Soloing Arrapago Remnants QQTHs & QQAs

[Wizerd]

Could the QQA's be finished purely with DoT? Or is it too risky for warping?

Really it's safer to just kill it with DOT only. As long as you do it right.

And don't chainspell nuke at 50%, your nukes will resist, I'd say 30% maybe, with MP cell. Though chainspell isn't even needed (and may be less safe cuz it means you're standing still. Maybe through an AM spell though).

[Waef]

Ah okay, I wasn't sure what resist rate would be like. I meant while it was casting something that was single target of course But I guess if you can get it to 50% then DoTs will continue to work and chances are it won't warp? If that's the case then disregard my statement about nuking it down.

[Tulun]

Could the QQA's be finished purely with DoT? Or is it too risky for warping?

Really it's safer to just kill it with DOT only. As long as you do it right.

And don't chainspell nuke at 50%, your nukes will resist, I'd say 30% maybe, with MP cell. Though chainspell isn't even needed (and may be less safe cuz it means you're standing still. Maybe through an AM spell though).

Interesting. I have DRK levelled... I'm curious if I could do similiar to BLM, assuming all I needed was DoT (Bio II, whee!). Not sure if I could stick Poison II on, how resistant was it?

[Waef]

I tried this the other day as rdm (only killed a QQTH, the astrologer that I tried ended up warping) but Poison II never got resisted on the QQTH or the QQA. The only problem I can see drk having would be when the QQTH comes to takes swings at you. Sometimes it will take 1 or 2 but sometimes it will attack you for a long time. The 4th floor one would probably be possible if you brough tonko tools (you'd need /nin I'm sure.) What I did was just kite it around the portal until it ran off again when it did decide to attack me, but I did get a legs cell at the start (crimson cuisses).

Basically, if you were to do it as Drk, I would think you would need to bring enough potions to guarantee your survival incase it does manage to hit you. /nin for sure, of course. I'm sure it's possible, I just don't know how hard it will be to pull off.

[Wizerd]

Could the QQA's be finished purely with DoT? Or is it too risky for warping?

Really it's safer to just kill it with DOT only. As long as you do it right.

And don't chainspell nuke at 50%, your nukes will resist, I'd say 30% maybe, with MP cell. Though chainspell isn't even needed (and may be less safe cuz it means you're standing still. Maybe through an AM spell though).

Interesting. I have DRK levelled... I'm curious if I could do similiar to BLM, assuming all I needed was DoT (Bio II, whee!). Not sure if I could stick Poison II on, how resistant was it?

You could do it as DRK but you may have to bring Hi-Ethers since you won't have Refresh. DOTs do take MP and there's only 2 25% chances of having an MP cell at the start. You have Aspir, which would probably be sufficient, but just in case type thing. Drain and Drain II to keep you alive if it hits you with DOTs and such. Really, I think the reason the QQA runs away from groups meleeing it is because it likes to cast from a range. People keep following it, he keeps moving. He moves to/from porter, then it's his chance to Warp. If you're staying at range, it avoids that problem. Voila, solo QQA.

[mackerel]

drk/nin with weapon, subjob, magic, and job ability shouldn't have a problem taking down any lamia or skeleton on the first floor. It seems reasonable to expect you could get a MP cell to drop in 20 minutes or less, certainly 80 minutes or less, leaving plenty enough time to kill a qiqirn or two. Kill a few skeletons for a HP cell while you're at it.

[Tulun]

You could do it as DRK but you may have to bring Hi-Ethers since you won't have Refresh. DOTs do take MP and there's only 2 25% chances of having an MP cell at the start. You have Aspir, which would probably be sufficient, but just in case type thing. Drain and Drain II to keep you alive if it hits you with DOTs and such. Really, I think the reason the QQA runs away from groups meleeing it is because it likes to cast from a range. People keep following it, he keeps moving. He moves to/from porter, then it's his chance to Warp. If you're staying at range, it avoids that problem. Voila, solo QQA.

Interesting. I'll have to play around with it.. now to just find 5 people to let me in

I think I would bring a couple yag drinks + autorefresh sanction. If I got my neckpiece too, I would have 2 mp/tick at high hp (I think the mob would 1 shot me anyway) or 4 mp/tick with a yag. Either way, I think it would be fun to test, and off salvage days, be a nice way to burn my... fuck, I must have 40-50k just laying around >.>

[Odog]

This was a great find... Thanks a ton original poster!

Today (on one of our off salvage days) I got some LS mates to let me in solo but sadly one BLM got sucked into the zone with me ; ;

All 5 people had red dots for a good 3-5 seconds before i clicked to enter. She did however log back in extremly fast after DC'n herself. I did not think this would matter but maybe it did. Maybe It was just me going in too fast.

