Vana'diel Bestiary: Miser Murphy  

There's no way this guy's 62. PLD/NIN should be able to solo him without an issue but it's almost magical how when shadows go down and there's a few seconds before one of them comes back up he robs you of almost 900HP. It seems to do this Off-beat Blood Weapon almost randomly and I've been beaten down twice by it. The AOE magic doesn't bother me, the Paralyze doesn't bother me, the blind doesn't bother me but that's a BS HP Absorb ability and he shouldn't be marked as Level 62. Granted he has poor HP himself, but if he can absorb 1/8th of his health off you every 5-10 attacks, but I'd believe more along the lines of Level 70.

No problems for 2 Bst setup.

75 Bst/Nin (me) and 69 Bst/Whm
Both using Courier Carrie jugs.
Snarl makes a lot of NM fights easy with jugs.

To my surprise he went down pretty quick.

I buff up then pull it to the zone and let it stay there. I zone out buff up then zone in and nuke it with cure 3 and 4. I did it over, over, and over then it die. When I am out of MP I convert or rest up. Within around 15-30 minutes it die.

This is too easy, no fun at all. I think all of the AF is easy to get but why does people got to make it so hard? I guess we got too much noobs playing this game... I encounter people who scare of death that he will never do lvl cap.

I personally think any whm lvl 50 or rdm lvl 50 or blm lvl 50 can solo this. All you got to do is using my plan to fight it and you will win.

ok.. so you wana go kill Miser huh?
if you dont know for sure you can kill it dont f**kin spawn it !!!!
this is why.....

i solo alot as DRG/WHM so im in Fei'yin doing a quest, only killing shadows for a drop, so i get my drop and decide to have little look around, then comes this.....

some idiot spawned Miser, died, so Miser is free roaming around Fei'yin, i run round a corner right into him, needless to say i didnt last long, heres an idea of what happened.

Miser Murphy starts casting Choke
Antonaki uses Jump
Miser Murphy hits Antonaki for 54 damage...additional effect 474 hp drained
Antonaki uses Penta Thrust
Miser Murphy hits Antonaki for 38 damage...additional effect 504 hp drained
Antonaki falls to the floor in a battered heap

Now no matter what people say about DRGs i can solo very well when i know what im facing, when you run blindly into something like this you are screwed. So a message to all you "I R 1337" RDMs dont try and solo or duo or anything unless you are gona kill it.... Thanks

I am rdm 62 same lvl as him... I plan to duo it with my taru blm lvl 55 friend. The trick to win on most of NM fight I been in is get a Stunner. I will go as rdm/nin and use Spirit Within alot and blm taru will just going to cast Stun when it use any magic. If I ever duo him, I will post the battle plan to help people out on fighting him.

Just did this with 75 BLM/WHM 75 WHM/BLM and 60 RDM/BLM (me) i kept him enfeebled and graved and the blm blasted him 2 hell and kited while whm cured us and occationlly Miser :P this mob is a weak mo fo just keep him moveing

Edited, Nov 6th 2006 at 11:26am PST by EmrisirmE

This post is half story half guide.

Ok, now just so you know, this NM is for Red Mage Artifact hat quest. He drops a coin which you need to advance in the quest. He is also a very nasty NM. He is level 60 and can take out lvl 75's unless they are a good soloing job and have shadows, and even then I've heard of people dieing from this NM.

He is a Ghost mob, and doesn't do anything too drastic at first glance; despite some Ga II spells and Ancient Magic. His main weapon is an additional effect that occassionally happens when he hits you, which can do up to 600 hp drain. Needless to day, if one of those additional effects gets you...you might be in for some problems.

Miser Murphy is located in Fei'Yin and spawns in the center room with the fountain as soon as you enter the zone. He is soloable at about lvl 58-59 by Red Mages. Other jobs would need to be lvl 74-75 and be a very good soloing job with shadows.

-For soloing this mob I recommend being at least lvl 59 (which is the lvl I was when I solo'd him) with your Enfeebling and Elemental Magic Capped.
I recommend subbing Black Mage for the added mp, int, Clear Mind, Elemental Seal, and blm Enfeeble Spells (Burn, etc.).
-The more mp you have, the better. As a Taru I already had plently of mp which made the fight much easier. I didn't need any food for the battle but other races may want to use some MP + food. Poison Potions can be very useful useful to combat sleep spells. Also if you are an Elvaan or Galka and need some extra int, Melon Pie +1 is a good choice. However, Rollenberry Pie also has it's advatanges of +mp.
-For your gear you should have all of the Elemental Staves. If you can't afford those at least get a good +1 wand. You should also have all of the AF armor thus far and some good int+ gear (mnd won't be so important in this battle).

