Besieged Basics 101

[Ayrlie]

Besieged is a defensive battle involving Al Zahbi and nearby beastmen armies. The beastmen are after the Astral Candensence, and won't stop til they have reach their goal.

When it happens?

• Shortly after server maintenance, all beastmen armies will begin building and preparing foces for besieged. Expect 3 besieges to take place if Al Zahbi has the AC within an hour after maintenance ends.
• Beastmen army tends to make another invasion approximately 16 to 36 hours after their last invasion, should it be unsuccessful.
• Beastmen do not attack if Al Zahbi does not have the AC.
• If Al Zahbi recovers the AC, the next besiged can begin within 8 hours.

Some notes during besieged:

• Beastmen can and will use their 2hr job abilities at any time, usually around the 50% mark.
• Beastmen will retreat when all their notorious monsters are defeated.
• Only the NM Beastmen may attempt to grab the AC once the hall of binding is opened and only if they are not interferred.
• Your server is more likely to lose besieged if fewer than 500 people show up, and/or the beastmen only have to defeat 1 or 2 of the serpent generals.
• If the Hall of Binding is opened and an serpent general currently held prisoner in a beastmen base is liberated before the beastmen claim the AC, the beastmen is forced out of the Hall of Binding. (It has happened on at least 2 occasions according to field reports.)

What to do?

• Mages should be curing generals and other players. Only issue R1 when its needed. Use Dia II, Flash, and Stun as it is needed. Against certain undead, toss in an occasional banish.
• Paladins need to make every effort to hold hate against mobs that are tanked straight up. Ninjas are at an disadvantage when it comes to tanking, with few exceptions.
• Melee should attack from behind, and be careful about pulling hate based on their damage output.
• Thieves should only move in for SA+TA, preferably if hide is ready. TP may be gained via marksmanship but status bolts will be resisted.
• Rangers need to attack from a distance with archery or guns.
• BST and SMN need to use their jugs/avatars for kiting purposes.
• Unless you have a job that can heal, it is in the best interest to avoid besieged until you have hit level 65. Healers may get into besieged at an much earlier level.

Besieged Allies

• A detailed and fully explained description at FFXIclopedia.
• If a serpent general is defeated, there is a 50-50 chance that general will be claimed prisoner. If they are prisoner, they need to be liberated ASAP.

Beastmen Armies
Mammol Ja Savages. Usually accompained by Wyverns and Puks, the beastmen army consisting mostly of lizardmen and to a lesser extent sahagain-type mobs rely on a combination of brute force and devastating abilities to take out their enemies. They use just enough backline support to either stay alive or take out weakened enemies.

Strategy

1. Escort the WHM Mammol Ja (looks like a sahagain and goes by the name Hospitalier) to an isolated part of town and slowly whittle down its health until it uses Beneditction. Once it uses Benediction, it can be returned to the general population for killing.
2. Kite Phantasmal Puks throughout the besieged. This puk has an special ability called White Wind that heals all beastmen and use it often. Get them to an isolated part of Al Zahbi and away from the crowd. It is not worth the trouble to do any damage to this mob.
3. Bugards and Raptors may be tanked straight up.
4. When NIN and BLU class Mammol Jas are approximately 50% to 60% health all melee that have not pulled hate on that mob need to run away to avoid dangerous AOES Mijin Gakure and Radiant Breath (always stacked with Azure Lore). Even with Barfira, these AOES are automatic kills.
5. On their notorious monsters, focus on kiting them at first while the rest of the beastmen army is slowly whittled away, then kill them. If the NM is a NIN or BLU class, everyone needs to start running away around the 50% to 60% mark to reduce the number of deaths from their 2hr job abilities. The BHNM (NIN class) must be kited at all time.
6. When it comes to Wyverns, echo drops are essential, and it is in the best interest to get them away from the crowd of mobs. Ninja tanks are recommended.

Troll Mercenaries. Usually accompained by Scorpions and Bombs upon invasion, though Erucas and Flans occasionally assist. The trolls are very strong in frontline attacks, but their lack of backline support will eventually show.

Strategy

1. Get the Flans out of the crowd and manaburn them. Melees have severe damage penalties against Flans.
2. Kite the Assault Torpedos. They become very powerful as their health goes down, and have an extremely potent Burn AOE that can do at least 50 dmg per tick. These bombs stand out from the crowd due to their apperance. It is not worth attacking these mobs.
3. Eliminate the other bombs as quickly as possible.
4. Erucas and Scorpions can be tanked straight up, but require a lot of healing power.
5. The trolls, with couple exceptions, can be fought straight up.
6. If the PLD NM is up, it is known to use Invincible and Diamondhide a lot. Kite this NM around until most if not all other mobs are dead. This NM may be tanked straight up, but it is in the best interest to just keep this one busy while the surrounding mobs are eliminated.
7. If the MNK BHNM is up, mages shall not cast any offensive magic on it other than Drain, Stun, and Flash. Kite this NM using Avatars and Jug Pets and get this away from the crowd until there are just a few mobs left. When it is time to kill it, melee should attack from behind.

Undead Swarm. When it comes to besieged, they use the KISS method. They rely strictly on backline attacks in the forms of AOES, -gas, and ranged attacks. This method has been very successful for them, allowing them to win besieged on several occasions.

Note: the charm effect can be dispelled/finaled, but do not attempt to remove that effect from NPCs other than goblin.

Strategy

1. Kite all Dragaurs. They spam Blood Saber which completely heals them. Get them away from the crowd and into isolated parts of town before slowly whittling them away with as few peeps as possible.
2. Qutrubs need to be stunned/flashed constantly. Their Mangle AOE is very dangerous, doing upwards of 600 dmg, and DRK class Qutrubs are more likely to use it than the BLM class. They also have high defense, but an occasional use of banish will strip that defense temporarily.
3. Bhoots may be tanked straight up, but you will need to use Banish and Stun often. Focus Stuns on their big-time nukes. They have an AOE drain move, but it is not used often, and has a much smaller AOE than Blood Saber. Bhoots tend to love their AOE curse move early and often.
4. Lamiae/Merrow mobs may be tanked straight up with few exceptions. Be prepared to use stun/flash as needed. They tend to use anmesia moves early and barrage moves later.
5. If the SMN class lamiae is approximately 55% to 60%, everyone that has not pulled hate on that lamiae needs to start running away. They tend to use Astral Flow using either Fenrir, Shiva, or Ramuh around this point, which is a guaranteed kill. Once it uses this move, the gang attack on this mob may resume.
6. Lamia's elementals must be kited or manaburned. This will depend on elemental type.
7. The Medusa must be kited until most if not all the other mobs are defeated (including Lamiae #4 and #9), preferably with jug pets or avatars. When it is time to attack this NM, melee should attack from behind and be careful about pulling hate. This BHNM will require just about the entire zone to kill it, so hold it off til it is the last thing left (aside from Dragaurs).