Assault: Saving Private Ryaaf

On Saturday, Yobun, Izan and Kiki were the only three who felt like tackling some assault missions. Given our limitations job-wise (Izan only has DRG at 75 and Kiki only PLD), we decided that Saving Private Ryaaf was the only one of the Superior Private missions that we might stand a reasonable chance of success. Most of them involve killing a lot of monsters, and we didn't think the three of us could manage that.

This mission involves finding 3 NPCs in the caves of Periqia, and freeing them. They can be in five different locations, and are hunched over when you arrive. To make it a bit trickier, two of the rooms will have a Fomor hunched over, hoping to trick you. There are Experimental Undead roaming the corridors, and nasty Cursed Chigoes in each of the possible rooms for the prisoners.

We did the mission the first time as DRG/RDM, PLD/RDM, and Yobun as PLD/WHM. The chigoes are really nasty - they hit hard and fast, but are killed quickly with a damaging job ability such as Jump or Shield Bash. We cleared the first room quickly, and got lucky and found one of the NPCs. Using the walkthrough on the wiki, we knew which rooms the other two would be in, and finished the mission without needing to fight a single Fomor. The second room's chigoes were much more difficult, as we hadn't waited for our Job Ability timers, and we found that it was really hard to actually hit the chigoes, and so it's really hard to build TP. Fortunately, we did get in critical hits, which do kill them, and another time, Yobun was able to get enough TP from being hit by them that he was ablne to use Circle Blade and kill several at once.

We ended up doing the mission another two times (probably would have gone a fourth time, but I had to get ready for Ninja Blues (needlessly as it turned out)), and Izan had switched to DRG/DRK to have Weapon Bash available in addition to his Jumps. Izan got killed by the chigoes on our second run (they also can curse you, reducing your max HP), but we did get better at getting rid of the chigoes without too much pain and suffering.

Again using the wiki walkthrough, we decided the best way to do this mission is to check the north room first. If the hunched-over figure is facing east, it's a fomor, and you know the figure in the west room will be an NPC. Based on who it is, you will know which of the other two rooms have the NPCs. Similarly, if it's facing north, it's an NPC, and by knowing who he is, you know where the other two are.

It's really too easy, especially for jobs that can instantly kill the chigoes - DRG, PLD, DRK, SAM and anyone subbing any of those. I think THF with SA and TA would work well too, since those will guarantee critical hits, but it might be tricky to get behind for a SA, since the chigoes are so tiny.