both Beadeaux and Crawler’s Nest. But I asked which they wanted to do and they chose this one, since it was the hardest. I’m was so glad the picked this one. Well, we headed down to the location.. through all the mutes and afflictors and such. What a pain. We were honestly there forever.. forever.. forever… without a drop. Then Burn had to leave to cram out some homework before class the next day, as it was Sunday. Well that ended that. There was no way Kat and I would’ve made good progression doing it by ourselves. All good though, we tried.
Thank You Burnhard and Kataklysm for giving your time sitting and fighting in that hell hole, LOL.

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Crawler’s Nest Coffer Key: Attempt 2

So, the next day after the Beadeaux expedition I thought to myself.. hmmm.. I’m 70 now. The mobs in Beadueax were tough, but I think I could solo them. And Crawler’s were a lower level than the Quadav. So I thought I would head on down to the Nest and see how they were. Well I think I was down there for maybe 2-3 hours. The fights were doable, plus I had Khuma (fellow) to assist for a little time anyway. In the end I finally got one of them to drop a key.
Crawler’s Nest Coffer Key Obtained! Thank You… Me. /smile

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Beadueax Coffer Key: Attempt 2

Okay… So now I was on a solo kick. I know I can ask for help, but I really wanted to try on my own. Not only that, but after being in this place with burn and kat, I knew it was a hell hole and extremely hard to get a drop. Lots of time commitment. I wasn’t doing anything and everyone seemed engaged at the time. So I headed on down. I was trying to think of a strategy on how to solo this. Because when I was here before there were several times that we linked 2 and even 3 of the mobs. And that would equal instant death for me. In addition to that, the Saphire Quadav were mages, so they would just cast from far and took some work pulling them away from the others. This would equal impossible because I’d be sure to get cursed trying to get them. Cursed would equal death for me. So I thought long and hard for a while before going down. Basically what I did was pick one room. I picked one of them with a Mute in it, so I wouldn’t get cursed. Also in this room there were no Saphire Quadav. There were three total in the room. Well I waited until I could safely pull one of them and I pulled it into the center of the four rooms by the Crawler’s. This way I didn’t have to worry about linking. All-in-all it worked out good because I was able to kill all three, heal, and have abilities ready, for each quadav as they spawned. So I just stayed in that room. Once I killed all three the first time, there was no danger in linking, so I stayed in the room. Several hours went by and still no drop. By this time there was a Japanese Party going room-to-room. They couldn’t get anything from my room since I only had 1 avail at a time, which I could easily claim for myself. Well they were there for a good hour I’d say then I get a /tell from one of them. He asked me if I was farming for a Paladin’s Testimony. I said no, {key}. He asked if I wanted to join their party! Woot!! >.< LOL.. well I did and on the very next mob a testimony dropped. /cry /cry /cry. So now they got what they came for. Well, I didn’t even ask… we just kept going from mob-to-mob trying to help get a key. They honestly stayed there for a good hour and a half killing with me. We were flying through mobs too, it was great. But no drop. Finally they said they had to go. Needless to say, I stayed there and went back to my laborsome routine. I can honestly say that this is the longest I’ve spent farming for an item at a single time. I started at around 6pm and finally a little after 2am… it dropped!!! Thank the lord almighty. And it couldn’t have dropped at a more opportune time. I checked my inventory and I only had 34 tools left for shadows. No shadows = done for the night.
Beadeaux Coffer Key Obtained! Thank You Japanese Party for staying so long when you didn’t have to.

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So to summarize these three keys… I solo’d two of them, but I probably shouldn’t have. Took soo much time and effort. I just checked and there are three other jobs that require the exact same set of coffer keys. Paladin, White Mage, and Beastmaster. I know the mobs and I’m willing to offer whatever time I can to help people obtain these, since they are beeeoootches. In addition help out those War, Bard, Ranger, blm, and rdm’s needing the Garlaige and Net keys.

