FF Mission with No tank

I’m curious if anyone has had any success running / boxing the FF mission using pet classes, casters or range. I’m wanting to figure out how to run it with a 4 box. Bst/ench/mage/druid something like this. I could attempt to add a wiz and sham too if I need too. Going to be a bit before those would be high enough to attempt.

Someone in an earlier thread said they duo the mission with a mage and some other non-tank class (I think there is some raid gear involved thought).

I have boxed FF with magician and bard multiple times. I know of other magicians that have soloed the mission. Am also aware of multiple classes soloing the event, not just magicians.

So in theory I should be able to do it with a bst, mage. Can you elaborate on your strategy. The mobs don’t attack your Bard with pet tanks ?

Melee isn't the only way a Bard can contribute.

I've written up the details of the "no tank" way to do FF.
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq...ff-mission-dps-questions.297856/#post-4308864
Your BST/MAG/ENC is sufficient. DRU is just a cherry on top.

All the hostile mobs attack friendly NPC's as scripted (except the last boss). Just stay outside melee range and send in pets and do range dps. If you wanna use mercs for dps - caster dps mercs will do, otherwise they may draw melee aggro.
I often do the mission with a single healer merc.

I box 4 mages and an enchanter. The FF mission is easy with my crew.

I just range the bard with songs and Epic/FE/etc. Not maximizing the bard of course, but I win

Brilliant! thank you for the write up. I'm assuming then I can use bard for the CC, and just not have it melee and do the same thing as an Enchanter would?

In this mission with the possible exception of the 3 goblin stage there is no CC. With the goblins I stay back when the NPC's engage. I get 1 goblin, every-single-time.

I'll probably try this soon with my bst/brd/mage/shm a cleric and wiz merc.

10 minutes with mage - wiz - wiz - wiz - ench - bard.

First stage: warlock,hex,soldier,soldier. Soldiers engage and attack Thornel Grayleaf and Thormir Helmsbane. Ignore those while you kill warlock and hex, which do not fight back, and your beastlord can burn those down (the only time it can melee, so use the burn when you can)
all 4 orcs have around 90 mil HP. Kill soldiers with range attack once others are dead.

Second stage - 2 boars, same 90 mil HP each. Those attack Dhakka Nogg and Elistyl Knaghammer.
in about 90 seconds A Rallosian boar handler joins the fight. In about 45 seconds it will "whip" a boar to lock onto and attack a random enemy. If it is any of your casters - tough luck. To avoid the mechanics - kill 2 boars under 130 seconds (give or take). That is a dps becnhmark of 1.4 mil, which includes approximately 200K dps from friendly NPCs. if you fail - you may get lucky and a boar attacks some acceptable target such as an npc or a pet or the beastlord. Kill hoarder and wraith at your own pace after boars are dead.

Third stage - goblins (A_rallosian_hunter00, 01 or 02). Those are rogue class and once engage Shallowain they disengage with rogue escape and stand idle. the catch - not always successful. Either kill those yourself or let shallowain die for the task to advance.

Village stage: Dagra Smasher (190 mil HP) - just kill her.
Margator the Slow (190 mil HP) - casts 3 stages of "faster" then "incredible speed" at about 30 seconds in between. Once "incredible speed" (those are mission emotes) you have about 15 seconds to cast ROOT (let your shaman root, earth pet is unreliable for that) on it to break the script. If you fail - it will randomly lock onto a target and chase it at bard speed. A caster will have a tough time if targeted. If you cast roots timely you can fight it as slow as you wish.
Firethorn - has a mana-drain DS. Can be dispelled with mana-draining spell (enchanter's mana vortex works). With pet tanking - just ignore it and kill at your own pace.
Yarith Wardbreaker - no tricks, just kill it.
Key - Elmara Emberclaw is health-locked at 60 % and tanks those indefinitely.

Last Boss: captain Kar the Unmovable - 400 mil HP. Health (and detrimental effects) locks at 82,62,45,27,10 %. Must be unlocked with STUN spell/effect. chanter's stun spells work, as well as air pets and Ethersmash pet weapons.

