Generation 16 Tips - Let not light see my black and deep desires

The last of the Shakespearian story-arcs, this supposedly revolves around "Macbeth" but has almost nothing to do with the original prose. Pity I was hoping they'd include "Titus" but I guess that was too much? The difficulty ramps up a fair bit here, forcing you to fight numerous Peaca spawn in big numbers so it pays to have a bunch of highlevel buddies by now. Like before your decisions will affect the ending.

The Witching Hour (solo)
Scathach beach and cave are full of really high level monsters, fortunately you don't need to fight any! Just mount up (I assume you have one by now) and ride past till you reach the shipwreck.

Death of Someone Important (solo as William)
Huzzah, you get to finally meet King Ethan MacQuill II for all of 1.2 seconds! Firstly you need to deal with Morrighan and her cronies though. Given your character has Rank 1 in everything now you shouldn't find any problem beating the mobs here. Just follow the mission prompts.

Assassin (solo)
You will face three fleet footed elven assassins here (damn you Castanea) all of whom have heavy stander and aggro far, pretty much at the start of the mission. One of them comes with a bow, and all of them will ignore the NPC you are supposedly protecting in favor of killing you first! Trans/demi early and mana shield up in case they land hard hits on you. If you have time you can summon Adniel but if you are prepared for them you should be ok with standard god skills - if aligned with Morrighan use Wings of Eclipse first to take more hits, if you've reverted back to Neamhain use Shadow Spirit on yourself to hit all of them followed up with fury of light and spear of light.

Even Ezio would be caned with your demi-god skills!

From Beyond (solo as William)
Been awhile since you've visited this place, and there's a new grave for you to see. A group of undead Peaca scum will ambush you here so again be ready to fight and thunder as needed. The hollow knights are dual wielding swords which actually makes them -less- dangerous since they have no bows but treat everything here with caution.

Necessities (solo as William)
You'll face Golems, Aonbharrs (careful of the cheating floating stones), and Balrogs in this mission. First two groups are easily enough dispatched with thunder while the Balrogs (gargoyle AI) will probably not live long against your smash-mill - even if you are using a pickaxe at this point. Once they're dead it will start to rain so dig those firey rocks and complete the mission.

Truth Helm (solo as William)
After killing -all- that other stuff 10 stupid alchemists stand in your way. Really? If you need help here you're doing something wrong. :P

Secret Meeting (bring high level help)
A very tough mission so you'd best bring a strong team. Ironically it is easier if you (party leader) remains talking to the NPCs at the top of the watch tower until your friends kill the three, rather large waves of Peaca monsters pouring into the grounds below. If you decide to join them then Andras, Odran, Padan, and Sinead will join the combat but should any of them die the mission will fail. Prep potions before attempting this and keep your mana shield on. Also avoid using normal attacks (almost everything has stander) and try stagger your trans/demi (don't do them at the same time) to match with what your allies are doing so that you don't all use up the extra power during the first wave - although with a strong team you'll probably finish this mission with both still active. Should you keep disconnecting then you may need to run the mission with fewer people. Also if it is still too tough find someone of a lower level to be party lead. Rare to find anyone on INT or below at this stage though.

The Third Guardian (solo)
Another visit through Rundal with not much new in terms of enemies, unless you are on hard mode in which case there may be some over powered red spiders and skeleton wolves in here for you. They won't be any smarter though so just fight as normal and prepare to counter or windmill as needed. Don't underestimate the boss - infact it is probably safer to over-kill her and trans/demi as your opening move. Shakespeare will try help here, just use him as bait. Most of Merrow's strongest attacks are evadable if you aren't busy using long animated combat moves like smash or windmill (you can't knock her down anyway) - she has a forward wave attack and an area attack that illuminates itself with giant circles which you should stay out of. Harder to evade her smash and counter though. Demi-god skills are probably the best way to eliminate her quickly.

