Solo Up in arms?Follow

Hey guys, I was poking around Wiki looking for any BCNMs that I could possibly do (have 1300+ atm). Ideally Id like to solo as i dont have the time to setup the slowga groups ive run with before to blow through these.

Was looking at up in arms and saw a vid of Soboro Sam/Dnc soloing it. I hadnt heard of this before and was wondering if any of you guys had any experience with this or tips on gear/strats or anything. I dont know if this is remotely reliable or if he just got lucky. Theres not much point if you die 3/4 times doing it. And certainly not any point in me going from 37-60 for something that doesnt work very well.

Anyone have any info?

(actually at work now so cant check out the video yet)

Hmm that is interesting. I had forgotten about the multi attack at high HP and fewer/harder attacks at lower. It seems the 2hour pentas are practically required to get it to a managable attack speed and is by far the most dangerous part.

Beyond the early crazyness, it really doesnt look that bad. But the 1st section is really iffy looking. Tempting to try though.

Do you have any idea what kind of food he might have used? It was already on when vid started. Considering how hard he was being hit i would think it was atk food, but i havent actually done this NM to see if those are normal numbers or not.

If it was atk food, I am curious how a Drg/Blu Cocoon+Def food might do. It is lv 60 so AF helm/legs. The two obvious potential problems (the same ones that always exist for drg/mage solo) Maelstrom killing wyvern (dont know how potent it is in there if link can keep up) and obviously if Cocoon+Def food are enough to keep damage to managable levels to avoid getting 1shotted and maintain hate.

It seems that if a Sam using pots and /dnc waltzes can manage (with atk food?), drg/blu+food should be able to easily reduce damage significantly and maintain similar/better levels of healing. (And maybe not even need def food)If that works, Penta still pwns and wont have to hold back on TP at all and can start with opo sleeps. MP would be easy enough to deal with through drink and maybe an ether or 2.

Unfortunately I havent yet done this fight at all so this is all nothing but armchair conjecture. Any insights on this fight would be helpful. Ill probably drag this over to the drg forums. I would like to see how much lv 60 healing breath is with AF legs (and what my own HP looks like for safe trigger levels.) But im encouraged that a Taru sam can pull it off. A mithra (me) with HP merits and probably some HP gear (BQ ring and some other items are under lv 60) might have a tolerable HP trigger and WAY more def.


Edited, Jan 20th 2010 7:51pm by Banalaty

Edit: Lol i forgot I have access to my friends (gimpy, yet galka) 75 Mnk. Mnk+Drg/Blu would probably actually work pretty well. Though I am thinking Mnk/War and defender it up and maybe with some Def food. So long as the wyvern doesnt eat it It seems like a possible strat. Just get everyone to pump their Def through the roof, enjoy some high HP for triggers and spam healing breath while whittling it down. I also then have the option of 100 fists at the start to bring it out of that multi attack phase.

Ill probably try that out a couple times and get a feel for the damage etc and maybe tweak it into a solo.

If a Pld+Mage+DD can do it reliably, I imagine a Defender Mnk+Healing breath would have similar effects, and possible drg/blu solo. Im excited to try it.

Now i just have to redo the whole damn AF quest for drg since I +1ed the gloves/helm/boots/legs so I can try this -_-


Edited, Jan 20th 2010 8:00pm by Banalaty

All you really need to take the worry out of this fight is a rdm partner who can stick gravity on it all the time. I've duo'd and trio'd this with my girlfriend's rdm many times.

To make it easier, if you have rng or can sam/rng with good r. acc gear it's pretty helpful in staying out of harm's way. Kite whenever third eye is down. Soboro helps a lot because you can run in and hit up to 3 times for good tp, then resume kiting if he took down your third eye. Sidewinder away when you're not blinded and have appropriate distance between you and Fe'e built up.

Alternately, it's not too much of a hassle for me to get another friend to come as a random DD, usually a drg or drk. With another DD around you don't have to worry about time and you can get aggressive when it's chasing the other person; likewise they can play aggressive when it's chasing you. I know you said you're more interested in solo, and I have some ideas on that still. But this is a 3 man BCNM, it's not nearly as aggravating to deal with 2 other people being slow as it is with 4 others.

After watching the video I just feel that looks unnecessarily stressful. Lots of eye drops and hi pots are necessary just to get through his phases. Even then you could get unlucky and just get owned. If I were going to tackle soloing that myself, I would probably experiment more with hit and run kiting via desperate flourish. When Swao~~~ kited she just seemed to run away, heal, and resume fighting face to face. I think your odds are better if you hit and run because you can use more tp for WS and less direct healing. Either way a Bibiki Seashell equipped is a must. In your shoes Banalaty, if you find your odds with drg aren't looking too hot (and I can't imagine they were with the AoE and your wyvern), I would level rdm or blm to solo it repeatedly instead of sam. Having a reliable gravity alone takes most of the fright out of this fight.

It's so easy to take a job 37=>60 (or 75) that you could just take rdm or blm up and safely solo it. Then if you can get access to another mage it is even easier to DB.

If you're looking at a job to level for convenience, blm 55+ is nice for retrace so you could doubly benefit!

I usually go rdm/blm/leach, though rdm can solo it pretty easily with some meds. While not the strategy you're looking for it is more reliable with mages and kiting.

While we are talking about synced solo's.... Has anyone effectively won Pulling the Plug solo? I have tried about 5 times, and only beaten it once. And I feel as if that was complete luck...

A perfect example why race don't matter.

Blm/rdm. The 15 min time limit is pretty rough when soloing, and blm is better suited to doing more damage in this fight - rdm nukes at 60 suck! Also, manafont is <3. You'll want some yag drinks and maybe a pro-ether - I use 3-4 yag drinks per solo (normally 3, 4 if it's being nasty), and always take a pro-ether for emergencies. I'm hardly a pro blm - it's only at 66, and I was crappy at it when soloing exp - but I've only lost this fight once out of around 20 attempts solo as blm, when I DC'd at the start (so not even really a loss).