DRAFT: Ashu Talif quest guide
This is a first and probably very rough draft of a guide to the Ashu Talif quest line. I'm posting it here since my static-mates use LJ and can look through it and correct me where I'm wrong or points that I've forgotten. Once it's tightened up a bit more I'll make a more proper posting.
Introduction
The Treasures of Aht Urhgan introduced a three quest Assault-style line that is both very difficult and very rewarding. This is a guide to offer information and ideas on how to get a 6-person group to the second and third quests for farming purposes.
As a matter of principle, I dislike singling out specific jobs as being necessary for successful completion of anything (I prefer to think in terms of job roles). Unfortunately, these quests are somewhat prohibitive of that. I'll try to give ideas for how to stretch jobs into the roles that need to be filled, but to do that often has specific gear and/or merit requirements. There is also the requirement of a positive mindset and not being afraid of failure or dying. Let me make this clear: You may lose a hefty chunk of XP while trying to complete these quests. You might also lose in terms of gil for consumables. Keep your eye on the brass ring at the end and hopefully Altana will smile upon you and give you shiny drops as a reward for your efforts.
If you don't know what the brass rings are for this quest line, here's a list:
Every quest drops various Goldsmithing gemstones, beastman coins, and a Koga Shuriken. Items with a * next to them are "bonus" items that you might get for meeting extra conditions during the quest. There is no guarantee that you'll get the item, but it's possible. Some of the items are found on the ship (like the Barbarossa's Zerehs). Others are gotten via ??? item appraisal (Barbarossa's Moufles and the Attachments).
Scouting the Ashu Talif: Matron's Knife*
Royal Painter Escort: Cerberus Hide*, Yoichi's Sash*, Automaton Attachments
Targeting the Captain: Barbarossa's Zerehs, Barbarossa's Moufles*, Automaton Attachments
Getting Started
The firs quest in the line is Scouting the Ashu Talif. To start it trade Halshaob (H-10) in Nashmau three Imperial Bronze Pieces. The second is Royal Painter Escort and costs one Imperial Silver Piece. The third is Targeting the Captain and costs one Imperial Mythril Piece. You must pay the starting fee each time you want to attempt the quest, win or lose.
You cannot start the other quests in the line until you've completed the one previous to it. Also, you can only start one quest from Halshaob per real day. In other words, if you have full access to the three quests, you can start each one of them, one per real day. You could theoretically do four quests from him in one day (the three pre-started ones, plus one quest started on the day that you do the other three). The weekly static I'm in queues up the quests so that we can do "Royal Painter Escort" once, then "Targeting the Captain" twice on the same day. (Or we could do "Royal Painter Escort" twice and "Targeting the Captain" once, meh, you get the idea...)
The quests are out on the Black Coffin in Dvucca Isle. There are two ways to get out fairly easily. The first is to go to Nashmau and head to the (E-11) entrance of the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins. You'll need 1 Silver Imperial Piece or a Remnants Permit to go this way. Follow the Ruins through the only way that you can and you'll exit at (I-10) in Caedarva Mire (Dvucca Isle area, marked as Alzadaal Undersea Ruins 2 on the map). The other way is to go via the Dvucca Staging Point from Whitegate. You'll end up at (I-9). You're headed to (G-9) (marked at Appapago Reef 3 on the map).
A word of warning; at (G-10) there is a pond with some Jnun in it. Do not enter the water unless you feel like fighting a NM Imp named Zikko. The Imp is Invisible and won't aggro or decloak unless someone walks through the marsh and is Gravitied. It's not a hard NM and your group might have fun killing it on the way through, but it can be a nasty surprise if you don't know it's there.
Once you get the Appapago Reef continue forward until you get to the open area and can see the Black Coffin. The BCs in this quest go by Assault rules. That means buffs are stripped when you enter, items with Assault-activated latents on them are active, and Tractor works within the BC.
Scouting the Ashu Talif
This is, by far, the most difficult quest in the line. Some SMN have claimed to solo it, and that may be so, but it falls in to the same category of a RDM soloing Genbu. It's nice that they've managed it, but not very practical for a group trying to do it unless your person is extremely gung-ho, skilled, and well equipped. Just because your group has a SMN I wouldn't expect them to solo it, in other words.
For a more balanced and realistic group the job roles you're going to want are refresher, puller, AoE damage dealer, and healer. Our group has done combinations like MNK/NIN (puller), RDM (refresh), WHM (healer), AoE damage dealers (BLM and SMN using Ramuh). We've also used BRD/NIN as puller, with the BRD having an extreme physical damage decrease build. That's something any puller will want. Earth staff is the weapon of choice. Utsusemi helps a lot with blinking off Ancient magic, but keeping shadows up is a challenge. The healer will need to be on their toes if the puller is going to survive the entire run. Unfortunately, this quest is heavily biased towards AoE damage. The mobs you'll be fighting only have about 600HP, but there are *a lot* of them near the end. The more BLM you have, the easier the quest will be. If you have zero BLM it will be challenging and you'll have to find other ways to do fast AoE damage.
You have 30 minutes to kill every mob that spawns except for an optional NM. Everyone in the BC will want to have Reraise up and to keep it up. You do lose XP if you die, but it's possible to wipe and recover if you're on the upper deck and have been killing at a brisk pace. The person most likely to die during the BC is the puller. Because you're on a tight time limit the puller may choose to continue pulling while weakened to get the group through the fight. Considering the difficulty of the fight, if it's close, this is the choice I've made in the past. Now that I've scared you, let me explain how the BC is set up.
Here is a rough map I've drawn of the area of the Ashu Talif that's used in this quest. When the quest starts you'll be near the lifeboat. You'll want to run to the upper deck before doing anything else so you're not near the mobs once they start spawning. After they've spawn, they'll aggro if you go down the steps or if you draw your weapon. This is something to keep in mind since it can be used to your advantage.
