Duoing Hammerblow and Dekka

[oldoldman]

So I have one day out of the week where I'm not doing salvage/saving for a 2 run day and I thought I'd spend it dabbling in SSR. I have 2 chars MNK and WHM and I got some friends to DC trick me in. All in all I was able to kill Hammerblow with ease and barely squeek out a kill on Dekka. I finished Dekka with about 300 HP and 10 minutes on the clock.

Strategy is probably pretty simple, Went in and farmed cells til I felt comfortable. Then I headed to Hammerblow room. I left my WHM char in one of the 4 chest rooms and Chi Blasted one of the MNKs. This is an important part because whichever one you generate real hate on will not lose aggro easily. Once Chiblasted I turned tail and ran (I know this is basic Hammerblow shit just trying to get a bit in depth). By the time I got back to the Farming room I had 2 which I just tanked and killed. Rinse, lather and repeat til hammer pops.

On Dekka it's an endurance test, load up on all the meds you can and just duke it out with the Deadpan Devilet. Dekka has a bit more luck involved because amnesia at 10 seconds til Counterstance wears is a lot more deadly. The most important thing I can note is to Keep utsusemi: Ni for when it starts a Tier 3 spell.

I'm posting this here as this is practical for 2 separate people to duo because you are going after a WHM and a MNK piece anyways.

I'm contemplating trying powderkeg next...

[Ratatapa]

Interesting Thanks ^^

[Shassira]

I had no doubt this was possible, but i am wondering how long did you take to kill each NM. You say you were done with 10' left, but i'd like to know each NM's time.

Also, as for Powderkeg, i'm unsure that time will allow you. From my experiences, finishing the whole Powderkeg room is askin time wise to finishing Dekka and GG1 rooms (NMs included), this with a party of 6-7. So, considering you finished with 10' left, you may simply have no time at all to do Powderkeg instead of Dekka. Ofcourse, if you skip Hammerblow you probably will get the time you need from there, but then i'm not sure if it fits your plans.

[oldoldman]

Hammerblow took 6 minutes to kill and I'd venture to say I ported up with 45~ minutes left. There are a lot of places time can be shaved on this and I think it would be safe to say you could port up with an hour left easily, maybe less if you get lucky cell drops. Another thing I'm going to do is only clear one of the side rooms on 1F and just target the right of the 6 Hammerblow Fomors for the cells I need.

A THF friend of mine will probably start doing this with me which should speed it up enough to squeeze a powderkeg out of the deal.

[Shassira]

Definitely, with three i can see you getting no time problems even when hitting powder. And doing the six fomors with a thf to help is gonna be so much faster. It's probably much better doing it with 3 even if you can do it with 2 because of the little TH effect. SS already has a shitty drop rate, so that extra whatever % TH may add, even if it's as small as 1%, could be a difference.

I don't do Powder personaly that much because I always make our team split and when i'm in the SS team we do LAC through the Dekka path, while we do Powder with a smaller team of 4 people. That said though, i do believe i remember the fomors in Powder's room to be a bit harder than what you get to fight in 1F. Wiki reports 16 fomors and 4 Devilets. I may be exagerating, but i think you could expect to take something between 1 and 2 minutes per fomor solo and say same thing about devilets, which means you could spend here up to 40 minutes, not counting pulling time or any resting you may need. Another DD, like a thf, will cut those times for sure =o

[oldoldman]

So after burning my permit earlier in the day my salvage LS decided to do an LAC run that night.
Kabuto drops.

True story

Not their fault, just terrible timing.

[Wizerd]

...Chi Blasted one of the MNKs. This is an important part because whichever one you generate real hate on will not lose aggro easily.

In my experience, it doesn't matter which fomor you shoot or use an ability on, it'll generally be the MNKs that don't lose hate as easily because they don't stop to shoot or cast and therefore keep their close distance on you. You may find it more effective to use another ability from 19.9 range instead of Chi Blast from max (which is what, 16-17?), because you get a bit more of a head start and can lose aggro faster.

When I duoed this pair, I went as MNK+RDM, which was easier than you make this sound. Hammerblow isn't too difficult with Phalanx II and Erase of Aegis Scream, Deadpan attacks slowly and is easily blinkable, and Dekka hits weak enough that without Counterstance, and with Phalanx II on, a RDM's Refresh and 10min Convert timer are enough to keep you going.

