Im a 50 and its time to do HM Titan. Help me put on the big boy pants.

I need a bit of fundamental help on my abilities, since I feel there are some grey areas I encounter which I am unsure of when to pop my cool downs.

I was hoping that you guys could help explain the optimal times when to use abilities for this fight and fights in general so that I may eventually educate myself/practice and bring my Warrior game to the next level.

Gear: Full Darklight except for my jewelry, which I am eventually replacing with DL (right now I'm wearing 4 hoplite, 1 darklight accessories). My total hp in tank mode is 6653 hp.

Inner Beast: Sometimes I am unsure when to blow IB on situations that are not after being dealt a large portion of damage (or to top off before Mountain Buster if my healer is unable to). Also, I am unsure if a situation other than being almost killed, merits I should blow IB when infuriate is not in reserve. Should IB ever be used to keep me topped off, or should I simply reserve the 10% crit and 15% healing until needed?

Infuriate: Other than in emergencies, or when I need to keep my 15% healing/10 % crit going, is there ever another time to use this cool down?

Foresight: The ability is very vague. I try to blow it when something big is coming, however, I wonder if I should be using this during sustained damage phases in a fight if my healer needs to catch up. Should I also stack this CD on top of another, or simply blow it by itself?

Berserk: Other than blowing this when I need to get a massive heal off, when is another time to use this ability? Due to its nature I am a bit reserved to use it, as the pacify effect is very annoying, and at times down right scary to encounter. Should I ever be using Berserk if I don't use IB, such as in situations where I'm only going to use Blood bath?

Blood Bath: I use this a lot just to keep my health high in between big bursts or to add in to my health regen. What is the optimal time to use this ability?

Convalescence: I've been using this if I know a big burst is coming or if get some bad RNG and take too many crits, and the healer needs help catching up. What is the optimal way to use this ability, and should I consider stacking it with foresight or feather foot to increase its effects? Additionally, I don't believe it does, but does this increase the health gain from abilities like I.B., Blood bath, or Second Wind enough to justify blowing them in unison?

Thrill of Battle: Is there any other way to use this ability optimally other than when anticipating big burst damage or in an emergency from taking RNG crits?

Thanks for your help and please feel free to be as descriptive as possible. The more information the better.

For Titan specifically?

Doing nothing but DPS/build threat until after the heart phase at which point prepare to soil yourself and work hard.

The first move out of heart is mountain buster (~4.5k attack), you need to be full health to live through these. After the first it always goes; auto (~800) > cleave, called rock buster (~1.8k) > auto (~800) > MB. If you don't receive ample healing you will die. I recommend ALWAYS having an IB ready and popping after the cleave, it should almost top you up. Your HP is a tad low though, so I would rotate a single cooldown on before each MB on top of the IB. Anything would work, infuriate, foresight, thrill should all take the edge off (even a pot). As long as you're full after the cleave you'll probably pull through. If you're topped before the MB hits use the IB to help you get back to full, especially if it's the MB before the tumults. Oh and use convalescence before the MB.

I also don't recommend trying to hard to dodge the bombs, just pop a CD and tank it if it's not simple to dodge (don't tank 2 though for the love of god make sure only one will hit you). Dragging titan around the map is the quickest way to wipe a PUG group in human history.

Some advice from my experience:

- Don't feel like you NEED 3 healers, 2 can keep you topped up just fine and that will leave room for 1 more DPS to contribute to heart killing. Obviously if you DF it you'll get another tank which is still better than 3 healers.

- Mountain Buster can be pretty terrifying the first time. When you get to this point, make sure to use whatever 1 or 2 cooldowns you've got available to mitigate some of the damage. He'll always do it after a left cleave so when you see that you know what's coming next. There's a lot you can do in this situation - keeping featherfoot on cooldown is a good idea, as well as bloodbath. IB > Infuriate > IB > HS > Vengence> SS > BB > etc is solid to do after the MB, and you can just do IB > Infuriate before the MB if you aren't properly topped up and then another after the MB. ToB + Convalescence is a good combo, use this when you can after a MB. Foresight before is obviously something you should do if it's available to you. Second Wind (though a small health increase) is an option if you're running low on things to pop and I'm pretty sure it can be combined with Berserk to increase the healing potential. Make sure to get up a Maim > Storm's Eye before you do your IB if possible as it will make a good amount of difference if you can - don't feel like you NEED to, though.

