Salvage: Arrapago Remnants

[Wizerd]

I went with a group I just joined today to go once a week with so I could learn stuff and use it for my group. Did Arrapago, and while I disagree with the order of cells, lack of Phalanx II, etc, we did manage to kill the 2nd floor Qiqirn Astrologer, and 4th floor Treasure Hunter. QQTH dropped Macha's Coat, so 1/1 for when I've seen it, maybe 1/5 for them as a group? They tried to kill the large Psycheflayer too, but that didn't go so well.

They geared up the NIN first, and left MNKs useless except I got a Back/Waist cell, and I think 2 of the MNKs each won lot on a DEX cell. The Astrologer didn't warp, despite no weapon cell drops for the thieves or NIN, or anyone at all, and limited ability cells.

I learned a bunch though, mostly what I'll do differently lol. Like not let someone else try to hit the third floor teleporter... seems that's a me job only, as I had to do it today in weakness with a hermes quencher from the 2nd floor that no one took.

[Bleu]

Did Arrapago, and while I disagree with the order of cells, lack of Phalanx II, etc, we did manage to kill the 2nd floor Qiqirn Astrologer, and 4th floor Treasure Hunter.

I have a hard time justifying Phalanx II in this zone.

Usually our first magic goes to our WHM for Paralyzna (and merited Regen on the main tank works pretty nice too.) Our second magic goes to our BRD, for dispel, 5MP/tick refresh, peon/march, and merit pulling. Our third magic goes too BLM so that we have some damage for the 2F QQ. Our fourth magic goes to our Ninja so that we can start unlocking them. After that we fill in all the other RDM/BLM/BRD/WHM that happen to be along.

I just don't see a way to get a magic cell to a RDM early in this zone. I suppose it would be possible to give it to the RDM first for Dispel+Silence on every mob that uses Ice Spikes.

QQTH dropped Macha's Coat, so 1/1 for when I've seen it, maybe 1/5 for them as a group?

I hate you We've yet to see QQs drop anything.

[aurik]

I have a hard time justifying Phalanx II in this zone.

Usually our first magic goes to our WHM for Paralyzna (and merited Regen on the main tank works pretty nice too.) Our second magic goes to our BRD, for dispel, 5MP/tick refresh, peon/march, and merit pulling. Our third magic goes too BLM so that we have some damage for the 2F QQ. Our fourth magic goes to our Ninja so that we can start unlocking them. After that we fill in all the other RDM/BLM/BRD/WHM that happen to be along.

No need for paralyna if nothing has spikes, really. Fully meritted phalanx2 takes damage per-hit down to 5~10, allowing regen 1 or a strange milk to keep up with damage.

[Wizerd]

Did Arrapago, and while I disagree with the order of cells, lack of Phalanx II, etc, we did manage to kill the 2nd floor Qiqirn Astrologer, and 4th floor Treasure Hunter.

I have a hard time justifying Phalanx II in this zone.

Usually our first magic goes to our WHM for Paralyzna (and merited Regen on the main tank works pretty nice too.) Our second magic goes to our BRD, for dispel, 5MP/tick refresh, peon/march, and merit pulling. Our third magic goes too BLM so that we have some damage for the 2F QQ. Our fourth magic goes to our Ninja so that we can start unlocking them. After that we fill in all the other RDM/BLM/BRD/WHM that happen to be along.

I just don't see a way to get a magic cell to a RDM early in this zone. I suppose it would be possible to give it to the RDM first for Dispel+Silence on every mob that uses Ice Spikes.

QQTH dropped Macha's Coat, so 1/1 for when I've seen it, maybe 1/5 for them as a group?

I hate you We've yet to see QQs drop anything.

Mmm the Qutrubs were hitting for 15-35 in Arrapago on me last night, Phalanx II seems like it would be a godsend, since it'd bring damage down to what, 0-15ish?

[Amastacia]

Did Arrapago, and while I disagree with the order of cells, lack of Phalanx II, etc, we did manage to kill the 2nd floor Qiqirn Astrologer, and 4th floor Treasure Hunter.

I have a hard time justifying Phalanx II in this zone.

