Dropping Like Flies/Strategies

Please feel free to add new Strategies or adjust those listed, but please stick to the format for ease of reading and printing. A template for new Strategies can be found at the very bottom. Find abbreviations in the glossary.

Tips[]

The Destrier and Chocobo Shirt can be your friend!

Working Job Combinations[]

This section is not meant to discourage people from trying different combinations, but to illustrate combinations that have been tried and tested. Please feel free to try this BCNM with any combination you think might work, and above all, have fun!

PLD or THF,SMN x2+[]

Strategy One:
A strategy with one PLD or one THF and at least 2 SMN is known to work for this fight. The PLD or thief pulls any fly and then immediately uses their two hour ability. This is required so that the flies will group together in the AoE for Astral Flow. At this level, if not resisted, Shiva's Diamond Dust or Fenrir's Howling Moon should land for 460-480 damage, so it is easy with 2 Astral Flows to take all the houndflies down extremely quickly. If you only have three members, it is highly recommended that the PLD or THF uses their two hour immediately at the start so they have plenty of HP left over after the 2 SMN have used their Astral Flow. It is quite likely that the Huntfly could kill both SMN after Astral Flow and the PLD or THF may need to solo the remaining approximately 25% health. THF's should bring status bolts for this possibility.

Only three members are required using the strategy above, but you are allowed 6 members total. As for the three spots left, any other jobs could work ; at least one additional mage job is recommended to support with healing. Other members should be ready to take any fly that would have partially or fully resisted Astral Flow, though it is quite unlikely if Shiva is used and the summoners have their summoning skill capped. If you have some extra support, a PLD may not have to use Invincible.
Note that this strategy requires 2 SMN's with Astral Flow up, so it is not possible to go by that way repeatedly.
- I have tried this with PLD (Taru), SMN x 2 (Taru, Mithra) using only Sentinel vs. Invincible. I was taking single-digit damage from the flies, nothing a Cure II couldn't shrug off. Summary: Invincible is not required. --Azulmagia 15:30, 25 January 2009 (UTC)

Strategy Two:
The same strategy is known to work with one PLD and only one SMN with help of a couple other mages, and a good deal of self control ; basically the SMN will have to kill the little flys with 2 Diamond Dusts, so the PLD has to hold his ground for one whole minute while the SMN is waiting for his timer to be up. Invincible will only last for 30 seconds, so the party has to deal with the flies for the 30 other seconds, while keeping them gathered enough for the second Diamond Dust to land on them all.

When having only one SMN, dealing with hate is critical. It might be much easier to have the SMN get KO'd after he uses Diamond Dust for the first time and Reraise quickly to gather MP for the second one than to prevent the monsters to attack him, and it has been shown to work.

Edit: I don't see how this works. When you die, Astral Flow wears off and Diamond Dust can no longer be used. I do not see how this "has been shown to work." Aurelious 23:50, November 14, 2009 (UTC)

AoEers Jobs x5 ,Pet Puller x1[]

Strategy:

AoEers can be Blue Mages or Black Mages.
It is recommended that at least 2 Blue Mages are used.
Soporific has a good chance of sleeping the Houndflies (3 to 7 out of 8 slept for about 2 minutes). The Huntfly appears to be resistant to Soporific.
Battle Dance is reported to do about 60-80 damage to all Houndflies in range. Claw Cyclone can do up to 90-120 damage.
BLU/NIN is a nice combo (Dual Wield, three shadows from Utsusemi: Ichi and the extra defense from Cocoon sure help). Equipping the Auto Regen combo Sheep Song - Healing Breeze is advised.
The pet puller can be a Beastmaster, Summoner, or a Puppetmaster.
The puller can be replaced by another AoEer.
One AoEer can be replaced by a healer.
The puller sends in a pet to attack a fly. All the flies will begin to attack the pet. The puller runs back to the group of AoEers. When the pet dies the flies will come for the puller. As the flies get to the group of AoEers, the Blue Mages should open with Sandspin and Battle Dance to lower Accuracy. Black Mages will want the Blue Mages to generate hate before starting their attack. The main target is to kill all the Houndflies with AoE spells first. Once the Houndflies are down, kill Huntfly and you are done. Once the pull happens it takes about 2 minutes to complete the fight.

In case you are considering Sleeping some of the flies, pull the flies towards the AoE (e.g. at the base of the slope towards the BCNM circle). Give one or two quick AoE spells (e.g. Battle Dance and Claw Cyclone), then try to sleep as many of the Houndflies as you can (e.g. Soporific). Move camp to the center of the BCNM circle and drag all remaining flies there. Continue to AoE them to death. Repeat for the slept flies, once they wake up and come after you. This method requires a bit more time and more MP (use MP refresh drinks or ethers) but reduces the risk of losing one or more members from being beaten on by 9 flies.

