Bypassing the Aern's Elemental nerf

[Tsuko_Asura]

If this isn't Advanced forum material, feel free to relocate it.

If you don't care about the back-story, skip to the end.

Anywho, most BLMs are probably familiar with the infamous Aw'aern camp in the Garden of Ru'hmet, in the rooms used to spawn Ix'aern DRK. Heck, most melee are probably familiar with it as well, given that it was the first real opportunity players had for infinite chains, which was seen as an exploit way back when, and promptly adjusted.

Well, in an attempt to pop Ix'aern DRK earlier, I came across a way to get around this, which is surprisingly obvious. One of the Aw'aern I killed happened to be a Summoner, and considering the ??? was going to be moving before I could finish it off, I just decided to get myself some free EXP off its pets. Well, after all three elementals(the cap, as per the adjustment) were killed, I began killing the Summoner, through Gravity and assorted nukes. As it was near death, I got a bit too far out of range, and it lost aggro on me, and went yellow. Well, considering it was at 7%, I tossed out a Blizzard III, only to have it be resisted.. Low and behold, it started popping out elementals again.


~Anywho

After using a few BLMs that were meriting/organ farming to test this out further, it proved that this strategy replicates the previously adjusted endless-elemental result, and subsequently, revitalizes infinite chaining for BLMs. The only two requirements for this seem to be two mages with Gravity, preferably a RDM and a BLM. Most of the Aw'aern are IT, so a RDM's higher enfeebling capability would prove useful, because they need to be in charge of not only deaggroing the Summoner, but keeping the other two Aw'aern in the room at bay, which I found to be extremely easy. The easiest way to get the Summoner to deaggro is to just stick a Gravity on it, and run around the square parameter of the room.

Now, in theory, this should yield much higher EXP/H than Mount Z., because Aw'aern don't appear to be bound by the one minute pet respawn timer, which causes them to respawn a new EM-T(mostly T) elemental almost instantaneously. One should also take into consideration the fact that while you would lose Sanction, you get a 25% EXP bonus for Signet whilst in a party with only two people(22% if you care to go up to 3 people).

If this is old news, well, my bad.. But it seems like it would make meriting BLM much faster, so hopefully this is helpful to someone.



EDIT: Bolded important stuff for people who don't want to read.

[spooky]

Someone delete the topic before SE sees. >.>

[Pergo]

this seems like a nice idea, but how easy is it to reliably lose aggro on the aern? usually when mobs deaggro, its sorta random based on the terrain and distance, and sometimes mobs just won't let you go... in addition to that, it seems like it would be stressful to have to continually deaggro it and be sure to claim it again before it actually despawns...

[Lordwafik]

should just unnnerf it again, melees cried to nerf infinichains on these back when melees couldn't infinichain, but now melees can do it in multiple camps, blms can only do it in one camp and only if people aren't super dumb.

[Virtuous Saint]

k i think he means it becomes broken, and will continue to spawn them after 3 once you deaggro it and get it again, because if he means to actually deaggro it after every third that is just fucking funny.

[evilpaul]

should just unnnerf it again, melees cried to nerf infinichains on these back when melees couldn't infinichain, but now melees can do it in multiple camps, blms can only do it in one camp and only if people are on Atomos.

fixed

[Lexa]

k i think he means it becomes broken, and will continue to spawn them after 3 once you deaggro it and get it again, because if he means to actually deaggro it after every third that is just fucking funny.

No, I think he meant deaggro it after every 3 elementals, and you can keep chaining on the 3 new ones, rinse repeat, without ever having to kill the SMN Aern.

[Harutaru]

Can you deaggro, reaggro, have it summon and kill the new pop in time to maintain chain 5+ reliably?

[Vuitton]

lord almighty i can exp in Al'Taieu again. i am very happy as i prefer it over Mount Zhayolm. Its nice to actually exp in a zone that required some effort to gain access too. Plus, its pretty and has cool music.

[Tsuko_Asura]

this seems like a nice idea, but how easy is it to reliably lose aggro on the aern? usually when mobs deaggro, its sorta random based on the terrain and distance, and sometimes mobs just won't let you go... in addition to that, it seems like it would be stressful to have to continually deaggro it and be sure to claim it again before it actually despawns...

