Delve I/II Overall Strategies

[Ramzii]

As some people have mentioned, the wiki pages these days are a bit lacking on the details and strategies of delve 1 and 2 (the problem is more prominent with delve 2) and not everyone wants to sift through over 300 pages of discussion.

Delve I

Morimar Basalt Fields

Spoiler: show

http://www.bg-wiki.com/images/b/b9/M...ureIndiMap.jpg

Zone Buff: Attack Boost

Recommended Party Setups

i) DD DD COR/DD WHM BRD GEO/SCH/RDM (stunner)

At least 1 MNK or BLU is ideal for this zone to take care of Volatile Matamata with ease. The other DD can really be anything due to Tojil taking enhanced damage from all damage types.

Each stunner has its own advantages and disadvantages

GEO: can give massive buffs/debuffs while stunning, has no way of curing itself, no access to general debuffs/dispel. Has to rely on being double marched and hasted.

RDM: Haste II helps greatly with stun timers, brd needs to focus less on stunning. Can silence/paralyze/slow etc. Might get distracted debuffing and miss stuns

SCH: can AoE Regen V, dispel, has fastest recast with stratagems provided they are being hasted and marched. No access to silence and other debuffs.

It may be wise to bring 7-8 players by putting a RDM for debuff/haste purposes in a 2nd pt, and a PLD to aggro/hold monsters in order to reduce stress from having adds during NMs on newer groups.

ii) Low man: MNK BRD SCH (+GEO)

This zone can be cleared with the following three jobs, and be made trivial with the addition of GEO. The BRD will need to mostly main heal while keeping the SCH and DD haste (+songs). MNK works particularly well as a DD due to its large HP pool and offensive/defensive capabilities.

Notorious Monsters

1. Volatile Matamata

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Uses a TP move every ~50 seconds. The damage type (physical/magical) that dealt the most damage will halve after each TP move while the other will double. Can occur up to seven times before the damage counter will reset back to a 1:1 ratio.

-If at any point you don't deal damage between TP moves, it will reset. If the opposing damage type exceeds the currently weakened damaged type, it will also reset.

Accepted Strategies:

i) A DD (typically the MNK) or a PLD can hold the matamata (without using enspells) while meleeing it until it readies its 5th tp move or higher. MNKs should apply Formless Strikes as it readies the TP move and then melee it. Mages can stand on top of it and nuke t1 spells/holy etc.

ii) Alternatively, you can nuke it and not physically damage it for 5-7 tp moves and then have all melee kill it with physical damage.

iii) BLU can also spam physical spells on it for the duration of holding it, and it will count as magical damage while increasing BLU spell damage. Melee can later jump in and help the BLU kill it using physical damage.

2. Perdurable Raptor

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Attacks quickly, some tp moves do high damage (foul breath).

-Any form of magic damage will cause it to gain a very high triple attack rate which could be dangerous during the zone buff.

-Whirling Inferno causes ST20 Curse which can only be removed via Sacrifice.

Accepted Strategies:

i) Most people typically ignore the magic damage gimmick these days, if it really becomes an issue you can just swap into PDT equipment. You'll take more damage overall not skillchaining and killing it slower. If your WHM is incapable of sacrificing Whirling Inferno then you can stun it.

3. Shimmering Tarichuk

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Gains a 100/tic poison aura at <50% HP.

-Gains instant cast magic at <25% HP.

-Spams high tier spells (aga 3/4) through out the fight

-Can use geist wall frequently to remove buffs.

Accepted Strategies

i) I personally like silencing the NM to avoid having it use high tier spells. Even in ilvl equipment, sometimes a nasty aga can sneak through. The WHM should apply dummy buffs (auspice, barblizzara/barstatus, boost-str etc.) to help prevent bard songs from being dispelled from geist wall. The poison aura is mostly inconsequential these days and a WHM can easily curaga 2/3 through it.

Overall NM 1-3 strategy:

The person holding Volatile Matamata should do so immediately due to the ~5 minute preparation time. Meanwhile, the other DDs can fight Perdurable Raptor, and then Shimmering Tarichuk to avoid having all buffs removed via geist wall before fighting the raptor. If the matamata happens to be ready before both NMs are dead, anyone else designated to fight the matamata should untarget the current NM ~15-20 seconds before the matamata readies the engage TP move to avoid having hate on the current NM.

4. Tutewehiwehi

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Unless blinded, will use gaze moves that leave you terrored and ST20 Cursed unless it turns away from the current DD(s).

-Uses Calcifying Mist to cause AoE gradual petrification + high damage. Petrify is on a 20 tic timer and will cause you to attack slower as you reach 0.

Accepted Strategies

i) Calcifying Mist is fortunately stunnable, so make it a priority to stun it as it will decrease fight time considerably if you don't get hit by it. Divine Caress Accession paralyna is also particularly useful for this fight to combat its Torpefying Charge spam. Other than blinding it on pull, this fight doesn't require anything special.

5. Kurma

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Takes increased damage upon successive uses of Earth Breath or Aqua Breath (blunt damage does particularly well on this fight)

-Tortoise Song will remove all COR/BRD buffs within a 20' radius from Kurma and reset the damage increase from breaths.

-Frequently spams Harden Shell for defense boost that needs to be dispelled.

-Gains access to Tetsudo Tremor (stun/gravity) below 50% which does moderate-high damage. You can stun it if you want but it's nothing a curaga 3 can't fix.

Accepted Strategies

i) There isn't really much to say about this fight, just make sure every hardened shell is dispelled immediately to reduce fight time. If songs get dispelled then marches should be immediately reapplied at the very least. GEO works particularly well for this fight using Indi-Haste/Geo-Frailty. Haste Samba is also recommended for this fight.

Supposedly you can also nuke thunder on it because the breath multiplier increases magic damage, but I've yet to make use of it.

Overall NM 4-5 strategy:

Before fighting, make sure you've recasted all the appropriate WHM buffs that were dispelled from fighting Shimmering Tarichuk. NM order doesn't particularly matter, just don't use nightingale/troubadour if you plan on fighting Kurma first. If both NMs are together, it's important to note that Tutewehiwehi IS sleepable, while Kurma is not (unconfirmed?).

