Botulus Rex Setup For Pickups (no Displacers)

Just thought I'd paste this setup here that I've been trying for pickups of Botulus Rex to see if anyone had any ideas for improvements, would like to post their own setups, or for people to use if they've been apprehensive about shouting for Rex.

1st Party:
WAR DRK NIN WHM COR PLD(preferably with Aegis)

2nd Party
COR BRD SMN BLM BLM BLM

3rd Party
BLM BLM BLM WHM RNG SCH(subbing BLM)

For this setup to work best I find you need 3 things really.

1. Everyone needs Fool's Drink.
2. The SCH/BLM needs to stun as many tp moves as they can using their fast cast/cast time reduction abilities.
3. The BLM need to use Thundaja primarily as their ja spell (except for procing of course) so as not to reset +magic attack bonus effect stacking.

Aside from this all the standard stuff with Rex needs to be followed like everyone knowing to pop fool's with a macro when they see chainspell go off around ~80-70% (or a lot less if you're really fast!).

Backline that aren't hate magnets like BLM should steer clear of BLM (I try to keep my BLM party grouped off to a side).

Pop Fanatic's Drink when Rex isn't in chainspell mode and getting close, some -dt gear on BLM would also be helpful (Been one shotted with normal melee hits from him for over 1100 damage)

So far success has been ok all things considered with a couple 6/6 runs completed with some wiping early on, but still need to try it a few more times before I'm comfortable with it. I'm trying to figure out how to minimize any death in the group to minimize downtime between rounds. Any ideas would be most appreciated, but hoping if anything more people just shout for NMs like these ^^.

I wouldn't bring paladin for any non-pet VW, and probably even then someone else can be used as sacrifice supertank.
Also if dds are top notch you don't need to stray excessively from a standard setup.

I'd recommend losing the PLD, moving the BRD to the DD party, and adding another COR in the 3rd party. The RNG is kind of a wasted slot unless they have an Armageddon, but if they do they are nice to bring for the added Archery procs. With that setup, I experienced a very high winning streak as long as procs weren't lame and the players weren't dumb (which probably matters more than the setup itself). It looks like you have the general idea of how to set up the party, though!

Edit: If you *really* want to bring the PLD then I'd recommend at least switching spots with the BRD to give the DDs marches so they can cycle through WS procs faster.

I personally save my fanatics for the case when the charm goes off and the DDs start bending over all the mages so I can tank them and get lullabys on until they snap out of it.
Also yeah when i bard for rex, im always in DD group so they can pump out ws proc.

Front line DD having twilight mail (for those jobs that can use obv) in case things get dodgy and you need to buy some time is good.
Also agree with dropping the pld, kinda liked having a MNK instead and have them pop, they are pretty sturdy and have alot of HP too.

Not trying to hijack or anything, but how many displacers is recommended if you have half the alliance that hasn't done Bot Rex before? I was thinking 3 displacers per kill for 6 kills is 100k per person. Too much?

Btw, doing party swaps with BRD and COR for your DD group is really easy, even with a PUG, and it allows you to put a better healer in your DD party.

People should never have to pay to kill a vw like that.
If you want to use displacers, expect having to pay for all of them yourself.

You'd be surprised the crap I've put up with trying to simply do BRD swaps prior to fights. :/ Don't think randoms I usually group with are ready to swap during fights if they can't even handle it before them.

I use

BRD COR DDx4
SCH/BLM x4 BLM WHM
BRD

Third party doesn't really matter, could 13man it fine like that. BLU, NIN, things with unique procs are welcome additions. If the SCHs don't suck, 2-3 is fine. Don't stun TP moves, stunlock it. It won't build resistance until after it's dead. The spare BRD sings for DD party, then moves to SCH pt to march while the (hopefully daurdaubla) good BRD goes back to main pt and stays there.

It's not that people don't shout because they don't know how and any strategy is super-uber-and-unique, people don't shout because there isn't enough interest 80% of the time. They have to lower standards, and even then filling the group out is difficult. If you want a more difficult VW and have no option besides shouting, make sure to do it during primetime or on the weekend.

3 weakener per pop is overkill, you'd run the risk of not capping lights in time if you have a decent group.

I've never seen anyone charge more than 66k / 2 weakeners for any VW. If they use more than 2 they usually decide to eat the cost themselves because they are hellbent on getting a drop from the NM.

I've killed it dozens of times via pickup the first couple weeks it was out.

WAR WAR DRK SAM WHM BRD
BLM BLM BLM BLM BLM COR
BLM BLM BLM BLM NIN COR

T/N and rolls on your DDs before you pop, so they have 4 rolls and 2-4 songs depending on your brd. NIN is there for proc and only proc, he needs to stay the hell out of range. No BLU because it takes too long to set spells. Double WAR because you really need to hit the ext proc fast when the time comes. DRK has a lot of overlap, and a couple WS that WAR doesn't have. SAM can go through his own WSs fast enough alone.

Pop, then have your DDs engage first, then pop fanatics. CORs should be giving the BLMs some blm rolls.

