Ah, gotcha. Makes sense, have 50% reduced before the 30 absorb and/or the 100 absorb dmg before going away. Considering how squishy I am for a Sorc, that's probably the only way i'll live.
So I don't have polar ray yet. How useful is that spell? I've seen other threads that mention polar ray alot...
I have frost lance, is that similar?
Hold monster does work against the trash, but you may have problems at level 15 with getting through the devils' Spell Resistance and/or saves - worth trying though, useful if it sticks.
The standard party makeup, if no one has covered this yet, is 2 healers, 2 arcane casters and 8 melee of various types; but, you don't need those exact ratios to succeed, it's just the most common. The biggest issue is doing damage to Arraetrikos in parts 4 and 5, and that's why you need all of the melee. It's possible to complete with a wide range of party makeups, but probably better to stick to party following the convention until you're a bit more experienced.
As a caster, you'll primarily be involved in killing in parts 1 and 4. As stated above, in part 1 you kill off trash while most of the party focuses on the portals. In part 4 you'll be needed to kill the gnolls (ideally insta-kill, like FoD) that appear and heal Harry. You can help with damage at other times if you have the SP, but those are the crucial times. A caster's big contribution during the other parts of the raid is in party support and crowd control.
I talked with my fellow guildies today. My Guild Leader, Ash, was kind enough to give me a 3 hour pass to Sands and I have now leveled to 16 so we are on schedule to run my first Shroud run tomorrow.
If anyone would like to join me/us, please be on Ghandalla server tomorrow (Thursday) @ 1PM PST.
While I know I will lose some XP by having Level 20's in the party vs me being lvl 16, I would rather have people that are experienced in the Shroud so if anyone is able to run Shroud tomorrow, please join in by all means.
Find me under Ebonyfire.
thank you everyone for all the help!