Bhaflau Remnants Flans

[Odion]

Can anyone tell me what makes the flans change from spikes on their head to no spikes on their head?

I read that it was magic dmg which makes it switch between forms, but the other night durring a Bhaflau run when we got to the flans we did magic dmg on one of the flans and it refused to change. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[Kaylia]

Using strictly melee will make them go in spike mode. Using WS and or damage spell seem to make them go back in normal modes....based on that, I would say that spike damage is what make them change back to normal.

[Suiram]

I've never seen east/west flan leave spikes mode. On north/south flan I've never seen WS make it leave spikes mode, although I'd imagine if you accidentally SCed it could. I've seen spells pop them out of spikes mode, and I've seen formless strikes regular melee hits knock them out of spikes mode. I'm going to stand by what I've posted before in the first massive thread regarding north/south:

Normal > time/physical damage > spikes > magic damage > squished face > provoke/other JA > normal > repeat

meaning just do steps 1 through 3 and don't even risk magic damage, save for a e-sealed AM2 at 40% or something just save yourself a minute or two.

[Ambir]

Why are you trying to get rid of the spikes? As far as I could tell, the only difference between the modes is that one pops the ramparts, and one doesn't...

(although that doesn't explain why there are two rooms of flans on the next floor with no spikes and one large room where they all have spikes...)

[Suiram]

You're not trying to get rid of the spikes. You're trying to avoid getting rid of spikes at all costs so that all 4 die with spikes on their head and the rampart pops.

[aurik]

SCing doesn't cause spike mode to disappear on N/S flans. We usually make a nice 3 or 4 part light chain to speed them up without despiking them: the SC damage gets a massive multiplier due to it being magical damage.

[Suiram]

Good to know, but now the people in my salvage group are going to yell at me for always shouting "DON'T SKILLCHAIN" at them.

[Xerlic]

We just melee the N/S flans down to 50% then finish them off with a Burst 2. Saves a lot of time than killing them with pure melee.

Once the Burst connects, it looks like the flans die without spikes, but and the rampart has always popped for us using this method as long as the flan dies from the Burst 2.

[Zarath]

Magical WSes will also despike it, I noticed that Cyclone killed it's spike mode on it, so it's definately magic based atks outside of Skillchain, cause we always do multi light/dark SCes to make em go down faster.

[Wulfgang]

Since the patch, you have enough time in Bhaflau to easily do a Rampart and the boss or 2 Ramparts or 1.5 Ramparts and Boss if you're good; so we don't even bother SCing, etc. We just auto-attack and time nuke AMII at 30%.

I LOVE TEH BEES

[Arthars]

NS flan is fine to dancing edge, asurian fist
Sword Bearers with HP cells best to save 300% TP(u will anyway) and spirits within at 15% to save some time

THIS ONLY APPLY TO NS FLAN. AND YES NO MAGICAL WS OR ELEMENTAL MAGIC.........however u can start casting burst 2 at 20% if no one wanna spirits within. Risk involved: if it left 1 HP after burst or spirits within, ur screwed lol but this wont happen as burst 2 usually takes away 30% HP and spirits within usually take away 25% HP for a HP celled PLD

WE flan: just melee it to death and WS at 5% to safe some time this 2 usually no prob with spike