Need advice: Stun tanking

I have been tanking for many years and have adapted to several different tanking styles but one thing has always been my Achilles heel is interrupts.I have tanked the hardest end game dungeon bosses from many many MMO's successfully.

Now that I 50 and I need to keep farming Ifrit for my sword, I find myself yet again fighting my greatest adversary. Stunning. First off, I am a PS3 player. I have successfully tanked every dungeon 10-50 until now. Now that the game has changed towards 8 man groups instead of 4, a practice I am familiar with, I find I am hitting a major wall.

On Ifrit if I am paired with a Warrior I am automatically made the stun tank. I love my fellow tank's the Warriors, but I have been dreading them recently because I can't stun a boss consistently to save my life.

My reaction times are either to fast or to slow. I am either stunning HM Ifrit during the Plume attack or I miss the attack I am suppose to stun, because I *taking to long to make sure its the right attack for me stun.

The cast bar is just to quick for me to make a clear judgement on stun or not stun. I'm.not sure if this is because of latency from my controller to my PS3 or latency from my PS3 to the game or just because I suck at it.

But I know that all I am doing is pissing off my fellow pug group. With the rude comments and low tolerance for mistakes, I have temporarily sworn off Stun tanking HM Ifrit.

I am the only lvl 50 member of my FC currently, so I am forced to pug. I can main tank Ifrit just fine. As long as everyone is dodging forced attacks such as the ifrit power slide and such, we usually win.

But I am afraid that my one weakness in tanking will become the albatross hanging around my neck. If I can't stun a mechanically simple boss. What chance will I have with Coil or the harder dungeons?

Is there any advise anyone can give me? I am really irritated with myself at this. I know I am a great tank normally, I tanked Chimera today first attempt for my relic. I just hate this mechanic in general. Anything that forces you to use only one attack, I find really boring. Early on in Ifrit I can use some abilities, but usually I am auto attacking and waiting for my turn to stun.

Any advise? Constructive help only please. I have had enough flaming from pugs about this already.

One advice that was imparted to me was to learn his attacking patterns at every point of his health. For example, after he uses Hellfire, his attack patterns are as follow:
Crimson Dash thingy (3x)
Radiant Plume (outer area)
Radiant Plume (inner area)
Eruption
Radiant Plume (gather around Ifrit to dodge these as they cover literally almost the entire arena)
Vulcan Burst (knockback effect)
Eruption

and repeat...

As a stunbot, you should also not be using any skills and just auto-attacking, if you have not yet nailed down his attack patterns. Once you do, in between Eruptions you have enough time to throw out a single Fast Blade -> Savage Blade -> Rage of Halone combo, which applies the Strength Down debuff, which does help your Warrior tank. Also, use Circle of Scorn whenever it's up for a bit of a DoT, and Flash for Blind support.

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Originally Posted by Jaminos

Things

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First of all, relax. It's not the end of the world. It will eventually come to you naturally. My first Ifrit runs as stunner were a mess. Latency paired with not knowing my way around made my parties less than happy xDD

This reddit post explains the complete Ifrit rotation. Keep it near you for the first runs until you are confident with it. After a few tries you will get the hang of it.

Happy hunting and good luck with your sword :)

If the rotation is always the same, I will try and memorize it. But again, part of it is my reaction speed is not so great. But I will keep at it u til I get my sword.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jaminos

If the rotation is always the same, I will try and memorize it. But again, part of it is my reaction speed is not so great. But I will keep at it u til I get my sword.

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Don't worry mate, you'll nail it. Even I could nail it. First time as stunbot went so badly for me due to latency problems too, that I sworn off off-tanking Ifrit. When I joined another party that had a Warrior in it, I had no choice but to be the off-tank. My friend was with me on TeamSpeak as well, and everytime Ifrit casted Eruption, he would always be unsure as to whether I got my stun off on time. At least now, I am able to easier predict his Eruption after off-tanking for about 5 rounds or so.

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Originally Posted by juniglee

Don't worry mate, you'll nail it. Even I could nail it. First time as stunbot went so badly for me due to latency problems too, that I sworn off off-tanking Ifrit. When I joined another party that had a Warrior in it, I had no choice but to be the off-tank. My friend was with me on TeamSpeak as well, and everytime Ifrit casted Eruption, he would always be unsure as to whether I got my stun off on time. At least now, I am able to easier predict his Eruption after off-tanking for about 5 rounds or so.

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Since my connection is wonky sometimes, I can hear my FC's fear via TeamSpeak everytime an Eruption is coming. It's kinda fun xD

It can just get disheartening when people get personal when you failed to catch an eruption. I had someone quoting a character back story I had written on my loadstone page to make fun of me. If you don't like the fight, leave. Don't be a bully.

Remember that you don't need to use any skills except stun. Sword Oath autoattack, move when you need to, and interrupt when it's time. You could also assign a special key or button to stun and then reuse that same key / button for any stun / interrupt in any MMO you play. That way, the training you do for stun in this game will help you in other games.

Also, it's preferred to interrupt every eruption, but it's not fatal like ram's voice for chimera. If people get upset because you aren't up to the standards they place on total strangers, ignore them. They're just people on the internet who play games like a job instead of for fun.

I often think it might be best to just keep in my FC tab so I can ignore all of group chat after the first attempt. I don't rightly care what they have to say after a wipe. 99.99999% of the time they are just chewing whoever screwed up, out.

