8 Tips to lead Titan HM PUGs for your first relic in /shout.

[Jahaudant]

Killed Titan on Sarg with a pick up group on the weekend following the games release date. After at least 15 combined hours of attempts here are my essential tips:

• Your members all need some form of VoIP communication. Ventrilo, Teamspeak, Mumble, Skype etc. They don't necessarily need mic, but the ability to listen is extremely important for less experienced and geared players.
  
  
• Learn Titans ability rotation. You should familiarise yourself with at least his post-heart phase skill order which is:
  Mountain Buster -> Stomp -> Weight -> Bombs -> Landslide -> Mountain Buster -> Weight -> Gaol -> Landslide -> REPEAT.
  
  
• Your tank is basically a motionless punching bag with nothing to do except 123 and rotating CDs for Mountain Buster - This person should be designated to call out Titans skills, before they happen, over whatever VoIP you are using. This allows the dps and healers to ready themselves for incoming Weights or Stomps without having to lose focus too much on actually dealing damage and healing.
  
  
• Vet your members carefully. Don't listen to whiners in full greens and greys, you have no business doing Titan for your relic without a passable amount of gear - what you consider the threshold for "good gear" may vary. The stricter you are the higher your success rate will be however it will likely take longer to organize a full party.
  
  
• Members who show inability to dodge attacks (Landslide in particular) over multiple attempts should be removed. Occasionally getting hit by an awkward Weight pattern or being out of position during Bomb -> Landslide is forgiveable. What you don't want is someone who consistently gets hit or knocked off, especially pre-heart phase.
  
  
• It's an unfortunate reality but members who are lagging should be removed (ideally they should voluntarily leave anyway). This is a crapshoot most of the time and one person may experience horrendous lag within instances and be fine outside, but the next day it will be fixed.
  
  
• 3 healers is unnecessary and just prolongs the final phase
  
  
• You may find yourself a slither short on DPS to down the heart in time, in this case it's possible to prolong the first phase of the fight for a short time in order to build up your Limit Break and make up for the slow damage.
  
  This method works but it extends each attempt by quite a while and the entire thing becomes soul sucking on another level. Additionally, if you have damage problems this severe with a 5 dps 2 heals set up you should probably reconsider your gear vetting threshold.
  
  
• 
  General Tips
  
  PLDs: use Flash 2-3 seconds before Mountain Buster for a decent chance at dodging it completely. Use one defensive cooldown per Mountain Buster starting with Rampart.
  
  SMNs: do not cast Ruin II on Titan post-heart unless PLD cannot follow the above tip in which case do it for him/her.
  
  Ranged: Watch your positioning relative to the other party members so you don't cover the entire arena with death when he uses Weight of the Land.
  
  Healers: Use Virus before Mountain Buster, or stomps. Try to time Medica II to go off just as the first Stomp lands, follow up with standard Medica. Sacred Soil is useful for stomps or mountain busters, don't forget about it. Stoneskin/Adloquiem before Busters.
  
  Melee: Never stand in front of Titan. You will die.
  

[Devilray]

Occasionally getting hit by an awkward Weight pattern or being out of position during Bomb -> Landslide is forgiveable. What you don't want is someone who consistently gets hit or knocked off, especially pre-heart phase.

That was the only common problem I saw with a lot of groups: Landslide during bombs in phase 5. Definitely have to lecture your group if you see people taking damage on bombs in p5. The best solution is to have everyone stand in safe spot, hug Landslide, then run into the landslide animation right after the cast bar is done. Then, there's no new movement required for circle and cross bombs. For row bombs, standing behind titan might be wiser, when he is on top of the center rock on the safe row.

[Estellios]

That was the only common problem I saw with a lot of groups: Landslide during bombs in phase 5. Definitely have to lecture your group if you see people taking damage on bombs in p5. The best solution is to have everyone stand in safe spot, hug Landslide, then run into the landslide animation right after the cast bar is done. Then, there's no new movement required for circle and cross bombs.

There kinda is for the cross. It is a lot easier if people just stand next to bombs then wait for landslide before moving away from them. It's a general tip in that final phase, when bombs are up you need to lead Landslide to a spot where it will allow you room to avoid both it and bombs, with some arrangements requiring less adjustment from previous phases.

The 3 rows of bombs, with the 3rd row being right next to Titan, is what was tripping up our group as if you don't lead Landslide correctly you have nowhere to run and have to take something.

[Devilray]

The 3 rows of bombs, with the 3rd row being right next to Titan, is what was tripping up our group as if you don't lead Landslide correctly you have nowhere to run and have to take something.

I would just stand behind him in that case.

[Estellios]

I'll have to have our group try that next time, it simplifies that a whole lot. I just wasn't sure there was enough room to avoid the middle row if you do that.