You'll be facing Ashu Talif Crew, which are shade type mobs and are the jobs of MNK, RDM, and ranged attacker. As the fight progresses Watch Imps will be added. There is also a NM called Swiftwinged Gekko that spawns and messes with you before disappearing. You'll want to have your puller go down the steps from the upper deck, aggro whatever is down there, and bring it to the upper deck to be killed. It sounds simple, it starts simple, but then it's not near the end.
Twice during the BC you will receive temporary items like you get during Besieged. The items are a Revitalizer (resets all JA timers including 2hr), Daedalus Wing (instant 300% TP without medicated effect), and a Vile Elixir+1 (restores about half of your HP and MP). DRGs and BSTs get an additional item for their pets. There will be an emote colored message that says something like "Your bag feels heavier" that indicates you've received the items, so keep a lookout for it.
When the puller starts have them go down the steps and come back up. For myself, I usually go down the left side stairs and run a loop and come back up the right side stairs. Just running by will aggro everything that is down there. The BC will start slow with only 3-5 Crewmen in a wave, but here are the things to keep in mind. The MNKs will be on your tail. The RDM and especially the ranged attacks may lag behind the MNKs to cast or take shots at you. In later waves the ranged attackers may end up separated far enough from the other mobs that an AoE attack won't hit them with the rest of the group, so watch out for that. I try to run exactly the same path every time I pull and stop in the same spot. I put myself into a corner to force the ranged attackers to come as far forward as possible before stopping to shoot at me. The Crewmen will typically follow the same route you ran (like, they won't repath to run up the left staircase unless they got *really* separated.)
After several waves of increasing numbers of Crewmen you'll have your first encounter with Gekko. You do not have to defeat Gekko to complete the BC. He's an optional NM. Killing him adds another treasure chest to be popped at the end of the BC that has a ??? knife in it that might be appraised as the Matron's Knife. Gekko is difficult to kill because it despawns quickly. I'm not going to cover how to do it since it's not necessary for the win.
Anyhow, when Gekko pops he's in the middle of the lower deck. You can see him from the top of the stairs if you angle your camera around some. I warn the party that Gekko is next because he will always do a -ga debuff. The debuffs he does are: Sleepga II, Graviga, Bindga, Paralyga. When he's up, have at very least the healer pop a Poison Potion just in case Gekko does Sleepga II. The puller can move down the steps about 3-5 steps and aggro Gekko from there. If the puller doesn't run back up the stairs Gekko's -ga debuff will only hit the puller and Gekko will fly by and then despawn. After Gekko despawns the next wave of mobs will appear. There is a small area on the steps where you can aggro Gekko and not have the wave that follows him aggro the puller if they're stuck there and need an Erase or Cure. The best I can describe it is about three steps down, but you'll have to experience it to see what I mean, I think...
After Gekko's first appearance the Watch Imps begin spawning along with the Crewmen. The Imps spawn in the corners of the lower deck. They will always cast an Ancient magic on the first person they aggro on. Because they're casting an Ancient magic, they're lagged behind the Crewmen during the pull (much like how the ranged attackers can get separated). The Watch Imps path to whatever route is shortest to the person they're aggroed on after their spell goes off, which means they don't necessarily follow the path that the puller took. This is another way in which they can get seperated and end up with some on each side of the upper deck. If you have multiple BLMs you might plan on having them stagger their casting slightly since not all of the mobs will arrive at the same time.
This is where the BC starts getting dangerous. For the puller, they'll have MNKs and ranged attackers stripping their shadows while Ancient magic is being cast on them. Even if shadows are re-established in time to blink some of the spells, later waves can have 4-6 Imps in them, essentially manaburning the puller since they're all casting at the same time. Keep Protect and Shell and a barspell up on the party for the additional magic defense. Diabolos' Dream Shroud is wonderful because of the magic defense (for the puller) and the magic attack (for the nukers). If your RDM has Phalanx II, cast it on the puller before they pull. Titan's Stoneskin is nice, but if you have a single SMN you might not have time to do Dream Shroud and Stoneskin between pulls and still finish the BC. In that case, I'd take Dream Shroud over Stoneskin. After the pull happens the healer needs to camp the puller because they're about to get hammered.
The Watch Imps tend to cast -gaIII after their initial Ancient magic and have followed the puller to the upper deck. Kill the Imps as quickly as possible. They're much more dangerous than the Crewmen. If your puller with their Earth Staff has staff weapon skills, don't forget that you can use Earth Crusher to do an AoE WS hit that might finish off some mobs, just go after the Imps first! The puller will probably be taking enough damage to gain TP for a weapon skill a couple times, but don't forget to use those Daedalus Wings when you get them so that you can WS if you need to.
The other thing the puller needs to be aware of is MP. You need to move briskly since time is tight, but it does no good to pull if your mages don't have the MP to kill anything. Communication is important. Keep in mind that you're going to get items twice and if you have BLMs, they can Manafront a total of three times during the BC. Try to conserve and pace the MP consumption, and don't pull too soon if the MP isn't there!
The last wave of the BC will have Gekko popping at the same time as a very large wave. Use the method I described to trigger Gekko coming up the steps and don't bring Gekko's -ga onto the party if you can help it. The other mobs will likely link with Gekko when this happens, so, again the puller is about to get hammered.
If things go south and your party wipes, it's possible to recover assuming there's enough time on the clock. Everyone who hopes to recover needs to be on the upper deck to avoid aggro. The mobs will go back to the lower deck and reset. Be careful! Don't Reraise until every mob is on the lower deck again. If they're on the stairs they can aggro and come back up. If people die in a position where they can see, make sure both stairways are clear before Reraising. Wipes probably won't happen until after the Watch Imps start spawning. Evaluate your situation and decide if you want to try to recover fully or zerg it if you're short on time and close.
