RDM ARE the best soloers!

[DM337]

This guy soloed his AF3.

http://vnboards.ign.com/The_Red_Mage/b22541/71950363/?3

That's hardcore.

[Faust]

I hate the fact that my work blocks out the more interesting sites... ><

Don't suppose anyone can cut and paste some of the juicier stuff so I can see?

[neighbortaru]

and he's elvaan too! gives me hope.

[lacrolix]

Here ya go!

@work as well but ABLE to view it. here it is in it's condensed a bit those fellow people @ work right now:


Written by Neolirian
(sorry if you've seen this before, I just had to post this one on multiple forums )

Here's the deal... most RDMs get their AF3 by rounding up the regulars in their party and some other people they've played with, or rounding up help in LSs, or even shouting in Lower Jeuno, or kissing a highlevel player's ass, or etc. I'm sure I could have done this given the inclination to do so and a lot more free time than I have. The problem is, it takes forever, puts you in debt to a load of people, and most importantly... it's a little out of character. Think about it! You are going for the Pimp Hat, the final piece to make you the avatar of Pimpingness in FFXI. Why then, would you sit in Lower Jeuno and whine for a week or more to achieve this? What is the hat really a symbol of, when you get it this way? Fear not, for when I reached level 62, was really needing the hat, and was faced with the prospect of sending whiny /tells to everyone I know, I discovered another way. I heard a rumor of the Miser losing to the supposedly worthless spell Poison II, and I was pleased to find that it was true, but I had never heard of the Guardian Statue losing the same way. It DID work though... and I will tell you how, if you read on.

For the same of brevity, I'll leave out the quest info and just talk mobs. If the mob doesn't spawn for you, you messed up the quest.

Pimp's Guide to Soloing Miser Murphy:
Difficulty: Moderate
Fight time: 30-45 minutes.
Recommended level: 60-ish. Maybe even lower. All you really need is Poison II, another DOT or 2, and the ability to avoid aggro in Fei Yin. Maybe not even that, if you run to the zone fast enough.
Recommended day: Lightsday. Because this strategy is not very hard, the day isn't vital. Just avoid Darksday.
Recommended armor: the AF thus far, a good wand (Ebony or Ebony +1), and a mixture of defense/casting stats for the rest
Recommended subclass: BLM for availability of Burn, the Conserve MP ability, and, if you're 60+, the Clear Mind II. Other classes can do this, but I think that 3 DOTs are needed and you don't want Dia to be one of them because it might wear off too fast.
Recommended connection: Dependable highspeed. You will be zoning like crazy, and the mob will heal to full or kill you if you disconnect.
Special consierdations: Start this at around 2-4 PM EST. You want the JP to be asleep, and the few NA on will probably have business elsewhere. The reason is, you will constantly lose locks on the mob when zoning, and if it aggros a highlevel passerby they might just decide to swat it. ><

START!! Enter Fei Yin and find Miser Murphy by the fountain. Have Blink, Stoneskin, and your best protect and shell up. To be really safe, drink a Poison Potion. Now, use Gravity to pull him to the zone. Don't use Silence, it won't work. You will probably get hit by a spell or two, and if the spell is Sleep-related then you can drop Stoneskin if you're poisoned, or wait for the Miser to get a hit on you if you are not. If you get in trouble, run like hell to the zone, you can always come back for the Miser and pull him the rest of the way.

When Miser is at the zone, put up Blink and Refresh. Enter Fei Yin, cast Poison II on Miser, and exit to the zone. Now the main pattern begins... renew Blink/Refresh as necessary and med for 1 click. If spells are not necessary, med for 2 clicks. If you are poisoned, put up Stoneskin and med for 1 click. After medding, reenter Fei Yin, cast Dia II on Miser, and zone. Med again as above. Reenter Fei Yin a third time, and cast Burn or if you're not a BLM, Dia II (use something else second). The deciding factor for spells is that Poison II is the most efficient and best duration DOT, but you can't cast Poison II again until it wears. Just Poison II and Burn or just Poison II and Dia II might work, but all 3 is what I went with because I can't usually see whether or not Poison II wears off in time. Use the weakest DOT second, especially if you're not a BLM. I think Burn is more dependable than Dia II, so I wanted that up when Poison II was wearing off. After your third DOT, exit, med, and reenter on Poison II.

