COP 3-5 lessons learned, a collection of info

http://s9.invisionfree.com/HighQuality/ind...topic=407&st=30

http://s9.invisionfree.com/HighQuality/ind...p?showtopic=480

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Positioning seems to be the key for this encounter.

Valyana's description of the tiles:
http://s9.invisionfree.com/HighQuality/ind...topic=407&st=15
http://photobucket.com/albums/y172/Valyana...rrent=tiles.jpg


Massive sleep resist and stunning effects are also useful.

Beyond that, the boss seems to be a standard IT++ dark-aligned mob.

I don't think he's IT++. I was geared more for MP than CHR and still had no trouble landing debuffs, and the melees had about 85% accuracy (with sushi and madrigal, admittedly). I'd guess more like plain IT.

The two keys for this fight are
A) Positioning so that you don't fall through disappearing tiles even when Diabolos uses his knockback WS, Camisado.
B) Dealing with Nightmare. There are three ways to deal with Nightmare:
1) Stun it, with the spell from a DRK or stunning WS.
2) Resist it, with Barsleepra + Fowl Aubade. Barsleepra alone helps, but not enough to depend on.
3) Keep a mage out of range. If the tank is in a corner tile, a mage in any of the three tiles in the opposite corner will not get hit by Nightmare, and can then Curaga to wake the rest of the party up.

Or you can do all three, as we did.

Having an RDM or BRD to dispel his Phalanx buff (Noctoshield) is useful, though not necessary.

That tiles image: http://photobucket.com/albums/y172/Valyana...rrent=tiles.jpg

This post has been edited by Valyana on Nov 3 2005, 08:15 AM

I initially suspect Diabolos to be an IT++ for the following reasons:

1) Ulamine and Mirelle ONLY had ~ 85% accuracy with their A-rated weapon skills using sushi and madrigal.

123 weapon skill with ~+19 accuracy from just sushi is still 9 points higher than what a typical lvl 40 DD configuration (ie: a pair of snipers) would have given them... and they were using +dex and +acc rings instead of snipers. This is in addition to all of the normal +dex and +acc gear they normally wear.

If they were using their standard level 40 DD gear w/o madrigal, I strongly suspect that their accuracy would only be ~63% at best.


But... then again, Ales has a 65% accuracy with taco's and madrigal... Hmm... maybe there's a lower cap on the chance to hit Diabolos (ie: 85%)?

Either that, or Ulamine's and Mirelle's accuracy is capped at 95% vs Diablos, and I interpreted the 85% accuracy statement incorrectly. >.<

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2) None of my debuffs (other than Dia II) will stick. Granted, I'm not casting through vulnerabilities, but my enfeebling skill is capped for a 75 BLM, which means that it's also capped for a 40 WHM.

If I'm not going up against a highly magic resistant mob, or casting through resistances, I typically expect at least one of my debuffs to stick vs a standard IT mob.

Of course, Diabolos could be somewhat of a dark elemental and resistant to spells based on "inert" elements (ie: spells based on Ice, Earth, or Water... and Dark)

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Maybe another PT can go in and verify things for us?

Diabolos' WS:

Camisado: single-target physical damage and knockback (~100 to PLD, ~200 to MNK)
Noctoshield: Phalanx
Ultimate Terror: AOE Absorb-All.
Nightmare: AOE sleep and Bio III. Damage doesn't wake you up from this sleep, only cures.

He also casts dark-elemental spells: Sleepga, Sleep II, Bio II, Drain, Aspir, Blind, and I think Dispel.

If you have a DRK along to Stun, have them drink poison so sleepga doesn't stick on them; on our win our DRK missed one Nightmare because they had been hit with Sleepga. For that matter, have everyone drink poison so Sleepga isn't an issue.

He gains TP fast, so be ready for Nightmare right away.

This post has been edited by Valyana on Nov 4 2005, 11:59 AM

More reading:

http://s9.invisionfree.com/HighQuality/ind...p?showtopic=440

http://s9.invisionfree.com/HighQuality/ind...opic=1001&st=30

I read that this was possible when the BC was first introduced, but that a patch changed it so that everyone is drawn in even if they aren't in the party. Haven't tested it myself, though.