How to win at Promyvion

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="005785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>Distortion</B></FONT><B>    </B><B> |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Distortion"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Monsters"><U>Monsters</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Synthesis"><U>Synthesis</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id26.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Misc"><U>Misc</U></A>   |   <B>How to win at Promyvion</B>   |   <A HREF="id27.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Missions and Quests"><U>Missions and Quests</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id28.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Equip"><U>Equip</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>How to win at Promyvion</I></div> <div> How to win at Promyvion </div> <bR> <div> The following instructions will help you win at any of the level 30 Promyvion missions. </div> <bR> <div> I. What is Promyvion? Promyvion is Chains of Promathia mission 3-4. I myself have not made it to Dynamis yet, but I have heard lots of people say "this is like Dynamis." You can access Promyvion by getting 4 cutscenes. The 1st by zoning to Lower Delkfutt's Tower, 2nd at Upper Jeuno, 3rd at Upper Jeuno Infirmary (you get key item Mysterious Amulet here) and 4th at Ru'Lude Gardens at the Guard Post inside the palace (door on the left). Then you can just teleport to Dem, Holla, or Mea and enter at the Shattered Telepoint. Once inside, you'll click on the Left Apparatus to enter Promyvion, and obtain your lovely level 30 cap. </div> <bR> <div> Promyvion is made up of 5 areas. 4 of these areas are wide open, full of alien monsters. These guys can be a real pain, because every one of them uses some type of AE. On the 1st 3 levels, there are "Memory Receptacles" that you must find and destroy. Sounds easy, but they're surrounded by mobs that respawn VERY quickly and you can't melee the orb. L O L. The last area of Promyvion is an extremely difficult BCNM fight. Yes - you enter Promyvion with 3 full parties of 6, but fight the boss with a single party. :{ </div> <bR> <div> NOTE: If you enter a Promyvion and leave it (fail or otherwise), you must "erase your memory" at the same Promyvion before entering a DIFFERENT Promyvion. You do this just by talking to the Large Apparatus again. Cake. You do not have to do this if you're doing the same one you just failed. You enter at the Cermet Gate instead of the Large Apparatus in this case. </div> <bR> <div> II. Party Setup. Invited a Taru WAR/MNK to your alliance? You lose. Save yourself several hours of wasted time, disband, and go craft. This is *THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF PROMYVION.* You have to treat this like a BCNM - you can only invite certain jobs. No ONE under 30. We had a 27 Ninja who gained a total of 23% TP at the boss fight. Useless. Here's what I can tell you about each job, and this info is based on the BCNM fight, not the other levels of Promyvion: </div> <bR> <div> Summoner: One of the BEST jobs for this. Two words: Astral Flow. And the sub WHM helps a lot. YOU CANNOT, HOWEVER, INVITE A SUMMONER AND EXPECT THEM TO PLAY A WHITE MAGE. NO. </div> <bR> <div> White Mage: Very useful job. I would say they are required, but I beat Promyvion Mea without a WHM (he left when we got to the boss, replaced with BLM, and won, without any 2 hours). Should use Dia, Slow, and Paralyze if theres no RDM. </div> <bR> <div> Black Mage: Another very useful job. Sub WHM, please. Thanks. Stick Blind if possible. If you're in a good party, Magic Burst. ;} </div> <bR> <div> Ranger: Probably the most important job. Damage, damage, damage. RNG/WAR is nub, RNG/NIN is win. </div> <bR> <div> Red Mage: I've yet to win with a RDM in my party. But I can see how they would be a good benefit to the BCNM. The boss fights are nearly impossible without debuffs, and RDM are the best at this. Slow and Paralyze are *REQUIRED,* and you should use Dia as well. No need for Silence. </div> <bR> <div> Bard: This is the job I play in Promyvion. I can tell you I suck pretty bad at Bard. I have problems getting buffs up as a WHM so you can imagine me as a Bard. I actually kinda hated playing Bard until the Promyvion BCNMs. I get to run around like a chicken with my head cut