Platinum Grip on Alex / ToAU 44?

[Thistle]

Tomorrow we're making another attempt at ToAU 44 (last week we got him down to 2% before timing out, arg!). We're switching up jobs some, and for the first time I'm going on DRK. We're going to have two DRKs so we should have lots of casting-stun, but I was wondering if switching over to a Platinum Grip (additional effect: stun) would be worth it? (Can't have too much stun against him!)

I've never bothered using one before now, so I don't have experience with it even on normal mobs, let alone a big one like Alex. Think it would proc often enough to give up the stats bonuses on other grips?

[Eanae]

Biggest advice I can give is that if you're going to have a tank on it, have your tank do it from the front. From the sides, he loses access to multiple tp moves making it more likely to cure itself. From the front it makes it alot less likely to heal. I know this doesn't exactly answer your question, but this is the main reason I know many people lost their Alexander fights. Stun grip doesn't exactly proc often from what I understand anyways. I guess any little bit helps, but not exactly sure it would do much good.

[Judai]

We only had one stunner and it was me as PLD/DRK and the fight was easy all three times I did it. Prolly need to look into other things that are wrong instead of thinking about stun.

[Thistle]

Yeah, our tank is one of the people who have beat this before (we're 3/3 on beat/need), so she knows that trick. She doesn't much like that terrorize/hate resetting move, but it's better than Alex curing himself. Thanks!

[Thistle]

We only had one stunner and it was me as PLD/DRK and the fight was easy all three times I did it. Prolly need to look into other things that are wrong instead of thinking about stun.

It's possible other things are wrong, sure. But stun could be one part of it, which is why I was asking.

[Shuemue]

I have nothing useful to add, but I really enjoyed this fight, ended up tanking most of it mnk/nin and for once I actually managed to cast ichi a few times. :D

[Judai]

idk what hate restting move you talking about, I never lost hate once to our Ridill WAR, RNG or BLM. Actually I did lose hate once to the BLM, right when Alez SP'd and just killed him, but he was in his own corner because he likes to overnuke and steal hate from me.

[Ophannus]

i subbed blu on my DRG and was able to stun his healing TP bullshit with head butt about 75% of the time.

[Tsuko_Asura]

Best advice I can think of, have a good MNK/NIN tank it, then pile on the mages. With a Monk tanking through damage, you can just have a horde of BLMs, and they aren't likely to lose hate, from my experience.

If available, MNK RDM BRD BLM BLM BLM is my idea of the perfect party for that BC.

[Thistle]

Best advice I can think of, have a good MNK/NIN tank it, then pile on the mages. With a Monk tanking through damage, you can just have a horde of BLMs, and they aren't likely to lose hate, from my experience.

If available, MNK RDM BRD BLM BLM BLM is my idea of the perfect party for that BC.

Unfortunately we don't have that much flexibility. One person who needs it is WHM 75 only. One who needs it is DRK 75 only. One who needs it is a THF 75 only. I'm DRK, COR, RDM, BRD 75. (Oops, apparently I can't count. I had said we were 3/3 needing it/helpers.) This week's helpers are a PLD and a RDM (me as DRK). Last week we had a PLD and a MNK (me as COR -- the THF and I shot and the MNK formless strike'ed the BLU's first form to death).

Hopefully the RDM helping to cure (and other RDM good things) and the extra stun from a second DRK will make the difference. We got him to 2% last week, so close! Hopefully tomorrow we'll succeed. If not, I'd be open to rearranging jobs again, though the four of us who need it have to stay in.

[eva00r]

BLU/THF SA Cannonball tanking from behind. You don't need to take any melee damage because you stand out of its melee range. You will wear only -physical damage% gear and keep the Cocoon up, with this you will take a lot less damage than PLD. All his laser moves deals physical damage, and if he cast holy things on you, say LOL because of your innate MDB trait. You can prevent any AOE to the person next to you because they're meleeing @ the front. BLU can heal with Magic Fruit and can deal shit tons of damage from Cannonball. That's a Tank+1.

