Nyzul Guide Part 2: Lamps / Gears
Activate all lamps.
Lamps are a difficult obstacle for many Nyzul groups, and is one aspect where your teams communication is put to the test. The clock is still ticking and these floors are excellent for people to rest and restore MP lost from tiring fighting floors also. Aim to finish these in 4-5 minutes or less.
S/I everyone and don't aggro anything. Everyone should immediately fan out from the rune, running in different directions and spreading out to find the lamp or lamps.
There are three types of Lamp Floors:
Certification.
There is one lamp, everyone has to click on it. As soon as someone finds this lamp, they should immediately tell the rest of the party that it's cert and the general route from the rune they used to get there. Everyone else should immediately head for this person and that lamp. People should / in part chat after they have clicked it for their registration so you know who needs it and who hasn't. Help stragglers with directions and anyone that has already hit it can go back to the rune and go up as soon as you're done.
Activate all lamps at the same time.
There are 4 or 5 lamps. When someone has found a lamp, they should NOT click it. They should tell everyone that they're 'same-time lamps' in party chat, and signify that they are at a lamp with a O. NO ONE SHOULD ACTIVATE THEIR LAMP UNTIL A DESIGNATED PERSON SAYS TO WITH A TIME. Once 4 people have found a lamp, one designated person should state an in game clock-time when everyone should should hit their lamps. Signify that you have activated a lamp with / in party chat. If there are only 4 lamps, you're done. If there is another, you won't clear the floor, and the other 2 people are still looking. There's a 30 second cool down in between lamp activations, so it is imperative that people do not activate lamps unless instructed to . A party chat conversation might go like this:
WAR) Found a lamp, they're same time.
WAR) O
DRG) O
BLU) O
RDM) O
BRD) O
WHM) Resting at the rune.
BLU) Okay, hit them all at 3:32.
DRG) /
BLU) /
RDM) /
WAR) /
BRD) /
Floor 71 objective complete. Rune of Transfer activated.
Be sure two people aren't standing at the same lamp; if it's possible, be visible when standing at your lamp. If there's aggro worry, don't.
Activate all lamps in a specific order in a short time.
This one is even harder than same time. You should all spread out and try to find lamps as in the previous objective, but in this case, the lamps must be activated in a particular order. Once someone is at a lamp, they should try not to leave it or make sure they tell the designated order person.
Once someone finds a lamp and realizes it's ordered lamps, they should tell the group. There are 3-5 here also. It's like a game of Mastermind. If you hit it in the right order, they'll stay on. If not, they'll fade out. So the strategy here is to get everyone at a lamp and then have one person call out an order. People at lamps need to make sure they hit the lamps in that order and then convey back to the order person they have. There is a decent guide here regarding lamps:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=79;mid=119498020713612950;num=14;page=1.
Again, NO ONE SHOULD ACTIVATE THEIR LAMPS UNTIL THE DESIGNATED PERSON ISSUES AN ORDER TO. The worst thing that can be done is for one person to activate a lamp and not tell anyone and then you'll fail the run by failing this objectve over and over again. Use O to signify when you're at a lamp. After 4 or 5 people are at lamps, the designated person calls an order. Signify that you've activated your lamp with /, which lets the person next know they have to hit theirs. After everyone has lit theirs, all the lamps will light, but only some will stay on. The designated orderer can change the wrong ones and leave the correct ones. It is best to have your orderer be good at logic puzzles.
Here's an example of how the chat log might go:
WAR) Found a lamp
WAR) it's ordered
WAR) O
DRG) O
RDM ) O
BLM) O, there's a pudding here I aggroed, sleeping it
BLU) O
THF) Going back to the rune
BLU) Okay, WAR DRG RDM BLM BLU
WAR) /
DRG) /
RDM) /
BLM) /
BLU) /
*lights all go on, BLU and RDM stay lit*
WAR) Off
RDM) ON
BLU) ON
BLM) off
DRG) off
BLU) Do DRG BLM RDM WAR BLU
DRG) /
BLM) /
RDM) /
WAR) /
BLU) /
*lights all go on, DRG, BLU and RDM stay lit*
DRG) ON
RDM) ON
BLM) off
BLU) ON
WAR) off
BLU) DRG WAR RDM BLM BLU is it
DRG) /
WAR) /
RDM) /
BLM) /
BLU) /
** all lights go on, all stay lit**
Floor 72 Complete.
THF) going up
An easy way to keep the orders straight is to keep the ones that stay on in the same slot, and shift all the others left one, as the BLU did in the example above. (RDM and BLU stayed the same, and the others were all shifted over).
Of final interest, if you hit a lamp, all hate you have on mobs is shed. So feel free to Sleep/Bind/Gravity mobs around a lamp so you can hit it quickly, in all instances.
Gears.
These, no pun intended, throw a wrench into the gears of smooth Nyzul runs. You can be awesome at clearing the objectives all described, but Gears will slow you down or overwhelm you something fierce.
There are two types of Gear secondary objectives. One is that you can't aggro them. They're true sight and sound, and aggro magic. The other is that you can't kill them. If you do aggro or kill them against the rules, either you'll get a Salvage-like Pathos locking abilities or magic, or lose token rewards, or time. All are BAD. Do your best to avoid them. Here's some tips on how.
1. Gears are often sitting around corners, just out of sight, or behind doors. Be wary of this. Don't cast near doors, or run around corners without playing with the camera a little to see if something is waiting around the wing. This is good advice even without gears.
2. If your object is don't aggro, pulling with a song or ranged weapon is acceptable. After pulling you can even kill the Gear. If your objective is a fast one, like ESE or EEL, the fastest way to deal with a gear blocking your way is to have a BRD sleep it or have a ranged attacker pull it and an RDM or BLM Sleep and then Sleep II it. If it's ESEs with don't kill gears, do your absolute best not to aggro them, because sleepers having to hold off gears for 7 minutes can be very hard both for the party and the sleeper. Even worse if you have to kill the gear and lose access to something completely important to winning, like White Magic.
3. An RDM with Phalanx and Stoneskin can comfortably hold 3-4 gears if they have to. If it's a lamp floor, they can use lamps to clear all hate and de-aggro them. BRD sleep durations are very short, but they can run around the complex hallways and kite to keep timers comfortable.