What do i need for DQ?

[pie2655]

I just got flagged for DQ and want to know what im gonna need. I am a wizard and want to know what spells and gear i will need. Also what kind of tactics are in the raid? What will i need to know going in? And does it have any good loot that would be worth rolling on as a Wizard?

[Mrmorphling]

Usefull spells: waves of exhaustion to slow the boss; firewall as best dmg/sp spent aoe; usual buffs as haste, rage, elemental resist etc.
Tactics depend on the party layout, if you have an intimitank it's pretty easy, you keep ethernet boss in ethernet middle and burn it down (queen lailat will teleport away from time To time to an external platform, stick a firewall incase and watch out for moving blade barriers).
gear wise try to push your hp as high as possible, heavy fort is mandatory rest really depends on your specific build /lvl.
Plenty of good loot for a wizard, have a look on ddowiki for the details; check torc, greenblade, bracers of the demon consort (difesa you area pm )

[sirgog]

Torc of Raiyum is probably the single best caster item in the whole game, if you can survive being hit at all. (When hit, you regenerate 20 SP about 20% of the time). Everyone with a spellpoint bar will want it, so it may be hard to get.


As for tactics - Lailat hits like a freight train (6 attacks, ~50 damage a hit on Elite and ~65 on Epic; and on Epic she never misses any attainable AC unless she rolls a 1), but she doesn't even have 20000hp on Elite (and even on Epic she's sub-100k). She's immune to Lightning but takes decent damage from Firewall and one-shot nuke spells like Delayed Blast Fireball. If you can do 5000 damage and then die, out of SP, you've done far more than your share of the job of killing her.

Waves of Exhaustion, whilst still worthwhile, is no longer as good as it used to be.

When she hits 15%, she will go 'berserk' and become immune to all level 4 and under spells. Bring out the big guns at this point.


Other than that, bring gear that enhances your best damage spells - Superior Combustion 7 if using Delayed Blast Fireball, Superior Potency 6 for most other things like Cone of Cold and Oitluke's Freezing Sphere. And remember the important buffs, Haste, Rage and Greater Heroism.

[fabhpk]

More specifically:

"Ray of Fatigue, Waves of Fatigue and Waves of Exhaustion now only apply the strength/dexterity stat modifications to bosses and raid bosses. The slow effect will no longer apply. Orange name bosses still take the slow. The tool tip has been updated. Duration of Ray and Waves of Fatigue has been shortened slightly to 60 seconds base +6 seconds per level. Against players, it lasts only 20 seconds +1 second per level. Dispel magic and rest apply normally."

From update 7 release notes.

IMHO Waves of Exhaustion is still a valid debuff to use on bosses, but since the nerf I rarely see them being used...

[Pikeman]

Sorry to go offtopic here, but can anyone offer some advice for melee types in DQ? I've only run it three times on my pally, but it's been a disaster each time. I figure there must be something I just don't understand about the quest, because I've gone in with all level 20s, on normal, and failed. With hps in the 570+ range, full fort, but admittedly awful AC (37), she kills me before I can even get LoH off to save myself. What gives?

[Cam_Neely]

Sorry to go offtopic here, but can anyone offer some advice for melee types in DQ? I've only run it three times on my pally, but it's been a disaster each time. I figure there must be something I just don't understand about the quest, because I've gone in with all level 20s, on normal, and failed. With hps in the 570+ range, full fort, but admittedly awful AC (37), she kills me before I can even get LoH off to save myself. What gives?

Unless you have a very high strength, I would not try to melee her. Grab a silver longbow and some cold iron arrows and do some ranged DPS while keeping yourself alive.

In the future you can work on your Intim and shield blocking, but if your running it on normal, just try to stay alive while doing some DPS

[Xenus_Paradox]

Melee vs. DQ is a waste, especially on Epic. Grab a Holy/Holy Burst/PG bow (Silver Longbow is best if you can get it) and cold iron arrows and go to town. Wind Howler Bracers from Blockade Buster will grant proficiency with longbows and +1 damage on ranged attacks and are very easy to get.

[Sarisa]

The easiest way to do the Demon Queen is what Sarlona calls the "Spartan" method.

The following is a description of it I posted to an Arcane Archer, so adjust your positioning as you will.


Once you get into the queen's chamber, look around. Her platform is a big ring, with another ring decorating it just inside of the outer edge (it's in about 6-8 feet when compared to your character's height). That inner ring is how you position yourselves when you're fighting the queen.