The key to killing Miser Murphy is utilizing DoT spells and Gravity. I'm going to tell how my battle went with Miser and give some tips throughout my tale.

I got right to the entrance of Fei'Yin towards the end of Lightningsday (Lightsday follows Lightingsday, and Lightsday is the best day for fighting Miser). I put up Refresh, Protect III and Shell III then rested till full. After that I entered Fei'Yin and applied Aquaveil (to be safe), Blink, Stoneskin, and Phalanx and applied Refresh again when it ran out.
I was ready at this point and headed to the center room. By the time I was there, my mp was almost full and it was almost Lightsday. I saw Miser sitting there and did Elemental Seal>> Gravity on him and ran. I then kept up a slow process of staying out of casting distance and waiting till aggro was lost before casting Gravity again and continued to pull him to the zone.

After a while we finally got there and I zoned. I recast refresh and Blink and zoned back in to cast Poison II on Miser then zone again. Then I zoned back in again to cast Dia II on Miser and zoned out. And finally entered once more to end the first cycle of DoT's with Burn and then zoned back out and rested for one tick.

It is a rinse and repeat process. Poison II - zone, Dia II - zone, Burn - zone. Recast Blink and Refresh outside of zone when necessary as you will always want these spells up, just in case. Also, rest for 1-2 ticks where needed.
Occasionally he may cast Drown, Poison, Bio, etc. DoT spells on you in which case it is a good idea to put up Stoneskin and either Regen or Cure when needed.

I never rested for more than 2 ticks, and usually I would only rest for one. Just equip your Dark Staff when you rest and you'll be fine. If you wait for too long, the DoT's could all wear off and then Miser would start rapidly gaining his health back.

Miser can land a few big spells on you every once in a while. He hit me with Thundga II when I zoned and almost hit me with Water III another time while I was zoning. All you can do is shake it off and keep going if this happens.

I made sure to use my Elemental Staves when casting my DoT's. Wind Staff for Gravity, Fire Staff for Burn, Water Staff for Poison II etc. It is very important that the DoT's don't get resisted and the Elemental Staves will help greatly.
As for the DoT's Poison II is your big damage dealer on Miser. Burn is also quite effective whereas Dia II is probably the weakest DoT of the three.

After I had worn Miser down to very low health, I got ready for the last stretch. The best way to kill Miser is on a nuke spell because if he dies while outside of the zone, you get nothing. If he dies from a DoT spell and you didn't have claim on him when he died, you'll get nothing.

So when I noticed that Miser was on his last leg, I zoned out, cast Blink, Stoneskin, Phalanx, and Refresh and entered the zone. As soon as I entered I used Elemental Seal and Cast Gravity on Miser. He immediately began casting Tornado on me. I ran and wasn't fast enough in getting away, but luckily my shadows absorbed the spell. I made sure I had my Light Staff Equipped and nuked a Cure IV on Miser. Bam...he was dead. Got the item I needed for the quest and felt pretty d**n good.

As any race other than taru, resting for mp is even more important than it was for me. It is possible to med one tick in between every single DoT. However, doing it this way will likely take a very long time. It is a long fight as is without resting with every DoT. About 30-40 minutes.

Speed is essential. Macro everything in! If you are slow and he gets one good hit, that could be the end for you.

Another big danger about fighting Miser is that he can cast Sleep, Sleepga, Sleep II, and Sleepga II. If any of these spells are cast on you as you are zoning, you could end up sleeping outside of the zone for 5 minutes while all of the DoT's have worn off, and Miser has gotten all of his health back. Which is why it is a good idea to go on Lightsday and also bring along Poison Potions to Poison yourself with.
Personally I didn't use Poison Potions but I can definitely see the use for them. If you are asleep outside of the zone and have Poison and Stoneskin on, all you have to do is remove Stoneskin and you will wake up. I found that through most of the fight, Miser had some sort of DoT on me anyways so it wasn't a problem. Also he never attempted to cast any kind of Sleep related spell on me.

All in all I thought the fight was fairly simple. It was an easy pattern to follow and I knew my gameplan.

