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I've gotten a lot of messages asking for extra tips and assistance in how to approach Aminon using the MNK strat, so I figured after gaining a lot of experience in the fight, writing up a guide thoroughly outlining details would be helpful. I'll start off by saying the biggest downside in my opinion in using the MNK strat is the usage of Hoxne Ampulla causing runs to be more expensive than the DNC method, however the Ampulla will drastically increase your MNK's damage and I strongly recommend using it throughout the basement and Aminon. If your MNK cares about the gil loss, consider having the group pitch in to cover the cost. It's about 600k gil to use the Ampulla throughout the basement and Aminon, but your cost may vary depending on how quickly you can defeat bosses. It is of course possible to kill everything without the need for Ampulla, but Ampulla just makes it so much easier. I'll also preface by saying I have never actually done a Sortie run using the DNC setup, so I will be unable to answer any questions regarding how the two setups compare in regards to ease of execution or other aspects.

Setup: MNK/RUN BRD/DRK COR/DRK GEO/DRK RDM/WHM [6th slot flexible]

- Marine Stewpot is recommended, but if people want to bring their own food, I'd recommend Sublime Sushi for your DDs and Oden for the GEO/BRD/COR.
- The BRD, COR and GEO should aim to reduce their Absorb-TP recast to its minimum value (12 seconds) when at max magic haste and buffed with a 1 Caster's Roll. This is achieved with capped gear haste and about 28% Fast Cast. Go out to a Macro Test dummy, put on Marches and Snake Eye Caster's Roll to get a 1 and check your recast. Your COR should never have to consider doubling up on Caster's Roll and risk busting or landing on unlucky, so making sure your Absorb-TP sets are sufficient with a Caster's Roll value of 1 is advised. In addition, decide on an Absorb-TP order among yourselves and aim to space them by about every 4-6 seconds. The timing is not that strict, so it's fine if you're late by a couple seconds, but do not delay your Absorb by more than 5 seconds (9 seconds after the last Absorb) or you will risk Aminon getting a TP move off and ending your run. If you're using Quick Magic gear and get a Quick Magic proc on your Absorb-TP, do NOT go twice in a row. Stick to your rotation.
- My method of pulling is to aggro pull on BRD, then once Incessant Void is used, the MNK will Flash and pull Aminon to the door. Afterwards, the RDM will Stymie Sleep and then the party can start buffing up. The MNK can spam Flash/Foil while the party buffs to establish hate to make sure Aminon doesn't run off once he wakes up.
- RDM must be at least ML5 for access to Curaga III with /WHM. ML30 unlocks access to Auspice, but it's more of a luxury than a requirement.

Monk obviously will be your main DD for the fight. R15 Godhands is the recommended weapon of choice. They will rotate through Howling Fist, Dragon Kick and Tornado Kick and maintain 75 Subtle Blow in both TP and WS sets. WS as soon as you get 1k TP as spending more time in WS delay also means you're feeding TP less frequently. With a good Crooked Cards Samurai Roll, Ampulla and high STP in gear, you should be getting 1k TP in a single auto attack round. Try to maintain Footwork if it gets reset during the fight. It's very important to keep Penance up at all times. Penance with 5/5 merits has a duration of 1:40, so keep that timer in mind. Consider having your group pause damage when Penance has about 3 seconds left to avoid feeding TP when Penance is down. Ideally the fight will be over before you run out of Random Deals/Wild Cards for Chi Blast resets, but it's not uncommon for new groups to have long Aminon fights when just starting out. If the fight goes on too long and run out of Chi Blasts, you will need to take it slow for the duration Penance is down. I would recommend allowing 2 Absorb-TPs to occur between your WSs during this time. After your group starts becoming more comfortable with the fight and has their gear sorted out, your Normal Mode Aminons should be dying in about 2:30-3:00 and your Hard Mode Aminons should be dying in about 3:30-4:00. Below are the TP/WS sets I use, but feel free to make adjustments if you can think of better alternatives, however pay attention to the accuracy on any changes you consider making as it's a little tight to maintain capped hit rate in your WS set on Aminon.



Bard songs for the party will be SV/CC Honor March, Madrigal, Aria, Minuet5, Minuet4, Pianissimo Ballad 3 on the RDM. Don't forget to Dark Threnody II Aminon. After songs are up, your job becomes pretty simple. Absorb-TP and Mordant Rime when you get TP. Your Absorb is more important than your Mordant Rime, so save your WSs for after Absorb. If the fight goes on for over ~7 minutes, you may need to reapply Marcato Dark Threnody II. Make sure to watch for that and consider calling out when it drops and asking your MNK to halt DPS until it's reapplied. Below are my BRD's Absorb TP and WS sets.



