Titan HM Tanking Difficulty

So, all I need to finish my relic quest is to beat Titan. After watching a video of HM Titan, it looks like it isn't too bad as a tank. It definitely doesn't seem to require as much as Garuda does, with having to move around a lot or pick up adds. From what I can tell, you pretty much just need good gear to take the damage/make it easier on the healers. The only positioning I really saw was standing in the right places for the bombs, which seemed to just involve moving a few feet. And of course, popping cooldowns for Titan's big hit.

I am currently working on gearing up with darklight stuff before attempting it. Any tips for tanking Titan that I might have not seen in the video? The videos I watched mostly focused on how the dps and healers need to move around the arena.

This is why this is so hard. Tanks have very little they have to do in this fight to win. We pop cool downs and try to mitigate damage as much as possible but ultimately, winning relies on healers and DPS being able to avoid stuff while being able to keep you alive. Normally, the tank can make other people's lives easier by being "good". This is one fight where that is almost completely reversed.

If you're a PLD try to get more than 5.2k hp, and use your skills wisely, go to the corners when bombs spawn, save food and potions for him

Having just got my first titan kill as a tank, there ARE a fair few things a tank can do to make the fight easier for the team, though in most cases wipes come from people either lacking dps or derping into AOE. Still, you have a job and you can do it to the best of your ability.

- Find a perfect tanking spot. There is one very very precise spot (just to the west of directly north, between the 11 and 12 o'clock positions) where you can stand without moving and never get hit by any bombs, but a step left or right and you get hit, and a step too far forward and you get hit by two. Try to find this safe spot early in your practises and learn it.

- Learn the rotation of Titan's abilities in the phase after the heart. It's crucial to know when the Mountain Buster is coming. Then, learn all of the damage mitigating cooldowns that other classes in your raid have, so you can recognise the Rain of Death, Virus and similar icons on Titan, so you -know- when you need to pop a tanking cooldown to help mitigate the Mountain Buster if there's nothing provided for you by another class. You can't pop a cooldown for every Mountain buster, you don't have enough cooldowns, so you need to be able to know when it's safe to skip one due to another class using something.

- A tiny tip. If you wait till the very last second before Titan does his Earthen Fury AOE after the Heart Phase and pop a Sentinel, you'll mitigate the damage from the explosion AND the Sentinel will have just enough time left on it to mitigate the first Mountain Buster too. Learn the timing of this Sentinel pop to make the phase 2-3 transition smooth.

- Your threat matters a LOT, far more than any fight to date. It's not from the DPS, it's from the healers. Maximise your threat rotation, as White Mages can threaten to pull off you if they're forced to medica spam towards the end of the fight. Less needed if you're doing the "build half an LB bar first" tactic, but if your party goes all out from the start then you need to ensure your threat is absolutely stellar. If you're unsure about your threat capabilities, do what you can to make sure you have a Garuda weapon before going in, or at the very least an Ifrit. Lower than this is possible of course... but if you can generate solid threat so your white mage(s) don't need to worry, their job will be easier.

- Bring consumables. The best vitality food you can afford, health potions, even Earth Ward potions. Potions of Strength can help with early threat too to some degree. The tank has two main roles - hold threat, and don't die to Mountain Buster burst. You need to do everything in your power to help the second one, you can't only rely on healers.

- And most of all, the major responsibility in the titan fight for the tank is simply to be as tough as nails. Respec to full Vitality if you arent already, and do what you can to get the best gear possible before you step into it. Mountain buster is as much your responsibility to survive as the healers, so every little bit of survivability can help.

You're right that yes, there isnt much you can do to carry a titan team, but you do have an important job and if you skimp on it, a single mountain buster can kill you, and that's basically a wipe. And don't neglect the threat aspect too.

All bombs can be dodged.

If you rotate cooldowns properly you can mitigate every MB, except bulwark where there is still a chance at full damage being taken.

The order is rampart>foresight>sent>rampart>bulwark>foresight>rampart>hallowed>sent>rampart>foresight>bulwark>rampart

At this point you have to go 1 hit without a CD, can use awareness and conv here to mitigate auto attacks and help heals (Ive never seen a MB crit, if it can happen then this can help stop that as well)

Titan really should be dead by that point though, that's the 6 minutes in p3 before no cooldown.

And find good dps, that really is the key to winning.

Oh, pop the cooldowns when he uses landslide in p3, within 10 seconds a MB will happen

Thanks for taking the time to write out those tips, everyone.