/wave Ghriz
I loved Hate as well, it was the best. But nothing scared the hell out of me like Fear.. never quite knowing when you were gonna get DT'd hehe.
Here's a little tidbit (a.k.a. a complete guide on NToV <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)">
I didn't include the maps because I don't want to hose my buddies bandwidth.
I didn't write this, I have no clue who did. But if I ever find out who did I plan on shaking their hand for such a well written work.
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Getting there:
*BRING INVIS POTIONS. They only cost 12pp and are sold all over the place.
*BRING SOW POTIONS. 100pp for a 10-dose. Don't get cheap on me!
*Have a hotkey for /LOC ready at all times. Don't complain if we can't find your corpse cause you didn't get a loc.
*DO NOT count on CoH being in place. Don't be lazy, make the run yourself =P
*PRINT OUT THE MAPS.
-Get an invis and a sow and port to Cobalt Scar. Lev will help but is optional.
Cobalt Scar Map
-Once you are in CS you need to run down to the shoreline. Take the shoreline to the right (when facing the water) and follow it to the loc 1200, 1200. Stop here and get ready. You will need to swim to 1200, 1600 for the tunnel, BUT NOT UNTIL you read the next step.
-You will now have to swim past 2 or more sirens which guard the underwater passage leading to Siren's Grotto. The passage looks like a little round cave and is underwater. The zone is VERY close behind it. If you are buffed up you should be able to make the run even if you get hit a few times. If you have Divine Aura use it here. They WILL see through invis. If you are in a group you might want to kill them and make it easier.
-Now you just zoned into SG. Hug the left wall. You will see a few Golem-like mobs standing in front of you. They have a very small aggro radius. Just sit tight here and be ready to run.
How to get through SG without a succor!
The pathing in SG is pretty bad and can be used to your advantage.
When you enter SG there is a mob at the zone. You will need invis to get past this mob to the ledge at the water. Once past the mob move to the left side of the ledge.
In the water there are two tunnels heading the left. Of these two left tunnels, the far tunnel or the more right of the two lead to the other side of SG and the zone to WW. Usually this tunnel is guarded by two sea horses. These seahorses see sneak hide and invis and hit rather hard.
To get past them you should exploit the poor pathing. Make sure you have sow. Jump into the water but stay near the ledge. You should pull them using any means - cast a crap spell on one of the.. or throw something at them. When they aggro they will swim away from you before coming after you. This will give you all the time you need to swim past them.
Swim into the tunnel and stay near the top of the water as much as you can. There is often a third Seahorse further back in the tunnel who will aggro you. Just keep swimming and let him train.
The tunnel will curve to the right and will become more shallow. Swim to the right and up. This will take you to the top of a water fall. Swim up and over the top of the falls. You'll fall into a pool below. Directly left of the falls there is a ledge. Swim to the ledge and exit the water. Stay as far back on the ledge as possible. There are land mobs near by that will aggro and beat the snot out of you. Re-invis if you dropped it when hit by a seahorse. Follow the left wall from the ledge. You'll come to a tunnel. Follow the tunnel to the WW zone.
-Once you are through SG and in Western Wastes you are at the Safe Spot. Here is where you will ABSOLUTELY need Invis and SoW and preferrably Lev. Once you have these on you can make the run to the Alley, and eventually into ToV.
Western Wastes Map
-The safest way I have found so far is to hug the East wall and head North till you get to loc n4700, 1000. There ARE mobs that wander along the wall, but only a few. CON EVERYTHING! You want to know what will see through invis. If it regards you anything other than Indifferently then stay the heck away from it! Mobs have HUGE aggro radius here. Take your time.
-Once you get to that loc you can run straight West till you hit the valley. You should start to see the valley drop off at n2000,1000. You want to run along the edge South a little before dropping in. The fall will not cause more than a few hundred HPs of damage. Don't be a wuss. WATCH WHAT YOU FALL DOWN ONTO IN THE ALLEY. Make sure there are no mobs below you.
-You will want to run to the Semi-Safe Spot in the alley located at 500, 0. Should be right about exactly accross from the large tunnel to ToV.
