Epic Demon Queen by Ghallanda ReRolled

[valorik]

I used 7 pots on my bard, healing, I wasn't really focused on conserving mana though.

[Anthios888]

To answer a few questions about the raid -

My LD
I went LD right at the beginning of the raid, around when she first teleported onto the platform. All 3 of us had to reboot due to Jaerlach's terrible internet. I was very dead when I came back, and it definitely cost us in terms of resources having to rebuff everyone.

Intimidate DC
I succeeded intimidates around half the time or sometimes slightly less than half the time. My intimidate varied between 68 and 70 based on whether I had walk of the Sun or not.

Using intimidate
I can see how the use of an intimitank could be controversial, especially when it's really hard to be 100%. I like it because it gives the DPS tanks a really nice role besides killing efreeti, which is nearly free damage. It helped protect most of the nukers/clerics/rangers from being mowed down constantly. One of the nice things about it was that even though I failed my intimidate many times, just the fact that I was standing next to her (plus guards) made her helped her aggro on me more than I deserved. Is intimidate necessary? No. Is it helpful and doable? Absolutely. I believe there are many good strategies to tackle most of the situations on DDO, and intimidate shouldn't be ruled out even if the DC is super high.

AC
My AC is the thing that fluctuated all over the place, from the high 70s to the high 80s. Part of that was due to going LD. With the paladin a little too hesitant to stay too close to me, plus losing barkskin, recitation, and haste a few times, Lailat was able to hit me a good amount, but AC was still a great way to go since it absorbed a lot of damage for me. There were a few times I really got pounded, but that was usually because I pulled 2 efreeti and Lailat at the same time and failed a few saves.

DR for tanking Lailat
Jaerlach suggested the epic damage to be similar to elite, but it was a bit higher. Many of her swings were hitting me for 20-40 after my DR/37 was applied, putting her swing per hit quite a bit higher than Elite, but not as bad as it was reported on Lamannia. About half the damage was blocked by my DR.

The gnolls were a nuisance but were not bad with good aggro management (thanks to Nightward for taking over)

Mana pots
A few things:

1) Everyone was nuking like crazy. Our own blade barriers were everywhere.
2) We didn't fully pull off our own strategy, mostly due to the chaos from going LD and trying to make up for that afterwards.
3) We expected to drink dozens of mana pots per person, so some of these were drunk before we really had an idea of the scope of the raid.
The challenge now will be learning to budget. The intimitank method is one way that makes it easier to control resource usage.

Overall difficulty
People will complain that the raid is too easy, but I have to disagree. Most people are playing this raid now with the best characters they have, and with years' experience running this raid. It is still extremely challenging and has the potential to turn ugly quickly. Considering the number of raid completions required even to upgrade a single item (even after the shards and **** are collected), I don't think it's a problem that the raid is beatable. No one wants to run this 20 times on their gimp paladin just to get 1 gear upgrade if it's a 10 mana pot donation to get into the group each time.

[Nomical]

Nice job everyone. It was a really fun run. I agree that all the posts show that multiple strategies are possible for solid runs, which is great. All serious characters no matter the class should be able to contribute to Epic content and I do think that's the case despite DQ's reputation as a ranger/sorc only quest.

We were in for a while before it started while we swapped a few toons and picked up more arrows, and had the big DC problem, but otherwise it was fairly smooth.

[totmacher]

18 pots for one cleric, less than five for everyone else(FvS and bard I'm not sure on). Lots of scrolls.

nice, that should get better, that sounds awesome. looks like intimitanks are gonna become a commodity, i love it

[Twerpp]

Thanks for the strategy and GJ guys

[Junts]

nice, that should get better, that sounds awesome. looks like intimitanks are gonna become a commodity, i love it

You'll need to not just be an intimitank but an incredibly specialized (read human fighter or paladin with deneith marks) to be able to come anywhere close to locking her down. I think the intimidate dc is a little too high, because it requires a bit too specialized an intimidate build, one so much so that it's going to be virtually ineffective in other content, as you're looking at a fairly high starting cha fighter or a paladin burning 3-5 feats on intimidate to be able to get anywhere near reliable with her dc.

I think if they were to decrease her dc by 5-6 points it would work out much better, as it would encourage people to play and spec characters for intimidate without requriing such a massive investment as to make the character virtually useless for other functions. Very few players are gonna be willing to build and play a character just for this, elite vods and elite towers, that is pretty much pointless in any other role or quest.

Rock and I talked a little about our various impressions of her damage (i distinctly remember a lto of 40-50 point hits when I was getting tagged) and agreed that the likely issue is her strength bonus: She was tagging me on the back-swing of her attack chain for only 1-2 hits at a time primarily, and I think I was only being hit by some of the arms on one side. I suggest that, given that Lailat has Greater or Superior Multi-Weapon fighting, I was probably being hit by her lower arms and that her strength bonus is considerably large and being hit only by her 'off hands' is why I was seeing lower damage than Rockcandy, who was taking hits from them all.

Since I only saw true chaos and sonic damage on hits from her, I'm pretty sure I was only being hit by a couple weapons, as I know her 'main hand' Khopeshes are unholy.

[maddmatt70]

Overall difficulty
People will complain that the raid is too easy, but I have to disagree. Most people are playing this raid now with the best characters they have, and with years' experience running this raid. It is still extremely challenging and has the potential to turn ugly quickly. Considering the number of raid completions required even to upgrade a single item (even after the shards and **** are collected), I don't think it's a problem that the raid is beatable. No one wants to run this 20 times on their gimp paladin just to get 1 gear upgrade if it's a 10 mana pot donation to get into the group each time.

Oh it is alot more easy if you have more ranged characters. In the run I was in we had 2 ranged specialists and 3 other characters who were o.k. ranged and with a few practice runs it was completed and with almost 0 pots drank. Casters help of course but less so in the critical 10% of the Demon Queens health or less when she goes spaz. I have run Wiz King, Offering Blood, and Chaining the Flames. I thought Offering was the easiest of those three but offering is still probably harder then the Demon Queen Raid iteslf.

[Anthios888]

Oh it is alot more easy if you have more ranged characters. In the run I was in we had 2 ranged specialists and 3 other characters who were o.k. ranged and with a few practice runs it was completed and with almost 0 pots drank. Casters help of course but less so in the critical 10% of the Demon Queens health or less when she goes spaz. I have run Wiz King, Offering Blood, and Chaining the Flames. I thought Offering was the easiest of those three but offering is still probably harder then the Demon Queen Raid iteslf.

What I'm saying is that I agree with you. However, we as a whole need to be able to beat this raid, and beat it without declining good players in favor of one or two class types. My point was that several strategies and group make-ups can be effective and economical in this raid.