[Rothy]

My friends and I have recently unlocked Sky and we got some interest from some other friends in starting a small 1 day a week Sky Linkshell where we farm 1 week, then pop NMs the next, the problem is.. we don't have THAT much experience in the way of Sky and I figured since you guys are all so awesome, you could give us some hints!

If you have ANY advice for us at all, please let me know.

[IfritnoItazura]

Genbu is the easiest of the Shijin; can start with that as your goal. Alternatively, can you farm NMs for pop items for sale, then split the proceeds so everyone gets some gil.

Sky NM System
Sky NM Chart
Sky NM Map (Japanese, but shouldn't be hard to figure out.)

[Mog]

Wiki has pretty much all the strategies you need to know. If you're gonna make a sky linkshell with no previous experience, start small. Make sure you get down all the lottery NM's.

A lot of them can be low-manned with the right jobs. Moreover, all of them can be taken down with a standard party setup. Make sure you have 1-2 tanks, healers, support, and DD's.

If you're going to take on the outside gods with no previous experience, I would strongly suggest you bring a full alliance. All of them can be tanked normally by a ninja or pld. It's usually a good idea to have dual tanks on the outside gods in case one of them goes down. The only things you have to worry about are chainspell from Suzaku, which you can shadowbind > run or silence? I'm not sure how well silence procs on him. Same idea with hundred fists and Seiryu. Byakko's kind of a pain in the ass to tank, so you'll have to make sure you have the right jobs for him.

As far as a lot of sky goes, you can just use standard party setups and be fine. Each mob is different though, but wiki should be able to tell you what moves they do.

P.S. Faust doesn't work well with melee jobs. Make sure you use any type of ranged attacks for him.

[TheGrandMom]

For Suzaku, Elemental Seal + Silence would be the only way to do it if you go that way. I wouldn't recommend it. Stay with Shadowbind and staying out of his range for 30 seconds instead. With Seiryu, you can also have your drks and blms rotate stuns or have a Chainspell + Stun rdm. Byakko is a tricky kitty. Since you're new to it, I'd have at LEAST 3 tanks on hand and at LEAST 2 dedicated whms to the tank party.

Sky is a hell of a lot of fun! Congrats and ENJOY!

[Rothy]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate it.

Originally Posted by TheGrandMom

Sky is a hell of a lot of fun! Congrats and ENJOY!

This is why I did it, my friends can't be active all for Dynamis AND Sky 4 days a week of work isn't their style a lot of the time. So I thought I'd try make this for them, to just have some fun really and the money is just a very nice Bonus.

[Icemage]

Originally Posted by TheGrandMom

Byakko is a tricky kitty. Since you're new to it, I'd have at LEAST 3 tanks on hand and at LEAST 2 dedicated whms to the tank party.

This bears repeating. Unless your tanks are have some truly incredible gear and your healers are spot-on, Byakko can occasionally wipe the floors with you (or at least threaten to).

Hint: He hits really, really, hard, really really fast, and has no significant elemental weakness. Oh, and he has Triple Attack.

The others are pretty tame if you know what you're getting into and have a gameplan.


Icemage

[Rothy]

Originally Posted by Icemage

Hint: He hits really, really, hard, really really fast, and has no significant elemental weakness. Oh, and he has Triple Attack.

I knew I hated cats for a reason.

[IfritnoItazura]

Don't hate the kitty for doing his job. =/

* * *

My last Byakko on PLD went something like this:

4 hits in a row -> Razor Fang -> Banishga III -> (got Ichi up; alliance cure bombed me to 100% HP) -> Flash (which it always resists) -> strip Utsusemi -> 7 hits in a row (interrupted Ni--but I lived) -> Claw Cyclone (700+ dmg when I had maybe 300 HP? Dead Paladin).

There was a Cure III fired off in the middle of the 7 hit string, but Claw Cyclone landed before the WHM's spell did.

Or, Full HP -> Red HP -> Full HP -> 0 HP, in a rather short order.

Hint 1: Do your tanks a favor: get ES Slow (II) and/or ES Elegy on Byakko.
Hint 2: Play with pop item critters or Genbu first if new at Sky; leave the white kitty alone until you can field a very substantial alliance.

[Rothy]

Originally Posted by IfritnoItazura

Hint 2: Play with pop item critters or Genbu first if new at Sky; leave the white kitty alone until you can field a very substantial alliance.

