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Please read: Skillchains and how they workFollow

#1 Mar 23 2004 at 7:06 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,146 posts
The reason for writing this post is the lack of knowledge in reference to skillchains.
I don't blame players who just started the game or never got the chance to try them but the players who got a sub job or even an advanced job.
At this lvl i can't imagine someone who never tried to chain before.

Let's start:

I use skillchains since i reached a lvl10 weaponskill with my first job so i think i know some things about them.
Now i'll try to explain in a simple way how they work and how you should prepare for them.
This should be a guide for those who don't use skillchains at the moment. Try them and don't be affraid of messing a chain. Only noobs will flame you for this if you tell them you never tried SC before.


1. The first thing you need for a chain are the weaponskills everybody is able to use.


2. Guess what. Yep you have to search for the most effective chain you can use.

To make things easier use this information:

Monster Classification Chart: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/final_fantasy_xi_monster_class.txt
Renkei Charts: http://db.ffvault.ign.com/screenshots/?category_select_id=cat_8

Now you search for the mob you'd like to fight and check his weak element. Take that and your weaponskills and search for a good skillchain in one of the charts.


3. Know your role! Once you decide on a chain make sure everyone knows when he/she has to use what weaponskill. This includes mages too.
A skillchain without a magic burst is only a half skillchain.


4. Set up macros. Most important is one like this:

/p 2nd (Weaponskill) TP<tp>

2nd: tells the others when you'll use your WS
Weaponskill: yes here's your WS (use the auto translate WS)
TP<tp>: reports your TP to your party

If someone uses this macro everyone should report the TP.
So everybody will know when the chain is ready for use and can prepare to use the WS or Spells.

For beginners this macro should help to get the timing:

/p (Weaponskill) in 3 seconds.
/wait 2
/p 3rd (Weaponskill) (I'm using it)
/wait 1
/ws "Weaponskill" <t>

Once the first one uses this the other players can get ready to use their macro.
I'll explain the timing later.

Thiefs should have one like this:

/wait 1
/ja "(Sneak Attack)" <me>
/wait 1
/ja "(Trick Attack)" <me>
/wait 1
/ws "Weaponskill" <t>


5. If you did the 4 steps you are ready for chains now. So let's get to the right timing.

As you should know the time between the use of weaponskills is at least 3 seconds and (i think SE changed something here to make it a bit easier to chain) max 4 seconds.
So if you're a bit too slow for the 3 seconds the chain should still work.
UPDATE: It seems like SE changed the timing a bit so it's easier now to chain even if you are a too fast or too slow.

If you use the macros from 4. everything you'll need is a start command from the first in chain. So everybody can prepare to use WS and spells.

With a little training you'll get the timing in a short time. Then you can delete the "3 seconds" tell, the /wait 2 and the other stuff.
Most of the players in experienced parties use the weaponskill without any /tell but of course the choice is up to you.


6. Magic Bursts: They are easy if you make sure what element to use and at the end of a chain.
It's a bit harder to get the right timing to burst between two weaponskills.
You'll have to know how long it takes to cast the spell and when to start.
It's the same for ancient spells. In this case the Blm has to start the chain (because ancient spells have a 17s casttime) with a "/p starting skillchain!" or something like that and start casting after the others give their OK.

For example: the spells take 4 seconds to cast

/p Starting Chain! (or something lke that)
player1 uses weaponskill
player2 prepares weaponskill
player4 starts casting spell
3 seconds
player2 uses weaponskill
skillchain I
player3 prepares weaponskill
player5 starts casting spell
1 second
player4 casts spell
magic burst I
2 seconds
player 3 uses weaponskill
skillchain II
1 second
player5 casts spell
magic burst II

You can burst with more than one spell too. Just cast the spells so they'll go off when the skillchain takes effect and you'll get double and tripple magic bursts or more.

A tip from me. If you are not the first one in the chain and everyone has 100+TP get ready for the chain. Press Strg-W and select your WS and the target. DON'T USE IT NOW! Just wait till it's time for it.
This way you can't fail by pressing the wrong button or mess with your macro.


7. Use Provoke before starting the chain. This will prevent the mob from running to the mages in the middle of the chain.
Also the Whm should reduce healing in this time to the minimum and not use CureIII, Curaga or (this one is realy great for suicide ^^) Benediction.
Blm should stop nuking and prepare for MB instead.


8. The chain damage seems to be calculated with the weaponskill that produces the chain so it would be the best idea to select a chain that's not only strong against the type of mob you are fighting but also has the strongest chain creating weaponskill as attack before MB.


