Osup

Aro and I quit w

cya

<_< People still read this?

Egad!

Well, in case you're wondering, we're not dead. School's been annihilating our time lately, but with summer here you *might* see a post or two ;D

GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

WB!

http://kanican.livejournal.com/

You were missed dearly.

NO APRIL FOOLZ BTW.

Under Observation~ Duo!

Ever wanted to try your hand at the rather notorious BCNM Under Observation for a peacock charm or scroll of utsusemi: ni, whether to keep or sell, but didn't want to drag 2 other people out there? Well today, MegAro presents the next best thing; Under Observation duo! Successfully completing this BCNM duo isn't necessarily difficult, though it does require rather specific jobs. Moreover, while this BCNM does not require too many provisions, bringing some never hurts.

So what are you after?

Not really sure this needs to be said, but you're almost certainly looking for the elusive peacock charm. A scroll of utsusemi: ni is also a nice bonus. Both drops have a decent drop rate of ~9% and ~6%-~10%, respectively. Utsusemi: ni also has a chance to load twice in the same chest.

What's the basic strategy?

Essentially, taking down this BCNM in a pair employs a similar tactic as the one which uses two damage dealers (often BLU or NIN) to take on each Compound Eyes and one kiter to kite the Sobbing Eyes in the meanwhile. The only difference is, in a pair, one member has to provide enough whoop-ass for both Compound Eyes and your kiter needs to be able to handle two monsters at once for an extended period of time.

Which jobs are ideal?

Every single time we have duo'd this BCNM, we have gone as BLU (Megas) and BST (Arosan). BLU is recommended to take down the Compound Eyes because a BLU is one of few jobs that can deal high, consistent, efficient and quick damage without having to remain face-to-face with its enemy. A NIN can likely replace the BLU, but I'm not sure which other jobs can as well. BST is recommended to kite the other eyes mostly because, if done correctly, a BST is able to keep hate on another target (a BST's pet) and is able to summon a new, fresh pet every five minutes. Moreover, a BST is able to summon a pet (Tiger Familiar) that has enhanced movement speed, meaning a BST and his or her pet can keep a huge lead over the eyes, thus ensuring the longevity of the BST's pet's life and, consequently, the BST's life.

What will I need?

-As a BLU, you will need:

-Access to Ninja as a support job (12 at least, but the higher, the better)

-Half decent gear (if you don't plan on using any/many medicine)

-The following spells: Head Butt, Bludgeon

-As a BST, you will need:

-At least 1 jugs of Meat Broth per run

-Either Distance plugin on windower, or a good eye for hate range (more will be explained later)

What helps?

-As a BLU, the following help:

-The Clear Mind job trait

-The Attack Bonus job trait

-The Auto-Regen job trait

-Some hMP gear (preferably not to wear full time, however...)

-Some medicine to recover MP (I recommend mulsum and a pro-ether)

-Food (anything that will boost your ass-kickage works well)

-A chakram or a ranged Blue Magic spell

-The following spells: Cocoon, Jet Stream, Wild Carrot

-As a BST, the following will help:

-An extra Anlion jug(or fungus, and CC works as well), for some extra DDing per run

-Reraise for both members helps in case of a wipe, though the time restriction probably won't allow for a victory after a full wipe and recovery. It will, however, prevent another trip to Horlais Peak if you wipe on your first run.

-Whm sub helps, but is not needed.

What do I do to win?

Each person needs distinct roles for this fight, so this section will be broken down into two parts: the Pwner and the Panzy. The general flow of the fight requires the Panzy to kite a Compound Eyes and Sobbing Eyes while the Pwner peels and kills off a Compound Eyes. The pwner then rests up in the arena and waits for the Panzy to return with both eyes, at which point the Pwner will grab the second Compound Eyes, kill it, rest up and get ready for a final showdown with the Sobbing Eyes.

