I suck at speedruns

I need expert pally help! I dinged 50 on my paladin a few weeks ago and recently got a high enough i level (80) that I felt comfortable speed running/ myth farming Brayflox HM.

I've done it countless times as an i94 DRG (my main class) so I know where to run and how far to pull and such.
Sometimes I'll have a perfect run, but then there are some groups I just fail miserably with. I'm now wondering if I am being carried by awesome healers and aware DPS.

Do you have to hit each mob as you run up? I usually just shield lob a few along the way to the ramp area, wait for them to catch up, use HG then CoS, then Flash a few times and Sentinel. I'll then start the Riot Blade combo and run around avoiding the cone attacks while Flashing mobs that are turning yellow on the enmity icon.

Is this correct? Sometimes it works fine, sometimes I die, sometimes I lose control of the mob and a healer or BLM dies. I've seen a video where they Flash each mob as the run by. I've tried this with the same worked fine/ failed horribly results.

Honestly I power leveled with a lot of fate parties and didn't do many dungeons besides the early ones. I still feel like a new and shitty tank.
I haven't had an "AHA!" moment and still struggle regularly. Do I just need more experience?
Thanks for any guidance or tips here.

You'll probably end up in parties that have way better gear than you. That will be one aggro issue if the DPS is really high.
Don't worry about flashing along the way as you don't want to be out of mana before the mobs are gathered.
Pop FoF before you do your CoS and Flash spam for extra enmity.

I'm a WAR so not everything I do applies. As far as pulling, so long as nobody else in the party does anything at all a shield lob at each connected group should be more than sufficient. Hell, I face pull most stuff now after doing it a million times. As I'm coming to where I'll stop I'll pop infuriate then steel cyclone followed by vengeance. At that point everyone can go hog wild. From there it's just avoid AEOs and smack random mobs with wrath builders to get another steel cyclone. In between each rotation I'll overpower. Probably overkill, but it goes faster if everything stays tight. One note, if you're seeing yellow you've already lost them. They're already heading towards someone else at that point.

1st pull: Shield Lob first 6 mobs. Flash the pack of 3 at bottom of ramp. Then pick up that last Coerl and pick your kill spot.

2nd pull: Flash the first pack of 3. Shield Lob 1 pack, provoke last pack to get them all running toward you. Then Flash spam.


Personally, I always tag every single critter in that 1st pull. You *could* skip some and Sprint, but then you are forced to rely on all group members to not cast anything too early. And what if you miss a few with the first Flash with whole group together? *Splat* ... Not tagging everything is a risk. The payout for winning that risk is the time saved by Sprinting past (can't Sprint if you're Shield Lob everything).

As for staying alive yourself, not much to say there except the obvious.
- Use your cooldowns. All of them. I like to start clicking a few secs before I stop running, so that 2-4 are up as the first volley of hits lands on me. But don't run all of them immediately. You will need something for when the first ones drop. So for example Sentinel + Foresight + Awareness. Then Rampart + Convalescence when Sentinel fades. Then Bulwark + Bloodbath later. (PS. that's not optimized, just an example)
- For the 1st pull, don't completely stop. Instead, run tight circles around the pack of enemies. Avoid some cone and circle AEs this way. 2nd pull you can stand still once they're gathered.
- If your healer didn't do it at the start, Stoneskin yourself before the pull.
- Raise your gear level. Maybe i80 is enough, I dunno. But definitely it can go up.

You're going to encounter runs that have bad healers / bad dps. Bad healers are the ones that stand in the stupid or wait until you have 1/10 of your hp and try to heal you before you die. Bad dps either don't have enough dps and the healer runs out of mp or they start a Flare / Aoe before you even get the pack into position. They also stand in the stupid as well.

Then of course we have tanking issues. Then thing about flash is it has a very limited area. If you don't round them up properly you will miss the flash a couple times on some mobs. When that happens they start molesting the dps / healer.

