New 50-WAR tank, Titan HM tips?

So I am not new to the game, and I have probably healed through Titan HM a couple dozen times, but I've never emphasized learning Titans rotations until I decided I wanted to level a Tank class. I am now going through my relic quest for my WAR and realizing that I don't know these rotations, is there anything that I could do to minimize any impact my lack of experience would have if I were to DF this fight, or should I try to run this fight as an OT and just DPS it?

So I am not new to the game, and I have probably healed through Titan HM a couple dozen times, but I've never emphasized learning Titans rotations until I decided I wanted to level a Tank class. I am now going through my relic quest for my WAR and realizing that I don't know these rotations, is there anything that I could do to minimize any impact my lack of experience would have if I were to DF this fight, or should I try to run this fight as an OT and just DPS it?

I have a 'cheat sheet' for Titans rotations I had printed out and set next to my monitor so I could keep a visual reminder nearby, but I was just curious if anyone has any tips for someone new to tanking. My ilvl 79 is at so I am pretty sure I can tank it without too much problem gear-wise, the concern here is my limited skill/experience with WAR combined with my limited understanding of Titan's abilities/rotations.

I've found a few mentions of stacking CDs for Mountain Buster and saving wrath to pop Inner Beast just prior to Mountain Buster, and popping Infuriate followed by Inner Beast directly after Mountain buster to assist with heals.

The catch is learning the rotations first hand. Just curious if anyone has any input or advice for a new tank?

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Originally Posted by Erghiez

The catch is learning the rotations first hand. Just curious if anyone has any input or advice for a new tank?

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Tanking Titan HM is a complete and utter joke that has only one mechanic you need to learn once you've mastered the mindbogglingly simple "basics" (stand at the northern edge of the platform and stab him to get/keep aggro; don't bother trying to dodge bomb since you're more likely to have Titan cleave someone else or eat 2 bombs or fall off). Said single thing you have to learn is how to deal with Mountain Buster. This is pretty simple as well. All you need to know is that, after the heart phase, Titan will use Mountain Buster immediately after he uses Landslide (he'll throw a couple other basic attacks, but it's the very next special attack and it happens within 10 seconds of Landslide).

So, basically, stand at the north, use SP>BB rotation (this is the "simple" rotation I provide; there are better ones to use but, if you don't know anything about WAR rotations, just do that). After heart phase, watch for Landslide, wait a couple seconds, and use Inner Beast (and maybe another tank CD).

Titan HM is a complete and utter joke as a tank. Being OT (re: tank DPS) is, honestly, harder because you actually have to move to dodge stuff.

IB mountain buster if you can. At i80 you should have decent enough HP to eat it...especially if you have the IB self heal ready when you've misstimed it :p
IIRC he landslides then punches you then table flips. So you can use that as timing.

But really it's super easy on tank.
You never get landslided.
The bombs are easy to dodge by being on the edge and sort of half-way between the two closest.
Build a decent hate lead and go into a stormsX rotation.

As Kitru and Rbstr said, Titan HM is very easy for the Main Tank. All you have to do is tank Titan at the North, be pretty for him, DPS his heart, and during the final phase use Inner Beast + a defensive CD (Foresight, Vengeance, or Thrill of Battle, or maybe even Convalescence to help your healers top you up) a few seconds after each Landslide to mitigate damage from the Mountain Buster follow-up. That's the gist of what a tank should know for the fight.

For the details, try to keep Storm's Path up as much as possible as it inflicts a 10% damage reduction debuff on the target it hits. Don't be afraid to clip it if you think it'll run out and give Titan several seconds to attack at full strength. The main reason to keep this buff up is not only to mitigate damage against you, but to reduce the damage your whole party takes from Tumults. Use a Storm's Path combo to apply the debuff on Titan right after your pull (which may be something like Tomahawk + Brutal Swing weave + Flash/Overpower), then do Butcher's Block combos until the debuff at least a combo away from falling off. Your rotation should look something like this (skills in brackets are weave inputs, where you use the skill in-between the GCD):

