[FFXI] My New Pals

[dreamfarer]

http://www.userdefined.net/images/SlipsAvatars.jpg

I managed to beat Leviathan this last weekend, bagging the last of the Celestial Avatars with my level 20 Summoner. Overall record? 1/1 on all 6 of them! \(^^)/

My wife and I duo'd our Summoner's up from level 14 together, stopping at level 20 to collect all 6 of the Celestials. What was amusing was that despite being much more nervous about facing the Celestials than I was, she managed to *smoke* my times in each of the first 3 battles. She even set the (then current) server record on Leviathan and Ifrit!

Overall the battles really weren't that bad. Loading up on +HP gear and bringing along some decent meds helped a lot. For anyone who's planning to level Summoner I *highly* recommend going for your celestial avatars this way - it's really pretty fun!

[Thanatos02]

Congratultions!

[FortMan]

All right! Grats man.

[J. R. Henderson]

I remember when they first implemented the low-level avatar quests.

I was a bit miffed, since I'd had to get my summons the hard way back in 2002 (or was it early 2003)? I decided to try the low-level summon quests on my alternate character. They were tough, I have to admit, a lot tougher than getting them in a high-level party the old way.

Actually, I've duo'ed the 75+ summons before. It's really easy if you have (for example) a level 75 Bard/White Mage (me) and a very well equipped 75 Warrior/Ninja (rich friend in best HNM LS on server) to tank. The only time the two of us lost was when we got cocky and fought Leviathan on Watersday. If you've ever wondered whether that really does make a difference, trust me, it definitely does. We got pwned.

Also, never use Kraken Club + 100 Fists when fighting the high-level avatars. We tried that for a joke, and the party wiped hard. I could have used Goddess' Hymnus, but I was so astounded at the pwnage (we usually won easily) that I sat there with my mouth hanging open.

I remember when I got Fenrir. LS members kept telling me, "Don't do it with a pickup party, you'll get pwned." I decided to give him a go with a pickup party, and lo and behold, we beat him easily (probably got lucky).

Ah, memories. I retired from FFXI a while back, but my friends keep pestering me to start playing again over IMs.

Congratulations on your victories! Summoner is my favorite class in the game, next to Red Mage.

[rgalex]

Congratulations man. I remember doing all that. My friends thought I was nuts. They kept telling me to just get a bunch of high level guys to go do the Primes for me and I kept saying "hell no!"

It really does feel good once you do it for yourself. I think Titan took me 6 tries (he was the first one I went after and I had no clue what I was doing). After that I went and beat the snot out of Garuda, Shiva and Ifrit. Leviathan and Ramuh took 2x each (stupid Ramuh and his paralyze).

Since then I've gone back and fought them as Primes with my LS. I'm level 64 now and just got all the whispers. If I can just get them to go with me to fight Fenrir... then if I'm lucky Diabolos. :eek:

:D

[Ubermonkey]

Congratulations!

I know my friend subbed warrior for all the trial battles bar ramuh (where he subbed whm for paralyna) on the reasoning that "I burn all my MP on astral flow, the extra vit and HP will do me more good" :D

I'm going to solo some avatars on nin/rdm when I get nin to 75. Need items for resist kits.

[dreamfarer]

I was tempted to try Smn/Mnk for the hp boost, but opted for Smn/Whm after trying Titan than way. Aquaveil is kinda handy for getting Carby off while the Avatar if whapping you in the head and worst case I could Banish the guy to death (actually had to in 1 fight when Astral Flow wore off before I got the 3rd in). I could picture War working fine too though.

The things that really helped were: plenty of Hi-Pots (usually only used 3 but brought more for safety sake), Pamama au Laits, Tav Tacos and Prot3/Shell3 from my wife before hand. With that and Def/HP gear the only thing that knocked my hp down much was the Avatars 2hr. Usually it hit for around 150 or so out of 320 total hp. Real easy to survive that and repair it with a single Hi-Pot.

