Thaumaturge Ifrit guide

[Umo]

I generally hear most people say to start off with Stone for the debuff

We need to get more accurate information about Stone spell. As you can read right here, the spell's description on French client shows that reduces earth magic evasion.
Furthermore, you can read the same description at Class Reforms & Actions Lists thread.
So if Stone is working that way it's pretty useless for a Thaumaturge if you're looking after reducing general magic evasion.

[Fated]

Maybe because of this we often have the Thaumaturges standing together with the healers in their safe spots. It's a bit risky since it increases the chance of an Eruption happening under a healer, but as long as you have 1 healer on each side and they know how to avoid Eruptions then it's generally okay.

The advantage is that the Thaumaturge doesn't need to move as much, and can therefore regenerate MP more quickly.

Personally, I never recommend this and I actually don't like when THMs do this. As you said, this simply increases the risk on the healer(s). Every group is different, so maybe it works fine for some and that's no problem. However, the goal of course is to win the fight and I see this as an unnecessary way to increase the chance for things to go wrong. THMs should learn to manage their MP from DD spots instead because it's not difficult. The back spot is especially easy for this since Vulcan Burst and Radiant Plumes don't require movement.

We need to get more accurate information about Stone spell. As you can read right here, the spell's description on French client shows that reduces earth magic evasion.
Furthermore, you can read the same description at Class Reforms & Actions Lists thread.
So if Stone is working that way it's pretty useless for a Thaumaturge if you're looking after reducing general magic evasion.

I've always been skeptical of Stone's debuff to begin with, that's why I never personally used it. That description on the Class Reforms list makes sense, they need to reflect that in game. There are actually a lot of ability descriptions that are incomplete in the English client. Then again, this wouldn't even be an issue if we could check what buffs/debuffs are on the mob...

[syntaxlies]

Pretty good overall. I think you did a good job of stressing some of the critical micro aspects that most guides tend to overlook. Here are some of my comments:

1) If the sole purpose of this video is to make a guide, then there should also be a small segment about the gear preparation as well. Gearing up a THM properly for Ifrit is IMO more important than even doing the fight itself. A base line THM is completely worthless against Ifrit, but a properly geared THM is the #1 DD against him. I think people have started to realize this by now since 1.20 is over a month old at this point, but it's irritating to see very poorly geared THMs try to fight Ifrit because all they hear is that THM is #1 on it.

2) All 4 nails should go down, there is no excuse to leave any of them up unless every THM somehow gets resisted multiple times in the middle of their combo (I don't think I've ever seen this happen). The difference in damage taken between having one nail up and having none is significant. You can survive Hellfire with one or two nails up no doubt about it, however, people have a tendency to get hit on the next ability that Ifrit uses because positioning right after Hellfire is usually messed up unless he uses Crimson Cyclone. One or two deaths leads to another and another and there is a decent probability that you will end up wiping.

3) I see nothing about ability usage. I tend to use Dark Seal and Parsimony for Thundara and Excruciate before Thunder. I keep them on cool down but I make sure to have them up for the Infernal Nails phase. As far as the actual nuking goes, nuking Ifrit is essentially Thunder > Thundara over and over and over again. Thundaga is generally a waste because of MP inefficiency and lengthy cast time that will probably end up killing you. Infernal Nails are a different story. You're under a time limit so you want to get them dead ASAP. I generally hear most people say to start off with Stone for the debuff and then do Thunder > Thundara > Thundaga > Thunder to take it down. I usually go with Thunder > Excruciate > Dark Seal > Thundara > Parsimony > Thundaga > Thunder > Thundara. Depending on when Excruciate actually activates, the nail might die before all of that is finished.

4) At one point you ran quite a distance over a plume and didn't get hit by it. You either have a really good computer or very little latency because anytime I've ever tried to do that, I would get hit by it. I think most people are in the same boat. I think what I'm trying to get at is if people are looking to this video for guidance, that may be a bad thing to show because they will emulate it thinking things will be okay and then get blown up lol. However, I understand everyone's playing situations are different, so whatever, haha.

At this point, maybe I'm suggesting things that you weren't focused on anyway, but I just thought I'd give my two cents since you wanted feedback.

although getting 4 nails down is not hard its also not important. You only need to get 2 nails down.

[Fated]

although getting 4 nails down is not hard its also not important. You only need to get 2 nails down.

Like I said, it's not necessary to get all 4 nails down, but 1) you should be doing it anyway during that 1 minute 2) not getting them all down means increasing the chance people die on the next ability Ifrit uses

[Veronica]

4 points

Ah ! When it comes to the spells I was going to add that in but started to feel like a bitch telling people to not use the 3rd thunder and all that >_< Now I know I should of done that part though since it might be useful to some! As for the plum, it is because i was running right after hellfire back to the thm spot ^_^ I have the same lag as other NA players.

I wasn't thinking about doing a gear guide, it did come across my mind to tell people to put M.ACC but some people really like to stack M.ATK and get decently high on the parser :/ I was thinking more of a basic guide then a materia type of thing. Thanks for your feedback! I am going to add the skills thing for my conj video when i make it ^_^

[Veronica]

although getting 4 nails down is not hard its also not important. You only need to get 2 nails down.

Ah yeah I agree. Since it is more of a newbie to thm/ifrit type of guide I wanted to focus on the basics. 2 Nails is fine, unlike in moogle where it is important to get all those little fluffballs down before 24:00

[MicahZerrshia]

2) All 4 nails should go down, there is no excuse to leave any of them up unless every THM somehow gets resisted multiple times in the middle of their combo (I don't think I've ever seen this happen). The difference in damage taken between having one nail up and having none is significant. You can survive Hellfire with one or two nails up no doubt about it, however, people have a tendency to get hit on the next ability that Ifrit uses because positioning right after Hellfire is usually messed up unless he uses Crimson Cyclone. One or two deaths leads to another and another and there is a decent probability that you will end up wiping.

All 4 nails? We never take out more than 1 and with either sentinal or stoneskin you never have to worry about dying. Plus if can time yourself right you can second wind and/or start casting cure before he even hits the ground and have urself at near 100% hp before he does any other move. And positioning shouldnt be messed up since you really shouldnt have to move at all for hellfire. I think you overcomplicate the nails a bit, but everyone has their own play style

[Catapult]

All 4 nails? We never take out more than 1 and with either sentinal or stoneskin you never have to worry about dying. Plus if can time yourself right you can second wind and/or start casting cure before he even hits the ground and have urself at near 100% hp before he does any other move. And positioning shouldnt be messed up since you really shouldnt have to move at all for hellfire. I think you overcomplicate the nails a bit, but everyone has their own play style

Sometimes people screw up their hellfire-prep. For example, you think Ifrit's jumping to the centre, so you use Sentinel, then proceed to watch him do dashes for the next 15 seconds before hellfire.

2 nails is certainly not essential, but makes things safer.

[syntaxlies]

Sometimes people screw up their hellfire-prep. For example, you think Ifrit's jumping to the centre, so you use Sentinel, then proceed to watch him do dashes for the next 15 seconds before hellfire.

2 nails is certainly not essential, but makes things safer.

Ifrit jumps exactly 60 seconds after nails go up. Use one of your buff timers to count down and it shouldnt be a problem.

[Reinheart]

Thanks for the guide again, finally tried Ifrit 5 times and wife was able to get Ifrit bow and I got Ifrit Cane I want the bow orz...