Pull Option 1: Defiance (Infuriate) -> Tomahawk (Brutal Swing) -> Steel Cyclone
Pull Option 2: Defiance -> Tomahawk (Brutal Swing) -> Flash or Overpower
Main Rotation: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo x 2 -> repeat

I would recommend the first pull option for a really solid enmity base, but the 2nd option works well, too. You will most likely be using this main rotation throughout the majority of the fight. Feel free to weave in Brutal Swing for a little extra DPS since Titan cannot be stunned (although there is a rumour I've heard that using it in the middle of Titan's Tumults stops it short, but I am rather skeptical of it until I get some confirmation or test it out myself).

The Heart Phase, on the other hand, is when you should use the Storm's Eye combo to give yourself a little extra DPS against Titan's Heart. It applies a 10% slashing resistance debuff (which only benefits tanks), and this phase is a DPS check. Your rotation will change accordingly and should look something like either of the following:

Rotation 1: Storm's Path combo (-10% dmg from target) -> Storm's Eye combo (-10% slashing resistance against target) -> Butcher's Block combo (enmity combo) -> repeat
Rotation 2: Storm's Eye combo -> Butcher's Block combo x3 -> repeat

When the 2nd Gaol traps one of your party members during the Heart Phase, make sure to have Unchained + Berserk (along with Internal Release, if you have it) ready to make up for the loss of DPS. Everyone should be focusing on Titan at this point and only free the player trapped in the 2nd Gaol when the heart is broken. By the time Berserk wears off and you become Pacified for five seconds, you will probably be waiting for the transition to the final phase of the fight. By that time, the Pacification should have already worn off and you're ready to do your thing. Titan will start the last phase of the fight with Earthen Fury, which you might want to pop Convalescence to regain more HP from the AoE heals from your healers.

Now for the final phase, you have to make sure that Storm's Path debuff is on Titan AT ALL TIMES. About 5-6 seconds after each Landslide in this phase, Titan will use Mountain Buster which hits HARD. Storm's Path will shave off 10% of the damage, but that's not enough. Make sure you have Inner Beast ready to use to give yourself a 20% damage reduction buff which lasts for six seconds. On top of that, you're going to rotate some defensive CDs to further mitigate Mountain Buster damage or help out your healers in general. Don't be afraid to use Infuriate if you do not have enough Wrath stacks to use Inner Beast in time, and use the following combinations whenever they are available to you (1st being top priority):

1st: Vengeance + Inner Beast (30% + 20% damage reduction buff)
2nd: Foresight + Inner Beast (20% phys. dmg. reduction buff + 20% damage reduction buff)
3rd: Thrill of Battle + Inner Beast (+25% self heal of max HP and max HP boost + you get the idea)

With Storm's Path on Titan, you've already mitigated 10% of Mountain Buster's damage. Thanks to these options, you would have mitigated around or over half of Mountain Buster's damage against you, and that's not counting the Stoneskin and Galvanize buffs your healers may cast on you. As for your rotation outside of the options to mitigate Mountain Buster you are looking at the following combos:

Rotation 1: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo x2 -> repeat
Rotation 2: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo -> repeat
Rotation 3: Storm's Path combo only

The third rotation is for when the fight is looking closer in Titan's favour. Once you're at the final phase, you will have so much enmity that you don't have to worry about anyone else from your party pulling it away from you, so feel free to spam the Storm's Path combo if it gives you a sense of comfort. It may not be extra DPS, but it reduces Titan's damage and it provides small yet frequent self-heals. You can also pair it up with Bloodbath to restore more HP, just to be on the safe side.

To summarize what you need to know for the fight, here's a list of what you should know.

