Bhaflau Remnants Won
Overview
This zone has already been beaten numerous times by various groups, Japanese and English; however, it is generally with larger groups hovering around the 18 member area. The drops on the boss seem to be limited to 2, which is pretty poor for the number of people it's taking these groups to win the zone. Our goal is to try to lower these numbers to something a bit more managable.
On our previous attempts at this Salvage, the main issue was the boss and it's Homing Missiles attack, which is an AoE throat stab effect (90%+ HP and hate reset). This move was just devastating to our control over the fight and for the first 2 attempts, we have too much trouble dealing with it to win. In this post, I will try to go over the overall plan for reaching the boss with this setup to maximize the time to fight on the final boss, then go over our new strategy to dealing with Homing Missiles.
Before I get started, I want to thank Noneko and Auronku for coming along for this run. Would have been a total loss if either of you didn't come.
I hope someone finds this useful and Enjoy!
Party Setups
The basis for the party setup we chose was to get the 'ideal' setup on the Long-Bow Chariot, then throw in some melees to make the first couple floors go by faster. We ended up taking only 1 MNK because only 1 had it leveled for the group that went, but WAR and THF also have decent hand-to-hand skill so it wasn't too bad. The biggest concern was being able to kill that very first mob - we took a different approach than most when it came to the first floor which I'll get into later.
SenrezNIN/DRKKaekoBLM/RDMDemetriusNIN/DRKNermalBLM/WHMYamainuRDM/NINRyuziBLM/WHMScreamerCOR/WHMAuronkuWAR/NINPayuBRD/WHMNonekoTHF/WARAshiraBRD/WHMAruberuMNK/WAR
This setup provides a reasonable balance between melee and mage Damage Dealers as well as a large amount of support jobs in the tanking party. It does lack a WHM or any other kind of dedicated healer, which later on, we realized hurt us a lot. I think the "perfect" 12 man setup for this would be this setup except the COR exchanged for WHM and the 3 melees all MNKs. I think that there is some definate leeway with what works and what doesn't though. The melee setup we had this run was more than ample for speeding up the first 2 floors.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
First Floor - Skip the Bombs!
We took the West Gate.
The first key to Salvage is to make sure the plan is consistant - that is you aren't relying on certain drops that are not 100% to progress further. Bomb drops are pretty random - if you get a bunch of Subjob items, or worse, nothing - you can easily blow all your meds and come out empty. This happened to us and we got totally screwed over before we even got off the ground. To prevent bad luck from screwing over the run early on, we chose to avoid bombs and fight the Wamoura first - these drop at least 1 magic and 1 ability cell 100% of the time. By killing these off first, you take luck out of the equation and make sure you get some good drops early on. This also lets you plan ahead because you know exactly what you're going to get after each mob.
Wamoura are much tougher than bombs. We've actually had Aruberu (our MNK) solo one of these before to start, but it took something like 50 hi potions to do (not exaggerating on the number). We basically just sent all our melee at these early and spammed hi potions. We took roughly 60 for this run and maybe needed about 40 of them. They are really cheap nowadays because of Assaults so there is no excuse not to bring them.
The melee are pretty useless in our boss strategy; however, they play a vital roll in this Salvage nonetheless for speeding through the first floors. The first Magic and Ability cells we gave to the RDM and MNK - the second Wamoura we killed quickly using Hundred Fists with RDM curing. After the 3 Wamoura were killed, we went back and quickly just gang raped anything we saw, letting NINs lot anything they needed like Equipment first.
First Kill - 1 hour 33 minutes to go
Portal Up - 1 hour 10 minutes to go
Second Floor - Which Route Should You Take?
First circle around and kill the 4 Emphatic Flans. These all have 100% drop of Magic and Ability, similar to the Wamoura on Floor 1. Regarding which route you should take...
West Route - Subjobs and Maximum MP
East Route - Weapons and Maximum HP
Based on which drops the group needs more after the first floor, you should quickly choose which route is best. In our case this run, we were really short both so it was a tough call. We ended up choosing East, but this ended up gimping some of the BLMs and support jobs of their Subjob and their curing ability. Generally this is a tough call to make on most runs, so you should plan for both scenerios.