-If Sontalok (the big dragon that guards the entrance to ToV) is up you will want to camp at the Safe Spot and login as a different character. Wait for the guild to tell you that Sontalok is harmonized before attempting the run into ToV.
-If Sonta is either not up or has been harmonized for you you can make the run to the zone-in. The zone-in is a swirly electrical looking like portal thingie that you have to click on to zone. Clerics, bind in WW right by the zone-in to ToV.
-Once you are in ToV you can sit safely. UNLESS there is another guild/group pulling. In this case you will want to camp out and wait for our guild to get there, unless you want to die.
CoH in ToV:
CoH mage follows path on map - through north door make right.. the left up the middle... huge left wall to avoid Ikiatar. Once past him hug right to avoid eashen. Chickens should not be KoS.
Start CoH at the pot.
CoH Monks, SK's, Necro's FD.
CoH Warrior, Clerics, healers, rogues INVIS
Chickens will aggro and can be trained away by FD class or tanked if we get a few groups in without losing invis.
Once raid is in we'll need to keep the Chickens clear and drakes guarding route to Aary.
Pulling
Need three FD classes for NToV pulling. Most pulls can be completed by two monks but some need a tagger that can NOT be an MT (due to AE/OOR issues) like Koidoken and Mirenilla.
"Leap Frog Pull"
While the first monk is bringing something in, the other is setting up for the next pull, when the mob that's in the camp is at 20% (dependant upon RL discretion) the second monk is bringing their mob in, and the first monk gets set up for the next pull, and around and around we go.
Depending on how things go, I may set up an anchor monk to actually bring mobs into the camp, if I feel that may shave time off the overall pulling. But for now, we'll go with two monks in rotation.
In the case of deaths (even though monks never die... /whistle) we'll have at least one, but preferably two monks on stand-by, buffed and ready to go.
it is time for the triplets. pull and kill the 2 wurm guardians.
clerics etc setup at the corner towards the ramp down warrior around the corner towards ramp.
2 monks and a sk head up towards the triplets, monk 2 and sk stop at the tag spot, then the puller heads into 250 range weapon range of zlexak, throw the javelin and then backup to the designated tag spot, zlex will warp to you, you FD, the tagger immediately tags zlex and books it to the raid-popping voiddance or if SK using harmshield, you get zlex single this way 99% of the time. zlex's at is a 1250pt disease based ae. with slow, making the ifght longer than nec, heals will be 3-4 second until slow lands on zlex then the same tactics apply, keep ae off of clerics and keep everyone over 40% hp.
repeat the pulling tactic for cek then just pull sev - fights are fairly easy both are slowable and need MR for resist. cek does chaotic weightlessness so its kinda fun. again 3-4 seconds until slowed.
by now it should be about time for the 2 wanderers to repop, pull the corridor to jor/nev and wait for the wanderer repops then pull jor,
the pin spot is the other wall where you fought the triplet arund the corner towards nev/jor - again same tactic - need cr for resist- keep clerics out of the ae, and keep everyone over 40%hp
jor dead, time to head for nev, move everyone into the corridor, and most of the way down to nev, nev's AE is a BITCH to resist - whirl til you hurl. there are nooks on both the left and right. yo will be using the left nooks to get out of the ae - just beyond the corridor is another nook before nev, that is where the clerics go to avoid the ae. the MT must stay in heal range of this spot - do the normal predbuff, the first person will get charmed.. wait til it wears off -mt charges, nev is slowable
this is probably the longest fight of them all, not due to the difficulty of the encounter but cuz of nevs AE- it is EXTREMELY hard to resist- get a bard in the mt group for resist song .
for this fight LEAVE the fight and head for a back nook where the healing station is setup at 50% hp due to the fact you will get stunned atleast 1-2 times before making it.
The Mobs:
Here is the info on the mobs - read for resists All mobs require rotation. Wandering Flurry (Quad 350s + 200 bash + 6x350 Flurry) drakes are harder than most dragons.
Everything must be debuffed: Malo/Mala, Tash, SLOW or Malosini, Malosini or SLOW and Cripple.
Center all drakes and T-pin all dragons. Beware riposte - don't face mobs. Attack off on enrage. NO ONE but MTs should bash/kick/slam - this effects positioning.
