How to BC40 Giddeus

[stormz]

This is a rough guide to the BC40 in Giddeus and the BC60's in Giddeus/Horlais Peak/Waughroom Shrine. To tell you what to watch out for and to tell you what I did as a BRD.

Credibility: I have been very successful in my BC battles. Maybe 3-4 losses at Giddeus after 40+ fights there for BC40. About 2 losses in the BC60 battles in about 15+ battles.

:::::::BCNM 40 Giddeus:::::::
Dvorovoi -1 (Mandragora)
Domovoi x 7 (Manragora)

Note* This is a very easy BCNM with an experienced team, if you're good enough, you can even go naked with no potions and still win, it's all about knowing what to do.

PT Setup:

Tank (WAR, MNK, PLD, NIN): (one needed)
I did my first 2 BCNM with a PLD and won both times. I've also won this BCNM was a WAR MNK and a NIN tank. Just make sure the tank is not a Taru, too much mana drain. WAR or MNK tank is good because not only do they not take that much damage(this are mandragora... not that strong) but they also deal very good damage. Galka or Elvaan is preferred however for the WAR or MNK since they have the most HP.

Attackers (DRK/DRG/RNG/WAR/MNK): (one or two)
I've done this BCNM many times with only 1 tank and 1 attacker, doesn't matter in my opinion. The attacker should have warrior sub just in case something goes wrong and needs to provoke. MNK or RNG is ideal, since they can do a lot of DMG fast.
MNK has the hundred fists and ranger with the eagle eye. THF is not good in my opinion, mobs tend to move around, and if you're going in with 1 attacker and 1 tank.. no SA/TA..

Mages (RDM/BLM/WHM/SMN): (two or three)
I personally recommend 3 mages, the more MP the better to heal the bard. Having a high level SMN helps, blinkga and stoneskin allow for mistakes in the beginning and huge mana pool.

Bard: (one)
Bard should have mainly defense and vitality armor to decrease the amount of mana used by the mages and slower death.
*MARY's HORN* is a MUST. With mary's horn I was able to sing 2 songs in between sleeps and wait a few seconds. Get +CHR equip wherever possible to have less resists.



Food/Drinks:
When we did it in the beginning, we bought all the necessaries until it got to the point where we didn't need food or drinks, but here is recommended stuff for people who are beginners at this:

2-3 Yagudo Drinks for all the mages
1 MP food for the mages
2-3 Poison Potion for everyone(except for BRD)
1 Fish Mithkabob or Boiled Crab for BRD and tank
2-3 Hi-Potion for tank/attacker(not that important, but can save you)

*Note ... only get all of that if you want a very safe win.

The Strat:
Here are some major points I want to point out first:
*All mages should make macro to Cure(I and II) and Paralyna the BRD specifically, meaning, put the BRD's name in the macro.
*Always have BRD at full health and Paralyna the BRD immediately after getting paralyzed by black mandragora
*YOU CAN DODGE FLOOD 100% OF THE TIME BY RUNNING OUT OF RANGE <--- THIS IS KEY!
*Mages should alternate resting their mana pool, one person healing, one person resting out of sleep range.
*Mages should not cast anything until all the mandragora are asleep. If they cast before this (like healing the tank when he gets hit) and one of the mandragora comes to you, run to the BRD.
*Keep time of battle time left, battles are 30 minute time limit. BLM or RDM should nuke if mana is ok or not much time left.

Some PT setups I had were:
-PLD/MNK/MNK/BLM/WHM/BRD
-MNK/MNK/THF/BLM/WHM/BRD
-MNK/Attacker/BLM/BLM/WHM/BRD
-WAR/DRG/BLM/SMN/BLM/BRD
These are just some setups, but I think you have an idea. 1 tank, 1 attacker, 3 mages, 1 bard if you want a lot of mana in the pool =P

Before you enter BC, everyone eat their food and buff up with Protect/Shell/Blink/Stoneskin etc... Once done, everyone target BC and enter.

