[Firewind]

Sardia's Guide to the first three Prommy fights

I got bored and annoyed with poorly prepared Prommy groups so I recided to write a mini guide.

On the Issue of Gear

I've done multiple runs with synced down gear and to be honest gear isn't a huge issue in 30 Caps due to how much gear is actually useful pre-30 especially to mages and DDs. In BCNMs Strategy > Skill > Gear every time. This doesn't mean that you should neglect your gear. As kitten said at in the original guide, there is the Seer's Set, Shade Set and Noct Set all of which are highly useful from when you equip them to AF levels and really going by how cheap the sets are now you shouldn't really have an excuse to have them. There are parts of RSE you can equip that are useful if you can't get the full set. Hume RSE boots are great for all mages and Hume RSE hands are ideal for all DDs are one example.

Honestly bringing your RSE feet and Hands should be a requirement for these things due to how useful those pieces are at this level. Your RSE can also easily last up to AF level and some RSE can last beyond for some jobs. I know plenty of Hume, Mithra and Elvaan mages who still use thier RSE legs (feet in the case of Elvaan) due to how useful these pieces are. As a WHM my RSE legs lasted me until my Blessed Legs. That is Lv31 to Lv70 or thirty nine levels from a piece of gear you get for [free!

If you're honestly too poor to get the Seer's, Shade and Noct gear then go do your RSE quest and combine it with sync gear.

For the love of Altana bring your anima!

I don't care if you can't afford to bring potions or ethers after bringing these. Everyone should have anima and there should be no excuses for this. People ignore how powerful these little items are and well timed anima use can keep the NM completely locked down for the entire fight. I once finished a Mea fight on WHM without having to pop an ether because nobody was taking damage. My next mea fight wiped within seconds because I was the only one with Anima and the group assumed that the SMN and RNG would mean an instant win.

Be Prepared

To prepare for any Prommy run you should have this as a minimum:

Tanks: Hysteroanima, Psychoanima, Hi Potions, Ethers (PLDs only), Yag Drinks (PLDs only), stack of Shihei (NINs and WARs only), a form of Reraise, poison potions (Holla only)

DDs: Hysteroanima, Psychoanima, Hi Potions, Yag Drinks (BLUs, BLMs, SCHs, RDMs and SMNs only), Ethers (BLUs, BLMs, SCHs, RDMs and SMNs onry), a form of reraise, poison potions (Holla only)

Healers: Hysteroanima, Psychoanima, Terroanima (WHMs only), Yag Drink, Ethers, poison potions (Holla only), a form of reraise

Yes I did suggest a Terror for the WHM. Why? Simply because if it all hts the fan and you wipe the WHM can RR and start raising people and toss out the Terror if he/she gets aggro. The WHM having an terror is also pretty useful if the party needs a quick 30 seconds to rest. Things can go wrong and one person with a Terroranima can help out immensely especially when people start getting killed.

As for food suggestions it depends on the job. I'm going to cover the most popular jobs for Prommies:

WAR - If tanking Steamed Crab or Fishkabobs, if DDing Rice Dumplings or Jack o Lanterns
NIN - Steamed Crab or Fishkabobs, Jack o Lanterns if Ranged DDing, Rice Dumplings or Jerky if melee DDing
PLD - Steamed Crab or Fishkabobs
RNG - Jack o Lanterns give the biggest bang for your buck at this level.
WHM - Mushroom Stew or Ginger Cookies
BLM - Melon Pies
SMN - Ginger Cookies
COR - see RNG
BLU - Rice Dumplings
SCH - See BLM. Ginger cookies are useful if for some reason the party picked a SCH over a WHM for healing

Summoners

Decided to write an addition part about SMNs. First of all people act as though SMNs are the ace on the hole, the super weapon and the person who will carry the party through the prommy fight. I'll list several reasons why this is false.

1. The avatar or summoner can be killed/slept/stunned before an AF can go off thus knocking out an AF Blood Pact or AF entirely if the SMN is killed.
2. Bringing anima is are more important as the NMs can easily slaughter an unprepared party before the second AF goes off.
3. Astral Flow can only knock off about 50-60% of the NM's health.
4. It's very easy to get the Light, Wind, Ice and Water cores confused depending on your colour settings so the simple mistake of using thw wrong avatar can happen.
5. If you're in a pick up group there's no guarantee that the SMN even knows how to use thier 2 hour to their fullest potential.
6. The NM can simply be moved due to hate shifting, someone dying or the tank not staying still. This can easily throw off an astral flow BP
7. Things can go wrong. Even the best players can and will make mistakes from time to time. It happens. If you are only relying on one strategy for victory and have no plan for incase something goes wrong (which is why I suggested the WHM brings a Terror).
8. You are more than capable of winning a prommy fight without SMNs. My fourth mea win was a NIN, RDM, WHM, WAR and 2 MNKs and we won without any problems.

