Final Fantasy XI Then...

[mikewl]

Well an amusing evening

CoP 3-5 proved too much for us this time after a complete awful 1st attempt we went back in and ended up falling short but not by much, I think we got about 80% of its HP down.

If the plan is Sunday to go back in im going to sort Drk to 40 if I can for Stun, if I cant get it ready in time then I guess Bst again or maybe Brd.

[Darwock]

Well I for one really enjoyed that, another nice challenging fight and we put up a good show in our 2nd attempt. I'm convinced that had we still had tsing's invincible we would have been alright, and we could be bragging about surviving 6 nightmares

Seems there was some tension on the LS afterwards, not surprising maybe since some folk appeared to be trying to lecture us on our errors... hmmm... I only joined the conversation late though. Anyway I enjoyed that too! Only downer for me was that f*&king network trouble I had, sorry for holding everyone up like that.

P.S Hicory we're doing that with the same team whether you want to come or not!

[Tobal]

We lost...

1st time was school boy error, we just didn't have clue, nightmare went of just as hate was grabed from Tsing so we couldn't stop it! and it went down hill from there, when everyone asleep or dying from getting hit, the 2nd nightmare finished us off.

2nd time, when well, Stunned nightmare1, missed nightmare 2 ><(not sure what happened as Hoboku hit him), nightmare 3 i missed on, as i was in my menu selectng a 2nd regen drink and it flashed up, i flailed at the macros like a little girl but to late. After that tali got knocked off, tsing when down on the 4th nightmare, and everyone else onthe 5th and 6th, we got him down to 5-10% hp before we lost.

Will be trying again on sunday, maybe with a different setup as i think to much low damaging Melee gave him more TP to use Nightmare, so i think taking Tali of meleeing and doing nuking would be better, switch Tsing to war, Saerik to Nin, and hic/wedge alternate between whm to pass it twice.

[Darwock]

Yeah it was nighty-night 3 where I was stopped mid-manafont, and when tsing died on the 4th I appeared to be next on it's hit list so went down right after.

[mikewl]

Well I for one really enjoyed that, another nice challenging fight and we put up a good show in our 2nd attempt. I'm convinced that had we still had tsing's invincible we would have been alright, and we could be bragging about surviving 6 nightmares

Seems there was some tension on the LS afterwards, not surprising maybe since some folk appeared to be trying to lecture us on our errors... hmmm... I only joined the conversation late though. Anyway I enjoyed that too! Only downer for me was that f*&king network trouble I had, sorry for holding everyone up like that.

P.S Hicory we're doing that with the same team whether you want to come or not!

Certainly enjoyed it too, I know we can beat it from the 2nd try so we at least gained something from it.

Looking forward to the next try.

Oh and I think everyone did a good job, we are not gonna ace everything in this game but at least we showed we have the skill to win even if it takes a few tries.

[Darwock]

Just thinking actually.. had he drifted north again or is the arena actually too small to avoid the special? cos I certainly hadn't budged off the back tile but still got caught with it.

[talizker]

I'm not sure I did get knocked off - I certainly didn't play with the Diremites. It was more like getting out of range then pulled back in to a different area of the grid - weird.

The 2nd fight I didn't do any melee. alternated between Enfeebling, a couple of nukes and Cures.

Hic said she would not be coming on Sunday - if she hasn't go the time then fair play, that her call. Personally, I would love to get through this with the same group we have been with from the start. I really hope you can find time Hic...

I'm also sorry if I caused any offence to Hic ref Erase. I certainly didn't mean to, I was just trying to enphisise that I would handle the bulk of the Cures during the Erase periods. I'm not sure how much joy you had with Erase (as Nightmare came so often) but certainly I was Bio'd most of the fight which made things very tricky and nullified my Convert.

[talizker]

Just thinking actually.. had he drifted north again or is the arena actually too small to avoid the special? cos I certainly hadn't budged off the back tile but still got caught with it.

Yes - that appears to be correct. Nowhere to hide ><

[Darwock]

I panicked slightly when I hit the red for the first time with bio still in full-force, but got an erase at that exact moment so I was very happy with Hicory's assistance.

