Farming Souls/Horns

Hey guys,

I know there are a ton of threads regarding WHICH area is best for farming Ochain, but this isn't really about that. I plan on doing Grauberg simply because I'd like to try to do souls and horns at the same time. I am recently back from a long break and don't have the knowledge base for post75 cap content that I would like to have, so I was hoping you guys could give me some insight.

I inherited 2 accounts that are up to date in abyssea and have been using them to tri-box farm the plates. I just finished 50/50 from MNK+WHM duo in Grauberg and now its time to get started on the nastier bits.

My question is, how do I go about this? I've never done vnm or Azdaja and need some instruction. What would be the best way to farm/fight both the t1/t2/t3's as well as Azdaja and Deeldeeg? Which mobs do I have to proc and what color proc? Any advice on the fights and the farming of pops would be greatly appreciated.

This is what I have to work with:
My main has the following jobs 99: PLD WAR THF SAM NIN. Unfortunately most are geared/skilled to 75 cap still so THF and NIN are only the real options. NIN has 4/5 empy+2's twilight belt, epona's, atheling, and iga neck piece. PLD all area's homam. Thf 5/5 homam and same ***NIN can wear (belt, ring, mantle, ect). Rest of the jobs are welled geared at 75cap but nothing more.

Mule#1: Kannagi85 NIN, and some pretty well geared jobs at 99 including WAR,MNK,WHM,BLM,RDM,THF,PLD,DRK,BST,RNG,SAM,DRG,BLM, and DNC.

Mule#2: Not quite as well geared but not bad with the following jobs
MNK,WHM,BLM,BST,NIN, and DNC.

With the given jobs, what do you guys think the best setup would be for the grauberg t3 and Azdaja? I would appreciate any tips or instruction! (;'-')b

~Thanks

If you have a BLM, MNK, WHM you can easily build time in Altep whilst farming T1s (buying from prospector) then upgrading to T2 in same zone. BLM can easily nuke the Elemental VNM until you upgrade. Just repeat the process until you get a T3 then go back to the beginning of process again I guess.

Would NIN/WAR, THF/NIN, and WHM/BLM be able to kill T1,t2,t3, Deelgeed, and Azdaja?

Trying to think about procs too ect... or should I just focus on either Horn or Souls first, then move to the other?

I can't really see 1 person farming being faster if you do both items atrming grouberg VNM maybe fastest simply because less competition, but that's it. Unless you can split up the characters to farm separate ki, then I'd say stick to 1 item at a time.

Just a bit of an update. This stage is a *** punch. Currently 20/75 on souls. Did all but 2 fights on Maere just due to competition at the other spots but now I'm thinking it might be worth dealing with. I've lost 4 t3 pops due to ***luck/crappy game mechanics. The fight itself is too easy. I bounce it back and for between a mnk and NIN while keeping the whm out of party and curing from
20.1 yalms away to avoid nightmare. So what's the problem? Popping the ***. It's not even the monitors, it's the four times he's opened with nightmare @ spawn. By time I get the NIN/dnc to the popper, he is usually dead because you have to fight so far away to avoid monitor magic Aggro or the chariot's wide pathing. I got to the tank with a clutch heal once, trying to wake up/ pull hate but was greeted with another nightmare almost instantly. I know this is all just bad luck, but 4 times in 15~ fights is just too much to risk considering all the time it takes to upgrade t1/2 (I get about ~10% upgrade on t1s and about 25~33% on t2s so far). If I am missing something obvious, please let me know. Otherwise I'm gonna be /THF flee claiming at Brulo camp haha. Thank you SE for giving my that junkie feel. I hate this game but can't stop! Haha

For Maere, I always had a smn with me, that seemed to help if/when bodies hit the floor.
The majority of my farming was done with mnk/thf/nin+whm+smn.

What kinda upgrade rates did you guys experience? And is there any evidence of anything effecting it (proc, day/moon, ect)?

You can generally expect an upgrade of a T1 on kill 7-8 and 1-3 for T2s. Depending on luck though, it can get a lot worse. I have had anywhere between 1 and 20 kills for a T1 upgrade (28 was my highest before SE tweaked upgrade rates/locations) and 1-10 for T2s.

A small tip for competition at camps though, a lot of times groups will be going after seals from T2s and couldn't care less about an upgrade. In fact, they would probably rather someone else upgrade so that they can keep popping for seals. Just let them know and they will most likely invite you. And bonus, with a group there, it will most likely scare away any other competition.

I average upgrades on T2 about 1/5 over time. About 1/10 for T1 upgrades.

Just treat your farming like this:

1. Get a Azdaja group together (Nin, Thf, Whm works so you have the proc jobs for the KI NM). Tank Azdaja from behind with whm out of party. Hit KI NM when it's up. Go claim/kill the t2 between each Azdaja kill.

By the time you've cleared the Azdaja stage doing the above rotation, you should have 10-15 souls.

2. Then move to plates. Do the same thing. Work on Iron Giant pops and kills while popping/killing the t2. By the time you clear these out (they go fast as hell) you should have another 5-10 souls.

After that you can buy/farm the rest. It's a LOT faster if you buy or get friends to help farm the other zone t2s. The choke point here is just an abysmal convert rate on the t2 for the pop/time invested (10-15 min respawn, then 2-3 minutes to kill, and 1/5 conversion rate). So you're looking at 1.3 souls an hour about..