Anyhow, It took me a little bit to get the strategy down on the 3F QQTH and I wasted alot of time not layering the DOT's well enough. By the end, the strategy I liked the best was to use Poison II > Dia II. Then, if he decided to stop and fight me on the run over to the other side, I could simply apply Bio II and did not have to worry about him being without a DOT.

4F QQTH was a piece of cake.

I wasted a ton of time on the 3F QQTH and had only 5 mins left after the 4F QQTH went down so I decided to try the Bhoot. In 5 minutes time I used DOT and kite strategy to take him down to 90%. I think my next run I will be able to kill him with relative ease.

I got lucky and got max HP, MP, feet/legs, vit in the first chest but kiting the Bhoot was no problem at all. Making sure to avoid Blizzaga III was the biggest issue.

In the future I would like to take the Soulflayer route and try to kill him with the leftover time because I would rather have Morrigans crown than Ares Crown.

What I am concerned with is the true sight aggro on floor 3 for the QQTH and all the backtracking that is required.

questions, comments and suggestions welcome for my future runs. thanks again OP :D

[Garion]

So would a blm need have to get Feet with gaiters to have a chance at 3rd floor QQTH? or need to sub Nin? Anyone soloed it without gaiters?

[Odog]

So would a blm need have to get Feet with gaiters to have a chance at 3rd floor QQTH? or need to sub Nin? Anyone soloed it without gaiters?

lots of people have solo'd it without gaiters because you don't always get them (depending on the begining chest)

Rdm/Nin is both the best and the safest but Blm/Nin is certainly possible as well. Blm might require yag drinks and such is all

[Sylvrdragon]

For DRK, the QQTH deciding to come take some swings at you might actually be good if you can properly utilize Dread Spikes. That's an extra ~1k+ free damage within a few seconds. Just make sure to cast /NIN and have shadows up at first, then as soon as he comes toward you, start casting DS, then immediately recast Ni once it wears off. Also, don't forget that DRK can use Crimson too, so if they get Legs, then soloing this should be just about as easy as for a RDM/NIN, and potentially faster.

[Odog]

2nd run completed today.

QQTH on 3rd and 4th went down easy. Today I did not get max MP or HP but still got feet/legs so had crimson legs. No drops on either kill. The ONLY tricky part is making sure that you make the kill on the 3rd floor QQTH while it is claimed (red) and not white. I havent made this mistake yet but I could see how someone might. I just CS Blizzard 3 when he is down to about 3-5% to be on the safe side since I do not need CS at all for 4th floor QQTH.

As far as Mr. Bhoot goes... I have 25 minuted left for him but after getting him down to 80% he got a lucky blizzaga 3 off on me and killed me. I reraised and tried to DOT him again fast but he regened back to 100 before I could. One thing I learned is that It is very easy to make him lose agrro on you similar to the QQTH and let the DOT do the work without having to worry about his big spells all the time. What makes him harder is that he has either more than twice as much HP as QQTH or he has a large regen. (Full cycle of poison 2 and bio 2 take him down 3-4% and my nukes were mostly ineffective) On the QQTH's a full cycle will take him down a good 9-10%.

[Wizerd]

2nd run completed today.

QQTH on 3rd and 4th went down easy. Today I did not get max MP or HP but still got feet/legs so had crimson legs. No drops on either kill. The ONLY tricky part is making sure that you make the kill on the 3rd floor QQTH while it is claimed (red) and not white. I havent made this mistake yet but I could see how someone might. I just CS Blizzard 3 when he is down to about 3-5% to be on the safe side since I do not need CS at all for 4th floor QQTH.

As far as Mr. Bhoot goes... I have 25 minuted left for him but after getting him down to 80% he got a lucky blizzaga 3 off on me and killed me. I reraised and tried to DOT him again fast but he regened back to 100 before I could. One thing I learned is that It is very easy to make him lose agrro on you similar to the QQTH and let the DOT do the work without having to worry about his big spells all the time. What makes him harder is that he has either more than twice as much HP as QQTH or he has a large regen. (Full cycle of poison 2 and bio 2 take him down 3-4% and my nukes were mostly ineffective) On the QQTH's a full cycle will take him down a good 9-10%.

The Bhoot most certainly has a lot of HP, maybe around 10000? Never parsed it, but it's a lot more than the QQs for sure.

[Uzor]

Just tried this today for the first time, and also tried Bhoot the last minutes left. Were unlucky on second floor TH and he regened from 31% to 100% ; ;

When I got to the bhoot I had roughly 10 min left, and Poison + Bio took him to 80% before I timed out, so he's very possible to solo.

