the new trial is too hard

I don't remember what happened to the Dynamite, honestly.

And the DPS seemed to be a mess. A huge one. Moments after the dragon was pulled all 4 of them ran to the cannons. And used cannons exclusively while they were still up. Then did a bit of DPS, died, and ran toward the new set of cannons. Meanwhile the 2 tanks and the healers were trying not to die and heal and tank and dps as much as possible.

It was just a rough group.

The Duty itself seems pretty balanced if people try and attempt to pull their weight.

Done this fight three times in Duty Finder. First attempt failed, second time got me the win, third time was an unfortunate Roulette that also failed.

Both of the failed times, we had one tank and one healer on the cannons, with a single tank trying to wrangle all the adds while the single healer tried to keep that tank and all the DPS alive. Any time we tried to have the DPS completely ignore the adds, they would eventually overwhelm us; the cannons just couldn't down them fast enough. Having the DPS burn down the BIG adds (Swinge-guy, turtle, wyrm, and Stone-Vigil-HM-guy) while the cannons took out the smaller adds seemed to work best; the big adds are the most dangerous, and even taking the time to kill them leaves a fair amount of time to DPS the boss. Still needed all three Dragonslayers to hit, though.

The time we succeeded, interestingly enough, we'd put two DPS on cannons, with a healer manning the Dragonslayers. With two tanks, gathering adds was much quicker and more efficient, giving the cannons more time to pound away at them. DPS damage vs the boss was much reduced, but the adds were dead much quicker allowing the tanks to join in the damage-dealing for long periods of time.

That said, I still have very little idea what the best strategy is for this in Duty Finder. A lot hinges on controlling the adds - in fact, I'd say that's the toughest part of the fight. The tank or tanks need to both hold the adds near the front or middle of the boss where the cannons can hit them, while still taking control of the additional adds that spawn to the sides and behind. The more they run around gathering adds, the harder it is for the cannons to hit the adds that are up. Two tanks can gather adds more easily, at the cost of DPS, but I'm guesing a single tank could do this if DPS were smart enough to pull the adds to the tank, rather than requiring the tank go collect them.

I'm guessing the meta-game will settle on a single strategy eventually, but right now there doesn't seem to be a lot of concurrence as to what the "correct" method to do this fight is.

Hold the adds infront of the boss, as his attacks also hurt them, there's almost no reason for the dps to leave the dragon this way. The boss's attacks and the cannons are the best way of killing them especially since they can stun the armoured one too, just like in stone vigil.

I just did this last night with my FC, the majority of us going in for the first time, and we cleared it on our second try. We had one person who had done it before who told us what roles to take. We wiped the first time figuring out how it all worked, and the second time we died tons because we hadn't quite gotten the hang of it all, but we still cleared... with under a second to spare. Vishap had bodyslamed the final gate twice and was charging the final slam when we downed him.

We had the OT and the OH (SCH) on cannons non-stop, a BRD on towers, a PLD MT (me), and a WHM MH (my spouse - made communication easy since we were sitting next to each other). I pulled all of the adds, trying to position them in front of the boss at all times, and cannons hit the adds first (preferably hitting the boss at the same time) and then the boss when there were no adds. Three DPS only attacked Vishap and ignored the adds, with the fourth doing the same except when we were at a tower.

A few tips -

• Interrupting the turtle's massive AoE is useful. Don't waste stuns on her little one.
• The Holy Shield Dragons (Marraco's cousins) can Swinge. If you see one, focus target it so you can tell when it's swinging and get out of the way if possible.
• If you are MH and draw aggro, pull the adds in front of the boss and/or to the MT.
• Note that if you die, you respawn with full HP but 0 MP. It may actually be worth it to use raises on the MT or MH just so they have some MP to work with.
• WAR MTs can recover from death easier since they can AoE without MP (Overpower), but PLD MTs can survive a large set of adds even with the MH dead (Hallowed Ground). I used HG twice that fight and it was incredibly helpful both times. When the MT dies with a ton of adds on her, the adds rush the cannons and become hard for the cannons to target.
• Transcendents ignore aggro and behave like the final boss of Stone Vigil (Hard).
• If you have a bunch of adds when you get to the powder kegs (and I think some spawn right there?), have the MT drag the adds in front of the kegs so they die from the AoE along with Vishap taking damage.
• When Vishap gets close to a gate, don't be standing near the gate. His AoE is too fast to get out of in time.

If the healer hangs out near the tank in front, they'll be a natural aggro magnet and most of the adds will run straight for them anyway. The exception are the adds that go straight for the canons (some Aevis, a few others too.)

The fodder NPCs are pretty useless in this fight, but I've seen them swarm down on the adds going for the canons, and if you can keep that add from creaming them for even 20 seconds, they can take care of DPSing it down before helping with the other adds.

yup, been in this thing about 10 times and haven't finished it yet. No one takes their roles seriously. Dumbest thing to ever put in the main scenario as a team exercise. I would rather have done this with NPC's because they would at least know their roles and if I failed the duty, I know it would be my fault alone that it would fail.

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Originally Posted by KyteStones

yup, been in this thing about 10 times and haven't finished it yet. No one takes their roles seriously. Dumbest thing to ever put in the main scenario as a team exercise. I would rather have done this with NPC's because they would at least know their roles and if I failed the duty, I know it would be my fault alone that it would fail.

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Want to know the scary part? There's going to be more things like this in Heavensward so the skill of players will rise further.

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Originally Posted by RyuDragnier

Want to know the scary part? There's going to be more things like this in Heavensward so the skill of players will rise further.

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Yay, let's just hope that the other players will stop slacking and use their brains in the new 24 players raid, or I think I'll hang myself.

It'll be awhile before we get the level of trolling brought to use by the likes of CT, ST, WoD, and SCoB I believe. Btw, did any of you run into that player named Iron Giant while trying to stop IG's from cleaving the comet in the Behemoth fight? Not fun.

I've done the trail three times total. For myself, then helping FC mates a couple of times.
I've never come out of the instance unsuccessful by the end. In fact, in my most recent attempt we didn't even need the last set of snares.

The trial can be rather difficult when people aren't prepared, especially because it's so different. But if everyone knows their roles it's quite the walk in the park.