Relic Derp

As I bumble through the relic quest I figure I should probably put my little list of notes here to keep people from repeating my mistakes. Save yourself some time and effort! If anyone has anything to add, go ahead.

_HAMLET SEALS_
As everyone knows, getting seals is pretty much just dumb luck. So I don't have much to say about that. However, anyone looking to get an edge will probably want to do turn ins to get top 20 for that extra chance. Since there are some people in the shell who think it's funny to troll others, causing them to waste a couple mil, here's how it really goes:
- All NQ items (or item stacks in some cases) give 1k each/each stack. Each crafted item counts for 1k and every 10 gathered items counts as 1k. You cannot turn in less than 10 gathered items at a time and you cannot stack them with HQs. All the militai crafted items stack to 99. You can turn them in bulk, 99 for crafted items and 90 for gathered items. Any extra gathered items will be placed back into your inventory automatically after a transaction.
- All HQ item/item stacks are worth 10k. these are more worth your time and inventory space than NQs. If you are going for a top 3 slot only bother with HQs. The 1k stacks just are not worth the time and effort.
- Crafted Militia items for turn ins cannot be melded.
- Regular equipment that has materia on them can be turned in. Your points are determined by the level of the item and materia I think, but I didn't get to test it much. To be honest, this is a pretty expensive route to take in both gil, effort and inventory space and is probably not worth the trouble of getting all your points this way.
- If you want a top 3 spot, you probably should prepare at least 4 million in points in advance. Yes, that seems like a little overkill, but trust me when I say that other people going for it will probably have that and more. Trying for this during a weekend is a lot harder than trying for it during the week. when you turn in, wait until the last 5 minutes before starting anything. Sometimes there is massive turn in lag, sometimes not. So you could get screwed anyway. That's just the way the game is.

_DOUBLE MELDS_
Unless you are lucky, just buy the weapon and get it over with. Save yourself the headache. once you turn it in there is no going back and changing your mind later. Unless you want to waste gil.

_STRONGHOLDS_
Keep in mind that whatever stronghold you need is the beastman currency you will have to gather later. The Ixali and Kobold can be straight up zerged with positive results. I wouldn't try that with Zaharak though.

_17 MIN SPEEDRUNS_
CC is not as easy as AV. Have top notch gear or you are dead weight.

_BEASTCOINS_
You only need a certain amount of 1 type of coin, not all three types. So 990 of the common coin of 495 of the rare or 99 of the super rare. Really, don't bother collecting all three types within a category unless you are saving for another relic that needs that type.

_SOULBINDING_
As many of you know, I am going for the BRD weapon which is the slowest one to spiritbond without being PL'd. Mostly solo, but with a little assistance from Mcbite and Niko every once in a while, it took me 8 hours and 40ish minute to see that my spiritbond was complete. Maybe it was complete a little before that, but I was zoning out as I did this and did not catch anything in my chatbox. Of course, I wouldn't have caught it anyway since I was on my enemy/ls logs at the time. I didn't think it was complete because the quest never updates so I thought I needed a little more. I ended up wasting about 4 and a half hours trying to get a "last little sliver" that never existed. Don't make the same mistake. A good way to tell if it is done is to compare it to any AF pieces you frequently use. or you can look at this image:

New tip I forgot when I originally posted this: Buy the 2 Spiritbond +1 items before you start this. Hell, even if you plan on trying to do relics in 2.0 buy them, because you never know when they might make them unavailable. The Patriot Choker and Bracelet are both purchased via GC seals or by the black market NPCs. I admit that I did not try to spiritbond without them, but I can tell you that they work for crafting things you get pretty much no exp for and have been told that they work for the unfinished weapons. Better safe than sorry.

_FACTION QUEST_
BRD:
Each weapon has a different quest tied to it. The BRD quest is surprisingly easy with Princess Xiao's strat. We went in with 1 PLD, 1 WAR, 1 WHM and me as BRD. BRD is the only damage dealer you get with this strat, so it's a good measure of whether or not you are a good BRD (The pressure! lol). Also, use Rigor as your song. The enemies are 4 Ixali; A special named NM, Mage, Dragoon and Warrior. Once you get to the mobs the PLD grabs the NM, Dragoon and Warrior and starts kiting them around the area. The WAR picks up the Mage and, while keeping distance so you don't get hit by any AoEs, BRD Light Shot / Firepots to 3k TP then Light Shot until the mob hits 50% health. Once it is at 50%, go all out using your combos in the correct order and prepare to have a heart attack, because the Mage will start to PoM > Heal itself. I had to kill almost 3 health bars worth of HP before finally getting it down. After that, WAR picks up the Dragoon and you kill that as normal, still keeping your distance. Don't derp like me and focus so much on killing that you forget to recast Rigor as soon as it goes down. Though we still did it in one try that tunnel vision playing could have cost us the win and I was lucky that Sherry has a keen eye and reminded me about it. After the Dragoon is dead, the WAR picks up the warrior. It should be noted that my hands were shaking so bad I derped my macro and cast Swiftsong (lol) which I immediately replaced with Rigor. BRD damages it as normal until 50% health. At 50%, cast Battle Voice > Minuet of Rigor. I am not sure if this was the correct choice, but I did get close and risked getting AoE'd so I could hit both the WAR and WHM with Battle Voice. Luckily I did not get hit. Once the Warrior is dead, the PLD stands in one spot and you DPS the NM as normal. We won with time to spare, and that was with my two pretty major mistakes, so the strat is solid.
Something I forgot to mention that I was just reminded of. When the tank runs by the mob you are fighting, don't AoE. It's a given, but it is really easy to lose yourself in the fight and not pay attention to where everyone is.