Corsair rolls will be Crooked Cards Samurai Roll > Chaos Roll > Caster's Roll on the COR/GEO/BRD in that order so those aforementioned party members have Chaos and Caster's while the MNK and secondary frontline job have Chaos and Samurai. Make sure you don't have Samurai Roll already up when arriving at Aminon or it will take a little while to fix the rolls. I like to do Tactician's Roll when running to the Aminon room to get the party some TP to start off. To save the most time I typically do Samurai before the pull (our BRD pulls so it doesn't matter if they get their Samurai roll dispelled since it isn't one of their two rolls), Chaos after Aminon is slept and Caster's once recast is up. Once rolls are up, like the BRD, your job is pretty simple. Absorb-TP and Savage Blade. Feel free to use a STP-focused Quick Draw set to accumulate more TP between Absorbs for more Savage Blades. Prioritize your Absorb over anything else when it's your turn. When your DDs call for it, give them Random Deal and Wild Card to reset important JAs. Below are my COR's Absorb-TP, Quick Draw and WS sets.





Geomancer bubbles will be Bolster Indi-Fury, Geo-Frailty, Entrust-STR on the MNK. If you're coming from the DNC method, you may be used to building TP through nukes and Occult Acumen, but I would advise against that in this setup if you bring a high WS frequency DD like SAM (1 hours up) or DRG as your 6th. The MNK alone is already feeding a hefty amount of TP by themselves and I would not suggest feeding more TP through nukes. Consider settling for just WSing when building TP through Absorbs and taking damage. Note: I don't play GEO on Aminon, so the below WS set is my best guess on how much accuracy is necessary to land your WSs on Aminon.



Red Mage is the main healer of the fight. While the party is arriving at Aminon and pulling, you can take the time to make sure everybody has a fresh Haste and Refresh on the relevant members. Auspice as well if you have enough Master levels for it. Once Aminon is in position, Stymie Sleep and then finish buffs if needed and apply Saboteur Frazzle and Paralyze. Paralyze will take a few attempts to land even with a top end Enfeebling set. Just keep trying. If you can't land it, don't worry about it. It's not *that* vital to the strategy. It will just make the healing on your end easier. It should last the entire fight with 5/5 Enfeebling Duration merits and modern gear. Dia and Impact once everybody is done buffing and the MNK starts attacking. Below is what our RDM's Enfeeble set for Paralyze is and what I think is the highest potency Cure set for RDM, not 100% positive.


The 6th party member for us is usually either SAM or DRG, but I'm sure DNC can work as well. It's recommended that SAM DRG and DNC at least have their respective stage 3 prime weapons. Players have also had success using WHM as their 6th for safer, but slower kills.

Samurai will want a Subtle Blow WS set during Yaegasumi/Meikyo Shisui. Alternate Mumei/Fudo while 1 hours are up and switch to just Mumei when they're down. You will be WSing non-stop for the 30-45 seconds your 1 hours are up which is a lot of TP being fed in quick succession, so limiting how much TP your WSs give is important. I'd recommend using a TP set with low accuracy, max Subtle Blow and high STP while 1 hours are up since it's not efficient to constantly engage and disengage while you have infinite TP. You want to make sure your auto attacks are missing to avoid feeding TP while the Subtle Blow acts as insurance to limit how much TP you feed if a hit does land. Additionally, cancel Haste if it's up and consider cancelling Hasso during this period as well to attack even slower as you should be hitting close to 99k WSs without Hasso's STR bonus. Once Meikyo Shisui/Yaegasumi are over, you can disengage, reapply Hasso and ignore Subtle Blow in your WS set if you wish and go back to a normal WS set.


Dragoon will stick to Diarmuid spam. Angon shouldn't be necessary while Bolster is active, but you will want to apply it when Bolster goes down. You will only be building TP through Jumps. Hoxne Ampulla will greatly increase the TP return from your jumps if you choose to use it. Ask for Random Deal after your first set of Jumps are done. Once you use your replenished Jumps, you can activate Fly High and spam Jumps/WSs for the duration of the ability. Once Fly High is over and you once again run out of Jumps, you can request your Wild Card. When you once again run out of Jumps, you may request your final Random Deal. After that, there's not much for you to do but sit in Arke gear and take damage for TP and Jump when they come back naturally, however ideally Aminon will be dead long before you need all 3 resets (Normal mode) or about to die by the time you exhaust all your resets (Hard mode).


I get questions about Gartell and Aita almost as much as Aminon, so I thought I would include some notes about them as well.

Gartell
- Make sure your route allows you to Soul Voice/Clarion Call for both Gartell and Aminon.
- Do NOT stand on top of each other (looking at you, Samurais). Try to form a square or pentagon depending on whether your GEO wants to melee. This is to avoid multiple people being hit with Counter damage.
- Don't use Angon on Thunder mode if you bring a DRG.

MNK: Mantra (5/5 Merits), Chi Blast (Wind Mode only; honestly it's optional), Tellus/Gelus Valiance depending on mode. Don't forget you have Chakra and Inner Strength if you start taking significant damage.
BRD: SV/CC Honor March, Madrigal, Aria, Minuet5, Minuet4. Pianissimo Ballad on the RDM.
COR: Chaos/Samurai Roll.
GEO: Indi-Barrier, Geo-Frailty, Entrust Fury. Indi-Fend may also be an option over Indi-Barrier. I've yet to try it, but I've always thought about it.
RDM: Haste, Baraera/Barthundra depending on mode, Auspice if you have MLs, Dia III. Reapply Haste if someone loses it to Chokehold.

