Curse

scratchdude · Oct 06, 2009, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Hi all, I'm currently trying to vanquish as many zones as I can in all 4 campaigns, but I've stumbled upon some 4man zones in proph, like dragon's gullet or diessa lowlands, which seem a lot harder than many other zones (atleast for me...).

I'm running the basic ZV dps build, which works fine, and I'm using sabway necros. The problem is, whenever my MM is out of minions, or for example when I zone in, there's no tank, and the group can hardly survive, even if I micro PS. The MM can also barely keep a consistant minion army, as they die fastly and there aren't that many corpses. Hydras also piss me off.

As a derv, how did you succeed to vanquish these kinds of zones? Did you use a tanking build? Or which heroes did you use? I could start from Yak's Bend too... Thx a lot for the advices!

~ Dan ~ · Oct 06, 2009, 08:31 PM // 20:31

I haven't done many 4 man tyria zones so you may need to use more area specific builds, but for nf/factions I used 3 of the discord heroes (resto + splinter bomber + prot).

For myself I used WS with save yourselves, so that my party could tank, and PS micro'ed on me was sufficient enough to tank. WS has better synergy with discord necro's than ZV, for obvious reasons. And I find that the discords are stronger overall than sabway.

I actually found all the 4 man zones i've done so far to be a walk in the park, it's just sometimes tough to get started because as you said, there are no minions up.

If you want template codes for the 4 bars I can always logon later and paste them here.

3 RoJ heroes would probably be pretty strong too i'd imagine, though i've only used those in 8 man areas.

EDIT: Also, how are you pulling? Always stay ahead with PS on, to draw most hard hitting spells - especially AoE. From taking hits you'll also get SY atleast half filled so that when you do backoff and they pile onto your group, you'll be able to get SY up quick enough to make sure no-one dies. There's also a copy of aegis on the discord prot necro, pre-cast that with the right timing to buy you even more time for SY.

TL;DR: My point is that with SY no-one will really die unless you aggro 2-3x your numbers with no minions.

razerbeak · Oct 06, 2009, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Discord or RoJ should be enough for 4 man Tyrian areas, but you can always run down with 6 people from Yak's Bend and make a night out of it.

scratchdude · Oct 06, 2009, 08:57 PM // 20:57

Thx for the quick reply! I'll try discordway, RoJ is a good idea too. Do any of you have a RoJ build for heroes? I'd also be interested in your 4 bars dan. I guess I'll be good to vanquish these zones once and for all, tbh i only need dragon's gullet, diessa and ascalon foothills.

gw_poster · Oct 06, 2009, 08:58 PM // 20:58

hopefully your ebon rank and asuran ranks are maxed so you can take advantage of the +vs charr bonuses on EBSoH and EAS, plus there are hydra that love to blow themselves up with a nicely timed PI hex. These are pretty charr heavy areas, so I would highly recommend a keeping a charrslaying scythe in your inventory to switch to against charr groups and some charrslaying mods on the heros even though sabway doesn't do much weapon damage, but every little bit helps. Also, be sure you and all hero's weapons are customized for the +20% (in addition to the charrslaying +20% damage). Fortunately, most of the mobs in these areas are well spaced and set up for pulling as single mobs. There are a few grawl areas IIRC that can sometimes mob up on your party, but apart from that careful pulling and targeting the healer of the group will bode well for you. Hopefully you have a bow that you use to pull and keep MoW (or whichever sabway unit you designated as MM) flagged a bit back before engaging so minions don't spoil a nice pull. Also, corners/walls/terrain placement helps a lot as the minions will run forward and engage the mob while your heros hex away at them. If you have to, micro PS on yourself at this point since you are melee and try to get at the mob while they are battling the minions so you're able to capture the nice bonus damage from the scythe vs. mobs.

~ Dan ~ · Oct 06, 2009, 09:03 PM // 21:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratchdude

Do any of you have a RoJ build for heroes?

Do: RoJ / Smite hex / Smite condition / Castigation Signet. Then 4 skills of your choice. I'd personally have 2 as prot, both with a copy of aegis. The other would be a healer ofc.

