Calm Before the Storm/Strategies

category:Guides
Solo - 99MNK/DNC
Bibiki Bay - was no issue. Once the 40% health attack speed buff was reached, toss on Dodge. The NM goes down easy from there.
Misareaux Coast - This was a straight forward DD. Did very little damage
Carpenters Landing - no issue taking all 4 spawns at once. Be careful with the THF assassin, Throat stab will take you to Red HP in 1 shot, so be ready to heal up if you any of the others are still alive.
I happened to pop Hundred Fists because i was unsure of the Executioner and the 3 at once, but it would have been no problem at all without it.
March 20, 2013
== Bibiki Bay ==
*A BST75 can solo Dalham pretty easily with two pet swaps. Multi-swaps if you are using Tragopans. A Familiared Tartarus Eft can easily defeat the NM.
*Can be duoed easily by NIN using Evasion setup and a RDM.
*A 75RDM/NIN can solo this with very good timing, and by conserving MP until it goes into Hundred Fists mode. Then, if you have around 500+ MP and are in good shape, use Chainspell followed by a barrage of Thunder III's to finish it off, reapplying Utsusemi as/if needed. Example Red Mage solo video.
*A 75PUP/NIN can solo the NM rather easily. Using a gear setup with +23 Evasion (no evasion merits), eating a Jack-o-Lantern, and using the Soulsoother puppet it was done without much trouble. The NM's accuracy is fairly low and it will miss a lot. The player should be sure to have his/her automaton land Slow, Blind, and Paralyze early on, and keep Light Maneuver up throughout the entire duration of battle to trigger Flashbulb as often as possible, it is extremely helpful, especially when the NM is at low HP, and attacking nearly non-stop.
*A 75DNC/NIN can solo the NM...with only a -little- bit of panic. For the first 50% of the fight, you are safe to use your TP on Dancing Edge and use Reverse Flourish to get more TP. After 50%, even if you get to 300%TP, save your TP for healing. The attack speed will pick up quite quickly, and unless you have a way to Flash/Blind/Slow the mob, you might get overwhelmed. Keep your TP up, and keep swapping out Steps so you're always getting two flourishes/step. Violent Flourish will stun the mob almost every time, so use it wisely to get your shadows back up. My strategy was Step (2 Flourishes), Step (4 Flourishes), Violent )3 Flourishes), Step (5 Flourishes), then Reverse. After that, start over with a different step.
*Easy fight for a 75NIN/30DNC. Keep all debuffs (Jubaku, Kurayami, Hojo) and you'll be fine. The mob rarely hit me, when it did the damage was minimal. All in all, solo'd with ease
*Difficult solo for a 69DRG/BLU, assisted by level 60 NPC. Prepped by killing Tragopans outside the cave for 1000 exp to cap Wyvern HP, and built 300% TP. Since there is no FoV in Bibiki Bay, having a healer-type NPC to cast Protect and Shell on you is very useful (being fairly low level she didn't contribute hugely to the fight after initial buffs... would definitely still be possible without the NPC's added damage). Used Rabbit Pie for the attack and defense boost: as a Taru I was able to get nearly 600 defense with this and Cocoon, which resulted in melee swings only hitting me for 30-55 most of the time. Very easy at first, but gets more interesting <50%. Save TP at this point and focus on curing (Yagudo Drink if necessary) and keeping Cocoon up until 25%. At this point I used Penta Thrust and both jumps, then swapped in an Earth Staff to keep damage to a minimum. With this setup I was able to cure fast enough to keep up with the damage I was taking while I whittled him down for the kill. Bibiki Seashell can intimidate it a few times. It seems to have very low evasion and reasonably low accuracy. A few very close moments, but a very fun fight overall.
*Solo'd as 75RDM/37NIN. Straight tanked for first 60% of life then kited with Bio 2 and Poison 2. Gravity and bind stuck 100%. Hardest of the 3 for me and I found this to be the best technique. Kited outside cave and left on the ledge.
== Carpenter's Landing ==
* Soloable by a NIN90/DNC45 with no trouble at all. Pop him, drag him to the dock without fighting, keep him debuffed, get him down to 5%, then disengage and wait until he does Mijin Gakure-- it only did 73 damage. Kill him after he 2hrs and you should get the CS. He has pretty high evasion, so you might want to bring sushi.
* Soloable by a 75 SMN/WHM. Strategy is to get out an avatar, and pop the Tonberries. Immediately head to zone, but before you zone use Retreat to bring the Tonberries to the zone. Then zone out and back in quickly. There will be no more hate and the Tonberries will head back to their pop positions. Pick one of the tonberries to attack and defeat ( I defeated only the BLM ). Head back to the pop location and as soon as the others despawn and you have defeated one of them check the ??? for the cutscene. This has only been tested by defeating the BLM, but the others would most likely work as well. The Cryptonberry Executor (NIN) does not have to be killed, as it will also despawn.