BOSS: Tojil

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Tojil has 4 phases in which he will have weaknesses against 4 damage types:
100-75%: Increased Magical Damage(+100%), Reduced Physical Damage(-100%)
75-50%: Increased Piercing Damage (+100%)
50-25%: Increased Slashing Damage (+100%)
25-0%: Increased Blunt Damage (+100%)

-Has an aura that gives significant attack down effect (25%?) and burn effect. It gets applied every 25% when he uses Blistering Roar (AoE terror, def/mdef+) regardless of whether it is stunned or not.

-Aura can be removed every 25% through the use of skillchaining, level 2 skillchains work, but level 3 skillchains are easier to do.
100-75%: Light will remove aura
75%-50%: Darkness will remove aura
50%-25%: Light will remove aura
25%-0%: Darkness will remove aura

-When aura is up, it will use one of three tp moves:
Incinerating Lahar - AoE temporary weakness (15 seconds+)
Pyroclastic Surge - Low/moderate AoE fire damage
Batholithic Shell - Stoneskin, high damage blaze spikes, haste, attack/mab boost

-When aura is removed, it will no longer use Incinerating Lahar above 50%, but gains access to the following TP moves:
Searing Serration: Moderate damage, all stats down
Volcanic Stasis: Moderate damage, stun, full buff dispel
Tyrannical Blow: Moderate damage, large knockback, plague

-Has access to certain spells at 100/75/50/25 depending on whether aura is up or down (refer to bg wiki page which can be reached by clicking on Tojil).

Accepted Strategies

i) First and foremost, it should be noted that it's actually unfavorable to remove the aura. While you no longer get attack down, access to volcanic stasis is not worth the trade-off. The stunner should mainly focus on stunning Blistering Roar, Incinerating Lahar, and Batholithic Shell; Pyroclastic Surge does negligible damage with barfira up. People have different opinions on whether to use silence or not, but it may be worth it to keep it silenced for the first 50% in case of slowga landing. The aura makes it very hard to remove slow via erase so DDs would need to use panacea.

Most of his magic spells do negligible damage and can go unstunned, with the exception of Kaustra and Meteor, which he gets access to at <50%.

100-75%, MNKs should use formless strikes to avoid the physical damage reduction, DDs with magical WS also excel. Cloudsplitter has been known to do significant damage to tojil (source: Cloudsplitter) obviously with appropriate buffs (indi-malaise/acumen). This phase of the fight is generally the slowest by far.

After 75%, the fight is mostly the same, barring the fact that certain DDs will have their damage increased during the appropriate damage boost phase. DDs that are able to deal multiple types of damage are recommended for this fight (i.e. Bow SAM, MNK, BLU, THF? (not sure how aeolian edge does))

Foret De Hennetiel

Spoiler: show

Zone Buff: Ice Spikes

Recommended Party Setups

i) MNK/RUN or BLU/RUN DD DD/COR BRD WHM SCH/RDM/GEO

MNK or BLU is mainly for effectively dealing with Faded Cracklaw, the other DDs don't particularly matter.

Like Tojil, each stunner has their own strengths and weaknesses, but bringing a 7th person (RDM) may be useful for massive debuffs on the Uragnite, as well as casting Haste II on the stunner.

ii) Low Man: MNK BRD SCH (+GEO)

iii) Mage Setup: SCH/GEO(2x) RDM/BRD

Any combination of those 4 jobs should work fine for a mage setup, but a melee RDM or BRD may be particularly useful for dealing with Divagating Jagil, instead of having to constantly change nuke elements. Faded Cracklaw can be dealt with by nuking and then meleeing. I'll let a more seasoned mage (Lyramion?) go into detail about the boss strategy, but I imagine it doesn't involve much more than spamming thunder nukes and spreading out.


Notorious Monsters

1. Faded Cracklaw

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Physical Damage dealt works as a function of non-physical damage dealt to it (i.e. do non physical damage for some period of time, then physical damage will spike up really high until it eventually reduces back to 0)

-Rendering Deluge dispels multiple buffs at once which can be problematic if using Formless Strikes

-I don't think Riptide Eupnea resets damage, as its never been an issue with me (at least, stunning it definitely doesn't reset damage)

Accepted Strategies

i) MNK(s) can melee it with formless strikes to drop it quickly. After about 5% of damage dealt it already takes a massive amount of damage, and WSing as you get 1000 TP will already allow you to do over 60k per WS. If you have multiple mnks you can skillchain victory smite->victory smite and the skillchain damage will also easily reach 100,000.

ii) BLU can abuse a similar strategy to Volatile Matamata and just spam physical damage spells, and they'll increase with each successive use.

2. Aberrant Uragnite

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Damage is heavily reduced, but can be boosted greatly by applying a large amount of debuffs.

-Will retreat into its shell and not take any actions except TP moves. Gains a 10-count Doom aura that can be continuously reset by running away and running back in.

-Virulent Haze causes heavy plague (and poison?) that should be viruna'd ASAP.

-Painful Whip deals heavy damage.

Accepted Strategy

i) While fighting a different NM, the uragnite can be slept and the mages can start applying debuffs. Slow, Silence, Blind, Gravity, Distract, Frazzle, Addle, Requiem, Threnody, Elegy, Paralyze can all be applied while slept in order to not wake it up.

Once ready to engage you should cast Impact (for 7 simultaneous debuffs) followed by Dia/+ elemental debuffs (burn/choke/shock etc + helix). This will cause it to take over 1k damage per swing and >10k per WS. The rest of the fight is mostly brain dead, just make sure you run away from doom aura around the 4 count to reset it, accounting for lag.

3. Divagating Jagil

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Rotates between elemental phases (same order as the day of the week progression) where it will exclusively cast high tier spells of that element, while absorbing damage from that element.

-Has an en-spell effect that matches its current element, and will grow exponentially if it absorbs damage of its current element to the point that it can 1-shot your DDs.

-Silence highly recommended.

Accepted Strategies

i) If you're using RUN DDs, make sure they do not use any runes until after Divagating Jagil is dead. Upon pulling the NM, keep it silenced. Does trivial damage if it can't cast/doesn't absorb magic damage. I *believe* skillchains do not get absorbed by him, maybe Light/Darkness only get absorbed in Light/Dark phases? Not 100% sure.

