User talk:ShadowKatze/Salvage

If you are part of my salvage LS, could you please let me know if you have read this, by leaving a message on my main talk page or in game.

PET PEEVES
SHOW UP ON TIME OR DON'T COME AT ALL I ask if the time is good for people. People say yes. People plan other events in game for the same time. I don't get it (the real life stuff I get). On a side note, the day we enter can have a huge impact on some runs (and possibly drops) so if everyone is on time we can choose the day we enter rather than going whenever people get around to showing up. If you need help with Assault points to go, try to be on early and we will help. I'm free most days to help with that. Lastly, I'm just plain tired some nights, so having a WHM that is awake may be something that will help the group. STAY ON TOPIC The voice system is great for the runs, but someone gets killed every freaking run because people are talking, joking, fighting, etc. instead of doing their job and paying attention. It's not always the same person either. Only talk about strategy. I'm begging you here. Really. I'm about to the point of quitting salvage totally over this. If I'm the one talking off topic, tell me to shut up, I'm fine with that, but we all need to stay focused. Chat before. Chat after. During, SHUT THE @#~$~$ UP. We still want your ideas, and strategy insights, but all the other stuff can wait until later. This also applies to party/LS chat. Also, /tells are nice, but if it's for the run, Party chat is less a distraction personally. NO AFK DURING Ok, I get that if you house is on fire or the dog ate the cat or that last fish stick was a mistake, you need to go AFK and take care of that. Things happen in real life we don't expect. If it happens a lot, that is a problem and we can talk about a new schedule. This isn't fair, but some jobs just can't be AFK and still have a chance to win. THF = TH = must hit EVERY mob. 2 Melee = Tanks = must have. 1 healer = alive = must have. The rest all are needed, but a SHORT AFK won't kill us. With that in mind, at the very minimum type AFK or BRB if you have to go. /Tell me. Something. If you do go AFK, PASS/LOT all cells first. If it's likely to be longer than 60 seconds, we need you to drop party so we can still get cells (Obviously Party leaders can't go AFK). Cell importance varies with run, but some are must haves. I get you know you won't be unlocked and can't really contribute until you are, but others need those cells you pass. So long AFK should drop party and we will reinvite when you are back. If it's just a bored AFK, that's bad though. We can always use bored people to call cells. I do it now and that's why I prefer to come as the back up healer or BLM that doesn't unlock early. When I'm BRD or main heal, I'd welcome someone else that is just sitting to do it.

Planned run overview
Current run is Bhaflau Remnants Megaboss when everyone shows up. We will run Arrapago Remnants Boss run to finish skadi legs 25 & feet 35 and Usukane legs 35 when those people are present. Low man Boss is ZR boss if jobs work out, but not numbers. If low in jobs we will farm NMs using an AR Rat run, BR Door bashing, ZR Frog hunt, or SSR NM run. Which will depend on those present and their preference.

Completed and 2/3 pieces in LS
The following pieces nearing completion on main sets: 1 Ares Feet (need ZR frog 6), 1 Ares Legs (need SSR Gears), 1 Ares Body (need BR Boss), 1 Morrigan Feet (need ZR frog 6), 1 Skadi Body (need BR door 4), 2 Marduk Feet (need ZR Boss, SSR Imp), 2 Marduk Legs (need SSR Boss, BR Door), 1 Marduk Head (need ZR frog 6), 2 Usukane Head (need ZR boss), 3 Usukane Legs (need BR Boss, AR MiniChariot), 2 Usukane Hands (need ZR frog 5), 1 Usukane Feet (Need SSR Boss), 4 Usukane Body (need SSR door). Secondary sets that are 2/3: These are low priority for lotting, but get first chance if people with main present have the needed item. 1 Ares Head (need AR ghost), 2 Ares Body (need BR Boss, and AR Rat), 1 Ares Feet (need ZR frog 6), 1 Skadi Legs (need ZR frog 5), 1 Skadi Feet (need BR boss), 1 Skadi Feet (need AR chariot), 1 Morrigan Hands (need SSR Boss), 1 Morrigan Body (need AR rat). As a LS we have completed Morrigan Hands, Morrigan Body, Ares Body x2, Ares Feet, Usukane Hands, Usukane Head, Usukane Legs, Skadi Legs, Skadi Hands, Marduk Head, and Marduk Body totally in LS LS members also have the following pieces completed partially in LS: Marduk Hands x2, Skadi Feet, Skadi Legs x2. There are other Pieces completed prior to joining, but no point in listing those for this.

Intro
I know that few bother to read this, but below is the information on TeamSpeak/Ventrillo and the runs that I plan. Personally, I feel that if everyone reads thru it and sees what we are doing, things will go smoother. If you want to read more about the areas (and I really encourage this), I added links to each remnant area on this page (below) as well as the main salvage page (above). This plan is not set in stone. Ideally, everyone that reads thru it should have questions. It would be better to get these questions answered now than during a run. I know that the plan is not perfect and that each of you know more about your respective jobs than I do. Therefore thru the questioning process we can fine tune the plan. One thing that would help me with communication would be if everyone had a wiki account (or some other nonrestricted way to message to me). I find the 300 character limit on the FFXI messaging to be a horrible way to communicate for me. That's optional of course, just something I would find useful. I realize a lot of people don't like to register for things like this (or read even more messages from myself). '''THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! IF YOU ARE NEW, SHUT UP AND FOLLOW ORDERS.''' I'm fine with answering questions after a run (or to certain extent after a wipe), but really, we do know what we are doing and if we ask you to do something we probably have a reason other than we all want you to die. This is especially true of cell drops. I know you really want to help and show off your gear/abilities/ect. However, we give the cells in an order for a reason Requesting cells because you feel left out usually just delays the runs (and causes fights). Ask me in /tell (don't distract caller as I'm usaully calling on Ventrillo no matter who is actually typing) and I can tell you why you didn't get the cell or pass on to the caller you need it (although usually there is a very good reason you don't get it). Demanding a cell in party is the best way (or certainly one of them) to start a fight I've seen and will not get you the cell (it may in fact move you down the list even if you are right about needing it since human beings are like that some nights). Now after you have been running with us a while and see how it works, if you feel you were skipped accidently, feel free to ask, but do it nicely. My Main point is ALL QUESTIONS AFTER THE RUN. I'm willing to forgo a little sleep to answer then then, but hate forgoing drops because we have to stop and answer them during. My personal opinon is that if we can make this an interactive process, we will find more success. This isn't like a Dynamis group that has a major number of people and only a few leaders running the show. This activity only requires a few people and therefore is much better designed to involve everyone in the planning. My personal frustration has been over the fact that no one wants to be involved in planning, but then complains about the plans we use. The Ventrillo will help with this. Even is you prefer not to talk (and everyone talking at once is bad), if everyone can listen it will speed up cell lots and overall speed. Being able to talk more openly with messaging would help also in planning the runs and strats. Lastly, if you do mananage to read thru all my boring prattle here, please encourage the other members of our group to do so as well. ShadowKatze 15:27, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

VoIP info (by Seeko)
I totally agree that having a voice chat system would help us more than anything else to speed things up. The only problem I see with it is that it would potentially alienate non-PC users. The programs I've tried using (TeamSpeak and Ventrilo) are designed to be background programs. You start them up before you log into the game, and then they just run in the background (minimal cpu usage) while you play the game. It would suck for people I know who would love to chat while playing but are on 360 or PS. Unless they are able to have a laptop or something nearby to connect them to us, they'll be hosed on the VoIP. I found a public server already set up for FFXI in Teamspeak. All you have to do is go to the Teamspeak website (http://www.teamspeak.com), download tab, and download the client (~6MB). Once you download/install, start it up, click "connection->connect." Then click "change filter" and specify these fields: "show public servers only" "show servers witout passwords only" "show servers containing: FFXI" click ok. you should see: "FFXIUnited." click "connect" from there after you are connected, double click "Leviathan." This is a public server that probably seldom (if ever) gets used, so we can feel free to use it. It can host up to 64 people on it, so we'll be good. --Seeko 16:55, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

This toy has helped us a lot and I think we need to all use it. 2 things about it though. First, while it is fun to "just chat" with people please, during the run, only talk about the run. Second, let the leader(s) talk. It's much easier to let one voice give orders and everyone obeys. In this respect it can get worse than typing, but I can do this and play, I can't type and play. ShadowKatze 17:33, 23 May 2008 (UTC) We have had some random people intentionally disrupting us from time to time when doing other stuff, but I still feel we should all be on something like this. ShadowKatze 19:24, 12 June 2008 (UTC) Ventrillo is a better system in that it is clearer and we can have a private server. I am currently have a server rented. Cost is pretty low ($6 a month for 15 users). I will let those interested know the settings/password. If you have no access to a PC, you can not use the vent system. This is fine, but the more people we can get on voice to talk the better the runs will go (with the exception for random chatter). ShadowKatze 17:22, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

Gear Drop Overview
In salvage various mobs drop gear that can be upgraded into the "Salvage armour" that people want. A full overview is given on the main salvage page but here is a quick review. Please note that where these pieces drop is listed in the planned runs below. To upgrade a piece, you must first find a level 15, a level 25, and a level 35 piece of the desired type from that set (all hands for hands for example). Once you have these, you trade them AND 10 Imperial Gold coins AND a stack of the requested Synth Material to a NPC and wait 1 real day for your item. The level 15 pieces are decent drop rates from either random mobs or forced pops depending on the area. The level 25 pieces are all dropped by the megabosses with 2 dropping at random from that mob's list every time a megaboss is killed. The level 35 pieces are from forced popped NMs in the various areas, but have a horrible drop rate even with TH (10% or less). I personally have a pet theory about the day of the week affecting drop rates for armour. I feel that each set has a day where the % is increased for it to drop (possibly also with a matching lo % day). I have observed the vast majority of our Ares drops have occured on Fire day. The other sets I have not paid as much attention too, but I have noticed that Usukane has dropped on Dark day and Marduk on Light Day. Seeko feels that Skadi may be related to Wind Day and if forced to guess, I would pick Thunder day for Morrigan. I will continue to watch our drops and see if they hold to this pattern. Again, this does not generate 100% drops, but seems to increase the odds, especially from mobs droping multiple sets. Ares's Cuirass Set - WAR,PLD,DRK,DRG - Enyo's Breastplate Set(15), Phobos's Cuirass Set(25), Deimos's Cuirass Set(35) Skadi's Cuirie Set - THF,COR,RNG,BST - Njord's Jerkin Set(15), Freyr's Jerkin Set(25), Freya's Jerkin Set(35) Usukane Haramaki Set - MNK,PUP,SAM,NIN - Hoshikazu Gi Set(15), Tsukikazu Togi Set(25), Hikazu Hara-Ate Set(35) Morrigan's Robe Set - BLM,RDM,BLU - Nemain's Robe Set(15), Bodb's Robe Set(25), Macha's Coat Set(35) Marduk's Jubbah Set - WHM,BRD,SMN - Anu's Doublet Set(15), Ea's Doublet Set(25), Enlil's Gambison Set(35)

Current listing of sets
Our group has the following people going for the following sets. Under each set, members are listed by timed served. Names in are main on another set, but 2/3 on certain pieces they want from other sets. If a Primary/Secondary has a ? by it, that means I think that is what you want, but you need to tell me for sure. Ares: Exotic (Head 15, Body 15-35, Hands 35, Legs 15, Feet 15) Primary BODY Secondary HANDS Balivia (Head 15, Body DONE, Hands 15, Legs DONE, Feet DONE) Primary ?hands? Secondary ?head? Anjali (Head ?, Body 25, Hands ?, Legs ?, Feet ?) Primary BODY Secondary HANDS (Malfoy Feet 15-25) (Shadowkatze Head 15-25 Body 15-25 Feet 15-25) Skadi: Hodrobond (Head 35, Body 15-25, Hands DONE, Legs DONE, Feet DONE) Primary BODY Secondary Head? Malfoy (Head ?, Body ?, Hands ?, Legs ?, Feet 15-25) Primary FEET Secondary LEGS Kekeo (Head ?, Body 15, Hands 25, Legs DONE, Feet 15-25) Primary FEET Secondary Morrigan LEGS Hbena (Head DONE, Body DONE, Hands DONE, Legs DONE, Feet DONE) Has not picked a new set as yet. (Shadowkatze Legs 15-25) (Pesan Feet 15-25) (Sayiaman Feet 15-25) Usukane: Merlincloud (Head 15-35, Body 15-25, Hands 15-25, Legs 15-35, Feet 15) Primary LEGS Secondary Body? Brido (Head 15, Body 15-25, Hands 15-25, Legs 15-35, Feet 0) Primary LEGS Secondary Feet? Pesan (Head 15, Body 25, Hands 15, Legs 15-25, Feet 35) Primary LEGS Secondary ??? Terrous (Head DONE, Body 15-25, Hands DONE, Legs 15-35, Feet 15-35) Primary FEET Secondary LEGS Socretes (Head 15-25, Body ?, Hands ?, Legs DONE, Feet ?) Primary BODY Secondary HEAD Sayiaman (Head 15, Body 25, Hands ?, Legs 15, Feet 15) Primary FEET Secondary BODY Morrigan: Psycosmic (Head 25, Body DONE, Hands DONE, Legs 15, Feet 15-25) Primary LEGS Secondary ??? Xhalin (Head ?, Body ?, Hands ?, Legs ?, Feet ?) Primary BODY Secondary Marduk Legs Layden (Head 0, Body 0, Hands 0, Legs 15, Feet 0) Primary HANDS Secondary BODY (Merlincloud Hands 15-35) (Pesan Body 15-25) (Kekeo Feet 15-25) (Kekeo Legs 15-35) (Kekeo Head 15-25) Marduk: Kalibos (Head 15-25, Body DONE, Hands DONE, Legs 15-25, Feet 15-25) Primary Legs? Secondary Head? Arana (Head 15, Body 15, Hands 15-25, Legs 0, Feet 15) Primary LEGS Secondary HANDS Shadowkatze (Head DONE, Body DONE, Hands DONE, Legs 15-35, Feet 15-35) Primary LEGS Secondary FEET

