Early Bird Catches the Wyrm/Strategies

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Contents 1 Working Job Combinations 1.1 Recommended Strategy 1.2 Other Strategies 2 Standard Strategy (No 2 Hours) 2.1 Recommended Setup

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!

• 2 NIN/DRK (Tank Party)
• 2WHM (Tank Party)
• 1RDM/DRK (Tank Party)
• 1BRD/WHM (Tank Party)
• BLM x5 (BLM Party)
• Healer WHM/RDM/SMN (BLM Party)
• 3rd party a melee setup

Recommended Strategy

2 NIN/DRK, 2WHM, 1RDM/DRK, 1BRD/WHM for tank PT. Then, a BLM party with a healer to keep them alive from Hurricane Wing, and a melee PT. All members of all parties are to stand on the front 2 feet away from the mouth, just as they would for Fafnir or Nidhogg. For the tank party, and occasionally the other 2 parties, Barfira is highly recommended.

Strategy:

• Pull the Wyrm to the outside of the circle.
• At the start the melee will be responsible for taking off the first 30ish%, and BLM can use Thunder III only.
• Put Gravity on the Wyrm just before it hits 70%. It can only take off from the center of the circle, and this will make sure it goes back to there slower.
• Set up a Light or Fragmentation skillchain, call a time, and do it to trigger the Wyrm's flight.
• When it turns to move back towards the center of the circle (at ~65% probably during the skillchain), the RDM can Chainspell Stun while BLM Thunder MB the skillchain then spam as much Thunder magic as possible.
• When it reaches 32% (and lands if it ever managed to get off the ground), BLMs who do not have hate can move out of the arena area and rest for MP; if a BLM has hate they should stay on one of the front feet until another player has regained hate control.
• Moving the wyrm around in too many directions may incite a Spike Flail, which is considered a "loss" for the BC. Upon getting MP they can head back into the BC area and continue nuking until the Wyrm is defeated.

Strategy Pros:

• Each party is set up for one kind of task, ie tank, nukes and melee.

Strategy Cons:

• Spike Flail is considered a loss.
• If a party can not work as a team the wyrm will move around a lot.

Making this Strategy Better:

• You need about +210-220 fire resistance to fully resist its fire AoE attack. With Fire Carol, Barfira, Shellra V and SMN Earthen Ward plus Dream Shroud its Fire AoE should do 0 damage every time.
• Additional note - While extra stuns are helpful, many times the Wyrm will use the TP move that was stunned immediately after stun wears off.

Strategy without using 2 hours:

• Tank Party: 2 tanks (pld/nin, nin/drk, rdm/nin all work fine) (tanks should use +Fire Resist gear), WHM (WHM should have Shellra V, capped barspell merits and AF2 legs), SMN, BRD, RDM
• BLM Party: BLM x5 and a BRD.
• Melee/DD party: at least 2 melee (or one Samurai) to do a light or fragmentation skillchain; a WHM and then fill the rest of the slots in with other DD
• Start the fight just like Fafnir/Nidhogg.
• Stand on its feet and fight it down to about 75% HP
• At this time do a Light or Fragmentation skillchain and everyone magic burst with their strongest Thunder spell.
• The Wyrm will take flight at 65%'ish; with 5 BLM you can nuke the Wyrm down to about 40-45% instantly. At this time, all non-tank party leave the area. Get far enough away to not get hit with its AoE attacks. BLM take turns buffing up (Stoneskin, Shell mainly) running in, stand next to the tank party and nuke (Thunder IV or Burst II). If the BLM doesn't pull hate it runs back out of range.
• Repeat until the Wyrm lands.
• Then fight once again like Fafnir/Nidhogg. Keep in mind that Wyrm seems to spam TP moves very quickly under 25% HP. Too many wings can spell trouble so take it out fast.

Strategy Pros:

Strategy Cons:

Making this Strategy Better:

• You need about +210-220 fire resistance to fully resist its fire AoE attack. With Fire Carol, Barfira, Shellra V and SMN Earthen Ward plus Dream Shroud its Fire AoE should do 0 damage every time.
• Additional note - While extra stuns are helpful, many times the Wyrm will use the TP move that was stunned immediately after stun wears off.
• A BRD/WHM in the BLM party with a large MP pool (400-500+) will allow all BLMs to stay in range for continuous nukes. Curaga, Curaga II, and Divine Seal + Curaga II if things get out of hand. Barfira is usually enough to keep this group standing, and it is possible to win even if three or more BLMs are KO'd.

