Tanks and getting into HM Titan

[Illya]

You can do acceptable dps as a paladin or warrior on this fight, you just have to convince a group to let you do it.

I tried this tonight with a party of FC mates. I threw together a bunch of AK chain gear which I had laying around from too many AK runs, but I didn't have any DPS accessories. I was parsing 100-105 DPS while the well-geared SMN in the party parsed in the 170's. Running 1 tank, 3 healers, 4 DPS (including me), our party did not have enough DPS to pass the heart phase even with LB2.

I could grind CM speedruns and deck myself out with all DPS accessories and maybe a few pieces of DL chain but the thought of doing a dozen or more CM speedruns just to have the DPS to pass this one fight after which I'll probably never DPS again with WAR makes my soul hurt.

[CurlyBruce]

I was parsing 100-105 DPS while the well-geared SMN in the party parsed in the 170's. Running 1 tank, 3 healers, 4 DPS (including me), our party did not have enough DPS to pass the heart phase even with LB2.

You should be parsing higher than that easily, at least 130-140. Also grab an extra DPS and nix the third healer, you don't need a third healer for Titan. 2 Healers is plenty for keeping the tank alive and the only move the DPS should be hit by is Tumult. DL Chain gear can't be equipped by Warrior/Paladin anymore its Dragoon exclusive now, but the Heavy DL set has 2 more STR and more Crit than the DRG set anyway. DL accessories are also dirt cheap and easy to obtain while functioning on multiple jobs, so that could easily bump your DPS by a bit. And if you don't already have it, I highly suggest getting Garuda Axe.

[Illya]

You should be parsing higher than that easily, at least 130-140. Also grab an extra DPS and nix the third healer, you don't need a third healer for Titan. 2 Healers is plenty for keeping the tank alive and the only move the DPS should be hit by is Tumult. DL Chain gear can't be equipped by Warrior/Paladin anymore its Dragoon exclusive now, but the Heavy DL set has 2 more STR and more Crit than the DRG set anyway. DL accessories are also dirt cheap and easy to obtain while functioning on multiple jobs, so that could easily bump your DPS by a bit. And if you don't already have it, I highly suggest getting Garuda Axe.

I have Garuda's Scream. Should I be equipping Heavy DL Legs+Feet, AF+1 Chest, and any helmet rather than AK Chain? And do you have a suggestion for DPS rotation on WAR, since I've never DPSed on WAR before?

[CurlyBruce]

I have Garuda's Scream. Should I be equipping Heavy DL Legs+Feet, AF+1 Chest, and any helmet rather than AK Chain? And do you have a suggestion for DPS rotation on WAR, since I've never DPSed on WAR before?

If you have AF+1 Chest then yes, that plus AK head gives a bigger bonus than Heavy DL body. DPS rotation for WAR is pretty simple. At the start of the fight pop Internal Release and Berserk and start off with Storm's Eye combo. Then switch to Butcher's Block combo and Fracture. Rinse repeat. When Pacification from Berserk is active you can toss out a Brutal Swing for a bit of extra DPS since its an ability not a WS and every little bit helps. If you Internal Release + Berserk at the start of fight, it will be up before Heart Phase so you should save it until then. During Heart save IR/Zerk until the first person gets rocked, if you use it from the get go and you are the one who gets rocked you'll have wasted almost all of your Berserk time and will be stuck with Pacification once you get out. If someone else gets rocked pop your cooldowns and start with Butcher's Block combo. It should take 1 Butcher combo + up to Maim to break the rock, then hit Titan with Storm's Eye to maximize Storm's Eye + Zerk uptime.

[Illya]

If you have AF+1 Chest then yes, that plus AK head gives a bigger bonus than Heavy DL body. DPS rotation for WAR is pretty simple. At the start of the fight pop Internal Release and Berserk and start off with Storm's Eye combo. Then switch to Butcher's Block combo and Fracture. Rinse repeat. When Pacification from Berserk is active you can toss out a Brutal Swing for a bit of extra DPS since its an ability not a WS and every little bit helps. If you Internal Release + Berserk at the start of fight, it will be up before Heart Phase so you should save it until then. During Heart save IR/Zerk until the first person gets rocked, if you use it from the get go and you are the one who gets rocked you'll have wasted almost all of your Berserk time and will be stuck with Pacification once you get out. If someone else gets rocked pop your cooldowns and start with Butcher's Block combo. It should take 1 Butcher combo + up to Maim to break the rock, then hit Titan with Storm's Eye to maximize Storm's Eye + Zerk uptime.

Very helpful, thank you.

We killed Titan HM tonight, following the 1 tank 5 DPS 2 healers comp. Thanks to the people who posted in this thread with useful info!

[Faction]

I tried this tonight with a party of FC mates. I threw together a bunch of AK chain gear which I had laying around from too many AK runs, but I didn't have any DPS accessories. I was parsing 100-105 DPS while the well-geared SMN in the party parsed in the 170's. Running 1 tank, 3 healers, 4 DPS (including me), our party did not have enough DPS to pass the heart phase even with LB2.

I could grind CM speedruns and deck myself out with all DPS accessories and maybe a few pieces of DL chain but the thought of doing a dozen or more CM speedruns just to have the DPS to pass this one fight after which I'll probably never DPS again with WAR makes my soul hurt.

100dps should be fine if you're using berserk on the heart. There's no reason to use 3 healers with a gladiator tank, and if your DPS are doing 170dps, the heart should be dying every time.

I've killed Titan twice while dpsing, the first time I did about 100dps, the second time 130dps, neither time did we have any trouble killing the heart. The 3 healer group comp is for Warrior tank, and even then it's still possible with 2 healers if you have a Warrior. Have one of your FC's SCH go SMN for this fight if you need to. It doesn't take much dps to kill the heart consistently if you have 5 dps, so the smn doesn't need to do much damage.

First kill a few weeks back when we had crappy gear was something like this:

Bard/Monk/BLM ~150dps
Monk ~120dps
Me ~100dps

And we had no problems with the heart (Using LB1 on it)