Hello! and welcome to Dynamis. My name is Ultimataru and I will be your guide this evening. So please get comfortable and turn on your "learning caps" and get ready to experience the Shadow Realm.
What the hell is Dynamis?
Dynamis, on a whole, is actually a series of 10 missions, each one encompassing a shadow version of a current game zone. The storyline of Dynamis picks up after the defeat of the Shadow Lord and the redemption of Roagrimm the Talekeeper. In the cutscene in Xarcabard we find Rivena asking us to find and destroy the source of the Shadow Lord's power in the shadow realm called Dynamis. As you will also find out the storyline for CoP will begin to intersect that of Dynamis eventually leading to Diabolos asking you to enter his Dream to investigate a strange power.
When you are new, it is now possible to enter the RoZ Dynamis in each of the 4 capital cities. The entrance for each Dynamis zone is denoted by a "Trail Markings" in Bastok Mines, Windurst Walls, Southern Sandoria, Ru'Lude Gardens. For the CoP Dynamis, you must have defeated Diabolos and be able to access a RoZ zone. Their entrances are denoted by "Heiroglyphics" in Valkurm Dunes, Qufim Island, Buburimu Pennisula and Tavnazian Safehold. In order to actually enter the zone you must posses a Perpetual Hourglass which is traded to the Trail Markings. Perpetual Hourglasses are obtained by a master Timeless Hourglass which is purchased from an NPC goblin for 1,000,000 gil.
What is it like on the inside?
Each dynamis zone is a mirror image of the zone you enter from. There are some key differences however: all NPCs are gone, all zones outside the city or do a different zone are blocked, it is always double dark weather, and some previously inaccessible areas are now accessible. You will find there is also no map for the area, so widescan is non-useable.
There are 3 kinds of monsters in most zones: Statues, Beastmen, Pets. CoP Zones have various animal mobs as well. The statues will be the only mobs you see in the zone upon entering except for CoP zones. Some of them are stationary, some path (albeit VERY slowly) and they are all linking and aggroing (to true sight, true sound and magic).
When a statue is attacked, it will come toward the attacker AND begin spawning other mobs. Often it will simply spawn Beastmen. However sometimes it will spawn both Beastmen AND other statues. And those stautes can spawn yet MORE Beastmen. And some of the Beastmen can then spawn pets, or avatars. As you can see, things can become VERY chaotic very fast. Dynamis will test your ability to listen, work together, and to react to these situations very quickly.
Each Dynamis zone has a {Mega Boss} who must be defeated in order to obtain the key item we need and to obtain the "Dynamis-___ Interloper" title. The destruction of the {Mega Boss} will be our primary goal for each new Dynamis zone; once we have completed a zone we can go back and farm for AF2 and currency as we wish.
In order to reach the {Mega Boss} we must typically defeat 2-4 Trigger NMs; CoP zones can vary on this theme, Glacier has no triggers and Xarcabard has 15. This will require us to traverse the zone along a very particular path. After the Trigger NMs are defeated, the {Mega Boss} will have spawned and some previously defeated mobs or completely new ones, will spawn, so be alert. In order to fight the {Mega Boss} we will designate a "suicide puller" to pull away all other linking mobs isolating the {Mega Boss}. More information on suicide pulls can be found in the Dynamis 102 post.
Are we timed?
Yep. We enter with <60 minutes on the clock for RoZ zones, less for CoP. The moment the Timeless Hourglass is traded to the Trail Markings (Heiroglyphics) to create the first Perpetual Hourglass, time starts ticking; it is imperative that Perpertual Hourglasses are handed out efficiently and that people enter the zone as soon as they are able to. We can extend this time limit by killing certain "Time Mobs" throughout the zone that will extend our time limit by 10, 20 or 30 mins. The path that we take through the zone will enable us to kill multiple of these time mobs. At any point in time if you would like to know how much time remains, please check your hourglass and do not spam the /l or /p channels asking what is left. The time indicated on the hourglass is when our reservation within that Dynamis zone ends so you can check how much longer we have. At the same time do not spam /l with warnings that we have X min remaining.
What can we expect for mob behaviour?
As mentioned above the Statues move very slowly (permanent gravity) and can/will spawn Beastmen and other statues. These mobs hit VERY hard and should not be "straight-tanked." No melee should EVER touch a 'red-eye" statue unless your weapon has "added effect: Thunder IV"; rather BLMs are the first line of damage to them since they have almost no resistance to magic. Most times the BLMs will kite and kill all statues on their own, however sometimes will require backup tanking. Again this is mentioned in the Dynamis 102 posting.
There are 3 types of statues: Red-eyes, Green-eyes and Blue-eyes. Ninety percent of the statues are Red and are in no way special. Blue and Green however are different. Both Blue and Green do NOT have the same high physical defense so may be taken on by everyone. The reason is that Green will give Manadiction on death and Blue will give Benediction... both to US. With proper strategy these two mobs can save an alliance.
The statues have normal melee attacks (although very cheap animations) as well as very powerful AOEs. For example, Statues in D-Bastok have 'seismostomp' which will cause 200-500 points of AOE damage as well as Graviga. Manifest Icons statues in D-Windurst will cast sleepga, paralyzga, slowga and have AOE curse and AOE stun; similarly Avatar Icons in D-Windurst have access to aga3s so need Stuns. As you can see they are very dangerous, and best left to the BLMs.