Edited, Oct 27th 2006 at 11:16am PDT by Alatela

Btw, imo any rdm that can't solo this nm at lvl 59 and has to recruit higher lvl help shouldn't be playing as rdm. That is just lazy. I realize that some people just suck at the job and would die over and over again, but still...at least try it and don't just get a bunch of 75's to do it for you.

Most rdm's I've seen shouting for help on this NM in Jeuno I've sent /tell's to them saying that they can solo him, and I gave them a link to mine and a few other posts. They usually don't respond and keep /shouting for help lol.

It is very easy to solo this nm, so there is no excuse for getting others to do it for you. Also, it's a nice achievement and good practice ^^. Much more fun and gratifying than getting others to do it for you.

Edited, Dec 26th 2006 2:36am by Alatela

Once I hit 58 rdm I plan on soloing Miser Murphy. Using the dot meathod but not so sure this will work. I have alot of people doubting me and a few thinking I can. Any advice on this?

1. Blink+Stoneskin
2. Gravity (Enfeebling Magic: 256)
Thunder IV each time it's up, reapply gravity as it wears. Aspir has no effect. Bio II and zone when out of mp. Rest some, rebuff as required, finish (Miser Murphy was waiting)
794mp in nuking gear. Hume.

Very easy.

had an unlucky fight with this guy. 60 rdm, 70 rdm 75 wwar/nin. our 60 rdm was a noob and kept aggroing things by resting, i couldn't sleep them all then war died and wipe.. we HP and left the 60 noob

I have been getting a bit bored of FFXI lately so I decided to start lvling RDM again - and decided to solo Miser Murphy as BRD/NIN 75.

That was a hell of a fun fight - March + Mambo in full evasion setup (Raven gear, Gebu Shield, Melody Earrings). If he just melee'd, I'd never have been hit, the shadows were lasting well. But damn, he likes to spam the ga's sometimes. The ga's themselves werent the issue, its the fact that it leaves you prone to the hits.

Sleepga is an absolute killer solo, because it means you WILL cop one hit, atleast. I got drained 4 times over the fight, and went into holding mode - kiting around with paeon until my hp are full again, pretty much.

Little bit of luck, fun fight.

So....

Me (65 bst) and buddy (75 thief) are chilling in Jeuno trying to get a teleport to hit up the range. No whms are tele so we hook up with this 60 rdm shouting for af help in Fei'yin.

We end up there with 65 bst, 75 thief, 72 thief, 71 bst, 60 rdm...so pretty good. The 72 thief and 60 rdm need the coin from the nm and the 72 thief is jp but no one tells us she needs a coin too.

We pop the nm and kill it, coin drops, lot, the 60 rdm gets it. Everyone leaves because we don't know the jp needs it too. I leave party and go chest hunting thinking everything is cool.

Walk back into the fountain room and I see miser floating around staring at me...i'm like wtf. /tell the 60 rdm asking if she spawned it again and only then discover the 72 thief is trying to kill it. I /tell the thief and we opt to give it a whirl.

Big mistake.

In the first 2 seconds miser somehow puts the thief down to 400 hp. 10 seconds later shes dead and im running around Fei'yin with this thing breathing down my neck throwing every bat I can find at it. I panic and get lost...don't have map...so i'm praying I can get enough distance for miser to lose my scent.

After about 5 minutes of feeding a good part of Fei'yin's bat population to it, he finally loses my scent and I head back to raise the thief.

Ok...this time the kiddie gloves come off. Buff, stoneskin, blink, reraise and have my bearings so the plan is to hit up the basement and feed underworld bats too it (con ep at 65).

I tell the thief to keep her distance and go at it. 2 hour a fungar and it lasts a decent bit..about a minute...call another, same deal. The jugs take off about 2% of miser's hp...

I start throwing underworlds at it and it becomes pretty clear this isn't going to go well. Underworlds do hardly anything, and miser's regening hp too fast between pet swaps.

The thief and I decide it would be prudent to get some backup...

So she gets out of there and I'm running around again with this thing chasing me. lol...I stopped to open a chest...that didn't help...
Anyway, I zone into the BC circle, wait for things to cool down a bit, and head back out.

Get to the fountain room, and who do I see again floating around? Mr. Miser...

I'm looking at it, thinking about fighting it again...when a 75 thief/nin comes along and pulls it...

