piratty's HT DPM Journal

This is piratty. He is the direct result of daily influence from iPippy and my most unloved child. Piratty has received literally 0 funding in gear, inheriting a mishmash of old iPippy, akash, and cioudy equipment, rounded out by my BM's few actually tradable equips. This, alongside poor planning on my part for his washing leading to a good chunk of his INT still remaining due to lack of NX, has led to him being pitifully weak. Nonetheless, I wanted to track my progression in learning how to play a Bucc in HT and potentially reaching "passable" DPM. The goal for the end of this journey is to eventually hit 6m DPM.

piratty's HT journey begins not even as an actual main attacker, but as a second attacker that I have been multiclienting on my BM's 5 man runs. He has not performed particularly well in those scenarios; as anyone who has played BM in HT can imagine, it's not exactly trivial simultaneously piloting a second attacker while also repositioning constantly on the Bowmaster. Nonetheless, he has been able to consistently output more than 1m DPM at the expense of around 500k DPM on my Bowmaster, resulting in a net positive in terms of my own DPM, and likely a larger effect on Gurk's Sair's DPM, as piratty also serves as a boat TL mule.

One thing I discovered during these 5 man runs is that Buccs in HT are surprisingly clunky. Whereas their kit feels smooth in most other fights, between the awkward ranges to hit arms and the head rotations causing Demo to re-target on RH, Horntail has a lot of weird positional requirements that I otherwise would not have to think about on a ranged attacker or in a different fight where I can just walk up to whatever I want to hit. Anyways, the takeaway lesson before I even began my journey was: I have no idea where I'm supposed to be standing.

piratty finally made his actual Horntail debut last night during one of ryanlights 's 12 man runs. Knowing that I would be pretty lost going into the fight, I requested coaching from Joker and iPippy, both of whom gave instrumental advice during the run. I forgot to record the run, something I usually do for all my HT runs; future diary entries should have screenshots/gifs to accompany them.

Run 1
Santi was supposed to coach me, but after getting lost on a hike, he was unable to join except for a brief period during main body. Preheads played out like normal boss content - there did not feel like there was too much in the way of optimization here. The real fight began, like most HT runs do, with Legs into Tail. I am still unsure of what's the best positioning I should be doing during Legs. I initially stood to the left so I wouldn't constantly be tanking touch damage, but found myself getting stunned/super knockback several times despite Demo iframes. Perhaps it's my relatively low avoid, but it was frustrating, especially because I was struggling to locate and reposition my character after each super knockback. Normally I would find my characters by looking for the Hurricane animation or Bahamut, but in this case I was invisible 2/3 of the time, so it would take me a few seconds to orient myself. Perhaps I need to set up a macro to display an EPM/mapowner bubble above my head?

After Legs/Tail went down, we started LH. While I had some idea of the 4 different Corkscrew Blow jumps that could be performed in this map, I didn't know the details of them. During run 1, Santi described 2 of them to me while we were on the left side.

Bottom Left: Begin with a running start to the left, then jump before you hit the rope, turn around to the right, and CSB at the top of the jump. This worked well but if I missed I would be in an awkward spot due to the running jump. iPippy would later correct this and tell me that I could just stand slightly right of the rope and jump.

Top Left: This is the hardest jump for me, and the one I most want to learn to do consistently. Santi would have me stand on the left edge of the middle rope platform, and then jump and release CSB on my way up. I am still unsure of how best to time this jump, and I can't seem to get the hang of it consistently.

I was taught from the 5 man runs that I should attack LH from the second platform at the top, rather than the long platform, as a wing flap could knock me to the right. It took me a bit to figure out how best to position on this platform. Normally on my BM I have to stand on the far left side, but I realized during this run I could just CSB on to it and attack from anywhere. I am still unsure of what to do when LH ducks and MH is cancelled. Perhaps throw out a filler Dragon Strike to hit RH if it's up? I also learned during this run that I could CSB from the 2nd platform up to the top platform to hit MH. Overall left side felt decently intuitive, although when I didn't have ST or bubble and both heads were cancelled, I was unsure of what to do to wings and arms. With bubble I would have felt comfortable moving to the lowest small platform and barrel cancelling, but without it I settled on just throwing out DS from the long mid platform to charge bubble as quickly as possible, before moving down.

