Aurum Vale Text Guide

[Aurelious]

Welcome everyone. I was reading a thread in general titled "Aurum Hell" and after running this dungeon 10+ times successfully know it can be frustrating, only from a mechanic point of view. In my opinion, this dungeon is a simple (in theory) dungeon but required a good amount of coordination from team members looking a few steps ahead to win. Below is a guide I have typed that I hope helps people frustrated with this GC-required dungeon so they can unlock their 50 weapon + Amdapor Keep (for those who didn't have it unlocked before the 2.05 patch)

I will run you through my experiences. I am a Paladin and ALWAYS run with a Dragoon (my wife). *EDIT - I have now run this dungeon with all classes except WAR (as I am always the tank) I am leveling SCH now and look forward to running with a WAR as well.

After buffs and a friendly hello and asking if this is their first time (so I know to explain boss fights) and to not worry we'll get through it (to boost morale) I run to the bend where the enemies begin. I ALWAYS am the one who pulls so I can manage the flow of what gets pulled. I pull the two jellyfish on the right wall and run back so nothing can aggro (notably that giant frong you see.) After dispatching, I go ahead and pull the frog. I always stun the Labored Leap because it will kill anyone not the tank or heavily armored DPS (DRG has survived but BRD, WHM, SCH always get one-shotted). I also stun Vasoconstrictor but don't sweat it. After that run along the left wall until we come to the Lily of the Vale. Wait until the jellyfish move away from them and pull, run halfway back to the cave opening we killed the frog/jellies at (to get the lillies pulled far enough away so they wont aggro) and handle them. after that, frog faces away and jellyfish move away, run into first boss along the back wall to avoid aggro and avoid starting fight early.

First boss is relatively simple. Once you have two stacks of Gold Lung (I call it Orange Juice) eat a fruit. There are four fruits. I always dodge the AoE on me, and always stun the AoE it shoots at other team mate. Don't stand in the yellow and make sure tank positions so dps don't have to stand in yellow and you'll bypass this one in no time.
(11/15)*Note for SCH and SMN* Your pets will die quickly here due to the stacks of Gold Lung and the inability to have them eat fruit. I would use Sustain to help offset the damage and during a period where the tank is full, throw an Adlo on him and recast your pet while it is out. This way it will still cast off a heal during the cast time but will refresh itself and have no stacks, allowing you to pick right back up. This is excellent during the phase where it is charging it's AoE on the tank + another member (about 60% life and below) as this will be a good 10 second period it won't be attacking the tank and the only damage he will take is the Gold Lung DoT. If you keep a cursor on the boss then you will see the cast bar, this will be your opportunity.

On the way to the second boss, your priority with be Banemite > Diremite > Bat > Phantom. Everything but Banemite and Phantom can be slept by WHM if one is there. Pull the center first (banemite 2 diremite), then the banemite-bat combo on the left, and leave the group on the right. You will also encounter a room with seedlings and fruit. Peek around the corner and grab the seedlings first (will be 2) and AoE them down (cannot be slept). Target the fruit one at a time (the first 3 you see on room entry) before they germinate. Tank should pull the Goldvine (marlboro) while group aoe's the fruit on the left wall, then run to the right wall and AoE them down, then focus the goldvine. Tank keeps it away from party so Bad Breath doesn't ruin your day (and avoid it, of course.)

Second boss is also relatively easy as well. Tank will tank it with his back to the mountain (enemy will face the mountain) and shouldunlock his target cursor so they can run through when the boss uses his 100-onze SWIPE. When you see 100-onze SWING, this is a 360 which does 5000 damage (and is pretty much instagib except to tank who will take very heavy damage). Tank should *try* to stun this but its always safer to just run instead. He will also use Glower, a laser sweep towards a member. Have everyone stand so that no one is in a straight line with another. It can be avoided by stafeing the moment you see him charging (watch for the aggro line going towards the targetted member) and just moving to the left or right. Does about 1500dmg and paralyzes (Leeches or Esuna this healers). He will also "considers his target" and charges Eye of the Beholder. This is priority to stun or it does a sweeping laser that deals heavy damage. This attack is also dodgeable by moving straight back (if you backpeddle I would turn and run to ensure you can move quickly enough) since the sweep is more of an arc with the targetted character at the pinnacle of the arc. This also is said to reset the hate list, though I've never had a problem with this personally. He will do this around 60% HP and again around 20% (also a time concept to this but typically these two percentages.) Other than that avoid the Swing/Swipe, stun the Eye of Beholder and this goes down swiftly.

