Tanking Nahviintaas vSS - HM

Noldornir

Hello everyone.

I cleared vSS many times by now as both Main/Off Tank (DK).
What I usually do is the tankswap mechanich whenever there's a "krii lun aus" directed on MT but for what I've seen in vids in HM this is not possible due to the big statue-add kept by the OT.

Could any tank share his knowledge on how to RELIABLY tank it without tankswaps? I've seen vids of tanks guarded by the healer and that certainly helps but is that enough or do you also change sets?

When I say reliably i mean that you should survive 95% times at least unless something unusual happens.

TY in advance

satanio

Safest I can think of without guard is:
1. As a DK you don't have native access to Major Evasion, so one of the healers could wear Gossamer set, that would proc of rapid regen or some other hot.
2. Roll at the end of the Breath to mitigate some of the dmg.
3. Keep Minor Maim up.
4. You can go Yolnak + max hp set (Plague Doctor or Green Pact), that could help. Since PD, nerf I consider green pact equal if not better.
5. Monster set: You need sustain because you'll need to cast lot of dragon bloods and absorbs, don't be afraid to use stamina absorbs if needed, but be careful. So Engine Guardian is good there. or Chudan, that saves you one slot and 3500 mag per 20 seconds . I've seen experiments with Vykosa, but if you're inexperienced with the fight It might not be a good choice.
6. Don't be afraid to use your Magma shell, there's nothing to be ashamed of if you use it.


I don't know your team tactics, but once statue is down, you can start swapping with your off tank.

In theory, you should be able to go for full ultigen (Bloodspawn, Dragon, Werewold) and have Magma Shell ready at every Fiery Breath, but honestly, I haven't tried this.

WrathOfInnos

Does the 100% mitigation Sorc tank build still work? By combining Bound Aegis and Immovable skills you could take no damage from blockable attacks for a few seconds, which included dragon breath. It wasn’t sustainable for long, had to be set up 2s in advance, and prevented all movement while active, but still pretty cool to gain invincibility.

Noldornir

satanio wrote: »

Safest I can think of without guard is:
1. As a DK you don't have native access to Major Evasion, so one of the healers could wear Gossamer set, that would proc of rapid regen or some other hot.
2. Roll at the end of the Breath to mitigate some of the dmg.
3. Keep Minor Maim up.
4. You can go Yolnak + max hp set (Plague Doctor or Green Pact), that could help. Since PD, nerf I consider green pact equal if not better.
5. Monster set: You need sustain because you'll need to cast lot of dragon bloods and absorbs, don't be afraid to use stamina absorbs if needed, but be careful. So Engine Guardian is good there. or Chudan, that saves you one slot and 3500 mag per 20 seconds . I've seen experiments with Vykosa, but if you're inexperienced with the fight It might not be a good choice.
6. Don't be afraid to use your Magma shell, there's nothing to be ashamed of if you use it.


I don't know your team tactics, but once statue is down, you can start swapping with your off tank.

In theory, you should be able to go for full ultigen (Bloodspawn, Dragon, Werewold) and have Magma Shell ready at every Fiery Breath, but honestly, I haven't tried this.

1. Gossamer looks nice, could also help group during adds i'll talk with healers about this.

2. I do this rarely without HM (sometimes on fire dragon which hits harder) 'cause i noticed it can be tricky; if done 1 sec too soon it leads to the last tick of breath to land on you while not blocking after the roll dodge but i understand this is a thing I have to master in HM

3. That's up 100% with Heroic Slash

4. I was thinking about Yoln+Battalion Defender (I hit 42k hp with those on) since breath hits are blockable. I Tried this without HM and works good. Or since as you stated I don't have access to Evasion could use hist bark (haven't tried tho since I never bothered crafting one). Problem with Battalion Defender is that while it shines on yoln/lokke (it heals 4k+ me every 2 tick of breath) it's not that good When Marked for Death since you have an healdebuff on (Evasion on the other hand would become more powerful since you are negating 25% of a bigger number).Any toughts?

