Tanking A1S first time

[Freyyy]

What I personally do as a DRK MT on A1S is that :

First I pull with Grit on and my opener is this : DA pre-pull, Unmend + Plunge -> Scourge + Carve & Spit + Dark Mind for the Royal Fount -> Power Slash combo while weaving Salted Earth, Dark Passenger and Low Blow. Reprisal if proc, Dark Dance if not, in order to make it proc. Don't forget Bloodbath and Blood Price too. After the first Power Slash, I do a Delirium combo, another Power Slash, then drop Grit, pop Shadowskin and go full banana sandwhich Blood Weapon Dark Arts Souleater everything. Don't forget to refresh Delirium if you have no MNK in your party. If you have one, use Delirium only if you want to regain MP. Never use Souleater without Dark Arts. Don't forget to use Sole Survivor on an Alarum whenever it's available.
When 0.5 spawns, we do the technique where the OT provokes the original Oppressor and the MT goes to the other side of the room because he already has initial aggro on 0.5. (I think everyone is doing that now, seems to be logical). Make sure to apply Delirium first when you have your boss for Gunnery Pod because both bosses are doing it at the same time. I still don't have Grit on, I use Shadow Wall during the Resin Bombs because there is a Royal Fount and big laser to dodge right after, and it can be tough for healers to dodge all the stuff back-to-back while healing you taking a Royal Fount + auto-attacks out of Grit. So Shadow Wall helps a lot here and your healers will tell everyone that you're the best DRK out there. After that it's some auto-attacks (You should pop Dark Dance here), then Gunnery Pods, then Hydrothermal Missiles. You want to have Grit on a bit before Hydrothermal Missiles, use Shadowskin and Convo right when the cast bar starts, Blood Price should be up and in the case you're targetted by the missiles it's delicious free MP, use Reprisal as soon as you get a parry, try to get DA + Dark Mind right before the Royal Fount because it will last long enough for the Plasma. You should have an Adlo, Plasma will not hit you for much. Immediatly drop Grit when you're healed after the Plasma. From here the boss hits like a wet noodle until the last Royal Fount right before the jump. Your healers should be aware of it and not be surprised from that last damage spike. Turn Darkside off when the bosses are in the air, BRD should be using MP song here so you'll be completely full MP when the bosses get back down. Just don't forget to immediatly turn it back on when the bosses land. For the second Plasma, I use Living Dead, so I don't even bother turning Grit on at all for the entirety of this cycle. Shadowskin, convo, Reprisal and Dark Mind can be used to mitigate all the other damage to fully compensate your lack of tanking stance. For my static, the bosses die during the fluff damage time after the Plasma, before the 2nd jump. But when we still got 3 Plasmas, I was using DA + Dark Mind for the last Royal Fount before the 2nd jump so the SCH didn't have to turn off Cleric Stance to carry me. Turn Darkside of again, get dat MP, turn it back on when the bosses land, then this time it's the exact same thing as for the first Plasma. If you ever get to the 4th Plasma (enrage is right after), you can have everything up again except Shadow Wall so you'll have no issue surviving it, but as of today you should really not see that 4th Plasma unless there is multiple deaths amongst the DPSes.

Gear-wise, for AS1 I use absolutely 0 VIT. I run it in full slaying with 35 STR allocation. This puts me at around 16k HP with party/food buffs. The first time I did this fight I had no more than 15k HP (with 3 slaying and 2 fending and Alex NM/augmented law gear) and it was already enough.


Hope this helps.

[Exodus_Kenpachi]

Now to hijack your thread haha...I need some WAR tips on stance dancing and CD usage. I'm full deliverance up until .5 comes out and I voke the main one and pop vengeance. Usually I have infuriate up around this time so I double FC then go into defiance. I use HG on the first and third busters but still try to have IB and SP up on them. Or should I just stay in deliverance the whole time since I'm using HG and switch after while using conv + equilibrium? Do most people just go back to deliverance after they're healed up or stay in defiance until jump? And what do you all use on the non HG buster?

First and foremost you should be pulling 1.0. Do the typical Unchained+Zerk double Fell Cleave opener and then stay in Deliverance.

After my opener I pop vengence for 1st Royal Faunt, I use Bloodbath and Foresight on CD, I use ToB+Convo after resign for second Royal Faunt.

I stick with that rotation for the opener, 1st Buster, and 3rd buster. I pop Infuriate on CD after I burn a FC and I try to time it at about the 10 second mark of Eye debuff so it wont fall off.

To help your healers during 1st and 3rd buster I will typically Definence midway through Prey, Unchained, Zerk (it should be off CD), take hit, and then use Equilibrium. This gives the healers a lot of breathing room and you can go straight into back Deliverence.

For the second buster I will save an Infuriate, Defience at mid Prey, Vengence as soon as I get in Defience for the Gunnery Pod, Storm's Path, and then IB. After I take the hit I Equilibrium, ToB+Convo and then go into Deliverance.

With that roation you will have a CD up for most major hits and will not tax the bananas off your healers. You will also be able to keep up max deeps.

As for keeping Path up. Path is one of the best utilities WARs can bring and for some crazy ass reason people will overlook it for the added potency of Block. This is stupid. Try to have Path up for Royal Faunts and Gunnery Pods. Your healers will thank you.

Also to answer the OP. You want 14500 HP for A1S, full STR gear, and your 35 points into STR. This hold true for A2S.

For A3S I will run 4 STR and one VIT to put me at about the 17K HP mark.

The biggest issue you will run into later on is hitting your accuracy cap. So make sure whatever combo you choose for your accessories you are hitting those caps.

