VON-6 velah

[Gimpster]

After about 10-12 runs at her, we were lucky to get her health bar down to 90% left. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Reroll your tank with Evasion.

Or just recruit one of those lonely rangers to help you. With a low strength evasion rogue I beat VON6 elite with 2 deaths total in the entire quest (pillar monsters included). 100% Fortification and Evasion with reflex 30 means you will NOT die to velah except on a natural 1.

[Olaustt]

4. Alternate - If you have a Bard, have the Bard waiting at home for the runner and have the bard charm the mobs as the runner arrives. The Bard will need to recharm every 60 seconds or so to keep the mob under the influence. Once the pillars are complete and the tanks back at the mound, the Bard and Runner must die with the mob. If they run to the mound with the mob still charmed, as soom as the charm runs out the entire mob will high tail it to the mound and this is how party wipes happen.

5. After the barrier is down, Velah's AI did not change. Kill her and grab the loot.

Let me know if anyone uses these tactics and if anything doesn't work. Just because it worked for us doesn't mean there aren't any flaws and I would like to update with any changes required.

The Black Knights of Templar - Fernia
Redraider - lvl 14 healer
RadRaider - lvl 14 killer
Redraidear - lvl 14 fingerer
Redraidar - lvl 6 sneak

I disagree with your number 4 since the Mob's are all fascinated you can have the tanks easily take them down one at a time then they all respawn back at their appropriate pillars, easy as pie!

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Ok, you want the "Easy and Fool-Proof Way"???

Ok.

Zone into VON 6. Send everyone ONE AT A TIME to the gate (Pitcher's Mound). Choose your Runner. 1st Choice: Evasion Paladin. 2nd Choice Pure Rogue (or 9+levels Rogue). 3rd Choice: Ranger (Rngr 9+). 4th Choice: Anyone with Evasion. 5th Choice: Barbarian. 6th Choice: You shouldn't be fighting the Dragon!

Ok, while you can do the "once-around-the-world" thing, it usually ends up with hung-up mobs here and there. So. Send the Runner to 1st Base (Earth El's), and pull them back to Home Plate. Make sure they pull around the corner - HINT: Run backwards to pull the Earth El's. Die @ Home Plate. Run up, get your Rez BUT DON'T TAKE IT!!! Warp back to Home Base, run up again, and take the Rez at the last second.

Have the runner equip Blindness Immunity. Run down, go counter-clockwise (ie towards 1st base) and pull 2nd Base (Air Mephits) back, via 1st Base, to Home Plate. Die.

As soon as the Runner Dies, send, ONE AT AT TIME AND SNEAKING AROUND THE CORNER, All 3 of your pillar killars. One to 2nd Base, one halfway between 1st and 2nd, and One to 1st base. Set 1st & 2nd Base Pillars.

Once they are set, move 2nd baseman to "shortstop position" - not quite halfway to 3rd. Move guy between 1st and 2nd over to 2nd base. Then rez the runner. Hit runner with Jump, Freedom of Movement, and 30-point Cold Resist.

The idea is now to have the runner go CLOCKWISE to 3rd and grab Ice... and as soon as he clears the pillar, the "shortstop" guy moves in and sets 3rd base. He will be setting 3rd base before the runner gets back to home plate to die.... this is good. As soon as the pillars are set, take them down. Get the Pillar killars back - SNEAK AROUND THE CORNER.

Finally, get the runner up.


Now, it is Dragon Time:

Step 1: Choose your "Charger". This is the person who will charge the Dragon FIRST. Usually this is the same person as your runner. Same qualifications apply.

Step 2: Move everyone inside the gate, but DO NOT STEP UP ON THE ROCKS!!!!

Step 3: Hit everyone with 30-point Fire Resistance.

Step 4: After Fire Resistance, buff yourselves with anything and everything else you have.

-The Dragon's breath will dispel buffs, from the most recent first, down to the oldest... but she can't get them all at once... so Get your Fire Resist, then Greater Herosim, then whatever else... all your other buffs are "buffers" so that the Dispelling Breath doesn't take off your Fire Resist.

Step 5: Once everyone is done Buffing, Cast Extended Haste on everyone

Step 6: Give the command for the "Charger" to rush the Dragon. The "Charger" will jump up and run straight at the Dragon. Aim for the low-hung spot of her neck. Stop there, just underneath and behind her head, where the neck hangs down lowest and start attacking like mad.