I did this for the Skadi Feet piece though, back in like September or something. MNK+WHM sounds more fun, and a little more useful if you're going as people without multiple jobs leveled. (Why would a RDM-only want Dekka? Haha)

[Shassira]

...Chi Blasted one of the MNKs. This is an important part because whichever one you generate real hate on will not lose aggro easily.

You may find it more effective to use another ability from 19.9 range instead of Chi Blast from max (which is what, 16-17?), because you get a bit more of a head start and can lose aggro faster.

Or get a Trollbane chakram. No, i'm not joking, the trollbane is probably one of the most useful items i've gotten for my mnk in a long time. Having something to toss that doesn't need stacks is really useful. This way you can attack from 24.9, which means basicly no spell will land on you. I usualy do this pull as BST when we do SS though, which makes it super easy, but it's not the point of this conversation (Skadi boots, range attack and widescan to be sure they are perfectly spread >>; Yay)

[oldoldman]

I actually have a Lamiabane I use to pull gears for LBC, I use Chi Blast because it's too easy to lose hate on the fomors and I want at least 2 fomors to make it to the room I'm pulling to. Also, my first pull I actually got the MNK I chiblasted and the ranger mob. The reason I say that the one you generate hate is hardest to lose is based on the THF in my group saying he couldn't lose the Mithra because he shot it.

I'm not saying this is hard at all, on the contrary I'm saying it is relatively easy and should be utilized a lot more than it is. I have a feeling my troubles with Dekka were due to me being new to tanking and healing simultaneously with no backup. And yea, RDM may be a better option but I don't have it. I can see Phalanx 2 being invaluable on Dekka, with Stance up I was taking ~80 damage per.

[Wizerd]

I actually have a Lamiabane I use to pull gears for LBC, I use Chi Blast because it's too easy to lose hate on the fomors and I want at least 2 fomors to make it to the room I'm pulling to. Also, my first pull I actually got the MNK I chiblasted and the ranger mob. The reason I say that the one you generate hate is hardest to lose is based on the THF in my group saying he couldn't lose the Mithra because he shot it.

I'm not saying this is hard at all, on the contrary I'm saying it is relatively easy and should be utilized a lot more than it is. I have a feeling my troubles with Dekka were due to me being new to tanking and healing simultaneously with no backup. And yea, RDM may be a better option but I don't have it. I can see Phalanx 2 being invaluable on Dekka, with Stance up I was taking ~80 damage per.

Well on Dekka, you don't really cast Utsusemi much. It's useless because half the time you get interrupted anyway.

Also, I have a Trollbane but ranged cell isn't guaranteed from the start chest, whereas abilities are.

[fishstix]

It's kinda random, if the RDM buffs itself first, or casts a Tier3 spell, it's easier to lose hate on. If it casts something small like poison or bio, it'll start running towards you sooner and the distance is smaller. If one fomor happens to run in a certain way into another fomor, it can path wider, etc.

[Wizerd]

Instead of bumping an old topic, I thought I'd mention this here because it has to do with low-man Salvage.

As of the next update, QQTHs will be easier to solo for RDMs. Bio III lv5 will last 2:30, giving you about a 30 second buff to stay well behind it and not have it turn back, and buff up before re-Bioing it. It'll also do more damage, of course, making for faster kills. So.. yay!

[Inoiown]

Instead of bumping an old topic, I thought I'd mention this here because it has to do with low-man Salvage.

As of the next update, QQTHs will be easier to solo for RDMs. Bio III lv5 will last 2:30, giving you about a 30 second buff to stay well behind it and not have it turn back, and buff up before re-Bioing it. It'll also do more damage, of course, making for faster kills. So.. yay!

You can just make it come back to you instead of following it. I do 3F QQTH solo everytime we do arrapago as RDM/WHM - while the others farm cells. Just hug the south wall of porter room if you are at psycheflayer side, and hug north wall if you are on ghost side. If you do it right, it will come running back to you 100% of the time.

When it comes back I usually nuke it (it will use TP on me while I'm casting) and start kiting around porter room. After some time it will stop, lay a bomb and run off again. Then just go back to hugging the wall, and you get time to rebuff while waiting for it. Of course reapply dots when they wear and you don't have to worry about it dying unclaimed with dots on, because you never lose claim on it.

[pchan]

I'd like to add that you can do hammerblow > powderdek too. Maybe not with 2 but with 3 yes.