Fynlar: 1, Maat: 0Follow

After what seemed like eons of preparation time, I finally went toe-to-toe with the old man just a couple of hours ago, and came out with a victory on my first go. :D

I'd like to share some information about the battle I had, which includes some chat log snippets, in the hopes that it might help some other Red Mages be successful in their Genkai 5 endeavors. So yeah, this is gonna be a long *** post. Just warning ahead of time ^^;

First off, some info about me before going in:

Hume, Level 69 Red Mage, EXP: 31660 // 32000, 340 TNL.
My plan was to bring in a page of Miratete's Memoirs, which I believe randomly grants the user 500-1500 EXP, such that I could use it during the fight and level up for a HP/MP refill (and possibly avoid having to use Convert). Magic skills were all capped except for Divine Magic, which would be useless anyway. Didn't worry about combat skills at all because I would not be meleeing, nor would I have a shield equipped, and I didn't really count on me evading any of his attacks anyway.

Equipment:

Main: Dark/Ice/Wind Staff, alternated for appropriate spells
Ammo: Fortune Egg
Head: Warlock's Chapeau
Neck: Rep.Gold Medal, Enfeebling/Elemental Torque (the Elemental Torque was borrowed... big kudos goes to Alfrodo for letting me do so; every nuke I did was unresisted!)
Ear1: Moldavite Earring
Ear2: Morion Earring +1 (also borrowed from Alfrodo, more kudos :D)
Body: Warlock's Tabard
Gloves: Warlock's Gloves (yeah, I would have liked to have RSE2 gloves by now, oh well)
Ring1: Electrum/Zircon Ring
Ring2: Electrum/Zircon Ring
Back: Red Cape +1
Waist: Penitent's Rope, Powerful Rope
Legs: Warlock's Tights, Magic Cuisses, Custom Slacks
Feet: Custom M Boots


Items/meds:

Melon Pie +1, Miratete's Memoirs. That's it. :D


------

Pre-fight status:
Melon Pie +1, rested full, went in with all equipment on. I don't buy into that whole "he copies your stats" stuff, and going in with removed gear would have cost me some time to rest the HP/MP I'd be missing. Went in on Watersday which was an oversight on my part, I could have waited one more day for Windsday >_<

Inside BC:
Ran immediately to Maat. Idea was to start getting him slept and debuffed before he could put up nasty things like Shell and Blink, which would make the fight dangerous. As someone on this board recently put it, Shell/Blink can "mean the difference between a napping old man and an angry old man with insomnia problems". Or something to that effect, anyway.

First line in the log that I see when I got to him:

Maat starts casting Enwater.


I figured that at this point he would be standing there for a while without casting any more buffs, because most mobs have a delay in how often they can cast magic, so I decided to take the time to set up a few of my own before beginning my attack. I took a little too much time though:

Fynlar casts Refresh.
Fynlar gains the effect of Refresh.
Fynlar casts Protect IV.
Fynlar gains the effect of Protect.
Fynlar casts Shell IV.
Fynlar gains the effect of Shell.
Maat starts casting Protect IV.
Fynlar starts casting Dispel on Maat.
Maat casts Protect IV.
Maat gains the effect of Protect.
Fynlar casts Dispel.
Maat's Haste effect disappears!


At this point he starts charging at me, probably because he had just cast Protect IV and wasn't able to cast again yet. I panic a little bit and start hitting my Sleep 1 macro. He could have interrupted it but thankfully it went through and landed:

Fynlar starts casting Sleep on Maat.
Maat hits Fynlar for 98 points of damage.
Additional effect: Fynlar takes 13 additional points of damage.
Fynlar casts Sleep.
Maat is asleep.


Was a little shaken there but only for a moment.