When you get in, gather at beginning of bridge. Once together, BRD sings 2 songs for mages: INT song and BALLAD, then mages move up the bridge and stay on the bridge. Then BRD sings ACC and ATK song for melee/tank. Then the attacker moves up, and the BRD sings DEF song for the tank. Then tank moves up and BRD sings +CHR song for himself. At this point, no one should have entered the battle field. Songs at this point:

Mages: +INT/Ballad
Attacker: Minuet/Madrigal
Tank: Madrigal/Minne
BRD: Minne/+CHR

Since songs take so long to sing, maybe the songs for the mages is not so important since they probably wear out by the time you enter the battlefield.

k, so everyone is gathered at bridge with songs, now tank goes in first with the black mandragora targeted. Then when he goes in he provokes the black mandragora. Mages shouldn't heal him at this point, tank should be able to take a wave and half of damage before needing healing. If you heal too early, some of the mandragora might come attack you. My suggestion is everyone gather near the tank after he has entered first and got all hate. The tank needs to gather all the mandragora in one bunch, then the BRD casts Horde Lullaby. BRD should have patience here, waiting for them to be in a bunch. Or, if he sees the tank dying fast.. he should horde lullaby in the range that the most of them fall asleep. At this point, tank and attacker should engage the black mandragora and pound him. Mages should be healing, making sure BRD is always at full health. If mages have to choose between the BRD or TANK to heal... always the BRD. Watch out for FLOOD or PARALYZGA. If it starts to cast flood (you should know because he'll be casting for a long time.) the tank should immediately hit the * key and run away out of range until it stops casting Flood. If it casts paralyzga, all the mages should either immediately paralyna the BRD, then themselves, then the melee. This entire time, BRD should be at the center of all the mandragora, not moving at all. Important that all the mandragora are surrounding the BRD. The BRD SHOULD NOT move to a location where the mandragora would run after him. Just stay in one spot, and keep your eye at the text messages waiting for them to wake up, and recast horde lullaby. In between sleeps, you can either sing a song or recast blink/stoneskin, your choice.

Once black one dies, one after another, kill the white ones. If any of the white ones break sleep, BRD should either let it hit him or wait till all wake up and resleep. If any of the mandragora go after the mages, the mages should go to the BRD till he can recast lullaby. KEY IS TO KEEP BRD ALIVE. The mages should switch off resting their mana. One or two rest to the side, while one stays near the battle to heal the BRD and tank. Just make sure BRD is always at full health. Drink Yagudo Drinks whenever necessary, however, if you switch off resting, you should have enuf mana for the battle. BLM or RDM can nuke if the mana pool isn't too low.

Use your 2 hours whenever you feel it is necessary. I've done this BCNM plenty of times without anyone using their 2 hour.

Blink does in fact guard against Flood. So if you have ninja tank or ninja sub, you can dodge it =o

let me restate the strat in some points:
-Eat before enter BC
-Songs before enter the battle field
-Drink poison
-PLD enters battlefield first and provokes black mandragora and gathers the others in a bunch
-BRD goes in after the PLD to horde lullaby
-Mages heal the PLD and BRD
-If any mandragora come after mage, mages run to the BRD so he can resleep
-BLM/RDM can nuke if Mana pool is good.
-If paralyzga... Paralyna the BRD first->Mages->Melee
-If Flood... tank hits * or disengage and run out of range (or blink tank it)
-Mages switch off resting for mana pool
-After black mandragora dead, move on to next mandragora
-BRD should pick a position in the center of all the mandragora so he can sleep them all without having any of the mandragora run after him. BRD should stay in the same position and not move.
-Make sure you have enough time to finish the battle.
-BRD should either sing 1 song(2 song if comfortable) or recast blink/stoneskin or cure someone. (Remember, with mary's horn, you can get 2 songs in and wait about 3 seconds before they wake up after a lullaby)
-Always heal the BRD to full before healing the melee.
-Use 2 hours whenever necessary.


You can win if the tank dies and you have 1 attacker, just make sure the BRD lives. You can raise the tank during battle if mana pool permits. Rest often whenever possible. good luck...

i might have missed something... post a reply with suggestion =P

[Armanie]

there is some points in this strat you really dont need lemme point some out

Poison is no need unless u wanna waste money. ( no neccecary none of the mages should be alseep nither bard only melee at that time)

as for Tanks: Rangers, Drks, Drg can tank as well ^^ trust me we never ahve a pld tank for us haha.

ATtackers: basicly u left out Best Master 1 or 2 dont hurt + its fun that way * Charm mandy * attack black one HEHE.

No need for mages to go in circle at all times just stay on bridge =P.

this is how we do it.

