Cloud Of Darkness HTBF

BLU sleeps are centered around caster and despite the auras not covering a wide area chances are you'll cast encumbered so resists are common. Not to mention BLU sleeps don't last very long and someone else reported adds build resistance to bind or gravity rather quickly, I suspect that's the case for all crowd control.

Just had a run with avoidance(no parry, shield block and so on) and magic attack down auras
which went much smoother and faster. Guess which auras you get is completely random.

Attempted Ice break but didn't land despite macc food and no avoidance aura. Maybe going to try again with full macc set.
*edit* ice break doesn't land despite macc set and food.

btw, does SCH strat involve MB helix here? couldn't that backfire if cloud decides to absorb magic?

This is definitely the case here. On VE / E with my BLU I'm consistently able to get one Sheep Song that gives 20 ~ 30 seconds, then after that you only get 5 or 6 (if at all). Not worth it for this HTMB. It is much easier to just kill the adds on lower difficulties and go on a job that deals more solo damage if you are going to solo it at lower difficulties (MNK, WAR, DRG, etc).

Helix does not seem to be an issue as a DoT effect, so my assumption is that the mechanic works as direct damage.

I've been doing buffs > tabula > MB Helix > then as many sc's and bursts as I can fit in during Tabula, while casting stoneskin between each sc/mb window. I personally just let it hit me into a pillar during this process as I feel I get more efficient use out of my tabula window. After tabula ends its more about the gravity and kiting while maintaining helix. Add(s) start to come out and maintaining stoneskin/gravity becomes more challenging/important. Just ride out helix at that point and try to limit tp gain by maintaining stoneskin/gravity the best you can. I am very hit or miss on VD though personally.

It's far more hassle than its worth though as I had said previously. Its super easy to just grab a few players and pug this fight for the most part.

I agree with you, and my FC comment was a bad point. My point was that properly gearing up RDM to be able to effectively solo these fights takes a lot more than just level 1 daggers.

Once it uses Primordial Surge it can only cast spells for 50 seconds ish so if its only absorbing magic its easy to zerg before adds pop usually.

for what its worth, enspell method on this is balls slow or near impossible idk i gave up after 20min.

Because I automated it, and it was hard.

Everyone else already said everything else that was needed to be said about it so I won't repeat it, except the final point: RDM cheese is not a win button the way people who do not play RDM think it is. And for Cloud of Darkness specifically, a PUG can spam VD much faster anyway, so the point is moot - Odin was a lot harder.

kiting works well

https://x.com/strikeret/status/1878096661798584812

run/drk builds hate from afar with flash/stun/jas
rdm subs sch for faster buffing and grav/addle
everyone else subs drg to shed hate
brd sings dirge on dds
cor does normal cor stuff
dds can be whatever

cloud of darkness never uses a tp move, summons adds, or absorbs damage.

https://strikeret.hatenablog.com/entry/2025/01/12/080018

That's next up to be patched in future content: Gravity Kite strategies.

Every nm shouldve already been immune to gravity.

Oh boy, cant wait for every NM even things that should move super slow to have +150% mov speed. You wanna grav kite? Gonna need to bring the rdm and the GEO(bubbles nerfed 90% btw)

Certain mobs already are immune to gravity. This month's ambuscade is a perfect example. I'm telling you, they're cracking down on every single cheese mechanic we employ because they have to keep it interesting. Eventually people are going to have to learn how to deal with the mechanic vs ignoring it entirely. Ain't no way in hell they want us to kill Bumba with Kaustra. Sooner or later every fight is gonna feel like August master trial where you just have to fight EVERYTHING.

Have fun with new Omega/Ultima popping dozens of Detectors that have to be killed or mega gains -10% dt per add alive

cracking down on various "cheese" methods doesn't keep anything interesting. It's how you get the XIV formula for one strategy for every fight. It's stupid and people complaining because their job can't solo a fight are ridiculous.

FFXI is more fun when you can use debuffs for their purpose.
SE just doesn't know how to make fights interesting without them being so BS that people feel the need to cheese them.

This community is literally impossible to please.

"WAH I can't believe SE is making mobs immune to my favorite cheese strat"

"WAH this fight is so easy, you can cheese it with XYZ cheese strat"

If SE makes a mob immune to gravity, everyone whines that they just make everything immune to gravity. If they don't make it immune to gravity, everyone whines that it's so easy because you can gravity kite it and it will never hit you.

Rinse and repeat for AFAC, TP denial, Sleep/nuke, face-smashing with Naeglings, SE BW KC, RDM enspell, or whatever other strategy you want. Any time anything is the popular way to win a fight suddenly everyone moans regardless of whether SE blocked it or not.

Can't we just appreciate for one moment that there are 200 fights in this game and there are a variety of ways to play the game, instead of just bitching about how your preferred strat doesn't work on every single fight or how the meta strat for a fight isn't one that you like (or have jobs to play)? The variety is literally the best part of the game and somehow the community still shits all over it every time SE releases anything.