I know now that he has at least Protect and Enwater buffs up; he probably didn't have Blink up judging from the fact I landed 2 spells so far, and I didn't know if he had Shell up. So my plan was to throw out another Dispel, then Sleep 2, then Dispel, and start buffing myself inbetween Dispels until his buffs were all gone:

Fynlar casts Dispel.
Maat's Protect effect disappears!
Fynlar casts Sleep II.
Maat is asleep.
Fynlar casts Dispel.
Maat's Enwater effect disappears! (At this point all the buffs I knew he had were gone)
Fynlar casts Blink.
Fynlar gains the effect of Blink.
Fynlar casts Dispel.
Fynlar's Dispel has no effect on Maat. (And my hope was correct, those were all the buffs he had!)
Fynlar casts Stoneskin.
Fynlar gains the effect of Stoneskin.
Fynlar casts Aquaveil.
Fynlar gains the effect of Aquaveil.


At this point I am fearing Sleep 2 might wear off soon, so I step away and prepare to tie the old man down again:

Fynlar casts Bind.
Maat is bound.
Fynlar starts casting Regen on Fynlar. (Was waiting for the Sleep to wear anyway)
Maat is no longer asleep. (Bingo)
Maat starts casting Stone III.
Fynlar casts Regen.
Fynlar gains the effect of Regen.
Fynlar starts casting Sleep on Maat.
Maat casts Stone III.
Fynlar takes 0 points of damage.
Fynlar casts Sleep.
Maat is asleep.
**removed Stoneskin effect**
Fynlar casts Stoneskin.
Fynlar gains the effect of Stoneskin.


So now I'm fully buffed, and he's fully debuffed and snoozing. Time to start dishing out some pain!

Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Maat is no longer bound. (That previous Bind stuck for quite a while)
Maat starts casting Stoneskin.
Fynlar starts casting Sleep II on Maat.
Maat casts Stoneskin.
Maat gains the effect of Stoneskin.
Fynlar casts Sleep II.
Maat is asleep.
Fynlar casts Dispel.
Maat's Stoneskin effect disappears!
Fynlar's Refresh effect wears off.
Fynlar casts Refresh.
Fynlar gains the effect of Refresh.
Fynlar's Regen effect wears off. (HP was back to full, I was at approximately 200 MP left at this point)


First attack went smoothly enough, but the next one would prove to be the most dangerous part of the fight... if there was any point where I would have been crappin my pants, it's here:

Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Maat starts casting Aero III.
Fynlar starts casting Sleep on Maat.
Fynlar casts Sleep.
Maat resists the spell. (Aww snap!)
Maat casts Aero III.
1 of Fynlar's shadows absorbs the damage and disappears.
**Maat is running up to me at this point, and physically attacks**
Punch 1: 1 of Fynlar's shadows absorbs the damage and disappears.
Punch 2: Maat hits Fynlar for 0 points of damage.
Punch 3: Maat hits Fynlar for 0 points of damage.
Fynlar starts casting Sleep II on Maat.
Fynlar casts Sleep II.
Maat resists the spell. (Aww DOUBLE SNAP!)
Maat starts casting Dia II.
Fynlar starts casting Bind on Maat.
Maat casts Dia II.
Fynlar takes 0 points of damage.
Fynlar's Stoneskin effect wears off.
Fynlar casts Bind.
Maat is bound. (WHEW, I thought...)
**I run to get some distance, I attempt Sleep 1 again but it's not ready immediately >_<**
Maat is no longer bound. (Very short lived Bind, about 5 seconds if that)
*Maat rushes up to me again*
Fynlar starts casting Sleep on Maat.
Maat hits Fynlar for 109 points of damage.
Maat hits Fynlar for 109 points of damage.
Fynlar's casting is interrupted. (At this point I thought I was doomed)
Fynlar starts casting Sleep on Maat. (I did this out of panic, it felt mistimed but...)
Fynlar casts Sleep.
Maat is asleep. (YAY)
Fynlar starts casting Sleep II on Maat. (Still in panic mode)
Fynlar casts Sleep II.
Maat is asleep. (I calmed down a bit at this point, lol)
Fynlar casts Stoneskin.
Fynlar gains the effect of Stoneskin.
Fynlar casts Blink.
Fynlar gains the effect of Blink.


