Soloing Arrapago Remnants QQTHs & QQAs

[Waef]

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.

I guess if you're going after JUST the QQAs then you will have time for this. However, it takes almost the 100 minutes to completely solo 2F QQA 3F QQTH 4F QQTH and 5F QQA. If you had a fully merited Bio III then I could see you having time for that extra gear, but otherwise you would likely time out on the 5F QQA.

Although, it is possible to kill it without an HP cell and without killing the gear, so even if you don't get an HP cell you could still kill all 4 NMs. It would just involve more luck in the number of -gas they cast and where they're standing when they cast it.

[Soraan]

Well, Odog and I had about 10mins left on our last duo run... And we messed around with the gear. I think it'd take a little bit too long to even duo unless you made exceptional time on the first few floors (ie: getting lucky with magic cells). If you are solo, it would be really hard to kill all 4 QQs and still do the gear I think.

[Waef]

Yeah, if you don't get an HP cell from the chest I would say do the first 3 QQs and then just try the 4th without HP. If you take the time to kill the gear you probably won't have time for the QQ.

[Tulun]

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.

I know it's slightly different from the OP (not soloing)... but out of curiousity, if you had a tank hold hate from a distance, could you have someone swing at it up close without it running? Or if anyone approaches it (even if they aren't center of hate) it'll back off towards the porter?

[Soraan]

The distance thing is just based on the person with hate currently, but if you have a DD on it, the tank better be able to keep hate very well (@ a distance) or the DD will surely pull hate and make him run.

[Mojo]

I guess if you're going after JUST the QQAs then you will have time for this. However, it takes almost the 100 minutes to completely solo 2F QQA 3F QQTH 4F QQTH and 5F QQA. If you had a fully merited Bio III then I could see you having time for that extra gear, but otherwise you would likely time out on the 5F QQA.

I did all of that. Well, sort of. I messed up on the first QQA and he warped at 60%. However, I also screwed up on the 3rd floor QQTH, he didn't have DoTs on always and probably regened a total of 30% or so before I killed him. I could also be more time efficient on the fourth floor QQTH, near the end of the fight I got in a rhythm where I could get 2~ Blizzard IIIs off for each Poison/Bio. I don't have Bio III meritted either. I definitely think it's possible to do all four NMs if you don't screw anything up.

[Waef]

Oh, no, I'm 100% positive you can do all 4 NMs in one run (in fact, I've done it, although only once solo), I just mean it would be hard to do all 4 NMs in one run and have time to kill the gear. Although the gear only takes 5 minutes or so so you could probably do that too, it's just you'd have to be really efficient for that.

[Wizerd]

Oh, no, I'm 100% positive you can do all 4 NMs in one run (in fact, I've done it, although only once solo), I just mean it would be hard to do all 4 NMs in one run and have time to kill the gear. Although the gear only takes 5 minutes or so so you could probably do that too, it's just you'd have to be really efficient for that.

Not sure how long you guys are taking to kill the QQAs.. it took me no more than 10min on my first try. You get all the cells from the first chest, if you're solo, so you don't need extra cell hunting time. I don't imagine the second QQA takes any more time than the first one. Factor in ~8 minutes of running around time, and that leaves you with 72 minutes to kill 2 QQTHs. Do they really take 36 minutes each? I thought they were ~20min fights max, in which case you'd have time for the gear and a bit of farming even. Once you get the QQAs pattern down he is the easiest thing in the world, and really you can do it with almost all nukes. The only thing holding you back is not being able to rest.

[Soraan]

When Odog and I duo, here's our times per floor:

Floor 1: If lucky with chest and 2x magic cells inside: 5~ minutes on this floor. Otherwise, we spend about 10-15mins farming a magic or mp cell if we want.

Floor 2: Run immediately to the QQA. We got the pattern down now, but when we first started killing it, we didn't nuke til toward the end because we thought nukes made it wanna run away (this is, of course, not the case). So we spent 15~ minutes on this one.

Floor 3: If unresisted nukes, this QQTH will take about 15~ minutes.

Floor 4: Same as Floor 3. About 15~ minutes depending on nukes.

Floor 5: Including the time running to pop it and then running back to the room where it spawns, this QQA takes about 20-25~ minutes.

Which brings us to about 85 minutes if we are unlucky with chests (so 15 mins left which sounds about accurate). These times are based on duo, not solo though. For most of the QQA fights, I was just support to Odog instead of nuking (which will change our next run).