Overall NM 1-3 strategy:

In order to maximize time efficiency, the MNK(or BLU) can go off with the stunner to fight Faded Kraklaw while the rest of the group takes on Divagating Jagil. Once Kraklaw is dead (shouldn't take more than 2 minutes) the DD can join the rest of the group on jagil, and the stunner can pull Aberrant Uragnite and sleep it by the group, gradually applying debuffs to it. Once both are dead and Aberrant Uragnite has enough debuffs on it, a mage can impact it on engage.

4. Nerrivik

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-HP is invisible until its lanterns are broken. The lanterns can be broken by doing critical hits.

-Has access to Mayhem Lantern (conal/gaze charm, applies debuff as well so you can't sleep DDs) until lanterns break.

-Deathgnash during ice spikes will kill you if you aren't wearing any PDT in your melee set.

-Casts high tier water spells, but also can cast Dispelga etc.

Accepted Strategies

i) Depending on your groups preferences, you can silence Nerrivik upon pulling it to avoid his nasty debuff spells. It's wise to stun every TP move he does (with the exception of Leeching Current and Seismic Tail) as all of them are coupled with nasty effects. Some groups may find it wise to keep it stun locked until the lanterns break, impetus MNKs work particularly well for it.

A hybrid set may be useful for fighting this (or at least wearing some skirmish gear augmented with PDT and maybe twilight torque/pdt back) to not be reduced down to 1 HP from deathgnash, as one swing during ice spikes will kill you immediately if you get gnashed. Deathgnash is unstunnable unless your stunner throws out a random, lucky stun not specifically targeting a TP move.

5. Krabakarpo

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Has a mechanism that requires you to deal a threshold damage with both physical/non physical damage (ONLY APPLICABLE TO 18 MAN GROUPS) that no longer matters post HP-scaling Delve.
*Note: Your damage will still get reduced overtime, but not to 0. Non-elemental magic damage (i.e. Requiescat) will still deal full damage at low %.

-Barwatera highly recommended to help reduce damage from water spells/bubble shower spam/venom shower

-Venom Shower deals a decent amount of damage accompanied by defense down and a high damage poison that can ONLY be removed by Chakra. The charge time is fairly short on it but it *is* stunnable.

-Similar spell list to Nerrivik.

Accepted Strategies

i) This fight no longer requires anything special now that delve scaling has removed its gimmick entirely. You might find it useful to silence (I do), but some groups like the longer cast times assosciated with ga 3/4s.

Mages may want to stand at 20.1' away from the NM to avoid being hit by Venom Shower if it goes through.

If DDs are /RUN then you may also find vallation+sulpor useful to reduce water damage.

Overall NM 4-5 strategy:

Again, NM order doesn't particularly matter on this zone. Both can be slept so the mages/bards can keep one NM slept while you fight the other if they happen to link each other.

BOSS: Dakuwaqa

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Like Tojil, Dakuwaqa has 4 unique damage phases every 25%.
100-75%: Resistant to Blunt, Weak to Piercing (-/+ 50%? unsure on actual percentage)
75-50%: Resistant to Piercing, Weak to Blunt
50-25%: Resistant to Magic, Weak to Slashing
25%-0%: Resistant to Slashing, Weak to Magic

-At 100/75/50/25/any time below 25%, Dakuwaqa has the ability to use Carcharian Verve, which puts up its aura. Mages need to be 20.1' or further away from Dakuwaqa around the time it puts up its aura (preferably at all times though, really) because it will sit there for a few seconds (5-10s?) and then ready Marine Mayhem, which will instantly kill anyone 5'-20.0' yalms away from it. Regardless of whether verve is stunned (it occurs instantly after 50%), its aura will be applied. In the event that verve is not stunned, it will put up a very potent attack and magic attack bonus buff that need to be dispelled ASAP. As Dakuwaqa's HP decreases, its charge time on Marine Mayhem will also decrease.

-Once aura is up, its HP will become visible, it'll gain an ice spikes effect, and will be COMPLETELY IMMUNE to stun. During this point, the aura can be removed by damaging it with lightning damage a certain # of times, /RUN on a melee that can swing numerous times (i.e. dual wielders, MNK) may be particularly useful with sulpor to remove aura, and mages should also nuke thunder 1 repeatedly until aura is removed. Once aura is removed, its HP will be invisible again, and its ice spikes effect will disappear. It should also be noted that it removes all of its debuffs once it uses verve, so don't forget to reapply dia after each verve.

-You are given a certain time period during aura before it starts readying abilities again (30 sec-1 minute?)

-Has en-defense down and magic defense down that proc fairly frequently.

-Technically, most TP moves do NOT need to be stunned, but it would be very wise to stun: Pelagic Cleaver, Tidal Guillotine, Prolithic Puncture.
Pelagic Cleaver: Inflicts HP Down(-33%?)
Tidal Guillotine: Works like Sobek's Tyrant Tusk, can instant-KO you if it deals >50% of your (current?) HP. Hence stunning pelagic cleaver is probably a good idea.
Prolithic Puncture: Severe damage + enmity reset, you really don't want dakuwaqa moving around due to marine mayhem.

Accepted Strategies

i) your /RUN DDs should keep double sulpor up at all times to help with aura removal. Not everyone needs to be /RUN, or even anyone at all now probably, but it still would probably be wise to use 1 DD/RUN to remove it more quickly. Vallation is also useful for the last 25% where it tends to spam carcharian verve fairly frequently. DD should be spread out conally with their backs facing the wall, but towards the mages (if that makes sense.) Like Tojil, its attacks have knock back, which can be fairly problematic for marine mayhem. If you have a MNK, they should use formless strikes until the 75% carcharian verve occurs.

Dakuwaqa uses its first Carcharian Verve within the first 2% of damage dealt to it, so mages should be positioned 20.1' away immediately. As soon as verve occurs, it needs 2 dispels to remove its massive buffs (I've had it do 2k to me on an auto attack before without dispel) and dia should be reapplied while the geo/sch/rdm spams thunder nukes on it. Once aura is removed (HP invisible, ice spikes gone), the WHM should throw out accession paralyna if the DDs haven't used remedies.

