Brothers of Arms

[Kendar]

Well, it was interesting seeing hardmode for the first time yesterday

As expected those guardians pack som nasty punches (1 - 1,5k), we'll have to agree on a tactic if we're gonna do this next thursday.

There's a time limit of 6 minutes after the altar is activated, and taking 1 guardian at a time seemed too slow, atleast with the dps we had last night. It was a bit slow on the mobs, but it might be different if we get more mains coming along for next week. From the looks of it i will have to kite around the pillars to avoid being hit all the time, so 2 necros with lifestealers all the time on the guardians seem necessary. There's no use running around the altar, the guardians just go straight through it.

So what should we try next time?

1. 1 guardian at a time and see if we have the dps to do each one in 2 minutes.
2. Activate 1 guardian, wait for it to reach 50% or so health, then activate the next and so on.
3. Activate all 3 guardians
4. ????

Got some nice input from some of you during the raid last night, but didn't have enough tries to see what works and not. It would be good with some comments here so that all can see what we should or should not do

[Gert]

Option 2 might be the best way but it's all dependant on dps...last night we did have a bit of alt switching which I hope we don't have next time to improve the dps.

One thing that was noticed on the guard that bugged out was that it was taking more damage from magic.

Found an Affinity video of a HM Levi fight - not sure if it's any use:

[Atkara]

It's clear they're taking them on 1 by 1. Necros use mage pets on him and they go spellweave along with the demos. The rest of the team -except from soldiers on Levi and their assigned healers- goes ranged on them.

There is kiting, in an arc-shaped manner between the pillars and the altar. Each add takes about 1 min to go down -we can have the same performance as well, but 1.5 min per add for our next try wouldn't be bad either.

[Gert]

Should be viable to use that as a basis for our next run then...

[Kendar]

Yep, first guardian was killed in 1 minute 5 seconds, and as Atk says there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to do the same with our mains along

They were using a guard, but looks doable for conq as well. With good healing and shitloads of dps we should be good.

[Phorkys]

Think its also importaint u kite in this way so guard mob is always in range of spealweavers so we dont have to stop or turn and not too much kiting behind pillars couse then its out of sight ....

[Atkara]

Also, the add itself doesn't seem to run fast enough to catch the quest bearer so, expect 1 punch per kiting run. Shouldn't be hard to handle for any soldier class.

[Kendar]

Seems like we have the basic tactics down then, can't wait to try this again

[Gert]

little bump before tonight's run

[Jeremy]

Hmm quick reply seems to fail for me...

left a note this morning that I thought there was a second timer after the third add dies , timer on levi dead...

[Gert]

Think it's 15 mins max from Levi spawning...

[Gert]

We got this sorted now - Kend said he'll post up a summary but think the way we did works very well for us now we have some experience of the whole HM encounter.

[Kendar]

So then , here's a short summary of the questline/crafting of the Ibis weapon.

The quest to start it all off is picked up from the scroll in the left corner in the last room before Levi.

1. Start the Levi fight as normal and take Levi down to 50% health.

2. At 50% click the altar, and hard mode is started with a quest update to kill the guardians. A timer of 6 minutes starts.

3. Go to one of the bowls and click it. This will spawn the first guardian. There are 3 guardians, and they all need to be killed within the 6 minutes. Run straight to the pillar in the oppsite side of the room, and wait there for the guardian to catch up with you. Then kite it from side to side around the altar and between the pillars. Make sure that dps can hit the guardian at all times. Dps needs to go all out.The guardian hits hard, so use all available skills that deflect or reduse damage taken. Also try to avoid Levi's aoe, it kills you if you're low on health. The 3 healers assigned to the tank needs to be alert and keep a good healing rotation going.

4. When the first guardian is killed, spawn the next one from one of the bowls and repeat the process. The bowl can be on cooldown, so just wait for it. Bowlrunner needs to use the bowl on the opposite side, as the bowls also goes on cooldown when the guardian is spawned. Pick up the shards that drop when the guardians die.

5. When all 3 guardians are dead, the quest updates and tells you to fuse the shards on the altar. Click the altar and wait for the shards to be fused.

6. New quest update. Kill Levi in 15 minutes. More than enough time as he is already at about 50% health.

7. When Levi dies the quest updates again, and you need to get the marrow of Levi. This can be found in the big box dropped by Levi. Only the questholder can see and take it.

8. This starts the last part of the crafting process. New quest update tells you to craft the Ibis weapon in the Nest of Ibis. Go back to the cauldron in the same room where you initially picked up the quest, and then click the cauldron. Now choose what weapon to make


Was a fun and challenging fight. From a conqs point of view, good healers and using necassary protection skills at the right time is the key to survive the guardians. Cunning deflection is crucial.

