[PC] Conqueror Swordmaster tanking FBI (+esva) guide/videos.

grimah

Hello fellow GFs! I decided to record some videos of FBI run, to help other GFs who have trouble tanking this dungeon.

Though my gear is high (4k+) These videos are not speedruns and about TANKING not DPSing. These were made to show how to tank each segment smoothly with lesser gear and hopefully more useful to other GFs.

Though I am conqueror and swordmaster, none of these really matter as I do not use anything exclusive to either spec/paragon (crescendo can be subbed for indomitable str).

Some quick notes on my skill loadout:
AT-WILL: crushing surge, WMS (tides for bosses)
ENCOUNTERS: KV, ITF, Enforced threat (Kneebreaker for bosses)
Dailies: Villian's Menace, Crescendo.
Class Features: Combat Superiority, Guarded Assault
Companion: Dancing Shield.
Weapon Bonus: Tides of Iron/slam.
Shield Bonus: Guarded Assault.

Giant Run + Hati Fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0qg92Pxrlc&t=9s

Main points during Giant run:
- Beastmasters + Warriors boulder throw is the most dangerous thing about this run, so I run away from group after the charge to make sure the red lands away from the party.
- The red boulder may/will one-shot you through shield (if you are less gear) so keep mobile.
- Turn enemies away from players when possible because of nasty cleave damage
- If you have a defender pet like I do (dancing shield) and it grabs agro, just leave it for later when you are able to.

Main points during Hati Fight:
- Avoid the big aoe cone if possible, can oneshot you if you have less gear, so try to keep close and drop your guard to move quicker when this happens.
- The attack patterns are predictable, making it easy to use your encounters and drop your block, he will do a 3 hit pounce then pause.
- Keep away from the cliff edge.

Dragon Turtle Fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0gjOgvxLtg
This group isn't really weak, but I didn't have time to find a low geared group to get a good video for this. But this fight can be tough depending on your dps/debuffing potential.

Main Points:
-Turtle has a random pool of attacks, the most dangerous is Slam which will only be chosen IF ANYONE IS TOO CLOSE TO HIM, this means people too close to the turtle and outside of the red zone of the geyser/steam attack he does. Even weak members can survive the steam damage with KV on, so if you have a weak group then make sure no one gets too close to the boss. HOWEVER! When the boss resurfaces he will either Slam twice or use steam geyser attack, this is random and cannot be changed, if he slams he will pause for about 5 seconds after resurfacing (which you can see from the video).
- IF the turtle slams, move back (like in video). What is most dangerous to the GF is after landing, you need to hold down your shift to block it's next attack which is random but often is a head snap (or range steam attack), this head snap can be avoided simply by standing back out of range. With enough slams and bad latency, this can easily one-shot you.
- Some of the turtle's attacks are very quick (head snap, steam direct damage), It's best to use your encounters during a more telegraphed attack before it lands.

Drufi Fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUTo7S9oa6w
This boss is the easiest boss of the bunch for lesser geared GFs, but it's more about how well your party members do than yourself, and how often they pay attention to her ice cube attack.

Main Points:
- It's only dangerous attack (to you) is the Indomitable battle strike like GWFs do, so make sure you block that when she rears back to use it.
- Always watch what the boss is doing. Her attacks are easily telepgraphed. When she raises her sword in the air up high, it means she will summon icecubes, so keep an eye on the ground, or simply just block it. (but its best to move away from her immediately to drag her away from cubes.

Esva
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPfAAtvZgaM
Oh and here is a eSVA video, its not very helpful as the group was pretty good (but only one I have done recently) it's pretty much a faceroll Drufi fight though. Also staring @rjc9000 as second tank.

rjc9000

grimah said:

Esva
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPfAAtvZgaM
Oh and here is a eSVA video, its not very helpful as the group was pretty good (but only one I have done recently) it's pretty much a faceroll Drufi fight though. Also staring @rjc9000 as second tank.

lol this was with Sharphole and this is also was when I was a Conqueror.

For the new tanks out there:

Unless your team is well composed and organized to the maximum degree, you probably will have to deal with the boss' gimmicks a little more than we did.