**Any job should be able to solo this fight using the method above, the last tonberry to despawn is the only one that needs to be killed to complete this.
**Using this strategy, I suggest using the THF, since it will follow you to attack, and has a damage free 2 hour. I solo'd the THF as SMN75/SCH37 with Carby. I had to stay back a few times, but I did melee with Carby and my NPC which made the job a little faster. Note, it may be difficult to pull the BLM alone using this strategy. The BLM tends to be a slow mover due to casting, and may be one of the first ones back to the spawn location, and thus despawn first. The NIN will always stay behind trying to cast before catching up. This leaves the SMN or THF who will be closest to you as you run away.
*Examining the ??? will only pop the NIN-type tonberry, the other 3 will spawn at the ??? as soon as the first NM takes any damage. If you pull the first tonberry a decent distance away before engaging it, the other NMs will be too far away to link, and you will only have to defeat the first tonberry.
**The NMs have a larger than average link range, so if using this strategy, make sure to pull a large distance from the ??? before engaging the NM.
**If using this strategy, the NMs that you are not fighting must despawn before you finish off the first tonberry. If you defeat the first tonberry before the others despawn, you will not receive the next cutscene, and will have to zone before you can repop the NMs and try again.
**The first tonberry will always use Mijin Gakure three minutes after it first takes damage, and assuming that they were not engaged, the 3 NMs will despawn at the same time, thus if the first NM uses Mijin Gakure, the 3 other NMs will have despawned, and it is safe to finish off the first NM and still get the cutscene.
*Trioed by 75 SAM/RNG 75 WHM/BLM 75 PLD/WAR
*WHM can sleepga with Elemental Seal 2nd Sleepga took a few tries but did land.
*For any DD/NIN who have trouble keeping shadows up against the NM solo, pull the Cryptonberry Executor (NIN) south to the large rock and kiting the NM in circles around it. Just continue to attack until shadows and shadow timers are down then resume kiting around the rock while you wait for recast. Don't worry about the NM becoming unclaimed after disengaging, he won't regen HP unless you die. This is also a good spot for any mages with DoT, Chi Blast or while weakened.
*Soloable by a 65 DRG/BLU using the strategy wherein only the NIN needs to be killed. May require multiple wyverns. When wyvern HP gets low, disengage and kite around the large rock near the tunnel entrance until you can Spirit Link once or twice. Expect a long fight.
*Solo'd as 75RDM/37NIN.. then 74RDM/37NIN. Mijin Gakure did 2917 damage with fresh stoneskin, phalanx, Pro4, Shell4, and barfire all up, which caused me to delevel. RR'd up and kited while weak. Used kiting technique at pop to dock at J-10 before engaging. Easy fight if you can avoid his 2 hour.
== Misareaux Coast ==
* A level 75 RDM/NIN can solo this easily, though it will take some time. Physical attacks will do next to nothing, but Enblizzard/Enfire will go unresisted. Bring out a Fellowship NPC for some support damage if you have one.
* A 75 SMN/WHM can also solo this using the Carby kiting technique.
* A level 75 BLM/RDM can solo this with some difficulty. Bind and gravity are not once resisted, but the NM's attacks will usually take down Stoneskin in 3 hits at most with Phalanx. If unresisted, Freeze II normally hits for about 25% of the NM's HP without counting weather bonus, AF2 or Sorcerer's Ring. Cast other ice spells (Blizzard IV and III, and Blizzaga III) and use Manafont when needed. Avoid going in midnight so that you can use Blizzaga III without problems from Fomors that spawn in the same area.
* A level 75 SAM/DNC can solo this with problems. I had pretty decent Evasion gear with the Optical Hat, Scorpion Harness, and Saotome Haidate(To enhance Third Eye), and a Soboro Sukehiro, he still hit me about 50% of the time, he got me down to 45hp left at one point because i was careless and let my Seigan go down leaving me with a 1 minute Third Eye Recast, which hurt, alot. I was able to recover and win. His Defense Bonus moves hurt, was about a 10-15 minute fight, I would highly reccomend bringing a Red Mage for Dispel, Haste, and to ensure you live.
* Soloable by a 69DRG/BLU with level 63 soothing healer NPC with great difficulty - the hardest fight of the three for this job & level. The greatest challenge comes from trying to keep hate off of your Wyvern, especially when using attack food can be dangerous because of Hungry Crunch (be careful with High Jump & hate!). High defense is, however, recommended, as even with Cocoon & fishkabobs normal attacks are in the 100-150 range, criticals up to 250, and Tusk can hit for 400+. I used 2 Yagudo Drinks, an Icarus Wing, and several Hi-Potions at the end when my NPC and second Wyvern were killed and it was down to the wire as to who could get a couple last hits in first. In the 5 attempts it took me to win I didn't see Blood Weapon used at all. Good luck!