Thiefcat's Guide to Lvl 20 Avatar Fights.Follow

ok,im having trouble,i have tried everything possible to beat shiva,my first avatar,and she has whooped my ass every single time, no matter what guide i look at.She just whoops my ass,and none of these guides seem to be accurate.i have tried the 2 3 and even 4 searing light tricks and yet,shiva has beaten me,since today, 14 times. there has got to be something else.I have doen exactly wat these guides tell me, most are the same,but some are different. i have been at shiva for a month and she just wont die,please,could someone give me some extra pointers. this may have absolutel nothing to do with it,but i am on the shiva server. Is she kicking my ass so bad cuz this is her home,idk,losing once or twice or three times isnt so bad,but losing like 15 times is starting to hurt my pride and my pocket.PLZ someone help me

My first day attempting the level 20 Avatar fights. So far I'm 0/1 Titan, 1/1 Shiva, 0/1 Ramuh, 1/1 Ifrit.

My loss during the Titan battle was because of a stupid mistake on my part. I mispelled SL in my macro as "Seering Light". It threw me off and by the time I got to using it Carby was dead. I recasted, quickly fixed my macro, used it, but was only able to get two SL in before AF wore. I tried in vain to use Banish, but Titan showed me who was boss.

Shiva was a piece of cake. As my second battle, I learned from my earlier mistake and followed Thiefcat's directions to the letter. I won without taking a single HP of damage.

Feeling confident about my success, I decided to give Ramuh a go. Before going, I quickly read the additional information on fighting Ramuh. When the battle started I was hit with Thunderspark as described. I removed my paralysis and started to run back to the crystal, but Ramuh got lucky and landed two criticals on Carby which finished him off. I then went to recast Carby and discovered the glitch I'd read about elsewhere: Carby wouldn't cast eventhough sufficient time had elapsed (thank you Square-Enix) -- kept giving me the message about not yet being ready. By the time I finally it to cast (7-8 attempts later) Ramuh was on me. Another 5-6 attempts my health was in the red and finally Carby came out to help. At this point I was rather flustered and forgot my Yag drink. I got two SLs off and then ran out of MP. Dumb mistake and it resulted in Ramuh quickly finishing the job.

Finally, I decided to give Ifrit a try. Eventhough I beat Ifrit, it easily could have been the other way around. I fought him on Lightningsday and for some reason all three of my SLs only hit for 110 dmg. I tried to get in a fourth SL but no such luck. I kept Carby out and drank my last two Ethers (brought 4). I then cast Banish which made him pretty angry. He landed a critical hit against me which dropped my health into the red. I then cast Banish again, with just barely enough MP to cover the cost of the spell, and fortunately it finished him off. Lucky. I have no idea why the SLs were only hitting for 110.

Tomorrow I'll try Titan and Ramuh again, as well as the others. Hopefully I'll have better luck now that I've got the methodology worked out.

I have the problem after using SL I run away and when carby disappears I resummon him but I always get interrupted! plz help what should I do?

;-; Titan = 0/7 Somebody help me out, send me a Azzam video for beating Titan through e-mail or something (CartoonColin@aol.com) ;-;

I've been trying the avatars for awhile (and losing badly). However, I finally beat Titan after reading Thiefcat's guide!

Looking forward to beating the rest of them using that method. Thank you, Thiefcat.

Whaaa Hooieee!
Got Shiva on my first try /dance /joy /hurray
Though it could have gone either way >.>;
I forgot to buff myself with anything aside from protect and shell, and I forgot to eat my crab (first fight jitters, just wanted the dang thing over with lol)but I still made it through with 3/4 hp and mp to spare!
Only major problem I kept running into was Carby not attacking Shiva after I summoned him.
First time was when I was running down the ramp towards the crystal, I turned around to see how my lil buddy was doin, and got greeted with a slap to the face from Shiva. *twitches* After fumbling for my attack macro (hp now in the red) Carby finally got her hate off me and I ran for dear life. Reached the crack popped a Hi-Potion and re-summoned carby. I waited for shiva to get near enough, saw carby run up to her, and headed back down. Again, I turned to see how he was doin and got slapped again... o_O'
Dunno why Carby wasnt doin his job... or why Shiva took such a dislike to me (no, I hadnt used any hi-potions or ethers the first time... hadn't needed to yet) but i just thought that was a lil odd.

