grunt

[pimpmasterflex]

After getting into Txevu, we started exploring the zone. There are a couple
of relatively easy mobs that drop Muramite leggings and other loot of equal
value. Some of the loot has gone to recruits even.

There are lots of interesting events we have to figure out, but we start
with one of the "progression" events: The Runt. There's an arena filled
with mobs that won't aggro. There's a mob called the Mastrug Champion.
Hail him, and you start a script. He jeers at you for a while, then
challenges you to a one-on-one contest - no outside spells, no outside
healing, nothing like that. Your best fighter against a mob that spawns at
his feet - The Runt. This mob is indeed very tiny.

The first time we were in the Arena, we had no idea what would happen but
decided to try it. Our guildleader, a very well-equipped paladin, fought
The Runt. It wasn't an easy battle but he did stay ahead of The Runt, with
the rest of the guild crowded around to watch. As soon as the Runt died,
about a billion mobs also spawned, along with another mob called Ixt Hsek
Syat. This last mob procs a massive AE damage spell with gravity flux. The
raid gets blown all around the arena, aggroing about a billion more mobs.
Incoming wipe.

We rezzed and gated out, satisfied. Now we knew what to expect, we just had
to try and figure out the next step.

The next time we went right into the corner of the arena, well away from the
Champion. Our guildleader again spawns the Runt and kills it. The billion
mobs spawn but immediately run out of the arena without aggroing anyone -
evidently so long as you obey the rules and don't assist or heal the person
fighting the Runt, the billion mobs won't kill you.

That still leaves the Champion and Ixt Hsek Syat in the middle of the arena.
The monks attempt to split them by drawing them to the other corner of the
arena. After a while they succeed, and we manage to pull the Champion solo
to the raid. Killing the mob is easy, although with clerics spamming heals
we get kinda low on mana. Hopefully we'll get a chance to med up before
taking on Ixt Hsek Syat. But no - at 20%, the Champion calls for help, and
Ixt Hsek Syat comes to his aid. We manage to kill the Champion and start in
on Ixt Hsek Syat, but the clerics are extremely low on mana. All too soon
tanks start to fall, and we wipe.

Okay, well, we need to preserve our mana better than that. Time to drag out
the Complete Heal Chain. We get five clerics to do a CHC while the rest
will heal the rest of the raid and DI and spot heal the tank. Thus
prepared, we begin.

The Champion is easy, the CHC is keeping up. At 20%, Ixt Hsek Syat comes
running, and we burn off the Champion and switch. Okay, much better, the
clerics have a lot more mana. But the AE knockbacks are killing us.
Clerics get flung and take damage, and in the meantime miss out on their
turn in the CHC. Tanks seem to die with each AE, and soon we wipe.

Okay, much discussion now about how to get the clerics to avoid the AE.
There's a pool of water in the center of the arena; can the clerics stand
there? No, the corner we fight Ixt in is out of range from the pool.
Besides, if the AE can't hit us in the water, then similarly our heals won't
hit the tank. How about standing behind one of the pillars inside the
arena? Again, out of range, although maybe we could change the corner we
fight Ixt in.

We decide to try something else instead. There's a corridor around the
upper edge of the arena where we fight Ixt. There are windows from that
corridor into the arena, and through those windows we can target raid
members and heal them. There are two roamers that patrol that corridor, and
they have a fast respawn. So, new strategy: pull the roamers into the
arena, then mez them. Clerics then move up into the corridor and CHC from
there.

We do it. The clerics find a position in the corridor almost exactly above
where we'll fight Ixt. Just as the monks are splitting off the Champion,
MGB Kazad drops. One of the clerics in the CHC runs down to recast it. On
her way back, she runs into Ixt who promptly kills her. Oops. To make
matters worse, some clerics still get hit with the AE (although I myself
never do, despite standing almost on top of another cleric who gets hit and
dies). This, too is a wipe.

Okay, next day, new strategy. We move into the corridor, but further away
from the corner. Still in range of the tank. Plus the raid leaders have a
new idea: try to head off Ixt before it can aggro the raid. A ranger is
tasked to keep an eye on Ixt.

We begin. This new place in the corridor seems to be working fine. The
Champion goes down with its usual ease. I'm standing almost exactly behind
the cleric who's behind me in the CHC. I notice that when he's just
completing his cast and his arm does that little S-shaped motion, it's time
for me to start casting my Complete Heal. At 20% the Champion calls for
Ixt, and the ranger leaps into motion and activates Weapon Shield. He gets
Ixt's attention and holds aggro long enough for us to finish off the
Champion. The ranger falls but now we have a very orderly transition to Ixt
with a lot fewer deaths than usual.

We continue the CHC on Ixt, and I amuse myself with seeing how accurate a
timer the other cleric's casting animation is. It appears to be dead
perfect, so much so that I actually ignore the prompts for two whole
rotations and simply hit my hotkey every time I see the other cleric cast.
As fun as that is I can't risk continuing to solely use that as my prompt,
and go back to paying attention to the cleric channel. I also take a look
at Ixt Hsek Syat's health, and to my amazement it's down to 37%. We've
never gotten it below 70% before, and we have lots of cleric mana and raid
DPS still alive. It slows down a bit because a lot of the casters run out
of mana, but steadily Ixt drops. It dies, and we all cheer. One more
progression mob out of the way, and we now have the key to the High Priest's
area.

The next time we do these mobs, we refine the strategy even further. At
20%, the ranger gets Ixt aggro and drags it across the arena. When the
ranger dies, Ixt loses aggro altogether and wanders back to the center of
the arena. That gives us plenty of time to finish off the Champion, rez the
fallen and med up, then pull Ixt. This time Ixt falls quickly and easily.

One of our clerics maintains that this is "cheating". Clearly the script
was designed so that we'd have to deal with both mobs one after the other,
and that by finding a way to clear Ixt's aggro we're circumventing the
intent of the script. It's an interesting point, but circumventing such
intents goes all the way back to warping the Dain down to the caves to
counteract his banishing. There are countless other examples of strategies
that circumvent the script designer's intent; it's SOE's job to further
refine their scripts to prevent such "cheating". In my opinion, anyway.

We have subsequently killed the Champion and Ixt Hsek Syat one more time
using the strategy of pulling Ixt away with a WS ranger and having it lose
aggro on the raid. It's certainly easier that way, with much less risk.

I have to admit I'm curious how other guilds do this. Do they have clerics
in the above corridors? Do they have rangers WS on Ixt while the Champion
is finished off? How closely does the strategy we developed match the
"playbook" strategy of other guilds?

I'm not sure. But I do know that we've started a similar process on the
High Priest. We cleared all the way down to its room, including spawning
some kind of shade, but stopped there because it was late and too many
people had to log. But we learned plenty about how to get to exactly that
point, and hopefully we'll do it a bit faster next time. What happens next
I have no idea. But it'll be interesting to learn. And fun. =)

[Nkat]

all those wipes? did you run out of toilet paper?
Nkat

[Zanp 2 The Revenge]

An entertaining and informative right up.

Thank you sharing that with us I hope it will save us one or two of them annoying wipes.

[Deedolito]

thank you for sharing this nice story with us