Marut. Why? Just why?

[Swordalot]

Okay. I searched, but got no answer. If you have better search-fu than I, I'll gladly see a previous thread. Anyhoo.

So I join a PUG to do the VoNs on my Wizard. All goes well until VoN 3. No people quit, nobody went mana-dry. Minor troubles, like there always are, y'know, bad pulls, etc. We go all right until Mr. Marut shows up.

Then the bad stuff begins.

Only one person had a chaotic weapon. Okay, fine. Whatever. We do the shield wall thing. I MM with the occasional Force Missile barrage (level 10 wiz, 770-ish sp). Cleric spams searing light, as we'd heard it was okay on him.

When I went totally out of mana he was at three-quarters hp. Three MM 7 wands later he's at half hp. Cleric is low on mana, and searing light wands. When all was said and done, the Marut's regeneration charged him back to full health while we waited and died. That's right, his regen was too much for two casters and a melee to even get him below half.

But that's not even my complete problem. We came back in, refueled and ready. But there was a large problem: elementals.

I want to know why the earth elementals that the Marut apparently wakes up have a respawn time of about 45 seconds. And, why there are seven of them. And, why they spawned behind our wall, away from their orriginal spawn point.

I guess any tips for effective way to kill the Marut would be most useful. If you are about to post "Lern2Mace of smiting u nub" please kill yourself.

Anything constructive, I want to hear. Thanks in advance.

[TheMoShow]

I don't know what your problem is honestly. On elite, Marut only takes about half of a wizards mana with MM or scorching ray, if that. If you were spamming constantly you shouldve had plenty of mana to kill him.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Did you take a potion of superior impact I?

[Gimpster]

So I join a PUG to do the VoNs on my Wizard. All goes well until VoN 3. No people quit, nobody went mana-dry. Minor troubles, like there always are, y'know, bad pulls, etc. We go all right until Mr. Marut shows up.
"Bad pulls"? If you think the monsters in VON3 are powerful enough that there even is such a thing as a "bad pull", that's a sign of trouble. If your party is not strong enough to recklessly charge every encounter without thought of "pulling", then maybe you shouldn't be in there.

[Tiblorian]

=\ i can solo this on normal so, I honestly don't know what your problem is. Sonic resist and haste then just smash the thing into a pulp, if all your sp barely damages it you need to consider rerolling. The earth elemtals don't respawn unless ya back up to far btw.

[Inkblack]

The "respawns" are summoned behind along with the three you killed. They are there to make it a bit more entertaining if you have to come back.

It sounds like DPS issues. Even if shield blocking, the people in front should swing to try to contribute anything, no matter how small. When I've done it with my mage, I used magic missile instead of force missile, since I can spam them faster. If there is someone with UMD in the group, give them a magic missile wand. GeneralDiomedes suggestion about impact potions should help also. The only other thing I can think of is to not spend any mana on the elementals.

If it makes you feel better, a lot of people do have trouble their first time through. You got much deeper into the quest than I did on my first 3 attempts with a PUG. However, when I run it now it's a breeze. You'll get it, just keep plugging away.

Cheers,
Ink

[MrCow]

if all your sp barely damages it you need to consider rerolling.

I hardly see what the need to reroll will do for a situation like this...

As for tips for taking a Marut down from what I have seen, get at least one person to plug up the door, lay down a Wall of Fire, and cast magic missile/scorching ray.

On my sorceror this usually eats up about 500-600SP or so using extended +90% firewalls, +50% magic missiles, and nothing else (I don't carry any other viable damage spells).

Chances are something to boost the power of your spells, and maybe a haste on the melee type (and maybe a heroism, the Marut isn't easy to hit for many) would have added to the effectiveness as well.

[Aranticus]

yeap like what MrCow mentioned, i'll throw down an emp, max, ext firewall which will take 120hp/second. roughly 80% of my sp will remain. this i'll use to scorch and mm it, make them emp or max if you have the imp emp/max enhancement as they'll help you conserve sp.

with my ftr, i'll try to trip him. if you do not have a chaotic weapon, use adamantine, will still hit him for some.

with my clr, i'll spam holy smite, have an ext bb up, searing light and occasional cometfall.

all this little bit helps

ps: the elementals are spawned the moment you engaged the marut. its meant as a "pleasant" surprise for any1 who things the last shrine is safe.

