SE really?! really 99 cap boss this hard?!?!

[scaevola]

Thanks for the drg soloing master class. Ironically I soloed drg to level 70, including my own testimony for the very reason that I enjoyed the challenge of solo play. I spent most of the evening last night in Dangruf Wadi fighting crabs and gibbons which resulted in a net gain of 6 seasoning stones and 4 fangs for the party. I have not seen a single bone drop. I have tried Bilesuckers in Uleguerand. Again, no joy. Is the drop rate that bad? Or is this just a massive time sink? Because 5-6 hours of farming should result in one drop at the very least as far as im aware.

Soloed IT Boulder Eaters for two hours and got no Bone. It's just a really awful drop rate.

[HimuraKenshyn]

Thanks for the drg soloing master class. Ironically I soloed drg to level 70, including my own testimony for the very reason that I enjoyed the challenge of solo play. I spent most of the evening last night in Dangruf Wadi fighting crabs and gibbons which resulted in a net gain of 6 seasoning stones and 4 fangs for the party. I have not seen a single bone drop. I have tried Bilesuckers in Uleguerand. Again, no joy. Is the drop rate that bad? Or is this just a massive time sink? Because 5-6 hours of farming should result in one drop at the very least as far as im aware.

I only saw bones on the peapuks, crawlers and crabs in the B. tree and only saw fangs in Gustav Tunnel on the worms and Turtles. I just did the high level GOV and got merits and all of the items needed.

[Sealdorie]

There's a simple solution to your problem. Start the party yourself. If people in the party bring weakness items, you can win with any sensible job combination. Even without them, if the team plays well, it's a perfectly winnable fight.

I can't seem to find how to create another Tail once you have won. I have just assumed that it is not a repeatable thing. Does anyone know for sure?

Took me three tries. The first try was with my PLD. I'm not really a fan of it so it's only decently geared (some Emp+1, honorbound and a Seigneur Shield). With full buffs up I was one shotted the second we engaged. The second was also with my pld, and I lasted a little longer but we still wiped at around 60%. We had a set up of pld, drg, whm, blm, thf, mnk

Chalked it up to my pld not being up to snuff so we went in with 4 BLMs and two random extras. Used two tails and it was super easy.

As far as farming we went as a group so I couldn't give a solo story. I can say that we got our bones from Kuftal and our fangs from Gustav, and the fangs have a terrible drop rate.

I can see where people might have a hard time further on down the road considering how little people help for even the 50 or 55 caps. It won't be impossible, just annoying if you don't have a supportive linkshell or enough gil to pay people for the help.

[Alerith]

The first try was with my PLD. I'm not really a fan of it so it's only decently geared (some Emp+1, honorbound and a Seigneur Shield). With full buffs up I was one shotted the second we engaged.

I'm going to call bull on this. Even if you had only Perle, there is no possible way you would have been one shotted the moment the fight started.

The only possible way for this to happen on even a poorly geared PLD would be for the Taru to open with a Ascetic's Fury followed by Final Heaven for a Light chain. And in all the times I've done the fight, he's never opened with a skillchain.

[Aeonk]

I'm going to call bull on this. Even if you had only Perle, there is no possible way you would have been one shotted the moment the fight started.

The only possible way for this to happen on even a poorly geared PLD would be for the Taru to open with a Ascetic's Fury followed by Final Heaven for a Light chain. And in all the times I've done the fight, he's never opened with a skillchain.

I could see an abyssea burned, not-skilled-up PLD getting wrecked by a single WS. Not saying that's what Sealdorie is, and it'd probably take a degree of bad luck for that to happen, but it is possible.

[Sealdorie]

Well, you can call whatever you like. My PLD was 75 before abyssea was released and capped out in skills. No my skills are not capped at 95, but they are not that far behind. For my gear I am only +1 Emp head, hands, and legs, Dornen Schuhs, twilight torque, honorbound, and Seigneur, creed waist piece. As far as the rest I'd have to go look it up because I'm pretty sure they weren't anything decent.

He opened with Asuran fist for well over 1200 and I was dead. He may have gotten another hit in before or after, but surely wasn't enough time for a heal (or for me to notice the time between engaging and being on the ground). After reading some strategies, I did not have phalanx up the first time. I did the second, and that along with the fact that he did not open with a weapon skill helped a great deal.

I'm pretty diligent about my jobs (having 8 75s before Abyssea was ever released). I do not abyssea leech, and I do my best to skill up before I even take a job to abyssea for the few jobs I've taken up recently via grounds of valor. I did admit that I do not believe my PLD is up to where it should be since it isn't one I play often. I will say that Aeonk is probably right in that my skills were a bit behind (though not quite as behind as he described).

[Neisan_Quetz]

Yea we're just going to have to disagree on what you call decent (please don't tell me you seriously use dornen outside of enmity macro...) and leave it at that.

[Aeonk]

Well, you can call whatever you like. My PLD was 75 before abyssea was released and capped out in skills. No my skills are not capped at 95, but they are not that far behind. For my gear I am only +1 Emp head, hands, and legs, Dornen Schuhs, twilight torque, honorbound, and Seigneur, creed waist piece. As far as the rest I'd have to go look it up because I'm pretty sure they weren't anything decent.

