thistlechaser | Mert, Dani, Achi (FFXI)

xvolph's post is friends locked and for some reason I suddenly don't have permission to post to our LS's boards, so here's a repost of tonight's info. LJ cut since only a couple people need to see this...

So tonight, I'm helping people with the final Aht Urhgan battle. I adore this fight for so many reasons... first and foremost, the battle music. Second, this is one fight where Paladin truly shines. It's a fight where damage needs to be soaked, and can't be easily avoided.

So here's the plan:

Truth be told, the Blue Mage is the sticking point in this event. How much time is spent, and how easily he's taken down, can make or break the big battle.

Sleepers and Stunners have to be fast here to avoid people dying needlessly. Dying and then recovering eats up too much time and takes away from the time needed for the final boss. Best bet, if anyone dies, bail out and start over.

Stun Eyes on Me if you can't Sleep it. But for the love of God, please, Sleep him especially when he goes for Azure Lore + Eyes. This will kill even a well equipped and prepared Paladin (at full health) in a single shot. Let's NOT start on Darksday. This does have an effect on how powerful Eyes is.

Say we can pass the Blue Mage without a problem, Razfahd is next. He's easy. We can zerg him and get him down with no problem.

After that, the final battle is a test of the players' endurance. We have 45 minutes to finish, from the time we hit the blue mage. Assuming it takes us 10 minutes to kill the mage, this leaves us 35 minutes. I've seen this fight, literally, come down to under 10 seconds only to be finished and won by a double-weakened ranger using Slug Shot while everyone else was dead, including myself. We need all the time we can get.

Then again, at the time, I was 74, barely 75 at most, and didn't have Koenig head, Chivalry or Fealty, or a couple of other things I have now. This might go smoother.

When I engage Alexander, I will be distance tanking (front right). I will minimize my damage this way, and if will help keep too much AoE off of other people attacking it.

There are a couple of places where mages can be. I recommend the platform which will be to my right as I face Alexander. This will put you within a safe range. If anyone needs to move around to buff people (Thistle), try to stay close to the outer walls as you move, and only get close enough to me that you're within buffing range.

Other melees, stay to the left, or behind Alex.

I have the following items in my inventory for this fight: two high breath mantles (so I can switch if I need to rebuff while the timer's down), reraise gorget, 5 hi-ethers, 5 hi-pots, 5 yag drinks, 1 super ether, 1 x-pot, tacos. With all of these items, plus Chivalry, and if our whm has... whatever it's called that restores someone's MP (which hopefully won't be needed for me anyway), I should be ok on MP for most of the fight, and HP in a pinch.

This reminds me, the one thing I forgot to check was if I had the earth staff in my inventory. Will check when I get home.

A few things to be aware of in this fight: Gospel of the Lost, which is a self-healing TP move. This can be stunned, but the stunner has to be quick. Alex can recover a few thousand HP at a time with this.

He has another move which inflict Terrorize. He might use it often, he might not. This is pretty much luck of the draw.

The 2-hour... recognizeable by the string of Omega symbols which flashes across the text window. Alex uses this twice. If I recall correctly, he uses it around 30%, and again somewhere between 3% and 8%. I MUST be at, or very close to, full health when this goes off. It can't be avoided, Invincible won't stop it. It has to be, and can be soaked and survived. If I don't survive the second one, for whatever reason, as long as the rest of the party is still up, the fight can still be won at that point without me.

Save your own 2-hours for the last... 12-15% of Alex's health if at all possible, and then cut loose with them. If we really have to use any of them sooner, and if Thistle's going COR, we might be able to hope for a good Wild Card to restore 2-hours.

All in all, I'm expecting this to be smooth tonight. I'm looking forward to it.

Thistle, feel free to repost this elsewhere or share it with whoever's going.

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[info]thistle_chaser
2008-07-17 04:21 pm UTC (link) EditDeleteTrack This
Unfortunately one of the more important people to see this post (the DRK, stunner) won't see this no matter where I post it (he's neither on LJ nor on FI). Feel free to tell him once we're partied up! He should have plenty of time to stun/sleep the BLU, since he won't be doing much the first form and just meleeing the second (edit: and third, I can't count!).

Yeah, I'll be there on COR. Any idea on rolls you want? Since you'll be away from the melees, I can give you different than them (as the recast timer on rolling permits -- that's one area I like BRD over COR on). Too bad PLD's roll is stupid (blaze spikes) instead of something useful like DEF up or something. Maybe DNC roll (regen) and SMN (refresh)? NIN roll (evasion up) wouldn't do much good?

Do you think you need more hi pots? (Do you have space for more?) I'm bringing two full tanks (so 40 pots), so I should have extra if you want some.

I'll poke Dani (the WHM) to come look here! And Mert (the THF) if I can track him down before tonight. :) Achi (the MNK) is on LJ, so I'll toss her a link, too.