Ultima HM is really frustrating

[Velox]

I have ran Ultima HM countless times, and I've even achieved victory in a few and have gotten the ring to drop once, but I still find myself having trouble with the 2nd round of magiteck bits occasionally. The problem stems from the fact that, as soon as they spawn, I'm the target. This doesn't always happen though, but when it does either I or the tanks are as good as dead. Even Shroud doesn't seem to have any effect, while the lasers are alive I'm always the target. This makes healing anyone, including myself, impossible outside of that 1 precious Swiftcast I can use because I literally can not stand still for more than 1 second to get a cast off (not even PoM can get a cast time that low).

Of the few victories I do have with this fight, it was always with another WHM healer as the enmity between us is pretty split even and I'm only dodging half the lasers. Every single run I do with a SCH partner, I KNOW I'm going to eat these damn lasers because naturally WHM gather much more enmity than they do. It's in these parties that I constantly find myself dying.

If I stand still just long enough to cast, I am taking damage from half the lasers and die.
If I wait until those lasers cast and sidestep to avoid them to cast, the other half of them kill me (because they never seem to fire in unison, the attacks are always placed EXACTLY far enough apart to prevent me from standing still for more than 1 second).
If I just keep running around like a chicken with its head cut off in order to ensure my own survival, party and tanks don't get heals and tanks end up wiping to that refraction skill, or party wipes to the crashes following immediately after tank purge.

DPS can only kill them so fast as they are pretty spread out. For the entire duration that these things live I just pray no one dies to the boss's AoEs because I literally can do nothing to help until there are few enough bits left to get casts in between the lasers. This is incredibly frustrating because this one mechanic literally just cripples my ability to do my job.

As I've stated before, it's not always an issue. When I'm partied with another WHM, he/she usually draws some of them away, so we essentially split them enough so that we can each manage to dodge them long enough to get some heals out. It's when I'm partied with a SCH that every run ends up with me dying because I'm taking the full brunt of all the enmity, and the lasers target ONLY me the entire time they are alive. Nothing is more frustrating than seeing 6 AoE lines converging on your character every 1-2 seconds and having no way to stop it.

How do you guys get around this mechanic CONSISTENTLY? I know I should expect the DPS to be dodging the things they can, but not being able to throw a single heal out to anyone is really bothering me.

[Jyoeru]

I've never really had this problem as most of the lasers seem to be in synch. Also, I noticed that some of the lasers appear to have blind spots. That's to say, I will notice a line in front of the laser, but a snub of a line behind the laser. I'd have to look at this more, but all I can say is that your DD need to burn a few of them down fast to give you more room to work with, especially for the AOE blasts. I've never had an Ultima group that didn't down it. I got Ultima on my first go in a DF pug. Not really sure why some people appear to have really bad luck with this run.

[Velox]

I've never really had this problem as most of the lasers seem to be in synch. Also, I noticed that some of the lasers appear to have blind spots. That's to say, I will notice a line in front of the laser, but a snub of a line behind the laser. I'd have to look at this more, but all I can say is that your DD need to burn a few of them down fast to give you more room to work with, especially for the AOE blasts. I've never had an Ultima group that didn't down it. I got Ultima on my first go in a DF pug. Not really sure why some people appear to have really bad luck with this run.

Bad luck is essentially my problem, and that's what bothers me more than anything. The runs that these lasers don't do this, everything is peachy keen and we usually wrap things up quickly and smoothly in our farm runs. However, those magical runs where I become public enemy number 1 for the magiteck bits...I'm the one accepting raises. There is literally no way to shake that enmity, and all I can do is PRAY the tanks use a cooldown to stay alive, and the DPS can burn them fast enough that I can get a moment's rest from my dodge-dancing to pop an AoE heal out after the explosions. I don't like just sitting there praying, I want to be able to function and contribute.

[Wilbow]

Let me put it this way, Jyoeru: If you one-shot Ultima HM in a DF group, you're lucky.

I've done this fight a few dozen times (and been successful about 10-12 of those, without a single healer drop coming up), and I'll say that how hard it is to heal is entirely dependent on how smart (or not) your group is. This makes sense, as like 70%+ of the damage to the party is avoidable in some way. It's frustrating because you have far less control as a healer to fix stupid. For example:

- Lone DPS charges into a bomb, he dies.
- Tank LB3 not cast as planned on third set of bombs? Likely wipe.
- Tanks not using defensive CDs on four airship phase? Enjoy your likely death.
- DPS not attacking bits? Guess whose healing output goes down due to dodging every 3 seconds.
- Other healer not carrying his weight and derping? Just guess who's going have to bust ass.
- DPS not avoiding the bad (see: Ifrit)? Ooh, look, Swiftcast + Raise is going to be used often.
- Moron runs right into you + healer during eruption phase when tank has lowish HP? LOLBADHEALZ NO HEAL TANK YO. /facepalm
- Tank walks up to you during first airship crash, points boss at you, and lets you get hit by diffractive laser for 3.6k damage (that has happened to me...twice)? LOLZ HEALZ L2DODGE
- And other things I learn people can fail at that I never even fathomed possible.