BLM:
I was really dumb my first attempt and started the leve before we were ready like a noob. Don't do that. Being pukey level sick isn't an excuse for stupid!
The mechanics behind this fight are really easy, but it is so reliant on RNG that I can see how it is possible to do everything right and still fail it, which is why everyone hates this one. I ended up using a Buttons in a Blanket for food (w/2 macc rings. Do not miss!) a Mega Potion of Intelligence and an Elixir. I was told Mega Potion wasn't entirely necessary, but I had them an used one anyway. I think it was worth it considering that my INT is really low with the Unfinished Startdust on. Xaio was very nice and loaned me a few items to equip which really helped out.
We did the fight with a tank, WHM, BLM (Me) and a MNK who changed to BLM once the boss popped. When you start the fight, there are 3 blank Puddings. As soon as you engage they will change color. Blue (hit with lightning), White (hit with fire) and Green (hit with ice). I do not know what happens if you hit the wrong slime with the wrong color, but was told that everyone dies. BLM Dark Seal > Sleep the Green one as soon as possible while the MNK attacks and kills White using Fists of Fire. You can dodge some of the magic by getting to the side and back of the pudding. After BLM sleeps, this is where I popped that optional potion of INT to get the cooldown running for an Elixir later, you target Blue and Thunder > Excruciate (Dark Seal is down) > Thundara > Parsimony > Thundaga (probably have hate right about now) > Sanguine Rite > Thunder > Thundara > (no Convert) Burst and Thunder > Thundara / Repeat from there until it is dead. I also snuck in a Featherfoot, which worked, and a Second Wind. Both Blue and White Pudding (MNK switches to BLM as soon as White Pudding is dead) should be dead just before or as the Green Pudding comes out of Sleep. After slowly killing Green using BLMs very limited ice spells, the Princess Pudding pops up. She behaves very much like any other Plain Pudding, only changing her color every 30 seconds. This is where RNG comes into play. If she is Blue, nuke the shit out of her with a Thundaga combo. If she is White, BLMs trade off Flare duty with the other BLM and hope the dot sticks and otherwise do Fire > Fira. If she is Green, Blizzard and Freeze. I did Blizzara at once. I don't know if the damage I did and the damage I took was worth the risk, but considering the time limit I am unsure. Speaking of which, she can hit you, so stay away unless you are Flaring. It's basically a "will the RNG give you lots of Blue or will it keep giving you Green and time you out" fight.

_GARUDA_
Garuda was done as usual, with a small change. When the group gathers just before the 2 hour plumes, when I would normally recast Rigor or whatever song I was on, cast Sacred Prism > Stoneskin instead. This means I would have to recast Rigor sooner, because you can't hit the whole group with both back to back, but it makes sense to Stoneskin at this time. Mainly because if any plumes decide to pop before they are killed everyone has that small buffer, making for an easier transition if things go a tad wrong. I suppose it is also good to note that the group killed her so fast we didn't do the whole BRD song switch on the second group of add spawn, so when I cast my BV I just recast Rigor instead. That said, the recast wasn't really necessary so I wasted a few moments I could have been DPSing. I do tend to play way too defensively at times. Something I will have to work at.
Oh, and in case someone didn't already know this, you have to kill her in speedrun time with no deaths.

_IFRIT EXTREME_
Rewriting this so it isn't such a pain in the ass to read. Also, I am a little more experienced with the fight now, so correcting a few vague points and mistakes. I am still a little fuzzy on some aspects and might get some things wrong. If I do please correct me.

Consumables:
Appropriate food for your class/gear setup, both GC Raise pots and Elixir/Dusken Draught. Do not forget the raise pots. even if you are prepared shit happens and you will probably use them.

Setup:
1 PLD, 1 WHM, 1 BRD (Has to have 2800 HP), 2 WAR, 3 DRG. Tank tanks, obviously. WHM heals, but be sure to use your GC Raise pots if needed because they will be busy. BRD does light heals, keeps Ballad on the PLD, casts Paeon just before nails pop up and besides the occasional Bloodletter and Nail does not DPS at all. WAR kills one horn every time it regens with Godsbane and uses Vengeance to push Ifrit over into each nail phase. DRG kills one horn every time it regens with Impulse Drive and a BRD ability… I forget which.

