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Can you do damage to the non-attacked NMs while they sit and wait? Or will that cause them to aggro early? Was just thinking some AOE spells or Avatar abilities would be really helpful if they just stood there and took it. But I'm guessing SE wouldn't be that kind :) --JTimmons 23:15, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Are the bosses' elements (and the bosses of the 3 other Promys) really random? Every picture I've ever seen of them has the same exact elements, the element whose color closest matches the Promyvion. --zoogelio-forgot-his-password 20:48, 30 March 2006 (PST)

Light of Vahzl bug?

Alright. Two weeks ago I joined a run into 5-2 and made it to the Spire of Vahzl. Once there we did Holla -> Mea -> Dem (Their corresponding bosses at the very least). Well. In the end we lost when we took Dem down to 10% health. And just recently I checked through my Key Items and found that I had the Light of Vahzl. I would like it if anyone could confirm this has not just happened to me and is a bug. Later today I will check to see if I can talk to the Tarutaru at Beaucedine Glacier and move onto 5-3.

--Fiye 02:36, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

I recived this key item upon completion of The Enduring Tumult of War cutscene as I first zoned into Promyvion - Vahzl. Noted it in my log and remarked to my LS that I recieved the key item without fighting a single Empty ^_~ Still does not allow me to pass on to 5-3, however. If anyone else can also confirm this, the "How to Obtain" part on the key item needs to change. Also I will pay closer attention once I am actually victorious in the Spire's battle. --Timon of Athens 02:56, 12 May 2007 (CDT)

I got this as I zoned in, too. Didn't realize until before the last NM before the Spire, though. --Xenomaru 04:40, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

misleading

"You can farm the Recollections yourself and be ready, or you can buy the Recollections from the Auction House. These anima are required in order to be able to complete the Spire of Vahzl fight. Do not take people into your party unless they have a full set of the 3 anima. It is strongly recommended that all six people in your party have all 3 style of Anima; Hysteroanima, Psychoanima, and Terroanima. You will be facing all 3 NM at once, one-after-the-other. The anima decides whether you win, or lose and waste up to 4-6 hours of your life." Taken out because anima are not required. The fight is much easier, but easily done with/without anima. --Grm88 00:41, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Not really misleading

Re-added entry regarding Anima. The intended audience doing CoP's will be newer players, requiring 1st time guidance. The fight without animas will not result in consistent wins. Telling people they dont need anima is simply going to cause certain playes to cheap out on them, which kind of screws the rest of the party, and wastes everyone's time. I think it is fairly irresponsible to remove that information.
--Malitia 05:10, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Then you should state that the use of Animas is highly recommended as it will make for more success. Then add a Strategy entry showing an example from first-hand experience. Probably something like "Anima is highly recommended, in particular, Hysteroanime and Psychoanima." Asphe 17:10, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Testimonials