This is what we planned on doing. At the moment we have 2 PLDs and 1 WHM in the way of Tanking party. I only have BRD and BLM in Sky with COR on the way.

[TheGrandMom]

My last Byakko was hilarious! We rarely do Sky because there isn't much we need there anymore but we do need some Hiadate's. So off we go and we had 10 people I believe. 2 tanks and 2 whms, 2 refreshers and the rest DD. Our ls is pretty tricked out so we thought "Pfft Byakko, big deal". We had not fought him in a while either and I think everyone was WAY too cocky. Within the first minute our tanks were dead and we were on our way to a wipe. Mages had rr up and we died in an area where we could rr. So then we had to get people up so we could save the pop but someone had to death pull in order for him to not de-pop. So ya.....sacs get the shit jobs so I lost over 20k exp on my rdm. Wouldn't have been so bad but one of the whms decided to get too close to him and several people who had just unweakened got slaughtered again.

So ya...NEVER underestimate the kitty. He hits hard and his Roar (paralyze) is NASTY shit.

[Karinya]

Originally Posted by Mog

The only things you have to worry about are chainspell from Suzaku, which you can shadowbind > run or silence? I'm not sure how well silence procs on him.

I don't think silence is very reliable. On the other hand, I've used chainstun on Suzaku with considerable success (the RDM/DRK WILL pull hate while doing this, but they might still live until chainspell wears, or at least long enough that it's no longer as big a threat to the rest of the group).

If you haven't chainstunned before, one of the main dangers is going too fast. Stun cannot overwrite Stun, so if your next Stun lands before the previous one wears off, you will get a no effect message and the monster will be unstunned until the *next* Stun, which in Suzaku's case is long enough for you to get a Flare in the face. (The first Flare can be survived with stoneskin, though.) Space out your stuns about 1.5 to 2 seconds apart.


And, of course, don't be discouraged by death. If the whole group is inexperienced you will probably have quite a few deaths and maybe even some wipes before you get the experience to win reliably. Make sure the whole group understands this and is willing to work through it. Even a few people whining about death (or not bringing adequate exp buffers and deleveling and whining about that) can be quite bad for overall morale.

[Callisto]

Some advice off the top of my head, probably a wall o' text incoming:

General: When doing triggers, split up and check the timer pop ones first before worrying about farmed ones. I always send one person each to check Mother Globe/Faust/Zipacna, leave one party to start killing Despot PHs, while I check Curtana then proceed to try and pop Steam Cleaner.

Never pass up an NM that is up if you have the manpower to do it. And that leads me to basic strategies to do NMs with relatively small groups, so that you can split up and do more at once:

Mother Globe: Easiest setup is 2 blink tanks, a handful of DDs, 1-2 BLMs, and a THF(or someone with Powder Boots) if one of the tanks isn't a PLD. To start have the two BLMs up in the front of the circular room that you start in, near the door. Clear the closest couple of Defenders, one Tier 3 nuke from a BLM or RDM should do it. Once that is set, have the THF pop Flee and claim MG, then run into the circular room. As he enters, the BLMs should start casting Blizzaga III or Thundaga III on the batch of slaves, one round from 2 normal or 1 well-geared BLM will clear all slaves.

From there one tank holds MG(don't bother engaging), while the other one watches for Slave Globes and provokes them immediately as they pop. Have the DDs build TP on the Slaves without WSing them, then WS on MG. Someone with Stun should watch MG for Thundaga III, and make sure to stop it when it attempts it. MG has a fairly low amount of HP, it goes down quickly.

Brigandish Blade: My main tip for this guy is to make sure a leader always has a Buccaneer's Knife on them, in case there are no THFs or /THFs present when you need to pop it. Just keep it in your satchel or something.

Steam Cleaner: SC can easily be popped safely by two people if you don't have an experienced soloist. Grab a Detector from downstairs and bring it up the stairs. The 2nd person(preferrably a tank) will claim the Caretaker and zone it. Sleep the Detector, and then just repeat that, when Caretakers pop have the 2nd person claim and zone it, if it pops 5 Caretakers it's spent, kill it off.

If you pop SC you can easily kite it around the downstairs loop until backup arrives, just keep an eye out for Detector pops and kill them asap.

Zipacna: He can hit like a truck but goes down fairly quickly and doesn't have the best accuracy, just make sure to have some debuffers present for Slow/Elegy/Paralyze/Blind.

