Q: Observant ZekkaFollow

Okay, So I'm trying to get my hands on the Piper's Torque, got a free night where I can get help so going to go after it finally. I looked up the NM..

Counters every WS with it's Rip. Counters every nuke with instant cast AM of the same element.

He has to use both his TP moves to perform both it seems right? Silence to cast the AM, and Abrasive for countering WS.

So I figured best to come to the bard forums to see those who have fought this..rather than pay the 1.2 mil.

Only two things I can see that are it's weakness are:

1) Will not counter Avatar Blood Pacts. I have no clue how well these work, but I can always get plenty of SMN's and 70 pact it some, though I will have a tank and other jobs at the fight.

2) It won't be able to counter UNTIL it uses it's TP moves, and depending on the TP move means which it will be able to counter up with.

So that would mean I should have an even amount of nuking power / melee power?

I could also find some RDM's, who are good at what they do, anyways one suggested how sometimes they'll get a few together, do low damage to the mob like 0 with a dagger and let the enspells just eat away at it, long but a bit more safe fight. Or is that not an option here?

I'm just looking for help from the bards who got this item, I'd like it..but I don't want to pay that much for it.

Should be around a 3-4 hour spawn like all SCNMs.

http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/db/jobs.html?fjob=9;mid=122110553741917916;num=28;page=1#m12227938693865667

Read the other thread on the main BRD page, I have a post half-way down that answers most of your questions and more. Wiki also has some good information on this mob.

But to answer:

1) You won't be able to do this with a few SMN's. There is a safe spot, provided you can get Zekka there. Unfortunately, it is impossible for a sole SMN to run from one end of the safe zone to the other before zekka kills the avatar. Most of the time, the SMN pulls hate and ends up dying. I would say you need at least 3 *GOOD* SMN's to do this, and possibly more.

Point being, you could bring 4 of whatever melee job, ditch the running back and forth and just kill it where it stands. I've done both before, and I felt dumb after we killed it with 4 melee with little effort vs the SMN method I had done previously.

2) Its counter type is determined by the type of tantra it uses. As long as you tell melee not to WS after Deafening Tantra and Mages not to nuke after it uses Abrasive Tantra, it will never counter. The fact that it can't/won't counter Avatar's is even less of a victory for SMN's in this case, because anyone who can listen to "Don't use WS/Magic" can avoid its attacks.

Thats not to say the SMN method wont work - It does. But after the 3 massive fails I did with SMN (granted, I was the first one on my server to fight it and we know more about it now than we did previously), It was just as easy to get some melee on it and fight it normally.

I had gotten this item the 3rd day it came out, so i rlly dont remeber all the jobs that came to help me. In all honesty we just threw 12 pple together blue does help with this nm by the way. other wise we justed kicked it's ass, no thought into it, no game plan, beside pull it away from agro.

One recommendation... if you go with a SMN Blood Pact strategy, consider bringing a COR who has Drachen Roll (ask if they have it first, since it's an extremely situational roll and not cheap, some COR try to skip buying it). Drachen Roll enhances Pet Magic Attack AND Pet Magic Accuracy, and will give a very nice boost to Magical Blood Pacts.

Hell, if you have someone with DRG who can help, might consider putting them in the SMN COR party as well for the job bonus enhancement to Drachen Roll.