Optical Hat {Yes Please}Follow

Some things need to be said about the Hakutaku fight.

It's one of those things that are especially easy, if you know what the hell you need and what you're doing.

First off, EVERYBODY should have oils and powders(tonko tools). Nothing spoils an Ohat run because people are retarded and keep getting aggro every 10 seconds. There are holes in the ground on the way to camp, DO NOT fall into them. It'll ruin your, and everybody else's day. You'll also need somebody with a Paintbrush of Souls.

The fight itself isn't too bad. You'll want a well balanced alliance of mages and melee. Tank can be either pld or nin, from what I've seen it doesn't matter much. Although it's prefered if they tank backwards. I don't recall the name of the S-Move hecteyes do, but it's one hell of a strong Paralyze.

Stunners are highly desired, the NM casts alot of big boomy spells, Flare, Firaga3 etc. Stun order ftw

Make sure you have an add's party, monsters will respawn during the fight and you'll want them eliminated as quickly as possible. I'd recommend having this party not in the main alliance. There are tonberries around, and it's second nature to CFH in order not to have Tonberry Hate, which WILL cause Hakutaku to be on CFH mode as well, even if you aren't fighting it. And THAT will especially ruin everybody's day.

And absolutely, positively make sure you're entire group is committed to this thing. Most people who show up want an Optical Hat of their own. I've done this run maybe 3 times now, and each time there were about 5 of 6 ppl who wanted a Hat, at least. Not at all unheard of to have maybe 10 ppl who have a cluster. These fights can last quite awhile, and the respawn of the ??? you trade to is like 10-15 mins.

Before you even head out, get everybody's guarantee that they'll stick around. What's worse than having people start leaving right after they get their hat because they suddenly remember they have something else to do, their LS doing sky or Limbus or some crap excuse. It's understandable if you're there for a few hours and people start needing to leave, parent/spouse aggro, it's just late, etc.

Don't pull favorites or "it's my run, my hat first". The best way I've seen, that removes the most drama from this is just random for it. Record everybody's lot. Highest goes first, and down the line. If some war/nin gets second chair to some whm, too bad. Not exactly right, or just, but fair. People show up halfway through, toss 'em in back of the line.

People will complain no matter what you do. Some mage will say he's done 10 runs and never got a chance for his hat because melee get priority, or some melee will ***** because he's last in line to some mage who "doesn't need it as much as I do". But again, my experience this is just the best way.

I can't promise anything, but I'll see if I can't help you out. Who wouldn't love a bard to come along anyway ^^b

or find about 4-6 high lvl BSTs.. granted the fight will take longer, but thats at least 12 less people to find

Edited, Dec 11th 2006 1:12pm by ethodges

I have heard of 3 being able to do it. I would be interested to see if adding a COR would speed that up signifigantly.

You bst's and you're "my pets can solve anything". Well I got news for you...

SMAFFLE-WAFFLE GAK BLERGH!

I don't know what it means yet, but you can be it's really deragatory and mean to beastmasters everywhere!

stop talking about my WAFFLE'S, damn you!!

or wait to see if SE has another migration promo and convince him to move here

I also need mine. 70DRG 72RDM 75BLM

From my experience in fighiting Hakutaku as all-bst(40+ runs, all successful), it's best when you take 4. 3 will work, but hakutaku rips through pets fast, and at some point you will be caught with no pets to charm, resorting to Carries or the charm-resistant slimes in the area. 4 seems to work well, and that is the minimum number I ever go with. Granted, it takes roughly an hour from start to finish, but its guaranteed and theres no risk involved for the person that provides the cluster. Usually we tell them to go afk in a corner and come back in about half an hour.

You'd be surprised how many people are discouraged by that fact that it takes a while to kill Haku as an all-bst team, but what they fail to realize is that it actually takes longer to get 18 people together, guide them through the zone safely, then fight for who gets their hat first. With us its easy, you pop haku, and an hour later you have the hat. Even still, the only reason it takes a while is because haku spams that paralyze move, so the entire fight our pets don't really do anything except take hits.

Anyway, enough with the wall-o-text, if anyone is interested in obtaiing an Ohat, just contact someone from LOTB. Normally we charge 2mil per hat (since its guaranteed with no drama or b.s.), but its really up to the participants how much they want. You may think "OMG I would never pay to get help for something like this, nor charge either, you guys are thieves." well, I wish you luck getting 18 people together for anything these days, and after that I hope you get a high random for the lot order. It's actually a somewhat successful business (even at 2mil per hat), but we don't do it too often simply because its boring.

Lotb prices for merc ohat runs vary a lot, so take your money and negotiate with the members who will be doing the run for you. If you have contacts, all the better. I normally help people I know for free. Dont forget 1 bst can easily make up the links party by itself.

12 people can kill Hakutaku in about 6 minutes, if they know what they are about.

2 million gil is an awful lot of money to pay for an inferior piece of equipment. You don't REALLY need one to be effective, although admittedly it does help.

My linkshell will run them for free for guests if we're doing a regular run. Of course, probably won't be doing a regular run until at least March or even April because we're pretty booked on events until then. BUT if you still need by then, you're more than welcome to come along. We do this for free but we do ask that you make the effort to stay the entire run.

Edited, Dec 23rd 2006 4:22am by Meara

It takes about 10 minutes to get to the Hakutaku spawn point from the Teleport-Yhoat crystal. Once you are there you can do 4 hats an hour, based solely on the ??? repop.

And what strategy? You get in an alliance, pop him, and kill him. When you've fought something six million times already there is no strategy.

The only thing you pay for here is the date and time you want to go on, because most end game linkshells are done running ohats regularly, therefore done taking guests regularly. I don't think a date is worth 2 million gil.

Edited, Dec 23rd 2006 2:38pm by Meara

lol...

I'm pretty sure that the price of clusters are about 500-700K now.

Generally you can "tell" when a shout run pt for O-hat has some problems. When I went to the pt that was shouting I felt reasonably confident that 28(forgot exact amount) ppl lvl 70 and up with adequate Stunners and healers, 4 tank, and loads of melee, would be able to get the fight done, and they did.

Of course you wouldn't go to a shout run pt with 1-2 stunners, or 1 healer or 1-2 tanks.