Other Strategies

Spike Flail is not an automatic loss. You can reraise, regroup, and still win this fight after a Spike Flail. However keep in mind that if you begin to wipe the entire alliance may be drawn into the middle of the BC right under the Wyrm. Since the Wyrm aggros true sight, it would be impossible to re-raise if draw in occurs.

Standard Strategy (No 2 Hours)

Strategy Submitted by Artanis of Fenrir 11/3/2008

This section is dedicated to an additional strategy that could potentially be used for this KSNM without the aid of 2 hours (including chainspell stun). The ultimate goal is to do this KSNM periodically within a short given amount of time. Although setups will vary due to job availability, this strategy section will hopefully set the standards for success. It is highly recommended that the leader or the group as a whole have endgame experience, such as fighting against sky gods and/or Proto-Ultima before attempting this strategy. In addition, it is highly recommended that certain jobs are fully merited in order to better enhance damage dealing and survival. Please note that during flight, we will treat the TP move Flame Blast similar to how Citadel Buster is handled for Proto-Ultima.

Recommended Setup

ex) * #...Job...Notes...[Job Function/Purpose] (Designated Party)

• 2 Tanks; either 2 PLD/NIN or 2 NIN/DRK or a combination of both (Tank Party)
• 1 BRD/WHM [Haste/Ballad on ground; Carol/Ballad in Air](Tank Party)
• 1 RDM/???; Subjob is optional [Tank Refresher/Support Healer/Debuffer] (Tank Party)
• 1-2 WHM/SCH or WHM/BLM [Recommed 5/5 Shellra V & AFv2 Legs for Barfira) (Tank Party)
• (Optional) 1 SMN/WHM or BLU/??? [Stoneskin Buff for Party/Tanks; DD] (Tank Party)

• 2-3 Range Attackers [RNG, MNK, SMN, etc etc; DD for ground and Air] (DD Party)
• 1-2 Trick Attack Melee [SAM/THF, THF/NIN, DRK/THF, etc etc; Hate Control] (DD Party)
• 2 Healers [SMN, WHM, RDM, etc; Support Healing/Refresh] (DD Party)
• (Optional) BLU/??? [Self-Light Skillchain for BLM Party] (DD Party)

• 3-4 BLM [Thunder Spells only for max damage; Elemental Debuffs] (BLM Party)
• 1 Healer/Refresher
• (Optional) If low on BLM, can substitute with SMN

Strategy:

Start of Battle Till Flight

• Set up alliance before the bridge to the BCNM Arena with Tank Party up front. Alliance should be approximately 35' from the Wyrm and the tank party within range of the Wyrm.
• Send two tanks to position the Wyrm within the arena (preferably Wyrm towards the alliance to prevent spike flail). Wyvern will initially open up with Hurricane Wing and should only hit the tanks (recast shadows when necessary). Once hate has been established on the two tanks, send the alliance in where tanks will stand on one paw and rest of alliance on the other paw.
• Melees with Trick Attack capabilities should immediately regulate hate onto the tanks so that the tanks build up to their hate threshold. It is imperative that no other mage/melee in the alliance acquire hate over the tanks during any point of this fight.
• All mages must have Stoneskin up throughout the entire fight. They are recommended to land debuffs on the Wyrm including DoT spells (bio, elemental debuffs, etc) throughout the entire fight. It is recommended to limit the type of cure spells to Cure III and Cure V to prevent unnecessary generation of hate. Nuking should be limited to Tier II to Tier III depending on level of hate acquired. If hate is exceedingly great, the blm should stop nuking in order to for them to continue fighting during the flight phase. All nuking should be limited to Thunder spells.
• Chip down the Wyrm's HP to 70% HP. The Wyrm will continuously use TP moves from the start of this fight to 70%HP. Due to the Wyrm alternating between fire-based tp (Flame Breath), wind based (Hurricane Wing), and terror, tanks should use a haste setup during this portion of the fight. Since the Wyrm is stunnable, a stun order could be used to help better the tank's handling of the Wyrm's attacks.
• At 70% HP, initiate a Light or Fragmentation Skillchain (either through melees or blu self-light) followed by a Magic Burst (Thunder IV or Burst II) from the black mages. If done properly, it should be enough to reduce the Wyrm's HP significantly making the Flight phase shorter. This however is optional but is highly recommended to improve time efficiency and vitality of alliance. The Wyrm will take up to the air between 65-67% regardless.

