Curse

KingCrab · Aug 13, 2009, 01:41 AM // 01:41

I need to defeat Duncan in normal mode to finish off my dungeon book. (It's my last dungeon!) I'm playing a warrior and I'd like to know any tactics or suggestions you might have.

Also, one suggestion I've been reading in the forums is to die in front of him and have a well protected necro hero do the work with SoS and a lot of protection magic. If so, what kind of h/h team would be good for this? Perhaps 1 necromancer with 2 protection monks for heroes and 2 monks + for henchmen?

Any suggestions about that method, or any other method would be appreciated.

IronSheik · Aug 13, 2009, 02:16 AM // 02:16

Run /A and bring swap, move any spirits near stairs away from there, bring SoS as you said, or SS/SV hero, and as you said die in front.

Divine Ashes · Aug 13, 2009, 03:22 AM // 03:22

The problem really isn't Duncan if you use the SoS method...it's getting to him. I'd bring Frozen soil somewhere to avoid the annoying reses, and you should be fine.

crazybanshee · Aug 13, 2009, 04:01 AM // 04:01

Basically, go in a human team with at least 1 prot monk, a necro with sv and sos, a /r with frozen soil, and a /a with swap. if you're the warrior, that makes you the tank. When you get to duncan, the swapper will move a bunch of the spirits away, someone (you, probably) will run up and die at duncan's feet, the necro will spam sv and sos on duncan, and the prot monk will keep ps on the necro (and a heal monk will heal him) that's pretty much it.

Slasher of Darkness · Aug 13, 2009, 06:20 AM // 06:20

Well I recently H/H'ed duncan myself, was a derv doing that, and I brought modified sabway MM with with prot spirit and SoA, then...healer i think, and then SV with frozen soil and SoS, also, herta, cynn, mhenlo, lina. So I got to duncan, swapped out all the spirits at the bottom of the stairs, went and died at duncan, moved heros and henches closer, then, disabled all the SV necros skills except SoS and protted her up with prot spirit only (H/H was close enough for heals). And she kept spamming SV and SoS on duncan and I microed MM to spam PS on him. And it took a bit, but down he went.

Jeydra · Aug 13, 2009, 11:22 AM // 11:22

Have a player-controlled copy of Protective Spirit, and then some kind of red-bar up - be it heroes or henchmen. The team you mentioned works, although it's going to be hard to get to Duncan with 4 (!!) Monks in the party. Since it's NM, 2 should be more than enough, or you can use N/Rt healers.

By the way it's possible to kill Duncan without the Signet of Sorrow method, so if you don't want to die you can try other methods (e.g. mass spirits).

ac1inferno · Aug 13, 2009, 05:15 PM // 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuildWiki

- Duncan's monster skill states that 100% of the damage dealt to Duncan is dealt to the source of the damage. This damage can be reduced by skills such as [[Protective Spirit].
- To avoid the constant attacks from his spirits, there is a corner that works as a shield on the lower floor, from there you can attack Duncan The Black.
- Now that Duncan's Defense deals back damage even from such skills as [[Pain Inverter], [[Backfire], [[Mistrust], [[Guilt], and [[Empathy], it is no longer advisable to attack him in this manner. (In the past, these skills were not affected by Duncan's Defense, and were therefore very effective.)
- All forms of health degeneration can help with getting Duncan's health down. He has no defense against [[Life Transfer], [[Life Siphon], burning, etc.
- A player with [[Swap], [[Gaze of Fury], or [[Unnatural Signet] can move his spirits to a much more manageable position or destroy them as necessary. Spirits of [[Recuperation] and [[Disenchantment] should be considered primary targets, but as long as one is swapping spirits, one may as well swap all of them.
-- Consider using [[Consume Soul] to destroy these spirits instantly.
-- Players more commonly use [[Swap]. If two party members bring swap, the process is very quick and you can remove all the spirits to a safe spot where they can affect neither Duncan nor you.
-- Using [[Recall] also helps when swapping the spirits near Duncan; this way you avoid being spiked by Duncan's Channeling Magic.
- Another method to defeat Duncan is to let a party member die near him and have a Necromancer spam [[Signet of Sorrow] on him, but remember that the Necromancer will take damage from Duncan's Defense.
- It's good to use his tactics against him, so using [[Gaze from Beyond] and [[Channeled Strike] against him is a good way to take him down quick and easy, do make sure though that you have some defense to go against Duncan's Defense.

Those are all the relevant information of him on GuildWiki. Hope it helps.

KingCrab · Aug 13, 2009, 08:51 PM // 20:51

Let me ask, is there any advantage to me dying in front of Dunacn vs flagging one of my heroes to die in front of Duncan?

IronSheik · Aug 13, 2009, 10:09 PM // 22:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by KingCrab

Let me ask, is there any advantage to me dying in front of Dunacn vs flagging one of my heroes to die in front of Duncan?

