Monocular Biclops... why? This thing is so broken!

This is an Alexandrite Map foe, intended to be solo'd, presumably by any class. It's not like you can tell in advance and change classes.

The Biclops itself is reasonable, big scary cyclops moves, alright...
...but then it summons 2 waves of about a dozen small adds, which all have a LOT of health for their sheer number.

If you are a Summoner, you're pretty dead, because you're class is incapable of any substantial AOE damage on more than a few targets, and WAY too squishy to stand there taking constant hits. (Your only hope is Titan limit break but, oh right, the cyclops can KNOCK Titan back causing it to be horribly out of position... on top of the fact that you have to dodge the boss AOEs yourself.)

Scholar? Dead, and even worse off.

Paladin... Dead without healer chocobo because, again, you have almost no AOE.

Ninja, Monk, Dragoon, Bard, probably all in rough shape simply because it takes quite a while to kill the lil guys, and a truckload of TP.

(Nice 1000 character limit for no reason.)

This one aggravating result on Alexandrite maps has cost me 3 maps, for nothing, because I happened to not be playing a specific class at a specific time. And never mind the fact that you have to grind 75+ of these things.

This is just plain BAD DESIGN for the intended content: Solo, and something you should be able to do on ANY class, consistently. Challening, but not nigh on impossible. This is harder than several of the easier Peisteskin Maps, which debuted at a similar time, intended for parties of 8 players. That alone should say how broken this is.

eh... may be hard with smn but... I solo'd it on PLD BLM SCH for nexus light all the time

and by far SCH can easily solo all alex maps with no chocobo.

And really... just get a friend if you are afraid that you lose, it is an MMO, play with friends.

I'm going to chime in with my total affirmation for the OP. This guy just plain sucks. Ignoring the fact that you have a TIME LIMIT to beat this thing, there are so many adds that the small damage they do can really add up. When running this on Paladin I only barely beat it within the time frame as I was too busy trying to dodge 100-onze strikes. This guy literally SPAMS AoE all over the place, and while he doesn't have a great deal of HP you can't burn him down because he spawns dozens of minions at certain percentages.

Easily the worst of the fights. I'll take a malboro over this one any day. Oh, did I mention that he's also immune to stun and pacify skills, forcing you to actually evade his attacks rather than prevent them?

SMN is one of the best jobs to solo this map, only SCH might be better/on par. Just send titan to the biclops, dot him, then swiftflare to your feet. All adds will come to you and gather into the shadow flare, blizzard II them down. That's it. They'll die in a matter of seconds.

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Originally Posted by MrCookTM

SMN is one of the best jobs to solo this map, only SCH might be better/on par. Just send titan to the biclops, dot him, then swiftflare to your feet. All adds will come to you and gather into into the shadow flare, blizzard II them down. That's it. They'll die in a matter of seconds.

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I also like to save my raging strikes for one of the add waves, having a healing chocobo also makes it a lot easier. Also if you're confident your chocobo can heal through it, tri-disaster the first wave(to bind them), keep burning boss till second wave shows up, swiftflare, miasma2, raging strikes, spam blizz2.

Edit: I also like to keep titan on obey, if you still can't handle the adds, order titan to attack one of the adds in the middle of the pack, then order him to use his aoe to grab them all. They'll all die before you can pull aggro from titan.

if you put bloodbath on your dragoon and go nuts with doomspike then that minimal damage the enemies give is nonexistant because you should be healing for more then they do, very handy trick if you struggle as a drgon the other hand, as a PLD when i have done this fight, i am able to take the cyclops a bit farther away as to unaggro the little guys, not sure if this works in all areas but the 4 areas i did it in always worked, this will give you time to killthe cyclops and then focus on the little guys, even killing one or two at a time, then running far enough away to unaggro the rest of the pack and repeat, its a little more time consuming sure but it beats losing that alex

Just got this on SCH today.

