Alexander Discussion, Round 2: Wait is this the easy mode thread?

[Kaslo]

Any tips for SMN in A2S, my group is starting to learn the fight tonight (with MNK having to completely learn walker duties) and I'm having Aetherflow stack management problems...

[Seravi Edalborez]

Any tips for SMN in A2S, my group is starting to learn the fight tonight (with MNK having to completely learn walker duties) and I'm having Aetherflow stack management problems...

Don't go too ham in the easy first few waves. Save some burst for the gobwidows and jagds when appropriate. Not a SMN main but I would presume: you see a mob with 5 vuln stacks you want to (TD if needed and) Bane that shit.

Not sure if that's just "no shit" advice, probably also depends on kill speed and comfort especially with a learning walker pilot.

[Shaano]

I can try my best to do the play by play of what I do... can't make promises of how it'll match up with your groups pulls but;

Spoiler: show

Wave 1
Dot one soldier up, painflare, ruin spam till next wave.

Wave 2
Dot the front most soldier up, contagion, pain flare, bane, DWT and ruin 3 spam the highest target of hp. If they are dying slow, death flare, if they are dying fast, quelling strikes and death flare the start of the next wave asap.

Wave 3
Dot up the Hardmind(or helm, can't remember which one it is) pain flare, bane when the other is brought to the group, painflare and DWT/Death flare if dps is needed, if not move onto DWT/DF next wave

Wave 4
Little iffy depending on how nice your other dps are about not burning the boom type, but dots, pain, bane, and pick off soldiers/snipers while letting gob rider feed.

Wave 5
If you have 3 stacks to DWT, do so, TD goblin soldier 1, painflare, contagion, bane when all widows/gobs in range and ruin 3 spam. If soldiers between the gobs it'll be easy for DF to hit all.

Wave 6
Depending on dps and if they need the help, Dot hardhelm, bane to boomtype and leave them alone the remaining amount of time, dot the Jag and bane onto the spider. DWT ruin 3 spam the Jag, DF jag to hit both it and spider.

Wave 7
Pray your tanks can hold hate if they are focusing on another target as number 1, if something is closer to bane the rest of the jags onto, do so and keep praying or you'll grab hate. Painflare/banes/deathflares etc till they move to next.

Wave 8
Pick your Dot victim for banes, do so right away and painflare, fester hard helm/minds if they need to be burned quickly depending on other dps. Do a little dance and use it as recovery time of stacks etc while the last jag or two is removed, and soldier/snipers.

Wave 9
Dot that boom type up as it'll be your bane buddy. Contagion, painflare, bane/LB as much as possible. Focus those soldiers down after boomtype is gone and once they are killed while stunned, burn that jag, take out the last widows and tab back to your parse to see how sexy you did.

If you die at some point, dont worry too much, shit sucks but you'll still do well. Garuda is a whore and she knows it so she'll try to stand in range of bomb explosions and jag aoe they throw out, be ready to sustain/resummon her.

Besides that enjoy your first few weeks of killing as they will be your highest, from then on everyone else will do better dps, killing your dots sooner, making your dps go down and cry silently in the corner :')

Oh and as kills get faster/smoother, you'll be either short on stacks you are expecting since less time etc, so try to adjust accordingly.

[Kaslo]

I can try my best to do the play by play of what I do... can't make promises of how it'll match up with your groups pulls but;

Spoiler: show

Wave 1
Dot one soldier up, painflare, ruin spam till next wave.

Wave 2
Dot the front most soldier up, contagion, pain flare, bane, DWT and ruin 3 spam the highest target of hp. If they are dying slow, death flare, if they are dying fast, quelling strikes and death flare the start of the next wave asap.

Wave 3
Dot up the Hardmind(or helm, can't remember which one it is) pain flare, bane when the other is brought to the group, painflare and DWT/Death flare if dps is needed, if not move onto DWT/DF next wave

Wave 4
Little iffy depending on how nice your other dps are about not burning the boom type, but dots, pain, bane, and pick off soldiers/snipers while letting gob rider feed.

Wave 5
If you have 3 stacks to DWT, do so, TD goblin soldier 1, painflare, contagion, bane when all widows/gobs in range and ruin 3 spam. If soldiers between the gobs it'll be easy for DF to hit all.

Wave 6
Depending on dps and if they need the help, Dot hardhelm, bane to boomtype and leave them alone the remaining amount of time, dot the Jag and bane onto the spider. DWT ruin 3 spam the Jag, DF jag to hit both it and spider.

Wave 7
Pray your tanks can hold hate if they are focusing on another target as number 1, if something is closer to bane the rest of the jags onto, do so and keep praying or you'll grab hate. Painflare/banes/deathflares etc till they move to next.