On the way to next dungeon is very similar to first time, except more banemite/diremites in the way. When you get to the double goldvine room, stop outside of it. Have PLD pull a seedling, this will cause about 6 to aggro. aoe them down. Focus on the first bunch of fruit, then have tank aggro goldvine on the right while team AoE's the fruit down. Once right side is handled, then repeat for left side. You will now be at the Miser's Mistress, and the reason this dungeon sucks.

I have only failed this boss (aside from people ragequitting) once, and that was with a double dragoon setup. I will explain that below shortly. Tank should go in the back of the room behind the Miser where there is access to two/three fruits easily. This also keeps bad breath away from everyone and gives you access left and right to evade (or personally I evade by walking through). Miser will also do a global AoE to inflict the "Burrs" status ailment. This is like Gold Lung except now you can eat fruit at 3 stacks and not 2 stacks. PLD can live w/ Shield Oath at four, even five stacks (though it is mighty close on five), unsure of WAR levels since they don't have the inherent -20% damage reduction. He will also do a random target attack to increase Burrs by one (Hooked Burrs). Until 50% this is how the fight goes. As of 50% the miser will travel to the other side of the screen and begin to sow seeds. This is where the fight is made or broke. The tank should remain where he is, he can do nothing to assist this phase without making more of a mess. The DPS will travel to the Miser and AoE the seeds down as quickly as they can. Should they germinate, they will create seedlings that will swarm the healer first (due to hate.) So the healer should either run to the tank so the tank can Flash, or (worse option) tank runs to healer to flash and gain hate while is AoE'd down. Why this is worse option because if Miser uses BB and hits the healer, you're done. Silence = no heals. This will repeat again at 30% health and at more frequent intervals as the health gets lower. As long as the DPS can respond quickly to the miser running away and AoE the seeds in time, this is in theory a simple fight. Here are some tips below to help explain some things.

1. The reason Double DRG failed is part player and part AoE limitation on the pickup DRG. They have Doom Spike (straightline) and Circle of Thorns (Circle AoE) there are from what I've observed different patterns of seeds. Sometimes the DRG CoT can hit them all, sometimes he can only hit half the group at best. DRG have to notice which this is and adjust accordingly (one DRG gets one side, the other gets other side) and work to get them down. This does require DRG to have according gear to hit hard as they can to prevent seedlings. The pickup DRG I did this with was consistently a few seconds late to the spawn so those precious GCD cooldowns meant more and had more spawns. I know it CAN be done with 2xDRG but its not as simple as BRD/BLM/SMN as their AoE is wider.

2. Seedlings are bad because each melee hit adds one Burrs debuff. With multiple attacking you can stack up very quickly. Every stack of Burrs increases the damage dealt when Miser does her global Burrs spread. At 4 stacks it does about 2k damage. After 4 its almost impossible to live except for the tank, but with no other team mates it wont last long. Plus, Burrs stacks can interrupt the healer due to the DoT they provide so once a mage gets 3+ burrs, they tend to get interrupted which is not good.

3. If you get hit by Bad Breath, the Morbol Fruit WILL heal all the debuffs. When I get hit I would activate my Tempered Will to remove the heavy so I could get to the fruit to remove the debuffs and keep on trucking.

4. I said PLD has no use in the seed stage because of the level of awareness everyone else must have. Once she lays, she will run to the tank, usually stop halfway to do her single target Burrs attack, then run to tank and do bad Breath. Everytime I tried to help with seeds Bad Breath would hit the whole team and ruin the fight. So I stay back and let them handle it. A WAR with his AoE attacks could help this, but with the risk of hitting allies with bad breath this would be ill advised (escpecially in DF or not premade groups)

*EDIT* In the last run I did (MNK/SMN dps) I was requested to keep the boss in the center for Contagion/Bane. When she laid I ran to the opposite side so she would turn before doing anything. I was on mumble so was better able to coordinate with the SMN/MNK so they would not run in front of me and get hit. So it can be done, but as mentioned the other members must be placement aware so they are not getting in harms way.

5. WHM is slightly better for this fight due to Holy doing good damage to the seedlings. I have ran it more with a SCH healer and won successfully so it isn't necessary, but SCH do have a harder time here (AoE kills fairy pets, no solid AoE to assist the seedlings. Technically they can load Miser with Bio/Miasma/Bio 2 and Bane it to the seedlings, but this requires a lot of attention and pre-loading to do it (on top of healing and other duties) that this is kinda not worth it, but definitely a tactic worth exploring if the SCH feels "bored."