Now I had about 25 MP left. Normally people would prepare to hogtie Maat down again and get ready to fire Convert, but I had a different plan in mind...

Fynlar uses a page from Miratete's Memoirs.
Fynlar gains 1214 experience points.
Fynlar attains level 70!


Health and mana renewed, as well as my resolve, I looked at Maat's HP bar and estimated that I could do one more Aero III attack without him firing Chainspell, so I did:

Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Maat casts Aero III.
1 of Fynlar's shadows absorbs the damage and disappears.
Fynlar casts Sleep.
Maat is asleep.
**removed Blink effect**
Fynlar casts Blink.
Fynlar gains the effect of Blink.


Maat is about 60% HP at this point, and I am reasonably sure one more dose of Aero III would push him over the edge and make him use Chainspell. So I did the impolite thing and went first, and it was smooth sailing from here on:

Fynlar uses Chainspell!
Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Fynlar's elemental magic skill rises 0.1 points. (Due to the level up XD)
Maat uses Chainspell!
Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Fynlar's elemental magic skill rises 0.2 points.
Maat casts Diaga II.
Fynlar takes 0 points of damage. (Blink was removed by this, but I paid it no heed at this point, I was dead set on killing his ***)
**Maat starts charging at me again at this point**
Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Maat hits Fynlar for 0 points of damage.
Maat hits Fynlar for 0 points of damage.
Maat casts Regen.
Maat gains the effect of Regen. (TOO LATE BUCKO)
Fynlar's Stoneskin effect wears off.
Maat casts Water III.
Fynlar takes 190 points of damage.
Fynlar casts Aero III.
Maat takes 369 points of damage.
Fynlar's elemental magic skill rises 0.1 points.

Maat : Hm. That was a mighty fine display of skill there, Fynlar. You've come a long way...

Fynlar defeats Maat.
Fynlar gains 0 experience points, but gets a nifty new title of Maat Masher.
And besides, he leveled up to 70 during the fight anyway; he doesn't need any damn experience points, man!
You find a Scroll of Instant Warp on Maat.
Battlefield clear time: 5 minutes, 37 seconds!
<Fynlar> VICTORY
<Fynlar> ***** your instant warp old man, I got my own
Fynlar uses Convert!
Fynlar casts Warp.
Fynlar vanishes!

------


So looking back on the whole thing, there's a few other pointers I can make, and things that I probably could have done differently:

1) Don't panic, and don't worry about losing. The Ruby Quadav is a total wuss, it's not the end of the world if you have to go beat him up again. Now if you're in a KSNM99 fight, then yeah, you've got reason to worry; losing one of those sucks.

2) Do not overlook the usefulness of Bind. I only used it twice in this fight, and 1 out of the 2 times it stuck for a very good duration. If I were to go again I'd probably have used it much more. Great potential insurance for when Sleep gets resisted or wears off. Chainspell aside, most of his spells are easy to handle... but you don't want him pounding on you, and Bind helps to prevent this.

3) Likewise, do not overlook your Sleep 1 spell. You'll notice that many times I chose to open with this instead of Sleep 2, and that is because if Sleep 1 lands (it has no less chance to land than Sleep 2 does), it allows you to take some actions and then sleep him again with Sleep 2 without him waking up in the process, which can buy you a considerable amount of extra time and actions.

4) If you cannot use an EXP scroll to level up mid-fight like I did, you will likely be stuck with using Convert to heal MP. While this ability is dandy for fitting that job, I just have one recommendation to make about it: do not use it after Maat has already Chainspelled. It is far too dangerous, and it is very likely he will floor you before you get the chance to finish him off or Cure yourself. Do Convert before he reaches the 50-60% HP mark if at all possible.

5) Have FUN with it. Sure, you've done tons of burning circle events with your friends by this point, but this is likely to be the first real BC fight you've done where it's all about you. Relax. Go nuts!

6) Expect randomness. No two RDM Maat fights will be exactly alike. Sometimes when Maat Chainspells he'll go gung-ho on you (and you usually won't win if he decides to do this), sometimes he'll waste time replacing the worthless buffs you Dispelled earlier. In other words, you can't follow my experience to the letter. Be careful and watch for what Maat does, and improvise as best as you can.

