The Odyssey - || Strategy And Discussion ||

The DRK is probably making notable sacrifices to get native capped Subtle Blow (does he have 50 or 55?), ones significantly more impactful than the small bonus Endark II gives. You should use Auspice's 25 SB and take advantage of the better gear flexibility that opens up.

Is the DRK using Absorb-VIT and Scarlet Delirium to their advantage to enhance damage?

I would recommend dropping your Endark and add more STP/Multi Atk gear and have your WHM auspice you to reach cap.

Make sure your Blu is using Plenilune Embrace for more atk for the drk and Cesspool for more TP denial.

Make sure your WHM is using Boost VIT as well. I liked to use DS/NV to absorb VIT.

Keep up Scarlet Delirium up to increase your damage. As well as ensuring the COR uses RD for the resets you need.

For defenses down I would recommend using Armor Break instead, get 3k tp in lobby then apply at start, then again at around 35%.

I am not 100% sure about this but I have heard that he will start resisting Mewing which is why most groups use Beastmaster with the Leech pet. Also BST can Unleash at the 25% mark and the DRK can go ham until its almost off then Soul Enslavement off that. That with the possibility of Wild Card resets makes it very desirable.

Last thing, incase you didnt know, Soul Enslavement takes off Auspice/Endark so make sure you turn and reapply. Happy Hunting!

BST Leech TP drain is particularly effective on Mboze. We used BST and BLU TP drain for V20 and it was very potent. BST also gets to utilize Unleash for the final 20% which is a minute of recast-free TP drain.

We also used WAR savage blade instead of DRK. DPS was much better, still capped subtle blow, and you can utilize Random Deal > Wild Card > Random Deal for Mighty Strikes/Warcry.

When we cleared V20, we had over five minutes left on the timer. When we used an equally geared DRK, we really struggled with DPS.

prior two posts really sum up my beliefs on this fight well, but no harm in reiterating some of it with another experience. We used to bring SMN+BLU for TP suppression on Mboze, but moved to BST+BLU before v20 came out and really enjoyed the swap. Unleash is really worth the swap for that free chunk of time, and while SMN has some great buffing tools they bring in addition to just its Mewing for this fight, so does BST when played by someone familiar with the job versus someone who just built a leech BST in a week out of necessity (we have the luxury of a long-standing BST who's just thrilled the world wants him now and then now lol).

The bringing a Fencer WAR over DRK is interesting- its another way to get a heavy DD better Haste results w/o a subjob to assist matters- DRK is very reliant on Last Resort in my opinion in Gaol. I still like DRK as it has multiple interesting tools for DPS here, and definitely can work. Pairing Unleash followed immediately by Soul Enslavement means almost 2 minutes of completely risk-free damage. I've also seen wins with a Su5 SAM (path B) and using Yaegasumi in the same way- maybe everyone else won't make it thru, but the win will happen if executed well ^^

to @Feanorsof- if you're seeing a TP move that early in the fight my first thoughts run to 3 things-

1. Your TP suppressors need to examine their sets/timing (getting the two suppressors off cycle so they're not draining at the same time is very important, getting a rhythm going and all)

2. or your DD may need to just wait a little longer before going all-out in feeding TP. When I DRK this, my starting routine naturally allows the Drainers to get established before I really start swinging (1. equip Gaxe in lobby, get TP from a job swap. 2. Claim Mboze post-buffs and land Armor Break. 3. swap to Liberator, DS/NV absorb-VIT (drain3, even bursted and sealed, is never worth it on Mboze). 4. swap to Caladbolg SB set and get to work)

3. Adjust your sets/buffing so that your WHM has the Ebers Feet+1 for +25 SB1 from Auspice, allowing for more SB2 and/or damage-dealing gear.

Have you ever seen the Plague effect wear off on Mboze? I used it several times and didn’t see it, so just wondering if maybe mine missed or you’re assuming it landed. Good to know if it can land. Also, plenilune embrace is a good move to use, just key in mind that it’s attack+ effect varies with moon phase. So it might not be worth using if it’s closer to new moon or waning at a low percentage. Alternatively, you can use diffusion Nature’s Mediation for a +20% attack bonus on the dark knight (doesn’t stack with embrace), since you get rd resets, you should have a couple of chances to apply it.

Cesspool and Nature's Meditation are not mutually exclusive. That said if you want to apply Plague, just use Lowing or something. It isn't as potent as Delta Thrust/Cesspool but it doesn't feed any TP and can be reapplied more than once every 5 minutes. Idk if Plague even works on Mboze

Highly doubt anything earth based will land on Mboze, unless with 5% floored success rate. Since BLU magic add effect landing is not visible, the only way to notice slow landing is check time before Mboze's attacks.

Plague probably works, but landing rate might also be floored. So it's even harder to notice if it landed or not. Fact that most plague has only like 30-60s duration doesn't help too.

WTB BLU add. eff. potency/buff duration+ gear.

WTB update to chat, that shows add effect landing or being resisted.

you'll always know if Lowing landed since it is the only effect that the spell has. if nothing else it makes it easy to see if plague lands at all on it

Thanks for the responses.

I think we will look to swapping the SMN out for BST, considering that we see TP reports of 0 on Erinys compared to Mboze, I think mewing may be getting resisted as was mentioned.
We too have a career BST who is just waiting for me to say the word XD

Timing of the TP supression was fine looking at the logs, the only thing I can think of is that we got started too quickly but the TP reports from Mewing tells me that was not an issue.
It's hard to understand how we successfully carried out this fight even on V15 to 20% without encountering the TP moves the way we did yesterday, the only changes made were:

1. Endark and Attack food on the DRK
2. BLU reduced recast on Reaving/Feather
3. BLU taking care of defense down
4. Reducing SMN buffs to just Crystal Blessing to save time

In terms of endark/auspice, I'm not too worried about dps now we've made our changes, we got him down quite quickly but appreciate the advice and we will look into potential gear swaps.

