Operation Desert Swarm

**Zone:** Waughroon Shrine
**Restrictions:**
        **Level:** None
        **Members:** 6
        **Time:** 30 minutes
**Orb:** Lachesis Orb (30 Kindred's Seals)

## Mobs

 File:OperationDesertSwarm.jpg

 Platoon Scorpion x 6

## Tips

* The Platoon Scorpions use only the AoE Scorpion specials:

* Wild Rage: Stuns those in the AoE
* Earth Pounder: Binds those in the AoE

* The AoE they use gets stronger as they die - by the time there is only 1 left it will hit for up to 300 damage.
* Whenever one does an AoE, the others will wake up and do the same AoE if it is even remotely close (If you are in range for a ranged weapon to hit a scorp where they are sleeping, you are too close).

* Sometimes after an Earth Pounder you see the message "The platoon scorpion's legs are lodged in the rocks!" which indicates that they are Bound.
* Sometimes after a Wild Rage you see the message "The platoon scorpion does not have enough energy to attack!" and it stops attacking for about 10 seconds.

* They cannot feasibly be slept after the 3rd or 4th Sleep, it is not worth your time to try. At this point you need to be Binding / Gravitying them.
* Lullaby is never resisted, but loses about 4 seconds of duration with each cast. So by the 9th cast it wears off immediately. Bards should use Nursemaid's Harp for maximum duration; it may also allow Horde Lullaby to hit all the scorps in their initial configuration. With Mary's Horn it misses two of them.
* If you bring a WHM this BCNM is nearly impossible to lose, just case Reraise and you can recover from a wipe and win. We did this twice until we had our strat figured out, we never lost the fight.

(Largely based on notes from Vryali Sage, found here)

## Working Set-Ups

#### Conventional

(72)NIN/WAR (72)THF/NIN (73)SAM/WAR (73)RDM/BLM (74)BLM/WHM (66)WHM/BLM

Enter BCNM, THF goes to pull Scorps, line up against the wall right after the circular entrance in the tunnel. THF shoots the middle front scorpion (doesn't really matter which, but I always shot that one :P) with utsusemi up and runs all the way to the Circle - recast utsusemi:ichi - should be able to recast it and not take any dmg, these things have crappy accuracy (against a THF, anywho). NIN Vokes the red scorp Dynamis style when THF runs past and begins fighting the one scorp -very- far down the hall (Remember, you should be -well- out of range for a ranged attack). RDM ES/Sleepga the 5 scorps remaining when the THF gets to the BC. At some point BLM cast Sleepga 2 on the sleeping scorps, and from here it's just a normal fight. You must -always- pull the scorps way out of the tiny little circle to fight them or you risk them all waking up with recasts down. Mages keep stone/blink up par normal, and things should start getting hairy with 2-3 scorps left (When they're hard/impossible to sleep), but shouldn't be anything too hard as long as you've been fighting out of AoE range earlier. The scorps by the mages never AoEd for us, so it was a matter of ping pong, stun, sleep, bind, gravity while melee killed the scorps farther out.

The reason fighting here is so nice is that if you wipe, you can reraise and still win the BCNM. With this setup if we did things properly it took 10 mins to win the BCNM. When we wiped it took us 24 mins once, and 27 mins the other - and we waited on all members to lose sickness.

This is a very easy BCNM, I actually had to more or less solo the 6th scorpion once because everyone but me was dead or out of MP, and it wasn't horrifically difficult (yay for status bolts), though I did have to 2hr when it was around 30% (from full) when it's AoE dropped me to 200ish HP.

By Vryali Sage, Original Post found here

#### Another Conventional

After doing 7 runs of this last night without a single death, I decided to write down our strategy just in case someone decides to attempt this without 5 BLM.

The Set-up
NIN/WAR 71
MNK/NIN 74
WHM/SMN 74
RDM/BLM 75
BLM/WHM 69
RNG/NIN 71

And on our first attempt we replaced the RNG/NIN with a PLD/WAR 73

The Strategy

I believe the key to doing this was having 2 NIN tanks, although the first time I did this I had only one, but I’ll talk about that later.

You can buff outside of the BCNM, do this to save some time.

When you enter the BCNM, there will be a long path leading up to a large opening. After fully buffed, have the BLM Elemental Seal Sleepga II either of the two middle scorpions.

I was the MNK/NIN and I brought a full set of Chi-Blast gear. As soon as I hit my 6th boost, the BLM would cast his spell.

MNK/NIN runs in and Chi-Blasts the front right scorpion and pulls it as far to the right as possible.

NIN/WAR provokes the front left mob and pulls it as far left as possible.
RNG/NIN goes with the NIN/WAR.

Having done this before without the luxury of two players with Utsusemi: Ni, I can tell you this makes it much much easier. Scorpions in general have horrible accuracy and can be blink tanked quite easily. While it is beatable without NIN tanks, this will drastically increase chances of success

The WHM had a pretty simple role, run around and cure anyone who took some damage. Surprisingly enough, this is usually the BLM and RDM since they will be holding agro from 4 scorpions.

The BLM will recast Stoneskin and Blink and prepare for the scorpions to wake. A good way to think about the scorpions is, every time one dies, the others all level up. So as there are less scorpions, their resistance to sleep will increase. From memory, only the first two Sleepga actually slept all the scorpions.