We really quickly rushed through this. The key is do not talk about who gets what and stand still. If you need to decide who gets something, pull something while you decide. The 100 minute timer is always ticking and it's not as much time as it looks. We spent almost no time at all on the stat cells - these are pretty insignificant to us really. I think the BRDs got their CHR and BLMs their INT and that was it.
4 Flan Killed - 1 hour 3 minutes to go
Portal Up - 56 minutes to go
Third/Fourth Floor - Nothing Important Here
We just skipped both of these floors, making it to the portal as fast as possible. On floor three, you can cheese a couple extra kills while 1 person makes it to the portal. The Flans drop a lot of MP MAX cells I think (something to consider if you're having a hard time choosing routes on Floor 2). We didn't worry about any bosses or those Archaic Gears - at this point no one really knows what they do as far as the boss is concerned so it really isn't worth spending time on.
On the fourth floor, everyone began to buff for the boss while we had 1 person sneak their way past the gears. On this run, we got through without aggroing any of them. I have no clue if this really made a difference though.
3rd Portal Up - 52 minutes to go
4th Portal Up - 44 minutes to go
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Long-Bowed Chariot Basics
SenrezNIN/DRKKaekoBLM/RDMAruberuMNK/----DemetriusNIN/DRKNermalBLM/----NonekoTHF/----YamainuRDM/----RyuziBLM/WHMScreamerCOR/----AuronkuWAR/----PayuBRD/WHMAshiraBRD/WHM
While waiting on the fourth floor, we organized parties in this fashion. Certain members who were unable to get back their Subjobs are shown too. Two slots are left open in the second part in order for both a BRD and the COR to switch over for buffs in necessary. Unfortunately, the melees are pretty useless in this fight other than for the opening skillchain using stored TP from previous floors.
The Chariot boss has 3 basic TP moves in addition to a special move unique to it (which is Homing Missiles in this case). I believe each of the Chariot bosses in each of the 4 zones are similar to this setup. It seems to like using Homing Missiles more than its normal TP moves from our experience - which totally sucks.
Estimated HP Total: 30,000HP
Diffusion Ray - Small Conal Damage 200-300
Inertia Stream - AoE Damage 300-400 and Bind
Discharge - AoE Damage 300-400 and Paralyze
Homing Missiles - targeted AoE 90%+ HP and full hate reset
We started the boss fight with roughly 39 minutes remaining. The vast majority of the damage source came from the 3 BLMs. The boss itself is pretty easy to tank normally and can be solo tanked by a NIN with enough buffs. We had our NIN/DRKs even use Blinding Potions and Bat Earrings to further enhance their evasion. Combined with buffs from 2 BRDs and a COR, solo tanking was a pretty easy task.
Tank Positioning - How to Overcome Homing Missile Spam
Basically anyone hit with Missiles is going to receive a full hate reset. In order to minimize damage, we made sure only 1 tank could be hit at all times by this move. We were able to accomplish this by using the positioning outlined in the screenshots I've posted. Basically 1 NIN to the left and 1 to the right and they play tug of war with hate spells. Mages and support in the back. It was actually pretty funny because at first, the boss kept bouncing back and forth and wouldn't hit anyone because it was too confused as to who had the most hate.
Homing Missiles is an AoE that stems from the initial target. Hence both NINs are able to kill Long-Bowed Chariot in casting range while avoiding Missiles as long as the Chariot is closer to them than the other tank. I believe we survived about 15 Missiles in 30 minutes and none of them hit both tanks simultaniously. This helped the hate situation a ton as we were able to keep the Chariot away from the mages the vast majority of the time.
It is possible to stun Homing Missiles. However, even if you catch the Weapon Skill in time, stun tends to resist quite often (around 75% of the time even on a BLM). This really isn't reliable and you cannot go in thinking you're going to just stun all the Missiles.
Damage Dealing - Black Mage Spam
Well I think anyone who has read all the posts in this blog knows we're extremely cheesy when it comes to damage dealing... It's always BLM. All I can say is if something in this game is broken, might as well use it. Homing Missiles is a TP based move - the more TP you feed Long-Bowed Chariot, the more times you have to deal with it. That being said, the ideal damage sources come from those that have a high damage per hit ratio, hence BLM really comes out on top here. Because we had so long to fight Chariot (39 minutes left when we started), we could take our time and control the pace of the fight by when we chose to nuke and stop. Each of the 3 BLMs averaged over 9000 damage total throughout the fight.