Flight Till End of Flight

• Before Wyrm takes flight (68-67%), the tanks must switch to fire resistance gear or magic dmg reduction gear. The Bard must immediately put up Fire Carol followed by Ballad II asap. White Mage must apply Barfire and Shellra V (in the event Shellra V has been dispelled). Stoneskin must be put up at all times for mages in order to survive the Flame Blast TP move.
• When the Wyrm takes flight, immediately have the entire alliance exit the arena to at least a distance of 35-40' from the tanks. If someone other than the tanks have hate, they must remain in the arena or else the Wyrm will Draw-In the entire alliance back into the arena (which is not good).
• The Wyrm will transition into a new form of attack. It's standard melee attacks will be replaced by Fire based elemental damage which will ignore shadows. A heavy fire resist gear with the appropriate buffs will keep it controlled to minimal damage. The Wyrm will also acquire a new TP move called Flame Blast, which is a heavy fire-based damage move that extends 35' AROUND THE TARGET. Persons that gets hit with this move without appropriate buffs will get damaged between 300-700dmg. Based on observation, the Wyrm will alternate between Flame Blast and Hurricane Wing, Flame Blast used more often.
• Once the alliance is off and away from the Wyrm, the tanks will maintain as much hate as possible, during which the rdm and brd must keep up refresh on them. It is recommended that the WHM and BRD reapply fire carol and Barfire AFTER each Flame Blast goes off.
• All range attackers (Blm, rng, smn, mnk, etc) should use a hit-and-run tactic after each subsequent flame blast (similar to Proto-Ultima's Citadel Buster) using mid-to-high end DD methods (Tier III or IV nukes, blood pacts, etc). After applying damage to the Wyrm, run back out of range to avoid getting hit by Flame Blast to reduce MP consumption.
• Healers of other parties can now support heal for the tank party if the hit/run tactic is used successively. Always have stoneskin up as there is a great chance of getting hit by Flame Blast.
• Keep note that generating hate over the tanks will trigger Draw-In, which will bring the entire alliance back into the arena. DDs having too much hate should allow some time to cool off by doing nothing. Keep up DoT sells as much as possible. It is not recommended to constantly use stun as it will generate a great deal of hate over time. To help conserve mp, it is recommended for hurt members to rest a good deal of distance away from the Wyrm.
• Although slow but steady fight, chip down the Wyrm's hp to 32%. The entire alliance should be ready to enter back into the arena at this point when the Wyrm Lands.

End of Flight to End of Fight

• The tanks must reposition the Wyrm asap to avoid spike flail. Once the Wyrm has been repositioned, the entire alliance (especially the DDs) should immediately get back onto the paws. Tanks should switch back to their haste setup and resume blink tanking.
• Same strategy for the beginning of the fight should be used for this phase.
• During the last remaining HP (between 10-13%), DDs are allowed to go all out to finish off the Wyrm (high tier nukes, tp moves, blood pacts, etc).
• Continue chipping the Wyrm's HP until it is defeated.
• Approx. time of defeating the Wyrm under the right circumstances should be around 10-15 minutes. A tank death or a healer death can extend the time by 5-10 minutes.

Strategy Pros:

• Each party is set up for one kind of task, ie tank, nukes and melee.
• Strategy requires no use of 2 hour given the appropriate setup. Availability for 2 hour is open.
• Strategy allows versatility for alliance setup.
• Strategy, when use properly, allows this KSNM to be done periodically in a short amount of time.

Strategy Cons:

• Spike Flail is considered a loss.
• If a party can not work as a team the wyrm will move around a lot.
• Hate control is absolutely necessary.
• TP control during flight is absolutely necessary.
• A Draw-in/Flame Blast incident could significantly raise the rate of defeat.
• Everyone must pay attention to what they're doing.

Making this Strategy Better:

• You need about +210-220 fire resistance to fully resist its fire AoE attack. With Fire Carol, Barfira, Shellra V and SMN Earthen Ward plus Dream Shroud its Fire AoE should do 0 damage every time.
• Additional note - While extra stuns are helpful, many times the Wyrm will use the TP move that was stunned immediately after stun wears off.
• A better coordination using Proto-Ultima tactics are useful for this fight.
• Tanks and healers with merits will increase survivability greatly. WHM with maxed Shellra V is highly ideal for this fight.
• Thfs are useful to remove enmity from top performing DDs and can stick hate onto tanks.
• SMNs are extremely useful for this fight for both defense and offense.
• 1 Blue Mage is sufficient enough to start off a Light Skillchain.
• You can reduce the number of Black Mages for this fight to 2-3 depending on their hate generation.
• Everyone should bring a reraise item so that in the event they die, they can exit the arena and rest till they are ready to fight again.
• Use 2 hours in the event something freakish happens.