Faluzure's Hi-Res Shots (NOT BANDWIDTH FRIENDLY)

[Fafnyr]

Thanks the heavens, Fal is finally back. . .

[Kyrial Arthian]

Yay, you're finally back! ^^ I missed ya, Fal. Be warned: you're getting a big hug next time I see you in-game! :p

[CRtwenty]

Welcome back Fal!

[tazirai]

Originally posted by Faluzure
Yaya. I'm here. Hope everyone had a good holiday & New Year celebration. I think I'm making my comeback soon. I haven't touched FF since Thanksgiving!

okaerinasai,

[Vilurum]

Chebukki fans are gonna get a kick out of the next CoP mission scenes at the entrance to Riverne. Granted, it's not a long, drawn-out spiel of Tarutaru goodness the way the Windurst fork of chapter 3 was. But short as it is, it's still funny.

(Translation: Fal has taken such a long hiatus that despite all my whining about never-gonna-see-it-myself, I've actually hit the point in the CoP plot where he left off posting.)

Diabolos, for the record, is mean. He killed me twice in one fight, though admittedly the second time I died from Bio after successfully completing the BC. When you have 80 max HP from Reraising in battle, and it does 20 HP/tick or more (wasn't paying too close attention, all I know is that after the BC I had 20 HP and I died in one tick), that'll happen.

Bring a WHM with Erase to the BCNM, and make sure they keep themselves Hasted to lower the recast. Nightmare sucks (AOE 20+ HP/tick Bio, plus a sleep from which damage will NOT wake you), and he used it on us like five times through the battle.

I think it's viable, though more difficult, to get by without Erase (either due to a WHM not having it, or a party setup that doesn't include a WHM), but you'll be doing a lot more healing on account of that. Watch out for hate and MP.

[CRtwenty]

So does that mean you'll be taking over his screenshot duties?

[Vilurum]

Wouldn't want to step on toes (especially in his own topic, and especially considering he was saying he was thinking of coming back soon), but for more practical and less moral points, I a. don't have fraps (easily remedied) and b. don't have unlimited web hosting (not at all easily remedied).

In other words, very likely not. I may download fraps and start taking pictures anyway (but not posting them anywhere) just in case - places like Monarch Linn are a bit inconvenient to get to, if you want to use the Goblin Footprint to replay a cutscene.

EDIT: Didn't get around to downloading fraps for the 4-2 BC cutscene (has that cool Bahamut music from the very first CoP cutscene). Following cutscenes in safehold, sacrarium, and a smattering of other places are much more conveniently replayable though.

4-2 was nasty and I'd prefer to block out any and all details of that fight from reaching my conscious mind again. Suffice it to say that you'll want your mages to have Hi-Ethers and tank (if not anyone else) to have Hi-Potions, you'll want to remember (just like in Promyvion) that you do in fact have 2-hours ... and you'll want to avoid letting it attack when it's flying. Dragging it to the ground with a Mistmelt, or marathoning (in a sensible way that doesn't have the tank go out of cure range, and preferably with Gravity) are both viable. Non-tanks should stay clumped enough for curaga to work.

4-3 was just annoying (due mainly to Fomor hate). Reset your Fomor hate before you key-farm for 4-3 (as you need rare-ex drops from Fomors in Sacrarium). And then once you get those keys, reset your Fomor hate *again* before you do the rest of the mission. Which, yes, can take forever if you've been subligar-hunting, but just trust me on this one.

On to 5-1. Only a golem that regains 100 HP/tick (boo) in a non-level-capped fight (woohoo) between us and Promyvion-Vahzl.

Oh yeah ... and story is, not to anyone's surprise, getting *very* fascinating, and there's another 2-3 chapters (so far) for it to keep throwing surprises at us.

[Kyrial Arthian]

I can't wait to do them myself... I got Tavnazia access (whoohoo!), but I'm waiting for more people in my LS to get access so that we can do the next missions. Two more of them got access this week, bringing us up to about 10 that have it, I think. Hopefully we'll get started soon; I can't wait to meet Prishe (she's been my moogle for so long, it'll be weird actually seeing her name attached instead of Moogle XD). ^^

On a sadder note: I'm beginning to wonder if Fal really is gonna come back. Here's hoping he's okay. :/

[Vilurum]

Hoping he's just busy with RL stuff, or caught up in other games or something. And it isn't some more serious repercussions of his unwillingness to go to a doctor. :dead:

Kyrial, first off, congratulations on Tavnazia access. Getting past the Promyvions is, even if it's "only the beginning", still a big hurdle that most people give up on. If you have the dedication to get those done, you can probably find the dedication to do more.

