Salvage II - Slavage Harder

[Jem]

Yeah, Khim Fulm range is definitely over max casting range as our healer was getting hit at 26 yesterday. It doesn't hit that hard if you switch to PDT for the stun/paralyze duration though (~100-150 from HQ and I forgot my helmet) and it is stunnable with Weapon Bash/Stun which is what I've been doing on our runs. Arcane Circle/Crest obviously helps with damage and frequency too.

I've had decent success stunning it but the main issue seems to be that Salvage zones have a constant R1500-2000+. At least everyone I've asked about it has said that's the case for them (it certainly is for me) so you have to be quick with the stunning and sometimes still get screwed by lag. Generally if one gets off, it's difficult to stop the next one if it comes quickly. The HQ got a few off when we went yesterday as it used it more frequently than I could stun/recover but we still managed to kill fine (Apoc DRK + SCH + THF, daredn't use my Ragna), I just switched to PDT until we recovered. I don't know how quickly the healer managed to get rid of paralyze and cure though.

If things were looking rough, I'd probably get the THF to stand out of range in case of a death. That's obviously trio not duo though. I could imagine it being very rough duo without a reliable stun if Fulmi decided to be a pain and was spammed.

Does being behind it force Plague Swipe? Would be a possible way around it if it does.

[NynJa]

and it is stunnable with Weapon Bash/Stun which is what I've been doing on our runs.

whm/blm cant stun it, atleast not with a half-ass stun set.


I'll try fighting it from behind next time and see what happens, if no one else tries it first.

[Rehn]

Arra II:

Lamia Spoliator popped after I killed the last fatedealer. I killed the 2 dartist + 1 fatedealer and killed no other.

[Slycer]

Check the page for the regular dvergr. Drop rates just on that mob range from <1% to just under 20% after over 100 kills. Two of the pieces are listed as 1 drop in 106 kills. It's not very likely, but I'd say it's still within possibility.

The tracking could also be a bit messed up, as a couple of the HQ bosses are reported having >100% drop rate on linens.

I'm 99.999999999999% sure each individual level 45 piece drops off two TYPES of bosses (i.e. 4 bosses total, both bosses in each of two areas). For example, Idi's Trousers off NQ/HQ Hydra and NQ/HQ Dvergr. Go and check FFXIDB, search by armor names. It's not a coincidence that every single level 45 piece drops from exactly two types of bosses. (I checked all 25.)

[Slycer]

Arra II:

Lamia Spoliator popped after I killed the last fatedealer. I killed the 2 dartist + 1 fatedealer and killed no other.

Pretty sure it's both Dartists AND both Fatedealers. Unless someone has popped after killing just two of them, which I don't think has happened once yet.

[Jem]

whm/blm cant stun it, atleast not with a half-ass stun set.


I'll try fighting it from behind next time and see what happens, if no one else tries it first.

Yeah, stunning from WHM/BLM probably won't be reliable but I've yet to see a single stun on it as DRK including the runs I haven't taken my Dark Magic/stun sets. The lack of counterstance probably makes for lower damage over the course of the run (I've been subbing SAM, not sure if Hasso/LR would make up the difference) but survivability is probably the same or greater with Apoc + Carbonara + Arcane Circle/Crest for relevant mobs.

EDIT: Also a theory to test for NQ Khim pop conditions. Kill all 5F Gears (not including Rampart gears). That's the only difference I can see between my runs and a friends runs. We've always got NQ Khim to pop and he hasn't. Could also be related to number of gear/archaic machinery kills over the full run?

