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

[Churchill]

Sometimes. Tank will get low, I'll start casting, and heal will go off right as tank dies, healing his corpse. And sometimes I just brainfart and fuck up.

What I've been doing for the prey/tank buster is to hard target the person with prey, adlo, soft target tank, lustrate tank as soon as adlo finishes, and keep doing that as necessary. But that only works if I haven't burned my aetherflow already and it seems like I have to do that a lot. For heals seeming like they're not doing enough, it just feels like succor/adlo are inadequate for keeping up with raid damage, even when keeping ET on cooldown. I guess maybe I should coordinate better with my co-healer. We've been trying sch/ast to pump dps more, but at this point im not sure that's a good idea.

That FFLogs looks like a good idea. Setting it up now. I'm not sure how to interpret all that data, though.

Just play with it a bit. There's a ton of information you can get out of that which a parser or video won't or can't tell you.

For example, I looked at the log I linked and clicked on the Damage tab. If I hover over the players, it tells me their DPS splits. From that, I immediately know their Warrior's DPS is lower than it could be because his splits are off.

If you're a DPS, you can look at someones splits who is crushing you and potentially find a problem with your approach to a fight or even compare uptime%'s. You could be doing shit DPS simply because you're slow as fuck at getting from boss to boss.

It sounds like what you'll want to do is find the section of the fight you're failing and highlight (drag left to right on the graph area for healing or damage taken) and compare your HPS and your groups DTPS to another group. It'll also tell you how many things hit your team in this period and how many spells of each type were used.

It'll also tell you the contribution from your other healer in that period as well.

Edit: Basically, logs are god. There is no bullshit or excuse in the logs and that's why they're great.

[Kiarax]

caster LBs as soon as tanks are in position

I'd just like to correct this to after the Jagd Doll throws out its ground AoE. If that shit is aimed at your caster they will get fucked by it midcast, wait for that to go out then LB.

[Kaisha]

The healing check isn't that bad in wave 9, just don't have a tank hold the walker.

How much does the walker hit non-tanks for? May consider suggesting my group to try this as the first 25 seconds of that wave are rather heal intensive and I can't DPS on my SCH.

Spoiler: show

Not that it's an issue since we're still clearing with a little under a minute for enrage, but hey, optimizations are optimizations.

[Qeomash]

That's actually a good idea with the walker, as I know at least one of our wipes was because too much damage went out to the tank holding the walker + other things.

At what point is it optimal for me to blow the gobwalker up and start DPSing? I'm still trying to find the most optimal way for me to get the two widows to 5 stacks (and maybe the jagdoll) before I hit self destruct and hop off to join in. The smooth runs I think I was hopping off by about time the jagdoll was half health, which felt later than it should be.

[Fondue]

How much does the walker hit non-tanks for? May consider suggesting my group to try this as the first 25 seconds of that wave are rather heal intensive and I can't DPS on my SCH.

Spoiler: show

Not that it's an issue since we're still clearing with a little under a minute for enrage, but hey, optimizations are optimizations.

We tried this once and the healer told us we were retarded, walker still hits non tanks for 3k so instead of 2 people to heal there's 3

I tank the widow and doll with whatever gobs are still up after stun and take an absolute fuckton of damage there on war, so we may do it weird but he was adamant the dd taking walker was stupid

[Ratatapa]

That's actually a good idea with the walker, as I know at least one of our wipes was because too much damage went out to the tank holding the walker + other things.

At what point is it optimal for me to blow the gobwalker up and start DPSing? I'm still trying to find the most optimal way for me to get the two widows to 5 stacks (and maybe the jagdoll) before I hit self destruct and hop off to join in. The smooth runs I think I was hopping off by about time the jagdoll was half health, which felt later than it should be.

Our Dps blows the walker after the hardhelm dies on wave6

Near the end of wave 8
Near the end of wave 9

[solracht]

What I've been doing for the prey/tank buster is to hard target the person with prey, adlo, soft target tank, lustrate tank as soon as adlo finishes, and keep doing that as necessary. But that only works if I haven't burned my aetherflow already and it seems like I have to do that a lot.

