In Crimson it Began (After Emergency Maint.)

So I took my alt through In Crimson it Began.... the Zenos fight as usual cant do any damage to him... I ran around avoiding aoe and killing stupid swords for over 20 mins and failed because time ran out! WTF. I am so mad right now at wasting 20 mins on this stupid quest.

I must admit I agree with you, this fight is annoying me to no end, because of how utterly vague the duty directive description is (to say nothing of the lore aspects of the whole scenario). Personally I think they could have just skipped having it as a fight and just had as a long cutscene and it would have ended up the same conclusion, but there you are.

Either way, I can't even get to

Zenos, the first time I actually took too long getting to... you know who... instead trying to save the random Resistance troops scattered around being attacked by Garleans, when all of a sudden Krile shouted "NO! We're too late! We couldn't save our friends!" and 'Duty Failed' was my only reward. Then I decided to skip ahead and rushed to where Lyse and Y'shtola were, only to have my butt immediately handed to me by Fordola and her fellow quisling thugs as I didn't have anyone to heal me as Alphinaud and the others were still stuck fighting random Garleans.

I presume there is a specific strategy to it but I haven't worked that out yet.... Either way, in regards to Zenos, I've heard others you basically cannot win against him - he's like Beatrix in FFIX in that the battle is unwinnable, so to proceed you basically just have to get his health down to a certain level in order for the duty to be considered complete (my boyfriend said he got him down to about... 75% before the duty will complete). But as I mentioned I haven't even got to that point of the duty yet so I personally cannot attest to that.

This is for the fight that people were referring to as "Pippin Savage" right? This is the strategy i used(cleared the first time i got in), having basically overheard people talking about a failure condition.

If it matters, i went in as BLM like i always do(and i know i wasnt any higher then level 61). Basically, i was told that if you dont more or less save the hostages that you cant win. So i ignored any enemies targeting me, and immediately killed any that were beating up helpless NPCs. I stayed with my NPC friends rather then run ahead, but helped them to make sure everything was dying quickly. There was maybe one close call, but got through all that just fine. As for Zenos, he takes damage just a ridiculously small amount of it. So i kept my DoT on him, and cast my attacks as often as i could while dodging AoEs and knocking out swords(one per for a safe spot to stand). The goal is to do a certain percentage damage to him to prove youre worthy, but his vein opener(or whatever, i forget the name) move knocks out all your teammates so this is all up to you.

Yeah, I attempted it again earlier and this time I stuck close to Alphinaud and discovered that if there are no more enemies your group of allies are fighting, they are scripted to move on to a specific area and engage the next lot of Garleans, so I made sure to keep close to them when they moved, fought what they were fighting, and eventually they arrived at Fordola's group, and with several healers backing me up, Fordola and her thugs didn't last long.

Ironically Zenos gave me no real trouble at all, other than I barely took any health from him at all and had to heal myself with Clemency a few times throughout the fight. I think I knocked down about barely 5% of his health before he finally said "I misjudged you. Time to end this!" or something and ended the battle. So don't get discouraged! Keep close to the party in the first part, and just keep up the heat on Zenos in the second and you'll finally pass this (given what happens, I stop short at calling it 'winning' however.).

Yeah, I had much of the same. Got it first try just sticking with the group, keeping an eye on the hostages; as DRK61, it was fairly easy, simply stayed in Darkside only and wailed on anything that got too close. Even Fordola and crew were really no threat. When it came to Zenos though, phew! That was a fun fight. Lots of dodging, and once or twice I missed a major hit, forcing me to jump into Grit and use Souleater to build my HP back up. Between that and the WoL bonus you get in Instances for a rather nice regen, it was no problem staying up. I think he gave up on me at about 90-93%, if I recall correctly? It doesn't take a lot, but it still takes a fair amount of time to get through it.