PLD,WHM,BLM,Off-tank,2 Damage Dealers[]

Strategy: This strategy was developed to suit a group makeup without multiple AoE, multiple Sleep, or the presence of a SMN. Only by coincidence did I discover it is an effective Timed Attack strategy as well. However, it does require the use of some if not most of the group's 2-hour Job Abilities.

My specific group makeup was PLD, WHM, BLM/NIN, WAR/MNK, RNG/NIN, and DRG/MNK.
Consumable buffs recommended include Pamama au Lait for non-casters and Yagudo Drink for the Paladin and mages.
Enchantments recommended include Vision Ring for physical damage dealers or Reraise Earring.
Our group was not particularly well-geared, and we made up for this by using HQ foods.

The success of the fight hinges on the execution of the opening moves. Though it is explained here in an order it should be almost simultaneous in practice. The PLD goes in with WHM ready nearby, and uses Provoke on the boss fly, gaining initial aggro on all of the flies. The BLM then uses Bind on the boss fly as the Off-tank uses his own Provoke on the boss fly. Paladin immediately uses Invincible to grab major aggro on the Houndflies, and disengages from the Huntfly. You may choose to kite the Houndflies to ease targeting in case your BLM wants to Sleep one. The PLD should have a Houndfly targeted. As soon as Invincible is blown, damage dealers need to nuke the Huntfly quickly. Keep an eye on the MP of the WHM - if the Huntfly is dying quickly and the WHM is looking good, you may want to hang on to your 2-hour Job Ability. If everyone is in good shape once the Huntfly is dead, you're golden. If things aren't going perfectly, don't panic. The Houndflies are only a pain when there are eight of them beating on one player. The Off-tank will have Provoke ready when Invincible wears off, and should grab one of the flies from the PLD. If the BLM is using Sleep take care not to strike it. During this part of the fight there will be some need for movement. Be considerate of your healer's casting range though. There are two ways to handle the finish of this strategy: the messy way and the methodical way. My group wasn't all on the same page as for the method, so be assured the messy way can work too.

The Methodical Finish: This assumes the use of Sleep, Provoke, kiting, and focused fire. As soon as Huntfly is dead, a Houndfly is provoked by the Off-tank and a second is slept. The PLD will move the remaining six flies away from the sleeping fly so all of the damage dealers can more easily switch targets and focus the flies down one by one. Kill the Off-tank's target, then the sleeping target. The BLM will Sleep another fly once the first sleeping fly is engaged, and the PLD will move again. Off-tank provokes another fly, and this repeats. This is the most efficient way to execute this if you're concerned about healing aggro.
The Messy Finish: My first-hand experience was not so clean. We never fully recovered from the black mage's trigger happy Bind pull, and our Paladin died with about 7 flies still alive, and there was definitely some panic. Fortunately, luck and hate mechanics were on our side - they all seemed to go after different targets. With some kiting, Utsusemi, Mighty Strikes, and some impressive healing we hung in there. And amazingly enough, broke the clear time record. So be prepared for chaos. ^_^ Exangel 02:05, 25 May 2009 (UTC)

TEMPLATE for future entries[]

<Strategy Name or JOB/SUB, JOB/SUB & JOB/SUB for future entries>[]

Strategy:

<Here you will list off the steps to your strategy>
<Advice for food and drink may also be listed here>

Strategy Pros:

<Here you list off the qualities of the combination or strategy that makes this work>
<This is where the reasoning behind the combination comes to light>

Strategy Cons:

<Here you list off what can go wrong with your combination, and other limitations that>
<people using this strategy would want to consider when entering the fight>

Making this Strategy Better:

<This section lists off things that can be improved to make the strategy work better, such as certain (possibly expensive) changes to armor, weapons, food, or drink, that can improve your chances of success or the speed at which you complete the fight>
<These considerations are not the ones that are required for the strategy, but would certainly help>

Alternative Strategy:

<This entirely optional section is for job combinations that have multiple strategies. This is merely an extension of the same combination, but should be treated the same as the previous sections>

Other Strategies:

<This section is put last, and lists off different job combinations that are similar to strategies listed above, that do not need a full explanation, as the basic strategies are already listed above. A good example would be if you replaced a healer job with another different healing job, the basic strategy does not change, but the combination has. Just list the combinations that have worked, and the rest should be self explanatory>