Soloing the Primes

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to try soloing the 6 Prime Avatars (the Celestial Avatars) in the "Trial by (element)" quests. Lots of people have done this, but I just wanted to see how I'd fare. I was mostly worried about Garuda and Leviathan, since they can heal themselves, so I thought I'd start out with Titan.

However, I mentioned this in BEB one evening, and Yobun needed Shiva, so my first "solo" ended up being a duo. Yobun didn't really do anything, though. In fact, he sat down to watch after casting one (resisted) spell. This was a good way for me to try out soloing, with a SCH standing by in case it didn't go so well... I did go back a few weeks later for a true Shiva solo, just to keep it consistent with the others.

One the things this exercise reinforced was just how much better the Paladin job is now than it was back in the day. Yobun had tried soloing avatars years ago on his PLD, but had either timed out or been blasted by a two-hour. These days, with the changes to Rampart, Shield Mastery, Sentinel, and new things like Atonement and Reprisal, Paladin really has come into its own. Not to mention there's a lot of really nice gear available now that wasn't around back then.

The fights took from just under 8 minutes (Shiva) to nearly 13 minutes (Leviathan), so they weren't slam dunks by any means, but for most of the fights I never felt like I was in any danger of dying or timing out either. Ramuh proved to put up the biggest fight of the 6, mostly because of his en-stun effect.

I went to each fight as PLD/RDM, for the bar spells as well as innate magic defense bonus. For gear, I wore a hybrid magic reduction set with accuracy where appropriate. Valhalla Helm, Avalon Breastplate, Iron Ram hands and legs, Askar feet, Joyeuse, Ice Shield. I used Parade Gorget to help with MP recovery.

I cast Protect IV, Shell III, and Stoneskin and then rested to full MP before entering the arena. Once inside, I cast Phalanx, and the appropriate bar- and en- spells, then ran up to face the avatar. I didn't recast Stoneskin after it was broken, but in at least one fight, it lasted until the avatar was nearly half-dead. The other buffs I'd reapply when they wore, and would cure myself as needed. I saved Rampart for the Primes' two-hour abilities, which drastically reduced their power:

I would use Atonement whenever I had the TP. I think for Ramuh I did need to use Chivalry, but I didn't run out of MP on any of the other fights. It was a fun "experiment", and I even made 50k gil out of it, and got a Water Belt for my fire kit too!