Mostly positioning, heroes tend to run after they reach the flagged area which may be out of reach for SoS.

KingCrab · Aug 22, 2009, 09:35 PM // 21:35

So getting to Duncan was much easier than expected. Still can't beat him though. Basically my nec with SoS gets close enough, the protectors and healers stay at the bottom of the stairs, I set target on my nec to Duncan and go die at his feet. My problems seem to be:

1. My nec still dies too fast, even with prot ritualist and prot monk h/h. He spends more time dead than casting.
2. Duncan heals too fast. Whatever damage he takes seems to regenerate right back.
3. SoS doesn't seem to spam on its own. I have to click it each time for some reason, even though I've disabled all of Olias' other skills.

If anyone can help me with these problems, I'd quite appreciate it. It's my last dungeon and it's so frustrating.

IronSheik · Aug 22, 2009, 10:10 PM // 22:10

You need SS/SV and SoS, otherwise it'll be sloooow.

KingCrab · Aug 22, 2009, 10:25 PM // 22:25

Okay, I didn't go with SV or Swap. I'm heading back in with both right now.

Here's a question. If I swap out his spirits, won't Duncan just summon them again after I go die at his feet? If so, what's the point, since I doubt he'll die that fast?

IronSheik · Aug 22, 2009, 11:23 PM // 23:23

The spirits live forever if they aren't killed

Jeydra · Aug 23, 2009, 02:18 AM // 02:18

The spirits are resummoned very fast if they are killed, but if they are swapped out they don't move afterwards.

I've experienced the queer bug (?) where Duncan takes minimal damage from Signet of Sorrow. In fact sometimes he takes less damage from SoS in NM than in HM. I have no idea why. You can either persist and kill him - he will die eventually, you just have to micro Prot Spirit on the Necro - or you can bring more damage so long as your Prot-spirit caster can keep up. Yet another method is to try a totally different method. Gave one above, you swap the spirits off the long walkway leading to Duncan, and then mass spirits on him (two Rit spirit spamming heroes).

KingCrab · Aug 23, 2009, 02:35 AM // 02:35

Swapping the spirits helped a lot. I still was only able to get him down halfway. I don't know what changed, but it seemed at some point he was killing my Nec so fast that he couldn't get spoil victor out. He'd get resurrected and then die instantly. Then Duncan started slowly gaining health over time. Getting to Duncan is so easy but fighting him is so hard...

KingCrab · Aug 23, 2009, 02:48 AM // 02:48

I've given the ritualist spirits trick a shot too.

Here's my group btw:

My character: Warrior DS/SY tank with secondary prof assassin for swap
Hero1: N/Rt Resto with SV and SoS
Hero2: Pure Channeling Rit
Hero3: Pure Communing Rit
Zho, Herta, Menlho, Lina

I think the only other thing I can try is having prot spirit on a hero so I can click it directly on the Nec.

Jeydra · Aug 23, 2009, 04:03 AM // 04:03

If you're doing the SoS method you NEED Prot Spirit on a hero; you CANNOT trust henchmen to prot properly (truth be told, you can't trust heroes to prot properly either, but you can at least give them a push in the right direction).

Drop the N/Rt and go with a N/Mo Sabway Minion bomber. Considering it's NM + you have so many spirits to absorb damage with + you have SY since you're a Warrior, you do not need three healers. Use Aura of the Lich or Jagged Bones so you can at least have some minions when you fight the Restless Dead mobs. If you're massing spirits, you do not need SoS, but you can bring it anyway if you want (drop SoLS).

Jeydra · Aug 23, 2009, 01:33 PM // 13:33

Not sure if I should edit or make new post, decided to make new post so hopefully you see it before you try again ...

Here're two screenshots of the mass spirits method in practice. It's done in HM, but NM is similar. The first shows the line of attack. You Swap spirits directly backwards; if the heroes / henchmen kill them too fast, then set heroes on Avoid Combat. The second shows the end result. This method is a lot faster than the SoS method since you can bring all your damage to bear on Duncan, but be careful not to eat Spirit Rifts while attacking Duncan or you will die (flag heroes once you see it cast).

http://i30.tinypic.com/4rc39l.jpg
http://i31.tinypic.com/1yny9e.jpg

KingCrab · Aug 25, 2009, 05:58 PM // 17:58

Well I did it! Thanks so much everyone!!!!

Protective spirit was necessary. My main problem was getting a corpse to die by Duncan. I'd go to die next to him, and then my healer and protection henchmen would run up to res me (all the way from the bottom of the stairs) and get wiped out. Then it would restart me at the beginning of the level. I needed them to be within range of my Necromancer for healing, but if they were in range they wouldn't let me die near Duncan.

In any case, I did it with Spoil Victor alone! It was time consuming and unfortunately SV doesn't work for the last sliver of health. I had to run in at the last second and finish off the last sliver of health.

I never thought I'd do it. Thanks so much everyone for the advice!!!!!