At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

[Manwe]

I went out this morning after work (<.< 8am est lol) and figured I'd go out and try to get a little exp with a buddy of mine. So I pack up, get sanction, and head out to the Mire. When I got there I quick did a /sea and couldn't believe it. There were ~80 people out there. And about 8 of the party leaders were 70+, so I knew I didn't have a chance. lol Since I was there I decided to run around and look. People were camped on top of each other, roaming and clearing the area, etc. There wasn't a single mob to spare, not even those 2 up in that north clearing.

So were do you guys/gals go when you're determined to get some exp and can't go for Imps? I wouldn't mind a little slower/lower exp, assumed it would be since those imps are squishy lol.

Any ideas?

P.s. From what I can find searching there are very limited Beastman Pet options at this point too. lol

[Mirajin]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

Azouph staging point area sucks because it is almost always filled with parties. I solo at Hediva isle, part of the mire you get to by going through nyzul staging point. Theres alot of heraldic imps to solo on there as well and its way less crowded. Only thing to worry about are the soulflayers that wander the area as well. With a little skill you
should be able to avoid them.

[LilithAngel]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

I just tried that camp, and got flattened bad. I'm completely unsure as to the strat on how to handle the things. I've read just about every thread out there on blu solo, and none of them mentions hide nor hair about how you actually *fight* the imps ("Yeah, I solo there all the time" "I get mad exp there". OK hotshot, how about some actual strat, like gear/spells, food, usage/timings, etc, instead of just "telling" us it can be done). I know you Head Butt the big spells, and you go /nin, but beyond that, I'm at a complete loss. Disseverment wasn't as big a hitter as I needed it to be, and all my other spells weren't doing much either. Shadows were falling like crazy and Sprout Smack refused to stick. So I'm left wondering: How? I felt like it was a hopeless fight the entire time.

What is/are the exact details to this? Is is something simple I'm missing? Just saying "it takes practice" doesn't help, cuz if you don't know what it is to practice in the first place, killing myself over and over again won't do much (except to delevel me back to 73).

What's the deal? What's the secret?

[WishMaster3K]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

I fight Imps solo as RDM75/NIN37... So I don't know about the differences in strategies BLU and RDM have when they solo.

All I'm sure off is that for the most part you guys get similar spells to ours, but you do damage faster? I basically outlast the Imps, and i inhibit them via standard RDM procedure of buffing myself and debuffing them like it's going out of style.

Paralyze, Slow and Blind help, and in addition you guys get a constant Stun. Not sure about your Silencing, but I know mine "rarely" sticks, meaning that they don't really stick a whole lot, but Silence is a cheap spell and when an Imp is debuffed like that, it's not really hard to deal with a couple of spells from them when I'm fully buffed and in white HP. Do BLU get a dispel? That helps also.

My apologies that I'm not more helpful, but I'm just stating what I do and hope that you can find some parallels.

[Taskmage]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=blu+solo+imp

I get 4 good hits on the first page.

[Manwe]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

Well, I'm by no means a pro at it. I've gotten the hang of duoing them with a Rdm friend of mine, that's cake. Solo is a different story. That's still real tough for me. But from my experience it's real important to keep them stun locked as much as possible. I rotate head butt in after every DD spell. And since I don't have sea yet, =X, I don't even have Disseverment. I used Frenetic Rip and Hysteric Barrage for my main DD spells. I have refresh and conserve MP set most times too. AFter that I set a couple more DD spells, but I try to get a low mp/decent dmg. Sickle Slash has done well for me, maybe mandible bite.

