100% to 0% Rani Brew strategy

[Alderin]

So let's just assume all staggers were proc'd at 99% out of pure luck and being the brewer as NIN, you have to pop the brew and take Rani down. Now I know it is difficult to get Rani with a single brew due to his healing nature, however I have read on certain forums etc that it has been done. Which obviously takes a lot of timing and skill.

What they fail to mention is their precise strategy in doing so. What I am about to post is my assumption as to the way to go about it - however I was hoping those of you who have already brewed him could post up your precise strategy as to doing so.

So I have wiki'd this and they say to use magic damage when he casts a TP move, and physical damage when he is casting a spell.

Is the pure strategy to spam Blade: Yu during a TP and Blade: Jin/Hi during magic casting?

I am pretty much asking for specifics here - from your experience in what worked for you.

Did you use Ele Ninjitsu? (When I know, without MAB atmas do 5-6k on some NM's)
What atmas did you use for Rani specifically?
Did you heal him? And if so, how often did you do it?
Did you have any stunners? Specifically is RDM chainspell stunlock an ideal solution to stop him from casting / TP?
Did you use TP debuffs / subtle blow buffs?

I have been in 2x parties to take Rani down so far. The first was a Ninja that brewed him from about 60%. The 2nd was a terrible attempt, as a DNC used 1x brew and a BLU used 2x. Both instances killed him but the 2nd run was a complete fail attempt at getting him down.

Obviously I have my eye on Epona's, and will do the run with my LS when I have a brew and amnesia screen in hand - however I would like to go in 100% certain of the strategy I will be using so I am not having to worry about kiting him while I run back to the outpost to buy another brew.

Please share your experiences regarding Rani.

[Greatguardian]

Rani is fairly easy to take down as long as you don't rely on magic. Casting times make timing your spells properly a royal pain.

If we're talking specifically about NIN, I'd use a Martial Dagger (Kamome offhand) with Ultimate/Gales/Razed Ruins atmas. Switch between Evisceration and Aeolian Edge depending on what Rani is doing. Evisceration while she's casting, Aeolian Edge when she's using a JA, and whichever is dealing more damage when she's doing neither.

I've taken down Rani fairly easily with Apoc/GH/RR Mnk just using Victory Smite. I never used any stunners or special subtle blow gear. To be honest she died fairly quickly. The most important part of the brew is your atma selection. With all other stats being thrown to 999, you get a fairly huge boost from the stats you find primarily on atmas, like Crit Damage+ and Elemental Attack+.

Either way, as long as you're attentive about not healing her, she should absolutely not last more than 30-60 seconds with a brewed DD on her if they're using solid atmas.

[Alderin]

Rani is fairly easy to take down as long as you don't rely on magic. Casting times make timing your spells properly a royal pain.

If we're talking specifically about NIN, I'd use a Martial Dagger (Kamome offhand) with Ultimate/Gales/Razed Ruins atmas. Switch between Evisceration and Aeolian Edge depending on what Rani is doing. Evisceration while she's casting, Aeolian Edge when she's using a JA, and whichever is dealing more damage when she's doing neither.

I've taken down Rani fairly easily with Apoc/GH/RR Mnk just using Victory Smite. I never used any stunners or special subtle blow gear. To be honest she died fairly quickly. The most important part of the brew is your atma selection. With all other stats being thrown to 999, you get a fairly huge boost from the stats you find primarily on atmas, like Crit Damage+ and Elemental Attack+.

Either way, as long as you're attentive about not healing her, she should absolutely not last more than 30-60 seconds with a brewed DD on her if they're using solid atmas.

The first time I saw the big girl looked to be a pretty straight forward fight, as mentioned in my original post. Took her down to about 60% then the NIN just brewed her down. Since I had my chat filters on, I couldnt see what WS's he was using. I have however been able to pull quite a lot of damage on Blade: Yu alone while brewing Shinryu. Is the difference between Aeolian Edge and Blade: Yu (depending on atma selection) that different? I mean they are both single hit are they not? I would have figured that due to the C+ rating that NIN has for dagger, that using Katana regardless of capped stats while brewed would be comparable?

I could be totally wrong here, as I havn't used Aeolian edge while brewing - and have heard of THF's doing some huge numbers with it, but didn't even look at it with Katan because of skill ratings between Katana vs. Dagger. So I guess my question in all of this - Is Blade: Yu comparable to Aeolian Edge when NIN is weilding a dagger?

I do understand that Elemental Weapon skills are based on MAB and the damage does not rely on the DMG of the weapon - so in effect I could get out a bronze dagger and it would do the same as a twilight knife in regards to an elemental weapon skill? I apologise for the seemingly newb question - Elemental weapon skills to me have not really been used an aweful lot with the jobs I have levelled currently before Abyssea.

I have also considered making a "Brew" gear set, with various elemental boosts etc. Do you think, from your experience this would be worth it?

I guess I have the 2nd experience of seeing the failed attempt and watching 3x brewers finally take her down is in the back of my mind - and don't want the same case to occur after farming the popset and buying the brew.

Thanks for your response.

