Shattering Stars/Red Mage

=Red Mage =

Obtain
A Red Mage's Testimony from one of the following:
 * Aura Pot (Level: 75 - 80) (Shrine of Ru'Avitau)
 * Dustbuster (Level: 73 - 76) (Ve'Lugannon Palace)
 * Hover Tank (Level: 64 - 67) (Temple of Uggalepih)
 * Magic Pot (Level: 68 - 70) (Upper Delkfutt Tower)
 * Ruby Quadav (Level: 69 - 70) (Qulun Dome)
 * Sprinkler (Level: 70 - 73) (Ru'Aun Gardens)

Special Notes
Note:This guide uses a strategy that tells you to use the spell bind and then nuke with the magic Aero III. Due to changes in the spell, after you bind, now it will unbind him rendering you dead. I suggest using Gravity.

Note:Maat will use Asuran Fists back to back in both the first half and second half of the fight. Judging from this, Maat does not need to build TP in order to use Asuran Fists.

=Guides=

A Maat Fight Strategy
Very commonly considered the hardest of all the Maat fights and for good reason. Chainspell in the hands of an enemy is never a good thing. Luck plays a big role in this fight so say your prayers before doing this. First and foremost, get the elemental staff for your highest elemental spell. It will help your nukes not get resisted. Food is very helpful in getting your INT as high as you possibly can, every last point counts. Melon Pie +1 is very good INT and MP food, but others might work as well. Everyone has their own method for entering. Enter, run to Maat and buff yourself while keeping a close eye on what spells Maat is buffing himself with. Sleep him and dispel him until all buffs are removed. If you don't land that first sleep, you'll be glad you put buffs up first before starting the battle, they will buy you time in casting your other sleep spell.. Bind Maat. Nuke Maat with your highest tier III spell, then sleep him. If he managed to get cast a buff in the time you nuke/sleep him, dispel it. While he is slept, keep your buffs up if he had a chance to hit you. The nuke/sleep/bind method is a good way to keep him at a distance so he doesn't use Asuran Fists to wipe the floor with you. When your MP is almost depleted, make sure he is slept, check your buffs one last time, Convert, use potions to get your HP back to full, Chainspell and nuke away with your best tier III spell. You do not need to get his HP to zero, he will most likely give up before then. There are other methods to defeating Maat as RDM. It is possible to beat him at 66, but very difficult. Soloing the Ruby Quadev in Qulun Dome is good practice for fighting Maat, and will get you testimonies in the process. Keep in mind, that Maat will use Chainspell. If he does, make sure he is slept, and let him sleep long enough for it to wear off. Maat does have access to all tier III spells even though you don't. Bring food, drinks, potions a-nd elixers. Creating a macro bar just for this fight does not hurt. Do not get discouraged, keep trying. This is not an easy fight.

Additional Stratagy
Get your INT as high as possible, as stated above. Also, make sure to get the wind, ice, and dark staves, as they will help your spell accuracy. As for consumables, buy the following: melon pie+1, Intelligence Booster (optional), 5-8 Hi-Potions (very important), 2 Yagudo Drinks, and at least 3 bottles of Mulsum. The key to winning by this stratagy is knowing how much MP you have, what exactly you're going to cast, and when to cast it.

Macro in the following, and for the spells put /targetnpc and /equip main "Corresponding Elemental Staff" in the lines before the casting line for ALL of them:
 * [Alt Line] Sleep 2, Sleep 1 (make sure these are next to eachother), Bind, Paralyze, Aero III, Convert, Chainspell.
 * [Ctrl Line] Hi-Potion, Mulsum, Yagudo Drink, Stoneskin, Blink.

Time to fight.