Bard is not required for this mission. Bards are awesome and make the group better, but no special contribution to this mission.
My bard just uses dots, Ecliptic, and group adps sons and aura. Also bards burn is helpful on Kar.

I dunno what else to add to the writeup.

Couple things i'll add.

For goblins, i like to just move mage alone to them, and if charged, fade aggro. Then COTH and engage at leisure (or let Shalowain die if your dps is bad).

Kar the Unmovable occasionally ignores my mage pet near end (like 5-10% of the runs). I am not sure what's causing it, but i usually lose a character or two when he charges the casters and gets in melee range. Maybe some nuke that hits him as he gets unlocked by stun? Anyone else had this happen?

So to be clear, I can just ignore stage 3? Will it port me to stage 4 or do I run my group there?
Additionally, I can just have an Air pet up on Mage, which will take care of the stun?

Basically, I'll be doing all the work on my BST. BST pet will do the tanking of the mobs, my Mage will assist. I'll have my Bard assisting from a far, which wont add much dps. I'll bring along a Shaman, who's not up to level yet, but will add some healing. 1 healer merc + 1 wizard merc.

Eventually, once other characters are leveled up enough, I will run it with bst/dru/ench/shm + 2 mercs. Altho, once druid is level up, I might drop shaman for a Necro, but that's my long term goals. Short term will be the bst/brd/shm/mage + 2 mercs.

Yes. You fail an achievement for not getting all NPCs to the end, but you can ignore and run to the end spot. You do have to run. The only port is from position 1 to position 2.

One note, rarely in mission will the goblins set up at the ambush spot and the npcs will miss them completely. I've always eventually attacked the goblins and moved the script along, but it's possible that the goblins and npcs will just sit there for 6 hours and the script never moves.

In my experience, Kar did that at the beginning until I've settled on my routine. Basically, when it is health-locked pets start losing aggro as they can't do their pet thing - melee, proc, cast etc. Meanwhile characters may still do something nasty to it (even if Kar's HP stays locked its aggro gets affected) and eventually Kar decides to chase after a player. Generaly - longer it stays locked higher chnce for it to start chasing.
Essentilly, I stat casting Dizzzling vorter (stun from my enchanter) as soon as Kar locks up. The level of the spell does not matter, Kar gets unlocked with the fact of the cast, not actual effect.
Since you have a chanter in your group - have it mem the stun spell and cast it as soon as Kar locks. That is what I do and Kar stopped chasing my characters.

Alternatively, your bard/ chanter or wizzy can stock up on stun potions.
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=61582
made with all store-bought components. It has 150 range and 2700% proc rate (fires every throw) and has SPA 21 proc
https://spells.eqresource.com/rawspells.php?id=5852

Make a Bandolier with those suspensions equipped in range and ammo, and add "/autofire on" to your assist button for that character.
Only use it on Kar to save suspensions.

Thanks Alnitak, that could explain it. It's probably the bard, who is auto-singing some dots, etc. I noticed when Kar breaks from pet aggro, he tends to aggro the bard, but then he'll also grab random others, too, like it's a memblur or something.

I unlock kar with 3 wizards all casting 1 stun nuke (it's part of their regular dps lineup, i forget the name, but maybe the magic ethereal). I usually run with healer merc, not ench (ench is better since runes are enough to never need heals in that mission and they speed up the dps and burns).

Is there any reason to mess with the Archers, other then for achievements sake? I'm asking after watching a video on the mission, and the guy took the time to hunt down all the archers.

Not necessary. The Achievement can be earned without killing the archers.
The script is simple:
Wait for Kar to cast the aura (usually at 40% health if killing quickly enough). It has to land on characters to count. Then while it is ticking down (10-15 seconds) run outside the aura range (outside that "sparkly" aura border). Wait for aura to fade, then move back in to finish off Kar.

To get Achievement - Kar(archers really) must cast and land the debuf, you must be outside the aura range when debuf expires to avoid being hit. If you kill Kar too fast(before debuf expires) the Achievement fails.
Killing archers is just an alternative way to get the Achievement.