VNMs - Verthandi path strategy

Since ZNMs were canceled last night due to lack of pop items due to the silly server reset, we gathered a group to go try out the VNMs mainly as an experiment to see if we could defeat the T3s. It was also an experiment to see what a "VNM event" might involve.

Anyway, here is a writeup of my impressions of our fight and strategies for the Venthrandi path. This is probably the easiest path to start since the zones where the mobs pop are right outside Jeuno, which is where you buy the necessary key item to do VNMs. There are also 6 zones in total, making it the most numerous of all the VNMs.

T1 - Elementals
This is really simple... level 80ish elementals of all types. They appear to take double damage from all spells, so any BLM, SCH or probably BLM can easily handle them. They do cast -ga spells and ancient magic, but that's nothing that a well placed stun, or simply running away from the mob in case of a -ga spell can't take care of.

If anything, BLMs can probably get a nice exp chain going with these.

Easily soloed or duoed by most jobs. If you're a melee, sub NIN and save your stun moves for the -aga spells. The ice elemental is probably the most painful one due to ice spikes, so stun that move if you can. Recommend you just go out in a duo pair for safety

T2 - Skuld & Urd
One thing to note about T2s is that if both T2s are up in a zone, you won't know which one you'll get until you pop it. That said, if you kill one of the T2s, then you'll at least know that the other T2 you pop in the zone will be the other one... i.e.: if you pop Urd first and kill her, then the next T2 you pop in the same zone will be Skuld.

Skuld - RDM/BLM
Notable moves:
- Chainspells frequently, once every 20% I think?
- Can cast -ga spells. This includes elemental magic for lots of damage, as well as enfeebling magic such as Paralyga, Slowga, etc.

For the most part, Skuld is fairly tame. Any decent /NIN job can tank her as long as you have good stun support to stun -ga spells. The dangerous time is during her chainspell when she can deal out tons of damage. For this reason, I highly recommend that a BLU be around that can use Head Butt every 5-7 seconds to keep chainspell in check. Basically spam Head Butt and damage from chainspell should be under control

Urd - DNC/WHM
Notable moves:
- Cyclonic Torrent - Heavy AoE damage, knockback and mute - Mute is basically silence that cannot be removed even with echo drops
- A targeted move that causes amnesia - Not sure what this is called
- Uses Trance frequently. This appears to let her spam TP moves
- Likes to buff herself with WHM spells, Protect, Stoneskin, Regen, etc.

I think Urd is the more dangerous of the two T2s. Mute has a nice effect of stopping the most common damage mitigation method, as well as preventing healers from curing the party. Amnesia disables waltzes, so you could end up with a situation where there is a pixie going wild killing people left and right. However, amnesia is single-target (or possibly conal) soit shouldn't disable the whole party.

My recommendation is to bring a DNC to guard against mute killing your entire party. The DNC should have evasion gear since Urd isn't the most accurate, and in the case where the party is fully muted and the DNC has amnesia due to being the target, you can survive for quite a long time on evasion alone. Bring a BLM, or BLU to try to stun Cyclonic torrent. Finally, bring a RDM to spam Dispel so that Urd stays busy buffing herself instead of doing damage.

Tackling T2s
Overall strategy for T2s should be to setup a mixed party capable of handling either. So... my recommendation is a BLU for countering Skuld's chainspell, a DNC to counter Urd's mute move in case the party is disabled, a RDM to keep Urd busy with buffing, then fill the rest appropriately. Throw in a PLD/NIN tank, WHM and DD (or THF) and you should have a decent chance of winning with just a party of 6.

T3 - Verthandi
The big sister of the other two pixies... Yes, anime fans out there are probably wondering where Belldandy is, but if you look at the actual Norse gods that the Oh! My Goddess anime was based on, you'll see that Verthandi is the correct form of her name.

