My first BCNM40 experience

[Outaru]

It was saturday night I was about log off from another good day of leveling, when I got a tell from an old friend asking me if I was interested... I was like I am not really equipped since I did not have marys horn, but nonetheless I did not want to pass up the experience. So we got to Giddieus and we began.

Party config: PLD, 2 MNK's, WHM, RDM (in it for phalanx), and me.

1. PLD ran up and cast flash on the black one. He then ran back to the corridor, used Invincible and the Monks busted out their 2 hours.
2. I then ran close up to him and sang Horde Lullaby and then ran back further down the corridor.
3. They awoke and rushed me :-), I once again cast sleep but alas I missed 2 of them that were trailing behind :-(. Not good, and it got progressively worse as it seems like some of them awoke before others, and the other two that i missed were attacking the melee's. Needless to say we all died, but we had reraise scrolls on.

I think next time I am going to use a harp and make sure I do not miss any of them.

So we all were back alive and ready to kill the other ones, melee's killed the black one before our deaths. So the PLD cast flash on one of them and once again I did Horde and things were going kinda slow, they were taking some time to kill 1 of the T's. So they would awake hit me a few times and I would put them back to sleep.

The whole time, from start to finish I was in yellow, the RDM and WHM IMO did not do a good job of keeping my health up and I was nervous as hell trying to keep the others slept. As you can guess I died again and well you know what happens when the bard dies, we all died.

Next time I need to stay calm and cure myself maybe even cast blink I think I have that as WHM 20 sub.

So from reading this any advice for next time as I do feel this is the way for Bards to make money.

[Talonus]

First thing you did wrong was move around. After the first horde lull you want to move as little as possible. Once you get them all in one horde lull you do not want to move, ever. Why? If you don't move, they won't move. If you move, they move. You moving can result in your next horde lull not putting all of them to sleep.

Next up, you want to stay with the melees. You basically want the mandras as far away from the mages as possible, unless they're drinking poison, in order to make sure you want to keep them asleep. You also want to be close in the rare case that you need melee to provoke one for some reason, which normally happens when you're trying to get them all locked down.

Don't worry if a couple wake up early. Don't worry if you're getting hit. Worry only if 4+ mandras are awake and beating on you. Even then its possible to live. I should know, because I once had them all awake and on me for a full 25s because I was testing something and mistimed my horde lullaby. It hurt a lot, but I lived.

Don't worry about speed. You have 30 minutes to complete it and you don't need to beat the record. Play cautiously and you'll win. You can even take "rest time" once the black one is dead, letting the mages heal to full MP while melees stand around. All they have to do is keep you healthy and you've got more than enough time to rest to full hp/mp for the other mandras.

Personally, I feel you shouldn't be using 2hrs, especially the first few times. It teaches you bad habits, and you'll be overconfident in your abilities for the following runs. Its going to be slower and more painful, but you'll learn how to properly do it. Only use the 2hrs if everything is going wrong or its your last run for the day.

And finally, you're gonna die the first time. You're likely to die the first few times. It just happens to everyone until you learn how to do them. I hate to say it but, no pain, no gain.

[Outaru]

In retrospect I see how silly it was to move around and yes I missed two of them on horde cause they were trailing behind. I had never done one so I was following advice from the RDM who claimed he did it before but did not know where BC was in Giddieus was But in any case I did it as a learning experience sine I did not know some of the people there but next time I will use what you told me and see how it goes.

[Talonus]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say. Don't use a harp for lull unless you don't have Mary's Horn. Mary's Horn should take priority over all instruments in BCNM40.

[Moo]

Have the tank run in the middle of the horde and then cast horde lullaby with a harp to make sure you hit all of them. After they are asleep, have the bard use Divine Seal and Cure II on your tank to heal up all the damage he took and gain the hate of every single onion. When they wake up, get them in a nice little circle and switch to Mary's Horn and sleep them again and again and again. This has worked for us every time.

Tell your mages to wait until the Bard throws the first cure to start healing, just to make sure that there are no stray onions running around and they are all in a nice circle focused on the bard.

Make sure your bard is good and you will be ok. A bard friend of mine is confident that he can win BCNM40 for most parties, even really crappy ones. He's beaten it with PLD PLD RDM RDM WHM BRD setup (talk about no damage) and has easily taken it down with 5 people (I was in this victory). He wants to try it with four, but he needs to have a perfect PT setup. We're thinking RNG/WAR or RNG/NIN, DRK/WAR, RDM/WHM, and BRD/WHM might be able to take it.

Silence the black onion, bash/stun flood, keep paralyze off of the bard, and keep stray white onions to a minimum and you shouldn't have much trouble.

[PetriW]

After they are asleep, have the bard use Divine Seal and Cure II on your tank to heal up all the damage he took and gain the hate of every single onion.

I seriously doubt heals affect hate when mobs are sleeping. Example, we let the PLD pulls the black, mage silences black on inc and I sleep the whites. Once the whites are sleeping the WHM and RDM starts healing the PLD and they proceed to kill the black. When the whites wake up the first time they're still on me, eventhough the PLD has been healed for probably 1k+ hp and I've done nothing at all except sleep the bunch.

[Outaru]

Seems like the critical thing is positioning. By the way I am the bard that is why I want to get this down before I do it again. When the PLD pulls the black one into the corridor, all the white ones will link towards him should I just stay in close proximity to the PLD and use keep casting Horde Lullaby when they wake up? The key aspect is to hit all of them with Horde Lullaby that is why I am going to use a harp for the larger AOE, since mary won't drop the horn for me and I do not have a 100k to spare. I just need to know the position of the party and where I should be. In my orginal post I ran around trying to draw the white ones away from the melee but that was a HUGE mistake, I was following advice from the RDM :confused:

But from reading the various posts I think I am just going to stay next to the melee and try to keep all of them around me. The only thing that would suck is if one of them strayed away from melee and went to the mages and I missed it with Lullaby, other than that I think we might have a decent shot next time.

