Healer's role on LoB raid

[DeafeningWhisper]

Since I plan on PuGing LoB again pretty soon on my cleric I thought I'de share my experience on this new raid for those who haven't done it yet:


First thing first "Don't Panic", yes the sources of damage are many, yes they all hit for at
least 90/100, yes people will die and yes you'll need to drink pots.

Roles:
The way we did this required 3 healers: 1st on the main tank, 2nd on the replacement tank and 3rd on the party.

1st's job is "simple" keep the tank alive at all times, give FoM and Resist elec when he dies and use Unyielding after his 3rd/4th death to keep his HP above 700 which is pretty much the minimum to tank Blades.

2nd's job is the same as the 1st's, but you'll also be the default resser, why? The 2 others don't have the time to stop healing to ress someone, if they do more *dings* will occur. Why 2 tanks? Blades like to de-buff HP so the tanks will need to rotate until it goes away. Also be ready to drop mass cures on the party to help the 3rd healer.

3rd's job is to keep the party alive with heals centered on him, the healer with most HP gets this job which is not at all easy for reasons that'll come up a bit later.

Blades phases and attacks:
The name of the game is staying together, save the caster and the 1st and 2nd healer everyone else absolutely needs to be close to each other so mass cures are not wasted/ineffective.

The fight has 2 hounds that provide 25% DR each to Blades and need to be taken down ASAP, not only because of the DR but also because of the damage their "Goo" does, think Grease with no knockdown but 90/100 ticks or untyped damage, most of the *dings* will come from this. After they are down you get to pound on Blades, but from the back only he has a Cleave attack that deals around 600 damage and when he stuns the tank he does a Whirlwind attack for the same amount, basically only the tank should be in front of him and when he yells "Stunned!" run away. When he's taken enough damage he will leap upward and drop blades on those who are static, when someone says "Leap!" run around, when the center glows run to it and use Bursts to remove negative lvls and top off the party and try to grab the buff that allows to destroy pillars, or at least make sure the boss doesn't get it (everyone try to get there 1st).

Next phases, same thing as before until he goes down to 5% then it gets hard, he'll go bezerk attack faster and 12 or so assassins with repeaters will appear, these re-spawn and our PM had to run around spamming Wail to keep them from killing the party (they have **** fort saves thank God), Kill puppies, go to town on Blades and then it's pillars time.

Range attackers go for them from the center while at least 4/5 melee and healers stay there to deal with the monsters spawned, there is a timer on this so be quick.

After, divide the party in 4 to kill some elementals for your spirits, make sure all 3 are in the platform when you speak to the stone or they will be locked out of that room, after that fight you just won they might as well be empty crates by the way.

What not to do, what to do and have ready:

Resurrection/True Resurrection scrolls only, Goo will kill most players so returning with a sliver of HP will get them killed again, or worse yourself trying to heal them after a ress so Raise Dead is useless.

Mass-Heal is too slow, even on Quicken the fight moves around too much.

Kiting: do not kite, this was the reason our 1st try failed. Infective masses means death here and pretty quick, either pew pew from melee range or switch to melee weapons.

Keep him tanked, Blades has a "Dashing attack" that knocks down, this plus the hounds Goo will kill anyone that gets caught, the hounds need to be killed away from the boss.

No DoTs, after his Leap he'll go after the DoTer, if it's a healer you just put the whole party in danger.

Metas to spells: have Mass moderate/serious/critical with Max on, True resurrection and Heal on quicken. Heal tanks when around 2/3 HP, heck as soon as they are hit is not wrong either.

DI is not an option, damage is constant and he'll die anyway.

Have the following on hot bars: Resurrection/True resurrection scrolls, Pots and lots of them, FoM and Resist for your tank, Unyielding and Burst/Auras.

Drink pots any time you get half a second of rest, damage numbers are pretty big and you don't get many moments to rest.

Tanks with voice are a must have to know when Blades is about to do something nasty, same for calling "Goo" which is pale green on top of pale blue so kinda hard to see and can lead to death.



Hope this helps, and please add any strategies I might have forgotten or any other spells/items us healers should have loaded.

[PNellesen]

...
DI is not an option, damage is constant and he'll die anyway.

Have the following on hot bars: Resurrection/True resurrection scrolls, Pots and lots of them, FoM and Resist for your tank, Unyielding and Burst/Auras.

Drink pots any time you get half a second of rest, damage numbers are pretty big and you don't get many moments to rest.
...
Hope this helps, and please add any strategies I might have forgotten or any other spells/items us healers should have loaded.

