'Bout; Slightly Less Worse Each Time

Edit: To reserve, pretty sure thats right. To participate you can go in without doing the quest for the license.

Also: you don't have to have ever done Ballista, even to reserve. You *may* need some Ballista points, in which case you can get them for a copper vouchers. You absolutely do not need to have ever done Ballista before. I've never, in my entire life, touched a Ballista match and I reserved and completed a private match by myself the other day.

I wanted to circle back to this, since I now have experience with the fight.

The way I advise doing it is setting up exactly how others have posted, attack Mihli first, and keep cycling thunder/fire/light maneuvers. The only tricky parts are that Rughadjeen can take a bit longer to kill since he has Invincible so you may briefly need to take care of two for a prolonged period of time, and be ready to throw our a repair when Zazarg does Hundred Fists. Otherwise it's a pretty simple fight.

On a separate question, how are people getting the Magic Bursts in Ambuscade one solo?

I didnt know you could get ballista points from vouchers. I couldnt find the page on wiki that listed what points were available with vouchers.

I checked:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Copper_A.M.A.N._voucher
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Category:Records_of_Eminence
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Category:Records_of_Eminence_NPC All four of those directly


Of course, its on the page I dont check:
https://www.bg-wiki.com/ffxi/Copper_Voucher
Ballista points from this wasnt something I committed to memory since its something I've never needed to use vouchers for, ever.

Anyways, since you can get ballista points with vouchers, theres no requirement to have done Ballista in the past.

Please update the wiki when you find such discrepancies, unless you are worried some dipshit is going to throw a temper tantrum and delete everything (Somehow he is STILL editing the wiki even though he rage quit)

Don't you need at least 5 other players to do so?
Regular Ballista matches require at least 6 players total to start.
Maybe the Abdhaljis one require just 2 I dunno, but 1 (yourself only) is not enough

I tried doing it solo but unless I'm missing something you can't start the Abdhaljis Ghelsba match unless you have other players in zone. If you can't start it you can't finish it, and if you can't finish it you won't get credit for the VB Ballista objective.

I go on RDM.

Flat blade > Burning Blade = Fusion.
or Burning Blade > Flat Blade = Liquefaction.

Equip low level weapons and magic burst fire1, bam, done it.
If you go for fusion you can MB Dia as well and can easily MB at least 2x per SC.

BLU is a good option as well, since they can cap their our attack speed. BLU/RDM, Same SCs as above or any number of other SC and you can MB fire/stone.

I personally do Burning -> Savage -> Burning -> Savage, alternating Fire & Stone MB until it's done.

How did you manage to do a private match by yourself?

Need a ballista license (of course) and some Ballista Points (like 200?)
Then you go to Tillecoe in Ru'lude Gardens, it's close to the regular Ballista NPCs which is on top of the stairs in front of the MH.

When inside you have an NPC to set the rules, and then another npc to start, but it won't allow you to start the match unless at least 2 (?) players, including yourself, are in the zone and registered as "willing to fight" on 2 different teams (Griffons and Wyverns are the two teams).

Can do the same for Brenner but it's a different npc, in Upper Jeuno.
And I think Brenner doesn't work for this VBD objective.


Personally to do the objective I just went to the Ballista NPC and let him warp me to the next starting Ballista. Might require you a few tries (need 6 people for a match to start, and if it doesn't start you won't get credit as you get it at the end).
Once you signed up at the Herald NPC you can afk >1hr and when you're back you'll have your VBD Credit.
I repeat, if you successfully sign up you don't have to input anything, everything will be automatic.

Yeah I did try all that and like you said I wasn't able to start any kind of match with just me in the zone. I think I will just bypass the plaudit points for this particular event, it was more just to complete it on my mules for some potential easy points!

On my main I got it done first attempt in Jugner.
On my alt it took me 4 attempts.
First Jugner was deserted (just 3 people), then I tried Beadeaux (nobody showed up) then Meriphataud (nobody showed up) then Jugner again (8 people) and got it done.

I think ballista matches are every 2 hours so it's a loooot of waiting.
At least on Asura I'd say there's more chances for it to happen in Jugner, so watch out the timing (the NPC gives you the supposed battle start time in earthtime and the time from when you can signup, which is usually 30 mins before the startup).
When you see a Jugner match coming try to do some "yells" with "hey Ballista Vana'bout objective, incoming match in Jugner, gather together!" for a few minutes, it's probably gonna work I would say.

That or find a friend and do the Abdhaljis-Ghelsba together, I suppose.

Sorry, my post wasn't that clear. I meant "by myself" as in, "without someone else (who had done Ballista before) assisting me."

I did it 2box (myself and my alt). Neither of them have ever done Ballista before. I did have two characters though and that might be necessary. What I meant was: you can schedule a private match of Ballista without the assistance of any other person, even if you've never done Ballista before. You may still need a second character to join you to get credit though.

It's all good, thanks for the clarification.

I'm going to answer my own question, though I appreciate the responses above. This is for people who don't have RDM or BLU.

Tarage's braindead stupid gimp way to clear the Magic Burst in Ambuscade task!

Enter normal Ambuscade on Normal difficulty, pull out AAGK, Iroha II, a good tank (I like AAEV), and two good healers (I like Ygnas and Monberaux). Engage one of the mobs and sit there spamming dia. Congrats, you will eventually clear the requirement due to GK and Iroha spamming skillchains.

