Better than One (assault)

[Argettio]

My assault static is 3/5 on the First Lieutenant.

We only have Khim and Cerb to go.
Khim we are pretty confident on, as we have only tired a couple of times and our PLD d/ced on 1 run. So shouldn’t be too hard, depending on how much he spams Fulmination.

Cerb is the hard one, we are 0/7 on him. We have tried a lot of combination but it is nearly always the elementals that lead to a wipe. GoH is easy enough to manage and we can easily kill him in the 30mins.

Our group is:
Me: RDM, BLM
Nyasho: SAM, RNG, DRK, NIN
Tillaert: PLD, MNK, SAM, RDM, BLM
Clamil: BLU, BLM,DRG, RDM
Ariboo: RDM, WHM, SMN
Duriboo: THF, BST, NIN, WHM

Jobs listed in descending ‘quality’, so how good they are at the job and how well geared they are
.
The best set up we have found is:
PLD/NIN, SAM/THF, BLU/THF, 2x WHM, RDM/DRK

We set up with the mages in the tunnel at the back of cerb and the melee stand on his front paw on the same side. This keeps the mages in casting range, but out of most of the AOE.

The strat for dealing with the elementals is I (as the RDM) runs to the front feet of cerb and cast a long cast time spell (Tier III nuke normally) and then run back to the start point, which should aggro all the elementals. I last as long as I can, but die.

Wiki says that if we can deal enough damage the elementals will de-pop. So the DD go to town.

Something always goes wrong:
• Either they pop while a whm or pld is mid-cast and gets instant agro.
• I sac them all, but they don’t de-pop before they get back to their spawns and agro the pld or a whm.

So I think we need a new way to deal with them.
Can anyone give me an insight into how they have won this assault?

[Amok]

This should propbably be in the event forums.

I beat this once and never went back, but it took my group about 5 or 6 tries so I can tell you what I know. Cerb howls on aggro, at 75%, 50% and 25% of his HP. Each time he gets a buff but the previous one wears off. One of the buffs are the elementals. So, if you sac pull them with RDM you would probably get enough time to take off 25% of his HP, since they move back slowly. I don't know if he can pop them twice in a fight or twice in a row for that matter, but if you stress the importance of taking cerb down to the next howl, you should make it in time.

Besides that, dual tanks was the way to go for us. Had a PLD/NIN and a WAR/NIN iirc. His blaze spikes buff is also pretty annoying, so fast attackers -1.

[Argettio]

This should propbably be in the event forums.

Good point. Can a mod move it please.

That is my understanding of the fight.

So did you sac the elementals?

[Tsakiki]

My static took three attempts to win this one, using NIN/WAR, WAR/NIN, PLD/NIN, BRD/WHM, BLM/RDM, and WHM/SMN. On our first two attempts, we didn't handle the elementals very well. What worked for us was having me (the PLD) in the NE tunnel with the BLM and WHM, helping out with the elementals until we got rid of them, then I joined the NIN and RDM who'd been fighting Black Shuck. It was a really close call on this one, as he started getting meaner when he had low health, but a well-timed Benediction from our WHM saved the day for the win.

[midguardian]

Since the elementals only pop after a howl, you shouldn't have anyone caught mid-cast if they are aware of this fact and paying attention. When I did this, we had a bard aggro the elementals and sac pull them to the entrance so they never bothered us. As I understand it only a few should be in aggro range where you are fighting, so you don't have to aggro all of them. You might live longer against only three. I wasn't the person to handle the elementals, so I can't say for sure how easy that job is. Good luck.

[Seedz]

Cerb is very squishy, so a very good approach is to straight melee burn him. This will take care of the eles because you'll be dropping his HP very fast, and they practically won't have time to aggro the mages, or you can just have your mages not cast for that 25% (then you need smart melees).

I've successfully 5manned this, but it involved a BRD. Looking at your available jobs, I'd go with RDM/BLM (ES Slow2) for you, DRK/NIN for Nyasho (Stun), MNK/NIN or SAM/NIN for Tillaert, BLU/NIN or DRG/NIN for Clamil, WHM/BLM for Ariboo (ES Slow) and NIN/WAR for Duriboo (unless his THF has X's/Blau and can actually deal decent damage).

