Talk:Serpopard Ishtar

I just started a sword trial (Trial 150), and while farming this NM I noticed that the 2 PH where the 1st dhalmel of their group in Wide Scan... So I tried to kill other 1st of their group dhalmels (I only targeted groups of 3).

I killed the NM 3 times in 50~60 minutes.

When I stated to camp, the ph with the id EE was up, so I killed it (it never came back up, that's the cause of me trying to kill other dhalmels).

Then the ph with id 70 popped a few times... and to my surprise the NM spawned 2 times in ~30 minutes around this place holder.

During my back and forth of the North and South camp, I tried to kill more dhalmels (IDs: 17E, 198 and 1A3) in the NE area.

And finally I found the NM chilling in the North-East area, in the group of dhalmels that has 17E; and 17E was not up...

So I'm pretty sure that 17E is a 3rd place holder for this NM.

I'm going to update the main page with the information I just found. Atrelamine (talk) 14:23, 11 November 2019 (EST)

17E is a placeholder confirmed

Can confirm that the dhalmel with the hex ID of 17E @G-5 is indeed a placeholder for the NM. Killed 17E, then EE a few times, and then finally killed a 17E and the NM spawned @G-5. Seems that there is 3 places this NM can spawn, not two, as some of the older labeled maps show.

Rickenjack (talk) 14:09, 27 December 2020 (EST)

How I hunted this mob using Ashita v3 and WatchDog

I've updated the Wiki page a bit to reflect things a bit more clearly, though admittedly this NM (and the details you'll find on the Internet) are confusing. I've added NM IDs, which should help as well.

I thought I'd document exactly how I completed this Records of Eminence regional quest with the help of Ashita v3's WatchDog plugin. Make sure you have the plugin loaded in advance; it is not an addon! This plugin has no documentation, which is unfortunate because it's actually quite helpful.

Ashita v4 may have this plugin as well, but I haven't checked.

Procedure

1. Go to Tahrongi Canyon and hang out around H-6. This location allows widescan (and thus WatchDog) to cover all the map locations where the PHs and NM can spawn.
2. Type: /watchdog track 238 — this is the PH ID for the "North" group.
3. Now examine your compass (left side of screen). (You can also go to the Map and look for a large crosshair, which indicates a tracked mob that is found.)
   • If you see a blue ⯆ arrow that appears on the compass dial, that's where track mob (PH 238) is! If you DON'T see the arrow on your compass, continue on with Step 4 below.
   • Go and kill the tracked PH, then wait a full minute or so (give NM time to spawn).
   • Now use the same methodology as above, but look for the NM ID:
     • Type: /watchdog track 115 — this is the first NM IDs If you see the blue ⯆ arrow on your compass, that's where the NM is. You know what to do!
     • Type: /watchdog track 242 — this is the other NM ID. Check your compass etc...
     • If neither NM tracking request turns up the NM, then it didn't spawn (see: lottery), so continue on with the below.
4. Type: /watchdog track 112 — PH ID for the "South" group — and follow the above process in Step 3 (check compass, etc.).
5. Type: /watchdog track 382 — PH ID for the "Northwest" group — and follow the above process in Step 3 (check compass, etc.).
6. If you aren't able to find any of the above 3 PHs, then someone else may be in the area farming them.
7. Continue to repeat this process until you kill the NM. It may take you a while, especially if someone has recently killed the NM (availability window, I think, is between 1-8 hours?).

You can use this process for any PH or NM in FFXI.

How WatchDog works

WatchDog makes use of FFXI's native Wide Scan Tracking feature under the Map menu, but with a twist: it contains an internal database of all the mob IDs (both PHs and NMs), segregated per area.

With the plugin loaded, every time you zone into a new area, the mob IDs for that zone are loaded.

Mob IDs in WatchDog are in decimal (base-10) (a.k.a. integers, or "common numbers that most people are used to"), not hexadecimal (base-16) (which are what you'll find on wikis).

• I suspect the decimal vs. hex ordeal may be due to Windower offering a similar addon/plugin where it shows the mob IDs in hexadecimal.
• Sadly, most people editing the wikis are entering the hexdecimal versions, but you never can tell.
  • Example: "70" in hexadecimal is 112 in decimal, but 70 could also be a decimal/integer number.
• Some (smart) people are putting 0x in front of the numbers, which always means hexadecimal.
  • I've been editing NM pages here on bg-wiki.com to say things like "NM ID is 123 hex (291)" where the number in parenthesis is the decimal version.
• If you need to convert between hexadecimal and decimal numbers, use one of these sites: https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html or https://tools.keycdn.com/hex-converter

WatchDog includes 3 commands:

• /watchdog track MOB_NUMBER — tracks a mob using the Wide Scan feature, but by using its mob ID number. Number is in decimal, as described above.
• /watchdog find MOB_NAME — searches the internal database for a mob matching that name, and returns any results including their mob ID number.
  • Always matches against the beginning/start of a mob name.
  • For mobs with spaces in their names, put double-quotes around their name.
  • Example: /watchdog find Serpopard — returns 5 entries -- (2) for Serpopard Ishtar, and (3) for Serpopard Ninlil.
  • Example: /watchdog find "Serpopard Ishtar" — returns 2 entries, both for Serpoard Ishtar.
  • Example: /watchdog find "Wild Dhalmel" — returns 31 entries. Why so many? Because each individual Wild Dhalmel gets its own ID number. Yes really! Hence why the PH ID is so important.
• /watchdog refresh — refreshes the internal database of mob names/IDs. I haven't encountered a need for this myself.

Deedeedee (talk) 00:10, 16 May 2024 (PDT)