Ultima HM is really frustrating

I have ran Ultima HM countless times, and I've even achieved victory in a few and have gotten the ring to drop once, but I still find myself having trouble with the 2nd round of magiteck bits occasionally. The problem stems from the fact that, as soon as they spawn, I'm the target. This doesn't always happen though, but when it does either I or the tanks are as good as dead. Even Shroud doesn't seem to have any effect, while the lasers are alive I'm always the target. This makes healing anyone, including myself, impossible outside of that 1 precious Swiftcast I can use because I literally can not stand still for more than 1 second to get a cast off (not even PoM can get a cast time that low).

Of the few victories I do have with this fight, it was always with another WHM healer as the enmity between us is pretty split even and I'm only dodging half the lasers. Every single run I do with a SCH partner, I KNOW I'm going to eat these damn lasers because naturally WHM gather much more enmity than they do. It's in these parties that I constantly find myself dying.

If I stand still just long enough to cast, I am taking damage from half the lasers and die.
If I wait until those lasers cast and sidestep to avoid them to cast, the other half of them kill me (because they never seem to fire in unison, the attacks are always placed EXACTLY far enough apart to prevent me from standing still for more than 1 second).
If I just keep running around like a chicken with its head cut off in order to ensure my own survival, party and tanks don't get heals and tanks end up wiping to that refraction skill, or party wipes to the crashes following immediately after tank purge.

DPS can only kill them so fast as they are pretty spread out. For the entire duration that these things live I just pray no one dies to the boss's AoEs because I literally can do nothing to help until there are few enough bits left to get casts in between the lasers. This is incredibly frustrating because this one mechanic literally just cripples my ability to do my job.

As I've stated before, it's not always an issue. When I'm partied with another WHM, he/she usually draws some of them away, so we essentially split them enough so that we can each manage to dodge them long enough to get some heals out. It's when I'm partied with a SCH that every run ends up with me dying because I'm taking the full brunt of all the enmity, and the lasers target ONLY me the entire time they are alive. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing 6 AoE lines converging on your character every 1-2 seconds and having no way to stop it.

How do you guys get around this mechanic CONSISTENTLY? I know I should expect the DPS to be dodging the things they can, but not being able to throw a single heal out to anyone is really bothering me.

I've never really had this problem as most of the lasers seem to be in synch. Also, I noticed that some of the lasers appear to have blind spots. That's to say, I will notice a line in front of the laser, but a snub of a line behind the laser. I'd have to look at this more, but all I can say is that your DD need to burn a few of them down fast to give you more room to work with, especially for the AOE blasts. I've never had an Ultima group that didn't down it. I got Ultima on my first go in a DF pug. Not really sure why some people appear to have really bad luck with this run.

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Originally Posted by Jyoeru

I've never really had this problem as most of the lasers seem to be in synch. Also, I noticed that some of the lasers appear to have blind spots. That's to say, I will notice a line in front of the laser, but a snub of a line behind the laser. I'd have to look at this more, but all I can say is that your DD need to burn a few of them down fast to give you more room to work with, especially for the AOE blasts. I've never had an Ultima group that didn't down it. I got Ultima on my first go in a DF pug. Not really sure why some people appear to have really bad luck with this run.

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Bad luck is essentially my problem, and that's what bothers me more than anything. The runs that these lasers don't do this, everything is peachy keen and we usually wrap things up quickly and smoothly in our farm runs. However, those magical runs where I become public enemy number 1 for the magiteck bits...I'm the one accepting raises. There is literally no way to shake that enmity, and all I can do is PRAY the tanks use a cooldown to stay alive, and the DPS can burn them fast enough that I can get a moment's rest from my dodge-dancing to pop an AoE heal out after the explosions. I don't like just sitting there praying, I want to be able to function and contribute.

Let me put it this way, Jyoeru: If you one-shot Ultima HM in a DF group, you're lucky.