[Syzygian]

snip

A lot of the people commenting have this shit on farm and then some.

If this is your first time raiding at this level, I'd avoid going full STR. If you aren't clearing, your DPS is meaningless - All that deeps is 100% wasted until your party is consistently performing mechanics and making it to enrage, etc. i.e. deeps doesn't matter until you're in range of clearing the fight in terms of knowledge of mechanics and skill in executing them. The boss has a rotation that it does not deviate from (and neither does the .5) and he does not do anything in particular at a certain threshold of HP, so you cannot push phases so to speak.

Oppressor's autos can crit for 4-5K. The TB in A1S hits for 25K unmitigated. You can easily cut that more than in half with DRK CDs, and even with DA DM and SS up it can hit for over 10K *that's with Grit*. If you are not topped off or adloed/sskinned it'll kill you in full slaying if your healers fuck up like, at all. To avoid that during progression, I'd wait to go ham on the slaying gear until after your group is successfully getting past the first jump at least.

The prey mechanic that comes seconds before the TB can target the MT, causing you to essentially eat a moderate physical TB, a cleave, and then a massive magical TB in the scope of about 12 seconds.. You risk a wipe if you are not topped up and ready to take the TB when it casts. If you want to almost guarantee your survival to the extent that your healer can practically have a sammich during the TB cast, so that your party can learn mechanics (you have to deal with very, very few as a tank in here, its damn-near a 100% tank-n-spank): I would keep Grit up during progression and use a rotation of SS+Conva+DD at the prey missiles, if you get a Reprisal proc hit it (very likely) and then DA DM and SW immediately after the following cleave before the TB cast. You can do this for the 1st and 3rd TB with the same group of CDs minus SW for the 2nd, mitigating 90%, 60%, and 90% (assuming Reprisal uptime) of the damage, respectively. The 4th is enrage iirc. The CDs for the 1st and 3rd can actually mitigate the damage all the way to zero if you catch a well timed crit Adlo or Adlo+SS. This CD rotation is dated now that we are overgeared, but its still very good at keeping you alive so that your party can focus on learning the mechanics.

When you're close to clearing, I'd equip slaying gear until you are at about 15K before food. This is enough to survive comfortably and not die to a stray crit-auto attack afterwards.

Good luck, respect the fight 'til you clear, then faceroll it once a week for great justice and l00t.

P.S. As far as the opening, feel free to tank him where he is if you're MTing, and have your OT voke and pull south while you stay put at the split. Pulling him south at the start of the fight gimps the openers of your DPS while they wait for you to get it into position. Its much easier to have a huge burst and maximize opener DPS if you tank it in the north until the split. This is the exact opposite of what A1NM df groups do, so just be aware.

Also, feel free to solo-tank Faust+adds so your OT can go full-on deepzbeastmode. DRK is very good at it and its cake at these gear levels.

[Sandamar]

I personnally main tank as a warrior. I use 4 slaying and 1 pentameld now.
I open with the usual MT opener and when berserk fall off i go in deliverance until the Split.
Then i do my triple fc combo under berserk and i swap in defiance plus vengeance got each tank buster (vengeance Is up for every buster So why bother ? ) then i go Back to deliverance after the buster and i only go Back for next buster.
This rotation allows me to always triple berserk fc When the jump Is over.

[Imoen]

30 STR always.

3 Slaying / 2 Fending or 3 Fending / 2 Slaying, depending on what you're more comfortable with.

13500-14000+ is good for A1S, could probably even get away with less.

The only times you'd want to be in Grit is when you're getting hit by the tank buster, and that largely depends on what mitigation you're using.

http://imgur.com/Csnxu1p

Play safe at first, don't try to do anything fancy. As you get used to the fight, start taking risks and figure out what your (and your healer's) limit is.

I don't play DRK so can't give any DRK specific tips, but I'm sure there's people more qualified who can.

UH, well I'm a pld, but I got hit for 18k with sentinel up .... and I have 17k hp.

Unless that was some crazy off the wall crit thing that I will never see again.

[Brannigan]

You can probably skate by with just Sentinel but I tend to favor using rampart + sentinel. 18k through sent sounds like your dudes had a damage stack (or two) or your buffs fell off before the attack registered.

[Freyyy]

UH, well I'm a pld, but I got hit for 18k with sentinel up .... and I have 17k hp.

Unless that was some crazy off the wall crit thing that I will never see again.

You either hit the Sentinel button too late, leading in the attack registering without mitigation, or your bosses had damage stacks from being too close. Anyway as a PLD you have no reason to not use Rampart + Sentinel for these tank busters because they're 2min apart from eachother. But even with only Sentinel, taking 18k is definitely not normal. And tank busters cannot crit.

[Imoen]

You either hit the Sentinel button too late, leading in the attack registering without mitigation, or your bosses had damage stacks from being too close. Anyway as a PLD you have no reason to not use Rampart + Sentinel for these tank busters because they're 2min apart from eachother. But even with only Sentinel, taking 18k is definitely not normal. And tank busters cannot crit.

Well in fairness, it was our first run through, I knew it had a tank buster but I wasn't familiar with the damage of it, ya i totally stack rampart and sent now lol However I think you may have been right, been watching the video over and over and I think it was just a server tick thing.

Or it was a lag spike w/e I just know the icon was there and I took that much damage. lol I haven't encountered it since. (Hard to tell since I only have the video from my point of view. I'd have to see it from another members point of view to know for sure.) I can say for sure there was no damage buff on boss though.

Good to know about the tank buster thing with crit though, didn't actually know that. Then again I rarely pay attention to damage logs.

Anyway I digress from OP