X's knife solo

Not really new or anything but I did it for fun! Wasn't even that hard, even though I messed up quite a bit.

Only meds I used: 2 charges of my reraise pin (you lose exp in here, sad!), and 2 Tavnazian Tacos. Oh, and 1 echo drop!

Make sure to buff OUTSIDE the BC. Buffs aren't removed when you enter, so you should be fully buffed with rr and full HP/MP when you enter. Once you enter you're going to want to immediately begin the fight.

Elemental Seal>Chainspell>Sleepga>bind the rabbit>nuke Shikaree X down. The rabbit is immune to sleep, so that's why you need to bind it separately. Something to be careful of: X is a BST/NIN mob, which means she has access to Utsusemi, which she CAN use. She did this to me (can see below). If that happens, cast sleepga to wipe her shadows and continue with the nukes. it took me about 600MP of nukes to kill her.

Stupid mithra casting Utsusemi Ni!

What makes this a little bit challenging, is that all sleeps only last for half their duration. So Sleep 1 is 30seconds, and Sleep2 for 45 seconds. More than likely just as use finish X, the other 2, Y and Z, will wake up. When they wake up, Z will Call Wyvern. Its wyvern doesn't have that much HP, and you could probably (and should try) to chainspell nuke it down too. You'll probably need to convert to have enough mp for the wyvern though. I didn't get to do this on my attempt and still won, so if you don't manage to kill off the wyvern with CS, it's not the end.

After the chainspell nuke phase is over, die as fast as possible, let the mobs reset (aside from the rabbit, it won't move at all and that's fine, it won't aggro), get up, rebuff, and wait for weakness.

The nice thing is that the rabbit will now be completely out of the fight until the end, when you need to kill it. It won't aggro/link with the mithras at all, so just completely ignore it. You should only have 2 or 3 mobs to deal with now (depending of if you killed the wyvern during the CS part or not).

Once I was unweakened, and ES timer was up, I once again did ES +Sleepga, then bound+gravity the wyvern(just like rabbit, it's immune to sleep), and nuked it down. I actually got unlucky here and it resisted two of my nukes, so it took longer to kill than it should have; Y and Z had woken up and started hitting me as I was finishing it off.


Can see it resisting me twice in these pics :( Even with all my gear! FFXI and it's random resist generator thing!



Once wyvern was down, I decided to kill Y next. Z is DRG/WHM and has some Magic Defense Bonus, so I figured it would be harder/longer to kill. I basically just kited everywhere and Bio3/Poison2 it to death, with occasional nukes. I think in future fights I'll probably try and be more aggressive here to cut down on time.



Both mobs stop to cast spells often, giving you time to cure/stoneskin/nuke if needed. Bind also lands without the needs for ES, so I used to bind Z, and nuke Y when it was casting on me. Only problem with this is Z casts Blink, so when blink absorbed bind that was annoying. Z also buffs herself and Y with shell2, so you may want to dispel. She can also cure3 when below 33%, but she doesn't do this 100% of the time.

After like 10 minutes of dot/occasional nuke, Y died!


Once just Z and the rabbit are left, the fight is much easier. You can be really aggressive nuking Z down, since you're only fighting one mob now. Make use of ES sleep when you need it, as well as bind. She should die pretty fast.


If you look at timestamps, took me about 3:30 from death Y and Z.

Once Z is down, rest up as much MP as you need (watch the clock), then kill the rabbit.


Sleep doesn't work, but both gravity and bind do, just spam nuke away!


Don't forget to pop the chest to watch your knife not drop!




My time wasn't that great, but still had 2 minutes to spare! It was my first try too, so always room to improve.

I think this is actually a good way to try and get your knife. It doesn't cost any expensive meds, and you don't have to bother others for help every week. If you do have people helping though, I would just try and split up if possible. You can always share lootpools, and it's much better to have 2 or 3 tries at a knife per week, instead of only 1.

Tsola to the rescue!

I was so bored and had some free time so I decided to update!