6. A lot of DPS I see will go for fruit on third stack when babies are up. This is a mistake and should not be done. Babies are the priority and nothing takes precedence for DPS at that time. What I have found to be super helpful is having tank (or the observant one) announce that babies are soon, and go ahead and eat if you are at two stacks. If at one stack then do not eat. This way if you get hit with a stack you arent at 3 and can focus on babies. This is especially important for BLM since 3 stacks = interrupts on spells which means you aren't helping anyone.

7. Black Mages should stand in the center of Miser so they have pretty much a solid indicator of "dead center" for their Blizzard 2, since Fire 2 wont reach all the babies and Miser moves quickly after laying making Fire 2 a bit hard to use.

8. Summoners have a strong use here with Tri_Disaster. Once the adds spawn, use Tri-Diasaster and focus them down one at a time (to not break the bind). The lowers the stacks you get from being attacked from multiple at a time and gives breathing room to get the adds down. SMN I partied with loaded with DoTs, used Bane on the original group, contagion, Ruin'd for DPS on the weakest ones and when we had three seedlings pop up, bane and tri-diasaster and then focused back on the boss. Tri-diasaster kept them in place and the DoTs killed them in pretty short order. This does require SMN stacking their Aetherflow and gets risky in the later stages when Aetherflow may not be up, but its solid for the first two rotations.

9. The third seeding spawn would be a good time to use the BLM/SMN LB2 to kill the seedlings plus damage the boss. If using a melee dps (MNK/DRG) then wait until the seed threat is over, then use it. This should put them low enough that if she goes for a fourth lay, you can just focus her down before the seedlings become an issue. Paladin LB is not strong here as if the tank is being overloaded with seedlings, the global attack the boss uses will deal one-shot damage.

10. For the SCH who is frustrated with this fight, resummon your pet (while she is out) whenever the boss charges Bad Breath. Adlo the tank before this to give some breathing room. SMN can resummon anytime, but best after all dots have been applied and won't run out, not at three stacks (for interrupts) and not when the boss is laying (as that is priority over all). Make sure to use Sustain to keep the pet regening to offset the DoT. Also SCH, you can heal your fairy with your heal spells to help keep it alive longer, but once fairy gets 4+ stacks I would Sustain then Resummon (use Swiftcast if everything is going well, otherwise would keep swiftcast for a tank/dps death.

The fastest I've managed to clear AV is in 40 mins, so not a speedrun but its not a long dungeon with everyone knowing and working together. If you are on Balmung and just having no luck winning, contact me and I'll see if I can arrange a time to run it with you. I'm working on leveling SMN/SCH so that way I can come in any capacity, but for now I am tank only.

[Alzelia]

I just beat this for the first time earlier this week. I wish I had this guide then, it would have been much easier! Very good guide!

[dragonflyseksparade]

I've beat Aurum Vale. It is easier than reading the entire OP.

[TerryQ1967]

Two weeks and not one finished run, getting to be a joke now

Just no way to reach AK until AV is complete, but now just becoming a joke with group members rage quitting at the slightest problem, and those that make it to last boss just unable to deal with adds. I do personally believe something needs addressing with this dungeon, and soon.

[TerryQ1967]

And another day has pasted and still no further. A combination of rage quitters, first timers and FC timing clashes makes me think that is going to be the end of this game for me. Unless something can be done, but I'm guessing the lose of one players does not bother anyone here or at SE. It's all about the cash :-)

[Ruri]

It's really not THAT difficult, if DF parties are giving you trouble just shout in Rev Toll for a party maybe or ask your LS or FC for assistance.

[Starfox71rt]

Like the above poster mentioned, you should really try and get some help from an FC/LS member or shout in Rev Toll. I've found, in general, that players are less likely to bail after one wipe if it's a premade group. Furthermore, although 90 min is plenty of time to clear the dungeon, you can discuss final boss strategy prior to queueing to ensure players are reasonably ready to take down that boss in premades without wasting dungeon time.

[TerryQ1967]

Been there done that, lol
Trouble now is most are onto better and higher things, and quite a lot hate AV with a passion. Tbh I can see why lol.

[AnimaAnimus]

AV is by no means a difficult dungeon but it is more difficult than most others. Ppl have just grown accustomed to not being challenged in this game, so when they are they /rage.

The only real solution for df problems is to find ppl from your server.

[Gamemako]

Hey OP, thanks for the guide. Used the info to clear AV today. Both DPS and I were new to the dungeon. The group I just had was SCH/SMN/MNK/WAR, with me being the WAR. We wiped on final boss the first go -- I failed to mention the seedling stacking debuffs, which got us all killed. Luckily, SCH was quiet but competent, SMN LB2'd the second group of adds, and we ignored the last group of seedlings and finished off the boss. Still had to kill a lot of seedlings along the way. I'm not sure how you'd approach the fight with SCH and 2 MNK.