When you complete the BC you'll get a message that the mission has been complete and a lockbox will appear on the lower deck. You get one lockbox for clearing all of the mobs. A second lockbox is possible for defeating Gekko. Items in the lockbox go into a treasure pool and must be lotted and drop before clicking on the lifeboat to leave or the items are lost. You must click the lifeboat to complete the BC and get credit for it.
Congratulations, it's (mostly) downhill from here x.xb
Royal Painter Escort
Give Halshaob an Imperial Silver Piece and head out to the Black Coffin for the next quest in the line. This one is a lot shorter and possibly a lot easier depending upon how you're set up. The goal is to escort Faluuya into the hold of the ship to sketch it. Faluuya, unfortunately, is a chicken. A chicken with low HP. Her AI is much like the one for Professor Chanoix in "Escort Professor Chanoix", only with a greater emphasis on running away. When she runs she moves faster than normal. If she's being chased, the mobs chasing her move faster than normal. Catching up to her can be a challenge.
During the escort you'll gain access to the cargo hold. Here's a diagram of the area you'll be working in during this quest.
In theory there are two ways to complete this quest. You can either protect Faluuya by cure bombing and getting things off of her that want her dead while she works or you can defeat a NM named Black Bartholomew. When Black Bartholomew is killed all of the other mobs despawn. And what are the other mobs involved? Crewmen like in the previous quest and Marines. Marines are shades, RDM job, and significantly harder than the Crewmen to defeat.
There are three possible reward lockboxes in this BC. The first lockbox is for completing the escort. The second is for defeating Black Bartholomew. The third is for Faluuya taking little to no damage. The best goodies (automaton attachments and the previously listed * items) are in the last two boxes.
Depending upon your group you may have an easier time with simply escorting Faluuya and cure bombing her the entire way through. Our static's strategy for completing the quest is to split up. A couple people escort Faluuya while everyone else zerg rushes Black Bartholomew.
The Escort group is going to want both the ability to Cure Faluuya and to protect her while she's under attack. She is going to have a lot of mobs on her at once, so AoE damage dealers are a plus. They can decimate the weak Crewmen and leave the Marines as the most immediate threat.
The Zerg group is going to want heavy damage dealers and a healer to keep them upright. They will be under attack by Black Bartholomew and about three Marines. Here's a map of the Escort route Faluuya takes.
Faluuya will be on the deck when you enter the BC. Buff up on the lifeboat. When you're ready, approach her and the escort will begin. She'll walk first to the cargo hold door and stop. (Her stops are marked with X's.) After she asks you to open the door, you'll be able to target it and enter. She'll go down the first flight of stairs and stop on the small landing and make a comment. After that, she'll go down to next flight of stairs to the bottom of the hold and stop. When that happens a Crew will spawn (MNK job) and aggro her. It's at this point that your group should split up. Have the Zerg group Provoke, Flash, or otherwise get the Crew off of her, preferable before she's hit. (Chi Blast with a few Boosts behind it works for me. Chi just by itself isn't strong enough.) I'll explain the Escort group's task first.
Faluuya will rush up the stairs along the yellow path and head for the lifeboat. Unfortunately, another Crew MNK is waiting there for her. Have your Escort person try to get the Crew off of her as it chases her up the stairs. Faluuya is going to run around upstairs and start getting onslaught by Crew and the occasional Marine. Our static uses 2 SMN for escorting Faluuya. They have their Avatars out (Ramuh) and use Dia to claim/target Ramuh onto mobs. Thunderspark works at first, but as more mobs come they'll (one at a time) Astral Flow and use Judgment Bolt to flatten the masses. In theory, that gives 6 minutes for the Zerg group to defeat Bartholomew. The way this quest is structured, you either win or lose very quickly because of how weak Faluuya is and the number of mobs coming after her, so this is actually plenty of time.
Here is a picture of the cargo hold and roughly where mobs will spawn. They won't spawn immediately (all spawns are on a timer in this BC.) The Zerg party will want to stand by the Captain's Cabin. The support/healer will be in the nook while the damage dealers will be a bit forward. The reason for this is because hate is odd. The Marines seem to work like the Watch Imps in the previous quest in that they'll attack whoever is closest to them first. Keeping the support/healer in the nook and damage dealers in front of them assures that they aren't the target of initial hate.
The Zerg party will wait for a short bit while Faluuya is attacked at the lifeboat and chased to the upper deck, but stay in position, you're about to have mobs spawn on you. When Black Bartholomew spawns you'll want to attack him and ignore the Marine next to him. He's a COR job type with moderate HP. The Marine will try to kill you, obvious, and the other two in the room will come to assist, but their hate is odd in that they'll focus on whoever is attacking Black Bartholomew. The support/healer might get hate, but it won't be initial hate. Make sure they have Stoneskin/Blink up before the mobs spawn and focus on keeping the damage dealers alive. The quest is over as soon as Black Bartholomew is down. Our group uses 2x MNKs, WHM, and RDM (who might Chainspell nuke to speed things along even more). Yes, that's an excessive amount of damage, especially with both MNKs 2hr'ing, but the Escort group is under siege and this needs to be finished quickly.
Once Faluuya is no longer under attack she will resume the escort and come back down into the hold. You'll get the finished message and the lockboxes will spawn on the lower deck.
Targeting the Captain
Give Halshaob 1 Imperial Mythril Piece and head to the Black Coffin.
