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I am writing this guide after a disastrous run at O-hat last night. There were 6 SMN in attendance, no tanks. It was doable. It would have taken at least an hour or so, but it could be done. This guide will attempt to correct mistakes made during this and previous experiences.
Introduction: At some point in time you will come to a raid where you really don't have anywhere near enough tankage to pull off the win. Or you will be fighting a mob that can chew through your PLDs and NINs like yesterday's news, such as Chevelnik. Or any of a small army of other situations where it just isn't feasible to have a tank or someone else die repeatedly for the rewards. In those situations, more often than not these days, a SMN will pipe up with an offer to avatar tank. If he's smart, he already has the backing of 3-4 other SMNs to help with this. Here's how to avoid getting everyone killed.
There are several things to remember with any avatar tanking situation. Firstly, all avatars only take half damage from melee or non-elemental attacks. Everyone's Rancor, Meteor from Behemoths, etc, etc... half damage. They are thus really nice to have around while you're doing other things, like recovering from a wipe, or setting up a strategy for the second half of a battle. Secondly, Avatar aggro is not like player aggro. These suckers lack provoke, and achieve hate by doing damage. A SMN BP is designed to trigger as little hate as possible for the SMN when signalling it, and yet we still catch hate sometimes. To work with this, you need to do the following:
1. Learn where 50' is. Something every single SMN soloer in the game learns the hard way is that what happens at 50' stays at 50'. If you pass this mark, you can do whatever the hell you want to do and the mob in question won't pick you up for a new target. Cure IV's, Benediction, all kinds of buffs... if you're above 50' away, you're fine. Here's how to find 50': First target the monster, then move away in the nearest direction without aggro or unpleasant terrain features. When the monster drops off your target window, you just hit 50'. Take a few steps beyond this, sometimes the monster shifts around a little when a different avatar gets hate.
2. Learn not to act within 50'. For some reason, this is really hard for WHMs and RDMs to learn. Yes, every now and again a SMN is going to be damaged positioning or deploying an avatar. It happens, we accept the risk. I don't need a Cure or Refresh immediately, however. Even if it slows down the refresh cycle or offends your sensibilities, we both can wait til I get out of the kill zone. When both of us are far enough away that neither one of us can possibly target the monster, feel free to pop off your spell. Until then, sit your butt down. This also applies to situations where you are 50' away and your target is not. They'll live long enough to reach you. The only spell that needs to be cast under 50' from the target is Raise.
3. Learn to work with Carbuncle. For long battles, SMNs use Carby. After a certain point, we get the gear to make him essentially free.
[RDMs: If I am at this point, I rarely need Refresh on constantly. I will take care of the mp loss with Yinyang or Vermy and the small army of -perp gear I'm wearing. Instead, watch others in the reserve area and make sure they're set. If we had to switch to Carby halfway because we all had low mp, then yeah, we'll need refresh. Before this point, assume we've managed mp effectively and backburner us in the cycle.]
Carby has the worst aggro gaining abilities out of the avatars. It is vital that you don't do anything to initiate hate on yourself when SMNs use this. Also, pay attention to when SMNs get told to use Carby. If it's at the start, expect to be hanging back for a long time. If it's at the middle or end of a battle, you'll probably need to lose hate from the mob.
4. How to lose hate. There are really only two ways to lose hate on a mob when SMN are tanking. First, you can log off. Second, you can get hit. If you take the 2nd route, you have to be willing to stand still. Once the mob has turned back to an avatar, you can run back to the rest of the group past the 50' mark. It is very important that you do NOTHING but move after this point. It is doubly important that you have NOTHING done to you before you reach that mark. No shadows, no buffs, and no cures. If there's a mob in your way, figure out how to sneak around it. You can't buff, you'll have to deal with that. If you switch to SMN tanking mid fight, don't run until you've lost hate as a melee or caster. Enmity can bleed off, but it's slow. If you can survive at least one hit, it might be worth it to take it now rather than risk everyone else taking it later. The worst possible thing that can happen during this situation is for you to get healed. At this point, two of you now have a bunch of Volatile Enmity to bleed off. If it was a big cure, you're probably repositioning the mob to wherever you and the healer are located now.
5. Leave the mob alone unless you know how to manage your aggro. By manage, I mean manage vs. an avatar tanking, not manage vs. a PLD or NIN your level. Most players are clueless enough about aggro in a meripo, in an astral-burn we can't have you moving the mob around because Flare II seemed like a good spell to cast on it. Same goes with Steal, Mug, Ranged Attacks and weaponskills. If it isn't vital you land that, don't mess with it. Treasure Hunter really only needs you to hit the mob once to get on the aggro list, you can save that hit til the last 5-10%, we don't mind. If the alliance leader is smart, THFs get ordered to make your hit before anyone else is told to unload on the mob. If the Astral-burn is throwing around lvl 70 pacts, you have more lee-way with this. By lee-way I mean use spells and abilities that you would normally use on a lvl 70 party with a NIN doing tanking duties. If possible, plan to lose hate if it bounces your way. Yeah it's annoying, but it can save you from a wipe if you just take a hit and then run out to the 50' mark.
There are other points, but I found these 5 to be the most important.
Avatar tanking can be useful in a number of situations. It can save your normal tanks from several hours worth of campaigning, it can also deal with Dee Xalmo the Grim in a campaign battle so everyone else can actually gain exp instead of a new appreciation for Doom. It can only do these things if everyone on board knows how to work with the strategy. Screw up even one thing, and you're the new tank. Good luck with that.
