Giants and Spiders and Drakes, Oh My!

Over the past two Saturdays we have gone off to do Helegrod Raids - Spider and Drake Wings on 2/4 and Giant and Spider Wings on 2/11.  We ran the first week at level 50 and the second at 58 so that some of the level 50 somethings Kin could join.  They were all fun and we stumbled around a bit as many hadn't run them or if they had in the past it was a while ago and couldn't remember all the details.  It all worked out in the end.

On the second week we were going to do the final Raid - Thorog after the Giant Wing but a few people didn't have all the other wings completed so we ran Spider again.  Picked that because though we completed the Deed and other quests on the first week it seemed that the 'Zahdru and her Brood' Quest would not complete.  We figured we'd try it again for those that didn't have the Wing credit and to get rid of that Quest - it didn't this time either so the Raid leader filed a bug.  We'll see how that turns out.

Spider Wing

Straightfoward up to the Zaudru fight.  We went about 'summoning' and knocking off the little ones.  People got to 100 killed but the quest mentioned above wouldn't clear after Zaudru was taken out.  From what I see in some quides they recommend in the final boss fight to kill the Silk-spinners last. Stun them, take down the spiders and then the Spinners (not the Coasters or the Platters) otherwise the encounter will continue.  Once Zaudru kicks in let a tank get aggro on her and dps away.  If adds come in, hold on her and burn them down.  Each fellowship should have a Hunter whose main focus is poison removal from his/her group.  If the green dot appears on you make known to the group that you have the deadly poison; be loud about it.  Hunters get onto it right away.  If it not cured, the affected character should run away, otherwise the 'explosion' may take out others.  It is also recommednded to dismiss pets before this fight as they can get the poison and take out others.  Other things to do - DO NOT stand under Zaudru and DO NOT stun her.  One other thing, make sure 'View only dispellable effects' is turned on in the Social options.  All in all fun as everyone loves to kill spiders.  It is great that these evil-doers will kill each other as well - having to not deal with another 135K boss (Breosal - sounds like a shaving cream) suits me fine.

For some reason I could never collect any Shadow poison for my quest.  Perhaps others took it as being a 75 I avoided taking stuff that the 50s could use.  Next run I will try to collect.  The first week there was no wipe on the Zaudru fight, we did on the second week.  This was due to the poor performance of the Hunter's in curing poison effects.  We need to get this down right.  I don't think I got one cure off.

Drake Wing

Again pretty staightfoward to the Grisgart fight.  We decided to trip the eggs and kill off the hatchlings.  If you stay off of them they will not spawn and can be left alone.  Once we cleared all to the main platform one person was sent to each of the South and North Gate.  We fumbled around a bit here pulling levers here and there but finally got the main gate open and then the North and South gates back open to let the characters out that got stuck inside. For the final boss, Grisgart, there is old Grizzy himself and two elite worms and two elite drakes.  We started firing on the worms/drakes but did very little damage.  We determined you need to take out Grisgart first, then the others can be dps'd down.  The drakes can also do a knock back.  The fight should go like this - mez the drakes, everyone on Grisgart and DPS him down. When dead kill his two master elite spirit spawns, kill the worms. then kill the drakes, a final spirit and then it is loot time.

On the approach to the main platform I believed we may have tripped up the Scouts at the bottom of the other stairway.  They go get lots of other mobs.  Before that though, my auto targetting fired off a shot or two on the adds on the above platform which brought them in.  Fortunately, as a number of us were 20 to 25 levels over, they were handled with no problem.

Giant Wing

We tried this earlier in the week as part of a Fellowship (only) but got our heads handed to us at least three times before I had to go.  I think in all three times we killed only 12 monsters - for 18 people (6 x 3) not a very good ratio.  Some members picked up the Helgorod Barter-sticks for a quest (?) or to pick up some Ringnen salve for the Thorog fight.  I really got to start picking up stuff on these Raids to complete some of these quests.

When we did do this as part of a Raid, there were parts that were a bit rough, as there are lots of creatures in some of the groups.  Of course it didn't help that as a secondary Target Assist I kept firing off at mobs we were trying to ignore at first.  To quote the narrator form the original How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Thurl Ravenscroft (you remember Tony the Tiger - and it wasn't GRRREAT!!!), my perfornce here, 'Stink, Stank, Stunk'.  My incorrectly configured Combat UI settings and a bit of lag had me pew pewing in mobs that were not suppose to be tackled yet.  It was so bad the Raid Leader deservedly removed me from Target Assist. While I had two of my Combat UI settings on Assist off, the other three being on caused the targetting.  It is especially bad when there is a two or three secong lag - you've already targetted another mob and fired before you know it.  Well, all five settings are off so targets need to be picked manually after one is dead.  I will re-review them again and turn on ones that can be done without jeopardizing the group and during solo play.

Other than sheer numbers of giants, mammoths, bears, and sabre-tooth type creatures it was again straightforward to the Storvâgûn final boss encounter.  Here it got difficult to control the adds while working on the boss.  I think I had to retreat twice during this one.  Lots of dread, which is particuliarly bad if you wiped.  When Storvâgûn summons adds it is around 12 - 15 elite snow-beasts.

The tactic is to tank him with his back facing the group. Because of his kickback the tank needs to keep his/her back towards the far wall so they don't end up down the mountain. All the rest of the group needs to stand to the left of him on a small rise on the tree line. The tank can be cured from here; just make sure the tank doesn't get too far away. At about 100k Storvâgûn will summon elite snow-beasts out of a stone arch-way to the right of the tank. Any other tanks and off tanks need to break off Storvâgûn and hold the snow beasts in the area by the cave entrance (beside him). He'll keep summoning more so everyone but the ones holding the snow-beasts need to just kill Storvâgûn. We got to a point in this that the Raid leader said, enough is enough, just burn him down already.

At some point in this encounter Storvâgûn goes into a rage mode and the tank loses aggro for some time. Watchword is stay calm and do your job even when the boss is hitting you. When dealing with those elite snow-beasts adds leave one alive to prevent more re-spawns and work on Storvâgûn again.  When Storvâgûn is out of his rage the tank needs to pick him back up again, DPS him again and take out the last snow-beast of the group.

If I missed something or got it wrong let me know and I will fix it.

by Illonna on 2012-02-13 12:35:05