Antican Ambuscade V1

When it repopped for that PUG group I was in many months ago, Boss was... uhm at very high hp. Probably not 100% though

I'm not sure what happened, think tank died while we were killing adds, so we had to kite it for a bit while tank recovered. I don't remember but I think it was something like that.

Then one mage got D/C (the other Scholar I think?) and basically the BLM gear was so bad I was doing more damage on my lolSCH (or wait, was I on GEO?) and that says a lot about the quality of their gear, given I'm nowhere close to BiS gear myself.

And then we started doing SCs but basically cactuar repopped. We killed again, then the adds, then finally the boss.
Not sure how much time left we had but at that time I think we were like what, over 20 mins in or something like that.



Again, no clue if that was a bug or not, but I swear it happened.

Sounds like this; (I edited it and added it in while you were probably typing, sorry~)


Key thing to remember is when the cactus repoped specifically, did the first "new wave" start with warriors, or did it continue from the wave you killed (rangers, black mages, thieves or paladins)

You're asking my memory way too much, I have no bloody clue lol

I wouldn't remember if it happened yesterday, given how hectic the situation was and how much ***was going on, of course I don't remember for something that happened so many months ago. Sorry xD

I mean like yeah, I feel you. It's more of a "if someone wants to test how to repop the cactus, those should be the instructions, and the important part to look for"

brb doing more 30 minute runs :)

Ok so this time brought it down so slowly that it was still above 70% by the time I timed out and no extra cactuars

Did it try to call 5 waves? If it called all 5 times, would assume it can't repop.

Couldn't tell you. It certainly kept trying thru the fight but didn't exactly keep track. But if you have to go even slower than 1% a min to make it repop you sure as hell aint winning anyways so meh

I mean yeah, for all intents and purposes it should be impossible to repop it

Short of killing cactus super fast, then having your whole party dc.

Late but Finally get to try VD melee style tonight, setup was RUN BRD(DD mode) GEO DNC DRK WHM. RUN and DRK were NQ and didn't use rema, everyone else used rema.

basically we were using Ejiins strat with a few modifications. The fastest run was 5:55 sec including buff time. Thoughts:

1) I really suggest using DD jobs that can do ranged ws like cor in Ejiins video, or jobs that can deal powered up ws in a very short time like thf or dnc. This is because with cactuar running around DD can only ws when it stop and do 10k needles. On top of that the evasion increase mechanics that caused ws to miss after 1st ws.

You definitely want to unload highest ws in shortest time possible, it's better to deal 1x 60k rudras in one go, instead of 3x 20k WS.

So low ws avg DD like mnk or nin are at a disadvantage.

It has evasion increase mechanics that everytime I try to do 2nd ws on it miss. Maybe ws in highest acc set possible if you ws twice in a row, I'm not sure if it even works. Any testimonials welcomed.


2) like info in the video, the key to have smooth and fast VD run is to kill cactuar in 2 10k needles move. So when it stop to needle for the first time, unload all ws and take it down to 50%, do that again when it stop to needle again. after 2nd needle it has to be dead. If it can't be killed after 3-5 needle move, the boss will summon way to many adds and it became increasingly difficult to keep the tank alive.

Maybe with pld/blu or epeo run there are more room to kill cactuar slower since they can tank more adds. With aettir tank we really had no choice. Either kill cactuar in 2 or maybe 3 needle moves or wipe.

Maybe cor would be a great choice since you could ws without having to wait for cactuar to stop. Unfortunately our setup wasn't ideal.

If not going with cor I can see something like double thf or double dnc do crited rudras x2 for high damage darkness works very well.

Our geo didn't nuke on cactuar, maybe we could try next time for faster kills.

3) we prefer to leave adds up and kill megaboss first after sabo died. If we kill adds first megaboss will be way too dangerous.

Killing megaboss first also has the advantage of using indi wilt/geo frailty instead of geo wilt for the offensive benefits, since megaboss will not power up as much with adds alive.

4) we prefer to spam ws instead of multistep sc on boss. That's because random Petri and hate reset often interrupts multistep and it was annoying. We had 3 person DPSing anyways, so its a waste of tp to multistep AND suffer from interruptions.

5) silence blm add and use poison fruit to avoid slept.

6) /NIN isn't required with wilt and adds alive.

7) Mage setup is still easier and faster /sadface.

Ok so....

Exactly how does sabotender evasion boost or dodge ws Mechanics work? Speculations:

1) If someone ws immediately after another, or ws after 2 ws landed, it will whiff.

2) It has massive evasion boost right after tp move.

If it's 1) then leaden salute before it stops, then climactic or sneak attack rudras is probably best way to zerg it. Also have to avoid multiple dd ws it.

If it's 2) then it's safe to ws as long as everyone is fast.

Is it even evasion boost? Or just perfect dodge like move that evades ws 100% of time?

I've seen us land 2-3 ws's at the same time/within 1-2 seconds on the cactus without any issue. Seen it while tanking and while dding, so that's really weird.

Few Notes:

-It will summon only 5 times on VD with 3 adds each since cap of adds is 15.

-Your success rate of clearing VD in a timely manner depends on how fast Sabotender is killed 2/5 Calls is a guaranteed win.