[samho]

Or a Cleric with maximize/extended Blade Barrier. :) What you (the cleric) need to do was place a Blade Barrier with these metamagic feats, then run like a madman to kite the Marut and his Earth Pet to the nine hell. Usually a single blade barrier (Extended and Maximized) was sufficient enough to cut the Marut to metal piece on normal.

[Dariun]

"Bad pulls"? If you think the monsters in VON3 are powerful enough that there even is such a thing as a "bad pull", that's a sign of trouble. If your party is not strong enough to recklessly charge every encounter without thought of "pulling", then maybe you shouldn't be in there.

Meh. The "shouldn't be in there" thing is just silly.

The most fun quests in DDO are the ones where the party faces a very real chance of party wipe because the encounters are challenging (and it helps if the party is unfamiliar with the dungeon).

First time in VON3 (1 party wipe and 1 recall in defeat after we couldn't kill Marut) was one of the better experiences I've had in the game.

OP, magic missle with some kind of a boost (superior impulse I potions or greater potency IV item -- something that is giving 40%+ bonus) will help. Empower or Maximize is also good.

The melees need Anarchic not Chaotic weapons. Chaos weapons will work, but they do not ignore his Damage Reduction, which I think is pretty high. Anarchic overcomes his DR.

I think lawful characters can use anarchic weapons (with a penalty), and that is probably better than using a different weapons type (except greater construct bane).

We killed him with 4 level 9s using this combo: two weapon fighting rogue dual wielding anarchic weapons, fighter with anarchic weapon, wizard with magic missle while the cleric supported us and threw in a couple searing lights for good measure.

[kensihin_Himura]

Yeah, sometimes the quests at the end can go badly thanks to players bad rolls and the things good rolls. First time I did VON3 was back inthe old days where you could sneak int he jungle, took 3 hours to get to the marut and then we wiped. Spent so much money giving the clerics good wands and scrolls.

I would never redo my character just because I couldn't beat one boss, just keep on trying to beat it, good luck.

[Kargon]

The melees need Anarchic not Chaotic weapons. Chaos weapons will work, but they do not ignore his Damage Reduction, which I think is pretty high. Anarchic overcomes his DR.

Kargon pretty sure both True Chaos and Anarchamic weapamons work fine for bymapass silly DR of marut.

[Mercules]

The melees need Anarchic not Chaotic weapons. Chaos weapons will work, but they do not ignore his Damage Reduction, which I think is pretty high. Anarchic overcomes his DR.

Pure Chaos weapons do too ignore his DR. That is what my Dwarven Rogue uses.

[DSL]

Pure Chaos weapons do too ignore his DR. That is what my Dwarven Rogue uses.

That's my experience too, perhaps Dariun is thinking of Pure Good? Any of the aligned damage effects count as that alignment for DR, i.e. Anarchic/Pure Chaos=Chaotic; Holy/Pure Good=Good; Axiomatic/True Law=Lawful, etc.

VON 3 can be tough the first time through, but you will get the hang of it. The notion that you should not be in a quest unless you can recklessly zerg though it is quite amusing, though.

Other Marut-fighting tips for your wizard: Keep the party Hasted, especially if more than 1 has chaotic weapons, and do NOT back out of the room with the beholder chest, as this will trigger the rear-guard earth elementals, which can hit rather hard (and there are usually no tanks betwen them and you).

[Zorlinta]

why so much worry for the elementals, those are placed there to help you in the fight against marut ;) , charm the elementals and they will annoy marut hehehe ;) if they revert, just charm again, elementals have low saves for that, and too use ur anarchic weapons, those kinda affordables with auction house or brokers if u are unlucky to pick one. As said greater construct bane works fine too, but is harder to get, buy some extra sp potions for that fight if u running out of sp for that, and maximize, empower etc, all boost u can do :), its the glory moment for a good caster.

By sample with my guildies against the other marut 2 days ago (on hard difficult), im fascinated the other construct guardians and wield my anarchic burst bow, so the tank get the aggro & block marut, wizard spam over marut & healer spam over tank, in less than 3 mins marut fall down, maybe you only need talk about strategy and use all resources for that hard battle :)

[Dariun]

Kargon pretty sure both True Chaos and Anarchamic weapamons work fine for bymapass silly DR of marut.

Ah, my mistake then. :o

[tihocan]

In my first time in VoN3 it was indeed a challenging fight... now it's become relatively trivial.
I guess it all depends on how well the group is prepared. The melee can do a lot of damage with the right weapons and buffs.