[xarddrax]

Well ive got plenty of experieance of what NOT to do and what to do.....Mary's Horn should be your first purchase by far....more important than Signa if you want to relax and be less nervous at BCNM40.
You should also buy the +CHR rings, Corsette, and Noble ribbon (if you dont have) and Fishkabobs for DEF. (i dont use poison potions....waste of health)

The strategy ive seen best and use to this date is this....

PLD runs in and vokes BLM mandra....all mandras rush him. You cast Horde on the group and walk to rim of the circle..... wait for all of them to wake up and cast only when you see them close enough together...if one is straggling.. Foe lullaby him asap. BLM and RDM should NOT use their sleep .....itll screw up timing. Stay perfectly still. target one in the center and AOE when you see them wake up.
Its best to turn off most filters...i usually see "Domovoi is no longer asleep" (or whatever they are called) in the chat window before i notice them moving. So it gives you a second to cast resulting in less hits. Right after sleeping, ill use Ballad and Paeon on myself. Then next "round" of sleeping ill use Blink and Barsleepra (or regen/cure). Once the BLM Mandra is dead, have the PLD pick the next white mandra to kill.....then have the pt pick them off one by one.

Ill attach a picture to show how WE do it.

[xarddrax]

sorry double posted >.<

[xarddrax]

forgot to add a few more things.....

Roles for each member:

WHM
- Buff Barwatera and Barparalyze at the begining of battle.
Watera for protection from Flood (BLM spell) and barparalyze since the BLM can do an AOE one that sucks for BRD trying to sing. Later on do Barsleepra with the peon mandragoras.
- Cure cure cure
BLM
-Elemental seal+Silence to silence the BLM Manda when he starts to cast flood. If seal isnt ready, try Silence anyway, you may get lucky.
-Nuke nuke nuke
PLD Watch for flood and try to stop it. Have a macro setup so BLM and RDM know the BLM mandra is about to cast it. Save TP for Flatblade, to assist in stunning.
- Kill kill kill
BRD Well you should know what to do by now, but also assist the mages by singing your ballad. Make sure they stay close to you so they get it.
-Sleep sleep sleep
RDM You need to keep the BRD alive...the WHM will be trying to help the PLD....youll also have to play backup healer for them and silence the BLM mandra with the BLM.

Some items people should bring are....
Fishkabobs (or boiled crab...depending on your taste)
Juice and pie for mages.
Going into a BCNM40 without food is just being cheap. You can do it without, but why take the chance?

[Outaru]

Looks like your parties fight in the circle I was told to fight in the corridor reason being if someone dies they can safely resraise themselves if they activated a rereaise scroll prior to fight. If you die in the circle you are screwed because they will aggro you once u are raised, keep in mind this is information I got from the RDM I was with.

I also saw in your diagram that the white ones were away from the black one. I tried to do something smiliar when I did it the first time, expect when they woke up some of them did not attack me for some reason they headed towards the black one, so I missed those when I cast Horde Lullaby and then yeah the timing got all screwed up and it was a mess from that point on.

As bad as things went the first time I think we still had a chance to win, I do not know why the WHM and RDM did not heal me more, I was in yellow and red throughtout the 10 mins we lived. The main objective was to keep me alive but they concenrated more on curing the melee than me.

I am hoping with all the adice I get and some trial and error we can develop a strategy that works for us.

[xarddrax]

Well we like to fight in the circle...mages stay on the rim... the key is DONT die ^^

You had said your PLD used Invicible....thats why you couldnt grabbed them all to aggro you. They were going for the PLD.... once you sleep them all if PLD doesnt use invic. they will all come to you. You need to stay by the mages cuz they will cure you which may draw aggro from some mandras....if those mandras get too far away youll miss sleep, so stay by mages and mandras will be by you .

The only my PTs use 2 hour now is the last run when we are having fun or trying to beat a personal time record.
We've even been able to do the BCNM40 with only 5 members sucessfully in 20 minutes.
Our BLM warped out of the battle by accident and the BLM mandragora wasnt even 1/2 way dead. We still won although it was a rough battle. 2 hours arent needed and can only be a crutch if you rely on them. If you plan on doing on ly 1 BCNM40, then go for it, but if you plan on multiple, save the 2 hour for emergency.

[Dark Aphalite]

Sorry for my noobness but what are the requirements to attempt this BCNM40 in Giddeus?

[xarddrax]

40 beastmen seals for an orb to turn into the burning circle.....thats all you need. But you SHOULD be level 40 with level 40 gear and a good pt setup. But no rule saying that you cant go in at level 5 with no armor...one hit and you're dead, but you can if you want to.

[Outaru]

Alright we are planning the heck out of this for Saturday. Not sure if we are going to fight in circle of it we are going to move down to the corridor. But in any case Before I cast Horde for the first time I should wait for all the mandras to aggro the PLD correct? Then once I hit all of them with sleep (I have to use a harp, mary wn't drop the horn and I don't have 100k), I then move close to the mages and just continue sleeping them the rest of the fight?

The RDM from my LS not the one I did it with the last time had an interesting idea he wants to be solely responsible for healing me and keeping the mandras around me. For example if one or two of them stray off he wants to cast dia or something on them to draw them back to me, since he will be standing next to me they they will aggro him and be in a tight enough radius where horde should hit them all again. Thoughts..?

Also I am assuming the mandras will wake up at different times like they did the first time I did this, should I wasit to cast horde until they are all awake, or if I cast horde on sleeping ones it will just reset the affect and the sleeping ones will be put back to sleep?

Can't wait for saturday gonna be fun I hope ^^