Like Tojil, melees that can do multiple damage types are also useful here, particularly MNK, BLU, and bow SAM. That's not to say other DDs aren't useful, but a properly geared SAM can completely avoid having any damage resistance through out the fight and make use of 2 different weakness phases.

Ceizak Battlegrounds

Spoiler: show

Zone Buff: Evasion Boost


Recommended Party Setups

i) DD DD COR BRD WHM GEO/SCH/RDM

DDs that work well in this zone are: SAM (with bow), BLU (with requiescat), THF, DRG, DNC. COR is also recommended as long as they are able to melee, as they can deal quite a bit of damage spamming last stand on Muyingwa and Mastop. Chaos Roll and Hunter's Roll are also very useful in this zone.

GEO is actually the ideal stunner for this zone, due to stun not being as important compared to the other 2 zones. They can apply frailty (+fury) to all mobs and either frailty or torpor (they should still probably stand out of for mastop/muyingwa) for muyingwa depending on DDs accuracy/other buffs. That's not to say that you can't use a RDM or SCH stunner (Muyingwa actually has the least delay between TP moves so alacrity stun is quite useful too), but it isn't as important so you should take advantage of GEO buffs.

ii) (not really) PLD RNG RNG RDM GEO BRD

If a group really wishes to, they can use a PLD RNG setup and get super buffed by flurry 2/luopans/minuets/preludes but overall it will still be significantly slower than a melee setup. RNGs should alternate decoy shot to avoid pulling hate on the boss. NMs 1-5 are probably irrelevant cause RNG can either melee and WS or shoot and WS.

iii) Lowman: SAM BRD SCH (+GEO)

I'm not too sure other DD would work for a lowman setup due to Mastop's mechanics, perhaps a BLU using requiescat could balance damage with itself. Whenever I solo DD Mastop it ends up taking consistent 10k+ Apex and Namas Arrows, though. SCH would probably be better than GEO in a 3 man setup due to its healing power, RDM would probably work too. GEO as a 4th is always recommended, of course.


Notorious Monsters

1. Unfettered Twitherym

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Gains damage taken -99% at 75%, 50%, and 25%

-DT can be removed by performing a # of skillchains. 75% needs 1, 50% needs 2, and 25% needs 3.

-Not sure if skillchain level matters? I usually only do darkness or light and both work fine. Lowe skillchain levels might need more performed to remove DT? (unconfirmed, don't care enough to test)

Accepted Strategies

i) There is absolutely nothing special about this fight, it does standard twitherym moves and a few wind-based spells. Just coordinate skillchains between your DDs when it gains DT.

2. Supernal Chapuli

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Evasion increases each time someone uses a WS on it when it isn't casting.

-Evasion boost is irrelevant with the addition of skill+228 to weapons and massive increases to accuracy on equipment

-Uses Nature's Meditate to change between phases of using Orthopterror and Sanguinary Slash / Tegmina Buffet / Sensilla Blades. Momentarily takes 0 damage after using Nature's Meditation.

-Standard Chapuli TP moves, DDs should spread out around it to avoid getting hit by Orthopterror.

Accepted Strategies

i) Again, a fairly standard fight now. The stunner can keep it stunned when it uses orthopterror, and otherwise it goes down very quickly.

3. Transcendent Scorpion

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Every time it uses a TP move, the log gives a message: "The spring has returned to your step," which removes all of its debuffs on it. Below 50%, you need to immediately reapply a debuff after each tp move (preferably dia due to low cast time/recast time/irresistable) in order to have its Earthbreaker deal 0 damage. Earthbreaker can still stun you, but if dia is not on then it does significant damage (>50% of total health generally)

-Death Scissors does significant damage, advisable to wear a few pdt pieces while fighting it.

-Below 50% it unlocks Earthbreaker and Hell Scissors. Hell Scissors has a very long charge time and deals severe damage/resets enmity. This is easily stunnable.

Accepted Strategies

i) As previously mentioned, it would be wise for DDs to put on a few pieces of PDT just so it doesn't kill you with an auto attack after death scissors. If you have a BLU, absolute terror works wonders on it and you'll be able to take down at least 50% of its health.

Earthbreaker spam can get annoying and stun you for long periods, so using absolute terror in the last half is preferred. If you don't have BLU, you can also stun lock it using up all of your stratagems on SCH or just stunning with capped haste on RDM. If it's really an issue, you can chainspell stun it, but should no longer be necessary.

Have all mages assist in casting dia after each TP move starting at around 55% (to account for it using earthbreaker right at 50.)

Overall NM 1-3 strategy:

Order doesn't really matter, just fight them in the order they arrive. If there are multiple bunched together, scorpion should be last priority due to the lengthy nature of the fight relative to the butterfly and chapuli.

4. Mastop

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Has a damage balancing mechanism between non-elemental, physical, ranged, and magic(?)

-If you deal too much damage of one type it will reduce down to 0 while the others will spike very high.

-If mastop has 2 or more debuffs on at a time, it will use Emetic Discharge, which causes it to become more vulnerable to damage and decreases its evasion. Emetic Discharge applies all of its debuffs onto the party within a certain range. The more it removes, the greater the evasion reduction and the damage taken increase.

-Will only use Emetic Discharge if 2 or more debuffs are applied. Otherwise, has standard gnat tp moves which are all beyond obnoxious.

Accepted Strategies

i) Bring 3 DD of different damage types. a Bow SAM coupled with any DD generally works well. If you can't bring that, a COR with a good melee/WS set spamming last stand works, as does BLU spamming requiescat.

I generally have the WHM spam dia/addle, the brd spams threnody, and the stunner spams burn/choke/shock etc. at all times (Emetic Discharge is used very frequently.) Take care to NOT use elegy/slow otherwise it will be incredibly difficult to erase them. As long as mastop is constantly being debuffed, you won't need to ever stun him with the exception of slowga/breakga (which are almost near-instant anyway.) A DD using haste samba also works great, as it will constantly apply haste daze.

5. Tax'et

Spoiler: show

-Starts off with -99% damage taken and reduces with the use of exuviation. Each exuviation reduces it by a certain amount (~5%?) until completely uncapped at approximately 20-23 exuviations.

-Will only use exuviation as long as it has 3 or more debuffs on it. Exuviation cures it for a large amount of health (10%?) if it has removable debuffs on.