Stay close to it unless it's using swing - has a retard superlong cast, was able to finish a shadowflare cast that I barely started and still run out in time.
Run through it during eye of beholder.
Adds - only baned once each wave and the rest were good enough with shadowflare/miasma 2

Cleric stance full time, didn't even lustrate.
Used aetherflow stacks on bane and energy drain for dps - was gonna bane 2nd time on 2nd set of adds but the Biclops died before I could x.x

Over 3 min left on clock

EDIT: Now with horrible mouse works and button spamming :x get nervous recording game play
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD1A4EAuiu8
Youtube butchering my vid to 360p, meh whatever

Lol, I remember trying to do this one for the achivment. Finally after a certin point 4 entier full partys wound up joining in along with half a dozen solo players in order to beat that thing. And we finally mannaged to do it. But there were still a field of corpses after we won by the skin on our backs too.

That FATE boss is insainly hard. Even Odin and Behemoth don't take that much server colaberation to beat.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

Lol, I remember trying to do this one for the achivment. Finally after a certin point 4 entier full partys wound up joining in along with half a dozen solo players in order to beat that thing. And we finally mannaged to do it. But there were still a field of corpses after we won by the skin on our backs too.

That FATE boss is insainly hard. Even Odin and Behemoth don't take that much server colaberation to beat.

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We're talking about an alexandrite map boss, it can't even be attacked by people outside of your party. ^^

I guess you're talking about the big ass cyclops fate boss in coerthas?

PLD: Save Fight or Flight and Circle of Scorn for the adds. Anything not already dead dies in 1-2 hits.
WAR: Overpower + Bloodbath.
Both Tanks: STR Accessories make all Alex maps utterly trivial.
BLM: Well, AoE.
SMN: Titan Tank Cyclops; deal with adds.
SCH: Let Eos do the healing. If all else fails, Eos will happily tank for you.
MNK, DRG, BRD, NIN: Their AOEs are sufficient.

General Tips
1. Stay close to the boss unless you're dodging AoE so you won't have to watch for Eye of the Beholder.
2. Try not to let both sets of adds out at once. Take them one at a time.
3. Bring an X-Potion. It can save you.

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Originally Posted by MrCookTM

We're talking about an alexandrite map boss, it can't even be attacked by people outside of your party. ^^

I guess you're talking about the big ass cyclops fate boss in coerthas?

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Oh sorry, thought it was the FATE books. But yea, that's the one I was talking about. Still though, if this boss is any thing ike the one in Courthas, it has to be WAAAAAY over powered for what it's being faced by. Cause if 30 lvl synched 50s have trouble with the FATE, then I can't immagen what having only 7 others to fight this one would be like.

Very easy as SCH with Chocobo

Foccus target the cyclope, do dodge stuff even when you don't target it.
Trisaster the 1st adds wave, you got more than enough time to cast it without swiftcast before they run for you.
Keep attacking the cyclope.
2nd waves spawns, bring them to the 1st wave, aerial blast.
Done.

Yup, I gave an use to the worst spell in the game. xD

died twice to it while getting the novus. i beat it easily about 5 times.

trick as smn is to save enkindle. you pop a SF down and then get really far from the bombs. you can cast all 3 dots on one before they all aggro. you get to bane right before it dies which will take care of most of the others in 2 ticks.

i always used titan so enkindle puddle+SF was a good line of defense if i pulled them through it.

I solo all alex maps with pld in sword oath, using stoneskin on ones with tons of small adds. stoneskin + rampart is surprisingly effective on those puks. In sword oath they die quick. Also focus target the cyclops if you have trouble with its AoE.

I do maps as SCH, after getting killed the the stupid Malboro twice on BLM and losing my map. When the Puks pop, I just Miasma II them and kite around, and keep the 3 instant cast (Miasma II, Bio, Aero) up on the cyclops. As a SMN you wouldn't have Aero of course, but isn't Tri-Disaster an AOE Bind? Or Blizzard II for that matter?

Shadowflare + Enkindle is my best friend.

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Originally Posted by Donjo

BLM: Well, AoE.

