Thursday, September 11, 2008

Guide/notice.

Got a new job, so there's probably no way for me to make Wednesday runs anymore.
Here's a rough schedule of how runs should work...
Let's say we start with an Omega to give us a blank slate.
Saturday - Omega
Wednesday - Apollyon SE
Saturday - Temenos North
Wednesday - Apollyon SW
Saturday - Apollyon NW
Wednesday - Apollyon NE
Saturday - Omega again.

Yes, people want AF, but Homam is a bigger priority now - I'm sorry to those of you who just want AF/coins, just be patient, you'll get what you want soon enough.

Overall note on jobs:
NIN - sub WAR for farming; generally the best tank and a fair DD
MNK - always sub NIN for farming - one of the best DD and offtank
SAM - always sub THF or NIN, depending on how much you like your exp; strong DD
DRK - always sub NIN or SAM, depending on how much you like your exp; strong DD, stun helps.
WAR - always sub SAM or NIN, depending on how much you like your exp; strong DD, fair backup tank - provoke helps.
RNG - good damage, decent for pulling, always sub NIN
THF - good for treasure hunter and pulling
RDM - best healer for farming, if you don't like R1, bring a RR2 item.
BLM - very useful and versatile class, cures/status, nukes, enfeebs, sleeps. Try to always have one.
WHM - good if you're Vanh or Aquelia :p otherwise go with a RDM
BRD/COR - <3
If a class was not noted here, it probably means its useless for farming. If its useless for farming, please don't bring it to a farming run. Also, I'm going to give you guys a guide for the four Apollyon zones. I'll write one up later on Temenos north. I would say read wiki, but nobody listens, so whatever - hopefully someone reads this.

Apollyon SE - Easist area there is.
Four Floors - Slimes, Crabs, Skeletons, Weapons.
Slimes are immune to blunt, Crabs are immune to slash, Skeletons are immune to pierce, and Weapons are immune to elemental magic (you can use elemental magic on boss if you clear all the lessers first). You can get every chest on every floor, so feel free to use your 2hours. And remember to bring different types of weapons (e.g. slash+pierce, pierce+blunt etc)

Ideal job setup: NIN, THF, SAM, RDM, WHM, BRD.
Notes on jobs: NIN is the best DD for this zone (overall). WAR, MNK, SAM, DRK are also really good, but generally lack a weapon type for a specific floor, or get their asses kicked too much even with /nin.

RDM can sub BLM, for sleepga if you guys consistently have trouble with the corse, otherwise, the zone is very easy - don't link too much, RDM can silence pull skeletons, don't stand in front of the Kraken when it 2hours, etc. Just use your brain and you won't fail.

Easily clearable with NINx2 RDM BRD.

Apollyon SW - second easiest zone.
Four floors - Fomors, Treants, Chests, Elementals.
The only floor you might get a restore chest is the third floor so play somewhat conservatively.

Ideal job setup: NIN THF BLM RDM BRD and any other 2handed DD that doesn't suck.
Fomors can be slept, kill order should be PLD > BLM > RDM > SAM/THF.
Aoes are nasty from SAMs, BLMs save MP and should nuke PLD and THF mobs upon 2hours.
When you pull, do not sit there and wait 10 minutes to avoid links. We've pulled all but three first pull and lived so its ok to link a couple. Just remember to kill them in the proper order. ALWAYS get the time chest first and second floors unless you have 12+ people.

Second floor is treants, all lessers will spawn a mob upon death. They're all squishy, so just clear all the lessers first if possible. Moving pt is ideal here so don't set up camp and sit still. The boss is a bitch. RDM should do their best to keep it fully enfeebed, mages try to stay out of aoe range since it has an aoe dispel-all. Easiest way to kill it is kite/bind nuke method. Feeding it tp is generally bad, and tanks generally have massive enmity decay due to the constant aoes so mages will often pull hate with cures - GRAVITY will save your ass. It doesn't last long, so just save it for when the mob starts running around.