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Originally Posted by IndigoHawk

Remember that you don't need to use any skills except stun. Sword Oath autoattack, move when you need to, and interrupt when it's time. You could also assign a special key or button to stun and then reuse that same key / button for any stun / interrupt in any MMO you play. That way, the training you do for stun in this game will help you in other games.

Also, it's preferred to interrupt every eruption, but it's not fatal like ram's voice for chimera. If people get upset because you aren't up to the standards they place on total strangers, ignore them. They're just people on the internet who play games like a job instead of for fun.

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Also, Eruptions during the first phases are perfectly avoidable. Tell them to get moving!

Ifrit has a very specific pattern, all you have to do it learn it. Reaction time ceases to be a real issue after that.

Just remember Ifrits pattern like before.

Just a note that all Eruptions can be survived without stunning. And by stunning 1 or 2 plumes by accident isn't the end of the world.

Just auto attack and always watch the cast bar. After you've stunned him use fight or flight and circle of scorn. Then back to auto attack and wait for stun :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jaminos

It can just get disheartening when people get personal when you failed to catch an eruption. I had someone quoting a character back story I had written on my loadstone page to make fun of me. If you don't like the fight, leave. Don't be a bully.

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I'm not into RPing in MMO's, but I was curious as to what you had wrote as your back story and decided to check it out. I must say I really like it, take care and good luck on getting your sword :).

The real issue in my opinion is that anyone's primary responsibility in any boss encounter is to auto-attack and stun. Not the best way to enjoy an encounters mechanics, I'd say. Don't sweat the idiots that take things too seriously, and remember your blacklist is for more than just gold spammers =).

The biggest improvement you can make is to put the monster's target bar somewhere REALLY obvious. If you haven't moved it, move it now. I have mine about 1/3 of the way down the screen. Other people place it right above their skill/crossbar.

Do this. It will make it easier to watch the bar by a huge degree, and the first few runs just keep your eyes on that cast bar, make sure it says the right skill, and then stun.

I swear positioning of the target bar/castbar can make interrupting 90% easier.

Once you get pro at it you'll be able to work in some damage dealing while you're on stun duty. Just sit in Sword oath the whole time, and run through your Riot blade combo 2 times, then expect an eruption, stop, wait for it, hit it, then go back to dpsing for another 2 or 3 combos.

It's actually fun to try and dps and interrupt, and shows a pretty good mastery of the mechanics. If you get good enough you can tank AND interrupt at the same time, which can really impress people if you get the chance to do it.

I can understand if its a latency issue and what not and I truly am not trying to be rude or mean, but if you have been tanking for 10 years, how are you not fluent in interrupting.
Seen as this a often a job that tanks are required to do in the majority of MMO's, how is it not something you have tried to work on or naturally got better at through sheer volume of game time.

I just find it hard to believe that interrupting is not built into your play style considering your 10 years of tanking.

Truly not trying to troll or be rude, just curious how this comes about ?

I'm a long time tank myself, and while interrupting isn't a new concept for me, the 'type' of latency present in FFXIV has made me question my own abilities in this regard as well. Take WoW as a base example, when I hit a interrupt on a cast I know I've interrupted it. Here I hit a stun/silence on a cast bar and then have to hold my breath waiting to see if I hit it at the right time due to the ever-shifting delay in the game. I've stunned Ifrit with his cast-bar up only to see him cast eruption despite the stun debuff present on him. Trying to judge where that invisible delay starts and ends makes interrupting annoying, even with a pattern to follow.

Copied from another thread (probably from Reddit):

PHASE 2:

Eruption - Stun
4 GCDs
Eruption - Stun
4 GCDs
Teleport

This repeats until he shouts "Succumb to the inferno!". Then you are in phase 3.

PHASE 3:

4 GCDs
Knockback
Eruption - Stun
Outside Plume + 4 GCDs
Eruption - Stun
Inside Plume + 4 GCDs
Teleport

This repeats until he shouts "Surrender thyself to the fires of
judgement!" and calls down the nails. Then you are in phase 4.

PHASE 4 (NAILS):

Knockback
Eruption - Stun
7 GCDs
Eruption - Stun

Nails die, he exploads, you're in phase 5.

PHASE 5:

Outside Plume + 4 GCDs
Inside Plume
Eruption - Stun
Hug the boss Plume + 4 GCDs
Knockback
Eruption - Stun
4 GCDs
Teleport


Note that it doesn't actually enter the next phase until he teleports/charges. i.e.: Phase 5 DOES NOT START when he hellfires, but when he teleports AFTER hellfire.

Well I'm pleased to say with the earlier post about the rotation I have had a much higher success rate. Though I am more affirmed in believing that there is a tiny latency between when I hit stun and when it actually lands. I am fairly hot on the trigger now, especially since I made a hot bar just for stun tanking.

However I am still learning with it. I sometimes get confused after the nail phase as to my stun rotation. I still interrupt the plumes on phase 4 on occasion and I catch myself half a second to late because I sometimes forget he dues plume outer then inner then eruption. Or I will get knocked back and sometimes forget the rotation I was at so I have to waist precious time, reading the cast text.

As to answer how I have been tanking for 10 years and not be good at stunning. I have tanked many MMO's over the years and Asian MMO's usually require faster reaction times. For example, every dungeon in this game is timed. You have to be quick and efficient.