Hi everyone. I was fresh out of an Exp party tonight, and I threw up my flag for Mission: Promyvion (any), in the hopes I could finally get close to accessing Tavnazia... Well, that didn't happen of course, but someone was shouting for a party to take on the new Empty Notorious Monster at the Crag of Dem. Seeing I wasn't getting anywhere with just the search comment and flag, I /tell him if he'd like a Paladin. To my surprise, I get a party invite! We then proceeded (After lengthy medicine shopping and Mule trading) to ROCK Promyvion Dem to the very core, in our quest to thwart the new ENM battle!
Here's how it went down, if you'd like a detail/guide (I don't know if anyone has this posted yet, so if I repeat information, sorry)
There's a new NPC in Ru'Lude gardens, in Jeuno, right by the exit to Upper Jeuno, named... Valensia or Veronica (Edit: It's Vanessa, or a spelling very close) or somesuch *Starts with a V*. She's easy to recognize, because of her sunglasses. She is the quest starter. She will recognize you as one of talent, and ask you to delve deep into the empty lair in a Promyvion. She then asks you WHICH Promyvion you'd like to go to to do this for her. This is important: Based on which one you pick (Holla, Dem, Mea), you receive a Key Item that unlocks the burning circle. Everyone in your party requires the same key item to enter
Once you've suited up, Promyvion Style, and have your consumable supplies ready (Hi potions, Yagudo Drinks, Promyvion-Boss-Anima, etc), head on over to Promyvion (Dem in our case) (Make sure everyone's sealed their memories, and are ready for this crag), and head through the level as normal. The spire at the end that usually results in the NORMAL Promyvion boss is the place you want to end up. Once you touch the Web, a new Battle choice will become available (in addition to the normal one) if you have the Key Item for that crag (In our case, I think it's called "You are what you eat" (Dem)).
When you're ready, everyone click in to this new Promyvion battle. Your key item will disappear at this point.
You are given a time limit of 30 minutes. Buff up as normal (I cannot speak for Holla and Mea ENMs... yet. I hear the Holla NORMAL boss steals buffs, but I don't think the ENM Dem one did)
Once buffed, and MP recovered, set out to battle!
Our party setup was as such:
PLD - Wevrain (Me)
NIN - Logg
RNG - Engy
BRD - Havehlwilltrvl
SUM - Atomisk
RDM - Kruger
This was a very simple battle. Logg and I shared hate, while everyone else unloaded upon the NM. It's called the Ingester, and looks like the bulbous round hump-shaped Empties with spider-mandibles. It's standard attack has a draining effect, it would seem, and also, it spews out other little empties to attack you with (They look like wanderers, but I can't remember the name). These are a distraction. If at all possible, ignore these totally, unless it's a life/death situation.
With a good solid group that watches out for each other, I don't foresee any problem with anyone beating this. We had agreed beforehand to use animas at 50 percent HP and below... well, we didn't even get to the second anima before the NM lay slain on the floor O_O . We took 7 minutes 5 seconds to defeat the monster, but most of that was myself recovering MP from casting Protect II on everyone (since we had no white mage). I have no doubt that it could be done faster ^^ *Edit: I read over in the main forum that it was done in 3 minutes. Definitely faster ^^*
Anyway, after the battle, an "Enigmatic Sphere" appears. It is clickable, and this is what doles out the "Large amount of Experience" that Square promised. How much you ask? THREE THOUSAND experience. Granted, it took us about an hour to get up there, so in actuality it's about what you'd earn in the same time in a good EXP party... But you must consider, we were but one party heading up to the spire. If you were to travel in a full blown alliance, and tear through all the aggro and Memory Receptacles... it could be done in less time, I think.
Still though! One fight for 3000 experience, it's a pretty sweet deal. I even levelled up to 53 because of it ^^
One final note: The monster drops items called Memory Clusters. these are a new item that function like Elemental Crystal clusters, except for the Memories that alchemists use for anima synthesis. The lady NPC that starts the quest is looking for rare drops that have names like "Visions" I think... (we didn't get any of those), and will reward you if you hand them in. What THAT reward is, I cannot say. But, it's something to keep in mind!
Finally, I was told by my party that there is a 5 day time limit for doing the same ENM battle again. Whether Vana'diel days or Earth Days, I know not.
So if anyone's got the gear and the guts, I recommend trying these battles out. It's really fun, with a nice reward. ^^
We are the first party on Shiva to have cleared this fight, and I couldn't be prouder of my teammates! Thanks guys, it was a blast!
Edit: Remembered the CORRECT NPC name: Valerie (or close to it), and enboldened some words.
Edit2: Fixed a really stupid spelling error (I spelled "Lair" as "Layer" @_@), moved a sentence to the bottom.
Edit3 (and hopefully the last >_<): I spelled Engy's name as Engu! Sorry Engy! FIXED!
EditFinal: Fixed blatant wrongness, changed that silly NPC's name again, fixed what she wanted from the fight. Minor fixes.
Edited, Thu Feb 24 05:24:29 2005 by Wevrain
Edited, Thu Feb 24 05:33:30 2005 by Wevrain
Edited, Thu Feb 24 05:38:45 2005 by Wevrain
Edited, Thu Feb 24 08:34:37 2005 by Wevrain