Step 7: When the "Charger" gets almost to the Dragon, EVERYONE ELSE (And I mean EVERYONE ELSE, casters, rogues, clerics) charges the Dragon. You run to EXACTLY Where the Charger is standing, and start attacking. Melee's swing for all you're worth. Casters spam her with whatever you can, for as long as you live (which probably won't be long), Clerics start spamming Mass CLW/CMW. Rez other Clerics First. Leave casters and other real-squishy-types dead until the Dragon is dead.

Step 8: The Dragon should drop within 30-60 seconds.


That is it.


Hint: Clerics, you might find it also useful to pick 1 person each as your "must keep alive" person for your Heal or CSW/CCW spells. Pick an Evasion Paladin / Evasion Fighter or the Barbarian as the focus to try to keep alive, while Mass Healing for all. Pick the person with either the maximum DPS or the best chance to stay alive against her.

Hint: The Dragon's Melee attacks have a real hard time hitting you once you get across around 42-44 AC.

Hint: Velah is Chaotic Evil, and Fire-Based. She is also vulnerable to Sneak Attack Damage. Retribution rips her apart, as does Icy Burst.

Hint: Under NO Circumstances should anyone EVER run behind the rocks on the Dragon Platform. This will cause Velah to spawn Fire El's, Earth El's, Ice Flensers, and Mephits... and you *WILL* wipe.

Hint: The Trick on Velah is to have the one most "survivable" person (ie: HIGH Reflex Save + Evasion, if possible) to run at her first, triggering her Wing Buffet and sometimes her first Fire Breath. This is EXACTLY what you want her to do. You have the best chance to survive that, and once you close with her, chances are she won't Wing Buffet again, so the rest of the party can get in there and start whacking away.

Hint: It is VERY VERY Important that the party stay clumped up together when attacking the Dragon. This helps allow the Clerics to Mass-Heal, and will also reduce the melee damage the Clerics and some other squishies will take. If you are too close to her body, there will be a *LOT* of melee damage from the Dragon. Is you are too far away, the Flame Breath will hurt a LOT... but just behind her head, under her neck is a Sweet Spot.

Hint: Evasion Paladins will SHINE pulling the pillars and charging the Dragon. Before the last Cap increase, at Level 12, my Holy Avenger had to /death at Home Plate with the Earth El's and the Air Mephits because they coulod barely hit me! Only the Ice Flensers could hit me regularly. Additionally, there were *MANY* times where I would be the one charging the Dragon, and *NEVER TAKE A POINT OF DAMAGE* (ie. my Bonus Hit Points from GH/Virtue/etc were still all there when the Dragon Died!) This is sitting around 42 AC, with Evasion and a 26+ Reflex Save



Hope this helps.

[Jaysensen]

Reroll your tank with Evasion.

Or just recruit one of those lonely rangers to help you. With a low strength evasion rogue I beat VON6 elite with 2 deaths total in the entire quest (pillar monsters included). 100% Fortification and Evasion with reflex 30 means you will NOT die to velah except on a natural 1.

Word. Velah herself (though not VON6) is VERY easily soloable by a Ranger. I bet even any sort of toon with Evasion and a Ranged weapon can do it.


Its been mentioned briefly, but you can send a Bard around the bases and Fascinate everything, thus not pulling anything to home base at all.


If you have someone with Improved Precise Shot, you can prep (and Destroy) pillars from various places on the catwalks. 15' in from the Pitcher's mound forcefield can hit Earth and Ice. Between the Earth and Center junction, you can hit Air and Earth (about 30' ish in from the Earth side). Use a Greater Constructbane Bow.

[Merjon]

Quick question. I know that the walkway cracks under the weight of anymore than 1 person from home to the pitcher's mound. Does this apply to the paths from base to base along the outside as well? Want to know how careful the base runners and tower clearers need to be.

[Tanka]

Quick question. I know that the walkway cracks under the weight of anymore than 1 person from home to the pitcher's mound. Does this apply to the paths from base to base along the outside as well? Want to know how careful the base runners and tower clearers need to be.

Yes, this applies especially to them.

[Majere_Aumar]

The best method of fighting the dragon I've seen yet involved a 5 man group. 1 tank, 1 sorc (me), 1 ranger, 2 clerics. This was only recently as well.

The 2 clerics hide behind the rocks to the right and left just inside the gate.

