Waking the Beast/Strategies

Category:GuidesCategory:Strategies
Solo as RUN/SAM easily. Not really much else to say.
Waking The Beast. Activating the Quest:
Notice: This is an ASTRALBURN Method. Thank you :)
Go To La'Thiene Plateau and head to the Stone Pillars where you first met Carbuncle. Click on it for a cutscene where you will obtain a Rainbow Resonator. (You may need to click more then once.) After this, you will need to defeat all 6 Avatars in a stronger form.
Before We Begin: All Avatars are strongly resistant to any forms of magical attacks, even using fully merited 75 bloodpacts on them will result in laughable damage (200 or less), so stick with physical bloodpacts. They will Astral Flow at what seems to be time-based (maybe 10 minutes). From our experiences, they didn't Astral Flow until 25% HP or less, this became apparent when fighting Leviathan. All Avatars will Astral Flow and all are assisted by four Elementals who occasionally cure them in between nuking you. The most commonly used strategy is Fenrir, but as I will explain below Leviathan works better with large groups. We fought Titan, Garuda, Ifrit, Leviathan, Ramuh, Shiva in that order. You can do whatever you want, I'd suggest Garuda and Leviathan last, as they are the toughest. 
EDIT:With the Addition of Karura Hachigane, Garuda is also a VERY good avatar to use in these Fights, As she will Surpass the others in Damage and MP Conservation now. So in cases where i say "Use Fenrir" You can use GARUDA or Fenrir as long as your SMN's have Karura Hachigane
Our party set up was 17 SMN and 1 RDM (The Red Mage just wanted to join us and we were a person short, Refresh is not needed, but helpful. A more popular strategy is 15 SMN, and 3 Refreshers).
Ifrit and Titan are straightforward. Use Leviathan and they will be the easiest fights. For that reason, I will not be making Strategies for them. Just use Leviathan and Spinning Dive, basically. They don't cure themselves (while the elementals WILL cure them) and they don't use devastating AoEs. Easy as pie!
Basic Information: 
*Dont waste your time with the Elementals, The Avatars spam TP moves quite often causing them to repop only seconds after you kill them.
*There are four tiers of uses I use below. They are: Rare, Uncommon, Common, and Very Common
*All Avatars have high Magical Resistance, use physical bloodpacts only.
*All damage from bloodpacts is counted to what it does to Avatars, not players.
The Avatar Fights
Ramuh, God of Lightning: Ramuh Is difficult as he Paralyzes you with an incredibly long ranged Thunderspark. The paralyze isnt incredibly Potent but can be troubling, so erase it immediatly. I'd Suggest Fenrir Strongly on this one as Titan can be unreliable and leviathan would be Owned by the ThundagaIIIs, ThunderIVs, and ThunderStorms Ramuh and his pets like to do, along with Thunderspark Crippling leviathan. He Doesnt use any Healing Bloodpacts so this shouldnt be a long fight. You should ONLY BE in range of him if your using a Bloodpact or Assaulting. Stay away at all costs as their Astral Flow can one shot you easily even with full buffs. to Recap. Assault With Fenrir, use Eclipse Bite, Run out of Range, and erase Paralyze if you have it. and Rinse/Repeat. The Hardest part to him is indeed his Thunderspark.. Which he uses rarely (like to open with it most of the time)
Ramuh Will use the Following Bloodpacts: 
*Thunderspark Very Large AoE Damage/Paralyze. 200~300 DMG(Rarely)
*Thunderstorm Single hit High Magical Damage. 1200+(Very Common)
*Chaotic Strike 3-hit Physical Attack. Powerful 900~+. Stuns (Common)'''
*Lightning Armor Gives Ramuh and his Elementals "Shock Spikes" (Rare)
Garuda, God of Gales: Garuda is much more difficult then the others as she tends to use Whispering Wind which can recover her HP more then 1,500. For her I suggest Fenrir as her battle will last longer due to her tendencies to cure herself and the elementals helping cure her occasionally. She likes to use Wind Blade the most, and is extremely powerful unresisted (will more then likely one shot fenrir for 1.3k+). The Strategy for this is to Run up with Fenrir, Assault and use Eclipse Bite. Repeat this a few times and try to conserve MP as best as possible. She will take longer then the others but will go down eventually. She uses Whispering Wind less often then her other bloodpacts so it shouldnt pose to much a problem, but enough of one to where leviathan may be to MP Costly without the right gear. Just make sure to Avoid Astral flow. 