As for the high level versions? You'll crush 'em. I went along with a 75 Rdm/Nin friend who all but solo'd Titan. All he had to do was keep shadows up and supplement them with Stoneskin. Did Shiva with him and another redmage/nin too - the Avatar 2hr'd and did 0 damage to any of us thanks to shadows (for them) and blink (I was subbing whm).

[J. R. Henderson]

Yeah, NIN in general are rather powerful. Some would even say too powerful....

75 RDM/NIN can solo Primes rather easily, although it's entirely possible to die due to plain old bad luck. I used to camp Za'Dha Adamantking with my social LS mates for fun. Without a good NIN tank, we found him to be pretty much impossible, especially since he's a WHM mob and his two-hour is Benediction. I'm not confident that even an excellent RDM/NIN could solo the ol' Adamantking. Would probably take the best of the best.

I mean, it's possible to kill him solo with RDM/NIN or NIN. It's just that there's so much time for so much stuff to go wrong, that the odds would be strongly against it.

[Ubermonkey]

I'm not confident that even an excellent RDM/NIN could solo the ol' Adamantking. Would probably take the best of the best.

The big problem there would be the adds, as he pops in a room full of quadavs, and the lack of kiting room.

Without that I'm 100% confident a well geared good rdm/nin could bore him to death.

Pld/rdm can solo avatars pretty handilly now too.


Small manning stuff you shouldnt be able to is one of the joys of high level ffxi. Id really like to try 2 or 3 man (or solo) genbu on my blm, but I'm no where near well enough merited or geared yet.

[dreamfarer]

Pld/Rdm can handle the avatars? Coolness!

I'm guessing that relies on Stoneskin/Blink/Phalanx for damage mitigation beyond what a Pld normally has? And for mp...Auto + V Cloak + Parade Gorget? Or is it more of a straight up beatdown than that?

[Ubermonkey]

Pld/Rdm can handle the avatars? Coolness!

I'm guessing that relies on Stoneskin/Blink/Phalanx for damage mitigation beyond what a Pld normally has? And for mp...Auto + V Cloak + Parade Gorget? Or is it more of a straight up beatdown than that?


I believe auto + gorget/herc ring is more than enough, with some yags as needed.

They do need good enhancing magic though for barspells.

[Wossisname]

The changes to Sentinel and Rampart help too. Sentinel is now a mini-Invincible (cuts physical damage taken by 90% or 100% with the AF2 Sentinel enhancing piece and adds a large enmity boost to all actions), Rampart does an all party Magic Damage stoneskin effect.

[dreamfarer]

Sentinel does rock in all sorts of ways now, but there is a limit folks aren't talking about much. Yes, it is 90% resist (or 100% with AF2) but that's only initially. The protection degrades over time fairly rapidly. I'm not sure what the low end bottoms out at but you definitely start taking more than 10% damage before the 30 seconds of normal duration is up.

What's funny is, post-update, it's so good I find myself hoarding it like mad. Working it into my hate routine every 5 minutes like I used to seems a waste of it's now awesome power. When it's needed though oh man is it nice to have it to fall back on.

At 30 seconds declining duration though I wouldn't count on it for the save vs the Prime Avatars. Best case you could get very lucky and use it to cut the 2hr damage down to almost nothing but even so the Primes hit pretty hard with their normal attacks and spells (though to be fair I'm not sure how much Phalanx and being 75 will help just on it's own - last time I fought one I was level 70).

[jiggyninjai]

GRATS!!! back when i played (launch, whenever that was) summoner was a symbol to be proud of, and the avatars even more so.
Goddluck to you and your wife.

[rgalex]

Well, somehow I managed to get Diabolos on Friday. We went in and kicked his ass, beating the record by about 40 seconds. Our set up was 72SAM/WAR, 72MNK/SAM, 75SAM/WAR, 75SMN/DRK, 65SMN/WHM, 75BLM/WHM.

The 2 SAMS went in and solo Light SC one after the other, that dropped him to 1/2 HP. The Monk used 100 Fists while the SMNs worried about keeping people alive and the BLM Stunned any Nightmare use. After the main attacks the 2 SMNs broke out Leviathan and Astral Flowed for the win. He never knew what hit him and we suffered no casualties.

