Tank-specific tips for Extreme Primals

[Gamemako]

Been trying my hand at making some tank perspective videos. Made a Garuda extreme guide. Maybe some of you can find it helpful or and provide any other tips, and worse case you can make fun of my bad tanking. If it helps at all let me know and ill gladly work on other primals and fight videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1RxqZHM1Sc

Some feedback:



(1) Since you are taking little damage prior to first sister phase, you don't need to prep RoH for Suparna -- just use Fight or Flight and lob while healer doesn't panic or some silliness. Keeps everybody safe. Note that Suparna always spawns on the west side of Garuda.

(2) You really should focus target on Garuda so you can see the cast without guessing by animation. Additionally, if you didn't spend the time running around to get off the RoH, you'll be able to turn Garuda to the left and Suparna to the right to avoid hitting the pillar with Slipstream. Not a huge deal, but it helps.

(3) Garuda uses Friction on someone else. The one that may go after you is cast by Chirada. It doesn't necessarily appear at all if Chirada targets someone else.

(4) Should mention what cooldowns you're using. For PLD, use either Sentinel or both Foresight and Rampart for each double WW (you can't have Sentinel due to CD time) -- go head and use Sentinel for the first. You only have one double WW, so Sentinel alone is enough.

(5) Garuda's second WW in the first sister phase is after second Slipstream -> Downburst. Prepare to use cooldowns when she uses Slipstream.

(6) There is no double WW after Chirada is dead. Suparna can only cast WW while Chirada is alive. Garuda can only cast WW while Suparna is alive. Garuda is also invulnerable while Suparna is alive, and both sisters gain a damage resistance buff depending on the distance between the two (minimum 1 stack).

(7) The entire point of the double WW method is that you can have melee classes. If you have all ranged, the OT takes Suparna and the DPS kill it first. In that method, you can either chew up Chirada second or totally ignore Chirada and just hammer Garuda, using tank LB to survive nuke every sister phase.

(8) OT should not be deliberately damaging the spiny in any phase. That is unnecessary risk. The MT isn't going to lose Garuda, so once you provoke at two stacks, you have the perfect amount of time to reduce the spiny's HP without risking accidentally frying it and causing a wipe. Having the OT hit it is especially risky if you're holding Garuda near the middle, where it's really easy for a stray Holy to splat the weakened Spiny.

(9) The eye phase cue for provoking spiny is Garuda's second Slipstream. Avoid it and take the spiny at that time.

(10) Generally inadvisable to use LB on Chirada. In case of screwup, you will need tank LB to survive after jump.

Since you're doing split method, PLD MT is fine, but most groups will opt for double WW method because it's easier for one person to get everything right than for 6 people to get everything right.

[GoMagikarp]

Holmgang in EX Titan: Its a massive pain expecting that i won't fall off during landslide/upheaval (for those moments before a big hit and i used it to survive a MB + auto attack, or when realizing a bad swap is about to landslide me off the edge and i try to pop a holmgang to save myself.

its bad enough that my latency (i live in a pacific island far far away from US and Japan) is severely hindering my survivability (even with Leatrix, please add .2 or even .15 seconds to landslide!), i at least wish that holmgangs' immobilize effect would work.


i heard they are addressing the Holmgang 2.1 bug in the next patch (2.15?)

WHEN?

[Tadacho]

The Spiny Plumes always aggros to the player with the 2nd most hate in my experience, which is usually the OT. What is random is the location the Spiny Plume appears and what can end up happening sometimes is, if the OT is slow to grab the Plume, the healer (for example) can end up grabbing hate. This can make it appear as though the Plume spawned with hate on somebody else, but it didn't.

[bokchoykn]

The Spiny Plumes always aggros to the player with the 2nd most hate in my experience, which is usually the OT. What is random is the location the Spiny Plume appears and what can end up happening sometimes is, if the OT is slow to grab the Plume, the healer (for example) can end up grabbing hate. This can make it appear as though the Plume spawned with hate on somebody else, but it didn't.

Not always the 2nd most hate. It actually randomly chooses someone between the 1st or 2nd on Garuda's hate list.

I usually OT this fight, and I'm rarely #2 on enmity. As a Warrior, I don't even use Defiance at all in this fight, and I generally use the Storm's Eye and Storm's Path combos more than the Butcher's Block combo when hitting Garuda. My enmity is actually pretty low. In any case, I always Provoke the Spiny Plume to start every phase. A DPS or Healer getting Spiny off the bat isn't the worst thing either. In many ways, it actually works out better.

[Alkimi]

Not always the 2nd most hate. It actually randomly chooses someone between the 1st or 2nd on Garuda's hate list.

I usually OT this fight, and I'm rarely #2 on enmity. As a Warrior, I don't even use Defiance at all in this fight, and I generally use the Storm's Eye and Storm's Path combos more than the Butcher's Block combo when hitting Garuda. My enmity is actually pretty low. In any case, I always Provoke the Spiny Plume to start every phase. A DPS or Healer getting Spiny off the bat isn't the worst thing either. In many ways, it actually works out better.

A healer getting the spiny plume can be problematic but it rarely happens if the WHM uses Shroud whenever it's up (SCH will most probably never get it). As OT you should still make a conscious effort to be at least ahead of the healers on Garuda's hate list to make the fight smoother.

[Size]

[*]Turn Titan 90 degrees to the right just before Upheaval to make it look like he's peeing on your party. This provides no tactical advantage. It's just funny.

This is the best tip in the whole post! xD

[kayuwoody]

I'll add my tanking tip for Garuda. I've not seen anyone else do this in my runs.
Basically when grabbing Garuda+add, I "circle tank" to bait skills. I mean I basically just run through the birds so they have to turn around to face me. This way I don't really even need to look at the cast bars, and don't need to have one targetted and the other focused. When one of the birds stops moving, she's casting slipstream, and I'm at her back. I keep circling now but avoiding the aoe cone for the first bird, until the 2nd bird also stops. Usually at that point the first slipstream has gone off. Then you know there's no more slipstreams for a bit so you can just stand there.

[GoMagikarp]

@Bokchoykn:

due to my poor memorization skills and a lag that spans tens of thousands of miles from japan, i found that landslides are 100000% easier to dodge when you see Titan start to turn, by the time i see the landslides itself, im usually gonna die. moving when he starts the turn buys you almost half a second more time to get out of there, which compensates for the .5 second delay i have when playing.

do you think you can include that on your tips so that it could help other people in my shoes?

[Dano]

The titan six way landslide with row bombs during final phase can be baited to ensure that the main tank has room to stand. This is done by standing in the middle, wait for landslide, move immediately to the last set of bombs that spawned, wait for middle bombs to explode, then move back. There's a delay of about 2-3 seconds before the middle bomb explodes so don't worry about standing in the middle to bait the landslide.

[PetiteMalFleur]

For Garuda the ROH animation is too long so my tank buddies suggest only building up to savage blade to grab their sister. MT (PLD) can Stoneskin self before WW. Both Garuda and the sisters will glow with a red aura as they cast slipstream. They also postrate and flex their wings. If the tank can recognize this animation it can help them avoid slipstream.