Unofficial Horntail Topic

So, I was pretty bored, so I basically compiled a bunch of information for this mini-guide for Horntail. I know most of you are probably pro and don't need this, but I know I was a total newbie before big bang, so I figured this might help some new people out. I couldn't find a post-bb guide for Horntail anyway. I wrote it from memory, so there may be errors or things missing. Feel free to point it out if you like, and enjoy the long text. xD


** Complete the following PRIOR to the agreed run time **


What you need to bring:

-Lots of potions. Horntail hits some very heavy damage, enough to nearly ohko you if you're one of them squishy classes. You will want to bring plenty of potions to restore and maintain full health at all times. With the possibility of being seduced, it's better safe than sorry!
-All cures. All cures basically act as your personal dispel; they are a nifty little potion which can cure of any state, including darkness, seal, poison, etc. They aren't completely necessary if we have a bishop, but I would advise carrying at least 50, just in case.
-1 Mithril Plate and 1 Steel Plate. This is used in the prequest which will be explained below.
-(Optional) Attack Potions. Warrior Potions in NLC are good if you're cheap, but Energizers give a substantially higher boost. If you really want to, Onyx Apples are an option too for speeding up the run significantly.
-(Optional) Wheel of Destiny. This cash shop item allows you to respawn in a map you died in; what this means is that if you suffer some poor luck and are killed at Horntail, you don't have to be immediately out of the run. You can respawn and jump right back in. They are located in the Cash Shop under Etc. Tab, Game, Page 3, for 500 NX each.
-(Optional) Auto HP. This cash shop item is a pet equip; you MUST own a pet prior to purchasing this item. It does what it says basically. You load the HP potion of your choice into the Auto HP bag, and your pet will automatically heal you at whatever alert setting you choose. This isn't necessary, but can often help prevent death.
-(Optional) Hero's Will. This is an obtainable skill, I believe for all 4th job classes, which allows you to break free of seduce once every ~5 minutes (sadly, it has a cooldown). I recommend anyone who wishes to attempt difficult bosses to get this skill at some point. Its max level is 5, so it's not much SP, but it is somewhat difficult to obtain. A great guide can be seen in this YouTube video (it's still obtained the same way as before): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26JnmNFgUak
-(Mandatory) Your wits. Horntail can be a difficult boss, so be sure to pay attention!

What you need to do:

Credit to Mazz/whoever wrote the guide, with my editing.

Horntail pre-quest guide: Making the Secret Medicine for Transformation quest

-Go to Cave of Life - Entrance and talk to Moira.

-Collect 10 Tough Dragon Skin, 1 Cornian's Dagger, 1 Cornian's Marrow, 1 Manon's Cry, and 1 Skull Shoulder Pad.

-Busted Dagger*: Found from Dark Cornians. The easiest way to do this is to take the taxi cab in Leafre. Move right one map to Red Dragon Turtles. Immediately jump down onto a platform with a leaf and hidden teleporter. Go through it, and you will be on the far right of the map. Hop off the ledge on the left and just let yourself fall down into the spikes; it will take you to a hidden-street with many Dark Cornians.

-Skull Shoulder Pad: Also found from Dark Cornians. See above.

*The Busted Dagger needs to be fixed. To do so, you need to get the dagger and 1 steel and 1 milthril plate. Talk to the weapon maker dude(Mos) and ask him to make Cornian's Dagger for you.

-Cornian's Marrow: Drops from Green Cornians. Getting to them is the same as Dark Cornians, only on the opposite side (the left side).

-Tough Dragon Skins can be found from Wyverns at the Dragon Canyon. The color does not matter.

-Manon's Cry drops from Manon in Manon's Forest. Who would have guessed? As a note, Manon typically drops 2 or 3 cries, so it's best to do this part together. It's also a good idea to do this part ASAP, because Manon has a decently long spawn time (a few hours).

DO NOT COMPLETE THE QUEST UNTIL THE RUN IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. ONCE YOU COMPLETE THE QUEST, YOU IMMEDIATELY TRANSFORM INTO GREEN CORNIAN, INSTEAD OF KEEPING THE DRAGON ELIXIR!

