What a Nightmare!

Diabolos 22, Kixxi 0

Things went a little differently today. It took Teila and me forever to get a party together for Diabolos, but in the end the setup was a good one. It included a SAM and a DRK (can produce one of the most powerful Light Skillchains in the game) – the DRK, Wrexsoul, being a friend of Teila’s who was renown for his ability to never miss a Stun in their old Sky Linkshell. We also had a RDM/DRK, but this time I asked them to hold off until near the end of the fight to avoid resistance being built up early.

Believe it or not, they all remembered Poison Potions and the only problem we had was that Jamin, our Samurai, DC’d several times due to a faulty router, and as a result, got seen standing around by a Snowball (white Bomb) in Pso’Xja. Nevertheless, we entered the first fight ready to rock and somehow the NIN just couldn’t secure hate and I was smacked to an inch of my life within seconds. Soon after, Nightmare came along and the RDM/DRK forgot to Stun (*yawn*). That fight ended in under a minute.

The RDM/DRK had to leave, but his wife took over his character and we agreed to try again once more. We couldn’t believe our luck when it rolled over into Lightsday, so we entered the BCNM and engaged Diabolos. Hardly any Nightmares, but plenty of Sleepga IIs, but the party was prepared with Poison Potions. The Light Skillchain absolutely murdered Diabolos, and his life chunked away. Wrexsoul Stunned the first Nightmare with perfect timing (see, DRKs never miss a Stun!) and a while later, he did his second Nightmare, to which the RDM/NIN Stunned perfectly too. Hearts beating, Teila activated Chainspell and was just using her first nuke when Diabolos readied another nightmare, seconds after he had just done one! Wrexsoul mashed his Stun macro but his timer wasn’t ready and we were hit. At this point, he had around 10% life left.

Ironically, on most days, with my huge Dark Resistance gear, high MND and Barsleepra, I am usually the first to wake from Nightmare, but as Sod’s Law would have it, I sat there asleep with Bio III eating away at me for what seemed like an eternity. I was asleep so long, that we all went from full life right into the orange, and before I could wake up the NIN was dead and Teila’s Chainspell had wore off. When I did wake, I hit Benediction but not before the DRK had followed suit also. I tried to keep the SAM alive but he went down in seconds (Diabolos hits very, very hard (around 250 a pop on me, more with a critical)). The RDM/DRK readied her Chainspell but before she could Stun Diabolos so that Teila could nuke him to death (two more would have been enough), Diabolos cast Sleepga II, and in all the panic we had failed to see our Poison Potions had wore.

At this point, Diabolos picked on me and knocked me right down. Every time I tried to wake the RDMs up I was hit, and then the bugger cast Dispel on me, taking off my Reraise III. At 22hp I somehow managed to get my Reraise III back up and I was killed a millisecond later. Teila got hit by a Camisado for 500 damage and the RDM/DRK, who was still asleep, got finished off.

Everyone cried at how close we were yet again. So, not even with competent stunners, and on Lightsday, could we do this. Had my Nightmare worn off quicker, I could have kept the tank alive, but for some weird reason, I just wouldn’t wake up.