On The Pull
Pull Option 1: Defiance (Infuriate) -> Tomahawk (Brutal Swing) -> Steel Cyclone
Pull Option 2: Defiance -> Tomahawk (Brutal Swing) -> Flash or Overpower

Throughout The Fight
Keep Storm's Path up on Titan

Phases 1 - 3
Main Rotation: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo x 2 -> repeat

Heart Phase
Rotation Option 1: Storm's Path combo (-10% dmg from target) -> Storm's Eye combo (-10% slashing resistance against target) -> Butcher's Block combo (enmity combo) -> repeat
Rotation Option 2: Storm's Eye combo -> Butcher's Block combo x3 -> repeat
*Use Unchained + Berserk + Internal Release when the 2nd Gaol appears, and DPS like cuhrayzee!!!*

Final Phase, After Each Landslide
Have Inner Beast ready, and use it 2-3 seconds after each Landslide
Pair up Inner Beast with a defensive CD like Vengeance or Foresight
You have to keep Storm's Path up on Titan AT ALL TIMES
Rotation Option 1: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo x2 -> repeat
Rotation Option 2: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo -> repeat
Rotation Option 3: Storm's Path combo only

I hope this helps. Good luck to your first time tanking this fight! You might have a bit of a blast!

Honestly, you don't even need to worry about Mountain Buster. As a SCH I always makes sure to drop an Adlo on the tank and I almost always see a SS from the WHM. The tank takes about 1 MAYBE 2K of damage. lol.

Tanking Titan is the silliest thing ever.

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Originally Posted by givemeraptors

Honestly, you don't even need to worry about Mountain Buster. As a SCH I always makes sure to drop an Adlo on the tank and I almost always see a SS from the WHM. The tank takes about 1 MAYBE 2K of damage. lol.

Tanking Titan is the silliest thing ever.

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It will help his game to try and avoid avoidable damage though. So while you don't have to stress over Mountainbuster you should TRY to pop a cd if you're not under immediate stress.

Also not that rarely a melee dps might put a landslide on you. :P

Bombs can also be evaded easily as a tank on one formation at least :P

http://i.imgur.com/KP8wXYZ.png
sums it up pretty much

Just note that depending on your level, you may not even need anything more than Inner Beast for Mountain Buster, since Inner Beast itself is really good. I was ~75 and I needed them only towards the end, only because one of the healers was brand new and did almost nothing.

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Originally Posted by SlyRoyale

Pull Option 1: Defiance (Infuriate) -> Tomahawk (Brutal Swing) -> Steel Cyclone
Pull Option 2: Defiance -> Tomahawk (Brutal Swing) -> Flash or Overpower
Main Rotation: Storm's Path combo -> Butcher's Block combo x 2 -> repeat

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I would instead recommend

Defiance/Infuriate > (pull) Heavy Swing (Unchained) > Skull Sunder (Berserk) > Butcher's Block > go from there. Opening with Unchainedzerk is pretty much guaranteed "never worry about hate again".

There are more optimal ways to do the Unchained opener (Kitru might pop in with one), but for Titan this is usually quite good.

All good advice so far. Titan HM is sleepy as a tank. Here's how I do it as war:

Opener:
Infuriate
Unchained
Tomahawk
Berserk
Heavy swing
Internal release
Finish BB combo
BB combo
SP combo
Berserk should be about to wear off so I put up fracture then flash a few times while pacified.

Phases 1-3
Just stand there hitting him. I try to do SE->SP->BB, brutal swing tumults and use inner beast during the auto attack after landslide to get into the rhythm. You may have to do SP->BBx2 if enmity is an issue. If infuriate is up I'll inner beast->infuriate->inner beast.

Phase 4
SE->BBx2 until the heart breaks. If I can I unchained berserk internal release at the beginning ala the opener.

Phase 5
He leads off with a mountain buster after earthen fury so make sure you have inner beast or vengeance ready.
Just stand there rotating your combos.
Brutal swing cuts tumults short i think. I rarely see more than 4.
Save inner beast for mountain buster. I put it up on the auto attack after a landslide. I save vengeance or thrill of battle/convalescence for when I have to eat a bomb.

I find if I keep fracture up all the time I run out of tp so I only use it when I'm going to be pacified or he jumps.

I use featherfoot, foresight, bloodbath and internal release on cooldown. I try not to stack featherfoot and foresight.

The only other tip I have is to stand at 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock rather than due north. This will position you so you never eat a circle or cross bomb. The row bombs you may still eat.

