Ultima 20% zerg ally formation

[liquinas]

I've only heard about this and don't have any solid info so I wanted to gather some info as to what the ally would look like for zerging Ultima when it hits 20%. I'm not sure if it should be more melee heave or more blm heavy but we have either option at our disposal so feel free to suggest changes. This is our current ally setup for the fight with 1 tank pt, 1 blm pt, and 1 power DD pt. Additional jobs inside brackets.

PLD
NIN [sam]
WHM
SCH [pld war drg]
RDM [blu]
BRD [whm blm]

BLM [cor blu]
BLM [whm brd rdm]
BLM [cor]
BLM [sam]
BLM [whm rdm mnk]
BRD [sam]

SAM [drk rdm]
SAM [mnk rng]
SAM
WAR [cor]
WAR [sch rdm smn]
WHM [smn]

=====
Bench
=====
SMN
BLU
WHM [blm smn war whm drg]
RDM
BRD


Would the above work with all SAM and WAR 2hr zerg and all BLM manafont some AMII nukes? Or does it take more melee power or more nuke power? Any input appreciated, thanks!

[Terrestrialrage]

Well you cant forget that at any given time, he is immune to either melee or magic damage. The best idea is to wait until melee shield is up and then push him past 19% for a Dissipation stun, then let your Plds hold until magic shield goes up, then melees can go to work. Zerging Ultima is risky especially because of his massive damage AOEs late in the fight (Armor Buster comes to mind) I would recommend just taking it slow, making sure the Plds have an MDT + MDB set (Mine isnt even that great and i only take about 700), and just work him down, because if a zerg gets out of control you can lose all your DD rather quickly with back to back ABs.

[liquinas]

Hmm yeah. I forgot to just ask straight up if this was a good idea. I've never done the zerg strat so I was curious if I was doing it the stupid way.

[mcb]

both can work, but yeah there's a bit of risk in a zerg. however if you wait for magic shield, it will stay up for 1min. to my knowlage Ultima can't have both up at the same time. so its possible to start your zerg when the magic shield goes up and have 50sec to. worse case you get a 50sec melee zerg and he changes to physical shield. at that point your blm should be able to finish the job. the real question is what is Ultima doing to you during the first half of the zerg. if its back to back CB then you could be in trouble. if you zerg i'd recomend starting the zerg before 19% and just keep a shield bash and stun ready for dissapation depending on which shield is up.

[Aragon of Odin]

We zerg him from just under 20% each time. We take him to 21% then hold it, get 2 BRD's to Soulvoice/Nightingale/Troub and buff our 1 or 2 DRK's with 2xMarch and 2x Mad. We call out a timed nuke for our BLM's follwed by all them stunning. We wait for Ulitma to start his countown from 20, have our DRK(s) JA/2HR and take care of business.

1 K.Club DRK cuts it very close if you only get him to 19% from timed nuke, usually we take him to about 15% though and 1 K.Club is more then enough, sometimes just have the 2nd DRK help him for the fun of it.

Being able to do it with 1 DRK from 15% I'd imagine it would be pretty easy with a few Sam's and a WAR, just gotta wait for him to start his countdown before rushing in.

[rog]

We wait for Ulitma to start his countown from 20, have our DRK(s) JA/2HR and take care of business.

Is there a reason to start at 20, instead of as soon as it starts at 30? Or was that a typo?

[liquinas]

Is there a reason to start at 20, instead of as soon as it starts at 30? Or was that a typo?

Phase 5 (enter citadel buster) starts at this time, as well as the last dissipation at 19% that needs to be stunned.

[Renzy]

20 was a typo, he means 30

[Lilswitche]

I think he means 20% HP, whereas you guys are thinking 30 seconds for Citadel Buster.

[Ultimagi]

We wait for Ulitma to start his first coundown after 20% HP, have our DRK(s) JA/2HR and take care of business.

Fixed for clarity.

[rog]

Ah, that makes more sense.

[Mojo]

We were able to zerg Ultima down from 19% to 0% with 3x SAMs (and a BRD for them.) Stun the 19% Dissipation, then put up Soul Voice buffs while waiting (BRD needs to start immediately after Dissipation or he'll be late and fuck everything up.) One the countdown starts, spam shit on it and it'll die.

[Eldelphia]

Is there any particular reason to zerg Ultima at all? Not trying to stir shit but whilst things get a bit lively once CB kicks in, get past Dissipation and 2 SAM and a couple of BLMs will get him down super fast anyway...?

[Aragon of Odin]

Sorry was a typo my bad. We wait for the CB Countdown before we start our zerg. We do not start at 20% because you risk Dissipation not being stunned, or before he enters Countdown mode he still has access to other TP moves that could hurt your zerg. When he starts his CB countdown he is frozen and doesn't do anything, so no risk of anything bad happening.

Ultimagi got it. Although Wiki has him being able to enter CB Countdown at the 25% mark I have personally never seen him start a Countdown until after his last Dissipation, which is what we plan for.

[rithridan]

In my experience more people die from Armor Buster spam then from Citadel Buster. Just be careful if you zerg it outside the countdown that you don't MPK your entire group.

[Mojo]

Is there any particular reason to zerg Ultima at all? Not trying to stir shit but whilst things get a bit lively once CB kicks in, get past Dissipation and 2 SAM and a couple of BLMs will get him down super fast anyway...?

If take it's health from 19% > 0% without encountering any TP moves, why not?

[liquinas]

Didn't wanna make a new topic for this, but does Citadel Buster reset hate on the target or on everyone?

[Wolfknight]

Everyone I'm pretty sure.

[Dimmauk]

In my experience more people die from Armor Buster spam then from Citadel Buster. Just be careful if you zerg it outside the countdown that you don't MPK your entire group.

This is very true.

[Seraph]

Everyone I'm pretty sure.

I could never figure out if it was a 'hate reset', or a 'rapid hate decay', or 'I just got slammed by 1000 damage so my CE level has dropped'. Something weird definitely happens though, because after I eat a CB Ultima will still be on me, but then will almost immediately go after someone else.