Hard to get the hang of it when the imps are so over camped everywhere lol. I went again 2 days ago and there were over 90 people! Why do people do that, i'll never get it. lol

[Khidir]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

if it helps I've seen a blue mage solo the tough sheep mobs not far from where the pelladih nm spawns

the sheep sometimes pop off chigoes but they are easily oneshotted with a multi hit ws

[Mouser]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

I just tried that camp, and got flattened bad. I'm completely unsure as to the strat on how to handle the things. I've read just about every thread out there on blu solo, and none of them mentions hide nor hair about how you actually *fight* the imps ("Yeah, I solo there all the time" "I get mad exp there". OK hotshot, how about some actual strat, like gear/spells, food, usage/timings, etc, instead of just "telling" us it can be done). I know you Head Butt the big spells, and you go /nin, but beyond that, I'm at a complete loss. Disseverment wasn't as big a hitter as I needed it to be, and all my other spells weren't doing much either. Shadows were falling like crazy and Sprout Smack refused to stick. So I'm left wondering: How? I felt like it was a hopeless fight the entire time.

What is/are the exact details to this? Is is something simple I'm missing? Just saying "it takes practice" doesn't help, cuz if you don't know what it is to practice in the first place, killing myself over and over again won't do much (except to delevel me back to 73).

What's the deal? What's the secret?

How I solo Imps at 75 (not the only way, just what works for me):

Sub job: NIN

Spells: Head Butt, Disseverment, Frentic Rip, Hysteric Barrage, Bludgeon, Chaotic Eye, Zephyr Mantle, Exuviation, Refueling, Actinic Burst, Plasma Charge, Healing Fruit (I think that's all of them)

Gear: I use my normal BLU gear, which is a balance of STR/INT/MND (it's completely apocryphal but I think my stuns last longer with a decent amount of INT, enought to recast Ichi uninterupted about half the time). Since I'm spamming spells basically non-stop, I don't worry too much about my sword damage. (Ifrit Sword/Mythic Wand, Wal. Turban, Chakram, Suppa, Loq. Ear, Chiv Chain, AF Body, Errant Mitts, Rajas Ring, Ruby Ring, Potent Belt, Amemet+1, Jet Seraweels, River Gaiters, cheap sushi to ensure accuracy).

Pulling: I use a chakram to pull since Soulflayers agro everything else. Their sight/sound agro is very short ranged so they're not hard to avoid. If they do agro, they're pretty easy to zone. I make sure I have fresh shadows up before each pull and recast Refuelinig every other pull. Throw chakram, run back to about midway bewteen the ledge and the cave.

Fighting: As the Imp comes in, I use Actinic Burst to save my remaining shadows then begin my attack pattern. I do Chain Affinity Disseverment, Head Butt, Hysteric Barrage, Head Butt, Frentic Rip, Head Butt, Bludgeon, Head Butt, then back to Disserverment if needed. Interrupt to recast shadows after a Head Butt if needed, then Head Butt after shadows and continue. If the Imp starts a -ga spell, stun it as soon as you can unless you know your next damage spell will kill it.

Post Fight: To get Chain #4 I use the following pattern. Start at about 700 MP, after first fight, rest to 600, after 2nd fight, rest to 500, after 3rd fight, rest to 400, after 4th fight rest to 300, after 5th fight, full rest and start next chain. I don't have great MP recovery gear, just Dark Staff, Errant body, Heirarch Belt.

Things to watch for: Have Echo drops obviously (and don't be cheap about using them, 2 stacks is enough for a couple hours usually). If you're uncertain at first, use a RR item until you get comfortable. Sometimes the Imps will just be bastards and you'll die regardless. The worst spell Imps can cast on the pull is Poisonga II. It's so fast you'll almost never out run it, they'll be on you immediately after, and you'll start with no shadows up. If it's early in the chain and you have the MP, spam heal yourself and actinic burst as needed until you get you shadows back up, then start you attack run. If it's later in the chain, Actinic Burst and zone it. Other chain breakers include DOTS, which is why I always have Exuviation set. Which is also why Poisonga sucks and you might want to bring some Antidotes as well.

I'm certainly not the best BLU Imp soloer, but I manage about 6-7k and hour solo, sometimes as high as 8k is everything goes really smoothly (not counting XP ring).

Things that also help me is that I have Blue Magic Skill+8, MP+8, Physical Potency+5, Blue Magic Accuracy+5, STR+5, and Enchainment+2, so what works for me may not work for you. My Parry is also at 211 currently, and has helped me recast shadows many times.