Ultima HM is designed to make you weep for the ignorance of humanity and teach you that you cannot cure it. It requires you to have some faith in your party, which will inevitably eat away at your sanity as they fail to circumvent simple mechanics.

[Jyoeru]

Let me put it this way, Jyoeru: If you one-shot Ultima HM in a DF group, you're lucky.

I've done this fight a few dozen times (and been successful about 10-12 of those, without a single healer drop coming up), and I'll say that how hard it is to heal is entirely dependent on how smart (or not) your group is. This makes sense, as like 70%+ of the damage to the party is avoidable in some way. It's frustrating because you have far less control as a healer to fix stupid. For example:

- Lone DPS charges into a bomb, he dies.
- Tank LB3 not cast as planned on third set of bombs? Likely wipe.
- Tanks not using defensive CDs on four airship phase? Enjoy your likely death.
- DPS not attacking bits? Guess whose healing output goes down due to dodging every 3 seconds.
- Other healer not carrying his weight and derping? Just guess who's going have to bust ass.
- DPS not avoiding the bad (see: Ifrit)? Ooh, look, Swiftcast + Raise is going to be used often.
- Moron runs right into you + healer during eruption phase when tank has lowish HP? LOLBADHEALZ NO HEAL TANK YO. /facepalm
- Tank walks up to you during first airship crash, points boss at you, and lets you get hit by diffractive laser for 3.6k damage (that has happened to me...twice)? LOLZ HEALZ L2DODGE
- And other things I learn people can fail at that I never even fathomed possible.

Ultima HM is designed to make you weep for the ignorance of humanity and teach you that you cannot cure it. It requires you to have some faith in your party, which will inevitably eat away at your sanity as they fail to circumvent simple mechanics.

I worded that poorly. I consider a run the whole time one run takes. First go for me meant the first time I queued up for it. We wiped three times, but downed it. Sorry if that came out wrong.

Sadly, people struggle way more with Garuda than I see with Ultima, and Ultima is a harder fight IMO.

[Dalavon]

Stand in the middle. Theres a delay between the beam on the ground, and the actual attack itself. So if you need to pinch off a heal, do it. Shroud isn't going to help you. If you're really having a problem, put regen on people. Or stone skin yourself prior to that phase, so if you have to take a hit, you can. I suggest swift cast for the last ship phase. Generally there are a few bits up and the screen gets hard to see at that point. So SC a medica 2 or whatever is needed.

[Velox]

Stand in the middle. Theres a delay between the beam on the ground, and the actual attack itself. So if you need to pinch off a heal, do it. Shroud isn't going to help you. If you're really having a problem, put regen on people. Or stone skin yourself prior to that phase, so if you have to take a hit, you can. I suggest swift cast for the last ship phase. Generally there are a few bits up and the screen gets hard to see at that point. So SC a medica 2 or whatever is needed.

Check, check, and check. I have been doing all these thing since day one of the patch. My technique is not the problem though, it's the mechanic of the fight. Regen isn't enough to heal thru the damage the tank is taking by itself. I understand that the lasers suffer from the same animation delay as every other AoE in this game does, and I use that to my advantage just like every other fight. HOWEVER, the problem is that I simply can't squeeze off a heal EVER until well after the ships crash when the DPS has most the bits down. The lasers start synched, but 5-7 seconds in they start drifting out of synch. At some point I'm getting hit with 1 laser every .2-.4 seconds in succession, like machine gun fire. When this occurs (it doesn't always, which is why I said "bad luck" above), there is 0 time to heal as I'm holding down movement keys for close to 15 seconds straight and can't stop at all for ANYTHING. This means the only heal that goes out, the entire time this phase commences, is that single Swiftcast Medica II I always pop after the ships.

My beef with this fight is that it just seems to rely on dumb luck that either A) you won't be the primary target of the lasers, and B) they won't go out of synch so you actually HAVE time between the shots to squeeze the heal off. The fight shouldn't come down to this. As far as the fight goes, it's my favorite one to heal through. It's not too AoE heavy, and not too ST heavy. It's a perfect blend for healers with just enough "oh shit" moments that do require the party to coordinate to overcome. I've beaten it close to 15 times so far. My only qualm with this whole thing is the seemingly random nature of the magiteck bits going out of synch and making my life a living hell because the SCH in the party pulls no where near the enmity my WHM does, and thus becomes the sole party and tank healer while I'm dancing in and out of blue beams for 30 seconds.

