Tank-specific tips for Extreme Primals

[bokchoykn]

Garuda

• To quickly and safely pick up your assigned sister, build up your combo with the first two hits (Fast Blade>Savage Blade or Heavy Swing>Skull Sunder) on Garuda. Then, hit a Rage of Halone or Butcher's Block on your assigned sister as soon as they spawn. Pre-emptively using an offensive cooldown helps with snap aggro too. Provoke is unnecessary here and should not be used in this situation. This is a basic and essential tanking technique and you should probably be already familiar with it.
  
  
• During each sisters phase, predict the incoming burst damage (Wicked Wheel/Downburst) and pre-emptively pop a defensive cooldown to mitigate it. If you're tanking Garuda + Suparna, the burst occurs very shortly after Suparna casts Friction. It also helps to apply Rage of Halone / Storm's Path on one or both targets beforehand. If you're tanking Chirada, you'll get a red targeting symbol on your character a couple of seconds before it happens.
  
  
• To deal with Spiny Plumes, I recommend assigning one tank (probably the OT) to ALWAYS Provoke the Spiny as soon as it spawns. Spiny Plume randomly chooses one target to aggro upon spawning. There is a chance it will choose the person who already has stacks from the previous phase, which is dangerous. Having the same tank Provoke the Spiny Plume to start every phase ensures that the party has complete control over this mechanic. On each phase, one tank eats the first two stacks, and the other tank eats the second two stacks.
  
  
• Be very careful not to re-aggro the Spiny Plume after it's been Provoked off of you. Something as simple as popping a cooldown can re-aggro it if all the other tank has done to it was a single Provoke. Don't ever hit Spiny Plume with Circle of Scorn since a dot tick can re-aggro the Spiny Plume after a Provoke. As for the tank Provoking the Spiny Plume, make sure to give it a couple love taps to secure aggro.
  
  
• When tanking both Garuda and a sister (usually Suparna), Focus Target Garuda as you're targeting the Sister to help you monitor both casting bars for dodging Slipstreams. Keep in mind that Focus Target drops as soon as she teleports (which happens frequently), so you may have to re-Focus her multiple times. Fixed! Thanks S-E!

Titan

• Never tank swap immediately before a Landslide. It's dangerous because Titan can target the off-tank and point a nearly unavoidable Landslide towards the tanks. After his first jump (ie. during the second phase), he follows up his second Mountain Buster with a 3-way Landslide. Wait for this to happen prior to tank swapping.
  
  
• Paladin's Tempered Will and Hallowed Ground prevent knockbacks from Landslide. Warrior's Holmgang does not (it did in 2.0, but no longer in 2.1). EDIT: Holmgang now prevents knockback again. This was corrected in a recent hotfix. Paladins should always be prepared to use one of these abilities during the periods with the highest risk of getting Landslided, most notably the "row bombs" in the final (post-heart) phase. If a WAR/PLD tank composition is being used, it's not a bad idea to plan your tank swaps in such a way that the PLD is tanking during this phase (This happens naturally if WAR is off-tanking adds).
  
  
• When off-tanking adds, use the same snap-aggro techniques as mentioned in the Garuda EX tips above. One way is to pop offensive cooldowns, combo'ed Butcher's Block on the near add and Tomahawk on the far add. Another way is to us a combo'ed Skull Sunder on one add, and Butcher's Block on the other.
  
  
• At the very end of the final phase, before the sequence repeats itself, Titan will cast a 5-way Landslide. This happens immediately after Titan lands from his jump. The main tank can make it easier for everyone (including himself) to dodge his Landslide by meeting Titan in the middle of the platform and returning to the edge after Landslide is finished casting.
  
  
• Turn Titan 90 degrees to the right just before Upheaval to make it look like he's peeing on your party. This provides no tactical advantage. It's just funny.

Ifrit

• Despite what any guides out there will tell you, Ifrit's Incinerate is not random. The timing is erratic, but they occur at the exact same times and are 100% predictable. Knowing when they happen will make tank swaps easier and safer, and reduces the risk of having both tanks get hit by the same Incinerate. If you pay attention to them, you should have some idea of when the Incinerates happen after a few attempts.
  
  
• Focus target the other tank so you can monitor how much time is left on his Incinerate debuff. This helps with knowing when to expect his Provoke and also with cooldown management. For example, using Rampart ~20 seconds before the next tank swap is most effective, while Sentinel is best used ~10 seconds before the swap.
  
  
• Tank swap during Ifrit's casts/animation locks for maximum safety: During Incinerates, Infernal Howls, Radiant Plumes.
  