[talizker]

It certainly appears from other people experiences that the Mages can stand out of Nightmare range although it is not clear if this is done by standing on any of the possible unsafe squares (the furthest point being top left - bottom right). Certainly last night we were not out of range.

There are two further things I have noted for our next attempt. Diabolos does indeed cast magic in the form of Sleep (ga?) II so keeping him Silenced is no bad thing at all (and highly recommended in several of the strategies I looked at). He also uses an ability called Noctoshield which gives a Phalanx effect. I need to Dispel this so will make sure I look out for it.

I'm sorry to go back to this but I think its important for everyone to be clear in how to handle the after effects of Nightmare, should it be used. In my opinion the following appears to make sense.

-The White Mage needs to be awake. If anyone with Cure is awake before the WHM then wake the WHM.

-Make sure the Tank is not about to die.

-Wake the backup healer (RDM or otherwise) so they can wake the others and heal.

-White Mage Erase Bio effects while assisting backup healer during Erase timer.


The 1st run was a total disaster (for me, even more so than the party). I drew my sword, cast Silence then was put to Sleep with Nightmare. I slept the whole fight, waking once for about 5 seconds, while watching everyone else fight then die.

[Darwock]

It's not just sleepga he casts, he was draining people constantly as well. This dude rocks!

[talizker]

It's not just sleepga he casts, he was draining people constantly as well. This dude rocks!

Yes he does! Wonder if you get to use Nightmare when you summon Diabolos? That would make an interesting addition to the usual tactics of BRD / BLM AOE Sleep.

[C']

In the December update notes, when Diabolos was made a summonable avatar, S-E listed his Blood Pacts. Nightmare was one of them (although I?m not sure what level it is).

[vwilsonuk]

I'm sorry to go back to this but I think its important for everyone to be clear in how to handle the after effects of Nightmare, should it be used. In my opinion the following appears to make sense.

-The White Mage needs to be awake. If anyone with Cure is awake before the WHM then wake the WHM.

-Make sure the Tank is not about to die.

-Wake the backup healer (RDM or otherwise) so they can wake the others and heal.

-White Mage Erase Bio effects while assisting backup healer during Erase timer.

I don't think there's much dispute over whether or not Erase is useful after the Nightmare has landed.

However, Erase has a 2.5s cast time and a 15s recast timer. Cure III (the highest level cure at 40 cap) has a 3.25s cast time and a 6s recast timer. So, having cast Erase, it doesn't make any difference whether or not you cast Cure III while waiting for the Erase recast timer to finish - you're going to be standing there waiting either way.

Erase wasn't what caused us difficulties in the fight. We had Nightmare effects under control, although I hadn't taken into account the impact of it on Convert so had Erased the melee's first. They were also taking physical damage, and are the protection for the mages - the key to the whole party staying alive. Then I cast it on myself to make sure I was still alive to cure, and then on Darwock as he deals significant damage. By the time I was in a position to Erase your Nightmare effect I had already cast Erase on the rest of the party.

When I'd cast it on Tsingtao, I then tried to immediately cast it again, and it failed because of the recast timer. At the same time, I noticed that Tsing was now down to orange HP. Had he not been - had a backup healer been healing him - I may have looked for something else to use that recast time on (although as we've already established it would have been there in any case). It confuses me that you obviously are very keen on the backup healing strategy, and yet you weren't doing it (and died with about 160mp).

There were lots of things about the mission last night that weren't ideal, and suggestions are always valuable, but there seems little value on dwelling on a single factor when not only is it unsupported by fact but also would not have made a sufficient difference to the fight to allow us to succeed. Had Tsing stayed up on the tile I'm sure we would have survived, and had we gone in with all our two hours that would've helped too - but we didn't, and while we all acknowledge it there's no point going over it to the degree that it affects our motivation to proceed as a group.

What I have found today that could be useful following a suggestion from Tsing, is that DS + Erase is "Erasega". That could certainly be helpful for whoever goes in on Sunday.

[Darwock]

we are all ready to win, just as we are born knowing only life. It is defeat that you must learn to prepare for.

Buuuull**** mister Han maaan! (by that I meant I agree with this sentiment)