Lotting System (Last Edit 4/17/9 by Terrous & Shadowkatze)
General Idea: We apparently need a system. This is the one the people I have talked to want. If you don't like it, or have questions, please let me know and we can work on it some more. Each person should pick 2 items to lot. Your Primary Target and Secondary target. They should also pick a main set they want. Once you reach your Primary Target you can replace it with your Secondary Target or you can choose another peice of gear. NOTE: There will be no changing your Primary and Secondary lots, once they are set thats the way it is until you reach that target. Level 15 gear: Anyone attending can lot the level 15s from their set regardless of time in group. This is due to the greater frequency at which 15s drop and the fact many are forced pops with 100% drop rate. For Card popped NMs, the person trading the card has first right to the drop if it is from their set. They could also designate a person wanting that set as main to get the drop, if they wished. If they do not want/need the piece, it goes to the rest of the people seeking that set and then finally to free lot (although rarely pop card NMs without a reason). Most runs are not geared toward seeking 15s specifically, because they are easy to obtain if you have the other pieces. If someone becomes 2/3 on a piece without getting the 15, it is my feeling that the next run should target that 15 specifically to complete a piece, but not my decision. Level 25 gear: If you can beat the Boss then there shouldn't be an issue, as the boss guarantees 2 drops. If needed instead of free lotting and for the purpose for completing gear, this is the proposed order: 1: Primary target & 2/3 2: Secondary target & 2/3 3: Primary target or Secondary target or 2/3 in designated set. 4: Designate Set. 5: 2/3 Nondesignated set. 6: Anyone else. Level 35 gear: This is where the problems arise, since the NMs are easy to pop and kill, but drop rates suck. Here is the proposed order. 1: Primary target & 2/3 2: Secondary target & 2/3 3: Primary target or Secondary target 4. 2/3 in designated set. 5: Designate Set. 6: 2/3 Nondesignated set. 7. Will upgrade piece. 8: Anyone else. '''NOTE: In the case of two or more people being tied for Priority, Time served will take precident. "Time served" is the amount of runs you have been on without receiving or after recieving your last completed piece of gear. When you receive all three pieces for a set, your time served is reset.''' Alexandrite: With the 9/9/8 patch, Alexandrite has become much more plentiful. Now that the average number of drops has jumped from 1-5 to 20-40, and especially since they drop in pouches now, I feel it would be fairer to pool the alexandrite and split it evenly after the run. Those in the LS that want it for mythic weapons could then buy it from the other members at an ageeed upon price. Personally, I feel this price should be set at slightly below market average. Currently if we do a run with only singles dropping they remain free lot with the understanding that if you win one you will pass the rest until everyone gets one (which usually won't happen if we only get singles). On runs that drop pouches, I will lot all the Alex (including singles) and divide them evenly at the end of the run (/random for extras, which I pass on as a general rule). We are also not allowing those getting items they want on the run (25s or 35s) to share the Alex split. This makes it fairer for people that come just for the Alex such as Aldavis. Final notes:Several in our group would like to obtain more than one set, however, in the interest of fairness, we only allow the lotting on one set, with 2 exceptions. First, if everyone with that set as main has the item, it goes to free lot. Second, if a person wish to have one set as their main, but an item(s) from another set(s) as their priority item(s), I am fine with this. If no main/priority lotters need/want a piece it then becomes free lot to the entire group including any new people. I would like to add that free lot does not mean grabbing stuff for no reason. If you do not plan to get the salvage armour for a given set you should not lot. If you do not want a piece, just pass it and let it fall to someone who may use it. I will say that since most level 15 pieces get passed by people, it is fine to just not lot pieces you probably won't upgrade. If they auto drop to you, obviously no one else had an interest and they are not bad pieces to use when leveling subs. As we beat more bosses (AR is somewhat like this now) this will also apply to unwanted 25s. However, please ask before lotting a piece not in you main set. Our focus had been on obtaining the level 35 drops with some success. We have collected a fair amount of incidental level 15 drops in this process. Our current focus has shifted to include boss runs (farming 35s when short of jobs for boss) which we are starting to show some success with. Obviously this is a long term project and only people willing to commit to that time frame should come. To date we have 12 completed salvage pieces (4 bodies) and 20+ pieces that are 2/3.

Rough Listing of Lot Order by Piece
First, let me state that as the title says, this is a rough listing based on both my personal knowledge of who has what and who wants what the most as described in the lotting sytem. Also, I will try to keep this updated, but sometimes it may be out of date due to people not telling me they got drops on other runs or work keeping me from being on as much. If you have questions please feel free to ask Ter or I and we can investigate. Honestly, I've stayed away from a public drop list because I was afraid people might not show if down on list or try to use the rules to "cheat" the system, but I think we are all adults here and can handle it. One note is that this is not broken down by run (I may do that in future), so if a person has top or shared priority on more than one piece, they only get to use it once during run. Any other pieces would go to the next person if any. Ares Head: 15-FREE? 25-Anjali, Exotic, FREE 35-Balivia, FREE Body: 15-FREE 25-Exotic 35-Anjali, FREE Hands: 15-FREE? 25-Exotic/Balivia, Anjali, FREE 35-Balivia, FREE Legs: 15-FREE 25-Anjali, FREE 35-Anjali, FREE Feet: 15-FREE 25-Anjali, FREE 35-Anjali, FREE Usukane Head: 15-FREE 25-Merlincloud, Brido/Pesan, Sayiaman, FREE 35-Socretes/Pesan, Brido, Sayiaman, FREE Body: 15-FREE 25-Socretes/Sayiaman, FREE 35- Terrous/Pesan/Brido/Merlincloud, Socretes, Sayiaman, FREE Hands: 15-FREE 25-Socretes/Pesan, Sayiaman, FREE 35-Brido/Merlincloud, Socretes/Pesan, Sayiaman, FREE Legs: 15-FREE? 25-Brido/Merlincloud, Terrous, Sayiaman, FREE 35-Pesan, Sayiaman, FREE Feet: 15-FREE? 25-Terrous, Brido/Merlincloud/Socretes/Sayiaman, FREE, 35-Brido/Socretes/Merlincloud/Sayiaman, FREE Skadi Head: 15-FREE? 25-Kekeo/Hodrobond, FREE 35-Kekeo/Hodrobond, FREE Body: 15-FREE 25-FREE 35-Kekeo/Hodrobond, FREE Hands: 15-FREE 25-FREE 35-Kekeo, FREE Legs: 15-FREE 25-FREE 35-FREE Feet: 15-FREE? 25-FREE 35-Pesan/Kekeo, Sayiaman, FREE Morrigan Head: 15-FREE? 25-Xhalin/Layden, FREE 35-Kekeo/Psycosmic, Xhalin/Layden, FREE Body: 15-FREE 25-Xhalin/Layden, FREE 35-Pesan/Kekeo, Xhalin/Layden, FREE Hands: 15-FREE? 25-Xhalin/Layden, FREE 35-Xhalin/Layden, FREE Legs: 15-FREE 25-Kekeo/Psycosmic, Xhalin/Layden, FREE 35-Psycosmic, Xhalin/layden, FREE Feet: 15-FREE 25-Xhalin/Layden, FREE 35-Psycosmic/Kekeo, Xhalin/Layden, FREE Marduk Head: 15-FREE 25-Arana, FREE 35-Kalibos, Arana, FREE Body: 15-FREE 25-Arana, FREE 35-Arana, FREE Hands: 15-FREE? 25-FREE 35-Arana, FREE Legs: 15-FREE? 25-Shadowkatze, Arana/Xhalin FREE 35-Kalibos, Arana/Xhalin, FREE Feet: 15-FREE 25-Shadowkatze, Arana, FREE 35-Kalibos, Arana, FREE The 15 Bodies are given to card holder (or his/her appointee), so lots refer to Card. Other 15s with FREE? listed are 100% drops we will target if 2/3 on the piece you want. Otherwise they are free drops. Also, name1/name2 would both lot. Name1, Name2 would get pieces in that order. This order will of course change based on people completing pieces and being reset on priority, but as you can see, only a few pieces are contested much. I think I followed the lotting rules as listed, so the only time people are out of their main set is for Priority choices or 2/3. As I said, list is in progress, so please contact Ter or I with questions. ALSO ABOUT NEW PEOPLE JOINING AND PRIORITY: I don't like the idea of someone joining and getting a rare piece others have been after for months on their first couple runs just by lotting higher. If people have a piece as Primary or Secondary, I list them ahead of people that just joined even if otherwise they would both lot. If the new people have a Primary or Secondary piece that is not the same as other is their group, I list it was all in that set lotting, including the new people. I realize this is weighted towards the people that are members longer, but I also think that you should prove yourself reliable before getting much gear. To me the "probation" period is about 1 month, but I'm willing to set it at 2 weeks if people prefer. I would prefer the 1 month, with the possibility of lifting it early case by case if group agrees. My thinking there is 4 runs, so 2 weeks if you come every time. Currently, missing runs does not hurt your lotting order unless it's a continual problem. However missing with out letting someone know really bugs me and may reflect in what runs we do.

Basic Role of Jobs in Salvage
We will welcome any job in our group, but obviously some are more useful on certain runs. Here is my personal take on each job and how it relates to salvage. The jobs from our group are listed first, but I'll make notes on all of them. MNK - This is your Main Tank/DD. They should /nin for most runs. The big advantage to MNK is Subtle Blow as the NM TP moves can get nasty. Bringing some extra HP potions doesn't hurt either. The more MNKs the better mostly. WAR - Another acceptable Tank/DD. Again /NIN (weapon up to you) is better and HP potions nice. BLM - Main Magic DD. Stunning the Main TP moves of NMs is an equally important role. Some runs BLM has little value as a DD, but the stun is always apreciated. Back up healing is also useful as is Sleepga 2. RDM - Main Healer of the group. Refresh at the start is a must and a WHM has trouble keeping up without it. Once more things are unlocked the RDM can become a buffer/enfeebler and even a nuker in certain spots, but healing is main priority. As main healer /whm is best. WHM - Healer. RDM gets magic first, but once WHM get's magic, they should take over the main healing. Especially on the upper floors where they will draw less hate than a RDM. The 1 healer per DD stategy (below) works great with a rdm and whm. /SMN, /SCH, or /BLM is personal preference, but some runs favor /SMN. THF - Treasure Hunter / Puller. The low drop rates on both cells and gear suck. They don't get a lot better with a THF, but they definitely do get better. Any good salvage run should have a THF. In addition Accomplice/collaborator is nice and for Bosses Feint is amazing. COR - Buffer/Puller. Dancer's Roll is amazing on the lower floors and the Monk's Roll for the NM fight makes things much smoother. I would suggest Chaos Roll as the other melee roll and then Evoker's and Scholar's roll on the mages. A wild card after the Melees 2hour is great to get double 2 hours. Random Deal is also quite nice with merits. It's a shame you don't see more people requesting CORs for stuff like this. BLU - They start out weak since other jobs get priority over them, but on the runs with lots of drops, they become a DD powerhouse. For the NM fights though, They are best held in reserve and used mostly to assist in healing and buffing (stoneskinga) unless another DD goes down. This is due to the rate at which they generate TP in their targets. BLU is great in salvage, but requires changes in role through out each run. BRD - Buffer/Puller. Marches for the melees and ballads for the mages are the usualy preference. This of course can vary in some situations. The true strength of a BRD, in my opinion, is Lullaby. It can sleep a lot of things that are immune/resistant to sleep and is great for crowd control in all runs. Runs in undead heavy areas and when you reach mech mobs greatly benefit from this. As Puller, you may prefer /nin, but honestly, /whm benefits the group much more. PUP - Another under appreciated job. Pup makes for a great DD in salvage. If you are lacking a MNK or he is down for bit, they can also tank. One thing to note, is that their automaton will have all the same weaknesses they have, so you if you want them to be effective you have to unlock more things. However, PUP serves well in most runs. DRG - Great DD for salvage and Agnon is always helpful on boss/NMs. Unlike PUP they got to keep there Pet out on entry (not sure if this was a glitch or not). They would make another back up DD for the main NMs. Sub job would be up to player, but /NIN is almost required for melees on megaboss runs (note that /SAM is also fine for meditate WS mode on boss). /blu (or other mage) might work as well though for healing breath and the more traditional DD subs would be fine for most runs. PLD - Not the best job for salvage. It has uses on certain runs, but overall takes a lot of cells and doesn't do enough damage. You can use a PLD as your tank if needed though and no job is useless. SCH - This job is great for certain runs. However on a boss run, I would recommend a different mage as healer. The SCH's true strength is in -ga spells on the lower levels (invis/sneakga, En-ga, stoneskinga, etc.). They make a good magic DD or healer on the lower levels as well. The best uses for SCH I have seen have been as a subjob however. DNC - Only taken one DNC once and we did not use him properly. DNC suffers like PLD from a lack of damage. Their buffs can be very useful, but undead are uneffected by some and the fact that they need to engage (and hit) the target to have an effect means they feed a lot of TP on NMs. If they can store TP leading up to the NMs, a support healing role would be useful, and like BLU, they could replace another DD if they went down. DNC does make an ok subjob though for back up DDs, especially PUP. SMN - This is a high maintenance job. The AoE buffs and carby pulls are helpful in places, but as a DD it is usually lacking in salvage, due to resistance of mobs and shortage of MP. They can back up heal well with /whm, but should only be brought for specific runs where cell drops are plentiful. /SMN is just as good for carby pulls and that is where I see the most use for SMN in salvage. DRK - Great salvage DD. Should bring some HP potions for when they get a lot of hate. In a pinch DRK can tank for salvage. Their only issue is the lack of defense. Another Stun is always helpful too. SAM - Another great DD and acceptable tank for salvage. Should also bring HP potions. The Status effects on their weapon skills are very helpful, but some mobs react violently to certain status effects, so this should be watched. NIN - A strict DD build is best for a NIN in salvage. Tanking is handled by the other jobs, and really NIN would tank only if the others went down (which happens). Personally, I would prefer a different job, but as with PLD it has certain uses on some runs. As with all melees, HP potions are useful. RNG - Great DD for salvage, but better on run where they can get most stuff unlocked. It does add more damage from a little used cell (ranged) however and I like having one on runs. BST - Seems to be an acceptable DD when short of Melee jobs. Requires JA and range cell to be truly effective, but other than that no issues. Apparently, they are not allowed to charm mobs in salvage, which I find annoying, but overall they are good for a number of runs. Current group is as follows (Italics have not run with us for over a month, Bold are ones missing only rarely and with notice). I have noted some that can only attend 1 run per week normally: Terrous MNK (WAR) Baliva WAR (DRG, BLU) Tuesday only Merlincloud BLM (PUP) Hodrobond COR (THF) Psycosmic RDM (BLM, THF) Tuesday only Shadowkatze WHM (RDM, BLM, BRD) Brido SAM (BLM, THF, MNK) Saturday only Pesan RDM (MNK) Hbena THF (BRD) Exotic DRK Aldavis WHM (RDM) Kekeo BLM (THF) Kalibos BRD (RDM, BLM, BLU) Socretes RDM (PUP,DRK,DRG) Arana WHM (BRD) Anjali RDM (SAM,MNK) Xhalin WHM (RDM, BRD, BLM) Sayiaman THF (BLM) Layden COR (THF) 12 is to many for a lot of runs, but not often that all show up on same night. Spliting intot 2 groups is an option once we hit 12 as long as jobs are available. If not, people without anything to gain from run will not be held to blame from passing for the night.

