TUrn 4 raid composition question

hey guys. Just made it to turn 4 last night...crazy! Question.

Our usual raid up to turn 4 is 2 PLD, WHM, SCH, BLM, 2 BRD, and a DRG.


For turn 4, i thought it might be useful for DRG to go BLM, giving us 2 physical with aoe, and 2 magical with aoe...

only problem is, our BLM is not as well geared, since DRG is his main. I mean he has relic and full DL, but compared to others, he hasn't been spending myth or anything.

any suggestions? I see a lot of strategies use a melee LB to finish off a knight in phase 6, but we would be missing that if DRG went BLM....does meteor work in last phase?

Our group never uses DD limit break in turn 4 but we have our main tank use tank LB instead when he's tanking 2 DNs in last phase after his Hallowed has worn. Our usual setups are PLD+PLD/WAR+WHM+SCH+BLMx2+BRD+melee or PLD+PLD/WAR+WHM+SCH+BLMx2+2xBRD. I would imagine the BLM in full DL and relic would do just fine, especially if the group is well geared in general. But I think there are multiple different setups and strategies that work in this turn, so you should try different options and see what works for you. :)

thanks for that. our DRG can go BLM, and one BRD can go MONK, but thats the only flexbility we have.

Your composition should be perfectly fine for T4. The need for 2phys/2magic for soldier/knight is a bit overrated. Any well executing group should be able to clear Sol/Knight with ease regardless of composition. I've been in plenty of 3phys/1 groups that had no issues with sol/kni.

oh and another question....the knight reflects magic, so no magic dps on that, i get that. But the soldier with the physical stoneskin...can physical dps still attack it? just does reduced damage? and after stoneskin goes down? I watched a few videos where soldier was being dps-d by both magic and physical

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Originally Posted by dimsumdarren

oh and another question....the knight reflects magic, so no magic dps on that, i get that. But the soldier with the physical stoneskin...can physical dps still attack it? just does reduced damage? and after stoneskin goes down? I watched a few videos where soldier was being dps-d by both magic and physical

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The Soldier will drop the stoneskin after around 6k damage. Until that point no phys damage will be done to him.

As for raid comp, it all comes down to how well your members play together and how well they play their class. My group recently lost our BRD so rather than try and replace him by having another member bring their under geared BRD and make some other rotations, we just went without one. Ended up doing Turn 4 with PLD, PLD, MNK, BLM, BLM, BLM, SCH, WHM and it went smooth as silk.

Your composition is fine for T4, you'll have to adjust the strategy a bit from what you usually see in videos but it's perfectly doable. My usual party composition is PLD x 2, WHM, SCH, BRD x 2, MNK, BLM which is almost identical to yours and we have no issues clearing T4. Well actually we make our OT go WAR instead of PLD as we found it to be easier that way but we can do it with PLD x 2 as well so i'd say you are fine, you just need to get in and start practicing until you beat it.

Our dps is 1 brd, 2 mnks, 1 smn. There is no need to make it half and half here. Our clean up strat at the end is the two monks or for you the drg and one bard kill the last rook, than the blm can lb the last set of adds while the drg and bards kill the wave 5 DK.
Mop up what the LB didn't kill and finish the last dread, make sure to top the mana off with mana song and you should be fine.

As for handling wave 2, kill the MT's knight with your 3 phys while the blm brings down his solider. When the first knight goes down get the drg and one bard to go to the other knight, the other two finish the solider.
If your dps is good you will break the OT's solider's Stoneskin by the time the Dread comes down.

You can easily clear turn 4 with just physical dmg, our party-setup for this turn is 2xPLD, 1x WHM, 1x SCH, 2x BRD, 1x DRG and 1x MNK and there is no problem at all.

without magic damage how do you break the soldiers stoneskin?

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Originally Posted by dimsumdarren

without magic damage how do you break the soldiers stoneskin?

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Their stone skin is just like ours, you just have to dps through it. Honestly with our 3 dps if we try it takes 3-4 secs to get through it.

ooooh, i was under impression only magic damage could break the stoneskin.....so really soldiers are a free for all, and knights have magic reflect...

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Originally Posted by dimsumdarren

ooooh, i was under impression only magic damage could break the stoneskin.....so really soldiers are a free for all, and knights have magic reflect...

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Magic damage bypasses the stoneskin. Groups have cleared this easily with no magic damage at all so if your DPS is decent the composition shouldn't matter, but I'd say 2 physical DPS minimum, 1 of which is a BRD.

passed with
PLD PLD WHM SCH DRG BRD BRD BLM same as urs

and PLD PLD WHM SCH DRG DRG DRG BRD as well

Since you don't state your problem in which turn, i guess dunno how to give idea.

just some note:
- Relic + DL gear has enough dmg for Turn 4. You just need to adjust how your DPS are doing. It's not only a self dps rotation check, but also a team dps rotation+ skill usage check.

a great DPS check would be the first dreadnaught, if you can kill it before the next wave drops (Spiders and Rooks) then you should be fine, otherwise you might need to adjust your strat.

Your group composition is same as mine, we consistently get to phase 6 while using this composition.
Though on our clear we made some changes, one of our PLD went on his main WAR while our BLM decided to go as SMN, mostly due to a slight problem we were having during transition of phase 5 to 6.

you mean i get to play warrior again? awesome!!

My static cleared this week. We went one Dragoon, two Bards, one Summoner, one Paladin, one Warrior, one Scholar, and one White Mage. We basically had three physical damage dealers. What we did was at phase 2 when the first group of soldiers and knights spawn, all the DPS focused one soldier until it's stoneskin broke and then had the Bard and Dragoon move to the knight.

For Phase 6, Dragoon (me) LB'd the Rook right away and then killed it. Moved to the phase 5 Dreadnaught and focus killed that, then did the soldier -> knight. Then we fed the spiders to the phase 6 Dreadnaught and burnt it down.

You don't need 2 magic and 2 physical to beat Turn 4 (I was doubtful at first but our static leader told us strategy). Good luck!