Einherjar Wing I - #'s Needed?

[Callisto]

My LS took a huge step in our third-ever Einherjar attempt this weekend, our previous 2 attempts resulted in us fully wiped for the first time within 2-3 minutes(although our first run we got 2 groups of 12 bats that all linked together). This time we only had one death that came 20 seconds before the end of the run(me as melee BRD, got Buffalated by the boss right before time ran out). We had about 14 people, 3 BLMs, 2 RDMs, 2 BRDs, 2 PLDs, 1 DRG, 2 WHMs, a BLU/WAR spamming Actnic Burst to keep hate off the sleepers, and some random DD that I forget. Obviously we timed out, we got through all of the bats and about 1/3 of the worms without even getting to the boss.

Assuming we can stay alive as we did this time, how many DDs are needed to stand a reasonable shot at clearing these? Would clearance with 20~ be feasible if we can scrounge up a few more? We really can't field that much more than what we had at the moment, but if we can recruit some more we'd really like to continue with this and make some progress.

[Ehran]

Sadly, a large part of the numbers you are going to face will be based on luck.

We've had runs with as little as 6-8 mobs before the boss. We've also had runs with 12 Dark Elementals, 12 bats, and then the boss. Obviously, the numbers you'll need to safely control each group depends on how many mobs you get, but clearance with 20 is certainly possible.

Our lowest-man clear thus far has been Siegrune's chamber with 21 people, but again, a large part of that was based on the luck of the draw. That run gave us 8 buggards, and the Wivre boss.

[Loren]

Simultaneous wake-up will usually kill a person or two unless your sleepers are very quick and non-lagged. Thus, you want to do this as few times as possible. ES+Sleepga followed by staggered Sleep II on individual mobs will space this out somewhat.

Then there's skeletons, bats, dark elementals, etc. BRD and BLU are your only recourse here. WHM and COR can zap individual stragglers.

For tier I at least, a crew of 9-10 strong BLM is just tons faster than a melee approach since you can slaughter an entire wave in 2 or 3 volleys. If you can't manage that many, then make sure your melee DD are ~very~ spoiled with Soul Voice buffs, COR, etc. The longer the mobs stay alive, the greater the danger to your vital mages. Boss is often simpler assuming your tanks and healers have had their ginseng.

[Kaeko]

We've done a few Tier I 13-14 man clears. Setup relies heavily on melee though. It's usually something like

melee x4 RDM BRD
melee x3 WHM BRD BLM
SCH BLM

All the crowd control pretty much comes down to 2 BRDs, 2 BLMs, and a SCH. I think your setup has too many people on crowd control and not enough DDs. You're going to time out if you get double sets like that. This setup does 2 sets pretty easily. I know we cleared a Bones > Ghosts > Fish pop with something like this so the kill speed is fine as long as you bring 2 good meripo melee parties.

We did try a heavy BLM DD approach, but it can really screw you over on certain bosses. In the end, if you have to go with limited numbers, I think going melee heavy is more advantageous than going BLM heavy. I'm sure some BLM heavy groups can comment otherwise though.

[Jaybar]

If you are going in with a lot of melee (around 2-3 parties with DD/support setup), it is a very good idea to have two assists (use your judgment on which mobs not to double assist i.e. aoe using mobs). It lowers the time it takes to destroy a wave by a large margin.

Every DD party MUST have a BRD and a healer. Every DD should be hasted, and every bard should be hasted as well. ES+Sleepga2 has a good set-time (~90s I believe) so your next BLM in line can get ready to ES+sleepga2 if needed (Bards are generally a better use for horde lullaby).

Having an overall balanced DD setup is key. Don't go all monks (like we did once) or all RNGs. Try to keep a consistent number of different types of melees (Having monks around helps for skeletons, having warriors with Tomahawk really helps with Physical resistant mobs, and angon pwns =P). Key to double assists is to set parties to assist one person beforehand, not during the run.

This Wiki has all the mobs and bosses you can find in Tier 1. Prepare for the worst (Skeletons should be the most of your worries due to their absorb AOE ws. Ghosts are rather easy, and any WHM should banish each ghost by assisting the main puller).

Good double assist waves are:
Bugards
Chigoes
Ghosts (Plan on bringing Poison Pots, but if you don't feel comfortable, or it's your first time, go with single assist)
Elementals (Bring poison pots if you do so, as you should aways)
Worms (These stay stationary, it's a good idea to kill boss first away from worms)
Bats (Single and Triple. Triple bats appear to have a magic damage weakness)
Doomed
Wamoura (squishy squishy)


Single Assist waves you should be aware of are:
Skeletons!
Ghosts (see above)
Elementals (see above, but don't need to be. Sleepga is the only spell that is noteworthy)
Hounds (Paralyga can break a run)
Bombs
Sea Monks (Can be double assisted, Maelstrom isn't as powerful as you would think, but single assist would ease the mages MP usage).

I don't suggest going in with 14 people if this is your first time around. I believe Kaeko's setup was much better geared for a low-man run (not to mention probably had better luck ).

As far as going blm heavy or smn heavy, it is a good idea, but not as one group. You can't beat any chamber using only one type of setup (aka only blms, etc). You can Sleepga - Time nuke/Astral Flows to defeat waves quickly, but when you get to the boss, you'll get bent over easy.