I'd post a pic, but my pics are full atm and I keep forgetting to delete some old ones.

[Ubermonkey]

Congratulations!

My friend is 0/6 on that fight >_<

[dreamfarer]

Yeah! Very nice work! From what I've read that can be a hideously brutal fight. Sounds like you folks played it just right though.

[FortMan]

Congrats dreamfarer! Haven't fought one myself, I still wonder what it'll be like.

[dreamfarer]

From the way folks were talking about it on the forums I went in assuming it was be a horrifying deathfest that I'd eventually win only through mindless perservance and luck...aka pretty much like any quest with a decent reward :D

In practice though it really wasn't that bad. Each Avatar has a special move they use to start the battle out but most aren't a big deal. The worst is probably Ramuh's paralyze but Paralyna from /whm can get it off before it causes too much trouble. After that their hits aren't that brutal except for the 2hr which does around 150 damage if you're buffed up.

From memory my gear/items looked like this:

Main Hand: Hermit's Wand (for the interrupt down - the Avatars *will* hit you while you try to recast Carby)
Ammo: Happy Egg (+HP/+Vit egg from the Easter events)
Head: Compound Eye Circlet (Evasion +5 doesn't hurt)
Neck: Bloodbead Amulet (+15hp - you want as much as you can get)
Earring: Physical Earring x2 (Converts MP to HP +25 each, you don't care about mp for this fight since Astral Flow blows it all away).
Body: Trader's Saio (nothing really good here but Trader's has decent defense and looks kinda spiff)
Hands: Scentless Armlets (Evasion +5 to stack with the Circlet)
Ring 1: Bastokan Ring (for the HP+3, not a big deal though)
Ring 2: Bomb Ring (HP+15, Fire-5, against Ifrit I think I swapped in a Copper Ring I had lying around instead)
Back: Cotton Cape +1 (just a little extra def here, not much great for this slot at this level)
Waist: Heko Obi +1 (-8% spell interruption)
Legs: Trader's Slack (again just for the def)
Feet: Light Soleas (Evasion +3 for a total of +13 Evasion...and the Avatars will still hit a lot anyways :D )

Food:
Tavnazian Taco x1 : Can't go wrong with the +Def and +HP from these. They are a little pricey for food but as Pld I've been grinning and bearing it for so long with them that it barely even registered.

Drinks:
Melon Juice x 6: Macro'd in for a few seconds after Searing Light to make sure I had the refresh effect at all times (or Carby goes away when your mp hits 0). Using a new Melon Juice will overwrite an existing one on you and reset the duration. They're cheap to make and not too horrible to buy either so I usually brought 5-6 per fight though I'd only use 3.

Pamama au Lait x1 : The regen effect lasts for 10 minutes which is, hopefully, 4-5 minutes more than you'll need. Gulp it at the bend before you run to the Avatar and you won't have to worry about it all.

Meds:
Hi-Potion x8 : The MVP item of the whole set. Quick to use and the 100 hp of healing will undo several rounds of Avatar attacks or most of their 2hr. Very easy to keep your hp safely above 200 with these to fall back on. Definitely definitely have them macro'd though. Usually I would bring 7-8 of them but only needed to use 2-4 depending on how the fight went. The mental security of knowing that you have a ton of hp to call on really helps with staying calm I found.

Mulsum x12 : Quick to use, they stack so only take up 1 inventory slot and they give back 10 mp which is usually all you need. Generally I'd use 2 of these per battle to help get my mp back in time for the next Astral Flow. Having 120 extra mp is handy in general though.