I've done this fight a few dozen times (and been successful about 10-12 of those, without a single healer drop coming up), and I'll say that how hard it is to heal is entirely dependent on how smart (or not) your group is. This makes sense, as like 70%+ of the damage to the party is avoidable in some way. It's frustrating because you have far less control as a healer to fix stupid. For example:

- Lone DPS charges into a bomb, he dies.
- Tank LB3 not cast as planned on third set of bombs? Likely wipe.
- Tanks not using defensive CDs on four airship phase? Enjoy your likely death.
- DPS not attacking bits? Guess whose healing output goes down due to dodging every 3 seconds.
- Other healer not carrying his weight and derping? Just guess who's going have to bust ass.
- DPS not avoiding the bad (see: Ifrit)? Ooh, look, Swiftcast + Raise is going to be used often.
- Moron runs right into you + healer during eruption phase when tank has lowish HP? LOLBADHEALZ NO HEAL TANK YO. /facepalm
- Tank walks up to you during first airship crash, points boss at you, and lets you get hit by diffractive laser for 3.6k damage (that has happened to me...twice)? LOLZ HEALZ L2DODGE
- And other things I learn people can fail at that I never even fathomed possible.

Ultima HM is designed to make you weep for the ignorance of humanity and teach you that you cannot cure it. It requires you to have some faith in your party, which will inevitably eat away at your sanity as they fail to circumvent simple mechanics.

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Originally Posted by Wilbow

Let me put it this way, Jyoeru: If you one-shot Ultima HM in a DF group, you're lucky.

I've done this fight a few dozen times (and been successful about 10-12 of those, without a single healer drop coming up), and I'll say that how hard it is to heal is entirely dependent on how smart (or not) your group is. This makes sense, as like 70%+ of the damage to the party is avoidable in some way. It's frustrating because you have far less control as a healer to fix stupid. For example:

- Lone DPS charges into a bomb, he dies.
- Tank LB3 not cast as planned on third set of bombs? Likely wipe.
- Tanks not using defensive CDs on four airship phase? Enjoy your likely death.
- DPS not attacking bits? Guess whose healing output goes down due to dodging every 3 seconds.
- Other healer not carrying his weight and derping? Just guess who's going have to bust ass.
- DPS not avoiding the bad (see: Ifrit)? Ooh, look, Swiftcast + Raise is going to be used often.
- Moron runs right into you + healer during eruption phase when tank has lowish HP? LOLBADHEALZ NO HEAL TANK YO. /facepalm
- Tank walks up to you during first airship crash, points boss at you, and lets you get hit by diffractive laser for 3.6k damage (that has happened to me...twice)? LOLZ HEALZ L2DODGE
- And other things I learn people can fail at that I never even fathomed possible.

Ultima HM is designed to make you weep for the ignorance of humanity and teach you that you cannot cure it. It requires you to have some faith in your party, which will inevitably eat away at your sanity as they fail to circumvent simple mechanics.

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I worded that poorly. I consider a run the whole time one run takes. First go for me meant the first time I queued up for it. We wiped three times, but downed it. Sorry if that came out wrong.

Sadly, people struggle way more with Garuda than I see with Ultima, and Ultima is a harder fight IMO.

Stand in the middle. Theres a delay between the beam on the ground, and the actual attack itself. So if you need to pinch off a heal, do it. Shroud isn't going to help you. If you're really having a problem, put regen on people. Or stone skin yourself prior to that phase, so if you have to take a hit, you can. I suggest swift cast for the last ship phase. Generally there are a few bits up and the screen gets hard to see at that point. So SC a medica 2 or whatever is needed.

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Originally Posted by Dalavon

Stand in the middle. Theres a delay between the beam on the ground, and the actual attack itself. So if you need to pinch off a heal, do it. Shroud isn't going to help you. If you're really having a problem, put regen on people. Or stone skin yourself prior to that phase, so if you have to take a hit, you can. I suggest swift cast for the last ship phase. Generally there are a few bits up and the screen gets hard to see at that point. So SC a medica 2 or whatever is needed.

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Check, check, and check. I have been doing all these thing since day one of the patch. My technique is not the problem though, it's the mechanic of the fight. Regen isn't enough to heal thru the damage the tank is taking by itself. I understand that the lasers suffer from the same animation delay as every other AoE in this game does, and I use that to my advantage just like every other fight. HOWEVER, the problem is that I simply can't squeeze off a heal EVER until well after the ships crash when the DPS has most the bits down. The lasers start synched, but 5-7 seconds in they start drifting out of synch. At some point I'm getting hit with 1 laser every .2-.4 seconds in succession, like machine gun fire. When this occurs (it doesn't always, which is why I said "bad luck" above), there is 0 time to heal as I'm holding down movement keys for close to 15 seconds straight and can't stop at all for ANYTHING. This means the only heal that goes out, the entire time this phase commences, is that single Swiftcast Medica II I always pop after the ships.

