Sortie chest #D5 / Sector H access strategy?

Hey all.

I'm trying to get Ra'Kaznar Sheet #D. To get this, the objective is: Vaniquish all Demisang foes, then interact with Diaphanous Bitzer #D. Demisang Deleterious not required.

So I count about 70 of these things. They're about level 131 to 133 so they shouldn't be super difficult. Still, if there are 70, I have a little under a minute to kill them all. I tried this last week with BRD, WHM, BLU, and 3 damage dealers (I can't remember which classes though... I think SAM and 2 WAR). It went poorly. I underestimated these the Demisang mobs. Also, we tried to go for the objectives that required you to kill mobs in a certain order. That was not a great idea though.

So what's a better setup for this? First I think I need to go after the mages first just to cut down the number of mobs in a pull. I need a healer of course, so grab a WHM. Hate bounced around a lot so I should probably get a PLD. I brought my BRD for song buffs which I feel like we'll need to get through all 70 mobs in time.

So that's 3 slots. I couldn't land sleep. My BRD is no slouch, but also his enfeebling gear is a little behind. Lullaby did nothing. I have heard that your only option for crowd control is Breakga. So I wonder if I need to bring a BLM. But then I kinda worry about getting a BLM good enough to land Breakga. Enfeebling isn't something BLM usually concentrate on.

After that, it's 2 DD slots.

So these are my thoughts. Does anyone have any recommendations? Any experience actually completing this objective?

A whole party should have no problem doing this objective. If you do then players in the group are severely underprepared.

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Originally Posted by Sp1cyryan

A whole party should have no problem doing this objective. If you do then players in the group are severely underprepared.

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That's what I thought too, but it went poorly. Like I said, I probably underestimated the monsters. Hate control was a big problem last time. We had 4 unsleepable mobs pounding on some fairly squishy damage dealers. This required a lot of healing which of course drew hate to the WHM. It seems like I should be able to do this with a pickup group, but what do I do about crowd control and hate control? Get a PLD and let him take the blows while we work down the adds? Or do I need to bring a BLM to Breakga these things? These seem like Locus grade mobs that just link a lot.

I've done most of my Sortie runs solo on my MNK. He's no slouch... good gear and master level 31. I recall that the Demisang mobs checked as IT with high evasion. So I feel like I need to bring my BRD and some Madrigal.

We did it with Sam Sam cor geo rdm blu.

The Sam's multi-step light skillchains
Geo did geo-frailty and indi-barrior and backup heal when needed
Cor sam/chaos light shot
Rdm haste2 dia3 main heal
Blu was the crowd control with entomb and backup heal.

The Sam's should easily be able to multi step with -dt equip. Only the thf and mnk type can kill the Sam's which is why the geo does indi-barrior. Start in the big south room with the mages so you end up close to the Blitzer. At the last room have the cor run to the blitzer and spawn the chest so you get the ki before you time out. We did it with 1 minute to spare.

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Originally Posted by Tarmarkvar

I couldn't land sleep. My BRD is no slouch, but also his enfeebling gear is a little behind. Lullaby did nothing. I have heard that your only option for crowd control is Breakga. So I wonder if I need to bring a BLM. But then I kinda worry about getting a BLM good enough to land Breakga. Enfeebling isn't something BLM usually concentrate on.

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I regularly land enfeebles on the demisangs with my geomancer (422 magic accuracy, 255 magic accuracy skill, 370 int, 345 mnd - not the toughest numbers to top), without magic accuracy food. Instead of a black mage tossing breakga though, you might want to consider a scholar to throw out aoe bind and gravity. Your group will need to position a little to keep from getting hit, but once they do all the non-casters are out of the fight for a minute or two (and silence isn't terribly hard to land either, putting the casters on ice.)

The biggest threat tends to be the TP moves when you've got defense down, so you want your white mage alert and ready with erase, and you may want to consider spending a song slot on scherzo just in case. Don't ignore slow, paralyze, and even blind - they're not total game changers, but they will make a difference.

If all else fails, run. If you have 18% movement speed, you can get away from a demisang shade without it getting to hit you. I'm not sure where the cutoff is below that, 8% might be enough but I'd be worried about taking a parting shot or two. The important thing, though, is they'll get bored and de-aggro if you stay out of range for long enough (or make it to a teleporter), giving you a chance to turn around and pick them off one at a time afterward as they turn to walk home. This is, of course, not the most time-effective strategy, but it's better than waiting three or five minutes on raise/arise.

A fun trick to deal with large groups of Demisang mobs while using BLU is to use Entomb. It will petrify them for a minute and you can reapply it before it wears off to refresh the timer. You can lock down a huge group and pick them off bit by bit.

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Originally Posted by Velner

A fun trick to deal with large groups of Demisang mobs while using BLU is to use Entomb. It will petrify them for a minute and you can reapply it before it wears off to refresh the timer. You can lock down a huge group and pick them off bit by bit.

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Ooh that sounds good. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Originally Posted by Velner

A fun trick to deal with large groups of Demisang mobs while using BLU is to use Entomb. It will petrify them for a minute and you can reapply it before it wears off to refresh the timer. You can lock down a huge group and pick them off bit by bit.

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Is there no resistance buildup???

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Is there no resistance buildup???

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From my experience fighting Demisang mobs, they are defensively kinda weak. The danger in them comes from them attacking in big numbers and overwhelming you. If you can stall long enough to bring the crowd down to a more manageable size, it'd be a huge help. Even 1 minute or a 1 and a half minutes would be a pretty big help.

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Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Is there no resistance buildup???

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Not that I've encountered but even the large rooms usually take a few applications to clear them all out.

I have done a few runs with a decent group of human players. I still haven't succeeded though. What I have found so far:

* Links are inevitable, so a crowd control strategy is necessary. All forms of sleep seem to be completely ineffective, but on my latest run, I brought my BLM and easily slept them.
* Fomors don't blood aggro, which makes it a little easier to fight them in the open instead of pulling to a camp.
* Geomancer is terrible for this because it relies so much on staying close to that luopan and you're going to be moving around a lot. My third run included a Geomancer that was dual boxed with a Bard.
* A Paladin might be necessary. These things hit hard and can seem to drop a guy from near full health in an instant, no matter how good your healer is. But a Paladin seems like a risky proposition because that's taking away a slot from a damage dealer, and you need good damage dealers to get through the large number of kills in time.
* A Bard is necessary or you kill too slowly.
* You can't afford a total party wipe. You just don't have the time to recover.

Bring a BLU and have him set Entomb. The petrify from it works quite well. RDM & THF usually resist so fight those first. RDM being the most resistant.
You could even bring multiple BLUs and pull like 15 mobs at a time and just nuke them down but that's kind of dangerous. We did that our first time and had a couple deaths in the 20min it took us to completely annihilate D.

PLD or RUN will help since they won't die unless they have def- from a fomor when one~two WS him.

On an additional clear for a new member we did melee kills. Only one BLU to entomb and help kill. COR & BRD there for sure, don't think we brought a geo on that run. don't think we brought a tank either. that or it was a RUN tank just doing a couple enmity spells and mostly working to DD himself. I was our BLU and I definitely didn't give him any time to establish hate or pull. I'd just run into mobs, entomb and get to work fighting one of them.

I haven't tried again in a couple weeks. It takes a certain amount of mental strength to go about forming a party for anything, strength I usually don't have. Been thinking about bringing a SMN, or possibly just going WHM/SMN, to do Carby pulls. It would stop us from losing time to wipeouts, but could also slow us down.