Quote:

I'd also be interested in your 4 bars dan.

I'll get the template codes in a min. I'll give you 3 RoJ bars too if I still have them saved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gw_poster

If you have to, micro PS on yourself at this point since you are melee

Personally i'd disable (shift + click) PS. Aegis too. HM mobs normally all target the same person, generally the one with the lowest health so it shouldn't be too hard to catch with a micro'ed PS. (Strangely I have less health than my heroes anyway)

Codes:

WS: OgGikysMBg1cBdFD+WKuJDeVAA
Discord 1: OAhjUwGooSxMKgHVUBoBVVYMeTA
Discord 2: OAhjUoGYIPxsM2kTaOMHnV1LGA
Discord 3: OANDUshvSxMKgVB1D3VBEvEVVA

(Couldn't be bothered to change skills and resave, but - on the resto, swap ancestor's rage for death pact sig)

RoJ 1: OwUUME3+YoNBk5hPj67Ss+3VTAA
RoJ 2: OwUUME3+YoNBk6hPj67Ss+rETAA
RoJ 3: OwUUMkG7WoR+MUfuEWfNg3NmAoRA

(disable rez chant & strength of honour ofc)

Now I set these up for 8 man zones so you'll want to mod them for 4 man zones. It'd probably be better turning the third into a solid monk without smiting. So maybe use 1 RoJ prot, 1 RoJ healer, and the third just a normal hybrid WoH. That should work fine.

citizensmith1001 · Oct 06, 2009, 09:32 PM // 21:32

Standard sabway team , i also used a conset and a mysterious summon stone which made it a piece of cake ;P

own age myname · Oct 06, 2009, 09:41 PM // 21:41

For some 4man zones, you can back-track for more henchies. Like yak's bend.

subarucar · Oct 06, 2009, 09:52 PM // 21:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratchdude

The MM can also barely keep a consistant minion army, ...there aren't that many corpses.

Perhaps this is the time not to run an MM?
Fit your build to an areas needs, if there are a gazillion hexes, dont bring Cure Hex as your only removal, fit Spotless Mind or another copy of Cure Hex into your build aswell.

Getting some guildies or friends together to vanq can also help a lot. I had a friend who was struggling with a couple of areas (not 4 man), so I jumped on my monk to give him a hand, he told me it was pretty easy with me there. Getting humans healers and support classes makes a big difference, even a human damage dealer will boost your damage output considerably.

Captain Bulldozer · Oct 06, 2009, 10:10 PM // 22:10

For every 4 man zone in prophecies, you can can do it with a party of 8. Start in ToA, then caravan back to wherever you want to vanquish... it takes a while to run all that way, but its a lot safer for places like Diessa Lowlands. Don't enter any outposts, towns or missions and you'll be fine. Bring some mercantile summoning stones and you'll be fine.

Eragon Zarroc · Oct 07, 2009, 12:17 AM // 00:17

You could always start at ToA and vanquish backwards for 19 zones ;-) it'll be ten hours of ur life that u wont be getting back though :P

MisterT69 · Oct 07, 2009, 12:22 AM // 00:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eragon Zarroc

You could always start at ToA and vanquish backwards for 19 zones ;-) it'll be ten hours of ur life that u wont be getting back though :P

i hurd good heroes were gud? I recently finished vanqing all of tyria and for the 4 man zones, a simple discord team with me running an Assassin's promise (usually changed utility based on areas) but for you wounding strike/asuran scan should work as well. Throw in a /W secondary and your heroes will <3 your SY. So to sum it up: your derv + 3 discorders should = no problem in teh 4 man areas.

majikmajikmajik · Oct 07, 2009, 01:35 AM // 01:35

in nightfall, you can get 8/4 when you do a certain mission, might be worth it if you dont zone into another town.

Darcryed · Oct 07, 2009, 03:23 AM // 03:23

scratchdude, I'd like to know if you've finally managed to vanq those 4man zones, as I run a dervish and I am also struggling with those annoying areas. I particularly hate the grawl groups with more than one healer.

