Thiefcat's Guide to Lvl 20 Avatar Fights.Follow

Although no one can prove exactly what Fame level is required to aquire the Level 20 Mini Tuning Fork Avatar Battles, please note I was able to aquire them with the LOWEST possible version of Fame 2.

Maybe you can too. =P

Edited, Thu Aug 19 08:00:50 2004 by Thiefcat

Good Story Master Artwokay.

I know exaclty what your talking about. The first time I fought Ramuh I used 5 Hi-Potions and 4 Ethers for nothing. Once I missed the First Searing Light (remember carby was paralyzed) I should have conceded the loss and welcomed my death with open arms. But stupid me though if I spammed Hi-Potions and Ethers that I could win. What a waste of money that was. I guess I made it up the second time I fought Ramuh when I only used 1 Hi-Potion and 2 Ethers.

And with the hermit's wand...LMAO I did the same thing with Garuda I think. Thats why in my guide I said its useless and that your better off casting Banish for a good 25-35 dmg if you still have MP.

So yes we all do the same thing during these fights.

A) If your going to lose DO NOT waste money on items.
B) Forget melee, I don't care what anyone says. My staff and club skills were maxed at lvl 20 and they did nothing against the avatars.

Edited, Thu Aug 19 09:44:09 2004 by Thiefcat

Well I have gotten a few responses in game about my guide being helpfull and just wanted you guys to know, I am glad if I helped anyone.

My intention for this guide was to help people obtain their lvl 20 avatars and even though we have gotten in a few disagreements here in the thread, I think the overall responce has been possative.

If anyone needs further help here or in game, just let me know. I will be glad to offer any knowledge I can.

LOL to that ^

Like I said I tried it once and it was a waste. I wasted time engaging and waiting to swing hoping I would connect. If I had just used banish I would have one that one. But like you siad, you were out of MP at that point without an ether your only alternative is A)WHip out that staff or club and cross your fingers or B)Concede Defeat...lol

Oh well, to each is own I guess

Edited, Fri Aug 20 12:55:39 2004 by Thiefcat

WoT RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great guide rate up.

Just beat Ramuh like 2 minutes ago, now all I have left is Garuda for the lvl 20 battles.

I have this to say, Theifcat your Ramuh guide frigging ownz. I had tried this guy 2 times before, so this time I searched around the net for a better guide than the one I had been using. I found yours, and man, did it ever work. Not only did I beat Ramuh with less dificulty than any of the other avatars I had fought (except maybe Leviathian, I set the new record on the Bismarck server (3 minutes 31 seconds, not that great I know, but still set the record).

Like some others, I was extremely lucky in that I timed Carbuncle just right so that only I was paralyzed. Then paralyna worked on the first try.

Though due to my luck, I didnt have to follow your strategy to the T. However, I never would of had that luck had I not read your guide.

Very very good work, and heres a rate up!

..Now its off to Rabao for me, hopefully I can end these lvl 20 battles today =(


Edited, Sun Aug 22 15:18:16 2004 by TidgonX

Once again.. you should post this on my webiste! :)

Just got my first battled avatar last night (Shiva). Thanks for the guide. Although, I had to fight her 3 times, due to my errors. I forgot to drink Yagudo Drink the first battle, and second battle, my second Searling Light did not go off. Both times, I was unable to keep the hates off of me. In addition to that, I blew up so much gil on the preps. Like someone said earlier, if you know you're going to lose, don't use up all of the materials.

Anyway, the third battle, I did not have to use hi-potion at all. I used boiled crab and pear au lait, and buffed up before i traded the fork. When I was inside, the only things I used up were 2 ethers and 1 yagudo drink. As long as you can stay as far away as possible after the searling lights went off (have ur carby distract avatar at all times), your hp regen should be long enough to keep your health bar near full.

This is my first post ever on Allakhazam! I just wanted to tell Thiefcat that his guide was very helpful.

