Question for Running w/Devils vets

[Club'in]

Okay, I haven't done this quest much. But was in a semi-zerg group last night. Had done Rainbow and Coalescent earlier in the night, and wasn't being too much of a burden on the cleric. But whatever those dudes in Running were doing to me was a bit painful. I needed a couple heals from the cleric within the first couple minutes. The group wasn't pausing to smell the roses, so I didn't want to browse through my combat log at the time. What kinda smack are those guys laying down? Some sort of elemental attack? Or a fire/cold shield of some sort that is damaging me as I melee them? They were humanoid/energyball/mini-air elemental dudes. (note: pretty sure we were in on normal)

Also, what's the best melee approach for those buggers? I ended up going with my banishing setup, but it didn't seem too effective.

[Elaril]

They were probably doing light damage, wich there is no defense for other than not being there when it hits. And the best melee approach to these guys is to use stat damage; either strength or constitution, as they are weak and sickly.

[Club'in]

Ah. I thought the deathward symbol was popping over their head, which would mean they were repelling my puncturing.

[frederjoe1]

One of things those buggers throw at you is searing lights and this is one of those no save type spells and they spam it pretty regularly. I beleive they are considered good aligned so any of your pg weapons do not work well in there.

I normally use puncturing when on my dex ranger or banishing rapiers if running on normal. If I am on my dwarven str ranger I tend to use things like w/e weapons in there. I am sure there are other things folks use like vorpals and such or just plain dps weapons like anarchic or such as the mobs are mostly eladrin in there.

[Grosbeak07]

Most of the stuff in there can also be vorpaled if you are quick enough (Before they cast deathward). Dancing Ball/Acid Fog combo's works well with w/p and vorpal.

[KingOfCheese]

Stat damagers for the win. If you are running with casters or clerics, they will typically be fingering, destructing, or blade barriering these mobs. They may have some trouble getting the clerics down (due to saves and/or self-heals). As a melee, I tend to go after the clerics first (with wounding/puncturing), then the casters. The enemy melee-types can be fingered fairly easily.

[Steiner-Davion]

They were probably doing light damage, wich there is no defense for other than not being there when it hits. And the best melee approach to these guys is to use stat damage; either strength or constitution, as they are weak and sickly.

Funny you should post this now. My static group (ranger, rougue, cleric, paly, and sorc) just beat it last night. we were using the following combinations:


wounding weapons
Otto's irresistable dance sphere
True seeing
Firewall
Electrical Resistance and Mass Protection from Elements


Granted we did not zerg, and we forced ourselves to go very very slow. We had tried the week before, but could not get very far, even after several attempts.

Most monsters in the quest are Good Outsiders. I think they are Chaotic Good. You need a good transmuting weapon for the Red Named at the entrance to the last room, before you fight the Devil Party, if you want to/need to take him down with Melee DPS.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

What everyone else said.

They are CG outsiders and require Evil & Cold Iron to bypass DR. Right now all we have is Transmuters and those will be nerfed in Mod9.

Because of that, and because they buff themselves with Deathward and because they are all casters.....stat damagers are best.

If you are not main tank, let someone else get agro and attack from behind.
Theoretically it is possible to dodge their ray attacks...like trying to stay behind them.
But this is very difficult if you have agro.

If stat damagers are unavailable, try a paralyser or cursespewer..but they have very good saves. Lawful and elemental damage weapons will do some damage.

Just try very hard to not agro too many at once and heal up before the next fight.

[Club'in]

Excellent. Thanks all.

So, deathward doesn't prevent my puncturing? Good to know. I thought it did. Someone must have been trying to use a vorpal on them, then (why I kept seeing the deathward symbols above their heads). I think my wounder is also pure good, so that may have been why I kept seeing Immune pop up over their heads.

[kuro_zero]

Greensteel is considered Magic and Evil for purposes of bypassing DR. Throw Min II on it and you're set.

The Gaelle (sp?) the female ones have a light spell they spam that does 35-50 pnts of light damage - non-evadable, non-resistible. Nothing in the game can mitigate light damage. Everything I've tried to avoid it hasn't really worked, save killing them as quickly as possible (buggers teleport! so there goes getting to a safe area). It doesn't even appear to be a normal ray spell, as I've kited them around a pillar in the first large open area (below the 2 switches for the door) and was still getting hit with it even though my FoD stated they were blocked.

They can be banished as well, but they tend to save alot (since they have very good will save and banish is a weak DC). Like any quest, its best if all the melees is cooperating and going for the same kill (banish, vorpal, wop) - its slow if only 1 is wop, another trying to banish, and a third vorpaling. Quickest is a caster's instant death spell (finger, destruct) wop for melees / ranged, and DW doesn't protect them from it.

Fort save is low, a caster can rule that place if their SR is up to snuff (they have 30 SR, btw) - My sorc with enlarge routinely solos that place (gotta get my pies!), just a hireling cleric to keep me up on that last Eladrin red-named. Enlarge is nice since you can finger them out of their aggro range and insta-killing or failing to penetrate SR won't aggro the ones around it (enervate doesn't aggro either, nice for the orange named mini-boss by the second lever for the bridge). Rinse and repeat. It can get hairy if one makes their save, thus taking 3d6 damage and aggroing the group onto you.

Shattermantle is nice to help out the casters, especially if you're running it at around 13-14.

[Impaqt]

Excellent. Thanks all.

So, deathward doesn't prevent my puncturing? Good to know. I thought it did. Someone must have been trying to use a vorpal on them, then (why I kept seeing the deathward symbols above their heads). I think my wounder is also pure good, so that may have been why I kept seeing Immune pop up over their heads.