** Keep the following in mind DURING the run **


A few simple guidelines to keep in mind during the run.

-Always keep your health at maximum. Horntail hits high damage, and combined with seduce, he can be very deadly. Especially for classes with lower hp, always stay at full health, as it's better to be a bit wasteful with pots than to risk death.
-Watch out for seduce. As we found out from last run, Horntail will sometimes randomly seduce. Regardless of sed mules, watch out for it. If you are seduced, immediately shout "SED" in all chat, along with the direction you are seduced in ( <<<< or >>>> ). This is to call attention to the bishop to follow and heal you.
-Keep pet loot off. Looting other people's drops isn't very nice, so make sure if you own an item pouch to take it off.

Method of Attacking:

Why are we using this method? Because I said so. Deal with it. :)

Really though, we need a consistent attack pattern; I don't mind editing it in the future, but we need a game plan so that we're all on the same page and prepared for the run, not debating it at the last minute. :P


Phase 1: Preheads

-Magic Crash (Warriors Only). Because the preheads have weapon and magic cancel, keeping crash up is ideal. An order ought to be specified, and remember your turn. Watch a clock to help know when it's your time to crash.
-Dispel. The preheads will occasionally summon Wyverns. If you see Black Wyverns, this means Horntail is going to dispel. Be ready to spam your buffs back up if you see Black Wyverns.

Phase 2: Legs and Tail

-Stomp Attack. Horntail's legs will occasionally use a stomp attack. If you see Horntail raise his leg, he has to pee he's about to attack. Jump immediately to dodge it. The attack doesn't do too much damage, but I believe it stuns you temporarily, which is annoying. The tail works the same way, jump if you see it raise up.

Phase 3: Wings and Right Arm

-MP Drain (Mages). From now on Horntail will be casting MP drain quite a bit, dangerous for mages reliant on Magic Guard. Watch out for it.
-Seduce The right arm will do this when down to 1/2 HP. Horntail's arms can cast a full party seduce (Up to 5 people, I believe). This means anyone can be seduced at this point. Now is when it's especially important to pay attention and keep health full, just in case.

Phase 4: Right Head, Left Head, Middle Head

-Magic Crash (Warriors). All heads are capable of weapon and magic cancel, so once again, well-timed Magic Crash becomes vital.
-Summons. The heads will summon Wyverns sometimes. It's best to kill these nuisances as soon as possible.
-Dispel. I'm not 100% sure if the dispel from the main heads corresponds to Dark Wyverns or not, but the point is he can dispel you. Once again, be alert and watch your buffs.

Final Phase: Left Arm

This one is the toughie, and it's where we might actually die. That's why this is saved for last; in the unfortunate event some die here, we will at least have gained the use of their dps for most of the run, and hopefully us bulky ones can finish it off.

-Seduce. Horntail's arms can cast a full party seduce (Up to 5 people, I believe). This means anyone can be seduced at this point. Now is when it's especially important to pay attention and keep health full, just in case.
-Single Target DPS. If you're not using any the rest of the run, now is the time to use attack potions.

What's in it for you?

Horntail has a few nifty drops which are quite valuable, but the main thing is the Horntail Pendant. It starts out with only +7 all stats and 3 slots, but it is of 3rd tier potential and able to be egged. Egging an HTP is using one of Horntail's other drops, Nine's Spirit Egg, to increase the all stats. Having never used one, I'm not sure how it works, but all I know is it increases the stats a LOT.

The drops will be agreed upon in advance.

Yummy drops:

-Horntail Pendant (1~3 typically)
-Nine's Spirit Egg (0~1 typically)
-Mystery Mastery Book
-Many Equipment Drops
-Many Recipe Drops
-Horntail Card
-???

And most of all, it's just plain fun! :D


Who should come:

The only things we REALLY want for Horntail are the first three, the others are just helpful.

-Hyper Body. Any Dark Knight can come if HB is needed, regardless of level. At least one per party.
-Bishop. Again, any level works. Bishops are essential for many reasons. At least one per party.
-DPS. This is the most important, obviously, if we want to actually take the boss down. For this, you should be around level 150 or higher, the reason being that Horntail is level 160. Too far below his level, and you will miss too much to add any significant DPS.
-Magic Crash (Optional). Any Warriors are definitely wanted for magic crash. Once we are up to 3, he can be crashed 100% of the time.
-Other useful buffs (Optional). Smokescreen, Sharp Eyes, Advanced Dark Aura, etc. are all always helpful.