Basic NM strategy
Most of the NM mobs in salvage and especially the Megaboss mobs can be defeated by a simple 6 person strategy of Dedicated Healers. If you have 2 melee DDs (one being your tank) and 2 healers (rdm or whm) then each healer selects a DD and heals only him/her. Buffs should be done before the fight and the only one that really matters during the fight is haste (for /nin). Healer should ONLY cast Cure, Paralyna, and Haste during the fight with only a few exceptions. It's not that the other spells are not needed, it's that the damage spikes are severe at times and if you are casting another spell when they come it can be very easy to have someone die. The issue of enfeebling the NMs (especially as RDM) is tricky. Personally, they resist a lot since you don't always have full gear and I have seen a lot of unneeded deaths because the RDM was casting Para/gravity/dia/etc. instead of healing when a damage spike happened. Also it's just a waste of MP. With a good set of buffs, RDM should not have to rely on convert (although it's incredibly nice if things get ugly). If you really want to enfeeble it, I would suggest waiting until you see your DD reapply shadows (successfully) and only if your DD is not the "main" tank. The other 2 spots should be a THF (for TH) and a buffer of some sort (BRD or COR). If you have 7 the best set up is MNK, MNK, RDM, WHM, COR, BRD with THF in solo party. You can replace a buffer with a BLM for more damage in some runs or add BLM (for big nukes and stun) as an 8th. I have yet to see a NM in salvage that 8 couldn't kill safely with practice, but I have not fought everything yet either, so take that for what it's worth (just for the record the only NM mob I have not fought is in SSR and the only MegaBoss I have not fought is ZR).

Basics of Cells and Chests
First, let me say that all this info is on the main salvage page, and personally I keep a typed list handy during runs.

Cells
Each run is a little different for Cell order, so I'll note that in the individual runs as I go, but this is a simple list of what each does. Also please note that since the update, they now say what they do on them. Incus=Weapons/Shield Undulatus=Range/Ammo Castellanus=Head/neck Cumulus=Body Radiatus=Hands Virga=Rings/Earrings Cirrocumulus=Back/Belt Stratus=Legs/Feet Duplicatus=SubJob Opacus=JobAbilities/WeaponSkills Praecipitatio=Magic Humilus=HP Spissatus=MP Pannus=STR Congestus=VIT Fractus=DEX Nimbus=AGI Pileus=MND Velum=INT Mediocris=CHR

Chests
Chests are a little more straight forward. Most have minor items that can help, but all the toys from Besieged are available if you are lucky. All are temp items so you might as well use them. However, since they are R/E, be sure you take only the ones you can actually benefit from. The following is a list and my idea of who should get them. Please note these generally say what they do on them as well, although sometimes power is unclear (like refesh per tick and such) Assassin's Drink = Magical ACC boost - BLMs should get and save for NMs. After BLM, I would say BLU, RDM, Free. Barbarian's Drink = ATT bonus - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Body Boost = 50% extra HP - Melee DDs starting with Tank. After DDs, Healers then Nukers. WHM with Devotion/Martyr should get as first healer for those abilities. Save for NM. Especially nice for Megaboss runs. Braver's Drink = +15 to all stats - Melee DDs starting with Tank. After DDs, Nukers then Healers. Save for NM. Champion's Drink = Crtitical Hit Rate boost - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Cleric's Drink = AoE Negative Status Remover - Melee or Buffer should get first to remove effects on Melees during NM fights. It will remove most ailments, but not all (such as charm) Dusty Elixir = 25% HP&MP - BLM first then Main heal followed by BLU then free. Use as needed, but try to save for NM. Dusty Ether = 150 MP - BLM, Healers, Magic DDs. Use as needed. If extra in chest, use and grab one for the road. Dusty Potion = 300 HP - Melees & Puller first. Use as needed. There are almost always extras so be sure to check chests again if backtracking. If no backtracking planned, all should take one. Dusty Reraise = Reraise 3 (10-15 minute duration) - Melees and puller first. Save for NM or sac pulls, because of sort duration. All mages should have reraise of some sort up anyway is why I would give this to the others first. Dusty Wing = 300 TP - DDs. Great for Self Skill chain. Save for NM. Fanatic's Drink = Invincible to Physical damage - Melee DDs starting with Tank. Save for NM. Especially nice for Megaboss runs. Fighter's Drink = ACC bonus - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Fool's Drink = Invincible to Magical Damage - Melee DDs starting with Tank. Save for NM. Especially nice for some Megaboss runs. Gnostic's Drink = Enmity down - Healers and Range/Magic DDs. Who gets first is dependent on situation. For what I've seen, RDM seems to need the most, then BLM. Save for NM. Healing Powder = Curaga 2 effect - Melee or Buffer should get first to use on Melees during NM fights or whenever it is called for. Hermes Quencher = Flee effect - Situational but usually Puller or whoever loses the vote on the sac pulls should get first. Use as needed. Mana Boost = 50% extra MP - Healers then magic DDs. Save for NM. Especially nice for megaboss runs A RDM with body and mana boost has almost unlimited MP due to convert. Mana Powder = 25% MP to those in area - Any mage. Use on NM or if needed sooner. Megaelixir = Full MP/HP. Healers, Nukers, Melees. Save for NMs. Especially nice for boss runs, but quite rare. Monarch's Drink = TP regain of 1 per second for 3 mintues - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Oracle's Drink = Magic ATT bonus - BLMs should get and save for NMs. After BLM, I would say BLU, RDM, Free. Revitalizer = (Very Rare Item) Resets all ability timers - COR should get first (2x Wild Card). Then MNKs (2x Hunderd Fists) or other main DD. After that BRD, then the range/magic DDs. Definitely save for NM. Great for Megaboss runs. Make sure people taking these have JAs unlocked (or will have) Shephard's Drink = Heals Your Pet - PUP is primary pet job in Salvage. After that DRG, BST, SMN, /SMN. No one else should really need. Soldier's Drink = ATT bonus - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. Spy's Drink = 30% Haste for 3 minutes - Melee DDs starting with tank. Save for NM. It's nice if you can tell the mage healing you when you use it and when it wears so they don't haste you during it. Strange Juice = Refresh 3 per tick for 3 minutes - WHM, BLM, BLU, RDM, free. Use as needed but try to save for NM, especially if it is a megaboss run. Nice to tell your RDM when you activate it and when it ends so they don't refresh you during. Strange Milk = Regen 5/tick for 3 minutes - Melees and puller first. Use as needed. Vicar's Drink = Remove Multiple negative status effects from self - Melee's first then healers (for silence). Use as needed. Other besieged items (Wizard's Drink, Giant's Drink, Etc) maybe be possible, but I have not seen them so am not adding them at this time. If they do drop, they must be very rare, as you would expect from their power.

Cell Notes
This run is very exact about cell drops. This was obviously designed as a 6 person run where everyone is mostly unlocked. Chest has: 2 Weapons - Main DDs. You will get 4 more of these by clearing the first room in each wing so a party of 6 will all get them. Give them to DDs in order of damage output (including BLMs). If you want more, clear the Puk wing to farm them. 1 Subjob - Main heal, assuming you are using a RDM/WHM or a WHM/SMN. Otherwise BLM or SMN for /WHM or tank for /NIN. You will get 4 more clearing the same rooms as above and more can be farmed by clearing the bugard wing. They should go to /heal and /NIN. 1-2 Job Abilities (1 shared with Magic)- Main tank/DD, second DD. You will get 4 more as with the above cells and extras are farmed in the Raptor wing. A party of 6 will get should have everyone unlocked except a BLM (everyone if 2 are in chest). Order is by physical DDs since they also unlock weapons skills. RDM should get convert after DDs, and WHM is after RDM. 1-2 Magic Use (1 shared with JA) - Main heal. You will get 4 more as above. Getting 2 in the box is rarer than getting 2 JA cells. If you need more, farm the Ziz wing. A party of 6 will have 5 for sure possibly 6. If no one can live without magic, consider holding 1 to duplicate on the next floor rather than farming. After Main heal cells should go to any magic DDs then /NINs. Back up healer would be last. Last 4 box drops are random so I will discuss the cell types by floor: F1: As covered above. These drops are SJ, WS/JA, Magic, Weapon. Once you leave this floor do not plan on getting any further drops. Every room has 2 droppers and 2 non droppers. The first room of each wing drops 1 of each type, but then the rest of that wing drops only 2 of the given type per room. F2: All gear cells (other than melee weapon) drop here. Once you leave this floor do not plan on getting any further drops. For reference, the drop pattern in each room is the same. The group at the door will have 1 drop. The group to the left of the door (towards back of room) will have 2 drops. The group to the right of the door (towards the back of the room) will have 1 drop. Each drop will be 2 of a set type (by room) with TH possibly generating a body piece (and in the NE room rings & ranged). Body - These are random drops for all dropping mobs on this floor (meaning TH helps). Main Tank/DD, then DDs, then anyone with refresh on a body piece, and finally free lot. Range/Ammo - These are random drops in the NE room (TH helps). BRD, Puller (if not BRD), RNG, then free. Note on a frog hunt to make sure the 3 main people get these. Duplication is an option. Rings/Earrings - These are random drops in the NE room (TH helps a lot). Main Tank/DD, Then DDs (all types), then Healers (refresh ring would move them ahead of DDs). Note on a frog hunt to make sure the 3 main people get these first as they are usually the rarest drops. Duplicating is always an option. Belt/Back - 8 drop in the NE room. This is usually the room cleared on a frog hunt so everyone can have. Main Tank/DD, DDs, Mages. Hands - 8 drop in the SE room, although generally you won't clear this room. THF (for TH4) Main Tank/DD, DDs, Free (unless someone has exceptional gear) after main 3 on frog hunt. Legs/Feet - 8 drop in the SW room, but who wants to kill that many Wyverns. Main Tank/DD, DDs, THF (for Flee with AF) after main 3 on frog hunt, Free. Head/Neck - 8 drop in the NW room, but again with the wyverns. Main Tank/DD, DDs, RDM (with refresh hat), Free after main 3 on frog hunt. F3: Only the mobs to the west drop cells. They drop all the stat cells and also the MP/HP cells. The MP & HP cell rates are affected by TH. On a frog hunt the main 3 should get all cells first (including MP even if they have no MP). I will list the following however more for a boss run (or after main 3 unlocked). HP - Main tank/DD, Melee DDs, Puller, Main heal, Any remaining DDs, Free. MP - Main heal, Any Magic DDs, Back up heal, Free. STR - Main Tank/DD, Melee DDs, Range DDs, Free. VIT - Main Tank/DD, Melee DDs, Main heal, Free. DEX - Main Tank/DD, Melee DDs, Range DDs, Free. AGI - Main Tank/DD, Range DDs, Melee DDs, Free. INT - Magic DDs, Enfeblers, Weapons Skills based on INT(?), Free. MND - Main heal, Back up heals, Weapon Skills based on MND(?), Free. CHR - BRD, DNC, Weapon Skills based on CHR(?), Free. F4-F6: Mobs on these floors have a low percentage chance (even with TH) of droping random cells. If you are relying on this to get cells you are probably screwed.

