Sortie Release - Info

I see. I am the only other person in my group with Crepuscular cloak, so I normally am bursting right behind the Death on blm for 15-45k.

I need some questions for experienced RDMs who tackled hard mode Aminon.


What do you prioritize between Para2 and Slow2 for Sabo?
In theory they should last the same when landed, but alas it's not like that and it's gotta be related to 1/2 and 1/4 duration resists, I suppose? Because quite often they wear off at different times for me.
Which means I end up in a situation like this, for example:

Saboed Para2 is up on Aminon
Slow2 wears off
My Sabo timer is up
What do I do? I can either:
1) Use Sabo and land Slow2 (but that means Sabo won't be up when Para2 wears off)
2) Use Slow2 without Sabo, but this means potency and duration will be slightly weaker.

I feel to get out of these situations we need to pick a "priority" buff between Slow2 and Para2, and make sure Sabo is always up for the one you pick up.
How do you handle these situations?



Also, other debuffs that you feel matter?
I managed to land Blind2 and Poison2 but I wonder if it's even worth to do it.
I could never land Addle2 and I stopped bothering about it.


Last but not least, which Group2 merits do you use?
I was thinking 5/5 Enf duration for sure
And for the second category I'm torn between 5/5 macc and 5/5 Immunobreak.
I could be wrong, but I feel like with my gear Macc isn't making that much of a difference, I either land stuff on first attempt or it requires me 1-3 immunobreaks (for Blind2/Para2/Blind2)

I have a more basic question...I'm just getting into Sortie and I've been trying to get a Starstone from the basement by doing the objective where you have to be 5/5 in empy gear when interacting with the bitzer in F.

I drop invisible and interact with my bard wearing 5/5 Fili gear (various +1s and +2s) and even a Fili earring as a 6th Fili piece but nothing happens. It just asks me if i want to return to B. Is there something else to this objective that I'm missing? If not, and someone else has time, can they see if it's still working for them?

You don't necessarily have to wear it, but you have to "equip" their looks.
If you wear, say, 5/5 Nyame but you're using a lockstyle with 5/5 Empy of your current job, then you'll be fine.

Keep in mind it has to be the empy of your CURRENT job. You can't go there as a NIN while wearing 5/5 BRD empy looks, it won't work.

Also, it's just the visible pieces, no need for earring or anything else.

ahh, i'm almost positive i'm lockstyled as something else. I'll make sure I'm not lockstyled and will verify tomorrow.

Thanks for your help!!

You CAN be lockstyled, as long as you lockstyle for 5/5 empy of your current job.

If you go there as RDM, equip 5/5 Malignance but lockstyle with 5/5 RDM Empy, you'll be fine.
Can be Empy of any level. Even the Abyssea version, and you can mix & match pieces.

This post on the JP forums has 10 likes and is really interesting. It's asking for some changes to increase participating in sortie, regardless of Prime Weapon progress:

1.) Stage 5 drops from Aminion shold drop materials even if people don't have a stage 4 weapon. (This would allow anyone to join a Sortie group doing Aminion and still get a chance at a drop. Otherwise, they just rely on Gallimaufry to entice people and that's something that everyone gets).

2.) A general increase in the amount of Gallimaufry obtained in Sortie, or from Aminion specifically. The reasoning here is that the Voracious Psyches are the time-restriction, not Gallimuafry.

3.) There is also a request of getting +2 cases from Aminion.

Anyway, I personally don't think this is a huge stretch for SE to adjust, given that Sortie has been out for a year and a half. Here's the link, feel free to Like it, ...or don't?

https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxi/threads/59817-2022%E5%B9%B48%E6%9C%8816%E6%97%A5%E3%80%80%E5%B0%8E%E5%85%A5%E3%80%80%E3%82%BD%E3%83%BC%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A4%E3%81%84%E3%81%A6?p=657683&viewfull=1#post657683

Over incentivizing aminon. It really doesn't need any incentives. Zero shot on +2 cases and no reason to give meso to someone who hasn't suffered through to stage 4 yet.

Overall more galli, sure. The double gate with psyche is redundant.

If you want "more reason" to do Aminon/Increase participation, make the (non Scythe/GKT/GS/Horn) primes better. If the end prize of the event is dogshit, shocker, no ones gonna do the event. It's a pretty simple concept.

Realistically they dropped the ball with the whole earring fiasco and no one is satisfied with it. The amount of them in the ecosystem is too low given their average to below average power level, despite the stat vomit on them. If they won't adjust the randomness of the job roll, or the stat roll, they can at the bare minimum increase their frequency to make it more reasonable that a hardened group running every day for months could pull a single earring for a job they play.

It's been said a million times. Aminon should drop a +2 box, basement bosses could drop a +1 guaranteed. It wouldn't change a damn thing but it would at least feel more rewarding.

Either it drops a +2 box or make +2 earrings capped augments. The current system is bad. Very Very Bad.

