[dodger1v]

Im curious about a few things for BCNM. One is what armor do you wear? Im nearing 40 and am preparing to to do BCNM with my LS. I was just wondering what armor should I be wearing? Just the highest lvl. doublet I can get at that level? And then I can wear my combat caster pants (+5 evasion) and wonder clomps. Right now I have Noble Ribbon, Hope Rings, Bird Whistle, and im looking for a corsette. Is corsette synth only? I cant seem to find it anywhere but the AH. And right now they are out of it. Plus I plan on getting my LS to help me finish BRD AF1 so I have my paper knife.

Do I sound like Ill be ready for BCNM?

[Moo]

Taru RSE is nice for BCNM40. Good defense and about +100 hp.

[Junun]

I've now done BCNM40-giddeus 8 times now, 7 wins. I can honestly say that CHA is not *that* big a deal aseveryone makes it out to be. I have done it successfully with both +26cha and as low as +12cha.

The main effect i've noticed with CHA is that lower CHA tends to make sleeps break randomly. Where as high CHA makes them sleep the full duration and wake at the same time(much easier thie way).

When doing BCNM the most important thing is having a good strat and dont panic.

[sudo]

thanks for this post guys, I am beginning to become much less stressed about not having a signa =D
and less stress= way more fun!!!! wooooooo


now in my neruosis, I must ask, is it really worth it to plop down 100k for mary's horn for the BCNM40?

Please comment :spin:

[Junun]

Sadly I would say Mary's horn is a must for BCNM. It doubles the duration of your song. Giving your horde lullaby enough time to refresh before the majority(normally all) sleeps wake up. I have slept mobs withour mary's and they always woke before sleep was back up...in BCNM setting this is suicide.

[Aniga]

Oh yes, definately. My two losses are from my first two attempts. On my third attempt we got enough loot so that I could afford my Mary's Horn, and I've never lost from there on. A nice little item I'm NEVER giving up :D

[Siven]

I did it w/o the horn, we didn't win but sleep wasn't our main problem. I got two resists the entire time and was able to put them down with Lullaby after a bit of fumbling. It was also the first time for my PT so understandably there were mistakes. Melees just took too long to kill the BLM. I could've kept on Horde Lullabying the MNKs if healers didn't run out of MP. I had 700+ HP and even w/o Minne they were hitting me for only 20 to 25 each. So, that's mostly yellow before I can sleep them again. However I'm definitly for getting the horn.

[Doublereed]

After 2 failed attempts at BCNM40, I've got a question about positioning. I figured I'd post it here rather than making a new thread (sorry if it's not completey ontopic with the rest of the thread). I had +21 CHR and a Mary's horn, so that's not the problem. I got the first horde lullaby off without any problems, and it held long enough for the song to charge again. I sang lullaby again when all the mandragoras had woken up and were surrounding me, but for some reason the area of affect only slept the mobs in front of me, and not behind. This problem just continued to get worse with all the mobs ebing awake at different times, and after a couple minutes I couldn't keep more than 4 asleep at once. So I'm wondering what everyone is doing to keep them all asleep. I was considering maybe standing against the wall to ensure they only attacked from in front of me, but my PT didn't feel up to trying again. Thanks in advance for the replies

[Krumble]

Here's what I do, with much less CHR and have had 100% success:

After you sleep them the first time, move to the opposite end of the arena. Cast knight's minne (and blink if you feel like it, I don't bother usually) on yourself. Target any one of the bunch and hover over your macro.

When they start running to you, they will streamline and bunch together very tightly. It's then very easy to put them to sleep without even getting hit. With yagudo drink, I could keep myself alive in there (minus the black of course) for the entire duration. I usually don't bother with juice, though. With cuir boulli armor and choosing DEF over CHR, I get hit for only about 17 per. So even when they do catch up to me, I can take about 5-6 rounds of melee attacks before death. Even under worst conditions, (ie. I'm playing gameboy or something) I will be able to put them to sleep before 2 rounds goes off. In addition, I can also use my limited mp regen from Ballad I to heal some of the melees (usually the damn dragoon).

Which reminds me, make your PLD spend the cash on 1-2 yagudo drinks per fight and opts for 2h sword. It's annoying as heck to get beat on for 30 seconds because he has no MP for flash and is dealing mediocre damage. Honestly, usually the DRG will just provoke and WS to get it off. I don't think I prefer PLD for this fight, unless they are religious with their juice and flash.

While the black is alive, I have time to do minne and ballad and whichever threnody corresponds with silence (can't remember atm, it's air or ice). After the black dies, I can do madrigal, minne, and ballad with this strategy, albeit with some periods where only 2 of 3 or 4 I am trying to cast are up. I plan to sub redmage next time we go so I can put even more songs up on my PT.

[Junun]

I've attached a small picture detailing how we do our BCNM 40 giddeus fight. I'm sure there are other strats and positioning, but this is how we've done ours and its been quite successful. In fact, my one loss came from when we tried a slightly different strat/position on our second fight.

[frogurtx]

Btw I don't recommend Mary's for this fight. Reason being is that its a horn, and therefore has a smaller area effect. I bought this horn for my 7th BCNM trip (I've had 5 previous victories), to try it out.

The first sleep cast was fine, the mandras were out for about 30 seconds, the problem arose when they woke up. They proceeded to surround me and double slap my silly as usual, and when i casted Horde Lullaby on the first one in front of me, it only affected about 5 of them, leaving the 2 directly behind me still awake.

At first I thought maybe I miscasted, and just passed it off as a fluke. I got one under control, and let the other one pummel me.
Then the mandras woke again, and surrounded me as usual, and I went to sleep them... The same thing happened. The 2 behind me were still awake!

Luckily I have a good group who killed them very fast, but it was very messy, and we barely survived. As soon as I got warped back to Jeuno I sold the horn back.

But hey, maybe my technique is off, let me know what you guys think.

Booooo Mary's Horn!:spin:

[Junun]

I've never had problems landing sleep on ones behind me. Problem is if they are behind you and you are targetting ones in front, it probably places the ones in the back out of the area effect. Its very important that you focus sleepga on the most centered one, to ensure you get them all. When you fail to sleep some, cast battle elegy or slow on them, makes them even more of a joke to tank.

[frogurtx]

That Battle Elegy tip is a good one, i'll be sure to use that next time.

As for targeting the center one, I find myself completely surrounded by the mandras, so wouldn't any mob in front of me, be the "center one"? Even when my back is to the wall, they seem to climb up on the ledge just to get behind me :sweat:

Oh well, I think I'm going to just stick to my trusty Harp

Thanks for the info Junun

[SyNapSe]

A couple quick questions..

Do the white Mandy's use AoE sleep? I've read something about the WHM should poison themselves to avoid this?

Anyone have an idea/estimate of how many HP the Black NM mandragora has?

I'm thinking I'll have +14 CHR when I go in, and hopefully a Def. of 220-230. This sound about right?

[Serif]

Originally posted by SyNapSe
A couple quick questions..

Do the white Mandy's use AoE sleep? I've read something about the WHM should poison themselves to avoid this?

Anyone have an idea/estimate of how many HP the Black NM mandragora has?

I'm thinking I'll have +14 CHR when I go in, and hopefully a Def. of 220-230. This sound about right?

I have +20 Charisma for when I cast Minne and Ballad before we go into the Circle and +17 Charisma when I have Mary's Horn on.

It helps a lot but I wish I had more Charisma as it seems sometimes the Mandras don't always go to sleep. Even though most of the time they do. That is why you have the Elemental Seal+Sleepga factor with your Mages.

And from my experiences the White Mandras never sleep.