Fenrir Prime

Fenrir Prime

Contrary to popular belief, Fenrir Prime can be solo'd by a RDM/NIN. This is a fairly popular fight where most people struggle to get armies of summoners or something to defeat him when it is very unnecessary if you are or know a skilful RDM. All of the screenshots here are from my first Fenrir Prime solo and so do not indicate my most refined form of play. Continuous improvement is important, after all.

Preparation

• Remedies in case you get paralyzed
• Eat Cream Puffs or a similar INT food unless you're unconfident, in which case eat Tavnazian Tacos
  
• A good elemental skill setup designed to minimise resists and maximise MP efficiency
• Reasonable Bind/Gravity setup
• A good paralyze/slow setup (MND-heavy) is useful
  
• Crimson Cuisses do help but are definitely not necessary
• A magic defence set to minimise damage taken by Howling Moon is recommended but not necessary
• Fast cast/haste set for Utsusemi is helpful but not necessary
  

The Fight

There is a strict thirty minute time limit on this fight and your DoTs alone will not kill him, so you need to be offensive. You can buff outside of the arena and they will carry over so do so outside to save time.

When you enter, you will run through a corridor and into a large open area with Fenrir looking at you opposite. This is where I recommend kiting him, and just do so in a big circle. Do not get cornered in the corridor.

I recommend opening with a Blizzard3 though he will probably aggro you when you start casting if not before, so be ready to cast a hasty Bind (or perhaps Gravity if you want to Bio2/3 him and dump most of your MP into him early). Be sure to debuff him with Paralyze and Slow; makes straight tanking a lot easier. If you nuke him hard early you can Convert and so have more MP at your disposal over the course of the battle.

He has TP regain and so expect a lot of TP moves to come your way; typically whenever he unbinds he will take a couple of snaps at you and then TP move. His TP moves are as follows;

1. Moonlit Charge - one shadow, blinds if it hits you. Medium range. Threat rating: low.
2. Crescent Fang - one shadow, paralyzes if it hits you. Short range. Threat rating: fairly low.
3. Eclipse Bite - three shadows, pure damage. Short range. Threat rating: medium.
4. Lunar Cry - doesn't affect shadows, accuracy and evasion down. Medium range. Threat rating: Nonexistant.
5. Lunar Roar - dispels up to 9 buffs. Medium range. Threat rating: fairly high.
6. Howling Moon - 2hr ability; quite strong and strips shadows. Threat rating: medium.

Despite what you may expect, his 2hr is not his most dangerous ability. In fact, it can be relatively harmless...

No, his most dangerous ability is definitely Lunar Roar. It puts you in a lot of danger and will expend your MP recovering your buffs... avoid at all costs. Speaking of which, how do you avoid the TP moves? Well, since most are short range if you simply run when he comes towards you in a straight line away from him, you'll outrange most of them. Stop to cast Bind when you're sure he won't TP move you. Paralyze/Slow render his melee damage quite impotent.

Note he will stand around looking like a dumbass after a TP move, allowing ample time for regroup/recovery.

It is a good idea to not run as far as you can from him but stand at a moderate range, so you have room to run and waste his TP moves; you're a lot less likely to if you're turning a corner or whatever at the time. Sometimes Bind will wear early and he won't TP immediately but this is when you can Gravity or straight tank for a bit... just be careful of Lunar Roar in particular (though Eclipse Bite can be painful if you don't have many shadows up at the time).

Overall, his offence is very limited... when you get used to him, the real challenge is simply killing him in time.

Good luck~ my subsequent attempts took roughly 20 minutes and the first one I was overly cautious since I didn't know what to expect. Make sure you keep track of how much time you have left.

Difficulty rating: **