Specifically three points:

1) Don't panic.
2) Use Banish.
3) Use Ethers, not Hi-Ethers

I'd lost six times in a row against various avatars and was just about to give up summoner because of this. Then I read this guide, thought about it what I'd done, and then decided to use Ethers instead of Hi-Ethers, move as far as possible from the Avatar when Carbuncle's fighting it (from crack to crystal and back again), and RELAX.

Then I beat Titan. Lost to Shiva, then beat Ifrit and Ramuh.

Titan went like clockwork, exactly how the guide worked. I lost versus Shiva because I didn't notice when the Yagudo drink ran out and lost Carbuncle after the third Searing Light. Without mp, I tried to melee, but that didn't work. Only a sliver of health, and I lost.

But then I beat Ifrit and Ramuh. I had to kill Ramuh with Banish. I could get a third Searing Light off due to him killing Carbuncle off with Thunder II, but managed to evade him long enough to get Carby out again to whittle his hp down. Once his HP was down far enough, I casted Banish and killed him.

By far the best advice was 'Don't panic.' Remembering this allowed me to kill Ramuh even though it looked like I'd lose.

Thanks for your guide.

Visahz

Woo hoo! just got shiva ^^

Just wanted to say thanx to Thiefcat for the guide. Thanx also to all those other guides out there, summoner.info, etc. After a lot of reading and many practice runs, Shiva is mine!

I must say, for all those summoners who have yet to do their first avatar battle, I suggest going in a couple times and just seeing what it's like. Don't use any items, don't plan on winning, just go in and perhaps melee with carbuncle for awhile and shoot off a searing light before you're out of mp. Doing so helped a lot (for me at least) when the time came for the final battle. You'll have a better feel for how things are laid out, how long you can last if the avatar aggros you, how long carbuncle will be alive, etc.

I ended up using 2 ethers, 1 hi-potion, and 1 yagudo drink.
Equipment:
Hermit's wand
Fortune Egg
Compound eye circlet
justice badge
onyx earringx2
priest's robe
scentless armlets
san d'orian ring
amber ring
cotton cape
friar's rope
black slacks
light soleas
(82 def before buffs, 20+2 vit)
Had boiled crab, but forgot to use it ^^;; However, I am elvaan, so perhaps the extra def wasn't as vital. Took 4 minutes, 11 seconds on firesday.

Alas I am poor now, so it may be awhile before I attempt other avatars... should also probably get back to lvling my pld ^^

anyhow good luck to all and thanx for reading this, needed to spread my joy ^^

I have a story to tell and gonna keep it as short as possible (right) so you understand the drama behind SMN...
First off Thiefcats guide helped me alot in my avatar battles so far..GJ
And you are very pleasent to talk to and party with in Kazham!

#1 Titan - ran out of ethers and mp at the end not even enough to cast banish so i pulled out my Yew wand+1 and beat him caveman style. He Died with a one hit wonder. so does that make me one of the best Meleeing SMN's? lol
#2 Shiva - well no contest, i destroyed her
#3 Garuda - After losing to her the night before i was very discouraged about fighting her but, i wanted her that bad. thx to the rdm that pro & shelled a little Taru fellow SMN, we both defeated her that night.. and met at the Protocrystal for a Celebration casting of Garuda...
#4 Ifrit - well he's a SOB now isn't he? after 3 loses on his weak day i went after him on lightsday today, and Carby knocked him down with the 3rd Searing Light.
Now the good part:
I fought Ramuh 2 times and died and thought "what a cheater...."
after the second fight i was pretty down on the game, having lost to him twice and Ifrit 3 times already. so I sat in Lower Jeuno on the stairs to the mog house and thought about cancelling this game and going back to beating teams on NCAA Football 2005 83 to 0...But then my LS buddies, maybe not intentionally, decided to help me with the rank mission i needed, and it was just the kinda thing that makes you understand why people play this game. It was enough inspiration to atleast get me out of Jeuno and into a new Atmosphere.
we ended up goofing around in Windy and never got around to doing the mission but thats ok, i needed the laughs.
Today i logged in and warped straight to Jeuno and beat the crap out of Ifrit.. then finished the mission i needed, then stayed in windy.
I thought in my head, I am going to beat this SOB Ramuh tonight and kept saying it over and over..
Lightningsday hit and i temped back into game and headed to Mhuara. Got there at break of day where another High lvl RDM hooked me up, i'll call him the "Paines-man", Thx again
Off i go to fight the Cheater...
*eat my Boiled Carb
*run to crack and cast carby
*Now i'm poisoned so i tell Carby to assault and give me time to move to crystal
*cast Paralanya. it worked thank god
*Carby dies,
*recast carby
*Ether up
*Astral Flow-1st Searing Light and run like hell to the top
half way there Carby eats dirt because my mp ran out- scary
*recast carb, after 2 tries he gets out and it's on again
*ether again to get enough for second searing light
and Hi potion
*well i look up and I'm bound which is a good thing because i had 15 seconds left for bloodpact
*it wears and mp is up and whoohoo 2nd Searing Light
*down a HiEther and a HiPotion because i knew it would come in handy and ran like hell but which way? i was in the middle..so to the top i go...
*Carby dies and i only had my Yagudo drink which i forgot to use (probably because of nerves) and a few HiPotions left
well... i knew i had no chance of getting Carby out again
*Ran like hell all over the place when my MP hit 15 i cast Banish and run again
*going back down in the middle my mp hits 15 again..Banish
*got to bottm and hp was low - HiPotion
*cast banish and Ramuh interupts, i'm crapping myself at this point
*recast Banish and it's good...
he's now down to very little life and i'm out of every thing but my yagudo drink that is Building up MP for what seemed to be an eternity