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Simple AoE is rough when the boss uses a move you have to spend 3 seconds dodging every 5 seconds. When I was doing these I would put my choco in healer mode and swift flare the first round of puks, then kite without doing damage until swiftcast was back up to use on the 2nd wave of puks.

First time I fought this I got surprised by the adds. Pretty sure I killed them all but died due to the actual boss, thank god my homepoint was the same zone so I actually kept that map, then I went back and killed the Clops.

PLD solo I always take Alex maps as Sword Oath & Stoneskin at the start, for the Biclops I keep Fight or Flight & Circle of Scorn for the adds, throwing everything else at the boss. When the first set of adds pop I run over, FoF/CoS them, and tap a Mercy Stroke on one if it survives, then just go back to spamming the Biclops til FoF runs out(usually right after I CoS the 2nd set of adds). Toss in a Stoneskin & Bloodbath as needed(Bloodbath usually during 2nd adds just before CoS), and if really low pop Hallowed Ground>Convalescence>Curespam>Stoneskin just before HG is out

This map boss is laughable if you've got a melee & BRD/BLM/SMN duo, melee take the boss & ranged take the adds, and its easy as hell if you're bringing multiple friends who're all working on Nexus Light with you.

Maps do not have to be done with class you want Alex for... So if you have troubles killing bosses with one class, just pick another. I have been able to solo(no friends or chocobo) all of the mobs with WAR. While I haven't tried it I see no reason why it can't be done as SMN with pet and choco out. can swap to DPS pet for adds as the cyclops is far to busy casting AOEs to really need a tank. Bane on adds with shadow flare should get most while pet deal with the rest. Choco will either be healing or stuck on boss depending on setup. Sounds pretty easy... And that's not even counting cross class skills.

I can do this map solo as a 109~ PLD, but it gets a little iffy. I use my bird, just cause. The one I really hate is the one that spawns 6-8 bombs then run at you and explode.

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Originally Posted by Lucke

I can do this map solo as a 109~ PLD, but it gets a little iffy. I use my bird, just cause. The one I really hate is the one that spawns 6-8 bombs then run at you and explode.

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Those bombs only explode if you kill the golem before the bombs. Just go kill them right when they spawn and there's nothing to worry about.

WHM- Holy x2 all adds dead

Is this the one with the bomb adds? OMG, that one made me livid as I lost 3 Alex with that particular enemy. Until, I realized how insanely easy it was for me to solo on my WHM. Holy x 2 instanly kills the bomb adds before they can explode. But, if you don't have a WHM leveled, I get what you mean about it being extremely difficult.

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Originally Posted by Donjo

Those bombs only explode if you kill the golem before the bombs. Just go kill them right when they spawn and there's nothing to worry about.

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They seem to home in on your after 30 or so seconds. If they all hit you, it's over since each bomb does like, 1k dmg. As a PLD, I can't kill all of them before they explode my face. I can maybe take out 2-3 of them though. With a bird, they can absorb some bombs, but they'll die after each wave.

Never had a problem with the golems/bomb one either - just attack them as soon as they spawn. BLM - fire2/flare, SCH - dot/bane, as for PLD, never had issues dpsing them down before they explode though I do save circle of scorn. Sword Oath - usually in STR accessories though I don't see the problem even with VIT accessories seeing how fast they die

Sch? worse off lol no? leading the pack more like only other job I that I had solo'ing with no choco is WAR.

CS Shadow flare, and a couple Miasma IIs to speed things along and they are dead.

Only job I think would have a problem with this particular map would be PLD or MNK (and pretty sure I could be proven wrong) since they would have to go through targets one by one but nothing that can't be fixed with heals from a choco.

Just because they didn't make it brain-dead face-roll easy doesn't make it bad design.

Edit: You CAN run out of range to drop aggro and switch jobs.

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Originally Posted by Aurelinaus

Sch? worse off lol no? leading the pack more like only other job I that I had solo'ing with no choco is WAR.