Miser takes about 25% of the thiefs hp in about 5 seconds and before long the guy has to 2hour to keep alive. He takes off about 25% of misers hp but the thief is down to 50%...switches out to a warp crudgel offhand to try to punch out. Dosen't get the chance though, before the 30 seconds for warp is ready Miser pulls off a freeze that one shot kills the thief...

Ok the hell, Here's my story on this jerk.
BST 61/THF 30 at the time...

Just now i show up in Fei'Yin to get some alchemy shards. I'm killing a pot at the fountain when this f-er pops and agros me! First i think its ghost agro even though they're TW, but then i notice the name. Kowing this is the RDM NM i /shout "Who's AF NM is this! Get it off me!"

Then i notice my HP crashing like prices of whatever i ever try to make money on with AH (am i right?). Anyway. I have no choice but to put my jug pet on it to get it off me. As i run for my life i see the party, but theyre Sneak-ing up. the hell? then i realize my jug pet died already! so i call out another and sic it on him just in time to catch a sleep. Great... My usual plan would be to /logout before my pet dies, but i'm asleep and my pet is already half dead. By the time i wake up from a TP attack, and try to logout, its too late, pet's dead. I catch poison 2 to my already sh*tty HP and have to Flee the hell out. Outside zone poison wore off one tick to death.

I dont know if its suposed to pop that way, a mile away from the party, and agro anyone in range, but that was BS for the following reasons:

#1 that damn PT didnt claim their monster even as i sat there taking it without claiming.

#2 instead of wake me up, they casted sneak on themselves...

#3 WTF?!?!?

If you're gona go kill this NM get your act together and make sure to not let it agro and kill random passers by.... I may be way wrong with my assumptions on how this NM works, but im too pissed to read up on it at the moent and im sure you can't blame me.

Went in with a pt of 68mnk/war, 73rdm/blm, 61pld/war, 60rdm/whm. I was the 73 RDM and figured I would sub blm to chainspell + escape if something went awry. We got him down to about 1/4-1/3 of his life, then he hit us with a sleepga that caught everyone (the rdm/whm was too close). The MNK woke up after being hit and was taken down by a few shots and the spammed drain thing (maybe called terror touch). I was next up on his list so when I woke up I cured the pld and the rdm/whm. The paladin voked it off me so that I could convert as I had used a lot of mp healing and buffing. I converted and cure IV'd myself twice. Then it happened...

He opened up a can of kick azz on me... He was spamming drain on me while casting ancient magic. Everyone was healing me, including myself (spamming cure IV and cure III alternately) and we just couldn't keep up. I was curing so much I couldn't kick off my 2 hour. Then the AM hit me for 600 and the next drain and couple of hits finished me off. Others went quickly after that. When I checked him right before I died he had drained enough hp from me to fill himself back up to full ><

Maybe it was just a tough one for whatever reason, but I'll definately show him more respect in the future. I'll also sub nin next time for sure!

Edited, Wed Oct 19 14:44:13 2005

So my rdm buddy just got 60 today and I wanted to help him get his hat till I looked this puppy up, everyone said its so hard but we went in as my 74brd/37nin and his 60 rdm, and I barely got hit once, except after a BlizzagaII which dropped me to 400 HP, but other then that is was easy. Now to go duo that Guardian Doll....

Just tore through us twice. Pty was 73 pld 64 thf 60 rdm <me> 58 rdm 61 whm 59 war. This guy drain touched our pld for about 250-350 a pop and would do it as many as 3 times back to back. After our pld deleved to 72 and then died again he said peace out. Sorry Aeoea >.> I think the smart thing to do is have a puller bring him to entrance and have pty fight him there. If he gets out of hand zone then come back and have another go at him. A nin tank would be nice to...in fact while were at it Id like say 4 75 blms casting ancient magic. Then I might feel safe.

We were in Fei'yin doing 5-1 and this SoB pops and aggroed me, i absorbed attack then a MNK with us chi blasted him next thing i see is the MNK hp drop 50% in 1 hit for like 200+ 450 drain is there any possible way to kill this w.o utsusemi?

i dont believe this guy is 62, he took an alliance with a hand full of 70's to take him down last time i helped my friend do it and we had 2 deaths, yet our LS took down Eastern Shadow who is supposed to be 63 with a lv70 sam and a 56whm with no problem at all.

Me (Gideun) and my brother (hyndrosa) Duo'd this little ghost and we are both RDM 75 I was rdm/drk and my bro was rdm/smn....

