The Grimy Bathtub

Well, here’s the first in a series of hopefully a ton of posts about fights and shit I just love to tank. A more-than-basic rundown of the whole fight, including shit I use that makes a significant difference in the fight.

Well here we go.

Operation Desert Swarm is a six person KSNM30, where you fight 6 scorpions that gradually get stronger as the rest get defeated. TP moves between them are linked, when one goes they all go shortly after. Drops of note are Serket Ring, Damascus Ingot, Oricalcum Ingot, Damascene Cloth and Venemous Claw.

Why do I like this? Well, I can essentially solo it. It’s a challenging way to make money and test yourself at the same time. I’ll give credit to Talis for this, but basic idea is to have enough damage reduction and enhancing so that your shield blocks go for 0 past phalanx. So, onto the prepwork!

You need brickwall Paladin for this, PLD/RDM. Phalanx and Stoneskin are nessasary. Cap your enhancing skill, cap divine, cap shield, everything. You’ll need it.

Gear wise, this is what I consider critical for my setup.

309 shield skill

• Gallant Leggings +1 – +12 shield skill is extremely significant. If you do limbus and have PLD you’ll want this.
• Boxer’s Mantle – +10 shield skill and +10 parry, eva to boot! An excellent piece.
• Bucker Earring – +3 shield skill, I had it lying around

Haste/Fast Cast

• Homam parts – hands, legs, feet. A total of +9% haste and Fast Cast on the legs will be huge for survival.
• Loquacious earring – more fast cast, what’s not to like?
• Swift Belt – +4% haste from a force-pop NM of your race in Sacrarium.
• Walahra Turban – 5% haste for 1000 imperial bronze. Definetely a must-get.

Refresh

• Yagudo Drinks – 2mp/3sec, great drinks, you’ll need a few per run at least.
• Ares Cuirass/Vermillion Cloak – 1mp/3sec, invaluable for this fight.

Merits

• Sentinel – Recast down can save you.
• Chivarly – TP>MP in a pinch always helps.
• Sword and Shield – more accuracy and more damage reduction.

Misc.

• Ice Trousers – extremely helpful as an opener, I don’t bother recasting them however. Powerful para effect.
• Joyeuse/Justice Sword – TP gain from these are immense, and doubles the speed of kills in this fight.
• Atonement – Damage based on emnity on the mob, up to 750. Reliable damage, accounts for at least half the damage per scorp.
• Valor Leggings – Sentinel gets more damage reduction, helps to extend Stoneskin.
• Reraise – I can afford two deaths in here, but it’s very close if that happens.
• Jelly Ring – helps get those hits down to 0 on shield blocks with Phalanx.

Now onto the fight proper. I buff up with Protect, Shell, Stoneskin, Phalanx, Aquaveil (yes, it helps now do it), Ensomething for the extra damage can’t hurt, and a taco. Do not forget Signet. I can’t stress this enough. Next, I ready the trousers for use and start with a Yag Drink. Move up to the lip and use the trousers, swap in Homam Cosicales. Flash the scorp you want to kill first, and then blow Sentinel asap. This helps survive until the initial TP buildup. Oddly enough you want them to use TP.

Wild Rage is physical damage, and makes them not attack for a time.

Ground Pounder is magical damage, and binds them in place.

After the scorp i’m fighting uses it, there’s a delay before the others use. In the case of Ground Pounder, you back off and recast Stoneskin and Phalanx. Wild Rage, just recast everything where you stand, they won’t do anything. Recast Phalanx everytime, you can’t afford to let that drop. Once they start to attack again, you resume as well. Keeping Reprisal up as much as possible once Ice Spikes are gone helps tremendously. Atonement every 100% TP, or save for Vorpal if you’re about to kill one. Repeat this for every move and scorp until the last.

Last one gets all the scorpion moves back (including Death Scissors), and hits like a truck. Luckily, there’s only one now. If you made it this far, you can finish it off.

I consider duoing this with a White Mage now to be an almost sure win. Haste and Cureskin are major in this fight. Para helps too but avoid Slow; it puts that scorp out of sync from the rest of the group and makes tanking the group much harder than it should be. Auspice should be avoided too, it delays TP moves. It’s challenging and doesn’t require much people to do with this setup.