CS Shadow flare, and a couple Miasma IIs to speed things along and they are dead.

Only job I think would have a problem with this particular map would be PLD or MNK (and pretty sure I could be proven wrong) since they would have to go through targets one by one but nothing that can't be fixed with heals from a choco.

Just because they didn't make it brain-dead face-roll easy doesn't make it bad design.

Edit: You CAN run out of range to drop aggro and switch jobs.

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Tip: Which will reset the Boss and cause you to run out of time and fail the map.

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Originally Posted by FranSeara

Tip: Which will reset the Boss and cause you to run out of time and fail the map.

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Perhaps, but you know it doesn't take half of that 5min limit to beat nearly all alex maps.

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Originally Posted by Chihaya

Perhaps, but you know it doesn't take half of that 5min limit to beat nearly all alex maps.

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On "THIS" map, the one we're talking about. I found that leaving or moving too far away will reset the Boss and reset the map and may/will cost you your hard earned map. This map can be a handfull if you're never gotten it before, just like the bomb map. Both in my eyes are TROLL maps, meant to "steal" away your chance at a alex. Being overgeared (item level 100-110) for both the Bisclops and Bombs map(s) seems to clear up any or most problems you may be having. This has been my experience.

Sometimes, if I'm not feeling too confident, I'll conscript a friendo to help. With 2 players they're all trivial. I have beaten one (can't remember the one) with I kid you not, 5 seconds left on the timer lol. Since then I try to recruit a friendo just in case.

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Originally Posted by Lucke

Sometimes, if I'm not feeling too confident, I'll conscript a friendo to help. With 2 players they're all trivial. I have beaten one (can't remember the one) with I kid you not, 5 seconds left on the timer lol. Since then I try to recruit a friendo just in case.

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Exactly, though all the maps are soloable, if you aren't confident, just bring a friend as I mentioned on the first page. They can even get nexus light and some gil out of it.

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Originally Posted by FranSeara

On "THIS" map, the one we're talking about. I found that leaving or moving too far away will reset the Boss and reset the map and may/will cost you your hard earned map. This map can be a handfull if you're never gotten it before, just like the bomb map. Both in my eyes are TROLL maps, meant to "steal" away your chance at a alex. Being overgeared (item level 100-110) for both the Bisclops and Bombs map(s) seems to clear up any or most problems you may be having. This has been my experience.

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I think inexperience with the mechanics plays a bigger role than anything on these 2 fights.
Being i100+ these days isn't exactly hard anymore with soldiery/allied seals/poetic.
I been pretty much soloing these maps since atma/animus came out where 2nd coil was still locked and soldiery was capped with no allied seals yet - though I'd admit was mostly on SCH back then. I spent my soldiery on tank so my SCH was in mostly i90 stuff. Though, I don't see problem for DPS as long they have invigorate, tanks may need str accessories to dps down adds in time.

Understanding the fight make stuff alot easier.

I solo'd two of these as SMN (i95) last night. Was challenging yes but can be done easily. Titan on Cyclops, then choco in healer mode (who dies anyways), dot up Titan until Puks, Then Dot up Puk's use Bane, then run in miasma II, watch puk's die as you Physicks yourself. Titan continues to beat on Cyclops which by the time the Puk's are dead you can re-dot him up then more Puk's rinse and repeat. Don't have to worry about his AoE's if you stay at of range and if you can time it right you can use Bane off of the Cyclops dots to hit the Puks.

Oh to make it better I had 4:30 left on the timer.

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Originally Posted by Kaiser-Ace

Oh sorry, thought it was the FATE books. But yea, that's the one I was talking about. Still though, if this boss is any thing ike the one in Courthas, it has to be WAAAAAY over powered for what it's being faced by. Cause if 30 lvl synched 50s have trouble with the FATE, then I can't immagen what having only 7 others to fight this one would be like.

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i love that fight
really all you need is a tank (that can actually dodge the 1shot and grab the adds) and a healer
entirely doable with just 2 players