The tank runs right up to the dragon and starts beating on her, the 2 clerics pop out frequently and keep him healed with heal spell. They only watch his HP, nobody else's.

The ranger and caster run behind the rocks to the other end and range the dragon from the side.

The elementals do spawn (at least I know the one on the sorc side does , but it takes a second to neutralize them so you can get back to dragon killing. The ranger and sorc look after their own HP.

Its very safe because your clerics aren't just spamming the low powered mass heal on fighters which needs hundreds of HP quickly.

[Tanka]

The best method of fighting the dragon I've seen yet involved a 5 man group. 1 tank, 1 sorc (me), 1 ranger, 2 clerics. This was only recently as well.

The 2 clerics hide behind the rocks to the right and left just inside the gate.

The tank runs right up to the dragon and starts beating on her, the 2 clerics pop out frequently and keep him healed with heal spell. They only watch his HP, nobody else's.

The ranger and caster run behind the rocks to the other end and range the dragon from the side.

The elementals do spawn (at least I know the one on the sorc side does , but it takes a second to neutralize them so you can get back to dragon killing. The ranger and sorc look after their own HP.

Its very safe because your clerics aren't just spamming the low powered mass heal on fighters which needs hundreds of HP quickly.

We just leave the Clerics in the back and have everyone fight Velah under her nose. No chance of elemental spawns, very minimal chance of party wipe.

[Heladron]

Is this really the only way to kill her??? i.e. people have to die on purpose?

Or is this just the easiest way?

Surely the designers did not design a quest that requires that you die at least once to finish it?

I agree, why would anyone have to die just to complete a quest? The designers said, I believe in a release note that you don't have to die to complete the quest. I admit I have never been on a Velah Raid, and I would really like to, but to die to complete a quest is never in my play book. Dying usually happens due to miscalculation or bad planning or just making a bad decision, but never on purpose so that I can get 1100XP debt if for some reason I can't be rez'd.

If anyone has used a strategy that doesn't involve dying I'd like to hear about it. I have been studying this raid for two weeks now. Because I really want to fight some freaking dragons in this game. All I have been able to find was the same old, same old. Run the bases, kite the mobs, die on home plate get rez'd , knock down pillars, kill dragon. Thousands of people playing this game and that's the best we've come up with. Amazing!!!! That fits the definition of insanity.

I just know it has to be possible without dying because there's a video on YouTube of three naked players from Children of Hungary doing it. They don't show all the details, but they didn't look like they had XP debt or anything. In addition, I also read a post where Four drunk Spaniards beat Velah and they were 12th level.

I'm not trying to be insulting to anyone since clearly it works, but I'm just amazed that the only, popular, strategy involves somebody taking one for the team when the developers have said that isn't necessary.

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Options on how to do it without dying:

1) It should be possible if you sent fighters out to the pillar platforms with Weakening/Maladroit weapons (and probably precision to reduce the damage), and get them all down to 0 STR/DEX... at which point you can ignore them.

2) With 3 teams of Melee & Cleric/Healer, you could kill all the Earth Els, to get a team into position on Air... then move other teams onto Earth and Ice... with the Cleric sitting back, just barely in healing range, it shouldn't trigger Velah's fireballs... then just whack away at the pillars to set them... kill mobs when you need to... and heal from a distance.

3) Bards with Fascinate, and melee types to kill pillars

4) Charm them all, take down the pillars (Symbol of Persuasion/Mass Suggestion/etc)

5) Self-sufficient tanks/evasion tanks... go out, and just beat the pillars down... self-healing when necessary.


Any of these *SHOULD* be workable... but I have not tested any of these. With having to run VON 5 & 6, and the time investment, I tend to go with what I *KNOW* will work... and not improvise. However, with Level 14's running Velah, you get virtually no XP, so investigating non-death methods may be a better idea.

*Please note, these are all theoretical, and I have not tried any of these

[Crabo]

However, with Level 14's running Velah, you get virtually no XP, so investigating non-death methods may be a better idea.

Rofl.
Yea we all know how much level 14s are in need of xp. Sad thing is that this statement made more sense than anything else in your post.

Squeezing your left nipple and howling at the moon *SHOULD* also ensure success in this raid.

[Dworkin_of_Amber]

Rofl.

Squeezing your left nipple and howling at the moon *SHOULD* also ensure success in this raid.

I will **HAVE** to try that one next time!!! It's SURE to work!