Blood and Death (bring high level help)
You'll have a big NPC army to help you out here but what you most need is a full party. One of them (the oldest one creation wise) is going to be Shakespeare with R1 everything and will help in making things go smoothly. You must fight through tons of Peaca scum to reach the castle and a few more within, and the party leader must survive both boss fights (first against a lich and then against obvious main baddie) for the mission to be completed. Easiest way to do this is for him or her to hang back and let his faithful party members do the majority of killing at those points (stay out of the throne room and do not "rest"). Apart from the things you've already faced now there are these as well (all multiaggro at this stage):

Giant Firefly - With melee immunity, good defense against magic and range and a huge deadly windmill radius, you'll want to campfire magnum shot these things from far far away.

Demilich - may be hard to lure him away from his buddies but given that he teleports you may be able to isolate him. He will have lots of HP and can chain cast advanced magic (obviously). Probably better to use demi-god skills on him to end him quickly, team ganking windmill (he can/will teleport behind you) is probably the way to go.

Ghasts - summoned by the main boss they cannot be knocked down, have a ton of HP behind very high defense and do major damage. Group windmill to keep them busy. Actually you may just want to group windmill everything in the final room anyway as there's not much room to do anything trickier. :P

Main Boss - has a number of advanced skill too such as final hit, life drain and assault slash. Party windmill spam him against a wall to keep him off his feet, and his summoned Ghasts in check. Only Admiral Owen will be assisting at this point and if he dies it is game over. 

Generation 12 Tips (Part Two) - Fighting in Falias

Having taken care of those pesky alchemists once and for all in the previous section, it's not time to deal with the more powerful forces at work.

A Goddess Remembers being in Danger (solo as Morrighan then solo)
The first part is a very fun mission and a good introduction to Morrighan's god skills which you will be using later. Try to always keep Wings of Eclipse active and use your Wings of Rage from a far distance (they'll move into range if they notice you) on the Daols to avoid multi-aggro. Your first hit won't kill them though, so be ready with a Silent Move (you won't be getting this :P) hot-key to evade their attacks. Don't worry too much if you fail as you lose nothing to try again.

The second quest though can be quite challenging. You need to destroy a number of arches in Falias and they are guarded by Aonbharrs - winged wolves that have heavy stander, instinctive reaction and really high protection and HP. You may want to make use of the Brionac to deal with them and certainly trans when taking them on. Dragon support is also available to wipe out one group. Beware too of the floating stones as like Cerberus they cannot be targetted, but these ones fire Thunder and Fireball (adv magic) so steer clear!

Collecting in the Connous Underground (fastest solo)
Gathering stuff for the Ark of Falias is pretty straight forward - you would have encountered treasure chests in the Solea caves already if you had run to Vales (see second post), so it's just the Connous Underground that may be new to you. To get in, use an advanced L-rod (the digging version, humans need to ally with either the elves or giants to get one - though a normal one may work too) and find spots on the great desert outside Filia, preferably in sand storm regions. Eventually you'll dig up a cloud and a warning message. Wander into the cloud and you should fall in. Shouldn't need to fight any of the denizens in here (especially the Ifrit if he's awake) so just explore till you find some chests. To exit, just keep making your way to the center of the map and run up the stairs - or goddess wing out, or continent warp.

Golden Apple (best bring full party)
While there's nothing you haven't fought before here, most of the baddies are on their strongest variation and will spawn in big clusters so unless you like the idea of fighting 8 shadow ghosts alone you'd better bring a full team. The boss room especially has super powered boars and deers that must die in the offering circle to complete the mission. Don't be like me and windmill stuff out of the circle or it prolongs the difficult combat and annoys your helpers! :P

Final Chapter (solo)
It's end game time so prep well before entering this mission which comes in four parts:

Part I - Repair the stuff you Broke
Use Shock (without Brionac equipped) and touch the lithograph in the middle to figure out which one you need to fix. Fragments dropped from Aonbharrs will reassemble them. Again look out for the floating stones with advanced magic. Use everything you've got to stay alive.

Part II - The Feather is Mightier than the Sword
Not really, main boss will be throwing all sorts of crap at you and you need to run like mad to evade. When he begins his "light sword attack" you are supposed to use Morrighan's feather on him at close range. He only does this when he is airborne. If he lands, he is only doing it to smash you with his fist so steer clear.

After Part II, it's time to be like Neo.