Our run plan has been

1F: 1 Vulture Room + 1 Leech Room + 2-3 Lamia/Merrow (whatevers nearby) + Relevant Chigoe Wing + Chigoe NM
2F: 2 Lamias + 4 Gears + Gear NM
3F: 2-4 Qutrubs + Acrolith NM + NQ Gear + Gear NM
4F: 3-4 Flytraps + 2 NQ Acroliths + Acrolith NM + Lamias + Lamia NM
5F: All pre-popped gears. Sometimes we've popped Gears from Ramparts, sometimes we haven't (Notably last run we didn't touch ramps at all and still got NQ to pop 6F)
6F: Kill all Chariots + Armored Chariot + Rampart + Khim (Notably we've had Khim pop after only killing 2 Chariots + Armored Chariot though)
7F: HQ Khim

NQ Khim has popped every run. Floors 1-5 until Ramparts have always been identical. Some runs we've popped rampart gears, some runs we haven't. Likewise some runs we've killed all chariots and some we haven't, Khim has always popped regardless so I think we can rule them being pop conditions out (unless like people say it's a % chance that increases depending on what you've killed)

EDIT2: One thing I've noticed there. It looks like we've had at least 1 kill of every mob type in the zone which may also be a factor? Actually nevermind, another friend says they got HQ to pop and they never touched flytraps so that debunks that.

[Motenten]

On the run I recently did in Arra2, I went as sch/rdm. Perp/AOE Regen5 lasted the entire final boss fight (wore off about 20 seconds after the boss was killed), and easily kept people alive during Fulmination stun until I unparalyzed. Fulmination was used twice (second time at 1%...).

We also got NQ+HQ Khims.

On the 6th floor we killed Armored Chariot first, then the Archaic Chariots in the main room (didn't touch side rooms), then went for the rampart. In case there's any similarity to Arra1, time from initial pull until all the chariots in the main room were killed was 4:31. There was approximately 1 minute between porting up and engaging the first chariot. Possibly a 6-7 minute time limit?

On the 5th floor we did a full clear of all single gears, and then also killed one rampart plus its 8 triple gears.

[Helel]

Fighting it from behind does not prevent fulmination. We've never died from it though. I would keep barblizzard and barparalyze up. I've been able to remove paralyze from my mule within one cast.

Best thing to do though is just cure in between TP moves. Have the DDs go /nin or if you've got a BLU have him use occultation. Have the healer (we use RDM) run outside 30' after he/she finishes curing. The BLU can also heal if needed. He's really pretty easy if you fight him like this.

Note that neither khim's plague swipe removes buffs so it might be beneficial to fight them on the tail regardless. It doesn't do much damage and I believe it can blinked.

We're having issues with hydra spamming physical shield... Going to fight it on the tail only today and see if that helps. The HQ hydra is really nasty with his triple attack, though his serpentine tail is actually weaker than the NQ's. Going to go /nin as well.

[NynJa]

There was approximately 1 minute between porting up and engaging the first chariot. Possibly a 6-7 minute time limit?

[11:34:21]Nynja defeats the Archaic Chariot2.
[11:35:37]Fireciont defeats the Archaic Chariot3
[11:36:59]Nynja defeats the Archaic Chariot1.
[11:38:19]Fireciont defeats the Archaic Chariot5
[11:39:14]Fireciont defeats the Archaic Chariot4
[11:40:51]Nynja defeats the Archaic Chariot6.
[11:41:54]Fireciont defeats the Archaic Chariot7
[11:44:58]Fireciont defeats the Armored Chariot.
Khim spawns from rampart

10+ minutes there

[Motenten]

While it's likely that there is no actual time limit in place, it's conceivable that the side-room chariots can act as time extensions. I'd be interested in seeing the time stamps from the runs where Khim did -not- pop.

[Jem]

There definitely isn't a time limit for those chariots. I say that because we have had Khim pop after only killing 2 of them + Armored Chariot. And the killspeed was extremely slow even for those two as the SCH + THF were weak so I solo killed them as DRK. We even had one of them aggro whilst fighting Khim.

[Motenten]

Ok.

[NynJa]

friend of mine just got chariot after doing all archaic > armored > rampart

what the fuck is the trigger.

[Slycer]

FYI, I'm regularly checking the JP wikis at
wiki.ffo.jp
and
ffxi.wikiwiki.jp

Neither of them has any info on the pop conditions on those (FFO has no info yet, wikiwiki just has some info for two of the zones but not on the NQ bosses, theyre throwing out some of the same guesses as us with machinery kills, etc.). Anyone know of any other well-used JP wikis? May not be any, just wondering.