Frog Hunt (F5&6 Focus, Card used)
This run requires a THF (for Treasure Hunter) to get enough drops on F2 and to get drops fast enough on F3. It is also a low man run. 6 is perfect and once you go over 8, it slows you down too much to complete all the frogs. However, depending on your goals, this may not be a problem. This run will describe how to equip a party of 6, but I will note where the other cells can be found if you need more. This area is very uniform about cells, so if you don't get one of an available kind before going to the next level you are out of luck. NOTE THE DAY YOU ENTER, as this will be needed later and frogs will all be immune to that element (so do not go on thunderday because immune to stun sucks). Cell drops for 6-7 person frog hunt Cell drops are listed in run, but here is a quick overview. F1 Weapon - 2 from box to main DDs (nonMNK first). 1 from each of the first 4 rooms to other DDs then mages. On a 6 person run, everyone will have. SJ - 1 from box to RDM for /WHM. 1 From each of the first 4 rooms to /NIN then /WHM. 5 people will get. Magic - 1-2 from box to RDM then BRD. 1 each from each of the first 4 rooms to mages then /NIN. 5 for sure and if you need more farm another room of Ziz. Stun is a must, so make sure DRK gets one if present. JA - 1-2 from box to MainDDs. 1 from each of the first 4 rooms to DDs, THF, BRD, RDM. 5 for sure and if you need more farm another room raptors. Make sure at least 3 people get all 4 cell types. For us it's the 2 main DD and healer. F2 Gear - Any from box is bonus and goes to DDs. All gear is main 2 DDs then RDM. Should get 4 of each type, plus Belts/Backs and Body for all and a random number of rings and range. 4th Feet&Hands go to THF. 4th & 5th range goes to BRD then THF. 4th of other gear goes to refesh gear then free. F3 Stats - Any from box is bonus and goes to DDs (except MP to RDM). Alls stats (including MP) go to main 2 DDs then RDM then free. F1: Since the latest "tweak" to salvage, this run is altered somewhat. There is no longer much reason to pop the F1 frog so we will be skipping that. For reference, you pop him by having no one use cells until one entire wing of mobs is cleared (used to be easier). Every room has 4 mobs. 2 will drop cells. 2 will not. Treasure Hunter does not effect drops on this floor. If possible, leave any mobs in the room after getting 2 that drop. The exception to this will follow. There is a mamool gaurding each wing in the hall after the first room of that wing. Killing him will generate a chest, but no cells. The first room of each wing will drop 1 SJ, 1 JA, 1 Magic, & 1 Weapon Cell (2 cells from each dropper). The rest of the wing will drop 2 cells of the same type in each room. The best plan to farm extras with a bigger group is to send a few people (a BLU and a healer can duo) to the hallway passed the second room and then pull mobs from rooms 2 & 3 in that wing. They will need sneak/invis to get to this location and back. Room 1: Puks. Clear this room. If you need extra weapons, head east until you have enough. Otherwise head North. Room 2: Ziz(DO NOT silence them unless you like dying, this includes WSs). If you need more magic, head north until you have enough (note that your 2 main DDs should get magic even if they cannot use it). Otherwise head West. Room 3: Raptors. If you need more JAs head West until you have enough. Otherwise head South. Room 4: Bugard. If you need more SJs head South until you have enough. Once these first 4 rooms are clear, farm any additional cells needed while sending one person with sneak to the NE warp. Warp when all cells needed are found. F2: 3 People need to be fully unlocked for this run (in a low man run I'm assuming everyone got each type of cell on F1), so before run you should designate a lot order for gear and stats. I would go with 2 main melees (or maybe your RNG) and the main heal. Gear/stats after that would be free lot for those that can use. Room 1: Kill everything starting to the south of pad and circling to the west. Make sure to have treasue hunter on these mobs (THF MUST HIT EVERY MOB). Lot, but do not use any ring and/or range cells until you are sure your 3 main people will have enough. You should get 8 back/belt cells but a random number of the other 2 as well as random body cells. When all lizards are dead, a Mamool will pop. Kill him. He will also drop cells of these same types and a chest. After looting the chest, trade the type of cell you want more of the Socket here. This will pop a Frog Madame. Notes on fighting frogs. Healers need to back out of range of Waterbomb. It does heavy damge (barwatera) and silence (echo drops a must for all). She also has AoE charm. Charm has bigger radius than water bomb so try to be close enough to be charmed but not so close you are silenced. With the latest update charm is again a killer so make sure to keep DoTs on the frog to avoid her regening while everyone is charmed. If possible a range DD (THF or BRD would work for this) should stay out of range of charm so that they can kite the frog and anyone charmed. Also there is an easy quest in whitegate for a locket that will resist charm. Not a bad idea for frog fights. BLM should attempt to stun any large ~ga spells (single target spells should be absorbed by shadows). It should be noted that Madames can cast Death, which just sucks. When killed she will drop 2x the cells you traded (not affected by TH). Head south out of room and then south to SE wing. Room 2. Sneak past lizards at start of room and kill the 3 in the NE corner (only 2 of these drop anything, so if you get lucky, let the third one live). You will get 4 Hand cells and random body cells (extra to THF for TH4). Sneak back out of room and head west to the SW wing. Room 3: Invis past Wyverns at start and kill the three (again only 2 drop) in the SE corner. You will get 4 Feet/Legs cells and random body cells. Best to give the extra feet cells to THF for extra flee time on AF (see why later). Invis back out of room and head North to NW wing. Room 4: You can have 1 person stay at the porter to save time if you are confident in your group. Invis past Wyverns at start and kill the three in the SW corner (again 2 drop). You will get 4 Head/Neck cells and random body cells. If not there, someone should head for the porter now. At this point your 3 main people should be fully geared (including range and weapon), have magic (even if unneeded), have SJ, & have JA. There is a slot in this room to trade the SSR Card to. When party ready pop this mob and kill it. Sleep any wyvern that aggro on pull or during fight. The Skadi 15 Body drop is 100%. Fighting the imp burns time, but is required since the latest update. If you do not have a SSR Card, you must pop the F1 frog to reach the F6 frog, but really not worth it in my opinion. As soon as imp dies, warp. F3: Head West. Cells drop fast here, so being able to lot fast and still fight fast is essential. IF you can only do one, please choose FIGHT, as the cells can be sorted out later and the deaths slow us down. Each small room contains 4 mamools of the same type. The final big room has 12 of mixed types. Each mamool usually (not 100%) drops 3 stat cells (all the same) with a chance to drop a HP and/or a MP cell (Completely dependent on TH). Again let you main three get the first 3 of each type. This applies to MP EVEN if they don't use MP. It's most important for these 3 to lot their cells fast as most likely a lot of cells will auto drop. Don't worry about using the cells as much as fighting (HP cells the most important, but not getting others killed is more important). Room 1 in NIN mobs. Room 2 is DRGs. Room 3 is BSTs. The fastest way is to pull all 4 mobs and sleepga, but be careful on the pet mobs. You should easily have all stats unlocked for your main 3 by the time you clear these 3 rooms. Have one of them hold a cell for later that they do not need (such as MP for MNK). In main room be more careful about links, but still pull groups and sleepga as possible. Speed is important. When all are dead kill the rampart (store TP on last mobs to make this quicker). Now send one person with invisible back east (very important to use that warp pad). They will follow that path east past the start, then north, then west, then south to a door and the exit (THIS IS NORTH WARP PAD). The rest of the group should kill the Frog Madame that spawns when the rampart dies (she is non aggro so rest if needed). She will drop 5 each of MP and HP cells. Warp immediately as time will be getting short. F4: 1 Person heads east to the exit (least damage should go so probably a healer). The rest head west and invis past the room full of mamools. You can start sorting out any extra cells now, but have 1 of the 3 fully unlocking people continue to hold the last stat cell they need to unlock (if they forget and unlock that's ok too, just a little safer the other way). If for some reason you screwed up and do not have 3 people fully unlocked, the mamools have a low chance to drop HP/MP cells and the frogs in the room north of the start have a very low chance to drop random cells. However, this is usually not worth it at all and you should be looking to farm gears for cards and alexandrite on F5 at this point. Party will find 4 numbered ramparts in room after mamools. You must kill one to unlock exit. Which depends on the day you entered. Fire/Earth = 1, Water/Wind = 2, Ice/Lightning = 3, Light/Dark = 4. It can call a marid to help, but just sleep it and warp as soon as rampart dies. F5: Finish sorting cells (still hold last to unlock) and buff. Head north into the hall. Have THF enter the room to the west and aggro (truesound&linking) all 8(!) gears mobs and train them back to the start using perfect dodge as needed. The rest of the party runs into the room and then south to the room with the ramparts (non aggro). Party should head for the SW corner (if frog up, carefully). When THF hits the start room he hits flee and loses aggro on the gears by out running them to the party. They should lose aggro in the room they started in (or slightly before), if this was done correctly. At this point the last person to be fully unlocked should use their stat cell. This pops the Frog Madame, so if it was used prior to this she will be up when you enter the room. Kill her as you did the previous ones (less room for kiting charm though). The ramparts are non aggro, but if you hit one with a spell you are probably screwed. Sleep it and hope you get charmed before it wakes up (there is a chance it will reset while you are charmed, but you still need to pull fight out into hall at this point). Remember to limit the melees on the NMs. When she dies she drops 0-3 of the following level 35 Pieces: Marduk Body, Skadi Legs, Usukane Hands. Low drop rate here as with all 35s. After frog is dead, THF needs to head to the exit. Have Reraise up. Use Flee as needed (thus the AF boots). I like to have 1-2 others follow the THF in case he doesn't make it all the way to the door, but if he has reraise he can probably still reach after getting back up. Those following should have reraise and sneak up (a few of the mobs are not truesound). The first room is the same mobs the THF trained earlier. Head west and south from there and pick up a second room of gears and a rampart. Head West and South from the room to the main room. There will be a bunch more gears and a chariot here. Exit door is to the east (behind the chariot). The door will ask if you want thru (duh, why you think I clicked on you?) so if solo you must get it open before dying. The warp also asked if you are done here (this I get a little more). If others following, THF can just kite around the main room while they open the door and warp. Chariot is sound aggro, the rest are truesound. The risk here is that if the THF loses aggro (or dies) before getting to the main room, the gears can head back and catch the followers (which is why I send 2). F6: You appear in a large mostly empty room. There is a chariot, but he is non agrro (see boss run for info on it). To the south will be the final Frog Madame. This frog is only present IF you killed 4 others NMs (Madames and Imp count). Kill her as normal. When she dies she will drop 0-3 of the following level 35 Pieces: Marduk Head, Ares Feet, Morrigan Feet. If you have time left after this, you had an amazing run. If you have 30+ minutes left (possible with skill, luck, and practice), check out the boss run below if you want to try that as well. Otherwise, firefly.

Other Frogs of Zhaylom (Level 15 Gear)
There are 3 other frogs to fight for gear and a possible alternative to popping the F6 frog. However, these frogs exclude the other runs for the most part (possible exceptions noted), so are only useful if people need a specific item to complete a set. I will list them seperately for this reason. Please note that when I say farming cards it means that all mechs in this area can drop the ZR card that is used to pop the NM dropping the level 15 Ares AND Morrigan bodies in SSR. F1 FROG This frog can drop any of the 15s that drop in this area, but it is totaly random. Since the latest "tweak" SE made, it is no longer possible to pop this frog using th log out method. Therefore no one in the run may use cells until one entire wing of F1 is cleared, including the frog Gent that will pop when the wing is cleared. This makes this frog a waste of time in my opinion, so we will not be talking that much about him. F3 FROG A larger group can do this run if you want. Have them split as soon as possible into 2 groups able to farm cells to increase speed on F1 and F2. F1: Stays the same as frog hunt. F2: On this floor you can stay until everyone is geared if you want (I hate fighting wyverns, but that's me), but time will not be an issue. F3: If you have 2 groups, one goes west to farm stats and HP/MP cells and the other goes east. With just one group check your time and farm west until you have HP/MP or until you have 50 minutes left. Personally, I would skip some gear farming on the previous floor to have HP/MP here, but that is a group decision. Once headed East, kill everything. Room 1 is WHMx4. Room 2 is BLMx4. Room 3 is BLUx4. Big room is WHMx6, BLMx6, BLUx8. Everyone of them must die, so this can take a while and links must be handled well. Also, NONE (as in 0) will drop cells. Once they all die, kill the rampart and anything it summons. When it dies a Frog Madame will pop. Frog will not aggro so you can rest then kill using the normal strategy above. When she dies she drops Ares Hands AND Morrigan Hands 100%. Both pieces are level 15. If you have time left, you have 2 options. First option is that if you were paying attention and unlocked 3 people fully you can use the warp behind the frog and go to the F4 section of the Frog Hunt run. By doing this you can fight the F5 Frog, but not the F6 Frog. Option 2 is to still warp up, but instead of aiming for another frog to farm mechs for cards and alexandrite. You can always firefly as well. F4 FROG This is really a 6 person run. It's all about speed. Any extras should be aware that no extra cells will be farmed so they are probably just leeching. F1: Kill first 4 rooms. Hoping you only have to kill 2 in each room. When entering last room, have THF sneak and flee to the NE warp. Warp as soon as the second set of cells drop from the 4th room. F2: Have 1 person (NOT THF) head south for warp as soon as you enter the level. Rest kill as many lizards (group to northwet best target) as they can before the warp. F3: Group heads west and starts killing. 1 Person Invis and heads east. Who depends on time check. You must warp onto the next floor prior to the 30 minute mark. And at the same time you need TH to get HP/MP. Only send THF to warp if lfee needed to reach it in time. Let party farm until 29 minute mark and then warp. Note that this is the North warp. There is a bonus frog that pops for using the south warp in under 47 minutes, but no gear drop has been recorded for that frog (possible chest). F4: If you reached the north half of this floor in 30 minutes or less, a Frog Madame will be in the room to the north (with a dozen Frog Gents). Go west and clear the room of Mammols for more HP and MP if needed, but be careful of links. When ready, attempt to clear Gents to pull madame. You should have a lot of time so be careful. When Madame dies she drops all the following Level 15 Pieces 100%: Skadi Head, Usukane Feet, Marduk Legs. Once dead you can continue to the F5 to farm cards and alexandrite if desired, but may be best to firefly. See Frog Hunt to unlock door to warp. You could also try boss, but you will be severely underpowered because of skipping so many cells. Alternate F5 Frog If your party does not need any of the drops from the F5 frog or is more focused on reaching the F6 Frog or including the megaboss in the run or you reach F3 and someone (one of you main 3) suddenly remembers they didn't get a cell they needed, then you can go this route. It is easier to pop and slightly safer to reach F6 this way, but has no recorded gear drops (should drop a chest). F1: Same as Frog Hunt. F2: Same as Frog Hunt except only 1 person needs to be fully unlocked. You can still unlock more as time allows but you can split gear for better use. If aiming for F6 frog, you must still fight Jakko the imp. F3: Same as Frog Hunt except only 1 person needs to be fully unlocked and different exit warp. You can still unlock more as time allows but you can split stats for better use. Good chance everyone gets stats by the time you clear the floor anyway. When you exit this level make sure you exit to the SOUTH on this run. This is the opposite of the normal Frog Hunt. F4: Same as Frog Hunt except all directions are reversed. F5: This should be handle the same as the regular Frog Hunt with 2 exceptions. First all directions are reversed since you are on the opposite half of the map. Second (and more importantly) the Gears Mobs are replaced with Gear Mobs. This makes training them much easier. Everything else is the same so kill this frog (loot chest it drops) and then warp to F6 just like on the regular Frog Hunt.

Boss Run (by Seeko)
Plan I would do is thus: 1F: farm until all who need have JA and magic. SJ if needed, but not as vital 2F: clear the usual room (because of the ranged/ring drops). *maybe* do a little more gear farming, but likely not. 3F: head West, as usual. kill 1st room (for Int cells, mainly, but Dex and Agi are nice, too), -skip- 2nd room (drops Agi, str, and chr). kill 3rd room (str, vit, mnd...I think chr, too) hope for HP drops, if not many, keep killing to try and get more. Warp South 4F: kill rampart, warp up. 5F: skip, warp. 6F: *should* be around 45-50min in by here. even 60 would likely be ok. sac chariot. IF we have 12ppl, be split already into 2 balanced groups. Each group picks a different camp corridor so we don't step on each other, and kill the room. Very important to limit # of DDers on gear(s)/chariot because of their deadly TP moves. On chariot: only allow Terr and Bal (or other main DD's) to melee. Even though B would hate it, I would sit his blu for that fight (his main spells each give ~40-50tp i.e. hysteric barrage, etc) 7F: time check should be ~70-80min here. 70 would be better for comfort, but I think 80 would be fine. DD would just be Terr and Bal again...maybe a Sam, too, if we had one. Everyone else gather inside discoid range, but outside normal AoE range. Anyone with RA can shoot away at it, brds and cors keep their rolls up. rdm's (or rdm and whm) would be on tank healing duty, while I'd put MrB on pt healing duty. I think that we'd honestly have a good chance at winning with this plan. also with 12ppl+2 pets (automatons), =314dmg/discoid. definitely doable. especially when you consider shell would reduce that, too, as well as diamondhide, etc. And discoid is only 1 of the TP moves it could do. *likely* wouldn't spam it, but just do every so often.

