shroud run help as a lich pm

[wraithdom]

i just turned 20th and will be doing my 1st shroud run....my gear is just+6 in all stas but wis (+4) tomes +1 about 2000+ sp and over 350 hp i guess in lich. No real gear to speak of yet...please help in what my role should be and at what stage...it will be a casual or norm. all posts will be respected....even the mean ones if it is supportive and insight!!!!

[furbyoats]

i just turned 20th and will be doing my 1st shroud run....my gear is just+6 in all stas but wis (+4) tomes +1 about 2000+ sp and over 350 hp i guess in lich. No real gear to speak of yet...please help in what my role should be and at what stage...it will be a casual or norm. all posts will be respected....even the mean ones if it is supportive and insight!!!!

1) Your role will be haste/rage the party then killing trash in part 1, haste/rage the party then crowd control/killing trash in part 2, solving puzzles/greasing hallways in part 3, haste/rage the party then crowd control/killing trash in part 4, haste/rage the party then buffing/dotting in part 5

2) Raids cannot be run on casual difficulty

[Rusty_Can]

i just turned 20th and will be doing my 1st shroud run [...] it will be a casual or norm

1. There is no such things as a "casual difficulty setting" for raids.

2. Tell the party leader you are first-timer and you might need directions and/or, even better, an experienced arcane caster which can show you the ropes.

3. Since it's your 1st time, avoid zerg runs ....

4. What you are supposed to do:
a) 1st bit: party will bash several portals; as for you: buff party as requested; clear trash foes when they spawn; kill Portal Keepers asap;
b) 2nd bit: party needs to kill 4 red-named foes, which are supposed to die pretty much together, and then smash a crystal in the middle of the maze; you might be asked to prepare (i.e. bring it down to 5-10% health) a red named (fire or earth) elemental OR you might be on "crystal duty" (i.e. you are in charge of nuking the above mentioned crystal); very important notice: tell the party leader you have never done this or things might go south ....
c) puzzle time: light all the tiles of your puzzle; train a bit;
d) Pit Fiend, Take One: stay alive and mind blades and Pit Fiend's Meteor Swarms ; if Harry vanishes and gnolls spawn, kill gnolls;
e) Pit Fiend, Take Two: pretty much same as d).
Shrines are available after each bit.

5. Have fun.

[RandomKeypress]

Your stats sound fine. You don't mention your DCs or your spell penetration, although at level twenty neither should be a problem.

First stage: Normal duty would be to run ahead of the party and clear the new portals before the bashers arrive. Best option is to shadow a second arcane who has done it before and can show you the portal sequence (will take a few runs to get it right, but it's not hard). Otherwise run with the bashers and kill portals, buff with rage and haste etc. The portals can be hurt by negetive energy, so feel free to hit them with stuff.

Second stage: CC stuff in south central at the start (note: killing all the trash is considered an acceptable CC technique). Normal duty will include taking out the elemental and taking out the crystal (one or the other). Agree who is going to do the crystal with another arcane. When the four bosses drop, be ready to hit it with fast DPS. They're not tough, but you have a relatively short window to hit them with. If the group is cruising through the content, again shadowing an experienced arcane would be good.

Third stage: solve your puzzle (see link above). Run water (only to rooms with solved puzzles). Cast knock on unsolved puzzles so solvers can get in. When it comes to solving puzzles, learning how to do them without a solver is a good thing, and not too hard.

Fourth stage: CC trash at the start. DoT Harry or hit him with something ranged that will hurt him. Save mana for a second round - if that happens, you need to kill the Gnolls around Harry as they will be healing him. Third rounds and more are VERY rare these days.

Fith stage: see above, except the four bosses from stage 2 are the trash and there are no rounds, no blades and no gnolls to worry about - just convert your mana into buffs for the party and pain for Harry.

[sweez]

Don't conserve SP in part 4 in case of a 2-rounder, it just makes it more likely that a 2-rounder will actually happen lol. Just stack cold and elec dot on him, polar ray on every cooldown, and necro blast/burst in the meantime.

[redraider]

All good advice. I will add that as a PM, your part 1 portal beating dps is actually pretty good. If there are muliple casters in the run (let them go wail and finger the trash mobs) while you stand near the portals with Lich on and the death aura healing you cycleing through your necro touch, blast, and burst. Its better dps on the portals than many of the non-geared ftr and barbs do.

In pt 4 and 5, I stand a short distance away from him in Lich mode with aura healing on (and watch out for the blades and watching my own health) and blast away with my Necro spells as well as polar ray, ball lightning, and front lance. Niacs biting cold works too. Max and empower and drain that mana bar. It really helps if you have the Crystal Cove maximize dagger as triggering it three times eliminates the maximize sp drain for 90 secs. Also, get you a eardwellor from IQ. The increase in damage output for 3 mins is huge.

[FlyingTurtle]

I believe the portal order on Argo is something like this (I could be wrong):



Roughly, in rainbow order starting with red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue then lavender.

I don't really remember the sequence since groups sometimes split up and take down portals in different orders. I just try to remember roughly which area will have portals at any given stage. Nobody gives a **** if you forget the order, as long as everyone is permahasted. :P

Image ripped off from: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=248968

[Namey]

I can never get the portal order right, myself. I just used to zoom around, hasted, looking for mobs to Wail to death. Assuming normal, the area is small enough that you really don't need to memorize the order of the portals as an arcane. Just keep patrolling the area, Wail any mobs you see, Finger of Death stragglers, and haste the melee portal pile every time you pass them, and you should do fine.

The third stage puzzle is something you want to be on the lookout for. Don't use summons, since some of them can break crystals on that area, that will screw you out of optional chests. If you cant solve your puzzle, make sure people know, that somebody else can take over. Prepare Knock for opening doors there.