While I don't mind taking larger runs, it would be preferable to keep the expedition to one party. The reason for this is twofold: Firstly, this limits the need for an extra Dark Knight/Bishop in the second party, or the pain of having to switch around players in the expedition mid-run, so it's more efficient. Secondly, other people want to Horntail, and although we definitely have as much right as anyone else, that is an equal right. We should try to take as few people as we can as a matter of respect to other players on the server. They want to try, too, and using up the 60 person limit with tons of people who aren't adding significant DPS or skills to the run is really wasteful, in my opinion. That's not to say we can't be a little flexible, but just to stay as conservative as we can here.


Finally...

** The Expedition **


Time:

-Thursday, September 29th, 6:30pm EST

Roster:

1.) EINidoranM
2.) oRuisu
3.)
4.)
5.)
6.)

Backup:

1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
6.)

Drops:

-Horntail Pendant:
-Nine's Spirit Egg:
-Horntail Card:
-Other:

Post if you want to come and I haven't listed you. If you're interested in a specific drop, say that too, this way we can best decide how to fairly distribute what we get to make everyone happy.

EDIT:

** New Rules**

We are only running with 6 or less people. No exceptions. If you guys wanna run with more, count me out. The reasons is so that the HT counter doesn't get all goofy; 30 is nice and easily divisible by both 5 and 6, so either 5 or 6 people is fine. But no more.

How we'll determine who gets to come is, you must first have your prequest done (ie, have all your items, but DO NOT FINISH the quest). Then, sign up will bet determined by tiers of level and sign up order. Please do not sign up if you don't have your prequest finished! Order of precedence will be:

1. 150+, in order that you signed up.
2. 140+, in order that you signed up.
3. 130+, in order that you signed up.
4. 120+, in order that you signed up.

No lower than 120 should be coming on these runs anyway. Exceptions may be made for HB/sed mule only. Please also post your usual available times or fill out the guild events planning google doc!

Lookin' good. Next run is tonight at 5 EST then? Also, do the body parts only aggro if they're attacked first now? If so heads last makes more sense than arms last I guess.

Oh, and both arms have the ability to sed once their HP is down to 50% or less, but sometimes they won't if they're being attacked consistently as they glitch (like most/every boss does now) and then are unable to use any skills or attacks.

Excellent guide. Ill definitely join today's run. Im sure Hayley will as well.

Wonderful guide, Travis. This is really, really impressive! =)

Edited and pre-emptively scheduled next week's run earlier. I don't think they typically will fill up that fast, especially considering most kiddies are going to start going back to school soon, but just in case, the earlier the better. It would be helpful if everyone posted what times they can be free, or even better to fill this lovely little thing out: guild planning

I haven't even started the school year yet.... I have no idea if/when I'll be free on Thursdays.

5 pm or 6pm would be my best bet and Hayley's as well.

7pm is too late, I can do 5-6pm, but I have to be offline most days by like.. 7:15 EST now. Not sure how my schedule will change when I start my uni course either, if I have early classes on Friday I might not be able to even do 6.

The problem is I have class on Thursday at 5pm...and I won't be home until like, 6:30 the earliest. And the connection in that classroom is gawdawful, so I couldn't even try to HB mule while in class, lol.

The only other time I could do it on Thursday is before my classes start, which would have to be around 1pm. :/

Maybe it'd be best to stick to Fridays, then. Hopefully when school starts back up for everyone the little kiddies won't be able to do so many HT runs right after the server maintenance. I'll try to keep a better track on how many runs/people have gone next week so we'll have a better idea if we can go or not.

EDIT: The other possibility is that you guys could take Martin along as HB mule, and still run on Thursday at 5pm if that's convenient for all of you.

Friday seems to be the best day. We just have to be lucky I guess. If all else fails, lets start gathering intel on chaos zakum and preparing for him.