My gameplan:

Have a movie running on another monitor so I have something to do for 90 minutes.

Meat-Head wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2013 at 1:47pm:


When it comes to piking, I think we both did good.

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OK, now anyone have a clue how to do it AND being efficient?

It's easy until end fight. i like to group up at ramp going into end fight after pillars are taken down. beat end boss down when he comes to you, kill trash that spawns. kill 4 shadovar one at a time pull them out and back from endfight area. then kill end boss at entrance ramp. ee time is generally under an hour. byoh self sufficient toons only. no gimps no pikers and be useful.

kill initial spawns, invis run thru first part. get crest/keys/npc and into mini boss fight kill trash dps boss very self explanitory. All pillars can be ranged safely from a safe spot take them out first. group at entry ramp kill trash spawns and ele's ect. dps boss when he appears kill assasins first as a priority when they spawn. pull shadovar one at time out of the purple haze and kill them, if you get more than one deal with it. take shrines/mana trinkets with if you feel the need. boss will come to u at ramp easiest to keep party together rather than helter skelter all over. dps boss whenever he appears. easy peasy under an hour shortman.

Alex DeLarge wrote on Jan 7^th, 2014 at 9:54pm:


You can shoot ALL the pillars from the bottom.

Bigjunk wrote on Jan 7^th, 2014 at 10:54pm:


When it was first released it was fairly easy to kill at least 3 pillars from safe distance, but at some point it  seemed to have been changed because they were blocked even though we tried standing in the exact same places we had used before. Is this up to date information?

OP: Attacking Amskar at the start seems wasteful, since he has set hp-levels where he will automatically regenerate if you haven't progressed the quest. Generally better to try and avoid him altogether while you defeat his minions.

As far as i can tell pillars can be killed first, last (except for Amskar) or at any time in between, but defeating the waves of orcs/elementals/shadovars is what triggers progression. Assassins and wizards will respawn if killed. The strategy I've seen most is to stay at the gate with a clear path of retreat behind you, and gradually pull and kill off the waves, then have one person agro and kite the assassins while pillars are taken down. If it looks like you'll be overwhelmed, or if Amskar takes interest, use your line of retreat without falling off...

Without lag it should be under an hour, but the quest is lag-prone during the entire outdoors sequence and extremely unforgiving.

One person grab everything's aggro and jump down, mobs just get stuck at the gate. Rest of the party can comfortably take their time killing important bits

On EH and EN I use charm to get some breathing room, try it EE if you have enough DC

I just usually let the people, using the druid glitch or the shiradi sorc / the new flavor of sorc everyones using, solo it.. then i get free loot.. so either make a toon like that or.. do it my way.. or the hard way.. its up to you..

Distributed wrote on Feb 26^th, 2014 at 9:30pm:


With great power comes great generosity 

Bigjunk wrote on Jan 15^th, 2014 at 9:47am:


Agreed.  All 4 pillars can be ranged from lower level, although it takes awhile on EE unless you have a few monkchers.

Best approach I have found is to turn off auras/effects, Mass Invis and Zerg thru the inside mountains parts as much as possible.  There are some obvious stopping points of course, but you can avoid a lot of trash mobs this way and speed up your runs to about 40-50mins from memory.

I try to save the shrine immediately after the Mythyllar, before you head outside as you can come back for it if needed.
Once outside, you can mass Invis & Zerg, but we usually don't as you need to stop at a few spots to take down the pillars.  Also, if anyone dies and has to come back from that shrine, it helps to have a safe path back to the top.

The shrine before the ramp is use it or lose it, so use it up.
If you die or run out of SP during the final rounds up top, you can drop down at the right spot and head back into the mountain to use that shrine you saved.
If you have plenty of duped sp pots - don't bother, up to you.

As someone suggested, Amskar does have tiered HP - you can and should bring him down each time he appears, but you cannot progress until you kill the trash mobs for each round and some re spawn, so don't flaff around.  Best approach I have found is pulling them back to ramp in small groups where CC and group is waiting.  Shadovar & boss can be a bitch with meteor swarm and chain lightning that hits hard on EE.  So grouping up has its risks.

I have seen strategies to kite the mobs away, but you have to kill them anyway, so that just prolongs the pain unless you have some static damage like BB or clouds to kite thru.
There is one safe spot I know of, which can be used if you don't have a full group or the group is a bit underpowered, but it does make the quest a bit tedious.  A good strong group won't need it.

If Amskar is teleporting around like that retarded boss in DA, then it is usually a good indication that you have a mob to kill somewhere before you can progress.
For that final lag inducing wave of insanity, fury shot Amskar and then jump off onto the lower levels.

Collect loot, rinse and repeat.

There's two safe spots you can pull to.

The structure over the final drawbridge. One side keeps the mobs up top. the other makes them path to you. You can also DPS a pillar from there (ranged).

The other safe spot is on the ramp up. The wall furthest from the entrance has a obelisk on the left side. If you hide next to it (trying to get behind it) you pass through an invisible wall that you cannot get hit through.

Also you can hit another pillar (the one next to the pillar hit from the drawbridge structure) from a perch on top of a white mound of snow you jump to. You have to land on an inclined angle and it takes some skill/practice to stick the landing but once there you ease over to a point you're almost falling off and can DPS the next pillar with ranged around the invisible wall.


Game plan:

Have ranged folks jump the chains and get to perches before anyone goes up ramp.

Have kiters go up ramp to start end fight and gather agro then proceed to one of two safe spots. Ranged drop all pillars while mobs are busy trying to hit inaccessible players. You can continue this trend to keep shadar kai and mages busy and away from your dps folks.

Once pillars are dropped kill orcs (ignore shadar kai and mages unless they annoy you they respawn). Orcs will respawn only once.

After orcs kill elementals. They respawn once.

Finally Shadowvar. They do not respawn.

If you get the opportunity to dps Amskar during all this go for it, carefully. He has a fairly high DC with things like symbol of stunning (invisible to see during shadowvar stage) and flesh to stone and his spells hit like trucks (evasion, fire shield pots and shield scrolls help)

Once the Shadowvar are down more orcs will spawn .. gather them up and take them to a safe spot. DPS Amskar and win.

One more added bit of advice. Freedom of Movement and/or fire shield are good to have in there to nagate the spamming of webs by mages and Amskar

paraplegic wrote on Mar 26^th, 2014 at 1:46am:


What my guildie does every run he does with me.
Such a doushebag.
Pulled consuming and goatkins as well so far..
Sigh