Rogues and rangers with trueshot > all
Nukes at 50%
Necro's to pump clerics
Eashen:
Raid should be positioned north of the CoH spot right before the stairs. Clerics on one side behind pot (west wall - AE protection) and the rest of the raid directly across from there on east wall.
Two monks to pull. Must be split from 4 guards. Eashen runs faster than the guards. MT to face south in range for heals.
Eashen of the Sky is considerably faster than his guards (who are in each of the 4 corners of his room). Single pulling him is fairly easy, but there are some things you need to know.
Set the guild up at the base of the stairs to Aary after clearing the 2 drakes there. Make a hotkey that tells the MA in the hospulls to tag you're target (i.e. /2 TAG ~{ %T }~ please).
Once the chickens are clear (preferably all of them), walk half way down the ramp, target Eashen, click your Happy Dragon and immediately back up to the pot. Once Eashen gets to you, DROP. If he's alone and your FD is successful, hit your "TAG" hotkey.
Stay right where you are until all the guards are safely at home. There may be times when you have to rush Eashen's room if you get AE'ed before they path back. Whatever the case, it is your responsibility to keep those guards away from the raid.
Aary:
This is the hardest dragon in NToV. AE is mana drain. Guards can not be split easily.
Clerics to stand on ledge on ramp near coh spot. Beware chickens which spawn and roam just east of ramp before Eashen's room. Casters to stand next to ledge on ramp. This should protect clerics and other casters from Mana Drain AE.
Aary can be pulled with one guard (pull guard, aary to chain aggro.) Setup Aary Tank, MA on Guard, raid assisting MA. ONCE guard is killed the lead cleric will make a call to continue on Aary or camp based on rotation mana. (Remember Randall camped at pot for rezzing -beware chickens.)
Vyemm:
Vyemm can be by-passed easily. He is pretty tough with a knockback. Rooted in his pit.
Lord Vyemm - ae is a knockback - pretty much unresistable/bugged in that even if you resist you get knocked back- so this fight is about position position position. get vyemm mad at someone without getting him into summon mode.. then the mt and clerics position themselves on the left wall iwth the clerics close to the mt and against the flattest wall there they are to be againt the wall then try to move backwards, if they do not move at all they are in a good spot-. 2-3 seconds per heal until slowed - Vyemm is DISEASE based slowable. melee and casters fight from behind vyemm- it is PARAMONT that vyemm faces a wall since the knockback pushes you AWAY from his face - thus if he is facing a wall, you get pushed into the wall. if he turns and you get tossed out - STAY STILL - if nothing aggros you in ~10 seconds, come back to the fight, if you get tossed into the lava, get magician wiht CoH to summon you out. the ae does no damage so unless you take falling damage from being slammed against the wall you don't need to worry about t hat, but again the 40%hp rule applies to all. always fight facing the back of vyemm and try to have a wall behind you incase he turns.
Koidoken:
Water leezard. Not rooted. One guard - needs to be killed before Koidoken. They can be killed together if needed but all assist on guard first. ALL casters need to drop of ledge just south of his pit to be protected from his AE DD/Stun. Guard should be Centered and killed. Koidoken T-pin against the wall. MUST slow.
Lord Koi`Doken is the first dragon we encounter when we take the left (clockwise) route. Mazrien (L60 Drake) is Koi`Doken's guard and drops no loot.
Just prior to Lord Koi`Doken (the pull spot) is a ledge against the wall which is where the raid sets up for Koi`Doken. There is one spawn just prior to the ledge that must be timed (80 minutes), so alert the time keeper for the raid (if there isn't one, make one). You have 80 minutes from the time that drake dies before you get respawn within agro range. There are also three drakes that spawn on this ledge as well as two more drakes right before Koi`Doken's pool.
Once the raid is set up on the ledge, you pretty much have one shot at pulling Mazrien (who is on the other side of Koi`Doken) single. If he paths back and agros Koi`Doken on you, two things will happen:
Koi`Doken will come out and eat you and agro the raid, with the possibility of a wipe.
Koi`Doken will make Mazrien his pet and Mazrien will return to Koi`Doken's spawn point, not his own. This makes any further attempt to single pull Mazrien absolutely impossible.