PS: I'm gimp =/ Don't have Bio III merited. Atleast now I have a reason to merit it.

[Odog]

0/6 Solo QQTH

0/6 as a group


Anyone gotten this yet solo? How many people have gotten it as a group without TH?

I can do this solo any day we dont do salvage as our group because I have alot of points so it is just a matter of time. I hope it is sooner rather than later

[Soraan]

EDIT: Sorry, my image is too big. >.> too lazy to redo it.

Odog and I went in as both RDM/NIN to see what all we could. Well, technically, 1 RDM/NIN and 1 RDM/nothing because we only got one SJ from the chest . We got 0 equipment from the chest besides the 2 weapons (meaning no dalmy, no af2 hat, no wlegs, etc). No good status cells (lolCHR). No MP cells. Two abilities. Only 1 magic, BUT two HP which in the end saved us anyways. So we buffed up and pimped put our RDM DDing styles killing a Lamia with joyeuse only and thankfully, we got a magic cell, so we just left the floor right away. Well, Odog died on getting the first portal open (NOOB! ), so we waited 5 mins for weakness to wear before tryin the 2nd floor QQA. Spent about 15 mins on this floor total + 5 mins for weakness to wear.

We didn't really know much about how to solo/duo it outside of what we read in this thread, so it started off fine. DoTed it, ran to another wing, waited for casting, then ran to other wing, and repeat. About 70% HP, he started acting kinda weird. He ran up further than usual and started casting an -aga 3 spell, so Odog ran kinda far back, then the QQA ran back to the portal and stayed there for a min. We tried to get him to come off, but he warped. We are pretty sure the QQAs are VERY distanced sensitive. If you get too close to them (< 8 ), they move back a little, if you get too far away, they lose interest and wanna warp, too. We are pretty sure we can do it next time if nothing goes wrong. Spent about 10 minutes tryin this one.

3rd Floor QQTH. Mad easy. Easiest NM in the zone imo. We did the usual bio/poison 2, wait for them to wear, reapply. Nuked at the end. No drop. I think we killed in about 15 mins or so.

4th Floor QQTH. We could have handled this one a little better and easier, and probably killed faster. We tried to just kite him around nuking when we could, and I ended up dying eventually, then the QQTH finally deaggroed us, so we went back to the DoTing until they wore and reapplying, then hiding. Killed, and ofcuz no drop >.>. Spent about 20 mins on this one, I think.

5th Floor QQA. Honestly, I didn't think we could do it. It would be pretty hard to kill that gear in the hallway and take too much time, so we went around it (after Odog popped the QQA), and buffed up. Then proceeded to do our best on the QQA. This one is very, VERY strange. We learned a lot on this one. Basically, the entire room is your kite path, and if he leaves the room too far down the hallway, you're fucked. He seems to cast mostly DoTs on you (weakening your already weak stoneskin with -30MND and no gear >.>) and tier 4s which can be blinked np. -aga 3s would have been a big issue if we hadn't gotten any HP cells, but we ate -aga 3s np, too. You basically just run to all 4 corners and he'll chase you a little, stop to cast, then you run some more. If he starts heading toward the door, it's best to run up a little close to him (like 8'), then run back and usually he'll start running back after you again. It's very VERY picky on distance, and being as the room isn't very big to begin with, it can be tricky.

We did learn something interesting that I don't think anyone else mentioned or noticed, but... These mobs can run outta MP. At about 25-30%, he completely stopped casting and just ran around getting close to us, but not exactly hitting us. So I'm almost 100% sure he ran outta mp by this point after casting tons of tier 4s on us and other DoTs. At this point, it was a near 100% victory because you wont die, and if you know how to control his movements, you pretty much got him down. We were almost outta time (less than 3 mins) when he was about 10%, so I chucked out a full dmg nuke and brought him down to 2-3%, then Odog finished him off. No drop, but we got a TON of cells. I haven't see anyone much talk about this floor's QQA and how to do it, so I dunno, you might think it's interesting. The only problem I can think of is if you don't get an HP cell, you might die (especially if taru) because it's near impossible to run outta range of the -aga 3 spells (which he will usually cast from the middle). With stoneskin and phalanx, Firaga3 hit me for about 491dmg, and my max HP (before HP cell) was 510. So if I had a DoT spell on me (usually did), I would have died anyways. I was thinking if no HP cells and no time to farm one from skeles, could maybe eat some HP food, but not sure how effective that would be as most HP food is % based.

