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Ceoile Stendan · **09-24-2017, 06:46 PM**

I know that this is primarily an RP community, but I'm not active in any other FFXIV boards, and I am utterly stuck on this fight.Â (Warning: this may become rant-ish.)

I imagine that most of you have played through the MSQ, and you know the encounter in question; it's in the post-ARR, pre-Heavensward content.Â From what I've read, it *is* a notoriously challenging fight.

A few more details behind a spoiler tag:

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I've tried this, literally, a dozen times.Â It seems like I'm getting close, but I have no idea if I'm otherwise doing something wrong.Â

And, of course, this is a stinking solo duty, so there's no way that anyone else can directly help me.

BTW, I'm playing a bard...and I've been told "ohh, yeah, that's a particularly nasty one for ranged DPS."Â Which is less than helpful. Sad

I'm not a particularly great player, and I know it.Â I'm not super-quick with my powers, which is why I don't care much for raids and the like.Â This mission is coming across to me as something on which I need to be letter-perfect to succeed, and I'm just not that good.

Is there something that I'm missing?Â Is there something that any of you have discovered that might make this stupid fight winnable?Â I've really enjoyed this game in the three months that I've played, but I've become *really* frustrated here, and it feels like the only answer is "keep trying and get better at it."Â And, if that's the only answer, I'm particularly discouraged.

Thank you in advance for any replies!

Kilieit · **09-24-2017, 06:58 PM**

I've played this mission a few times - on DRG (failed several times) and BLM (cleared first time) - and it got a lot easier once I started first of all making sure that my gear was as good as it could be, and secondly making sure that I was following the proper kill order:

1. Magitek Claws - drop everything else to get these dead
2. THM; they cast Fire, Fire II
3. CNJ; they cast Cure and Stone
4. ARC; they use a frontal AoE
5. Other Magitek mobs
6. PGL
7. LNC
8. MRD
9. GLD
10. Eline. You can literally ignore her, in my experience.

...I think, anyway. That order always seemed to work for me.

Your aim is essentially to reduce the amount of damage-per-second that Ilberd sustains, by controlling the number of high-damage mobs on the field.

The biggest issue you're going to have is that something other jobs can do to help improve Ilberd's survivability (pull aggro of mobs with frontal cone AoE's so that, even if you aren't killing them, you can control if their AoE's hit Ilberd or not) is going to be difficult to impossible for you. For a class with low burst DPS and no aggro-raising abilities, it's better to focus on getting things sorted through the kill order.

Ceoile Stendan · **09-24-2017, 07:14 PM**

I appreciate the thoughts on this, Kilieit!

Assume that I don't know the game well enough yet to know that "XIV Legion Hippopotamus" is a Lancer, or whatever. ;-)

I looked at upgrading my gear; I can buy what looks to be slightly better stuff (i.e., stats are a couple of points higher) with poetic tomestones in Mor Dhona.Â Is it worth doing so?

Kieron Lohengrin · **09-24-2017, 10:03 PM**

Yes, get your gear to ilvl130 and you'll be fine

Ceoile Stendan · **09-25-2017, 12:38 AM**

(09-24-2017, 10:03 PM)Kieron Lohengrin Wrote: Yes, get your gear to ilvl130 and you'll be fine

This actually gets me to another question -- how can I tell what level a piece of gear is?Â

I can see my average gear level in my main character sheet (it's at like 117 right now), but when I look at the stats for a particular gear item, if there's something that shows what level it is, I'm having a hard time finding it.Â I suspect that I'm just not looking in the right place (yes, I know, noob question ;-) ).

Valence · **09-25-2017, 03:42 AM**

You should be perfectly fine at 117. The difference with 130 will not cut it unless you fail every time by a tiny inch.

More importantly though, what ilvl is your weapon?