7) One of the big keys to this fight is to make liberal use of Blink and Stoneskin (as you've no doubt noticed me do during my fight), not just to protect yourself from damage, but to help limit Maat's TP gain. Every time he doesn't hit you for damage is a time where he fails to accumulate any TP. People tell me I was lucky that I never got any TP moves used on me, particularly Asuran Fists, and I think a lot of this goes to the fact that aside from those couple freak moments, he was never able to melee me for any damage.

8) TEST YOUR MACROS, ESPECIALLY if you create new ones! I cannot stress this enough; in fact, I'm surprised I didn't mention this in my original post:

I came across a couple of critical errors when testing my macro set, one such error being in the macro where I had the line /item {Miratete's Mem.} <me> in it. I figured that if I auto-translated the name it would eliminate any possible chance of me spelling the name wrong. However, I was unaware of one important fact: even if the name is auto-translated, if the name consists of two or more words, you still must place it in quotes! That was my error, I had no quotes around it. Had that error gone unnoticed it would have cost me a lot of extra time during the fight fumbling around in menus to get the scroll used, which could have been deadly.

That's about it for now... if I think of anything else worthwhile to add I will make an edit here. Good luck to all the RDMs out there hoping to become the next Maat Masher :D

And yeah, I've remade both these topics because somehow Alla screwed up the subject lines in both of them. d(-.-)b

EDIT: Added a 7th "afterthought"... and an 8th!

Edited, Fri Sep 9 01:30:30 2005 by Fynlar

Edited, Fri Sep 9 14:34:43 2005 by Fynlar

I've always wondered if this would work during the Maat fight. I used to joke with my brother about it back when we were both attempting our own Maat fights. XD Now I know it does... very interesting. ^^

Looks like you took alot of time to type up this post, so kudos to you, and <Congratulations!> on your victory.

Grats, dude ^^ I always hear about what a b*tch RDM Maat is, but you seem to have it down. That sleep + sleep II thing is a blessing to all BLM and RDM (works fantasic in any BCNM that requires keeping Sleepga on multiple enemies... ES Sleepga I, then after about 30 seconds Sleepga II). Thanks for posting all the details too, it always cool to see what goes on. If I ever level RDM, it will be solely for the purpose of fighting Maat on it.

Congrats =D I lost twice due to typo's in macros and panicing x_x And I heard Rdm Maat is really hard, so that's quite an achievement to beat him first time ^^

{Congratulations!}

Congratulations! Sooo many horror stories about RDM Maat, it's good to see an encouraging story.

Rate up for the helpful advice, and sheer style points of the level-up strategy. ^^

Congrats Fynlar! ^_^ What an awesome job planning your battle! I've heard the RDM one was a toughie, but you showed those aspiring Maat Mashers another battleplan. ^^ See you in game!

Remind me if I ever go to do Maat again... NEVER to go as RDM! My Gods that battle looked long. If you've ever seen the log I posted from my fight you will understand what I mean. I prefer the quick, in and out, WoMD used approach.

But Congratulations and all that jazz. 71+ is like the mile high club, without the *ahem*... Hope to see you at 75 soloing Metah (heard he's one tough cookie).

Battle felt very quick to be honest, it just looks long because I was being a detail freak. XD I did my best to shorten the log by omitting whatever I felt was not necessary to quote.

It's pretty much over once Maat gets down to the last hit before Chainspell. At that point it's basically kill or be killed.

The PLD in my LS went in with an all out attack setup, and she took around 8:40 to win... far longer than I did. I would imagine the BRD fight would take a while too.

As for Metah, well, PvP isn't my thing really. {I'm not up for it.}

Thanks ^^

Nothing wrong with making use of Reraise in the fight, you don't lose any EXP when doing G5 for credit.

To be honest I feel if I was Taru I would have had an easier time in this fight. My HP never dipped below 700 or so, and the additional MP and INT would have been greatly useful.