Brainstorming a strategy for Floor 130 boss - solo fight (DPS)

[FinaSel]

I am currently trying to think of a strategy to get past floor 130 boss as solo DPS (NIN), but I can't come with many good ideas.

Perhaps if we put our heads together we can come up with something. Especially before we run in and try without a plan.

First, its damage output is very very high.

There are only two ideas I have, but neither seem very good to me.
The first is to run around as much as possible and keeping distance from the boss until potion cooldown is off.
But the problem here, if it even is possible to keep running from the boss is that the fight would take very long, especially for a melee DPS. The only time to do damage would be ranged Ninjutsu or Throwing knives, which drain a lot of TP AND then the boss runs to the centers to use Fear Itself, during which time it does not attack you.

But the boss stands still when it uses Iceball and Fireball, so it might be possible to keep a good distance. For melee it is especially tough though.

The other idea is to kill it before it kills you. Succubus --> Vul. up Debuf x5 --> Shade Shift + keen Flurry --> Dex potion --> Full buff --> Trick Attack --> Unleash everything --> Second wind.
Then keep the distance from the boss until you can use healing potion.
But there just will not be enough damage and recast on dex potion is 3 1/2 or 4 minutes I think. So no healing potion for 3 1/2 or 4 minutes. That's an extremely long time to stay alive at this boss as a melee DPS.

If someone has any better ideas, please share. I'd like us to plan a way to get past this boss. There must be something...

[Myon88]

It does seem like all the non-SMN dps jobs are stuck at this boss.

For what it's worth, you can't outrun the boss and avoid autoattacks by kiting, as all the bosses in PotD run faster than you do. Otherwise MCH/BRD/ARC would have cleared it already. But you're right that it will allow you to create some distance whenever the boss stops for a split second to put down fire/ice patches, that will buy you a couple of seconds of breathing room as the boss catches to you again.

[SpookyGhost]

Boss rotation is Dissever -> Fireball -> Iceball -> Dissever -> Fireball -> Iceball -> Fear Itself -> Repeat. Each cycle lasts ~40s. Based on this and the fact that you can't avoid the autos, your only option is burn him and stay roughly in the middle. At most you'll get 2 uses out of any defensive CDs so plan them entirely around Dissevers (Ball of Fire/Ice and autos hit for less, though still pretty hard). Try and line Bloodbath up with your offensive CDs, as well as Second Wind usage. That's pretty much all I can think of, unfortunately. Doesn't seem like they really balanced the bosses in the 100+ floors around being solo'd tbh.

[HyperiusUltima]

Yeah, it's really rough as BRD. Are people 99/99 yet? That could be what it takes to get through Floor 200. If they are and can't get past 130, then yeah, the devs should balance it a bit more so any class other than SMN can get by(SMN being ridiculously bursty in PotD).

[Myon88]

I was 99/99 on my 130 run as MCH and only got the boss to 50% on my best attempt, so I doubt it's going to go down anytime soon unless there's a major undiscovered strategy to exploit.

That said, personally I don't think they need to expend a ton of effort to ensure every class can solo it. Just like 1v1 PvP balance (dueling) isn't a priority for them, in PvE some classes are just going to be better at soloing and that's just life. Ensuring that party compositions are relatively balanced is good enough, and I think they've gone on record to say that PotD is designed for groups, and solo should be viewed as a personal challenge for fun.

That's also why the solo leaderboard is split up into the different classes, SMN will only compete against other SMN, and so on.

[FinaSel]

Thank you all for your input.

I was 99/99 when I got to this boss, but the incoming damage is extremely high and fast compared to any of the other bosses before it.

I wish there was some kind of hidden gimmick about the boss that we are missing.
I've watched several fight videos, but can't see any vulnerabilities or weaknesses which can give the player an advantage.

I actually removed Blood for Blood from my rotation in Deep Dungeon because of the increased damage. Although looking back on many boss fights, I can see where I could have used it.
Use Featherfoot doesn't seem to be very helpful. Perhaps using B4B right after the first Dissever might be useful? Pair it together with Shade Shift.

The fight was too chaotic for me to notice, but I beleive Shade Shift will only protect against physical attacks, which means Fireball and Iceball will still do damage, and hurt more if I'm using Blood for blood.

