Sky HNM RDM newbie, what to worry about?

[Kyreth]

So my LS got a Sky group together and farmed pop items, etc. First time up there really for HNM's, helped a friend's LS with Faust and MG once but nothing huge.

Genbu was fun. We did him twice, nothing spectacular dropped but I do have a nice new Genbu's shield and a couple of folks can have Zenith stuff made.

Then there was Byakko. Who to a bunch of sky newbies is a shredding machine on paws- but we did take him down 1/2 pops. As an RDM, what can I do best to gimp this thing (other than spamming Paralyna and Cures as needed) ?

When he was bouncing around at the end of the second try, I actually landed a few Binds, but random damage broke them. Cue kitty RIP AND TEAR of alliance .

[CelinaAlexander]

Byakko is a little tough for sky noobies, but from my experience, he has a lot more to do with your tanks than anyone else. You keep them Paralynas, the rest is up to them really.

[Wintermute]

Don't worry about resists on enfeebles, Sky Gods are notorious bastards when it comes to them.
Even with a massive +Enf.Skill set you'll still get a shit-ton of resists.

Personally I used +Enfeebling Skill gear where possible and then stacked +MND in every other slot.

You could always cheat and ES the spell though. MND build ES Slow II is pretty nice on Byakko when stacked with Elegy.

Likelyhood is your'e not /blm though, so just keep the -na spells up, keep your tanks alive and try to stay out of AoE range.

A Stun rotation from BLM and /drk peeps can also help when Byakko starts being a dick.

[Seditedi]

BRD/BLM is pretty good for Byakko.
That way you can land Elegy with Troubadour for 7.5 minutes or whatever (which should be the duration of the fight).

[Titanss]

For sky noobs have a few pld/nin's kite him while your blm's don't get too hasty with nukes is a pretty easy strategy. And you as a rdm keep para on the kiters etc.

[chapstick]

If -na's are covered by other people, sub BLM or DRK for extra stuns or ES slow or grav.

[Kyreth]

Which happily enough I actually prefer doing- RDM/BLM, anyway. Stuns we can cover easily enough, but being able to slow him down properly should do wonders. They had all the RDM's come /WHM to help keep the tanks up.

[Omniyoji]

Or if you wanna go the DD route go RDM/SCH and you'll be able to outdamage the BLMs
maybe even the RNGs ?_? idk

[Kyreth]

/BLM would be for the Seal- I've got full merited Slow II, so if I can land a solid slow on him, that would probably help a -lot-.

[Callisto]

IMO the most useful thing on Byakko other than the Slow is having it stunned often, it makes tanking it infinitely easier. I prefer /DRK on most gods in general, but I recently tried tanking him as /NIN for the first few times, and it really is amazing the difference that just being able to toss stuns out often makes, he can wipe shadows in a hurry, even with Slow on.

He's extremely difficult to debuff, ES Slow II is nice, but really it's only going to last a minute or two and when it wears you have no ES for a good while and are unlikely to land it again on him without it. I would recommend going as /DRK to make life easier on the tanks, though don't go too wacky on Stun as it is still a large Enmity spell, especially when you're spamming other debuffs on him often.

[Wintermute]

If you're planning on ES Slow II make sure to stack MND everywhere for maximum effect.

If I recall my Slow II lasted a decent amount of time, though Gods being the bastards they are your milage may vary.

/drk is always useful, and fun. Nothing like stunning a TP move or Spell with Weapon Bash.

Whilst we're giving out general advice: get a THF to Feint Byakko to cut down the fight time a bit.

[Vyerz]

Brd/blm with troubador + ES + elegy is godly on him
Iirc you can 6 man him with Nin/drkx2 Brd/blm Rdm/drk whm and Blm, we've done it with that setup but we had 8 instead of 6 <.< had a thf/drk and a War/sam

[Furionstormrage]

If you have 2BRDs to give to the tank PT, 2 NIN/DRK with Mambo and March and a proper stun-lock, as noted above, make Byakko ridiculously easy.

[Marsala]

If your tanks aren't A+ either and are new to Byakko, dispelling his add effect will also be extremely helpful. I remember times when I got 1 shotted from full health on my NIN/DRK. That triple attack + add effect is killer.

[omgaggrohelpme]

Also, if all of your members are new to the sky or "end game" they probally won't have optimal set up for melee's... and Byakko is a bitch and a half to hit if u don't have enough BRD's or wanna use meat on it..

If you are using SC's and MB's to get it down, I'd make sure you got /thf to help lesser then danger of a 1hitter quitter, had a friend in my old LS that if he survived Byakko it was a miracle, you can bust out some crazy damage with Steel Cyclone or Spinning Slash on him as WAR or DRK. Suggest you do /thf for hitting the SC and MB as it makes him a joke, lowest timed Byakko I remember doing was something like 2 mins including the Perfect Dodge, but then again this was with 2-3 years experience in sky >_>;

Tanking it is a joke if u got the correct support, having the additional effect dispelled would make ur PLD's love you though... its nasty when he triple attacks > Claw Cyclone > Triple Attack and he has the additional efffect up.

and genbu is soo much fun, I've had WHM's and a 66 MNK tank it before, the MNK lasted till 2% before he finally died though =\.

[Brill Weave]

This might be a stupid question but did you guys have a bind/shadowbind order set up? That way if the fight is going poorly whoever is lead calls for everyone to back off while you guys bind him and recover.

You keep them Paralynas, the rest is up to them really.

That is pretty much the truth. What did you have tanking? If you're using Paladins ask them to sub Ninja. Now I know when I first started endgame the idea of subbing Ninja was ridiculous to me. But after I got out of my first linkshell and got into my most recent, I learned /Ninja is the way to go. Just make sure they have an Enmity+ build and some Shield+ gears when shadows drop.

[Kyreth]

We had PLD/NIN and a NIN/DRK as the main tankage, backup PLD/NIN and NIN/??? too.

[CelinaAlexander]

We had PLD/NIN and a NIN/DRK as the main tankage, backup PLD/NIN and NIN/??? too.

Were they wearing level 1 RSE? How did you wipe with that ._.

Getting your tanks organized is key, taking him down quickly to minimalize the chance of something going wrong is the automatic door.

[Therin]

For sky noobs have a few pld/nin's kite him while your blm's don't get too hasty with nukes is a pretty easy strategy. And you as a rdm keep para on the kiters etc.

Did you really just suggest kiting Byakko? <_>

[Brill Weave]

I would swap out the first Ninja with the backup Paladin. Then keep both of the Ninja out until someone drops. Then swap as needed. Since you're new to it, I would suggest putting your best tanks(skill, not jobs) in and letting them get the first crack at it. Hopefully your Paladins are up to it.