Right side was a mess. I felt completely lost, and Santi was no longer in the call at this point. I was told I could not hit RH when it was at the bottom of its circular rotation, but I'm still unsure of how strict the timing on this is, or whether it loops in sync with demo timing. I also was unsure of where was the best spot to stand most of the time. When I play my BM, there's really only two states I need to track: MH cancel and RH cancel, with a designated spot to attack for each. I now had to throw in tracking the additional states of ST/non-ST and Bubble/no bubble. This led to me being extremely inefficient with my damage, constantly being knocked down, whiffing demos, and throwing out random DS when I didn't know what else to do. With wings killed quite early on the right side, I also had little opportunity to practice CSB jumps. Knowing I was in need of additional coaching, I called in iPippy for run 2.

Tragically, my DPM test finished around 1 minute after the run ended and I stupidly went to the Cash Shop to preserve HT buff, cancelling the test. Given how much standing around being lost I did, in addition to just generally poor charge management, poor positioning, and lots of falling, I have no doubts it would have been a disaster.

Run 2
Now equipped with an experienced coach to talk me through the entire run, I felt more confident in this run. Not only could I receive instruction now, I could also bounce my own thoughts to someone as I figured things out on my own. Due to having an AFK buyer this run, I had to manage my TL better, including needing a TL as soon as body started. As such, I started main body in a separate party on the middle platform, DSing wings, arms, and I think possibly two of the heads as well? I'm unsure if this is the fastest way to charge bubble in HT when everything is up, but it felt fast enough. In a moment of forgetfulness, I forgot to pop an ST before I TLed our Bishops' rezes, losing out on a free ST. Oh well.

iPippy gave the suggestion of standing on the leg for iframes to avoid the super knockback and stun. Due to my low avoid though, I was absolutely getting railed. Because of this, and the fact that once bubble ran out I was having to constantly reposition due to knockback anyways, I decided to just stay to the left and demo from there. I may try staying on the leg in the future once I have more avoid or if I have bubble.

The run progressed smoothly with me picking up new bits of information, such as the fact that at the top platform, demo will whiff MH at the lowest point of the big breath attack, and the correction of the bottom left CSB jump. He also described a "safer" top left CSB jump when wings flap or LH ducks, but I would much rather get better at the one that can be performed at any time.

On the rightside, I learned the two additional CSB jumps.

Bottom Right: Running start to the right, jump into/through the bottom of the wing and release the CSB at the top.

Top Right: Stand below the top rope and jump in place and CSB. This one caused me to overshoot and fall a couple times. Perhaps I'm standing too far to the left?

In addition, I started organizing the different states into locations.
ST+no Bubble+RH up: stand slightly to the right of the top rope and hold demo. This is the default state I was using most of the run.

ST+Bubble+RH up: stand on the lower RH platform, so that I can always hit RH even when it's at the bottom of it's spin cycle/ducking.

ST+RH cancel+MH up: stand on the highest platform and hold demo and pray. Much easier with bubble. If I fall, I think on a normal RH start run I would cross and hit LH, but as I had no option to do so here I just climbed back up and prayed for the best.

No ST+RH cancel+MH up: I stood on the long platform and just spammed DS to try to hit MH. I think normally I would cross and hit LH, but in this scenario it felt like I had nothing to hit really.

No ST+Bubble+RH up: stand on the lower RH platform and barrel cancel.

No ST+no bubble+RH up: charge bubble with DS, then perform the above. Perhaps even charge bubble DSing 4 targets below the top rope? (cleaving arms/wings) Unsure if this is worth activating RA on a 6 man run, but during this run the arm was active regardless.

Double cancel: drop down and hit wings.