Garuda will use the Following Bloodpacts:
*Wind Blade Powerful single hit Magic. 1200+(Very Common)
*Predator Claws Powerful 3-hit Physical. 1000+(Common)
*Whispering Wind Cures for 1,500+ (Elementals Included)(Uncommon)
*Aerial Armor Grants 3-4 Shadows. (Rare)
Shiva, God of Frost: Shiva is a pain becuase she uses Sleepga. What a good Strategy for this is have 3 or 4 people stay back on the innitial aggro. They will be in charge of curing people incase they happen to get slept, seeing as how shiva likes to open the fight with Sleepga(Afterwards however, it becomes very rare.). Shiva wont be much of a hastle otherwise. She uses Frost Armor though which can paralyze leviathan, so be careful when using a bloodpact. I would strongly suggest using leviathan for this fight since there is no elemental unbalance between him and shiva, and Spinning Dive is more Consistent. Shiva Cannot cure herself with bloodpacts so she will be pretty simple, just beware of Sleepga. To Sum it up, Run in and assault leviathan, use Spinning Dive, and run out of range from Sleepga. She shouldnt be to much of a problem in the end. Remember, keep out of range of Astral flow!
:Also, Was tipped off, you can also equip "Sacrifice Torque" before running into range, this will wake you up if you get slept, Your Avatars will still be asleep, but this will give you time to get back! (Thanks to Sphynxer!)
Shiva will use the Following Bloodpacts:
*Frost Armor: AoE Ice Spikes (Rarely)
*Heavenly Strike: Magical Damage, Single Target (Very Common, 1.3k+)
*Rush: Five-Hit Physical. (Common, 800~)
*Sleepga: AoE Potent Sleep. (Rarely) *Easily Countered by equiping Sacrifice Torque ^_^*'''
Leviathan, God of Tides: Leviathan is by far the hardest of them all, Not only does Spinning Dive do more then most of the other Avatars, Our favorite Avatar Leviathan is useless against him. Fenrir is the Avatar of Choice because this fight can drag on For over 15 minutes, maybe more. Leviathan loves to use Spring Water which WILL Cure him for 2067~ Roughly, this is almost 10% of his HP, and he can and will use it back-to-back-to-back. This fight involves luck with both Bloodpacts landing and him not using Spring Water alot. I'd strongly suggest going in hard and fast, Ramuh can be used in this fight as Chaotic Strike can do upward 1.2k full power. I suggest Fenrir due to MP constraints, but having 3~5 of your best geared Summoners using Ramuh isnt a bad idea. IF you do use Ramuh have some people begin with THUNDERSPARK, this will do upward 250 To Leviathan and Paralyze all his elementals (This helps ALOT when they try to cure him). What This fight consists off is luck, I strongly suggest going on thundersday, or at the very least doing him first and all out astral flowing at 30% to kill him and all his Elementals. Astral Flow seems to still land on them for over 900 Damage, which isnt bad as enough of them will kill every elemental for a short time. If you can kill Leviathan, you can kill them all. He is the strongest of them all, and a test of your sanity. Keep At him and eventually you'll win. Do a dry run first to get a feel of it. If your about to win go all out. But i suggest attempting it without 2hours just once to see how it goes.
Leviathan will use the Following Bloodpacts:
*Spring Water: Cures 2000+ (Common)
*Spinning Dive: Physical, 800~ (common)
*Grand Fall: Magical, 1.3k+ (Uncommon)
*Slowga: Slows, Can be overwriten with haste (Rare)'''
Carbuncle Prime: This fight wasn't incredibly hard. we won on our second attempt (First attempt was a dry run to get a feel of things) Use Fenrir The Entire Fight. Right Off you need to Assign Numbers to Each party, Simply put, a party 1 2 and 3. And make sure each knows his part before continuing. Do Not Bloodpact Carbuncle Prime, not because he reacts to it, but simply because you need to Conserve MP And give everyone a moment to HEAL All Avatars summoned are weaker forms of their already weak forms. (the Tunning Fork ones). They dont have alot of HP and a few Physical Bloodpacts should take em out, they shouldnt last more than 2 minutes. Conserve MP and heal in-between :D!
