We were doing ToAU mission 44, which is the much feared Alexander fight, probably the most difficult mission in the game currently. To be honest, I was pretty sure we wouldn't win, because I had heard so much horror stories about that mission, about losing again and again even when using The Most Optimal Setups. And well, our static - like all our LS statics - are based on who wants to do the missions, not on which jobs they have leveled.
Anyway, at first our setup was RDM/DRK, BLM/WHM, PLD/NIN, DRG/WHM, DRG/RDM and PUP/NIN (me). On the first try we wiped to the BLU guy and decided to just HP and go again. On the second try we knew we would run out of time, but we used it for a kind of "dry run" to see how Alexander is like. We got it maybe down to 75% before we wiped. Our third try didn't go well at all, and we decided to just give up, and at that point our second DRG needed to leave.
So, we replaced the DRG with a LS friend who had done the mission before. After that our setup was WHM/SMN, RDM/DRK, BLM/WHM, PLD/NIN, DRG/SAM and PUP/NIN (still me). We went in, tried again, got Alexander to 3% and got thrown out. But the good thing was, we weren't pissed off, we were laughing! It was so unbelievably funny and epic how we just kept throwing bodies at it and praying for the best... And it was so close in the end!
Because it had been so close and we were having so much fun, we decided not to give up just yet. We used a COR to get our 2hrs back and decided to give it one last try. Well, in the end, the next try failed and we decided to give up and come back, but anyway... On our sixth, final try, we finally won! It was really, really close though, because after we got the "You have 30 seconds left in the battlefield" message, Alexander had still a few % HP and he used the invinsible shield move which meant we couldn't damage him in any way. Luckily, it wore just a few seconds before time ran out, and then Alix used a WS and Red landed a spell to finish him off. I couldn't believe we actually made it! It wasn't an easy mission, but in my opinion, with a good team of friends, (almost) anything in this game is possible, if you just won't give up! And this one proved it, once again.
If someone is interested, I'll tell a bit about the strategy we used the time we won. This might be interesting for Puppetmasters at least. ^^
Raubahn Form One:
As soon as we entered, we ate food, used reraises, casted protectra & shellra and then ran away from the door and pulled Raubahn in to a corner where there was more space for mages to stay far. For the first and easiest form, we used mostly only magic damage. Our PLD was only melee engaged all the time, and our BLM, RDM and PUPs BLM automaton nuked him down. BLM and RDM also took turns stunning Eyes On Me. When he used 2hr, BLM and RDM kept stunning/sleeping him to prevent him from one-shotting us with EOM, but we never disengaged or stopped dealing damage. When he was around 20%, DRG engaged too.
Raubahn Form Two:
I changed my automaton to ranged frame (ranged to keep Comedie far enough to prevent her eating AoE) and meleed the second form down with PLD and DRG. BLM and RDM kept stunning / sleeping and we tried to take him down asap.
Raubahn Form Three:
Our strategy was simply "kill him asap and try to survive". The third form really sucked, but on our final try we got him down pretty fast. I continued using ranged frame, and I think Armor Piercer did around 800 damage on him. No one died while fighting Raubahn, and when he finally died the third time, our mages were ok with MP.
Razfahd
This was the easiest part of the mission, because he wasn't really able to hurt us in any way. We tried to get him down to 50% asap, using any damage available. While fighting him, I deactivated my automaton and changed back to the BLM frame for Alexander.
When we had gotten Razfahd down to 50%, we got the CS, and decided to rest full since we were really good with time (30 mins left or something like that). After that, we engaged Alexander. Our PLD/NIN stood in front of it (I don't remember if he was in melee distance in the end or not, but I think that he did melee). Mages were far away on both sides of Alexander (and so was my automaton, as far as possible) and me and DRG were meleeing on different sides of him. The positioning was extremely important, and somehow I managed to do it so that my automaton didn't take any of the AoE damage! That was really lucky, because her nukes did a lot more damage than my meleeing.
Our biggest problem during the fight was Alexanders 2hr, Divine Judgement, as we didn't really come up with any good strategy for it. On this final try, we tried to get our BLM to nuke away all his MP, grab hate and die to his 2hr while others ran away ("Because we're brave like that", as Alix said ;)). The problem was, our BLM actually died before he even used 2hr, and in the end, that situation became a full wipe. However, most of us succeeded to die in a safe place (well, everyone but the poor BLM who got drawn in), and we had plenty of time to reraise and recover. And when Alexander used his 2hr again when he was on about 4%, we succeeded to avoid it slightly better (I think).
In the end, I used about a stack of food, a reraise earring and whatnot for this mission, but it was all worth it, because WE WON! WON WON WON WON! And I got a cute grown and a nice ring! So it was totally worth it!
But really, the best thing was that it was so fun! It was such a great feeling to finish something this difficult with friends. I laughed so much yesterday, especially when we got thrown out from the battlefield when Alexander was on 3%, I had such a great time! Call me crazy, but those are the moments that make this game enjoyable for me!
Talking about enjoyable, we also had our first Limbus run with SecretFellowship! I decided we start with NE Apollyon, because it's the most easy Limbus zone I know. And it was really almost perfect, we finished the zone with about half an hour left or something. Red kind off took the lead there, but I didn't mind, because well, he's just so good at it. It's just a bit amusing because he's always telling how much he hates leading stuff, so I just had to tease him about it. Anyway, I love our group, and I'm really looking forward to our future runs!
Also, the Einherjar group I recently left, finally got to do their first Odin and I promised to help. And, we got thrown out when he was at 1-3% HP. I'm pretty annoyed because that will most likely be the one and only time I never get to fight him (because well, I'm really not interested in doing Einherjar), so I wanted the experience and the title and the memory... But well, I guess I will remember that time as the-time-when-we-I-almost-became-Elite-Einherjar.
