Lag, MP shortages and other annoyances.

[Zetor]

I did Titan at 34, not even having regen. Ugh. It was a wipefest, but not due to lack of healing -- DPS kept getting eating landslide and we didn't have enough damage to kill the heart, unless I spammed Stone II at it, which leads me to the next point...

As a WHM, mana management is a pain, even after you get shroud. Yeah, I use shroud early and often, and I'll probably have enough mana to keep healing through any fight (of course this also means I usually won't be able to use it as an aggro dump). But if things go pear-shaped and I have to Raise people in combat (with swiftcast) or even add some DPS to help burst down adds to make up for the group's low DPS... I'll run dry and have to spam Cure on the tank, praying for that 15% Freecure proc.

It's not fun being in a less-than-optimal group and feeling helpless about it because if I want to DPS to help things die faster (or actually rez someone who got one-shot by an avoidable boss mechanic), I'll kill my mana. Not to mention the potential aggro problems...

[Estellios]

If you are using Shroud of Saints correctly then honestly the only thing that will be killing your MP is Raising people. I always try to keep up DPS even in the story mode fights and never have any issues as long as Raise isn't needed. If you have to throw out more than 1 anyway, typically your party isn't doing so hot in the first place and needs to do their part to not get hit by AOEs.

In 8-man stuff you will usually have a BRD which alleviates the problem a ton.

[Zetor]

If you are using Shroud of Saints correctly then honestly the only thing that will be killing your MP is Raising people. I always try to keep up DPS even in the story mode fights and never have any issues as long as Raise isn't needed. If you have to throw out more than 1 anyway, typically your party isn't doing so hot in the first place and needs to do their part to not get hit by AOEs.

In 8-man stuff you will usually have a BRD which alleviates the problem a ton.

Oh, I can keep aero + aero2 + thunder on the boss without really running out of mana (and those abilities don't really do that much damage overall)... what really hurts the mana bar is when I need to assist in burn situations, which means Stone II and Holy.

My experience with Holy in particular was that I could cast it MAYBE once on a boss fight - more than that, and my mana bar would disappear if the tank wasn't overgeared (and thus needed more than just divine seal + cure / regen and the occasional freecure to keep up). There were fights like Aurum Vale's last boss (or Garuda storymode) where adds need to die ASAP, and if the DPS can't take care of them, the group is hosed. It's annoying to have this powerful AOE spell at my disposal, and yet know that if I use it, I won't have enough mana left to keep the tank up.

Bards never seem to use the mana song in DF pugs, even when asked... could just be my luck though.

[Imakles]

Do you know how some people will say that certain encounters are a "tank, DPS, or healer check"? Well Titan story mode is a group competancy check. Everyone in the group has to perform to a certain level in order for the fight to be a success. No one person can "carry the fight". If you lose someone, then the performance level goes up for everyone else left so everyone needs to pay attention to keep the fight as easy as its going to be. If your party keeps failing, its no one person's fault...this encounter will test the party's ability to find it's errors and make corrections. Some will do this better then others and everyone has their breaking point when "enough is enough". Learn what you can, where you can so in the future you'll be part of the solution.

[Swick]

Do you know how some people will say that certain encounters are a "tank, DPS, or healer check"? Well Titan story mode is a group competancy check. Everyone in the group has to perform to a certain level in order for the fight to be a success. No one person can "carry the fight". If you lose someone, then the performance level goes up for everyone else left so everyone needs to pay attention to keep the fight as easy as its going to be. If your party keeps failing, its no one person's fault...this encounter will test the party's ability to find it's errors and make corrections. Some will do this better then others and everyone has their breaking point when "enough is enough". Learn what you can, where you can so in the future you'll be part of the solution.

idk about that. When helping w/ Titan story mode for my friend our healer wen't off at the second hop. But between my awesome paladin cures, and a few physics from our black mage we three manned titan without a "healer". Took a while but more then doable. However what you said is mostly spot on.

Also: When he leaps into the air, the closer to the outside edge you are, the less damage you take. This goes for everyone in the party and can save you a medica cast each leap. Just make sure u don't stand in the blinking red area, or you'll fall off as the arena shrinks. Also picking up regen will help you a ton.

[Orophin]

Don't you also get a debuff after being broken out of the rock that has to be Esuna'd or is that hard mode only?