What breaks the pattern: the deadliest spells Miser Murphy has are Sleep, Sleepga, Sleep II, and Sleepga II. At the very beginning in Fei Yin, you can get this on you while running away and be stuck and take a hit. During the pattern this can be much worse though... you can get this spell on you after casting your DOT as you are zoning out, and be stuck outside Fei Yin with sleep on you!! Needless to say, if the spell lasts for, say, 5 minutes, Miser could very well get all of his life back. If you are a low enough level that this could happen to you, I highly recommend using Poison Potions for the whole fight and/or fighting on Lightsday. With poison you will have to keep Stoneskin up to med, but you can drop Stoneskin if you need Sleep to wear off. I myself did not use Poison Potions, and had 2 or 3 scary moments where I was stuck outside Fei Yin asleep for more than a minute at a time. If this happens to you, reenter immediately upon the spell wearing off and throw Poison II. Don't even renew Blink... you should have plenty of hitpoints and the most horrible possibility of the strategy is Miser getting life back.

Finishing strategy: When you think the Miser can't last another sequence or 2, get Blink and Stoneskin up, use a Poison Potion to be really safe, enter Fei Yin, use Elemental Seal to be really safe, cast Gravity on the Miser, and run deeper into the place. If Gravity gets resisted, run away and keep out of melee range of the Miser. Some DOTs may still be up, but you really want to nuke to finish the Miser off. A DOT is a very bad idea because if you lose the lock when the mob dies, you may not get anything. At this point, I landed Gravity here, ran a short distance, and nuked with Cure IV to finish. Due to medding in the pattern above, Convert was available if necessary for more nukes, but I didn't need to Convert. If you lost Stoneskin due to Sleep spells and your Gravity got resisted, use Chainspell to get Blink and Stoneskin up before Converting. Be very careful taking hits from Miser here, as he can get 300+ hitpoints back from a single hit if Stoneskin is down. If that happens, it may be safer to zone and run the main pattern a little more before trying to finish again.

[lacrolix]

PART II


Pimp's guide to soloing Guardian Statue
Difficulty: Extreme (I made 3 major mistakes in my final run... the difficulty may be only Very Hard if you don't make all 3.)
Final warning: Soloing Miser Murphy is pimpin' enough for most... this fight solo is nuts!
Fight time: 70-100 minutes
Recommended level: Probably 62. To find the required level, pass the First Banishing Gate in Garliage and run an entire lap around the rectangular area you find yourself in. For best results, do this with ~30-50% hitpoints, but Stoneskin and Blink up so you know if any of the undead will aggro when you are hurt. If you aggro any regular mob, this guide cannot work. If your low life aggros any undead in the rooms, this guide cannot work. If any NM aggros, kill it if you can and come back later if not. Either that or shout for help on the NM, but if you need to do that then this strat may not be for you.
Recommended day: Lightningsday. I did ok in my first few fights on Lightningsday, but had to quit and finally won on Iceday. I seemed to have done way more damage on Lightningsday though. Iceday was my first mistake BTW... for a fight like this you had better wait for the best day. I suppose that Earthsday and Watersday should especially be avoided, but can't speak from experience for either of those.
Recommended armor: the AF thus far, a good wand (Ebony or Ebony +1), a high defense helm, and a good shield. 2 Drone Earrings are ok but I only evaded once, so caster stat earrings may have been better. A mixture of defense and casting stats on Neck, Back, and Waist like a Promise Badge, Red Cape, and RK Belt is good. Finally, for the rings, 2 Phalanx Rings may be the way to go. I had Dex rings for some dumb reason, and I'd have had a way easier time with 20 more defense. That was mistake #2.
Recommended subclass: BLM for Conserve MP and the spell Shock. WHM and SMN are possible, I suppose, but your only other good DOT then is Dia II and that eats too much MP. Dia will work for the secondary DOT purpose (renewing the lock), but it won't hurt. Forget summons, you won't have time to call them. THF sub is an intriguing possibility if you have Flee, because you can get far enough away to buff. However, you can lose the lock that way, which is very bad. I can't speak for the Bard sub, but I don't think they have the time they need for the MP song.
Recommended MP: 500. You must last 10 minutes between Converts without depending on Refresh or running out of MP, and with 480 MP I came close twice.
Recommended connection: A dependable highspeed connection is absolutely required... lag and/or disconnection can be fatal. Avoid weekends and extremely overcrowded times of day.
Special considerations: I can't say whether every race can run fast enough. What I can say is that my Elvaan running speed was JUST good enough to break away from the statue. If your race doesn't run as fast as an Elvaan, and there isn't a stat you can raise, food you can eat, or item you can equip to counteract that, then the strat may not work for you. I don't have info on relative movement speeds by race, apologies. Also, I don't know if, say, AGI affects movement speed. If it does, those Drone Earrings may have been a good idea after all.