Item: Temple Gloves (hands)
Obtained by: Crawler’s Nest Coffer
General Use: Macro Item – O.kote much better

Well this was the first coffer I opened so I got the old gauntlets. After a couple of cut scenes I had to go fight Dark Spark. Well, I read on Wiki that he can be solo’d by most level 70 jobs. Since I was level 70 (yes, I’m behind) I decided to give it a shot. Well, I boosted all the way up, focused, dodged, did everything but Hundred Fist (idk why). It was an ok fight for a while and was able to keep shadows up for most of the fight. Towards the end though, I couldn’t get a shadow off for the life of me, literally. Once I was in the red, that was it.. I got pummeled with about 10 percent left on him. Well I decided that I needed to wait for an /assist on this one. Shortly after my first attempt I had received my Beadeaux Key. During that adventure my evasion skilled up about 3-4 points. I was itchin’ to get some AF gear, so I decided to try one more time. This time I planned on Hundred Fisting him. Because I was positive that would do the trick. Well I got there and it was like a totally different fight. I honestly didn’t need to HF him. I did at about 10-15 percent, but it wasn’t needed, since I still had all my health left. LOL. I was completely in awe. I was able to get shadows off very easy this time. I think I finally witnessed how much of a difference 3 skill points makes. It’s either that, or I was just very lucky. Anyway, I went and completed the quest and got my AF piece.
Temple Gloves Obtained! Thank you… Me!

Item: Temple Crown (head)
Obtained by: Garlaige Citidel Coffer
General Use: Macro Item – probably could use, but I use hairpin instead.

So I’d say about two days after I got my gloves I decided to go work on this coffer, since I knew it would be a pain in the butt. The LS was pretty tiny this day too, so there wasn’t going to be much help. Those that were there were pretty far away and busy, so I didn’t want to ask for help on this. So I headed over to Garlaige to try and get past some gates. The first was very easy since there was a party there. Then I had to choose gate 2 or gate 3. Well I decided to go with gate 2 since there were 4 coffer locations, vice 3 through the other gate. Well I went and stood on a switch. I’d say I was standing there shouting for assistance for a good couple of hours. Not a big deal, I was watching TV too, lol. Well Spyder had just disbanded from a crappy party I guess and offered to come and help. I was going to say no, because of his current level. But since he was a white mage and could sneak/invis and warp out of there, LOL. Well I put him in the room with some pots and told him not to cast anything. That way he didn’t have to worry about any aggro either. We sat there for what seemed like eons and he got a /tell for some raise help. Well they were back past gate 1. We said we would help if they assisted with this other gate. Well, low and behold we went and helped… they helped us through gate 1 (where there already was a party) and refused to come help with gate 2. F’ers. Well for any /random person reading this… I think his name was Rockstarz or something like that. DON’T TRUST HIM. Well we sat for maybe another fifteen minutes or so and Kavasha decided to come and help. My first question was… do you have a warp scroll?! LOL. He did, so it was cool. While we were waiting for him to arrive we saw a /shout for someone else needing the gate open. Sweet! Well I ran down to the other end and managed to successfully tell a Japanese player to stay put and wait. Lol. Kav joined up and we got the gate open, and they each warped out of there. The other guy ended up finding a spot and logged out. Thank God! It was nice, I was just high enough where I could check 3/4 spots without any aggro on me. I just needed to invis up when checking the fourth past some bombs. I’d say I was hopping from location to location for about an hour or more and the coffer popped up. It was behind a Flesh so I sneaked up to get by him. As soon as I opened it though he aggro’d me. Wasn’t too bad of a fight at all. Well I warped out of there and headed back to Jeuno.
Temple Crown Obtained! Thank you Spyder and Kavasha. Oh and that Japanese guy. LOL.

Item: Temple Cyclas (body)
Obtained by: Beadeaux Coffer
General Use: Macro of course – my Scorp Harness is just a little better, lol.

The next day after getting my crown I decided to go and knock out this coffer as well. I knew this one was going to be a pain in the ars as well. Mainly because the mobs around the coffers aggro me. And to get past them I’d need to Sneak. To Sneak I can’t be silenced. But so I don’t get cursed I have to silence myself. Holy shit how confusing!!! I guess I coulda just been cursed and sneaked around, lol. Well anyway I headed down to the spawn locations. Before I checked the first spot I shadowed up, sneaked up, and muted myself. Ran to the first spot, no coffer… Ran to the second spot and someone killed all the mobs already. Oh and what do ya know.. the coffer was there! Woot!!! Opened and ran out of that hell hole! LOL.
Temple Cyclas Obtained! Thanks to those who cleared the room for me!

AF3
Item: Temple Hose (Legs)
Obtained by: Quest / Notorious Monster Strategies
General Use: I can actually use this piece of gear. Woot!!! Die Maat!

TBD… I plan to update this after completion.