Ashu Talif #1

[Gerion]

I have a few questions about the first Ashu Talif quest.

#1: Is it worth saving TP for when Gekko pops?

#2: Do both chests have a possibility of being a Star Sapphire, and if so, what are the approximate chances of getting one?

#3: Is it only the first one that drops Star Sapphire from ??? boxes?

[Therin]

The Star Sapphire comes from the one that you get by killing Swiftwinged Gekko.

In my experience, the only way you can kill him fast enough is by fighting monsters on the deck as opposed to fighting them up top. If you fight up top, by the time your people move to him he will have already ran halfway across the boat and warped out.

My suggestion is to bring a very strong meleeburn party with a WHM and RDM (BRD is unnecessary as the mobs are so weak - WHM+RDM is better to supply more healing power) and camp where the monsters spawn. Save your TP, that way as soon as Gekko spawns you can turn around and drop WSes on him (Mighty Strikes + Rampage will probably shave off 30-40% of his life and you get Revitalizers for the BC, so this is the best way to kill him).

[Rishi]

THF/NIN + SAM/RNG + RDM/DRK + WHM + two BLM or BLU

Camp up the stairs. Thief pulls (be good with utsusemi or you die), everyone stays way the fuck back to avoid aggro. BLMs use -ga2 or BLUs use their AoE stun shiet to wipe out pretty much everything in two spells, SAM clears out any strays. In case of NM pop, have THF aggro-pull with Flee (just run down the stairs a little and back), RDM walk up and chainspell stun, and let the SAM go to town with Mijin Slugwinders.

We've won a good many Ashu Talifs like this with little death. You won't lose unless the THF screws up the pull, or your mages suck with the AoE.

[shihei]

That NM stays up for so short that is almost impossible on first thought

If you can find out the order the waves pop in, you will know when to expect the NM to pop(i dont remember). And if you are camping on top deck the NM will agro as soon as *anyone* targets him from *anywhere*. Find out which waves NM pops in and be ready to dish out as much as you can as fast as you can on those waves.

[Odd]

lol, you can target him w/o him aggro. he just has a long aggro range, gotta stay a step or two back from the stairs

[shihei]

pulled for this bc only 3 times but each time he would come for me as soon as i targeted him from the top deck and i was pretty far back, but not like i could go all the way to the back of the ship or that would require seeing through walls..

oh, hmm, maybe you can use a distancer plug in for it OP but idk how far that would be to have him not agro you when you target him. I was always a couple of steps back from the top of the stairs, but safe from NM agro till i targeted it.

[Kaisha]

In my experience, the only way you can kill him fast enough is by fighting monsters on the deck as opposed to fighting them up top. If you fight up top, by the time your people move to him he will have already ran halfway across the boat and warped out.

My group attempted that (we never thought of fighting them up top actually), but we could never get Gekko to sit still long ago to deal any dmg the second he popped, and we wiped after about 5 waves later, missing him every time.
(our damn BLU was too slow on the Head Butt to buy us anytime to smack it)

How much HP does Gekko have anyhow? Been thinking of doing another stab at it using the CS-Stun strat mentioned above.

[Gerion]

Well, I just had a run, and Souleater Guillo for 1200ish did about 10-15% of his HP, so he has about 10000 HP, give or take 1000.