Tank Busters Mitigation

[Iceboy]

Hey There guys!

So... I was playing in Urth Fount as a PLD a quite while, trying to beat Odin. The problem is, I don't know how I can mitigate the damage from sangetall (his tank buster).

Just one def buff is fine? Like rampart/foresight/sentinel Or I have to ask the healers for a stoneskin/eye for eye?

I'm asking this because, sometimes, even if I use a def buff, I got 6k damage, and for Odin, in DF, 6k damage its almost all my hp (around 9900~sync).

I'm a little scared with the endgame trial/dungeons (i'm 10 quests away from 3.1/3.2 content) so I want to improve my weak points as a tank!

[KazumaFaemura]

It depends on the fight that you are doing like if you do Sephirot EX you can easily survive his phase 1 tank buster just using Rampart, Foresight, and Sentinel alone. Though I do pop Awareness with Rampart just to insure that I don't get screwed over if the game decides to give him a crit.

[repoe]

It depends on the fight that you are doing like if you do Sephirot EX you can easily survive his phase 1 tank buster just using Rampart, Foresight, and Sentinel alone. Though I do pop Awareness with Rampart just to insure that I don't get screwed over if the game decides to give him a crit.

Awareness' usefullness for tank busters Is the same as wearing swim trunks to keep warm in a blizzard.
Just to clarify:
Tankbusters can't do critical damage, the only time I popped awarenesd while prepping TB mitigation was for the cleave that followed immediately after heavenly heel

[MeridaQ]

For Odin specifically the fight lasts long enough that even with rotating CDs (in DF) that you will run out of CDs before he is dead. I would say start using some light CDs in the beginning then bulwark light CDs then sentinel. Use HG if you know you can be topped off and SS yourself when you can in preparation of TB. Good luck!!

[Slappah]

Foresight by itself isn't really ever enough to mitigate a tank buster well, it gives 20% defense but in reality 20% defense isn't really anywhere close to a flat 20% damage reduction like a real CD is.

Odin tank buster hits hard, that's just how the fight is.

Imo warrior was/is the best for that fight because they can have inner beast up for every tank buster (usually)

[Rhaja]

Foresight by itself isn't really ever enough to mitigate a tank buster well, it gives 20% defense but in reality 20% defense isn't really anywhere close to a flat 20% damage reduction like a real CD is.

Odin tank buster hits hard, that's just how the fight is.

Imo warrior was/is the best for that fight because they can have inner beast up for every tank buster (usually)

I really hated trying to convince PUG's that. Was one of the few times I hated that WAR=DPS with some tankiness in the general eye.

[Reynhart]

Imo warrior was/is the best for that fight because they can have inner beast up for every tank buster (usually)

So, your answer to "How do I do it as a PLD" is : Play WAR ?

In all seriousness, Iceboy, don't forget that PLD can use Stoneskin itself with its otherwise useless MP. If you have 9900 HP max, Stoneskin absorbs 990 damage. On a 6k hits, it equals a 16% mitigation.
Not too bad if your pair it each time with another CD. Your rotation will also depends on your current HP. If you're full, Stoneskin can basically be enough, especially if a SCH or AST shields you, and it saves your bigger CD for harder parts of the fight.

Also, if you have only ranged DPS, you can even move Odin to "delay" the attack, but I wouldn't recommend this for the basic method.

[JackFross]

People here seem to be wildly underestimating Foresight.

Foresight by itself isn't really ever enough to mitigate a tank buster well, it gives 20% defense but in reality 20% defense isn't really anywhere close to a flat 20% damage reduction like a real CD is.

This implication is flat wrong in 3.x. It may have been a bit accurate before 3.0 made defense a stat that actually means something, finally, but all of the research on Foresight has proven this to be an inaccurate assessment of how effective Foresight is for physical mitigation, now.

My Paladin currently has 2524 Defense with Protect and 3029 with Foresight on top. According to calculations done in early 3.0, hitting this cooldown is ~15.5% physical damage mitigation. I would say that's actually significant. It's certainly weaker than Rampart, but it's a lot closer than you're implying.

Comparison of different physical tank buster mitigations:
ShO+Sen+Shel = .8*.6*.77 = ~36.9% damage taken
ShO+Ramp+Shel = .8*.8*.77 = ~49.3% damage taken
ShO+Fore+Shel = .8*.845*.77 = ~52.1% damage taken
ShO+Shel = .8*.77 = ~61.6% damage taken

So yeah, it's clearly not better than Rampart, but it's absolutely not worthless. Implying it's "not a real CD" is silly. Would you say Dark Mind is "not a real CD" without Dark Arts? It's essentially the Magical equivalent to Foresight at current gear levels.


If you're eating physical tank busters, Foresight should -absolutely- be part of your CD rotation. If it isn't, you're doing it wrong.

[Syzygian]

Foresight

+1. Foresight is a legit cooldown. Especially on DRK, its a valuable piece of physical mitigation. During early progression on Sephex I mitigated the 3rd Chesed with it and Dark Dance/Conva, and in the final phase, I'd use it on the first tower along with DA Dark Mind for the Da'at, and time Shadow Wall to mitigate both on the second tower+Da'at.

TLDR Foresight is a pretty cool guy. Put the haterade back in the fridge.

[Ashkendor]

+1. Foresight is a legit cooldown. Especially on DRK, its a valuable piece of physical mitigation. During early progression on Sephex I mitigated the 3rd Chesed with it and Dark Dance/Conva, and in the final phase, I'd use it on the first tower along with DA Dark Mind for the Da'at, and time Shadow Wall to mitigate both on the second tower+Da'at.

TLDR Foresight is a pretty cool guy. Put the haterade back in the fridge.

I use Foresight + Sheltron on the 3rd Chesed, works like a charm. :3