Help with Dark Ixion >:

[Tsuko_Asura]

So, I've participated in quite a few DI battles, but I've only tanked(unsuccessfully, for the most part) him once. Looking for any and all advice people would be willing to offer to make it less of a mess.

Reoccurring problems during the fight:

-Rampant Stance is extremely fast, and usually did a hefty amount of damage to our tanks

-Lightning Spear and Wrath of Zeus damage was a major issue, as none of us were all that used to having to outrun a TP attack on an HNM

-Hate management was awful due to having to be cure-bombed because of the above


We were trying to be cautious, because it was my linkshell's first Ixion, and used three tanks; I'm thinking this was a bad idea? I'm hearing from several different places that you're better off having a solo-tank, which I suppose would make sense due to AoE damage.

And simply because I don't understand peoples' motives for saying so, is there a particular reason why DI isn't 'RDM-friendly'? As far as I could tell, his melee attacks were laughable(80-90 average), it was just his TP attacks that were often making me hit dirt.

Last but not least, is there a trigger for Acherion Kick? He seemed to use it at really random times, and I was never standing behind him.

Thanks x.x;

[Tricen]

DI does whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

[BadKarma]

DI does whatever he wants, whenever he wants.

^

[Yarko]

1. Get better tanks that don't take a lot of damage
2. ???
3. Profit!

On a serious note.... I've been solo tanking it lately for my LS as RDM and I get better results than our PLDs, which have a hard time keeping CE capped. I tank it in a mix of phys- and enmity, switch to full phys- when it ramparts, and full magic- when it uses a lightning move (just to be safe in case it turns to me while I run out of range).

Damage is like 150~300 on stances (500~600 when the uncommon 2x/3x dmg or whatever it is procs) so is no problem at all and is actually useful to get some easy VE from self-curing. Kick is triggered by standing behind him long enough, but it can happen randomly when it has bubbles (and he can use it twice in a row in that state).

Experience and timing is key for this HNM, once you've tanked it often enough you'll be able to predict when it is going to use a move.
Next time i'll try to make a video

[Tsuko_Asura]

Thanks Yarko.

Do you bother casting Stoneskin? I found a lot of the time I was either getting interupted mid-cast by a Rampant Stance, or just flat out taking a whole lot of damage from being out of my physical reduction set for the duration of the cast, making the whole ordeal a bit counterproductive.

[Yarko]

No I don't, I only keep phalanx up. Only time I use stoneskin if before converting if some unlucky tramples drain all my MP and devotion timers are down (and I have RNGs shadowbind it when I do so). Just focus on keeping shadows up (if he interrupts your utsu cycle, it can be hard at times to get utsu back on, because his attack rate is kind of random, and slow doesn't seem to have an effect) and use 1-2 hate spells between utsu casts. Also make sure your whm and rdm erase you every time you get hit by a melee hit. Oh and lastly, most of the times it's not worth it to try to outrun rampart stance, i usually only do it when it's predictable, i.e. when he has a chance to do it twice in a row in bubbles mode.

[Clauz]

You can outrun all tp moves if you keep a distance from DI(4-5 iirc).

[drwaffles]

1. Use one good PLD.

2. Have your best WHM in the tank party, not some retard who wears Zenith Crown.

3. Make sure the PLD lets the WHM know when they've been hit with Bind or Gravity.

4. Have your tank run out of range of the TP moves - it's not difficult.

5. Have a WHM in the RNG/DD party down in the line of fire to help keep them alive after Spear inevitably hits them because they're idiots with tiny attention spans.

[Sanjiyan]

Our shell has our tanks (PLD/NIN usually) stand a good distance apart so neither tank will ever get hoofed in the face. Lightning spear and wrath of zeus has very unique animations (wrath has a charge up animation) and when it's lightning spear, we get whichever tank that it's on to just run laterally and it'll miss. When it's wrath of zeus, everyone just scatter. Having 2 tanks stand further apart also means if one tank ever ends up in range of AoE, the other one usually gets away in time.

Very often nobody gets hit by the moves at all, except unlucky DDs that run in at the wrong time and don't pay attention.

In every zone, there will be a place best to fight Ixion; we pull it usually to a place with a tall ledge and have mages stand on top and tanks on the bottom (like one of those towers in grauberg). This way mages can be in curing range of tanks and any DDs that run up to WS without getting clipped by zeus.

DDs usually come /THF and TP on nearby mobs and dump TP. /SAM is also acceptable. If we have any RNGs we just keep them in full time until they die.

While all this running around seems like it's a hard time for DDs to do damage, and it is, it is great at not wiping, and not needing to cure bomb so we can use less mages on it. With the DDs we have in the shell, we still get 40-45min kills.

