X's knife BC question

[mdkuser]

I've been duoing this BC for a few months now, RDM+BLM. We could do THF+BLM but we find it easier this way.

Start with ES sleepga2, bind the rabbit and chain nuke the BST (far left) mithra. Then throw one nuke on the DRG mithra so that it pops its wyvern, and BLM nuke it. It's important to kill the wyvern before its master. At this point we are usually overwhelmed and die. Sometimes we can kill the DRG mithra.

Die after pulling the rabbit far away, it won't aggro after reraise, nor move. Reraise. ES sleepga2 the 2 mithra, manafont DRG mithra and kite/nuke the DRK mithra, then finish with the rabbit. It takes usually 15-20 minutes, depending on luck.

[Spider-Dan]

We've tried this a few times as BLM+THF and the problem we've been running into is bind resists.

This is a career BLM+RDM with maxed enf. merits and I believe he's within 10 enf. skill of max possible on BLM. Anyway, the way it's been turning out is:

timed burst2 on X, I run in right before cast
burst2 lands, I kite away others, BLM runs X to entrance and manafonts/kills X
BLM kills wyvern, manafont expires
tries to nuke Z, binds resist, Y tagteams, go to died
gets up, rests to full, kills Z
half(?) MP left, nukes Y, binds resist, go to died
gets up, rests, unweak, time's up

It seems almost impossible to do without MP meds at the very least. I think we're gonna try it with three.

[Phraust]

We've tried this a few times as BLM+THF and the problem we've been running into is bind resists.

This is a career BLM+RDM with maxed enf. merits and I believe he's within 10 enf. skill of max possible on BLM. Anyway, the way it's been turning out is:

timed burst2 on X, I run in right before cast
burst2 lands, I kite away others, BLM runs X to entrance and manafonts/kills X
BLM kills wyvern, manafont expires
tries to nuke Z, binds resist, Y tagteams, go to died
gets up, rests to full, kills Z
half(?) MP left, nukes Y, binds resist, go to died
gets up, rests, unweak, time's up

It seems almost impossible to do without MP meds at the very least. I think we're gonna try it with three.

Keep in mind Z buffs her buddies, I don't remember if Shell affects Bind resists( I Know nothing about Mage stuff), but that might be what you're seeing. Try tossing a dispel and see if you pull Shell off. I really don't know.

My partner Nukes the everliving shit out of X on site and from what I see, I dont' think she even bothered using bind. If you time it right you can Spell Stun the Mithrans if you take a step back at the right time. they have 100TP at any given time(lol) and you get a free 5-8 seconds if you're lucky. Run just out of range and they waste thier TP on a ws then immediately cast a spell after, the WS spell lock gives you about 3 seconds, and thier spell usually gives you more. You win the free time if you see any of the following: X casing an Ichi (33% of the time), Y casting a Tier II nuke (50% of the time), and Z casting a Banish of some sort (20% of the time). So in theory opening with Flood.II to T.IV to B.IV followed by a drain for the hit they get through SS usually eliminates em, and with little wiggle room for them to fight back. Once she got the pattern down, it was like litterally 20 seconds per mithra. Once they blow thier TP however, they seem to get it back in about 20TP/tick so five server ticks and they will try to WS again, otherwise they will just melee you after casting.

On a side note, Ice Spikes are rediculously effective on them.

Any word on anyone that had troupble entering after the first BC? Seemy post above for details. We still can't get a new letter.

[Xerlic]

Bump.

My friend and I duo this THF + BLM with a dualboxed WHM. We have problems with the Mithras attempting to SC me after almost every nuke. The THF attempts to use accomplice + steal on the add, but this doesn't always work. We didn't notice this at all the first time we did this BC and won no problem. However, we've now timed out twice due to me having to kite and wasting time trying to get the add under control.

Any tips on how to avoid this or to quickly shift hate back to the kiter?

[Kaeko]

Bump.

