Questions about Animated Dagger NM in Dynamis-Xarcabard

[Kiyara]

Fought this thing yesterday while doing a farming run with my LS. Had 19-20 people. Couple of questions.

1. Is this thing beatable with so few? First try we only got it down to 80% after it warped within 5-10 sec. Or am looking at a lost cause? And another thing, we do not have any Ridill Wars or Kraken Club DRKs.

2. Is CS Stun even remotely useful in stopping his cast? Says he resists all forms of stun so wondering if even CS Stun is wise to use.

3. The time it is pulled is when the timer starts for it to become bored or when it is first dealt dmg?

4. The difficulty/strength of this mob is comparable to that of which other NM? King Vinegaroon? Ying/Yang? Demon NMs? Just want a rough idea. (I didn't fight the NM btw I just kited pets) Thanks for all the info if you can provide it.

[Thorny]

1. Is this thing beatable with so few? First try we only got it down to 80% after it warped within 5-10 sec. Or am looking at a lost cause? And another thing, we do not have any Ridill Wars or Kraken Club DRKs.

Yes. You don't need kraken drks, ridill wars are pretty low tier for zergs, though you do need some zerg drks. I would recommend this setup with 18, provided you don't want to warp and change jobs midrun or would like to save enough time to warp+get cor 2hrs and do DL.

RDM
BRD
COR
WAR or NIN or PLD(I would not recommend using PLDs in any dynamis, but if your shell has no elvaan or galka melee that can count to 3 you could)
DRK
DRK

RDM
BRD
COR
WAR or NIN or PLD(I would not recommend using PLDs in any dynamis, but if your shell has no elvaan or galka melee that can count to 3 you could)
DRK
DRK

RDM
BLM
BLM
DRK
DRK
THF/BRD

This maintains a balanced setup capable of farming and defeating mobs in an efficient manner up until the dagger, at which point you'll want to switch setup around and use soul voice night/troub rotations to get all of the drks mads/marches. Make the BLM party RDM kite satellites off with powder boots, THF feint, all drks should have mercurial krises or octave clubs(I realize you said you have no krakens, but any LS considering doing relics should be capable of getting a handful of krises or octaves). I'd also recommend using a BRD72 to sync the octaves if you use them, having melee without ni is a pretty big detriment in dynamis farming. It can be done with less DRKs, but keep in mind that more will give you more insurance.

2. Is CS Stun even remotely useful in stopping his cast? Says he resists all forms of stun so wondering if even CS Stun is wise to use.

Useless.

3. The time it is pulled is when the timer starts for it to become bored or when it is first dealt dmg?

To my knowledge, it begins when it's pulled but the exact way they work is unknown.

4. The difficulty/strength of this mob is comparable to that of which other NM? King Vinegaroon? Ying/Yang? Demon NMs? Just want a rough idea. (I didn't fight the NM btw I just kited pets) Thanks for all the info if you can provide it.

Difficulty/strength? It's got significantly more HP than KV, but doesn't really do enough damage to kill people if RDMs chainspell cures.

[Kipling]

It's doable with that number if you have proper DRK's or a bunch of sam's all 2hring. If you're only going for the dagger fragment might as well have all your BRD's sv too for insurance. Oh, and bring feint.

Edit: Fine thorny, fine! Be better than me.

[Thorny]

Edit: Fine thorny, fine! Be better than me.

<3

[Chojja]

We beat it with 10 people. It has silly high evasion so I'd recommend madrigals and feint. Our setup:

DRK
DRK
DRK
DRK
RDM
BRD/DRK


DRK
RDM
THF/WAR
BRD/DRK


After hastes, RDM went and aggro and kited satellites off. THF voked the main dagger and the rest just do their thing. BRD/DRK is for weapon bash if it tries warping.

Our DRK setup has 1 kraken and mostly m kris for the rest.

[Mythe_Seraph]

I would say the toughest part of this fight with a low ammount of people is getting everyone to start attacking the dagger at the same time. By the way you described it, it sounded like you had the right idea, have one person kite away the adds near the dagger (eyes+demons pop). I would suggest having another person to grab the satellites just so you have time to have all your melee get close enough, engage, and then start your count down. But if you have only one person doing the satellites + adds near dagger, things can get a bit more difficult to time.

