Soloing the new Reaver's Fate (Elite)

[sirgog]

Tough.

Went in there on my Wizard. Ran out of time while working on the puzzle, after getting the Reaver down with only 90-100 seconds on the chronometer left till the bomb went off.

Had four possible puzzle outcomes left, was pulling one of them when ka-bada-BOOM.

Finally, there's a use for taking a second person into that raid. It's still easy in a group, but solo it is a bit more challenging.


Oh and the much-discussed Disintegrate? In ~18 minutes fighting the Reaver, he fired off only three. All three physics missed me.



I never thought I'd say this, but I had fun in the Reaver's Fate...

[Angelus_dead]

Did the Air Elementals have knockdown yet?

Remember in the old days, when it was crucial to get a charge right before opening the door, so you could stand up to solve? (However, at that time some of the puzzle elementals would be fire and earth)

[voodoogroves]

Did the Air Elementals have knockdown yet?

Remember in the old days, when it was crucial to get a charge right before opening the door, so you could stand up to solve? (However, at that time some of the puzzle elementals would be fire and earth)

I haven't been around as long but when I learned this quest the dude who told me what to do told me to do that ... and even though I found it it wasn't important (really) anymore I still do it out of habit. Heh.

[sirgog]

Did the Air Elementals have knockdown yet?

Remember in the old days, when it was crucial to get a charge right before opening the door, so you could stand up to solve? (However, at that time some of the puzzle elementals would be fire and earth)

I soloed it back in those days. The air eles back then had only 1500ish HP too, so you could wipe them out with 3-4 spells. Now, they have ~5000 and saves out the wazoo, but their main contribution to the fight is spamming Gust of Wind and Ball Lightning and making weak melee attacks (albeit ones that add up). Oh and interrupting your puzzle work.

[Bogenbroom]

I soloed it back in those days. The air eles back then had only 1500ish HP too, so you could wipe them out with 3-4 spells. Now, they have ~5000 and saves out the wazoo, but their main contribution to the fight is spamming Gust of Wind and Ball Lightning and making weak melee attacks (albeit ones that add up). Oh and interrupting your puzzle work.

Right, but there is talk about the Air Eles are supposed to be getting their knock-down "fixed." Currently it only WAI on folks wielding shields. Those Air Eles with their ramped up saves and hp + their old knock-down effect would be, far and away, the most obnoxious thing going.

[Angelus_dead]

Right, but there is talk about the Air Eles are supposed to be getting their knock-down "fixed." Currently it only WAI on folks wielding shields.

We haven't been told that. The only thing the developers announced here is that the current shield-based effect is incorrect.

Whether Air Elementals are supposed to be knocking players down or not wasn't specified. It would've taken a really incredible error for them to accidentally make players immune to elemental knockdown and then not notice it for so long. If that happened, then they really need to reconsider their internal dissemination of design documentation.

[sephiroth1084]

I really dislike the way The Reaver's Fate has developed over time. For one thing, I don't like that the raid boss is less dangerous and less of a nuisance than the adds, and for another, that the adds are so ridiculously buffed up just to be annoying.

[sirgog]

I really dislike the way The Reaver's Fate has developed over time. For one thing, I don't like that the raid boss is less dangerous and less of a nuisance than the adds, and for another, that the adds are so ridiculously buffed up just to be annoying.

Heh, the Reaver is quite dangerous now, at least if you go toe-to-toe with him at level.

[Feralthyrtiaq]

beefier now on Elite. Had a full group last nite, a 16FVS/2Monk Healing our tank (yes an actuall Stalwart Defender Tank and not "Lo Roll". Other players including myself (FVS Dille Helf PM) healing the rest of the part and backing up the tank healer.

After the 9th ball started spinning everyone rushed in to start chewing away at his health and *BAM* Chain lightening takes out 6 or 7 people. I get fly (only one with it atm) go pull lever and make it back out to through some scrolls on the tank (during my flight our healer fell to a disintegrate I think) but to his credit he was doin fine. Our tank "Bloodytotem" barely lost a sliver of health (he later told me the EXTENDED Displace really helped out) but the Stormreaver had 3/4 or more of his HP left. At this point we were down to me, Bloody and another Wiz. I drank a couple pots to keep the spell DPS rolling but we ran out of time and the device exploded WHICH was completely new to a bunch of us! (as were the one-shotty disintegrates a couple people got hit with)

LSS I swapped to my cleric, we got a second tank. The FVS and I took turns getting charges/healing tank and healing party. All in all it went very well with some attention to tactics and strategy. Got gauntlets of eternity for my efforts woot!