Usually our first magic goes to our WHM for Paralyzna (and merited Regen on the main tank works pretty nice too.) Our second magic goes to our BRD, for dispel, 5MP/tick refresh, peon/march, and merit pulling. Our third magic goes too BLM so that we have some damage for the 2F QQ. Our fourth magic goes to our Ninja so that we can start unlocking them. After that we fill in all the other RDM/BLM/BRD/WHM that happen to be along.

I just don't see a way to get a magic cell to a RDM early in this zone. I suppose it would be possible to give it to the RDM first for Dispel+Silence on every mob that uses Ice Spikes.

As a preface, I'm biased. I'm the Phalanx II bitch in my Salvage group, so if we couldn't justify using it, I'd turn into a walking Hi Pot tank, and that doesn't exactly appeal to me.

That said, You don't *need* to have a WHM with magic right away. If you have melees smart enough to say "hey, that's a BLM monster, I'll wait to engage until the RDM dispels its spikes" then you rarely ever run into a situation where you need Paralyna in the first place.

Regen III is a wonderful thing, don't get me wrong. Phalanx II + Regen I does the same thing for a LOT less MP though. It does require 3 upgrades in Phalanx to really be stellar, but most any endgame shell with the capability of doing Salvage is going to have more than 1 RDM in it. Not all need cap Para/Slow II since 3 different RDMs can't all stick the spells at the same time. With the spell capped, you're getting 3 minute duration and about ~20 damage knocked off every attack both physical and magical, and that is absolutely fantastic on the first couple floors of a Salvage zone when everyone is at their most vulnerable.

Plus, as much as the term "jack of all trades" is a total misnomer for RDM, it's a lot more applicable than it is to WHM. If you give a RDM the first magic cell, you get pretty much every WHM spell useful on the first few floors of Salvage sans Cure V (hardly ever needed), Regen II/III (more costly to use than Phalanx II), Erase (very nice to have, I'm not going to lie) and Raise III (unneeded if people just buy RR pots like they should). You also get crowd control, which is something WHM fails miserably at doing. Blood aggro a Qutrub while trying to pull a Lamia? No big deal, the melees pile on the Qutrub, the RDM sleeps the Lamia. Plus, while RDM has a smaller MP pool (especially pre-Spissatus), Refresh + a few ethers + cookies means that MP is manageable until you get a 2nd magic cell to give to a BRD, and then MP woes pretty much evaporate and you go into TP burn mode.

In a random group with boneheads, I can see the wisdom of giving a WHM the first magic cell, but I don't see the wisdom of going with idiots in the first place. Salvage screams hardcore content for hardcore players, and it's just not smart to hamstring yourself by taking in idiots.

[Prep]

Ok so for the past 3/4 weeks i have been leading a group though this area. It has been a real pain to do. The drops have been pretty good from what i have seen but we have only kill the QQA on the 2nd floor 1 time, and we havent been able to kill the QQTH on the third floor. Now i go with 8-9 ppl every time.

Is this to small a group to get anything done? I hand out the cells and we are usually pretty well geared against these NMs.

How do you guys keep up with the QQTH on the third floor? He just keeps running and we barely get to hit him.

Please help me out with some advise

[Amastacia]

Ok so for the past 3/4 weeks i have been leading a group though this area. It has been a real pain to do. The drops have been pretty good from what i have seen but we have only kill the QQA on the 2nd floor 1 time, and we havent been able to kill the QQTH on the third floor. Now i go with 8-9 ppl every time.

Is this to small a group to get anything done? I hand out the cells and we are usually pretty well geared against these NMs.

How do you guys keep up with the QQTH on the third floor? He just keeps running and we barely get to hit him.

Please help me out with some advise

8-9 is perfect, any more and people start consistently missing out on critical cells.

QQTH on the 3rd floor is a massive waste of time, we killed him once for shits and giggles, now we just steal from him and port up because he's not worth the lost time to chase all over hell's half acre. There isn't an easy way to fight him that we've found, and the more he ping-pongs past mobs that very much want to kill you, the more likely you'll run into a serious mishap that can deep 6 the run.

[Uzor]

Ok so for the past 3/4 weeks i have been leading a group though this area. It has been a real pain to do. The drops have been pretty good from what i have seen but we have only kill the QQA on the 2nd floor 1 time, and we havent been able to kill the QQTH on the third floor. Now i go with 8-9 ppl every time.

Is this to small a group to get anything done? I hand out the cells and we are usually pretty well geared against these NMs.

