Operation Desert Swarm/Strategies

Modern
-ODS Melee Style-

6 Members 74+ with ninja subjob and Utsusemi: Ni.

1 2 3 <- Back Line

4 5 6 <- Front Line

Each member picks a number, and a spot.

Example; input /p Player 1 - #1 - North West - Main Circle

input /p Player 2 - #2 - South East - Main Circle

input /p Player 3 - #3 - North East - Main Circle

input /p Player 4 - #4 - South West - Main Circle

input /p Player 5 - #5 - South South South - Burning Circle

input /p Player 6 - #6 - South South - Hallway

When you enter, walk to the end of the path, but don't get close enough to agro.

Whomever is pulling the furthest away should fire / attack first, and should have a bow/xbow/gun/throwing type weapon for range.

Never let a melee who is moving TOWARDS the Scorpions attack first. They will most likely have extra shadows lost before the other 5 members claim their mob.

When you are ready to attack, call out in PT chat.

"##(Your number of the scorpion) (Lock On)"

A confident player with evasion gear, or high natural/merited evasion(Thief or Ninja) can pull one of the Scorpions back to the Burning Circle.

This player, or whomever is pulling furthest, should fire first, as mentioned above.

Do not camp on top of anyone else.

Never let more than one person attack a Scorpion at the same time because it can cause it to gain TP too quickly, and you'll actually get someone killed because of the TP spam.

Evasion is king here, unless you're playing a job that can utterly zerg it exceedingly fast.

Conventional
(72)NIN/WAR (72)THF/NIN (73)SAM/WAR (73)RDM/BLM (74)BLM/WHM (66)WHM/BLM

Enter BCNM, THF goes to pull Scorps, line up against the wall right after the circular entrance in the tunnel. THF shoots the middle front scorpion (doesn't really matter which, but I always shot that one :P) with utsusemi up and runs all the way to the Circle - recast utsusemi:ichi - should be able to recast it and not take any dmg, these things have crappy accuracy (against a THF, anywho).

NIN Vokes the red scorp Dynamis style when THF runs past and begins fighting the one scorp -very- far down the hall (Remember, you should be -well- out of range for a ranged attack).

RDM ES/Sleepga the 5 scorps remaining when the THF gets to the BC. At some point BLM cast Sleepga 2 on the sleeping scorps, and from here it's just a normal fight. You must -always- pull the scorps way out of the tiny little circle to fight them or you risk them all waking up with recasts down. Mages keep stone/blink up par normal, and things should start getting hairy with 2-3 scorps left (When they're hard/impossible to sleep), but shouldn't be anything too hard as long as you've been fighting out of AoE range earlier. The scorps by the mages never AoEd for us, so it was a matter of ping pong, stun, sleep, bind, gravity while melee killed the scorps farther out.

The reason fighting here is so nice is that if you wipe, you can reraise and still win the BCNM. With this setup if we did things properly it took 10 mins to win the BCNM. When we wiped it took us 24 mins once, and 27 mins the other - and we waited on all members to lose sickness.

This is a very easy BCNM, I actually had to more or less solo the 6th scorpion once because everyone but me was dead or out of MP, and it wasn't horrifically difficult (yay for status bolts), though I did have to 2hr when it was around 30% (from full) when it's AoE dropped me to 200ish HP.

By Vryali Sage, Original Post found here

Another Conventional
After doing 7 runs of this last night without a single death, I decided to write down our strategy just in case someone decides to attempt this without 5 BLM.

The Set-up NIN/WAR 71 MNK/NIN 74 WHM/SMN 74 RDM/BLM 75 BLM/WHM 69 RNG/NIN 71

And on our first attempt we replaced the RNG/NIN with a PLD/WAR 73

I believe the key to doing this was having 2 NIN tanks, although the first time I did this I had only one, but I’ll talk about that later.

You can buff outside of the BCNM, do this to save some time.

When you enter the BCNM, there will be a long path leading up to a large opening. After fully buffed, have the BLM Elemental Seal Sleepga II either of the two middle scorpions.

I was the MNK/NIN and I brought a full set of Chi-Blast gear. As soon as I hit my 6th boost, the BLM would cast his spell.

MNK/NIN runs in and Chi-Blasts the front right scorpion and pulls it as far to the right as possible.

NIN/WAR provokes the front left mob and pulls it as far left as possible. RNG/NIN goes with the NIN/WAR.

Having done this before without the luxury of two players with Utsusemi: Ni, I can tell you this makes it much much easier. Scorpions in general have horrible accuracy and can be blink tanked quite easily. While it is beatable without NIN tanks, this will drastically increase chances of success

The WHM had a pretty simple role, run around and cure anyone who took some damage. Surprisingly enough, this is usually the BLM and RDM since they will be holding agro from 4 scorpions.

The BLM will recast Stoneskin and Blink and prepare for the scorpions to wake. A good way to think about the scorpions is, every time one dies, the others all level up. So as there are less scorpions, their resistance to sleep will increase. From memory, only the first two Sleepga actually slept all the scorpions.