[Ryuko]

Whenever I do this fight, especially with tanks who are 'new' to it... I advise them to please have mitigation cooldowns ready during magitek phases. That is the only time healers will be forced to move a lot. I will also save "Eye for an Eye" and Virus for this time too, assuming someone else doesn't throw it off. These cooldowns are not 'always' necessary, but it is possible for both you and another healer to get really unlucky with targeting. I try to keep a safe distance from the rest of the party, so I won't be caught in the cross-hairs of anyone's lasers but the ones pointed at me. This can help a little bit, but don't forget to be standing close-ish to mid when meteors drop.

[Kako0404]

The 2nd airship always get me. it's very tricky cuz if everyone starts moving to the middle too soon it becomes a kill zone from the lasers. I've tried to time the airstrike but the animation fooled me and i went in too late. People asked me to precast Medica II but the heal won't get off if I'm one shotted by lasers+strike in the middle. Not to mention Tank Purge happens around when the bits spawn so you have to decide when to burn your divine seal and maybe swiftcast. After the airstrike Ultima usually does the 4k attack on the tank so that sequence is very unforgiving. The real key is to have good coordination with the other healer. If one is doing Medica the other is doing single target etc...

[Low_Kick]

Although the bits do not fire their lazers at the same time, after the LAST bit has fired it's lazer, there will be about a 3-4 second window that you can cast your heals, that timing is what you should strive for.
The following strat is one that I came up with and it works extremely well for me whenever I run this. If you aren't in a static, you need to let your party know a few things.

1. If you are with another whm, figure out who is healing the main tank, and who is healing the rest of the party during the bomb and lazer phases. I personally ask the other healer to heal the tank while I heal the party since I am comfortable with the strategy I have. If you are with a sch, definately make the sch heal the MT, while you as whm heal the party during those phases.
2. Mark yourself with a sign. Tell the party to follow you during the bomb phases, and tell everyone to align themselves so that when Ultima uses aetherial boom, they get pushed to the south. Also tell them to activate the bomb you are close to when they see you start casting cure III, that way cure III will hit the party immediately after the bomb bursts. One cure III will heal the group to full hp. Detonate the North-South bombs first, then the East-West ones after. Let the off tank know either to go with the group, or stay away from the explosions, the OT doesn't need to explode one by themself.
3. As whm, cast protect on anyone that is raised, as we have shell with it aswell. If the other healer is a sch, let them know to cover the tank so that you have time to cast protect during battle.
4. Make sure to use focus target on Ultima so you can see when it does aetherial boom to position yourself to get knocked back to the south end, aswell as tank purge so you can precast your med/med II.

The reason I mentioned the above strategy, is that it makes the fight easier, aswell as the transition to the 2nd lazer phase easier. Since you are topping everyone up with cure III during bomb phase, there's no chance of someone solo'ing a bomb and dying, also saves someone from dying afterwards from either the green balls/ green line lazer, or tank purge right before the 2nd lazer phase.

After the bombs and green balls, Ultima will tank purge and it goes to lazer phase, make sure to precast medica II, and throw in a medica right after. If everyone is able to avoid the lazers, they should be full or near full health for the arms that come down on the sides. If someone does get hit, you can cast a cure on them in the window I mentioned in my first sentence, and you can also regen while running. For when the arms come down on the sides, you can do either a medica II at that moment, or if everyone is bunched up on top of you in the middle, you can cast a cure III, you will have to precast this aoe though. After that, it's more dodging lazers while getting in cures and regens when needed until the dps kill all of the bits. Once you get the timing down on this phase, the rest is cake.

If you are dealing with a sub-par co-heal or a sub-par tank, there are a few things you can do during this phase to help. You can divine seal+regen on the main tank, use eye for an eye, and virus if needed. You can throw in some cures if really needed as the rest of the group should have medica II still active, but make sure the dps's hp are near topped up for when the arms come down. Save your benediction for this part just in case too and use it if tank gets 1k hp or less. I tend to save presence of mind for in case Ultima goes on countdown to enrage, I spam stone II with it. If you are designated on party healing, and you are weaving in and out of lazers while casting heals, and the tank still dies, then there is a problem with either the tank or the other healer. Make sure the tank saves cool downs for this phase since both healers need to be moving around alot, have them save hallowed ground for this specific phase. Make sure the other healer is aware there is a window between lazers shooting that they can get healing in, and if needed they can eat a lazer or more, depending on their hp. Make sure they are also saving their cooldowns for this phase, as it is the hardest phase to cure in since you are constantly running around.