User:LegendarySilke/Sandbox3

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Waters, heed my command!

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High Mercury's Trial: Master is a challenge quest centered on a boss battle with High Mercury, at its most difficult and challenging version.

• Rewards from Master difficulty include , , and , which can be used towards enhancing Water-attuned High Dragon weapons into tier 2, significantly increasing its power against enemies outside of High Brunhilda.
  • The first clear rewards, combined with the guaranteed amount of drops of , will also allow you to immediately enhance one such weapon.

Stat and Equipment Requirements

HP

HP isn't too much of a concern, as all adventurers should be able to withstand the unavoidable damage High Mercury inflicts at the beginning of the fight if they have sufficiently strong equipment, and the fight has no further sources of unavoidable damage.

Weapons

A Void Bane weapon is the bare minimum possible to clear the quest at Master difficulty, but it's strongly suggested to at least craft a Chimeratech weapon, or better yet, craft a MUB HDT1 weapon with materials obtained from High Midgardsormr's Trial: Expert.

Weapon Table

Weapon Category	Sword	Blade	Dagger	Axe	Lance	Bow	Wand	Staff
Void Bane (Strongly not recommended)
Chimeratech Tier 2 (OK performance, not recommended for pubs)
High Dragon Tier 1 (Good performance, minimum acceptable for pubs if MUB)
High Dragon Tier 2 (Better performance, acceptable for pubs)
Agito Tier 1 (Best performance if MUB, acceptable for pubs)

Dragons

Everyone should be ideally be equipped with a max-unbound 5 dragon at a minimum.

• Equipment requirements elsewhere will increase with a 4 dragon.

Adventurers	Dragons
Standard DPS - Most DPS adventurers use these standard DPS dragons. Hawk signficantly prefers Vayu due to his exceedingly high skill damage totals, and most other adventurers prefer Vayu anyway under most circumstances. Ariel can assist with skill uptime or make certain strategies easier to execute, and is practically equivalent to Vayu for Gala Leif, though otherwise she technically is a bit inferior than Vayu for most DPS adventurers. AC-011 Garland can provide extremely high strength as long as the adventurer does not take any damage that disables the shield; as High Mercury's Trial has no unavoidable damage past the opening blast, he can work extremely well, and the divergent shield he provides can cover nearly all sources of chip damage should something happen (though you will lose the strength increase for 15 seconds).
Big Crits Kung Fu Master - Lin You can reach a critical rate high enough for Long Long to pull ahead of most other dragons, and hence Long Long becomes a highly suitable choice for Lin You. Other DPS dragons will still function just as well as they do on other adventurers, though.
Hybrid DPS - These hybrid DPS adventurers want to have as much uptime on their buff/debuff/poison skills as possible, so Ariel is a perfect fit, though other DPS dragons will also work.
Support - These support adventurers have low personal DPS, so prefers having abilities. Freyja grants higher amounts of skill haste, and carries a potent skill that also instantly grants 5 stacks of , instantly energizing all teammates. She is ideal for Tobias, and is required for 4DPS runs without Wedding Elisanne or healing shared skills anyway. Ariel increases damage output especially when in dragon form, and is ideal for Melody, Noelle, and Dragonyule Xainfried if someone else can heal significantly.
Healers - If an healer is to be used, healers will prefer to increase their healing output and buff uptime under most circumstances. Freyja provides the highest amount of , a ability, and carries a strong regen heal with her dragon skill, and is usually the best pick for healers. Garuda provides a higher amount of HP boost compared to Freyja, but provides no skill haste. She is ideal if you need a big heal over faster heals. Ariel provides slightly less skill haste, but grants instead of HP Up. She may be used in place of Freyja if you prefer having slightly more DPS without going off-element, or are playing in public co-op and need to meet might requirements, though your healing output burst/ticks will be lower than Freyja or Garuda. Also has a pretty good dragon form damage should you opt to use it.

Wyrmprints

All adventurers should equip their standard wyrmprints.

Party Roles

DPS/Hybrid DPS

These units will be doing the majority of the DPS, and provide buffs/debuffs if applicable.

Adventurer	Notes
	Extremely high constant damage output, Poison, minor and .
	High overdrive damage, creates buff zones and debuff zones.
	Very high constant damage output with strong , provides mild defensive support with , , and .
	Very high constant damage output with strong , though more awkward to play than Victor. Does not have Bog res.
	High damage output, Poison.
	High damage output, Poison, provides a small , can provide .
	Very high constant damage output, very high critical rates, self-sustain.
	Very high constant damage output, Poison, large (in both magnitude and area) zone.
	Very high damage output if paired with a Poisoner.
	High damage output, Poison, , significant buff effects especially with guaranteed , occasional total affliction relief. Does not have Bog res.
	Extremely high burst damage output, Poison. Does not have Bog res.
	Very high constant damage output, Poison, receptive to buffs.

Support

These units spend most of the time buffing other adventurers.

• Don't bring more than two pure support adventurers in the whole composition.

