Salvage Strats Review/input from experts

[Neosutra]

Sometimes it's just very hard to pull and also not get links in Powderkegs room, and I have pulled there alot, to get 15-20 mins with 6-8 people means you were very lucky no imps were in your way or something, way more times than not, theres 1-2 that I have to wait for them to move before doing a pull which would bring 3+ mobs.

Well, we do it every time so i wouldnt call it lucky. I call it good pulling from people that have done it 100+ times.

Edit: To pchan, that isnt really proven about stats/clearing first wing. We clear first wing every time as well and its a dice roll which day we will get stats. We are lucky if we even get a couple int in arra on first floor.

We clear the first qutrub wing, and then either the NE or SE wing depending on what lamias put out. Full clears of each wing. I will however add in the 5th floor rampart for str cells from now on.

I am also thinking of having the thf do that sack pull in SSR while we are clearing the 2 inner rooms, getting at least 1-2 back to the group. So there are only a 3-4 by the time we get to the hammer room, really liked that suggestion.

[tymora]

I am thinking if you want to do 5F rampart, might as well do 1F rampart for the STR. Can use it for 5 more floors. More bang for the buck?
Furthermore, only 1 side drops STR on 5F if I remember correctly because the summoned monsters differ between north and south route.

[Neosutra]

I am thinking if you want to do 5F rampart, might as well do 1F rampart for the STR. Can use it for 5 more floors. More bang for the buck?
Furthermore, only 1 side drops STR on 5F if I remember correctly because the summoned monsters differ between north and south route.

If I wasnt doing bhoot then ya 1f would be better, but the 1F takes extra lamia to kill and extra time on the 1F. Ive done the whole "spend alot of time on the 1F to make the rest easier" and its just not worth it. The rest of the zone is already easy enough, no reason to spend that much time on first floor ever.

[chapstick]

I hate spending too much time on 1F, usually like 10-15 mins in I'm babbling on vent about how much I fucking hate arrapago.

[Neosutra]

I hate spending too much time on 1F, usually like 10-15 mins in I'm babbling on vent about how much I fucking hate arrapago.

Ya, I just laugh when I remember the pre chest days when arra was the hardest fucking zone due to virtually no cells.

[tymora]

Now it is the easiest to get all NMs.

[Kaia]

I get a lot of crap for this, but I'm a huge fan of BLM in salvage, especially in Arrapago. Having an AM2 on QQs can cut off a huge amount of time... not that we're very pressed for time in Arrapago, but still... all it takes is a magic cell and an INT cell. My typical setup for almost any zone is 8 people - MNK MNK SAM BRD RDM WHM THF BLM. Having an extra healer allows for melee to play much, much more offensively, like not having to worry about shadows for a minute or 2, or during hundred fists or any time-sensitive areas (warping gears, zhayolm frogs, etc), SAM being able to ride hasso and take a few hits, etc. Also, having a SAM with 2 MNKs allows for Darkness SC spam, which does massive, massive, massive damage on salvage mobs. Even using a soboro, a majority of 1/2f mobs get 1-shotted by a solid darkness SC.

On 2f QQA I'll have my group do one of 2 things, depending on how lazy I'm feeling. First, have BLM start casting AM2 while I'm giving songs to the melee. Melee charge in and WS right as AM2 is hitting. More often than not, QQA is down to 10% or so within a couple seconds, then it's just a matter of finishing it off with a meditate WS. Oooor alternatively we can do a good darkness SC + MB, which will most likely 1-shot it.

For 3f QQTH, melee can pop a prism powder while i'm buffing them and stand literally right on top of the QQ. BLM starts casting AM2, melee all simultaneously WS. AM + 3 WS brings QQTH almost to death, meaning we only have to deal with 1, maybe 2 trips out into the hallway using the north wall trick.

BLM also makes Bhoot a joke. Swap him into the main party and give him marches/haste, and you've got a reliable stun for anything. Between stuns they can pump out MBs or tier 4s to speed things up.