Before starting, put this in your mind: Gravity resistance accumulates. Got it? You can only use Gravity dependably 5 or 6 times over the course of the match, and it gets worse every time. Sleep II and Bind don't work here, so Gravity is your life preserver. If you overuse it, you won't last long enough. If you use it more than once every 10 min when you are ready to Convert, you won't last long enough.

Also, remember this: You can always give up by continuously running until you lose the lock. Chainspell/Warp is not really necessary, because once you break away you can keep running until the fight is over. I did this during my first few attempts when I was feeling out the strategy... yes, having guts is pimpin'... but retardedness is not.

START!! Enter Garliage, pass the First Banishing Gate. You need 4 people to open it, which is annoying, but getting help for something as minor as a door is much easier than getting help for, say, an alliance-killing NM. What did you expect? This guide will not completely save anyone from antisocial tendencies.

Quick note on people in the area... unlike the Miser, you don't need make RL daytime considerations to for other people in the area interfering unless you have enemies or something. Hardly anyone enters this area, and even fewer stay around.

Now, past the banishing gate, locate the Oak Box in the room on your left. Put up Refresh, Protect III, Shell III, Blink, Stoneskin, and med until full. You might want Sneak to avoid medding aggro or Invis which I'm not sure avoids the initial statue aggro. With your full buffs on, it doesn't matter much. Other buffs than the ones above aren't worth it as they'd cut down on the Blink/Stoneskin time and you'll eventually have to let those drop anyway.

Enter the Oak Box room. Spawn the Guardian Statue. If it doesn't aggro right away, get to a good distance, but either way, cast Poison II on the mob, and start running around the rectangular portion of the zone. I went clockwise, but I imagine that counterclockwise would have worked just as well.

Always, always keep the Statue tab-selected. If you lose this, tab-select a bat in front of you, rotate your camera when you can, and re-tab-select the Statue. The greatest danger of this strategy is that you will lose the mob for 20-30 seconds or more and it will get all of its life back. That being the case, you need to know the instant that it loses the lock and goes from Red to neutral. And believe me, it will.

After you turn a corner, face straight and autorun. If there are bats, steer to avoid them, but if not then try to turn the camera around for an instant if you can. Sometimes, the game won't let you. Knowing the Statue's distance is a good thing at any portion of this strat, and knowing when it stops chasing you is important as well.

Now, chances are that you will lose the lock at least once before Poison II wears off. When this happens, turn around immediately no matter what, run back to casting range, and use Shock (or Dia if that isn't available... Dia II eats too much MP). If you decide use even 1 buff after losing the lock, chances are that the Statue gets its life back even if Poison is still up. The recovery logic is bizarre, and involves how long a mob is left alone as well as the DOTs present. Anyway, if you are too close to the mob when you cast Shock, it will aggro as you begin casting. Whatever you do, don't finish casting, just run if that happens. The extra damage isn¡¦t worth the risk.

Once Poison II wears off, you want to recast Poison II ASAP, but you don't want to do this unless the Statue is at full casting range. Using the camera to find this info is tough, but if you get a good enough lead you'll be able to turn around, gauge the distance, cast just as the Statue enters range, and run like hell after Poison II and before it reaches you. If you want to be more aggressive, you can try landing Dia II while Poison II is up, but this will ultimately exhaust your MP. You must cast fast enough that you can start running again before the statue reaches you. That means Shock is bad and Refresh is not an option. The exception is when you have Stoneskin up and you think it will wear before it gets some use. In that case, stop running, and take the hit to recast Refresh.