off, and I have to say it's pretty fun. This is the only job that can give MP regen at this level, but I can't say that MP regen is necessary. I use a Gemshorn +1 which has Mambo+2, and used Mambo and Minne 2 on the tanks. After the fight, the tanks always tell me how much Mambo helped out, saying they got missed a LOT. I can't confirm the usefulness of Minne, but Minne 2 adds 20 defense. Since I don't play Bard (only leveled it to play with a friend) I don't have etudes, so I kept Mambo on the mages too. I also Diaed, and used Reqiuem 1 and 2 (they stack). </div> <bR> <div> Ninja: Pretty much required. Main or sub. Utsusemi is so very important here. Low end Ninja equipment pretty much sucks though. If someone tries to come as something beside NIN/WAR, blacklist them. OK don't, but tell them to shut up. </div> <bR> <div> Warrior: ONLY as WAR/NIN. Probably better than NIN/WAR because WAR/NIN will do more damage. Sucks that the good axes are level 31 though. :\ </div> <bR> <div> Thief: No. </div> <bR> <div> Samurai: No. </div> <bR> <div> Monk: No. </div> <bR> <div> Dragoon: LOL no. </div> <bR> <div> Dark Knight: ROFL no. </div> <bR> <div> Beastmaster: Blacklist all of these and tell them to go play offline RPGs. </div> <bR> <div> Paladin. Eh. Not going to be near as useful as a blink tank. Could probably be the back up tank, but not without a BRD and drinks. </div> <bR> <div> As you can see, theres only certain jobs you can invite. A good party setup is to have 1 main healer, 2 tanks (rng/nin is a tank), 2 damage jobs, and 1 something helpful. Mix together for a win. Before you go thinking I'm crazy, read my helpful tips on the BCNM fights. </div> <bR> <div> III. Preparation. Of course, it's best to get people you know. But most of the time you're gonna have to shout around for recruits. Make sure everyone has seen all 4 cutscenes, and have had their memory erased if necessary. Don't get useless jobs and try to get good party setups. BRING FOOD AND DRINKS. You'll need to bring other items like Potions and Antidotes, etc. for certain Promyvion bosses (read below). Shade equipment isn't necessary, but it helps a lot. Someone in our alliance said he was doing an additional 20 damage every hit because of Empty Killer. I don't know which pieces or how many pieces he was wearing. You should also explain what exactly you're doing so people don't do things like try to melee the Memory Receptacles. Don't always expect everyone to know. </div> <bR> <div> IV. Promyvion levels 1-4. From my experience, there is little to no different between Promyvion Dem, Holla, or Mea. The scenery is a little different in each (Mea is probably the coolest, but the windmills in Dem are really neat), but the only real difference I saw is that Mea has an extra mob called a Craver. These guys have horrible AEs, don't fight them if possible. They have a bad poison. The only other monster that really sucks is the Weeper, which does AE silence. The range doesn't seem to be too huge, so mages can easily avoid it. So far every mob in Promyvia does some sort of AE, and sometimes they will do a damage AE. I've seen people down to 100 HP after this. So here's the rundown: </div> <bR> <div> Level 1: This area is very small, and there is only 1 Memory Receptacle. Everything here is easy prey. Normally, while waiting for the rest of the alliance, people come here and farm the mobs for memories and rare/ex items. </div> <bR> <div> LEvel 2: The mobs have moved up a level, but it is still very easy. You should have no problems here. There are severel receptacles on this level, but only 1 is real. </div> <bR> <div> Level 3: This is where things can change. You'll need to be a bit more precautious here. Things should be somewhere between EM and VT checks. Again there are several receptacles on each level, only 1 is real. This is the last level you will need to kill a receptacle, and it can be the hardest part of Promyvion levels 1-4 if not done correctly. </div> <bR> <div> Level 4: Look for a huge building. Technically, you could just run through here and train everything to the zone, but that's not exactly recommended... until the building is in sight at least. :P Mobs here are IT+. Be damned careful, it takes 10 seconds to completely wipe here if you're not doing it right. </div> <bR> <div> Memory Receptacle fights: NO ONE, WHOSOEVER, MAY TELEPORT UNTIL ALL STRAYS ARE DEAD. NO ONE, WHOSOEVER, MAY