Difficulty of AF3?

[Ariagiovanni]

I read the pages that tell you about the AF quests and recommended parties, but from my experience those don't always hold true. It says you need 15 people, I assume level 55-58, and you may manage to win. That doesn't really give me much hope for doing this quest. Can someone who has done it give me a few pointers of what levels and numbers of people to throw in? Try to keep away from saying "have a 70 pld" unless it is completely necessary.

[Mik]

I did it with a full alliance (18 people) levels 58-67. Most players were around lvl60 with a few high-level whms who were nice enough to help out. We had one pld60 tanking the NM and all 4 whms casting cure3 on the pld as soon as he took any dmg. The NM's dimensional death did about 400dmg to the pld each time. We killed it twice. The first time it went really well. The second time a couple of our dmg dealers tried to pull hate off the pld. They were each killed in 1 hit. So just don't have your blms cast anything too crazy and no one but pld use TP and it should go okay. Having many whms was the key I think. You could probably do this at level 55 if you had a lot of whms and a good pld.

[Gryff]

its hard.


When i got it myself i was level 61 or something. I saw a jap player ask for help so i messaged we had 3 full parties with multiple lvl 70+ melees and it still wasnt *easy*


Second time i did it was to help someone else.

Only 2 whms, a lvl 71 pld, a few melees around my level at the time ( 60-62 ) and a few mages around my level.

the 62 dark with us got killed voking it off the paladin when he got low. So yeah its pretty damn hard.

[SonikU4ia]

Would it be fair to say that WHM AF3 is the most difficult AF quest of all the job classes?

By previous descriptions, it doesn't sound like 3 parties of lvl 55 could really cut it.

[Ungerpurr]

Yeesh, crazy considering that the monk AF3 battle can be done by one group of level 60s...

[hageshiku]

it's hard, but not as hard as some people make it out to be.

i recommend a tank of at least lvl 60, but it's still possible at level 55 for sure. if you're well prepared, i'd say 12 lvl 55's could do it. what's important is that you have several whms (shouldnt be hard to get, it *is* whm af) and that they all have a macro to heal the main tank.

if the healers have targeting problems yes, even a lvl 70+ tank will die. keep in mind that the the NMs ws, dimensional death, can do up to 1000 damage. (although a good pld probably wont take more than 500-600, and it *can* hit for less than 100) he can and will do this repeatedly.

i think rdm af3 is much harder. that nm has a disgustingly powerful aoe attack.

[Jei]

dificulties, i'd say... Rdm > War > Whm... Whm is relatively easy.

Whm AF3 NM fight will rely on heavy healing, you could imagine quite a lot of Whm joining this battle so it make sense. The NM isn't too bad except it's special move which, like other said, does tons of damage. Attackers with weaker defense can drop in 1 hit.

Compare to Warrior's NM... they have to fight 3 weapons at once. each weapon has their death move which also do 300-500 in a single hit, plus a group stun move.

Rdm's NM, a Golem, can do 500+ area attack.... if the fighters don't bring it far enough from the mages, mages can be dead in 1 shot.

[Alyandah]

Originally posted by Jei
dificulties, i'd say... Rdm > War > Whm... Whm is relatively easy.


I dont agree, I think whm is the hardest, then rdm, then war.

[Alyandah]

Originally posted by Jei
dificulties, i'd say... Rdm > War > Whm... Whm is relatively easy.


I dont agree, I think whm is the hardest, then rdm, then war.

[Issaac]

Is there any posibility to avoid AoE attacks beside stand far away? corners? standing higher then the mob?



Btw i dont think any of these are realy hard. Its just a matter of the tactic. The only problem is to know what awaits you. So hands up for the one who did it without any information in the past.

[Fourinkmaaya]

gathering an alliance of friends + helpful stragers is really really hard ;_;

[SnoMann72]

I am also a WHM and trying to get 3 PTs is super hard. People I talk with said, they don't even care to help WHMs due to the difficulty of the AF3. I say that all of AF quests for WHMs is very hard.

[Ariagiovanni]

Ok i finally did WHM AF3 last night (took a break from WHM so NA could catch up).

