Missions: When Angels Fall (CoP 8-3)

A week ago Friday, our static met in the Tavnazian Safehold and headed to The Garden of Ru'Hmet for the penultimate mission in the Chains of Promathia story line, When Angels Fall. First we had to make our way to the top floors of three of the towers in the Garden, so that we could each get a key item specific for our race. The Galkas needed the Light of Al'Taieu, the Mithras needed the Light of Dem, while the Tarutarus needed the Light of Holla. Good thing we didn't have a Hume and Elvaan in the group, as it would have taken a lot longer.

We had to do a lot of sneaking around and some fighting as we made our way through each tower, and we had a few deaths along the way. The strategy that worked pretty well for us was to have Grym flee through each level, gathering up the mobs between the entrance and the exit elevators, hopefully making it to the elevator safely. Then the mobs would despawn and the rest of us could make it through.

Once we had all obtained our Light, we had to then get the Brand of Twilight and the Brand of Dawn, from opposite ends of the second floor of the Garden. To get to the central elevator, we had to pass through a gauntlet of 4 pots. The door at the far end would shut as soon as they leave their pedestals when they spot someone in their room, so our plan was to have Grym run in and have them all kill her in a corner while we hid in an opposite corner. That didn't work as we planned. So Wendell reraised and managed to raise the rest of us without the pots noticing after they returned to their posts, and we were able to get through the door and head up the elevator.

After more sneaking around, we were ready to enter the battlefield for the mission. We first fought some of the Ghrah to build up TP, and we headed in to fight four pots, called Ix'zdeis. Our plan was to have me run in first to get aggro from them all, and pull them to the back side. The two at the back are BLMs, and it's best to kill them first, since they can cause more problems with their -aga spells, and they have a bit less HP than the other two pots, which are RDMs. We hoped to kill both of the BLM pots before wiping, and hoped to reraise safely and continue with the fight after we were unweakened. Wendell would use Elemental Seal+Sleepga to put the other 3 pots asleep, with Elboron trying to see if he could land Lullaby on them as well (couldn't, not even with Soul Voice).

It didn't work quite the way we intended. The pots bound me before I got them all the way to the end, and then we only got one dead before we wiped. We were using free weaponskills rather than a chain, since our best weaponskills didn't make a good chain. The pot's special moves really did us in, as we got petrified repeatedly, and there was little we could do. Then, before we could reraise, Wendell got disconnected, and we also figured we were going to get aggro on our reraise, so we just stayed down and got booted out after 3 minutes. Meanwhile, Wendell got logged back in.

I wanted to try a dry run, since Itera still had his two hour left, and I needed to see what that would do so we would be better prepared for the following weekend. We were running short on time, so we didn't get TP either. We had the same problems with petrification, which ended up wasting most of Itera's Hundred Fists, and then just as we got the first pot nearly dead, it jumped back up on its pedestal to "regen", which looked more like a Benediction, since it was instantly full health. That was good to learn as well.

It was a pretty discouraging evening overall, and I wasn't really sure how we could improve. One idea I came up with was to merit Fealty, which would give me 60 seconds of "powerful resistance" to status effects, which could save me from a lot of the crap the pots were throwing at us. So over the week I soloed Lesser Colibri as PLD/NIN and my new Mensur Epee, and had some fun getting the 4k limit points I needed to get to my 3rd merit point, and I "bought" Fealty with it.

For our rematch on Friday, Splinte decided to come WAR/SAM for the TP gain, and I decided using powder boots might help me make it to the back of the BC before getting bound. We had better luck making it to the central elevator this time, with Grym managing to sneak past the pots and through the door, which she could open for the rest of us. I then ran in to aggro them all and die so that the others could all make it up the elevator safely. Elboron got caught though, and died as well. Wendell gave us R3s, and we headed upstairs.

After building our TP, we headed into the fight. My powder boots did get me to the back of the room fast enough, but the one BLM pot that was our first target didn't follow, and sat right next to its pedestal. So we ended up fighting it there. Elboron used Soul Voice and gave us double attack songs, while Wendell put the other three pots to sleep. The fight was much smoother this time, whether Fealty helped, or we just got lucky with the TP moves, I'm not sure. Grym, Itera, and I did our 3 part light skillchain twice, first with the TP we had coming in, then using icarus wings and doing it a second time, and that helped take out a good chunk. Splinte spammed his WS. I think Itera also used Hundred Fists on the first one. It was very scary when the first pot was almost dead, as it started to hop back up on its pedestal for its "regen", but we got it dead somehow. We moved on to the second pot, and Wendell ended up using Benediction and I used Invincible, but we both ended up dying halfway through the second BLM pot. I think it was Splinte, then Elboron, then Itera, then Grym, but they all survived long enough to kill the second pot, and get about a quarter of the HP from one of the RDM pots.

We reraised, rested up, and finished off the last two pots. Splinte did some big weaponskill right at the end and got blasted with Optic Induration for about 1800 damage, so he was dead at the end of the fight, but it was over, and we had won!

We headed across the room for a cutscene, and since the night was young, we decided to check out the fight for the last mission, with no items or two hours or even a plan - just to see what was in store for us the following Friday. It looks like it will be a pretty fun fight. You face Promathia, but have Prishe and Selh'teus helping in the battle. Promathia has two forms, and we killed the first form (I died pretty fast), and even got the second form down a good chunk before wiping, so I think we'll be able to do it just fine when we face it for real.

New Title: Warrior of the Crystal