Other advice:

If lots of people in your LS are getting Tavnazia access, I'd highly suggest that you set up a CoP static, with organized times that you get together to do specific missions (and don't move on to the next mission till the entire static is done with the current one).

Where it's a "one for all, all for one" mentality - you help the people who haven't done it, even if you've done it yourself. No bad behavior in the form of "eh, I've gotten that done already, so I'll just wait for all of you to catch up to me but not help in any way". That would *not* be a good mentality. *waves finger remonstrably like an old nanny*

6-person statics are a lot more convenient for moving from one mission to the next (don't have to repeat BCNMs), but larger groups - such as the 10 people you cited - will give you more job combinations to work with (and you can just make those poor beleaguered RNGs repeat every BCNM three times for other people, because they're just so annoyingly useful for everything).

Larger groups also mean alliances, when it comes to non-BCNM stuff such as farming Hippogryph Tailfeathers in Riverne B01, or killing Keremet and Old Professor Mariselle in Sacrarium. These things can all be done with a single party, but the more people you have, the easier it is. (Aggro aside; alliances are inherently more aggro-prone. /sigh)

Regardless, I wish you, your LS, and anyone else doing these missions all the best of luck ... and preparation and strategy too, because don't think you won't need those. The storyline is, as I've said many times both before and after I saw the cutscenes in game myself, Damned Cool.

[Kyrial Arthian]

Yeah, he better have gone to a doctor... :dead:

And thanks, Vil. Yeah, we always organize these things in my LS. Right now we do Promyvions for those who need them every Monday at 8EST, and those of us who have finished all of them have still been going back and helping those that haven't every week (when RL schedules permit, of course). I'm thinking once we get like 10-12 people, we can arrange to go kill the Minotaur. We have a few RNGs, I think... I know at least one, but I think there were more... We also have one SMN (several SMNs at level 30, but only one passed that). I have a question about that, actually: are SMNs still as insanely useful in future CoP BC fights as they were in the Promyvion ones? Also, I've heard that when one person aggros the Minotaur, he warps everyone in the alliance to him, regardless of where they are in the zone. Does that mean we could have one or two people sneak to him, and leave the rest at the entrance and just warp them to him like that? Cuz I'm thinking that would make things a lot easier, as far as avoiding aggro.

[Vilurum]

Ok, I wrote a painfully long post in reply and then decided that it had too much rambling, so here's the condensed version (which, being me, is still wordy):

- SMN isn't "uber", but it has its uses. That Ouryu fight that was so unpleasant for me, would've been a lot less painful if we had Earthen Ward to block most or all of that AOE damage hitting the non-tanks. Astral Flow's damage output is still nothing to sneeze at, and is particularly useful for multiple enemies.

- Having said that, it's a good idea, if at all possible, to have more options in what job you can go as. If you have a fully levelled sub, it's only 3 more levels on it to get a second job to 40, and that'll see you through all the fights until you hit chapter 4. Getting 10 more levels past that to 50 is a little more annoying. 10 *more* levels to 60 is - once you get it done - clear sailing for all the current level caps, but the TNL's in the 50's, not to mention having to quest AF, make that difficult.

For example, though I said above that SMN has its uses, some battles might be better served with the SMN's (presumed) WHM sub. Diabolos, for example. You really don't want to fight him without Erase. I'm sure it's doable, but it'd be painful. SMN, on the other hand, wouldn't shine so much in that battle, so the SMN could go as WHM.

(Assuming they have Erase ... I'm well aware, as I've bought it once and sold it more times than that, that it has quite the price tag for a level 32 spell, but it's *very* useful. You don't really need it for all the wimpiest-enemy-type-possible things you level on such as crawlers, but it's a lot more important for these missions.)

- You *can* have your alliance all "drawn in" by Minotaur no matter where they are. As far as I know anyway. But getting a small group to him in the first place is what'll be difficult. Aside from the locked doors (bring a THF main such as yourself to pick those, saves a ridiculous amount of headache as otherwise you'd have to farm fomors for rare-ex keys, then leave to rezero your fomor hate), Taurus and Stegotaur enemies are "true sight" sight aggro, meaning they see you if you walk in front of them, and they'll even see you if you have Invis up.

