A Really, REALLY, bad day!

[Deaeth]

Have you ever been at the end of a quest and the pug just would NOT listen very well? I should have bailed early on, but needed to complete this and by the time we were too far in I said screw this we are completing!

Good thing I had cash cuz OMG



Needless to say, there were a lot of deaths, and YES it was only on NORMAL!!!!!!



But we did finally complete it.



I had the most deaths cuz I decided I would just rez and go and beat down the bosses till I died. Rinse and repeat! Never again will I pug this quest with people I do not know!

[pSINNa]

Mate, Kobold claims another victim, lol!.

In my last guild i used to get stuck with the job of flagging people on a regular basis, usually i'd have them stay upstairs while i did the dirty deed, 90% of the time on my ranger, and this was before 'casual' and the evasion bums rush and loot method became popular.

I've been there, i remember those epic repair costs, those runs that ended up naked after the guildie i was flagging just couldn't wait and rushed in to kindly draw the aggro for me over and over again.

Thanks for getting the SS on that one, i'm glad i'm not the only one it's happened to.

I'm laughing with you mate, not at you, Kobold, it's a classic (to this day i cringe when i jump in that one without a caster with ooze puppet).

With a tear of nostalgia in my eye,

Regards

[Tapsimanxer]

I had to check the forum server again to make sure I wasnt with you. Was in kobold also recently, and I couldnt even imagine how we we're able to finish it. all thanks to one player who did her job well.

I hate those friggin living fire spells. We didnt have a summon repair like you did, so one of us even had to recall after finish and run to the tavern in her underwear! she was the cleric. makes me wonder if i should even go back when i need another rune.

[Eladiun]

I hate those friggin living fire spells. We didnt have a summon repair like you did, so one of us even had to recall after finish and run to the tavern in her underwear! she was the cleric. makes me wonder if i should even go back when i need another rune.

Ooze Puppet + Mass Charm Monster = Easy Button

[x1372]

Ah, ETK. How many issues you've caused.

I actually went with a group that solved it on Elite a couple days ago. Gotta say, having someone with ooze puppet REALLY helped.

I think ours went like this...

Get boss down to 20%, wipe. Someone ran away during the wipe, boss followed, was back at full health due to snap back

Start the fight again, idiot cleric (me) forgot Divine Intervention and died relatively early, group wipes, boss at 80%

Two people leave

LFM goes up, we get a 20 wiz who's willing to help us finish this. A guildie who wants completion also joins.

Ooze puppet, start fight. Wipe. Boss at 20.

Ooze puppet, start fight, wipe. Second boss down to half health.

Ooze puppet, start fight, complete.

If we hadn't done the "leave one person behind" method... god help us.

Still wish my buddy had let me go back and hit the first shrine rather than waste his portable one, but it is what it is.

Add one more quest to my list of "never going back except to help a friend on casual."

[Deaeth]

Well needless to say, I went back as a FTR/Rog, 16/2 with a 18 FvS guildy, 18 bard guildy, and 16 fvs guildy and we had flawless execution with no deaths. I have screenshots to prove that too!

Ooze puppet DOES help, but again with a good grp is not neccesary. Good evasion and a good healer with blades is all you need down there. Have the healer throw a good blade barrier down at the bottom of ramp, and basically kites the trash while the evasion guy tanks down the first boss. Kiter keeps him/herself and the tank healed and it goes very smoothly.

We had the 2nd FvS stand at the back end of tunnel in case we happened to die, easy rez rebuffs. Bard stayed up top manning the lever.

It CAN be an easy quest, just gotta have ppl that work good together!

[PopeJual]

I'm pretty sure that Enter the Kobold doesn't actually give XP. It only gives the essence, the Eldritch Rune, Argonessen favor and a completion for Stealer of Souls.

If you keep that in mind (and ignore the cries from people who claim that it does give XP), it gets a little easier. That way, you can have most of the party recall out and repair/get back HP/SP and come back into the quest in between party wipres.