Despot: Pull the PHs in order, from north to south, down one side, then repeat on the opposite side. Make sure to clear all of the PHs on a side before you start pulling from the front of that row again. Despot's window reopens about 2 hours after he last died, if you go through the rows in order you can usually pop him quickly.

If you have a PLD and a few BLMs available, one easy way to pop Despot is to have the PLD pull several(4-5) PHs at a time, and bring them to the door of the Shrine. Have a BLM Sleepga them, then have all the BLMs run to the outside of the little walls that are along the path leading to the door. From there they can -aga III the batch of PHs, which will then have to walk all the way around the wall to get to the BLMs. They can easily Sleepga the batch again as it gets to them, then have the BLMs all run to the other side of the little wall, and repeat the same thing when on the other side.

Ulli: For Diorite farming, anything more than 6 people will usually clear out the Aura Statues at Ulli's ??? pop site faster than they can respawn. If you have enough for two parties, send one to the loop near the entrance to The Celestial Nexus, those Aura Statues also drop Diorites, and you can get twice as many kills in for the time spent.

Olla: Similar to the Ulli advice, leave a handful of people on the floor that is before the one where Olla actually resides, that way you can have two groups killing pots at the same time. Usually you only need a few, a SMN and a BLU can make short work of the pots.

Faust: If you have a DRG with a full Healing Breath set you can actually do Faust with as little as 3 people, a PLD, a RDM, and a DRG. Have the PLD line up on the East side of the teleporter, with his back to the teleporter, in between the two little parts that jut out of the pad. Position the DRG a bit NW of that, if positioned correctly the DRG and the Wyvern will both be out of Typhoon range, and you can just spam Healing Breath while the PLD and RDM take Faust down.

Otherwise with a normal group, just have the tank put their back to the South wall. If you have a BRD have them Pianissimo so the don't have to run in, we usually do Minne/Minne or Minne/Ballad. Have BLMs or RDMs take it down with small(Tier II) nukes, taking care to not pull hate.

---------------------------------------------------------

And for Gods:

General: Have a RNG or two if possible. For Seiryu and Suzaku, Shadowbind is a very dependable way to deal with Hundred Fists and Chainspell, so long as people pay attention and disengage/run away when they see the mob use their 2-hour. Just Shadowbind them and get the hell out. Make sure DDs know that just turning isn't sufficient, they need to actually run a good distance away, as if they're standing next to a bound mob, the mob will turn to them and gobble them up.

Also, you probably know to build TP before going up to the god islands, but if you have a RDM with Death Blossom, make sure they do as well, and open the fight with DB. A SAM or WAR can close Light or Darkness off of it with TA to plant hate on one of the tanks, and DB will make it a bit easier to land Slow/Elegy on Suzaku/Byakko and Paralyze on Seiryu/Suzaku(and ocassionally Silence on Suzaku if you have a really strong RDM).

Tell your DDs to eat Sushi or Pizza. I don't care how good they think their gear is, their Acc is nowhere near capped on gods, and they should be using Acc food. And this may sound silly, but make sure your tanks aren't 'scootchers', that they stand the hell still when DDs are lining up to TA them, a missed TA can make a big mess.

Suzaku: While most Sky gods are very resistant to debuffs, it is possible to Silence Suzy. Have BRDs attempt Wind Threnody in their spare time between songs, and have your SAMs stick to Gekko. I've gotten lucky and landed Silence casts that completely nullified Chainspell. Otherwise, as I said above Shadowbind is the easiest way to deal with it, Chainspell Stun being the next best thing.

Make sure anyone with Dispel is watching out for Feather Barrier, and remove it asap.

Byakko: As someone said above, bring a spare tank, Byakko does not mess around. Have one RDM and one BRD focus on nothing but casting Slow/Elegy until they land, those will make a world of difference in this fight. While you normally would have BLMs focus on Stunning -agaIII spells, for Byakko I instead recommend having them watch for Claw Cyclone and Triple Attack procs, and stunning after those so that tanks can get shadows up. Assign one mage to Paralyna each of the main tanks, that should be the priority when Roar is used.

Tell your DDs to focus on not standing behind a tank unless they are right about to TA+WS, Claw Cyclone is a front conal move that can ocassionally one-shot a DD who is standing in the wrong spot.

Seiryu: This fight is extremely similar to Suzaku, Dispel Wind Wall when he uses it, assign a Paralyna for each tank, and have Stunners watch for Aeroga III and Radiant Breath. Make sure people who aren't actively TAing aren't behind the tanks in case Radiant Breath does go off.