There are 4 mobs to be defeated during this quest: 2 Imps, Cutthroat Kabsalah, and his pet Opo-opo Bubbly. The ultimate goal is to defeat Kabsalah and Bubbly, but the Imps play an important role in this quest that has to do with the Lockboxes. Cuttroat Kabsalah and Bubbly are both in the Captain's Cabin behind a closed door. I haven't marked where they are on the map because that varies.
There are three potential lockboxes. The first two are for completing the quest. A third lockbox that has the ??? gloves that Barbarossa's Moufles might come from is possible. To get the third box you need to do a surprise attack on Kabsalah and *not lose claim on him* until he is defeated. A surprise attack is when you hit him when he's looking away from the door and without Bubbly noticing. So how do the Imps play a role in that? Depending upon how you pull the Imps affects Bubbly's path in the Captain's Cabin. If you do a sneak attack on the Imps (pull them from behind) Bubbly will run back and forth across the room rather than roaming around. If you can set how Bubbly moves it makes it easier to pull Kabsalah without notice.
Yes, the pulling is convoluted in this quest. Thanks SE.
While it's possible (though very unlikely) to pull one mob without the other linking, the strategy we use is to have one person kite Kabsalah while everyone else piles on Bubbly. Our Kabsalah kite is a SMN who uses a wide kite area of the upper deck, lower deck, and cargo hold to keep Kabsalah busy. He's not a very fast mover, so give plenty of room and you should be fine.
Meanwhile, Bubbly is being taken care of within the Captain's Cabin itself. We separated the group this way to make sure there weren't any hate issues. (Since Kabsalah's hate, if you haven't guessed it by now from the other two quests, is a bit... unusual.)
Bubbly has all of a regular Opo-opo's TP moves. Here's a list in case it's been a while since you've punched a monkey: Claw Storm (single target damage + poison), Magic Fruit (healing), Eye Scratch (single target damage + blind), Spinning Claw (AoE damage), Viscious Claw (heavy single target damage), Stone Throw (ranged single target + paralyze), and Blank Gaze (single target dispel). Wiki estimates Bubbly's level to be 80. It's accuracy is incredibly high. I have difficulty blink tanking him with 292 Evasion skill and a robust Evasion build. What makes things worse is that Bubbly doesn't debuff well or at all really. Our RDM has over 300 Enfeebling skill and his debuffs won't stick, even with Elemental Seal. The best solution is to have your melees (including the tank) with the best Evasion builds they can manage and share hate to bounce him around. Bubbly hits are roughly truck-like, so straight tanking him might not be an attractive option without Utsusemi's help.
If your kiter is doing fine I would recommend having your mages rest to full before starting the next fight. If you fought Bubbly in the Captain's Cabin you'll be safe there to rest and regroup.
Kabsalah is a shade, COR job, estimated level 80. He has near 100% double attack and ranged attacks. His accuracy is high, but not as high as Bubbly's, (He's easier to blink tank, but he has that double attack and ranged attack, so it evens out..). He'll do Wild Card when his HP is low. Plus he does the usual Fomor TP moves like Dancing Chains, Firefox, Netherspikes, Carnal Nightmare, Barbed Crescent, and Aegis Schism. In other words, all of the physical damage attacks can be absorbed by Utsusemi if your shadows aren't stripped by ranged attacks and double attack. Like with Bubbly, bouncing him between multiple people/Avatars/pets is a good idea so no one gets hammered. His regular attacks hit harder than Bubbly's and criticals *really* hurt. If someone who has hate is hit with Aegis Schism, Erase them because it's a hefty enough Defense Down that makes matters much worse.
If you're using the bounce around strategy with Kabsalah be careful with curing hate. Kabsalah seems quite willing to move away from his current target to go whack a mage that's cast their first Cure III in 6 months. (That might be a little exaggerated, but not by much...) RDMs will want to do their Convert a very far distance away from Kabsalah so that he doesn't come after them for Curing themselves. Don't trust Stoneskin to save you or think that your hate is low enough that he wouldn't possibly come after you. As I mentioned, his hate is a bit wonky and if you're on his list he might decide to say hi without much provocation.
Once both Bubbly and Kabsalah are defeated you'll receive the mission completed message and the Lockboxes will pop on the lower deck. If you got Barbarossa's Zerehs they'll be in one of the lockboxes. The drop rate isn't great for the Barbarossa's Zerehs, though our group has gotten lucky and gotten two in a row before. I've heard 10% for the drop rate. I think that's probably about right.
Conclusion
This quest line *is not* easy. It can strain your group in terms of jobs that are needed to complete quests and patience if you have repeated failures. The drop rate on the Barbarossa items can be horrible, but the Automaton Attachment drop rate is actually pretty good. If you have a group of friends that enjoys challenging themselves this is an excellent way to do it. I'd like to see more people do these quests because so many jobs can benefit from the items that come out of them. Hopefully this guide will give some ideas on how to tackle the challenges these quests hold and get more people into stolen pirate pants!
Acknowledgements
Maps shamelessly stolen for the zillionth time from FFXI Atlas... Hey, I didn't steal any maps this time, only linked one! Better gives credit anyways since they've been a helpful resource. I've done a lot of linking to FFXIclopedia because it helps flesh out information, though we started doing these quests when there wasn't much information at all. Hopefully having multiple sources will help your group be successful.
Diagrams of the Black Coffin were feebly done by me using Photoshop. Please don't steal them unless you intend to, like, make them not suck and let me relink them (oh well, a girl can dream, can't she?) Though, more seriously, the diagrams are really out of proportion and only good for giving an idea of what I was talking about. If you wanted them for something proper I'd hope you'd have better ones made ^^;
Many thanks go to Nyiri-tachi and friends for muscling through these BCs and learning how they work. Our fearless leader Nyiri, Zubis, Yosari, Nif, Valamir, and former members Merlee and Elphaba. I've become a much better blink tank because of Bubbly, so there's benefits to this quest that have nothing to do with material gain!
