A CoP Success Story

[Taskmage]

I just wanted to share this thread that popped up in my social linkshell's forum. One of our CoP statics just beat Promathia recently, so my friend Andrinor made this post partly in celebration and partly to show other people what CoP is like and how a good team takes it down. There's an excerpt from a thread they made discussing their loss to O/U and how to improve to get past it. Honestly I feel like this is what FFXI is all about, right here. Anyway .. I've overintroduced it. Here's the thread and why I'm glad to share a shell with these people:

Party
Nokeboke - PLD
Andrinor - BLU
Audra - WAR
Jones - PUP
Schwertzauberer - RDM
Tianna - WHM

Intro post

All,

As many of you know, in the beginning of January I formed a static with Nokeboke, Jones, Schwertzauberer, Audra and Tianna to tackle CoP. It was a daunting task. All of us were at different stages of completion, resulting basically in starting all the way over from scratch and doing all 3 spires to get everyone on the same mission.

As you can see by the schedule below, it took literally 4.5 months to complete, one Saturday at a time. It took a lot of time. It took a lot of gil. Some people leveled multiple alternative jobs to face these missions. Many of us gave up outside commitments or opportunties to do these missions. Sometimes we got up real early, sometimes we stayed up real late. Sometimes we CoPed for literally 6 hours or more. It took failures, triumphs, and commitment. But I am happy to say that as of last Saturday, May 19th, it is now complete. These 6 people faced the toughest series of missions this game has to offer. And we beat them. Together.

My sincere thanks goes out to this group of people. We faced adversity and difficulty and did it as a team. We never turned on one another. We never waivered in the belief that although this takes time and effort, we WILL see it through to the end. That is what CoP takes, and what I hope this post will inspire in others: Time, commitment, loyalty to your team, and friendships conquer all things. Don't be afraid to take this on. Don't be hesitant to go back and catch people up. Ultimately, doing this with 5 other people who's company you genuinely enjoy is what makes it all worthwhile.

I have added below a post from our CoP discussion board (Thanks Werty for setting that up). Every Monday I'd post a mission plan and strategy, and we'd discuss it and do prep work prior to the event on Saturday. The below is the thread following our first O/U battle, which we failed. I've asked and received permission from our team to move it here for all to read. The reason? Because you WILL fail at some point in CoP. This quite simply is the best example of how to handle it I can think of. Maybe it will be just be a good read to most of you. But if it inspires one of you to keep going, work together with your team and win when you fail at something, be it a CoP mission, other in game stuff or just at life....then it's worth putting it here.

All of you can do this. Good luck.

And to my team, thank you for the most memorable experience in-game I've ever had.

April 21st

I'm starting this topic to discuss our loss of the CoP 6-4 Airship battle and where we can improve. Everyone is an adult here, and we can all take criticism. Remember no one is pointing fingers here, we are all trying to make our team machine better and reach our mutual goal. With that...here goes.

1. Prep work. Not everyone did all their homework for this one. We fought those detectors 3 times as a group. Not everyone farmed their CCB Pump. Not everyone had all the right meds, equipment, and even inventory space ready to go. We can improve here. Everyone has the CSs done now. We can all start the CCB Pump quest and we can complete it. If you can't complete the quest this week for whatever reason, you buy a CCB Pump, but not at the expense of not buying the best quality meds for your position. We had people who spend under 30k for this fight and we had people who spend 300k for this fight. If gil is an issue, bring it up. We can do loans, BCNM, KSNM, whatever it takes to get some gil. Clear you inventory over the next week. Push all that old cap stuff to your mules or sell it. Everyone needs at minimum 20 slots for the quality meds/items for their job, no excuses.

2. The heat of the battle. Some of us flat out panicked during this fight. Some of it was just 1st round jitters, but some of it was indecisiveness, just flat out not know what to do, when to do it, and possibly how to do it. Some things that I noted in my battle log were this.

2.a. Mammets. We did pretty good on this. No deaths, no 2hrs, but we still took a decent amount of time. I know I had trouble because my mammet wouldn't goto the DRG version and did the Physical Absorb move, making it difficult for me to solo it. I noticed Audra still attacking her mammet while this move was up, healing about 300 HP to it. Sometimes it's hard to see this stuff in the chat log. Set filters. Filter out everyone's dmg but your own. This way you can see what your doing and the log isn't blazing past you. Pop that yellow liquid as soon as that DRG (fork carrying) version comes up.