That's a lot more to keep in mind than BM! Bubble felt incredibly important to being able to maintain DPM without falling, so iPippy also walked me through ways of helping ensure bubble was up when I needed it. Since bubble takes 1 minute to charge and lasts 1 minute, I could cancel a bubble 1 minute into my ST, and by the time ST is finished, I should leave ST with a fresh bubble, letting me barrel cancel on the RH. In theory, anyways. In practice it felt a bit messy; over time hopefully I can get better. While on the right side, I also had to TL the rezes again as well as Ryan's echo, and it took a bit to get the party formed. Worried about wasting bubble and needing to recharge, I elected to hold charge at 90% and stand around doing nothing, while I contemplated my existence as a mule and bitterly cursed the TL/Charge change.

While there were still moments where I had to take a bit to think about where I was supposed to be standing, I played better this run than the first run. The presence of an active coach made a huge difference, since I could ask questions whenever I was in doubt. I also spent a not-insignificant part of the run stubbornly trying and failing various CSB jumps instead of just climbing the rope. I have the hang of the bottom left, bottom right, and top right ones (at least most of the time. I still mess up a good bit), but the top left eludes me.



Here's the final result. While I was hoping for 3, I will happily take a 2.8, since I did spent a bit of the run not attacking due to failing jumps and waiting for TL. While it feels quite low compared to what my BM is capable of, given the combination of lack of experience, lack of gear, heavily INTed stats, lower level, and messing around, I'm okay with this as a starting point. Nowhere to go from here but up!

I'm not sure how often I will be running HT as an active single attacker on my Bucc, as I likely will not be doing so regularly at least while he still has INT, but I'm still looking forward to becoming more consistent at the fight and improving my DPM. I would imagine my next entry on here will not be for a couple weeks, where I hope I can reach my first milestone of 3m dpm. Until then, thanks for reading!

 

im in tears

 

We're back sooner than expected! I originally did not plan on running until next Saturday, but had to re-schedule that run to today due to other plans. I was hoping I would have the crutch of washing out a bit more INT before the next run, but alas I have the same base INT as my last post. Anyways, on to tonight's events.

Run 1
Today's run was extremely melee heavy, with a composition of a staggering eight melee and only 2 ranged. As such, I told the run to try to minimized cleave on arms/wings as much as possible, leading to me often time charging bubble on just 2 heads instead of 4 cleaving wings and arms. Overall I feel like this had a pretty small effect on my DPM though.

Not too many new relevations this run, just kind of going through the motions of what I learned last run and reinforcing good habits while trying to consciously be aware of bad habits. I added a demo macro with an @mapowner name shout to better track where my character is positioned, which helped a lot in positioning correctly. On the other hand, I noticed I have picked up two bad habits. The first is the tendency to turn off my brain and hold demo, which means I occasionally whiff when the head I'm hitting is ducking (or spinning for RH) and MH is cancelled. The second is I'm a bit slow to ACP, meaning I'll start up a fresh demo while under Darkness and completely whiff it even if I ACP immediately after Demo starts. I need to keep a closer eye on the heads and RA. I'd imagine that, similar to how watching body parts as Bishop gets easier with more HP, this will get easier with more Avoid. I need to get a better sense of how long things like bubble and ST last, so while they're up I can just focus on things like watching body parts.


On the other hand, I had a couple flashy moments during the run that felt really good. Here's one of the few times I actually managed to pull off a solid CSB jump without issues (most of my attempts were me flailing and jumping in place). I have a bad habit of trying to CSB while mid air after jumping. I need to remember to start charging it before I jump. Overall the only one I currently feel comfortable with getting most of the time is bottom left but even that one I mess up a lot.


Such success is also accompanied by failure. I don't know if there was anything I could have done in this scenario besides ask for a dispel? Just unlucky, I guess. I've noticed that when I try to to the bottom right jump without bubble, I get knocked back from wing touch during my jump, messing up the CSB positioning. I feel like trying this CSB isn't worth it if I don't have bubble, but maybe I'm doing something wrong.



Overall, an improvement over the last run, but not as much as I would have liked. I still fall a lot more than I'm happy with, and my "downtime" (actions I'm taking when no ST and no bubble) isn't very efficient. I also made no effort during these runs to try to sync up my bubble, which, while it's a skill I want to learn eventually, I think is okay for now. I have more important things to practice and focus on besides timing charge, like simply not whiffing demo to head ducks and late ACPs.