We did have our melee store TP on the last fight before the boss (floor 3 I think). We opened with a darkness skillchain and Blizzard MB. I think I was able to get a 1300 damage Freeze II Magic Burst in there somewhere so it's very nice damage. We generally stuck to Blizzard spells - didn't see many resists with Thrednoy on.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
We definately did not have enough cures in this setup. Homing Missiles wasn't nearly as bad because of our new positioning tactic; however, it still does about 1300 to a tank every time it goes off and the MP requirement for curing is very high. I think switching out the COR for a WHM would be the biggest change. Cure 5 is just extremely desirable with so many Missiles going off.
As far as melees, under this strategy, they really just have to understand their primary purpose is to speed up the first floors and be very understanding that they aren't going to pick up that many cells over the course of the Salvage run. It really is a team effort throughout. Definately take melees with natural hand-to-hand skill though.
I think that there has to be a way to weaken the boss (maybe get rid of Homing Missiles?). I just cannot see a pickup group pulling this zone off and killing the boss in it's unweakened state. The fact that so many experienced HNM LS groups still fail hard on this zone weeks after it started shows just hard difficult it is. I think the challenge and strategy required for Salvage is incredibly fun, however. The items from Salvage are all top-notch, and they shouldn't be easy to obtain.
After winning, the zone is still considered not won - you actually have to use the portal to the west and exit to be considered a "victory." We were still getting timer warnings after the boss had died. We received no new title or any type of new cutscene as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure what the point of it is.
Useful Links about Bhaflau
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14622
http://wunjo-on-ramuh.livejournal.com/37363.html?view=3315
http://f31.aaa.livedoor.jp/~airforce/sal_conquest_baf.html
Pic of the Day
http://tk-demetrius.livejournal.com/
Shameless Promo for Deme. And Chilicheese seems to be an idiot magnet when he exps.
Drama Thread of the Day
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11026
Synopsis: Pickup group claims and kills fafnir and Ridill drops. Someone then quartermasters it haha.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
This zone has already been beaten numerous times by various groups, Japanese and English; however, it is generally with larger groups hovering around the 18 member area. The drops on the boss seem to be limited to 2, which is pretty poor for the number of people it's taking these groups to win the zone. Our goal is to try to lower these numbers to something a bit more managable.
On our previous attempts at this Salvage, the main issue was the boss and it's Homing Missiles attack, which is an AoE throat stab effect (90%+ HP and hate reset). This move was just devastating to our control over the fight and for the first 2 attempts, we have too much trouble dealing with it to win. In this post, I will try to go over the overall plan for reaching the boss with this setup to maximize the time to fight on the final boss, then go over our new strategy to dealing with Homing Missiles.
Before I get started, I want to thank Noneko and Auronku for coming along for this run. Would have been a total loss if either of you didn't come.
I hope someone finds this useful and Enjoy!
Party Setups
The basis for the party setup we chose was to get the 'ideal' setup on the Long-Bow Chariot, then throw in some melees to make the first couple floors go by faster. We ended up taking only 1 MNK because only 1 had it leveled for the group that went, but WAR and THF also have decent hand-to-hand skill so it wasn't too bad. The biggest concern was being able to kill that very first mob - we took a different approach than most when it came to the first floor which I'll get into later.
SenrezNIN/DRKKaekoBLM/RDMDemetriusNIN/DRKNermalBLM/WHMYamainuRDM/NINRyuziBLM/WHMScreamerCOR/WHMAuronkuWAR/NINPayuBRD/WHMNonekoTHF/WARAshiraBRD/WHMAruberuMNK/WAR
This setup provides a reasonable balance between melee and mage Damage Dealers as well as a large amount of support jobs in the tanking party. It does lack a WHM or any other kind of dedicated healer, which later on, we realized hurt us a lot. I think the "perfect" 12 man setup for this would be this setup except the COR exchanged for WHM and the 3 melees all MNKs. I think that there is some definate leeway with what works and what doesn't though. The melee setup we had this run was more than ample for speeding up the first 2 floors.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
First Floor - Skip the Bombs!
We took the West Gate.