Basically my party configuration was very odd, but we did it with no deaths. It was 6 WHM's (4 needed), 4 RDM's (we did RDM AF3 while there), 2 BLM's (level 60's), 75 War/nin, 61 DRG, 60 Thief, 59 DRG, and we had a few people rotating in and out of the alliance.

It went with no hitches at all. No one died and we defeated him 4 times with no trouble. A lot had to do with the blink tanking because when his WS actually did hit the War he went down to about half Hp quick. Anyways, not as tough as people said, the RDM AF3 in garlaige was far tougher, we had a few deaths on that.

[neighbortaru]

congrats you crazy taru :thumbsup:

[Icemage]

WHM AF3 isn't the hardest, but it's definitely scary, and not something you want to try without a good group of players. Minimum requirements I'd say are:

(1) Primary tank should have 1000+ HP. Dark Resistance items are also useful.

(2) Non-thieves should avoid using strong WS without Trick Attack, especially if they are using Sniper Rings (-20 Dark Resistance!), or they will most likely die.

(3) BLM should stay away from using Ancient Magic. If they get attacked, they will die, period.

(4) Dimensional Death is a Dark Element attack. If you have a high level Bard with Dark Carol, they should be in the party with the main tank.

The point is to have all healers targetting the primary tank with continuous healing, since he uses Dimensional Death very, very often.

I've done WHM AF3 on two separate occasions now, and each time the only reason someone got killed was because they broke one of the above rules.

Minimum level for success would be 55 if you have a full or nearly full alliance. If primary tank is 60+, you can get away with less, probably 2 full parties.


Icemage

[SW20]

I agree with Jei, RDM AF3 was harder than WHM AF3.

WHM AF3 would be just scary to get aggro if you are a mage.

But when we did RDM AF3, one of the WHMs healing pulled aggro from the bot and it ran toward the mages and did its AoE. It wasn't bad the first time, but when it did it the 2nd time, I was the only healer left, the other WHM went down and both RDMs went down. It got kinda hectic at that point, I somehow managed to evade both AoEs. We managed to kill it though.

[Miriamel]

Alright, I've done this last night... full alliance, 18 people (lvl51-63), 3 PLDs, 4WHMs, full 300% TP.

4 deaths.
----------------------------

It's a harsh battle, but it can be done, I'd imagine even without deaths if you just have enough white mages with you. This NM spams his WS "Dimensional Death" about every 10 seconds or even less. If ANYONE but the PLD draws aggro, they are pretty much bound to die - our deaths were DRK DRK MNK and, once mages ran out of MP, the PLD.

This definitely isn't cake cause your tank's HP will be dropping like there's no tomorrow. ^^;

I strongly recommend each healer makes a macro to cure the main tank, and as already mentioned, have enough WHMs with you and you should be fine.

[Issaac]

It should be easy doable to make a heal chain like in Everquest. So if you have 4 white mages dropping a cure 3 on the main tank every 2 Seconds and a backup healer (rdm) jumping in, in emergancy, i dont see any problems at all.

Its a shared agro to 4 healers


But i have to admit, i didnt do it up to now but why shouldnt it work?


Gratz Miriamel ^^
I hope i get it done when im rdy for it

[Shiia]

Shadow type monsters always hits hard... and those ŽŸŒ³ŽE is a nightmare. Rdm AF3 is hard too due to the fact thats its a drone type with nasty 500 AoE. None the less they were both hard :sweat:

[simplex]

That thing is evil. I really should of taken a pic of my log. If you are tanking this, good luck.

Dimensional Death = 300-500 dmg. x 10 = you can see the 0 next to my name on the pic in miris link ^^

[Soulcrash]

I got a quick question. Is it easy or hard to form an allience/get help to do WHM AF3? Especially on the fairy server..

[Miriamel]

Your best bet is to join AF groups on the basis of "I help you, you help me". It's never easy to find alliances to do stuff, and WHM AF3 needs a close to full alliance.