Beanie / FantasyInsanity / Midgardsormr
07.29.07
Introduction
The Treasures of Aht Urhgan introduced a three quest Assault-style line that is both very difficult and very rewarding. This is a guide to offer information and ideas on how to get a 6-person group to the second and third quests for farming purposes.
As a matter of principle, I dislike singling out specific jobs as being necessary for successful completion of anything (I prefer to think in terms of job roles). Unfortunately, these quests are somewhat prohibitive of that. I'll try to give ideas for how to stretch jobs into the roles that need to be filled, but to do that often has specific gear and/or merit requirements. There is also the requirement of a positive mindset and not being afraid of failure or dying. Let me make this clear: You may lose a hefty chunk of XP while trying to complete these quests. You might also lose in terms of gil for consumables. Keep your eye on the brass ring at the end and hopefully Altana will smile upon you and give you shiny drops as a reward for your efforts.
If you don't know what the brass rings are for this quest line, here's a list:
Every quest drops various Goldsmithing gemstones, beastman coins, and a Koga Shuriken. Items with a * next to them are "bonus" items that you might get for meeting extra conditions during the quest. There is no guarantee that you'll get the item, but it's possible. Some of the items are found on the ship (like the Barbarossa's Zerehs). Others are gotten via ??? item appraisal (Barbarossa's Moufles and the Attachments).
Scouting the Ashu Talif: Matron's Knife*
Royal Painter Escort: Cerberus Hide*, Yoichi's Sash*, Automaton Attachments
Targeting the Captain: Barbarossa's Zerehs, Barbarossa's Moufles*, Automaton Attachments
Getting Started
The firs quest in the line is Scouting the Ashu Talif. To start it trade Halshaob (H-10) in Nashmau three Imperial Bronze Pieces. The second is Royal Painter Escort and costs one Imperial Silver Piece. The third is Targeting the Captain and costs one Imperial Mythril Piece. You must pay the starting fee each time you want to attempt the quest, win or lose.
You cannot start the other quests in the line until you've completed the one previous to it. Also, you can only start one quest from Halshaob per real day. In other words, if you have full access to the three quests, you can start each one of them, one per real day. You could theoretically do four quests from him in one day (the three pre-started ones, plus one quest started on the day that you do the other three). The weekly static I'm in queues up the quests so that we can do "Royal Painter Escort" once, then "Targeting the Captain" twice on the same day. (Or we could do "Royal Painter Escort" twice and "Targeting the Captain" once, meh, you get the idea...)
The quests are out on the Black Coffin in Dvucca Isle. There are two ways to get out fairly easily. The first is to go to Nashmau and head to the (E-11) entrance of the Alzadaal Undersea Ruins. You'll need 1 Silver Imperial Piece or a Remnants Permit to go this way. Follow the Ruins through the only way that you can and you'll exit at (I-10) in Caedarva Mire (Dvucca Isle area, marked as Alzadaal Undersea Ruins 2 on the map). The other way is to go via the Dvucca Staging Point from Whitegate. You'll end up at (I-9). You're headed to (G-9) (marked at Appapago Reef 3 on the map).
A word of warning; at (G-10) there is a pond with some Jnun in it. Do not enter the water unless you feel like fighting a NM Imp named Zikko. The Imp is Invisible and won't aggro or decloak unless someone walks through the marsh and is Gravitied. It's not a hard NM and your group might have fun killing it on the way through, but it can be a nasty surprise if you don't know it's there.
Once you get the Appapago Reef continue forward until you get to the open area and can see the Black Coffin. The BCs in this quest go by Assault rules. That means buffs are stripped when you enter, items with Assault-activated latents on them are active, and Tractor works within the BC.
Scouting the Ashu Talif
This is, by far, the most difficult quest in the line. Some SMN have claimed to solo it, and that may be so, but it falls in to the same category of a RDM soloing Genbu. It's nice that they've managed it, but not very practical for a group trying to do it unless your person is extremely gung-ho, skilled, and well equipped. Just because your group has a SMN I wouldn't expect them to solo it, in other words.
For a more balanced and realistic group the job roles you're going to want are refresher, puller, AoE damage dealer, and healer. Our group has done combinations like MNK/NIN (puller), RDM (refresh), WHM (healer), AoE damage dealers (BLM and SMN using Ramuh). We've also used BRD/NIN as puller, with the BRD having an extreme physical damage decrease build. That's something any puller will want. Earth staff is the weapon of choice. Utsusemi helps a lot with blinking off Ancient magic, but keeping shadows up is a challenge. The healer will need to be on their toes if the puller is going to survive the entire run. Unfortunately, this quest is heavily biased towards AoE damage. The mobs you'll be fighting only have about 600HP, but there are *a lot* of them near the end. The more BLM you have, the easier the quest will be. If you have zero BLM it will be challenging and you'll have to find other ways to do fast AoE damage.
You have 30 minutes to kill every mob that spawns except for an optional NM. Everyone in the BC will want to have Reraise up and to keep it up. You do lose XP if you die, but it's possible to wipe and recover if you're on the upper deck and have been killing at a brisk pace. The person most likely to die during the BC is the puller. Because you're on a tight time limit the puller may choose to continue pulling while weakened to get the group through the fight. Considering the difficulty of the fight, if it's close, this is the choice I've made in the past. Now that I've scared you, let me explain how the BC is set up.
Here is a rough map I've drawn of the area of the Ashu Talif that's used in this quest. When the quest starts you'll be near the lifeboat. You'll want to run to the upper deck before doing anything else so you're not near the mobs once they start spawning. After they've spawn, they'll aggro if you go down the steps or if you draw your weapon. This is something to keep in mind since it can be used to your advantage.
