I’ve only recently become our regular podcatcher (before I’d done it a few times as backup) and though I still need a little practice at everything, here’s my build & the tips I’ve picked up so far. Agree? Disagree? I’m always open to suggestions and new strategies : )
This is a super good video shared by a fellow CoSC member demonstrating some perfect podding.
Build
Actives: Hip Fire, Three Round Burst, Blaze, Lightning Manifestation, Short Fuse, Suppressing Fire, Shellshocker, Death from Above
Passives: Lethality, Twist the Knife, Steady Hip Fire, Brawler, Final Fuse, Aidelon, Seal the Deal, Rocket Science
This variation on my usual AR/Ele build gave me the most speed to stop and place filth or chase a pod (safety off just slowed me down too much), ability to buff my group and also abilities to burn down adds and slow them. Honestly, I’m not so sure about the passives being the best. Play with what’s good for you.
Vipers:
Tips
– Filth-catching: You’ll want to place the filth as far off to the side as possible to avoid messing yourself up later when you’re podding (See what Werrens does in the video). So stand off to one side, near the rubble/cars/other junk, during the times when you’re attacking. If one side gets too filled up, move to the other.
– Trust in the backing up: the best technique I’ve found, and the one I’ve seen in most videos, is to run up towards the black “dust” (think, Tremors worm) until you’re about one body length away from it (if I’m wearing the top hat, the top of the hat sort of “touches” the edge of the dust) and then start backing up steadily. Have faith. I almost always get podded when I lose my nerve and try to forcefully disturb the pod before it gets to DPS or healer. This can actually be worse because the podding effect is an AoE and if you get podded too near others, they’ll get podded too. If you must lose your nerve, lose it away from others.
– The angle of approach is not always the same: The pod heads for someone in your party, so while you’re backing up, be sure to head in the same direction as the pod, which can be a sharper angle than you sometimes think. (Another common cause of me getting podded. I misjudge the angle, start backing up one way then have to course correct.)
– Add killing: Consider yourself first line of defense against adds unless your raid tells you otherwise. This applies to both phase 2 and 3. A well-placed lightning mani, Suppressing Fire and Shellshocker are your friend. In phase 3, it can get a bit hectic, as adds and pods come at a similar time during this phase–you’ll have a Shadow Out of Time, then adds will come for you (but they have a long way to run) and, as you’re killing adds, the pod will come too. I find the best thing is to put down a lightning manifestation as you see them near, do a shellshocker and spam some suppressing fire but then definitely go take care of the pod. That’s more important than anything. If you haven’t killed all the adds (I usually don’t) try to just tell others adds are coming. (I’m still perfecting my tactics on this phase; I find I get a bit frantic like “OMG ADDS! OMG POD! AHH WHICH DO I DO FIRST!” Tips are welcome!) (Tip from Markel – podder’s priority is the pod; everyone else priority is the adds, help where you can but definitely take care of the pod, but make sure your party knows to kill the adds before they murder your healer!)
– Buff the DPS. If you’re an elementalist running a manifestation, you can buff your defensive target with Elemental Fury every time the manifestation is up. If you like you can even hit Alt to switch between yourself and your defensive target (just learned that trick, thanks Lawkie) to buff both of you, or if you’re super coordinated, rotate through several people (I’m not : ( )!
– If you get podded, sometimes you may have to pop a healing potion or your karma curio to allow the healer to focus on the tanks. Especially if your raid only has one healer, like we sometimes run into.
– It’s better to get podded than to let others get podded. I used to feel pretty terrible when I got podded; it still happens to me once a round even though I’ve gotten better. But the others have reminded me that in the end, I stopped the pod reaching the DPS or the healer which would equal a wipe. You may be catching those pods with your face–as I often do–but it’s better that than the alternative.