The first key to Salvage is to make sure the plan is consistant - that is you aren't relying on certain drops that are not 100% to progress further. Bomb drops are pretty random - if you get a bunch of Subjob items, or worse, nothing - you can easily blow all your meds and come out empty. This happened to us and we got totally screwed over before we even got off the ground. To prevent bad luck from screwing over the run early on, we chose to avoid bombs and fight the Wamoura first - these drop at least 1 magic and 1 ability cell 100% of the time. By killing these off first, you take luck out of the equation and make sure you get some good drops early on. This also lets you plan ahead because you know exactly what you're going to get after each mob.
Wamoura are much tougher than bombs. We've actually had Aruberu (our MNK) solo one of these before to start, but it took something like 50 hi potions to do (not exaggerating on the number). We basically just sent all our melee at these early and spammed hi potions. We took roughly 60 for this run and maybe needed about 40 of them. They are really cheap nowadays because of Assaults so there is no excuse not to bring them.
The melee are pretty useless in our boss strategy; however, they play a vital roll in this Salvage nonetheless for speeding through the first floors. The first Magic and Ability cells we gave to the RDM and MNK - the second Wamoura we killed quickly using Hundred Fists with RDM curing. After the 3 Wamoura were killed, we went back and quickly just gang raped anything we saw, letting NINs lot anything they needed like Equipment first.
First Kill - 1 hour 33 minutes to go
Portal Up - 1 hour 10 minutes to go
Second Floor - Which Route Should You Take?
First circle around and kill the 4 Emphatic Flans. These all have 100% drop of Magic and Ability, similar to the Wamoura on Floor 1. Regarding which route you should take...
West Route - Subjobs and Maximum MP
East Route - Weapons and Maximum HP
Based on which drops the group needs more after the first floor, you should quickly choose which route is best. In our case this run, we were really short both so it was a tough call. We ended up choosing East, but this ended up gimping some of the BLMs and support jobs of their Subjob and their curing ability. Generally this is a tough call to make on most runs, so you should plan for both scenerios.
We really quickly rushed through this. The key is do not talk about who gets what and stand still. If you need to decide who gets something, pull something while you decide. The 100 minute timer is always ticking and it's not as much time as it looks. We spent almost no time at all on the stat cells - these are pretty insignificant to us really. I think the BRDs got their CHR and BLMs their INT and that was it.
4 Flan Killed - 1 hour 3 minutes to go
Portal Up - 56 minutes to go
Third/Fourth Floor - Nothing Important Here
We just skipped both of these floors, making it to the portal as fast as possible. On floor three, you can cheese a couple extra kills while 1 person makes it to the portal. The Flans drop a lot of MP MAX cells I think (something to consider if you're having a hard time choosing routes on Floor 2). We didn't worry about any bosses or those Archaic Gears - at this point no one really knows what they do as far as the boss is concerned so it really isn't worth spending time on.
On the fourth floor, everyone began to buff for the boss while we had 1 person sneak their way past the gears. On this run, we got through without aggroing any of them. I have no clue if this really made a difference though.
3rd Portal Up - 52 minutes to go
4th Portal Up - 44 minutes to go
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Long-Bowed Chariot Basics
SenrezNIN/DRKKaekoBLM/RDMAruberuMNK/----DemetriusNIN/DRKNermalBLM/----NonekoTHF/----YamainuRDM/----RyuziBLM/WHMScreamerCOR/----AuronkuWAR/----PayuBRD/WHMAshiraBRD/WHM
While waiting on the fourth floor, we organized parties in this fashion. Certain members who were unable to get back their Subjobs are shown too. Two slots are left open in the second part in order for both a BRD and the COR to switch over for buffs in necessary. Unfortunately, the melees are pretty useless in this fight other than for the opening skillchain using stored TP from previous floors.
The Chariot boss has 3 basic TP moves in addition to a special move unique to it (which is Homing Missiles in this case). I believe each of the Chariot bosses in each of the 4 zones are similar to this setup. It seems to like using Homing Missiles more than its normal TP moves from our experience - which totally sucks.