[ThaiChi]

I've brewed Rani on my NIN several times already. My LS generally goes the brew route after we find Blue !! so we don't waste 15-20 min just whittling it down anymore so we can get more rings out. And my LS has been lucky and for the times that we've fought Rani it hasn't used its charm move while we brewed *knock on wood*. Basically if you're paying attention, you can just switch between Jin (or Hi if you have it) and Yu. It's simple enough, if its using a TP move, you use Blade: Yu. If it's casting (which will give a lot more room to spam physical WS) you can use Blade: Jin. Rani tends to alternate between the two, casting and tping. I might actually have the absorb order mixed with pantokrator though, but healing it once isn't going to kill you. 3 minutes is more than enough to kill Rani and still have time left over to run around 1 shotting the dolls in the area for laughs, just don't get into the mindset that it needs to die within seconds of you popping the brew, just stay calm, watch its animations and you'll actually be surprised how overblown the difficulty on Rani with brew is. A group kiting Rani around my exp party around there ran it into our sleepga range while I was xping my SAM. It started killing our party members and I popped a brew to kill it from 100%. I frantically spammed Gekko not remembering its healing properties and my brew ran out at 2% or something, it was easily the biggest waste of 3 mins of brew time I'd ever done.

But just to go over the specifics you asked for: you don't really need stuns and you're totally fine with RR + 2 other DD/mab atmas of your choice (I have standard set for a Blade: Hi NIN -- GH/RR/Apoc). It should only really take about 1 minute to take Rani down from 100% to 0, so you'll have to gauge how often you're able to heal it for margin of error, but as I said earlier if you're paying attention you won't really ever heal it. You're fine with Katanas, don't need daggers or anything fancy, Blade: Yu does fantastic damage while under transcendence -- around 12k I think, don't quote me on that because I might be confusing with Shinryu or Pantokrator. Blade: Chi is interestingly also decent as a magic WS, did 19k to Shinryu before. No extra buffs are needed, the brew, I've been told, automatically puts you at 999 subtle blow. The only thing I might warn about is using the same WS back to back, Jin to Jin, Hi to Hi, etc. Its constantly changing recovery with the tping and casting will inadvertently cause you to heal it with a skillchain, drawing out the fight longer than you'd really want it to be.

[Nacht]

I could get out a bronze dagger and it would do the same as a twilight knife in regards to an elemental weapon skill?

Yes

I have also considered making a "Brew" gear set, with various elemental boosts etc. Do you think, from your experience this would be worth it?

Not really. If you can find a martial knife, then that would be your best weapon and you should use it. However, gear won't have a big impact on brew damage. If you already have the gear, then sure, make a macro, but you shouldn't really go out of your way to get a full set.

Basically if you're paying attention, you can just switch between Jin (or Hi if you have it) and Yu. It's simple enough, if its using a TP move, you use Blade: Yu. If it's casting (which will give a lot more room to spam physical WS) you can use Blade: Jin. Rani tends to alternate between the two, casting and tping. I might actually have the absorb order mixed with pantokrator though, but healing it once isn't going to kill you.

Don't be too cautious. One guy in my linkshell was only using WS during TP and casting. Not sure why he was being that cautious, but he ended up failing to finish Rani during the brew. Mobs have a very predictable timing for casting. There's generally the same amount of time between casts. So after she casts, you can use maybe 3? elemental WS, before she has a chance to cast again. I don't really know the exact timing for her. You also have to factor in the meteors at certain %s.

[ThaiChi]

Yeah, I had that problem a few times with my own LS's early Rani brews. During our first attempt with a brew we tried to be too cautious, turning away so we wouldn't tp it or whatnot and a PLD brewer. I recall us barely winning with that, but we were still new to brewing, also on top of new to brewing Rani. Typically Magic WS is stellar with a brew as we all know. PLDs who brewed after that time swapped between Vorpal (and later CDC) and Sanguine Blade to keep damage constant. Iirc Meteor shouldn't do any damage under the effect of a brew, but should really only pose a threat to people who run within 30 yalms of the fray -- I can think of some overzealous THFs that wanted to try to raise the TH levels.

[Nacht]

Iirc Meteor shouldn't do any damage under the effect of a brew, but should really only pose a threat to people who run within 30 yalms of the fray -- I can think of some overzealous THFs that wanted to try to raise the TH levels.

Well I was more referring to the fact that she will cast a meteor at certain %s. I'm not sure whether she just casts it as her next spell when her cast time comes up, or she immediately casts it, regardless of her spell timing. So, I mean be careful not to heal her when she casts meteor.

[Alderin]

Thanks for the pointers guys.

Helps a lot and puts my mind at a little ease - Will probably go low man the popsets when the servers come back then go do it.

I do agree with not being over-cautious but also not being panicked. Have brewed a few times and being calm and paying attention gets the job done faster and more efficiently. "Spamming" macro's don't work that well either.

Once again thanks for the tips.

[ThaiChi]

Oh yeah, I gotcha now lol. If I'm not mistaken Meteor should be her next move that she will do immediately after hitting each % mark. The meteor casting should be near instant, but I'm actually not quite sure of that one myself either

edit: GL getting the ring, I never take mine off :-D

[Nacht]

Oh yeah, I gotcha now lol. If I'm not mistaken Meteor should be her next move that she will do immediately after hitting each % mark. The meteor casting should be near instant, but I'm actually not quite sure of that one myself either

Wiki claims meteor can be stunned, so near instant is out.

Also, be aware of amnesia from Malign Invocation. Forgot to mention that earlier. Don't really know how big of a problem that is either.