[Xrave]

If you have BLMs have them do a timed nuke on the weapon and right before nukes go off have someone agro so they can kite away all the satelites.

Then just zerg it down with feint and SV songs.

[Kiyara]

Never thought of doing a time nuke. Thanks for the tip. How much you think 6 Burst 2s would do to it with ES if Blm are fully merited and have good gear? 20%-30%? Also, is there any sure 100% way to stun it's cast? I heard shield bash procs 100% but dunno off personal experience so. Heard also an elemental seal order for stuns is 100% as well. And when i said earlier how they do they compare in strength/difficulty, how strong would you rate the dagger NM in terms of relevance to others mobs? Like Demon NMs? Attestation NMs? Just curious.

[Shamaya]

Idk bout time nukes. But you don't need drk's or ridill wars (mediocre / gimp for zerging) to zerg this down. If you feel your setup isn't good for both farming and the NM, I would take a normal setup and farm dynamis for awhile, and then when you're ready, have everyone warp and change to a zerging setup. This is extremely important for low man.

My group did this easily with 18, but it took us 2 times. If you have a sufficient zerg setup for this, there are two things you have to know, (1) the pull itself is very important and, (2)in all likelihood this fight is probably largely luck based.

Let's add (3), alternative stuns.

(1)have the puller either aggro the dagger or pull it directly, but you need to have a backup immediately be ready to voke the main animated dagger, and the alliance moving forward after you've begun your pull, to descend upon it. You'll have your bard buffs done hugging the wall north (slightly north west) of the dagger. So your puller will go south and aggro/pull, and then flee west--you must have them begin to aggro the nearby eyes and take them with him/her as they do the sac. Otherwise they'll aggro the alliance as it rushes in to fight the dagger where it drops down from the cliff. As for sac direction, it doesn't matter too much -- just get the hell out of there. But running north east and trying to die near the spine by the first TE is probably a good place.
(2)yeah; keep trying
(3)Someone can correct me if I'm wrong--I don't know if this is just voodoo. Magic stuns won't work on the animated weapons. Likewise I believe WS stun doesn't work (verification?). However, when we did it I was told that JA stun (could) work (weapon bash; shield bash; and Sam mertied blade bash). I was also told that mijin gakure had a stun effect. So I looked at who could ja or mijin, and I assigned them a stun order based on the weapon's HP. I could be completely wrong about this--the fight was short and I didn't check the logs.

If your LS feels it is an inconvenience to change the setup around during a run, you could try offering them a reward. That's what I did for mine. As far as zerging jobs go, war/sam is extremely effective. Sam/war is likewise very effective. In fights so incredibly short as this, sam successive WS is going to be strong with decent pDif. In general though, never underestimate war/sam for a zerg.

[Chojja]

I entirely disagree with the "stun rotation" idea, if it tries casting warp, everyone try to stun it, stunning it once should be all you need. The fights are ridiculously short, 3-4 warp attempts is obscenely retarded. That tells me youre not using bards or something, if youre going to zerg one of the weapons, dont half ass it...do it right

[wildmuffin]

Did this with 16 people.

- Camp is south of the WHM-NM Tower
- Make sure everyone is standing up and noone is resting so the adds wont aggro when run through the camp. Bard uses soulvoice and when song are up..
- Someone with /THF uses Flee, pulls the Animated Dagger, bringing it in the direction of the castle, running through the camp.
- A tank vokes the animated Dagger of the puller.
- Feint from THF (Important!)
- Angon from DRG (If available)
- Free stuns (its worth a try)
- Zerg.

Thing that is vital:
Have a Flee puller.
Have a THF for Feint on the Animated Dagger
Have everyone not resting when the pull is done, if you get the adds you are pretty much screwed.

Party setup (this is what we used, if I remember correctly)
DD Party:
SAM
SAM
SAM
THF
BRD
DRG

BLM Party:
BLMS & REFRESH

Tank Party:
Normal setup

[Shamaya]

I'm not sure if it warps too fast for one to respond to the stuns (so this style is a 'if you get lucky' kind). Does it not? In any event the length of this fight is one of the reasons that sams are good whereas they are normally trash. This fight will be faster than KV even.

