SMN WP adds

[Ronove]

On my Bard, I usually just have to Windbite and Heavy shot each one before moving onto the next one and I never have issue. At first when I was a fresh 50 as my Summoner, I had issue but the better my gear, the easier the tonberries went down.

As my summoner, I do Bio and Obey on the first one, grab the second with Bio and Ruin until dead (this is after I Shadowflared the Ton-King). Then I set my main dots and raging strikes and Fester the main boss until the next tons are up and basically take those down the same way (and Fester when it's off CD on the boss so I don't miss my raging strikes buff). When more show up it's basically the same until Ton-King is close to dead and like 5 or something show up at once. With those I tend to Bio them all and bring them to center and LB them (if the first LB bar has filled one bar, if not I continue to do it slowly) but that's only if my tank is geared and I know can handle 5 stacks. If not, just do it slowly as I had been. Depending on your party Tonberry King should be dead soon anyway.

(To be honest I like gathering them and LBing them at once--too bad that can kill an undergeared Tank.)

To make it easy for you to keep track of how many stacks the Tonberry King has, I think on the PC you can do Shift+F and it'll do the Focus Target so you can keep track of him!

[Viridiana]

(To be honest I like gathering them and LBing them at once--too bad that can kill an undergeared Tank.)

I used to think this, too. Then I realized that WAR has more than 5k hp, and PLD has Hallowed Ground. I think the only tanks who should be concerned about a 5-stack are WARs who are both undergeared and stacking STR.

[Maelwys]

I used to think this, too. Then I realized that WAR has more than 5k hp, and PLD has Hallowed Ground. I think the only tanks who should be concerned about a 5-stack are WARs who are both undergeared and stacking STR.

Even without using Hallowed Ground, a PLD in raw AF can take 3 Rancor comfortably, or 4 with Stoneskin/Sentinel. Adding Darklight pushes that to 4/5 stacks. A little i90 pushes that to 5/6 stacks.

It's certainly true that you can kite *EVERYTHING* in that fight and AoE it all at once, then HG through the next Grudge. But killing everything as it spawns/as it gets near the middle? A reasonably geared tank should never need to pop HG. The most I've ever seen in that fight was 7 stacks, and I managed to survive that with double-digit HP (with VIT food, Stoneskin, and Sentinel up!!) - I have used Hallowed Ground on that boss before, but that's been less to weather Grudge itself and more to weather a Grudge followed by about 5-6 simultaneous Tonberry "Throat Stabs".

I routinely do a "two mob pull" on the final WP boss corridor even on the most rubbish DF groups, in order that our group can completely avoid the Stalker and immediately focus the three Tonberries to get the door open. I'll usually pop HG in that fight, because I'm comfortable with being able to tank through 6 stacks of rancor on the boss without it (whereas I'm much more concerned about the ability of random Duty Finder teammates to keep me alive whilst killing the double-mob!)

[Viridiana]

Even without using Hallowed Ground, a PLD in raw AF can take 3 Rancor comfortably, or 4 with Stoneskin/Sentinel. Adding Darklight pushes that to 4/5 stacks. A little i90 pushes that to 5/6 stacks.

I was thinking more for low gear + high stacks, since my comment was in response to a comment about undergeared tanks.