Brayflox's Longstop Short Rant and Aiatar guide

I have never been more excited after completing a dungeon in an MMO for a long time. Brayflox's Longstop is a beautiful example of a dungeon that is both challenging and intriguing to the player at the same time. While most groups will assuredly wipe several times through the course of the dungeon, and some might not finish at all, it is perhaps the first time you will ever be challenged to the core in the game.

As for my experience, my first try I ran for about 5 min with a group until we all decided that the tank obviously didn't know how to tank. Unfortunately, while this might fly in earlier dungeons like Sastasha and Copperbell Mines, most tanks shouldn't be able to get past Hatali without knowing how to maintain their threat. The other dps left almost immediately when the tank responded "I'm the tank?" and I shortly followed in order to avoid the 15min penalty.

The second try was a lot better, each role was doing their jobs splendidly and we all decided to do a full run together. Since it was my first time through I didn't know that there were actually optional events within the dungeon where you had to save goblins in return for some Pink quality treasure. It gives the illusion of springing into action to save a fellow comrade and definitely puts your head in the instance.

Upon reaching Aiatar, the final boss of the dungeon, I had realized that no one in my party had actually been this far in the dungeon before. Considering my experience with dragons in other MMOs I expected there to be at least a breath attack, so I advised the tank to turn the behemoth of a boss away from the group. At around 60% hp the boss suddenly turned as if on a swivel and heaved a massive acid patch at my location, landing smack dab in the center near the entrance of the room. I thought nothing of it, until the dragon targeted the Dragoon in my party 30 seconds later and popped up with the convenient little message that the acid patches were healing the boss.

Unfortunately, on the PS3 I cannot fight and type at the same time, and hoped that the other members would notice it. Suffice to say, they did, but we were too disorganized and before we knew it, there was no place to position the boss where he wasn't being healed. After wiping, I suggested that by standing next to the walls, we could cut the area of his acid patches in half, and allow a much larger amount of breathing room with which to position the boss. While the tank understood this, it took a bit of trial and error for him to effectively reposition the boss after each acid patch (Aiatar is literally massive and it's hard to see if he's out of the acid when you're up against the wall).

In the end, we won by the skin of our teeth, by abusing Mage's Ballad, a Dragoon's Level 2 Limit Break, and one of the best healers I've seen in the game. While difficult, the boss is very satisfying upon completion, and makes you value your job classes that much more. I can only look forward to future dungeons and what kind of strategies I will have to develop in order to solve them.

Yeah I wish people would pay attention to their class quests and actually read the dialogue, they teach you your role (ex: how to tank.) And by the point of Longstop dungeon we should all know our roles lol. Regardless of the bad tank though I'm glad you enjoyed Brayflox's and managed to work successfully with a new group, it is indeed fun and challenging. Wait until you reach Sunken Temple of Qarn and Cutter's Cry however..you should really enjoy those ^^

I've been running Brayflox non-stop in an attempt to get me a new mail and shield. I'm still using a white geared shield, and the Lv20 green mail from Halatali, and this is just something I decided to do to gear up for the next dungeon (The Sunken Temple of Qarn), rather than attempt to wing a Lv35 dungeon with Lv20 gear.

Brayflox actually feels more like a tank check than anything. The tank has to be smart enough to position himself around Aiatar.
1. Don't stand directly in front of any party member, since Aiatar's line poison AoE Dragon Breath has a pretty huge reach. I always try to face a direction where the breath does not reach any of my teammates. As the tank, I always get my team to reposition themselves around Aiatar's sides, since for the most parts, I just end up making him to the opposite direction after each breath, so the sides are the safest.
2. Stand near his left front leg. When he readies his Dragon Breath, you can just move forward a bit to avoid it, and continue attacking him. This is how you turn him around exactly 180 degrees too, which makes his sides the safest blind spots.
3. When he shoots the poison pool at any melee character, the tank has to reposition himself to bring Aiatar out of the pool. One way to know if he is completely out of any pool is to look at his buffs/debuffs - he'll have a Regeneration buff if he's still on top of a pool. Or if you are fast enough, you can stun him before it comes out.

It's also a soft gear check in that, if you don't have the DPS to down him, your healer will eventually run out of mana healing the tank, and when that happens, not even the sturdiest of tanks will survive. At least, this is more noticeable in Brayflox compared to previous dungeons.

You can edit a post to circumvent the character limit.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by megaman

Yeah I wish people would pay attention to their class quests and actually read the dialogue, they teach you your role (ex: how to tank.) And by the point of Longstop dungeon we should all know our roles lol. Regardless of the bad tank though I'm glad you enjoyed Brayflox's and managed to work successfully with a new group, it is indeed fun and challenging. Wait until you reach Sunken Temple of Qarn and Cutter's Cry however..you should really enjoy those ^^

---

The tank is not necessarily bad, being new to the dungeon often means not being aware of the optimal positioning of the boss in anticipation of its skills and abilities.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The_Last_Dragoon

..we all decided that the tank obviously didn't know how to tank. Unfortunately..without knowing how to maintain their threat... the tank responded "I'm the tank?"

