Dropping Like Flies/Strategies

Working Job Combinations
This section is not meant to discourage people from trying different combinations, but to illustrate combinations that have been tried and tested. Please feel free to try this BCNM with any combination you think might work, and above all, have fun!


 * A strategy with one paladin or one thief and at least 2 summoners is known to work for this fight. The paladin or thief pulls any fly and then immediately uses their two hour ability. This is required so that the flies will group together in the AoE for Astral Flow.  At this level, if not resisted, Shiva's Diamond Dust or Fenrir's Howling Moon should land for 460-480 damage, so it is easy with 2 Astral Flows to take all the houndflies down extremely quickly. If you only have three members, it is highly recommended that the paladin or thief uses their two hour immediately at the start so they have plenty of HP left over after the 2 summoners have used their Astral Flow.  It is quite likely that the Huntfly could kill both summoners after Astral Flow and the paladin or thief may need to solo the remaining approximately 25% health.  Thieves should bring status bolts for this possibility.
 * Only three members are required using the strategy above, but you are allowed 6 members total. As for the three spots left, any other jobs could work ; at least one additional mage job is recommended to support with healing. Other members should be ready to take any fly that would have partially or fully resisted Astral Flow, though it is quite unlikely if Shiva is used and the summoners have their summoning skill capped.  If you have some extra support, a paladin may not have to use Invincible.
 * Note that this strategy requires 2 summoners with Astral Flow up, so it is not possible to go by that way repeatedly.

--- Area of Effect jobs (AoEers) x5
 * The same strategy is known to work with one paladin and only one summoner with help of a couple other mages, and a good deal of self control ; basically the summoner will have to kill the little flys with 2 Diamond Dusts, so the paladin has to hold his ground for one whole minute while the summoner is waiting for his timer to be up. Invincible will only last for 30 seconds, so the party has to deal with the flies for the 30 other seconds, while keeping them gathered enough for the second Diamond Dust to land on them all.
 * When having only one summoner, dealing with hate is critical. It might be much easier to have the summoner get KO'd after he uses Diamond Dust for the first time and Reraise quickly to gather MP for the second one than to prevent the monsters to attack him, and it has been shown to work.

Pet Puller x1


 * AoEers can be Blue Mages or Black Mages.
 * It is recommended that at least 2 Blue Mages are used.
 * The pet puller can be a Beastmaster, Summoner, or a Puppetmaster.
 * The puller can be replaced by another AoEer.
 * One AoEer can be replaced by a healer.

The puller sends in a pet to attack a fly. All the flies will begin to attack the pet. The puller runs back to the group of AoEers. When the pet dies the flies will come for the puller. As the flies get to the group of AoEers, the Blue Mages should open with Sandspin and Battle Dance to lower Accuracy. Black Mages will want the Blue Mages to generate hate before starting their attack. The main target is to kill all the Houndflies with AoE spells first. Once the Houndflies are down, kill Huntfly and you are done. Once the pull happens it takes about 2 minutes to complete the fight.