[LilithAngel]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

Ah ok, that helps a lot knowing that.

Here's what I've managed to do in the past couple of days: Since I am missing Exuviation and Amplification (got every other spell), I've come up with a list that's worked for me.

Head Butt, Sprout Smack, Actnic Burst, Diamondhide, Reactor Cool, Cocoon, Hysteric Barrage, Disseverment, Refueling, basic Auto Refresh and Conserve MP sets (cheapest version of each), Magic Fruit. This is for 74, btw, I dinged 75 last night with Raydeus's help (thanks Ray ).

My routine usually went like this: Buff up with Refueling, Utsu: Ni, and Diamondhide. Go pull (gogo Rogetsurin lol), and swap to Dusk otw to camp. Turn around, engage, spam my HB macro to stun it right off, and hit Sprout Smack. I'm hitting HB between every action, so that's a given. From there, I pop off Actnic, Reactor, and Cocoon, in that order. Then I CA Disseverment, then bounce back and forth between that and Hysteric Barrage. If all goes well, and it doesn't go all Teflon on me, I usually end up with roughly 200 mp.

I managed to figure out how to camp out by Khim pop, so that was fun. Rarely any parties there, and if there are, I usually can snatch an imp or two from their pulls, and therefore offset a spawn that's usually available for me to grab while they fight. The MP management was usually a problem for me (570 max mp roughly at 74). Here's the gear I used to deal with these things.

Dragon & Demon Slayer, Rogetsurin
O Hat, Chiv Chain, Ethereal, Suppa
Jubbah, Dusk, Rajas, Ulthalam
Amemet +1, Potent, Prince's Slops, Dusk

Now, dinging 75 let me swap out O Hat for Wal-Mart Turban and Ethereal for Brutal, but what else would anyone recommend (if possible, that is, I don't have access to full Homam, Morrigan's, or anything insane like that; that's pretty much the level of gear I'd have to go to get any better than what I just listed ). I may go back to Ethereal if Brutal doesn't help my performance all that much; that +Evasion and MP conversion% is nice, as is the DA proc from Brutal, but the Suppa is pretty much mandatory.

I also swapped out spells to take advantage of the level. I went with the 9 point Auto Refresh combo of Actnic Burst and Plasma Charge, and hopefully that'll help out as much in combat as it does with the mp recovery. I also loaded up the last of the Big Three, Vertical Cleave, and hopefully the three will be all I'll need. I dropped some other spells that I no longer needed, and moved some things around (and, surpisingly, ended up with more set points and room to mess around with extra spells), so hopefully this new setup works as well.

Merits will be my next new issue to deal with, but I do believe I have a plan for that, so I'm not too worried. Pretty much gonna cap out Blue Magic Skill, Chain Affinity Recast, Physical Potency, Convergence, Diffusion, and finish working on my MP merits and Spell Interruption Rate. STR and Sword merits are still on my list of things to do, but that's back from my Dragoon days anyways, so meh. I still have Polearm, Jump, High Jump, Angon, and Empathy to finish as well, and my Corsair is close to 75 (72 atm) as well, so that's another job wanting merits too.

[onorok]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

There are three camps near Khim's pop spot, with my personal favorite being the one at H-8 (the path to Khim's camp); it is probably the safest camp (aside from the H-8 camp at the zone entrance, which I'd jump on if it was empty), and offers the most spawns to pull. The other two camps are:

1) East of the I-7 camp - this is like an elbow spot, but two imps spawn and path to that corner. You can safely rest in the weeds though, and it is a good alternative to the H-8 if it is taken. The two imps spawn ~5 minutes after death, plus you can usually grab two or three Imps from the field once you learn how to avoid flayers.

2) North of the I-7 camp - a friend of mine just told me about it a couple weeks ago. Don't know if I really like it, it is pretty risky because of the pathing of some of the imps, but it seems like you can rest on the inside of the corner without getting aggro, and there are about four or five imps in close range to pull. I only tried duo'ing this spot, so far.

