Transitioning

[WishMaster3K]

In comparison to my RDM career, the post-AF levels marked an increase in both enemy difficulty and player ability. Granted, the enemies were indeed stronger on a sharper curve, but the variety at which were available in addition to the amount of tools available to jobs increased as well as gear choices.

At 60, Ninjas and Paladins both become solo tanking Gods, unrivaled and able to first voke if needed.

Most melee could sub THF for SATA, and having a THF to do DE just upped the ante.

In fact, the general variety of WSs available at 60 are fantastic (even with the latest update), and only got better during the mid-60s where lvl 3 skill chains became possible.

Now the bulk, if not half, of exp that a player experiences is from lvl 60-75. Unless I'm mistaken, the halfway point in terms of total exp accumulated throughout one's career is at level 63.

With that much time per level, how should I prepare for the inevitable end-game activities?

Mobs have gradually gotten harder, from a tanking perspective, but HNMs are an entire different story.

I'm fully expecting to die. A Lot. But what can I do to prolong my life and prosper where many tanks are discouraged?

[Zempten]

Re: Transitioning

Honestly, I feel the only thing you can do in terms of preparing yourself for endgame activites is meriting your PLD. I mean the basic "I need to cure myself now" and other stuff was all learned through 1-75. Unless you plan on doing the PLD/NIN thing, I think your only going to have that option at 74, but even then your not going to be getting the type of support as you are against gods/kings/whatever as opposed to when you are at gods/kings/whatever. So practicing outside in a merit PT doesn't sound like it'll benefit you much.

In short, you'll learn when you get there and the only thing that'll help you is your ability to pick things up fast(which you should have developed through playing multiple jobs and other experiences) and reasearch the strategies/weakness of the mob before hand. Also to keep in mind that your not fighting multiple mobs in a long period but fighting a single monster in a certain time span as in how to use Flash, Sentinel, Shield Bash, Rampart,...etc, but again you'll learn these when you get there.

[Necropolis]

Re: Transitioning

I'm not a tank type person, but I've played support to enough different type tanks that I think I could make a fair evaluation to at least some aspect.

I assume you'll start small, thinks like sky. Move up to main tanking in dynamis perhaps, then perhaps move on to kings and other HNMs and such.

They thing that strunk me most about good tanks, is taking charge. You need to know your job and everyone else's job that's present. Where they're suppose to stand, when to attack, when to skillchain, when to sleep, et cetera et cetera....

That for me was the biggest change from the LS move I did recently. The person in charge of the event wasn't the tank, but the bard rather. He did amazingly enough as it is, but it's a lot easier for the tank to assess a situation easier than a melee or support player in my opinion.

That said, expect to die while getting the hang or it. But it's rather seldom in my current shell that the tank dies. It happens, sure, but it's not like it's every event or multiple times at every event.

Of course subjobs are important, but as a rdm main I believe you'd have all the needed ones. War, Rdm, Drk, Nin, perhaps mnk if you were really going for an HP build but I don't think that would be really needed. Especially since you'd lose defender in the process.

Gear, of course, will make your job easier. But that's really something you can build over time as you notice flaws in fights that you tank. Things as a fire resistance build for tiamet would probably be pretty low priority. And things like M. Body are probably a stretch unless you already have standing in a shell. Even still a lot of shells have time limits before you can lot on a new 75 job. But that's shell politics and nothing to do with tanking.

Personally, I find it helps to be familier with you party members. Are the whms cast cures over each other?; is the bard casting his gimpy bar-element over the whm's stronger one?; Are the dual tanks working with each other? providing cover or cures when needed? Does the bard know when minnie or march would be a better choice over ballad for at least 1 song?

Something more dynamis specific, do you have a macro setup so that melee know when to hit thier /assist macros? Many paladins I know will actually swap mobs a second or two early before hitting thier target macro so accomodate for lag. Do you know the kill order for mobs in dynamis? Most likely you do as a rdm, as you've been keeping the other ones asleep.

Sky gods, in general are not that tough. My former shell we used dual pld/nin tanks and took Byakko with a party of 8ish or so. Occasionally more if we had the people, but we really had about 8 realiable people to depend on. Occasionally dual boxing was involved. The idea was when banishga hit the other pld would snatch hate and turn it around (plds were 180 degrees from one another). Whms had to be quick on paralynas. Et cetera, I'm sure you're use to the fight, just a different role.