Wave 8
Pick your Dot victim for banes, do so right away and painflare, fester hard helm/minds if they need to be burned quickly depending on other dps. Do a little dance and use it as recovery time of stacks etc while the last jag or two is removed, and soldier/snipers.

Wave 9
Dot that boom type up as it'll be your bane buddy. Contagion, painflare, bane/LB as much as possible. Focus those soldiers down after boomtype is gone and once they are killed while stunned, burn that jag, take out the last widows and tab back to your parse to see how sexy you did.

If you die at some point, dont worry too much, shit sucks but you'll still do well. Garuda is a whore and she knows it so she'll try to stand in range of bomb explosions and jag aoe they throw out, be ready to sustain/resummon her.

Besides that enjoy your first few weeks of killing as they will be your highest, from then on everyone else will do better dps, killing your dots sooner, making your dps go down and cry silently in the corner :')

Oh and as kills get faster/smoother, you'll be either short on stacks you are expecting since less time etc, so try to adjust accordingly.

My biggest issue comes in that transition from 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 with maintaining stacks for baneing. I was originally Painflaring, but it was draining my stacks so quickly :/

[Shalafi]

I have the same issue, whenever I throw painflare in the mix I tend to run through stacks so fast.

[Niiro]

Unless you're having trouble meeting the DPS check I wouldn't worry too much about it.

The overall DPS check for A2 isn't that harsh, it's just the smaller checks like burning the Hardminds/Hardhelms before their stuns wear.

[Shaano]

Yeah don't stress it, mine is just the tl;dr I could pull from memory. Obviously hold a stack or two as you see fit and with how the flow of your group is doing. It'll vary a lot I presume between groups.

[Kaslo]

Alright, also recommendations for who to get into Walker? We have DRG/MNK/BRD/SMN and we have been sticking the MNK in there to focus on AoE damage but not sure if this is the right decision... (also normally our DRG and I (SMN) are our top two DPS)

[Shaano]

Elixir Field is pretty OP with so many mobs, but battle litany is sexy as well. Not sure how long recast of the buff is to be worthwhile. If the monk can keep stacks flowing it should be no worried having them dps.

[Niiro]

I'd sooner put the DRG in the walker than the MNK.

Elixir Field makes Dragonfire Dive look like a lazy bitch and MNK can close all of their combos with Rockbreaker as well as maintain their TP better with Purification.

[Kiarax]

Ideally I'd also say DRG in the car is better, but I think a bigger factor is who actually is willing and wants to do it. The car is a huge part of the fight and if someone actually has some interest in getting good at it and figuring out ways to optimize the fight with it they should be in the car. I've helped a couple of other groups with A2S runs and seen what a massive impact little differences in where stacks get applied and how they handle all the car mechanics can do. It made me greatly appreciate him sucking it up and taking the role nobody really wanted and pushing himself to do everything he can in that role.

[Kaslo]

Yeah if doesn't matter I would put myself in the walker because I had been doing it from our group when we were farming Normal so I have atleast a good understanding of all the abilities and how to watch for certain things.

[Sigmakan]

Being in the Gobwalker is ok, my only worry is that im stuck there forever.

[Neon_Sea]

Going into A2S tomorrow thanks for the summoner tips :D

[Kiarax]

Yeah if doesn't matter I would put myself in the walker because I had been doing it from our group when we were farming Normal so I have atleast a good understanding of all the abilities and how to watch for certain things.

Well SMN is a different story, you should be doing far more than everyone else if stacks are being applied properly so putting you in the car is a terrible idea! MNK and DRG should be hitting pretty similar numbers though comparatively so having either do it is perfectly reasonable. You can also do some rotation shenanigans where you have multiple people use cars, there's some merit to this (natural TP recovery letting them abuse AoE a little more, potentially better use of cooldowns, etc) but I think it's a lot harder to optimize, especially if you're still learning the fight and having healers/tanks get comfortable with each wave.

[Niiro]

Yea we have our MNK do the first one and the MCH jump in the second (after dropping MP turret for a stretch).

[octopus]

I've read some strats talking about having the SCH take the gobwalker for the first 4 waves and then switch? Is this a good strategy?

[Seravi Edalborez]

We didn't like doing it because quite frankly SCH banedots are kind of a big deal and removing them fucks with everyone else's cooldowns.

Also to me it makes more sense to just have one person who knows how to pilot very well instead of trying to juggle people. But we didn't try swap until after we had already cleared so maybe you'd have a different experience if you learned that way.

[Sigmakan]

I've read some strats talking about having the SCH take the gobwalker for the first 4 waves and then switch? Is this a good strategy?

Thats how we do it. It seems to work well. SCH does wave 1-4, then I (MNK) do the rest. Gives me a chance to punch stuff.

[Kipling]

Whatever melee or person you choose doesn't matter. Just make sure you delegate it to one of your mechanically stronger players.