[ringthree]

Just out of curiosity, because I don't know if this is assumed, but where are you having your tank stand? PLD/RDM standing in front and about 10-15 away from Alexander should have no problems tanking this. We have done it several times without a stun at all.

[Thistle]

Just out of curiosity, because I don't know if this is assumed, but where are you having your tank stand? PLD/RDM standing in front and about 10-15 away from Alexander should have no problems tanking this. We have done it several times without a stun at all.

She's been standing in the front of it, out of melee range. I'm pretty sure she doesn't use the distance plugin (or any kind), so I'm not sure exactly how far she's standing. Also, she's /WAR (no /RDM leveled, I'm guessing), but this time we have a RDM with Phalanx II for her.

Hm. Seems like I'm putting too much weight onto stun. I'm not sure what we're doing wrong, or if it's something we can even control (our party makeup is pretty fixed, luck?). I'll be interested to see how we do tonight. Maybe the RDM will make a difference (our WHM is Elvaan and was the sole mage. She was trying to debuff and stuff in addition to healing, that must have been rough on her MP).

Luckily this is a fun fight, so it's not so bad to repeat it. However, I would like to get the darned thing beaten so I can stop thinking about it for a while.

Edit: I should add that we're aiming to stun that healing move, Gospel of Somethingorother. It's not really tank-related stunning.

[Callisto]

From my experiences I can vouch for both the PLD/DRK and the BLU/THF. Aside from Alexander itself having 1-2 stuns is nice for the BLU mob, honestly he was harder than Alexander for us. PLD/DRK stands out of melee range in the front, BLU/THF in the back, other DDs/mages off to the side.

Side note: The music for that fight is fucking fantastic, my favorite in the game by far.

[Amele]

we did it with uh.

whm brd rdm pup nin drg. like 24 hours after it came out. (1/1) pup used his new blackmage head for most of it. dunno which frame.

we didn't really need stun, but we had one more DD on it than most groups would have I think and were able to wedge in a bard (whm rdm brd is insane amounts of healing so we were able to have ninja and dragoon on it in melee range 100% of the time.)

angon was nice but the drg could really be any DD - ninja can be any tank basically but needs to be able to clear 1500hp and should really have shadows if you're going to tank at melee range.

oh yeah. pup could be any ranged (blm/pup/rng/smn etc) but the nice thing about pup was the puppet didn't need any attention paid to it by the rdm/brd/whm team.

[Tsuko_Asura]

From my experiences I can vouch for both the PLD/DRK and the BLU/THF. Aside from Alexander itself having 1-2 stuns is nice for the BLU mob, honestly he was harder than Alexander for us. PLD/DRK stands out of melee range in the front, BLU/THF in the back, other DDs/mages off to the side.

Side note: The music for that fight is fucking fantastic, my favorite in the game by far.

I'll gladly join any shout for ToAU44, just for the music ;3

[Callisto]

Sometimes I just put it on repeat on wmp here at work for like 4 hours...going to do that again now I think, lol.

[Hoshiku]

I don't recall needing stun for the alex fight although it was a must for the blu before alex. My favorite setup for this fight is WHM BRD SAM MNK PLD BLM although I've won it with other setups. My rule for this fight is kill all three forms of the BLU and the first form of Alex within the first 15 minutes, if you pass the 15 minute mark exit and start again. The first form of Alex is very weak so your DD and tank can down it while the mages rest pretty easily. We also always had the PLD tank away from Alex on the final form (so he uses a lot of ranged attacks). You will probably need to come DRK (or find a SAM for hobaku spam) in order to have enough stuns for the blu. Ideally find a brd with storm fife as your refresher (it helps a lot).

[Amele]

you don't have to have stun for the blu - we slept him through his two hour without incident (well; ok, one dd got anxious and woke him before it wore but if you don't do that it won't be a problem.)

[Hoshiku]

You stun the weapon skills because each one he gets off is progressively more damage and they get large enough that your tank is one-shotted. I've never won this bcnm when the blu was not stunned.