Quote Originally Posted by Townowi View Post
It's still early-ish, and I haven't run Leviathan yet (but Leviathan is next), so I still have time to address gearing before going into HW. And, given my history of messing up mechanics in key MSQ fights (Ifrit HM, Titan HM and Thornmarch) it's a safe bet that I really need to shore up that portion of what I called "skill". In fact I may wish to revisit these MSQ fights before tackling Leviathan until I master all three of these, and even run their EX once I have made some gearing progress.
So this is the advice that i would offer. Keep in mind the idea of upgrading gear. Keep in mind the idea of revisiting a few fights to see how they feel on replay. Even keep in mind the idea of trying harder fights as training. First, try the Leviathan fight. Story mode isnt that hard. You need to kill some adds. You get a couple of divebombs to dodge(failure tends to be a debuff rather then death). Hopefully you notice if youre attacking the wrong target(one of them reflects physical attacks, the other reflects magic). As long as someone does the converter mechanic(only one person needs to or even can) right, the ultimate shouldnt be an issue. Then you sorta repeat the first part until hes down. Try the fight. If at the end you still feel like you need additional training/practice/skill then you have several ideas of what to do next. If instead you pass the fight without issue, consider that you might have been more unlucky then unskillful on your previous failures. A poorly timed bit of lag can send you off the edge of the titan fight(among other things). There may be a bug causing one attack in thornmarch to hit harder then it should and not being geared enough makes that troublesome. Not knowing the fight can lead to a ton of extra damage taken with ifrit, and poor gear can turn extra damage into extra deaths. You didnt mention if you had any issues in Garuda(hard), so let that and Leviathan be a guidepost on where to go next.

Side note. If you havent done the scholar class quests up to 50, do those too. You get a couple extra very useful spells. A lot of scholar play is knowing whats coming next, and already having a shield ready to go to protect yourself and the group. Obviously, thats harder to do in a fight you dont know yet.

And if you do struggle, i would prioritize gear first. Then re-trying the fights you had trouble with(if you can figure out/know which attacks in particular were trouble, then a guide can help you avoid/mitigate them). Then trying harder versions.