TELEPORT UNTIL ALL STRAYS ARE DEAD. NO ONE, WHOSOEVER, MAY TELEPORT UNTIL ALL STRAYS ARE DEAD. I cannot begin to stress this enough! If you do not do this you will have wasted yours and everyone elses time. Have your ranger(s) use widescan to find the receptacles, and clear the area around them if needed. Melee cannot attack the orb, so you the RNGs, BLMs, and SMNs avatars should take care of it, while the rest of the alliance kills Strays. Strays respawn VERY QUICKLY, so killing them might not even make sense to you, but you will certainly have to. The Memory Receptacle has a knockback + damage AE (which is actually REALLY fun if you want to see your character pull some Matrix crap) so meleeing is pointless. After you see "Energy Seed," you may run up and cast spells or do whatever is needed, then back up ASAP. I used both my Requiems as a Bard on the receptacles as soon as Energy Seed went off, and still got hit with the next seed even though Requiems are like instant cast spells. BUILD YOUR TP WHILE THE RECEPTACLE IS ALIVE, and use it after its dead on the remaining Strays. This is another thing I cannot stress enough. It's not as important on level 1 and 2 because things are pretty much a cakewalk there. But level 3 is a little different. Spam your TP and nukes on the Strays after the orb is dead and immediately jump on the portal. DO NOT try to sleep the Strays and teleport. Waste. Of. Time. I have done around 10 Promyvions, and when people don't kill the strays, half the alliance dies because they're trying to teleport while getting attacked. Agro will NOT let you teleport. On level 3 it is very hard to sleep things, so just do everyone a big favor and take the above advice. There is no reason to have half the alliance left behind or dead, with barely any party members on the next level. Yes, the portal is open for only a very short amount of time, but if you save your TP and make everyone team up on the strays, you will be just fine. It's *probably* safe to use AE spells at this point, but DON'T get yourself killed. </div> <bR> <div> The only other advice I can give you is to try to avoid as much agro as possible. Everything agros to sight so far, but Invisible won't work. Try to keep everyone in a compact group when traveling in the higher levels - something I made my alliances do is, when we're at an iffy spot where there's a real good chance we'll get agro when running by, get to the safe spot past that mob, then stop and wait for the rest. When you've got 18 people running in a pretty much single file line, that covers up a lot of space meaning more chances for agro. This method is simple, and if you DO happen to get agro, you just pull your agro to the safe spot, kill, continue. </div> <bR> <div> Levels 1-4 are actually very easy, just tonight I got to the boss fight in 30 minutes using everything I've said above. Now, the boss fights are a completely different story... </div> <bR> <div> V. Promyvion BCNM Fights. Oh. My. God. So you take about 2 hours getting your alliance together, and finally make it to the entrance of the Promyvion, only to take another few hours getting to the BCNM. Finally, when you're there, you lose. Again. And again. Sucks, don't it? </div> <bR> <div> These boss fights are no joke. They can be really freakin' hard. You're tanks pretty much require Utsusemi. Rangers WILL be tanks. It's also a good idea to have two tanks instead of one (at least a blink tank and a rng/nin) so they can swap agro. You're going to want more than 1 person that can cure, hopefully like 3. DEBUFF. DEBUFF. DEBUFF. Dia, Paralyze, Slow, Blind. If you have a SMN, they can use Thunderspark. This stacks with paralyze, so you can have DOUBLE paralyze. Also, you should probably wait till the boss is atleast 1/2 dead before using 2 hours. Just don't wait too late. Now here's what I can tell you for each Promyvion boss fight: </div> <bR> <div> Dem: The 1st half of this fight is easy. This boss does not use any AEs! And just when you're thinking "wow this is easy," he start spawning Offsprings on you. Yay. I'd have to say Summoner is probably required for this one if any, since Astral Flow is AE. Really not much to this fight. </div> <bR> <div> Holla: Ouch... AE sleep, AE blind, AE curse. Loves to use a HP drain attack than I've seen do around 300. Yummmm. I've heard many say this is the hardest Promyvion fight. I hear of people using