My beef with this fight is that it just seems to rely on dumb luck that either A) you won't be the primary target of the lasers, and B) they won't go out of synch so you actually HAVE time between the shots to squeeze the heal off. The fight shouldn't come down to this. As far as the fight goes, it's my favorite one to heal through. It's not too AoE heavy, and not too ST heavy. It's a perfect blend for healers with just enough "oh shit" moments that do require the party to coordinate to overcome. I've beaten it close to 15 times so far. My only qualm with this whole thing is the seemingly random nature of the magiteck bits going out of synch and making my life a living hell because the SCH in the party pulls no where near the enmity my WHM does, and thus becomes the sole party and tank healer while I'm dancing in and out of blue beams for 30 seconds.

Whenever I do this fight, especially with tanks who are 'new' to it... I advise them to please have mitigation cooldowns ready during magitek phases. That is the only time healers will be forced to move a lot. I will also save "Eye for an Eye" and Virus for this time too, assuming someone else doesn't throw it off. These cooldowns are not 'always' necessary, but it is possible for both you and another healer to get really unlucky with targeting. I try to keep a safe distance from the rest of the party, so I won't be caught in the cross-hairs of anyone's lasers but the ones pointed at me. This can help a little bit, but don't forget to be standing close-ish to mid when meteors drop.

The 2nd airship always get me. it's very tricky cuz if everyone starts moving to the middle too soon it becomes a kill zone from the lasers. I've tried to time the airstrike but the animation fooled me and i went in too late. People asked me to precast Medica II but the heal won't get off if I'm one shotted by lasers+strike in the middle. Not to mention Tank Purge happens around when the bits spawn so you have to decide when to burn your divine seal and maybe swiftcast. After the airstrike Ultima usually does the 4k attack on the tank so that sequence is very unforgiving. The real key is to have good coordination with the other healer. If one is doing Medica the other is doing single target etc...

Although the bits do not fire their lazers at the same time, after the LAST bit has fired it's lazer, there will be about a 3-4 second window that you can cast your heals, that timing is what you should strive for.
The following strat is one that I came up with and it works extremely well for me whenever I run this. If you aren't in a static, you need to let your party know a few things.

1. If you are with another whm, figure out who is healing the main tank, and who is healing the rest of the party during the bomb and lazer phases. I personally ask the other healer to heal the tank while I heal the party since I am comfortable with the strategy I have. If you are with a sch, definately make the sch heal the MT, while you as whm heal the party during those phases.
2. Mark yourself with a sign. Tell the party to follow you during the bomb phases, and tell everyone to align themselves so that when Ultima uses aetherial boom, they get pushed to the south. Also tell them to activate the bomb you are close to when they see you start casting cure III, that way cure III will hit the party immediately after the bomb bursts. One cure III will heal the group to full hp. Detonate the North-South bombs first, then the East-West ones after. Let the off tank know either to go with the group, or stay away from the explosions, the OT doesn't need to explode one by themself.
3. As whm, cast protect on anyone that is raised, as we have shell with it aswell. If the other healer is a sch, let them know to cover the tank so that you have time to cast protect during battle.
4. Make sure to use focus target on Ultima so you can see when it does aetherial boom to position yourself to get knocked back to the south end, aswell as tank purge so you can precast your med/med II.

The reason I mentioned the above strategy, is that it makes the fight easier, aswell as the transition to the 2nd lazer phase easier. Since you are topping everyone up with cure III during bomb phase, there's no chance of someone solo'ing a bomb and dying, also saves someone from dying afterwards from either the green balls/ green line lazer, or tank purge right before the 2nd lazer phase.

