Pandemonium Warden

[Koyangi]

I have read the wiki pages on PW and tried to look at a few videos, but most of them involve large group strategies. I want to find out info on how people "lowman" this NM now and in particular what people do about the adds, Discoid, the Astral Flows, and other parts of the battle.

Is the Dvergr form damagable in between it transforming into the 10 modes before it becomes final?

Will there always be a max of 10 adds up at any time, and if only some adds were killed on a previous form, do the remaining ones transform into the adds that pair up with the NM form he is currently in?

I can do a melee + healer strategy or a SMN burn strategy, how can I use either of these to manage this fight?

What are the lowman strategies to deal with Astral Flow and Discoid, or does the Chariot die too fast with 10k HP I may not have to worry about that?

Thanks.

[Damane]

PW is easy until the last form where astral flow will/can fuck you, all you need is Perfect Defense for the last form to plow through, everything beforehand is just piececake.

[Alarial]

Fairly certain a Paladin can solo PW currently.

And Astral Flow is laughable with iLvL gear and the appropriate buffs (or Aegis).

As for other questions:

Adds - Leave on an Ochain Paladin (just have the Paladin flash the Dvergr form between shifts so he has hate at the start of each fight).

PW itself:

1. Cannot be damaged during form shifts.

2. Handle the "special" moves like you would any else (enough people in range for discoid, or stun it, or use other mitigating measures - sentinel, Scherzo, etc). Honestly, with 2 solid iLvL DDs the chariot forms will die in 2-3 WSs (meaning you may not even see a TP move, especially if you have a good stunner). You're literally talking about 10-15 seconds per form during the chariot phases.

3. For Final Stage, put up your magic defense bonus JAs, swap to -MDT/iLvL resist gear, scherzo if not a pld, and murder it. - You can Perfect Defense if you're scared, but it's honestly not needed. Sacrosantity, bar spell, capped MDT, and resists.

Easy-peasy setup would be:

Pld DDx2 whm brd cor. But like I said, the Paladin could solo it.

[Fake]

And Astral Flow is laughable with iLvL gear and the appropriate buffs

This is inaccurate, Astral Flow can quite easily kill DDs or mages, especially if you only have a small number of characters present since the avatars random spawn onto people in the party/alliance. Sacrosantity and barspell will each only have a chance to affect one of the AFs. You can diaga and run them away if you are fast.

I have done it MNK BRD WHM but the final phase is not 100%. You can easily just sac it for a few mins (it doesn't regen when idle without DOTs) while you unweak if AF does kill you. None of the forms except dvergr or hydra (blunt resist) took more than 1 WS to kill, adding more DDs doesn't really speed it up significantly since a large portion of the fight is spent disengaged waiting for cackle/hellsnap.

[Damane]

This is inaccurate, Astral Flow can quite easily kill DDs or mages, especially if you only have a small number of characters present since the avatars random spawn onto people in the party/alliance. Sacrosantity and barspell will each only have a chance to affect one of the AFs. You can diaga and run them away if you are fast.

I have done it MNK BRD WHM but the final phase is not 100%. You can easily just sac it for a few mins (it doesn't regen when idle without DOTs) while you unweak if AF does kill you. None of the forms except dvergr or hydra (blunt resist) took more than 1 WS to kill, adding more DDs doesn't really speed it up significantly since a large portion of the fight is spent disengaged waiting for cackle/hellsnap.

i wonder if you could plow with a buffed up RUN and elemental sforzo from 75% to 0% in 30 sec.

[Fake]

Considering how big the delay is between when it summons the avatars and they actually use AF its possible but without anything other than Haste you may struggle to do enough damage.

[Cletus]

My group did WAR, THF, PLD, WHM. Every form goes down in 20 seconds until the final form. Astral Flow kills WAR and THF; PLD holds until unweak, WAR pops both 1-hour abilities and Upheaval spam kills final form before 2nd Astral Flow goes off. It doesn't despawn for 3 minutes if unclaimed, so PLD can use Twilight and zombie if shit goes wrong. It's really MUCH easier than you would think. Would be an easy win with any good DD + PLD. We brought THF for hopes of 2nd Scoria drop and WHM for safety, but they aren't necessary by any means. DDs can probably survive Astral Flow with a good MDT set, but we were lazy about it.