My friend and I duo this THF + BLM with a dualboxed WHM. We have problems with the Mithras attempting to SC me after almost every nuke. The THF attempts to use accomplice + steal on the add, but this doesn't always work. We didn't notice this at all the first time we did this BC and won no problem. However, we've now timed out twice due to me having to kite and wasting time trying to get the add under control.

Any tips on how to avoid this or to quickly shift hate back to the kiter?

Accomplice won't work for this. The mithras are going to go after you until their SC is attempted. If your BLM has a lot of balls they can stop, have the mithra ready the WS, then run out of range before it lands - sort of like baiting them. After the WS is attempted, even if it misses, hate will go back to normal and the THF can get back hate with something like Accomplice.

[Xerlic]

Great, that helps. I got gaiters so it should be no problem baiting a WS out of them, I hope. >.>

Thanks.

Edit: When they call out a SC, will they immediately attempt to WS once they are in range, or will they melee first?

[Phraust]

The first time we did this, we had no problem keeping the mithra on the trainer. but every time after the first attempt, no matter what, one of the damn mithras will help out X and double team the Nuker...

Aside from that, in all my times doing this I have yet to see anything drop. And by anything I mean anything. No crafting materials, no weapons, nothing... Kinda irritating...

[Kaeko]

Great, that helps. I got gaiters so it should be no problem baiting a WS out of them, I hope. >.>

Thanks.

Edit: When they call out a SC, will they immediately attempt to WS once they are in range, or will they melee first?

The can still melee. They want to do a SC, so they will not WS unless 2 are in close proximity. Because they all can cast, they can separate quite a bit so it takes a little manuvering. Generally, mobs will try to WS whenever possible once they are told to so just stay semi-close. You don't really have to go out of your way to let them get close, just act like a normal kite but stagger or make bad turns. It'll happen pretty quickly.

[Amok]

I'm really interested in trying to duo this at some point and after all the talk about how the hate shifts when they want to SC something still isn't clear to me:
Is the target for their SC completely random or does one of the mithra 'call SC' on its current target? So, my question pertains to a situation where someone has all three mithra on him. Would in such a situation it still be possible for someone else to be the target for the SC?

[Tomiko]

Pretty sure it's the person that the SC is called out on.

[Amok]

Yes, but can they call the SC out on someone that currently isn't the target of any Mithra? I'm trying to come up with a strategy involving partial super-tank cus of the jobs me and my friend lack.

[Tomiko]

They'll only attack you if you pull hate from them. As long as the kiter/tank holds hate they won't randomly target you unless you do something to turn their attention. Basically, they won't choose targets randomly from what I've seen.

[Amok]

Alright, thanks.

[Vistani]

The target of the skillchain will be the target of the mithra opening the skillchain, however the mithra at the head of the skillchain does not have fixed hate, only the mithras who are behind it in the skillchain order, i.e. shikaree x calls on a skillchain on player 1, shikaree y and z will both be 100% glued on player 1 no matter what actions are performed on them, however if player 2 then pulled hate on shikaree x, shikaree y and shikaree z would now be on player 2 as well. In this same situation if player 2 were to nuke shikaree y, it would generate no hate whatsoever. As soon as Shikaree X readies its WS, Shikaree Y would then be the leader of the skillchain and Shikaree Z would now be assisting it. Shikaree X will not be assisting Shikaree Y at this point. I do this BC with PLD + BLM, both my PLD and my THF have movement speed, however PLD is just way, way better for this. A great way to avoid skillchains on the BLM is to wait until a mithra calls the skillchain (almost always X when all three are alive, however Y also seems to call skillchains sometimes), have the kiter goad that mithra into weaponskilling, then kiting purely to stay out of range of the next mithra in the skillchain. This will allow the BLM to fight that mithra with no fear of a skillchain being called on them. Another strat is to get off free nukes on the mithras that are behind the head of the skillchain, leaving the blm hate free, you just have to be careful not to nuke moments after the head of the skillchain readies its weaponskill, leaving 2 mobs glued to the BLM.