After the bombs and green balls, Ultima will tank purge and it goes to lazer phase, make sure to precast medica II, and throw in a medica right after. If everyone is able to avoid the lazers, they should be full or near full health for the arms that come down on the sides. If someone does get hit, you can cast a cure on them in the window I mentioned in my first sentence, and you can also regen while running. For when the arms come down on the sides, you can do either a medica II at that moment, or if everyone is bunched up on top of you in the middle, you can cast a cure III, you will have to precast this aoe though. After that, it's more dodging lazers while getting in cures and regens when needed until the dps kill all of the bits. Once you get the timing down on this phase, the rest is cake.

If you are dealing with a sub-par co-heal or a sub-par tank, there are a few things you can do during this phase to help. You can divine seal+regen on the main tank, use eye for an eye, and virus if needed. You can throw in some cures if really needed as the rest of the group should have medica II still active, but make sure the dps's hp are near topped up for when the arms come down. Save your benediction for this part just in case too and use it if tank gets 1k hp or less. I tend to save presence of mind for in case Ultima goes on countdown to enrage, I spam stone II with it. If you are designated on party healing, and you are weaving in and out of lazers while casting heals, and the tank still dies, then there is a problem with either the tank or the other healer. Make sure the tank saves cool downs for this phase since both healers need to be moving around alot, have them save hallowed ground for this specific phase. Make sure the other healer is aware there is a window between lazers shooting that they can get healing in, and if needed they can eat a lazer or more, depending on their hp. Make sure they are also saving their cooldowns for this phase, as it is the hardest phase to cure in since you are constantly running around.

For bits, I usually have no choice but to use only Medicas, standing roughly in the center while hopefully still close enough for Med to hit the MT. Your DPS is hopefully rational enough to focus down bits one or two at a time so that there's less to dodge as soon as possible. If I'm in midcast and just one laser beam ends up falling on me, then I stand still and let my spell finish because each bit doesn't hit that hard.

Priority is still always on the MT though. Cure2 as needed. If you see green lasers, then top off the MT and be ready to Stoneskin after the third laser since Diffractive usually comes a few seconds after.
On that note, I never spend Swiftcast on Med. I save it for raises since most tanks I've seen are death-prone to Diffractive, often not knowing when to pop cooldowns for it, or getting brought down to double-digits even if they did. And then there's the occasional player who's lagging and gets hit by Ifrit's charge or something.

Try moving a tiny bit out of the laser's path and be trigger happy on the cure. You should be able to cast before the next laser hits you. Doesn't always work, but if you just move a little bit and then cast immediately you should be able to get a cure off most of the time. Also, you can move before the cast animation completes if you move right when the cast bar gets close to zero.

Due to how the server handles checks you can actually cast and move before the cast ends. It will still go off :)
It takes a bit of practice but once you get the hang of it it's easy to get a cast of while dodging lasers. Even a cure II.

During the first set of lasers you want to be all the way out to the side but close to the tanks so you can dance but still reach the MT easily.

Also, make sure your tanks know how to dodge..lazy tanks on this fight can make it hell for a healer.
Again, assigning one healer to do MT healing and the other focus on the group while both help out if one gets into trouble works really well.

However, this is really a teamwork check and if your dps get hit by things they can avoid all the time it's not really your fault :)

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Originally Posted by Wilbow

- Moron runs right into you + healer during eruption phase when tank has lowish HP? LOLBADHEALZ NO HEAL TANK YO. /facepalm

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I laughed. The fun eruptions are when both healers get it and run to each other. Good times.

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Originally Posted by Velox

My technique is not the problem though, it's the mechanic of the fight.

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If other healers are able to complete the fight successfully without encountering your issues, the problem is your technique, not the fight. It may feel a bit stressful, but it's entirely possible to cast cure IIs on the main tank during the laser parts. You just have to time your movement and casting well (there's already tips for this by others in this thread), and in the worst case eat a laser or two. You should also have Medica II up on the whole party (that should be enough to heal them, can also Medica or Cure III with Swiftcast right after the planes), cast it with Divine Seal and keep Regen on main tank too.

The 2nd laser phase is easy - as a Scholar I focus heal on tank while the whm raid heals. When the 4 airships drop and people run to center, I throw Sacred Soil there and keep spam healing tank while whm Cure III everyone. Spread out to avoid lasers as soon as those airships hit the ground.