-Haste Daze (haste samba) and bard songs are all irremovable debuffs, so if you keep those up, it will constantly exuviation without healing itself.

Accepted Strategies

i) Pull tax'et with dia and have DDs voking/warcrying etc. immediately to grab hate. The DD with /dnc should get haste samba on as soon as possible while the BRD works on maintaining threnody (any that doesn't resist works, I think I used to use fire), requiem and elegy.

The first exuviation doesn't matter if it removes dia because it's at 99% health anyway, and this just ensures that it has enough health. As soon as the first exuviation occurs, do not use any more debuffs that aren't bard songs or haste samba. From here on, tax'et will ONLY use exuviation, physical attacks, and fire spells until it dies.

Make sure the DDs do not use enfeeble-afflicting WS either, as those can be removed (stardiver, rudra's storm etc.) The rest of the fight is fairly brain dead, it just takes really long to wait for the DT allieviate. The stunner can stun fire spells if they'd like, but they're fairly weak anyway.

Overall NM 4-5 Strategy

The order in which the NMs appear is irrelevant, just go for whichever one shows up first. If both are together and link, Tax'et should be slept with a dark based sleep while the party fights Mastop. Leaving Mastop idle is a bad idea because it can wake up and do a slowga/breakga with a very large radius. At worst, tax'et will just get a few melee hits off on you. The BRD can also apply songs to tax'et while its asleep just to make sure that its first tp move is exuviation.

BOSS: Muyingwa

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Does not have unique weaknesses like Dakuwaqa and Tojil.

-Puts up aura every 25% from 100-25, and puts it up whenever it wants below 25%. After each aura it gains about 20 blink-type shadows (and HP becomes visible) which cannot be removed all at once by -aga spells.

-Aura occurs when it uses Droning Whirlwind. This should be stunned because it dispels multiple buffs.

-Has a not-fully understood DT mechanism that is applied after each aura 100-75%, but sometimes doesn't occur.

-Takes +100% damage from piercing attacks, and non-elemental damage (requiescat, murasamemaru etc.) are not subject to the damage reduction.

-The following moves should be taken into consideration for stunning:
Stinger Volley: Conal ST20 Curse+Paralyze (paralyna->sacrifice)
Droning Whirlwind: AoE Dispel
Incisive Denouement: Severe Damage, all stats down, enmity reset (sacrifice can remove stats down)
Incisive Apotheosis: Conal Temporary Weakness, Enmity Reset

Accepted Strategies

i) Unlike the other two bosses, Muyingwa *technically* doesn't need to be stunned at all, but it would definitely make your life a lot easier. Piercing DD excel significantly at this fight, including Bow SAM (Apex Arrow should be fine.) Muyingwa is a lot more evasive than the other two bosses, so at the very least, some sushi or a madrigal or hunters roll is advised.

The fight requires a lot less coordination than the other two, but DDs should be advised to spread out around it (except your back facing towards where you pulled it due to being out of cure range.) Depending on how (un)lucky you get with his DT phases, this fight can take anywhere from 2-7 minutes.

From personal experience, a MNK using formless strikes + hundred fists seemed to prevent one DT phase from occurring consistently (data can be found in the original delve thread, I don't want to go through 270 pages of it.)

Groups can also bring a BLU to use requiescat for the last 25% due to dealing full damage, which can help when damage is severely retarded by its DT gain. Muyingwa seems to also have fairly high defense, so angon/frailty/dia 2 etc. are all highly recommended. It can be the difference between a 5k and a 9k Namas Arrow for me at 100%.

WHM should use baraera, give weakened DDs Cure IVs at least (accession cure 4 works great if multiple DD get hit) to give them cureskin. Poisona is also recommended if they're weakened, as he has a potent en-poison (50/tic?). If a DD gets vespine hurricaned, you can either erase or sacrifice them to remove the attack down effect.


ii) Muyingwa's first few clears utilized a RNG + PLD strategy. This is really outdated now and not necessary. But if you really wanted to, you could go in with PLD and RNGs and alternate decoy shots between RNGs during the boss.

Delve II

Yorcia Weald

Spoiler: show

Zone Buff: Magic Evasion Boost (?)

Recommended Party Setups

2x Slashing DD, Slashing DD or COR, GEO BRD WHM

SAM and BLU work well in this zone due to their skillchaining capabilities. Obviously other two handed DD work well too but the easy of creating Light from Fudo->Fudo makes everything die really fast. The COR is welcome to DD all NMs except Hyoscya and Wopket. This zone is doable without a GEO, but Attunement + Vex make Hyoscya one of the easiest NMs in the zone instead of being the hardest.

ii) SAM COR GEO GEO WHM BRD

This is my personal setup that I use when I multibox with my friend. He uses 2x March+Madrigal with Fury/Frailty at all times and Acumen/Malaise for enhanced SC damage. He switches to Torpor for Ircinraq and Attunement/Vex for Hyoscya+Wopket. I use Allies' Roll (SC DMG+25%) and Chaos Roll and spam 4 step SCs on all NMs except Xag'Nar. This setup is obviously not meant for people trying to clear it for their first time, but rather people trying to put it on farm mode. Of all the setups I've tried, this is by far the fastest.

Notorious Monsters

1. Xag'Nar

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Damage is significantly reduce unless blinded

-Has an enstone effect that increases in damage as its HP reduces if unblinded.

-Will only use physical attacks and stone-based spells if blinded.

-SC damage (and magic damage? haven't checked) is significantly reduced on this monster

Accepted Strategies

i) This NM is really plain, just blind it on pull (and make sure to reapply it if it wears off) and have the WHM cast barstonra. DDs just whack at it (don't even need to SC) until it dies. Really no danger involved in this fight at all.

2. Laevvid

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Takes -99% Physical Damage in its normal phase. You can remove it by casting water spells on it (needs to have taken damage first). Once a water spell is casted, it will only spam leafstorm until the effect wears off. The duration of this phase is dependent on how much damage is dealt by the nuke.

-Takes significantly increased damage in its leafstorm/damagable phase

Accepted Strategies

i) Pull it with provoke, and then immediately warcry while the GEO casts Fire IV to avoid the GEO pulling hate. The GEO should then Water IV it and DDs can start killing it.

