Cloud Of Darkness HTBF

So I don't have a lot of experience on the SCH VD solo method (I've done somewhere under 10 runs solo) and there's a few things which I'm looking to improve compared to my only source of info (the 2 videos on Youtube), so people with more experience than me in this could be very useful.

First I've noticed that towards the end of the run CoD starts becoming very resistant to debuffs. Mostly Silence and Gravity.
Noticed the following occurrings:
1) Gravity always lands on first cast and does so until the end, but towards the end the duration is greatly reduced, nothing we can do about it, right?
2) Silence always requires 2+ immunobreaks to land. Towards the end I notice Silence starts lasting only a couple of seconds from when I land it. After this happens a couple of times, I become unable to land it. I get no more immunobreak procs and as such silence can't land anymore.

I haven't noticed the same behaviour with Paralyze, but that's probably because I don't really prioritize it as much as Silence, so probably over a full run it landed less times and, as such, CoD built less "resistance".


I can still win, but the last few minutes become frantic and risky, so how can I improve?
One obvious thing would be to make the run slightly faster.
If it's slightly faster I have to land Silence/Gravity less times and that's it.

But Helix is already hitting for capped damage so I really can't improve that.
This brings us to the two methods I've seen on Youtube
1) Luminohelix and just kite/debuff while helix does the job
2) Pyrohelix and do Fusion (closing with iono) for Fire5/3 Magic bursts every now and then

I've tried method 2, but with this method you kinda always get one add (with method 1 sometimes but most of the times you can win without adds).
I assume this is because the TP fed from Fire5 and Fire3 is somehow higher to the TP fed by Helix tocks?
Probably same reason why nobody uses Dia2 and Poison2, because they end up feeding too much TP and hence make the adds more likely.


This is a vicious circle though. Which means there is no possible way to improve my performance in the fight?
Looking for tips and suggestions and things I haven't considered yet!

DoTs, including helices, Poison, and Dia, don't give any TP at all.

Dia will (on the initial cast) if it does over 0 damage when you cast it, but doesn't give any TP during the DoT.

Poison 2 doesn't give TP and it does 82 damage/tick at 500 skill, so you may as well use it.

Dia II is 3 DPS with Dia Wand and probably isn't worth the risk that it might randomly feed TP.

For no ADDS on VD just helix when it's time
Don't do anything besides running laps
It's longer doing it this way though but safe asf
When i had stratagem found myself just doing Ebullience + Luminohelix II for damage and just paralyze for enfeebling magic
After %50 HP gravity doesn't last very long only a few seconds at best

Hmmm you guys are right. So why is nobody using dots in the videos?
Now Dia2 I can make it a point of not lasting long enough to bother on SCH, but Poison2? Sure it requires immunobreak to land but once you land it it's free damage. Over a 20+ mins fight it should make the battle slightly shorter?


How do you deal with no silence AND no gravity? I noticed that without gravity it's harder to make CoD reach the side of the arena, which he's pretty adamant on not doing either way. Especially when not gravited.
This creates situations where he's somewhere around the middle of the arena instead of the side, meaning it will be harder (if possible at all) to outrange his spellcasting.
Which is no problem if you land silence, but if you don't (or when Silence doesn't land anymore...)

Granted all this stuff tends to happen towards the last minutes of the fight, at which point even if an add pops (happened to me) you can just kite for a min or two and the Helix will do the rest, if it's up.
Still though, not ideal eh?

I mean, you coulda read the rest of his post.

Anyways, you shouldnt need to silence CoD: when it stops to cast, its not chasing your ***.

When you kite Cloud of Darkness, it's incredibly easy to out distance, you just have to take advantage of its pathing.

It tries to get right on top of you, so if you run along the edge of the arena, and dip into trying to go diagonally past the pillars, basically looks like running at a slant into each pillar, it will try to do the same.

Eventually you can out distance it so much that if you were engaged, you will disengage.

Totally unrelated, were there no drops there cuz it died DOT while yellow?

personal pool aside, obviously

Yellow doesn't matter, only unclaimed/idle matters, for drops.

I've had one instance where CoD died and it didn't give me drops.
Only personal loot, same behaviour as in the video but it wasn't unclaimed. It was running after me but I was dealing with adds (yeah, two of them).
I had died, reraised and reclaimed CoD.

It died to a DoT (Helix) I landed before dying though. It's probably somehow related? Only happened to me once, was on VD.

As SCH soloing VD, you can start with 1 fusion (fire V fire IV), Pirohelix II, and another fusion (fire V fire IV), and then change to luminohelix II. I dont get adds with this at the start of the fight.
And you can do the whole fight without any enfebling magic. Just run un circles at 18 yalms and go to 28 when he cast magic.

How much do your two Fusions usually knock off?

Sounds risky, because how much TP he gets can also depend on how annoying he is during his Primordial Surge. He gains lots of fast cast and frequently sneaks 1 or 2 spells through my Stoneskin during that.

That said, I've never had him summon an add so I have no idea how close he is to doing so, maybe I've got headroom to spare.

I find 23 yalms to be the perfect kiting distance. If you let him get closer, he'll start doing moves which means you have to stop and go a lot more. They'll miss you but he still stops which means you have to stop so you don't get too far away. At about 23 he just chases but stays glued to the wall.