That reminds me... you will get hit sometimes when recasting Poison II. Deal with it, but don't make a habit of it... Poison II needs to be cast cleanly most of the time to guarantee a win. You can run back out to casting range to try Poison II again... just don't panic and run like mad only to realize that you lost the lock and left the Statue sitting in the dust. With Poison II down, losing the lock is much more likely.

Using the pattern above, you will hopefully do nothing for at least 10 minutes but cast Poison II and, on occasion, Shock. When the 10 minutes are up, you will most likely be hurting and maybe low on MP. I was always down to 500 hitpoints by now, and dreading the next Poison II cast. When this happens, run out to the max casting range and throw Gravity. If Gravity gets resisted, run for 1 min and try again. If you are low on MP and lose the lock, cast Dia or Poison. If that doesn't leave enough for Gravity, run until you lose the lock, run back to the very edge of the casting range, Convert, and cast Gravity from there. That's pretty nuts, so thankfully I never had to do that.

If things went normally and Gravity landed, run a short ways away and use Stoneskin, Convert, Cure IV once, Refresh, Cure IV again, and if Gravity hasn't worn and you need it, maybe Cure III. You can safely skip Stoneskin if your MP is low, and if you're up to 5 Gravitys then you should probably do this for time's sake. The critical items are Convert and the Cures, and the Refresh is not critical but very important. Don't renew Protect III or Shell III, it's not worth it. If, at any time during the Gravity sequence you lose the lock, stop whatever you're doing and renew the DOT before proceeding.

After the Convert sequence, you have another 10 minutes of the basic pattern ahead of you. For all of its ins and outs, the success of the strategy, is simple... can you last 10 minutes without losing the lock for more than 15 seconds?

[lacrolix]

Last Part!



Finishing up: As with the Miser, finishing with a DOT is a very bad idea. In fact, if the DOT kills the mob while you don't have the lock, your brain may explode. That being the case, if you were frugal with your Gravitys then you should have 1 short-lived one left. Use it, and nuke away. I had 1 min left until Convert at this point, which was horrible timing, but I didn't want to risk the DOT killing it so I used Gravity and Thunder II with my remaining MP. Perhaps Thunder would have been safer, perhaps not. Anyway, Thunder II killed the thing... a nice finish if I do say so myself. Now, if you were not frugal with your Gravitys, you can use Thunder from max range and hope you get the spell off. You can also run until you lose the lock then cast from max range, but that's insane because it creates the horrible opportunity for the mob to die via DOT.
Notes on mob abilities: The Guardian Statue has an AoE called Typhoon which is basically a very hard hit... if you get hit with it, shrug it off and keep running. The ability that will really scare you, though, is Blitzstrahl which is a stunning hit. Time will stop for you if you get hit with this, because, all of a sudden, you will be standing right next to the Statue and helpless to do anything. Let's see ya sweat. Don't sweat too much, though, because the recovery time for the Statue is pretty long here as well. I got hit with this when the Statue was at 5% life and the stun seemed to last forever, but I didn't get hit while stunned and my autorun kicked in right as the stun ended, letting me escape without taking another hit.

Final strategy note: What, you're looking for mistake #3? Any MP restorative that can be consumed very quickly would be yet another level of insurance for either fight, but especially the second one. Ditto for 30 minute+ foods that restore MP, which could be consumed in place of Refresh during a Convert cycle. I didn't splurge for either of these because, frankly, I didn't think I'd win. I'd bet that an MP restoring food (not juice) like Sweet Rice Cake would have really made the second fight easier.

That's all folks. And the beauty of this guide is that nobody would have believed that I actually soloed both NMs if I hadn't had typed all of this crap. :p

[Faust]

Thanks Lacrolix!

[Gladesinger]

Having done the same some time ago, i can confirm that his basics on killing both mobs are reasonable solid.

I read his post, and thought a mixture of 'hmmm' and 'sure why not'. I found the procedure fairly straight forward although there was a number of things i decided to modify to suit a faster and more aggressive kill style.

Miser Murphy can be Zoned/dotted into pieces (pretty much everything can, it just takes time).