[macross]

Maybe the more you kill or the faster you kill increases the chance that shit will spawn, that or shit's just random.

[Jem]

Has anyone had a run yet where NQ did not pop even though they killed all Archaic Machinery en-route to boss? In all zones I've done, I've yet to see NQ not pop if I just kill absolutely everything in my path (discounting 5F gears popped from Ramparts in Arra). The only run I've done where the Rampart would not spit out the NQ was Zhayolm and that was a zone where we had to leave mobs unkilled due to time restraints (we tried popping without clearing 6F).

Everytime we've just killed all gears/ramparts/chariots that were pre-popped (I guess you can toss Acroliths in there too), the NQ has popped.




Also I can't remember if it was someone in my LS or someone in this thread who complained that Twilight didn't work against Cerberus. It 100% does as I was hitting like 3x harder with that than Apoc. I assume whoever said it didn't was hitting into Hoplon.

Slightly related, I'm pretty sure the NQ Cerberus (maybe the HQ too, it was spammy at low HP too but that was Hoplon) has regain like normal Cerb as it spammed Gates of Hades 4 times in quick sucession when we did it just now (EDIT: 7 secs between each one, quicker than expected for just 1 person hitting it anyway). It didn't cause a wipe but was still very unexpected.

[Foldypaws]

Has anyone had a run yet where NQ did not pop even though they killed all Archaic Machinery en-route to boss? In all zones I've done, I've yet to see NQ not pop if I just kill absolutely everything in my path (discounting 5F gears popped from Ramparts in Arra). The only run I've done where the Rampart would not spit out the NQ was Zhayolm and that was a zone where we had to leave mobs unkilled due to time restraints (we tried popping without clearing 6F).

I've had two runs in Bhaflau II where NQ didn't pop, even though we killed all the gears/ramparts/chariot/acroliths. Only thing we skipped were some of the trolls on 2F,

[R3G1STRY]

I'm 99.999999999999% sure each individual level 45 piece drops off two TYPES of bosses (i.e. 4 bosses total, both bosses in each of two areas). For example, Idi's Trousers off NQ/HQ Hydra and NQ/HQ Dvergr. Go and check FFXIDB, search by armor names. It's not a coincidence that every single level 45 piece drops from exactly two types of bosses. (I checked all 25.)

Just adding to this... It seems one of the types has a much higher drop rate than the other (for the most part).

Complete speculation, but it could be two different drop slots. I haven't seen two of the same item drop off an HQ or NQ (in screenshots or my own runs).

[Helel]

If it is archaic machinery kills, has anyone cleared 5th floor, or killed 1-2 ramparts, cleared 6th floor, and not had khim pop? The first run we did, we killed 2/4 ramparts. The second run we killed all 4.

Update: back tanking hydra does not force serpentine tail. He still spammed bulwark just as much. Enspells really help to keep his regen down. On the HQ he did nerve gas to barofield at 15% and killed us. Could have zombied but we were running out of time.
Something seems weird with the HQ's attack power. I think he gains a large attack boost if his heads are missing, but loses his ability to triple attack. His number of attacks per round might be related to number of heads remaining, 2 = double attack, 1 = single attack, etc. He was hitting for over 500 with one head remaining. Hits for around 200 with 3 heads.

[Banalaty]

Just adding to this... It seems one of the types has a much higher drop rate than the other (for the most part).

Complete speculation, but it could be two different drop slots. I haven't seen two of the same item drop off an HQ or NQ (in screenshots or my own runs).

I didnt think to take a screeny but I got 2x Idi's gloves off NQ khim 2 days ago.

Also, NQ khim can suck a nut. Ive now gone 5 runs without penultimate floor khim pop. Popped on my 1st run and never again since. Kiled gears, killed chariots, killed nothing. Stupid thing is pissing me off. 1st run that it popped on, killed a handful of single gears and teh armored ramp and it popped. Since then ive killed few gears+armored. Few gears+no chariots. Few gears+main room of chariots(armored last), 12/16 gears+armored, handful of singles+all 4 ramparts and reinforcement gears+archaic. I dont know wtf is up with this thing.