Back-up kiter strategy for ToD?

[sephiroth1084]

What are most groups doing in the second fight of Tower of Despair in case their primary kiter goes down?

Also, are you primarily using a caster for kiting at this point, or a barb, monk, ranger or FvS?

What path is best for kiting? Around the 4 inner pillars (2 flaming and 2 in front of them, in relation to starting position)?

[Junts]

casters usually

our main kiter firewalls around the stairs .. they call out on voice if they're dead or about to die (dps lag)

backup kiter will throw a fog spell or glitterdust on the stairs and run. They dont use a damage spell so that the original primary kiter will win any aggro battles (the main danger is that a mob hits an old firewall and both get aggro .. using a fog ensures that firewall will beat the fogs for aggro if both are alive.

As a kiter I usually throw a firewall or two on the south of the room as I come by to grab firm aggro on anything that only has visual on me, which has the added advantage of picking up shadows in those situations.

Honestly, its pretty simple

I tend to kite more in an oval shape than anything, wide to theeast/west of the room and flatter near the north (to not go too close to the stairs). Using sharp corners around pillars gives you the advantage of having a better field of view and ability to dodge incoming shadows who might have appeared in a location that would cut you off

with prot elements / fireshield fire, it takes quite a few ticks to kill you, so you can afford to cut a sharp corner and take a hit or two.

Our backup is a caster with heal scroll ability so they can throw a heal if needbe on the primary kiter who's taken some damage.

[sephiroth1084]

Thanks Junts.

That's more or less what I had been trying on my wizard, and calling for when I was leading a run as my tank.

Helps if people listen, follow directions and employ skill.

You think a FvS might be able to do this task? Blade Barrier doesn't last very long, but neither does the fight, and FvS with wings is fast!

[croger1520033]

Thanks Junts.

That's more or less what I had been trying on my wizard, and calling for when I was leading a run as my tank.

Helps if people listen, follow directions and employ skill.

You think a FvS might be able to do this task? Blade Barrier doesn't last very long, but neither does the fight, and FvS with wings is fast!

Meh I run it on my ranger, I usually only die when someone does something stupid, like standing on the floor or on the stairs. Then I have to fight to get aggro.

[soupertc]

Thanks Junts.

That's more or less what I had been trying on my wizard, and calling for when I was leading a run as my tank.

Helps if people listen, follow directions and employ skill.

You think a FvS might be able to do this task? Blade Barrier doesn't last very long, but neither does the fight, and FvS with wings is fast!

the smoothest I've seen is with a FvS.

We have a ranger kite normally....with another ranger ready to take over if the first one bites it. We also have a caster throw fogs and firewall for a 3rd back up if something just goes wrong. Triple redundancy FTW.

[Kintro]

Thanks Junts.

That's more or less what I had been trying on my wizard, and calling for when I was leading a run as my tank.

Helps if people listen, follow directions and employ skill.

You think a FvS might be able to do this task? Blade Barrier doesn't last very long, but neither does the fight, and FvS with wings is fast!

If we don't have a second caster we have the second cleric put a bladebarrier halfway up the steps and keep it refreshed. If the main kiter dies the cleric takes off running, Jump/Res the kiter who will rebuff, put down firewalls and regain agro though normally the shadows have despawned before it's needed.

[ddoer]

recently, i realize it's not necessarily easier to act as a backup kiter than the primary kiter.

jobs of the primary kiter is simple, mainly firewall and run. when you run, you keep staying in alert and watch for shadowfiend ahead, and also watch for all your protection, HP, fire shield and haste timer etc. And you could expect (or hear) the shadowfiends are aggro on and are chasing you. And you roughly know where they are and how many of them are there.

for a backup kiter, the first challenge is to keep in alert when waiting for the duty. for a sorc, he is suppose to watch the HP of the primary kiter and cast cold protection and heal, and also keep noticing his own fire shield and haste, and also pay attention to the primary kiter's firewall on the stair and cast backup fog/firewall, and i suppose they will also do debuffing, casting concealment fog and probably nuke the boss.

when the time come, the backup kiter may not have ideas of how many shadowfiends there are, where they are, whether he has aggro already etc. And probably, the fight has last for some time already and more shadowfiends are spawned. And the kite switching is not something you could easily practice. if the primary kiter is good, the backup may not have chance to kite at all.