If it sucks but keeps people going for years on the cope, then it is in fact, good.

Keep going. Keep paying. It could be today!

What does an ideal RUN set look like for negating magic damage in Sortie? (ie: Trib or Aminon) I heard Martel mention stacking INT and MDB are huge for reducing dmg and keeping stoneskin up, but between Empy/Nyame/Agwu there are a lot of options and unsure how much of the other defensive stats are worth sacrificing (HP, meva, elemental resist etc)

ItemSet 357884

This set does very well for strictly mitigating magic damage.

Erilaz head has more M.Def and MND, something else to consider.

Taint's set is great, I would swap the empy head in both for the reasons he said but also the extra 1% chance to absorb a hit. I would swap strap for Irenic, since the DT from refined is overkill and HP/DEF/Parrying don't really matter for this use case specifically.

For sortie in particular, I'm not a fan of absorb. Now, if you aren't attempting to TP suppress the NMs, then disregard, but... when an absorb procs, if it cures you for more than 0, then just like when a hit deals more than 0 dmg, the mob gets TP for that hit. This is... really annoying. So while it spares your stoneskin some damage, the mob just got TP for that hit anyway. Essentially circumventing your entire SS, and all your other defenses.

That said, I'm not going to go too far out of my way to avoid absorb gear if I was going to use the pieces anyway, Like RUN empyrean. But I wouldn't specifically wear anything that absorbs for the absorb on Sortie NMs that we TP supress.

What do you use for HM Aminion, pretty sure I've seen you on RUN on Ejin's stream? Most other groups use PLD from what I've seen.

I'm also PLD on Hard Mode Aminon. Aegis is just so good there. My stoneskin often wears off from duration timeout rather than damage...

I'm still RUN for the farm runs between Aminon runs, and I was RUN for normal mode MB strat Aminon.

I'll go ahead throw together a few AH sets for the variants I used for normal Aminon and D/H+C/G, then do another post with those in a bit. I don't have much of my RUN stuff on AH.

A brief disclaimer. These sets are somewhat tossed together compared to the level of refinement usually found in my PLD sets. I researched some stats, tossed together sets, and really only examined the logs of a few Aminon fights to determine that this was an improvement. Thus these sets are far more.. tentative than my PLD sets tend to be.
ItemSet 393823
INT+223
MDB+70.
Cape Augs: +20 INT, +45 MEVA, +10 enmity.
Significantly overcapped DT.

Before Adamantite Armor I was using Agwu body for the high INT and MDB. Along with some other changes to maintain DT, like D ring.

This set drops roughly 100 combined meva/ele resist compared to my normal meva tanking set. That said, my trials on normal mode Aminon, though brief, did show a reduction in the avg and max dmg taken.

This, and anecdotal experiences with the other NMs, suggests to me that RUN may be significantly overcapped on meva for many attacks used in Sortie. Especially considering the additional loss of meva on my Knockback reduction variant set.

Speaking of which.
ItemSet 393825
I honestly kind of hate this. Why does this stat have to be so rare, and only on old, crappy gear!? Still just barely caps DT since the base set was so overcapped.

Anyway, KBR+4 is sufficient to nullify the knockback attacks from Aminon, Degei, Aita, Skomora, and Triboulex. Though it's worth noting that as soon as a luopan or other player is in range, it'll stop working on Skomora/Triboulex. This is infuriating, but SE's answer to that issue was "Working as intended." Continues to work regardless of who is in range on Degei/Aita/Aminon.*

You can, of course just pull the mob to a corner, or use... other means of anchoring yourself. But I prefer not to use the latter, and most of these NMs take effing forever to pull to a camp.

Oh, a note on Aminon specifically. I used Reikiko for normal mode Aminon, rather than Malignance Sword, since I was the only one WS'ing aside from the cor, and deemed mitigating the WS wall more a higher priority than increased defenses.

I feel like I've been sidetracked so many times working on these sets and post that I don't recall half this ***I was going to say about it... Ask questions, poke some holes in this ***, and maybe I'll come outta it with a better set than before. lol.

you can throw in regis if you dont care for the small hp/mp/fc hit in exchange for 3 more mdb

This would be a thing I would do... IF I had got one. I missed it, and now I'm outta luck till they add it to another login campaign.

Not to derail but I imagine you are using gs to swap to a "knockback reduction set", if you are automating this then why not just use knockblock/anchor anyway? You've already crossed the line into automation.

Thanks Martel!
Whats your PLD set up for Hardmode? and what are you subbing for stoneskin? A tanking guide to Hardmode I'm sure would be appreciated by all.

If he has a toggle or macro button that he chooses to press when he needs his KBR set... how is that automation? I too think Anchor crosses a certain line of 'too cheaty' and really don't see what your argument is. You seem to be assuming he's 'react'ing in the KBR set to certain TP moves, where I'd presume he's main tanking in that set for those specific bosses to stay stationary.

