Since nobody has updated BG-Wiki (Normal Ambuscade)

[Aysha]

.....can someone tell me what the deal is with the stupid plant?

It seems to randomly attack random group members, which will one-shot most non-tank Trusts for apparently no reason, and it seems to have such random AI behavior that I can't really understand any actual pattern.

The only thing I can figure out is that it randomly switches between Physical Defense Weakness and Magical Defense Weakness, but the constant status spam and the "LOL I ONE SHOT ONE OF YOUR TRUSTS RANDOMLY!" is making this thing a seriously annoying fight.

It'd be one thing if there was some kind of rhyme or reason, though I really wish they'd cut it out with the random "I KEEL YOU NOW!" random attacks on random group members... what's the point of a tank when the thing ignores hate tables seemingly at random? And sometimes it will randomly take even a well-geared player down to 10% HP at random with no actual reason displayed in the chat log.... just..... WHAM you're almost dead, have fun wasting half of your healer's MP on getting it back type crap that it does.

And again... Doom. *sigh* Can we stop this, please? One of the most lame status effects in the game, where you're forced to carry a bunch of junk in your inventory to not die. It doesn't really add extra challenge, it just adds annoyance to be forced to use holy waters just to get rid of the doom.

[Aysha]

So I found the answer after doing Googling, FINALLY someone posted on another forum...

It seems the Sweet Breath resets hate. Blargh. Seriously, SE, a Hate Reset + 700-1400 damage Bad Breath (that's mis-labeled as Rhino Charge lol)? Lemme guess, you guys didn't want average players (ones that are not decked out in Escha gear) soloing it at anything above VE, I take it?

[Urmom]

Doesn't reset hate if sleep doesn't land. Dt + vallation should make bad breath pretty low dmg. Doom doesn't happen till the end and by then the thing is taking so much dmg should kill it in a few seconds anyways

[Shiyo]

So I found the answer after doing Googling, FINALLY someone posted on another forum...

It seems the Sweet Breath resets hate. Blargh. Seriously, SE, a Hate Reset + 700-1400 damage Bad Breath (that's mis-labeled as Rhino Charge lol)? Lemme guess, you guys didn't want average players (ones that are not decked out in Escha gear) soloing it at anything above VE, I take it?
Ambu is not meant to be solod. It literally gives ZERO gallantry solo and doesn't scale with the number of players. You're also screwing over people by soloing it because you cause congestion. They intentionally make it as unsolo friendly as humanly possible, but some people don't get the hint I guess.

[Urmom]

So just watched a bst solo vid of VD so yeah over VE definitely soloable and even with sleep landing it never turned so not full reset? Got to see doom move... and then 2 ready moves later it died so yay. Based on some other vids seems tank got hate back pretty quick so again doesn't look like full reset. 2nd tank should make it pretty easy since non squishy targets don't get hit that hard. Also only uses the breaths after 2hr animation which happen at certain hps so can plan around it a little

[Aysha]

Ambu is not meant to be solod. It literally gives ZERO gallantry solo and doesn't scale with the number of players. You're also screwing over people by soloing it because you cause congestion. They intentionally make it as unsolo friendly as humanly possible, but some people don't get the hint I guess.

Well, when I say "solo", I mean, "run someone else's mule through it because Ambuscade is the only reasonable way to get anything 119 on a mule" lol.

So family member and I work together to get each others' mules their armor.

And Heaven Forbid that there should be something that you could actually do solo... oi. Also, I'm on Sylph -- zero congestion issues. We go in 5 seconds after we accept it from the book. If there is an actual queue, then we simply don't do it.

[Nyarlko]

Well, when I say "solo", I mean, "run someone else's mule through it because Ambuscade is the only reasonable way to get anything 119 on a mule" lol.

So family member and I work together to get each others' mules their armor.

And Heaven Forbid that there should be something that you could actually do solo... oi. Also, I'm on Sylph -- zero congestion issues. We go in 5 seconds after we accept it from the book. If there is an actual queue, then we simply don't do it.

Escha-Zi'tah & Escha-Ru'aun T1s are quite duo-able with a ws-from-range/mb setup. Have you guys ever tried this? BST/SCH are probably the best choices for sc-providers, BLM for MB. If BST, use Patrick, Brain Crush > Tail Blow = Fusion (fire/light), Tail Blow > Brain Crust = Liquefaction (fire), and Blockhead > Tail Blow = Impaction (thunder). COR/RNG "can" work, but require a godly amount of STP to pull off not having to melee while self-sc'ing.

[Aysha]

Escha-Zi'tah & Escha-Ru'aun T1s are quite duo-able with a ws-from-range/mb setup. Have you guys ever tried this? BST/SCH are probably the best choices for sc-providers, BLM for MB. If BST, use Patrick, Brain Crush > Tail Blow = Fusion (fire/light), Tail Blow > Brain Crust = Liquefaction (fire), and Blockhead > Tail Blow = Impaction (thunder). COR/RNG "can" work, but require a godly amount of STP to pull off not having to melee while self-sc'ing.