Use your food outside of the burning circle and head in, it will NOT dissapear. Once you get inside, RUN as fast as you can to the edge of the arena and use sleep2 on maat, if that doesnt stick, quickly follow up with sleep1. Now, make sure you're at max distance from maat (you will be if the first one stuck) and use yagudo drink, INT booster, Blink, and Stoneskin. Dispel and Paralyze him, and then Bind. Now comes the crucial part: this is when you Chainspell. Once you Chainspell, use as many Aero III's as you can untill you have enough MP left for sleep 1 or 2! This is crucial, and if you mess up and don't have enough... guess what you brought the mulsum's for? IF there are resists or Sleep cannot be used, THEN USE MULSUMS to up your mp at the last minute before Sleeping Maat (Chainspell is up so dont worry about delay). Immediately Convert and SPAM HI-POTIONS. Get your hp up to a comfortable lvl and use the last bit of Chainspell to pound the old man into oblivion with your newly replenished MP. You will have enough MP to finish him off when you win, even though he gives up before you get the chance. Expressed in steps, this is what you do:
 * Use food outside
 * Go in and Sleep Maat
 * Buff up and Dispel, Paralyze, Bind
 * Chainspell

Within Chainspell:
 * Aero III till enough mp left for Sleep (will vary with mp)
 * Sleep 1 or 2 and make it stick (use mulsums if need be)
 * Convert
 * Spam Hi-Potions
 * Aero III till he dies

You do not need to do anything else besides these steps. With Stoneskin and Blink both up, Stoneskin will cover the bumps Blink doesn't absorb, and you will have enough hp to take the 3-5 spells he'll manage to cast if they get through. The key is not to have any downtime between actions and to ensure the highest ammount of accuracy on Sleep's. You should finish in under 3 minutes if you're smooth, Good luck!

Gun Ho Strateg
This strategy is best used for jobs that have more MP. I've personally tested this strat on Tarutaru and Humes. I would also assume it works very well with Mithra. Galka and Elvaan may not be able to use this strategy effectively.

The goal here is to maximize Magic Attack Bonus then INT then MP. This path is also a more expensive path than most since it requires a vile elixir and a vile elixir +1. You may be able to cheapen the meds but its something I do not recommend. The int potion although was released before COP was in low supply when I did both my tries so it was something I was unable to get. I'd recommend it if its cheap on the server but its not necessary.

Equipment I used (my attempts predate COP so some items may have better equipment now)
 * Weapon - Auster's Staff (HQ Wind)

This is useful because of the 15% magic attack bonus for the aero III spam you will be doing
 * Throwing - Phantom Tathlum / Morion Tathlum
 * Head - Warlock's Chapeau
 * Neck - Elemental Torque
 * Earring - Moldavite Earring/Phantom Earring or Elemental Earring

Moldavite is the key to this strat. It adds an additional 5% damage in a slot that doesn't do much overall
 * Body - Warlock's Tabard
 * Hands - Warlock's Gloves or anything that gives +int
 * Rings - 2 x Zircon Rings
 * Back - Red Cape
 * Waist - RK Belt +1 (thats what I used when I started) but Penitent's Rope is better
 * Legs - Warlock's Tights or Anything that gives +int
 * Feet - Warlock's Boots or anything that gives +int
 * Food - Melon Pie +1

The strat I used was to eat food before entering the BC, then enter, then run to the BC edge, cast Stoneskin, cast Blink, cast Diaga, activate Chainspell, spam Aero III and then Blink, repeat Aero III and blink, once low on MP pop a Vile Elixir, repeat Aero III/Blink spam, low again pop a Vile Elixir +1, repeat till MP is gone.

It should take I believe 6 Aero IIIs to beat Maat. To increase damage, go on windsday. This strat is more expensive but its how I did win in record time.

Added note (This fight is enough to make you wish you never chose RDM as your main, but this was the only strat that worked for me, just a couple notes I'd like to add. Don't Dia maat, because if you dia him you cant sleep him, and you will need to sleep maat to debuff him and use any potions you might have brought along, another thing is dont count on sleep sticking unless your Int. is very close to or above 100 total. If you wanna avoid Maats heavy melee dmg, stay away from using silence, and dont count on being able to bind or gravity maat, he seems highly resistent to both.)

Added note v2 You may wish to sleep Maat to debuff and dispell him before Chainspell Aero III (Shell IV, stoneskin or blink can really hurt). To do this - DO NOT cast diaga. Also becuase Chainspell in Maat's hands can cause more damage than his melee, consider silencing him too. During Chainspell, you will likely only need to reapply stoneskin or/and blink, once if at all. A very useful alternative to vile elixers is levelling up mid fight using an exp scroll. This method should give enough mp for elvaan and galka races to cast the required number of Aero IIIs. Please see a video of this strategy in action - Youtube link

The Thorough Blitz Method
Everybody who chooses RDM as their first job will be living in plain blissful ignorance while they climb to level 65; the rate of invites making it quite easy. Upon hitting 66 though, it hits you in the head that you have to fight your worst enemy: an insanely overpowered you.

