If you do not want spoilers and want to figure this out with your guild please stop reading now.


Here are my impressions on the new raid as it was done in Lamania. I am a prick, yeah, but not an elitist prick that refuses to share knowledge. If this helps anyone succeed in there, then I am happy.

~ Spoilers start here, you still have time to walk away.

In terms of combat, you will be facing exactly the same monsters you faced in The Shroud, with the addition of a new mob called the Shadowfiend, but I will get to that later.

Part 1

Let us begin with group composition. As always, a well balanced party is extremely important. I believe for the initial runs 3 clerics will be necessary if you want to make things go a little easier on the healers, but 2 should eventually become the standard for normal completions.Basically this is the setup I would go for: 3 healers, 1 caster (2 if one is a WF), 1 bard (could go with 2 to make it even better: spellsinger + warchanter), Rest DPS. Let me make something clear right off the bat: you will NEED to have at least one heavy hitter with a pair of Boots of Anchoring or you really do not have a shot. The drop rate for the ingredients is extremely low and they come out of the prereq quests. My suggestion is to hook up with your friends / guildys and pool the ingredients for your best tank. 

The initial dungeon is a twisted corridor with devils, orthons and tieflings. Crowd Control is not that essential, and from the arcane's perspective, heightened webs remain as useful as ever. The mobs do not have the inflated HP they have in The Shroud so DPS is fine, vorpals are for the weak anyway.

When you reach the end of this corridor, you will drop down a shaft and reach the first big fight room. It is very big and contains traps all around. Send the group to the Northwest end of the room, there you will find a platform where the squishys should stand while the tanks fight with their back against the wall right in front of the healers. Hell hounds will spawn and it is the arcanes responsibility to flesh to stone them and leave them alone, they respawn. Tanks should be concentrated on beating down the Judge and the Jailor, with at least one heavy hitter for each purple named. If you die in this part your soul will be teleported to a prison room and you will not be able to rejoin the party until the two purple nameds are defeated. The tanks will be standing on lava so firestorm greaves will be as helpful as always. Beat the snot out of those nameds and move on, get your level 20 chests and pick up that greater devotion shield you always wanted.

Part 2

You will be moving along another corridor, this time ending up in a platform surounded by deep lava. DO NOT FALL OFF or you are literally screwed. There is no way of getting you back. As you reach a staircase, be careful, for some reason it tends to bump you to the sides with a high risk of falling off if you are not watching what you are doing.

As you enter the second big boss fight, let everyone stack up and buff with the basic stuff. Essential: cold resistance and /or cold absorption items. You send out a guy to draw the shadow fiends and the tanks hold their ground, while the squishys take steps back and support from behind. Beat down the 2 Shadowfiends that approach and as soon as they die, RUSH towards the throne and fight the purple named there, right in front of the altar. 2 clerics should go with the DPS group, 1 should stay in the back with the support group. DPS until about 75%, at that point more Shadowfiends spawn and it is basically the arcanes responsibility to cast firewalls everywhere and keep aggro of trash mobs away from the DPS group. Fire shield is essential    !!! DO NOT let trash mobs reach the DPS group or you will wipe. Guaranteed. I can really picture a Favored Soul spamming blade barriers and using Leap of Faith to kite the trash around.

Part 3

As you zone into the last part of the raid, you will be in another big room, this is Horoth's throne room. It is an awesome instance. Orthons respawn eternally so your best bet is energy drain + flesh to stone + dreamspitter. Dont bother killing them they are really just an annoyance. Your main tank with Boots of Anchoring should rush in and grab Horoth. A screenshot below shows you this instance, please notice all the pikers standing around. This raid will be extremely boring for melee without those god damn boots. Rangers can always shoot their hearts out once initial aggro has been established and sustained. As the main tank establishes aggro, we found out that by beating up the portals that spawn to the east, west and south you get an extra chest. Once Horoth is down to 75%, he summons Suulomades. Use standard VoD tactics on him, thats where your WF Tank + WF arcane come in really handy (notice that killing Suulo is optional!). Important tip: DO NOT DIE. For every death in part 3, Horoth regains 33% of his HP back. At this point it should be obvious that Boots of Anchoring prevent you from being banished back to Xen'drik. We noticed a weird effect from wearing the boots: you cannot get hasted. I don't know if this was intended to work that way or it is a bug. If this remains like this for live, do not even bother trying to haste your main tank.

There is really not much else I can say at this point, just my best wishes to you all and hope you enjoy the raid.

Best regards,

Alex

Quote:


deleted.

Strakeln wrote on Aug 25^th, 2009 at 10:08pm:



Hmmm sounds like local khyberian humor. I remember a certain Quanefool, perhaps it is related.

Edit: a brief browsing of ddo forums confirmed my suspicion.

Aussie wrote on Aug 26^th, 2009 at 4:31am:

Queerefel has replied on fatals thread, sadly they are still around

Thanks for the walkthrough, good information in there!

Alekx wrote on Aug 25^th, 2009 at 7:52pm:

Quote:

I don't like spoilers but I read a few sentences and have a question.
Is Shadowfiend anything like Shadowhand?
If so, I may cancel immediately.
That is not a challenge.

Thank you,

S.

Lol

Babygirl wrote on Aug 26^th, 2009 at 8:15am:

Queerefel has replied on fatals thread, sadly they are still around

Despite such, bloody commend the cream of Shadowhand for their frequent impudent public masturbation when presenting their views.

Be so quite entertaining sight, their reoccurring train wrecks and lack of consciousness upon a stretcher yet unrelenting belligerent voice echoing down a 400+ post thread of endless unintelligable dribble. Bring tears to my eyes. (of laughter)

The verity that someone so naïve and inept exist is spectacle in itself.