In my experience, groups wipe there when the healers don't communicate and overlap heals too much on either the tank or raid.

I'm amazed you have a problem with yourself - for me it's always some tank who doesn't understand how to use cooldowns or has terrible gear and ends up dying and then therefore wiping the party. I'm a scholar though and the best advice I have is "stay out of the fire" and during the laser bits run somewhere where you are in the range of being able to heal the tanks.

With the middle lasers portion - run into the middle where there's no lasers and continue to pay attention to where you should be standing until the ships drop.
Soon as you can't see the lasers and ship drop animation happens you should be RUNNING AWAY.
You do not need to "stand in the middle" until the airship animation finishes and by doing so you're leaving yourself susceptible to a laser.

Essentially it's "ultima's ballad" and well you'll be finding yourself "dancing around the room" most of the run :D

I main WHM for this fight and this is the most difficult it part of the fight to heal through. Your PLD tank needs to save hallowed ground for when the second airships come down. (Holmgang for WAR?) If I am pugging a group I will ask the MT to save their biggest cooldowns for this phase.

For my own strat I will Divine Seal > swiftcast cure 2 as the bits spawn. I then place a buffed regen on the MT, E4E and virus Ultima. With all the debuffs up cure 1 is enough to keep the MT up while throwing out an occasional heal to dps who get hit by bits. If things get scary I pop PoM and start spamming cures. After airships I will aoe heal the raid again and help top off the tank.

I find the lasers to be rather easy - even if I have them all on me, I can always stop and get of a heal. ALL the lasers fire on an easy to grasp rhythm, and your heals can fit in nicely. As stated above, you simply need the cast bar to hit about 8/10 complete and it will still go off, practice outside of combat if need be (or just try it when everyone is prepping as I think the latency in Ultima is improved vs in zones). Simply need to remember - any 'latency' that you blame on enemy AoEs hitting you, also works the exact same in your favour.

Lasers appear > move slightly > cast to 8/10 > lasers appear > move slightly > cast again > repeat. If need be, take one laser hit - one won't kill you. If you cannot get a heal off, use Regen at least whilst moving. If you have all the lasers then the other healer should be having a much easier time.

I've also never had an issue with a tank getting too damaged by the airship, if they move to the midpoint of the landing zones on the outside, they won't take too much damage. By then enough lasers should be down you can precast a heal on the tank anyway.

Also, when the green lasers start appearing, simply run behind Ultima (or to the side) as it only cast them in 45°, 90° and 135° from where it is facing. Even standing slightly in front and slightly to the side is easy enough to dodge.

I usually encounter another WHM for Ultima so I don't know if it is more because there are 2 WHMs or not, but I usually can still cast something amidst bits, there is always that tiny piece of land between the lasers. I know that I can move half a second before the cast actually finishing (probably due to lag) so I do it. In the event I can't move, 3 bits won't kill me, each is just about 400 or something, no biggie.

I have more problem with tanks dying after Aetheric Boom.

I just cleared Ultima in duty finder with another SCH, and as far as I can tell, enmity has little, if any, to do with the targeting. Anyways, what we did was we stood in two different spots opposite of each other so that if the bits all target one person, the other is free to spam Cure on the tank, and if the bits split, then we both have plenty of breathing room to move. I personally did Divine Seal + Regen + Swiftcast + Medica II + E4E + Virus all in one go, just in case I was too busy dodging. Turned out to be overkill as I could still clip Cures in while dodging.

Ive done this fight successfully many times as DPS, recently started TRYING to do it as tank to get the accessories...nightmare lol. I avoid everything its possible to avoid, I keep getting beat down by his regular attacks, is it a healer issue? I use my CD's appropriately, I just seem to go so long without heals all the time ><. Ive gone the whole duration of Hallowed ground, all my other CD's, all while spamming stoneskin on myself and still don't get healed.

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Originally Posted by xEscaflownex

Ive done this fight successfully many times as DPS, recently started TRYING to do it as tank to get the accessories...nightmare lol. I avoid everything its possible to avoid, I keep getting beat down by his regular attacks, is it a healer issue? I use my CD's appropriately, I just seem to go so long without heals all the time ><. Ive gone the whole duration of Hallowed ground, all my other CD's, all while spamming stoneskin on myself and still don't get healed.