This is if we don't make any mistakes or fuck something up. Or get unlucky with cell drops on the first floor or chest drops even. I think we can cut down the time on the QQAs by about half now though by nuking them more instead of relying on DoTs. The gear in the hallway would take about 10 minutes to kill, I think. Maybe we just got unlucky when we were fighting it, but we had a lot of resists on our nukes. Of course, we usually get gayed on the chest and have 0 gear to work with. ><

[Waef]

Oh, no, I'm 100% positive you can do all 4 NMs in one run (in fact, I've done it, although only once solo), I just mean it would be hard to do all 4 NMs in one run and have time to kill the gear. Although the gear only takes 5 minutes or so so you could probably do that too, it's just you'd have to be really efficient for that.

Not sure how long you guys are taking to kill the QQAs.. it took me no more than 10min on my first try. You get all the cells from the first chest, if you're solo, so you don't need extra cell hunting time. I don't imagine the second QQA takes any more time than the first one. Factor in ~8 minutes of running around time, and that leaves you with 72 minutes to kill 2 QQTHs. Do they really take 36 minutes each? I thought they were ~20min fights max, in which case you'd have time for the gear and a bit of farming even. Once you get the QQAs pattern down he is the easiest thing in the world, and really you can do it with almost all nukes. The only thing holding you back is not being able to rest.

Maybe I'm just being too cautious on the QQAs. Adding in the mp cost of DoTs, keeping stoneskin up, having no refresh items (someetimes) and no mp cell (sometimes), MP seems to be just enough to cure myself and keep up DoTs. I only really get a chance to nuke once it runs out of mp. Basically here's how my runs look (assuming a perfect run, no mp cell):

1F Get chest, run up to next floor. About 3 minutes.
2F 15 minutes for the QQA. Less with an mp cell (which I have bad luck getting)
3F QQTH 20-30 minutes depending on if it regens or if I'm trying to make sure it doesn't die unclaimed.
4F QQTH Around 20 minutes (again assuming I don't get an mp cell. I could probably speed this up by nuking a little more than I do.)
5F QQA 5-10 minutes to pop it depending on how long the gears take to move into the right position. Another 15 minutes to kill the QQA.

Total, the run is about 78-88 minutes assuming no mistakes. Usually something will go wrong on one of them, so this leaves a little bit of time in case you do make a mistake. Yes, if you get great cells from the chest, I'm sure you could do all 4 and still have time to kill a few gears (take 5 minutes or so solo, depending on how many nukes get resisted). However, usually you don't get ideal cells, so doing all 4 QQ in one run with more than 10minutes left at the end isn't always possible.

Anyway, the reason we're arguing this started over if it's necessary (or if you have time to) kill the gear in the hallway before the 5F QQA. I've killed that QQ 4 times now and have never needed to kill the gear. My initial point was that you should probably kill the gear if you didn't get an HP cell to let you live through the -ga spells, although you'll be a lot more pressed for time to kill that last QQA.

[Hardon]

I'm just curious Waef, and sorry if i missed you saying it, but when you say you faught the 2nd Floor QQA without running, you just stood in a corner, do you mean that you two pretty much just exchanged DoTs/Nukes? Also, what is the approx. distance you stand away from him?

[Meat]

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.

This might be a bit much to ask, but before i jump head first into this, anyone mind frapping a solo\duo qqa fight right quick? i just wanna get a good feel for it

[Mojo]

My run today went as follows.

1F Opened chest.
In addition to the regular stuff, I got body, back/waist, VIT, and MP. Not bad.

2F Killed QQA.
Not sure how long it took.

3F Killed QQTH.
I screwed up once or twice, it regened about 13% HP and didn't have DoTs on all the time.

4F Killed QQTH.
It was really quick, I stayed in the room it popped. Put both DoTs up, cast a Blizzard IV when it re-entered the room, and rested when it was running(I could sometimes get off one tic).

5F Killed 1 Archaic Gear and QQA.
I was pretty quick to pop the QQA. I had about 15 minutes remaining, so I tried messing with the chariot. I got it to 72% solo. I think it could be duo'd with a BLM and a RDM, but you would have to get 2 magic cells and could involve skipping past the QQA. A better way could even be duoing it with a NIN and a RDM. It rarely uses TP moves, and can be Gravitied if need be.

