Windmill

For those of you who have yet to run into this place beware! It is singlehandedly the most confusing place I've been into. Who would have thought that a Windmill could house such an intricate basement...

For ROM neophytes the Windmill is basically the first big instance in the game. Oh sure you have a few small instances you have to run into to satisfy certain quest requirements, but this one is not the kind you go into alone or with just two of you. I say this for a couple of reasons.

I could certainly try and give you the details of how to go about this, but someone has already written a very clear guide on how to run through the instance so instead of trying to repeat things, I'll point you in the right direction. Thanks to Captainrussia for his Windmill Guide.

We had a group of six mid 20s and were able to full clear the whole instance in about 40 minutes. I will say that I hate mazes, and if you are looking for variety, this instance will not really provide it, but if you have the patience to wade through the instance many times, the rewards are significant (as mentioned in the guide, you could end up being able to craft some really spiffy gear).

After finishing the instance and getting some of the drops necessary for crafting, I broke down and bought some extra resources on the AH and was able to craft 3 out of the 4 basic Ventis pieces (crafted the Boots, Robe, and Leggings). The hardest resource to gather for these sets is by far the Elemental Crystals, which are crafted using the drops from the end boss Hodu Hammertooth. You can sometimes find a few of these crystals on the AH, but they don't come very cheap. Still it beats running the instance 100 times.

I'll post some screenshots when I get a chance.