Here's some pics of him dying:

http://home.alltel.net/matt114/qqa1.jpg

http://home.alltel.net/matt114/qqa2.jpg

Lotta drops, just not the one we wanted.

[Waef]

Just did 2 more runs. On the first run I had a blm with me, as well a thf who was just interested in how it was done. We managed to kill both QQA and 4F QQTH.

I can definitely confirm than the QQAs will run out of mp, as both did. We didn't kite the 2F QQA from wing to wing, we just stayed in one wing and didn't really move much except for running out of range of -ga III spells. He didn't have subjob so he did end up dying after nuking to a tier IV, but I finished it off with DoTs. No drop.

We probably could have killed the 3F QQTH but I messed up (forgot to use sneak once ><). Basically I would dia (so his bio would overwrite it) and poison it and chase it towards the start where he waited. When it got close he would bio it and we would repeat.

4F QQTH was as easy as ever. No drop.

5F QQA. This one is tough if you didn't get HP cell. Same thing happened, he nuked and died so I continued to solo it. Basically I would just stand in the same spot and let it run around. I found once you find the "sweet spot" you almost never have to move, unless it starts to go out of the room for whatever reason. This run I didn't have HP, but luckily the only -ga III I had to eat was Firaga (Thundaga would have killed me). I think I survived with about 24 hp. Finished it off with a nuke with a little less than 10 minutes left in the zone. No drop.

On the run I just did I went in solo (well, I brought my char along (I use my friend's character to solo)). I got lucky and got an HP cell (although no MP this time) which allowed me to take the -ga IIIs from the QQA.

2F QQA, I just stood at the corner in the wing I entered from and kept it DoTed. I think I got Firaga IIId once but with HP cell and stoneskin it's not too hard to recover from. At about 25% it ran out of mp again, making it easy to finish off. No drop.

3F QQTH. ARGH! I did manage to solo it this time, although it died unclaimed...it was at 1% (well, it might have been 2%) and at it's starting point, and I cast bio on it. I didn't have enough mp to nuke so I hoped it would finish it off. I then cast poison and as my luck would have it bio wore off just then (it hadn't worn off from earlier, but I cast it anyway to keep claim). It then ran away and went unclaimed before it died. =/

4F QQTH. Easy solo. Easiest of the 4 mobs, no drop.

5F QQA. For this one I just stealth my way to the door and back. Luckily the gear before the room the QQA spawns in doesn't aggro when it's at the top of the stairs (why not I wonder?). I got hit with around 3 Thundaga IIIs, each of which did a little over 700 damage through stoneskin. 2 Firagas hit me for 400ish through stoneskin. Having an HP cell really saved me, without it you would have to get incredibly lucky on the spells it casts to solo this. At 50% I got the 10 minute warning, but luckily it also ran out of mp at this point, giving me chances to rest and then nuke. Finished it off with about 3 minutes left and no drop.

What I learned from the 2nd run is that there's just barely enough time to hit up both QQA and both QQTH, although you probably won't want to do the QQAs solo unless you've got an HP cell. I have a few pictures of the run (from my character's point of view, not the soloing character's point of view, since I don't like playing on PC. I always play on PS2 when I solo) but I don't want to upload them right now. Anyway, I'll keep at it, and hopefully I'll see a drop soon.

Edit:
Current count:
QQA 0/4
QQTH 0/4 (not counting the 3rd floor one that died while unclaimed, I was never able to kill it before and I only started the QQAs last run)

[Mojo]

I was able to do the fifth floor QQA without an HP cell. I killed the gear that was in the hallway, and then just kind of stood at the end of that while I DoT'd it to death. If it started casting a ga, I'd run back in the room for a second, then come forward again.

[NynJa]

maybe I missed it, can someone explain what triggers the QQA to warp please (and thus make it soloable) ?

[Soraan]

I was able to do the fifth floor QQA without an HP cell. I killed the gear that was in the hallway, and then just kind of stood at the end of that while I DoT'd it to death. If it started casting a ga, I'd run back in the room for a second, then come forward again.

How long did it take you to kill the gear in the hallway? And did you just DoT kill with some nukes or what? Being able to run outta range of the -aga 3s would be nice, but still doable if not.

maybe I missed it, can someone explain what triggers the QQA to warp please (and thus make it soloable) ?

It's based on distance. If you get too close to him, he starts running away toward the teleport pad thing (where he starts his warp sequences)... If you get too far away from him, same thing. You gotta basically keep his attention, so he keeps running after you. You are constantly moving making him run away, then back at you, then away, back at you, etc while applying DoTs to work him down (mixed in with some nukes). He's a nervous little fellow.