Strategy:
- Phase one: Tank picks up Ifrit and evryone auto attacks while sitting on one of his feet. After the first weaponskill, everyone tries to break the horns. WARs should cast Vengeance while doing their Godsbane combo. That should pop the first set of 4 nails (90%). From the time the nails spawn you have about 3 abilities worth of time before Ifirt casts Eruption. Try not to stand on anyone else during this time. Once the nails are down, attempt to break the horns and prepare your defensive abilities sonce he jumps for Hellfire.
- Phase two: Now you wait every two weaponskills before you attack. Remember that Jump/Dashes reset that number. Once Ifrit's health gets close to 60% everyone auto attacks to gain TP while both WARs cast Vengeance and stand in front of Ifrit to push him over into the second set of 8 nails. Use the link down below to know which nails to kill. Like every nail phase if you start attacking right away you have about 3 abilities before the Eruptions start. Once your set is dead you are either on cleanup duty or horn duty before the next Hellfire.
- Phase three: Now you wait every three weaponskills before you attack. Once again remember that Jump/Dashes reset that number. Once Ifrit's health gets close to 30% everyone auto attacks to gain TP while WARs stand in front of Ifrit with Vengeance on to push him over to spawn 13 nails. Once again, use the link below to see what nails you have to kill. After your set is dead you are either on nail cleanup or horn duty. Last Hellfire occurs here.
- Phase four - If you have reached this point with most people alive then you have pretty much won the fight. Just watch for weaponskills.

Ifrit's Weaponskills:
There are a few differences in extreme. I will point them out when I get to it.
- Vulcan Burst: No longer counted as a "weaponskill" for the purposes of timing attacks. Works just like normal Ifrit with knockback and all.
- Eruption: 3 sets of explosions, in and out of nail phases, focused on random party members for each set. Outside of the nail phase everyone (except the WHM usually) has to bunch up together on a foot, then run backwards as soon as ifrit performs this weaponskill. Do not stand behind anyone or you will kill them. During the nail phases everyone has to try not to stand directly on top of another player if they can help it to minimize damage in case they are the target.
- Radiant Plume: There are 4 different ways this can spawn. If no horns are killed, the entire battle arena is covered and everyone dies. If one horn is broken, just underneath Ifrit and maybe a little off to the side is safe. If both horns are broken the Plumes are either all along the outer edge of the area or in the center. You can see why breaking the horns is so important. The best way to dodge this is to have Ifrit tanked near the edge of the arena so that people can get to safe places when it occurs.
- Dash / Incinerate / Sear: A 3 in 1 package now. If no horns are broken, Ifrit clones cover the whole arena and dash at the same time with no safe spots. If one horn is broken there are 4 clones with huge hit boxes, each one dashing one at a time starting with the farthest clone to the left. If two horns are broken there are only 3 clones which behave just like the one horn broken set. The best way to dodge it is to run to the edge of the arena as soon as he jumps. If the far left clone is right in front of you in a clockwise manner, start running clockwise taking care not to run into a clone. If the far right clone is right behind you in a clockwise manner, then standing still nearby, but not near enough to get hit, is safe. If the clones spawn on top of you, run like hell and hope you don't get hit.
After the dashes Ifrit resets hate and picks a random person to attack, so everyone has to spread out. Soon after the chase, Ifrit will cast Incinerate. If you get hit by this you (and your corpse should you die) get a permanent Sear (aka Ifrit's fart) debuff on you. So don't get hit. After Incinerate it should be safe for the tank to pick up Ifrit again. DPS should auto attack until the next weaponskill so the tank can build hate. Also, this weaponskill set resets the number of weaponskills you have to wait for a safe moment to attack.

Nails: The first set of nails is just 4 in the center. Easy to kill. There are two images in this link: http://s1148.photobucket.com/albums/o562/Clairerennai/?action=view¤t=IFEX2.png& The first one is the formation of the second set of nails. The second one is the formation of the third set of nails. For the third set, WARs focus their AoE attacks on the center nail to bring the ones in the center down. Another apsect to the nail phases is that Ifrit regrows his horns when they spawn so at some point before he Hellfires at least one of them, if not both, has to be broken. For the WARs the one with the better gear/skill/experience goes to kill the horn after the center nails are down while the lesser geared/skilled/experienced WAR helps clean up nails unless the WAR on horn breaking duty calls for help. At that point the WAR on nail clean up duty has to run to Ifrit to try to break the horn. I am unsure how the DRGs split their time when it comes to horn duty. Hellfire is just like normal, so pop defensive cooldowns if you have them when Ifrit jumps to the center.

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