Big Bomb solo

[Anomander]

It's been ~6 months since I killed it last, but he definatly doesnt have access to all of his TP moves when he's in the smallest form. 99% sure all he has access to is Berserk and Vulcanian Impact.
This is why you avoid making him grow at all costs. Doing more than ~200 damage (it varies between 200 and 300ish as sometimes a triple'd mandalic stab would make him grow and sometimes it wouldnt, but 200 is a safe margin) will make him grow and unlock the worse TP moves.

This is correct, except when he is under 25. When he goes under 25 he definitely gets vulcanian impact and hellstorm. Attempted duo on him twice, first time was easy (with rdm/whm) second time even with my barfire set having improved I couldn't resist shit, and he was spamming firaga III. First attempt he was sticking to burn/flare/fire IV.

A note on clearing space to pull him to a safe spot...even with a rdm pumping haste into me and not needing to stop at all between the other bombs, I wasn't able to kill Big Bomb fast enough before PH's started popping. The tunnels didn't seem safe either, I wasn't able to find a spot that was safe from both the bombs and whatever mobs popped in the tunnel (besides right where you pop him, there's one that seemed to wander very very close but I don't recall it actually aggroing).

He hits like a mack truck even when in his smallest mode. If he sneaks in a quick hit after an unresisted firaga III you may be toast. If you make it to 25 percent on nin/dnc solo I would be very impressed, but due to him accessing vulcanian impact after 25 I think any progress after that point would be impossible between tp spam and firaga III (his vulcanian impacts hurt like hell). I used a mix of evasion and haste, full usu, velocious, rest was evasion, full timed yonin and used sushi. When blind landed his acc was pretty poor, but landing enfeebs wasn't all that easy.

When I went down the second attempt, however, my rdm/whm partner lasted a very long time kiting and sleeping adds, and took big bomb down an additional 40 percent before everything woke/unbinded at once on him. Pretty sure a rdm/nin could handle it solo. Note: we had a thief there each kill, but he didn't do anything but apply TH.

Added thought: My barfire set is by no means anything special. I don't waste my time camping kings so until I bothered with big bomb a barfire set wasn't even needed. If you have a very strong barfire set, maybe nin/dnc could do it.

[Wrish]

DNC has nowhere near NIN level Evasion. not to mention, it has no para/slow/blind.

Sure you want to make that assertion?

Dancer's evasion skill: 256 (14 skill points behind ninja)
Dnc/nin's agility: identical to nin/dnc
Dancer's passive evasion bonus: +34 presumed (24 ahead of nin/dnc)
5/5 Closed Position merits: +15 evasion
Lack of Kurayami: 30 evasion behind ninja
Net effect: 4-5 evasion behind, plus lack of yonin

I was able to dress an ermine's tail/azoth dancer with +96 evasion (accounting for AGI) and could have hit 102 by tossing some HP and subtle blow. Is that not enough? Fine, now consider that one merit into Fan Dance lets you trade away sambas for 90-80-70-...20% physical damage reduction. Physical evasion/damage is not the main problem for a Dancer.

Big bomb is a big caster, so I can easily downplay not having fully capped evasion or slow. Paralyze... well, rely on that on NIN and people will say you just had a lucky solo.

with /mage i'd be lucky to have 150mp.

Either you're Galka or you don't have full MP merits. Naked Elvaan NIN/WHM has 118 mp, which becomes 198 mp after merits. Whether you wear Ungur or Kaman, there's your 200+.

you contradict yourself here.

Not really, I made the first statement assuming you wouldn't accept the second. Obviously, too low a pool leaves you unable to store up that 3/tick refresh to ride the waves of damage taken. But with 200+ MP, you can maintain enough to cure up fully from an aga3 without losing sanction refresh. It matters little that your pool isn't bigger; you have meds for freak incidents.

this leaves fastcast vs divine seal.

... and the extra 2 MDB, and the extra regen. We're talking about keeping up with the damage taken, and WHM is simply more optimal. When you're at capped evasion, predictably landing Ichi after aga3, and facing a mob without shadow stripping moves, the only fear you have is double attack on your last shadow. You'll be saving Ni for that. This is not one of those mobs for which you should end up dry casting Ichi on ninja.

