asiren | {Diabolos}: O (Reply)

So last night, after many runs, many deaths, and many Nightmares, we finally beat Diabolos Prime for the first time. We had 3 monk/warriors (2 75 monks, 1 71 monk with Asuran Fists), 1 red mage/dark knight (for Chainspell + Stun, Stun, Stun!), 1 black mage/white mage, and 1 white mage/black mage (me). Here's a guide on how to beat him:

Recommended Supply List

3-5 Yagudo drinks for each mage (I only used one per fight, but you'll want to bring more than one to make sure that you can do more than one run in case you fail.)

A stack of sleeping potions for each melee. Have at least one Opo-opo necklace.

3-4 poison potions for each party member.

2-3 persikos au lait per melee.

Appropriate food for your job.

Before Going to Pso'Xja

Get the key item, vial of dream incense, from Kerutoto in the Rhinostery (lower half of the Windurst Waters map, J-8). This is like the elemental tuning forks you retrieve for the elemental avatars like Shiva, Garuda, etc.

Within the Shrouded Maw

Protective magic (aka buffs) do not wear upon entering a fight with Diabolos Prime. TP does not reset either. So have your healer cast Protect and Shell before entering. Melees should consider bringing an Opo-opo necklace and sleeping potions so they can sleep themselves to 100% TP. (Our 3 monks slept themselves to 100% TP at least.) I brought 12 + 7 sleeping potions myself since I had them on mule anyway.

Eat decent food that's applicable to your job. (The red mage and black mage ate melon pies. I ate a snoll gelato. I don't remember what the monks ate... Most likely sole sushi so they don't miss.)

All party members should have reraise of some kind (either the spell or an item that gives reraise effect) as a safety measure. Rest to full before entering.

The Fight

One thing you need to keep in mind is that Diabolos Prime has killer spells/moves that he does not have with his level capped fight. For example, he only has Sleep in the capped fight, but for the Prime Avatar fight, he has Sleepga II. I remember one fight where, he really killed us by using Sleepga II (we didn't have poison pots at the time) and then followed that up with Nightmare. He proceeded to do that at least 2-3 more times during that fight.

So basically this fight is like a Maat monk fight or a Snoll Tzar fight. You basically need to kill Diabolos fast before he can land a Nightmare. Stunners help, but Stun has a huge recast timer, and even with Chainspell + Stun, a Nightmare can still sneak through. (One time Diabolos got us because our red mage had just Chainspelled right when Diabolos decided to Nightmare us.) Poison potions will help if he casts Sleepga II, but they won't wake you up if you are Nightmare-ed.

Oh, here's some information about Nightmare (courtesy of Kayanna of Bahamut):

Nightmare takes about 4.5 seconds to happen starting from the moment when you see "Diabolos readies Nightmare." message.

The last 2 seconds of casting cannot be Stunned or interrupted.

So, you basically have the first 2.5 seconds to Stun Diabolos to prevent a Nightmare from going off. Make that 2 seconds to be safe.

He can spam Nightmare many times. Many, many, many times. He can, god forbid, start the fight with a Nightmare.

Our strategy once inside the battlefield:
1. Monks stack their Boosts up to 10 boosts. Have someone do a countdown for you (preferably one of the monks).

2. Mages cast buffs like Stoneskin, Blink, Haste, and Barsleep / Barsleepra. Everyone should be heading towards Diabolos, but far away enough so that he doesn't aggro you and draw you into his battlefield.

3. Use your drinks (au laits for the melees, yagudo drinks for the mages). White mages, don't bother casting Regen spells during this fight; it just takes too long. You're better off with high leveled cures. Also use a poison potion when the Boost count is almost done.

4. Monks use Chi Blast to start the fight. Engage, and use Asuran Fists on him. Use a Icarus Wing and then Asuran Fist him before popping your two-hour, Hundred Fists.

The red mage Chainspells and watches out for Nightmare. I don't remember exactly if the black mage Manafonts at the start as well (probably doesn't since he has full MP). Healer should be using high level cures to make sure everyone stays alive.

Everyone stays together on one tile. Yeah, this makes the mages vulnerable to AoE attacks, but we found that we were spending too much time keeping Diabolos in one place during the fight when the melees and the mages separated themselves into two groups on the battlefield.

Notes:
- Diabolos Sleepga-ed us, but we had poison potions, so it never affected us.

- He never got around to using Nightmare on us.

- He tried using his two-hour (Ruinous Omen) near the end of the fight, but our red mage stunned him, so he couldn't use it.

- If you do it right, you'll beat Diabolos before he even gets around to having the tiles fall down.

The black mage only had time for one spell before Diabolos was dead. I only cast 2 Cure IVs and 1 Cure V before he was dead. By the way, remember you can cancel your Stoneskin if Diabolos does cast Sleepga so the poison will wake you up.

Once you beat this badass, go to back to Kerutoto in Windurst Waters to make him your slave (or you could chose one of the other rewards given for beating him).

Welcome to the playground. Phantasmagoria!