Before be - Buffs ( food, protect 3, bar spells =P)
Once inside - balled + Def ( dont need int or acc unless u want to)
Run to edge
Tank or whoe ver wants to blitz.
Bard runs in after and sleeps ( if big batch isnt sleept wait 10 seconds thin cast banishaga and run back to mages thin resleep)
Brd- sings balled / Blink / Hunter pre ( if ranger) Sleep again ( repeat)
Flood- Stun, Silence or sleep it all works

thats about it how we run are's


Im sorry to post this just pointing out somethings hope u dont get mad hehe extra advices doesnt hurt does it ?
:sweat:

[Reaperx90]

Just a few things I want to point out (20 wins, 4-5 losses, no more than 2 of which were 'legitimate' losses);

Mary's Horn is _NOT_NOT_NOT_NOT_ a must - it is a waste of gil if you buy it simply for this. It is helpful to have, but it is IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM A MUST, AND IT CAN THEORETICALLY BE A BAD THING TO HAVE.

You don't particularly need 3 mages...I never go in with more than 2 mages, and they do just fine - just make sure they are either WHM main or sub, because paralyna is absolutely necessary (as you said).

Flood can also be reduced to around 200 damage with barwatera + water carol, and a little bit of +water defense gear if you want it. That puts the tank at around 100 water defense...Flood is laughable with that much (at least in the few situations in which flood landed).

I typically don't bother with any of those songs...Just Ballad on the mages (even with no Mary's Horn you have plenty of time to run to the mages on the bridge [where they should be] and get back into position) and Water Carol on the tank until the black mandragora is dead.

Debuffs don't work on the black mandragora, so +INT is immaterial, and nuking is dangerous, as all MP should go to healing.

:::THIS IS WHY MARY'S HORN MIGHT BE DANGEROUS:::

Every once in a while, the mandragoras get partial resists and wake up early. If this happens with a normal instrument, the awakened ones rarely get in more than 2 hits before the rest wake up. But with Mary's Horn, that time that the partial resist is awake and pounding on you is multiplied, thus forcing the WHM to heal you, possibly pulling aggro. This is not detrimental, but it is a very annoying and dangerous occurance that just complicates the situation.

Granted, I've never used Mary's Horn, but that can theoretically happen, and it's not pleasant when it does. (It occasionally happens early in the battle if I haven't gotten enough sleep-hate and the WHM cures me while one is awake)

[Vilurum]

Theoretically, yes. But in practice, Mary's Horn only adds, what? 5 seconds? Maybe 10 seconds? to the max sleep duration. It's the difference between having just barely time for Cure II + buff + buff (no time spent moving), rather than Cure II + buff + a bit of wait.

So early wakers really aren't pounding on you for too much longer. However, for the same reason, Mary's Horn does not, in fact, make that enormous a difference. It's helpful - the longer sleep duration does generally mean the battle goes more easily, if only because you sleep so many times that it adds up - but it's far from crucial.

I can see Royal Spearman's Horn (or for those who like spending triple or more money to get a minimal amount of HP and MP, San d'Orian Horn or Kingdom Horn) as being a very reasonable alternative to Mary's Horn. You give up the extra duration per sleep, but the CHR increase means you'll have that much less partial resistance to deal with.

Barring the RSH, of course, your next best option is any old harp, simply because harps have such a nice forgiving range. :D

[Reaperx90]

I hear mixed stories about Mary's Horn. Some say it DOUBLES song duration, others say it adds 5~ish seconds, and I'm inclined to believe the latter. But every added second means that partial resists will hit you a LITTLE more, and there's more of a chance that the WHM will feel the need to cure you, thus pulling aggro. Even if Mary's Horn doesn't drastically increase the chance of this happening, it still increases the chance.

And for some reason I never think to use the Harp. In all honesty, I think that would be the best option. Those mandragoras tend to stay about as far apart from eachother as possible, and knowing you'll hit 'em all is much better than knowing that those you hit will sleep a little longer.

Along that same vein, having a shorter sleep duration for ALL of them is MUCH better than accidentally missing a few of them and having to take a severe beating because of it.

Of course that's just my opinion If you feel confident that you can hit the mandragoras reliably, and you don't feel like being that diligent, by all means go for Mary's Horn.

[silverfang]

How many times can/does the black mandra cast flood?

I'm just worried because I will soon enter a bcnm and I will use stun on the mandy, but recharge is pretty long so..

[UnnamedGalka]

How many times can/does the black mandra cast flood?

I'm just worried because I will soon enter a bcnm and I will use stun on the mandy, but recharge is pretty long so..

While it's a good idea to keep an eye out for Flood, you should worry about Paralyzega the most. If the Bard gets hit with it, he will not be able to cast any Lullabies, period. He'll be interrupted every time if he tries.