In LS related news, the LS has gotten a LOT bigger. We went from about 9-10 members total to 19 members in about a month. Wasn't even trying to recruit or anything, just a bunch of really good people decided to apply. I think other linkshells (like AZ) deciding to go social only helped, since people that wanted to keep doing events needed a new LS. I'm not really sure if I like the sudden doubling in size of the LS, but I guess maybe it'll work. Just is a lot harder to organize from a leader a perspective (and a leader that gets lazier to lead everyday...). More drama regarding drops/more schedules to keep track of.

Ok enough about that! Stuff I did:

Dryroot doesn't do einherjar anymore, so I decided to finally spend more ampoules since I wasn't gaining any more of them. I bought Aslan Cape/Gleeman's Cape, in addition to the Buccaneer's belt I bought earlier. More MND/INT for RDM never hurts! I still have enough ampoules to buy 1 more item, but I'm not sure yet. Morgana's looks kind of nice, but so does Omega ring, and Kubira Bead Necklace and Animator +1 (for my super awesome taru PUP!) I guess I still want everything! I've been lazy about finding a new linkshell though; DR's time was like perfect for me because it was just as I got home from work, so I could log on>immediately einherjar>free for the rest of the day. It would never interfere with either FT events, or personal events since it was so early in the day too. I think I might try and join some weekend JP shell maybe, wouldn't be too bad to go every Sunday morning.

More ZNMs!

I tried out SMN on Tinnin for fun. It worked pretty well I think. SMN merit BPs are nice when you cap them.

Grand Fall did 952 every time, which is pretty nice, considering it's hate free. Was nice to be able to DD carefree for once.


I also MBed Thunderstorm! 1147! It made me kind of wish I changed some of my add on augments (particularly ACP) around for Pet: MAB.



Got ok drops:





TP burned Sarameya. Much easier than I thought it would be. Even without a full alliance, you don't need 2hours to do it.




Still no haidate, but we did sell a Sarameya's Hide that dropped (no pic though!).

I finally got to try Sandworm!

It was only Serket, but it was still cool. I guess I was a little disappointed on the difficulty. It didn't seem to do anything special; I kept waiting for some crazy attack and nothing happened! I think the entire fight took less than 10minutes; I'm pretty sure running through Meriphtaud (hateeeeeeeeeee Meriphtaud!) and waiting to get Doomvoided in took longer... I was scared to take hate/miss stun too, so I barely nuked.


Did so much sea, in particular JoL and JoJ over the past 2 weeks.

We did 8 JoJ straight in one night. I've been trying to find people that would want to try and 6man it with me, but nobody ever wants too! So I used our full alliance as a test run kind of! 2 BLM/SCH is by FAR the best way to handle the adds. Parsimony + AM2 one shots the adds, and is far better than having 2 BLMs nuke. Usually 1 of the BLM messes up the timing and you end up getting Mijin-ed, that never happens when you one shot them. Also, SAM tanks destroy Justice. Our kill speed was dramatically reduced over PLD tanks.

Went 1/8 on torque!



JoL is still as boring as ever though. We did get quite a few torques, and a decent amount of Novios though. LS is almost capped (kind of!). So hopefully we'll never have to do sea again for a while.










Did some more fomors. Elatha decided to be nice and dropped my cuffs!


Tried Tehtra once. I used a strategy that was posted on BG about using RNG for DD. I really don't see how that works, unless we were doing something terribly wrong. Half the shots were doing zero damage; nuking was FAR more effective. You just can't nuke while it's casting, or you'll heal it.


We wiped eventually, but I think we could do it if we started as the right jobs from the start. It's probably the weakest in terms of offensive damage of the 5; Slowga is annoying though.

More omegas! Funny drop!


Tanoshii is my new favorite person! Always willing to start (lame) drama for my entertainment!


That's it for now!

PUP infinite chain solo

Really fast update on something really cool!


Ok so I only got chain 22, but technically you could go on forever! Basically the only thing that can stop you is a resist/overload (and even then you can still keep the chain) and boredom.

You'll probably need capped magic merits/optimization and a piece of MAB gear (AF2 feet, ACP body, random augments). Go PUP/COR for Corsair's Roll. Camp is in Xarcabard[s] right where you OP into. There's a bunch of Gigas BST in the area.

Just use the standard Water>Icex3 maneuvers and run around one shotting the pets. If you get a resist/overload, I would just nuke>deactive>nuke again without manuevers. The 2 weaker nukes will be enough to kill.

