Salvage: Bhaflau Remnants

[Jackyl]

Are the Area Card slots always up? Getting the card has some of us wanting to do Arrapago, and we're a very prepared group, but Ive heard Arrapago is a nightmare.

We have 3 cards, the word nightmare doesn't even begin to describe this zone.

Arrapago indeed is quite horrendous. 2 Monks are recommended for this area. Everyone is advised to bring: Reraise, Hi potions, Silent Oils, Prism Powders, Yagudo Drinks, and Persiko/Pear/Pamama au Laits. Mages are advised to bazaar 10 or so hi potions in their bazaars for the melees (mainly mnks) to buy and use once their supply runs out. Ater preparation, all you can really do is pray for decent drops to advance somewhat fast.

As for the Mad Bomber, our group did not see this NM for a few runs then spotted it a couple times. Basically you have a 50% chance to see this NM, then if you're lucky Gate Widow(s) will pop, and if you are even luckier, you will get a drop... So: luck > luck > luck > yays.

It may be like May or June before we see anyone with a complete set.

[Uzor]

Are the Area Card slots always up? Getting the card has some of us wanting to do Arrapago, and we're a very prepared group, but Ive heard Arrapago is a nightmare.

We have 3 cards, the word nightmare doesn't even begin to describe this zone.

Arrapago indeed is quite horrendous. 2 Monks are recommended for this area. Everyone is advised to bring: Reraise, Hi potions, Silent Oils, Prism Powders, Yagudo Drinks, and Persiko/Pear/Pamama au Laits. Mages are advised to bazaar 10 or so hi potions in their bazaars for the melees (mainly mnks) to buy and use once their supply runs out. Ater preparation, all you can really do is pray for decent drops to advance somewhat fast.

As for the Mad Bomber, our group did not see this NM for a few runs then spotted it a couple times. Basically you have a 50% chance to see this NM, then if you're lucky Gate Widow(s) will pop, and if you are even luckier, you will get a drop... So: luck > luck > luck > yays.

It may be like May or June before we see anyone with a complete set.

I hate Mad Bomber... I don't know how many times we've gone to Bhaflau to attempt Gate Widow, but we've only seen Mad Bomber ONCE... and that time he didn't pop ; ;

[Therin]

What has a really good run been for you guys?

We just cleared Long-Bowed Chariot for the second time and got the following drops:

Anu's Tiara (first mob)
Enyo's Leggings (Troll on floor 1)
Hoshikazu Tekko (Flan on floor 2)
Nemain's Sabots (Scorpion on floor 2)
Hoshikazu Tekko (Flan on floor 3)
Freyr's Ledelsens (LBC)
Tsukikazu Haidate (LBC)

Seems like a pretty awesome run. :O

[Ayn]

Best run so far was probably our first one, went in with 8, got about 4 drops.

Grats on the LBC kill by the way. We'll be going with 12 -- after reading these boards and talking with a few people in PMs, I think we have a winning strategy down.

[Therin]

Best run so far was probably our first one, went in with 8, got about 4 drops.

Grats on the LBC kill by the way. We'll be going with 12 -- after reading these boards and talking with a few people in PMs, I think we have a winning strategy down.

Thanks, man. It's such a fun fight.

Due to the spinning and constant repositioning and such, I'd probably say it's the most fun thing I've ever tanked, and probably one of the most difficult, simply because it's more than just "Hay, let's see how much damage I can mitigate/hate I can hold." It actually requires 100% constant attention in order to avoid that Missle, and it's actually a pretty tough mob to tank because of that (though if it didn't have that positioning thing, it'd be a joke, it doesn't hit very fast and can easily be blinked, as long as your mages are quick on the Paralyna).

[Toth]

Warning: just because you cannot use head gear at the start does not mean you should not bring a reraise hairpin. I lost like 5k from our winning run because of a few R1 on LBC

[Sykes]

Warning: just because you cannot use head gear at the start does not mean you should not bring a reraise hairpin. I lost like 5k from our winning run because of a few R1 on LBC

Yeah, I'm asking everyone in our group to bring both a reraise potion and a charged reraise item. Especially in Bhaflau, it's pretty unlikely that you won't have head and neck items by the end of the first floor.

[Celeras]

Having only 1 person in aoe range saves a lot of aoe damage.

Agreed- but look at their party setup. Mostly melee- 1 BLM, 1 brd, 1 rdm. taking all the melee except one tank out of aoe range cripples the dmg output. It would take like 30+ AM2s to take it out. maybe if they had 2 BLMs, i'd buy it.

BTW I thought ppl might be interseted in this diagram I used to explain the tanking setup to my LS. phear the ms paint kskillz
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...arthor/LBC.jpg

Haha, I love this. Gotta love the Paint Diagrams!

Allow me to show you ours. We came up with this after our first win, which required a zerg at the end and a few close calls. We figured that since Missles cant kill and was hate reset, we could effectively bounce LBC back and forth between tanks. It worked well until we got to a point where it was doing back-to-back missles, once both tanks got hit it was the same chaos that ensued the first time. We havent tryed it against since so I wouldnt recommend it, but gotta love the paint skills!

http://razorbites.com/celeras/strategicdiagram.jpg

[Neosutra]

Maybe a still stupid idea, but with the above diagram, with the tanks on both side, why not put the blms in front of LBC, outside normal AoE range, but inside HM range. It wont kill them, but they get their hate reset everytime he does the move. They could pretty much go apeshit on the mob and never take hate.

