Why we NEED a caster for Ifrit hard?

[Awake]

Problem is that the average joes joining the DF are really bad geared(FATE zergers that still have ilvl 30 gear) and incredibly bad at teamwork.Now dont get me wrong there are alot of good palyers doing DF and i've had the pelasure to play with them many times, but i guess ppl just wants to play it safe with Ifrit so they want to have a caster in the grp as it makes killing the nails trivial.

[Vektrat]

• First of all, if the DPS is decent you can kill all 4 nails
• Caster LB3 -> AE 4 nails, finish them 4 off
• Melee LB3 One nail -> finish it, kill the others
• Kill 3 nails, ignore the 4th, tank LB3 to survive the AOE

Tried them all successfully

[gigi_frana]

Killed Iffrit with more times without a black mage than with one.
And once a black mage missed the nails with the LB... oh well, like Awake said, many randoms without a clue are joining.

[AldricBranchais]

And they didn't, which proves it doesn't matter. It's like the whole "ermaged can't do danjan without paladin plznerf", yes BLM/SMN LB and Paladin interupts make the fight a ton easier, but the fight is completely doable without either. Wish it was harder if anything, so there would be less terribly geared and/or bad players queueing for Garuda or worse Titan.

This. Got bored and tried to DF a Titan run... we didn't even make it beyond 75% before someone died, and people started dropping group in combat.
Most of them still had AF and white gear.

Ifrit, Garuda... Y U NO PREPARE NEWBS!

[Themis]

The girlfriend hasn't had any issues taking down Ifrit without a caster. Of course, now that most people assume you do need one, as soon as people see there isn't a BLM or SMN in the group they bail. It usually comes down to knowing what strategy to use in what conditions. That difficult thing is getting these kinds of ideas out of others' heads, but it's a normal thing to want to do something in the easiest/simplest form possible and this is one of them. In this case, a dedicated stun for Eruptions and a BLM/SMN LB3 to take out the nails quicker. It's like class stacking all over again.

It will probably be easier with players (in a no BLM/SMN group) if they a) know what they are doing, and b) are reasonable geared/skilled to be able to kill the nails quick enough. But as more and more are getting through the story now, you will start to see players who don't know what they are doing/aren't really prepared for the hard content, and with the Duty Finder it's quite easy to find those players.

[yushiamo]

Like everyone else said, you don't need a caster. People are blinded by other possibilities.

[Leonas]

The only problem is, in order to get any progression done at all at level 50 is to do HM Ifrit first. Thats all there is to it. This game is completely backwards. you have to do 8 man raids in order to do small group content endgame. So complaining about low geared/new people in ifrit is a bit like complaining about getting wet after falling out of a boat.

On topic. Yeah, you don't actually " NEED " A blm/smn for lvl3 lb, but its nice to have to make things go cleaner. Got through it just fine with 3 DRG and a Bard. All DPS do front. Single target lvl3 lb on rear one. Proceed to run to second rear one and attack it while all the other dps work on front 2. As soon as lb1 is available, nuke the second rear one.

[Pyros]

The only problem is, in order to get any progression done at all at level 50 is to do HM Ifrit first. Thats all there is to it. This game is completely backwards. you have to do 8 man raids in order to do small group content endgame. So complaining about low geared/new people in ifrit is a bit like complaining about getting wet after falling out of a boat.

On topic. Yeah, you don't actually " NEED " A blm/smn for lvl3 lb, but its nice to have to make things go cleaner. Got through it just fine with 3 DRG and a Bard. All DPS do front. Single target lvl3 lb on rear one. Proceed to run to second rear one and attack it while all the other dps work on front 2. As soon as lb1 is available, nuke the second rear one.

What? The progression is Wanderer Palace > Amdapor Keep > Ifrit HM. The fact you can do Ifrit before doing either of the 4man dungeons is actually the issue. It is however absolutely not needed to do any 4man content.

[Leonas]

What? The progression is Wanderer Palace > Amdapor Keep > Ifrit HM. The fact you can do Ifrit before doing either of the 4man dungeons is actually the issue. It is however absolutely not needed to do any 4man content.

The problem that you aren't seeing is both Palace and Keep kind of have hard dps checks. Like very, very steep. I just don't see average players doing either of those reliably with level 44 Grand Company weapons. In order to get access to level 50 grand company weapon, you have to clear Keep and you'll get screamed at if you're undergeared on keep. Sssooo you're only option really is to do HM Ifrit which is a hell of alot less of a dps check than palace or keep.

[BrainWoodstock]

It works without a mage, its a bit harder but i did it 2 times with no mage with duty finder.