The Beastmen summoned by the Statue will fall into one of the normal job classes. However the only sure way to identify the job is by the name and abilities. The weapon they hold will have no bearing on their job so be warned. Each Beastman can use its job's 2hour ability along with all racial abilities normally used. Along with these abilities they may also all have a race specific AOE (like the "Rage of Guhdu") that is incredibly destructive. As you can see each Beastman needs to be taken down very very fast. In each zone strat, you will soon find a list of each mob and its job. Beastmen will be fought in an order determined by their job, so listen to the targeter well.
A note on drops
Before discussing mobs specific strategies I would like to comment about the drops from mobs briefly. Now our first priority will always be to complete a zone. However, the mobs still will drop items of worth. Things that you will expect to see are Ancient Currency (Byne bills, etc), Relic Weapons, Artifact Set 2 pieces, and crafting supplies. Because these items have differing values to different people, please make certain to note and follow our LS lotting rules.
Ok, so what do we do?
The basic strategy is as follows:
1. Alliance (all members in zone) move to designated camp.
2. Puller goes out and pulls the designated statue, annoucing the pull in /l channel along with any warnings. Spotters call out mob identities.
3. BLMs and some RDMs and BRDs target and sleep all Beastmen (and pets) as they move faster than their source statues.
4. The targeter will choose and annouce the first target Beastman to be put down. This will be annouced in /l channel and the targeter will engage/lock onto the target.
5. All melee DD and RNGs will {/assist} the targeter and the primary tank will keep its hate. Once this mob is dead, the process repeats. It is very important that no other tanks try to compete with the primary tank for mob hate.
6. At the same time, the Secondary Tanks should be holding the hate of the sleeping mobs and kiting the statues.
7. Once all mobs are defeated the process is repeated for all pullable statues or the alliance is instructed to progress along the path previously designated.
So what do we do with the Beastmen hordes?
We must all be in top form for these engagements. Crowd control is of paramount importance. Please make sure you read Dynamis 102 and understand how your job is to operate within the zone.
Because most every job will be represented in a single Dynamis zone, we will target and kill the Beastmen in a very particular order. Below I list the job priority and the reasoning behind it. Please make sure you understand my reasoning:
Tier I : These targets must be eliminated first no matter the circumstances; they cause the most immediate threat to the alliance.
Tier II : These targets pose moderate danger to the alliance. Depending on the Beastman type, the order will fluxuate (for example a Yagudo SAM is very dangerous, while a Quadav SAM is a pushover).
Tier III : These targets represent a unique danger and as-such are left to the end to remove.
Tier I - Extreme Danger
1. Summoner
2. Black Mage
3a. Beastmaster
3b. Beastmaster's Pet
Tier II - Moderate Danger
4. Ninja* (If alliance health is good)
5. Samurai
5. Warrior
5. Dark Knight
6. Bard
6. Red Mage
7. Ranger
8a. Dragoon
8b. Wyvern
Tier III - Unique Danger
9. Ninja* (If alliance health is poor)
10. Thief
11. Paladin
12. Monk
13. White Mage
The targeter will in the end determine who to fight, but this will be the order we will adhere to. Special note below:
Summoners : Keep the avatars far away and asleep at ALL times. Their Astral Flow will clock a 75PLD for over 1500 damage. Fight the SMN a large distance from their avatar just in case. Astral Flow is the #1 cause of alliance wipe since pretty much noone can survive it. Targeters make sure Avatars are asleep before calling as target.
Beastmaster : They will summon pets and the pet type depends on the zone. We ALWAYS fight the BST first and then the pet. Keep the pets slept and silenced at all time; Pet spells can be stunned.
Bastok : Scorpion Pet. Casts Breakga. Keep Stun handy.
SandOria : Hecatyes Pet. Casts Dispelga (can only be slept by BRD)
Windurst : Bird Pet. Casts Silencega. Have Echo Drops.
Xarcabard : Wyvern Pet. Have Silena, Paralyna and RR handy (Dispelga).
Black Mage : The DRKs in the alliance will be on stun duty, but keep these things silenced. Firaga or Thundaga 3 is worse than from Hakutaku and can hit ALL poeple nearby. Sleepgas 1,2 will often cause a full wipe.
White Mage : Their Benediction will wake surrounding mobs so they must be fought a distance away or flat last. They also will spam Banish III, Curaga IV etc. Keep them silenced and dead to shorten the fights.
Ninja : WHMs please Barfira and BRDs please Fire Carol. Fight away from mages as best as possible and put them down as fast as possible Mijin Gakure is horrible. Stunning them near the end of their life helps, but they can always go at 90%.
Monk : MNKs must require extreme cautio:. Hundred Fists can take down many many many people. Let the tank keep hate. Try and save TP from previous mobs for Monks and when they 2 hour land Stuns and Flashes
Paladin : Note above that we fight these almost dead last. The reason is {Invincible] will require assistance by the RDMs and BLMs. Please make sure if you can nuke you do.
Thief : As with PLDs we fight these almost last. {Perfect Dodge} will also requires the assistance of BLMs and RDMs. Note that PD does block WSs, so save TP until after it uses its 2hour.
Ranger : Please only take hate from the PLD if you would like to die; EES will kill you.
So what else?
That is all I have for you for now for basics, but I will add more as I find it necessary
Sat Jul 26, 2008 5:09 pm