Failed at Brayflox - or Why I Suck at FFXIV

[Anova]

The stat boosts from gear at that level do not really matter. It is more important to have the raw damage and defense with updated gear. This is why you should ideally have lvl28 or higher weapons/armor for brayflox. The accessories do not really matter although they can help.

There are three options to gear usually: The best gear is always gear dropped from dungeons. You will want to farm the previous dungeon until you get your weapon and body piece. For you, that means Haukke Manor. You can also craft or buy gear as well, but money becomes a major issue then. The last option is to earn quest rewards. Many quests will reward you with weapons and armor of the appropriate level. This gear earned is pretty standard, but it is a cheap way to upgrade gear. Keep in mind, if there are some FC members with crafting classes that they can help you in reducing the costs.

When players tell you to stack VIT, it is usually in reference to your attribute distribution and not materia. You will notice a larger difference at higher levels, but thankfully you can reset it by using GC seals. Most tanks do not put all in to STR or VIT, but a combination of the two. Experiment and find a combination that you are comfortable with. Using materia to test out potential stat increases can be useful in this regard. Just be aware of the cap on stat boosts granted by materia to optimize your melding.

Provoke is a gladiator lv22 skill. It is absolutely mandatory for warriors at end-game, so you should get it by lvl44. If you want, you can write a macro for it.

A basic tactic for retaining group hate is to use an enormous amount of area hate in the beginning and then sparse it out throughout the fight. For warriors, it might be a tomahawk to pull the mob, followed by an overwhelm/flash once or twice, heavyswing->skullsunder combo, overwhelm/flash again. This establishes an initial buffer of hate for your healer and any dps. After that, you use flash/overwhelm after every 3 or 4 heals, depending on your mp/tp. Eventually, you can stop it (maybe 3 or 4 aoe at most) as you have just built up so much enmity the healer can't pull from you unless they are spamming medica or big heals. Even then, enough adds should be dead that it won't cause a player death.

And be aware that there are some specialized tactics used against the Brayflox bosses. For example, the adds on the first boss can be cced. If your caster can sleep them, be sure to pull the mob initially with a aoe aggro and then let your whm/blm sleep them. Slept mobs do not accumulate enmity, so they will continue attacking you after the sleep breaks. The dps can quickly take apart the adds one at a time while you single target the boss. Similarly, a bind or heavy/kite strategy works. Find one that works for your group. The second boss can be slept, which is useful when the slightly beefier add comes in and wreaks havoc with the party aggro. Sleep the boss, tank the add, and you should kill it in 30-45 seconds before turning back to the boss. The last boss actually requires careful positioning of the dps and healer, as well as your ability to pull the boss around.