Nudists Save Tyria

[FoxBat]

The traps aren't so impressive I'm guessing because the enemies stagger their enterances to the keep. Spending your load of traps on 1 or 2 guys isn't so hot. They might be less staggered on their trip up the stairwells, or this may just be a waste of time.

It's better to not die in the first place. Having that many jade running around in an uncontrolled manner is just bad news.

One suggestion was to reconvene by the king on that last assult, but that puts us back at square 1. We managed to survive until that same 2nd boss assult with our "camp the king" strategy just fine.... the problem is that the enemies come in from four sides at that point. Regardless of how we've been doing it, it seems the jades peel off the tanks too easily and chase everyone else around.

So my next hairbrained idea, which I'll need to test ahead of time.... is to let the king tank. And rely on AoE nuking from behind walls (or even smitebonding, that would be fun....) Hey, it worked in Dunes! You can actually heal the king from outside the fort, to the north... the issue will be if you can reach with nukes or whatever from there. Otherwise, hiding in the very center courtyard may work (enemies convene on one or the other sides typically)

Only other option I can think of is, instead of trying to out-tank the jades, to shut them down with massive blind.

[Hawkmoon]

Perhaps an idea even more hare-brained (since I've never tried it, even with a fully clothed character):

1) Trigger the bonus so that the extra jades will come in to the fort.
2) We all run as fast as we can out of the fort, on one side, toward the spawn point north of the fort. We can try to mop up whatever we meet along the way.
3) We count on the bonus jades to kill whatever makes it past us into the fort, while we take care of all the rest of the spawns. This has the advantage that we can all stay together.
4) Assuming the bonus jades are still alive after all the enemies have spawned, we make our way leisurely back and squish them.

We simply don't do enough damage unless the whole team is together. Mass blind is a great idea; perhaps a ranger/derv with Ebon Dust Aura + Volley would be effective?

What do y'all think? Dumb strategy? Or "so bad, it's good"?

[mucco]

Massive blind might be doable, surely it is dfficult and requires some training to pull off.

While messing around with Ele skills, yesterday, I found this nice combination I'm going to write here, else I'll forget it. It's basically about chaining Glyph of Immolation, Steam, Slippery Ground, and Ash Blast. In a perfect world, one would be able to keep blinded two foes, since the two skills inflict 9 and 11 seconds of blind respectively, and both recharges are 8. However, the desired effect is pretty conditional, so it will take some effort to play this well.

The SF eles can provide support for the burning requirement; as far as KDs go, I had thought as Water Trident for this build's elite. So, the idea build would look something like this:

Water 12, Earth 10, Storage 8
Water Trident
Glyph of Immolation
Steam
Slippery Ground
Ash Blast
- utility -
Water Attunement
Res

I had chosen Vapor Blade for slot 6, to add more damage (we need that!). Every other skill in the build does some kind of damage (in the 50-60 range), which is an added bonus.

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Idea #2, Beast Master.

This one might be more useful than a trapper because the pet is infused. The elite might be Enraged Lunge so the pet actually does something worthwhile, and if there is a bonder then there also is the strong option of Symbiosis.

Beast Mastery 12, Expertise 12
Enraged Lunge
Predatory Bond
Feral Aggression
Call of Protection
Symbiosis
Comfort Animal
Res
Charm Animal

Skills 2 to 5 serve as ever-recharging long-lasting skills for Enraged Lunge, which will deal a whopping +76 damage when all four are up. Symbiosis helps the team as a whole, Call of Protection and Predatory Bond boost the survivability of both Ranger and pet, and Feral Aggression boosts the damage.

Sadly, Enraged Lunge and Predatory Bond are unreachable by Courin (Factions). A Tyrian only bar could be something along these lines:

Beast Mastery 12, Expertise 12
Ferocious Strike
Scavenger Strike (blind anyone?)
Feral Aggression
Call of Protection / Brutal Strike
Symbiosis
Comfort Animal
Res
Charm Animal

This build's elite gives energy, so I think it makes sense to fit in more expensive, powerful attacks.

The pet can probably stay on "Aggressive" while the ranger stays away (catapults?) and spams what needs to be spammed.

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Final note: the King is NOT infused.

[Lurker Wyrm]

The problem we had on the trapping side was when a Jade Bow would show up. The armors were pretty negotiable (they walk/float through dust traps), but whenever a bow came around that was when things got dicey. I think it might be better to have both trappers on the bridge so that when the melee walk through they'll get pummeled walking past them, but the ranged attackers will be denied line of sight and therefore basically not be an issue. Spellcasters could still be an issue, but considering the only ones that can do any serious damage are the eles, I think it might be maintainable for us to survive on our own if we both have Healing Spring. Of course, that's assuming we still even want to run dual trappers.

Also, from my experiences yesterday, I can say that using Trapper's Focus worked a lot better than using Spike Trap, at least for me. Whirling Defense alone isn't enough to stop the traps from being interrupted on a reliable basis.

I think the best option for blind spam is going to be an air ele with Epidemic. Whether you want dual attunement for energy self-sufficiency or have it rely on BiP (I would say make it self-sufficient with BiP as a backup) would be the way to go. Also, a second full fledged earth tank would be a good idea. I can run the same invincitank Doc uses if need be.

[Seijin]

If you do any of the above ideas, are you going to have enough damage? The only real problem I saw on the last run was that too many jade ended up coming in and started chasing a few of us, which then led to the mursaat and the boss coming in and making things worse.

The bows aren't a big threat if you hide behind stuff. The armors can be blinded to hopefully keep them from striking anyone.

When the bows come in, anyone that does not need direct line of sight to attack, head to the stairs near the gates. So far the bows have not been able to hit me there, so when they stop at the gate, I move to the stairs and nuke from there. At the very worst, I end up atop the stairs close to the bridge.

A possibility is when a bow and armor come in, the ele's or whoever has blind, hit the armor. Stay behind something so the bow can just hit the wall. We kill the armor, then kill the bow. I'm hoping that might work.

[KingOfPain]

We are having some scheduling problem with the Diablo Low Rent team. It seems Tuesdays is the only day we can all get together. This will only be temporary for 2 to 3 weeks until we beat NM, then we are calling a summer break; and regroup after that.

I have told them Tuesdays might be possible since we don't usually start until (after) 7 pst anyway. Is that okay with everyone?

We have (when we restarted Nudists) talked about moving Nudists to another day since Tuesdays is not the best for all. Will Mondays, Saturdays or Sundays work with all of you?

KoP

[Seijin]

I'm not always in nudist groups, but I know those days will most likely keep me out of it at least for the time being.

[FoxBat]

Good timing because I'm going to have scheduling problems for the next month or so. Basically I need my sunday through wednesday evenings free of commitments, which leaves thursday through saturday for gaming times.

In theory we could be done in a month...

[Hawkmoon]

Scheduling thoughts:

I am going to be only sporadically available on weekends for the next few months. 'Tis the season to be camping, and we're going to be gone for many weekends in June. Then, starting July 1, we're going to be out of town for 6 weeks. Some campgrounds have WiFi, but many do not, so I can't commit to be there for any weekend events - I just can't be sure of being able to get online. I will try, but can't promise anything.

Up until July, I'll be in town during the week. If we need to switch evenings for Nudists, it looks like Thursday would be the best, at least for me.

[Lurker Wyrm]

I'm guessing Ether Renewal in it's new imba form might make things a bit easier. Almost seems like something that should be avoided, but then again it is a Proph elite...