If you two tank it in df my advice is just rotate SE and SP combos with defiance off to make the mt's life easier and avoid drawing hate. There's nothing more annoying than an ot who does nothing but bb and pulls hate. If you're with a pld let them mt and do the same. Their riot blade combo isn't as good as your secondary combos and with sword oath on and doing roh combos they can accidentally pull titan off you.

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Originally Posted by SeraviEdalborez

(Kitru might pop in with one)

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I've got an opening attack string that I use but it tends not to work on Titan because he gets pushed into the jump before it finishes (the full thing takes 40 seconds from start to finish). Personally, I just do my standard "who cares about taking damage" rotation of BB>SE until the first jump whereupon I'll unleash holy hell upon him because it's not like p1 has appreciable damage anyways.

Wow. A lot of responses here. Thanks a ton for all of those who provided some input, very much appreciated. Also sorry for the delayed response. Work and all that jazz.

I know there are a ton of resources out there on how to tank the fight and what not but I find myself choking on some fights. I know Titan HM is more of a stationary fight, but what about Garuda HM? I've tried tanking that once and failed miserably. Once the mechanic came up to rotate Garuda around the map I felt like I was always inches away from the Whirlwinds. It seemed as if none of them were moving, but instead entirely stationary. I finally got around to tanking Titan HM and did fine, but Garuda HM still seems to be beyond me. Any advice here?

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Originally Posted by Yotsu

http://i.imgur.com/KP8wXYZ.png
sums it up pretty much

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This is really good thou. Not kidding. My first time tanking as a PLD, I just load this image on my other screen and literally do as told (of course I shifted here and there to dodge bombs but generally that's it lol.)

The winds don't move when they first show up. You fight Garuda, then the sisters, then plumes arrive and the whirlwinds move.

The common sisters strategy is for MT to tank Garuda at the top. When the sisters arrive, OT tanks the red line sister (it's not always the same one) in a pocket near the MT but not overlapping, and DPS take the green line sister farther south. DPS kill green, then red, then back to Garuda.

I've seen some people apply the fail Garuda EX strategy to Garuda HM. MT takes Garuda and red and OT takes green. DPS kill green then red. This doesn't seem too common yet, but it's a good idea for the tanks to confirm strategy before starting.

The benefit to MT taking Garuda and red is that there's less risk for dps while they're killing green. However this strategy seems needlessly dangerous. I've already seen a couple MTs get blown up and wipe the group using this strategy, which is the same problem the strategy has in Garuda EX.

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Originally Posted by Erghiez

Wow. A lot of responses here. Thanks a ton for all of those who provided some input, very much appreciated. Also sorry for the delayed response. Work and all that jazz.

I know there are a ton of resources out there on how to tank the fight and what not but I find myself choking on some fights. I know Titan HM is more of a stationary fight, but what about Garuda HM? I've tried tanking that once and failed miserably. Once the mechanic came up to rotate Garuda around the map I felt like I was always inches away from the Whirlwinds. It seemed as if none of them were moving, but instead entirely stationary. I finally got around to tanking Titan HM and did fine, but Garuda HM still seems to be beyond me. Any advice here?

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Use this guide for garuda hm positioning if you are MT. If you are ST your only job is to DPS and grab red line sister and face her away from the raid.

When the whirlwind first spawn it's stationery, it only move sometime after the sisters are killed and Garuda spawn razor plumes. You have enough time to see where the next whirlwind is before you need to move, so you don't have to move early, I have seen a lot of tank move early and try to guess where the whirlwind is going to be and end up trapping themselves.

I would also look into Mr. Happy's tank guides on youtube. I don't know if they are the best/optimum strategies for various stuff, but I've used them and got success from them.

The other part is just on you to really learn what all your abilities do and their associated cd's. People here can tell you all day what to do for this fight specifically, but once you really understand the abilities for yourself, the tanking will be automatic, and you'll only need to learn the mechanics/patterns of what content you're doing.


AND AN EDIT

Communicate Communicate Communicate with your party.