You'll be facing Ashu Talif Crew, which are shade type mobs and are the jobs of MNK, RDM, and ranged attacker. As the fight progresses Watch Imps will be added. There is also a NM called Swiftwinged Gekko that spawns and messes with you before disappearing. You'll want to have your puller go down the steps from the upper deck, aggro whatever is down there, and bring it to the upper deck to be killed. It sounds simple, it starts simple, but then it's not near the end.
Twice during the BC you will receive temporary items like you get during Besieged. The items are a Revitalizer (resets all JA timers including 2hr), Daedalus Wing (instant 300% TP without medicated effect), and a Vile Elixir+1 (restores about half of your HP and MP). DRGs and BSTs get an additional item for their pets. There will be an emote colored message that says something like "Your bag feels heavier" that indicates you've received the items, so keep a lookout for it.
When the puller starts have them go down the steps and come back up. For myself, I usually go down the left side stairs and run a loop and come back up the right side stairs. Just running by will aggro everything that is down there. The BC will start slow with only 3-5 Crewmen in a wave, but here are the things to keep in mind. The MNKs will be on your tail. The RDM and especially the ranged attacks may lag behind the MNKs to cast or take shots at you. In later waves the ranged attackers may end up separated far enough from the other mobs that an AoE attack won't hit them with the rest of the group, so watch out for that. I try to run exactly the same path every time I pull and stop in the same spot. I put myself into a corner to force the ranged attackers to come as far forward as possible before stopping to shoot at me. The Crewmen will typically follow the same route you ran (like, they won't repath to run up the left staircase unless they got *really* separated.)
After several waves of increasing numbers of Crewmen you'll have your first encounter with Gekko. You do not have to defeat Gekko to complete the BC. He's an optional NM. Killing him adds another treasure chest to be popped at the end of the BC that has a ??? knife in it that might be appraised as the Matron's Knife. Gekko is difficult to kill because it despawns quickly. I'm not going to cover how to do it since it's not necessary for the win.
Anyhow, when Gekko pops he's in the middle of the lower deck. You can see him from the top of the stairs if you angle your camera around some. I warn the party that Gekko is next because he will always do a -ga debuff. The debuffs he does are: Sleepga II, Graviga, Bindga, Paralyga. When he's up, have at very least the healer pop a Poison Potion just in case Gekko does Sleepga II. The puller can move down the steps about 3-5 steps and aggro Gekko from there. If the puller doesn't run back up the stairs Gekko's -ga debuff will only hit the puller and Gekko will fly by and then despawn. After Gekko despawns the next wave of mobs will appear. There is a small area on the steps where you can aggro Gekko and not have the wave that follows him aggro the puller if they're stuck there and need an Erase or Cure. The best I can describe it is about three steps down, but you'll have to experience it to see what I mean, I think...
After Gekko's first appearance the Watch Imps begin spawning along with the Crewmen. The Imps spawn in the corners of the lower deck. They will always cast an Ancient magic on the first person they aggro on. Because they're casting an Ancient magic, they're lagged behind the Crewmen during the pull (much like how the ranged attackers can get separated). The Watch Imps path to whatever route is shortest to the person they're aggroed on after their spell goes off, which means they don't necessarily follow the path that the puller took. This is another way in which they can get seperated and end up with some on each side of the upper deck. If you have multiple BLMs you might plan on having them stagger their casting slightly since not all of the mobs will arrive at the same time.
This is where the BC starts getting dangerous. For the puller, they'll have MNKs and ranged attackers stripping their shadows while Ancient magic is being cast on them. Even if shadows are re-established in time to blink some of the spells, later waves can have 4-6 Imps in them, essentially manaburning the puller since they're all casting at the same time. Keep Protect and Shell and a barspell up on the party for the additional magic defense. Diabolos' Dream Shroud is wonderful because of the magic defense (for the puller) and the magic attack (for the nukers). If your RDM has Phalanx II, cast it on the puller before they pull. Titan's Stoneskin is nice, but if you have a single SMN you might not have time to do Dream Shroud and Stoneskin between pulls and still finish the BC. In that case, I'd take Dream Shroud over Stoneskin. After the pull happens the healer needs to camp the puller because they're about to get hammered.
The Watch Imps tend to cast -gaIII after their initial Ancient magic and have followed the puller to the upper deck. Kill the Imps as quickly as possible. They're much more dangerous than the Crewmen. If your puller with their Earth Staff has staff weapon skills, don't forget that you can use Earth Crusher to do an AoE WS hit that might finish off some mobs, just go after the Imps first! The puller will probably be taking enough damage to gain TP for a weapon skill a couple times, but don't forget to use those Daedalus Wings when you get them so that you can WS if you need to.
The other thing the puller needs to be aware of is MP. You need to move briskly since time is tight, but it does no good to pull if your mages don't have the MP to kill anything. Communication is important. Keep in mind that you're going to get items twice and if you have BLMs, they can Manafront a total of three times during the BC. Try to conserve and pace the MP consumption, and don't pull too soon if the MP isn't there!
The last wave of the BC will have Gekko popping at the same time as a very large wave. Use the method I described to trigger Gekko coming up the steps and don't bring Gekko's -ga onto the party if you can help it. The other mobs will likely link with Gekko when this happens, so, again the puller is about to get hammered.
If things go south and your party wipes, it's possible to recover assuming there's enough time on the clock. Everyone who hopes to recover needs to be on the upper deck to avoid aggro. The mobs will go back to the lower deck and reset. Be careful! Don't Reraise until every mob is on the lower deck again. If they're on the stairs they can aggro and come back up. If people die in a position where they can see, make sure both stairways are clear before Reraising. Wipes probably won't happen until after the Watch Imps start spawning. Evaluate your situation and decide if you want to try to recover fully or zerg it if you're short on time and close.
