Tamriel Foundry

This is an awesome idea for Foundry, but i feel that the info will get way too wieldy for a single thread.   IMO, there should be a new forum thread for PvE Vet dungeons, so we can have sub threads for each dungeon or at least, break it down a bit more.  If just this thread there will soon be soon much info, its just going to get lost. :)

keto3000 wrote on January 16, 2016

This is an awesome idea for Foundry, but i feel that the info will get way too wieldy for a single thread. IMO, there should be a new forum thread for PvE Vet dungeons, so we can have sub threads for each dungeon or at least, break it down a bit more. If just this thread there will soon be soon much info, its just going to get lost.

Actually i am pretty sure we listed all the vet dungeons - or at least all the "tougher" boss mechanics (even including nonvet blackheart).  The rest of them are just straightforward fights.  Really nothing more to say about Vet dungeons in general unless they add more to the game.  Appreciate the suggestion, and if the pve content grows we can think more about how to handle the topic!

Jeckll wrote on September 17, 2015

mrowmrif2 said on September 17, 2015 :

Lol @Jeckll your group are elites – i couldnt imagine our group being able to dps race some of those boss mechanics. Makes me sad lol… Goes to show how powerful CP and optimal gear can make people. I will add a disclaimer that my strats are for newb vets or low CP folks (<300).

I think there are more people that have what it takes than you think but they dont dare to try. It’s good to know what’s possible to have a wider horizon. We finished this weeks gold Vet (IP and WGT) with my wife as second DPS and she has 180 CP and is by no means elite. My “elite group” (they will love that, thx) has between 300 to 440 CP currently.

I suggest all groups should at least try those tactics a few times and I’m sure there are people / groups who can pull it off. Just trust in yourself and try. Worst thing that can happen is wipe, right?

Was reminded of this recently when i revisited vCoA with 2 sorcs in my group (me tank + templar heals)...  Didnt bother with any type of strategy on the Maw, he lived for 30 seconds... And skoria didnt make it to his third platform on hard mode.  Once you have the deeps, it becomes easy button.

Resurrecting this for SotH dungeons - anyone care to post their strats? (I have only done one of the two and it was a pug that didnt go well...)

mrowmrif2 wrote on September 16, 2015

Vet Darkshade Caverns: Grobull and the Engine Guardian…

Grobull is a pain but isn’t HARD… the fight can be long, and it can be frantic with all the squid adds flying all over the place. the name of the game here is AOE DPS, AOE DPS, AOE DPS. the tank keeps hate on the boss and all the little squids that spawn by taunting and using aoe dps skills. you need to keep moving and not let them swarm you, but you need to allow the DPS to be able to take them down quickly. the faster the baby squids die, the better. there aer larger squid adds as well, and they can hit you with a stun skill that can be annoying… but otherwise none of the adds hit particularly hard – there is just a LOT of them, and they spawn in greater numbers as the fight drags on. Killing the adds drops the boss to the ground… when that happens, everyone must converge on it and spam damage skills – he is down for only 5-10 seconds before resuming the pattern of heavy damage AOE + knockback and summoning adds. while in the air, Grobull reflects attacks! it is quite surprising to kill yourself with a snipe or surprise attack… so don’t bother. he also takes much reduced damage while in the air, as well… attacks that deal 2-5k damage on the ground will do 100 damage or less while he’s flying… so don’t bother. DOTs work the same way… you may deal good DOT damage while he is on the ground, but when he is flying the DOT damage goes way down. so a basic strategy… DPS pick up adds while trailing the tank who is kiting the adds. the healer tries to keep AOE heals going and keeps tank alive.

Is it my imagination, or does Grobull actually reflect damage when he's shielded?

I once saw Overload on my death recap after that fight ...

FrancisCrawford wrote on February 12, 2017

Is it my imagination, or does Grobull actually reflect damage when he’s shielded?

I once saw Overload on my death recap after that fight …

He reflects damage pretty much always while flying, so that is why you just dont attack him until he is brought to ground by killing the babies.  He also takes greatly reduced damage, so attacking him while flying is essentially pointless anyway.

Nicely Guide. Thanks for the Work

Ferovium wrote on August 23, 2017

Nicely Guide. Thanks for the Work

My pleasure :)

im sure some strats for more veteran players near cap CP involve just steamrolling bosses and ignoring mechanics, but newer players can still benefit from thse classic strategies that still hold up today.

One thing that otherwise good online guides simply get wrong is the final fight on Crypt of Hearts 1. It's with a pair of twins, each of whom becomes more dangerous if the other one dies first. Hence, the natural thing to do is to try to damage the equally, so that when one dies the other is all-but-dead.

Yet for some reason, guides offer opinions as to which one to kill first, and don't give the correct answer, which is "neither".

In the final fight in Vaults of Madness, it is well known that:

The boss, who stands immobile in the center of a platform, sometimes does an animation to summon either ghosts or breaking glass. If it's ghosts, you want to get away from him; if it's glass, you want to move toward him.

Less well-known are the specifics:

• The boundary is at the platform's edge. If you're off the platform for ghosts or on the platform for glass, you're fine. Otherwise you're in bad trouble.
• When ghosts come, there can be a terrible slow keeping you from walking off the platform (but you can roll-dodge).
• When glass comes, there can be a fear that chases you off the platform.
• You can damage the boss normally while either of these effects are underway.

