Caught in the Web - Really

[GoldyGopher]

So I organized a quick run of Caught in the Web, on Normal for Completion, 40th Run for a character that is destined for TR since TWF is so broken its not in the least bit funny anymore.

We step in, buff and get started.

Hum something seems wrong, my TWF (12 Pally, 6 Rogue, 2 Monk - Half-Elf 36 Point Build) is suddenly doing the amount of damage she is supposed to be doing, roughly 80 points per swing (x2 with Right and Left) and 240 points on Criticals. What the heck did Turbine Fix? A build that really hasn't worked in almost 16 months, which sat waiting for the enhancement pass to see what I should do with. Of course it didn't last, in the next quest I tried back to 60 points per swing with criticals about 120.

Wow I am excited.

We grab Ana, beat down Lolth in short order when Ana says something like "Backup to Node 2" huh what?
Okay the hand pops out, what aren't the legs supposed to happen first, the hand smacks down a poor character and then disappears.
Okay pull off eight legs. Done, get the DM text message, except the counter says 2 more to go. So beat down two more legs, except the counter says two more to go.. Beat down two more when the counter finally says 8 legs pulled off. Wow bad exchange rate or something, we killed at least 12. I probably wouldn't have noticed, except we got the DM text when we were supposed to.

Off we go to the second artifact, no problems except the "Backup to Node 4" message the mistress of agonies are screaming when they steal a life I mean restore their HP.

Third Artifact again not an issue, except I managed to pull agro from a build I shouldn't off, I mean with 80% threat reduction...

Off we go to end fight. We like to make several clearing attempts of mobs from up above to bad they didn't want to play nice. We got like ten rather than the two dozen or three dozen we normally pull down. Of course this is all made more annoying by a party member trying to tell us we are doing it wrong. No kidding we should pull more they aren't coming. so let go up.

Trash cleanup took longer than expected but because we couldn't pull that was expected.

Off to Lolth and her beat down. Her HP is falling, falling, 95, 90, 85, 80, 75, wham back to 100% health. We beat he back down again, 95, 90, 85, 80, 75 wham back 100% health. Ahhh now what... Keeping beating her down and another melee type falls back to help with trash. 95, 90, 85, 75, bam... 100% Okay guys what's everyone supplies look like, party member telling us we are doing it wrong because she regens health that fast. Okay this is 40th run on this character and like my 200 completion ever she has never done this before. 95, 90, 85, 75, bam... 100% and we get the DM text about killing the portal keeps to escape, since beating her down is not working lets try going up to the final portal.
5 minutes up there and truly there is an endless supply of portal keepers.
Down to the south island, have Ana pull up a shrine, regroup re buff and make one last try, we have already been in here over an hour (only 4 deaths) and not many (if any) pots drunk.

Back up clear trash, deaths start for the party. Off to Lolth, 95, 90, 85, 80, 75..... 70, ... 65, 60, 55, 50 when party member says whoa this is finally working, god don't jinx us now. 45, 40 ... 15, 10 - DM text Backup to Node 4 - bad words said, lolth disappears.

Up, a dozen mobs later we beat the quest. All six chests.

Issues...
1) Why did my character who hasn't worked in 18 months suddenly start dealing the appropriate amount of damage, of course in the next quest I tried back to well below expectations of damage.

2) What the heck is backup to node ****... Is that QA code for product testing?

3) Did the counting system stop working (12 legs = pull off 8)

4) What's up with Lolth's Regen ability.

5) Limited Spawns - We killed over 250 trash mobs during the end fight, what is up with that? Mostly Spider Souls.

6) 40 runs, with over 30 on Hard or Elite, 2 20th end rewards, have yet to see Balizarde drop. What the heck?

[Noctus]

@Damage

You were properly buffed.

Most likely by a Bard's Songs + Arti's Deadly weapons, which in the next quests where your damage was lower again you didnt have.

[hermespan]

5) Limited Spawns - We killed over 250 trash mobs during the end fight, what is up with that? Mostly Spider Souls.

2 things here....

#1
Don't kill the Exalted necromancer at south end of platform. While he is alive there are limited respawns. Once he's dead you get mega respawns every minute. On hard or elite it's almost a guaranteed wipe. If you are raid leader reiterate this point. Tell the group 3x not to go south and kill him or you get swarmed.