6f arrapago is a real trip with my group's setup. Like you I'll SV songs and pop hermes quencher before we warp up. Having a SAM and BLM makes the 6f ramparts a joke. SAM using Meikyo and self-frag with an AM2 MB will usually 1-shot a rampart, meaning it doesn't get enough TP to use reinforcements. 2nd rampart, SAM will still have meikyo up with 200+tp for another frag > AM2 kill. Voila, no trees. This also frees up MNKs to pop hundred fists on the gears or the boss instead of spamming TP to the ramparts, which ends up with a forest of treants to kill.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. It's good to hear other ideas about how to do things. One comment I have is that you seem to be finishing pretty much every run with like 15+ minutes to spare. Sure it's nice to finish early, but my outlook is that we all paid the 1500 AP to get in, so I'm going to milk every damn minute. Anyone can get things done faster, but high-stress runs ~5 times a week will burn people out really quickly. Excluding Zhayolm, my group accomplishes pretty much the exact same goals as yours per run, but exit consistently with about 3 or 4 minutes to spare. The extra time goes towards having fun, getting cells for that piece of gear your THF or BRD really loves to wear, testing bogus placebo theories, etc. Keeping the group well-geared and happy is my top priority as a leader. Having a bunch of stressed out, high-strung people with great salvage gear is nice, but just isn't the same.

[Zidiane]

For the 5th floor Zhaylom, the gears arn't needed to be sac'd always.
If there is weather up, then yeah they do, Otherwise they don't.

There are 8 rotating gears which won't aggro you if you run around the outside of the edge, however there are 3 triple gears which will aggro you if you run too soon, if you want till the 3 are out of reach (Should only take 30's), you can get to the madame room with out a weakend person. Same with getting to 6F. I hate using sac's when you don't need too.

[Neosutra]

For the 5th floor Zhaylom, the gears arn't needed to be sac'd always.
If there is weather up, then yeah they do, Otherwise they don't.

There are 8 rotating gears which won't aggro you if you run around the outside of the edge, however there are 3 triple gears which will aggro you if you run too soon, if you want till the 3 are out of reach (Should only take 30's), you can get to the madame room with out a weakend person. Same with getting to 6F. I hate using sac's when you don't need too.

Ya, I have a problem finding 8 people on the server I can take across any zone on the planet w/o truesight mobs and not aggro at least once, so it isnt really realistic for me to expect to get 7-8 people through a rotating room of truesight mobs. I just usually sac it to be safe Q.Q.

[tymora]

I get a lot of crap for this, but I'm a huge fan of BLM in salvage, especially in Arrapago. Having an AM2 on QQs can cut off a huge amount of time... not that we're very pressed for time in Arrapago, but still... all it takes is a magic cell and an INT cell. My typical setup for almost any zone is 8 people - MNK MNK SAM BRD RDM WHM THF BLM. Having an extra healer allows for melee to play much, much more offensively, like not having to worry about shadows for a minute or 2, or during hundred fists or any time-sensitive areas (warping gears, zhayolm frogs, etc), SAM being able to ride hasso and take a few hits, etc. Also, having a SAM with 2 MNKs allows for Darkness SC spam, which does massive, massive, massive damage on salvage mobs. Even using a soboro, a majority of 1/2f mobs get 1-shotted by a solid darkness SC.

The BLM can be replaced by a RDM and it will still work equally well. Your WHM can then be replaced by a COR and it may work doubly well. A SCH can also take the place of the WHM if you want. If your group brings holy waters, a WHM is mostly redundant.

Face it, a BLM/SMN/WHM in salvage is as much a dead-weight as a PUP on Tiamat. That said, whatever rocks your boat. If you can hit everything including boss and still have some breathing room, it is still a good setup no matter what others say. I like to go Bhaflau as BLM though. Pretty fun

And I agree on the SC part. SAM does insane amounts of damage doing SC in salvage.

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And for that matter, race does matters in salvage since you can't wear anything in the beginning. Bring a Galka/Elvaan RDM and you might find yourself starved of MP on initial healing.

[Zidiane]

Ya, I have a problem finding 8 people on the server I can take across any zone on the planet w/o truesight mobs and not aggro at least once, so it isnt really realistic for me to expect to get 7-8 people through a rotating room of truesight mobs. I just usually sac it to be safe Q.Q.

I usualy gather everyone and tell them gather and follow where i go, usualy 9/10 times never aggro, only rare times we do.

[tymora]

But given the number of gears in the room, once aggro, good chance of full wipe...and in a place where you can't raise to boot.