When you complete the BC you'll get a message that the mission has been complete and a lockbox will appear on the lower deck. You get one lockbox for clearing all of the mobs. A second lockbox is possible for defeating Gekko. Items in the lockbox go into a treasure pool and must be lotted and drop before clicking on the lifeboat to leave or the items are lost. You must click the lifeboat to complete the BC and get credit for it.
Congratulations, it's (mostly) downhill from here x.xb
Royal Painter Escort
Give Halshaob an Imperial Silver Piece and head out to the Black Coffin for the next quest in the line. This one is a lot shorter and possibly a lot easier depending upon how you're set up. The goal is to escort Faluuya into the hold of the ship to sketch it. Faluuya, unfortunately, is a chicken. A chicken with low HP. Her AI is much like the one for Professor Chanoix in "Escort Professor Chanoix", only with a greater emphasis on running away. When she runs she moves faster than normal. If she's being chased, the mobs chasing her move faster than normal. Catching up to her can be a challenge.
During the escort you'll gain access to the cargo hold. Here's a diagram of the area you'll be working in during this quest.
In theory there are two ways to complete this quest. You can either protect Faluuya by cure bombing and getting things off of her that want her dead while she works or you can defeat a NM named Black Bartholomew. When Black Bartholomew is killed all of the other mobs despawn. And what are the other mobs involved? Crewmen like in the previous quest and Marines. Marines are shades, RDM job, and significantly harder than the Crewmen to defeat.
There are three possible reward lockboxes in this BC. The first lockbox is for completing the escort. The second is for defeating Black Bartholomew. The third is for Faluuya taking little to no damage. The best goodies (automaton attachments and the previously listed * items) are in the last two boxes.
Depending upon your group you may have an easier time with simply escorting Faluuya and cure bombing her the entire way through. Our static's strategy for completing the quest is to split up. A couple people escort Faluuya while everyone else zerg rushes Black Bartholomew.
The Escort group is going to want both the ability to Cure Faluuya and to protect her while she's under attack. She is going to have a lot of mobs on her at once, so AoE damage dealers are a plus. They can decimate the weak Crewmen and leave the Marines as the most immediate threat.
The Zerg group is going to want heavy damage dealers and a healer to keep them upright. They will be under attack by Black Bartholomew and about three Marines. Here's a map of the Escort route Faluuya takes.
Faluuya will be on the deck when you enter the BC. Buff up on the lifeboat. When you're ready, approach her and the escort will begin. She'll walk first to the cargo hold door and stop. (Her stops are marked with X's.) After she asks you to open the door, you'll be able to target it and enter. She'll go down the first flight of stairs and stop on the small landing and make a comment. After that, she'll go down to next flight of stairs to the bottom of the hold and stop. When that happens a Crew will spawn (MNK job) and aggro her. It's at this point that your group should split up. Have the Zerg group Provoke, Flash, or otherwise get the Crew off of her, preferable before she's hit. (Chi Blast with a few Boosts behind it works for me. Chi just by itself isn't strong enough.) I'll explain the Escort group's task first.
Faluuya will rush up the stairs along the yellow path and head for the lifeboat. Unfortunately, another Crew MNK is waiting there for her. Have your Escort person try to get the Crew off of her as it chases her up the stairs. Faluuya is going to run around upstairs and start getting onslaught by Crew and the occasional Marine. Our static uses 2 SMN for escorting Faluuya. They have their Avatars out (Ramuh) and use Dia to claim/target Ramuh onto mobs. Thunderspark works at first, but as more mobs come they'll (one at a time) Astral Flow and use Judgment Bolt to flatten the masses. In theory, that gives 6 minutes for the Zerg group to defeat Bartholomew. The way this quest is structured, you either win or lose very quickly because of how weak Faluuya is and the number of mobs coming after her, so this is actually plenty of time.
Here is a picture of the cargo hold and roughly where mobs will spawn. They won't spawn immediately (all spawns are on a timer in this BC.) The Zerg party will want to stand by the Captain's Cabin. The support/healer will be in the nook while the damage dealers will be a bit forward. The reason for this is because hate is odd. The Marines seem to work like the Watch Imps in the previous quest in that they'll attack whoever is closest to them first. Keeping the support/healer in the nook and damage dealers in front of them assures that they aren't the target of initial hate.
The Zerg party will wait for a short bit while Faluuya is attacked at the lifeboat and chased to the upper deck, but stay in position, you're about to have mobs spawn on you. When Black Bartholomew spawns you'll want to attack him and ignore the Marine next to him. He's a COR job type with moderate HP. The Marine will try to kill you, obvious, and the other two in the room will come to assist, but their hate is odd in that they'll focus on whoever is attacking Black Bartholomew. The support/healer might get hate, but it won't be initial hate. Make sure they have Stoneskin/Blink up before the mobs spawn and focus on keeping the damage dealers alive. The quest is over as soon as Black Bartholomew is down. Our group uses 2x MNKs, WHM, and RDM (who might Chainspell nuke to speed things along even more). Yes, that's an excessive amount of damage, especially with both MNKs 2hr'ing, but the Escort group is under siege and this needs to be finished quickly.
Once Faluuya is no longer under attack she will resume the escort and come back down into the hold. You'll get the finished message and the lockboxes will spawn on the lower deck.
Targeting the Captain
Give Halshaob 1 Imperial Mythril Piece and head to the Black Coffin.
There are 4 mobs to be defeated during this quest: 2 Imps, Cutthroat Kabsalah, and his pet Opo-opo Bubbly. The ultimate goal is to defeat Kabsalah and Bubbly, but the Imps play an important role in this quest that has to do with the Lockboxes. Cuttroat Kabsalah and Bubbly are both in the Captain's Cabin behind a closed door. I haven't marked where they are on the map because that varies.
