Let Sleeping Dogs Die/Strategies

This involves a healer and 5 jobs capable of heavy AoE damage. The best choices being Blue Mages and Black Mages. Blue Mages have the advantage of survivability and thus it is recommended to have at least 3. Summoners could also work if Astral Flow is used.

Strategy:

• Enter and buff, use food, etc. Barfire and Barparalyze are recommended. MP refresh juices are also recommended.
• Gather all the AoE jobs to one spot in the hallway.
• Healer stands just to the side of the other jobs so s/he does not separate the hounds if hate is stolen.
• One player goes to pull and brings the hounds to the group of AoE jobs.
• The AoEers use only AoE spells to attempt to damage the hounds equally.
• If all goes according to plan, the hounds will die around the same time.

Strategy Pros:

• Quick

Strategy Cons:

• The very nature of this BCNM is hard.
• AoE spells can vary in resists between the hounds resulting in uneven damage.
• The hounds can be overwhelming if they all attack one player for extended periods of time.
• The hounds evasion is fair. This causes Blue Mage physical spells to miss occasionally, but not render them useless.
• Black Mages have a great potential for damage, but their ability to survive can be lacking.

Making this Strategy Better:

• This strategy has not received rigorous testing.
• Carrying antidotes, eye drops, and remedies for the status effects from the hounds may smooth things along.

This is an untested strategy. 4 NINs or DD/NINs solo a hound each while a healer watches them. The Soloers damage their hound to very low HP and then wait for the others. Then the hounds are gathered and AoEed by a Black Mage or Blue Mage. Alternatively, the Soloers could finish the hounds with simultaneous WSes.

This involves an automaton configured for heavy physical tanking with high Regen capacity and an amply geared BLM using single-target tier-1 and tier-1 AoE nukes. This strategy works well with an automaton configured as follows, but other configurations may work just as well or better:

• Soulsoother C-1000 head
• Valoredge Frame
• Strobe
• Strobe II
• Heat Capacitor
• Volt Gun
• Galvanizer
• Armor Plate IV
• Barrier Module
• Steam Jacket
• Resistor
• Resistor II
• Auto-Repair Kit III
• Optic Fiber II

(This is a modified 0 job point "Turtle Tank" configuration.)

The PUP should have at least one Bean Daifuku on hand.

Since the hounds will often afflict the players with poison or extreme paralysis, The PUP and BLM should have at least one remedy ready, preferably more. Hounds can also afflict players with the disease ailment, which can be ignored since TP isn't required for this strategy.

Strategy:

1. The PUP should have at least two automaton oils for repairs and maintenance, but a better idea is to have a whole stack of twelve.
2. Before or after entering, the PUP uses Bean Daifuku food before or after entering to buff the automaton's VIT and physical defense.
3. The PUP uses Fire, Light, and Earth maneuvers and maintains them throughout the fight.
4. The hounds will be waiting in the arena, with two in the middle (one in the front-center and the other in the rear-center), one on the left, and one on the right. The automaton is deployed to attack the front-center hound.
5. The PUP and BLM keep a safe distance from the hounds while the automaton attacks. All hounds will link and converge on the automaton.
6. As the automaton builds hate by fighting the targeted hound, you wait until it loses about 7% of its HP. At that point, the BLM casts periodic single-target tier-1 nukes like Fire or Thunder to wear down the hound until it has about 10% of its HP remaining, but don't destroy it... yet!
7. When the hound has about 10% of its HP remaining, the BLM stops casting, and the PUP then deploys the automaton to another hound.
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 on the remaining hounds until the HP of all hounds is reduced to about 10%.
   • If a hound is destroyed before the other hounds have low HP at or about 10%, have the automaton work on the next hound while you wait for the vanquished hound to re-spawn. When it re-spawns, switch back to it.
9. Once all of the hounds are down to having anywhere from 2% to 10% of their HP left the BLM AoE nukes with Firaga.
10. The treasure chest will appear when all of the hounds are no more!

Note: If doing this on Watersday, casting Fire and Firaga might be weak, so consider buffing the BLMs INT with gear or food. Alternatively, you can use Thunder and another AoE nuke like Aeroga or Banishga.

Strategy Pros:

• Effective when taking the time to do it properly without rushing.

Strategy Cons:

• Timing the nukes is critical so as not to steal hate from the automaton.
• AoE spells can vary in resists between the hounds resulting in uneven damage, as stated before.
• A properly configured automaton will be relatively expensive and while an Optic Fiber II (critical for this strategy) can be purchased from the Auction House, one is often not up for sale. In that case one can be purchased from Rararoon in Nashmau @ (G-6) for the exorbitant price of 321,100 gil, but only by a Puppetmaster of level 90 or higher.
• The four hounds attacking the automaton simultaneously will slowly wear it down, so the PUP needs to time repair (and possibly maintenance) job abilities.