1/10 chance is too high. Need 100% certainty.

[MillionDollarMan]

I go first in my LS. If I don't aggro it's safe to run to the next room. If i get aggro I have phalnax, stoneskin, and blink up. I can take hits for at least 10 seconds so everyone runs into the next room and i die right next to the room where i can reraise.. There's no need to sac it every run.

[Midnightjade]

We're currently looking at switching from Nyzul (farmed out) and maybe Limbus (ditto) to Salvage. I'm a complete Salvage noob and have never been in any of the zones.

I think these guides look very good, but if I wanted to get the most out of them I'd have to read a 'starter' guide first. For example, they assume that you know how to pop the various NMs in each zone, and I have no clue how to do that.

Hope this helps - thanks for writing them. I think they're going to be very useful but require some basic background reading. ^^

[Neosutra]

We're currently looking at switching from Nyzul (farmed out) and maybe Limbus (ditto) to Salvage. I'm a complete Salvage noob and have never been in any of the zones.

I think these guides look very good, but if I wanted to get the most out of them I'd have to read a 'starter' guide first. For example, they assume that you know how to pop the various NMs in each zone, and I have no clue how to do that.

Hope this helps - thanks for writing them. I think they're going to be very useful but require some basic background reading. ^^

Ya I am going to review them and rewrite a bit based on alot of the critiques in here to make them more well rounded. Good luck.

[SamanosukeShiva]

we tried 2 BLM each with fanatic/hermes on arra 6th floor, they all aggro/train all gears and manafont/-ga3 nuke was so funny lol, all gears die in 2~ min

[Neosutra]

we tried 2 BLM each with fanatic/hermes on arra 6th floor, they all aggro/train all gears and manafont/-ga3 nuke was so funny lol, all gears die in 2~ min

Ya Ive seen this strat, on the off chance I ever take 2 blms into salvage AND we get 2 fanatics I will try it for much lulz.

But to be perfectly honest, your opinion is null and void here since you got hara-ate to drop and thus dont exist in this realm of reality.

[SamanosukeShiva]

hater!

[mdkuser]

I read your arap strats and here is a few observations:

- You clear one wing of quturb, and one of skelettons? Clearing 2 wings of quturb can give you more weapons and heads. We actually do not clear them, just kill all but the 3 quturbs in the last room of each wing. Doing that the drop rate of skelettons in 3rd wing is insanely high, 9 out of 10 runs. It also gives more lamias killed, and the ramparts always pops when we have killed teh 2nd merrow in skeletton wing. It takes us not more than 30-35 min with 7 people ( 3 DD THF WHM RDM BRD). Also a trick here is that only the quturbs that wield a dagger need be dispelled ( and the skelettons that have a staff).

- You suggest to kill the lamia on the next floor, but its a merrow ( SE) and can make you loose your TP for the QQA. We just skip mobs on 2F and go directly to QQA (and we should have enough abi, HP by now). We save TP on the last skelettons on 1F. Saves a few minutes. Also, a skillchain on QQA does *insane dmg*. Don't overlook it! An asuran first > gekko drakness takes half its HP in 3 seconds. Even an asuran fist > shark bite works well. Set up a 3 step SC for more dmg is a good idea lol.

- on 4F, for flayer you hardly need SJ. just your main tank needs, and we always give starting SJ to a tank (WHM main healer though). So that we never farm SJ on 4F when we do flayer. For Bhoot we do. Plenty of SJ and leg will drop next floor.

[Freysi]

I've been setting up small runs, 2-3 ppl, and want to try Arrapago soon. I've been thinking about using NIN, SAM, RDM for Arrapago, with a dual-boxed BRD. How would be the best way to go about killing the QQAs?

Every time we've tried to get them to follow us by staying in the correct range, they just run away. They've never warped on us, but it's been close before, but that was with 7 people.

With NIN, SAM, RDM, I was thinking, having RDM open with a nuke to force the QQA to cast something, while the SAM runs in, sekka-SC with NIN, then, another WS (trying to kill it without having to 2hr). Shouldn't that bring it down pretty far?

We already have all the Macha's we need, so I'm sorta hoping we can hit QQAx2, Bhoot/Flayer, Chariot with just 3-4 ppl.