[Kurt Cobain]

it charges for both wrath of zeus and lightning spear, use a single good pld, load your alliance with rngs and support for them, run to 14~15 distance and out of the conal area in front of ixion when it charges, run back in after it uses wrath of zeus or lightning spear (if its glowing pink it can stay still and charge twice, so be prepared to strafe as necessary, sometimes it turns before spearing after charge), theres not shit you can do about rampant stance besides eat it(also uses x2 when pink.) when dust forms around his feet if you're really fast you can occasionally sidestep trample. exploit terrain, cliff in west saruta, tower in jugner, concrete looking incline in east ronfaure, mages on top, tank/dds down below, if your rangers sold their shit when it got nerfed /thf dds are acceptable too, meleeing ixion is easy if you dont wear dusk, can avoid rampant stance easy(ASAMELEE), thats about it, slow/elegy do nothing, since its inception we've killed ixion 133 times as of today so eat shit fags.

[Clauz]

theres not shit you can do about rampant stance besides eat it.

You can outrun it(ASATANK).

[Diomer]

You can outrun every one if Ixion's TP moves if you wanted to but I'm far too lazy to do that except sometimes. Make sure you tank it @ 4-5' from it so that you only have to move a short distance to avoid rampant (Around 7' to avoid Rampant) Acheron is around 5-6' depending on how it's facing to avoid it. Zeus and Spear are easy to avoid once you know the charge up animation though sometimes you'll get caught with them when its in Aura mode because it'll turn directly to you and you have to basically hope it does one or the other and try to avoid the other one (Like, running perpendicular to avoid spear or moving ~13 away to avoid Zeus) Like someone said, experience tanking it makes it a joke. If you're newer to it, just bring another PLD but have them maintain light hate from somewhere where they will never get hit with an AoE. Once they take hate, they need to back off obviously and just keep supporting the other tank but not enough to take hate until that other tank dies if he does. A great WHM will do wonders for avoiding some things due to Bind/Grav though. I don't even have to say when I'm bound/gravitied anymore with mine because she knows what it looks like. So basically, you'll improve the more you kill it.

[Kurt Cobain]

You can outrun it(ASATANK).

cool bro

[Xrave]

Rampart Stance is easy to outrun as long as you sit at the edge of the melee range. However if you're in the middle of doing some other action (shadows, curing, etc) and try to run late, you're going to take full damage since your back is to it and you won't have a chance to shield block.

[[Cookies]]

So, I've participated in quite a few DI battles, but I've only tanked(unsuccessfully, for the most part) him once. Looking for any and all advice people would be willing to offer to make it less of a mess.

Reoccurring problems during the fight:

-Rampant Stance is extremely fast, and usually did a hefty amount of damage to our tanks

Not much you can do about this unfortunately, works better if you only have 1 tank (a super duper awesome tank can outrun it).

-Lightning Spear and Wrath of Zeus damage was a major issue, as none of us were all that used to having to outrun a TP attack on an HNM

Who the heck did you have tanking? >_____>;

-Hate management was awful due to having to be cure-bombed because of the above

Get better tanks! :s

We were trying to be cautious, because it was my linkshell's first Ixion, and used three tanks; I'm thinking this was a bad idea? I'm hearing from several different places that you're better off having a solo-tank, which I suppose would make sense due to AoE damage.

Solo tank is best yeah, even if it's a shit tank, you're better off having 1 tank at a time eating dirt rather than 3 at once.

And simply because I don't understand peoples' motives for saying so, is there a particular reason why DI isn't 'RDM-friendly'? As far as I could tell, his melee attacks were laughable(80-90 average), it was just his TP attacks that were often making me hit dirt.

You should be fine if you can outrun AOEs consistantly.

Last but not least, is there a trigger for Acherion Kick? He seemed to use it at really random times, and I was never standing behind him.

Get a better co-tank.

Shame I quit really, you wouldn't be having these issues. :X

Oh and make sure you use Elemental Seal Slow/Elegy, it really helps.

[Onehundredpercentjuice]

Oh and make sure you use Elemental Seal Slow/Elegy, it really helps.

Also, throwing Stygian Ash's at it makes it less likely to use Spike Flail.

[Alistaire]

Shame I quit really, you wouldn't be having these issues. :X

Oh and make sure you use Elemental Seal Slow/Elegy, it really helps.

So you quit before it was common knowledge that slow doesn't affect DI at all?

[Khalil]

First time tanking that will be a pain, Tsuko. I would suggest you possibly watch other LSs fight and see how their PLD/NIN/RDMs perform and how they avoid Lightning Spear/Wrath of Zeus. After that, it's all gravy, baby!

[nitsuj]

Bring an army of SMN's and an army of RNG's.

Have Aegis PLD/NIN tank it and you shouldn't have much trouble. If you can get a good Aegis PLD, a good WHM (as said above) and a group of RNG's and SMN's to keep paying attention, you'll be able to chip away at it over time.

[[Cookies]]

So you quit before it was common knowledge that slow doesn't affect DI at all?

It's been a long time since i've fought DI, I guess i'm a bit behind the times.