LFM I put up read. Reaver's Fate be Flagged and Ready to Fight!

[sirgog]

beefier now on Elite. Had a full group last nite, a 16FVS/2Monk Healing our tank (yes an actuall Stalwart Defender Tank and not "Lo Roll". Other players including myself (FVS Dille Helf PM) healing the rest of the part and backing up the tank healer.

After the 9th ball started spinning everyone rushed in to start chewing away at his health and *BAM* Chain lightening takes out 6 or 7 people. I get fly (only one with it atm) go pull lever and make it back out to through some scrolls on the tank (during my flight our healer fell to a disintegrate I think) but to his credit he was doin fine. Our tank "Bloodytotem" barely lost a sliver of health (he later told me the EXTENDED Displace really helped out) but the Stormreaver had 3/4 or more of his HP left. At this point we were down to me, Bloody and another Wiz. I drank a couple pots to keep the spell DPS rolling but we ran out of time and the device exploded WHICH was completely new to a bunch of us! (as were the one-shotty disintegrates a couple people got hit with)

LSS I swapped to my cleric, we got a second tank. The FVS and I took turns getting charges/healing tank and healing party. All in all it went very well with some attention to tactics and strategy. Got gauntlets of eternity for my efforts woot!

LFM I put up read. Reaver's Fate be Flagged and Ready to Fight!

His HP aren't so high that the DPS race is tight in a full group. I only just failed the DPS race solo on my Wizard - had I made 2 or 3 less mistakes I'd have completed.

Mistakes I made included:

- Losing DoT chains on at least 10 occasions, of which 3 or 4 were unpreventable (the Reaver did Reverse Gravity at a bad time) but the rest were my fault
- Not preparing Delayed Blast Fireball or Black Dragon Bolt (the latter I do not have scribed yet)
- Wearing the Epic Robe of the Diabolist when I should have been wearing Regalia of the Phoenix

It's very soloable, and the Reaver doesn't scale at all. At-level 12 player groups should be able to kill him in 2-3 minutes (geared, using Charge SP) or 5-6 (ungeared and/or not understanding the infinite SP mechanic). 20th level groups should take him out in under 75 seconds if no air elementals get in the way.

[Dark_Helmet]

It's very soloable, and the Reaver doesn't scale at all.

I don't know what you mean by this... He does have more HP and does more damage on hard and elite.

So, now that it is declared soloable, time for more nerfing.

[TK.Halcyon]

I don't know what you mean by this... He does have more HP and does more damage on hard and elite.

So, now that it is declared soloable, time for more nerfing.

The damage he does being .. *hard* would be relative to the tanks hp/saves/ac/dr/heal capabilities.
He might do more damage but a lot of it can be negated with proper resists and decent saves for the disintegrate and chains.

The issue with hp would be dependant on how soon you start taking him down. Too many piker groups have gotten in the habit of not *prepping* the reaver and only starting to attack when the last orb has gone. Just take him to 15% before 8 orbs and it should be a breeze.

My personal gremlin has always been those dang eles. Used to be easy with a firewall and u can sip ur drink and heal urself with one hand. Now they just blow out the flames... I don't think my icestorm is as effective as 4 tightly layered firewalls for them to run thru. But now its just one stupid gust of wind and the firewalls are gone like the candles on a 6 year-old's birthday cake.

My grief with the puzzle is always the lever. Keep getting interrupted on pulls. Thats always been the biggest challenge on solo runs. And the time wasted to kill the eles just makes the pressure nasty.

Still would be nice to see the best times for an elite U11 Reaver solo and with a full raid.

[Miow]

Yep people need to start beating on the reaver sooner to give more time to complete the quest...he takes longer to kill. I solved the puzzle yesterday with little time to spare and i don't use a solver so i was flying through it.

[sweez]

The most annoying thing about the new and improved reaver raid is that pugs still run it exactly the same way - 1 person takes him in a corner and then stands there while rest of the group is piking in another corner, killing air eles every now and then. Then when fly time comes, he's at 95% HP and time is lost on beating him up when the lever is ready, for no good reason.

With the new HP, theres absolutely no reason NOT to be going all out on him until 4 orbs are lit and he starts throwing around (and possibly after that, although in an average pug that probably means at least 4-5 dead people heh)