A couple of weeks ago I had toyed with the idea of trying to solo Voluptuous Vivan (VV) on my RDM. I popped her and solo’d down to about 78% before the wheels came off. After trying to figure out what I did wrong, it just came down to the fact that my RDM isn’t geared well enough for solo’ing a mob that cannot be Paralyzed. My MND set is lacking due to not having the desire to pump more money into RDM (and I am sponsoring an Excalibur now so I have to cut corners), and I never really had a strong INT set for casting Blind.
I was disheartened in my gimpness, so I decided to turn to the job I have geared best of all; my Paladin. I went back out to Dragon’s Aery in the middle of the night and actually popped VV again solo. I came somewhat prepared, with the usual meds I carry (Antidotes, Echo Drops) and had a stack of Remedy with me. I decided I’d give it a shot as PLD/RDM. I got her down to 61% in about 7 minutes before I took an invite from some friends on the way up to the spot to watch me and we took it down together. It was a really great learning experience and I knew right off the bat that I was going to need to put more effort into a macro set than just using my campaign one (lul).
So I set out to make the perfect PLD/RDM solo’ing macro set. I had to look up a couple of formulas just to make sure I was doing everything right. I went back out there a couple of days later with some encouragement from Ichthyos and popped it again. This time, I won! I was really happy to say the least, but it quickly died down after I took everything into consideration and realized just how easy to fight really was. In fact, it was a complete joke and hardly worth mentioning, but the preparation for it is key. So for those interested in doing just that, I’m gonna make a little guide for it.
What you need
Medicines: Remedy x12 (at least, more is better though, Antidote x12, Vile Elixir, Vile Elixir +1, Hi-Elixir x5, Icarus Wing (emergency Chivalry)
Food: Tavnazian Tacos (sushi might work well also!), Yagudo Drink x5 ( 10 just to be on the safe side)
Gear-wise: 350dmg redux Stoneskin, a good Phalanx (20+ DR), a good Haste set.
Other: Well-made macros that maximize spells on each cast.
A little know-how goes a long way…
In order to get the most out of any PLD solo, you need to know what you’re up again. VV attacks fast because you’re not going to be able to Slow it, and it’s immune to Paralyze, so Ice Trousers are not going to be an option. You’ve also got to know that VV can steal large portions of your MP, so the meds listed above are meant to counter-act that in every way possible. The numbers above are what I used in my fight, but you may want to bring more as weapon skill usage may vary greatly each time you fight her. If you use windower, plug-ins like Recast are going to be a great asset. VV doesn’t like fire much on account of her being a Plantoid mob. Bad Breath gives several status effects, three of which are Slow (-25%), Paralyze, and Silence. To counter this, you need Remedy.
What to wear, what to wear…
Standing/Idle gear is a very important aspect of tanking, especially in the solo game. What I personally prefer, and I think it the best way to go, is to utilize as much Shield Skill gear as you can get without hurting your damage-over-time (DoT) as much. You will want to account for DoT due simply to the fact that you are a Paladin, and your longevity in a battle such as this will be reliant on your MP. To take as much stress off your MP pool as possible (indirectly, of course), you want to kill it faster and have as much Refresh effect as possible. Also, damage reduction gear, in this case specifically Physical Damage Taken gear, goes a very long way. With these ideas in mind I went with the following set of gear:
top-to-bottom, left-to-right: Hauteclaire, Aegis, Lamia Kaman +1, Koenig Schaller, Parade Gorget, Loquacious Earring, Ethereal Earring, Ares’s Cuirass, Homam Manopolas, Jelly Ring, Defending Ring, Boxer’s Mantle, Velocious Belt, Homam Cosciales, Glt. Leggings +1
This gave me a a good blend of Physical Damage Taken down, Shield Skill, Refresh effect, and Haste for my DoT. The Homam also provides a hearty chunk of MP for outlasting VV with meds, and the Ethereal Earring is going to have a fair kickback on those breath attacks.
Macros
Reprisal…
As every Paladin knows, Reprisal is a great tool when bloodtanking, and you can really get a lot out of it in the longhaul. Since VV is going to inevitably be a lengthy battle, you’re going to want to ensure that this spell’s effect is up as often as possible. To do this, I utilized a set of as much haste as I could get:
Haste+21% in gear, Fast Cast traits, and a small additional amount of Fast Cast.
With this, I was able to push my Reprisal recast down quite a bit. I don’t recall the exact figure, but it was something around 2:08 from 3:00.
Phalanx/Enfire…
Going with my previous statements on DoT, I decided that I want to maximize my Enfire damage as well. I was pulling off 16s without any gear swaps, so I looked up the formula and found out I could bump it to 17! That helps I guess.