Part III - Not Running This Time
Woo, now you've got perma demi for the rest of the mission as well as Morrighan's powers. Try to keep Wings of Eclipse active on top of your mana shield and avoid the main guy while you take down his minions. Like before, the Daols can be bad news but the area is big enough to lure one using a long bow. As long as you maintain single-aggro and avoid their light spears you should be able to take these guys down easily enough. Run away if Wings of Eclipse is turned off and keep evading till you have it reactivated.

Part IV - Attrition is Fun
Morrighan will help you face the main baddie and should she die it is game over. She's quite tough but don't draw out the battle for too long because she will lose eventually. As you may have noticed your adversary has a lot of deadly attacks when flying so the trick is to keep him grounded by hitting him with Wings of Rage the same time Morrighan does. When he's on the floor Brionac his face using any move (other than Windmill since he usually resumes flight if you do that) as much as you can. He can hit hard and do a shockwave attack while walking but your Wings of Eclipse and Mana Shield should be able to take the blows. Repeat until you are victorious.

Treasure Hunting
Now that you've won you can jump back to Falias at anytime by using the Brionac with either shock or demi-god to open a portal. You'll also require a falias fragment each time you do this which is only obtainable through Keith's Part Time Job in Tara Bank. I suggest doing it after a server reboot to give yourself better odds. Back in Falias you can change your god-powers back to Neamhain's if you so choose and you can try recover some of those artifacts you had brought. This involves defending an area against waves of Aonbharr but since I again haven't done it myself I'll have to write about it another time. :)

Generation 12 Tips (Part One) - Last of the Alchemists

Welcome to my quick tips for G12! This guide assumes you've read my previous classes and have certainly fought through the nightmare of the previous story arc. In comparison, this one isn't so bad but can still be tough in a few spots. Let's just quickly run through the combat bits:

Investigate the Homunculus Experiment (solo)
Nothing new for you here - you've been in tougher spots. It's a city mission too, which means you can call for dragon support or make use of the space for ranged attacks.

Don't worry, it's not these guys.

Alchemy Society (fastest solo)
Another outdoors mission with plenty of room to move. Other than the old shadow army guys you'll also find some arat boars (pig ai) and arat deers (shadow shire ai) that aggro pretty quick when you are close. The deer is more dangerous than the piggy but seriously if you are getting killed by Bambi then you should go back to combat practice with Ranald.

Secret Lair (solo)
A revisit to Peaca that is only scary if you are on Hard mode (over 1000 total level). The monsters spawn alone or in pairs and are pathetic shadows of their true selves. On Hard - they ARE their true selves so prep accordingly! :P

Jarlath the Hutt (solo)
Your main objective is to reach the top left castle room on the map. Bring an l-rod to detect the ice mines in your way though. Also there are 3-4 patrolling blinkers all of whom can be avoided by going through the central dining room.

Three Times into the Underground Waterway (solo w/ Leymore, then solo twice)
Again nothing too terrible here and no spiders to eviscerate your friend. Take down those baddies quick regardless though. On your return visit you want to prioritise the alchemists as they can keep summoning golems. God mode and/or Trans as needed. Your third run (Path of the Gods) through the same damned thing will be boring as there are even less monsters spawning, which kinda makes sense since you keep clearing the place out.

Goddess of Light (solo)
You'll meet new bastards here called Daols - like you they are demi-gods. They multi-aggro far and fast, have instinctive reaction (don't open with smash), can see hidden, have high HPs and can use spear of light at will. Even if you think you can take them you won't have the time to (15 mins) so as soon as it begins run to Navin (Neamhain) - you may need to use pets to distract or to move faster.

Coat of Arms (fastest solo)
City mission where you need to collect 6 pieces from 6 separate spawns. Shouldn't be problematic for you now since once again you have space and dragon support on top of everything else. Afterwards you get to run Temple Knights Rundal again, this time with Jenna (who is near immortal) which should make for a relaxing dungeon.

All Out Attack (solo)
The last stand of the alchemists, you'll have so many NPC allies here. If 5 unnamed or 1 named friendly dies you fail, fortunately the enemies are just alchemists (and optional spiders) so it shouldn't be that bad especially if none of them are targetting you! :P Just back-smash them all or final hit or god mode - don't use the dragon though as you'll undoubtedly hit and kill friendlies.

Spoiler! He's not the last of the alchemists either! :P