Keep your shadows up. These things have HORRIBLE acc. I was able to keep shadows up the entire time without taking any dmg except AoE from others near me. I really think that Audra might consider some evasion gear, particularly in the body piece. Andi's Hauby is nice, but that -20 evasion isn't doing you any good while soloing. Macro it in for Rampage, but during this fight, use something else. Borrow a Scorpion Harness if you can find one, and if not use a Crow Jupon while solo tanking, they are 30k.

2.b. Omega. This guy is where our troubles started. We let Nokeboke fall in battle and then we completely unraveled. I going back thru the chat log, we let 2 of Noke's Cure IV's get paralyzed. That 750 HP we could have had and didn't get. Ion Efflux is the move that does the Paralyze. No one else should get hit by that for the simple reason I'll outline later. Tianna should be focused on getting rid of Petrify and Paralyze off Noke ASAP.

Since Ti is our only Erase/-na, Werty should focus on healing Noke. After a TP move, cure if needed and THEN cast refresh/haste/debuff. If we all have the meds we are supposed to have, the Refresh is barely needed. Haste will only help us kill quicker, but if we don't wipe we are fine on time. Debuff *can* be casted by Widget, but Werty's will stick better. Besides, since Widget cheats, he knows what debuffs are already on and won't overlap them. If we made Widget our primary debuff, Werty could waste MP overlapping them. Werty did a good job casting all the debuffs, and landing them, but the timing of some weren't the best. Noke in orange means we need cures, not debuffs.

I screwed up majorly here. I didn't keep a solid watch on Widget's MP and he charged into battle instead of keeping his distance and ate a Homing Missile to the face. It one-shotted him. This is my fault, it won't happen again.

KEEP YOUR SHADOWS UP. We all have Utsusemi: Ichi. This gives you 3 shadows. It has a 30 second recast time without any haste. Even though 30 seconds seems like forever, on our Omega fight (while Noke was alive) it was plenty of time to keep shadows up at all times. If the timer is up and ready to cast and you have one shadow left. USE IT. AoE moves strip more than one shadow, so you can get hit with status debuffs if you only have one image up when it is used. Andi, you did one hell of a job stunning Omega, but both you and Audra ate the very same homing missiles that killed Widget. Neither of you died, but both took unnecessary damgage.

Cure order. Let's face it, some of us are more valuable in this fight than others. Order of importance for the melees is clear. 1. Noke 2. Andi 3. Audra 4 Jones. Noke is our backbone, he dies, we follow shortly afterward. Andi is our primary DD and Stun. Audra is our next most potent physical DD. Yes, I'm dead last here and besides, that tin can of mine will cure me if he can.

We wiped here. We didn't need to wipe here. The biggest reason was that we lost Noke. The second biggest reason was pump usage. These guys are chumps without there specials and we have 3 minutes to go apeshit on Omega with 3 pumps. I believe we need to start pump one at 40%, and don't use the next pump as soon as it wears. Wait until 20%, then use it. He got ugly on us at low HP as we expected. We took him down fast, large inpart to andi spending MP faster than anything I've seen other than Chainspell. I liked this strategy. Use that third pump as soon as second one wears and fully expect to be watching Andi's HP bar. Whomever is responsible for these last two pumps on Omega, get them off. Werty died before he used his pump. We can't have this. Maybe we need Werty and Ti to use pumps on Ultima as his AoEs don't come til late.

About the wiping, remember to wipe in a safe spot. Audra you learned your lesson here no further comment is needed.

2.c. Ultima. We were gimped from the start here, we were short on time and damage potential...not a good combo. This guy status dumps on Noke like I'd never imagined. Here more than ever, Ti needs to take care of status and Werty is main heal. Memorize what move causes what status and take care of it quick. I'm sure you did, but if not, macro all those -nas and Erase.

Werty, since noke is using invincible early here, that is your chance to Chainspell nuke. Do it. My vote is Werty debuffs, Noke Invincibles, and then Werty Chainspell nukes, converts, and nukes some more. Let Tianna heal you after the Convert, we want max dmg out of it. You'll be low on MP again, so pop those ethers/elixers and get ready for Noke to take a beating again. We didn't get the benefit of seeing Ultima's low HP rage, but let's assume its bad. Utlima's HP was going down lots faster than Omega's, so I say we can use first pump at 40% and keep them up for the rest of the fight. That's 3 mins of unloading all we have. Mighty Strikes, Azure Lore, Overdrive. We will likely bounce hate here. KEEP SHADOWS UP and this isn't that big of a deal. If at any point we are about to lose Noke or Andi, I think Tianna needs to Benediction. We might lose Ti, but during that last 20% of Ultima we need dmg and lots of it.


