Need Help with Death Sentence

What is the best way to go about making sure the tank doesn't die to death sentence or the following melee attack (I play scholar).

Currently I spread my virus and e4e on cd for seperate DSs, but our group hasn't really coordinated a rotation. When the actual death sentence occurs I try to time a adloquium(when is the best time to start casting adlo) or lustrate for as soon as it lands, but sometimes the tank dies even with full hp.

Does Galvanize need to be up on the tank for every incoming death sentence assuming they are at full hp? Should I be using adloquium as my go to spell instead of physick even during downtime to keep shield up as much as possible?Should I be using my stacks on soil or save them all for lustrate?

Any sort of help would be appreciated, thanks.

Any Death Sentence can potentially one-shot a tank. Any form of damage mitigation you can throw on it will be useful. The tank should be saving all their CDs for handling DS. If they're still getting oneshot, it might be better to get some more i90 gear and vit food.

Assuming you have all the gear and everything, I personally find myself using adlo more than physick on this fight. Adloquium should be cast before the death sentence begins casting as it takes a small window of time for the barrier effect to actually register. The same obviously applies to virus, sacred soil, and e4e, which have even longer time lags until they are effective. Stoneskin apparently can be cast before or after death sentence though. if you can throw up an adlo every time before a ds, it will improve survivability.

Use sacred soil or lustrate at your discretion. The point though is that the tank should never be taking a ds without some form of defense buff. If your tank can't get enough buffs on them, a soil might be enough to keep him alive. Essentially, if you have an unused aetherflow stack, feel free to throw a soil down.

There are also some timer mods that track death sentence among other things (divebombs, conflag, etc) you can use. I can't recommend any specific program yet, although the keywords to search for them are "twintania timer death sentence mod". Because DS is inconsistent, the mods generally give you a warning that a DS will be incoming within the next 30 seconds though. Use it how you will.

It's not only your responsibility, the whm and the tank are responsible for mitigating ds as much as they can as well. Your job is obviously to make sure an adlo is on the tank for every ds, the whm or offtank's responsibility is to make sure that a stoneskin is on the tank for every ds, and the tank themselves should have a cd up for as many ds as possible. You should have at least three people with virus/eye, so set up a rotation so that one or both of those is on twin for each death sentence. As far as timing goes, you can either use something that lasts 30 seconds right after a death sentence and time the rest of the fight based on that, or you can download a twintania app that tells you when she can cast ds (keep in mind there's no way of knowing for sure when she'll cast it, she just has a chance to cast it 30 seconds after the previous one).

As far as aetherflow usage, I tend to reserve them just for lustrate. I usually find that even with maximum mitigation, there are times where the tank takes a huge amount of damage and I want to double lustrate them. At the very least, make sure you have one aetherflow available for each death sentence. As far as physick/adlo goes, I tend to stick to my usual 2:1 ratio most of the time.

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Originally Posted by DantedmcVII

What is the best way to go about making sure the tank doesn't die to death sentence or the following melee attack (I play scholar).

Currently I spread my virus and e4e on cd for seperate DSs, but our group hasn't really coordinated a rotation. When the actual death sentence occurs I try to time a adloquium(when is the best time to start casting adlo) or lustrate for as soon as it lands, but sometimes the tank dies even with full hp.

Does Galvanize need to be up on the tank for every incoming death sentence assuming they are at full hp? Should I be using adloquium as my go to spell instead of physick even during downtime to keep shield up as much as possible?Should I be using my stacks on soil or save them all for lustrate?

Any sort of help would be appreciated, thanks.

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Aldo before a DS, get used t o lustrating immediately after a DS. If you do it right, the damage taken and heal should happen at the same time. This prevents him getting finished off with a follow up auto attack or plummet. That is all there is to it tbh, if your tank isn't mitigating properly there is nothing else you can do. One thing that can also help is your OT who should be a paladin, cast stoneskin on every DS to help mitigate even more.

Depending what tactic you use and phase , the WHM may have no time to cast SS on every DS since he has to manage the party HP so it's best if the OT does the SS during conf. etc.

Our groups aim to have Adlo (SCH), Sacred Soil (SCH) and Stoneskin (OT or MT) up for every Death Sentence. WHM should cast regen just before DS (so that it'll have full effect despite of debuff) and time Cure 2 on tank so that it heals for full effect. In addition to these use Virus for DS whenever possible and rotate Eye for an Eye on tank (from both healers and BLM/SMN).

