LH Tempest's Spine, minimum kills, featuring a gratuitous "exploit"

[Qezuzu]

Time and kill count.

Showing difficulty, also I got the handwraps! Which I'll never use.

Obviously, three kills is not possible without having the runes beforehand. So count it as an exploit run if you wish, I don't mind, but this is the absolute minimum kill count and I might be the only person to have done this, and that's what matters

Time would have been 23 mins or so had I not gotten blown off once. Avoiding getting blown off was basically the only challenging part of this "run", I would have reset had I not already done so twice beforehand (and I was tired of wasting my scrolls of PWK on the Fire Giant), however I figured out how not to get blown off after that as melee.

If doing an actual run, the theoretical minimum kills would be:

3 - Iron Golem and Reavers to unlock portal to Fire and Ice. Iron Golem can be a "Misadventure" kill if you instead unlock the control thingies.
2 - Reavers in Fire and Ice

3 - Drow required to unlock portal to Flooded Tunnel. It is just two or possibly one if the red-named near that portal spawns
1 - Scorrow required to open the gates to the Drow
5? - Drow required to be killed to "summon" beholder. Not 100% sure it's five drow, but I know for certain that the Scorrow after the first one do not need to be killed though it may just be number of mobs killed in this part. More testing required
1 - Beholder in Flood Tunnels

1 - Fire Giant required to unlock the gate to Sor'jek and the Bridge to the Inevitable

12 - Drow and Scorrow Ambush in after the bridge. The gate may also open on a timer and/or if everyone inside dies, more testing required
1 - Iron Golem required to drop the barrier to the inevitable
1 - Hill Giant needed to be killed to trigger the Inevitable
1 - Inevitable

1 - Beholder to open portal to Sor'jek
1 - Sor'jek

=~33 kills, 32 or 31 with the red-name before Flood Tunnels portal, 21 if you can skip the ambush which may or may not be possible, but all other kills are most likely absolutely required.

So yeah, perhaps I'll do that someday, or perhaps some stealth aficionados on Thelanis who'd be willing to do so could join up and we'd do it on LE. Group stealth is something I've wanted to do forever but I've never met more than one or two people (in-game) who are into it.

[Lonnbeimnech]

Time and kill count.

Showing difficulty, also I got the handwraps! Which I'll never use.

Obviously, three kills is not possible without having the runes beforehand. So count it as an exploit run if you wish, I don't mind, but this is the absolute minimum kill count and I might be the only person to have done this, and that's what matters

Time would have been 23 mins or so had I not gotten blown off once. Avoiding getting blown off was basically the only challenging part of this "run", I would have reset had I not already done so twice beforehand (and I was tired of wasting my scrolls of PWK on the Fire Giant), however I figured out how not to get blown off after that as melee.

If doing an actual run, the theoretical minimum kills would be:

3 - Iron Golem and Reavers to unlock portal to Fire and Ice. Iron Golem can be a "Misadventure" kill if you instead unlock the control thingies.
2 - Reavers in Fire and Ice

3 - Drow required to unlock portal to Flooded Tunnel. It is just two or possibly one if the red-named near that portal spawns
1 - Scorrow required to open the gates to the Drow
5? - Drow required to be killed to "summon" beholder. Not 100% sure it's five drow, but I know for certain that the Scorrow after the first one do not need to be killed though it may just be number of mobs killed in this part. More testing required
1 - Beholder in Flood Tunnels

1 - Fire Giant required to unlock the gate to Sor'jek and the Bridge to the Inevitable

12 - Drow and Scorrow Ambush in after the bridge. The gate may also open on a timer and/or if everyone inside dies, more testing required
1 - Iron Golem required to drop the barrier to the inevitable
1 - Hill Giant needed to be killed to trigger the Inevitable
1 - Inevitable

1 - Beholder to open portal to Sor'jek
1 - Sor'jek

=~33 kills, 32 or 31 with the red-name before Flood Tunnels portal, 21 if you can skip the ambush which may or may not be possible, but all other kills are most likely absolutely required.