poison potions on themselves to counteract the AE sleep, but my party won without doing this. Instead, we just have 1 of the mages sit away from the other ones so that someone always avoids sleep. Wake people up IMMEDIATELY. This is one you'll really have to save your damage 2HRs for because of its drain attack. It will spam when its low HP, you'll need your 2HR to finish it off before it drains again. I can't really say whether to worry about Blinda and Cursna, it seems after its 1/2 dead you need to just kill it as fast as possible while keeping people alive. I won this fight with WAR/NIN, WAR/NIN, BRD/WHM, SMN/WHM, WHM, and BLM. One tank died, then the next, Summoner uses her last Astral Flow for the kill.. </div> <bR> <div> Mea: Heh, apparently SE likes to mess with us. This boss is absolutely ridiculous. You can't stand and fight it. Someone must be kiting it around at all times. My party did it without a RDM so I'm sure Gravity would be awesome for this fight. This boss does 3 evil things: a very harmful AE that knocks you back, a single attack that can do like 400+, and AE gravity. Lost hope yet? The kiting technique seemed to work very well with our party and others that we got to try it. You need to not get hit as often as possible and try to avoid as many of its specials as possible. A lot of times running away from it will cause it to miss. My party almost did this with 5 people (BLM BRD SMN WAR/NIN RNG/NIN), failed, and tried right after with an additional BLM, used no 2HRs, and won. I WOULD MOST CERTAINLY BRING HI POTIONS TO THIS FIGHT. He also does an AE poison, but I don't think we were too worried about that... </div> <bR> <div> With the right people, these BCNM fights can be a lot easier than they could be. Most people seem to have failed several times on either the 3rd portal or the boss fights. I hope these strategies help you. </div> <bR> <div> Now, about those jobs that I said not to bring. As I said for Mea, we almost won with only 5 people. I don't want people of these jobs to get their hopes down (or up), but this seriously has to be done a certain way. I've heard of others winning with 5 people too. It's all about damage and keeping people alive. If you've got enough damage and support for your party, it really doesn't matter what you invite. It's really going to suck though if you invite something like a DRG to Mea, where they keep getting hit for 200s by the AE (LOL how long would a Wyvern last in there...) and you have to spam cures on them all the time. I know it sucks for your job but it's not my fault. >_> Not only that, but these bosses take a long time to kill but everyone does such crap damage to them. Meleeing is weak, even spells are weak. Everytime I've won its taken 13 minutes. O_O </div> <bR> <div> I can't really think of much else to tell you, besides good luck. Try not to have gimp gear especially for important things like tanks and rangers that will be getting hit, mages will need MP, MND, INT, etc. Consumable items are pretty important. From my experience, lots of times there will be people outside the BCNM from parties that broke up or wiped, etc. They often reform parties there and reattempt the bosses. Usually at least 1 party from the alliance stays outside the BCNM while others go in, incase people die, so they can raise. All BCNMs are on a 30 minute timer, so you're kicked outside the door after that period of time once you enter. If you wipe, your whole party can ALT+TAB (disconnect from FFXI) or reset your PS2/modem. This will put you outside the door so you can start getting raised. The ENTIRE party must do it though, no one can be online in the BCNM at the same time, so maybe go take a leak real quick before you log back on. Also, like most BCNMs, you can click on the door and run away. Your 30 minute timer will not restart until 0 people are in the BCNM area though. </div> <bR> <div> And that's it for me folks. I hope I have enlighted some people, and made a lot of BSTs mad. Promyvion is supposed to be a fun event, and it is, so don't make it any more or less than that. I wish you all good luck. Kill the Strays before you teleport. </div> <bR> <div> Rujinda of Midgardsormr </div> <div> Mithra Thief </div> <bR> <div> (PS: I can't even imagine what kind of crap I wrote in here, it's 6am, ive been up for a long time.. O_O I'm sorry) </div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>