5. I honestly always use Chudan in here. 1 extra skill, 100% buff uptime, +1k healt + 3k resistances. This allows me to slot ash cloud for extra passive healing on the off hand which I can use both on me or the group depending on needs

6. Usually i try to save it for bad moments such as: dragon take flight while mark of death/soul tear is on while, if adds spawn without none of those up, I use warhorn. Before portals I use warhorn for DDs (by the time dragon flies again my ulti is usually up already)


Thanks for your tips bud

code65536

Having main-tanked it as both DK and NB...

The unhelpful answer is to ditch the DK and come on a NB:

• Dark Cloak is a far more efficient heal than Igenous+GDB.
• Easier access to Major Evasion.
• Easy access to minor resistances.
• Soul Siphon makes it really easy to deal with the Mark + Soul Tear + Breath combo.

But if that is absolutely not an option for you, then just do tank swaps. Your premise that tank swaps are "not possible" is incorrect. My first time clearing HM, we swapped after each Mark. Yes, it's a bit of a nuisance, but it's fine. And yes, it's more straightforward and optimal to not swap, but if you were going for optimal, you'd be on a NB.

If NB is not an option and you want to do it without tank swapping, then...

• Use Vykosa. For dealing with the breath while marked, Vykosa is far more effective than Chudan.
• Consider Blade Cloak on a dual-wield back bar. Bonus points if it's BRP DW (but any DW will be fine). When Nahviintaas starts casting Searing Breath, there is a 2.9s windup before the actual damage channel begins (it's actually the longest windup animation of the the three boss breaths in Sunspire). That's 2.9s where the boss is doing absolutely nothing and it's ample time for you to bar swap to the DW bar, cast Blade Cloak, and get back to your 1H&S bar before the damage starts.
• Have a healer guard you.
• Use the Immovable morph of the heavy armor skill (I keep it front-barred). And since Immovable grants the major resistances, there's no point in wearing Chudan (which you don't want to do anyway since Vykosa is so much better). Also, make sure you are wearing 6p heavy, not 7p heavy so that Immovable does not take away your ability to dodge roll.
• Dodge roll his Bite heavy attacks if you are marked.

So when the dragon starts the windup before breath, Bar Swap > Blade Cloak > Bar Swap > Immovable > Bash for Vykosa, and with all those mitigations, breath will just tickle. If you want to dodge the final tick of the breath, you can, but that shouldn't be necessary.

As for the rest of the gear, you should be fine with something like Ebon/Yol or Torug/Yol or Dragon/Yol or something along those lines.

Olupajmibanan

While advices from @code65536 are great, these may not be suitable for progression tanks. In order to use Vykosa properly you need a lot of experience with the fight, the same for Blackrose Dual Wield.

Don't worry, just have a healer wear Gossamer and you are fine. We cleared HM for first time yesterday and I can tell you, with Gossamer and BoL spam I was able to outheal Searing Breath on marked tank even alone. Just tell the healer with Gossamer to have Illustrious Healing under you at all times and keeping Radiating Regen. When Searing Breath comes just have the healer spam Breath of Life like madman (this may sound as a shame but it works greatly for this occassion). Also, looking at our logs, MT seems to be targeted by Symfony of Blades a lot more than other players so it is good to ask both healers to wear it.

Wish you luck.

code65536

Olupajmibanan wrote: »

While advices from @code65536 are great, these may not be suitable for progression tanks. In order to use Vykosa properly you need a lot of experience with the fight, the same for Blackrose Dual Wield.

Don't worry, just have a healer wear Gossamer and you are fine. We cleared HM for first time yesterday and I can tell you, with Gossamer and BoL spam I was able to outheal Searing Breath on marked tank even alone. Just tell the healer with Gossamer to have Illustrious Healing under you at all times and keeping Radiating Regen. When Searing Breath comes just have the healer spam Breath of Life like madman (this may sound as a shame but it works greatly for this occassion). Also, looking at our logs, MT seems to be targeted by Symfony of Blades a lot more than other players so it is good to ask both healers to wear it.

Wish you luck.

Um, a tank that's at Nahviintaas HM has already cleared the side bosses on HM and has probably done non-HM a number of times. They don't need to be coddled. As I've noted, there is a nearly 3s window before the breath damage starts for the tank to get a few buffs in place. It's more than enough time and it seems rather patronizing to suggest that a tank that has gotten this far would be incapable of it.