Shadowbind/Chainspell Stun will handle Hundred Fists well, or an Elemental Seal Bind rotation.

Genbu: Genbu is fairly easy, but your tanks should not be lax. He has a hidden Counter ability, cannot be slowed, and his single-target TP moves still do a large amount of damage if he catches you with shadows down, many times he can one-shot a tank. Dispellers need to be on top of Harden shell, Stunners focusing on Waterga, and support getting Poisonga III off asap, it's a pretty hefty amount of damage/tick.


Aaaand that's about all I have for now...

[Rothy]

Originally Posted by Callisto

mega wall of awesome

Thanks! Thats exactly what I was looking for!

[IfritnoItazura]

Originally Posted by Callisto

Byakko: As someone said above, bring a spare tank, Byakko does not mess around. Have one RDM and one BRD focus on nothing but casting Slow/Elegy until they land, those will make a world of difference in this fight.

If you don't have RDM/BLM or BRD/BLM for ES Slow II/Elegy, just have the BLMs (or that stubborn, don't-want-to-level-SCH-to-37 WHM/BLM) land ES Slow I.

Really recommend co-tanking; one tank north, one tank south, 180 degree away from each other. AND, bring a additional spare tank. Or two.

Originally Posted by Callisto

While you normally would have BLMs focus on Stunning -agaIII spells, for Byakko I instead recommend having them watch for Claw Cyclone and Triple Attack procs, and stunning after those so that tanks can get shadows up.

Claw Cyclone has a pretty obvious and big windup animation--that's the cue to stun. That, and just fire off Stun when any tank has less than 1000 HP if you have enough BLMs or /DRK people.

NIN/DRK (with March x2, Haste, and Refresh support) is a very strong tank for this critter; the regular stun cuts down on the number of attack rounds Byakko does, which is very helpful even when the PLD/NIN (or RDM/NIN) co-tank has the critter.

It's not a bad idea to stun Banishga III if enough stunners--while it doesn't hurt that much, Utsusemi is ultra precious to the tanks. Waste not, want more. Stun after Diaga III, and Erase tanks, please.

Originally Posted by Callisto

Tell your DDs to focus on not standing behind a tank unless they are right about to TA+WS, Claw Cyclone is a front conal move that almost always one-shot a DD who is standing in the wrong spot.

Fixed.

Originally Posted by Callisto

Seiryu:
Shadowbind/Chainspell Stun will handle Hundred Fists well, or an Elemental Seal Bind rotation.

Invincible > Reprisal + Sentinel

That'll also do the job. Just make sure the BLMs understand that Seiryu flailing away like mad does NOT mean it's crazy-nuke time for them.

Originally Posted by Callisto

Genbu: Genbu is fairly easy, but your tanks should not be lax. He has a hidden Counter ability, cannot be slowed, and his single-target TP moves still do a large amount of damage if he catches you with shadows down, many times he can one-shot a tank. Dispellers need to be on top of Harden shell, Stunners focusing on Waterga, and support getting Poisonga III off asap, it's a pretty hefty amount of damage/tick.

Would just add that it's a lot safer to kite Genbu, and nuke it down steadily. Don't even need to Dispel, unless you're feeling sorry for the bored THF who's following Genbu to poke at its tail.

I used PLD/NIN for kiting, but I'm pretty sure RDM/NIN can do it as well. (A BLM jokingly complained it wasn't fun because he couldn't get the turtle to chase him. >_>; )

And, yes, seen it made a short work of a (Hume? Not Tarutaru, for sure) PLD before. It was something like Waterga (not stunned), Counter, Turtle Stomp: 100% HP -> 0% HP in a blink of an eye.

[Callisto]

I don't really like any form of straight tanking Hundred Fists just because the Enaero effect still adds up very quickly unless you actually are having someone land a Wind to Dispel it. A focused healer or two can handle it with Cure bombs but it spends unnecessary MP and/or 2hour abilities, when he can easily be handled with normal JAs, or with strongly geared players just plain Bind casts.

On the subject though I've also actually just done Chainspell Utsusemi tanking as RDM to deal with it, though I've also had that work out poorly when I thought that Dispelling Wind animation was HF, popped Chainspell, then he immediately used Radiant Breath > Hundred Fists and killed me by the time I got my Echos off.