Adventurer	Notes
	buffer with relatively high personal DPS compared to other options. Also provides access to Poison. Does not have Bog res.
	Ranged buffer. Easier to use than all other choices here, especially to bait ranged attacks.
	buffer. Works best when paired with a Strength buffer. Shapeshifts more frequently than other options, and can take advantage of it with a DPS dragon if desired.
	buffer with access to Poison. More awkward to use than all other choices if wishing to use his poisoning skill, but technically buffs the strongest standalone.

Healer

If desired, the healer keeps the team alive and provides support.

Adventurer	Notes
	Lowen has low personal DPS, but has high healing output, provides Bog relief, and grants some defensive support with both and buffs - these buffs will significantly improve safety by making nearly all of High Mercury's attacks two-shots instead of one-shots, regardless of your current co-ability setup.
	Grace provides a very large which can protect adventurers from being afflicted and blocks knockback while the shield is not completely destroyed. Her buff is much higher, at 100%, but also lasts significantly shorter than Lowen's, making it more suitable for mitigating severe damage.
	If Lowen is a defensive support healer, then Akasha is an offensive support healer. Although she is not an offensive healer in the sense of that is a disguised DPS, she instead has access to Vital GateLv. 1: , which can significantly speed up skill cooldowns on other teammates when used strategically. She will appreciate having access to high amounts of , and pairs especially well with for even more effective SP gain.

General Party Setup

There are two general variations of compositions in High Mercury's Trial - 4DPS and 3DPS.

The three real requirements for general compositions are as follows:

• One of the adventurers in the composition must be able to heal the entire team if desired (to reactivate any HP-based abilities), and to mitigate chip damage. Shared skills and dragon skills are also acceptable.
• One of the adventurers should behave as the close range baiter. Usually, this job falls to the weakest DPS melee role.
• One of the adventurers should behave as the long range baiter. Usually, this job falls to the healer or buffer role.

General Composition
Example 1: most 4DPS compositions are acceptable nowadays with the introduction of shared skills, though someone should try to bait away High Mercury's ranged attacks. This job usually falls to the buffer (in this example, Tobias) in a 4DPS composition.
Example 2: most 3DPS compositions are also acceptable nowadays due to the much higher DPS teams generally have nowadays, and 3DPS compositions also provides a much faster ramp to full HP for abilities requiring it, as well as making the majority of High Mercury's attacks more easily survivable. The healer should try to bait away High Mercury's ranged attacks in a 3DPS composition.
Example 3: the original 4DPS composition. No longer optimal in terms of DPS due to new adventurers and features. Wedding Elisannes provide the bulk of healing, and also significantly decreases High Mercury's defense, while Victor does the bulk of the DPS, with Noelle buffing the rest of the team.

Attacks and Patterns

Tidal Explosion

This is the fight's initial "HP check" blast.

• Any adventurer with , such as , should use defensive skills such as Winds, Protect Us!Lv. 1: to reduce the damage taken, though it is entirely optional.
  • Afterwards, if possible, heal it back up ASAP to restore HP conditional abilities. Winds, Protect Us! at level 3 will provide healing, but one may opt to run other skills to make it go a bit faster.
    • Shared skills can help with further mitigation and/or healing.
• You can't iframe it, however if you are a melee character then you can hold down Force Strike to not get knocked back.
  • Sword-wielding adventurers that aren't can also attempt this sequence of actions: dodge roll towards High Mercury, attack twice, force strike, then attack five times without using a force strike. Due to knockback immunity between the third and fifth attack on the second string of attacks, they will also not be knocked back, and this also improves SP gain.
  • Lance-wielding adventurers can also attack immediately, but make sure that the attack string is ongoing (restart the string if it's about to end at the fifth attack) and do not use a force strike; lances have natural knockback immunity that is strong enough to prevent movement from the opening blast's knockback while within the string of attacks. Alternately, hold a force strike only after the fifth attack has landed.
  • Axe-wielding adventurers should just simply attack immediately without ever breaking the chain or force strike. Axes have natural knockback immunity that is strong enough to prevent movement from the opening blast's knockback.
• Melee DPS adventurers should stand to the upper-left of High Mercury in preparation of the next attack.

"Stomp + Dash + Tail Swipe"

High Mercury will target the closest player to her and do this 3-attack combo. In the Master difficulty, the stomp has a much farther range, though is still as narrow as before. Once she has stomped, the direction of her dash is locked in. After the dash, she will do a wide tail swipe behind her.

• Melee DPS adventurers should stand to the upper-left to bait the stomp, then skill, dodge, or move to High Mercury's side and continue to DPS as she dashes. After the dash is complete, adventurers that aren't baiting distant attacks should move to High Mercury's front, against the wall. This positioning of High Mercury is important, as it makes it easier to move around when the "Tidal Call" attack happens later on.

"Water Shotguns x2"

High Mercury will target the farthest player and fire 2 "Water Shotgun" blasts of several balls of water. These blasts now cover a much wider arc, covering almost a 180-degree angle. The ranged baiter should skill, dodge, or move out of the way.

updated stuff past here