A few weeks ago I was in a Prommy fight with 3 SMNs at Holla. The party went SMNx3, WAR, SAMx2. Only me (one of the SMNs) and the WAR even brought anima and the party was convinced that we could never lose with 3 SMNs. So with only 4 anima between the 6 of us and the fact that the party leader had me and the WAR use our anima at the beginning meant that the NM would simply just heal the damage done by Astral Flow by draining our frontline's HP. Well that and one of the SMNs refused to bring even posion pots. We wiped very quickly thereafter.

The moral of the story is that without anima and preparation you WILL fail no matter how many SMNs you have.

Avoid Pick Up Groups

This is a no brainer. There is no guarantee that your pick up group will be prepared or even knows what it's doing. Your best best is honestly to simply ask friends or LS members if they need them. I know people who go on Prommy runs simply to get thier tactics pearl and others are levelling up alternate characters and need it. In FFXI you can't get anywhere without having a group of friend to help you and your freinds should be the first people you should ask when trying to organise a run.

That and there's always these forums. I don't mind helping out people on these runs are long as they remember their anima.

You don't have to be X, Y or Z job

As kitten said earlier you can win any CoP mission on any job. Some jobs are obviously better to bring to events than others but it doesn't mean that it's the only way to win. Get creative and experiment with unusual combinations. Honestly as long as you come prepared and have a clear strategy you shouldn't have much trouble as long as you bring a the basics (Tank, Healer, DD). Some jobs are limited by level caps. The following are probably the most limited in my opinion:

RDMs - Not to say they aren't useful for a 30 cap, if Dem manages to spawn it's babies you'll need a RDM or NIN to kite them around. It's just WHMs and BLMs are more suited to level caps due to getting thier spells first
SCHs -See RDM but will less spells available from the main job. Though SCHs do have a nice time nuking for 30 caps while backup healing if the WHM is having trouble. IMO SCHs become much more useful at higher level caps. Honestly if you have SCH unlocked and levelled you probably have WHM and/or BLM levelled too so you're better off coming on one of those for a 30 cap.
BRDs - While at this level a BRD's buffs are probably better than a COR's, a COR can contribute to DDing while a BRD can't really add much else to a 30 cap.
THFs- This is purely due to the recast timers on Sneak Attack and Trick Attack. THF is a great alternate subjob to WAR for non-tanking melees but I'm unsure as to how useful it is in a 30 cap BCNM due to SA and TA's recast timers. Prommy fights are not ones you want dragging out for a while due to the risk of anima wearing so a THF may well only get in one or two SAWS's a fight.

[Neverslip]

Originally Posted by Elwynn

One thing that didn't exist when the guide was first written: the gear scaling that was introduced with Level Sync. That's just another excuse for the lazy not to gear properly. Remember folks, unsynced gear > synced gear, and every bit helps when doing the 30 cap fights.

Yes, thank you... and this goes for all those other capped fights IMhO. I'm lucky I buy gear with other jobs I want to level in mind and mule most all my old gear. I was the only one in my group besides those just freshly over 30 to have un-synch/gimpt gear.

I happened to get Shade crap for cheap while lvling Thf long ago kept it cuz so many jobs can use it, brought that (which never proc'd but I wasn't the Tank) and the lower lvl rings, earrings, and necklaces and had very little trouble filling my DNC role on the Holla run.

Originally Posted by Firewind

Strategy > Skill > Gear

Yes... totally. And thank you for your "mini-addition" ... very helpful

[Malacite]

Not sure if this was posted yet (and I'm surprised it's still up) but here's Erecia's CoP guide.

For Glory - Erecia's CoP Guide

This is what I used way back when and it has a couple of spoilers but was incredibly well done. A lot of people sadly stole her ideas the SOBs!

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Went back and did a small update to account for the addition, with some credit due to Armando since we banged out those Level Sync details together a few months back.

And I finally spellchecked it. >.>;