However, none of this is any use to a new player, and in a way, you have to 'earn' the ability to use most of these fast travel methods in the first place, typically by visiting the place or doing a small quest beforehand. But just starting out, the only way to get anywhere is walking. No chocobos until level 20, no airships until rank 5, etc, etc. Although it's a great feeling when you finally get to use these services, they end up becoming mostly redundant (I for one, use outpost warps to get nearly everywhere since they're much faster that getting a chocobo). Although the annoying part about outpost warps is that your nation has to have control of the desired region before you can do the supply quest to allow you to warp there, making it very difficult to obtain all of the possible warps, especially in regions just outside of rival cities (I'm just short of the Gustaberg outpost, and I'm not getting that any time soon - incidentally, Bastok is the only main city that I have no fast way of accessing) also, the fact that all outpost supply runs you do are completely wiped whenever you change nation allegiance, I'm never going to attempt to do Bastok or Sandy's main storyline.
Anyway, this was brought up by me completing the re-questing all my Runic Portals (again) on Cuddles.
I opted for the nasty orange AF since it gave decent HP and defense in case I caught some aggro on the way.
Most were relatively easy to get to, even the dreaded Ilrusi Atoll had an alternative route to get to that I was previously unaware of, which bypassed the need for a Lamian Fang key and the terribly irritating Soulflayers. I still took a death from the imps just outside of the Staging Point, but I anticipated this happing so made sure to bring a Reraise scroll. I wasn't too happy about it because I wanted to repeat my original MGS-esque moment by sneaking past them undetected. Alas, one of them cheated and spotted me through a pillar so I had to resort to Leeroying my way through and putting up RR before I went down. On the plus side, I managed to cap evasion from the few hits I took (and parried one attack with my warp cudgel!).
SE really made a wise move with these Portals, and especially Nyzul isle putting them in close proximity of several Exp camps, and the fact Nyzul is a myriad of tunnels/portals to pretty much every area in Aht Urhgan allows for safe and easy access. Good stuff. My only gripe with Runic Portals is the fact they require 200 imperial standing per use (for non-captains), which certainly adds up with regular Salvage and the fact I've not done much meriting for a long while. It would be nice to see perhaps a discount on cost for higher ranked mercinaries (maybe just a 50% discount for Sergeants and higher), and it would be even better to see a similar discount in points cost from the coin vendor who hands out Aht Urghan currency.
Also, Cuddles has travelled back to the past in order to sign up to Bastok's forces, and get himself some sprinter's shoes (another smart introduction by SE, especially considering it works alongside other movement-enhancing gear so not to upset those that have already got some). I decided to activate some Maws/Teleport crystals along the way;
I'm tankful for Monomi and Tonko, I saved so much money using those rather than having to use Powders and Oils, considering I used maybe 1/4 of a stack of tools (99 to a stack), which would have been 20k or more in oils and powders (12 to a stack), and the tools only cost about 4~5k per 99, which is very nice. Not to mention, they both always lasted the same duration (maybe this was just luck on my part) so I never had to waste resources re-casting invisible, only to have sneak wear off seconds later and re-cast both of them yet again.
Wings of the Goddess offers some of the best methods of transportation to date in FFXI, firstly there's fast ways to access past beastman strongholds (Recall-Jugner/Pashh./Meriph.) and the respective areas they are situated in, but also Maws in every area that is situated in both the past and the present (although you have to 'activate' them all in the past), Retrace - a spell similar to Warp II that takes you to your allied nation in the past (I'd really like to see a spell that takes you to your home nation in the present, but chances are it won't change much for me unless it's a RDM spell or a low-level BLM spell). Finally, the best part about fast travel from WotG is the area-warps offered by Campaign Arbiters, which require only that you have previously entered that particular area, and each area offers a warp back to your home nation, all for a small sum of (easily obtainable) Allied Notes.
Other major influences on my travel habits include the regular use of the 'pay warp taru' Kaduru-Haiduru, who offers transportation to your home nation for a small fee unlike his brother, Shihu-Danhu, who may - or may not - warp you to Jeuno or the surrounding area for free. Also, the introduction of NPCs in each major city who will warp you to Whitegate for a paltry sum of 300gil (after completion of an irritatingly time-consuming quest) the existance of such NPCs has allowed me to set my Home Point back in Windurst, allowing me to make quick use of Outpost warps/Whitegate warps/whatever.
I never got the Gustaberg Maw done, as Flam was camping Shikigami weapon so I decided to log at the Gustaberg zone and go back on Kaya to assist (plus I had sky soon, and this was en-route). All went well.
Sky was farming, until a number of people showed up and we decided to do a Kirin, on which hate was quite shakey at the start, due to lack of NIN/DRKs as we were farming. We used to have a ton of spare tanks to swap in/out should any die, but recently we've had 2 at most, and when one goes down all we have left is PLD/WARs to step in. :/
Kirin decided he wasn't too fond of me for some reason, and just decided to run over to me, do a TP move, cast a spell at the NINs then start chasing them, and TP me again on the way past. I hadn't really done much to get hate either. Made me giggle seeing him do deadly hold for 0 though, must have done less than 350 damage to not break stoneskin. How strange.
I got a shining cloth out of it though, which is going to go towards my 'saving for cursed gear so I can afford it when I get the abjurations' fund, mainly aimed at a Shura Togi for Cuddles (if I get him sky access :x).
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