Michela was carrying us with AA, so your tanking may vary based off the DCs you're running with. (Speaking of which: 2 DCs spamming AA is superfluous due to no increases in powersharing and no increases to the number of hits you are immune for.)

I overall like this concept where you explain (or try to show, at least) the boss' attacks for new tanks going to endgame.

(Perhaps one day the tank community could create an overarching guide/GIF guide/video archive of each boss' attacks, as well as how to dodge said attacks.)

hypervoreian

first video 4.08-4.18 ...<--- I... "formally Bows"

That was a perfect movement -aggro,in and out

cilginordek

Nice videos. Pretty much how I do these too with a few minor differences. Since I don't have the Guarded Assault debuff on my shield I use Steel Grace instead for the add fights and Shield Talent for bosses because my stamina drains too fast when I replace Enforced Threat with Commanders Strike.

grimah

hypervoreian said:

first video 4.08-4.18 ...<--- I... "formally Bows"

That was a perfect movement -aggro,in and out </p>

Thanks I've run it so much that the giant run is the only bit that has room for improvement for me. Trying to get through it without anyone going down is the only challenge left :P

kemi1984

Some good videos there @grimah always good to see a good player showing of the skill.

Since I have like 50 retraining tokens from the Winter Event.....I tried going Conq for a while - constantly jumping in and out on these two paths.

Been at CN last night and dear God I had aggro issues. I mean wow...I won't even mention random mSVA I was asked to tank, that was a huge mess on my side. I whole-heartedly apologize to all those who were there with me lol.

I took some of the healing boons from the Dread Ring & Sharandar (Enraged Regrowth + Elven Tranquility) to get the healing part in the build. Trying to find a sweet spot for the Tank/DPS hybrid.

Technically doing more damage should net me more threat + I was using KV, ET and usual marking + shield stabbing technique.
Yet...the aggro was simply terrible lol.

I looked at the build and noticed I did not choose to take the Potent Challenge on a Conq, but it was not chosen as well playing Tact.
From what I know, these two paths don't really have any differences in feats in regard to aggro generation. In all honesty Conq should keep it better due to the fact the damage is WAY better.

As said before, I found @rjc9000 Tact a great all around build for tanking and buffing. Keeping the aggro there is not an issue.
But Conq...wow just wow!

May I please ask for your help fellow GF's?

P.S

I really REALLY look forward to the Lodout feature that looks to be coming in mod 11. Dual spec option would make me cry in happiness

hypervoreian

^^^

I am pretty sure you don't need any help kemi.

For CN ,it is the current fashion many support classes (DCs) and some DPS classes even (HRs etc) to use Dancing Shield as a companion.
That accursed thing is a defender with a hard taunt.Not only that,it is difficult to see between all the chars and the VFX.Pretty sure, if it uses its hard taunt before you use yours ,there is nothing you can do ,except using tab mark and aggro as best as you can,and wait the aggro threat power of Shield to go to an ICD.Or go to the same side of the Shield.

As for msva/nsva ,there are three problems in taking aggro, for the majority of the GFs:

1.The defender companions many of the rest of the team use (DCs + DPS).Shield is especially popular.
2.The bad positioning of either of one of the tanks.First to aggro takes it usually.So if ones goes to the side of Thorald,and the other Gf uses mark second and goes in front of him ,in some distance from stairs (as he should be) ,he will not gain aggro from the first GF/OP.
It is nothing to do with build or skill.
3.The OPs aggro is bigger than the GF ,in 90% of the cases.If he does not side with you and use BO,pretty sure he will steal aggro.

kemi1984

And I'm fully aware about how hard (or impossible) it is to steal aggro from the defender pets.

What I noticed is that I haven't had any issues as a Tact and than suddenly BOOM !! no aggro for me

Quite sure this was not caused by a defender comp but hey...need to runs ome more and maybe try Potent Challenge ?

rjc9000

hypervoreian said:

^^^

I am pretty sure you don't need any help kemi.

For CN ,it is the current fashion many support classes (DCs) and some DPS classes even (HRs etc) to use Dancing Shield as a companion.
That accursed thing is a defender with a hard taunt.Not only that,it is difficult to see between all the chars and the VFX.Pretty sure, if it uses its hard taunt before you use yours ,there is nothing you can do ,except using tab mark and aggro as best as you can,and wait the aggro threat power of Shield to go to an ICD.Or go to the same side of the Shield.