Regarding MrB and my comments up there for 6F and 7F: I value B as a heavy DD, but I don't know quite enough about BLU to be definitive on that. I'm basing the 50tp/spell comment on what Tso told me. Maybe if we had him switch to single hit spells, would be better? I dunno. --Seeko 17:45, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Note's on ZR boss run by Shadow
Ok I edited Seeko's plan a little above to take out the stuff not relating to our run. Here are some additional notes that may or may not help based on my personal opinions. F1: If we have 12 that can evenly split into 2 groups we will as soon as we had 1 DDtank & healer for each group. Should go pretty fast. We would assign paths PRIOR to entering. EVERYONE would need to bring sneak/invis so we could skip non dropping mobs to farm cells faster. However 6 is just a better run. F2: IF we farmed more armour, we would use the same split. It would be a time issue on deciding if we did, but most likely only need to grab feet for THF and full gear for 2 main tanks. F3: This floor is basically the farm until we get full HPs for all floor. The stats are nice, but we'll have them easily by the time we have the HP cells if we have very many people. Speed is the key here. If you can't lot/pass and fight, then just fight. Don't worry about using the cells either. It's more important to keep killing for speed. We can pass out cells on F5. 2 Main things to note: First, TH DETERMINES MP/HP DROPS. This is very apparent and cannot be argued. THF MUST HIT EVERY MOB. Second, we should exit on the SOUTH warp instead of the normal north one. This makes it easier on F5. Again THF stays and fights and someone else goes to warp. F4: One person (least damage) heads west for door. Everyone else uses Invis and heads east to rampart room to kill it. Which one depends on the day (see frog hunt). F5: 2-3 people go forward, but rest can stay and distribute any extra cells that dropped in the confusion before (use bazaar). All should use reraise now as any used at start will be wearing soon. THF and anyone else will work. THF aggros entire room of gears and takes off east using flee (perfect dodge as needed). Other person(s) follow. Next room THF picks up a couple more gears and a rampart and contiues east. Last room has a bunch more mechs gaurding the door to warp on the west wall. THF should try to clear the path and draw them away, while other person(s) get door and warp as soon as possible. I suggest 2 people to follow THF just in case things go bad we have a second kiter. Seeko liked to do this solo, I would prefer to use this multiple kite strat. The single THF will work though as long as he has reraise. F6: Have to clear everything that pops when chariot attacked. Main thing is slow and steady for safety. With 12 should go fast. Carby pulls if SMN or /SMN in group. After our last run, it is proabably better to not split up and just focus on fast kills unless we have more DDs for an even split. Carby pulls will help a lot for links so need to unlock JA for that. F7: Kill Boss as above. Things to note on Discoid though. It is a move like 1000 needles except it does 4400 damage. This is divided evenly between everything within 10' of the target. Most of the chariot's other moves are centered on itself or forward facing cones. So best to stand off to the side a little, but still sort of close to the DDs. I would think that the DDs should try to stay right together to make this easier. Better to be too close than too far though. As stated above, BLUs need to focus on healing and diamond hide. Each main healer should take there own tank to heal/unparalyze. The more pets out the better. Free carby is good for this and personally as a /SMN I have all avatars free before I get refresh if unlocked on weapon, body, and rings. Since Curaga#? will probably be cast after each Discoid, THF should be in main party to Collaborator every minute on healers. Boss fight should last 15-20 minutes, but can be done faster if time short as we should all have 2hours. Final:Everyone should be ready to lot/pass quickly if time is short. If people are dead they need to be raised quickly for lotting. If that is not possible, they can be dropped from the party if the items are not for them. If items are for them, then they can be made party leader and everyone else should drop or firefly so they will get. If party leaders are dead and no time remains, then all dead must home point to let the people get the drops. If the party/alliance disbands or the time ends with the items still in the pool, then they are lost. Well, those are my notes. I hope some people actually read them before our run. Feel free to modify anything you think is wrong. Last updated by me >> ShadowKatze 17:45, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

Card Run
This is the run plan when we have ZR cards to use. It is a Floor to Floor breakdown. Mainly the things to note here are which directions we are going, since opening a door to go one way will generally lock the doors going other directions. Everyone should bring sneak and be aware of blood aggro for this area F1: East (see below for possible west run). I actually prefer the west run for F1, but here is the east run. Formors are fairly weak but drop completely random cells. This will be a very different effect than in ZR. Each fomor drops multiple cells, so we want to kill them all quickly and keep moving. Still very important to lot/pass quickly. Room 1 has only 1 Fomor. Room 2 will have 2. We will camp there and pull from the east and west. 4 Fomors in each direction (2 in each room). Once they are dead, we head south and kill 2 more. The next room holds 8 more that are a little tougher, but have set drops: HumeMNK=weapon,magic,str,feet ElfCOR=JA,HP,mnd,feet HumeRNG=SJ,head,rings,vit MithraRDM=range,MP,body,waist Depending what we have for random drops and time we will kill some or all of these to get our main Melee's geared up to kill things. After we are done in this room we contiune west then north to a big room with a group of 16 Fomors. Note thae if we leave early, one person with sneak should go while rest kill. IF we have some time, we will farm these before the warp. But should always send one person with sneak to warp in case things get out of control. These fomor have about 500 HP and will follow you in the room even with sneak up. They will not aggro unless attacked, sneak drops, or low HP. The idea would be to gather them all up and ~ga3 them. They have a low drop rate though so not staying here long(nuking them once or twice would be good though). They respawn almost immediately. Should be off this floor in 40 minutes roughly but will stay as long as it takes to clear room of 8. 30 minutes is perfect run, but we should have time even with a slow run here since mostly skipping most of F2. F2: Immediately head south from start.  We have 1 person left with Skadi or Marduk as main. If they do not come, we then head East and North from main room. One person will sneak thru large room of fomor/imps (careful of imps truesight) and warp us. If we need more drops and have time, we can farm these fomor/imps for them. Puller should note that links here are not the normal ones you expect. Imps link to fomor by sight and Fomor link to imps by sound. Imps do not link imps and fomor do not link fomor. IF people do want Marduk or Skadi drops, we head West and North from main room. NM deadpan Devilet is gaurding the door. Kill him. He has a lot of HP and all the normal imp moves. When he dies he drops 10 cells and unlocks the door. He also pops the real NM here, Dekka. Dekka is about the same as Deadpan. There are 4 crates in this room, so we need to get them as the items will be useful in the fights. Killing Dekka is a long fight because of HPs. He will drop Skadi Level 15 Feet 100% with a small chance to get Marduk Level 35 Feet as well. Once he is dead one person needs to hurry to the warp just north of this room, while the rest buff and get any items left in the crates. Need to be off this floor before the 1 hour mark to give us time on F3 for the fight as it is really 3 NMs in a row. I would prefer to be on F3 with an hour left to be honest, but 40 minutes is plenty of time. F3: Head East (west if we did Deapan/Dekka) from start and south to main room. Need to clear 8 gear mobs. Consider Carby pulls on these. 10 minutes is good goal, but 15 more likely. These gear mobs can drop the Silver Seas Card that give the Skadi Level 15 body in ZR. This card will also make it possible for us to trigger another NM frog (F6) in ZR when we run there again. One note about the gear mobs is that they move in a circular pattern and have both a large circle and small cirle set up. Since they link by true sound, the small circle can make clean pulls difficult and it may be better to wait it out. Also, they move and then stop for a while sort of like a real gear turning in a clock, so pulling right after they rotate is best. Killing all 8 pops a NM Gear mob. 10 minutes is realistic goal. May go faster depending on his TP moves. It will be best to let only 2 DDs hit him with melee to slow TP build. Having 1 healer assigned to each and everyone staying back out of AoEs. Killing it will drop Marduk Level 15 Hands 100% with a small chance of Skadi Level 35 Hands also dropping. As with Dekka, we could skip this fight for time constraints. However since our main goal is also in this room, we will probably be forced to kill the gear to have clear area to fight and since we still have people needing the Skadi drops this is plan anyway. Also in this room is a Devilet. It flys at flee speed (or faster) and does not aggro. When attacked, he fights, but will go back to patrol after 10-15% damage inflicted on him. He must die to pop our target mob (thus the need to clear the gear NM). 10 Minutes to kill him is the most it should take (would be quicker if he would just fight). Having a PUP (or other pet) to chase him down is nice here. He will drop 5 armour cells when he dies (2body, 1 each of hands, legs, head). If pressed for time, it is possible to split up and fight gear mob by pulling it out into hall (so no overlap on AoEs) while the rest kill the devilet. A slot will appear near the center (south side) of the room when devilet dies. This is our main goal for this run. Trading a ZR card to this slot pops a NM frog. Hopefully we have 10-15 minutes left for this and can 2hour and put him down quick. Only main Melee DDs should engage (for TP reasons) unless very short on time. This fight will be easier than the ZR F5 frog, due to the room being clear of other possible aggro (if NM gear is dead). He will still use all the normal frog moves that everyone is so fond of. Must keep DoT on him at all times. He does both the AoE charm and a single target charm. When he dies, he will drop Morrigan Level 15 Body AND Ares Level 15 Body. When he dies, we are done with main goal for this run so lot fast(see below for NM to kill if time allows). After doing this run more, I would like to add this about the frog. His Water Bomb is no joke. Much larger radius than the ZR frogs. Only the 2 Main DDs should engage melee and only the 2 mages healing them should be anywhere near them (I would suggest max casting range for cures). These 4 people should have echo drops if they plan on casting. Any other healers in the group (including BLUs, SMN, BRDs) should stay well back and focus on healing the healers after water bombs. BRDs & CORs should still run in to buff the respective people, but are on their own for healing. Anyone with Stun should attempt to stun the Water Bombs and the Frog Songs, but again would be on their own for being healed. When charm is used, kite/Sleepga the frogs and kite the NM. If only the DDs are charmed (especially if only one with the single target is) sleep him (them) and have next DD(s) ready to jump in until charm wears. We have won this fight in 7 minutes so reaching the goal with time to spare should make for reliable win. If skipping F2, then we can also attack another NM on this floor. After killing frog everyone heads south then east. This room holds 4 gear, 4 gears, and 4 ramparts. All 8 gear(s) mobs need to be killed. They can drop Silver Seas Card as above. They are truesound and link with each other and the ramparts so pulling can be tricky (carby?). Once the gear(s) are dead a NM Gears mob pops. Kill it with the same strat as the Gear NM and the Frog. When it dies it will drop Ares Level 15 Head 100% with a low percentage chance of dropping Ares Level 35 Legs as well. To access the next floor, one of the ramparts must be killed. It will show up on widescan as the 9th mob in this room (first rampart), when the room is full. At present, the next floor would be of use to us as a card farming area mostly, as we will be out of time shortly into it. However, there is also NM here that can drop gear(Morrigan Level 15 head 100%, Usukane Level 35 Body Low %), so as we get the items from the other mobs and start skipping them we will focus on this. See F4NM run for more info on him. Other things to note about this run. This will be pushing our time very close, but will get three to four (depending on pathing) 100% drops with a low chance at 1-2 more. I think that for time we should decide who's card to use at the first and who will lot. Since the Card mob drops 2 sets, the person popping may not need both and one will go up for lot to people listing that set as primary. However, since we do have a good supply of cards I would not have a problem with the card holder taking both if they can use them. Either way, we should discuss this before the run.

Usukane focused run (F1/F2)
F1: West from start. Room 1 has 1 fomor. Room 2 empty camp here. There are 2 rooms east of here and 2 west. Each has 4 Fomor and 4 chests (be sure to get and use items). On most boss run clear all 4 rooms. On NM runs clear only the 2 adjacent to the camp room, unless cell drops exceptionally poor. When all dead head south. Next room is empty but conitune south to large room. It has 6 Fomors in a party. Kiter (mov+ is good) should grab one and head toward the start until they lose hate (or die if they are slow). With 2DD + 2healer set, each DD grabs a Fomor on the way by. Pull them to the south side of the main room and kill them. As the others lose hate and return the DDs should be able to continue to grab one each. If any extra link, the kiter should be able to pull them back off again and lose hate. Everyone should have reraise up anyway of course. There are generally some dusty reraise scrolls in the chests prior to this room. These Fomor each have a set drops. Southern Hume MNK: Magic x3, Vit Northern Hume MNK: Weapon x3, Hands Hume RNG: SJ x3, Ranged Mithra RDM: HP x3, MP Mithra RDM: Body x3, Feet Elvaan COR: JA x3, STR When the 6 die, NM Fomor pops in room. He'll go down fairly fast after short rest to full. He has no 100% drop, but has low drop rate on Usukane 35 head (rumor is extremely low). When he pops, the door in this room unlocks, so one person (NOT THF) exits thru the big room as with the other path here (only 1 exit from F1), while others fight. F2: Everyone heads South, East, South to a big room. It contains 16 fomors and 4 imps. In this room imps link to fomor (by sight) and fomor link to imps (by sound?) so puller needs to be very careful. This is most dangerous at the start of the room clearing, because a mistake can bring so many angry mobs down on the party. Party should be almost fully unlocked by the time this room is cleared though. Fomor drops are random, but Imps drop 2 pairs of cells from the following list: HP, SJ, JA, Weapons, Magic, Body. When room cleared, NM fomor pops. He will die easy like the first one after a full rest. He drops Ususkane 15 Legs 100% and has a small chance of droping Morrigan 35 Legs as well. It is possible we will not have a lot of time left after he dies, but if we do, we will warp to the next floor using the pad north of this room. F3: East from pad to large room full of various mechs. If time is short, we can farm these for cards as mentioned on other run(although maybe should just firefly). If time is good we would like to bypass this room and go north then east. Gears are true sound and magic aggro so depending on positioning it may be tricky to bypass, but if you run straight here from pad, you should be able to make it thru the room before the ramparts start summoning undead. Once past this room, we are back to the same Gears NM that we fight on the card run. See that section for strategy and plan for going to F4 (although doubtful on time).

