Question About Pugilistl Skills

Hi everyone, new player here. I have a question about pugilist skills like Bootshine and Snap Punch. I read that if they're executed from certain positions on a mob, you get a damage bonus and so I've been trying to execute them from the appropriate side. However, it's been a challenge since tanks have to keep the mobs constantly moving in order to dodge.

My question is, due to the nature of tanking should I bother with trying to make sure i'm in the right spot for the damage bonus?

Yes continue to work on your positionals.
Generally speaking, you, and everyone else will find that this works best on bosses instead of large packs of mobs. A boss isn't going to be moving wildly just because the tank has to step out of an AOE.

Edit: Also I'd like to point out that if you aren't already, don't be trying to get to the extreme flank or centre of the rear end for your positionals. Just a step into the rear area of the target circle and a step into the flank is all that's needed to keep your flow and damage high!

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Yes continue to work on your positionals.
Generally speaking, you, and everyone else will find that this works best on bosses instead of large packs of mobs. A boss isn't going to be moving wildly just because the tank has to step out of an AOE.

Edit: Also I'd like to point out that if you aren't already, don't be trying to get to the extreme flank or centre of the rear end for your positionals. Just a step into the rear area of the target circle and a step into the flank is all that's needed to keep your flow and damage high!

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Thanks for the info! I'll definitely try that out.

I'm glad to know that positions matter and aren't some arbitrary fluff thing. So far I'm enjoying the nuances of this job.

Canadane is right, and your positionals plus keeping greased lightning up will count for almost all of your dps so hit them when you can and always on single target enemies. Here are some pictures of the target ring to show you where the rear and flank start so you don't have to move so far.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2vl7k81.png

http://i67.tinypic.com/9a4boj.png

http://i68.tinypic.com/xlfbjm.jpg

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Originally Posted by Khaidal

it's been a challenge since tanks have to keep the mobs constantly moving in order to dodge.

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A good tank shouldn't have the mobs constantly moving. Occasionally mechanics might require the tank to switch to tanking them in a different spot, and you'll have to follow those moves. But when it's just a matter of dodging AoEs, the tank should dodge out of the way just while the mob is in the casting phase (during which the mob won't move), and then the moment the AoE actually goes off, the tank jumps right back to where he had been, so that the mob remains facing that direction rather than turning/moving towards the tank's new position. It can be tricky to time right, and particularly when there's lag issues involved, the mob might turn momentarily, but so long as it then goes right back to where it was and facing where it was, nearly all of your PGL attacks will hit while it's facing in that consistent direction.

(But as Canadane mentioned, this all works better when it's a single mob you're dealing with, and not a whole crowd of them.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Also I'd like to point out that if you aren't already, don't be trying to get to the extreme flank or centre of the rear end for your positionals. Just a step into the rear area of the target circle and a step into the flank is all that's needed to keep your flow and damage high!

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I'd been trying to get to the extreme (90 or 180 degree) flank or rear nearly the whole time I've been playing, since I only figured out how to spot the division between flank and rear a couple days ago. What I'd always seen as a double circle around the target is actually a three-quarter circle around just the target's front and flanks. It disappears around the target's rear. So that point where the circle disappears/reappears is the division between rear and flank. Rongway shows it in pics in this post.

Thanks for all the responses and tips. I greatly appreciate it!

Knowing how to read the target ring is the first step to making positionals easy, as Canadane et al have said; if you only do half-steps over the boundary between flank and rear, you spend a lot less time moving and a lot more bludgeoning your enemy to death.

But another thing to think about is where the abilities go on your bar. The order you learn them in actually doesn't tell you anything about how to arrange them. If you're using straight hotbars, consider arranging your abilities like this:

http://i.imgur.com/ewO3GpH.png

That way, all attacks of a particular stance are the same number, and all attacks from the same position are the same modifier. This will greatly reduce the amount of thinking you have to do to pick the right button combination for your current stance and posiition.



If on crossbars, do something that makes sense like down for all rear attacks, left for all flank attacks, and then put different stances on different bars.