Red Mage Maat Fight - 1/8

*Keep in mind this is just merely a guide that worked for me. Each RDM may find their own way that works and I wish them the best of luck!*

Tips:

• First off before you go in make sure you have at least Enfeebling capped. I'd highly recommend also capping Dark, Elemental, and Enhancing as well but thats up to you. In this fight you'll need all the help you can get.
• I suggest going in at 70 since once again you need all the help you can get from your magic skills.
  
• Setup your macros and practice them before going in. My first mistake on the first fight was never practicing them. I went in and freaked out and couldn't figure out where any of them were at. Also make sure to check that you did them correctly xD. 2nd mistake was I forgot to check and my Sleep II macro didn't work.
• I recommend practicing on the Ruby Quadav. Now keep in mind the fight with him and the fight with Maat will be entirely different in some ways. You're expected to silence Ruby, where you can't with Maat. Theres also no time limit and you can use a sub job. But nonetheless its a chance to practice and understand the sleep/nuke method. It also helps to learn your timing in spells. Basically all your doing is going in, putting on Stoneskin, Blink, Phalanx, and Refresh. Then you cast on Ruby Quadav, and run near the zone because more than likely you'll link the other 2 in that area. If so just sleep Ruby near the zone and then run through. When you go back, he'll be there and the others will either go back to the area they were in or will have disappeared. Either way as long as you keep Ruby in the hallway your safe from aggro. Now you silence him, bind him, paralyze, nuke, and sleep. And just repeat that process over and over. Once you get the hang of it you'll finally be able to understand the sleep / nuke method. And best part about practicing on Ruby is that you get a chance of a Testimony dropping!
• When going to fight Maat you have a choice between 2 days that will benefit you the most during your fight. Now you can go any day you want, and I know some who have and won. But going on Darksday or Windsday can improve your chances a little. Darksday will effect your sleeps more, giving you a better chance of having them not resisted. Windsday will improve your Nukes and Gravity more. I won on a Windsday.
• If you have sky access, have a 75 friend (THF helps) go up there to kill Sprinklers for you. They practly hand you testimonies.
  

Macros:
These are the macros I went with that worked for me best.
Light Staff Macro, Wind Staff Macro, Dispel, Bind, Paralyze, Aero 3, Slow, Stoneskin, Sleep, Sleep II

Stone Staff Macro, Blink, Chainspell, Convert, Dark Staff, and Gravity

Each the spells above I made sure had a staff to go with them. And I made seperate staff macros so I could switch out to rest or cure myself.

Items:
Now the items you choose to use are up to you. I tried various items each of my fights and had some amount of success with each. For the most part I used Melon Pies +1, but I also tried out Apple Pies +1, and a Cream Puff. Both worked well for me. I also tried out various potions. Each worked but problem I had with ones like Hi-Elixirs where that they take too long to use. In the time your waiting for it to work, Maat could wake up and hit you. So in the end I went with an Vile Elixir +1. Its 30k on my server, but it was well worth it. Also Intelligence Potions are handy and relatively cheap. Yagudo Drinks are useful, but keep in mind they don't stack with your Refresh spell and only last a minute.

Equipment:
Ice Staff, Wind Staff, Earth Staff, Light Staff, Dark Staff (Using HQ Staves can help especially the Wind and Ice)
Raptor Leather Strap +1
Phantom Tathlum
Warlock's Chapeau
Enfeebling Torque
Moldavite Earring
Phantom Earring
Warlock's Tabard
Cobra Unit Cuffs
Genius Ring
Hale Ring
Red Cape +1
Penitent's Rope
Warlock's Tights
River Gaiters

How to beat up an evil old man:

Now first I want to say before you start this fight, don't worry if you lose. If you do, that doesn't make you a bad RDM. It took me 8 attempts before I finally won. And out of those fights 4 of them he killed me so fast that I didn't even have time to blink. As I said before, practice with your macros and try and go in as calm as possible. Also, tell your LS buds and all your friends your doing this, just because their support will help during the fight. If it wasn't for my friends I'd given up on the fight after the 5th death. I had good friend's that backed me up and kept me cheered up and gave me a reason to keep going and trying.

Now, before going into the actually area of the fight you can go ahead and eat your food. All other buffs will disappear when you trade your testimony, but your food wont. As soon as you go in, run up to the edge where you can see him buff. He wont attack you or aggro so your safe to stand and buff near him. While watching him, cast refresh, stoneskin, blink, and phalanx. It's important to see what buffs he puts on. Now your more than welcome to sleep him and then buff, but my reason for never trying was the fear that if he had blink on, or just resisted my sleeps then I'd be without any buffs to keep me from dying. If he does have blink on, just cast something quick like Fire til its off. Never use any DoT's such as Dia. Also never use silence on him. The last thing you want is Maat to spend most the fight chasing you down trying to melee you. Also make sure to keep a good amount of distance between the 2 of you during this process as if he does wake up it gives you time to re-apply any spells. After you sleep him, make sure above all else to dispel off his Shell 3, Stoneskin, and Phalanx. Those 3 are the most important spells you don't want him having. Now bind him, paralyze him, slow, and gravity as well. If gravity is resisted thats fine, as long as you make sure before nuking that hes bound. The spell has been changed so there is a chance when nuking him that he will become unbound, which is why you need him paralyzed and slowed and hopefully gravity as well. Now throw out Aero 3, and immediatly follow up with a Sleep II. Put back on any buffs if he manage to knock off any and reapply the enfeebles. Repeat the same process 2 more times. Always make sure to keep up blink and stoneskin. On the 3rd time of doing this process make sure you atleast have 200 MP or more. My reason being that Aero 3 costs 106 MP, Sleep II is 29, and Sleep is 19, which totals up to 154 MP and if your sleeps are resisted you need any mp to make sure you can bind him or anything til you can cast sleep again. Also because you'll need some mp left for the next step.

After your 3rd nuke, he should be near 50%. As I said before, make sure hes asleep, bound, and paralyzed. Convert and pop your vile elixir +1 and then throw on a Cure IV. If you have to make sure your buffs are good. Now for the fun part. After your sure all enfeebles are on him and your well buffed, let loose your Chainspell and Aero 3. Now during that process he might become unbound which is why I had my bind macro ready to use and hit if he did. Its also why I had blink and stoneskin macros ready incase he did manage to knock them off I could quickly reapply. You only have to get him down to 15% before he gives in and says just how awesome of a RDM you finally have become.

So congratulations if you did win! You've beaten one the hardest fights in the game. And now you have something worth bragging about to all your friends.

If you didn't don't worry like I said it doesn't make you a bad player. Just try again til you finally get it. Also a tip, make sure to atleast take breaks in between attempts so you don't wear yourself out trying to beat him, or like me wear out your gil and end up near broke lol.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I hope this guide helps. And good luck to those who attempt Maat!