How Different is BCNM 40 (Giddeus)...

[Amatsu]

i was wondering how different it is compared to a normal battle,, im not stupid i know theres a big diference but ive never known alot about BCNM40 and seeing as im lv37 now im getting close and im looking forward to it. Posts here greatly appreciated

[riceburner4540]

i know theres a big diference

there's your answer

actually its like any normal battle...except you have 8 monsters total (black mandra + 7 whites) beating your ass...but unlike normal battles, you need to win, not just survive. keep the 7 white ones asleep while u take the black one. kill it like you would any normal mob...except make sure it doesn't get off a flood. then take a white one while keeping the rest asleep...do this like you would any normal battle...then another white one, etc.

if you have a black mage with you, you can make it a bit quicker. don't consider doing this without a bard.
first, have the paladin run in and tank all the mobs, whm heals, brd sleeps everything. paladin pulls the black mandra away from the sleeping white ones and goes to one end of the arena while brd goes to the other, whm and blm stand next to brd to make sure the black mandra doesn't use AE sleep on the mages (extremely deadly) and paralyzega (just as deadly).

when the white mandras wake up, they'll rush the brd...this is good, they'll be bunched together so they'll be slept easily. whm heals front liners while blm heals brd. after a few horde lullabies, it'll be tough to pull hate off the brd, so the blm can help kill the white mandras a little by doing a blizzaga or thundaga just as the mandragoras are waking up, before the brd uses horde lullaby on them again. the blm won't ever pull the hate off the brd, so no worries there...do a -ga spell every other horde lullaby and you'll wear the mandras down in no time. by the time the front liners are on the 4th white mandra, the rest of them should be half dead or even 2/3rds dead, making the front liners' job much easier.

[Dux]

There is a BCNM FAQ around here somewhere as a Sticky Thread.

It is probably in the Main Forums, Most Frequently Asked Questions or FFXI Main Information.

I can recommend having full level 40 armour and spells on all characters, the best food available and a Bard that MUST have a group sleep song or a Mary Horn.

IMO at level 40 you will not be able to complete a BCNM 40 successfully. It is by no means impossible but you will not be properly prepared for the battle and you will die with exceptional ease.

[Brayden]

um, BCNM 40 lvl cap is 40 right? when IS the best time to fight it if not at the lvl cap? :sweat:

[Mullenkamp]

Level 40 is just fine for doing BCNM40. Just do your homework on the fight and have a competent group of people with good gear. Some people like to wait until theyre high enough to level to cast buffs like Protect 3/Shell 3 beforehand.

[Amatsu]

Thanks guys *looks for FAQ* this fught is gunna be nerve racking ill bet ill be shaking , better train up my LS so we can do this properly :|

[Icemage]

None of the BCNM fights is like a normal battle for XP. Each one has specific conditions and threats that you need to worry about. Do NOT go in with a regular XP group without doing your homework first.

In the case of BCNM40, you have the following issues:

7 aggro enemies (6 white mandragora, 1 black mandragora)
All 7 enemies are able to use the standard Mandragora attacks (Scream/AoE MND Down, Leaf Dagger/Poison, Wild Oats/VIT Down, Dream Flower/AoE Sleep)
The black NM Mandragora can also cast Paralyga(AoE Paralyze) and Flood (Water-based Ancient Magic).

General rules:

Bring a Paladin to tank. Ninjas are useless at this BCNM.
Bring a mage who can Silence (preferably with Elemental Seal), or Flood will get you every time.
Bring a Bard who can sing Horde Lullaby (preferably with Mary's Horn)

Good luck!


Icemage

[FantasiaHume]

Actually, I've won the BCNM 40 12+ times now (6+as Bard, 4 as WHM), and each time our tank has been a MNK or SAM. The group leader seems to prefer them because they can deal damage to kill quickly, and a single mandragora at a time doesn't really do that much damage to the "tank". The Bard is going to have the hate from all the white mandragoras and none from the Black mandragora no matter who the tank is (as long as they have Provoke). So PLD isn't really necessary; though I agree that NIN is not the most useful for this battle.