She does a Death Sentence after every 2nd Plummet. Adloquium should always be up before it hits. Lustrate immediately after Death Sentence cause it doesn't care about debuffs. Since Death Sentence is about every 30 seconds you have 1 Aetherflow left for Sacred Soil, I use it when there's no Conflagration up and a Fireball is incoming.

As mentioned:
Make sure the tank is full health and then get adlo up once the timer is due again (you can make a in game macro or you can use Sacred Soil to time the 30 seconds for DS). I personally don't Soil, though.
Once at 30 seconds the DS is due soon so that's a good time to Adlo, then while I see the DS being cast I cast adlo again so it hits the tank right after the DS hit hits. That will help with plummets which can be right after (and crit). Then Lustrate immediately. If your WHM buddy is doing his/her job the tank should be fine.

I don't even Virus any more and we never had the tank die to a DS or follow up plummet.

Really important for the tank(s) to also use their CD and mitigation skills. They can even stoneskin themselves if the WHM doesn't want to do it/doesn't have time/or whatever.

I hardly ever cast Adlo during non DS times (divebomb phase is a bit different) - so physic macroed with embrace should be enough. As mentioned I like to keep Stacks for Lustrate since it dodges the Infirmary healing debuff. Sacred Soil for Snake phase and once Twin comes back after. Other than that I am exclusively using lustrate (that's just me though. I am sure lots of scholars have other preferences).

To recap:
Cast Adlo before Deathsentence at around 30 secs
Cast Adlo while DS is being cast so it lands right after it hits
Cast Lustrate immediately after to get tank stable
Follow up with Physick/Embrace if needed

Rotate in Virus and E4E if needed and talk to OT or MT to rotate his Mitigation skills.

(BunnyChain summarised nicely, so follow that advice!)
As a WHM I:

- Focus Target
- Cure I & Regen rotations
- Watch as Death Sentence starts casting
- Prepare Cure II
- Continue Cure I rotation
Like yourself, E4E and Virus are rotated for each DS, but I don't bother with Stoneskin or Galvanize.

During P2 debuff:
- Medica II (lazy healing HoT mode!)
- Regen
- Divine Seal & Cure I
- Save Virus and other healer E4E.

I cast my Adlo as soon as i see the plummet animation, which is easily noticable by twin rising up. My adlo will go off right after the plummet and be ready for the DS that comes after it. If you do adlo too early, the plummet will take it right off and you will have to cast it again.
There is this beautiful spot where you can cast a physik and it will hit the tank after the DS, and not be affected by infirmity. I focus target twin, and i start casting physik when Twin's cast bar reaches the 'D' of death sentence. I almost never have to use my lustrates (unless the DS happens to do a massive amount of damage still, I only need to use it once). And the rest of my aetherflows i save for cleric stance>energy drain on conflags.

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Originally Posted by Aurorarose51

There is this beautiful spot where you can cast a physik and it will hit the tank after the DS, and not be affected by infirmity. I focus target twin, and i start casting physik when Twin's cast bar reaches the 'D' of death sentence. I almost never have to use my lustrates (unless the DS happens to do a massive amount of damage still, I only need to use it once).

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This is "prehealing", and it's an extremely useful skill. You want to time your heal so the moment of "HP healed, HP bar rises" occurs IMMEDIATELY after "HP damaged, HP bar drops". In the case of precasting Adloquium this won't apply for the hit itself if it wasn't already up, but will help protect against the following attacks so it helps stabilize.

You generally have 2 options for SCH:

If tank has at least Adlo up in advance, and HP is topped off or nearly topped off:
-Precast Adlo
-Lustrate immediately after

If your tank does not have Adlo up in advance, or their HP is not so good
-Lustrate if their HP is dangerously low
-Adlo
-"Precast" Lustrate immediately after DS hits

You might have to do the latter sometimes if you have to dodge a Twister, temporarily solo heal, or whatever. Prehealing does no good if the tank dies before the next heal goes off, so you have to make the decision on the fly. In the case of the latter, you tank should know "this is gonna hurt" and already pop a cooldown or something.

The key thing to remember is that even with perfectly timed heals (that sweet spot where the tank has taken damage but the infirmary debuff isn't applied yet) the tank can still die. I've seen Twin combo DS + another attack for just shy of 7900 damage on an i89 paladin before, so the number I keep in mind is that the tank needs another 900 or so health to survive DS 100%.