[Kiyara]

This is generally our setup in dynamis. (18-24 people on average)

Tank party :
PLD/NIN x 2
NIN/WAR
RDM/BLM
WHM/SCH
BLU/NIN

DD PARTY 1:
SAM/NINx3
THF/NIN
WHM/SCH
RDM/BLM or BRD/WHM if we have a spare

DD PARTY 2:
RNG/NIN
WAR/NIN
MNK/NIN
SMN/WHM

BLM PARTY:

BLM/RDM x3-5
BRD/WHM


Does fine overall. We do great on farming runs in Xarcabard (we usually do the basic path, kill all NMs, do wall of eyes, and farm working our way back to the entrance.) Mainly it's just the stun I'm worried about is all. After all time extensions are retrieved and wall of eyes cleared, we usually have 1 hr 20 min to 1hr 40min to farm. Gonna try again tonight. Hopefully we do better.

[HadesChubbs]

Shits easy if you bring fient + eat sushi.. we normally do 3-4 fragments, dl and farm. If we dont prepair for dagger with sushi+fient it will normally warp or be damn close to warping.

[Kiyara]

Tried again and lost to it. Got disinterested too quickly. Only got it down to 70% within 20 sec. Only had feint and no brds. Don't see me beating this tbh.

[Shamaya]

Yeah, you need more firepower. Your target is to kill it within 20 seconds, if not 30 or so. If you are bringing melee, you can't half it. You'll need the bard swaps to support those melee.

Feint + sushi is not a good idea. Feint alone will most likely cap your accuracy for the entire fight. If feint wears off and it's not dead, it's probably going to be warping soon. So meat or pizza is definitely better. Not even sure you need madrigals on this. But if you do 2hr bard swap madrigals, more than one will be overkill w/ feint.

Likewise about not half-assing it, your farming party is good, but for a zerg it's not great. In case you didn't, then next time (if you go again), have the melee warp and change subs. Sam/war, Mnk/drk or mnk/war, war/sam, etc.

[Thorny]

This is generally our setup in dynamis. (18-24 people on average)

Tank party :
PLD/NIN x 2
NIN/WAR
RDM/BLM
WHM/SCH
BLU/NIN

Complete and total waste of 4 people.

DD PARTY 1:
SAM/NINx3
THF/NIN
WHM/SCH
RDM/BLM or BRD/WHM if we have a spare

DD PARTY 2:
RNG/NIN
WAR/NIN
MNK/NIN
SMN/WHM

Why the fuck do you have a SMN? Replace as many DD with merc kris/ridill/oclub drks as you can. Every single DD party should have BRD+BRD or BRD+COR in xarc, period.

BLM PARTY:

BLM/RDM x3-5
BRD/WHM

2-3 competent BLMs are overkill for crowd control, if you're having problems you should swap some of them out for more DD.

After all time extensions are retrieved and wall of eyes cleared, we usually have 1 hr 20 min to 1hr 40min to farm. Gonna try again tonight. Hopefully we do better.

12 or less people can do that with similar time remaining. I wouldn't really call that good, you're sacrificing so much killspeed by not using BRDs.. the fact you use PLDs is awful too, and with them /nin why the fuck don't you want elegy?

[Neoex]

We do 3-4 Fragments per run with 20 people and no 2hours(use 2hrs on DL), the key and major problem with the dagger is his evasion. feint is a must or like previously mentioned madrigals, we use DRKs zerging(1-2 kc,2-3 m kris, 2-3 ridill) with 2xbard rotatation and WHMs dropping curaga 4s. as soon as people are engaged.

[Windfoxster]

I think the fact that OP even uses a SMN in dynamis and lack of brd in each party except blm's pt, i am gonna assume there isn't anyone with a brd leveled or they are all single 75 job character.

Realistically, you can start as what Shamaya suggested, change your sub job for your melees after you are done with farming. Store tp for tanks and try to ws-stun it and get icarus wings for your melees.

[Wulfgang]

Send those PLDs / other crap jobs back to change to better DDs or BRDS. You should have a ton of time just from doing first TE + one near first NM tower + stone after clearing last NM tower. If they don't have other jobs, time to start recruiting. We did Animated Scythe without a single multi-hit DRK and ~24 people; not an amazing feat, but it shows that you don't need ridiculous shit to win.