Fomor Ambuscade V1

Without looking it up, if someone recommends PLD it's probably because they're being the main heal and tank on all but excal and having the healer slot be an extra DD with shadows instead.

Yuppers. Done this particular one on VD with both PLD and RUN, and when we can't get a WHM we want, its straight to PLD we go and add a GEO (with RUN, we've been doing RUN, DDx2, COR, BRD, WHM- with PLD its been PLD, DDx2, COR, BRD, GEO/whm). An extra DD could work as well, but considering how BRDs and CORs are more often than not these days, you're already getting extra DDs. Might as well beef up the ones ya got.

Xolla under 3 mins WAR WAR COR BLU GEO RDM

I remember times when NA narration was all about zerg is the best way to win, when JPs were more like kill slow, dont feed TP and stay safe. Recently tho JP right Xolla shows another level of zergs. They optimize everything to the last sec.

This is what the text for the Xolla video says, with a couple of notes for context in brackets since this is a follow-up to another video:

A unexpected method improved our strategy.
The composition is the same as last time: WAR, WAR, COR, BLU, GEO, RDM.

Previously, we were defeating the adds before the boss, so we needed someone to hold the boss. With the improved version, we defeat the boss first, so we don't need someone to hold it.

Support is also the same aside from the GEO's Indi spell. To open the fight, RDM starts with AOE Bind -> AOE Sleep.

The boss doesn't seem to have stun resistance, so you can defeat it normally if you spam stuns. However, it looks like you don't get the damage bonus at the start.

Excalibur seems to have physical damage resistance, so we hit him with a Tomahawk.

With the GEO now free [in the revised strategy], we can use their Indi spells for the adds. GEO puts up Indi-Wilt to reduce incoming damage and make the fight more stable. [In the previous strategy, GEO dropped Geo-Frailty in the middle and then tanked the boss away from the group.]

For fighting the adds, we do the same as last time; split into two groups and wipe them out.

To deal with parries, we settled on a skillchain of Upheaval -> Savage Blade -> Upheaval so that the enemy's target would change with each WS. [Mentioned in their previous video, but Hydra Corps enemies parry like player characters do and they seem to have a high chance of evading physical damage.]

Aegis has magic damage resistance, so we hit it with another Tomahawk and use Sudden Lunge to prevent Invincible while we fight it.

Xolla's entire crew are all incredibly talented players on their own. If that weren't enough, they think of using non-meta jobs/strategies that are outside the box, and actually play heavily to their job's strengths, manipulate battle mechanics and exploit weaknesses. I can guarantee you that nobody NA was using AOE Bind/Sleep from RDM on this ambu (we did it in Mamool Ja mage Ambu), because everyone saw one video of BRD and went with that. But Xolla's team completely disregard one of the main 'required' jobs (from NA standpoint) and find another way to get it done. Fascinating. Funny they use RDM over BRD; I actually think RDM sleep would be a lot longer than BRD's, which could give less-skilled groups more time to get through the kills. Very nice find. It is fascinating what can be done when you actually play FFXI instead of looking for the most cookie-cutter ways for cheap clears.

I am always impressed with these guys. Can't help but respect the ingenuity from that team, they keep trying things until it works. They really play FFXI in a very interesting way and it is always fun watching their videos. I wish this team was the group doing Primed for Adventure, an Endgame version. It would be a much more entertaining watch if you had players at this level showing the community all of the little unique things they can do that may not be known.

i can't tell from the text, are any SPs being used / required in the fight with that setup?

In general I believe they don't ever use SPs for their Ambu vids.

First time in 2-3 iterations I have heard about stunning the Ahriman and killing him first, and Tomahawk the PLDs. Nice finds.

I had a look at the battle log at the start and didn't see anything, but it's a lot to read for the whole video and it might not all appear in the log, so I guess you'd have to look for SP animations to be sure. If there were any required they probably would have mentioned it.

I'm surprised rdm can do that w/o even ES, I assumed we could with ES, not w/o.
Is there a reason for bindga at start instead of just sleepga > zerg?

Avoiding a curaga but probably not important.

That bind is a few seconds extra layer of safety from curaga

I can't answer this question on their behalf but I can hazard a guess that it's for safety since they did get resists on both spells. Didn't see Elemental Seal in the log. (Kikoku resisted Bind, Amanomurakumo resisted Sleep, Ahriman "completely resisted" both.) The RDM also had Entrust Indi-Torpor on which may or not be relevant (in terms of tagging everything).

edit: Avoiding Curaga as mentioned above probably more likely though.

With BiS macc gear and torpor but the average RDM without everything maxed probably not. Bindga was for any that resisted sleep or if curaga got off so they didnt have more than one mob wailing on them at a time.

I noticed them doing 3 really smart things.

They enter with blink (Occultation from BLU I assume), Haste, P&S.

So likely they all gather outside the nomad moogle, and the BLU uses diffustion Occultation (everyone has 11 shadows), then reset subjob, uses diffusion Erratic Flutter (everyone has haste 2, perhaps the blu switches to whm to put on party Protect & shell 5, then switch back to blu again as well. All these buffs go in, so no time wasted once inside. The buffs can be applied while waiting in line.

Additionally, the Blu uses Sudden lunge on each mob so completely stunlock it - they kill it before the stun wears of with capitlaizing on skillchain damage.

They are not just mashing ws, they are doing a coordinated skillchain every time, with RDM using Inundation on each mob first.

All that prep time to shave off 4 mins - lol

When measuring ***, millimeters matter.

That's about 20 seconds of prep time - nothing better to do while waiting in line.

Given they are known for doing optimized strats as quickly as possible, it's no surprise they would pile on buffs beforehand to save time on entry. Allows them to fight right away. Also one of the reasons why thy don't always use BRD, or they sing within the first 20 seconds.

Surprised nobody has reported that excal dmg as a bug, there is no way that's supposed to work that way.

What? It's working exactly like it's supposed to.

The fomor has >100k hp so it does ~30k damage

It's stupidly OP but it's purely a function of HP

It's an oversight, they didn't take into account that it would allow it to one shot a dump truck with the additional effect.

It one shots anything on any difficulty.

thats why you use shadows? Its no different from endeath

They also allowed these Fomor to pop randomly, so you can continue exiting and re-entering if you don't want to face Excalibur. That's a big factor if you are worried about random Excal one shotting.

I mean, mijin is(can be) significantly more broken. Though again, purely a function of hp. Though mijin is set to a "reasonable" hp limit (unless bene, lol, seen it)

Plus the five minutes for the RDM to reset Stymie each time.

BLU just shuts them all down this month.

It's entirely possible to Bind and Sleep II everything without Stymie. There's always a chance of resist, but you can just retry.

Adjust your merits for MACC if you are struggling.

I didn't actually see the RDM use Stymie in that video either. I think their magic resistances are set kind of low. I was hitting very high skillchain damage with Chango, which means they are vulnerable too a lot of enfeebles.

Couple days to prep for easybusacde.

One of the easiest, aside from excal but shadows and power creep should obliterate this month. Sleep em all and oneshot everything lul. Stunlockable too. Complete cake.