the most festive fog (and a side hustle)

Dante got level 9 festive fog in Hades. newbie was quick to point out that it wasn't the highest dps option due to diminishing returns, but come on, how often do you get the chance for a level 9 boon? Dante had to take it. No regrets. He beat the run without using a single Death Defiance.

Also, the side hustle is FFXIV. We discussed making it less of a side hustle by meeting multiple times a week, but coordinating everyone's schedules is too tough, especially now that Luis has a job.

On the plus side, we made actual prog! I'd almost forgotten what prog feels like. We got through conflag strike a few times, and got within a hair's breadth of enrage. (with like 15% left on the boss...lol)

Here's the deal with conflag strike. Everyone gets chained to a randomly chosen partner, dps with dps, healer with tank. If you get too far from your partner, your chain breaks and you both die. If an enemy attack slices through your chain, you also both die. Additionally, there are giant cones of flame at the north and south ends of the arena. Each tank has to take a flame cone and direct it away from the party so it doesn't destroy us all. Meanwhile, the dps stay roughly in the center of the arena, doing...something.

It was the "something" that kept tripping us up. Kan was very unclear about what we were supposed to be doing, besides not dying. This is fair. He's busy with important Tank Business; he has no attention to spare for the middle of the arena.

I helped, inadvertently, by making a completely wrong suggestion. You see, Garuda's orbs are firing lasers at us the whole time, and we kept dying due to lack of coordination (I'd go one way, my partner would go the other way, that's a snapped chain). So I suggested that we all move back and forth between points C and D on the arena's equator. Simplicity itself. Except that when we tried it, we kept getting annihilated by giant cones of flame. Apparently, our motions were tracking the orb lasers onto the tanks and killing them. newbie rolled tape of our deaths, and after studying it, we figured out how the orbs worked, and, based on that, the proper movement pattern. Okay "we" is an overstatement, it was mostly numbers/newbie. But I was instrumental in the discovery process. I'll take it.

Also I am not using heat during conflag strike lmao.

I wonder if Gonzaemon Tanaka uses heat during conflag strike.

edit: oh my god Gonzaemon Tanaka's team beats Ifrit during conflag strike before any of the orbs even fire. Well. That works. While we're here, let's check out his heat schedule!

• phase 1 [0:12] opener [barrel stabilizer, wildfire]
• phase 1 [1:10] during the second air bump; he hits arm's length between his first two heat blasts in lieu of a gauss round/ricochet
• phase 1 [1:27] during occluded front
• phase 2 [2:08] at the start [barrel stabilizer]
• phase 2 [2:25] yeah just keep shooting while supports do w/e [wildfire]
• phase 2 [3:13] during football
• phase 2 [3:48] end of phase
• phase 3 [4:11] at the start [barrel stabilizer]
• phase 3 [4:28] during occluded front [wildfire]
• phase 4 [5:35] at the start
• phase 4 [6:15] during air bump; also he uses [barrel stabilizer] in between his first two heat blasts
• phase 4 [6:28] during football [wildfire] [EXACTLY two minutes geez]
• phase 4 [7:08] right before conflag strike

all hail the master, you out there making the rest of us look good