Ballista (term)

Ballista, also known as Conflict, is a ritualized form of combat in Final Fantasy XI. This is the first of two (the other being Brenner) forms of PvP (Player versus Player) events. Ballista occurs at regular intervals. Each time it occurs the game will pit two of the three major nations against each other, Bastok, San d'Oria, and Windurst.
Players do not necessarily have to fight for their own country, since clearly that would mean only two out of three players could participate in any particular ballista. Up to 72 players per team can play ballista at any given match. Teams must be balanced to be within one player of each other for fairness consideration. There is also a minor monetary fee players have to pay to enter. The winning team then divides the pool of money between them after the match.
==Participation==
Not everyone can participate in ballista and it is not free. There is a fee to join any ballista game and there are prerequisites in order to do the quest to even participate.
===Prerequisites===
The player must be at least Rank 3 in their home nation to be able to participate in Ballista. After the player reaches rank 3, they need to speak with their nation's ballista director who would grant 2 letters. At that point, the player would need to travel to the other two nations to speak with their ballista director, since this is a ritualized and cordial affair. After speaking with both of the other nation's directors, the player would return to their home nation to speak with the nation's leader.
===Entry Fee===
There are different level-caps for Ballista. The level cap determines the highest level the player can be in order to participate. If they are a higher level, they will have their level temporarily lowered to that. Gear is restricted to that level as well.
*Level 30 Cap - 500 gil
*Level 40 Cap - 1,000 gil
*Level 50 Cap - 1,500 gil
*Level 60 Cap - 2,000 gil
*No Level Cap - 3,000 gil (this is no longer 75 cap with the level cap increase to 99)
==Rules of Ballista==
Ballista can be played in two different ways. The first being one giant match that generally lasts about 45 minutes to 1 hour and the second being the best of three short matches. In either case, the objective is the same.
===Quarry===
Players from both sides must use a ballista-only command called /quarry in order to try to find Petra. These petra are what ultimately determines the winner of the game. Quarry can also be used to find temporary items. These can be familiar items like hi-potions and ethers or they can be ballista specific, like a Jar of Carnal Essence. Each petra can be used to score one point. There is no limit to the number of petra that can be held by a player at any given time, but only ten temporary items can be carried at any given time.
===Rooks===
Objects known as rooks, will appear out of the ground at various places during the match. The number of rooks and their distance from one another is directly effected by the number of participants in Ballista at that time. Rooks are the "goals", through which petra can be tossed to score points.
===Gate Breach===
As a PvP event, players can kill other players on the opposing team. Whenever a member of the other team is KO'd, the team that killed the player gets a Gate Breach status. This means that the door on the rook's front opens and petra can now be put into the rook to score points.
If the player is KO'd, they have a few options. They can try to wait for a raise or they can rejoin the battle. Raise takes a lot of MP and the player would remain in a weakened status for five minutes so this is not likely to happen unless the player has a particularly large cache of petra. If the player opts to join the battle rather than get a raise, they lose all of their petra, though they will keep any temporary items they are carrying. Experience Points are not lost due to deaths in Ballista.
==Rewards==
There are many rewards for participating in Ballista. Some are more lasting than others.
===Gil===
The total pot from the entry fees is pooled together and distributed and then divided among the winners. Considering that there has to be close if not exactly equal combatants on both sides, this generally means the player double their gil or they lose it. The amount of gil gained or lost is not considered significant by most standards.
===Experience Points===
Experience points are awarded to all participants so long as they truly participated. They also have to stay the entire time in order to get the reward so if the player were to log out before the end, they would get nothing. Experience is awarded by the actual level of the job they bring, not the level of the ballista match, meaning that if they are a level 75 player, even in a 30 capped ballista, they will still gain the experience listed below for level 70-75.
*Level 30-39: 300 Exp
*Level 40-49: 350 Exp
*Level 50-59: 400 Exp
*Level 60-69: 450 Exp
*Level 70-75: 500 Exp
===Ballista Ranking===
Ballista ranking is tracked over the course of the last ten ballista matches for each zone. Points are awarded to determine how well the player performed in the ballista match. These points are not added together for the ballista ranking that is tracked by each herald, only the highest in the last 10 matches is considered.
===Temporary Key Items===
Every player in ballista is rewarded with a Ballista Instaport and a Ballista Instawarp. Instaport will take they to the same zone as the next ballista match, according to the schedule, and ballista instawarp will return the player to their home point.
Players can also gain chevrons which they can keep for one week. This allows them to showoff around Vana'diel. When another player inspects the ballista member, they will notice the player's title. Chevrons are awarded after each match, if the player wants one, for best performance in each job and then best placement in the overall rankings for the match (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc).
==Ballista locations==
*Pashhow Marshlands
*Jugner Forest
*Meriphataud Mountains
*Diorama Abdhaljs -Ghelsba Outpost - This is a special arena reserved and not part of the normal ballista rotation.
==See also==
Poenixphiles' Ballista Schedule - Lists current and upcoming ballista events.
Category:Final Fantasy XI