Xolotl Xtrapolator

Today, the BLM KS99 group (with some help from some melee) was supposed to try taking on the KS99 fight, "Early Bird catches the Wyrm", which basically pits an alliance against an appropriately named "Wyrm". The Wyrm is like Fafnir/Nidhogg, and has all the relevant tricks, including an alliance-wide Draw In, Flame Breath, and the ability to fly. Attempting the KS99 fight is an effort to widen the KS99 horizons, due to concerns of overwhelming the market of the Aspi KS99 drops. Vagus was nice enough to let us try out his Themis Orb for the fight.

Unfortunately, when the time came to set off to the BC, half the BLMs were fighting Tiamat, and the other half of the BLMs were busy in Dynamis-Jeuno. I wasn't terribly happy. -_-

So there Vagus and I were, standing around the Balga's Dias Burning Circle. An hour passed before we decided it would be better to go back to Windurst and just _do_ something. Like level Cooking. >_<

I didn't particularly feel like leveling Cooking at the time, and thankfully, Redherr sent me a /tell asking for a favour. For those who remember, Redherr's one of my friends from quite a while back. With the rest of his social LS, Ghostbusters, they helped me clear the various avatar battles a few months ago. Since then, Redherr and I have more or less gone our separate ways, so it's nice to hear from him. ^^

Anyway, from the /tell, Xolotl had popped, and Redherr needed help killing him! I turned to Vagus and asked if he wanted to pop along for the ride, and five minutes later, Vagus had suited up his THF and we were off to the Attohwa Chasm to fight the HNM...it would be my first ground HNM in...a _very_ long time! >_<

On the way, we jumped into BBQ who were busy taking out Tiamat. I probably would've joined them, but I didn't know they were after her, so all I ended up doing was /cheering them on and sent a few nukes flying towards the Air Elementals that the adds party CFH'ed on. I left them shortly to get on with the Xolotl fight.

Xolotl is a Corse-type NM, undead, that only spawns at nighttime. If day comes by and he is not claimed, he will despawn to reappear the following nighttime, at around 2000 game time. We weren't sure if he was terribly magic-resistant, so we decided not to chance it and I nuked Fire-like spells only. He has a few moves people need to watch out for, including Silencega and some melee thing where he sends his staff-like thing flying around for quite a lot of damage. He also casts the various BLM spells, including Ancient Magic and -ga III spells.

When engaging Xolotl, he has a few summons for people to take care of, namely two Skeletons named Xolotl's Sacrifice, and Xolotl's Hound Warrior. I'm not sure if Xolotl will resummon them if they're killed, so we ended up kiting them instead. Since we fought Xolotl in the area leading up to Boneyard Gully, there are no aggro-mob, so kiting's quite easy. Heck, I think one of the THFs managed to kite Xolotl's Sacrifice all the way to the other end of the Attohwa Chasm!

Finally, Xolotl also has Dance Macabre, which is basically Charmga! Dance Macabre only affects those standing in front of Xolotl though, so be sure people are positioned accordingly to minimise the effect. I still get a chuckle whenever I have to Sleep II our Ninja, or White Mage though. ^^



The battle wasn't too long, and we fought him with just ten people. I was personally a little low on mana from miscellaneous nukes, Paralynas, and Silenas, but we rotated a BRD between the two parties so that relieved things a little. He was actually rather easy to beat, I feel, and also quite a fun fight. Too bad he didn't drop anything we wanted- only a Zoolander's Hat which would've been amazing for any BST, except that it's RA/EX and we didn't have a BST in our alliance. >_<

Oh, and as for the KS99? Well, soon after we beat Xolotl, I warped everyone back to Jeuno. Tiamat was eventually downed, and Dynamis finished, but by then, some of the Samurais who were part of the run were feeling sleepy, so we had to put it off to another day. >_<