Phalanx helps a great deal with blocking for low numbers or taking 0 damage, causing VV to lose-out on gaining TP for a round. Over time, this effect can be significant. I learned in fighting VV the previous time that with my capped Phalanx (22 DR), I was able to block for 1 dmg very consistently, and when I cast Bio (15 MP), the Attack Down -5% was enough to make that damage 0. This is probably luck based on the level she pops at, but it also worked when I solo’d her down for the win. In any case, you wil want to create the best possible Phalanx set to work with. Mine is not quite there yet (missing Glt. Breeches +1), but it’s as good as I can manage now:
Relevant: [Base Skill] 210, [Merits] +16, [Neck] Enhancing Torque +7, [Ear1] Augment. Earring +3, [Back] Merciful Cape +5
This gives me a total of…
…allowing me to get a 22 DR Phalanx. The only piece of gear that would improve this would be the Glt. Breeches +1 as I stated above, which give Enhancing Magic +10, and would bump me up to the next tier. It turns out that because 24x is divisible by 20, it also bumped me up a tier for an additional +1 damage on my enspells.
Stoneskin…
Many people might be thinking that with Stoneskin’s long casting time, there’s no way they’re ever going to recast it during a fight where they’re solo’ing a non-Slow’d mob. Well, it’s possible. With the Aegis, it’s very easy, and Reprisal only makes it easier. With a Koenig Shield, you may have to swap in max Shield Skill gear and go with MND in more places than with my Stoneskin set. Here’s mine:
Relevant: [Neck] Morgana’s Choker +5, [Body] Crimson Scale Mail +10, Devotee’s Mitts +5, Sapphire Rings +8, Vlr. Leggings+1 +3
I’m Elvaan so I have a high base MND of 73. With my Enhancing Magic fully merited, it turned out I only needed +32 MND to max my Stoneskin. Conveniently, I did some calculations, and found out I only need to use five pieces of gear to achieve that, four of which I already have for Cure Cheat or my Red Mage. Now, Morgana’s Choker and the Scale Mail are not easy to come by I realize, so you can tinker with that as you see fit. Chances are you will have to anyway since not everyone is a sexy Elvaan.
If you find that getting Stoneskin up is a real pain, utilize your bashes appropriately. Try to start casting Stoneskin immediately after Sentinel as well, even if to just refresh it’s DR. Another good time to try is just after it attacks and you’ve got Reprisal up–this will improve your chances a great deal.
The Fight
OK, now to put it all together. Since you’ve got your macros all set and ready to go now, all you need is the execution. I assume everyone attempting this know where the safe spot to tank her is. If you don’t, ask around or find a video of a RDM solo’ing it (they’re out there), and it will become very clear. As every fight is going to be different, all I can really offer are some helpful tips and tricks…
- Keep Enfire up as often as possible. This is going to improve your DoT, especially if you went with the sushi food option (not recommended by this poster)
- Cast Reprisal as often as you can! This will be a shitload of your DoT believe it or not, especially because she is attacking so fast! Use recast or menu to keep on top of this timer. When there’s down-time you shoud be casting Blaze Spikes, which do 7-9 damage back, regardless of whether you blocked or not. Remember, you’ve gotta debuff Blaze Spikes manually to cast Reprisal over it, otherwise it will have no effect, and that plain sucks…
- Make sure Phalanx is never down. Taking hits without your DR spell can be your biggest downfall over time. To remedy this, I made a timer macro in my windower that let me know Phalanx was going wear off 10 seconds before it actually did. This gave me plenty of time to recast it.
- Have macros for each medicine. Every time Vivian use Bad Breath, you’ve gotta spam that Remedy macro. Remove poison each time she hits you with Impale (the DoT is HIGH!!!). Use Yagudo Drinks to keep your MP at about half in case you need to Cure IV yourself 2-3 times in succession. Your other medicines should be used wisely, like after Vampiric Lash or big Cure bombing sessions (unlikely) after the 2h.
- Save up your first batch of TP in case you need to pop Chivalry. VV is going to use Meikyo Shisui sometime between 80 and 50%, so you’ve gotta be ready in case she uses Vampiric Lash during her 2h. If Chivalry is down from an earlier issue, start with your smaller meds first (Elixirs, Vile Elixir), before moving onto the heavy stuff.
- Rampart has almost no use in this fight, so don’t use it trying to predict something. Sweet Breath and Bad Breath damage can both be reduced by Rampart’s Magical Shield, but are used almost instantly, giving you no time to hit a macro to fire it off. Don’t worry about the sleep effect. If you have Stoneskin up most of the time (which you should), a Poison Potion won’t help anyway. Take it like a bitch and get hit once, Bash, then recast Stoneskin/Phalanx or whatver is needed at the time.
- Don’t be lazy. VV can catch you off guard with several Double Attack rounds in a row. If you are not prepared, you will die, and no one is going to be there to save you, only steal it. For this reason, keep your HP high as well. I recommended over 1000.
Closing Statement
I hope this has been a helpful guide and a good enough response to the people that PM’d me about it. If there’s anything you feel I need to clarify, drop me a Comment here. I set it up so no one has to register or any of that silly nonsense. Below there are also some references for some of the stuff I alluded to.
Good luck!!!
References