The RDM had to be the busiest job in this set up. He was frantically running around refreshing the mages, hasting the NIN and sleeping any mobs the BLM couldn’t take care of. I also remember him having time to cast some Slow and Paralyze on the scorpions, which from my perspective was amazing with all the stuff going on.

By the time I finished my first mob, so had the RNG and NIN. At this point, all the scorpions have been slept a couple times, and the BLM, RDM, and WHM have built considerable hate. For this reason I would save TP so that I can pull the mob with Asuran Fists. And on the occasion that Asuran Fists wasn’t enough, I’d pop counterstance.

A MNK/NIN 74+ has some awesome tools a NIN doesn’t get. Dodge is a huge bonus when trying to recast Utsusemi, and Counterstance believe it or not is amazingly helpful. When shadows are down, usually you hope to evade a hit, but you can cast Utsusemi and counter at the same time, and this happened quite often.

In the case of the PLD tank, the RNG/NIN can really be replaced by nearly any job as long as you keep the 2 NIN tanks. In this scenario the PLD is very handy. He was able to melee with the NIN, and provoke + Flash sleeping mobs so well, the BLM almost took zero damage.

Earlier however, I had done this KSNM with a tougher set up. PLD/WAR 70 MNK/NIN 75 MNK/WAR71 WHM/BLM 70 BLM/RDM 70 RDM/BLM 74 And I can speak from experience that NIN tanks are the way to go. We won 4/5 on this set up, but when the WHM has to cure a tank, and a MNK that keeps stealing hate from the tank, MP gets extremely low. On one occasion, we only won because 2 of the members had Reraise up. So it is doable, but takes a very talented group.

Not too much more to say. The scorpions have an AoE move that gets stronger the more you kill. I remember the 2nd and 3rd to last mobs AoE would take 2 shadows and do about 150 dmg to me. And the last Scorpion’s AoE did about 300+ and took all shadows. But at this point, the BLM was casting AM, the RDM was nuking, the WHM barely had to cure, and the melee WS like it was a contest to see who could score the kill.

I hope this helps! Good luck on your drops!

By SingBismark Sage, Original post found here

Beastmasters
This is how it works in a BST PT.

Solo each scorpion.

First off, bring Carrie. Buff up before you enter. Unlike capped BCNMs, uncapped BCNMs do not remove your buffs when you enter. Carrie now disappears if you use before you zone, so Call Beast inside the BCNM. Check your Call Beast timers. When your timers are at the 3:00 mark, you're good to go.

Enter the BC.

The scorpions are arranged in the following manner:
 * {|border="0"


 * A
 * B
 * C
 * D
 * E
 * F
 * }
 * }

With A, B, C being in the back row as you enter the D, E, F in the front row.

Make SURE that everyone has called out and locked on to their target scorpion.

BST assigned to D, E, F stand at the edge of the BC, and send their carries in to fight their respective scorpions. A, B, C BST run in and send their pets in as well to their targets.

Once aggro is established on your pets (watch your pet lifebar), HEEL.

A, B, C remain inside the BC.

D, E, F pull theirs into the tunnel leading to the BC.

Space yourselves apart. Make sure that all of you are outside of the AoE radius of your teammate's Scorpion. At this level of BST, you should be aware of the AoE radius of Scorpions, so I will not go into detail for that.

From there on, solo the scorpions. However, I highly recommend you not use an Axe, OR if you do use an axe, do not use combat gear (use your charm gear). If you hit too hard, you will pull hate from Carrie. Carrie can tank these things, but she will have a hard time holding hate. I had my Hauberk + Thick Set + Sniper's + Amemet Mantle + Life Belt on and I was hitting really hard, kept pulling hate from Carrie. All the BST in my party had to switch to secondary non-Axe/Scythe weapons so that carrie could hold hate. That means either Sword, Dagger, or Club.

We actually call this BC our Skill Up BC (>.<)b

Expect to use a 2nd Carrie on the Scorpion. However, the higher level you are, the tougher your Carrie. One stack should last you enough for 6 battles.

Once one Scorpion is down, look for the nearest Scorpion to you and Sic your Carrie on that one, but do not join in to help. Sit down, rest MP, and cure your BST buddy.

Through out all that, make sure to keep in constant communication with the rest of the PT. There will be a few instances where you will not see your team members because you have your back to them, or they are in the tunnel. But make your messages on party chat short and sweet.

Summmed up:
 * Use Carrie, wait for timer to be down to 3:00 before entering. Buff before entering. Don't forget Reraise, just in case.
 * Separate the Scorpions, 3 in circle, 3 out of circle.
 * Be lv70+ anything below 70 and you'll have a gimped Carrie who can't stand up to the Scorps.
 * Don't let the Scorpions have overlapping AoE radii. (see #2)
 * Don't panic. If you need a Cure, request for it. Remember that there are 5 other people in there who can toss a Cure your way if you need it. If all else fails and you're about to die, close your eyes and remind yourself that you're BST. ^^
 * See #2

Finally, save your teammates the hassle of running around. Before you pop the chest, have everyone else run out and exit the BC. Then you pop the chest. That way, they won't be running around Palborough and they can rest up while you run around by yourself.

