Looking for Meeble Burrows Advice

[Mokeil]

In looking at newer gear for Summoner pants options for pants the other day (always need a decent pair of pants), I came across these: Punga's Slops. They seem like a nice option to have for when you have an avatar out.

Now, here's the thing - I have 0 experience with Meeble Burrows. (I know, I know, I've been slacking...)

Reading up on BG wiki - which seems to have the most information on the subject - the whole thing seems fairly straight forward. The major bit that seems to be lacking is discussion about different strategies for the bosses. Sure, there's notes for "Use a blink tank", "Can one shot a melee", etc. There's even move lists and HP approximations. There is not, however, a lot of discussion beyond that.

So, for those of you who've delved the depths, is there any advice you can give on how bad these bosses are? What are the drop rates like? Should we only go in with a full range of level 3 buffs from every possible burrow? Any nifty Summoner tricks we can do to make braving the deeps easier? Is tossing more avatars at it viable enough I can finally convince more of my LS to level Summoner already?

Any and all advice and anecdotes are appreciated!

[Babekeke]

If you're not taking a THF you'll certainly want TH buffs. I haven't fought bosses myself yet, but the early zones are much like old assaults. SMN not ideal for them due to 45 sec timer on BP rage. BLU is ideal.

[Infidi]

Hmm... I've done meebles quite alot since its release. ( Got lucky and won lot on Pungas too ^^.)I usually have a party of all DD, and a WHM for 1-4. Some bosses are pretty tough. At the very least I would use Perfect Defense if you don't want it to turn into a zombie kill. I usually have one SCH, a WHM, SMN, and 3 good DD. Embrava and PD make good combo, but I've won against bosses just with PD SMN , four DD, and WHM. I usually ALWAYS buy the 50k buffs of the path I am not gonna be doing. Auto RR is a must to nullify downtime and should always be on once you beat the mission that gives you the buff and is able to be bought. I've had bad experience with buying the TH buffs, just bad luck I'm sure. ( nothing but a single log dropped last two times bought TH buffs lol).

[Annalise]

I have a pair of them and love them.

We usually do the 1-4 meebles with a dual box scholar (who uses regen v at the start on everyone) and typically a white mage and 3-4 DDs (usually BLU, SAM, DRG, DNC). I've also gone bard a few times. I have done it on SMN as well, and SMN is especially good for fleet wind for some of the running ones (or for the no aggro ones, avatars can assault those mobs). The normal 1-4 meeble missions are all pretty easy. We always get one level of refresh +5 for each path we take.

I have done bosses with a few different setups. We always have the dual box scholar use embrava, but that can be done without, it just helps. I have used Perfect defense before, but with a decent healer (and if you are using embrava) it shouldn't be necessary, but by all means use it if you want to. We have done bosses with Paladin before, but it just seems to make it take too long. You can kill any of the bosses with some decent DD, a THF for TH, and support.

I basically used Thunderstorm on bosses (for ~2-2.4k, 5/5 merits) and Shock Squall for the most part and it seemed to work well. Ramuh works well if DDs go down and you need to kite also, which hopefully will not be the case.

[Mokeil]

Thanks, everyone, for the advice!

The Tier 1-4 runs very much sounded like Assaults (an event I always loved). I'm glad to get confirmation on this. Generally speaking, given the way my little group of 5 has set up our Adventure Nights, I'll only get one shot a month at this boss, so I want to try to maximize my chances at beating him. At the very least, I'll get to use up all 10 pheromone sacks when its my turn...

So, with 5 sacks devoted to challenging the boss, I'm thinking of putting the other five sacks to getting Lvl 3 HP Boost, and Lvl 2 Refresh. Part of my soul cringes at Auto-Reraise (I'm crazy, I know), but I don't mind hedging my bet with an extra 1,000 HP and +10 Auto-refresh. We'll probably challenge the boss as WHM, SCH[me], MNK, NIN, and THF. If the dreaded Embrava nerf happens before I get my chance, I'll likely swap to SMN.

Still, this particular boss can apparently toss off Comets and Meteors. This is always worrying to me, so if anyone can think of any changes to my plan, I'd love to hear 'em! We have a pretty solid mix of jobs between us (really only lacking PLD), so swapping jobs around is no problem.

