All of Vagary can be done with 3, though aside from loot distribution, there's no other benefit to going with so few. Without experience or good gear, you'll want outside help. There are rewards, like the KIs from bosses which can be exchanged for goods, that can draw in people who might not be willing to help otherwise. A quick rundown of the zones/bosses:
PARTY SETUPS:
- Magic-heavy builds are common, but not at all required. I would highly recommend bringing strong aoe magic to Brash Gate and Duskbrood Gate at the least, however.
- Tank trusts don't do well to establish hate when dealing large groups, so you may want to bring a real tank.
- Treasure Hunter does affect drops. This is mostly just notable for bosses, as you can potentially get 1 extra material and 1 extra piece of gear (including the elusive Tartarus Platemail from Plouton). If you do bring a THF, I'd recommend either it be someone's mule or someone who won't be a liability if they are meleeing.
ALL ZONES:
- Everything will be 1 enemy family, and 2 NMs + a boss.
- The bosses are antagonists from Adoulin missions, so if you don't want to be spoiled, you might wanna finish them first.
- Enmity is unique in Vagary, in that as soon as something is aggro'd, everyone is on the hate list, so something as benign as casting Barfire can cause you to get pummeled if your tank hasn't done anything.
- Sleep works on all non-NMs.
- The bosses primarily use magic attacks instead of physical.
DEATHBORNE GATE: Undead.
- Starting with Fomors of all jobs. They come from all sides, but die easy to aoe damage, or to a single strong WS. Be mindful of hate and stay safe, as new ones spawn as soon as old ones die.
- 6 Corses and a Dullahan NM. Corses are a little stronger than the previous Fomors, but still die easy. The Dullahan is weak to Fire and Light, and has some relatively dangerous aoe dark-based and physical moves. After it dies, make sure everybody gathers to the side as to not aggro the next wave.
- 4 parties of three Fomors. These are practically NMs, in that they drop unique gear, can't be slept(?), and will use multiple 1hrs. Fight one party at a time, and focus on a single Fomor at once, or else you can get overwhelmed easily. They will try to SC on you, too.
- Boss wave, Palloritus + a bunch of Fomors (wave 1 strength). Palloritus isn't too crazy if you use Vex, shutting down most of his attacks/statuses. Most of his attacks are dark-based. A little more evasive but not as defensive as the other bosses.
BRASH GATE: Amorphs, which are randomly picked when you check one of 6 pillars.
- Magic damage does great here, especially if you go hit their weaknesses:
Ravaging Acuex: Fire
Unabted Mush: Ice
Jaundiced Slime: Wind
Gangrenous Leech: Thunder
Draery Obdella: Water
- One of the 6 pillars will spawn the next NM in the sequence.
- First wave NM is an Acuex. Weak to ice.
- Second wave NM is a big Slime that splits if you hit it for more than 5k damage. I'm not sure if people have figured out a way to prevent him from doing so, other than whittling him down. Casts Meteor, and his split forms will as well; combined with the hate mechanics, it's not worth making him split unless you can kill the babies immediately.
- Boss is Rancibus; uses Manafont, Water nukes. Weak to Thunder, has lots of Poison crap (including an aura), and a Dispel WS called Noyade.
DUSKBROOD GATE: Elementals
- This zone uses more of the zone instead of a simple arena; spread throughout are groups of the eight elementals + a hybrid. Killing all of a group (ie: all Fire elementals and the Baelfyr in that section) makes the boss unable to absorb that element, and can't use that element's black magic either. The elementals/hybrids do not aggro unless you cast near them.
- Recommended to kill at least the Ice, Light, and Dark elemental groups.
- Further in are groups of hybrids + an NM; killing the hybrids first makes the NM strong. The hybrids aggro by sound and link, but not with the NM. The NMs are true sound 15', so you can sneak/invis and aggro pull them by themselves.
- First NM is an Umbril. Super weak to Fire and Light. Has an aoe Doom move below 25%. He hangs out with some Byrgens and Gefyrsts (Earth/Dark and Ice/Water).
- Second NM is a Pixie. Rather magic resistant, but physical damage works fine. Cycles through the 4 season "Breeze" WSs, and then ends with Norn Arrows (high phys damage 20' aoe). Uses Chainspell at low HP to spam Wind and Light nukes. Hangs with Baelfyrs and Ungeweders (Light/Fire and Thunder/Wind).
- Boss is Putraxia; weak to Ice. Uses a lot of Thunder and Wind stuff. Does Hundred Fists at low HP, and has phantom counters (you'll take damage but there won't be a message). His hands glow at certain points (I think move based) which make him stronger. Seems to be busted by SCs and maybe MBs.
PERFIDIEN & PLOUTON: Based off the final bosses of Adoulin.
- Perf can be spawned after acquiring the KIs from beating the other 3 bosses, and Plouton after Perf. Technically can be spawned anywhere, but everyone does it in Duskbrood cuz it's easiest to manage.
- Essentially share the same qualities, including a weakness to a random element/physical type, regular dark damage attacks, and will warp if anybody dies or the fight goes on too long. Also, nobody can die before they spawn or they won't show.
- Below 90%, they switch to a random element they absorb; if they absorb too much, they level up and use Encumbrance auras, along with dangerous WSs (Plouton does full dispel + Weakness). However, they take bonus damage from the element strong to the one they absorb (ie: if he absorbs Fire, use Water). You get a message when you hit the right element, and they'll do the 1hr whirlwind animation when they change. SCs will heal if they contain the element they're absorbing.
- Light and dark damage (ie: Truelight, Leaden Salute) start to do pitiful damage below a certain threshold, but are fine before. I can't recall if it's 90% or 50%.
- For melee damage, at least for Plouton, nothing special until 50%, where he picks one of the three (Blunt/Piercing/Slashing) as his weakness. The other two do crap damage. There is no penalty for using the wrong physical damage type, however.
