Paladin Off Tank Levi Ex

Hey all looking for advice, I MT warrior Levi Ex just fine.

I am trying to teach a PLD to OT better.

Having trouble keeping threat on adds, and sometimes tail.

His ilvl is probably lower than it should be i88 vs our dps @ i95

Wondering if it is his technique/rotations/skill usage, or if it's his low weapon damage/gear compared to everyone else.

Thanks for the input.

which add and what part did he lose agro to the tail?

if it the first malee add then, he just have to get in 1 full combo as soon as Tail pop b4 picking up add. (as soon as the Tail pop, you will have barely enough time to do 1 full combo on it before the 2 add spawn.) also it help that DPS focus on OT add first. So he can go back to taill and build more agro.

Other than that He should never lose agro on tail.

Hmm I agree, I'll have to watch what he does. It may come down to not being properly positioned to slide into the tail after a slam.

I think he is unable to get aggro on both adds, the double and single add phases.

How would you open up on the single add?

First caster add hit fast blade on the tail then run to the head side.

Swift > SW > halone > cos > fast > swift then it would be bash time.

For the double adds we always split them between MT and OT.

Same combo as above on your side. Lob, voke, lob, halone combo if it pops on the far side.

Thx, I will give him this info.

Is it possible hes just getting out geared by the dps? Or is that not really a thing?

Wait Swift cast ? Second Wind? o.0

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MythToken

Thx, I will give him this info.

Is it possible hes just getting out geared by the dps? Or is that not really a thing?

Wait Swift cast ? Second Wind? o.0

---

Swift Blade and Spirits Within, haha.

edit: not sure about Swift, had FFXI on the brain I guess. Perhaps Fast Blade?

I've been having trouble picking up the add if it spawns on the far end as Head tank (WAR) myself; my static Tail tank will normally grab it themself, but when running with pickups they some times let it fly loose when I'm unable to secure hate. Much of the time this is due to not being able to get within range for Tomahawk (and Provoke doing nothing due to trigger happy dps) before I know Dread Tide is about to be used. Is there any better way than relying on Provoke to close the gap for Tomahawk without endangering stray party members with Dread Tide?

(sorry for thread jacking!)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MythToken

Thx, I will give him this info.

Is it possible hes just getting out geared by the dps? Or is that not really a thing?

Wait Swift cast ? Second Wind? o.0

---

Going to guess that he means Swift Blade here. I'm main warrior so I don't remember all the paladin skills that well.

A tip for your OT. Make sure he saves "fight or flight" until after the first initial burst. He should line up so that he is on the side of the tail during the slam. Also..you can target the tail before it appears, just cycle your targets. If he uses fight or flight as he's coming out of his slide then do a full halone combo he should have enough threat to kill both adds. The main tank should never leave the boss to kill the adds across the boat. It's doable but honestly you take a chance at getting one of your dps killed by dread tide, since he does it 2x while the adds are up.

Also is he making sure to switch back to shield oath after the first burst phase? The OT in my static is brain dead sometimes and tends to forget to put shield oath on.

As MT if the double adds spawn on opposite side. I wait for Dread tide, then i run out as soon as it hits, provoke, tomahawk tomahawk kind of walking it back to my corner and then start BB combo on it. The dps should be mostly focusing OT's anyways.

Thx for the info guys, I am just not familiar enough with paladin to know if hes doing something wrong or just needs more gear.

it the same thing if you try to tank Tail side with WAR. the game give you very limit time to grab enough agro on Tail and the initial add.
it easier on MT since they have a good first phase to build agro. OT only have 7 sec ish (Give or take 3 GCD) to build agro on tail before the first add spawn.

After that first 2 add die, both tank is pretty much on auto-pilot. (altho the fight is getting more fun the more jump you can skip)

If he is losing tail when first 2 adds spawn, he needs to combo faster because he probably only has 1 Savage on it. Absolute best thing to do is

Tempered Will > stand next to where head will spawn at body slam* > Fast head > Savage tail > Halone tail > pick up adds.

If he is losing hate any time after that, DPS are overgeared (unlikely) or he is derping somehow.

*This is something melee should do in general in phase 1.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SeraviEdalborez

If he is losing tail when first 2 adds spawn, he needs to combo faster because he probably only has 1 Savage on it. Absolute best thing to do is

Tempered Will > stand next to where head will spawn at body slam* > Fast head > Savage tail > Halone tail > pick up adds.

If he is losing hate any time after that, DPS are overgeared (unlikely) or he is derping somehow.

*This is something melee should do in general in phase 1.

---

If you are dodging to the tail slide you will be in position faster then you can target the tail hit circle.

I save tempered for the second Caster add. Gives me a great head start on aggro while the DPS are sliding from tail slam.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by SirTaint

If you are dodging to the tail slide you will be in position faster then you can target the tail hit circle.

I save tempered for the second Caster add. Gives me a great head start on aggro while the DPS are sliding from tail slam

---

I save tempered jic I screw up in the 2nd half to avoid sliding off. Honestly, I get a full combo on the tail to start before the adds pop and that's usually enough. Helps to make sure you slide down the same side as the tail like sirtaint said. Then if adds pop on far side, I simply do my best. If you have good DD going balls out (and they should be) but they split targets, you will have a very hard time holding hate, but don't worry too much about it, just do your best (DD can tank adds if need be, np). As for the single caster, he always pops at the same location it seems. I'm usually standing at the rail waiting on him. Rage combo, flash, SW, stun(5 secs), rage combo, CoS, stun(3 secs), flash, stun, he should be dead

Tempered will be up again for later so I don't see why you need to "save" it.