F4 NM
F1: Depending on who is present there are 2 options. First option: Head east and kill everything as with a the card run. See that run above for pathing. Option 2: If people need the Usukane 35 head drop head west as with Usukane focused run above. See that section for pathing. Either option is fine although the NM side will run a little slower and may time out for trying for F4 NM. F2: Head to the SW tele pad. It is unlikely you would have time to fight either NM on this floor and still reach the F4 NM. Since going to the North exits requires fighting more mobs on the next floor, SW is the best option. The SW room hold 16 fomor and 4 Imps. As with other rooms in this zone with that set up, Fomor link to imps by sound and imps link to Fomor by sight. Use any extra time you feel you have to farm cells here. Imps drop the "main" cells 100%, but are harder to pull clean. Fomor drops are random, but safer to pull. I would like to be off this floor by the 40 minute mark when doing F4 NM, but can stay longer if practiced at run. F3: Head South then East to the first room. Kill gears if needed to clear path, but if everyone can make it thru this room without aggro do so. Remember that gear/gears are truesound. Head North from this room. Then East again to the second room. You will need to clear some of the mechs from this room (maybe all). To unlock the door you must kill a specific rampart. This rampart is random, but can be detected by using the following methods: 1) Kill them all to be sure. This is the only 100% safe way, but obviously takes time. 2) Have your THF aggro them all and flee. The key door will cannot move. This method obviously benefits if all the gear/gears are cleared first including the NM (if time looking good I recommend killing this as outlined in runs above). However if you make a mispull or feel like doing a sac pull, then just sprint around the room and see which ramparts don't move. Then clear the gear/gears from around it and kill it so you can exit. With practice, a THF could probably do this without dying, but I'm not sure. The party would stay well out of the room so that the train would not aggro them on it's way back. 3) Some people say that the correct rampart is #9 mob (the first rampart) on widescan for this room. We have had some problems with this, so not sure it is correct, but this is the one I would go with if at all possible.  Just clear the gear/gears from around this rampart then kill it. When rampart dies head north and warp. You need to be on next floor with at least 20 minutes left so plan accordingly on clearing this room.  I would personally prefer to have 40 minutes left for F4 with our current set up. F4:  Head south immediately.  There is only one path and it's west from pad.  Eventually leading you south. If your THF has flee ready, use it to catch the group of 6 gear mobs before they reach the main room and pull them back to the party.  These 6 gear mobs can be slept and then killed one at a time.  If not killed they patrol the level and can be messy to deal with if they show up while fighting other mobs. If this does happen though, remember they can be slept and don't panic (and have reraise up). Once they are dead head south to the main room and start pulling gears mobs. There are 10 in the room. They do not all "need" to die, but again they make for messy links. The first couple pulls will likely link so try to limit it to 2 mobs at most. Pull the ramparts as it becomes safe. They are the "real" targets here. Once all 4 die, a fifth one will spawn in the center of the room. Ignore any gears mobs left after killing the fourth rampart (unless they aggro you). Do not attack fifth rampart. It will call a giant turtle (Citadel Chelonian). Pull the turtle (it does not link any of the mechs), and kill it. When it dies it drops Morrigan Level 15 Head Piece 100% and has a low chance of dropping Usukane Level 35 Body Piece. If you still have time left at this point, it was great run. Kill the last rampart and any gears left (rampart is to unlock exit, gears just for alexandrite and cards) and exit to the south. You can now fight the boss if you have the time or just firefly. The Sac Pull Option If you prefer or are short on time, you can also sac pull this room and have your melees each grab a rampart to kill. We have only fought this floor twice and should have not done the sac pull the first run as we had lots of time, but wiped and had to leave. I think we can work up to this, but should only try if time short for now. If you do opt for the sac pull, THF can flee fast enough to lose all hate and survive (should have back after killing the 6 gear mobs on patrol). The hard part, is getting all 4 Ramparts pulled off him. This is especially hard for us with only 2-3 Melees most runs, but here are my thoughts on it. THF enters room, Flee (this will aggro the mobs if haven't yet), grab all mobs, Perfect Dodge as needed and leaves to south. Melees each have a rampart targeted. BRD and RDM (or BLM) also have one targeted. Elegy and Tier 1 nuke (for speed without DoT) probably best (WHM with Flash nice too). As soon as THF aggros, those 4 rush in and grab their mobs. Pull all 4 into the previous room to north. DO NOT STAY IN THE SPAWN ROOM. The mobs will all come back before you can kill 4 doors. (this was our rookie mistake) Once you have the 4 Ramparts in the previos room, Sleep them and kill 1 by 1. Ramparts can be a pain in general so 2hour these for fast kills and to help the BRD live as they build resistance. Also if RDM (or BLM if we have) would like to sleep them also to alternate light/dark sleep this helps. It is still best to have kill the 6 roaming gear mobs first, but if not keep watch for them. Once THF loses hate, they can come back (need TH for NM). They will have to recross the room of gears. I would recommend waiting to have Flee ready again. This should be fine since it will take a few minutes to kill the Ramparts anyway. IF party is ready before flee is, simply pull the NM (nothing will link) andtake him all the way back to the start of level for when THF ready. On this pass, THF should hit Flee before the room to avoid aggro and simply out run anything until it gives up. Party may now safely pull the turtle once gears reset. If short on time, THF must sac this and pull NM to hall for party to grab. Pull the turtle away and then raise THF once gears return to spawn room. This Option is the one I would like to use once we have practiced some on this run. Best to plan on the full clear at first though.

Boss Run
Our group has killed this boss and this is the run we use for it. It seems very repeatable to me. F1: West from the start and clear everything just like a usukane run above. Kill NM and warp up. F2: Southwest exit. Skip everything unless you need cells or want to try on of the NMs above. Not recommended to try the other NMs on the first couple boss runs. Get used to fighting him before you try extra stuff. Also this group does not need the imp and the fomor will burn time. Farming cells here is a good plan though as it will save time over farming gears since imps have set drops. You can do this with the SE fomor NM, but if you die much on the run you will likely time out on the boss. F3: West exit. Skip everything unless you need cells or want to try an NM. This is a good floor to farm cards/alexandrite on if you need cells too. If you do fight the NM you will have to exit East which makes next floor much harder. F4: Skip unless you need cells or want to try an NM. This is a good floor to farm cards/alexandrite on if you need cells too. Same note as F2. May want a THF to flee thru here to door as everything is truesound. Reraise should definitely be up on this person. With practice you may be able to do this NM on the way to the boss, but since we have not yet tried it, I would advise against it for now. Note that to do the NM you must exit the previous floor to the east as stated above. F5: This boss goes down a lot faster than the others. At least he does while you are hitting him. The basic dedicated healer strat is fine here and should not lead to any abnormal problems. However, his special move sucks, so I will review that. Brainjack: a move SE invented when you thought they couldn't screw you worse. Brainjack is a single target charm that also inflicts a 24/tick damage. The boss can use it multiple times in a row and honestly if he can charm the whole party, that may be best sometimes. If that is your plan though, you need to make sure you have good DoT on him. Another way to do him (and more reliable) is to have someone with move+ gear kite him when (not if, when) he charms your tanks. He's not overly fast (he has mov+ but corners horribly) so any speed gear is good for this. Kiter needs to be careful not to lose hate though since the auto-regen on unclaimed megabosses is 10%/tick (yikes). WHM should definitely try to keep regen 3 on the tanks. This helps negate the brainjack damage and may shorten duration. One nice thing is that if you die charmed it's no XP lose. As with other chariots, Paralyze should be removed immediately, however, since he'll likely charm the tanks at some point, if he binds them first, it's all good. Just leave them bound and have a good laugh about AIs. If you have quick tanks (anyone else can do this too) have them macro to unequip/change weapons when he goes to jack them. If you stand to the side, he will turn to face before using Brainjack, giving you a chance to hit a weapon swap/unequip macro (and to start kiting if you are fast). A RDM with move gear is great for this, since as healer they are probably next on the hate list if the tanks get charmed anyway. I have found that it seems easier to pull the Megaboss down to the start area and then kite him thru the 3 rooms there during brainjack. Doing laps in the main room works as well, but is riskier, especialy without mov+ gear. Brainjack is usually used on everyone in melee range when he decides to do it (although he has to hit you 1 at a time). It's best to just let all the tanks be charmed (some people prefer to let the tanks kite, but they need to disengage fast if they plan to do this) and have the Healer kite him or have a THF accomplice the healer and kite him if healer does not have mov+. Having a hate macro to see who he is after when the kiting is going on is very very nice. Macro would look something like this: /assist  /wait 1 /p  has HATE! One thing to note about brianjack is that it is not a TP move. He will brainjack evey 25% HP or every 2.5 minutes regardless of TP. Once he enters a brainjack cycle, he will exit it after either 90 seconds or 6 WS attempts (this counts out of range failures and all brainjackings). We have some question about the 2.5 minute timer. I personally am unsure if it restarts immediately after the first jack or after the final jack of the cycle. I lean towards the second option. As long as they have a healer, melees should reengage immediately when charm wears off, IF they are healed and the current cycle has ended. When defeated, it drops 2 of the following at 100% (can be 2 of the same). Morrigan Hands, Marduk Legs, Skadi Head, Skadi Body, Ares Hands, Usukane Feet. All level 25.

Specifically for our Group
We fail this regularly with a group that should own him in the time provided. Here are my thoughts. If you don't like it, I'm sorry. Complain to others about how mean I am and how I don't understand what I'm talking about. If you find you are in the majority, I'll quit the LS and you can start winning without me slowing you down. If you find you are in the minority, then try it my way a few times or come up with a better plan. Right now I don't think everyone understands that I actually have a plan and always have had a plan. I base this on the comment that we have no plan. I do fail to communicate my plan effectively very often, because I generally have 2 problems. First: I type slowly and people get bored and don't read stuff they think they already know. This is why I prefer the vent system. We only have 2 members not on Vent so that works well. VENT IS FREE FOR THE LS. I pay for it, so I don't see why most of you can't use it. But if you can't you can't and I can live with that. Second: I don't like to shout people down. If you rather talk about how you cut yourself with your new knife or discuss the new update you were too lazy to read about yourself then that's the topic that is getting discussed. I won't try to fight with you about it and I'll just go back to typing so you can ignore it. But I really would prefer you not chat about stuff during the run that is not run related. That's why I made separate chat rooms. That said, I think we do have a clearer plan now. However, not everyone understands what it is so I'll try to clarify it here. All melee - Engage boss. Beat on boss until he dies. Keep shadows up at all times. Switch to less lethal weapon at start of jack cycle. If you see it coming, the 2nd or later melee should begin kiting for the cycle. Staying to the side of the boss will help because he has to face to jack. Rest to full after being jack. Resting should be in safe area. Reengage immediately after the 90 seconds on the jack cycle ends IF AND ONLY IF you have a healer with decent MP to support you. WHMs - Keep 1 melee up and unparalyzed (should cast as soon as discharger used). Attempt to keep Regen 3 on both melees. Devotion every 10 minutes. Recast pro/shell if people die, but generally conserve MP as much as possible for the fighting cycles. Very important to be able to rest during the jack cycles. If MP good and hate low you can maybe heal a kiter (if they are red HP), but I strongly advise against. RDMs - Keep haste on the melees and assist in healing them (paralyna as needed also). Refresh. Para2/slow2/Dia3 on boss if possible. Attempt to maintain full MP if possible so that you can take over main healing after a jack cycle if other healers need to rest. You should generate very little hate in this role, however if more melees than WHMs you will need to main heal a melee. Using bind on people after they are jacked can help kiter if you have MP. DO NOT HEAL KITERS OR BRD. BRD - Keep Elegy and Ice Threnody on boss (he's weak to ice already). Keep Minuet & March on melees (unless they ask for something else). Keep Ballad x2 on the healers (again if you can get them to stand still and together). Try to buff in the jack cycles to minimize hate. Other songs that can help are Dirge for RDM and Sirvante for THF. Assist with healing, by healing yourself as needed and by using paralyna on the melees. Also heal them if they are in red, but try to focus your limited MP on healing the supporting players. If you do get hate in a jack cycle, just run until THF can get hate back. DO NOT HEAL KITERS. THF - Apply Feint as possible to boss. Collaborator healers or nukers as much as possible to limit hate. Do everything you can to get and keep hate during the jack cycles so as to kite. Status bolts? Collaborating an unjacked Melee may not help since it can shift hate to healer, so focus on healers/nukers. BLMs - Nuke as possible using Ice spells (mechs are weak to ice). Attempt to keep as many DoT spells as possible on the boss (RDM should apply Dia3 or Bio3 if they have it). Reapply them (if needed) if possible during the fight. During jack cycles rest MP. It is more important to rest MP than to reapply DoTs if they wear during a kiting phase. Allow the THF to kite the boss. If you do have hate, kite only until they can pull it off you then rest. Assist in healing the support jobs but DO NOT HEAL KITERS. Using bind on people after they are jacked can help kiter if you have MP. Use paralyna on melees as needed. General notes: Numbers - If everyone listed here comes, I would suggest we team the MNK+WAR and SAM+DRK is different parties for the first portion of the fight. All engage and kill the first 25%. Kite thru jack cycle and reengage for second 25%. Repeat until dead (the boss not you). If you have 2hours use them to finish the last 25%. - smaller numbers come then may need to weather a few extra jack cylces, but same basic plan. 2hours - After last night I think we can safely assume that 2houring to finish will be a better use of them (since without them first 25% went the same as with them). After the jack cycle at 25% turn everyone lose for 2hours. The best plan would be to kite the boss until everyone is unweak (full MP/HP) and until the latest jack cycle ends (assuming time is not a problem) Then Soul Voice the melees and have then go to it. MNKs would get Minuet x2 (unless them wanted Madrigal). WAR+DRK might usually prefer March x2 (or again Madrigal). At 25% the melee 2hours should finish the fight. However, BLM should manafont nuke if needed and RDMs should be ready Chainspell Nuke Blizzard 3 if it's close on time and he enters another jack cycle before the melees can kill him. Resting - During the jack cycles, everyone should rest if they are not kiting. Kiting should be done by THF or a melee DD. If you have some hate, rest in the bottom part of the hallway (this lets you have a chance to run if hate shifts to you). If you have no hate (died and/or were jacked), rest at the top of the hall by the door so that you won't get MPKed if hate shifts. It is very important that everyone with MP be resting during the jack cycles. If you are running around (casting, looking, whatever) for any reason except you have hate, you are hurting the group. A dead hero doesn't help us.

OK. That's my additions to SSR boss strat for our group. If I missed something let me know. If you think I'm full of crap and we should be doing it different, let me know that too. If you want us to keep losing then just let it all stay like it is now.

Cell Notes
THF has a large impact on cell drop rate here so always bring one. That said, cell distribution is a huge key to this run. Here are my thoughts on that. The opening box has these cells: 2 Weapons: We give these to a Melee (nonMNK if present) and THF (TH3). Then other MeleeDDs (nonMNKs first). On a rat run BLM needs before leaving F1, otherwise next would go to healers. 1 SubJob: I would give this to your main heal. You will not get another until F4 (can steal one on F2). Tanks don't need shadows until then and the healer does need the other spells. I would also make this healer the RDM and I will explain as I go. When you do get more drops, they go to /nin melees (starting with tank obviously) next and then /whm and backup heal. 1-2 Job Abilities: 1 for sure the other drop is 50/50 with magic. First JA goes to Main MNK because Asuran Fists kills things quickly. Order after that would be DD (to kill), COR (to buff), THF (steal), DD, RDM, BRD, Free. THF needs before F2 to steal. TH is automatically on from what I have read, so THF can be later drop on F1, but these only drop from Lamia, so you can get hosed by the drop rate. When doing Boss run you can switch THF and BRD. Soul Voice is very important and Feint can wait until later (Last drops are F3 though). 1-2 Magic: 1 for sure other drop 50/50 with JAs. First goes to RDM. This is for healing, refresh, and dispel. All other spells are just bonus. Second goes to BRD (if present). After that, BLM, BLU, back up heal, /NIN (starting with main tank obviously). As with JA cells these only drop from Lamia, so may not get what you would like on F1. More will come later, but BLM needs before you exit F1 if doing rats. Next 4 share 2 spots. Might get 2 of the same, but probably not. 0-2 HP: This would be nice, but you also will get these dropping for sure from skeletons so probably best to get something else. Order Main Tank, DDs, Puller, RDM, back up heal, BLM, Free. BLM needs because of his job nuking rats after F1 but, since you should try to have for everyone before leaving F1 can be moved down in the order. They drop from Skeletons and even a low rate shouldn't hurt you. If it does they also drop on F2 & F3 Skeletons (and F6 trees). 0-2 MP: This would be nice. They only drop from Lamia so even though few needed, you can end up short. Order Main Heal, BLM, Back up heal, BLU, Free. BLM second because of needing MP to nuke. 0-2 Body Armour: This and all Armour (see below for exception) should go to Main tank then second DD. After that, Mages with Refresh gear, then BLM to nuke, then free. Usually not a lot of Armour drops, but will discuss more later. 0-2 Range Weapon: This is mostly a "luxury" for the puller (as in not having to sight or blood aggro). Order would be BRD (instrument), Puller(if not BRD), Range DD (if any), Free (some people have really nice gear here, so if you don't, pass like I do). Rest of the cells share 2 random spots. Could be 2 of the same although unlikely. 0-2 Armour (other than body): As I said above, gear tank and second melee then Mages with refresh, then BLM to nuke. One exception would be if you have a THF with TH gloves. He would be first (We tried TH4 and did not see much increase in drops). 0-2 Stats: INT = BLM (nuke), BLU(Spells?), RDM(Enfeebles), THF (Steal?), DDs (WS?), Free. MND = RDM(main heal), WHM(or other back-up heals), MNKs, BLU, BLM, Free. CHR = BRD, THF, COR, Free. STR = Tank, melee DDs, Free. DEX = Tank, melee DDs, Free. AGI = Tank, ranged DDs(puller included if not BRD), melee DDs. VIT = Tank, Melee DDs, Puller, Free. As I said above (and say again below), this run is light on cells (until you hit F6). The test here is how you distribute them for maximum benefit. A group of 6 can be reasonably geared and the rest are not as important. You want DDtank, DD, Nuker, Healer, healer, Buffer to be unlocked as much as possible and the rest is bonus (add a THF as 7th as he only needs weapon and JA).

