CLOTHCRAFT

I basically spend all my FFXI time (which is not often) farming, either for gil or for clothcraft materials.

I read on a farming blog about the Jotunns on the 11th and 12th floors of Delkfutt Tower. With /THF they drop from 200 to 300 gil per kill, and have a near 50% rate on dropping Gigas Socks, which desynth to 2 Wool Threads. I decided to give it a try to break the monotony of farming Bird Feathers to level my Clothcraft to 40.

Well, I took my surviving-capable RDM/THF up to the top and killed quite a few Jotunns in the process. The annoying part about those floors are the dolls and pots that are in the rooms, and the hallways being cluttered with bats. There isn't a whole lot of breathing room to actually fight these guys, not to mention they are EP-DC at 75. I pretty much had to keep up Phalanx, Stoneskin, Enblizzard, Ice Spikes, Poison II, and Bio II, and often Haste. I eventually got the hang of killing them decently fast, but you'd be surprised at how many people are fighting these guys, for one reason or another. I figure mostly people are farming for the drop that allows them to spawn Alk. and Pallas, which are 1%ish drops from the Jotunns.

Each kill gave 50-100 exp as well as, as they said, 200-300gil. I made about 10,000 gil and 2.5k EXP on my Red Mage in the process, until I got really unlucky with a bat aggro, which got worse when a pot got a hold of me, too. I almost got away, but a Blizzaga from the Pot for 700 made me bite the dust. Home Pointing pretty much evened out my EXP gain, which is fine, since I don't do end game things to worry about my EXP anyway. I left there with 12 Wool Tread from desynths of socks, which is currently on the Windurst AH for 15,000 gil. So, all-in-all, I made out better than I usually do on my farming runs, I guess. The problem really was that it was more stressful than fun.

Yesterday, since Eruntalo was back in Windurst, I decided to hop back in my THF gear and go out and farm more birds (and Crawlers, since they're there) in East Sarutabaruta. I managed to go from 34 Clothcraft to 36 yesterday and this morning. Bird Fletchings cap at 42, so I can continue doing them for a while. I am pretty sure I have the materials to make my guild item to reach the next tier at 38. If not, I actually have some gil to spend now, anyway.

I often ask myself why I spend all my FFXI free time farming. The truth of the matter is, I have come to detest leveling at this point, even with my THF so close to 75. Also, I've always found myself low in gil (except for my trek for the Haubergeon however long ago, when it was 4 freaking Million gil). It's nice to have some pocket change that I worked hard for, and I know that it won't be long before I can spend it on a Scorpion Harness for my THF. I do plan on making my THF hit 75 so that I can THF/NIN farm even harder stuff rather than lugging my unfortunate RDM around. Don't get me wrong, I love my Chapeau'd RDM, but casting 800 spells a minute is so monotonous, and I've been doing it for so long that I need something new in my FFXI life.

THF became my favorite job once I leveled it, and it continues to be, even if I neglect it from reaching it's pinnacle.