Ramuh Ex tips. Please read this is a LONG overdue discussion.

[Elusana_Celah]

Beating this primal seems to be at the same probability of people successfully completing T9 I swear... that is an exaggeration I know but this guy is hell. I cleared him about 10 times successfully but you know how much trouble it is just to get that done? I'm not referring to the mechanics, I'm referring to the people. People are either on drugs, mindless zombies, or (the most likely reason) which is people are confused.

What is it about this fight that is making things so hard on everyone? It's not hard at all it just requires looking at more than Ramuh's beard.

Fight begins thunderstorm rotation:
Thunderstorm, tank orbs,
thunderstorm, chaotic, dps orbs,
thunderstorm, tank orbs,
thunderstorm, chaotic, dps orbs,
thunderstorm, tank orbs,
thunderstorm, chaotic, dps orbs...

See a pattern here? There's some other weird things like the random lightning that spreads around the arena it can do a little damage but isn't a super big deal unless there's a lot of orbs on the map.

My point is that people sit there like zombies not 'thinking' and just waiting to be 'told' what to do by some orb macros when the rotation is literally like this. Thus, no one ever tries to learn the fight and thus they stay in an endless state of confusion. The goal is for when the current main tank is 20-25seconds into the debuff, the offtank grabs 3 orbs and they perform a tank swap. There are some instances where one of the tank has messed up by either overcharging or missing an orb in time.

How does a DPS/Healers tell when a tank has missed their orb buff and must take the orbs during chaotic?

It's simple. During every non-chaotic thunderstorm, a player should look at the tank debuffs and watch the current offtank grabbing the orbs. If they see the offtank has 3 stacks, then it is safe to grab orbs during chaotic.

What happens if I got lost in confusion and forgot whether or not the next thundestorm will be a chaotic?

It's good to think ahead so you are ready for it so if you've forgotten, target the main tank real quick and check the duration of his or her debuff. If it is above 35 seconds, next thunderstorm should be a chaotic and DPS should grab the orbs

---------- Misc stuff people should already know ----------

The common strategy is to drop a waymark A on the south where anyone who is hit with chaotic strike runs to. Then 5 people are numbered 1-5 and lowest number is in charge of breakouts first while highest number is in charge of breaking tethers.

People end up stepping on each other's shoes or not paying attention.

Ramuh can drop a thunderstorm on any random player who does NOT have 3 stacks of the orb debuff on them and is NOT being targeted by a chaotic strike.

Ramuh will cast 5 or 6 thunderstorms which can be on any of the players mentioned OR not on any player but on the ground. Therefore, in some cases, a thunderstorm will already be on top of the chaotic players to break them out.

I could go into details talking about the number and waymark strategy and not stacking thunderstorms and blah blah but you can look at a youtube video guide or whatever for that stuff.
What I want to do is clear up some confusion.

Common things I feel people get confused about that, when learned and understood, people should begin improving at the fight.

• Every other thunderstorm (the ones where players are chaotic) = DPS and healers should instinctively grab orbs.
  
• Chaotic happens after the first thunderstorm and every other one. That means that players should literally rotate their camera around and look for who is chaotic (There will be a big obvious yellow target above their heads. I would also note that Chaotic makes a very distinct sound effect) and then look where the thunderstorms are positioned, look at their numbers and determine who is breaking people out.
  
  I have gotten to the point where I don't even need people to be on the A waymark anymore if someone can't make it there in time I've seen them and can break them out. The confusion comes in when people are stepping on each other's shoes hence the numbers.
  
• Every person should remember and understand when it is their turn to grab the orbs.
  
• During tethers, a white mage can use a Medica II and apply regen on the people who are affected by tethers. People should not use abilities while tethered unless it's a healer trying to get some desperate heals in.
  
• Highest number person breaks out tethers. If tethered to a tank, the tank will break the tether.
  
• More on Tethers: If people KNOW the orb rotation, they will know right away when it's safe for them to grab orbs without being told. The tethers should not actually kill you before it is your turn to grab the orbs as long as you stop attacking and using skills. Wait for dps orbs and clear tethers (3 orbs collected by the same person results in the tether breaking).
  
• More on Tethers: People seem to take them for granted but if the tethers kill one or both of the players who are affected by it, it TRANSFERS to the next party members meaning it will rip your party to shreds like a machine gun before you know it. Therefore it is important to stay calm, have patience, wait for DPS orbs then break tether.
  
• Stay away from the front of Ramuh at all times. Let tanks grab those orbs or you will eventually get cleaved. This goes for offtanks who are grabbing orbs to get debuff. Make sure you are grabbing the orbs directly in front of Ramuh last or, wait for him to use a shocking strike and run in and grab them since he won't use it twice in a row.

In conclusion: I feel that the majority of people have difficulty with Ramuh Ex due to confusion. Macros and being 'told' what to do constantly leads to players never feeling the need or desire to understand the mechanics and this lack of understanding creates confusion and this confusion, in-turn, becomes party wipes due to frequent blundering of the mechanics. The reason I didn't touch base on the 'adds' phase is because I feel when these basic confusions are solved and players really start learning to feel more comfortable with the mechanics and things stop feeling all "panicked", the adds will die a LOT faster. Calm DPS = more DPS

[synesthetic]

I haven't done Ramuh in a while. But back then, what I noticed people had apparently learned instead was..

.. go BRD and be the first to say you're baiting.

[ShenDrakar]

Really?
I watched a video once, read about the turns and took me just 3 df runs in the same day to finish it. All random people no mumble, ts, etc. Maybe I was lucky.

[Brianmj]

The fight is beautifully designed, but it's just horrible to play out. My problem with the fight is Thunderstorm. I can't tell if mine is overlapping with a natural, it's difficult to see, especially during the add phase with all that lightning. Too many times have I ended up either killing the person or they get seduced and die anyway. Too many times a group just disbands because of that - either due to my fault or someone else. And in the end it's a horrible feeling that stays in the pit of my stomach. When I got my casting ring I said to myself, "never again".

[Elusana_Celah]

SNIP

Hmm Brianmj, this brings up something interesting I intend to research. I wonder if monitor settings and other settings such as gamma, brightness, contrast, color warmth etc can make it near impossible to see the thunderstorms in time for some people. I personally see them very easily on my end.

[Kimura410]

my tip: solo tank. with ilvl increases, its easily doable for pugs, as its been viable since it came out, especially if you wanna bring 3 healers and let 2 mostly dps the whole time since theres little dps check here. you pretty much clean up orbs all the time and leave one for the tank to overcharge just in case. warrior is optimal for this fight i think because of the huge health pool, and he short bursty IBs since he uses medium size hits on you in very quick succession. youll be stoneskinning and adloing a lot at 3 stacks on the tank so that bigger health pool is beneficial there too.

id say the biggest issue people have with the fight is not understanding chaotic. but if you solo tank it it takes the second guessing of whose turn it is to collect orbs.