Mabar Event Pre-Planning

[Cauthey]

Mabar is approaching! Time to get your Disruption and Holy/Holy/Holy items ready. :D

In the past, when the Mabar "bits" turn-in got close to Spectral Dragon time, I would start flooding the general chat channel with details about how the whole Spectral Dragon challenge works. There's a lot of information that is critical to success, and I used the /alias command to quickly distribute that information.

I am planning to update my /aliases for the coming event. But before I do, I'd like to get some community feedback first:

I've only run the Spectral Dragon at CR 1-8 and CR 9-14. Are there any critical differences from these two lower level Spectral Dragon instances compared to CR 15-19, and CR 20?

The lever that floods the altars with light - keep the light on all the time? Or, only when the Dragon is in the respective room? I have heard that flipping the light on all the time causes crippling lag, and also provokes Gargoyle spawns. Can anyone weigh in on this with some experience, or empirical evidence?

I plan to highlight that coordination, balancing the teams on each alter, and communication is key. And to open GENERAL CHAT! (Some remove this, or discard it all together). Are there any other recommendations for coordination and communication? Group with your altar room? Raid group to include as many instance members as possible? What is the ideal configuration for communicating between 16-24 of your random closest friends?

Does anyone remember the Dragon's weaknesses? Vulnerable to any particular elements? Or, does Greater Dragon Bane reign supreme? Any particularly helpful tactics when casting or meleeing the dragon?

Any tips for dealing with the Gargoyles? I don't believe that they are particularly suseptible to any specific elements. Are they easily charmed, disco balled, fascinated?

Can you suggest any other specific, critical tips that you hope to The Host that everyone in your instance will know?

Thanks for the feedback. I'll likely post my /alias spams in this thread, too, in case anyone would like use them to do the same on their server.

[Jaid314]

as i recall, the gargoyles are very easy to deal with. i've kited them through disco balls while letting them die in cloudkill on my 20 sorc and had no problems soloing one of the levers while doing so (now granted, i'm one of those sorcerers that actually runs around with heal scrolls and such crazy things, so i mean... if you get the wrong kind of sorcerer - ie the kind that is utterly clueless - this gets much harder, and you may 'need' as many as three people including a healer specifically for the lever...)

[Cauthey]

as i recall, the gargoyles are very easy to deal with. i've kited them through disco balls while letting them die in cloudkill on my 20 sorc and had no problems soloing one of the levers while doing so (now granted, i'm one of those sorcerers that actually runs around with heal scrolls and such crazy things, so i mean... if you get the wrong kind of sorcerer - ie the kind that is utterly clueless - this gets much harder, and you may 'need' as many as three people including a healer specifically for the lever...)

If memory serves, the levers were often manned by 1 person: usually a Crowd Controller or a self-healing arcane. In a pinch, 1 monk could serve as lever man for one side of the dungeon, if not for the entire dungeon (Monk speed, abundant step, etc.)

Now that the Cannith Boots of Propulsion are in play, single manning multiple levers might be more doable.

[brian14]

Does anyone remember the Dragon's weaknesses? Vulnerable to any particular elements? Or, does Greater Dragon Bane reign supreme?
If I remember correctly, spectral dragon is of type "undead" and is affected by undead bane, not dragon bane.

[Mercureal]

Yeah, the dragon was undead from what I recall. Light spells seemed to work pretty well.

[Jinpo]

It will be interesting to see how the "general DDO changes with U11" that affected the difficulty of CC will affect Mabar. Will the spectral dragon be a supah dragon now?

[Cauthey]

If I remember correctly, spectral dragon is of type "undead" and is affected by undead bane, not dragon bane.

That's right. I think I remember even highlighting that fact (not dragon, it's UNDEAD) in my spam spiel. Thanks for the reminder!


Yeah, the dragon was undead from what I recall. Light spells seemed to work pretty well.

Tasty, delicious, purple-numbers damage? That's good information to know. Perhaps quaff a Potion of Irian's Light (purchasable with motes) or anoint your weapon with an Oil of Incandescence (purchasable with motes).


It will be interesting to see how the "general DDO changes with U11" that affected the difficulty of CC will affect Mabar. Will the spectral dragon be a supah dragon now?

I hope not. A super-buffed Spectral Dragon will be VERY CHALLENGING to defeat in the timespan allowed. I hope that Turbine is not overlooking this consideration.

[guardianx2009]

If you are a low level divine, the spell Order's Wrath works really well against the gargoyles.

Pump it up with efficacy/potency and maybe max/empower. It does good deal of damage AND stuns the gargoyles. I recall doing this on my then lowbie drow cleric and got comments from spectators above at the levers like "whoa look at the cleric pwning everything!"

[Lord_Thanatos]

That's right. I think I remember even highlighting that fact (not dragon, it's UNDEAD) in my spam spiel. Thanks for the reminder!



Tasty, delicious, purple-numbers damage? That's good information to know. Perhaps quaff a Potion of Irian's Light (purchasable with motes) or anoint your weapon with an Oil of Incandescence (purchasable with motes).



I hope not. A super-buffed Spectral Dragon will be VERY CHALLENGING to defeat in the timespan allowed. I hope that Turbine is not overlooking this consideration.

Just stack FvS's and Clerics into the raid, I guess. Radiant Bursts and stacked DPs are going to obliterate the dragon in short order.

[Cauthey]

Just stack FvS's and Clerics into the raid, I guess. Radiant Bursts and stacked DPs are going to obliterate the dragon in short order.

Yeah, except that Eternity moves. Gotta make sure to stack some competence (or, at a minimum, communication) on every single altar.

[Mercureal]

Just stack FvS's and Clerics into the raid, I guess. Radiant Bursts and stacked DPs are going to obliterate the dragon in short order.

An interesting thought - I wonder if Divine Punishment stacks will travel with him when he switches rooms, or if his teleport will clear them?

[Cauthey]

The lever that floods the altars with light - keep the light on all the time? Or, only when the Dragon is in the respective room? I have heard that flipping the light on all the time causes crippling lag, and also provokes Gargoyle spawns. Can anyone weigh in on this with some experience, or empirical evidence?

STILL looking for opinions on the operation of the lever. Keep the lights on the entire time, and blast the Gargoyles to Dolurrh? Or, only operate the lever when Eternity is in your dungeon quadrant?

[mournbladereigns]

STILL looking for opinions on the operation of the lever. Keep the lights on the entire time, and blast the Gargoyles to Dolurrh? Or, only operate the lever when Eternity is in your dungeon quadrant?

As a general practice. I'd say its best to only use lever while dragon is in that altar's room. Prevents the chance of blowing ur sp fighting gargoyles before dragon goes down, or a lever puller going down by getting overwhelmed, etc.

[MrkGrismer]

STILL looking for opinions on the operation of the lever. Keep the lights on the entire time, and blast the Gargoyles to Dolurrh? Or, only operate the lever when Eternity is in your dungeon quadrant?

ONLY use the lever when the dragon is in the room. As I understand it, when the lever is pulled it summons gargoyles to BOTH the lever AND the altar. If the altar is destroyed it is a FAIL for everyone.

Only keep the lever pulled if EVERYONE in the instance is out to kill-kill-kill and can handle it. Otherwise you could be responsible for a FAIL.

[Jinpo]

I'd say keep the lever pulled the whole time. The more gargoyles to kill, the more turn in drops you get.