The most important part is that your melees don't suck. Last time I did this we had 3 melee, 2 brds and 1 whm, and a misfortunate GoH went off and killed 2 of the melee, but I managed to take it down alone on MNK; he is really a pussy.

Good luck

[Amok]

So did you sac the elementals?

I'm afraid on our winning run, no elementals popped at all. The one time we sac'd we didn't drop its HP fast enough for lack of DD. Other than that it was a good strategy. Another time we decided to melee down the ones that popped within aggro range, but it was a bit too chaotic to pull off.

[Kroot]

Put DD/nin on him and use a brd rdm for support. Once elements pop have brd cast a long spell like stoneskin and run to start to aggro them all. Should be able to die, rr, and go back before songs need reapplying

Edit: Noticed no brd in static but can shout for one go in with 5 then do it again for the other person if you want to go the brd route. Elegy and extra haste make blinking tanking much easier.

[Argettio]

Cerb is very squishy, so a very good approach is to straight melee burn him. This will take care of the eles because you'll be dropping his HP very fast, and they practically won't have time to aggro the mages, or you can just have your mages not cast for that 25% (then you need smart melees).

I've successfully 5manned this, but it involved a BRD. Looking at your available jobs, I'd go with RDM/BLM (ES Slow2) for you, DRK/NIN for Nyasho (Stun), MNK/NIN or SAM/NIN for Tillaert, BLU/NIN or DRG/NIN for Clamil, WHM/BLM for Ariboo (ES Slow) and NIN/WAR for Duriboo (unless his THF has X's/Blau and can actually deal decent damage).

The most important part is that your melees don't suck. Last time I did this we had 3 melee, 2 brds and 1 whm, and a misfortunate GoH went off and killed 2 of the melee, but I managed to take it down alone on MNK; he is really a pussy.

Good luck

Agreed^^

He is easy to kill. We could have him dead in 15mins with we were worrying about the Elementals.

We did try NIN tanking and that ended badly, shadows went down too quickly and he got hit hard. (but that was solo tanking)

I am a little worried by the idea of no one being able to cast any magic for 25%... maybe with enough meds and everyone 2hr-ing it could be possible.

Does benediction aggro elementals?

Thanks for the input so far.

I notice some one made a topic about exactly the same thing in the event Strat forum today lol

[Argettio]

Put DD/nin on him and use a brd rdm for support. Once elements pop have brd cast a long spell like stoneskin and run to start to aggro them all. Should be able to die, rr, and go back before songs need reapplying

We don't have any one with bard leveled.

Other wise we would be using one.

[Rilu]

We fought him near a tunnel, had a couple blm's taking care of ele's (I think we had to deal with 2-3 only during fight) then brd, Melee, Melee, Melee. Granted, our melee's were all adaburk ridill warriors or equivalently geared monks (can't remember exactly ,we swapped jobs so many times) and I went as bard (gjallarhorn). We didn't have any deaths, but I don't remember the ele's depopping either.

[Gergall]

I've done this 3 or 4 times. My first win was a melee zerg (SAM SAM MNK MNK BRD and RDM/DRK).

After that all my other wins were standard setup. I was the BRD sac-pulling the elementals.

As has been stated, the eles can only spawn on a howl (100%, 75, 50, 25) and despawn on the following howl. Save TP a little when it is about to howl so you can damage it fast if the eles spawn.

Only a few eles wander around near that back corner. Even if the PLD or WHM is caught midcast when they pop, the sac puller only needs to pull the aggro'ed elemental and one or two more that are near cerb.

I know nobody likes to lose XP, but after sac pulling to the start area and letting the eles head back a bit, I would get up, put RR on (careful on magic aggro, use an item), and grab the eles again if necessary. IMO it sounds like this is what you might need to do to buy more time.


Edit: Oh btw I always went BRD/BLM for Troub ES Elegy

[greenhills]

Took my group 3 tries to get this one done, and our winning run we had nin/dnc x2, mnk, whm, rdm/thf(for pulling the elementals) and smn. we had been trying it with mnkx2 brd, nin, whm, smn, but kept having hate issues/ stupid problems, so we switched to the 2 nin/dnc tanks and it was so easy it was kinda like cheating. the acc on this mob seems very weak if nin wears some eva gear. the rdm didn't have to sack the elementals since he just kept running and they were depopped or something before he died.
Looking at your job list, you can probly pull something similar off, maybe rdm, sam, pld, blu, whm, & nin/dnc? or rdm, sam, mnk, blu, whm, nin/dnc? really it depends on how comfortable/geared your melee are and if they can take a little bit of heat though for the second one.