Genbu, we did nekkid with nothing but a weapon equiped. Fun fight, thats it.

Other gods, pretty straight forward. If your group has 12 to 18 realiable people in the alliance you shouldn't see many deaths from these. As a whm, it did take me a while to realize not to panic when the pld lost a bit of HP. I knew how to handle EXPing with plds, but my first times in sky I way overcured and ended up taking hate a few times. But lessons you learn while you adapt in your new role.

Kirin is pretty much 1 of 2 ways. You kill him in a minute or two using melee burn. Or you, as a pld, will run around in circles for an hour or two while BLMs nukes. You stop to let the melee SC, and just do what you can to hold hate. Don't be surprised if you lose hate, just work on getting it back. A blm worth his salt will know how to run a few laps. We need to burn off all those cookies and pie anyways.

Now for HNMs. The turtle, in my opinion is the easiet there could be. I've actually killed NQ with 3 people, me as whm, pld and rdm. Pop invincible, rdm CS nukes. Thats about it, adds are the problem here, but you can deal with them afterwards. Even HQ isn't that bad, just need the firepower to get it out of it's shell from time to time.

Behemoth, for the most part, you can just toe-to-toe tank him like you do in parties. Again, we use pld/nin tanks, thfs for TA and lolTH. King Behemoth, on the other hand, we don't Toe-to-Toe. Meteor is just a pain, and it's like Kirin that you just try to range it before he gets it offs. Ammusing to watch all the blm/war botters in the zone dying off though.

For KB, I wouldn't say expect to die a lot. Perhaps your first few times as you get use the kiting method. Learn to swap gear to avoid collisions with other players trying to trip you up. Be quick to cure the BLM with hate to help recover that hate back. Take charge, demand the SCs, demand the cures, demand whatever you need to stay alive. It's not so much that you're dead that causes problems, but that the people next on the hate list are not people designed to take a hit. You need to stay alive so that everyone else does.

Fafhogg, in my opinion, is really the simplest of fights. You have tanks on one foot, everyone else on the other. The problem here is that EVERYONE in the zone is standing on top of you. Get use to lag, and may I suggest getting use to casting utsusemi from the menu to avoid some macro lag. Again, depends on you PC and connection as to how bad this is for you. Rarly do I have to cure plds at fafhogg, pretty miuch (for us) we just dual tank and plds watch out for each other. Pro/Shell, baraera and regen is what the whms are usually casting at these camps. Cure 5's when needed.

Don't use AoE Weaponsskills! Even if you don't see the darters, odds are some ass from another shell has moved one inside of fafhogg and you can't see it. Play is safe and you'll be alright. Call out the whm is you need a buff, call our terror and if you have shadows or not. Need to stay even with the other tank on hate so that you don't have to die to pull if off you.

Will you die? Sure you can, you might have a rdm that can't stick a paralyze on faf that day, you might have a whm that DC's at that moment. Just don't have you set as the only tank. Sure you could, but in the advent you do get claim, you want to play it safe and not rush the fight.

Your main battle in Aery isn't with faf, but other people talking in say, trying to lag you down, and stuff like that. They might not do it intentionally, thats just how the camps are. Nidhogg's attacks hit everyone, as you probably know, so it's either stand on the feet in the advent you wipe and they get it, or stand out of breath range and hope they don't get flailed if they get claim.

Adjust your game settings for camps like these is my suggestion. Turn off animations rates, characters drawn, weather, shadows et cetera. But I'm sure you've at least seen the fights, if not participated in them on your RDM.

This is turning into a wall of text, and not sure if it's what you're looking for in particular, so I'll cut of my ramblings here. Key things I think is teamwork, and knowing when to ascertain control of the group. They only thing between the teetch of a mob and the DDs and mages is you. Thier life and exp bar depends on yours. They know it, and weather or not it pisses them off, they'll usually do what you say.

Hope this was at least partly what you were looking for, best of luck in your pimpness of taru tanking. If you take the job half as serious as your rdm job, I'm sure you'll excell in whatever you fight.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Transitioning

To be perfectly honest, I stay away from Kings and ground NMs.

My life it too hectic to be awoken at 2am, or for me to sacrifice my afternoon for something I might not get. Maybe during the summertime. Maybe. But then again, I don't forsee myself giving my log in information to anyone but my RL friend, and he's already a NIN (pretty much has all the gear though, except for that uber Adaman stuff that WARs want), so he might only log me in so that I might get a chance to get some gear. And in that sense, it would be logical for me to join his linkshell, but there isn't exactly a shortage of PLDs in Osiris (Gilgamesh..).