Estimated HP Total: 30,000HP
Diffusion Ray - Small Conal Damage 200-300
Inertia Stream - AoE Damage 300-400 and Bind
Discharge - AoE Damage 300-400 and Paralyze
Homing Missiles - targeted AoE 90%+ HP and full hate reset
We started the boss fight with roughly 39 minutes remaining. The vast majority of the damage source came from the 3 BLMs. The boss itself is pretty easy to tank normally and can be solo tanked by a NIN with enough buffs. We had our NIN/DRKs even use Blinding Potions and Bat Earrings to further enhance their evasion. Combined with buffs from 2 BRDs and a COR, solo tanking was a pretty easy task.
Tank Positioning - How to Overcome Homing Missile Spam
Basically anyone hit with Missiles is going to receive a full hate reset. In order to minimize damage, we made sure only 1 tank could be hit at all times by this move. We were able to accomplish this by using the positioning outlined in the screenshots I've posted. Basically 1 NIN to the left and 1 to the right and they play tug of war with hate spells. Mages and support in the back. It was actually pretty funny because at first, the boss kept bouncing back and forth and wouldn't hit anyone because it was too confused as to who had the most hate.
Homing Missiles is an AoE that stems from the initial target. Hence both NINs are able to kill Long-Bowed Chariot in casting range while avoiding Missiles as long as the Chariot is closer to them than the other tank. I believe we survived about 15 Missiles in 30 minutes and none of them hit both tanks simultaniously. This helped the hate situation a ton as we were able to keep the Chariot away from the mages the vast majority of the time.
It is possible to stun Homing Missiles. However, even if you catch the Weapon Skill in time, stun tends to resist quite often (around 75% of the time even on a BLM). This really isn't reliable and you cannot go in thinking you're going to just stun all the Missiles.
Damage Dealing - Black Mage Spam
Well I think anyone who has read all the posts in this blog knows we're extremely cheesy when it comes to damage dealing... It's always BLM. All I can say is if something in this game is broken, might as well use it. Homing Missiles is a TP based move - the more TP you feed Long-Bowed Chariot, the more times you have to deal with it. That being said, the ideal damage sources come from those that have a high damage per hit ratio, hence BLM really comes out on top here. Because we had so long to fight Chariot (39 minutes left when we started), we could take our time and control the pace of the fight by when we chose to nuke and stop. Each of the 3 BLMs averaged over 9000 damage total throughout the fight.
We did have our melee store TP on the last fight before the boss (floor 3 I think). We opened with a darkness skillchain and Blizzard MB. I think I was able to get a 1300 damage Freeze II Magic Burst in there somewhere so it's very nice damage. We generally stuck to Blizzard spells - didn't see many resists with Thrednoy on.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Conclusions and Final Thoughts
We definately did not have enough cures in this setup. Homing Missiles wasn't nearly as bad because of our new positioning tactic; however, it still does about 1300 to a tank every time it goes off and the MP requirement for curing is very high. I think switching out the COR for a WHM would be the biggest change. Cure 5 is just extremely desirable with so many Missiles going off.
As far as melees, under this strategy, they really just have to understand their primary purpose is to speed up the first floors and be very understanding that they aren't going to pick up that many cells over the course of the Salvage run. It really is a team effort throughout. Definately take melees with natural hand-to-hand skill though.
I think that there has to be a way to weaken the boss (maybe get rid of Homing Missiles?). I just cannot see a pickup group pulling this zone off and killing the boss in it's unweakened state. The fact that so many experienced HNM LS groups still fail hard on this zone weeks after it started shows just hard difficult it is. I think the challenge and strategy required for Salvage is incredibly fun, however. The items from Salvage are all top-notch, and they shouldn't be easy to obtain.
After winning, the zone is still considered not won - you actually have to use the portal to the west and exit to be considered a "victory." We were still getting timer warnings after the boss had died. We received no new title or any type of new cutscene as far as I can tell, so I'm not sure what the point of it is.
Useful Links about Bhaflau
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14622
http://wunjo-on-ramuh.livejournal.com/37363.html?view=3315
http://f31.aaa.livedoor.jp/~airforce/sal_conquest_baf.html
Pic of the Day
http://tk-demetrius.livejournal.com/
Shameless Promo for Deme. And Chilicheese seems to be an idiot magnet when he exps.
Drama Thread of the Day
http://www.bluegartrls.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11026
Synopsis: Pickup group claims and kills fafnir and Ridill drops. Someone then quartermasters it haha.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________________