How to beat Pandemonium Warden?

[Zarchery]

I've fought this guy maybe 3 times (always in the Adoulin era), but I still don't have any clue how.

The first time, we had a full alliance. It just happened that way. I have a big linkshell, I scheduled the event, and a surprisingly large number of people showed up. It was a breeze until final form, when something happened that made nearly the entire alliance wipe. Two guys were still up and finished him off.

The next time, we had only 6 people. We didn't come quite as close, but we did get banged up pretty good.

What's the best strategy for beating this guy now? I have 2 pops and will need Mulcibar's Scoria fairly soon (10 days away from completing Yagrush!!!) and can probably summon linkshell mates to assist. You'd think I'd have some experience by now, but this guy flusters me.

[Tidis]

You just kill the first 10 forms, after which he will be in final form and will Astral Flow with every avatar at 75%, 50% and 25% which will probably be what banged you up, as long as you have someone that can either zombie PW if you wipe or an Aegis PLD that can hold PW while you recover, you should be fine.

Disclaimer: Not done PW at ilvl, don't know if Aegis PLD can survive the multiple Astral Flow, just heard they can.

[Malthar]

Aegis pld can survive, and maybe the whm, rdm, and a good blu, but the rest are toast.

You could try zerging it with a PD smn and heavy DD's.

[Martel]

I've survived on SCH, every time. Just wear high illv, magic evasion focused gear(mage class 119 gear, basically) have Shell V, and cast SS and phalanx. With a good shell, you should be able to cap MDT pretty easily with just accessories.

I know RUN could survive easily. I suspect any melee with good access to 119 mage class gear could. Need that high Meva/MDB.

A GEO Using Attunement/Fend could probably make just about anyone survive. But still better to wear Meva focused gear when AF hits. Attunement/Fend rather than Attunement/Vex, because the avatars pop scattered all over the place, then AF fast. Chances are you wouldn't get many of them with vex. So you focus on buffs since you can keep all players in range. If you're still worried, could bolster.

[Protey]

here is my solo of PW on RDM: http://youtu.be/QH1FI0gJSiI

even though it is soloable, I HIGHLY recommend bringing a brd with you to sac it if something goes wrong. Just have the brd outside of party.

[camaroz]

Samurai can easily beat and survive Astral Flows with Yaegasumi but will need a whm as even with MDT/MDB set his spells can still wreck you at ILVL.

[Protey]

Samurai can easily beat and survive Astral Flows with Yaegasumi but will need a whm as even with MDT/MDB set his spells can still wreck you at ILVL.

yep. i had a sam in my LS try. he said same thing. PW has incredibly high magic accuracy. Their nukes destroy pretty much all but a few jobs.

[Olor]

We beat it with 6 it was a bit touch and go... we had a SMN keeping Earthen Armor up for the Astral Flows... a PLD to hold it even when others died. It does help to yell warnings when it is about to Astral Flow, I think the last one we did it really helped that I ran out of range of some of the flow (some avatars followed me, others didn't), so survived the last flow with a couple hundred HP so I was able to cure the PLD of status ailments.

As others mentioned the key is to keep up buffs and wear good ilevel gear.

[dasva]

Alternatively you could have a pld hold it and have a bunch of pets geared torwards magic defense on it.

[Nezha]

The first 9 forms should be no problem, its the last one that can be annoying die to use of Astral Flow at 75%/50%/25%. I soloed it a sickening number of times for Afterglow on PUP/RDM + Soulsoother Head/Valoredge Frame (geared for MDB/PDT). Used EVA set for first 9 forms, with occasional swap to MDT set to block nukes, while Automaton tanks the mega boss of each form and I fight adds. Meleed in MDT set for final form, if done right you can survive all 3 AFs, but its easy to bring multiple forms of RR and Dawn mulsums and just die, reraise, and let pet solo it down 25%, then die/RR/ and repeat until he's down.

[Chimerawizard]

I've survived on SCH, every time. Just wear high illv, magic evasion focused gear(mage class 119 gear, basically) have Shell V, and cast SS and phalanx. With a good shell, you should be able to cap MDT pretty easily with just accessories.

I know RUN could survive easily. I suspect any melee with good access to 119 mage class gear could. Need that high Meva/MDB.

A GEO Using Attunement/Fend could probably make just about anyone survive. But still better to wear Meva focused gear when AF hits. Attunement/Fend rather than Attunement/Vex, because the avatars pop scattered all over the place, then AF fast. Chances are you wouldn't get many of them with vex. So you focus on buffs since you can keep all players in range. If you're still worried, could bolster.
I went a few weeks ago as GEO/WHM and bolstered Attunement/Vex We had whm, rng, thf and non-relic pld. we wiped.

Next attempt, I did a -ra spell and sac'd the avatars away before PW astral flow'd. some did 0 or near 0 dmg to me. Survived every time. I think their m.acc may be distance related.
No one else in the party even got hit by an astral flow, so that is probably the way to go if you have someone who can pull them away a couple times.

[Martel]

Well, like I said about vex. You're probably not gonna hit the avatars with it. You'd need to be on their hate list and in range for the effect to apply. PW might have ally hate... but do the avatars? And In my experience, they can pop scattered all over the place. So when they pop and AF. They might not even be in range.

But even if vex didn't apply, I'm still surprised you wiped with bolstered Attunement. I really dunno how you managed that.

[dasva]

Martel is probably right and the first fight the vex didn't apply but when you ra'd the second time it did...

But really I'm thinking fade and fend would be better than vex and attunement. Can't find any recent non Idris numbers (or really any Idris after the more recent skill additions) but blostered Idris fade and fend together should reduce your magic dmg in this situation (I'm making assumptions that they would have normal avatar MAB if they have more the reduction will be less if they have less you might actually reduce their mab to 0) by a good 90% or so.

Plus you have the benefit of not getting hit by that bad luck minimum 5% chance to not be resisted. Which given it's 8 avatars all doing this against your team several times as it's hp goes down will probably happen

[Martel]

Hmmm, I'd have liked to enlighten you with more recent data, but fade/fend are among the ones I haven't retested. :/

[dasva]

Hmmm, I'd have liked to enlighten you with more recent data, but fade/fend are among the ones I haven't retested. :/

More recent Idris or non Idris numbers... either or I'd love some. Geo is full of such goodness. Actually haven't seen a lot of recent retesting in general... well other than that huge graph of different skills you did lol

[Martel]

Round 2 of geo stuff has been posted over on BG. You may find the last two tests relevant to your interests. XD

[dasva]

Analyzing.... beep questions