Finishing off ultima

[Chen]

I'm wondering what would be the best way to finish off ultima when he gets into his last 20% hp. My ls does pretty well against ultima, 3/4 (i'm happy with it) but every win and espeically the loss everything just goes crazy in the last 20% and we seem to narrowly win most times.

whats the best way to zerg him down? obviosly 2-3 monks using 100 fists would be a disaster as he spams his tp @ 100 at that level.

also can't really rely on an army of blm in case it puts up mana screen, also that our ls doesnt have that army ^^:

any suggestions on what to do and what jobs we'd need? we have a 2-3 of most jobs.

[tyraravenlocke]

He doesn't always use mana screen, but really the key here is this:

Have your tanks turn around at 22% or so, and stop all damage, he doesn't really regen, and he doesn't have regain at all. Rest to full, and then destroy him. Chainspell stun is really helpful and effective on him.

Next: Crush him using whatever means you have available.

Locking him down at that last 20% is really all you will need in order to finish him off though.

[Vejitta]

Zergin last 20%hp of Ultima is pretty much always a bad idea.

Best and secure way is to do it slowly.
Make sure you have hate macro. Make sure every BLM or RDM (or both) keep watch over DoT spell and, most important, don't let people cluster in one spot at last 20%HP. Ultima loves to spams couple Armor Busters in a row in short period of time. I noticed it always does at least 2 AB one after another. Imo this is propably the deadliest move that Ultima has.
You can speed up process, but which some sacrifices. If one of your BLMs or melees steal hate let him/her just spam all the dmg it can burst since once Ultima starts to count it doesn't do anything else. I once stole 10% of it's hp on my WAR that way.

As for setup - standard tank pt with PLD (if you have good enough PLD he can propably tank it solo - Ultima is quite easy to tank before it hit 20%) with support. BLMs are necessary to have stun order and DoTs on it all the time (DoT or maybe lolDoTs, but 5 DoTs on mob give tremendous damage). I usually take 3 + RDM/DRK (not for CS). Best melees are, as anywhere, SAMs for skillchains. But most of melees work fine there as far as you don't use too many of them (I would say 3 is max).

tank pt - PLD, PLD (or NIN/DRK), BRD, WHM, RDM, BLU (COR or SMN works too)
mage pt - BLM, BLM, BLM (w/ RDM subs), RDM/DRK, SMN
melee pt - SAM, SAM (w/ THF subs), RDM (or WHM), BRD

Of course you can kill Ultima with 7-8 ppl just BLMing but it is not what you're asking as far as I noticed ^^;

[eva00r]

One Citadel Buster will insta-wipe your zerg.

[Oulanbator]

Don't zerg it, take your time, there is no point in rushing.
The danger for the end of the fight is to get messy and eat a citadel buster that wipes half the alliance.

Make sure everyone keeps cool, stay focused, that clear informations on mana screen and energy screen is provided, define an order for melees to use 2Hours ( if you want to 2H), don't send them all at once.

For Citadel Buster, one person (only one or this gets messy) should use a /assist macro to tell who have hate.
Make sure everyone stops any action when the countdown starts ( nukes, meleing, curing etc...) as Ultima can switch targets if someone pulls hate.
It will take more or less 10 seconds for everyone to react. When the countdown reach 20, you should have a target that will not change. Make sure this person goes into a corner, and that all others go on/near the ramps.
You may have to use some erase if melees have gravity on.

If your tanks can survive citadel buster, then you just repeat these steps on and on until Ultima dies.
If your tanks cannot survive CB, you can decide to sacrifice someone else to die on CB. A Sam/war using his 2H or a Rdm using chainspell with sleep dispel or sleep II will pull hate. Have them die in a corner, then go back to regular tanking and dding with blms and/or melees.
It's all about keeping every aspect of the situation under control.

[Xavierus]

How my linkshell handles Proto-Ultima is as they mentioned above, slow and steady.

-Have a member calling out which screen is up. I believe these screens last for a minute before he changes.
-Have someone set up a macro for /assist Proto-Ultima and call out who has hate right when you see the 30 second warning for CB. The person called can go down and full attack untill they die.

My linkshell is not the most efficient on the last 20%, but we get the job done. We usually eat 5ish CB's before its dead. I agree with the above poster though, Armor Buster is the big killer. Its a rough spell and he spams it the last 20%.

That being said, a linkshell member recently acquire a KC, would it be worthwhile to sacrficed a DRK to use 2 hour + SE and zerg it during 30 second countdown?

[Chen]

so it looks like prefered dmg is SAM/thf + BLM then?

one thing that looks like a good idea is having 1 melee 2hr during the countdown to make sure its them and no-one else who gets killed.

also full rest @ 20-21% would be smart too i guess

will be trying these things out this saturday, hopefully i can post a picture of my manteel then ^^:

[Meian]

For our LS, it depends on a few things. But normally, we keep DoT on him and take it nice and easy until he eventually goes down.

The only times we zerg if he just puts a shield up and is between 1-10% and the ones not effected by the shield jump on him. Most often we have Manafonting BLMs finishing him when he has no shield/physical shield at low hp.

If he does Armor Buster we tend to keep DD off and wait until everyone is back up to white hp.

[ringthree]

For our LS, it depends on a few things. But normally, we keep DoT on him and take it nice and easy until he eventually goes down.

The only times we zerg if he just puts a shield up and is between 1-10% and the ones not effected by the shield jump on him. Most often we have Manafonting BLMs finishing him when he has no shield/physical shield at low hp.

If he does Armor Buster we tend to keep DD off and wait until everyone is back up to white hp.

The real killer at the end is not Citadel Buster, because if you don't know how to handle that then you are screwed anyway. It is Armor Buster on a mage, which can end up wiping a large amount of the alliance depending on positioning. In general, I would keep TP down during the last phase and just have the melee meditate for WS's because they are going to have a hard time building TP with melee attacks anyway because they are going to be running away for CB and because of physical shield.