Broke Record on Fairy with this setup SAM, SAM, WAR, BRD, RDM, PLD we went in only buffs were refresh + balladx2 for PLD and used Poison Potions for sleep. BRD grabbed Agonizer with dia fought him easily with PLD tanking. On all 3 Nms used hysto and psycho animas at ~40-50%. Once he got down to 20% Cumulator ran up one of the sams accidentally used his terranima on the Agonizer but that wasn't a problem we just kept at the Agonizer until it went down. Once it went down we ate our food and used any buffs like Hasso and BRD used 2 hr to help. 1 SAM then used 2 hr about at 50% taking that thing down quickly even though that killed himself too because last NM came for him (me). Last NM was very easy just fought it used unnessary animas just to be efficient and one breaking the record on June 04 2009. (Eruvae)
Just beat this BCNM with setup blu/thf, mnk/war, rdm/whm, dnc/whm, nin/war, pld/war. The fight was easy with full anima, we used psycho and hystero anima on each NM at 60%hp and 30%hp. When next NM agroed us, we just used a Terroanima on it and we were able to finish off the current NM before it came back. Took them down in about 10mins with no 2hrs. Each of the NMs on the walk there are definitely harder than their BCNM versions.
With a setup including two or more BLM it is possible to win this fight without using anima or 2-hours (a good setup example is RDM, BLM x2, NIN x2 and WHM because this setup minimises the TP gain of the enemy). The strategy is to have the black mages both cast Freeze at 19-22% to kill the boss you are fighting, and have one NIN temporarily tank or a RDM Gravity kite the next one for a few seconds if necessary. It is better to use Freeze a little bit too late than too early, as the idea is to make sure the boss you are fighting dies from the spells, then have the black mages heal to full in a safe corner and repeat the same thing on the next. Naturally if you have more than two BLM it is probably safe to start casting around 25%.
Also a setup of WHM, RDM, SAM (tank), and 3 DDs can be used throughout all the fights. Have everyone bring full sets of anima, and do not use any until you fight in the BCNM. Just be sure the mages stay back away to avoid the AoE, and all DDs to bring poison potions.
Another setup that makes this BC easy—yes easy—is PLD NIN BLU BLU WHM RDM. Poison pots are recommended, 2-3 per BC. Only 1 Hysteroanima was used for the Cumulator at 20%. Read/use the above dual BLU method and Procreator PLD Invincible information to complete this strategy.
Kiting: The real pain in this fight is the second boss, as he's such a beast. Our setup was WHM RDM NIN PLD BLU DRG. PLD main tanked and when the second boss aggroed NIN kited him away from battle with the support of the RDMs Gravity, as the RDM himself needed mp we all full rested while the NIN had fun running around. WHMs save Divine Seal Cursna for this moment! Same for the third boss, PLD tanks the second, when the third approaches, NIN kites it with Gravity, and everybody full rests. When the third boss spawned the little ones BLU Self-destructed slaughtering them all and winning the round, awesome move. Easy pie and great fun. 16min. 1 Hysteroanima on the first boss.
Setup: NIN NIN BLU BLM RDM WHM. Went into the BCNM fight with no buffs. Some used non-defensive foods. Pulled Procreator first. Used Hysteroanima at 50%. When Agonizer aggrod at 20%, one of the NIN used a Psychoanima on the Agonizer and kited it until the Procreator was dead. The Psychoanima was probably unnecessary, but allowed the kiter to keep his shadows until the rest of the party had finished off the other mob. Whole party used Poison Potions for the Agonizer to eliminate the sleep problem. Once again, used a Hysteroanima at 50% on the Agonizer and did the above mentioned kite method on the Cumulator when it aggrod. Used another Hysteroanima on the Cumulator at 50%. One Terroanima used when the Cumulator went after the mages after an Impalement move. There were a couple of close calls for the NIN on the Cumulator's Impalement move, but the NIN both carried Hi-Potions for that move specifically. No KOs. No Two Hour Ability used. Fight lasted ~16 minutes and went very smoothly. --Jerkin 01:43, 27 January 2009 (UTC)
WAR/NIN,PLD/WAR,SAM/NIN,SAM/DNC,DRG/WHM,RDM/BLM

Healing was not an issue, Potions and Eithers were not needed. Climb up was easy and never hard at any point. The Spire: Upon entering the BC area we got all our buffs up and move in the order we pulled was Agonizer first, Cumulator attacks next, and then Procreator. We used 1 Psyco Anima on this NM and had it to 20% in no time. at this time the Cumulator approached and one of the melees used a terror Anima on him. 1 of the SAM's then used thier 2Hour and hacked at the Agonizer wich died quickly. All Melee then moved to the Cumulator. we used a Psyco Anima on him as well and beat on him to 20% in no time at this time the Procreator approached, this is where the RDM kited that last NM while we killed the Cumulator, Also 2nd SAM 2houred on this one death was nearly instant. Upon defeating this NM all Melee moved to the final NM where DRG and the WAR 2houred went down and fast we also used up any extra animas we had to keep him at bay. Our battle was completed with this set up in 11minutes and 53 seconds.

BCNM setup:3-BLM/WHM 1-RDM/WHM 1-PLD/WAR.(5 people)

the 6th was another BLM i was 2boxing but didn't bother entering for the dry run. did not do the climb with this set up, used pld/thf/rdm/whm/drg/war. was incredibly hard to do climb with this setup. Entered, no buffs except blink and reraise. fought Agonizer > Cumulator > Procreator. BLMs cast w/e nukes weak to the element, just nuked/rest at will. BLM's assisted with stun and curing when PLD was low on HP or when RDM ran low on MP. BLM's are expected to do damage the entire fight NOT time nuke, PLD would have trouble keeping hate after 2nd or 3rd time nuke, too much spike damage. PLD tanked/tried to keep hate as much as possible. if BLM get hate, just kite until PLD can regain hate. For the most part Agonizer was straight tanked.(rdm had to convert during this one) Cumulator was kited for the majority of the fight (took the most time to kill) BLM's and RDM were low on MP at this point. When Cumulator got around 25% MP was in good shape, BLM's focused on killing him while the Procreator was bind/gravity/stunned until Cumulator died. Procreator was then straight tanked while BLM's unleashed everything they had on it. used manafont (might not be necessary) ~Called the use of items/2hrs once we had Procreator down to 50% with just under 10 minutes left.~ PLD ended up using one Psychoanima @ 25%, 1 BLM died at 50~25% (only death) Battlefield clear time was 23 minutes 49 seconds with cutscene. 1-anima, 1-2hr, 1 death, 5 people. Mythrillboots - Valfor

As promised, here are the explanations for all the changes I made on this wiki page.