[Amok]

So I finally get around to do the first in the pair of battles: "Tango with a tracker"
My intention was to duo this with two THF's, but a RDM wanted to join us. If it wasn't for the fact that I had gone through the trouble of making this somewhat intricate strategy involving two thieves I would have just told the RDM to solo Y while we take on X + rabbit. My conclusion was that the strategy works and you CAN duo this battle with thieves.

It all hinges on your ability to kill a mithra during the 30 seconds of Perfect Dodge plus the time your THF buddy can survive kiting. If you manage to solo Y without any tricks there is no need wipe/recover, but I don't think I'll be able to consistently solo Y from full HP. This was the opening sequence we used:
-sleep tp outside BC
-walk up to range where you can engage X without getting aggro
-call out the time to use SA (like a timed nuke)
-use hide when there's 15 seconds left on the SA timer
-run in and hit X with the two SA's and the first THF (who got initial aggro) uses Perfect Dodge as soon as the hit connects
-second THF opens with Evisceration after a few seconds (for SA timer), THF1 SA+DE, THF2 Ica wing, SA + Evis = Darkness.
-this took X down to about 15-20%.

I have to say I was expecting X to be dead at this point so THF1 could go ahead and kite, but even though I ate a Sis Kebabi before starting I found them to have really high defense. I was hitting for 12 and 17 with my BD. My SA Evis was in the 450 range as opposed to the 700 minimum I was expecting. I couldn't see the SC damage but I'm pretty sure it went unresisted. So that's the most burst damage two thf\nin's can do that I could think of. Maybe someone can give me tips on how to improve that.

RDM helped take down X and THF1 used his own Ica wing to kill it and in so doing had PD run out and he died. RDM proceeded to immediately bind rabbit and I started my backwards kiting of Y. By backwards kiting I mean: running backwards in first person mode. Sure, you don't see where the hell you're going, but you can actually hit whatever you're kiting WHILE you run. Everytime Y stopped to cast something or stood frozen because I was too far away for its WS I tried to recast shadows or shoot a bloody bolt. The latter was unsuccesful because A) I had eaten meat and B) I had negated my r.acc gear in my /range macro for another fight. However, the bolts that DID land proc'ed, which is something I was very worried about. Some NM's just can't be bloody bolted for whatever reason. Anyway, I screw up (duh) and die, but before I die rabbit kills RDM and to my amazement: GOES PASSIVE. Yes it's true that I didn't do anything to the rabbit, but I expected it to at least target me like one of the mithra would. I'm assuming it's because X was dead and it becomes like any regular ol' mob once that happens.

We recover and being unable to repeat the process with Y by reversing roles (no more Ica Wing for other thf) I decided to just do what I was doing before with the RDM as support. As you can guess with regen on me and Poison on Y, it really wasn't all that hard. I know I probably could have just straight tanked it with the RDM there and all, but it was safer this way.

Finally I'd like to say that my idea for duo'ing "Requiem of Sin" with two THF's involves repeating the 3 step SC + PD twice to take out two mithra and then use the runaway style fighting to finish off the last one. Last one probably being Z since we dont' want to have the wyvern hanging around when we wipe. Still thinking/working out the finer points of this strat.

[Thorny]

Sorry for the necro, found this on search and was wondering about the OP. I did Tango With a Tracker with a friend saturday morning, I did not have Letter from the Mithran Trackers at that time. I've been doing Requiem of Sin with a different friend every saturday night, but it would not allow me to pick up a letter yesterday. Does helping with Tango With A Tracker before you pick up your letter cockblock you for that week, or is it related to me finishing Spice Gals for the first time and having secrets of ovens lost cutscene? I tried zoning in and out a few times and finishing secrets of ovens lost, so i'd assume it's not the second but curious for future reference. Another question.. at some point was the requiem of sin key item changed? I'm positive that it used to be 'Letter from Shikaree Y', and wiki says that as well, but recently I've only gotten 'Letter from the Mithran Trackers'.

[Slott]

either key item works. First time = letter from Y. All other times is letter from mithran trackers