Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

[Sabaron]

Party Setup:
MNK70/WAR35, WHM70/BLM35, RDM59/SMN29

This monster is relatively easy with the right strategy which is not mentioned, to my knowledge, anywhere.

The MNK ate Pescatora, and had a Strength Potion for Hundred Fists, but the latter was certainly not necessary. You could probably get by with just Boiled Crab as well.
The WHM had a Super Ether, but didn't really need it.

1. Open the box
2. DD Voke Guardian Statue
3. Pull Guardian statue to the area just outside the Banishing Gate
4. Mages stand against the banishing gate, DD fights against the opposite wall.
5. WHM heals first, when mana depleted, RDM takes up the slack until WHM recovers.
6. Eventually, the statue will use Berserk. The DD drinks the Strength Potion, Berserks, and activates Hundred Fists (or whatever his godly damage skill is).
6. RDM Hastes and Enfeebles the mob. I don't think I actually stuck any standard enfeebles, but Bio II and Poison II, IMO, are good.
7. Just keep healing until it dies.

Easy fight. DO NOT fight inside the room--your mages will get hit with AoE moves and repops will prevent them from resting and cause problems in general.

[tdh]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

When I went to do this, I had a WAR/NIN, WHM/SMN, DRK/WAR, and another RDM. I was the only one that wasn't Lv.75. WHM was going to tank it, but she got hit with the LAG stick so she couldn't do her solo Light Skillchain to help her keep hate.

WAR/NIN tanked it like a pro (Who's also a very accomplished THF, and at the time was an up and coming NIN.) DRK kept standing behind the WAR and taking all those directional AoE punches on the chin and died about 10 seconds in.

The fight was a little drawn out, and was a pain. Keeping the WAR alive, Hasted, and trying to support DD since the DRK bit the dust. (/sigh) I thought the fight was kind of rough, and was still the roughest AF3 I've done so far. (Which isn't really saying much, since I haven't done ~that~ many of them. WAR, MNK, DRK, RDM, BLM, and BLU. BLU & WAR AF3s were fun fights!)

[Icemage]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

I did this fight as a duo of WHM75/BRD37 and RDM75/NIN37. Not even vaguely difficult if you have a very fast blinktank.

Without a level 74+ blinktank, though, it's significantly harder unless you have a lot of healing support and good aggro control. If the statue closes with your mages, you're in big trouble. Keep it away from the mages and you'll be fine.


Icemage

[FortMan]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

Congrats for you new hat. Hope you enjoy the plumage . I have one question, however:

6. Eventually, the statue will use Berserk. The DD drinks the Strength Potion, Berserks, and activates Hundred Fists (or whatever his godly damage skill is).

Isn't Doll's "Berserk" actually a warcry effect, though? (As in, no defense loss) However, buffed-up Hundred Fists should hurt it a lot nonetheless.

[Sabaron]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

It says "gains the effect of warcry", but it said on the Vana'diel bestiary (aka FFXI-Atlas.com) that it lowered the mobs defense... Therefore, erring on the side of caution, maximization of hundred fists will either occur after he uses Berserk or at basically any time during the fight.

Icemage: Our level 75 NIN offered (he has done it with the hat-collecting RDM as a backup healer), but this particular group had wiped on it previously when we fought in the room, so we wanted to go again.

Basically, I'm just saying that most guides say to go in full bore with 12-18 player alliances...none of this is even close to necessary and it's the only information I got when I went to do the hat (except that a 75NIN can solo him). Basically, you just need a solid WHM and a DD or a Ni Blink tank. The guides also say virtually nothing about the monster--it has lots of AoE which is why we fought it at the gate instead of in the room which is what made the fight so immensely easy--the AoE won't touch the mages and there's no aggressive repops while they're resting.

[Karinya]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

Well, of course it's much easier if you have access to higher level players. The full alliance is really only necessary if you're doing it with Level 60s.

Did you know that this quest was designed and added before Genkai 3, 4, and 5? 15 more levels has a significant impact on its difficulty. Funny how that works.

