"I don't like TOAU 44 anymore. (FFXI)"

[thistlechaser]

Permit me to reuse the subject line from last week.

We're 0/13 on this damned fight. It's not even close to fun anymore.

PLD, WHM, RDM, DRK, DRK, THF.

We got Alex to 12% once (with all of us alive), ~20% once (1-2 dead?), and I don't remember the third attempt (50%?).

I wish we could fit another DD into our lineup, but we need a tank. (When I got hate, I died. No exception to that.) We need a refresher. We need a WHM. We can only bring six in.

Before tonight I thought about switching me for a BRD and doing PLD, WHM, BRD/WHM, MNK, DRK, THF. Achi's MNK could help kill the first BLU faster with formless strikes, but the main selling point for BRD is Light Carol to help the tank live, and Vel lived totally fine as-is. (I don't think he died even once?)

Mal has WAR 75 I think. I wonder if switching his DRK out for WAR would be better. So long as we sleep the BLU when it 2 hours, we could do fine with one stun. PLD, WHM, RDM, WAR, DRK, THF.

This is just so damned frustrating. Multiple people have said it's luck, but so many losses? I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what we need to change.

PS: Cakes aren't the only thing that are a lie. The fortune cookie I got with lunch said "A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon." The cookie is a lie, too.

PPS: The one fun part about the evening was Vent. It was fun chatting and laughing with everyone, and there was this one chick with the hottest British accent! Mmmm.

Comments

[phoenix-leandra.livejournal.com]

The party seems a bit melee heavy to me. I'm not sure what options other people have but I'm sure you've heard WAY too much advice from friends on jobs so I won't nauseate you there. But if you're not doing it already, I do have a suggestion for speeding up on time since Alex takes a year and a day to kill.

You know too much about the BLU I'm sure. But one way to do it is have your main DD (so in your setup melee) go at him the first and second rounds to kill him, once he dies second time have the DD go on to kill Razfahd because he's a wuss, while the rest of the party finishes off the BLU in the alternative damage method. Doing that simultaneously was a huge boon on time since Alex takes FOREVER. Just enough wiggle room to kill him.

My only concern with your setup is how do you do alternative damage on him? But like I said, I won't lecture you on jobs.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

My only concern with your setup is how do you do alternative damage on him?

RDM chainspell nukes the first BLU form to 49% life. If CS is used (second, third attemtps) RDM and DRKs nuke and THF shoots. That brings him to 49% pretty quickly, then we can melee the rest.

Thanks for the advice!

[achika-soladia.livejournal.com]

I think most of the guys on my Vent server have the same opinion of Cesaria's voice. =x

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

:D I should ask her to marry me~

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

The first time we did it we were doing terrible at the BLU so we left before we even finished the first (or second) form. I blame that to us just getting started because the BLU was flawless after that.

First time we got him to like 20% before we timed out, we had him at 20% for like 10 minutes...he just kept healing. A big problem this time through was the terrorizes, I was having trouble as the battle neared 30% because you guys were catching up to my non-denigrating hate and the only thing left for hate was really provoke and just trying to stay ahead of the curve. I changed some non-visible gear for the next run which seemed to help a bit.

Second time was the 12% run where he did the same thing as the first time and just kept healing. There wasn't as many problems with hate as the first time but they were still there. I did spot something else we can fix that I mentioned to you afterwords and I'll post a bit later in this reply for future reference.

The only time I did die was on the first BLU that we quit on in order to save ourselves the time of trying Alexander and running out of time. I did come close 2 times during the second run (went to 36 HP) and the third run (went to 1 HP) on the BLU. He's a mean little bastard who can take your HP to hell and back in half a second! Bah!

I would advise not changing the setup personally. I don't think that WAR will offer much over DRK and we lose stuns and nukes. Plus if the setup is continually changed it just makes it so that we have to work out the little kinks in the setup every time we do it. Better to perfect what we have then try to start over with something new I think. The setup can work it's just that we need to change 1 or 2 little things about the way we act in the Alexander part of the fight and get a little bit of luck when he's low HP and doesn't spam cures on us...

As for the BRD change. I'm not totally sure how Light Carol works but doesn't it only work for magic damage? If so it would only be useful for his 2 hour and the random little magic he uses during the battle because the main ranged laser thing he has is physical damage so I don't know if it will lower that at all. Not sure what it would do to the melees but I would imagine it would just make hate worse. Better to have 3 people at a hate level slightly below the tank then 3 people (one of those being a BB MNK noted for pulling too much hate anyways!) whose hate would be WAY above the tank. Plus it will mess with our nuking strat on the first form (which I think works well).

