Expectations : Champs

One of the most frequent questions I get from people looking to raid is: what is expected of me?

No matter what your class, always so up on time and prepared. Have morale, power, and WPDF pots as well as 30 minute tokens. It is also appropiate to have 10 minute food for boss fights and battle/warding scrolls.

Champions generally fill two roles in a raid: DPS or off-tank. The raid leader will let you know which role you will be filling so you can be prepared.

Primary Roles

DPS is the the easier of the two primary roles for a champ. The champion is expected to follow the raid assist in burning down a target. Champs are expected to control single target and AoE damage based on the situation and dynamicaly adjust if it changes. Champs should never break crowd control!

As with any DPS role, the champion is expected to manage DPS with aggro and power usage. Champions are also expected to manage their morale as best possible. If the mob is putting out AoE damage, champions should get out of range if their morale is dropping until they are healed up.

Champs may also be called upon to be a raid or melée assist. In this case the champ should know mob types and kill orders and work from low morale to high. Also they should click target rather than tab target!

Off Tank is a primary role that adds another dimension to the DPS role. An OT champ will be expected to switch from DPS to OT when called for. It is expected of an OT that they can hold the aggro of a mob while limiting the amount of damage being taken. This is often combined with effective secondry role function as well.

Secondary Roles

In a raid, in addition to the primary role as DPS or OT, champs are expected to fill a secondary role as well. I would call this role Mob Control. This is very distinct from Crowd Control! Champions will be called upon to remove corruptions and interrupt the inducions of mobs. It is important to know how to effectively clobber a target by watching for the induction ring as well as keeping enough fervor up to execute. Champions are also the last line of defense for the healers: if a mob or mobs come off of a tank, the champion should be ready to pick up the mob(s) and bring the back to the tank. The final part of mob control is contributing to keeping the mobs on the tank through the effective use of Ire.

Location:Expectations : Champs

DN : Blind One Hard Mode

OTG took it's first run at fighting the Blind One in hard mode. We used previously aqquired locks for the Trolls and pushed "quickly and recklessly" through the trash mobs to the BO chambers in under 30 minutes.

For people that have not done or read about this fight, it is akin to doing the BO with the Troll mushrooms, Istum's crawlers, Flagit's shield, and the Mistress' spores.

We set up for the fight as we initially would, using two tanks in the center and the rest of the raid spread out 12m apart. I put a champs at two of the three portals and the LM at the thrid to help control the spores when they spawned. The first mushroom spawn went ok as thebraid shifted away from the mushrooms. The second spawn put a mushroom on the tank group. The tanks moved the BO out to the edge and the raid squished over to one side. A red eye went onto the raid and before people could scatter four or five were down. A wipe insued shortly after.

The second attempt was nearly the same: manageble until the tank group had to move for a mushroom.

With no tangable reward for completion, it will be some time before we head back to his fight. It would take quite a bit of time to work out a new strat for each phase. This is nearly a completely new fight with the added dynamics. I am very impressed that PM was able to do this fight at level 60!

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DPS LM : Viable Raid Option?

Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with my DPS spec LM in a ranged DPS raid slot. The results aren't quite straightforward: LMs can maintain quite good dps only as long as they can use AoE attacks. If a fight requires CC in tight quarters, the LM becomes a gimped DPSer compared to RK, HNT, and even a CHMP.

A DPS LM works great in DN for the most part. The excpetions are DMM trash pulls, the BO fight, and to some extent, the middle portion of the trolls. The major problem is the BO encounter: inductions make LMs ineffective Darkling killers, the acid aura keeps them out of melee range, and they can't use AoE in the final phase when the DPS race kicks in.

There are some DN fights that a LM excels in, including the Mistress. LMs can put out a substantial amount of AoE damage in a type of damage most mobs can be debuffed heavily to.


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RK : 1st Age or 3rd Age

After spending a week working on RK LIs and doing a week of testing, here are some thoughts.

65 3rd Age Stone - Finding the perfect stone was a long trek for me, as I was demanding it be lightning damage and have four legacies: storm damage, storm critical, penetrate, and battle power cost. After taking 14 LIs to level 31 I finally found a keeper. This stone added around 16% damage in testing over my 1st Age level 60. Part was due to the tactical base rating plus the additional T9 relics and T3 crafter relics.

65 3rd Age Bag - I was content with my 59 1st Age because of the added points and becuase it doesn't have a tactical base stat. Based on the additional damage from the stone I decided to find a bag and get some T9 and crafted relics in it. I found a bag with CA power, SS damage, and SM return. I leveled it up, got a scroll on it, slotted relics. The results were suprising: nearly 8% more damage. That increase is pretty significant!

My RK now has a tactical damage output of 10,040 which is just above the on-level base cap, and gets up to 11k with will food and scrolls.

Work up a few LIs and get your relics up to T9 for tactical gems and you'll see almost 25% more damage!


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RK : Calming Verse

Calming verse is one of a RKs most potent spells, however, a fair few RK use it correctly. This skill really should remain double traited and RKs should keep it up at all times.

There are two major things a RK needs to consider in a raid environment: damage/power ratio and aggro generation. Normally these are directly related: as dmg goes up so does aggro and power usage. To maxamize our usable damage, we need to increase our dmg/power ratio and/or limit our aggro generation.

CV is so helpful because it works on both these at once. Traited CV increases our dmg/power ratio by 10% while dropping our aggro generation by 20%. It addresses both of our limiting factors, and it does it with a instacast (cast on the run) spell.

RK should double trait this spell an get used to reapplying it evey time it comes off. It will me your raid, and your epeen, very happy.


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How To : Duo the Sword Halls Part 3

Challenge Three : Troll

This challenge takes a bit longer but is the easiest of the three.

The first wave is a signature with two normals. Burn the normals first starting with the defiler. The signature has a channel heal and a self heal that can be interrupted.

The second wave is two digs and a normal. Burn the normal then the sigs, nothing new here.

The troll is fairly easy though it can be tough on power. Bring the troll to a safe spot where his earthquake skill won't hit you. Avoid his fronal aoe if not tanking. Remove his corruption to help limit damage if need be. Simple tank and spank, just make sure to stay positioned in your safe spot.

Congrats on duoing a three man!




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How To : Duo Sword Halls Part 2

Challenge Two : Morrovals

The morroval trash mobs are the hardest part of duoing SH due to the stuns and heals. Always kill the normal level mobs first.

First pull is two normal morrovals that can stun and one signature that can stun, heal, and channel bats.

Second pull is two signature and one normal. This is the frustrating one. Take the normal one first. You may need to ignore the boss for a minute while you finish up the adds.

The boss herself isn't too hard. She has two special attacks, which both can be interrupted. The first is a channel skill for bats and the second is a self heal. Keep those two down and the fight is fairly easy. Remove corruption if you need power.

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