Citedal Strats.

[Neosutra]

So I am embarrassed to say, that as long as my shell has been going, I still havent found a good CC strat that makes me feel a warm fuzzy.

We have:

Killed the gear train, then sack pulled the ramparts, then killed CC. (With this, we usualy time out for boss, due to hitting hammer -> powder -> gyro3 as well).

Skipped the gear train and pulled chariot/ramparts back to starting portal, attempting to save 6-7 minutes from the gear train. But this is always messy. We rarely get this done w/o a death or 2, and with a low man group this is even harder.

We can do NM "only" runs, where we hit all the NMs. Or just skip Powderkeg or Gyro out right... But 90% of the time, if we chose to do Turtle, we are forced to skip boss too.

This is the only zone where we are kinda forced to skip NMs to get to boss, and I want to fix this. I have read alot of turtle strats here, but would like to see some other experiences with what routes people take, number of people, and typical strat/times.

And to give a time estimate, we usually hit the 3rd floor with about 50 min left after hamer/powder =/.

[Suiram]

Ironically, the strategy we now use, that has finally enabled us to do all NMs + boss in the same run, I think was based on your suggestion in a previous thread where you mention pulling chariot along with ramparts in that initial sac to skip the gear train, something I'm embarrassed to admit had never even crossed my mind before. This is with 6~7 people, too, unless by "low-man" you meant 4~5 with friends who d/c trick to let you in.

If you do that pull, I don't see why you can't hit them all, maybe the problem is too much time spent on earlier floors? First floor you always want to pull the fomor when the last one dies, meaning being ready to train the group off if they are clustered and the previous trainer is too far away after the last pull. Second floor you always want the next fomor at the group before the current one dies, like a merit party. Third floor I try to never have less than 2~3 gears slept and waiting where we fight them. This is all probably stuff you do already, though.

4th floor what we do now specifically is, thf flees and runs around the perimeter of the room aggroing everything, PD when he gets to the north corner, giving us about half a minute to pull off the chariot and 4 ramparts. Back at the north portal, kill chariot > ramparts, then head back to that corner and pull turtle, I head to the 5F portal while the rest kill CC.

[aurik]

We tend to just kill the gear train with 6. Or, we did, back when we needed CC drops + zhayolm cards.

[Neosutra]

We tend to just kill the gear train with 6. Or, we did, back when we needed CC drops + zhayolm cards.

Areas my group can improve on is gyro3 room pulling/killing speed and powder speed.

I would like to be hitting the 3rd floor with 60 min left, but it always leans toward 50-55 minutes left.

As for the turtle pulls, the reason it always gets messy for me is I had 3 of my regulars quit the game, leaving me retraining 3 people that havent had "that" much time working together, so getting 5 mobs from the main room to the start portal (4 of which have to be slow poked all the way back), all the while keeping everyone alive and such, has proven a bit of a headache with my new group.

Basically our setup is:

Mnk
Mnk or Sam
Thf
rdm
brd
random XXX job

sometimes we get an extra 1-2 people.

So for pulling chariot/ramparts, that leaves me with mnkX2, rdm, brd, and sometimes an extra. Our chaos typically comes from ramparts losing aggro and members having to go back and get them, and/or one of the mages having to pull a rampart and thus leaving the chariot puller w/o healing magic (and unless they have movement speed + they usually get torn up by the time they get back to the portal).

I guess I could clean it up a bit by having someone with movement speed + pull the chariot back and kite it around the room till everyone is ready, and have my rampart pullers just ensure they walk slow enough to not lose aggro...

Idk, its just a rather simple plan, that I had working decently, but have been having problems with lately. Aurik suggests killing the gear train, but I wonder exactly how much time that adds.. or if not having to time pulling everything up and getting CC again actually saves more time. Hmmm.

[aurik]

Mostly we found that:

- the meds you get while waiting for the gear train are huge. Fana, revit, assassin, barb, hermes, wings, etc. With meds and 2hs you can take the boss down like 30-40% in 1 minute
- not having to pull 4 ramparts all the way back to the porter room saves a lot of time
- with only 6 people, pulling 5 mobs a long way is rough

That said, if you're insistent in avoiding the train...what you could do is stop and kill the chariot using 2h/meds in the first room. Its only got like 5k HP. Have someone sleep the ramparts, then wake them up and continue training them back to the start. If you're fast, I think you should be able to pull this off.

[Neosutra]

It takes 4 minutes 12 seconds for the gear train to reach the last room, so I dont think I would risk killing the chariot in the previous room. However, I think I am going to just get my group to kill the gear train again and continue to widdle down time in other areas to avoid timing out.

As for the boss, ya its a joke. We 2 hour zerg it for the first % and get it to about 65% before first BJ, then just kite it through each phase. Each BJ phase does prolong the fight about 1.5-2 minutes though.

Thanx for the info, just wish people would stop quiting the game long enough for me to keep a solid group trained =/

[Suiram]

We usually go MNK MNK THF BLU RDM BRD. THF sacs, I pull the chariot, the other 4 each pull a rampart. I can hold the chariot pretty well until all ramparts are back and slept, and when the RDM and BRD reach the room they'll toss out slow/elegy to help out. Then I spend the rest of my time until the chariot and two of the ramparts are dead helping keep everyone alive and trying to keep hate on the ramparts so they don't hit the RDM/BRD when they wake up, which could be the difference between our groups if your 6th isn't a mage.