Additionally, the living spells respawn when you kill them. They don't respawn if they're alive, but just somewhere other than the fight. Have most of the party hide somewhere while one person (with Evasion and either Fire Shield or Firestorm Greaves if possible) goes into the final fight to grab aggro. That person comes back up with the living spells' aggro and drags them back to the Knight's Tour puzzle. The living spells get trapped in the maze and your end fight gets a lot easier.

It takes a while to drag all the living spells out, but it's worth the effort if you're having trouble in that boss fight.

[Zenako]

Additionally, the living spells respawn when you kill them. They don't respawn if they're alive, but just somewhere other than the fight. Have most of the party hide somewhere while one person (with Evasion and either Fire Shield or Firestorm Greaves if possible) goes into the final fight to grab aggro. That person comes back up with the living spells' aggro and drags them back to the Knight's Tour puzzle. The living spells get trapped in the maze and your end fight gets a lot easier.

It takes a while to drag all the living spells out, but it's worth the effort if you're having trouble in that boss fight.

Cool, was not sure they would follow that far from the end. Same concept works on lots of mobs that respawn, just get them confused or trapped by things like ladders or drops or ledges and you can neuter them significantly. (I think most of us know that they can get up past the shrine readily...)

[The_Great_Samulas]

I have pugged this frequently (though not in the last 4 months), never had the issues you are having. Sounds like poor strategy. The way to do this end fight is either with ooze puppet and charms or with a kiter that basically runs things around in a circle down below in the lava. The rest of the group should tank the kobold up top and keep him there. You should leave one on the lever by the shrine just in case. When using Ooze puppet you should not be with the rest of the group on the top of the mountain.

Three important facets to kiting. 1) There is a hole under the mountain that you can run through to make your circle complete when kiting down below. 2) The kiter must get initial agro and then maintain it. He should go in first and use solid fog clickies/acid fog/blade barrier at the base of the mountain (about 1/3 way up). Everyone else should go to the top of the mountain and not use AOE/intimidate. Just kill the kobold then finish the efretti. 3) Kiter should keep himself protected from fire with the appopriate spells. The kiter can be basically anyone and divine kiters can still heal the top group fine and kite (depending on skill).

I don't know. I keep hearing bad stories about PUGs, but I don't seem to experience it myself. Sure you get bad players, but I think people make their own luck by 1) being prepared for a quest, 2) explaining key encounters like this and making sure everyone knows the strategy, and 3) allocating roles in the strategy according to ability to fullfill them. Enter the Kobold is a known problematic quest in a PUG. The gimp should be on the lever. The ace should be kiting. An experienced player should have been examining his group for player skill during the rest of the quest so he would have an idea of what would be best in the final fight. You were a sorc in that one, were you just wail of the banshee and haste through the whole thing? or did you actually pay attention to the group? If you don't let them fight through the quest, you have no idea what they can do. A lot more leadership was in order it sounds like, but maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture. 115 deaths is pretty pathetic (on normal no less).

Anyways, hope it helps.

Edit - and by the way Enter the Kobold IS an xp quest done with levels 16-18 it is approximately 1000 xp/min. All three of the Reaver's Refuge flagging quests are good xp, with Prey on the Hunter being the lowest xp/min and Monastery of the Scorpion the best.

[Quikster]

I have pugged this frequently (though not in the last 4 months), never had the issues you are having. Sounds like poor strategy. The way to do this end fight is either with ooze puppet and charms or with a kiter that basically runs things around in a circle down below in the lava. The rest of the group should tank the kobold up top and keep him there. You should leave one on the lever by the shrine just in case. When using Ooze puppet you should not be with the rest of the group on the top of the mountain.

Three important facets to kiting. 1) There is a hole under the mountain that you can run through to make your circle complete when kiting down below. 2) The kiter must get initial agro and then maintain it. He should go in first and use solid fog clickies/acid fog/blade barrier at the base of the mountain (about 1/3 way up). Everyone else should go to the top of the mountain and not use AOE/intimidate. Just kill the kobold then finish the efretti. 3) Kiter should keep himself protected from fire with the appopriate spells. The kiter can be basically anyone and divine kiters can still heal the top group fine and kite (depending on skill).