First and foremost, don't try the fight at 66. Don't even try it until level 70; you'll need all the enfeebling and elemental skill you can get. When you do finally hit level 70, make sure that you take your gear and haul over to the Qulun Dome. It's time for the pre-fight. This is probably the second most important time of all. You're going to need to be trained. You have to kill like a Black Mage, and survive like a Paladin when you fight the old codger.

Your target is the Ruby Quadav, your new favorite play mate. After you get to him, you'll notice that there are two friends accompanying him. You have two options here: Buff up and aggro them all, and zone out quickly only to run in with probably half your buffs and have to fight an angry, and probably fully buffed, Ruby. The other, slightly wiser method is to wait for the other two other Quadavs to turn their backs and for the Ruby to be near the entrance to the entrance strip. The next thing is to pull him, fast.

Your spell of choice this fight is Silence. If he stands around to cast a spell, you'll probably end up fighting all three Quadavs at once. If you do get Ruby alone, run back a few feet until he's out of linking range and then Sleep him. If Sleep fails, on to Sleep 2, and then Sleepga if all else fails. You'll now want to dispel him. This takes a ludicrously long among of time on occasion, but do not stop dispelling until he's done. Sleep him as needed.

Alright, so you're ready for Ruby now. Make sure Stoneskin and Blink are up, as well as Refresh. It's time to go trigger happy. Launch Aero III at him and then immediately put him back to sleep. Keep him silenced at all times. If you're Elemental Skill is capped you should be able to easily take out around 10% of his HP in a single nuke. As he's asleep rest for 20-40 seconds, and launch the next nuke. Repeat, over and over.

Hey, no one ever said it was an exciting fight. When Ruby is dead, you may get a Test. If not, oh well; go kill another Quadav nearby and make yourself feel better. They drop some nice loot anyway. Ruby respawns in around 16-20 minutes after his previous death; plenty of time to kill his chums and rebuff.

When you finally have your Test, it's time to prepare. After many-and I mean more than some of the most horrid records ever-I had realized that they way to go was with a Moldavite Earring, and then an MP set mostly. I used two Electrum Ring, one Phantom Earring, my handy Marine M Gloves, my AF Hat, Body, and Pants, my Red Cape Plus 1, a Qiqirn Sash, a Beak Necklace, a Bugard Strap Plus 1, and my Custom M Boots. If you're not a human, substitute the RSE with similar pieces.

Also, prepare well, but not over-prepared. Then you get nervous easily. Get a friend with a cooking skill above 60, and have him make you Mulsums. Two stacks should be more than enough. Buy him the ingredients, it's cheap. When you have that, buy yourself a Marron Glace for your food. It's all about the MP. I also brought 4 Hi-Potion Plus 2 with me. Go to the Gardens on Darksday-make sure you get there before 18:00 or so to give yourself ample time-give Maat your test, and be transported to your Burning Circle. Eat your food, rest to full.

Give yourself a pat on your back for making it this far. Have your friends cheer you on. You're ready for this monster. Trade the test, watch it tear, and run yourself up to the ledge of the arena; particularly do it as fast as possible. Start spamming your Sleep macro and get Maat to take his midnoon nap. As soon as that's done, cast Stoneskin, Blink, Refresh, and Phalanx. You will not need more than that.

This is were the Mulsums come in. They're extremely useful for quick MP since they have no side effects. I used six of them after I buffed. Sleep was a fair amount of time in so I decided it was time to finish the fight. It's time to unleash the handy dandy Chainspell. As soon as it's used make sure you start your nuking. In the midst of the nukes I also got a Gravity and a Bind to stick. He'll hit you a fare bit through this, so be sure to cast Stoneskin and Blink as soon as needed while Chainspelling.

Pummel him, buff yourself. Time yourself though: 48 seconds into Chainspell or when you hit below 200 MP you should put all of your focus into getting him back to sleep. When he's asleep, rebuff yourself fully.

