Surviving Elite ETK @ level - how?

[MagicalDad]

So, a while back I was leveling my Stalwart (2nd life), and took a shot @ elite Enter the Kobold. Pretty easy until the end fight, but in spite of going in w/ over 800 HP, Fire Shield, 33% absorb shield and 30 resist, still could not stand under the assault. The constant DB Fireball / Fireball / Cometfall / Meteor Swarm barrage just cannot be healed through or mitigated w/o improved evasion, it seems (had no problem on this quest w/ my Monk-cher, she just stood there and Manyshotted/10k-starred/meleed the boss until he was dead).

Last night my son's Druid tried the quest, and I was nearby to actually see the numbers. He would get hit for 450+ dmg and insta-killed the moment he made it into the hallway, and even when he managed to Creeping Cold and kill the meteor swarms / fire elementals / etc, they just keep respawning indefinitely. He's a 2nd life druid w/ decent gear, about 430 HP, which is not at all bad for a lvl 18 caster.

So, is there a way to handle this quest w/o a fully evasive group?

[Qhualor]

Its easier to get a caster with ooze puppet and have him distract the fire eles. For non evasion melees, fire shield (cold) clicky, 30 resist and SF pots does a lot of good. Chances are, if you have a healer, he is not standing by you to keep you healed. More like in the hallway, at least thats where pug healers i group with usually stand. I did it the past couple lives as a pally with less hp than you and kept myself alive with 4 LOHs and US while the caster used ooze puppet. Had a FVS, but he was keeping the caster alive more than anyone else. This is the easiest method ive seen. Also pretty much soloed it once as a monk. Just hid under the little bridge to avoid most of the blunt fire damage since the caster at the time didnt have ooze puppet. Ran out to the hallway a couple times for quick heals.

[LionHearty]

Ooze puppet spell to charm the living spells. Get someone to go on in before you to get ele aggro and kite them around under and around the island,beat down kobold > beat down djinn.

[MagicalDad]

Are the fire ele's charmable as well? For some reason I thought that all the mobs in there were red-names, immune to charm. Would a mind-fog/symbol of charming combo work to grab all the monsters (including the living spell oozes) ?

[Jay203]

Are the fire ele's charmable as well? For some reason I thought that all the mobs in there were red-names, immune to charm. Would a mind-fog/symbol of charming combo work to grab all the monsters (including the living spell oozes) ?

the only things you can't charm/dominate in the end room are the kobold, the dijjin, and the fire eles
everything else is fair game

[Kalari]

A strategy we used since Elees are a pain is having someone with evasion (Rogue, Monk, splash build with decent reflex saves) as bait, they run in grab aggro and run about with the elees in a circle around the lava while taking fire balls to the face, living spells are targeted by ooze puppet by a caster or fascinate if your lucky to have a skilled bard. Melee focuses on the Kobold then the Djini guy top fighters loot quickly someone knocks or unlocks the chest d-door out those elees are not worth fighting nor are the living spells on elite its just easier to distract them keep them immobilized, heck a good bard with evasion (my brogue build) makes the quest a cake walk she runs in fascinates what she can the melees position the kobold and djinni up by the chest (pulling the djinni to the spot) shes able to pick the chest and toss the d-door. It really has helped get threw that quest on elite settings.

[voxson5]

Also try to provide distractions with fire immune summons (bearded devil, effriti(sp?), orthon, fire element).

Against the red name fire elementals and the effrit they will laugh off all but physical attacks, can save your kobold slaughtering party a bit of slack.

And oc, mirroring the other good advice - fire shield, prot. From energy, resists, fire greaves, gs fire absorption, evasion and good saves


Best of luck! It's always an interesting last fight

[Theolin]

The fire mephs are charmable & they take no damage & do no damage to the fire elementals .... but they will keep each other company for a long time

[Enoach]

Also something to keep in mind when dealing with Caster Types. Spells don't care if you have the best AC possible at your level, mobility is the most important. For a non-evasion character having to get into the thick of spells I recommend the following:

1. Armor from the Madness Series with +10 Reflex save. The Fire Absorption/Resists can pretty much negate a Saved DB

2. Have a Fire resistance Item. This is backup in case of Death, you will most likely have Fire Resist from Ship buffs or from a caster before the first fight. However, to help preserve resources having an item to switch in to cover this is very valuable (potions being an alternative)

3. Any method to have Fireshield (Cold) - item, UMD, self casting

4. Take time to actually regroup after recovering. Many groups fail because people are not patient enough to make sure everyone is ready for a second go.

In your example your son's experience:

Damage Taken without a Save
450 Points of damage
225 Fireshield Cold 50%
149 33% Fire Absorption
114 Fire Resistance (30 Item/Spell)
(First hit will wipe out elemental protection)

Damage Taken with a Save
450 Points of damage
225 Save 50%
113 Fireshield Cold 50%
75 33% Fire Absorption
45 Fire Resistance (30 Item/Spell)

Now having an Elemental Protection means 0 damage taken the first two hits and 45 damage on the third+. You might notice that the biggest Savers of HP is first Saving and Second is Fireshield Cold.

Based on this even without evasion you still want as good a Reflex save as you can possibly muster. This is why I recommend the +10 Reflex enhancement on the Madness Chain Armor.

Other options if available is Guild Augments for Fire Resistance 2/4/6/8

Fire Protection Potions - Drinking these can help minimize drinking cure potions and since damage in the end fight is fire and bludgeon it can help. Unfortunately there is not much that can be done about the bludgeon damage from spells (why Ooze puppet is desired)

Reflex Save
06 Pure fighter level 19 Reflex
05 Dex 20
01 Haste
04 Greater Heroism
---
16 Reflex Save
10 Madness Armor
---
26 <- Not an Uber Save, but it is a 25% increase in your chance to save over the 16 Reflex Save.

[Darkrok]

I was in a group recently that did this fairly well. I was on my 12 fighter/6 monk and was scrolling fire shield: cold, putting on the 30 resist, GH for saves, and then popping all my boosts. I'd run in and whack on the boss until I got down to about 150 health (healing curse + fire stance and healing amp + vampiric stonedust wraps helped to keep me up a bit longer) then I'd retreat for heals, rinse, repeat. If you don't have anyone with evasion it can get dicey but as someone else mentioned kiting some of the stuff around can work great if you've got someone that can survive that too.

[KingOfCheese]

I usually use the kiting method. Caster or divine goes in 1st--stirs things up and grabs agro. Then runs in circles around the outer perimeter of the rock formation casting self-heals and fire prot regularly. By looping under the back cave and staying in motion--it is very survivable. If there are melees in the group--they can work over the boss largely uninterupted. This approach also works for soloing on a caster/divine. Each loop (if possible--it won't always be), hit the boss with a DOT spell. Works on elite.