It seems your tactic is similar to mine. I don't lob or touch any of them at all. I just run straight through and at the last cat I pop foresight and that turns them all from orange to red. Once I get to the log close to the gate I pop FoF / HG. I run into the charging pack flash once towards the front of the pack flash another times towards the back. Then I start circling to round them up tight. I pop Soc. Then I pop Sentinel (while circling and flashing / CoS) before sentinel goes down I pop off Bulwark / awareness. Then rampart / Convalescence.

As far as flash / mp goes I spam flash until I am down to about 2 flashes left after that I just use the Riot blade rotation then flash / cos when its up. I keep the extra 2 flash mp just in case its needed but, typically it's not needed.

You basically have to learn how to recognize what the actual cause of the wipe and it's not always your fault.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cap75

I'm a WAR so not everything I do applies. As far as pulling, so long as nobody else in the party does anything at all a shield lob at each connected group should be more than sufficient. Hell, I face pull most stuff now after doing it a million times. As I'm coming to where I'll stop I'll pop infuriate then steel cyclone followed by vengeance. At that point everyone can go hog wild. From there it's just avoid AEOs and smack random mobs with wrath builders to get another steel cyclone. In between each rotation I'll overpower. Probably overkill, but it goes faster if everything stays tight. One note, if you're seeing yellow you've already lost them. They're already heading towards someone else at that point.

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i see a disturbing lack of bloodbath in this post...

there a huge different hate gen. between WAR and PLD. as PLD do not have high AOE hate move.
you do not have to shield lob the mob just run in and face pull it. (use Sprint as you will be spamming flash anyway.)

if you gear enough, grab the first 3 pack, then pop you CD to survive. if you got Coerl that walk around that fine if not just ignore him. (you do not need to kill him as you can lock him out of boss room, same way with the plant mob

I usually pop Sentinel first then HG then Rampart...... ( I pop Sentinel first to give healer time to get into position and put some regen on me, so when I use HG Healer can nuke the mob right away ( Holy or w/e SCH have ;P)
the only thing PLD has for AOE agro is Flash, you have to make sure that your flash will hit every mob. spam it till OOM then recharge with riot combo and repeat till every thing dead

Not sure why there is a character limit, now I have to make 3 separate posts.

1st pull

1.) Sprint all the way to just before the stream up the ramp
2.) As I approach the steam I stop, cast stone skin on myself
3.) flash first bunch of mobs
4.) pop sentinel
5.) flash 3-4 more times to get the remaining groups of monsters (while trying to position myself to block all attacks)
6.) cast Blood Bath and Flight or Fight followed by Circle of Scorn
7.) **once Sentinel is done cast another CD, I usually use Bulwark next.** (Remember to always have CD up and facing monsters)
8.) Flash all my mp away while continuing to cycle cool downs
9.) Fast blade target 1, Riot Blade target 2, followed by flash, Fast blade Target 3, Riot Blade target 4, followed by flash…. You see the pattern. You can do this to gather mp for the next boss, or just attack the mobs.

2nd pull

1.) flash first 3
2.) provoke 1 of the 3 monsters furthest away (to avoid raptor)
3.) shield lob 1 of the 3 at the tent closets to the entrance of the 2nd boss
4.) cast sentinel or a different CD
5.) flash 3-4 times
6.) cast Blood Bath, cast Flight or Fight, Circle of scorn
7.) Sometimes I throw a cover on the healer or blm
** During this pull usually I pull as far into the back corner as I can, and then run out of the corner so I'm standing closer to the party (if that makes sense)**
8.) Riot blade combo switching target between attacks

3rd pull

1.) Unlock the door
2.) shield lob 1 of the 2 standing out front
3.) shield lob the monster on the fence
4.) shield lob 1 of the next 3
5.) run up the ramp to the left
6.) sentinel
7.) flash couple times
8.) provoke and shield lob the dinosaur that runs from the opposite end, followed by a flash (keep the Dinosaur targeted so you can stun if he uses his frontal)
9.) cast Blood Bath, cast Flight or Fight, cast Circle of Scorn
10.) flash everything and riot blade combo to get mp
11.) Don't forget to rotate cool downs