Thankfully I never had a real failure yet, but have lost tail rotor authority on a number of occasions (very slow flight, OGE, well out of wind, strong w/v. A little alarming but easily surviveable).
However, from previous experience as a sim instructor (including an RAF trial on tail rotor malfunctions on the Puma for general guidance of said type's pilots) and other experiences on French and American types (different directions of main rotor rotation), to avoid confusion in my own mind, here are a few rules that I now always bear in mind:
Rule 1: If the tail rotor driveshaft fails I expect an engine off landing either immediately or at some very imminent stage. Note that if this occurs, the (bad) yaw is towards the advancing blade of the main rotor (advancing side is therefore bad, read on). Fly accordingly and be aware!
Rule 2: If the tail rotor suffers another type of failure i.e. cable / control / stuck pitch, aim to keep the nose of the aircraft on the main rotor's RETREATING blade side and set the aircraft up for a running landing in that configuration. That way any increase in collective to cushion the touchdown will bring the nose towards 12 o'clock and with good judgement will give nil or minimum yaw on touchdown. If the nose goes through the 12 o'clock position towards the advancing blade side, increase airspeed and / or go around.
Also, with a tail rotor control problem, if possible keep the wind on the RETREATING blade side on final approach. This gives "weathercock effect" assistance in the correct direction. (Note that this helps offload the tail on ANY normal approach).
Personally, I have always found the American teaching "lucky left / rotten right" potentially confusing as I have alternated between American and French types.
Retreating blade side is ALWAYS lucky.
Hope this helps someone someday!
SC