Every item displays both the required class level (lvl50 here) written in small just below the jobs that are required to equip it, and the item level is written in big on the header just above those two.Â

If you are bard make sure to never let your straight shot drop as it increases your crits and procs, use your songs (mage's ballad if you use dots to bring up bloodletter procs, and then paean when the first one is done).

For what to focus in priority, you don't really need to know their names and which class they are supposed to refer to, just look at their weapons really. If it's a mage, kill it first. Then attack the DPS ones (ranged first if any with bows, then spears, etc).

Kieron Lohengrin · **09-25-2017, 03:56 AM**

(09-25-2017, 12:38 AM)Ceoile Stendan Wrote:
(09-24-2017, 10:03 PM)Kieron Lohengrin Wrote: Yes, get your gear to ilvl130 and you'll be fine

This actually gets me to another question -- how can I tell what level a piece of gear is?Â

I can see my average gear level in my main character sheet (it's at like 117 right now), but when I look at the stats for a particular gear item, if there's something that shows what level it is, I'm having a hard time finding it.Â I suspect that I'm just not looking in the right place (yes, I know, noob question ;-) ).

Your lodestone shows you ilvl for each currently equipped item:

http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/.../18661624/

Get poetics from dailies to buy ironworks gear in Mor Dhona, then upgrade to augmented ironworks in hyrstmill

Pip · **09-25-2017, 06:12 AM**

Just in case some of the tips we're throwing at you about gear don't make a ton of sense, here's a step-by-step. It's NOT an intuitive process, but it's not terribly complicated once you know which NPC to go to for what.

Ironworks Gear Upgrades:
All of this costs Tomestones of Poetics, which you earn via the Main Scenario Roulette (120+ per daily run), Level 50/60 Roulette (100+ per daily run), and at the end of all level 50 dungeons and trials.

Top Priority: Weapon
From the Revenant's Toll Poetics vendor, in the "Other" list, buy 1 'Encrypted Tomestone' (100 Poetics) and 10 'Rowena's Token (Poetics)' (40 Poetics each). Move to the vendor right next to her, and look under "Ironworks Gear" for the BRD weapon. This is item level 120, very strong.
Gear
For the biggest bang on a budget, if you don't have the tomes to get all the pieces at once, buy gear from the Poetics vendor in this order: First Body/Legs, Second Head/Hands/Feet, Third Waist/Ears/Neck/Wrist/Ring**. When in doubt, you want things that say "[Item] of Aiming." All of these will be item level 120***, which is very nice at level 50.
Upgrading your Ironworks gear.
From the Poetics vendor, in the "Other" list, you will buy a total of 7 Carbontwine and 4 Carboncoat (100 Poetics each). In North Shroud, in Hyrstmill, back by the big forge, is an NPC named Drake. For your weapon and armor, he will trade that piece plus one Carboncoat for a stronger (and dyeable) version. You can buy the Carbontwine and Carboncoat one at a time as you have the Poetics to spend, just remember to upgrade with Drake in the same order as above: weapon first, then large and small armor, then accessories****. These will all be item level 130, which will take you through about half of the Heavensward level 50-60 content.

**A Note on Rings: The Ironworks rings are Unique items, which means you can only own one of them. However, after you upgrade the original Ironworks ring (see Step 3 above), you can go back to the Poetics vendor and pick up a new one. This lets you have one ring item level 120 and one ring item level 130.

***A Note on Item Level (ilvl): Basically, the higher the item level, the more stat points a piece of gear can give you, the more powerful a piece of gear will make you. At level 50, the highest possible item level is 130. At level 60, the highest possible item level is 270 (attained through a very similar process as above, except all the necessary NPCs are in one town called Idyllshire in the Heavensward part of the game).

****A Note on Gear Purchase/Upgrade Order: I recommend going in this order because the pieces listed first have the largest stat point pools, and therefore buff you the most.