We can do this. We have a great balance. We know what to expect now. We can do this.


Summary:

1. Come prepared.
2. Keep Noke alive at all costs. Werty is main heal, Tianna is -na/Erase, then heal.
3. Keep shadows up at all times.
4. Follow the Pump order and get it off when you are supposed to.

Jones, that is a great analysis. I have some of my own thoughts to add here:

I learned something on the mammets. I wasted time trying to debuff rather than MP dump on my first one. As a result, it took 30-40 seconds more than was necessary when I realized just how poorly the guy was doing against me. For the second one I zerged it alternating Head Butt and DD spells, and got Werty's down in time to help kill the last one. Audra's lack of Evasion was my fault. I had Xinef loan her a lot of stuff, then told her not to worry about -EVA. Turns out that it was an issue after all. I'm sorry I gave you a bum steer here Audra.

For our first try on mammets, I give us an A-. We all took the mammet we should, we had over 37 minutes left, no 2-hours, no deaths. If we improve great, but we were in fine shape after this round.


For Omega, well, now we know him for what he is. He's a punk, and we need to be careful with him. Waiting until 10% on the Polymers isn't gonna happen. I agree we start those early, say at 40%. Keeping Noke alive is priority #1 for Werty and Tianna. Keeping Jones, Audra and I alive is a distant second. If Jones, Audra or I die, we can recover. If Noke dies, we need to just gather and take the wipe.
I know Tianna worried about other people's HP bars, but Jones, Audra and I need to take care of ourselves and use our potions and shadows. Jones is DEAD ON that I neglected shadows because I got too focused on other stuff. That was a big mistake. We wiped, recovered, and took it out cleanly with little leeway but lets face it, the time WAS THERE.

I give us a C+ on Omega. I think we got a bit careless in the middle, panicked as Jones said, and it bit us. We recovered well at the end tho and put him down.


Ultima we were...discombobulated. I waited way too long to make the call to engage rather than wait for Audra's weakness to wear, and it cost us several crucial minutes. I also screwed up my macros badly when I tried to make the adjustment on the fly on Polymer order, which meant my macro did not go off at the crucial moment. Noke used Invincible far too early here, I want to see it used at 50% or so. We had control of the fight till that point. When I Head Butt, sometimes it turns towards me briefly to move back into position, but I do not have hate. Watch for that, and don't be fooled. After Noke died, well, all hell broke loose. We lsot control of the fight and ourselves. People RRed and did not get RR back up. Werty took hate and died before his pump went off. I'd like to see the pump used before Chainspell. At 50% when Noke invincibles, I want to see that first CCB Polymer go off RIGHT AFTER invincible wears. Then I want to see everyone use 2-Hours. Even if we wipe, we should have it low enough to finish it.

I give us a D on Ultima. We did fine up until 50% or so, then we lost control of the fight and ourselves.


My lessons learned:
1. The Polymer macro was a neat idea, but Jones may be right in using them earlier. If we do, we need people to use them in order on their own at the appropriate time.
2. Ti and Werty need to focus on keeping NOKE alive. He's our anchor. If he dies, we're screwed. We can keep fighting if ANY of the rest of us die, but not him.
3. SOMEONE needs to keep a RR on. I vote Noke. If any of the rest of us die, try to RR. If Noke dies, we're heading for a wipe anyway. Noke, if you die, do not RR unless the mob is <10%.
4. I know circumstances were outside people's control in part, but if there are problems that mean you cannot be prepared, I need to know that well in advance. We can't help you if we don't know you're behind.
5. IN SPITE OF IT ALL we were @30% on the last boss. We can do this.


Guys, that loss eats at me like acid in my stomach. Waiting a week is gonna be difficult. Ti and I will get more Polymers tonight. Is there any way we can try this again sooner?

Thank you Jones and Andi, I think you both pointed out the areas that got messed up and what we can do to change them.

For my part, i definitley got distracted by other ppls low hp...my fault that Noke died.

In our next attempt i will be focused on Noke. IF you get a status please let me know cause I will be focused on Noke.

I didn't get RR up at the end. Totally my fault and it WON'T happen again. I think it is a good idea to have noke stay down if he goes down, he can't tank weakened effectively anyway.