Notable moves:
- Cyclonic Torment - even more damaging version of Cyclonic Turmoil. Yes, it does mute as well
- Targetted amnesia move
- Norn Arrows - strips your clothing and gives you encumbrance status, preventing you from putting any armor or accessories on. This appears to be AoE as well.
- WHM-type mob, casts lots of buffs, and has super-fast casting Holy II
- Highly resistant to magic
- Builds resistance to Stun fairly quickly

Fighting her can be funny! You might get to a point where you have a naked tank that can't cast spells, can't use any job abilities and is standing there punching a little pixie! This... actually did happen... at least encumbrance does not last too long.

With lots of close in AoE moves, we did the 2x PLD/NIN tanking method on either side with mages as far away as possible. Unfortunately, knockback moves do mean that there is quite a bit of running around. For DDs, we weren't sure what would work, so we had a mixture of RNG, SMN, BLM and SAM/THFs. Magic damage does not work too well, and Verthandi will always try to use Norn Arrows even if it is stunned, BLM is probably not necessary for this fight.

The overall tactic of having SAM/THFs (and THF) use the surrounding weak mobs to build TP, then run in purely for WS seemed to work well in keeping hate on the PLDs. Due to magic resistance, Atonement damage seemed to be capped at half max potency. I tried Swift Blade once, but it missed completely, so I'm not sure what physical damage would be like for PLDs. RNGs, SMNs & SAMs seemed to be doing decent damage.

One final quirk is that Verthandi has a hidden HP bar. The HP bar only appears for a short time after she uses Norn Arrows. This gives you an idea of how much progress you've made. Even if you can't see her HP, it is going down with the damage you're dealing out. We saw her HP bar twice only in our fight, once at 50%, another at 20% before she was killed.

Strategy for Verthandi
Tank party:
- 2x PLD/NIN tanks, 3x if you have people to spare, but 2x should be fine
- 2x WHM healers. We had one, and it is a tough fight to heal
- 1x RDM. Mainly to Refresh + spam Dispel to keep her busy with buffing herself
- 1x BRD. Ballads for mages, Marches for tanks
This tank party should be able to hold most normal mobs in the game for an indefinite period. Unless the mob requires some weird tactics (JoL comes to mind) that require special handling, this seems like a good combination.
DD party:
- SMN/WHM - Pet attacks can be quite powerful and do not run the risk of pulling hate away from the tanks
- RNG - Ranged attacks work well, and you stay out of DD range
- SAM/THF, or DD/THF, or THF - Plant hate on the PLDs, TP up on surrounding "Too Weak" mobs
- COR/WHM - Buff up the SMNs or DDs, backup heal, do some DD as well
Basically any combination of the above should be fine as a DD party. The more people you add, the faster the fight goes and the more likely you will win.

Conclusions for VNM
Winning the T3 is quite encouraging. We won it last night with a group of 12: 2x PLD/NIN, WHM, 2x RDM, BRD, 2x SMN, BLM, RNG, THF, SAM/THF. Our damage wasn't optimal, so in theory, we should be able to tackle it with maybe 10 people on the low end. A properly setup alliance of 12 should tackle her with no problems, and an alliance of 18 would easily smash through her.

I'm hoping to put together a small team of around 12 people to go tackle VNMs with the express purpose of completing one good "occ. atk. twice" weapons for us all. This would be a long-term commitment of about 2 hours per week, maybe more frequently if we can figure out a schedule that works for us. This would be a long-term commitment where we stick together until all 12 of us complete the requirements for our weapons. Once we complete one weapon each, we will consider this event "completed" unless there is demand to continue. My initial estimate is that completing this would take between 9-12 months if we meet once a week.

An event would probably consist of:
- Gathering and killing T2s once the bare minimum personal has been assembled
- Killing 2-3 T3s once we have a large enough group
- Rotating between the different paths on an event-by-event basis. One night we might do the Verthandi path for people who need that, another night we'll tackle the crab path.

If you are interested in taking such an event, please let me know, either by tells, or posting below. Let me know which T3 you are targeting and your availability for a regularly scheduled event.