Make sure your tanks are popping their CDs right after the Prey so they mitigate both the Royal Fount and Plasma.

Save Virus/Eye for this part. Virus either the Plasma or the Prey. As for Eye: if you use it some time after the Resin bomb it should stay up for Pod, Prey, Fount, and Plasma (SCH/SMN can Eye their tank every cycle, if crossclassed you will need two people alternating).

For heals seeming like they're not doing enough, it just feels like succor/adlo are inadequate for keeping up with raid damage, even when keeping ET on cooldown. I guess maybe I should coordinate better with my co-healer. We've been trying sch/ast to pump dps more, but at this point im not sure that's a good idea.

There are only three Gunnery Pods per cycle (after Tonze missiles and after every Spaser), make sure you are prepared for them.

The second one can be annoying since it happens before the Prey+Plasma combo, but understand that the raid does not need to get immediately topped off after it lands (as the next Pod is 15-20s away) so if you feel like you're slow at this part, you can just focus on the Prey targets and the tanks.

[Kiarax]

We tried this once and the healer told us we were retarded, walker still hits non tanks for 3k so instead of 2 people to heal there's 3

I tank the widow and doll with whatever gobs are still up after stun and take an absolute fuckton of damage there on war, so we may do it weird but he was adamant the dd taking walker was stupid

The DPS combined with all the AoE going out should blow it up real quick, they barely have to heal the DPS at all, worst case just have whatever tank is only tanking a gobwidow take it off the DPS after a stack or two. Not only does it make it 100x less stressful, if the DPS dies it really shouldn't even matter. Every time I've died because of the stupid stacks on DRK we've wiped, if a DPS dies we still clear easily because you don't have a gobwidow and a car on the loose fucking healers or the guy now tanking absolutely everything at once.

[Fondue]

That's nice if it works out like that but the thing doesn't get stunned and our group kills goblins then the walker so that dd is most definitely taking damage

Just saiyan, it didn't work for us; ymmv

[Qeomash]

Our Dps blows the walker after the hardhelm dies on wave6

Near the end of wave 8
Near the end of wave 9

Ah, we probably do things differently at wave 6. We still have the soldiers up from the previous wave.* We go hardhelm > gobwalker (final recharge) > finish off gobwidow > stun the soldiers > self destruct > burn > next phase.

Besides that, yeah, hopping off near end of phase 8, getting back on just before phase 9 to insta stun the 4 gobs in that phase.


* Yes this strategy is probably weird, but we simply copied the strategy some FC mates of ours use who cleared it in the second or third week.

[lilbubbles]

We tried this once and the healer told us we were retarded, walker still hits non tanks for 3k so instead of 2 people to heal there's 3

I tank the widow and doll with whatever gobs are still up after stun and take an absolute fuckton of damage there on war, so we may do it weird but he was adamant the dd taking walker was stupid

That's not really true though....

Until the dps gets stacks, it barely tickles him. Once the dps is full of stacks he is going to be getting hard and its slight trouble, but if it was the tank with the same amount of stacks it would be even more trouble.

Out of all of our wipes we never ever wiped on the last wave cause... 1 tank holds the 2 widows away from the soldiers so they don't blow up. 1 melee holds the walker to soak stacks. I solo heal the tank with the 2 widows, saving lustrates for prey. The whm basically has nothing to do so we're probably gonna swap to him dealing with the widows while I dps lol.

We ripped through earlier waves so fast literately nothing can go wrong

[Akiyama]

I started snagging the walker on DRG for our group last week, though it went fine, our WAR overpowered it off of me because he forgot, and then this week I had it and he didn't overpower and our deeps decided to go real slow with the Soldier killing, so it slowed our clear for the week a bit more than normal.. but I don't really take that much damage. I get maybe a stack or two before the tank takes it off or I kill it with all the other AOE damage coming in. It's not a problem as long as the group has solid deeps IMO.