The Pwner's Job (Megas~)

It is the Pwner's job to ensure each monster is killed as quickly as possible. As stated above, this requires quick, efficient, consistent and high damage, but more importantly, it requires all that to be completed with one's back to the monsters. As a BLU, I (Megas) have experimented with a mix of Head Butt, Bludgeon, Jet Stream and Screwdriver as offensive spells, but I've noticed that I tend to run out, or nearly run out of MP killing a Compound Eyes. As a result, this would result in me having insufficient MP for the Sobbing Eyes and would have to either sit there like a duck or use some medicine to recover MP. Lately, I've experimented with Head Butt and Bludgeon exclusively and noticed that damage from these spells (Bludgeon in particular) is consistent, but best of all, efficient. It takes longer to kill each eyes, but it is definitely safer than running out of MP mid-fight. Keeping shadows up isn't a problem with the Compound Eyes as they only cast single target spells (and often, too) and use Hex Eyes/Death Ray very often, neither of which will interrupt the casting of utsusemi. Using head butt to help get shadows up or to stun a spell that will get off without utsusemi up is ideal, so you try not to spam head butt, but don't neglect it either.

The Panzy's Job (Arosan~)

It is the Panzy’s job to ensure the extra mobs are kited to perfection, and that they aren’t foursoming your Pwner. This is the part where I highly recommend using windower plugin distance, and you’ll see why as I explain. Basically, the Panzy summons a Tiger familiar at the start of the fight (for the +25% movement speed) to be the primary kiter and buffs the party if /whm which I recommend for paralyna. The pull is rather essential, and can make the difference between a wipe and a win. Hate in FFXI is distributed in numerous ways; one such way is pet commands. The goal of kiting is to keep your pet the primary target, and keep yourself off the hate list. Achieving this comes back to Distance plugin. Instead of rambling on, I will just give you my run down of how I’ve been doing this for the last 10+ runs. Panzy enters, summons tiger runs up to dome and moves up to about 18’, and then engages his tiger on the Sobbing eyes (the one in the middle). This is where you panzy out of there, and head down the path still targeting the main eyes. When you reach past ~35’ it is safe to Heel your pet, without fear of being placed on the hate list. Unless your tiger has been petrified/bound it will catch up to you as you make your trip back to the entrance of the BC. Because the tiger has +25% movement speed it is very easy for it to outrun your targets since they stop to cast spells often. Once you reach the bottom of the map you should be well over 35’, making it safe to Stay your pet at the base. As soon as you Stay your pet, start running back up to the dome where the monsters once were. As you run up, you will undoubtedly run past the mobs you are kiting, but do not fear! They will not attack you if you have done your job properly and done your commands out of hate range. It is again key to target the Sobbing eyes as you pass by, so that you can Heel your pet once it is past ~35’ and kite the mobs back up to the dome. Once you reach the dome, same story, Stay, Heel do it as many times as needed. Although this battle is capped at 15minutes, if you need to make more than 3 trips up and down you are probably killing too slow. Once you are down to the last eyes, it is safe to engage it and start fighting it as your partner regains MP.

The final showdown with the Sobbing Eyes!

The Sobbing eyes is considerably tougher than the compound eyes (no durr), but is still relatively easy to take down as a duo. Your biggest concerns are going to be Firaga (as it can deal upward of 200 damage to each of four targets) and Breakga ('cause there's a time and place to be stoned, and now isn't it). Having your BST save TP to throw a Smash Axe at Breakga is a good idea, cause one bad Breakga can easily cause a wipe. Having a BLU save Head Butt for Firaga is also a good idea, but DO NOT rely on Head Butt's stun to stun stuff, cause it's just not 100% reliable. Aside from that, the BST's pet is almost likely to be useless as it will almost surely get paralyzed at some point. Your BLU or NIN is likely to be dealing the most damage so they will likely be tanking, which is great as it allows the BST to melee safely.

All in all, this is an easy BCNM to duo with the right jobs. We've only ever wiped once out of about 15 runs, but that was pure unluckiness. In fact, we managed to duo this BCNM on our first try while my BLU was only level 38!

Best of luck to you! Don't let a wipe or unlucky streak discourage you!

*Although I said I recommend Windower plugin distance, it is NOT REQUIRED if you feel you are breaking the rules, simply move well out of range and then Heel, you will probably still not get hate.

And don't worry! Hard work pays off eventually~

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Sneak peak on our next duo!

