Turn 5 - We just cannot get through snake phase all alive

Dear friends

We been doing turn 5 for 2 weeks now. Conflag was always passed beautifully, but it would stop on divebomb snake phase. Raid Composition is : PLD, WAR, DRG, SMN, BLM, BARD, SCH, WHM

Some notes on our strategy :
1. everybody stack on slope for 1st phase divebomb. Dodge accrodingly
2. Snake spawn, MT take large snake, OT take adds. Melee DPS large snake, BLM and Bard AOE on hygea. SMN put Dots. Hygea would be 60%, and large snake (cant spell the name) would be 85%
3. 2nd phase divebomb-all stack on the slope and dodge. 5th divebomb OT take the other 2 hygea.
4. Rendezvous on middle. BLM LB 2, dps finish rest of hygea and then burn large snake.

Problem is :
> We seem cant get to LB 3, and LB 2 (seem) not enough time to kill all of them
> Do OT and MT need to kite the snakes out of slope on 2nd phase divebomb ? because the stacks and snake animation is covering the green target, and get some of us hit
> how to avoid hygea's debuff on death , it gets melee and tanks. Even if i survived the snake phase, twin's atheryc would kill me cause of the debuff

1. You don't kill all the snakes with the lb, just the first 2 small ones. They debuff the other 2 and you focus them down fast enough to debuff the big one. The idea is to have a cascading debuff effect. You only need to damage down the small snakes enough for them to die to lb, so have everyone focus the big one as much as possible. As a BLM I just do a aoe rotation with double flare then focus the big one.

2. That's a risky strat, makes it harder for tank to stay alive. There's no easy way this is IMO the hardest part of the fight. Practice

3. Snakes will stay still during the death animation, giving you time to run. Just focus on the large snake when lb happens the ranged should take care of it.

Its sad what reactionary nerfing does for the greater population... here you have a small portion of the gaming population triumph over Turn 5 using key skills, then those skills get nerfed to hell leading to an even smaller, more lucky, portion of the population beating Turn 5.

I'm just waiting on a nerf to Turns 1-5. 1-4 is enough for me to have fun with, but 5 is too OP, and grossly unbalanced with very few fun, and working mechanics among many more stupid ones.

Its a better strategy to wait for Turns 6-10 to be released THEN go for Turns 1-5. Gives SE time to figure out what the hell they're doing, since they quite obviously don't in terms of working mechanics, accessibility and difficulty - which is easily proven with 2.1's content.

The reason for killing all 4 snakes at the same time is to prevent Dissemination from causing unnecessary damage/deaths from divebombs and the 2nd set of snakes. However, if you're having issues staying alive, you'll take far less tank damage if you simply kill the first two Hygieia.

How we originally did it: Kill the first Hygieia immediately, wait for Divebombs, have the BLM pop Manaward and kill the second Hygieia, and then move on to the next two.

I tanked the other night on the kill, but from what I remember, from my perspective, the dps got the first 2 hygeia to like 15%, and ascelpius to like 80ish%. I pulled those snakes to the second set of hygeias. I pop rampart, convalescence, and sentinel, then blm does flare and smn does the lb. Sometimes it was lb2 sometimes 3, but I htink our kill was only a lb2 (dont need 3). This brings second 2 hygeias to like less than 5% and we just nuke them and I pull the big snake to the middle to wait for Twin to reappear. All the snakes have to be dead before Twin appears, otherwise, if I am not mistaken, the debuff will still be present and people will die. (<Not 100% sure about this. I never remember seeing the debuffs still there after killing the big snake. I do remember not finishing the snake on failed attempts, Twin appears, and we pretty much instantly wipe, so I believe I am right on this)

Make sure noone is pulling aggro either. There were a few times I died tanking just bc I didnt use my cooldowns optimally, but the rest of the team was always fine bc I held threat on all of the snakes. I dont think others will take damage unless the tank loses aggro on something. Make sure the tank pops CDs like I said. Then when I am going to pick up snake 4 and 5, I shield lob the left and run and flash the right, run back to the first 3 snakes, spam flash a few times, then help dps the snakes down.

Some ppl say this is the hardest part of the fight. Some say its the easiest. As a tank, its the most stressful for me lol. Nothing else about the fight really bothers me

I think the most helpful thing is to get advise from a tank that has t5 on clear, from what I hear it is the most stressful part of the fight for them by far but other jobs can't really relate.

