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~
No comments:
Post a Comment