To avoid a wipe, make sure the raid is ready for the possibility of both mobs coming. For the actual pull itself, set up a tag chain with at least 2 monks and a ranger to bow tag to where the MA is standing. Once you FD stay down. Hopefully, Mazrien will come single and the raid can proceed to Koi`Doken without having to rez & rebuff.
When it's time to pull Koi`Doken, I used to think it's best to use a DA class to pull him. Monks were getting eaten alive before we even left his room (Voiddance only lasts 8 seconds) the first time we did this, but the last few pulls the DA classes have been getting ripped and a monk had to do it. Agro, hit your Voiddance hotkey, and walk him out backwards. As soon as you have him in the ranger's sight, FD.
Mirenilla:
This is all about positioning. Mir is semi rooted but does need to be positioned correct for engagement. FD class needs to aggro BIG time without doing damage. Standing off the side she'll wiggle to the edge of her pit. Puller needs to continue pissing her off while the MELEE folks slip into her pit from the other side. Casters to stay out of her pit to avoid AE.
Feshlak:
Drop into Aary's pit and stand against south ledge to avoid roaming drake aggro. Monks begin pulling to clear to Feshlak. Once clear move up to Feshlak's lair. He's rooted but AE's. Clerics to shrink and stand behind ledge located on south west side of lair entrance. MA to run in and keep Feshlak facing out of his lair to stay in cleric heal range. On assist call the raid rushes Fesh.
After Fesh is killed, raid moves into fesh's lair to clear to Dagarn.
Dagarn:
Dagarn is an unrooted wurm that is slighty tougher than Feshlak. Monks to clear to dagarn and pull drakes back to fesh's lair. Once clear Melee move to platform IN fesh's lair on West side. Cleric to shink and stand east of the platform next to ledge which will offer AE protection. Dagarn Rampages. Dagarn should be pulled to platform in Fesh's lair and T-pined against West wall facing south.
Raid should move up to Dagarn's cubby to clear for Kreiz.
Notes:
Gating Healing mobs:
Absolutely the worst things we will face there, but we have a pretty good strat. If the guild is VERY melee heavy. We don't have a battery of nukers to finish them off, so we need to rely on pushing. Pushing has always been the tried and true method to break a CH or gate (both very long cast times). This worked every time we did it right.
In any small area, we need to keep the mob centered, and push it back and forth to keep it from casting (this is for entrence and lower cubby). In the hallway, we will start near the end, and at 10% push the mob to the entrence. In the WW we will pin the mob onto the wall at about 2/3 of the way down the hall. At 10 percent or less, we push it to the firepot. Before it reaches the pot, it has to be dead.
Rezzing
Interesting observation. We were able to CR in the hallway outside the drop off as long as we stayed on the wall. Training the local drake away makes this even easier.
We should always have a cleric alt camped.
Sticking tanks during EVERY battle is important. Sticking casters when there is no AE present
helps too. Remeber to get a heal on them fast. They come in with 2 bubs, and will aggro easily.
When you die on a raid, the first thing you start doing when you respawn is this.
/consent rogue1
/consent rogue2
/consent cleric1
/consent cleric2
/consent cleric3
/consent cleric4
Now both rogues and clerics know you've died and will drag /
CASTING In ToV:
My nukes hit almost everytime after sundering, bard was OOS, and I was casting Smouldering disjunction...
I swear after all that debuffing those mobs had to have a -100 FR
My taps and debuffs land on everything but the glimmer drakes. I was nuking.
LAG:
ALL MODELS OFF! I dun care if you're running a Crazy computer with a direct internet connection provided by Bell Labs.
Chit chat:
Raids are all business. If possible, keep the jokes and chit chat down when you know planning is going on. Spam kills!
Aggro Control!!!!:
I loved the fact that when a mob would enrage, and the folks up front would turn off attack, the people on sides and behind just kept wailing on the mobs...what gives, why do you want to turn an enraged mob on yourself and the damage dealers? Mitigate your own damage output for the given situation. Use any aggro control you have. I got the tar beat out of me last night when someone turned the enraged bastard on us...I evaded but then had to move completely around the mob to finish it off
Group Leader Information:
Group leaders are responsible for communciating mana and general readiness to the raid leaders and for acquiring buffs foor the group.