Anywho, great guide Thiefcat ~ 2 thumbs up!
d =^,^= b

I have a question:

Is it possible for me to set a macro after the use of my first Yagudo Drink that will tell me exactly when the drink runs out, i can never catch the message that says "refresh status bla, blah." And my problem with these battles always seems to be that i run out of MP just before the third SL and cant remember to use an Ether.

I was thinking since Yagudo Drinks last for 3 minutes it might be something like this:

/item "Yagudo Drink" <me>
/wait 60
/wait 60
/wait 60
/echo [WARNING] YOU HAVE LOST REFRESH <call>

Attention!

A Few things.. you *Might* have missed for the level 20 avatar battles... <-,<-;; WORKS WITH ANY RACE! ^^v

1) Lightsday is perhaps the *best* day to fight an avatar.
Take them on their "Weak" day if Lightsday is too far away.
>> I have noticed Carbuncle is ever so slightly stronger this day, doing about 1-2 more damage per hit (for these fights, Everything adds up) As for his Astral flow, it is less likely to be resisted (aka 240~ dmg is his full attack at lvl 20 with Searing Light, 120~ is the "resisted" version of the attack..)
Waiting the extra 1-6 hours for the right in-game day.. is Worth it, it may be the difference between your Victory and your Defeat.. :/ Choose wisely.

2) Astral Flow DOES require MP- follow the equation.
>> Astral Flow to work = [(Your LVL)x2]+4
Which means.. at the point of using Searing Light for these battles, you need 44MP. (Yagudo drinks are awesome, but have an ether Just In Case)

3) Don't Sub White Mage. Just Don't.
>> Whoopdee doo, if you need to heal, use a Hi Potion, Not a weak Cure1... v.v Now- let me tell you what you Should sub..

4) SUB . . . NINJA.
>> Don't say "zomg, I need Utsusemi it won't work TARD.." Listen, at lvl 20 you don't get to equip a shield with a summoner, why not instead, equip 2 clubs. Don't think "hmm, 2 int+ clubs might be a nice approach..." think: "50% chance spell being interrupted when hit!" And this is just the beginning..

5) Get SMN To lvl 25 preferably, Blood Pact with Garuda for >> Blink before entering the crystal (you can do it in the room while standing before the mighty proto-crystal)
*Not necessary, but sure helps.

6) Cap your summoning magic.
>> I'm tired of people posting that they don't know if it actually helps or not- the observations I have made make summoning magic skill seem Imperative to being any sort of DD with your summoner- for Searing Light to do its 240~ "maximum" damage, you Need summoning magic skill, it will have a very high chance of being "resisted" and only doing 120~ damage at low summoning magic.

7) Equipment:
Hands: Dual Wield Two "Hermit Wand"s This will make your spell interruption 50%. Wow. Just.. wow. Aquaviel is for losers.

Belt: Obi +1. There are two to choose from, the lvl 20 one is simply one more defense. This cuts down spell interruption by another whopping 8%. Every bit helps.

Rings: For Everyone But Ifrit.. use Bomb Ring and either San d'Orian Ring, Leather Ring+1, or Safeguard Ring. +2 Defense per ring helps. (For Ifrit, natually equip another Def+ Ring)

Head: Cat-eye Circlet (+5 Evasion / 4 Def.) - we're going for evasion here as well :/

Feet: Light Soleas (+3 Evasion) ^^

Earrings: Physical Earrings (-25 MP +25 HP each)

Body: Garrison Tunica or Priest's Robes Defense on these.

Legs: Black Pants lvl 20, most defense you can get.

Back: The most Defense you can afford, lvl 10 3 defense +1 mnd is a nice choice.. can't think of its name right now :3

Hands: Scentless Armlets (+5 more evasion..)
(Carbuncle Mitts if you got them.. v.v Lucky if you Do!)

8) Other things you should know:
>> Cap your club skill, and at the beginning of battle go up there and melee with Carbuncle, until Garuda's shadows drop, or you resummon carby after Thunderspark -Ramuh-, don't use your Astral Flow until then, at that point or at the beginning with any other avatar, go in this Easy A-B-C order..

A- Astral Flow
B- Blow a Searing Light
C- Chug down a Yagudo Drink
D- Dent that avatars face with your clubs
E- Evade their attacks while resummoning Carbuncle
(If you get hit, remember you now have 58% chance to NOT BE INTERRUPTED! O_O "Amazing" to say the least!