Edit: Note that you do have to let him get closer than 23 initially so you can get him all the way to the wall. But once he's on the wall, 23 is perfect.

Side note: When he stops to cast is a good time to re-apply buffs too. Especially Stoneskin if you've taken any hits since last recasting it.

Anybody knows how much HP CoD has, approx, on VD?
Supposing 25 mins duration, Poison II should deal 100hp per tick, that's every 3 seconds approx.
That's around 500 ticks, i.e. around 50k damage dealt by Poison2.
Which is... 5 tocks of Helix, or a bit less than 1 minute.

So said in other terms I guess this means Poison2 can more or less make the fight 1 min faster in the best case scenario.
Unless I missed something?


1 min less is... not a lot, then again you don't really have a lot to do while kiting so why not?

Yeah, Poison II doesn't add up to much compared to Helices. Saves you less than one cast, but I guess everything helps?

Oh I forgot to follow up on my Primordial Surge observations as well.

So I originally thought it was based on damage types dealt but I no longer think that's true. I've also taken a few THFs who did nothing except stay at the entrance until 2% and then poke it for TH. In a few cases, CoD still went into phys mode instead of magic mode, even though the ONLY actions performed on it to that point had been two Luminohelixes.

However, when going just by myself on SCH, it has NEVER gone into physical mode. Always magical.

So I now think it's not based on actions taken at all, it's just based on jobs present in the arena. So for a SCH solo it's 100% going to absorb magic. For a SCH+THF, probably 50/50. For a melee burn setup, probably high chances to absorb physical.

Yeah team up with a THF
THF can summon trusts and deal with ADDS

If you get adds as a SCH you're doing something seriously wrong

Solo on E it's been 50/50, unless we count Trust jobs.

ADDS don't really matter
Do you want me to post one with no ADDS again?

Hmm yeah it might count trusts, because I don't use those at all. When I go solo on SCH it's just me, I don't even use Star Sibyl.

Maybe using trusts could be a good way to force him to absorb physical? Just summon a bunch of meat-head melee trusts? That might be nice. Don't even engage them just summon them and have them follow you around lol

I've seen a lot of people do that, can't say I'm surprised but mind explaining it to me?
The reason why, I mean.

Back on topic, I was about to say that in my solo runs on VD I've had CoD absorb physical at least twice, but I don't have logs so who knows, I can't be 100% sure.


On a side note, I finally got my masque! 1/24 runs on VD. Could be a bit higher but around that.
Wish Shinryu had these drop rates!

Nice congrats
Don't have the masque yet
Lost to THF on lot when it dropped
It dropped on the run where the THF took out an ADD before helix win

Congrats on the mask!

Any trust that would attack is obviously a no-go because they'll feed the enemy TP. Other trusts just wouldn't help either. I keep Stoneskin up the entire time, usually recasting it before it wears off, so that I never take any damage (with the same obvious goal: reducing enemy TP gain). I literally don't even bother giving myself Regen for the remotely small chance he'll steal it with Absorb-Attri (same with Shell). My Luminohelix is beyond capped so offensive buffs won't do anything either. So the way I see it there's just no reason to use them.

I think it's number and type of actions. I used the same trust every time and only got Physical absorb a couple times.

I posted this earlier in the thread but whenever I got Ageha > Mumei x3 off before Surge it was always Absorb magic. The couple times I messed it up it was absorb physical.

Well Starsibyl would still help with macc if you want to land debuffs, Brygid would help with MDB and Defense for incoming spells.
If they deal less damage, your stoneskin lasts longer blah blah.

Sakura and Moogle of course hardly make a difference but I feel Starsibyl and Brygid do help a tiny little bit.


On VD my Helix deals a little bit below 10k if I use the Reive cape with Helix duration+10 btw.
I seem to recall I could get it to >10k with Starsibyl and Magic food.

Yeah there's no harm whatsoever in Star Sibyl, Brygid, Moogle, etc. I just don't bother, maybe due to gear differences as the fight is trivial with 18% move speed and guaranteed 10k+ helix. I honestly don't bother with debuffs either.

Edit: With the exception that I'll sometimes Gravity him during Primordial Surge. He gains a lot of fast cast during magic absorb, so it can get harder to out-range his casting during that time.

When everything goes according to plan there's no problem at all of course.
Problem is... not always goes always like that. At least for me, I guess I suck at keeping perfect attention for 20+ mins straight xD

Also how do you always get 10k+ on VD with no support with the Reive cape?
I can do it with the Ambu cape but not with the Reive cape and I pretty much have almost BiS gear for non MBB Helix.
Only things I'm missing are uhm Ghastly+1 R15 (I use Pemphredo).

I'm not home so I can't check my set right now but it's probably something like:
Bunzi R25, Ammurapi, Pemphredo
Arbatel+3, R25 JSE neck, Regal Earring, Malignance Earring
Arbatel+3, Arbatel+3, Metamorph R15, Freke
Reive cape, Acuity+1 R15, Arbatel+3, Arbatel+3

Maybe I should use a staff + grip rather than bunzi/ammurapi?
I mean I'm done with CoD, just trying to improve my sets out of curiosity and potential future use.