I usually ALWAYS buy the 50k buffs of the path I am not gonna be doing. Auto RR is a must to nullify downtime and should always be on once you beat the mission that gives you the buff and is able to be bought.

I'm curious about this part as well, and would appreciate some clarification. It was my understanding that all you had to do to unlock a buff was to beat a Burrow - even just the first goal. After that, it would always be unlocked on that Grimoire until you challenged a boss, wherein the Grimoire would be reset to the blank state you first recieved it in. No mention has even been made about having to buy the buffs.

[Infidi]

Was just stating in general whenever you do beat a boss. ^^ They stay on your book until you enter a boss fight win or lose. But, yeah you lose sll progress/buffs when you go into boss chamber. Buying buffs nets you the buff but doesnt count as progress on that particular one you are buying. ^^For example: you fight Researcher's path's boss and lose against it. If you dont want to waste your sacks getting the other paths' buffs again, that you aren't going to be doing that night, you can spend the Gil and buy the buff from the NPC. If you beat that goal/mission you can rebuy the goal one version of the buff if you didn't want to waste a sack/sacks getting it again. It's really handy when you finally get alot of the bosses/ paths done and can buy the buffs you want that you aren't gonna be otherwise getting from the path you are doing that night.

Also, after you get all the paths' bosses' kis and fight the mega boss yeti guy, win or lose, you can rebuy boss key items if you wish and fight him again that way. ^^

Also....also? XD I would buy all the pherobarrier boxes as soon as you can so you can hold a max of 16 sacks. They are pretty cheap mark cost. http://wiki.bluegartr.com/bg/Moblin_pheromone_sack

[Mokeil]

Thanks for the clarification! And trust me, those extra pheromone sacks will be my first purchases.

Now for the most ultimate SMN related question I can't believe I didn't think to ask: Do the boons also apply to pets? My money would be on "no". SE's seemingly terminal fear of making pet jobs competitive and all...

[Trumpy]

and what happens to these strategies using embrava and PD when they get nerfed soon?

[Annalise]

It can still be done without. We have done them without as well. The enemies aren't too difficult. Any decent setup can take them down. Just need to make sure you have enough damage as it is only 15 minutes. Also keep in mind that your mages can have anywhere from 5-15/tick refresh boon. That's what made curing in abyssea easy too.

[Mokeil]

Given that Embrava has, indeed, been nerfed whilst inside the burrows, I figured I should go ahead and report in on my direct experience from last night. For anyone else who might want these pants, it is very doable.

For anyone new to Meeble Burrows who might be worrying about needing to catch up in experience before being able to really shoot for what you want, I feel I should also add that for most of my group this was our first time doing any Meeble Burrows runs. Only our THF had any experience. We were able to jump right in and shoot straight for the Punga's Slops.

For all the tier 1-4 expeditions we ran as a group of 5: SMN(me), WHM, THF, MNK, WAR. Yes, all 3 melees did have Empyrean weapons - but no higher than lvl 90. We ran Instructor 1-4 to unlock the boss fight, then ran Researcher 1 twice, for the +10 Auto-Refresh. Due to time constraints, we passed on the planned Expedition 1 three times for the +1,000 HP.

SMN ended up being pretty handy. Of particular note were Fleet Wind, Inferno Howl, and Hastega. Shocksquall also had a chance to shine during Expedition 3, where you must survive against increasingly difficult waves of lizards. I even got to use some good old fashioned Carby-pulling during Expedition 2.

For the boss fight, I swapped up to SCH/BLM, mostly to make sure I could stun any and all attempts to cast Comet/Meteor. Also, while Embrava may no longer be as awesome as it once was, it still does provide a very potent Regen!

We also activated all the Palimpset boosts we could (turned out we had all of them, between us). After that, the fight was a very straightforward beat down, and was over in about 5 minutes. There were a few close calls near the end of the fight when Surtr could use his TP more often, but we ended with 0 deaths.

Alas, no pants for me this time... But still, an overall easy fight so long as the healer stays on his toes and you keep him from dropping Meteor on you.

Thanks again to everyone for all the advice! Looks like I have a new goal to keep me busy for a while. The next time we delve into the Burrows, I'll do a few as PUP to see if the Boons affect pets, too.