Final Fantasy XI Then...

[Tobal]

being your both so close to 60, start saving those seals for BCNM60 where the real gil is.

[Darwock]

I'm not after gil though, I'm after equipment which nobody has/sells because nobody does BCNM50s.

[talizker]

The main problem is the amount / time that we can use Sleep. Neither Darwock or I could get Sleep II to stick without ES (D, is your Dark capped at Lv50?) which obviously only gives us 2 Sleep's. Last night it took all 3 2hrs to finish off one mob and I had used Convert and was into my second wave of MP.

What we know is that done right we can take one mob down and all be alive and have the Sleep period on the second mob to rest. What we don't know is if we can take the other mob with no 2hrs and only the HP/MP we have after the rest. Obviously, being able to use Sleep II without ES would help here!

Also, I know there was a little 'issue' at the start of the battle with D's casting. I think it would be more effective to go:

ES + Sleep II
Manafont
Nuke

[Tsingtao]

If we think MP will be a problem I suggest a couple of hi-ethers for Tal maybe the answer to that one. Get them down as soon as the mob is reslept then go nuke happy and see if we can finish the job.

My concern is making sure the mob that wakes up is pulled to me by invincible. Hate is a funny thing and I'm not sure if I would be on it's hate list or not. We may have to do a proof on mobs out somewhere else, party up and you sleep one and I voke one. We kill the first and then wait to see where the second goes when it wakes. My suspicion is it will go for you so I'd need to cast flash on the waking mob to enter it's hate list then hit invincible to pull hate and stay up. Suppose before I try flashing it I should just invicible and see if it diverts, don't really want to be testing these theories in the BCNM.

[Darwock]

Dark is capped, actually the first time I got two sleep IIs to stick without ES (although one of them was after you two were dead). It didn't land last night though.

The early manafont was a planned change from the previous run after I wasn't able to get two nukes out before it started running around, due to the time spent triggering the job ability - I *thought* this would make the difference between killing it in time or not. As I screwed up, and had to interrupt my 1st nuke, the situation remained exactly the same.

I can never use all the manafont time anyway becase I have to start casting Freeze before the wake-up, so it didn't really matter that I wasted the time at the start

[talizker]

By jings I think you're on to something!

I like the sound of that... except by that stage of the fight tal may not have the MP to make chainspell worthwhile. So would I use manafont for Freeze or not, hmmm.. it *does* take a lot of health bar off these things.

Does Manafont need to be active all the way through casting or just at the beginning / end? (so you don't use MP for the cast)

Another variation of last nights tactics would be to start the battle with Freeze on the right mob and as you cast I ES+Sleep the left. We could then either go with Tsings idea or do similar to last night with Manafont right after Freeze...

The second mob is still going to be a tricky one as it hits the mages so hard (400+ as Darwock said). We still need a fair amount of damage output and I would expect to be doing a lot of healing in the latter part of the fight..

[Darwock]

If manafont wears before Freeze lands, even if it was active when I started to cast, it takes the MP. I can cope with that though, the issue is getting it cast before the other wakes which eats into manafont time. I don't want to use Freeze at the very beginning because it will give me an unshakable amount of hate too early.

[Tsingtao]

Yup if Darwock busts Freeze out on the mob before I use invincible I won't get hate back the damage and hate is just to high for me to retrieve. What may be worthwhile is choosing our day for elemental strengths and weeknesses. Would sleep stick more easily on darksday for example?

Must admit I'm not to clued up on the mage world but would getting the elemental beduffs on help us up the damage rate. I know bio would help me but dia would have little value as no real physical attacks are being landed on the mob. I suspect paralyze, gravity and slow will not sitck so they're not going to help us much.

Must think harder, these have to be beatable.

[Darwock]

With your plan of a non-2hr battle until the 2nd wakes up, burn/shock might be worth it - with last night's tactics it's not worth it as it wastes nuking time. It also eliminates the possibility of emergency sleep casting though.

[talizker]

I suspect paralyze, gravity and slow will not sitck so they're not going to help us much.

Agreed, my Enfeebling is capped and they were resisted everytime without ES (on both the BCNM50's). The only option is some better equipment! The Glamor Jupon (the JSE i'm after) adds +3 to Enfeebling (as well as Elemental, Enhancing and Dark) although thats the only <50 item other than the hugely expensive Enfeebling Earing (from ENM) that adds + Enfeebling.

[Darwock]

I could have switched to my Dusky staff for dark +3 but I don't know if the loss of int+5 would negate that anyway.

[talizker]

I could have switched to my Dusky staff for dark +3 but I don't know if the loss of int+5 would negate that anyway.

As far as I understand it the +Dark would help land, while the +INT would effect Sleep time.

Its a fine line but I guess these mobs are the pinacle mobs for our level. Maybe the extra couple of skill points make the difference?

[Tsingtao]

It really is just looking at all the little gains we can find, the momento muffler is the only thing I think that may help me. Would give me +7 VIT if I used it but it's a charged item with enchantments so a bit steep in price but for the win probably worth it. Think it's actually quested in tavnazia, other than that you can't really get higher spec gear at 50 than I'm wearing.

I'll have a nosey see if there is anything, I could use the moment muffler for a VIT boost then switch to a high def one maybe.

[Darwock]

Didn't play last night, a bit deflated with FFXI due to the difficulty of what we've been facing.. anyway - going off topic, Vanicent/Rarehero, have you guys booked your flights yet? We were too late for the deal we were looking at so have changed the dates.. we're flying out with BA on the 29th september - the earliest of the two flights from Heathrow (13:15?).. I think Van said you were going on 29th or 30th...

[C']

Van's work is being gay about giving annual leave from October ? December. It?s still not confirmed yet (Vanicent has been mentioning about asking them again and also quitting his job has been raised but that seems a bit extreme) but it?s looking increasingly unlikely we will be going in October as planned which I?m gutted about as I?ve been wanting to do this for years and this time it really seemed like it was going to happen.

Hopefully if October doesn?t work out we will be doing it early in the new year. But if more LS people are going over in October it would have been cool to have been going then as well.

FFXI wise I?m in a bit of a rut. It?s happened a couple of times when my focus in the game has been obtaining a specific piece of equipment, once I get it, I get a feeling of anticlimax. Having the equipment is good but it?s like I don?t know what to do next and end up not logging on.

I was hoping having a 3 day cycle of farming/camping/crafting would help but I spend a night crafting for skill and it takes forever to sell the stuff I craft and end up with a full inventory, mogsafe and AH. I think hitting the EXP trail for a short while may be needed (I?ve forgotten what that is like). Nothing really stoping me (apart from a drastic lack of funds).