  
• Refrain from using Weaponskills when the other tank is about to Provoke from you. You can even sheathe your weapon when waiting for a provoke to turn off Auto attacks (Default key: Z).
  
  
• Incinerates can be dodged. Warrior can use Featherfoot and Paladin can use Flash to Blind. Dodging Incinerates, particularly in the final Nails phase, helps a ton with damage mitigation. You're not only avoiding the damage from the Incinerate but avoiding a stack means taking less damage and having more health.
  
  
• The safe spots for each Plumes phase are as follows: The first safe spot is at the 1:00 position (consider North as 12:00). The second safe spot is at the 2:00 position. The third safe spot is between 3:00-4:00. After each Crimson Cyclone phase (aka Dashes or Racecars), move to the next safe spot before Ifrit drops, for the sake of convenience. BTW: The easiest way to know where the next safe spot is: It's always where his last Crimson Cyclone ended.
  
  
• Paladin Hallowed Ground is best used towards the end of the third and final Nails phase. This gives Healers a 10 second window to ignore the tank and focus on topping off the entire party before the final Nail is broken. Just make sure to let your healers know before this happens so they're actually prepared to make use of it. If you're pro, time your Hallowed Ground in such a way that you nullify three Incinerate stacks.

[bokchoykn]

Any incorrect info above? Let me know and I'll fix.

Have any tips of your own? Please share.

[Marxam]

You can edit your posts to bypass the 1000 char limit. Just type everything on notepad or something then copy and paste.

I'm only at titan and everything seems right. Didn't know about Tempered Will so I learned something today.

[Altimis]

I like it Bokchoykn! thanks for your great tips

[bokchoykn]

You can edit your posts to bypass the 1000 char limit. Just type everything on notepad or something then copy and paste.

Holy shit! Thanks for the leet hax. It was super annoying.

[OnpuSegawa]

Nice stuff. The trickiest part for me on MTing Garuda EX is managing Wicked Wheel. I've had instances where it comes out before she teleports, and instances where she uses WW and doesn't teleport at all, which has thrown my timing off. I believe it's tied to DPS on the OT's sister, but I'm not 100% sure.

Also, is there anyway to "force" the Spiny plume to aggro onto a player, or at least prevent it from spawning latched to the MT? I find it much easier in the tornado phase if the Spiny has spawned on anyone EXCEPT the MT, as this allows that person to build 2 stacks up, then lets the MT use Provoke on the Spiny, and the OT to Provoke on the sister that the MT currently has. So in a nutshell it would go for example:

WHM: Spiny Plume
WAR MT: Garuda+Suparna
PLD OT: Chirada
Chirada dies and Spiny puts 2 stacks on WHM

WHM: None
WAR MT: Garuda+Spiny (Provoked from WHM)
PLD OT:Suparna (Provoked from WAR)

But during my last run, it kept spawning on the MT, which prevented this strategy (as OT, my choice was either Plume or Suparna. The choice was quite clearly obvious to avoid the wipe, but made it harder for the MT and healers)

[Raeliana]

You know Bokchoy, because of you, I cannot call Ifrit's dash attack anything but racecars now.

But I am okay with this.

[bokchoykn]

You know Bokchoy, because of you, I cannot call Ifrit's dash attack anything but racecars now.

But I am okay with this.

VROOM VROOM!

BTW, you can take credit for the dodge thing with Flash. I wouldn't have thought a sweeping frontal fire breath attack could be dodged.

[Lucavern]

Very nice Bokchoy! One minor sidenote I'd add, and this may not affect many players but its a good thing to note. Apparently if you are jumping while moving, the game stops calculating your position until you land. I didn't realize this until the PvP announcement about jumping to avoid getting hit by certain things. I'd gotten hit by a number of Weights/Incinerates because of this, which stopped immediately after I stopped jumping. Not really related to the topic of the Primals directly, but something that became even more apparent during them.

[Asdamine]

Garuda

During each sisters phase, predict the incoming burst damage (Wicked Wheel/Downburst) and pre-emptively pop a defensive cooldown to mitigate it. If you're tanking Garuda + Suparna, the burst occurs after they teleport and very shortly after Suparna casts Friction. It also helps to apply Rage of Halone / Storm's Path on one or both targets beforehand. If you're tanking Chirada, you'll get a red targeting symbol on your character a couple of seconds before it happens.

If I might add, it helps to dodge slipstream if the Tank focus target either Garuda or Suprana (shift+F) so you would know when they are casting. Most of the time the cast animation is being covered by the awesome graphical effects of the fight, makig you miss the dodge.