[BaneTheBrawler]

Make sure your tanks are popping their CDs right after the Prey so they mitigate both the Royal Fount and Plasma.

Save Virus/Eye for this part. Virus either the Plasma or the Prey. As for Eye: if you use it some time after the Resin bomb it should stay up for Pod, Prey, Fount, and Plasma (SCH/SMN can Eye their tank every cycle, if crossclassed you will need two people alternating).



There are only three Gunnery Pods per cycle (after Tonze missiles and after every Spaser), make sure you are prepared for them.

The second one can be annoying since it happens before the Prey+Plasma combo, but understand that the raid does not need to get immediately topped off after it lands (as the next Pod is 15-20s away) so if you feel like you're slow at this part, you can just focus on the Prey targets and the tanks.

Hmm, I've been under-utilizing Eye, I think. I'd had the impression it was only effective on physical damage, but that's probably not correct. I definitely need to work on memorizing the exact order. Thanks!

[Niiro]

E4E can only proc off of physical damage, but once the effect is on the mob it reduces all damage.

Also make sure you're not forgetting Virus/Disable, if you have a SMN each of you can Supervirus one of them.

[Ratatapa]

Hmm, I've been under-utilizing Eye, I think. I'd had the impression it was only effective on physical damage, but that's probably not correct. I definitely need to work on memorizing the exact order. Thanks!

As a SCH here is what I do healing wise when .5 pop

Normal healing + nukes until 3 tonze missile is out
- Succor before Gunpod
- Go hide in a safe spot for Resin
- Adlo the tank when Opressor cast Resin bomb (to be buffed for Royal Fount
- While dodging Phaser I virus my mob
-Succor if i'm quick for Gunpod
-Adlo my tank before prey
-Adlo my prey target
-Heal once my prey and save a lustrate if i need
-1 Heal tank due to royal fount then Adlo for Plasma
-Succor for Gunpod
-Wait for jump
-Rinse and repeat

Of course I put some EFE and some nukes in there, but that's just my healing rotation

[Kaisha]

You must not trust your WHM much if you're using Succor at all for raid damage in that fight, especially with the gear we have now.

We tried this once and the healer told us we were retarded, walker still hits non tanks for 3k so instead of 2 people to heal there's 3

I tank the widow and doll with whatever gobs are still up after stun and take an absolute fuckton of damage there on war, so we may do it weird but he was adamant the dd taking walker was stupid

We do the cheese method with PLD(used exclusively for A2S) grabbing gobwalker and hitting hallowed when our OT WAR reaches 4-5 stacks just to alleviate the incoming damage, but it's still a lot of healing. We just end up doing it in such a matter that we primarily have to focus one tank at any given time.

[Kipling]

For prey + Buster as a SCH (I heal the WAR on this part):

E4E tank just before > prey comes out > Adlo my tank while calling which prey target I'll take on VoIP > Adlo prey target > physick tank > adlo prey target > physick tank > virus boss > adlo just before buster > physick/lustrate as needed

[Taint]

Anyone have tank advice for A3S? We are progressing through the adds. Are you saving CDs for the tethers or staggering them throughout the fight to stay in DPS stance?

I've been sitting in Shield oath for phase 1-2 as we learn but are you dropping grit/ShO once hate is established? We are transitioning to phase 2 right at 90% and I've read 88% is the DPS check.

[Kiarax]

I've been doing no Grit from pull to transition to hand phase. Throw up Grit for that, turn off Grit for the DPS check (could probably just go back after they split, depends on what your healers are doing really), back on again after hand of pain.

[Taint]

I've been doing no Grit from pull to transition to hand phase. Throw up Grit for that, turn off Grit for the DPS check (could probably just go back after they split, depends on what your healers are doing really), back on again after hand of pain.

NIN helping with hate? Or do I just need to swap to DRK lol.

Fucking PLD hate...I lost hate twice in ShO trying to do Goring as my second combo.

What about CD rotations and how are you handling tethers besides putting Grit up.