Agnarr not yet affeared of GoB

Monday evening's raid brought a semi-bungled Airen'Dar raid where we were attempting to backflag some folks. It took forever to setup. This is typical of some raids. Eespecially when we try to move too fast and allow late adds. We waited for a long time to get everyone in and then position folks 'just so'.

Even so, we were short a certain amount of firepower so the dragon lived too long. What that means is that all the mindless minions became active. It also means that almost everything that could qualify as a tank was killed in the dragon fight either outright or soon afterwards by the AoE. We did get the dragon down, but clearing the minions was a major PITA. Basically Jaered would chain root one while Buganose and I would shoot it to death. Due to the very wierd agro nature of these creatures, none of the three of us would every get agro. I personally participated in the death of 4 minions in such a fashion. I have no idea what happened elsewhere, but we eventually managed to get them all down.

But! Not before someone clicked on the floor in the center and dropped most of the live DPS into the lake underneath. Fortunately, there is a ladder back up. Unfortunately, you can't climb it while Leved or while shrunk. While fixing Lev is easy. Shrunk is not. Eventually, I cast wolf form on myself and then clicked it off. That effectively unshrunk me and I was able to get out.

OK, this was longer and more tedious than I have recounted here, but the worst part is that by the time the last living cleric started rezzing the other clerics and got the raid standing, the projection had despawned. No one got back flagged. What a crime.

The good news is that this was really a filler raid. Waiting for the westies so we could go try Agnarr, the boss of BoT and the imprisoner or Karana. Unfortunately for us, we weren't really sure how to do the event. We managed to get into the tower but, the LZ was Hot. A named giant and 4 portals bringing in a supply of elements. The elements would not snare or root, some could be mezzed, some not and charm wouldn't hold long. Oh, and one of them could see invis. Things sorts got sorted out and we got the giant down (/flex), but the majority of the tanks were again dead. Eight or ten elementals ran around and smoked all the rest of us.

The event has a 2 hour timer, so we were under the gun to get the riad rezzed and back up. So, actually, no rezzes. Run in and loot your corpse, quick buff and jump back in. We got in and managed to knock down the remaining elementals and prepared for the jump to the next floor. To get there you have to hail an NPC and say 'transport'. Assuming that we would get another warm resception, we all jumped at the same time. This was much more effective even though Mallo accidentally agroed the mob.

Unfortunately, even forewarned, we were not really ready for this floor. This part of the encounter is generally considered the hardest part of the Agnarr script. And it's easy to see why. The giant has a big AoE, there are adds and the 4 portals make it worse. I disced on this giant, but kept having to run from the adds, so it wasn't very effective. Eventually, I started nuking, the giant was in the 30's, but the raid was wiping. I got summoned and spanked. /sigh

This time, we rezzed (both corpses) and loot up. But, it was pretty late already and no third try was attemped.

An Update

It has been a busy few weeks at work, so I haven't been able to update this regularly like I usually do. But it has also been a busy few weeks in game for EE and GoB. We are strong enough both in terms of bodies and in terms of raiding experience that lots of new things are open to us. The biggest single thing that has impacted Bianca and myself is getting flagged for the Plane of Tactics. Since killing the Behemoth is so hard and requires a good raiding guild, there is less 'rif raf' flagged to get in there. The ZEM is at least as good as Halls of Honor, and, unlike HoH, there is decent (droppable) loot too. In the two weeks where we have been hitting it hard, we have leveled up to 63 and gained 11 AAs. All while raiding pretty hard and not playing as much as we were in May. Generally, you can get an AA every 70-90 minutes even at level 65. So far I have finished off Archery Master 2 and Inate Camoflage. I am not sure if I am going to climb the AM3 hill next or start working on the tanking AAs (Natural Durability, Combat Agility, Combat Stability) or DPS AA (Ferocity, Fury of the Ages, Punishing Blade). That is 72 AAs right there, that ought to keep me out of trouble for a while.

Bianca has been similarly busy getting Radiant Cure 1 & 2, Spirit of the Wood and now saving up for DC for soloing and douing fun.

The Villagers Trial

This is the second of the three HoH trials for access to the Temple of Marr. Triggered by killing Rhaliq Trell in the NW basement camp. That spawns a Custodian of Marr, killing him spawns half a dozen villagers in that room and 4 or 5 hard mobs in each of the outer two rooms. You need to kite them or they come running in and rub out the villagers. If all the villagers die, you lose. I think you also get a hard mob running into the first room right off the bat too. The raid kills him, moves to the doorway of room two, peal off one of the kited mobs and rinse and repeat.

Pretty straight forward, as long as the kiters stay alive and the raid doesn't bog down. We had a typically rocky start and Bi died right away (she was kiting) and Jaered ended up with 3 mobs on him, but we got things locked down pretty quick. The raid was around 40 people, but pretty much most of GoB's 'A' Team. Only one person under 62 or 63, everyone did their job and we won.

Only the Dragon awaits. He is considered the hardest trial and Marr's last hope to keep GoB from coming for him.

The Maidens Trial

This is the first of the three trials you must pass to gain access to the Temple of Marr. You can do them in any order, but this is generally considered the easiest. It is triggered by killing Alekson Garn in the back room of the SW baesment camp. When he dies, a Custodian of Marr spawns. Killing him spawns 5-7 'Crazed Norathians' in this room and in each of the other two rooms. There is also an untargetable maiden in the center of the other two rooms. If the mobs get to the maidens, well Bad Things happen and you lose.