[Icemage]

PLD is useful mostly because they can Invincible to pull hate off the bard if something really bad happens like Paralyga paralyzing the Bard and screwing up Horde Lullaby (heard of this happening a few times). Generally speaking, if you bring at least 2 decent damage dealers, it's not that hard, and CAN be done with a MNK or SAM tank (MNK if you really want to break the time record... Hundred Fists pulls incredible amounts of aggo and does tons of damage).


Icemage

[Bamce Sylph]

i personally like pallys for..

mandra ae sleep>hit pally>cure1 bard>curaga =horde lull

this way the mandras put us down, followed by the pally cureing one person that then casts curaga, the bard may not always beable to depending on when he needs to recast horde, but the earlier the bard is awake the better. and i will have to agree w/ no ninja tank just because monk monsters really hurt they're advantage over normal exp monsters

[cccpthrillhouse]

As for flood, the casting time for the spell is more than enough time to get out of range. Keep an eye out for it and you should be fine. Our pld was able to run out of the circle and back towards the entrance, and once he gets out of range the casting is cancelled. Works every time.

[FantasiaHume]

When I'm the bard in BCNM, either we have one healer outside of sleep range resting for mp, or the little buggers wake up and hit me, so then I'll slap Horde Lullaby, then Cure 1 a mage so they can use Curaga while I heal myself from the Mandragora's attacks. Though it is nice to see parties succeed with PLD, since I was beginning to think I'd never get to do BCNM 40 with my fiancee ^^

[AtraposBLM]

The problem with paladins is that they really aren't needed. Why? The mandra's hit like little school girls, so a paladin's superior damage-taking ability isn't really *needed*. The only mob you'll evne notice a difference on is the black mandra.

As such, if you take a paladin (I like to because they add a security that isn't normally there if you take pickup people), tell them to do the following:
One:
Eat a meat mithkabob.
Two:
Any time they use a defense-up ability to grab hate, cancel the effect manually afterwards (so as to keep dealing damage).
Three:
Stock up on +attk and +acc gear. Basically, act like you're a damage dealer.

Couple all this together and you have a pretty helpful member that might slow the run down, but gives you a much better chance to win if anyone in the party hasn't done bc40's before.

[Nici]

mmmm BCNM

BCNM40 has not been really any different for me as a WHM. Our ls does it a lot tho. I could do it while asleep. I got really nervous the first couple rounds tho. The only thing I used to do different from a regular fight is bring juices. But for the fight you really got to be on Silence until the black onion is dead. So your main job is heal pld, and silence.

[Rawls]

I have recently done 13 BCNM40s Giddeus as a WHM and I guess I will just add my experience , not that there isn't enough already :sweat: .

PT Setup:
PLD /WAR (Shield Bash, even though you can just run out of range its nice to have)
Dmg
Dmg
WHM/SMN (sometimes he would go SMN/WHM though)
WHM/BLM (me)
BRD/WHM

Only the other WHM and the PLD have been in every BCNM40 I have so between us we know what to do. But, we switched the Dmg dealers out occasionally (SAM, BLM for one set.. RNG and DRK for the others) and none of them were in all the BCNM40s. The ones with the RNGs seemed to go a bit faster but the BLM added a bit of security.

Example: BRD died because I was really low on MP (despite using juices) and I was resting so it added a bit to my response time. Tarus really don't cope with damage well :dead: . So the BLM switched to our sleeper and we were actually able to win it (mind you our time was 29 mins 59 secs.. for those that don't know the time limit is 30 mins).

As Nici said bring juices, once I started getting some gil in from scrolls (Phalanx) selling I started to buy more (Melon) juices with some Yagudo Drinks in reserve and can go through ~5 (melon) per fight. This is about 4.5k on my server, and I eat a pie before each fight as well (Pumpkin) which adds to the price tag. But the investment is returned quite nicely .

And one last thing, the SAM we brought once is lvl 62 and didn't have much along the line of lvl 40 armor. But he did buy the best Katana he could at Norg which helped... the Sniper's Ring he had on didn't help his defense. Luckily the PLD bought some lvl 30ish armor for Ballista that he lent to the SAM.

Edit: Oh yeah.. I was healing the BRD the whole fight. As a mithra I don't have a particularly high MP number (even with Electrum Rings/Hairpin, Pumpkin Pie, and the Holy Phial... need my RSE) so the healing drains my MP. Regen/Ballad/Juices are your friend.