Absolute Virtue Information (OP Updated)

[Hogie]

I know this is a stupid question but i surprisingly couldn't find it anywhere.... is AV immune to stun or is his cast just so quick no one has been able to stun it?

Also, Narse i can talk to you on vent later about what i meant about Fealty bot

[pchan]

The video clearly supports the fact of having random people inside meteor range, why else would a blm and a whinja idle right next to AV, you can see in the video different people in range, also notice that they(meteor dmg soakers) do not take dmg(animation does not show up on them) from aeroga4, or the video is just screwed up...

.... it's been said one hundred times they are camera for other languages videos.

[Mojo]

Aye, it's instant cast. A Fealty bot will only help survive Manafont. The Rampart idea isn't a bad one. With good timing you could get one Rampart to cover two spell occurrences, although four Ramparts with full merits is only 4 ga spells every 4:10, so you would have to be fairly lucky although it might help a bit.

[Mojo]

Also, just to point out, I calculated the Rampart formula to be something like 2VIT*(1+0.5(N-1)) where VIT is the PLDs VIT when they use Rampart and N is the number of players that Rampart hits. A complete guess at a good VIT build would be like 160 VIT. If you were to hit all 6 party members, that would be a 1120 point magic stoneskin in addition to a potential 350 stoneskin from a SCH.

[Hogie]

Also, just to point out, I calculated the Rampart formula to be something like 2VIT*(1+0.5(N-1)) where VIT is the PLDs VIT when they use Rampart and N is the number of players that Rampart hits. A complete guess at a good VIT build would be like 160 VIT. If you were to hit all 6 party members, that would be a 1120 point magic stoneskin in addition to a potential 350 stoneskin from a SCH.

I was under the impression that the magic damage absorbed is just Vit*2? According to Wiki its...

"Magic Shield tests have shown that the amount of damage Rampart absorbs is variable. The currently accepted formula for damage absorbed seems to be VIT*2."


Edit: I thought the number of players it hit only matters for the enmity gained?

[Mojo]

Nah, it's definitely not just VIT*2, unless they changed it. Number of players it hits does factor into its strength.

[Hogie]

Nah, it's definitely not just VIT*2, unless they changed it. Number of players it hits does factor into its strength.

Thats even better then, If thats the case it may be worth it to do something like PLD PLD PLD PLD BRD COR in a party with another party being GG BRD RDM WHM WHM WHM WHM

[Dawin]

To Dawin, I like the idea... but there just isnt enough tanks honestly. Once it gets to 59% it can destroy a Paladin in a matter of seconds even with 1800HP. Yeah it is possible 2 PLD's could hold it and tank it successfully, but i wouldn't suggest anything less then 4 at any given time.

Yeah you're right. Looks like Apathy has 3 takes on him in their videos. Adjust as needed.

[warrior2582]

I stopped reading after the meteor stuff, but has anyone actually know for a fact that they have locked all 15 hrs? Did anyone notice a behavior change?

I recall reading that no one actually knows if they locked the last 2hr since it only uses it once.

Based on SE videos, I would assume that locking all 15 2hrs would be the key to weakening it.

For locking 2hrs, does having more than 1 person 2hr increase the chance of locking the 2hr?

[Dawin]

For locking 2hrs, does having more than 1 person 2hr increase the chance of locking the 2hr?

Hard to increase something that's 100% already. It's not random.

[Virtuous Saint]

I stopped reading after the meteor stuff, but has anyone actually know for a fact that they have locked all 15 hrs? Did anyone notice a behavior change?

I recall reading that no one actually knows if they locked the last 2hr since it only uses it once.

Based on SE videos, I would assume that locking all 15 2hrs would be the key to weakening it.

For locking 2hrs, does having more than 1 person 2hr increase the chance of locking the 2hr?

Actually based on the SE video it is the exact opposite, but as has been said a lot, they changed AV since then.

[warrior2582]

Hard to increase something that's 100% already. It's not random.

I recall people saying it was not 100%, I guess it was just they were too slow on using their 2hr after AV uses a 2hr. I'll go reread the thread again.

[Ars5]

What we did to some degree of moderate success (and i think our best av attempt was mid 50%) was: drag AV to the grand palace entrance, and stack the blms up top, and keep the pld's as far away as possible while staying within casting distance. We had a mnk (me) with mantra 5 sub blm and use mantra, warp, run to mog, reset timer, run back, and mantra again. Our pld's pretty much have 'perfect' gear as well, and mantra is the only other way we can get an additional 20%+ to HP. With +movement you can warp and run back just before mantra wears, but it sure would have been helpful to have a second mnk with mantra 5.