[Shiia]

Best bet to find help. Do a joint event of both Rdm Ghost and Whm Shadow. I have gathered people for my 1st part of AF3 this way. At least you got plenty of healers. Although what sux is most people where like 3~5lvls below the required lvl to equip the item :sweat:

I have fought this shadow 2 nights ago. As I expected his Dimention death (sp? ŽŸŒ³ŽE) dished quite alot of damage to the monk... (73 monk mind you... he got agro like mad with his Asuran fist -_-;) Full alliance will be needed for 55s, 2PT for 60s, and 1PT+ƒ¿ for 70s. He surely had a huge pile of HPs since it required 3 clean Light renkei + MB to down him. Comparing to Rdm AF3 Guardian status? He was quite weak. (no dangerous AE) Guess the AE itself can be deadly... with 10 people whacking the Guardian Statue can have a chance of unleashing multiple AoE attacks :sweat:

Note: We had the same Pld tank (73pld) in AF3 and his life surely dropped fast against rdm AF3. He occationally did drop below 1000 against Whm AF3 but was not that bad... then again it could be because he was a pld? /shrug

[tfung]

I've helped with this AF twice, both times full alliance.. first time it was with 4 whm's and a 75war/mnk and 75 nin/war tank... everyone else was around lvl56-58. We fought the NM 4 times and the nin was one-shotted twice when his utsusemi wore off... the war/mnk died once as well when he took hate off the nin using pentathrust over and over...

second time I did it we only had 3 whm's, the alliance was lvl58-62... the plds didn't die at all, but a bunch of us guillotine and penta spammers (had 5 drgs, 2 sams, and 1 drk in that alliance), died after being hit with DD multiple times... one of the times I actually became the main tank and died after the PLD lost hate and the whm's couldn't cure me fast enough (6 DD's within 20 seconds) ^^;; was wearing phalanx rings and using defender and it still did to me about 500-600 each hit.. PLDs were taking about 300-400 each DD

I think the Dimensional death are counters, not WS's... so if you do a high enough damage hit on him, he will use DD regardless... I feel that the way to go about killing him is actually not to spam multi-hit WS's.. or any WS's for that matter.. just let the PLD keep hate and everyone else just wack or nuke it.... and the healers focus on the main tank

[Issaac]

Do Jack-o'-Lantern help?

Jack-o'-Lantern CHR-10 resistance darkness +25

[Miriamel]

Yes, those would be able to help.

[BlueFire]

Originally posted by Jei
dificulties, i'd say... Rdm > War > Whm... Whm is relatively easy.

Whm AF3 NM fight will rely on heavy healing, you could imagine quite a lot of Whm joining this battle so it make sense. The NM isn't too bad except it's special move which, like other said, does tons of damage. Attackers with weaker defense can drop in 1 hit.

Compare to Warrior's NM... they have to fight 3 weapons at once. each weapon has their death move which also do 300-500 in a single hit, plus a group stun move.

Rdm's NM, a Golem, can do 500+ area attack.... if the fighters don't bring it far enough from the mages, mages can be dead in 1 shot.

The RDM NM is quite insane. As you can see in the screenshot below, it killed our full alliance (and we had the help of high levels). It did it's AoE attack like 2 times in a row. -_-

[Soulcrash]

Does Dark Stalker only spawn at that one spot in Eldieme? Is there another spawn point for them?

And how offen does a Tavnazia Bell drop?

[tfung]

Originally posted by Soulcrash
Does Dark Stalker only spawn at that one spot in Eldieme? Is there another spawn point for them?

And how offen does a Tavnazia Bell drop?

I only know of the one downstairs in the room with the human bones in it.. only 4 pop locations.. but all the whm's I've talked to and helped with AF3 seem to have gotten the bell from there. I've heard the bell drop after 3 kills, but the only time I've helped with getting a key for my whm friend, it took us 4 hours of camping, killing the 4 DS's everytime they spawned, before the bell dropped... so I dunno...

[Shiia]

Like above poster said the only safe spot with Darkstalkers is near the human bones. I suggest you camp eighther left or right corridor since you don't want earth elemental casting stongaII when you are fighting one of the DS. There are some DS in the large hall but there are packed with ghosts, dogs, and skellies which you don't want them as guests.

As for drop rate, very much like other items. It could be hard, or it could be easy.