I changed the second bullet to have the actual direction come first in the sentence and ergo make the direction more prominent.
I added a sub-bullet to that same direction because in my experience, most groups will combine those two missions and don't take into account the amount of time the ending cutscenes of 5-1 will take.
Minor edits of taking out apostrophes from pluralization of words
I made headings to differentiate from the two parts of this mission, the climb and the fight.
I changed the order of the first two bullets so that the level cap came first, the level cap is often one of the first things people want to know before planning a mission. The number of floors is secondary to that.
I split the three floor NMs into their own bullets to make it easier to read. The paragraph before was informational but not broken up in a way that would be easily referenced.
I also moved some recommendations around in this section so that the information corresponding to the particular NM was located directly beneath it's name, rather than after the fact.
I restructured the sentence about the Ponderer absorbing food to make it more general, Paladins are not the only tanks and the NM could possibly absorb food/buffs from anyone with hate.
I added the note about the fifth floor not needing an MR because some people in my party thought we had to advance through another MR after the Memory Flux on the fifth floor and I figured it needed a little bit of clarification.
I also reworded the note about being able to warp to any floor, the previous wording was ambiguous and made it sound like clicking on the Memory Flux would give you the option during the cutscene to warp to another floor.

Also, I just did the climb without using any animas. They are probably more likely to be required during the final fight than during the climb. But then, we went with 3 people who had never done CoP and 3 people who had. The floor NMs gave us no trouble (we had NINx2, SMN, WHM, RDM, BRD). I haven't done the fight recently (that will be later tonight for the people who need) so I can't comment on that part. -thanopstru 16:28, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

Malitia's Prep Tips!

Make sure everyone in your party has at least looked at this page on the Wiki so they understand what is going on. Give them the wiki address in game: wiki.ffxiclopedia.org, and just have them search Desires of Emptiness; spelling is important. It's ok to be a little bit assertive when setting these up, as failures mean people lose money and a lot of time.
Make sure before you look for a party, or accept an invitation to a party, that you have finished the required cutscenes from The Enduring Tumult of War; you don't want tp make people wait, as this Promyvion can often take a long time. If you waste too much time, people may have to leave due to time constraints, and then you may have to walk through the tower all over again from the start if you fill the spot with someone who hasn't done the Promyvion - Vahzl mission before. This can trap you into an almost unending cycle.
Get Anima. You can farm the Recollections yourself and be ready, or you can buy the Recollections from the Auction House. You could almost count these anima are required in order to be able to complete the Spire of Vahzl fight. Do not take people into your party unless they have a full set of the 3 anima. It is strongly recommended that all six people in your party have all 3 style of Anima; Hysteroanima, Psychoanima, and Terroanima. You will be facing all 3 NM at once, one-after-the-other. The anima may very well decide whether you win, or lose and waste those hours of your life.
Melee may want to consider bringing along Hi-Potions, Regen-drinks, and attack or accuracy food is sensible. Hi-Potion(5-10) is extremely recommended. If you wipe on the final battle, and have used your 2 hour skills, then it's over. So unless you can find 5 more people to do the Spire of Vahzl fight exclusively, then you have to make the climb to the top all over again.
Mages may want to consider bringing Refresh-drinks, Ethers, and MP food.
Additionally, you need to bring Antidotes(4-6), and Poison Potion(4-6). Optionally you can bring Holy Water(2-3) as well so that you can remove the MaxHP/MP reduction of curse from the Thinker type NM.
Finally remember that you are going to be facing off against a total of 6 NM's altogether. 3 on your way up to the Spire of Vahzl, and then 3 altogether inside the Spire of Vahzl. Because of this it is strongly recommended that you farm 1 extra set of Psychoanima, and Hysteroanima and store them in your Delivery Box.
- The reason behind this is that these NM's on the floors going up to the Spire of Vahzl can be very hard as well, and if 1 or 2 members can use anima on these NM's when they reach 50% and 20% HP, it will greatly increase your odds of winning. This way you are also using only a consumable item, not your 2 hour skills to win(you will need your 2 hour skills in the Spire of Vahzl fight). The alternative is potentially wiping on the Floor-NM's, and have to release, or reraise and unweaken. Both of which are going to take a tremendous amount of time.
  If you just bring your anima's with you and have two people use them 2 per Floor-NM, you could then exit after getting the 3rd floor Memory Flux-cutscene. You can go get the Anima stored in your Delivery Box, return to Pso'Xja, and select the "Ponderer" option at the door to take you directly back to the 3rd floor near the Spire of Vahzl where you left off. This option may take you 20-30 minute extra. Ignoring this can take you anywhere from 1+ hours of trial & error on the Floor-NM's if things do not go perfectly during the Floor-NM fights.

Couldn't this be on it's own page? Say Malitia's Guide to COP? Put a link to this on the main page? Also this can be considerably shortened. You point out very valid tactics but then assume the reader will know what to do with your advice, after assuming that having progressed this far in COP. Do consider visiting Erecia's version of such a guide. Asphe 17:14, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Talk:Desires of Emptiness