*he hits me
15mp
*cast Banish and C-YA you SOB!!!!
Cutscene plays and after not even paying attention, i look down at status - 42 HP's and 0 MP left
To say that Ramuh is different well he is very different, Judgement Bolt makes sure that you better be very far away or hope for a miracle like mine to get Carby back out...
Sorry I'm not the best story teller but i think you can grasp what i mean by the Drama of being a SMN
now for Leviathan and Fenrir, yay!!!!
Edited, Thu Sep 2 02:57:22 2004 by AlwaysBlamed

[i][sm]Edited, Thu Sep 2 03:01:28 2004 by AlwaysBlamed

Edited, Thu Sep 2 03:04:50 2004 by AlwaysBlamed

Edited, Thu Sep 2 16:20:25 2004 by AlwaysBlamed

Great guide Thiefcat,

Your guide has helped me to beat the avatars with ease. I have not read all the comments but there's one thing you did not include in your guide, which I think is very critical. It is also the one and only factor that caused me to lose some of the battles. That factor is, the avatar 2-hour.

The avatars likely seem to use their 2-hour right after the 2nd searing light, which can kill carbuncle instantly and prevents you from having enough time to run to distance to recast carbuncle. This does not always happen and yes, it does depend on luck as you mentioned. But it's nice to note to people so that they can expect it and not panic.

If it happens, depending on how much HP you have after you got hit by the 2hr, you should either drink potion or recast carbuncle and pray that it does not get interrupted (+evasion and aquaiveil come very useful here). Once carbuncle is out then you can proceed to normal cycle.

Note that my summonning skill is only 36 (far far from cap), so that is probably the reason why my carbuncle often gets killed instantly after the 2-hr. I just want to confirm that it can be done with such low summonning skill as long as you know what to expect.

Bumping my guide again,

Because I keep reading posts about how to fight the avatars and the poster says something like I read all the guides but was wondering which food to bring.

WTF..lol

Every guide listed here tells you what to bring. Either you can't read well or YOU REALLY DIDN'T READ ALL THE GUIDES.

Sorry, bad day today.

There is one thing I noticed during the recent update on sep 13. It stated that when entering a lvl cap battle now, all buffs such as protect and shell will be removed and must be cast at the capped lvl. So does this mean that I cant get a protect 3 anymore before going into an avatar fight? I am planning on fighting Titan soon.

hey theifcat. you're guide really worked out for me, so thanks for writing it. :)

a few notes:

yes , i did cast protect and aquaveil on me before entering the protocrystal. no, they did not wear off.

and, beating a dead horse, i only needed level 2 fame in sandy to fight shiva.

cheers,

I can vouch for level-capped BCNM battles, that buffs other than food that are above the capped level are removed upon entering the burning circle. Can't use Protectra IV on BCNM40 no more :(

I haven't been able to confirm this for the lvl20 avatar battles because when I thought to test this out on lvl20 Shiva (to get my Ice Fragment for ZM5 ^^;) I forgot that I still had the Whisper of Frost in my key items from the full-level fight at the time which I suppose prevented me from being teleported to the cloister.