Best of luck and be sure to share your stories on the BST forum. ^^

Oh, and on another note, RDMs can do this strat as well, they just take a tiny bit longer, and must be a little bit higher in level.

By: Aiantes Scholar. Original post found here.

Mixed Soloing
There are a number of jobs that can solo a scorpion by level 75. Ninjas, Thief/Ninjas, Beastmasters (as described above), Dragoon/Mages, and even Dark Knight/Samurais with Dread Spikes have all been confirmed as being able to solo single scorpions.

For party setup, get 5-6 people that can solo a scorpion apiece. Having a Rdm or Blm for a 6th can allow you to sleepga the scorpions at the start for easier grabbing and pulling, and the mage can then keep one slept while the melees kill the rest. Alternately, it is likely that a Rdm could solo a scorp on their own after sleeping the mobs at the start.

The basic strategy is to run in, have everyone grab a scorp, and pull them to opposite corners of the room. Once you finish off one scorpion, help the next person over. They'll grow in power as they die, so remember that the last couple will be hitting fairly hard.


 * quick little edit, Blue mage can absolutely destroy a scorp with little effort.

EDIT: Warriors can do this fine as well. I tend to use O. Hat and Scorpion Harness to avoid as many hits as possible, but it is doable without this evasion gear as well. ---EDIT by Inquisitor

EDIT: Summoners can easily solo their own scorpions. I always use Fenrir in this as for the -2 less MP cost of what normal Avatars would normaly cost, and as for Eclipse Bite can do considerable damage with Summoners Pigaches and Bracers for the Att & Acc+. Garuda & Shiva are also good Avatars to use since they last alot longer than Fenrir would, but depending on how much MP garuda/Shiva are costing u would leave you around maybe 100~ MP left (depends on what race and equipment you have) and leaves u little healing power for the rest of your party making Fenrir an ideal choice for kiteing and healing the party on the side. ---EDIT by Imdraxx

EDIT: Notes on Drk/Sam soloing: you can Meditate outside of the actual fight and the TP will carry over. As you near the Scorpions, activate Seigan but not Third Eye. When you have moved into position, use Third Eye and pull the first with Drain II. As it comes towards you, use Bio II on it to further weaken its attacks. Use Weapon Bash and Stun to space time between Third Eyes if it falls prematurely, the "buffer HP" gained by Drain II means that the scorpion should be unable to injure you severely. If your Guillotines are powerful enough (850+ per hit), it should fall in a very short space of time. It is then possible to fight a second scorpion, if necessary, by casting Dread Spikes then pulling a second one, again using Bio II to weaken its attacks. Drains can be used as they become available to keep your HP high; as a final note, when all of the scorpions TP move at once, if yours isn't the first to do it, it is possible to stun its TP move -- and it WON'T try to repeat it after it is unstunned, meaning you've permanently dodged a TP move.

Solo Black Mage
High-end gear is required. Ideally you want to deal at least 20% of each scorpion's HP with one nuke. Exceptional BLMs are capable of doing this fight with only 4 nukes. You should always be sure Manafont is ready regardless of whether you plan on using it. Decide how much risk you want in choosing medicine. The fight can be done with no medicine at all (just Manafont) or as safe as you desire using Vile Elixirs(+1). Keep in mind medicine will cut your profits significantly, and should only be used if you're new to the strategy.

You will need:
 * Good nuking gear for Thundaga III. Rairin Obi, Sorcerer's Tonban, Jupiter's Staff, etc. Spirit Lantern and any other items to boost your damage are encouraged.
 * Red Mage subjob and 114 MND for Stoneskin casting.
 * Full Enfeebling gear and Pluto's Staff for Sleepga.

Enter on Lightningday. Eat defense food. Tavnazian Tacos work well. Reraise, Stoneskin, Blink, Aquaveil, Protect, Phalanx, and rest to full MP quickly. A Yagudo Drink is useful here. Ready your nuking gear, force your ring latent, etc.

Cast Thundaga III on the middle scorpion from 21 or so units of distance from the mob. Immediately run back for about 2-3 seconds while you're in the "can't cast again yet" phase. Stop completely and cast Sleepga II. If you don't stop cleanly, and you interrupt your Sleepga, you're dead.

Repeat 3-4 times, using medicine and/or Manafont to replenish your MP. After every Sleepga, rebuff Blink and Stoneskin and keep an eye on your Phalanx and Aquaveil timers. Alternating nukes other than Thundaga is not recommended because you won't get the Day-of-the-week bonus. To win without medicine, go through 2 or 3 nuke-sleep-buff cycles, use Manafont, nuke, sleep, nuke. It may be possible to use 3 nukes during Manafont. Adjust your strategy based on your race, gear, etc.

Manaburn
See above. Same as solo BLM strategy but safer and with much less skill involved.

Video
