In terms of normal exp parties, the Oliphant has little or no use. You're better off using the HQ instrument for the song you are playing. It can be useful as a substitute for Mary's Horn, provided you are in an area your home nation controls. (This is especially true if you're from Windurst and doing Steamed Sprouts.) If not, the Royal Spearman's Horn will do. Where this item is the most useful is for brd solo activities, such as weapon skillups, quests, and farming.
I'm from bastok and when I do not have this equipped, I have 115 Wind instrument skill. When INSIDE a bastok controlled area, this remains the same, as it should. However, when inside a sandy controlled area, i should be getting the effect, but do not. The same is true for Beastman Controlled areas.... My other equipment that boosts skills works just fine. This "In area outside own nation's control" effect, however, is never working. Has anyone else noticed this? Please let me know.
If Youre a 55blm levelin up your npc down yonder it would be best not to engage the magic resistant whm NM, I wished my npc the best luck and warped the hell out of there, I would say 60 would be a close fight 65+ would be a cake walk.
Worth whatever effort it takes to get - look at the wind earring(lvl35) and see which costs more. Wind skill affects so much of our party songs so this is sweet.
You would almost never use this in exp, or while singing at all; it's better to use whatever instrument boosts the song you're playing. This would be a good item to swap in when solo/skilling up, however, but that's just for the +acc and +attack.
Definatly a good day for me! Had just finished my Samurai AF Helm quest and was flyin like a bat outta hell toward Norg and spotted this little joker in the final stretch of Yhtunga Jungle. I tried solo'ing it as a 59 Sam/War but stood no chance. A min later a 62 monk comes around and we duo it.... pop, drop, AF and split 700k in one easy trip ^^
The Oliphant is actually named after the horn in The Song of Roland. Taken from Wiki:
"Charlemagne and his army have been fighting for seven years in Spain. Marsilion, or Marsile, the Saracen King of Sarragossa, or Zaragoza, enters into a parliament with his nobles. At the behest of Blancandrin, Marsilion decides to fake a surrender in order to secure the Frankish withdrawal from his lands. Marsilion sends envoys to negotiate the terms of surrender with Charlemagne: Blancandrin, as chief envoy, promises in bad faith that if Charlemagne returns home to Aix-la-Chapelle, Marsilion will soon follow and convert to Christianity.
The Christian lords enter into a discussion on how to respond to Marsilion's offer. Roland distrusts Marsilion, but Ganelon, Naimon and most of the others are in favour of taking the chance that he is sincere. Charlemagne agrees, but there is still the difficulty of finding an ambassador who will bear the message to Marsilion. Charlemagne is reluctant to choose a valued knight, since Marsilion murdered the last ambassadors that had been sent. Accordingly, Charlemagne rejects the offers of Roland and Turpin to carry the message and decrees that none of the Twelve Peers will be sent.
Roland recommends that Ganelon, his detested stepfather, be the one to undertake the embassy to Marsilion. Ganelon construes this as an insult, threatens Roland and then, while travelling in company with Blancandrin to Zaragoza, plots revenge. In Zaragoza, Ganelon lies to Marsilion, telling him that Charlemagne's agreement is contingent upon two conditions. First, Marsilion will only be allowed to keep half of Spain, while the rest must go to Roland. Second, Marsilion's uncle must be among the hostages offered as guarantees of good faith. After threatening to kill Ganelon, Marsilion is advised by Blancandrin that the Frank is willing to betray Roland and the Twelve Peers. Marsilion offers Ganelon friendship and gifts of great wealth, and Ganelon promises to ensure that Roland and the Twelve Peers of France will be placed in the rearguard of the army rather than with the main body of Charlemagne's forces. This will enable Marsilion, who lacks the forces to defeat the Franks outright, to kill the twelve champions of France, without whom, Ganelon says, the French will be unwilling to wage war.