This wouldn't be a problem if you had a lot of room to run around (like you do in Riverne, where Hippogryphs are true sight as well, but there's plenty of room to dodge them). But in Phomiuna you have little besides narrow tunnels, so unless your stealth group is *incredibly* good at sneaking, waiting for it to face corners, etc ... it's really not viable.

Can it be done? Yes. But I think it's a better idea to just send a party to Minotaur. (But if you have an alliance, you could have the rest of the alliance wait at the entrance.)

[Kyrial Arthian]

Thanks for the info, Vil. As for leveling NIN for these... it ain't happening anytime soon. Not only would it hurt my budget a lot while I'm trying to save up for a Scorpion Harness and a Sniper's Ring, but as you can see from how "fast" I level, I'm don't have much patience for it. Not to mention I hate leveling NIN. :dead: The only reason I've managed to force myself into leveling WHM to 25 is so that I can quest easier and pick coffers for some profit.

As for the SMN I mentioned, I actually have no idea how far she has WHM leveled. She's pretty rich though, so Erase shouldn't be a problem for her.

As for the Minotaur, I am quite good at sneaking. I actually went in on my own to explore, and I made it pretty far... until I let Sneak wear near a Pugil on accident. :dead: I just dread the thought of an alliance trying to sneak through that place... it is, as you said, quite narrow in most places. But we shall see how it turns out...

[Vilurum]

Well, the disadvantage of alliances is that they tend to suck at sneaking. The advantage is that if they do get aggro, they can utterly clobber the enemy. With alliances it's often easier just to stroll through and kill anything that aggros.

Note, however, that fomors should *not* aggro - your Minotaur alliance, if *any* member has been killing fomors for subligar or something, should go on a rampage in Lufaise or Misareaux and slaughter every beastman in sight, until your entire group has no fomor hate.

To test if you have no fomor hate, go to the top floor of the safehold, and go to the northeast corner. Near a door you can't open except for cutscenes (Prishe's room, you'll later learn) is an NPC - name starts with R, I think - who goes on and on about the undead and how they're after you. After a few lines of that, he'll say "Hmmm..." and then he'll say a line that varies depending on your fomor hate.

Basically, if he says you have a "fairly good head start", you're good. And if he says anything else, you're not. He does have other lines, because there are varying *degrees* of fomor hate. (Aggro range increases, and I hear that if you have a *ton* of fomor hate that they even become true sight and aggro through sneak.)

But since you want to have none anyway, it's a moot point what, exactly, the others mean (though as a general rule, the more cryptic he is, the worse your hate is). Anything other than none (fairly good head start) is unacceptable.

Note that it's perfectly fine to take your Minotaur alliance subligar-hunting after you finish the mission, just make sure it's *after you finish the mission*. For the mission itself you want zero fomor hate. Makes life so much easier.

Good luck with sneaking. Pugils and slimes (and bats?) aggro sound. Fomors do not, if you have no fomor hate. Diremites do not (they do in Pso'Xja however). And on the off chance that you come across a stegotaur that even you can't sneak past, well ... drag a party there and kill it.

[Kyrial Arthian]

Okay, that's cool. ^^ I'll make sure to let them know about that, cuz I know a few of them were pretty excited about hunting for subligars... personally, my JSE sucks, and the only reason I'll probably get it is for the looks. I still have no Fomor hate, cuz all I killed was a Fomor's Wyvern. I exploring Misareaux Coast with a friend and we saw a Fomor Dragoon, Ranger, and Bard, and decided to take them on. And.... we had to warp out before killing any of 'em. XD

[Vilurum]

Not sure if fomor pets count toward fomor hate or not, but even so, one kill shouldn't make that big a difference. Just kill a single tier 4 orc or gigas in Lufaise on the way to the safehold and you're good either way, and a few dozen gil richer.

But yeah - people who have hunted fomors for subligar for a *very* long time might take a similarly long time to get rid of that fomor hate. (Except the beastmen can be killed faster than the fomors.) So if you have some people with tons and tons of hate (like, say, spent 6-8 hours a day for three days straight, killing fomors in Phomiuna, and yes I do know of individuals who have done that - though not personally), it could potentially take over an hour to reset fomor hate, if not longer.