[Netrus]

alright granted im not experienced in bcnms but i do know that silence casted on an enemy makes them not cast spells for a certain amount of time which can vary IF it lands.. so why not cast it on the black mandy? surely it will land at least once. would this not be included in the strategy? since the blm would cure for a little bit at the beginning it would seem that a silence casted on the black mandy wouldnt hurt? though i have not done it yet maybe someone can tell me why. One more thing, why not let the blm cast sleepga at times? is horde ballad better than sleepga or does it depend on the hate factor and who receives it? this is just what i figured that might could work any reasons as to why they would or wouldnt is appreciated. thanks

[silverfang]

Originally posted by UnnamedGalka


While it's a good idea to keep an eye out for Flood, you should worry about Paralyzega the most. If the Bard gets hit with it, he will not be able to cast any Lullabies, period. He'll be interrupted every time if he tries.

Point taken.

However, I was hoping the black mandy would be far away from the bard to avoid any AoE attacks.

I will concentrate on flood however, since I'm a DRK not BLM

[UnnamedGalka]

alright granted im not experienced in bcnms but i do know that silence casted on an enemy makes them not cast spells for a certain amount of time which can vary IF it lands.. so why not cast it on the black mandy?

The black mandragora has a high resistance to Silence. You'll need to use Element Seal first...and even then, there's no guarantee that you'll be successful.

surely it will land at least once.

My friend, nothing is guaranteed to land successfully on higher level mobs, even once.

One more thing, why not let the blm cast sleepga at times?

As far as BCNM40 goes, Horde Lullaby kicks the crap out of Sleepga. Lullaby doesn't cost any mana to cast, it can't be interrupted through melee hits, it has a fairly quick recharge rate, and the Mandragoras seem to be much more vulnerable to Lullaby than they are to Sleep (Lullaby and Sleep are NOT the same spell). If the Bard has Mary's Horn and loads himself down with +CHR equipment, his Lullabies become practically irresistable.

One thing you also have to remember is that the Bard must keep all the Mandragoras in a constant sleep cycle. To have a BLM jump in with a random Sleepga will mess things up majorly.

[Netrus]

alright i take ur word for it, though i still would like to see if anyone has casted silence on the black mandy. the spell is there for a reason. i guess the only way to see is to do it myself. iam 37 almost, so soon enough BCNM 40 will be at hand. anyways thanks for the reply there Unnamed Galka

[Vilurum]

Oh, Silence works, it just has a lousy success rate. +MND would help but I dunno if you could get enough +MND by that level to make it land reliably. And even if it lands, it'll likely be partially resisted (much like the sleeps) and wear off fairly soon.

You have a decent success rate with it when used with Elemental Seal, and ES+Silence, like various stunning moves (and having the target bolt out of range) are all ways to avoid being murdered by Flood.

[Reaperx90]

While silence may work from time to time, it is NOT something you want to bank on. If you feel that you're not using too much MP, feel free to toss in an elemental seal + silence. If it lands, you're safe from flood for a little bit. But if it doesn't, you need a second, more reliable line of defense. Pumping water defense is one good way, having the tank be sub (or ideally main) NIN is a great way to dodge flood. My WAR/NIN activates Utsusemi when the monster starts flood, and lest my eyes decieve me, he has dodged it just about every time. Those that weren't dodged were partially resisted (because he wasn't immediately killed - or even taken into the red zone, for that matter) thanks to the water defense.

And just to re-iterate this: The Bard is THE ONLY ONE who touches the mandragoras until the black one is dead. If the Bard screws up royally and misses half the pack, you can try to salvage the situation and sleep them, but I'd be willing to bet that you're most likely to survive the situation if you just try to tank the mandys until the Bard has his sleep back.

[Mikeb]

Last night we did a few BCNM 40. Party was Bard, Rdm, Nin (tank), Rng, Bst, Bst. Bard would gather the mandras and sleep them, Ninja would draw the black one away from the group, BSTs would each charm one and attack the black mandy. After the black mandy was dead, one of the BSTs would release one, they'd kill, then charm one, then release/kill, etc...

[silverfang]

Will this setup be doable?

NIN/WAR(tank) THF/NIN, DRK/WAR, WHM/BLM, RDM/WHM, BRD/WHM


Anything to keep in mind? I've been told by the bard that it's hard to take away the hate from the last few mandras because they've been slept so many times a voke wont suffice, but in that case I was thinking the thf could trick on the tank.

I was also thinking that we wouldn't need much MP because of a NIN tank, so in that case maybe he could nuke some?