As for msva/nsva ,there are three problems in taking aggro, for the majority of the GFs:

1.The defender companions many of the rest of the team use (DCs + DPS).Shield is especially popular.
2.The bad positioning of either of one of the tanks.First to aggro takes it usually.So if ones goes to the side of Thorald,and the other Gf uses mark second and goes in front of him ,in some distance from stairs (as he should be) ,he will not gain aggro from the first GF/OP.
It is nothing to do with build or skill.
3.The OPs aggro is bigger than the GF ,in 90% of the cases.If he does not side with you and use BO,pretty sure he will steal aggro.

kemi1984 said:

Some good videos there @grimah always good to see a good player showing of the skill.

Since I have like 50 retraining tokens from the Winter Event.....I tried going Conq for a while - constantly jumping in and out on these two paths.

Been at CN last night and dear God I had aggro issues. I mean wow...I won't even mention random mSVA I was asked to tank, that was a huge mess on my side. I whole-heartedly apologize to all those who were there with me lol.

I took some of the healing boons from the Dread Ring & Sharandar (Enraged Regrowth + Elven Tranquility) to get the healing part in the build. Trying to find a sweet spot for the Tank/DPS hybrid.

Technically doing more damage should net me more threat + I was using KV, ET and usual marking + shield stabbing technique.
Yet...the aggro was simply terrible lol.

I looked at the build and noticed I did not choose to take the Potent Challenge on a Conq, but it was not chosen as well playing Tact.
From what I know, these two paths don't really have any differences in feats in regard to aggro generation. In all honesty Conq should keep it better due to the fact the damage is WAY better.

As said before, I found @rjc9000 Tact a great all around build for tanking and buffing. Keeping the aggro there is not an issue.
But Conq...wow just wow!

May I please ask for your help fellow GF's?

P.S

I really REALLY look forward to the Lodout feature that looks to be coming in mod 11. Dual spec option would make me cry in happiness

kemi1984 said:

And I'm fully aware about how hard (or impossible) it is to steal aggro from the defender pets.

What I noticed is that I haven't had any issues as a Tact and than suddenly BOOM !! no aggro for me

Quite sure this was not caused by a defender comp but hey...need to runs ome more and maybe try Potent Challenge ?

Kemi, hilariously and ironically enough, I've always had aggro issues on my Tactician, but my Conqueror never has had aggro issues.

As @remfdt has pointed out in a separate thread, you can override companion aggro with Knight's Challenge (just watch the double damage debuff on you though). This is how I've been aggroing the Jarl out a little bit so the team can have more room to manuver. My Conqueror also rolls around with the Combat Superiority offhand bonus, so perhaps the aggro issues are lessened for me.

Neither my Tactician nor Conqueror builds run Potent Challenge, although my Tactician setup once had a Dread Warrior.

kemi1984

Thanks fot he input @rjc9000 and trust me I was surpised when I saw how the bosses turn their HAMSTER on me lol !

I will stick to what I have now and just try some different things...why I had no issues as a Tact? vodo magic? won't say no for sure :P

grimah

kemi are you saying you have aggro issues are conq but not tact? Doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

I've never had agro issues as conq, and i use a 3x defensive slot bonding. the mark we have doubles our threat when we attack it, and the shield poke does 300% i believe? though the tooltips don't seem to show it, i thought it was something like this. and

kemi1984

Yeah that's why I have no idea what happened. Maybe all of those folks had defensive pets that took the aggro.

Made few runs just now, and looks like eveyrthing is back to normal. I honestly have no idea what happened - X files? weird.

Cheers for the replies!

brick

I'm sure it's defender pets, they real get on my nerves. I hate trying to position a boss around a pet. Neverwinter guard and the yeti being my main nemesis.

Glad you got it working again!

remfdt

Just a fairly obvious observation, but running FBI (and SVA) with 55-60% resist makes a *really* noticeable difference. Basically, it allows you to be a little sloppy. That plus healthstone makes those instances significantly less party-ilvl-sensitive...