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I find some healers get too focused on healing the party when a large amount of damage comes in, such as during Tank Purges or when popping orbs. Unfortunately, Diffractive Laser does a huge amount of damage and most healers just aren't expecting it. It helps if the healers are given designated targets; one on tanks and the other on party. When I'm off-tanking I'll also use Stoneskin the current tank and then restore my MP with Riot Blade if I need it.

Ya, I've started doing that as well, diffractive laser hits around 1600-2k usually I think, I find myself sitting under 3k (less than half HP) quite often for extended periods of time for whatever reason, so diffractive plus auto attacks usually end in death. I even switched to heals for a few runs to see the fight from their perspective and didn't have any issues healing with everything going on, so its super frustrating, I'll just grab allagan castoffs or spend some myth when I'm done with other jobs, tired of trying this as tank, cant come across any decent heals in pugs.

That's the main issue I find, you can't really carry the other healer to the max. If your whm you should be aoe healing during large aoe, if your sch you should be focused on tanks during large aoe. If your job stacking figure out which healer is doing what role. Below 50% tanks need to stay near full health. His attacks are magical and I never seen them miss. War is the better tank here, more health/cure received. Outside of Pld poping hollowed during lazer don't expect them to be rotating CD's since they only have rampart(20sec duration, 90sec CD)/sentinel(10sec duration, 3min CD)/conval(20sec duration 2min CD). This is a healer based fight, if tanks are swapping @3stacks poping sentinal or hollowed/vengance during 2nd lazers, there pretty much doing all they can for the most part.

As ilv90 Pld just over 7k health i've died to this numerous times maybe 20/30runs.., as ilv77 whm I've died like 1time outside of a wipe in about 50runs. Both healers need to be on there toes, I'm sure HP helps here tho with about 32vit in ilv70 acc's/10points in vit+food i have about 4.7k health.

Because it is the only thread I've seen it brought up in without necro'ing old threads, it is good practice to play around with that extra .2-.3 seconds of cast time that still allows you to pull off a spell. This works for any and all castings. Getting the hang of it, I've used it as a PLD while tanking Titan HM to dodge plums when needed and I want to help mitigate something during chaos ensuing from DPS dropping, or Ultima HM as the OT on the MT and healers. While it can seem to be negligible, the little time saved by the above practice can be a lifeline. Especially as a healer.

Just my two cents. Others mentioned it above but I won't quote them as I'm too lazy to do it from my phone.

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Originally Posted by AlrikRouge

Because it is the only thread I've seen it brought up in without necro'ing old threads, it is good practice to play around with that extra .2-.3 seconds of cast time that still allows you to pull off a spell despite your moving before the casting is finished

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EDIT: see above italics and bold. That's what it should have said. Stupid no edit on phone....

Didn't read everything here but there are some good tips. I've mainly cleared this tanking, with a few runs on Whm and Drg. You can bait some of the lasers by standing along the edge. Ideally everyone should be along the edge for that phase so lasers target out instead of in, then moving to the middle safe zone for the ships. Doesn't work 100% of the time but it can help. Also make sure DPS is focusing on the same laser bit, to take them out asap (something like a clock-wise rotation, if tank is at 12 o'clock start dps at 6).

Diffractive laser is a beast, he does it right after every other debuff (Viscous Aetherplasm or w/e the hell its called) stack. He does the debuff stack right after Cereleum Vent (close range AoE burst, it's blue). It's super hard to pay attention to all that, but if you look for the Cereleum Vent and see it, make sure the tank has good health cuz he may be eating the Diffractive laser next. It's really up to the tanks to keep track of when it's coming so they know when to use CD, but it's gonna do some heavy damage either way due to 3 or so attacks in a row (CV>VA>DL).

Other than that, it's important for DPS to stay alive the whole match. If any DPS is down for an extended period you aren't going complete before he casts Ultima. An over-geared group can compensate for that, but for the most part any DPS going down is gonna ruin the fight.

Biggest thing is probably to designate a party healer and a tank healer. Often both healers will be using AOEs to top the party up while the tanks drop off.
Also for the Bit phases if I happen to be OT at that time I've used AOE threat to grab the focus of the majority of the bits which helped the healers a lot. I'm not sure if you have to be the first to generate hate on them or if you just need to be the highest. But when you do just run East away from the party and dodge lasers.