Items to have on hand:
>1-2 Ethers (if you cast carbuncle 6 times between Searing Lights... -which you shouldn't if you are there meleeing as well- You will need the 44MP for Searing Light to work a 2nd or 3rd time..)
>4-5 Hi Potions (Be prepared to tank a bit, but this guide I invented and created out of MANY failed attempts with SMN/WHM approach.. Pays off in the long run.. you will be 100% victorious each time.) Only use them when you are below 60-65%HP or in the yellow, Use one IMMEDIATLY when you see the avatar is preparing their "astral flow" Often on Lightsday their attack
The names of those "Super Abilities" are found here:
http://eyesonff.com/ff11/summoning.shtml
>1 Boiled Crab (lasts 30 minutes I believe, is Very useful, raises defense so that when you do take damage, the only damage you really take is the Elemental damage- which Can be reduced greatly by having a WHM friend use Bar_(element-here)_a before each battle..
>1 Yagudo drink Should suffice the entire battle is under 5 minutes for a summoner following this guide.. in fact, it should honestly be under four minutes for preperation, and 3 Searing Lights within 1 minute of each other during the Astral Flow.. Remember, you're not running around like a sissy-sub-whm going "omg-omg-omg!" you are Meleeing with Carbuncle.

... That's it.
I'm ForeverGogo on Ragnarok, with all my lvl 20 avatars completed.
(As SMN/WHM as previous guides suggested..)
Shiva: 1/2
Garuda: 1/1
Titan: 1/3
Ifrit: 0/3
Ramuh: 0/8
Leviathan: 0/0

(As SMN/NIN following the example I gave above-)
Ifrit: 1/1
Ramuh: 1/1
Leviathan: 1/1

(All on the same day, each time it felt Alot easier... didn't beat any records, cause I was taking my time just whacking some of them to death XD My physical damage and TP moves did about 1/3 the damage, and for Leviathan I didn't choose to use Searing Light a 3rd time, I chose to finish him off with a whopping 58dmg Shining Strike! XD)

Thank you for reading, have a good day.

Always glad to help- I apologize for calling it a guide- It is more of a "This is GOGO's 'Sure Win' Strategy not included in most guides because it isn't widely used and accepted" ^^v


Yes, Ramuh was one I had the Most trouble with as SMN/WHM, he thundersparked two times in one battle- His first opening move Is Thunderspark 100% of the time for me, and from what I've heard- for other people as well. This IS a pain! I recommend being outside that AOE, summon carby- and Run Away-! let carby tank him a bit, use one of your two Yagudo drinks, and when carby dies- resummon. Now you attack with carby, Dual Wield is very nice with those low delay hermit wands- astral flow immediatly after, and use your first searing light, carby should have hate- and both of your will be whitting down Ramuh further towards death.

Being able to cast paralyna on yourself doesn't do much good if your end method for having messed up a searing light or two- "spam banish" The downtime on Banish is HORRENDOUS! /WHM has nothing better than Paralyna, this is true-

though, like I said- he hit me with Thunderspark Twice. The first wore quickly, the second prevented me from summoning carbuncle just Once- but then I was able to cast him quite easily after that- I believe I was paralyzed to the end, but ramuh only hit me for 10-15 damage when he did... he missed about 3/5 swings! SMN/NIN beats out on the /WHM for this battle IMO. (mainly because I was 0/8 on him until I tried subbing Ninja- And it worked flawlessly.. I only needed 2 Searing Lights and during that time I used 2 Seraphe Strikes ^^v For about 60~ dmg each- I think it was well worth it- the dmg over time from carby and me must've done about 150 as well- the 2nd searing light I did was an Overkill- 240 damage when he only have 1/20th of his life bar left :P TOO EASY!)


Yes, with the +HP +DEF and +EVA strategy, it would be Preferable to TANK the avatar as a SMN/NIN. He hits carby for about 2x more the damage than he hits me! When carby does SL and gets major HATE, he dies. The hate lays onto me, and I easily pop out another Carby as I'm dodging attacks, and again- when I'm hit while standing there and meleeing- I don't get interrupted but 42% of the time. 58% chance of Not being interrupted while casting is almost Too Powerful. The kiting strategy is useful if you need to get off all 3 Searing Lights-
In my strategy, you do Not need to get of all 3, 1 would suffice... 2 would be PLENTY. 3? I doubt you could get 3 off if you were aiding carby in attack. The avatar would be long dead before those 3 minutes.