Tried using a standard Sabway team, with me running an Avatar of Lyssa build combined with AoHM for high dmg against casters, but I can't take down the healers because they constantly use Heal Area/Other. My minions end up dying and I get wiped within seconds. Gonna try the /W with SY! and give some feedback asap.

scratchdude · Oct 07, 2009, 03:37 AM // 03:37

I didn't have time tonight to vanquish any area, but I'm pretty sure that ill be successful soon with all these tips. Thx to all!

I vanquished areas populated with grawls with the same build as darcryed, using sabway, but with sometimes 2 monk grawls in some groupes, it took forever, and it was always pretty tight in terms of dps. You could always try to bring a heavy interrupt hero to prevent healings, and be sure to always pull 1 group at a time, having a group with 3 monks isn't killable lol.

I think its pretty funny that 4man zones are harder to vanquish than many full party zones...

**Marty Silverblade** · Oct 07, 2009, 05:13 AM // 05:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratchdude

I think its pretty funny that 4man zones are harder to vanquish than many full party zones...

It makes sense. You have less people and so much less flexibility. You need 1 dedicated frontliner, one dedicated healer/prot/monk/whatever, so you've really only got 2 slots to work around.

My tip would be getting Shelter in somwhere. AoE prot spirit can be very useful.

Artisan Archer · Oct 07, 2009, 08:27 AM // 08:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcryed

scratchdude, I'd like to know if you've finally managed to vanq those 4man zones, as I run a dervish and I am also struggling with those annoying areas. I particularly hate the grawl groups with more than one healer.

Tried using a standard Sabway team, with me running an Avatar of Lyssa build combined with AoHM for high dmg against casters, but I can't take down the healers because they constantly use Heal Area/Other. My minions end up dying and I get wiped within seconds. Gonna try the /W with SY! and give some feedback asap.

Technobabble > Grawl Shamans.

~ Dan ~ · Oct 07, 2009, 12:23 PM // 12:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratchdude

but with sometimes 2 monk grawls in some groupes, it took forever, and it was always pretty tight in terms of dps.

I've not ran into any amount of monks where I couldn't completely destroy them with burst DPS using discordway. However, you of course need minions to bomb.

So when you face a group that tough, leave them - find a few more groups to steamroll instead, build up your minion army, then go back and blow them up.

Ccat · Oct 07, 2009, 02:12 PM // 14:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratchdude

sometimes 2 monk grawls in some groupes, it took forever, and it was always pretty tight in terms of dps. You could always try to bring a heavy interrupt hero to prevent healings, and be sure to always pull 1 group at a time, having a group with 3 monks isn't killable lol.

It's a good idea to bring both Deep Wound and Defile Flesh to bring healing down to its lowest and meet the cap. I don't think Healing Hands on HM enemies is really interruptable lest you use hexy stuff. Minions are also brilliant vs Shamans in particular since they can degen and keep them occupied healing themself, resulting in Heal Areas for your dying minions. Just don't bring Fiends if you want the full benefit.

For Ascalon areas I used an SoS ritualist, SS and an AoTL/ OoU minion master. Recommended you use AoTL for corpse-free areas (elementals) and big juicy level 21 minions. Death Pact Signet is also the res of choice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by scratchdude

I think its pretty funny that 4man zones are harder to vanquish than many full party zones...

It definitely got harder for me later on in the game. 4 man areas were just so easy because of the lack of groups. The only place it got tough was against Chaots, which I unfortunately just had to take 2 or less. Other than that it went smoother than any other area, besides 6 man areas. Pretty low levels for HM also.

Lopezus · Oct 07, 2009, 03:56 PM // 15:56

i'm in proces of vq tyria with my dervish: eastern frontier and grawls shamans- patience, WS + technobooble + subway heros will own them, Diessa+ flame temple corridor and dragon's gullet are easy if you start from yak's bend. I found it harder to vq anvil rock and deldrimor's bowl due to centaur protectors healing,conditions removal and damage mitigating, especialy if they come in number three or four.