Convert, use one Cure IV and your hi-potions, run a little bit away from him, and get ready for the final shots. He should definitely be below 45% by now if you didn't have to go too buff crazy. You should have near full MP; any you don't have use your Mulsums to get a fair bit back. Nuke him, sleep him, and rest.

Repeat that once or twice, and you should be done. Congratulations, because you just won the widely agreed hardest Maat fight in the game. If the strategy worked as well for you as well as it did for me, you'll also have walked out with near full HP and decent MP. This isn't a time breaker though; it'll take you 3:30-4:15 minutes. Still, that's good enough in anyones' book.

An Elvaan Strategy
Suggested Items:


 * HP Restorer - Hi-Potion Plus 3
 * MP Restorer - Vile Elixir Plus 1
 * Food - Melon Pie Plus 1
 * Optional - Intelligence Potion

Suggested Gear
 * Weapons - Pluto's Staff, Auster's Staff, Aquilo's Staff
 * Sub Weapon - Bugard Leather Strap Plus 1
 * Ammo - Phantom Tathlum
 * Head - Warlock's Chapeau
 * Body - Warlock's Tabard
 * Hands - Warlock's Gloves
 * Legs - Warlock's Tights
 * Feet - Wood F Ledelsens / Wood M Ledelens (if another race, use whatever gives most INT+)
 * Neck - Grandoise Chain (What I used, but there are better items.)
 * Earrings - Moldavite Earring &Insomnia Earring
 * Rings - Hale Ring & Ether Ring
 * Back - Lamia Mantle
 * Waist - Qiqirn Sash (What I used, but there are better items, if you can afford them.)

Macros:

Note: Be sure to to include staff changes for the spells, in coordanence with their element.


 * First Line - Sleep, Sleep II, Bind, Paralyze, Aero III, Convert, Chainspell, Dispel
 * Second Line - Hi-Potion Plus 3, Vile Elixir Plus 1, Refresh, Stoneskin, Blink, Protect IV & Shell IV

This strategy is best used on Darksday, must be LV.69 or higher. Enfeebling Magic needs to be capped, Elemental Magic being capped is not required, but at least 180+ recommended.

Eat food before entering the BCNM. Once inside cast Refresh, Protect IV, Shell IV, Stoneskin, Blink, and then heal MP to full. If you are using INT. Potion, use now. Once full MP, run towards Maat and cast tier one elemental magic spells until his Blink effect is gone, and then Sleep II him, using Pluto's Staff. Dispel him until it has no effect, and then cast Aero III. Sleep II > Aero III until your MP is down to roughly 100. Sleep II him again, recast Stoneskin, if you haven't already, and then Convert.

Spam your Hi-Potion +3's until full HP. It takes 7-9 Hi-Potion +3 for an Elvaan, depending on how low you let your MP get, before Convert. Once your HP is full, cast Bind, Paralyze, and then use Chainspell. Nuke Maat with Aero III and try to keep Paralyze and Bind on him. He will use Chainspell while your 2hr is still going. Paralyze can interrupt his spellcasting, and Bind keeps him from getting close and using Asuran Fists on you. Asuran Fists can do anywhere from 100-1200+ damage to you, and as far as I can tell, goes through Stoneskin. He also tends to use it several times in a row, until you're dead.

Sleep II not required while you are nuking him. While it is tempting to mash the Aero III macro, pay attention to how much MP you have. Use as much as you feel is safe, Sleep II Maat, then use the Vile Elixir +1. Vile Elixir +1 is instant HP and MP regain, which is extremely important, since Chainspell lasts for only one minute. Once MP restored, cast Aero III until Maat is dead. Keep Paralyze and Bind on him, because its not hard to get killed once he is free. You should defeat him before 2hr is gone.

I highly suggest using HQ Wind, Dark and Ice Staffs in his strategy, because the added boost really does help with spells sticking, as well as Aero III damage. My Aero III damage went up from 120-280 to 350-420 per hit, once I started using the HQ staff, instead of the NQ one. With HQ Dark Staff, Sleep and Sleep II both stuck without fail, and with HQ Ice Staff, Paralyze and Bind stuck, and stuck longer than with NQ Ice Staff.