Toal any% Pictimos skip tests

Experimentation with skipping Pictimos with Toal.

Disclaimer: the Pictimos skip can be FUCKING DIFFICULT.


Zava fight difficulty when you decide to Skip Pictimos at 34 or 35, and sometimes 36
can be alleviated by doing the invuln glitch. can't confirm why it sometimes wears off,
but it's definitely got something to do with when she goes inside a head. i can literally stand there all
day before she's low enough to do it without getting hurt, whereas sometimes i start getting
hurt on the first head cycle. If you fail the fight the first time it becomes infinitely harder
due to not having the glitch anymore.

Not sure if it has enything to do with it, but when i attacked the heads using Inferno the glitch
never fell off.


Now a real analysis of exactly what each "route" becomes.
No real estimates on time saves yet, but a vague idea.


Can't find a better grinding spot than blighted blood (l0l).



Normal Blighted Blood Grinding -4:

Fighting Kishgal at 34 levels you to 39. fight is a struggle unless you're good at it.
fighting Zava at 39 levels you to 44. fight takes FUCKING DAYS M80.
Hugo 2 is still free to invuln glitch. Beating him at 44 levels you to 52 (a level higher than usual).
For the record you melt Dallas super fast at 52.
Doesn't really make Darm any faster. maybe 1 hit per cycle or so.

The 34/39/44/52 route certainly has potential. With the least grinding(as far as not being SUPER long goes)
this is actually pretty hard to execute. not sure if worth it for the difficulty and Zava time loss.



Normal Blighted Blood Grinding -3:

Fighting Kishgal at 35 levels you to 40. fight is a struggle unless you're good at it.
fighting Zava at 40 levels you to ?. the fight takes almost as long and is as hard as at 39 for less benefit.

this simply isn't worthwhile compared to 34/39/44/52 or 36/41/46/51. it's as slow and hard as 34/39/44/52,
and yet requires more grinding. rather than this just do 34/39/44/52.



Normal Blighted Blood Grinding -2:

Fighting Kishgal at 36 levels you to 41. Fight can be a struggle, but doesn't take much longer.
fighting Zava at 41 levels you to 46. fight takes a cycle or two longer depending on how well executed.
Fighting Hugo 2 at 46 is the usual. that's always been the case.

This is probably the best middle ground there's going to be. Kishgal fight takes a little bit longer, but
is actually significantly harder than the old route. Zava is simple still, but takes a little longer
due to being 4 levels lower.



Normal Blighted Blood Grinding -1:

Fighting Kishgal at 37 levels you to 42. fight can be a struggle unless you're good at it.
fighting Zava at 42 levels you to 46. fight takes a cycle more, 2 if bad fight.
Fighting Hugo 2 at 46 is the usual. that's always been the case.

This is the easiest of the Pictimos skip routes that are worthwhile. also the safest/most consistent.
Fights aren't particularly harder, and barely take any longer at all.
I'm almost 100% certain this is better than fighting Pictimos if you can do the skip first try.



Normal Blighted Blood Grinding:

Fighting Kishgal at 38 levels you to 43. fight is a struggle unless you're good at it.
Zava 43-46. the usual from here.

Frankly i dont see any Benefit to doing this. Everything is same difficulty/time (ish) as 37/42/46.
I'm certain that route is better, the extra level of grind doesn't really change anything.



Closing thoughts and opinions: I'm pretty damn sure Pictimos skip is faster, but only if you get it first
try. Maybe my runs will one day be good enough that i reset if i miss the skip, but as yet,
I'm simply going to fight Pictimos as usual if i miss the skip.
For now, i'm going to fight Kishgal at 36, and see if there's any significant change/problems.
If i can execute the post-skip part of that well enough, i'm going to jump straight to fighting
Kishgal at 34.
Yes, this means if i fail the skip i will be fighting Pictimos at levels 36 and 34 respectively,
but i'm sure it wont be too bad, since i'll still be more levelled than if i get the skip.

Signed,
Fellvisage.