FYI I have 8 yellow liquids from the fight so don't buy any more - I can make some more. I will also be making persikos and yags again. If anyone has honey pls send it to me since it is the only thing i cannot grab from vendors to save money.

I am sure I'll think of some more... I agree that we can do this. WE CAN DO THIS

April 23rd

I would be remiss if I didn't spend some time on our success last night. I want to take the time to compliment each of you for this success.

Noke: Holy crap man. PLDs aren't supposed to tank 6-4. You aren't supposed to go into 6-4 with one tank. You died ~once~, and that was because I told you to. You communicated what status stuff was on you, communicated when you needed a stun, and nailed your pump right on time for Omega. You were (to paraphrase from John Facenda) the lighthouse around which the swirling chaos of the storm was anchored. You continue to amaze me: in my gut, I thought I would have to come NIN. It didn't happen.

Audra: You were 100% right Friday night, and in my arrogance I ignored you. Getting that EVA gear swap in was critical, and seemed to help a LOT on mammets. You put your mammet down REALLY fast, which saved us a lot of time because I had some trouble with mine. From what I could tell you did a ton of damage on Ultima and Omega which sped those fights up considerably. You kept yourself alive without much mage support too, and kept shadows up through the spam. You DEFINITELY got it's attention from with Mighty Strikes, took the death, got up, fought on. NICELY DONE

Werty: Man, you were ON IT with this one. Granted I was distracted, but I called for Dispel exactly twice. Both time, I looked up in the chat log and you had already started the cast. You kept Noke alive while Ti was fighting to keep the status junk off him. You hit the perfect mix of enfeebles/nukes/cures. The convert -> Cure IV thing happens, no biggie. And perfect call on when to use your pump. I think using it right when you did kept us from a second wipe.

Tianna: I KNOW how tough that fight was for you. You kept from pulling hate on the mammets. You focused on Noke and left Jones, Audra and myself to keep ourselves alive even when I KNEW how hard that was for you to do. You kept Noke alive. You got the Dia II off on Omega when we wiped, JUST as you should have. You remembered to put the pump in the bazaar, though I forgot to remind you until the thick of it. From what I could tell, you kept our lighthouse functioning and got the crap off him quickly enough for him to tank effectively.

Jones: lolPUP my butt. I know how important it was for you to win that fight, and win it as PUP. Kind of an "in your face" to the people who don't respect that job. You were largely the architect of this victory by the way you broke down our first loss and recommended changes. Pump usage on Omega was perfect. Widget kicked ass: perfect call on which model to use. But more than anything, you held it together and stayed positive when I was not able to. This win was as much, if not more, due to your leadership as it was due to mine.

I am so proud of this team. Enjoy the win guys. Each and every one of you earned it. I'm just happy to be along for the ride with you all

Saturday I was really bummed.
But today, I was grinning and humming to myself at work because of our win last night.
Thanks everyone.

WOW, just WOW.

We all learned from our first run and did AWESOME. Thanks so much for doing your jobs so well. As usual it is a pleasure to play with you all!

Guys and gals....

WE ROCK THE TARU TOY BOX!!!!



It has been an honor to be a part of this static.
Thank you all very much for everything.

We all kick ???!!!!
Next up sea and our sexy rings

Keep up the good work gang.

Man, I'm like crying now cause you guys are so awesome. That was amazing teamwork!!!!

Every step we take we keep getting stronger both as a team and as individuals. I'm so excited to see what's coming up next!

[Ziero]

Re: A CoP Success Story

Though I didn't read the entire topic, I totally agree with the sentiment. Missions like that are best shared with friends and it's what makes this game truely enjoyable. I tried getting a CoP static for myself long ago, but it never really held water, mainly due to job limitations within my LS. But for those few missions I have done, victory with friends was truely a pleasure. Though I will definately refer to this pointers when my time on the Airship comes. It's little tips like this that can make all the difference.

[Sevv]

Re: A CoP Success Story

I had wondered how "LolPuP" would do in CoP missions. Glad to hear it worked very well Gratz to them for the wins. Pup is like Drg, if played well it can be a real beast, and if not well you know the LOL<job>.

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: A CoP Success Story

Derail:

What's the story behind the name "Nokeboke"? I like the way it sounds...

[Taskmage]

Re: A CoP Success Story

Apparently it was one of the random taru names the server automatically generates for the lazy.