After Ganelon fulfills his side of the bargain, Roland, along with Oliver and the other Twelve Peers, takes charge of the 20,000-member rearguard of the Frankish army. An army of Saracens, 100,000 strong, led by the nephew of Marsilion and 11 other Saracen champions, is seen to be approaching the rear guard. Roland's friend Oliver advises him to blow his olifant to summon the rest of the army, but Roland's code of honour obliges him to fight despite being outnumbered. The battle that follows comprises two parts. The initial onslaught of Saracens is repelled by the Franks, but only 300 Frankish knights, including Roland and most of the Twelve Peers, survive.
The Saracens attack a second time, with Marsilion himself leading a host of 300,000 warriors. It soon becomes clear that the Franks will lose. Upon the advice of Archbishop Turpin, Roland blows his horn, not in the expectation of rescue, but hoping that Charles will return to bury their bodies and revenge their martyrdom. Roland blows his horn so hard that 'the temple of his head' is ruptured, and blood pours from his mouth.
When only Roland, Turpin and Gualter de Hum are still alive, Roland slices off the right hand of Marsilion. Marsilion flees from the field and is followed by those of his men that still survive. Roland and Turpin are the only warriors still standing on the field of battle, and are as such victorious.Nevertheless, Turpin has been wounded in many places by Saracen projectiles and is bleeding to death as he administers the last rites to his fellow soldiers. Roland himself, while unharmed by any weapon, is bleeding to death from his ruptured temple. After Turpin dies, Roland climbs to the top of a hill looking south into Spain. He cracks his Olifant, bludgeoning a pagan to death who tries to steal his sword, then tries to break his sword on a rock: the sword does not break. Roland dies under a tree, facing south holding his sword Durendal and his olifant.
Charlemagne meanwhile has been riding back from France with all possible speed and has arrested Ganelon for his treachery. When he arrives at the battlefield in Roncevaux, he faints with grief. Charlemagne mourns and then sets out to overtake the fleeing Saracen army. Catching up to them in the fields before Sarragossa, Charlemagne's army slaughters them, and many Saracens who escape the sword drown in the waters of a nearby river. Marsilion escapes into his citadel in Sarragossa. Because their army had received no aid from their Gods, the anguished inhabitants of Sarragossa deface the idols of their infernal 'trinity': the statues of Mahound, Tervagent, and Apollyon are dragged from the mosque and beaten with sticks.
That night Baligant, the Emir of Babylon (i.e., Cairo, and not the Babylon in Mesopotamia), arrives with reinforcements from Asia. Marsilion dies passing his authority to Baligant. Charlemagne marshalls his forces into national divisions under his greatest remaining champions: Bavarians, Germans, Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Burgundians, to destroy the Muslim army led by Baligant. The Christian forces destroy the Muslim army, and Charlemagne defeats Baligant in personal combat. The Christian army swarms into Sarragossa: the idols and artifacts of sorcery in the synagogues and mosques of Zaragoza are smashed, and 100,000 Muslims and Jews are baptized. Bramimonde, the widow of Marsilion, is captured, and Charlemagne gives orders for her to be converted, not by force, but by 'parable and sermon'.
yeah and if you're bastokan like me, you almost always get the "outside own nation" bonus to Wind Instrument. haha, at least that's the case on Unicorn.
Of course... I'm BRD43 and I still have no idea what instrument skill does besides maybe (maybe) increase the effectiveness of debuffs. So is +3 really worth 700k?
I'd say it's well suited for soloing though, since you won't be needing to switch instruments every 15 seconds to play a new song, and +3 ATK/ACC is nice. I just might have to find myself one...
id like to go on a big spiel on what (instrument skill) actually does for us bards but it can get really complicated. seeing is that i dont have all day lets just say 700k is worth 3 wind skill string not so much benifet for that much money. look at the bard forums for val's post its a good one. as far as this new instrument it looks very nice kinda like the last flute to be brought out both are pretty decent for soloing.
Got it last night, me and buddy heading to Norg caught him right before the falls. DRG/WAR 58 and BLM/WHM 58 no problem, nice drop as well. sombody sold one on Remora for 600k to themselves, and the previous history was anywhere from 10k to 100k, only a total of 4 sold though. well see what she brings.