Battlefield (Final Fantasy XI)

Burning circles or Burning Circle Notorious Monster battlefields are located throughout Final Fantasy XI. They are an "instance" based battle where a single player or group will enter a special arena and fight a predetermined event. This concept is very similar to the Empty Notorious Monster concept that was added with Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia. The only difference with Empty Notorious Monster fight is the requirements to join them.

Participant Restrictions
Different battlefields have different rules. Some battlefields will only allow 1 person to enter, others will allow up to 18 players to join in the form of an "Alliance". Generally, though, the majority of Burning Circle Notorious Monster fights allow a full party or a half party, up to 3 people, to enter. It is always acceptable to try to do a Burning Circle fight with less than the maximum number of people required, but obviously this almost always makes the encounter more challenging.

Level Cap
Most Burning Circle fights have an artificial level cap placed on a character when they enter. Since there is an overall limit cap on the game, you might also want to assume all of them have a set maximum level for participants. When a player enters a level capped area, he will take on the statistics of his job for that level. He will also be limited to equipment appropriate for characters of that level.

If a character enters a burning circle with a level under the level cap on the zone, he will be considered his current level. The level cap will not bring him up to meet the recommended level for the encounter.

A character will not actually lose any experience just by entering the battlefield because of the level cap. In areas where a level cap is in place on a character, should the character die, the experience point penalty for dying is applied as appropriate to the capped level or their current actual level, whichever experience penalty would be lower.

Other Requirements
Some Burning Circles require you to have access to a particular zone in order to participate in the battle or be of an appropriate fame or rank. This is particularly true for Empty Notorious Monster fights where access to zones is limited to how far a character has progressed in Chains of Promathia.

The First Burning Circle
The first Burning Circle Notorious Monster most players will have to (or in a sense choose to) fight is the Rank 3 dragon fight connected with the second half of the Emissary quests for each of the three major nations. In all three nations, when the character has advanced far enough in their current rank through doing missions or turning in crystals to the gate keepers of the state, they will be offered the quest. They must travel to both of the other two major starting cities. At the first of the two foreign cities, they must do a quest for the local officials. Then, when they travel to the other city, they will be asked to travel to the Burning Circle to eliminate a great foe.

Locations

 * Gelsba Outpost, an Orc stronghold, is the location of this first burning circle near San d'Oria
 * Palborough Mines, a Quadav controlled mine, is the location of this first burning circle near Bastok
 * Giddius, a Yagudo stronghold, is the location of the first burning circle near Windurst

The Rules
This battlefield has limited access. Only players of Rank 3 or higher with their current nation can participate or characters who are currently on the Emissary Quest. This means that only people who have advanced to the point of needing to do the quest and those who have already beaten this encounter can participate. Characters once they enter the battlefield will be restricted to level 25 and may only wear gear appropriate for a character of level 25 or lower. Up to six players can join this battle field in one party. Rumor has it that the server will double the difficulty (by doubling the number of enemy creatures inside) if more than one party attempts this together in an alliance.

The Challenge
In all three locations, the fight is exactly the same. There are two creatures that must be fought. One is a dragon. The dragon hits fairly hard, has breath weapons, a powerful dispelling ability and can impose a very nasty curse on players. The other is an Eye or Ahriman type creature with many magical abilities.

General Strategies
While up to six people are allowed to enter, it has been beaten by much less. Usually the strategy revolves around having a "tank," someone to cast Sleep, and a healer. Any remaining spots can be filled out by damage dealing classes. Upon entering the combat area, usually whoever can cast Sleep will do so on the dragon and everyone else will try to eliminate the Ahriman as quickly as possible because casters left idle are dangerous. After the Ahriman is dead, players will engage the dragon.

It is well known, though, that a well equipped monk using his two-hour ability can solo this encounter with a little luck, but for low level people staring out, this can be a challenging encounter.

Giddeus - Balga's Dias Burning Circles

 * Charming Trio - Up to 3 members - Level 20 - The fight is versus three leaches.
 * Creeping Doom - Up to 3 members - Level 30 - This fight is versus a giant crawler with a lot of HPs.
 * Harem Scarem - Up to 6 members - Level 30 - In this fight you do battle against a dhamel and his six dhamel wives.
 * Royal Succession - Up to 3 members - Level 40 - In this fight you must do battle with an King Opo-opo and 4 of his loyal followers.
 * Steamed Sprouts - Up to 6 members - Level 40 - Show down one black mandragora and 7 minion white mandragoras.
 * Rabid Raptors - Up to 3 members - Level 50 - Two raptors inhabit this encounter.
 * Treasure and Tribulations - Up to 6 members - Level 50 - Upon entering, you will be confronted with three treasure chests. One is real, two are mimics.
 * Divine Punishers - Up to 6 members - Level 60 - A party will face off versus a party of 5 Yaguda.
 * Wild Wild Whiskers - Up to 3 members - Level 60 - a small group gets to do battle with an extremely tough samurai Coeurl.
 * Early Bird Catches the Wyrm - Up to 18 members - Level 75 - A big, tough, dragon fight.
 * Moa Constrictors - Up to 6 members - Level 75 - Despite the play on words, you actually will be fighting two Cockatrices.
 * Season's Greetings - Up to 6 members - Level 75 - Fight four very tough Treants.