Rat Run
On a rat run, it is better to just have 6 people (max 8) because of the low cell drop rate. If more are present, they should know up front that they will not be getting unlocked and will be leeching most of the run. They will become somewhat useful on later floors depending on drops, but they should be prepared to be bored and in all honesty, if they are not after a drop that night, they should save their points for another run. F1: Room 1 Clear. Head west. Clear room. Head north. Clear Room. Head east. Clear Room if needed, but pull lamia first if possible (Do not wait just to pull her though). Head back to room 1. Make sure to get items from the chests that drop as doing this and restock on way back. From room 1 head south. Clear room Kill Lamia SMN in the hall south and the COR in the room south. Then back to Room 2. Head east. Clear room. Head east. Clear room. Head south. Clear room. Head west. Clear room. At this point, you should have essential weapons, JAs (THF important), HP, Magic, MP. If you get all these things prior to clearing all the rooms, you can exit early to save time. Exit thru SE Warp (where you end on this walk thru). Ideally, will have spent 30 minutes here but possibly an hour (although this will eliminate some rats from end of run). One variation to this plan would be to exit thru the SW Warp if you are short on 1 type of cell (See other options for details). F2: Room one should be skipped unless you need the cells for your main 6 (see Other Options for NM here), Although you may wish to pull 1 to build TP for the rat NM. Lamia drop Magic, MP, and JA. Skeletons drop STR, HP, INT, AGI, Belt/Back. When you exit the room, be careful to look for your first rat. He will be in one of the hallways connected to the central room (where the warp pad is) at random. All doors except the one you enter from will be locked. Rat is a BLM and immune to stun and silence. He will usually resist sleep (all forms), gravity, & bind. He will fight a little and then retreat a little. Kill him as quickly as possible, because if he reaches the telepad he will eventually warp (usaully farily quickly). If the target of his spells runs out of range, he will follow, but this is useful only if a BLM is MP burning or DoTing him. He has around 6k HP. THF should Steal from him if possible as this will get a SJ cell, which are quite rare here. The best way to steal is to hide, then steal to open the fight. When he dies he will drop a few cells and a chest. He also has a small chance to drop the Ares Level 35 Body piece. Once he is dead or warps, warp up to next floor (if he died get items from chest first). 10 minutes for this floor covers it well unless you are farming for more cells and can be done in 5. F3: EAST! (unless you really enjoy the soulflayer experience - see Other Options section). 2 options: If you still need cells clear rooms 1 and 2 (probably skip this step most runs). Everyone sneak/invis and head to warp pad. Stand in the Northwest corner of the room to fight. Have BLM nuke the rat and then engage with everyone. He is THF and drops bombs as he runs. he will fight then run. When he runs, LET HIM GO. Everyone stay in that Northwest corner and wait. He will come back shortly to see why no one followed him. Let him enter the room and whack on him til he runs again. Repeat until he dies. Based on our runs I would say he needs to return 2-3 times. When he dies, he drops a few cells and a chest. There is also a small chance of him dropping the Morrigan Level 35 Body Piece. Once he is dead (and chest checked if present) warp. 10 minutes for this floor with no farming. If something happens and the rat doesn't come back right away, don't wait long. I would wait until the DoT on him wears. After that he will come back, but will be full HP again. Better to go to next one. F4: East (unless you did the soulflayers last floor in which case you have my condolences and you should go west). Room will have a door (if not you went wrong way), a warp and another rat. This rat is identical the to the one you just fought, just less distance for him to run, so you can chase this one (just watch the bomb drops 50-100 damage). He also has a small chance of dropping the Morrigan Level 35 Body Piece. Once he is dead (and chest checked) warp. See Other Options for another NM on this floor. 5 minute floor. If you are 1 hour (or a little less) in at this point you are doing great. If you have 20 minutes left you are doing ok. F5: North (or south if you running other path for some reason - only 1 exit either way). Clear first room of gear mobs (Three in room). They will drop SJ cells which should start helping. All mech (gear, gears, ramparts, chariots) can also drop the Level 15 pieces for Ares Legs, Skadi Hands, Usukane head, Morrigan Legs, and Marduk feet as well as the Card needed to pop the NM dropping the Marduk Level 15 Body Piece (See the BR run). Head south (or north) from this room and kill gear in hall. 1 person (NOT THF) head to main room (this person should have reraise up just in case) while rest continue to room at end of hall. When door in main room is openned, a rat will pop here. He is the same as the first rat you fought back on F2 and can also drop the Ares Level 35 Body Piece. He will also fight / retreat toward the warp. If he makes it to an occupied room, LET HIM GO! Linking the entire floor will only result in deaths. Remember that Mech mobs generally aggro truesound and casting (although ramparts seem to me to aggro sight?/sound in addition to casting). After Rat dead (or out of reach), have everyone fully buff. If brd present they should soulvoice the melees with whichever songs they think are the best (haste/attack?) once everyone ready have the person at exit warp (see Other Option for NM here). Ideally at this point you have 20 minutes or a little more left. However it will likely take a number of runs to get the timing down and some runs will always be unlucky, so if you time out here (or earlier) don't get down on yourselves. F6: The clock is running as soon as you enter this death trap so don't wait. There are 4 gears, 4 gear, and 2 ramparts in the main room. The ramparts can summon seasonal Treants. Everything in this room must die in under 7 minutes. If it becomes apparent that this will not happen, pull back and take your time. As above, all mech can drop the level 15 pieces so this is not a wasted floor even if you fail the 7 minute goal. Have some melees 2hour the first rampart and the rest 2 hour the second, as they are the most dangerous things and the treants add time if they are summoned (they are usually called regardless). Mages need to remember that gear/gears aggro casting. These should be slept/kited (if they aggro) as possible until first rampart dies, then the gears (they being more dangerous than the gear mobs) on that end can die. Since it's highly likely that cells/armour will be dropping quickly here, everyone that needs the level 15 pieces should be responsible for lotting them as they drop. No need to pass until room clear, unless time very short. If you make the 7 minute mark, which really takes practice and/or luck, you pop 2 more Rat NMs by the warp-in pad. They are the same type as you fight in floors 3 & 4 and also have the low drop rate on the Morrigan Level 35 Body Piece. They do the whole fight, flee, fight, thing (mines included) as well. You can fight them one at a time. When they die you can lot and firefly. If you have any time left, you were amazing. You can exit this floor to the north and see the Mega boss here, but should not have time to fight him. See below for that info. Other info on Rat Run You can of course skip rats for time or to focus on certain sets. Fighting all the rats on the same run is possible, but takes practice and some luck. There are other level 35 drops here as well, so read the Other Options section for some suggestions on which rats to skip if you wish to include some of those. All in all, this would be my run of choice to do repeatedly for a starter group. SSR is also a good option.

Boss Run
Boss run will be essentially the same as the Rat Run with the obvious exception of skipping some (or all) of the rats. However, the pulling is slightly different so I will go over that floor by floor in addition to noting other changes from a rat run. F1: Room 1 clear. Head west. Clear room. Head north. Clear room. Head east. Clear room if needed, but get lamia first if possible. Head back to Room 1. Remember to get and use potions/milk/ethers from chest as you go and restock on the way back. Head south. Clear room. All DDs should have weapon at this point. If not you will have to pull extra qutrub (see below). Pull and kill Lamia SMN in hallway to south (party should stay in room). Then pull Lamia COR from the room to south and kill it (this is room of qutrub if you needed another weapon). Once Lamia dies, head east. Clear room. Pull bones from hall to east. Pull Merrow from room to east (party should stay in room again). Once merrow dies, head north. We go north here for the chance to get rings off the ghosts. Clear room. Continue north. Clear room. Head east. Clear room. Head south. Clear room. When fighting the ghosts, a decision will be made as to whether the group needs more Magic, JA, or MP based on what the Lamia/Merrow have been dropping. Based on this one of the party (NOT THE THF) will head to the appropriate exit to F2 (usually one of the mages since sneak/invis needed and we have extra healers). Ideally at this point everyone should have HP (if this is true, skip any skeletons possible) and on a perfect run everyone needing them would have JA, MP, magic. The choice of exits is either NE (this is where we end up anyway) for more Magic drops (generally this is the path) or SE for more JA/MP (1 magic can also drops this way). F2: Time check: 40 minutes in is a great run. 1 hour in means we are running pretty slow to make the boss. Group should head to door. Direction based on which exit from F1 used, but you can see it from where you start. IF needed, puller should grab a Merrow (one on each side as facing door) on the way to door. If you are in the north room they are both the same and will drop magic/range. The south room should have a shadowdancer to the south and a kabukidancer to the north. Shadow drops magic/MP and Kabuki drops JA/MP. If people are still short on HP at this point, both rooms contain 4-6 skeletons to farm it from (although drop rate isn't the best). As soon as the Merrows die, main party should stay and loot the chest. THF should look for rat and try to steal a SJ cell from him. 1 other person (should be BRD usually, but anyone standing around works) should follow THF and exit as soon as his steal attempt is made. F3: Time check: 50 minutes in is good. Over an hour in is slow. Head east immediately (one exception is if you need weapons there are qutrub to the west). If you need HP there are skeletons in each room east (however if you need weapon or HP at this point, the run is not going very well) IF we pull any of these rooms, it is the Merrow only and based solely on minimum required cells to fight the boss. Any room we do not fight, we sneak/invis thru (bones aggro sound, merrow aggro sight). On a perfect run we would have THF just flee (with sneak/invis) to exit while the rest wait, but here are drops for the less than perfect run. Room 1: Magic/MP. Room 2: JA/MP. Room 3: Magic/range. The last big room will have 2 Merrow CORs. Both drop JA/range. If THF steal timer is up, have him head to exit AFTER getting TH on last mob pulled. He will only need sneak. He can steal from rat at porter (body cell) and exit. F4: Time check: target is to be under 1hour in here. A perfect run you will hit this floor around 45 minutes in. Head east and exit. If steal timer up (obviously meaning you didn't just use it on F3) steal from rat at porter and exit. F5: Time check: Must be under 1 hour in to be able to do F5 Chariot and boss. If you are over one hour and 10 minutes here, it would be best to cancel boss and just do this chariot and rat. Head north (only path) and start pulling the gear mobs in room immediately. Clear this room both for safety and hopefully get both melees SJ. Someone (usually an extra mage, since you want TH on the mobs) should go to the exit once path thru room is clear. If we still need a SJ (only if fighting F5 chariot) then pull the gear to the south. Then head west. Skip next room if possible. Gear aggro truesound and magic. Ramparts aggro sight and magic (and possibly sound in front of them? or maybe just when SE hates us). In main room should be a chariot (spawns when exit door opens) with a gear and a gears patrolling in front of it. IF boss only run, person at exit should exit as soon as they arrive. IF fighting F5 chariot, that person should return to the hall before the big room and meet up with party there. Pull chariot when clear. It will link the gear and gears by sound if they are close, so if time is good, pull at least the single first (also drops SJ). Only fight chariot if you have 2 /NIN melees available. Fight should last about 5 minutes, but plan a little longer for safety. F6: Time check: 30 mintues left will be cutting it close, but doable. Less is just for practice probably. Ideally you would have 40 minutes. Head east or west from start based on which way is clear to hall (or has 1 mech to grab on the way). Key to pulling this room is speed vs party status. There are 4 single gear mobs, 4 triple gears mobs, and 2 ramparts. All have to die (including the trees the ramparts can call) to unlock boss door. Ideally, we start with a single and build TP to kill a triple faster, but pulling them as they come free is more important than order (links can be slept or kited, but it can get dicey). If we have to fight 2 triples in a row, it may require a rest for MP if they spam AoE damage, so communication with mages is important if puller in different party. The trickiest fights are the ramparts. Unlike the gears, they do not roam so it's possible to pick when to fight them. Puller should warn party to save TP (easiest to save TP on a single gear) before a rampart, because killing them quickly will prevent the stupid call reenforcement move that gives us extra trees to kill. As long as the trees get slept, it's fine, just more time. TH is not a big deal on this floor because everything drops a lot of stuff. When party is fighting last mob, someone (usually THF) should head to the exit door (north end of room) and be ready to open it when mob dies. If you are over 15 minutes left at this point, make sure you check any chests that drop for items to help on the boss. Generally they will give you some help here. If anyone died in this room, it may be better to wait on the weakened to warp so they get full HP/MP (if you have time). Our best time on the Boss fight is 13 minutes with no deaths, but allowing 15-20 is safer. F7: Time check: If you are anywhere close to 20 minutes you are golden. If you are under 15, you better step on it, but don't panic. Under 10 is just for practice. Boss is Armoured Chariot. It uses all normal chariot moves (watch for Para and Bind). It's special move is Mortal Revolution. This is ~600 AoE Damage + Stun. NIN shadows will negate this. I would suggest just having 2 melees on the chariot for TP build reasons. All other melees should be held in reserve and if someone dies, they should be ready to jump in to replace them (if they have ranged attacks like Chi Blast, bow, Absorb spells, Etc. they can use them as long as TP build does not increase more than damage done). Also, if they can /SAM and use meditate (wings or opo necklace with sleep pots work too) to build TP then WS only (this works well). They should be careful early not to draw hate (especially with spells) as bouncing hate can screw this fight pretty fast (Mortal Revolution going off in the middle of the support characters for example). You should also have 1 dedicated healer for each of your 2 main melees. After that having 1 or more BRDs or CORs is nice for buffs and a third healer that can focus on buffs/debuffs is a bonus. As I said, 6 can do this as THF, DD, DD, Healer, Healer, Buffer. As a note, our 13 minute run was MNK, WAR, BRD, RDM, WHM, BLM, THF. THF used feint at the start of the fight and again at around 50% (when timer was up) and BRD-WAR-MNK 2houred on second feint. MP was good and time short, so WAR stayed in the whole fight (sometimes go to 1 melee after 2hours for MP reasons on a low man run). BRD was able to land Ice Threnody allowing BLM to do good damage with Ice Nukes. RDM used Convert and WHM used Devotion & Martyr. Boss died as Benediction was activated. Time remaining on run was under 30 seconds at boss death due to earlier bad luck. Everyone was able to lot/pass and items were acquired however. I would say the key jobs for us have been BRD (soul voice) and THF (feint). Key to winning run is to just keep moving all the time, which comes with practice.