Olupajmibanan

code65536 wrote: »

Olupajmibanan wrote: »

While advices from @code65536 are great, these may not be suitable for progression tanks. In order to use Vykosa properly you need a lot of experience with the fight, the same for Blackrose Dual Wield.

Don't worry, just have a healer wear Gossamer and you are fine. We cleared HM for first time yesterday and I can tell you, with Gossamer and BoL spam I was able to outheal Searing Breath on marked tank even alone. Just tell the healer with Gossamer to have Illustrious Healing under you at all times and keeping Radiating Regen. When Searing Breath comes just have the healer spam Breath of Life like madman (this may sound as a shame but it works greatly for this occassion). Also, looking at our logs, MT seems to be targeted by Symfony of Blades a lot more than other players so it is good to ask both healers to wear it.

Wish you luck.

Um, a tank that's at Nahviintaas HM has already cleared the side bosses on HM and has probably done non-HM a number of times. They don't need to be coddled. As I've noted, there is a nearly 3s window before the breath damage starts for the tank to get a few buffs in place. It's more than enough time and it seems rather patronizing to suggest that a tank that has gotten this far would be incapable of it.

I am talking from experience. We had another tank before (he left the guild some time ago) and our trial leader ordered him to use Vykosa for the fight. That was really bad idea, the tank was so focused on procing Vykosa at the right moment that he forgot about tanking basics and got wrecked by breath numerous times. We weren't even able to tell why all of sudden he dies so much, we only realised that Vykosa was the problem from logs after the trial has ended.

Olupajmibanan

One more advice, have healer with Weakening enchant on his Infused Lightning Staff to keep Blockade of Storms 100% of the time under Boss. Infused Weakening enchant on a two-handed weapon provides more mitigation even than Mending set.

Noldornir

I thank all for advices and will make treasure of all.

@code65536
as soon as I noticed your name I knew solid advices were inbound(can't forget your vss guide or 256^2). Not disappointed. Yeah those ~3 secs are very ez to see (you start shine, dragon head's rises etc.) and I usually use that time to ensure main/ash cloud are up or reapply them as all mechs are in vSS (they literally call em all out, which helps a lot on consoles). I can understand why Vykosa outperforms since it makes the attack weaker (something that happens before defences are brought into calc hence its effectiveness is unaltered by the mark itself)

Just one Q:

With no chudan and immovable on front bar I can't imagine a comfortable way to have major buffs up 100% while handling adds. Do you also use balance/spikes on DK, face adds without buffs 100% uptime or just endure the pain of being snared when you trigger it? (Again for adds phase only).

@Olupajmibanan
I thank you for the more "noob suited" advices actually I find dragon tanking pretty easy compared to other trial boss fights when it come to reading them: they are pretty slow and has unique animations or callouts for what they do(except for trash xD). But you suggested many ideas that intrigued me. Gossamer looks like a solid piece of advice for all the group as well especially while progressing as in all the trial there are a lot of AoE and it will be virtually up all the time on both group n MT passively just with just a spring+cleansing ritual and I never even considered it.

---

Tbh I still have to try all bosses in HM. The question was because, looking at videos n strats, it's the only thing I could not figure out while all the rest of the fight it's clear (at least in my mind lol).

I'll start trying your advices in plain vet without swapping (no point in going HM if I can't survive plain vet without swap easily)

code65536

Noldornir wrote: »

With no chudan and immovable on front bar I can't imagine a comfortable way to have major buffs up 100% while handling adds. Do you also use balance/spikes on DK, face adds without buffs 100% uptime or just endure the pain of being snared when you trigger it? (Again for adds phase only).

@Noldornir If you are not marked during the flight phase, you should have no problems holding the adds without major resistances. And if you are marked during the flight phase, then you will really want to have that extra block mitigation from Immovable.

Personally, I use Immovable during the flight phase if I'm marked. You are not constantly moving during flight phase. You'll get in position, hold that position for a while, and then reposition as needed. So, once I've gotten into position, I'll pop Immovable, and usually by the time I need to reposition, I should be able to move again.

Also, if you avoid wearing 7H (I always wear only 6H if I'm using Immovable), then dodge rolling is still available to you as a way to move and reposition if the need arises.