Prey Of The Hunter (spoilers)

[Lost_Leader]

Our successful runs seem to be on par with what other folks are doing. Our best successes seem to be combining several of the strategies here.

1- Intimi tank to grab the dragon and keep her, and the giants that get near her.
2- a ranger using his bow to kite/kill the regular frost giants (not named)
3- 2 dps melee (in our case we had a rogue and another ranger) beating up the red named
4- caster using enervate/flesh-to-stone, we didnt think to use glitterdust so will probably be adding that to our list now. Our caster was also assist healing the kiting ranger with UMD scrolls, so a bard could also fill this role nicely.
5- cleric was keeping everyone alive (obviously), using well placed cometfalls (be careful where ya put em!) to assist damage/crowd-control/kiting depending on what was needed, and using Break Enchantment to get rid of enemy blade barriers as fast as possible.

Also, enemy clerics were priority target. They like to use firestorm and blade barriers, and that's just bad.

If I were to change any one thing, it would be to move the shrine back to the room with the long fall and the first red named giant fight. We were forced to skip the shrine every time to allow the party more time to save the dragon. This just forced more supply use by our clerics/casters and I don't like that kind of plannin by the devs. Already the maze requires some luck to get through quickly enough, add a few seconds to shrine and she is dead every time.

[Talcyndl]

If I were to change any one thing, it would be to move the shrine back to the room with the long fall and the first red named giant fight. We were forced to skip the shrine every time to allow the party more time to save the dragon. This just forced more supply use by our clerics/casters and I don't like that kind of plannin by the devs. Already the maze requires some luck to get through quickly enough, add a few seconds to shrine and she is dead every time.

Yup. The current shrine location is just a tease. Or a trap for the ignorant. And since it's the only shrine...

[calgrissom]

22 attempts all different party make ups. Dont make one wrong turn in the maze or your done. For all of you who say O cry more ect... You only finished due to luck. There is no skill in finding your way through the maze. If you find it you win if you make 1 wrong turn when you get to her she is at 10% game over. 4 runs we never got lost in the maze and she was at 5% when we dropped down. TY for making a quest that involes only luck to win... How about just making the next flagging quest a room with 100 doors and only one you can open and giving the group 30 seconds to find it or everyone dies.....

[Xyfiel]

Getting past the floors, walls, and the maze just requires knowledge and teamwork. In 2 weeks everyone will have it down.

If you can't get a wall to open, try killing mobs. It seems to be linked to a certain mob for each one. We got the first one normally on a wolf kill, and the second on a giant cleric kill. We started zerging and trying to kill these first. Pay attention to when the wall opens what just happened.

People can shrine, if you send 2 to check the maze paths and inform the shriners which direction to take they will be right behind you. In 3 runs we got there anywhere from 60% health to 40% health. Make sure you send half the party up the giant spawn corridor so the named and spawning giants never see the dragon and aggro. In theory you want all but one there by the time the red spawns.

[stockwizard5]

My notes for just completion (no optional chests)

Part 1) Buff - Go all the way until you can see the archway before the maze using little or no mana.

a) Break floors/walls with fireball wand, etc
b) When the path dead-ends, kill giants (maybe only giant clerics) until wall opens
c) When you reach the blue barrier wait for Giants to break left/right tunnels, send 3 up each side, find switch, hit and return
d) Gather and hit 2nd switch, fall down, fall down, and head up last tunnel
e) At dead end, killl Giants until wall opens
f) Continue up until archway visible (kill or disable any followers)
g) Stop - dragon battle doesn't start until you appraoch archway

Part 2) Buff - Split group into three groups of two for left, center, right maze entrances until exit out top right of maze, pull aggro, kill giants, keep dragon away and kill rednamed

a) Split into groups (left, center, right) and have a walls (left, right) for each (run fast, haste, striding, boost, etc)
a) Assigned groups enter maze at left, center, and right openings
b) Each group of two after entering maze splits up, one person stay right the other stay left (don't miss turns, gaps, etc)
b) Keep going (someone will exit out top left tunnel near optimal, others will also arrive variably later
c) First to arrive do whatever it is you do to aggro/kill giants and save dragon (who is not effected by melee,spells, etc)
d) Aggro, kill, disable all attacking giants (dragon immune to players)
e) Whoever has aggro - run dragon away to any far corner (or wherever)
e) Kill red-named and either kill or disable two respawning clerics (FTS, Intimidate, Kite, or multiple kill, etc)
f) Red-named dies polish off Giants (dragon immune to all at this point)
g) Talk to Dragon, take deal, done (or fight dragon for more chests)

These are just notes - sure more details and strategy TBD.

[Junts]

Good discussion guys. The only thing missing is haste buffs (or haste pots) for all.

In the next patch we're going to increase dragon's hitpoints slightly on normal difficulty to make the quest more accessible. It'll still be tough to save her, but will give more of a margin of error in case you take a wrong turn.

I'm really glad you guys recognize this; in my completion, we did not make any wrong turns, were hasted and reached the dragon with her at 15% health. Short of monk speed boosts, there is basically no way we could have made it through the maze faster.

On elite, if she dies even faster than she does now, I am not sure this quest is completable as is. Her hp need to scale up dramatically with difficulty due to the higher damage dealt by the giants. Next time I run this I will go for the bonus chests, as the first time we were so thankful to have completed we simply wanted to get credit.