--
I am still working out what I use as far as spells, opting not to use Metallic Body or Sprout Smack anymore. For a while I was not using Hysteric Barrage either, but added that to my spell set-up, and the set-up I use was leaving 2-points open, so I tended to use an extra STR+1 spell. Just grinded out 9-merits on my WAR yesterday, and 3-merits I put to opening the first of two planned Assimilation points, which let me use a STR+2 DEX+1 spell instead of just a STR+1.

I'm still working out a lot of stuff, but I tend to solo if I just need a single merit, if I have an hour to kill, or if I have an exp ring charge that I want to use at the end of a night.

[Kyrial Arthian]

Re: At 75 where do you guys solo, other than Imps?

Personally, I never even tried soloing Heraldic Imps. It always sounded too risky to me. My friend always does it, and apparently makes pretty good exp, since he keeps going back to do it more, but all I ever hear from him when he's doing it is "dammit, anyone wanna come R3 me? -.-" Personally, I like soloing lower level mobs for exp better. And by lower level, I mean EM-T. Previously my favorite was Om'hpemdes, but with the new expansion, I've found that Grauberg Hippogryphs are pretty awesome too. They are mostly EM at 75, with a few DCs. As long as you're careful to avoid the DCs (which will kill chains), these guys go down quick and easy for chains. They have really low HP/defense, and they give 1.1x normal exp for a mob their level (i.e. an EM Hippogryph will give 110 exp solo, with no exp ring or chain). Here's my setup for them:

Perdu Hanger
Demon Slayer
Tiphia Sting
Walahra Turban
Chivalrous Chain
Suppanomimi
Brutal Earring
Magus Jubbah
Dusk Gloves
Ruby Ring
Rajas Ring
Amemet Mantle +1
Potent Belt
Volunteer's Brais
Homam Gambieras

And for spells, I think I something along the lines of the following (I have one merit in Assimilation btw)

Metallic Body (for a little buffer when shadows go down, only lasts for just over 1 hit)
Head Butt
Sheep Song (in case of accidental aggro)
Chaotic Eye (for Conserve MP with Frost Breath)
MP Drainkiss (works AWESOME on these, since they are birds and have MP; I actually get more from these guys than colibris; up to 165, non-MBed, and I wasn't even swapping in AF head for it like I always have for colibris)
Refueling
Magic Fruit
Frenetic Rip
Frost Breath (if you don't have any merits in Assimilation, you can substitute Zephyr Mantle here)
Hysteric Barrage
Disseverment
Actinic Burst
Plasma Charge
Vertical Cleave

And for (BLU-related) merits, I currently have:

2 Max MP
8 Sword skill
2 Evasion skill
8 Blue Magic skill
2 Critical Hit Rate
2 Physical Potency
1 Magical Accuracy
1 Diffusion (not that that has any use in soloing...)
1 Assimilation

So what I do basically is put up Refueling, Metallic Body, and Utsu: Ni, run out and pull one (or fight it where it stand if possible, but sometimes I hafta pull it a little bit). When I need to pull it, I run up to it, Head Butt, then run back to safe spot. I just throw out Disseverment, Hysteric Barrage, Head Butt, Frenetic Rip, Head Butt and put shadows up if need be, Vertical Cleave if Disseverment is waiting on recast still, otherwise Disseverment again will usually finish it off. If not, Vertical Cleave after that instead. The only complication comes when they sometimes use Choke Breath, which, if it doesn't miss, inflicts Silence/Paralyze. When this happens, it is usually almost dead anyway, so I use an Echo Drop and do whatever is needed to get it dead as quick as possible, then go rest. Paralyze wears off before the next mob anyway. I haven't seen them actually use Jettatura yet, though I suppose that'd be pretty annoying too. The other moves aren't anything to worry about (Back Heel gets absorbed by shadows, and Fantod is just a Boost effect).

For any who are interested in this camp, It's in the NW corner of Grauberg. I usually camp at the entrance of the passage leading to Witchfire Glen (where all the EM-T pixies hang out).