Sorry to further derail, that comment just rubbed me the wrong way

considering just about every one these things' normal attacks knock back idk how you'd even automate it with a gearset

I mean, you could just have different idle sets depending whether you want/need knockback reduction, right?

I don't think there's any mention of alternating sets mid-fight based on boss actions, I assume it's just a toggle in his lua or something.

It's a manual toggle. It doesn't react to anything the mob is doing. It doesn't turn on automatically. I hit a macro, it starts locking in knockback- gear. If I forget to hit it, I get flung around until I hit the macro.

You could accomplish the same effect with vanilla macros/equipsets.

Working on a separate Aminon related post.

Martel is the real Anchor of the community.

I'm using PLD/SCH for Aminon. In part because I also handle all the aoe sneak/invis, and all the status removal. Neither of these is really relevant to Aminon itself, but the rest of the run is a thing. I think the only real requirement for your subjob on this fight is that it gives access to Stoneskin. Light Arts, etc, is just bonus.

Tanking set isn't anything special either. Mostly Nyame/meva gear. I'll include a quick gs export. Don't feel like building a full AH set for it right now.
The main point is just Aegis. Nyame path is not relevant. I'm just an A path heretic. And I excluded the weapon for reasons I'll go over later when I talk about WS. Set is kinda hugely over DT capped, I just haven't got around to refining it. Could maybe drop D ring and augment Apeile for the MDB, etc. Hmm, maybe Sanare over Eabani too... Anyway.

Also due to how we position the fight, I also use Knockback reduction gear for Aminon.

Rather than the tank being in a corner, for the Hardmode fight we have everyone else in the corner, and the Tank on the opposite side of Aminon. So since I don't have my back to a wall, I have to deal with the Knockback. Basically, I have to wear shitty KBR gear so that everyone else doesn't have to. -_-;

Aminon does maybe once or twice a fight knock me back very slightly, despite my knockback gear being locked in. No idea what causes this, as he never uses a TP move, so he can only be knocking me back with his melee hits. And he only has 3 different types of melee hits. Perhaps some conditional effect related to earring/wing status? I'm not sure, but you'll need to move back in when this happens, or he can potentially move out enough to outrange WS from the party members clustered in the corner. Considering how long this fight can be, this happens very rarely.

The pull. It is possible to pull Aminon in such a way that he draws you into the center of the room, even though he's not at the center anymore, and misses you with Incessant void. I've only managed to do this twice. The timing and positioning is tricky. You have to pull from max casting distance then run away enough that he ends up near the border of the colored section of the floor... but not outside it(I think), when he triggers void. It seems like once he's too far from his spawn point he draws in to his own location rather than to the center of the room.

That said, if he gets you with void, just SS and phalanx up, then pull to a corner. It's just annoying to lose all your buffs, and not a critical aspect of the fight or anything.

Once at camp, we've been having the RDM spam sleep till it lands via immunobreak(saving Stymie for distract later in the fight). Then we buff up while he's asleep. Takes the pressure to keep Absorb-TP going off. Once Aminon is asleep you flip around him to stand on the other side of him away from the corner so the rest of the party can use the corner spot.

The PLD part of this fight is really just keep SS up, WS to help mitigate the wall, and cure. Cure a lot.

SS lasts a looong time. Like, it will wear off from duration time out rather than damage. I do cast in SS+ gear, even the non-ilvl pieces like Stone mufflers. It's not hard to time an SS cast between Aminon's hits while he's debuffed though.

WS as you can to mitigate the WS wall. This is where weapon selection comes in. I originally was using Excalibur and Knights of Round.(The COR was doing Savage, or I'd have Naegling'd) But I later swapped to using Reikiko for the regain for more frequent WS(Switched to CDC since I can't KoR with Reikiko.) This did lower my damage by like half, but I was only amounting to maybe 5% of the parse anyway. Better to help other more potent WS hit harder.

Cure. A lot. Our THF is actually using Regal Gloves(DT+ and converts dmg taken to TP) and basically no DT, or shell, on this fight. They get trashed for like 400 dmg a hit. So.. I'm doing a lot of curing. With refresh III from the RDM MP isn't an issue. Even using Sroda belt in an meva midcast.

I've never had the slightest enmity issues with this fight, even when I was really slacking on JA use, or forgetting to flash. Maybe use JA on DD start when they wake him up, an Atonement to start, etc. After that the sheer mass of curing is probably a lot of enmity, even with Tranquil Heart cutting into your cure enmity. -_-;

PLD isn't part of the TP suppression, and doesn't really have to coordinate anything with the group for the rest of the fight. Maybe hold WS a bit if TP seems high or Absorbs are getting resisted. I was way more busy on my dualboxed GEO than on PLD. <,<;

I feel like I kinda wandered all over the place there... Not exactly a concise guide, but well, PLD on Aminon is pretty simple really. SS, WS, Cure.

Martel's humble brag is pretty good too.

All these 'tossed together' 'unrefined' sets have adamantite armor.