Yup, this definitely helps me. My strategy will be "don't run this one on my clerics"

[DeafeningWhisper]

Yup, this definitely helps me. My strategy will be "don't run this one on my clerics"

It's not that bad, seen how the other players knew how sp intensive this raid is before we even filled out pot donations started. Had we not wiped on the 1st try all 3 healers would have likely broke even or close to, it requires about 10 or so pots if things work out well enough.

[thewalex]

It's not that bad, seen how the other players knew how sp intensive this raid is before we even filled out pot donations started. Had we not wiped on the 1st try all 3 healers would have likely broke even or close to, it requires about 10 or so pots if things work out well enough.

Well, so long as people help contribute some, I'd be happy to give it a try. Otherwise I'm going to have to side with PNellesen. Based on my bank stores of SP pots, I could run this raid successfully twice, or fail once.

[danotmano1998]

Well, so long as people help contribute some, I'd be happy to give it a try. Otherwise I'm going to have to side with PNellesen. Based on my bank stores of SP pots, I could run this raid successfully twice, or fail once.

10 potions?
Whew.. I can hear the $$'s stacking up in Turbines pockets already.

Artificer class? *Ding* wallet takes untyped damage.
New Area? *Ding* to buy guest passes for buddies.
SP Pots? *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding* *Ding*


Im hoping that this is just the new learning curve and as things settle, it will be possible to do without all the cash outflow...

[LolWutRoflstomped]

Im hoping that this is just the new learning curve and as things settle, it will be possible to do without all the cash outflow...

It is.

[sirgog]

Im hoping that this is just the new learning curve and as things settle, it will be possible to do without all the cash outflow...

We used to use dozens of mana potions and hundreds and hundreds of Heal scrolls to beat Normal Shroud. Noone seems to remember that now...

[Arctik]

We used to use dozens of mana potions and hundreds and hundreds of Heal scrolls to beat Normal Shroud. Noone seems to remember that now...

Is that even possible?

[Mister_Peace]

We used to use dozens of mana potions and hundreds and hundreds of Heal scrolls to beat Normal Shroud. Noone seems to remember that now...

That was back when hp and dps were much less than now, right?

[moops]

Is that even possible?

Well yah we started Shroud at lvls 13-16, not only did people lave lower HP--at first they did not use Firestorm Greaves or Ice Cloaks/Scrolls. Also people did not debuff him at first. As people crafted items and went out and got gear to mitigate damage it got easier.

[Arctik]

Well yah we started Shroud at lvls 13-16, not only did people lave lower HP--at first they did not use Firestorm Greaves or Ice Cloaks/Scrolls. Also people did not debuff him at first. As people crafted items and went out and got gear to mitigate damage it got easier.

Heh, a few years from now we will be laughing at the resources we put into LOTB and MA.

[Vyrn]

Yup, this definitely helps me. My strategy will be "don't PuG this one on my clerics"

Well, the OP did a nice job of making clear he doesnt want cleric with common sense that read this thread to not his LFMs.

[sirgog]

That was back when hp and dps were much less than now, right?

That's true, but Harry was a little less dangerous too (Meteor Swarm did no bludgeoning damage at the time). We also had absolutely no healing amp at the time.

The main difference was that players hadn't yet started building for medium to high HP. The present Shroud strategy absolutely requires that. Our saves were lower too, so DBF fails were more common.

Our strategy at the time was to pick 3 (sometimes 4) sturdy melees and keep them alive (with one dedicated healer each) at any cost. Mostly Heal scrolls, but also single-target Heal. Other players did whatever they could from range. Usually runs took 3-4 passes in part 4.


So yeah, expect LoB resource usage to go down over time. Give it two months and check the Achievements forum, and I expect you'll see a 0 mana pot Epic run listed.

[Zennestia]

I am interested in peoples views on predicting what will be required for a 0 pot completion.
Understanding the raid better will help, but what kind of party make up would be ideal?

3 divines? more or less..

Very high heal amp tank (say 300%+ healing amp 650hp tank with improved evasion, or would a 900hp+ barbarian be better)?

[DeafeningWhisper]

There is a reason I'm asking for strategies I have forgotten, I'm wiling to bet there's a simpler way to do this that will ultimately mean a no pot run, but if no one is willing to try this raid out finding it will be impossible. Maybe taking out the pillars before we try to harm Blades at all, maybe a chew toy strategy for the hounds, I just want to help healers out when facing this for the 1st time.

[thewalex]

We used to use dozens of mana potions and hundreds and hundreds of Heal scrolls to beat Normal Shroud. Noone seems to remember that now...

Oh I have no doubt of that. I remember some of the horror stories about Shroud passed down by those who taught me Shroud. I was just commenting that as much as I'd like to be a part of trial, I won't have the resources or finances to contribute at the current level.