For those who need a bit of a refresher, this mission involves a Level 50 capped BCNM fight in the Qu'Bia Arena, against one main boss- the Archlich Taber'quoan. Alongside him, are two Ancient Sorcerers, and a multitude of lesser Ancient Warriors to make things more interesting.
Grendal, one of the more well-known Red Mages in the FFXI community, had managed to solo this BCNM fight some time ago, and the video he made of his attempt was inspiration to Faeyth and I to try something similar. However, Grendal's accomplishment was done before the patch that removed all of one's buffs upon entering a capped BCNM fight. Because Grendal was already very pushed for time when he was able to bring his buffs from outside, in, it was soon said that 5-1 was now impossible for a Red Mage to solo, simply because of time constraints.
However, duo'ed on the other hand...^^
The plan was simple. Faeyth and I would buff up, then Sneak and go to a separate Ancient Sorcerer each. Then, at the same time, we'd Chainspell, and spam the bejeezus out of the sorcerers with Fire II. Once they were dead, I'd focus on meleeing the Archlich Taber'quoan while Faeyth assisted me by taking out all the Ancient Warriors that would spawn and join in to help their master.
At least, that was the plan.
We ended up buying and borrowing a bit of gear for the task. I purchased a Brigandine (NQ) and two Ametrine Rings for the dexterity bonus, and also managed to borrow an Empreror's Hairpin off Opticon for the fight. With some Hi-Potions at the ready, we soon ran off to Fei'Yin and the Qu'Bia Arena for the battle, dragging Nappycat along for the ride, who, also needed 5-1 done and wanted to watch.
All was well at the start, and after buffing and resting, the Chainspell-Fire IIs took out both Ancient Sorcerers with little trouble. Actually, Faeyth, being Mithra, didn't quite have enough starting mana to take out one Sorcerer without needing to Convert, but myself, being Taru, had enough mana left in me to Fire II a couple more times after my Sorcerer was dead, so that was settled quickly.
I then went on to take on the Archlich himself.
What can I say, this took a while. >_< Looking back, we definitely needed more practice at this fight, since there were multiple points during the fight that were rather clumsy. Faeyth couldn't target the Ancient Warriors in time to save myself the damage, while myself, being in a different state of mind, would occasionally forget certain things, like reapplying Enfire and Blaze Spikes. I even went through the first half of the fight forgetting Haste! >_<
In the end though, we lost. We ran out of time and were then kicked from the battlefield as a result. Good thing too, since by that point in time, I had just fallen to the Archlich, and Faeyth was already trying to make a break for things. Good timing too, I might add. ^^
We took another look at Grendal's fight to see what gear he had on though, since we felt we were hitting for very little damage. What resulted next was rather...embarrassing. >_< We had completely the wrong setup of gear for the fight. While I was with Dexterity and Evasion to increase my hit rate and survivability, Grendal was all +Attack and +Strength. Most important of all, our swords made a huge difference.
We were trying to poke the Archlich with two Buzzard Tucks, mostly due to the Enspell enhancement the sword has. However, Grendal was with a Knight Sword +1, which in combination with his other gear, ended up dealing twice as much damage as our swords. Seeing as how we had managed to get the Archlich down to just under half his life, the extra damage could have very well won the fight for us. Ah well.
The buffing and resting time was also a problem in the fight. I think what might be better would be to activate Chainspell, put only the essential buffs on, and then go on with the Fire II spam. Mana conservation is very important here, to the point where I'd go with Yagudo Drinks over Refresh, just because Refresh takes both mana, and more time to cast.
Hopefully with these lessons learnt, our next attempt (whenever that'll be) will be successful! ^^
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