Battle Strategy:
--------------------

Go to the Mini Battle NPC (always a Taru + Bodyguard, you want the Bodyguard)
Eat a Tavnazian Taco.
Have your Whm partner cast their highest level Protect and Shell on you as well as a Bar-status spell if one seems useful. (I was fortunate and was able to get Protect III and Shell III from my wife - definitely see if a higher level Whm, Rdm or Pld can do this for you - it's easy and quick for them and helps a lot).
Trade the mini-Tuning fork in to the NPC and then to the Crystal - make sure you select the Mini battle not the full one :D
Watch pretty cutscene.
Run to "The Bend" (it's obvious once you're in the bcnm).
Cast Aquaveil (for more spell interrupt down).
Drink a Pamama au Lait.
Drink a Melon Juice.
Summon Carby.
Run up to just before the edge of the pit the Avatar is in.
Cast Dia on the Avatar -> Carby will auto-attack the Avatar and the Avatar will close with you and use their first move.
Stand still. You want the Avatar to close to melee with you and remain in place.
Have Carby use Poison Nails.
Run!!
Odds are the Avatar will follow you - this is a good thing. If he stays with Carby this is fine too. If Carby dies resummon him immediately.
Check the recast on your Bloodpact:Rage.
Once the recast is close to 0 (say 10 seconds or so) it's time to do some thinking -> Check Carby's health. If he has a sliver of health then wait for him to die and resummon him. If he's still looking relatively sturdy then you're good to go.
With a solid Carby in place, wait for the Avatar to come to a standstill and Carby to catch up to him and stop moving too then use Astral Flow.
Use Searing Light #1.
Cackle gleefully as a large chunk of the Avatar's hp vanishes.
Use a Melon Juice either as part of the macro or manually.
And time to RUUUUNNNN again!
Repeat the run, resummon, wait for stillness, drink a Mulsum if your MP is below 40 (the cost for the Searing Light) and Searing Lights 2x more for an easy and quick win.


Things will, of course, go wrong along the way.

Problem: The Avatar will whap you upside the head spoiling your summons over and over.
Solution: Hang tough - you will eventually get Carby out and with the Hi-Pots to keep you healthy you will outlast the Avatar.

Problem: The Avatar will use his 2hr, killing Carby and badly injuring you.
Solution: This will happen every fight pretty much - relax, chug a Hi-Pot or two and focus on getting Carby back.

Problem: The Avatar will use his 2hr, killing Carby, badle injuring you *and* at just the right time to make you lose a Searing Light.
Solution: No big deal. 3x Searing Light is the easy win. 2x Searing Light is only slightly less easy. With the Melon Juices you can keep Carby out even without Astral Flow and Carby can easily melee the rest of the Avatar's hp away.

Problem: Ramuh Paralyzed me!
Solution: Let Carby take some hate, run away and keep casting Paralyna until you get it off. Let that Carby die and then summon a new one before using Astral Flow to make sure you don't lose the Searing Light to paralysis.

Problem: I'm fighting Leviathan and I'm walking really slow!
Solution: No, you didn't hit the walk key, and your computers not heat lagged (my first 2 thoughts) - Leviathan has a gravity effect he hits you with. Don't worry it wears off relatively quickly.

Problem: Curse the Avatar! My Searing Light was resisted for half damage!
Solution: Not a problem at all. Usually you'll get 1 resist out of the three - and the Avatar will still be dead dead dead. I think even 2 resists wouldn't be enough to save the avatar.

Problem: Ack! I wasn't paying attention to my Searing Light recast time and I missed one of them! (<--- yeah did this at least twice)
Solution: Relax. As noted above Carby can handle meleeing the Avatars. If you want some added kick use the mulsum's to grab some extra mp and hit the Avatar with another Poison Nails or two - the damage and the dot from it help. Heck you can even finish the Avatar off with a Banish if it's down to sliver of health.

Problem: I am impatient, Do I gotta start with Poison Nails like that? (<--- yep me too on 3 of them)
Solution: Nope, no need to start that way at all. The benefit to start with Poison Nails first, then doing the other Searing Lights later is that it makes the procedure for each Searing Light the same. Kite the Avatar till the pact is ready, stop, make sure mp is ok and no one's still running, use Searing Light, Profit! If you want a faster fight though just nail the Avatar with a Searing Light as soon as everyone's in place at the edge of the pit.