Curse

azerisii · Jan 07, 2012, 11:51 PM // 23:51

Or more specifically, how do you kill elementals quickly?

I've been working on my Elonian Vanquisher, and there's one type of mob that I have very specific trouble with: 2 roaring ether + any combination of djinn.

I am running a discordway party with two monks (one life bond) and two rangers for interrupts/conditions. I am an ele/assasin for calling. I have tried everything I can think of, and different party configurations swapping out my rangers for pretty much every other profession except ritualists, and I still keep getting a beautiful -60% wipe.

When its the elementals on their own, I can kill them fine. When it's a group of roaring ether without the elementals, I can also deal, but for some reason when they decide to play together I get dominated. I have even tried using frozen soil but that just made me wipe even harder, and didn't stop them using their rez sig.

So I am extremely hopeful that you have some advice for me on how to kill these most infuriating of mob spawns. The map that I am struggling the most with is the Garden of Sebohrin.

Please help me.

**Marty Silverblade** · Jan 08, 2012, 12:06 AM // 00:06

-The most obvious thing I would think to change is the Discord necros. Discord wasn't all that great in the 3 hero days and they are even less useful now. Posting your whole team bars would be of the most use (screenshotting your interface with all the hero panels open is fine).

-Elementals tend to ball somewhat easily by themselves so AoE damage is useful here. Ditching the Rangers for Domination Mesmers would be a good thing to do as well - you'll get more damage out of them (and AoE interrupts from Cry of Frustration). Killing faster is generally a better way of going about things than trying to load up on defense.

-Make use of hero flags. You can't really do anything about the henchmen but you can at least ensure your key heroes aren't all chewing multiple ESurges and SFs. I think your problem might be that ESurge is wiping the energy from the heroes that really need it. As an Ele you can afford to chew some of them so try to aggro a few ahead of the rest of the group (while you're protted, obviously) so you can get them to waste ESurges against a single target.

-An ST Rit can be of great use to protect against heavy AoE damage (though I'm not sure whether you meant you haven't got Rits or whether you just haven't tried them).

Star_Jewel · Jan 08, 2012, 12:48 AM // 00:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by azerisii

I am running a discordway party with two monks (one life bond)

So you're running standard Discord? And have added 2 monks (that also heal/prot)?

It sounds like you're being too defensive without enough offensive power to kill things before they can do a number on you.

While Marty has a point that Discordway is kind of outdated at this stage, I admittedly still run it because I'm lazy. I've modified it a bit, though, and load up the rest of the party with heavy-hitting casters: Mesmers, and some combo of rit, smonk, and/or elementalists.

The healing power built into the Discord necros should be enough for most situations. Conversely, 2 monks are usually enough in an alternative set-up. Drop some defense and beef up the damage and I think you'll see a big difference.

KotCR · Jan 08, 2012, 01:03 AM // 01:03

Yeah, what it sounds like to me is that you have sufficient healing/defense to handle the area effect damage on its own, but when its combined with the Roaring Ethers, their energy denial skills forbid the use of the healing/defense skills you are using to handle the AoE damage from the combined mobs, resulting in party wipes.

The advice given above by Marty is pretty solid (and you absolutely should follow the positioning advice of spreading your heroes & henchies out to minimise overall incoming damage and energy drain to your team), but I can think of one more piece of advice that you might want to consider in addition to the above.

If energy denial is indeed the route of the problem, you might want to also try to bring along a hero of one of the professions more resilient to energy denial (namely Paragons and Necromancers, though a Mesmer with Ether Signet or Signet of Recall could work too), and set them up as a battery to quickly restore the energy of the rest of your team so you can trigger those healing/protection skills, that would normally handle the AoE damage for you, again as quickly as possible. Might make your job a little easier and simpler on the micro side of things.

Just my 2c.

Jeydra · Jan 08, 2012, 02:22 AM // 02:22

These mobs don't have much healing, and should not be hard to kill. Do this: flag your heroes apart before aggro. Do a square pattern, with your tankiest heroes in front. I usually have my spirit Rits there. Then put Prot Spirit on yourself, and take out a Longbow to pull them. You should be able to absorb the first wave of AoE. Afterwards, cast EBVAS on your target of choice (if given the choice, take out Ruby Djinn first) and CALL TARGETS. Do NOT use AP until you can finish with a YMLAD / FH shoutspike immediately afterwards. Once the monster you called dies (you've got Rangers to provide the spike power - they should die fast) then move on to the next monster. Repeat until they're all dead. You can use YMLAD to KD a monster with Res Sig too.

If you need direct guidance, I can show you in-game. Message me @ Jeydra Evenstar.

azerisii · Jan 08, 2012, 02:31 AM // 02:31

Thankyou so much.

Quote:

-Elementals tend to ball somewhat easily by themselves so AoE damage is useful here. Ditching the Rangers for Domination Mesmers would be a good thing to do as well - you'll get more damage out of them (and AoE interrupts from Cry of Frustration). Killing faster is generally a better way of going about things than trying to load up on defense.

-Make use of hero flags. You can't really do anything about the henchmen but you can at least ensure your key heroes aren't all chewing multiple ESurges and SFs. I think your problem might be that ESurge is wiping the energy from the heroes that really need it. As an Ele you can afford to chew some of them so try to aggro a few ahead of the rest of the group (while you're protted, obviously) so you can get them to waste ESurges against a single target.

I did try dom mesmers, but I wasn't using them properly so thankyou for the tips, the flagging took a bit of getting used to but it works XD I feel an idiot for forgetting about it.

And yeah I have no idea how to use Rit properly, though I have both heroes unlocked.

Quote:

While Marty has a point that Discordway is kind of outdated at this stage, I admittedly still run it because I'm lazy. I've modified it a bit, though, and load up the rest of the party with heavy-hitting casters: Mesmers, and some combo of rit, smonk, and/or elementalists.

Discordway works fine for me on anything except this one type of mob, so I am sticking with it too. I changed Dunkoro's skills a bit and the extra holy damage really works. I'd forgotten he was useful for that so thankyou for reminding me.

Quote:

Yeah, what it sounds like to me is that you have sufficient healing/defense to handle the area effect damage on its own, but when its combined with the Roaring Ethers, their energy denial skills forbid the use of the healing/defense skills you are using to handle the AoE damage from the combined mobs, resulting in party wipes.

I could deal with the initial assault but once they started resurrecting each other I was toast.

Thankyou for the replies. I am able to get past my block now, I think I'd become a bit too complacent after finding things a bit too easy for most of cantha/kourna/vabbi.

Venganza · Jan 08, 2012, 07:03 AM // 07:03

Slap Pain Inverter on your bar!

Oh and yes Discordway is terribly outdated, and far inferior to current choices available

Sagittario · Jan 08, 2012, 08:50 AM // 08:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star_Jewel

So you're running standard Discord? And have added 2 monks (that also heal/prot)?

It sounds like you're being too defensive without enough offensive power to kill things before they can do a number on you.

Exactly, you're bringing toooo much heals and prots that you can't deal enough damage to spike enemies and when you meet party with mesmers and spikers you get wiped.

I suggest you to change your strategy and builds, but if you're too lazy to change all your heroes, bring Technobbable and keep foes dazed. Flag your heroes so AoEs don't everyone.

turbo234 · Jan 08, 2012, 10:28 AM // 10:28

panic mes. and um, yeah that's about it.

BrettM · Jan 08, 2012, 11:38 AM // 11:38

Technobabble + spirits + minions = serious caster shutdown.

As an ele, also consider the benefits of dropping a Maelstrom bomb on them, since it provides AoE interrupts even at zero Water Magic.