I will agree Smn will do Miser Murphy to test there limits and for excitment and fun..

the fight was quick but dont under estimate ths dude! he cast shizz load of spells

I had bad luck with him. The 75 WHM and 75 THF/NIN who were helping me along with my 61 PLD boyfriend werent' with us yet (they arrived maybe 2 minutes later) and he killed us both ... I feel kinda dumb about that :P But he spammed AM on us (Tornado X2 on PLD and Burst) and drained 410+ each time he hit. Killed me in two hits >_> But the THF showed up and soloed him - but I counted 6 AM spells absorbed by her shadows. I always heard he was super easy - did he get altered in a patch? Maybe we just had bad luck :P

Okay, was Miser Murphy changed in one of the updates? I recall just bulldozing over this guy with party of 60+ when I got my hat like 5 months ago. Now, I'm coming back and he is taking down 75 paladins in 3-4 hits. He took me down in 2 hits. (Not only is he killing so fast, he getting 400+ hp per hit back) So, now I've come to the simple conclusion this guy HAS to be blink tanked. How come I didnt even know this before is because I think he was changed with the drain additional effect (or changed to happen a lot more often).

How did your 75 pld friend tank it? I know he doesn't do the drain effect every hit, but he only needs to do it a couple times to change the entire pace of the fight.

Its is possible to solo this NM when you are 58+ RDM - the Tabard is very good for this. ^^
Simply put, you keep blink, refresh and shell 3 up at all times, and run the mob to the zone. You then run in and out of the zone casting DoT spells (use Poison 2, Burn, and Dia2). Use only one spell each time you zone in, and rest for one tick between casting Dia 2 and poison2.
It takes around 45 mins to solo as long as you don't rest too long for it to regain HP back.

That's it in a nutshell, theres a much more comprehensive guide on the RDM forum.

The first time I went up against this guy, it was as a LS event to get the coin for several RDMs that needed it. I wasn't anywhere near the level for the hat, but I decided to tag along, just in case I could get a coin anyway. We had a full alliance of 12 people, most at 60, and a few above 70.

That was probably our downfall. Everyone mobbed Miser trying to kill him quickly, and he started spamming AoE drains. With that many melee folk surrounding him, he would recharge back up to full health over and over again. Add some unforutnate agro from nearby mobs, and we had ourselves a mostly dead alliance and no kill.

The second time I encountered Murphy was by accident. My static (all at 61) was en route to the Cloister of Ice to fight Shiva. We randomly ran into Murphy near the zone and my static was like, "Ooh! Let's fight it and get your hat!" Party was a nice balanced : MNK, NIN, THF, RDM, BLM, WHM. We killed him very quickly and neatly with no trouble.

Moral of the story : sometimes less is more, especially when fighting a monster that spams AoE drains! (I'm sure many of you have seen similar mass deaths in Qufim when someone calls for help for a wight, only to have it surrounded by over-eager fighters who quickly give it the HP it needs.)

Gaudium - RDM71, Rank 9 Windurst

How weird. PT of 6 tore him apart last night with Rdm tanking. I think the pt was 62/60/70/56 Rdm and then 60ish Drk and a 60ish War. I got in one Spirit's Within hit for 345 before he went down, though that might have been the secret- pt of rdms with 300% TP doing Spirit's all with Stoneskin and Phalanx up ^_^;;

This thing is incredible. I was farming there after helping someone with an AF. I see Miser Murphy, so I figure I'd see what he's made of. 72BST/36WHM. Call jug Courier Carrie(roughly 5000 HPs). Pet attack. Carrie's hitting him for roughly 60. Miser Murphy's hitting Carrie for around 50. So I join in. I'm hitting it for 30 or so.

Miser Murphy spams Ancient Magic like it's going out of style. Surprisingly Tornado has a 1 second cast time. I reward Carrie with pet food. Carrie is down to 50%. Miser Murphy is down to about 60%. Then things go bad. Within 5 seconds, Carrie is almost dead and Miser Murphy is back up to 80% HP. He turns to me, hits me twice, casts Ancient Magic and before I can figure out what's going on, I'm taking a dirt nap.

I scroll back to the logs. He hit me for 40 dmg, but the additional effect did 400+. Then of course the 1-sec Ancient Magic finished me off.

This is one tough SOB. You definitely need a NIN tank.