But your info on Sky and Dynamis is well taken, thank you for that. One piece of advice my aforementioned friend gave was "show up, and keep showing up. One of those times, you might be one of the only tanks, and you'll get called into action." So I'm sure that I'll be able to talk with more of the experienced tanks and get good advice.

But just as in RDM, a lot of stuff was learned on-hand, but I was never in danger of getting one-shotted O_o.

[Necropolis]

Re: Transitioning

When I first considered leaving my old shell for my new one, I wasn't really sure if it was a right move. I knew they did kings, I knew they were active. I wanted more action than my old shell could provide but i was uncertain if I wanted to commit that much time in the game to something.

Overall, I'm happy with my choice. But before you dive into something like that, I seriously consider it. I've come, for the time being at least, to enjoy king camps. But we only camp them when they're in NA prime time. So really, it boils down to 3 or 4 days of camping for 3 hours every other week or so.

My suggestion is, when you apply to a shell don't be afraid to talk to the leaders. Ask them what thier policy is concerning if you're offline. Ask for straight forward answers as to how many nights a week they are active. Will people begrudge you if you're only on for 3 hours a night compared to others that play 8+ hours a night.

The first shell I applied to, the one I recently left, was rather small, not extremly active, and seemed to fit what I wanted at the time. Some misconceptions, but I attribute that to me being new (having only played the game about 6 months or so). But in the app I really tried to sell myself to the shell, I wanted to impress with what I knew and what I was capable of learning. I got in easily enough, had made friends with some of the members early in my ffxi career (was a level 9 rdm with no sub) and for the most part really enjoyed my time in the shell.

What finally got to me wasn't so much the lack of events, or lack getting gear or loot; but rather that I was the main whm in the shell. All the other whms were seldom on, and we low manned everything. 6 man omega, 3 man faust, 8 man byakkos. While fun and challenging, it does have an ability to draw the emo out of you. For part of that time I was part of a low man dynamis shell as well; 20ish people, and you bet it, I was the only whm most of the times. While tarus are know for thier MP, you can only slice 1100 mp so many ways between 20 poeple. So it seemed like I wanted to do events, but of the events I did, I didn't really enjoy because I knew if my newbish self made a flaw it was disastorous for the whole group. Kept me on my toes.

The shell I applied to however, is well established and with a sizable number of members. Fairly selective on acceptance, and before accepting a pearl I wanted to know every little rule. From lotting to attendance; not that I'm a loot whore, but would like to know when I could lot on stuff and not feel like I'm robbing someone else out of stuff.

Anyways, I'm turning this into another wall of text, so I'll be brief in conclusion. Don't just disregard any shell that does kings because you feel it's too time intensive, just know what the shell's policy is on kings. Do they camp in NA primetime only, or are they blowing up your AIM at 2 am people Apsi is due on day 12 and the leader wants a Dalamatica?

Ask questions. It's just as important that you feel you'll fit in with the shell as if your job is needed on thier roster. Will you beable to form bonds with your support and party to be effective as a pld or a rdm. For me, the bonds and friendships made in the shell far out weight the lewt. Still fairly new in my shell, I'm glad I joined. They're a good group of people insdie and outside of the game.

I think thats all I wanted to try and say in some context. Think I'm gonna call it a night, these nights of only sleeping an hour need to stop or I just spam forums for hours and make have readable jargon. But as a brighter shining ray of awesomeness than Mhurron I'm sure you can decifer a bit of what I meant from it.

[WishMaster3K]

Re: Transitioning

LoL, what's with all the Mhurron jokes? I don't think Mhurron is that bad to be perfectly honest.

Also: I caught the train from Providence to Boston last night to see my girlfriend, and I'm going to attempt to catch it back to make it in time for class. (LMAO.. NExt train going to Providence leaves at 830, so I won't get back till 930... When my first class starts.. and it's a 10 min walk from the train to campus. I might as well take the lateness since I'll be downtown.)

Thanks for the insight, Necro. I'm a long way away from Endgame, hell, all I have is AF and I just dinged 60, so I'm taking a well deserved break. But it's good to start getting at least mentally ready.

A lot of shells are "job whores," so most won't take you if you don't have multiple 75s.. So who knows. I can shop around, so to speak.