The point of using it where I specified is to queue your combo on the head, which is targetable a good 3-5 seconds before the tail. Ordinarily you'd have to walk across the deck after the "lag" from sliding across the deck. Here you just tag head with Fast, already be walking to tail. You are there before it pops with Savage ready.

It's magic.

u don't need Tempered will to do your combo on head. Just stand by the head when it pop then atk it. if you stand by the head, even if you got slam and slide, you can continue to atking the head while sliding with no issue. (only work when there a wall)

the only place I use Tempered will is the slam with blue spume on me, just cause I'm lazy ;P

Yes, you slide over and can keep attacking the head. As OT that means nothing because you want that queue'd combo to go off on the tail, not the head. You pop Tempered Will to get over there ASAP.

I am aware you can stand by the head and hit it when body slam comes out. It's exactly what I'm saying to do.

Only the very 1st add should be tricky, not if the adds spawn on the tail (when Levi is North).

Fast blade, savage blade (the 1st to of the 3 chain. Maybe I got the naming wrong), CoS, flash, run to add: rage of halone. When he presses rage of halone (on add), he can immediately run back to the tail. He doesnt have to wait for the animation. He can then do a full combo on the tail again, CoS + flash to keep the add on him.

As for the last (big) add, you can help out too. Berserk/unchained and nuke it down. If dps is low, just go back to the head at around 20% to prevent melee getting hit by Levi's AoE on you (dread tide?).

The other adds are just timing, knowing when they'll come and have rage of halone "pre charged" to make it a walk in the park.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MythToken

Hmm I agree, I'll have to watch what he does. It may come down to not being properly positioned to slide into the tail after a slam.

I think he is unable to get aggro on both adds, the double and single add phases.

How would you open up on the single add?

---

As an OT, I wouldn't even recommend that he try to slide into the tail. He can get off both Fast Blade and Savage Blade (while jumping out of your reach to head) just in time to hit the tail with Rage of Halone as it appears. On the first add set, if distant, he can then FB-SB again while moving to pick up the add with RoH. If the melee take the head add he can move back to the tail where he can use an excess add-threat potential on the tail instead to make up for heavy DoTs on it, or he can stand outside of Tail Swipe, or he can just even run most of the way back before the mob even moves if he hits it just as it spawns. If close, then it just gets easier. Use Flash for mitigation if you like, and just rotate between tail and mob according to your enmity bars.

For the caster add, the OT can either FB-SB Head and RoH-FB Tail to prep SB, or just stay near the head and wait with the first RoH. In the first type, sometimes the mob will run slightly into center, but you can get a little more threat out of the provoke from your gun-ho BLM's Firestarter, etc., and you can increase the distance of the caster add's back from any Dreadstorm that may (and the first one typically does, from my experience) spawn on you, if he casts that before your usual stun-lock starting time. Just have to be fast, stay on your toes, and have a sense of timing.

[It's similar with PLD MTing; you have to get the caster mob's back facing in such a way that Dread Tide can pass through without hitting the melee. Easy enough if they Dragon Kick/Heavy Thrust and then move off the rail and stay off until Dread Tide passes, but it's all just a matter of thinking on your feet and knowing when things will spawn (an MT can't chase something into the crowd with Dread Tide on the way, and there's never a reason for the OT to be late to a grab).]

Thanks for all the input guys. I believe its a combination of he needs slightly better gear, and properly getting combos off fast enough/pre building combos so that he can go ahead and land a RoH on adds.

Appreciate all the insight.

Gear is not an issue, unless he is using like an i70 or i80 weapon.

He just needs to utilize his AE enmity generation a little better - have him pull the add he is responsible for TO the tail (on the 2-add phase), then use Flash>CoS>Flash>SW>Flash - that way he is generating enmity on the tail and add at the same time, ensuring he won't lose aggro on either. PS if he is not able to get a full RoH combo off before adds spawn, just have him use 2 uncombo'ed RoHs for 1000 potency enmity.

I don't like sliding to the head so I just pop Fight or Flight when the tail is coming up, uncombo Rage of Halone tail, Fast Blade tail, Savage Blade tail, Provoke add if they're on the other side, Rage of Halone add. Done.

I've found that DPS capable of using Quelling Strikes absolutely refuse to use it on adds, and that does cause me some headaches as a tank. This is further compounded if the adds that spawn in pairs spawn on the other side of the boat. All we have is Provoke and ranged attack to try to get them in short order before they're in range to start up a combo on them.

If they're in range, I'll usually have a precharged combo ready to go so I can hit them with that immediately then use other abilities like RoH, Spirits Within, etc. For the caster add, I can usually get a full combo in on the tail and then run towards the add and shield lob > RoH and start comboing it. The caster add is tricky due to the timing of having to stun it, so the time you have to generate threat on it is very fine. If your DPS are good, luckily you can keep it stun-locked until it dies, so you just need to get that initial little burst of threat on it to hold it until then.

Tail aggro can be a little wonky sometimes too, due to DPS staying on the tail for too long after adds spawn, since there's realistically only enough time to get one combo in on the tail in the first phase after it spawns before you have to deal with the add. It really shouldn't be an issue after the spawning of the initial add though.