*Party 1 Will fight Carbuncle Prime to 75% Careful to not use Bloodpacts for MP purposes. Be sure to Give constant HP Updates so the next group knows when to be ready, i suggest just typing in party a rough estimate (I.E. Carbunce prime @ 80% HP! <call14>)
*Party 2 Will Fight the first summoned Avatar. You will use Fenrir the entire fight, regardless of who is summoned due to MP Constraints. Bloodpact these Avatars at will. Keep updates on HP as Carbuncle and stay away from Astral flow. 
*Party 3 Comes and fights Carbuncle down to 50%. Don't use Bloodpacts and take it slow to gives others a time to heal. Keep HP updates.
*Party 1 & 2 Will fight the two popped avatars. Make sure to let them know what they're attacking! (I.E Party 1 Attack left, Party 2 Attack Right!). Fight both with HP updates until the first dies. Afterwards keep constant Updates so Party 3 Can get ready. (Note: Once the Avatar dies do not help the other party, Immediately go to Resting unless the party is struggling or Dying!)
*Party 3 Will Come and fight Carbuncle to 25%. And which point he will de-pop and three avatars will pop in his place. The only problem here would be if Garuda and leviathan Both poped, as they use their Healing move on occasion.
*All Parties will Attack an Avatar Each! (I.E Party 1 Left, Party 2 Right, Party 3 Middle.) Assault, Bloodpact, and Run out of range until timer is up. you want to be away from them at all times (Visible Sight range but not AoE range!) keep an eye on their HP and bloodpact cautionly, they will all astral flow at once, So its suggested to fight them apart as to not kill all the avatars OR you at once.) This is the hardest part of the fight. Keep up your Buffs, Bar-spells, And shell. you shouldn't have a problem.
*All PArties will fight the Five re-popped Carbuncles! Use Astral flow to Conserve MP, but don't use the Astral Flow Bloodpact! (Astral flow BP did laughable Damage, Fenrirs did only 80 Damage) Instead use Physical Bloodpacts, at least 1 Fenrir needs to be on a carbuncle to prevent it from killing anyone, Use Bloodpact and run out of range, They all Astral Flow at once after about one minute. its possible to kill them by then as he has low HP count. Keep up your Buffs, Light Carol if you have a BRD as one of your Refreshers, and Stoneskin. You Should do fine, if a few die from Astral flow KEEP GOING, Reraise and Summon carbuncle(Free Avatar) and continue fighting while weakened! Go all out. You WILL win. Remember Use Physical Bloodpacts!
*Finally, Watch the Cutscene, (Notice: Drops will not be in BCNM Form. Upon completion a player may or may not get a message saying "You Obtain Blah Blah item!" And it will be pooled. So stick around until everyone is out of the cutscene to count your LOOT! Our Run we got 2 Items, Ramuhs Mace And Leviathans Cousse.
Carbuncle Prime will use the following Bloodpacts:
*Poison Nails : Physical hit that poisons Target. 200~300 Damage (Common)
*Shining Ruby : AoE Pro/Shell buff. (Very Common)
*Meteorite : Strong Light Based Magical BP. 500~800 Damage (Uncommon)
*Glittering Ruby : Strong Random Stat Enhancement.
Once this is all said and Done, You can go straight back to Carbuncle and he'll give you your Carbuncle's Pole. Have fun with it, Its an amazing weapon. And dont forget to Congratulate everyone who got an Item from the BCNM :P
Hope this Helps guys! good luck With it! ^^ Enjoy Your Poles.
Some info about the Pole: 
*Proc Rate seems to be 65%~ It has its streaks where some fights it'll proc every hit, and some where it seems 40%-ish.
*Added Effects does 60~85 Damage. (On open mouth Hpemde's can do over 140 Damage ^^)
*HP Recovered when using the Item is roughly 160~+(Only used once)
*TP Bonus is that of the Martial Staff (100% Extra. Cap at 300%)
Possible Drops
*Ramuh's Mace
*Shiva's Shotel
*Ifrit's Bow
*Titan's Baselard
*Leviathan's Couse
*Garuda's Sickle
*Carbuncle's Cuffs
~Karbuncle of Asura.
P.S If you guys have any new info please send me a PM and i'll post it on the guide. :) lemme know if this helps you :D
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Since the level cap increase it is now possible to solo the first six avatar fights with a well geared SMN, as well as an easy duo for two. Avatars do NOT two-hour based on time but based on HP. Elementals do not respawn if killed but are created when an avatar uses it's meritable blood pact ability. A suggested strategy is to kill the elementals when the spawn and then kill the avatar. --Tarage (talk) 10:48, July 23, 2012 (UTC)