The Guardian Statue is in fact moving slower than you are, so it can be kited.

Personally i kited Miser Murphy for a period of time, with and without gravity (its a caster), and nuked / dotted it down til my MP ran low and my Convert was down.

Then i Zoned it and started the Zone Dot procedure. Its important that you keep Blink up at all times at that stage, to avoid most of Miser Murphys Naughtiness (it will land spells etc. while you are waiting for the game to zone you out).

Watch for Bind and Sleep (Shell and Barsleep takes most of it).

It went fairly fast as i had opted for a 'nuke til out of mp then dot approach' instead of the pure zone dot approach.

Guardian Statue i had few (2hp ones 3mp ones) of drinks (hp regen and mp regen) with me for the trip, as i didnt expect to have time or surplus mp to cast regen and cures in tight situations. I found them to be a nice addition that cut the risk factor of the encounter down, but not mandatory in any way.

I also took a few rounds to learn navigating the bats.

Dont use Shock, in fact dont use anything slow casting to dmg him.

If a bat gets in your way or you have just a little lag or much worse it uses one of its medium ranged WS/abilities (BlitzStrahl, Stun WS, is short/ medium ranged, as is Typhoon), it can and will dmg you or even stun you, stick to Poison II and Dia II (or Bio II).

When it loses aggro on you, and it will. One of two situations will arise.

1. You lose aggro around a corner.
-> Get back to it and stick a regular cheap mp and fast Dia on it to grab aggro asap. Dont get fancy, it was pretty long aggro range and it will be happy to turn the corner and beat you up.

2. You lose aggro on one of the long sides
-> You have time to do something before you grab aggro again if you react fast enough, there is time for a refresh or a heal. Both are nice as they will cut dramatically down on the risk factor you face.

When it is about to die, time it so that convert will be ready (dont leave it without a dot though, if it loses aggro and isnt dotted it will start to regen very very fast after 10 or so seconds, use something harmless to string it along for convert, fx. a normal Dia). Gravity it, convert, heal, and then nuke it to cinders.

It has very good resists, so having near full mp is a pretty good idea. Thunder seemed to work somewhat, Aero and Stone didnt dent it much, even with Elemental Seal on the second.

I killed it on my first serious attempt but despite my more aggressive style with 2 dots and stronger defense (buffing with refresh on aggro losses) it still took 70mins due to a lost aggro in the end with no dots on it, otherwise it can be done in 45-50mins.

Personally i found the guardian statue to be fairly trivial compared to Miser, but thats probably due to me kiting Miser while trying to burn it down.

I weighed in at about 750mp, 950hp, Hume RDM, Ate Rolandberry Pie for the attempt.

[Jonnyram]

Hmm, I'd like to see him solo the Oz coffer key - that should put him back in his place

[l)@RK-l)EVIL]

Originally posted by Jonnyram
Hmm, I'd like to see him solo the Oz coffer key - that should put him back in his place

i think he can solo it if he stay in the room in the highest floor and pull the tough mobs only when i was lv 59 some of the mobs was only tough to me and rdm can solo tough mobs right?

[Altruist]

Just helped a friend who needed his the citadel part of the quest. We did duo rdm 75, and 64. Took about 45 min. I converted once, he did about 3 times. Easy, safe and fun ^^.

RDM duo's are actually really powerful, Aquarius is a joke with 2 rdms, no risk of dying, same with all the summons but fenrir.

[Zaleshea]

Considering that he did something "no" other job can do. And considering, to my knowledge that RDM is the only job that can solo Horror.. I completly agree with this.

[HeartlessKnight]

Originally posted by Jonnyram
Hmm, I'd like to see him solo the Oz coffer key - that should put him back in his place

After soloing his AF3 you think he needs to prove more. I was Lv62 and i soloed my Oz key and i got two rings from there too. I really /bow to him for doing that. And for you, i think you cant solo and easy prey from the looks of this.

[SW20]

I saw a 75/37 Mithra NIN/WAR solo Sea Horror once.

[AtraposBLM]

Originally posted by SW20
I saw a 75/37 Mithra NIN/WAR solo Sea Horror once.

I declare shenanigans. Unless I'm thinking of something else...