- Tell any WHM/SCH/SMN in the group to put up Virus on Titan before he does his MB. (Note: Virus doesn't stack, it only adds time each use, so you'll likely only need 1) This will be EXTREMELY helpful. Bard also has a debuff but I forget the name.

- Though only slightly more difficult (and I guess sort of risky), you can actually walk to the edge of the arena when the bombs appear, stand between two of them (slightly to the left) and completely avoid every single bomb pattern. If your party is willing to sacrifice a wipe for you to get this down then it's paramount that you do as it will get rid of a lot of unneeded damage you could potentially take.

- Do whatever you can to contribute to DPS on the heart. Obviously don't get rid of Defiance, but do pop Unchained here if you've got Infuriate up. I also recommend tanking him in the middle of the room as he doesn't do bombs during this phase and you can immediately start work instead of waiting for him to come to you (aggro resets on the heart and WHM will likely start Medica 2ing after the heart appears). Berserk, Internal Release, anything you've got to help damage-wise should be used here. Just make sure not to use Berserk too late as it'd be best not to be pacified for the first MB. :P

- Communication is key! If you have a way to communicate the rotation to your fellow party members, do it. It will save them a lot of pain.

- Don't worry, this fight isn't actually that hard to tank. It's more stressful on the healers than anyone else, even w/ a PLD. As long as you've got a good party then you'll pull it off. Make sure nobody gives up after just one wipe, though! :)

Someone sent me this, I think it will help :D http://i.imgur.com/KP8wXYZ.png

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

- Though only slightly more difficult (and I guess sort of risky), you can actually walk to the edge of the arena when the bombs appear, stand between two of them (slightly to the left) and completely avoid every single bomb pattern. If your party is willing to sacrifice a wipe for you to get this down then it's paramount that you do as it will get rid of a lot of unneeded damage you could potentially take.

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Could be wrong, but I don't think this works post heart, the arena is too small.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

- Do whatever you can to contribute to DPS on the heart. Obviously don't get rid of Defiance, but do pop Unchained here if you've got Infuriate up. I also recommend tanking him in the middle of the room as he doesn't do bombs during this phase and you can immediately start work instead of waiting for him to come to you

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I really don't recommend this; it's confusing and makes dodging plumes harder. Additionally you can run up thwack him and run back if you don't want to waste time.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

(aggro resets on the heart and WHM will likely start Medica 2ing after the heart appears). Berserk, Internal Release, anything you've got to help damage-wise should be used here. Just make sure not to use Berserk too late as it'd be best not to be pacified for the first MB. :P

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99% sure that is incorrect, I've had Titan hitting me when I'm not 1st on threat. I'm pretty sure due to it being a separate entity it has a separate threat table, BUT the heart isn't attacking you, Titan is, so as long as you have a lead the healer shouldn't pull. I don't know the specifics but he definitely still follows Titan's threat not the heart.

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Originally Posted by Nailkita

Someone sent me this, I think it will help :D http://i.imgur.com/KP8wXYZ.png

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That picture is really good, but it doesn't detail the specifics of how an MB comes out, important to know as a Warrior because he does a few things to the tank non-tanks wouldn't notice before hand.

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Originally Posted by RapBreon

Could be wrong, but I don't think this works post heart, the arena is too small.

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Worked for me post heart. Infact there's a video that basically applies this principle to one spot during the final phase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KrW2ppJ3_0

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Originally Posted by RapBreon

I really don't recommend this; it's confusing and makes dodging plumes harder. Additionally you can run up thwack him and run back if you don't want to waste time.

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It's about the same, but yeah it does shorten the room to move around a bit.

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Originally Posted by RapBreon

99% sure that is incorrect, I've had Titan hitting me when I'm not 1st on threat. I'm pretty sure due to it being a separate entity it has a separate threat table, BUT the heart isn't attacking you, Titan is, so as long as you have a lead the healer shouldn't pull. I don't know the specifics but he definitely still follows Titan's threat not the heart.

