The 3 person Underworld

[Lurker Wyrm]

Well not quite, but it is very slow unless your "Tank" is extremely good at beating down level 28+ mobs with good armor.

I want to use a pet as the tank sometime.

Really, I'm serious. Only problem is, the ranger going down would probably want to get a Black Widow pet...

A Ranger/Mesmer would probably be pretty good in this situation with traps + Poison Arrow, using Mantra of Resolve to keep from having the traps sporked. Would also help with the Riposte/Deadly Riposte problem, not to mention a ranger would be capable of self survival (i.e. not needing Seed as much) with Troll Unguent and Healing Spring. Barbed Trap for bleeding, Dust Trap for blindness, and Flame Trap for the burning (quick extra damage).

<Edit>
New changes to the UW/FoW tonight with the patch. Well, only 1, which is that you can't go into either until after you've ascended. So much for getting Thog up to 20 there.

Right now the biggest problem I've found to doing these is the fact that there's hardly anyone online anymore. There have been a couple days in a row now where I've been the only one on at times. Things pick up a bit in the evening (usually after 10 EST), but even then it's still hard to get people to go, and (more and more) Korea and Europe have been keeping the HoH with spirit spam (you can tell it's spirit spam when about a half hour goes past between HoH announcements).
</Edit>

[Lurker Wyrm]

Rules of the Underworld (posted here because it's easier than making a new topic and constantly telling people in game):

1. Don't talk to any NPCs or accept any quests until told to. Usually when there is more than 1 available, we'll decide together which to do. We also usually clear areas out before taking on quests that add more monsters to the locations.

2. Stay well outside aggro until after the tank has gotten it all assigned to him/herself.

3. Tanks will/should call targets when the monsters are all aggro'd on them. They should not call targets when all they're doing is pulling or grabbing aggro.

3.5. You really don't need to call every action you're taking in battle.

4. Similarly, the tank should wait until everyone is ready before going after a group of monsters.

5. When the tank is grouping mages or other enemies, stay far enough outside aggro so they can maneouvre them. Also, if the monk gets close enough to cast Healing Seed (or some other spell to keep the tank alive) everyone else should stay back and not engage until after the call goes out.

6. Not really a rule, but more of a helpful suggestion. The lower the maximum health of the tank, the easier it will be for the prot monk to keep them alive. Protective Bond cuts damage to 5%, so if you've got less than 400 maximum health, that's 20 damage per hit you can take, maximum. Healing Seed only heals for 23 at 11 healing prayers, and Healing Hands for only 20.

That's about all I can think of for now, I'll add more if they need to be added.

edit: A few changes/new rules.

[soul]

6. Not really a rule, but more of a helpful suggestion. The lower the maximum health of the tank, the easier it will be for the prot monk to keep them alive. Protective Bond cuts damage to 5%, so if you've got less than 400 maximum health, that's 20 damage per hit you can take, maximum. Healing Seed only heals for 23 at 11 healing prayers, and Healing Hands for only 20.

I still have to disagree with this myself, at least in general.

Last we were down there my ranger was taking at most 13 damage from the Aataxes, unless they used gash which was somewhere around 26. The damage I took from them was actually mostly from bleeding.

Grasping Darkness manage all of 9 maximum.

Obsidian Behemoths were doing 73 without any protections, which surprised me, but they turned out simple to deal with.

Terrorweb Dryders did all of 26 damage with meteor storm.

Smites had the highest damage output we encountered, and of course we didn't get to meet the Chained Souls and whatever their friend's were.

In conclusion, with a bit of healing from other sources (Troll Ungent, low level breeze from a Monk secondary) the minimal damage that some things do above seed is really easily negated as is the need for superior runes to counteract that. Not saying it wouldn't help, though. I'm assuming a warrior would take even less, seeing as they have a higher AL.

Then again, I mostly don't want to use that setup because I don't want to spend money on the armor/runes, or the storage space, when it seems to work fine otherwise.

[Green_Gloom]

Not saying it wouldn't help, though. I'm assuming a warrior would take even less, seeing as they have a higher AL.

Warriors have a bonus, but that isn't from AL since AL doesn't matter at all with this setup. The difference comes from Knight's/Ascalon armor and Absorption Runes which reduce damage after the Protective Bond/Life Bond combo, both only work on physical damage but are still a help with the melee types. A shield with -damage is also good here.

Against the Behemoths the higher AL will of course help.

[Lurker Wyrm]

In contrast to what you guys think about health and all that stuff, I had a lot easier of a time keeping Xyn alive when he used his mesmer, Rene, than I did keeping Shandrel or Jinni safe. To be honest, it's been too long since I went down with GG for me to remember, but I don't recall it being a big problem once we figured stuff out. Yes, sources of healing other than Seed help a lot, but you can't always count on them being there. As to why you were taking so little damage, my only guess is that Protective Bond gets counted before armor.

Edit: found the wand, only has +10 energy on it, but I can switch it off after the casting. Tested it earlier today and it does indeed work nicely when I'm only losing 1 energy per hit instead of 2.

Also, I tried this in the Fissure of Woe and there are disenchanting mesmers in there, but I don't think they're a real problem since there's usually only 1 at a time and I can just throw and extra Bal's on the tank to be shattered. The problem there is the same one that always exists: the rangers who trigger the npc when you take them on. Even so, I'm getting a little tired of fighting Aatxes and wouldn't mind going that way more often.

I'd really like to smash through Lornar's sometime though, it's free and can be more challenging. We'll need to do it when we have the favor though, so we can get rid of the dp you know we'll get crossing through Dreadnought's using one of the Grenth statues.

[Green_Gloom]

I'd really like to smash through Lornar's sometime though, it's free and can be more challenging. We'll need to do it when we have the favor though, so we can get rid of the dp you know we'll get crossing through Dreadnought's using one of the Grenth statues.

The Arcanists shatter enchantments and there's iirc 3-5 Arcanists per group for some of the Dreadnought's Drift spawns. Of course, once you wipe the groups that camp/patrol the northern rez shrine in DD you'll not find anything harder further on. Worst is probably Maw & the 10+ Tundra Giants if you take them all on at the same time.

Still, it's not easy to get to that point and you need a dedicated team with a couple of hours to spare if you want to do it.

[Lurker Wyrm]

The Arcanists shatter enchantments and there's iirc 3-5 Arcanists per group for some of the Dreadnought's Drift spawns.

I think that's only the entry area, an a monk could put Spellbreaker on an ele or something using the heavy hitters. Fire is the best choice in there anyways, so a ranger with Greater Conflag would be nice too...

We're going to try and get an RB team through, anyways.

Edit: That just gave me an idea though for the UW. For the Escort of Souls quest, the mesmers really do a number on everyone, so maybe putting Spellbreaker on the tank as it runs in (or an ele using Obsidian Flesh, or both) might work out better. Using Nature's Renewal against the IW of the ghosts worked wonders.