DDs should avoid making Darkness skillchains, as that will heal it. It takes a ton of damage from Light, though. As soon as the DT reappears, the GEO can cast Water IV again (usually lasts about a minute at least) to increase its DT.

The WHM should cast baraera and stand ontop of the DD casting curaga 2/3s for free with Orison Pantaloons +2.

ii) A 1 SAM DD group can utilize 4 step SCs (Rana->Shoha->Kasha->Fudo) to quickly kill it. Everything else is the same.

3. Morseiu

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Has a powerful en-drain effect that gradually increases(?) but decreases when you cast fire spells on it.

-Uses standard snapweed TP moves, accession divine caress paralyna is recommended to not have to constantly spam paralyna from stink gas.

-Infaunal Flop does conal HP/MP down + slow, WHM should sacrifice/erase this off immediately.

-Takes significantly increased SC damage (+100%?)

Accepted Strategies

i) Coordinating skillchains is very highly recommended on this NM as they do at least double your WS damage on a 2 step SC. Multi-step skillchains can go beyond 50k damage per SC.
DDs should spread out around the monster to avoid having multiple people hit by infaunal flop at once. WHM needs to be ready to immediately sacrifice it off due to Morseiu hitting fairly hard.

WHM can also accession/divine caress paralyna when it does stink bomb to avoid having to spam paralyna. The GEO can nuke fire on it to reduces its en-drain effect.

ii) In the event that you use a 1 SAM setup, the SAM can constantly spam Rana->Shoha->Kasha->Fudo 4 step SCs to deal massive damage. This obviously works better if you have a kogarasumaru, but 3-4 4 step SCs is enough to kill it.

Overall NM 1-3 Strategy

Xag'Nar will be the first NM you meet in the first room after the initial path upon zone entry. If you have a PLD to aggro, have them aggro everything in the room and you can pull Xag'Nar off of them with blind. If you don't have a PLD, someone can aggro everything in the room and the BRD can horde lullaby the monsters. You can either kill the adds before or after Xag'Nar, depending on your preferences. Don't fight them at the same time though, as every single add has a very large sleepga AoE.

In the room where you aggro Xag'Nar, there should be a small path to the southeast leading to another open area. Someone can pull Morseiu from there and kill it. Sleep everything that links with it again. After both NMs are dead, progress North to another large open area filled with mobs to fight Laevvid.

4. Ircinraq

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Incredibly high evasion

-Head Butt does a ton of damage without PDT.

-Fairly decent counter rate, can be problematic when paired with a powerful Head Butt.

-Dream Flower does hate reset and sleep cannot be removed unless cured

-Photosynthesis (regen) unlocks Petalback Spin, which causes a long-lasting amnesia + paralyze/plague. Regen effect can be dispelled without much difficulty.

-Readies Fatal Scream at 5%, has a really long charging time and can easily be killed before it uses it.

Accepted Strategies

i) DD should wear high accuracy + damage reduction gear and spread out to avoid getting countered. At this point, the GEO should change from indi-fury to indi-precision to help with the accuracy requirement.

When Dream Flower occurs, a mage needs to immediately cast curaga to wake the DD up, and the DD should provoke(+WS if they have TP ready), if Ircinraq still starts going for the WHM, the WHM should run towards the DD into the luopan until they've regained hate. I *think* gravity lands, but I'm not 100% sure. The WHM also needs to be on the ball with cures and try and keep cureskin up as much as possible to help soak the damage from multi-attacks and Head Butts. Head Butt has been known to do as high as 2k damage without wearing PDT gear.

When it does photosynthesis, it needs to be dispelled immediately as petalback spin will make the fight take a lot longer.

DDs should take off any defensive gear when it readies Fatal Scream in order to try and kill it before it lands.

5. Hyoscya

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Has the ability to do conal Charm (Frond Fatale). If continued to be fed TP, it will then use Full Bloom and gain 10% health + a large stoneskin effect, while killing the charmed person.

-Uses standard Belladonna TP Moves

-Is stunnable but builds resistance fairly quickly, every TP move EXCEPT Frond Fatale is stunnable.

Accepted Strategy

i) I wouldn't recommend more than 2 DD to fight this at a time in order to effectively spread out to avoid Frond Fatale, while avoiding facing the mages, as well as reducing TP gain. If you fight it just north of where the wall break to NMs 4/5 occur, the mages can stand parallel with the direction that you came from, while the DDs stand perpendicular on both ends. That way the dds backs are towards a wall to reduce the effect of knockback and they aren't facing the mages.

The GEO should switch to Indi-Attunement and Geo-Vex immediately to greatly increase resistance against all of its tp moves. The GEO should have a Dunna at the very least or this method won't prove to be effective. The WHM should also use barstonra and baramnesra to help resist Deracinator. If the DDs run out of the bubble then they're at high risk of being charmed. GEOs need to make sure their indi-spell never drops, and to immediately resummon luopan if it dies.

In the event that a DD does get charmed, they should immediately get slept while the other one switches into PDT gear. The remaining DD needs to turn and not melee it until they're uncharmed (lasts 30 seconds on average.) Other than that, the 2 DD can SC off of each other as it seems to take a fair bit of SC damage.

ii) In a two GEO setup, you can use Fury/Frailty/Attunement/Vex and have the SAM just spam 4 step SCs and absolutely demolish it. If the SAM gets charmed you can just sleep them and sit there in PDT gear curing yourself until they're uncharmed.

Overall NM 4-5 Strategy

Pull Ircinraq to the mouth of the pathway of where the wall break occurs and fight it there, obviously taking care of adds too. Ircinraq is fairly difficult to sleep, so if NT has already dropped you'll need to kill the adds after you kill it. From there, kill the 5 monsters just north of where you fought Iricinraq and take camp there. I generally stand by the tree and get ready to voke Hyoscya as it comes in. Have someone pull Hyoscya (I like to pull on WHM in PDT so I can run to myself on SAM and cast auspice and STR-Boost until it gets there) by running north to the dead end (where boss wall break is) and turning right and running all the way down to the fork, where Hyoscya should be present at one of the sides of the fork (generally the right side). Have the BRD ready to sleep all adds as you run back to the open area where the party is camped out. Once Hyoscya is dead, the boss area is right in front of you.