Try to avoid making Detonation, Fragmentation or Light.
COR - Savage Blade
BRD - Mordant Rime; My group will usually kill the Ixion if it's on the way to the boss while the GEO looks for the Bitzer in the side room. You can use the Ixion to build 3k TP for the fight if you come across it. If you don't, consider using an Icarus Wing to build TP. I believe the DPS increase from immediate AM3 Carn on Gartell is more worthwhile than getting 1 more WS in on Aminon.
MNK - Dragon Kick/Tornado Kick. You will need to pay attention to everybody's WSs in this fight to avoid potentially harmful skillchains. Caution: Savage Blade > Tornado Kick will make Detonation and heal Wind mode. Diarmuid > Dragon Kick will make Fragmentation. Be mindful of SC windows and avoid SCs. If you wish to take a DPS loss in exchange for not having to think, use Raging Fists or Howling Fist instead. Just make sure you're avoiding using the same WS over and over since you'll be WSing much faster than everyone else and you don't want to hurt your damage from the WS wall penalty.
DRG - Diarmuid or Savage Blade. Diarmuid if you want to play it risky as Diarmuid > Savage/Mordant both make Fragmentation. We allow our DRG to use Diarmuid and almost never see Fragmentation go off, however.
SAM - Mumei

The fight is largely a gear check. If you take too long (about 90 seconds) the fight can start spiraling downwards. Ideally with the above buffs and with a DRG or SAM as your 6th, Gartell should be dying in about 40 seconds, about half the time of the 'danger zone'.

Aita
- Everybody that wants to attack Aita should have a Subtle Blow set. Start with just your MNK and second DD on it. Once you get comfortable with the fight, the BRD and COR can join in with Subtle Blow sets as well.
- Do not push Aita below 90% until his opening TP move is complete or a fetter will spawn at the start of the fight. This isn't exactly vital to the fight, but it can save you time on having to immediately reposition. I've seen claims that if one person holds hate you won't see the first TP move, but I've never been able to replicate it despite my best efforts at holding hate on MNK.
- You can expect to see Aita's next TP move at around 25% with well-geared DDs. At this time, 3 fetters will spawn. Move out of range and finish him off. If you're seeing too many TP moves go off, consider having your MNK solo instead. Rotating in order of: Tornado Kick > Dragon Kick > Howling Fist > Raging Fists will prevent any self-skillchains aside from Detonation, but Aita never heals from Wind damage so it's fine.
- Use Panaceas if you're hit by a fetter. The DoT and stat down from them are significant. Use them to get rid of Eroding Flesh's Slow also.
- COR and GEO are the ones responsible for proccing. The RDM has enough to do.

MNK - Open with Flash and Chi Blast. You can also do Flabra Pflug to gain a chance of resisting Slow from Eroding Flesh if you so choose. As mentioned, Aita doesn't heal from wind damage so Flabra is fine to keep active. Similarly to Gartell, try to avoid creating Skillchains that may heal Aita. Dragon Kick and Tornado Kick should both be safe WSs to use. You only have to worry about Dragon Kick creating Fragmentation while Aita's absorbing Thunder if you have a DRG in party using Diarmuid, but in that case just use Tornado Kick instead. As mentioned, avoid using a single WS repeatedly since you'll be WSing much faster than everyone else. Wisely choose which WS to use based on your situation. It's something you'll have to get accustomed to.
BRD - Songs should be Honor March, Madrigal, Minuet, Aria. I would recommend Ruthless Stroke if you have it, otherwise stick to Savage Blade.
COR - Chaos/Samurai Rolls. Savage Blade if you have a max Subtle Blow set. Help proc.
GEO - Fury and Frailty. Help proc.
DRG - Diarmuid spam is fine. Keep in mind Tornado Kick > Diarmuid will make Scission which can heal him if he's in Earth mode.
SAM - Alternate Mumei/Fudo. Keep in mind you'll make Distortion off Savage Blade, Ruthless and Dragon Kick, so make sure you WS immediately after someone else to avoid skillchaining if Aita is in Water or Ice mode.

Below are some Subtle Blow TP sets for the above jobs. They assume no Auspice. You can drop 10 Subtle Blow from them if your RDM has access to Auspice. SAM and DRG sets assume no Dagon Breastplate, but you can swap them in and make adjustments as needed if you have it. Flamma Korazin +2 is better than Sacro Breastplate in both Subtle Blow and DPS, but takes a hit in defenses. Note: I'm not claiming these to be the best sets, they're just what we use.


This is one of the easier fights of the run once you get used to the routine.

That's about all that comes to mind that's worth sharing at this time. I'm always willing to help answer any further questions those might have and will implement them into the write-up if I feel it's worth adding. I'm even open to criticism on things I can change about the way I approach the fight. I know I often hear a lot of people gawk at the idea of using Caster's Roll to more easily hit a 12s Absorb-TP recast, but I have experience getting more frequent resists dropping Magic Accuracy on my COR's Absorb-TP set so perhaps I'm missing something in that regard. Anyway, thanks for reading and showing interest in punching Aminon.