There are three potential lockboxes. The first two are for completing the quest. A third lockbox that has the ??? gloves that Barbarossa's Moufles might come from is possible. To get the third box you need to do a surprise attack on Kabsalah and *not lose claim on him* until he is defeated. A surprise attack is when you hit him when he's looking away from the door and without Bubbly noticing. So how do the Imps play a role in that? Depending upon how you pull the Imps affects Bubbly's path in the Captain's Cabin. If you do a sneak attack on the Imps (pull them from behind) Bubbly will run back and forth across the room rather than roaming around. If you can set how Bubbly moves it makes it easier to pull Kabsalah without notice.
Yes, the pulling is convoluted in this quest. Thanks SE.
While it's possible (though very unlikely) to pull one mob without the other linking, the strategy we use is to have one person kite Kabsalah while everyone else piles on Bubbly. Our Kabsalah kite is a SMN who uses a wide kite area of the upper deck, lower deck, and cargo hold to keep Kabsalah busy. He's not a very fast mover, so give plenty of room and you should be fine.
Meanwhile, Bubbly is being taken care of within the Captain's Cabin itself. We separated the group this way to make sure there weren't any hate issues. (Since Kabsalah's hate, if you haven't guessed it by now from the other two quests, is a bit... unusual.)
Bubbly has all of a regular Opo-opo's TP moves. Here's a list in case it's been a while since you've punched a monkey: Claw Storm (single target damage + poison), Magic Fruit (healing), Eye Scratch (single target damage + blind), Spinning Claw (AoE damage), Viscious Claw (heavy single target damage), Stone Throw (ranged single target + paralyze), and Blank Gaze (single target dispel). Wiki estimates Bubbly's level to be 80. It's accuracy is incredibly high. I have difficulty blink tanking him with 292 Evasion skill and a robust Evasion build. What makes things worse is that Bubbly doesn't debuff well or at all really. Our RDM has over 300 Enfeebling skill and his debuffs won't stick, even with Elemental Seal. The best solution is to have your melees (including the tank) with the best Evasion builds they can manage and share hate to bounce him around. Bubbly hits are roughly truck-like, so straight tanking him might not be an attractive option without Utsusemi's help.
If your kiter is doing fine I would recommend having your mages rest to full before starting the next fight. If you fought Bubbly in the Captain's Cabin you'll be safe there to rest and regroup.
Kabsalah is a shade, COR job, estimated level 80. He has near 100% double attack and ranged attacks. His accuracy is high, but not as high as Bubbly's, (He's easier to blink tank, but he has that double attack and ranged attack, so it evens out..). He'll do Wild Card when his HP is low. Plus he does the usual Fomor TP moves like Dancing Chains, Firefox, Netherspikes, Carnal Nightmare, Barbed Crescent, and Aegis Schism. In other words, all of the physical damage attacks can be absorbed by Utsusemi if your shadows aren't stripped by ranged attacks and double attack. Like with Bubbly, bouncing him between multiple people/Avatars/pets is a good idea so no one gets hammered. His regular attacks hit harder than Bubbly's and criticals *really* hurt. If someone who has hate is hit with Aegis Schism, Erase them because it's a hefty enough Defense Down that makes matters much worse.
If you're using the bounce around strategy with Kabsalah be careful with curing hate. Kabsalah seems quite willing to move away from his current target to go whack a mage that's cast their first Cure III in 6 months. (That might be a little exaggerated, but not by much...) RDMs will want to do their Convert a very far distance away from Kabsalah so that he doesn't come after them for Curing themselves. Don't trust Stoneskin to save you or think that your hate is low enough that he wouldn't possibly come after you. As I mentioned, his hate is a bit wonky and if you're on his list he might decide to say hi without much provocation.
Once both Bubbly and Kabsalah are defeated you'll receive the mission completed message and the Lockboxes will pop on the lower deck. If you got Barbarossa's Zerehs they'll be in one of the lockboxes. The drop rate isn't great for the Barbarossa's Zerehs, though our group has gotten lucky and gotten two in a row before. I've heard 10% for the drop rate. I think that's probably about right.
Conclusion
This quest line *is not* easy. It can strain your group in terms of jobs that are needed to complete quests and patience if you have repeated failures. The drop rate on the Barbarossa items can be horrible, but the Automaton Attachment drop rate is actually pretty good. If you have a group of friends that enjoys challenging themselves this is an excellent way to do it. I'd like to see more people do these quests because so many jobs can benefit from the items that come out of them. Hopefully this guide will give some ideas on how to tackle the challenges these quests hold and get more people into stolen pirate pants!
Acknowledgements
Maps shamelessly stolen for the zillionth time from FFXI Atlas... Hey, I didn't steal any maps this time, only linked one! Better gives credit anyways since they've been a helpful resource. I've done a lot of linking to FFXIclopedia because it helps flesh out information, though we started doing these quests when there wasn't much information at all. Hopefully having multiple sources will help your group be successful.
Diagrams of the Black Coffin were feebly done by me using Photoshop. Please don't steal them unless you intend to, like, make them not suck and let me relink them (oh well, a girl can dream, can't she?) Though, more seriously, the diagrams are really out of proportion and only good for giving an idea of what I was talking about. If you wanted them for something proper I'd hope you'd have better ones made ^^;
Many thanks go to Nyiri-tachi and friends for muscling through these BCs and learning how they work. Our fearless leader Nyiri, Zubis, Yosari, Nif, Valamir, and former members Merlee and Elphaba. I've become a much better blink tank because of Bubbly, so there's benefits to this quest that have nothing to do with material gain!
Beanie / FantasyInsanity / Midgardsormr
07.29.07