He opened with Asuran fist for well over 1200 and I was dead. He may have gotten another hit in before or after, but surely wasn't enough time for a heal (or for me to notice the time between engaging and being on the ground). After reading some strategies, I did not have phalanx up the first time. I did the second, and that along with the fact that he did not open with a weapon skill helped a great deal.

I'm pretty diligent about my jobs (having 8 75s before Abyssea was ever released). I do not abyssea leech, and I do my best to skill up before I even take a job to abyssea for the few jobs I've taken up recently via grounds of valor. I did admit that I do not believe my PLD is up to where it should be since it isn't one I play often. I will say that Aeonk is probably right in that my skills were a bit behind (though not quite as behind as he described).

It was probably an attack round with a follow up asuran fists that did you in, lack of phalanx as well. I wasn't trying to imply you're gimp or anything like that, so my mistake if that's the impression that was created.

Although I guess I should add some context for my statement. With Ochain, Asuran Fists is a joke. Most of his WS's are. Although I can cite one time where he hit a freakishly hard Victory Smite against me for 1k+, when it's usually less than half of that. A missed block, criting his WS, I still can't explain it to this day. Fought him at least 4 times after that, and he's never hit #'s that high again (so far.)

So with that in mind, I could see someone without Ochain or capped skill (but still high skill) getting an unlucky WS to the face out of the gate resulting in a 1 shot. It's not as impossible as Alerith makes it sound.

[RAIST]

been seeing the bone/fangs for ~200k in bazaars. Have to do the math against your gil farming rate to see if it's worth it or not.

We needed several sets for our fight. Think it was 2 complete and 3 partial. We did the tigers in Kuftal (behind the stone that goes up and down, all the way in back, past the wyverns) and the skeletons in Onzozo north of Ose. Took us I think 3 hours to farm everything up.

And no, you don't relaly need a specific setup for this win. Beginning to wonder if everyone has forgotten their CoP fight strategies. That's basically how we won ours, and we had more or less a standard party setup really.

It's all about your strategy...knowing your strengths (and weknesses) and adjusting accordingly. Granted there are a few things that help. solme things that I've seen come up in various threads about this fight (all over the place...can't believe the crapstorm that has developed over this thing):

Strong damage mitigation for you tank. Whether that is gear on a PLD, or a RDM or SMN buffing up the tank.

Someone that can hold hate well, and someone that can heal him/her well.

Everyone needs to be mindful of the games hate mechanics. Need to keep the runt focused on the person with the damage mitigation as much as possible.

Multi-hit WS (esp. if dual weilded weapons) make a BIG difference in how fast you can take this guy down. To that end, having TP before going in goes a long way--it goes in with you (protip: opo opo necklace...again, older fight strategies).

Subtle-Blow effect can be a factor as well--MNK with Penance or NIN to debuff TP gain etc.

Have the olede rarerab tails on hand for those "oh Sh!t" moments. Just like with the earlier CoP fights, using these things at the right time can sometimes make/break the fight.

Have clear instructions for what everyone is supposed to do. If you are throwing tails, have a specific order. Maybe even a macro to use and announce it in party chat.

Someone should be the leader. Do NOT underestimate the value of this. Having someone who knows what they are doing in these kinds of fights goes a LONG way. I wouldn't have gotten crap done at all without the strategic mind of our resident BST that at times almost literally dragged me through some of ZM, CoP, TAU, and WotG. I won't deniy it....I'm about as blonde as they come with some of these fights. Some people simply need someone calling the shots so they don't get themself (or everyone else) killed.

If what you are trying isn't working.....try something else. Go back and read up on your big CoP fights to get some ideas. If you did these things post the uncapping, then you may not know what I'm talking about....but the strategies are still out there on the Wiki--go to the talk pages and read up on what everyone went through doing these things over the years. Some LS sites still have the "old school" fights up on their boards too. Might find some if you google the boss fights.

[Sealdorie]

Yea we're just going to have to disagree on what you call decent (please don't tell me you seriously use dornen outside of enmity macro...) and leave it at that.

EDIT: I did say that in my first post, my apologies. I suck.

My very first post was not trying to make the fight seem hard as I was only recanting my experience with it given the options my group had. I was the only person that had PLD leveld, and I happened to have collected some gear for it while doing other things so we gave it a shot. The first attempt was before we did much more than read what was required to enter the fight, and we had a rude awakening.

Aeonk, I didn't think you were implying anything. I don't know why I feel the need to defend myself in the first place, or why instead of helpful comments about my fight or my PLD set up I'm getting insults (not you Aeonk). Maybe my original post came off wrong?

If I were to guess where my skills are on PLD I would say they're probably around what a level 85 char might cap, and I have no issues saying I am not the greatest PLD in the world. If I hadn't been going with friends I would have refused to even pull it out as I've pretty much hated the job for several years.

I agree that it most likely was an attack+asuran+no phalanx. The second fight took me down with a Victory Smite + Asuran Fists.