Titan Extreme Mode

[Aeris Ashe]

Yes but when you don't all start at the same spot scattering to different directions becomes disastrous Couerl is one of the newer servers so maybe that explains why every party finder group I join is full of people who do this =/ Or maybe I just need to find a static xD

[Indomitable Will]

For some reason every team I'm on consistently has trouble with arguably the easiest mechanic: stacking on top of each other for Weight of the Lands. Because of this I find myself facing a four-leaf clover of plumes at times and end up getting hit by one. I can eat it just fine and keep on trucking but it puts extra stress on the healers to top me off again. My question: think it'd be worth it to switch from Artemis Zenith to Bow of Crags for the earth resistance, or is the DPS loss too significant? I'm looking for any way I can take some pressure off the healers on the occasion i get hit by one but I have no idea how much earth resistance affects Titan's damage.

I tested melds of earth resistance once back when I was 1st trying to beat Titan HM (as PLD) and facepalming watching people fail the run for me (most tanks know this feeling), tested out a build with like 30 earth resist, literallylike .5% difference in the parse...so I wouldn't do it, just because you're not taking damage as a bard that's anywhere near the scale that the tanks are taking.

[Aeris Ashe]

wow that is SUPER negligible, why did they even add resistances if thats the case xD thanks for the replies

[Seravi Edalborez]

Well for Garuda EX the spiny plume bubble cranks your wind resistance up to over 1000; the net result is like a 90% damage reduction. So it does something, just not in amounts players can get.

[Niiro]

wow that is SUPER negligible, why did they even add resistances if thats the case xD thanks for the replies

So they could dilute the materia pool with useless shit.

[Aeris Ashe]

just 1-shotted titan EX with a good group, thought you guys might appreciate the update

[Sephiroth]

I hate stacking for plumes. What got me through hard mode was running just before plumes were about to hit. I used to hang around the south edge of the arena to avoid placing plumes near others. I'm guessing stacking is mandatory in extreme mode due to the smaller arena size but it means I'm eating plumes and getting one shot by eating multiple. I've only done about 5 runs so I'll probably get better but it's frustrating moving as soon as you see it and getting hit. What's worse is BLM is my main and it's terrible on this fight due to all the running, so I feel like I should be doing it as something more useful, which means less geared and not able to survive a double plume. Tempted to get the rotation down so I can predict plumes and then pop sprint just before they come up lol.

[Raldo]

I'm guessing stacking is mandatory in extreme mode due to the smaller arena size but it means I'm eating plumes and getting one shot by eating multiple.

If there is just a single person with lag issues, you can place them off on their own. Make sure they're a bit to the right of the clump, and have them run to the right (or diagonal/down if gaoler puddles are in the way). I had to do this since my computer is a laptop that barely meets the requirements to play. I didn't actually wind up doing it for my win though, since my lag issues were sufficiently mitigated by turning down animations (highly suggested if you're having trouble with the fight).

If the entire group is having trouble with stacking (i.e. people aren't close enough), then I would suggest telling them to set focus-target on themselves. This really helped one member in the group for our win. A lot of people have trouble discerning where they are in the clump, and the focus target puts a pointer above their head that allows them to see exactly where they are so they can be sure they're not off the clump too much. Note: When testing this, I noticed that if you get stuck in a gaol, you lose your focus target. If only one person needs this crutch, you can use a real party marker that won't go away.

Also, it might help to know that once that stomps (Tumult) are ALWAYS followed by plumes. The only exception being if you push him into a new phase right after stomps. That is not the only time he uses plumes, but it is a good majority of them.

[Serenseven]

If your lag issues are really bad, read this: Have bad lag? Try this.

Also, for BLMs specifically: Too many times I see people dodge something and move back right away, try to cast, and then have to interrupt themselves because of Titan's next move. Get in the habit of dodging, then cast, then move back. On Titan Extreme especially, you'll need to do this constantly or your DPS will be nonexistent. Don't forget you can Thundercloud/Firestarter/Scathe while moving as well.

Also, Manawall, Manaward, and Aetherial Manipulation are your friends. Manawall lets you ignore a Landslide (both damage and knockback are averted), Manaward lets you eat a single bomb without dying, and Aetherial Manipulation is your "I'm-not-where-I-need-to-be-get-me-there-NOW" button (make a mouseover macro for it to make it much more useful). Keep in mind that Manawall and Manaward have an animation time before they kick in, so don't wait until the last possible second to use them or you'll just look like an ass.

[Seravi Edalborez]

Also, for BLMs specifically: Too many times I see people dodge something and move back right away, try to cast, and then have to interrupt themselves because of Titan's next move. Get in the habit of dodging, then cast, then move back.

On this note, mages in general need to realize there is a small window at the end of each spell where you can cast move and it still goes off. Made this video as an example to a friend of healing during turn 5 divebombs, but same logic applies to all spell-users.

Edit: wrong wordage, thanks Slycer

[Sephiroth]

Good tips there.
I don't usually have a problem with landslides or bombs, just those annoying plumes. I don't think it's lag but I'll try lowering my settings, my GPU isn't amazing.
BLM feels a bit slower to react too because it's like you want to wait that 0.3 seconds or whatever for your spell to reach the point where you can move, but that should be eliminated by casting before you run back to stack.
I don't know it's probably all just an experience issue for me.

[Slycer]

Seravi meant "small window where you can move and it still goes off," in case someone didn't understand that post (2 posts up).

[Serenseven]

Also, mages who don't know about the movement window might also not realize that you can start your next cast during that window as well. Start when the casting bar shows ~0.4 sec left (adjust for your ping/lag as needed) and you can shave that time off every GCD.

[Kaisha]

Has anyone ever had their tank get hit twice by the same buster? Didn't snapshot the log in time (lolPS3), but from what I and a couple others saw, the tank ate 3.7k damage twice in succession following Titan using MB, dropping him from full HP to dead. There wasn't anything else that could have hit him during that time like bombs.

[Seravi Edalborez]

That seems pretty weird since the most that should happen post-buster is an auto-attack.

[Rocl]

That sounds like he covered somebody who also ate the Buster

[Sephiroth]

Does FPS matter much when it comes to dodging? I was playing on max with 26-29 FPS (figure taken outside Coil) and switched to laptop standard (lowest?) Suddenly my FPS jumped up to 58-60. I don't really want to play on lowest graphical settings but if it's a factor I can switch before shit like Titan. I've also installed the Leatrix latency fix, not sure how much that will help yet.

[Minnich]

Had a run yesterday where the off tank got knocked off during the first set of adds. So, I ended up tanking the rest of the fight solo. I'd get up to about 6 stacks on mountain buster before he jumped, then it was enough time to reset. Using my cool downs at appropriate times made it pretty easy to do. The DPS (we had 3 monk) ended up picking the second set of adds, with no issue. Only issue was the adds died in a strange place, so I just moved Titan and that solved that issue.

We cleared the fight in pretty epic fashion with 2 dead DPS, and killed Titan while he was casting a random upheaval that I assume was about to knock us all out of the arena. Anyways, now I'm curious if anyone has considered, or tried, solo tanking Titan?

[Rocl]

People have both solo tanked and solo healed Titan-X yeah. I never bothered to watch either of these vids, but it's been done, yes.

The next step:

edit: i just watched like 10s of the tank vid and the editing again showed me the door

[Minnich]

Oh thank you! I was lazy and just searched "solo tank" for the thread.

Guess I'll try to convince people to give it a shot.