Be sure to kill the random-pop Pet (Muninn Huginn Saehrimnir or Heithrun). They will always benefit you in the rest of the chamber.

For the bosses you might confront, here is a good strategy that our LS has used on many of them (and victory ensued):

Orobon
His Seismic Tail is deadly, but stunnable. Killing Muninn supposedly can remove this WS from being used. Be sure to have NO melee attacking the tail (Higher usage of WS was noticed, maybe the only reason). It can do the move in succession very quickly (up to 3 times I believe), but stunning at least one will stop him from continuing. Utsusemi should absorb the damage.

Marid
One of the tougher bosses we've fought. Kiting while walking helped to avoid Probiscus Shower (the massive cure move). This boss is up for debate, but the ONLY effective method that's been proven to prevent Probiscus was to kite (was it fixed?) because it won't stop to use the move, therefore interrupting it. If or when it calls Chigoes, I don't know if it will summon more. If it can only have x-amount of chigoes out (i.e. one set) then have someone diaga them and kite around with movement speed.

Buffalo
My favorite boss on Tier 1 His hate system is ass-backwards. He will go after the person with the least amount of hate at times (that includes people that have been afk inside the entire time). We take him to a small hallway towards the back of the chamber and everyone including mages surrounds him, back against a wall. His AoE attack does a large knock-back, and if someone has hate at this time and is drawn from the alliance, it takes away precious time of killing when people have to chase him down. Make sure every DD is never in the red. DD should be attacking the sides, never the front.

Manticore
Treat it like any other Manticore: destroy the fowl beast! It too has random hate, so everyone should be within a reasonable range as to not have to run in circles everywhere. It will do his normal TP attacks, and has Mighty Strikes.

Morbol
Probably the toughest bosses in the Tier. It uses Vampyric Root, which absorbs all buffs on a target. Suggested to not have PLDs use Sentinal or other Defense buffs, as it will make the fight much much harder. It can absorb Souleater and harm itself, as well. Poison Potions are REQUIRED for this boss (Sweet Breath is large range). Bad Breath is AoE and not single target. Mages should cure the DD as soon as possible to reduce downtime.

Wivre
Probably the easiest boss in the Tier. Melee should attack from the sides at all times. It has a heavy AoE attack (Crippling Slam), so mages must be ready to cure DD, but it isn't as deadly as a Seismic Tail. Will use all other Wivre moves.

Before fighting a boss, you should have all bards Soul Voice / Troubadour and buff their melee parties (and Ballad the mage groups). Your Bards should also Troubadour songs upon entry to quickly go through the first wave(s). If merited, Troubadour should be ready for the boss. (If the wave looks rough, I suggest using Soul Voice at the beginning too).

Hope this helps out a little bit, but it's mostly geared towards 18+ people. 14 and lower is really luck based, if anything.

Edited Marid Information. Plan on editing it more often in the future.

[mdkuser]

We have come back to wing I recently due to new recruits. It's very easy now that we have made good strategies for upper wings. And we have won that last 3 with 15 minutes left o,O, 25 ish people.


What we do is have the BLM alliance aga 6 mobs on the left, and the DD alliance 6 mobs on the right. Splitting up groups of 12 into 2 groups of 6 reduces chances of wipe.

[Pacha]

Marid
One of the tougher bosses we've fought. Kiting while walking helped to avoid Voracious Trunk (the massive cure move). Killing Muninn supposedly removes Chigoe spamming (If they are summoned, quickly have DD destroy them, they are very weak, or have people kite them).

This is misinformation. First, Voracious Trunk is not the cure move, Probiscus Shower is the cure move. Also, we killed the Muninn tonight and that definately did not stop the Marid chigoe spam.

Imo, the only way to beat the Marid is to quickly dispatch of the chigoes as soon as they pop and have some serious DD's taking down its HP. Also, Probiscus Shower needs to be stunned because it cures quite a bit of HP. Kiting may help to limit the chigoe spam. Bottom line though, if you get dark elementals and Marid boss like we did tonight, you better have at least 30 ppl there with some strong DD's and blm's if you think you're going to win (the only time I remember beating this boss was right after they buffed sams).

Lastly, I've done about 18-20 tier 1 Einherjar's and I've never seen an Orobon boss 0.o.

Here's to hoping they scale Einherjar or make some serious changes to it in the next update.

[Jaybar]

Edited the Marid information.

Our LS has done about as many Tier 1's as you have, and have never fought the Manticore, but I can guarantee there's an Orobon.

[Tomiko]

Edited the Marid information.

Our LS has done about as many Tier 1's as you have, and have never fought the Manticore, but I can guarantee there's an Orobon.

When I first started doing Einherjar when it first came out, we ended up getting that damn Orobon like 3 times in a row.

[Leeto]

marid isn't that bad if you go in with a decent mix of DD and BLM. Have the BLMs ga3 when they see chigoes pop, maybe light nuke on the side while the DDs stay on the marid. It rarely if ever uses probiscus shower after that patch...before the patch, however, you had to have a perfect stun order if you wanted to beat it in time. Literally spammed probiscus every chance it got, kiting didn't help. Glad they fixed it >_>