Dzemeal Darkhold Speed Run Guide

[Neversleeps]

If a party can complete a speedrun with lancers, pugilists, etc, I will appreciate it if they posted on the forums a guide on how to do such a thing, because all these guides are heavily stacked in one direction or another.

A balanced party, please.

Now that we have the 5 chest run completed, we are going to try to mix things up a bit with Lancers and other class combinations. One thing to note is that a reason you see so many guides with seemingly skewed parties is because while there does exist a margin for error (you can see it in how sloppy we are in this video), the instance is pretty unforgiving if you're trying to go for a "full" completion. The content is still relatively new, so you'll see more and more people stream-line tactics that'll eventually allow for more customization.

One minor caveat, however, is that a balanced party will still probably have 3-4 mages and either a Marauder or a Glad as your main tank. Which means there will really only be 3-4 spots left for other melee class. Another thing to take into account is that that melee class might not play like a "normal" variant of that class. For example, they may be borrowing so many other job skills as to give them a truly niche role that not every Lancer or Pug may be able to fulfill.

[Rentahamster]

Lancer is pretty good for dungeon runs. I've completely respecced from Thaumaturge to Lancer.

Dat Chaos Thrust!

I also enjoy poking the ogre in the butt with my long stick.

[DGMart]

Actually you can sleep the ghosts cause we've done it. But like it was stated earlier it's chances are really low. Ogre can be slept as well. Not sure about Batraal as we never tried.

[Kaeko]

I wonder how stats affect your dps as mages, do you mind posting stats?

I have a very hard time with stats since I always am crafting for hq, right now i'm working on WVR crafts with high DEX and I need to keep 130'ish DEX. Am i killing my mage ability with such low DEX?

Also what wand does Kaeko use? I was using the Jade crook+2 but your usage of Aegis Boon II makes me want a shield.

I'm using a Walnut Wand (of something, I forget). The best wand to use for the role I play in this (basically lots of Curaga spam, taking hate, and staying alive) is Gridania Wand since you get a reasonably high Potency with MP and MND (your curing stats) but I've been too lazy to pick it up. The shield is essential. Aegis Boon and Deflection are very broken, especially with a +2/3 Square Ash shield.

My stats are 174 MND (cap), then 132 VIT (dumped everything I could into VIT after capping MND). INT doesn't seem to make an appreciable difference in damage currently in 1.18 so there's not a huge benefit to stacking INT for nuke damage, especially when nukes do so much on normal mobs at 0 +INT. Really the concept of the build I play is pretty cheesy:

(1) Get the maximum amount of MP possible from stats and food (use divine Stone Soup)
(2) Go purely HP and MP gear on equipment
(3) Lots of defense buffs (Sentinel, Featherfoot, Aegis Boon II, Deflection, +/- Diversion and Decoy)
(4) Spam Curaga I/II +/- Spiritbind blindly with no regard for enmity or MP efficiency
(5) Use defense buffs for temporary safety with the assumption mobs will die before they break buffs

Our main healer Katsu Kobashi has a similar stat build but a much different strategy regarding play-style since he's the designated "main healer" and has to worry about other issues like enmity and MP efficiency.

EDIT:
Also, you can definitely sleep the skeletons for Batraal. They are slept a number of times during the video that was posted. I even accidentally wake one due to the clumsiness of auto-attack in 1.18.

[MrLion]

lol reminds me of Paragon back in WoW and their heroic ragnaros raid composition...nothing but druids and paladins..