MDB traits + shell 2 are nice but you should be able to survive ga3 regardless with MDT + MDB gear

Surviving ga3 is not the issue... you can do that naked with 1200 HP; surviving ga3 followed immediately by a fire TP move is the issue for nin/dnc. Without traits and shell, you're looking at 1400 damage, more than most ninjas' HP.

[Wrish]

If he sneaks in a quick hit after an unresisted firaga III you may be toast

If you run a short distance from him before he lands firaga III, he'll have to run up to you before taking a swing. You can cast your shadows at leisure, then run back to corner to cast other magic, or not bother if you're /dnc.

I wasn't able to find a spot that was safe from both the bombs and whatever mobs popped in the tunnel (besides right where you pop him, there's one that seemed to wander very very close but I don't recall it actually aggroing).

Have you tried the corner directly across the canyon from the pop spot?

When blind landed his acc was pretty poor, but landing enfeebs wasn't all that easy.

Point taken: Nin/dnc is less accurate at landing enfeebles because they can't swap to HQ staves.

even with my barfire set having improved I couldn't resist shit

I think all the serious ninjas here are using straight magic reduction. I'm basing models on -19% magic reduction and +8 magic defense bonus (i.e., no Defending ring). Being /WHM boosts those to -33.1% mdr & +20 mdb, converting a 1100-damage spell into a consistent 622. This conversion also works for Vulcanian impact and Hellstorm, thus why I appear to favor /WHM so much.

[Weeks]

Lack of Yonin is pretty big, and I think a maxed evasion/AGI set for NIN is effectively +119. Nobody's saying DNC can't be very evasive, but in this case NIN is going to have an evasion rate varying between about 10 and 25% higher depending on when Yonin was used.

Big Bomb would be a pretty impressive NIN solo, but it's going to come down to persisting until you get lucky with the TP moves and spells below 25%. Unfortunately, Sange and Mijin aren't going to conceivably amount to much more than 1k of the 3k, meaning you have to get lucky for about 4 minutes getting him to 1k, and then lucky again landing those abilities.

Also, MP merits?

[Anomander]

If you run a short distance from him before he lands firaga III, he'll have to run up to you before taking a swing. You can cast your shadows at leisure, then run back to corner to cast other magic, or not bother if you're /dnc.


Have you tried the corner directly across the canyon from the pop spot?

I think all the serious ninjas here are using straight magic reduction. I'm basing models on -19% magic reduction and +8 magic defense bonus (i.e., no Defending ring). Being /WHM boosts those to -33.1% mdr & +20 mdb, converting a 1100-damage spell into a consistent 622. This conversion also works for Vulcanian impact and Hellstorm, thus why I appear to favor /WHM so much.

Pretty sure there is a bomb that pops right by that corner, although I'm not positive, haven't been back in awhile.

I also used magic defense bonus/magic reduction and barfire elsewhere in my set. Should have mentioned that I suppose. Running away is a good idea but I couldn't find an area where I had enough room to do that (due to stuff eventually repopping).

[Konda]

Sure you want to make that assertion?

Dancer's evasion skill: 256 (14 skill points behind ninja)
Dnc/nin's agility: identical to nin/dnc
Dancer's passive evasion bonus: +34 presumed (24 ahead of nin/dnc)
5/5 Closed Position merits: +15 evasion
Lack of Kurayami: 30 evasion behind ninja
Net effect: 4-5 evasion behind, plus lack of yonin

I was able to dress an ermine's tail/azoth dancer with +96 evasion (accounting for AGI) and could have hit 102 by tossing some HP and subtle blow. Is that not enough? Fine, now consider that one merit into Fan Dance lets you trade away sambas for 90-80-70-...20% physical damage reduction. Physical evasion/damage is not the main problem for a Dancer.

http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=119090

there's +93 evasion, not including the 15 more evasion skill.

Add another 60 evasion in there with Yonin and Kuriami.

Either you're Galka or you don't have full MP merits. Naked Elvaan NIN/WHM has 118 mp, which becomes 198 mp after merits. Whether you wear Ungur or Kaman, there's your 200+.

mp merits? are you serious? I've got HP merits because HP is 1000000 times more important when tanking.

