Tank Busters

[Veliena]

Hi, so I am new to tanking, and decided to be a paladin, yay!! So I have read on sites ect, about tank busters, and using cd's to deal with them. Can someone give me some examples of what a tank buster is. I understand its a very hard hitting ability but, what abilities are tank busters. Is there a way to know its coming?

[Rubytoe]

Pay attention to the "action cast bar" next to the bosses hp bar. It only appears when the boss starts to cast a action.

If a bosses hits you with a action that only hits you and does alot more damage than the other actions it's doing, that's usually the tank buster. Just try to take note of what that action is called, and the next time you see it being cast prepare for it with a defensive action of your own.

Alot of bosses have patterns, and you'll learn those patterns from experiencing the fight more often.

[RylaBee]

Hi. For Paladin there are several ways to mitigate tank buster. From strongest to weekest:

1) Hallowed Ground - complete imunity, 7min CD. It is unlikely you will be able to use more then 1x during encounter, unless its very long, or usage is intentionally pre-planed for very early and very late tankbusters.
2) Sentinel - 40% mitigation, 3 minutes CD - it pays to alway combine it with Sheltron (if the tank buster is blockable) for extra guaranteed shield block
3) Rampart - 20% mitigation, 90 second CD - this is weak on its own, but if you are in tank stance (shield oath) and combine with Sheltron, it might just do.

Notes:
- if you need to boost mitigation of Sentinel or - especially - Rampart, you can also use Reprisal to get another 10% mitigation - boss must be targetable and melee-reachable. Usually however, Reprisal is used to mitigate raid-wide damage moves.
- if you do not have resource to use Sheltron, remember that Passage of Arms ALSO guarantees you block, althou it is again usually reserved for raid mitigation
- other players can mitigate tank buster further with abilities like Addle, Feint or various shielding/mitigating buffs - but in unorganized PUGs do not count on it

[Veliena]

ok sweet thanks.

[aqskerorokero]

learn on your skin.....if one boss move can almost or one shot you..that's a tank buster...and you will perform better next pull and you obtained ffxiv ptsd

[Dualblade]

If your current level on your profile is correct then in 10 levels you will get the skill Intervention for your Paladin. This is a very good skill to use on another tank if they are the one that is going to eat the/a tank buster, and if you know you won't need them anytime soon Intervention can be made even stronger by using either Rampart of Sentinal before using the skill. It can also be used on one of your other party members if you feel any AoE attack about to go out will kill them.

As well, when you are taking a tank buster on yourself the skill Bulwark can also be a good idea to use in conjunction with another skill. While it won't necessarily proc the block on the buster itself, it will most likely still proc on attacks after the buster thus giving you some breathing room while the healers get your HP back up.

[Satarn]

Another thing to note, is that tank busters either never crit or always crit(depends on a specific TB). That's very important not only because crits are stronger than normal attacks, but also because they ignore parry and block, making cds like Raw Intuition or Sheltron useless against them, unless you combine them with Awareness(which can also be used alone if a non-crit version of that TB doesn't hit very hard).
Certain tank busters also hit the area around you, like a cleave does, so keep that in mind and don't stack with other players while they're coming. Then again other TBs are meant to be shared with your co-tank(like non-invulned Akh Morn in Shin EX).

There's some variety to tank busters and it affects how you deal with them, but content guides usually give you enough information to come up with a good method.

[Deus_ex_Machina]

Also, don't ever stack your long cooldown like Rampart + Sentinel. But do stack Shelltron with your mitigation because it's basically free and short recast

They are not additive!! You would think Rampart + sentinel = 60% mitigation... but it's not, it in infact 52% mitigation. Here is a break down

Shield Oath: 20% mitigation
Shield Oath + Rampart: 36% mitigation
Shield Oath + Sentinel: 52% mitigation
Shield Oath + Rampart + Sentinel: 62% mitigation

Side note: Reprisal affect outgoing damage of the boss so you can use it for any tank buster and will still get 100% benefit of the skill. But I normally use it on raid aoe... so i never have it up for TBs

[Aana]

Most tank busters are 'cast' by the boss and you see the cast bar over their HP bar. As you get into higher tier content (mostly only in savage primals/raids) bosses will sometimes just do heavy hitting moves with no cast bar and you just have to learn when they happen. Sometimes the names are pretty straightforward: "Halicarnasus is casting Critical Hit". That sounds like a single target ouchy incoming, and it is. Some are less obvious. "Exdeath is casting thunder 3" well that sounds like it could be a raid AOE, or a single target, who knows. Its a buster.

Online guides will spell it all out for you for any specific fight. But if you go in blind, then a safe bet is if you aren't sure what they are casting, pop something. Better safe than sorry and if your HP drops a WHOLE lot then you know for next run, if it hardly budges, or the raid as a whole takes a buncha damage, no biggie. You know that for next time too. Until you hit savage content, you wont really run out of cooldowns doing this so feel free to pop one wheneer you aren't sure and take note which are busters and which aren't. You can always fall back on your hallowed ground if you run out of CDs while you burn them learning.

[Gemina]

Another note is a TB will one-shot anyone other than a tank, and I believe some can even one-shot tanks if they are not mitigated either through CD, sharing damage with another party member, or both. So be sure to sustain that agro on bosses, which is good practice in general, but can make a difference between a wipe and a clear in more punishing content.

Generally, you won't see too many TBs in casual content, and even the hard hitting attacks some casual bosses have are reduced to next to nothing when over-geared. Since you're leveling, and won't be over-geared like someone who is synced, these attacks will hit you harder but nothing a healer worth their salt can't handle. However, that is no reason for you not to get into the habit of popping a CD whenever you know your HP is about to drop. That just comes with experience as you learn the fights you repeat.