[Gimpster]

I'm not trying to be insulting to anyone since clearly it works, but I'm just amazed that the only, popular, strategy involves somebody taking one for the team when the developers have said that isn't necessary.

It's not necessary, but it's easier and more reliable.

The popular method requires exactly two (2) players to make it work, and only one of them needs to really know what he's doing. Any other method would require more than one player to know how to do it, which increases the chance of somebody screwing up and failing the raid.

With the popular method, 1 player can herd, 1 player can rez him, and the other 10 can go AFK for a microwave burrito as they wait.

[Zenix_Leviticus]

Death is never figured into our VoN6 plan now.

It can happen unexpectedly though.


Short quick description:

Everyone stays at home.
Kite all mobs to home and FASCINATE them.
No one kill anything...
Have pillar smashers go out and destroy the pillars.
Pillar Smashers return home
Monsters are killed one at a time so they respawn back at their base.
Everyone heal up/top off
Run to Velah's door.
Buff...buff...buff. buffff
Yell 'LEEEROOOYYY JEEEEENNKIIINS!!!!' and run for velah.
Hit Hit hit hit heal heal heal hit heal hit heal

YAAAAAY!!!!

Has worked between 10-20 times for us this way....

[Heladron]

...Yell 'LEEEROOOYYY JEEEEENNKIIINS!!!!'....

That is exactly what I was looking for. In a PnP game survival was the name of the game or you got to tear up your character sheet and start over, especially if you had a DM like mine.

[RyanWade]

We ran the Dragon last night and the AI has definately made it both easier and harder.

Grabbing the mob is easier and getting them to follow you around is easier. Getting them to stay at home is not. Once our runner died at home, the mob immediately started to move back to their bases.

To dispell one myth - the mobs DEFINATELY respawn if you wipe them out, and I mean respawn in a hurry. Killing them is not a good option.

Best strategy I have seen so far:





1. Move all but your runner (high saves and evasion preferred) to the pitchers mound as usual.

2. Have your runner go counterclockwise and gather all 3 mobs in one run. Have your three pillar tanks follow the runner at intervals so the first tank is getting to third as the runner is grabbing mobs at second. That tank continues to second and on to first with the other two pillar tanks following around the counterclockwise circle.

3. Prep the pillars and take them down ASAP.

4. While the pillars are going down, raise the runner and have them run back to home to drive the mob back into home and die again. You may have to do this a few times depending on how quick your pillar tanks get the pillars down and get back to the pitchers mound.

4. Alternate - If you have a Bard, have the Bard waiting at home for the runner and have the bard charm the mobs as the runner arrives. The Bard will need to recharm every 60 seconds or so to keep the mob under the influence. Once the pillars are complete and the tanks back at the mound, the Bard and Runner must die with the mob. If they run to the mound with the mob still charmed, as soom as the charm runs out the entire mob will high tail it to the mound and this is how party wipes happen.

5. After the barrier is down, Velah's AI did not change. Kill her and grab the loot.

Let me know if anyone uses these tactics and if anything doesn't work. Just because it worked for us doesn't mean there aren't any flaws and I would like to update with any changes required.

The Black Knights of Templar - Fernia
Redraider - lvl 14 healer
RadRaider - lvl 14 killer
Redraidear - lvl 14 fingerer
Redraidar - lvl 6 sneak

I have done Vehla twice since last update.

The 1st time we got all mobs to home base, and then a couple of each type of mob went back to their base. We never got the pillars down and it was a loss. If that happens again, I am going to use the facinate or other method mentioned in the this quoted thread.

The 2nd time I did we had someone run to 1st, 2nd, 3rd, then home.
The mobs all went and stayed there, we then took out the pillars as normal (although I noticed if u get them less than 10% they regen back to full health) then we killed Velah the typical way

[Zenix_Leviticus]

I guess I should add that we go 3rd, 2nd, 1st.

When the runner gets past 3rd we start loading the bases with pillar
smashers.


When the runner gets to 1st, there is a guy on 2nd, 3rd, and one
halfway between 3rd and home.

The first smasher always preps the pillars a little too.


hope this helps a little.

[Nonan]

****.. I forgot the LEROY JENKINS attack!!!!!!!

Man...

[Zenix_Leviticus]

****.. I forgot the LEROY JENKINS attack!!!!!!!

Man...

It actually makes or breaks the mission!!

You must do this!