Tough Nut To Crack ~ Duo!

A 60 ISNM I've duo'd many many times. Extremely easy with practice and patience.

So what are you after?

For 2000 IS you're looking for quite a few money drops, such as Dark spirit pact, Strike Subligar, Bard Songs and some Black mage scrolls.

(A nice view of the map)

Who are you fighting?

A Wamouracampa called Watch Wamoura. Uses basic Wamoura moves, most dangerous would probably be Vitriolic Spray which is a strong AoE burn that does 30hp/tic. This wamoura also has another special property, when in it's "Curled" form it is extremely resistant to all forms of damage, but it will take regular damage from DoTs and can be aspired. The plus side to it's curled form however is that it will move at a "gravity" like speed. It can easily be Gravitied to slow it down even more, and bind works if you need some breathing room. It's second form called "uncurled"; because, well you'll see when you fight it. It's second form is a bit nastier, moving at constant flee speed and having a rather high attack. So this sounds preety hard/impossible by now..? Well there's one special fact that makes this monster extremely easy to duo. It has a special type of hate that changes targets, regardless of actions every 3-6 seconds (This only occurs in "Uncurled form"). Because of this if you space yourself out during uncurled form you can be safe, because before he reaches you it will turn to attack your duo partner, just falling short of reaching them. After a set period of time/damage (After doing this run many times it looks like it is after a certain % it will change, and if that certain % is not met withing an amount of time it will go to curled form). It will change from curled to uncurled after about a min or two, not exactly timed by us, but relatively fast.

So how do I win?

Don't get hit? Well it's really that easy (at least this time)! I think the key to this strategy is just patience and good positioning. This fight takes place on a relatively large map, consisting of a straight path and circular dome (See first picture! :O). What I mean about good positioning is... kinda like playing "Monkey in the Middle" with the Wamoura. You want it to run back and forth, while you nuke it without running the risk of getting hit. Remember you can only nuke while it's uncurled because, when curcled it take almost 0 damage from everything.


With the following plan it's very unlikely to lose, even with a wipe (provided you have RR!).

Recap~
- Run in and DoT and Aspir as needed.
- Stay positioned in the "Monkey in the Middle" line. Ex: O= players X = monster
O - - - - X - - - - O
-Nuke it while it's uncurled and keep your distance. Gravity and bind works and may help you control it better.
-When recurls, go back to standard DoT and aspir for mp.
-Continue until dead!

*Note this was done as SCH/RDM and RDM/BLM always, both offer a good combination of Mp efficiency and decent magic damage. Using this combination is NOT necessary in my opinion, 2 BLMs, 2 RDM or 2 SCH can probably do this as well*

This may also require a moderate amount of practise, me and megas wiped a few times our first two or three times because of poor positioning. However we still won due to my RR.

Extra note: These screenshots are SUPPAAR old, like summer of 08.

P.S HART MEGAS

~Aro

SCH vs Despot - Solo?

Now, I'm (Megas) no SCH, and while Arosan IS one, he obviously didn't listen to my little strategy when I recited it to him way back when, so to whoever is reading this, here it is.

This strategy is aimed at a SCH/NIN soloing despots over a SCH/RDM. Of course, I will go over the benefits and detriments of both combos, but in the end, the complacency provided by utsusemi is enough to steer my linking toward /NIN.

Popping and Pulling
Popping Despot shouldn't be too difficult; you just sleep nuke the Groundskeepers. As SCH/RDM it's a little easier as you can throw gravity at them too, but as SCH/NIN you can nuke freely, knowing you can fall back on 6 shadows (9 or 12 if you time :ichi correctly). No matter what you sub, however, you're going to sleep them eventually and rest up. It can take a while but it shouldn't be too difficult. Once a groundskeeper is about to die, sleep it and rest up. Kill it, toss on your herald's gaiters/sandstorm + desert boots and brace yo' self!

If Despot graciously spawns, just run it to either of the little lakes to the left and right of the main circular area. Because I'm so phail@description, I'll just upload a picture of the pool taken from one of belkin's (who is gracious enough to subconciously not pursue legal actions against my theft of his picture) livejournal post.