As far as the astral flow of the avatar- On lightsday it Does have the ability to hit over 200- though I didn't run into it, thank goodness- I was hit by their astral flows- Titans, Ramuhs, Ifrits, and Shivas- the ones I fought with as SMN/NIN were Titan, Ramuh, and Ifrit- I had about 360HP, and keeping myself out of the yellow and being hit by one of these did take me down 100hp or so. :/ It wasn't terribly bad, all the same, I did use a Hi-Pot after one immediatly, and begin to recast Carby- who came out again fine and dandy, not interrupted. ^^


I thought about it too- but I didn't know if that stacked with Both my Yagudo Drink and Boiled Crab for Defense.


Also note, that my ideal order was 1)%interruption rate 2)Defense 3)HP (even at the sacrifice of MP) 4)Evasion


The 3SL strategy isn't my own- that is the SMN/WHM strategy, Oo Kiting the avatar- sure.. but that's not my own- with me AND Carby "kiting" the avatar by whittling down its health- we can get it down to 1/3 of its life surely, and with that- a SINGLE SL is all that is needed- I will post more on this subject when my room mate, Randomerror attempts his lvl 20 avatar battles with my same strategy- except with a twist, he..

WILL NOT, use SEARING LIGHT. :P He'll bloodpact for poison nails, sure- but that's it. XD I think it is entirely TOO possible with the list of items and equipment- I usually had 2-3 Hi-pots left over- plus we are both Mithra, superrriorr with evasion ^_~

actually, in case anyone hasnt said it, the only way clicking and pressing enter on the protocrystal to enter the lv65+ battle is to have lv6 fame and have the key item tuning fork If you have the key item and the mini, Note: you WILL enter the lv65+ avatar battle if you dont trade the MINI tuning fork.

Why would you have the mini and key item tuning fork? Well, you might be like me and make the same mistake. Whether or not you fight th lv65 or lv20 avatar battle makes no difference for the first time around. If you think, "oh, im gonna do all the lv65 battles first and get the whispers so i can get fenrir all in one shot." WRONG! Sorry to disappoint, but 1) either you do all the lv65 battles 2 times for all the avatars, 2) fight the lv65's once and obtain no avatars except the fenrir fight, 3) do the lv20 battles then do the lv65 for whispers. Because once you fight a lv65 Prime, you trade the whisper for either the pact, an item, or put it toward the moon orb.

do it just like thiefcat has listed, its the perfect way to beat the avatars.... i think some of it is luck that we beat them, but if you panic at all your done for no matter how much damage you have left to get on the avatar, trust me id know :)

Wow, cool guide. Well, I died to my fist two avatars this day (Shiva and Ramuh), but I noticed something very interesting was I never fond in any avatar-fight guide:

Don't be afraid of being killed. You don't lose exp when the prime avatar kills you!

this is an awsome guide... im only a lvl 10 smn, but as soon as i hit lvl 20, im gonna read over this 1 more time and research some things about the avitars and go fight them. Thank you for spending the time to help.

I also didn't lvl my Summoning skill per the Sticky at the top of the SMN forum :p I typically get resisted to 104 maybe 1/2 of the fights I've done.

BTW...just thought you guys may find this part funny...

*while setting Garuda up for the final SL*
(Vaala)game over
*pushes SL Macro*
Vaala's Astral Flow wears off
Garuda misses Vaala
/pet "Searing Light" <t> error
.. command cannot be processed
(Vaala)oh s*&#!!!

:p

I ended up letting Carby melee as long as I could...then started whacking myself and using my backup Yag drink to refill my MP to cast Banish. Took me about 30-45 seconds to kill her after AF wore off. Had 34 HP Left O.o

Moral of the story...watch your Astral Flow timer!!!!!

tarutarutrousers, for your problem, make sure you have about 44MP or more before hitting your Searing Light macro. If you have less then that, the avatar will ready the ability but without ever doing damage.
Try that and let us know if it worked.

Doh! That was the problem all right. The battles are going much more smoothly now. Thanks for the help! =D

im lvl 19 smn, and when i get to lvl 20 im gonan try and fight the avatars. does anyone have any tips for me. thnx for ur time
Libara

I have to dissent that you only need level 2 fame. I monitored my fame like a hawk as I started out on these quests, and now when I have only Leviathan left to do I can't get the quest because I have only level 2 fame in Norg.

