The Hills Are Alive

[Jodwahh]

Hi everyone, I tried a search for it but the only relevent posts where from 2005 and not all that helpful lol

Basically just looking for tips for The Hills Are Alive, my ls has always spammed Behe and the Wyrm but the monks are getting restless for an egg. Im thinking Tank pty, a distortion/darkness SC and blizzard MB's, am I missing anything?

Also, any onfo about the inside/outside of the shell would be appreciated, thanks in advance

[Septimus]

This is my absolute favorite of the KS99 fights because as a RDM I get to wreck the turtle with enfeebling magic. I literally skip to Palborough Mines when we do that BC, I get giddy even thinking about it. Between Paralyze, Slow, Blind, Silence, Gravity, and Bind, I ruin that turtle's day whenever I go in.

So no matter how you do the fight, make sure that you include a strong RDM or two into the alliance. Seriously, it is one of the very few encounters where a RDM can be considered "devastating".

[Scorp]

This strategy is fairly old and I haven't done this for a while but it is a solid base....

2 Melee that generate TP fast and can chain for Blizzard MB. (Probably Sam and Drk?)
2 tanks whm bard rdm
Blm's + refresher (Cor probably works well for this Evokers and MAB +)

Keep up an elemental seal silence order throughout. Nuke on times to ensure maximum damage when out of shell and to secure enough damage to get it to change from inside to outside.

The better co-ordinated you are the less blm's you can get away with, though it might not be prudent.

This set up shouldn't need 2hr's unless you get into trouble allowing you to do multiple runs.

[Spekkio]

to be slightly more specific about how we did it, we used 2 pld, refreshers, 2 sam, and a small army of blm. make sure to keep him silenced as stated above or his watergas and silencegas will ruin your day. have all the blm and other mages stand in the center of the circle while the pld kite around it. blm can generally rest in the center no problem. have a member call a time and all blm salvo blizzard 4 on the mob. this will drive him into his shell and activate his 50000000 hp/tick regen (it seems like it must be in the hundreds a tick, but i can't give exact numbers.) have your sams QUICKLY make a distortion SC on him, then have all your blm burst freeze2 on that. this will pop him out of his shell. the entire nuke set should do something like 5-8% of his HP per volley with a good blm compliment, so it will go down fairly easily. just don't try to be a hero and finish it off fast when it gets low or it will slip into its shell again and regen 30% before you can get control again. don't get impulsive, stick to your guns and finish it the way you started it.

[stinkypoo]

Explain the 2 different modes to people. They need to be able to tell if it's "in" or "out" on their own (by looking at the head), but always call it out in pt chat just in case. Instruct them to use ice only. Between Blizz III, Blizz IV, Freeze II and Blizzaga III, one should always be up.

Now for the fight:

- Start out by having tank kite while melees build tp. BLMs should not nuke.

- When everyone is ready, 1-2 BLMs throw a few nukes. This will make it go in its shell. Whenever this happens, all BLMs should be expecting this and ready to MB.

- IMMEDIATELY skillchain. WS macros should only have a simple /p followed by the /ws. No /waits, Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, Zerk, Aggressor, Sharpshot, Last Resort or any of that crap. If your melees have any of those things, make them remove it. You need to sc *FAST*, no dicking around, and nothing that could throw off the BLMs and make them miss the MBs.

- if it's still inside after the MBs land, keep nuking the crap out of it BUT immediately interrupt all nukes when it comes out. Slap any BLM who stands there and lets a new AM II cast finish completely, or worse, who fires off new nukes. Tell them to pay attention to the head.

- while it's out of its shell, all BLMs med (use /as on the mob to find out who has hate). Melees get TP and save it for when it goes in. Once MP is high, use light nukes to push it in. Repeat the process you did earlier.

It's extremely easy (and kind of boring) if done right, but people not following instructions (not SC fast enough, pushing it in its shell when people aren't ready, etc) can cause huge set backs and even make you run out of time very easily.

[Spekkio]

It's extremely easy (and kind of boring) if done right, but people not following instructions (not SC fast enough, pushing it in its shell when people aren't ready, etc) can cause huge set backs and even make you run out of time very easily.

listen to this man for he speaks with wisdom and truth. don't bring your B grade blm who can't follow instructions or his regen will be the death of you.

[Suiram]

Stinkypoo pretty much hit it right on the money for what you should do and how people might fuck it up lol I just wanted to point out one other thing,

- if it's still inside after the MBs land, keep nuking the crap out of it BUT immediately interrupt all nukes when it comes out. Slap any BLM who stands there and lets a new AM II cast finish completely, or worse, who fires off new nukes. Tell them to pay attention to the head.

One thing I noticed when I last did this about half a year ago with the BLM merc LS on our server is that he doesn't seem to use TP moves when he's in his shell either, but that he'll accumulate enough TP while he's in there so that a WS will be the first thing he does when he comes out (usually Hardened Shell because the person with hate wasn't near him), and that's another thing people can watch for to know when they're supposed to interrupt their casts.

[Aihree]

No /waits, Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, Zerk, Aggressor, Sharpshot, Last Resort or any of that crap.

On the runs my LS has gone on, we've never had a problem with sam/blu/war using only SA to make sure their hit lands - although we haven't done one since the 2-hander patch, so it's possible Sams now have enough accuracy to consistantly hit the broad side of the barn without SA.

An important note to keep in mind is to not allow your skillchaining melees to melee past 100tp. The last thing you need is for the turtle to get a hair up its shell because it was hit one time too many and it goes in shell when you're not ready. The last time this happened the turtle immediately cast silencega. Rather exciting, this.

Also, the turtle will always pop out of its shell at 100% hp. If for some reason your original bliz4 pounding doesn't do enough damage to give you enough time to SC+MB, or that first skillchain is slow, you'll end up with turtle popping his head out because he's regened to 100% before your MB's can land. That first nuke is always tricky and you have to pay attention or you just waste MP and time.

[stinkypoo]

No /waits, Sneak Attack, Trick Attack, Zerk, Aggressor, Sharpshot, Last Resort or any of that crap.

On the runs my LS has gone on, we've never had a problem with sam/blu/war using only SA to make sure their hit lands - although we haven't done one since the 2-hander patch, so it's possible Sams now have enough accuracy to consistantly hit the broad side of the barn without SA.

Yeah I guess I went a little overboard by including SA in there :<. After all, making sure the WS actually lands is pretty important. Still, stress the idea of "SC as fast as you possibly can" to your melees.

Very true about the "don't risk meleeing past 100tp" thing too, forgot to mention that, as well as Silencega. Make sure your BLMs carry their own echo drops, at least a full stack if you plan on doing several runs. Several times it hit us with Silencega (which has a huge range) while BLMs were casting their MB. Not much you can do for that besides use drops ASAP, then free nuke til it comes out and immediately stop casting after.

Oh and Freeze II + Blizz IV + Blizz III is 571 MP, so I'd recommended waiting until at least a few BLMs have 500+ mp before each round of SC, just in case shit happens. Any job can kite it easily while people med anyway, and the last thing you'd want to happen is to have the turtle still in its shell with all your BLMs dry ;x

[Spekkio]

Make sure everyone brings their own echo drops, at least a full stack if you plan on leaving your mog house.

fixed.

all good points. also, avoid bio or other DoT spells, not b/c you need to sleep him, but because sometimes the DoT can be enough to make him shell up at which point he's going to get back 10% HP before you can drag him out of his shell again, what with him catching you off guard and all.