Just a thought. Use its own move against it.

[Therin]

We just tank from 90 degrees and shift as it turns toward the end. Most of the time you can shift fast enough to get out of range before it uses Homing Missle, but for the freak accidents in which it DOES get a Homing Missle off before you can move (sometimes it readies it literally at the same time that it turns), just have a PLD/NIN save a Flash + Sentinel or Flash + Rampart for hate. You'll almost always pull it back to you.

And even if not, there's always Invincible.

[Jackyl]

Maybe a still stupid idea, but with the above diagram, with the tanks on both side, why not put the blms in front of LBC, outside normal AoE range, but inside HM range. It wont kill them, but they get their hate reset everytime he does the move. They could pretty much go apeshit on the mob and never take hate.

Just a thought. Use its own move against it.

lol, took 17 pages for someone to realize how to fight it properly. /salute

[Neosutra]

Maybe a still stupid idea, but with the above diagram, with the tanks on both side, why not put the blms in front of LBC, outside normal AoE range, but inside HM range. It wont kill them, but they get their hate reset everytime he does the move. They could pretty much go apeshit on the mob and never take hate.

Just a thought. Use its own move against it.

lol, took 17 pages for someone to realize how to fight it properly. /salute

lol thankyou. Just occured to me though, with the current diagram, LBC will not perform HM till he starts to turn, or has turned and is facing the tank. So the blms would have to be positioned behind the main tank. When LBC uses HM, then that specific tank and all the DD/Blms will be hate free as well, allowing Tank#2 to easily tank hate back. Hell, with a fresh hate slate, the healers could curaga the affected people w/o even making LBC flinch.

Have to try this out Friday.

[aurik]

Or you could just have your tanks position to never trigger HM at all.

[Neosutra]

Or you could just have your tanks position to never trigger HM at all.

I was under the impression it would start to turn and use the move at certain points. Guess you could circle around with it, but just saying why not let a few through, hitting your DDs with the highest hate.

No reason to let a free hate reset for your DDs go to waste.

Although i doubt you would want them to get hit with it every time.

[aurik]

Or you could just have your tanks position to never trigger HM at all.

I was under the impression it would start to turn and use the move at certain points. Guess you could circle around with it.

Strategy, wut?

No reason for a hate reset when your tanks are holding hate fine.

[Neosutra]

Aurik, does it just start to circle around to target you for HM for a short time, then give up and go back to another move?

And i dont see anything wrong with letting your blms go a little apeshit on it.

Different strats i guess.

If you have a ton of time to kill it, widdle it down and circle with it. If you are pressed for time, let your DD go apeshit and just get hit with HM to keep them off the hate list.

Not saying one way works better, just suggesting make use of the free reset -if needed-.

[Jackyl]

There is no guarantee that HM will not go off. Sure you can turn with it to try to avoid it, but a badly timed bind + turn + HM = chaos.

[divisortheory]

There is no guarantee that HM will not go off. Sure you can turn with it to try to avoid it, but a badly timed bind + turn + HM = chaos.

If your tanks are relying on Erase instead of bringing ridiculously cheap stacks of Remedy Ointments, there's a problem.

[Sci]

Maybe a still stupid idea, but with the above diagram, with the tanks on both side, why not put the blms in front of LBC, outside normal AoE range, but inside HM range. It wont kill them, but they get their hate reset everytime he does the move. They could pretty much go apeshit on the mob and never take hate.

Just a thought. Use its own move against it.

lol, took 17 pages for someone to realize how to fight it properly. /salute

lol thankyou. Just occured to me though, with the current diagram, LBC will not perform HM till he starts to turn, or has turned and is facing the tank. So the blms would have to be positioned behind the main tank. When LBC uses HM, then that specific tank and all the DD/Blms will be hate free as well, allowing Tank#2 to easily tank hate back. Hell, with a fresh hate slate, the healers could curaga the affected people w/o even making LBC flinch.

Have to try this out Friday.

Homing Missile is not a complete hate reset, it's your typical mob hate reset, it doesn't remove you off the hate list. If you have your mages casting curaga after a homing missile, they're dead.

Also, the strategy works fine. It's how our group beat it a couple weeks ago with 11 people, and using just 1 tank. We posted it around page 7 or 8, so it's not exactly new to try to keep people in homing missile range. I'd think the best method is just have a single tank on it, try to keep on the side. But if it just uses TP moves too fast, as long as people are within Homing Missile range and not other AoE range you'll be ok.

[aurik]

There is no guarantee that HM will not go off. Sure you can turn with it to try to avoid it, but a badly timed bind + turn + HM = chaos.

It doesn't have fast TP regen, so when it uses the bind TP move it won't have TP to HM for at least a few seconds. The whole strategy to tanking this requires fast erases--if your erase bitches suck at their job, then yes you might lose.

Aurik, does it just start to circle around to target you for HM for a short time, then give up and go back to another move?

It resets its position periodically. I'm willing to bet the reset phase is predictable, based on its HP.

And i dont see anything wrong with letting your blms go a little apeshit on it.

Different strats i guess.

All fine and good until LBC moves to your mage group and does the red laser move instead of HM, and floors everyone with 1 shot.

1 or 2 accidental HM is eminently recoverable from; cure5, tank self-cure and drop abilities, invincible etc. Losing all your mages in 1 TP move moves the fight immediately into zombie/wipe mode.