When the queen becomes active, she'll teleport to one of the four cardinal directions, and someone will usually call out where. Everyone then goes to that side and balls up (to stay in the healer's aura's and Mass Cure range). You unload a Manyshot, and casters set a firewall and blast a few other spells. She may occasionally teleport to another platform periodically. If this happens, just run over to that side and ball up again. Once she drops to around 80% health ("See how my enemies prance about like jesters!", she'll teleport to the middle of the arena.

Now, all the melees form a wall right up against that inner ring. Toughest melees usually right in the middle, others on the outsides. A little behind will be the more supporting DPS characters, like you and the bards. Then the healers, then right at the edge of the platform, the casters. You want to be sure that everyone is in mass cure range of the healers when they center heals on themselves.

She'll snake her way toward you (a truly terrifying sight), bowl over one or two melees, then stop and swing those wicked Khopeshes. All the while, every melee swings at her and the casters and archers unload. The healer's spam mass cures to try to keep everyone up. After you draw some blood, she'll teleport away again and some Efreeti spawn. When you're on normal through elite, the Efreeti aren't too dangerous, but on epic they need to die...FAST.

Usually, most groups will let the efreeti come to them, take them out, and then reform the wall. When she knocks people down, she pushes them back a little bit so you have to be sure to reform the wall each time she teleports away. After a short bit, she'll pop into the middle for more blood. Same thing happens, beat her down. This time though, you want to make sure you save a little bit of burst damage for her final 20-30%.

She gets angry, screams "I am war! I am destruction!", and pops back into the middle (even if she was swinging at your group). This is the most important time to reform the wall, and you only have a few seconds to do it. She'll charge, unload everything you have on her at this time, and hope the spammed mass cures are enough.

Then dance on her dead body.

When all goes well, she should go down in no more than 6-8 minutes. Usually, even on epic difficulty, it takes longer to buff than it does to fight the queen using this method.

I learned this method from doing the raid on epic a few months ago. It's a fairly new technique, but it's so much easier on the healers and much faster for the group to take the queen out. Fighting her with ranged is stressful, and often leads to the situations you experienced. She is insanely fast when she rages, and once damage dealers start to fall, it gets very difficult for everyone left to take her down before she catches up to them. Most of the ranged wipes I've seen had her at about a sliver of health, once there was NO health left on her.

Also note that using this method means that everyone needs to have Heavy Fortification. Her Khopeshes crit on, I believe, a 15-20 at x3. That's a lot of pain from 6 hits even without a crit getting through.

This is now the preferred method for doing DQ on epic on Sarlona (except for some private groups with well built intimitanks), and works quite well for non-epics.

Aside from that, heavy fort, starting at about 200-250ish HP minimum on normal, and ranging up to 400-450 HP minimum on epic to be in melee range. Healers must have quicken on and use mass cures, mass heal is too slow when the queen is there swinging.

With the Spartan method, your job as a melee is to keep the wall formed whenever she teleports, swing with a DR breaker (Good+Cold Iron), and be willing to be knocked over occasionally to stop the queen from getting past to the healers. Once she comes down (the "...prance about like jesters" point), never leave the group.

Most epic groups I've seen, even the ones without a bard, will complete the entire raid in 6-7 minutes. The entirety of the queen fight is under 3 minutes. Melee is an incredibly fast way of beating her using Spartan. Buffing takes longer.

When everyone tries to range, and running all around the place; it's a nightmare to heal. When she rages ("I am war!"), she moves incredibly fast, and that speed is no longer slowed down by Waves of Exhaustion/Fatigue. People WILL die as she dishes out too fast for almost all healers to be able to keep up with. She also has semi-random aggro, so it's not easy to predict who is next to get hit.

You will usually ignore the archers.

[andbr22]

We have sometihng like that in Khyber -> Ball method everyone except casters sit in exacly one spot when she go first block to not get overrun, after that swing thill she tele. Usually elites / other don't require any super specific tactics.
As paladin you have hard call as she use chaotic weaponary so it can require from you a bit more HP than other melee...
The most important is to not fight alone in one spot (her dmg somehow spearates on all adeactive targets), and not let her overrun you.

[LordPiglet]

Sorry to go offtopic here, but can anyone offer some advice for melee types in DQ? I've only run it three times on my pally, but it's been a disaster each time. I figure there must be something I just don't understand about the quest, because I've gone in with all level 20s, on normal, and failed. With hps in the 570+ range, full fort, but admittedly awful AC (37), she kills me before I can even get LoH off to save myself. What gives?

The best way to melee her is with high strength (I know I've seen people ask for 55 range).

