Quick question about Tanking in Ifrit HM

I'm usually the Off-Tank since most others I see have more HP than me, only got PLD to 50 two days ago and the gear I had stocked up was meager at best. Yesterday in a run, I stunned whatever I could, when I saw an Eruption go near a healer, I'd stun for it. If I saw the Plume attacks pop up and thought someone could get hit by it, I'd go for a stun. If I could no longer stun because of Immunity, I'd inform the party to be on their toes.

As the fight went on, a DRG stunned once or twice himself and messed up the rhythm, people started getting hit by the Eruptions later on, and we had a few people go down, myself at one point as well. Once Ifrit was near 3/4ths HP, others were struggling to dodge the plumes and Eruptions, by this point leaving the stuns to me was not favored even though I'd been doing them perfectly timed up until the snags started when I could not stun because of immunity.

At the end I was told I was an awful OT and should stop being a scrub and play better. Just yesterday people complimented me on doing the stuns and I had several runs before that where no one complained.

Was this an actual error on my part?
(Hit posting limit, will check on this again later)

You stun eruptions to build the LB, not to save people.
Should be doing no gcd moves, just ready the bash.
I'd only say you did badly if the DRG started stunning only because you weren't. Otherwise DRG is at fault.

(post inferno you stun eruptions to save people, though that's not really essential)

No one should be using stuns other than the OT, and OT only stuns eruptions. Plumes should be dodged, but if I still remember them correctly it can be silenced.

Only do GCD moves when you know the rotation Ifrit does by heart. It's a pretty simple one, so if you need to farm Ifrit HM for long you'll get it down. Til then you can always use Spirits Within and Circle of Scorn, just make sure to keep your finger on Shield Bash. Not sure if the stun change made it different, but when I did it a long time ago you stunned every Eruption. I thiiink every 4th Eruption? goes off now due to the change. So if that happens, and your party calls you a bad tank, they're probably people you should ignore. You don't need to stun plumes as they add to the stun DR, just make sure you hit the button for every Eruption and you'll be fine. Maybe make a macro for the Eruption you know will go off to let everyone know they need to dodge.

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Originally Posted by SpookyGhost

Only do GCD moves when you know the rotation Ifrit does by heart. It's a pretty simple one, so if you need to farm Ifrit HM for long you'll get it down. Til then you can always use Spirits Within and Circle of Scorn, just make sure to keep your finger on Shield Bash. Not sure if the stun change made it different, but when I did it a long time ago you stunned every Eruption. I thiiink every 4th Eruption? goes off now due to the change. So if that happens, and your party calls you a bad tank, they're probably people you should ignore. You don't need to stun plumes as they add to the stun DR, just make sure you hit the button for every Eruption and you'll be fine. Maybe make a macro for the Eruption you know will go off to let everyone know they need to dodge.

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Yup, did HM for friends recently for relic weapons, the 4th Eruption got resisted.

I always tell people at the beginning... "I will bash every eruption, but due to the new stun DR, some will still go off. Be ready to move on every single one after the first couple just in case".

I say this for their benefit as well as my own. Some people who haven't done it in a long time may not know about the new stun DR. Those people are the ones likely to tell you you didn't do a good job because they're used to Paladins stunning every single one.

With the new limits, this fight is actually easier to solo tank & cover stuns...not to mention, the extra DPS forces phases to end sooner, making it so there is less to stun/pacify overall. You can use Shield Swipe on Ifrit to stop Eruption so that is meant to fill the gap on stun resists. He has an easy rotation to learn & you can choose to pacify if its up, shield bash when it's not. Bulwark is good to forcefully create a shield swipe if needed...just make sure to pop it early enough to get a blocked attack before eruption.


To be honest though, after they changed it, they nerfed damage from eruptions so if people are making an honest effort to dodge things, there should be little to no damage from them. So many things can go sideways as both MNK & DRG also have a stun move & there are many times that they use them on that fight without realizing what they are doing other than trying to maximize DPS potential. SE makes oh-so-many things immune to stuns & other moves that a lot of DPS just forget that there is actually a Primal you can stun...so I can't blame them at all. In all honesty, I would rather see people just plan to dodge attacks than take the lazy way & blame the OT who's only boring job in that fight is to stand there & mindlessly wait for the post-kickback eruption. Those are the kind of people who get carried through a Titan run.

Overall in your situation...since you were sticking with the old 2 tank paradigm, your only real fault, provided you know the rotation & were ready with bash when the time called, would be that you stunned plumes which wastes one of your stuns. The DRG, although he may have messed up your stuns, probably had good intentions. Such as: "I'm going to try & stun eruptions since they aren't getting stunned properly"...or: "I haz weapon, me kill things fast, ugh". Without knowing for sure, no way to know who was really at fault...but I wouldn't let it get to you. You should try putting together single tank runs when possible just to make it easier...& if you know a solid healer, a single healer can cover that fight just fine as well. 6 DPS is the way to go on all the HM primals whenever you have solid tanks & heals.

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Originally Posted by Versiroth

I always tell people at the beginning... "I will bash every eruption, but due to the new stun DR, some will still go off. Be ready to move on every single one after the first couple just in case".

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this is what everyone should be doing in most fights anyway, even if you know you're with good stunners. 99% of things in this game are easy to dodge, assuming you don't have lag issues. even a really good player will make an occasional mistake. just stop your cast and dodge "all the things".

I solo tanked it last night doing my relic quest and I held back my stuns for the Triple Eruptions only, and for one of the Eruptions during nails. Sadly we had a DRG that was using Leg Sweep every CD so interrupting was quite a chore...

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Originally Posted by Orophin

I solo tanked it last night doing my relic quest and I held back my stuns for the Triple Eruptions only, and for one of the Eruptions during nails. Sadly we had a DRG that was using Leg Sweep every CD so interrupting was quite a chore...

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Ah yes, forgot to mention that, thanks Orophin. I always make sure to have enough stuns saved to cover the couple eruptions during nails so that others can just focus DPS...just makes it cleaner to not have melee moving away from nails lol.

We just save the stuns for the later eruptions and dodge in the beginning maybe stunning 1 or so. This is not a hard fight to dodge and players should just plan on dodging it is good practice instead of just standing there and trusting someone to stun...always be thinking.

Yea the first few don't really need to be stunned as it's just one Eruption.. I try to save stuns for the nail phase so people don't have to dodge while killing nails, and then after the nail phase where there are a bunch of eruptions and they are harder to dodge. It is a pretty boring role as the stunning OT, however you are likely just a few pieces of gear away from being able to solo tank it, then you get to have all the fun lol

for enruption Post-nail. just stun when you can. Pre-Nail enruption need to be stun as often as you can, the reason being is you want to build LB from those stun then use it to kill nail.