So you need to have the mitigation ready beforehand. If you have a warrior debuffing Twin you're already most of the way there. Or better yet, a warrior MT who is also debuffing Twin, as the warrior can intercept every DS with a cooldown, while paladins cannot. The worst scenario is double paladin, but good use of adlo and stoneskin can bridge the gap. Just be mindful that Twin will sometimes delay a bit and knock all your bubbles off before using DS.. you may need to reapply it.

Once the tank has survived DS and brought above, say, 50% health, you can mostly relax. Bellyflop won't kill a tank at moderate health and there's time to patch the tank up once infirmary drops.

Ideally, there should be Stoneskin and Adlo on the MT before every DS. E4E is good to have up at all times if possible. Virus is good to use in case things are not prepped properly. If there is a WHM in the party, he should Stoneskin and Regen the MT.

Both healers should try to precast their heals to land just after DS damage hits and before the infirmary debuff gets applied. Then a SCH should immediately follow that up with a Lustrate.

MT will take quite a lot of damage if he does not have a defensive CD up before DS. A crit auto-attack that follows an unmitigated DS can basically KO the MT. Some advantages of a warrior MT are that he can use Storm's Path to reduce DS damage and time Inner Beast before every DS.

Thanks for all the great advice, this definitely helped.

When you see the tail animation is when you use Lustrate. Eye for an eye is big and try to set up and manage the rotation yourself. Make sure your white mage is using stoneskin to the best if their ability and that your tank has a CD up or inner beast if a warrior. Make sure galvanize is up on the tank no matter what.

Every 2nd plummet expect DS to come after a fireball or conflag. Don't panic and you should be fine. Don't forget to use Eos during Phase 1-2, 4-5. Try to set up macro so your pet uses embrace when you heal to get the best results when infirmity is up.

If you or the other healer gets conflagged use your pet to heal tank or group and pet CD resist ability to recover easier.

Also comes down to your tank standing in conflag to avoid DS.

Good luck. :)

There is a huge amount of great advice here, so I'll keep this brief. For me, as a white mage, I ensure regen is up indefinitely, making sure to cast it at best effect. When death sentence is being cast, the tank is generally on full hp. This makes it easy for me to ensure a very quick recovery (with a little assistance from the scholar in my group, of course). When death sentence is about 60% I start casting Cure II (With divine seal if possible) and it should hit just as death sentence does, giving the full effect, and ensuring the tank has plenty of hp for any subsequent attacks that may be quickly executed afterwards.

If you have down periods where healing is low, having stoneskin up can be infinitely helpful. Assuming the tank has 7000 hp, that's pretty much a "pre cure" of 1260.

death sentence has a 35s recast time, although a phase transition can reset it as well, which is why peolpe often assume it has a random element.

I run a timer for DS, and I can make sure to have virus, eye, or ss active for every DS. For the very first on, on the pull, watch for the first plumet, then finish your cast to top off the tank, and put virus on twintania. She\\'ll DS before it wears off.

As a scholar, I also like to force the pet to heal the MT preemptively (use obey). You can macro or click it manually, but I prefer to macro it in with my adlo and physick.

For phase 2, if you time the transition to occur immediately after DS casts, you will line up conflags with death sentences, and your tank can step into conflag to avoid the hit and debuff. To do this, you must push the boss below 85% health during the DS cast.

Eye for an Eye should be on your MT the majority of the time, after all there's 4 jobs in this game that can use it.

As for Virus just communicate with your tank. We only have 1 person use it now (SCH) and our tank (PLD) will say long before that he'll have no "good" cooldowns for the next DS.

SCH + Lustrate = Win!

No really, all you need is a SCH that knows how to lustrate everytime your tank gets DS and you should be fine.

Main thing I've come to learn is to hit Lustrate immediately as the Death Sentence cast bar fills up. Prevents situations in which the tank gets hit hard enough from the DS where the following auto-attack would finish them off. The game's animation-priority typically ensures your Lustrate/Benediction/etc won't top them off in time if you wait to see how much damage DS lands for first.

Otherwise my group (double-sch) has been fine keeping just Adloq up as the bare minimum with our WAR tank popping Inner Beast every time for Death Sentence. PLD will require more care though for every third DS, since their damage mitigation skills will be on cooldown, but that's where E4E/Virus/Stoneskin comes into play.