Run 2
I was echo muling my BM first run, meaning I had to waste a TL on echo and also Echo ran out 40 minutes into body. This run, we had HT buff and my BM was joined by Joker 's Bucc, meaning we had 2 200s and an extra TL in the run. This let me use my TL much more aggresively and have more Echo uptime, which felt pretty good. I also played significantly better this run, although I still have the nagging issue of whiffing a lot of demos. This and falling are probably my two biggest DPM losses currently, if I had to guess. Falling will get better with avoid over time, better charge management, and better positioning choices. I think the immediate biggest improvement I can make is snappier ACP usage when RA uses status. I need to do a better job of keeping an eye on RA and watching for the status effect animation.

I also got incredible value out of smoke this run. IGN pancakee managed to time the smokes at excellent points, often times covering me when I had to hit the mid head, preventing what would otherwise be a likely fall. This helped my uptime on the right side a lot, although it didn't stop me from having several falls, both on the right AND left side. I also continue to waste time failing CSB jumps; while it's frustrating and negatively impacting my DPM, it's also important to get some practice in while I can, as there's not really any other time I can practice them.

For the most part, however, I was usually hitting something and usually with Demo if not barrel cancelling. There were only a few windows where I was forced to just spam DS inefficiently. We were pretty blessed both runs with favorable cancels; despite having an incredibly melee and cleave heavy composition, there were only a handful of double cancels both runs, meaning we never had to worry about early Mass Sed. In the event this did happen, we were still a 12 man run and could have absorbed the mass sed, protected the bishops, and been okay, but it would have been pretty bad for DPM.


Here's one of the successful bottom right CSB jumps I pulled off during the run. I was missing this jump a surprising number of times; I had few issues doing it succesfully on Weds, so I'm not sure what's different now. I noticed most of my fails were to taking wing touch and being knocked back, but maybe this means I'm jumping in the wrong spot or releasing CSB at the wrong time? Still unsure.


Overall the run went quite well. Between better personal play, more Echo uptime and HT buff uptime, and more smoke uptime, there's a noticable improvement in my DPM from this run, easily breaking my 3m goal for the day. Next goal: 3.5m! I imagine this one will take a bit longer. With perfect play and snappy DHs, it's most likely possible for me to achieve it with my current stats, but I think washing out more INT will help. There's no plans to run again any time soon, so we'll see when the next opportunity for this happens. Hope I don't get rusty before then.

Thanks for reading!

 

Todays entry is not quite what this journal was meant for, but significant nonetheless. The lessons I’ve learned from my single client runs are also paying dividends in my duo attacker runs as well.

When piratty first started running on my 5 man runs, I was pulling around 1.1m DPM on him, while pulling just shy of 8m on my BM for a cumulative almost 9m DPM. With better positioning knowledge and mobility knowledge from piratty’s 12 man runs, I was able to get 1.8m DPM on piratty during both runs today, despite terrible conditions, while maintaining my BM DPM.

When my BM is forced to attack from the topmost right-side platform (MH up RH cancel), it’s incredibly difficult to duo attack, especially if ST is down, as I have to momentum cancel my BM at all times and quickly reposition after hits, which is challenging with one hand. Today our RH was cancelled for so long that it did not die until the HP bar was well below half, which is the absolutely worst conditions for me successfully duo attacking.

Despite this, I still managed to improve my overall DPM to more than 9.5m cumulative. With better cancel conditions where my BM can stay on RH more, I can improve the DPM on both characters simultaneously. My current goal on these 5 man runs is to reach 10m cumulative DPM between the two characters, which seems viable even in piratty’s current state. Slightly more favorable conditions mean I can possibly get more attacking uptime on piratty to push 2m DPM while maintaining 8m on my BM.

In the long term, who knows what I’m capable of as piratty washes out his INT and levels up, but I’m pleased that I’m still making steady progress and improving my Bucc skills. I have managed to significantly improve my ability to CSB jump on the left side today, as only partially playing the Bucc today meant I was knocked down frequently and had to get back up. The practice is paying off as I’m becoming much stronger at pulling off these jumps (special thanks to Tr1n1tyy and, indirectly, imTinii for tips here)