Pretty simple strategy to solve this on. Actually there is a great writeup on the web at:
http://www.scienceofwar.net/strats/aleksongarn/ which we more or less follow or did the same thing as. The very first time we tried it, we lost quick. The kiters couldn't get control of the mobs in time. Second time, 7/22 I think, we won quick and clean. On Saturday, it was sloppy (too big a raid, IMHO) 36-40 seems to be as big as you need. My opinion is that 2 or 3 clean wins is better than bumbling through this.

Drops one or two good loot items and random parchements, of course. Not something I would farm, but nice enough.

The Carprin Cycle is Solved by GoB

The Carprin Cycle is a sequence of 6 mobs that get 36 flags for the raid if you succeed. Getting flagged here allows you to enter the basement of CoD and participate in the Bertox script. Bertox is a biggie for progressing in PoP. This is pretty hard, we test drove it about 2-3 weeks ago, killed the first guy relatively easy and then got *smoked* on the second guy. Here is a run down of the event (from The Safehouse website):

Carprin Deatharn
-- Hits for 1200ish
-- Not rooted
-- Procs 3500 HP lifetap
-- Unslowable
-- Has 3 mini-named that spawn when he is agroed. Should off tank Carprin and kill all 3 then kill Him
-- If you kill him without first killing his babies (and you must agro all at once or they repop) he seems to take alot longer to kill than if you kill babies first
-- On his death Avhi Escron spawns in the next room

Avhi Escron
-- Hits for 1600ish
-- Rampages
-- Unslowable
-- Rooted
-- Any time anyone (pet or player) dies or FDs 4 skeles spawn
-- On his death Bishop Toluwon spawns in the next room

Bishop Toluwon
-- Really easy, lived maybe 50 seconds.
-- Rooted
-- On his death Raex Pwodill, Vindor Mawnil, and High Priest Ultor Szanvon (untargettable) spawn in the same room

Raex Pwodill
-- Hits for 1600ish
-- Rampages
-- Unslowable
-- Procs 5000 lifetap
-- Is not rooted

Vindor Mawnil
-- Hits for 1200ish
-- Flurries
-- Slowable
-- Procs 5000 lifetap
-- Is not rooted

High Priest Ultor Szanvon
-- Becomes targettable on Vindor and Raex's death
-- Rooted

On our second try, we had the right mix of people and focus and with the exception of the unrooted mobs near the end, it was a near flawless execution. Bianca and I were lucky enough to *just* qualify for a flag (going from the top down in levels). We are going to need to do this event several times, 36 people not being anywhere near enough for Bertox. It was a fun fight and each boss drops one peice of (droppable) decent loot. Nothing worth farming, but a nice reward considering you need to do this a bunch to get all the folks flagged.

Vallon Zek Falls

Vallon Zek is a wussie. Plain and simple the hardest part of this raid is getting back to him. There are see invisible mobs and they AoE dispell 2 slots. Annoying. Also, they are far enough away from the ZI, that a ranger can't really check these mobs easily. You need an SoS rogue or a lot of luck.

You need Vallon and Tallon Zek for the Rallos Zek encounter. You get back there and kill the fake VZ, 6 more spawn in the center of the room. If you kill the 'real' VZ *last* encounter over. Otherwise, you get a 6 spawn again and again get to figure out who is 'real'. Annoying but there are tricks. Took us 3 trys to nail it.

Was an easy off tanking fight and I didn't even use Trueshot. Loot table for this guy is very good. Worth farming.

Aerin'dar Falls to GoB!

Wow, we are on a roll now. A Tier 2 boss mob falls easily on the first try. Last night we logged in at 9pm just as the AD raid was called. Rushing to PoV to the usual chaos of group formation in an unfamiliar spot and for the first time in forever stressing resists.

OK, I have to rant a bit. How in the hell can a group of people, average level 62 not know how to move from the zone in to another safe spot without getting agro? It boggles the mind. You didn't know Wolf Form is a bad idea?!? Are you an idiot. Wolf form is ALWAYS a bad idea in PoP and in so many other places that I rarely bother casting it anymore unless I am KoS anyway and prepared to fight everything. You didn't notice that skeleton is UNDEAD and sees through your inivis? How, exactly, did you get to be 61? I realize that, being a ranger, I am used to running around mobs and have a real good idea of what is dangerous and what is KoS, but the people that drew agro were Rangers and Druids, for the most part. Finger twiddlers, I can almost forgive, but they know enough to closely follow someone who knows where they are going and what they are doing. OK, AND if you do bungle (let's call it what it is) and get agro, SAY SOMETHING. We have a raid force that can dispatch anything in the zone with ease, call it out and kite it around to the MA. We wasted 15-20 minutes last night fighting trash and still had to camp to keep mobs from warping through the walls to get at people.

So, we buffed up in the (now) safe room and clicked into AD's chamber. Big open space with plenty of room to kite the gaurds. Except the lag was brutal. I was in Team Shoot (5 rangers and a 54 cleric). The Cleric was too low a level to get anywhere near the AoE and by hanging with us should be pretty safe since we easily outrange it. Except of course, the dragon turned and moved and we all got hit. The AoE is a 500dd, fear and a 7 tick 700dd DoT. Do that math. Death cleric and 3 dead rangers. Me and Giltaav survived and continued plugging the dragon which was about dead by the time I reacquired him. Woot. Pretty nice kill, now we had several guards to clean up, rez folks and get our flags. AD dropped Wrath of Mithaniel (Nalitra claimed), Honorable Longsword (Tigon claimed), a SP, and 4 EPs.