d20radio.com

Okay, I've read through the article, and have a few comments.

First, I think when Soa goes below 80%, people should start grouping up for the transition to Phase 2. Currently, we seem spread out until right when the transition begins, which is hurting us when we start following the platforms down.

Second, I like the idea that only one person should be talking in Phase 2 (save for calling out when you're mind-trapped or cycloned). However, I think that one person should be a ranged DPS, who will have a better view of the battlefield than the tanks (who are next to Soa), and are not as occupied as the healers. Personally, I'd nominate Perrian for this. We'd also need a backup for when Perrian is mind-trapped - which would probably be Gisben. Yes, I know I just mentioned that his view of the battlefield isn't as good, but he'd only need to handle things for a short time.

Third, Kate's lightning ball trick may be worthwhile to use. My one concern with shielding and running into the lightning ball is based on what happened to me last time. I was hit by the lightning ball and immediately thrown by the cyclone. Granted, I don't think my shield was at full strength when it happened, but that one-two punch is pretty hard on a non-tank.

Fourth, I think a spotter for the pyramids is a good idea, though I share Gisben's concern about the durability of the spotter. I still think a DPS could do it, though ideally they need to have some extra durability (heavy armor, shielded by Force Armor, higher HP than the average DPS, etc). The off-tank could do this...though mind traps can mess this strategy up rather easily. On the plus side, if the main tank gets mind-trapped, the off-tank will be in position to pick up aggro quickly.

Finally, I believe our primary problem isn't burning down Soa in Phase 3...it's staying alive until then. If we can get to Phase 3 with no deaths, I think we'll have a MUCH easier time staying alive and burning Soa down. It may even be worth going a bit slower in the earlier phases and focusing on surviving.

I think that's just a "crap happens" moment. There's really no way to predict who is going to get cycloned and I can't think of a better way to deal with the lightning balls without more people taking damage and increasing the chance that someone who just got hit ends up in the air.



Surviving is always a priority. Hopefully the more we run it the better we will be about not making the dumb mistakes (standing in the stupid, jumping off the wrong side of the platform, etc) and we're almost there now. I'm not sure about slowing down increasing our survivability since his enrage timer begins when we start the fight, not when we get to phase 3. That said, if there's a way I as a healer can help folks survive longer, I'm all for it.

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GM: "I've never seen a person do 54 points of magic missle damage in one round before."
Me: (smile)

Actually he enrages based on the # of pyramids dropped not a specific time. Thus the need to not go beyond 5 pyramids (at which point he enrages)

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Captain Zeece / Sgt. Perrian
Order of Sixty Six Webmaster
Guildmaster for The Exiled Lords




Co-host of Geekhead Radio
look me up on Twitter, Google + or Facebook - Clayton Havens

Ah...Then what I had read was wrong. Sorry for confusing the issue.

_________________
GM: "I've never seen a person do 54 points of magic missle damage in one round before."
Me: (smile)

I would point out that one of the MAJOR points of the article is that STACKING everyone is important, and they suggest stacking at the south end of the CENTER circle during Phase 2 and Phase 3. That means that nearly everyone will be in close proximity to Soa, but also distant from the lightning balls, etc. It also concentrates people for AoE healing.

The stacking concept, more than anything else, is where I think we can see some major gains. If we were stacked at the Phase 1 -> 2 transition, topping the party off to ensure we survive the transition would be much easier on the healers.

I'm thinking I'll put a big shield over the head of Zeece during our next attempt, and unless you're melee DPS, your job will be to stay within 10m of him at all times. He's already a Gunslinger and as such LEAST likely to move unless there is a need (not wanting to re-pay the Cover tax).

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Roger Boss man... This gunslinger doesn't move unless something is trying to kill him... nope.. not gonna move...