I think EXP/hr is maybe like 10k or 11k/hour, so it's not great, but not horrible either. Would be better if Sigil gave an exp bonus though.

Initial Fomor Kings Exploration!

Tried the new fomor NMs! Started off with the Galka, Elatha.

We had 5 people in the beginning: RDM/NINx2 BLM/NINx2 WHM/SCH. A little bit into the fight we realized that /SCH wasn't the best SJ for our WHM, /NIN would've been much better. Will definitely do that next time.

Two Explosures(bombs) spawn in his area as well, but they both con EP, and are on the standard 16minute dungeon repop. We just killed them as they popped, wasn't that big of a deal.


Hate is REALLY random. I have no idea how people are using normal tank parties on this. Any little thing, and it'll run off and attack someone else, which is why /NIN should be required for everyone. Not only for the random hate though, it also counters all magic with an instant Blizzard IV of its own(think like the Beaudeaux[s] SCNM Observant Zekka).

It's ice based, and casts all the standard ice based spells: Blizzaga3, Blizzard 4, Bindga, Paralyga, and Freeze. It also casts some ice based blue magic: Cold Wave (Small AoE Frost, heavy damage/tic), Frost Breath(400~ damage + paralyze), and Ice break (AoE bind+ 100-200damage). The -ga black magic spells wipe shadows as typical, but the blue magic spells don't which is nice. His Blizzaga3 is surprisingly weak too, doesn't even break a capped stoneskin.

In terms of melee attacks, he hits fairly hard (400-500 a swing), but incredibly slow. If it wasn't for all his shadow wiping -ga spells, I'd have no problems ichi tanking it, even without any form of slow/elegy on it. It has the standard GS weaponskills, none of them are dangerous except for Shockwave, which is AoE damage+ sleepga. It uses the normal fomor TP moves too, like Grim Halo (AoE, can be blocked by shadows), Carnal Nightmare (AoE TP reset), and Netherspikes (bind+damage, can be blocked by 2-3shadows).

Wiki claimed that it "levels up" when you cast any spell that would give it a status effect, so we avoided bio. I leveled up anyway, despite us not casting anything on it other than nukes. At about 50% it seemed to reach its max level, and stopped leveling up, which is when we started to bio it anyway, since it didn't matter. It does have an auto-regen, so any little bit to counter that helps. We stopped worrying about level ups when we moved onto the other NMs too.

You only want to cast fire spells on it. I think all the level ups made it more resistant, especially for the RDMs. I was having no problems in the beginning, but once it reached its max level, I considered it lucky to get a 50% resist.


At 35% it can start to 2hour, Blood Weapon. When it does that, its attack speed literally becomes 100 fists, which is annoying because if he gets through your shadows, he'll just heal itself. I think our first Blood Weapon he healed himself almost 12%. Best way we found to deal with it was to abuse draw in. Kite it away, and it'll draw you in back to it's spawn point, which gives you breathing time to utsu, and then kite away again.

We had 3 more people join as the fight went on. Got a Dull Claymore drop(the level1 aern weapon), but no Britca's cuffs! Going to have to spam this one.


Next we tried Buarainech.


A LOT easier. I'd say the easiest of the 5 probably. Same strategy applies: RDM and BLM/NINs. He's thunder based, which is actually nice, since it doesn't have annoying paralyze spells. Obviously cast stone instead of fire. There's 2 scorpions in the room, instead of 2 bombs, which isn't much different.

It levels up if you buff apparently. We didn't even bother trying to avoid it, and really noticed no difference when it leveled up.

It casts thunder magic, but they are just as weak as the ice spells Elatha had. His blue magic selection isn't amazing either. There was Temporal Shift (AoE stun), and Mind Blast (small damage+ paralyze).


It uses polearm WS, which are slightly worse than GS, since they're multi hit. Was pretty fun watching something Penta Thrust you though.

At 35% it can start doing Spirit Surge, which really did nothing except give it endoom. Just bounce hate/shadow block it. Use Holy Water if it goes through, problem solved!


Horrible drops!


We wiped to the next 2 fomors unfortunately.