I did Cloud Of Darkness last night with my linkshell for the first time. We used the gravity kite method. I was on RUN/DRK. The rest of the party was DDx2 BRD COR RDM. We won 4 or 5 fights with no issues on Normal, Difficult, and VD. Masque dropped on Normal, nothing dropped on D, and we saw some Belts and Loops on VD. No Shawl's yet.

Cloud Of Darkness is quite big and likes to gravitate to the center of the battlefield, so kiting is not as simple as it looks. On all the fights except the last, she got close enough to activate 1 TP move. She did the Primordial on our first fight and got the Red Glow, but it was only magic absorb and she died seconds after. Otherwise, she used TP moves that didn't bother me at all. We have yet to see any Fomor adds.

Some tips from a kiting perspective. If you have the distance plugin, stay between 17-24 yalms, so you can cast something. Foil is the only choice if you are slightly out of range. 16 yalms is cutting it fine. She can do a TP move at 16 yalms, but it isn't guaranteed.

Your strongest DDs go /drg and preferably Super Jump under 50%. BRD COR and RDM (ours went /sch for quicker buffs as they wear on entry) can probably /nin for dual wield, but it depends on the tank. RDM used Gravity II, Addle II, Distract III, and Dia III. Paralyze and Slow is possible (needs Immunobreaks or Stymie), but it doesn't change much. Do not use Silence as it stops moving to cast and will die quicker. We used 1-hours on VD to speed things up, but isn't essential to win. I had plenty of hate doing the following:

• Embolden + Crusade. Saving for Phalanx isn't necessary. Stay in an Enmity set (with some DT) for the fight.
  

• Start with Flash or Stun. Valiance & One For All the party. Run away when Gravity II lands.
  

• Pop Elemental Sforzo if using 1-hours. Spend the rest of the fight running while doing Flash/Foil/Stun.
  

When they first announced Cloud Of Darkness, I had a rush of images through my mind. VD would be ridiculously difficult. The drop rates worse than Shinryu. Players would try it for a few weeks and then not bother. I set myself up for the biggest disappointment, and it has proven to be the opposite. I wouldn't mind setting up PUGs, just because I believe I could. I haven't felt like that in many years. The developers finally threw us a bone and said "Sorry for being *** with that whole Shinryu thing". It is a relief. I have no complaints, and that makes me happy.

Personally pretty pleased with the fight.

* Multiple ways to kill the boss
* Decent drop rate
* Gear that is useful for most jobs (sorry pets).

Really just wish they would have updated the HTB w/ a queue system.

There's no queue issues on Cerberus, although we ran on Tuesday. Not sure what it's like on a weekend. It should quieten down, eventually.

Mostly confident Purge absorbs whichever type of damage you did the most of before she uses it.

Ex. Mostly physical damage = absorbs physical damage.

Has anyone seen anything different?

I believe it is random, although I only saw it once. We were only doing physical damage and the Red Glow must have been absorbing magic, as we just carried on and killed it. Others have also said it seems to be 50/50 random.

I've done the MNK method multiple times and its just random. I've had times where she absorbs magic damage and there is no way I'm doing more magic damage on a Vere Am3 MNK.

Are you 3 stepping her? I'm solo MNK on the last 10+ runs. 3 stepping and its Absorb magic each time.

Only WS I used was Victory Smite except when she was absorbing magic DMG, I would throw in another WS to break up the skillchain.

Do you have a mage MBing?

Also why would you not 3-step?

No mage MBing, and Idk I just valued the 50-60k VS's over making the three step.

Not saying I was benig optimal, just saying I don't think the absorb was triggered on most damage type.

If you’re solo DDing and using a MNK, it doesn’t make sense not to use its full TP negation suite. Shijin gives CoD plague along side 75 subtle blow and chi blast.

Shijin > VS > VS FTW....99k lights make a big difference in kill speed.

VS > Shijin > VS if applying AM3 first.

Yeah, I abuse Shijin on omen bosses and Odin, just didn't feel necessary on CoD with capped SB / Chi Blast. I also re-did by VS sets and was using it as a testing ground...not recommending a strat btw 3step and Shijin abuse definitely Gunna be better.

On a side note, we also learned that you can BRD sleep CoD.

Maybe good for setting up Kite method if Gravity doesn't land.

20k shijin* > 50k smite + 56k light > 50k smite + 81k light. every 6 WS = 514k damage
*or whatever, I'm presuming its disgustingly low and thats why you arent using it

50k smite > 50k smite + 56k light = 156k. Every 6 WS = 468k damage

Its better to 3step, and thats not including the defensive benefits of the plague.

Yup still not arguing I was doing it the right way was just saying that doing it the way I did it (the wrong way) did not always trigger physical damage absorption (doing it the wrong way). Because someone suggested that it may choose absorption based on how much damage was done physical vs magical and the way I was doing it (incorrectly) was mostly physical damage, but I sometimes got her to not absorb physical damage(wrongly).