BOSS: Wopket

Spoiler: show

Notes:

-Takes enhanced slashing damage.

-Has 99% piercing resistance (reported to have been removed before but unsure how).

-Will only use Firefly Fandango from 100-75% with a very very low chance of using Uproot.

-At 75% it unlocks Potted Plant, Root of the Problem.

-Uproot deals severe damage, resets hate, and puts on an aura.

-Aura can be removed by dealing heavy wind damage (WS, SC[frag, light], nukes can all remove it.)

-If it uses Uproot again while aura is active, it gets access to Tiiimbeeer.

Accepted Strategies

i) GEO can either use fury/frailty or attunement/vex. Attunement/vex increases your resistance rate to all of its status ailments by a ton, but you miss out on over 1k attack. The WHM should divine caress accession paralyna after Firefly Fandango, so that they only have to focus on throwing out a curaga and then being able to sacrifice/erase flash off of DDs. This obviously isn't a necessity, but it speeds up the fight a ton.

When it readies Uproot, 1 DD should open up a Light skillchain, and as uproot lands, the 2nd DD should close it, effectively regaining full control of hate and potentially immediately removing the aura. Continue doing Light skillchains until the aura is removed. The GEOs can also assist by casting Aero IV. The WHM should be ready to cast Curaga IV shortly after Uproot starts being readied.

Side note: Timber is almost never a problem provided that DD properly coordinate light skillchains. In over 75 Wopkets, I've only ever been Timbered the first week Delve II came out.

If a DD gets hit by Root of the Problem, they should swap into higher accuracy gear due to the massive reduction in stats from it. Wopket should also be dispelled as it absorbs buffs. DDs should watch to see if they lose march, and notify the bard to reapply marches if it does get absorbed.

ii) In a SAM BRD GEO GEO COR WHM setup, you can use attunement/vex/fury/frailty and almost never get any sort of status ailment while maintaining >2k attack even without berserk. The WHM will almost never have to paralyna/erase if you've got enhanced magic evasion, so they can mostly focus on curing you. The SAM can do 4 step skillchains the entire fight. If you want to be lazy, you can ready Konzen-Ittai while Wopket readies Uproot, and then Fudo to remove it with Light

----Under Construction----

Posting this here now while I slowly edit in the other zones since this is taking a lot longer to write than expected. Feel free to add in your own information and I'll update the OP.

[Martel]

4. Tutewehiwehi
-Unless blinded, will use gaze moves that leave you permanently petrified.

The Gaze actually inflicts Terror+ST20. Which is notably worse than petrification. You can't cure it, and you can't heal the person that's getting beat on. Have to either blind it to deactivate the Gaze mode, or get it to turn so the effect can wear.

[Ramzii]

The Gaze actually inflicts Terror+ST20. Which is notably worse than petrification. You can't cure it, and you can't heal the person that's getting beat on. Have to either blind it to deactivate the Gaze mode, or get it to turn so the effect can wear.

Thanks, I haven't actually been gazed before so I assumed it was just petrification.

[EjinCaitsith]

For future use, if you need it:

Nearly all the NMs in Delve 1 and 2 are sleepable. I always find it helpful/less stressful to sleep a NM while I buff/kill adds.

Morimar:

Low Magic Evasion:
Volatile Matamata, Perdurable Raptor and Shimmering Tarichuk are sleepable with above average gear.

Medium Magic Evasion:
Tutewehiwehi is sleepable with extremely good gear, Elemental Seal or GEO macc+/meva-.

High Magic Evasion:
Tojil can be slept very, very rarely with light shot, but even with N/T + ES Lullaby, it doesn't land often, so this pretty much falls under unsleepable.

Unsleepable:
Kurma can't be slept afaik.

Foret:

Low Magic Evasion:
Faded Craklaw, Aberrant Uragnite, Divagating Jagil, Nerrivik and Krabakarpo are all easily sleepable with lullaby.

High Magic Evasion:
Dakuwaqa requires using ES, N/T or GEO macc+/meva+ for lullaby.

Ceizak:

Low Magic Evasion:
Unfettered Twitherym, Supernal Chapuli, Transcendent Scorpion and Mastop are all easily slept with above average gear.

Medium Magic Evasion:
Tax'et can't be slept with Lullaby. Can be slept with dark based sleeps with an optimal set.

Muyingwa can't be slept with dark based sleeps, but is easily slept with lullaby. Doesn't require buffs with optimal gear. Bonus: If your BRD has a fast enough precast set, they can actually stun lock Muyingwa with lullaby spam, which is really helpful when it has blink aura up.

Yorcia:

Medium Magic Evasion:
Xag'Nar, Laevvid, Morseiu can all be lullabied easily with above average gear. Landing dark based sleep requires additional buffs. Example: With a near perfect enfeebling magic set for GEO, I still need Indi-Focus to land sleep reliably on these NMs.

High Magic Evasion:
Ircinraq, Hyoscya and Wopket all require ES or N/T to land sleeps. Bonus: Impact with a decent macc. set almost never gets resisted on Ircinraq even without any sort of buffs.

Marjami:

Medium Magic Evasion:
Broxa , Plaguevein Bats, Hakawai can all be lullabied easily with above average gear. Landing dark based sleep requires additional buffs. Example: With a near perfect enfeebling magic set for GEO, I still need Indi-Focus to land sleep reliably on these NMs.

High Magic Evasion:
Ironbeak Inguza, Podarge and Cailimh all require ES or N/T to land sleeps.

Kamihr:

Medium Magic Evasion:
Calydontis, Azeman and Sinaa can all be lullabied easily with above average gear. Landing dark based sleep requires additional buffs. Example: With a near perfect enfeebling magic set for GEO, I still need Indi-Focus to land sleep reliably on these NMs.

High Magic Evasion:
Cherti requires ES or N/T to land sleeps.

Unsleepable:
Mirka(?) and Utkux are unsleepable. I'm not 100% I've tried to sleep Mirka before, but I'm 99% sure Utkux can't be realistically, reliably slept.

[Ramzii]

Thanks. I added Foret but I have to afk for now. I'll add the sleep info at the end once I've included all zones.