Ethniu! Basically a disaster. Not really much to say except its pop area has a ton of mobs compared to the other NMs. 6 Goblins, and 4 Gazers. Our plan was to have a THF and DNC duo the adds as they popped, while the RDMs/BLMs took care of Ethniu itself. Unfortunately what we failed to realize was that it's immune to all magic anyway, so we would have never won. It also attacks extremely quickly too, and hard (200-300 damage). No slow or elegy since it's wind based. Needless to say, it was a quick wipe.


Lugh!


We did a little better here. I think our lowest was 85%. It has a 100% double attack proc, which is annoying. Black magic spells are just as weak, but his blue magic was a little stronger. Heat Breath did 700~ damage.


En-plague was frustrating too without an actual WHM that wasn't being 2boxed. I think we could probably win though, with a dedicatd WHM and maybe an extra person or two to help bounce hate.

Didn't try the taru, Tethra! Hopefully soon!

Oh, and I got my Spurrer Beret! Went 1/2, so yay for that.

Duo Zirnitra!

Finally killed this! As a duo, none the less!

Did it as RDM/NINx2. It actually was surprisingly kind of easy, we won on our first try! Took us about 90mins~ to kill it.

Make sure to bring a LOT of echo drops. Silencega isn't your friend. I think we used about 2 stacks each.


We really didn't know what we were doing, and kind of just decided to see how it went. Started off by kiting it around the little area, which kind of worked. It's huge, and its pathing glitched around the tiny rocks. After a bit of that, we decided to just straight tank, and ping pong it around, which worked pretty well.

Pre-50%, it's tame. Doesn't do any dangerous TP moves really, so just slowly take it down. Bio3/Poison2 on it, and nuke with Blizzard 3. It's resistant to nukes, but we still managed to get about 260~ damage blizzard 3 around 50% of the time. Slow doesn't work, and paralyze never landed, so don't bother. For silencega, I recommend just running as soon as you see it start casting it. You won't be able to out run it, but you'll be able to get some distance on it, and enough time to use an echo drop+cast ni. Usually we had the other RDM (not the one being cast on) get it's attention when it was casting, so that it'd also give them silenced RDM a few more seconds to recover, especially if ni wasn't up.


The only 2 TP moves it has were Reaving Wind (TP reset+ knockback), just run away from that, and Storm Wing (400damage~+silence), but it should rarely do them, since you'll be barely feeding it any TP.


Below 50%, it gets a little tougher since it has access to Calamitous Wind (600-700damage+full AoE dispel), Feral Peck(AoE Throat Stab), and Warped Wail (HP/MP down, though not significant).

For Calamitous Wind, it only does it after Reaving Wind, and it does it twice. You can outrun it as long as you are over 20' away. Basically, as soon as you see it do Reaving Wind, immediately start running away. A few seconds after, it'll do Calamitous (which you should hopefully be out of range for, but the animation will still go off as you can see below), and then it'll take a few more steps, and try Calamitous again. When running away, be careful not to run too far; if you leave its area, it'll just draw in both of you, and then Calamitous which would be bad.


For Feral Peck, it's range is actually rather tiny. We were able to outrun it easily; just run as soon as you see it readying it. It also drew us in+ Feral Peck a few times, but again just run as soon as you are drawn in. If it DOES hit, it doesn't wipe shadows, and of course since it's a throat stab move, it can't actually kill you; so just recover.


Warped Wail isn't very threatening; it's like -50HP/MP.

Only the pigment dropped! Which was what I wanted anyway though.


Overall it really wasn't bad at all. We were playing safe a lot, I'm sure we could cut the total fight time down by a bit. Big thanks to Riki for trying it with me! Though I had to beg forever, and he had no faith we'd win! I really need to find more people to go on crazy adventures with me! Wish more people would be like "sure! sounds fun!" when I ask, instead of like "uh.....what's the strat again? don't think we can win...". Well maybe if we actually tried, then we'd be able to build a strategy and win! You can't figure out stuff by not actually trying.

Decided to try and go after some of the remaining unknown NMs in hopes of obtaining a Spurrer Beret. Unfortunately no luck popping 3~ of them, and took 10 kills on this stupid troll to get this:

Yay for a club! Never going to replaces staves, and I don't even have hexa so...

Back to killing demons in Xarc!