Yosh (japanese for "OK"). I think that's all you'll need. Maybe i forgot something important so please feel free to add your informations.
Happy chaining ^^

Edit: changed colors, changed timings, added info and 7.
Edit: updated some info

Edited, Tue Mar 23 10:34:57 2004 by RidingBean

Edited, Wed Aug 18 07:24:36 2004 by RidingBean

Edited, Tue Nov 30 04:42:22 2004 by RidingBean
#2 Mar 23 2004 at 9:27 AM Rating: Decent
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1,571 posts
Awesome. I'm still playing with this figuring out what I can do with everyone's wepons. Usually No one knows what it is so i'll just do my skill when I see them use theirs. After I'll get the ocasional Nice! or What was that?! I'll explain to them and they'll just ignore it and do whatever. I'm lvl 28 and I've STILL yet to see a MB.
#3 Mar 23 2004 at 10:46 AM Rating: Default
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96 posts
That is REALLY discouraging. :\

Thats why I like playing DRK, because if nobody else knows how to burst, I can chain AND burst.
#4 Mar 23 2004 at 11:18 AM Rating: Good
This is very very good, now can you get everyone else on the Bismarck server to read it..... : >
#5 Mar 23 2004 at 6:33 PM Rating: Decent
Very good post! Smiley: waycool

I give you a rating and my Smiley: moogle gives his Smiley: goat


...lesson #2 should cover EXP Chains! Smiley: wink2
#6 Mar 23 2004 at 7:36 PM Rating: Decent
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1,571 posts
Good thing I didnt knock on wood cause I was just in a pt for the last hour and a half and we got about 4k exp! Not as many Sc as I hoped becuase they wanted me(Spear) to sit out for somereason. The Dark and Nin went at it with a nice burst after. This was defenitly a once in a blue moon pt for me.
#7 Mar 23 2004 at 8:06 PM Rating: Default
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1,366 posts
Great post. Best I have seen lately on this subject, if not, ever. Very clear and easy to understand. Thanks. Definitely deserves a hug and a rate up. :)
#8 Mar 23 2004 at 10:43 PM Rating: Decent
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145 posts
Nice info about Skill Chains. It surprises me how many ppl havent gone out and printed a copy of the possible skill chains. Being a monk I felt a tad overwhelmed due to the fact that ppl believe we are useless but after taking a trip to Kazham and useing a very simple lvl 2 SC that only involves 2 players who use swords and 1 that uses hand to hand(me). The first simple SC we did was Fast Blade-Red Lotus Blade-Combo, which of course either involves a warrior or pally due to the fact that Red Lotus Blade can only be used by them. Fast Blade to Red Lotus Blade make liquefaction and Red Lotus to Combo make Fushion, note that being a monk/thief I always use sneak attack with my Combo to do from 150-250 damage for my WS and the Fushion would do 150+, so we wear effectivly killing mandragoras left and right. The second simple SC was Fast Blade-Burning Blade-Combo that had the same effects in the end. The only reason we would use Burning Blade over Red Lotus Blade was due the fact that we had a ninja or red mage that dont learn Red Lotus Blade. Any who today I had to make a party in a flash and pretty much grabed the basics for a party. Well about after 3 or 4 mandragoras we started to think a bout a SC, well no one had a chart except for me so I ask for ppls what WS they had and start to put together a few lvl 1 SC of course not know if it should be EX. Shadow Tackle-Shadow of Death or vice versa so Isaid if it doesnt work the first way try it the other way around so after getting a lvl 1 SC and got to looking and put a lvl 2 Sc together and we had no problems after that. I guess what I am trying to say here is what has alrdy been said DONT BE AFRAID TO TRY PUTTING A SC TOGETEHR, the worst that could go wrong is that it doesnt work, not like it will make the mob stronger. My advice is if you find a WS that is simple to put together DONT FORGET IT. I have ahd to many ppl in a party who say they know a great SC and then 5 sec later dont rember it. Well I think I have put more than my 2 cents in on a skill chain thread. Good luck.
#9 Mar 24 2004 at 4:27 AM Rating: Good
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1,146 posts
Cadell wrote:

...lesson #2 should cover EXP Chains! Smiley: wink2


I'm working on one right now ^^
#10 Mar 24 2004 at 4:54 AM Rating: Good
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1,557 posts
Quote:
I'm lvl 28 and I've STILL yet to see a MB.


Come on over to Caitsith and party with Stranded and me (I've seen his posts around here). He's the king of Magic Bursting. Had a riot in party with him chaining VT/IT Pugils in Qufim a while ago. I was a poor WHM with nothing to do since they were dropping like flies. Was a real lesson in SC--->MB, although I'd seen it before as low as lvl 12.