Its pretty reliable in this case. As long as you have Gravity on, the all of the pillars in the room make it a pretty quick process. Oh, and as long as you don't take an Aw'aern up any of the stair cases, they won't despawn, even in the far corners of the room.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Can you deaggro, reaggro, have it summon and kill the new pop in time to maintain chain 5+ reliably?

Yup.

[spooky]

Can you deaggro, reaggro, have it summon and kill the new pop in time to maintain chain 5+ reliably?

Yup.

poidh

[skurlover]

Can you deaggro, reaggro, have it summon and kill the new pop in time to maintain chain 5+ reliably?

Yup.

poidh

You are a fucking BLM (a QQing one at that). Go test it your god damn self.

You have done nothing but whine and complain about BLM getting nothing for so long. Someone comes along and tells you how to possibly get around it, and you give "poidh".

[Seraphise]

Meh I fight aerns religiously and I think depopping them and avoiding aggro isn't consistent nor safe enough to make this the end all camp. Hopefully I can be proved wrong

[Tsuko_Asura]

Meh I fight aerns religiously and I think depopping them and avoiding aggro isn't consistent nor safe enough to make this the end all camp. Hopefully I can be proved wrong

There's no aggro to avoid. That's why you have one person there who's sole purpose is crowd control, and deaggroing the Summoner.


Also, small update after further testing. It would appear as if this is better suited for trios rather than duos. Having one BLM take out a set, and the resting while the other BLM takes out the next set seems to be the most efficient way to go about this. I'm still looking for a Scholar to test this with, to see if it makes a duo more plausible.

I'll have some photographic evidence relatively soon. I didn't think to take pictures last night, and my lab partner had a lot of connection issues this afternoon. As soon as I can test this with a Scholar, I'll get some SS.

[tymora]

Chained 200+ back in the day(4 people, 2 BLM RDM BRD)...~11k/hour without exp ring. Keeping that aern there napping appears to be as annoying as running it around. And honestly, it gets rather boring quick lol.

With a brd and 5 blms, you can get ~10k/hour killing aerns non-stop with ga3 on 2F. Perhaps somewhat less now with that ol'magic spam nerf.

But this should make sea a lil' busy again^v^. Thanks for revealing your find!

[Seraphise]

Meh I fight aerns religiously and I think depopping them and avoiding aggro isn't consistent nor safe enough to make this the end all camp. Hopefully I can be proved wrong

There's no aggro to avoid. That's why you have one person there who's sole purpose is crowd control, and deaggroing the Summoner.


Also, small update after further testing. It would appear as if this is better suited for trios rather than duos. Having one BLM take out a set, and the resting while the other BLM takes out the next set seems to be the most efficient way to go about this. I'm still looking for a Scholar to test this with, to see if it makes a duo more plausible.

I'll have some photographic evidence relatively soon. I didn't think to take pictures last night, and my lab partner had a lot of connection issues this afternoon. As soon as I can test this with a Scholar, I'll get some SS.

Is the rdm just keeping the other two aerns slept constantly?

[Tsuko_Asura]

Those two, in addition to keeping the Summoner slept while it pumps out its three elementals. I was also tossing out a Sleep on the actual elemental when it popped out, just in case it decided to -ga me. Keeping yourself Hasted is highly recommended.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Chained 200+ back in the day(4 people, 2 BLM RDM BRD)...~11k/hour without exp ring. Keeping that aern there napping appears to be as annoying as running it around. And honestly, it gets rather boring quick lol.

With a brd and 5 blms, you can get ~10k/hour killing aerns non-stop with ga3 on 2F. Perhaps somewhat less now with that ol'magic spam nerf.

But this should make sea a lil' busy again^v^. Thanks for revealing your find!

I don't think I would ever try this with four people, unless it came out to be mathematically better with a Corsair present. One should also keep in mind that a 25-22% EXP bonus from Signet is a pretty drastic increase. Not only that, but there is also the off chance that you have more than one Summoner in a room... But I'd rather get this perfect before considering anything like that, lol.

[Daiiawn]

Sorry i wasnt able to come down to help you test earlier when you sent me a tell, ix drk decided to take its time dieing, probably knowing that i had to go for assaults.

Personally i would shy away from relying on the smn mob for xp, because all it takes is a couple of people wanting to pop ixdrk, and bad luck with ???'s to ruin your exp. (Im a firm believer that if you are xping at a camp where a nm pops, with no intention of popping the nm, you shouldnt be annoyed if someone else kills all the mobs so they can pop the nm, frustrated yes, but annoyed no XD)