I don't know. I keep hearing bad stories about PUGs, but I don't seem to experience it myself. Sure you get bad players, but I think people make their own luck by 1) being prepared for a quest, 2) explaining key encounters like this and making sure everyone knows the strategy, and 3) allocating roles in the strategy according to ability to fullfill them. Enter the Kobold is a known problematic quest in a PUG. The gimp should be on the lever. The ace should be kiting. An experienced player should have been examining his group for player skill during the rest of the quest so he would have an idea of what would be best in the final fight. You were a sorc in that one, were you just wail of the banshee and haste through the whole thing? or did you actually pay attention to the group? If you don't let them fight through the quest, you have no idea what they can do. A lot more leadership was in order it sounds like, but maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture. 115 deaths is pretty pathetic (on normal no less).

Anyways, hope it helps.

+1

Last run in here was on my pure fighter, a barb, 3 sorcs. None had ooze puppet, 1 was a fleshie. On elite. We had a couple deaths, but finished without wiping. Its more about teamwork then how to handle your party wipes. Oh yeah, we got xp too .

[Kalari]

I think my worst experience in there was when four of my guildies (all barbs) talked my evasion cleric monk (will not call her the new flavor term for them lol it just sounds ********) into taking them threw enter the kobold, Now these guys could do and did do a lot of damage at the end fight but omg the amount of heals I had to throw out all while taking fireballs to the face (anyone who knows me knows I hate taking it to the face ) Yeah that was a trying ordeal and I had to go take a nap afterwards.

Needless to say that quest at the end can be painful especially in a pug with out some good strategy going on but even in groups with friends it can be a nail bitting time.

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

There's a 'trick' to this not sure if this is cheese or not (my vote is that it's not, and my nose is very sensitive to cheese). At least you could do this last time I ran the quest, haven't run in a long time.

You can pull the fire eles and the 4 living spells out of the main room. Just send 1 person in to grabs agrro of the 4 spells (acid fog or ck works well, or just running in) then he comes back and someone opens the door, then the living spells can be locked out of the room and left by the shrine or just kited up and down the passage way. If you time it right you can run them up the slope back away from the shrine and then quickly run back and get through the barrier totally locking them out.

You can do the same thing with the fire eles, but those don't spawn until later.

Garth

[Kalari]

There's a 'trick' to this not sure if this is cheese or not (my vote is that it's not, and my nose is very sensitive to cheese). At least you could do this last time I ran the quest, haven't run in a long time.

You can pull the fire eles and the 4 living spells out of the main room. Just send 1 person in to grabs agrro of the 4 spells (acid fog or ck works well, or just running in) then he comes back and someone opens the door, then the living spells can be locked out of the room and left by the shrine or just kited up and down the passage way. If you time it right you can run them up the slope back away from the shrine and then quickly run back and get through the barrier totally locking them out.

You can do the same thing with the fire eles, but those don't spawn until later.

Garth

I dont think thats cheezy I remember Tye did that once when they were chasing his squishy wizard we got a good laugh but it helped the end fight go very smooth He managed to get them locked out and it was good times.

[BrianTheHun]

A few friends helped run the Dreaming Dark on elite last night to get Jackknife favor capped again. Quik and Brey won't have to hear about it anymore, or at least until the next new quests are released.

We were talking about when all of the quests have the epic setting option at some point, and Vulger said he will definitely NOT be helping me get Kobold on epic. So maybe Brey and Quik can expect me to bother them again, after all.

[spyderwolf]

at he risk of sounding like an ass, there is simply no reason to have 15 deaths, let alone 115 in kobold on normal. any caster or divine type should be able to solo it with 5 hangerons. hell any evasion person in general should be able to solo it. with that many deaths you guys shouldnt have been in there. you were either underprepared, undergeared, or in way over your head difficulty wise

caster . fire resist + fire shield + fire pro. then spam cone of cold or polar ray while kiting backwards.
divine fire resist + fire pro then bladebarrier whiel spamming comet fall + harm .
any evasion guy beat the kobold down . kite and heal after a meteor swarm where ya take damage.



once ya get the right strategies down kobold(and any other quest in the game) isnt really difficult at all.

better luck next time

[moops]

Ty for having the gutts to post this

Some groups just do not gel together, I have a fairly good clue about what to do in here, and have had a couple groups do quite bad regardless of instruction or people really trying to follow instruction.