I think all the serious ninjas here are using straight magic reduction. I'm basing models on -19% magic reduction and +8 magic defense bonus (i.e., no Defending ring). Being /WHM boosts those to -33.1% mdr & +20 mdb, converting a 1100-damage spell into a consistent 622. This conversion also works for Vulcanian impact and Hellstorm, thus why I appear to favor /WHM so much.

I'd disagree. You cant recover HP fast enough from TP moves and back to back aga3 by taking 622 damage each time. Sub 25% this would be an even bigger problem for you.

You're also neglecting the fact you need to debuff and tank a very difficult mob. /whm offers no benfit here.

Big Bomb would be a pretty impressive NIN solo, but it's going to come down to persisting until you get lucky with the TP moves and spells below 25%. Unfortunately, Sange and Mijin aren't going to conceivably amount to much more than 1k of the 3k, meaning you have to get lucky for about 4 minutes getting him to 1k, and then lucky again landing those abilities.

I'd agree. Unfortunatly, spike damage isn't one of NIN's strong points.

[Wrish]

http://www.ffxiah.com/item_sets.php?id=119090

there's +93 evasion, not including the 15 more evasion skill.

Add another 60 evasion in there with Yonin and Kuriami.

Biased, neglects the huge DNC passives. Already rebutted to the extent that DNC can attain at least the evasion of a NIN without Yonin (or ~30 difference). That difference becomes even smaller if the Yonin/full-evasion NIN exceeds the 80% evasion cap, which is very likely as Big Bomb is WAR+BLM.

You're also neglecting the fact you need to debuff and tank a very difficult mob. /whm offers no benfit here.

Rebutted already. /whm is a huge bonus to enfeebling accuracy. (Read previous post *before* responding.)

I'd disagree. You cant recover HP fast enough from TP moves and back to back aga3 by taking 622 damage each time. Sub 25% this would be an even bigger problem for you.

You're just at a loss to figure out what's stored in that 80 slot satchel aside from the 26 slots of drinks, right? Remember, battle's over in less than 45 minutes. At least fifty-four slots unaccounted for... I could be popping a med every single minute on top of +5hp/tic and +3mp/tic.

Unfortunatly, spike damage isn't one of NIN's strong points.

Unless sub-25% enables regain, a nin/whm has the luxury of turning back from the mob to stall TP moves. A nin/dnc trying the same would have to pop pure HP meds.

[Titanss]

I really always wanted this topic this interests the hell out of me.

Back in 06 I had the sickest Nin for that time (Battosi on Bismark) and as people have said the ph's are a bitch to solo. Keep in mind this is before /dnc I was /war. At that time there were always 3 rmt living there. I pop BB and it really is a fucking sick fight. I got it to 25% with very lucky shadow ring/mantle procs+ meds and I think the rmt threw me one cure IV (for some fucked up reason).

But yes this is still very interesting to me. If anyone does this Nin or Rdm w/e, I would really love to share some information.

Because as the thread has already stated Avesta is the only dude (solo) I've ever even heard of doing it Rdm, Nin w/e the fuck.

Awhile back there was a thread on it and Rukeshen (sp?) never did or had heard of it solo'd. So ya info appreciated, if anyone still has the will or skill to try/do at this stage in the game.

[Konda]

Rebutted already. /whm is a huge bonus to enfeebling accuracy. (Read previous post *before* responding.)

The above poster never mentioned his equipment. Having 315 Ninjutsu is a huge increase in Acc over having just the base skill. HQ staves haven't been proven to be needed.

a nin/whm has the luxury of turning back from the mob to stall TP moves. A nin/dnc trying the same would have to pop pure HP meds.

I never said /dnc was the best choice. I've said /rdm was most likely the best choice all along. Barfire and a Fire build to resist Aga3. Fastcast to help with shadows, phalanx to deal with blaze spikes. All I'm seeing from /whm is Reraise and Divine Seal, both of which are more or less useless.

A -MDT set wont be able to keep up with aga3 cast back to back. You'd gain 45mp between potential casts (assuming 45sec casts) from yag drink+sanction. Unless you're drg/mage, you're not going to recover 600+ hp from that amount of mp.

