Finally! Progress!

[kate]

I decided to take a break from playing my 5x paladin group for a bit, as I had run pretty hard into a brick wall in regards to progress: I couldn't seem to handle even the things people were saying were trivial (Ahune, some of the earlier heroics, *constantly* losing at ToC in the jousting portion, etc). Even with gearing up my tank a lot more - no luck, though fights got closer.

So today I decided what the heck, I'll give 'em a try and lo - took out the Devourer of Souls on the first attempt. Which is fantastic because now I can begin to learn the Pit of Saron (and actually get some better gear for my team that isn't just saving up badges!) I'm kind of wondering if they made it easier, or if I just needed a bit of a break or what, but I'm just happy with myself

Edit: Just took down Garfrost, first try. This is fun

[DrunkMurray]

Taking a break definitely does help me. If I've been going too long I just start making silly mistakes and the game becomes more stressful than fun, which only exacerbates things. I started up a 4x Shaman team for just that reason, gives me something else fun to do when I seem to hit walls with my PvE team.


As far as jousting goes are you talking heroic or normal? I can't speak to the heroic version yet as I haven't tried it, but normal is a cakewalk now with a simple little macro that I just spam on all my toons for that portion of the fight (I use ISBoxer for FTL assisting).

/cast Defend
/cast Thrust
/cast Shield-Breaker

I have all my toons follow and just stand in the center of the room. Defend and Thrust/Shield-Breaker are on separate cooldowns, so you can constantly spam that key to keep 3x shields up on all your guys as well as do damage. When your target runs off to line up a charge, don't chase them but instead just wait for them to come back and keep spamming that macro - since they are out of range for thrusting your guys will throw shield-breakers instead. You might have to rotate your team a little bit to keep your target out in front, but other than that there shouldn't be much movement needed at all during this fight. If someone gets low on health, switch to them and run them manually over to get a new mount, still spamming the above macro the entire time. Get a new mount, bring em back to the group, and resume. When the first target dies you can take the entire group and sit on top of him to keep him from getting up, when the second champion falls manually stick one of your guys on top of him, and everyone else focuses on the last.

The dungeon strategy forum has a thread on ToC if the above doesn't help or you are having a different problem.

[kate]

It's just normal. I figure there are enough upgrades for my 4x rets in there that it would be worth running a bunch. I'll try that macro, thanks!

[Zub]

instead of being in the middle, try getting your back to a wall, like that you are sure you can use your shield-breaker whenever the bosses go for a little ride.
If not, they might run behind you and you wont be able to attack them properly

[thefunk]

I couldn't seem to handle even the things people were saying were trivial

whoever they are, they are idiots. I struggle with normal mode but am having fun. And congrats on devourer and garfrost, took me ages personally.

[OzPhoenix]

Glad to hear you're making progress again Kate.

I don't know about others, but Ahune is, in my opinion, a real ballbuster for an all-melee team. What I'd emphasize is weapons - if I remember correctly there is i219 weapons available for all in normal PoS and it'll make a massive difference.

Other than that, once you have them all in Conquest gear or better, you'll find they really start to shine.

PS: Edit, since you're in the area, Frick and Ick I found easiest when on a constant move. Don't stop to DPS (you're Rets don't need to anyway). Just run in a large circle for the whole fight from go to woah, making sure to run away from the poison cloud and pursuit phases (pursuit can be blocked with the carts lying around etc).

[kate]

Garfrost is easy for me - I've now killed him a dozen times.without a death. Unfortunately, he has yet to drop a single useful item for me! At least I got some badges.

Ick and Krick should be easy, from what people say since, as you point out my rets don't need to stop to DPS. I'll see if I can do it. Your comments on your paladin team has reinspired me, Oz

[OzPhoenix]

Garfrost is easy for me - I've now killed him a dozen times.without a death. Unfortunately, he has yet to drop a single useful item for me! At least I got some badges.

Ick and Krick should be easy, from what people say since, as you point out my rets don't need to stop to DPS. I'll see if I can do it. Your comments on your paladin team has reinspired me, Oz

Tyrannus was the big dropper if I remember right (I've since deleted the items from my gearing plan as I obtained each one), though Garfrost did drop some of them I'm sure.

For Tyrannus, I would just run when the dragon went to shoot, and accept that 1-3 of them would get caught up. I'd also just dps/heal through Tyrannus' power phases to.

Glad to hear the comments have helped, I look forward to your next progress report and hearing about all the good stuff you got / baddies you killed... hehe.

[Khatovar]

For TotC, I used Jamba to strobe follow. Kept everyone's shields up at all times and used the following macro :

/assist focus
/click [target=vehicle,exists] VehicleMenuBarActionButton1
/click [target=vehicle,exists] VehicleMenuBarActionButton2
/click [target=vehicle,exists] VehicleMenuBarActionButton3

I'd then run in a pretty tight figure 8 around the mobs. This allowed enough range for my slaves to randomly charge the target and then immediately come back to follow, and enough traffic to trample the guys I already put down. Not going to say I never lost guys, sometimes I couldn't kill strobe fast enough if I needed a new mount on a slave and the champions seemed to get a buff somewhere along the line, but I usually finished with most of my team in tact. Obviously there's a lot of different ways to go about those guys.

I also used follow strobing for Ick and Krick and took it on the run. Don't even have to worry too much about keeping agro, just run around and let your DPS chew on his butt.

[jinkobi]

Another thing to remember Kate for TOC/Occulus/etc... are that vehicle damage scales with gear. So the better the gear the better the vehicles damage. Some people even throw on PVP gear for the item level.

Everytime I take a break and come back the game is 100X more fun and I am much better. Glad you're having fun again!