No "may" there, you have to.
Can't start the match unless there's someone else joining the other team.
And if you can't start the match you can't finish it.
The end of the match is when you get credit for the VB objective, alas.

Just shout if anyone needs it for the points clear. I did yesterday and ended up with 6 people, and I'm on dead *** Ragnarok. Only was shouting for an hour while I waited for the reservation to kick in.

So yeah, I died a few times on BST + Sultry Patrice trying to solo Mercenary Camp by spamming Fluid Spread and found that doesn't work out too well. Fluid Toss works a lot better and is better DoT for this fight IMO, since it's one charge vs 3. Toss does about 1200+ dmg vs 2200 Spread, and Fluid Spread activates all other generals. If you have multiple BSTs you're fine to use this, but solo just spam Fluid Toss. Unleash before entering, then just kill Gadalar (BLM) first with 2 Fluid Tosses. Rest of the fight is simple. Only thing to note is Zazarg can use "Meteoric Impact", which inflicts stun (pet was unable to act for about 8 seconds).

jesus doing the fishing objective with capped fishing skill is a nightmare

On the theme of Mercenary Camp, if you really want to solo it at all cost, can do it on PUP quite easily.

Dropping it here in case someone wants to try it.
It's a breeze and need no gear at all, well other than an animator of course lmao
I think I didn't use not even an Automaton Oil.
I MIGHT have used Overdrive eh... yeah, I probably did.
Given how they engage one at a time and the following one arrives when the previous one is at ~20% HP it's quite easy.
Just make sure not to be in range because some of those guys have dangerous AoE, like uhm I seem to recall Galadar with AoE spells.

I killed whm first and then blm, after that 2x fluid spread and they were dead.
Had to use 1 cookie plus a couple of mulsums.


Using a low level rod helps a bit.

I said this earlier in the thread but I did "I'm on a boat" with 110 fishing, ebisu+1, and sabiki rig in less than 1 boat ride. I also did it with ~95 fishing, NQ ebisu, and sabiki rig on the same boat.

Could've been some luck involved, I'm sure there was, but I'm sure on average it would be <2 boats.

I can confirm this as well. I don't have a screenshot or anything, but back in my early days, 2003/2004, i used to collect yag bead necklaces and make grass thread, which is a level 4 synth I believe, there is a chance, albeit low, to get a HQ and I have multiple times over the years. no synth support, no gear at the time.

more recently, while skilling cooking, wearing the rings that increase synth chance and the other that reduces mat loss, i did get a couple HQ synths on omelet sandwiches. I started crafting them at level 99, they are a 101 synth.

1-This is a desynthesis, which we know doesnt follow standard synth rules in regards to success rates, therefor it is fair to assume it may not follow standard rules for HQ rates.
2-You said you have synth support

Got credit for the Flawless Technique VBD earlier despite crafting something that didn’t have a HQ. I was doing Linen Cloths and got the ‘HQ animation’ a few times so I guess the game registers it as credit? Sorry if this has already been mentioned.

Any craft can HQ, even the ones that don't have an HQ item

I'd say you were definitely lucky. With 110+ skill, Ebisu+1 (AND other rods, I tried rotating around Lu Shang+1, Halcyon and lower) It consistently took me many boat rides. I'd average 3 Sardines per boat.

This is my experience across all 4 Vana'Bouts, not just this one. I've used Sabiki, and while it yields higher results WHEN you catch, I've found I'll either get 0 Sardine bites or 1-2 per boat ride, resulting in only a few. With Lugworms, I only get 1 per but I atleast get bites more consistantly. I think the best boat ride I've ever had was 6 sardines... but never more. The fact that you're saying your getting 10-15 in 1 ride with capped skill is crazy.

This Vana'Bout was 4 or 5 boats. The last one was like 8, and the previous one where the objective was higher was hell... i had to split it up across multiple days

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EDIT:
Vana'Bout 1 actually got me into fishing in the 1st place, and I had maxxed it out shortly after. Its kinda irrelevant to the conversation about VB, but I wana complain about Fishing here quickly while on the topic.

Why the Hell can't we get a tacklebox? An item in your back slot or ammo slot that when clicked functions like the PUP attachment section... store all your Lures at least if not all bait. 2nd... pertaining to catching specific fish (Bastore Sardine for ex.) why the hell isnt it more refined?.... I know this games old but there should be more directed baits per fish. It's kinda nonsense that theres like 50 different baits, but most are useless, and most fish bite the same baits. I'd be nice if sure, X bait was able to catch say 5 diff fish, but if you used Y bait, you can only catch 1 fish so when targeting specific ones you could choose more appropriately. /endrant

Took me 4 boat rides with 110 and Ebisu+1 also for this vanabout, and the past 2 as well. I recall trying to use a lesser rod last event but whatever it was broke or didn't work out for me in some way so I've just accepted that I need grind out the multiple trips before calling it done. I've definitely noticed people fishing next to me reeling in many sardines in few casts and warp out while my glowy rod amasses a hoard of quus

I did it in 2 with 37 skill and a NQ Lu Shangs. Would’ve been a single trip but I was pissing about with Phantoms trying to get Ice Spikes