Now who's next?

[Mistery]

Well, I know a DT that has all ingredients except the recipe

But a very clear summary m8. Really nice.

Mist.

[Gert]

Mist - we can look at making it on a run if you have the ingredients...but we'd need to work out when as Par/Maira have gone away and they're part of our core tank/healer group...and we'll probably (at the moment) do a HM run every other week but if don't get the mats for the next run we're happy to make you it

[Mistery]

Thanks Gert but your fellow guidlies go first ofc. I'll get my Ibis one day

[Atkara]

On last night's HM final attempt, I modified the adds kiting pattern, to make things easier for the spellweavers. Instead of following an arc-shaped route, I decided to circle around the altar, keeping them under full nuke all the time.

The bad news: The adds ignore the altar's collision data and go straight through it.

The good news: I successfully avoided lots of their hits by sprinting (and jumping) away just when they were stopping to strike, whenever they came close.

I also noticed a huge hit on me, seemingly coming from the adds, whenever they were punching the floor, even though I was already to the other side of the room. Will have to check it out, since I'm not entirely sure if it was them or Levi -didn't have full particles on. Still, kept things on the safe side and used the altar as cover, when they were about to do it. Seems to have worked.

In the end, they all went down, Levi died in time and we made our 2nd Ibis Sword

[Kendar]

Well done Atk! And thx for the update

[Gert]

The adds do put a pbaoe patch down at a random location which hurt when I got kb'ed into it...so it might have been that you hit as you ran around...either way, got more to check next time now we settling into this.

[Iheaca]

Just sharing with you the tactics we used on Stygia and we suggested yesterday evening.



Not always easy to explain a new tactic, so here a picture.

• The Test of Faith debuff is applied at a relative short range, that's why PoMs and ToS do not get it in the "U", but it critical that first second line get the sacrifice as there are very likely to have it
• The add creates from time to time a nasty "Blood leech" area, which can kill clothies fast. The crafter will move the add when he creates a blood leech area
• The kite path is defined to avoid Leviathus AE and the Test of Faith (which can OS), but any shortcut might give Leviathus an opportunity to put a Test of faith on the person. So better check your buffs if you went pass Leviathus
• With Melee DPS and ranged DPS on the add, killing the three adds in less than 6 minutes is very easy

Hope this helps to clarify our comments from Tuesday evening.

[Gert]

Always good to get different tactics - as long as we settle on what we want to do, HM runs should be fairly easy

[Atkara]

Also, as long as you don't hit Levi at all, you don't get test of faith. Can make HM sessions less prone to get messy.

[Alb]

Just sharing with you the tactics we used on Stygia and we suggested yesterday evening.



Not always easy to explain a new tactic, so here a picture.

• The Test of Faith debuff is applied at a relative short range, that's why PoMs and ToS do not get it in the "U", but it critical that first second line get the sacrifice as there are very likely to have it
• The add creates from time to time a nasty "Blood leech" area, which can kill clothies fast. The crafter will move the add when he creates a blood leech area.
• **The DPS stays behind the Altar on Blood Leech, while the crafter moves the add when "Blood Leech" cast is starting and once it has finished brings the add back to the DPSers (Area effected by Blood Leech is away from DPSers)**
• The kite path is defined to avoid Leviathus AE and the Test of Faith (which can OS), but any shortcut might give Leviathus an opportunity to put a Test of faith on the person. So better check your buffs if you went pass Leviathus
• With Melee DPS and ranged DPS on the add, killing the three adds in less than 6 minutes is very easy

Hope this helps to clarify our comments from Tuesday evening.

** Further little tweeking based on the tactic from yesterdays run:
The DPSers stay behind the Altar so they are well out of the "Test of Faith area" and that is were the all 3 HM adds will be fought. The DPSers will stand there until ALL 3 HM Adds are down, they don't need to move.

When the crafter activates the HM the add will be brought to to the DPSer, with all DPSers staying as behind the add as possible. WHen the add starts to cast "Blood Leech" the Crafter moves to add towards one of the pillars (minimum 10m away) until the "Blood Leech" cast is finished and the area around the add is affacted by it. Once that is done the Crafter brings the add back to the DPSers, positions it and teh DPSers can attack again ... until the next "Blood Leech" spell.

Just remember that melee DPSers and their assigned healers do NOT go into the "Levi Area" (as show in the drawing above) until ALL 3 HM adds are down.