So my policy now is:

• Ordinarily, stand right at platform's edge when fighting him. (I almost always play ranged characters, DPS or heals as the case may be.)
• When glass comes, run in very close to him.

FrancisCrawford wrote on November 28, 2017

One thing that otherwise good online guides simply get wrong is the final fight on City of Ash 1. It’s with a pair of twins, each of whom becomes more dangerous if the other one dies first. Hence, the natural thing to do is to try to damage the equally, so that when one dies the other is all-but-dead.

Yet for some reason, guides offer opinions as to which one to kill first, and don’t give the correct answer, which is “neither”.

You probably mean Crypt of Heart I.

Damaging them equally is a sound strategy, which definitely helps if the group is arranged through group finder or is short on certain damage/healing benchmark. With that said, it means an extra target for the tank to taunt, in between the large AoE knockback from the flame boss and the heavy attack knockback from the lightning boss; if the group isn't doing that well in the first place, it can present sustain problems especially as the fight goes on in hard mode.

The possible enrage shouldn't be that difficult to manage in most groups, which is probably why guides tend to either advocate killing one over the other (usually flame first to alleviate problems for vampires) or to leave it at the discretion of the reader.

The usual practice in my group is to have one DPS on each boss, with the healer on target that is higher health at various intervals. With decent damage, the fight itself isn't difficult to manage once either one enrages.

Latin wrote on November 29, 2017

FrancisCrawford said on November 28, 2017 :

One thing that otherwise good online guides simply get wrong is the final fight on City of Ash 1. It’s with a pair of twins, each of whom becomes more dangerous if the other one dies first. Hence, the natural thing to do is to try to damage the equally, so that when one dies the other is all-but-dead.

Yet for some reason, guides offer opinions as to which one to kill first, and don’t give the correct answer, which is “neither”.

You probably mean Crypt of Heart I. ACK! Fixed. Thanks!

Damaging them equally is a sound strategy, which definitely helps if the group is arranged through group finder or is short on certain damage/healing benchmark. With that said, it means an extra target for the tank to taunt, in between the large AoE knockback from the flame boss and the heavy attack knockback from the lightning boss; if the group isn’t doing that well in the first place, it can present sustain problems especially as the fight goes on in hard mode.

The possible enrage shouldn’t be that difficult to manage in most groups, which is probably whyguides tend to either advocate killing one over the other (usually flame first to alleviate problems for vampires) or to leave it at the discretion of the reader.

The usual practice in my group is to have one DPS on each boss, with the healer on target that is higher health atvarious intervals. With decent damage, the fight itself isn’t difficult to manage once either one enrages.

It feels like two issues are being conflated a bit:

1. Wouldn't it be nice to keep the mobile boss so close to the stationary one that AoE hits them both? Unfortunately, the knockbacks make that hard to do.

2. The bosses should run out of health as close to the same time as possible.

 

If there's a reason that attacking both bosses makes it harder for the tank to hold attention from both of them, I'm not understanding it.

FrancisCrawford wrote on November 29, 2017

If there’s a reason that attacking both bosses makes it harder for the tank to hold attention from both of them, I’m not understanding it.

No, I was just implying that if the tank struggle to keep them taunted while avoiding the knockback mechanics consistently, if DPS struggle to do enough single target damage (especially on hard mode with more health), if the healer struggle to provide sustain shards/orbs, buff and healing consistently, and/or if one or more members are lagging badly, then it may be easier to have one boss and one set of mechanics to deal with, than two.

I was merely hypothesising a scenario that could result in:

FrancisCrawford wrote on November 28, 2017

guides offer opinions as to which one to kill first, and don’t give the correct answer, which is “neither”.

on the assumption that the group can fair better dealing with one boss on enrage than two bosses as they were. Perhaps those guides were targeting the other groups or that they were dated before 2.6.

 

Obviously, you are right to assert that

FrancisCrawford wrote on November 29, 2017

2. The bosses should run out of health as close to the same time as possible.

This stands to prevent enrage or reduce the enraged duration for as much as possible, and is the safest solution for most organised groups.

But if the group can deal with enrage adequately, then perhaps it doesn't matter as much who dies first or if they die at about the same time. Think of it like straight-burning the Inhibitor in vWGT, it puts the tank and healer under pressure to deal with the Flame Stroke. But if the DPS can do enough damage to shorten the fight, then it still valid as a conditionally effective strategy, akin to the normal way of swapping pinions and dealing with portals.

 

Got it.

Next one -- I've run with some groups that manage to keep the final boss in Darkshade 1 under the overhang from which he first emerges. But when my duo partner and I try to replicate that, we always lose control, and he runs free in the main area.

Is there a specific trick to holding him still, or is it just a matter of routine tanking/taunting?

FrancisCrawford wrote on December 1, 2017

Got it.

Next one — I’ve run with some groups that manage to keep the final boss in Darkshade 1 under the overhang from which he first emerges. But when my duo partner and I try to replicate that, we always lose control, and he runs free in the main area.

Is there a specific trick to holding him still, or is it just a matter of routine tanking/taunting?

Pretty sure he hate resets upon using a certain ability or rather locks hate on one person from the start and ignores taunts.  I havent done that fight in quite awhile but i generally try to spend time taking care of the healer pets while the group just kites and keeps dpsing it.  Not sure it is even needed to keep it still as long as people hve decent enugh mobility to avoid his spinning blades.