_________________
Captain Zeece / Sgt. Perrian
Order of Sixty Six Webmaster
Guildmaster for The Exiled Lords




Co-host of Geekhead Radio
look me up on Twitter, Google + or Facebook - Clayton Havens

Hey guys, I spent some time tonight review videos of the Soa fight and noticed something which should help with placement It appears that the pyramids always drop on the edge of the broken stone ring during Phase 3, which corresponds to a circle on the mini-map. I've included some annotated images to try and make this a little more clear.

http://d.pr/tift
http://d.pr/1ENt

As you can see from those images, and this is true in every video I've watched, the vulnerable Soa is kneeling at the edge of the stoney ring, just inside it. This should be useful since now we know "how far" from center he's supposed to be, and can instead worry just about where around the circle the pyramid is. (For the geometrically inclined, we know the length now we just need the angle)

Hopefully this will help. Sorry for the external links, but board attachment quota had been reached.

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My friend who is raiding hardmodes on another server suggested we check out this video.. this is what they used for normal mode SOA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t55FiE3DyLM

_________________
Captain Zeece / Sgt. Perrian
Order of Sixty Six Webmaster
Guildmaster for The Exiled Lords




Co-host of Geekhead Radio
look me up on Twitter, Google + or Facebook - Clayton Havens

Here's another one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-nRwwwLLcY

I paid particular attention to the pyramid thing, since it's been our block. Basically, if the tank has aggro, he needs to be booking it to the pylon, stopping practically at the outer edge, then going around the drop zone to keep Soa stationary. DPS shouldn't be shooting at all (there's no point really), so the tank doesn't really need to work to hold aggro.

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"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That way you don't kill your friends with area of effect powers." --thirstywizard

The worst trouble I seem to have is with the lightning balls.
Is there an easy way to determine from which way they will come?
My teammates might enjoy a little less electric death.

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DM Jackson
Radio Free Hommlet

If you haven't already, go into Preferences and change your maximum camera zoom rate to 100%. That way, if you zoom all the way out, you can see the entire combat area. Much easier to see lightning balls that way.

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"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That way you don't kill your friends with area of effect powers." --thirstywizard

Plus, the lightning balls always spawn at one of 2 places along the circle.

_________________
GM: "I've never seen a person do 54 points of magic missle damage in one round before."
Me: (smile)

Tanks all ready to position SOA for his immediate death?

_________________
Captain Zeece / Sgt. Perrian
Order of Sixty Six Webmaster
Guildmaster for The Exiled Lords




Co-host of Geekhead Radio
look me up on Twitter, Google + or Facebook - Clayton Havens

Ok... Parse... fighting Captain Targis on Hoth since the Training dummies have issues.. especially with any abilities that involve procs or DOTs

Parse 1: 1384 - http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-04-12_19_10_46_169269.txt
I do find it funny.. I tried 3 different parsers including our own.. 3 different totals.. the Oo66 have me about 10 points higher and the other 10 points lowers..
Parse 2: 1376
Parse 3: 1401
Parse 4: 1348 - http://www.fryingtime.com/?filename=combat_2012-04-14_09_07_14_996539.txt

And so you know I'm using fryingtime just cause its the middle of the 3 parsers.

still need to play so more.. I know I can keep this up for 3 minutes... need find a better target to go for long fights


EDIT: And there is a fine line in the dps... get too aggressive with your big shot abilities and you kill your dps... a fight I just did.. I sustained 2,100 dps for 40 seconds and then ran low on energy and my DPS dropped off so much over the next 50 seconds of the fight that my average was only 1,200.

The more I practice the more I think the magic number for me is going to be around 1,300 .. above that energy drops offs and that affects long term dps.

_________________
Captain Zeece / Sgt. Perrian
Order of Sixty Six Webmaster
Guildmaster for The Exiled Lords




Co-host of Geekhead Radio
look me up on Twitter, Google + or Facebook - Clayton Havens

Well, my DPS is significantly lower than Perrian's, which is a concern since my gear is actually pretty good. Still, 1100 average DPS isn't horrible.

Test 1 - 1106 DPS: http://www.torparse.com/a/1655
Test 2 - 1075 DPS: http://www.torparse.com/a/1663
Test 3 - 1151 DPS: http://www.torparse.com/a/1670