Anyhow, this is moderately helpful for pld's surviving meteors. This was months and months ago.

We also have tried using an absorb party/alliance but as VS said, it's simply too taxing on resources to have an absorb party to keep trying to eat meteors.

[Dawin]

We also have tried using an absorb party/alliance but as VS said, it's simply too taxing on resources to have an absorb party to keep trying to eat meteors.

Is this really the case with my strategy?

1 bard 29 yalms away, 5 corsairs 21 yalms away (i.e within meteor range). Constant Hymnus. And so the corsairs can serve an extra use, occasionally rotate them into the tank PT for wild card -> Fealty.

It's much easier and more foolproof than the 25 MDB, 410 stoneskin constant heal strategies.

Edit: The mantra idea sounds pretty awesome btw. Does Mantra override itself, or do you need to wait for it to wear off?

[Ars5]

didn't read your strat lol or the other 37 pages of this thread.

[Virtuous Saint]

Is this really the case with my strategy?

1 bard 29 yalms away, 5 corsairs 21 yalms away (i.e within meteor range). Constant Hymnus. And so the corsairs can serve an extra use, occasionally rotate them into the tank PT for wild card -> Fealty.

It's much easier and more foolproof than the 25 MDB, 410 stoneskin constant heal strategies.

Edit: The mantra idea sounds pretty awesome btw. Does Mantra override itself, or do you need to wait for it to wear off?

Your strat includes 10 people being hit? If it doesn't it has to, basically vital.

[Yugl]

Not a strategy, but just some general ideas to bounce off:

AoE moves? For example, in order to keep BLMs out of range, and as a source of damage, would it be possible to bounce Agas off other mobs? Could using AoEs in this (And of course some curative fashion) manner serve some purpose for avoiding meteor damage? How about in conjunction with ramps? From what I understand, you need 10+ people to be within range and tanks to be in full MDT/MDB gear (With Shell and such), so somehow you would have to work that in. Would it be possible to have a tank standing there (Maybe building SOME hate, but not enough to actually be "tanking" AV or engaged) in MDT/MDB gear? He would act as a sponge, but because he's not taking hits, he can wear the full magic set and take less damage from Meteor right?

[Virtuous Saint]

Not a strategy, but just some general ideas to bounce off:

AoE moves? For example, in order to keep BLMs out of range, and as a source of damage, would it be possible to bounce Agas off other mobs? Could using AoEs in this (And of course some curative fashion) manner serve some purpose for avoiding meteor damage? How about in conjunction with ramps? From what I understand, you need 10+ people to be within range and tanks to be in full MDT/MDB gear (With Shell and such), so somehow you would have to work that in. Would it be possible to have a tank standing there (Maybe building SOME hate, but not enough to actually be "tanking" AV or engaged) in MDT/MDB gear? He would act as a sponge, but because he's not taking hits, he can wear the full magic set and take less damage from Meteor right?

Ya we have used/thought of a lot of this, but BLMs do not have to -ga to be out of range of Meteor. If the tanks are standing as far from AV as possible, and the BLMs are on the exact opposite side standing at max casting range they can be out of 25 range from the PLDs meaning they will not be hit by any Meteor. The only problem is that AV moves a lot due to hate shit so it would inevitably get a Meteor off which hits some of the BLMs. The only real way is using the ramp if you want assurance no one but the tanks/absorbers will be hit. RDM/SMNx3 + RDM/WHMx1 + 3 carby = 7 absorbers, + 3 PLD/NIN tanks = 10 absorbers, imo best way to handle it. Then you have a SCH or 2 AoE CureIVing the RDMs while they stand further back, out of range of Meteor obviously. None of the absorbers should be on AV's hate list either.

[Kaiyoko]

Oh so thats why SE's tank is wearing full Kaiser gear and an HQ terra staff lol. (being sarcastic )
Its funny cause everyone seriously does question why he is wearing so much VIT as if AV's melee attacks are stronger then his ga 4 and meteor spells.

The question would be if you could keep rampart up 100% of the time and have enough PLDs with such a rare and expensive VIT build even if it were true.

Would need 6 plds with maxed merits in rampart wearing valor coronet >.>

[Sephoroth]

also with rampart being up fulltime if you did this strat, if all the pld were to have iron will capped youd have 95% -spell interupt rate, which i think would be pretty sweet and make it retarded easy to get shadows back up