So yeah, perhaps I'll do that someday, or perhaps some stealth aficionados on Thelanis who'd be willing to do so could join up and we'd do it on LE. Group stealth is something I've wanted to do forever but I've never met more than one or two people (in-game) who are into it.

I've been in groups that used the shortcut, and DIDN'T solve the puzzle, and thus didn't use the runes, and we just beat him down hard enough to outpace his DR and regeneration. So it's hypothetically possible to do that solo.

PS: gz

[Wizza]

Sneaky achievements are always nice to see!

[Saekee]

Sneaky achievements are always nice to see!

yes, congratz!

[Loromir]

Time and kill count.

Showing difficulty, also I got the handwraps! Which I'll never use.

Obviously, three kills is not possible without having the runes beforehand. So count it as an exploit run if you wish, I don't mind, but this is the absolute minimum kill count and I might be the only person to have done this, and that's what matters

Time would have been 23 mins or so had I not gotten blown off once. Avoiding getting blown off was basically the only challenging part of this "run", I would have reset had I not already done so twice beforehand (and I was tired of wasting my scrolls of PWK on the Fire Giant), however I figured out how not to get blown off after that as melee.

If doing an actual run, the theoretical minimum kills would be:

3 - Iron Golem and Reavers to unlock portal to Fire and Ice. Iron Golem can be a "Misadventure" kill if you instead unlock the control thingies.
2 - Reavers in Fire and Ice

3 - Drow required to unlock portal to Flooded Tunnel. It is just two or possibly one if the red-named near that portal spawns
1 - Scorrow required to open the gates to the Drow
5? - Drow required to be killed to "summon" beholder. Not 100% sure it's five drow, but I know for certain that the Scorrow after the first one do not need to be killed though it may just be number of mobs killed in this part. More testing required
1 - Beholder in Flood Tunnels

1 - Fire Giant required to unlock the gate to Sor'jek and the Bridge to the Inevitable

12 - Drow and Scorrow Ambush in after the bridge. The gate may also open on a timer and/or if everyone inside dies, more testing required
1 - Iron Golem required to drop the barrier to the inevitable
1 - Hill Giant needed to be killed to trigger the Inevitable
1 - Inevitable

1 - Beholder to open portal to Sor'jek
1 - Sor'jek

=~33 kills, 32 or 31 with the red-name before Flood Tunnels portal, 21 if you can skip the ambush which may or may not be possible, but all other kills are most likely absolutely required.

So yeah, perhaps I'll do that someday, or perhaps some stealth aficionados on Thelanis who'd be willing to do so could join up and we'd do it on LE. Group stealth is something I've wanted to do forever but I've never met more than one or two people (in-game) who are into it.

The three runes are not mandatory to kill Sorjek. In fact....I'm betting it's possible without any runes. Each rune controls a different feature. One of the runes removes is DR...I think one removes the foggy/weather effects...I don't recall exactly what the other does....so it's a myth that you need all three runes to complete.

[Wizza]

The three runes are not mandatory to kill Sorjek. In fact....I'm betting it's possible without any runes. Each rune controls a different feature. One of the runes removes is DR...I think one removes the foggy/weather effects...I don't recall exactly what the other does....so it's a myth that you need all three runes to complete.

Fast regeneation, DR and Fire Immunity

[LawfulGood]

The three runes are not mandatory to kill Sorjek. In fact....I'm betting it's possible without any runes. Each rune controls a different feature. One of the runes removes is DR...I think one removes the foggy/weather effects...I don't recall exactly what the other does....so it's a myth that you need all three runes to complete.

