Wanderer's Palace Warrior Speedrun

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This is the Information collected from me going from total noob to a sub 15 minutes speed run. Many times on my server (Sargatanas) I've been told that WAR cannot speed run and would be kicked out of groups. A successful speed run is the result of all 4 players in the party and many different configuration will work just fine. I had several successful speed run with SMN and DRG even when we can't sleep the first door pull. This is how I do my job as a WAR.

Remember this run can be optimized depending on the group strength and gear. I think the top factor here it to make sure everyone is clear on what will happen and what they need to do. It really is a team effort.

First pull is to the bugs that spawn in the stairs. I try to skip the birds if they are looking the other way. Make sure you have 5 stack (use infuriate) and buffs are up. you will take tons of damage for a short time. DPS the mobs and circle around the group using overpower to get all the aggro on you.

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Make sure you recover TP before the next pull.
Then you get the first Tonberry groups in the large room and move to the second rectangle room to grab the second Tonberry there. Ignore the chest in that room and DPS that group. This one should be easy but make sure that again you have your 5 stack of wrath.

Then you go for the last pull to the door. Grab the middle pack in the hallway then run to the last Tonberry that unlock the door. Mark him and make sure you DPS just that one. If you have a BLM sleep the group, kill the Tonberry. You will take less damage with the sleep and it make is fast and easy.

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Now here is the tricky part where you need to exploit the game system a bit. The door is open and you have 5 enemies aggro to you. Sleeping or not, you have to make your way to the first boss. Run toward the purple line to the boss but do not cross it. Stop right in front of it. The reason for this is that the 5 mobs on you will then get to you and stop far from the boss arena and attack you. Then make one step on the line and have your body 2/3 in the arena. The server will not update the enemies position and they should, for the most part, stay far back. Wait 15 sec on without moving for the gate to close (you know this when your camera will get super close up). While you do that you need someone in your group to pull the boss to you so you can start your Butcher Block combo and control the boss. With the gate closed you can now move away to the left or right corner and tank the fight.

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What can go wrong here is that someone else in the group get aggro and pull the enemies inside. It’s important for everyone to make sure they don't. You can use some Flash or Overpower on them to get more hate. This need practice and is a group effort. Obviously sleeping the enemies a second time here would make things easy but is optional if you don't have a BLM. If one or 2 enemies make it into the arena don't panic and take them out quick.

Now for the next pull you have some Tonberry, slime and pugs. It’s not too hard to do a single pull to the doors but the safe way is to grab both Tonberry and the pugs, DPS them then move to the second group at the doors. Grab the oil and unlock the door. Note that you can skip the pugs if they look the other way.

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You are now near the big pudding boss and this section will be done in 2 pull with one of them you can skip. Your first pull will be the Skeleton and the 2 Tonberrys guarding the boss door. You will need provoke or have someone in your party pull the Tonberry from up there without getting the 2 ghosts guarding the stairs. DPS the 3 skeleton and the Tonberry then grab the Oil.

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Now the reason we keep the Ghost alive is that we will skip them and since they are ranged attacker it make it really easy to prevent them from jumping into the boss arena. You will need to assign a job to all party members here. You the Tank need to grab the ghost, flash and overpower then run grab the second set of monsters (1 ghost, 1 skeleton) guarding the second switch to the right. If you are fast you can do all this and activate the switch yourself but it’s a good idea to assign a party member to it. When the switch is activated run back to the door and proceed to the Boss fight using the purple line boss arena trick again like you did on the first fight. This time it will be easy with the ghost staying back and using ranged attack. Make sure you keep aggro.

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Fight the Boss and win.

After this boss you have 2 more pull to do or just one if you have a strong party. Let me explain the 2 pull. First grab the ghost with flash then go get the 2 Tonberry in the stairs. It’s important that nobody climb completely the first level or stairs. This would activate the chasing Tonberry. Pull them using Tomahawk and run back down to the ghost and DPS that group. With that finish just run up to the final Boss doors and DPS that group to unlock the doors.

Kill the King! You are done.

[SzaaKarna]

A successful speed run is the result of all 4 players in the party

thanks for the layout. side tip for tanks: if you try this in DF, make sure your party knows what you're going to do, and make sure you have the gear and skills to back it up. I've had quite a few DF tanks this last week try these pulls and die really really fast, then start raging against the rest of the party, etc. (the best one was the dude in AF with ifrit sword claiming he could do an 8 minute run if the rest of us werent idiots)

[Mishini_Dracoto]

Wicked thanks for posting this. I've been getting low times, but I think they were around 20 minutes. Mind, my 20 minute run I can do with no real communication. I mark the tonberries to make them easier to see, and I've done them with assorted setups. . . I could have just been getting lucky as well though.

My staple is checking everybodies gear. If we're all in Relic it's safe to assume we're planning speed runs.

[Angelwatch]

It's, very much, a group effort. Everyone needs to be on the same page and know what to do. It also helps a lot if the group knows, ahead of time, what the pulls are going to look like.

I know that this was written from a Warrior perspective but I'll toss in my thoughts on a Paladin.

For a Paladin it's important to rotate cooldowns. Rampart is on short enough of a cooldown that it should be used on pretty much every pack. Without cooldowns you will, likely, die and that ruins the entire pacing.

My pacing goes like this:
1. Pull the two tonberries, two buzzards up to the beetles. I stop just long enough for the beetles to die and move up to the group of three and I pop cooldowns.
2. Second pull is all the way up to the door. That's a 3 pull, 1 wanderer tonberry and 2 more goups of 3 for a total of 10 mobs. Once I'm in front of the door with all the mobs on me, I hit invulnerability and then start to rotate other cooldowns as soon as it's dropped. Then it's a matter of flashing, Circle of Scorn and dancing around the AOEs. This, in my opinion, is one of the hardest pulls in the instance (especially if you don't use the sleep trick to reset all of the mobs).
3. Boss.
4. All the way to the door. This isn't a bad pull usually but at the end of the run you do need to do some AOE dancing as well.
5. The big "maze" area I hate. It's all based on where the large Tonberries are pathing. Ideally, if we haven't wiped prior, I can grab the 3 skeletons, 2 floaters and 2 stationary tonberries and use the indentation in front of the bosses door to line of sight the the ghosts to form a stacked pack.
6. Open the door and deal with the skeleton and ghost. Most groups simply lock these two enemies outside the Bosses area but about 1 in 4 runs I'll have one sneak in. It's very important that the group has built up a Limit Break but does NOT use it on the second boss.
7. Pull the entire corridor to the room before the final boss. Grab everything, get to the last room and pull a hard left, tuck in the corner and hit invulnerability again. This is another hard pull but dies really fast if you saved the LB and use it here.

So that's how I've been doing and in a perfect world it works pretty well. My best run was right around 15 minutes and I consider anything less than 20 a success. But I'm, definitely, open to tips and tactics from a Paladin point of view.

Final note, as a Paladin I didn't feel comfortable doing these speed runs until I was in nearly full DL with my Relic. I have 5,700 hitpoints grouped right now and that can still go very fast if the group isn't on the ball or I don't, properly, rotate cooldowns.