User talk:ShadowKatze/Delve

Overview
Delve is a blanket description of the current endgame for SoA expansion. It is designed to be done by full 18 person alliance. There are 2 types of combat people mean when they say Delve. There is Field Combat and Fracture Combat. I'll discuss Field combat first since it's a lot like Voidwatch which people are already familiar with. Please note that all NMs are the same for both Field and Fracture Combat. This means the largest amount of this talk will be about Field since killing them is the long part. In the Fracture combat section I will mostly talk strats for completing a fracture run and simply refer you to the Field section when I say Kill NM.

Jobs & Gear
This is an elitist event. Can't see a way around that. If you come as a DD you will need a really strong set up. Ideally you would already have a delve weapon to do this event, but obviously you have to do the event to get one so here are my recommendations for non-delve gear. Keep in mind that if anyone with Delve weapons wants to help you out, you should be excited to accept their assistance. Back up jobs can make up for lesser gear by actually being good players. Here is quick list of suggestions. PLD - most of these NMs you need a PLD. Some as noted can be easily tanked by other jobs, but typically it's a needed job. PLD will need aegis or [[ochain] to be most effective. It is possible to use lesser sheild, but it can get you killed on some of the NMs.  Which of the 2 power shields is better varies with the NM, but typically Ochain is preferred.  The rest of the PLD's gear should be dmgTaken- and once you have all of that you own on fill in rest with enmity+.  Using some sort of MDEF food would be good also. HeavyPhysicalDDs - MNK, WAR, DRK, DRG, SAM, and RNG are you normal heavy DDs.  They should have some type of "super weapon"  Relic, Mythic, and Empyrean are the 3 obvious choices.  The SoA areas also introduce Wildskeeper Rieves and Skirmish.  Both of these events drop weapons suitable for this event.  If you simply don't have any of these, you can go as a DD, but you need to have most of your DDs with this type of weapon to have a chance in most of the fights.  In addition to having a full damage and a TP set, these DDs need to make sure they have damage mitigation set.  A lot of these fights you spend at least part of the fight trying to trigger a weakness in the NM and you need to be able to accept the fact you will be taking a lot of damage during that time. OtherPhysicalDDs - BST, PUP, RUN, DNC, NIN and THF are jobs that have trouble getting into these parties.  BST and PUP can both be heavy DDs if set up right but it's hard to convince people to try new stuff.  A few of these NMs are easier to pet burn though so BST and PUP can get those fights in easier.  RUN will be a really good job for these fight once more gear for them come out.  I'm not sure enough has been released for them at this point.  If you do come RUN, you will need a weapon from the SoA areas since they can't use the old "super" weapons.  DNC and NIN are just hard to gear up as a heavy DD. They can work in certain sets, but it's just hard.  THF's only real bonus is TH.  That said most people aren't killing Field NMs for drops and all fracture NMs are 100% drops so THF is only really used as a puller in fracture runs.  They are very good for this though and I'll discuss that more in the fracture section. MagicDDs - BLM, BLU, and SMN are your main ones.  RDM and especially SCH can help in this section also but I'll talk about them more in the healer section.  Depending on the NM nukes can be the way you beat him or possible pet burn for SMN.  A lot of what these jobs do is stunning though.  I'll go over the NM moves and what needs to be stunned in the NM section.  These jobs also have to get over the fact they think they are DDs and freaking heal too.  BLU can be a legit heavy DD with good gear and weapons.  BLM should focus on MATT Bonus.  SMN should have free avatars and pet dmg bonuses.  All that said, help heal too please. MainHealers - WHM, SCH, and RDM are you choices.  RDM is border line to be honest.  They need to help heal and keep the other jobs buffed.  SCH can be here to heal or nuke depending on NM, but they should also give their unique buffs to the parties.  Curaga6 and Cure6 will be needed in most of these fights.  Barelement will be needed also with element depending on mob.  Lots of refresh and conserve MP gear is recommended.  /RDM for would be preferred.  RDM should usually /BLM for chainspell Stun. Buffers - BRD, COR, and GEO are the best.  SCH and RDM also slip into this group in a lot of the fights and maybe even SMN.  Buffers should have capped skills.  BRD should have Gjallarhorn and Durandal.  Having one of these is enough, but both is so much better.  COR should have gear to enhance rolls.  They should also have a DD set though.  GEO like RUN suffers a lack of gear at present, but if they have capped skills they are quite powerful in most of these fights.

Field Combat
The main reason to do field combat is to get KIs. These are 100% if you win. Currently there are 3 Delve zones. There are 5 NMs in each delve zone. They are popped by the appropriate shard item. All NMs in a zone use the same color shard. Shards are numbered 1-5 showing which NM they will pop. Each NM has a ??? in a different location within the zone that you trade the shard to pop it. Once you trade the shard, you have only 20 minutes to defeat the NM or it will despawn. This is why gear is so important. People call the NMs T# based on the number of the shard that pops them. T1-3 NMs in a zone share a KI. T4-5 NMs in a zone share another KI. This means presently there are 6 KIs you may obtain. These 6 are permanent KIs. Since NMs share KIs it makes sense to pick the one most easily defeated of the choices for each KI if KI farming is your only goal. There are other reasons to kill these NMs, but I will discuss that in the Fracture section. For this section I will simply listed each NM and you can choose which you want to fight for the KI based on your alliance. You may also get these same KIs by killing these NMs in fracture combat and I'll review that briefly in that section as well.