Does anyone have any experience using a +DEX or +STR or +INT potion in here? How much did it affect your outgoing damage?

[FinaSel]

I tried keeping my distance from the level 30 (not 130) boss to see how effective it would be, as practice for level 130.

Unfortunately, as many pointed out, this method is not very successful. While the boss does stop to use ice / fire ball, they will still hit you, no matter how fast you move. And Dissever hits from very far away. So that strategy is basically out.

Using a Vit+ Potion will give extra effect to Shade Shift, which lasts for only 20 seconds but it based on max HP. But it does not effect self heals.
I tried using Second Wind with Blood for Blood, but if it had any effect on amount of HP restored, it was too small to notice.

Thinking about using a DEX+ potion and seeing how much damage can be done quickly. But, the problem is it shares a cooldown with healing potions. And 4 and a half minutes...there would be one chance.

Will probably try Shade shift --> Succubus --> Vuln Up --> Second Wind (if received damage) OR Mega Potion (depending on HP removed) --> Keen flurry --> Dex + Potion (hopefully off cooldown...) --> Trick Attack Rotation.
But I'm not sure what to do after that.

[kensatsu]

some rotations hint, b4b lower your defense, so you pop this with Keen Flurry just before pop B4b and offcourse use Second Wind, but it will be only effective on Physical attack, if there a lot of aoe comming, wait before pop B4B. Many of the aoe is magical attack.
It can be a little easier to self heal and compensate the b4b on dragoon : you can pop Blood Bath, Keen Flurry, b4b, second wind

[Commander_Justitia]

Can only talk about DRG. I was sub 30% when I died, I have also that feeling that it might be possible but I am not really motivated to try it anymore.xD

So, as for nin I don't think you guys will have enough selfheal for this boss, same with Monks. The reason I got back in the fight as drg was because of bloodbath, if you allign it in your opener it does a huge amount of selfheal and DRG can use b4b because we get 30% more dmg for 10 or 15% more dmg incoming. The healing will be better, so it is worth it. I started also with succubus and 5 debuff stacks, that I should mention probably...But as soon as the 5th stack is on, I already transform back. Not sure about this, but I kept running in circles around the boss to make sure that I dont get an additional tick from the aoe which spawn right under you, dont know if this is really needed. Pots, second wind...asap, because they have big cooldowns, probably even before bloodpath phase. Then defensive cooldowns.
My idea is to wait for all buffs and off global cooldown attacks after your opener, so they are ready again when bloodbath is ready again(which is almost same time with b4b). Your damage will be lower but it will be higher in the selfhealphase.
I would also recommend that when he is about to fear the 2nd time that you switch to a 2nd succubus just for the reason to reapply the 5 debuff stacks. You will only need to cast it once ofc.
For the 1st fear I would probably try to use sprint right when the cast has ended and make him lose some autoattacks, we got invigorate after all, 500 TP plus running arond will refresh it, maybe make even use of the jumpskill so we can increase the distance even more.
I only come up with this because I died a few secs after bloodbath was ready, if my HP would have been a bit higher I could have healed myself better/longer. If you manage to survive at that point like 20s more pots and chakra may be ready again. And to see that I was in the high 20% I would think that this could be somehow possible.
Cant recommend using any strenght or dex pots, they share the same cooldown as health pots, but with their cooldown of 3 min or what?
Does feint work on the boss? xD

[FinaSel]

I tried to get there again today but foolishly underestimated the 100 floor boss.
The last time I went that boss seemed easy, so I was too relaxed and made a terrible mistake and died.

Need to try again.

I've tried using Feint on a few of the bosses and it hasn't worked on any of them. Probably won't work on this one either.
I was thinking about using VIT+ potion in case the healing it provided was more than the healing from a potion and it I knew there wouldn't be another chance to use a potion.
The reason for thinking about using DET+ would be to increase my DPS a lot if I knew I wouldn't get much out of another potion. The boss hits for so much that potions aren't so useful. I thought perhaps focusing on doing damage more than healing could be effective.

But first I want to get to floor 120-129 and test an HQ Vit+ potion to see how much it would heal me.

I'll probably try 10 floors a day until I get back to 130.

EDIT: Your plan sounds pretty good for a Dragoon. I hope to see a Dragoon clear it soon.