[Xenhas]

SAM + any mage with haste and cure can do it. I wouldn't be surprised if SAM/DNC could solo it.
New 2hr blocks astral flow damage. Use it before PW changes to the final form. Old 2hr, meditate + wing on the last form and it should be possible.

[JSHidaka]

http://youtu.be/qrlsQaQm7Mo that was pre ilvl, so I don't think it is any harder now... Afraid of astral... Schernzo

[Fwahm]

SAM + any mage with haste and cure can do it. I wouldn't be surprised if SAM/DNC could solo it.
New 2hr blocks astral flow damage. Use it before PW changes to the final form. Old 2hr, meditate + wing on the last form and it should be possible.

Wait, what? Yaegasumi works on magic?

[dasva]

It might be the weird way a lot of tp moves are counted. Like how fanatics works on most of them even the ones that are clearly magic dmg including all avatar moves

[Fake]

Wait, what? Yaegasumi works on magic?

Astral Flow isn't magic, its a magic damage tp move.

RE JSHidaka: Astral flow won't proc scherzo so not really a valid point, and even if it did it would be reducing damage that does 75%~ of your hp to 37.5%, so 3AFs would still kill you. That video you posted is completely irrelevant since its already established that Aegis pld doesn't need to be afraid of AF.

[Digg]

Major bump I guess, but I am curious to know if this now with current iLvl is cakewalk solo. F.x did anyone try out SAM/DNC with success? Other good solo strategies at this era?

[Damane]

Major bump I guess, but I am curious to know if this now with current iLvl is cakewalk solo. F.x did anyone try out SAM/DNC with success? Other good solo strategies at this era?

difference from september to now isnt that big, still ilvl 119 as max in terms of survivability.

[Ophannus]

Still makes me wonder how SE intended us to avoid AF as PW was apparently killable in under 2hrs with only 18. I guess we'll never know now.

[Spira]

i think they actually mentioned this before.. but people already figured this out.
1 guy outside party diaga, run away.

[JeanPaul]

From his Astral Flow, most of the avatar damage is pretty weak, but Ruinous Omen (Diabolos) does a percentage of your health, so it can actually cause problems. I also noticed that in the final form, it only uses Ice and Lightning nukes and sleepga. As a RUN, I like to build up to 3000% TP just before 75%, then with a Resolution bringing him down to 50%. Immediately after my WS, I use One For All and I'm completely safe from the back-to-back Astral Flow spam. For the last one at 25%, I can just build TP and do that again, and use Meditate and/or Lunge if it's not enough to finish him off. It's not so much that the damage itself will kill a RUN, but more the fact that if it takes a big chunk of HP, then it can be tricky to recover that without meds or something. An Engulfer Cape and Shadow Ring combo is pretty helpful, too.

Definitely bring some way to reraise (or just raise 1 guy out of party) in case he actually does manage to wipe you, since he does have good magic accuracy. I can reduce a lot of his damage with the right runes and Vallation/Valiance/Liement:
Discoid: Light based, use Tenebrae
Homing Missle: Fire based, use Unda
Ruinous Omen: Dark based, use Lux

[Spira]

wait.. this is RUN solo w/ trusts?

[JeanPaul]

Because it was the first time I fought him, and my brother really needed the scoria so we didn't wanna fuck it up, it was the two of us, plus our other brother to throw at it in case we died. I did use trusts, but I don't see why a RUN couldn't beat it solo, even without trusts. I'd probably bring a Vile Elixir/+1 just to be safe, because there are a lot of ways the fight can go wrong.

[dasva]

Hmmm wonder if they buffed one for all without telling us... it used to kinda suck and seemed somewhat randomish when I tried testing it when it came out.