So you were wrong about DNC, wrong about /whm and wrong about more or less every assumption you've made about ninja. Do you even have the job at 75? If so, is it even geared?
You're pulling assumptions out of your ass about Big Bomb too.

At least fifty-four slots unaccounted for.

lol, I don't know about anyone else, but I sure as hell dont run around with an empty satchel.

[Lilwoody]

Ok this is very doable now that I know Panacea will remove burn.

I read most of the thread some good stuff in here.

Oh and yes I have killed Big Bomb a lot like 30 or 40 times.

I'm going to try to solo this as nin/rdm sometime in the next month or so.

[Konda]

burn isnt an issue if you dont make it grow....

[Blasta]

1) this means nothing. NIN solos by evading.
2) this is the main problem facing a NIN attempting to solo it. If you can find a way to overcome this, you're looking at being able to solo reliably.
3) maybe. I've got 315 Ninjutsu skill, and can always fall back on Hojo Ichi if I resist.


It's not really fair to compare how RDM and NIN solos. NIN gets 1 more shadow, and high evasion rate.
RDM has lower recasts, and PDT sets+phal/stoneskin to overcome gaps in shadows.

Capped evasion will negate more damage than any PDT set.

The primary difference between NIN and RDM solos is that the NIN needs to be able to melee, and thus deal with many more TP moves.


All this talk about BB is making me really want to try it now. I've had the idea for a NIN solo for about 6months or so, I just havent had the equipment that I thought I'd need to solo it. I'm getting close, so I might just give it a shot after my exams.

Well ur right, like i said i dont have NIN leveled so i cant really even guess how well you could evade his attacks. Just like alot of people have said here: Big Bomb is a beast, he simply attacks fast and especially if he shoots Firaga when recasts are down you will run into problems. I run into problems with 17 Ichi - 26 Ni recasts occasionally.

If his Accuracy is bad and you can build superior fire resist set, i expect you to have some chances but would be highly risky and you might want to think twice changing to RDM. I dont know if ur looking to just kill it for fun and see if NIN can do it, or planning to actually do this for money?

He does really hit fast and that one resist from Hojo NI + Firaga will simply fuck you over.
Oh and a quick note RDM can Bind+Gravity this guy also, very recommended especially on Firagas or when using Composure+buffs. I also melee this guy with Excal/Genbu's shield :D

[drwaffles]

Because as the thread has already stated Avesta is the only dude (solo) I've ever even heard of doing it Rdm, Nin w/e the fuck.

It's not even that difficult a fight for RDM. It's like a miniature Suzaku. As for whoever was talking about where to fight it, have a look at the Avesta video.

[Blasta]

It's not even that difficult a fight for RDM. It's like a miniature Suzaku. As for whoever was talking about where to fight it, have a look at the Avesta video.

Its not but hes the kind of guy that can quickly change it upside down. Oh and just curious, where does Avesta fight him cause i cant figure out it from the Vid :F. I tend to fight it at the opposite wall from pop place.

[drwaffles]

Up the main ramp and straight ahead.

[Blasta]

Up the main ramp and straight ahead.

Srsly? Way up hugging left. There is 2 bombs (that drop flasks) iirc one of them can come close enough to agro ur magic... then theres the little room @ the top of the ramp :/?

[Titanss]

It's not even that difficult a fight for RDM.

Have you done it? Or even seen or heard of anyone do it besides him?

[Cairthenn]

The only advantage I could see of /rdm is that dispels could force Big Bomb to recast Blaze Spikes instead of a more damaging spell. If accuracy is not a problem, then this may be a huge advantage. However, why haven't the half dozen main RDMs thought of this?

Because it's common sense? If you honestly think you thought of this, well...

[Cairthenn]

Have you done it? Or even seen or heard of anyone do it besides him?

It is, undoubtedly, easier than Suzaku. Nobody has done it (on video) because it's not really that impressive to see.

Edit: I really have a problem with accidentally posting in the window I'm getting the quote from instead of the one I'm editing.

[Titanss]

Ok this is very doable now that I know Panacea will remove burn.

I read most of the thread some good stuff in here.

Oh and yes I have killed Big Bomb a lot like 30 or 40 times.

I'm going to try to solo this as nin/rdm sometime in the next month or so.

Why not try it tomorrow if you think it'd be easy/doable?