Cheers,
Eatmorechicken - Caitsith server
#11 Apr 07 2004 at 1:24 AM Rating: Good
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1,146 posts
back to the top ^^
#12 Apr 07 2004 at 9:02 AM Rating: Decent
skill... chains? I thought I was too little. Maybe a lvl 10 thf could become part of a SC. Are there any? I'll check the charts.
#13 Apr 07 2004 at 10:22 AM Rating: Good
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1,146 posts
You can be part of a SC as soon as you get your first weaponskill however you won't have very much choices what chains you use.
That should be at lvl3 however i suggest you don't party at this lvl because of the exp you'll get but it's possible.
#14 Apr 07 2004 at 1:44 PM Rating: Decent
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371 posts
I have the worst time reading/interpreting skillchain charts. I'm not stupid. I can read complicated doctorate-level scholarly books on history and clearly understand them (getting my master's now, thank you very much). As for Skillchain charts, they just don't make sense to me.

I think, in order to make it simpler for everyone, that someone should make a web page (like the stat calculator I've seen for FFXI) that lets you select a specific weapon skill and see all the possible skillchains with that weapon skill. Like I could put in Wasp Sting (Dagger) and look at all the possible SCs (and elemental properties) with it. It would also be nice if it could also show which kinds of monsters that SC would be effective against. That way, I could look them all up, write them all down, and ACTUALLY USE THEM.
#15 Apr 07 2004 at 1:48 PM Rating: Decent
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371 posts
I did some digging, and I found this one:
[link=]http://ffxi.liquid-x.net/renkei/[/link]

It's kinda like what I wanted but you have to enter what the other party members are first. >.< I want to know what works with me without having to enter every possible job/weapon combo.

Edited, Wed Apr 7 14:49:55 2004 by Alethea
#16 Apr 07 2004 at 2:12 PM Rating: Good
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184 posts
wow. this thread is really helpful. ive done a few SC but no MB. now that ive read this, i think its tmie for me to chain till my arms fall off. cant wait to see the section on exp chains btw. thanks
#17 Apr 08 2004 at 1:16 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,146 posts
Jakeface wrote:
wow. this thread is really helpful. ive done a few SC but no MB. now that ive read this, i think its tmie for me to chain till my arms fall off. cant wait to see the section on exp chains btw. thanks


It's already up for some time sow. (=^.^=)
EXP Guide: http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1080137854320598182&num=2
#18 Apr 15 2004 at 10:53 AM Rating: Default
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87 posts
http://www.liquidlithium.com/skillchain.gif
#19 Aug 18 2004 at 6:27 AM Rating: Excellent
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1,146 posts
I thought i'd bumb this once more because the party i had yesterday had absolutely no clue how to chain...at lvl32 that was ><
#20 Aug 18 2004 at 5:41 PM Rating: Default
i thought you didnt get hate from MBs hmmm... well ok post
#21 Aug 18 2004 at 5:44 PM Rating: Default
i want this stickied, i never understood skillchains fully, please sticky this admin!


oh please fix the mob thrread, thank you

Edited, Wed Aug 18 18:46:38 2004 by agoodguy
#22 Aug 18 2004 at 5:49 PM Rating: Default
Great post. Two days ago we had a lv 45 blm who didn't know how to MB. ;_;
#23 Aug 19 2004 at 4:26 AM Rating: Good
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1,146 posts
agoodguy wrote:
oh please fix the mob thrread, thank you


...could you tell me what you mean? Maybe i'm a bit dumb but i don't know what you mean ^^;
Thx.
#24 Aug 19 2004 at 5:59 AM Rating: Default
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172 posts
I must be the only one in FFXI who couldn't care less about skill chains...

Everyone tries to make it sound easy, but the harder they try, the more it sounds like doing research for a college thesis...

(Although I did MB with Paralyze once... /slap)

Edited, Thu Aug 19 07:09:32 2004 by Clim
#25 Aug 14 2008 at 7:07 AM Rating: Decent
This is so awesome. I'm one of those people who got to lvl 26 and only ever participated in SCs on accident. This has opened my eyes ^_^ Thank you!

Quote:
I did some digging, and I found this one:
[link=]http://ffxi.liquid-x.net/renkei/[/link]


THIS is genius! I could hug everyone who had something to do with me finding my way to this thread to find this link.
#26 Aug 14 2008 at 7:12 AM Rating: Good
Am I reading this date right?

Please read: Skillchains and how they work
Posted: Mar 23rd 2004 11:06am | Edited: Nov 30th 2004 8:42am

Not that this is a bad thread to have necrobumped, but wow. I'm impressed that someone is actually looking for this information.
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