Did it a few times yesterday, and it was a bit tough. We walked in not really prepared for the difficulty (eg: wearing standard DD gear without any thought to him tossing an Asuran at us), and he stomped all over us. Second try we were a bit more careful, but didn't understand the damage reduction mechanism, and just didn't do enough damage before people started going squish. Third try I switched to thf (started out as mnk) and we went for a far more defensive mode (eg: constant collab on the other DD, TA the pld, etc). We were doing pretty well, but timed out.

So by today a few people had farmed up the items for the tail. Honestly, it was overkill; I think we would have been perfectly fine without it. Main thing was that we had fresh 2hrs, and a plan for taking advantage of sch enspells (along with the ton of other buffs the sch put up). The initial damage phase was going two to three times as fast as the runs we did the first night, and using the tail actually slowed us down. A couple people died right when he was at 1%, but we finished without any problem.

Did a second run with some others in the LS that couldn't fit into the first fight, and they (I sat that one out) finished without anyone dying at all, though they had someone go rdm/blm to chainspell+stun during tail use.

Yes, it's a tough fight, but if you sit down and think through the mistakes you make, and adjust your strategy accordingly, it gets easier each time. During our winning run the second day, I could hardly believe it was the same fight as the day before, it was so much easier.


Main party setup on my winning run:
Pld (no aegis or ochain, just joyeuse and MDB shield; subbed /war and ate tacos)
Thf (me; no Empyrean, just fire magian + triplus)
Sch (only hit 95 a week or two ago, middling to decent gear)
Whm (doesn't use whm much, and only got back into game a couple months ago, so gear is more old-school)
Sam (has Masamune, but Fudo sucks for this fight; used Rana and Namas (relic bow))
Nin (85 Kannagi, standard decent nin gear; did less damage than he should have because he was using Hi)

(No smn, no bst, no mnk; only used one tail per fight)

Yes, relic bow did make it easier during the tail-running phase, but mostly just for the second run. In the first run, I think she only got a single Namas off because the constant zig-zag kept her from easily targetting the Taru (she didn't use Namas when we were doing straight fighting). Was in no way a critical element.

We did not do a "zerg", though with Embrava on it almost felt like one. A straight-up fight with a bit of hate control and enspells and it's a breeze. For how we did it, pld/thf/whm/sch were the important jobs. The other two slots could have been any DD at all.


@Logandor: I use 4/5 AF3+2 and Homam feet, Rajas/Epona/Brutal/Suppa/Raider Boom/Atheling/Twilight, and Magian+Triplus daggers. My damage the first night was a bit weak, but we were playing cautiously. For the winning fight with Embrava/enspells, I was doing crazy amounts of damage. Just TA+WS on the pld, constant Collab of any other heavy DDs, and be ready to Accomp+Perfect Dodge for Hundred Fists if you don't use a tail.

I'd say thf is one of the more important jobs to bring if you want to do a fight with a more standard setup.