"Death"Ward prevents instant death effects and Negative energy. Stat damaging weapons are neither.

[Club'in]

"Death"Ward prevents instant death effects and Negative energy. Stat damaging weapons are neither.

Ah. My main experience with deathward preventing stat damage is from the enemies in the necropolis and the orchard. So I guess in their case it is negative energy causing the stat damage, and for our weapons it's considered a different effect. Gotcha.

Thanks for the additional tips, kuro_zero.

[JakLee7]

3xneg bow with House D Cold Iron Arrows works really well on the eladrin, acid fog, solid fog work well for the mobs too as slowing them really helps - the biggest pain is the eladrin boss, as he pretty nasty at level/before you get greensteel - the 3 end bosses are pretty wicked if you get them all at the same time, but if you can seperate them you should be OK.

[Club'in]

- the 3 end bosses are pretty wicked if you get them all at the same time, but if you can seperate them you should be OK.

Lol. The run I was on, we made it to a room, and everyone was told to jump up onto some "curtains" in the corner. I spent a few moments trying that out. Some people were higher than others, so I was trying to get further up. Could hear fighting sounds outside the room. Turns out some dude was apparently soloing the bosses while everyone else played possum or something. Very strange. I'd a rather gone down swinging than hiding out in a corner.

[Steiner-Davion]

What everyone else said.

They are CG outsiders and require Evil & Cold Iron to bypass DR. Right now all we have is Transmuters and those will be nerfed in Mod9.




While I tend to agree that the change to Transmuting stinks, it will help you bypas the Cold Iron Requirement.

[Talcyndl]

It doesn't even appear to be a normal ray spell, as I've kited them around a pillar in the first large open area (below the 2 switches for the door) and was still getting hit with it even though my FoD stated they were blocked.


I thought I remember being able to dodge the light spells (as in use movement keys to get out of the way). Might be wrong.

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

I thought I remember being able to dodge the light spells (as in use movement keys to get out of the way). Might be wrong.

normally it would be possible to dodge the ray attacks, but it's very hard to see their casting animation when they are in their incorporeal globe form.

Garth

[tyranthraxus]

Greater Shout will shut everything down in there too - highly recommended.

[sirgog]

My strategies for this quest are as follows:

Trash eladrin: Kill them fast (due to their Searing Lights, which will rip you a new ******* if they live long enough). Con damage is best - plain Wounders are sufficient, you don't need Wounding of Puncturing. Post mod 9, look for wounding 4x crit weapons, such as Wounding Heavy Picks, so you can kill them fast once they are at 0 Con and autocrittable.

Palin Valance (orange named Eladrin Paladin): Con damage again. If he's low on HP, he will selfcast Heal - so make sure that you are only doing Con damage and not much DPS. (If someone doesn't own Con damage weapons, they should sit in the corner and pick their nose instead).

Rednamed Eladrin: Can't remember his name, he's in the final room. This guy self-heals like mad and can really put out the hurt. Kill the two adds with him first. Then have your melees surround him, doing as much damage as they can, once they have aggro established drop Firewall and Acid Fog on him too. If your group is underlevel, be willing to drink 1-2 mana pots here.

Final fight (Orthons and Tieflings): 2 strategies here. If you have a Cleric with a load of HP, Quicken, Extend, Maximize and Empower, AND good reflexes, get them to lay down three Bladebarriers (non-intersecting) in the main room, then pull all 5 bosses into them at once. Cleric prioritizes self-heals over everything else, and 2nd priority is sculling Haste pots if needed. They also prioritize recasting Bladebarriers that expire over healing party members. Run the bosses in circles around the room, through the BBs, until they are dead. Other party members can pretend to be useful, maybe by scrollhealing the Cleric.
The other strategy involves separating the bosses.

[Ranmaru2]

Otto's irresistable dance sphere


Where did you acquire this spell? I want to know cause OMG would that be awesome :eek:

[Mindspat]

Also, what's the best melee approach for those buggers? I ended up going with my banishing setup, but it didn't seem too effective.

That's one my favorites out of the Vale!! :D

Weakening of Enfeebling is awesome. It will often shut most things down quicker then a caster can cast Finger. The real trick is having a majority of your party ALL use the same type of stat damager. Their Str is the lowest which will put you into auto-crits very quickly while they will not be able to cast.

check this out - it was posted after the new content had just come out. http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=135565&

"Running with the Devils on elite (1 sorcerer, 2 bards, 2 rangers and a rogue); one of the best runs I’ve had with the new content even though 2 of the players went AFK and seemed to just want to soak up the exp reward – No party wipes and the adventure was awesome!"

[Club'in]

Interesting thread, Mindsplat. Thanks.

[honkuimushi]

While I tend to agree that the change to Transmuting stinks, it will help you bypas the Cold Iron Requirement.

Yeah, but notice the and. I'm not sure about the regular Eladrin, but the red named requires both. It's like Devils and Demons. Bearded Devils and Orthons are Good or Silver. Pit Fiends and others are Good and Silver. Just like Reavers are Good and Cold Iron.

So unless you have a MinII or a Unholy or Pure Evil Transmuter, your transmuter won't work anymore. That's why a lot of us are pretty ****ed about this change. The only thing Transmuters work on are Vampires, Mind Flayers, Stoneskinned Enemies and constructs with only DR/Adamantine. If you have a Flametouched or Transmuter of Pure Good, you're good against evil outsiders, but everything else is vendor trash.

Of course with the additional nerf to stat damagers, if the Ghaele only have DR/ Cold Iron, Transmuters might be the way to go.

Edit: Checking with the SRD, Ghaele have DR 10/Cold Iron and Evil, so transmuters will be useless in there.