I also cannot attest to the exact fame value required as I'd already had max fame in all cities by the time this patch had come out, but from what I hear it is extremely minimal. (which is GOOD for Leviathan >_< omgwtfbbq)

One thing I would like to point out is that the Prime avatars are on the same 1 minute Blood Pact delay timer as your Carbuncle is, and that if its delay is up and Carbuncle is gone, it is VERY likely to pound you or your next Carbuncle with a Blood Pact immediately - and if that next Blood Pact happens to a 2hr, that is very, very bad.

When I got my avatars via the lvl20 method, I pretty much had to treat each Prime BP past the opening Pact as a potential 2hr, and usually in each battle, the Primes got off 3 or 4. The key, I found, was that if the Prime's BP was up or within 10s or so, to - instead of immediately using Searing as soon as Carbuncle's BP timer is up - wait and see what the Prime uses. If it is something that doesn't kill Carbuncle, then go ahead and use Searing again, or if it does, you can easily resummon and immediately use Searing.

Because you pretty much have about 55s leeway to mess around with the Astral Flow duration, I found this to be a lot safer, being a taru. (although I found I could usually survive a 2hr if I mistimed and was too close, though Carbuncle couldn't, so I usually couldn't ^x;)

Also, out of the 10 times I fought the avatars (went 1/1 on three of them, 1/5 on Ifrit, 1/2 on Titan/Leviathan) the 3 Searing Lights method only went off perfectly (i.e. the full 210 damage every time) on 3 of the wins (the losses were mostly due to 2hrs =.=; I practised on Ifrit since he didn't have any status effect attacks). The rest, one of the SLs got resisted partially, so they were pitched battles in the end(i.e. me smacking away with my Mercenary's Pole and Carbuncle trying to melee on low mp) I fought them all on their weak days as I had gotten mauled several times on Lightsday.

With Garuda and her Aerial Armor, you might want to allow Carbuncle to melee a bit until her next bloodpact before starting the 3SL method... Carbuncle hit her 3 times unresisted with Searing Light and she still had a respectable amount of hp left, no doubt because of her using Aerial Armor the times she didn't 2hr.

As for food, I agree that fishkabobs or boiled crab is the best choice ^^ I used melon juice instead of yagudo drinks because yag drinks had this tendency to wear off right after my 3rd Searing Light, which was kinda bad if Carbuncle needed to still be out to melee. Melon Juice has a slightly shorter duration so you can redrink it between SLs... and it's more cost-effective than yag drinks anyway (90mp for melon 600gil, 120mp for yag 1500gil, same refresh rate, 2mp/3s). I also brought a stack of mulsums with me, as well as a bunch of hipots. Mulsums only give back 10mp, but they have the advantage of being very fast and having no spell "downtime" like ethers, and 10mp is usually all you need to pump out the next Searing Light with juice flowing.

Edited, Thu Sep 16 07:19:39 2004 by JeyKama

Edited, Thu Sep 16 07:20:19 2004 by JeyKama

Thiefcat....Thank you for such a wonderful guide!!!! I have been trying to Lvl Summoner to replace my Blm sub for my Whm (I want the auto regen). I finally hit lvl 20 and decided it was time to attempt the avatar battles.

My frist opponent was Ifrit. I followed your guide to the letter and am happy to say that I spanked Ifrit and broke the record. I fought him on Lightsday and it was a piece of cake. Later that night after working on LB1 with my LS I noticed it was Lightsday again and attempted Shiva.