Introduction: At some point in time you will come to a raid where you really don't have anywhere near enough tankage to pull off the win. Or you will be fighting a mob that can chew through your PLDs and NINs like yesterday's news, such as Chevelnik. Or any of a small army of other situations where it just isn't feasible to have a tank or someone else die repeatedly for the rewards. In those situations, more often than not these days, a SMN will pipe up with an offer to avatar tank. If he's smart, he already has the backing of 3-4 other SMNs to help with this. Here's how to avoid getting everyone killed.
There are several things to remember with any avatar tanking situation. Firstly, all avatars only take half damage from melee or non-elemental attacks. Everyone's Rancor, Meteor from Behemoths, etc, etc... half damage. They are thus really nice to have around while you're doing other things, like recovering from a wipe, or setting up a strategy for the second half of a battle. Secondly, Avatar aggro is not like player aggro. These suckers lack provoke, and achieve hate by doing damage. A SMN BP is designed to trigger as little hate as possible for the SMN when signalling it, and yet we still catch hate sometimes. To work with this, you need to do the following:
1. Learn where 50' is. Something every single SMN soloer in the game learns the hard way is that what happens at 50' stays at 50'. If you pass this mark, you can do whatever the hell you want to do and the mob in question won't pick you up for a new target. Cure IV's, Benediction, all kinds of buffs... if you're above 50' away, you're fine. Here's how to find 50': First target the monster, then move away in the nearest direction without aggro or unpleasant terrain features. When the monster drops off your target window, you just hit 50'. Take a few steps beyond this, sometimes the monster shifts around a little when a different avatar gets hate.
2. Learn not to act within 50'. For some reason, this is really hard for WHMs and RDMs to learn. Yes, every now and again a SMN is going to be damaged positioning or deploying an avatar. It happens, we accept the risk. I don't need a Cure or Refresh immediately, however. Even if it slows down the refresh cycle or offends your sensibilities, we both can wait til I get out of the kill zone. When both of us are far enough away that neither one of us can possibly target the monster, feel free to pop off your spell. Until then, sit your butt down. This also applies to situations where you are 50' away and your target is not. They'll live long enough to reach you. The only spell that needs to be cast under 50' from the target is Raise.
3. Learn to work with Carbuncle. For long battles, SMNs use Carby. After a certain point, we get the gear to make him essentially free.
[RDMs: If I am at this point, I rarely need Refresh on constantly. I will take care of the mp loss with Yinyang or Vermy and the small army of -perp gear I'm wearing. Instead, watch others in the reserve area and make sure they're set. If we had to switch to Carby halfway because we all had low mp, then yeah, we'll need refresh. Before this point, assume we've managed mp effectively and backburner us in the cycle.]
Carby has the worst aggro gaining abilities out of the avatars. It is vital that you don't do anything to initiate hate on yourself when SMNs use this. Also, pay attention to when SMNs get told to use Carby. If it's at the start, expect to be hanging back for a long time. If it's at the middle or end of a battle, you'll probably need to lose hate from the mob.
4. How to lose hate. There are really only two ways to lose hate on a mob when SMN are tanking. First, you can log off. Second, you can get hit. If you take the 2nd route, you have to be willing to stand still. Once the mob has turned back to an avatar, you can run back to the rest of the group past the 50' mark. It is very important that you do NOTHING but move after this point. It is doubly important that you have NOTHING done to you before you reach that mark. No shadows, no buffs, and no cures. If there's a mob in your way, figure out how to sneak around it. You can't buff, you'll have to deal with that. If you switch to SMN tanking mid fight, don't run until you've lost hate as a melee or caster. Enmity can bleed off, but it's slow. If you can survive at least one hit, it might be worth it to take it now rather than risk everyone else taking it later. The worst possible thing that can happen during this situation is for you to get healed. At this point, two of you now have a bunch of Volatile Enmity to bleed off. If it was a big cure, you're probably repositioning the mob to wherever you and the healer are located now.
5. Leave the mob alone unless you know how to manage your aggro. By manage, I mean manage vs. an avatar tanking, not manage vs. a PLD or NIN your level. Most players are clueless enough about aggro in a meripo, in an astral-burn we can't have you moving the mob around because Flare II seemed like a good spell to cast on it. Same goes with Steal, Mug, Ranged Attacks and weaponskills. If it isn't vital you land that, don't mess with it. Treasure Hunter really only needs you to hit the mob once to get on the aggro list, you can save that hit til the last 5-10%, we don't mind. If the alliance leader is smart, THFs get ordered to make your hit before anyone else is told to unload on the mob. If the Astral-burn is throwing around lvl 70 pacts, you have more lee-way with this. By lee-way I mean use spells and abilities that you would normally use on a lvl 70 party with a NIN doing tanking duties. If possible, plan to lose hate if it bounces your way. Yeah it's annoying, but it can save you from a wipe if you just take a hit and then run out to the 50' mark.
There are other points, but I found these 5 to be the most important.
Avatar tanking can be useful in a number of situations. It can save your normal tanks from several hours worth of campaigning, it can also deal with Dee Xalmo the Grim in a campaign battle so everyone else can actually gain exp instead of a new appreciation for Doom. It can only do these things if everyone on board knows how to work with the strategy. Screw up even one thing, and you're the new tank. Good luck with that.
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