Practice practice more

As previously mentioned, since my new in-game goal is to solo Shinryu, I need practice.

Because one of the BLU in LS named Shadowmonkey needs a BLU JSE ammo, I decided to try to solo the Ironclad NM for him to get this item. Mostly just want to practice my solo skill for Shinryu and to see how durable BLU can be when blooding tanking shit. Since Shinryu and ironclad all shared same property: AoE melee attacks that's TP move, can't be eva/counter/shadow tanked, my goal was to see how well BLU can be to blood tank stuff.

Note that I asked Foxx afterward, apparently he've eva tanked that NM before at lv 85 on THF. So maybe* eva tank is doable. But since my goal is to test blood tank ability when solo, so I decided not to try eva tank and do blood tank instead.

This NM is probably very easy soloable at this lv now. So it's not really any worthwhile achievement as any well geared BLUs can do it. However since it's my first time really start challenge myself soloing stuff, I'd like to start from the easy NM first, to build some confidence ;<

The SJ I used is /SCH. I've been debating between /RDM or /SCH, but decided to try /SCH. Since BLU itself can set fast castI already and self cast phalanx(barrier tusk), and this NM doesn't cast magic. MDB II and fast cast II are still two of the biggest advantage of /RDM.

So whats the advantage of /SCH? Generally it's Light Arts + Celerity, this makes casting Stoneskin incredibly fast. Light arts is -10%, Celerity is -50%, with fast cast gear macro and fast cast1 job trait I can put up SS easily between each hit.....if I'm not stunned. Aquaveil from /SCH is also must have, again, life saver.
That taru RDM/BLU rely on fast casting stoneskin and cocoon a lot to blood tank Shinryu, and in order to cast/recast SS as fast as a RDM, /SCH and set fast cast job trait is pretty much a must have IMO.

/SCH also has regen II and conserve MP, all very useful for solo.

My atma choices is completely going defensive: RR/MM/Mounted champion, again, first time better play safe, although I'm pretty sure if I do it again I can drop MM for another DD atma like Apoc, since MM is completely not needed(had nearly 95% HP entire time). I also used taco, again, play safe thing, although using DD food should be fine for skilled players.

Besides basic BLU job trait like auto-refresh and DW, I also set fast cast and triple attack.

My strategy is pretty simple, solo it near a wall so I won't get knock back, TP in PDT- gear(although I don't really have a PDT- set.....), cast Harden shell whenever JA recast up, cast cocoon if it's not up. Cast barrier tusk, and cast SS whenever I can, then rely on Mounted champion and regenII to recover MP since I expect I will got stunned lot and hard to do anything, so the less need to cast healing spell the better.

I haven't finish PDT- set, so my PDT- set is only twilight torque, dark steal harness and denali hands(PDT-10% only) and shadow mantle, no PDT- sword either. My "casting stoneskin" set is also nothing special....Loq earring+w legs with fast cast augment, and Seigel sash, rest all haste gears.....maybe I need to start collecting more fast cast and stoneskin+ gears. I also used Isador(it's my strongest DD sword atm anyways, so I pretty much full time it) for another 5% fast cast.

I thought it would be ass easy, but it's actually more annoying than I expected.....Amnesia and stun after each hit, although it isn't anything deadly, it slows down my DD speed a lot and made recast buffs much harder. Later on I learned the pattern of it's attack tempo and with A.bust+head butt, it gots a bit easier after I learned the tempo of popping spells.

Apparently my "PDT-" set isn't qualified w.

I still took 100+ dmg very often, especially if harden shell isn't up, and SS barely last more than 2 hits, although sometimes it can get lower than 50 dmg. And it's not easy to keep barrier tusk up as well with all the stun and such. In the end I spent quite a lot of time healing myself and unable to bother with buffs anymore, let alone doing dmg. Maybe a bit more practice I can do this a bit faster.

I guess if I want to lower the dmg to 100- and SS last 3 hits, I really need to work on my PDT- set, and possibly other SS enhance gears as well.


Anyways, after a while, finally killed it.



Note that although Shadowmonkey was in pt, I've told him not to interfere. No healing me, nor touching the NM. He was just there to lot the ammo(he has to be in the pt for ammo to drop, since I already have one), so it was still solo, indeed.

I guess that's a small step to bigger goal, solo Shinryu, no?

Note that I thought about it afterwards,I think this can be done with any SJ if PDT- set is good. But I still like the result of /SCH quit a lot. I may actually try to use this SJ if I want to blood tank any VW in the future.

Next solo practice target: WoTG sandy/basty missions, Turul, Carabosse, Bri, Omega.....all those are confirmed soloable stuff, but again, need practice!