Also, it disappoints me that this is the one quest here that is going to be mandatory, because it is so luck-based. With people pulling eldritch runes from both other quests and Tempests only here, this place is going to be required to be constantly run by those who want to work on dragontouched armor, and there is quite simply something around a 40-50% chance you will fail this quest even if you do everything right, and that is very frustrating. I hope that the change to her hp makes this quest pretty completable by people who have good tactics and performance, because right now the only healthy way to approach 'Prey on the Hunter' is to assume you will have to run it 3-4 times in order to complete it.

[Talcyndl]

Make sure you send half the party up the giant spawn corridor so the named and spawning giants never see the dragon and aggro. In theory you want all but one there by the time the red spawns.

Is this after you get down to the Dragon?

[Roman]

Is there a way to avoid/minimize the wing buffet? As the intimidator I could get 2 cycles of intim off, at most, before being thrown to the other side of the cavern.

[Xaxx]

22 attempts all different party make ups. Dont make one wrong turn in the maze or your done. For all of you who say O cry more ect... You only finished due to luck. There is no skill in finding your way through the maze. If you find it you win if you make 1 wrong turn when you get to her she is at 10% game over. 4 runs we never got lost in the maze and she was at 5% when we dropped down. TY for making a quest that involes only luck to win... How about just making the next flagging quest a room with 100 doors and only one you can open and giving the group 30 seconds to find it or everyone dies.....

*applause* wow man 22... i gave up after 13... then again i also cancled my account because of this. Good luck cause they're not gonna change it, and since they didnt learn in making people rely on luck to beat abbot, now they gonna make it for normal quests... what does this bode for mod 9 development.... hope you guys are ready for more luck based quests. Hopefully mod 9s raid will be something like twice as long as shroud... and when the pitfiend shows up he either lands across form you and you fight him or he lands on the cliff above you, crumbling it and killing everyone instantly... how would people like that 2 hours of work for a 50/50 chance or maybe 20/80 chance to fight the end guy.... thats the way this will start goin to *challenge* players if people just take this timer + random = luck **** layin down. Have fun with that raid.. cause you know its commin.

[Talcyndl]

Good luck cause they're not gonna change it

Lol. Read the thread much?

A Developer already posted saying they are going to change it.

But anyway, good luck with whatever game you choose next.

[Deathe]

Beyond even that Talc, I think it's friggin hilarious that anyone would cancel their account because of one quest. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the random/timer combo thing but if one quest is all it took to get you to bail I probably wouldn't have wanted ya in one of my groups anyway.

The term "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" comes to mind.

- Dethe

[Talcyndl]

Beyond even that Talc, I think it's friggin hilarious that anyone would cancel their account because of one quest. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the random/timer combo thing but if one quest is all it took to get you to bail I probably wouldn't have wanted ya in one of my groups anyway.

The term "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" comes to mind.

- Dethe

Yeah, well...that too.

[Nuckin]

lol yall sure ur runnin the same quest as me? seems pretty easy and maze does have similarities even when it seems diff.....

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=162600

Would actually rather not have the Devs change it, its a very cool and fun quest and a lil challenging but deff fun

[Talcyndl]

lol yall sure ur runnin the same quest as me? seems pretty easy and maze does have similarities even when it seems diff.....

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=162600

Would actually rather not have the Devs change it, its a very cool and fun quest and a lil challenging but deff fun

Fair enough. It's easy to get to the end. The problem is the end is basically a **** shoot at this point.

[Nuckin]

actually end was really easy in the 2 attempts i only used 19 heal scrolls and like 15 cure serious pots? lol

[Talcyndl]

actually end was really easy in the 2 attempts i only used 19 heal scrolls and like 15 cure serious pots? lol

Sorry, I meant the penultimate part of the quest...ie, the maze. If you make even a few mistakes, you fail before you even get to the dragon.

[Roman]

lol yall sure ur runnin the same quest as me? seems pretty easy and maze does have similarities even when it seems diff.....

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=162600

Would actually rather not have the Devs change it, its a very cool and fun quest and a lil challenging but deff fun

Great job!

What did you find worked best in end fight? Just drop firewalls and hop around?

[Roman]

Sorry, I meant the penultimate part of the quest...ie, the maze. If you make even a few mistakes, you fail before you even get to the dragon.

This part seems semi-random.

In one attempt we made a perfect run thru maze, no errors and dragon was at 20% life. Another run we made lots of wrong turns, thought for sure quest would fail anytime, but we presed on and dragon was at 30% health, in fact that run with the most errors in the maze was the closest we got to completion.

*shrug* Its getting easier with each attempt. I'm sure we'll be doing this with our eyes closed in a week.

[Nuckin]

yea for most part Maze is random but the end part is the same, always in same corner, just need to find that one path that leads that way, tested it with shrinin made it up in time to see a giant take the last swing at her. so yea its random but not too hard to navigate

[Xyfiel]

Is this after you get down to the Dragon?

Yes. Once you get to the Dragon, save from the first Giants, at same time you need people down the hallway where the other giants are coming from to get their aggro.

If you have the Dragon far away from that corridor, when the red spawns, they will never see each other and things go much smoother. You still need to get his aggro.
We ended up having 4-5 people there and none of those giants ever saw her. Last 1-2 had her attention, don't know what exactly they were doing.