Big Trouble in Little Ala Mhigo

[Kitone]

So, I am on about my 20th attempt at this main story quest. I am doing this as a BLM.

I have tried the following tactics to win:
Focus just on putting AOE on the mobs. This works great for the first set of mobs, but the second set do not die fast enough.
Focus on a single mob at a time combining blizzard/fire/scathe

AOE mobs and cure Wilred. Cannot kill/cure fast enough
Focus on killing single mobs and healing Wilred. Again cannot kill heal fast enough.
Just healing Wilred. Cannot heal fast enough.

Using Scathe to try and aggro all the mobs and kite.

Also, the quest does not say so, but if the burly guy in charge of Ala Mhogo dies, you also fail the duty.

What tactic am I not using? How do I win?

[deicide2673]

I had a lot of trouble with this one as a GLD, but as a THM it seemed a lot easier. Sleep is key I think.
I stood at the side not the canyon side of the bridge and just took out the ranged guys first (putting the others to sleep)
Then picked off a couple of guys fighting my guys.
The second lot came and I took the trailing guys, think they are mages of some sort. Same idea with sleep.
I also put the dragon to sleep, then killed it when it woke up.
By this time there was only a couple of guys hand to hand with ours and I just kept blasting away with fire, transposing, lightning, back to fire when MP was full.
That was it.
The sleep management stops a lot of damage getting through to the allies and gives you chance to pick them off easily.

Never healed anybody btw

[Kitone]

Unfortunately, the NPCs hit every mob I sleep. Tried this 5 times tonight. I just slept everything I could target, then nuked one at a time. Also tried mixing it wil AOE one time to kill two they kept waking up. Wilred keeps dying.

[Kitone]

So, note to self. Be sure to equip you BLM soul gem... Thank you for your help.

[Zazarya]

For other Black Mages, who, like me, failed their first attempt at Big Trouble in Little Ala Mhigo, even though they had the soul crystal equipped and even though they tried what is mentioned in this thread, here is what worked for me. Stand off to the right where you can see the approaching attackers, the meleeing big guy, and also the healing shaman who will be in the far back. My impression was that the point of the fight is to encourage you to coordinate with the melee and look out for the other ranged team members, especially the healer! Focus fire with Wilred, stay out of the knot of melee, and keep attackers off the healer. Also, don't forget that your sojourn as an Archer gave you Virus to debuff the big attacker and Raging Strikes to help save you when you need to beat an attacker down quickly cuz they left the melee to attack you.