Snoll Tzar 3 -- True Rune 0 {/fume}

I have to admit, the Snoll Tzar really is quite good at trying your patience. ^^

After nearly a month since our first attempt at the Snoll Tzar, we finally managed to get together to attempt the nefarious bomb once more, this time with lessons learnt.

To make things even better, Saoirse's BLM had since hit BLM60, so our party setup for the Snoll Tzar battle is now PLD SAM SMN WHM RDM BLM. One of each mage. I quite like that. /grin

As people slowly logged on, Akanea and I were standing around in the Tavnazian Archipelago trying to farm up some Cluster Cores which we needed to get some more Shu'Meya Salt. Last time, we used up two salts, and needed to replace them. Fortunately, Avar had recently beaten the Snoll Tzar with some spare Cluster Cores, so he donated them to us, but we still needed two more to make the last salt.

So we were standing around, waiting for Cluster Bombs to pop.

It was very boring.

See, Clusters only pop when the weather is "foggy". Now, I didn't know what that meant at the time, in fact, I thought "foggy" meant having dark weather, although I eventually found out that that wasn't the case. There's no real way of telling when it would become foggy, although I recall hearing that only mornings had a chance of being foggy, which kind of makes sense, what with dew and all.

Alternately, Clusters also spawn naturally in the level-capped zones of Riverne Site #A01 and #B01. However, they would be 6-8 levels higher than us, and wasn't really something we could duo. So Tavnazia it was. >_<

Some changes we made:
* Saoirse is now BLM instead of THF. Hooray for {Flare}. ^^
* Akanea now uses sushi instead of steak, and uses his strongest weaponskills instead of Tachi: Enpi.
* I, well, don't Chainspell from the get-go, and also tried out Thunder II in addition to Fire II.

Long story short, it was a bit of a heartbreaker. Everything was going according to plan. We opened with Tumble (WHM) using the first salt of the first, Chummy (SMN) letting loose with Inferno, and Saoirse casting Flare. I (RDM) would Dia and Poison the Snoll Tzar, then alternate between Fire II, Thunder II, and curing Seraphpdh (PLD). In the meantime, Akanea (SAM) Meikyo Shisui'ed and started spamming his more damaging weaponskills, although the name seems to escape me at the moment.

Things start to go wrong about 20 seconds into the fight. We signal Chummy to start getting his salt ready, and he runs up to the Snoll Tzar, who at this point, is fairly big in size. Unfortunately, I think Chummy accidentally approached from the front, and the Snoll Tzar readies Heimel Storm, hitting Chummy for over a thousand damage and one-shotting him.

Somewhere in there, Seraph Invincibled, and I started my Chainspell. I cleared out my mana, and Converted...only to have the Snoll Tzar do some AoE move that killed me after the Convert. The Snoll Tzar's attention was then focused on Saoirse, who then fell shortly thereafter. Essentially, our damage front was now gone, and eventually Hypothermal Combustion came and blew us out of the arena with the Snoll Tzar at a meagre 6% health. ; ;

Until now, I still question if I should've used the Pro Ether and Vile Elixir +1 I was carrying instead of Convert. The extra mana might've let me get off the extra nukes I needed to do that last 6%, and I was only just bordering the hate line. In fact, the Snoll was on me for a moment, then a nuke from Saoirse took it away from me, whereby I converted. Had I survived the Convert, I'd have cured myself up, reapplied my Stoneskin and Blink, then went to town nuking. I'd grab hate, sure, but I'd have boght both myself and Saoirse extra nuking time, whereby we might've been able to kill the Snoll Tzar.

One mistake was all it took. ; ; (Actually, there were probably more things we could've done better, but I can't think of them at this point in time.)

We had only used one salt that fight as well, since Chummy died before he could finish using his. With the Snoll Tzar at 6% health in just 60 seconds, we could definitely beat him if we did things correctly. None of us fancied waiting another month for us to gather together again, so we decided to wait out our 2-hour abilities and try again.

In the meantime, Akanea and I headed back to the Tavnazian Archipelago to get us some more Cluster Cores. Unfortunately for us, fog never came, and by the time our 2-hours had reset, we settled for making do with just two salts.

Lessons learnt from that attempt:
* Positioning is important in the battle. Approach the Snoll Tzar from behind when using salt. An easier way to do this is to have everybody run in and engage, but have the tank rotate so he's facing the mages (and consequently, the Snoll is thus facing the tank only.)

* Thunder II was doing surprisingly better than Fire II, despite the fact that the Snoll Tzar is supposed to be weak to Fire. While the data was skewed, I had no resists on Thunder nukes, while I had 2 or 3 resisted Fires. Thunder was also doing 50-60 extra damage per nuke.

* Invincible is actually pretty good when it's the Paladin's turn to use his salt. ^^

Our third attempt was a complete reversal of the first. We were careful, and overall, did an excellent job at staying alive. Actually, too good a job staying alive. We spent too much time "not dying" and not enough time "killing the Snoll Tzar", it Hypothermal Combusted with a considerable amount of HP remaining, and that was with us using two salts! We did a whole lot better the last time with just one salt!

But I think our technique had been greatly improved. Now all we need to do is smooth out some of the crinks, and we should be ready to take on the Snoll Tzar again the next time. I myself, was too conservative that fight, and focused on not killing myself with the Convert, so much so that I Stoneskin'ed before going into the Chainspell sequence (should've Chainspell-Stoneskin'ed before continuing), but in the end, I wouldn't have had the time anyway to do any real harm. Essentially, I started my Chainspell too late (as opposed to too early. -_-)

Also, Thunder II wasn't quite the wrecking ball I had hoped it would be, maybe because the Snoll's stronger when it's not Firesday, but that was just speculation. I still think that overall, Thunder II might just be better, but of course, if you're willing to take the risk on resists. Maybe I should get around to meriting Elemental Magic to help out here. ^^ That last attempt felt like it went by really quickly though, so I suspect our salt timing might also need to be re-examined.

Our next attempt might see some overhaul if Tumble gets his BLM up to 60 (it's around BLM56 at the moment, I think). I could then come as Black Mage as well, and our setup would be PLD SAM SMN BLM BLM BLM. Open with Salt, Invincible, Inferno, 3x Flare? Close with Inferno, 3x Burst? Perhaps. ^^