If you are not up for this job (and believe me I know I have those nights) and I indicate that you are a group leader - send a tell to your group members and find out if someone else is interested in leading. I don't care who leads so long as the leader communicates to the raid leaders and buffers what they need.
Buffing:
Speed and Clarity are single PC buffs - requests for these should be done in tells as indicated by your friendly chanters. If you don't know who is on speed or clarity ask your group. Its the Group leaders responsiblity to know and tell you this. If the group leader does not respond right away give them a second to find out.
If you send a tell for speed or clarity and it does happen right away have patience and indicate to your group that you are still missing buffs. Send a reminder if necessary.
/ooc'ing Could use C2 is NOT gonna get you C2.
Raid Tactics:
PRAM: PRoximity Aggro Management.
Means get no closer to the mob than necessary to avoid "too far away" messages.
Distance lowers aggro.
Melee Box - anyone NOT familiar with this term? This is the area that you can deal damage to a mob. If you are farther out on the edge of the box, you put less pressure on the mob to move, and the opposite effect when you move closer to the mob. Last night when that large wurm was moving over the wall, people kept encroaching on it. Move back to max melee damage distance and let it come back to you...simple theory.
If we have to switch targets, I don't want the MA and SA attempting to switch. Once you two (whoever it will be) have locked on a target and begun building agro, you're to stay on that target. If switch is called, I want everyone else to switch. So instead of assisting the MA, you'll assist the SA.
Timing the hall. Two people will be assigned the job of timing the hall spawns. They're 84 minute pops. So, from the time that the first hall spawn dies, we have to time respawns to see if we'll make it through. -- Runnion
Ceric notes:
From a Healer Thread on ToV -- EQCleric Forum
1) Know the mob your fighting. This is absolutely vital. The DPS and special abilities can really change how you heal.
a) If the mob rampages, make sure your heal doesn't land until after a good number of tanks have hit the mob at least once, this will keep you off the rampage list.
b) Anticipate damage, some mobs can really do damage fast, expecially ones that flurry. If you expect the tank in your group to gain agro, start a ch on him even if he is undamaged. Duck the heal if you get to the 5 second mark and he still hasn't taken damage and start a new one. This especially important in fights like ToV flurry drakes and the warrior in your group is supposed to off tank the second flurry drake and the shaman hasn't stuck slow yet.
c) Anticipate Agro. If the puller just pulled 3+ mobs to the group, you might wanna use CE to start with, its virtually agro free while an early CH is virtually garunteed to get you beat up if not killed.
d) Anticipate Group Heals. This is important in fights like Trakanon, Hoskar and Zlexak. I try to time 57 group heal Word or Restoration to hit just after the AE does, to cure everyone asap. A lot of the mobs AE's happen on exact timer, like Hoshkar's hits every 30 seconds as I recall, so its fairly easy to predict and have my heal land a second or two after the AE.
2) Manage your mana. There are times when you have a 10 minute fight and you have try and conserve, sometimes there is a 1 minute fight, and you wanna burn mana. At the end of the fight you realize you have 40% mana left and you lost a tank because you where trying to get a 6000 hp heal in for maxiumum effiecancy, you've lost site of your real job. If entire fight your tank never drops below 80% life and at the end of the fight the tank dies because you where oom, you need to work on conserving a mana more.
3) Analyze the fight afterwards. If a tank dies, don't sweat it, just ask yourself "Is there a way I could have saved him?" Sometimes its just not possible to keep someone alive, espeically if they miss enrage. If you continue having problems keeping a tank alive, talk it over with another cleric or with the tank.
<div style="text-align:center">http://www.tj3systems.com/images/Sigs/toxa.jpg</div>
<div style="text-align:center">Thorvan - 65 Shaman (http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=6493) Xeraxog - 65 Monk (http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=16156)</div></p>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub147.ezboard.com/bmonklybusiness43508.showUserPublicProfile?gid=tho rvan>Thorvan</A> at: 1/21/04 12:58 pm