At any rate, it is kind of a mini-Faust, and can be handled the same way if you have the right people for it - stand out of range and shoot it while one person tanks. Blink tanking is not necessary, a high level PLD or WAR tank will take pretty piddly damage from him. It's losing control of hate or having a lot of fragile people in AoE range that can make the fight dangerous.

For level 60s it's much more challenging and fun, but if you just want your hat, fewer higher level people are the way to go.

[Fynlar]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

Basically, I'm just saying that most guides say to go in full bore with 12-18 player alliances...none of this is even close to necessary

The reason they're saying this is because they're assuming you're going to fight it with people of the "appropriate" level, which is around the level of the AF piece you get (60). Even with this much people it makes Typhoon all the more dangerous, so most people will just say to zerg it before it kills all of you.

Sure, you can bring a couple of 70+ with you and they can do the job about just as well. It's soloable by 74+ RDM/NIN as well, soloable at lower levels if you use DoT kiting.

And yes, his "Berserk" ability actually just gives him Warcry, which makes his attacks marginally stronger (not as much as what Berserk would give) but it doesn't drop his defense.

[Sabaron]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

...For level 60s it's much more challenging and fun, but if you just want your hat, fewer higher level people are the way to go.

Basically, it's next to impossible to call down this much manpower. For instance, I think Allah suggests taking a full alliance of 18 30-40th level characters up Delkfutt's tower on an arduous 4-6 hour climb/killing spree.

It's much easier to find 1-2 high levels than it is to find a whole wad of 55-60s willing to helo with RDM AF Hat. Plus the lag would be spectacular (at least on my comp).

If the quest was designed pre G3-4-5, then the sites that post these strategies need a bit of an update for post G3-4-5. I've never seen an alliance of 12 or more people in Garlaige with the exception of Serket campers... never... especially not for one RDM's hat.

It's also not easy to do with this setup unless you use the correct strategy (we lost the first time even with the assistance of a friendly BST nearby who pulled the spawns out of the room), so it's not a cakewalk, but it's 100x easier than finding an alliance of 12 60's--our LS has 50-60 people, but they're all different levels and only a handful of us are 60ish and don't play at the same time. I got the hat and we actually accomplished something that was of middling difficulty. If I had the 75NIN do it, I could've just sat on my hands.

[SharMarali]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

There are still people out there who like to do things with their friends, and the sad fact is, most level 75's don't "get out much" in terms of associating with lower level people. Most of the other 75's I know hang out strictly in their endgame linkshells and thus never have an opportunity to meet people who are still running through the levels. Yes, there are exceptions, and yes, most people in the 50's and 60's have at least one level 75 friend who can, in turn, bring others. But if you prefer to do stuff with the friends you've made that are your level, you need 12-18 people to fight this thing. I know. I fought it before some of the later level cap increases (I THINK the cap was 65 at the time... I THINK). That's basically what these guides are telling you.

Maybe they do need to be updated to state "Killable by an alliance of 12-18 level 60 players or duo by a level 75 NIN and level 75 WHM" or whatever, but I don't think that they should be changed to say "You need two level 75 players to fight this" because that just discourages people from trying to do anything without leaning on high level players.

[Lasareth]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

Well the nature of the game is changing so that it favors high-level help now. Back in the day you could usually always find at least one or two other people who needed to finish the quest and who could bring some lowbie friends along at any given moment, but now pretty much everyone is 60+ and over and done with AF. So as the playerbase changes the recommendations will change too, it's just that they haven't really been "updated" to reflect the times. Also, guides tend to work in ideal terms :p when we know that such is rarely the case.

I did this at level 59 duo with a 75 rdm/blm tanking, it wasn't hard. Especially now that there's a lot more high-end and situation-specific equipment. It's good to have an account of a unique experience with the NM, regardless.

Actually I remember when AF used to be big linkshell events :p now they're just side attractions on the way to leveling to 75.

[Shinhiryu_Kage]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

Definitely soloable by 75RDM/NIN. But if you take a 75 Anything really that can heal, its in the bag. Not a tough fight really.

[Sabaron]

Re: Warlock's Chapeau Guardian Statue Notes

My point was, basically, that if you drop the level of your assistance from 75 down to 70.... You'll probably want 2 instead of 1.