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ReiszRie

The tank is not necessarily bad, being new to the dungeon often means not being aware of the optimal positioning of the boss in anticipation of its skills and abilities.

---

I agree with you ReiszRie; if a tank doesn't know the dungeon that doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad tank. However, the OP said that the tank couldn't maintain aggro and thus the first run was bound to be unsuccessful. The person they were partied with didn't even know they were the tank to me, that's bad lol.

Hm you had to abuse mage's ballad? That fight wast to hard if I remember correctly. as long as nobody's ya know standing in the poison. lol.

Guide for Braxflox / Dragon (from a view as WHM who is farming the battlemage stuff):

- be excited about having 3 war classes as team
- all stay at the wall
- avoid the breath
- pull out of poison
- pull him along the wall
- dont do the dungeon with shitty l25 gear
- blame se for not dropping any battle mage stuff at all

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grotesque

Guide for Braxflox / Dragon (from a view as WHM who is farming the battlemage stuff):
blame se for not dropping any battle mage stuff at all

---

Yep, I really wanted to body and hat but after my 15h run I gave up
it popped up only 3 times and there was always another caster to get it :(
now too high for it but my try later just for the sake of completing the set

I got the Robe and the Hat at one run, but that was it since then :D

But I still farm because it is still better than L41 white gear and I am 37 at the moment. I want the complete set :D and then I'll go for Harlequin with 44. No haste to rush it anyway ^^

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The_Last_Dragoon

In the end, we won by the skin of our teeth, by abusing Mage's Ballad, a Dragoon's Level 2 Limit Break, and one of the best healers I've seen in the game. While difficult, the boss is very satisfying upon completion, and makes you value your job classes that much more. I can only look forward to future dungeons and what kind of strategies I will have to develop in order to solve them.

---

I went through here the first time with my fc and just moved the dragon every time he put down poison, at the end of the fight I was up against the entrance with no other clear spots to be had :) it was so much fun, but I had a great time and sound coaching by my FC.. That makes it fun..

The one thing that I didn't like about Aiatar when I tanked it was that he would spit a green pool on top of me, I would run out but he would go right into a breath and not move. So he would sit there, do his breath and get about ~3 seconds of healing. Still killed it, but I was surprised at the jump in difficulty, real fun dungeon.

Wait until you find yourself in Stone Vigil :P and you will see Brayflox is a child's play..(Evil grind)...First attempt on the final boss, time run out when he has 1% health left....Epic fail,LoL :P

I wonder how they'll deal with late-comers not being able to get these dungeons done as part of the storyline.

Currently, 15min in queue for my second Brayflox attempt...just to progress in the story....as a healer in J,E,D,F, and 'Join in Progress'.
((And it's been much the same even during prime time on the weekend..only about 10min...but that was last week while doing Haukke Manor))

Healers don't get insta-queue anymore once Scholar arrives at lv30, since population of healers increases at that point.

Tank insta-queue, however, is always the case. ;)

You have no idea how much better this thread made me feel. I had a heck of a time here this weekend. The PUG I was with just could not bring Aiatar down. I was ready to give up my WHM, assuming that there was no hope for me as a healer. And then after the third wipe I saw the tank spinning Aiatar around a top...

Second pug. No one had been to the dungeon before. Killed Aiatar second try.

/sigh I guess it is time to join a FC.

Was in there so often for cavalry set. Still missing the helmet x) But I have no prob doing it again and again, its a rly funny dungeon. Temple of Quarn after ist fu too, I hope quality keeps up. The dungeons before were way too much tank 'n' spank, maybe thats the reason why tanks fail so often there. Luckily Im tank myself.

Brayflox is the first dungeon that really tests people and it's the marker for the rest of the game because the bar will keep being raised from there as far as how complicated mechanics become and how much team work and communication is required. Granted it goes a little higher and lower in places but in general Brayflox is where people need to be on top of fights. It's also one of my favorite overall dungeons in the game and has some cool looking loot which makes it worth doing multiple times. Did a lot of in progress groups for it to do loot runs on last boss and you see a lot of people having trouble with it.

First and last boss were the ones i saw people die on the most. Mainly due to lack of control with an experienced group it's easy because nobody starts panicing when they take a lot of damage and the whole dungeon is a lot of pressure on the tank especially the last boss. Not really helped by people being bitchy and unhelpful "Tank sucks i hate you!" isn't going to get the dungeon finished any faster XD. I always found explaining clearly the tactics to the tank and the boss moves plus just telling them to not wait for people to tell them to move the boss and use their own judgement works great. For the love of god don't yell at the tank and keep a relaxed atmosphere or they'll be shaky and all over the place XD.

I'm glad that I finally finished the battlemage set :D Last week no drop, yesterday 3 drops in 2 runs, GG

I STILL don't have my trousers... Stupid dragon.

Just wanted to post a thanks for the info here. Ran/Tanked BL last night for the first time and was successful. I got my Cav Pants and an Aetheral Helm while I was at it.

ahh brayflox...dungeon is like a hate management for tanks check. good tanks that can keep playing, bad tanks are forced to quit after everyone else rage quits after seeing the nearest dragoon tank the adds instead.
god i hated that dragon. got full Calvary and never ran it again.