#2
Everyone needs to get up top, after lolth is beat down, you have one person pull the leftover agro from the platform from the web bridge, and kill the portal keepers. It's really simple. If there're 5 people down there respawning mobs you will be there _FOREVER_.

Kill the portal keepers last. When they die they turn everything around them into portal keepers.

I blame this point on people in the raid that are inexperienced with this raid. It's happened on my raids too. I start sending polite tells to people that are hanging out down there. That usually gets their attention.

An arcane or ranger can pull stuff from Real Far. No need to have 10 people down on platform causing endless respawn.

As far as pulling agro, if you are the only one hitting something, you will pull agro with 200% threat reduction. It doesn't matter. If there are others in the group with the same or better threat reduction as you, it doesn't matter. It's situational. Try to just hit stuff that other people are hitting already.

20th (multiple) raid completion loot pick list is random. You just haven't been lucky. Most of my characters pull everything but what they are looking for. You are not alone. My druid on the other hand, has a gold horseshoe up the wazoo. The rest of my characters should be renamed to "Gotthe Lootshaft".

My only saving grace for loot on most of my characters is generous players that put stuff up for roll, with the luck I need to win the roll, which doesn't happen much(winning the roll, there are plenty of generous players)

Don't know why Lolth was regenerating so fast. Were there a lot of people dying? Maybe she regens when people die, like Horoth. This isn't documented but it would be cool to find out one way or the other. I haven't seen it happen myself.

[MasterAO]

Lolth's Demonweb increases physical damage in it, as well as other elements. It also reduces some type of elements damage.

[Cryohazard]

Don't know why Lolth was regenerating so fast. Were there a lot of people dying? Maybe she regens when people die, like Horoth. This isn't documented but it would be cool to find out one way or the other. I haven't seen it happen myself.

I've been leading EN CitW guild runs of this for the past couple months, and we never had a problem with Lolth regenerating...until recently. Before the spider soul spawns were more of a nuisance, but now Lolth will actually sacrifice them Mistress-style.

It seems like the new strategy is kill the spiders before Lolth has a chance to sacrifice them. When spiders spawn, players join in a chorus of "Killz da spiderz!" and proceed to kill them off. But inevitably, one spider escapes the meles and *bang* Lolth is back at full health. Something HAS changed (probably one of Turbine's patented steath-fixes or stealth-breaks). I'd love to see some Dev feedback on this.

[HatsuharuZ]

*sighs*

I got the named bow twice on the same character when running CitW. Sadly, I was on a character that didn't use bows, and had to put it up for roll.

[Krelar]

*sighs*

I got the named bow twice on the same character when running CitW. Sadly, I was on a character that didn't use bows, and had to put it up for roll.

I once pulled two of the repeaters on my Paladin during an EH run and no one even wanted to roll on them.

[Cleanincubus]

Hum something seems wrong, my TWF (12 Pally, 6 Rogue, 2 Monk - Half-Elf 36 Point Build) is suddenly doing the amount of damage she is supposed to be doing, roughly 80 points per swing (x2 with Right and Left) and 240 points on Criticals. What the heck did Turbine Fix? A build that really hasn't worked in almost 16 months, which sat waiting for the enhancement pass to see what I should do with. Of course it didn't last, in the next quest I tried back to 60 points per swing with criticals about 120.

Issues...
1) Why did my character who hasn't worked in 18 months suddenly start dealing the appropriate amount of damage, of course in the next quest I tried back to well below expectations of damage.

I've experienced the same time on multiple characters (assassin, acrobat, barb, & fighter), ever since U17. One quest I'll be dealing great damage, the next quest I'm dealing half. Doesn't matter the quest or the level range of quest. I could be greatly over-leveled, and it doesn't matter. For example, I went into Kobold Assault with my lvl 12 Barbarian, to collect Treasure Map Pieces for Crystal Cove (2 days after U17 dropped), and it took 2-3 swings to kill them on Elite. Essentially a lvl 5 quest and with 7 levels above I should have been doing 1 swing kills, as I had the previous year (at lvl 11).

I never reported the bug, because I have no clue how to duplicate the damage I'm supposed to be dealing.

[Missing_Minds]

Before the spider soul spawns were more of a nuisance, but now Lolth will actually sacrifice them Mistress-style.

She's done that in months past also on normal if you didn't kill them fast enough (which on normal there is a pretty long timer it seems before sacrifice happens.)