You are 100% correct in that bet. Although solving the puzzle and placing the runes change the end fight in the Heroic version of the raid, the Legendary version is different, as expected. A lot of players in the other LE Tempest Spine post seemed upset that the end fight was completeable without the same tactics required in the Heroic version, and not open to the idea that the raid is supposed to have some variation at the Legendary level. Turbine has the ability to perform an at will quest/raid closure in the live worlds and has done so in the past when raid exploits were being performed (remember the Reaver's Fate debacle?) No such action was done on Legendary Tempest Spine, making all the talk of the "alternate path" and "rune" strategies seem moot.

Back on topic, OP, that was some nice work getting only the absolute kills required. Even more, avoiding getting tossed off the top during the end fight must have been pretty satisfying. Well done.

[Qezuzu]

I've been in groups that used the shortcut, and DIDN'T solve the puzzle, and thus didn't use the runes, and we just beat him down hard enough to outpace his DR and regeneration. So it's hypothetically possible to do that solo.

PS: gz

Hypothetically possible is the best kind of possible!

I know that each rune controls a power (regen, DR, fire immune) but I'm not confident I'd be able to overpower the regen solo, unless it's not scaled up from heroic. I'll take your word for it that it's possible with a sufficient amount of DPS, but it'd still be fun to do a "full" sneaky run in a group.

[LawfulGood]

Hypothetically possible is the best kind of possible!

I know that each rune controls a power (regen, DR, fire immune) but I'm not confident I'd be able to overpower the regen solo, unless it's not scaled up from heroic. I'll take your word for it that it's possible with a sufficient amount of DPS, but it'd still be fun to do a "full" sneaky run in a group.

You can do it. The fight on Legendary is the same with or without runes.

[Steelstar]

The fight on Legendary is the same with or without runes.

Was!

#spoilers

[Lonnbeimnech]

Was!

#spoilers

Any word on fixing the shortcut in pt1 of the shroud?

[patang01]

Was!

#spoilers

Glad to hear it.

[LawfulGood]

Was!

#spoilers

Nice! Time for some challenging solo/duo Legendary Tempest Spine completions.

[Holymunchkin]

Was!

#spoilers

yay

[slarden]

Hypothetically possible is the best kind of possible!

I know that each rune controls a power (regen, DR, fire immune) but I'm not confident I'd be able to overpower the regen solo, unless it's not scaled up from heroic. I'll take your word for it that it's possible with a sufficient amount of DPS, but it'd still be fun to do a "full" sneaky run in a group.

Yes you can definitely do it (pre patch that is). I solo'd it LE on my PM to ransack with a dual box character for lever pulling. In my case I didn't bother sneaking by stuff - invis to first giant and then killed everything before it could hurt me. My PM is far from my best boss beater - probably on the low side actually. I never used any runes or solved the puzzle.

The sneaky run would be fun, but it sounds like it's not possible any more.

[Grandern_Marn]

Was!

#spoilers

Good news!

[SableShadow]

Was!

#spoilers

omg! put spoiler tags around that!

[jalont]

Yes you can definitely do it (pre patch that is). I solo'd it LE on my PM to ransack with a dual box character for lever pulling. In my case I didn't bother sneaking by stuff - invis to first giant and then killed everything before it could hurt me. My PM is far from my best boss beater - probably on the low side actually. I never used any runes or solved the puzzle.

The sneaky run would be fun, but it sounds like it's not possible any more.

I'm still half asleep... are you saying you solod LE TS on a PM?

[Qezuzu]

Was!

#spoilers

Well we knew that was gonna happen. I assume there will be "Legendary" versions of the runes now, too, or that the runes will drop on exit.

The sneaky run would be fun, but it sounds like it's not possible any more.

It's still possible to do a sneaky run while getting all the runes; there's a lot of required kills, but there's still 80 or so monsters that don't need to be killed (that are usually killed).

A group stealth run of this would be significantly more achievement-worthy (and fun!) than just soloing this on LH, which was only mildly challenging as melee. Perhaps I'll put up an interest check thread on Thelanis forum.

[slarden]

I'm still half asleep... are you saying you solod LE TS on a PM?

The short cut method which is no longer possible.