Chests/Mimics on the third floor are just annoying. You don't actually need to open every single one, killing one mimic will cause the vortex to open. Death trap can be stunned, and has a massive radius. If you're running low on time, just skip the floor. If you have 5+ minutes, you can farm until about 5minutes remain.

Elementals are the last floor for this zone, you only need to kill the elemental type that matches the Vana-day that you entered this zone. Nain has killed all three elementals at the same time by himself. If time is short, cure the fucking BLMs. -.- Make sure they do not die since they are your best source of damage on this floor. Elementals will only aggro magic, and elementals of the same type will automatically link no matter how far apart they are.

Apollyon NW - second hardest zone
Five floors, ghosts, Buffalo, Bugards, Wyverns, Behemoths.
Best way to clear this is manaburn.

There are 3 time chests and 1 restore chest up when you enter each floor, the bosses drop the items chests.

Ideal job setup: 3+ BLMS, RDM, BRD
Pull ghosts with silence, make sure you cursna people who need it, blindna and erase are also useful as they can blind and give attack down. Boss is a doomed type, you can stick bind, gravity, and sleep. Timed nukes are great for this zone if you have enough BLMs.

Buffalos and bugards are both easy, and both run exceptionally fast - bugards are much squishier. Buffalo boss is a ram, and bugard boss is aspi - skip the turtle.

Wyverns are 2 coins each guaranteed. Kill them. If you have melee on them, don't face mages, be quick on paralyna/silena/erase. Don't fight the boss. If you aggro the boss, just gravity it and run, and zone up ES sleep2 may work as well.

Behemoths, generally easy, annoying aoes especially the stun one. KB is a BLM fight, please be sure to have at least 2 BLM unweakened for this.

Apollyon NE - probably the hardest zone for us.
Five floors, Mandragora, Birds/Greater Birds, Pots/Dolls, Opo-opos/Gigas, Dhalmel/Manticores.

Three time and one restore chest will be up when you enter each floor. Feel free to use your 2hrs to speed things up here and there.

Ideally, you will have 2 NIN, a handful of DD, a couple BLMs, couple RDMs, and a BRD. Anything else could be helpful but is probably not necessary.

Mandys - they aoe sleep. Don't get slept if you're a mage. They can be slept easily, so pay attention incase some idiot (like myself) runs somewhere and aggros like 10. The big mandys count as 'bosses' as does the Goobbue. One of the bosses will open the vortex, the other will drop the items chest. Goobs have aoe silence, conical paralyze, and some pretty nasty single target tp attacks. Keep shadows up, and be quick on status remedy.

Birds/Greater Birds - Generally fairly evasive so if you're a DD and your gear sucks, you'll probably want sushi. Its a good idea to kill all the lesser birds first. Then work on the Greater Birds that have time chests behind them. Once you get all three times chests, you can go for items, or restore. Don't necessarily need to kill the last greater bird unless you're hoping for items. Gravity works, so you can grav and zone up.

Pots/Dolls - Pots die fast, silence is nice, but not necessary. Dolls are a bitch - they're similar to the treant boss in SW in the fact that they can cause massive enmity decay by kicking a tanks ass. Make sure you cure anyone who gets hit with Kartstrahl or whatever, that's single target sleep+dmg. One of the dolls will open the vortex and a large pot will drop the items chest.

Opos/Gigas. Opos die really fast. Kill them fast and you don't have to worry about them. Otherwise spinning claw is fucking nasty. Careful with it. Large opo drops items chest. Cronos is immune to melee damage. Do him last. Other two are resistant to either ranged or magical damage, so you can just TP burn them easily. They do a lot of annoying tp attacks, but most can be stunned.

Once the vortex opens, just go up. Gigas are a waste of time.

Last floor - Dhalmel! Cakewalk. Everyones favorite, pull the whole zone and sleep them all. A strong DD pt can kill a dhalmel in ~5-10 seconds. HEALING BREEZE WILL WAKE OTHER DHALMELS UP! So pull dhalmels away from the slept group if you pull a bunch at once. Manticores are optional. Can pop chest without fighting them once all dhalmel are dead. Facing the manticores, go left and hug the left wall until you are behind the Manticores and you can pop safely.

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