[Argettio]

We did try the NIN (and he has /DNC) but as a solo tank.

Looks like a few people used either movement speed gear or /thf to allow the sac pulled to hold them for longer without dieing.

So far I just ran to the end of the tunnel and waited to die... I should have thought of running back to try and stay alive rather than accepting it was a sac.

[FailureMidgard]

Wow at all the people saccing elementals/etc. The fight is insanely easy if you just kill a few elementals.

All you need is 1 tank, 1 BLM, 2 DD/nin, and whatever support said people feel they need (1 rdm, or rdm+whm, or just a whm...your call really). Looks like you have many combinations that can work.

When elementals pop, there shouldn't be more than 2-3 in a range that you're at immediate risk of aggroing. Past that, there may be 1-2 max that could roam into a dangerous area. Elementals are really one of the least dangerous mobs in the game if your only goal is survival. Have each of the DD/nin and the blm grab a different elemental, and pull them into the hallway. The BLM kills his (if you have more magic damage, it's even easier) while the melee just fuck around with theirs...can WS once to generate some enmity over resting/buffs from the support, then can just chill/kite/etc. Should be able to outrange -gas (or stun? don't recall if it works, been so long), and single target spells are a total joke. BLM moves through and kills as many as needed, can aspir for mp. Once they are dead, return to Cerb....if 1 looks out of range, but a little too close to comfort, can pull it too.

[Yugl]

Our group is:
Me: RDM, BLM
Nyasho: SAM, RNG, DRK, NIN
Tillaert: PLD, MNK, SAM, RDM, BLM
Clamil: BLU, BLM,DRG, RDM
Ariboo: RDM, WHM, SMN
Duriboo: THF, BST, NIN, WHM

BLM/???
SAM/NIN
SAM/NIN
BLU/NIN
RDM/DRK
WHM/DRK (Possibly)

For Elementals, have the BLU Saline Coat and Drag them one by one to the BLM who can nuke them down. SAMs and BLU can tank. RDM, WHM, and BLM in stun order. WHM and RDM heal from max distance at the tunnel. If somehow your WHM or RDM aggros when the elementals pop, get the BLM and BLU on the elemental immediately (Chances are the BLM will need to stun what is being casted on the mage).

[Tachys]

I tanked this as ninja and found that evasion build actually worked well.

[Argettio]

We won last night, and got our Captain rank (well a couple of us still need low one, but 5/5 on FL now).

The set up was (for those that care):

Me: RDM/WHM
Nyasho: SAM/THF
Tillaert: PLD/NIN
Clamil: BLM/???
Ariboo: SMN/WHM
Duriboo: WHM/BLM

The plan for the Eles was BLM, SMN, RDM and SAM each grab one and solo it.

Leaving the WHM and PLD alone to play with cerb.

He poped Eles @ 45% (odd number but that's when it happened)

The SAM went down quite fast while tanking his ele and the blm caught two big -gas (1 from his ele, another for my ele) and went down. so ended with me kiting 2-3 of them and the SMN spaming AOE BP to take them down.

Once we killed the eles in agro range we raised and rested as all the mages was either very low MP or weakened and the PLD still couldn't cast without aggroing more. The PLD lived on hi-potions (alot!) and regen alone for a while.

Once people were unweakened and MP was back up to a sensible level it became easy again.

SAM 2hred at the end (15%) just to feel better about dieing earlier and we won with about 8-9mins remaining.

[heavensword]

Congrats on the win! Our group won with a similar setup:

PLD/NIN (Atonement)
SAM/THF
DNC/NIN
SCH/DRK (stuns)
RDM/WHM
WHM/DRK (stuns)

The PLD & DNC melee'd the whole time; no one died, except the SCH, who sac-pulled elementals. The SAM/THF sttod back with the mages and came out to SATA+WS the PLD, who flashed BS at the start, then ran around behind him for the remainder of the fight. The DNC stood in front.

We stunned GoH, and between the SAT+WS and Atonement, we obliterated him in less than 15 minutes. Went 1/2 (the trial run was on Firesday, and we got him to 15% that run)

Side note: I initially went NIN on this, but the blaze spikes killed me faster than anything else.