-There seems to be a correlation between Consul and Sabotender proximity and Evasion Physical/MB for Sabotender.(needs confirmation) We tried MBs/WSs further than 10 and no change to EVA but when its <10' it changed drastically.

For that reason: We let PLD pull Consul to starting corner and everyone else stands at 15' facing the furthest pillar, Sabotender was >10'from consul almost everytime since it targeted Support Jobs.

-Best way to kill Sabotender is using DNCs Clim Rudras + Leadn Salute as stated before [Chaos+Regain,Entrusted DEX, GEO Frailty, Indi Acumen + Dark/Ice Threnody II+ Upgraded Dia II] and your GEO can MB Ice.

-COR needs to save Random Deal from start to reset Clim Timer,NFR on second approach by Sabotender.

-DNC [if not bothered to reset 1HR] can [Grand Pas + Trance] to deal 3 step Clim Darkness from Start which will put Sabotender around 30% if timed correctly [COR can switch to Allies' Roll +Chaos]

FWIW we never had acc issues on cactuar whenever it ran in.
tried x2 SAM and SAM+WAR.

Thanks for the info, they are useful. Except a few things:



Sacrificing sam roll for regain lowers dps on mb/adds phase and reroll lowers dps. Personally I would just tp on mb and adds, there will be plenty of tp to use by the time sabo comes as long as target switch is fast enough.

Dnc and thf are certainly fantastic choice for melee setup. Though I'm not sure how annoying it is to position for SA since the ws window is so small.

You've got about 3-5 seconds, so I can see lining SA up being pretty easy as long as you're paying attention.

And yeah, please don't use regain roll. TP on mega boss, WS on cactuar. You have more than enough time between needles.

Bully's an option, too.

Did you ws twice in a row?

At first I thought I was just unlucky or acc uncapped after I miss ws, but Ejiins video mentioned the mechanics and another VD streamer also missed upheaval. So it wasn't just my illusion or underbuffed.

I think the mechanics happens right after 10k needles. It may just automatically dodge ws after 10k needles used.

Reason we opted for regain roll at start is to give enough TP to COR (even though it used ice shots for more TP but we needed a 2k+ Leaden Salute before Foma)
Second reason for that is limiting the window to gain TP by DNC and fire Rudra at will sometimes without even engaging, we are usually done with it in 2s so if the theory of evasion boost on second ws, maybe it needs to be done under 3 s?
Also we didnt even touch Consul to gain TP like everyone does to limit its TP.
I agree on THF part thats why DNC doesnt need to position themselves and/or TP for the most part.

Yes, we boh typically ws'd in succession while it was in the immediate area. RUN would occasionally dimidiation if he was lucky. I think he missed once(?) but I can't confirm.

It's possible to get 2k tp immediately or at least close to 2k with triple shot proc.

I'll pay more attention next time I do runs, but I have wsed twice in a row on BLU and not missed, and I've seen us use 3 ws in a row (2 dd + cor) and not miss.

Are you seeing this using both multi hit and single hit ws? Maybe just fluke single hit misses.

They mentioned upheaval specifically, which is a four-hit

Was it VD? Perhaps it only happens in vd or something.

I thought it was single hit missed too but it happens way too many times, and it happened in others run too. Would probably need more testimonials to be sure.

I've only bothered with Difficult as melee, cactus has crazy high evasion but I've only seen gimps miss ws's, melee hits, yeah a shitload lol.

No valuable information there, but meh. It just has high EVA.

If it's just simple high Eva then my first ws should miss as often as 2nd one. I just find it very weird that my missed ws always happen on 2nd one when my sekkanoki was up that I get to ws twice in a row, but my first ws always landed like normal.

I can try to test it again if we melee again, although it's quite difficult to find people willing to melee it this month. The fact that this month favors dnc thf and cor makes it harder, lol. Job lock sucks, and melee vd is risky this month that it's tough to go with less than ideal setups. It's just too easy to wipe if sabo doesn't die fast enough.

What really needs confirmation is proximity to Consul and/or if mele/TP on Sabotender causes the Evasion Boost after a certain amount of damage done to it.On DNC COR setup we didn't miss when Saboteneder was 10'+ away from Consul and without engaging both for TP.


Its also worth mentioning that [SMN DNC COR PLD WHM GEO] doing [Flamming Crush>Leadn>Rudra>Clim Rudra+GEO ice MBs] managed to one shot Sabotender. [we only did it twice though since PLD had to go so cant verify if its a 100% guaranteed to one shot it everytime]

For Sabotender buffs/debuffs: [Entrusted DEX,Indi Acumen, Crystal Blessing, Crimson Howl, Earthern Armor, Ecliptic Growl,Chaos,PetAttk Dia2 upgraded,GEO Frailty,Ice Shot]

First two ws's can be done before it stops for needle attack.
Just let DNC NFR+Presto+Step on Consul before you start this.

I know that no one really cares about V2. But it is a super easy NM, good for returning players to take a swing at. It is probably the easiest V2 NM I've seen. From my few attempts at it on Drg, it seems weak to Light and/or does fairly weak damage.

It would technically be more accurate to call this one-cycling rather than one shotting. Meh.

I did miss a Resolution once on it, not sure if it was D or VD. I only went DRK a couple times so I only observed it once, was on SAM mostly.