Other Options
This is a listing of alternate NMs to kill for Level 35 items (and 1 Level 15 item) when you are ready to skip some rats. Listing is by NM showing the gear and change to rat run route.

Vile Wehzil: Drop 2x the cells traded to spawn him. End F1 by exiting the SW warp. on F2, clear the room and then trade the desired cells to the socket to spawn him. This would only be worthwhile to get Magic or JA cells in my opinion and really I would not recommend it unless you are taking a large group on a boss run and need the Magic Cells. He will duplicate up to 5 cells traded so have 1 person hold those cells on F1 if this is your plan. In the case of Magic only unlock the main heal and save any others you find for this purpose.

Pricess Pudding: Drops Usukane Level 15 Body 100%. Same path as Rat Run. On F2 there is a slot in the room you warp into normally (Southeast room). Clear this room (can leave some, but full clear much much safer). Then exit room and kill the rat on this floor. Really you mostly want the SJ cell you can steall, so can let him go if you like, but might as well kill for the other cells he can drop. Then return to the slot room and trade a BR Card when ready. Pudding will generally spam AM and nasty ga spells (a lot of times it will be earth based, but is random). It may be best to allow your tank the 1st SJ cell if this is your target instead of your main heal, but this is a judgement call and getting the second SJ from rat would be very nice. Once it dies, resume rat run with the first rat. This fight typically will slow the run quite a bit, especially if it gets in some lucky hits with spells.

Deviate Bhoot: Drops Ares 35 Head Low %. Same path as Rat Run. On F4 kill the rat (can do before as well, but you get cells from the rat and that clears exit if things go bad). Also farm SJs from the gear mobs to the west. Tank and DD must have shadows for this fight. When ready pull the largest of the Deviate Bhoots (ghost mobs) from the room to the North of start. They all have the same name, but the big one is the NM. He does not link with the others, but all are sound aggro. He likes to cast a lot of ice spells (Blizzaga 3 is really bad) so barblizzra if possible. He also has a death move called "Perdition". This needs to be stunned if at all possible. With 2 stunners all ga3s and perditions should be stunned. Fight is really smooth if this happens. If he uses perdition the target dies instantly. Once mob dies, raise and continue as planned for rat run. This mob can really slow down a run with his perdition move so killing fast is important. One important thing to note is that if you are short on Magic cells, the "normal" Bhoots drop them, as can the Rat on this floor.

Psycheflayer: Drops Morrigan Level 35 Head Low %. F3: You go west. This is much more dangerous, but if you can sneak everyone past the soulflayers (truesound) then you can kill this rat in the same way you do the one on the north side. It maybe better to just skip the rat though and have only one person sneak to the pad to warp. If you do fight the rat, stand in the Southeast corner of the warp room to do it. F4: You head West to the door for the telepad and the rat. This rat is the same as the one from regular F4 Rat Run, so see that for strat/drop. Kill the rat (can skip if wanted or kill after other NM). Also remember to farm SJs for the /NINs from the gears to the west. When ready pull Psycheflayer from room to the south of warp in pad. All have same name, but the NM is the largest in the room. They will not link, but do aggro truesound and JAs. Flayers are dangerous and this one has all the normal moves. Once he dies continue the rat run. F5: You are on the opposite side of the this floor, but run is still the same. Head south to gear room and clear. Send 1 person to open the door to the warp pad while the party clears north. When Warp room open the rat will appear here. See Rat Run for Strat. When you exit this floor you are back on the same path as normal Rat Run.

'''Archaic Chariot: Drops Skadi Level 35 Feet, Marduk Level 35 Hands, Usukane Level 35 Legs. All Low %.''' F5: This is the easiest/safest pick up to the rat run. When you open the door to pop the rat on this floor, it also pops this chariot mob in the middle of the big room. After killing the rat, have everyone sneak past the second gear room (can kill if needed, but safer to bypass rampart at least). The Gear/Gears in the main room will link by sound when the chariot pulled if it passes by them, so best to pull and kill them first if you are good on time (They can be slept if needed). Chariot has a lot of HP and all the chariot moves (para is the worst for this fight). Once it dies, head to warp and continue Rat Run. You could also farm level 15 pieces on this level if time short, as it is safer here than the next floor (Could also farm if you have extra time before going up). It should be noted that it is possible to have multiple pieces drop, but considering that all are very low % drops this is quite rare.

Bhaflau Remnants
BR is similar to Dynamis in that gear can drop from any mob killed on any floor. Mechs drop the Bhaflau Card used to pop the NM dropping the Level 15 Usukane Body Piece in AR (see that run for details). All the other mobs (except those spawned by ramparts?) can drop Level 15 pieces from the following sets: Ares Feet, Skadi Legs, Marduk Head, Morrigan Feet, Usukane Head. Having a THF is not vital for this run for cell drops, but always helps with gear drops.

Door Bashing
There is one rampart on each floor that will spawn if you meet certain conditions. This is a list of the triggers and drops. You should plan your run to aim for the gear desired. It is unlikely that you will get to all 4 on any one run. F1: WEST. Gear cells drop west and stat cells drop east. Also less aggro on the west when you want to skip mobs, but if you prefer you can go east. Whichever you choose the other door locks. Room one kill bomb, skip bugs. North. Kill bomb in hall. Room 2 Kill bomb, skip bugs. Pull bomb from east or west (he switches randomly) room Then North and kill bomb in hall. Room 3 kill troll, skip bugs. North to Room 4 kill bomb and trolls, skip bugs. East then South to main room. Pull Moths from main room and kill. Remember Moths are true sound and link. You should have Weapons, SJ, JAs, Magic, MP, & HP. The moths are the only things dropping JAs and Magic, but if you are short on the rest kill the trolls in this last big room for them. From last room kill your way back toward room 2. If you have widescan, have that person watching for the Mad Bomber. He will appear in one of the deadends off room 2. If you do not have wide scan, have someone manually check for him (a mage is good for this while they wait to have magic unlocked and they can do this as soon as you kill bomb in room 2). He will appear on each run since the 4/8/9 update. DO NOT ENGAGE/AGGRO him until everyone ready. Once aggroed, you have 60-75 seconds to kill him before he self-destructs. Self-destruct can not be stunned or prevented. If you kill him without him self-destructing a dormant rampart will appear in the same room. Click it to warp to another room with a reactionary rampart. Rest to full then have someone aggro the rampart. It is better use a nondamaging spell/JA. Once aggroed the rampart will begin to call reenforcements. It will call 1 every 12 seconds and can have maximum of 5 out at any one time. Also it will lose 1% of its HP every 12 seconds (even if no reenforcements can appear). Reenforcements are chigoes most of the time, but rarely it will spawn a spider (Gate Widow). It can summon multiple spiders on any given run, but does not have to spawn any. It seems to spawn more spiders if area entered on Thunderday (more means 4 instead of 0). The faster you can kill the chigoes, the more chances you have of the spider spawning. Best to fight away from rampart so that party has time as chigoes approach and BLM(s) can us AoE. When Spider appears, Sleepga the chigoes and kill spider. Each spider has a small chance of dropping Marduk Legs and/or Morrigan Hands (Both Level 35). When rampart dies you are warped back to main area (even if fighting a spider at the time). You should be able to fight this rampart until it dies, but if you start to get overwhelmed by chigoes (or just want to move on) just kill the rampart. Once back in main area head to the central room and warp. F2: North. The central rooms are connected in a circle. There is a Flan in each room. They drop Magic & JA cells. You must kill all 4 while they have spikes on their heads to trigger the dormant rampart here. Any magic spell cast on them, any level 3 Skill chain used on them, and using formless strikes on them can all remove the spikes (random % each time), so it is best to strictly melee them. The North and South ones are weak to magic (if spell kills them they will not change) and the East and West ones are weak to physical. If done correctly, the rampart will appear in the room where you make the last kill. Click on it to warp to another reactionary rampart room. Rest then aggro this rampart as the one on F1. This one calls wasps and rarely a Pephredo(as before can be multiple or 0). Lucky day here is Earthday. Same startegy as F1. Pephredo has a low % chance of dropping Usukane Feet and/or Skadi Head (both Level 35). Once back in main area exit level in any corner of the map. If you want more HP go east and more MP go west. It would be better to exit to the north half of the map most runs. F3: Head directly to the center area. There will be a slot here. If you have the AR card, you can trade this to the slot to pop a NM soulflayer who will promptly wipe you party. If you are prepared for this fight it is still hard, but NM does drop Marduk Level 15 Body Piece 100%. Do not do this fight unless you have to. East & west of the central room are rooms full of gear mobs. Each room also has 1 gears mob. We choose to fight on either the east or west side, but some groups choose to fight in the middle room. We have found that links will usually deaggro about the middle room so safer to make the long pull. Pull one and bring it down to under 5% and then sleep it (no DoTs obviously). Then pull the other side gears mob and bring that one down as well (actual pull should be made during first fight with puller leaving as soon as first gears pulled and waiting for good pull and word first gears is getting low). When both are low let your BLM ~ga them to kill them together. If done correctly a dormant rampart will spawn randomly in either room the gears were in (last to die). If gears do not die exaclty at same time you are allowed a window to kill them and still pop rampart. We estimate window at 15-30 seconds, but have not experimented with it much (not on purpose anyway). Click rampart to warp to the reactionary rampart for this floor. Rest then aggro as above (same strat). This one calls Colibri (with their magic reflect thing) and may (same multiple or 0 chances) call a Ziz (Zebra Zachary). Ziz has a small chance of dropping Ares Hands and/or Skadi Head (Both Level 35). Currently I suspect Thunderday to be the lucky day for this NM. NOTE: NEVER USE NUKEGA. Also when NM pops, Sleepga is also bad. Targeting NM may help this, but Birds seem to reflect even if they are not the main target of a AoE. Using poisonga then sleepga may work, if you can nerf poisonga so it is resisted. Bringing poison pots would also not be bad. Bird do not reflect SMN magic so using shiva or diabolos would also be an option. When back in main area exit on either side. F4: This floor sucks. Head out of room one (only one exit, direction dependent on exit from last level). Everyone stay well back in hallway. Each of the small rooms has 2-3 Gear Mobs. If you kill all 10, first let me say congrats. They are cheap little weasels and the designers need to be shot. They aggro/link truesound and magic and JAs. During wind weather, their detection range is greatly increased. If they aggro or link they simply warp away. If they are pulled by magic (including NIN magic?, but not BRD songs) they warp. If they are pulled with any JA (such as provoke) they warp. Best to pull with normal ranged attacks. If you do not kill them within 60-70 seconds of initial pull, they warp. BLM is good for this as they can heavy nuke them (after pull obviously). However, they still have the gear TP move that heals for 1300+ and can spam it if they don't like you (it may be advisable to limit the number of melees you have on these gear mobs, especially if you have multiple BLMs). If you do kill all 10, a dormant rampart will appear in room where you kill the last one (see Boss Run for additional effect). Note that the large room does not have any Gear mobs, but does have several Gears and a Chariot. This room should be skipped. Click on rampart to warp to the reactionary rampart room for this floor. Rest then aggro it as the others (same strat). This one calls birds (the brown ones) and may (same multiple or 0) call a Giant Bird (Peryton). Giant Bird (and he's not a push over) can drop Skadi Body and/or Marduk Legs (both Level 35). Based on other floors I would suggest lucky day for this NM is either Earth or Dark/Light. Once back in main area, exit is in central room. This concludes door bashing. See boss run if you have time left.

Boss Run
You can include some door bashing in this run, but I would limit it to make sure you have time for the boss. The easiest one to include is the F4 Door, but see notes below for options. F1: Same as the door bashing above, except probably skip bomber if present. You can still try the rampart if you wish as long as you watch the clock and exit early (not recommened until you are sure of the timing). TIME TARGET 25 MINUTES F2: Kill enough of the Flans to get the JA and Magic cells you need. You can fight this rampart a little if you wish too, but again kill it before waiting the full 20 minutes (only try this if you are sure of your group's timing). Then head east for more weapons/HP cells if you need. These mobs will also drop stat cells. OR head west if yu need MP. These mobs will also drop gear cells. If you are going to be short of SJ/MP cells warp South. OR if you will be short JA warp north. TIME TARGET 40 MINUTES F3: Go directly to warp unless you need SJ/JA/MP/HP cells. If you need the cells kill everything you can while sending 1 person (NOT THF) to warp. You could do the card mob, if you need too, but I would not recommend this rampart on a boss run (and would discourage the card NM as well). You can exit either east or west and gain bonuses on the boss. See next floor for details. TIME TARGET 45 MINUTES F4: Fight this exactly like a Door run. If you pop the rampart by killing the 10 Gear mobs, you could use any "extra" time you feel you have to fight it, but I would do a chariot as described below. The more gears you kill, the weaker the main boss' Homing missle special will be so take your time on pulls and get it right. Our former 3x BLM set made short work of these gear mobs, but 1 BLM is fine as long as you rest MP between kills. Also RDM should focus on nukes here rather than healing (enfeebles are pointless because of the time limit). Killing the chariot in the main room of the level will further nerf the megaboss. On the east path killing the chariot will reduce the Megaboss' attack rating. Kill the the one on the west path will reduce it's defense rating. Which is more useful depends on the group. TIME TARGET 70 MINUTES (which leaves 20 mintues for rampart and 20 for next floor) F5: Boss is Long-Bowed Chariot. People say this is the hardest boss. I disagree although it is the hardest to reach properly. He hits really hard, but attacks slowly, so shadow tanks should be fine (especially if you can land slow & elegy). He has all the normal chariot moves (watch for para and bind). His special move is homing missle. At full strength, it does 90% damage AND resets hate. This will obviously wipe most parties. Each gear you succesfully kill on F4 reduces the amount of damage down to a minimum of 10%. 9 gears killed makes hate reset single target and all 10 eliminates it completely. He only uses hominig missle on targets in front of him, so tanks should stay to the sides if possible. If all gears and a chariot killed, he goes down fairly easily. If gears not killed, then yes he is probably the hardest boss. When defeated, he will drop 2 of the following at random (can be 2 of the same). Morrigan Body, Morrigan Head, Marduk Hands, Ares Body, Ares Head, Skadi Feet, Usukane Legs. All pieces are level 25. The normal strategy of only 2 melees, each with a dedicated healer works well here. Stun resistance builds quickly so only stunning Homing missile (on an unnerfed boss) or as needed to give time to apply shadows/heal (if homing missile is nerfed) is advised. We have should easily kill this boss if gears pulled cleanly, but wind weather can screw that up. Even unnerfed, we have chance though with our current set up.