The RDM had to be the busiest job in this set up. He was frantically running around refreshing the mages, hasting the NIN and sleeping any mobs the BLM couldn’t take care of. I also remember him having time to cast some Slow and Paralyze on the scorpions, which from my perspective was amazing with all the stuff going on.

By the time I finished my first mob, so had the RNG and NIN. At this point, all the scorpions have been slept a couple times, and the BLM, RDM, and WHM have built considerable hate. For this reason I would save TP so that I can pull the mob with Asuran Fists. And on the occasion that Asuran Fists wasn’t enough, I’d pop counterstance.

A MNK/NIN 74+ has some awesome tools a NIN doesn’t get. Dodge is a huge bonus when trying to recast Utsusemi, and Counterstance believe it or not is amazingly helpful. When shadows are down, usually you hope to evade a hit, but you can cast Utsusemi and counter at the same time, and this happened quite often.

In the case of the PLD tank, the RNG/NIN can really be replaced by nearly any job as long as you keep the 2 NIN tanks. In this scenario the PLD is very handy. He was able to melee with the NIN, and provoke + Flash sleeping mobs so well, the BLM almost took zero damage.

Earlier however, I had done this KSNM with a tougher set up.
PLD/WAR 70
MNK/NIN 75
MNK/WAR71
WHM/BLM 70
BLM/RDM 70
RDM/BLM 74
And I can speak from experience that NIN tanks are the way to go. We won 4/5 on this set up, but when the WHM has to cure a tank, and a MNK that keeps stealing hate from the tank, MP gets extremely low. On one occasion, we only won because 2 of the members had Reraise up. So it is doable, but takes a very talented group.

Not too much more to say. The scorpions have an AoE move that gets stronger the more you kill. I remember the 2nd and 3rd to last mobs AoE would take 2 shadows and do about 150 dmg to me. And the last Scorpion’s AoE did about 300+ and took all shadows. But at this point, the BLM was casting AM, the RDM was nuking, the WHM barely had to cure, and the melee WS like it was a contest to see who could score the kill.

I hope this helps! Good luck on your drops!

By SingBismark Sage, Original post found here

#### Beastmasters

This is how it works in a BST PT.

**Solo each scorpion.**

First off, bring Carrie. Pop carrie **BEFORE** you enter the BC. Actually, buff everything up before you enter. Unlike capped BCNMs, uncapped BCNMs do not remove your buffs when you enter. And popped jug pets zone with you as you enter the BC. Check your Call Pet timers. When your timers are at the 3:00 mark, you're good to go.

Enter the BC.

The scorpions are arranged in the following manner:

 D

With A, B, C being in the back row as you enter the BC, D, E, F in the front row.

Make SURE that everyone has called out and locked on to their target scorpion.

BST assigned to D, E, F stand at the edge of the BC, and send their carries in to fight their respective scorpions. A, B, C BST run in and send their pets in as well to their targets.

Once aggro is established on your pets (watch your pet lifebar), HEEL.

A, B, C remain **inside** the BC.

D, E, F pull theirs into the tunnel leading to the BC.

Space yourselves apart. Make sure that all of you are outside of the AoE radius of your teammate's Scorpion. At this level of BST, you should be aware of the AoE radius of Scorpions, so I will not go into detail for that.

From there on, solo the scorpions. However, I highly recommend you not use an Axe, OR if you do use an axe, do not use combat gear (use your charm gear). If you hit too hard, you will pull hate from Carrie. Carrie can tank these things, but she will have a hard time holding hate. I had my Hauberk + Thick Set + Sniper's + Amnemit + Life Belt on and I was hitting really hard, kept pulling hate from Carrie. All the BST in my party had to switch to secondary non-Axe/Scythe weapons so that carrie could hold hate. That means either Sword, Dagger, or Club.

We actually call this BC our Skill Up BC (>.<)b

Expect to use a 2nd Carrie on the Scorpion. However, the higher level you are, the tougher your Carrie. One stack should last you enough for 6 battles.

Once one Scorpion is down, look for the nearest Scorpion to you and Sic your Carrie on that one, but **do not** join in to help. Sit down, rest MP, and cure your BST buddy.

Through out all that, make sure to keep in constant communication with the rest of the PT. There will be a few instances where you will not see your team members because you have your back to them, or they are in the tunnel. But make your messages on party chat short and sweet.

Summmed up:

1. Use Carrie, wait for timer to be down to 3:00 before entering. Buff before entering. Don't forget Reraise, just in case.
2. Separate the Scorpions, 3 in circle, 3 out of circle.
3. Be lv70+ anything below 70 and you'll have a gimped Carrie who can't stand up to the Scorps.
4. Don't let the Scorpions have overlapping AoE radii. (see #2)
5. Don't panic. If you need a Cure, request for it. Remember that there are 5 other people in there who can toss a Cure your way if you need it. If all else fails and you're about to die, close your eyes and remind yourself that you're BST. ^^
6. See #2

Finally, save your teammates the hassle of running around. Before you pop the chest, have everyone else run out and exit the BC. Then you pop the chest. That way, they won't be running around Palborough and they can rest up while you run around by yourself.

Best of luck and be sure to share your stories on the BST forum. ^^

Oh, and on another note, RDMs can do this strat as well, they just take a tiny bit longer, and must be a little bit higher in level.

By: Aiantes Scholar. Original post found here.