[geno3302]

So...why don't you just add all this to the wiki instead of posting it in a thread that's going to vanish?

[Lyramion]

So...why don't you just add all this to the wiki instead of posting it in a thread that's going to vanish?

Better to get other people's strats together?

[Univarsity]

You actually did a good job in your thread. You explained each NM pretty well and discussed the mechanisms and how to handle some NMs so that's good . But there's still some people that want to know step by step what to do in situations like rolls,songs, buffs, who does what debuffs, party setups, and what exactly each pt member does, etc other than just read about how the NM works. But you did a good job for the few zones you mentioned.

[Malithar]

But there's still some people that want to know step by step what to do in situations like rolls,songs, buffs, who does what debuffs, party setups, and what exactly each pt member does, etc other than just read about how the NM works. But you did a good job for the few zones you mentioned.

People like that need something besides a guide to an event, they need to learn their job and/or how to communicate responsibilities in a party. Party setups are silly beyond roles, not specific jobs. As an example, instead of saying you need a Sch to stun, say you need a stunner. Who can fill that? Sch, Rdm, Geo, Drk, Blm, even seen reports of people doing Brd/Blm stunner, and prolly other odd ball setups that'd work (maybe even Dnc and Blu with MAcc gear now? idk). You'll never see most of those jobs in a shout or in some guide though. That all comes down to knowing the capabilities of your jobs, and no guide can teach that. It's better for groups to see what they have available to them and make it work within the capabilities of the players and the jobs for the content they're tackling.

[Ramzii]

I'm not going to hold the hands of every person reading this and telling them what to do step-by-step because it obviously varies on a case-by-case basis and they should be able to critically think about what to do given all of this information. I'll add recommended buffs from COR/GEO/BRD because that is actually quite useful information, but I can't tell you what each party member does because it's entirely dependent on what the party setup is.

[Fake]

Marjami and Drifts low man setups.

Marjami - SAM GEO WHM

Apkallu NM, don't use multi hit GKT, turn a lot, fulltime DT
Harpy NM, if melee dies just sleep it or kite it (there is a ton of space to kite it in the connecting area between the 1-3 and 4-5 areas, fulltime DT.
MB - Darkness SC, Stone MB, rebuff as needed but it should never get off more than 1 tp before removing aura.

SAM should have bow WS but it's not essential.

Drifts - SAM GEO WHM

Nothing unusual compared to normal sized group. GEO or WHM needs melee set for first NM. SAM needs bow WS for 1 and 4.

Both zones obviously GEO also needs to be hasting, indi or geo depends on NM. Apply common sense and account for whm's ability. Indi-haste is always better when you're able to support it.



Missing from OP, low man Yorcia is faceroll as SAM BRD WHM. Will speed things up if WHM has a nuking set (doesn't need to be good, just needs to actually have nuking gear) for 3.

Never tried it since I haven't played for months, but RDM+MNK or SAM for Foret should be easily doable now.

[pancakesandsex]

Xag'nar actually starts weak to magic and blind swaps his resistances. He takes normal Magic damage when blind is down.

[JeanPaul]

I have a few little things to add:
- I think the Twitherym drops his PDT by taking a specific element SC damage, which is covered when you make Light/Dark. Just make sure your party setup includes some way to create either Light or Dark, even if you have to use Exudiation to Wildfire or something.
- The Scorpion, like any other scorpion, has a move called Sharp Strike which boosts his attack by 50%, which sometimes goes unnoticed. Very fun to Aura Steal since it lasts a surprisingly long time. Samba is also very reliable for keeping him full-time debuffed.
- Queenie's Stinger Volley is the one you'd probably want WHMs to use Sacrifice on, since it has Paralyze and ST20 Curse, which can be a problem if you're also hit with the poison or weakness.
- Might not be recommended, but it's possible to take out the Craklaw by having someone just keep nuking it while DDs build TP on something else and dish out WSs every so often. I've seen a GEO and WAR duo this NM using this strategy.
- Uragnite takes double magic (and thus skillchain) damage when inside his shell.
- Melees using runes can remove them by using Lunge upon engaging the Jagil.
- In my runs, I encourage all members to face and melee Nerrivik, so that if he manages to charm, your mages aren't needlessly murdered. Of course, keep Dia on him.
- Tutewehiwehi takes double dark damage and absorbs lightning.
- Tetsudo Tremor is earth based, so Barstonera can help there.
- Absolute Terror works great on locking down many Delve 1 NMs (I'm not a BLU so I don't know how far you can go with this). I personally find it a reliable way to shutout annoying NMs like Nerrivik, Mastop, and Tutewehiwehi.
- Apparently, if you stun TP moves on NMs like Matamata and Tax'et's Exuviation, they still are affected by their damage modification despite not actually getting their move off.
- Tojil does have access to Breakga and Sleepga, so plan and position stunners accordingly.
- Kinda minor, but Tojil will use his first Blistering Roar as soon as he's aggro'd, while Dakuwaqa and Queenie won't use their opening aura moves until they've acquired TP.

[Lyramion]

For the Twytherim a SCH can cover every element with Immanence if your PTs weaponskill elements somehow don't match. used is sometimes for ragtag beaded clears:

Fire > Thunder = Fusion
Blizzard > Water = Frag
Wind > Dark = Grav
Light > Earth = Distortion

[Ramzii]

I'm fairly confident it's not element based. I've done ceizak a ton of times as solo dd and I've never not removed the pdt exclusively using light

[Chimerawizard]

yorcia
4. Ircinraq

I *think* gravity lands, but I'm not 100% sure.

I has gravity'd it before.


Great job on the guide thus far. [+]

[Lyramion]

Can confirm, helps the WHM not get mauled after hate reset.

[Capuchin]

Can confirm, helps the WHM not get mauled after hate reset.

BLU Subduction gravity effect should be able to land too, which is handy since BLU is pretty good in the zone in general.

[Ramzii]

Thanks for the input, I'll try and finish up the remaining two zones and add additional information by the end of the weekend

[JeanPaul]

I'm fairly confident it's not element based. I've done ceizak a ton of times as solo dd and I've never not removed the pdt exclusively using light

Ah, you're right, went out and tested, even level 1 skillchains work to remove it.