If you can handle 4 ramparts okay, and just not 4 ramparts + chariot, another thing you may want to try if you want to skip the train is doing 4 rampart sac >> kill CC, then when it's dead one person trains to the portal with a MNK close behind to tag the chariot after everything has aggroed/linked the trainer. Pull it back up to that corner just north of the big room, station one person (someone not essential for the boss like a MNK, RDM, or BRD obviously, probably a THF or your random 6th person) at the entrance to the room in whichever direction the gear train currently is. When the train arrives it will aggro and kill that person standing there, and then *should* resume its path without returning to aggro/linking behavior until it has passed that corner. Still takes a little bit longer than just pulling all 5 at the start, but possibly still less time than it takes to kill the train for you.

[Neosutra]

On the subject of SSR, anyone know if the "door unlock" rampart on the 3rd floor is a specific .dat each time, or based on a specific day? I usually just train them all away, but just curious if there was a better technique. Im sure its not just random.

[Mojo]

That said, if you're insistent in avoiding the train...what you could do is stop and kill the chariot using 2h/meds in the first room. Its only got like 5k HP. Have someone sleep the ramparts, then wake them up and continue training them back to the start. If you're fast, I think you should be able to pull this off.

This is more or less what we do. Our THF trains the room of gears away, the MNKs grab the chariot and start killing it right there while the RDM + WHM + BRD sleep the ramparts. The chariot usually goes down quickly, after which I Diaga the ramparts and we pull them back to the entrance room and kill them.

You need to execute this quickly after zoning up(no time to farm chests) or the train of 6 gears will intercept you while you're killing the chariot. If you can take down the ramparts reasonably quickly, the six gears will have just moved south through CC room as it pops, making it an easy pull.

We were able to finish the boss with 10+ mins after doing all of the NMs last run, so I think it works pretty well.

[Arthars]

general strat (my grp setup is nin mnk thf rdm brd whm)
1F 1 fomor > hammerblow room (17 mins mark)
2F SE(41 mins mark)
3F E(56 mins mark)
everything before 4F is pretty straight forward, search, pull and destroy, so need not go through the strats
after you done with 3F, you should have about 44 mins left, if you go 2F SE route, for 4F

1. THF flee > Warp at 3F
2. After warpped, thf run asap to catch up with the 6 gears train and AGGRO THEM (dont pull because they move fast enough to get out of range)back to everyone and start killing
3. thf flee aggro ramparts, group peel, thf fanatic drink > logout, kill ramparts, kill CC
4. after killed CC, THF flee > pull chariot with ranged, tank peel chariot while thf flee for warp.
5. chariot dead when thf reached warp (80mins mark)
6. killed boss(90-95 mins mark)
7. 2 skadi head
8. profit?

[Wizerd]

2. After warpped, thf run asap to catch up with the 6 gears train and AGGRO THEM (dont pull because they move fast enough to get out of range)back to everyone and start killing

That may change my group's strategy.. I didn't know you could catch up to the gears before they pass the middle room.

[Gaea]

On the subject of SSR, anyone know if the "door unlock" rampart on the 3rd floor is a specific .dat each time, or based on a specific day? I usually just train them all away, but just curious if there was a better technique. Im sure its not just random.

Bumping this question because I'm interested in the answer too if anyone knows.

[BerenTebogo]

I must've missed something in the SSR threads, been kinda content with my group so haven't read up much on new stuff lately.

What does killing the chariot in CC floor accomplish?

[Wolfknight]

I must've missed something in the SSR threads, been kinda content with my group so haven't read up much on new stuff lately.

What does killing the chariot in CC floor accomplish?

unlocks door to floor boss on that side since it starts out locked.

[BerenTebogo]

I must've missed something in the SSR threads, been kinda content with my group so haven't read up much on new stuff lately.

What does killing the chariot in CC floor accomplish?

unlocks door to floor boss on that side since it starts out locked.

Oh yeah, that's right, gg 530am posting

[Holman]

Neosutra did you find an answer?, I've yet to pop CC, but looking for some great tips.

[Wizerd]

Neosutra did you find an answer?, I've yet to pop CC, but looking for some great tips.

As far as I can tell, the fastest way to do the floor is to have the THF port up, flee to the gear train, pull it back and sleep/kill, then go on as normal. Not sure if this is what Neo does.

[Neosutra]

Neosutra did you find an answer?, I've yet to pop CC, but looking for some great tips.

As far as I can tell, the fastest way to do the floor is to have the THF port up, flee to the gear train, pull it back and sleep/kill, then go on as normal. Not sure if this is what Neo does.

Yep, Ive timed all diferent scenarios and trying to work around the gear train takes even longer.

Fastest way for CC:

Have thf port up and immediately flee down and aggro gear train.

Kill gear train and prepare for sac rampart room.

Sac rampart room and 2 hour ramparts.

Grab CC (should be popped by the time you kill the pets the ramparts have summoned).

When CC is dead, we have thf flee to portal, straight through center of room, mnk1 chi blasts chariot and we kill it by about the time the thf hits the door. Zone up and curse the heavens for yet another no drop turtle.

[Holman]

Thanks Neo and Wiz, but just a question how bright does the thf have to be, the guy we used didn't see the importance of getting feint.

[Neosutra]

Thanks Neo and Wiz, but just a question how bright does the thf have to be, the guy we used didn't see the importance of getting feint.

Doesnt have to be a rocket scientiest, just has to be able to hit the flee macro. He should be able to flee down to the gear train and aggro them then -immediately- run back up and not get hit much at all (not get hit at all if he has movement+ feet). Make that thf get feint... I kicked a thf from our LS for not having Feint..... then again ive kicked half the damn server by now Q.Q

I think im a salvage nazi =/