Kieron Lohengrin · **09-25-2017, 06:20 AM**

^ above post is useful

only thing to add is if you hit 60 and don't have enough tomes for augmented shire gear, you can buy 255hq pieces off the market board

Kage · **09-25-2017, 08:33 AM**

When you look at the items they generally look like this (it's 5:20am at work so I didn't pull directly from the game this is from the lodestone). You can see the Item Level is right under Physical Damage / Auto-Attack / Delay.

The level to equip your item is obviously there as Lvl 50 under which Classes/Jobs can equip the item.

Underneath, Bonuses gives you better idea on what secondary stats the equipment gives. There were things such as Accuracy caps, or how much Skill Speed allows a Job to go through a full rotation etc.

Nice thing about getting to i130 is that you won't 'need' to upgrade through the dungeons until you get to the 3rd Heavensward dungeon. Less of a hassle with how they updated the loot drops but this means you don't have to run them over and over to keep gearing while you level.

[Image: 041215.jpg]

Ok found some in-game examples, as you can see, "ITEM LEVEL" is highlighted in the darker bar. Right underneath it states what Classes/Jobs can equip the item. Underneath the class/job restrictions is the level you can equip. Average gear level is the average item level.

Gegenji · **09-25-2017, 08:42 AM**

(09-25-2017, 08:33 AM)Kage Wrote: Nice thing about getting to i130 is that you won't 'need' to upgrade through the dungeons until you get to the 3rd Heavensward dungeon. Less of a hassle with how they updated the loot drops but this means you don't have to run them over and over to keep gearing while you level.

To be fair, HW is when they started doing the whole "give HQ armor choices" from the MSQ and side quests. So even if you can't splurge on a full set of improved Magitek, you'll still get some solid gear that you can augment with what few armor pieces you get in the dungeons.

... Of which you're going to be guaranteed at least one drop at the very end thanks to SE adding that little benefit in, along with whatever else the RNG deigns to give you.

I'm actually leveling an alt through HW right now (just hit 59), and I haven't really been hurting for gear... except for maybe rings. I think I still have the Magitek ring and... a level 52 HQ one?

But back to the original point of the thread...
I actually managed that fight as a MCH BRD myself and what everyone's saying about target priority is very important. Kiliiet's list is pretty solid. And don't get too frustrated by the fight - I failed it a time or two myself before everything fell into place.

Edit: Bleh, sorry, I'm a MCH now on that character but he was a BRD at the time. Since, obviously, you can't unlock MCH until you reach Ishgard. 8D;;

I'm trying to remember all that I did to help with that fight... but I don't recall too much beyond killing the squishies and the targets called out by the NPCs (the claws) and making judicious use of my songs. Keeping Second Wind and some potions on hand in case you get a little too much aggro is also probably a good idea.

Ceoile Stendan · **09-25-2017, 11:08 AM**

Thank you, all, for your comments and advice.

I've found the info on my gear level: everything (including my bow) is a 110, except for an Ironworks Ring of Aiming (120) that I bought in Mor Dhona the other day.Â So, I was probably mis-remembering the "average gear level 117" -- 112 is probably closer to the truth.

I have enough Tomestones of Poetics at the moment to at least upgrade the bow to a 120 at Revenant's Toll.

And, thank you, Valence, for the advice on Straight Shot, as well.

Gegenji · **09-25-2017, 11:26 AM**

Hopefully that will be the edge you need! We're rooting for you. Thumbsup

Pip · **09-25-2017, 02:12 PM**

Remember: It's not a n00b problem; it's a heck of a fight. I recently took my fifth character through it and failed a time or two.

Valence · **09-25-2017, 02:26 PM**

Ah ok so your weapon is the i110 from the MSQ...

Upgrading to ironworks will not save you. The difference will be tiny. Don't take gear upgrade for the holy grail, unless there is a huge amount of difference.

You should be able to run everything thrown at you by the MSQ perfectly fine with what the MSQ hands you out.

( this is not to say that upgrading isn't a good idea though! just take your time and go at your pace, the gear isn't the problem here )

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