Anyways, it's definitely possible to solo all of the stuff without an HP cell. Granted, the cells I got definitely helped. However, I did have 15 minutes remaining. I still think it's very possible with just the cells you always get from the crate.

[Subzero]

About to try this solo rdm/nin. So there is 4 spawns total for Treasure Hunters, 2 on floor3, 2 on floor 4? and does anyone try and kill stuff for more cells, if so what?

[Wizerd]

About to try this solo rdm/nin. So there is 4 spawns total for Treasure Hunters, 2 on floor3, 2 on floor 4? and does anyone try and kill stuff for more cells, if so what?

Yes but you can only get to 2 of the 4 spawns in 1 run.

[Ayato]

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8...4210158cx5.jpg

http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/1...4212414lm0.jpg

had to kill all lamias on floor1 to get a single magic cell for my mate -_-

QQTH floor3 went easy , didn't follow what others did here but made up a new way ( not sure if its new since i didn't read most replies :e ) stayed at its pop place while my mate stayed at entrance of floor . so once it reached him i tell him when bio/poison off then he cast and same for me , u can clearly see if its off in the log since two rooms are close if u see the map

QQTH floor4 : easy done it like everyone else

now my question is about the QQA . this is the 2nd time i failed it :\ did as everyone else , try to not nuke it and just dot it . ate all its nukes to make it feel like its killing me and doesn't warp -_-yet he did lol . any specific reason why this happens ? thanks

[Waef]

I'm just curious Waef, and sorry if i missed you saying it, but when you say you faught the 2nd Floor QQA without running, you just stood in a corner, do you mean that you two pretty much just exchanged DoTs/Nukes? Also, what is the approx. distance you stand away from him?

Sorry hadn't checked this thread in a while. Um, for the 2nd floor QQA, yeah I just sat in a corner. There are 4 rooms and I would sit in the corner between the room and the middle with the lamia inbetween me and the middle. Sorry if that doesn't make sense, I'll make a picture if it doesn't. Basically, like you said, I would just exchange DoTs/nukes.

Usually I'll just DoT it and save mp to cure myself if I happen to get hit with a -ga III, but once it runs out of mp I will start to rest and nuke it in addition to keeping it DoTed. As for the approximate distance, I have no clue since I play on PS2, but (and just taking a guess here) I would say between 8 and 12. Once I get into the "sweet spot" I don't move (even when it runs towards me) unless for some reason it starts to run closer to the teleport. Sometimes it acts like it will warp and sometimes it doesn't at all.

To ayato: I did the same thing on the 3F QQTH if my friend goes with me. Also, try not to move too much once you start attacking the QQA, UNLESS it starts to run too far towards the teleport. If it does it's kind of tricky to get it to run back, basically just go kind of close to it and then run back a little bit and hope it follows you. I haven't had one warp yet (except for the time when I died from a -ga III) but there's been a few times where it looked like it was going to warp.

Oh, I kept forgetting to mention this, but I've started to bring Poison potions with me for the QQAs. Usually I just blink all of the DoTs (unless it uses Poisonga II) since they're pretty potent. It casts sleepga II rarely but when it hits you with a tier IV right afterwards it can be pretty hard to live. I keep stoneskin up and just cancel it if I get slept. Can help in avoiding being killed by a QQA for just being slept.

[Mojo]

I just did the 4th floor QQA without killing the gear. It seems there is enough working space in the room it spawns in to kill it without getting hit by ga spells, you just need to anticipate its movements a bit and make sure you always have somewhere to run.

For the second floor QQA, I just put DoTs on it then run back to the hallway I entered. It has enough space to run away from ga spells, and is far enough away from the center that it won't warp. It will follow you there, just make sure you run down to near the very end so there is no chance of warping. Honestly you could probably do it in any of the hallways, I just like the safety of a little more working space.

In any case, I'd recommend doing this instead of just sponging the ga spells with Stoneskin and Cure IV. It leaves you with a lot more MP for nukes.

[Waef]

Oh no, I don't intentionally get hit with ga IIIs, I do try to outrun them, but depending on when it decides to cast in relation to you etc. I still tend to get hit with a few.

[Ayato]

no drop today too 0/2 which makes it to 0/6 total
gonna start subbing thf from now on since /nin is pretty much useless exept for tonko :\
gonna avoid engaging QQA and try 5th floor chariot or might try the flayer for macha crown
any info on the flayer ? does it keep distance full time or only at first ? any info is appreciated. thanks