Followed you guide to the letter again. I was a little apprehensive becuase a Lvl 60 Smn told me to put off Shiva and Ramuh as long as possible (obvious reason for Ramuh is in your guide). I would just like people to know that Shiva is a pain in the butt to beat. I barely had time to make it own to the crystal, pop an ether and summon carby before she was there. That chick moves fast and hits carby hard!!! Got the second searing light off and started running. Got to the bend and uh oh carby is dead. >< Poped my ether and Shiva whacks me upside the head. Tried to cast carby, it got interupted (with aquaviel on), had to use a hi-potion cause i was almost dead, casted carby again and out he came. Thank God!! Shiva proceeded to smack me around into the red, somehow got the last Searing Light off and kicked her butt managing to beat the record yet again (how that happened i have no idea).

Be aware everyone that Shiva is probably the second hardest after Ramuh. I am happy that i got lucky and beat my first two avatars on the first attempts...and I owe it all to Thiefcat...Thank you so much!!!! =)

Edit: Got Garuda...fought on Lightsday again...it was a cake walk though my 3 searing lights didn't kill her and i had to use banish once.

Edit: I can now summon big ugly thong man...yay titan =)

Edited, Sat Sep 18 12:18:11 2004 by cutePuddin

Edited, Wed Sep 22 03:01:49 2004 by cutePuddin

ArTwoKay, you are lucky, I made a cheap guide for poor people like me, because on my server....

Hi-potion x1 = 2.5k
Ether x2 = 4-6k
Boiled crayfish x1 400 (a break ^^)

Anyway, things are exensive on my server, or maybe, I dunno, just thought I'd state a fact

It is a great guide, Thiefcat!

So, it really should be stickied.

Your guide and Azzam's video battles (I downloaded them) made me want to try Summoner.

I agree with you, Azzam's videos made it look so easy to do. :)

Nice guide... specially about Ramuh... for me also it was a piece of cake to do Ifrit and Shiva... Ramuh 2 times ... now I stopped there I tried Titan 3 times and screwed up like once for nothing... anyway he does something similar to Ramuh and I get paralyze then I panic... So I decided to do like Ramuh but it aint working because he did it the second time... damn. One thing I did wrong was to assault and I've noticed in a Titan fight video that he will do his special ability as soon you get close to him BUT if you are out of range it's like canceled :)... And I make sure now I have more then 2 Hi-Ether although they cost almost 3k each now...

I was tired of reading the threads about the Fame thing I just scrolled down the bottom... I won't even go into that...

[link=http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/profile.xml?3499 ] 
Dartagnant[/link] 
Hume on Ramuh World Kingdom of Sand'Oria 
Paladin 53                                  
Cooking 60, Alchemy 18 

Hey Thiefcat,

I forgot to tell you I would like to put a linkshell together of Summoner only on Ramuh... Just I am too poor... But at least to put you on my Friendlist although I don't know if I will move or not...

Yeah I guess I will try Ether instead I find it too takes a while to drink... but it's not like I knew I figure for the price difference I took the Hi-ether instead... good point... tks! My Summoner now is at 24 ... I've been working on cooking also at the same time now at 37 ... because I need food badly now and will "try" to make some money out of Meatkabob at the same time...

[link=http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/profile.xml?3499 ] 
Dartagnant[/link] 
Hume on Ramuh World Kingdom of Sand'Oria 
Paladin 53                                  
Cooking 60, Alchemy 18 

I'm sorry, Thiefcat, I downloaded them a very long time ago (June 2004 if the timestamps are right) and I have no way of putting them up. :/

I dont use hi-potions
i dont need them, and i beat 3 of the avatars...just bring 2 ethers and a yagudo drink

Thiefcat:


I seem to recall an old post about somebody using Astral Flow then IMMEDIATELY logging off.

Two hours later, (s)he logs back in and the previous Astral Flow was still in effect AND (s)he can use it again.

Has this been patched? Or, can I rely on this? So, when I want to do the Avatar battles, I'll Astral Flow two hours(Vana'diel Days) before Lightsday and log off. After 2 hours, log back in, quickly get into the battle arena and hopefully get to do 1 Searing Light before the Astral Flow(activated two hours ago) wears off.