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Originally Posted by PetiteMalFleur

I main WHM for this fight and this is the most difficult it part of the fight to heal through. Your PLD tank needs to save hallowed ground for when the second airships come down. (Holmgang for WAR?) If I am pugging a group I will ask the MT to save their biggest cooldowns for this phase.....

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I do this fight as WAR and SCH (MNK less so), and from both perspectives (and perhaps because I'm no pro at either), it is definitely startling how quickly a tanks health may drop after a vent-diffractive laser sequence; one of these always seems to occurs just when you breath a sigh of relief having dealt with that crash and tank purge. Tanks definitely need to help out the healer here with their good CD usage.

Perhaps more appropriate for the tank forum, but from a WAR perspective its probably more situational what CD you use and may depend on gear. In addition keeping SP up, definitely want to IB before the crash and then use another CD. I've found can get away with just doing Thrill of Battle+Convalescence as well if you're close to being topped off and you're in a good position. If my health is closer to 2/3 with ToB up (so ~6667/10000 ish for me) I toss in vengeance if I have it, or (bleh) foresight. Otherwise better to stagger these CD though if you are in a good position in terms of HP.

I only consider using Holmgang up front if I don't think I'll survive the crash. Holmgang carries alot of disadvantages, the shorter duration, the root, and the fact that your health may be at '1,' (I've seen alot of healers unfamiliar with this ability just give up thinking that I died... good reason for a sound effect macro I guess). The 1st few times I tried it out, I either did it too soon or I rooted myself with about 6 or so lasers pointed at me and I'm still locked even though the invulnerabilty is over. I now like to save Holmgang in case I hover at 1/3 health after the crash for extended periods of time - its tough to stay this low and stay alive with the various attacks and diffractive laser coming up.

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Originally Posted by whiskeybravo

Other than that, it's important for DPS to stay alive the whole match. If any DPS is down for an extended period you aren't going complete before he casts Ultima. An over-geared group can compensate for that, but for the most part any DPS going down is gonna ruin the fight.

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Not sure what happened during my runs at Ultima HM, but I didn't actually see "it" start casting Ultima even once...
That's after the last set of bombs with tank using LB, and I switch over to cleric's stance and start tossing stone 2 at "it".
Got my healers ring after second win :3

This fight is definitely one of the most challenging for healers, especially if you're other healer blows. Fortunately, the fight itself is not that hard. Trying to heal the tank while dodging things like Ifrit can be stressful, which can be alleviated by good tanks. SCH has much easier time with this than WHM due to Lustrate and, to a lesser extent, the pet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nekodar

Not sure what happened during my runs at Ultima HM, but I didn't actually see "it" start casting Ultima even once...
That's after the last set of bombs with tank using LB, and I switch over to cleric's stance and start tossing stone 2 at "it".
Got my healers ring after second win :3

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Ultima is cast after 10 mins.. Like a enrage timer. Good dps and you'll never see it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PenutButter

This fight is definitely one of the most challenging for healers, especially if you're other healer blows. Fortunately, the fight itself is not that hard. Trying to heal the tank while dodging things like Ifrit can be stressful, which can be alleviated by good tanks. SCH has much easier time with this than WHM due to Lustrate and, to a lesser extent, the pet.

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Sch can do fancy worth with lustre, but succor is even better in ultima.

There is a good amount of RNG even with i90 people, but it's mitigated by good teamwork. There are only really 2 times a tank can die. Outer bits(lasers) and Bombs 2 (from unlucky tank purge)

Healers don't have to be good so much as the rest of the pt needs to be good. Ifrit need to be dodged if it's coming from behind the tank. Bits (especially outer) need to be downed fast.

Pld's stoneskinning each other usually helps a lot in certain phases. As with dps that can focus and kill bits quickly, as with Melees that don't get floating bombs hit.

Healing is actually quite lax, if you simply save your big stuff for the trouble spots, but nothing will work if the other members are derping.

Ifrit dash
erruption
lasers
bombs

Those are the normal hurdles. and most of them can be mitigated by good teamwork.