The ball/wall/spartan method that Sarisa is probably the most effective, much faster, and my understanding is easier on healers (I've only healed elite, but I was in one that was solo healed by a cleric on epic when the FvS got telekensised off).

I get knocked down sometimes once, maybe twice each time she comes in on the ball, but then can normally flank her slightly, still be in heal range to catch the masses and get my bonuses.

Also, the melee's have to take down the efreeti's, even if the queen is incoming atleast a couple people should be taking them down. Their fireballs will wipe a group.

Also, as a paladin (or any lawful charater) you take a lot more damage from her. My fighter is chaotic so I take around 100 total damage a hit, with a bunch of "immunes" showing up.

[TheDearLeader]

*snip*

MMmmm Spartan. Also known as the "bunch" method. I think someone just liked how Spartan Sounded better.

As my knowledge of things go, this is originally how it was managed on Sarlona, then we switched to ranged for some gawdawful reason, and now we're back to bunching up.

I like bunching, because complete or fail, it's *fast*. Ranged is a prolonged, drawn out affair, even in dying.

It is important to note that *everyone* needs to be inside the bunch, or directly behind the melees in the bunch. Far too many runs we've had 1 Pug that decided s/he was a special little snowflake, and stood separate, and that's the one person Lailat went to. Costs precious time and resources waiting for the idiot to die.

[LordPiglet]

Yeah, that's annoying, or when the low hp caster goes down, and then down, and then down. After the second death, it's not worth rezing them.

Also, when the blades come in, don't move, unless you're a decent reflex save evasion type. They're not like the shroud blades, more like blade barriers, as in they're only going to hit you once when they come in.

[pie2655]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I'm a PM so will my "free DPS" SLA and necrotic bolt work well on her?

[TheDearLeader]

Also, when the blades come in, don't move, unless you're a decent reflex save evasion type. They're not like the shroud blades, more like blade barriers, as in they're only going to hit you once when they come in.

And really, all moving does is make sure you've moved outside of the range of a cleric's mass cure/heal. Death follows. Yaaaaay!

[Sarisa]

Thanks for all the replies guys! I'm a PM so will my "free DPS" SLA and necrotic bolt work well on her?

Yes, but note that you will take a LOT of burst damage here. Being in form, you need to be able to completely handle yourself when you take 300+ damage in a second.

[pie2655]

Yes, but note that you will take a LOT of burst damage here. Being in form, you need to be able to completely handle yourself when you take 300+ damage in a second.

Yeah being my Wizard is lvl 14, and Drow i dont have that much HP to being with. Oh, just so you all know, im planning on doing this on normal.....

[Sarisa]

It is important to note that *everyone* needs to be inside the bunch, or directly behind the melees in the bunch. Far too many runs we've had 1 Pug that decided s/he was a special little snowflake, and stood separate, and that's the one person Lailat went to. Costs precious time and resources waiting for the idiot to die.

Aside from one run where both of us healing got tossed off the edge, this was the only cause of wipes. Usually goes something like:

* Lailat sees someone off to the side, zips over with a big smile, slice chop slice. Now she comes at the group from the side rather than in front, wall can't form fast enough, healers get overrun, few seconds later there is a pile of chopped up meat on the ground.

[TheDearLeader]

Aside from one run where both of us healing got tossed off the edge, this was the only cause of wipes. Usually goes something like:

* Lailat sees someone off to the side, zips over with a big smile, slice chop slice. Now she comes at the group from the side rather than in front, wall can't form fast enough, healers get overrun, few seconds later there is a pile of chopped up meat on the ground.

I'm not sure if its caused us to wipe, but it does put a drain on healing resources.

For a quest like that where multiple damage types are coming at once (archers, the blades, Lailat, Efreetis after they respawn), near constant healing is required when Lailat is down, even if she's not connecting with the group. Meaning we miss a wave, have to clear Efreeti respawns, and basically start all over again - and in that time, at least *some* healer blue bar has been used to heal some blade/archer/Efreeti damage.

[LordPiglet]

Last time I ran epic we used 4 up front, then lower hp melee (ranger & rogues) then clerics and finally wiz's. I noticed the groups do tend to move farther and farther back, so I'll pipe up to push forward.

[sirgog]

Also note that using this method means that everyone needs to have Heavy Fortification. Her Khopeshes crit on, I believe, a 15-20 at x3. That's a lot of pain from 6 hits even without a crit getting through.[/color]

Her crits are actually pathetic - 19-20/x2 on all difficulties including Epic. Velah is the only raid boss I can think of that does nastier ones.