We had issues in our group as well at first best advice as a drg is don't be afraid to get in the thick of it. Save dfd for immediately after the first 2 disceminates land in the middle on a lb3 this will kill the other 2 outright on lb2 toss no more then 2rot after that and let your ranged finish them off so you are at speed in your rotation an can apply spike dmg whenever 4 stacks are up. If the big one don't die it is fully the melee'a fault.

Surviving aytheric with stacks is easily done. Have your heals preferably whom ss you.(incoming sacrilege) pop foresight for it, suggest trading out bloodbath or mercy stroke depending on your cross classes. Starting at 4600 hp and 4 stacks I survive with 900 hp. Without, I take a whopping 450 dmg

What my group does is melee on big snake and some AOE damage applied to smaller ones during divebombs.

On the 5th divebomb the tank(s... last couple weeks we've done 1tank but my first 4 or 5 clears were 2tanks with same strat) run out of the divebomb pit across to where the other 2 snakes spawn. As soon as the last divebomb is being cast, everyone else follows the tanks. Caster uses LB2 on the whole pack (where they spawn... we do not waste time repositioning the snakes). MT uses Hallowed Ground as soon as LB hits because he'll get debuff stacks. Everyone burns down the other 2 small snakes.

As soon as HG wears off, tank uses another cooldown and I (as MNK) pop Mantra for him. Everyone goes to town on the big snake with 4 debuff stacks while tank is slowly moving it back towards the neurolinks (can't move quickly or it messes up melee DPS range). Early kills before we were as geared (and doing it with 2 tanks) were cutting it pretty close with the damage debuff falling off like milliseconds before Twin's AOE blast sometimes, but we're all i90 now so we sometimes have up to 10 seconds between the time the big snake goes down and Twin blasts.

We used to have issues with the debuff causing people to die to Twin's blast. If that's happening and it's really close to falling off, it means you aren't killing the small snakes quickly enough (you can also work on positioning the snakes to avoid the debuff if you don't have the gear/DPS to just stay in debuff range and make it, but positioning them can eat precious time better spent on DPS...it just depends on your group so I can't tell you for sure one way or the other which method to use). You can easily do it with LB2. Use stat boost potions for this phase, have DPS time their cooldowns, make sure BRD is using Requiem with BV, etc.

Also, I would suggest for your group that your SMN do the LB instead of your BLM. The reason for this is the SMN can apply fresh DoTs to big snake during divebombs then Bane DoTs onto the new small snakes then cast LB and not lose much DPS. A BLM casting LB instead of working on a Flare combo is smaller group DPS gain than a SMN casting LB instead of casting Ruin. At least that's what the casters in my group have chatted about on TS.

hth

One healer for each tank in that phase.

Practice, also more practice

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3rdeye

> We seem cant get to LB 3, and LB 2 (seem) not enough time to kill all of them

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As mentioned above, you need to take the first two Hygieia lower before bringing them to the middle after the 2nd set of dive bombs. I would recommend 10% if possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3rdeye

> Do OT and MT need to kite the snakes out of slope on 2nd phase divebomb ? because the stacks and snake animation is covering the green target, and get some of us hit

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I don't recommend kiting personally. On an individual basis, players can turn spell/ability effects from other players to "limited" or "none" to ameliorate difficulty seeing the dive bomb targeting circle. You can also adjust the game volume, or set up an external alarm of some kind to remind people when they need to start getting ready to dodge. From when the first set of Hygieia spawn, it's 45 seconds until the 2nd set of dive bombs, so I just look at the time remaining on the duty finder, add 25 seconds, and use that as a 10-second warning (60-25=35 seconds elapsed).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3rdeye

> how to avoid hygea's debuff on death , it gets melee and tanks. Even if i survived the snake phase, twin's atheryc would kill me cause of the debuff

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If Disseminate lasts through Aetheric Profusion, it means that the 4th Hygieia is dying too late. Your DPS players need to make sure that all of the Hygieia die as soon as they're in position and that your LB2 is firing just in time to hit the second set of Hygieia after they receive Disseminate.

Try to have all your DDs using mega potions of STR / DEX / INT for this phase. Ours always use them for the big snake. LB2 should be enough for this.