Neither me, nor family member has those jobs up, or shall I say, neither of us have the equipment and such for it. I have all jobs on 99 but that doesn't mean I have equipment for them, lol. She's got THF and is currently trying to nail down some gear for WHM and I've got mostly BLU though a few other jobs... COR and BST are not those two.

Though, her THF is wearing Turm's and that stuff seems OP as all crap lol. Even Apex Mobs in Moh Gates can't hit her worth crap (6-10 misses in a row lol) and even if she does take a hit, the insane regen on her armor has her healing back in 3-5 ticks anyways lol.

[Nyarlko]

Neither me, nor family member has those jobs up, or shall I say, neither of us have the equipment and such for it. I have all jobs on 99 but that doesn't mean I have equipment for them, lol. She's got THF and is currently trying to nail down some gear for WHM and I've got mostly BLU though a few other jobs... COR and BST are not those two.

Though, her THF is wearing Turm's and that stuff seems OP as all crap lol. Even Apex Mobs in Moh Gates can't hit her worth crap (6-10 misses in a row lol) and even if she does take a hit, the insane regen on her armor has her healing back in 3-5 ticks anyways lol.

Might want to consider working on a sc/mb combo duo since I know from experience that it works on darn near everything up until clvl 130ish in unspectacular gear. The ability to stay out of AOEs and minimize TP feed to NMs outweighs the extra work to gear up extra jobs since you can use those jobs to gear up the jobs you love. Admittedly, WHM should be good for getting groups once decently geared and BLU is OP once you hit the 1200JP mark, but you'd have much faster/safer kills duo w/ a sc-from-range/mb combo.

I average ~2-3min T1 kills, and ~5min T2 kills, as BST+BLM for T1s in Escha-Zi'tah and Escha-Ru'aun for anything that doesn't pop adds. Before Master, probably around double that, but reliable kills = constant gear drops. I've had much, much lower success trying with THF and BLU (also mastered.)

[Shiyo]

Mage burning things and playing bst is generally zero fun for the majority of players. Most people like interacting with mob mechanics, not completely bypassing them.

[Aysha]

Mage burning things and playing bst is generally zero fun for the majority of players. Most people like interacting with mob mechanics, not completely bypassing them.

Well, sadly, SE didn't design the game to allow for this in any reasonable fashion low-man. It's 6 man or go home unless you do some kind of gimmicky junk that some players will call for nerfs on, OR, SE themselves will think it is too powerful and nerf it (kinda like the BST pet command range nerf that I've read about).

I've always been of the opinion that as newer content is released, older content should be adjusted to make low-man, or even solo, possible. Because why not? It's obsolete. No harm in letting people low-man it.

[Shiyo]

No, content should NEVER be nerfed as new content comes out. There's literally hundreds of other MMO's that do that already Things also do get more lowman friendly, it's called having better gear from higher level content.

[Nyarlko]

Mage burning things and playing bst is generally zero fun for the majority of players. Most people like interacting with mob mechanics, not completely bypassing them.

I rather enjoy 99999'ing all the things with my BLM and there are plenty of others who get a kick out of big numbers like that, and it is VERY fun to mess with Mana Wall, so most likely you are not speaking for the "majority". BST is still fun according to most of the BSTs that I know (including myself.) You don't get to completely bypass most mechanics with BST, and it's far from the turret-style job that it used to be requiring constant movement now for a lot of fights.


Well, sadly, SE didn't design the game to allow for this in any reasonable fashion low-man. It's 6 man or go home unless you do some kind of gimmicky junk that some players will call for nerfs on, OR, SE themselves will think it is too powerful and nerf it (kinda like the BST pet command range nerf that I've read about).

I've always been of the opinion that as newer content is released, older content should be adjusted to make low-man, or even solo, possible. Because why not? It's obsolete. No harm in letting people low-man it.

That type of policy works in other MMOs because they are frequently raising level caps and whatnot, along with adding gear which are usually strict upgrades to previous gear in order to obsolete the older content and focus players on the new stuff. (Reference: FFXIV and WoW)

FFXI is built more on the side-grade side, ilvl is most likely never going up, and the devs work hard to avoid obsolescence in both gear and content. There are still a bunch of under lv98 things that still see play, we have to do the older stuff to farm high level mats to craft new gear or unlock reforging, etc. The content itself just doesn't get nerfed, though it is common to relax entry requirements as content gets older.

It's nothing new to have to work on a "job that works" in order to gear up the "job you love", and it's really not that hard to do these days. Primary challenge there is inventory space to store the new jobs' gear, not getting to an effective play level. ~_~;;;

[chiefhunglo]

I agree the mechanic is freaking crazy had a devil of a time fighting it with my major trust's down.