First minute or so, you find hq/ext proc. Don't actually hit it yet, just find it. If both HQ procs are a melee WS proc AND the extreme proc can not be hit, then run out of range. Blue HQ procs don't matter. At all. Ignore them.

If you can hit a magic HQ or hit the extreme proc, have everyone take it down until it hits chainspell, then pop fool's drink.

From there, all your BLMs need to open with thundaja, then nuke away with all their best thunder spells.

Around 45-50 seconds into chainspell, start going for the proc. That'll freeze rex and resupply your temps. Pop your ethers and continue nuking away with thunder spells. Once rex is out of terror state, pop fanatics and continue nuking until he dies. If your BLMs are weak though(as in they suck as a player), then it might chainspell again. Just pop fool's and take it down.

If you hit white, that will cap your red. If you cap 1 HQ red, that + blitz should be enough to have bodies and other hq items drop.

No reason to bring a pld, rng or sch. Each Rex should take 2-3 minutes or so. My personal best is getting rex to 9% before it unterrors. Lunnies has killed it before it unterrors.

I was always frustrated that I had a 100% win rate with a BLM BLM BLM COR BRD SMN | BLM BLM BLM COR BRD SMN | WHM WHM WAR DRK BLU NIN with JPs and a terrible success rate with NA groups using the same strategy, until I figured out that it's because JPs actually gear their mages.

A novel idea, isn't it. I'm pretty sure I made a lot of enemies turning down people left and right.

I had a higher success rate with NAs once I made it a requirement to have 15 Skyblaze.

?

?

I can't tell if you're asking what's special about it or if you're asking if that's the atma I'm talking about!

Errr, both.

Or maybe I missed the joke.

Well, it's for the BLMs obviously. Thunder affinity damage +15 is pretty big.

People not leveling atmacites to 15 seems to be the last remaining problem with PUG voidwatch.
Still finding relic/emp DD without the appropriate atmacites or having them leveled up.

15% damage is nothing, it's the difference between a 3 min kill and a 3 min 27 second kill. It's a completely arbitrary(and generally stupid) requirement, most competent players prefer their melee and will upgrade those atmacites first.

Oh. I never did look into what that does. I just assumed it was some kinda en-spell effect and forgot about them.

Considering RNG/BLM (or /SCH if needed) with armageddon is the best DD versus rex, it would be silly not to bring one, or even more than one. Can throw them in the BLM pt; they don't need any songs. If they don't have arma, then that's a different story. COR is also very powerful, but lacks a few pieces of gear that pulls RNG ahead. Although fire shot can boost wildfire over 4k, which is nice, but that also affects the RNGs in the alliance.

Not 100% sure! Seems to increase damage far more than 15 MAB, though.

I have had a lot of success setting up pickup Rex groups. I don't stray far from the normal setup except I ask people bring a few things.

WAR WAR DRK BRD COR WHM

DRG SAM RNG BRD COR WHM

BLM BLM SCH BLU SMN NIN

WARs bring tomahawks, x2 should get you through the fight.
BRDs rotate songs for DDs
DRG brings angons
CORs + RNG must have wildfire
SCH subs BLM to nuke and stun TP moves below 25%, also they can Elemental seal Impact for good measure if they have a cloak.
NIN subs dancer for box step.

I also ask that Bio is not used unless it is a proc. And that mages use Dia instead. Nice if COR can Dia II > Light Shot.

I feel like this setup has a good balance of DD power, and variety of jobs for procs to take Rex down with a high win rate.

We've brought optimal geared/skilled cors and blms to rex. The two jobs seem to parse almost equivalently in damage output on rex although cor also boosts everyone in their party... Food for thought.


Rng > Cor only if you already have 2 other Cors in the party, and even then tp return/damage from fire shot vs minimal gear upgrades is still very debatable.

If you still care:

I can definitely say bringing 1 WF rng is great, but bringing another over a cor isnt always the best choice. I find the dmg difference between the 2 jobs to be very little on rex. So what it comes down to is how efficient each job is at dealing damage. Having 2 rngs in a party isnt going to help out the party in general, just going to be more damage done than another blm or dd. When i usually cor for a blm pt my rolls go M acc. > M. attack > Tact(for myself). With 2 cors in party(although the blms will have the same 2 buffs) it gives the cors a way better edge having 4 rolls each(Samurai, Wizards, Tact, Hunters if not using sushi) & it means fire shot effect will be up that much more often.

When you have multiple BLMs doing 15% more dmg on nukes, it's way more than 27 sec difference. Sometimes in that 27 sec your fanatic wore and failed to recharge it on time, that will drag the battle on for a good while when DDs start dying.



If you really into DD power, WHM should do dia2 and keep SJ /BLM.

If your strategy relies on everyone having a specific atmacite maxed, it's time to reconsider strategies. 13 players with the strat I listed above will win in sub-5 minutes reliably. I'm not going to claim others don't work, or even that it's the best, but requiring a specific atmacite is going way too far. Finding 18 people to begin with is difficult.

The mechanics behind putting together successful pickup groups have been tried and proven time and time again, and have been explained by multiple people time and time again.

I hope you can pardon people who don't want to explain it to you yet again.