Things we can change with the current setup that will streamline us and make the fight go better:

BLU FORM:
-Remember to keep him out of Circle blade range of the mages and any possible weakened people because interruptions of spells/healing and death can cost time, MP, and even more deaths. (Mainly for me...)

Alexander:
-We were doing good with the holding off on WS while I was terrorized, that helped the hate stay a bit more balanced and resulted in less face eating.
-Melees, in the event you do get hate try to move away from him as much as you can. This will help you lose a bit of hate from the distance + pew pew laser death and the AoE from his pew pew laser death won't hit the other DDs and will save us MP and keep them going for longer in the event that all hell breaks loose. If you have distance on windower 18 is a good distance because if he's at around 50% and you get hate and he decided to 2 hr you then you will be outta range of the other DDs.
-If weakened, don't go back in and fight him. Just stand back and let your weakness wear off. Weakness DoT probably feeds him TP more than anything and if someone pulls hate and then gets hit with pew pew laser then you just die again.
-Mages did good. Only thing I could think of is maybe the occasional RegenIII for the tank? I didn't notice one but I wasn't exactly looking and if you did throw it at me a few times ignore this point.
-Tank, if you are going to build 300% TP on the BLU to spirits within Alexander with sentinel up for lots of hate generation DON'T switch to staff and lose your TP...*facepalm*

Hopefully the candy will be there next time. I don't think that's gonna be world altering, just helpful. I don't think we need to change it. Just perfect it.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You have a better memory than me! All the runs are starting to blur together in my mind.

I would advise not changing the setup personally. I don't think that WAR will offer much over DRK and we lose stuns and nukes.

That sounds like a good idea.

If weakened, don't go back in and fight him. Just stand back and let your weakness wear off.

Yeah. I didn't want people to think I was slacking off or daydreaming or something just because I was weakened. Next time I'll stay back and wait.

Candy is back now, yay! And shouldn't be lost by the time we go again. Hopefully.

Poke Dani about the Regen thing?

Since we're skipping this coming Thursday, will your LS owners be back by the time we try again? Think they'd not like us borrowing your vent for a couple hours?

[veloxe.livejournal.com]

Even if they did come back by then (which they probably still won't be back) it's a rarity if they ever even logged on for days other than Sunday and Tuesday anyways.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Oh yay!

And you might be right about the luck. A LJ friend tried it using our tactics and they beat it. Only had one healing move TP! *crosses fingers*

[quistie.livejournal.com]

Hot British accent? Isn't that redundant? :P

And /comfort. Yes, the fact that you can only bring six for ToAU 44 almost "feels" like a handicap. If you take less than three DDs the damage may be lacking, but then you may not have enough support to get by.

You'll get it. At least I hope so. Otherwise I won't be inspired to try that battle ever again.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

You'll get it. At least I hope so. Otherwise I won't be inspired to try that battle ever again.

I hope so. Just wanting to try again is hard. I've come to dread the fight attempts, not look forward to them. :/

[xvolph.livejournal.com]

You'll do it. Remember, all of these tries have been closer than you were before you got a Pld tank. Also, on your last attempt, you -were- fighting him on Lightsday. I have to wonder if the day not only effects Alex's over all power, but how often he heals. Timing needs to be better on stunning Gospel. I know it's fast, but it eats up too much time if he keeps healing.

You also don't have a blm anywhere in that lineup. It isn't crucial, but it does help, whether in nuking the mage, or manafonting on Alex in the home stretch.

Pld, whm, blm, thf or rng, rdm, and mnk or war have been party setups I've had and won with. And when I won this fight before, each time I was less equipped for it than I am now.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Timing needs to be better on stunning Gospel. I know it's fast, but it eats up too much time if he keeps healing.

I don't think we can depend on that. We've either had one DRK or two for all of this, we've tried to stun it for all of our fights, and in 13 fights of trying to stun it each time, we've gotten it a grand total of once. I'm a good stunner, Mal is at least as good as me. It's too fast.

You also don't have a blm anywhere in that lineup. It isn't crucial, but it does help, whether in nuking the mage, or manafonting on Alex in the home stretch.

Or SC+MB, yeah. :/

Guess we'll just keep hacking at it! :} Oh and I only said on /p, not vent: We're skipping this coming Thursday, I have a doctor's appointment. We'll have Vel come next time again so you two are 2/2 and hopefully that'll be the end of it! Hopefully! (Edit: Assuming he can make it, it's probably too far in advanced for him to know at his job.)