My favorite Method, even on elite is one kiter down below, the other 5 up top pinning the Kobold against the wall til dead, and then jump on the efreeti and then loot and not worry about the other stuff. I actually have never been in a group with ooze puppet to this day--I have tried all sorts of other methods in pugs--I follow the star.

Last time I ran this on Elite it was while I was leveling my Bard, she was 18 and we had 4 LVl 16- 18 people in group--My guildie Revaillukh on his WF Wizard, A WF Barb from TOS, and another WF Caster from AFK--I actually thought to myself, Not one Evasion, we are going to die---but then I remembered to trust the people I play with and just concentrate on DPS, which is easier to do when you know them lol. It was so incredibly smooth with no deaths or even near deaths, I could not believe it as my Bard had just tried to do it on normal with a group that had some evasion and we failed horribly-- we wiped 3 times and I finally said that we just weren't working well together and I dropped.

[Deaeth]

Not going to quote everyone that I have comments about. But for the record. I was NOT pure sorc, this was after my decision to abandon completionist so I had fighter levels and only lower level spells (as you can see by my hotbars if you REALLY looked at the pics).

Also, I've done this quest many times, I know strats that work depending on the group. I laid out a very good plan. The problem was a member or 2 of the party, not listening to those instructions and kept bringing trash adds into the tunnel. EVERYONE who's had that happen knows that right there can lead to a lot of deaths alone. Getting the mobs killed and the shrine re-cleared can take some time/deaths.

We tried pulling the trash/spells out of the main room and bringing into the puzzle room. For one, no matter how long we tried, once we got a certain distance, the spells would retreat back to the shrine area and be stuck above the fire door. I made everyone else stay dead and tried numerous times myself and without fail the spells would migrate back to the shrine area. They seemd to stop once I got to the door that 2 kobalds can respawn at. So I think this "trick" has been fixed.

Now to those who go back and actually LOOK at my screenies, yes you will see a little spell icon there with an ooze on it. Ya, I tried and tried and never could get one charmed. Again like I said, this was after I abandonded completionist and had one or more +3 hearts eaten to TR with a useful past life feat!

So before you go placing blame on anyone. Know the whole story! There was at least one regular forums user along in that group as well and can testify that we did have a good strat laid out before we even ventured down into that room. But one idiot constantly training the adds into the tunnel can make for a really, REALLY, bad day!

[DelScorcho]

One really bad group member can completely screw up all planning. When in a good team, it is a great fight. Tanks properly buffed pin the kobald, he goes down fast, then the effreti doesn't last long, remaining cleanup of the fire eles. On a good team, it is a thing of beauty. In a bad pug, only one or two of the melee actually makes it up the hill. The others either got lost somewhere on the way down from the shrine or die in the lava, as they didn't realize they weren't buffed. The sorc start to complain about his ooze puppet not landing, then starts firing random spells, then hits the D-door heading for Mexico and freedom. The Cleric slowly and steadily drops some healing, then frantic burst healing, then the cleric screams down the hallway with all the living spells and fire eles in his wake. Then all the spells and fire eles go back to visit the melee. If its an especially horrible run, the melee with aggro will run in the hall and respawn the kobald or effreti. My sympathies. I hate those kind of runs.

[Quikster]

ooze puppet isnt needed to complete the quest easily.

There is an easy solution to having a party member that doesnt follow instructions, leave them dead.

[Maxwell1380]

ooze puppet isnt needed to complete the quest easily.

There is an easy solution to having a party member that doesnt follow instructions, leave them dead.

+1.

**** I find myself agreeing with Quik more and more...This strategy really does work!