For anyone else struggling with this, other potential ideas we may try are:

1. Swap out the WHM for RDM who can silence and go BST + SMN
2. Look into whether BLU could provide enough cures that we could possibly bring BLU BST SMN

Will confirm what worked for us once we've successfully taken him down

I still can't believe the TP suppression method was the intended way to fight Mboze anyway.
I really wonder if there's something else that's escaping our grasp or if that's it.

If Timber was split 8 ways instead of 7 max, I could see it being the intended method (6 players + luopan + pet). That would mean you need to incorporate a BST or SMN for sure to make the split manageable. Those two jobs can provide some useful support/supplemental damage if it came down to it. It could've been a nice way to get those two jobs back into the fold without their usage being gimmicky. But that isn't the case. The margin for error on Timber is so small, especially with an add whackin' people off.

I really don't know what they wanted the intended setup to be. The closet thing I felt was an "intended" setup was PLD/DD/BRD/WHM/COR/GEO with the PLD using Rampart to mitigate Timber, but it feels bad to have to rely on Rampart getting reset by RD > WC > RD. Same thing with Rayke on Ongo. I dislike that it is essentially required.

Oh, yeah, and the wrong aura just tanks your run. Attack Down (can't deal enough damage to the boy), Defense Down (add slaughters you), or M.Acc Down (can't land BLU TP drains) are almost 100% run enders.

Bit of bullcrap there.

I dunno, the WKR and Delve2 Yggtreant weren't that bad in the end, were they?

I thought the same as you for a LONG time. Then I realized it was me missing something, and in part due to NA strategy trends over JP strats. Almost since the beginning of the game, NA strats have always been more offensively based, damn the consequences and just tell the healers and tanks to "git gud" (oversimplification) and the JP strats put survivability #1 over speed. In almost any "normal" high end situation, our DDs aren't worried about Subtle Blow builds- "oh you only need that for special fights and then just bring a MNK or something" and bringing a job or two for TP suppression would be viewed as a wasted slot compared to bringing more buffs or more DPS to the NA playerbase.

SE made a fight we can't simply overpower and forced us to consider these two mechanics that have been in the game for a very long time. At first I thought Mboze was going to be a pet fight, get as many targets on the ground as possible due to our lack of using pet strats as a primary tool. But every time I see a TP move go off from Mboze, I view him more like a pressure cooker. Its on us to maintain that pressure to its maximum efficiency, but not blow the lid.

I dunno. I'm not buyin that.
If their purpose was to force players develop strategies to make so that NM doesn't use any TP move at all, then why bother giving him so many different ones? They could've given it just one and make it a total wipe that does 99k unresistable damage to everyone in range.

But probably the truth is that they didn't really give too much careful thoughts about the strategy or the balance of that specific nm

Got me there on that first point, esp when you think if the message was meant to be "don't give me TP or you die" it would have some god-awful cap dmg move like an Ambuscade gimmick, and not others to confuse the message.

There was no "intended" strategy, they just took the Delve boss's, turned the stats up, gave them various immunities, then put them inside a battlefield where we lose access to our subjobs. It's likely there is some sort of internal joke amongst the devs on how much crap they can get away with putting the player base through.

Also the JP's do not use some sort of magical "defensive" strategy, they play the exact same way we do. One of our groups members is JP and this is a conversation we've had. We use TP denial strategy on Mboze because he has an "I Win" button he can randomly push. Furthermore unlike the other Naakual boss's his TP moves have a range of elements which makes riding Valiance not reliable.

The fact that they greatly changed Timbeeer, making it more deadly but also including a way to mitigate it, says otherwise.

Given how Timbeeer works, my guess is that SE intended for it to be killed with pet jobs, but didn't realize how undertuned they were, which makes it impossible to kill in time like that on higher V levels.

Embalming Earth’s Slow doesn’t land on Mboze or his add. It didn’t land on the add with Earth Threnody on.

It will only land during their Proc aura's when it's resistance to earth drops to nothing while also absorbing earth damage.

I am aware of that, but it's completely irrelevant to the strat in question because you should never see an aura at all, if done correctly.

I think you overrating Mboze a little. There is plenty of working strategy assuming you have access to whatever jobs you want.

Beside obvious no TP moves strategy you can also use GEO/BST/SMN PLD BLU WHM COR BRD. Under 50% you use Rampart, then Diffusion Barrier Tusk, then Rampart again. That's 6-7 min of mitigation. Then you can WD and do it again, so there is no randomness at all. Rampart reduce Timber by 25%, Barrier Tusk by 15%. Both are enough when you have 7 targets. You TP on add, so there is not much TP moves and in case of BST or SMN you can Mew and TP drainkiss for even less TP moves. PLD tanks add, BLU tanks Mboze. BLU COR and BRD all DD. In case of of BST you also have additional damage reduction on Timber from Killer Instinct.

What are you talking about? I am not overestimating anything, I'm following the current discussion. I have said absolutely nothing about this being the only working strategy.


The strategy mentioned by Kujahfoxfire was specifically in regards to TP mitigation (he mentioned Cesspool). I responded to his question about slow from Embalming Earth, since Slow is directly involved in lowering monster TP gain. Mentioning that you shouldn't see any TP moves to even land a slow during aura phase (when his earth magic evasion is lowered) was a comment with TP mitigation strategy in mind. Not that it was the only one.

When I answer specific person, I use quotes, or make it very clear. I wasn't addressing you Buukki.

"you" in my post was to people on this page crying, that Mboze is big SE's big middle finger to playerbase or it's not balanced and some mechanics are not intended etc.