How do you guys keep up with the QQTH on the third floor? He just keeps running and we barely get to hit him.

Please help me out with some advise

My group have around 8-9 too, and I've fond simply skipping the first QQTH and steal onry from him is much better. The 4th floor QQTH only run between two rooms which are really close together, and you don't have to kill anything in order to fight him. Personally, I find 3rd floor rather useless.

[Lhexh]

Considering how low the drop rate is on Macha's Coat, if you can find a way to kill 3rd floor Qiqirn as well as everything else you want in the zone, then do it. I've now done 24 Arrapago runs, and am personally 0 for 41 on Treasure Hunter, so I want as many chances at drops as I can possibly get. My team has also resigned itself to trying to figure out if the 6th floor Qiqirns are poppable, and are willing to let the Astrologers warp as a test condition since nobody else really wants Deimos' Cuirass.

[Bleu]

Err... well, we skimp a little bit on 1F so that we have time to clear the 3 small rooms on 3F. Then we have somebody sneak to the QQTH and Bio him. He runs off to the alliance waiting on the other side to gank him.

This hasn't been much of a problem.

[Not Kuno]

Considering how low the drop rate is on Macha's Coat, if you can find a way to kill 3rd floor Qiqirn as well as everything else you want in the zone, then do it. I've now done 24 Arrapago runs, and am personally 0 for 41 on Treasure Hunter, so I want as many chances at drops as I can possibly get. My team has also resigned itself to trying to figure out if the 6th floor Qiqirns are poppable, and are willing to let the Astrologers warp as a test condition since nobody else really wants Deimos' Cuirass.

I agree with this post 100%. We have alot of people that want Morrigans and not that many that want Ares (plus one of them already got one) while 0/25 or so on Morrigan. We do 3+4 QQTH every time simply because that is what most everyone wants.

[Sady]

Yeah, we tried the DoT + ping pong strat once and it died to DoT while unclaimed (I like to think it wouldn't have dropped anyways ) so keep that in mind...

[Bleu]

Ew, that sucks =\

The time before last that we did 3F QQTH, I didn't even Bio him. I just ran into his room and got seen, and he ran off to the team on the other side.

This last run I tried that again, and he ran out of the teleporter room, turned around, ran back into it, shanked me, and then stood there.

I'm not entirely sure if being DoT'ed does something to prevent him from turning around for no reason.

[Nikko]

Once we tried by sending 2 BLMs to his room to pull with freeze 2. He ran away for a bit but turned around and came back killing a BLM before running away again. Not sure if bio was on it or not, but that may be what forces him to keep running if it wasnt.

[Lindstrom]

Anyone ever notice the Gear in the hallway before the Astrologer on floor 5 not aggro? It's weird, not sure it always happens but it'll say it's out of range if you try to do something to it but appearently meleeing gets it's attention (or at least that's what I noticed did the trick tonight). Seen this I think 2 or 3 times.

[Lordwafik]

Anyone ever notice the Gear in the hallway before the Astrologer on floor 5 not aggro? It's weird, not sure it always happens but it'll say it's out of range if you try to do something to it but appearently meleeing gets it's attention (or at least that's what I noticed did the trick tonight). Seen this I think 2 or 3 times.

Actually it's "too far away" to aggro you, we all got that message once while we were walking up the stairs to fight it and people in range couldnt tag it, people nuking from afar couldn't either, untill it goes into a position where people can attack it.

[Lindstrom]

Was "Unable to see" for me. I did notice that the times it's happened the door to the portal up had been opened (making the Astrologer up), and perhaps that messes with the gear. If anything though this probably makes it easier if you wanna save time, though I spose if you were desperate you could just sleep it since the Astrologer fight is short enough.

[aurik]

Astrologer never makes it out of the room for us.

[Lindstrom]

Meant that you have to get past the gear to get to the Astrologer's room. With it (seemingly) not aggroing you could just ignore it and run in and kill the Astrologer, but since it's something kinda weird, I wouldn't skip killing it in case it were to decide to aggro midfight.

Also, the longest that Astrologer fight went on for me was about 3 minutes when twice he used Sleepga II and hit the mages, and even then he didn't warp.

[Stellar]

Can anyone post exact route of 3f TH? I've never even tried it since our main goal has typically been 5th floor chariot and we attempt to save time.. but I think need to start killing 3f TH since its drop rate is apparently so low..