Similarly I actually spent a day racing the in-game calendar in order to get level 3 fame in time to fight Titan on the proper day. The quest was not granted until I hit level 3 fame in Bastok, and I narrowly had enough time to get in and fight him before the day switched. :/

Hey everyone,

Good to see you all again. I quit the game for a year and came back about a month ago. See my guide made it back to page 1 so I thought I would check out what everyone was talking about...

LOL, you guys are still arguing the level 2 fame thing. Thats too funny. I'll say it again, you only need level 2 fame!!!


Anyway glad to see so many people getting some good use out my guide, I am glad to have helped you, and I enjoyed writing it.

See you out there.

i was wondering that, if you sub brd, youd get Light Threnady, this would help carby by lowering the avatars resistance against light.

i havent played smn or even got the job yet :/

i was just wondering if the idea was whack or good

I'm guessing that it would, at the very least, help to reduce the occurrence of resists with Searing Light. Who knows? It might even increase Carby's damage output slightly, and every little bit helps. Since you'd be subbing Bard, you wouldn't be able to equip a Piccolo; but you could swap in CHR+ equipment (e.g., Noble's Ribbon, Bird Whistle, Hope Ring x2) right before casting the song to increase accuracy, and then swap in your normal gear afterwards.

Three other advantages that I can think of, off the top of my head:

1. Knight's Minne (DEF+ bonus)
2. Army's Paeon (HP regeneration; stacks with the au Lait's effect, but not with Knight's Minne if you already cast it)
3. Foe Requiem (HP damage over time; stacks with Light Threnody and Poison Nails' effect)

That's a very interesting suggestion! I'll have to try that out for myself and see where it gets me. Rate up for ingenuity. :)

EDIT: I forgot that you wouldn't have access to Dia if you subbed BRD, so I removed that from Foe Requiem's stack list.

Edited, Wed Oct 5 01:19:06 2005 by Zodiacknight

Well, I just finished experimenting with SMN/BRD for my last trial (Trial Size Trial By Water) on this past Lightsday, and I don't believe that the BRD subjob helps as much as a WHM subjob would.

Knight's Minne only gave a +6 bonus to Defense, and it wears off much more quickly in comparison to Protect (which confers a +10 bonus). By subbing BRD I also lost access to Cure, Paralyna, Aquaveil, Dia, and Banish...all of which could prove useful during the avatar battles.

I had no problems with getting Light Threnody to land on Leviathan, but it didn't make any difference with regard to how much damage Searing Light did. Interestingly enough, I forgot to recast Light Threnody on Leviathan before I used the 3rd Searing Light, and it ended up inflicting more damage (230 instead of the usual 210). However, Light Threnody may have reduced the avatar's chance to resist the first two Searing Lights, so I won't rule it out just yet.

There was one unusual thing that I noticed: Light Threnody may have increased the strength of Carbuncle's regular attacks. At the start of the battle, I ran up to where the prime avatar was waiting and ran through the routine: I summoned Carbuncle, cast Light Threnody and Foe Requiem on Leviathan, drank a Yagudo Drink, activated Astral Flow and fired off a Searing Light, and ran back down the path. When Carbuncle died and Leviathan came hunting for me, I noticed that his life was at ~50%, which is the lowest amount that I've ever seen at this point in the battle, for any avatar; with a WHM subjob, I typically start with Dia + Searing Light, and the avatar would be at ~60% health at the exact same point. Maybe Carbuncle just got a lucky string of critical hits in, but I thought it was worth noting nonetheless.

Yer this is pretty much what i did. Ive been doing the fights and ive won all but the first. Only have Leviathan left to do.

The one thing i dont agree with is the 4 ethers. 2 per battle is all you will need, as ethers are only needed for Searing Light, which you can only do twice anyway. Dunno if this was mentioned, but also Dia is a great weapon. Make a macro for it. Against Ramuh, he was down to almost no health, so i cast dia just before i died. About 10 seconds after me, the Ramuh Prime died. That was good.

Nice thread tho :)

Great Guide Thiefcat! It Got me Ifrit on my first try.
I would like to add a small piece of advice for those attempting this. Mog element energy. At the time of the battle i had "faint light energy" from my mog and carby was hitting Ifrit for 230-240 on Searing Light. Any xtra edge during these battles is very helpful since they can be difficult.

As far as Items i would recomend Book Holders. they are cheap and give you the ever useful moghancement: desynth.