Bombs during add phase in titan ex

[Kimura410]

I was doing titan ex earlier, and I have heard it talked about before while I was main tanking. However, tonight I was OT picking up adds. I have done this plenty of times before and its never been an issue. But I pick up the adds and during the landslide, I am sitting on 5 o'clock. The bomb at 4 pops, then I run to it and just let the adds die.

Ive been in party finder groups that talked about baiting the LS at 6. I get it, but is it necessarily wrong not to bait it there? I mean every time I do adds, I never get touched by the bombs the way I do it, so wouldnt the rest of the team be able to avoid the bomb damage as well? I understand its a widely accepted method to bait them south, but people should still be able to survive if it doesnt happen, right? I dont usually OT the fight, but when I was learning it I did, and this is just the way I learned to dodge the bombs. But this way, if I bait it, it makes the landslide go to 5, 7 and 9....or 3, 5, and 7. Doesnt matter too much bc when I do the weekly with my static I MT it, but Id like to know if I was wrong or not.

[wildgalax]

if they specify it and are more comfortable doing it that way, otherwise i dont see a point since they are very easy to dodge. i never get how some people bait very easy bombs to dodge, and not bait during bombs that are very hard to dodge when not baiting, such as the row bombs where you have to run to titan and theres literally no safe spot with ls. As a healer if i worry about baiting during the add bombs it gimps a bit of my healing since i have to pay attention to bomb order and adjust my placement, otherwise i can just stay in centre and heal then run backwards to wherever i see the smoke.

[Chihaya]

Don't really need to bait the bomb pattern with the gaolers. If landslide is covering the safe spots, you just move into the safe spot after the markings on the floor disappears (before the actual landslide animation) and you shouldn't be hit.

Very common on JP servers to tank Titan at 12, gather mini's at 3 (on top of where 1 of them spawns) and kill the bomb at 11 during the phase where you need to kill a bomb.

[Maelwys]

We nearly always have me picking up the Adds on our runs (as PLD)...

The Tactics we use are generally "Adds at 3 O'clock and Superbombs at 9 O'clock"
What this means is that immediately after the heart phase, the bulk of the party gathers at 6 O'clock to bait the landslide and AoE heal.
The MT takes Titan as far North as possible. I as the OT hit titan twice to build up a RoH Combo and then move to 9 O'clock.

When the first add spawns I'll use my combo'ed RoH on it, and immediately run across the arena from 9 O'clock to 3 O'clock in order to use an UNCOMBOED RoH on the second add.
At this point I use CoS and start Flashing and move to the 3 o'clock bomb - as close to the edge as possible. This baits the landslide and gathers the adds in a good position for melee DPS.

For the FIRST add phase (immediately after heart); I'll pop Rampart, then as soon as Titan's Landslide appears, I'll use Tempered Will and Sentinel.
This gives me knockback immunity and +60% damage resistance, which I use to eat both one bomb (the 3 o'clock one) and Titan's landslide.
Once the bomb blows up and the landslide has gone off, I'm at about 50-60% HP. I wait for the FIRST add's landslide and then dodge it by rotating anticlockwise a little towards 2 o'clock.
The second add's landslide can come at the same time, or a few seconds afterwards - I dodge it by rotating a little further (to 1 o'clock).
At this point the adds both usually die (dropping at about 2 o'clock and stacking their patches there).
This gives me room to Tankswap and/or dodge a plume by moving from 1 o'clock to directly through titan's character model and behind him.

The benefit of eating the landslide and one bomb is that it keeps landslides consistent and makes the melee DPS able to go wild and still dodge bombs.
Dragging the adds to between 3 and 2 O'clock drops the patches in a position that lets everyone dodge stuff easily (including the MT) for the rest of the phase.

I've found that the ideal time to Tankswap after heart is right after the third stack from Mountain Buster (usually happens shortly after the above) whenever Titan cocks his leg - there is a 10 second period without any landslides or bombs to worry about. Since I used both Rampart and Sentinel for the Adds, I'll pop Foresight/Awareness for the First MB, Bulwark/Convalescence for the Second MB and Rampart (now recharged) for the Third MB. Not having Sentinel isn't really too much of a pain though - Mountain Busters aren't really that difficult to weather for a PLD as long as you pop cooldowns and only eat one bomb.

Likewise, after another three stacks when the MT vokes back off you, all you need to worry about is the Superbomb. No landslides or Plumes or funny mechanics to dodge during the swap.

For the SECOND set of adds (after the first rotation) I'll pop Hallowed Ground instead of Tempered Will/Rampart/Sentinel in order to do the same as the above (eat Titan's Landslide and a bomb) but take no damage.
This makes the healer's lives a little bit easier whenever everyone is running on empty, and leaves me a full set of mitigation cooldowns up for the next tankswap "Just in case" something silly happens.

[Lemon8or]

Since the poster above describes for PLD, I'll chip in how I do it on warrior.
For the adds, use Heavy Swing on Titan, Skull Sunder on 9 o'clock adds, Butcher's Block on 3 o'clock then Steel Cyclone + Vengeance. This will be up for every adds phase (there should only be 2 anyway but if you have 3, same thing). I'll stay at the 3 o'clock then move to the 2 o'clock for the LS and bomb. After moving back to the 3 o'clock, the adds should be doing their own LS by then, carefully move along the edge so no LS will be aimed at your party. We don't have Tempered Will which is not really a big deal if you're fast enough and not lagging. Once the adds are down and the MT has 3 stack, Provoke, combo'd Skull Sunder/Butcher's Block/Tomahawk, Inner Beast.

[Kimura410]

I understand how to tank them I just didnt understand the whole baiting thing I guess. It seems that its more for the AOE heal and for everyone to be on the same page, but it still seems to me that if someone screws up and doesnt bait correctly, if you can dodge then you shouldnt have a problem adjusting to it. I often feel people are too robotic in fights with these widely used methods, and they can't improvise. I mean I definitely understand that my positioning was not optimal I guess, but if youre good you should be able to adjust. I mean, if I see a plume, landslide, bomb, eruption, Im going to dodge it. If someones messes up and the plumes arent stacked, I improvise and run to a different area than I usually do.

And if I go into a fight and people use a different strat than my static does, then I have no choice but to adjust. Cant just be like, "Ok guys, Im outta here you dont do it the way I do", or "you guys are doing it wrong" because there are different ways to do a fight. Idk I just hate when people say something is wrong when it has no dire consequences, or when it is simply not the way they or the majority do something. But Ill agree, it probably is better to bait them south because I feel as if I make extra movements that could be avoided. But wrong? I wouldnt say so. As I said, I can easily avoid the bomb damage doing it the way I do it, Im never stuck taking a hit, so its really not an excuse.

[SeraviEdalborez]

This will be up for every adds phase (there should only be 2 anyway but if you have 3, same thing).

Just to note, if you make it to 3 add phases you pretty much lost the fight. Titan will do summons > bombs > upheaval instead of the usual summons > bombs > landslide. Virtually impossible to survive.