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This is probably true, I usually just panic when I'm not high on the threat table. :P If that's the case, yeah, you can just sit back and DPS the heart since most stuff won't be hitting you that hard during this phase.

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

Worked for me post heart. Infact there's a video that basically applies this principle to one spot during the final phase: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KrW2ppJ3_0

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Hmmm, I see that it doesn't seem to work for the circle bomb pattern (which is the hardest to dodge). But it does work for the line bombs if you get shafted with him dropping them horizontal relative to you. Interesting good link, very enlightening, ty.

titan's threat carries over to heart(however you can't provoke the heart), i know this because I died and was rezzed just before heart phase unable to provoke, then couldn't get aggro on the heart and it was a wipe :p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KrW2...qshqAPIjJtHIzy

This is a good video showing the spot past Heart Phase that allows minimal movement needed to dodge the bombs.

Edging bombs does work, but it really increases your chances of eating two bombs, which as a WAR is a death sentence. Even with 7500 HP as WAR it's a rough fight, so I usually tank it as PLD for farm days so we can run single healer, yaaaa faster than CM/AK and I have every Titan weapon for alts :). Pretty much as a tank you can sleep pre heart phase, save berserk + unchained for heart phase. Post heart phase he will Mountain Buster right after he drops, then after every Landslide a Mountain Buster is coming next. Typically as PLD I use a CD for every Mountain Buster, but as a WAR having pretty trash CDs you can try and save IB for every Buster. Also that late into the fight if you have enough threat keep Maim + Storm's Eye up to boost IB. If you have the DRG set from AK you can swap to that, Garuda's Axe and go back to MRD with all the cross class abilities you can do some great DPS for pre-mades.

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

Second Wind (though a small health increase) is an option if you're running low on things to pop and I'm pretty sure it can be combined with Berserk to increase the healing potential.

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It doesn't. SW just scales off attack power, and Berserk modifies damage, not attack power. SW can crit though, so I imagine that Internal Release modifies its crit rate.

titan is much more about positioning than which ability you use and when - at least as a warrior

paladins will need to pop a mitigation cooldown after every landslide post heart - you don't have that option

scream at your healers to be topped off + stoneskin after landslides, or you will likely fall over

outside of that, you need to learn where to position yourself, specifically for the bombs

the circle pattern is easy enough to cheese by standing in the middle of two bombs, and backing up to the edge of the platform

the X pattern is simple, odds are you're in a safe spot already - any cardinal direction is safe, the bombs lay out across the diagonals

the 3 line pattern is where i see a lot of novice titan tanks screw up, he'll lay one row down the middle, then a second at at one side, then a third at the opposite side - you want to be at the end of that third row by the time his landslide finishes casting (bombs start exploding immediately after the landslide - and always in the order they dropped)

you basically just run to the end of that third row, wait for the landslide, then strafe back to the middle

although if you move too early your party will have a pretty rough landslide, move too late and you'll eat a burst which will likely be the death of you

as far as abilities though?

when you pull titan, you want unchained and berserk active before you tomahawk

it's actually very important to get an early threat lead, as most DDs tend to pop every timer they have on the pull, and most white mages don't realize how much threat a medica II puts out (700 total potency x 8 targets x 0.7 healing enmity)

honestly it's a good habit to get in to just pop your damage timer on the pull regardless of the fight, paladins pop fight or flight on the pull, you should pop berserk+unchained

outside of the pull though, you may want to save your berserks for IBs, and you -absolutely- want to be infuriated when titan does a landslide, he follows the landslide with a rock buster (~1.5k) and then a mountain buster (~4.5k) and he's still autoattacking over the top of those abilities

ideally you have your stacks up for the first couple heals you get after/during the mountain buster, then hit inner beast, don't hit it too early or you've screwed yourself out of 15% more cure2/adloquium

still, abilities aren't that important, learning where to stand/move to avoid the bombs 100% of the time is all a tank really needs to know

if you don't eat a burst before the mountain buster, you should live, and if you didn't it was the healer's fault

if you do eat a burst before the mountain buster, you most likely die and you should feel bad for wiping the group.

the joys of tanking :s