Due to potential magic aggro, the only safe spot to cast magic is at the south end of the pool. Pull Despot there and start kiting it around the pool.

Survival
Survival is key to any strategy, because obviously, the sooner you die, the sooner your enemy walks out victorious. Stoneskin and Blink from /RDM DO provide you with some pretty strong defense, but it is lacking in comparison to SCH/NIN on a few grounds. For one, Despot's TP moves can deal quite a bit of damage; I've had Despot one-shot a full 350 damage Stoneskin on multiple occasions. Moreover, Blink is not guaranteed to block the next two attacks directed at you, and so Despot could still deal some strong damage to you through Blink. Additionally, both spells take a decent amount of time to cast and, while the casting time can be reduced via light arts, you're likely going to switch between arts frequently in order to maintain a healthy and viable offense and defense. Together, Stoneskin and Blink can endure about 3 hits (somewhat less since you're still taking damage if Stoneskin doesn't hold up), but take about 12+ seconds to cast, a huge opportunity for Despot to whoop your ass, yet utsusemi: ni takes only 1.5 seconds to cast and provides a consistent protection from 3 attacks. Also, ninjutsu is not subject to magic aggro and can be cast anywhere around the pool. Finally, on a smaller note, both Stoneskin and Blink consume 40-50+ MP (depending on the arts they're cast in), but MP shouldn't be too much of an issue in this fight.

For survival, SCH/NIN comes out on top.

Offense
A SCH/NIN only gets two reasonable forms of damage; nukes and helices. For the offensive part of this strategy, I will forget about helices altogether (because I did in my original planning, and I don't know how much damage they can deal to Despot).

Math time!
In dark arts, Blizzard IV is cut from 164 MP to 148 MP. With Parsimony (half MP cost) up, Blizzard IV only costs 74 MP. Keep this in mind.

Sublimation without a SCH's af hat is essentially a 2MP/tic refresh. As such, it would take sublimation 111 seconds (74 MP / 2 MP/tic = 37 tics, which is (37 * 3 =) 111 seconds), which I will round up to 120 seconds (2 minutes flat) for simplicity's sake. Every 2 minutes, a SCH without any enhancements to sublimation can throw at Despot a blizzard IV for free. The beauty of nuking every 2 minutes is you get back 2 strategem charges by that time as well, meaning you can also cut the casting time in half or boost the damage a little.

As SCH/RDM, you'd be able to nuke as well, but it may be limited due to the limit of your defenses. On top of nuking, however, SCH/RDM is able to throw at Despot a 6HP/tic bio II naturally (with dark arts up). This translates to 240 damage over the course of 2 minutes (and hey, we can toss a free Blizzard IV every 2 minutes! Look at that!).

Assuming SCH/RDM does not nuke at all (which is not wholly fair, but isn't too far off due to the limitation on a /RDM's defenses), a SCH/NIN only has to deal more than 240 damage on average from Blizzard IV in order to deal faster damage than SCH/RDM. Even if a SCH/RDM can nuke as often as a SCH/NIN can, /NIN is only behind by a little over 240 damage (taking into account the loss of magic attack bonus and some INT) every two minutes.

Tl;dr wut?
I rambled on a bit there, and I apologize. Basically, the strategy is to go SCH/NIN. Throw up utsusemi: ni whenever a) it is ready; b) you have less than 3 shadows and; c) you are more than 1.5 seconds away from Despot. Due to a SCH's ability to have movement speed + at a very cheap price, there's no reason not to be able to outrun Despot. Don't get too far ahead or he may eventually start going back and forth trying to find a shorter path to you, which can complicate things a little. Now, you don't have to nuke every 2 minutes with sublimation as you're going to have an MP pool large enough to sustain a few small blows to it. However, nuking every 2 minutes is ideal in order to nuke without ever running out of MP from doing so. So after two minutes have passed, run to the south end of the pool, throw a nuke at it and run. Don't forget to reapply sandstorm every once in a while! It's not necessary, but it can help.

All in all, it sounds like a very easy fight and definitely possible. Just thought I'd throw this strategy out there for some lonesome soul to read~

RIP Kaeko, you will be missed.

http://kanican.livejournal.com/